Food Photo Show

Hi there! I hope everyone is having a wonderful and productive Sunday. I have lots of food photos to catch you up on starting from lunch yesterday, so no need to get wordy on you today. Here it goes.

Saturday Lunch

Strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple with Fage Greek yogurt, chia seeds, and honey.

Saturday Dinner

We had both my parents and Dana’s parents over for dinner last night. Everyone brought a dish to contribute and we ended up with an amazing meal.

Appetizer: Tostito’s Artisan Roasted Garlic & Black Bean chips with roasted tomatillo salsa served in our fancy pants serving bowl set that we got as a wedding gift.

Salad: Mom’s quinoa salad which has pretty much all of my favorite veggies thrown into one salad. It is quinoa, tomatoes, mukimame,   red onion, black beans, avocado, fresh basil, cilantro, celery, coconut juice, spices, and I may have missed a couple ingredients. It was GOOD!

Veggie Tray: Dana’s mom brought a delicious and colorful veggie tray with her very own special dip that has a creamy cottage cheese base. Nummm.

And the main entrée: homemade grilled turkey burgers with Worcestershire, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I ate mine on a 100-calorie sandwich thin bun and topped it with cheddar cheese, pickles, tomato, onion, mustard, and ketchup. DELICIOUS.

For dessert, I made homemade strawberry sorbet which is the absolute easiest thing to make. No need to spend $6 on a small carton of organic sorbet.

Strawberry Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 4-5 cups frozen strawberries, thawed
  • Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
  • 3/4 teaspoon stevia
  • 1/4 cup water
Directions
Puree all ingredients in food processor. Transfer to ice cream maker, and let churn for 40 minutes. If you do not have an ice cream maker, transfer to container then place in the freezer until solid. Serve with whip cream if desired.

We had a great time with the fam last night and ate a very healthy meal. Thanks everyone!

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Sunday Breakfast

Yogurt bowl with a splash of almond milk, cinnamon PB2, banana, honey, and chia seeds.

Sunday Lunch

 The last of the fresh pineapple, sugar snap peas, and leftover quinoa salad.

And LOTS of these cheesy salty chips. Bring on the orange fingers.

Hope you enjoyed my food photo show. Catch up with you all soon.

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More Corn Please

Breakfast

Tuesday morning began with a spin on one of my current breakfast favorites. Overnight chia seed yogurt but instead of blueberries I substituted 1/4 cup pureed pumpkin, and added cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, stevia, and a bit of brown sugar right before I was about to dig in (because I love brown sugar).

It was like a bowl of pumpkin pie, sort of. I definitely prefer my original blueberry yogurt mix more than the pumpkin, but I would make this one again. It’s fun to try something different anyway.

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Workout

After work I headed to the gym. I completed 32 minutes on the elliptical while reading Runner’s World. The last 5 minutes I back-peddled to work different muscles which I found to be super awkward until I got the hang of it.

After the elliptical I headed to the weights to work out the triceps, chest, and core.

The gym was pretty quiet when I was there, so I decided to try some new things on the big ball near the mats. Is it called a fitness ball? An exercise ball?

This was a golden opportunity to experiment with new moves since 1. there weren’t very many people around for me to make a fool out of myself in front of, and 2. not a lot of people in the area for me to nail with a runaway ball.

Here is what I did.

I was shakin’ and sweatin’ and feeling good at the end of the ball workout. 🙂 I felt a little silly when trying to get balanced on the ball but tried to act confident like I really knew what I was doing and had total control. I will do it again. I wish I had one at home. They’re so much fun!

I finished off my workout with a quick 1-mile run that I clocked at 8:10 pace, which is way faster than my norm. I am usually a 9:15 to 9:30 minute mile gal. I felt the need for speed apparently.

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Dinner

Dana cut up a fresh pineapple to snack on while we worked on preparing the rest of dinner. The pineapple was perfectly sweet and so juicy and was a great appetizer.

For dinner we had grilled corn on the cob which was INCREDIBLE. I couldn’t believe how fresh and sweet it was being we are not in corn season around here. I am not sure where it came from? I may need to do my research.I can’t wait for more! I love corn on the cob.

We have been making good use of our grill lately. Tis the season. When I say we, I mean Dana, because I usually let him take charge over the grill.

Alongside the corn, I prepared an Italian/Greek, inspired broccoli slaw. I started with a packet of Good Sense Italian Seasoning which I mixed with balsamic vinegar, just a touch of olive oil, and water. I whisked these ingredients together in the bottom of the bowl creating the dressing, then added a whole bag of broccoli slaw. I added a can of drained and rinsed garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), and topped the salad with feta cheese and tomatoes.

The salad was full of flavor and a fun healthy side dish. Actually come to think of it, that was the gusto of our meal. That was our main dish and the corn was the side? It doesn’t matter who takes the main stage because either way, it was a party on my plate.

For dessert, a cookie dough ball from Sunday’s cookie making episode that I rolled and froze. Pretty tasty!

Fun fact: I usually prefer dough to actual baked cookies.

I finished off the night with some more laundry (seriously does it ever end?) and a new episode of Glee. We also began sorting through a potential bedroom in our basement which is full of wedding stuff: tulle, cards, decorations, invitations, etc. It is an extremely overwhelming room so I am sorting through it little by little to help get me through it.

Off to a work. Have a great day!

Question of the day: Anyone have any embarrassing gym moments? I would love to hear from you./strong>

Continue Reading More Corn Please

Homemade Grilled Pizza

Yesterday I was out running errands in shorts, and this morning I woke up to see snow falling outside. Only in Minnesota. It isn’t going to stick at least, but gross.

Sunday was an amazingly productive day at our household. It began with a leisurely first part of the morning. Breakfast was a banana with honey, cinnamon, and a touch of almond milk PB2.

Sunday mornings always involve coupon cutting, reading the newspaper, and I always read Dana and my horoscope out loud.

Melanie: Scorpio

Dana: Pisces

Then off we went to Home Depot to return some unused pieces from the bathroom construction, and Target and Costco to restock the fridge. Neither Dana or I work late this week so I am thinking we should have some good meals throughout the week nights.

Let’s see, after our errands it was about 11:00 and we were both famished. The decision was made to eat an early lunch. I threw together a mediocre salad. I really thought it was going to be good but when I ate it just tasted “meh” to me.

In the salad was mixed greens, broccoli, sugar snap peas, tomato, carrots, shredded cheese, leftover grilled chicken and honey mustard. That sounds good right? Oh well, I can’t win them all. At least I got my veggies in.

After lunch we got to work on the house. I put on the Glee station on Pandora and began cleaning like a mad woman while Dana continued working on the downstairs bathroom. I cleaned for about 2 hours then was cleaning was happily put on hold because my mom was stopping by to say hi and check out our new bathroom. It is still not completely finished so I haven’t shown you guys yet. It will be very soon. Mom stayed for a little while and then it was back to work for me.

We were still on the prowl for our towel racks, toilet paper holder, and robe holders, so we set out to Kohl’s to take a look there. We have already looked at a handful of other places but haven’t seen ones we liked. Needless to say, Kohl’s didn’t have what we were looking for however we did buy towels for our bathroom. I bought two white shower towels, one gray hand towel, and one brown hand towel.

We are still searching for out floor mats but I think I will take a look at Macy’s next and see what they have. Anyway, since we didn’t find out towel racks at Kohl’s, we decided to head to Menard’s to see if we liked any there. We had looked there before but hadn’t decided upon any so we thought we would lood now that we are really in the buying mode.

We found our towel racks! Wooo!

Home we went to install the towel racks, toilet paper holder, two doors in the bathroom, a built-in vanity mini closet, shower curtain….I felt like Heidi on Home Improvement as I was Dana’s assistant with tools and such. I felt so handy yesterday!

In the midst of bathroom business (that sounds wrong, sorry), I managed to squeeze in a 30 minute walk on the treadmill in between assisting Dana and folding the laundry. I am still amazed at how much work that bathroom has been and it’s still not finished.

Let’s get to dinner because you are going to want to hear about this. It was homemade pizza night. I made this bread machine pizza dough  however I used only whole wheat flour, and cut the recipe in half as I wanted a thinner crust. I added all of the ingredients to the bread machine, set it on dough, and let it work it for an hour and a half.

Once the bread was ready, I plopped the dough onto a floured surface and began kneading it out to a circular shape. I then flipped it and kneaded a little more. I sprinkled a small amount of corn meal onto each side of the crust, then coated each side with olive oil cooking spray to evenly cover the surfaces.

In the mean time, Dana preheated the grill to medium-hot heat. We sprayed the grates of the grill, then slid the dough onto the grill, closed the lid and cooked the one side for five minutes or until the bottom began to brown and the top started to bubble slightly. We removed the pizza, brought it inside to “decorate” the cooked side.

I started with jarred marinara sauce (as much or as little as you like).

Then reduced fat mozzarella cheese, and a mixed cheddar cheese. Next, for our toppings: green olives, lightly sautéed mushrooms and onions, and Roma tomato slices.

We then turned off half of the heaters on the grill and turned the two remaining on, to medium heat. We sprayed the grates of the grill one more time, and slid the pizza on to the grill.

Close the lid, and let the pizza grill for 10-12 minutes on that medium heat. Remove pizza carefully and cut into triangles, squares, diamonds, whatever you feel like, and enjoy a seriously delicious homemade pizza.

I savored every bite of two slices, and had a handful of sugar snap peas on the side. This crust is so amazing and the fresh toppings are the best. I love making my own pizzas because you can regulate what goes into the crust, how much sauce goes on, how much cheese, and I like to make sure each slice has an equal amount of toppings. OMG, this was incredible.

After dinner there was dessert, but I am going to have to save that for another day because I have some errands to run and workouts to workout. 😉 Here is a sneak peek of what went down….

It’s chocolately!

Positive Monday talk: I have today off of work, I am a happy camper.

Question of the day: Did anyone cook up anything delicious this weekend?

Continue Reading Homemade Grilled Pizza

A Lucky Friday the 13th

I had a really great Friday the 13th. It all started off with an out of the ordinary breakfast for me which was scrambled egg whites with a little salt and pepper, topped with mild salsa. I found it impossible to take a good photo of this breakfast so don’t judge what you see below.

Work was work, but lunch break was great. I headed to Patrick’s Bakery and Cafe (I had eaten there once before) for lunch with my coworkers. I ordered the same thing as last time….french onion soup served with a piece of a baguette. I neglected to take a photo of my soup because it would have looked exactly the same as the last time , same tablecloth and all, therefore I just decided to use the old photo.

It was a very dreary day here in MN, and a bowl of soup was just what I needed, and I LOVE french onion soup. It warmed my soul.

After work, I had plans to go for a run, but since it was really nasty cold, misty, and windy outside, I decided to take it downstairs to our treadmill to run in the comfort and warmth of my own home. BTW our electrical was installed downstairs today and it looks great! We had temporary lights up down there before but now we have actually have light switches with dimmers to go along with the lights. Woo! It’s still coming a long!

Anyway, I hit the treadmill for 45 minutes doing a bit of a run/walk combo. I flipped channels between Ellen and Paula Deen and was thoroughly entertained.

Part of the reason my Friday the 13th turned out to be so great is because of this….

It’s kind of hard to read but it says:

“Happy News! You were selected as a winner in the LARABAR Very Large Sweepstakes. Your prize includes a tote bag filled with a water bottle, a 16-ct of Larabars, and 5 full-sized mixed flavors. From everyone at LARABAR, I’d like to extend a great big THANK YOU for your support and participation in our sweepstakes. Kindly, The LARABAR Team.”

I WON! I don’t win anything. Ever. I entered into the sweepstakes a while back thinking I had about a 0.05% chance of actually winning. Holy cow. I feel like the dad in a Christmas Story when he won the Leg Lamp. I was jumping up and down after I read the letter like I just found out I got into college or won a ton of money. I really truly love and enjoy LARABARs so this was a big one for me.

Maybe my luck is changing. One can only hope. I want to win more stuff, this is fun!

I can’t wait to try some of these flavors I have never tried before such as Blueberry Muffin and Chocolate Coconut Chew. Um, yum. Thank YOU LARABAR!

To make my day even brighter, this came in the mail today.

My beautifully bright swimsuit from Victoria’s Secret I ordered. Even better news is it fits. It is countdown time until our vacation now…TWO WEEKS from yesterday!

After all the excitement in the house, Dana and I ran a couple of errands including Home Depot and Target because I needed to get a couple of ingredients for our dinner.

Dinner

I sautéed 1 cup of diced onion on the stove top, then added in 1/4 cup of pre-cooked ground beef (I had cooked it a while back and froze it), 3/4 of a can of black beans, 1/2 cup corn, 1/4 cup water, and 1 Tablespoon of low sodium taco seasoning. I mixed all of the ingredients and let simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Meanwhile, I prepared lettuce cups using a head of boston lettuce. I rinsed the head of lettuce then carefully peeled off layers into cups. I also chopped a Roma tomato, and a half of an avocado (no cuts this time).

Once the filling was done simmering, I spooned 1/4 cup of it into the lettuce cups, topped them with tomato and avocado, and enjoyed a very healthy, easy and flavor-filled dinner.

Looking back on yesterday, I had a day of multiple “wins”:

  • An awesome breakfast that held me over until lunch
  • Electric work done in the basement
  • Great soup with friends for lunch
  • A run while watching fun shows
  • A giant WIN in the LARABAR sweepstakes
  • Swimsuit in the mail, AND it fits
  • Great dinner
  • And lastly, a night to relax with my boys (awwwwwww)

It was a very lucky Friday the 13th for me!

How was yours? Anything lucky or unlucky happen to you?

Continue Reading A Lucky Friday the 13th

Is it Friday Yet?

My initial thought this morning: Is it Friday yet? I don’t what the deal is this week but it is crawling at turtle pace and completely kicking my butt. Also, I haven’t been super motivated to workout this week either. Hmm…possible correlation between lack of working out and being tired? It could very well be.

To top it off, I woke up with a terrible headache.

K, that was my speedy downer rant. It feels good to let it all out. Now, gimme some coffee.

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I worked late again last night but was actually hungry when I got home unlike the night before.

I threw together a salad topped with broccoli, peas, corn, cheese, black beans, and Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard and had my self a pretty tasty salad in no time.

So delicious as always.

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I neglected to take a photo of my breakfast this morning possibly due to extreme crabbiness, but I can tell you it looked a lot like this.

Ok, more like identical to this, same bowl and all. Fage non-fat Greek yogurt, black berries, and raspberries, all drizzled with honey.

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I’m trying to think happy, positive thoughts so that I can make it through the rest of the work week, so, I thought I would leave you with some funny photos of Moose getting his teeth brushed by Dana.

I think it is one of the funniest things. He acts like he doesn’t like it at first and hesitates to lay down, but once he does cooperate, he warms up to it and ends up licking the brush afterwards like he loved it.

You brush your teeth...ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch
Mmm...minty.
Don't forget the eye teeth, dad. The smile gets the ladies.
Love this.

I hope everyone has a great Thursday. I will try to remain positive the rest of the day if you do!

Continue Reading Is it Friday Yet?

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

Happy Hump Day!

I worked late last night and so often when I work late, I get home and don’t have much of an appetite. Last night was one of those nights. I decided just to pour myself a small bowl of Fiber One Original with some raisins on top.

Then I had some of these (love these things).

And made my way into some almonds, a few more raisins, and a bite of peanut butter. Not super exciting but it was good enough. I called it an early night and woke up feeling semi-well rested.

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I went for a 30 minute walk on the treadmill this morning with a slight incline. It was a nice soothing way to start the morning, along with this yogurt bowl. I made it this morning and let it do it’s “overnight” thing for just 30 minutes before digging in. It turned out just as great!

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Anyway, moving on to the good stuff. I have one final recipe from last weekend that I still wanted to share with you. You may recall seeing photos of these…

Those are Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars and they are divine. I did make a few fat-saving adjustments here and there but really, this pan of amazingness is truly decadent, and should try to be enjoyed in portion controlled servings. Good luck with that though.

I have to share.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars (recipe adapted from www.eatrunread.com)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup and 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 5 Tablespoons butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup and 1 Tablespoon non-fat plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 11 ounces caramels*
  • 4 Tablespoons fat-free half and half
  • 1-2 teaspoons sea salt

*(I used an 11 ounce bag of small pearls of caramel that don’t have any wrapping and are great for baking)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325° F. Coat a 9 inch square pan with cooking spray (or line with aluminum foil then coat with cooking spray); set aside.
  2. In medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
  3. Using an electric mixer, cream together yogurt, butter, and sugars.
  4. Add the egg, egg white, and vanilla; mix until smooth.
  5. Slowly add in dry ingredients, mixing on low until all ingredients are incorporated.
  6. Hand mix in chocolate chips; cover dough and place in refrigerator.
  7. In medium microwave-safe bowl, combine caramels with half and half. Microwave on high stirring every 20 seconds until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth.
  8. Press half of cookie dough into bottom of prepared pan.
  9. Pour caramel on top, and spread to cover in even layer; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sea salt.
  10. Dollop the remaining half of dough on top, and carefully spread to even layer; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sea salt.
  11. Place bars in oven and bake for about 60 minutes (cooking time will vary so keep an eye on them) until top of bars have set and have a light golden color, and the edges begin to pull away from the pan.
  12. Cool bars on wire rack at room temperature. Serve warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream if you wish!

Total decadence.

Continue Reading Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

Keeping Sugar Intake Under Control: Mind Over Matter

Happy Good Friday to you all!

After work yesterday I headed to the gym. I rowed on the row machine for 5 minutes as a quick warmup, then headed to grab some free weights. I headed to the back to my favorite area of the gym for privacy, and plowed through the Pyramid Arm Workout. I don’t think “plowed” is necessarily the most accurate term to use though, because that makes it sound like it was a piece of cake for me when in reality, this was pretty challenging for me today. I was feeling exhausted with low energy. I always figure though, at least I’m doing something which is better than nothing.

Dinner last night came together in a pinch thanks to the help of the crock pot. At lunch break, I placed two chicken breasts in the crock pot (without any seasonings) and set the crock pot to “high” as it was already lunch time, and wasn’t going to have quite as long of a time to cook as usual. I love the crock pot because you set it, and forget it!

When I got home from the gym the chicken was cooked through in the crockpot. I removed it and placed into a round bowl, grabbed two forks and began shredding. I removed about half of the shredded chicken, covered it, and refrigerated it for use another day. This is the reason I don’t like to season the whole batch, because I like to use it in several different dishes. The other half of the chicken was for our dinner.

I mixed the chicken with KC Masterpiece Original Barbecue Sauce and placed it on top a bed of baby kale, diced tomatoes, diced avocado, red onion, cilantro and corn.

I then added reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese and Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard. I have made this combo before and I must say, I really struck gold again. This combination was fantastic! My inspiration for this combo was from a salad I had eaten at Famous Dave’s that was loaded with pulled chicken and honey mustard. NUM!

After dinner we headed out to run a couple of errands. We needed to buy another photo album for our wedding photos because we ran out of room on the first one. Is it bad that it’s been six months since our wedding and our wedding photos still aren’t all in an album yet? Meh.

After errands I plunked down in front of the computer because I needed recipe ideas. I told mom I would bring desserts and a fruit salad to Easter Sunday at their place. Yes, you read right, DESSERT. I haven’t had dessert since February 22nd, when Lent began. It has been great to get my sugar intake under control again especially after the holidays. My body does not crave sugar like it used to.

When re-introducing sweets back into my life, I am going to continue to be very mindful of my eating, and want to make sure not to fall into an over-indulging of sugar stage again.  I will need to remember to keep sweet treats, indeed a sweet treat every once and a while, not a sweet snack everyday. Knowing me and my sweet tooth this will probably mean keeping sweets out of the house for the most part, and if I really have a hankering for something , I will have to go out and buy it, which will slow me down.

I don’t want to “crave” sugary treats and I have a big vacation coming up in a few weeks which involves being in a swimsuit. I am hoping this motivates me to stay smart. My goal is to keep my sweet tooth under control, and it’s mind over matter.

Anyway, after browsing many photos and recipes, and drooling on my shirt, I think I have decided on two recipes, possibly three that I will be making.

1. Chocolate Caramel Bars or Carmelitas; something like these

2. Lemon Bars

3. Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (I haven’t for sure decided on this one yet)

I thought these all looked so good! I could waste so much time looking at recipes and food photos. I find it so fun and relaxing. I am such a foodie.

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Breakfast this morning was cinnamon flaxseed oatmeal with bananas and PB2. I added in a small amount of egg whites towards the end of the cooking process to add more protein to the dish. I decided to top it off with a little bit of maple syrup. It was muy delicioso.

Now, my computer is really starting to test my patience so I think this post needs to come to an end. I hope everyone has a beautiful Friday!

Continue Reading Keeping Sugar Intake Under Control: Mind Over Matter

Low-Fat Banana Bread

It’s Monday, so how about a banana bread recipe to kick off your week? What’s even better is that it is low fat, but you would never guess it seeing as there is no sacrifice in flavor. I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light and am extremely  happy with the results.

 

Low-Fat Banana Bread (makes one loaf)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 Tablespoon butter, softened
  • 1 Tablespoon non-fat Greek yogurt
  • 1 Tablespoon almond milk*
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 cups cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
  • 1/3 cup almond milk*
  • 3/4 Tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Cooking spray

*almond milk is used two different times in this recipe

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. In medium bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, stirring with a whisk.
  3. In a large bowl, cream sugars, butter, yogurt, and 1 Tablespoon of almond milk with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute).
  4. In small bowl, combine 1/3 cup almond milk and vinegar, mix to combine, set aside.
  5. Add eggs to the creamed sugar, 1 at a time. Add banana, and vanilla, continuing to mix.
  6. Alternate adding the milk vinegar mixture and flour mixture; mix at low speed until moist (do not over-mix).
  7. Pour batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch bread loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool, then remove from pan and transfer to cooling rack.

You can eat the bread plain, with your favorite nut butter, apple butter, honey, or anything else that floats your boat. This recipe is my “positive” for my Monday positive talk. I don’t always win when it comes to baking because I really like to experiment with recipes, which leaves a bit of a mystery as to the results of the finish product. This was a win. Another perk to making banana bread besides it tasting wonderful, is that it perfumes the house with such a warm, comforting scent. Have I convinced you to make it yet?

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I am off to tackle the world, aka laundry, errands, cleaning, etc. I ran two miles this morning and plan to run 2-3 this afternoon. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But first, one more cup of coffee.

Have a great day!

Question: Did anyone else bake up any delicious snacks this weekend?

 

Continue Reading Low-Fat Banana Bread

I Cook, I Eat

Happy April! Today is Dana and my 6 month wedding anniversary (and that’s no joke). 😉

Here is a very quick recap of my weekend. It looks like all I did was eat seeing as most of the photos are of food, but I promise I did more than just eat. I cooked quite a bit too!

Saturday

Morning run

run march 31

Flopped lunch. It looks pretty but didn’t taste pretty for some reason.

Amazing homemade banana bread courtesy of yours truly.

Dinner from Axel’s Bonfire at my in-law’s who just moved into their new home!

Sunday

Attempt at pumpkin protein waffles.

Part of Sunday’s lunch.

Moose and Dana.

Special 6 month anniversary dinner. 🙂

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I plan to share some of these recipes with you soon so check back!

Continue Reading I Cook, I Eat

Overnight Chia Seed Yogurt Bowl

I had a request from one of my loyal readers for the measurements of ingredients in my overnight yogurt bowl.

You would think I would have learned my lesson to  measure ingredients each time I make a new dish, but no such luck. Usually when I make this yogurt bowl I toss in a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and wait to see how it turns out. This pretty much makes for a different consistency in the yogurt each time. I like surprises, so it works for me! But, I thought I would figure out more appropriate measurements for all ya’ll, so last night, I prepared a bowl of overnight yogurt, and measured the ingredients. Give this a shot, and let me know how it turns out. 😉

Overnight Chia Seed Yogurt Bowl

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons oats

2 teaspoons chia seeds

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

stevia or other sweetener

Directions

Combine all ingredients in bowl; mix. Cover and place in refrigerator over night. In the morning, remove cover and eat as is, or add your favorite yogurt  toppings such as fresh fruit, honey, granola, cereal, etc.

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I am off of work today and have a to-do list that is nearly endless. I feel highly motivated though so I should be okay. Plus, it’s a gloomy kind of day today which makes it easier for me to be productive inside.

Some of my to-do list:

  • Shop for shower curtain for new bathroom
  • Decide on accent colors for new bathroom
  • Make a dentist appointment
  • Make a couple of phone calls
  • Clean
  • Workout?
  • Decorate shelf ladder that we put up eons ago

I better hop to it! Speaking of hop, Easter is only a little over a week away which means Lent is nearing to an end. I am pretty darn excited to have a big ol’ hunk of chocolate; possibly a Reese’s peanut butter cup. Oh, and did I mention there is a Freeziac Frozen Yogurt Shop opening up near me? Needless to say I am just a little pumped about it. I will be going there once Lent is over and concocting something like this:

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A real quick recap of last night

I had mentioned that I had fun workout plans for after work yesterday. After work I headed to the gym and ran 3 miles on the treadmill. That’s obviously not the fun part. I was waiting for my cousin Betsy to show up. We had planned to meet at the gym and go to Zumba together. Now, I have been to three different Zumba classes each with a different instructor, and I realize that each Zumba instructor has their own style, and I respect that. With that being said, I went in to class last night with an open mind.

After the first minute of class, I could tell today’s Zumba experience was going to be, shall I say, “different.”

I really don’t know if the instructor was a certified Zumba instructor or not. Some of the moves she had us doing were completely off the wall, extremely awkward and very repetitive. The moves were nearly impossible to repeat because there was a total lack of rhythm which, as a former dancer myself, drives me crazy. I am the type of person who has a hard time NOT running to the beat in the music because I have been so trained to listen to music in dance.

We were so dissappointed in the class that we only stuck it out for the first half. I understand each instructor has their own style and there were a lot of people in the class, so it could be possible that many people out there do like this style and instructor. I just was not a fan.

Anyway, I was glad I had got my workout in beforehand, because I hadn’t broken a sweat from the first half hour of the class. Looking on the positive side though, I got to see my Betsy. LOVE HER.

After dinner I got home and Dana fired up the grill. On the menu was turkey burgers! Num!

I couldn’t decide if I wanted ketchup or bbq sauce for the burger, so I squirted a little of both on my plate! I also had a big green kale salad on the side.

K, that ended up being a little longer than a “quick” recap from last night. Now, I’m off to tackle that to-do list!

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