WIAW #41: Quick, Balanced Meals

Happy Hump Day! In true Wednesday WIAW (or What I Ate Wednesday) fashion, today is all about the eats.

(Almost) every week, I go through a full day of my eating habits with you. The purpose is to give you ideas on how to incorporate easy, healthy meals into your busy schedules.

At times you will see a picture of pizza or a bowl of ice cream, and I truly believe that occasional indulgences are an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Knowing how to include those “cheat meals” is just a part of keeping that consistent balance, and these recaps display my attempts at doing just that.

As always, a big thanks to Jenn for hosting the Wednesday food party link up. Now lets get on to it!

What I Ate Wednesday Tuesday

I have had a relatively hard time getting up at a normal hour this week. I think the busyness of the NBA season is finally catching up to me! Anyways, I woke up a little later than normal yesterday and went directly into the kitchen for breakfast.

Keeping it easy, I quickly grabbed a Pineapple Greek yogurt and topped it with Bear Naked Berry Fit Granola and a sliced banana to enjoy alongside my large cup of coffee.

I was satisfied for a while, but found myself rummaging through the pantry about an hour later for a pre-lunch snack. Wheat Thin crackers and roasted red pepper hummus is what lured me in!

Just noticed that expiration date… whoops!

Feeling content, I made my way back downstairs to work on the computer for a while, only coming back up for a meal around 2 p.m. With our crazy game schedule this month, I haven’t been the most creative in the recipe department. I have, however, become pretty good at pulling easy, balanced meals together in a pinch.

That is exactly what happened here for lunch.

(Qrunch quinoa burger with shredded Parmesan cheese over a plate of steamed vegetables.)

I have really fallen for quinoa over the past six months and wish I made it more often. When I am feeling lazy, I just pop one of those burgers in the toaster and it seems to do the job.

I also enjoyed a crunchy honey crisp apple!

I finished up my day at the computer around 5:30 p.m., which was just enough time to grab a snack before heading out to the gym. I wanted to make a green protein smoothie, but didn’t want to risk being late for Fitness Pilates class.

Instead, I filled a water bottle with a Mixed Berry Protein 2GO packet and ate a Chocolate Mint Zone Perfect Bar in the car.

It was important for me to make class in order to test out these brand new Reebok ZQuick sneakers I am reviewing.

*Stay tuned for an exciting giveaway with them coming your way very soon!

I got my booty handed to me with another stellar class, led by my favorite Lifetime Fitness group fitness instructor, Val. How the woman can teach and demonstrate the entire hour while holding planks, killing push ups and shouting directions in a motivating, high-energy way is still beyond me!

I was glad to have the extra energy in my water bottle because a short series of treadmill sprints was next on the agenda.

I left a sweaty, sweaty mess!

Lucky for me, I live right down the road from the gym and made it home in ten minutes… HUNGRY. I found Scott digging into spaghetti leftovers, and used his extra sauce to start my own dinner.

Continuing on with my veggie pasta kick (<- did you see yesterday’s pasta salad recipe?) I boiled two servings of vegetable noodles and threw the rest of my steamed vegetables from lunch into the sauce. While the noodles were cooking, I also heated up one of my last Morning Star veggie burgers to add more substance. I topped it all off with more Parmesan cheese from lunch and in about ten minutes dinner was served.

With a goal to get to bed at a reasonable hour, I only caught half of the latest American Idol episode with Scott before getting in the shower.

Immediately after, I grabbed the same dessert you saw on last week’s WIAW.

So, so delicious!

The rest of the night entailed folding laundry, packing for tonight’s game, and straightening up odds and ends around the house. I have realized that even ten minutes of “cleaning” at night does wonders for my productivity in the mornings. It may just be me, but I get so much more accomplished when I wake up to a put together house.

All right. It’s time for me to get back to some projects and knock some things out before having to leave for the arena today. I am hoping to check back in with you later this afternoon!

Question of the Day

• Does the thought of straightening up before bed sound like a great or horrible idea to you?

I can see why some would think this idea is awful. I am sure that folding things and wiping counters isn’t exactly what most of you want to be doing before putting yourself to bed at night, but for me it helps me rest easier.

I love waking up to a clean house and part of my nightly routine lately has been making sure all of the laundry is folded, the living room is straightened up, and my coffee is set up to brew first thing in the morning. If I walk downstairs and I see piles, I end up spending most of the morning putting them away and tend to get on a cleaning kick that can last well into the afternoon.

Of course, this is not the greatest thing for someone who works at home.. but that’s just me!

• If you liked this WIAW post, head on over to Peas & Crayons to check out plenty others, or even link your own.

• Also, you can always find my latest What I Ate Wednesday posts by exploring the “WIAW” tag on the right hand sidebar.