Monday Meal Plan (March 4, 2013)

Look at me! Completing a Monday Meal Plan on a Monday! Let's get right to it, shall we?

The first thing I ate today was a cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch with a cup of almond milk and some sliced strawberries. That's the only thing I don't have a picture of, I swear. I don't really wake up and begin to fully function until about 10 (ish), so pictures weren't really in the cards at 8 a.m.

Anywho, after I woke up a little more, I ate some of these little beauties:

The baker at my husband's restaurant brought in some eggs from her chickens. They were so pretty! And tasted awesome. Normally I would have eaten some egg whites scrambled with one whole egg but since these eggs were special, I didn't want to waste any of them. So I had two whole eggs scrambled with a little shredded cheddar and about a quarter cup black beans (rinsed and drained).

For lunch today, I made a hot open faced sandwich on a slice of toasted Ezekiel Bread, with ham, a slice of swiss, spicy brown mustard and a slice of pineapple:

I put the sandwich under the broiler for about three minutes to melt the cheese. Much healthier than making a buttery grilled cheese sandwich in a pan and still tasty.

Late afternoon/evening, I went to the gym. I'm doing a 30 day squat challenge for the month of March, and today was 60 squats. I also ran a mile on the treadmill, did 50 sit ups (incline and roman chair), and did two sets on each of the leg machines in the circuit. Before I went to the gym, I had a Larabar:

After the gym, I had a green smoothie, which I made with 1 cup spinach, 1/4 cup cooked quinoa, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/3 of a frozen banana, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, and 1 cup home brewed green tea. The idea for this smoothie came from a recipe I found on Pinterest, but I added spinach and chia seeds to it. I have this idea in my head that I can add greens and chia seeds to any smoothie recipe I find and it will be even better for me and still taste great. Sometimes  it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I'll be honest, this smoothie wasn't out of this world. But it was a nice recovery drink after my workout none the less.

Ignore my smudgy microwave and ancient coffee pot.

This is what the smoothie looked like before I added the green tea and blended it all up. If you decide to make this smoothie, be warned, it will turn out more of a purple-gray color than green.

For dinner, I had about six ounces of oven roasted lean pork, and made another recipe I found on Pinterest: twice baked sweet potatoes with lime. The original recipe is from the blog Carrie's Experimental Kitchen, and can be found here. The combination of sweet potato and lime sounded a little strange but I like that sort of thing. The only change I made to the recipe was using regular shredded cheddar cheese because I didn't have any reduced fat cheese. I used one tablespoon of shredded cheddar for a whole potato. The flavors of the sweet potato and lime juice/zest were so strong I didn't taste any of the cheese, so next time I will probably just omit it. Here is what dinner looked like:

Not a very interesting plate, I know. The hubs drizzled honey over his pork, which really brought the flavors of the sweet potato and pork together. Have I mentioned he's a chef?
 

This day clocked in at 1,555 calories, 180 grams carbs, 56 grams fat, and 99 grams protein. If you are aiming for a lower calorie day, you could omit the cheese from the eggs and the potato. Or skip the Larabar. I ate one mainly as a little carb boost for my gym visit. And also because Larabars are freaking delicious.

Hope everyone has an amazing week. I'm off to unpack a few more boxes...