So my friend made this stuff called "Cowboy Caviar" a month or so ago and gave me some and it was ridiculously good. I'm sure you can google it and find the recipe (and several variations). I think I probably will re-create it some day but it includes stuff like red wine vinegar and avocados, which I just *never* have on hand. I'm getting better at having balsamic vinegar and regular vinegar, as well as extra virgin olive oil, on hand, but that's about it. Anyway, I've still been trying to eat lower carb dinners and last night was no exception. I went home and really wanted to try throwing some canned veggies together, some black beans, and then using Italian dressing as a marinade. Well, I'm out of black beans. And I'm out of canned corn. But I had five cans of chick peas (I sometimes make my own hummus), a can of green beans, and a can of diced tomatoes. I made a delicious salad of some sort that I ate the majority of for dinner.
Cold Chickpea and Veggie Salad
1 15 oz can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can green beans, drained
Italian dressing (you only need about 1/3rd of a 16 oz bottle)
Salt to taste (optional)
Pepper to taste (optional)
Garlic powder to taste (optional)
Combine chick peas, diced tomatoes, and green beans in a container. Add 1/4 to 1/3 of a 16-oz bottle of Italian dressing. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste and toss. I add the spices a little at a time, mix everything up, and sample a bit until I like the flavor. You can leave all of the spices out and the Italian dressing adds plenty of flavor, as well. Allow to chill in the refrigerator, covered, for at least one hour (overnight marinating is probably even better!). Enjoy!
I am not a big cook. Physically, I'm big. But I'm not big on cooking. If I'm going to cook, it needs to be easy and not have a ton of bizarre or expensive ingredients, and it needs to be relatively hassle-free. Hence the canned ingredients. I found a couple of articles on google to justify to myself that canned veggies are just fine nutritionally. And seriously, it's still gotta be better than fast food so that's my ultimate justification.
I may stop at Aldi, after myself and Little Chick go to the dentist this afternoon, to get some more cans of veggies so I can make more of that salad!
So the frustration mostly comes from a co-worker who is perpetually driving me nuts. I know, I know, she doesn't have control over me and my emotions but I listen to her day in, day out, yak yak yak about gross things, stupid things, how much she hates everything... it wears on me. This week especially. She told me a story about buying her phone case and how she "Jewed him down" to a price she liked. Hate that term. How is it that people can know saying the n-word is offensive but "Jewed him down" isn't? Yesterday she challenged my use of the word "specificity." Really? Two days ago you called a 'median' a 'medium.' Now you want to challenge my grasp of vocabulary? Today, she shoved a picture in my face of the kidney stone her son had just passed. While I was eating my lunch.
Off to go bang my head against something...
Poor Chick
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Poor Chick Gets Fit
This is Day Three since the Health Screening from Hell. No, it wasn't that bad. But they did make me fill out a medical referral so they could cover their behinds in case I stroked out or had a heart attack after my screening. My BP always goes sky high these days when I'm dealing with medical professionals. I'm on BP meds (well, have been for about 10 months now) and I know I have White Coat Syndrome but when you see people being concerned for you, it can kinda make you feel bad for them and yourself. I didn't wanna cause problems, y'all! :)
Anyway, I've been trying to wrap my mind around finally needing to make big changes in my life. I don't like the way I feel. I'm not as concerned about the lbs but I want to feel good in my clothes, like what I see in the mirror, and not be embarrassed at the dr's office any more. I'm poor but well-educated. I need to take better care of myself.
Plus, over the weekend I was Netflixing season 4 of "LA Ink" and Kat Von D was talking about people protecting their addictions-- food, alcohol, other drugs-- and it kind of clicked. Oh... all that justifying I do about eating like shit is actually me protecting my addiction. Hmmm. That actually makes sense.
So Day #1 I only ate about 1/2 of the amount of food for lunch that I usually do, no snacks, and made a low carb taco-stew kind of thing for dinner (ground turkey, taco seasoning, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of enchilada sauce, and a can of whole-kernel corn). I seriously kept looking at everything in my fridge that I thought would be low-carb and the lowest carb stuff was sausage and cheese. I didn't want the cholesterol that night so the taco turkey stew thing happened. And it's good. My Little Chick wanted no part of it but she usually doesn't so that's no big surprise.
Was a bit hungry that night and woke up a bit hungry but also felt pretty good. Better than waking up feeling like I'm going to puke, which is how I feel when my blood sugar is too high (nope, no diabetes but I was on-the-cusp for awhile before I started exercising). But Day #2 decisions were not all wonderful. Stopped at McD's on the way to work (something I do pretty much 5 days a week unless I'm *completely* broke) and got my unsweet iced tea with lemon and a sausage McMuffin. What was that about cholesterol??? And for lunch I had two pieces of leftover Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza (work had bought it for everyone on Monday) and some cheesey breadsticks with marinara sauce. Again-- cholesterol? Hmmm? But to finish the day, I did eat a bowl of the turkey taco stew. That has to count for something, in my mind.
Day #3, I only got the unsweet tea with lemon from McD's and ate some Belvita breakfast cookies once I got to work. But I had a game ticket for a free Fazoli's spaghetti with meat sauce so I got that and a Medium Diet Coke for lunch. I've been winning those free spaghetti's all summer long but this was my last one. Game is over now so probably won't be headed to Fazoli's much unless they have really good deals again. And I have $ again b/c I'm down to a buck something in my checking account and $0 in savings. Maybe a few coins in cash. This is my life. Paycheck to paycheck and I just got paid 5 days ago. Sucks!
I was telling myself that I still won't make enough money to eat really good food all the time but that I can, of course, cut back on what I already eat and that has to help. But I ate the whole damn lunch today so that was not helpful.
Work is done in about 1 hour and 5 minutes and I don't have to pick up Little Chick tonight so hopefully I can make some good choices when I get home. Stay away from snacking, maybe get my bootie back on the bike. Only did 14 minutes this morning, though that was better than the 10 minutes I did yesterday. Or the 7 the previous day.
Tomorrow's another day to improve!!! :)
Poor Chick
Anyway, I've been trying to wrap my mind around finally needing to make big changes in my life. I don't like the way I feel. I'm not as concerned about the lbs but I want to feel good in my clothes, like what I see in the mirror, and not be embarrassed at the dr's office any more. I'm poor but well-educated. I need to take better care of myself.
Plus, over the weekend I was Netflixing season 4 of "LA Ink" and Kat Von D was talking about people protecting their addictions-- food, alcohol, other drugs-- and it kind of clicked. Oh... all that justifying I do about eating like shit is actually me protecting my addiction. Hmmm. That actually makes sense.
So Day #1 I only ate about 1/2 of the amount of food for lunch that I usually do, no snacks, and made a low carb taco-stew kind of thing for dinner (ground turkey, taco seasoning, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of enchilada sauce, and a can of whole-kernel corn). I seriously kept looking at everything in my fridge that I thought would be low-carb and the lowest carb stuff was sausage and cheese. I didn't want the cholesterol that night so the taco turkey stew thing happened. And it's good. My Little Chick wanted no part of it but she usually doesn't so that's no big surprise.
Was a bit hungry that night and woke up a bit hungry but also felt pretty good. Better than waking up feeling like I'm going to puke, which is how I feel when my blood sugar is too high (nope, no diabetes but I was on-the-cusp for awhile before I started exercising). But Day #2 decisions were not all wonderful. Stopped at McD's on the way to work (something I do pretty much 5 days a week unless I'm *completely* broke) and got my unsweet iced tea with lemon and a sausage McMuffin. What was that about cholesterol??? And for lunch I had two pieces of leftover Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza (work had bought it for everyone on Monday) and some cheesey breadsticks with marinara sauce. Again-- cholesterol? Hmmm? But to finish the day, I did eat a bowl of the turkey taco stew. That has to count for something, in my mind.
Day #3, I only got the unsweet tea with lemon from McD's and ate some Belvita breakfast cookies once I got to work. But I had a game ticket for a free Fazoli's spaghetti with meat sauce so I got that and a Medium Diet Coke for lunch. I've been winning those free spaghetti's all summer long but this was my last one. Game is over now so probably won't be headed to Fazoli's much unless they have really good deals again. And I have $ again b/c I'm down to a buck something in my checking account and $0 in savings. Maybe a few coins in cash. This is my life. Paycheck to paycheck and I just got paid 5 days ago. Sucks!
I was telling myself that I still won't make enough money to eat really good food all the time but that I can, of course, cut back on what I already eat and that has to help. But I ate the whole damn lunch today so that was not helpful.
Work is done in about 1 hour and 5 minutes and I don't have to pick up Little Chick tonight so hopefully I can make some good choices when I get home. Stay away from snacking, maybe get my bootie back on the bike. Only did 14 minutes this morning, though that was better than the 10 minutes I did yesterday. Or the 7 the previous day.
Tomorrow's another day to improve!!! :)
Poor Chick
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)