Road Warrior!

I grew up in rural Minnesota. You can’t fly to my Dad’s house. You can get on a tiny plane in Minneapolis and go to North Dakota, but there better be someone there to pick you up and drive an hour to my hometown. And those flights aren’t cheap. So, we drive a lot. And in the Midwest, that is sometimes what you do to get somewhere. On the flip side, I can bike to work in 20 minutes, and if I drive, it takes 5. So I think we even out somewhere. Here are some shots from the trip. The left shot – what I normally look at while driving across Iowa. Right – the beautiful rolling hills I found in northwestern Iowa/southwestern MN. 

 

This weekend, I went to Sioux Falls, SD to see my friend Maggie before she takes off to grad school in Michigan this fall. We had big plans, but it was rainy and gross the entire time, so we ended up chilling. I took off right from work, so I packed a car-dinner. I snap a pic, but it was PB&J on wheat, pineapple and strawberries, carrot sticks and celery, and some goldfish. I also drank water and tea. On Saturday, we went to the Mexican market and the farmers market to get some stuff to make a veggie curry. Then, we watched a movie, did a P90X DVD (Bring it! That’s for you, Maggie!), and took her dogs for a walk. After our P90X DVD, we made guacamole with 2 avocados, a diced onion, a jalapeno, garlic. I was starving, so I ate at least an avocado worth with chips. 

Playing the proper hostess, she made me these awesome Veggie and Laughing Cow Swiss sandwiches. 

While we made the curry, we also made these fat-free gingersnaps. They were awesome. I ate at least three. The veggie curry had onion, garlic, ginger, sweet potato, cauliflower, pepper, and tomato. We added some spice and coconut milk. I ate mine with ½ c of rice, which I put on top to prevent full soggification. For full disclosure, I ate a couple servings of Sahale cashews while working on a crossword later. 

I had to come back pretty early on Sunday morning to get some work done. I made a travel breakfast of coffee and tea, a banana that was rotten in the center (obviously, I stopped eating it), and an apple. I also bought a small bag of combos to fix my salt craving. I stopped at the grocery store on the way into work and got a salad – spinach, romaine, tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, bleu cheese, chickpeas, FF raspberry vinaigrette. I also added some pickled beets and sweet broccoli salad from the prepared salad section. 

Other meals throughout this week:

Breakfasts –

I kept the smoothies to a minimum! 

 

Fruit, yogurt, kashi bowls

2 eggs, fruit salad, toast w preserves

 

Oatmeal with apple, cinnamon, cloves, and PB

 

I’m sure there was a smoothie in there somewhere, but I don’t have a pic and I’m sure it looked like all of the others. Maybe greener. We have a ton of spinach to liquidate. 

 Lunches –

This formed the basis of 2.5 lunches. Lentil dip and veggies. Always supplemented by some kind of carb and some kind of fruit. 

Spinach topped with olives, tomatoes, leftover couscous salad, diced egg white, olive oil, and balsamic. Fruit, apple &PB, and TJ Thai Chili Cashews...yum!

 

And this lunch, which is beautiful, but not what I ate: What you see is a salad, a quarter French baguette, some fruit, and yogurt. I put that yogurt back immediately – when I figured out I was already eating yogurt with breakfast. Then I forgot to pack some salad dressing, and I couldn’t make myself eat the salad without dressing. But when I took out the yogurt, I packed goldfish. Coupled with a late breakfast and early dinner, I made due without any other supplementation. I’m actually planning the salad for tomorrow, but I’ll pick the avocado off.

 

Final lunch was a dinner repeat. I’ll show you the recipe in dinner, but it’s veggie curry with egg, cherries, gingersnaps, and fruit/nut mix that I didn’t actually eat. 

Dinners were spectacular –

Vermicelli with homemade clam sauce, salad with vegan thousand island. This was eaten at least twice. 

 

Veggie curry – This bowl is half julienned zucchini, carrot, broccoli stalk, onion, half noodles, TJ’s red curry sauce, and some cubed tofu (1/3 block). This was amazing and filling. 

 Finally, grilled marinated tofu, sautéed bok choy, and confetti curry rice. 

 

I gotta rush this, but here’s the ERA:

Sun, 7 mile run; Mon 30 min elliptical, 15 abs, 20 weights; Tue 4 miles easy run; Wed off; Thur 14 mile bike; Fri 3.5 mile speedwork, 10 min elliptical; Sat 60 min P90X; Sun 8 mile run