Amazing Grass > Caffeine

Another yogurt bowl but this one had way more goin’ on than yesterdays!

• Fage
• Cinnamon granola
• Chopped almonds
• Raisins
• Cinnamon
• Maple syrup

Had some GRASS on the side in place of caffeine.  Love this chocolate flavor… Note to self: buy canister soon.

So I got my 6-miler in yesterday—the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS!  I knew I was feeling it from the moment I started.  Finished right around 51:30 and it was one of the those occasions when I kind-of just got in the zone and stayed there.

I. heart. running.

Yes I still have the race itch, I just have a hard time laying down the money for one when I know I don’t need to.  Why must they be so expensive!!!! I’m going to bite the bullet pretty quick here anyway.

Marathon Monday in BOSTON today.  How exciting is that?  I would love to be in town on this day because I know how the city just comes alive.  Good luck to all runners who are participating!

Lot’s to get done today and not much time to do it.  Better get moving!

Busy busy busy busy

Looks like it was baked in the oven, doesn’t it?  This is just a mix of 1/4 cup grape nuts, 1/4 cup oats, cinnamon and flax, walnuts and raisins, plus vanilla soy milk. Added 1/2 banana after heating.  Delish!

I love the texture combo of mixing the 2 cereals together… Definitely a nice change from the regular oatmeal.

Today should be utterly insane.  I have a stats exam, which I probably didn’t study enough for, class, boot camp and full body fit.  When I come home I need to PACK for the weekend and get super organized for Thursday so we can get out of town at a decent time.

All day Friday I’ll be attending this.  I’m SO excited to learn some new things and get officially certified.

My legs are feeling pretty sore today from my run yesterday so workout is up in the air for today.  Have a great Wednesday!

Queen of the house!

Did you all survive the week?? I think I just made it… Friday couldn’t come at a better time though because I was seriously not movtivated for school today.  I usually don’t have a problem getting to class, but for some reason I did NOT want to go to chemistry today.  I decided to just stick it out though and I’m really glad I did because it was a good lecture.

My day started bright and early with chocolate-covered strawberries/bananas… in the the form of oats!

I used the same method as I did a couple of weeks ago… mocha hot cocoa powder, flax, soy milk, water oats, deliciousness.

Lunch was a really tasty veggie and hummus wrap.  I have finally figured out the secret of these Ezekial tortillas! I let it thaw by just leaving it out for a few minutes while I got ready for school INSTEAD of microwaving it.  The microwave makes it rubbery and hard to wrap up, but I just set this on a clean dish towel on the stove top and it was perfect!

Finished off my hummus:-(

I also had an apple with lunch and snacked on a cheerio/raisin/walnut mix mid-morning during class.

After surviving the chem lecture I mentioned earlier, I headed to the video store to rent Marley and Me (!!!), the mall for some freebies from Bath and Body Works, and Target where I ended up buying a Peanut Butter Pretzal MOJO. I’ve come to the realization that I’ve been eating way too many bars lately!  I need to start being more prepared when it comes to snacks so I don’t have to resort to whatever is near by.  No more bars for awhile!! Hold me to this!

When I finally started to get hungry for dinner I decided on a salmon patty, baked sweet potato chunks and an arugula salad. Really hit the spot!

For the potatoes I used cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  The  patty was just 1 packet of flaked salmon, egg white, bread crumbs, dill weed, and dijon mustard.  I topped both the patty and the salad with goddess and it tasted really good all together!

So I’m excited to have a relaxing weekend because I have the apartment all to myself!! I love you roomies, but it’s nice to just sprawl out and do my own thing for a couple of days. My weekend plans include some of my favorite things… Running, baking, cleaning, reading, movies plus whatever else I can come up with.  Most of my friends are home for Easter weekend but my rents are in FLORIDA livin’ it up for spring break! LOL… So yeah, I won’t be going home.  I plan on doing my own take on Easter brunch Sunday morning:-)

Hopefully I’ll have a baked good to share with you tomorrow. Enjoy your Friday!

Raisin Walnut Chai Oats

Friday!!! I can’t believe I’m posting this late, but I just got done watching 7 Pounds (Will Smith) and by the time I got all of my stuff packed for the weekend… I’m just now getting settled down!

My oat experiment turned out well!

I’m running low on oat toppings/mix-ins and I’m OUT of soy milk, so I needed to get creative today… I used 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 of a packet of instant chai, walnuts, and raisins + water and microwaved for 2 minutes.YUM! This combo was so so good!  I love the flavors of chai tea and it added a nice creaminess too.

I’ve come to the following conclusion about my likes and dislikes when it comes to oats:

• I prefer less liquid than the recipe calls for (I eyeball it, but probably about a 1:1 ratio of oats:liquid
• I don’t like stove top oats as much as microwaved ones… I know, this is weird but I would rather have hearty texture than creaminess
• I like sliced banana mixed in, but NOT cooked in.  I feel like when I cook it right in, the taste is just off…
• Nut butters can’t stay on the spoon because I use a heaping spoonful and there’s no way I can get a bite!
• My all-time favorite topping is granola.  The crunch is spectacular!

ANYWAYS… I had a pink lady with my breakfast as well because I wasn’t sure how well this would hold me over… Worked like a charm!

Lunch was sporadic today because my planned 1/2 Clif bar pre-workout snack turned into a full Clif bar + banana mini lunch:-) This flavor was just too good and plus I was hungry so I thought, what the heck!

This flavor was GREAT! I haven’t really met a Clif bar I didn’t like, but as soon as I bit into this, I remembered why it was one of my favorites.  Plus it was super filling and I felt great for my workout an hour later… Seriously, I could have stayed on the elliptical forever!

After I got home from the gym and showered, I still wasn’t really hungry but I knew I should eat something to refuel so I grabbed this snack on my way out the door for a group meeting:

Have I mentioned how much I love hummus?  This batch is super creamy and delicious!

Dinner was an extra-cheesy grilled cheese sandwich with the LAST of my Lentil Soup… Promise!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm pepper jack!

Annnnnnd I wanted something sweet with my movie so I had some wine and some dove dark chocolate and it was delish!  7 Pounds was really different… I’m not quite sure what I thought of it actually.  Super intense and thought-provoking, but not what I was expecting.  Has anyone seen this movie yet?

Tomorrow I’ll be up nice and early to get some exercise in before class because I’m leaving to go home at 3:00!!!! The timing couldn’t be any better for me because I just need a couple of days to regroup right now.  I’ll be going out to eat at my FAVORITE restaurant back home for pizza and caesar salad… splurge meal for sure, but so yummy!  I crave this meal when I’m away at school.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

This is how you clean the fridge.

Hey there!

I hope everyone’s hump day was superb and went by as fast as mine did!  I couldn’t be happier that it’s Thursday tomorrow… I feel like it was just the weekend!!

If you haven’t noticed already, I enabled comment threading in the discussion section so you can now reply to other people’s comments.  This can make it a little bit easier to answer questions and things… Just a little something extra I guess.

ALSO, I noticed that Miss Julie GoLean gave me a Kreative Blogger Award today! I’m excited because it’s my first Thanks, Julie!

RULES: List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know that they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sidebar letting the whole world know…you are Kreativ!

1. Watching a good movie on a Saturday night… in my PJ’s!
2. Mini-vacay’s with my best friends.
3. Les Mills classes
4. The morning… Breakfast + tea + Today show = happiness
5. Blogging
6. Learning about nutrition/fitness
7. The 4th of July. We do this holiday up GOOD in my hometown!

I’m tagging Leah, Erin, Sarah, Melissa, Ashley, Lindsay, and Gina!

On to my day of food…

Walnut, Raisin, Flax oats w/brown sugar with a side of the last two pieces of my Veganomicon Banana Bread!

Lunch was this packed sammie of pesto (the last of it), tomato, spinach and Dijon mustard.  I threw in a honey Oikos and a banana too.

I snacked on some pecan pie LARABAR goodness (which was DE-LISH!) after Step to tide me over to THIS dinner…

Homemade White Bean and Vegetable Soup. I threw everything I wanted  to get rid of in the pot and it turned out great! Here’s what went in:

• 1/2 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 zucchini
• 1/3 large bag of spinach
• About 10 baby carrots
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can great northern beans, about 1/2 cup of black beans
• Fresh basil
• dried oregano & thyme, salt and pepper
• About 2 cups of water?

I’ve never really had great success with soup besides chili so I was excited that this tasted good!

Pepperjack cheese quesadilla on the side for dipping… YUM!  I loved this meal…

I think my chem exam went well today.  One less thing to think about, but there’s always something to fill that void:-)

Good night!

Random eats

So I’ve had a crazy day today and I’m going to do a super quick post so I can watch the Biggest Loser and do “research” for my class.  Thanks for all of the great opinions on the show!  I really appreciate the ideas… I basically agree with what everyone said, so we’ll see if anything crazy happens tonight.

FOOD TIME
Super early breakfast of PB and Banana oats:

Throughout the morning, I had a snack from our National Nutrition Month table (which I helped set up for my internship).  You may remember this item from the first week of my blog!  We served this dish at our health fair back in February and it went over so well, we had it again:

Flavored tofu wraps with mango salsa.  SO DELICIOUS!!  I had 2 of these plus an apple for a snack to hold me over until lunch, which I unfortunately couldn’t get a photo of today because it was consumed during Human Disease!  I had a great new sandwich though which included tuna, Sarah’s guac, and raisins.  If you haven’t tried raisins mixed with tuna, I highly recommend it!  I had a blueberry Oikos as well.

Moving on to random eats, I snacked on a few piece of banana bread (recipe from Veganomicon, my favorite!)  for study fuel …

… and made a smoothie before lab which was soooooooo green today.  My favorite combo yet!

This guy contained:

• The rest of my mango (YUM)
  
• 1/2 frozen banana ( I see a banana theme today??)
  
• Handful of spinach
• Vanilla soy milk
• Flax
  

Since I didn’t end up getting home from lab until after 8:00 and since I’m not super hungry, I’m chomping on a mug of the Optimum Bound cereal right now and I think after TBL I’ll just call it a night.

Tomorrow I’ll have something more exciting, I promise!!!!!!

Mmmmm Carbs

Happy Wednesday!

I can’t believe I said that already!  As sad as I was to see spring break come and go, this week is almost over and I’m 6 weeks away from Graduation!!!! Graduation #1 at least… ha ha

So my eats today were all about grains.  LOVE them…

Breakfast was a perfect bowl of cereal, Post Great Grains to be specific.  This cereal is super good, almost like a granola.  I added plain yogurt (wish it was Greek, but sadly it was just plain), chopped apple, and of course some TJ’s almond butter because apparently I can’t go a morning without it!

As soon as I took this picture, I mixed everything up into a big mess of crunchy goodness and it was great!  Best breakfast I’ve had in awhile for sure.

Lunch was packed today because I did a little midday studying at the library.  Leftover rice, and the last of my black beans tossed in TJ’s Goddess dressing.  AMAZING!  I love the combo of rice and beans as is, but mix it with the best dressing in the world, and times it by 10.

Also had some citrus on the side and man was it juicy! Just the way I like it.

Do you like my classy presentation of a ziplock baggy?

I also had a individual chocolate Silk before aerobics and it did wonders for me! I was hungry and it was the only decent thing I could afford on campus!! ha ha… seriously though, tons of energy to get down in hip/hop!

Lastly, you know a carbo-licious day couldn’t be complete without pasta so I did it up good with a great spinach salad.

Extreme close-up of the spinach salad w/blue cheese, raisins and balsamic viniagrette.  Look at that CHEESE!!

As you have probably noticed, raisins are a regular addition in my salads.  It really adds a ton of good flavor.

I ate dinner suuuuuuuuuper early tonight and I’m pumped it’s still light out.  However, it’s still FRIGID so I can’t really go out and enjoy it.  I want spring now!!!!

Before I go, I’m actually remembering to link back to a post! First time ever I think! lol… The Fitnessista is having a Quaker giveaway so check it out here for your chance to win an “all natural gift bag”.  I heart robes.

Overnight Oats: Success!

Hey there!

Can I just say that I’m REALLY loving the Fage right now?!  I had this snack yesterday between lunch and dinner which soooo hit the spot:

This is Fage with homemade granola and dried cherries…  SO good.  I can’t even begin to describe the creaminess of this yogurt.  And sadly my TJ’s cherries are going fast! I need to start rationing them better! ha ha

I had “breakfast for dinner” which included scrambled eggs with cheese, mushrooms, jalopenos, and a generous amount of  hot sauce, plus an ezekial english muffin (cinn. raisin) with preserves.  Perfect Friday night meal!

For some reason when nothing really sounds appealing, eggs always come to mind… I love em!

After eating dinner, my roommate and I went to the sled dog races down town that I mentioned before and they were really neat to see!  I couldn’t get any good pictures of the dogs because they were moving fast, but they looked so happy and energetic!  Here’s a pic of us girlies:

My nose gets so red when I’m outside in the cold! ha ha

I’m sure the bars were PACKED after the dogs went through, but I’m in what I like to call “money-saving-mode” for my spring break trip.  More on that later…

Back to the title of the post, I tried the overnight oats out for the first time ever this morning and WOW!  These will be repeated many times because they were incredibly creamy and delicious.  I remember seeing these on blogs awhile back but just never thought I would really like them all that much.  The thought of cold oats made me think of sogginess.  After the Fage was purchased, that all turned around…

I mixed 1/2 cup of oats, 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk, and a big scoop ‘o fage in a bowl, covered it, and put in the fridge overnight.  This morning I added a mashed nanner, and topped it with raisins, walnuts, and flax.

It was so refreshing and good… those are the only two words I can think of to describe  it!  I highly recommend trying this.  I figured that if it didn’t end up the way I wanted, I could always toss it in the micro and I’m sure it would be like normal.

I’m off to finish up a couple of school-related tasks, and then maybe a trip to tar-jay to read some magazines, browse the bar aisle, and try on clothes that I won’t buy! ha ha I love Saturdays!

Enjoy the day!