Van De Kamp’s Parchment Bakes Review and a Wonderful, Productive Day!

Tuesday…my day off! I’m enjoying my days off while I can because in about a month I will be back to working every day of the week like most people have to.

I slept in this morning, got a good 9 hours sleep. My body still feels a little off with this time change, but give it a few more days and I should be back to normal. It’s weird how that affects how a person feels! Time to reset the internal clock, I guess.

I stayed in bed for a few minutes reading the next book I’m going to review. I love reading all of these health books—it helps me learn more and more about healthy living.

I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks for Pistachio-Mango muffins. I modified the recipe. I loved the ingredients in this. So healthy!

The finished product:

So for breakfast, I ate one of those along with an egg, a glass of milk and a banana.

Someone told me about cooking an egg in just a bit of water, so I decided to give it a try. And I loved it! They have the consistency of a boiled egg and the inside was just perfect—not too runny and not too hard. And since I’m a dummy when it comes to cooking eggs, I had to Google the official term—which is poaching. So that’s what a poached egg is! haha

After breakfast, I sat down with a cup of freshly ground and brewed coffee and Almond Joy creamer.

Can you believe I got that porcelain mug for free? Well, actually I got TWO of them! Hubby has a Menard’s card and they often have coupons in their statements and there was a coupon for two free coffee mugs. I had been eyeing them for a long time too! It’s double walled so it isn’t hot to the touch either. What a deal!

And then I sat down and caught up on some blogs. If you are a blogger and I don’t follow your blog—hit me up with a link in the comments. Although I am having a problem with my blog roll. When I try to add more blogs, it won’t save! Any suggestions?

Be sure to check out Jury’s recap of her 1st 1/2 marathon! Congrats, Jury!!

After that I did the usual laundry and dishwasher tasks. My cats like to “assist” me while I try to do laundry. Here’s Daisy in the clothes hamper bag. She likes to sleep in there sometimes and I forget about her and she gets locked in the closet!

By that time, the weather was finally almost 60 degrees! It was 73 degrees today. In March… <3.

I headed out for my 20-25 minute run today. Here I am pre-workout:

I ran 2 miles straight in 25 minutes and walked the rest of the way home for a total of 2.36 miles in 31:47.

It was just so beautiful out there, I came right home and hopped on my bike for the first time this year! I have missed that! It was a little windy, but it still felt good, although I was tired from the run. I biked 2.41 miles in 15:06. Just a little added workout for the day.

Between the two workouts, I burned 611 calories. Yay!

I was starving by the time I got home. And since the weather was so beautiful, I decided to grill. I grilled a salmon burger and then made a wrap with a Mission Carb Balance Wheat Tortilla, Blue cheese, tomato and the salmon along with a salad with lettuce, tomato, a boiled egg and light Caesar dressing.

It was so good and I was so hungry I could have eaten two. Not wanting to deal with hunger for the rest of the day, I made myself a protein smoothie with light vanilla yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, mango, flax seed, and protein powder. And here I am post workout, looking a mess. I really need to invest in some headbands for running in! With my big head, the ones in the stores always slip off! Any other big headed people have recommendations? lol

The last book I read said that we should be eating half of our body weight in grams of protein each day. I can do that. I have to work for it, but it’s attainable. The book I am reading now says you should eat your body weight in grams of protein each day. That’s a lot of protein and I have no idea how I could get that all in! For those of you that track your protein intake, what do you aim for? I’ve heard so many conflicting opinions.

After resting for a little while, it was time to conquer my project for the day—cleaning and organizing my book shelf and making space for my cookbooks so that I can free up cupboard space in the kitchen.

Here’s the before shot (please ignore my terrible photos that I don’t edit…lol):

And after:

I think it looks a lot better! The top shelf is all cookbooks.

And this was my shelf in the cupboard with cookbooks:

What a mess! And for now, I made a cupboard for coffee mugs and water bottles. More work to be done here though.

It doesn’t look like a hard project, but I was so tired when I was done and ready to crash. It takes mental strength to organize books in alphabetical order by author…lol And I was also hungry!

I ate some pistachios.

I want to start eating more nuts to add some variety to my diet. I like almonds, pistachios, and peanuts. Any other suggestions? I am trying to eat more healthy fats and I like the fact that nuts also have protein.

After my snack, I called my Mom. Today is her birthday. She’s 21 again! Happy Birthday, Mom! And so I got to sit in the porch for a while and enjoy the nice day while talking to Mom and then to my sister also.

Hubby got home earlier tonight, which was nice! Tonight, I wanted to try the new ParchmentBakes from Mrs. Paul’s and Van De Kamp’s. I received coupons to try the product as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Mrs. Paul's and Van de Kamp's.

I tried the Garlic Butter Tilapia tonight, but they are also available in Classic Grilled Tilapia, Lemon Pepper Tilapia and Roasted Garlic Tilapia.

The nutrition facts look good:

Nutrition Facts

Serv. Size: 102g
Servings Per Container: 2
Calories:	80
Calories from Fat:	<="1010<" td="td">
		%DV
Saturated Fat:	0g	0%
Total Fat:	1g	2%
Cholesterol:	30mg	10%
Sodium:	240mg	10%
Carbohydrates:	4g	1%
Fiber:	0g	0%
Sugar:	1g
Protein:	14g
Vitamin A		6%
Vitamin C:		0%
Calcium		0%
Iron		0%

And I was excited to try them out…but honestly I was expecting a “frozen meal” kind of taste. I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out tasting like something I might order at a restaurant!

The fish comes packaged in a delicious sauce inside of a parchment bag. You just put the bags on a cookie sheet and bake them at 400 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. And voila! Delicious fish!

This is what it looked like when done cooking:

I highly recommend these. They are delicious, low in calorie, high in protein, and a healthy and quick option.

If you want to try them, you can download this Buy One, Get One Free coupon—what a great deal!

I ate mine with lentils with vinegar, roasted Brussels sprouts with onion, and low fat cottage cheese.

A deliciously healthy meal! Stay tuned in the future as I try out the other flavors!

And I was craving some Blue Bunny Bunny Tracks for dessert.

So good.

I have eaten 1,670 calories today and I am allowed 1,678 each day—not including calories burned during exercise. I will be having a little snack tonight, I’m at a HUGE deficit for the week—over and above what’s already calculated in for me to lose 1.5 lbs. Hopefully my body works with me and doesn’t retain fluid for weigh in tomorrow!!

But at least this way, I know what the numbers are and what I SHOULD expect. But as we know, we can’t always control the fluid retention of our bodies. It’s such a great feeling. I don’t think I had enough information counting points on WW. I actually just heard a Podcast by Jillian Michaels where she discussed that very topic about WW. I actually felt like I could have been calling in asking the question! If you don’t listen to her Podcasts, you MUST. They’re free on iTunes. I learn SO much from them. I have almost listened to all of them!

Tonight, hubby and I are going to take it easy and I’m really looking forward to it!