Dangit Trader Joes…

For making things that taste too good…and for being 8+hrs away from me!!!  More on that first part in a sec…

Breakfast this morning was way before the freak’n crack of dawn…like 5am style.  Perks of field work.  Same cereals, but a full cup of kashi go lean and a banana added in…staying power till 10.30!

Snack during our survey was the orange and grapes…and an unpictured Arnold's thin w/ 1T pb…all shoved down in 2 seconds…I’m talented like that.

Lunch was on the move and consisted of the apple in the above picture and a Crunchy PB Clif Bar.  Oh how I love their return…because staying power from 1.30pm till 7.30pm!

Way lazy for dinner so nuked some veggies and brown rice, with a veggie burger, and demolished it in 3 seconds…dangit, couldn’t beat my lunch record.

And I might have a had a five few of these…freak’n trader joes.  Why do you have to make things sooooooooooo well and only offer them ONCE A YEAR!!!!????

Ok, I’m off to bed.  Today was hard work.  I’ve been so boring w/ the blog lately…well, except for the exception of Brad’s Review last night…Please excuse my boringness…I’ll catch up to more liveliness some day!

Another Brad Review

Pretty sure you’re tired of seeing my plain old eats, so I’ll let you see those first, then have you tell me what you think of another review I had Brad do for the blog! 

 

I think I had around two servings of these while typing…

And two servings of these while waiting…

Then went for a nice 3 mile night run w/ Brad before dinner…which occurred at almost 9.30pm. (OMG MOM and DAD what would you do?!?!?!?! Hahahaha!)

 

Dinner was quick and simple as I needed to start getting cleaned up and readying for a really long survey day tomorrow (the one I was supposed to do last Friday, but couldn’t, because the boat broke…stupid boat): honey wheat flat out wrap (new?) with light ginger vinaigrette, quorn cutlet, spinach and tomato, with a bowl of grapes.  Yummers.  Kinda plain though.  Oh well, was in a major hurry.

Anyhow…Like many other FoodBuzz bloggers I got my nice package of Buitoni Pasta in the mail, but unfortunately can’t eat it due to the cheese.  So what better than to give it to my boy, right?  Of course!  Boys are bottomless pits, and suckers for free food (esp from pretty girls…like their gf’s…haha!).  Enjoy the review!  It’s quite funny!!!

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This time around I tried some mushroom and cheese ravioli by Buitoni.  Pretty exciting to get a nice free meal like this.  You food bloggers have a pretty sweet gig.

We boiled em up and I paired them with a cabernet marinara sauce.  Nice choice of sauce in my opinion.  Little red wine flavor but nothing too strong to mask the main event.

Upon my first bite I picked up a trace of the mushroom flavor.  But as I continued I seemed to come up with mostly a baked cheesy flavor.  Fairly salty.  There was a high ratio of pasta to stuffing.  I would try to get more of the filling per bite.  As I did this, even in sections with bigger chunks of mushrooms, the salty baked cheesy tastes all came together to remind me of one strong simple undeniable taste that wouldn’t leave me alone…

Goldfish crackers.

I didn’t want it to, but…

Goldfish crackers.

I thought long and hard about the delicious mushrooms buried in there…

Goldfish crackers.

And hey, I’m not complaining.  Its not like goldfish crackers bring up horrible memories or something.  I’ve eaten my fair share of them.

(Brad = fair share of goldfish consumption)

I’m a fresh outta college, easy to please type guy.  Goldfish crackers are cool with me.  But alas, when I get in the mood for Italian, I don’t wanna be thinking pre-k snack time.  I couldn’t get around it.  But enough dogging it.  I’d give the meal a solid seven on a scale to ten.  Unfortunately I ate the whole package (fresh outta college never turning down free food type guy)  which claimed to feed two, and probably will still need to eat a good amount of sides before I’m full.  Glad I got to try it.  With a projected price around 5 bucks?? can’t see myself ever paying for it.

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Read ya up later tomorrow night!!!

Sigg, How I Love Thee

Because you provide me with all the water that I need to consume today to ward off the cold I can feel forming.  Swine flu?  J/k…though we did almost hit some wild boars coming home late last night…?  I’ll be fine; pumping the water and zinc tablets today…always does the trick!

Anyhow, had a type of cereal mess this morning to start the day off.  I didn’t have pb, fruit or yogurt in it, so is it still technically a cereal mess?  Seems like everyone else’s has one of those things I’m missing it!  But mine included: 1/2C each kashi go lean, cinnamon puffins, and h2h, then 3T Heaven Yo Granola (almost out…nooooooo!!!) and unsweetened plain almond breeze…dreamy!

I spent the morning dauntingly staring at the computer inputting data from yesterday’s long survey that I didn’t partake in but our other two crews accomplished…because I was busy watching this and feeling lazy yesterday.

I have been needing some serious greenage as of lately because I’ve been slacking…getting home super later after early mornings makes you lazy when it comes to dinner!  Geez!  So for lunch I had a big spinach salad w/ a carrot, a 1/3 a cucumber, 1/4 bell pepper and one zucchini sautéed in spices, 1 egg and 1/2C whites and an arnold’s thin w/ earth balance…reminded me of breakfast but at the same time of lunch…yummy.

I’m off to get some other things done and look for my keys that have been missing since Friday…if I can’t find them I have to replace all the work keys…stupid stupid stupid me!

You Know You’re a Food Blogger When…

You take pictures like this…and still think it’s funny and great days later:

Yes, that is a jar of PB on top of my head.  You know you like it.

Anyhow…recap of yesterday was sitting staring at this for 10 hrs straight:

Waiting for a bird to forage…and did she?  No…all she did was “copulate.”  (Hahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahha)  And have man snail kites bring her snails…lazzzzzzzzzzy woman.  But I suppose she knows how to work it. ;D

Anyhow, wasn’t hungry when I woke up due to the late night cashew consumption and took breakfast with me out on the water…baggie of h2h and cinnamon puffins…and there might have been some vegan chocolate chips in there…all with an apple.

Bored to bits…but I love my job. Late morning snack:

Love these things; they keep me so full for so long and they’re so good for you (ok, well, maybe not good, but they’re not as fake as some other ones are!).

Lunch was great and filling…and I had the most hilarious book to read when I would get the chance…which was about 10 second snippets at a time: arnold’s thin w/ hummus, spinach and tomato; two huge carrots w/ extra hummus.

More boredom…I LOVE MY JOB.  But sometimes you just feel so unproductive when you have to sit in the same spot for 10 hrs and the bird does absolutely nothing…brownie zbar to stay awake.

Dinner was random of sorts throughout the night.  After finally getting off the lake we had to head way up to in town to get AV gas, so I snacked on another apple and banana…until 10pm that night when I had this bowl of deliciousness:

…in which there is also some of my Heaven Yo Granola at the bottom…the chocolate chips were such a lovely surprise…:)

Data entry today.  Will post again after lunch!

Gah, No Time.

See, weekend was so full of fun and adventures I have no time to blog! haha! More explaining tomorrow after long day on the lake!

Saturday:

• Art Festival
• Beach
• Eating
• Reggae
• Dancing/Clubbing

Sunday:

• Run
• Art Festival
• Beach
• Sushi

        

For Jenna

In lieu of blogging this weekend I would like to ask everyone to send their thoughts and prayers to Jenna and her family as they lost her brother John this weekend to an unfortunate accident. I am without words to explain the sympathy I have for her and hope that they are able to remember the good times they had while him while he was here.

Catch Up!

Want to check out how dirty my feet get?  This isn’t half as bad either...

Just thought I’d give you something to either squirm or laugh about on a lovely Friday night. :)

Time for catch up!  Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but I’m glad that many of you enjoyed my list of things I do to help Mother Nature; and I love the things you talked about that you do to help too!  You’ve also given me several other things to incorporate into my life!

Breakfast was quite early before heading out and a repeat of what I’ve been eating the past few days…haha: Kashi Go Lean, Zoe’s Granola (Cranberries and Currants), banana and unsweetened almond breeze.

I had a nice snack mid morning of my last flat out w/ a tablespoon of pb…

Lunch was out on the lake out on the boat…I brought out a nice container of carrots, bell peppers and hummus, along w/ a wrap w/ tofuturky, spinach, tomato and mustard…but this happened…

I spilled it all on the boat!  BOOOOOOOO!  So sad!

Because I lost my volume food I ended up enjoying this WONDERUL PB CLIF BAR!!!  I was super duper excited to see them back on the shelves!  yeahhhhhhhhhhh for pb products making a return!

I was hungry after we got off the lake and did some work at home and had a bit of a snack…ok, a bit of a big one.  Take this…and make it FOUR. :)  It’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough PB on multigrain wasa crackers…:D

I went out for a nice run, that turned out not so nice because my leg was giving me grief.  Geeezzzzeee…Why now!?  But I noticed that the pain started after I did some lifting that included my legs…always happens.  And everyone wonders why I don’t lift!  RUINS ME DAMNIT!

Dinner was short and sweet, w/ 1 egg and 1/2C egg whites w/ a whole zucchini and spices, then a side of cantaloupe…which was about 1/2 a melon!

I was still hungry before bed so I had a few handful of cashews…and went to bed content.

This morning I had the same breakfast as yesterday…wonderful!  Except this time it was at 5.45am!  Boo!

   

We had problems with the boats this morning but I don’t want to whine about it, but I had this as a snack around 10: blackberries and an orange.  I actually ate only 1/2 the orange because it was dry…hate it when that happens!

Lunch was wolfed down in the car and included: Arnold’s Thin w/ hummus, laughing cow cheese, tomato and spinach, two wasa crackers w/ a tablespoon of pb and two cut up carrots. :)

After a few surveys I was hungry again (my appetite is OUT OF CONTROL!) and had a little mix of my Heaven Yo Granola w/ some Vanilla Oikos Greek Yogurt.  Best combo ever!

But my chocolate craving was not abolished so I had the last Q.bel product that Jenn sent in my last care package: Great Treat!  Thanks Jenn!  All of the Q.bel products rock and I def need to get more of them!  Hopefully I can find them soon!

Dinner was pretty early but satisfying as I’ve been craving savory foods all day: Quorn Chik’n Patty w/ mustard, ketchup, spinach and tomato on an Arnold’s Thin.

 

I had a bit of a snack later of cinnamon puffins and 3 york peppermint patties…:)  That’s thanks to mom.

I did some strength training after dinner that included a lot of abs and arms…AND NO LEGS.  Hah!

Ok…weekend starts NOW!  Art Festival and Ron Jon’s in Cocoa Beach!  Whoooohooooo!!!  And I got paid!  Yay!

What We Do For Mother Nature

I know I’m a day late, but I was busy saving the earth on Earth Day, ok?!  Hahaha!

Anyways, I wanted to show you the many things that I’ve changed since becoming the environmentalist that I am over the years..along w/ participating in many different Earth Fairs in CA!

1. I started shopping at the local farmer’s market. I don’t do it here in FL because I’m so far away, but when I was living in Orange County and San Diego in CA I went to the farmer’s market every week to get my organic goods!
2. I started shopping organic for certain things, especially the ones in which I eat the skins: berries, apples, spinach, etc.
3. I have been a vegetarian for just over 6 years now and still going strong!
4. I use BPA-free water bottles and a Sigg when I’m out in the field!
5. I readily check the tire pressure in my car’s wheels and  try to drive the speed limit to get the most out of my mileage!
6. I bought a reusable, insulated lunch bag instead of using grocery bags to take food with me!
7. I only use cold water when doing my laundry, and try to hang dry a lot of things (if I had a clothes line, I’d dry everything!  I did it in Australia!)
8. I take Navy Showers.  What does that entail?  Basically I use water for a total span of maybe 5 minutes?  I turn it on to get everything wet, turn it off when I’m sudding up, washing and shaving.  Turn back on to rinse periodically!
9. When cleaning I try to use natural mixtures of things like baking soda and vinegar…I know some things like that smell, but it’s so much better for the earth!  And when I buy cleaners, they’re more envi-friendly (ie Don’t buy dish or any soaps with phosphorus!)
10. I have been recycling for years and when I can’t, it makes me cringe!
11. I use reusable bags whenever I got get groceries, and even when I shop at Target!
12. Like Ryan (Chasing Daylight), I cut my hair!  I haven’t cut it in a while because I’m growing it out again to donate to Locks of Love, but when I do get it cut, it’s super super short (which WILL BE VERY SOON!).
13. I turn off my power strips with my cell phone charger and computer charger when I’m not using them.
14. I don’t use the A/C in my car!
15. I use Tupperware containers whenever I can so I don’t have to use plastic bags.  And when i do use plastic/ziploc bags I rinse them out and reuse them!

I’m sure there are more things that I do I just can’t remember them off the top of my head!

Now it’s your turn: How have you adapted to help the environment?  What kinds of things would you like to change to help?

Clean Eating Review

Well, my week of Clean Eating came to an end on Sunday and I have a few things to discuss about it:

• I had considerably less energy.
• I think this could have been from lack of protein…because I def know I was getting enough carbs with all the homemade breads!
• I was moody.
• I was always hungry.
• Fruits and veggies just weren’t doing it…and nothing seemed too.  I thought I was getting enough fiber but I suppose not…any ideas?
• I learned about the different things I could eat.
• ie there are things other than cereal to munch on.
• I was able to expand/really stretch my imagination with meals.
• It let me see what I could take out in the field.
• I’m not always limited to bars!
• That I don’t really need bars out in the field, but they certainly are convenient and I know which ones work well for the work we do.
• After it was all done and I did have some processed food (within the past two days), I got THE WORST HEADACHE EVER and it lasted a long time.  Coincidence?  Maybe, since I was in a car for about 12 hrs, but whatever…
• It makes me want it more and more the more processed stuff I integrate back into my diet!
• I didn’t think I’d be able to cut out cereal, but it was easier than I thought.

All in all I think it was a great experience and am def going to keep many of these things for my regular diet in the future.  I plan on cutting out many of the foods that I did this week, but incorporating some things back into my diet like veggie burgers, Quorn products, some chocolate…and a few other things I can’t remember.

Here is a preview of what I’ve eaten over the past few days, just repeat a whole bunch of them (mainly the fruits)…because I wasn’t taking all the pictures. But lets just say it was def full of processed things…that made me realize the whole concept of clean eating!  Just think dark chocolate peanut M&M’s, regular whole grain goldfish, chocolate and honey goldfish…And of course there are some other fun photos thrown in there as well for your enjoyment…

View Full Album

I’ve got two full days ahead of me survey wise but have a great weekend planned with an Art Festival on the agenda, along w/ heading up to Cocoa Beach and getting to Ron Jons!  Can someone say BIKINI!?!?!?! (If I don’t already have enough!)

Fast One

Basically just pictures…it’s going to be madness for the next two days so I won’t be able to post or read…I’ll hopefully be back at it and in full swing by Thursday!

Tum tum is doing better but not 100%.  Keeping fingers crossed it gets better asap, along w/ my leg, which I’ve been icing religiously!

See you Thursday!