WIAW – Page 3

What I Ate in Bermuda: WIAW #17

September 23, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

When we decided to head to Bermuda for vacation this year, all I could think about was the beach. Being that we were headed to an island, I expected food to be pricey and I was definitely right. We had a strange eating schedule while we were there as we slept until 8am most days and eventually got moving to head out the door at 10am. We usually ate 2 big meals and the rest of our food was snack type foods. I brought quick oats with me and made myself oatmeal in a mug each morning. Besides that we snacked on ham, cheese and crackers and fruit that we bought at the grocery store on our second day. We also used the grill we had twice, once with kabobs and another time with sausage (forgot to take pictures as I had to eat quickly before the ants got to my food). Even though the grocery store food was expensive too (think $10 for a box of cereal or $17 for a jar of organic peanut butter), it was cheaper than dining out which usually ran about $100 for one meal for two people. That was with 2 main courses, an appetizer or two and 1 drink. Go big or go home right?! This was our one vacation of the year and we hadn’t been on a one week trip together since the Bahamas in October 2013 so it was much needed. Luckily Brian was treating me to these lovely meals, but if you ask him, he was treating himself and I just happened to be along for the ride. Either way, it was delicious food and I even stepped out of my comfort zone a few times.

We arrived in Bermuda on Sunday afternoon, though by the time we made it through customs and found our ride it was about dinner time in Bermuda (they are an hour ahead of East coast time). Our host brought us to a gas station where they had a salad bar and chinese food bar. We got that and snacks for our dinner for the first night.

We stayed in a bedroom off of the house of our host. We had a bedroom and bathroom, mini fridge and microwave. It was basically the size of a hotel room, but the bathroom was pretty big which I liked and the rate seemed to be cheaper than a hotel around the island.

On Monday, our first stop for the day was the Fantasy and Crystal Caves. When we got there, we noticed they had a little cafe so we got some brunch. I was actually craving eggs…so I got the Fantasy breakfast which came with toast, eggs and bacon.

After lots of walking through caves and the zoo, we headed into the city, Hamilton. We walked around looking for a sushi place for Brian, but when we passed The Pickled Onion and I read avocado spring rolls on their menu, I was sold. The first of many $100 meals. We also didn’t realize they include a 17% tip in the check so the guy was probably really happy when he noticed he got almost a $40 tip…oops.

I ordered the avocado spring rolls and the super food salad. Both were delicious, even though they also served my meal backwards, giving me the salad then my appetizer of the spring rolls, but didn’t matter to me.

Since we had a late lunch, that was like our dinner too. We did decide to head out later in the evening to walk down the street to the Henry VIII restaurant for dessert and drinks, or rather 2 desserts and 1 drink. I stuck with water, but throughout the week tasted all of the drinks Brian ordered at different meals. He loves the faces I make…

Brian ordered creme brulee and I got the flourless chocolate cake. Brian ate the ice cream since I can’t have ice cream, but I did have a taste of it. The flourless chocolate cake was good, but not as good as the one I had at Glow Retreat.

Tuesday we headed to the grocery store in the morning and snacked throughout the morning before heading out to a restaurant at Elbow Beach, Mickey’s for lunch. It was a beautiful day sitting at a table right on the beach. After trying a bite of Brian’s fish he ordered at the Pickled Onion the previous day, I was thinking I should order fish, maybe it wouldn’t kill me. I usually don’t eat any seafood except for fish and chips, but I went a bit out of my comfort zone and saw a fish sandwich with avocado on the menu. Add avocado to almost anything and you have me! So I ordered the fish sandwich with a side salad.

Brian also ordered a classic mojito and I think we have decided if I were to order a drink a mojito would probably be the winner because it isn’t overly sweet and I love mint, so I had a few sips of that. I still did not like the drink enough to order my own. We also shared an orange mousse dessert which I forgot to get a photo of. It was gone in .25 seconds anyway.

That evening we made kabobs on the grill that we got from the grocery store and then enjoyed reading on the patio overlooking the ocean until it got too dark to read. If you ever eat outside in Bermuda, I advise eating as fast as you can and bringing plates inside right away to wash because I then had a plate full of ants to wash…the ants were EVERYWHERE.

Wednesday we mostly snacked in the morning and then we stopped by a farm and Brian picked up some chicken sausage to grill for a late lunch when we returned from our outing. I had a taste, but also ate some ham and cheese and pistachios. For dinner, we went out to dine at the lighthouse down the road, highly recommended to us from our host. We definitely went big here! Brian got two appetizers, soup and tomato mozzarella caprese. I got the thai spring rolls.

For the main course, Brian ordered a lamb dish and I got a steak over arugula with veggies. I wasn’t even that hungry, but that steak was soo good. I felt so full that evening!

Thursday I wasn’t feeling that great but I still ate my oatmeal in the morning and then I just ordered a light salad for lunch. We spent the morning at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute which had a restaurant attached so after walking the exhibits, we ate there. When they say iceburg lettuce salad on the menu, they aren’t kidding, a head of iceburg lettuce, but it was perfectly light for me.

Brian finally got his sushi at this restaurant and I even tried some fish eggs and a bit of crab and salmon, but still not really a fan of it.

We laid around in the afternoon, literally, we napped for a bit and then headed to Elbow Beach around dinner time. We needed to fill up our scooter to return it Friday so we stopped at the gas station on the way back and I got some snacks and Brian got more chinese food for dinner.

Friday, our last day! We only had the morning so I had the last bit of my oatmeal and some cereal I brought and then we spent our last morning on the beach for an hour before freshening up and packing. We snacked on the rest of our fruit and cheese and then we ate at the airport before our flight. I had a light chicken ceasar salad, while Brian enjoyed a club wrap and the smaller version of the swizzle drink. I wasn’t all that hungry and I actually came home with a stomach bug which I guess I started to feel on Thursday, but it really hit me on Friday. I was happy we were heading home and I still had the weekend to recover, sleep and not think about work yet.

Clean Eating Challenge: WIAW#16

September 2, 2015 by Alicia 1 Comment

This week I decided to join my friend, who is a beach body coach and just in on a 5 day clean eating challenge. I figured I eat clean most of the time, but this will help to keep me accountable. I also have no idea if oatmeal for breakfast is considered “clean” but I think it is better than a sugary cereal. So the group is there to motivate me and provide recipe suggestions as well.

Today I am linking up with Jenn for WIAW to look at my 1st day of the clean eating challenge on Monday.

I got up shortly before 5am, ate a banana and headed to the gym for my workout. It may be hard to get up, but I am happy to get my workout done in the morning and then have time in the evening to walk, stretch or do yoga.

After I got back from the gym, I had some oats with chia seeds, a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon on top since I didn’t have any fruit to top it. And you can’t forget the side of bacon. 3 slices since I headed to the gym and needed some protein.

For a drink, I had some hot lemon water and plain water.

I was proud of myself at work as I passed up on the donuts and cupcakes someone brought in. It’s easy for me to pass up on donuts, because honestly the donuts at Dunkin don’t make me feel great when I eat them (homemade donuts are totally OK though), but the chocolate cupcakes were a bit harder to resist. At least I had a filling breakfast so I wasn’t really hungry.

Mid morning at work, usually between 10 and 11 I get hungry since I eat at 6am, so I packed some carrots and homemade cilantro hummus (the hummus came out a little thin this time, have to perfect the recipe eventually). This is where the clean eating challenge came into play for me as I usually snack on granola, though not terrible, I am trying to limit the amount of carbs.

For lunch I had my usual salad and I actually stopped using salad dressing when I bring my salads to work (more out of laziness because I haven’t found a little container I like, I used to use a container from take out and mix olive oil and dried basil for dressing, but with tomato and cucumber in my salad and turkey or ham, I am used to it without the dressing).

I also had some clementines because I found these at Trader Joes last week and was soooo excited!! I absolutely love clementines.

Next snack was a homemade protein granola bar using this recipe. I make these about every other week and cut into 12 bars and store them individually wrapped in a bag in the freezer. I use almond butter instead of peanut butter and have been loving my GNC protein powder I got at Glow Retreat.

I also was a bit hungry and keep these bean snacks in my cupboard at work for munching on. The ingredients are black beans and sunflower oil for the main ingredients so even though they are a processed food, the ingredient list is pretty clean and I was getting a bit hungry.

After work, I went out for a run/walk and then threw together some dinner. I cooked up some ground beef, sauteed some tomato and onion on Sunday and had it on lettuce. This was supposed to be a lettuce wrap, but the lettuce I got did not work too well for that. I also cooked up some broccoli for the side which was topped with a drizzle of olive oil and Italian seasoning.

For a sweet treat, I had half a banana topped with almond butter, which really hit the spot. Other than the chocolate chips in my granola bars, I am trying to stay away from chocolate this week too.

That sums up my clean eats for day 1. I think I did pretty well. Hopefully the rest of the week goes pretty smoothly. Oh and I forgot to mention, I drink water like it’s my job, attached to my water bottle so much and that is basically my only drink of the day.

A look at the week for meals – Most of the next days will be similar for breakfast and lunch. Dinner I am making some quinoa and chicken for a stir fry type meal one night and then I usually have a mint avocado smoothie with protein powder before I go to zumba one night (which will be Thursday this week) and as far as the other days, spiralized zucchini will definitely be a side dish and find some meat in the freezer.

I used to meal plan but then I would buy too much and not be hungry for it all, so I buy fresh veggies and use my current meat freezer stock for now.

Do you prefer to meal plan or wing it? I like to prepare roasted veggies in advance or a side dish, I have been winging it on the meat lately.

Have you ever done a clean eating challenge? This is my first, but I have cleaned up my eats a lot in the past 2 years from what they used to be.

Bring on the Carbs and Veggies: WIAW#15

July 29, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hey guys!! I was just looking to see the last time I did a What I Ate Wednesday post and it was my Valentine’s dinner…that was only ages ago.

Speaking of ages ago, remember the time before Wifi existed?! Yeah, so I currently don’t have Wifi. I think my router broke again. Only the second one in just over a year. Apparently the apartments I choose to live in kill routers. Well, the first router was probably made in China and those things don’t last. The second router was an old one my boyfriend had laying around and suddenly it doesn’t seem to be working. The lights are all on though, so it’s strange. When my last router broke, I was trying to unplug everything and re-plug it back in and as soon as I re-plugged the router back in, BAM no lights, dead, just like that. It was less than a year old, so I told my boyfriend to see if there was some sort of warranty on that. Very unlikely he will ever follow up with that. I mean it was probably $20-30 on Amazon. I don’t know, but anyway, I am at least able to put up a post, because I have a desktop computer and my internet cord is plugged right into the modem and the internet jack thing that is in the wall. At least in this apartment, the modem and internet jack are in the corner with my desk and not on the opposite side of the apartment, so there are no tripping hazards with a long internet cord being strung across the living room floor into the bedroom because that is what is looked like at my last place when the router broke.

The downside to this no wifi thing is that I am getting behind on my yoga challenges on Instagram #firstworldproblems. I have internet on my phone of course through my cell carrier but my Instagram app on my phone doesn’t like to post my pictures. I have yet to figure out why and have uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times, so I usually rely on my tablet which only works with wifi…too bad I don’t live walking distance from the library or Starbucks anymore. I will have to bring my tablet to work and find a free wifi spot during lunch or something, maybe? I mean there is only 1 Starbucks each block in the city…

Anyway I am getting slightly side tracked, but lunch = food, so let’s get back to the food topic. This is what I ate on Sunday.

I began with a bowl of cereal with almond milk and some sausage on the side. I think I might be getting tired of oatmeal, but I usually switch things up on the weekend with cereal or pancakes anyway.

A couple hours later, I ate a Luna bar before heading out to catch the 10:20 train to the city to assist with Yoga on the Banks.

When I got home around 2pm, it was time for a late lunch. I had a lot of spinach to use up so I made a quick spinach and tomato salad with balsamic and a turkey and cheese wrap. I have been loving wraps for a quick weekend lunch.

There was also some unpictured granola and a couple homemade chocolate chip cookies that I made Saturday.

I then headed to the pool for a while in the afternoon before coming home and making dinner. Despite the 90 degree temp outside, I turned on the oven and roasted some brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes while cooking a hamburger and making another spinach side salad.

For dessert I had a protein chocolate chip granola bar (honestly these are my favorite homemade granola bars, I make them once every other week or so) from the new batch I also made while the veggies were roasting.

There may have also been some more cereal and granola snacked on. It’s hard to think about a picture when I have my hand in the bag… I was really in a carb mood this weekend, but always make sure to get some veggies in the mix too. All about balance.

Late Valentine’s Celebration: WIAW#14

February 18, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Happy humpday! This week is going by faster since I had the day off on Monday. Linking up with Jenn for What I ate ~~Wednesday~~ Monday.

On Monday it was so wonderful to sleep in a bit and when I say sleep in, I mean I got up around 7:15am. Since I had some time to make breakfast, I decided to experiment with making beet pancakes. I made roasted beets the other night which turned out well so I wanted to try some in my pancakes. I couldn’t find a recipe I liked, since I only wanted to make enough for one serving so I just kind of experimented. I made Old Fashion pancakes for one but eliminated the butter and added half a beet instead. I also failed to get the beet into a more puree form so it was more like beet chunks in my pancakes, but I still ate them. I loved the sweetness the beets added so I will definitely be trying to get a better recipe in the future for these.

I topped the beet pancakes with half a banana and syrup and had a side of bacon. Perfect breakfast to start my day!

I then had a doctor appointment which went short and sweet luckily. I came back home and had to warm up with some hot tea and light a candle for some warmth since it was below 0 degree outside with wind chill.

Then I worked on making some lunch while Brian was on his way down. Once Brian arrived, we had some pork that I had marinated and on the side a spinach and pomegranate salad.

Dinner was our late Valentine’s Day celebration. Brian brought some steaks with him from a local butcher shop so he cooked those. Then I made some cupcakes for dessert and worked on making our drink. Now for those of you who don’t know me I don’t drink, at all. I just don’t like the taste of alcohol, drinks are expensive and I am lightweight so I avoid it. When I came across this Grapefruit drink for two on Pinch of Yum, I was like, wow that looks good (minus the alcohol) but I told Brian about it and he said we should try it. He added just 1 oz of alcohol to my drink so I really didn’t taste it. He made his stronger which I tried as well, but tasting the alcohol is not something I like. Anyway I really did enjoy the citrus flavor and fresh mint. I would definitely make this drink again.

Our evening was wonderful, we enjoyed steak and avocado with our drinks and talked for a while, phones and technology aside, just us. Then it was time for the delicious dessert. I made this cupcake recipe for two. It made 4 cupcakes and we definitely ate 2 each because how could you not! I made the peanut butter frosting to go with them. They were so good, Brian really couldn’t believe how amazing they were. So quick to make too so I will definitely be making those again.

So many new recipes and delicious food on Monday. It was a great laid back day as well. I think we need more 3 day weekends, that way I get everything done on Saturday and Sunday and have Monday to relax 🙂

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