I am absolutely loving our weather lately. Cool mornings, the last couple days it’s been low humidity and in the low 70s. My perfect weather – I just need it to be like that every day in Chicago, okay? That’s not too much to ask, right?
Sadly I had to go to work early yesterday so I didn’t get to enjoy the weather on a walk. But I did get to move 300 plastic bins into our offices storage unit that were delivered bright and early yesterday morning.
And this morning I have the lovely opportunity to replace or decaying bankers boxes with these plastic bins – just for the record – two bankers boxes of documents fit into each one of these bins, which means they will be heavy as a MF. I am just taking the positive spin that I will be getting steps in and getting a strength workout!
Before I left I had one scrambled egg with a piece of toast. I had my second breakfast around 9:30 when I got back to the office. OMG, have you tried Nature Valley’s protein bars? I had the peanut and dark chocolate one and it’s pretty amazeballs. And I found pepper jack string cheese!
My co-worker had some errands to run, so it was just me on my walk. My goal is always to get each mile faster in my 3 mile walk. I actually jogged a portion of my last mile so my last mile was 13:11 – nice!
So yesterday before leaving work I look at my meal plan and realize I never made the chicken tortilla soup that was supposed to be TWO of my lunches this week. So I just grabbed stuff and threw it in the bag to figure it out later. Not gonna lie, this paper plate lunch was delicious! Leftover pizza from last weeks Party Pizza Friday, cucumbers with garlic hummus and carrots. It just makes me happy looking at this plate of food.
I knew I was going to the gym after work and with the walk already under my belt, I thought, maybe I should do a mini triathlon today? I was so excited to swim outside until I realized there was a swim meet going on (not gonna lie, I just typed meat – ha!). Wow can these kids swim! Makes me a bit jealous. So I had my bathing suit on, put shorts and a t-shirt on and did 5 miles on the bike in just under 25 minutes, then swam for 25 minutes straight. I am slow and steady, but I finished my mini-triathlon!
So the kids were working until 8:00 last night, so I thought I’d make Tony’s fried rice for dinner. It heats up well and blog friend Sam (check out her s’mores pancakes!) said she just watched the video the other day when she made it and I hadn’t made it in ages. Our rice maker is on the fritz, so I did the rice on the stove top – it actually turned out nice and fluffy – nice!
Well since I went to the gym after work, and I ran a couple errands, I didn’t get home until 7:00. I quickly started getting my tortilla soup stuff together, started cooking the rice – everything was coming together just as the kids came home around 8:15. Jacob just wanted chicken, rice and egg in his. Hannah had been at a work event where there was food, so she only wanted rice. Just as I was about to put my food together, my cousin called and I talked to her for about 10 minutes. By now it’s going on 8:40 and I was getting hangry.
So I am just about to plate my food when Hannah notices a small bug in her rice – we’ve had a couple moths in the kitchen and they must have gotten into my freshly opened bag of rice. We haven’t had that problem for a couple years, so now I have to go back and throw out everything in a box or bag, and put everything in mason jars and plastic containers with lids. So right as I was about to eat, I threw it all in the garbage.
Look at all those gorgeous veggies! Gah. So now I go to Plan B, which is to just make a quick pizza – by the time it cooked and cooled enough to eat, it was nearly 9:15. Only good thing about that is I only had two small pieces because it was so late in the evening. Oh well, can’t win them all!
Check out all my steps yesterday!
I probably won’t get near that today. Going back to the storage unit for half my work day, then I have a happy hour with a co-worker and her friend and then dinner out with another friend. How popular am I?
Two more days until the weekend – make it a great day!
We get these awful little moths that lay eggs and hatch into worms. It seems to be a vicious cycle that I can’t stop. let me know if you solve it!
I probably would have eaten the stir fry, but I would have inspected each bite before it went in my mouth. I hope you are careful with all that lifting! Yikes!
as for that delicious stir fry, i’m with charlie, would’ve still eaten it. I hope your attorney supplied you with a hand truck or dolly to move those storage bins. geesh!!! I know you’re strong but injuries are a pain. I hope you did ok.
I have been following your blog for awhile now and I have got to tell you that I admire your strength. I am a widow also and I know I would have felt better my first year if I had gotten out there and exercised and made better food choices like you have done. The way I handled it was to go to work, eat , then slept a lot and that just lead to more depression. So bravo for dealing with widowhood in the healthiest way possible even though your grieving.
I would have just scrambled some eggs and called it a day on dinner LOL!
I don’t do the bugs. You never know what they dragged in with them.
If you ever gave up your day job, you could be a food stylist!!!
Did you see Nature Valley’s new sweet & spicy granola bars?? Dark chocolate, nuts, and cayenne pepper? Yum!
Mason jars are great for storage if you have bug issues. They can’t get into glass. You can probably find them cheap at the thrift store. I had a major dinner fail too, I wish I would have had pizza as a fallback, instead of had some defrosted lasagna for the 2nd night in a row. Not what I really wanted.
Amazing lunch plate. It looks like a big happy sunshine 🙂 I want your weather so much. I know I should suck it, up I do live in Florida but my heart is somewhere in the mountains of Tennessee. Sorry about the bugs. I have everything in plastic or glass as soon as they have been opened. My pasta goes straight into a container when I bring it home from the store. I don’t trust the glue seals on the boxes and some have those little plastic windows that come loose. I store my oats, panko, flour, etc. all in my spare fridge. I know… I’m crazy right???
Be * very * careful with your back lifting those bins! I swear it was 10 years of lifting cases of wine that did my back in…
Don’t bend over! Lift with those knees! (But be mindful of them, too.) Be very conscious of your core!
How is it that you manage to make leftovers on a paper plate look so beautiful? 😉
Aww, too bad about the buggy food! So disappointing. But now, next time you see Charlie and cook for him, I want you suddenly notice a bug in the food after he’s eaten some of it…let’s see if he REALLY keeps eating. (plus, that’s such a sibling thing to do to each other – grown up or not, LOL).
I’d’ve still eaten it. Bugs are food too.
Gross! Hannah and Jacob had already half their food and didn’t seem that grossed out by it – ew. love you Charlie
Charlie echoed my thoughts exactly. The bug was cooked, probably a bit of protein too.