THE FOODIE DIARIES

There once was a man named Bikram

Whose practice I tried out on a whim

Though I’m feeling quite sore

I understand its allure

For yoga’s sore beats the bore of the gym

And that was my roundabout, limericky way of telling you that Wednesday morning delivered just as much soreness as Tuesday’s. And that I liked it? Perhaps it’s because exercise hasn’t made me this sore in a while, but I’m sort of taking pleasure in the discomfort. Now that I officially sound like a masochist, let’s redirect our attention to yesterday’s eats.

Hump day kicked off with some coffee art.

I want to assure you that the above montage is one cup of coffee, not four. Given my current state of soreness and, uh, the whole 90 minutes a day in a 105 degree room thing, I’m not trying to further dehydrate my body with my typical “I lose count of how many cups I’ve had” coffee habit.

After my java-fix, I went on to break-ify one of my favorite childhood snacks:  Fig Newtons. While other kids indulged in Mallomars and Moon Pies, I had a serious thing for the Newtons. I’ve still not gotten over them entirely, but these days—when the reminiscent craving hits—I go for the hydrogenated oil-free Newman’s Own version. That said, I present to you…

Newman’s Sarah’s Own Fig Newton Yogurt

1 cup of plain greek yogurt, sweetened with honey and cinnamon + fresh figs

+ 1.5 graham crackers, which—if you’re lucky like me—will be the last of your bag and make for easy, mess-free crushing

=

Sarah’s Own Fig Newton Yogurt! That bodacious breakfast bowl took me right back to my childhood love affair…

I can’t lie and say that once you mix it all together it tastes just like a Fig Newton. Because—let’s face it—Fig Newtons do not contain grahams, yogurt or fresh figs. But it was an absolutely delicious blend of figgy flavor.

And I “mmmmmmmm”-ed at every single bite.

I ate my lunch in two parts in an attempt to not be too full for my 6 p.m. yoga class.

Warning: Lunch Part I looks a whole lot like breakfast—but I assure you, it’s a different fig-imbued bowl.

It is, however, nearly identical to last week’s “fruit cereal.”

In the mix: ginormous Ginger Gold apple, 2 fresh figs, raisins, dried cherries, slivered almonds, ground flax, cinnamon and almond milk.

All the usual suspects with one “fruit cereal”-changing ingredient: dried cherries.

These added so much flavor to a bowl I’d previously deemed perfection. I stand corrected. “Fruit cereal” featuring dried cherries = perfection. If you’ve not yet jumped on this bandwagon, I urge you to board promptly.

Warning #2: Lunch Part II is not nearly as attractive as Lunch Part I.

Warmed Granny Smith +

Warm cream cheese-packed WW pita =

Something not nearly as delicious as I’d imagined. Foodie foul.

If you recall, this past weekend, I discovered that sliced apples, LC and warmed WW pita are a delectable combo. So, cream cheese lover and baked apple feind that I am, I envisioned a warmed-up, cream-cheesy remix that would put my prior concoction to shame.

Erroneous on all accounts. While the cream cheese + apple flavor combo was on point, the “baked apple” got too mushy for a warm pita to handle, and things got pretty messy. Still, it was an edible mess—i.e. I cleaned the plate… but only because I needed pre-yoga fuel .

***

Foodie’s Foray into Yoga – Day 3

Yesterday’s class was the most challenging yet. It may be due to my soreness, but the stretches felt so much deeper than they did during my first two classes. I also got a lot of personal attention during last night’s class because there were only six of us. The accent-less (phew!) Brooklyn instructor gave me a lot of guidance on the proper form of each pose—which was really helpful because I could definitely feel my body working harder once I was doing the pose correctly.

It was also more challenging because I got nauseated (thanks, grammar lesson from Prof. SnackFace) throughout last night’s class. I have a feeling this had to do with lunch Part II being consumed a little less than three hours before class. When doing Bikram, you aren’t supposed to eat for 3-4 hours before class. I’ve been struggling to eat the right amount—and at the right time—so I don’t get hungry before class nor do I go to class too full. I probably should’ve skipped my failure of a lunch part dos because yesterday I definitely got to class too full. No bueno, people.

Still, if my limerick didn’t give it away, I am still loving yoga. I’ll do a full re-cap at the end of my one week challenge, but for now:

Day 3 verdict: Though my body feels like it endured the Battle of Saratoga, this foodie’s falling head over heels for yoga .

(While I warned you that I have a tendency to speak in poem, I never claimed to be good at it…)

***

Dinner last night was the monster salad I’d planned on eating Tuesday night before my chicken-craving hit.

In the mix: chopped romaine, grilled chicken, grilled & marinated mushrooms, grilled onions, grilled peppers, roasted cherry tomatoes, oil-cured black olives and feta.

You’ll notice a whole lot of grilled in there because, as I’ve said before, I love salads with grilled veggies.

One unusual suspect in last night’s salad was:

I almost never put feta in salads. I don’t know why, but I’m really not wooed by the cheese in salad thing. However, I realized that I currently have an abundance of feta cheese…

So I went with it. And, I wont lie, it was a wonderful little addition.

Another component worth pointing out is…

Though these resemble something that might be force-fed to Survivor contestants, they’re actually oil-cured olives. My favorite. Seriously, you can add them to anything or eat them straight-up. They do not disappoint. Ever. (I always weird myself out when I get that dramatic about food—but I’m being entirely serious.)

Oh, and that brown drizzle you see, that’d be my super simple honey balsamic dressing. 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar mixed with 1/2 tablespoon honey. It’s pretty amazing—and seriously simple.

The best part about eating salad for dinner is (usually) having room for dessert—which came in the form of my previous PB discovery…

Really, I only ate this since I didn’t give you guys a picture last time, and I figured you might need some visual incentive to take the PB&Popcorn leap. Although, probably not…

Happy Office-watching!

-Sarah