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Fighting for Immunity

From colds!! I've been feeling like I'm getting sick for the past 4 days or so. I haven't gotten fully sick yet, but am still feeling gross and going-to-get-sickish. I've been trying to rest and eat lots of good stuff and drink tons of juice and tea...we'll see.

Today was a veggie day:
Breakfast: Pudding cup (k, doesn't fit...but)

Lunch: Weirdest salad ever (left-overs anyone?) - Lettuce, spaghetti squash, artichoke hearts, a few olives, balsamic, lemon pepper, left over chik peas and something else...but I can't remember!

Snack: 1 piece of bread with peanut butter...mmm...and Almond Milk Americano Misto

Dinner (9:45PM!): rice noodles, steamed broccoli, carrots, baby bok choy, mushrooms, and green beans topped with cilantro, green onions and home-made peanut sauce from Sprouted Kitchen.

Now to bed, to avoid getting sick before I wake up at 4am!! Wait, iron pants first :)

Dinner

I accomplished astoundingly little with an unplanned free morning (cancellation)...but went to work for the afternoon and then hit the gym. I finally got my new orthotics yesterday, and broke them in at the gym today, and so far no problems! I think I worked harder today than I have in a long time...I'm already weak and sore (but in a good way).

Super hungry when I got home..so I made this big bowl of yumminess:

1 oz buckwheat soba noodles (cooked, obviously).
1/2 avacado
1/2 red pepper
1 stalk of celery
1 bunch of alfalfa sprouts
olives
1 left over garbanzo patty (see last post for recipe) crumbled up
balsamic dressing (1 T mayo, some nutritional yeast, some water, and balsamic vinegar mixed together).

Very very good. I put it all in a big square white serving bowl I have...for some reason when I put things in that bowl I like them even better.

Sorry no picture!!

Now watching Bones and waiting for D. to call to say he's ready to be picked up.

Mini Break

D. and I are thankfully both healthy now, so we can enjoy our mini-break weekend! It's been a busy and tiring week, but good. I've eaten healthily and made it to the gym twice. I have been partly motivated by wanting to be able to relax and enjoy this weekend!

I worked all day yesterday with one team, then after word hit the gym and then went to pick up D. at the skytrain. I was super hungry and (oddly enough) craving these simple garbanzo bean burgers we've made once before. They totally hit the spot (I had them alongside a salad, but had them for lunch today in a sandwich). Here are the directions ( I can't remember where I found this now...it's loosely based on something...sorry I can't remember what!!):

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Garbanzo Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

1 can (2cups) garbanzo beans mashed (I mashed them in batches in a morter and pestle).
1 carrot (very finely chopped).
1 stalk celery (very finely chopped).
1 small onion (very finely chopped).
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 whole wheat flower
2T oil (for frying)
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Mix everything together. Form the mixture into 6 patties.
2. Fry the patties on one side with 1 T oil. When you flip them add the second T oil.

These are SO simlple, but SO stinking good!!!

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We slept in ridiculously late today (11am!!!) and layed in bed and read books for a while with our coffee (the perfect Saturday morning). I've finished off a bit of work I had to do, and now can start getting ready to leave for our overnight mini-break!

D.'s work party is at a fancy hotel downtown, and we're staying the night at the hotel and have arranged for late check-out so we can laze around!! We so need this little break. It's so exciting!! I bought a fantastic new dress, and can't wait to start getting ready. We'll check into the hotel a couple of hours before the party starts, so I'll have time to do most of the getting ready there.

Off I go!!

this week and today

I finally submitted the first draft of my thesis to my supervisor yesterday. I took this past week (mostly) off of work in order to complete it. Thankfully, I was able to make good use of the time and get it done!

I forgot to get bananas yesterday when I went shopping. Sad. I was so looking forward to whipped banana oatmeal this morning!

Today:
- 4-hour work meeting (likely tense - ick.).
- invoicing
- make revisions to my thesis if I have recieved feedback from my supervisor
- something fun tonight (not sure what, but something fun)

Frittata

I had a long video conference today, and forgot to eat beforehand. so, for the last 30 minutes or so I was thinking about what I would eat. I have run out of left over turkey soup...so needed something else that I would make once and eat for a couple of days while sick. I've never made Frittata's because I've never had a frying pan that can go in the oven..and all the recipes suggest this. I finally bought such a pan though, and I had all the ingredients so thought I'd give it a shot. The procedures are loosely based on a basic Frittata receipe in the Moosewood cookbook. Here's what I did:

I sauteed almost 2 cups of quartered, thinly sliced red potatoes, 1 small thinly sliced onion, a handful of washed and chopped green beans, 2-3 garlic pressed garlic cloves, 3 large sliced mushrooms, and half a red pepper in 3 T olive oil (I would reduce this in the future....this was less than the Moosewood cookbook called for, but still more than necessary I think).

While that was cooking I whisked together 8 eggs and 1 Cup of plain almond milk.

I added salt and pepper to the potato-onion-etc. mixture, poured the eggs + milk overtop and let it cook on low on the stovetop while I grated 4 oz light cheddar cheese.

I sprinkled the cheese on top and put the whole thing into the oven, uncovered. Bake for 25minutes until puffed up and golden.

I'm not a big fan of eggs that are "browned" in any way (I never order omlettes) but I really loved this! This is not a low-fat version really though. I had room in my daily points to have the higher-fat version, but you could easily substitute egg whites for some of the eggs, and probably could cut the cheese in half and still have a pretty fantastic frittata. I ate this on it's own because salad is not all that appealing when you're sick. But, it would be perfect with a salad and not much else as it's super filling!

It made 4 large servings, 6 medium servings or 8 small servings.

Making the best of it...

I had a work appointment at 8am this morning. After getting up at 5:30, running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pull together everything (work stuff, gym stuff, lunch) I'd need for the next 14 hours (big break between 2 appointments close together then a WW meeting in the evening), dropping D. off at the bus, and getting about 1/4 of the way to the appointment, I got a text message saying it was canceled! Arg!

I fought the urg to go back home and go to bed (also feeling a need to do SOMETHING out of the house first thing, since I got up so early) and went to the gym. After the gym I went grocery shopping and came home and put ingredients for a turkey-fennel-squash-white-bean type soup/chili/I'm not sure what to call it into the slow cooker. Now I have a couple of hours to work from home before I have to leave for my afternoon appointment. So, at least we now have a healthy, warm, comforting meal for dinner, and grocery shopping is done. I just know I would have ended up going shopping after my WW meeting tonight and then wold have been grumpy, hungry, and tired when I got home and have no idea what to make still.

Though, bed is still looking like a mighty good place to spend the next 2 hours. I will resist.