taco salad

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?

Everyone’s in Crisis!! Better do a Beer Review…

/ foodsweatandbeers / 4 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and a happy Hump Day!  Normally, I love Wednesdays, mostly due to the changing of the sales. But there weren’t too many excellent sales today, and so I just putzed around.  Lunchtime was great, as I bared my soul and told you all about No Pants Wednesday (and every day, for me). I was happy to hear how many of you hate pants as well. To all you pants lovers… there’s hope for you still.  After work, I got dolled up in my workout gear, and hit the gym.

I'm workout Barbie!

Tonight, I’m on call for a crisis line. This could either mean nothing, or it could mean a lot of stressful calls. Unfortunately, tonight, it meant a lot of stressful calls. I checked in for my shift at 5pm and then hopped into an AbSculpt class. The teacher this week was that same instructor from the last week I took the class, the pilates queen, and so it was a different vibe of workout. We did some leg circle things, and some nice inner thigh workout that I loved.  I made it through the 26 minutes of the workout no sweat (well, false, some sweat, but you know what I mean.)

Then, it was time for BodyPump. I love taking the ab class before BodyPump, if only to be able to have a jump start on the “good spots” for Pump (which is always a packed house.)  In the middle of Pump, though, I received my first crisis call of the evening, right before the tricep track. I ran out of the fitness room and to a secluded section of the gym, only to return after the 12 minute call (aka right in the middle of the lunge track.)  Even though it was a choppy workout, it was a good one (nice to get some strength training in there after all my cardio).

Work it, now!

After working it, I got TWO more calls, leaving me a little worse for wear in the stress zone. Luckily, the beau took the wheel and cooked up some ground turkey, perfect for a taco salad (what else is new, right?)  I didn’t snap a shot, but it looked a LOT like this:

Deconstruct your meals into salads!

Recycled picture, just imagine that salad with less tomatoes and no avocado, and more salsa and pepper. Either way, it was fantastic.

In honor of #IPADay, we’ve been enjoying quite a few IPAs this week, and tonight, I figured “Why not?!”

Fort Collins Brewery Rocky Mountain IPA (with a fun elephant!!)

The Fort Collins Brewery Rocky Mountain IPA  is described by the brewer as:

An IPA by definition is liberally hopped and higher in alcohol. We made Rocky Mountain IPA by dry hopping for an intense floral aroma and adding a generous helping of malt to create a backbone stable enough to support the characteristic bitterness of the beer.

In my opinion, this is a quality beer (shock shock, another from Colorado) worthy of trying during IPA day (or any day). It was poured into a glass with very little head, coming out a dark orange/brown color.  When I smelled it, I initially smelled the hops (typical with an IPA) but I also thought I smelled some sort of cinnamon or dark spice.  The taste was a little malty, which is why Ryan liked it, and why he wasn’t so turned off by the floral tastes (think Bell’s Two Hearted, that’s what he’s not a fan of, but which I am a big fan!). The only part that I didn’t like was the mouthfeel (hee hee that word always makes me chuckle). My mouth felt sort of dry afterwards, almost like a bitter friction on my tongue which I am not too fond of… Still tasty, but probably wouldn’t go outta my way to get it in the future.  Unless I’m in a fun elephant mood. If that’s the case…. Maybe.

But maybe then, I’ll just watch these funny elephants.

Do you have any plans for IPA Day?

Are you excited for any beer related events? How about any other weekend fun?

I can’t wait for this weekend (which unofficially starts tomorrow!) Peak Brewing Hop Noir glass night tomorrow at Rockfish, then Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ this weekend!!

The 61 Hour Wedding Whirlwind Weekend: Pictures and the Ceremony!

/ foodsweatandbeers / 8 Comments

Hey y’all and TGIT!!  Truly, though, I’m feeling FANTASTIC on this Thursday.  It may have something to do with the unplanned extra hour and a half I got this morning when I decided that the great dreams I was having were more important than the 7 am BodyAttack class….  No matter what is causing it, I hope this feeling doesn’t fade anytime soon!!

Lunch today also may have something to do with my great mood, because it was a perfect one.  One of my coworkers brought a little treat for everyone in the office and put it on the “community microwave” which is usually where we put snacks that we made or leftover goodies to “share with the rest of the class.”  Today’s was MUCH better than cupcakes.

Tiny tomatoes, perfect for lunchtime!

They completed the salad for the ages:

Even better than last night!!

This little taco salad was very similar to last night’s taco salad but tasted much more delicious.  I think it had something to do with the freshest little tomatoes and the fact that there wasn’t 1/4 lb of SUPER STRONG spicy turkey (which I replaced with a 1/3 can of Bush’s reduced sodium blackbeans) overpowering everything.  I really tasted the avocado, and it gave the salad a creamy counterpart to the crisp peppers.

Anyway, here’s the fourth installment of the wedding weekend (sorry if you’re getting sick of this, but not too sorry because it’s been a blast to write and great for my mom to get a play by play of the wedding!!)

In case you missed it, here are the other parts:

After we finished getting all dolled up, we rushed Cait’s room to observe her (much more laborious) preparation.

THE DRESS!

Cait’s dress was a total looker, fitting for such a flawless bride!

The bow on the back was difficult, apparently, but we had a bridesmaid for that! Juli, one of Cait’s old roomies, was ready to step up.

Bow-i-gami!

There were many many pictures snapped of the bridesmaids, of Cait, of the moms, of the photographer:

This is so meta.

Then, we hopped onto a trolley to head up to Mt. Washington for THE BIG REVEAL!! In case you’re unaware, the big reveal is the first look that the groom gets at his bride.  Especially important when you’re taking pictures before the ceremony!

Trolley beers

 

Love at first sight.

Clearly, the tallest of the bridesmaids.

It was incredibly hot and sweaty during the picture taking, but we had a good time in the trolley thanks to our dear friend: beer.

Cheers to the happy couple!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get many pictures from the ceremony considering how annoying it would’ve been having a Maid of Honor snapping shots inside the chapel.  But thankfully, my handsome date snapped a few.

So excited!

MWA!! It's official!!

Oh, hey boyf! I FOUND YOU! and you found... my crazy eyes!

The ceremony was beautiful, the vows… inspiring.  And we all hooted and hollered as they walked off into a sea of bubbles!

Note my "I scream louder than anyone else!" face.

Join us tomorrow for our final installment: the afterparrrrrrrtyyyyyy! (also known as the reception).

Microwaves vs. Crockpots: A Weight Watchers Metaphor

/ foodsweatandbeers / 9 Comments

Good evening, y’all!!

Today, after work, I took a rest day, as I knew I would.  I spent some time at the grocery store, and came out with a KILLER haul due to sales and bogos.  25 dollhairs for all of this:

Hooray Grocery Goodies!

Well, actually, the box of wine glasses/glass of wine on the left was simply what I was drinking post-grocery store.  I did some cleaning, I drank some vino, and I watched some X-Men and continued to feel like a superhero. It was a true success.

For dinner, we had tacos. Well, I had some taco salad and the beau nibbled some true tacos.  It was a SEXY looking meal.

Delightful!

In the salad:

  • Spinach base
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 green pepper
  • 1/2 avocado
  • spicy turkey mix
  • salsa
  • low fat mexi-mix cheese!

It was simply the best.

Tonight, I was thinking back on a post I read back in my tumblr days.  The idea was on weightloss and how folks are either microwaves or crockpots.  This post, by the Active Artist, (real name: Alex) basically talked about how different folks lose weight incredibly fast (microwaves) or slow and steady (crockpots).  Please read the post to see his opinion (I don’t wanna sum it up wrong) but here’s my response.

I love this analogy.  I’ve recently been talking a lot about weight loss to my mother, who started my journey with me last March, but fell off the wagon with grad school, five kids, a husband, and a veryyyy busy life to handle. She was asking me questions about losing the weight I did, and how I did it so fast.  However, I just looked back at some old posts and maybe have an addition to this metaphor.

In March, I started my goal to lose weight. By August 12th, I was 181.5, down over 30 lbs.  However, at my last weigh-in I was 172.  This is about 9 lbs since August, which just a month shy of a year ago. So while I lost the initial 30 lbs in what seemed like no time, the last 20 that I’m trying to work on have been like inchworms they’re leaving so slowly.

Part of it may have to do with moving in with someone, and adjusting my eating habits to another person. Part of it may have to do with this newfound freedom of looking good in clothes and feeling great despite not losing every week, because I am eating what I want (admittedly, what I want is often grilled chicken, veggies, salads, etc), and feeling sexy.  But the thing is, I know I can do better.  So here’s my addition:

I think I’m a microwave. A trusty dependable one that’s worked your whole life, only one day, it’s not working. And so your food’s not cooking at all, and you’re confused. Only the thing is, it’s going to end up being something stupid, like it’s not actually plugged into the wall socket.

All I need to do is find that damn plug, and plug back into my weight loss. That, I think, will give my system the jump-start it needs.

And, if you’re not sure, I have mixed feelings about microwaves.

Thanks for reading, I know it was text-heavy.

How about you?  Are you a microwave or a crock pot?

Are you trying to lose weight or are you happy where you are?