Quick and Easy (and Healthy!) Work Breakfasts.

"What's this?" you ask, "two posts in a week???" Yes. Two posts in a week.

I work in an office with a small kitchen area. We have a fridge, microwave, and toaster oven. We have a blender too but I'm not really a blended drink person. I get into the office fairly early every day, and it's easier for me to just make food here than to eat at home. So I thought I'd take today to talk about some good eats that you can make at work. I mostly eat breakfast here with the occasional lunch, but I think brown-bagging a lunch is pretty self-explanatory so unless anyone wants me to address that on a different post I'm only going to go over breakfast.

Breakfast is a tough one to make on the go because unless you want to have a cup of coffee or a bowl of cereal, it's hard to make healthy food in the microwave (although the toaster oven is easier). One of my favorite breakfasts is actually supposed to be for lunch but it really hits the spot on a cold morning: Lean Pockets with Turkey, Broccoli, and Cheese. You just zap it in the microwave as directed and *bam* you've got a super yummy and filling breakfast. The problem is that those things can be a little pricey and tend to be high in preservatives, sodium, etc. They are low-cal, but you don't get a free ride there.

Another great option for quick cooking is to make turkey bacon and then have some sort of side- I like a whole wheat English Muffin with some butter. I know I should probably mix in a fruit in there somewhere, but when you're in a rush it's tough. I'd say buy yourself a big jug of V8 Splash or something with 100% juice in it. Turkey bacon rocks because you still feel like you're eating bacon but you can actually cook it in the microwave (about 45 seconds). I put it in the toaster oven for about 4 minutes the other day and it was really great that way too. It's tough to get turkey bacon crispy without burning it, though, so if you're a die hard crisp fan you may have to figure something else out there. English Muffin can be put in the toaster oven or a regular toaster (duh) if you are lucky enough to have one.

Obviously fruit is always a great choice, especially on a hot morning. One of my favorite things to do is chop up some fruit- maybe strawberries, raspberries, or bananas. Then you get some low-fat yogurt, the fruit, and some sweet granola- mix it all together in a cup or bowl and voila! You have a yummy, healthy, indulgent, but best of all low-fat fruit parfait. The best part is that you can get these at McDonald's or even Corner Bakery but I feel that freshly cut fruit is always going to be much tastier and obviously less expensive.

Last but not least on my list of yummies is what I had today and my inspiration for this blog. I read about it in a magazine and tried it and fell madly in food-love. What you do is buy some Egg Beaters. I just tried the Southwestern flavor and they're WAAAAY better than regular. Then you get whatever you would normally like in a scramble: turkey bacon, bell peppers, tomatoes, cheese, etc. Today I put a wedge of Weight Watcher's Jalapeno Cheese, Tapatio, and Tomatoes in it. Now what you do is get a mug and pour the cheese (go with a light or even veggie cheese to stay low-fat) into the mug, followed by the egg beaters mix. Side Note: I highly recommend using a mug that you do not care about. If you over cook it and it sticks to your mug then you're pretty bummed. You can also use a bowl but make sure it isn't a plastic one. My roommate cooked regular eggs in my plastic bowl and it burnt the bowl as the eggs get quite hot. Anyways- pour the mix about an inch and a half deep- the egg beaters rise when they cook and I've had quite a mess on my hands before! You'll want to mix in any meats that you decide to use but not any of the vegetables. Then just pop it in the microwave for about a minute. Next you put any vegetables you want, as well as any seasoning or sauces you want to use, stir it up, and enjoy! The whole process takes about 2 minutes and it tastes absolutely amazing. You would never guess that it's microwaved Egg Beaters and not off-the-stove top eggs. There are a lot of other recipes and ideas for this sort of thing on this website:http://www.hungry-girl.com/

Happy Eating!

Love,

Lula Mae

Wooly Mammoth.

Today's topic of conversation is one that people generally tend to avoid. However, it's one that needs to be addressed.

Hair Removal. It's talked about at 'girl's night,' but even then no one is really going into depth about it. I think it's one of those things that women don't want men to know they do, like any guy really thinks that we live our entire lives with only hair on our heads. Yea right. There are tons of different ways to "take care" of body hair, today I'm going to go over the best ones, starting from the ground up.

LEGS: Honestly, I'm a shaver. Always have been and always will be. Some women wax and if I could afford it I would be all about the lasering, but it's so much more simple to just shave your legs! Waxing, especially, becomes an issue because you need to wait for the hair to grow to a certain length before you can wax it and no one wants hairy legs. Some women shave less during Winter months, but I personally am not a fan of that. I generally shave my legs about 2-3 times per week, more often in bathing suit season. I'm also a big fan of any kind of body lotion that slows regrowth. For anyone who gets irritation, make sure that you're changing your blade about once or twice per month (more if you, well, need it...). I also have sensitive skin so I can't use a scented moisturizer after a fresh shave. My favorite body lotions for after a shave are Curel in the winter months and right now I use Burt's Bees Aloe and Linden Flower After Sun lotion to help preserve any tan that I may get. For razor preference I usually get whatever has at least 4 blades and is on sale (Costco is GREAT to buy razor blades in bulk!).

BIKINI LINE: I wont get too much into this because it's a little embarrassing. Shaving is simple, convenient, cheap, and you can do it when you're in a hurry. Waxing seems to be the general consensus on how to groom "there." I have a friend who recommends some sort of African Male Facial Depilatory... I can't remember the name of it but apparently you buy it at CVS and it works wonders.

STOMACH: Lets face facts here, we're not all sun kissed blondes with light tummy hair. Some of you may even have excessive hair there, I have an Italian friend who has struggled with hers since we were about 14. The best thing to do here is to bleach it. I recommend just a facial hair bleach for about 15 minutes and you're good to go. It takes quite a bit of it to cover your stomach but it's definitely worth it!

UNDERARMS: Shave them! I don't know anyone who uses any other method here.

ARMS: In high school I was on the swim team and was instructed that for Finals we would need to shave our arms. My Freshman year is when I tried it for the first time and just fell in love with it. I loved how silky they were without hair and since I'm dark-haired I liked it even more. But the longer I shaved my arms the more I noticed what a pain in the __ it was. It took longer in the shower, not to mention that if you have ANY regrowth at all it feels like sandpaper to rub against. NOT sexy! I finally stopped doing it altogether a few months ago, and to be honest my arms have never looked better. Always soft and never spiky, I'm digging the non-shaved arms thing. If you have darker hair I recommend using a face bleach on them if you're uncomfortable about it, Sally Hansen makes a great one. The only downer is that you have to mix it yourself on this weird little tray that makes you feel like you're dealing drugs. It, like stomach bleaching, also takes a LOT of bleach to cover your whole arm. As a side note: I usually do one at a time so that I don't have to walk around like Frankenstein with my arms out straight and unable to touch anything for 15 minutes.

ANY FACIAL HAIR BESIDES EYEBROWS: This is one of the most necessary of any removal. What is the first thing people see when they look at you? Your face! Some women are, I think, so in denial about having facial hair that they just ignore it. Nobody walks up to you and looks you in the leg! And we've all seen her, that girl who really- really- needs to be told to wax her upper lip. Don't be that girl. Now some women, like my Mother, prefer waxing any facial hair. I'm just not a big fan of any unnecessary (or expensive) hair removal. I like the comfort of my own home and something fast and easy. The secret to good facial hair removal is knowing your hair type. First of all, are you light haired or dark haired? Secondly is it growing in abundance or just a few fine ones here and there? If you've got a lot of either blonde OR dark hair- I say use a hair remover. Sally Hansen makes a good one, and it's even available in Lavender scent. If you've got fine dark hair, you can probably just bleach it. Bleaching is better because you don't really have to deal with regrowth as much. It's really to your discretion because there ARE women out there who bleach and there's just SO much hair that you can still totally tell they're growing a man-beard. If you've got blonde fine hair, don't do anything you lucky thing!

EYEBROWS: This one is up for debate. Most women I know get waxed. Again- inconvenient and costly in my book. But those who do wax swear by it so I'm not going to go against a good thing. I, personally, tweeze. Tweezers are easy, portable, and not as painful as people think once you get used to them. The trick is to make sure you've got a good grip on that hair and ALWAYS do it one by one, stepping back from the mirror often to see the full picture. Overtweezing is NOT sexy. Another trick that I learned is to use hair remover on them. You'd seriously think I invented the wheel how excited I get about this one. It's painless, effective, and easy. You just have to be sure that you get close to the tweeze line, but not so close that you might mess up and take off an entire brow! I like this method for the middle of my brows, personally. Then I just go back through and clean up a bit with tweezers. If tweezers hurt too much I've read that you can use Anbesol (what they use for babies who are teething to soothe the pain) and it will really help. If you're going to get tweezers, make sure you get a REALLY good pair. My favorites have been Sonia Kashuk and Tweezerman. Tweezerman tweezers have won all kinds of beauty awards and top top that off- they're just really cute!! If you're totally clueless on eyebrows, I think it's a good idea to buy a starter kit. Anastasia makes a great one with stencils and the whole nine yards. You can buy those at Sephora and it's really worth it.

So that's it! This is an awkward topic for a blog but I thought it might really come in handy for some of those out there who are a little bit more clueless in this arena. Enjoy!

Love,

Lula Mae