I Walk In This World

Happy Saturday Bloggies!

Last night’s dinner took me back to the time I spent in China, back in 2004.  I had an amazing opportunity to travel there during grad school, to help teach a stream ecology course at one of their universities, up in the northern province of Harbin.  In that part of China, there’s a heavy Russian influence, and the foods are more bread and dough-based as opposed to rice-based in the central and southern provinces of the country.  In any case, I remember having these amazing steamed buns and dumplings that were super doughy and chewy, and filled with steaming vegetables and spices.

Well.  We tried a new Chinese restaurant in our town, and I ordered the vegetable dumplings on a whim, and BAM, I felt right back in Harbin!  They were AMAZING and I coulda just eaten them all for my meal.

Instead, I was a good girl and ate…

• broccoli in garlic sauce (over quinoa instead of rice)
• 2 steamed vegetable dumplings
• a handful of those amazing crunchy things with duck sauce

OMG was this an amazing dinner!  Good, real, Chinese food is hard to find, and this meal totally did it for me.

During our eats, Hubz and I watched Ghostbusters.  Talk about your classic 80s movie!

Exercise!  On a Friday, yours truly did a 20min run, 10 mins powerwalking, and 160 crunches/ab work.  That helped me justify the Chinese food for dinner, lol!

I’m a hot mess in this picture, no question.  But I wanted to show off the dress I ordered to wear to my sister’s wedding shower in 2 weeks.  Cute, right?

Lunch was g.g.g.g.r.r.r.r.eat!

I made a wrap that had smashed avocado as the 1st layer, topped with lettuce, then ham, then garlic hummus, then tomato, then spinach.  All wrapped up into that amazeballs beaut!  Plus…cherries on the slide.

Yeah.  So despite my 3 alarms, I managed to turn them all off and sleep in til 7:45am.  So.  That might be fine for all you college gals home on summer break, but this gal has a job that requires her to leave at 8:30am.  And I take quite a while to do all my morning prep stuff.  So, I was a super hot mess.  Ran to the shower, got dressed, ran out the door.  No breks or coffee…so thank goodness for the DD right by work!

• DD veggie eggwhite flatbreaad + HOT sauce
• hazelnut coffee

Ok kids.  Hubz is off to visit his bro and parents, who are in town this weekend, all the way over from Pittsburgh.  They’re staying at his bro’s house tonight, and then up here with us tomorrow.  I’ve got the day to myself, but it’s already full of stuff I need to get done, ordered, purchased, etc for my sister’s shower.  I hope to squeeze in a movie if I can.  I adore my alone time, so I’m kinda excited to see where the day goes.

Do you like alone time or are you a total people person?

Five Easy Pieces is the name of a classic film (1970) that was one of Jack Nicholson’s break out performances.  My father-in-law recommended this film to us, and I’m really happy we watched it last night.  Jack’s acting is stellar and the plot really pulls at your heart and mind.  I liked it a lot!

I decided that last night was going to be 1 of my few “cheat” days this month, where I get to eat whatever I want, guilt free.    I highly recommend this tactic…it’s good for your brain to let go of food control every now and then.

So.  Before the movie we went to the local parlor.  I got this chocolate fat free ice milk with mini PB cups on top. 

I ate 4 bites and decided I was in the mood for something salty, not sweet, so into the freezer it went.  Can anyone spy my dog in this picture??

During the movie I ate half a big bag of Newman’s Own microwave butter popcorn and I had 2 very generous glasses of a great New Zealand sauv blanc.  I finished out the night with a generous handful of crack TJ’s chocolate PB pretzels (this is a borrowed picture, as you can tell from the FAUX nails up in the left corner)

It was supa fun eating all these treats.  I don’t feel guilty in the slightest, b/c I gave myself permission to indulge.  And boy, did I!!

I was a good girl and went to the gym.  I did 20mins of Level 10 ellipticalling and then a bunch of sets of arm work (curls, extensions, lat raises, shoulder press, walking push ups, etc).

Dinner!

• TJs cheese ravioli with leftover Dad’s marinara (about a half cup of ravioli under there)
• ginorm spinach salad with goat cheese, cukes, and maters
• a glass of the above-mentioned sauv blanc

Friday work was…Friday work.  Ya know.  Glad it’s over and the weekend is here!

Lunch!

• turkey and cheddar on a farmer’s market olive bun
• organic carrot strips
• cantalope and local blueberries

There are few things tastier than absolutely ripe summer cantalope!

I was running a wee bit late in the a.m. (this happens on Fridays) so I decided to zip out the door and get Breks ala DD.

• hazelnut DD coffee
• veggie eggwhite flatbread sam

For the nutritionals, this is a fabulous “fast food” breakfast!  Of course, the hot sauce I added was key, if you like things spicy like me.  Has anyone tried these flatbreads?

Ok.  I’ve got wedding shower stuff to work on and then a pool party/bbq at 3pm.        

I’m excited to meet some of our new neighbors there!

And I don’t know if she’s reading, but I wanted to give a little rainbow to my friend Beth. 

Happy Saturday and ciao!

Er

Monday night I’m sitting here blogging and simultaneously watching Golden Girls on WEtv.  And I’m reminded of how much I LOVED this show when I was a kid.  I also loved Roseanne, Cosby, and Cheers. 

For you peeps who aren’t baby dolls, what were your favorite 80s shows?

East Coasters, did y’all see the moon Monday night?  Totz GORG!

Din last night was fun, even tho I wasn’t very hungry.  And yes, you are seeing pigs fly.    Fly little piggies, FLY!  I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t hungry.  LOL!

• Griggstown Farm sundried tomato basil chicken sausage (from happy free range chickens just 20mins from here)
• sauted with shitake mushrooms (grown locally and purchased at my farmers market), sundried tomatoes, a lil butter and olive oil
• served over a bed of baby spinach
• with a beautiful ear of NJ Fresh corn from a local farm stand

I couldn’t finish my meal, but polished off the corn NO probs.

Exercise was 20mins level 8 on the elliptical plus walking pushups, curls, dips, tricep extensions, chest flies, shoulder press, shoulder raises.

I did work but didn’t want to.  Sometimes Monday suck.

Lunch in my cube.

• Applegate Farms ham + American cheese + dijon on Panera whole grain
• carrots + cinnful pecan butter
• watermelon cubes

I hate eating in my cube. 

I did more work, and also didn’t want to.

Breks was this summery smoothie….

• cup frozen mango chunks
• handful of black raspberries
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk
• 3 T Stonyfield ff vanilla yogurt
• 4 ice cubes

This was fabulous.  The mango really takes it up a notch.

What’s your favorite summer smoothie combo?

Katrina has posted some excellent tips about why, if you eat meat, buffalo is better than beef.  Check it out.

Before…

Afta the Grooming Appt…

Lookin sliz-AMMing Hilldawg!  LOVE the new hair cut.

I had mayjah anxiety all day long.  I’m so over it all.  Gah.  But we did get a lot of stuff done around the house.  Paid bills, acted like grown ups, ya know.

I did get in 30 mins on the treadmill + 100 crunches.  Excercise always makes me feel better.  Even when I’m down or anxious or whatever, I tell myself that I never regretted going to the gym.  Never.  That helps me push myself out the door.

I gotta relax, so I’ll post my eats tomorrow.

Chillaxing in the NJ…

Er

P.S.  Does anyone have supa smaht tips on how to upload pics to Wordpress fasta?  I cannot stand how long it takes.  There must be a better way, right??