The countdown begins

I had a Green Smoothie today for the first time in aaaaaaaaages.  It’s been too long as far as I’m concerned. And it was de-lish as usual!  I need to start remembering to make these more because I feel like they give me a nice energy boost in the morning.

It had all of the usual suspects:

• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 2 handfuls raw spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 T flax

Refreshing!

Sorry there was no dinner post last night!  I went to a friend’s house for a cook-out dinner last minute and didn’t bring my camera.  Can you believe it’s getting so nice outside that the grill is on the mind?  Yesterday was just a great day in general.  I’m definitely going to like having all of these sports on Sundays.  What better way to spend the day?

So my  countdown to Spring Break officially begins!  This is our last week of classes until we get a whole week off to NOT think about anything school related.  What a great concept… Whoever thought up Spring Break is a genius!

Of course, my classes need to go out with a bang,  so I have 2 tests, a quiz,  and a case study due between now and Friday. Makes the celebration that much sweeter  right?

I’m off to beautify myself for the day.  Be back tonight!

Not enough time in the day…

Grape Nuts hot for b-fast today… So good!

I knew I wanted something warm, but wasn’t in the mood for oats—these are a  nice substitution once in awhile.

I heated them up with skim milk for a minute so they still had a little bit of crunch, then I added 1/2 banana, flax, cinnamon, brown sugar and almond butter on top.

Awake tea “latte”

Not gonna lie, I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed this morning. I’m definitely not prepared for my biochem exam tomorrow and I’m supposed to be going on a 10-miler with Jess and Buddy on my 3 hour break (and I NEVER have that big of a break during the day… fate?), but I’m starting to feel like I should study instead. BLAH.  If I wait until tonight to do homework, I have a sneaky suspicion that nothing will get done once our friend Steve gets into town.  What to do!!!!????

I know I can complete it by myself, but the problem is finding the time to do it.  We’ll see….

Besides that, on the agenda for today: I’m training a brand new client for the first time, as well as some other appointments and  staff meeting later on tonight.  I’m making those Mediterranean turkey burgers and sweet potato fries for family dinner tonight.  Figured the boys would like those and they make for good leftovers!

Time to get moving with my day… Hope your Tuesday goes well!

Fun-Filled WEEK.

Yes you read that right… I’m always thinking ahead to the weekend because my Monday-Friday are typically just go-go-go with no time to do much relaxing, but this week should prove different.  Even though I’m still busy, we still have plans in the works for our guests!

Monday—show Sue campus, boot camp
Tuesday —Pick up Steven from the airport, Rio for margs
Wednesday—Possibly see a movie… so many good ones out right now!
Thursday— I have a Biochem exam so afterwards will be major celebration… We’re going to attempt a tour of New Belgium brewery, and head out to Whiskey River in the evening.
Friday— Staff appreciation night formal, after-party at friend’s house… who knows where else the night will take us?

We’re planning on doing our 10-miler sometime near the beginning of the week too and I think Buddy wants to join us so it should be a fun one.

Reversing to yesterday’s food… We decided to do a taco night for “family dinner” because it’s easy, quick and delicious. Surprisingly, less money was spent at the grocery store than usual even though we’re preparing for 4 people this week instead of 2. Weird?  I guess we cut out luxury items when we know others will be around to eat them LOL…

Came back from the store, whipped these up in about 15 minutes and chowed. We then proceeded to talk about how everyone likes tacos and how they always hit the spot.

I tried to squeeze everything in there but it wasn’t an easy task.  I had:

• Organic taco meat
• Mexican blend cheese
• Refried beans (spread on sides of shell)
• Peach salsa
• Romaine lettuce
• Black olives
• Avocado chunks
• Plain Fage
• Hot sauce

x3

The perfect taco!

Breakfast this morning was mixed berry oatmeal.  We have so much good food right now, I didn’t know what I wanted.  This was good though!

Topped it with Nature’s Path granola and TJ’s Raw Creamy Almond Butter that my cousin delivered to me!!!!! This is seriously the best almond butter ever and I bought it when I was in Minneapolis a few weeks ago.  However, due to not checking a bag, I couldn’t take it back with me so I had to wait a bit.

If you’re lucky enough to have a Trader Joe’s nearby, buy this stuff now!

Welp, I better get moving into Monday.    I’m coming home for lunch today so I may or may not put up a lunch post.  We’ll see if time allows!  It’s supposed to get into the high 50′s all week!!!!! Practically spring….

Happy March 1st!

A great-tasting superfood SMOOTHIE

YUM.  Just made this fabulous smoothie and thought it was so good, I had to share it right away.  I’ve been using this chocolate silk in a bunch of different ways and decided that I really like it!  It’s a good way to get some chocolate along with all of the benefits of soy milk.  In addition to smoothies, think oatmeal, iced coffee… you get the idea.

These are the approximate proportions (estimation only):

• 1 cup chocolate silk (isoflavones, omega-3, flavor)
• 1/2 cup organic skim (protein, calcium, vitamins A &D)
• 1 banana (sweetness and potassium)
• 1 cup mixed frozen berries (vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin (vitamin A, beta-carotene)
• 1 scoop almond butter (healthy fat, vitamin E, protein)

Enjoy!

The best Margarita Ever.

I’ve officially tasted the best margarita I’ve ever had!  I ate a Mexican restaurant with a couple friends last night and whoa… This had fresh strawberries pureed in and wasn’t overly sweet.  Nice and strong too!  I used to stick to original, on the rocks margs, but this thing was good!

For dinner I had the roasted veggie quesadilla which was also great.  A little heavy on the cheese as you can see, but a little extra cheese once in awhile won’t kill ya:-)

We hit up a bar across the street and ended up staying out until close again so breakfast this morning was light but substantial.

AB & J on WW w/grapes.  How’s that for abbreviation? ha ha… This is homemade raspberry jam and it’s SO delicious.  Both my roommate and I agreed we can’t go back to store-bought after eating this.  I’ll definitely be learning how to make it.  I also had a tea (just broke into my TAZO variety pack–my favorite brand!).

Enjoy the day!

I heart Friday.

So I definitely slept in this morning and had about 10 minutes to get ready for class/eat breakfast… It may or may not have had something to do with being up until 4:00am.  Thirsty Thursday anyone? No? I know, I know beer isn’t the healthiest thing in the world, but I had great time hanging out with some new friends at Old Chicago.  Totally worth it.  Anyways…

I threw a smoothie together so I could take it with me to class #1 and it was really delicious!  No picture, but it had frozen strawberries, 1 overripe banana, sweetened coconut, almond butter, & organic skim.  I was double-fisting it with an iced coffee that tasted heavenly today.

Lunch-

I was craving a huge sandwich for lunch and that’s exactly what I created…  This is tuna, lettuce, cuke, sundried tomato, and LC cheese.  Pretty much demolished this.  In a few more hours, I’ll be done with class for the week and ready for some fun!

Early Start.

I’m getting an early start today–a leg workout is on the agenda before my first class.  I want to start lifting weights more because I feel so strong when I do.  My roommate and I have been trying to get 4 early morning sessions per week to accomplish this.  So far, so good!

Breakfast-

Quick, simple, and delicious.  Fresh almond butter on Rudi’s HSWW toast, banana, OJ.

Happy mid-week!

Boring Lunch, Exciting Dinner!

Annnnnnnd Breakfast wasn’t too shabby either:

Leah and I were laughing earlier because we had an extremely similar breakfast this morning.  I swear I’m not a copycat! lol These are my leftover banana walnut pancakes from Sunday morning, this time topped with AB and berries.  This was exactly what I needed to get me going this morning! With my tea from above:

I’ve been eating breakfast super early lately (around 6:00) so mid-morning snacks have been a must!  Today I had a pink lady apple and this bar that I tried for the first time:

I LOOVEEEEEEEED this thing!!! Here’s what it looks like on the inside:

This baby was loaded!  It had peanuts, almonds, choco chips, pretzel pieces, sunflower seeds, oats, dried fruit (I think?)… Anyways, the important thing is that it was good.  A little high in sugar, yes, but on days where I’m moving around a lot I don’t really mind.  I love the sweet/salty combo!

As stated in the title of this post, my lunch was a predictable bowl of  leftover lentil soup and fresh pineapple.  Still so good! haha I think tomorrow will be my last day of eating this soup for awhile… the rest is chillin’ in the freezer.

Dinner was this RAINBOW of a salad that I threw together and ate before I went to lab:

I was surprised at all of the wonderful fixins I had in my fridge to make this beauty!  This may have been the best-tasting salad I have ever created… Here’s what went in:

• Earthbound Farms Herb Salad Mix (the best base ever!)
• Red pepper
• Avocado
• Carrot peels (I chomped on the rest while I put it together)
• Walnuts and Raisins (my favorite way to make any salad better)
• TJ’s Goddess dressing

You can’t really see how big this thing was, but it took up a large dinner-sized plate… I finished it in about 5 minutes flat!

I’m just getting ready to watch the Biggest Loser and take it easy for the rest of the night.  Tomorrow is another long day which includes early morning NSCA studying, internship office hours, Chem studying (lot’s!), Lecture, Body Step, and a “Biggest Loser Debate” group meeting.

I had a mini-emotional breakdown today, so let’s hope I can keep things together for the rest of the week.  Nothing serious, just one of those days, you know?  Nothing a chat with Mom and a swift run couldn’t cure though… I went for 35 minutes and felt super fast.  Without music or a buddy, I completely zoned out and just took in all of the fresh air.  Much better now!

What are your favorite ways to relieve stress?

My favorite day:-)

Mornin’ everyone! I’ve got lot’s of pictures since I never got around to posting last night.  As promised, I made Sarah‘s asparagus guacamole (which turned out great!) and some homemade pesto yesterday afternoon.  I found some great-looking fresh basil at the food co-op and just couldn’t get the idea out of my head! Here’s the 2 final products:

I incorporated the pesto into dinner last night because I had this quesadilla idea stuck in my head… This was seriously the best-tasting meal I’ve made in a long time! And so simple…

I scrambled up some eggs, and sandwiched them in an Ezekial tortilla with pesto, cheese, tomatoes, spinach and red onion.  The george foreman makes a mean quasadilla!

YUM! Ruby red grapefruit was on sale this week so I had some of that on the side.  Great Saturday night dinner!

A few hours prior to this I needed some study fuel so I cracked open the plain flavor of the Oikos stash and topped it with some new cereal I bought (some kind of Optimum Power??) and the last of my frozen strawberries…

The plain flavor rocked! This is for sure my favorite of the 3 I have tried so far… No added sugar, SO thick and creamy, and you get the biggest bang for your buck!  I couldn’t believe how much yogurt was in this bowl after I dumped it in… When I dish out yogurt from a big tub, I never have close to this much so I was pleasantly surprised.  I ate this at about 3:30 and it kept me going until dinner at 7:00.  2 Thumbs up for the PLAIN!

I almost wanted to have the same thing for breakfast this morning but in order to mix things up  I had this instead:

…which will probably sit better in my stomach during my run anyway.  Time to get cracking on my to-do list.

Have a nice day!

Spring-a-Ling-a-Ding

Happy Friday night everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic day! SO happy it’s the weekend!

Breakfast was the last of my Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes with AB & J.  They held me over SO much better today! I’m not sure if it’s because I worked out later on in the morning (seems to suppress my appetite), or because I used extra almond butter but it did the trick.

I pulled out a Blueberry Oikos too, but I was full by the time I finished this so I ate it mid-morning instead…

Unfortunately, I have to admit that I didn’t care for this yogurt nearly as much as the vanilla flavor.  It was overly sweetened for my taste and the thickness just wasn’t there.  Also, I’m not sure if it was just me, but there seemed to be less in the container?  Sorry, SF but I have to be honest and I wouldn’t buy this flavor again.

I’m excited to try the plain flavor because I seem to like plain yogurt better than sweetened varieties.  I think I’ll be using it in my lunch tomorrow…

So between classes, I ate a packed sandwich while working on a presentation.  I didn’t get a picture because there was people all over and I was shy:-). I can tell you that it was a combo that you’ve seen on here before…hummus (tons!), spinach, red bell pepper, and jalapenos on whole wheat.  I just love it!

I practiced doing a sub-maximal exercise test with a few people from my Health/Exercise Leadership Skills class too.  We have to perform this on a partner for our final exam and I’m actually really nervous!!

The test involves progressively increasing intensity on a cycle ergometer and taking blood pressure and heart rate at set intervals.  Then we plug the numbers into equations and do all kinds of fun stuff…

Anyways, when I was finally done for the day, I snacked on a bowl of Great Grains (all gone now…) and a handful of carrots before Nichole and I picked up some basics from the grocery store.

Then, my room mates cooked an awesome dinner!  I present to you, Turkey Portabello Wraps:

Saute cubed turkey and mushrooms in a skillet like this:

Then roll up in a wrap with mayo, diced tomatoes, spinach, and mozzarella cheese!  We used these wraps tonight:

Inspired by a restaurant back home that we all used to go to…these are so delicious!  I’m still hungry but I haven’t decided what else I want yet LOL… Maybe ice cream?  I’ve been thinking about some good quality ice cream lately… Since it’s the first day of Spring, why not?

Enjoy your night!