Quinoa Granola

So life was back to normal yesterday.  Nora wasn’t here to do my hair and makeup.  The paparazzi weren’t waiting for me at the doors of my office.  Fans weren’t lined up to take my autograph.

I walked into my office, went into the kitchen to put my breakfast together and that’s when I knew I was back to the grind.  The “clean” light was on the dishwasher and the sink was full of dishes from the day before.  Gah.  So while the day before I was getting all pampered, yesterday I cleaned the office kitchen. Such is the life of a rockstar like myself – ha!

It’s cold people.  Like 20 degrees cold and we have snow on the ground.  I am not ready for it at all.

I had every intention of going to the gym before work, but I was SO tired for some reason.  I slept in until 7:00 and felt much better.  I had a pumpkin parfait on my mind for breakfast.  I wasn’t sure I was going to like it since the Chobani and pumpkin have the same soft consistency, so I knew I had to make a crunchy granola.

Only thing was, I didn’t have all the normal ingredients on hand to make my crack granola.   So I kind of kept throwing things together and this is what I came up with.

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So while this is a crunchy granola, it’s delicate.  While it did have clusters, they were very easily broken up, which I don’t think I mind because I am not using this as snacking granola but for parfaits.

So the parfait was 1 container of Chobani vanilla, 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree mixed with 1 teaspoon sugar free pancake syrup and 1/4 cup of the granola.  364 calories for the whole thing and super filling.  I made sure to get a bit of the granola with every bite and this was delicious.  I told Tony that I was sorry I didn’t leave one for him and he said “it would have been in the same spot you left it!”  I think he will throw up in his mouth a bit when he sees this picture later.

I pledged to do 125 miles of something this month, so I decided to get on the bike to get in some miles.  I ended up doing the hill climb on level 10 (out of 20) and it was a workout!  It took me 35 minutes to go 7 miles, then I cooled down for 5 minutes.

I bundled up and went to my car.  I kept hitting the key fob and nothing was happening – my car was still locked – why wasn’t it opening?  I thought do key fobs have batteries?  Should I call Tony?  Um, no.  I should just try to open the right fucking car.

That’s right.  I was trying to open a Lexus.  While my car is a similar color – it’s a Nissan Rogue!  Doh!

For lunch I had 1.5 cups of Skinny Taste’s Broccoli Potato soup that I made over the weekend.  If I made enough, this could be my lunch all week and I have no problem with that.  I didn’t puree the whole thing, it’s just that the chunks of broccoli and potato fell to the bottom.  So good.

I never did a full grocery shop this week, and am really going to see if I can just eat out of what we have on hand.  I knew we had ground beef and I texted Tony and said “how do you feel about Sloppy Joes for dinner?”  His response?  “Moist.”

I don’t really have a recipe for Sloppy Joes.  Last night I browned 1 pound of ground beef, drained the fat, and added 1/3 cup of ketchup, 3 tablespoons A-1 sauce and 2 tablespoons of sweet pickle juice.  That’s it.

When I saw my Mom over the weekend she gave me a bunch of stuff – most importantly a jar of these pickles!!

Fickle Pickles are unlike any other pickle I’ve had.  They are sweet/tangy/spicy/crunchy all at the same time.  She bought them when they were visiting San Antonio for my nieces color guard competition.  She was going to wait to give them to me for Christmas but decided to give them to me early – score!

My sloppy joes – 1/3 cup of joes mix on top of an 80 calorie whole wheat bun with fickle pickles and pickles jalapenos.  On the side were some sweet potato fries.  I simply cut up half a sweet potato, tossed them in 2 tablespoons of egg whites, then tossed them in 1/8 cup almond flour that was heavily seasoned with salt and pepper.  Deep fried them for about 5 minutes until crispy.

The dipping sauce for my sweet potato fries was a serving of the sriracha honey mustard sauce.  The spiciness of this dinner punched me in the mouth and I enjoyed every hit.

Stats for the Day:

• 1654 calories, 194 carbs, 73 protein, 68 fat, 30 fiber
• (no pictured an apple and 1 serving of almonds)
• 36% of calories from fat, 17% from protein, and 46% from carbs
• B grade on calorie count
• 40 minute bike ride, 7 miles
• 100.5 miles to go on my 125 November challenge

Alright my bags are packed – today is arms/abs/cardio.  This is the one that took me 40 minutes just to get through the strength, and then I have 30 minutes of cardio after that.  Go big or go home!  Only 49 days until January 1 – plenty of time to stay focused so you can start out 2014 on the right foot.

Make it a great day!