I cannot believe how quickly these weeks are flying by. It seems like I was starting school a few days ago, and now I’m over a third of the way through the semester? Yikes. I guess that just goes to show that I like what I’m doing (I love my English and history classes this semester) and that I’m keeping busy, which is also good. 😉

Anyhoo, without further ado, here are my favorite eats from this past week!

WIAW

Hosted by Jenn of Peas and Crayons.

Breakfasts

Same ol’ same ol’. Greek yogurt, cereal, and raisins. I will hopefully never tire of this breakfast.

Lunches

One of my favorite lunches this past week was super simple and came together in no time. It was also one of the most protein and fiber-filled! That’s what I call a win-win.

A Cedarlane organic vegetarian burrito with a side of edamame. (I had a lot more edamame before I took the picture…I just couldn’t stop eating them!)

Another great lunch was a plate of some of those Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers and some burned well-done potatoes. I topped this feast with ketchup after it’s photoshoot.

I think the thing that I love the most about those burgers is that it doesn’t even feel like I’m eating loads of vegetables – they’re so tasty and the texture is amazing!

Snacks

Popcorn. Perfect for evening snacking while watching a movie. (It looks weird because of bad lighting.) The popcorn that I eat at home is air popped, which I love – popcorn is actually a healthy snack, full of fiber and antioxidants, so I don’t feel guilty at all eating it!

I also had a few of these gorgeous oranges my parents bought. I guess they’re a different kind…they were more pink/ruby inside than orange, but they weren’t blood oranges. I dunno, but they were beautiful and tasted great!

Dinners

When I got home on Thursday afternoon, I wanted nothing more than a piece of the pizza my mom and brother were sharing. However, I was right in my prediction: I missed the pepperoni! I love that spicy, smokey flavor it gives pizza, and I didn’t want to pick it off!

For some added protein, I had some baked cheesy tofu on the side. Not much to look at, but that was one tasty dinner.

Another dinner that I enjoyed this week was Roasted Chicken Baked Tofu Fettuccine in Lemon Cream Sauce. The recipe is from a Costco cookbook we got a while ago, and ohhh my gosh is it delicious. Not in any way healthy, though. Yikes. 🙂

My mom made it on Saturday night when we had my pastor and his wife and kids over. Good food, great company!

Desserts

Of course, I enjoyed some frozen Confetti Clutter Cookies…

…and a frozen/thawed Sweetheart Cupcake.

(By the way, did you know that frosting freezes perfectly? For some reason I had it in my head that frosting would be one of those things that you just shouldn’t freeze. Thankfully, I was wrong!)

For the dinner we made for our pastor and his family, I wanted to do some sort of special dessert. I love Ina Garten’s recipes, and when my mom and I started brainstorming desserts, I knew exactly what I wanted to make:

Ina Garten’s Apple Tarts.

So simple but so beautiful.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. I didn’t put enough apples on each tart (that will never happen again), but the flavors and smell were incredible nevertheless. I heated one up the next day in the microwave, and it was just as good if not better. I highly recommend this recipe!!

————

Workouts February 10-16
Sunday: 40 minutes elliptical trainer + strength training (including 100 bicep curls per side! Whew!)
Monday: Jillian Michael’s Shred It with weights
Tuesday: 20 minutes jogging + 30 minutes walking on treadmill
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown (didn’t get a chance to try it this past weekend)
Friday: 20 minutes jogging + 30 minutes walking on treadmill
Saturday: 45 minutes elliptical trainer + strength training

I’ve only done two of the Jillian DVDs that I got a few weeks ago: level one of both Shred It and 6 Week 6 Pack, but I really like them both! Shred It is good in that it really is about just strengthening your body. There isn’t too much cardio in it, but I was sweating a fair amount by the end, and I am still sore from it. Level one of 6 Week 6 Pack had me sweating buckets but doesn’t leave me sore at all. I’m excited to see how the yoga DVD is!

In other news, I watched a very interesting and slightly terrifying documentary this weekend called Hungry for Change. Have any of you seen it? Here’s a trailer:

Some parts of the documentary were much more important to me than others were, but overall, I think it’s something many people should see. The aspects of it that I liked the most were the bits about “diet” and “weight loss” foods, and what the industry is doing to us. When I was in high school and putting on weight, I tried those 100 calorie packs, weight loss bars, and other things like that on and off, but I never felt good about it and I certainly didn’t lose weight. One of the main points in the documentary was that the food industry – especially the diet food industry – is literally tricking us into thinking their foods will help us, when really, all we’re doing is loading up our bodies with chemicals and sugar that go by different names. I guess it just really went along with my plan for transitioning my diet over to clean eating. If you’ve been taking note of my diet recently (through WIAW and my recipes) you’ll know that I haven’t completely switched over to clean eating, but I’m trying, and this documentary really reminded me of why I want to do that.

Anyway. I really liked the documentary, and if you get a chance to check it out, you should! (It’s on Netflix.)

So on Saturday we were going to drop my camera off at the shop after our dance lessons, to see if they could fix it or tell me what was wrong with it. I haven’t used it in three months, because every time I tried to make it work in the first couple of weeks of it’s illness (if you will), it would go crazy or not do anything. You can imagine my surprise when I was able to turn it on and take a picture on Saturday! I don’t know what on earth happened, but we didn’t have to go to the shop (maybe it heard me threatening that? 😉 ), and I now have a working camera again! Hooray! I’ll still use my brother’s amazing camera when at home, but I hated not having one while at school/away from home. I’m just hoping it doesn’t go crazy again.

To end, I want to share this picture of Ella with you. Her expression makes me laugh every time I look at it. I think she’s getting annoyed with me taking her picture all the time…don’t you? 😉

Haha!

Questions for the day:

Do you like to have a full schedule and be busy, or does that just stress you out?

What’s your favorite healthy evening/movie snack?

What is one documentary you’ve seen that will really stick with you?

Have a wonderful Wednesday!