Lazy Summer Days

Hello!

So today has been a pretty low-key, lazy day…which is just fine with me! I have been enjoying Summer and relaxing. The weather has been rather gloomy and cold today for some odd reason, so I didn’t get to soak up any rays. Instead, I spent the day catching up on re-runs of Dog The Bounty Hunter. Does anybody ever watch that show? My sister got me hooked on it!

This morning, I enjoyed a cute little breakfast cookie:

 

I topped it with nonfat plain greek yogurt aka clouds of fluff. :)

Although the majority of my day has been pretty lazy, I did have a successful run on the treadmill this morning. Another 3 miles down! I am getting more and more excited for my race with every run that I do!

For lunch, I used one of my new favorite products: Ezekiel tortillas!

plus a baby orangie:

I filled a wrap with my turkey, turkey pepperoni, string cheese stick, laughing cow, spinach leaves,and  alfalfa sprouts. Then I stuck it on the George Foreman grill for about 5 minutes. The cheesestick was a great addition because it got all nice and melty inside. mmmm

Oh, I also did 2 loads of laundry in-between my lazy-ness! :D

Then I proclaimed that it was time for a snack, so I headed out to the kitchen and made an amazing shake…green monster style:

So I realized that I really need to buy some new tall glasses for my juices and green monsters because you all probably get tired of seeing this same KU glass every time, haha. I will work on that soon! :D

Anyways, this green monster was especially delicious because I used the secret ingredient.

Here is all that went into the blender:

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 3 cups of spinach leaves (estimated)
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 avocado (secret ingredient!)

Avocado should ALWAYS be put in shakes/smoothies. Seriously, you need to try this if you haven’t yet! It makes it SO creamy, smooth, and delicious. I gulped this down in no time!

For dinner, I wanted something simple, so I decided to have dinner on Amy tonight:

along with a side of steamed broccoli:

This was my first time trying this meal and I really like it! But I wasn’t surprised though because how could I NOT love anything from Amy’s kitchen?! I totally recommend that you give this meal a try!

For dessert, I ventured into the freezer since I have been trying to eat up all my frozen baked goodies…so I can make more of course!

I knew what I wanted when I laid eyes on Heather’s (from Heather Eats Almond Butter) chocolate chip banana nut butter muffins. These are seriously the best muffins I have ever made/eaten. The nut butter put in this recipe makes it a million times better!!

And you know i covered the top of the muffin with some more nut butta lovin’. ;)

I also had a couple handfuls of Moose Munch!

I don’t turn down anything that has caramel corn in it! Yum!

And now I’m about to watch So You Think You Can Dance! Wooohooo! Man, I really sound like one big couch potato don’t I?!? Oh well! :D

Will YOU be watching So You Think You Can Dance tonight?

Double recipes

Hi guys! How is everyone’s weekend going?

I just got back from walking Jaci in the gorgeous weather we have here today! It’s nice and sunny. Yay!

I made a new breakfast cookie last night, so before I left for our walk, I chowed down:

This is my first time putting greek yogurt on a breakfast cookie and I have to admit; it was pretty darn yummy! It is also keep me full and satisfied pretty well, too. Thanks for the idea, Jenna!

Now, rewinding back to yesterday, I had a great Saturday! I started the day off with another awesome run. I ran a 5k again and it felt fantastic! I am really liking this distance and have found the pace where I am comfortable at. Now I just have to remember to keep this pace during my race in two weeks so I don’t get burnt out early in the race!

Yesterday afternoon was spent at a bridal shower! But before we left, I made a fabulous lunchy:

grilled ezekiel wrap. mmmm

I know I mentioned how much I love weddings and I am so excited that I have yet another one to look forward to! My cousin, Shaun, is getting married on June 22. My mom, sister, and I went to his fiancé's shower. It was a fun time; we played some bridal games and she opened all of her presents. She got some pretty neat kitchen appliances that I was jealous of! hehe. Then we all gathered in the kitchen and had refreshments. There was a cake, nuts, fruit, and punch. It was a pretty set up and I totally forgot to take a pic of it! Sorry! I had a small slice of cake, some nuts and some fruit. I probably could have done without the cake though; I am a total ice-cream gal.

Are you more of a cake lover or an ice-cream lover?

Then we came home and started thinking about what we wanted to do for dinner. I found an awesome recipe that I wanted to try, so I made dinner for the fam. :)

 

  Tofu with Peanut Ginger Sauce

· 5 tablespoon(s) water

· 4 tablespoon(s) smooth natural peanut butter

· 1 tablespoon(s) rice vinegar (see Ingredient note), or white vinegar

· 2 teaspoon(s) reduced-sodium soy sauce

· 2 teaspoon(s) honey

· 2 teaspoon(s) minced ginger

· 2 clove(s) garlic, minced

· 14 ounce(s) extra-firm tofu, preferably water-packed

· 2 teaspoon(s) extra-virgin olive oil

· 4 cup(s) baby spinach (6 ounces)

· 1 1/2 cup(s) sliced mushrooms (4 ounces)

· 4 scallions, sliced (1 cup)

Directions

1. To prepare sauce: Whisk water, peanut butter, rice vinegar (or white vinegar), soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic in a small bowl.

2. To prepare tofu: Drain and rinse tofu; pat dry. Slice the block crosswise into eight 1/2-inch-thick slabs. Coarsely crumble each slice into smaller, uneven pieces.

3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add tofu and cook in a single layer, without stirring, until the pieces begin to turn golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Then gently stir and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all sides are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes more.

4. Add spinach, mushrooms, scallions and the peanut sauce and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are just cooked, 1 to 2 minutes more.

This was SO. GOOD. All of you tofu lovers need to try this asap! The flavors in this dish are so amazing together!! The best part is…I have leftovers! :D

For desert, I indulged in some Coconut Bliss:

We then decided to go rent a movie and kick back for the night. The movie place was out of the movie we wanted to rent, so we found Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. We actually really liked it! This is a good one for a group of girls. :)

And I promised to post the recipe to my oatmeal desert bars, from earlier this week, so here it is:

          Oatmeal Desert Bars

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup fat free DRY milk
• 2 tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2 very ripe mashed bananas
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• squirt of honey or agave nectar
• chocolate chips (1/4 cup?)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Spray an 8x8 dish with cooking spray. Mix all ingredients together and spoon into pan. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. May take more or less depending on your oven. Especially delicious topped with nut butter. :)

These are so simple and so delicious!!

Well, I am off to go make some lunch, then tonight I am eating dinner with my dad. We are grilling out and there has been talk about shrimp, pineapple, and veggie kabobs. EEEKKK! My favorite!

Don’t forget to check out Zesty Cook’s awesome giveaway!

Wishing all of you a great Sunday!

Package Surprise..unveiled!

Happy Friday! Hope you all are enjoying the day!

I started off the day wonderfully with a bowl of oatbran:

The mix-ins were: cinnamon, egg whites, frozen blueberries, and a few frozen mango chunks (they’re hiding). I topped it with Naturally More peanut butter.

After a little blog reading and internet surfing, I decided to get my strength training on and Shred it up with Jillian. I did level 2 while jammin’ to my ipod.

She’s hardcore.

For lunch, I made another wrapwich:

Whole wheat bread on the bottom and part of a Joseph’s whole grain lavish on top. Inside, I stuffed in some virginia ham, american cheese, turkey pepperoni, spinach leaves, alfalfa sprouts, and a french onion laughing cow. I LOVE laughing cow in my sandwiches…I don’t think I could make a sandwich without these now!

Plus a prunie:

After lunch, my mom and I headed out to run some errands, including stopping to get some groceries. We picked up a bunch of produce and other basics. But also found some fun things:

I have never tried the Ezekiel tortillas before so I am excited that I found them today!

After sadly finishing my carton of Coconut Bliss last week, I decided to HAD to get some more asap. That is exactly what I did. :) Once I finish this one, I am planning on attempting to make my own homemade coconut ice cream. Stay tuned!

I have seen this Kashi meal on many blogs so I can’t wait to try this out! Plus, I’m game for anything involving sweet potatoes.

And now I won’t wait any longer to show you guys my latest purchase that I received today!

What could it be?!?

 

  

IT’S A JUICER!!!

Is it weird to be this excited about a kitchen appliance? :D

As soon as I got it, I ripped it open and got to work. Here are the ingredients I used:

 

celery, carrots, 1 beet, and 1 apple

Here is is after juicing:

After pouring:

 

The color is so pretty! The beet has such an intense color that makes it look awesome. Just think about all the good vitamins and antioxidants that are packed in them!

I have to admit, I was kind of scared to put the food in the chute…those blades were spinning fast! Put once I did, it was FUN! I could have just kept juicing the entire contents of my fridge at that point. Clean up was pretty simple, too. So far, I give this juicer an A+++. I can’t wait to experiment with other combinations!

Now I’m going to see what’s up for dinner and for the rest of the evening. I hope you all have a wonderful evening!

New PDR!

Hey guys!

I hope everyone is enjoying your Thursday night! WooHoo for a 3 day weekend! Although, every day is a weekend day for me now! :D Does anybody have plans for memorial weekend?

Today has been a great day over here…I have been very happy with myself ever since this morning when I ran the farthest I’ve ever ran! Now, don’t be expecting some huge number because I am very much a beginner. I ran a 5k! This was my goal because it is what I will be running for my race on June 6. I just wanted to do it right then and there to show myself that I CAN do it. It made me feel fantastic and I am now much more confident about my upcoming race.  It really made me feel like a “runner”. I was all smiles afterwards! :D

Before my run, I decided to make some stove-top oats. I love being able to to do this in the morning…I usually never have time for it, but now that it is summer, I think I will be doing it much more often!

This combo included:

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• pinch of salt, cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground flax
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 sliced banana
• sprinkle of Nature’s Path flax granola (love)

Is there any better way to start the day?! I think not.

After my run, I got ready for the day and then headed to my acupuncture appointment. This is going so well! I am totally comfortable with it now. I love my doctor! My family actually are good friends with him and his family. He was a daughter and a son that are my age and I am good friends with both of them, too!

When I got back home, it was time for lunch:

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted a wrap or a toasted sandwich ( I am so indecisive sometimes) so I put the two ideas together to create……a wrap-wich! :D It was quite delish. I toasted up both the wrap and the whole wheat piece of bread. Then I stuffed a bunch of goodies in there including: slice of american cheese, ham, spinach leaves, alfalfa sprouts, turkey pepperoni, laughing cow cheese spread.  Once toasted, the wrap pretty much became one big crunchy pita chip! It was very yummy on top of my wrapwich. :)

After my lovely lunch, I headed over to the salon and worked for the afternoon. I then came home and made this:

whole wheat wrap with a biiig scoop of natural peanut butter and 1/2 sliced banana.

Dinner was very simple, I heated up a Morningstar riblet and steamed some broccoli with some lemon juice:

I also had some Sabra’s with carrots while I was waiting:

I realized that I have a ton of baked goods in my freezer…so I decided that I needed to start eating them so there will be room for more future baked goods!

This is a homemade chocolate chip banana oatmeal bar, warmed up and topped with almond butter. Barney Butter, to be exact.

Heaven. Tomorrow I will post the recipe for this little lovely! These are so good..and healthy! The only sweetener in these are bananas and chocolate chips. (sugar addicts can add additional sweetener, ofcourse ;)

I am VERY EXCITED for tomorrow because there should be a very cool package in the mail tomorrow…I may or may not have made a little online purchase earlier this week. I am going to keep you in suspense until tomorrow to find out what it is. muhahaha :D

And now I headed to bed! G’night all!

I’m back!!

Hey everyone! Wow, has it really been a week since I last posted?! I don’t even know where the time went. I have been swamped in school and making sure that every little thing gets finished and taken care of before summer. Monday and today, I took my finals. I have one more to take tomorrow morning and then it is officially SUMMER TIME!!!! (insert HUGE smiley face)

Even though I have been extremely busy with school, I did make room for a few other fun events to attend recently. One of these events would be a wedding! I LOVE weddings! I think they are so much fun and I love seeing the whole setup and how pretty everything looks. One of my best friend’s mom was the person to be married, and she was her mom’s Maid of Honor. This is a friend I have grown up with and have know since I was in 1st grade! It was a beautiful, simple, sweet wedding.

Here are some pics:

Jessica (sister), mom, and I:

 

Jess and the boyfriend:

He is SO tall, so I made him scrunch down so that I was the tall one! :D (he was scrunching a bit in the above pic, too)

 

My best friend:

And then on Sunday, all of my family threw my grandpa a birthday party! He turned 80! One of my uncles lives on a beautiful farm and my Grandpa spends a lot of time there, so we knew it was the perfect place for the get-together. The weather was perfect! He was so touched at how many people had come and he was all smiles the whole afternoon! I love my Grandpa! :)

My cute little cousin, JJ:

Pretty view:

 

Monday = school craziness…and now you guys are caught up to today! I started off the day with this:

Then after school finals, I came home and made lunch:

Ya’ll need to try putting sprouts on sandwiches! I just discovered them and there are awesome!

Now I’m thinking about hopping on the treadmill and pounding out a run. Then it will be time to get ready to go to work. Tonight is American Idol! :D

Talk to you all soon!

New race announcement

Hello everyone!

Well as usual, it has been pretty busy around here lately. I am trying hard to get all my school work done AND study for the finals next week. I’m getting so close though! Tomorrow is my last full day of school! Then I just have to go in and take my finals the next week and I’m outta there! I’M SO EXCITED!!!

Now, about the title of this post, I registered for an upcoming 5k race! The date is set for Saturday, June 6. This will be a step up from my last race (which was my very first race) which was a 2 mile run. I specifically chose this race because all the proceeds go to cancer research! So I need to get my boo-tay in gear and get to training! Yippeeee!

I didn’t get a picture snapped of my breakfast cookie from this morning because I was running late, so I thought I would backtrack to RAW Wednesday’s breakfast:

Raw Blended Chia oats!

For this bowl, I mixed 1/2 cup oats with 1 cup of water and 1 tbsp of chia seeds plus a dash of cinnamon. I let them sit overnight and in the morning, I whirled them around in my Magic Bullet with 1/2 banana. Them I topped it with raw almond butter. It was definitely good, but I missed my vanilla almond milk in it.

Lunch was the usual, peanut butter and banana sandwich with a side salad. Only one more school lunch!!

This afternoon, I stopped by my house to grab a quick snack before heading to work. A new (for me) Think Thin bar! Thanks Meg!

 

Now, the creamy peanut butter flavor holds a special spot in my heart, but this white chocolate flavor definitely hit the spot!

I left work early today because I had my 4th acupuncture appointment. In all of my appointment so far, my doctor has nut the needles in my arms/hands and legs (shin area). This was the first time he was going to put the needles in my face. Of course, I was a little bit scared at first, but I just have to tell myself, “mind over matter.” And my mom came with me and talked to me the whole time, so it was easier to take my mind off of it. It really wasn’t that bad though and the next time, it probably won’t be a big deal at all. I’m actually really loving this! It may early to tell if it is helping with my allergies but I am very hopeful that this will be a success!

Then I came home and was starving for some good food. So, good food I made. :) It was a veggie-fest tonight:

spinach salad:

sweet potato fries and ketchup:

leftover roasted brussles! I am in love with these babies.

And for dessert, I decided to try something I saw on Jenna’s blog (surprise, surprise haha)

Greek yogurt with chocolate PB2 mixed in:

Yep, that would be my new favorite dessert. :D (besides Coconut Bliss ice cream!)

And I thought I’d end this post this a Jaci picture…she wanted to show off her new “toy”:

 

Have a wonderful night everybody, I’m off to go watch Grey’s Anatomy!  Love to you all!