What I Ate Wednesday, 7/16/14

When I woke up this morning it was very dark and gloomy out, but the sun eventually came out and it ended up being a really nice day. Rose was happy about that of course because that meant we got to go on the walkies! I definitely need to make a trip to the grocery store soon because my choices for food were pretty limited today. Here is what I ate though with what few things I happened to have here to make…

Breakfast

I didn’t make oatmeal like usual because I didn’t have any fruit to put in it. I don’t know, oatmeal is just not the same without some kind of fruit in it! Instead, I made myself a turkey sausage and egg sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin. I drank a cup of coffee with some organic half and half and also had lots of water.

Lunch

For lunch I made myself a very boring salad because again I didn’t have much to put in it. This is romaine lettuce with a little of that salad toppers stuff on top, shredded chicken, and Bolthouse Farms Caesar salad dressing. Lately I have been cooking 2-4 chicken breasts in the crock pot at the beginning of each week so that I can shred the chicken and use it for various things throughout the week. I have mostly been using it to add to my salads for some extra protein. So convenient and yummy. For my lunch I also toasted a slice of Ezekiel 7 Sprouted Grains bread with a little butter on it. The butter was totally unnecessary, but whatever.

Snack

After my pretty  intense leg workout I definitely needed some protein, so I made myself this protein shake. It’s just one scoop of  natural 100% Whey protein in the vanilla flavor mixed with 8 ounces of almond milk. I like this protein powder because it does not contain any artificial sweeteners and has only 3 grams of natural sugar. The taste is really nice too. It doesn’t have that strong (gross) protein-y taste.

Dinner

My dinner was not very healthy, but it’s one of my boyfriend’s favorites, so I make it occasionally. I have mentioned this spaghetti in a previous WIAW. I got the recipe from my boyfriend’s mom. Check out this post for the recipe. I also drank more water with my dinner.

Well, that’s everything I ate today! I hope you guys have a great rest of the week. The weekend will be here before you know it! Thanks for reading.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

What I Ate Wednesday, 5/21/14

Today was a pretty good day! It was my dog, Rose’s 3rd birthday and we got to have a doggy play date/walkie with Lynda and her dog, Gabi. I always make a huge deal out of Rose’s birthdays because well, she’s my baby and I’m thankful for every year I get to have with her. She brings so much happiness to my life, so why not spoil her a little bit extra one day out of the year! Anyway, moving on to what you’re here for…

Breakfast

My breakfast was the same as usual…only not the same at all. This is gluten-free oatmeal (Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Quick Rolled Oats) made with unsweetened almond milk, a chopped granny smith apple, some cinnamon, chopped walnuts, and a little bit of agave nectar. Delicious! The beverage next to the oatmeal is not in fact really weak coffee. It’s green tea (Yogi blueberry green tea to be exact) and although it is good, it’s not coffee :-/If you have followed any of my WIAW’s from the past you will know that this breakfast is different from what I normally have (the gluten free, almond milk, agave nectar, and green tea part). I am writing a post all about this very soon, but long story short…I am following an elimination diet for at least 21 days. This is not a diet to lose weight! This is strictly experimental and something I am doing for work purposes and just out of curiosity. Basically, I have eliminated gluten, dairy, sugar, red meat, COFFEE, processed food, and pretty much any food/drink that causes inflammation or is a common allergen. I promise I don’t hate myself. 🙂 Anyway, more on this later.

Lunch

*Cue excuses for not having a picture* I was really hungry and also in a hurry before going to work, so I scarfed down my food before even thinking about taking a picture. I’m sorry! I will describe it to you though, so use your imagination. I had what I’ll just call a sad mexican bowl leftover from dinner the night before. It was ground turkey with some cumin and other seasonings, black beans, and brown rice. I wanted some guacamole on it, but the guac I had made the day before was already going bad. Anyone know a trick to keep guacamole fresh for longer?? Anyway, that’s all I had. Not too impressive.

Snack

I went to Starbucks after work (I guess because I wanted to torture myself with the fact that I can’t have coffee??). I was just feeling a little tired and wanted something cold and refreshing, so I got pretty much the only thing I can have right now besides water- iced, unsweetened green tea. It was good…as good as green tea can be I guess.

When I got home I ate a handful of raw, unsalted nuts (I didn’t eat the pistachios) and drank the rest of my tea.

Dinner

My dinner was Pan-Roasted Chicken with Mushrooms and Rosemary, quinoa, and peas. I had water to drink. I was really impressed with how this chicken turned out. It was really delicious and I will definitely be making it again. Seriously, give it a try! I would even venture to say that this is one of the best chicken recipes I’ve ever made.

That wraps up everything I ate today. It is past my bedtime so I better go now! Thanks for reading.

Rose, ready to go on her birthday walk

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

What I Ate Wednesday, 2/12/14

I guess it is just going to snow on every one of my What I Ate Wednesday’s! I am just now posting this because a snowpocalypse has hit North Carolina and it knocked out my power for a good 10 hours. Everything would be fine if I would have taken the weather seriously and actually stocked up on food and toilet paper. Yeah, we’re getting dangerously low on toilet paper and I’m not brave enough to venture out. I have already heard enough honking and BOOMING from accidents happening to keep me inside until all of this ice and snow is completely gone! I do, however, have coffee so everything is okay! 😛

This is what I ate on Wednesday leading up to the crazy snow storm.

Breakfast

I decided to eat something different for breakfast! I made myself a turkey sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich. The cheese is muenster and the bread is whole grain. It was pretty tasty! I also had a banana and some delicious coffee with organic half and half. That cute little baby on my coffee mug is my nephew, Dylan. 🙂

Lunch

For lunch I made tuna salad and I ate it with Sundried Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins. I used to only eat tuna plain with just a little light mayonnaise, but Lynda got me hooked on adding sweet pickle relish to it. I just used one can of chunk light tuna in water (drained), some salt and pepper, about a tablespoon or less of light mayo (I never measure it), and maybe a teaspoon of relish. I am not a big fan of mayo. I never have been, but I don’t mind it in tuna for some reason. I have tried using other things in my tuna before though. A “healthier” alternative I have tried before is hummus.  It is a little different, but it’s actually really good. I always eat my tuna with crackers of some sort. I am hooked on these Sundried Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins. They are seriously SO good. If you like wheat thins you should give these a try.

Snack

I wanted a snack so I ate one of these Yoplait greek yogurts with some KIND granola. I did not eat the cat, but he insisted on being in the picture so I just went with it. So meet our cat, Jack! Also, don’t worry I don’t eat off of this table. The yogurt is vanilla flavored. Nutritionally I don’t think these are that bad. They do contain some artificial sweetener (sucralose) which I generally try to stay away from, but the ingredients list is not very long, so that’s a plus. I only eat these occasionally so I’m not really concerned about the artificial sweetener in them. I used to buy Chobani Greek yogurt pretty often, but most of them contain so much sugar, albeit natural sugar, but still sugar nonetheless. Greek yogurt is a good source of protein and provides a decent amount of calcium, but for me personally I prefer other options most of the time. Here are the Nutrition Facts for the Yoplait yogurt if you’re interested. I have to confess that I don’t know if I ever even looked at the nutrition facts on the KIND granola, so I can’t tell you much about it. I just know I love KIND bars, so when I saw KIND granola I snatched it up and put it in my belly. This is the Cinnamon Oat clusters with flax seeds kind. I sometimes sprinkle this on my oatmeal too. Yum!

Dinner

Dinner was some sort of chicken and rice that I cooked in the crock pot.  Because I did not take the impending snow storm seriously I didn’t bother going to the store to stock up on groceries. Everyone always makes fun of us Southerners for overreacting and running to the grocery store at the first sight of snow only for us to get like 2 inches and it’s gone by the next day. Well, I really wish I would have overreacted this time, or reacted period. By the time I realized going to store might be a good idea it was too late. Traffic was at a standstill all over Raleigh. Poor Lynda was trying to get home in it and it took her 3.5 hours to drive 8 miles! Anyway, the point is I found a recipe online for slow cooker chicken and rice because that is pretty much all I had on hand. I failed to take a picture of it, but it wasn’t pretty anyway, so you aren’t missing anything. It was good though and very easy. Here is the recipe I somewhat followed.

Later on I ate one cookie dough Oreo cookie. I only ate one because we only had one left in the entire package, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you look at it. I also had water with all of my meals, but I did not photograph that for some reason.

That is everything I ate yesterday. Hopefully this snow will clear out of here soon. I certainly hope it’s sunny and warmer for my next WIAW. Thanks for reading!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

Lynda’s Balsamic Chicken Recipe

So you have a giant bottle of balsamic vinegar in your pantry and you want to know how else to use it besides as a salad dressing?  Well, you’ve come to the right place, because I use balsamic vinegar in many of my own recipes, and I thought I’d go ahead and share one with you now!

For this dish in particular, I generally add a lot of liquid in order to have somewhat of a sauce to use on rice or pasta as my side dish.  But if you wish to skip out on the carbs, feel more than welcome to drain your diced tomatoes, to make a more hearty main course.

Ingredients

1 Whole Onion, diced

Chicken Breasts (I usually do between 2 and 4), thawed

1 Can Diced Tomatoes

2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

Approx. 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Oregano

1 teaspoon Rosemary

1 teaspoon Basil

1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

Garlic Salt

Let me just start off and say that when I cook, and make up my own recipes, I never measure anything.  So I went to a length to take measurements just for you guys, and if I forgot to measure out something, I’m sorry!

How to Prepare:

Step 1: Take thawed chicken breasts and cut into small pieces, equalling about 1 cubic inch and place into a mixing bowl.  Coat the chicken breasts with a decent amount of garlic salt, but don’t get too carried away (this is where I didn’t measure, so use your best judgment).  Set aside.

Step 2:  Take your onion and dice it up into small pieces, or big ones if you prefer, it’s really up to you.  I do small pieces because I think it makes the overall flavor better per bite.

Step 3:  In a Saute pan, on high heat, add your 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Once pan is hot enough, reduce to medium heat and add onions to pan.  Stir onions frequently until they begin to brown.  Once onions begin to brown, immediately add your diced chicken breasts  to pan and begin to cook.

Step 4: Continue moving onions and chicken around in pan and make sure you are cooking all sides of the chicken evenly.  Once chicken is no longer pink in any areas, move to Step 5.  This usually takes around 5 to 7 minutes.

Step 5:  Once chicken is no longer pink, add entire can of diced tomatoes to pan and stir.  If you don’t want a sauce, drain the can of diced tomatoes first.

Step 6:  Add 2/3 cup of balsamic vinegar to pan, along with the combination of all spices.  Stir.

Step 7: Reduce to medium-low heat and cover for approximately 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, allowing the chicken to soak in the tomato juice and balsamic vinegar.

Step 8 (Optional): If you wish to use a pasta or rice, I generally make it ahead of time, and then add it to the pan while I have it simmering on medium-low heat, to allow rice or pasta to absorb the sauce.

Step 9: Serve!

Hopefully, some of you can try this out, and let me know what you think!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda