BBQ stealer

To continue my “fruit bowl breakfast” trend of the week, I tried hot oats today!

Cooked on the stove:

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran + 1 cup water
• 1/2 mashed banana
• Cinnamon + maple syrup
• Protein powder (stirred in towards end)

Topped with:

• 1/2 sliced banana
• Handful of Nature’s Path granola
• DCD peanut butter
• Blueberry jam

This was delicious – I liked it better than with overnight oats.

But so so filling. I never use bananas in my oats, and for some reason thought it would be a good idea today. The addition of banana and the honeydew? Yeah, I barely ate any of the honeydew, and cut up the rest for later.

I then proceeded to do an hour of strength at home consisting of

• Upper body weights
• 9 minutes ab work
• Hip strengtheners

And 40 minutes of foam rolling. I was near to tears. And definitely swore/yelled out a couple times. Damn IT band!

Oh how did my run go yesterday? Thanks for asking 🙂 GREAT!!! I did 4.5 miles in 41:40. And that includes walking times. I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day – just beyond happy. I’d been having a rough couple days, but yesterday’s run just turned my mood 100% around. My knee was a bit stiff, but not bad at all. YAY!!

Since breakfast so late and filling, I had a light snack late afternoon of yogurt, kiwi, & honeydew. Topped with granola (added after the picture) & Crofter’s jam.

For dinner, we hit up a local BBQ joint (Firestones) that has the best BBQ sauce. I got the “Firestone Salad” – chunks of tomato, bell peppers, onions, feta cheese & pinenuts. I added shredded chicken. And lay on the BBQ sauce!

I honestly normally ask for extra containers of the BBQ sauce and come home with 2-4 of them. Yes – BBQ stealer over here. Today I only got 1 😦 Oh well – gives me an excuse to go back soon!

Now we’re taking an easy night in and watching The Lovely Bones.

It’s been a couple weeks since my last flashback, so I thought I’d do another today. But I wasn’t sure on what to flashback on! After looking through my Picasa albums, I came across my cousin’s wedding back in June of 2006.

She had a very small wedding at th Monterey Plaza Hotel.

Siblings. HAHA. So funny – my brother’s hair!

Little sister entertaing herself and playing 🙂

I swear, this is a picture of my sister, not the guy’s butt.

Afterwards, before our drive home, we changed and chilled on the beach for a bit.

LOL How lucky for a 5 year old to just strip and run in the waves 😉

I’ve only been to 2 weddings, and neither was very big! I can’t wait for friends to start getting married 😉 Party!!

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Busy Busy Bee

Hello folks! I’ve been a tad busy over here the past couple days. I drove back to “school” (I still call it ‘school’ even though I technically don’t go to school anymore. It’s ‘home’ to me, but I feel almost like a traitor calling this my home, when I still call where my parents live ‘home.’ Know what I mean?).

So I drove back to school home this place where I live. Snack on the way?

Pomegranate tart topped with fruit & Cap’n Crunch? Yes please.

Tuesday’s nanny job was 11-6:00. But before that I obviously had to have breakfast.

Mmmm I love melon bowls. With yogurt, fruit & cereal. Oh and nut butter duhhh.

I had stomach issues all day, and wasn’t very hungry for lunch.

I swear it was tastier than that looks. Dark chocolate dreams PB, blueberry jam, and smushed ‘naner in a Flatout Wrap.

Tried to capture the inner goodies.

Once off at 6:00, I worked again from 7-11 (I used to get icees at 7-11 every Sunday after church. It was our “reward” for being good. I miss those icees) at Old Navy.

Quick dinner – southwestern soup and cheesy quesadilla. Which I dumped in the soup. Great idea.  Enough sour cream there? 😉

So what if I was in such a hurry I tore my quesadilla into strips rather than cut it? Tasted the same.

I then rocked out at Old Navy for the night while American Idol, Glee and The Hills are played without me.  😦 Thank goodness for TV online.

Now you know I love my melon bowls, but I’ve never done anything besides yogurt + cereal + fruit combos in them.

That is definitely not yogurt. Or fruit. Maybe a little cereal.

Overnight oats! Which I dumped into my second half of honeydew in the morning.

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran + 2/3 cup almond milk
• Scoop of protein powder
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Raisins
• Couple spoonfuls of yogurt
• Nature’s Path pumpkin granola

Okay okay so I lied. There is yogurt in there. And cereal (oats & granola). And I guess the honeydew counts as fruit. But still…it’s different! And delicious.

Can’t wait to try hot oats next time!

Lunchage was frozen (obviously not eaten frozen) butternut squash lasagna.

And afternoon munchies of frozen green peas + a kiwi.

And iced coffee in my new cup.

I don’t know if anyone remembers, but I was stoked when I found the insulated Starbucks cups in a store. But I dropped it and was devastated 😦 My roommate got me a new one for my birthday! It’s not Starbucks (it’s Jamba Juice), but it does the job 😀

And dinner was eaten in 2 parts.

Soup at around 6:00 when feeding the kids.

And “pancakes” around 8:30 when I got home.

Using this recipe.

Today I finally have a bit of down time, and am excited for a run! Unfortunately I left my knee brace at home (the parents home, not school home.  Oh wait, deja vu here), so I’m testing out the waters and see how it goes without it. The physical therapists have all said that the knee brace does nothing to help my condition, I’ve just used it anyways 😉 So we’ll see! I’m attempting 4-4.5 miles. An increase of .5-1 mile from last week! Eee I’m excited 🙂

Pre-run fuel of 1/2 hemp bagel spread with DCD PB and banana slices. I ate the rest of the banana with PB on the side.

All right here I gooooooo!!!

PS: Can I just say that foam rolling is ridiculously painful after taking 3-4 days off? Last night I could just feel the knots in my IT band, and I had to get down and foam roll them out while watching Law & Order SVU. I had to bite onto my sweatshirt while doing it – ouchie!! But so worth it 🙂

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Cookies and Concerts

Happy Sunday to everyone 🙂

I’ve kept extremely busy since my last post, so I won’t recap everything, but here are some highlights!

Friday I got busy in the kitchen. I saw this no meat dessert, and wanted to test out the waters. I have a good amount of soynut butter that I’m not the hugest fan of the taste on it’s own. So I wanted to try it out with that. I also made a few other modifications.

• 3 tablespoons water 1 egg
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal
• 1 1/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening canola oil (I really had no idea if this would be an acceptable substitution)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter chocolate soynut butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Since I wasn’t concerned about making the recipe gluten free or vegan, I used 1 egg instead of the flaxseed substitution, and regular whole wheat flour.

The cookie dough was extremely oily, I swear I could squeeze out the oil as I was putting the dough on the cookie sheets. I’m not sure if that was due to the fact that I used a different type of nut butter, or oil.

They turned out decent! I wasn’t a huge fan of them, but they went quickly and got great reviews at the BBQ I took them to. Everyone just said they tasted like a very mild peanut butter cookie and just needed a bit more flavor.

I didn’t tell my roommate what I used in them, I just told her I used “a different type of nut butter.” And she loved them. Later when I said I used soynut butter, she squealed out “EWWWW!!!” haha. Oh picky people, why are they so against other forms of food? 😉

I also made a batch of brownies if these didn’t turn out. They were a hit last time so I knew they’d be a success. Again, I used this recipe and used egg starts, whole wheat flour, and omitted the walnut because that’s what I had on hand.

Yes I baked my brownies in a pie pan. Our cake pan and square pan were both at separate locations.  And don’t mind the hole in the middle 😉 Because of the different pan, I had to keep checking if they were done yet.

Such good brownies. Highly recommend them! Ironically, these weren’t nearly as popular as the cookies though. Maybe because they were more moist and harder to eat? 😉

My roommates are in complete shock whenever I make anything from scratch. They always use boxed brownie mix or cookie mix from a bag. I admit, I did grow up using boxed brownie and cake mixes (I didn’t make real brownies until here at school!). But my whole life my mom would always make her special cookies from scratch. I would never even think to use a bagged mix! Funny how people are raised differently 😉

Yesterday (Saturday), I was up early to run around on my feet at work from 9-12. It was Old Navy’s grand re-opening and it was crazy!! It was fun to rock out to the DJ though. I wish we had a DJ everytime!

Pre-work fuel:

• Greek yogurt (homemade)
• Kashi Good Friends cereal
• Bottom crumbs of my Life cereal (pretty much the best part of the box)
• Dark Chocolate Dreams PB
• Crofter’s jam

Soooo full, but I couldn’t eat for 4 hours and I’d be on my feet!

Post-work fuel:

Gotta love free pizza 😀

I then hit the road for my 3 1/2 hour drive home. I came home this weekend for the Brooks and Dunn concert!! We picked up dinner on the way, and I absolutely had to get my favorite burrito ever:

• Chicken breast
• Mango vinaigrette (instead of salsa)
• Pico de gallo
• Lettuce
• Brown rice
• WW tortilla

The sauce the cook this chicken breast in is amazing. LOVE this burrito.

Unfortunately we hit incredibly bad traffic on the way to the concert and missed Jason Aldean (the opening performer).

We made it there for Brooks and Dunn, though! They were great live. I had fun with my sisters 😀

And since they have a ridiculous amount of singles and have been around for 20 years, there were a lot of “down” moments where we just hung out on our blanket and goofed around with good music in the background 😉

And it was great people watching. Hilarious to see everyone completely drunk and dancing. These 3 guys were grinding up on girls in front of us the whole time!

This morning started with a yogurt mess that escaped the camera (but you’ve seen it all before 😉 ). But I did capture this delicious looking beauty that my mom had for me.

Cinnamon apple wrap.

But honestly not a big fan. It was too much wrap and not enough apple. And the apples tasted too lemony. I’m not a big fan of lemon zest in my apple pie or apple desserts.

It had great potential though!

I’m off to spend the rest of the day enjoying time with my family. Which probably means a family trip to Costco 😉 Not going to lie – my family enjoys going to Costco together. And celebrating my birthday! Enjoy your Sunday!

Were you a boxed mix or a make-from-scratch kinda family growing up? What about now?

Like I said, I never think to make cookies from a box/mix. But brownies and cake? That’s another story. I’ve recently started making brownies from scratch, and it’s super easy – and delicious!

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Foam Party and Giveaway Winner!

No not this type of foam party.

Source

More like this type of party:

Source

Looks happenin’.

But seriously, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited and happy I am. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been starting to incorporate running back into my routine starting about 4 weeks ago. I started with 2 minutes run/2 minutes walk, then gradually increased to 5 run/2 walk (all of this on the treadmill). Unfortunately, my knee still hurt. Although not incredibly bad, I couldn’t deny the pain was there.

Around this time I also started foam rolling after every run, and on most of my days off. Let me tell you, it hurt. Especially my IT band and parts of my quads. I could feel those tight knots hanging out in my muscles!

I also went and got refitted for shoes as part of my birthday present (thanks Nana!), and got a completely new style of shoes. The days after my first run in these, my knee was throbbing. But eventually it died down. And I’ve gone on 3 runs since then, and here’s the exciting part – my knee is almost pain free!! Okay, it’s not 100% pain free (it hasn’t been 100% at all in the past year), but it’s almost as pain free as it was when I was taking 2 months off. I’d say it’s at a 2 or 3 on a scale of 10. And that’s incredible considering I’ve been running – outside.

This is amazing amazing to me. I know it’s not just the new shoe style. But I believe it’s the combination of foam rolling and the shoes. While still painful at some points, foam rolling has gotten so much easier and I can tell I’m massaging out those tight muscles. All I can say is, if you’re having some sort of knee pain – try foam rolling!! I spent the past year going to multiple doctors, x-rays, MRIs, and physical therapists, and I can’t believe it’s foam rolling that’s finally making a difference! I only wish I knew to do this all throughout my long distance running to help prevent injury.

I usually spend 15-25 minutes (depending on how tight my muscles are, and how much time I have) foam rolling focusing on my IT band

Source

Hamstring

Source

Quads

Source

Adductor (this might look wrong, but my inner leg muscles are super tight)

Source

And even sometimes my hip.

After foam rolling, I also stretch for 5-8 minutes, and ice my knees for a good 20 minutes.

Moving on from my foam roller infomercial…

Yesterday before my run, I chowed down on a sprouted cinnamon raisin bagel with whipped cream cheese and Crofter’s jam.

Yum – these bagels tasted just like a bigger Ezekiel english muffin.

I then went on a 3 mile run (5 min run, 2 min walk intervals). My other two runs this week were .5 mile more than the week before (making them 3.5 miles each), so I knew I needed to keep this one closer to 3. Bringing this week’s total to: 10 miles. Crazy how my weekly total is the same distance as how much one run used to be on anyday of the week. I need to carefully follow the 10% rule or increase my mileage based on how I feel.

I’ve been craving a nice fresh salad lately too.

• Sauteed Costco chicken patty (thew away the container – can’t remember the flavor) and onions
• Craisins
• Kooloos
• Balsamic dressing

I then ran out the door to use my free Coldstones birthday coupon that was going to expire! Cakebatter + Twix

However, due to my “no sweets for the day” challenge, I didn’t eat any, just brought it home to refreeze for later 😉

I did, however, pick up a Mango Mantra flavored Jamba Juice right next door.

And then quickly hurried to work, where I helped myself to more salad.

I think this was from Costco. It was okay – but I think it needed more flavor, and I didn’t like the texture of the lentils. Or maybe it was the split peas. It was also quite calorie dense due to lots of oil. I’d love to recreate something like this on my own!

And a staple of mine:

Dinner was unpictured, but it was another pita pizza and salad.

And now, the winner of the Green Giant/My Blog Spark pack is #1, Cara who said We are eco-friendly by only having 1 car between the two of us, and using reusable bags while shopping!”

Congrats Cara!! Email me your address at TaydorTott@gmail.com and I’ll have your package sent out to you asap 🙂

Have any of you tried foam rolling and had success with it?

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Junk [Food] Post

Happy Earth Day friends!

Your earth-friendly tips are awesome guys! Be sure to enter the giveaway and keep ’em coming!! 🙂

Here are some great ones so far:

• Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store
• Driving only 1 car per household or walking/biking!
• Recycling
• Taking shorter showers and using less water
• Hang drying clothes
• Unplugging appliances when not in use
• Using reusable snack bags (there is even a giveaway going on here!)
• Reusable water bottles

Great idea guys 😀 I do much of the above as well. In fact, I am always taking things out of our kitchen trash can and putting them in the recycling!

Now on to the junky part of this post. The past few weeks have had quite a fair number of indulgences.

Starting in Vegas with a little bit too many of these bad boys…

And too many blue cups

Then came Easter, and with it pies

Cookies

Endless weeks of chocolate (among 5 roommates – we accumulated lots of Easter packages! 😉 )

And when this chocolate finally died down, my birthday came a knockin’! More of this

And lots of this:

And can’t forget all the treats at nannying I manage to snack on occasionally.

And somehow ice cream found its way to my freezer this past weekend:

See what I mean?!

I obviously love my sweets, and am all for enjoying them! But it’s quite unfortunate when your pants are too tight. And my stomach has been hurting every morning (I often times have stomach problems, and I’m not sure what exactly this is due to. But I’m going to try and eliminate late night eating and ice cream right before bed to see if it’s possibly related).

First step – I’m going to try and go through just 1 day without any sweets. I literally haven’t done this in who-knows-how-long, but it’s my challenge for the day!

Even though I do have my new job at Old Navy, and jeans are more afforadable now, I don’t want to have to buy larger sized jeans! 😉

In other news, I managed to snag my roommates near empty jar of nut butter as she was throwing it away. NO! Trash to her, valuables to me 😉

Yesssss.

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran + 1 cup almond milk
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 2 spoonfuls yogurt stirred in at end
• More nut butter and whipped cream cheese on top
• Sprinkling of granola (post-picture)

Yesterday’s lunch – Southwestern soup with cheese & chips.

And Costco chicken burger chopped up with mustard & BBQ sauce (for more filling protein)

I tried the blueberry Yoplait Greek yogurt!

I really like the plain Yoplait, but I wasn’t a fan of this flavored. The blueberry was pre-mixed in, and I didn’t get much blueberry flavor. I definitely like Chobani blueberry more – I like the actual blueberry chunks! But I do love that Yoplait Greek yogurt has more calcium – 35% of your daily value!

Have you tried any of the new Greek yogurts on the market? Thoughts? Favorites?

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On the run and a Green Giveaway

Today’s eats have been eaten on the run.

Quick breakfast eaten right before my run – 1/2 hemp bagel with almond butter and crofter’s jam.

I then ran 3.5 miles in 34 minutes. Plus 7 minutes warmup and about 5 minute cooldown. Foam rolling, stretching, and icing.

I’m trying to concentrate on taking shorter strides during my runs, and incorporating walking breaks every 5-8 minutes. Today’s run was an increase of 1/2 a mile.

Lunch was then quickly devoured as I was running to job#1 (nannying).

Roasted cauliflower (seasoned with olive oil, garlic salt, paprika & curry) with ketchup.

And in between showering, blow-drying, and straightening the hair, I managed to whip together a quick pizza and stick it in the oven.

Pasta sauce, Italian blend cheese, and garlic powder on a WW pita.

Please excuze my rugged nails.

Dinner was then consumed on the run drive to job#2 (Old Navy).

Leftover butternut squash lasagna (I froze some last week). But since I was driving, this is an old picture 😉

I got home from my Old Navy shift exhausted and hungry. I finally got to collapse and eat rather than eat on the run 😉 Enter unpictured protein powder PB mixture (similar to Holly’s no bake cookies) that I wolfed down.

Oh and some of my new purchases (on “introductory price clearance” at Vons):

Helloooooooo caramel

And

ummmmmmmmmmm pretty sure one of my new favorite flavors ever. Tastes like cookies n’ cream but with cookie dough instead of oreo chunks. Um yum.

I had about a serving total amongst both of them.

In more green news, I recently received a “Seeds of Change” package from Green Giant/My Blog Spark!

Included was:

• A reusable tote bag (love bringing these to the grocery store!)
• A mini-herb garden
• An eco-friendly bamboo spoon set
• And a coupon for a free package of Green Giant frozen vegetables!

  

I used my Green Giant coupon on a basil flavored vegetable package which I am excited to try out!

I’ve always wanted to grow my own herbs and vegetables! So much cheaper and earth friendly 🙂

In the spirit of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day (this coming Thursday, April 22nd!), Green Giant and My Blog Spark have offered to give away a “Seeds of Change” prize pack to one of you!

If you’re interested in winning your own package:

1. Leave a comment below stating one way you make an effort to be eco-friendly!

2. Tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment when you do so.

You have until Thursday, April 22nd at midnight and I’ll announce a winner on Friday!

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23rd Birthday Recap

First news – I got the Old Navy job!! I was quite excited when I got the phone call. Even though it’s close to minimum wage, a job is a job. And I just need something to supplement nannying for the next couple months.

Now for a birthday recap! Thursday night (on my actual birthday) the roommates and I went to the Madonna Inn for dessert. It’s pretty much a very tacky tourist attraction – but still cool to check out at least once. You might have seen it on the travel channel, The Bachelor, or even The Girls Next Door 😉

The desserts are intense! It took us a good 15 minutes to decide what to get. We all ordered something and shared bites 😉

Banana cream pie (with huge chunks of real banana pieces!)

Apple spice cake – tasted similar to carrot cake.

Toffee crunch cake (sorry no close up)

And me with my strawberry cake

All sooooooooo good!

Unfortunate blurry photo 😦

I was also surprised by flowers on my doorstep!

I seriously did not expect my parents to send me flowers since I’m going home this coming weekend to celebrate with the family. But it made me happy 😀

The day of the party, we ordered pizza for dinner.

I had 2 slices of pesto cheese.

And two BBQ chicken.

Pizza never has never failed me for a night of drinking. I was hoping it would be my friend again 😉

We then got ready for some celebrating! Started out with my new purchase – bubblegum vodka (yes – you read that right).  Wasn’t bad as a shot, and quite tasty mixed with sprite!

Oh and PS – I obviously chose this dress 😉 I loved the other one too. But got many more votes from all of you and people here for this one. I didn’t decide until 10 minutes before I got ready!

I also got my hair cut the day of our party. It’s hard to tell in many of the pictures. I only got a trim and a bunch more layers added. I actually wish I got more – I love layers 🙂

Then we headed over to our friends’ house for the joint birthday celebrating to begin!

And then we headed downtown to dance away, but there are no decent pictures to post. Or that I feel comfortable posting. 😉 Sorry – just not attractive photos! haha

The night was lots of fun and it was a great birthday success! 😀

Today was filled with french toast

“California Dreamin” sandwich from Vons (sans bacon) for lunch (turkey, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, onion, peppercinis, mustard, and ranch spread on rustic Italian bread).

Pssst Vons/Safeway has the best sandwiches! And for $4.99!! Can’t beat it.

And egg scramble with Amy’s veggie burger for dinner.

And multiple snacks throughout the day – of course.

What was your most memorable birthday ever?

My 10th birthday, my mom took me and some friends to spend the night in a hotel. It was so exciting! And my friends also kidnapped me the morning of my 14th birthday to go to breakfast before school. Both those are pretty memorable 🙂 But this one is up there! It was lots of fun to dress up and celebrate wtih friends.

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Birthday Flashback

Thank you to those of you who wished me happy birthday via twitter yesterday 🙂 So sweet!!

My breakfast revolved around a little jar I went through too fast.

Perfect birthday breakfast!

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/3 cup wheat bran + 1 cup water
• 1 egg
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Dark chocolate dreams (on top)
• Nature’s Path granola

Oatmeal, you never fail me.

The rest of my day I did a little weights, stretching and foam rolling. Relaxing. Lying in the sun. Then lunch.

I topped my last French Meadow Bakery sprouted tortilla with about 1 1/2 servings of ground turkey, 1 cooked egg, FF sour cream, and salsa fresca (Santa Barbara brand from Costco).

I really only like these tortillas when heated or cooked. I heated up my tortilla on the stove. I have a gas burner, so I just lay it on one of the burners for about 10 seconds, then carefully grab and flip it. It heats it up and makes it slightly crunchy!

I love the chewiness of these tortillas once heated.

Yumm!! I had lots of leftover filling (but no more tortillas 😦 ) so I combined it all in a bowl to eat the rest 🙂

Afternoon snack of an apple and my free Starbucks half-caff coffee!

Then came home to get ready for my roommate birthday night. I kept dinner pretty light because we were getting dessert at around 7:30.

Repeat picture!! I wolfed down my dinner quickly, but it looked like this – only a few less pancaked. I made a slightly smaller batch of these “pancakes”.

We then got dressed and headed to the Madonna Inn for dessert! I don’t have those pictures yet (on my roommate’s camera), so I’ll have to recap that part of the night tomorrow 🙂

Tonight is part 2 of celebrating. My friend’s birthday is today, and since mine was yesterday, we’re doing a joint party tonight. And then heading out on the town! I’m still not 100% positive on what dress I’m choosing, but you’ll find out tomorrow! 😉

And now, in the spirit of yesterday and tonight, I thought I’d do a birthday edition Flashback Friday. I only have back to year 2003 on this computer. But I wanted to show you how into birthday parties my mom would always get. We would do huge theme parties when we were younger, and she would make the most creative cakes! Examples of my younger sister’s cakes, which I have on my computer. (Her birthday is in August, so they’re mostly pool themed 😉 )

Unfortunately that’s all I have on here, but she could get pretty intense!

In 2003, we went to a Giant’s game.

My 18th birthday in 2005:

Baskin Robbins ice cream cake = best. thing. ever.

It’s a tradition in our family that my dad would always come home from work with a bouquet of flowers for the birthday kid!

Freshman year, my mom and sister stopped by during a college roadtrip. They made me mini-polar bear cakes!

Then the night before my birthday, my roommate and friends completely ambushed and blindfolded me, then surprised me at the beach!

We had cake (Snickers flavor – one of the best cakes I’ve ever had)

Dared to eat the last piece in one bite

Played football and then ran into the water!

Love my fish faced roommies!

On my actual birthday, we spent the day at the beach.

Titanic!

Then went to dinner at a local Mexican place.

So full after dinner and birthday treats, I said I couldn’t move to my bed. Next thing I knew the entire couch was being lifted to transport me. LOL

Flowers sent by my parents 🙂

Sophomore year, my 2 roommates said to get dressed up.

Then they took me on a “shot scavenger hunt”!

We hit up two of our friends places where they were having parties, and took a shot at each location 😉

The next day I hungoverly drove home to celebrate my birthday with my family.

Junior year was my 21st!! And honestly, probably one of my least exciting birthdays ever 😉 I celebrated with my family a few weeks early over my spring break.

We got catering from Chevy’s!

My mom spent years and years working on a scrapbook for my 21st birthday present (she’s doing it for every kid). I was completely floored!

My sister painted me a mug – you might have seen this periodically on the blog 😉

Copied from a painting we saw in Paris. This girl is freakin’ talented!

With a beautiful quote on the back 🙂

I had a midterm the day of and the day after my actual birthday, so I couldn’t go out to the bars as a new “21-year old” either night. I was also on campus until from 7:40 am-10:15 pm the day of my birthday!

Flowers from my parents:

And my best friends from home sent me a flower cake bouquet!! I almost cried when I got it 😀

My 22nd birthday wasn’t super exciting either. Dinner and cake with the roommates!

And my flowers 😀

Can you tell I tend to like the pink, orange and yellow roses? 😉

Hope you all are enjoying your Friday!! And I’ll be back tomorrow with tonight’s recap!! 😀

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Lasagna Squashed

First off, thank you very much for all your votes and kind comments on my 2 dress options! Very helpful 🙂

Second….Yay overnight oats I’ve missed you!!

That is one orange bowl

Soaked overnight:

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/3 cup wheat bran 2/3 cup milk
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Raisins
• Pumpkin
• Almond butter

In the morning:

• 1/2 container of yogurt stirred in
• Life cereal on top (I love the crunch)

My stomach felt off all yesterday morning and into the early afternoon. So my eats were a bit random.

Snacked on pita chips

And carrots

And “lunch” was in 2 parts. Amy’s all-American veggie burger with the necessary condiments.

And then a small cereal bowl an hour or so later.

• Low fat cottage cheese
• Nature’s Path multigran flakes
• Banana

Oh I guess my tum-tum was feeling okay enough for these guys 😉

There was literally a tornado here a couple days ago (okay, as close to a tornado as California’s going to get), and we spent the morning picking up all the twigs, leaves and branches. Check out her legit gardening gloves! 😉

So cute so cute.

After work I had a job interview. Okay, it was only at Old Navy, but a job is a job folks. And I need one.

Post-interview snackage (x2 – I had already eaten half the apple by this point).

And dinner!! Delicious delicious dinner 😀

I had this amazingly delicious butternut squash pasta sauce and knew right away I wanted to make lasagna with it. I used 2 mini pans (meatloaf sized).

Butternut Squash Lasagna

• Whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 jar Dave’s Gourmet butternut squash pasta sauce
• Mushrooms
• Onion
• 16 oz cottage cheese (I like it better than ricotta)
• Italian blend cheese (I like it better than mozzarella)

1. Chop up mushrooms and onions and sautee in olive oil.
2. Cook ground turkey on the stove.
3. I then layered everything pretty randomly. Pasta sauce, cottage cheese, noodle, ground turkey, mushrooms/onions, cheese, pasta sauce…etc. I kind of winged it 😉
4. The top layer was lasagna noodle, pasta sauce, and then cheese to top it off.
5. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes with tin foil on. Remove tin foil and cook an additional 15-30 minutes (until hot in the middle).

Sorry it’s not very structural. I would recommend no mushrooms or onions. As much as I really wanted veggies in it, the flavor/textures just didn’t go well with the sauce I didn’t think. This sauce makes the dish. My mom bought it for me at Costco (she called me ASAP when she saw it!) and it’s sooooo good. I can’t wait to open up and use the other jar!

The rest of the night was filled with unpictured eats such as popcorn with Reese’s Pieces (not as good together as my sister tried to convince me it was), and strawberries with chocolate sauce (thank you roommate for the inspiration!). So much sweet. Must. Cut. Down. Oh well 😉

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Help me choose!

Hello my lovelies! I was super excited to get going this morning because I had something special to use – new running shoes!!

My grandma bought me new shoes for my birthday, so I went and got re-fitted yesterday. First, they filmed me running on the treadmill (which I’ve never had done before), and then analyzed my gait.

She then filmed me again running in their normal running shoes with my orthotics in.

Now I’ve been running in Saucony Stabils, with absolute maximum support and motion control, for the past 3-4 years. The girl who was helping me was quite surprised I was running in such supportive shoes, especially with my orthotics. She said I really only needed mild to moderate support shoes along with my orthotics to fix my pronation.

I then tried on a ton of shoes. I also have a very narrow heel, so many shoes (especially Nikes) slip! The pair I really wanted also didn’t come in a big enough size (I’m size 11-11.5! Bigfoot over here). I ended up with my some new Brooks!

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I’ve never ran in Brooks shoes before, so we’ll see how this goes!

This morning I had 1/2 a hemp bagel spread with almond butter and Crofter’s jam shortly before heading out.

I tried out some soynut butter which I was sent to review on my bagel first.

But I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve been trying it on multiple occasions in all different ways. It tastes exactly like soynuts – which I do like! But I’m just not a huge fan of the nut butter version. Even though it does have excellent stats! Check out the fiber and protein!

I’d still recommend trying it out if you like soynuts! Tastes just like it.

Post 3 mile run, 25 minute foam roll & stretching came lunch.

Leftover pineapple, black beans and chicken.

With rice.

Yummy yummy in my tummy!

But still very hungry hungry an hour later.

A serving of yogurt and Kashi blueberry flakes cereal.

Forgot I had this sample from forever ago!

Followed by an apple of sorts.

Other afternoon snacks at work consisted of –

Iced SF hazelnut coffee with half & half

Cranberry heart thrive

And a banana to tide me over until dinner.

And oh what a yummy dinner it was!

Buttnernut squash lasagna (I’ll post the recipe soon)

Deeeeeeeeeelicious 😀

The rest of the night was full of my future boyfriend Idol,

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Strawberries

And GLEE!!!

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Now I need your help!!

Now it’s vote time! I’ve been shopping for a birthday dress for this Friday’s celebrations 😉 But I can never make decisions – it’s hard! So I’m asking you all to give me your opinions. Please ignore my dirty, hat hair! And my awkward looks since I didn’t know what face to make.

Option A: (closed eyes!) Yes, it has a zipper down the front – odd but I like it! And the whole body portion is kind of scrunchy. With a frilly bottom.

Option B: Looks short on the right side, but I think it was bunched up a bit. Also I was obviously caught in the middle of awkward laughing. Ummm…I obviously don’t channel Miss Kailey well.

And here I slouch…

All right peeps, opinions opinions! And if you feel the need, you can give me your reasonings 😉 I am quite indecisive, haha.

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