Sunday, May 23, 2010

Friday fundays and the weekend eats

I work heavily with undergraduate students and they are hourly workers, so they are limited to 40 hours per week. Science doesn’t work 9-5, so often we work many hours per day as we do experiments. I’ve learned through the years that the u-grads are much more motivated to work that hard if I tell them that when they are done with their 40 hours, their workweek is done….and this often results in minimal work on Fridays and Saturdays. To deal with this crisis, the people I work have Friday fundays in the summer. We come in, do what we need to do, and then in the afternoon we do something fun. Obviously, if we have deadlines, then we stay and work. But a little fun makes for a better workplace.
Say 'Hi!' to my lab ladies!











On Friday, we had a girls lunch at El Azteca, a Mexican restaurant in town. We ended up waiting until almost 1 to eat, which resulted in the chips being demolished in a matter of moments. I had some chips and the lunch fajitas with chicken. I was chatting with my friends, so I didn’t take a pic, but it looked like this with chicken . I ate 2/3 the chicken mixture, the lettuce, the pico, and the rice. I left the refried beans and the creamy toppings – not my style. And I am classy, so I used a fork because tortillas are low-brow ;) 

After our fun, I actually went back to work for a few  hours before heading home for the day.  I was kind of tired and down, so I was craving comfort food. I broke down and made a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese. I believe strongly that you can eat something less-than-healthy every once in a while if it’s what you CRAVE. I had a long run ahead of me in the morning, so I tried to make all of my sides pretty healthy. 1 cup mac&cheese, a mix of artichokes, pepperoncini, grape tomatoes, an apple, and a piece of my pumpkin bread (low-fat, low sugar, high fiber). I drank a beer and relaxed. 

All that relaxation really helped me, as I woke up at 6:45 on Saturday ready to go. I went to work and then took off for my 12 mile run. On the way out the door, I had toast and jam with water. Over the course of the run, 8 oz Gatorade + 16 oz water. When I got home, I was feeling great and whipped up a quick smoothie before heading out to the farmer’s market and buying some gargantuan purple asparagus




The fiancé offered to make me lunch, and made this beautiful plate for me: turkey and veggies on wheat, a pickle, cantelope. A little while later, I had 1 c of goldfish, 2 babybel cheeses, and an English muffin with almond butter and jelly. The final meal of the day was a HUGE salad (that’s a medium mixing bowl): spinach, romaine, ¼ tomato, artichoke hearts, olives, ¼ bell pepper, sliced onion, roasted veggies, julienned carrots, and a serving of shrimp cooked in olive oil spray, garlic, thyme, S&P, and lemon juice. The best part is that you don’t even need a dressing with this salad because the shrimps make their own sauce. I had a serving of Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato fries. I had set out another serving to eat, but I ended up putting it back because I got full. 
 
Today I woke up super early, and we made PANCAKES! We have a healthy pancake recipe and the key is a good nonstick pan. I had 2 with ½ c of applesauce on top.
At work, I had a turkey sandwich and a mini salad. And I came home and had a snack of light yogurt, peaches and strawberries, and 1/3 c Kashi Go Lean Crunch.


I'm in the middle of making some amazing cold salads for the upcoming HOT HOT week (80s and 90s! Summer has come to IOWA!). But you’ll have to hold your horses to see them…because I’ve got a straight out of science-fiction science post for tomorrow…





What science fiction do you wish to come true? A time machine? Youth serum? Lead to Gold?

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