Christmas Cheer

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday filled with good wine, good food, and lots of presents. I definitely had a great one! Let's start with my fabulous Christmas Eve dinner made by my amazing brother.

This salmon was amazing! My brother is a great cook. This recipe came from The New York Times Cookbook.  Roasted Salmon with Herbed Vinaigrette, scalloped potatoes, and Swiss chard with pickled onions.

I also got some great gifts. Look at these awesome aporons my step-mother sewed for my sister and I! They are super cute!

And lots of great gifts too! Reusable produce bags!

And lots and lots of dishes!

Think my family knows I like food, cooking, and blogging? :-)

I also got something super exciting.

My first reaction: "Ew! Gross!! What is it??! Ewwwww, it just leaked on me!"

But then I found out it is a Kombucha clone so I can make my own Kombucha at home! It's stinky, it looks really gross, but I'm super excited to make my own Kombucha! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Calorie Sch-malorie

Someone tell me I'm not the only one who obsesses about beverages that have calories? I'm a water drinking fool. I pretty much always drink water because it has no calories! Next up would be hot and iced teas. I often drink these without sweetener, but sometimes I use a little honey to help with my allergies. After all, there are only 20 calories in a teaspoon of honey. I also have been drinking a good amount of kombucha. It has calories, but not as many as soda, and it has health benefits so I look at it as okay. Then comes the dreaded diet soda. I try not to drink these, but there's usually one a week that slips in. On my jam packed busy weeks with super early mornings, there are probably a few more. I also drink lattes on occasion. These are usually first thing in the am on my jam packed busy weeks with super early mornings following up with diet soda to keep the caffeine buzz. Yes, lattes have [skim] milk in them, but milk is good for the body so I'm okay with those calories.

But now beverages that contain calories freak me out. It is very very very very rare I will ever drink a real soda and here's why - the whole time I'm drinking it the only thing I can think about is this is 160 calories and 60 grams of sugar! I drink sports drinks before/after a big run, like my half marathon when I know I'm gonna burn 1,300 calories and need the electrolytes, but I not just on a daily basis. Now do I think about calories when I'm drinking my large glass of wine? Nah, that's a "health" beverage. ;-) But sodas, juices, flavored waters, sports drinks all give me I'm drinking calories anxiety. Anyone else out there? I know I can't be the only one!

I am a real person though and as I've said before I'm not always healthy. I may straight up be drinking a diet coke while eating gummy bears at the same time. I'm scared to drink my calories, but not afraid to eat them. Or as I discussed in Monday's post about being a Weekend Warrior - alcohol has no calories, right? I guess what I'm saying is I shouldn't fear the beverage calories and remember to eat/drink everything in moderation. If someone hands me a latte made with whole milk I should enjoy it as a special treat and know that it's not something I have on regular basis. So here's to calories in moderation! Cheers!

Looking for some Free Stuff? Check out these blogs for some giveaways.

Lara at Thinspired is giving away Attune granola
Travel Eat Love is giving away an entire case of Honest Tea
The Emily of Emily Eats Clean is giving away 6 boxes of Truvia sweetener.

Now for yesterdays EATS!

Because I was so stressed yesterday I didn't really eat much. My yogurt sat on my desk all morning and I never touched it. I still wasn't hungry when I went home for lunch but I made this for lunch anyway. Veggie burger on whole wheat English muffin, with Dijon aioli, spinach, and half a Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie pack.

Back in the office I had some kombucha

After work I headed home and knew I was in need of some comfort food. I pulled a pot roast out of the freezer and put it back into the crock-pot, after I thawed it under cold water of course. I then headed off to the gym where I did 25 minutes on the elliptical and then an hour long vinyasa yoga class. I felt sooooo good after that class. I came home and the house was full of warm pot roast. Mmmmmm! I had some of my amazing grass-wanna-be while I made some Cauli-mashers to go with my pot roast.

Cauli-Mashers
2 large russet potatoes, peeled, diced
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup of grated cheese

Bring potatoes and cauliflower to a boil, cook until tender. Strain out water and then put cauliflower and potatoes in a mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix with a hand mixer.

That's all for now friends. My schedule is going to be really crazy this month with lots of travel and a stay-cation with my best-ies! Then I'll be traveling to San Fran and then on to Denver for work. I'll try my best to keep up with my eats, but I have a feeling now it's going to be a crazy month! So bare with me. :-)

STRESS

How do you handle STRESS? 

I'd like to think for the most part I've got a good grip on handling stress. On a day-to-day basis I would say my stress level is fairly low. Most things I am able to blow off and know that things will just work themselves out on their own. But every now and then a big storm cloud blows over my head and the floods appear - and by floods, I mean tears. Yes, it's just been one of those days where I had to let it all out. Every couple of months, I don't know if it's hormonal or what, but I just get really worked up of something that is not that big of deal but if you add this in and that in and all those other factors it just seems completely overwhelming at the moment. And even as I sit there crying knowing that I will look back on that moment in a few days and wondered why I stressed but I just had to open the tear gates and let them rip!

According to this article, here are some ways to handle stress. 

1. Relax - Yeah, that's easy for you to say, you're not the one who's stressed! But stepping away from the situation, taking some deep breathes, cry to your mother and bitch to your best friends and you'll suddenly realize you are relaxed. 
2. Get Some Exercise - I have been stuck in a cubicle all day but plan to hit up spin as soon as I leave here. Luckily there is only one other person in the office today so I was able to avoid any humiliation of being "the girl who cries".
3. Take Some Vitamin C - I took my multivitamin and chugged down some kombucha. 
4. Aromatherapy - I think what they mean by aromatherapy is to make some comfort food so your whole house smells good and load up on some wine while it cooks. That's my plan for the evening. 

Hope your day was less stressful than mine!

Now for yesterdays EATS!

Breakfast yesterday was 1/2 cup plain yogurt with strawberries and ground flax seed. I recycled my Yogurtland spoon from the other day. I love it.

Lunch I had a tuna melt, a salad, and iced.

My salad was spinach, artichoke hearts, eggplant, sweet potatoes, asparagus and Trader Joe's creamy cilantro jalapeno hummus. I really love my veggies - and I really love my hummus - but this hummus overpowered all the flavors in my salad.

 For my tuna melt I used 1.5 oz drained tuna, capers, calamata olives, a dollop of Greek yogurt, and a little bit of Dijon mustard and light mayo. Toasted it on half of a whole wheat English muffin with some light cheese.

And half passion/half green tea mix.

Back in the office I snacked on TJ's Just a Handful with almonds, cashews, and dried cranberries.

And kombucha

Dinner was a remake of last week. I used used my Tomato White Bean sauce I made last week but this time I wilted some spinach and also topped the raviolis with some cottage cheese before adding the sauce. I also had some asparagus on the side. Yummy.

It was super, super windy yesterday. The winds were 40-50 mph with 65 mph gusts! I had to go get my runners packet for Saturday and was nearly knocked on my butt several times the wind was so strong. Because it was so windy I skipped my scheduled run and grabbed some Yogurtland on the way home. Plain and Lychee that I topped with strawberries.

Hope your day is less stressful than mine!

Celebrate Earth Day Everyday!

Isn't this a great planet we live on! Think outside your neighborhood, outside your community, outside your city, outside your country. Think globally! What a wonderful world be are blessed to exist in!

[source]

Today is the 40th anniversary of the very first Earth Day! While today we are more likely to celebrate Earth Day by carrying a reusable bag or reducing water usage, 40 years ago today one of the largest national protest occurred as college students flooded the streets over clean air and water issues. Their protest have definitely made a huge difference in our world. You've probably already seen lots of tips on how you can be more green. I personally try to incorporate being green on a daily basis. Here are a few of those tips and how I use them in my daily live. 

• Reduce the use of plastic bag 
• I always bring my own grocery bags. I also avoid using produce bags unless it's something like green beans that I can't just throw in my cart.  I try not to use plastic baggies or ziplocks and use reusable containers instead. When I do use ziplocks, I like to wash them and reuse them. They're so expensive anyway!
• I always keep one of these in my purse. These are perfect for all those non-grocery trips you don't think carry a bag. Guilty trips for me include: Target, Marshall's, and TJ Maxx. With this little guy, I'm never without a bag.

•  Buy Local, Buy Organic, Buy in Bulk, Buy Meats that are not Factory Farmed
•  Buying local is not always an easy thing here in Las Vegas, but I've done some research and try my best to buy local produce. Good thing California the agricultural mecca is right next door to my state. Buying organic means no pesticides - I'm in! I'm okay with spots on my apples. Buying in bulk means less packaging. And lastly, while I never think I could become a full on vegetarian, I do limit my meat consumption. I eat many vegitarian meals because the animal farming process is so bad for the environment and bad for you. Farm raised animals are packed full of antibiotics - not good! The more natural, the better, so splurge on quality grass feed, free ranged meats. 
• Adjust Your Theromstat
• In the winter I keep my thermostat at 60 when I'm gone and 68 when home. If I'm cold, I grab a blanket! In the summer I keep my thermostat at a constant 78. This is because I live in Vegas and if I let it heat up in the house, it will never cool back down. I do have sunscreens on all my windows which does make an amazing difference in keeping the house cool!
• Reduce Fuel Usage
• Okay, so I'll admit I could be better with this one, I live 1.9 miles door-to-door from my home to my office. I wear a lot of dresses so riding a bike doesn't work well. I could walk which would add a whole hour of exercise each day, but then on my 30 minute lunch breaks I would stuck in my florescent lighted cubicle. I love being able to drive home and make something great for lunch and sit on the patio each day. Maybe I could try switching this up some and ride my bike or walk 2-3 times a week. Something better than nothing, right.
• I make sure my tire pressure and rotate my tires every 5,000. This helps reduce fuel wastage. 
• When I'm at home, I refuse to drive the .5 miles to the grocery store. I grab my reusable bags and walk unless it's dark out. I also have to drive to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, but I try to incorporate them into different trips to reduce driving. 
•  Turn Off Electronics
• Another thing I could be better about. Did you know leaving your phone charger plugged in even when you're not charging sucks up power? If it wasn't in a difficult place to reach behind my bed I swear I'd unplug it more. I need to work on this one. 
• TV's, DVD players, stereos, etc all pull electricity even when they are not on. Since I only use these devices on occasion, I keep them on a power surge which I can turn off and keep them from drawing electricity when not in use. 
• Water Usage
• I replaced my old shower head with a water reducing shower head. 
•  I turn off the water when I brush my teeth.
• I don't turn my drip water system on until it gets HOT and I fix any that wasting water.
• Not necessarily related to water usage, but I was all my clothes in cold water which not only keeps my clothes looking nice and fitting well, but saves a ton of energy by not using hot water.  

So there are some fun tips for this Earth Day but remember that every day should be Earth Day! I also love this book! It's full with fun little tips and easy to read.

Now for yesterdays eats!

I ended up staying with friends after our fun Tuesday night excursion and had a slice of cold pizza for breakfast. :-) 

For lunch I went home and made a similar salad to Mondays post.  My camera was dead but it had Romain lettuce, salsa, greek yogurt, black bean & corn dip, and topped off with leftover peppers, onions, and beef fajitas, sans guac this time. 

Back in the office I chugged down one of these.

And snacked on this later in the afternoon.

For some reason - reality because of really bad math - I ended up working 9.5 hours. I need to put in 8.5 but somewhere messed that up so I didn't end up leaving until almost 7:00pm. I came home and decided I would do some p90x, only I was starving so I grabbed the first thing in the fridge. Leftover Artichoke Dip from Monday nights Bunco. I grabbed a big scoop and ate a bite...

Then I looked at the label, Yikes!!

And then I threw it away! Or I should say put it down the disposal and rinsed the container for recycling. :-) Go me! It's always hard for me to throw food away because I hate wasting but.... I really don't want to be putting that into my body either so dumping and recycling was the right choice. 

At this point I decided to fore go working out and just make dinner. I was just hungry. I pulled this out of the freezer and tossed the leftover broccoli, cauliflower and carrots from Monday's veggie plate with evoo and sprinkled them with curry.

Add a little feta to make it betta and 40 minutes later I had this!

I find that I can't ever make myself do work out videos at home! I have to go out for a run or to the gym. Even if I do start a video, I often get bored within a couple minutes. I get bored in classes at the gym too, but since I'm with a group I won't just quite and walk out. Can you stay motivated for workouts at home? What are your favorite workouts?