Dessert for Breakfast

Like I promised you yesterday, I did indeed make a nice bowl of yogurt mess. 🙂

• 1 container plain Chobani
• 1 white nectarine
• 1/2 banana
• Zoe’s cinnamon raisin granola
• Spoonful of almond butter for good measure

Wow I was starving – this tasted beyond words good!

Costco wasn’t anything too exciting – I just had to pick up water (yes, I do still drink bottled water – I really need to invest in a nice durable reusable one), and somehow this 4-lb container of strawberries ended up in my cart.

Oh well -gotta enjoy summer fruit while it lasts! And $5.49 for 4 lbs? C’mon!! How’s a girl supposed to turn that down. We also picked up a few things for the BBQ.

And they were also sampling Food Should Taste Good multigrain chips with guacamole 🙂 Mmmm. I love good samples!

Once home, I got to work making cookies for the BBQ. So upset I didn’t get pictures of the dough because that is by far the best part! I love this cookie recipe that all my siblings call my “mom’s” cookies because she would always make them. It’s an actual cookie recipe from somewhere that she just tweaked throughout the years (no nuts, using oil instead of butter, and no chocolate chunks – just chips). And it really does make a HUGE batch. I cut it in half and still came out with 40 good sized cookies.  I also actually used whole wheat flour, which I normally wouldn’t do (especially when baking them for other people).  I was just out of normal flour and realized it at the last minute.  They actually turned out completely find, and no one knew the difference!

Mom’s Cookies

(Makes a HUGE batch. Cut in half to make less)
2 c. brown sugar
2 c. white sugar
2 c. oil
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
4 c. flour
5 c. blended oatmeal
1-2 c. milk chocolate chips

1. Cream sugars and oil.

2. Add eggs.

3. Mix dry ingredients together. Add to sugar/oil mixture in slow batches. It makes a thick dough, so keep mixing until it’s all moist.

4. Cook at 350 for approx 9-10 minutes. The cookies will look really doughy when you take them out, but don’t worry, they harden up. And they’re supposed to be soft 🙂

I made half this way, and then added cinnamon & heath toffee bits to the second half. The cinnamon was a huge hit! It had a slight snickerdoodle taste to it. I’ll have to convince my mom to add cinnamon to hers now.

So I obviously snacked on some dough and cookie crumbles – probably about 2 full cookie’s worth.

The BBQ was fun! It was great to have a fun-filled laughing night. It’s been a while since one of those 🙂 I did bring my own garlic lime chicken patty to grill and the guys kept making fun of it! It did look a little out of place on the grill though. haha

I completely forgot to get a picture of my actual dinner as it was kind of chaotic, and I was half falling off a chair it was so crowded haha. But I had 4 watermelon slices and my chicken patty on a normal white bun with tons of BBQ sauce & ketchup.

K folks, I normally would not eat a white bun – I always have my whole wheat ones to use at home, or I would just eat the patty plain with some other side. I know it sounds bad, and I’m almost ashamed to say it, but I felt immense peer pressure to eat the bun last night. No one was verbally pressuring me, but I knew if I didn’t eat my burger with a bun, people would question it and make generalizations – “Oh she’s carb-o-phobic, or too healthy, or what’s wrong with her?” I know I should not care at all what other people are thinking. I should eat what I want. But I already felt a little out of place eating a “special” burger, and I knew the bun would add to it. So I went ahead and ate it. And I’m not saying white buns are bad for you. They’re not going to kill you. They’re not going to make you fat. It’s just more processed and less nutritionally dense than a wheat bun. That’s all. But it was the fact that I almost felt forced to eat it, that I feel bad about. If it was something that I enjoyed and tasted good (like dessert), than I would be completey happy about it! But as I was eating my burger, the bun literally had a plasticy taste to it, or almost no taste at all. It took away from the garlicy taste of my delicious chicken patty. That’s that. I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn’t a little put-off about having to eat a white bun because it was white, but because I almost felt forced to eat it when it honestly didn’t taste good. I don’t want to make a huge deal about it, but it’s just something I was thinking about last night as I was eating it. Moving on…

My cookies were a huge success!

And someone else brought brownies (which were like batter in the center haha) and ice cream.

I had 2 cookies, and 1 brownie.

I made this with one cookie and my brownie:

But added a couple more scoops of vanilla ice cream afterwards 🙂

We then spent the rest of the night cracking up while playing Catch Word (the same as Catch Phrase – it was just an Iphone application! Pretty awesome!) and Apples to Apples (you’re never too old to play that game!)

Late last night I remembered to put something special in the fridge for this morning’s breakfast:

A breakfast cookie!!

• 1/3 cup multigrain oats
• 1/8 cup almond milk
• 1 mashed banana
• Cinnamon, maple syrup & raisins
• 1 tbsp almond butter

I then frosted it this morning with plain Chobani. Mmmm it was really really good. The reviews around blogworld don’t lie! However, it was a bit too banana-y tasting to me, so I think next time I’ll use just 1/2 a banana. And maybe add in some stronger tasting mix-ins. And I also couldn’t taste the almond butter at all! Maybe mixing in PB2 powder would help give a stronger nut butter taste? Anyone have good recommendations?

So I have a massive to-do list for today/this weekend. Here’s what I hope to get accomplished today:

Workout
Clean out my locker at the gym
Clean/organize room/rearrange furniture
Call my madre
AT&T store to deal with my phone (it’s been acting up)
Organize my music on my computer & Itunes
Catch up on Google reader
Work on the blog

Do-able? I hope so!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The random winner of Nature’s Path Giveaway is….

Dee from the Apple Hill Adventurer! Congratulations!! Just shoot me an email at tsaunder@calpoly.edu with your address, and the 3 products you wanted.

Thank you to everyone who entered!! And I may be having another giveaway in the near future 😉 so check back soon!

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New Breakfasts Continue…

Yesterday’s French toast made with Ezekiel cinnamon-raisin bread in a batter of egg, splash of soymilk, syrup, cinnamon, vanilla & maple syrup. I topped one with new “frosting”!

I whipped up greek yogurt, cinnamon, vanilla, & some PB in the blender. It ended up too runny because I added a bit of soymilk to the mix. Should’ve left that part out. It was good though!

This frosting fueled me for the gym! I have been dreading the awful dreadmill lately (there are not TV’s on these treadmills) so rather than suffer through a “long” run this weekend, I decided to split my one planned weekend run into two. I know it’s not the same exactly, but I just can’t handle that treadmill anymore! So yesterday I did 3 miles straight!! I’ve been splitting it into running & walking intervals, but decided yesterday to try and push to 3.  Cardiovascular-wise, I was fine.  But my knee was a bit more sore later on than it has been.

I then met my family at the pool for our neighborhood BBQ! I stocked my plate 😀

2 things of chicken (although I only ate part of the breast), some baked beans, pasta salad (I really didn’t eat any of it), and grilled onions.

Plus another plate of fruit on the side (times this x2 – I went back for more pineapple later). Twas delish!

My dad was saying how he wished he hadn’t just eaten breakfast a few hours earlier since the food looked so good. He was in shock at how much food I got considering I had “just eaten” breakfast. Well – I ate breakfast at 10:00, went to the gym, and it was currently 1:30. I think that constitutes getting food, if I do say so myself!

After some fun in the sun (I love swimming at the pool with my daddy 😀 ), my sister and I washed our cars! Mine really really needed it – the inside was disgusting. All pretty clean!

For dinner we hit up Costco. Yes, my family eats at Costco food court at least 2 times per week. We shop/eat on a budget, okay?! 😉 I split a yogurt with my sis and then came home to eat the rest of my burrito from the other night.

And then…Time Traveler’s Wife! I agree with everyone else that it was a good love story, although it did leave out a ton from the book. But what can you expect? I definitely cried though. Oh Mr. Bana I love thee.

This morning’s breakfast was an Ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin! I’ve been dying to try these for ages and finally picked some up at Whole Foods.

Spread with Justin’s maple almond butter, Tayberry jam (yes Tayberry – my sister bought some for me 🙂 ), and some fresh figs. Delicious!!  I’m loving these dense, chewy English muffins.

I took it easy for my run today at the gym. Rather than do my longer running intervals, I did shorter intervals and a shorter total workout. 1 mile run, walk, 1 mile run, walk, .75 mile run. My knee was definitely a little sore. Finished off with about 10 minutes of back & chest.

The rest of the day was filled with family time at my grandparents (which was full of chip snacking, sandwich eating, picking at congo squares, and a slice of strawberry shortcake).

I’m not a huge cake fan, so I originally only had half a slice – but it was surprisingly good that I ended up eating my other half 😉

My eating habits were pretty weird this afternoon/evening – I snacked/picked a lot (especially on a bunch of crap), so I really don’t have pictures. I’m ready to get back to normal eating tomorrow!

Back to finishing up packing since I’m hitting the road back to school tomorrow morning!

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Ridiculously long pancake name

So….when I was editing pages/posts today, I somehow accidentally deleted my “How I View Food” page (and all comments that went with it), and had to re-write it all.  Yippee!  Nooottttt.

On Saturday I whipped up some pancakes using Hodgson Mill buckwheat pancake mix.  I’ve been in love with this pancake mix for a while now – tasty!  These weren’t just ordinary pancakes (oh no way jose!).  These were blueberry banana peanut butter cinnamon pancakes.  Holla!

Yup, carmelized banana slices.  And for some I stuck a glob of PB in the middle of the batter as the pancake was cooking.

Then I went grocery shopping for our trip to the cabin.  Stopped by Costco, Traders & Whole Fo0ds (I made the rounds!).  Since I hadn’t had lunch, I picked up a Berry Sundae at Costco:

But I really only had a few bites (probably about 1/4 of this – but you all know how massive Costco yogurts are!).  It took me forever to load up the car with our groceries, and by the time I was done, my yogurt was all melted.  And I hate melted, runny yogurt.  Blech.  Oh well.  I got my yogurt fix later that night when the fam took a trip to Yogurtland!! No pic (I forgot my camera in the rush out the door – bad blogger!), but I combined Tiramasu & Cookies n’ Cream with oreo pieces, chocolate sauce & reese’s crumbles.  Yummmm 😀

Today I had some leftover Blueberry Banana Cinnamon Peanut Butter Buckwheat panckes (phew!!  quite the mouthful) and then hit up the gym for a treadmill run.

Today was my “long” run.  I’m taking it slow and increasing 1 run per week by a slight amount.  I’m also increasing my running segments by a teeny bit each week.  Last week my longest run was 4 miles total with 1.7 mile running intervals (walking segments breaking it up).  Today I went for 2 mile intervals, with a 1 mile interval at the end to give me a total of 5 miles running!! Including warm-up, walking intervals & cool-down, it totaled 6.2 miles.  My knee felt really stiff, and my left knee actually hurt a bit, but I’m icing it now.  I finished up with about 13 minutes chest & back, and about 5 minutes ab work.

My sister came home from her gymnastics party with a couple of these frog cookies:

(Their mascot is a frog).  I had a teeny piece of his leg since I’m not a fan of “fake” sugar cookies.

When my sister saw I amputated a piece of him, she comforted the frog and stroked his head, saying “You’ll get, through the surgery.  Don’t worry…”

She’s funny 😀

We ended up leaving for the cabin around 6:30 tonight.  Originally we were planning on leaving tomorrow morning, but last minute left tonight.  Dinner stop along the way…the sisters got Panda Express:

And I picked up Chipotle! Chicken, black beans (yes there are black beans somewhere in there), pico de gallo, corn salsa & massive guac!

I fork fought with my sister over stealing a piece of her orange chicken.  I succeeded, but flung my fork back a little too fast and my piece ended up on the floor.  The orange chicken that never was 😦

Wow that actually looks freakin’ nasty.  I swear the orange chicken was more appetizing in real life.  And on the table.

I’m sure tomorrow we’ll be heading to the lake!  May or may not get some hiking in (my family members who would actually hike with me stayed home this trip).  I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll get done for the next couple days, as internet up here is rrrreeeaalllyyy slow.  But I’ll try!

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