It was a Green Leafy kind of Day ... and More Bean Cheeze

Monday started with almost a heat way. It was 29 before we left for the gym but oddly it was only supposed to reach 33 for a high. There must be something going on since we normally go up a lot more than that when the sun comes up. However the best news is that the weather people are predicting snow for Christmas. Woo hoo! I can’t ever remember snow falling on Christmas since I have lived in Maryland. It would be wonderful to have snow falling. I have my fingers crossed for that.

We had a good workout Monday morning at the gym. I was happy to be back to morning workouts if only for a few days before the gym closes for winter break for the students. My knee held up pretty well and I was pushing it harder than I had been. It hurt a little but not much so it is definitely improving. I was thrilled to burn over 500 calories this morning in an hour but I am looking to getting back to where I was before my knee started hurting.

When we got back from the gym we had our usual green smoothies with frozen banana, kale, cinnamon, powdered ginger, walnuts and a little stevia. I really love having green smoothies for breakfast. It was nice to have slightly warmer temperatures this morning.

Dan was back to the dentist this morning to meet with a different specialist. They are still working on his changing bite. To think I was under the impression that one you were in your 20’s these dental things were a distant memory. Goes to show you how little I know about dentistry. LOL

My mid morning snack today was an orange and two Brazil nuts (for the selenium). While I am not a huge fan of cold weather, which I am sure you have noticed,I love having nice juicy citrus be so plentiful at the grocery store this time of year.

For some reason I was craving popcorn today. Typically popcorn is something that we have when we watch movies but we have been forgoing the popcorn lately. I guess I just needed something crunchy. I decided to try an experiment to see if I could pop corn in a dry pan on the stove. Guess what? It actually worked fine. I was a little surprised. What didn’t work fine however was putting the nutritional yeast in the pot with the corn while it popped. The nutritional yeast turned black and burned. For the second batch I popped the corn in a dry pan and add the nutritional yeast (just a little maybe a tablespoon) after the corn was popped but while it was still hot.

For my lunch I made myself a very simple salad with mesclun greens, salsa, cucumber and baked falafel from the freezer. I really love my baked falafel but used the end of them in this salad. Time for me to get more chickpeas soaking so I can replenish my freezer falafel supply. By the way, Dan prefers the falafel once they have been frozen and defrosted. He likes the texture softer where they are crisper straight from the oven.

Dinner was another salad. I eat more salads when I am trying to dropping a few pounds. This salad contained mesclun, cooked sweet potato, salsa, cucumber, and white bean cheeze. I made a variation of this cheeze recipe. Thank goodness for leftover white beans in the refrigerator. Since Dan isn’t terribly fond of nutritional yeast I added less to this batch and then included cumin, paprika and chili powder to increase the flavor.

Since Dan had soup, salad and frozen grapes for lunch and salad for dinner he needed more calories today. You all know what that means by now strawberry banana soft serve was Dan’s dessert. Like always I have a few spoons from what we left in the blender after I served Dan. This stuff is really tasty but has too many calories for me to eat much of it especially since I am trying to drop weight.

I had to include this picture of Binky. You can’t see me well but I am under Binky. He was lying on my chest. At our house we refer to this as “wearing cats”. Each time someone tells me cats are standoffish I wonder whose cats they are talking about. Ours are very cuddly and you will frequently find them on us or within a couple of feet. It is hard not to love little furries that so clearly love us so much. I really love my little fur babies. ;-)

Happy Thoughts:

Monday was a fairly good day for me. I got a few accomplished on my to do list and feel a little more “in control” in terms of Christmas. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• Monday was a good day at the gym. I was very happy that my knee held up and I got a decent calorie burn.

• I have finally started to think about Christmas dinner. Having a few ideas has relieved the anxiety I was feeling.

• I was fairly happy with myself that I ate so many greens yesterday (a green smoothie and two salads).

• One of the presents I ordered or Ian showed up on the mail yesterday. This was another relief. Now there is just one to go and Ian is finished. Good thing since it is almost Christmas.

• I loved all your comments and emails to yesterday’s post. You have no idea how much I appreciate all your ideas. I also love that there are so many people who want to live a healthier life. Reading about you changes always puts a huge smile on my face. Thank you very much for that!

• Darn I initially forgot to include this in the post. When we were leaving the gym there was the most glorious sunrise yesterday.

Signing out:

Today cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen is on my agenda. I have been putting this off for months and I just need to do. I know it will be a mess while it is in process but that I will be thrilled when it is finished. I will be thrilled right? ;-)

I hope everyone is staying warm is this unseasonable cold (for those of you on the east coast). Have a wonderful day and I will talk to you again tomorrow.