Eat, Live, Run

Good Morning!

Last night in school went really well…it was exactly the kind of calm night I had hoped for and I left around 9:45. Much to my surprise, I actually got a really great grade on my petit fours that I was totally not expecting considering how frustrated I was by them. My cheesecake turned out well and tonight all I have to do is put together my fruit tart and napoleon.  Pictures to come tomorrow of the final spread of products to be graded!

Since I got home early last night I woke up early this morning (6:30) and headed to the gym for one of my longer workouts—legs/cardio/abs. I was at the gym for about an hour and here’s what I did:

Warm up 2 minutes on treadmill

Squats (holding 2 10 lb weights) combined with kneeling kickbacks on a mat. 4 sets of each exercise with 1 minute rest after each combined set. 12 reps of each.

Stiff-legged deadlifts (holding 2 15 lbs weights) combined with dipping bridge pose on mat. 4 sets of each exercise with 1 minute rest after each combined set. 12 reps of each.

2 sets of standing calf raises with 15 lb dumbbell

3 sets of hanging crunching abs—15 reps each set

3 sets of slow bicycle crunches—20 reps each set

10 minutes running on treadmill

15 minutes on elliptical with resistance cranked up on hill mode 

I got the compound sets leg routine out of this month’s Oxygen magazine. It works on sculpting your muscles with 2 exercises that work the same muscle and preformed back to back with no rest in between…it places a greater demand on your muscle groups and thus, works them harder. When you double the workload like this it burns fat and carves shape and definition.

Before I went to the gym this morning I had a piece of Flax & Fiber toast with a smear of peanut butter. When I got back, I had cottage cheese oats with steel cut oats, 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese, a big spoonful of peanut butter and a sliced banana. Mmmmmm power in a bowl! I crave this!

And more lentils and brown rice for lunch! This super combo left me full and satisfied for hours the other day and I’m glad I made extras. All those complex carbs and lean plant protein is a killer combo for sure. And when you spice it up with some sriracha….well you know. It’s amazing :). Plus, I like having a hot meal at work since I’m always freezing!! I’m also packing a string cheese and some grapes to have with my lunch and for later, more cottage cheese (1/2 cup) with a cup of diced peaches to mix in. These peaches are packed in juice, not syrup!

I need some coffee for sure right now! Is it Friday yet?! 

Wooooooah, nelly!!!!! I just had one of my famous Jenna “I’m-starving-get-out-of-my-way” moments (Ryan knows exactly what I’m talking about)! I’m not sure what happened exactly. I was fine all afternoon at work but then I ate my snack and was still hungry and then the kitchen started prepping for dinner and all those amazing smells……..it was all I could do not to gnaw off my arm. And the funny thing is that the only thing on earth that I was craving was an Amy’s California burger!!! I NEEDED that burger like a cupcake needs frosting.

So, I raced home, ate about six pretzels out of the bag, and immediately made one for myself at 4:30. I had an Amy’s burger on an Ezekiel english muffin with a fat slab of organic tomato, ketchup and honey mustard with steamed broccoli and another yogurt on the side. I was craving yogurt too. Weird. As I was eating my body was sighing in happiness and furthermore when I had my piece of dark chocolate afterwards. Now I’m all ready to get in my jammies and hit the sack but unfortunately it’s off to school! The lesson learned from this experience was THAT I NEED MORE FOOD!!! I clearly didn’t pack enough today and I think it was that I needed more healthy fats. I did pack almonds but they were, um, tiny. This girl needs food!

I packed an oatmeal packet for a snack later.

Tonight should be an early night because all I have to do is make a cheesecake, pastry cream and tart dough to prep for tomorrow. Apparently the rest of my class was in school until 12:20 this morning (so says Chef Erin), so I’m sure everyone is pretty exhausted as is.

So long for now! See you in the a.m!

Happy Humpday!

Last night was very emotionally and physically straining. Everyone was racing to get everything done and it just seemed like so much.  I was the first out, at around 10:30, and I just felt dead. The entire time I didn’t take any breaks and tried to stick to my to-do list as best I could. Let me tell you people, there is so much that goes into these damn little cakes!!! Each petit four layer needs to be covered with jam, sandwich together, covered with rolled out almond paste, cut out, dipped in scalding hot fondant and have some sort of decoration on top. The opera torte has like 10 layers of coffee rum syrup, coffee buttercream icing, ganache, melted chocolate and chocolate glaze. I was getting a chocolate headache by the end of the night! Here is my mirror display all ready to be graded:

My petit fours are less than perfect for sure. I’d never used the hot fondant before and after nearly scalding off my skin with it, I got frustrated basically just dumped it on. Meh. I’m looking forward to an easier night tonight of making cheesecake, pastry cream and tart dough.

Today is my day off from exercise so I let myself sleep in until a glorious 7:30. It was lovely. I kept waking up, checking the clock and dozing back off. I could have slept until noon!! For breakfast I made waffles: 2 Kashi Go-Lean waffles with a spoonful of almond butter, half a banana and 3 hard boiled egg whites. It was crispy, hot and melty. Yum!

And for lunch I have a little finger food platter. I made turkey roll ups with organic turkey lunch meat (4 slices) rolled up with spicy dijon mustard and have some celery and carrot sticks on the side as well as this random packet of crackers I got free at Whole Foods, a yogurt and half a juicy mango (they were 10 for $10 at Whole Foods and now I’m kicking myself for only buying one!!)

Snack is the other half of the mango and a handful of raw almonds.

I hope you all enjoy your Wednesday. The week is halfway done!

So, I bought this big hunka chicken bag at Whole Foods with individual chicken breasts in it for like eight bucks.

In theory, a great idea. But….the back of the bag said to microwave the frozen chicken for 8 minutes and then flip over and micro again for another 3 minutes. I followed the directions perfectly and my chicken turned into a shoe. Seriously. It was like eating chicken jerky, as gross as that sounds. I sat chewing on one piece for like five minutes. It could have been really really yummy—with roasted garlic marinara sauce and real buffalo mozzarella broiled on it….but it was as tough as leather. I’m stubborn, didn’t want to spend time to make a whole other dinner and hate wasting food, so I tried to eat as much as I could anyways. I couldn’t finish it because it was just too tough though :(. Oh well, I guess I know next time not to follow the directions and keep temping it throughout the micro process. Meh.

Other than the leather shoe (which is now a rock at the bottom of my stomach and I’m now popping Tums), my dinner was amazing because of the leftover sweet potato risotto. Seriously, I had been thinking about this risotto all day long and it was just as good today with a quick reheat. This has gotta be my new favorite risotto recipe ever. Very very yumm! I also had a salad with some carrot sticks drizzled with balsamic vinegar. And…….I made it up to myself with a piece of dark chocolate for dessert.

For a snack (I’m and I’m sure I’ll need it because I didn’t finish my dinner) I’m bringing a drool-worthy banana Balance bar. LOVE this flavor!

And major props to my lentils and rice, which was anything but boring today for lunch! It was very satisfying (and spicy with all that cayenne and sriracha!!) and kept me feeling good all afternoon. The almond butter packet worked like a charm as well, except I couldn’t get the last bit of it out on my apple so I resorted to sucking it and just eating it out of the tube. Hopefully no one saw that.

I’ve got a strict timeline for the night and plan to stick to it. Lots of intricate detail work tonight as I cut, ice and decorate my petit fours and glaze my opera torte. I also have to bake off my madelines and bake and fill my linzer cookies. It will be a full night for sure!

oh—and my butt is so incredibly sore today from my lower body workout yesterday that everytime I sit down, I cry a little inside. Those deadlifts really get ya. Everytime. 

Last night in school I got good news that pretty much rocked my entire night. I got the highest grade in the class on my creme brulee on Friday night!!!! Not to toot my own horn (toot, toot) but it made me feel pretty darn good after feeling like I totally botched the first couple nights. Then, I was given my overall grade thus far for the class as a whole and it was a 96 (further toot-toot)!!!! I think that’s because there’s some major curve going on but whatever, its an A and it makes me very happy and less stressed out. Logically, I can’t understand how I have an A so far when it seemed like I did so awful the first week, but I can’t complain!

Last night I got everything I needed to do done and tonight will just be assembly of the final products. I left around 10:15 and was in bed by 11 but my mind was racing and I couldn’t fall asleep for what seemed to be hours. I still woke up at 6:40 though to work out!

This morning I had a piece of flax & fiber toast with a smear of peanut butter on it before heading to the gym. Here was my workout:

2 minutes on treadmill to warm up

Triceps routine: Going straight through 5 reps of straight-legged bench dip, 10 reps of rope pressdown (25 lbs) and 15 reps of overhead extension (15 lbs). After completing all three exercises, rest for 2 minutes then repeat, doing each exercise three times.

3 sets of seated shoulder press (20 lbs)—12 reps

3 sets of dumbbell lateral raise (10 lbs)—12 reps

3 sets of biceps curls with the cable machine, 10 lb resistance on each arm —12 reps

3 sets of hammer curls (15 lbs in each hand)—10 reps 

When I got home I had cottage cheese steel cut oats using a half cup of regular 1% cottage cheese (couldn’t get to Fresh Market to buy the whipped kind), a spoonful of peanut butter and a sliced banana. It was yummy and fulfilling.

For lunch today I packed lentils & brown rice. Yesterday I boiled some lentils with some cayenne and chili powder in the water and I portioned them out in separate containers in the fridge to eat all week. I also made some brown rice and did the same. So, this morning, I combined a serving of lentils (1/4 cup dry) with a serving of brown rice (1/4 cup dry) to have a great lunch with a perfect protein/carb proportion.  I’ll dump on some Sriracha at work and BAM! I’ve got a tasty, healthy, one-dish lunch!

I also packed a string cheese and a plum to eat with lunch and…………a packet of barney butter with a sliced apple to have for a snack later! Yay for almond butter!!

I need some coffee!!!!!!  

The almond butter fairy decided to visit me this afternoon!

I can’t wait to try these!!!!!! Thanks Barney Butter! The 90 calorie packs are seriously the best thing since sliced bread for my lunchbox…we shall give it a go tomorrow! There also might be some serious almond butter cookie baking going on in the near future to put these jars to good use. You can never have too much almond butter!

I got a lot done this afternoon, primarily in the kitchen department. I made food for the week and tupperwared it up in the fridge for easy access during the next few days. I also finished Water for Elephants. LOVED it! I almost cried at the end just because it was over. If you haven’t read this one you better get your hands on it soon….it will suck you in for sure!

Midday I made a little snack of an apple with peanut butter. Haven’t had this for awhile and it was delicious. I try to eat more tropical fruit in the summer and save my crazy apple eating for fall but I couldn’t help myself when I saw these beautifully crisp Red Delicious apples at Whole Foods yesterday.

And…I finally got around to making those turkey meatballs from “The Eat Clean Diet”. They are very simple to make—just lean ground turkey, fresh herbs, whole wheat bread crumbs and an egg to bind it all together. This is why having a food scale is helpful—I made exactly five servings (3 meatballs per serving, 4 ounces total) and froze two of the servings to be baked later.

I also made the sweet potato risotto recipe from the same book. This recipe had my name all over it. I looooove sweet potatoes and go crazy over risotto (heck, I have a special risotto pot from williams sonoma). However, there were definitely a few quirks in the recipe. The original recipe claimed to serve four but judging from the calorie count per serving (171 kcal), I knew that the amount of rice was too much (original recipe called for 1.5 cups rice for 4 people). So, I made half the recipe and used only 1/2 cup arborio rice and 2 chopped sweet potatoes, but I needed about 8 cups of chicken broth when the recipe said I would only need two. Now, not that I’m a professional risotto maker, but I did made it a ton back when I was in culinary and I know how to make a good pot of it. You need tons of liquid for the rice to soak up. Two cups is nothing! So, in the end, I halved the recipe and got three good sized servings out of it. It was worth it—–it was freakin’ amazing!!!

So, here’s my homecooked meal: 3 turkey meatballs with organic roasted garlic marinara sauce, a scoop of risotto and a spinach salad with balsamic vin. I was so stuffed after the meatballs and risotto that I couldn’t finish my salad. It’s okay though. I think I got all my veggies in at lunch today!

But of course I had room for a dark chocolate square (obviously!):

And I’m bringing a half soymilk/half water protein shake for later in the night…

Tonight is really not a night I’m looking forward to. Actually I grimace when I think about it. We are making petit fours, opera torte, madelines and linzer cookies. Now this doesn’t seem like too big of a deal but each thing requires about 500 steps and is very intricate and time consuming.  Hopefully it’s not too late of an evening!!!

I had a fantastic workout this morning! Today I did legs and cardio and after these workouts especially I always feel so full of energy!

Here’s what I did:

2 minutes running on treadmill to warm up

3 sets of leg press—12 reps—70 lbs

3 sets of deadlifts—12 reps—40 lbs

3 sets of hamstring curls—12 reps–60 lbs

3 sets of cable glute kickbacks–12 reps—15 lbs to start then 20 lbs on last two sets

25 minutes on treadmill: 10 minutes running, 10 minutes of sprints and 5 minutes of speed walking at an incline (I HATE sprints but do them anyways because of all the cardio I do, sprints is what really makes me feel the burn. If you are stuck in a rut with your cardio, do sprints. They work. They really really work.)

I was at the gym for about an hour and afterwards felt totally refreshed and strong. Love that!

I made a monster of a salad for lunch today. So big that I couldn’t even finish it all! Here were the components:

about 3 cups of mixed organic greens

1 can chunk light tuna 

4 carrot slices, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

1/4 cup hummus

1 small bunch grapes (about 10 grapes)

the rest of the whipped cottage cheese container (roughly 1/4 cup)

about 12 kashi crackers (finished the box)

And to finish it off, a HUGE glass of ice water!

I didn’t really eat the cottage cheese because I was getting too full from the hummus/tuna combo. I also left some of the lettuce, celery and carrots but devoured all the grapes and crackers! Here’s what it looked like when I was finished with it:

This should keep me powered up for a good while!! I’m off to Target!

Well, I slept for about 10 hours last night and I feel about 500% better this morning. I think that’s more sleep than I’ve gotten in months…I can’t wait for my crazy schedule to be done with and to get normal amounts of sleep every night!! I will never take it for granted again after this year.

This morning I woke up and reheated some steel cut oats for breakfast. I stirred in a big spoonful of almond butter and added a sliced banana to the oats and had three hard boiled egg whites on the side.

I don’t work on Mondays so now I’m back in bed and totally enthralled in reading “Water for Elephants”. I was so skeptical—I really didn’t think I would like this book but I got so into it last night and now I’m half way done with it! I’m planning on going to the gym in a little while, having lunch here then going to Target to get some stuff for the apartment (toilet paper and dishwasher soap. fun stuff).

Have a fantastic start of the week everyone!

Tonight I did not in any way, shape or form feel like cooking. This is very rare for me because usually I love to cook just about anything. Tonight, however, nothing was seeming good to me at all. I had planned to make Tosca’s turkey meatballs with marina sauce and make her sweet potato risotto as well, and as good as that may sound, the thought of it was gagging me (I’m so weird)!

My whole “bleh” feeling started after the gym. I laid down for about 45 minutes, ate a snack and went to the gym to do biceps, back and chest. I probably stayed only about 20-25 minutes and here’s what I did:

2 minutes running on treadmill to warm up

Supersets of cross chest dumbbell curl (with 15 lbs) with single-arm dumbbell row (with 15 lbs). I did three sets of each exercise with about 10 seconds rest in between sets and 2 minutes rest at the end of the superset.

Wide-grip lat pulldown–40 lbs—3 sets, 15 reps

Hammer curls—15 lbs—3 sets, 10 reps

Pushups—3 sets of 10 reps 

Bench press-–3 sets of 12 reps. 15 lb weights in each hand

Bicep curls using the cable machine. 10 lbs each resistance. 3 sets of 12 reps 

It ended up being a rather short workout because, like I said, I don’t rest in between sets, except for maybe 5-10 seconds. I rest at the end of a three set period for about 2 minutes. That way my heart rate stays up and my muscles are working double-time. I’m also working on doing less reps with heavier weights. It almost killed me today doing 10 reps with 15 lb weights for the hammer curls. I reached muscle fatigue quickly and that’s when I knew it was time to stop!!

When I got home from the gym I felt a little sick. I had the same tummy achy feeling I had in the middle of the night and laid down with Dexter for a little while on the bed. I debated getting up and making those darn meatballs but it just wasn’t in the cards for the day. I think the heat got to me walking home from the gym. It was about 100 degrees out and I was wearing those long black workout pants. My heart rate was already elevated and the heat just got me a little bit.

So……….I decided the only thing I really felt like was that forlorn frozen Amy’s entree that has been sitting in my freezer for a few weeks:

This was seriously the only thing that sounded good to me! I tried to make it a little healthier by adding some crunchies on the side (carrot sticks and grapes).

It.was.so.good. And I felt a ton better after I ate.

And then about 2 hours later I had a little snack of 1/4 cup Ezekiel cereal with soymilk and a cup of peppermint tea. I’m pooped and getting into bed to read even though it’s not even 8:00 yet.

I wasn’t a complete turd though tonight because I did vacuum, clean, sweep, do laundry and study for Capstone tomorrow night after I had dinner. A Sunday well had.

Night y’all!

Today for lunch I treated myself to Greens & Grille, the make-your-own-salad place around the corner from my apartment. I was bumming about Ryan leaving and craving some veggies so it seemed like the perfect thing! I built my salad with mixed organic greens, corn, caramelized onions, tomatoes, olives, carrots and grilled chicken breast with their aaaamazing kalamata olive dressing on the side. It was delicious and hit the spot!  I love this place, I just wish it wasn’t so darn expensive!! I ate every single bite of this salad and used about half of the dressing you see here.

Then, I went to Whole Foods to do some grocery shopping. I’m planning my weekly meals around my new cookbook, “The Eat Clean Diet” by Tosca Reno. I stocked up on plenty of lean protein, nut butter and fruits and veggies to keep me going strong this next week at school!

And then…I laid down to rest for about 45 minutes. I rarely do this but I have just felt so sleepy all day after not sleeping well last night! I didn’t want to just go and get a coffee for an instant fix because then I knew I wouldn’t fall asleep tonight, so I decided to curl up with Dexter for a little while and take a cat nap. I don’t know if I actually fell asleep, but it still felt good to relax and rest.

And of course a snack!

This totally, without a doubt, hit the spot. Half a toasted Ezekiel english muffin with a big spoonful of almond butter. I relished every crumb. I’m planning on going to the gym in about half an hour and this was the perfect thing.

I think I spent my movie money on lunch today so I think I might just start my new book, “Water for Elephants” instead. It’s been sitting on my bedside table now for about two weeks and I haven’t had one chance to open it yet. I think tonight might be the night!!