Amanda’s Good Eats

Hi all. The weather was gorgeous out today! And tomorrow our high is supposed to be 72. Wow. Spring is a-comin’. I spent the majority of this day working on a big blog project in my room. It was so nice having the sun stream through my open window while I worked.

I get lazy on the weekends with my posting, so this is just going to be highlights from the past few days.

I’m not looking forward to the start of another work week tomorrow. Sigh.

See you later…

Ack. I just realized tonight when I downloaded today’s photos from my camera that I didn’t take a picture of my breakfast! I put my camera on the table this morning like usual and everything, but somehow completely forgot to snap a pic when it was ready. That’s never happened this whole time I’ve been food blogging. So strange.

Anyway, you’ll have to use your imagination. For breakfast I had quinoa flakes made with almond milk and topped with sunbutter and brown sugar.

For lunch I had a turkey sandwich with cranberry apple butter and a glass of soy milk while watching a little I Love Lucy.

Afternoon snack was a Jocolat Chocolate Hazelnut bar. My last one of this flavor.

For dinner I had this Amy’s Brown Rice Bowl with Black-Eyed Peas and Veggies that I’ve had once before. It’s so flavorful and good.

And that’s all for now. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!   

Breakfast for this Wednesday: Life cereal with soy milk. So delicious. It must be all the sugar.

Lunch: Turkey sandwich with TJ’s cranberry apple butter and a glass of soy milk.
 

Afternoon snack at work: apricot pumpkin Prana Bar.

Dinner: (Sorry for the blurry pic) Amy’s bistro burger on a piece of bread with Vegenaise and tomatoes. This was soooo good.

Dessert: Surprise, surprise – we had some more fudge hidden in the freezer! I’m so glad this doesn’t make me sick anymore. This little piece made me shiver, it was so delish.

That’s all for now…

Good news. We called my insurance company today, and the lady we talked to adjusted my claims so they will be covered! She made it sound like it was their mistake. We don’t know WHY at this point, but I don’t have to pay that horrific bill, so that’s good enough for me. I just hope that the same thing doesn’t happen after my future appointments.

My nerves are shot. What an ordeal.

I had my next appointment with my R.D. scheduled for this afternoon, so I’m glad I didn’t cancel it yesterday. She was very supportive and said she would do whatever she could to help me if a problem like that arose, so that was reassuring.

And by the way, thank you all for your sweet, supportive comments on my last post! They mean so much to me.

Now onto the pics…

Last night’s dinner (when I wasn’t hungry): Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with soy milk and banana slices.

Dessert: the last of the Christmas sticky fudge.

Breakfast this morning: Life cereal with soy milk. I haven’t had Life cereal in over a year and a half, at least. But it was in the pantry, so I tried it today for something different. SO GOOD. I love how the squares soak up so much of the cold milk.

Lunch: Rudi’s English muffin open-faced sandwich with turkey and TJ’s cranberry apple butter.

Afternoon snack: An apricot pumpkin Prana bar that I ate in the car before my appointment. 

Dinner: Salmon with black beans, onions, corn, and spinach and a piece of French bread.

I am feeling much better today. And I’m sure I’ll sleep like a rock tonight since I was up half the night last night.

Have a good rest of the day, and I’ll see you all tomorrow! 

I’m a mess right now. Apparently my insurance decided they don’t want to cover my nutrition appointments anymore, because I got a huge bill today totaling $810. I’m not going to be able to go anymore. I don’t know what to do. I feel sick.

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Snack:

Haven’t eaten dinner yet and don’t feel like it at all, but I know I have to.

FINALLY! Our house is back to normal. Praise the Lord. I actually forget what it’s like to eat breakfast at the kitchen table. Ahem.

Anyway, it’s Sunday. I have really disliked going to church lately for the sole reason that I get so freaking cold while I’m there. Today I wore three layers of shirts, a sweater, a heavy coat, and mittens, and all that didn’t help. I was still chilled to the bone the whole time. When I come home I have to sit by my space heater for a couple hours before I finally warm up. Talk about torture. It makes me not want to go.

For some reason I haven’t felt like blogging lately. I have, however, still been taking pictures, and I have a lot of them. Ugh. When I get too many I feel overwhelmed.

These are just a few highlights over the past few days I have missed (not in any order)…

All right, that’s enough for now. At least I am somewhat caught up.

Well, I started out this year with two Van’s wheat-free blueberry waffles and soy yogurt.

For lunch I made an open face turkey sandwich with cranberry apple butter on an English muffin.

I finished my meal with this little guy – one of the coconut macaroons I made the other day. They look like meringues, but the insides are sweet and chewy, filled with coconut. Yum. Like a sweet puff of cloud.

After lunch I went to the mall to use up the last of my Christmas gift cards. I found an awesome coat at Aeropostale for 70% off. Woot. Plus I got some Van’s shoes, lotion from Bath and Body Works, and a new calendar at Borders. It was a good time to go shopping – there were zero crowds. Kind of weird considering most people get this day off work.

When I got back from shopping I had my last vanilla Chobani for a snack with honey drizzled on top (put on after the pic – didn’t want to get my camera all sticky!)

For dinner I had an Amy’s bistro burger with salsa on the side.

And a couple more meringues!

That’s all for today. I’ll see you tomorrow…     

New Year’s Eve has always been kind of a depressing day for me because I always spend it alone. When I was younger my parents never let me stay up till midnight (and I hated them for it). When I was finally old enough to determine my own bedtime (like in my mid-teens), my parents and sisters always went to bed early. What’s the fun of staying up late if you’re in an empty, dark house by yourself? So I never stay up for New Year’s Eve anymore. Gawsh I sound like such a Debbie Downer. I think this is Ed talking. He makes me so moody and unsociable.

Anyway, let me try to perk myself up.

For breakfast today I had a bowl of Kashi GoLean cereal with soy milk. I love this cereal. It has such a sweet, crunchy taste.

For lunch I had a turkey sandwich with cranberry apple butter. My usual turkey and cheese was starting to make me gag, so I needed something different today. This was a yummy combo, although not nearly as good as the Crabcake Sandwich I had yesterday.

My afternoon snack was a Kind Macadamia and Apricot bar. It had coconut in it. Need I say more? Delish. (My fab purse is in the background.)

I worked until the usual 6:00 today, just like I’ve had to every New Year’s Eve for the past 5 years. It’s such a routine now that I don’t mind it. When I got home, I had dinner which consisted of pasta with chicken, peas, and carrots (I had seconds after this).

Sadly that cheesecake I ate last night made me terribly sick. I definitely still have to limit dairy in my diet. At least now I know.

Well, that’s all for today. See you in 2009…

I had the most amazingly fun day today. First of all, my sister left early this morning with my aunt to go for a long drive down to the central valley. My sis needs a few more driving hours before she can get her license, so they decided to go meet our cousin for lunch.

After they left, my mom and I went to the mall to go after-Christmas shopping! We didn’t just go to any mall either. We went to the nice mall with tons of stores with huge inventory (way more than our local mall has). I had some serious big bucks to spend after all the gift cards I got for Christmas. We shopped till we dropped and had a blast!

Here is all my loot (minus my big pillow – lol):

Hm. Can you guess what my favorite colors are? I got 5 shirts, 2 sweaters, 3 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of khaki cords, 3 pairs of earrings, and the best thing of all… one of those super expensive purses from Macy’s with a matching wallet!!!

You know in Macy’s how they have all the “nice” purses locked away behind glass counters? Yeah, I got to go shopping for one of those and it didn’t cost me a thing. Gotta love gift cards. That’s something that I never in a million years would have gone shopping for with my own money. It was so much fun.

So on with the eats…

I knew I would need a big breakfast to fuel me for shopping, so I had a bowl of oatmeal made with banana (cooked in with the oats on the stove) and topped with homemade coconut-almond granola and sunbutter (my new love).

In between stores, my mom and I went out for lunch to the Cheesecake Factory!! I haven’t been there in soooo long – over a year, probably two. They have so many things on their menu that it was hard to decide, but I finally chose the Crabcake Sandwich. Yes I did. I didn’t know all the ingredients, but I ate the whole sandwich and enjoyed every bite. It was delicious. Yes Ed was freaking out over this, but for once I told him to shove it and ate what I wanted.

Here’s a cell phone pic because I forgot my camera. I didn’t eat the fries because they bother me, but I was perfectly full after the sandwich.

By dinnertime I still wasn’t hungry (we had lunch kind of late in the day), but I knew I needed to eat so I had some Amy’s black bean soup with Kashi crackers on the side.

When we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, my mom and I also picked out three different slices of cheesecake to take home. We got peppermint bark cheesecake, chocolate coconut cheesecake, and fresh banana cream cheesecake. I picked out the banana cream one. My dad was thoroughly excited about the coconut flavor (no one in my family besides him and me like coconut).

Chocolate coconut (Dad’s):

Peppermint bark (my mom and sister split):

Banana cream (my dessert for this evening):

It’s true I’ve had problems with dairy and wheat in the past, but lately I’ve been slowly easing them back into my diet. I think as long as I have them in moderation I am fine, which is very good news.

I know I didn’t post yesterday or the day before, but I felt like I got too far behind to catch up, so today I’m starting fresh.

I can’t believe tomorrow is the last day of 2008!

We are getting back into the routine of things at our house after a nice break for Christmas. My sister had horseback riding lessons this morning, so I had the house to myself while I got ready for work.

For breakfast I made oatmeal with a banana (half mixed in, half on top) and a Tbsp. of sunbutter. This was my first time trying sunbutter, and I loved it! Thanks to VeggieGirl for the recommendation. I ate this bowl while watching a little I Love Lucy.

For lunch I had a turkey sandwich with soy cheese on whole wheat. I microwaved my sandwich to melt the cheese, of course.

After work I went to Borders because I have a gift card but couldn’t decide what to get, so I just came home. Will have to think about it some more. Meanwhile my parents and sister had been to Lowe’s and Home Depot to get six panel doors for the inside of our house (my parents’ Christmas present for each other). Nice.

For an afternoon snack I had Fage with honey and a handful of mixed nuts. I picked my favorites out of the jar – cashews and macadamia nuts.

Dinner was a quick stir fry – the usual of cashew chicken with rice and veggies. I also had a roll (and seconds on the stir fry).

Tonight my aunt and uncle are coming over to play some board games. My dad is trying to finish the doors before they get here. Nothing like a little motivation, right?   

As for myself, I need to put my newly washed sheets on my bed. Tomorrow’s an early day – church in the morning, and I’m not sure how late we’ll be up tonight, so I need to be prepared.

TTFN.