Breakfast this morning was a little boring. All I had was a banana and some blueberries, but I thought it was the best option.
We went over to my cousin's, and waited for my Aunt to make it in town. Then we drove down to the Shedd Aquarium. The line to get it was 2 hours long, and I was starving, so I had a veggie burger from a food stand. I was impressed they even offered a veggie burger, but it was salty and surrounded by white bun. Alas, it was better than starving for the next 6 hours.
It did the trick to tide me over until after aquarium fun was had. We met a bud for a quick drink before heading out to the suburbs again for Mexican dinner with the entire family.
At the Mexican place, I did stay away from cheese, meat and dairy. I did not, however, stay away from tortilla chips. I was hungry and I love them. We did order guac so as to kind of get some veggies, but alas, I ate too many chips.
I had veggie fajitas with corn tortillas for dinner. There were even a few pieces of broccoli, squash, cauliflower, it had lots of onions, some mushrooms and was pretty good.
A glass of wine later and it is time for bed to get ready for a record high day in Chicago tomorrow.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Day 12: Finding Veggie Fare
As we started the day in Hannibal, MO, the first order of the day was a green smoothie that had been prepared before the trip began. The smoothie was somewhat earthy, which didn't make sense except that it had broccoli in it. Hmmm...
We walked around Hannibal for a bit, taking in the shops and river setting and then headed on the road. Shortly after we got on the road, we realized that going through Champaign would not be that far out of the way, so we headed that way and I started contemplating what I wanted to eat while we were there. Dad voted for Murphy's, but I was pretty sure there would be nothing Eat to Live proof there, so I opted for Za's instead. I thought the one on campus was still closed, but we googled it just instead. The website came up and said that only the two were on Springfield and Neil. We went to the one on Neil, and I had a whole wheat crust with mushrooms, spinach, onions, olives and pineapple. It was a tad bit burnt on the bottom, but other than that it was pure Za's goodness.
After lunch we headed to campus just to take a quick drive around. Mom and Dad hadn't been there since I graduated, and a lot has changed in 8 years! I can't believe it has been 8 years. Pure strangeness. Where has the time possibly gone?
We drove the rest of the way to our hotel and decided we were going to eat on our own instead of going to non-veggie friendly Portillo's. I yelped a veggie restaurant close to where we are, and all I found was a place called Aladdin Pita a few miles down the road. We decided to try out this Middle Eastern place out. It. was. awesome.
First they brought us all these yummy appetizers of hummus, babba gnoush, cucumber & tomato salad and another cucumber and tomato thing with yogurt. All this was eaten with pita. Pitas are non-eat to live approved, but they were good. I had falafel after that and it was even better. Stellar. Not quite my famous falafel from France a few years back, but still good. We got the bill and it was $15. For 3 people to be full and take food home it was $15. Crazy.
We stopped to get some wine on the way home and made it back to our hotel to enjoy a glass of wine before stretching out on a pull-out bed for me. Boy that king sure looked cozy, but all was well, I was super tired and passed out quickly.
We walked around Hannibal for a bit, taking in the shops and river setting and then headed on the road. Shortly after we got on the road, we realized that going through Champaign would not be that far out of the way, so we headed that way and I started contemplating what I wanted to eat while we were there. Dad voted for Murphy's, but I was pretty sure there would be nothing Eat to Live proof there, so I opted for Za's instead. I thought the one on campus was still closed, but we googled it just instead. The website came up and said that only the two were on Springfield and Neil. We went to the one on Neil, and I had a whole wheat crust with mushrooms, spinach, onions, olives and pineapple. It was a tad bit burnt on the bottom, but other than that it was pure Za's goodness.
After lunch we headed to campus just to take a quick drive around. Mom and Dad hadn't been there since I graduated, and a lot has changed in 8 years! I can't believe it has been 8 years. Pure strangeness. Where has the time possibly gone?
We drove the rest of the way to our hotel and decided we were going to eat on our own instead of going to non-veggie friendly Portillo's. I yelped a veggie restaurant close to where we are, and all I found was a place called Aladdin Pita a few miles down the road. We decided to try out this Middle Eastern place out. It. was. awesome.
First they brought us all these yummy appetizers of hummus, babba gnoush, cucumber & tomato salad and another cucumber and tomato thing with yogurt. All this was eaten with pita. Pitas are non-eat to live approved, but they were good. I had falafel after that and it was even better. Stellar. Not quite my famous falafel from France a few years back, but still good. We got the bill and it was $15. For 3 people to be full and take food home it was $15. Crazy.
We stopped to get some wine on the way home and made it back to our hotel to enjoy a glass of wine before stretching out on a pull-out bed for me. Boy that king sure looked cozy, but all was well, I was super tired and passed out quickly.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Day 11: Road Trip
Wednesday evening was spent preparing for the weekend road trip, so smoothies, salads, fruits and veggies were all in supply as Thursday hit.
I had to work, but first had a smoothie with strawberries, pears and beet greens. I really love beets. I do not really love beet greens. In my smoothie they were stringy and crunchy. Not good attributes for a smoothie. I made it through though and headed to work.
For lunch, one of the women I work with suggested we hit up Chipotle. Amazingly, they have a good option for eating no meat and no dairy and no grains. I had a burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, lettuce, corn salsa and guac. As I was eating the bowl, I wondered more than once whether the rice was actually brown rice, but I enjoyed the flavors so much that I decided not to care either way. I was definitely full after lunch, but in true challenge form, I wasn't stuffed and I didn't feel full for long. I had a half of an avocado waiting on my desk when I returned to work. One of the women likes to eat them, but doesn't want the entire thing. Score one for me! I od'd on avocado though. I had guac for lunch, the half of an avocado and then some in my wrap for dinner.
The story on dinner is that we drove from KC to Hannibal, MO. On the way I had a massive salad that we had prepared. The salad was scrumptious, romaine, spinach, mushrooms, orange peppers, celery, carrots and beets. I was quite content for the drive, but after we got to our Quality hotel, I still needed dinner.
We walked over to Fiddlesticks and perused the massive menu. My appreciation for anyone trying to eat remotely healthy has only been heightened by this challenge. There were maybe 20 salads on the menu, all of which had chicken, cheese, croutons or some other healthy-killing attribute.
I ended up getting a california club wrap without chicken or bacon, which left the tomato tortilla, spinach, tomato and avocado. Exciting huh? I had to get salsa to give it a little more flavor, and I got a side of the "garden" rice. Another thing about this challenge: not being allowed to have salt, when things are salty they are SALTY. This rice was definitely salty. By normal standards it wasn't ridiculous, but after having very little salt over the past 11 days, it was much saltier than I liked.
Alas, day one of the road trip is complete and went relatively well in light of the situation. The harder part of the challenge during Memorial Day weekend is coming up....
I had to work, but first had a smoothie with strawberries, pears and beet greens. I really love beets. I do not really love beet greens. In my smoothie they were stringy and crunchy. Not good attributes for a smoothie. I made it through though and headed to work.
For lunch, one of the women I work with suggested we hit up Chipotle. Amazingly, they have a good option for eating no meat and no dairy and no grains. I had a burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, lettuce, corn salsa and guac. As I was eating the bowl, I wondered more than once whether the rice was actually brown rice, but I enjoyed the flavors so much that I decided not to care either way. I was definitely full after lunch, but in true challenge form, I wasn't stuffed and I didn't feel full for long. I had a half of an avocado waiting on my desk when I returned to work. One of the women likes to eat them, but doesn't want the entire thing. Score one for me! I od'd on avocado though. I had guac for lunch, the half of an avocado and then some in my wrap for dinner.
The story on dinner is that we drove from KC to Hannibal, MO. On the way I had a massive salad that we had prepared. The salad was scrumptious, romaine, spinach, mushrooms, orange peppers, celery, carrots and beets. I was quite content for the drive, but after we got to our Quality hotel, I still needed dinner.
We walked over to Fiddlesticks and perused the massive menu. My appreciation for anyone trying to eat remotely healthy has only been heightened by this challenge. There were maybe 20 salads on the menu, all of which had chicken, cheese, croutons or some other healthy-killing attribute.
I ended up getting a california club wrap without chicken or bacon, which left the tomato tortilla, spinach, tomato and avocado. Exciting huh? I had to get salsa to give it a little more flavor, and I got a side of the "garden" rice. Another thing about this challenge: not being allowed to have salt, when things are salty they are SALTY. This rice was definitely salty. By normal standards it wasn't ridiculous, but after having very little salt over the past 11 days, it was much saltier than I liked.
Alas, day one of the road trip is complete and went relatively well in light of the situation. The harder part of the challenge during Memorial Day weekend is coming up....
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Day 10: leftovers
Making food every night is hard work. As we're going out of town tomorrow, today was more about eating as much of what is already in the fridge as possible. So this morning, I finished off some more strawberries and grapes. Then, I had forgotten my phone at my parents' last night, so I went by and mom had made me a green smoothie this morning. I thought the double dip on fruits would hold me over throughout the morning, but by 11am, I was, in typical mid-morning fashion, starving. I had some peanuts to hold me over until lunch and then headed home a bit early.
I had the last falafel patty and some more grapes for lunch, as well as a spoonful of natural peanut butter. Dad came over during lunch because the master bedroom/bathroom remodel has begun and he's working on getting it framed in. It will be so nice to have a brand new bedroom and bathroom in about 3 weeks. There are lots of decisions to go before then though! I have some decision making to do. I picked the shower base color in approximately 45 seconds this past weekend, garnering an "Are you sure already?" from my mother, but I just have to go find the time to pick the other stuff and we should be on the move. I did take before pictures, so I'll post those sometime here in the future.
Work was absurd today. It was one meeting after the other, so when I finally made it home I was pooped. I had some peanuts and helped dad with leveling the floor a bit before mowing the grass.
Then I headed to my parents' to help them clean out the fridge. We had leftover soup, sweet potato patties and broccoli for dinner. We spent a good bit of time after dinner experimenting with beet chips (yummy once I figure out how long to bake them for), making green smoothies for tomorrow and Friday morning, and cutting up tons of veggies for the road trip this weekend.
We tried to find a vegan or vegetarian restaurant in Hannibal, MO where we will be staying tomorrow night and didn't have much luck. It'll be an interesting trip.
I had the last falafel patty and some more grapes for lunch, as well as a spoonful of natural peanut butter. Dad came over during lunch because the master bedroom/bathroom remodel has begun and he's working on getting it framed in. It will be so nice to have a brand new bedroom and bathroom in about 3 weeks. There are lots of decisions to go before then though! I have some decision making to do. I picked the shower base color in approximately 45 seconds this past weekend, garnering an "Are you sure already?" from my mother, but I just have to go find the time to pick the other stuff and we should be on the move. I did take before pictures, so I'll post those sometime here in the future.
Work was absurd today. It was one meeting after the other, so when I finally made it home I was pooped. I had some peanuts and helped dad with leveling the floor a bit before mowing the grass.
Then I headed to my parents' to help them clean out the fridge. We had leftover soup, sweet potato patties and broccoli for dinner. We spent a good bit of time after dinner experimenting with beet chips (yummy once I figure out how long to bake them for), making green smoothies for tomorrow and Friday morning, and cutting up tons of veggies for the road trip this weekend.
We tried to find a vegan or vegetarian restaurant in Hannibal, MO where we will be staying tomorrow night and didn't have much luck. It'll be an interesting trip.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Day 9: Sweet Potato & Bean Burgers
Breakfast: strawberries & grapes
Lunch: leftover soup from the other night and some grapes
Dinner: Sweet Potato & White Bean Burgers with guacamole, lettuce, tomato and mustard. Side dishes of broccoli & cauliflower. I found the recipe from someone on facebook and I definitely recommend it.
http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2012/02/easy-sweet-potato-veggie-burgers-with.html
The burgers were awesome. Not really burger like, but definitely scrumptious. I also made baked edamame and chickpeas to try out for a snack this weekend. The chickpeas ended up awesome. I have some work to do on the edamame baking.
Lunch: leftover soup from the other night and some grapes
Dinner: Sweet Potato & White Bean Burgers with guacamole, lettuce, tomato and mustard. Side dishes of broccoli & cauliflower. I found the recipe from someone on facebook and I definitely recommend it.
http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2012/02/easy-sweet-potato-veggie-burgers-with.html
The burgers were awesome. Not really burger like, but definitely scrumptious. I also made baked edamame and chickpeas to try out for a snack this weekend. The chickpeas ended up awesome. I have some work to do on the edamame baking.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Day 8: edamame
There really isn't anything exciting to report from today. I had strawberries and bananas after I slept 1 1/2 hours longer than when my alarm first went off. I have to stop doing that.
The morning was full of unexpected meetings, then my boss took me and a new girl to lunch because he didn't want to take her alone. We went to Granite City and I had the Greek salad without feta and pepperochinis (or however you spell that).
I golfed pretty well afterwork, but I came home and ate some leftover falafel patties with salsa first.
After golf went and had a glass of white wine and came home and enjoyed some go-to edamame with soy sauce. Pretty solid Monday. Only 3 days left in the week!
The morning was full of unexpected meetings, then my boss took me and a new girl to lunch because he didn't want to take her alone. We went to Granite City and I had the Greek salad without feta and pepperochinis (or however you spell that).
I golfed pretty well afterwork, but I came home and ate some leftover falafel patties with salsa first.
After golf went and had a glass of white wine and came home and enjoyed some go-to edamame with soy sauce. Pretty solid Monday. Only 3 days left in the week!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Day 7 : Laying low
After a horrible night of sleep in the new bed and new room, I didn't wake up feeling great this morning. I walked to my parents' house for breakfast like I do every Sunday and we had oatmeal, peaches and pineapple. I felt a little better after breakfast, but still not top notch.
We did some mid-afternoon shopping and hung out a bit, it was a pretty lazy Sunday, which was just fine with me because next weekend we'll be in Chicago for a birthday party. I got my rest in while I could.
For dinner we decided to have a Cream of Mushroom soup. We had to visit Whole Foods earlier in the day though because we couldn't find carrot juice at Hen House. Whole Foods was bonkers. We got what we needed and got out of there. I'm not sure if it is the solar eclipse or what, but today was just a weird day. I felt horrible, we saw a poodle riding shotgun in a red convertible, a man wearing shorts only young females should attempt to wear and a flower painted car. Plus, I was irritable. I think because I didn't get much sleep.
Mom also made apple strudel for dessert. Just apples, oats, cinnamon and egg white. No ice cream, much to my dad's disappointment.
The parents are holding up pretty well on the challenge. They've cheated a few times, but if it is necessary to fit it into the way of life, so be it.
I've decided to start taking photos of my meals because that is way more exciting, so I'll attempt that this week. There is much challenge ahead though. Four days of traveling and being in a hotel doesn't bode well for the challenge. We'll see how it goes....
We did some mid-afternoon shopping and hung out a bit, it was a pretty lazy Sunday, which was just fine with me because next weekend we'll be in Chicago for a birthday party. I got my rest in while I could.
For dinner we decided to have a Cream of Mushroom soup. We had to visit Whole Foods earlier in the day though because we couldn't find carrot juice at Hen House. Whole Foods was bonkers. We got what we needed and got out of there. I'm not sure if it is the solar eclipse or what, but today was just a weird day. I felt horrible, we saw a poodle riding shotgun in a red convertible, a man wearing shorts only young females should attempt to wear and a flower painted car. Plus, I was irritable. I think because I didn't get much sleep.
Mom also made apple strudel for dessert. Just apples, oats, cinnamon and egg white. No ice cream, much to my dad's disappointment.
The parents are holding up pretty well on the challenge. They've cheated a few times, but if it is necessary to fit it into the way of life, so be it.
I've decided to start taking photos of my meals because that is way more exciting, so I'll attempt that this week. There is much challenge ahead though. Four days of traveling and being in a hotel doesn't bode well for the challenge. We'll see how it goes....
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