What I Ate Wednesday, 8/20/14

Hi guys! It has been a while! Lynda goose was kind enough to take over last weeks WIAW for me while I was on a little vacation. We didn’t want to ruin our perfect WIAW posting streak! Anyway, today I ate some things…I’m not all that proud of some of the things, but hey, it happened, it’s in my belly, and it’s all good. 🙂

Breakfast

Breakfast was the usual…oatmeal made with almond milk, cinnamon, chopped walnuts, blueberries, and about a teaspoon of honey. My coffee is Larry’s Beans Bolivia roast. I am loving this local coffee roaster! It is some of the tastiest coffee I have ever made at home.

Sometime at work, before lunch, I ate a coconut cream pie Larabar, but I failed to get a picture of that. Sorry!

Lunch

I still haven’t made it to the grocery store for this week, so for lunch I decided to pick up food from Roly Poly. I think I have mentioned this salad before in another WIAW, but it’s worth talking about again because it’s really that good! This is a Spa Salad with chicken added. The toppings include: cucumbers, shredded carrots, dried cranberries, walnuts, tomatoes, mushrooms, green pepper, avocado, and sprouts. I don’t really know what the salad dressing is..some sort of vinaigrette. I just love how fresh this salad is and the variety of toppings give it so much flavor. Check it out if you ever go to a Roly Poly.

After picking up my salad, the stupid Starbucks nearby was calling my name. It was saying “Ashleyyyy, you know you want me even though I’m not really that good and I’m highly overpriced and overrated”. I ordered a “grande” (aka MEDIUM here in ‘merica) Americano with cream and justified it by telling myself I needed the extra caffeine for the leg workout I was about to do. 😉

Snack

After my workout I drank a protein shake. It was simply one scoop of Optimum Nutrition 100% natural whey protein powder mixed with about 8 ounces of unsweetened almond milk. I didn’t get a picture of this either, but don’t worry it was nothing special, just liquid in a blender botttle. Fascinating…

Dinner

Pizza party Friday! …on a Wednesday! Okay, so I hardly ever eat delicious things like pizza (or Bojangles) on weekdays. I try to save it for Friday or Saturday because I just feel less guilty about it if I’ve eaten relatively healthy throughout the week. I also try really hard to only eat out for dinner like once or twice a week. That does not always happen (clearly), but it’s just what I strive for! Why do I sound like I’m defending myself. This is pathetic 😛 Well, I did add weight to my leg routine, which made me more exhausted than usual. I also walked Rose, went to Target, came home, realized I had nothing to cook, and that was it. Next thing I know I’ve got greasy delicious pepperoni and jalapeno pizza in my belly!

Well,  that’s everything I ate today. I did drink water throughout the day like usual, but I just didn’t photograph that, but I promise I did.

Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

 

What’s in my Pantry: Blueberries

One of the best parts about summer to me is all the delicious summer fruits! Watermelon, strawberries, peaches, and blueberries! I love them all, but my personal favorite, and the one that can be found most frequently in my refrigerator, are blueberries. I ALWAYS have blueberries of some sort in the house. In the summer I have fresh blueberries from the local farmer’s market and when they’re not in season I buy frozen ones.

What’s so great about blueberries?

Well, besides the obvious fact that they are delicious and can be used in many ways (some of which I will talk about below), they are also highly nutritious and good for you! Blueberries are packed full of antioxidants. In fact, they are ranked as one of the highest in antioxidants out of all fruits. Antioxidants are good! They help to combat free radicals in our bodies. Free radicals are bad! They form when certain molecules react with oxygen, a process called oxidation. Free radicals can cause all sorts of damage to cellular structures and DNA, so consuming foods rich in antioxidants is important to help combat them.

Many studies indicate that blueberries are beneficial for the nervous system and brain health. They are a good source of vitamin K, vitamin C, and manganese.

What to do with blueberries?

Besides just grabbing a handful and eating them, there are so many ways you can get a daily dose of bluberries in your diet! Luckily, blueberries freeze really well without losing their nutrient content. I like to either freeze fresh blueberries or buy some that are already frozen to use in smoothies! When I am on top of my meal planning/prepping I like making little smoothie freezer bags that I can easily throw into a blender for a quick snack or breakfast.

This particular one has blueberries, banana slices, and spinach. I can pour this whole bag straight into the blender, add some liquid (coconut water, apple juice, or whatever) and it’s good to go.

The other way I usually eat my blueberries is on top of oatmeal almost every morning. You could also add blueberries to cereal, mixed in some yogurt, on top of a salad, or in some muffins! 😉

Now don’t you want to run out and get you some blueberries! You know you do.

Thanks for reading!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

 

What I Ate Wednesday, 7/2/14

Hey guys! Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is going well and hopefully this is a short week for most of you guys thanks to Independence Day. Keeping my fingers crossed that this tropical storm threatening to hit the east coast doesn’t ruin all of the fourth of July festivities for us! I had a pretty busy day today between work and running errands, so I actually didn’t eat very much. Here is what I did manage to eat today…

Breakfast

Are you shocked!? It’s not oatmeal. I made some muffins on Monday night and I had a couple left, so I figured I better eat them. These are peanut butter banana muffins, which I made on Monday spur of the moment and just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. They turned out pretty good. They are not overly sweet, so they’re perfect for breakfast. The recipe I used can be found here. I also had one scrambled egg and some strawberries and delicious blueberries from the farmers market. I had some coffee with organic half and half in my adorable coffee mug from Marshals. If you can’t see it, it says “luv my cup of joe”.

Lunch

I didn’t really eat lunch. I just munched on a bunch of raw mixed nuts. These came from Target. I tend to buy a big huge container of them so there’s always something quick to munch on if I am busy but going into starvation meltdown mode.

Snack

After work I picked up an Americano…just because. Do I need a reason? :-p

Dinner

We picked up food from Jasmin Mediterranean Restaurant for dinner. This is a chicken zaki with a side salad. Oh, how I love Greek and Mediterranean Food! I would eat it everyday if I could afford it. I also had water with this and some throughout the day, although I didn’t drink nearly as much water as I usually do.

I think I will make myself a big glass of water now and call it a night! Thanks for reading.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

Detox Beet Smoothie

The other day, out of nowhere, my boyfriend sent me a text message saying he wanted to get some beets because he heard they were good for you. He said he hadn’t been feeling the greatest lately and wanted something to kind of give his body a natural detox. He didn’t have to tell me twice. You see, it’s a very rare thing to have my boyfriend eat something healthy that I make for him, but to have him actually REQUEST a healthy thing. Whoa now! I decided to make him a smoothie packed with all kinds of delicious detoxifying foods, including beets. I knew it had to taste good though or else he wouldn’t drink it. Needless to say, the end result was pretty good and he drank it with very few complaints! Success!

Ingredients

• 1 raw beet, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• sunflower seeds
• handful of chopped kale
• 1 cup of Simply Apple Juice (or other 100% fruit juice)
• juice from 1 lemon

Directions

Throw everything into a blender. If your blender will not grind things down very finely you may want to consider cooking your beet a little beforehand. I have a decent blender, but I would have preferred the texture to be a little more smooth. It did not grind the raw beet up as well as I’d hoped. I prefer not to cook my beets only because you lose some of the nutrients, but if you can’t handle the texture it may be the best option. This would work great in a juicer also!

 

It may look like a murder scene, but all the mess is totally worth it. The beets will stain your hands (and anything else it comes in contact with) so you may want to wear gloves while handling them.

Some of the Benefits of these Ingredients:

Beets

• Unique phytonutrients in beets called betalains provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support in the body.
• Betalin pigment found in beets support detoxification by helping to neutralize toxins and make them water soluble so that they can be excreted out.
• Helps purify blood and liver
• May lower blood pressure
• Gives you energy and is a natural aphrodisiac

Sunflower Seeds

• anti-inflammatory
• excellent source of Vitamin E, a fat soluble antioxidant
• Good source of selenium, which is necessary to activate certain enzymes that function in the liver to detoxify harmful molecules

Apples

• antioxidant
• anti-inflammatory

Kale

• Glucosinolates found in kale form isothiocyanates which regulate detox activities in our cells

Blueberries

• One of the highest antioxidant capacities among all fruit

Lemon

• Good source of Vitamin C
• antioxidant and antibiotic

If you try this let me know what you think. My boyfriend said it tasted like a garden, but he continued to drink it, so I guess that wasn’t a bad thing. I think it tastes really good and will make you feel good as well.  Thanks for reading!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

What I Ate Wednesday, 6/18/14

It seems like it’s been so long since my last post, but I guess it hasn’t really. I ate some things today AND I also had the pleasure of finally seeing Lynda Lou after what seems like forever. We are busy ladies lately. I think we keep up with each other now mostly through the blog, which is a little sad considering we live only a couple miles away from each other. Our schedules just haven’t been matching up lately, but today they finally did! yay!

This is what I ate on this extremely HOT Wednesday…

Breakfast

Man, my picture taking skills really suck. I apologize. And yes, this is another awkward window sill picture aka my attempt at getting some natural light. My breakfast is pretty much the usual: gluten free oatmeal made with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, blueberries, banana, cinnamon, raw chopped walnuts, and a little bit of honey. I also had coffee (this kind from Caribou Coffee) with organic half and half. As you can see I am drinking coffee again, thank God! I have also added dairy back, but I think I am going to continue to limit my dairy intake for various reasons that I will talk about (if/when I ever post about my Elimination diet experience).

Lunch

For lunch I picked up the least healthy salad Chick fil A has, the Cobb salad. 😛 Oh yeah, I also had it with Ranch dressing. I know it’s bad (I hate referring to food as good/bad), but I obsessed over my food for a good 25 days, so you know what, I deserve this stupid “unhealthy” salad! I also ate a granny smith apple in between breakfast and lunch, but I did not get a picture of that. oops!

Snack

This is some delicious Turtle Cheesecake ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s! I told Lynda that when I finished with the Elimination diet and started to add dairy back, we HAD to go to Ben and Jerry’s. It was really her idea, because she was so shocked by the fact that I had never been before. So, today was my first ever trip to Ben and Jerry’s and it was very yummy. I swear I don’t live under a rock, although that might be kind of nice. 🙂

Dinner

Again, please excuse the terrible picture quality and poor lighting. This dinner was not really planned out ahead of time. Meal planning for this week has been kind of a fail. Anyway, this is baked Salmon (my go-to last minute dinner idea). I was craving something pasta-y so a quick google search lead me to this broccoli pasta side dish to go with the salmon. I thought it turned out really good. I used brown rice pasta instead of regular pasta, which by the way tastes exactly like whole wheat pasta to me. Not bad for a spur of the moment dinner.

As I’m typing this I am having a glass of lightly sweetened black iced tea. I usually crave something sweet after dinner, but I think maybe the ice cream from earlier has satisfied my sweet tooth for today at least. Or perhaps the tiny bit of sugar in my tea is enough? Who knows!

Thank you for reading! Hope you have a fantastic rest of your week!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

What I Ate Wednesday, 6/4/14

Better late than never, right? I’m sorry if you guys are sick of me! I totally failed at posting this yesterday. I got really sleepy last night and went to bed pretty early. Then I worked all day today, so I’m just now getting around to doing this.

My day started at around 6:30 am yesterday. I rolled out of bed (after hitting the snooze button one too many times), let Rose out to potty, and started making my usual breakfast.

Breakfast

Do I even need to say what it is? Okay, I will…Gluten Free Oatmeal made with almond milk, blueberries, walnuts, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of raw agave. I also had a cup of chai green tea. Really missing my coffee lately! It will be back in my life soon.

 

Snack

Several hours later, while at work, I ate a Coconut Pie Larabar. I have been obsessed with Larabar’s lately. They are delicious and most of them only have 3-5 ingredients and no added sugar. My favorite flavors are the coconut, cherry, and key lime.

Lunch

I don’t have a picture of my lunch, but it was leftovers from my dinner the night before which was a taco bowl type thingy. Check my last post for that recipe. It was my attempt at making a copycat burrito bowl from Chipotle. Very tasty!

Snack

After my workout yesterday I decided to make a smoothie. My smoothie was made with frozen blueberries, frozen peaches, spinach, coconut water, and a little 100% apple juice. Yum!

Also, if you guys are looking for a pretty inexpensive blender that works great, this basic Ninja Blender is awesome. It also came with a larger container. Lynda recently got the bigger version, that she talked about in her favorites post. This smaller version works great too though. It has chopped up everything I’ve ever put in it. I even used it to grind up some coffee beans one time.

Dinner

For dinner I made chicken and rice soup. The recipe can be found in my last post. It turned out great and I had plenty leftover for lunch today. Such a comforting and filling meal.

Some of the ingredients

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, that’s what I ate yesterday! Hope you guys are having a good week. Who’s ready for the weekend?! 🙂 Thanks for reading.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

What I Ate Wednesday, 4/9/14 (with special guest Rose)

Hey people! It’s Thursday morning and I am not quite awake yet, but I have my coffee so bear with me as my eyes slowly start to open. We have a special guest this Wednesday- my miniature schnauzer, Rose (aka Porky). 😀 Food is very important to the porky dog, so she is excited to share with you. So, here is what we ate this Wednesday…

Breakfast

Yes, I know! So boring. What can I say, I love my oatmeal. It’s made the same old way (organic 2% milk, tiny bit of organic honey, cinnamon, banana slices, and walnuts). My coffee is a breakfast blend from Caribou Coffee with some organic half and half.

Rose always starts her morning off with a milk bone. As soon as she comes in from her morning potty time she runs towards the pantry where the treats are kept. I usually already have the milk bone out waiting for her though. I mean, everyone should be rewarded for going potty. It’s super important. Rose says sorry about her bed hair. When Rose is done begging for my food and realizes I am not sharing, she accepts defeat and goes to eat her own food. She only eats dry food (shhh, don’t tell her how delicious wet food is). I get her food from Petsmart usually. It’s called Nutro Ultra for small breed dogs. She seems to love it and it doesn’t give her gas like the cheaper varieties we’ve tried. Rose says that was TMI. 😛

Snack

I didn’t have time for a snack before work, but Rose did! Right before leaving for work I gave her a Pork Chomp which is a pork skin stick thingy that is an alternative to rawhide. It takes her a while to eat these treats, so it keeps her occupied for a while when she’s home alone.

 

Lunch

My lunch was pretty pathetic because as usual I was rushing around trying not to be late and didn’t leave enough time to make an actual lunch. I did a pretty good workout in the morning before work, so I threw together a protein smoothie to drink on my way there. The drink contains an unmeasured amount of frozen blueberries, 1 scoop of whey protein powder, half of a banana, and about 1 cup of 2% organic milk. I just threw all of the ingredients in a blender and blended until smooth. Not much of a lunch, but better than nothing.

Snack

I brought some snacks with me because I knew that I was not going to make it all day with just the smoothie. I ate these almonds which are pumpkin flavored. I bought these around Thanksgiving last year and can’t seem to finish the container (the container they came in, not this little thing). They are pretty good though! I also brought a yummy organic granny smith apple to eat, but I forgot to get a picture of it.

 

Dinner

I didn’t get home until close to 8 o’clock so I was verrry hungry. I decided to make myself a Caesar salad to eat while the rest of the food was cooking. The salad consists of chopped organic romaine lettuce, croutons, shredded parmesan cheese, and Bolthouse Farms Caesar salad dressing.

For dinner I made spaghetti. But, not your typical spaghetti. Well, it’s typical for me, but you guys will probably find it weird. So, the recipe comes from my boyfriend’s mom. It is very simple and it doesn’t sound that great, but it actually really is. Okay, now don’t judge, but it is basically ground meat (beef or turkey or whatever), ketchup, chili powder and a little ground cayenne pepper if you like a little spice. Not the healthiest recipe or the most glamorous, but it’s fast and satisfying. I used half whole wheat spaghetti and half regular and I also always buy the ketchup without HFCS, so that’s something, right! 😛 I made mine with ground beef because Preston wouldn’t have eaten it any other way. Rose’s dinner consisted of a few pieces of romaine lettuce I dropped on the floor and another serving of her dog food.

Dessert/Snack

I didn’t have anything else after dinner, but Rose was apparently in the mood for ONE more treat. This time she had a Dentastix. She was pretty fed up with me at this point because I took too long taking the picture. She was doing all of the tricks she knows trying to get me to hurry it up. It was pretty hilarious to see her try to roll over on the stairs. Side note…she really needs a hair cut! She does have eyes, I swear.

Well, that about wraps it up! Hope you enjoyed seeing what Rose and I ate this Wednesday. Sorry this is going up so late. Have a great weekend! ❤

 

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

 

What I Ate Wednesday, 2/26/14

Hey Guys. Well, it didn’t snow on my WIAW this time, so I’m happy about that! I was off yesterday, so I had a nice day hanging out with my dog. haha I did manage to workout, walk Rose, and go grocery shopping so I did get something accomplished at least.

Here is what I ate on this lovely Wednesday.

Breakfast

My breakfast was oatmeal! Are you surprised? I did not have any bananas though, so I just used blueberries instead. It’s made with the usual organic 2% milk, cinnamon, a tiny bit of honey, and some chopped walnuts. I also had my usual coffee with organic cream. It looks like Hello Kitty is waving from behind the bowl 🙂

Lunch

By lunch time I still had not gone to the grocery store yet and I really didn’t have much of anything to make for lunch at home, so I decided to go out for food. This deliciousness is a Greek salad from a restaurant called Greek Fiesta. One thing about me…I love Greek/Mediterranean food! Seriously, if I could afford it I could easily eat at the local Greek/Mediterranean restaurants around here several times a week. If you live in this area, you should definitely check out Neomonde and Jasmin. Both are really delicious. I like Greek Fiesta also, but it is my least favorite out of those three. They do make an excellent Greek salad though, so that’s what I got. I also stopped by Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee because I was just feeling sluggish. I ordered it black and added my own cream to it when I got home. I think I made my morning coffee too weak or something.

Post-Workout Snack

After my workout I made myself a protein smoothie. The smoothie contains one scoop of vanilla whey protein, one cup of 2% organic milk, and one cup of frozen blueberries. I know, again with the blueberries. I have frozen ones and fresh ones! Allll the blueberries. yum! Immediately after drinking this I took Rose over to Lynda’s house and we walked our fur babies together.

Dinner

Dinner was some really simple boneless, skinless chicken baked in the oven. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and some of that Grill Mates Montreal chicken seasoning by McCormick. I also drizzled a little olive oil on top and baked it for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. The side dish is a broccoli cheese rice casserole that I actually made the night before, but had so much left over I decided to re-heat it up and eat it again. I really liked it. My boyfriend, however, said it tasted too broccoli-y. I mean, it is broccoli? haha Here is the recipe I followed. The only thing I did differently was I used half brown rice and half white rice. I also drank water with my dinner. I completely failed at drinking enough water yesterday. I usually aim for around 8 glasses, but I think I probably only drank a total of maybe 4. No good. After dinner I remembered that I had a white chocolate Reese’s cup left in the package from the night before (when I had a major chocolate craving randomly at around 8pm and had to make an emergency trip to the gas station). I also had some chocolate covered pretzels left too, so I ate the Reese’s cup and about 5 chocolate covered pretzels. I ate them before I thought about a picture. So sorry, it was too yummy and I just couldn’t be bothered with pictures.

So, that is everything I ate this Wednesday. There are several posts coming up within the next few days, so be sure to check back this weekend for more fun stuff! Have a good rest of the week.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley