Somehow, I was way ahead of myself when I called last week’s WIAW post #9….when it was actually #7, so fixing that this week, Whoops. Thanks again for hosting, Jenn!

This was a day of good eats. I’m still trying for mostly green, mostly whole, mostly easy-to-make-on-a-busy-workday foods.

Also, for both March and April, I’m in a pact to not eat out at all (except when I’m out of town) to save some $$$. We’re not taking cabs either– it’s crazy how you can blow $20 in an 8 minute cab ride sometimes. Anyways, we’ll see how it goes….

So, back to my day…..

7am: Quick 30 minutes on the elliptical and some stretching. I was a little tight from skiing this past weekend, so it was good to stretch out.

7:45am: Quick breakfast smiley face. Just what I felt like. Bananas are just so delicious sometimes.

Smile

10:30am: Homemade trailmix made up of my favorite almond, raisin, choc chip combo, plus a date mix.

12noon- Lunch. Kale salad, my fave. With tofu and leftover roasted eggplant.

i heart kale

3pm- Big, red apple. Eaten while getting some fresh air.

Check out how windy it was!

Can you tell how hard it's blowing? maybe not. Anyways, I managed to walk by this Starbucks without stopping....go me!

Dinner at 6:30pm: Millet (yum! long time no see), a big salad with beets and red pepper, and some leftover ground turkey. All of this was sprinkled with nutritional yeast and a little himalyan sea salt, of course.

Filling, coloroful, and tasty

Evening walk with a friend in the fog and wind. We almost made it to the bridge, but turned around because we thought we were going to get run over– It was so dark out, we kept having to dodge runners and bikers, lol.

Glass of wine to end the evening. Ahhhhh, nice!

I think my eat-in challenge this month is all about this:

sorry for no photo credit, can't remember where i got this

Note to self– Grocery shop and buy good food!

How often do you eat out? How often do you take cabs?
What’d you eat for breakfast this morning?

This is the most delicious frozen chocolate milk drink ever.  I don’t know what to call it, but it’s almost like a healthy milkshake.

And some days, you just need a little chocolate.

Um, YUM.

Trust me, the photo doesn’t do it justice.  It’s way more delicious than it looks.

Chocolate Milk Shake……the non-ice-cream-healthy kind!

3/4 cup chocolate milk (you can use chocolate almond, soy, or regular)
1 small frozen banana
4 ice cubes
1 teaspoon vanilla
Drizzle of chocolate syrup

Just stick it all in your blender and mix away!

Coat the glass with the chocolate syrup before you pour in the icy, mixed yumminess. (i forgot the syrup in these pics, just fyi)

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Can that be any easier?

Try it!  Let me know what you think!

Last night, I went to an all-girls pre-Valentine’s Day Chocolate & Beer tasting.

The rules were, everyone had to bring a fair-trade chocolate bar and/or a craft/microbrew.

I brought a Chili & Cherry Dark Chocolate Bar.  It’s something I would never buy to eat on my own, but was curious to taste– so it was perfect for a tasting.

This had a spicy hot kick at the end of chewing!

Chocolate & Cherries are great together.  Chillies?  Def a spicy kick.

There was quite a spread.  Sea Salt, Ginger & Orange, Mint, Caramel, and Hazelnut Chocolate.  The host’s neighbor is a pastry chef (ummm, how lucky is that?!), so she brought some baked goodies too.

There was a big variety of beers.  My favorite, was this amazing chocolate stout.  It was delish!  I could have sippped it all night every night.

Go out and buy this!!

The host gave us tasting sheets so we could take notes.   We were supposed to note 1) what it looked like, 2) what it smelled like, and 3) what it tasted like.

I think I was the only one who tasted every bar of chocolate (hey, how could I not?)

My notes

It was totally fun– You should host one of these!  I might suggest we do a chocolate tasting at our next book club.

And in honor of Valentine’s Day and all the chocolate we will be eating, here are some fun facts about chocolate, taken from here and here:

• Allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces the same or even stronger reactions as passionately kissing.
• Chocolate comes from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which means “bitter water”.
• Almost half the world’s chocolate is consumed in America.
• Napoleon always carried chocolate with him, which he ate as a pick-me-up whenever he needed an energy boost. (and we all thought he bought it for Josephine…).
• Approximately 23 million Hershey Kisses are produced everyday .
• A bar of dark chocolate contains about 10-15 grams of sugar while a glass of orange juice contains about 22 grams of sugar
• For chocolate to be lethal, you’d have to eat 22 pounds of it at once.  (Death by Chocolate?  Not so much, thank goodness!)

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope you are eating lots of chocolate today.  I ate a few chocolate chips this morning and my co-worker already brought us each a box of truffles– I’m off to a great chocolate-start

What’s your favorite kind of chocolate?  Dark? Milk? White?  With almonds or sea salt?