Probably Gonna Turn into the Hulk

So, the inspection?  Kinda no big deal this time around!  The only major things that need fixing are a Radon system needs to be installed, and the fans from each of the bathrooms need to be vented through the roof in the attic.  They currently just stop there.  Other than that it’s just minor repairs that come with a 34 year-old house.  Score one for us!  Finally.  Soooo, we close on June 11, but we’re hoping to get the bank on board with a little bit earlier of a closing since the house is vacant.  We’ll see!

In accordance with my workout plan, yesterday I did my 30-40 minutes of cardio in the form of a lunch time spin class.  44 minutes and 17.2 miles later, I had melted into the ground and could barely pull myself off the bike.  At one point my bike was on resistance 20, that’s as high as they go.  I’m not even sure I was actually pedaling.  It was tough, but awesome.

Like I mentioned yesterday, there are also some nutritional guidelines that go along with this training plan, and I thought I’d go into that a little bit today.  Taking into consideration my current stats, the trainer is recommending I eat 1975 cals a day, including 198g each of carbs and protein, and 44g of fat.  I am finding it nearly impossible to consume that much protein, I hit 121 g on Monday and 105 g yesterday.  I’m also struggling to hit my calorie count, which I actually found surprising.  So here’s what two days of eats look like while trying to stay low-fat, high protein.  Surprisingly I’ve managed to stay below my 44g of fat allowance.

Monday

Tuesday

Yesterday I felt like I was eating all day long, and even when dinner time rolled around wasn’t that hungry and sort of just made myself eat.  It’s not so bad really, because I kind of enjoy eating constantly and never being so hungry I want to murder someone.  We’ll see how this works out for me in the next few weeks.  Speaking of dinner though, I had some technical issues last night.  I really wanted to grill my chicken an peppers, but after going through every single match I could find in the house, still couldn’t get the charcoal grill lit.  This happened instead:

Sigh, I fail.  Oh well, my kebabs tasted just as delicious this way, and because I still had some calories left I ate ice cream and drank wine for dessert.  Yup.

Anywho, that’s it from me today, have a good one!

So. Damn. Good.

Holler friends!  It’s been a while since this happened around these parts, but today I have a new (well to me) recipe for ya’ll!  I know I’ve mentioned this a few times before, but lately I’ve made some dietary changes; for no other reason than I wanted to see if it would help me drop some weight.

Here’s the dealio, Monday through Friday I pretty much eat the exact same thing for breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast is an egg bake with bacon, peppers, and onions, and for 4 days of breakfast I use 8 eggs and 8 pieces of bacon.  During my weekly grocery shopping trip, I purchase one rotissiere chicken which I pull apart once cooled and throw on my boring salad of spinach, cucumber, and mixed bag of lettuce for lunch.  Along with my salad I eat a piece of fruit, now it’s an apple, prior to this a peach.

Dinner is what’s been the struggle for me.  Despite my Irish heritage, I am a huge fan of Italian food.  Cooking it, eating it, smelling it, etc, so trying to eliminate carbs and dairy from dinner time has been interesting.  I’m also not a huge fan of red meat not in the form of ground beef, and would rather starve than eat a piece of fish… so there’s that.  That’s why there’s been a lot of meatloaf, stuffed peppers, and shepherds pie lately.

Last night, I ventured out of my ground beef/turkey rut and cooked an absolutely amazing dinner involving chicken sausages, onions, and peppers.  I initially found this recipe online, glanced at it to get an approximate idea and went to town in my kitchen.  I used a package of Al Fresco Sweet Italian Chicken Sausages, and I’m a big fan.

brown the sausages on all sides in a pan with a little bit of olive oil

While the sausages are browning, chop your onion, garlic, and peppers

Once the sausages have browned on all sides, remove them from the pan, add some butter and swirl it around to make it melt.

I think heaven will smell like melted butter

Toss in your onions and garlic and let them cook for 2-3 minutes

Add all your peppers and some wine, season with oregano and basil

So the original recipe called for 1/4 cup of white wine, but I have transitioned to the fall/winter staple of red wine so that was all I had in the house.  It works JUST fine.

Slice up your sausages while everything in the pan cooks together

Side note, if you plan on serving this on a bun or with some crusty bread, there’s no need to slice that shit up.  I ate it in a bowl, so it was easier this way.

Bam, back all in the pan together

Cover and cook like this on low for about 15 minutes.  Pour yourself a glass of the wine you were cooking with, because you should never cook with wine without having a glass.  Anxiously watch the timer count down, and then stuff your face!

Yo, seriously, so effing good. I had to keep myself to just one bowl because this needs to be dinner for the rest of the week also.  You can bet this dish has officially made its rotation into my new, boring diet.  Maybe next time I’ll cut out the butter, that kind of defeats the purpose.

In terms of the goal of dropping some weight… I think it’s working.  I’ve definitely noticed some more muscle definition in my arms and stomach, and my face looks less puffy on any given day.  Granted, I do give myself permission to eat whatever I want on the weekends, be it cheese or carbs so that is probably detrimental, but I like the changes I think I’ve seen.  Although, it could all just be in my mind.

Chicken Sausage, Onions, and Peppers
1 package of Chicken Sausage (4)
1/2 of a large Yellow Onion
1 Green Bell Pepper
1.5 Red Bell Peppers
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Oregano
Basil
1/4 cup of wine

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, and brown your sausages on all sides.  While the sausages are browning, prepare your onion and peppers by slicing them into thin strips; dice your garlic.  Once brown, remove the sausages from the heat and set aside.  Add the butter to the pan, and swirl it around to melt it and coat the bottom.  Add the onion and garlic to the melted butter and cook for 2-3 minutes; add the peppers.  Once all of the vegetables are in the pan, season with basil and oregano and add your wine.  Cook until all the vegetables are tender.  Return the sausages to the pan (sliced or whole) turn the heat to low, and cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Serve!

It Just Keeps Coming

So who on the East Coast is ready for more natural disaster related fun this weekend?!?

I know I can’t wait to break out my Hurricane 40s and party like it’s 2003.  Oh, that’s how we celebrated Hurricane Isabel back then, as cute little college Freshmen.  Living in a basement dorm room during the worst hurricane to hit Virginia in a long time was really fun.  I got to watch the water rise and rise outside my window until it stopped just below the actual frame. Fun times!

No but seriously, I know of a few people getting married this weekend and I feel so bad for them.  I would cry, especially because I think they were originally scheduled for outdoors.  At least I hear rain on your wedding day is good luck, so a hurricane must be super lucky!

Anyway, on to yesterdays activities.  I did a full body weights workout during lunch yesterday, which has left me somewhat sore today and the reason I was contemplating eating my arm off at 3:30 yesterday afternoon.  Sadly, dinner was extremely far away because as soon as I walked in the door after work, the roommates and I were back out again to go look at bridesmaids dresses.  Our bride wants to order them all together, so we needed to decide on final styles and sizes, which ended up being a disaster.

We went to a different store to see if they had more of a selection and the lady was so rude! Once she found out we wouldn’t be ordering from there she was completely unhelpful and left us to sort through the rack of dresses ourselves.  Then she tried to tell us it would be $20 to get measured without ordering anything.  Um no thanks, I have measuring tape, I’ll do it myself.  She was awful, the three of us left so annoyed, but at least we were all able to decide on final dresses.  Anyway, don’t ever go to Katherine’s Bridal in Alexandria.  The worst.

Finally, here’s the other recipe I said I was going to post yesterday.  It’s not really a recipe, but more of an improvement of the egg bake I made last week that wasn’t quite right.  This turned out so much better and I am loving it.

Bacon and Veggie Egg Bake

Ingredients
Olive Oil
1 Pepper
3/4 Large Onion
1 clove garlic
8 pieces of bacon
8 eggs
Salt and Pepper

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut up the 8 pieces of bacon into bite size pieces and cook in a large skillet.  I use scissors and just cut the bacon over the pan.  While the bacon is cooking, chop your pepper and onion into thin slices, and dice some garlic  Once the bacon is cooked, transfer it to a plate covered with a paper towel, and place another paper towel on top to absorb the grease.  Drain the remaining bacon grease out of your pan, give it a quick wipe down with a paper towel, add a little olive oil, and throw in your peppers, onions, and garlic.  While those are sauteing together, mix your eggs in a big bowl and add a little water.  Grease the bottoms and sides of a casserole dish with some butter or non-stick spray, and combine all of the ingredients together.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then pop it into a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Super easy, and now I have breakfast for the whole week.