Sinking My Teeth into a Diablo Burger

On Monday I sunk my teeth into this juicy guy. I went up to Flagstaff, Arizona to visit my friend from high school diving. She toured me around downtown Flagstaff so we stopped to get the local favorite.

A Diablo Burger.

Normally, I would have had a veggie burger. But a few things stopped me:

1. I was with a friend in a city I’ve never been to. This place is raved about from the locals. I should probably try what they’re known for.

2. The beef is local, range-raised, antibiotic free and all of that good stuff.

So I went with the Diablo Burger with pepperjack cheese.

They cook it medium-rare (but truly, I think it was more medium-well done, it was only a bit pink in the middle) and place it on top of an english muffin and stamp it with the diablo burger seal.

It was super juicy, delightful and very messy. Kelsey and I unanimously agreed that this wouldn’t be the best place to go on a date simply for that reason.

Afterwards we did even more Christmas shopping. I knocked my cousin and my best friend off of the list.

 

Other eats:

Half a papaya filled with vanilla goat milk yogurt topped with blueberries and blackberries.

Still as amazing as ever. Perfect for 70 degree weather.

Turkey, Provolone, Spinach and Cranberry Sandwich.

I loaded it with fresh turkey slices and spinach and it was so good! I haven’t had one in so long. It definitely took me back to the days of living in the apartment last year.

In other news, I have most of my Christmas presents all wrapped and ready to be placed under the tree.

Just need to get my dad’s present, but I know exactly where and when I’m getting it.

How is everyone doing with their Christmas shopping?

A Tale of Three Breakfasts

Good Afternoon bloggies!

So the title of the post originally was going to be “A Tale of Two Breakfasts,” a cute play on the novel A Tale of Two Cities,  but then I was still hungry so I had another breakfast, thus making it 3

I started off with 3/4 of a chopped apple, a dollop of Chobani Greek yougurt, and my beloved puffed millet cereal

Before

After

All mixed up with a sprinkle of cinnamon

Later, when a few of my roomies were awake I was hungry for some eggs

Inside my one egg and one egg white omelette was:

sauteed frozen veggies (red bell pepper, mushrooms and a whole lot of broccoli)

turkey

half of a laughing cow cheese packet

S&P

which created this guy…

Yummy.

I started doing some homework and I was still hungry an hour later! Thus came the third breakfast.

Half of a banana dipped in Maranatha Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter

It didn’t stand a chance

The sun started to tease me again so I recruited Richard and went for a walk.

It ended up going for 2 1/2 hours

We followed the river the entire time and saw some gorgeous scenery

Some ducks and geese also joined us.

At the end of the walk my joints were getting pretty sore and my entire body was pretty pooped out. I could really feel the 5K and the elliptical and the walk I went on yesterday.

It was time for some much needed grub:

An amazing turkey sandwich filled with:

2 slices deli turkey

1 slice provolone

tomato

red onion

apple slices

red bell pepper

greek yogurt

dijon mustard

pesto

Tossed into the toaster oven for a couple of minutes. The toasted bread with the crunch of the apple, juice of the tomato, and melted provolone was just perfect!

What is your dream sandwich? Mine is filled with lots and lots of veggies!

Climbs and Falls

Hey bloggies I hope you all are enjoying your friday night! I’ve had such a great night!

I was pretty hungry later on in the day so I finished the rest of my green monster from this afternoon

As well as unpictured Mary’s Crackers dipped into some blueberry goat cheese.

It kept my stomach well settled until roomie dinner; and this time it was my turn to cook!

I made Cajun Turkey Burgers on whole wheat bread, a family-secret macaroni salad and a quick ceasar salad.

I still have to make food that will appeal to my roommates (who had a 30 minutes conversation on their favorite fast food restaurants, taco time came out in first)  but I did make it healthier by serving it on whole wheat bread and using barilla-plus macaroni elbows.

Personally, instead of cheddar cheese I had swiss and used dijon mustard instead of yellow. I could have switched out the mayonnaise in the macaroni salad, but I was too nervous to upset the careful balance in the recipe. I’ll do it next time I make it though.

Afterwards I headed to the rock climbing wall to climb for the first time in a month.

Today was super exciting! I climbed my first real overhang:

(my friend/personal rock climbing teacher had to take the picture cause my hands were shaking so hard!)

As well as I learned to lead climb, and took my first lead fall. I did not hook my rope to the top clip and instead grabbed onto the top of the rock and was instructed to let go. This meant I fell about 20 feet! It wakes you up way more than coffee in the morning. Whew!

Overall, a great day. I’ll be chilling in front of my TV watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

Do you rock climb? What has been your most favorite memory and scary memory? The fall was a big one for me, as well as when I was belaying a climber about twice the size of me. He fell and I was picked off up the ground about 10 feet and into the wall. Good times

Too Much Downward Dog

Whew! I am one sore bloggy! I think there was too much downward dog!

I woke up feeling great, then as the day went on the soreness crept on in. But I had some Zumba to work it all out

Today’s breakfast was inspired by Tyler’s use of Coconut Milk Creamer.

I absolutely couldn’t resist. Only 10 calories per tablespoon and $2.38. Essentially my dream of a product.

My oats started off like this:

2 packets of instant oatmeal

about 3 T of THE MIX

and ended up like this:

topped with about 2 T of Coconut Milk Creamer and 1 T Coconut flakes.

I used Instant Oatmeal this time as apart of my Eat It, Not Buy It goal.

I still have a few packets of Instant left, but after that I will be switching to old fashioned forever

A banana covered in maca, cinnamon and mesquite also joined the party:

Okay, so I went a little overzealous with the mesquite. What can I say, I’m in love with the stuff

I was starving for some lunch, but unfortunately I had to wait for the turkey to de-thaw a little so I had a ridiculously burnt sandwich thin with PB&J on top.

I may have taken a bite to see if the bread was still edible. It most definitely was! I usually am not patient enough to let it toast enough, but I’m glad I got too caught up with my emails this time.

Finally I was able to cut away some turkey from the big block of ice, uh, turkey and made some Chicken Turkey BBQ Salad

Definitely still my favorite home-made salad.

Afterwards it was some time for some Zumba! We learned Jai Ho today! OMG OMG OMG favorite dance ever! I was hoping we would do that song, and the dance our instructor has is just phenomenal. Seriously, she is after my heart <3

I’m doing a bunch of sorority things tonight, including eating dinner there tonight (burger bar, burger bar, burger bar!)

I may not be able to post after it, but I’ll try to get some super sneaky shots of dinner. I feel its important how I eat when presented with mucho options of unhealthy food.

What is your best tip for eating when you have mostly unhealthy options?

Mine is eating in moderation! I usually eat a healthy snack before hand, fill my plate up with at least 1/2 veggies or brown rice if available, and savor each bite of the unhealthy stuff.

My Dear Millet

Good news bloggies, I MADE IT on my goal of Limit the Bill.

I got some great stuff from Market of Choice and Safeway.

Sandwich thins, flatbread, coconut milk creamer, millet, parsnip, red bell pepper, 2 tomatoes, 2 oranges, caesar salad, spinach, pesto, sharp cheddar cheese, bananas

European blend greens, cajun seasoning, WW macaroni elbows, WW hamburger buns, black beans, ground turkey

Now the bill………….

Drumroll please……..

Trader Joe’s (from Saturday)       $12

Market of Choice                              $6 (!!!!!)

Safeway                                              $45

Grand total for the week               $63

I made it $12 under budget! I’m so happy

I’m hoping I can keep it up! I actually was a lot less stressed this week only allowing myself to buy what is on the list. There wasn’t any “well I really want it, but I don’t exactly need it, so is it worth the price” buys.

I was super duper excited to have this guy back in my life

PUFFED MILLET!

I quickly celebrated by eating a bowl of Annie’s Fruity Bunnies, Life and Millet cereal.

Oh baby.

This is my most favorite cereal mix. I’m so glad it back

Looks like I need to pull some blog-action magic and rewind a bit to this morning.

Breakfast was another 2 egg white sandwich on 1/2 a sandwich thin (it was all I had left), with laughing cow cheese and hot sauce

But I ate it before I remembered to photograph it. *Lowers my head in food-blogger shame*

Here is what was left of it though!

Nothing.

I also made my friend and I a smoothie later in the morning. She has been super sick lately, so I promised her a spinach smoothie. Turns out I don’t have any spinach left, but I still made her a smoothie.

Into the mix for 2 smoothies

1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries

2 bananas

2 T flax seed meal

3/4 c. Almond milk

3/4 c. water

4 ice cubes

Look at that color!

Hers went into my travel smoothie mug. Note I got green so I wouldn’t freak people out with my green smoothies. Makes non-green smoothies look icky

I added a spoonful of chocolate protein powder to mine

Voila! Magnifico!

I had to eat lunch in class while watching a movie, but I remember to take a picture of it when I was creating it

I was trying to recreate the stellar sandwich from yesterday.

4 slices deli turkey (one serving was 6 slices)

onion

tomato

red bell pepper

1 tsp dijon mustard

2/3 laughing cow cheese

It was really good! Not quite as fantastic as yesterday’s sandwich, but I think food is always better when prepared by someone else!

I also snacked on a pear

Eh, it was ok. It was an Albertson’s pear though so I really shouldn’t have been expecting anything good.

Off to a yoga and body sculpting class in a little while

Then going for my second goal of Eat It, Not Buy It with what’s hopefully a great dinner.

Question of the day: what do you do when you feel sick?

I try to get as many fruits and veggies in me as possible and rest as often as possible. Ideally my day would be: breakfast- oatmeal with flax, chia seeds & goji berries, lunch- a smoothie, and dinner- a salad.

Sandwiches and Sports Injuries

How is everyone’s Monday going?!

It’s fairly sunny and warm-ish here so I’m a happy girl…for a Monday at least!

I feel bad that I have to rely on phone pics today. I put my camera battery on the charger last night, but it didn’t actually charge. It’s so frustrating

Breakfast was a two egg-white sandwich with hot sauce and 1/3 of original Laughing Cow cheese. As well as 1/2 a mango, 1/2 a banana and 2 strawberries with a dollop of Chobani greek yogurt on top.

I had already taken a bite into the egg sandwich before I remember that I could use my phone!

Skip ahead to lunch and my friend treated me to lunch on campus.

I had a gigantic sandwich! It had turkey, provolone cheese, dijon mustard, jalepenos, onion, pickles, lettuce, green bell pepper and tomatoes on a 8 multigrain whole grain bread.

It was huge! But SOOO good and filling I think I’m going to need to recreate this stat!

I had my Zumba class soon after which I really worked up a sweat. I was getting super worried how the first two classes made me really sweat, however the past couple of classes haven’t at all! Today was definitely different. I gave it my all, especially with Lady Gaga

My knee has been acting up lately. I’m nervous about doing any kind of workout, especially Zumba where there is a lot of jumping up and down. I had a really interesting read about a doctor’s take on sports injuries and how they treat themselves. Being the daughter of a doctor’s kid I’ve had a lot of “take a pill and tough it out.” I feel like I’m not getting any better by doing that. All of my life I have been plagued by injuries that just add up.

What has been your take on injuries? Do you ice, rest and recover or take a pain killer and wait till it goes away? What did you think of the article?

I’m eating dinner at my sorority tonight, and I’ll try to sneak a picture on my phone so you can see how I eat when I’m there.

Double trouble

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday evening. My day was spent running errands and studying.

First we have to back track to yesterday.

I snacked on the blueberry goat cheese that I got yesterday at the farmer’s market on top of some Mary’s Crackers.

Dinner was eaten shoveled in my mouth at 4:00 due to having to be at my sorority at 5

A goat-cheese & guava quesadilla (recipe from Barefoot Contessa), with Baja-style corn leftovers and a baby salad beast filled with avocado, red bell pepper and tomato with pear dressing from Trader Joe’s.

The quesadilla was the real star here. It tasted sweet and decedent like a crepe! Absolute LOOOOOOVE.

After the sorority function, we went back to the sorority house and chilled for a while. The sorority house isn’t filled with very healthy eats, lets just say. However apples and oranges are always available so I cut an apple (with a plastic fork), sprinkled some cinnamon and tossed it into the microwave for 45 seconds. I actually had two guys stand behind me and say how hot I was for “cooking” and not just top ramen. Wow. Anyways, everyone wanted a taste of it and loved it! I’m so sad I don’t have a picture of it, but just imagine apple slices with cinnamon on it. If I’m making this again I’m demanding at least a metal butter knife.

This morning’s omelette was posted earlier, so it’s time now for some lunch-action!

No, ladies and gentlemen you are not seeing double. I had another guava jelly & goat cheese quesadilla and a baby salad beast. I can’t get over how much the quesadilla tastes like a crepe!!! It’s so fantastic

I ran off to do some errands. Stopped at Target to pick up a few things but at the check-out line realized that I had forgotten my wallet. I had to run back to the apartment then run back again to Target to actually buy them. I swear my shopping trips can’t ever go right.

I also stopped at Trader Joe’s where I kept in mind the two parts of my grocery shopping goals. My first goal discussed earlier today was to Limit the Bill, by only spending $75 a week on groceries. The second part of my goal, Eat It, Not Buy It, is making me eat the food I already have stocked up instead of buying a lot more.

I have a very limited food storage space that includes half a cabinet for foods I use most often and two small boxes in my bookshelf for foods I don’t use as much.

Yeah, that’s all the room I have. Oh, well and some floor space for cereal boxes.

I apologize profusely for the horrendous camera pics, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Anyways, so in order to make room and not have food shoved in every nook and cranny I’m going to try to eat what I have, and limit what I buy.

In that case, my haul wasn’t very big from Trader Joe’s

Turkey breast, Oatmeal bread, and Indian Fare’s Jaipur Vegetable and a reusable bag.

I’m very, very, very excited to try the Jaipur Vegetables

I had to rush off to a meeting, which wasn’t bad for once. Hoorah! It tends to help when I’m active in the conversation.

But after I was starving for some stir fry.

I grilled a turkey cutlet season with salt and pepper, and put it off to the side. Then sauteed frozen stir fry vegetables while washing the noodles.

And finally I combined the turkey, stir fry, noodles, 1 T of olive oil and 1 1/2 T of Stir fry sauce over low heat to come up with this beautiful sight.

It was all pretty good except for the turkey which was really tasteless.

I used these noodles

I didn’t even realize the calories on this guy until after cooking them! 20 calories per serving, so 40 total. Holy cow!

I just calculated up the calories on my meal and I’m honestly astounded. I’m not a usual calorie counter, but here’s the stats:

Noodles: 40 cals

Veggies: 45 cals

Turkey: 70 cals

Olive Oil: 20 cals

Stir Fry sauce: 30 cals

Total: 205 calories

Holy smokes! That is nothing for how big and satisfying it was! It’s been 3 hours and I’m still full.

Wow. Well it’s off to bed for me soon. I hope you all get some rest for the week ahead

Are you a calorie counter? Do you just watch them a bit, or not at all?

I tend to as what I call it, “know what I’m eating.” I look for what a serving size is and the sodium and sugar levels as well, plus scanning through the ingredients quickly.

New Recipe. New Bathing Suit. New Day.

Even though I was in studio for well…let me think…for 6 hours today, today has been going much, much better.

Lunch was packed and brought to studio.

It started with this…

And ended with this

A turkey, cranberry and spinach sandwich on Whole Wheat Sourdough

Carrots–with hummus for some dippage action.

And a chopped up apple.

It kept me sufficiently full. Especially the carrots!

I returned and found that my new Victoria’s Secret bathing suit had arrived!

I love the sequins at the top, but the pink bottoms is pretty much a day glow pink, though it doesn’t show in pictures. I wish it wasn’t quite so bright, but hopefully I can still pull it off.

It has been really chilly here so I heated up a cup of organic jasmine-oolong tea

Pure heaven.

Dinner today was a new recipe. It’s from one of my sister’s cookbooks but naturally don’t have the name of it. Doh!

Essentially its whole wheat pasta shells with tomato, broccoli and chickpeas.

It was very, very good! I’m so excited for leftovers tomorrow. I halved the recipe so I have a ton of the ingredients left. I will be making it again very soon!

I also had a salad on the side with corn, grape tomatoes, and salsa on top.

Now this was disgusting! The salsa tasted very funky. I’m sticking to real dressing from now on.

Afterwards another cup of jasmine-oolong tea was drunk.

Now onto the fun part of my day…

Dying Easter Eggs!!!

Had a blast with two of the roomies Richard and Cally. This reminded me of when I was a kid.

I’m really excited for Easter tomorrow!

What is your favorite childhood memory of Easter?

I have a lot, but I would say the scavenger hunt the Easter bunny sent us around the house to find our baskets! I can’t wait to have kids to do that for them