WIAW: An Actual Productive Day with Baby

August 10, 2016August 10, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

You guys. I had an actual productive day. If you know me, you know that this isn’t a big deal. I am not usually a person who sits still and does nothing (including binge TV watching) … but since FW was born, I’ve gotten used to the fact that I can’t get as productive as I would like. I can no longer make plans and assume they’ll get done … between napping, crying, eating, etc. I never now what I’m going to have time for. BUT this Monday, all the moons/planets/babythings aligned and I had a productive day! So, I bring you – Monday’s eats for What I Ate Wednesday!

Breakfast was some yogurt, granola and LOTS of fruit – peach, fruit salad, etc. My parents visited over the weekend and left me with some of my mom’s homemade granola.

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I also had some more granola as a snack after eating the parfait. It’s too good. I’m going to finish it before this week ends!

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FW and I took some time during the afternoon to take a walk with B during lunch. It was nice to get out of the house and go for a drive – and then a walk. It was really nice to get out of downtown and walk in a new part of the town. And then, lunch was this bowl of veggies and some cheese. Disclaimer: I had about twice as many roasted veggies as this, but forgot to take a picture until about halfway through.

walk with dad!

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Snack during the day included some of these peanut butter energy balls. Anson made them for me and I’ve been hooked!

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I also had a spoonful (or two) of peanut butter. Yup, peanut butter twice in one day.

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During the afternoon, FW and I hit up the West Side Market to buy supplies of dinner. And then, FW took a long afternoon nap, and I managed to have time to prep dinner AND make dessert- this lemon zucchini bread! I haven’t baked with FW around unless B was home yet, and yes, maybe I should’ve been napping, but baking felt so good!

A pre-dinner snack of some cheese.

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Dinner was some salmon, salad, corn and orzo salad. And a glass of white wine. And because FW had been so good during the afternoon, it’s no surprise that B and I took turns eating while FW screamed. Ahh well, you can only have a happy baby for part of the day, right?

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And dessert? Some of this lemon zucchini bread from Two Peas and their Pod. It came in my inbox in the morning and when I bought zucchini at the market and FW napped, I knew I’d had to make it!

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And that sums up my day of eats. Now, some questions for you:

What do you make when you have a bunch of zucchini on hand?
What is your favorite kind of nut butter?

WIAW: Wednesday Beers (and food)

August 3, 2016July 31, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 5 Comments

When I first saw What I Ate Wednesday posts a while back, I was a little confused. I thought that these were what people ate ON a Wednesday. I wondered how they captured it – was it the previous week? Was it what they planned for that day? It took a while and then I finally realized that it was just someone’s food – and they posted it on a Wednesday. Whoops. Anyway, for this week, I decided to share ACTUAL Wednesday eats – from last week. So this week’s WIAW foods are actually Wednesday foods! But not today’s foods. Confused yet?

Wednesday morning B and I took a pre-work walk for coffee and pastries. I just LOVE Bloom’s baked goods and if you go in the morning they have a great selection. Their almond croissants are my favorite.

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FW took a nap after our walk so I had time to make myself breakfast after B left for work! A runny egg, some egg whites, sweet potato with coconut oil and grapes. 20160727_095823

Lunch included a few random eats – an arugula salad with a corn salsa (courtesy of B’s mom) and goat cheese, a nectarine and leftover zoodles topped with a few bites of a veggie burger I hadn’t finished the day before.

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I was able eat the lunch with TWO hands because I was wearing FW. He hates being put in the wrap but it’s so nice to have both hands free and he calms down shortly after being put in it. 20160727_162118

Afternoon snacks included more PB&J muffins and some beet chips. 20160727_161337 20160727_170913

For dinner, we had plans to meet up with B’s family and go to the Hofbrauhaus for his brother John’s birthday. We snacked on some appetizers (including a large pretzel and this large lunchmeat platter) and I had some of their hefeweizen to drink. 20160727_185502

And for dinner? Their roasted chicken and potato salad. It was half of a chicken and I didn’t eat it all – but it made for GREAT leftovers on Thursday! 20160727_194347

And that sums up my day of eats from Wednesday. Now, some questions for you:

Do you drink beer in the middle of the week? Or mostly on weekends?
How do you like your eggs? I like whites or super runny! Or both (like above).

WIAW: Case of the Mondays

July 27, 2016July 26, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

For some reason I thought that Mondays during my maternity leave would be easier. I wouldn’t be waking up earlier than usual to go to work … I wouldn’t have the usual pre-workweek anxiety about getting everything done in time. I wouldn’t be recovering from staying up late evening night during the weekend.

Well. I was wrong. Mondays are still hard. Why? Mostly because B goes back to work- which means less help for me with FW, less sleep (I sorta sleep in on weekends because B able to watch FW in the morning) and the slight anxiety of wondering how FW and I will survive the week ahead of us.

Needless to say, Mondays are still hard. Thankfully, this last Monday was a little easier. One of the reasons was because of food. B made me lunch (so I wouldn’t have to prep something during the day with FW), I had made snacks ahead of time and dinner was an easy semi freezer meal. It’s amazing how much a little food can make the day even better! Anyway, onto today’s What I Ate Wednesday.
Breakfast was some yogurt and fruit. I get into breakfast habits and have been really enjoying nonfat plain Greek yogurt with honey and berries. I would also usually add granola, but I haven’t made some in a while and I need to do that. B also surprised me with a skinny cinnamon dulce latte- I haven’t had a caffeinated beverage like that in a year!

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For snack, I had nearly this entire large container of fruit salad.

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Lunch was a salad B had made me. It was awesome- under the corn/bean/tomato/cilantro salsa (courtesy B’s mom) was some chicken, pepperoni and cheese.

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Snacks were some grapes and one of these whole wheat oat peanut butter and jelly muffins modified from Running with Spoons.

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Dinner was zoodles with some meatballs B made and homemade pasta sauce I had made plus a delicious salad. I was starving – we had gone to B’s softball game and didn’t get home to start cooking until after 8! I was pooped and tired. Thankfully B also feed me some cheese and pepperoni as a snack (unpictured) while dinner was being prepared.

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There we go – another What I Ate Wednesday. And not a bad Monday!

Some questions for you:

What is your favorite day of the week?
What’s your go-to breakfast?

Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. All views are my own.

WIAW: Housesitting in the Suburbs!

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! We are halfway through a crazy week- it is madness in Cleveland because it’s the RNC! Yes, the RNC is in Cleveland and all our favorite places have been taken over by groups and media – and there are barricades and security checks all over our neighborhood. SO – this week we have escaped downtown! We are housesitting in the burbs. So, today’s WIAW features some suburban eats 🙂 (yes it’s the same as downtown eats I suppose).

Anyway, I still haven’t gotten the hang of being productive and keeping a newborn happy. I’ll work on it – but I’m SO MUCH more productive and things are SO MUCH easier when B gets home from work.
Because we were planning on not being home this day, our meals were pretty much planned in advance. We brought over meals and just ate them at the house. So, here you go – day of pretty planned and delicious summery meals!

Pre-breakfast (yes, there was one) was some of Arman’s black bean brownie bars again. I got up at 5 am to feed FW and then B and I went for a walk to get some coffee, so I was needing some quick and easy fuel before my real breakfast.

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Here’s my iced tea I got at the coffee shop. I love Ruthie’s Tea at Phoenix Coffee and it’s not too bad iced!

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Here’s the real breakfast- I didn’t get a photo of it all together (life is hard with baby) but it was plain yogurt, tons of fruit and very delicious.

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Lunch was this great salad. I also had some dressing on it (not pictured) and cheese. And some bread and peanut butter because I love the two together.

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And a peach for a snack.

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For dinner, we grilled some vegetables and halibut steaks that we had gotten at the West Side Market. They were so good! It is nice having a grill to use because we don’t have one downtown.

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And it dessert? Coffee ice cream. Eaten a few spoonfuls a time while the baby was crying. That’s life I guess?

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But who can complain when he mostly looks like this?

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And that was my What I Ate Wednesday eats. Some questions for you-

New moms and stay at home moms- do you prepare your meals ahead of time so they’re easier to eat during the day?
What’s your favorite type of yogurt? And favorite yogurt toppings?

Is it still called brunch if you already had breakfast? Or is it just breakfast for lunch then?
When was the last time you had Swedish Fish?

WIAW: Ugly Sandwich

July 13, 2016July 13, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

It’s Wednesday already? Thank goodness – only three more full days until the weekend and it’s also What I Ate Wednesday! For those of you new, it’s a time for sharing and checking out a random day of eats. I love seeing everyone’s eats and sharing my own! These were my eats from Monday. I was at home with FW and had lunch with Cuoghi.

Breakfast was eaten fast with a crying baby before heading out for a walk to sooth crying baby and consisted of a few bites of a nectarine, yogurt and handful of blueberries with one hand. And no phot.

Lunch, however, was different. My friend Cuoghi brought me a sandwich from Herb & Twine and it was delicious! BUT it may have been the ugliest sandwich ever. It was a vegetarian meatball sub and not very photogenic. I meant to eat half Monday and the rest Tuesday, but I couldn’t help but eat it all.

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We ate outside in the new Public Square which was great, and FW slept the entire time. On the way back we took a break and met up with Nicole.

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After lunch, I finished off a cookie (or two) that I had made on Sunday.

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And then, FW was fussy so I put him in the baby carrier and he slept for 30 minutes! While he slept, I made some of Arman’s black bean brownie bars – they were great! I of course had to taste test them.

baking with a baby isn’t as easy as it looks

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We didn’t get to eat dinner until late, so for a pre-dinner snack, B and I had some bread and cheese.

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And dinner was toast with pesto and chicken and pasta soup. My mom had brought us a big container of soup when she came and visited and it was SO nice just to be able to take it out of the freezer and heat it up for an easy and satisfying dinner.

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And that was it! I typically have dessert after dinner, but I was so exhausted I passed out on the couch shortly after eating.

Some questions for you:

Do you have dessert every night? Any go-to desserts?
Have you ever made any black bean-type of desserts? Or chickpea? Or snuck other healthy ingredients into desserts (like zucchini, carrots, avocado, etc.)?

WIAW: Postpartum Eats

July 6, 2016July 6, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

I’m back for What I Ate Wednesday! It has been a few weeks since I participated and I took off last Wednesday for good reason – I had just had a baby! That’s right, FW was born June 23 and I’m now a new mom. SO this week includes a random day in the life of a new mom on maternity leave, but with help. B was home this week so I had some help around the house, help with FW and time to prepare my own meals. It was great!

The reason I’ve been blogging less than usual

Breakfast was some yogurt, granola (my mom had made it and brought it when she came to visit) AND a huge fruit salad. I’m still on a fruit kick and my parents bought me a ton of fruit when they came and visited and we were given leftover fruit salad from our Fourth of July bbq, so of course I had to have some.

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I had a midmorning snack of some sushi. I ended up eating only 3 of these pieces that were leftover but they were good!

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B and I then went for a walk with FW. We’ve been taking daily walks with him and enjoying the sunny weather and being home during the day.

For lunch, I couldn’t decide what I wanted. Something sweet? Savory? Leftovers? So I had a bunch of random stuff in our fridge – veggies and hummus (B’s mom had made some hummus and brought it over for us), fruit and cheese, bread and peanut butter and a runny egg with toast. It is SO NICE to eat runny eggs again!

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For an afternoon snack I had a peach.

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For dinner, I decided to once again use some of the supplies we had in the fridge and made ginormous salads and flatbread pizza. We had pizza Friday night and still had some cheese, homemade sauce and cheese – AND still had some naan from when B’s mom brought it over (to go with aforementioned hummus), and it made for a really good homemade dinner. Oh, and while preparing dinner I snacked on some fresh super soft mozzarella and pepperoni. Only mozzarella is pictured – sorry it’s not super photogenic 🙂

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And for dessert? B and I shared some Mitchell’s ice cream – this is one of my favorite flavors!

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Some questions for you:

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Pregnant people and moms – did you have cravings during or post-pregnancy? Did they stay the same?

WIAW: Day Off and Date Night

June 22, 2016June 18, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

What do you eat when you’re not following a routine? Are your eats messed up? Are they healthier? Less healthy?

I find that I eat relatively healthy Monday through Friday when I’m at work. I like to meal plan or at least sometimes prepare my lunches ahead of time. And most of the time, these lunches include plenty of veggies. Other days, however, I’m less inclined to eat my veggies. Why? For me, it’s convenience – they just take time to prepare and when I’m not at work, I’m not usually preparing food. As you can see – today I’m sharing with you What I Ate Wednesday meals from a day I was out of the office. And yes, I’m still eating a ton of fruit – it’s still a major pregnancy craving.

Breakfast was a smoothie from Restore! I was never into smoothies until pregnancy. Maybe it’s for hydrating or maybe it’s my love of fruit – but I love them now.

Restore smoothie!

And some fruit.

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I took a three-isa mile walk in the afternoon so fueled up right afterwards with some more fruit. This time, a giant bowl and a dollop of whipped cream I had made as well. See those delicious cherries at the bottom?

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Lunch was a mismatch of food that was in my fridge. Part of B’s leftover sandwich, a tortilla with peanut butter and honey (YUM!) and an assortment of cheese. Because, why not?

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B and I went out for dinner in Little Italy and had a delicious meal. We started with some buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto and then I had the special – a lobster on top of pasta with tomato sauce. SO AMAZINGLY GOOD.

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And for dessert? I passed by the cannoli and instead opted for some ice cream made with liquid nitrogen at Piccadilly. There were so many choices it was hard to decide, but I ultimately went with goat cheese with fig and honey – was so creamy!

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And that was it! A delicious day off and date night 🙂

Some questions for you:

When you’re not following a routine do you eat differently?
What’s the most interesting flavor of ice cream you have had? AND/OR what flavor would you have had from the list above?

WIAW: Can’t Get Enough Fruit

June 15, 2016June 12, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

I’ve said it before – but I can NOT get enough fruit during this pregnancy. I don’t know why – but it’s what I constantly crave. Yes, there are other cravings, but a big, heaping bowl of juicy fruit salad? OMG I could eat it every day. And you’ll see that in today’s What I Ate Wednesday. I started AND ended my day with fresh fruit. And today featured some amazingly delicious, super sweet Skylar Rae cherries. Which yes, I also started and ended my day with.
Breakfast was one of my favorite yogurts- Siggis! And of course a ginormous bowl of fruit. These cherries are seriously amazing. I’ve never been one to go out of my way to intentionally buy cherries (they’re not my favorite fruit) but I would definitely buy therm again.
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See how pretty they are! Stemilt sent me a package in the mail and I can’t get enough. Here’s what they told me about them: known as Skylar Rae, this is a brand new type of cherry cultivar and one of only three commercial varieties in the world. It is the sweetest cherry on the market, but has such a sad story! After suffering the loss of their infant daughter, the Toftness family – long time Washington State cherry farmers – discovered the never-before-seen cherry on a single tree growing in their orchard. They felt it was a gift from nature meant to honor their beautiful daughter, whom they chose to name the cherry after.
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And some dried cranberries. So special story behind these cranberries.
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Lunch was leftovers. Leftover baked eggplant stacks- they are one of my favorite meatless dishes. And I added a side salad I got from the salad bar.
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And of course some more fruit. A nectarine this time!
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Snacks included some candy (yay! Another pregnancy craving) and mixed nuts.
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I made dinner for B and me – some deconstructed veggie spring rolls and salmon.

These are the deconstructed spring rolls. It was great to break out my spiralizer!

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And all together.
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For dessert I made some of these black bean chocolate brownie bars. They’re actually breakfast bars but they’re delicious for dessert!
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And surprise, surprise- more fruit. Again- these cherries are SO so good. 20160611_112615

And see- this is how pregnant I am. I don’t often share selfies – especially on WIAW posts – but since I’m talking about preggo cravings ….
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I’d say it was a good, satisfying What I Ate Wednesday. Not bad for a 39 week pregnant chick, huh?

Some questions for you:

Do you like cherries? Have you ever had these Skylar Rae cherries?
What’s your favorite type of fruit?

Disclaimer: Stemilt sent me some complimentary Skylar Rae cherries, and I loved them. All views are my own.

WIAW: Wine and Gold for the Cavs

June 8, 2016June 5, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

Phew. Why is it that the week after a short week always seems the longest? In any case, this What I Ate Wednesday is in celebration of the Cleveland Cavaliers. We’re in the finals (a rematch against the Golden State Warriors – ugh) and this day of eats included a celebration in honor of the Cavs – including a wine and gold-themed happy hour!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the morning. For breakfast I was seriously craving some fruit. Like big, juicy, melon. Thank goodness we had some watermelon in the office and I had just cut open a cantaloup the night before – I made myself a large fruit salad (watermelon is hiding below) and some overnight oats.

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For lunch, I had plans to meet up with B and we had a lunch date at my favorite bakery/sandwich/salad place downtown – Stone Oven. Janea’s salad will forever be my favorite.

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Then, the happy hour I was talking about! Our office had a Wine & Gold-themed Happy Hour to celebrate the Cavs getting into the finals and that meant some wine/gold food, drinks, etc. I baked red velvet cupcakes with gold frosting to contribute.

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We also had a dunk contest – I came in 2nd somehow! No doubt it was for creativity – and lucky (I somehow got it in).

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Dinner plans had to get changed – B and I were going to go out with friends on E 4th while the Cavs were on but we were starving and places were too crowded – so instead we just heated up some leftover quinoa enchilada casserole and ate it with avocado, sour cream (leftover from the red velvet cupcake recipe) and plenty of tortilla chips.

E 4th street getting crowded

blurry dinner pic (many more tortilla chips consumed but not pictured)

And that sums up my day of eats! Now, some questions for you:

Are you rooting for anyone in the NBA finals? Who?
What’s your favorite fruit? Least favorite?

WIAW: Baseball Game!

June 1, 2016June 1, 2016 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

I almost forgot that it was Wednesday because I had Monday off – what a great feeling! Thank goodness I remembered, just in time to participate in What I Ate Wednesday and share with you my meals and see everyone else’s meals as well.

B and I slept in on this day and ended up starting our day with lunch. We hit up Bloom, one of my favorite local bakeries and lunch places and I got this great sandwich – it’s a light chicken salad on a baguette. It came with a beet salad and I also snagged a few of B’s salt & vinegar chips (not pictured). One of my favorite flavors! It was nice enough to eat outside, so we hit up a nearby public garden to eat in.

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That afternoon we were pretty busy and before I knew it it was time for our evening plans – the Indians game. I didn’t have time for my afternoon snack! Thankfully I bought some peanuts for us to enjoy while watching the game.

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For dinner at the game, I opted for a grilled cheese sandwich from Melt, which has a new stand at the baseball field. I got the mushroom melt, which hit the spot! Besides craving fruit during this pregnancy, I’m also craving panini-type melted sandwiches, even in the heat.

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And that was it! Not as balanced as my typical days (no fruit, VERY limited veggies, etc.), but that’s what What I Ate Wednesday is about – sharing it all, the good and the bad.

Some questions for you: