Weekend Round-Up

This weekend was definitely a mixed bag – lots of good things, some challenges, some frustrations. But I think it’s the variety in life that keeps in interesting so I can’t really complain!

Saturday dawned bright and sunny so I had a Clif ZBar as my pre-run snack and The Huz and I headed out with the pup for a run. Even though I’d only planned on having company for the first few miles, The Huz toughed it out and ran the entire 7.5 with me. I couldn’t believe it – the furthest he’d ever run before was 5! Needless to say, when we got home, we were starving so I made up a smoothie per The Huz’s specifications (aka no greens!): frozen mixed berries, 1 banana, almond milk, almond butter, 1% milk.

Even though the smoothie tasted delicious and was pretty filling at first, I was hungry shortly after so I made up a plate of leftovers from Gobo: sizzling seitan, sautéed tofu and Szechuan mai-fan. I also had a small bowl of strawberries on the side for some freshness.

The meal was very satisfying, but something did NOT agree with my stomach. Sadly, I spent much of the afternoon doubled up with stomach pains and GI distress! I managed to sleep for an hour or two while The Huz watched the baseball game, but it was rough going for a while.

The only culprit I came up with was the 1% milk – I’ve always had a bit of a sensitivity to lactose, but I can usually eat cheese and greek yogurts and ice cream with no/minimal trouble. However, I should have taken a page from my own book and avoided dairy after the run since I already know not to have any before I run!

I managed to perk up in time to meet some friends for dinner at a place downtown. I don’t know if anyone else has heard of Todai, but it is now called Ichi Umi. Quite honestly, they can call if anything they want – I’ll still love it! The restaurant is the length of an entire city block and half of it is fresh sushi, maki and sashi while the other half is cooked dishes including beef, pork, whole fish, fried rice, a crepe station, kebabs, and salads. They also have a whole dessert buffet with little petit fours and two flavors of ice cream – green tea and red bean. I made two plates of “dinner” food and two small plates of dessert bites.

Plate 2:

I managed to exercise some self control, but I was still tremendously full and hesitantly tasted the coconut cupcake from Crumbs that the four of us split on our walk home. I’m so glad I only had a taste of it. It was delicious but I would have been sick if I’d taken more than that one bite. I can’t wait to go back to this place when I’m hungry to try some of their different flavors – they had such creative cupcakes!

Saturday workout summary: 7.5 mile run, 3.5 mile walk to/from dinner

I was determined to start Sunday off on the right foot due to my overindulgence the day before. I made myself a Green Monster and included a couple of strawberries to change it up. I don’t think I’ll do this in the future because it seems to highlight the bitterness of the kale – no thanks!

I finished half of the Monster and made myself a little bowl of dried fruit and raw nuts.

For lunch, I made my chicken salad Panini recipe again, though without spinach b/c we were out! I also snacked on a Coco Choco Bar while making a new batch of raw chocolate chip cookie balls. Honestly, I was much too full in the afternoon. I think I was stressed about having eaten so much on Saturday and I was weighing myself down with a lot of fat talk so I munched and munched.

We took at walk to a health store I’d been curious about and ran right into a huge street fair all along Third Avenue. I wish I’d known about it earlier because it was starting to close up by the time we arrived! I did get to enjoy the health store very much though. I picked up the following:

1 bunch organic kale
1 box organic baby spinach
1 box broccoli/alfalfa sprouts
1 large organic zucchini
2 medium organic yellow squash
1 box organic grape tomatoes
1 lb organic strawberries
1 package NaSoya extra firm tofu
1 small container Fage 2%
1 Kombucha (I’ve never tried it before and can’t wait!)
1 package flax wraps
Yogi Tea – Kava Stress Relief
2 Amy’s frozen meals – Mattar Paneer and Black Bean/Veggie Enchiladas
Passion fruit sorbet
1 package shirataki noodles

The total was $56 and I’m curious to see how long all of this lasts!

For dinner, I was craving something light after all the eating I’d done for the past 24 hours. I made a delicious whole wheat pasta salad that will definitely made a repeat appearance!

Summertime Spiral Pasta Salad (adapted from this recipe)

1 pound whole wheat rotini
1 large zucchini (sliced in 1/4” thick slices)
1 medium yellow squash (sliced in ¼” thick slices)
1 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped (I used a mix of tomatoes packed in olive oil and dried ones)
1 cup fresh basil, packed and chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

Dressing

½ c. olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 T. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. stone ground mustard
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. salt
black pepper to taste

1. Boil water, add salt and cook pasta until just done. Drain and allow to cool.

2. Slice vegetables and add to pasta.

3. Lightly smash garlic cloves with side of knife and add to food processor. Add vinegar and spices and continue to pulse to chop. Keeping processor on, drizzle olive oil slowly into mixture and mix until desired consistency is obtained. Pour dressing over pasta/vegetables and toss to coat.

4. Let sit 20 minutes to allow dressing to soak into noodles. Enjoy!

The Huz and I shared a bowl of this with a beer for dinner and it was wonderful – so light and summery. And pasta really is my favorite food so I liked adding lots of vegetables to make it a more complete meal.

For dessert, I had a couple of my new raw chocolate chip cookie balls and I think this batch turned out even better than the ones I’ve made before. Last time, I didn’t have vanilla extract, but didn’t think it would matter. Guess what, it matters! I also had regularly-sized chocolate chips on hand so I added those to the oat portion and ground them up. This added a nice chocolate-y flavor throughout the “cookies” rather than just biting into a chip here and there. I also brought them into the office today and they’re a huge hit!!

The Huz recently downloaded the entire “Sports Night” series so we watched a few episodes of that and tried to get to bed early.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I slept very well because I woke up this morning and felt super groggy! I decided a Green Monster might help energize me so I had:

4 leaves organic curly kale
1 small handful organic baby spinach
1 very ripe banana
½ c. almond milk

Kept it simple today and had half of a flax wrap spread with raw almond butter and Fruit of the Forest jam from Whole Foods. It felt so decadent to have a variation of PB&J for breakfast and I really enjoyed it.

I probably should have had the entire wrap (110 cals) because I was hungry by 10:30 and dug into one of my last Coco Choco bars! I also had a mug of my Kava Stress Relief tea, which was very good, but very strong. I might try steeping it for 1-2 minutes next time, rather than the suggested 5-10. Around 12:30, I had a few cups of my leftover pasta salad and 2 cookie balls for my dessert.