On to the post title shortly, but first some more food photos.

Along with blintzes for breakfast, I do like the Kodiak Cakes protein pancakes. Most times with bananas, but this week I had them with cooked apples and a drizzle of maple syrup:

This just needs a boatload of whipped cream to be perfect 😀

I used the Instant Pot as a slow cooker to make this cheesy chicken chili, which I have made fairly often in the past.

With John going vegetarian, I don’t make it as much, but I was sort of craving it and now I have lots to eat this week!  The IP worked great as a slow cooker. It really is replacing 3 appliances with one. I’m very pleased with it.

A different lunch: Toasted turkey and cheese sandwich with tortilla chips.

I don’t have lunch meat very often, but lately I’ve been craving more protein. Oh, and more carbs. So I guess I just have been wanting to eat more in general with the cold weather.

Cold weather dinner was heating this up:

And then adding it to lentil soup to bulk it up:

Does your taste for something ever just turn on a dime?  I’ve had the soup before, but for whatever reason, tonight I just didn’t like it at all. That’s the second time this has happened recently with a food I liked previously.  If only that could happen with Reese’s peanut butter cups…

Now on to Woody Woodpecker! We have feeders in our back yard and normally the hairy and downy woodpeckers visit them frequently. We also have one or two pileated that hang around the trees, but they’ve never been at the feeder – or at least that I’ve seen.  John pointed out this to me the other day:

He was just noshing away on the suet. It a small feeder and pretty awkward for him, since these are big birds.

If that other feeder wasn’t below it, I don’t think he could have balanced enough to eat. He’s so pretty! Of course, I went right online to see what would be a better feeder for these guys. I need to build a tail rest extender for this. Or something like that anyway. The squirrel baffle works fantastic for these feeders, by the way. That’s entertaining in itself.

We had that tiny warm spell and now I’m all about gardening. The plant companies know this and I swear almost every day a catalog or email arrives urging me to purchase.

I wish I had another sunny area for more roses. If I decide to take over most of the front lawn, I can do that. Perhaps that will happen. 🙂   However, it’s back to below freezing again and just dreaming about the flowers.

I haven’t posted eats in a while. Part of that is because I eat a lot of the same meals. Like Shelley does, I get in a routine and tend to stay there.

Breakfast is blintzes most days, either topped with blueberries, apple topping or me living it up topping it with nectarines and dried cranberries:

A breakfast like this is around 400 calories for me with my coffee.

I will also make a giant pancake with Bisquik Heart Smart with some added protein.  Topped with sauteed banana.

It’s one big pancake because I’m too lazy and hungry to make more than one. 😀 This is around 350 calories.

Lunch is Greek yogurt a lot of times with fruit and some sort of cereal.

I went on a chicken sausage kick for a while. The Al Fresco brand. High protein and many flavors, not all good LOL.  This could be lunch or dinner.

I think I’m done with those for a while.  I am not done with the blueberries though. I plow through a couple pounds a week!  I love them and they are in season.

Still lots of omelets. I love eggs. This could be lunch or dinner.

I have had tofu again. This is Chipotle flavored and actually pretty good.

You might note that I’m eating more carby foods. Since it is cycling season, I do better with more, especially since I ride almost every day.

We eat usually 3 meals out a week. 2 are breakfast (my favorite!!)

Then a lunch or dinner.  We had a couple really good dinners. One was at Dizzy Chicken, which John can eat vegetarian at with no trouble (surprisingly). I finally had a chance to try their Buffalo Chicken soup and it was amazing!

It won some soup contest and I’m not surprised. I can’t wait to have this again when it’s a bit cooler 🙂

One of our downtown restaurants expanded (Raul’s), which is great because we didn’t like to go to the old spot because it was too cramped. The food is excellent though. These are chicken tacos in a mole pablano sauce and caramelized onions.

John loved the falafel tacos as well, and this is on the docket for a football meal in the fall!

There are the long ride treats, of course:

And sometimes at the end of a long work day, you have to relax:

Not gourmet eats, but tasty. Fast meals seem to be the order of the day of late.

So, since I shared the bulletproof coffee experiment the other day, here are the solid foods I’m eating lately 😀

I had another tooth mishap, though. On Monday, I had a couple pita chips and I felt something hard in my mouth. The tooth that I need the root canal on broke off in my mouth! It had a large filling in it anyway and I knew the tooth was cracked. I lost about 1/4 of the tooth right to the filling. It doesn’t hurt, thank goodness, but I can’t really have anything done to it until I get the root canal done since I will need a crown anyway. So frustrating.  The earliest they can get me in is February 1st, so as long as it doesn’t hurt, I just have to deal with it. It’s the outside corner, so it does rub a little on my cheek, but if it gets too bad, I can go in and the dentist will file it down for me.  Not to mention, that ups the cost on the root canal because instead of the filling type material we were going to go with, it has to be a full blown crown. Appropriate for the queen I am, but still… 

Needless to say, I getting tired of chewing on one side of my mouth. I can eat soft stuff on the other side, but I hate getting all that food caught in there. I’ll be glad to get this whole thing taken care of.

On to some food! Mostly dinners because my breakfast and lunches are the same pretty much. I did get a hankering for egg salad. We keep a lot of eggs in the house, but I always forget to hardboil them and then lunch comes around and that idea goes out the window. When we went grocery shopping, I actually broke down and bought some of Eggland’s best hardboiled eggs. They come in a bag and are prepeeled. Lazy, but actually pretty convient. Now I have had egg salad for 2 lunches this week.

Those right there are the most expensive pita chips on the planet, people. To the tune of $700. Damn pita chips.

I’ve been trying to change up dinner time to be more exciting or at least just different than the ruts I have been in.

There was salmon Monday:

The side is one of those Steamfresh bags with wild rice, carrots, peas and corn. It has no sauce or anything like that. It’s quite good, really.

The next night I used the rest of that side and added 4 ounces of cooked, chopped chicken breast and a couple tablespoons of triple ginger teriyaki sauce and sauteed it up:

Again, really good. I need to remember that one.

Last night John and I made homemade mac and cheese from Alton Brown’s recipe. This is our go-to pasta meal. It’s easy, really good and gives us a few meals of food.

Tonight I brought back an oldie. Salad greens topped with BBQ chicken and feta cheese. It sounds like a strange combo, but it tastes really good. 

I like slivered almonds on this, but we don’t have any. I was craving something crunchy, so the side of potato chips there. That goes with salad, right?

We do have some chocolate in the house now. 

Sometimes I struggle with these. It’s easy to eat a lot of them. I actually do better with mint chocolate because I don’t tend to overeat that because of the strong flavor. This was John’s choice to get, but I’ll partake in them.

I hope to do some more recipes with the spiralizer. We don’t meal plan really well. It just doesn’t interest me all that much, although I know it certainly would be a good thing to do. It’s a little harder now with John vegetarian and me only sometimes vegetarian. We end up cooking our own main dishes unless it is something we eat together.

It’s nice to notice that we are eating pretty much all our meals at the table, too! That was a change that we made when we moved to Radiance Manor over a year ago and it has stuck about 98% of the time.

Seems like the blog is all about gardening and cycling lately!  It’s time for some more food pictures.

Still a lot of the same meals I usually eat. I did my protein waffles in pancake form to change things up.

We made the Dutch baby one day:

Need to make this again. It’s easy and tasty!

I got on a kick for egg sandwiches for a little while for lunch:

When the weather got really hot there recently, I started having protein shakes for lunch.  This one was made with almond milk, applesauce, protein powder and cinnamon:

This one was pumpkin, protein powder, almond milk, honey and cinnamon:

When it is really hot and humid, my appetite takes a dive, so the shakes are a good way to get in nutrition without it feeling like a heavy meal.

Still lots of chicken on the dinner menu:

I did get some brussel sprouts for a veggie change up!

A couple weeks ago, our neighbor came over and asked if it was okay if he trimmed some of our tree branches that were overhanging his garage.  Well, he is 87 years old, so we certainly didn’t want him doing that.  So, John got up there and trimmed them down and I hauled the branches.  Our neighbor brought over a gift certificate a few days later to the Pepper Mill, which we had never been to.  That was very nice of him! I had a crab stuffed baked shrimp, which was quite good.

We have more of the GC left, too, so we can visit again.

I broke out the crockpot at the end of last week and made a Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchilada casserole.

I subbed in pinto beans instead of black beans because neither of us like them very much. My picture doesn’t look as nice as hers.  I used a large can of enchilada sauce since her recipe didn’t specify which and maybe that is why.  Or, she styled it with uncooked ingredients.  Still, it was super tasty and chocked full of beta carotene!  It made enough for 5 meals. We froze 2 meals’ worth and ate the rest over a few days.

And… we broke down and tried some of these:

They were pretty good, but I don’t know as I would necessarily get them again.  I am holding out for candy corn!  I told myself no candy corn until equinox fall on the 23rd? Somewhere around there.

The weekly:

This is a beer brewed with coffee!  It comes in a 10 oz pour because it is pretty intense.

You have seen the usual weekend ride suspects as well.

I really flat-lined during August, but this week the scale moved down and I didn’t really do anything different.  Just goes to show how you can’t really predict anything.  Maybe it was the M&Ms? I was snacking a little bit on cereal again, but I think I got that stopped.

I pulled out clothes that I haven’t worn since spring as it got cooler and I am pleased at how they fit since they were pretty snug back then.  I’ll take any reward 😀

It’s been a while since I did another round up of eats.   The past couple of weeks have involved more eating out and John’s birthday stuff.  Work has been really busy and my life is just biking, working, working, trying to have some fun, working, projects etc…

I am eating a lot of the same things.  

John and I eating breakfast together.  We cook our own brekkies most times.  I have oat bran and nut butter in my bowl.

Lunches have had a lot of yogurt or egg and sausage scrambles:

Occasional chicken for lunch:

I pretty much have been eating chicken as my protein because it is easy.  There is the occasional omelet.

.

Yes, I do eat a lot of hot sauce!!

Here is a truly lazy dinner.   No fruit or veggies.   I just topped the potato with laughing cow, chicken and BBQ sauce:

We also made the tomato spinach pasta with tortellini for a few dinners:

Dinners out included the sushi:

This was sooo good!  I keep thinking about it 

Post hike we went to Recovery Grill (how appropriate).  I was pretty hangry and got one of my favorite meals, which is buffalo chicken tenders.

Surprisingly, I could not finish this despite being hungry.  Probably because it is more food than I normally eat in one sitting.

Oh yeah, there was Saturday’s 40 mile cupcake, too 😀

I have had a bit of a stall the last couple weeks.  I suppose not terribly surprising looking at the above. I just have to keep plugging away.  It gets really frustrating sometimes when things on paper don’t add up on the scale. It’s also frustrating with how much activity I have been getting – 40 miles of riding on Saturday and 7 mile hike on Sunday.  Oh well.  I am getting in enough calories,  so I guess I will just have to wait it out.  Life is just too good in general to be worried about the scale.

A fabulous food post!  Okay, maybe not fabulous, but I like it 😀  Here is a sampling of the last couple weeks meals as proof that I do eat more than cupcakes and sundaes.

The twice weekly bagel:

These are cheese blintzes. They come frozen and make a quick and easy breakfast. The brand is Golden.  This plate is about 300 calories. Yum!

Lunches have been a lot of yogurt/berry/cereal combos. Have you seen these?

These are pretty tasty and have more protein than Cheerios.

Coconut flour banana bread pudding topped with nut butter.

 I have also been eating egg sandwiches:

Note I have been eating different veggies this month 

Dinners have been back to some chicken again 😀 This time with sauteed spiralized zucchini, summer squash and shredded carrots.

And that yummy spinach roll up recipe!

John also did his potato crust quiche one night.

That doesn’t look so pretty because we cut right into it instead of letting it cool and set a little bit. That’s what happens when you are hungry!

More chicken.  Have I ever said how much I love hot sauce? I’m a Frank’s girl. If I could, I would eat chicken wings every single day.  With bleu cheese.

We have been enjoying our change up of having an adult beverage on Friday nights.

Weight loss is still happening slowly. I guess I can lose weight during biking season if I work at it 😀  Proving myself wrong on that front.

I had no idea what day it was today, don’t you hate it when that happens?  John played poker last night.  He normally plays on Wednesdays.  So, I thought it was Thursday when I got up and went to the gym.  Bummer that it was only Tuesday LOL.

It was kind of one of those wacky spring weather days, too.  It was cold when I got up for the gym and the sun tried to peek out at times, but seemed somewhat unsuccesful.  We had some sleet at times, too.  Looks like no biking tomorrow for bagels:

No S word, please.

I tried a different protein shake today.  I blended a kiwi with almond milk, protein powder and cinnamon.  Do not do this.  At first, the shake was pretty good.  As per usual, I had half before my workout.  When I tried to drink the rest after the workout – it had turned horribly bitter while sitting.  Like chewing on orange pith.  Yuck!!  I couldn’t finish it.

I also played around with breakfast.  I took a serving of oats and ground them up, then added 1 tablespoon of flax meal, 1/4 cup liquid egg whites, 15 grams of protein powder, cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of honey.  This made a very thick batter, which I pressed into a fry pan.

Looks like a pancake, but I could pick it up like a cookie. It actually had the chewy texture of an oatmeal cookie, and I think of this more like a cookie than anything else.  Dense and chewy.  It would be good with raisins, but it is pretty dense.  Maybe adding some baking powder would help or baking it.  Or maybe not grinding the oats.  I need to do some playing.

Work dragged on and on today.  Some of my least favorite doctors working today.  That always makes the time go slow.

I was happy to break for lunch.  (That breakfast was dense enough to last until lunch, so yay on that).  I made up some peanut flour with cinnamon, salt and a few grams of honey.  Plus a coconut biscuit.

I was going to spread the PB on either the pear or the biscuit, but then I ended up eating everything separate.  For some reason, at this point I was thinking it was Wednesday, but nope, still Tuesday. Ugh?

I have been doing well with my no snacking.  I had a few Nut Thins today, but that is it.  I had a day on Saturday where I really wanted to snack, but managed to control it.  I do wish the scale would be nice about that, but I can’t focus on that at all.  It’s not that important in the scheme of my fitness endeavors.

However, I was ready for the latte that John made up for me.

Hooray for coffee!

John made a comment that he heard me grouching at the doctors today LOL. Good thing *they* can’t hear me!

I ended up having almost the same main dish for dinner tonight as last night. We had chicken thighs and I cooked one up and topped it with the leftover tomato topping from yesterday.

This is an actual serving of strawberries, too.  I never weigh out my fruit or veggies, but I was curious. (I do weigh everything else).  Dole has 147 grams of berries as a serving, which is 8 medium berries or a cup of berries.  I don’t know exactly what a medium berry is since most berries are the size of a Smart Car anymore.  So, I weighed them out.  I tend to eat 1 or 2 more berries than this, but pretty close.  I guess these must have been medium size berries because I think there were 7 or 8.

Tonight I am out for coffee and mother/daughter time!

Question: Do you weigh or measure foods?

Happy Hump Day!  Or as we call it around here – Bagel Day!  I headed out to the gym this morning for a good run session.  I did 4 miles at 5.5 mph.  It went by pretty quickly.  Then I picked John up and we headed out to Orange Cat for breakfast.  I wanted to try their bagels.  Very cozy inside:

Except the counters are marble and very cold.  This placed used to be a candy making shop and the marble was for cold, which it is!  Now this place doesn’t make their own bagels, but they get them from a local bakery.  I had a blueberry bagel:

This was a most excellent bagel.  You could tell it was made with fresh blueberries because of the different colorations inside.  Yum.  The prices at this place are all over the map, though.  Some good and some really high.  They also have cupcakes now.  So much for me opening a place.  And they have giant cupcakes, too.  Check it out:

I think the only difference between a giant cupcake and a regular cake is the frosting to cake ratio.  What do you think?

As promised, here is the super expensive light box set up!  Why a light box?  Natural light should always be used first, but it is not always possible.  How about a flash, you ask? Well, flash food photos just don’t look as good.  They are very flat looking.  And fluorescent lights give a lovely jaundiced hue to everything.  Also appetizing.  So a light box will help you get better pictures of anything, not just food.

I scrounged up pretty much everything in the house already.  The only thing I bought was the snake light and the bulb for a grand total of $15.  I googled around about light boxes and got the general idea of how to do them.

• Cardboard box
• tissue paper or paper towels
• straight edge (optional)
• box cutter
• tape
• poster board or thin neutral background
• Light source

First, mark the sides of the box with a straight edge to create a square you will cut out (or free hand it).  The size is up to you.  Obviously the bigger the hole, the more light comes in, but also think about the integrity of the box if you don’t leave enough box to support itself.

Then cut out the squares.  Please be careful.

I made a hole in the top as well.  This is because if I want to take this outside in the future and plop it over something in the flower bed, this will become the bottom of the box.  Or if I want to take an overhead shot of something.

Now take the posterboard (or whatever background you want) and put some tape loops on one end of it.  This will make the infinity background.  Tape it to the inside of the box at the back like so:

This curve keeps there from being any ‘seam’ in the back of the picture.

Of course, no activity can be done unassisted:

Now tape the tissue paper or paper towel to the opening as a filter:

Obviously plain white would be better than fruit print, but whatever is available, right?  You can also experiment with different filters, which is what I need to do.

Then set up the lights on each side.

You should have 2.  Silly me was thinking I would use natural light on one side of the box and the lamp on the other.  I forgot that nighttime occurs and dinner photos would only be half lit.  😳   So, I need another light.

Note that I left the flaps on the front of my box so that I could block any ambient light if I choose to, like fluorescent lights in the house.

If I end up not using it much, at least somebody will.

Here are 2 shots from dinner.  On the counter (no flash):

In the light box:

I need to play with how close I put the lights, because I think it is a wee over exposed on the one side.  Or maybe it is the background poster board.  Anyway, everything comes out that much crisper.  mmmmm….. crispy….

Of course, now this is making me want a new digital camera.  Anyone have a spare Canon Rebel they want to donate?