Last week, I received an e-mail from Teri Jo at Amazing Grass offering to send me samples of their products for me to try and review on my blog. I received the shipment yesterday and got super excited when I opened it to reveal this:

Of course, I had to immediately try one, as I’ve seen them all around the blog world, but never gotten to taste them! It was perfect timing as I was due to go play racquetball with a friend and I was hoping for an energy burst! I mean, the list of ingredients is incredible! So many antioxidant-rich greens and fruits and vegetables!

I tried an Original Blend Amazing Meal and mixed it with 10 ounces of water in the shaker that she also provided for me.

Enjoyed with a Chobani yogurt with Uncle Sam cereal.

And the result? AMAZING!

I love the taste and the fact that it mixes well with water, so there are no chunks of powder left in it. And the thing I loved the very most?! Was how much energy I had all night while playing racquetball! In fact, my friend and I ended up sharing the court with extremely advanced players (we aren’t really to that level!) and we played an intense game for two hours and this meal provided me A LOT of energy to use up while playing! Never mind that I am SOOO sore today! Or the gigantic blood blister that I got from the intense game. (Eww, I know!)

Naturally, I couldn’t wait to try another one, so this morning, after getting a much needed 9 1/2 hours of sleep, I tried this:

This was absolutely delicious! It tasted like chocolate milk, and being the chocoholic that I am, of course I loved it!

I will definitely be taking one of bars along for a snack while I’m teaching violin all night to little kids and I’m super excited about trying those, too!

Also, check back to my blog for a giveaway coming up soon. I’ll give you one hint: it’s AMAZING!

So in other food news, I made a delicious omelet for breakfast, consisting of:

-1 egg, 1 eggwhite
-sauteed kale and red onion
-sliced avocado
-Monterey Jack cheese
-WF salsa

The end result was spectacular!

With coffee:

It’s OK, you can be jealous!

I must have really been on a food roll today because I also made a PHENOMENAL sandwich:

-Nature’s Pride 12 Grain bread (this is exceptionally delicious bread!)
-tuna w. light Italian dressing
-avocado
-Monterey Jack cheese melted on the bread right after toasting it…like this:
-1 gigantic leaf of sauteed kale with EVOO:
Layer it up:
And the end result was definitely something I need to make again, soon! (Read: tomorrow most likely!)

Here’s a deliciously ripe pear that I snacked on yesterday:

Here are three quick giveaways for you all, to keep you busy until I have my own giveaway, coming up very soon!

Jenny is giving away Fiber One muffins! Fiber is good, muffins are good. Yep, I want to try these!

AnAppleADay is giving away TSP Spices, that come in little 1 tsp serving sizes!

And Missy is giving away a Progresso Panko Gift Pack! Looks great!

I’m heading off to bed now. Have a good night!

Anyway, the highlight of my week was the delivery of a case of Chobani Greek yogurt that I won!

It started with a big box that said:

Which I opened to reveal this:

I can’t get these in the grocery stores around where I live, so I think it was at this point that the incredibly excited shrieking began! Luckily no roommates were home or they would have thought I was OFF.MY.ROCKER and probably would have started calling around to find a mental facility to commit me to!

All three flavors have similar nutritional facts and they are quite good! They have a little too much sugar for me to buy on a regular basis (I normally stick with unsweetened!) but they are truly INCREDIBLE! They are so creamy, very sweet but not overly so, and are pretty large portions for 140 calories! I have REALLY been enjoying these and I can’t wait to eat the rest of them. As of now, I’ve tried all three flavors and they are all fresh and crisp tasting, so it’s impossible to pick my favorite!

Thanks to Ellie from Inside I’m Still Dancing and Chobani for giving me the chance to try these!

Onward…to several breakfasts I’ve enjoyed recently.

Keepin‘ it simple with oat bran, almond butter, and a blueberry Chobani!

Slightly more complex…oatmeal with a banana, PB, blueberry Chobani and cottage cheese. This ended up being way too much food and I saved some of it for later in the day.

Swap the banana for grapes and you’ve got the same b-fast!

Nothing you haven’t seen. Oat bran with cottage cheese, a banana, flax, carob chips and PB. Drool worthy. (OK, I’ve gotta admit that most of my breakfasts are freakin‘ amazing and it’s definitely my favorite meal of the day!)

With coffee. In case there was any doubt, I have coffee EVERY SINGLE morning, no exceptions, even if it doesn’t make it into the picture! But in this case it did.

One more…

I went on a cooking spree earlier this week and braved my acorn squash, with the crappy knives that I have in my current living situation. When I finally move out next year, I WILL be buying sharper, better knives! But for now, I made this…

Just roasted with EVOO til they were done. I don’t even remember how long. Sorry.

And I made my usual pan of veggies. I added kale this time for variety!

Finally I made a pot of split yellow peas simmered in this:

with a spoon of this:

It turned out great, but sadly the pictures of it did not!

Those veggies came along as part of a meal the next day:

Along with a Chobani and Fiber One cereal:

One more bagel while out and about. (Example of my on-the-go lifestyle: On Saturday I left my house at 8:30am and got home around 1am! Word.) Although this bagel and its side dishes were my Wednesday dinner when I taught from 2pm to 6pm and then drove an hour to an orchestra rehearsal from 7:30-10:30pm!

I try to keep spreading the Operation Beautiful love while I’m out!

Plus my favorite:

Sliced with hummus is good:

But plain is the best!

And:

By the way, I ADORE this particular flavor of Luna bar!! I seriously eat (at least!) one of these ALMOST EVERY SINGLE DAY! (Even though most of the times the pictures don’t make it onto the blog!) Yes, I know it’s not exactly a whole food, but it’s SOOOO delicious and low glycemic so it keeps me full for a long time!

Best snack ever.

And don’t forget dessert:

I grabbed lunch with my boyfriend this week. Foot long ham on wheat with cheddar, yes I would like it toasted, please.

Many of my nights end with a glass of wine! Resveratrol is important!

This bag of chips didn’t last too long. I guess it doesn’t when you count three servings as “dinner” and call it even. *Ahem* Which I might or might not have done. (In my defense I was driving home, ready to gnaw off my arm and didn’t have any other food on me. Those suckers didn’t stand a chance, anyway!)

Chocolate gelato while reading blogs? Yes, please.

Finally, I’ve been downing these and Emergen-C like it’s going out of style, due to how many kids I tach ever week and how many of them (and their parents and their siblings…) are sick! I’m amazed that I HAVEN’T yet gotten sick!

I’m sorry that this is so long!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

(These were all the ones I made and posted on my wall to take pictures of…they have since been distributed all over!)

Onto food stuff! I’ve been eating some awesome meals lately!

Like this, Annie’s 5-Grain Elbows and White Cheddar mac and cheese, with sauteed cabbage, onion, zucchini and tempeh. This was one of the most satisfying meals I’ve had in a long time (and I’ve been eating the leftover for a few days, too but didn’t take any duplicate pictures).

Started with this box….

And a pan full of veggies with garlic and EVOO…

Some yummy snacks…

But everything is better with chocolate, right?

A car snack…on a 2 hour drive each way to play a show. There were 5 servings and I definitely finished the bag by the end of the night. Oops.

Some more Operation Beautiful love!

So far I’ve been posting them on college campuses (hello rampant eating disorders! I’m trying to be a breath of fresh air!) and in women’s bathrooms at every restaurant I go to! I don’t really think there’s anyone that wouldn’t benefit from a little positive encouragement!

I ate a cinnamon roll from Starbucks that was the size of my head…probably a good 500 calories in there or so, but oh my gosh–so worth it! And, it was free! What can I say, people? I’ve got my peeps to hook me up!

A couple random breakfasts…
and:

and one more:

Plus another bagel-icious breakfast, this morning. (Hey, I promised that you’d be seeing a lot more bagels, right?)

A super healthy dinner…a red pepper and carrots to dip in hummus and leftover mac and cheese + cabbage mix.

And today I had a very HEAB-approved meal:

A yam with AB, and zucchini + tempeh in EVOO. So good people!

Then an apple in the car today:

And finally, a random fudgiscle earlier this week at some point.

Lastly, but definitely not least, I’m going to have an exciting giveaway coming up VERY soon! Stay posted for details!

I’m off for the night. Going to grab a quick beer with my BF and some other friends and then get to bed. Goodnight!

Anyway, onto my eats from today. I don’t have pictures of everything, but I had an awesome salad at Whole Foods for a late lunch.

Before that I had eaten a bagel with veggie cream cheese. (And another one yesterday!) I bought a dozen yesterday (half honey oat and half cracked wheat) and the cream cheese had pieces on carrots, tomatoes and peppers in it. I really like it and you’ll be seeing more bagels soon and frequently.

I decided to sprinkle some FF cheese on for extra protein. Pretty good actually.

I started today off with a great bowl of oat bran:

(banana, carob chips, raisins, PB, cottage cheese)

Yesterday I tried my first Pistachio Larabar and I actually really liked it. I’d probably by it again at some point.

Finally, I made a big bowl of sauteed veggies since I had been severely lacking them yesterday. Zucchini, onion, bell pepper, garlic, EVOO…the usual.

(Rockin‘ the camera flash and the yellow bowl!)

Here’s some more giveaways…pick me, pick me!

Food Cents is giving away some of her favorite things.

Rebecca is giving away many delicious Newman’s Own products!

Amanda and Andy are giving away more Chobani love!

Allison is giving away Nature’s Path Products. I love these cereals!

Missy is giving away Halls Refresh, Silk milk and other goodies.

One Fit Foodie is giving away coupons for a free Nasoya product.

Jen is giving away Naturally Nutty Peanut Butter. Umm, yeah–I want these.

Wow, that’s a lot of awesomeness!

I’m heading off to bed! It’s after midnight and I’m waking up at 7:45 to go to the gym with my boyfriend again (workout + another game of racquetball) and then hopefully going to a real running store to get fitted for good running shoes! I want the shin splints to go away! I’ll let you know if and what I buy!

And for the only available breakfast I had a boring bowl of PLAIN oatmeal! Toppings, people, c’mon! (Oh wait, you mean non-food bloggers don’t get so excited over adding ridiculous amounts of chopped Larabars, nut butters, granola, fresh fruit, etc?! Oh, why didn’t anyone tell me?)

But wait! I realized as I was sitting down to eat it that something was missing! One guess….

Peanut butter!! (Much better, by the way!)

I had various unphotographed snacks but somewhere along the way I had this bowl of overly processed vegetable barley soup. (Not that good, but hey, it was cheap!)

And a slice of bread with grated ff cheese on top. (Hence the lack of melting.)

For a random sugar burst, I ate this gummy which was being handed out (along with many other candies!) at work!

Next up was breakfast yesterday…back to oatmeal:

The most exciting part of this bar is that I added 1/3 of a Tropical Larabar! I loved this flavor (first time trying it!) I would DEFINITELY buy it again and instead of some of the other flavors! It tasted so fresh and tropical! (Over the course of the day the rest of the bar found its way into my mouth!)

While out and about yesterday (I was out from 9am-11pm!) I stopped for an Herby Turkey sandwich from Bruggers:

(times 2 for the other half, plus a pickle!)

And I had a lot of food that I didn’t take pictures of. Mainly, I PB sandwich that I added one square of dark chocolate to!), a Raspberry Luna Bar, and two huge glasses of milk–mainly for the calories/protein because I was drinking them while teaching since I didn’t have time for anything else!)

“So Lisa, what about the shopping success?”

Here it is!

First, a pair of knee high black boots that actually fit my calf perfectly!

And another pair of slightly-higher-than-ankle brown boots:

And my most exciting find…7 For All Mankind Jeans that fit me perfectly…for $39.95!! I couldn’t believe it! (I definitely can’t afford these usually!)

Onward…a cute Ralph Lauren coat that can be dressed up or down.

And several new tops:

Plus I got a great SUPER warm light blue down jacket (that I’ll try to photograph at some point and put on here!) and for EVERYTHING listed I paid $160!! Talk about finding bargains! Woohoo! So exciting for me because I do love to shop!

Wow, talk about following that up with something not nearly as exciting…breakfast this morning:

(omelet with sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, and bell pepper plus leftover veggies on the side, and sweet potato with PB.)

With coffee, too:

Finally, I had this beautiful, freshly picked, locally grown apple when I was baby-sitting yesterday night.

Since I won Ellie’s giveaway of a case of Chobani (so incredibly excited!!) I wanted to make sure to enter all of these, too. (I mean…spread the word for you all to enter! Hah!) So here are some more awesome giveaways.

So I’ll leave you with a quick post. Here’s what my lovely breakfast is to start fueling a long day. My dilemma is that I want to get a workout in but I always wake up hungry, so I’m just eating now and then hoping a short run/workout won’t bother me too much.

-oat bran bowl with grapes, a chopped fig, flax, pumpkin, cottage cheese, and PB.

Some of yesterday’s eats included:

My wonderful, sweet, amazing boyfriend brought this home to me on Sunday when I had been having a rough weekend:

Letting the pictures speak for themselves….

I can’t figure out if it’s prettier with or without the flash, so here’s with the flash:

You *know* you want some!

This is by far THE BEST gelato (or ice cream or really any other frozen treat I’ve ever had. Just throwin‘ that out there! And it probably isn’t long for this world, seeing how it’s sitting in my freezer! People, seriously, I can’t describe how incredible this is!)

OK sorry, back on topic!

Or rather, going back to being grateful for all of the things my bf does for me, including little surprises he picks up for me without telling me. Like this Halloween Smiley Cookie. There’s a restaurant in town know for their original smiley cookies and they do decorations for different times of the year. He and I split this, and yes I know there’s probably 400-500 calories in this, and yes, I’m also totally OK with that!

A random snack.

Yesterday, I also went out to lunch at a Greek food restaurant with my former roommate and had pita and hummus and a whitefish with tomatoes and spinach topping and rice. And later after teaching, I went over to my friend’s house and sipped Gentleman Jack and had one slice of pizza while talking and playing Trivial Pursuit on the Wii! So much fun and I was out until 2:30 then I woke up at 8:15 with my alarm! Not enough sleep but that OK!

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For a chance to win some Chobani love go here.

And for the chance to win some healthy and delicious cereal go here.

Alright friends, I’m off to finish up a few things and play two shows. I’ll be back on Sunday!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

OK, now back to business.

Here are some good eats over the past few days. I promise I’ve been reading blogs and trying to comment. It’s harder than usual because my teaching schedule is picking up and I’m working from about 2-10pm more days than not. I can’t complain, because I’m staying busy though. I’ve been a bad blogger though and haven’t taken too many food pictures.

Breakfast this morning was oat bran, pumpkin, grapes, cottage cheese and PB. Nothing you haven’t seen before….

Because yesterday’s breakfast was the exact same thing….

Wow, I’m boring!

Yesterday’s highlight meal was scrambled eggs with zucchini, green pepper and mushrooms with cheese and salsa and a side of Kashi pilaf with more salsa.

I have been getting lots of free samples including this, that I ate somewhere along the way.

And I drank this, which was also free:

I received yet another free sample today:

I can’t wait to try it! I’m not usually acne prone, but hey–it’s free!

And finally, I was sitting here tonight at midnight and realized that I was truly hungry, so I got a bowl of Fiber One cereal with half a banana.

Here’s one more giveaway for you all: Agave Nectar.

EDIT: And one more for some sweet makeup!

Now, I’ve got to get some sleep. I’m meeting a friend for lunch tomorrow and then teaching 2-3 and 5-9, so I’m hoping to get a morning workout in! I also have to pack to leave town for two days to play some shows.

Goodnight!

Missy is giving away coupons for free Soy Milk!

Nutritious is Delicious is giving away MixMyGranola!

Errign is gving away cool, exotically flavored applesauce!

Naomi is giving away some Annie’s lovin‘!

Abby is giving away Amazing Grass bars! I want to try these, so don’t actually enter!!

Lucky Taste Buds is givng away delicious soy puddings!

Jamie is giving away Justin’s nut butter! (This ends tonight, but I’m glad I entered in time!)

Jamie is also giving away NuGo nutrition bars!

And one more from Jamie…need a brand new pair of super nice shoes?

Jen is giving away a book that looks fun!

More to come….

Have an AWESOME Wednesday!

Anyway, I had this for breakfast:

-banana bread with PB
-cottage cheese
-plum

Yesterday I made a lovely dinner of more sauteed veggies with hummus, scrambled eggs, and toast:

This was an amazing combination, and I have some leftover veggies so I might have to have this again today! I love dry (unbuttered) toast that’s salted! Am I weird?

And I was a bottomless pit yesterday so I cut up a Fuji apple with PB.

Then I broke into the donuts that my bf and I bought from a NEW Dunkin‘ Donuts that opened a 15 minute walk from my house!!! People, this will be dangerous! Now, obviously I don’t eat donuts every day. I remember that the last time I had donuts was when I was in Los Angeles last November. So eating something (anything) once a year is not a big deal at all. And the fact is, I have been enjoying my 6 donuts (over the course of a week and I still have 2 left in the fridge–so no binging!) soooo much! I think it’s unreal for any food to be that delicious! It still doesn’t mean I’m going to become a donut addict, but I *may* have to include one here or there!

What is your FAVORITE totally non-nutritious food? Obviously donuts are right up there for me! Also, almost anything chocolate is great. And chocolately pastries. And once in a while, if I’m in the mood, french fries with ketchup. And don’t forget really good beer (lighter lagers are the best.) I’m a foodie and I’m not ashamed to admit it!

Anyway, back to donuts. I still have a maple glazed one and a Boston cream pie one, but I had most of a chocolate glazed one yesterday (and a part of a chocolate filled one, but there’s no pictures of that one.)

Finally I snacked on this free sample I got. (I don’t normally buy these, but one was OK.)

And my totally random breakfast from Saturday:

OK, that’s all folks! I’m off to run, then teach. I hope everyone is having a good Monday so far!