What I Ate Wednesday, Valentine’s Day eats!

Thanks for hosting, Jenn!

These are my eats from yesterday– Valentine’s Day!  Since the day is known for its chocolate intake, getting veggies in took a little more thought than usual.  Cocoa beans grow on a tree, right?  How come chocolate isn’t considered a veggie?!

Breakfast:  Since I had such a chocolate-filled night last night, I thought I should prob get some veggies in early today.  I made a big ol’ green smoothie with the usual- spinach, banana, and blueberries.

Never fails, these always fill me up!

I drank this after I had a few cups of coffee, because in typical me-style, I woke up early to bake a Valentine’s Day cake!  I am a total habitual 6am baker (yes, I bake in my pajamas).  I sipped on coffee while mixing.  It actually worked out well because I could shower while the cake was in the oven.

Chocolate & Coffee....yuummmmm

And to continue the good morning, I woke up to these.  Beautiful, huh?

I'm a lucky girl! Best bf ever

My commute was a breeze this morning.  I think everyone played hookey for the holiday?

LUNCH:  I didn’t have time to make lunch before work, so I went over to Trader Joe’s around noon and picked up one of their pre-made salads.  This one had chicken and beets.   Their salads aren’t very good and never have much lettuce, so I bought an extra bag of organic romaine to add to it.   The salad wasn’t anything great, but it did the trick.

Also bought carrots and eggplant hummus to munch on.  (Have you tried their eggplant hummus?  Really tasty and less calories/fat than reg hummus)

There were a ton of sweets in my office today– Godiva chocolate and cupcakes– but I managed to hold off.  I wanted to save room for the cake.  So, yogurt for a snack instead.

EVENING:  For Valentine’s Day, Jared and I decided to stay in and cook together.  We made spaghetti and meatballs (his family recipe). We snuck some spinach into the sauce to up the veggie count and ate garlic bread on the side.  We had fun cooking together, ate by candle light, and the finished product was delish!

And of course, dessert!  Heart shaped chocolate cake.

It was already evening when I took these, so couldn't get the lighting right or any good pics sadly

Turned out cute though, huh?

Ended the day very full and happy.  I think my veggie count is only up to 4, but that’s not too bad for a chocolate-eating-holiday!

Were you able to get many veggies in on Valentine’s Day?
Do people bring in lots of chocolate and sweets to your work?
Do you ever bake in the early mornings?  Late at night?

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? 

Whew, we made it to the weekend! Happy Friday!!

Ok, this is totally non-food-and-fitness-related, but since it’s Valentine’s Day weekend, I thought we all could use a little Friday Love, Audrey-Hepburn style:

Love this. Isn’t her hat amazing?

And the very best motto:

I believe in chocolate.
I believe that laughter really is contagious.
I believe that “sleeping on it” works and a bad day will be erased by morning.
I believe in fresh flowers, singing in the shower, and dancing in the rain.
And I believe that in the end, it really will all work out, so you might as well smile and enjoy the journey.

What do you believe?

Happy Friday!! Take Audrey’s advice– have a laughing-kissing-believing-in-tomorrow kind of weekend.

xo
Rebecca