Love Of Oats

A blog dedicated to balancing a healthy and fun life… with oats!

Daily Archives: November 17, 2008

Banana Overload

Hello People :)
How was your Monday? Hope it was a nice ‘n fast one like mine was! I can’t believe that it’s ALMOST Tuesday – woo hoo. I guess the one good thing about the weekend going by fast is that my Monday flew by too.

I started out my morning staring at ALL the bananas we have lined up on our kitchen table – um, FIVE bunches of them. We went to a new produce store over the weekend and picked up 3 bunches for a dollar (all green). However we went to another produce store yesterday and they were giving out bananas for free (they were ripe AND they are closed Mon + Tues), so Bill said oh we need these too (he loves them). However, when we got home we realized JUST how many bananas we had. Luckily I was able to unload a bunch by giving them to my dad at work today, but I still know that bananas will be a staple ingredient in my food each day! It’s been a while since I had bananas & oats together (or at least I think it has) so I decided on half a cup oats, chopped bananas (cooked w/ the oats), pumpkin seeds, flax, and cinnamon. Yummo!

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I had anticipated eating a mid-morning snack, like I always do, but today I was running around busy and wasn’t even hungry until 11am (maybe the magic power of bananas?), so I just ate lunch then instead, which consisted of a pb&j (Crazy Richard’s Chunky PB, Blueberry Preserves) on whole wheat bread with a Gala apple and whole grain goldfish.

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Since I ate an early lunch, I had my mid-afternoon snack earlier than normal as well. I snacked on an orange (which took me nearly 15 minutes to peel!!!!) and some mixed nuts.

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I really wanted to go for a run outside, since it was for a long distance (instead of intervals), but it was way too cold for my liking, so the treadmill it was (sadly).  I cranked out 3.11 miles and burned 320 calories. Today my planned run was for 25 minutes straight, but I didn’t do that.  I’m realizing that I can’t run long distances on a treadmill due to the wear and tear on my knees.  So I think I’m temporarily postponing the training plan unless i can run outside.  Plus I’ve come quite far and can run for 10 minutes straight which I never could do before.  However that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop running – instead I’m going to focus on speed for where I’m at time-wise and do intervals.  Here was my routine:

  • Walking (warm-up @ 3.7mph) for 5 minutes
  • Running (5.9 mph) for 5 minutes
  • Walking (3.8mph) for 1 minute
  • Running for 5 minutes
  • Walking for 1 minute
  • Running for 5 minutes
  • Walking for 1 minute
  • Running for 2.5 minutes
  • Walking for 30 seconds
  • Running for 2.5 minutes
  • Walking (4.0mph) for 9 minutes

When I got home I was on a mission. The goal was to shower, get my clothes out for Tuesday (have to wear a suit – booo), pack lunches, start dinner, eat & clean-up all as fast as possible so that I could actually relax earlier than normal (usually I don’t get done everything until close to 9 but go to sleep at 10). I definitely was in a speedy mood and got done everything by 8 – yay for a success!

Our dinner was also another yummy success. I had really stocked up on some ground turkey that was on sale so I figured I should probably incorporate it into tonight’s dinner. I went browsing through a few blogs to find a quick and easy recipe for turkey burgers and I stumbled on Kath’s featured HERE. I served them up on Arnold’s whole wheat sandwich thins and topped it with pepperjack cheese, mustard, and relish. I also decided to attempt making kale chips since they sound so amazing – I’ve been dying to try them since she first featured them! They definitely didn’t disappoint.  During our prayer before dinner, Bill quoted “thank you for the meal Lindsay prepared including the green seaweed…”.  GREAT PRAYER haha.  Bill was a little skeptical at first and tried them, but he wasn’t a fan, so I had his too – I loved ‘em.  On the side we each had a sweet potato. It was a great meal that tasted amazing and I feel great after eating it (definitely not over-stuffed like I was this weekend!).

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Bill’s serving, which I ate:

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Ok, now I’m off to relax and hopefully stay awake for this week’s episode of Heroes. Thanks for all of the great comments regarding the BSI: Pumpkin post earlier! I am so excited about it :)   I already have received a ton of submissions!

BSI Announcement

I must say I am SOOOOOOOOOO incredibly honored AND excited that Trying To Heal has selected me for this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient contest!  She asked me yesterday so I was completely racking my brain all night thinking about what to choose as the “magic ingredient“.  With the help of Bill, I came up with an ingredient that I’m really excited about – I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

Before I “announce” the ingredient, let’s do a quick recap of the BSI’s…

Just as a reminder, here are the rules:

1.  Recipes can be submitted by linking to the blog or e-mailing me (loveofoats@gmail.com) with a link to your recipe.
2.  If you do not have a blog, you can still participate by emailing me your submission (complete with the recipe instructions & pictures).
3.  Please submit your entry by Sunday, November 23rd at 7pm (Eastern Time).  I will do a recap on Saturday of all the submissions received thus far.

Now the goodies!  The prize for winning the BSI contest this week will be: an official “For The Love Of Oats Oatmeal mix-in kit”.  I will come up with an assortment of yummy mix-ins for the winner to top their oats (or yogurt) with!

So, without further adieu, “ALLEZ CUISINE” (for those of you Iron Chef watchers), the blogger secret ingredient is…

PUMPKIN

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It was important for me to pick an item that most bloggers would already have stocked in their pantry AND an item that reflects the existing fall season AND the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  I hope you all like my choice of ingredient and I can’t wait to read and decide on the winning entry!

Just to note:  I will accept entries using ANY part of the pumpkin either the flesh OR the seeds.  I love both as you know so I couldn’t decide between the two!