Today was Day 2 following Kath’s sample meal plan from my nutritional consultation. As I alluded to yesterday, today was made a tad more complicated by my schedule for the day.
All started out well…
I woke up at 5am to work out with Jillian, but as soon as I climbed out of bed, I knew I needed a rest day. My back, arms and butt were SO sore! A thunderstorm had rolled in, so I climbed back in bed until 6am.
BREAKFAST
After making a French press pot of coffee, I made my Kath approved breakfast burrito.
Sorry for the picture. First of all, you can’t see the beautiful filling goodness. I should have done live action shots, but really I was just trying to get breakfast made and eaten before the boy woke up! Secondly, the lighting stunk because it was 6:30 and still dark outside due to the storm.
Whole wheat tortilla warmed in the microwave a few seconds and filled with:
- 1 slice smoked and peppered bacon
- 1 scrambled egg (I cooked it in a skillet sprayed with a little olive oil and added salt, pepper and powdered garlic)
- 1 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese
- .5 tbsp of salsa
Coffee with 2 tbsp soy creamer and .5 tbsp of honey.
YUM.
AM SNACK
Smoothie!
- 1/2 cup of soy milk
- 1 scoop of Amazing Grass Chocolate Infusion Amazing Meal
- 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 1 small banana
I ended up adding a tad bit more milk because the Amazing Meal was a bit gritty.
I really think I like having smoothies as snacks instead of trying to have them as meals. I miss the chewing action or something and I always feel a little sad with just a cup of liquid to drink.
My Mom asked me to take her to Hot Springs today. Before we left, we stopped at our chiropractor’s office for adjustments. My shoulder tension has been through the roof lately and I knew I had to get treatment because I was losing range of motion in my neck (not able to turn my head very far). The doc worked on me and then sent me to massage therapy. I already feel tons better and I am promising myself to keep up with maintenance appointments!
LUNCH
Once we got to Hot Springs, we didn’t have a lot of time for lunch so we ended up at San Francisco Bread Company, thinking it would be a healthy fast option.
Kath’s planned lunch was a Mexican Bean Salad with Tortilla Chips, so I tried to choose the closest thing on the menu to it.
Chinese Chicken Salad (Lettuce, mandarin oranges, chicken, chow mein noodles, almonds, tomatoes, and oriental dressing on the side). I remembered last time I ordered this that it was just okay. I appreciate the green lettuce, but the chicken was bland and the dressing was too sweet. I ate probably 1/3 of it and I took a few bites of my Mom’s Mediterranean Chicken sandwich.
Do you spy the cookie and Lay’s chips in the back? These came on Noah’s kids PB&J sandwich plate and I snatched them off really quick before he focused all attention on them instead of his sandwich.
PM SNACK
Meal plan: 2 tbsp of hummus and 18 Kashi crackers
I stuck a Kashi granola bar in my purse (pumpkin pie flavor…Hello, Fall!), but I didn’t end up needing it. We did our regular drive through at Starbucks on the way out of town and I got a tall soy cafe au lait.
DINNER
Meal plan: Chicken Sausage Dogs and Grilled Asparagus
I was all ready to make this dinner, when I got a call from Billy that he was meeting after work with my Dad. It ended up turning into a dinner meeting at Trio’s. This is my life…fun but a little bit like a whirlwind!
When Mom, Noah and I arrived, the guys had ordered a bottle of Pinot for the table as well as hummus and pita.
I started out my meal with a green house salad, creamy vinaigrette on the side.
Then my Dad and I split an order of salmon with the sauce on the side.
Green beans, a new potato and ancho peppers on the side.
It was a perfect portion size. The salmon was a little overcooked and the green beans were a little squeaky (I need my green beans cooked until they don’t squeak on my teeth!), so I left a little of both.
OTHER
UPS delivered a new gasket and screen for our Bialetti stovetop espresso maker. Ours has been down and out ever since “someone” forgot to put water in it while brewing coffee one morning! :)
We’ve been using our French Press, but it hasn’t been the same. Oh, sweet espresso pot, I have missed you!
Needless to say, when we got home from dinner, I had to fire it up!
If you’ve never had or heard of stovetop espresso, Bialetti pots can be found in most every Italian kitchen as the daily coffee maker.
I decided to take a few photos to show you my coffee making process.
First, I fill the water reservoir with cold water.
Then I grind 3 scoops of whole bean coffee on a very fine grind setting and add it to the filter.
Set it on the reservoir and make sure there’s no grounds on the edges:
Firmly twist on the top of the espresso maker:
Here’s a bottom view of the top part showing the brand new rubber gasket and screen:
Set the pot on the stove with a medium-low setting (keep the flames under the pot and don’t let it hit the sides):
As it’s heated, the water is forced up through the filter of coffee grounds and the upper chamber is filled with the most beautiful finished coffee!
It’s a very quick process and my stainless steel pot is a 10 tasse size pot that makes 2 mugs of espresso-ish coffee.
If I need to store one mug, I pour it into the thermos you see in the background here.
And that’s it…perfection in a cup!
The coffee I used tonight was a discovery we made during our trip to Tampa. While we were wandering around Ybor City near the Columbia Restaurant, we kept smelling roasting coffee. Turns out it was coming from the Naviera Coffee Mill, which has been roasting coffee in Ybor since 1921.
Tonight I used their Cafe con Leche blend roast. Mmmmmm.
My thoughts on today’s food intake: I loved breakfast and snack and I think I did fairly well on my food choices for the remainder of the day. I did have wine again. I did drink more coffee than I really needed to.
Now let’s see if I can go to sleep after my caffeine jolt!
See you tomorrow as we get packed up and ready to head out west to New Mexico and Colorado. DURANGO, HERE I COME!!!
