Another Wonderful Vegetarian Weekend

There is nothing better than a rainy weekend to make for a great start to the next week. It's been raining on and off in Austin all weekend and it's been steadily getting cooler here. I took the opportunity to go buy some new candles for fall and have been taking in the aroma of pumpkin spice and apple cider all weekend. Mmmm! Love this time of year!

We were supposed to go to a big music festival here called Austin City Limits, but we sold our tickets at the last minute. We just found out that hubby has a herniated disk in his neck, so with all of his traveling lately, we just really wanted a weekend to spend time together rather than standing up in crowds of people. It actually worked out perfectly since it ended up raining the entire weekend anways. We took the opportunity to instead go check out the Texas Stars hockey game. We had so much fun and cant wait to go back! Gorgeous brand new facility and I was amazed at how much the crowd was into it. I've been to NHL games before, but didn't know what to expect with minor league...wow....very impressed...plus there were more fights than you see in NHL, which is a pretty big part of the fun at hockey games...he he :)

Rather than post every little thing I ate and drank this weekend, thought I'd just include some of my favorites. I'm looking forward to a great UBWO tomorrow bright and early!

Banana Nut Protein Oatmeal- 1/2 cup (dry measured) quick oats + 1 scoop EAS vanilla whey protein + 1/4 banana + 1 packet Sun Crystals + cinnamon + 1 tbsp. sliced almonds - Pure Heaven!

Tomato Basil & Roast Turkey Style Wrap- La Tortilla Factory tomato basil tortilla + 4 Vegetarian Roast Turkey style slices + mustard, spinach, red onions, tomatoes- I will never get sick of wraps! This my favorite vegetarian wrap...
Went to Olive Garden before the hockey game- Oh yeah! I noticed they are now selling their house dressing in bottles, so I checked the nutrition label on the way out (of course), and I was actually pretty surprised that it was 8 g of fat for 2 tbsp...thought it would have been more, but not as bad as I thought it would be.
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Skipped the bread sticks to save room for some whole wheat pasta...



So I was really let down by Olive Garden a while back when they discontinued my all time favorite meal which was the Chicken Giardino. It was bowtie pasta w/chicken breast, zuccini, squash, peas & lemon herb sauce. It was a "fit fare" menu item, and when they discontinued it, there really was nothing that I like for a while.


I was SO excited that they now offer whole wheat linguine with a roasted portobello mushroom marinara sauce as part of their endless pasta promotion...yes! You can't really see how great the sauce was under the grated parmesan, but I was impressed with this new sauce, and having whole wheat noodles is a definite must in my book...I left very happy:-D



I know you probably wouldn't even know how much I love lentils, because I haven't eaten them much as part of my vegetarianism, but I really do love them. I found a whole variety of different easy to make lentils at the new farmer's market near my house and had to try them...two thumbs way up!

Ate the 2 servings that come in the pouch...whole meal with low fat cheese was 270 calories, 18 g protein, 32 g carbs, 16 g fiber, 7.5 g fat...I will definitely be buying more of these Tasty Bite products.

I don't like regular hot dogs, but the smell was making me crave them last night at the hockey game, so I had some vegetarian dogs instead today...and these don't contain a bunch of chemicals and nitrates/nitrites like regular hot dogs either...definitely a plus!

Used 2 small La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortillas instead of bread + mustard + sauteed onions + 2 Smart Dogs...all of this for 200 calories?! I can deal with that! I wil be having these again...

I think I'm on a bean and tortilla kick this weekend.

Sunday dinner- 2 small La Tortilla Factory whole wheat tortillas + 1/2 cup reduced sodium (drained and rinsed) black beans + sauteed peppers & onions + tiny bit of shredded Kraft reduced fat 2% white cheddar + diced fresh tomatoes..I like these a lot, but I think hubby is getting bored of all of my meatless dinners... God bless him for going along with my food experiment!