Vietnamese Style Hot Dog

Last night, Ryan was planning to make macaroni and cheese with hot dogs - I knew he was going to have this for dinner even before I asked him what he was planning to eat. He loves Annie's Homegrown Gluten Free Rice Pasta with Creamy White Cheddar. It is delicious, but I didn't have enough WW points to eat a cup of it, plus a hot dog, plus some kind of dessert - I never let food get in the way of my sweet tooth so I don't compromise on dessert! I also knew that 1/2 a serving would not fill me up and I would end up eating way more than I should, so I opted for something a little different, but still almost the same so that Ryan and I could eat dinner together but not be making completely different meals! I opted for a gluten free Vietnamese style hot dog. We didn't have gluten free hot dog buns so I used 1 slice of Schar Multigrain bread toasted (in the oven because we got rid of our toaster since we barely eat bread anymore) and topped with a hot-mayo sauce, cucumber and broccoli slaw and a reduced fat Hebrew National hot dog. Ryan made a side salad for both of us and it ended up being a really delicious meal. Dessert was So Delicious Purely Decadent Pomegranate Chip and Cookie Dough ice cream (soy free, dairy free, gluten free - made with coconut milk). I was in heaven!

Vietnamese Style Hot Dog
Servings: 1
Weight Watchers Points: 6* Points will be effected depending on the bread used

1 slice Schar Multigrain Bread (or any hot dog bun)
1 Hebrew National Reduced Fat Hot Dog
Thinly sliced cucumber
1/4 cup broccoli slaw
1 packet stevia
2 tsp Hellmanns Light Mayo
1 tsp hot sauce

1. Cook hot dog (either in boiling water, microwave, grill, or stove).

2. Meanwhile, combine mayo, sriarcha and stevia to form a dressing.

3. Toast bread and top with dressing, thinly sliced cucumbers and broccoli slaw.

4. Top with hot dog

Serve and Enjoy!

Things have been going great this week. We had Monday off from work so Ryan and I hung around the house and relaxed. Sunday afternoon we went to Barclay's Center in Brooklyn so see Battle of Brooklyn: LIU vs. St. Francis. We sat court-side and the game was so exciting - St. Francis lost by 1 point in the last few seconds of the game. It was fun to sit so close to the game in such a big arena. It's not something we have ever done, or can afford to do for NBA teams. We were with my parents and brother so after the game we went back to their apartment and ordered in Chinese Food. Ryan and I then walked home which felt so great!

I have been getting back into my Bar Method early morning routine and feel so much better being consistent about my workouts. I figured out the bus/train route to get to SoHo and have been even making it to the earlier 6:15am classes - which honestly is too early for work but it feels great not to have to rush through class or leave early to get a shower! We even did pretzel this morning so my mood is lifted!! Hopefully this week goes by fast, I can use the weekend again!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

XO

A Lazy Snow Day

Well, I haven't moved from the couch since I found out work was canceled. This really isn't normal for me to spend 3 days barely moving. Ryan and I spent New Years Day watching TV all day, and it looks like I am doing the same today. Bar Method opened for classes this morning and I really want to take a class, but I really don't feel like putting on a lot of layers and venturing into the city from Brooklyn on the subway. Doesn't sound as fun as it should be. My friend Christie said "Bar will still be there tomorrow!" And she is right!

Haley and I are staying warm inside drinking tea and watching the news. Ryan is finishing up at the office and hopefully headed home soon. I am trying to figure out what we will be doing for dinner tonight. I wasn't expecting to be home tonight for dinner and without an oven and without a lot of groceries our options are very limited.

Snowed In!

Even with a late email from HR telling us that the NY offices are closed, I am excited to have a snow day. I'm only sad that I woke up, showered, got dressed, and was almost out the door when the notification came in! But I had a delicious breakfast and spent the morning watching the news with Ryan, and that's rare during the week, so I'm happy.

This morning's breakfast consisted of my daily spark, my third and final Advocare fiber drink (until Tuesday - drink it on the first and last 3 days of the cleanse), and a delicious egg white and oatmeal pancake with chia seeds and topped with chocolate powdered peanut butter.

The pancake was really easy to make.

Egg White and Oatmeal Pancake with Chia Seeds
1 cup egg whites (I used All White 100% Liquid Egg Whites)
1/3 cup oats (Bob's Red Mill Old Fashioned Rolled Oats Whole Grain) - not instant
1 packet stevia
1 tsp chia seeds (can use more, I kept it to 1 tsp to keep my WW points lower)
cinnamon

Mix all of the ingredients and pour into pan to make 1 large pancake. Flip and serve warm!

I have become obsessed with this breakfast. It is so filling, healthy, clean, gluten free and delicious. I was worried it would either taste to eggy or too thick from the oats, but it is the perfect combination of both and the pancake itself is light and fluffy and airy. If it wasn't snowing, I would have gone out and gotten fresh fruit to go along with it but today is not the day to go out food shopping.

The powdered peanut butter is really easy to make. It is 2 tbsp of powdered peanut butter - make sure to round off your measuring spoon to make it exactly a tbsp and not a heaping tbsp. Just add 1 tbsp of water and mix. The great thing about powdered peanut butter is you control the consistency. With a little more water, it can become watery and with less than a tbsp of water, it is thicker. I like to mix it up a bit depending on what I am using it for - with the pancakes I kept it thick because it melted when I topped the warm pancake with it, and I use a little more water when I use it with fruit.

I quickly chugged my fiber drink down, happy it's the last day for awhile I have to drink this!

The news is saying it's 10 degrees which feels like it is in the -8 with the windchill! I can't believe Ryan is going into the office but as the Program Manager he feels responsible to get work done since his staff will be staying home. Our oven has been broken for a week and our landlord is very slow to get it repaired so I can't spend the day baking and cooking like I would like to. I will probably clean and watch the news all morning. I was supposed to go to Long Island for a friends birthday party, but I doubt I can make it there on the LIRR. I am sad I can't go - I haven't seen my friends from Fire Island since October before I left for Italy and I was hoping to see everyone and spend some time out of the city. I am disappointed I can't go and since they are all already on Long Island they can still hang out, and I feel left out, but better safe then stuck out there with no way to get home.

I hope Ryan is safe and warm on his way to work today. Hopefully he comes home early so we can watch Weeds and hang out. I have to figure out what to cook for dinner for us and what to have for lunch because I brought a Leslie's Lunchables to the office yesterday for today and left it there last night. It will probably be a garden lites for lunch!

It will be another day with no activity! Bar Method SoHo studios were closed this morning. Is it sad that I hope they open so I can go in for a class? My daily steps goal is 10,000 and I strive for 2 activity points a day. Since the New Year I have not reached that goal (that is 3 days including today) so I really need to get up and move. I hate feeling "fat" even if I eat clean and gluten free - exercise definitely plays a big role in my feeling good. I love walking, I love moving, and I love Bar Method and I hate when I am stuck inside. Cleaning my apartment will get me moving a bit but with -8 degrees, I doubt I am going outside anytime soon! The news is now warning of frostbite if you go outside for too long.

Be safe and warm everyone!!

Apple Pie for Dessert

It's snowing here in New York City. They are predicting an overnight blizzard with up to 10 inches of snow. I am sometimes doubtful of snow fall in New York because it seems to always melt faster than it can accumulate. I have lived here for 26 years and never had a snow day. I only wish tomorrow's work day will be canceled and I can stay home with Ryan and eat and hang out. However, today's activity level was a bit low and I am feeling sluggish and really need to kick myself off of the couch and get moving.

I left work and stopped at Vitamin Shoppe to pick up some of my favorite Quest Bars and chocolate powdered peanut butter. Quest Bars are a great, gluten free snack and with over 20g of protein, I always feel full and satisfied. They come in great flavors like chocolate peanut butter, banana nut muffin, chocolate chip cookie dough, mixed berries, strawberry cheesecake and apple pie. Points values range from 4 to 5 points which make it really easy to have as a filling snack or for dessert. Tonight I chose Apple Pie and after microwaving it for 20 seconds to get it soft and warm, I topped it with chocolate powdered peanut butter. With 93% less fat than peanut butter, and at only 40 calories per 2 tbsp, it's a great option for a chocolate, creamy, peanut buttery snack! I love putting this on toast, on quest bars, in my Greek yogurt, in smoothies, or alongside apples and celery. I wish I could get Ryan to eat powdered peanut butter - his favorite snack is Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, though since going gluten free he hasn't had one yet, but I wish he would switch from peanut butter to the powdered version. We read in Grain Brain that we should eat more fats and less carbs and I am all for a fat based diet, but the amount of peanut butter he eats, he could afford to lose the fat and calories and get it from healthier options like avocados.

Dinner was a simple garden lites Carrot and Raisin Souffle. It was warm and flavorful. It tasted just like a carrot cake and I was excited to see the shredded carrots and raisins in the souffle. It was real products and I felt good eating it. Normally I would have a salad or something green to go with it, but Ryan and I wanted to go out for a quick walk before the snow started to pick up.

I find it really hard to cook dinner for us during the week. Ryan and I have such different work schedules that we can't predict who will be home first and at what hour and when we will be hungry. Ryan likes to eat early so I usually come home and cook right away since he has already eaten. My resolution this year would be to have more family dinners during the week. At least 1 or 2. We do so great on the weekends cooking and eating together that it would be nice to be motivated to do that during the week. Ryan is really conscious of my weight watchers points and does ask how many points I have left for the day. It's also hard to cook dinner together unless it's already planned because he doesn't know how many points I have eaten for breakfast and lunch. But now that we are gluten free and trying out best to eat clean, a delicious salad or a piece of fish could be really easy to cook and is really low in points.

I am trying to find recipes that Ryan can have at home to help him with his clean eating. I worry that he thinks gluten free means everything is healthy. I have to explain to him that a gluten free cookie is still a cookie and gluten free pasta is still pasta and we always have to be conscious of the processed foods we eat. It's a slow process and I can't force him to be clean right away. Gluten free is a big step for him and I am so proud of the progress he has made already. This summer, it was hard for me to be gluten free when he wasn't. I craved his pizza and when I cooked, I felt like I was being sneaky using gluten free products. But now we can do it together and support each other. The most important thing for this to become a lifestyle change and not a diet is to support each other and help each other.

We have cleaned out our cabinets of gluten free products and have stocked some boxes of pasta in the cabinets and Udi's gluten free bread. Now we just need to work together to cook dinners with meats and vegetables. It is hard to keep these items fresh and it is very hard and expensive to grocery shop each night for dinner so we will have to figure out what work's best for us. I just hope that Ryan doesn't replace gluten with gluten free and not change his eating patterns. I want to cut out the "crap." I want us to be healthy so that we have a long and healthy future together. We need to eat our vegetables and lean proteins and not as many carbs and processed foods. I'm excited for this journey and what we have ahead of us.

It's been a long day and unfortunately with tomorrow's snow I don't know if I will make it to Bar Method in the morning, maybe I can squeeze in a class after work! I am saying goodnight and taking my Advocare Herbal Cleanse packet. It contains vitamins and minerals to help clean my system while I sleep.

I hope I wake up feeling refreshed and ready for whatever the day brings - hopefully more activity as today was pretty low! Only 9,534 steps (according to my fitbit) and 1 activity point earned - and that's after being awake since 4:45am and taking a bar class! It's the lack of movement during work hours. I have to remind myself to get up and move more and not be no sedentary. It's so easy to sit at my desk and rarely get up but I have to keep moving. I have to force myself to take the long way to the bathroom or to take the stairs, or even just go for a walk at lunch and not eat at my desk. It's a struggle sometimes but I know I will feel better if I just move!