That’s Strike Two

On my way home from work I snacked on one of my free LARABAR’s. I chose the Blueberry Muffin flavor this time and decided it wasn’t my absolute favorite, but it was alright. I wish it had more of a blueberry taste. Don’t get me wrong I really haven’t met a LARABAR I didn’t like, it just wasn’t my favorite.

It did a good job of stamping out my hunger and giving me energy for….Zumba! I had plans to meet my friend Amanda at a workout studio after work. This was a class we had taken before and with an instructor we knew we enjoyed, so I knew this would be a good Zumba experience unlike the last time Betsy and I tried a class out at our gym. It still makes me giggle thinking about the moves the instructor had us doing.

Before Zumba last night.

After Zumba. Glistening with sweat, and notice my huge smile. I had FUN.

It was definitely a good one! I shook it with every last ounce of my booty. At least Zumba was a success, because dinner was a total fail.

A couple of months ago, I bought Shirataki Tofu noodles which can be used as a substitute for pasta. I bought a different variety before and made them into a Thai peanut sauce type dish. They had turned out just alright, but I said I may have to try them again in a different way.

Well, here we are. This time around I bought spinach tofu noodles. I rinsed them very well (to get the stinky smell off of them), drained them, patted them dry on a towel, and placed into a bowl. I added steamed broccoli to the noodles along with two Laughing Cow Light Swiss wedges, a dollop of non-fat Greek yogurt, a dash of onion powder and garlic powder, and salt and pepper. I microwaved for 2-3 minutes, removed and gave it a stir.

It smelled good….

But I couldn’t get past the texture of the noodles. It’s hard for me to describe the texture but they were sort of gummy like to me. I took two bites of it and decided I couldn’t do it. I sat on the couch for an hour watching an episode of Modern Family before getting up to make something else for dinner.

At this point it was about 8:30 so I wasn’t going to go hogwild and bake a lasagna or anything. I decided on a PB2 wrap with Craisins (later I added some Welch’s Grape Natural Jelly).

Good old faithful PB wraps. They never fail me. I also had two large handfuls of sugar snap peas. So, that’s a strike two on the Tofu Noodles. I don’t think I’m going to give them another shot. Can’t say I didn’t try.

I am off for the day. I am so incredibly happy it’s Friday. Happy Friday to you all!

Question: Have you ever tried tofu noodles? What did YOU think?

 

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Home Improvement and Hula Hoops

This past Monday, we began construction on our bathroom downstairs. Well, we hired someone to do it because it was more than just a little remodeling job. It needed to be completely finished including drainage in the shower and other bits that I can’t quite comprehend. Anyway, there has been much progress and it is really shaping up fast, which means we continue to have to make lots of Menards runs and Home Depot runs, and make a lot of decisions.

After work yesterday, we headed to Menards for a laundry list of items needed including: Sink faucet, shower head, tile, etc. Also, it is coming up close to time to start painting the bathroom –click to find out more, which means I have a major decision to make. Although Dana can provide great input, the final decision comes down to my preference for paint color because I am more of the “interior decorator” of the two of us. He would admit this too. Although my skills seriously lack, but I do try and be creative.

We have beige tiles and slightly darker tan tiles to cover the shower walls, shower floor, shower ceiling, and bathroom floor provided by Maverick Windows and we will have white baseboards. Since the bathroom is in the basement with no outdoor window, I didn’t want to choose a color that was too dark. I am leaning towards the gray-tan family. I grabbed a bunch of samples and plan to take them downstairs once our worker bee is done for the day and make a final decision.

I originally wanted to paint the bathroom red but considering we won’t be living in this home forever, my realtor/amazing dad suggested that we don’t paint it red because it is hard to paint over red. What if someone doesn’t like red? They would have a heck of a time getting rid of it! So, I decided I could do red accents instead. However, now that I am glancing around my home, I notice that a lot of my home, the living room, kitchen, and family room, all already have red accents. Maybe I should expand my color horizons. I had to read here on how I could get accents that’d match the appliances and cabinetry in the kitchen, and it has done me well.

K, this ended up being a longer tangent than I was expecting so I apologize to anyone who fell asleep while reading that.

It’s funny what else happened to hop into our cart at Menards. Who snagged the kid’s toy? It wasn’t Dana, so I will give you one more guess as to who thought it would be a good idea to buy a hula hoop. Seriously though, how much fun are these things? They are a great workout too! I just need to keep Moose away while I do it because he inevitably sticks his face right into the hoop as I’m twirling.

When I was at my internship in LaCrosse, WI, I helped teach a health course through the hospital which was geared towards patients with metabolic syndrome, which  means that they have three or more of the following symptoms: high blood pressure, high fasting blood glucose, large waist circumference, and high triglycerides (there are guidelines for each of these symptoms). These symptoms are risk factors for heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. The course was designed to teach heart healthy living.

Part of the class was nutrition education, which I helped with, the other half focused on physical activity, and an exercise physiologist led that portion. We would go for a walk with the participants or head to the exercise room which was full of treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, weights, and my favorite was the weighted hula hoop. I don’t remember how much weight was on it but it was just a heavy hula hoop and it REALLY worked the core when in motion! I debated buying one but never did. I may have to rethink that idea.

That was tangent #2 for the day.

After running to Menards we got home and I cooked up a couple of Morningstar Garden Veggie Patties for a quick dinner. While I waited for the patties to cook, I snacked on some broccoli and homemade hummus.

Once my patty was nice and crispy, I served it alongside a nice green salad complete with tomatoes, more broccoli, and a couple of baby pickles. Not pictured below was one Laughing Cow Light Swiss Wedge.

After dinner we hit the road again. Back to Menards again because while we were finishing eating our bathroom guy told us we had to get the unsanded grout, not sanded. We had debated calling him when we were at Menards because we weren’t 100% sure but nah we’ll just get this sanded kind. Wrong. Who would have thought buying grout would be so difficult. Oh also, there are TONS of colors to choose from. Why can’t they make it easy for people like me who can’t make decisions easily and just have two colors. Seriously.

So, back we went to Menards to get the right grout. Then, we needed to go to Home Depot to buy some end tiles for the shower. Oh, what’s that? They only have 11 tiles in stock and we need 19? Perfect. Well, let’s go to another Home Depot. We got back in the car and headed to another Home Depot and got the remaining 8 tiles. When we got in the car to go home it was already 8:15 and I was exhausted.

Dana and I spent a lot of quality “windshield time” together last night, as he likes to call it. I snacked on some blackberries when we got home as well as some Multi Grain Cheerios Peanut Butter.

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Now it is Friday morning. I am sitting here on the couch trying to muster up energy to go run. I ate my pre-run breakfast, had a cup of coffee, and now need to go get into my workout gear so that I am more encouraged to go.

Happy Friday!

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Love

I am so happy today is Wednesday. I really like Wednesdays because it’s halfway through the work week  and especially like today because my wonderful co-worker brought me home-made chocolate chip cookies that were to die for (you are the best). Thanks for the nice surprise!

Breakfast

My day started with a favorite but with a little extra jazz. A perfectly ripe banana topped with slightly warmed peanut butter, sprinkle of cinnamon, and chia seeds. It was so so tasty and did a great job of holding me over until lunch which is a good thing because work was VERY busy.

Quick morning snap shot before heading out the door….

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Lunch

I decided to head home for lunch which I have been doing more often than I ever used to. I used to run errands on break but instead of going to spend money, I am going home. Plus, I love not having to pack a lunch every day. I have a hard time knowing what I’m going to be in the mood for until the time comes to eat! Ya know?

Today’s lunch looks a lot like last night’s dinner except in a bowl, and I added some bright banana peppers on top. It was so delicious. I also had a couple of Pepperidge Farms Cheese Chips then finished off lunch with a dark chocolate Adora disk and another bite of peanut butter.

I gave Moose a kiss, then headed back to work to finish off the afternoon.

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Dinner

Driving home from work I felt so hungry, but couldn’t decide exactly what I wanted for dinner. I had a feeling it was going to be a snacky kind of dinner, and I was right. I started off with some carrots.

Then moved on to some protein. Hot pinto beans with BBQ sauce (I’m in a BBQ sauce kick apparently) and a sprinkle of onion powder.

A Wasa hearty grain cracker with a Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese wedge.

The last of my chocolate chip cookie gift.

And that’s when I stopped taking pictures of my snacks/dinner. I continued on to have some almonds and dates. I will probably have another snack before bed because that’s just the kind of mood I am in and have a bottomless pit stomach today. Off to stretch the legs a little while on the treadmill and then call it an early night hopefully!

Buenos noches amigos!

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