Great Wall of PB

How were everyone’s superbowl celebrations?

My day started inspired by 2 of my favorite bloggies.

Yoatgurt! If she weren’t tanning her way through Jamaica right now, Janetha would be proud

Coffee oats + cinnamon greek yogurt.

With the “Great Wall of PB” modeled after Paige. And two blobs of chocolate almond butter on either end.

How did those little chocolate delights get on there?

After getting some essay writing done, I got busy in le kitchen!

Guac-a-mole!!

In the mix:

• 4 avocados
• Couple spoonfuls of salsa
• 2 spoonfuls sour cream
• Garlic
• Salt & pepper
• Lime & lemon juice
• Dash of paprika

Made a huge batch, and I even had 4 extra avocados (they were 2/$1 at Vons this week so I obviously went a little avo-crazy).

We also supplied salsa.

And chips.

Although once we arrived to the party, there were about 5 other bags of chips, 2 other bowls of salsa, and another thing of guac. Ha. Whoops!

There was a ton of food and I forgot my camera. Yes. Fail. But I had a good amount of chips & guac (my homemade stuff was better

4 BBQ chicken legs (amazing!! Delicious! Finger lickin good.)

Source

And 1 1/2 of these.

Which only succeeded in making me tired. haha.

But….CONGRATS SAINTS!! They deserved it

I obviously wasn’t very hungry for dinner, but got a bit snacky around 9:00. So I cooked up an apple & frozen blueberries with cinnamon in the microwave. Topped with a blog of yogurt and granola.

And then went down for another bowl of ice cream – Dreyer’s slow churned Samoas flavor. With a small scoop of coconut milk’s mint chip.

Off to get some ab work in.

And I also just received an email that my Clinical Nutrition teacher had her baby boy this weekend . Congrats to her!! And that lab is canceled today. So that means I’ll probably hit up the library after my 12-2:00 class.

Have a great Monday!

$250 cookies

Well today was my massage appointment I was so excited for. But before I went, I obviously had some breakfast

Re-heated frozen pumpkin WW pancakes.

Layered with some yogurt and the last of my pumpkin cream cheese

Yummmm syrup

Now for the massage. Because it was an hour massage, she said she would do a little of my back, but spend the majority of the time on my legs. I told her my situation, and showed her where I had the most pain. Well, she ended up spending a good 20 minutes on my back/neck area, probably 15 on my hamstrings (which felt good), 10 or so on my quads (those hurt like hell) and literally like 2 minutes on my painful spot below my knees.

Umm hello?

That’s where I have the most pain and where I want the scar tissue massaged out!

I’m not going to lie and say the rest of the massage wasn’t relaxing, and I know it was beneficial to release tension in my quads and hamstrings. But I wanted to focus on my main problem area.

Needless to say, I’m going to continue with massage therapy – I’ll just be on the lookout for a different massage therapist.

Afterwards I hit up the gym for 40 minutes weights & core work.

And came home for a quick light lunch before the library.

PB&J on a deli thin!

+ some unpictured chocolate

I then proceeded to write 1 page of my senior project in 2 hours. Man, such progress!

Dinner was an exact repeat of Thursday – roasted up some squashie and broc.

And fried up an omelet on the stove.

Look familiar?

Yup, even the same plate Plus some more veggies obvs. And much more red stuff.

After dinner I whipped up some of my mom’s cookies! Love them.

It’s pretty much a modified version of the famous $250 cookie recipe. My mom has made it this way my whole life, so it’s what I’m used to! Oil instead of butter makes the cookies much more doughy and “lumpy” (as you can tell in the pictures). Personally, I add cinnamon (my mom doesn’t) and use whole wheat flour, which I actually like better – this flour makes it more dense and moist.

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal
• Cinnamon (2-3 tsp worth?)
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Cream sugars and oil
2. Add eggs and vanilla
3. Mix in baking soda, powder, salt, flour and oatmeal
4. Add chocolate chips
5. Bake at 375 for approx 9 minutes. The cookies will look doughy and underdone, but that’s okay! It’s how they’re supposed to look.

My roommate is obsessed with them, and I always get rave reviews

I had some dough + about 2-3 cookies as they “crumbled” out of the oven

Plus a few bites of my new ice cream buy today.

Hmmm review to come.

Did anyone see Dear John yesterday? I have to say – madly disappointed. Horrible acting, barely any plot, kind of boring and slow…As attractive as Mr. Tatum was, I couldn’t get over how he had no personality and just mumbled the whole time. Then there was a plot twist (that my roommates and I found utterly creepy), and a very “blah” ending. I think it just got so much hype, especially because A Walk to Remember and The Notebook were so popular.

Anyone who saw it – what did you think?

And plans for the superbowl tomorrow? I’m not very into football. But I get excited for commercials and betting games! Haha. I think we’re heading over to our friends house.  But whatever you do – have fun!!

When we were merely freshmen…

Hello hello and happy Friday to one and all!

Let’s start with yesterday afternoon, shall we?

During my 10 minute rush between class & work, I grabbed some pumpkin yogurt & bluebs for a snack.

Then couldn’t help myself at work – they had some pizza that I absolutely love! White sauce & pineapple (picked off/ate around the ham) – yummm. Had a slice.

So I wasn’t too too hungry for dinner. Kept it light with an egg & veggie (sauteed zucchini, onion & mushrooms) omelet topped with cheese.

And some roasted squash & broccoli.

I have a problem.

And then my roommate made White Trash Toffee (toffee made with saltine crackers).

Um. Yum. Had about 3 pieces too many.

Whoops!

Breakfast this morning was quick and easy on my way out the door.

Cinnamon-raisin Ezkekiel english muffin. Half with pumpkin cream cheese, half with PB & jam.

I had my breakfast very late (11:30! I was busy all morning and not hungry until then), so I wasn’t very hungry for lunch before work.

Had a snack of squash (+ ketchup) before work.

This squash from last night is dry!!! I don’t know if it’s just a bad squash or I didn’t season it right, but man was it bland and hard to choke down. I literally had to take sips of water to moisten it up with each bite!

And then a small piece of this PB/Chocolate fudge thing at work

& coffee at work. 1/2 caff Americano with 1 pump peppermint. + a splash of creamer & some NF milk of course. Delicious.

I brought a sandwich thin to toast up at work, but honestly wasn’t hungry. I think it’s the “less-hungry” time of the month, y’know? And that squash filled me up.

——————————————————

I wasn’t sure what to do a Flashback Friday post on today, but knew since Janetha is out of town, I should definitely do one in honor of her

So as I sat here procrastinating on my senior project paper, I decided to look back through all my pictures for inspiration. With senior project on my mind, I looked back at my freshman year pictures – I can’t believe almost 5 years have flown by!

Originally when I applied to my school (California Polytechnic University – or Cal Poly as it’s mostly known ), I actually got rejected. But through my cousin, I knew of a “backdoor entrance” – apply for summer quarter! Rejected for the fall quarter of 2005, but accepted for summer 2005!

I literally graduated on Friday, went to our all-night grad party Friday night, packed up on Saturday, and drove down to school on Sunday. Phew!

I was so upset to be missing my “last summer home” after graduation, but I honestly had the best summer of my life away at school for that summer. I was only taking one morning class, and had the rest of the day free to relax and have fun – away from home!

My 3C roommate! (with Jamie – my old roommate I just mentioned the other day!)

Summer was extremely empty. There were about 150 freshmen, and only about 10-12 girls lived on my dorm’s floor for the summer. We all became super close.

We were the smallest floor up at the very top, so not many people came up to visit. Some didn’t even know people lived up on the third floor! So the “Third Floor Ghosts” we called ourselves

First hike during the first week.

Full of my first parties.

Lingerie party (which I obviously did not feel comfortable to participate in haha).

And can’t forget Harry Potter coming out and getting the free glasses that came with it!

Beach trips and bonfires…

Midnight vending machine runs with our campus dollars.

I just loved hanging out with the floor every night. It was like a giant sleepover!

I found this on my camera. Creeper roommate. haha

TPing someone’s room.

Along with nightly dance parties. Theme song of the summer was most definitely “My Humps” by Black Eyed Peas.

Oh and our obsession with peanut butter.

We even got some of the guys to try it by the spoonful

The sign we posted so all could write on it. Massive inside jokes

It was really sad to pack up and say goodbye at the end of the summer.

The summer I started out dreading turned out to be the best one of my life.

I love my Third Floor Ghosts and won’t ever forget them!!

All right – enough procrastinating. It’s not freshman year anymore. I need to work on this senior project!

Plus I’m off to see Dear John later tonight! Eeee it’s definitely a BYOT (bring your own tissues) type of night, I’m sure

One Dollar Oatmeal

(Sung to the tune of “5 dollar footlong”)

This morning, I finally had my physical therapy appointment I’ve been trying to get here at school for the past month! Let’s just say, I left extremely frustrated and no where near closer to fixing my knee. I believe that massage is really what’s going to help with the pain from the scar tissue.

I’ve taken the past month completely off of all exercise except for ab and upper body weights. It’s been beyond tough, and I’ve definitely had days where I just want to say “screw it” and workout. But honestly? After a whole month my knee feels absolutely no different. Not even a bit better. This just makes me feel even more that I need actual massage to work that scar tissue out!

So after my disapointing PT appointment, I immediately started researching massage places and made an appointment for this Saturday. I’ve never had one done before, but I’m praying it will be worth the cost.

Pre-PT appointment, I had a light egg white snack with ketchup.

This was to hold me over until my trip to Jamba Juice for the $1 Oatmeal Wednesday!

This week I opted to try the Apple-Cinnamon flavor.

Mmm amazing. I just can’t get over that brown sugar crumble!

As delicious as this apple topping was, I might just like the banana flavor better. But we’ll see when I try a new one next week

I then hurried to my long day of work – although today wasn’t bad. The 2 girlies were in good moods

Unpictured snack of carrots & salsa.

Lunch of leftover broccoli & cauliflower.

And a thin bun topped with laughing cow, cinnamon & strawberry jam.

+ unpictured sugar cookie dough that they had in their fridge. And I cannot turn down cookie dough. My pure weakness.

Dinner was quick and processed (since I’m running around at dinner time making/feeding 2 other people!). Pre-made cashew chicken from Vons/Safeway.

Looks good? But beyond disappointing.

The sauce was too thick, and even slightly solidified once it cooled a bit. And it was an odd tasting sauce. I could hardly scarf it down. I was also hoping for whole cashews, but it only contained little crumbly bits.

I had high hopes for these Signature Cafe meals, but all three I tried were disappointing. The broccoli, chicken & cheese dish from last week was very rich. And the orange chicken I had this past weekend (unpictured – sorry!) wasn’t as “orangy” as I was hoping. Meh – you live, you learn!

And once home, I demolished some hot chocolate and a blueberry + almond butter dessert. For some reason, I’m in the habit of not photographing my night-time snacks. I need to fix that!

I did, however, have a delicious homemade Albertson’s made cookie

Now I’m exhausted, and I was falling asleep 2 hours ago! I haven’t done any studying today for my midterm tomorrow, but I’m hoping I did enough in the past few days.

Anyone have any massage experience? For injuries or just for fun?

February Lovin’

I know yesterday was February 1st, but I thought I’d start out the month of love with a list of what I’ve recently been lovin’!

1. Micro-quickie pumpkin pies!

• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• Pie spice or cinnamon
• Squirt of maple syrup
• 1 T flour

Mix it up. Then spread it relatively thin on a plate. I’ve been microwaving mine for roughly 7 minutes, but I think it depends on your microwave strength. Delicious topped with brown sugar & PB (as shown above), pumpkin butter, or cream cheese!

Or even some happy whipped cream

Unfortunately, it kind of melted all over.  But it was a happy face.

2. Overnight oats

With the addition of wheat bran! I added 1/4 cup to my overnight mix, and it made it much more “cookie dough” tasting. Delicious!

In the above mix:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup pumpkin
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1 T chia seeds
• Cinnamon & maple syrup

Topped off with some Life cereal and peanut butter (since I can’t go a morning without it ).

3. Reconnecting with my old roommate Jamie

Sure, we’ve stayed in touch over the years, but only seeing or talking once every couple months. Recently we’ve been hanging out a lot more. And she’s beginning to join my house on our “Bachelor Nights”

She’s rockin’ the dress on her birthday!

I love good friends

Speaking of the Bachelor…

4. The Bachelor

This show is just ridiculous. We watch it for pure comedy – it sure makes me crack up!

(Source)

Did anyone else cringe last night when Ali ran into the water with her boots on?? I yelled at the screen “No, not the boots!!” How sad.

5. My sister

She sent me the most adorable mug!

Hello little polar bear man

I actually saw it on someone’s blog a few weeks ago and loved it. My sister knows me too well

6. Earth Grains sandwich thins Thin Buns

I love these way more than any other brand I’ve tried (Oroweat and Sara Lee). These ones are just doughy and delicious.

Especially the laughing cow + cinnamon + strawberry jam combo I’ve been brining to school lately.

7. Homemade pancakes

Welcome back to my life guys. This recipe is just so much better than the boxed stuff. I made a batch over the weekend so I could freeze them for future use.

2 cakes topped off with some greek yogurt + pumpkin mixture. And 1 with cream cheese. I just love cream cheese on pancakes.

8. My new wallet!

I got a hobo clutch wallet for Christmas, but returned it because I wasn’t a fan of the color/texture. I ordered a new on off Ebay and it finally came!

Love bright colors

And I’m clearly stylin’ in my leggings and pink slipper booties

9. Life cereal!

Maple flavor to be exact. Life was always a fave of mine as a kid (especially the bottom of the box where all the cinnamon and sugar crumbs fall!). And I recently bought a box on sale. Nutrition stats ain’t bad!

Could use a bit more fiber…

But at least it has the punch of tons of added vitamins and minerals like most kiddie cereals provide!

10. Roasted broccoli

Yeah, yeah. Been there, seen this pic. But you know what? I just can’t get over how amazing it is.

Tossed and seasoned with:

• Olive oil
• Garlic salt
• Galic
• Pepper
• Paprika

Roasted in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. You can also top it off with some nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese before baking for some extra tastiness.

Now that you know what I’ve been loving recently, what have you all been loving? I’d love to hear it – maybe get some ideas of new stuff to try out!

‘Ello Govna

Hello dear friends, I’m at the library right now – obviously procrastinating taking a break

This weekend is going to be mad intense – 4 midterms, along with other assignments due next week. And I have my senior project to work on.

At least this morning’s breakfast was delicious. Welcome back to my life overnight oats!

Last night I combined:

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/3 cup yogurt + 1/3 cup pumpkin + 1/3 cup soymilk
• 2 T raisins
• Cinnamon & maple syrup

This morning I topped it off with:

• Quaker brown sugar oatmeal squares
• Life cereal
• Naturally More PB

This was my first “yogurt” based overnight oats (with more yogurt, rather than milk). I could taste tartness, and while delicious, I think I prefer a thinner milk & mashed banana base instead

And coffee enjoyed out of my favorite mug

Then I packed up the essentials and headed to campus!

Coffee, a large apple, carrots and an ABJ&B (almond butter, jelly, and banana) sandwich.

Gym was a 40-minute mixture of weights, abs & power-clams for the hips.

Then class.

Then 4+ hours of library time. Where I also snacked on an apricot Heart Thrive bar (not my fave. Although it’s probably better heated up).

Came home hangry for dinner and threw a very quick tasty Kashi meal into the microwave.

The tuscan bake! Mmmmm.

Plus roasted broccoli on the side (which looked exactly like yesterdays, so that is the picture I used – sorry).

For the broccoli, I seasoned it with garlic salt, pepper, paprika, and olive oil. Then roasted it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Delicious. First time I’ve tried roasted broccoli is this past week, and I’m hooked!

Followed by some unpictured sour patch kids (or SPKs as my roommate calls them) and a “pumpkin pie” for dessert. With some melty whipped cream

Disgusting looking, but might tasty, I swear.

I know this is two posts in one day (which may be a lot to catch up with! ), but I couldn’t leave my Friday without my Flashback to Europe part 3!

Last I left you, my sister and I were ending our 3-day trip to Paris. We then took the chunnel back to London to spend another 5 days there. The first week, we stayed in a flat through my grandparents’ time share.

Post-Paris, we stayed in a hotel.

Which came with a daily gourmet breakfast/brunch.

This last week, we hit up the Tower, where they kept all the prisoners. It’s well-known for where King Henry VII kept his wives (including Anne Boleyn).

Traitor’s Gate muahaha.

Fun in the gift shop

One day, we took a bus trip that stopped at Stonehenge,

Baths

and Windor Castle

On the last full day of our trip, my sister and I walked around, finding our way to Buckingham Palace

To watch the changing of the guards.

We also found our way to Platform 9 3/4

Unfortunately, try as we might, we couldn’t make it through the wall

On our walk, we ventured through Kensington Gardens

And came across Peter Pan! This was on my sister’s “to-see” list so she was excited.

It was soon time to bid London goodbye.

It was honestly the trip of a lifetime, and it couldn’t have happened without my wonderful grandparents. While my sister and I had to pay our own way, for some food, and for all of Paris, my grandparents made the trip amazing – treating us to dinners, tours, play tickets, and housing. They were amazing

Regarding my post title, anyone see the Kellogg’s commercial where the guys are naming reasons why they like Kellogg’s cereal? And one guy goes “I like Kelloggs because it has ‘ello’ in the middle of it. Like ‘ello govna.” LOL I don’t know why I thought that commercial was hilarious.  Just thought I’d throw that out there

Oatmeal Wednesday!

**Note: this was written on Thursday night, but my internet was down (what’s new) so was posted on Friday**

Madelin was wonderfully kind enough to award me with the Beautiful Blogger award!

I recently shared the 7 random facts about myself on this post, so check it out if you interested!

In other news, I’m sure much of you caught Michael Pollen and Alicia Silverstone on Oprah yesterday. I’ve yet to see Food Inc, but I found the intereview extremely interesting. I have their same viewpoints on eating processed and real foods, but I have to admit I’ve really never given a second thought to my poultry. I try to avoid “fake” and highly processed meats, but I really don’t pay attention to organic, grass-fed, etc. Maybe I should start?

I was, however, impressed by Chipotle! I had no idea they were that fresh and healthy! A Chipotle is finally coming here to my college town, and man, am I excited!

Speaking of yesterday, did you know Wednesdays are $1 oatmeal day at Jamba Juice? When I heard that, I knew where I’d be stopping on my drive to work.

I had a really hard time deciding from all their options.

I finally decided on Banana. Steel cut oats cooked with soymilk, topped with banana slices and brown sugar crumble.

Oh, brown sugar crumble! Just like the crumbles on top of apple pie

Unfortunately, it didn’t hold me over long at all, and I was starving two hours later. Made my mini-lunch earlier than planned.

2 slices WW bread topped with laughing cow cheese + pumpkin butter.

With leftover roasted broccoli.

And snuck a couple treats from my little girl’s “Yay, you went potty on the toilet” bag of candy.

Dinner was a broccoli, chicken and cheese mixture that was honestly waaayyy too rich for me.

And I couldn’t think of a better way to reward myself after such an exhausting and emotionally draining day (have you tried dealing with a 2 year old who hasn’t gone #2 in more than a week? Yeah, they’re a bit whiny) than with froyo on the way home from work.

This beast was huge!! That was a 16 oz container it was overflowing.

See you tomorrow for Flashback to Europe part 3 and Friday!!

Better late than never

Okay, this is a day late because my internet was being it’s usual poopy self and chose not to work last night. So actually this post was actually meant for yesterday!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

You’ve been there for us our whole lives. And I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you (quite literally ).

Thank you for being the mom you are

What do you think…do we look alike?

Hope you enjoyed your day!!

This morning I didn’t have class until noon, so I had time to make an actual breakfast. I haven’t gotten mocha oats off my brain since Friday!

Unfortunately I had no cookie dough or chocolate chips today

But topped with:

• Chocolate almond butter
• Cream cheese (frosting )
• Sprinkle of granola

• 

But still delicious none the less!

I followed this up with a 35 minute strength workout:

• ~ 17 minutes upper body weights
• 5 minutes hip exercises
• 15 ab circuit – 1 minute of each of the following:
  • Oblique side bends with weight in each hand
  • Standing ab twist with weight
  • Flutter kicks
  • Scissors leg lifts
  • Bicycle crunches
  • Scissors (criss-crossing the ankles)
  • Leg lift/crunch up & reach towards feet (at same time) with weight
  • Front plank
  • Oblique crunch with leg lift (1 minute each side)
  • Seated ab twist, legs lifted, with weight
  • Side plank, on hands, top leg lifted parallel to ground (1 minute each side)
  • Front plank
  • Oblique side bends with weight in each hand

Phew! My abs were sore today

“Lunch” at school was slightly pathetic and slightly disgusting looking. Laughing cow and TJ’s black bean dip spread on WW bread.

It was really all I had time to throw together this morning, and also all I really had to put on a sandwich. Plus carrots and blueberries (on sale at Vons this past week!)

You can bet that when I got home at 3:30, I was famished. First up – pumpkin smoothie!

But I had that awful pit in my stomach pain I get when I don’t eat. So this was followed with a couple handfuls of cereal and I finally just dug in to this bad boy:

A spoonful of Naturally More PB. That did the trick. Felt better

For dinner, I was craving nothing more than comforting breakfast food.

French toast – it has been too long.

Topped with a smidge of cream cheese, peanut butter & a granola sprinkling.

And hot chocolate (x2) throughout the night.

Few random questions for the day:

1. What is your favorite thing to pair with laughing cow cheese?

2. Do you look at all like your parents? Which one?

1. Laughing cow goes great with apples. And spread on toast with cinnamon/sugar!

2. Obviously, I look like my mom

Epic oats + Power Paris Trip

This morning I had some of the most epic oats ever.

Cookie dough mocha oats to be more exact!

On the stove, I combined:

• Oats + soymilk + 2 egg whites
• Spoonful of cocoa powder at end
• Spoonful of instant coffee at end

Topped off with a nice blob of PB, chocolate almond butter…

And a great big blob of chocolate chip cookie dough (I have in the fridge to make for a friend’s birthday).

Wowowowowowowow!!!!!! I was once on a huge cocoa oats kick (especially cocoa peppermint oats), but the coffee powder kicked it up a notch. And cookie dough combined made it food-orgasmic!

(Yes I do eat raw cookie dough occasionally whenever I can get my hands on it I know the whole raw egg thing is a huge scare to people, but I can’t help I like dough better than the actual baked good!)

It’s now time for London Flashback Part 2 – Paris Edition! (Missed part 1? Check out last Friday).

After the first week, my sister and I took a 3-day trip to Paris. I’d always dreamt of visiting Paris, so knew I need to take advantage of being so close to it.

We traveled on the Chunnel – an extremely fast train that goes from London to Paris.

And walked to our hotel -

Which had a lovely view of the River Siene.

Right away, we got dressed and ready to begin our 2 1/2 day Power-Paris trip!

First, we made our way to the Notre Dame.

Unfortunately, it was closed that day and we couldn’t go inside I don’t remember the reason. But we made a pit stop a few days later to check out the inside

Hunchback Quasimodo’s friends

We just wandered around, not exactly knowing where we were going! I think we were looking for a Metro stop so we could hop on it.

We found the Holocaust memorial.

This picture screams Paris to me – I think it might be the shirt? haha. All I need is a beret!

Came across a very denim family.

Finally made our way to Sacre Coeur.

Can you spot me?

I ran up into the crowd to pose for a picture like “Where’s Waldo?”

I think it was the shirt

Beautiful view of the city from the top of the hill.

We walked around up there for a bit.

There was quite little village…town?

Lost?

When in Rome When in Paris – must have gelato!

Remember my mug that my sister painted me?

Well this is where we saw the painting that she copied!

Afterwards, we took the Metro back to see the Arc de Triomphe.

Enjoyed the weird intersections.

We hung around on that street for HOURS waiting for it to get dark! By 10:00, we gave up – this is as dark as it got! Crazy how light it stays there so late due to the prime meridian!

The next day, we decided to travel to the palace of Versailles.

The gardens were insane!!!!

I can’t even put into words how big their “backyard” was!

They got all the way back to the teeny tiniest end of this photo…

We walked all the way there – where I got my first crepe at a food stand!

And then continued even more onward to Marie Antoinette’s summer house! Yes, she had her own “summer house” on the same property as her palace. Recognize it from the movie Marie Antoinette?

After this loooonnngggg day of walking (hours and hours and hours straight), we hit up the Eiffel Tower!

My sister was beyond exhausted, so she ended up heading back to the hotel. But I knew I couldn’t travel to Paris and not climb to the top of the tower!

It was windy at the tippy top!!

Hello America!!

It was dark by the time I got down, and the tower was ablaze! I had to walk far enough away to get a picture.

It’s hard to see in the picture, but it had white lights all over that twinkled – beautiful!

It was absolutely breathtaking and I stood there forever just not wanting to leave. I was underneith the Eiffel Tower!!! Holy cow!! The Eiffel Tower!

One thing is for certain, I came back that night and crashed. Never had I ever walked that far in one day from 8 am – 11 pm straight!

We were leaving in the afternoon of the next day, but wanted to fit in a quick visit to The Louvre of course!

Everyone was taking pictures inside, including of the Mona Lisa. I felt bad thought (since technically you shouldn’t be taking pictures!), so refrained.

I also found Diet Coke with Orange! Knew I needed to buy such a thing and test it out.

Gulp gulp!

Hmmm….tasty! Similar to the lemon flavor.

Tiny European car!

And my first crepe was soooooo good, I knew I needed another to finish off the trip

Paris was honestly so rush rush rush – it’s almost a blur! We tried to cram everything in, but I really want to travel back one day! It was also such a great experience since it was really my first trip alone in another city – a foreign city! Quite the experience

London trip part 3 coming next time

Where did all the raisins go?

Howdy!

So I really don’t have much energy to put into this post right now Let me say

Crawling baby + potty training toddler = exhaustion.

Simple math.

Chowed down on my easy breakfast on the drive to work. A cinnamon raisin Ezekiel english muffin -

• 1/2 with pumpkin cream cheese & jam
• 1/2 with Naturally More PB, jam & banana slices

But seriously? Where were the raisins in this beast? I believe they accidentally slipped a plain flavor into my package!

Work was full of snackies including carrots, celery & cookie dough – yummm. And oddly wasn’t super hungry all day.

Had some love of my life kabocha squash around 2:00. With ketchup of course.

And then “whatever’s in the fridge” (a.k.a turkey slice, spinach, tofu & mustard) wrap around 4:15 -

Highly appetzing white blobs, no?

And this was able to hold me over through whining and crying, especially when the 3-year old closed the 9 month old’s fingers in the door which led to a large group hug and cry fest.

But I do still love them

Finally had a super late dinner at 8:45. Once I’m home that late, I’m always craving comfort breakfast foods (usually french toast) and nut butters. That’s it.  I could’ve gone to town with the peanut butter jar.  But since I had no bread, and I knew spoonfuls of peanut butter wouldn’t be the brightest idea I’d had in a while, I went for a lovely yogurt bowl.

• Greek yogurt + pumpkin + cinnamon + maple syrup
• Nature’s Path mesa sunrise
• Quaker oatmeal squares
• Globs of Naturally More PB & pumpkin butter

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about you orange oddly neutral colored dream machine.

And hot chocolate…duh.

What do you normally crave or end up eating for a late dinner?  Do you still do a full meal?