Daily Eats 9/30

I was running late this morning so breakfast had to be made to go. I used a container of blueberry Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of granola, 5 strawberries, and 1/4 cup of Cheerios. I think this is my favorite breakfast yet. Mr. R calls this my Swedish breakfast because apparently in Sweden they use yogurt instead of milk in their cereal. (Who knew?)
I spent my morning grading papers and updating my grade book. The end of first quarter is quickly approaching and my "to grade" pile is seemingly never ending. Although I made a HUGE dent in it today!


I was commenting to Danielle this morning that today really resembled my life three years ago when I was still working as an engineer. I used to spend my days in front of a computer screen entering numbers with my bottle of water, snack, and trust pens by my side. The only thing distinguishing today from three years ago was that instead of calculating nitrates and phosphorus percentages; I was calculating student averages.

My fancy new water bottle with my favorite pens. Truth be told, I only write with one type of pen. (This is one of the reasons Mr. R calls me Monkish).

My lunch featured more of the same today. Spinach quiche and fruit. Mr. R refuses to eat quiche, something about it not being manfood. This actually works out for me because I end up with a weeks worth of lunch leftovers from one dinner. The fruit is from the same Publix fruit bowl I bought on Sunday. I am so sad that its gone now. I guess its apples for me the rest of this week.

Fall has finally come to Florida. We have the windows open, the screen door open and the pups and I played outside while dinner cooked. I am so excited to be able to run and not start out immediately sweaty!These are new pictures of the pups from outside our living room window.

They love the new ottoman.

I can never get Simon to look at the camera!

And here is Sophie, just because she is adorable.

This was dinner tonight, strawberry salad with Gorgonzola and crasins.

And BBQ chicken pizza for Mr. R.

I did sneak a piece too. It just smelled so good!

Taco Tuesday

I am sorry, I have no pictures for you today. I know, I showed so much picture promise yesterday! I did take breakfast pictures, but I forgot my phone at lunch and my dinner was not picture worthy.

I didn't like my dinner tonight, but I was hungry so I kept eating it. Terrible excuse. I just need to learn that if the food tastes bad, stop eating. Instead I smothered my dinner with sour cream and kept shoveling it in. I also had a margarita which rendered me very talky and loud. I am hoping I didn't say anything incriminating or stupid.

I am feeling full and gross right now so I am off to drink some tea and head to bed.

I feel as though I am ending this post on a sour note, but really I had a great day. My students were engaged, my grading is almost caught up, and I even accomplished a few errands. My eyebrows are once again two separate beings and I got Rachel's birthday gift as promised. I also came home to two adorable puppies who showered me with kisses and love.

All in all, I had a great Tuesday, although I think I need to lay off the firewater.

Shout out to Meatless Mondays!

I have to give a quick shout out to the lovelies at Meatless Mondays. They reached out to me on the blog after reading about my new veggie endeavor. There goal is to help Americans reduce their meat intake by offering easy vegetarian meals that you can substitute into your menu one night a week. The recipes are great and as I said they are EASY! (And most of the items you already have in your pantry on your weekly shopping list).

I will be test driving a few of these recipes in the near future.
1. Sweet Potato Burritos
2. Zucchini Frittata (You know how I love brunch foods)
3. Nacho Soup (A new spin on my trusty taco soup)
4. Layered Taco Salad (I bet Mr. R wouldn't even miss the meat in this one).
5. "Chicken" Salad ( I just bought some tempeh so this might be the first recipe I try).

I'll keep you updated with the photos and tasty results.

Daily Eats: 9/28

I am having a hard time getting up and getting motivated in the morning. I think this is the main reason I am not eating breakfast and am constantly almost late to work. I set the alarm for 5:30 AM this morning, which resulted in no morning run, but enough time for a long shower, coffee, blogs, and breakfast. I caught up with young house love, blue eyed bride, and mega nerd while sipping a pumpkin spiced latte (made in the crock) and eating yogurt and peanut butter toast.
Lunch was a recreation of my dinner yesterday. A roll topped with Swiss cheese, asparagus, squash & zucchini. I also packed a bowl of fruit as a snack. I ended up eating the fruit bowl with my sandwich. If you are in the area, Publix has them on sale.

My work day was a blast. We made lots of these....
After reading this...
And my students kept trying to sneak a few of these, while my back was turned.

I left school early today to make sure I could get in a run. I ran for 40 minutes on the treadmill. I lifted for another 30 minutes. I really like lifting weights, it makes me feel strong and powerful.

We were supposed to be eating tortellini for dinner tonight, but I forgot to plug in the crock pot this morning before I left so our dinner was shot. We always have fixings for pancakes in the house and who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? We had pancakes with spinach, mushroom, and onion quiche. I topped my pancakes with almond butter, bananas, and maple syrup. Mr. R had his with a sausage patty.
Amazingly enough I ate all five servings of fruit and veggies today, which is something I never usually accomplish. My tummy is full and a new episode of Mad Men is calling my name. See you tomorrow for Taco Tuesday in honor of Rachel's birthday!

Where did my weekend go?

This weekend seemed to fly by with me accomplishing very little. I even failed on my mission to get all girlie and beautified. Don't worry I will find time this week. (The brows will be tamed!)
On a more interesting note, Danielle introduced me to a few new bloggers who are also on the fit train. They have fantastic eating ideas for vegans, vegetarians, and the meatlover who occasionally eats veggies. I am actually excited about cooking and eating this week. I have to admit I have been a little freaked out about changing my diet and cutting out my staples. I mean what's a girl to do without cheese and chicken fingers?

Here's our weekly menu and I promise all meals will be full of yumminess and you will never miss the meat.
I will try to be as awesome as Danielle and post pictures of my eats, but I am not making any promises.

Sunday: roasted veggies (asparaus, squash, tomatoes, and zucchini) served on a roll swiss cheese and then broiled for 5 mins. Result: melty, gooey, wonderfulness.

Monday: tortellini and red sauce with spinach; Jeff will be eating his with Italian sausage.

Tuesday: Out. Mexican food for Rachel's birthday.

Wednesday: Pancakes with veggies confetti eggs.

Thursday: Blackbean quesadillas with green peppers, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, avacado, and black olives

Friday: Veggie twice baked potatoes.

ME day...

Today is my ME Day. This weekend Mr. R has a bazillion things going on. He is booked from 8:00 am this morning until almost Sunday morning. Do you know what this means for me? An entire day devoted to girlieness!
My plans so far: run, haircut, errands & shopping, dinner or maybe just wine...

Skinny Day

I am all to familiar with fat days. On these particular days I stand in my closet, in my birthday suit, and curse my clothes, my thighs, and my poochy belly. Over the past two years, I have had my fair share of fat days.

Today, though, I had my first skinny day in a long time! I woke up this morning and my jeans slid over my hips and fit perfectly. No muffin top in sight! My shirt slid on and draped properly. I ate just enough to feel full during lunch today. And while Danielle's cheese fries called my name, I soldiered on and felt content with my quiche and crasin combo.

I celebrated my skinny day with race packet pick up and sushi with Mr. R. Okay, if we are going to be honest here, I should also tell you I also had 3 oreos.

Tomorrow we, Mr. R, Danielle, and I, run a 5k. I haven't run all week so I am not expecting a stellar 5k time. It will be fun to run an actual race again instead of just me and the Garmin. Wish me luck!

BTW: I spent a couple of hours searching blogs for veggie dinner options for the coming weeks and I am pleased to say I found several dinners that satisfy my husband's meaty needs and still meet my dietary requirements. I'll post my new menu tomorrow.