Breakfast

Well in 6 days I will be out of work for just over 3 weeks...WOW! So this morning I am looking through my food shelves to see what I have and what I need to buy that will last me through that time. Also looking in a couple cook (and uncook) books for new ideas.

Here is what I came up with so far for breakfast-

#1 fruit Salad (whatever is in season & on sale)

#2 fruit smoothie (whatever is on hand)

#3 apple slices with peanut Butter

#4 Naked juice with "mighty greens" added

#5 yogurt & granola

#6 Hemp cereal with soymilk or yogurt

#7 Instant Oatmeal with Protein powder & Peanut Butter

#8 Instant Oatmeal & Frozen Blueberries

#9 Rice with Soy Milk & cinnamon, raisins, nuts

#10Soymilk, Protein Powder & Banana....smoothie

Unfortunately I have to get another juicer as I no longer have 1. But I'm starting to wonder if I could tolerate just rotating those 10 breakfasts all month long or maybe even all Winter long. Guess the only reason I would need to go down to the employee cafe would be to get some fruit & yogurt & the individual serving containers of soymilk. Hey if Im only using soymilk for 3 mornings a week then there is no reason to buy a big expensive container at the general store.
The general store does have hemp milk, and I tried drinking it straight from the carton but I didn't like it at all....NO FLAVOR, just COLORED WATER. But maybe it would be ok in #10's smoothie.

Weekend Snacks

Yes I have this weekend off from work. So I made sure to go to the general store yesterday when I got out of work.

small bag of baby carrots & guacamole~~the store was out of the brand of hummus that I liked.
2 small potatoes~~also got shredded taco cheese & pound of real butter
2 bell peppers & 2 small onions & 1 broccoli head~~already have Italian dressing at home
grapes~have learned that these are easy to eat at night while online
Motts cinnamon applesauce~think it will be the last time getting this

I am also taking a 3 week "LOA" from work in November while my cafeteria is closed. I guess you could call this time "my financial diet". So I might be living on most of the above items for most of November....except I will trade the applesauce in for pears & real apples & pomegrantes & bananas (whatever is on sale). I will probably use yams instead of white potatoes even though yams cost more yesterday.
Luckily I already have a stocked shelf of instant oatmeal, peanut butter, rice, & coffee.

Now I need to get off the computer and clean & take trash outside & leave some stuff on the "free table"downstairs.
So grabbing grapes & veggies dipped in dressing is the easiest way for me to eat today

Planning ahead

Well I have the weekend off. Started my day with instant oatmeal and 2 handfuls of frozen blueberries added to it. Got the idea of adding frozen berries to oatmeal from Marge & Bob, when we all went to Washington D.C for Allan's retirement ceremony. Who says that you can only add bananas or raisins to cereal? Good thing I ordered a few boxes of instant oatmeal from Amazon.
Actually today I will save the banana to put in my peanut butter sandwich. I also ordered 6 jars of chunky peanut butter from amazon..



It's better for me to order food now from amazon, then to wait till the middle of Winter when work hours get cut and then have me complaining about not having enough money for food. Or have me eating the cheap junk around the park.




But I will be buying lots of apples, pears and found out that kumquats are in season from November-March so I want to try those too...have seen them in the Flagstaff stores and thought they looked like little mis-shaped tangerines. Actually they are the size of some cherry tomatoes but I guess they pack quite a bunch of Vit A & C and potasium in their small size. So guess I will be having plenty of fruit salads this winter.
I had also seen a smoothie recipe online somewhere (it might of been on sparkpeople) that used pumpkin in it. I plan on using canned pumpkin seeing as I have no kitchen to cook a real pumpkin...and I can use either soymilk or plain/vanilla yogurt. Oh yes, I need to go find that recipe.

work-outs might be affecting my job

My co-workers have always thought I was nuts for getting up so early in the morning. I don't have to catch the bus until about 5:10am, but I am up anywhere between 1am-4am. I don't use an alarm clock and still manage to get to work on time and in a good mood.

If its not cold/windy outside I can take the jumprope out into the parking lot for a few minutes...I live on the top floor so it's not a good idea to stay in my room at that time with a jumprope.

This morning I finally watched the latest Biggest Loser show on hulu.comand then did 1/2 of a Biggest Loser DVD.

Now just this week someone asked where the "real" me was...LOL

You see I even have more patience with guests in our cafeteria and would run around grabbing condiments for people instead of just telling them where they can go find it.

There are a few hours during the day, when business slows down and I usually got bored to death. So this week I have started doing easy-simple stretches right in the dining room...course now my co-workers are thinking I have totally lost my mind.

I am even going to start keeping track again on what I am eating (the green book in middle of pic is my food tracker). Mostly I have to learn not to drink so much coffee or Raspberry Ice tea at work.

September

Summer season is almost over....actually its been windy outside this last week
and in the mid-high 70's during the daytime.

ok, recently I stepped on the scales and found out my weight has crept back up
to 175#. So this week I spent some time in Flagstaff,AZ and went to a couple new
places to eat. Now mostly what I ate was vegetarian food and it was all yummy:
even had couscous with almonds & fruit for breakfast at Macy's coffeehouse. Had
lots of veggie sandwiches/wraps for lunch & dinners. My 1 splurge was a teeny
slice of peach cheesecake at Macy's last night.

Now during Fall season, the produce section of the stores will be changing a bit
again. So I will be able to get more zucchini, squash, broccoli, grapes, pomegranates,
pears & yams/sweet potatoes now. Supposedly Guava is a Fall season fruit so I think
its about time I try that. Luckily Bell peppers, carrots & avocados are available
year-round because I love all 3 of those.
So if anyone has yummy recipes for squash please pass them on...remember I live in a
dorm-style room without a kitchen....meaning I don't have a stovetop or oven but I do have a rice cooker & crockpot that I should start using again.

Business at work has been slowing down, which means that I will have more time to go
walking...will just have to remember to carry my jacket around more often in case I
get sent home early.


For September:
I will drink more water & less coffee
Eat more Salad at work
snack on grapes or frozen fruit (like in my background pic) instead of boxed
crackers
Go for a walk couple days a week

Dining out in Flagstaff

This was the appertizer at "Dara Thai~a Thai restaurant down the street from the train depot. This was called "Spinach wrap" I think. I have never ordered it before and was not even sure how to eat it.

Fratelli's is just down the street (past Biffs Bagels) from the hostel. I liked the fact I could get Zucchini on my pizza but I wasn't thrilled with the crust as it was to thin (which makes it slightly crispy). We can make jokes about policeman stopping at all the donut shops, but now I can make jokes about fireman stopping at all the pizza places....They parked a huge firetruck right outside the door of Fratelli's so 2 firemen could walk in and order food.

My last night in Flagstaff I went to "Altitudes Bar & Grill". Cozy place, friendly staff, yummy food and some corny old entertainment...all set in 1 of Flagstaff's historical buildings.

The picture above is Honey & Walnut Crusted Salmon over a bed of Pasta with veggies...the veggies were P-E-R-F-E-C-T...to bad I couldn't say the same for the toast that is sitting on the side.

There were a few other new places in town that I found (at least new to me) and when I go back to Flagstaff next week, I will try a few more new things.

Food Co-op baskets

Our food co-op is every other Saturday. I have now asked to have Saturdays off in July & August just to make sure I can get the baskets for the Summer.

1 of the organic boxes with avocados, grapes, cauliflower, kale, berries, celery, plums & a bunch of other yummy stuff.

volunteers filling the baskets

The white baskets are the regular conventional orders.

Thats my granola & bread on top of the white basket.

My regular order & 2 bags of granola & 5 loaves of 9-grain bread cost $46

Next time I will order 1 regular & 1 organic basket