Chocolate PB2 Review

Hola!

I know I have been absent, but for good reason – I’ve been having a life! Yes, I almost forgot what it was like to go out and have fun and be busy (in a good way!) I’ve been loving being back at school the past few days, which is definitely bittersweet. When I wasn’t loving school last semester, I was happy to be graduating in May. Now, I am definitely feeling nostalgic and sad about leaving this place and my sorority. I don’t have very many pictures of my eats, because they’ve been in the dining hall, on the go, or taken with my Blackberry – and of this, I will spare you. Until I can get back into the swing of living and blogging, I give you a review for Chocolate PB2!

Oh, and, since I became obsessed with PB2 and ran out of my sad little two sample pack, I ordered my jar. I think it’s in the mailroom waiting for me now. Friday just got better.

Chocolate PB2 with frozen strawberries

Chocolate PB2 Opinion

Taste:  More peanut buttery than chocolatey, but definitely not chocolate peanut butter. Also, not great but not horrible. 2/5.

Texture: Drier than regular PB2. I had to add about 2 tablespoons of water, not the suggested 1.5, and it was still off. 2/5.

Fill Factor: With the strawberries, held me over for about 5 hours! 5/5.

Ingredients: “Roasted peanuts, cocoa powder, sugar and salt.” Like PB2, nothing funky at all! Could do without the sugar, but no biggie. 4/5.

Nutrition: Per 2 tablespoons, 51 calories, 1.29g of fat (.23g from sat fat and <.01g from trans fat), <.1mg cholesterol, 75.5mg sodium, 5.9g carbs (1.87g from fiber, 3.63g from sugar) and 3.98g protein. 4/5.

Overall: Overall, I was just not a fan of chocolate PB2 and won’t be ordering it again. 2/5.

If you want to order PB2 and/or Chocolate PB2, head over to their newly redesigned website here. I just found the new site a second ago and am super impressed! It makes the company seem a lot more legitimate than their previous 1990s-esque site. And it’s pretty!

On the schedule for today: class from 10-10:50, work from 11-2, gym with one of my sisters, and a relaxing night at the house with my little and a few other girls. I’ve gone out the past two nights and am taking the weekend off. Yes, my life is backwards. Anything special planned for today?

P.S. My Google reader is now in the 200s. EPIC BLOG FAIL. Will be back to commenting as soon as I can, I promise!

 

PB2 Review!

Good afternoon bloggies!

First of all, head over to Iowa GIrl Eats’ Amy’s Kitchen giveaway to win some yummy Amy’s products!!

Last night I had a delicious pumpkin pie parfait for dessert!

As usual, I mixed 1/2 cup of pumpkin with one egg white and some pumpkin pie spice and microwaved it for 4 minutes. While it was caking-up, I mixed a few dollops of plain Fage with vanilla extract and more pumpkin pie spice. Topped off with a plank of Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax crunchy granola bar – yummmm :0)

I used the Farmer’s Market (I think that’s the brand) organic pumpkin instead of my usual Libby’s and noticed a difference – it cooked through more, but didn’t taste as good. I wonder why? Weird.

Breakfast was on the small side since I was heading to the gym pretty soon after:

3 egg whites + plain LC wedge and Frank’s, half a Fuji with cinnamon, and half a multigrain English muffin with Truvia and cinnamon

I took it super easy at the gym:

• 20 minutes on the stair mill at level 5, rolling hills setting
• 20 minutes on the elliptical at level 7, random setting
• 1 mile run in 9:29:
• – Lap 1 at 6.0mph, incline 2
• – Lap 2 at 6.2mph, incline 1.5
• – Lap 3 at 6.4mph, incline 1
• – Lap 4 at 6.6mph, incline 0.5

Healthy tuna salad with iceberg in a Joseph’s wrap with frozen blueberries

I was feeling pretty bossy today a la a certain Snackface. Plus I was off to the dentist and wanted to feel good about myself before squirming in pain for 30 minutes.

Status Symbol by Essie

Boots by Steve Madden

Outfit by Italy street market, Hanes, Forever 21, and American Apparel

After the most painful dental cleaning of my life and wondering what I ever did to offend this woman, I comforted myself with a pair of new jeans. Going back to school in a few days = packing in the shopping while I can.

Snackytime:

Fuji with PB2!!!!

PB2 Opinion
Taste: I tried it on its own first – not exactly like peanut butter, but pretty close, and good in its own way. On the apple, I couldn’t tell the difference at all! 5/5.
Texture: Exactly like creamy peanut butter. 5/5.
Fill Factor: With an apple, I’m satisfied and sure it will hold me until dinner. 4/5.
Ingredients: “Roasted peanuts, salt, and sugar.” Nothing funky at all! Could do without the sugar, but no biggie. 4/5.
Nutrition: Per 2 tablespoons, 50 calories, 2g of fat (0g saturated, trans, and polyunsaturated, 1g monounsaturated), less than .1mg of cholesterol, 80mg of sodium, 3g carbs (0g fiber and 2g from sugar), 6g of protein!. 4/5.
Overall: Loved it! I’m so happy I tried it out – I’ll definitely be ordering a jar! I can’t wait to try it in other things! 5/5.

See you all after dinner!

 

Lots of Goodies!

Good evening bloggies!

I headed out to the mall after this morning’s post and came home with some goodies! Two new nail polishes – Status Symbol, a bright pink by Essie, and We’ll Always Have Paris, a rich plum by OPI. Love them! Status Symbol is drying on my nails right now. I love deep, dark shades for winter and fall, but I also like switching them out with bright, cheery colors for warmth!

I also got these beauties:

Hello, lover.

I’ve been wanting boots like these for a year. $100 from $190. Thank you, Steve Madden.

I came home to more goodies!

Need a closer look?

PB2!! I took the plunge and ordered the sample pack of PB2 and Chocolate PB2. I’m so excited to try these out – there will definitely be a full review involved as well!

Breakfast held me over for a surprisingly long time – 5 hours, including shopping cardio! However, I was verging on becoming a hunger monster when I got home and quickly assembled the first thing I could think of:

Healthy tuna salad in a Joseph’s pita with half a sliced Fuji

I mixed a can of tuna with a few tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt, a large squirt of deli mustard, diced celery, pepper, and paprika and threw half the mixture in my pita. Before the gym, I had a snack:

Key Lime Pie Larabar

I ate half before my workout and half after. This is one of the bars I received from Larabar for commenting on their blog during the holidays. Not sure I would have bought this flavor on my own, but I’m glad they did!

Key Lime Pie Larabar Opinion
Taste: So good! Sweet, tangy, and citrusy. I was “mmming” out loud the whole time. Not a strong lime flavor, but it’s definitely there. I’ve never had key lime pie so I can’t compare it to the real thing. 5/5.
Texture: Moist, chewy, nutty. 5/5.
Fill Factor: Held me through a 5 mile run and until dinner! 5/5.
Ingredients: “Dates, cashews, almonds, unsweetened coconut, lime juice concentrate.” I feel like lime juice concentrate should be higher up, since it’s the flavor so 4/5.
Nutrition: On the high end, calorie-wise, with 220 per bar. 10g of fat (3.5g saturated, 0g trans fat, 1.5g polyunsaturated, 4.5g monounsaturated, no cholesterol or sodium, 330mg of potassium, 31g of carbs (4g of fiber and 24g of sugar), and 4g of protein. 4/5.
Overall: Loved it! I’ll definitely be buying this flavor! 5/5.

At the gym, I ran 5 miles in 47:13 doing this routine:

• Mile 0-0.5: 6.0mph
• Mile 0.5-1: 6.2mph
• Mile 1-1.5: 6.1mph
• Mile 1.5-2: 6.3mph
• Mile 2-2.5: 6.2mph
• Mile 2.5-3: 6.4mph
• Mile 3-3.5: 6.3mph
• Mile 3.5-4: 6.5mph
• Mile 4-4.5: 6.4mph
• Mile 4.5-5: 6.6mph

So every half mile, I added .2mph and then subtracted .1mph on the next half mile. I also threw some inclines in there randomly, for giggles.

Today’s gym session led me to today’s Tuesday Top 5 – The Top 5 Weird Things I Saw at the Gym – today, because obviously there are new phenomena every single visit. Except there were only 3 today, so bear with me.

The Top 3 Weird Things I Saw at the Gym (in no particular order of strangeness)

1. This was more of a smell. COLOGNE. Strong, strong cologne. Seriously – so unnecessary and radiating from the elliptical across the aisle (?) from me and legit making it hard to breathe. Stop. Thanks.
2. Jean leggings. Capri jean leggings. With painted on stitched pockets and seams. Now, I am an advocate of the “jegging” – comfortable, with the illusion of effort. I wish I had invented them myself. However, these were not stylish, good looking, or passable for actual jeans.
3. A man with shoulders as wide as he was long. Boys, this is not a good look. “Gorilla” is not a good look. This is not attractive. It is unnatural. We, as humans, evolved from this look. Let’s keep on evolving.

If I was able to add two more things, not from today, I would add in the man who sings to himself on the treadmill – yes, sir, others can hear you, even if you have headphones in – and the man who was angrily rapping at the elliptical, 8 Mile style last week.

Dinna:

Spaghetti squash with onion, peas and brussels sprouts and a multigrain english muffin with garlic salt

I mixed a plain Laughing Cow wedge into the marinara sauce, heated in the microwave before topping. We were out of parm and I love peas in pink sauce with pasta. Obviously, it didn’t taste the same, but I’d eat it again! Sooo many peas overflowing onto my plate. I love peas!

So – what should I do with my PB2????

 

White Chocolate Macadamia Lunabar and Yummy Yoga

My arms are TIRED from some amazingggg yoga I just did! But first – lunch!

Tuna salad with romaine in a Joseph’s pita with pomegranate arils

I added some paprika, salt, and pepper to the leftover tuna salad before assembling my pita – extra tasty today! My mom and I went out to my grandma’s and this week’s 24974th grocery trip. I snacked on half a White Chocolate Macadamia Lunabar while we were out, and half when I got home. I also stopped for some much needed Pike Place caffeine.

White Chocolate Macadamia Luna Bar Opinion

Taste: Super sweet! Lots of white chocolately, nutty goodness. Kind of like a rice krispy treat. Not enough macadamia taste for me though!   4/5.

Texture: Moist, chewy, and crispy with a white chocolate drizzle and bottom frosting. No crunchy nuts! 4/5.

Fill Factor: Broken up into two parts, got me though afternoon errands and a mildly intense yoga session! 5/5.

Ingredients: “LunaPro (Soy Rice Crisp [Soy Protein Isolate, Organic Rice Flour], Organic Toasted Oats, Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour, Organic Flaxmeal), Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Coating (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Evaporated Palm Kernel Oil, Organic Soy Flour, Organic Soy Lethicin, Organic Vanilla), Organic Macadamia Nuts, Inulin (Chicory Extract), Organic Macadamia Nut Butter, Vegetable Glycerin, Organic Oat Syrup Solids, Organic Sunflower Oil, Sea Salt, Natural Flavors” plus lots of vitamins and minerals. Long, yes, but nothing scary and mostly organic.   4/5.

Comments: Loved it! I can see it being too sweet for some people, but this is not a problem I have. I’ll definitely be buying this flavor again and again!

HEAB‘s new post alerted me to YogaDownload.Com’s sale, so I picked a few classes and got them for 40% off! Use the code NewYearsRez to get 40% off your order too.  Thanks Heather! I purchased:

• Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga #3, 45 minutes
• Yoga Sculpt #1, 30 minutes
• Yoga for Weight Loss #1, 6 minutes

I previewed the slides for each class before purchasing them and did the whole hour-long yoga for weight loss class! It was exactly what I wanted – challenging but do-able, with new (to me) poses and poses I really want to achieve/improve on. It was such a good stretch and my arms and quads are definitely tired! All those chair poses and flows from up-dog to down-dog to chaturanga are going to show themselves tomorrow. Sooo good!

I wonder what’s for dinner …

 

Another new Chobani flavor!

So obviously as soon as I posted about not being hungry, my stomach immediately demanded food. I went with my second sample from Chobani. Thanks again!

2% Strawberry Banana Chobani Opinion

Taste: Just like a strawberry banana smoothie! More strawberry than banana, but seriously – gasm. 5/5.

Texture: Thick like any Greek yogurt and extra creamy since it’s 2% = perfect. There were definitely strawberry chunks, but no banana – it would probably brown? 5/5.

Fill Factor: Great for my nighttime snack with some MultiGrain Cheerios. 14g of protein and 3g fat will keep you satisfied! 5/5.

Ingredients: “Cultured pasteurized nonfat milk, cream, evaporated cane juice, strawberries, bananas, natural flavors, locust bean gum, pectin, fruit and vegetable juice (for color), contains five live active cultures including S. Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L.Acidophilus, Bifidus, and L. Casei.” 4/5.
Nutrition: Like the other 2% flavors, there are 160 calories in 1 6oz. cup. 3g of fat (2g saturated), 5mg of cholesterol, 65mg of sodium, 19g of carbs (1g from dietary fiber and 17g of sugar), and 14g of protein. Again, sugar is pretty high from lactose and fructose, but also from the third ingredient of evaporated cane juice (before both strawberries and bananas). 4/5.

Overall: Seriously did not want it to end. I’ll definitely be buying this regularly once it’s in stores. It was absolutely delicious. 5/5.

The carb/fat/protein combo kept me full into the morning, when I had to get blood drawn without eating anything first – so good job smoothie yogurt! After that surprisingly calm experience, I did some glorious detox yoga a la YogaDownload.com podcast. After that 7-miler yesterday, my legs and hips are kind of stiff but yoga definitely helped.

I kept breakfast light:

1/2 pear, mango, with cinnamon and milk

Surprisingly wasn’t feeling this at all. I dumped it and made apple cereal instead:

Huge fuji chopped and warmed with cinnamon, TruVia, and warm skim

Before my mom and I stopped at the store, I snacked on the other half of my super juicy pear:

And came home and roasted a small country’s worth of vegetables:

Zucchini, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, sweet potato, eggplant

=

La Tortilla Factory wrap with hummus, brussels, onion, sweet potato, zucchini, eggplant, carrots with a side of crispy broccoli

Broccoli fries, anyone? Delish. I think I’m going to add balsamic to the three tons of leftovers I have in the fridge – like my favorite balsamic grilled veggies from the student union at school!

I lazed around all afternoon and had my mom’s amazing minestrone soup for dinner:

With a Joseph’s low carb pita – mmm!

There were so many goodies in the soup!

• Whole stewed tomatoes
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Corn
• Onion
• Celery
• Black beans
• Chickpeas
• Pink beans

I snacked on the other half of my Cashew Cookie Larabar for some pre-gym fuel and some tea for caffeine:

Larabar Cashew Cookie Opinion

Taste: Pretty light taste of cashews, which apparently aren’t my favorite.  2/5.

Texture: Moist, chewy, nutty – perfect!  5/5.

Fill Factor: Kept me fueled for 7 miles yesterday and an hour on the elliptical today without hunger pangs either time, which is really, really unusual for me. 5/5.

Ingredients: “Cashews, dates.” Maybe they should throw some salt in there? But still – 5/5.
Nutrition: 230 calories (highest count in a Larabar I’ve seen), 13g of fat (2.5g saturated, 0g trans fat, 2.5 polyunsaturated, 8g monounsaturated), no cholesterol or sodium, 340mg potassium, 23g of carbs (4g from fiber, 18g from sugars, and 6g of protein. 4/5.

Overall: Least favorite flavor yet. I was pretty disappointed, considering that I’ve heard such great things about. I won’t buy it again unless I’m craving cashews – and I can’t be trusted around unportioned nuts. 2/5.

At the gym, I did 60 minutes on the elliptical – “Kilimanjaro” aka mountain setting, at level 10. I probably should have taken today as a rest day after running more than I ever have before yesterday, but my legs weren’t sore at all, just a little tight, so I thought going easy on the elliptical would loosen them up. It did, and I don’t regret it, but it just wasn’t a good workout. I was however, extremely entertained the entire time.

To my left was a small man I see a lot, maybe in his late twenties, watching “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” on ABC Family. To my right was Rabbit, from 8 Mile. Legit. Complete with black hoodie covering his head and face (yet I could see him creeping) and ragging his finger – you could just tell he was angrily rapping at the poor elliptical. The finger wagging was so intense and consistent it actually really started to annoy me. Pretty persistent out of the corner of my eye there, Slim Shady.

I also watched the first half of “The Bachelor” premiere. Wow. Some of those girls are just … they just have to be following a script. There’s not way that show is unscripted. “Do you have a registry for those guns?” First of all, is your hair up or down? Second of all, that is not the proper term. Third, really?

Anyway. Post-gym snack:

0% Plain Chobani, a clemmie, and a packet of Stew Leonard’s Cranberry Fitness trail mix

Looks just like my brother! Except his eyes are green, not walnut hazel. I loveee this trail mix! It has peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pepitas, cranberries, raisins, and maybe one other seed? SO healthy and SO good.

I need to rehydrate – maybe with some more clementines! Have a great night!

 

New Chobani Flavors!

After responding to a tweet by @ChobaniNicki about new flavors being sent to bloggers for review, I was SO EXCITED to have Chobani send me two new flavors – 0% Raspberry and 2% Strawberry Banana. I think we all know how obsessed I am with Greek yogurt, and especially Chobani. It’s really rare that I go a day without it. I have definitely been wanting a raspberry-flavored Greek yogurt for a while, as raspberries are one of my favorite fruits so hearing that this was one of the new flavors was super exciting! Here’s what I got:

In a cooler, I received one regular-sized yogurt of each new flavor, as well as an insulated lunchbox. Thanks Chobani!

This morning, I decided to try the raspberry for breakfast:

Like the other fruit flavors, the raspberry is fruit at the bottom. Pulling the lid off, you can see how thick it is – I expected nothing less. The nutritional stats are comparable to the other fruit flavors as well. I had it with some MultiGrain Cheerios y cafe.

Chobani 0% Raspberry Greek Yogurt Opinion
Taste: Amazing. Raspberry-licious. 5/5.
Texture: Thick and creamy, exactly like the other 0% Chobanis. 5/5.
Fill Factor: 14g of protein. With the Cheerios and coffee, held me over through the gym and to a late lunch. 5/5.
Ingredients: Raspberries are the third ingredient, after evaporated cane juice. To me, it seems like those should be at least switched. Also, what is “locust bean gum”? 4/5.
Nutrition: Like the other fruit flavors, there are 140 calories in 1 6oz. cup. No fat or cholesterol, 65mg of sodium, 22g of carbs (1g from dietary fiber and 19g from sugar), 14g of protein. A lot of sugar, and I’d like to think mostly natural – lactose and fructose from milk and raspberries, but the evaporated cane juice as the second ingredient obviously contributes. 4/5.
Overall: It’s love. CAN’T WAIT til it’s in stores. New favorite fruit flavor next to blueberry. 5/5.

Before breakfast, I did the 20 minute class of Hip Opening Flow #4 from YogaDownload.com. My inner hips and thighs were super tight when I woke up and have been all day, so it was just what I needed.

Before the gym, I had half a bar I’ve been toting around since August, the Kashi GoLean Roll bar in Chocolate Turtle. My step-aunt gave me this as part of a back to school gift she gave me. Obviously I am obsessed with Kashi, but I’d never tried the “roll” bars before.

Having it for many months has transformed it’s “roll” status into a … somewhat flatter shape.

My b.

I had half.

Kashi GoLean Roll Bar in Chocolate Turtle
Taste: Definitely a chocolate protein bar. A bit chalky. This is not a Russel Stover turtle.  1/5.
Texture: VERY tough and chewy. Hurt my jaw. To its credit, I’ve been toting it around for 4 months, but still. Oh, just saw the “Nov 19 2009” date on the wrapper. Disregard. I’ve heard they’re super tough anyway, though. 2/5.
Fill Factor: Great fuel for an hour on the elliptical! 5/5.
Ingredients: Long. Visible oats, nuts, and crunchy nuggets on the outside, on top of caramel, with chalky chocolate nougat inside. 2/5.
Nutrition: For one bar, pretty good. The bar is a substantial size and the whole thing would definitely hold me over for a snack. In one bar, there are 190 calories – pretty good for its large size! Of the 5g of fat, 1.5 are saturated (from nuts, I’m thinking), no cholesterol, 240mg of sodium (kinda high for a bar?), 60mg of potassium, 27g of carbs (it is meant to be a pre/post-exercise bar) – 6g from fiber (3g each of soluble and insoluble), 14g from sugar, and 12g of protein.
Overall: While not taste or texturally-ideal, I’ll definitely eat the other half pre-run/exercise. I think that it fueled me really well and kept my hunger at bay. For a protein bar, I find it funny that I got more protein from my Chobani this morning. Definitely tastes like a protein bar, but since its technically past its date-prime, its possible it tasted better in its prime. I’d try this flavor and others again. 2/5.

At the gym, I spent an hour on the elliptical, random hill setting, level 10. Women’s Health and “Untold Stories of the ER” passed the time pretty quickly.

I was hangry when I got home but could not for the life of me decide what I wanted. Actually, I wanted to make Gliding Calm’s tofu, but I didn’t have a bunch of the ingredients and my fridge FROZE my tofu! So it’s currently defrosting outside of the apparently arctic meat drawer. Then I decided on veggies and a veggie burger. Without carrots and wanting to save my brussels, I went with brocc. Microwaved a CostCo veggie burger in a paper towel.

Eff. I am now STARVING. Take two.

Don Lee Farms Veggie Patty on a Multi-Grain Sandwich Thin with onion and organic ketchup, plus a broccoli forest and garlic hummus

FOOD. Finally. These veggie “patties” are so so good. Just what I wanted. I just had a vanilla chai tea with skim and TruVia andddd I need a snack! If you’re driving today/tonight please be safe. New Year’s Post coming later!

 

Happy New Year’s Eve!

But first, back to the weird eating that was yesterday …

After the amazing Pumpkin Pie Parfait that was breakfast, I lounged around for a few hours before ensuring that my Harley-esque muffler had been corrected and quieted. I got dressed for the gym, debated on half a Larabar or banana for snackage, chose and ate a small banana, and went to pick up Marge (my Montero .. she is large and in charge).

Sometime this/last week, I had half a banana before heading to the gym for a run and my stomach felt a tiny bit funny but I didn’t think anything of it. I planned for 5 miles yesterday and started off at 6mph, Yesterday, however, my stomach was not feeling well at all. I took a break after a mile, felt better, and got back on for 3 more miles, when I had to take another break. It was really frustrating because I didn’t feel sick at all and I was having a great run otherwise. I hopped back on for a speedy last mile. Altogether, I did 5 miles in a few seconds over 48 minutes.

• Mile 1 – 6mph, incline 1, 10 minutes
• Miles 2, 3, and 4 – 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3mph, various inclines from 1-2.5, 28:47 minutes
• Mile 5 – 6.4-7.5mph, various inclines from 1-2, in 9:15 minutes

I also started two medicines yesterday, but they’re really small doses and I never get side effects. At first I thought that was why my stomach was upset, but then I remembered the banana upset my stomach last week too, sooo I’m sticking with bars before workouts for a while.

My stomach felt off all afternoon so I didn’t eat (I know, bad) until dinnertime, which was large and veggie-filled.

Steamed brussels and carrots with s&p, based sweet potato rounds, Naked Nuggets, ketchup and BBQ sauce

Bromberg Brothers Blue Ribbon Restaurants Naked Nuggets opinion
Taste: Taste-wise, I was thrown off – because it tasted like chicken, not a chicken nugget. Sad? They tasted pretty fresh but I could still tell they were frozen, if that makes sense. 3/5.
Texture: A little unnatural, but chickens aren’t naturally in nugget form. Definitely better than any other nuggets I’ve had. 4/5.
Fill Factor: With my 10 lbs. of veggies, kept me satisfied but not overly full, for the next few hours, even after 5 miles and not refueling. 5/5.
Ingredients: “All Natural Boneless Skinless White Meat Chicken, Potato Starch, Salt, Spices (White Pepper, Marjoram, Celery, Basi), Garlic Powder.” 4/5.
Nutrition: The nutrition stats are pretty good, 7 nuggets for 140 calories, 3g fat (1g saturated, 1g monounsaturated, and 0.5g polyunsaturated, and 0.5g unknown fat) and not too high in sodium for a frozen food at 460mg. The cholesterol is pretty high for me thought, at 70mg per serving. Thee are, however, 25 grams of protein per serving, which is huge.
Overall: My mom picked up the Naked Nuggets at Stew Leonard’s a couple weeks ago. They’re boneless, skinless white meat chicken without breading. They’re also gluten and trans-fat free. I threw them in the oven with my sweet potato rounds for 7 minutes at 400 degrees, which is the longest time advised (5-7 minutes) and 50 degrees higher than the bags says (at 350), but they definitely could have used a few more minutes in the oven. They were warm and obviously precooked, but the cook time seemed a little low for not being piping hot (did I really just say type that?) out of the oven. I dipped them in BBQ sauce and ketchup. I liked the ketchup with them better .. nostalgia, maybe? I’ll eat them again, definitely. 3/5.

After dinner, I went bowling with my mom, step-dad, brother, and 2 of my step-brothers. I have 3. I’m the only girl. See why I joined a sorority? I bowled my worst game ever 😦 I’m actually pretty good at bowling, when I do go – which is really only at camp on field trips. I’ll blame the heavier ball (my usual 6 pounder could not be found) and ignore the fact that we didn’t use bumpers. That really had nothing to do with i. The second game was better, as I beat my step-dad, who is intense enough to have his own ball. I call it a win. My step-brother and I spend most of the time making fun of the ridiculous people on either side of our lane. Let me just say that the guy to our right was taking a picture of his not-very-high score and referred to himself as “Pinz.” Yes, with a “z.”

Obviously I was hungry at the bowling alley but my stomach felt iffy when I got home. I knew I had to eat though, so I made something warm and comforting:

Chopped and warmed fuji, cinnamon, TruVia, warmed skim, and Kashi Heart to Heart

I’m off to the gym before I get snowed in! The weather here in CT/the east coast is never good for New Year’s – are you doing anything fun tonight? I think I’m just hanging home – New Year’s has never been big for me.

Be sure to check back later for a super exciting breakfast post!

 

Catch-up and Tea Forte Review

I’ll be honest – I kind of lost track of the day after Christmas.

I’m assuming this was dinner?

Shrimp and black bean burrito with guac and hot sauce + carrots and salsa

It was great and NEW!

• La Tortilla Factory wrap
• Romaine (would shred it next time … good thing I eat with my family)
• Black beans
• Leftover shrimpies
• Laughing Cow
• Guacamole
• Frank’s Red Hot

While impatiently waiting for your burrito to cook, this is a good snack:

Is guac the new hummus?

I also found it necessary to have two salsas for carrot dippage/burrito slatherage: Tostitos and this newbie:

You know you’re a foodie when you get specialty salsa in your Christmas stocking.

It’s pretty good! Spicier than I was expecting and not too sweet. I had a strawberry Chobani with granola later on, but you’ve seen that.

Yesterday’s breakfast was nothing new but still amazing.

Chopped warmed fuji, cinnamon, TruVia, skim, and Kashi Heart to Heart

I headed to the gym, intent on 4 miles on the treadmill trying not to fall off out of boredom. However, this guy

got me to 5 in 47:02. I love you, Elliot Stabler. I also did some reps on the hip adduction and abduction machines and the glute machine. That’s all it is called, apparently. Just glute. Anyway, I came home and made a semi-new lunch:

Shrimp and black bean salad!

• Romaine
• Peas
• Corn
• Sugar snap peas
• Shrimp
• Black beans
• Annie’s Lite Gingerly Vinaigrette

Plus a side of Kashi crackers in Original 7 Grain. So good! And filling, until those 5 miles caught up to me and I needed a Santa snack plate.

Carrots, sugar snap peas, hummus and Frank’s

Dinner part one was pretty obvious:

Sweet potato with black beans, Fage, and Frank’s Red Hot

I also had a new tea with dinner. My step-aunts gave my mom this cool tea cup and set from Tea Forte:

It includes:

• Sweet Orange Spice
• Winter Chai
• Crimson Nectar
• English Breakfast
• White Ambrosia

I chose the Winter Chai, described as:

The holidays aren’t over until after New Year’s, right? Here’s what it looks like out of the box and “unwrapped.” The tea bag itself is very nice – almost like silk. And I love the tiny leaf for the string!

I followed the directions:

And got this:

So cute! I really loved the Winter Chai flavor. It was perfectly spiced and sweet. Definitely reminded me of winter, but I can picture it tasting amazing iced in the summer too, with milk. The sweetness was seriously perfect. I didn’t need to add any sweetener but it wasn’t at all overpowering. I can’t wait to try the other flavors!

The cup there is double-insulated, so it keeps the tea warm but your hands cool. It was really fun to use, I even had another cup of tea (the last of my Candy Cane Lane 😦 ) in it a little while later!

I was really craving veggies and volume today, so dinner part two was another salad:

Romaine, corn, black beans, salsa, and guac with a toasted sandwich thin.

With my baby Little Mermaid fork because otherwise I take huge bites and eat too fast. I ended the night with a clemmie:

Have a great day!

Edited to add:  Don’t miss Iowa Girl Eats’ VitaTop giveaway here!  Or wait, actually do, because I WANT THEM!