Slow Digesting Carbs = Slow Posting Blogger

This post is a recap of last night’s dinner since I took the night off blogging to read Dan Brown’s fantastic new book! (Mama, what chapter are you on now?)

Since dinner consisted of whole wheat pasta, a slow-digesting carbohydrate, I figured it was appropriate to post on it a little late, since I’m only now beginning to digest it. Riiiight… 🙂

Whole Wheat Pasta

I boiled up some Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta noodles to serve as the base for our dinner.

Oodles of Noodles

Ryan chopped up yellow summer squash and zucchini and I threw them on the griddle, sprayed first with cooking spray.

Sizzlin' Squash

While the noodles boiled and the squash sizzled, I microwaved some MorningStar Farms Grillers Recipe Crubles (they’re meat free!) to add to the pasta.

Meaty... But Not

Once everything was ready, I combined it all in a big bowl with delicious marinara sauce.

Pasta Bowl

Yummy

Of course, I topped it off with some Parmesan cheese.

Parmesan Pleaser

Stirring this big ol’ bowl caused quite a… stir. 😉 It was a messy dinner that overflowed a bit, but I was full and happy afterward! Pasta is just so darn delicious.

Pasta's Number One Fan

A Rosey Start to Lunch

My lunch hour started off on the most beautiful note.

Lucky Girl

My wonderful boyfriend sent me the most gorgeous bouquet of two dozen red roses in a wonderful vase. I am seriously obsessed with the vase. When I called Ryan to gush about my flowers, I couldn’t stop talking about the vase and he was like “Dang! Maybe next time I’ll just buy you the vase!” I must say the flowers are quite beautiful, too. 😉

The flowers were sent to kick off a secret date Ryan has planned for us tomorrow. Ryan and I take turns planning a special date for each other every other month and October is his month. I can’t wait to see what he has in store!

Now for my regular lunchtime update!

I began by gathering the ingredients for a simple chicken salad using an apple, fall’s favorite fruit.

Chicken Salad Goods

Canned white meat chicken, a crisp Granny Smith apple and light Miracle Whip are the only three ingredients I use to make this yummy salad.

First I drained the chicken and let Sadie lick the can.

"I Love Chicken!"

I then chopped the tart Granny Smith apple into large chunks and squirted about a tablespoon of Miracle whip in with the chicken.

After stirring the three ingredients, my chicken salad was ready to go!

Eat Me

Lovin' the Apples

I spread the chicken on a Tam-x-ico’s low carb wheat tortilla with broccoli slaw and shredded lettuce. (These tortillas are by far the best tortillas I’ve ever had.)

The BEST Tortillas: Tam-x-ico's

YUM.

Chicken on the Tortilla

Close Up

I rolled up this bad boy and dug in!

All Ready

What a great Friday lunch.

Also, don’t worry… I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the secret date plans. 🙂

Question: What’s your idea of the perfect date?

Berry Good Breakfast

Helllllllo Friday! Another fabulous Friday is upon us. Let’s hope the work day goes fast and the weekend goes slooooow. 🙂

My morning started off on a good note with a great workout followed by a berry good breakfast.

The Goods for a Berry Good Breakfast

Today’s breakfast centered around fresh strawberries, a blueberry Oikos organic Greek yogurt and a blueberry NutriGrain bar.

This week I ventured out from my favorite plain Greek yogurt and tried the honey Greek yogurt. After falling madly in love with the sweet and thick flavor, I decided to give the blueberry flavor a go today.

Oikos Blueberry Greek Yogurt

It was super yummy and very sweet. For anyone new to Greek yogurt, the blueberry or honey flavors would probably be a great way to ease into the thick and more tart taste of the yogurt.

I topped my yogurt with freshly cut strawberries and half of the blueberry NutriGrain bar (the other half was already in mah belly).

Berry Tasty

(I took the NutriGrain bar from my house last weekend – thanks Mom and Dad!)

My gym serves free coffee until 10 a.m. on weekdays, so I made sure to fill up my tumbler with half Barnie’s French vanilla coffee and half Barnie’s cinnamon butter cookie coffee. What a tasty combination!

Yummers

The breakfast was a berry delight. The fresh strawberries were perfectly sweet and the NutriGrain bar tasted like a crumbled piece of blueberry pie.

***

On a side note, in high school I used to eat NutriGrain bars all the time, thinking I was making a nutritious choice (I mean the label says NutriGrain for crying out loud). Well, after examining the label this morning, I noticed several things. While it’s wonderful that the main ingredient in the crust is whole grain rolled oats, the main ingredient in the blueberry filling is not blueberry… it’s high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I do not completely avoid HFCS because it’s in so many products (often minimally), but  when it’s this prevalent in a product, I steer clear. Sadly these “nutritious” bars will not be part of my breakfast again any time soon, though it was a tasty addition to my morning meal.