omelet

Don’t Skimp on the Shrimp (Omelet)

/ foodsweatandbeers / 15 Comments

Ooooh, baby, do you know what that’s worth?

OOooh, Heaven is a place on EARTH!

And that place is in my kitchen. Or, I guess, now, my belly.  But first…

CX30 + BodyCombat = WHOAH!

Les Mills, you’ve done it again.  O2 Fitness Clubs launched the newest releases of their infamous Body____ classes and, since Saturday, I’ve tried BodyJam, BodyCombat, and CX30.  Each one was more hardcore than the last.

Yesterday, it was a double whammy. CX30 was up first, followed by BodyCombat.  And I kept the HRM on the whole time.  An hour and a half later, 1,227 calories blasted, and approximately a hand towel’s worth of sweat drenching my body, I felt like a superwoman.  I also felt like I needed to eat a house.  I didn’t, I enjoyed a homemade whole wheat, eggplant, spinach, Parmesan, mozzarella, and Sockarooni pizza (I should’ve shaped it like a house).  And then, with the help of my new favorite app, I slept like a rock.

But today is a new day.  A day that I was craving seafood.  The pickin’s at home were slim, but there was something beautiful in the fridge.  Well, a few somethings beautiful.

Shrimp, avocado, tomato

Come to MAMA!!

Inspired by this Shrimp and Avocado Omelet recipe from Whole Foods, I scrambled the heck out of two eggs, chopped my ingredients, and hoped for the best as the eggs fried in some EVOO.

Sizzling

I have to use up my never-ending supply of spinach, so I added that to the innards of this omelet, along with the (pre-cooked) shrimp (from Target… not exactly the local fishmarket, but it’ll do in a pinch.)

This totally screams “throw me inside some eggs!”

And, after a flip and a fill, followed by a fold, this omelet was ready to be topped with the always-decadent combination of tomato and avocado.

You should want this in and around your mouth

This protein-packed omelet will certainly get me through the rest of the day and, though it was jam-packed with shrimp, I can’t help but feel like I have a seafood itch that needs scratching. And I know just the shellfish to scratch that itch.

Yummmmm

Yummmmm

Oh, Aqua Grill, take me home…

Do you eat seafood? If so, what’s your favorite? ANYTHING I CAN MAKE?!

I don’t think I even tried fish (other than canned tuna) until the past year or so….  Now it’s become one of my favorite ways to eat flavorful AND healthy meals.

Minding My Peas and Qs

/ foodsweatandbeers / 11 Comments

Good afternoon y’all, hope you’re enjoying this glorious summer day!

For a Tuesday in the middle of the August, the weather couldn’t have been nicer. It was crisp, it was cool, and I must say…. I think love was in the air.  In fact, I actually caught two little lovebirds in the act!

Sweet, sweet mothra love.

These two lovebugs (literally) were sitting on my car all morning.  And I’ll be honest, if this is what Moth-Sex looks like…  I’m not too impressed.  Gross.

Before work, I hit up the Teet for the tail end of super ultra mega hyper coupon week and picked up some serious cereal goodness.

Stocked and Loaded!

Yeah, a few of my new favorite cereal were on sale, AND I had a coupon, and so three boxes = about $5, slightly more than what would normally cost for a single box.  Love it.

While at work, I was thinking about heading to Zumba later today, and I figured I’d ice my ankle a little bit, as it’s still been bothering me.  At the office, though, my first aid supplies are running rather thin so I made due.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present:

Ice Pack made of Frozen peas, and held to my ankle with bubble wrap

If they had a competition for the MacGyver of Doctors, I’d win, hands down.

When I got home for lunch, all I could think about was yesterday’s Good Karma Omelet and, since everyone loves good karma, I whipped another (remarkably similar looking) one.

1 egg white, 1 egg, green pepper, spinach, roma tomato, buffalo chicken, and muenster cheese

But I also paired it with a little something extra.

Buff Chick Rollups and Carrots

I rolled up some lunch meat and cheese, added some carrots and Sabra Hummus (Spinach artichoke), and chomped away.

Dessert was a salty one:

Nature's Place Salted Sunflower Seeds!

Since I’ve been inhaling these puppies all throughout ABC Family’s new “hit to be”, The Lying Game I think it’s time to pack the gym bag and head back to the office.

Do you think that moths make sweet, sexy moth love? Or they just got stuck that way?

What’s the most creative “makeshift” bandage/brace/etc you’ve ever made?

Good Karma Omelet

/ foodsweatandbeers / 14 Comments

Good afternoon, friends and neighbors!!

It was rough to go back to work today after a wonderful weekend.  In case you missed anything:

I’ll admit, I spent lots of time at home this weekend, being a little homebody.  That’s because the next two weekends will be spent on planes, trains, and automobiles (literally), heading to the Healthy Living Summit in Philadelphia (I fly in at 3:15!! And already have a double welcome wagon of Krissie and Ali!!  Then, the next weekend, I fly BACK to Philly for my cousin’s bridal shower.

Oh yeah, and on Wednesday, August 24th, 2011, I TURN 24!!

I promise to be less Birthdayzilla this year...

In the meantime, I’ve got a busy week ahead of me.  Lots of work, workouts, and a low-carb diet for the week that I’m trying out as I’ve been feeling fairly full and bloaty all weekend (due primarily to MANY carby snacks of fried goodies, too many Wheat Thins to count, Heath bar pancakes drenched in syrup (heavenly), a few too many cheddar biscuit samples at A Southern Season, and (of course) tacos and chips galore.

Oi vay.

Time to cut back a little (though I’ll still enjoy my Fiber One 80 calorie cereal I just started enjoying for breakfast).

Today, when I came home for lunch, I spotted a sad, sad sight.

PLANTTTTTT!!

My poor basil plant took a tumble overnight, probably due to the Noah’s Ark-like downpour all evening….  Well, I flipped it right up, gave it some water, and I think got some good karma because then I did something I don’t think I’ve successfully done since I moved to this apartment.

The Perfect Omelet Flip!!

Well, what happened next will be known as the Good Karma Omelet.

  • 1 egg white, 1 egg base
  • 1 handful of spinach, sauteed
  • 1/5 of a green pepper, also sauteed
  • 5 pieces of turkey pepperoni, sliced into thirds
  • 1 slice of provolone cheese, melted

Slather that bad boy in Frank’s Red Hot, and you’ll taste all that good karma just filling up your belly.

For dessert, I enjoyed a fresh peach from my beau’s boss’ field!

Fresh and ripe and great to the last drop!!

I am sensing great things for the rest of the day.  My plant is upright, my belly is full (but not with many carbs), and True Blood, like that peach, was good to the last drop.

Ha, vampire joke.  Get it?

Good.  For tolerating that silliness, here’s a sexy Eric and Sookie moment to enjoy.

Sexy, can I? (click on image for Source)

Are you going to the Healthy Living Summit?

How did you earn some good karma today?

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.)

Catching my Unicorn

/ foodsweatandbeers / 15 Comments

Back to reality. ugh.

Driving away from the shore last night, I tweeted the following:

Leaving the shore feels a lot like what I imagine splitting your soul into a Horcrux or two.

Seriously, though, it breaks my heart every time, and the only good part about riding on that bridge away from where my family and heart is would have to be knowing that I’ll be able to come back again.  Maybe not for another month…. but I’ll be back.

At least the view's nice...

Lunch was actually a very warm welcome to reality, today, as I whipped up a random sort-of omelet (my omelet flipping skills are abysmal, at best).

Hey, appearance isn't everything!

Inside this eggy wonder:

  • 3 egg whites (and a teensy bit o’ yolk that escaped my clutches)
  • black beans
  • a bit o’ turkey
  • reduced fat mexican cheese blend
  • sauteed peppers
  • Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (original. don’t mess with the classic.)

Not too shabby.  I used a few Tostito’s Scoops to give a little crunch to the combo, and voila!  Basically as gourmet Mexican as Mez in Durham.

In other news, there was an amazing thing that happened this weekend other than silly hennas and perfect bike rides.  My mother presented me with this:

Heart palpitations when I see one of these (the box, but maybe also the Harry Potter book)

She had obviously read my recap of my amazing Nordstrom experience, but we also talk about Nordstrom on the reg.  We’re both kinda Nordy Girls (a term I just heard of and loved and will now use constantly whenever I can.)  So when she heard about the bag of my dreams, and saw the 4 picture messages I texted her… well, the way she explained it was this,

This is from your Ami and Buzz. Those were her parents, my grandparents. They had 8 children, and weren’t Daddy Warbucks rich, but they fully believed that if you saw something, and you loved it, and you thought about it all the time… Even if it was a little out of your financial reach, you should just get it.  You only live once, and it will be worth more than money if it makes you that happy.

Even more beautiful than the shiny Nordy box.

Inside was the Oryany Leather Flap Satchel from Nordstrom in Chocolate.  The exact bag that I’d described to my Nordstrom stylist as “my unicorn” in the sense of being out of reach (at least financially and for my budget).  The salesgirl responded with, “OH! because you love unicorns?”

No.(though I do, and used to collect them and still have a bunch.)

But that statement makes me sure that you’re meant to be at Nordstrom focusing on fashion instead of creating metaphors for handbags.  Leave that to me.

The bag of my dreams! (Next to the boy of my childhood dreams!)

I wasted no time in filling all the numerous pockets and compartments, then prancing around my room with it on.  It can fit my calendar, my Kindle DX, my wallet, phone, camera, lipgloss, lady stuff (yeahhhh, you know, like tampons and Chick Beer or something), a notepad, and I don’t even know what else because it’s not full!! It has two straps that close and a lock, so I feel like my stuff is very safe, and the handle on the top can transform it into a fashionable briefcase-esque bag.

It’s perfect.

A HUGE thanks to my tiny baby mommy, and (of course) Ami and Buzz, the woman and man who instilled in her a love for her children that always has her going out of her way to make their dreams come true.  Even if those dreams are unicorn bags.