office

Before and After: Office Meals

/ foodsweatandbeers / 7 Comments

Hey hey there cool cats! (or hot dogs… whichever you choose)

It’s a sunny Tuesday here in Dirty Durham (at least it was earlier this morning….)  Ry has my car today until his car is fixed and working pretty again, so I brought my lunch to work.  And as I was packing it, I realized why I don’t normally do this.

I HATE prepping my lunch at the office!  And, more than that, I hate pre-prepping my lunch the night before, so I chose the lesser of two evils.  I jammed my bag full of the ingredients needed and walks outta the apartment with a grocery bag literally full to the top of stuff.  One day, I’m sure I’ll be a super-organized mom who packs her kids lunches in an adorable fashion:

Oh, this ol' thing? It only took me two and a half hours. I always keep rice pandas around.

But in the meantime, I’ll focus on “Ordo ab Chao” (Order from Chaos, if my memory Internet serves me correctly…)

I started this morning off with a little Attunes Food cereal mix up (which you may have seen in one of my secret hoarding cabinets yesterday…)  Finishing off a box of cereal that has dried blueberries in it results in this:

Not little critters, just blueberry dust!

Which is what my cereal looked like before I even took a bite.  What it looked like after, though, actually matched the color of my FR60 watch more than a cereal!

Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!! - Mr. Beauregarde, Willy Wonka

Regardless of my blue milk, I slurped it up like a little kitten.

But this was the real kicker.  Lunchtime.  Here’s my before:

Salad Ingredients or what a mother of 2 bought at the grocery store?

My haul included:

  • Two bags of spinach (one that I just opened, one that had about 12 leaves left so I polished it off!)
  • Tupperware full of thyme roasted veggies (eggplant, banana pepper, and red onion)
  • Avocado
  • Plum tomato
  • End of a GIANT green pepper
  • Leftover box with fajita veggies and a teensy bit of chicken
  • Trader Joe’s Salsa Authentico (arguably one of my favorite salsas… and I’m a salsa officianado)

The “after” was a lot more manageable.

Salad Beast: You are my lover.

The process took quite some time, but the result was more than worth it.

It sort of reminded me of the “blogging behind the scenes” by Chelsey this morning…. only taken with a cheaper camera and with no real trickery. Just blue milk and a counter full of bags!

Are you an ordered chef or baker?  Or does your counter look like chaos every time (like me!)?

What’d you have for lunch?

Secret Hoarding: Office Edition

/ foodsweatandbeers / 16 Comments

Good evening, all! Normally, I’d just be turning off my HRM from a sweaty BodyCombat class….  That’s my preferred Monday exercise of choice.  Today, alas, I’m on call and BodyPump is really the only fitness class I can take with my phone on hand (translation: the only class that I’m not so drenched in sweat as I kick, punch, or zumba my booty off with the music blasting in my ears where I can hear or see my phone.)  So I took today to run some errands… which was partially successful. The drive-thru ATM at the bank wasn’t accepting checks, but other than that, I:

  • Dropped a package off at UPS
  • Picked up some goodies at the store for a package
  • Packed that package!

I promise, the knife has nothing to do with this package.

Oooh, I also just recently got a package that I’m pretty stoked for….

Oooh, what's that?

More about that at another time. The real topic of the day is something that I just learned about myself.

I think I might be a secret hoarder (of snacks). A coworker gave me something to put in one of my drawers, and that’s when it hit me.

Triscuits Thin Crisps in Quattro Formaggio (deadly addictive, never ever get them) and Odwalla Protein Bars

In our next shelf?

Adora Calcium Disks in Dark Chocolate

Across the office (i.e. over a desk that isn’t even my own:

Two of my cereals from Attune Foods! (Not pictured: my favorite Uncle Sam)

Need a mid-day pick-me up?

Trashy mags and Coke Zero!

Ok, I’ll admit, that last picture was staged. If I’m going to have soda, OBVIOUSLY I’d put it in the fridge (and truly, I am mandated by my job to have tons of media all around me, which actually means that sometimes… I make a workday out of perusing those trashy mags!)

I scatter my goodies throughout my office (didn’t even take a shot of my dried cranberries in the refrigerator or the gum in my purse).  That way, no matter what, if I forget a snack or lunch, I should be okay.  Often, I also keep a can of soup or sandwich thins in the drawers (but you caught me on an off day.)

I promise, I don’t hoard all my things like a thieving magpie (at least not regularly) but something about the amount of drawers and cabinets in my office just brings out the nester in me.  It’s like I’m ready for anything (as long as anything = a hunger pang… or a trip to the hair salon or the waiting room at the doctor.)  Now it’s time to use my hoard of goodies in the fridge and try to find something for dinner! The beau’s talking pork chops…. Let’s see how that goes.

Do you keep snacks at work or by your desk?  If so, which snacks?

No Pants Wednesday!

/ foodsweatandbeers / 26 Comments

Hello friends!

Just whipped up a DELICIOUS meal of breakfast for lunch.

Ome-LET ME AT IT!!

In this little number was:

  • 3 egg whites, one egg yolk as the base
  • Sauteed spinach
  • Banana pepper
  • Reduced fat Mozzarella cheese
  • Fresh basil (from my own plant!)
  • Pizza sauce

After eating a tasty homemade pizza last night, I was not ready to let the pizza party end quite yet.

I rounded out the meal (and my sweet tooth) with a Vita Top in Dark Chocolate covered with a little dollop of some Harris Teeter branded caramel delight.  The only reason I “splurged” on the Vita Tops (which are normally a little outta my price range, read: $5.69 for a 4 pack) was because they were BOGO at the Teeter. Hard to say no to a BOGO….

Chocolate... ice cream... pizza plate. Totally appropriate.

In other news, a lot of you have been asking (haha not even one person has asked this, but I wanted to talk about it. I always wonder when bloggers post this whole “a lot of you have asked… wondered about _____” if that’s true or if they just felt like chatting about it.  The world may never know)…

What I meant to say is: I felt like talking about why I always drive home for lunch.  Part of the reason, of course, is the fact that I can whip up delicious treats like eggs and sauteed spinach and grab my own ice cream. But the real reason is the following:

PANTS! (ugh these ones are looking a little loosey goosey, I promise they look classy IRL)

I hate wearing pants. I really do. I think there was a span of 3 years, before I made my Glorious Transformation (aka lost 40 lbs), when I didn’t wear pants. I wore dresses, skirts, leggings, and athletic shorts…. but I avoided pants like the plague. Mostly that reason was due to the desire to not wanna jump up a size. But now that I’m at a size I’m comfortable with…. I still hate em.

So every day, at lunch time, I sweep myself home for a brief, shining lunchtime. The very first thing I do….

VOILA! HAPPY NO PANTS WEDNESDAY!

And for that period of time, while I’m making my meal and writing my blog post…. the pants of the workday are gone. GOOD RIDDANCE!  So even though the title of this post is No Pants Wednesday…. for me, it’s always No Pants day.  And I like it like that.

Do you like pants?  If not, GET EM OFF! (unless you’re in public, don’t cause a ruckus, y’all)

Where do you eat your lunch? At your desk? In a conference room? Out in some restaurant?

I tend to avoid eating out during lunch, mostly to save money (but also because most of the time, I’m too busy wearing no pants to wanna be out in public.)

Microwave Titration: Office Hardships

/ foodsweatandbeers / 12 Comments

Here’s the thing: I dont remember much about high school chemistry class.  My teacher’s name was Mrs. Arensberg, my friend has a seizure in the middle of one class, and we did an experiment with titration.  Just because I remember that I did that experiment, I couldn’t tell you what titration means.  I vaguely recall, though, that it involved messing with one beaker, and then another, trying to get the right balance of fluid into a bigger beaker.  My chemistry major whizkid boyfriend is going to hate this post so much.

Titration is not.... you can't just make up definitions for.... nevermind.

Yup, just call me Jordan Nye the Science Guy. (Fun Fact: I met Bill Nye when I was in college, he visited UNC.  Less Fun Fct: He was a total asshole.  Seriously, not nice at all.) 

That’s all beyond the point.  What I’m getting at, is that the act of adding some from one beaker and some from another always sat with me as how titration works. And I feel as though, every day I use the microwaves at work, I’m doing my own little chemistry experiment.  Only, instead of trying to balance liquies from two beakers, I am trying to balance out the power of two different microwaves in the office.

In the red corner, we have this little gem:

Heater of all foods good.

This microwave is the jack of all trades. It can toast, it can nuke, and it does it all without burning anything.  My food always emerges hot, not crusty, there are often treats on top (such as chocolate chip cookies or chocolate frogs like I saw yesterday!!)  It’s a beautiful thing to walk over there, and my popcorn never stinks up the office by burning.  Sometimes, when I’m waiting for my popcorn, I do wallsits by this microwave.  I love it.

Then, in the blue corner, we have this eyesore:

DEMON MICROWAVE!

This. Microwave. Sucks. It turns frozen meals into hard as rock, inedible blocks, it burns the living daylights out of popcorn, and I constantly have to change the length of time as well as the power level.  And on those rare occasions when I am cooking a veggie patty in one, and want to make steamed veggies in the other… I have to choose which gets the demon (or wait 8 minutes to eat instead of 4). 

 
Today, the Morningstar Grillers Chik’n Patty had the shame of being put in the demon.  I had to watch it like a hawk and, even still, the edges got a little burnt/crisper than I usually like.  Despite my best efforts, it was not my finest work, but I avoided the great Lean Cuisine Rock that happened in 2010 (seriously, I couldn’t pull the enchilada from the rice… it was bad.)
Salvaged meal

Chicken patty slathered in laughing cow blue cheese and Frank’s Red hot (A favorite sandwich combo of mine)! The vegetables, of course, were perfect.  Corn, carrots, peas, and green beans.  I rounded things off with a sugar-free jello cup, and I get a feeling I’ll be sneaking over to that beautiful microwave of treats to sneak a cookie… or the head of that frog!!

Until then, I’ll leave the titration to the beau.  I’ll take care of everything else… especially of looking classy.

Don’t worry. I got this.

What’s for your lunch today?

 
How are the facilities at your office when it comes to whipping up a tasty meal?
 

Workin’ It

/ foodsweatandbeers / 4 Comments

 

Hello out there fellow worker bees!!

If you’re like me at all, you MAY BE a 20-something YoPro (Young Professional, NOT yogurt professional, though that’d be glorious too…) And a common challenge in the world of my fellow YoPros (other than sitting on your booty for most of your entire day) is what to do for lunch.  I’ll admit, when I first entered the working world, I had recently broken my foot.  So my day to day thought process when it came to lunch was something sort of like this:

“Yeah… I could crutch over to the fridge, get some ingredients, put together an amazing dinner the night before work, put it in an adorable and eco-friendly lunch tote, and crutch to and from the fridge at work to retrieve it and eat with my homemade chopsticks… OR!! I could drive to Taco Bell for an easy to eat cheesy double beefy burrito with a side of 5 layer nachos and a soda!”

In my crippled state, my lazy bones aching with lazy, guess which one I chose?

First, you go in my mouth. Then, my hips. Sound like a plan?

When I started Weight Watchers, though, I realized that planning for your meals can actually SAVE you time, energy, and (hooray!) calories!  I don’t normally prepare anything too extravagant, but here are some of my usual go to guys for lunch treats:

  • Grilled, seasoned chicken breast – George Foreman = my secret lover. I grilled many en masse, and keep them safe and sound in my tupperware. You can add them to sammies, you can toss them in quesadillas, or just eat them plain!
  • Solid white albacore – A can of this, plus Hellman’s Low Fat Mayo (15 calories per serving), is a perfect sandwich filler for me!
  • Bird’s Eye Steam Fresh Vegetables – These are a total staple in my lunches.  One bag = 2 lunch sides for me, toss them in the microwave, and go to town. Some of them are pre-seasoned, which is nice, but all of them are delicious, seasonings be damned.
  • Arnold’s Sandwich Thins – I feel like, if there was some sort of unofficial sponsor of the healthy living blogosphere, these would be it. Totally versatile, totally delicious, a mix of textures and flavas, all great!
  • Laughing Cow Wedges – Again, a no-brainer. They are a dream to replace butter, cream cheese, mayo, etc. I use the queso fresco flavor on sandwiches with some lettuce and tomato for a spicy pick-me-up, and the blue cheese on sammies or wraps with some Frank’s Red Hot (Literally, I DO put that $*** on EVERYTHING!).
  • Jell-o Mousse Temptations – Best dessert that is portable that I know, to date. My favorite part? To quote Stifler: “I can taste the bubbles!” There are delicious little air bubbles that make it taste sorta like if pudding and tonic water had a love-child, and dipped that baby in caramel. (well that’s just the caramel flavor, but that’s my favorite).
  • Zatarain’s Red Beans and Rice – I know, you can’t prepare these at work a la minute, but prepare them the night before and you’ve got at LEAST two meals waiting for you in tupperware! Add some lean protein like shrimp or chicken breast, and you could definitely stretch it to three (I say two, and some people are probably like WHOAH THERE, Godzilla, that’s a heaping big serving… Yes. I like big meals. And I don’t think I’m the only one…)
  • Extra Dessert Delights (ESPECIALLY key lime pie flavor) – I had a 40 day span of time (some call it Lent) where I gave up sweets/desserts/the whole nine yards. These became my desserts.  I picked up a small carton at Sam’s Club once I realized how tasty they are, and never looked back. They maintain their flavor for a LONG time, and they rock for taking care of that sweet tooth.

While that’s not a comprehensive list by ANY means, those are some of my most frequent players in the game of lunch.  Curious about what I ate today? Well, after a breakfast of Chobani Champions Honey-Nana (love that name) with some Kashi Berry Blossoms and Tupelo Honey thrown in for texture, my lunch actually featured a fair amount of what I’ve listed.

Note the ADORABLE tote I brought it all in?

Toasted Flax Seed Sandwich thin, tuna sammy with that low fat mayo, some lettuce (thanks, Durham Farmers’ Market) and tomato, and a side of roasted veggies (also thanks to the DFM!!).  As for dessert, I’m still chewing it! (Yeah, it’s the Key Lime gum. Violet Beauregarde, eat your heart out!

If you’re a YoPro, what are your lunch staples? Or, if you stay/work at home, how does that change what you eat?

Do you think Violet Beauregarde is the most detestable character from the classic story of Willy Wonka’s baller factory?

Discuss.