TGIF

Yay for Fridays! Particularly for Fridays and weekends that I don't have to work! I don't have much to say today. After being 45 and rainy here in Vegas yesterday, it's 75 and sunny once again and in the 80's this weekend. I just got my hair done, my little surgery boo boo is feeling so much better, and I'm ready for some fun this weekend. So without further ado, here are my food. My cameras was dead most of yesterday so please excuse my iPhone photos. :-)

Now for my Eats!

Yesterdays breakfast was a whole wheat english muffin with a Laughing Cow wedge and 2oz smoked salmon. 

 Snack was airplane peanuts! :-)

At lunch time it was pouring rain and I had just the cure for it.

I had bought this at Whole Foods sometime back and was waiting for a perfect cold weather day to enjoy it. It tasted like a grown up version of Cambell's Bean with Bacon soup I ate as a kid. Very yummy! I spiced it up with some sriracha and fresh ground pepper, and had some whole wheat crackers and Laughing Cow wedge on the side.

 I was still a little hungry so I snacked on the rest of the roasted veggies from the night before.

After work yesterday I hit the gym for 60 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. I feel like I'll be up for some running this weekend! :-) After the gym I snacked on some chips and salsa and my Amazing Grass-wanna-be.

For dinner I decided to cook some frozen spinach & cheese raviolis. I had bought these back before I ran my half and hadn't made them. I decided to throw together a little sauce with beans for some extra protein


Several cloves of garlic in a teaspoon of evoo, the rest of the bell peppers and tomatoes, and a can of crushed tomatoes. Simmer for 40 minutes or so.

Boil water for pasta and then add beans to sauce.

And in the end you have, TA-DA!!

I also made this salad on the side with Romain lettuce, beets, artichoke hearts and goat cheese. The dressing is a dollop of Greek yogurt, a dab of Dijon, and a big squeeze of lemon juice. Perfect!

Breakfast this am was cottage cheese with cumin. Simple.

And I had this snack on the way to get my hair done. I gotta say, I don't think I'm a fan of Larabars.

And then at 2pm when my appointment was finally over I had this for lunch. A 6' buffalo chicken from Subway, loaded with lots of veggies and topped with honey mustard. Also had a side of Baked Lays and light lemonade.

That's all, I'm off for the weekend!

What's your favorite food to grab on the go or when you are in a hurry?

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?

I really wouldn't say I've been missing it...

I have a confession. Before yesterday, I had not worked out in 2 weeks! This was partially due to my stitches, partially due to traveling for work, and partially due to pure plain simple laziness. Not to mention I partied and ate my little heart out while in San Diego. Let's just say my body is not feeling so hot. With one step on the scale, I knew it was time to get back into my routine! Only problem is that even though my stitches are out, my wound is still very sensitive and I still need to limit my upper body activity. Twice now I've mindlessly lifted my arms above my head for a deep stretch and felt excruciating pain. It's just such a natural movement I forget that I can't. I need to tape my arm to my side or something. Any ideas??

So after a day of sitting in my office and poking at my stomach all day, I headed to the gym for some much needed spinning. Only to find the class already full. It would have been easy to leave since I didn't bring my iPod, and workouts without music have never been successful for me, but I had my trusty iPhone with me and found some earbuds in the car so onto the elliptical. I did a full 60 minutes and although it didn't feel like much of a workout, especially because I avoided arm movements, it felt good to get back into the workout routine. Now that I'm through the basic recovery surgery, I am committed to getting back in my workout routine. Now I just need to get back into my healthier eats too!

Monday night I hosted Bunco at my house. I took pictures of my food and set my camera next to it so I would remember to photograph everything once people arrived. I forgot, of course. But here is my yummy veggie plate with a yogurt spinach dip.

I also did a side of Terra chips because I thought they would go well with the dip. Love these little things!

Our Bunco spread included fresh made salsa, a warm cheesy, black bean & corn dip, hummus plate, artichoke dip, some random rice pilaf and butterscotch bars. I really wish I had remembered to take photos!!

The next morning I literally had nothing in the house for breakfast. So I stopped to get one of these on the way into the office.

You won't see much fast food on my blog, but this little guy tends to make repeat appearances. I don't know why but I love Egg McMuffins!!! Like get serious cravings for them! And with only 300 calories, 12 g fat, and 18 g of protein I say why not indulge in some McD's every now and then. I'm also okay with this because I hate their hashbrowns (which normally I'm obsessed with potatoes) which makes it really easy for me to just get my sandwich.

Lunch was a salad of randomness made from some of the leftovers from last night. Bed of Romain lettuce, artichoke hearts, bell peppers, tomatoes, black bean and corn dip, goat cheese and Green Goddess dressing. I also topped it off with the few remaining Terra chip crumbs for a crunch and a veggie burger patty.

I love my random salad creations and they are always so delicious! I say try anything in a salad, even if the foods don't seem to "mesh" or are not typical "salad" foods. The more I mix, the better they become!

After the gym, I chugged down one of these and had some celery with peanut butter as a snack.

I then got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to go out for sushi. I had planned to spend the night cleaning, unpacking, and doing laundry. My bank account was kind of low and I had just spent and hour at the gym, but when she said Kaizen, my favorite sushi place, I just had to go! It was one of her friends first sushi experience and I think he liked it. Lots!

We started off with some edamame...

And since we wanted to give him the true sushi experience...

There were Sake Bombs and some unfiltered sake! We ordered several things to share between the 4 of us. We got The Kiss roll to start.

O.M.G!! It was orgasmic!!! They don't list their specialty rolls on their website so I can't remember exactly what was in it but it definitely had tuna and spicy tuna and was on top of a warm creamy sauce. We also wanted for our friend to try "real" sushi. We got this sampler platter.

We also ordered The "O" roll. While The "O" roll was very delicious, I think a name like The "O" belonged to the first roll we tried. This had something like spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, avocado and I'm not really sure what's on top there.

And then for reasons I will never know, we had shots of Patron for dessert.

These definitely changed the course of my evening. What would have been me returning home and getting a good nights rest became hoping in a cab and heading to my favorite dive casino for $1.50 beers and karaoke. If you want old Vegas, cheap food, cheap booze, cheap slots & tables (if you're a gambler), then Ellis Island is the place for you! We ended up staying out entirely too late singing, dancing, and drinking. Not exactly how I had planned to spend my evening, especially when I'm trying to get back into my healthy routine, but I had a blast!! Sometimes a few extra calories is worth enjoying life.