CHECK IT OUT: Bidding for Erin’s Bake Sale & Auction has begun! All money raised is going to the fight against cancer through our mutual friend Beth’s Jimmy Fund Walk. There are sooo many yummy & fun items on the list so be sure to view the items and place your bids!

Every single time I see the word auction, I can’t help but sing (in my head) the John Michael Montgomery song, Sold! Country fans? Anyone? No?

Yesterday started off pretty sad for me. I got word that the OB I’ve been seeing for all things baby passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. It appears to have been a heart attack. I was so saddened by the news and my glum feelings matched the grey, cloudy, rainy weather outside. Dr. K was truly a remarkable man. Not only was he an MD, but he was also a practicing Catholic priest. As if that wasn’t enough, he did tons of charity work. He touched the lives of many and will be missed greatly.

I was in a hurry to pack lunch and snacks for yesterday which resulted in very unexciting eats. Breakfast (not pictured) was a toasted whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and Amish blueberry jam.

My morning snack was a Chocolate Brownie Clif Z bar. I picked up a few different flavors of these at the grocery last weekend. They’re designed more for kids than adults, but I like that they’re low in calories, still very filling and quite delicious. They taste more like a chewy cookie than a traditional bar and this one was VERY chocolaty.

Lunch was another English muffin topped with a Boca Chik’n patty, Laughing Cow Light Swiss and yellow mustard. I’ve been through 2 boxes of these Bocas in just a little over 2 weeks. Can we say addicted? On the side I had a 100 calorie bag of Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn. My grandma used to stock this in her house and it was a favorite snack of all us grandkids. Brings back some fun memories.

My afternoon snack was an entire package of blackberries. I brought it thinking I’d eat half and save the other half for another day. They were perfectly sweet and tasted so good that I just couldn’t stop myself.

Dinner was hijacked from my parents’ house. Mom made way too much goulash and said there was no way she and my dad could eat it all. She sent a generous container home with me which made dinner quick and easy at our house. Mom’s version is made with macaroni noodles, Classico Four Cheese pasta sauce, sliced mushrooms and grated Vermont cheddar cheese. We topped ours with grated Parmesan cheese from the Amish store and paired it with fresh-from-the-oven French bread

Salad on the side as the veggie.

Group photo!

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Weekend Recap

Sorry for the sporadic posting lately. It’s been a hectic past few days and my mind has been going in a million different directions. Unfortunately, none of those directions has involved my camera so it’s been spending more time at home than in my purse.

It’s time to spill the beans on my surprise now that we’ve shared with our parents and my sister-in-law. In case you haven’t figured it out, my husband and I are expecting our first child. We’re absolutely thrilled! My first doctor’s appointment is on Thursday so I should find out my due date then. Right now my best guess is early October.

On to the weekend eats!

For breakfast on Saturday I had a biscuit with spray butter and blueberry jam along with a glass of milk. Afterwards I headed out to the grocery.

The good grocery news: I found some Clif Iced Gingerbread bars! The bad grocery news: My store is no longer carrying plain Fage. Yes, the very same Fage I was so excited to find just weeks ago. I almost cried when the lady told me. It was a sad, sad day.

I was STARVING when I got home so I made some Annie’s Whole Wheat Shells & Cheese.

I also made a mini-parfait of organic vanilla low-fat yogurt, blueberries & Bear Naked Fit granola.

My appetite and my energy headed south for the rest of the day. I did a little laundry, cleaned out the refrigerator and took the recyclables to the bins in town. My husband was craving pizza for dinner so we ordered from the little local place. It smelled really good when he brought it in so I had two small squares. We spent the rest of the evening curled up on the couch watching TV with the dog. I enjoy lazy evenings like that every once in a while.

Sunday I slept in waaaay later than I had intended. Honestly, I probably would have slept longer if my growling stomach hadn’t woken me up. I wanted something quick and filling. The result is something I can see myself eating on a regular basis. It was just an organic banana (cut in half lengthwise) spread with peanut butter and sprinkled with granola. It tasted like dessert!

I took advantage of my morning energy to finish up laundry, scrub the kitchen and clean the floors. While I was doing that, my husband was busy cleaning all of the vehicles. My car looks so shiny and new!

Lunch was four Ling Ling’s vegetable dumplings drizzled with reduced-sodium soy sauce and dipped in Ben’s Sweet & Hot mustard. I bought these the first time because I had a coupon and they looked interesting. Now they’re a regular purchase. They’re frozen, but taste pretty fresh and flavorful after they’re cooked. The bag comes with a sauce packet, but I don’t care for it. The mustard is a local favorite.

I also had the rest of my Annie’s Mac & Cheese.

After lunch I cut up lettuce to make a big salad for the week. Then I headed back out to the front porch to enjoy the sunshine and my February issue of Martha Stewart Living. It’s amazing how quickly the temperature changed! Early last week it was in the low teens. Sunday it was almost 50! It makes me so ready for spring. In fact, when I took my break from reading we wandered around the yard and planned a few landscaping projects.

I had something new for snack, a CocoaVia bar.

*Product Review*
CocoaVia Crispy Chocolate Bar

Yum, yum, yum! This was the perfect cure for a chocolate craving. It’s dark chocolate (which I prefer) and has a really rich taste. My take on the texture was that it’s both chewy & crispy. The nutrition information was very reasonable. I can’t wait to try the other varieties I bought!

Dinner was kind of rushed and frazzled. I was getting everything together for our nachos when my in-laws pulled in for an unexpected visit. I put them on hold so we were both pretty hungry when they left. No picture, but I can assure you they were good.

After dinner I got clothes ready for the work week and made sure everything I needed was in my bag. I don’t typically watch awards shows, but I somehow got sucked into the Grammy’s this year. All of the performances I saw were really good. However, it seemed like their sound was a bit off and I could barely hear the people singing over the musicians. I was disappointed that I fell asleep before Sugarland performed. Love them!

Would you rather watch an awards show for acting or one for music?

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A Boring Two Days

I’m afraid that the food portion of my blog may become very, very random. Please don’t try to make sense of it. It’s not rational. According to my doctor, when I’m hungry I should listen to my body and give it what it needs. I’m trying to take that advice and get something in me when I’m hungry while still remaining as health-minded as possible.

Yesterday I forgot my camera (again) which was no huge loss because my eats basically consisted of cheese, more cheese, milk and green beans. Exciting, huh?

Today was a little bit better. I started my day with a peanut butter and blueberry jam (Amish store again) sandwich on a multigrain Arnold’s Sandwich Thin as soon as I got to work.

A little later I was hungry again so I snacked on Kashi TLC crackers and the last of my Cabot Reduced Fat Cheddar cheese. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture before I scarfed it down.

Lunch was another variety of Cedarlane wrap.

*Product Review*
Low Fat Beans, Rice & Cheese Style Burrito.

This was basically like a burrito with lots of beans, a little rice and some cheese. Very gooey, tasty and filling. It reminded me a lot of the Amy’s burritos I’ve had in the past. I could see bulking this up by topping it with lettuce, salsa, sour cream, olives and other veggies for a hearty dinner. For nutrition information or ingredients list, click here.

The only other thing I ate at work was a sugar-free vanilla pudding cup. My husband wasn’t hungry when I got home which was fine because I really wasn’t either. I did decide to eat something after I changed out of my work clothes and did some laundry. I had a little whole wheat pasta drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with some grated parmesan cheese.

In honor of my completely random menus the last two days, here’s a completely random question of the day:
What’s your favorite color?

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It’s in the Mail

I work in the finance department of a medium-sized city. Income tax season has already begun so everyone pitches in to help with everything that goes along with this time of year. I spent almost the entire day folding letters and stuffing envelopes. Riveting work, lemme tell ya.

Overall today was a pretty good day. For starters, it’s Friday. To make that even better, it’s payday. My checks are direct deposited so the only thing I see is a pay stub. I don’t physically touch my money, but I know it’s there.

Breakfast was probably my favorite oat concoction so far. I stirred in a dollop of peanut butter and then put a plop (a scientific unit of measure) of Amish store blackberry jam right on top. That ended up being stirred in as I went, but the picture looked prettier this way:

Lunch was something new for me. I love tofu, but I’ve never tried it as a sandwich. Why? I have no idea. It was very tasty and very filling. I put some reheated leftover Gliding Calm tofu, a slice of 2% American cheese and some dijon mustard on 2 slices of low-cal toast. This picture was before I added the 2nd piece of toast:

One of my coworkers brought in a box of Celestial Seasonings Gingerbread Spice tea to share and, being the tea lover that I am, I was happy to accept. Unfortunately, I think it’s just seasonal. I may have to check my grocery and snag some if it’s still on the shelves because I really liked this one. It was the perfect balance of ginger and spice. One bag made two pretty strong cups.

Snack was very refreshing. I had slices of green and yellow peppers dipped in a cup of Chi Chi’s medium salsa. I love these individual serving packs. So convenient for transporting to work.

Shortly after I left for work I got some news that made my day even better. I won Kelly’s giveaway over at Every Gym’s Nightmare for the book The World is Fat by Barry Popkin. I’ve heard great things about this book from several sources so I’m really excited to read it. Thanks Kelly!

No dinner picture tonight. My super sweet husband made spaghetti tonight. I started to take a picture, but my camera battery was out of juice. We were both really hungry so I didn’t want to wait for it to charge. Basically what you’re missing is a pile of whole wheat spaghetti noodles with sausage sauce and a some baby carrots with Annie’s Goddess dressing for dipping. Mmmmmm. I’ve been spoiled lately. I’ll be a bit out of sorts when he goes back to working 5 (or more) days a week. This is the off season for his company so they’re working four 10-hour days and getting Friday off. That will end as soon as the warmer weather kicks in. By summer, he’ll be working 80-90 hour weeks including LOTS of Saturdays. For now, I’ll just enjoy having him around more.

After dinner we digested and then hit the gym. I had a pretty good session of walking on the treadmill, upper body & lower body. I did all my strength training in front of the mirror today. I don’t do this every time I lift weights, but I do like to do it every once in a while as a way to check my form.

No big Friday night plans for our household. My husband is watching his favorite show, Friday Night Lights, and I’m catching up on blog reading. I hope you’re all having a fabulous Friday night!

What’s your busiest time of year? Why?

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I found Fage!

I’ve only been at this food blog thing for 4 days and already I’ve had a failure. Well, not a failure in the food. Just a failure in my camera preparedness. I promise to do better in the future.

First, my battery was completely dead this morning when I made my peanut butter & blackberry jam toast. Nothing exciting. Same thing as yesterday morning. Afterwards my husband and I headed into town to run errands. He dropped me off at the grocery while he went to get a hair cut. I had a pretty successful trip except that they were sold out of organic honeycrisp apples because there was a sale on them this week. Boo. On a happy note, I did save $55 with coupons. That made me happy, but my real victory of the day is that my grocery has started carrying Fage! They only had two containers left and I bought them both. This probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to many of you, but it is to me. The closest Whole Foods to me is almost 2 hours away and the closest Trader Joe’s is just over an hour. The natural & organic food section at our grocery is just one very small corner of the store and doesn’t carry a great variety of brands. It makes me sad.

My husband met me outside after I’d checked out and helped me unload the bags into the trunk. I was really hungry so I grabbed one of the Luna bars I’d just purchased. They were on sale this week and I was inspired to try a new variety, Cookies ‘n Cream Delight, after reading this post over at Eating Bender. I think this is now my favorite flavor ever from Luna. It really does taste like an Oreo cookie. I’m glad I bought two on this trip and I’ll be buying more later. The camera battery was still at home on charge so no picture.

After the grocery we came home and I did some cleaning and laundry. My parents and my mom’s friend drove down and we went out to late lunch/early dinner with them to celebrate my dad’s birthday. There’s a restaurant near us that he loves called the Old Canal Smokehouse. I truly think the only reason they visit is so they can eat there. lol

Camera faux pas #3: I forgot to take it to dinner! It’s really a shame because this restaurant is heavenly and I would have loved to share pictures of the food. Guess that just gives me an excuse to go back soon. I started with a side salad of mixed greens, cheese & the most delicious sun-dried tomato dressing in the whole world. I really wish they’d sell it by the bottle or give me the recipe. My mom and I split an entree of red snapper with foccacia salsa made of diced tomatoes, sliced black olives and some various peppers that made it a little spicy. On the side I had wild rice. I also had one of the baby cornbread loaves they’re famous for serving.

Not much else going tonight. We didn’t make definite plans because we weren’t sure what time my parents would be coming. There was a Wii rematch following yesterday’s annihilation. This time I dominated! Right now we’re relaxing and watching National Treasure 2 while I catch up on blog reading. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

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Farewell, My Lip Gloss

My day started off with a cup of coffee with the hubby. I fixed a light breakfast of peanut butter and blackberry jam on low-cal wheat toast. This is not any jam, ladies and gentlemen. This is amazing-mouth-water-crave-it-in-your-sleep jam made and sold at the Amish store just up the road from our house. The people there are extremely friendly and I could stand in there for hours watching them make pasta, pastries, jams, jellies & bread. They also sell a lot of unique and natural ingredients. That’s a great thing considering the closest TJ’s is an hour away and the closest Whole Foods is around an hour and a half. Anyway, here’s the picture:

The drive to work was a little slower than usual. Snow was still covering some of the roadways and I ended up in a huge line of traffic that formed behind a car doing 15 MPH. This was a bit unnecessary in my opinion. It wasn’t *that* bad. Oh well. I arrived safely and immediately got to work on a cup of hot tea. It was a variety I’d never tried before; Tazo Passion. I liked it a lot. Definitely something I’d have to be in the mood for though. It was really fruity and tart. It was a really pretty color, too.

Around 10 I started to get hungry again. I was still cold so I had another cup of tea (Tazo Lotus) and a container of Dannon Light ‘n’ Fit Peach yogurt. It was tasty. I wish I’d brought some fresh fruit to bulk it up because I could tell it wasn’t going to stick with me.

I pack my lunch from home almost every day, but today I was going out with my friend and former boss, Miste. We went to a place called Seasons Bistro & Grille which is right across the street from my office. Their menu changes 4 times a year to reflect what’s in season. They also use organic and local produce and meats whenever possible. Good thing it’s close because it was 2 degrees outside and we didn’t want to walk very far.

I started with a mixed greens salad (didn’t eat the onions because I don’t like them) tossed with a lemon vinaigrette. Yum!

For my entree I chose a veggie sandwich on wheat toast with herbed cream cheese spread. Oh, and a pickle spear! The veggies were cucumbers, roasted red peppers, greens & shredded carrots. This was really good although I wish the bread had been a little more hearty because the moisture from the veggies made it a little soggy. Still, very enjoyable.

We bundled back up (it was 12 degrees) and headed back to the office where I spent a productive afternoon…and commented on some of your blogs. Lunch kept me full until around 4 o’clock when I ate 1/2 of a green pepper, sliced and topped with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light cheese.

I was rushing across the street on the way to my car in order to beat the crosswalk sign. I heard a faint *click* sound, but waited until I was safely across to turn around and see what it was. When I did, I saw lipgloss laying in the middle of the road. I was NOT going to let it go without a fight and decided to wait until traffic had passed and I could safely retrieve it. That was not to be. A car ran right over the tube and smashed it. My heart sank. This was not just any lipgloss. It was my favorite. The perfect shade, the perfect consistency, the perfect applicator, EVERYTHING! Of course when I told my husband he was confused by my extreme reaction. “Just go buy another one,” he said. That’s the real problem, though. It was part of a set my mom gave me for Christmas and it’s only available in that set. She bought it from QVC at a special introductory price on the first day it was available. The price is now more than double what it was that day and I really don’t need 2 of the other things in that set. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that they release the stand-alone version sometime soon.

It was soo tempting to just take a hot bath and change into warm PJs, after my drive home. I didn’t, though. Instead, my husband, sister-in-law and I hit the gym. I did 10 minutes on the elliptical, then 3 sets of some upper and lower body with 10 minutes of brisk walking at an incline between each set. I was really glad I went. It helped me warm up and felt good to use my muscles.

Neither of us wanted a big dinner by the time we got home so it was more leftover turkey meatloaf muffins (it was a big batch) and some won ton soup.

I just finished cleaning up the kitchen so I’m going to head to bed. Good night!

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