We are celebrating all the May birthdays at work today with a “Brownie Explosion” Party. Everyone is in there right now laughing and eating brownies. I don’t even want to go near it, but we’ll see how I hold up.
I started lunch with a big salad topped with light balsamic. I thought I’d get my veggie requirement out of the way early since we are going out to eat tonight. This way I can eat crap! Just kidding. Kind of.
I have been craving some kind of white cheese sauce. I wanted white cheddar mac n’ cheese the other night, but ended up making something else. I had to stop into Albertson’s for some batteries today and noticed they had the Lean Cuisine meals for $1.99. That is crazy. So, I bought a couple of my favs – this not being one of them, but it’s for the craving. Lunch was the Lean Cuisine Fettuccini Alfredo (their spelling). I know it’s overly processed and full of sodium, but I can’t deny my craving. The alternate would have been to go out to a restaurant and order this. Yeah, right. (I do like LC’s pizzas for a pizza craving and their Spa line which has brown rice or whole grain pasta.)

For dessert I had a bunch of watermelon. I have already finished one since Tuesday (my mom ate a little bit). Good thing I bought 2. Yes, I have a problem.

My lunch feast. This is a lot of food. I really eat a lot more than everyone I know. I don’t feel good about that. I have got to start hanging out with 16 year old boys or something. Wait, that sounds bad. Never mind.

Today is a rest day since I have a long run planned for tomorrow. I just went for a long walk with the perros. Breakfast was a BIG bowl of a bunch of cereals with almond milk. I couldn’t decide what cereal I wanted, so I had them all!I used all these cereals to make my bowl. After I was done with the bowl I had a little more of my favorites. I shouldn’t have done that. Boo.

We also had these, but I didn’t want any since I used to eat these ones every single day for years. Plus, these are the cereals I have at home and I wanted something different.

I think it is easier for me to overeat cereal when I am having it with milk. I don’t overeat it with yogurt because the yogurt stops and you don’t go open a new container of it, but you can go get a little more milk, then a little more cereal, then a little more milk… forever! I do that.

Once I am done with this milk/almond milk I may stick to yogurt.

I’ve been tagged by Simple and Divine! Yeah for me my first tag
Here are the rules as I understand them:
RULES: (1) Link your tagger(s) and post these rules
(2) Share 5 unknown Facts about yourself
(3) Pay it forward! Link 5 more bloggers and include their names in your post
(4) Leave them a comment on their blog and let them know that they’ve been tagged

My 5 Facts:
1. I am a red-headed Mexican. For real. My mom and dad are both Mexican and I was born with fair skin and super red hair. It’s natural folks. If you have the nerve to ask about the carpet, I will have the nerve to answer. Maybe even show you if you’re lucky. Just kidding. What is my deal today?
Anyways, I am some kind of freak-of-nature. Most people don’t believe that I am 100% Mexican, not just half or something. But, let’s be honest – this kind of booty isn’t made for white girls. Seriously though, there must be some Spanish blood in my genes, but I’ve never done the family tree thing. I know most of my old time Mexican family had some money and were light skinned so they might have had some “good times” with the Spanish Conquistadors – if you know what I mean wink wink.

2. I am crazy. What do you expect for some girl who claims to be a red-headed Mexican and grew up in the get-toe? Woo woo. Not really, well may be. But, I did get a tattoo when I was 19 years old. I went by myself and didn’t tell anyone that I was going except my BF at the time. It’s a flame on my hip. I do stuff like that. And people are always telling me, “You’re crazy” or “Go away crazy,” stuff like that.

3. I went to private/Catholic school from 1st through 12th grade. So, I am a whore.
Ha!
No, but I think it did make me a little weird. I went to school with the same 38 or so people from 1st to 8th grade. Then, my high school graduating class was under 300. I had 12 years of Religion as a class every week. I should know the Bible front to back, but I’m embarrassed to say I don’t. It doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not, if you’re studying it for 12 years it should have stuck with you right? I might be slightly learning disabled now that I think about it.

4. I don’t drink unless I am going to get totally wasted. I think alcohol is a waste of calories for casual drinking. I have been trying to get into wine, but that’s been slow moving. So, I don’t really drink that much, but if I do –watch the heck out! (I mean that in a fun way.) On that note, please let me know if you find any pics of me on the ‘net in a “compromising position”.

5. I have a 2 younger brothers. One of them is 3 years younger than me (Michael), the other is 17 years younger than me (Matt). That is crazy. So, it’s like I have a kid. I take care of him like he’s mine. I lecture my mom on the things she’s doing wrong with him and everything. I’m sure she appreciates that. He’s my little 1st grade friend and I love him!

Now, I am supposed to tag 5 peeps. It looks like everyone has already been tagged though. If you have already been tapped don’t worry about it! I’m going to take a shot and tag these guys: Kath, Laura, Adriel, Pickles and your mom.

I have a confession, I ate another half of a doughnut at some point this morning. It was just okay. I think I am convinced some foods are sooo good because I used to deny myself so much, but they are really just okay. Boo.

I ate most of this packet of South Beach granola too. It’s very fruity, not your usual granol-y.
Since I ate so much already today I tried to make lunch a little lighter. (I wasn’t that hungry after so much junk either.) I had a salad with a veggie burger.

I also had broccoli and carrots with hummus.

I was full after my sugary snack filled day, so I saved the cherries for a little later.

I am back in business friends! I finally have the blog up to date and am totally on top of things.
I feel current and relevant and successful. Okay, may be I am going too far there, but I am glad to be here!

I went for a short bike ride with the BF first thing this morning. It was about 5.something miles. Then, I went for the same distance run.
Breakfast was oat bran made with almond milk and topped with brown sugar. Very filling. I was hungry this morning and wanted the most filling breakfast I could make quickly.
Today was a “Breakfast Club” day at work where 2 people team up to bring in breakfast for the office. It is always full of junk and sooo tempting. I had half of a half of doughnut and a couple of strawberries. In my defense I always smell doughnuts when I run in the morning. Both I and the BF live near a doughnut shop, so no matter where I run they tempt me. “Why?” I think during my run. So, I’ve been craving a doughnut anyways and I thought this is better than stopping and getting a whole one by myself or worse – more than one.

I had a yogurt and some watermelon – this was supposed to be the rest of my breakfast.

The doughnut’s siren song got me again. I really wanted something with pink frosting, so I cut off a little piece of one and had it with coffee. It was so good, but that is it for me on the doughnut front for a long time! Please help hold me accountable!

I went for a short run in the morning then took the perros for a walk. It’s was probably about an hour total
Breakfast was an oat bran pancake with a couple of blueberries tossed in. I also had about 1/2 a cup of egg beaters with ketchup. It was a very satisfying breakie since I’ve been craving pancakes so bad!
I had a doctor’s appointment before work. I stopped back at home to grab some stuff and had some cherries and watermelon while cleaning up and stuff.

Lunch was a veggie deli meat sandwich on a sprouted bun with lettuce. I also had carrots and broccoli with hummus. These are new carrots I bought from TJ’s not the poison carrots from the other day – which I am still taking back if I can find the receipt.

Doesn’t this meal look so healthy?
I snacked on a couple of Kashi crackers with PB because I wanted to.

I had some greek yogurt with a splenda and some cereal mixed in for snack. The container probably only had about 1/3 left so I ate it right out of there. I also tried this soda – it’s Diet Dr Pepper Cherry Chocolate. Doesn’t it sound disgusting? I got it from the 99 Cent Store, so I figured it was no real loss if I hated it. It was okay, not disgusting, but I don’t think I’d get it again. It did taste like chocolate though. It was weird. That is my friend Adriel in the background. He’s funny.

I had half a mini Cliff Bar because I like to eat half of things? I don’t know why okay. It is what it is.

Dinner was a big salad with which I ate a ton of croutons. I love croutons, especially garlic cheese ones. Mmm. I made a shrimp/hot sausage stir-fry for the BF and I. I put it on ww couscous with ICBNB spray and a bunch of salt. I also had a veggie burger because the stir-fry thing was a kit with shrimp and veggies (I added the sausage per BF’s request) and it didn’t have a lot of shrimp. I wasn’t going to eat the sausage and would give most of the shrimp to the BF, so I figured I needed more protein.

Dessert was a flour-less chocolate walnut cookie because sometimes you just need some chocolate I also had a bite of No Bake cookies, which I have to come up with another name for. I am having Matt work on it.

In order to get caught up on the blog I am just going to break down Tuesday and Wednesday’s eats. Sorry I am so behind on this! I will be a better blogger from now on.

I went out for an about 5.6 or something mile run first thing in the morning.
I snacked on some watermelon on my drive home.
Breakfast was a mix of Kashi Go Lean, Flax Plus and Nature’s Path granola with skim milk.

I went to Costco on my lunch and had a couple of samples – so add in about 140 calories here.

Lunch was a frozen buckwheat noodle bowl with carrots. Turns out the carrots I just bought from Costco are bad or something. They taste really weird and I have to take them back. I even confirmed it with a co-worker – bad carrots!

I needed some chocolate so I had this bar. It is just like a candy bar with 150 cals and a bunch of fiber and protein. Yum.

Since I hadn’t met my PB requirement for the day I had a couple of Kashi crackers with some PB.

On the way home I stopped at TJ’s for the ingredients for No Bake cookies. I got a box of Frosted Maple & Brown Sugar Wheats and cracked it open for a couple of handfuls. I wasn’t really hungry – this is just a bad habit

I had a couple bites of the orange chicken with brown rice my mom made, but decided I wanted something else.

I made a burrito on a La Tortilla Factory high fiber tortilla. Notice the burn marks. We have an electrical stove so I put the tortillas right on the spiral burner and this happens. I like it a little burnt.

The guts. I filled it with some veggie ground meat, lettuce, cheese, tapatio and black beans. The black beans were super fresh. My mom had just finished cooking them. So good.

I was still a little hungry so I had some brown rice with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray and salt mixed with plain salad. It was so good and the lettuce didn’t have anything on it. I was craving salty and put a lot of salt on the rice/lettuce mix.

After I took the dogs for a short walk I made the No Bake Cookies everyone has been talking about. Ummm, Hello. This is dangerous. They are so good, take no time to make and can be eaten in mass quantities very easily. This is a recipe for disaster, seriously. I packed up most of them to take to the BF. The thing is I still eat the stuff I bring him when I am over there. I might have to hold him down and force feed him so they are gone. I would do that. Because I am a good girlfriend who makes him cookies and stuff.

I went for a run down by the water first thing in the morning. I was out for about an hour. There were a lot of other runners out and it was so nice to be running in a new place where I felt safe and not a weirdo for running.
Breakfast was cereal with Kashi Trail Mix and milk. I also had some cherries and a piece of bagel with whipped cream cheese.
We walked around Fisherman’s Wharf for a while before driving home. Boudin’s Bakery makes sourdough bread in a bunch of crazy shapes. Here is a girl making a lobster.

They also have an alligator and turtles. So cool. I will eat you alligator!

Fisherman’s Wharf sign

We had an early lunch because I wanted another bread bowl before we left. It was only about 11am. Here is the bread bowl and a crab sandwich. We shared them.

To put it in context, there are a bunch of outside counters where you can order seafood and delicious sourdough bread bowls. We ate right at the counter.

I love carbs! Look at me with my carb feast and shirt to match. We stopped to do a wine tasting in Paso Robles on our way home at our favorite winery – Rotta. I ate this stuff randomly in the car.

Kashi Trail Mix -

I made some crackers with veggie meat and laughing cow cheese.

This is an example of the amazing views on the drive. We live in paradise.

It was so beautiful we had to pull over to enjoy

I ate some cherries too. I don’t know when.

and some chocolates we got from Ghiradelli. We stopped in Solvang for a pee brake on the way home. By pee brake I also mean snack break. Solvang is a cute little Dutch town. There are a ton of windmills and decor that makes you feel like you are not in California.

We stopped at Olsen’s Bakery for some treats.

Ben is posing by a cute bench with the Dutch term for gossip bench painted on it.

Our loot (from left)- an almond log, a German tea cake and a huge macaroon.

Dinner Monday -

Dinner was Taco Bell. I ordered the Zesty Chicken Border Bowl and pintos and cheese “Fresco Style”. Fresco Style means it will come without cheese or sauces and with tomatoes and lettuce. The bowl still came with cheese! Boo. I really hate when I make a special order and they get it wrong. I had such a great trip and was in such a great mood I just shrugged and ate it. I put some of the pintos on it to make it more bean
-y. I love beans. I’m Mexican what do you expect? I also had about half a Mexican Pizza because I am determined to

sabotage my weight loss goals!

Another great day in SF! I started the day with a run on the treadmill in the hotel gym. I used to always run on the ‘mill – like 5 times a week because I hated running in my ghetto neighborhood. It was a nice little return to my running roots. Isn’t that weird?

Sunday Breakfast -
I brought a mix of Kashi Go Lean and PB Puffins cereal and mixed in some of my Kashi Trail Mix with milk. See that milk? It’s shelf stable so you don’t need to have it cold before hand. You do need to refrigerate after you open it though. My cereal has almonds and chocolate chips! I am bad.
We started the day with a long walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. A lot of people just walk out a little ways then turn back, but not us because I am crazy. It’s about 3 miles total, which isn’t too bad and I wanted to be able to say I did it. I don’t think Ben enjoyed the walk as much, because he tried to push me off the side a couple of times, but I held on like a monkey. Not really he’s a good sport. But, according to the Wiki info a bunch of people jump off every year.

So we walked it pretty fast, got to the other side, took some pics and then headed back. We had other things to do…Sunday Lunch -

Our first Napa wine tasting was at The Hess Collection. This winery is cool because the owner loved modern art and has a lot of art work around the grounds. I forgot to take a picture of the wine, but we shared a tasting so neither of us would get wasted by the end of the day. I also sampled some bread and olive oils and crunchy bread sticks to clean my palate.

The second winery was Domaine Chandon. I loved this place!

They had beautiful grounds. Look at this rock garden. I thought it was adorable.

All of the wines we tasted here we sparkling. I discovered I love sparkling wine! I think this might be part of the reason for my obsession with diet soda – I love the sparklies (made up a word). The tasting is held inside, but right behind the bar it is all open. You can just walk right out and enjoy your drink.

Here is Ben demonstrating how to drink wine in a beautiful locale.

Sutter Home was the third and final stop. It was getting late and tasting rooms generally close at 5:30pm, 6pm if you’re lucky. Sutter Home’s tasting is free! Woo-woo. So, we bought a bottle from them to show our appreciation.

We took a picture with a big wine bottle because we’re classy like that.

I don’t remember where these fit in, but I ate them at some point. I was wine tasting in Napa, I’m lucky I got a picture at all since my priorities were elsewhere at this point.

We grabbed a Jamby on the way back to SF to share. Ben had been feeling sick and this is my go to cure.

Sunday Dinner -

We went to China Town for dinner. There are so many good restaurants it’s hard to figure out where to eat!

We started with Taro Puffs. They changed my life. Amazing! It’s like heaven in a little pastry puff. They taste like a sweet potato but are a purple/lavender color on the inside.

Bad for your ass, good for your soul – Taro Puffs.

We also ordered shrimp rolls and won ton soup to start. I definitely wanted a couple of Dim Sum items so the Taro Puffs and Shrimp rolls were very satisfying.

For the main course I got a spicy eggplant dish, which I ordered not spicy. This was one of the only things on the menu that had 2 chili peppers next to it, some other things had 0 or 1, so I figured it would be killer. I should have asked for it with a little spice, but it was good. I also had some of Ben’s Sesame Chicken and ate it all with white rice.

The restaurant brought us a fortune cookie on a tiny scoop of green tea ice cream for dessert. My cookie had NO FORTUNE!!! What does that mean?! I have no fortune? I make my own fortune? I get to pick from a list? I was a little worried, but I was too busy eating my cookie and ice cream to think too much about it. This was kinda rip off green tea ice cream, it tasted like pistachio without the actual pistachios in it. Hmmm. Overall I was stuffed – too much food today and yesterday makes me feel like crap.