Bacon Cheeseburger: Healthified

As usual, the first half of our evening was spent entertaining the dog.

Smiling Sadie

I spent a good 30 minutes in the backyard playing fetch with Sadie before Ryan got home from work.

Playtime

Once Ryan got home, we leashed Sadie up for a 2.5 mile walk around the neighborhood.

All three of us were super hot on this walk. Holy humidity! Sadie’s tongue practically touched the ground about five minutes into the trek.

Dinner

On the menu tonight was bacon and Asiago cheeseburgers with roasted cauliflower.

Ryan tended to the grill (he’s the meat man, afterall), while I prepped the condiments and veggies.

Ryan made our burgers with lean ground beef and we topped them with MorningStar Farms veggie bacon strips, ketchup, mustard, relish, spinach, grape tomato slices and Connoisseur Asiago cheese spread.

Burger

Burger + Broc + Cauliflowaaa

Bacon Cheeseburger: Healthified

Who knew a bacon cheeseburger could actually be healthy?

This meal tasted indulgent, but consisted of fresh veggies, lean meats and whole grains. Score!

I’m off to hang with Ryan and his cousin for a bit and watch So You Think You Can Dance (dance, dance, dance…). 😀

See ya in the mornin’!

Beefed Up

Monstrous salad alert!

Big Ol' Salad

I can’t believe I used to consider iceberg lettuce topped with sliced lunch meat a salad. Boring! No wonder I thought salads were so lame for the longest time.

To me, a big part of living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is making it enjoyable. I can honestly say I look forward to eating every single one of my meals – even the salads – because I always try to incorporate flavorful foods that I love into my breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

I would never look forward to eating plain salads, so I beef ’em up by adding foods I love like grape tomatoes, nuts, cheese, sweet corn and sliced veggie burgers or shrimp.

Today’s salad included:

• Spinach
• Carrots
• Sweet corn
• Grape tomatoes
• Green pepper
• Celery
• 3 MorningStar Farms veggie bacon strips
• Annie’s Naturals light raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Dressing

Veggie Overload

So fresh and so clean, clean. 😉

I should also add that I enjoyed a handful of almonds alongside my salad that eluded any photographs.

Dessert

After eating lunch at my desk, I met up with my friend Philip at a nearby Starbucks to catch up over some refreshing tea.

I ordered an unsweetened Tazo iced passion tea to enjoy as my post-lunch dessert.

Starbucks Iced Passion Tea

(Totally kidding about considering a cup of tea “dessert,” by the way. Just wanted to see how many of you rolled your eyes and sent hate-vibes my way for doing so. 😉 )

I sipped my non-dessert while chatting away with Philip.

I met Philip when I was in college. He was in Ryan’s fraternity and later became my Greek “little brother.” (Those of you early PBF readers may remember seeing Philip on the blog back in October.)

Philip just graduated from law school at UF and will be moving back to Orlando at the beginning of August to begin work at a local law firm. He’s like a real adult. 😉

I can’t imagine being a real lawyer at 25.

When I was in eighth grade I remember my English teacher telling me I should become a lawyer because I was so argumentative (I had a lot of opinions about the books we were reading). This teacher is the same teacher who told me I was going to give him a heart attack from popping my gum so loudly.

Question of the Afternoon

Has anyone ever told you what they think you should do for a living? Did you do it?

I’ve been told I should be a lawyer, news anchor, professional blogger (thanks, Merri!), and writer. I became the last one but would gladly be any of the last three. 🙂

Of Possible Interest

• Bikini Secrets from Brooklyn Decker, Audrina & Cameron Diaz (FitSugar.com)
• 8 Quick & Healthy Summer Dinner Recipes (Health.com)
• 66 Healthiest Packaged Foods (Self.com)

Nectarine-Stuffed English Muffin French Toast

Wanna know what I was thinking about during BodyPump this morning?

Nectarine-Stuffed English Muffin French Toast

That.

With every bicep curl, I imagined biting into a cool, perfectly ripe nectarine.

With every lunge, I pictured myself cutting into doughy French toast, while inhaling the fragrant scent of cinnamon.

Fortunately I didn’t have to wait too long for these little daydreams to become a reality!

After BodyPump and a quick 40 minute walk with Sadie, I came home to make myself the breakfast I was pining for all morning.

I started by stirring two egg whites, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl until the spices were fully incorporated into the whites.

I then dunked a Thomas’ whole wheat English muffin into the mix and cooked the English muffin French toast on the griddle until it was ready for eatin’.

While the French toast was cooking, I ate half of a nectarine…

Summer Fruit is the JAM

…and chopped up the other half to stuff in between the two English muffin halves.

Missing Something...

At this point this breakfast was missing a little somethin’ somethin’.

Syyyyyrup

Syrup!

Once the nectarine-stuffed English muffin French toast was fully coated in syrup, I sprinkled it with nutmeg for a little extra flava.

Breakfast is Served

Craving successfully satisfied.

Sadie

And just to satisfy those of you who check this blog only for pictures of Sadie…

Hi Friends!

All of you Sadie-lovers out there should know that the gas coming out of this dog this morning was lethal. Seriously. I think a squirrel innocently climbing a tree in our backyard may have passed out when the scent hit its nose.

Pulse of Central Florida Interview

In case you’re interested, Pulse of Central Florida, a neat blog that explores Central Florida hot spots and hidden gems,  posted an interview with me yesterday as part of the site’s “People Pulse” series.

Question of the Day

Which do you prefer, peaches or nectarines… or is it a toss up?

If both fruits are equally fresh and juicy, I prefer nectarines solely because the fuzziness of a peach is kinda creepy.