Wishing

I wish I had a picture of my outfit from St. Patty’s Day.  Think knee high green & black striped socks, skirt, green shirt, green eyeshadow, and a very classy headband which I threw away last night on my walk home (hey – it was annoying.  And I was trying to walk and eat a slice of pizza at the same time).

I wish I was young and my stomach could handle alcohol (says the 23 year old).  I have lots of acid reflux/stomach/heart burn problems (I wouldn’t be surprised if I have an ulcer of some sort).  And lately alcohol has done quite the number on my stomach the next day.  I mean awful awful hangover.  The type of hangover you’d expect to get if you had one of The Hangover type of nights.  Except I didn’t.

(Source)

I wish I remembered to take pictures of all my eats yesterday.  I started the day out intending to.

My morning started at 5:20 am with coffee.  Yummmmmm.

And then a class at the gym I’ve been enjoying recently.  It’s called “Power” and it consists of a complete full body strength workout.  I like it because it uses the bar (which I wouldn’t use on my own).  And specific body parts at targeted each song (biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, squats, lunges, abs, etc). 

I dislike it because I still feel like I need more upper body strength work afterwards.  About half is devoted to lower body work as well, which I don’t necessarily want to do every class.  Especially because of my foot/ankle pain.

Then came home for some cottage cheese + pumpkin + cinnamon action.  With strawberry jam.

Another cottage cheese container down.  I’m obsessed.  (Remember this is Costco sized.  AKA 11 servings of the goodness in there.  Massive)

Very photogenic snack at work – a small bit of Fage.  I seem to enjoy eating out of containers.

And coffee + a biscuit.  A baby teething biscuit to be exact.  But they are DELICIOUS.  (Not gonna lie)

I wish I had more time to make a better looking lunch.  But in reality, I had 15 minutes.

Veggie patty topped with Laughing Cow cheese & Trader Joe’s awesome sweet & spicy mustard.

And some Hot & Sour soup from Costco.  Really good soup that I could eat the whole container of.  Except each serving has like 30-40% of the DV sodium.  I don’t really care about my sodium at all, but it is SALTY.

Yummy chunks.  But they do kind of gross me out in a way.  Reminds me of squid?

And then the picture taking went downhill….I tried!

I wish I could say I love Panera.  But every time I go there I end up somewhat disappointed.

I got the BBQ Chicken Salad and Pesto Vegetable Soup (although I tasted nor saw no pesto??).  They gave me a spoon and knife (why knife?), but no fork!

I’m not a butter fan at all, but was really craving it on my bread today.  The baguette was definitely the best part of the meal.

I wish my ankle was back to normal.  It’s so frustrating Hopefully physical therapy performs wonders since everything else seems to be making it worse.

Attractive taping to help my arch.

Nice close-up of my slightly hairy and goose bumpy legs.  Post-going out next morning messy room in the background.  Classy.

 

What did you do to celebrate St. Patrick’s day?  Anything?  Green food?  Green costumes?  Green beer?

I had my first green beer last night!

What are your favorites to get at Panera?

I do like the Fuji Apple salad.  The Thai salad was kind of sparse last time.  And their sandwiches I’ve gotten have been kind of sparse too (many more better delis around here).  Recommendations for something spectacular??

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You Tricky Lara

I haven’t been as hungry as I was today in….well a while.

Breakfast was the last of my frozen oatmeal pumpkin pancakes.

With Greek yogurt & sunbutter layered between each. And all topped with syup.

Nommmmmm. Guys – sooo good. These are the best pancakes I’ve ever made. And the yogurt in each layer just adds so much.

With a bowl of fruit + yogurt. Honeydew, 1/2 a peach, 1/2 a banana.

Although I was crazy late for the bus, so after a few bites, stuck this baby in the fridge for later.

Clinical Nutrition lab midterm was ehh. We had 2 patients to evaluate and interpret their blood lab values. Then had to determine the type of anemia and write up SOAP notes (page long subjectie, objective, assessments, and plans). I knew 1 patient well enough, but got stuck on the other diagnosis. We shall see.

I was starving halfway through the test, so I kind of just wanted to be done with it so I could eat. This:

What I thought was a PB&J lara.

Bite.

“Man, this PB&J has cherry overload.”

Bite.

“Dang, weird how different bars of the same flavor can taste so different.”

Bite.

“Okay, this is one tart baby.”

Oh. Surprise!

So that’s why there was so much cherry flavor.  You tricky Lara, you.  Being in such similar wrappers.

Didn’t sweat nearly as much at the gym today. Must’ve been that ridiculous stairmaster yesterday. Evil machine.

• 2 mile run (broken into 5 min. run/2 min walk segments)
• 20 minute upper body strength
• 10 minute abs

Off to work (on the way ate my fruit/yogurt from the morning) where I had lunch. Leftover asparagus quinoa.

Obsessed with the flavors in this dish.

Still pretty hangry after this, but I tried waiting for my brain to catch up. I finally had some carrots & multiple cups of coffee, which seemed to do the trick. But not for long. Less than 3 hours later I was beyond shaky with hunger (I swear quinoa never keeps me full!). I went crazy trying to satisfy it.

Apple.

Handfuls of cereal.

Trail mix.

and 1/2 a banana.

Yesterday, I realized my free Starbucks ice cream coupon expired today, so I knew I had to use that now or never! No way was I letting that sucker go to waste 😉

I’ve tried the Caramel Macchiato flavor (love) before, so this time I decided to try out Mocha Frappucino.

Check out those swirls!

Tasted remarkably identical to a mocha frappucino (really?  Never would’ve guessed that from the description). But I still like the caramel macchiato better. Probably because I don’t like chocolate ice cream much. And I’m in love with caramel.

I also found (drumrolls please)…Pumpkin Pie yogurt!! No not Stoneyfield, but Vons/Safeway has their own brand of it (Lucerine brand). I’m a huge fan of their light gingerbread flavor. Unfortunately the pumpkin pie is low-fat and not light (so 28 g. of sugar!!), but splurged 😉 I’m sure it’s delicious! And $1 raspberries 😀

8:00 pm and a starving Tay both lead to an easy and quick dinner. (Repeat alert!)

English muffin pizzas.

Half savory: pizza sauce + ricotta + cheese + turkey pepperoni

Half sweet: pumpkin cream cheese + pumpkin & ricotta mixture + cinnamon

Small dinner, but my snacks from the afternoon finally caught up to me.

Small dinner also = snacking later. Oh who am I kidding, I always have a nightime snack, big dinner or not.

Raspberries drizzled with agave.

And hot cocoa (x2)

All right, I’m out. Finish packing is a must.

What is everyone’s night time snack of choice?
Mine is definitely ice cream. Or dates with PB/AB. And I have hot chocolate every. Single. Night.  Yummm.

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A non-poopy Day

Happy Monday! But really, is there such a thing?

There is if you make it one! 🙂

I had a very “off” day yesterday (if you didn’t notice by my lack of enthusiasm in my post). I think part of the reason was the fact that it was day #4 off of exercise. That combined with excess ice cream eating left me feeling bloated, tired, and run down. I need my endorphins!

Then, last night, I received a weekly quotes email about transforming your “Poopy Days” (yes, they used those exact words). Quoted from the email:

“Use your poopy today as
fertilizer for a better tomorrow.”
-written and submitted by Debbie S., Kohler WI

Very true. I may have had a poopy Sunday, but that just makes me even more excited to have an un-poopy Monday!

What I did today to make it a Marvelous Monday:

1. Started my day with a perfect breakfast.

Pumpkin bagel (which I picked up with the cream cheese yesterday) with pumpkin cream cheese, and pumpkin pie spice PB.

The pumpkin cream cheese was fantastic. Delicious. I’m in love. And I had to include some PB in breakfast of course.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve had breakfast without nut butter.

2. Stopped at Starbucks on my way to class. Coffee in a to-go cup always tastes better to me 🙂

3. I exercised. First time in 4 days! 30 minutes stairmaster level 10-11, 10 minute ab work, and 10 minute strength.

4. Enjoyed pumpkin for lunch as well.

WW english muffin pizza – half with pizza sauce, ricotta and cheese.

Half as a “dessert” pizza – pumpkin & ricotta mixture topped with apple slices and cinnamon.

Delicious 😀

Also ate the rest of the apple and honeydew with a bit of 2% greek yogurt while this was cooking.

5. Enjoyed treats throughout the day.

Delicious fudgy brownie.

(Same pic as yesterday – but looked and tasted the same anyways)

Coconut vanilla toffee that my teacher brought back from Thailand. Um…YUM.

As my roommate commented about these toffees “I stuck it in my mouth and didn’t expect it to be so big and hard!” Wow. That’s definitely what she said.

And 2 of these See’s candies I picked up the other day.

Apple pie truffle & PB patty.  (I didn’t eat the lower right honey almond one – yucko)

Speaking of See’s candies..have you entered my giveaway yet?

6. Skipped my 12-2:00 class and took a nap instead.

Talk about posing.

7. Spent a fun hour dreaming up a Halloween party with my roommates (I think one’s in the works. Wahoo!)

8. Finished my night off with a whipped pumpkin apple pie a la mode creation.

Cottage cheese + pumpkin + cinnamon. Topped with cinnamon micro’d apple, vanilla granola, and a bit of vanilla froyo.

(Camera was dying as I took a bad picture – so this was taken via Iphone)

I was so very excited to hit up the gym today. But not so excited about my knee. I did, however, break down and orderknee sleeves last night! The physical therapist said that knee sleeves would do nothing to help my condition, but honestly, nothing has helped so I thought “Why not?!” I’ve heard such rave reviews I decided I had to try them out myself. I can’t wait for it to come in the mail.

Q&A Time!

A bunch of other bloggers have “Q & A pages” or “Q&A posts” so I think I’m going to jump on the bandwagon, if you don’t mind. So now I’m asking you to ask me Do you have any questions for me? About my life? About the world? About school? About anything? Curious lingering thoughts? Something you’ve always wanted to know? Well now’s your chance to find out! (yes – I sound like an infomercial here). Ask away! (You can post a comment or email me questions)

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Hubba Hubba

TGIF!!!

Even though my weekend started yesterday. My class was canceled today – thank you furloughs! Any other state get these now? Not sure if it’s a nationwide thing or just for CA.

Sorry I didn’t post last night, but I came home, ate, and then The Office kind of preoccupied my life for a bit. Oh. My God. Hilarious. Touching.  Tearful.  Loved it.

I guess let’s Flashback (Friday) to yesterday’s breakfast. (No – I’ll post again later today with actual flashback Friday pics. This is just a warm – up Flashback.)

1 WW english muffin. This would be half with PB and half with Justin’s maple almond butter. I know. They look remarkably different.

Topped with a bit of strawberry jam.

And about half of this yogurt before sprinting out the door.

It was okay – but nothing beats pinapple Chobani. Nothing. You wanna make somethin’ of it Wallaby? Chobani vs. Wallaby showdown. Chobani would win.

About 2 1/2 hours later (does anyone else get hungry that soon after breakfast? Breakfast only seems to hold me for 2 1/2-3 hours no matter what I eat). Time for snackie in lab!

That would be my very mature plaid, fit for a 22-year old backpack right there.

Then work with muh cuties. I cannot stand her.

So.

Effing.

Cute. (Please excuse my weird cackle laugh)

Sorry for the jumble jumble. I was dancing. If you note the “Girlfriends” song in the background – that would be the rolling credits for Babysitter’s Club movie. Yes – it was on TV and I caught the last 30 minutes. Alex Mac was in it!

My friggin’ huge and filling lunch of the rest of my vegan mac & cheese. Mixed with peas (probably 2 cups – not even joking), teeny bit of carrots, and parmesan.

I was really classy and transferred the food to a photogenic pretty bowl for picture taking.

Or not. But it was delicious either way.

Afternoon snackage.

A not-nearly as shiny apple as the past few days. But this was organic. And amazingly sweet. So I forgive him.

Then dinner which I’m not sure you even want to see a picture of. You do? Sorry – it’s just way to un-photogenic to share.

But I will share pictures of my dessert. Earlier this week I picked this up at the local health foods store because I love pumpkin pie (if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t noticed by now, I obviously love anything pumpkin), and tofu? Sounds interesting.

Tofu pumpkin pie.

It was….interesting. The filling defintiely tasted of pumpkin, but it was more mushy than normal pumpkin pie. And had some off taste to it. The ingredients for the filling only contained: pumpkin, spices, honey, and tofu. No fat in the filling at all.

I had a few bites (including the pecan) and then went straight for the best part.

Hubba hubba burnin’ love. I love crust. Especially the doughy underneith portion.

I’ll be back a little later for some Flashback Friday action.

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Hidden Meanings

I finally tried overnight pumpkin oats this morning.

Which really means that I used up my last bit of sacred pumpkin. 😦 I did make it too large however – so there’s another batch in the fridge 🙂

(Yes, I know I still need to put a picture in that frame)

• 1/4 cup muesli, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/3 cup pumpkin, scoop of PB, spices, maple syrup soaked overnight
• Vanilla almond granola, handful of Quaker oatmeal squares, 1/2 peach, spoonful of almond butter added this morning

I headed to the gym to do a semi-easy 30 minutes on the stairs, level 10-11.

Which really means I watched an episode of Charmed (loved that show!) on the stairmaster and then ab work.

I wore my Giants hat today to support my home team!

Which really means I didn’t wash my hair after the gym. Oh well.

I did some intense studying and homework at work.

Which really means I watched Definitely, Maybe on the movie channel and played with this little angel. While she used my finger as a teething ring.

I ate my BBQ baked tofu and a baked potato with sour cream, black bean dip & parmesan cheese for lunch.

Which really means my tofu finally came out of the oven last night. And it was delicious!

I ate a date Heart Thrive bar warmed up in the microwave.

Which really means I’m never eating an un-micro’d Heart Thrive again. It was amazing warmed up.

I didn’t get home until 7:30 from work.

Which really means I’m behind on google reader (again!).

For dinner, I had leftover vegan mac & cheese with peas and zucchini. Side of okra fries and probably 1/2 a cup’s worth of ketchup (added more after the picture).

Which really means…okay it doesn’t mean anything except the fact that I was hungry!

It’s Tuesday night.

Which really means The Hills is on. Last week’s epi was ridiculous. Oh that Kristin.

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Old Navy steals! (my money)

Would you like to meet this?

Let me introduce you to my delicious breakfast.

First, start with overnight muesli.

• 1/4 cup muesli
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/2 mashed banana
• Cinnamon

Does this look appetizing?

In the morning add the other 1/2 of the banana, a whole 1/4 nectarine (because the rest was moldy – what is it with me and mold lately?) and Nature’s Path vanilla granola (which I swear tastes exactly like frosting).

And you get this.

Much better.

Sooooooo good.

I then had the huge debate of bussing or driving halfway/walking 20 minutes to class. I was a good girl and chose to walk.

Lunch was a toughy and I could not decide what to have. I have a 5-lb bag of potatoes which I got for $1 calling out to me (so throw potato ideas my way people!). Hmmm but look there’s pizza sauce in my cupboard. That looks good. Wait…wait…could I really? Okay. A pizza potato was born!

With a moderate glob tons of FF sour cream (I love sour cream. Can’t get enough).

I basically nuked the potato, scooped out the innards, mashed them all up with some pizza sauce & nutritional yeast (has a cheesy flavor). Mixed it with some sauteed onions & zucchini. Stuffed the stuffing back into the skin. Topped it with more pizza sauce, more veggies, and a bit of shredded cheese. Then baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes.

The stuffing was a bit too dry and bland for my taste (hence why I used 1/4 container of sour cream), so next time I’d add more pizza sauce and more seasonings.

I’d also add more protein or fats since this held me over for less than 3 hours. With a peachy dessert.

Pre-afternoon shopping I made myself an iced coffee. Totally jeal’ of my roommates awesome travel cup.

It’s like I was a legit Starbucks barista. Especially since I made my own pumpkin spice creamer.

Combine 1 cup creamer + 2-4 tbsp syrup.

This drink was more than I could’ve asked for.   And I saved mulah too.

Browsing the Old Navy sale racks (huge deal goin’ on people! I got 1 sweater, 8 shirts, and 2 dresses – the ones I already purchased – for $58!!) got my tummy growlin’. I came home to make this long time lover of mine.

Pumpkin smoothie with a teensie bit of whipped cream.

Dinner was eaten in parts since I thought I was going to a BBQ, but ended up skipping out. An apple with laughing cow and carrots with sunbutter (delicious combo by the way) at 6:00.

Note: that is not a finger mark you see in the sunbutter blog.  I repeat, that is not a finger mark.  Look away.

After my roommate and I sat on our butts for 1 1/2 hours deciding what to do with our lives (and whether or not to attend this particular BBQ), I downed a giant yogurt mess around 8:00 (after we obviously decided to forgo the BBQ).

This blurry “camera died so using phone” picture doesn’t do it justice. Trust me.

• 1 nectarine
• 1/2 banana
• 1 lb carton of strawberries (okay – I left 5 still in the carton. But it was almost 1 pound)
• 1 container bloob chobani
• Nature’s path granola (layer in the middle & on top)
• Flaxseed (layer in the middle and more on top)

I think I had enough fruit today to feed a small village.

There may also have been some snacking tonight on 4 mary’s crackers spread with the awesome honey almond cream cheese + pumpkin butta’ mixture. And 1 2 mugs of hot chocolate.  I am now out of cocoa = end of the world is to come.  Dilemna: do I head to the store tomorrow and break my “once a week” grocery goal?  Or do I stick it out?

It was one of those nights where we really wanted to go out and do something exciting, but had no desire to do any of our options (party, bars, movies, dinner, friend’s house…). So it ended up being a low-key snackage sort of night.

What’s your favorite Friday night activity? Dancing at the bars? Catching a movie in the theater? Renting one instead? Do tell!

So I’m off to catch up with a few TV shows online. Tomorrow is a beachy kinda day 🙂

PS: Thank you for all your kind words and encouragment with my last negative thoughts post. You all are super supportive 🙂 I highly recommend that exercise to anyone, and I’m continuing to do it myself!

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Night of G’s

Gossip Girl or Greek. Gossip Girl or Greek. I think GG wins out. I can always watch Greek online (thank heavens for online TV now!).

Ever since seeing this brie pasta dish that Jenna made a while back, I’ve been meaning to make it myself. I’ve had brie cheese to use up for a while. Enter my own modified version of this brie pasta dish!

Mine ended up being a lot different than the websites recipe. My modifications:

• No pancetta or bacon
• No fettuccini – I just used what I had
• Less brie than it called for (I didn’t have enough – but it was still delicious)
• Completely forgot to get shallot at the store, so used red onion instead

It was delicious and creamy!! I think I used a bit too much water, though. And I also added some garlic salt at the end which I feel changed the whole flavor. I wouldn’t do that next time. I definitely recommend this very easy and yummy recipe!

I had this along with a small spinach, feta & poppyseed dressing salad.

Still in “clean on the freezer” mode, I whipped out some waffles for breakkie. Along with a small bit of strawberry Chobani (what was left in my container) for a small protein boost.

Topped my Kashi honey oat waffles with some figgy jam (just mashed fresh figs), banana slices, and a bit of Sunbutter.

Oh…and syrup. Duhhh.

Kept me full for, oh 2-2 1/2 hours. Yeah, waffles never do it for me. Couldn’t wait for the kiddos to go down at work so I could whip out my lunch!

Some leftover lentil & bean “chili” with 2 dolmas. Topped with a teeny bit of sour cream.

And strawberries.

Unpictured – small sliver of pizza, 1/2 PB&J cookie at work

3 kiddies were a handful again. Especially when they stunk up the house at the same time with their dirties! Phew!

Apparently I don’t work for 3 1/2 days now (until Friday night). She cut my 8-hour Wednesday. Lady lady! Stop canceling on me! College girl heading into her last year (aka want to spend all my money on fun rather than save it) needs her mulah!

Few questions for y’all to get your week started!!

1. What one show are you all looking forward to most this fall?

I have so many, there’s no way I can decide. Greek is definitely one of my faves though, even though it already started! I always have a tv “schedule” but then it gets all thrown off with studying, work, and last minute plans. Like I said, at least there’s online TV!

2. What should I do for the next 3 days off?

I have some “to-do” things, but anything particularly fun I should add to my list?!

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Grandparent’s Day!

Happy Grandparent’s Day!! I am lucky enough to stil have 3 grandparents in my life. I don’t see my dad’s mom as much as I would like to, so the reason that most of the below pictures are my mom’s parents is because they travel more and have been more involved in our lives. I love them all dearly though, with all my heart. They are funny, incredibly generous and loving people. They’ll drop and do anything for their grandkids. They travel the world, from Europe, to Asia, to a Mediterranean cruise, and enjoy every minute. I have no idea where their next trip is planned. My grandma always sends me crazy emails with touching stories, jokes, funny pictures, or crazy “chain” emails (not those annoying ones though!). It gives me something to laugh about.

They flew out to Arkansas to watch my brother play in the World Series.

They’ve been there for me through the years (my grandma looks rather scared in this picture, no?)

They let us use their cabin whenever we want to.

They let us use a couple of their season tickets for the Giants every year.

They’ve gone on numerous Disneyland trips with the fam.

They took the whole family on a Mexico trip for their 50th anniversary. (Yes – it looks like my uncle peed his pants)

(This picture was difficult – my grandpa got washed away in the river many times. Go him!)

And they partly pay and take the grandkids on a trip sometime after they graduate high school. For my sister & I – it was London.

They’re there through the holidays.

From Easter.

To Christmas.

To Thanksgiving.

To birthdays.

My sister and I swore we would make a collage of my grandma and her crazy faces.

To my Sissie, Papa & Nana – Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, and for being there for us always. And to my other Papa in heaven – I love you and miss you. XO

Onwards…

At the casino the other night, I defintiely stuck to the penny and nickel slot machinces 😉 But my friend did walk away wining $97 at Blackjack! Go him!! I, on the otherhand, lost $7. But you know what? It was $7 for a night of entertainment – that’s pretty cheap if you look at it!

We ended up stopping at a burger joint (they did have chicken), but I broght my own in case there wasn’t any chicken. (To answer any questions – I was raised rarely eating red meat since my dad avoided it for cholesterol reasons. I personally gave it up about 9-10 years ago. It’s a personal choice – but I still do eat turkey and chicken). Garlic lime chicken patty on a sandwich thin. Boring, but did it’s job. I also snuck multiple fries from around the table 😉

We also took a small detour (about 10 minutes) to stop at Michael Jackson’s house gates. I secretly think that’s the only reason our friend drove – to hijack us there first. Sorry no pictures, they’re on my friend’s camera and he still hasn’t sent them to me!

I’m not going to bore you with the next few days’ details. I just organized and lazed around, especially since I didn’t want to workout and/or go on walks to stress my knee after Thursday’s “long” run. But Friday’s eats included:

Fried egg over a pupusa. With a little corn salsa.

And a small bowl of strawberries, figs, & yogurt sprinkled with granola.

Brie, turkey, hummus & BBQ sauce wrap grilled on the foreman.

Hmm that picture doesn’t do it justice – it was oozing with cheese.

PB chocolate & vanilla froyo pit-stop on the drive to my “night shift” at work. I pulled off some pure geniusness (is that a word) and added some of my own strawberries & figs that I brought along for my dinner.

I added many more with each bite.

Cottage cheese mixed with strawberries, figs, banana, nectarine, chia seeds & crumbled Penny’s poppyseed muffin top eaten at work.

Sad I “wasted” the muffin top mixed with this because the delicious flavor was lost. Tip: eat it plain!! Or topped with nut butter which makes anything better.

Classy bowl, yes, but I’m being green. No dish = no wasted water. Ya’ dig?

Once they arrived back home, and the birthday boy stumbled into his room after throwing me the peace sign, I was free to leave.

Sunday I fueled up for 8 hour work day with 3 kids under the age of 2. Found these suckers in the freezer.

2 buckwheat bluberry pancakes. And 3 pumpkin oatmeal pancakes. All topped with vanilla chobani and maple syrup. And a bit of strawberry jam.

The triple decker pumpkin pancake stack with yogurt in each layer was bomb.

Tasted like pure frosting. I think I’m saving the rest of my vanilla yogurt for this exact purpose in the future.

Stopped at starbucks for a coffee – armed and ready to go!

It actually wasn’t too bad since they ended up taking a 3 hour nap each. Crazy kids. I must’ve tuckered them out 😉

My boss loves to entertain when she has family over, and I have no willpower when this stuff is just sitting out in the open, so I snacked on an insane amount of goodies she had laying around:

Plus my lunch using this Costco find:

Tasty Bite lentils, red beans, and spices in a creamy tomato sauce. Tastes just like chili! And the recipe list is beautifully simple.

With some quinoa. And I threw in a random rice stuffed grape leave for good measure.

Unpictured dinner. And unpictured popcorn snack. Whooops…sue me!!

This AM I actually woke up hungry. That’s the first time it’s happened in quite a while. Lately I’ve been enjoying my coffee, and waiting like an hour to eat. I was so hungry that a big bowl of oats sounded awesome.

In the mix:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup almond milk; 1/2 cup water
• Cinamon & squirt of maple syrup
• Peanut butter
• Plain chobani

On top:

• Sunbutter
• Banana nut cheerios
• Zoe’s granola
• Raw cacao nibs
• Spoonful of chobani

Even with all these delightful mix-ins, it was kind of….bland. I think the PB2 mixed in last time made the difference. The cacao nibs also didn’t go. I thought they would melt in, but they stayed hard and crunchy and the bitter flavor didn’t meld well.

And my hunger signals were too large for my tummy. I devoured this thing and ended up way too full. I think I need to start making smaller bowls (1/3 cup instead of 1/2) if I plan to add another bowl of cereal to the top so many toppings. I’ll definitely be waiting a bit before my run.

On today’s agenda:

• Track run (after resting my tum-tum)
• Help move around our furniture & TV downstairs
• Store to pick up some fruit & a few groceries I have coupons for
• Shop for cases online for my phone
• Organize my desk
• Work tonight (at least they’ll be asleep again!)

The freshmen are all moving in this weekend on campus which means insane traffic and no parking! Blah. 15,000 students are slowly trickling in to fill up the empty town this place becomes in summer! I better enjoy this last week!

Have a fabulous and relaxing Sunday!!

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia Puddin’

I never did have a chia pet….did you?

I loved Caitlin’s post today about the 9 things she’s loving right now.  I had no idea today was 09/09/09!  It shows I’m obviously not in school when I don’t know the current date.  Ha.  Anyways, here’s my list:

1. My newly arranged room.  I love where my desk is now.  I’ll hold off on pictures since I’m still in the process of organizing.

2. Family

3. Justin’s maple almond butter (yes so good, it deserves it’s own spot)

4. My Teddy (I’ve had since I was 2 – I lost my original and got this replacement.  My old roommate never let me live it down that I have a “replacement Teddy”)

Yeah, he used to look like this pre-lovin’:

5. Good friends.  I actually rarely talk to my best friends from high school, but when we get together – it’s like no time has passed 🙂

6. My new Iphone

7. Summer weather (don’t leave me!)

8. Running.  And training.  Even if I currently can’t do it, I still love it!

9. Baseball.  Although Giants are disappointing me.  C’mon guys.

Now for eats.

This morning for breakfast, I stole Meghann’s idea and saved some of my Banana muffin batter from last night to bake up fresh muffins in the morning.  I cut the top off and spread maple almond butter on the inside.  Delicious!  They were so much better warm 🙂

I had one alongside a bowl of Chia pudding.  Interesting stuff.  But tasty!  I think I’d want to add something to make it a bit thicker.  For this I combined:

• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1 cup almond milk
• Cinnamon
• Raisins

I then let it sit for about 25 minutes in the fridge.

And then snagged another muffin on my way out the door to work.

I was pretty hungry however less than 2 hours later!  Thought all that fiber would do it’s job.  Lunch was leftovers from last night.  Stuffed mushrooms!

Stuffed with the last of my Cranberry & Pumpkin Seed quinoa salad (all gone – so you shall see no more!).  And topped with a bit of feta.

And a sweet sweet white nectarine on the side.

This really never satisfied me completely, so about 2 hours later I had 3 stuffed grape leaves (no picture – we’ve seen them before).  I also had a handful of trail mix.

And at 6:00 I was still at work and hungry so I had a cranberry Heart Thrive bar.  And a clementine cutie.

This was probably my least favorite flavor of the Heart Thrive bars so far (I’ve had the apple & lemon poppyseed one).  This one had a slight off taste to me.  And nothing spectacularly stood out flavorwise.

Because I picked at food all day (way more than what I stated above) and had a late snack once I got home for dinner, I really wasn’t all that hungry.  So egg white omelete it was.  With sauteed onions and turkey.  Topped with feta and TJ’s tomato-less corn salsa.

I also had a package!  Yay, thank you Chobani!! They offerred to send me samples months ago, but I never did receive them, so I’m so happy that they re-sent me some.  Unfortunately while I was slicing open the box, my scissors sliced through 4 of the container lids!  Figures I would do that!  Guess I’ll need to eat those up quickly.

Then I caught the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model! Hmmm…there were quite a few entertaining girls tonight.  It was…interesting.

Night-time snackie was the rest of my chia pudding that I made this morning mixed with a scoop of sunflower butter.  And a no bake peanut butter cookie.

Classy tupperware bowl.  The pudding was sooooo much better tonight since it’s been able to sit all day.  Much more creamy and thick.  Delicious!  And super filling.  These two things filled me up a bit too much!

Tomorrow is a no work day for moi!  And we’re heading to the local (well – 1 1/2 hours away.  As local as we have) casino at night!  I’ve never been to a casino (besides a quick Vegas trip when I was under 21), so it’s really my first experience!  I’m not a big gambler at all, but it’ll be a fun night, I’m sure!

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Lava Cake Explosion

Starbucks had samples out this morning of something that stares at me every time I order a coffee – the Bear Claw! I completely forgot to snap a picture before I devoured it, but you can imagine 😉

It was amazing – doughy, mapley, with bits of carmely apples. Mmmm.

I ended up meeting my mom and sister at Chili’s for lunch on my drive home. I was kind of bummed when I heard the plan since I literally was still full from my breakfast 4 hours earlier (that baby was filling!!). Unfortunately, that didn’t stop me from eating…whoops!

We ordered the “2 for $20” which included an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert. My sister is obsessed with their queso, so that was the appetizer, although I just stuck with the chips & salsa.

Had a bit more than my fair share 😉 They were directly in front of me!!

I love their chicken fajita pita, but that wasn’t included on the entree list for this deal, so I settled on the Quesdailla Explosion salad. I ordered no cheese & dressing on the side, thinking I would be able to pick off the tortilla strips. But they ended up coming mixed into the salad – oh well.

(I got this picture online because I unfortunately couldn’t get a picture of my actual salad – I went to the restroom, and when I got back to the table, my salad had arrived. However my mom had mixed it together and put some on a separate plate for herself since we were sharing. Anyways long story short, it wasn’t such a pretty picture anymore 😦 )

This used to be my favorite choice there, and I have to say I was madly disappointed. The chicken used to be strips, and now they were small oily pieces of chicken. There was also no lime wedges (like I remember there being), and less relish.

And then dessert – we chose the Chocolate Molten Cake.

I was ridiculously full by this point, and wanted to only have a couple bites to try it, but probably had about 1/4 of this. Oh well – how often do I get to go out to Chili’s and enjoy dessert? 😉

I left with Mr. Chili’s food baby.

Afternoon snack was some cherries:

Our sinks are broken at home!! Therefore, I couldn’t really cook anything for dinner (unless I wanted to do dishes in the bathroom or in a big bucket of water! Ummm).

We ended up picking up these new pizzas they make at the Safeway deli counter. I got the Greek Salad pizza – pizza sauce, feta cheese, onions, tomatoes, & bell peppers cooked on a flatbread. Then topped with a greek salad mix of marinated cucumbers, tomatoes, olives & a bit more cheese, and lettuce.

This was only half the pizza – they were pretty big! But my stupid brain wasn’t caught up with my tummy and I ended up eating the other half too.

(No salad on this one, I piled it all on my first half – so I sprinkled extra seasonings on it)

It was OK, although it really didn’t taste much like pizza. It was something I could easily make at home, and it even tasted kind of bland. My dad said the same about his.

Today was definitely a day of overeating. While I feel I made relatively healthy decisions, and still enjoying myself while dining out to eat, I ate past satisfied at every meal. Hopefully tomorrow is back to normal, and I’ll definitely be hitting up the gym in the morning! Two days off is enough for me!

In honor of Three Question Thursday:

1. What is your favorite dream pizza?

2. What is your current job and/or what are you studying in school?

3. Are you a (lava) cake or ice cream person?

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