A journey of living a healthier, greener lifestyle.

My blender is in the dishwasher this morning so there was no Green Monster for breakfast. 

I was craving some chocolate milk so I blended with my immersion blender 1 banana, 1 cup of oat milk and 2 tablespoons of Nestle Quick.

With my Chocolate shake, I made Tina’s 3 Minute Oatmeal Raisin Cookie  (I used whole wheat flour instead of white) and served it over some Stonyfield Farm Fat Free French Vanilla yogurt

I mixed all the dry ingredients last night so this morning, breakfast prep was super quick. 

2010 Carbon Fast Suggestion of the Day: Save paper today: print double-sided, or wrap your next present in color comics or a reusable paper towel use in public restrooms. 

Today I stayed home from work to take advantage of the somewhat quiet week of spring break.  Earlier, I told Heather that I would make dinner tonight and suggested baked fish and chips.  At the time I didn’t have a recipe or any experience making this dish, so I went to the internet.  I found two recipes and merged/altered what they said to create my dish.  Recipe 1 is Oven Baked Fish and Chips from fitnessandfreebies.com, Recipe 2 is Baked Fish and Chips with Oikos Tartar Sauce from MyKitchenAddiction.com.  It’s amazing what a quick Google search will give you!

I started with recipe 1 - I was intrigued by the corn flakes as part of the recipe.  This morning I went to the Fish Market and bought some freshly caught cod.  Both recipes used a typical flour then egg dredging process.  I went with the corn flakes in recipe 1 instead of the bread crumbs in recipe 2. The fish baked at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes then I flipped the pieces of fish and cooked another 6 minutes.  I thought it was really good.

The small dish is the Oikos Tartar sauce.  Personally, I wasn’t a fan.  I didn’t actually follow the recipe though (this was from recipe 2).  It calls for Dill Relish, I used sweet relish.  I’m not a fan of sweet relish (Heather is though). I also did not use Old Bay seasoning.  After I mixed the oikos and relish, I tasted it and then added a lot of things (garlic powder, dill, salt, onion powder) in the hopes it would taste less like sweet pickles.  It didn’t work.  Heather only tasted all the things I listed in parentheses, so she didn’t really like it either.  I probably wouldn’t try to make it again, I’d rather just eat pre-made tartar sauce.  Heather made her own using Miracle Whip (which shouldn’t even be considered a food!).

Next came the “chips”! Again, I used a combination of the two recipes.  I used recipe 1 for most of my inspiration, but I added a little olive oil to my mixing bag based on what recipe 2 listed.  Both recipes understated the amount of cooking needed, these were in the oven for almost 25 minutes.  I did flip them once after about 10 minutes.  Even though I seasoned generously, I though they were a little plain. 

Overall, not a bad dinner.  Would definitely make the fish again, would probably find a different way to make the potato.  Baking potato will never be as good as frying it, but our hearts are thankful for the choices that were made tonight! 

Have you ever done a baked fish and chips?  Any thoughts or suggestions for a future attempt?  Have you used corn flakes in your cooking before? I was surprised by the other recipes they had on the back of the box.

Sadly, I did not go for a run last night when I got home – instead I got up early and hit the pavement.  I ran about 3.5 miles – honestly, it was one of those runs where you feel like you are running super fast but then look down at your Garmin and realize you are going at a snail’s pace. 

My miles were over 30 seconds slower then they were on Sunday…very frustrating.

What a difference a few hours can make – look at the temperature when I was out running and the forecasted high for this afternoon

Gah.  Oh well – I have the entire day ahead of me to be productive.

For breakfast, I enjoyed my leftover Cherry Oatmeal Bake from Sunday with a Green Monster (which I need to rename seeing as Green Monsters are associated with the Boston Red Sox – and I am not a fan…)

Carbon Fast 2010 Suggestion of the Day: Check the tire pressure of your car today or take it to a gas station where they can check it for you.  Cars with low tire pressure get lower mileage.  

The sun is shining once again and despite a horrible night’s sleep, I am determined to accomplish a lot today (including a run so please hold me to it!).  First day back at work means a lot of email catching up – plus I have a few bigger projects that I need to tackle.

I slept an hour later than I anticipated – when the alarm went off at 6:00 am I realized my lackluster sleep was not going to make that hour of work very productive.  I snoozed until 7:00 am and hope that is enough sleep to keep me going.

A parfait sounded like a perfect breakfast this morning so I started dicing up some fruit.  I found a kiwi, banana and some blueberries from my freezer. 

Layered with some Stonyfield Farm Fat Free French Vanilla yogurt and a mixture of Grape Nuts, Heartland Granola and Perky’s Crunchy Rice.

I gobbled this up in about 3 minutes flat.  So delicious.

2010 Carbon Fast Suggestion of the Day: End junk mail that wastes resources.  Stop unwanted catalogs (catalogchoice.org), credit card offers (1-888-5-optout), and other junk mail (DMAchoice.org).  Or hire a service to cancel it for you (41pounds.org).

Both Matt and I are home from work today (Spring Break for the students usually means a day or two off for me!), we were able to start making dinner around 5 pm – Matt has something he wants to do at 7 pm so we needed to eat before hand.

I started working on pizza dough (made with one cup wheat flour and one cup white flour) while Matt finished a top secret cooking project.  While the dough was rising, I started working on the toppings for our calzones – diced tomatoes, mushrooms, scallions and mozzarella cheese (needed to be shredded).  Matt worked on the marinara sauce (2 cans of tomato sauce with garlic and basil, oregano and Italian Seasoning)

Before cooking in the oven, I brushed on some olive oil and sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top.  I made a ginormous calzone (with 3 breadsticks made out of leftover dough)

I cut my calzone into 3rds – the rest will be for lunches this week

Delicious.  I love making calzones because I feel it is so easy to add healthier toppings.  We always use part skim mozzarella and ricotta cheese and I bulk mine up with fresh veggies (tomato, mushroom and scallions).  It may not look like a lot of veggies here but I promise they are in there.

To round out my cheesy dinner, I had a small salad

Mixed greens, mushrooms, tomato, scallions, cucumber, and yellow pepper – plus I added some craisins.

Want to do something to push for clean energy.  Read this and make a call to your senator.

This is one of my favorite bowls…

Yes it is very non exciting.  But it was one of the first bowls I bought when I moved out on my own.  It was a part of a set of 3.  They all have tops and serve many purposes.   Before getting proper mixing bowls, I used to make everything in these bowls.  The tops have been in the dishwasher many times – they barely fit the bowls anymore.  I got them at Kohls. 

This bowl, in particular, was one of my faves to hold a big salad.  With the top on, it was perfect to shake and mix all the toppings around – especially after a drizzle of salad dressing. 

When brainstorming meals for the week, I decided Matt and I needed a “Big Salad” night and my favorite bowl made a reappearance from the back of my cabinet.

If you peel back the top, you can start to understand my love for this bowl

Take the top completely off and you can see the bigger picture In the mix was: 50/50 salad mix (mixed greens and spinach), cucumber, tomato, peas, mushrooms, avocado, craisins, yellow pepper, broccoli slaw and scallions.  I made my favorite dressing of olive oil, champagne vinegar and honey.

I could eat a salad like this every night.  So delicious and simple. 

In fact, I think Matt and I have decided to institute “Big Salad” night once a week in our house. 

What are your favorite salad toppings?  I need some ideas for next week!

I realized that I have missed a few Carbon Fast suggestions so here they are:

3/6 Carbon Fast 2010 Suggestion of the Day:  Making travel plans?  Consider getting there without flying.  If you have to fly, balance out the carbon impact by buying offsets.  Fund a project that prevents one ton of greenhouse gases for each ton that your trip will cause.

3/7 Carbon Fast 2010 Suggestion of the Day: Give your dryer a rest.  Hang your clothes to dry on a rack or clothesline.  Many households will spend more than $100/year on the energy used by their dryer, while the air can dry your clothes for free.

3/8 Carbon Fast 2010 Suggestion of the Day: Many electronics draw power even when off.  Today, unplug your appliance that are off; place computers, radios and TVs on a power strip and turn it off between uses.  Also, unplug your phone charger when it’s not charging. 

Last night, Matt and I were discussing breakfast cause we always talk about food and realized we haven’t had Cherry Oatmeal Bake in a long time.  This morning I got up and started whipping it up!  The key to this recipe is to mix all the dry ingredients first and add them to the ramekins – then add the liquid – otherwise you get very uneven contents.

For some reason I also have to bake this for almost 45 minutes – my oven must be off.

With my Cherry Oatmeal Bake, I had the last Cara Cara orange

After breakfast I did some work (I finished outlining question 1 for my mid-term) and then decided a run was in order.

Check out the sky and the temperature…we haven’t seen weather like this in a long time

I set out with no goal in time or distance.  I ended up running 4 miles – those 4 miles were tough but heavenly at the same time.  I remembered once again why I love to run.  Mother Nature needs to keep this weather in Massachusetts for a few more weeks. 

Lunch was next on my eating agenda.  Still having tons of refried bean soup, I decided to turn it into a quesadilla.  Using a Flat Out Wrap, I layered 2 slices of reduced fat cheddar cheese with soup mixed with some extra diced tomatoes.

Into the panini maker for a few minutes  and I had one messy lunch

It was delicious though – and a great way to turn that soup into something completely different.

For dessert – because everyone needs dessert – I had one diced banana with some Stonyfield Farm Fat Free French Vanilla yogurt and some Back to Nature Chocolate granola.

Back to work for me.  I hope you get out and enjoy this beautiful day!

After fighting to find a parking spot in Legacy Place, Matt and I finally made it to

The restaurant was interesting looking but VERY LOUD

Matt and I had a seat on the upper level – the one downside – the table.  We were sitting next to each other.  I HATE THAT.  It was hard to have a conversation – I like to look at the person I am having a talking to.  I was so distracted by the goings on below, it was hard to stay focused. 

I got a 2 oz pour of Chardonnay to start my evening

For an appetizer, Matt and I split the Rhode Island style fried Calamari

The calamari wasn’t bad – not the best I’ve ever had.  Sadly, it ended up being the highlight of our dinner.  Matt described the calamari as “delicious.”

For my dinner, surprise surprise, I got grilled scallops with onion straws and mashed sweet potatoes

I was so excited for scallops but they had such a strong “grilled” flavor that was all I could taste.  The scallops didn’t have the normal scallop flavor; they were not very good. I did enjoy the onion straws and the mashed sweet potatoes were good but not great. 

Our service wasn’t great either and we were never told the specials of the evening – but the table next to us was. 

Both Matt and I agreed that Legal C bar was highly disappointing.  In fact, it is a place we wouldn’t go again. 

After spending some quality time in Whole Foods, Matt and I ended our night on a good note at

 J.P. Licks has been on my “places to visit” list for a long time.  I have read so much about it on other food blogs.  I was excited to finally try it tonight.

I got a small coffee soft serve with M&Ms and crumbled Oreos

At first, I thought the coffee flavor tasted fake.  Then it grew on me.  A lot.  In fact, I was kinds sad when I finished my ice cream.  J.P. Licks is a place I would go again.

Time to watch some TV and go to bed – lots of work to do tomorrow!

I think my body needs sleep.  Badly.  I took a 1 1/2 hour nap yesterday and still managed to be asleep by 11 pm last night – and I slept until 8:30 am this morning.  I am starting to feel better rested – but sleep cuts into my studying/general household responsibilities/spending time with Matt/running.  I am really struggling with finding a balance.

My professors gave us 7 possible questions for our midterm – 2 will be on our test.  This is a LARGE déjà vu for me – my comprehensive exam in grad school was very similar – except it was 14 questions.  According to my planned schedule, I should be working on question 3 – I’m on question 1. 

I hope to have question 1 finished tonight before Matt and I head out for our “date” night.  Let’s see how that goes!

For breakfast, I had another Bagel Thin with homemade veggie cream cheese

As you can see in the upper left corner, I also had a green beverage – one cup oatmilk, one banana and 1 cup of spinach. 

For lunch, I made a salad containing broccoli slaw, tomatoes and craisins.  I dressed this salad with a mixture of olive oil, champagne vinegar and a little honey.

I also had another small bowl of my Refried Bean Soup from yesterday

Back to my outline!  Matt and I are going to Whole Foods and Legal C Bar in Dedham tonight.  What should I get for dinner?

Matt and I were able to have lunch together before he left for work.  Thinking I was going to have lunch by myself, I had decided to make one of my favorite soups – Matt hates it.  I made it anyway. 

It really could not be simpler.  Combine 1 can of refried beans (I used Amy’s Traditional Vegetarian Refried Beans), 1 can of diced tomatoes with mild green chilies and some diced red onion in a saucepan and heat through.  I always sprinkle with a little cheese. 

This makes a lot of soup in under 5 minutes.  I have plenty of leftovers that I cannot wait to eat. 

For dinner, Matt and I also made another favorite that we haven’t had in quite some time – Savory Oatmeal. 

In the bowl was 1/2 cup cooked oats (cooked in water), minced parsley and basil, a few sliced scallions, diced tomato, cheddar cheese and one fried egg.

Then I cut the egg and it oozed everywhere…

Both Matt and I LOVE this dish – especially when the egg is cooked just right.  The yolk adds a creaminess to the oatmeal that cannot be duplicated.  This meal is so quick to prepare and clean up – I have a feeling we will be making this more often.

I made some progress on my school work today but not nearly what I had hoped.  I have a feeling my study schedule will be recreated – I think my time estimations were a little low.

Tomorrow we need to take the recycling and then we are going somewhere new for dinner…cannot wait!