Monday, March 10, 2008

A Day in the Life...

Now that I've introduced myself, I thought I would show you what typical day's worth of meals looks like for me (when I have access to a kitchen--I am on spring break right now!). I woke up at 8 this morning and munched on a mini whole wheat pita with rhubarb jam before my workout.




In case you're curious, I did 30 minutes elliptical trainer, 6 miles on the bike, and 10 minutes of ab work. The time really does fly when you have a good magazine to read--I read my Fitness magazines that have been piling up at home while I am off at school. Anyway, after my workout I cooked up some old-fashioned oats; I was inspired by Kath over at Kath Eats Real Foods. I cooked them in 1/2 water, 1/2 almond milk and added sliced almonds and cinnamon.




These were the first fresh strawberries I've had in months, and they were delish! I was expecting them to be "woody," but they were delectably sweet. They were from Florida, so I figured they were semi-local (I live in Alabama). Unfortunately, this breakfast didn't hold me for long--I was ready for lunch when it hit 12:30. I made some chickpea soft tacos with mashed avocado, salsa, and 75% light Cabot cheese. These are corn tortillas, so they're about 6 inches in diameter.






I rolled these up after taking the picture; they were accompanied by a side salad and a juicy peach! After running some errands, I got hungry again around 4:30, so I made myself a bit of an odd snack. Mushrooms are one of my favorite vegetables, even raw! So, I sliced up some of those to dip in hummus (Wild Garden is my favorite brand). I added a light cheese stick and a Florida orange that one of our friends brought us from Florida. Not really a conventional snack, but it got the job done.




For dinner, I tried something I've never tried before--spaghetti squash. I have hearing about the wonders of spaghetti squash for years, but I never got up the motivation to actually try it. Well, I picked up an organic spaghetti squash from Publix the other day (love their produce department!) and decided to give it a try. It turns out that it's pretty simple to prepare: just cut in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake for 45 minutes in a 350* oven. After that, the strands practically fall onto your fork! I topped mine with some stewed tomatoes and leftover tofu. Afterwards I had some Fage 0% Greek yogurt with some more rhubarb jam.


What a treat! Not exactly like pasta, but tasty nonetheless. This was only half of the squash, so I'll need to use the other half in some way or another later this week...got any ideas? I wish I could make spaghetti squash more often, but I don't see it happening while I am living in the dorms! Not to mention I might get some strange looks from the boys playing Halo next to the dorm kitchen!

Now I am off to read some Macbeth or perhaps The Godfather, the two books I am reading right now (great combination, right?). I hope you all have a restful night:)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

heya, I saw your post over at chocolate-covered-vegan's blog and decided to check out your own blog.
I have never thought to put jam on pita! Interesting, but I will so try in the future!
Welcome to blogging by the way ^^

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Just wondering... you look really skinny in your intro pic. Are you underweight? Not asking to be mean-- just wondering!

sarah

ChickPea said...

Yes, I am pretty skinny! It's always a struggle to maintain my weight. However, I think I am on the light side of the normal range of weight for my height.

Anonymous said...

It seems like you eat a lot of "diet" type foods. As a friendly suggestion, if you have a hard time maintaining a healthy weight, eat more grains and cook with healthy fats such as olive oil (if you must eat spaghetti squash instead of pasta, at least drizzle olive oil over it-- that dinner is extremely low-calorie, especially for someone who is active. Also eat more nut butters and caloric beverages like smoothies.

ChickPea said...

Thanks for the suggestions. Just FYI, the items pictured here are not everything that I eat. These do not include my (multiple!) snacks which usually include nuts and nut butters, and I drink a caloric smoothie every night before bed. As for the spaghetti squash, I normally would use pasta, but I just wanted to try spaghetti squash for the novelty of it!

Anonymous said...

Good to know :o). Glad you're taking care of yourself.