Orzo Parmesan With Veggies

Two posts in one day, such grandeur. This is just a quick one though; I didn't have all the nutrition info ready to go when I wrote the last blog. So here it is, Orzo Parmesan with veggies!

		Cals		Tot fat		Sat fat		Trans		Sodium
2 tsp light butter		30		3.333333		1		0		56.66667
3/8 cup orzo		300		1.5		0		0		0
3/4 cup chicken stock		11.25		0		0		0		427.5
1/8 cup grated parmesan		40		3		2		0		170
1/8 tsp salt		0		0		0		0		290
pinch of pepper		0		0		0		0		0
9 slim asparagus stalks		25		0		0		0		0
1/4 yellow pepper		12.5		0.1		0.025		0		1
Total		418.75		7.933333		3.025		0		945.1667

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the orzo and saute for a few minutes, until the orzo starts to get golden brown. Add the broth then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until all the broth has been absorbed.

While Orzo simmers, wash then grill fresh asparagus for 10 minutes. Chop up yellow pepper and add to grill for 5 minutes. I use the foreman grill, but you can bake the veggies for 20 mins at 350 degrees as well. Remove the veggies from the grill and the orzo from the heat after the allotted time. Add the Parmesan and veggies, then salt and pepper to taste.

I made this for dinner tonight, and it seems like a healthy enough meal to me. I try to keep my dinners around 400 calories, and it doesn't tip the scale too far in any direction. Even the sodium isn't took bad. It's around 39% of the daily value, and as long as my sodium intake for dinner stays under 50%, I'm happy (my breakfast and lunches are almost always super low in sodium). If you were aiming to cut some sodium, you could do away with the 1/8 tsp of salt. I don't think the dish really needs it (I always taste a dish before I go throwing salt/pepper into the mix). If you did that, then your sodium intake for this dish would only be around 27% of the daily value.

Weight loss, job search, another website

I have most exciting news: I am back down to my wedding weight. Take that honeymoon poundage! Granted three months to lose six pounds isn't really much to brag about; however, I lost three of those six pounds in the past three weeks alone. I decided there must be something to this eating healthy shtick since my first time through Insanity only produced a three pound weight loss. I also decided I was going to do something about this body of mine while my husband was in the field for three weeks.

By planning my meals, eating a lot of fresh produce and cutting out hard liquor I got the results I've been waiting for. I still drink beer on the weekends and enjoy some wine with my folks over our weekly dinner, but I'm not partying like there is no tomorrow. Not that I was a party girl to begin with, but a mixed drink packs a way bigger calorie toll than a beer or a glass of wine. I've been trying to keep my average daily calorie intake around 1500. Granted, this actually means 4-5 days of the week I'm taking in around 1200-1300, and 2-3 days of the week I'm taking in around 1800 (nights I want to indulge in less than healthy snacks).

And now for a non sequitur and another shameless self promotion: Yesterday I brought live my MIL's newly redesigned website: rosebuddoula.net. She offers childbirth classes and other doula services, so feel free to check it out!

This is essentially what I have been doing during my time dancing with unemployment (a whole week of unemployment, woe is me). I've also been updating my resume, updating my cover letter, and performing an extensive job search. I got a call today and hopefully something will come of it, because it is essentially the exact job I was doing with NASSP, with a heavier content writing focus rather than coding. My ability to code was actually described as the "icing on the cake" and my college performance was highly praised. I keep telling myself not to get too excited, but it still feels good knowing I have skills that are employable. The company is also a very well known one, which is also a plus because sometimes these job advertisements seem great until you learn of the company and suddenly everything seems much more sketchy.

So here is to my improved diet, my second web design going live, a job interview, and my husband coming home from the field tomorrow!

Spinach Panini = Love

Today I decided my breakfast and lunch needed to be super healthy since I knew my dinner and after dinner would be so-so. Every Tuesday I go over to my parents for "Spaghetti Tuesday". Spaghetti in and of itself is not terrible. In fact, the spaghetti and side of bread totaled 550 calories today, which would be totally doable in my grand scheme of daily calories. What normally causes the calorie calamity is the wine. My dad likes to lure me over with wine, and who am I to not indulge? Like I've said many times before, you cannot outright cut out the things you enjoy from your diet or else you will binge. So, Tuesday evening is my wine night.

However, I had no idea I would behave as well as I did, so I planned out breakfast and lunch as if I were going to binge like there was no tomorrow. For breakfast I had a cup of strawberries dipped in plain Greek yogurt and frozen. This was obviously prepped before hand. For lunch I had the most amazing foreman grill panini ever. I went out and bought sandwich thins (more costly than a loaf of bread, but I never get through the whole loaf due to only needing to feed two people and feeling guilty about nutrition/calorie content), some fresh spinach and light mini babybel cheese. I already had some turkey at home so I threw that into the mix on a whim.

Anyway, to make this heat some water on medium, and throw in about two fist fulls of spinach leaves. Once cooked, drain the leaves. Open the sandwich thin and place one slice of turkey on each side. Spread the spinach leaves over one side (I put the turkey down first so the moisture form the damp spinach won't soak the bread) and put the mini babybel cheese in the center. Close the sandwich up and place on the foreman grill for four minutes. Presto, an amazing panini! Nutrition info below.

		Cals		Tot fat		Sat fat		Trans		Sodium
Sandwich thin		100		1		0		0		170
2 slices of honey turkey		20		1.5		0.25		0		240
spinach		5		0		0		0		12
Light mini babybel		50		3		1.5		0		160
Total		175		5.5		1.75		0		582

When I first made this, I used four slices of turkey, which doubles the nutrition info for the turkey (at least for the brand I used), but it kind of over powered the cheese and spinach, so I cut it back to two slices to even out the flavors. You can obviously spice this up with any toppings you enjoy that you have laying around, but as it stands, this is a low calorie panini that works great for a snack or as part of your lunch!

Chicken-Cheese-Spinach Quesadillas

While perusing pinterest, I found a bunch of different chicken/cheese/spinach quesadillas, but none of them were really what I wanted from my quesadilla. So I did a mash up and got some pretty awesome results.

You will need:

4 tortillas
4 oz. chicken breast
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp feta
1/2 cup fresh spinach
1/4 yellow pepper
1/4 cup of onion

I used my foreman grill for this :) I put 4 oz. (1 chicken breast or 2 chicken tenders) on the foreman grill until cooked through (I cook it for 8 minutes, cut it in half and cook it for 2 more). While that is going, dice up the onion and pepper and put it on a frying pan until soft (6-8 minutes), season with cayenne if you want a little kick. Also, heat some water in a separate pot and cook the spinach. These should all be done around the same time.

Remove the chicken, onion/pepper mix, and spinach from heat. Put the onion/pepper mix in a bowl, drain the spinach, and shred the chicken. Mix it all together once cooled. Then, add the cheeses. Lay our the tortillas and fill half of them with the mix and fold. Place on the grill for 4 minutes, check to see the progress, then flip if necessary and cook for 2 more minutes.

Here is the nutrition info:

		Cals		Tot fat		sat fat		trans		sodium
4 tortillas		320		10		2		0		840
4 oz chicken		110		1.25		0.25		0		60
3/4 cup moz		240		18		10.5		0		600
1 tbsp feta		8.75		0		0		0		130
1/2 cup spinach		3.5		0		0		0		12
1/4 yellow pepper		12.5		0.1		0.025		0		1
1/4 cup of onion		16		0		0		0		1.5
total		710.8		29.35		12.75	8	0		1644.5
per quesadilla		177.7		7.34		3.195		0		411.13
per serving		355.4		14.68		6.39		0		822.26

This will make 4 quesadillas, but I could only eat 2 myself, so I stored the ingredients in the fridge for another day. This works great for dinner and only takes about 20 minutes to prep and cook. It's well under the daily allowances for calories, fats, and sodium, so I feel pretty good about this as a dinner (or 1 quesadilla for lunch).

I originally used 1 cup of moz for this, but it was super cheesy and I wanted to cut out some calories, so I took it down to 3/4 of a cup. Super tasty, right amount of cheesy.

Insanity and Egg Roll Chicken Pot Pie Pockets

I just finished the first week of Insanity on my second time through the program, and I forgot how much I liked month 1's workouts. Month 2's definitely kicked my butt in a way month 1 does not, but the cardio levels are much crazier in month 1. Either that, or my attempts to push it to the max are working. As my husband is in the field, my goals is to be smoking hot when he get's back.

Week 1 is done, two more weeks until his return. I know three weeks is not enough for a massive transformation, but in this week alone I finally broke through my plateau by really focusing on nutrition. Down 2 lbs! 2.5 lbs to go to my first goal weight (wedding day weight--honeymoon and 1 month of pre-IOC partying packed on 6 lbs). My ultimate goal is to lose 7.5 lbs, but I'm not concerned about the number, so much as my clothes fitting again. I'm aware if I keep training like this I will lose fat weight, but gain muscle weight, so the scale may not do what I want it to do. I'm happy with my progress so far though

Anyway, here is the chicken pot pie pocket recipe with nutrition info.

You will need 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables, 1/4 of an onion, 4 oz of chicken breast, 1 cup chicken broth, 4 tsps cornstarch, and a pinch of black pepper for flavor. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the chicken breast, cube or shred (whatever you prefer) and set it aside. Dice up the onion and put in a skillet with the mixed vegetables on medium-high heat. Once cooked through, add the chicken. In a bowl, mix the broth with the cornstarch (make sure it is well combined). Add to the skillet, be sure to stir continually until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat. On a clean, dry counter, set out 5 egg roll wrappers (or you can do them 1 at a time if you prefer). Get a small bowl with water and wet the edges of the wrappers. Spoon the mixture onto the bottom half of the wrappers, leaving about 1/2 an inch. Fold the wrapper in half and reapply water to the three edges. Then fold each edge inward about a 1/4 of an inch. Press the edges with a fork to seal completely.

This recipe makes 5 wraps, I usually eat 2

	Calories	Tot fat (g)	Sat fat (g)	Trans fat (g)	Sodium (mg)
1 cup mixed vegetables	90	0	0	0	60
1/4 of an onion	15	0	0	0	1.5
4 oz chicken breast	110	2.5	0.5	0	120
1 cup chicken broth	10	0.5	0	0	960
4 tsps cornstarch	73.93396	0	0	0	0
pinch of black pepper	0	0	0	0	0
5 Egg roll wrappers	300	0	0	0	0
Total	598.934	3	0.5	0	1141.5
Total per serving (2)	239.5736	1.2	0.2	0	456.6
Total per wrap	119.7868	0.6	0.1	0	228.3

Overall, I have to say this is one of the better recipes I've done in regards to keeping things healthy and tasty.  Low fat, low calories, and much, much better in the sodium arena than I normally do. It's well under the 2400 mg minimum at any rate, even if I scarfed all 5 wraps.

Squash and Asparagus/Turkey Wraps

As promised, here is the prep and recipe behind the squash and asparagus wrap dinner. You will need

• 1 large yellow squash
• 6 large asparagus stalks or 9 slim stalks
• 6 slices of turkey (I use honey roasted)
• 2 tbls ligtht cream cheese
• 1/2 tbls of light butter

I do this entirely with the Foreman grill. You can bake it in your oven at 350 for 30 minutes instead if you prefer (be sure to pay attention to your food though, because my oven is a little wonky). 

So, layer 2 slices of turkey (about 2/4 of an inch of layer) and spread a bit of cream cheese down the center. Wrap 2-3 asparagus stalks long-ways in the turkey slices. Put on the grill for 5 minutes. 

While the asparagus wraps are grilling, slice your squash into 1/2 inch slices. Smear the butter on the half of the grill not occupied by the asparagus wraps. Put on the grill. After, the 5 minutes is up, flip the asparagus wraps, but leave the squash alone. Leave on the grill for another 5 minutes. Take the asparagus wraps off and set aside, flip the squash and leave them for 3 more minutes. 

After the 3 minutes are up, take off the squash and enjoy :) Nutrition info below.

	Cals	Tot Fat	Sat Fat	Trans	Sodium
1 lg Squash	30	0	0	0	12
1/2 tbls light butter	25	2.5	0.75	0	42.5
9 slim asparagus stalks (or 6 thicker stalks)	25	0	0	0	0
6 slices of turkey	60	4.5	0.75	0	480
2 tbls light cream cheese	60	4.5	3	0	170
Totals	200	11.5	4.5	0	704.5

In Insanity news, I've decided to push myself to max capacity while repeating month 1 and working on the nutrition aspect. So far, it is yielding results, which makes me happy. However, my muscles are sore like whoa. The first time I did month 1 of Insanity, I held back in a lot of the workouts because I was afraid of hurting myself. Now, I am cranking them out like there is no tomorrow. I haven't felt this level of soreness in quite some time. But I am pleased. 

I am currently house sitting for my parents, so I'm just going to sleep here, do my Insanity workout, recover (maybe eat if I need to) then do some work on the elliptical. My husband always talked about when he did two-a-day workouts. I'm going to try this once my current day job ends (next Friday). Of course, I know this won't last, as once we move and I obtain a full time job I won't have the time other than weekends. But for now, I am kicking my butt with Insanity and loving it. I can't wait until 3 weeks from now when I take my next progress pick. Honestly, I can't wait until the 22 and my husband comes back from training on the other side of the continent. 

Another Day, Another Meal, Another Website

So I decided this week I would plan out my meals, not that I didn’t already basically do that for breakfast and lunch. I am a creature of habit and typically eat the same things (or at least things with the same calorie content) for breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast is in actually spread from 9-12. I arrive at work at 7:45 and have two cups of coffee between then and 9. At 9, the munching begins. I eat at 9, 10, 11, and 12 then lunch is at 1:15. Most people ask why I don’t just eat everything at 9 and wait until lunch. They go on about breakfast being the most important meal blah blah blah. I don’t deny it is important (granted I find all times that involve food to be important), but I am hypo(hyper? I can never remember)glycemic. I am constantly hungry regardless of what I eat. So I could eat everything that I normally eat between 9 and 12, but I would be hungry again at 10. My body does not seem to care how much or how little I ate (unless I absolutely gorged myself); I will be hungry again about an hour later.

So, my snack items for 9, 10, 11, and 12 usually look something like this (it varies between items depending on the day): 2 large white cheddar cheese rice cakes, 16 mini salt and pepper rice cakes, maple cream of wheat, strawberries and cream oatmeal, fruit in a cup, nut and berry mix, and so on. 4 of those items typically make it into my morning. The calorie content varies between 350 and 500. My lunch is usually either a sandwich, a lettuce wrap (same content as the sandwich except I swap the bread for Romaine lettuce leaves), a fettucini alfredo Lean Cuisine, or a soup. The Lean Cuisines are usually when I need to grocery shop or I am being supremely lazy. At any rate lunch varies between 200 and 320 (unless the office goes out for lunch, then I look up the restaurants and try to keep it around 400). The end result is when I come home I am sitting at 550-820 calories. I shoot for about 1500 for week days (because I know I will likely splurge on some drinks or chips and salsa if I go out with my husband and our friends over the weekend). My end goal is for my average daily calorie intake to be around 1700.

The problem then comes to dinner. I typically have 680-950 calories to burn on dinner and an after dinner snack. My snack is usually around 150 calories. This knocks down dinner to 530-800 calories. This should not be difficult if dinner is preplanned. If it is not, I typically have to find something fast and easy, which in the food world means boxed or frozen meals. I try to look at the nutrition information when I buy them, but sometimes when in a pinch I don’t honestly care as long as the food gets in my belly asap.

So here are my dinner plans for the next few days:

Thursday: grilled squash and asparagus stalks rolled with cream cheese inside 2 slices of turkey

Friday: stuffed peppers

Saturday: egg roll chicken pot pies (significantly healthier for you than traditional pot pie)

I’ll be posting the recipes and nutrition info for Thursday and Saturday’s meals in the near future. The stuffed pepper info is here.

In completely unrelated news, I completed my first ever website design. I guess it was more of a redesign as they had an existing site, but it was very, incredibly basic (as in it had a background color and some input buttons for navigation).

So here it is in all of it's shiny, new glory: schoolsandtownsend.com. It's nothing super fancy, but I'm excited!

Drivers, drivers everywhere (and most of them quite terrible)

So I fully intended to blog about Insanity today, but I did that yesterday and the drive home was mostly filled with outrage at traffic. I would like to present exhibit A:

You see that spot, just slightly less than the width of le douchebagious maximus's car? Yes. Not a space pour vous douche bagious maximus. So why on earth did you think it was a good idea to merge? You looked at me, I saw. We made eye contact, and yet instead of acknowledging safe driving distance does not = place for your hoopty, you go ahead and do it anyway.

Yes, I may be a woman significantly smaller than you, but bitch please I will lay on my horn and scream at you like a crazy person whose commute is way too long. You want to get all huffy because I called you out on your douchebaggery? Be my guest.

On that note, people who are afraid of exhibit A happening--please do not become exhibit B

Yes, I understand car behind me, you also detest the douchebagious maximus, but for the love--do not erase safe driving distance and ride my ass like you mean for my Camry and your Civic to spawn a hybrid. You are far more likely to rear end me than actually deter the douchebaggious maximus. He will fade over anyway at some other point, most likely without a turn signal.

Also, come on people. Use your damn turn signals. I do not possess psychic powers, I do not know when you are suddenly going to be overtaken by the urge to drift into my lane. Do not give me that look of shock and anger (like you have any right, puhlease), you are the moron who didn't use a turn signal.

And one final thing: right on red people. I can see your license plate, I know you are from this state and should be well aware of this law. So turn already.

Normally, these things do not annoy me. Normally, they only happen every now and then, but today all of them were witnessed and my husband is in the field (to be read as: I am in a shit mood) so I am slamming down the bad driving hammer.

Also, bitches at work need to replace the damn creamer if they use the last of it. If your hoity toity ass is too good to go downstairs and get the replacement, then you don't get to have free office coffee. This isn't starbucks and I am not a barista. Go buy your coffee if you are that lazy (or that entitled).

*end scene*

Starting Insanity Over, Nutrition, Life

So, I was supposed to have p90x by now, but I guess my friend got too busy to send it. Oh well, I guess in the end I will probably just have to buy it. In the mean time, I decided to start Insanity over. My husband is gone for awhile on a PEX, so I figure that gives me time to really work out the nutrition aspect (I usually do really well, then get lazy and forget to plan out meals, so hopefully all this free time will lead to better planning and better results). I'm looking over the nutrition book again and seeing if they have any meals that actually sound appetizing (I'm sure there are at least a few) and I'll supplement some of my own meals that I know are healthy and I actually enjoy.

Something I noticed about repeating month 1 after month 2 is that it is not so much easier, just different. I found month 2 to be much more cardio. Repeating plyometrics (the workout I considered the hardest in month 1) to be much easier than month 2 oxygen-wise, but much harder strength-wise. I could breath easily (albeit heavily) through the whole workout--my heart rate never went over 180, whereas the first time I did plyo, my heart rate soared to 210 at moments. However, my shoulders ached like fire in a way they did not in month 2. My muscles fatigued much faster than I expected. I had oxygen enough to keep going; I very rarely needed to stop, whereas month 1 I stopped all the time. Like a said, not so much easier as different, which is guess is somewhat the point. I remember starting month 2 and it kicked my ass, but perhaps that was purely a cardio/oxygen issue rather than lack of muscle to pull it off. I suppose we shall see going forward. 

On another note, it is stress city over here. I just found out my job isn't going to let me contract for the short term so in a couple of weeks I am  jobless and on the hunt again. Oh yea, we're moving. Out of state. For the first time in my life I am not living in a 1 mile radius of where I was born. This is both awesome and terrifying.

I also think my job is being highly moronic by not keeping me on for a short period. We are in the middle of massive website redesigns--Oh well, why shouldn't one person be able to handle editing, updating, cleaning up reusable content, and data entry for 3 new websites? Oh, we need to keep our currently existing websites updated with monthly pubs, e-news, media releases and what have you--Oh well, members don't care about those sort of things; you know, the things they pay for to be a member. Oh, your promos and marketing? You want them on the web? Too bad. Oh, I'm the only one who knows how to work our whacked out CMS in check? Lalala, no need to keep me on, especially when you find someone to replace me (not only replace me, but do the work of a whole other, completely unrelated position). Too bad I won't be around to train them on the things only I know how to do.

Can you hear the hilarious? I gave more than twice the required notice in hopes this would not happen. Then again, I should know better by now than to hope. Leadership is down and pessimism is up. I can see the dominoes poised and I wonder who will be the next to drop--assuming, that is, that I am the first. Perhaps that is too presumptuous. I am, after all, the rock that holds up the ladder so it's not as if upper management will even realize the slow in productivity and the nose dive of quality has anything to do with my departure.

Anyway, in my world of job/joblessness stress, husband away stress, weight stress, diet stress, and moving stress (that list is in no particular order of importance; I wouldn't even know where to begin on what is most stressful--it changes daily) the only solid thing I currently have is a moving date and Insanity. It's nice to know at least one thing in my day-to-day is planned and ready to go.

Tomorrow and cardio power and resistance. Bring it on, Insanity.