Happy Wednesday all! I definitely think there are a few New Food Finds that you all shared on yesterday’s post that I NEED to try. I totally want a bagel now and cheese with crackers LOL 
I even eyed Manhattan Bagel on my walk to the train…I did see a sign that they have bagel thins though….I am intrigued!
Pre-workout I gobbled down a banana, then, hopped on the train, walked to work and hit the gym. Today’s workout was a 30 minute Jog/Walk (think C25K!) It was tough, but, I rocked it with my running intervals starting at 5.0 and topping out at 6.8 mph.
I was surprisingly NOT hungry after working out so I waited until my body told me I was hungry 3 hours later ~ awesome!
Cheesy Sausage Breakfast Burrito (6 points+)
You all know I “PEEL MY ORANGES LIKE THIS” because I hate having stinky hands all day long…..but, today, I HAD to get stinky hands so we could use the rind for our Sustainability game.
I shared my orange with my co-worker and probably took a handful of Annie’s Organic Chex Snack Mix too (it’s SO GOOD!) (4 points+)
Today was the day for The Sustainability Game I have been telling you all about and the reason I’ve been “saving my containers”.
We created 4 bags of “clean” trash with gloves.
Lined up all our bins ~ Plastics, Compost/Food Scraps, Recycle & Trash.
Then, we had 4 volunteers “suit up” and pick a bag. They each had 30 seconds to go through everything in their bags, calling out what it was then putting it in the right bin.
It was really fun to see everyone in our company get involved and learn all at once. Oh it doesn’t hurt that the volunteers got Starbuck’s & Peet’s Gift Cards (how I wish I could participate!)
Lunch was just as delicious today. I am so hooked on this Crockpot Split Pea Soup….I honestly think I could eat it ALL week and not get tired of it. I am so glad I froze 2 servings too for a day when I don’t want to cook (7 points=)
Crunchy Greens & Apple Salad that I have been sharing with all my co-workers. They all agree it’s delicious – try it, you’ll like it! (3 points+)
I was actually stuffed after lunch but my mouth wanted something sweet. When rummaging for a mint, I saw that I still had a Jo’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salted Caramel! (2 points+)
I have found my afternoon snack really helps to keep me from eating everything in the house when I get home before dinner.
Train snacks ~ Mini Babybel & Melon (1 points+)
I honestly cannot decide what part of dinner I LOVED the most because it was all of my FAVORITE things.
Grilled BBQ Chicken Drumstick (3 points+)
I cook these by grilling them over medium heat plain for 40 minutes, flipping every 10 minutes. Then, during the last 10 minutes, I brush them with sauce every 3 minutes, rotating them twice.
Harvest Grain GOODNESS!!! Have I ever mentioned The Husband requests this salad….he doesn’t even know it’s healthy for him with all that Israeli Couscous, Quinoa, Baby Lentils and Orzo. (1/2 cup ~ 4 points+)
More Steamed Greens!
Probably the prettiest artichoke I’ve ever seen ~ it doesn’t even look real.
Happiness and one BIG plate of food for only 8 points+ (including my mayo on the side).
NEW AT FRIENDS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
* TJ OF TJ’s Test Kitchen shares one deliciously easy 4 points+, 4 Bean Salad!
Q’s
Do you all recycle or compost at Home or Work?
I have to say it is one FUN part of my job that I get to do even though it’s not technically my job-job. We participate in probably every program at work (even battery recycling) and this summer will are going to be opening up our own garden/composting on site. I have to admit, the concept of “feeding your worms” kinda freaks me out.
At home ~ we do the food scrap/compost and recycle programs through our trash company. I should/would/could compost for our garden, but, see above….worms freak me it. It totally stems from being little when my brother had me swallow one for $10 then told me it was going to eat me from my stomach out.
On that note……off to work on recipes (over HALF WAY ~ yahoo!)
Night all!
Question…..I really would like to try the harvest grain salad (looks yummy), but I don’t have a Trader Joe’s in Fl. I was wondering if there is any other mixture like that one that I could use instead. Thanks!
Love your site!
I have had that chocolate caramel and LOVE it. Dangerous. Your salad looks amazing–so colorful and lots of textures. You have the best job, I swear!
Oh my, that caramel looks heavenly! I NEED one! 🙂
I also find that having an afternoon snack helps me stay away from snacking mindlessly when I get home from work.
I recycle at home and at work.
The things we can’t recycle at home, I usually bring to work to recycle. (strawberry cartons, cardboard, etc)
I started composting in April. Nothing really to show for it yet though 😉
I live in South Carolina and we don’t have alot of recycling options yet, but we recycle everything we can: paper, plastic, cans, etc….
I have talked my hubby into building me a cool garden box like you have, so we will begin composting in anticipation of having a garden next year.
What a great game to teach about recycling! I’d love to some day work for a company that cares that much about it.
I don’t keep a compost but I try to recycle what I can. Here in Montana we don’t have a great recycling program so things are hard. It’s really a shame. We finally can recycle glass only because Target opened up a program.
I think someone asked you about this recently but I didn’t see the answer. The artichoke looks awesome but how do you prepare and eat it? The only way I’ve seen them done is boiled/steamed and then stuffed with a breadcrumb mixture (and even then you only scrape the breadcrumbs off the leaves and don’t actually eat the artichoke except for the heart when you get to the end).
I do recycle at home. I’ve also gotten my BF to start recycling.
Great job on your workout! You do a fantastic job of packing your meals and it’s really motivating to me.
How sad and now kinda funny your brother told you such a thing, worms freak me out without even that ! I hate when it rains here and the earthworms squiggle around everywhere.
I think if I had those caramels I would have to have one and have my husband lock up the rest 😉
We recycle as much as we can and I try to use cloth bags instead of plastic.
I want one of those caramels! My daughter (15 years old) tried one at Costco last weekend and said it was yucky, I told her she should have saved it for me, I think they look yummy, LOL!
We compost for our garden. We have a small container in our kitchen and save as much as possible as we can to use for compost. We have a huge container in our backyard near our garden and luckily DH loves to garden so he does all the hard work and I reap the benefits with fresh vegetables!
At my new office, I have just managed to be able to recycle paper – which took me a while – with a law firm we go through WAY too much paper!
Love all the crushed red pepper flakes in the soup!
YUM! I have to make that Harvest Grain GOODNESS. It looks awesome.
I am a MAJOR recycler. We recycle everything at home, and started a compost pile as well. Being going strong on the compost for 2 years, even went down to a smaller trash can.
My work is AWFUL about recycling. I have loads of bags at work and have placed 2 near the trash can. Then I take home any bottles, paper, etc that I can. Usually go home with 3-4 bags a week.
They call the Oscar at work..lol
i really want to make the harvest grain recipe but my trader joes doesn’t have it, at least not the last time i was there! i keep looking every time i go.
we have a compost pile in our backyard that we put all our fruit & veggie scraps in as well as coffee grinds and egg shells. we’ve been doing it for more than a year now and it has drastically reduce the size of trash we have since we recycle as much as we can. our city supplies us with a recycle trash can that gets picked up every two weeks, we take e-waste to a local e-waste recycling location, and we take cans/glass/bottles to a recycling place also to get the money back.
I haunt come to your blog in a while and now that I have again, I remember why I love it. Your food looks so good. That salad! Oh my. I’ll be at TJ’s tomorrow to find that mix. Yum.
*havn’t
Hey Danica. For your BBQ chicken drumstick, do you leave the skin on or take it off? It looks soooooooo good.
HI Lori,
I left the skin on and let it get crispy. You could take it off but I have found it gets a lot dryer. The skin only increases the points+ value by 1 so it’s worth it in my book.
Danica
Hi Janel,
I did this post just for you to show you how you could make this mix at home 🙂
http://danicasdaily.com/a-must-try-harvest-grain-mix-my-weekly-menu/
Let me know what you think when you make it – I think it turned out just as delicious.
Danica
Hi Frani,
I think I need to do a step by step tutorial because I have had a few people to ask. I do not do anything fancy with mine, but, here is how I like to cook them.
Cut the stem down to about 1 inch
Trim the top about a 1/2 an inch basically so you have a flat surface to set it down in the pan.
Add your trimmed artichokes to a large soup pan with about 2 inches of water.
Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30-40 minutes minutes give/take depending on the size you are using. You will want to make sure all the water doesn’t evaporate and the stem is fork tender when you poke it.
Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly. Dig in.
Enjoy!
Danica