Meatless Monday

Ahoy! I hope everyone’s weekend was all you hoped it to be 🙂

After working from 7-4 on Saturday, I crashed and was on the couch the rest of the night watching TV and then the Blind Side (good movie!!). Sunday was just cleaning, grocery shopping, and more sitting on the couch 😉

I kept breakfast this morning light since I ate at 10:15, and I knew I was eating lunch out!

Yogurt + blackberries (which I splurged on this weekend) + cinnnamon PB + a handful of cereal. And since I ate it before I remembered to capture it on camera, here are the ingredients which went into the making of such a breakfast:

Excited to try the PB! Good, but not nearly as life changing as the maple almond butter. Had to get every last bit out.

Seriously. Don’t judge. You’d do the same.

I then proceeded to foam roll for a good 25 minutes and stretch. I’ve taken over a week of from running, but yet have majorly slacked on the rolling, which isn’t good. Roll roll roll it out! (sang to tune of ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’)

Then the roommate and I got our shop on at Express with our $15 off of a $30 purchase coupons. I walked out with some new jeans y’all for $24!And a new clutchity clutch from TJ Maxx.

Speaking of new clothes, I also put my discount to some work the other day when I stopped in at Gap. Loving these new jeans I got for only $22!

And also needed some longer shorts I could wear to work.

Is it just me or do those pictures remind you of online shopping and clicking on different colors of the same shirt. And then the shirt color changes in front of your eyes? I’m pretty sure I did actually change bottoms and re-take the picture, as much as it looks like I’m standing in the exact same pose.

Now back to today’s shopping…Took a pit stop for some grub – Veggie pizza (I think it had tomatoes, broccoli, olives, basil and garlic?) with goat cheese (instead of mozzarella) on whole wheat. + a small side salad which escaped the camera.

Love this restaurant’s (Pizza Solo) whole wheat crust. So chewy! I’ve been dreaming about this pizza since the last time I went (when I got Teriyaki chicken pizza), and thought of the idea to get goat cheese on one. It was good, but I’d definitely get some different veggies next time! And maybe some chicken?

I practiced some major self restraint and only had half, which I was happy about 20 minutes later when I was full. And I’ll be happy tomorrow when I have leftovers.

Throughout the afternoon I snacked on dried apricots

And some Nature’s Path granola (so good!)

For dinner I whipped up a version of eggplant parmesan!

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• Garlic salt, paprika & cumin
• 1 eggplant
• 1 1/2 cups (half a jar) butternut squash pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1. Combine the bread crumbs & spices.
2. After peeling and slicing the eggplant, dunk each slice in the egg whites and then coat them with the bread crumb + spice mixture.
3. Cook in skillet sprayed with pam or with a bit of oil. Flip to cook both sides.
4. Lay the eggplant in a pan. I used a square 8 x 8 pan, so I had 3 layers of eggplant. After the first layer, coat with pasta sauce and sprinkle with half the cheese. Layer the rest of the eggplant on top. Top with pasta sauce and the rest of the cheese.
5. Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes.

Delicious!!! This was so good. Very happy it turned out right since I didn’t look at any recipes.

Plus night-time snackage – frozen blueberries, hot cocoa, and an apple with PB. For some reason my night-time snacks always miss the camera

Now it’s no surprise that my meals were meatless today since I don’t buy/eat meat much at school. But I realized just now that my meals were meatless versions of usually “meaty meals.” Vegetarian pizza instead of meat pizza and eggplant parmesan instead of chicken parm! Go me 😉

Now if only the weather here were actually warm, I could get some beach and sun time in 🙂 Unfortunately it’s been low 60s for a while and doesn’t look to warm up! Where is our California summer weather??

Is it warm where you’re living right now?

And anything exciting over the weekend happen?

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Bad boys, Bad boys

Not meant to be a dirty title at all, but to the tune of “Bad boys…whatcha gonna do?  Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”  Shame on your if your mind went dirty.

After my giant bowl of heaven oats, I hit up the gym for 2.75 mile run on the dreadmill. I finished with about 10 minutes of upper body weight machines before I had to hurry and catch the bus.

Unfortunately, my knee has been bothering me more the past few days. Yesterday it was achy all day, which wasn’t a good sign after 3 days of rest. And today it was more sore than usual. Even though I hadn’t done anything different or more strenuous, I know from the past (and when I first injured it) not to push through the pain. It doesn’t hurt bad enough to keep me from running or doing daily activities, but I cannot risk injuring it further. While it is in no way healed at all, it’s about 50% better than it felt at the peak of my pain. And I can’t start all over again. No way. So I’m pretty sure I’m taking the next week or so off from running. I might do another short one on the treadmill, but hopefully I can restrain myself. No more track for a bit though, since that’s harder on my knees.

My hunger definitely caught up with me today. I was starving after the gym (even though it was only about 3 hours post-breakkie), and whipped up a breakfast lunch burrito type of deal.

1 egg + 1 egg white scrambled with cilantro and avocado wrapped in a Rudi’s whole spelt tortilla.

I searched high and low for some shredded cheese with no success.  So imagine some melted cheese in there.

With 1/4 honeydew melon that I directly scooped and ate with a spoon. My favorite way to eat melon.

And a delicious Montanna Whopper for dessert. Contrary to my original review of them being semi-tastelss, these definitely got better after the first day I made them. Can’t wait to make them next time with the correct ingredients 🙂

I then got to work on my grocery goals.

First, I went through all my food and typed up what I have on hand so I can easily go through and meal plan in the future.

Next, I jotted down lunch and dinner ideas for the next week.

Lastly, I made a shopping list with staples that I’m out of (such as bananas) or additions to pick up in order to make my meals this week (such as a tomato or onion).

Then I hit up Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Albertsons where I knew some good deals were!

Samples consumed at Costco got me excited because I’ve been curious to try these.  Nature’s Path toaster pastries.

Completely disliked the strawberry (or whatever type of berry) one, but loved the brown sugar cinnamon.  Yumm.

Apparently Old Navy must have been in the fine print on my list too, since I wandered in there on my way to Costco. I had seen this comfy dress on a couple blogs lately, and wanted to check it out for myself!  Then…I walked out of there with two. Yes – I cannot make decisions. While they were cheap, I probably won’t keep both, so you tell me.  Which color should I keep? Ignore my gross unshowered gym hair.

Gray/teal?

or White/gray?

(There also was a white/camely-brown one that I spent roughly an hour debating between as well)

Awkward poses where I had no idea how to stand and where to put my hands. Hence the “make use of the pockets and bend the knee” stance.

K – so looking at these pics now, I definitely like the gray/teal better. Or should I keep both? (I know I’m ca-razy). Only $15 and super comfy! 🙂

Besides my Old Navy purchases, I only made one extra purchase – Einstein’s honey almond cream cheese. Could have done without that one, but I’m still proud of myself for sticking to my list 😀 I even set a couple things down that were originally on my list, but too expensive/not completely necessary (such as teh $5 tub of paremsan cheese.  Really?).

My lunch kept me full for, oh…about 2 hours (yes – told you I was hungry). So I whipped out the new Tropical Larabar to snack on.

Please avert your eyes if you’re easily grossed out. What you’re looking at there is literally spit out lara (although honestly, it doesn’t look much different than the original bar, does it?)

I’m sorry Tropical fans, but I found it N-A-S-T-Y (which spells nasty for anyone who cares). So bad that I would’ve stuffed anything in my mouth (hopefully that’s not what she said) to get rid of the flavor, but unfortunately had nothing within reach. Blech. So sad. So sad.  PB&J – you win.

Sorry Miss Lara, but this bad boy won me over when I got home. Chocolate fig vitatop with earth balance PB.

I’ve always had a thing for the bad boys. This one in particular:

Rory was totally supposed to end up with Jess. What the hell happened there?

Then my roommate and I got cookin’ with our new old cast aside rice cooker that a friend gave us. Good thing fajita salad was on my meal list, and cilantro lime rice went perfectly!

Sauteed garlic & lime chicken patty (cut up) with onions, cilantro lime brown rice, homemade guac, FF sour cream, & tomatoes. Poor suffocating spinach lay underneith it all.

This bowl was massive. And then I inhaled a large bowl of strawberries + a peach. Followed by some way too liquidy banana/mango whip topped with sunbutter (eaten a few hours later):

K, I think I’m finally full. Holy moly, guess my appetite received my letter in full force, no?

So tomorrow I actually have classes (only 11-12 and 12-2 though). Unlike today where school technically started, but I had none. Yeah I’m pretty legit and know how to work the system like that.

Edited to add more midnight snackage:

3 Mary’s carraway crackers (1 entered the mouth before photo sesh) topped with honey almond cream cheese & a smear of pumpkin butta.

This combo will be repeated again very soon.  You can bet your life on it.

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Oh Appetite Where Art Thou?

Dear Appetite –

Where have you been, my friend? I understand that you left me the other day when I was sick. But yesterday I felt better, yet you still had not returned. I miss you. I like food. A lot. Come back?

Love,

Tay Tay

After my fruit + yogurt breakkie yesterday, I seriously didn’t get hungry all day. No joke.

Before our Tar-jay roadtrip, I had another slice of cinnamon-raisin Ezekiel with jam just in case I got hungry. I swear toast is a mircale food. No matter how nauseous I feel, toast helps.

Tarj was pretty successful – I walked out $37 poorer, and only bought a few unnecessary items. My shopping bag contained

• gum (a must while at Target – good deal on the 3 packs!)
• Flavored waters, Cranberry juice & a few Vitamin10s
• a new plate (my $2 splurge – but will be featured on the blog soon!)
• $12 sweater (how could I pass up such a steal?!)
• Coffee
• Pumpkin pie candy corn (yes. You read that right. Of course I had to get those – how could I NOT?!)

My two fave purchases:

I also had these two mini-Twix candies that our friend bought. Dark chocolate & Triple chocolate Twix’s?? Had to try them out!

The Triple Chocolate tasted almost exactly like the normal Twix, and the Dark one tasted like a crunchy dark chocolate. I couldn’t taste the caramel in that one. But seeing as how Twix is the best candy ever, they were both obviously delicious!

Once home, I snacked on a few carrots and a little bit of sunflower hummus, just because I hadn’t eaten much – but it gave me a stomach ache. Blah.

And then hurried off to the college mass on campus, followed by a “sandwich making” social. Deli spread of sliced white bread, processed deli turkey, and yucky tin can cookies?  No thank you. But it was fun to meet people and socialize. I think I’ll be going back this year with my roommate.

We then went to our friend’s house for a brownie & cookie making night. I did have a couple small bites of brownie, but it actually was dry and nast-o. The chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, however, where bomb and I helped myself to two. Plus a scoop of dough. And another twix from the candy bowl.

Blurry – muchos sorry. (I don’t know ‘sorry’ in Spanish. Too bad I took French in high school)

I came home at 11:00 still not remotely hungry. Toast at 1:30, carrots at 4:00, and a couple cookies for dinner? Yeah – something’s not right. I did make myself eat some chia pudding I found in the fridge, and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter. I figured I really would have no energy to run tomorrow if I didn’t get something in my body besides a few mini Twix bars. What’s wrong with me?

Mehhh…sorry for the uber lame post. I have a more exiting one set up for tomorrow night, don’t you worry!

What was the #1 hightlight to your weekend? I didn’t have much of a great one (well, tonight was fun!), so let me live vicariously through you!!

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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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Sunscreen Your Elbows

So y’all know what a warm day off from work equals don’t ya?  Pool time, duhhh.  First I fueled up with a bowl of oats.  I’ve had a bag of chocolate somersaults for months now, and after almost finishing off the bag, I had to set them aside since I knew they would make a stellar oatmeal topping.  I finally remembered to use them today!

In the mix:

• 1/2 cup multigrain mix (from Trader’s yo’ – it’s some good stuff)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 egg whites (was feelin’ the whites today, not the whole egg.  Don’t ask why)
• Cinnamon, vanilla & maple syrup
• PB2 powder
• Chobani plain

Then topped with:

• Banana Nut Cheerios (holla!)
• Chocolate somersaults (amazing on oatmeal)
• Justin’s maple almond butter
• More Chobani

This bowl was rockin.  Guys, the Greek yogurt made all the difference.  Crazy crazy good.  With a delicious cup of coffee (x3 – I use mostly decaf.  No caffeine overdose here!) in my favorite mug 🙂

Then I hit up the pool.  I originally planned to do at least an hour workout (and about 2 miles), but this was my first time back in the water in about 2 months and boy, something was off!  I felt insanely dizzy and nauseous.  So I cut the swim short after 30 minutes and 1 mile.  Ugh!

After soaking up some rays, I came home to hit up the new Forever 21 with my roommate.  This place is huge and it’s really going to kill me this year.  Or kill my wallet.  I walked out of there with 3 new shirts, 1 new pair of earrings, and I think I’m going back for another shirt I really liked.  Ahhhh!!!  I grabbed this Cashew Cookie Larabar while rushed between pool & shopping time, and ate it while browsing.

I was still starving when we got home (never did have time to have lunch!), but it was almost dinna so I just whipped up a snackie.  Green Monster – it has been so long!  Wait…or is it mushy colored pond scum monster?

Topped with Zoe’s granola.  I made this one with frozen strawberries so the color was a bit…off.  I miss my frozen mangoes.

Still snacky afterwards…

Those would be snap peas inside the beautiful photogenic plastic bag.  I was lazy, k?  And an aspartame filled green tea.  Yummm.  Or not.  I like the actual Lipton brand better.  My elbows were also a bit tender and I realized they were sunburned.  Weird.  Lesson learned folks.  Put sunscreen on your elbows.

Dinner was thrown together in…oh…about 5 minutes.  I know, I was really creative tonight.  A mini Greek-ish platter with rice stuffed grape leaves and a Sunshine falafel burger topped with hummus.  And I most definitely added BBQ sauce to it after this was taken.

So I was stoked to try these burgers after seeing/reading so much about them on the blogs.  But honestly?  I was disappointed in how small they are.  And they’re pretty dry.  I know I should jazz it up in different ways, so what are your favorite ways to eat this patty?  And I still have a coupon for a free box of Sunshine burgers.  Any favorite flavors out there?

Followed by an unpictured square of dark chocolate.  I’m super munchy tonight.  I think I know what that means…

My roommate (Sara) and I then met some friends at Woodstock’s Pizza for Trivia Night!  It was my first time, and pretty fun!  You’re in teams, and they pretty much just ask tons of questions.  There are different rounds, prizes, etc.  I was still a big hungry so I had 1 deliciously doughy pizza crust since our friend does not like pizza crust.  *Gasp*.  Especially this crust.  What’s wrong with him?!

We did order the Cinnabread dessert pizza however.  Please excuse my crappy artistically blurry phone picture.

Who needs cheese on their pizza?  Why not cinnamon, butter & loads of frosting?  However it came out with pools of butter on top.  Yes that yellowish stuff is butter, not pee.  I had about half a slice and it tasted exactly like a cinnamon roll.  I wasn’t really feeling the rest, it was way too sweet.  I mean gagging sweet.  It has such great potential!

Still hungry when we got home, I found some frozen strawberry bread I made a few months ago in the freezer.  Mmmm!!  Although once toasted, it tasted like old freezer burn.  Blech.  I’ll have to remake that bread soon.  It was delicious.  So I settled on the last of my flattened banana with almond butter (I cannot get enough of this Justin’s almond butter).

With a side of hot chocolate of course.

And thank you so much for your awesome quinoa suggestions!  I’ve gotten wraps, on salads, with scrambled eggs, and in stuffed mushrooms!  I’m loving them all!  Keep them coming (if you have any!).  I can’t wait to test them out.

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Shoe Rave & Product Reviews

Phew, it was finally gettin’ warmer today! 😀 First, I headed to the pool where I got in a 25 minute (1300 yard) swim.  I planned to go at least 45 minutes-1 hour, but I got a raging headache, and felt nauseous for parts, so I cut it way short.  Then I just lounged/read/got my burn tan on for a good 1 1/2 hours or so.  I love the warm sun 🙂

Followed by an evening of work, where we made scrumptious lasagna. I whipped out my cam-cam to take a pic of the final product, when “No memory card” flashed on the screen.  Drats! I had left my memory card in my computer!  So you all get pictures of my leftovers in classy tupperware I got to take home:

Made with ground turkey, spinach, & cottage cheese.

And since I got off work an hour later than expected (and was a hungry hippo by then!), a trip to the self-serve yogurt shop was in order, where they had one of the best flavors on the face of the earth: Yellow cake batter.  Oh yes.  Uh-huh.  I did a little dance in the store when I saw that one.  And loaded up 3 cartons to take home and freeze.

Girls – I gotta give you a quick shoe rave.  I recently bought these shoes at the holy land (aka Tarjay) and I am obsessed.

They are cute, comfortable (I wore them on a short walk and no blisters!), and can be dressed up or down!  I have such a love affair with them that I went out and bought myself a pair in white!

They’re complete copies of the Steve Madden brand, but at only $17.99 (or $14 like I got them on sale!), these are a steal that you should snatch up quickly!!  Okay, rave over…but for real!  And yes…I am a size 10.  I’m actually closer to size 11 in most shoes.  I have monster feet (or better known as Bigfoot).

Guess what the locos dropped off on my doorstep yesterday afternoon?!

THAT’S RIGHT!!! PB Loco chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter!!!  Eeeee *insert squeal of excitement here*.  Two of my favorite foods ever – peanut butter AND cookie dough combined?  Noooooo way.  I have been wanting to try their unique nut butters for ages, but have just never splurged on the expense & shipping costs.

Last night I dug right in and topped off a rice cake with some cookie dough delight.  Naturally, I tried a couple licks straight off the knife as well.  Thoughts?  Sweet!! Very very sweet.  (But honestly, what was I expecting from cookie dough PB?).  And I don’t know if I wasn’t supposed to stir it up (the chocolate chips seemed to all be on one side of the jar), but the chocolate all blended in and melted once I did- so it reminded me of chocolate PB.  And in all honesty?  It really tasted mostly like chocolate PB or nutella.  Very similar to nutella with a few PB chunks mixed in.  Today, I tested it out on some waffles (and again straight out of the jar), and again…nutella, but it also reminded me of eating the inside of a Reese’s Cup.  Now, I love me some nutella (obvi!), but I was really looking forward to cookie dough!  But it was still amazingly tasty (I’m sure it would be heavenly in oatmeal!), and I still want to try out their other flavors (such as caramel apple, cocoa banana, jungle banana…).

Pros: Tasty & sweet, no refrigeration needed, no hydrogenated oils, great healthy way to make anything a dessert!

Cons: Not a strong cookie-dough taste per-say, added whole milk = more saturated fats, expensive, dangerously yum (aka – my finger will be often times found in the jar and it will be gone soon!)

All in all, this PB is great for a sweet treat, but I still love my more natural nut butters as well!

And if you want to try out their unique flavors as well, the crazy PB Loco folks asked me to remind you guys of a coupon you can use:

Purchase 5 or more jars of P.B.Loco’s flavored peanut butters and your 6th jar is free.  To redeem this coupon, place 6 or more jars of P.B.Loco’s peanut butters in your shopping cart and use coupon code BLOG709 when you checkout.  Offer expires July 10, 2009.

So feel free to check it out!

As for a giveaway, I know we’re all budgeting these days (especially as a college student), so check out this giveaway for some pretty sweet coupons!!

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Sweet Relief

Sorry I usually don’t post until so much later in the day!  I’m so busy early on with classes or work, and I’m also on pacific time (so 3 hours ahead of a lot of ya’!).

Okay I just need to let out a giant EEEEE!!!!!  😀 because I am DONE with my projects, essays, and presentations!!!  Phew!  Okay, that was quite a lot of exclamation marks.  But you get the idea.  I do have a final on Tuesday (but only 1 final out of 4 classes?  I’ll take it!).  And it won’t even be a super hard final.  My classes were all mostly just project based this quarter.

My campus bookstore had their 30% off sale today.  I got some goodies:

a shirt, new cute wallet, book for my Daddy for Father’s Day, and a couple graduation gifts for friends (a couple books & a frame).  Good deal.

I then went to the gym where I really felt the need to sweat out all that sodium from yesterday!

• 30 minutes stairmaster level 10-11

• 20 minutes ab work & about 5 min. lower body

I didn’t do too much because of the knee – but I did work up a sweat on that stairmaster :-).

This afternoon I sat down with an 18-oz container of blueberries to snack on while working on my presentation….wait a minute!!  Where did all my blueberries go?  Oh that’s right, I just ate half the carton in one sitting!  And I easily could have finished them all.  I can pound blueberries like there’s no tomorrow!

I’m also excited because my roommate let me use her parking permit (her class was canceled so she went to the beach this afternoon – jealous!) so I didn’t have to wait for the bus after my class got out at 8:00 tonight.  Yippee.

Sorry not many foodie pics posted today.  I have class 4-8:00 on Thursdays (well, technically not anymore since today was the last Thursday of the quarter!), so part of dinner was 1/2 a turkey sandwich in between classes.  I hoped to make it home for a bigger dinner afterwards, but I got starving during class, and ate this baby that was in my backpack:

Um…best flavor ever.  And I only have 1 of them left now 😦

Once I got home I helped myself to a huge bowl of broccoli (still working on that Costco sized bag!) mixed with Trader Joe’s red pepper, garlic & eggplant spread.  I’m sure I’ll be hungry later for another snacky snack.  (Hot chocolate & cereal anyone??)

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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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