And sometimes ... This is the perfect dinner ...

                                                               =)

So I had acupuncture tonight after work.  It's been my third session; Friday (my second session) was by far my most relaxing acupuncture experience thus far ... tonight, not so much.  I think the Dr. tried to perform a spinal tap with an acupuncture needle.  FYI, it doesn't work.  Be that as it may, I'm continuing to pursue acupuncture.  Something has to help.

Because acupuncture is around the block from my parents' house, I got to score an awesome home-cooked meal tonight.  I really appreciate a home-cooked meal these days prepared by anyone but me ... but especially Mom!

Upon request, Mom cooked up some vegetable meatloaf.  I've had a craving for meatloaf for quite some time, and because it's not Ryan's favorite I've held off making it.  Now thanks to my cured craving, Ryan's been spared probably a couple more months ;-)

Mom also prepared some delicious sweet potatoes, seasoned green beans, and she got creative and made her own falafel balls.  They tasted just like a falafel you would  get in NYC!  A fun treat.

My older sister also seemed to really enjoy Mom's meal.  She was certainly chowing down on her sweet potato waffle fries!

And I definitely came home with about a 1/2 pound of meatloaf, so I will most likely have some for lunch tomorrow ... I'm thinking it might pair very nicely with the mashed butternut squash leftover from last night's pork chop dinner ...

Quite possibly.

So after a nice run this morning in the most perfect running weather, I decided to opt for a bowl of warm cereal versus the cold I've been having all week.

I added a cherry soy yogurt, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and a scoop of almond butter to the mix.  It was delicious and entirely hit the spot.

Today is a bit of lazy Sunday here in our household seeing that I've been off from work one full week and tomorrow is the dreaded Monday I return (Actually, it's not that bad ;-), and Ryan has been off for five days and tomorrow is the dreaded Monday he returns.  I keep saying we won't win the lottery until we start playing it...

For lunch today I decided to get a little creative, and started with this.

I didn't have any hummus on hand, and I don't have a blender (it's on my most immediate to-buy list), but I was determined to make a sort of chickpea topping for my rice  cakes.

So I portioned out a serving of chickpeas in a bowl, coated them with a teaspoon of olive oil, and grabbed some additional ingredients; i.e. a carrot, a garlic bulb, and some spices.

I ended up transferring the chickpeas to a plate so I could really get in there and mash them. 

Then I transferred them back to the bowl to add in all the other ingredients, and voila!

Fresh chickpea spread-topped rice cakes.  Divine. 

So I started my day by  fueling with:

While I do love the flavored Silk Live! Soy Yogurts, I wish I could get my hands on the plain flavor.  I only know it exists because I've seen it on their website, but I've never actually seen it in stores.  I could definitely be cutting down on sugars and additives if I used my own mix-ins with the plain flavor.  I'll just have to keep an eye out!
 
Then later today I decided to take this:

And turn it into:

One.

Two.

Three.

And Four.

I haven't tasted any of these bad boys yet, but Ryan says they're really good ....

Actually, what really happened is; Ryan walked in the door ... I told him I baked Pumpkin Scones ... and fifteen minutes later he had inhaled three and said he's going to spoil to his dinner.   So, they sound like they'll be good, right?!

Fortunately he stopped at the three and didn't spoil his dinner, because dinner turned out really tasty.

I fried up some chicken cutlets (Ryan and I are aware of our addiction), baked some butternut squash oven fries with cayenne pepper, and sauteed baby spinach in flax oil with garlic. 

Mmm, mmm, mmm.  So good.

Now we're letting digestion do its thing, and then we're hitting the lanes for some bowling!

So post acupuncture, post spin class, I was proudly able to get up this morning and get a good run in to start the day.  I think my body was still feeling a bit worn down from the extra intense spin class last night, but still it felt good to get going.

Before I headed out to the gym (which I opted to do because it was already hot outside at 8:30 this morning) I ate a light breakfast of yogurt with rice cereal mixed in.

The crunchy texture was a fun change of pace from the hot cereal I eat most often. 

Afterward I definitely had a spoonful of almond butter straight from the jar, but alas there is no picture of that.

After running errands and such, I threw together a light lunch of rice cakes topped with hummus and baby spinach.  Light and nutritious.

No Ryan and I are off to do some last minute shopping for his mom's birthday which is  ... today!

Catch ya later.

As I'm sitting here finishing my pre-spin class dinner, I just realized I've eaten two salads today ... Guess my body had a craving!

So I did in fact survive my acupuncture experience.  Was I almost on the verge of tears and panicking most steps of the way ... Yes.  But that's why Ryan was there to support me =)  It's a well known fact that basically everything freaks me out.  No big deal.

It was actually quite impressive.  Basically the Dr. checked my pulse and told me what all my ailments were down to a tee.  And after freaking out before and during and maybe a little right after, I had a few of the most relaxed hours of my life this afternoon.  A feeling that can solely be contributed to my acupuncture session.  Hey maybe it's benefits will be two-fold; my pain stops and I'm not ridiculously anxious in life ... It seems probable at this point anyway!

So I'm scheduled to go back Friday morning.  The Dr. recommends I do two sessions a week initially and then taper until my symptoms are no more (Ideally!).  Ryan's still going to be my support buddy Friday, but then after that when we're both back to work I'll have to man up and manage alone.  (The office is right around the block from my parents' house so I'll have to schedule it in to score a free home-cooked meal as an incentive of surviving on my own ... You reading this Mom? ;-)

Post acupuncture we stopped by Moe's to grab a quick bite, in the hopes that we'd go bowling right after.

(I also ate a small cup of rice with this but have no photo.)

But alas, Wantagh Lanes forever has closed lanes for leagues and parties.  Boo.  So instead we did some laps around the mall ... and I compulsively shopped a bit ... oops!

And now (phew, this is a lengthy post) I just wrapped up dinner and am about to gear up for spin class.  Last week I went on  Monday and so met the Monday instructor, and tonight I get to meet another instructor.  It'll be fun to see how the classes compare.

For dinner I had a light salad dressed with flaxseed oil and ground black pepper,

and a bowl of butternut squash soup sprinkled with cinnamon.

Clearly this is not enough food, but I wanted to keep it light so I wouldn't have a heavy tummy for spinning.  I'll be sure to replenish with protein later tonight!

I started off this morning with a bowl of sunny oats. 

(If they look a little too watered down it's because they are .... Oops!)

I'm trying out something new this morning ... Acupuncture!  Is it weird that I'm pretty nervous about this?  I'm going to a place that's been highly referred by many different people, and two of my girlfriends help out there on Saturdays.  I'm not sure if today is just a consult ... or if it's a consult and a session because there was a bit of a language barrier with the woman on the phone when I made the appointment.  I guess I'll just how to see!

It feels like an awesome, brisk fall day outside!

I'd like to preface this entry by saying I think I'm going through caffeine withdrawal.  I've been off the caffeine since Saturday ... Friday morning being my last time of ingestion ... and I sure am one sleepy chica.

Food shopping with Mom was quite the success.  Between Wild By Nature and BJ's, my pantry and freezer are fully stocked at this time.  I'm super eager to use the cans of pumpkin and butternut squash I stocked up on ... just not sure what for yet!

Because my sisters attend a hub-site right by my home, we decided to pick them up this afternoon rather than have them journey home on the bus.  So in between food shopping and picking up my sisters' I scarfed down a yogurt,

and sampled some gluten-free, dairy-free banana nut bread.  Delicious, of course.

Even though I was home today, I wasn't planning on preparing a huge dinner because I was anticipating I'd be at 7PM spin class this evening, but at the last minute I decided it was more important to stay at home with Ryan and enjoy the season premiere of House together.  (We are pretty strong House viewers.)  Monday spinning can resume per normal next week =)

Still, it was nice to not really have too much to do to get dinner together.  All I did was re-heat the rotisserie in the oven, steam some carrots, and mix up the instant mashed potatoes.

Simple and divine.

Now I'm just struggling to keep my eyes open at uh ... 9:30!  Oh well ... I can sleep in tomorrow if need be ;-)

Hey!  Did you all have a good weekend? 

Yesterday Ryan and I did a lot of running around in the morning, and then at 4pm we stationed ourselves at our friends' house to watch the Jets game ... aka less than half way through the game my girlfriend and I snuck out and 2 hours  later we both came back with a new pair of boots ... (That's my idea of "watching the game!")  Some of yesterday's eats included:

Over all it was one of the nicer weekends I've had in quite some time.

This morning I awoke to a work-less Monday morning ... the best kind of course ... and decided I really wanted pancakes.  So that's what I had. 

I created one golden delicious monster pancake loaded with almonds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds.

On the side I had grapes.

Now I have to scramble to get ready!  My mom's meeting me at my house so we can journey to Wild By Nature together.  DF WF GF haven here I come. 

So today has been super productive, super early ...and now it's 7:15 and I'm sleepy ;-)

I kicked off the day with a bowl of hot cereal and a blueberry yogurt mixed in, and had some juicy grapes on the side.

Then Ryan and I headed over to Sands Point Preserve to check out a medieval festival.  It was such an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside that it didn't matter what was going on.  The festival was cool, but I think we got the majority of our pleasure from navigating the trails there.  Actually, Ryan may have gotten the majority of his pleasure from the tent that was selling real swords ... but regardless, we had a great time enjoying the outdoors.

I did snack on an almond butter sandwich I had packed, but I honestly forgot to take a picture of it.  We had just stopped back at the car so I could change from sandals to sneakers to hit the trails ... so I was probably excited for the trails, inhaled my sandwich, and didn't think twice.  Oops!

On the way home from Sands Point Preserve we stopped and did our food shopping for the week.  We had needed to pick up a few things for dinner, so I figured while we were there we'd just do a quick shop.  One less thing to get done tomorrow!

Back at home I whipped up some fried chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner.  Mmm mmm.

I definitely ate another fried chicken cutlet in addition to what's photoed here. 
 
Now we're just keeping it low key.  I'm all out of bread so I was thinking of swinging by Whole Foods to pick up a loaf, just one more thing I could check off the to-do list, but I'm really not in the mood to go.  It really is a bit of an inconvenience that Whole Foods is the only place I know that sells Udi's Wheat Bread ... But I guess I finally found bread I can eat and enjoy so I shouldn't complain about it, right? 

Let's see how the night plays out ...