What I Ate Wednesday, 12/11

So last week, Ashley disclaimed our What I Ate Wednesday posts, and how some of our food choices may or may not be the healthiest choices.  This is very true.  I work weird hours, which means sometimes, I’m unfortunately buying my food out at the mall food court, quickly picking up take out from a restaurant, or microwaving a frozen meal.  Don’t judge.  You know you occasionally do it, too!

I am also the type that eats small portions, and snacks many times throughout the day.  My schedule doesn’t always allow me to snack whenever I want though, so if you see snack after snack some Wednesdays, and no snacks on others, this is why.

Ok. So today, December 11^th.  Two weeks from Christmas, if you’re counting.  What I Ate on this Coldish Wednesday:

Breakfast

Let’s just say my breakfast was cinnamon themed.

First, I had a third of my leftover Cinnabon.  I can never finish one of those.  They are very sweet, very delicious, and way too much for me to consume at once.  Also, HOLY CALORIES!  Let’s just say that if you can finish an entire Cinnabon classic on your own in one sitting, don’t question how many calories you just consumed, because you’ll just want to eat another one to cure the depression you’ve just sunk into.  But really though, it’s nice to indulge yourself every now and then.  And they are oh, so delicious!  (If you’re curious now about the calorie content, just click here.  And I only ate a third, so you can divide that by three for me!)

My other breakfast item was a Fuji apple, diced, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  I love apples, but I get tired of just eating them plain all the time, so my current favorite way to eat them is sliced up in little pieces, with a ½ teaspoon of cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of them.  The cinnamon and sugar brings out the juiciness of the apple and kinda makes it taste like candy!

Last, I had a cup of coffee with extra half and half (organic).  Love me some coffee!!

Side note:  If you like my cute little plate, it’s from CB2.  Click here for more like it.

Lunch

I was home for lunch!  This happens once in a blue moon!  But really though, it happens probably once every 10 days.  Today, for lunch, I made myself a tuna salad sandwich.  I also ate some chips and guacamole.  My drink was hot tea.

My tuna salad was homemade and I placed it on honey whole wheat bread with a sliced lettuce leaf.  My homemade tuna salad recipe is below! As my side, I had a single portion of tableside chunky guacamole with tortilla chips.  My hot tea is a blend of Teavana teas.  I blended their English Breakfast black tea with their Roobios Tropica roobios tea.  I’m kind of addicted to teas.

I know everyone makes their tuna salad differently, so here is how I make mine! It’s super simple!

1 can Starkist chunk light tuna in water, drained

1 tbsp mayonnaise

¼ tsp garlic salt

1 tbsp sweet relish

Add all ingredients to a small bowl and mix well.  Bam!  Done. 

Dinner

I was at work during dinner, so I packed some quick things to eat.  My sad little dinner consisted of a short Starbucks coffee with extra cream (to get me through the rest of the night), a vanilla blueberry Kind bar, an apple blueberry pomegranate Gogo Squeez fast fruit, and a homemade chickpea salad.  This is one of my go to salads because its fresh, healthy, fills you up, and can be a stand-alone meal because of all the essential nutrients chickpeas provide.  Chickpea salads can contain many ingredients, however, this is how I make mine, which I think is so flavorful!

Lynda’s Chickpea Salad

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

1 Roma tomato, diced

¼ cup red onion, diced

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp basil

1 tsp parsley

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1tbsp balsamic vinegar

 Drain liquid from can of chickpeas.  Empty into a mixing bowl.  Dice roma tomato and red onion and add to mixing bowl.  Measure out and add all spices.  Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar; toss. 

So there you have it.  What Lynda ate on this fine Wednesday.  Feel free to leave questions or comments about any of the recipes provided!

A Nature Box Review

I’ll just go ahead and admit it.  I’m kinda, sorta, slightly addicted to subscription boxes.  Not to the point that my entire income supports said addiction, but there was a point in time that I was subscribed to four different boxes at once.  I know. Four.  There are some people out there that get a different box each day of the month, so really, four is nothing in comparison. However, I just couldn’t justify it.  Nature Box, however, is one of those lucky boxes in which I decided to subscribe.

Armed with a 50% discount on my first Nature Box, thanks to Pop Sugar Must Have, and my love for subscription boxes, I signed up right away to receive awesome healthy, wholesome snack foods right at my door!  And indeed they were!  The first box they curate for you, with a variety of snack foods to try, and they even included a bonus snack, which was exciting!  After your first box, you can choose what comes in your box from there on out, via their website. This is actually my third and most recent box.

What I received in my box this month:

Firecrackers:  Spicy rice crackers

These were good.  Nothing spectacular, but not bad either.  I will say that I have finished the entire bag, granted I received them over a week ago.  They were great to have in my purse as a snack at work.  I will say that there was nothing “spicy” about them.  I rarely enjoy spicy foods, in fact, I generally avoid it if it says spicy on the label, but these were not spicy at all.  The entire bag was only 105 calories, and it took me four different attempts to snack on these before I finished the bag off, which means only 26 calories per snacking!

Far East Rice Crackers

The next snack in my box was similar to the first snack.  These differed in that they contained dried peas, and the rice crackers were seasoned a bit differently as well as coming in multiple shapes.  This entire bag contained only 140 calories!  In comparison to the last snack, I did like these better as the different shapes seemed to have a different texture.

Lemon Tea Biscuits

I love tea, so I love these little biscuits I can snack on with my morning tea!  I received these in a previous box, and I liked them so much, I ordered them again!  However, I would like to note that the lemon flavor is quite subtle, so if you’re looking for something zesty, this is not it.

Granny Smith Apples

These are dried apple slices.  And that’s literally the only ingredient, but it’s an awesome twist on eating our daily serving of fruit.  The first one I ate was strange, but I quickly became addicted and have ordered them in every other box so far.

French Vanilla Almond Granola

Let me just say, nom.  That about sums this granola up.  Nomtastic.  Seriously though, hands down the best granola I’ve ever had.  And it’s an awesome addition to yogurt, or to just eat as a cereal in the morning.

That wraps it up for the items I received this week in my Nature Box.  If you’re interested in getting Nature Box for yourself or for a friend, here are some details!

It’s $19.99 a month for 5 snacks to be delivered to your door.  For $5.00 off your first Nature Box, use the code REFER25.  Nature Box contains NO high fructose corn syrup, NO partially hydrogenated oils, NO artificial sweeteners, NO artificial flavors, NO artificial colors, and 0g trans fats! 

Bows and Arrows, ex’s and oh’s,

Lynda

Disclaimer:  These are my own views, and in no way was I contacted by Nature Box to review their products.