The weekend!

Happy Saturday! I hope you had a beautiful, relaxing day. We didn't have any real plans this morning, other than spending some time with my sister. Even though the little guy was up before the sun (ok, so it was raining anyway) we had a nice morning chilling with each other while we got ready for the day. The sun came out later, which made for a grand afternoon. My little guy adores being outside, so I'm glad we were eventually able to get out of the house!

7:30am - breakfast

Steel-cut oats with walnut, raisins, and maple syrup (local).

10:30am - snack

Low-fat string cheese and a banana before going garage-sale shopping with my sister.

12:00pm - a few chocolate-covered edamame and water while we wandered and browsed.

1:00pm - lunch

We stopped at my sis's alma mater to watch a little of the rugby match. I'd packed a picnic lunch, but we started with the free hot dogs and popcorn they were serving. Then we shared some fresh fruit (pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries), grape tomatoes, water, and veggie Pirate's Booty, and then I had a dark mint-chocolate square.

Don't you love my gigantic thermal bag? I found it at the grocery store for $8 and it's amazing! I have been huntingfor a nice-looking cooler, since that is what The Eat-Clean Diet author suggests for toting clean eats on the go (not that I eat out of the house a lot, but sometimes I wish I had one for day trips!), and this one fit the bill perfectly. The only hard part was choosing a pattern. There were so many cute ones on sale! I intend to use this for my regular grocery shopping trips to hold cold things, in case I can't get right home to put them away.

4:00pm - snack while doing food prep

Wheat toast (local) with sunflower seed butter; hardboiled egg (local) with horseradish. In my rush to eat before the little guy woke up, I forgot to take a picture until after I'd taken a bite. Oops!

6:00pm - dinner

The little guy and I had another picnic while we waited for The H to get back from his weekend business trip. I reheated a portion of tuna nicoise casserole, and his plate was filled with quinoa, turkey, cheese (local), edamame, and grape tomatoes. I intended for us to share the strawberries, but he snatched 'em all, little fruit monster!

When The H rolled in just before 7, we piled into the car and met my sis and bro-in-law for ice cream. It was sadly unsatisfying... I had a single scoop of some chocolate-peanut butter combo, shared with the little guy.

The H put him to bed while I made H a salad, since he hadn't had dinner yet. Thanks to my gorgeous fridge, I was able to pull this beauty together in no time:

Spinach, turkey, egg, bell peppers, walnuts, beets, tomatoes, cucumber, baby bella mushrooms, feta, Romano Caesar dressing. He had a peach Chobani yogurt on the side, then we made some decaf and settled in for the night with our second dessert--almond butter chocolate chip cookies--that was far better than the first!

Yep, I was right!

My carb-load from last night helped me power through my long run, over 7 miles, this morning. It was a very pleasant run (non-runners, there really IS such a thing!) with no aches or pains, mostly dry roads, and not too much wind. Meeting a friend just after mile 3 provided a nice boost, too. When we got back, our host was making oatmeal-blueberry pancakes and omelets. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had real maple syrup, which I enjoyed on my first pancake, but it was gone by the time I had my second (ok, ok, and my third--they were small!) so I used a little Mrs. Butterworth's. What a difference in taste! I'd forgotten how sweet the artificial stuff is. The H and I shared an omelet stuffed with cheese, sausage, and black bean salsa. And of course, I did my part to keep Folgers in business and put away a good 2-3 cups, lightened with low-fat milk. Dinner tonight will be ground turkey nachos topped with tomatoes, black beans, cheddar, peach salsa, and guacamole. I'm not sure what I'll eat in between now and then, but a green monster smoothie is a good possibility--I need to bump up my fruit/veggie intake.