Hola!

Not much going on for me today other than work. I’m hoping to get out of here at a reasonable time so I can get in a workout tonight. I was lazy this morning and didn’t get up in time to get one in before leaving for the office.

I also wanted to share a new food find. I went by Trader Joes today on my lunch hour to pick up a few things. I went by the aisle with the protein bars to pick up a few of my beloved Z Bars from Clif. (Yes, I am fully aware they are for kids, but they’re tasty!) While I was there, I noticed a new bar called Nectar Cacao which was also by Clif. Two things immediately caught my eye. 1) The flavor was “Dark Chocolate Walnut”, and 2) it was organic. After checking the nutrition label to be sure it would fit into my food plan, I decided to pick one up to give it a try as my afternoon snack today.

When I got back to my office, I started looking more closely at the label. I was amazed when I noticed it claimed to have 2 servings of fruit. I was thinking, “Ok, how the hell does this have 2 servings of fruit when it’s dark chocolate walnut? I flipped over and looking at the nutrition label more closely and was shocked to find that the primary ingredient is actually organic dates! YAY!! I love dates! You just HAVE to love a product for which the entire ingredient list is organic dates, organic walnuts, organic unsweetened chocolate, organic cocoa, and organic vanilla. Not a single artificial ingredient in the bunch and no high fructose corn syrup!

When snack time rolled around, I opened up the bar. It was a bit smaller than I was expecting (1.6 oz./45g), but still not bad for a light snack I think to myself. I’m not going to kid you, it definitely had more of a date taste than it did a chocolate taste. Fortunately, since I love dates, that was fine by me. I thoroughly enjoyed the bar, and with it’s 6 grams of fiber, it was pretty filling as well.

Here are the overall nutritionals: 160 calories, 6g fat (0g trans fat), 27g carbs, 6g fiber, 18g sugar, and 3g protein. For those on Weight Watchers, that makes it come in at 3 points. Even though it’s a point higher than my Z Bars, it was definitely a nice change of pace and I loved that I got in a couple of fruit servings to boot. All in all, I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars if I were rating it. I definitely want to check out some of the other flavors now, too.

I forgot to mention a few days ago that something odd happened to me on Friday. It’s only happened to me one other time in my life, so it was pretty monumental to me. I got a speeding ticket. So, on Wednesday, July 16, I’ll be heading off to traffic court. Since I’ve never had a single infraction on my driving record since moving to California over 11 years ago, odds are definitely on my side that the judge will let me go to traffic school to avoid having a point go on my license. The lesson learned here for me is to not get so involved in watching the traffic when merging onto the freeway that I forget to watch my speedometer. Oh, yeah, and if I’d stop being such a damned lead foot, it wouldn’t hurt either.

Jamba Freebie

If you happen to live in an area with a Jamba Juice store, you are in luck! Tomorrow (April 8, 200 until 10am, they are giving away their new breakfast yogurt blends. You can walk in and get a free 12 oz. juice. They are made with soymilk, nonfat yogurt, and frozen fruit. They sound pretty damn tasty, too!

There is a strawberry-banana blend called Sunrise Strawberry. The 12 oz. size will set you back 200 calories, 0.5g fat, and provide 3g of fiber. They also have a blueberry-strawberry blend called Bright Eyed & Blueberry. The 12 oz. size for it will set you back 180 calories, 0.5g fat, and will also provide 3g of fiber. For those like me on Weight Watchers, they work out to 3 points each.

I’m planning to cruise by and pick one up on my way to work. I’ll post my thoughts after I’ve tried one. Given how much I like their Jamba Light line, I’m hoping I’ll like these just as much.

For more details, check out the Jamba Juice website.

Until next time …

Silkweaver Sunday

I received my Silkweaver grab bag that I ordered recently in the mail yesterday. I didn’t get around to really looking at the fabrics until today. I think most of them are fabrics I can definitely put to use. Here’s a photo of what I received:

Today has been a fairly low key day for me. I got together with Darla for a late breakfast. While we were there, she showed the the fabric and fibers she’s selected for the Quaker Turtles from Ellen Chester of With My Needle. I also handed off her copy of the Hannah Beeby 1816 chart to her. We’re both participating in a SAL that starts tomorrow, so we decided to order together to save ourselves a little bit on shipping.

I have managed to get in some time on Dazzle the past couple of days, too. It’s too dark tonight already to try and get a decent photo, so I’ll take one in the morning to post tomorrow. It’s really coming along quite nicely, IMO.

On the weight loss front, I tried a really tasty new cereal yesterday. It’s Fiber One Caramel Delight. For a high fiber cereal, it was amazingly tasty and nothing like a typical cereal from that category. I don’t know how often I’ll actually eat it with milk though. It’s definitely one of those cereals that will be tasty dry as a crunchy snack food. Here are the basic nutritional stats for it:

Serving size: 1 cup
Calories: 180
Total Fat: 3g
Fiber: 9g (Total Carbs: 41g, Sugar: 10g)

Saturday’s WW stats:

Total Points: 31.5
Exercise: 2 miles walking & 35 mins bike riding - 4 APs
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 20

Until next time …

Thursday, July 26

Ok, I’m a very happy bunny right now! Any of my long time blog readers will know that I’m a big fan of the Clif Organic Z-bars. Yes, I know they’re “intended” for kids, but I think they’re great for adults as a healthy snack. They’re organic, baked, whole grain, trans fat free, have no high fructose corn syrup, have no preservatives, have 12 vitamins and minerals, and (the best part) taste great, in my opinion. What’s not to love about that?

Anyway, I normally buy these bars in bulk at Trader Joes. Buying them in bulk doesn’t save me any money as they still charge me 49 cents each for me, but it does save me making so many trips to Trader Joes.

I recently purchased a box from Amazon (worked out to the same price per bar as TJs) when I was ordering something else so I could qualify for free shipping. As a result of that purchase, I got an email this morning recommending a few other similar products. One of these other products was a variety pack of Z-bars. I was thrilled seeing that they offered the variety pack as I can only buy boxes of a single flavor at TJs. So, I click on the link to check it out. Once I get to the page to read about it, I notice that not only is it a variety pack, but it’s part of their “Subscribe and Save” program. It’s basically an auto-ship plan where you pick the quantity and frequency you want and they just automatically ship it to you and charge your credit card when they do. The best part? When you sign up, you save 15% off the regular price AND get free shipping on every order! Yes, I immediately signed up.

So, I’ll be saving money, I’ll have more of a variety of flavors, and they’ll be shipped right to my door each month. Yes, I’m a very happy bunny right now.

Ok, on to the food journal …

Breakfast:
Coffee - 1
Egg beaters - 1
Bac’n - 2

Lunch:
Veggie quesadilla - 4
BAS w/2% cheese & salsa - 2

Dinner:
Veggie burger - 2
FF Pringles w/salsa - 2
Baby carrots - 0
WW ice cream bar - 2

Snacks:
LC light cheese - 3
Nonfat milk - 4
Cookies - 4

Total: 27
Exercise: 45 mins elliptical - 3 AP
WPA balance: 35
Water: 72 oz

Wednesday, Dec. 27 - Day 52

I had a really great dinner last night. I found something new recently in a visit to Trader Joe’s. It was a vegetarian stuffed poblano peppers entree. They were stuffed with soy crumbles, black beans, corn, green peppers, onions, etc. and topped with a chipotle salsa. There were directions for cooking either in the oven or microwave. I cooked mine in the microwave and then topped them with a little shredded 2% cheddar cheese. I had plenty of points and was pretty hungry, so I ate them both. I paired it with a big ass salad and it made a wonderful quick & easy dinner. Here’s a pic:

Now, on to today’s food journal …

Breakfast:
Vegetarian Denver omelette - 2.4
(I used diced cremini mushrooms in place of the ham.)
Thomas’ 100 calorie English muffin - 1.3
Almond Breeze chai latte - 0.8

Snack:
Almond Breeze hot chocolate - 1.0
(I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.)

Lunch:
Bolono sandwich - 1.5
Baked Tostitos scoops w/roasted tomato salsa - 3.3
Banana - 2

Dinner:
Veggie pizza - 6.9
(made with fresh cremini mushrooms & diced eggplant. YUMMM!)
Vitalicious muffin top - 1.3

Snacks:
Nonfat milk - 3.6
Z-bar - 2.0

Total: 26.1
WPA balance: 20.7
Water: 64 oz

Thursday, Nov. 16 - Day 11 of 50

I did my weekly WI today and was quite annoyed to see that I stayed the same this week. I hate it when things like this happen when I’ve been doing so well with my food, but don’t see the results on the scale. Thankfully, I’ve been at this long enough to know that weeks like this are inevitable and I just need to keep on doing what I’m doing. I know the scale will eventually catch up if I keep making healthy choices. So, for now I’m still at 2 pounds lost toward my 10 pound goal for New Year.

If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve done a LOT of work on my Links page this week. I’ve added a lot of recipe links, as well as links to several vegetarian restaurants. If you haven’t already taken a peek, check it out on my Links page (click on Links tab at the top of the page).

I ventured out yesterday to one of my favorite local supermarkets, Henry’s Farmers Market. I picked up my Tofurkey Feast for Thanksgiving next week. I’ll actually be spending the holiday with my former in-laws, but since none of them are vegetarian, I’ll be taking my feast for myself. Here’s a pic of what it includes:

I’ve purchased the roast by itself before, but this is my first time buying the full feast. I’m looking forward to trying the Apple-Cranberry Potato Dumplings. I can’t quite wrap my mind around all those flavors together, so it’ll be interesting to see how they taste. In addition to the feast, I’ll also be making my apple crisp (recipe posted a couple of days ago) to have for dessert.

Day 11 of 50

Breakfast:
Veggie omelette - 1.8
Whole wheat toast - 0.5

Lunch:
6″ veggie delite w/cheese - 5.2
Grape tomatoes
SF bread & butter pickle spears - .2

Dinner:
Mushrooms in garlic wine sauce - 1.5
Couscous salad - 6.6 (Pic & recipes coming tomorrow)
Apple crisp - 3

Snack:
Nonfat milk - 3.6
Granola bars - 3.4
O’Cocos Organic baked cookie crisps - 1.8

Total: 27.6
WPA balance: 35.0
Water: 64 oz

Sunday, Nov. 12 - Day 7 of 50

I found a new type of cheese for my homemade pita pizzas yesterday. It’s the new Tuscan Herb Shred Medleys from Borden. It’s part-skim mozzarella cheese comes with a packet of Tuscan Herb seasonings. It was pretty tasty! They also have a Pesto Parmesan Mozzarella blend that I’d like to try, but they were sold out of that variety.

The nutritionals for the Tuscan Herb is the same as other park-skim mozzarella cheese. Per 1 oz serving, it’s 80 calories, 5g fat, 0g fiber which works out to 2 points. I don’t have any nutritional information on the Pesto Parmesan, but I’ll pass that along once I’m able to get it.

Day 7 of 50

Breakfast:
Veggie omelette -1.8
Lite english muffin - 0.8

Lunch:
Veggie burgers - 2.6
SF bread & butter pickle spears - 0.4
Baked Tostitos scoops w/salsa - 3.3

Snack:
NSA peaches - 1.4

Dinner:
Chili - 5
Grilled cheese - 2.7
FF/SF pudding - 2.5

Snack:
PBJ - 2.5
Nonfat milk - 1.7
Granola bars - 3.4

Total: 28.1
WPA balance: 32.8
Water: 64 oz