Ultimate Umami Salmon

ULTIMATE UMAMI SALMON. YUMMMM.

Take a salmon fillet and, using a silicone brush, lightly brush on a thin layer of soy sauce then a thin layer of sesame oil on to the salmon. Then spread a thin layer of miso paste on to the fillet with a knife or the back of a spoon. Make a furikake crust by mixing some furikake with a tiny bit of canola oil in a bowl to just lightly moisten. Furikake is a Japanese rice seasoning that is usually made up of seaweed and sesame seeds. Sometimes it will have some other dehydrated things to add flavor (I think the kind I used also had some tiny pieces of dehydrated carrot, sweet potato, and a few other things). Basically... Furikake is AWESOME. Anyways... continuing.... take your furikake "crust" and press in to the to of the salmon then bake as you would with any normal salmon fillet! So easy and quick, but soooo yummy.

Carne Asada and Grilled Veggies

This is from a little while ago, but I thought I would post.... I've actually cut out all meat (except for fish) since then so this is definitely an old post...

I made some grilled carne asada and veggies a few weekends ago to take advantage of hanging outside in the last of San Diego's warm weather. YES, I know I'm a wimp when it comes to weather... It's 62 degrees F outside right now and I'm dying... The last couple mornings have been THE WORST getting out of bed with my heated blanket or out of the nice hot shower... Mornings have been about mid-50s... Don't hate me... I've lived in coastal San Diego most of my life and don't handle anything outside of the range of 73-78 degrees very well... My house doesn't have central AC or heater (well we have a heater but it doesn't really work and we've never really cared) because we rarely ever need it... Until this year.. OH MAN this year sucked for weather in San Diego...

High is FIFTY EIGHT for Thursday and Friday??!? Oh man.... How am I going to handle this...

ANYWAYS.... getting off topic... I chose flank steak for my carne asada because it's a nice healthy cut of beef that handles marinades very well. Carne asada marinade has a lot of acid, so it needs a cut of meat that can hold up to it without getting too mushy. Also flank steak just has great flavor and can have a great texture also if it's marinated well. Flank steak and carne asada marinade are perfect for each other!

I like following Tyler Florence's carne asada recipe with my own adaptions: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/tacos-carne-asada-recipe/index.html

Here is his Mojo recipe (carne asada marinade) with my own twist:

• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 orange, juiced
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• zest from 2 limes
• zest from 1 orange
• chili powder
• cumin
• chili flakes

"In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together. Toss thoroughly. Let it sit for 15 minutes hour to allow the flavors to marry."

• Add chili powder, cumin, chili flakes, salt and pepper to suit your own taste preferences. Feel free to taste the marinade to adjust seasonings as long as it hasn't touched any raw meat yet! I usually add about a nice big tablespoon of chili powder, a few teaspoons of cumin, and a pinch of chili flakes just because I love cumin and spice.

Then marinate your flank steak with this!! Put the steak and marinade in a large ziploc bag to marinate in the fridge for 1-8 hours - turn bag over and massage in to meat once or twice during it's marinating time.

Marinating flank steak!

"Grill (or broil) the steak for 7 to 10 minutes per side, turning once, until medium-rare." I like to baste mine with the marinade as I'm grilling. This way I can spoon some of that yummy garlic, zest, jalapeno, and cilantro chunks on to the steak and let it form a nice little flavorful crust. "Remove the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes to allow the juices to settle. Thinly slice the steak across the grain on a diagonal."

No matter how good this looks, don't touch it until you've given it time to rest so you don't lose all those delicious juices!

Now time for the veggies!! I pretty much took a bunch of veggies I happened to already have at home, seasoned them up, then grilled them.

Delicious healthy veggies

I had sliced white onions, green onions, broccoli, red bell pepper, and jicama. I squeezed some lime juice over all of them, sprinkled some cumin, chili powder, lemon peper, salt, and black pepper, then drizzled everything with a little olive oil.

Raw veggies seasoned up!

For grilling veggies (or other small things), it's nice to use a grill pan, so that your food is able to drain any liquids that come out in the cooking process and can get a nice char without losing your food to the barbeque by them falling through the wide grill grates... so sad when that happens!

I really like this grill pan because it has three different textures: one section with holes, so that liquid can drain through and everything can get a nice char from the direct heat by the flame; a crimped section if you still want to drain the juices, but don't want direct heat from the flame; and a completely flat section if you want to keep the moisture or for tiny things (like finely chopped garlic or onion).

I like to took advantage of the different grill sections to accommodate for different cooking times for each vegetable. First I cooked the broccoli over the section with the holes, then moved them over to the half with no holes to stay warm as I cooked the jicama. Then moved the jicama over with the broccoli and continued in the same pattern with white onions, bell pepper, and green onions.

Finished grilled veggies all mixed together

Final plated dish!

Plate the sliced carne asada and grilled veggies and finish with some fresh chopped cilantro and a final squeeze of lime juice. I had mine with Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere - one of my fav wines that is easy to find anywhere and isn't too expensive ($8 per bottle). This wine has a nice body and some spice that complements spicy steak very well! I also like that it has notes of chocolate and lot of berries in it, so when I don't finish the bottle with my dinner, it still goes well with some dark chocolate for dessert!

Today's lunch

Mostly leftovers from a Christmas party this weekend...

- a little bit of leftover tempeh that was marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and lots of curry powder then grilled
- a GIANT tupperware full of raw veggies (jicama, cucumber, bell peppers, and celery) and a little bit of Trader Joe's Spinach Kale Greek Yogurt Dip
- part-skim mozzarella string cheese

Last night's quick, yummy, and healthy (but ugly) dinner

Monday nights are one of my crazy nights... I'll usually leave work around 6, get home around 6:30 or 6:40, then have and about an hour to cook a quick dinner, eat, change my clothes,  and pack up stuff for the night and the next day before I have to leave for Taiko practice downtown for the night (my boyfriend lives close by my taiko practice, so I pretty much always stay with him Monday nights and need to pack up clothes for work the next day).

I like to always have some quick, partially prepared healthy foods on hand for nights like this (very often...).

For last night's random quick dinner, I needed a really filling meal with lots of protein and complex carbs to get me through the next few hours of working out at taiko practice. I was also pretty hungry from lunch because I only had miso soup and a salad that wasn't very big with vinaigrette and no protein for lunch. So when I got home, I quickly microwaved a whole sweet potato and topped it with a little bit of Smart Balance Light with Flaxseed, salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. I had that with a veggie burger I pulled out of the freezer and cooked (I found some veggie burgers that were made of veggies and all whole grains!) topped with whole grain mustard, vegetarian bacon, and an over-easy egg. Dinner completely done in less than 10 minutes!

Because veggies are super important for you, I snacked on a leftover veggie plate I put together for a party this weekend with some Trader Joe's Spinach Kale Greek Yogurt Dip while I was cooking. I didn't eat this whole plate though... haha!

Souplantation Express

LOVE that one of the few Souplantation Express that exist is right by my office! When I don't have time to pack my lunch, it's perfect for staying healthy on a busy day at work because I can place my order online in advance. When it's ready, I just head over there, walk to the front of the line, pay, then bring my lunch back to the office to eat there if it's busy and I need to work through my lunch. It's only $6 which is a pretty good price for buying lunch considering the size of the salad (it's huge) and all the ingredients seem pretty fresh (don't taste like they've been sitting out for a while).

Today I had a salad made up of spinach, spring baby lettuce mix, celery, mushrooms, cucumber, cabbage, bell pepper, black olives, hard boiled eggs (for some protein and fat), edamame (for some protein), pepperoncinis, tofu (for protein), sunflower seeds (for healthy fat), avocado (for healthy fat), red onions, broccoli, red chili flakes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. When I'm super hungry or if I know I won't have time to eat a real dinner later that evening (my situation today), I try to make sure I add a good amount of ingredients rich in protein and healthy fats to keep me full longer.

Today was also the first day that I saw they had their Asian ginger broth as one of the options for a soup - I've only seen this in the actual Souplantation restaurants before. It's only 50 calories for a cup of broth and tastes sooooo yummy, so I also grabbed a cup of that to go with my salad. I added tofu, green onions, and red chili flakes to the broth and it was sooo yummy. And I'm not even done with my food, but I'm super full right now! :)

Simple Late-Night Dessert

Here's a sweet, yummy dessert I made a little while ago.

This is probably about 1/2 or 3/4 of a cup of nonfat, plain yogurt, about 1/8 of a teaspoon each of vanilla extract and almond extract, stevia to taste, and a few blackberries. Really yummy and I LOVE the flavor of sweet almonds with berries MMMMMMMM.

Emergency lunch

I always have ridiculously busy weeknights and a lot of nights I'll get home late without getting a chance to prepare lunch for the next day. And I'll also wake up too late to prepare it. So I try to always leave healthy snacks and emergency lunch supplies in my office desk and fridge to prevent myself from eating out for lunch or even prevent myself from starving all day and end up binge eating a bunch of bad food at night... I usually try to make sure I leave some nuts, Trader Joe's instant miso soup, string cheese, yogurt, spinach, and salad dressing in my desk or fridge at work. My company also started providing healthy snacks for the office - usually fruit and granola bars. I try to always opt for the fruit since the granola bars have a lot of added sugar. I also like to keep a good stash of really yummy teas that I bring in from home (to have in addition to the teas my company provides for the office) because sometimes I'm not really hungry but I just have a craving to taste something yummy in my mouth - tea TOTALLY satisfies that craving for me. Btw, current tea obsession = Chocolate Yerba Mate, rose petal tea, and Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile mmmmmmmmm.

Anyways.... today was one of those days where I didn't have time to pack a lunch. Luckily, I have all my snacks and emergency lunch supplies in the office!! As I was leaving the house, I looked through my fridge and found a boiled egg to eat as my mid-morning snack and part of some leftover avocado to add to my salad. I also found an almost empty container of fat-free cottage cheese, so I added a spoonful of sugar-free jam to the container so I can have a protein-rich afternoon snack that will satisfy my sweet craving. I grabbed all of these quickly and ran out the door this morning.

Here is what I threw together for lunch!

Salad made of spinach (stored in my fridge at work), avocado (grabbed from home this morning), Trader Joe's hummus salad dressing (stored in my fridge at work), and some red chili flakes (I found one of those little packets of chili flakes you get with pizza that someone in my office had saved). I also had a reduced fat cheddar cheese stick (stored in my fridge at work) and some Trader Joe's instant miso soup (stored in my desk at work)

Lunch: Salmon-Salad Sandwich

Here's a quick, simple lunch I put together early this morning before work:

I made a salmon-salad (like chicken-salad but salmon instead) by mixing canned salmon with a little bit of reduced-fat cream cheese, reduced-fat olive oil mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon pepper, and a little salt. I made an open-faced salmon-salad sandwich by topping one slice of Trader Joe's European Style Whole Grain Bread (the kind that's super thinly sliced and dense and all whole grains, seeds, and nuts that you can actually see... SUPER nutritious) with arugula, some avocado, and my salmon-salad! Yummy!!

Instagram: @margomangooo

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"Enjoying my lunch outside today and loving the weather! TJ's chili lime chicken burger (patty only) w avocado; arugula w lemon and evoo; TJ's spinach kale Greek yogurt dip w mini heirloom tomatoes and TJ's whole wheat lavash chips; and Yogi seven berry antioxidant herbal iced tea"

Lunch!

Salmon baked with lemon, dill, and capers; roasted brussel sprouts; baby lettuce mix with red wine vinegar and olive oil; and celery with spinach and kale greek yogurt dip

Failed zucchini bread turned zucchini biscotti!

My coworker brought in more giant zucchini!! I wanted to make a whole-wheat sugar-free zucchini bread, but kind of messed them up in multiple ways...:

1. I forgot to mix the grated zucchini into the liquids before adding in the dry ingredients. I was thinking "why is the batter all crumbly and weird?" then I realized it was because I didn't add the zucchini... I mixed it in  to the batter after so the zucchini wasn't well incorporated...
2. The bread pan I used was too big for the amount I had made. I could've switched to another smaller bread pan, but I really wanted to use this silicone bread pan that I bought a while ago and never used. I just figured I would cook it less and settle for a kind of flat, weird-shaped zucchini bread.
3. I fell asleep with the bread in the oven.... Yeah, I know... BAD. Luckily the bread (or my house) didn't burn, but it was just extremely overcooked and hard.

The next morning, I sliced them in to strips and toasted them to turn them into biscotti! Actually turned out pretty good! Tasted really yummy with the Celestial Seasonings Sugar Plum Spice tea (a special holiday edition tea that I found I still had in my pantry)!

Awesome Beach Weekend (and yummy gazpacho)!

The weather in San Diego this weekend was ridiculous.... San Diego's real summer is usually  mid-August through October anyways, but this past weekend was BAD. 105 degrees even along the coast... WHICH NEVER HAPPENS IN SAN DIEGO. When you live and have grown up in San Diego in a neighborhood that is only 2 miles from the ocean, the only bearable temperatures are from about 73-80 degrees. Also, Carlsbad (the city I work in which is also along the coast) reached record high temperatures this past weekend.

Of course, when you live so close to the beach and you can't stand to do anything at home but sit and sleep in front of a fan (I've never lived in a house with AC because we've never needed it), so of course we must spend our weekend at the beach.

My regular beach spot is Del Mar Beach because it's the closest to my house and always so clean and pretty, but I knew this weekend was going to be crazy crowded there.... Luckily, I learned of a lesser known beach just a little north of Dog Beach in Del Mar. It has a little hidden away parking lot (that still had lots of empty spots!) and there weren't that many people over there either! And the beach was warm but still had a pretty nice breeze. It was PERFECT.

Not too many people!

Look what I found! Part of a lobster tail shell

We set up a mat and some umbrellas and spent our day boogie boarding, walking, reading, and napping. We packed a couple giant frozen water bottles, sliced celery and cucumbers, lemon cilantro hummus, baba ghanouj, nuts, and fruits. I also made a cucumber mint gazpacho the night before that we brought to the beach. It was so refreshing and perfect for the hot day! I made it by basically blending up some peeled cucumbers, plain nonfat yogurt, jalapeno, red onion, mint, olive oil, and a little water to thin it out to the consistency I wanted. I let it refrigerate overnight for the flavors to come together, threw it in the freezer for an hour before we left for the beach, and topped each of our cups of gazpacho with grape tomatoes and mint. Definitely making this sometime again on another hot day.

Adventures later that night included Louisiana-style boiled shellfish at Crab Hut (I was craving crawfish from finding that lobster tail shell haha) and a cigar lounge with my boyfriend. New discovery: cigar lounges are actually kind of fun. Even better discovery: a cigar, coffee, and dark chocolate taste AMAZING together.

I got a short little baby cigar haha. My boyfriend laughed at me because I'm pretty short and the cigar is called Short Story...

I felt bad for my dog because she was locked up in the hot house by herself while we were at the beach - we did leave the windows open and fans on for her though - so we took her to dog beach the next day :)

Then we took her to lunch at Station Sushi in Solana Beach after. Dogs are welcome on the patio!

Zoey likes going out to eat too!

HUGE protein roll - no rice! MMMMM

Emergency planning for unexpected sweet cravings

Emergency sugar-free sweets for when I have serious cravings for sweets!

- sugar-free jello

- sugar-free fat-free vanilla instant coffee mix

- low carb chocolates (a peppermint pattie one and an English toffee one)

- chocolate Yerba mate tea (not exactly a sweet but I do love this stuff and it does have a hint of chocolate which will help when I have chocolate cravings)

- and a bunch of carbmaster yogurts

Note: I didn't buy these just to have on hand and eat a bunch of them regularly, but I got them just to have when I get cravings for sweets - which I've been having a lot of lately. If I have sugar-free sweets available then I'm less likely to give in to sweets that are more unhealthy.

We were really bad since we got back from vacation 3 months ago... Overall we were sticking with phase 2 but we would just go out a lot to eat (then of course we just get whatever sounds good) and drinking too. I started getting really bad cravings bc I remembered how amazing everything tasted! So we're jumping back into phase 1! We're a week in now, so hopefully I'll get over my cravings soon.

Light but filling breakfast

Trader Joe's Plain Nonfat Yogurt with Fiber mixed with Trader Joe's Blueberry Flaxseed and Splenda then topped with fresh blueberries. You get a good amount of protein from the yogurt and fiber from both the flaxseed and yogurt. I like buying plain yogurt and adding my own sweetener (rather than buying pre-flavored yogurts), so I know there isn't a bunch of added refined sugar in there - just natural sugars from fresh fruit and splenda to add a little extra sweetness to the yogurt. This is a very common breakfast for me that is quick and doesn't feel heavy, but still holds me over until lunch!

"Thai-style" stir-fry

This is one my favorite things to make (and a favorite of my mom and my boyfriend also). I'm going to say it's a "Thai-style" stir-fry (with quotation marks) because it's really not Thai... Just something I kind of made up... But that flavors do taste very Thai! I think mostly the combination of chilis, mint, and oyster/fish sauce is what reminds me of Thai food. Overall, I think this is a pretty healthy meal - especially if you have it with some brown rice or any other rice with its husks (I had red rice) - but be careful to not over-do it with the oyster sauce, fish sauce, and sriracha! All of those have sugar in them!! So let's call this recipe Phase 3 South Beach diet - it doesn't have a LOT of sugar, but it's definitely there.

Putting this guy to work! Haha...

"Thai-style" Stir-Fry

Ingredients

-          Canola oil

-          Garlic, chopped

-          Ginger, chopped

-          Thai chilis, chopped

-          Tofu, cubed and dried (drain water then wrap in paper towels and place a heavy pan on top to squeeze out excess water)

-          Bell peppers, sliced

-          Onions, sliced

-          Ground turkey

-          Oyster sauce

-          Thai fish sauce

-          Sriracha

-          Fresh mint, roughly chopped

-          Green onion, chopped

Directions

1. I like to use two pans to cook everything separately then throw it all together at the end. Heat up a large saucepan at medium heat with some canola oil and lightly fry garlic and ginger to flavor the oil. When the garlic looks a little toasty (but not browned yet) add the thai chilis and continue to cook until the garlic is just starting to lightly brown. Remove garlic, ginger, and chilis from pan and set aside. Try to leave most of the oil in the pan.

2. Add tofu to the same pan and let them brown. Shake the pan around once in a while to make sure the tofu browns on all sides and doesn’t stick to the pan.

3. While browning the tofu, heat up a large wok to high heat. Add a little bit of canola oil and quickly sautee bell peppers and onions. Don’t cook them so long that they get soft – just enough to lightly cook them and keep a little bit of their crunchy texture. Remove bell peppers and onions from heat and try to leave the oil in the pan.

4. Turn down heat on wok to medium-high and add the garlic, ginger, and chilis that have been set aside and the ground turkey. Cook until the turkey is mostly cooked through then drain the extra liquid/fat that cooks out. Continue to cook until turkey is browned.

5. Check on the tofu. When all sides of the tofu are golden, add enough oyster sauce to lightly coat all of the tofu. Let the tofu continue to cook for another minute or two, so it soaks up the oyster sauce.

6. When turkey is browned and tofu is done, turn down the heat on the wok to low and add all set aside ingredients (tofu, bell peppers, and onions) to the wok with the turkey. Mix everything together and add a little more oyster sauce, a few dashes of fish sauce, and sriracha (if you want it a little spicier). Salt, if needed - although the oyster sauce and fish sauce are already pretty salty so make sure to taste before salting. Mix well to make sure everything is coated in the seasonings.

7. Turn off heat and add mint and green onions just before serving. Make sure to not let the mint and green onions sit in the pan to cook, so they stay fresh!

Our stir-fry with healthy red rice and decorative sriracha dots (the boyfriend's idea... haha)

Egg with Kale

One of my favorite things to eat for breakfast is over easy or sunny-side up eggs and popping the yolk over some rice (filipino style!) or soaking it up with lots of yummy soft bread - both rice and bread are off limits for phase 1.... When I first started dieting, I discovered a new way to eat one of my comfort foods - egg with the yolk popped over sauteed kale!

I like using kale over other leafy greens like spinach or chard because it still holds some nice texture when it's cooked. Popped yolk on soft sauteed spinach or chard just sounds like it would be slimy and less appetizing... I like to sautee the kale with some garlic and top the egg with a little fresh oregano from my yard. I also, like to use just one whole egg with an extra egg white to add more protein and make it more filling without the extra cholesterol you would get from an extra yolk. That's why the egg in the photo looks a little strange... hahaha... the white is really big compared to the yolk because there is an extra egg white cooked with it!

Another lunch!

This was my lunch the day after my last post... Hahaa. Another wrap (exactly the same as the day before), mini heirloom tomatoes with hummus, mixed lettuce greens with blueberries and trader joes light champagne vinaigrette, and grapes. Yum!

Lunch! And products I'm currently obsessed with

This was my lunch the other day! I was STUFFED and it was only 430 calories! It was 19g of fat (only 1 gram of saturated fat from the avocado), 25g of protein, 49g of carbs, 17gs of fiber (NICE!), and only 4g of sugar. I've decided I need to start eating bigger lunches (but still healthy) to hold me over until well after I leave work. This way I can work out right after work without feeling hungry and tired. I still give myself an afternoon snack, but eating a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner definitely makes this easier for me.

I made myself a wrap from FlatOut light flatbread, Bitchin' Sauce, a little bit of turkey breast, avocado, red bell pepper, and some mixed lettuce greens. SO GOOD! I made another one exactly the same for lunch the next day too... haha 

I also made a massaged kale salad. "Massaging" kale with a little acid (citrus or vinegar) and salt breaks up a lot of the toughness in raw kale, making it more enjoyable to eat. I made my kale salad with red bell pepper, cilantro, green onion, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Then I added some snap peas and hummus and some Chip'ins to my little lunchbox and voila! My awesome lunch!! :)

A lot of products I used in this lunch I am currently obsessing over:

Bento Box Lunch Box

I saw this at Fresh & Easy the other day and I HAD to get it. It has little handles (like a lunchbox) that can fold down to flatten out with the box and fit nicely in the fridge or other tight spaces.

It separates in to 2 levels - each with it's own lid. One lid has a little section with attached utensils! The bottom compartment is one big section and the top compartment is divided in to two smaller sections (see very first picture). And everything is microwave and dishwasher safe!

FlatOut Light Flatbread

http://www.flatoutbread.com/

I found these at Sprout's the other day when I was looking for a whole wheat flatbread. I was kind of disappointed by a lot of them because they were higher calorie than I wanted and had more sugar and fat than I wanted... Then I saw just one pack of FlatOut Light Flatbread kind of hidden in the back! Each flatbread is only 90 calories and is made with low fat, whole grains, and no sugar!

Chip'ins Jalapeno Ranch

http://www.popcornindiana.com/product_type/chip%27ins

These are popcorn chips!  They're whole grain and gluten free and because they're air popped, they're fairly low calorie. I'll usually only eat about half the serving size with something else I'm eating. These aren't actually South Beach Diet Safe because corn has a high glycemic index, but if I'm craving some chips these are still decent and better than most other chips! And the Jalapeno Ranch flavor is yummmmmm. I don't normally eat a lot of chips, but my boyfriend LOVES chips... I originally bought these for him and now I love them :P

Bitchin' Sauce

http://bitchinsauce.com/Bitchin_Sauce/Bitchin_Sauce_Home.html

This actually isn't something new I discovered, I've been obsessed with it for a while... but it's definitely "bitchin'!" It's vegan, gluten-free, and (if I remember correctly) raw. It's made from almonds, grapeseed oil, nutritional yeast, garlic, and spices. It's just a creamy, savory sauce that tastes AWESOME! The website lists their servings size as 2 tablespoons, but I never use more than a tablespoon on anything I spread it on - 2 tablespoons seems like way too much for anything - so split all the nutrition info in half for a more realistic servings size. These can only be found in farmer's markets in San Diego right now. It looks like they are working on a method of ordering online, but don't have anything yet. I like the original and chipotle flavors the best. It also comes in a pesto flavor and they have a limited time "heat" flavor right now that I haven't tried yet.

Trader Joe's Grounded Flaxseed with Blueberries

And of course there has to be something from Trader Joe's on here! I first tried this a long time ago when they were sampling it at Trader Joe's when it first came out. I don't know why I never bought it until recently. I've used this stuff on the majority of my breakfasts lately: on top of plain oatmeal, non-fat cottage cheese, or vanilla yogurt (I always buy plain, non-fat yogurt then flavor it myself with vanilla and splenda so there is less calories than buying the pre-flavored yogurts with sugar). It adds a really nutty and a little bit fruity flavor to whatever you top it on. And if you don't mix it in completely, it adds a little bit of crunch too! Like Bitchin' Sauce, the back of this package says the serving size is 2 tbsp, but I think that is way too much and never use more than a tablespoon. So I would half the nutrition info on the back to more like 45 calories per serving.

Workout at work!

I recently got the idea from my coworker to do quick work-time workouts! It's probably one of the best workout decisions I've ever made. I used to rarely ever take my two 15 min breaks the California law is required to give us - only when I was so tired and my brain couldn't function anymore I would step outside for 10 minutes and take a slow walk to clear my head.

My coworker brought up that he takes his 15 minute breaks even if he's not tired and just walks anyways. He sets his alarm for 7 minutes, starts walking, then when his alarm rings, he heads back to the office. If you take both of those breaks, that's already 30 minutes of walking! And even better if you speed walk! If you add in 30 minutes at lunch, that's a WHOLE HOUR! I didn't realize how much it adds up until I heard that! So I started doing it too and I feel awesome :) I'm much more energized, work more efficiently when I get back to the office, plus get a good amount of extra exercise for the day.

A lot of times I don't make it out to walk all three times every day, but I try. Most of the time I'll get only two walks in, but it still adds up!

Today I made the decision to add a few simple strength exercises in to my lunch time walk. So instead of setting my alarm for 15 minute to walk out during lunch, I only set it for 10 minutes then I stop to do some exercises before walking the 10 minutes back. I didn't want to get too crazy because I don't want to show up at work super sweaty, so today I did a 1 minute plank, 30 second side-planks on each side, and 10 push-ups. Then I speed-walked back to my office and ran up the three stories worth of stairs to my office two steps at a time, so that my heart rate was still up when I sat back at my desk. I only spent a little over 20 minutes out there, so I still have time to eat lunch at my desk and write a little post right now :P

I didn't want to do anything too crazy for strength today, but I think tomorrow I will have to add more. It was a little too easy. Maybe I'll repeat everything another time and add some tricep strengthening also - my triceps are WEEEAK.

On my way walking back to the office, I saw a food truck along the street called Epic Eatz. It's supposed to be San Diego Surf style foods. I saw they had halibut ceviche and ahi poki on their menu.... MMMMMM I think I need to try that when they are back next Tuesday.

http://epiceatz.com/

Also, I just ate a really yummy and simple salad that I brought from home! Mache lettuce with micro-basil, mini heirloom tomatoes, half of a part-skim mozzarella string cheese sliced thin, balsamic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. So yummy! That micro-basil really does it, I think.

For a mid-afternoon snack, I brought a plain brown rice cake (one of those crispy puffed rice cake things) with some of Trader Joe's flaxseed almond butter to spread on top

Yummmmm this stuff is AWESOME. http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=374

Happy Hour

I went to happy hour with my mom and my brother last night as a last night get-together before my brother left to go back to school today. We went to Truluck's, a seafood/steak restaurant. Eating out is always hard when you're trying to eat healthy - ESPECIALLY if it's eating out for happy hour... And even more hard if you just really, REALLY love food! But I think I did pretty good and I stayed Phase 2 safe!!

I had a glass of white wine, a few oysters with lemon, split a huge serving of ceviche with my mom (I let her have all of the chips that it came with for scooping), and we all shared some sweet potato fries (I tried to put sweet potato fries in front of my mom and brother so I wouldn't be as tempted to eat them too much haha).

I'm pretty proud of myself! I still got to enjoy eating out with and was very happy with staying fairly healthy in my choices!