***Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!***

I enjoy St. Patty’s Day very much because 1) I married an Irishman and 2) I love the color green.

There’s a little St. Patrick’s Day fun at the end of this post, but first the FOOD!

Breakfast

Naturally, I began my day with the ultimate green meal.

Today’s green monster was chocolate-infused! It contained:

• 2 heaping cups of spinach
• 1 medium frozen banana
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 packet of Chocolate Infusion Amazing Meal
• sprinkle of granola

I’m liking the green and yellow combination I’ve got going on here. And NOT just because those were my wedding colors.

(Yep, still obsessed with my bouquet!)

Mid-Morning Snack

After breakfast I’d ordinarily do a workout, but I decided to take the day off because my legs feel a tad heavy from running 7.2 miles yesterday. My body continues to amaze me with what it’s capable of doing! But I want to make sure that I give it adequate rest so it can keep serving me well.

Spent the morning reading about how to create effective teams in the workplace…exciting, I know. (I actually shouldn’t make jokes like that, because the truth is that I did find the reading pretty interesting!)

Between chapters I munched on a bowl of fruit.

Blackberries and grapes.

Lunch

I didn’t feel like putting a lot of effort into lunch today, so I kept it simple with some soup.

Not homemade, unfortunately. This was Annie Chun’s Udon Soup Bowl.

It’s a pretty light meal on its own, so I added some tofu cubes and snap peas to bulk it up a bit. Do you ever add things to prepared soups? I often do!

Afternoon Snacks

I took my to-do list outdoors for the afternoon to soak up the beautiful rays of sunshine! While enjoying the warmth I did more reading: first my Bible, then for school, then for pleasure. And then I may or may not have nodded off for a short bit…’Twas glorious.

Before the accidental cat nap I snacked on some apple slices and Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels…on a shamrock plate!

And later, a Banana Bread Larabar.

Dinner

Dinner was quick and easy. I love cooking, but for some reason I just didn’t feel like it today. Fortunately I keep some deliciousness in my freezer for just such occasions.

A Sunshine Burger on a sandwich thin with all the fixin’s: lettuce, tomato, onion, and spicy brown mustard.

Sunshine burgers are the bomb. (Hello, 90s lingo!) They’re made from (surprise!) sunflower seeds!

Love that ingredient list!

Look at that BURGER!

On the side, some of the Sweet Cho-tato Salad I made yesterday.

And a green salad with spring mix, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, snap peas, and cucumber.

My dinner looks like it came straight from a summer cook-out! Just add some fresh lemonade and a few rounds of Bocce. (Anyone else play Bocce at family cook-outs???)

Evening Snack

I’m getting really into these “dessert yogurts.” Tonight I had Trader Joe’s European Style Chocolate yogurt, which was incredibly smooth and creamy. I didn’t really feel like I was eating yogurt at all!

Topped with fresh blueberries. And a baby peanut butter cup…just because. Enjoyed along with the latest issue of Real Simple!

Some St. Patrick’s Day Fun

And now, just to end the day on a silly note…

Who knew I had such sweet moves?!?!

How did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Did you eat anything GREEN today?

p.s. Some amazing giveaways going on right now!

Have you entered my Chobani giveaway yet?

Want to try some of the Amazing Meal I used in my smoothie this morning? Lara’s giving some away!

Heather’s giving away some Wholesome Foods Bakery bars!

Baltimore-area readers: You can enter this awesome massage giveaway from Claire Taylor Massage!

Goodnight, all!

It’s officially MARCH! I hope your first day of the month was spectacular!

I am very excited for March for several reasons: it should soon start getting warmer, Daylight Savings Time means more hours of light, and I’ll be attending two exciting weekend events – a Christian women’s conference and Fitbloggin’ 2010! (In my hometown, no less!) Can’t wait!

Oh, and I really enjoyed reading your comments to my “Hungry Enough to Eat an Apple?” post. You all have some great ideas!

Onto the food!

Breakfast

In honor of the month of St. Patrick’s Day , breakfast was GREEN!

I’m calling this my Tropical Green Monster. Again I ate it out of a bowl. When I have a green smoothie as a snack I drink it from a glass, but for some reason the idea of drinking a meal does not appeal to me.

Into the blender went:

• 2 packed cups of spinach
• 1 cup skim milk
• big handful of frozen mango chunks
• big handful of frozen pineapple chunks
• topped with Cascadian Farms Oats & Honey granola

My Irish husband was proud.  (Although he himself won’t touch Green Monsters! )

Mid-Morning Snack

After breakfast I checked a few tasks off of my to-do list, then did my exercise for the day: a 3.5 mile run – complete with hill intervals – followed by some upper body weights and core work. Hills are the bane of my running existence, and yet I force myself to do hill workouts anyway. Conquering the incline makes me feel STRONG!

After my workout I grabbed a quick snack before heading out on a bunch of errands. A piece of whole wheat toast slathered with almond butter and topped with pear slices. (I also ate the remainder of the pear.) Fresh pears + almond butter  = delicious!

Lunch

Lunch was, I must say, pretty darn fabulous – all thanks to the lovely Danica from Danica’s Daily. She gave me the idea for this lunch, and it was a total winner!

Awhile ago I made a big batch of Real Simple’s Turkey and Bean Chili and froze a serving or two to enjoy another day. That day was today!

This chili recipe is great – very thick and hearty, just like chili should be! I topped it with some reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend.

But this is what made my bowl extra special:

That would be a dollop of sweet potato puree! Thank you, Danica, for this wonderful idea! I’ve actually made chili using canned pumpkin before, so as soon as I saw her add sweet potato I knew I would love it. I had a little bit with each bite. YUM!

This was a pretty hearty lunch, and yet after I finished my bowl I didn’t feel quite satisfied. (I was probably about a #5 on my hunger scale, and felt like I wanted to be closer to a #6-7.) Hunger can be unpredictable like that! So I rounded out my meal with this little guy. Then I was perfectly satisfied!

Afternoon Snack

There is just something special about fresh, locally-grown carrots. Especially ones that look like this.

We bought a couple of mammoth homegrown carrots at the market on Saturday. The woman tending the stand said, “they aren’t pretty but they sure do taste good!” She was right!

Being goofy.

(Actually just wanted to show off the beautiful daffodils Dave brought me yesterday…aren’t they beautiful? They make me think of our wedding, which had a green and yellow color scheme. Love ya, hubby!)

I had the carrot with a glob of Trader Joe’s Three Layer Hummus.

And a bunch of grapes.

Dinner

Dinner took me a lot longer to put together than expected, but the finished product was good!

I made Apricot Pork Chops, and for some reason they took a lot longer to cook through than I thought they would. I followed this recipe from Branny Boils Over. (Everything I have made from her blog so far has been a success!) The only change I made was to double the amount of apricot preserves because I thought the soy sauce flavor was a bit overwhelming.

Dave and I both took one bite and went “YUM!”

On the side I had a double serving of veggies – asparagus and mushrooms roasted in EVOO, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and pepper. The little bit of balsamic adds such a great flavor!

This dinner was actually really filling!

Evening Snack

Earlier in the day I decided I wanted a brownie for dessert tonight, but dinner kept me so full that when it came to my usual snack time a brownie just didn’t sound appealing. (Crazy, I know!) But I still wanted something…just something a bit lighter. I went with a yogurt bowl.

A small serving of vanilla Greek yogurt topped with grapes and a crumbled Kashi pumpkin spice flax granola bar.

Time to climb into bed with my book…my book club meets in two weeks and I just started the book last night! Better get reading!

How do you consume your Green Monsters (or other smoothies)? From a glass or from a bowl?

Also, anyone else going to the Fitbloggin’ conference in a few weeks? I’d love to touch base with you!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I’m so thankful the weekend is here! This week has been quite the roller coaster because of the weather, which is especially frustrating for all the planners of the world (such as myself). I’m looking forward to a fun weekend and then hopefully a more routine work week.

Let’s start at the beginning…

Breakfast

My stomach had been feeling a little off, so for breakfast I wanted something extremely HEALTHY and in LIQUID FORM. And of course, it also had to be GREEN!

Hello, GREEN MONSTER!

For those of you who aren’t yet familiar, a Green Monster is an ultra-healthy meal or snack made by blending up a bunch of good-for-you ingredients. The star of the show, of course, is the greens – usually spinach, but sometimes kale. There are many possible ingredient combinations, but yesterday I used the most basic recipe.

Into my blender went:

• 2 huge handfuls of spinach
• 1 medium frozen banana (you can add ice cubes instead of freezing the fruit, if you prefer)
• 1 cup milk (cows, almond, soy – any kind works)
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Let me assure you upfront that YOU CANNOT TASTE THE SPINACH. It tastes just like a peanut butter and banana smoothie. The greens, however, add so much in terms of HEALTH. Did you know that calorie for calorie, leafy greens like spinach provide more nutrients than any other food?

And let’s be honest, the very idea of drinking a Green Monster is sorta fun!

Like I said, there are endless possibilities for these smoothies. I love making them with Chocolate Amazing Meal or chocolate protein powder, and while bananas are my go-to fruit, any fruit works well (I’ve had great success with frozen strawberries and frozen mango chunks). If you want to learn more about Green Monsters, go can go straight to the source: Angela from Oh She Glows (an amazing blog, by the way) has all the info. and tons of recipe ideas at the Green Monster Movement.

After I took the initial photos, I decided I didn’t really want to drink my smoothie, so I took a hint from Kath and had my smoothie in a bowl.

With some Barbara’s Bakery Shredded Oats on top. So good. So healthy.

Lunch

Of the many wonderful things about Green Monsters, perhaps the best is how FILLING they are. That smoothie kept me full all morning long, and a vigorous morning it was. I spent the majority of it shovelling snow, which is quite the workout!

Afterwards I wasn’t ready to go inside – it was actually quite a nice day, and I was so sick of being indoors! – so Dave and I decided to go for a walk. We are very fortunate to live a mere mile from an adorable little candy store, Wockenfuss, which is a company based here in good ol’ Baltimore. As you shall see, we loaded up on sugary goods, then came home and grilled up some sammies!

Seriously delicious!!! My grilled sammie was made up of:

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• spinach
• ham
• Swiss cheese
• tomato
• dijon mustard

After we polished off our sandwiches (in about 2 minutes flat, no joke), it was time to break into our Wockenfuss loot. Seriously, look what we came home with!

That is $20 worth of chocolate right there!!!

Dave and I have rather different tastes when it comes to chocolate and other sweets.

Katie’s picks:

• sea salt caramels
• dark chocolate vanilla butter creams
• dark chocolate nougats with cashews
• chocolate peanut butter fudge
• vanilla fudge

Dave’s picks:

• milk chocolate cashew caramels
• milk chocolate coconut mounds
• almond AND cashew bark
• chocolate caramel fudge
• chocolate fudge with walnuts

A few photos to make your mouth water.

I opted for a sea salt caramel and a dark chocolate butter cream. The butter cream wasn’t bad, but the caramel was out of this world!

Afternoon Snack

My afternoon was consumed with school work and writing, but I peeled myself away from the computer around 4:30 to make this little snack plate.

Admittedly a bit random. Grape tomatoes, a carrot, a clementine, and a few Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels. These pretzels have been all over the blogosphere. This was my first time trying them, and now I understand what all the fuss is about! Warning: eat these from a plate, not straight from the bag. Because chances are high you will not be able to put the bag down…until it is empty.

Dinner

Dinner was another Kath-inspired meal. (Sometimes I wonder if I ate anything interesting before I started reading blogs!!!) I cut up some broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and turkey kielbasa (fully cooked), tossed it with EVOO, salt, pepper, and oregano, and roasted it all together at 400* for about 25 minutes.

I usually make this meal using one of Trader Joe’s amazing fully-cooked chicken sausages, but the snow prevented me from getting them this week. Turkey kielbasa from the Safeway down the street made a decent substitute.

Completed the meal with some whole wheat penne pasta and a good sprinkling of grated Parm.

Protein? CHECK. Veggies? CHECK. Carbs? CHECK. I love one-dish meals!

I managed to snag a photo of a post-dinner ritual in my household. Every night, without fail, at the end of the meal Hamilton comes over and sits in Dave’s lap…just like a real boy!

He looks a bit like Yoda, no? A good kitty, Hamilton is. 

Sometimes he even sits up like that all on his own!

Crazy cats. I’m pretty sure they walk around on two feet when we’re not home.

Evening Snack

Great dessert last night! I made my 2-minute, “healthified” version of apple crisp.

Chopped up apple, “baked” in the microwave for about 2 minutes, then topped with some generous shakes of cinnamon and granola.

A sweet, healthy way to end the day!

Two questions for ya!

What are your thoughts on the Green Monster? Love it? Hate it? Terrified of it? Can’t wait to try it? What’s your favorite green smoothie recipe?

AND what’s your favorite kind of FUDGE? I can’t wait to break into the Chocolate Peanut Butter!