my chef/cobb salad

It feels like early fall here today. I guess that might be because it IS ‘early fall’ since there is snow by Halloween here. It’s not even the middle of August yet…

My run this morning was fantastic. Blue skies, enough of a breeze to give you goose bumps… I even wore a t-shirt, which for this tank-top-only girl, means it was cool. Running in the park here this morning reminded me on Montreal. I can’t wait to visit Quebec again.

We had just about a serving of honey ham left in the fridge, plus all the fixings for a great salad, so I decided that’s what I would have for lunch today. (I sent Andrew to work with a yogurt, fruit and chips so I could have the meat!)

While I love all the flavors that go into your typical chef or cobb salad (avocado, deli meat, bacon, bleu cheese, egg), it’s not often I have everything on-hand at home and they are pretty dangerous menu items at restaurants, so I don’t eat them much.

My lunch was absolutely BRIMMING with goodness! The bottom was 100% spinach (not baby, the kind you have to stem–it lasts way longer in the fridge) and the toppings included: 1 oz. cheddar cheese and 1 hard-boiled egg (both nabbed from the breakfast bar this morning), 1/4 avocado, cucumber, carrots, celery, green onion and about 2.5 oz. deli ham.

I topped it with a serving (2 tbsp) of Wegmans Yogurt Ranch dressing, which is only 80 calories–SWEET!

Actually, that’s what the salad was: sweet. The honey ham was sweeter than I anticipated, so the whole salad took on a less-than-salad-y flavor. The total calorie count for the salad was 460, which is somewhat high (for a salad) but since this was FULL of protein, it should keep me full for quite a while.

And because I like my salads fully mixed before eating them, I dumped it all into a large bowl, topped with dressing (1 tbsp at a time to see if I needed both–I did) and stirred.

Voila! Can you tell I’m using Andrew’s un-ironed shirts as tablecloths?

pre-run breakfast

On running mornings, I eat two breakfasts. I start with coffee (lately I’ve been using 1 tbsp creamer and 2 tbsp coconut milk–yay for just as sweet with fewer calories!) and either a banana or toast with peanut butter.

This morning is a morning I’ve been waiting for for a LONG time. Well, since my birthday, to be exact.

Justin’s nut butter!!!! Susy gave this to me for my birthday and my mouth has been watering ever since! It’s a huge splurge (like $10 at the grocery store!), so it’s not the kind of thing you just go and grab willy-nilly.

And it’s maple. I LOVE maple-anything. I caved a week or so ago and bought Bobby Flay’s recommended Deep Mountain Maple Syrups on OpenSky and received them last night. It was $25 for three bottles of the best, straight-from-the-tree-maple syrup (which came to more like $35 with tax and shipping–yikes!), but when I saw that the set included Regular (Grade A Medium), Grade B (which is uber dark and strong and hard to find in the grocery store) and GINGER Maple, I had to. I tried to find it online, but alas, as all the very best local/small farms go, there are only two places in the country you can get it: Union Square Greenmarket in NYC and a little shop in West Glover, VT. Since I wasn’t heading to either of these places anytime soon and I just HAD to gave the ginger variety, I succumbed. (Andrew wasn’t thrilled when he heard about it, but when he saw them last night he changed his tune! He’s super excited about them as well. At least he can sometimes appreciate good food.)

If anyone wants to know what OpenSky is, use the link above or ask me and I’ll let you know!

Anyway, back to breakfast.

I had to get dog food yesterday, which requires a trip to Hamburg, a village a lot like East Aurora, about 15-20 minutes away. It has both a Tractor Supply and a Clyde’s Feed (apparently it’s more rural here than I thought!), which are the cheapest places to get Taste of the Wild. The best part? There is a Great Harvest in Hamburg. Dog food trip = Great Harvest trip.

So, I popped in and treated myself to a mini-loaf of their whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread, which was actually a mix of raisins, craisins, flax and groats yesterday. That’s the neat thing about Great Harvest and other small bakeries; they can mix up something new and hand-write a sign if they want to.

So, I’m currently enjoying super fresh, made-by-hand bread with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter. YUM.

After my run I’ll mix up a fruit smoothie with some yogurt and flaxseed meal and then I have a phone date with Emily!

you know you’re a health nut when…

…your dinner looks like this:

It’s Kath’s Orangey Bean Salad, only with pintos instead of navy beans (it’s what I had). Actually, it worked out perfectly because I used half the can of beans for Ellie’s sloppy joes, and planned on using the other half for this. I also had an avocado from the Southwestern Barley Salad I made a few nights ago, so it worked out quite well. I put it in my tracker and it was 350 calories.

If you hadn’t guessed already, Andrew was on his own for dinner tonight; he and his dad drove THREE HOURS to go look at tractors today. He would have had a cow if I’d put this in front of him on the table. Seriously. A cow. I’m pretty adamant about serving good, healthy food here in this house and making him (occasionally) eat things he doesn’t like, but even I wouldn’t make him eat this. He would have died.

I also brought these yummy treats to the table:

Strawberries, a bit of honey, cinnamon and some shredded coconut. I took a bite or two, but alas, was too full of beans to eat it! Blame it on this new thing I’m trying, it’s called “stop-eating-before-you’re-uncomfortably-full.”

Guess I’ll just have to save them for later tonight!