My cousin is visiting and we have been having a rather lovely time. For some reason I miss my mom a lot today. I did something I haven’t done in years- I mentioned my mom and I said, oh my mom IS from Italy and HAS a strong accent. It just sort of slipped out, and I felt really awkward and sad afterward.

Sometimes I forget that she has passed away, and all of that sadness seems just like a distant dream. It’s like I block the sadness from having ever existed. Every few years or so I do something strange like the above and completely forget. Once I even called her old cell phone number to share great news with her and when a male answered I was so startled.

I don’t know why that happens. Truly wishful thinking. Hopeful.

My life is really so wonderful- I am so blessed and lucky and it seems that in so many ways she has caused it all to happen. Some things just turn out so right and so perfect that it could be no other way.

She passed away eight and a half years ago. How does time pass like that? I haven’t been to visit her grave site in at least four. I try to, but I always find a way out of it. I think I am afraid to face that sadness. I was afraid to leave Rhode Island for fear that her memories would fade without driving by them all the time, but nothing has changed. The memories that have always been strong are as strong as they have ever been. The blocked ones are still blocked. I don’t know why I can’t remember some things. If I think too hard about her not being here for my dad, for my brother, for my aunt, for me, for herself… I feel like I can’t breathe.

I forgot what she smells like, but her laugh is there deep in my heart every time I need to feel warm.

I don’t know why I am sharing this.
I am usually much more private in my tears.

For five days last week I documented almost every bite that crossed my mouth. It was an interesting experiment into the world of food blogging and into my body.

Day 5:

Breakfast
Lunch

Day 4:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

Day 3:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

Day 2:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner- recipe for Baked Breaded Eggplant

Day 1:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

And a LOVEly Weekend.

I would like to say that what you saw was exactly indicative of how I would normally eat, and I think it was. However, just the act of taking a photo of the foods made me think about them more than I usually would. Looking back on the week, I made some observations:

1. I thought my diet was 90% healthy, but in reality it is more like 70%. I *often* make really good choices, but not always.

2. I have a difficult time eating out, in that I overeat. I need to implement my snack before restaurant philosophy. I used to always eat a piece of fruit before going to a restaurant for dinner, and it helped me to stay away from the bread basket and community appetizers. I need to start doing that again.

3. My breakfasts are always sweet, but always healthy. I have a balanced breakfast every morning, and always have at least one serving of fruit. It is a great way to start my day!

4. While I tend to overeat at restaurants, I always make healthy choices. I order something good for me and then take a few bites of junk if I want it (like the one mozzarella stick and the hot chocolate at lunch this day).

5. I eat a lot. I definitely eat a higher calorie diet than I did before I got married. I am guessing this is normal, but it is something I would like to adjust.

I really liked this activity, and I loved blogging a few times a day, but I think I will stick to my normal recipes and such. I will definitely be sharing my daily diet with you every few months though, as I found it to be beneficial to some readers as well as to myself.

Vail is gorgeous.

About halfway through the morning I became absolutely famished, and exactly at that time PB offered me half of his Luna Protein bar in the Cookie Dough flavor. It was exactly what I needed to hold me over until we were ready to stop.

For lunch we headed to Vendetta’s in Vail Village.

We wanted to eat lunch as quickly as possible so we basically just stopped at the first restaurant. We all shared an order of mozzarella sticks, and I had one dipped in sauce.

I ordered an unsweetened iced tea and the Vegetarian sandwich with grilled vegetables, sprouts, provolone cheese, tomato, and avocado. I took off one of the slices of cheese (there were two) and only ate half of the bread. Instead of fries or pasta salad I asked for a house salad, but it accidentally came doused in dressing. I could barely take 2 bites of it because the dressing was so heavy.

Of course I also had to try PhillyBoy’s lunch. He had a chicken parmesan sandwich with french fries and I had two bites of each. I still felt absolutely HANGRY after this lunch and ordered a hot chocolate, which came with whipped cream. I love enjoying hot chocolate when we are skiing, but I haven’t had one with whipped cream in years. It was delicious!

I was impressed by the quality of the food for the price. PB’s sandwich came out extremely hot (just the way he likes it) and all the vegetables in my sandwich were very fresh.

After lunch it was time to head to the BACK BOWLS! Every time I mentioned Colorado to friends I was told that we must check out the back bowls at Vail. I am kind of mad we didn’t go earlier in the day because they were incredible! Here are my thoughts:

The trail we had to take to get to China Bowl (and The Orient Express chair lift) was extremely flat and difficult for us snowboarders. Thank goodness PB is a great snowboarder now (He really is! I’ll take a video tomorrow) because it was an incredible challenge. I had to unstrap my board a couple of times and every leg muscle was burning by the time we got to the bowl.

China Bowl itself was insane. Riding through snow that is several feet high is an extraordinary experience. I really focused on keeping the tip of my board up so I wouldn’t get stuck in the snow, and it was like surfing on snow! It was so easy to pick up a lot of speed without being afraid of getting hurt.
PB and Gina, the newest to mountain sports, did NOT like the back bowls at all. I think that it is just such a different type of skiing/snowboarding and might take some time for them to appreciate. I bet PB will forget that he hated his first time there when we go back some other time. It got super dark really early in the back bowls! The clouds came down really low by about 3 PM, so it makes sense they close early.

Getting back to Vail Village was a bit of a difficult task and required flat terrain again. I did not like that as my legs were tired. At the end of the day all four of us were exhausted. I have never had to engage my leg muscles to the extent I had to today. It feels really good to know that I used my body so fully today. I feel great. I also felt really hungry again!

We had a bit of an issue getting back to the car as, um, we couldn’t find it at first. After 10 minutes we did and made it back to our hotel. We busted into the snacks we brought right away.

I had a serving of Stacy’s chips plus a few extra chips + 2 tbs hummus. I only had a small taste of the guacamole because it had way too much garlic. I didn’t even know guacamole ever contained garlic. I also had a few pistachios and an orange. I love snack time after snowboarding!

Thoughts on eating out while traveling so far: I think that I have made really good choices so far. It can be so hard to balance enjoying different foods and keeping a healthy diet, especially when the mountains remind you of junk food like mozzarella sticks and french fries. I am trying to focus on eating the foods I know are good for me while having a few tastes of the fun foods.

We are all trying to get motivated to head to the hot tub downstairs to soothe our muscles and relax. We are all cozied up in our rooms and it is really hard to go anywhere!

The kitchen is open!

Some more changes will be happening in the next week or two.. please be patient as they are made.

In the meantime, please update your Google readers to www.rhodeygirltests.com/feed !

Since it is a weekday we are doing Vail today. It will be insanely busy this weekend. I can’t believe this is my first time out West to snowboard!

We have a little kitchenette in our room and stocked it with some good snacks I will show you later. The whole group picked one breakfast so that we only had to buy one set of ingredients- whole wheat English muffins, peanut butter, and bananas. I had half of an English muffin with peanut butter and 1/4 banana.

Gina and I picked up a box of Mighty Leaf tea in vanilla bean and it is one of the best vanilla teas I have ever had. I had a big mug of it. I am also focusing in drinking a lot of water so I continue to feel good at this elevation.

Since I ate a light breakfast I packed a snack in my pocket for later!

Happy Friday!

-Sent from my iPhone en route to Vail!!

On our flight from Philadelphia to Denver I had a small container of pistachios I had purchased in the airport as well as a Luna Protein Bar in the chocolate peanut butter flavor. I really like these bars although I wouldn’t call them protein bars necessarily- they don’t contain that much protein. I also had some sparkling water, one of my favorite beverages.

Dottie, from Food Cents, lives in Colorado and sent me some tips for our trip. One tip she gave us was the address for a Whole Foods right off of Route 70, right on out way to Beaver Creek. That tip saved us! We hopped in our rental and headed straight there to eat dinner and grab some groceries for our room.

We all made big salads from the salad bar. Mine had mixed greens, romaine lettuce, artichoke hearts, roasted chicken, a few peas, dried cherries, shredded carrots, 2 delicious tortilla chips and some balsamic dressing.

This was delicious and perfectly satisfying. A lot of time in these situations we end up eating junk that doesn’t even taste good. I am happy we had a nice healthy dinner.

As soon as we got back in the car I shared one of my mini muffins with Gina (see yesterday’s post for details). I then had my own whole one!!

I now feel great- not full and not hungry either. This is the ideal way I’d like to feel after every meal.

This morning I woke up early but not early enough and had to choose between doing my hair and having it look nice tonight and tomorrow or going for my run. I chose my hair, how vain! I actually happy though because my legs are super sore from my strength workout and run yesterday.

PB is driving and Jake, Gina’s husband, is the navigator. That means Gina and I can nap in the back. Buona notte!

-Sent from my iPhone

Even without some of my favorite foods, I was able to put together a great lunch. It feels great to know we are going on a trip and won’t need to throw away any food before going. For my early lunch I had a Flat Out wrap with 1 egg, 1 egg white, 1/4 oz mozzarella cheese (just a dash) and 1/4 avocado. On the side I had leftover spinach from last night.

Someone asked me what happens to our dinner leftovers.. Can you take a wild guess? PHILLYBOY! He often takes leftovers to work with him for lunch, or eats a small portion after work as a snack. I work from home- I have a full kitchen at my disposal. There is no need for me to eat precious leftovers that would make the easiest packed lunch for my husband! I know he would do the same if the roles were reversed. However, if we have leftovers of this, you bet I make a double batch and save some for myself!!!

It has been really fun sharing my meals with you this week, and I am curious to see how it goes tomorrow in Colorado. What are your thoughts? Do you miss my usual recipe posts and restaurant reviews? Do you prefer seeing my daily eats? I’d love some feedback.

Day 4:

Breakfast

Day 3:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

Day 2:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner- recipe for Baked Breaded Eggplant

Day 1:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

And a LOVEly Weekend.

This morning I saw we had one banana left on the counter, and since we are leaving for Colorado tonight, it had to be eaten. Enter: OATS!

Here is how I make mine…

Peanut Butter Banana Coconut Oatmeal
Serves 1

Ingredients:
1/4 cup dry rolled oats
1.25 cups water
dash cinnamon
dash sea salt
3/4 banana, split into 1/2 banana and 1/4 banana
1 tbs peanut butter
5 g shredded sweetened coconut

Directions:
Heat water on high in a small pot. Slice half a banana in small pieces and add to the water. Also add a dash of cinnamon and sea salt. Stir. When the mixture comes to a boil, lower to medium heat and add the oats. Stir well every couple of minutes until the oats have absorbed all the water and the banana has slightly dissolved. Pour into a bowl and top with 1/4 banana, sliced, 1 tbs peanut butter, and 5 g shredded coconut. I mix it all up, and enjoy!

**Note: the Quaker Oats canister suggests much less liquid than I use, but I have found that the recommended amount leaves the oats a little too chewy for my liking. Also, I always use water and have never tried them with milk!

Day 3:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

Day 2:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner- recipe for Baked Breaded Eggplant

Day 1:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

And a LOVEly Weekend.

I also made some baked chicken breast with artichoke hearts, Near East tomato lentil couscous, and steamed spinach. It was a great and healthy meal!!!! I had about 2 oz of chicken, 3/4 cup couscous, and 1/2 cup spinach.

Tomorrow we go to COLORADO!!! I can’t wait to snowboard big, snowy mountains. Of course, being the list making woman I am, my bag is already 75% packed.. time to finish the rest!

[Reminder: I am blogging my meals this week- every last bite- to show you how I eat and why I eat it. This is the extended reply to several Ask Me Anything questions I received.]

Good night!

Day 3:

Breakfast   
Lunch

Day 2:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner- recipe for Baked Breaded Eggplant

Day 1:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

And a LOVEly Weekend.

Today I had one of her favorite lunches- pasta with canned tuna. I had about 2.5 oz of angel hair with a can of tuna in olive oil, drained. The oil from the tuna works as a great sauce over the pasta.

[Reminder: I am blogging my meals this week- every last bite- to show you how I eat and why I eat it. This is the extended reply to several Ask Me Anything questions I received.]

The water was put on to boil because I was just so hungry. I know the photo is hideous.

In the afternoon I took a 10 minute break to bake some muffins. This time I used 1 pear and really chopped it small, and I made the muffins in a mini muffin tin. I baked them to bring with us to Colorado tomorrow! PB and I are going with another couple to Beaver Creek (near Vail). We would love dining suggestions and more!!!

I think PB is ready to show off his newly acquired snowboarding moves (he is linking turns! and well!)

Back to the muffins. Of course I had to taste test two of them. They were just the way I remembered them… a bit dry, not very sweet, but perfectly satisfying. You don’t have to feel guilty eating these. Find the original recipe here.

Later in the afternoon I had some Oikos vanilla yogurt with fresh raspberries, a couple of tablespoons of Kashi Go Lean Crunch, and 1.25 Weetabix biscuits. I almost skipped my snack this afternoon, but I got super hungry around 3. This was great… although I did miss the chocolate chips! I am one of those people who is sad when a delicious meal or snack is gone. Are you that way?

I have a really fun giveaway coming soon. Hint: it involves creative shoes… Get excited!!!!

Day 3:

Breakfast   

Day 2:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner- recipe for Baked Breaded Eggplant

Day 1:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

And a LOVEly Weekend.