Hungry Tiger

If you know what the title of this post means, I’m sorry.  Ha Ha.

But that’s what I felt like (again) today.  I had 4 meals (not snacks, meals) AFTER dinner alone.

OK, so back to the beginning…

Hump day started off with an early morning wake up call.  Someone’s gotta save lives.

To get me going, I went with a Trilogy Kombucha.  This is my FAVE flavor by far.  Mmmm…

I had packed my lunch before, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

I bought a big ‘ol container of “tropical” trail mix to tide me over.  Even though I’m still on the fence with certain nuts, I know they can hold my appetite, so I think it’s a great go-to when my appetite is hungry tiger hippie status.

What exactly qualifies a mix as tropical?  Brazil nuts?  Papaya?  I don’t know, it seemed pretty standard as far as dried fruit/nut mixes go…but whatever, beggars can’t be choosers. 

I polished the entire thing off, as well as my whole packed lunch by 1 pm.  FYI, the “new” super protein odwalla bars are the merely smaller versions of the former ones (with a new wrapper).

Business/Economics 101 says fool the customers into thinking something is new and improved with a flashy new packaging, while simultaneously saving money by charging the same price for a smaller version of the product.  Hmmmm…not a fan of this policy, but I can’t deny my love for odwalla is still going strong.

Anyways, I scrounged this up…vegan options are minimal at the hospital, but if you know the right people (wink wink), you can move mountains…ok, ok, I discharged a patient on a veggie diet before lunch came, and they still brought her tray.  The hospital is WAY too cheap to donate ANYthing to the starving nurses fund – believe me, I’ve tried!!

Sorry about the not-so-hot blackberry photo…

I stopped here (AGAIN) on my way home from work, to get my Kombucha fix.  Don’t be deceived by the hole-in-the-wall appearance.  This place has all the products that Whole Foods has, MINUS the massive lines.  Is two Kombuchas a day too many?

Anyways, when I got home, I had to eat something right away to prevent myself from chewing my arm off.

Roasted red pepper Sabra on Alvarado Street bread, plus apple slices for max dipping pleasure.

Kyle was already home and munching on these…

…so I couldn’t help but have a few (hundred) handfuls.

DARN IT! 

The good news: Newman’s Own does cookies right.

The bad news: I hadn’t even eaten a proper dinner and I managed to down well over half of the bag. 

To get some decent (not processed) calories in, I made an avocado mash containing an ENTIRE avo, shredded carrots, and clover sprouts…which I then piled on top of 2 slices of Alvarado Street bread.  On the side, I had the last of my home-made seitan.

After dinner I went dessert crazy.  First up, dates stuffed with carob chips.

Then, I had a big bowl full of strawberries with stevia and cinnamon sprinkled on top, and more carob chips tossed in after.

But the treats didn’t stop there.  And I’m glad they didn’t because as a result, I discovered an amazing new dessert!  Dried mango with PEANUT BUTTER!  It reminded me of PB+J with the sweetness of the dried mango and the crunchy nutty peanut butter.  YUM.

As if that weren’t tasty enough.

…it evolved into something even BETTER (clearly carob chips go with everything).

After a few more of these, I called it a night.  Hungry tigers have to go to bed eventually.

Life is…

A bowl of cherries!!!

 

We may have a problem on our hands.

Synergy has created an addict of me.  I’ve heard rumors of home-made Kombucha in the blogosphere, so I’ve got some research on my to-do list…

I digress.

I woke up effing early Tuesday morning (4:30 am) before work to do some stretching and rise & shine yoga.  Which as you can see, ended up in some AM nibbling in the form of cherries and superfruits kombucha.  I’m 3 for 3 on flavors.  It’s luuuuuurve.

I also ADORE summer fruits, so you can imagine how excited I am now that cherries are back in my life (melons and berries aren’t too bad either).  Mmmm.

Here’s what I packed for lunch the night before.  Dried papaya spears, apple, and super protein odwalla bar.

The salad is basically the same as yesterdays.  I also made one for dinner at the same time (always planning ahead).

For time saving purposes [insert 12 hour shift here]

One of my patients was a complete sweetheart, and since the day wasn’t insanely crazy, I was happy that I was able to spend a considerable amount of time throughout the say just talking to her.  Pretty sure she’s on her way out, so sad.

Look what her family sent me home with!

It’s hard to tell, but this is literally 4 melons worth of fruit…maybe more.  Heyoooo.  Prepare to see a TON of fruity desserts in the future.

When I got home, my pre-tuperwared salad smorgasbord was there waiting for me like a good wifey.

Size quantity DOES matter.

All I did was add in half an avocado…

And these new lovers…

SESAME OAT BRAN sticks.  Yes, I discovered ANOTHER new obsession worthy item.  Fortunately, these are way cheaper than Kombucha AND can be found in the bulk bins section of my local health food store.  They are the perfect topping central ingredient for my salads.  Salty, crispy, and delicious – what more could I want!?

In my eyes, the perfect salad has a million different ingredients, with a hint of everything, including something salty, something sweet, something crunchy, something crispy, and everything in between.  Basically, everything I can get my hands on.  In this salad, the sesame oat bran nibbles, dried cranz, bell peppers, carrots, brocc, chickpeas, and avocado made for a heavenly creation.

Guess what else I had…

It may alarm you should definitely NOT shock you to know that I consumed the entire bag of SP fries in the last 24 hours.

Even though I was already stuffed to the gills in carbohydrate bliss, I still had a fruity dessert plate. 

As I peace out, I’ll leave you with this…

Recently, my friend sent me this hilarious link to her debut on the Runner’s World website…check it out, she’s hilarious! 

(it’ll make you smile, if nothing else)

Back to life, back to reality

Soul II Soul anyone?  HA!

OK, but seriously, I am sorry I’ve been MIA. Turns out, my computer was not pleased with me, and decided to take it out on the power cord…

I guess that thing is supposed to be straight, not stuck at a 45 degree angle?

Nothing $50 and an overnight express order can’t fix…

Good thing I have my own personal Geek squad member Kyle to diagnose such problems!

Soooo, YEA!  I’m baaack!  WooHoo!  I missed you all!  I have a lot to catch up on, too. Although, to be fair, I worked the past two days, so it’s not exactly thrilling material.

I’ll rewind to Sunday night’s snack action.

Fruit bowl + dates + carob chips = mmmm :)

And now on to Monday’s eats!

I packed my lunch the night before, as usual.  My salad contained the above ingredients, minus the self magazine, which was a bit too dry and stale for my taste.

• Spinach
• Carrots
• Sprouts (clover!  I’m addicted, I’ll never go back to alfalfa again)
• Red bell peppers
• Cherry toms
• Sesame/seaweed salad
• Chickpeas
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli

I have NO ability to filter my creativity when it comes to salad making.

The rest of the yummies: dried mango, odwalla bar love, and an apple

This was my first time having dried mango without any added sugar, and I LOVED it.  Although the texture reminded me of raw cow’s hide – it was as taut as an African drum (not that I’m the expert on bongos, I’m just guessing…)!

Work was work.  Whatever.

I got home and made a nice delish din din.

Alvarado street bread toasted with 2 pieces of veggie slice “cheese.”

Add in some seitan cutlets…

Mmmm.

There may not be a cuter fruit than KIWI – aren’t they adorable!

I wasn’t quite satisfied so I threw some of these in the oven.

The process was fairly simple, aside from the smoke detector going off every other minute, forcing me to stand under the alarm waving a pillow for 10 minutes.  Oh the joys of living in a tiny New York apartment…

It all worked out in the end.

Don’t let the blackened charred parts turn you off…appearances can be deceiving.  I polished the entire plate off, and licked the salt from my fingers with complete delight!

One more fruit bowl, and I was off to bed!

I’ll get to Tuesday and today later.  For now, I want to catch up on your blogs, since I can finally comment leave my computer on for over 15 minutes!

Raw Blah

I didn’t realize (raw) Wednesday had arrived (already?!) until I was making my lunch last night.  I guess that’s what happens when your schedule is completely random. 

So this is what I packed to eat…but I wasn’t really feeling it.

…so THIS is what I actually ate!

 

I heart this place.  There’s one in Union Square (easy walking distance from where I work). 

My ravenous appetite was STILL in full force today, so I polished off the apple and odwalla bar by 9 am…meaning by the time I got off the unit for my lunch break, I was ready to get my grub on.

Even though the weather was looking gloomy and rain was only a drip drop away, I had falafel on the brain.  You know how it is when you become OBSESSED with the idea of having a certain thing for lunch and suddenly there is no obstacle too great to prevent you from getting it!? That’s how I felt about Maoz. 

I got hummus and falafel with pita.  Mmmmm…

Not one to waste food – I had my RAW salad, too. 

I got off work on time and bolted home, where I had a nice (mostly) pre-made dinner all ready and waiting for me :)

If I don’t pre-assemble things before I work, I’ll come home ravenous and end up pounding half a loaf of bread, rather than put together a real meal.

I had loaded the tuperware up with was veggies (mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, and spinach) and BBQ tempeh, drizzled in Country Bob’s All Purpose sauce…

So all I had to do when I got home was throw in HALF an avocado…and some hummus (you didn’t think I could go a meal without it, did you)!?

I finished off my home-made hummus, but never fear, I had a fresh new tub of Sabra ready and waiting for me :)

Sabra love with an English muffin (yes, K, they are Thomas’) and the weirdest shaped carrot.  Mmmm!

This meal was SoOoOo good!

I have given up on the no-snacking after dinner part of the Whole Life Challenge.  So here come the dessert pics!

Wouldn’t be dessert without carob chips and dried fruit!

Back to packing up for tomorrow.  Anything you guys do to prepare for the day (food-wise) that helps you save time – or reduces the likelihood that you’ll opt for “less healthy” options)?