Wonderful Afternoon!!

Panko Parmesan Baked Tilapia

with Sauteed Butternut Squash and Broccoli and Brown Rice

I had a great afternoon, despite the fact that I spent way too much money on groceries! We’re really trying to watch how much we spend, and I went to Trader Joe’s for cheap walnuts and came home with $70 worth of kashi crackers, cheap cereal, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, and frozen salmon! Yikes! Then I went to Harris Teeter for the regular groceries and spent another $100….I have no idea how (well, I did buy his/hers vitamins and a big frozen turkey breast and lots of canned tuna/salmon). I told the husband with the exception of bread, milk, bananas, and handful of fresh fruit/veggies, these groceries have to last us 2 weeks at least!!

I got home from the grocery store at 4:45 and we had to turn around and go back out to get our Christmas tree before the lot closed (although it might have been open all night – but we didn’t want to risk it!) I was pretty hungry at this point but I knew we’d be back soon. The salmon casserole held me over quite well!

Snack

Once back with our tree, I had a clementine and some soy nuts I found from last year when I was cleaning out the pantry!! Sounds gross, but they were quite delicious. Made me want to buy them again, but I guess if they were a year old they must not be one of my regulars 😳

Christmas Tree

We spent the next hour decorating the house! Here’s our tree – it’s the same size as me!

And some funky ornaments I hung in the kitchen:

And a centerpiece I made from the tree clippings and holiday nuts, plus the cute husband!

I gave myself an extra 100 calories today because of all the movement shopping, decorating, cleaning and packing for my trip.

Dinner

We got a late start on dinner and were pretty hungry when we finally sat down. I don’t think we ate until 8:00! This dinner was FABULOUS!!!!! And we just kind of put it together on a whim. We decided to have fish last night and thawed out some frozen tilapia, then we had a butternut squash to use up and I wanted to try sauteeing it. I got some broccoli at the store for something green. Since I was pretty hungry, we decided to add brown rice too! It was a lot of food but I had the room tonight.

Panko-Parmesan Tilapia

We pressed the panko bread crumbs (1/4 a cup between the two of us) and about 2 tbsp (12 grams) of grated parmesan cheese onto the fish, sprayed with cooking spray and then baked it for 15 minutes. It didn’t need any fat and was DELICIOUS!!!

Sauteed butternut squash and broccoli, seasoned with lemon juice and dill. We did use a little EVOO on the veggies. And salt and pepper.

And short grain brown rice with a dollop of plain yogurt (which is great on rice! It holds it together and makes is creamy.)

Total dinner calories: 550. Like I said, it was high, but I had more than enough room. On a normal night I would have had a half serving of rice and reduced the amount of squash to pull it back to about 400 calories.

Total Sunday calories: 1515.

-526 through run and activity

=net of 990. Yikes that’s low. I would love some pumpkin pie dessert, but I HAVE to get to bed and still have unanswer>ed questions. I might have a small glass of milk – I’ll let you know in the AM!

Edited to add that I had a glass of milk – add 100 calories to everything!

Travel

One last thing – I’m headed to Syracuse tomorrow for work (our company is headquartered there and we’re having our annual PR retreat). My flight leaves at 8 a.m. so I’m getting up at 5 (normal time!). I’m all packed and organized and ready to go. I should be able to get all three meals posted and will definitely take my camera 🙂 I will not be able to workout tomorrow and we have a fancy dinner planned for the evening. I’m planning on a club soda during cocktail hour and wine with dinner (1 glass). I did get to choose my entree tomorrow night – salmon – so I know it’ll be somewhat healthy. Lunch is catered sandwiches, so that should be OK too. We have an hour break and I am going to try hard to get some walking around the hotel, if it looks safe.

I do have all my workout gear packed and plan on getting up at 5:30 or 5 on Tuesday to workout in the hotel gym before we have to be ready at 7:45 or so. Although breakfast is catered, I would rather eat my favorite oatmeal than risk it just being bagels and pasteries, so I’m bringing a banana, walnuts and plain instant oatmeal to make with hot water in my room. I have a whole array of snacks packed too! You just never know what will be available! So that’s my strategy of tackling the real world, real food style!

See you all tomorrow!