Thursday, June 11, 2009

I must have slept on my neck wrong because I’ve been in pure agony all day. Every time I move it I get piercing pains all along the left side from my shoulder to the back of my head. SO uncomfortable!! Even bending my head down a little or looking over at something makes me wince. I’ve had this before and it usually goes away in a day or 2, but I think this is the worst I’ve ever had it. It didn’t stop me from doing cardio today, but I skipped strength training. I did 20 minutes of intervals on my recumbent bike and 70 minutes of walking and step board. I was hoping the hot shower post-workout would alleviate some of my discomfort, but it didn’t. *sigh* I’ll try to sleep in a better position tonight and hope I don’t move too much. Since I can remember I’ve had a very unhealthy relationship with my pillows; I tend to prop myself up in unnatural positions. My mother said I used to sleep with my head up in the air, leaning on my elbow as if I was awake, but I was asleep. Kinda creepy lol.

On Wednesday we woke up around 2:00AM, but by 1:00PM we were conked out again. So, I only made one meal that day and some snacks and nibbles here and there. I did an hour of walking, took a shower, then started making one of the best meals I’ve had all year. Seriously. So simple, yet delicious!

Grilled chicken breast cutlets topped with avocado and salsa, Kashi Fiery Fiesta and string beans

I apologize for the horrendous photos, the lighting was NOT cooperating at all. I took like 60 pictures and these 2 were the best of the bunch. Ugh!

I cleaned up the chicken, trimming the fat and yucky veins out of it. Then I pounded it as thin I could, coated it with EVOO and grilled it on our indoor grill while I steamed string beans that I ended up tossing in a little EVOO, red wine vinegar, a splash of balsamic vinegar and some diced red onion. While the chicken and string beanies cooked, I zapped the Kashi pilaf in the microwave for 90 seconds with 2 TBSP water:

The package says 2 servings, 210 calories, 400mg sodium each, but I turned it into 3 servings. It’s been sitting in my pantry for months, so I decided now was a great time to use it with my salsa chicken. It’s really good and with minimal prep work, nice to have around for a quick side dish.

The salsa was a jar of Trader Joe’s no salt added Fire Roasted salsa that I also had hanging around for awhile. Oh my! It’s FANTASTIC! Yet another one of things that you have to ask WHY they add sooo much salt when it’s not needed?! You couldn’t even tell that there wasn’t any salt added, it was perfect. In fact, I kept going back for little bites with crackers and a spoonful of cottage cheese lol. YUMMMMMMMM! Next time I go to Trader Joe’s I am going to buy out their entire supply. LOL Just like I did with Joseph’s pitas tonight, but that’s another story.

I estimate this meal to be around 500-550 calories. The avocado started to oxiodize, but it still tasted great. The chicken was tender and the avocado/salsa went perfectly with it. I hope I can duplicate this meal again because it’s amazing and I highly recommend everyone make it right now! Or at least when you can.

Ever since that Thai Chicken wrap that I had at TGI Friday’s, I’ve wanted to recreate it at home. The only problem I had was not having wraps and the only wraps I like are Tumaro’s Gourmet wraps because they are the lowest in sodium. So, Dustin and I headed out on a special trip to Middletown tonight, just to get these wraps at Price Chopper, which is the only store that I have found them at. Well, it was like 11:00PM and we were hungry. So we ended up hitting the Wendy’s drive-thru first because I definitely cannot go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I was going there for 1 or 2 things, not a cart of stuff. I had 2 Jr. hamburgers and a light lemonade. I wanted just plain hamburgers but they gave me deluxe ones with bacon, cheese, etc. I took the bacon off and scraped as much of the cheese off as I could. They were good in a “I’m so hungry I’m going to eat the dashboard” kind of way, but greasy and not picture worthy. So much for keeping my sodium intake low, huh?

Anyway, we went to Price Chopper and to my disappointment, they only had one package of Tumaro’s Gourmet wraps and they were tomato & basil. I picked them up, but I really wanted the multi-grain soy ones. I also picked up a package of Joseph’s whole wheat lavish bread and 96% lean ground beef while we were there. Then we headed to Hannaford where I was going to get more Joseph’s pita bread. I ended up buying 5 bags of them. I figured I could freeze them in case we don’t get to Middletown in the near future. I also got a package of Food for Life sprouted grain tortillas, La Tortilla Factory wraps, cookies, tomato sauce, and a few other things. When I looked down at the cart I said to Dustin, “There’s nothing but carbs in here ” Dustin’s potent wit was quick to come back with, “So if I let this cart go on its own, it will probably carb crash?” LOL

When we got home I could already feel my ankles swelling up from the salty fast food, so I went downstairs to workout. When I was done, I drank 2 bottles of Vitamin Water 10, took a shower, ate a Clif white chocolate macadamia nut bar (240 cal) and watched Weeds Season 5, episode 1 on Youtube.com with hubby. Still hungry, I made us something to eat; pinwheels! Hey, if I’m going to sodium-hell, I might as well make it a tasty trip LOL.

I made an Italian pinwheel with:

• 1 Tumaro’s Gourmet basil & tomato wrap (120 cal)
• 2 slices Applegate Farms turkey (60 cal)
• 1oz fresh mozzarella cheese (80 cal)
• Tomato slices (20 cal)
• 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo (50 cal) spread across the wrap
• 1oz roasted red peppers (10 cal)
• Dried Italian seasoning
• About a teaspoon or 2 of red wine vinegar

1.) Roll together as tightly as possible
2.) Cut into small slices; 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick

On the side: 15g Snyder’s unsalted mini pretzels (55 cal) and 1 Stonyfield Farm vanilla Oikos fat free yogurt (110 cal, 15g protein) topped with fresh local strawberries and 4g Uncle Sam’s original cereal (15 cal)

Looks like proscuitto, doesn’t it?

SO GOOD! And only around 540-550 calories! Yummmmmmy! It was a lot of fun to eat the pinwheel. I like how cutting it into small slices makes for maximum bites.

Time to go lay my neck down on my pillow and hope it stays there.

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