WIAW #1!

My first What I Ate Wednesday post! I'm going to share what I eat on a typical work day.

You might say, on a work day? blah. boring. Well yeah, but I've been unemployed for so long that it's actually been kind of a struggle to get back into the habit of bringing lunch to work. And having enough energy after work to cook. Granted, I get far less time on my lunch break at this job than I did when I was still at my post doc, and this is a much more exhausting job, but the hours are shorter.

I start out with my usual breakfast of egg, toast, water and coffee. I eat this every day, without fail. The type of bread changes (cardamom bread today, a fabulous loaf I hid away in the chest freezer and Clint found a few days ago! what a nice surprise, and it's just as good as the day I baked it... like 8 months ago), the toppings change (today is butter, because my weight loss is going well enough that I feel I can indulge, and homemade peach vanilla bourbon jam), but it's always egg and toast.

This is a hefty breakfast, about 450 calories. But breakfast is the only meal I reliably eat.

 Then it's off to work! At work I down water constantly, since I have to talk so much that my throat gets scratchy very quickly. I wish I could strategically place cups of water along my tour route, but I keep an emergency stash of cough drops in my pocket for tours, just in case.

I love this cup that Gal R gave me for my birthday! I use it every day!

Then it's lunchtime. I prefer to keep my lunchbreaks to 10 or 15 minutes max, but I usually take the break to rest, not so much to eat. After my big breakfast, I'm usually not hungry til 2 or 3pm. This schedule started when I had mono during grad school, and I'd be starving when I got up so would have a huge breakfast (same as I still eat today, but 3 slices of toast instead of 2) and then would be unwell until 4 or 5pm, and eat then. It's weird but I go with it. My lunch breaks are usually anywhere between 12:30 and 3pm, it varies.

For lunch I have chobani with multi grain cheerios for added crunch, and an apple (or two tiny apples). Sometimes I mix it up and have a mutsu apple with laughing cow cheese, maybe with crackers or a slice of bread.

275 calories- makes up for the big breakfast!

After we close the store, clean up and restock all the shelves, we gather around the front bar (the beer bar on weekends, we only open the large back bar on Saturdays and Sundays, but of course the beer tap at the front bar can't be moved like bottles of wine can) for a drink and to discuss our crazier customers. Fortunately, every single person I work with is fun to hang out with- seriously, how did I get so lucky?! Maybe karma owed me for my previous job.

 My drink of choice varies every day, but I usually take a bit of whatever bottle others have brought out, today it's the blueberry port, and I'm trying to go through all our wines and beers to reacquaint myself. Today is our perry (pear cider) mixed with a dash of strawberry fortified dessert wine- the "Nashoba Bellini". Next time I plan to have Maiden's Blush, our version of a blush wine, with apples and berries. I haven't had this in years, it's pretty popular, and I really have no idea what it tastes like.

 Then I head home, totally ready for dinner. Tonight we had leftovers- chicken pie with biscuit crust. I love this recipe, and I really forget how good it is until I make it again. It's a great way to use leftover chicken or turkey, but today I sauteed up two chicken breasts and cut into bite sized piece to use. It takes about as long as it takes the oven to heat up to 400F to prepare, and 40 minutes to bake. It's definitely a doable after-work dinner to make, but I was very glad I'd made it the night before, so I just had to text my husband to heat up the oven and pop the pie in and when I got home, I just had to change out of my work clothes and sit at the table, and voila, dinner!

I haven't calculated the calories for this yet, but the filling is pretty healthy. 

On the other hand, the biscuits have 6T butter for 6 servings.

And tea, lots of tea. Fortunately Clint's Swedish co-worker brought us some Soder Te, which you can only get in the Stockholm area. I just opened our last box a week before!

 Dessert lately is kettle korn, leftover from the Big E. I always buy the enormous bag of kettle korn because it does last pretty well. And I now remember how good popcorn is... I have two popcorn recipes I am super excited to make, one is kettle korn (or maybe caramel corn, although kettle korn would be healthier!) using pumpkin pie spices, and the other is a pumpkin popcorn, but googling didn't come up with anything so I need to make up the recipe. I'm sure there will be a few failed batches, so I'll tell you about it once I'm successful.

My other favorite snack has been my new gingerbread cashew butter recipe on apples. Or dried apples. Or ciabatta (which didn't rise, but that's ok). Or a spoon. You know.

Like many of us, I become completely obsessed with pumpkin once the leaves start to turn. I was very sad when my negligence turned a delicious pumpkin bread into a moldy mess, since that was a really nice snack- about 170 calories per slice (16 slices per loaf). It was so tasty with a bit of neufchatel cream cheese! But at least I have my kettle korn.

I really want to have more popcorn around, since, at 130 calories for 2 cups, kettle korn is a much better snack than, say, the pumpkin bars with cream cheese I had at a meeting on Monday. Or reese's peanut butter cups (I have SUCH a craving lately but I refuse to buy any and give in!)

Speaking of snacks, I just read the September Cooking Light the other day. I'm so so eager to get on all those quick breads! At 190 calories per slice, they're not great, but better than a couple chocolate chip cookies- speaking of which, they redid chocolate chip cookies and cut the calories in half! I see a lot of snacky baked goods in my future. I'll have to step up my exercise so it doesn't push me back into my larger pants!