What I’m Eating/10K Across the Bay
The fact that I now cook my own meals sometimes comes as a surprise to some of my friends. Before Joe and I lived together, I wasn’t a big fan of cooking. I didn’t like all the work and dishes that came with preparing meals for just myself. I’m pretty sure I’m the unofficial Guinness World Record holder for Cup o’ Noodles consumption. Seriously, I ate it for dinner at least 80% of the time between 2006 and 2010. I never really got sick of it. And I maintain that Cup o’ Noodles/Ramen can cure whatever ails you. It’s also the best hangover cure you will ever find.
These days, Joe and I cook almost all of our meals. Sometimes we cheat and go the lazy route of the microwave, but most days we make some effort to prepare real food.
I’ve found some things I’ve really enjoyed eating lately so here’s a quick look at what my meals have consisted of this week.
Breakfast
Is it gross that I’m showing you a half-eaten sandwich? Also, I promise I was eating this off a paper towel, not the carpet because it kinda looks that way.
I love a good breakfast sandwich in the morning. I find that it holds me over pretty well. So I’ve been frying up an egg (over hard, runny eggs kinda gross me out) and a piece of turkey bacon in the morning. I throw that on some low-cal, high-fiber bread along with a thin slice of cheese. Best way to start the day.
Lunch
Please ignore my finger that got in the way of the photo at the bottom. You can also see the lovely view from my desk where I eat my lunch 95% of the time.
One of the bloggers I follow regularly posted about a dinner she had made that sounded delicious: sweet potato, chickpea and Brussels sprout salad with bacon. The fact that I made this reflects how my taste in food has changed over the years. I never used to eat sweet potatoes or Brussels sprouts. Now I really enjoy them. I’m obsessed with chickpeas. And I don’t really need to sell you on the amazingness of bacon, do I? I used turkey bacon instead of regular bacon and threw in some extra turkey sausage we had. I also couldn’t find sweet potatoes at the store the other day so I bought a bag of sweet potato waffle fries and ripped them up. Probably not quite as healthy but it did the trick. I’ve been eating this for lunch all week and it is SOOOO good. Very satisfying and I sometimes found myself daydreaming about my lunch at 10 a.m.
Dinner
What grated cauliflower looks like
What cauliflower “fried rice” looks like.
This week featured a couple of twists on some of our favorites. First it was tacos. Instead of taco shells we used lettuce to hold the taco meat. This is something we do at least two times a month. I thought I would miss the shells more but really, the lettuce works great for holding the taco together. And in my mind lettuce shell = more calories to spend on cheese and sour cream. We made enough to last a couple of nights. Last night I went with something I’d only made once before: cauliflower “fried rice.” Instead of rice, you grate a head of cauliflower and then cook it up with the other ingredients like you would regular fried rice. Grating the cauliflower is a little tedious and messy but worth it in the end. Although the recipe called for two eggs, I may have thrown in four. I’m slightly obsessed with eggs. The result is so good, and honestly doesn’t taste that different from regular fried rice.
Snacks and Dessert
I eat basically every three hours because I’m a growing girl so for snacks this week I had Fiber One protein bars (the coconut almond ones remind me a little bit of an Almond Joy) and bananas. And then I cheated at night because my mom gave me a bunch of yummy pumpkin spice fudge she made. It takes serious willpower to eat just one piece of that each night.
I’ve been eating a little more food than I was during my experimental diet but I’m also getting back on track with a more consistent running schedule. I’m aiming for four days a week with a total mileage of somewhere between 18 and 23. I also want to get two days of strength training in. The focus right now is food as fuel and drinking more water.
Finally, I signed up for a race today that I’m really excited about it, even though it’s more than a year away. Next November I’ll be running the 10K Across the Bay. Some of you might remember when, for one day a year, you could walk across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Next year will be the first time people have been able to go across the bridge on foot in years. The 10K will start near Sandy Point and end on the east side of the bridge. It’ll probably be chilly and windy and the gradual incline for the first part of the race will suck but that means the second half is downhill. And how often do you get to run across the Bay Bridge?
If you’re interested in pre-registering (this event is guaranteed to sell out), visit one of my favorite local bloggers, Jess Runs (she’s a UMD j-school alumna too!) for a special password.
I love your blogs!