Nick and I have been talking about doing this on the blog for a while.

I honestly have no clue what is going to happen, but it should be fun to find out!

One of my baking projects this past weekend was making some whole wheat bread for us to have this week.

I used this recipe, but made a change that I probably shouldn’t have  :)

It looked like SO much dough when it was rising that I split it into 2 loaf pans instead of just baking in one. It still turned out delicious, but it’s not really “sandwich size” bread. Oh well – now I know for next time, I guess.

So what is the experiment, you ask?

We’re putting this up against the bread we normally buy to see which one goes bad first and how long each lasts, period.

Do you ever wonder why it takes some store bought bread so long to go bad? Some brands are fine, but we’ve had some that have “looked fine” much longer than they should have  :)

 

Here’s one of the bread brands we usually buy and its ingredients:

Not really bad, but not as good as homemade.

So I made the bread on Sunday and we bought this loaf on Sunday.

I put one slice of each in a ziploc bag and have them on the counter so we can watch the progress – these pictures are from Day 2 (Tuesday night).

I looked at them both this morning and they both still look the same, so no new pictures yet.

I’ll be updating the progress as things change – this should be fun. It’s like a science project without a grade!

— Check out my new Foodie BlogRoll ad! —  I’m so excited!

Have you ever done any food experiments at home just for fun?

Oatmeal?

I remembered something I bought a couple weekends ago and knew I needed to use them in my oatmeal this morning.

That’s right – cinnamon chips! Nick’s mom said these are really good in oatmeal cookies, so that may need to be my next project  :)

Banana Berry Oatmeal with Cinna-Choc Chips

• 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, pinch salt
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• cinnamon!
• 2 Tbsp walnuts, chopped
• 1 tsp each of semi-sweet chocolate chips and cinnamon chips

Look at it melt!

The cinnamon chips were interesting – they smelled more cinnamon-y than they tasted, but they were good! It was a good mix with the chocolate/berries/banana.

Since I’ve been doing the Heart Health Series at lunch this week, I decided it would be easier to just post my lunch now – especially since it’s already packed and ready to go!

Barley topped with a Black Bean Burger

Salad with romaine,  roasted corn, tomato, and avocado

and an apple

See you for Heart Health #3! I’m off to get coffee  :)

Look out! This is going to be a marathon post  :) 

 

Lunch today was a Meatloaf Sandwich (yum – sorry the picture doesn’t do it justice!)

 

Steamed green/yellow beans

 

and a really juicy orange

 

And….just because I’ve had this song stuck in my head all day, I thought I would share this video for you to enjoy  :)  My lunch was the reason this song came up – if you’ve never heard this, I hope you listen to it! I love these guys.

 

Work was work – only 2 more days this week! It’s been hectic without my supervisor here, so I’ll be happy when she’s back next week. It just seems like so many people decide to do strange things or ask way too many questions when she’s not here.

 

This afternoon, I had some plain ff yogurt topped with 1/2 cup of Kashi U. This was my first time trying it, and I really liked it! I loved the little blueberries in the cereal.

 

 

 

We decided not to go running tonight – Nick ended up having to stay a little later at the lab than he thought, so we’re going to run tomorrow. The weather should be nice enough for us to run outside, so I’m hoping it actually is! If not, we’ll probably have our stuff in case we have to go to the gym instead.

 

Dinner tonight came from Eating Well – I love this magazine! I’m going to have to look for the new one. I’ve made a lot of recipes out of it, which makes me glad I bought it – I’m getting my money’s worth!

 

Black Eyed Peas with Pork and Greens

 

This was really good – the smoked paprika gave it this amazing deep, smoky flavor. That smoked paprika is my new favorite thing – it’s awesome.

 

For my third green of the afternoon, I finally opened these

Thanks Mom!!!

Look how cute the little messages are on the m&ms!

 

Plan for the rest of the night:

• Watch Hokie b-ball game until LOST comes on
• Watch LOST
• Try to stay up for the Top Chef finale….I can usually make it until the last 10 minutes – I seem to always miss the end!

Before I get into the sections on how to prevent heart disease, I wanted to go over the more common symptoms of heart disease/heart attacks.

This is one area that is critical – many times, women don’t even know they’re having a heart attack because it doesn’t fall into the “symptoms” that are the most common (i.e., pain in chest, shooting pain in arm, etc).

From Women’s Health,

What are the signs of a heart attack?

For both women and men, the most common sign of a heart attack is:

• Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest. The pain or discomfort can be mild or strong. It can last more than a few minutes, or it can go away and come back.

Other common signs of a heart attack include:

• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach
• Shortness of breath (feeling like you can’t get enough air). The shortness of breath often occurs before or along with the chest pain or discomfort.
• Nausea (feeling sick to your stomach) or vomiting
• Feeling faint or woozy
• Breaking out in a cold sweat

Women are more likely than men to have these other common signs of a heart attack, particularly shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, and pain in the back, neck, or jaw. Women are also more likely to have less common signs of a heart attack, including:

• Heartburn
• Loss of appetite
• Feeling tired or weak
• Coughing
• Heart flutters

Sometimes the signs of a heart attack happen suddenly, but they can also develop slowly, over hours, days, and even weeks before a heart attack occurs.

The more heart attack signs that you have, the more likely it is that you are having a heart attack. Also, if you’ve already had a heart attack, your symptoms may not be the same for another one. Even if you’re not sure you’re having a heart attack, you should still have it checked out.

(http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/heart-disease.cfm#a)

Being aware of all the possible symptoms is extremely important – if you notice any of these things, it’s always better to get checked out just in case.

Here is another list of possible symptoms from the FDA:

What are the signs of heart disease in women?

The most important sign is feeling really tired–even if after enough sleep. Other signs of heart disease in women are:

• Trouble breathing
• Trouble sleeping
• Feeling sick to the stomach
• Feeling scared or nervous
• New or worse headaches
• An ache in the chest
• Feeling “heavy” or “tight” in the chest
• A burning feeling in the chest
• Pain in the back, between the shoulders
• Pain or tightness in the chest that spreads to the jaw, neck, shoulders, ear, or the inside of the arms
• Pain in the belly, above the belly button

The Mayo Clinic reports that

…signs and symptoms are more subtle than the obvious crushing chest pain often associated with heart attacks. This may be because women tend to have blockages not only in their main arteries, but also in the smaller arteries that supply blood to the heart — a condition called small vessel heart disease.

Many women tend to show up in emergency rooms after much heart damage has already occurred because their symptoms are not those typically associated with a heart attack.

If you notice any of these symptoms, go to a doctor – Better to be safe than sorry.

Do you know anyone that has had a heart attack? Did they say what symptoms they had?

My mom said hers started at first feeling like indigestion, then turned into the shooting/stabbing pain in her shoulder.

My coworker that just passed away last week called in sick for bad indigestion before his heart attack happened.