Little Rascals

Hello my lovely bloggies – I hope your weekend is going fab!

I’m trying to keep up with blog reading, commenting, and posting, but it’s hard while home. I’m trying 🙂

The concert last night was amazing. I thought of you all jealous folk 😉 and Jenny, I specifically did think of you during “Life is a Highway”.

Before the concert, we literally wolfed down some Fresh Choice. My sister and I have been on a mission to go to Fresh Choice for months (it’s an old family tradition type of place), and I really wanted to go this month, figuring that they’d have delicious seasonal pumpkin flavored foods.

Well, there was 100x more traffic than we anticipated, and we ended up with 15 minutes to stand in line, get food, and eat. I piled my salad plates (yes, you read that right. Plural) sky high. I wanted to try everything!

Apparently they serve 79.77% organic. Not 80%. Not 79%. But 79.77%. Make sure you get that right.

(awful blurry, hurriedly taken in line photos)

Roasted beet salad + jicama + feta cheese + sunflower seeds.

I only ate some of the hummus, mushrooms, taboulleh, and a bite of the broccoli salad on this plate

And no – I did not eat all this. I only got so much because I saw more and more I wanted as I made my way down the salad line. I probably ate less than 1/4 of each plate. Plus 1 small slice of pesto pizza. 1 small slice of zucchini nut bread. And a mini vanilla froyo bowl with oreos and chocolate sauce.

And no seasonal foods. None. How disappointing!

Unfortunately, my camera died before Rascals even came on stage (yes – I fail at life). But I did get a picture of Darius Rucker! (opening act) Love him – so glad he was opening.

Ahh love him so much – I think he’s such a cutie 😉 I love the little “dance” he does while singing.

Then Rascies came out to blow us all away. The main singer just has the strongest voice – he belts it out and it’s amazing. As much as I loved the concert, they have so many hit songs, that they didn’t even get to play a couple of my favorites.

I tried to get a pic with my phone.

Those are some little Rascals.

Sisters before heading out.

At the concert.

And that’s the extent of photos I got 😦

Dead camera + charger left at school = various food pics taken with the phone all weekend.

Lunch thrown together after my drive home yesterday.

Black beans (found in the fridge – since when did my fam start eating black beans?! Apparently since my sister accidentally opened the can thinking they were pinto). Mixed with delicious salsa, sour cream & random turkey. With a handful of Kashi Roasted Vegetable crackers.

The crackers were very disappointing. I actually didn’t like this flavor at all. I still want to try the asiago cheese flavor, though.

This morning I found some Ezekiel cinnamon-raisin english muffins I saved in the freezer from the summer! Topped with some sunbutter (brought from school) and my beloved Tay-berry jam 🙂

And then not long after, the whole fam met up at Yogurtland.

Pumpkin & S’mores flavors (weird combo – but the S’mores was actually delicious!) topped with cookie dough, mochi balls, oreo crumbs, and a bit of caramel sauce.

This thing was massive and literally kept me full for over 4 hours. So full that I wasn’t too hungry for a dinner.

I like how I come home for a “home-cooked meal”, and yet I still end up with yogurt messes 🙂

• Vanilla light n’ fit yogurt (all there was in the fridge)
• Spoonful of cottage cheese
• Blackberries
• Container of raspberries
• Bear Naked Banana Nut cereal sample (my dad receieved one in the mail!)
• Teeny bit of sunbutter leftover from this morn

The cereal was delicious! I’m glad that I have another sample for the future 🙂

Spending the night hanging with the sisters watching TV (this week’s episode of Glee – gotta love Tivo), some SNL, and snacking on this:

which I added salted raisins to (best idea ever). And this, which I bought while home last time:

Ooooh yes. I did have a giant loaded froyo and ice cream today. 😉

Tomorrow’s agenda includes sister’s gymnastics competition, and my two favorite loves while I’m home – Target & Whole Foods. Get excited guys.

On another note, I love my little sister.

She was walking around in this hot little number, I told her to pose, and this is what she whipped out.

Classy.

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10 things to do in your free time

Ever had days upon days off of work without anything to do? Well let me give you a few ideas for next time.

1. Sweat profusely on a stationary machine. I managed a trip to our newly remodeled transferred gym that is now in the large non-air conditioned actual basketball court gym. Did that sentence make sense? In order to remodel our exercise gym, they moved all the machines, and basically “moved” our gym into the large building that used to be the basketball courts. Which means no air conditioning. How come I’m the only one who seems to sweat buckets in this world? It gets all over the machine and drips on the ground (TMI? No – you know it happens to you). Then I look around, and others have barely broken a sweat. C’mon. Please?

2. Get rid of some George Washingtons. Forever 21 stole my money. Oh wait, never mind. I gave it to them willingly. What would I wear this sweater drapy tank top thiny with? It’s cute, but I’m at a loss.

And I think I’m heading back today to pick up a different shirt I saw. I hate you Forever 21. Leave me and my wallet in peace!

3. Change your skin color. I’m now 2 shades darker than I was yesterday thanks to the Mr. Sun’s golden rays. Yes, I know. Skin cancer and all that jazz. Don’t worry, I sunscreen it up, and only sit out for about an hour just to enhance my knowledge by reading these very informative articles:

4. Bake and eat your weight in goodies. I baked some strawberry banana sour cream bread muffins (I really need to buy a loaf pan) using this recipe. Didn’t turn out nearly as good as the last recipe I used.  These were beyond mushy and kind of bland. Oh wait – no fat in them. That could very well possibly be why.

Later, I attempted the currently blog-popular Montanna Whoppers. I had no chocolate chips or mini M&M’s, but I did have peanut M&M’s. Suggestion: they do not work. The dough was bland and really tasteless to me. And the M&M’s were too big for the cookies, so they didn’t go so well.

They look tasty! Too bad I still ate my weight in dough.

My baking attempts obviously weren’t too successful these past few days!

5. Celebrate a random person’s birthday. I accompanied my roommate out for her friend’s birthday to pizza Mediterranean food. Yes, I’ve always wanted to try it!

Chicken shawarma, hummus & pine nut platter with tabouleh. Also consumed a very large, warm & doughy, empty calorie white bread pita. I don’t like to think of things like this as “empty calories”. Sure, they’re not as “nutrionally beneficial” as whole wheat, but as long as it’s something I want and enjoy, why are they empty? I believe it filled me up quite nicely 😉

The rest of the night I snacked on doughy reese’s brownies. Yes – you read that right. Cue dropped jaw….now.

6. Make friends with the mailman. Mailed out my Special K treatment package!! A little on the late side, but it’s out there in mail-world and on its way!

Yes getting mail is something to do in your free time. Apparently. Because I receieved a little somethin’ somethin’ from Miss Holly!!

As soon as I started reading her cute little note – I knew it was from the creative gal herself. 😉 And I am in love with the cute ribbons!  Thank you Holly!! 😀

7. Grow a polar bear. How’s my little guy doing? Well I think Lars (what I named him – obviously) is done growing.

Much smaller than I was expecting. But still a cutie patooty. He has now won the honor of joining my polar bear community (yes – I collect polar bear things and even have a polar bear Christmas tree during the holidays. Just wait and see).

8. Make your own food because you’re too cheap to buy it. Naww…I just thought sunflower hummus sounded tasty!

Tossing and turning at 3 am? You can also stumble downstairs and make your own PB mix.  (I sound like an infomercial).  Getting a little tired of plain PB, I mixed it with raisins, a bit of agave, and cinnamon. Then I got the beyond brilliant idea to add pumpkin pie spice. So I did. Nothing better than pumpkin spice raisin PB made at 3 in the mornin’.

9. Ingest macro and micro nutrients necessary to fuel your body. Food is enery. And I like energy. So give me food. Pleeeease 🙂

Iced coffee & Vitabrownie snack (before the birthday dinner):

Deeeeeelicious! Not joking when I say this tasted like a real brownie. Okay. Almost like a real brownie. But it was melty and chocolatey!

Yesterday’s Ezekiel english muffin breakkie. 1/2 with maple almond butter & fig spread, 1/2 with my midnight pumpkin spice PB mixture & banana slices:

I also had 2-3 muffins throughout the morning before I realized they were actually disgusting and tossed them. 😦

What would my life be without another 3 other fruit & yogurt bowls? My one for lunch was ginormo.

Included in the large bowl is:

• 1/2 banana
• 1 whole James in the giant peach
• 1/2 a 16 oz container of strawbs
• 4-5 fresh figs
• 1 container plain Chobani
• Zoe’s granola
• Nature’s Path strawberry yogurt cereal
• Flaxseed
• Few spoonfuls of Sunbutter

Yes it fueled my long run quite nicely.

Post-run din din. Leftover chicken & tabouleh with homemade sunflower seed hummus in a Rudi’s spelt wrap.

I should’ve grilled it. All things taste better Formanated.

Followed by 2 of Holly’s delicious tahini cookies.

And then 1039304893 million cookie’s worth of Montana Cookie dough.

Please look away if you’re tired of yogurt messes. Breakfast this morning:

I. Am. Obsessed.

• 1 whole banana
• 1/2 peach
• ~10 oz strawberries
• 4 figs
• 1/2 carton peach chobani
• 1/2 carton blueberry chobani
• Zoe’s granola (on top and in the middle)
• Ground flaxseed

I’ll tire of them soon, I promise. And then I’ll be sad.  But you shall be happy because you’ll see variety.  Sorry about that.  But deal until then, k?

Oh and remember this bag of taffy’s I got from the candy store when we went kayaking? I’ve been digging into this all week.

This special time time I actually took a picture of it before I ate it, and I dug out some type of caramely one. Something like that. Who knows. It was good.

I’ve been eating 3-4 of these per day. The bag is dwindling, and it’s a must to get more soon.

10. Run aimlessly around in a circle 20 times. I did my long run of a teeny bit over 5 miles! Here’s what it looked like:

• 2.5 mile run
• .25 mile walk
• 1.5 mile run
• .25 mile walk
• 1 mile run

Total: 5+ (a little bit over) miles, but 5.72 miles including the walking
Time: 54:41

I felt awesome during my run. So awesome, in fact, that I just picked up speed and cruised right along until I realized that my knee was really bothering me around mile 3.5-4. I felt strong at that pace, but knew I needed to slooooooow it down for my knee. My time was pretty good for it to include about 1/2 mile of walking in there! But I need to slow down. Gaah.

11. Get drunk. I mean…we shall pretend I didn’t say that, and just stick to a list of 10, okay? Although our friends are having a back to school shin-dig tonight, and I fully intend to be hungover tomorrow. Not that I want that, but I get hungover after almost any amount of alcohol enters my system (blech), so we’ll see how it goes. It’s my last “last week of summer” ya hear?

If you made it through my massive list – congratulations. You won….well you won the joy of reading yet another of my posts in the future. I promise I’ll try and keep them shorter. Have a wonderful Friday and a fabulous start to your weekend!

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Flips & Cartwheels

The weekend at home was pretty uneventful, but I did get to see my sister compete in her first gymnastics meet in Sacramento!

I’m so happy I got to see her compete in all 4 events. It was amazing to watch what she works so hard for each week, and I was so proud of her 😀

I didn’t capture everything this weekend, but I did get a few.

Friday’s deliciously dense cinnamon raisin Ezekiel english muffin with almond butter, tayberry jam, & smushed banana:

Breakfast before we left for Sacramento was a honeydew fruit bowl (I actually had this Saturday and Sunday).

Filled with strawberries, blueberries (extremely sour ones!), white nectarine, Chobani yogurt, and a sprinkling of Strawberry & Yogurt Nature’s Path:

Soooooooo full after all this! But delicious.

I completely forgot to take a picture of my taco salad dinner at El Balazo, but remembered to snap one of the leftovers before I devoured them the next day:

A bunch of ice cream was consumed. Some more of this Tennesee Mud Pie coconut milk ice cream (simply amazing stuff) along with Breyer’s free cookies & cream.

I actually really really like this fat free ice cream. Most fat free (and even some low fat) varieties have that awful taste to them. But this stuff is creamy and delicious! It’s different, but I love it!

This (and a honey graham clif z-bar) were devoured in hunger at the meet. It was good, but I like the cashew flavor better.

An unpictured McDonald’s soft serve cone. Yummm. I forgot how delicious their cones are!! And for one dolla!

I just arrived back here at school at about 10:30 and raided the kitchen hungry!! After some spoonfuls from the froyo carton, I settled on a rice cake spread with almond butter and sprinkled with Banana Nut cheerios & a few chocolate chips:

Twas tasty – but I think I like it with jam on it as well.

Oh yay The Notebook’s on TV!  Time to lay in bed, catch up on google reader, and cry my eyes out hit the sack!

Hey peeps – and don’t forget about my first giveaway!! Time’s ticking! 😉

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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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Power Outage!!

So I was in my room mid-day when BOOM there was a huge cracking sound (almost like a gunshot) from outside and our whole house’s power went out.  Seconds later, my smoke detector started going crazy (I guess because it’s electrical so it was going off).  My roommates and I spent a good 30 minutes trying to disconnect the dang thing.  Apparently there was a fire at a house up the street.  I’m not sure exactly what happened or how it caused the outage though.  I just hope it comes back on quickly – for my perishable food’s sake!!

Luckily I was heading to work (where I nanny) soon so I’m able to use their internet.  Unfortunately, I’m not on my computer so I don’t have any pictures to upload!

Today started out with a breakfast of 3 slices (they were pretty small slices – the ends were included) Cinnamon-raisin Ezekiel (the last of my loaf!) toasted, with Trader Joe’s Flaxseed Peanut Butter, Boysenberry jam, & sliced banana on top.  Generous amounts of coffee with almond milk and a little bit of half & half were included.  I really like almond milk in my coffee – it’s quite delish :-).

I planned to hit up the gym after my 8-11:00 class, but I went to a professor’s office hours, which took longer than expected.  So I decided to do a quick 20-minute upper body workout with my weights at home.  I also got a 20 minute walk in back to my car from school.

With the power outage, I had limited food options for lunch!  I grabbed a Cedarlane couscous & vegetable burrito to cook at work and eat there.  I’m not hungry yet, but when I do eat it, I’ll let you know how it is!  And I stopped and got a Vanilla & butter pecan frozen yogurt at one of my favorite yogurt shops on the way.

Oh, but I did try a Raisin Almond soyjoy bar in class that a student was handing out for one of her presentations.  BLECH!!  That thing was awful!  Never again I tell ya.

Well, it is now 3:04 and Ellen is on, so I plan to go watch that – I love her!  So hilarious :-D.   Pictures of foods & updates to come!

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Old Navy Steal Deals!

Shopping at Old Navy counts as a workout right?  I was about to head to the gym when my roommate asked if I wanted to go to Old Navy…$1 flip flops!!!  I didn’t end up buying any (since I need to wear flip flops with more arch support), but I did end up with 2 shirts :-).  One was on sale, the other not, but still a pretty good price!

I love summer tanks!!

I told myself I’d go to the gym this afternoon, but then got caught up in a Lifetime movie with my roommate, and now I’m tired!  I planned to do an abs class and a spinning class this weekend, but there are no classes because of the holiday!  Blah on them.

Had a late breakfast of Blueberry Muffin mini-wheats, Zoe’s cranberry granola, flaxseed meal, honey PB & almond milk at around 10:30.  Plus numerous cups of half-caff coffee.  And more spoonfuls of PB on the side.  I then just snacked all afternoon rather than make a full-on lunch.  Snacks included:

Rachel’s Pomegranate Orange Cranberry cottage cheese topped w/ banana nut cheerios

I liked the flavor that the fruit flavoring added to it, but I wasn’t too impressed by the cottage cheese texture/flavor itself.  Cottage cheese is hit or miss…you need to find a good one!  I would rather buy a big carton and flavor it on my own.

About an hour later I snacked on some chicken dipped in hummus.  And had  cinnamon-raisin Ezekiel toasted and topped with avocado, nutritional yeast, garlic salt & pepper:

Followed by a chocolate covered strawberry my roommate brought home last night:

Divine!!

I work tonight so not sure what’s for dinner.  I may pick up a sandwich to bring over there!  Hope everyone’s having a wonderful Saturday afternoon!

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Weekend!!

Well Happy Friday all!!  So glad it’s finally the weekend :-D.  This morning’s breakfast consisted of 1/2 a slice of “overtoasted” toast before I decided to just throw it away and retoast some bread.  I felt bad wasting 2 slices, but I really like my bread only slightly toasty! 

2 slices cinnamon-raisin Ezekiel bread (second favorite bread to Alpine Valley!) slathered in flaxseed peanut butter, almond butter, boysenberry jam & a sliced banana.  The rest of my banana I ate on the side.  With coffee, FF milk and some half & half of course 🙂 Although I just came home to discover I left my half & half out of the fridge ALL morning long!  Boohoo.  I guess none of my roommates thought to put it in the fridge for me?  Aww well.

Breakfast held me over quite well, but my stomach was a little grumbly after class around 10:30, so I had 1/2 a Kashi TLC honey almond flax chewy bar before my swim.  I ate the other 1/2 afterwards.  I gotta say, my swim was awesome this morning.  While my knee slightly twinged (but way less than normal!), my upper body just felt so strong gliding through the water.  It consisted of:

• 1000 yards (40 laps) freestyle
• 3 x 500 yards (3 x 20 laps) pulling free
• 2 x 200 yards IM
• 6 x 75 swim, drill, swim (alternating free & butterfly) pulling
• 50 cool down

Total: 3400 yards (approx 2 miles swim)

I don’t know how you all count your “laps” but a lap for me = 25 yards/1 length of the pool.  I’ve been a swimmer my whole life and that’s how it’s always been for me!

I also walked to and from school today for a total of 40 minutes. And my knee is barely bothering me AT ALL!  *Knock on wood*.  We’ll see!!

I stopped at the natural grocery store on my way home and picked up a few new buys:

• Nancy’s cottage cheese (in 3 flavors!)  I’m really excited to try these
• Spicy southwestern ranch dressing
• Smoked jalapeno & garlic hummus

I was eyeing the coconut water and some vegan baked energy bars, but decided to save those for another visit ;-).  They also had a sample demo going on and I got to try out:

• BBQ chicken pizza
• Vegan buffalo “chicken” wing” with Annie’s Ranch dressing
• Pecan shortbread cookie

My oh my what a great start to my day!  🙂 I’m not too hungry yet, but will be making my late lunch here in a bit.  Not sure what’s going on tonight, but hopefully it’ll be a fun time!  Oh one thing I do need to do is fill out a couple job applications!

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