Yep. Still alive. Still eating. Still carbon footprinting.

Had the final project/paper of one class, then the other ramped up. I also haven’t been eating much that’s photograph/blog worthy. I’m still losing weight though. Nearing the 10 pound mark since starting again.

I hope to post some photos and more information soon. Sorry You know how it is!

And now that it’s July, the farmers’ markets are every weekend now! I hope to visit the closest one this weekend. I have heard two types of advice: come early or come late. If I go early, then I have my pick. If I go later, then I may get deals on the unwanteds. We’ll see. I’m very tired and it’s only Tuesday!

Laptop Lunch #6

Wow. Number 6 already? I found a tin of miniature letter cutters and got a little silly with my Laughing Cow babybel.

Clockwise, starting at the top left: Fat-free cottage cheese with bits of oranges and cantaloupe in it. A pile of plum and orange slices. Next is a Laughing Cow Light Babybel on top of spinach on top of orange slices. Last, but not least, is a bunch of cantaloupe balls with plum slices.The theme of this is cozy neighbors. A little of one container is in another container. Did I mention I was in a silly mood?

I started to get the hang of making balls out of my cantaloupe near the end. A few have rind on them. Oops!

WW Core except for the Laughing Cow (1 point). I just had to try these little letter cutters that I found in a drawer. I wanted to do “C” for cheese but it didn’t have “C”! No idea why. So, this is “N” for “NUM!” Also, a little gotcha… I forgot that there is a paper(?) string thing and the cut-out didn’t pop out as easily as I thought it would so had to cut along the edges of the “N.” When I got to work, I peeled off the strips and it put a slash through it making it look like “No N.” Or maybe it’s a “Z”!

Yes. I’m easily amused.

I also discovered that I don’t like orange plus cottage cheese. And the plum was very tangy but was told they’re supposed to be sweet so I’ll try that again. I still really like the combination of spinach and orange.

Flatout amazing! My first time making a flatout wrap

Two thumbs up!

I wanted to buy a low-cal, low-fat wrap for sandwiches (yes, thinking about my laptop lunch makings) and found among the wraps a weird looking oblong wrap. Brand name is Flatout and after looking at the nutritional values of those available, I got the Honey Whole Wheat one. It’s a lot of good bread for just 1 point. Odd though, I can’t find it on the Flatout website. This is the closest to the nutritional value that I found: Multi-grain Flatout.

The texture is great. It’s not scratchy or heavy wheat. It didn’t fall apart like the one tortilla ’sandwich’ that I made did.

I looked on the website to try and figure out how I was supposed to use it. I found a few recipes but no play-by-play. So, I went with the generic “put the stuff on round end of the bread and then roll tightly.” I smooshed the cheese on the bottom using a wet tablespoon. It made the spreading of the cheese much easier. I then put on spinach, some thinly sliced turkey breast, and some slices of tomatoes. I rolled up from the filled end as tightly as I could but couldn’t do too tightly because of the tomatoes.

It held together very well considering I take my sandwiches so dry — no mayo, etc. I sliced it in half and it still held up well.

Fantastic product! I can’t wait to try some other ideas with it. Interestingly enough, after I bought it, I saw a fellow blogger post her fajita photo made with Flatout bread. So weird to go from never knowing about a product to buying it and seeing it in use shortly after!

Yet another picture of oatmeal….

I just wanted to show off my new placemat at work.

But, seriously, finally cooked up a bunch of oatmeal on Monday night, put it in a container and took it to work this morning. Now I have breakfast taken care of for the rest of the week! Check marks on my goal calendar incoming!

Grilled salmon, smashed taters, and popeye weed

I got a big frozen salmon from the store. It had the skin on even. I have not grilled salmon before so gave it a whirl.

And served it with some mashed potatoes and spinach. I didn’t want the spinach juice contaminating the salmon, so made a protective barrier.

This was the first grilling of the season so I had to clean up the grill. I think this is maybe the fifth time I’ve used the grill in two years. After the fish was thawed, I put it on a pre-heated medium grill. Stuff I read said to grease the grill but I had no idea how to do that with a hot grill so used a soaked paper towel. I put it skin side down and cooked it with the grill top open for about 10 minutes. I sprayed the meat side with some spray, sprinkled salt and pepper, and flipped it. The skin made it very easy to flip and keep together. Cooked it for another 10 minutes.

It was cooked well. I like mine closer to medium. Not bad though. Next time, I’ll cook it for less time or maybe move it to the top shelf with the lid closed.

Laptop Lunch #5

I was really looking forward to this one! The shrimp were thawed the night before and nestled in there. I didn’t add anything and ate them cold. I don’t like cocktail sauce. The grapes and cherries were singing their swan songs. Spinach, carrots and light Greek dressing are the bomb diggity.

And I got a new placemat! My precious.

I like this laptop lunch thing. Putting together lunches is so easy! I don’t have to make a lot of one thing, just fill up some little containers.

I’m extremely tempted to buy another one. It’s kind of a pain to wash it and then fill it the same night.

Review: Berry Bowl

Is it silly to buy a bowl just for berries? Perhaps. But I impulsed when I was shopping at Food Lion. It was $5.99 and came in two colors.

It has three parts: lid, bowl, and colander. No, that blue lid isn’t the lid. I just didn’t move it out of the shot. The concept is that you wash the berries with the colander, then drop the berry-filled colander in the bowl. It keeps the berries dry cause the water goes to the bottom of the bowl. Pop the lid on and voi la! At first I tried without the lid because I’m used to that but then put the lid on to keep moisture. And with the lid on, I can put stuff on top like the yogurt container.

I looked around online and found some “berry bowls” for more than what I paid. Not sure if I’d pay more than $5.99. But I’ve been eating more berries so maybe that is worth it.

Before, I would wash off the fruit, put a towel at the bottom of a bowl and then pile on the fruit. Not sure if the berry bowl is better than that though. I like that grapes don’t go bouncing all over the place since they’re contained in the colander. And I like that I’m not dirtying up extra dishes.

Laptop Lunch #4

Clockwise, starting top-left: Fat-free yogurt with cherries and grapes. I cut the fresh cherries in half to get the pit out. Then though that that looked keen so added some halved grapes. Pretty tasty. The cherries fresh are a little tart, so is the yogurt, but the grapes helped calm everyone down. We then have more grapes– can you tell I love grapes? And under those grapes are some leftover apple bits. And the next container has — surprise — more grapes and some apple slices. I put the skin side up and didn’t add anything to it to see how badly it’d turn brown. Didn’t do badly at all! That’s an organic Fuji apple. Num! Last, but not least, we have left-over brown fried rice with a sprinkle of parsley on top cause I was feeling cheeky. I did microwave the rice for about one minute but it was fine cold. Tasted better at least at room temperature, though.

This is a WW Core meal.

Laptop Lunch #3

Yes. I’ve been buried under a lot of homework and it kept me from putting up my foodstuffs. But I have been eating. And taking pictures!

Clockwise starting top left: Fat-free cottage cheese with a strawberry. I had some frozen strawberries from a sale and put it in there. The lid would go on so I fished it out and cut it in half. Since I pack my lunches the night before, the strawberry had time to thaw in the fridge and left its goodness all over the place. Black olives. I wish I had a food pick but fork worked fine. Papaya was very hard to cut. I should have looked up how to cut one but thought it’d be like an avocado. Not sure if it didn’t work out because it was overripe? No idea. I do know now that I don’t like papaya much. But I tried it. The pink container has a pile of frozen mixed vegetables. Again, it had time to thaw out till lunch. Wasn’t bad microwaved for a minute. Already had a spritz or three of ICBINB spray. Pretty tasty. I don’t use a lot of salt and these didn’t have any.

Laptop Lunch #2

Leftover homemade chicken fried rice (brown rice), cherries, grapes, carrots, celery and Laughing Cow light wedge. Tried to be mostly WW Core but the cheese isn’t.

Didn’t finish the carrots. Not a fan.

In case you’re curious how I transport my laptop lunch, here it is. Some use the insulated bag that they sell, and some just use any sort of bag. I use this crocheted recycled plastic bag bag that I got in a “worst present” exchange. I got the better deal out of all the people.

The bottom expands to hold the box in a horizontal state and keeps it snug so it doesn’t move.