Today:

- ran 3 miles (2 on treadmill, 1 with dog)

- hard boiled and shelled 10 eggs

- made 4 chicken stir-fry vegetable meals with couscous

- made 5 salads

- made 1 lb. extra of chicken (cut) for salads and other side meals/snacks

- made 6 miso soups out of 3 pre-packed soup mixes (sodium was HIGH for 3 so I decided to split it up; smart call, except that I burnt my tongue tasting it to see how salty it was)

- made meatloaf for dinner (with 3.5 servings left over for the week)

- made yam fries

- made spinach (with approx. 3 servings left over)

And that was all in the course of 5 hours of being awake (I got up late today).  Considering that I share a refrigerator with my parents, I was surprised to be able to fit all this in the vegetable bin and “my shelf” (which is half taken up by strawberries and blueberries presently, until tomorrow’s shake adventures).

I’d say that today has been pretty successful in all health-related matters.  Now off to knit, watch SG-1, and make tomorrow’s to do list (hint: it involves 4 miles, attempting to make a fruit shake, maybe freezing a fruit shake, my mid-week job search sweep, and whatever else life throws at me).

On today’s agenda:

- finish 1 job application

- C25K at the gym

- work on thesis

- catch up on missed tv shows (Flashpoint, Revolution, Deep Impact)

- make foods for the next few days (salad, hard boiled eggs, baked banana oatmeal, cut vegetables)

Not a whole lot going on today, but the things listed above are MUSTS (well, besides tv shows), so I’m keeping it fairly light and simple for my to dos.  If I get more done, I get more done.

Happy Wednesday!  Let’s make the rest of the week count even better than the first part!

Today’s the last day of my official to do lists for the next 2 weeks!  Eek! 

To do:

- make spinach ravioli

- contract work

- job applications (2)

- skype :D

- finish packing & put stuff in car

How’d I do:

- spinach ravioli is DONE.  I doubled the batch so the freezer is stocked with 50 ravioli for the unforeseeable future, plus I have some for lunch this week as well.

- working on contract work still.  Pretty productive with it, just trying to get it ready for the meetings this week

- I didn’t get any job applications done BUT I found 2 more jobs to apply for that I’ll be doing in my off peak hours within the next several days

- skype skype skype. Makes my world go round. <3 (so does my cell phone while we’re discussing it…)

- still have to put things in the car.  It’s only a duffel bag and some pillows, but the duffel bag is missing my toiletries and I was too busy with contract work to do it this afternoon.  I’ll do it this evening.

Productive day.  Spent a few hours out and about getting things done with the folks and then mid-afternoon started in on the spinach ravioli.  I was at one point contemplating not doing it before I gave in and told myself it would be worth it.  I think I spent less time on it this go round than I have in the past just because I really didn’t have time to do things slowly and I wanted to get them done.  The ratio of ravioli that split open to those that stayed closed was significantly less than it has been.  I think I’ve finally perfected the perfect noodle to flour combination to get it to not be sticky and remain closed.  Also had leftover noodle dough so I made a batch of egg noodles that I’ll have sometime later this week when I get back in town.

The to do list that I had for the first 6 days of August is about half complete.  I’m kind of disappointed in myself for not getting more done with the time that I had.  But there is nothing I can do about it now.  I can’t focus on what could have been, I need to focus on what is.

Going to be an early next couple of days, not as early as tomorrow, but still early and busy.  Really looking forward to it though.  

Anyway, those are my ramblings for today.   Happy Sunday!  Hopefully your weekend has been as productive and eventful as mine has.  And if not, tomorrow is Monday, let’s all show this new week in August what we have in store for kicking its butt!

Tired of that plain old flavored chicken?  Sick of putting on BBQ sauce or other chicken rubs?  Look no further than this delicious recipe!

Brought to you by allrecipes.com, Baked Honey Mustard Chicken is one of my delicious go-to recipes when I’m tired of the plain ol’ plain ol’ of chicken.  Considering it’s one of the few meat choices I lean towards, doing the same thing with it over and over gets really boring.

There are plenty of other ways to spice up your chicken, whether it is a dash of Mrs. Dash’s no-salt flavoring, flavoring through McCormick’s (warning — they have higher sodium in their products!), to just soaking chicken in low-sodium teriyaki sauce.  There are always ways to get your chicken tasting better.

I apologize for the vegetarians and vegans following me for today’s carnivorous recipe!

1. Spent 3 hours in the kitchen cooking all awesome things today.  Next week is super super busy (projects due, thesis chapter due, group work, preparing for my trip), so I needed meals on the quick that are healthy, filling, and prepared ahead of time.  I had 2 go to meals that include bowtie noodles in ‘em, along with tons of fresh veggies, so I made them.  And then I went ahead and used the leftover eggplant from yesterday to make an eggplant, mushroom, swiss-cheese sandwich (recipe up sometime this weekend).  DELICIOUS!

2. I PASSED COMPS!  I PASSED COMPS!  I PASSED COMPS!  I PASSED COMPS!  Only 69 days of schoolwork stands in the way between now and my Master’s degree.

3. I spent 2 hours on the porch relaxing with Netflix, bottles of nail polish, and a cool breeze.  I definitely needed the time to unwind from a very busy week and to prepare for the intensity of the next few weeks.  It’s going to be super insanely busy, just the way I like it!

4. Did I mention I passed comps?  Okay, to be fair, my 4th thing will be how awesome this whole day has been.  I woke up with very little sleep and thought I would pass out mid-day and be totally unproductive today.  Instead, from 7:30-10 I was grocery shopping (went to two places, got food from one, went home to unload and went off to the other).  From 10-1 I was in the kitchen cranking out food with HP1 for background noise.  1-3 I was sitting on my oh so glorious porch relaxing.  3-4 walking the dog. 4-6 schoolwork. 6-7 dinner, 7-9 schoolwork.

Preppin’ for tomorrow’s 10.5 miles.  Supposed to be extremely nice weather, hopefully the wind will die down some.  But I’m ready to crank them out so I can get on with my weekend.  Tons and tons to do!

Daily miles: 1 mile

Daily workout minutes: 44 minutes

Weekly miles: 14 miles

Weekly workout minutes: 335 minutes

Jumping jacks: 200/180

Made an awesome recipe last night for dinner and it was DELICIOUS!

I went to Publix Thursday last week and saw something that they were selling in the deli that looked absolutely delicious but I refused to pay $2.50 for one small serving size when I could make it healthy and cheaper at home with tons more serving sizes to it.  So I looked at the ingredients and improvised. It’s pretty simple to make and the ingredients can be found at any food store.

Ingredients:

Bowtie Pasta - 1 box (3 1/2 cups)

Athenos Tomato & Basil Feta Cheese - 8 ounces 

Black Olives - 10 olives

Grape Tomatoes - 10

Scallions — 2 (about 5 leaf branches from the onion bulbs)

1. Cook the pasta first for about 7 minutes.  It can be a little crunchy because it’ll be cooked further when you mix everything else.

2. In a skillet mix the olives, tomatoes, and scallions letting them grill for a few minutes, then add the pasta and stir.

3. Crumble your feta cheese and let it melt over the mixture for 3-4 minutes.  You can add extra cheese if you want to make it cheesier.

Serving size — 1 cooked cup (about 7-8 servings total)

Calories — 253 ; Carbs — 36 grams ; Protein — 13 grams ; Fiber — 4 grams ; Sodium — 307 mg ; Calcium — 7 grams

(this is according to what I inputted into myfitnesspal)