Layered Up

I didn’t do it on purpose, but layers were a common theme in yesterday’s eats.

When I was cleaning out pantry the other day, I found an upopened box of oatmeal I forgot I’d purchased. I go in spells with oatmeal. I’ll eat it almost every day for breakfast, get burnt out, take a break from it for a while, then rediscover my love for its wholesome goodness. The last few months have been one of those vacations from oatmeal, but finding it made me go “Mmmmmm.”

I didn’t just want a boring bowl of oats with toppings. My solution? Oatmeal parfait!

It’s really just layers of blackberries, vanilla Oikos, and oatmeal with a peanut butter stir-in. Eating it this way made it feel almost more like dessert than breakfast. Food should be fun, right?

There really is coffee in the mug. It was not layered. It was just coffee. And it was delicious.

 

Lunch was a little something I like to call a garbage salad. Basically, I just scour my fridge for leftovers and make a salad out of them. It cuts down on the food waste and the creations tend to be pretty delicious. Plus, it’s fun to be creative! I feel like a mad scientist.

This one turned out to be a hybrid of buffalo chicken salad and taco salad.

~2 handfulls mixed greens
~3 oz. Italian dressing marinated chicken breast (leftover from meal swap), tossed in buffalo wing sauce
~chopped tomato & sliced green onions (leftover from Sunday’s supper salad bar)
~shredded mozzarella cheese
~3 Tbsp. reduced-fat sour cream, mixed with powdered ranch dressing mix

Very, very yum.

Dinner was not made in layers because there was no dinner. Monday nights are fasting nights for my husband and I. This is NOT weight loss related. It’s something we’re doing once a week as part of our Bible study. I’ve started to enjoy the weekly experience and am beginning to truly connect with the meaning behind the practice.

How do you make your food fun?

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Food Frustration

Yesterday was a frustrating day for a few reasons. Luckily, it ended on a great note.

I splurged all of my caffeine allowance for coffee day and ordered a large frozen skim latte with sugar free hazelnut syrup and a scoop of protein powder. I drank it pretty fast and definitely felt the buzz.

Breakfast was where things got frustrating. Well, it actually started on Tuesday and just continued into my Wednesday. For some reason, my coworkers all suddenly feel the need to critique my food and tell me how gross it is. Tuesday, it was tofu. No fewer than 6 people stopped me on my way from the microwave to my desk. The conversations all went something like this:

Coworker: What IS that?
Me: Tofu. Would you like to try a piece?
Coworker: Gross! Yuck! Disgusting! Nasty! Gag! How in the world can you eat that?
Me: Have you ever tried tofu?
Coworker: No! I can’t even imagine. It’s awful.
Me: *walking away*

Very few people in my office have any concept of healthy eating or exercise nor do they care about either. Most of them are female and older than me by at least 20 years or so. Several of them have health issues which could benefit greatly from a more healthy lifestyle.

Save three of four people, my coworkers aren’t the easiest to get along with and they tend to be extremely nosy. I try to be pleasant, respectful and cordial at all times. While I do often notice their unhealthy food choices, it’s none of my business and not for me to judge. I can’t imagine walking up to someone and telling them how disgusting the food they were about to eat looked. I just wish they would show me the same courtesy.

…which brings us to breakfast yesterday morning. I made up a packet of Quaker Simple Harvest Vanilla, Honey, Almond oatmeal. Then, I stirred in a couple handfuls of blueberries and some unsweetened coconut.

One coworker was pouring herself a cup of coffee while I was mixing this up in the work kitchen. She turned her nose up and asked, in a disgusted voice, “What IS that?” I tried not to sound annoyed and replied back simply. “It’s oatmeal.” “Oh,” she said. “That’s not what it LOOKS like.” She then huffed away, mumbling under her breath, and proceeded to tell other people how gross my food was. Of course, they all had to come over, check it out and share their opinions. My boss said it looked like “horse food.”

Vent over. Just needed to get that out there.

Around noon the IT people came down to swap out my hard drive. This left me computerless until about 3:00. While it was down I took a brisk 15 minute walk to soak up the sunshine, filed, wiped my desk down, wrote my to-do list and tidied up my office.

Somewhere in there I ate my lunch of leftover buffalo chicken, a Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge and lettuce all on a La Tortilla Factory EVOO Tomato & Basil Softwrap.

I also had a snack. Kashi TLC Roasted Vegetable crackers and another Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese wedge.

Shortly before I left, I had a juicy plum to hold me over until dinner.

Dinner was a rare weeknight meal out. I met a friend at Dakota’s Roadhouse. We were so wrapped up in conversation that I forgot to photograph my house salad with bacon tomato dressing and a baked potato with cheese, bacon & sour cream. We were all geared up for dessert, but they only had 3 choices and nothing looked good.

I got home a little before 9, watched Criminal Minds with my husband and headed to bed. That show always creeps me out and then I have trouble sleeping.

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Sicky McSickerson

My husband was so generous as to share his icky cold with me. Boo! I woke up with a sore throat, plugged up head and a little headache. The list of drugs I can take is pretty limited so it’s just been one extra-strength Tylenol every 4 hours to help with the headache.

I had a bowl of Cascadian Farm multigrain squares and organic skim milk for breakfast which is when I discovered that I couldn’t taste.

I got hungry again at my desk later in the morning and had a peach and a packet of Quaker Simple Harvest vanilla, honey & almond oatmeal. It was pretty good and kept me full for more than an hour. I don’t ever use as much water as the package called for. I like my pre-packaged oats a little thicker than when I make them myself.

I still miss my “real” oats. Making a big batch this weekend is going to be one of my priorities.

My salon is right across the street from my office which makes lunchtime appointments very convenient. The same lady has cut my hair since I was 4. She’s pretty much like family so appointments are part beautifying, part social hour. I went waaaaay too long between appointments this time and she ended up taking 2 inches off the length. It looks so much more polished and healthy. I feel like a new woman!

Afterwards I walked to the deli and took my lunch back to the office to eat at my desk. I ordered my usual there, the Loaded Perk salad, minus turkey because of my “no lunch meat unless it’s steaming hot” order from the doctor. I was uncomfortably full after I finished eating all of this:

Mid-afternoon is the roughest time of day. That’s when I just feel drained of all energy and start to get sleepy. The last few days I’ve been doing these office stretches from body+soul magazine and they seem to really help me refocus & regroup. Plus, they’re a good excuse to get up out of my desk chair and move around.

I thought I’d be full the rest of the day from my salad, but it wasn’t to be. About an hour before quittin’ time I snacked on some water crackers and a wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss cheese. I also had a plum which made it into my tummy before I could get my camera out.

Dinner was the definition of “convenience foods.” We had light cheese ravioli topped with meatballs (from frozen) and Muir Glen Organic pasta sauce. The variety we had was a sausage flavor, but I can’t find that one on their website. It tasted almost more like pizza sauce than pasta sauce. We both really liked it and would buy it again. We also had a repeat side dish of cottage cheese.

Sorry for the horrible picture. My camera battery was losing steam and the picture quality seems to suffer. No worries, though. It’s all charged and ready to go for today. Aren’t you excited?

What’s the most comforting (non-drug) thing to you when you’re sick?

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