I know that January is a month of healthier resolutions. We’ve all used the excuse of the holidays to indulge in too many desserts, cheese and wine (You did, right? Don’t leave me here confessing to sins all on my own). The beginning of a new year is a good time to reassess what worked and didn’t the year before, to get a bit of a kick to recommit to old goals or start fresh with a “clean slate.” It’s like the ultimate “Monday.” I dig it.

And while I’m not really into New Year’s resolutions (at least not this year) in recent weeks my fire for healthy cooking and exercise has been reignited. And I’m hoping the newness of the year will keep it up. Even on days when “there is nothing in the fridge,” I keep at it. Last night the digging turned up a crazy delicious pasta dish, created from pantry staples and a few random bits in the fridge. I have an archive of recipes to share with you, but this one wins today. 

Pantry staples (and a few random bits) pasta

Adopted from the Eating Well cookbook, serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8oz dry whole wheat pasta
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups spinach
• 15-oz can of diced tomatoes with chiles
• Two 15-oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.
• 1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 2T finely shredded pecorino cheese

Directions:

• Boil pasta according to instructions on package
• Fry bacon and blot on paper towels (reserve bacon grease).
• Heat 1T of reserved bacon grease on medium heat, add garlic.
• When garlic is golden brown, add cannellini beans, basil, spinach, diced tomatoes, olives and grape tomatoes and stir.
• When the spinach has wilted, add cooked pasta, crumbled bacon and pecorino cheese.
• Taste for seasonings (a little more salt or pepper may be needed) and enjoy.

This was so quick and easy and the flavor blew us away. I love the smokiness of the bacon, the saltiness of the olives and the slight heat from the chiles in the tomatoes (if you just have diced tomatoes and want a bit of heat, add a sprinkle of hot pepper flakes). I’m adding the recipe to my favorites list!

Here is to keeping at it. Always. And eating delicious and healthy meals!

What do you make on nearly bare-fridge days? You can say make a phone call for delivery

A recipe for a quick and light mac & cheese to the rescue!

I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Weeknight light mac & cheese

Largely based on Cook’s Illustratt ed The Best Light Recipe

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 8 oz dry macaroni
• 12 oz can of reduced fat evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 8 oz 50% light cheddar cheese, such as Cabot – shredded
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 4 slices bacon (I used fresh bacon from Stillman’s which tasted more like pork tenderloin than smoky bacon… I think real cured bacon would be really nice here)

Instructions:

• Cook macaroni according to package instructions.
• Fry bacon, then pat dry between paper towels and dice. Discard bacon fat.
• Bring a mixture of evaporated milk, 1/2 cup milk, dry mustard, garlic powder and cayenne to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
• Add in frozen peas.
• Whisk cornstarch with the remainder of milk. Add to the evaporated milk + peas mixture.
• Continue whisking until the sauce is thickened. Take off heat.
• Whisk in shredded cheddar cheese, then macaroni.
• Let the mac & cheese rest for about 5 minutes so the sauce is absorbed into the macaroni.
• Stir in bacon. Adjust for seasoning, if needed.
• Enjoy!

I was impatient so my first serving was a bit runny but still creamy and definitely plenty cheesy. The sauce really thickened up overnight so the leftovers were spot on.

What are you latest favorite recipes for busy nights?

Anyways, I’m cool now and I want to tell you about the dinner I cooked for my dad’s birthday last weekend (sticking to my 30 by 30 list and hosting dinner parties left and right. haha)! His birthday happens to be on my wedding anniversary. Adam and I celebrated the night, just the 2 of us, but I had plans to make it up to my dad soon enough.

When hosting a dinner party do you pick a theme or just go with delicious recipes?

I wanted to make sure this was really really delicious so for my main course I chose a recipe I’ve made (and loved!) before – chicken thighs on the grill (btw, I always tag my favorite recipes so you can find them easily… on the right hand side).

Next up were these lovely ravioli with prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, basil and mozzarella in Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef cookbook. The pictures have been enticing me for weeks and a special birthday dinner seemed like the right time to break out my pasta roller! [PS – you can find the entire recipe on this blog]

Seriously, such cuties!

It appears that I had an Italian theme developing so I went with it! Doesn’t strawberry ricotta cake sound kind of Italian? [If you say ricottttte like Giada, it definitely will ]

OH YEAH!

Add a few Russian cheesy profiterole-like puffs (recipe coming to Russian Bites next)…

Some green beans with wild mushrooms…

And we have dinner!!

My mom was a giant help with executing the menu. I got a little ambitious planning this… happens every time!

I was hoping this would turn into delicious comfort food, fit for a hole in the wall restaurant. I don’t know if I hit the bar quite that high (I’m pretty critical of my own cooking) but every single item turned out absolutely delicious… I can tell you that!

Happy birthday, dad!!

[Ha, he was trying to make a funny face when I pulled out the camera… I say that worked!]

Hope your dreams all come true!

The angel food cake meets Italian grandmother was so light and the perfect ending to our Italian feast. Adam asked that I add it to our rotation of desserts (which means I should start a rotation of desserts! Yessss). I’m adding more strawberries between each layer next time!

Have you entertained recently? Do you have go-to items for dinner parties?

This week, however, I was on a mission to finally make things that have been on my to-make list for AGES. I bought the ingredients weeks ago and this week was the week!!! Wanna see what I’ve been up to in my kitchen? Come, come!!

Jen posted about these salmon burgers last August during her burger week and raved about them. I love smoked salmon and thought it was such a fun addition to the mix.

Unfortunately wild salmon is very lean and I overcooked these. They tasted like dry smoked salmon patties – the sauce was the only saving grace. I mixed greek yogurt with sriracha and diced grape tomatoes. They added some spice and freshness.

The next night I wanted to make something with goat cheese. I cooked some ww pasta, sauteed mushrooms and spinach, threw in some leftover lamb sausage and then topped it all with creamy sundried tomato and goat cheese sauce.

I was a bit disappointed with how thin the sauce turned out… but it ended up thickening significantly as it cooled.

Adam actually said this was one of the best things I’ve made in a while! After a few bites I was hooked too – creamy and slightly tangy, with a pronounced sun-dried tomato flavor and just a hint of nuttiness from walnuts.

Btw, I only used 2-3T of sun-dried tomato olive oil (from the jar the tomatoes were in) instead of 7. This was plenty rich as is!

Next up, a craving hit. I NEEDED cheesecake asap. Although I live across the street from the Cheesecake Factory, I stay away from their 1,000+ calorie slices.

Instead, I went with an old (healthier!) favorite – honey yogurt cheesecake bars (ick, my photos have improved over the years, huh?).

I did have some meyer lemons so meyer lemon cheesecake bars were born (I added a bunch of juice and zest and subbed agave nectar for honey to let the lemon flavor stand out).

Can you see how light these are? They taste decadent but also very airy unlike the more traditional dense cheesecakes. I really love this recipe!

Agave isn’t as sweet as honey so these weren’t sweet enough for my liking (and the meyer lemon flavor was still lost) so I drizzled some maple syrup over the bars once cooled. I guess they ended up being maple syrup cheesecake bars!

Whatever you call them, these were delicious! How would you make the lemon flavor be more pronounced? I was afraid about too much liquid if I continued to add lemon juice….

Last recipe! I told you I was busy in the kitchen this week!!! GRANOLA.

While most of you (from what I read ) seem to be obsessed with cereal and granola and need a lock on your cupboards, I’m much more of a trailmix/nut/cookie girl. Cereal, as delicious as it is, isn’t a “trigger” food for me.

That was apparently because I’ve never made homemade granola – totally different ball game! I made Flour Bakery‘s granola last month and was amazed at how much I loved it. In fact, I ate a whole container-worth in just a matter of a few days… and it was supposed to be “for Adam.”

So this week I tried again. I followed NY Times’ recipe for olive oil granola (found through Tri to Cook).

I thought you could just throw everything in and bake, but I learned a lesson here. Yeah, someone didn’t read the instructions well! Add the dried fruit at the end - my beautifully sweet dried apricots turned into rocks!!! No worries, I picked them out and carried on with my newly established granola obsession.

Adam said it was the best granola he’s ever had!! I actually can’t choose between this one and Flour’s – both are fantastic. A little salty, crunchy, nutty. Yeah, I’m going to be honest – this granola has been enjoyed more often than not, straight out of the jar. And I’m ok with it

If you meal plan, how often do you deviate from the plan? I was so proud for following through because there is not much better than a delicious homemade meal.

On next week’s agenda – take ice cream and granola bars off the list. I hope to report back next week with some pictures for evidence

With that said, I always thought it was a little too advanced for me… until one day Shannon had me and Kerstin over for a little ravioli making fun (ok, that first picture of me is embracing. I think I’m going to have to pre-approve all future pictures of me in the blogosphere ).

We made the most delicious butternut squash/mascarpone ravioli and that’s when I realized that with the right tools, homemade ravioli is actually quite easy! I added the KitchenAid pasta roller attachment to my wishlist that very night and was very happy when Adam purchased it for me for Christmas! He’s a good husband!

Well, over 3 months later I finally made my very first batch of ravioli at home! Shannon was coming over to hang out so I put her to work as well. It really is easy – I’ll show you!

We made pasta dough out of 150g Italian 00 flour, 50g white whole wheat, 2 eggs and a pinch of salt. You start by making a little well for the eggs (see above), and gently incorporating the eggs into the flour – one at a time.

With a bit of muscle (and a bit of water, if needed) these few simple ingredients become pasta dough!

Divide into little pieces, and cover under a damp (not wet!) towel.

Roll each ball into a disk, and then it’s time to use your fancy equipment! There is a knob on the right of the attachment – start with 1 (thickest) and work your way up to the thickness (or should I say thinness?) of preference (with a bit of trial and error, we learned that “5” was perfect for ravioli).

With each round, the pasta sheet becomes thinner and longer!

Whoa!

Fold into thirds (or more) and repeat 2 or 3 more times (again, starting with 1… going up to 5). This will result in a smoother texture of pasta.

Ready to turn those pasta sheets into ravioli?

We made 2 different fillings – mashed potato and mushroom (Russian inspired) and shrimp, sundried tomato & feta. Both were fantastic!!

I had this “fancy” ravioli mold which produced very pretty ravioli but was a pain! Here is what the process looked like – you could also just free style it (you’ll see below we switched to that method after a while).

Don’t these look professional? We were very proud!

Repeat with the shrimp filling.

This pasta sheet was done at a “6” thickness – it was too thin to hold the shape together. See what happened? No bueno.

Btw, if you have any extra dough after shaping your ravioli, you can combine all your scraps and run them through the machine again – you may just have another batch there!

Fresh pasta cooks very quickly. These were ready in 2-3 minutes in boiling water.

Here are the free-styled ones (we sauteed them in a bit of EVOO, balsamic vinegar and chopped basil). So yum!

It took a bit more effort and love but the results were well worth it. I can’t wait to continue experimenting with different pasta dough recipes and fillings.

Have you ever made ravioli from scratch? What fillings should I try next?

So I wanted to talk today about something that I recently noticed about myself… I am a true Internet addict. Yes, many of us spend quite a bit of our time online (especially bloggers!) but for me the problem is that… once I pop, I can’t stop! Okay, maybe that exact expression is more fitting for chips, but seriously… if I allow myself “just 1 minute” to check the email, several hours pass by and its way past my bedtime. I check an email – that leads to a website, or twitter… and you know where that gets you. Twitter is not exactly productive. I’ve been trying to set a strict “bed time” but it’s not working. Anyone else is an Internet addict? I know at least a few of you are. Any tips of how to take it a little easier, or at least help with the whole “get in bed at a reasonable hour so you don’t look and feel like a zombie in the morning”?

You know what helps a bit in the morning though?

BREAKFAST!

How do you like that segway? Oh I crack myself up…

2 When Pigs Fly maple, pineapple, raisin with toasted sesame and ginger toasts with crunchy Barney Butter and a kiwi

Yum, yum, yum. Sweet and sour. Time for work!

MID-MORNING SNACKS

Shelling peas and 1 almond stuffed medjool date (unpictured – I’ll snap a few photos of my new date stuffing method for a future post).

WORKOUT

So Wednesday was my first workout in a week. Yikes! I took a super hard spin class and vowed to never take such a long break from working out again. It was due to a combination of going away for the weekend and work being super busy. Yesterday, I went back for more – this time for an abs + RIPPED class. Basically a crazy awesome bootcamp that I totally thought I couldn’t handle but somehow came out alive out of. The instructor was making fun of me a bit because I kept screwing up. She knows I haven’t been there in a few weeks and we both saw the pretty obvious consequences of such actions. She’s out on vacation next week, but I am going to ace these bootcamp classes again. I used to be one of the best in the class. I want to feel super strong again!!

LUNCH

We had no produce in the house, which meant a quick trip to the farmers market was in order. Here are my 2 favorite booths at the Prudential Center farmers market (open on Thursdays only).

Samira’s Homemade

The 3rd one down is my beloved baba ganoush. They sell it at Whole Foods but it’s cheaper at the farmers market since it cuts out the middle man. I stocked up!

Hehe, the guy that was working there wanted to be in the picture I think. Here you go, sir – your moment of fame.

Spring Brook Farm

This is definitely one of my favorites at our local farmers markets. I love that the girl that runs it is very knowledgeable about their farming practices and chicken raising (they sell their own eggs – from range free chickens that have their beaks for only $3.50/dozen – that’s cheaper than organic eggs at a super market!!).

I also love that their gorgeous produce is significantly cheaper than anywhere else. I think they actually watch their competition and try to undercut it a bit. Hey works for me. It’s still not cheap (i.e. I know they are well paid) but it’s more affordable compared to others for sure.

I bought SO much stuff there yesterday. It was pretty much a 1 stop shop.

… oh yeah, about lunch. I got a sandwich from the Iggy’s stand. They have the chewiest baguettes. LOVE.

Fresh mozzarella, organic tomatoes, organic basil with white vinegar dressing on buttered ficelle (I could do without the butter )

So fresh and delicious. It also held me off for hours, without making me feel super stuffed. Perfect!

DINNER

How could I forget? CEiMB meals are back! This week’s dish was penne with roasted tomatoes, garlic and white beans (recipe here). I got the tomatoes and basil at the farmers market for it so I felt it still utilized some local produce. I like really centering my meals around that.

This took quite a bit of time to make (not active time, just waiting for the tomatoes and garlic to roast) and I’m not sure that it was worth it. Maybe I overcrowded my tomatoes (I nearly double the amount based on reviews online) but they kind of came out stewed rather than roasted. This was a little on the bland side (again, maybe I should have doubled the garlic and oil too to compensate for the extra tomatoes?). We enjoyed it but I won’t be making it again.

Dessert: Russian apple cake made by my mother in law:

Adam and I each enjoyed a little slice with what was left of the greek yogurt froyo. I need to make another batch!!

Are you an Internet junkie like myself? Make me feel a little better – let me know

Any fun plans for the weekend? We have so much going on. It also happens to be our 2-year wedding anniversary this coming Monday and my dad’s birthday so there is lots to celebrate. See you tomorrow morning with a post.

I kept the menu simple but of course made sure to cook some of my FIL’s favorites – pasta bolognese, fresh homemade rolls… + a special surprise dessert.

Since pasta was going to be the main star ingredient, I wanted to make sure we got the best fresh pasta we could find. Good thing we had a Groupon from Dave’s Fresh Pasta in Sommerville. It was a bit of a drive (not far but with a billion traffic lights in took forever) but the place was so cool! Dave’s offers pasta and ravioli (with the most unique fillings!) made fresh daily. They also have monthly specials for ravioli and sauces.  For the pasta, you can indicate the kind you want (I chose whole wheat) and the cut (see picture for options below).

Pappardelli is my favorite pasta cut and I thought it would go perfectly with the pork bolognese dish I had in mind.

Freshhhhh!

I made a full-fat dessert but decided to keep dinner “lighter” by following this recipe from Cooking Light for spaghetti with pork bolognese. It sounded quite rich already. I believe the “trick” is to use a mixture of ground pork tenderloin (very lean) and regular ground pork (fattier). The guy at the Whole Foods meat counter laughed at Adam when he asked for ground pork tenderloin, but I knew we could just grind it ourselves. We got a pound of pork tenderloin, and after 10 pulses in the food processor, it was perfect! [PS - if you do this, don't pulse for more than 10 pulses, otherwise it will become a pork paste - not exactly the consistency desired here]. I also omitted the onions and celery (we don’t care for either) and used organic bacon instead of pancetta since we already had it in the house. The sauce took a while (not hard, just time consuming) but at the end we had a giant bowl of papardelle with pork bolognese for our (um, my) efforts.

This pasta was rich with A LOT of pork.

I also made some no-knead overnight parmesan and thyme rolls (recipe from Cooking Light can be found here). The picture in the magazine just looked too good and the no-knead promise eluded me into thinking that this was going to be easy. Well, there were certainly a few problems with these guys for me. My yeast seemed dead (I tried it twice and didn’t see any bubbles but went ahead anyway), it didn’t roll very pretty so I cut the rolls in half (I think that was a good decision anyway); I didn’t let it rise for a full hour (since I wasn’t sure that the yeast was fully active, I didn’t bother waiting the entire time)… but they came out all right!

My plate:

I didn’t realize that the traditional bolognese is made with red meat (I knew it, it just didn’t click that this was not what I was making) but it was still pretty good. Not to-die-for amazing but quite good. Adding a pinch of nutmeg and simmering with the cinnamon stick did add nice warmth to this dish. As to the rolls – I really enjoyed the thyme, and they were a little nutty from the olive oil. A little butter went a long way on these.

The pasta was quite rich so I ate only a little over half of it, but I did have this whole glass of Honey Moon Vognier.

Oh, and a slice of Boston cream pie!

It’s my FIL’s favorite, and we all enjoyed it. And yes, you’re going to have to wait for more details on it until the next post.

What’s your favorite kind of cake?

It was Christmas Eve, and both the bootcamp and spin classes were cancelled last minute. I was already at the gym, dressed and ready to go but not really in the mood to push myself on my own. I needed an instructor to tell me what to do. We all have those days, right? This is when I was informed that there was one class available – yoga. Without much thinking, I ran to the studio and I think that practice has changed my life (maybe a bit dramatic but I really think it’s true). I’ve been going back every since, every Thursday, and I think it’s possible that this class contributed to my decision to stop training for my half. The class continues to push me in such a unique way. It’s physically challenging but more importantly, somehow between all the flowing I am able to let go of all this excess. It is opening my mind to the fact that there is no room for self-judgement and “punishment” for silly things. Last Thursday, during shavasana, our instructor passed by each of us and sprayed us with some lavendar. It would be such a strange concept anywhere else outside of a yoga studio but right then and there, it felt so pure and comforting. I wish I could take yoga with me everywhere. Maybe I can. I hope I’ll get there one day.

All right, enough cheesiness (sometimes I can’t help myself ) – let’s EAT. *Back to Sunday*

BREAKFAST

Whole wheat bagel (scooped out) with olive/jalapeno cream cheese and cucumber slices + coffee

Olive cream cheese is my favorite, and jalapeno is my second favorite. This past Sunday, I decided to combine my two cream cheese loves and make my own cream cheese (well, kinda). I chopped up some jalapeno stuffed green olives and mixed them in with plain whipped cream cheese. I also added some olive juice to the mix, just to make sure the cream cheese is really flavored. This was brilliant!!! I’m a genius. lol. The cucumber slices also added a nice crunch and freshness. I love consuming veggies at breakfast!

LUNCH

Leftover (self-made) sushi

A few more closeups. Yes, I’m a proud sushi mama.

SNACKS

A yummy orange while running errands

Then honey caramel tea at Wired Puppy

A little sample of the breakfast glory muffin – it tasted like a carrot cake muffin…mmmm

And then a special treat! I was at Wired Puppy for a coffee date with my friend Katy. She brought these homemade oreos from Hi-Rise Bread bakery.

I had one and thought I died and went to heaven. I savored every bite. So delicious!!

DINNER

We were running low on fresh produce so I was proud to have come up with a delicious (real!) meal for dinner. I used the artichoke, spinach and feta stuffed shells I made a while back as an inspiration, but kept it much simpler. I chopped up some pepperoncinis, combined them with TJ’s tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes and some dried oregano and let it simmer while the pasta was cooking. I boiled 8 oz of whole wheat mini shells, then topped them with some leftover spinach artichoke dip, the sauce and 2 oz of cheese. I baked this for 20 minutes at 350*.

Spicy, creamy, cheesy, carby – I had a happy husband on my hands. Excellent!

There really is some spinach and artichoke dip in there. See?

This was a really great day of eats. I definitely ate intuitively and was happy with the quality and the quantity of my food. If I can eat like that every day, life would be good.

Have your workouts ever inspired other aspects of your life? Maybe just feeling strong and confident is already a big win. I love working out!!

I really wanted my first meal to be elaborate. I wanted to spend hours in the kitchen- chopping, mixing, stirring, baking. When my parents in law mentioned they wanted to come visit us this Sunday to see our new kitchen, Adam and I agreed it would be a great idea to cook for them. I browsed through cookbooks to find that “perfect” recipe. Oh, how I missed this!

Since dinner was going to take a while to prepare, I knew I wanted dessert to be quick and easy. Ellie Krieger’s almond/cherry chocolate clusters is definitely one of my go-to desserts. The recipe has only 3 ingredients and comes together incredibly fast. The best part – it’s SO delicious. How can it not be – it’s almonds, cherries and chocolate!!

Yes, we started our dinner with dessert. That’s my kind of meal!

While I was making the sauce for the lasagna (oops, did I spoil the surprise? ), Adam decided to open the champagne my PILs brought.

Real champagne this time.

Cheers!

The bubbles are so pretty

After hours in the kitchen, dinner was finally ready. I loved that I was able to stay in the kitchen the entire time, yet could 100% participate in all the conversation. The new kitchen is definitely perfect for entertaining!

I used this recipe from The Best Light Recipe cookbook for meat & cheese lasagna. I really trust this cookbook – every single thing I’ve made from it was absolutely perfect (read: tastes like the real thing).

I added some mushrooms to the sauce (when adding the tomatoes) and baby spinach (a few minutes before taking it off the stove and adding the basil) for added nutrients and because I like both (and happened to have them on hand). I think even more veggies would be great – they would bulk up the lasagna and add new flavors and textures.

Some whole wheat toasts, drizzled with EVOO and rubbed with garlic made for easy “garlic bread.”

My plate:

The lasagna was SO good! Seriously, this book never disappoints. My father in law considers himself a lasagna connoisseur and he said this was definitely up there with the best lasagna he’s had. Everyone was shocked that this was a “light recipe.” It was so cheesy and hearty!

On the side, I also served everyone with some escarole with pine nuts (another Ellie Krieger’s recipe). This was great as well. Really flavorful and complemented the creamy lasagna perfectly.

This was a fabulous meal if I do say so myself. I can’t wait for more delicious and healthy eats coming out of our new kitchen!

What would be the first meal you’d make in a new kitchen?

I kept the rest of my toenails in tact, with some pilates and nutritious eats

BREAKFAST

Egg whites, cheese and bacon on a FFL english muffin + coffee

[308 calories]

LUNCH

Ellie Krieger nutty sweet potato soup

[290 calories]

Eaten while on a conference call to make sure I have enough fuel for pilates.

SNACKS

[280 calories]

[120 calories]

+ a Hershey’s chocolate almond bar (unpictured). I don’t know why, but these are my guilty pleasure. I really wanted chocolate so I hit up the vending machine. I hope to keep these incidents to the minimum. [210 calories]

DINNER

We have a few more days with our old kitchen so we’re trying to use up everything we have in the fridge that we won’t be able to cook once construction starts. Today’s dinner was easy and super delicious!

Nuovo portabella & fontina ravioli with peas and vodka sauce + roasted cauliflower

The ravioli was delicious! I love fresh made pasta. These were not only yummy but very pretty – great for a meal for company that can be made in less than 10 minutes! (the ravioli took 4 minutes to cook once the water boiled).

The roasted cauliflower was pretty awesome too (even Adam loved it even though he wasn’t excited about this addition to dinner beforehand). I roasted it for about 20 minutes at 450*. Easy peasy

[~350-400 calories]

Then the snacking began I swear, every time I watch the Biggest Loser, I eat! How screwed up is that?!! I had a packet of almonds and 4 squares of chocolate. I wanted to continue going but realized that there was absolutely nothing I was craving and that I wasn’t hungry, so I forbid myself from going back to the kitchen. Crisis (kind of) averted.

Total calories consumed: over 2,000. It’s still a work in progress, obviously. At least my workouts have their luster back

Have you ever had exercise related injuries… or lost soldiers?