Friday date night & Sunday Funday

 Made the Fitnessista's apple pie smoothie for breakfast on Friday to celebrate fall.

First time trying this flavor - didn't love it. The lemon flavor was too artificial.

I still love these nail stickers - they didn't come off all week!

Friday date night in my favorite dress

We ate 4 plates of Korean BBQ, drank this soju, and then headed to dive bars for beers, pool, and shuffleboard - I, of course, made new friends while there. :)

Sunday funday errands:

No nail polish stickers at the swap meet this week. Bought magnetic polish instead.*

*Should've read the instructions first.

Yogurtland had both pumpkin pie AND peanut butter yogurt! Those are my favorites!

Meal plan got done too:

• Monday-Friday breakfast: Shakeology w/ 1/2 banana & frozen cherries, slice of toast w/ almond butter or Laughing Cow
• Monday-Thursday lunch: no-butter butter chicken and steamed broccoli
• Monday-Thursday dinner: shrimp spring rolls (no noodles) w/ avocado
• Monday snack: key lime Chobani
• Tuesday-Friday snack: homemade pumpkin pie yogurt
• Friday lunch: haven't figured that out yet

What are you making this week? I only cook for myself so there are tons of repeats.

Meal Plan Monday: Real food edition

What I learned from the last 2 weeks of 2 a day protein smoothies/shakes:

• Vanilla Shakeology is better than chocolate.
• Raw vegetables are hard for my body to digest. 
• I can blend greens in my shakes though.
• I don't like juice - I like smoothie and shake consistencies.
• 2 smoothies a day was fine by my palette, but I need to eat more.

I'm continuing with a smoothie a day, for breakfast, but eating dinner. I considered eating a breakfast and having a smoothie for dinner, but I like quick breakfasts that I can consume while teaching and since I work out after work, I like to be lighter (from the smoothie) for the workout and I like to refuel after.

Lauren from Sweat the Sweet Stuff posted an delicious breakfast [for dinner] burrito. The Fitnessista is always posting about her egg burritos too. I was craving them. After two weeks of breakfast and dinner smoothies, I miss real food! 

Last week I made pad thai using zero calorie noodles and cauliflower rice with chicken. I'm continuing with it though it's not particularly delicious or anything. I had leftover batter from today's oatmeal protein pancakes so that'll be a snack tomorrow.

Reintroducing... MEAL PLAN MONDAY!

Monday 

• Lunch - cauliflower rice with chicken
• Dinner - egg burrito as seen above

Tuesday

• Lunch - cauliflower rice with chicken
• Dinner - egg burrito as seen above

Wednesday 

• Lunch - cauliflower rice with chicken
• Dinner - co-workers at Mario's (probably ceviche!)

Thursday

• Lunch - tortilla pizza
• Dinner - loaded "nachos"
  
  

Friday

• Lunch - loaded "nachos"
• Dinner - tortilla pizza

Other food to consider:

Creamy cauliflower sauce

Slow cooker cilantro lime chicken

For funsies, my cousin is thinking of date ideas for his girlfriend. Here's what would make me swoon:

• LACMA
• Picnic at the park with cold cuts
• Dinner in Laguna Beach and then walking around the artsy area
• Outdoor movie theater
• See "Wicked"
• Rollerblade/skate
• Ice skating 
• Duffy boat with wine & cheese

Actually, these are things I'd like to do with anyone.

What are you making this week?

Finally, a meal plan!

...except I haven't made my oatmeal protein pancakes, but I did grind the oats for oat flour! The plan is simple really - one just needed to be made!

 

(source)

Tuesday

• Brunch: turkey sandwich + carrots
• String cheese + Arctic Zero peanut butter chocolate
• Dinner out with Peter at Slapfish
• Workout: Step & Strength
• To dos: homework

Wednesday

• Breakfast: oatmeal protein pancakes, green tea & honey yogurt, kombucha
• Lunch: turkey sandwich
• Snack: string cheese, banana, peanut butter
• Dinner: protein shake, leftover chicken
• Workout: PM circuits, yoga
• To dos: work 8:15am-4:30pm; read ch 1 in CSR

Thursday

• Breakfast: oatmeal protein pancakes
• Lunch: turkey sandwich
• Dinner: protein shake, homemade ravioli (from Eddie)
• Workout: AM 30 mins yoga, PM
• To dos: work 10am-5:30pm, read ch 1 & 2 in McCormick

Friday

• Breakfast: oatmeal protein pancakes
• Lunch: protein shake
• Dinner: shrimp spring rolls without noodles then drinks :)
• Workout: AM
• To dos: work 10am-5:30pm

Saturday

• Breakfast: oatmeal protein pancakes
• Lunch: protein shake
• Dinner: sweet potato "fries"
• Workout: PM
• To dos: work 8:15am-4:30pm, read ch. 2 in CSR

Sunday - read ch. 3 & 4 in McCormick, post
Monday - read ch. 3-5 in CORE

MIMM: Venice & Fight Gone Bad

I bought more ground meat and realized most ground meat is the same.

I made pork chili instead of beef chili this week.

Eggplant fries instead of sweet potato fries

Marvelous paleo pumpkin pancakes from Practical Paleo that came out better this time

My Pharrell station on Pandora yielded this amazing song. Most marvelous station ever.

I had to go to my second job and picked up some meat from Trader Joe's. Ready to eat! Not. I was supposed to heat it. Oh well.

Saturday morning boot camp then baking ginger spice muffin tops from Healthful Pursuit.

And a giant batch of marvelous sweet potato pancakes with maple coconut butter. I ate this Saturday and Sunday, and there's enough for tomorrow.

After attempting more homework and falling asleep, I drove out to meet up my friends Andrew and Denton. We headed into Venice.

The boardwalk was crazy, but I dug the vibe in other parts of Venice.

Dinner at Oscar's Cerveteca

I chose the Peruvian sashimi (left, rec from Yelp), but really wish I chose the chorizo burger (right). The sashimi was good but small. I dealt and drank a beer from El Segundo.

Marvelous Coolhaus Ice Cream in Culver City was reminiscent of my San Francisco ice cream experience. I got the dirty mint and ChocoVivo salted chocolate. I didn't realize there was so much so I only had the ChocoVivo - I'm usually not a chocolate ice cream fan! The mint was refreshing with fresh specks of mint and tons of chocolate chips.

Another marvelous Sunday Funday at CrossFit. We did 3 rounds of Fight Gone Bad, named after BJ Penn. I got in 230 reps that included wall balls. I'm better at them now! :)

Some of my semi-Paleo grocery shopping for the week:

• Sweet potatoes
• Tomato
• Apples
• Paleo bread
• Coconut oil
• Boar's Head buffalo chicken
• Turkey bacon
• Carrots
• Dark chocolate
• Pine nuts for dolmas, but I can't find grape leaves!
• Ginger, cardamon, nutmeg

I finished up a big assignment and fell asleep for a couple of hours. So I'm still up, 6 A.M. CrossFit is not a possibility and I'm sleeping in. Not the best way to start the week...

What did you do this past weekend?
What's your favorite station on Pandora?
Where's your next beach trip?

WIAW: A Test on Eating Out

I ate out a lot this weekend. This is not typical. If I do go out, I'll pick somewhere like Greenleaf Chopshop to ensure the quality and healthiness of the food. When I'm thrown a curve ball, I make good choices that don't make me feel guilty. That's a big deal.

I'm also happy to break away from my "orthorexia," if you believe in it or not. Meg just wrote a couple of posts on eating intuitively, which I'm on the fence about because I typically don't eat enough. However, after my weekend of eating, I find that I do eat enough now. Yay.

On Friday, I went to Slater's 50/50, my favorite burger joint. I went with the turkey burger with veggies sans bun. Of course, I ordered a beer but was pretty disappointed by it.

On Saturday, my family went to The Cheesecake Factory for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. I navigated the award-winning "worst food" restaurant by ordering a skinny mojito and ahi capraccio, essentially thiny sliced ahi tuna with avocado pesto drizzled on top.

I had some time on Monday to roam around. I ended up sleeping in, going to PiYo, and roaming around Fashion Island. I ate a single Caribbean chocolate French macaron from 'lette and a panko-crusted grilled fish taco from Bear Flag Fish Company. They're touted as one of the best in the country - I just don't like corn tortillas.

 

Today, and it's just Tuesday, I ate small to prep for dinner at Rockin Crepes with my cousin and his friends. No pictures unfortunately. I chose the ZZ Top: chicken, tomatoes, sweet onions, Swiss, and hot sauce. I got a drink because they actually had Fox Barrel blackberry pear cider on tap.

I was just thinking about it over the weekend!

Okay, so Meal Plan Monday Tuesday/What's For Dinner is a couple days late but it was a holiday weekend! I started this post and never finished but wanted to share some foods I found on Pinterest. :)
 
Did you know how hard it is to buy ripe bananas??! I went to several stores and all of them had green bananas! So I bought a bunch of bananas and am waiting patiently so I can make some banana-y meals.

Breakfasts 

This makes 4 meals!

Source: ohsheglows.com via Julie on Pinterest

Just a thought

Source: cookincanuck.com via Julie on Pinterest

More possible. It's my usual oatmeal protein pancake with some lemon Chobani and poppy seeds.

Source: nutbutterrunner.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

I've made this before and wouldn't mind reintroducing it. Does require more work.

Source: sprint2thetable.com via Julie on Pinterest

Lunches/Dinners 
I still haven't made these.

Source: nutbutterrunner.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: howsweeteats.com via Julie on Pinterest

Snacks
Fiber One Honey Squares

Source: girlgonecountry.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: carrotsncake.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: toneitup.com via Julie on Pinterest

I got a bag of sunflower seeds in my NatureBox but don't eat them plain.

Source: choosingraw.com via Julie on Pinterest

What are your favorite foods to eat when you go out?