Good afternoon!
I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday. :)
Last night, I ended up experimenting with two new batches of muffins (Batch 4 and 5 of the day!). One of them turned out (Carrot Spice Muffins) and one of them didn’t. I felt like I was cursed in the kitchen yesterday!
I probably spent about 6 hours in the kitchen and had 1 batch of muffins to show for it. Creating healthy recipes from scratch can be really challenging and I have had to go through lots of duds to find the perfect recipe.
So, a a result of yesterday’s disappointments, I am still not close to being done my order. So this morning I was back in the kitchen baking up some goodies. I will be showing the pictures in tonight’s post!
Lunch today was great. Someone told me that this green bean casserole was better the next day, and they were certainly right.
Of course I had a wrap, like any new wrap addict would do!
These are a new brand of wraps: President’s Choice Whole Wheat. They aren’t as tasty as my usual ones, but they are bigger!
I mixed in 1 cup of green split peas for extra protein and fibre:
I also had tomato paste + tomatoes as the base. Tomato paste, or any cooked tomatoes, are nutritional powerhouses for lycopene. Lycopene is a known cancer fighter!
In just 100 grams, tomato paste offers 29.3 mg of lycopene, while a raw tomato offers just 3 mg of lycopene. Cook your tomatoes, folks!
All wrapped up:
Along with a banana, 3 T walnuts, and some Soy Milk:
That’s my new favourite snack!
And a PC Organic White Tea:
Want to know a secret?
The gerbera daisies are FAKE! hahaha.
Did anyone else notice? Do you like my water trick?
These gerbera daisies are from Dollarstore too…just $3 for 3!
Yes, I do love fresh flowers but sometimes the budget doesn’t allow for it, so I got the next best thing. You know what’s funny? They make me SO happy when I look at them. I think I have even convinced myself they are real with the water! LOL. :D Oh the simply things in life, eh?
Today and yesterday have been quite mixed up and thrown my plans for a loop!
- My brother rescheduled yesterday so renos didn’t get done and thus we didn’t have our BBQ with the boys. He is coming today, so we may have the BBQ tonight. Since I was in the kitchen all day yesterday until about 8pm, we just had a quick dinner that wasn’t part of the original menu plan. Life happens!
- It is going to be quite hectic in here today so I might have to leave for a bit from all the dust and noise. If I leave I will probably go buy my kitchen canisters and get that done. My bro is staying the night, so the renos will probably be going on until at least 10-11pm!
- I filmed another running video this AM (Front and Back) but I don’t know if I have the guts to show the back view. I don’t think ANYONE should have to see themselves running from the back view. lol.
- Not sure what will happen with respect to exercise today since it is such a random day and all. Might take the day off or just do some resistance core work. I have been doing great with taking off days lately. I used to be scared of taking off days, but now I realize that they are integral to my training and overall health. All of our discussions about running, social comparison, and the blog world have really helped me. Thank you all for your amazing comments!
- Keep those Shop 4 A Cause entries coming in! We have some awesome things up for auction.
- Want to see what some people are doing to recycle pizza boxes? You won’t believe this video!
Ok, I’m off to finish baking my order. See you tonight!
Today’s Question: Do you have trouble taking off days?
i hope the rest of the baking goes well!
your wrap looks so good, and I LOVE that the flowers are fake. I had no clue!
Great idea to put the leftover casserole into a wrap!
I havefake gerbera daisies at my place, too! They’re such a cheerful flower….
I gotta get some fake flowers since my cat eats all my real ones!
good fooling with the water!! i’d never have guessed?
sorry about all the kitchen failures. what i hate the most about when things don’t work out is the waste of all the ingredients i used. it makes me sad.
your wrap looks so good! I also wanted to say thank you for the running video’s they are very helpful.
Ha! I can’t believe your flowers are fake! Gerber daisies are my favorite flowers – I might need to get some fake ones too.
And ugh, yeah, when I really get into the stride of working out every day it’s hard to take a day off. But I’m glad that I do because the next day back is usually an even stronger day.
I’m TERRIBLE at taking rest days. Exercise is such an outlet for me that I miss it so much even after one day off, and I’m moody and irritable all day. Not good I know.
I love fake flowers – my wedding flowers (including my bouquet!) were actually fake, and I have one of my centrepieces in my office at work. Tons of people think they’re real too. Love the water trick – I’ll definitely be trying that one!
Those flowers did trick me- pretty… as in pretty sneaky.
I do have a hard time taking days off. I like to schedule my days off right after a really hard workout- one where I can still feel it the next day. That way it feels like I really need a break,and my day off doesn’t feel as if I’m “cheating”.
Wraps are perfect for putting leftovers in.
(Dine Out, Fight AIDS. TOMORROW. 4-30. www.diningoutforlife.com)
Tricky with the flowers! I need to pick up some faux flowers as I can’t afford to buy new ones every week…and they’re easier to maintain ;)
I had no idea the flowers were fake! We do the same here – we have about a half dozen dried roses along with a few fake carnations and you can’t even tell unless you touch them.
I sometimes have a hard time taking a day off from any activity. I try to get in at least a 20 minute walk or something else light. I just find I get out of the exercise habit easily, probably since I’m still fairly new to exercising often. I’ve only been working out 5-6 days a week for a couple months now.
I definitely have a very hard time accepting my body telling me it needs a day off. Since moving to NYC, I’ve been spinning 5 to 6 days a week [for some reason running just seems more difficult in this city :( ] and after a week’s worth of working out, my body is definitely screaming for a rest. I do try to do some light exercise, whether that be going for a long walk, or some core work in the living room, etc so I don’t feel like a total bum. I also am like Rachel (above) who mentioned getting cranky and even depressed after taking a few days off…it’s like my body *needs* those endorphins and depends on them.
I don’t have troulbe taking off days from work. But I find that I am too chore-focused on the weekends, which is stupid. I need to do more Erin-time things.
Sorry to hear about the baking fiasco. It must be frustrating to spend all that time and have so little to show for it. At least you are learning a lot of trial and error in the process so hopefully next time it will all go smoothly!
What a great way to put the yummy left overs to good use! Wraps are just so fun to experiment will every possible filling.
LOVE the flower idea! :D
Crazy day over there it sounds like!!
LOVE your lunch!!!
From,
Another wrap addict
:)
You didn’t mention the problems you are having with your baking. I noticed you use half salt. To me it is the same as fake sugar. Go with good quality sea salt that is ground fine for baking. Half salt does react with baking soda, baking powder or yeast properly which can keep food from rising properly and leave a raw flour taste to bread, cookies, loafs, cakes and muffins.
Woa! Green bean casserole in a wrap!??!!? It sounds deelish!!!
I make myself take an off day once a week but always feel like I’m missing something that day! Like, “why am I so bored? Oh yeah, I’d usually be exercising!”
loved the running post and love the fake flowers…that would be a good april fool’s too.
forgive me if i’ve missed it, but have you ever added cocoa to your green monsters?! i’ve been enjoying them, but am not quite brave enough to add cocoa yet!
Love the fake flowers! That’s a great idea – I will have to check our dollar store. I feel silly admitting this, but since we adopted our kitties last September, I haven’t had fresh flowers or plants in the house because I’m terrified they will eat them and get sick (or, less of a catastrophe, leave a huge mess of water for me to discover 8 hours later when I get home from work). Does Sketchie pay much interest to your fresh flowers? I would love to bring them back into the house…maybe this weekend I will buy some and see what happens.