Fake Irish Pride

This post will be a story woven in pictorial perfection. Because it's late, I'm tired, hungry and seconds away from passing out on the couch. Please forgive my lackluster photographic foodie documentary. :)

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 8:30am.

I woke up early because of our St' Patrick's plans. I was dressed, full of coffee and prepping breakfast as soon as 8 o'clock hit. The master plan consisted of having oatmeal at home before we headed out for our Irish infused shenanigans.

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash pumpkin pie spice
• pinch salt
• Splenda to taste
• 2 tbs Irish Cream syrup (sugar free Torani syrup)

I topped the bowl with 1 tablespoon flax, 1 tablespoon of Better N' Peanut Butter and some superfruit jam. Delicious!!


I devoured my breakfast, got dressed, put my face on and we were off. We met Nick's family at a bar down the street for some coffee with Bailey's and Jameson and their free breakfast buffet. Clearly I ate at home to avoid bar breakfast temptation. And it worked. Everyone else slammed on eggs, biscuits, sausage and cheesy hashbrowns. I managed to resist breakfast decadence and sipped on my SPIKED coffee instead. SO good!

After our breakfast meeting, we decided to go bowling. YAY! Nothing like drinking beers and pretending that you're good at bowling when you're not. Let me just clarify. I SUCK at bowling! YEP, SURE DO!

We played 4 games and I didn't break 100 points the entire time. YEP, I am THAT BAD! HA! I had a blast though! Bowling while drinking was SO much better than being at work!


After bowling I gave Ann a call. She left work at noon to celebrate the Irish festivities with her Mister. They were at a bar not to far from us so we decided to meet up with them for a few drinks.

We hung out at the bar for a while and then decided to grab a late lunch.

LUNCH (meal #2) at 5:00pm.

Somehow by ACCIDENT we ended up at the Mexican restaurant around the corner from their apartment. DANG IT! I was being SO BAD today! I ordered the chicken fajita quesadilla. I was also slamming on chips and salsa while we waited like it was my JOB! BAH! Not to mention I was sipping on a glass of margarita. I WAS BEING SOOOOO BAD!


After we finished feasting, Nick and I decided to call it a night and headed home. Tragically we somehow ended up at the grocery store down the street from our house and found ourselves perusing the ice cream isle. THE HORROR! We left with a pint of pistachio ice cream and coconut pineapple ice cream. IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST! AGHHHH!

DINNER (meal #3) at 9:30pm.

We got back to the house and crashed on the couch. I was exhausted. An hour or so later I decided to snack on some veggie egg rolls that I purchased at Trader Joe's a few months ago.


Nick passed out on the couch. Yeah, it was that kind of a day for sure. I munched on these delicious little egg rolls (which I dipped in sweet Thai chili sauce) and watched a bit of TV. We never dug into the ice cream. Good thing I guess considering the BADNESS of the day already. I'M SO TIRED NOW!

Time for bed!

TA-TAAAAAA!
XOXOXO
Ildie

My "Special" day

Doodely-Doodely-Doo... I'm losing my mind.... Woooo-hoooooo....

Ever have one of those "special" days at the office? You know the kind. Panic attacks, stress, hysterical laughter followed by self pep talks to keep the "rage" inside. So uhm yeah, I'm having one "those" days today. I'm SUPER busy all of a sudden and it's starting to show. My emails look like they were written by a 9 year old with NO spelling skills. They sound like Cantonese jibberish and make NO sense. I can't even stop long enough to proofread before hitting send. MUST GET IT DONE! Weeeeeeee!

Before the storm, there was the calm this morning. Which I celebrated with a warm bowl of oats.

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 9:30am.

Will You Be My Valentine, Oatmeal?

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1 1/2 cups water
• TON of cinnamon
• Dash salt
• Splenda to taste
• 1 DECADENT tbs of Naturally Nutty, white chocolate coconut PB
• 1 sugar free heart Peeps marshmallow

OMG! I love this Peanut Butter. It's super thick yet creamy and has a great coconut flavor without being too sweet. All Naturally Nutty nut butters are made with organic flax and hemp seed, American grown organic peanuts and natural almonds. I tell you what, whatever their secret is, it's working! It gets a solid 10 out of 10! I can't wait to try the other two flavors!

This bowl was SO GOOD. The marshmallow heart got all melty and ooey-gooey! Mixing that with the creamy peanut butter was just ridiculous!

OH. I ALMOST FORGOT! I lost another 1.8lb. This brings my grand total to 42.1. YAY!

I'm still drinking a gallon a day along with two green teas and only 1 cup of coffee. I'm also on track with the new workout plan as well my daily intake of protein and carbs and healthy CLEAN food. Clearly this combo is working well for me so I'm not going to change a thing! If you have questions on what I'm doing specifically fell free to email me. :)

LUNCH (meal #2) at 12;30pm.

I kept it simple and clean today. I had a nice salad with only three ingredients. Yes, just three. I like simplicity!

• Spinach
• Baked Acorn squash leftover from last night
• Kaia Foods sweet curry sprouted sunflower seeds

I could not believe how good this combo tasted. I used no dressing of any kind and it was still perfect. These freakin little seeds are delicious! They went excellent with the hot squash and cool spinach combo. AHHH. SO GOOD!

By lunchtime my insanity was hitting it's peak. I was finding it hard to concentrate and focus on work. I kept having to redo things to make sure they were being done correctly. I don't mind being busy. Busy is good. Today however, was bad. Just bad. I decided to force a break and left the office for an hour to get my grocery shopping out of the way. It was nice to get away for a bit.

SNACK (meal #3) at 4:15pm

I wanted to keep my snack lighter than usual. I'm going out tonight for some Birthday fun (a triple B'day bash at that, WHEW) and a beer or two might find it's way into my possession. Well!!! I'm just saying! It might happen! I just had a plain 4oz container of Oikos with cinnamon and sprinkled a bit of Back To Nature chocolate delight granola on top.


After work I FLEW home, put all the groceries away, got ready for some Birthday shenanigans and finished this post. Now I must go. I have a purse fully stocked with snacks just in case.


We're going bowling and then to a bar/restaurant for some karaoke. They may or may not have something on the menu that I can have so I like to plan ahead. NO EXCUSES REMEMBER?

Have a great night. I will recap my Birthday adventure for you tomorrow.

XOXOXO!!
Ildie

Super Sunny Saturday....

A day of intrigue, suspense and magic is about to unfold for you reading pleasure. Good mood food and sassy attitudes are about to take over your MIND for the next 10 minutes or so. HA! Hi everyone!

I woke up in such a good mood today! AND the sun was out... In Ohio... In November.... WOW. I do believe in magic! It was gorgeous morning, minus the frost.


I actually remembered to set the coffee machine last night so I awoke to the scrumptious aromas of peppermint coffee. Oh man, the whole downstairs smelled like heaven! I immediately poured myself a cup.


Then I curled up on the couch with this lovely cookbook from Xagave. I had yet to read it due to lack of time and finally decided to give it a good look over. Oh yum! The recipes looked so amazing! What a nice book!


I picked up some whole carrots last night at the grocery store. I may have to try their recipe for glazed carrots soon. It sounds absolutely delicious.


And the smoothies recipes were making me drool!


As soon as I set the book down the stomach started its feed me dance. Hmmm... What to enjoy for breakfast on such a lovely Saturday morning? I know! Oats cooked on the stove. They were so good last week!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1/2 cup water
• dash salt
• 1/4 pumpkin puree
• 1/2 of a banana, sliced
• 1 tbs pumpkin butter
• 1 tbs cran-apple butter (Trader Joe's)

I just made Fall in a bowl. Yep, I'm that talented! I loved this flavor combination.


After breakfast I hung out with Oliver for a while and caught up on some blogs. He was being very curious!


Then I changed for the gym, packed up the hair dye, lunch, wrote the still sleeping Nick a note and I was off. Wow, I actually made it to the gym at 10:30... ??? WOW! It's not that I'm not a morning person, because I am. However for some reason, I find it incredibly hard to male it to the gym before 11:30 on Saturdays. I have no explanation for this phenomenon.

The workout was good. I felt great about it. YEAH!

Seated Leg Curl

62lb x 25

67lb x 20

72lb x 18

77lb x 15

Leg Extensions

62lb x 25

67lb x 20

72lb x 18

77lb x 15

Hack Squat

45lb x 25

55lb x 18

65lb x 15

Single Leg Press

45lb x 25 (each leg)

70lb x 20 (each leg)

80lb x 18 (each leg)

100lb x 12 (each leg)

Ab Machine

70lb x 20

80lb x 20

90lb x 20

100lb x 20

Stiff Leg Deadlift

30lb x 20

40lb x 18

50lb x 15

Barbell Curls

20lb x 20

25lb x 15

30lb x 12

35lb x 8

20lb x 15

After the gym it was off to see the folks. When we got there Ann helped me color my hair. As she was applying the dye I just kept thinking about how it would turn out HORRIBLE! I currently have several faded colors and streaks in my hair. Who knows what FRESH dye will do to those streaks. I'm such a RISK TAKER! Am I right? (Ha, hardly...)

It turned out nice though. Just what I was looking for. A nice, rich, reddish brown color. Perfect for fall. Thanks Ann. You're my whining (you've got too much hair) hero!


All the fumes from the dye must have made me hungry because I was STARVING by the time we were done. Time for those delicious roasted veggies that I made last night. I decided to have them with Tilapia. Nice, earthy and simple. I seasoned the Tilapia with dill, tarragon, salt, pepper and sweet pepper seasoning mix. I cooked them in a large skillet with Pam. They were done in a matter of minutes. While the fillets were cooking the veggies were reheating in the oven. Before you knew it, lunch was ready.


I also made a quick yogurt dressing on the side.

1 container of this....


To which I added the following....

• 1 tsp dill
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbs horseradish
• 1 tbs horsey sauce
• salt & pepper

Lunch was tasty and just what my (FEED ME) screaming tummy needed. After lunch we played some games and hung out with the fam. for a few more hours. Basically, it was a great afternoon.

Nick wasn't home when I arrived. Clearly this means no raking since the sun would be setting in less then an hour. Was I upset? No, not at all. I won't even lie. I had NO desire to dive into raking at 5:00 in the afternoon. So instead I took a nice relaxing bath and cleaned the house up a bit. Nick got home a bit later and decided that we should go bowling in a few hours. SWEET. I SERIOUSLY suck at it but I love pretending that I'm good! I think it may be one of those things that I will never get the hang of and will FOREVER suck at. It's still fun though!


I couldn't decide if I wanted to indulge in a little beer later or not. It sort of goes hand in hand with bowling in my opinion. However, I didn't lose any weight last week which makes me hesitate a splurge this evening. I'll ponder it over and decide when I get there. No sense in stressing about such silliness now.

For dinner Nick was having meatloaf courtesy of my Mama so I decided to make a quick egg white, veggie wrap.

• 4 egg whites
• green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• dash cayenne
• 2 slices fat free American cheese
• 1 light Flat Out wrap
• hot mango habanero salsa

I whipped the egg whites, the veggies and the seasoning together. I cooked in a pan with Pam and added the cheese at the last minute. Then I placed it on top of the Flat Out wrap and topped it with salsa. YUM!


Then I "delicately" man handled, I mean rolled it into a wrap. I rolled one end in foil to avoid wearing my food. It was good and SUPER filling! WHEW. I could barely finish it.


Well, I have to run. Time to embarrass myself by showing off some serious bowling skills. Or lack thereof I should say. Have a great night everyone!