I say ‘no’ to oats.
Posted: September 8, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: chicken, hummus, KIND bar, oats, peanut butter, rice noodles, roasted veggies 38 Comments »The problem with oats…
Is that they make me hungrier then I was before I ate them. I know I’ve been through this before – but every few months, I try them again – and without fail, I finish the bowl feeling famished. This bowl should have done the trick: banana, sweet potato, ½ cup oats, almond milk, flax cereal, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter.
But even when the bowl tips the scales at over 400 calories, like this one did, I’m left with a growling tummy. I was furious with my breakfast (even thought it was tasty) and had to eat a bowl of cereal before leaving so that I didn’t keel over from starvation on my walk to work. Stupid oats.
Lunch was light, but held me over nicely. Better than the oats.
Rice noodles in broth with pieces of chicken – all leftovers from last night.
Plus another pink lady in a sweater. (I still can’t get over how awesome that sweater is)
After the kiddos left for the day, I had my favorite bar for snack.
These are so stinkin’ good. (Especially propped up on my Dr. Seuss mug)
For dinner, I had a big fat bowl of roasted veggies with hummus.
Cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, red onion, broccoli, carrots, green beans – tossed in evoo and garlic, then roasted at 425* for 45 minutes. Perfection.
In the 3rd grade world…
A water pipe in the ceiling of my classroom broke today.
Spewing water through the ceiling (and the lights!!) all over the floor and the kid’s desks. Thank the Lord that the students were not in the room (…can you imagine?!) I left school around 5:15 and the plumber still hadn’t showed up. I’m just hoping my classroom is back in working order tomorrow at 7am!
Hooked
Posted: September 1, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, leftover lunches | Tags: banana, celery, garlic rice, hummus, nutritional yeast, peanut butter, roasted potatoes, roasted veggies, sticky notes 17 Comments »I’m hooked on bananas. I used to despise them, but something changed, and now they’re my favorite quick breakfast.
Banana split. On the left, Dark Chocolate Dreams PB. On the right: creamy peanut butter with chunks of raw carrot cake.
Sandwiched and eaten on my walk to school.
For lunch, I had more favorites. I’m 100% hooked on roasted potatoes AND my garlicky pesto rice.
A cup of each. Plus an old time favorite that I’ve been hooked on since I was a kiddo.
I drizzled the pb and ate the mess with a fork.
(On my walk home from school, I saw the high school cross country team running through the park. It made me want to run alongside them! I’m totally hooked on running, and I miss high school cross country.)
For dinner, an old time favorite that I’ll never tire of: hooked on roasted veggies.
Carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, red onion, broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, chickpeas, hummus, nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar
All mixed up and ready to eat! Deeelish.
In the 3rd grade world…
I love organization and everything that goes along with it. Sticky notes included.
I have my kiddos hooked on phonics sticky notes. We take our ‘reading notes’ on them and then stick them to the board as we review. After we stuck them up there, 2 little boys asked: Can we organize them by color??
Uh, yes please. My heart melted, and I gave them both high fives.
Also, thanks for all your encouraging Trunchbull comments. I got a phenomenal night’s sleep last night and felt much more like Ms. Honey today. Smiles all around.
The Trunchbull
Posted: August 31, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: almond milk, peach, peanut butter, pesto rice, roasted potatoes, salad, sweet potato 36 Comments »Ahhh, it feels so good to be sitting on my couch. I was exhausted all day. If you’re interested to see what my student’s think of me when I’m exhausted, just skip the post and scroll to the bottom.
Otherwise…
Breakfast
Sweet potato blended with almond milk + peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter, and crunchy flax cereal
Lunch
Leftover garlic pesto rice - I know it looks gross, but it was so tasty.
Wrinkly peach
Snack
Dinner
The salad: romaine, celery, red peppers, roasted potatoes, green beans
The dressing: water, dry ranch seasoning, lemon juice, agave, salt, garlic powder, evoo
In the 3rd grade world…
One of my students called me “Ms. Trunchbull” today.
If you’ve ever read (or seen) Matilda, you know that is not a compliment. Maybe I should get more sleep tonight.
Tomorrow is Thursday.
Posted: August 25, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, dessert, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: banana, broccoli slaw, chicken stir fry, chili, ginger, lime, mushrooms, peanut butter, raw dessert, red cabbage, sweet potato 28 Comments »More of the same routine today. I’m not complaining – I like to have a regimented schedule. After my workout, I had a small breakfast.
Well, it looked small, but there were a lot of calories packed into this ½ cup of mush.
1 banana, 1 tbs. peanut butter, 1 date and this on top…
It held me over about the same amount of time as all of my breakfasts. 3 hours. That means that I’ve been starving for an hour by the time lunch rolls around.
Sweet potato with chili – this tasted so good today! I wanted 10 times this amount. I also had a teensy tiny side salad.
Broccoli slaw with hummus + water – I should have packed more, ’twas delish.
When I came home, I snacked on some carrots/hummus while I whipped up a chicken stir fry for dinner.
Red cabbage, mushrooms, chicken, ginger, garlic, salt, and lime juice squeezed on top
And now I’m off to enjoy some of these babies:
I saw Katie post about her new raw snickerdoodle cookies this afternoon, and I thought about them all day long!
* 30 grams unsalted, raw almonds
* 80 grams dates
* pinch of salt
* very scant 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 tsp. cinnamon
* pinch cream of tarter
Blend in your food processor. Smush into balls and enjoy!
In the 3rd grade world…
I had a little girl pee her pants while sitting in her chair today. The awful part is that she sat in it for almost an hour (!!) before she stood up and I noticed the wet pants. When I asked her about it, and suggested we call her mom to bring her some fresh clothes she just shrugged and said:
Nah, that’s okay.
I then rephrased my suggestion and told her she had to go call her mom for new clothes. My only guess is that she was so riddled with embarrassment that she didn’t want anyone else to know. Poor girl.
Bad Planning
Posted: August 19, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: banana, broccoli slaw, canteloupe, edamame, flax seed, fried rice, oats, peanut butter 24 Comments »I know I’ve written a post on this same subject before, but today I food planned so poorly. It started out okay…
Banana cut in half with peanut butter, flax seed and rolled oats
Sandwiched up and eaten in the car
Then for lunch (here’s where I really failed at the food-planning thing)
1 cup veggies (edamame + broccoli slaw) + cantaloupe
In hindsight, my lunch, weighing in at a whopping 218 calories was supposed to hold me over for 10 hours. Well…it didn’t. In fact, my lunch made me hungrier than I was before I ate it. Luckily, I found some microwave popcorn in the bottom of my bag and ate that, but still, I was about to gnaw my arm off all day. When I got home, I ate anything I could get my hands on.
Polished off both of these things.
Then a couple of dates + peanut butter (on top of an Eating Well magazine)
When Meeker walked in from work, I was staring into the pantry, just willing something to pop out and ask me to eat it. He saw the distress hunger in my eyes and suggested we go out to dinner to celebrate my favorite day of the week.
Done. A chicken fried rice order as big as my head from Mark Pi’s.
Plus a lettuce wrap.
As hungry as I was, I scarcely made a dent in the carby wonderfulness.
The after picture. I had enough leftovers to fill TWO to-go boxes.
I just finished packing my lunch for tomorrow (you can bet it included a box of leftover fried rice), and I crammed my lunchbox full of food, just to avoid the hunger I felt all day today.
Happy almost Friday!!
#3
Posted: August 18, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: banana, BBQ, canteloupe, cinnamon, green monster, peanut butter, staff lunch, sweet potato 25 Comments »It’s almost Thursday!! I kind of missed counting down the weekdays during the summer. I really do like my job, but weekends are sweet, and I can’t wait.
Breakfast
Green Monster: 1 cup frozen spinach (don’t forget the frozen spinach key!), ½ cup frozen blueberries, ½ cup soy milk, ½ frozen banana, 2 cups water – blended for about 2 minutes.
Froth.
Lunch was extraordinary! Once a month, the parents at my school cook lunch for the teachers. This month’s theme was Farwell Summer BBQ.
fruit (x5), cucumbers, broccoli, pulled pork, bbq beef, and a chicken leg (which I didn’t eat because I was fullll). I also had some bean/avocado/cilantro mess that was fantastic. Parents, you are the best.
I didn’t even need a snack this afternoon because I was so dang full for the rest of the day. When I came home I had one thing on my mind (Kristen, when you mentioned sweet potatoes at lunch, this stuck in my mind!)
Sweet potato (wrapped in plastic and microwaved for 7 minutes) with peanut butter, banana slices and cinnamon
It hit the spot, but left me wanting something juicy.
Summery cantaloupe.
In the 3rd grade world…
One of my students came up to me today and said:
Mrs. Unger, I just went #3 in the bathroom.
I wish I could have seen what my face looked like. I was perplexed. I mean…I have a couple guesses as to what #3 is, but I’ve NEVER heard that before. Anyone else?!
Tattle Turtle
Posted: August 16, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: baked omelet, banana, cinnamon, gluten free bagel, peanut butter, spring rolls, tattle turtle, veggies 26 Comments »Happy Monday! I hope you all had good ones. I started mine off with level 2 of the thirty day shred. I hadn’t done this in months, and I was surprised by how much strength I maintained.
Speaking of strength…remember my push-up challenge? When I started, I couldn’t do a single push up, and I vowed to work up to 25 consecutive push-ups before August hit. Well, I DID it!! It was hard, I really don’t like push-ups, but I DID it! I actually did it on August 1st, and it’s taken me 16 days to tell you all about it. Where is my head? Anyone else still following me on the challenge? How’s it going?
After the shred and a shower, I threw this together and ate in en route to work.
Love that morning sunlight.
Udi’s Gluten Free bagel toasted with crunchy peanut butter, ½ a smashed banana and cinnamon. Quite possibly the best thing I’ve eaten in months. I can’t even remember the last time I had a bagel, but hot dang, this was g-o-o-d. Unfortunately, bread (even gluten free) kind of gives me an upset stomach, so I dealt with that all day, but honestly, it may have been worth it.
Lunch
Bowl of veggies with soy vay and 2 leftover spring rolls. Speaking of spring rolls, you all had a lot of questions about them! They’re super easy…refer to this post for more detailed account of how I make mine.
I followed that up by some almonds and dates. A perfect lunch-time dessert.
I had a peach sometime during the afternoon, and then came home for an easy (read: 15 minute) dinner.
Baked omelet with zucchini, red peppers, spinach and avocado.
I love breakfast for dinner. Don’t you?
In the 3rd grade world…
I have this Tattle Turtle hanging on my white board so that I’m not bombarded by a million silly tattles every day. I thought I should introduce you to Mr.
Tattle Turtle because it will undoubtedly be the source of many laughs this year. For example, today someone told the Tattle Turtle:
Bobby and Johnny said “What the heck” at recess.
I have a class full of stinkers, and I’m sure a thousand “tattle worthy” shenanigans happened at recess, but THIS is what I needed to know about. The word heck.
Thank you Tattle Turtle for allowing me to escape the retelling of (what I am sure) was a very long and detailed story.
Balance
Posted: August 15, 2010 Filed under: Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: balance, chocolate, ice cream, peanut butter, salad, spring rolls 24 Comments »I wasn’t hungry for breakfast this morning, so guess what? I didn’t eat it. I just had coffee for breakfast. Even though there are 1000 people out there telling you to eat breakfast if you want to stay thin – you have to do what works for you. This morning, coffee worked for me. Usually I eat (and love) breakfast, but this morning I didn’t. Balance. (and I didn’t gain a single pound)
When lunched rolled around, I wasn’t any hungrier than normal – but I made a mixing-bowl-sized salad anyway. I prefer my veggies in mass quantities.
Romain lettuce (almost a whole head), red bell pepper, cucumber, green beans (canned), carrots, almonds, corn, avocado, flax seed, hummus + water dressing, and nutritional yeast.
Just to give you a little perspective, that’s a regular sized fork perched on the edge of my biggest mixing bowl. After the intake of all this roughage, I needed a few bites of this.
Salad, then ice cream. Balance.
All that fiber kept me FULL for the day. Dinner was light.
Spring rolls!
I soaked 4 pieces of rice paper, and then filled them with carrots, zucchini, bean sprouts, and avocado. Then I dipped them in Soy Vay Teriyaki.
And for dessert…
A little square of dark chocolate with crunchy pb. The perfect balance of sweet and salty.
I’ve got some relaxing to do before school tomorrow…enjoy your evenings!
So Long to Summer
Posted: August 14, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: banana, cinnamon, eggs, green beans, green monster, peanut butter, potatoes, running 14 Comments »Last night at 1am, Meeker and I decided to run a race this morning. A few of his co-workers were already signed up, so we though what the heck. 5 hours later, we popped out of bed and headed to register for our town’s So Long to Summer race.
I had this banana, peanut butter and cinnamon before heading out the door.
It was only a 5k, so nothing serious. We had SUCH a good time together – we jogged and chatted the whole way. There was nothing competitive about it, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Meeker and a few of his work buddies. He is in the blue on the bottom left. His boss is sitting next to him trying to steal pancakes/sausage from another employee. It was a fun morning.
We hung out at the park for a while, then came home for brunch.
Roasted potatoes and green beans with 2 eggs on top.
Coffee in my Don’t Mess with Texas mug.
I brought this along as I ran errands this afternoon (grocery store and post office…it’s so hard to get that kind of thing done now that I’m back at school!). And despite the coffee, when I got home I crashed. I took a 2 hour nap that was glorious. I woke up starving, and zombied into the kitchen to make a green monster.
¼ cup frozen blueberries, ½ frozen banana, 1 cup frozen spinach, ½ cup vanilla soy milk, 2 cups water, 1 scoop protein powder
So yummy. The trick to using frozen spinach is to blend it FOREVER. I’m talking 3 full minutes in the blender on high speed. Otherwise you end up with slimy chunks of spinach at the bottom of your smoothie, and that’s not fun for anyone. I chugged this before going to church (which was fantastic), and now we are home again, relaxing on the couch. Meeker just made steak, but I’m not really feeling it – I think I’ll hold off on dinner until I’m really hankering for something specific.
Hope you all had fun Saturdays as well – enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Who doesn’t love French Fries?
Posted: July 22, 2010 Filed under: Breakfast, Delish Dinners, Mid-Day Yummies | Tags: agave, banana, bbq sauce, cinnamon, franks and beans, french fries, hummus, peanut butter, salad, toast 29 Comments »The best day of the week (Thursday) was a busy one! I went for an early morning run, bible study, grocery store, my co-worker’s house to help with is little boy, a few more errands, the grocery store again (forgot something!) and was supposed to go to a concert in the park, but Meeker had to work late, so we didn’t make it. Whew! I’m actually glad to be home. In between all of those things, I ate some food.
Breakfast
Holly Style – millet toast, peanut butter, smashed banana, cinnamon, drizzle of agave
Lunch
Lettuce, broccoli slaw, mushrooms, leftover chicken sausage, hummus + BBQ+ water dressing
Luscious leaves.
Snack
Dried apples and walnuts
Dinner
Since Meeker had to work late, I pulled leftover franks and beans out of the freezer and heated them up. They held up pretty well! Since dinner, Meeker has gotten home, made some French fries, and I’m currently snacking on some of his Ore-Ida goodness. Who doesn’t love French fries??
Alright, I’m off to relax! Hope you all are having fantastic Thursday noches, and if not…smile, tomorrow is Friday! In just 12 days that will again mean something to me, but for now – I’m going to relish the summer and pretend I have no idea what day of the week it is.
What is your favorite day of the week?
