Inspirational lunch: Eat Well, Live Well

It’s my Friday today because I am off of work tomorrow! Woo hoo! I took off because I have to work about 5 hours on Sunday for an event.

I started my day with Chobani plain non-fat greek yogurt and added the Bonne Maman wild blueberry preserves.

Snack at work was a banana with my peppermint tea fix.

Before I left my building to go to a lunch, I had a pineapple Chobani for some protein. As I tweeted earlier, this girl doesn’t normally love pineapple yogurts, but I was quite please with the Chobani version. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the luncheon I was going to, so I thought I would play it safe by having this yogurt.

I walked about a mile from my work to the Grain Exchange for a “Eat Well, Live Well” luncheon. The luncheon was provided by the Susan G. Komen Southeast Wisconsin Affiliate and the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

I enjoyed walking through downtown Milwaukee, even though it was pretty cool out today.

I passed Ziedler Square, which is the location for the farmer’s market I frequent on my lunch breaks in the summer months.

(Angie, I said “hi” to you as I passed your work).

I hadn’t been in the building since my junior prom, so it was fun to be back in the beautiful room I was last in as a naive 16 year old.

Upon arriving, I was greeted with a cute pink reusable bag, which contained a cookbook! The recipes in it look really good. Can’t wait to try some of them out and post them on here.

Jenny and her friend Michelle met me there and we found a table right at the front.

Our napkins were displayed so appropriately!

Each table had a basket as a center piece with food the speaker would later talk about and ask for audience participation on. Ours contained flaxseeds and granola.

My entree was a grilled tofu with a bed of greens and grilled vegetables. So good! Makes me want to get out the George Forman more to grill vegetables and tofu!

Dessert was even better. Fresh berries galore with cream on top.

And to kick it off, they really pampered us with chocolate covered strawberries. (I didn’t eat the whole plate, I just had one).

While I knew a lot of what the speaker was talking about, I also learned some things. I took notes on my iPod touch, so I will share some of them tomorrow if I can make sense of what I typed into my electronic note pad! She shared how a lot of the foods like kale, flax seeds, spinach, carrots, broccoli, etc. can benefit your breast health and why.

I left work early today to take my car in for a couple of services. I had to get an oil change, my tires rotated and a recall done on my low beams. Unfortunately, I was meant to have a shuttle take me home and it never did (I blamed it on all possible drivers too busy watching the Brewers lose). I hung out in the Honda dealership waiting room, used their wi-fi, read my book until everyone was booing that the Brewers lost at the last minute and then my relaxation got ruined when my service person called me, thinking I was at home. She came over with the obvious bad news that always comes with getting routine services done. I needed new tires, a new battery and my wiper blades were all shot. I only chose to get the oil change and the rear wiper blade replaced. I know that I can probably get better prices on the tires and definitely the battery elsewhere. That news ruined my afternoon. Just when I am about to pay off my car next month, here goes putting some money into it! Oh well!

I wasn’t too hungry when I got home and made a green monster smoothie for Craig and I with some of the foods the RD mentioned in her talk today! I put baby spinach, pineapple, skim milk, soy protein powder, & a bit of orange juice in it. The orange juice kind of ruined the flavor, so I won’t use that again in a green monster.

Tomorrow, I am running a few errands to Kohl’s to get a bridal shower gift and look around and Wal-mart to pick up our TurboTax software (yes, we have not done our taxes yet). I’ll probably hit the gym for yoga in the morning, so I skipped it tonight.

And finally, a big CONGRATS! to my sister-in-law (also named Lisa) who got offered a job today that is full time with benefits! All of our efforts in helping her with her interview skills paid off big time. I am sure it was also that she just did well on her own too, but it was her first big interview ever! We are so happy for her great news!

Outdoor biking bliss (only in my dreams)

Where did the day go? I woke up somewhat early, watched CBS Sunday Morning, read a bit of the paper and ate this cereal for breakfast:

I did some research on my husband’s desktop Mac and then was hungry again mid-morning.

I had a mini bagel with strawberry cream cheese.

After I showered, I was hungry yet again! I craved a green monster, so I blended one up with spinach, frozen pineapple, a fresh banana, Soy protein powder, ice and Silk Almond Milk.

I also had an attune raspberry chocolate probiotic bar.

That was kind of my lunch for today. I didn’t feel too hungry around lunch time and started reading my book again. Unfortunately, reading makes me really sleepy lately and I fell asleep on the couch for the second day in a row. I woke up with Karma the cat by my side and we were sleeping in the exact same position. Is it weird that my cat and I end up sleeping the same way?

Anyway, I was sad when I woke up because I had been dreaming I was in Sweden, biking on my Trek bike and enjoying nice warm weather. The Sweden setting in my dream definitely came from reading the Larsson book. Biking outside–well let’s just say that I have been thinking about biking outside a lot and how much I miss it and the nice weather.

Here I am on my bike on Craig’s 30th birthday last summer. I surprised him by asking his boss if he could be off of work, made him breakfast in bed and we went for a beautiful 14 mile bike ride along Lake Michigan.

Aaah, I miss summer.

When I got up, I was in the mood to bake. I used a cornbread muffin mix and added jalapenos to it. We froze a bunch of jalapenos from our garden last summer and they are super hot. My hands are literally burning from cutting up the jalapenos two hours ago!

I kept the oven on and made buffalo tofu. This was my first time baking tofu in the oven and it turned out pretty good.

I added it to a spinach salad with feta cheese, tomatoes and an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Well, I am feeling lazy this weekend and not sure I will hit the gym today. I definitely will be going there tomorrow. I have the day off because I work this Saturday. I plan on working out, going to see a matinee of The King’s Speech and to shop at the mall.

I am crossing my fingers for the big snowstorm this week! Not that I want the snow, but if we get a foot, I definitely will be working from home or just taking the day off. It could hit the Midwest on Tuesday or Wednesday. I would rather have it come now than on the day we have to leave for Florida.

Go Packers!

The game is on and I actually didn’t go to the gym during it. I’ll watch most, if not all of it and then head to the gym. Go Packers!

I started my day with a bowl of oats topped with fresh blueberries and chia seeds. I used my China Starbucks cup because I needed a huge cup of coffee. The cats woke us up at 6:15 and I couldn’t sleep anyway, so I got up. I figured it was better that way for waking up at 5:40 tomorrow.

Later in the morning, I snacked on Jessica’s granola and had another cup of coffee.

I headed out of the house to run some errands to Sears, Penzey’s Spices and Sendik’s grocery store.

At Sears, I got the Golla Lynne camera bag I wanted before our trip to Florida!

Before leaving the house, I used the Sears 2 go shopping site on my iPod touch & loaded the page showing the Sears associated CSN linked site for the Golla Lynne camera bag. They had a sale on the bag for $41.99 and Sears itself did not. I asked for the price match and got it. Sweet! The bag was “free” anyway because I got a Sears gift card from my credit card points.

Here is the back of the bag, where a small pocket is.

Here is a somewhat fuzzy picture of the interior color and style. It is roomy enough to hold a DSLR camera and a lens (someday we’ll buy the big lens, I hope).

I like how the bag sits on my hip and doesn’t feel heavy. I think I will end up using it as a camera bag and purse on our trip. The front pocket has more than enough room for my purse items, as long as I stay minimalistic.

At Penzey’s Spices, I got this nice 1 oz. jar of minced garlic for free. Thanks to their catalog coupons, I have built up a nice collection of spices and most of them were free.

If you don’t already get their catalog in the mail, I would encourage anyone to sign up for it to get the free spices and excellent recipes inside. You don’t have to purchase anything to get the free spices either, so that’s an added bonus. The quality of their spices is excellent.

At Sendik’s grocery store, I found this very green and gold display, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

Those are green and yellow peppers packaged together.

Once home, I used some of the spinach I just bought to make a green monster smoothie. I put Silk almond milk, Whole Foods soy protein powder, a half of a frozen banana, some frozen pineapple and ice cubes in it.

I didn’t realize it until I was taking these pictures–maybe the green smoothie with yellow pineapple will be good luck for the Packers!

His and hers smoothies. I always have the large size. My husband doesn’t eat spinach in salads or on sandwiches, but I can get him to drink it in this smoothie. I have found through all of my green monster experimentation–I prefer the flavor of plain almond milk in the smoothie vs. skim cow’s milk.

I don’t think I have ever posted a green monster smoothie on here before. I always make them in the summer, but it’s hard to drink cold smoothies during the winter.

And I realize this post is getting very long, so I will end it with a picture of the pizza I ate while watching the beginning of the Packers vs. Bears game.

Later on, I’ll go to the gym for some elliptical, biking and weights.

The Pack is in the lead at 14-0 right now, so let’s hope we win the game! If you read my blog, you know I am not a huge football fan and neither is my husband. But, for the sake of my home state’s very dedicated football fans, I hope we win.