I Know My ABC’s

I got this idea from my gal pal Kalkal and thought it would be a good time. I changed it up a tad and came up with this! Have fun.

A is for Age: 26

B is for favorite Breakfast currently: Overnight Chia Seed Yogurt Bowl

C is for frequent Cravings: peanut butter and chocolate

D is for Date night: I love quiet date nights where we make a nice dinner together, play games and go out for ice cream.

E is for favorite kind of exercise: Man, I love it all. I really enjoy Zumba and am learning to love running.

F is for irrational Fear: big spiders

G is for Gross food: slimy, chewy fishy tasting seafood (I like non slimy, chewy, or fishy tasting seafood though)

H is for Happy thoughts: vacation, family, babies, puppies, ice cream

I is for something Important: family, friends and happiness

J is for current Jam: Welch’s Grape Natural Spread. Oh, you mean jam like music? Probably a song too embarrassing to mention.

K is for Kids: No kids for me yet but in the future, yes. I love kids.

L is for favorite Lunch: PB banana wrap with cinnamon

M is for most recent way you spent your Money: Underwater camera for our trip

N is for something you Need: full body massage (I still have a massage gift card from the wedding but want to use it post half-marathon!)

O is for Occupation: Registered Dietitian

P is for Pet Peeve: I feel bad when I think about this question because I have a lot of pet peeves. The worst though…when people are late.

Q is for a Quote:

R is for something Random about you: I have to make sure all of the wrinkles are out of my pillow case before I go to sleep

S is for favorite healthy Snack: peanut butter and banana or trail mix

T is for favorite Treat: ice cream (is that my third time mentioning ice cream?)

U is for something that makes you Unique: I was hospitalized with a kidney stone when I was 16 years old

V is for favorite Vegetable: sugar snap peas

W is for my Worst hairdo: in 5th and 6th grade I would sport the princess leia buns…you know, like these. Except, not so large and not covering my ears. Little bun buns.

X is for X-rays you’ve had: dentist, wisdom teeth removal, and when I cut my arm on a broken wine glass.

Y is for favorite movie from Youth: Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka

Z is for your time Zone: central

There you have it. The ABC’s of Melanie.

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Two Tickets to Paradise

Well friends, we are all packed up…

And we’re off. Off we go into the wild blue yonder flying high into the sky. For those of you who may have missed it, Dana and I are going to be spending a good chunk of time in the beautiful Dominican Republic. We plan to lay on the beach, swim, go on at least one tour of the countryside, hike up the waterfalls, rest, eat, drink, and do whatever the heck we want.

We do plan to continue training for the half marathon while we are there. All of our running gear is packed and we will hit the beaches a few of the mornings for beautiful, scenic jogs.

I had a hard time saying bye to this little man. He gives the most painstaking puppy eyes that get me every time.

This photo of Moose and Dana was from Wednesday. Moose was NOT that happy looking when we left for our trip. He is going to be in very great hands though and will have a blast going for walks, runs, and probably getting even more attention that he gets from us.

Paradise awaits. I am off. I have a few posts planned for you all while I am away. Hope you enjoy them. I look forward to catching up with you when I get back!

Continue Reading Two Tickets to Paradise

Nacho Apple Nachos

Hello, it’s Thursday which means tomorrow is Friday. Not only is Friday my favorite day of the week for obvious reasons, but it is also the day we leave for our trip to paradise. Dana and I will be flying out to the Dominican Republic for some major R and R and we are more than a little excited.

But first things first. I had a rocky day yesterday. Let’s just say my digestive tract was a little “off” throughout the entire day. I brushed it off as a nothing in the morning and hit the treadmill for a 3 mile run. It was rainy and dark outside so I nixed the outside run idea plus, given my stomach issues at that time, inside in the comfort of my own home was probably a better idea on many counts.

After the run, I ate a fairly usual breakfast: an overnight chia seed yogurt bowl with blueberries and banana. It tasted better than normal today.

The stomach issues continued, and then came the body aches, chills, and slight fever. Really? Right now? Right before vacation? It’s inevitable though. I rarely get sick and of course it happened to me right before an amazing vacation. But guess what? I am a fighter. I am kicking back the Emergen-C and zinc, staying hydrated, trying my best to eat a healthy diet although our refrigerator is getting fairly sparse, and getting adequate sleep.

For some reason my body was majorly craving sweet all day. My breakfast was sweet as shown above, lunch was a peanut butter banana wrap without honey, also sweet. And dinner….

Sweet again. Apple nachos. I small apple sliced, drizzled with natural peanut butter, and topped with walnuts and chocolate chips. This is the toned down version of the big plate of Apple Nachos I made for a work meeting in February. This time I made it single serve. Who’s apple nachos are they? Nacho apple nachos.

An hour later, after some more packing, I grabbed a banana to munch on. Then an hour after that, I ate a plain sandwich thin, and then some Greek yogurt. Random and unexciting dinner by far.

I realize 80% of my intake yesterday was from sugar (albeit mostly natural sugars), but I had decided to listen to my body and that is definitely what it was asking for. I aim to please. As much as I would have loved a big bowl of broccoli, my body would not have been okay with that. Sugar and peanut butter only says the dietitian. KIDDING. But I do really believe in listening to your body.

I am out for my last day of work for a bit! Enjoy your Thursday.

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Sweet and Creamy Salad

Happy Hump Day!

After my wonderful run yesterday (note the sarcasm), I made myself a giant bowl of Overnight Chia Seed Yogurt although instead of letting it combine overnight, I let it work for just a half hour. I also added strawberries to the mix.

I added a heavy amount of honey to the top and scraped the bowl clean. This was my brunch. I had a goofy schedule at work today so I made sure to pack a few snacks to tide me over through the afternoon: apple, sugar snap peas, carrots, and a string cheese.

For dinner, I used up ingredients we had on hand to make one of my all-time favorite salads.

Moose watched while I prepared dinner. Sorry Moose, I know this isn’t your most flattering angle. 😉

Here is the beautiful colorful plate of healthiness that I put together.

 

The combination of textures in this salad are so pleasing to me between the creaminess of the avocado, beans, and dressing, the juiciness of the fruit, and the crunch of the onion, it’s just perfect. It’s sweet, it’s creamy, it’s my…

Sweet and Creamy Salad

This salad is sweet and refreshing, and perfect any time of year.

Ingredients

Mixed greens

red onion, diced

fresh strawberries, diced (or frozen if you don’t have fresh on hand)

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

1 ripe avocado, diced

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Newman’s Own Lite honey mustard dressing (or your favorite honey mustard)

Directions

Place mixed greens on large plate. Top with remaining ingredients. Drizzle with honey mustard. You could bulk up the salad with more protein by adding grilled chicken breast or shrimp.

I am off to work. Have a great day!

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They Can’t All Be Good

Last night, we made one of Dana’s favorite meals: Fish Tacos. I enjoy them as well, but they don’t rank as high as to me as they do for him.

Dana got to work on cooking the tilapia in a pan on the stove top with lemon juice, salt and pepper, while I got busy chopping the veggies. I chopped up the leftover iceberg lettuce, making some of it into shreds, and some of it into cups to use as my taco shell. I do use regular tortilla shells sometimes too, just didn’t feel like it today.

For our tacos, I chopped lettuce as mentioned, as well as tomato, cilantro, and avocado. I layered all of the veggies into my lettuce cup, placed my perfectly cooked tilapia next, and lastly topped it all with roasted tomatillo medium salsa which really gets my nose running.

Forgive my flash versus non-flash photos. I couldn’t decide which lighting was better as neither was really helping me out much.

With flash:

Without flash:

Dana’s fish tacos were way prettier than mine so I made sure we snapped a photo. See, you can accommodate everyone in your household….carb or no carb.

I tend to feel a lot better when I go lighter on my carb intake, which is why you’ll notice I tend to skimp on them and go bunless with burgers, shell-less with tacos, choose salad versus sandwich, etc.

I have a minor gluten intolerance so it’s not to say I don’t eat breads, tortillas, etc. because I do, I just pick my battles. Some days I can eat a bagel and have no repercussions whatsoever in the stomach ache department, and the next day I will eat a bagel and feel like there is a blown up balloon in my belly. I continue to learn about my body and what makes it happy and unhappy every single day. I do love fresh bread though. Mmm…

The rest of the night was spent doing more laundry, packing, and relaxing with the guys.

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My morning today started out with a pre-run breakfast/snack. Half of a banana with peanut butter, and half of a cup of coffee. I would have loved more coffee but know it’s not a good idea considering I will be running outside sans bathrooms.

I suited up in my asics and headed out the door for a 5.21 mile run.

I will start off by saying that the weather was perfect this morning. Blue skies, birds chirping, and a cool breeze, so at least that part of the run was beautiful. There are good workout days and bad workout days, and this morning I definitely had a bad workout day.

During my first mile, it’s standard for me to struggle a bit but I know that my body is warming up and after the first mile I will usually feel better. Today though, I felt that struggle throughout the entire run. I was getting side aches on each side and tried breathing through them to work them out, but didn’t have much luck. My ears felt like I was on an airplane and they were full of pressure and aches. I felt dehydrated and out of breath with no stamina at all. It was a hard run.

I kept comparing this run to my Saturday run and I couldn’t believe how different I felt. I know this is normal but you always hope each run is going to be a good run. You can’t always get what you waaaannnntt.

I ran and walked 5.21 miles in 55 minutes. Not my fastest by any means but hey, I finished it. Hopefully my next run will be more enjoyable.

I am off to drink the second half of my morning coffee and head out for the day. I hope you have an excellent Tuesday.

Question of the Day: How do you fight through a “bad” workout day?

Continue Reading They Can’t All Be Good

Thai Inspired Lettuce Cups with Basil

Dinner last night came from all things leftover. Ingredients on hand: carrots, tomato, iceberg lettuce, cilantro, basil, and shredded chicken. Once my brain started rolling, I came up with idea of Thai inspired lettuce cups.

Place the lettuce cups on your plate, next pile on all of the ingredients listed above in the center of the cup, top it with Kraft’s Asian Sesame Dressing (or some sort of peanut sauce would be good), and give it a go.

These came together in about 5 minutes which was even better. The fresh basil really made this dish. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

I am trying to think of other ways to cook with basil this week. It is too good to let go to waste.

Any healthy recipes ideas out there that include basil?

In the five minutes of prep work involved in this dinner, I managed to eat at least two large handfuls of those Tostitos Artisan chips we had bought for Saturday night’s shin-dig. They taste like an improved version of Doritos Cooler Ranch chips. They are so addicting. At least this kind is whole grain!

The rest of the day yesterday was spent doing laundry and packing for our upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic. We are so close it hurts.

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Breakfast this morning was sweet and comforting in the form of a bowl full of banana slices, topped with PB2, chia seeds, cinnamon, and honey.

That will be my Positive Monday Talk. It was just what I needed this morning.

After work I will heading to the gym and will probably hit the elliptical, stair stepper, and arm weights. We’ll see though. Have a happy Monday friends.

Continue Reading Thai Inspired Lettuce Cups with Basil

Food Photo Show

Hi there! I hope everyone is having a wonderful and productive Sunday. I have lots of food photos to catch you up on starting from lunch yesterday, so no need to get wordy on you today. Here it goes.

Saturday Lunch

Strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple with Fage Greek yogurt, chia seeds, and honey.

Saturday Dinner

We had both my parents and Dana’s parents over for dinner last night. Everyone brought a dish to contribute and we ended up with an amazing meal.

Appetizer: Tostito’s Artisan Roasted Garlic & Black Bean chips with roasted tomatillo salsa served in our fancy pants serving bowl set that we got as a wedding gift.

Salad: Mom’s quinoa salad which has pretty much all of my favorite veggies thrown into one salad. It is quinoa, tomatoes, mukimame,   red onion, black beans, avocado, fresh basil, cilantro, celery, coconut juice, spices, and I may have missed a couple ingredients. It was GOOD!

Veggie Tray: Dana’s mom brought a delicious and colorful veggie tray with her very own special dip that has a creamy cottage cheese base. Nummm.

And the main entrée: homemade grilled turkey burgers with Worcestershire, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I ate mine on a 100-calorie sandwich thin bun and topped it with cheddar cheese, pickles, tomato, onion, mustard, and ketchup. DELICIOUS.

For dessert, I made homemade strawberry sorbet which is the absolute easiest thing to make. No need to spend $6 on a small carton of organic sorbet.

Strawberry Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 4-5 cups frozen strawberries, thawed
  • Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
  • 3/4 teaspoon stevia
  • 1/4 cup water
Directions
Puree all ingredients in food processor. Transfer to ice cream maker, and let churn for 40 minutes. If you do not have an ice cream maker, transfer to container then place in the freezer until solid. Serve with whip cream if desired.

We had a great time with the fam last night and ate a very healthy meal. Thanks everyone!

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Sunday Breakfast

Yogurt bowl with a splash of almond milk, cinnamon PB2, banana, honey, and chia seeds.

Sunday Lunch

 The last of the fresh pineapple, sugar snap peas, and leftover quinoa salad.

And LOTS of these cheesy salty chips. Bring on the orange fingers.

Hope you enjoyed my food photo show. Catch up with you all soon.

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Seven with Sprinkles on Top

Happy weekend my friends! I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend so far, I know I am.

Last night, I made my self a salad that always hits the spot: BBQ pulled chicken salad. I’ve mentioned before this one is inspired from Famous Dave’s BBQ pulled chicken salad.

In this salad: leafy greens, shredded cheese, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, and BBQ pulled chicken. I drizzled a small amount of Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard over the top. All I was missing was a fresh batch of corn bread (which I debated making but ran out of time).

After dinner, we met up with a bunch of my friends from high school because the two guys that we visited on our recent trip to California, Brandon and Will (please don’t get mad for posting this photo :wink:), were in town. Love these guys. It was so good to see everyone.

Dana and I called it an early night however because we had plans for a big run this morning.

Saturday morning

We woke up leisurely this morning at 7:20 am (who are we?), opened up the weather.com app on our phones and noticed a big blob of nasty weather heading our way on the radar. Hmm….we had plans to run seven miles this morning but really wouldn’t appreciate getting pelted with freezing cold rain in 40° weather. So, we decided to get out and run our errands and just do our big run tomorrow instead. I was extremely dissapointed but hey, lifes goes on.

Anyway, we brought the car in to get an oil change and tires rotated, and while we waited, we meandered over to Starbuck’s for some delicious java to warm my heart. We went for a little walk while I sipped my latte. Still no rain at this point. We were really starting to kick ourselves because original plan had been to drop off the car and go for our run while it was getting work done.

Too late though.

Once the car was ready we made a couple of stops to pick up food for a family BBQ we are hosting tonight. I was really feeling down about not getting our run in today.

When we got home, it was starting to clear up a little, and we made an executive decision that we should get our run in today, right now. We geared up and hit the ground running.

We had to leave Moose at home this time because no offense doggie, but you can’t handle seven miles. I can hardly handle seven miles. Sorry.

Towards the second half of the run, it started to sprinkle which I thought was pretty darn funny. Mother nature was teasing us today. At that point, I totally appreciated the light sprinkles. They were very refreshing.

The run was challenging as all runs are, but overall it wasn’t that bad. I was really starting to feel nervous about my lack of long distance mileage covered in conjunction with the upcoming half marathon, and this run really helped alleviate my anxiety. I am fine. I will be fine. Mind over matter.

There were two large hills during our run, and the second one at the end was particularly gruesome. I cursed it as Dana encouraged me and reminded me to let my arms help pull me through, and I made it to the top with no walk stops.

I am so extremely proud we covered seven miles today and so fortunate to have been able to run it with Dana by my side.

Now, it’s time for some lunch, and some major house cleaning. Can’t wait for our company tonight.

Have an awesome Saturday!

Continue Reading Seven with Sprinkles on Top

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?

 

Continue Reading That’s Strike Two

Reunited with the Early Morning Run

First, a recap from yesterday….

I was at a workshop all day yesterday, and by the time dinner rolled around, I definitely felt hungry, but not super hungry. I hadn’t gotten my peanut butter fix in for the day yet and decided that sounded just perfect given my hunger status. If I don’t get PB for breakfast or lunch, why not get it at dinner?

I opted for my classic cinnamon PB2 and banana sandwich, and fresh juicy pineapple.

While I was eating my lame dinner, Dana was off in the kitchen creating a masterpiece. He cooked two eggs over easy, sautéed a handful of mushrooms, and plated his dish as such: toasted whole grain baguette on the bottom, then the mushrooms, eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, and lastly roasted tomatillo salsa.

Check it out…

I am such a proud wife! That looks phenomenal. That is restaurant quality right there. Someday when we open up a cafe, that will be on the menu, you wait and see. 🙂

After dinner we took the bear (Moose) out for a walk to soak up what was left of the beautiful day. After sitting on my hiney all day at work, it felt great to stretch the legs and fill my lungs with fresh air.

Later, we made a quick stop over at Dana’s parents to check out a light fixture and say hi, and then just so happened to “stumble upon” a self-serve frozen yogurt shop afterwards. When I say stumble upon, I mean we intentionally planned on going there and I was more than a little excited about it.

We went to Cherry Berry and I served myself Cookie Monster flavor and Cheesecake flavor, and then topped the frozen yogurt with cookie dough bits, brownie bits, Reese’s peanut butter cups, a few mini gummy bears, sprinkles, marshmallow fluff, whipped cream, and a little chocolate syrup. This baby was on point.

Oh yea…I’ve said it before but I wish I could eat this every day. I’m in trouble because we have two frozen yogurt shop’s coming to our neighborhood soon. Good thing it’s not free or else I’d be in real big trouble. It does tend to add up pretty quick as they charge you by the ounce, so that should help keep me out. Tee hee.

We got home and I pretty much crashed. An evening with a beautiful walk and amazing frozen yogurt is a great night indeed.

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Now, onto this morning.

Something happened this morning that hasn’t happened in a pretty long time. I GOT AN EARLY MORNING RUN IN (albeit inside because I’m too much of a scaredy cat to run outside in the dark by myself)! A while back I posted about all the positive’s associated with early morning workouts, and have noticed that since then, they have become few and far between.

This could be for a number of reasons:

1. Now that it’s lighter out later, I feel I have more time after work to be productive and workout.

2. It’s been darker in the morning which is completely un-motivating in terms of getting out of bed.

3. I refuse to run in the dark outside early morning or late evening so I have to face the dreadmill.

4. My early morning runs are usually not as successful as my afternoon or later morning runs (I tend to take it slower in the early am) therefore discouraging me from even attempting.

The run this morning was pretty ugly. I felt like each of my lungs weighed 50 pounds and my side was aching, but nevertheless, I finished three miles and am proud of myself. The endorphins are flowing and I am ready to face the day.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t reach for the large mug for my coffee this morning because I most definitely did….

I’ll leave you with that. Have a great Thursday!

Continue Reading Reunited with the Early Morning Run
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