Getting my car back!

Good morning!

I'm so excited because I finally get to pick up my car that has been in the shop since Monday for inspection!! {Yes, it *is* Friday today! In their defense, I think they were doing the best they could, and several repairs needed to be done before it would pass inspection, but it's still frustrating not having my car!}

Here was my lovely breakfast: oat bran, cottage cheese, sliced mango, PB. Simple, but excellent!

With coffee. (Please ignore the messy desk!)

And of course, I had some more Amazing Grass yesterday! (Speaking of which, don't forget to enter my giveaway!) I love drinking these while I'm fighting off a cold, because I know that I am inundating my immune system with nutrients to help it do its job!

Mixed with some OJ.


This was delicious!

I also had about 2/3 of this bar on my way to work:

I think I like the original flavor better, but this was still good!

And another leftover half of this bar. (My snacks are random!)

And one more delicious snack!
The flax is just in the picture because I had a few tsps of it in the yogurt, but you can't see it! Notice the yummy PB coating the spoon handle! I pretty much just don't eat anything with out nut butter anymore! {This is a very good thing!} :D

Well, I'm off to pick up my poor little car that's finally fixed, so I'll leave you with a few giveaways around the blog world! Enjoy!

-Plugging my Amazing Grass giveaway, one more time! ;-)

-Kid Glue is giving away Goji Gourmet cookies.

-Averie is giving away Fruition Pro Bars.

-Jen is giving away Kay's Naturals.

-Jamie is giving away Barney Butter!

-Jamie is also giving away women's running shoes!

-AnAppleADay is giving away a Soda Stream machine.

Amazing Grass giveaway!

I have had the pleasure of sampling several Amazing Grass products over the past few days. Now it is time for the giveaway! I think blog giveaways are so much fun because we all share a love for healthy living, fitness, and blogging! :)

However, you either have to read my regular post first, or just scroll to the bottom to get to the giveaway. ;-) So without further ado, here's a few of my good eats over the last two days, including a few more Amazing Grass products.

I took and Original GreenSuperfood bar to work on Tuesday and ate it before 3 hours of teaching. It held me over very well, gave me a lot of energy and was supremely delicious. These bars are

Raw

Cold Processed

Alkaline

Gluten Free

Dairy Free

Vegan

And here's what's in it:

Organic Dates, Organic Agave Nectar, Amazing Grass Green SuperFood (Organic Wheat Grass, Organic Barley Grass, Organic Alfalfa, Organic Spirulina, Organic Spinach, Organic Chlorella, Organic Broccoli, Organic Acai, Organic Maca, Organic Carrot, Organic Beet, Raspberry, Organic Rose Hips, Pineapple, Green Tea, Organic Flax Lignans, L. Adidophilus, Alpha and Beta Amylase, Protease, Lipase, Lactase, Cellulase, Organic Peppermint), Organic Cashews, Organic Almond Butter, Organic Almonds, Organic Sunflower Seeds, Organic Dried Cranberries, Organic Pumpkin Seeds, Organic Dried Coconut and Organic Vanilla Extract. Allergy Information: Contains Almonds and Cashews


I also stopped into a grocery store to pick up a gift certificate for my mom for her birthday that's coming up and while I as there I bought this new drink to try:


I work around a lot of kids (I teach at least 20-25 kids every week, from several different school districts!) so I'm amazed that I'm not just always sick. However, it is eventually inevitable, especially at this time of year. I have had so many children come in either actively sick or with a "residual cough" as they call it. So I bought some Vitamin-C rich juice to drink up.

This morning I had the brilliant idea to mix the Mango juice with a Wheat Grass packet!


It was seriously delicious! I can't wait to mix another packet of GreenSuperfood into more juice!

With it, for my breakfast I sauteed 2 small leaves of kale and a bit of red onion. (Trying to emphasize the greens to help my immune system as much as possible!)

I also made a one egg omelet with Monterey Jack cheese:

Yesterday's breakfast was a similar omelet:


Eggs, cheese, kale, avocado, salsa.

With some juice and coffee:

A snack from yesterday. This PURE bar flavor is definitely my favorite! And they were on sale for 2/$3 but it rang up as 2/$4 so I got two bars for a total of $1 from the store! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, now for the most exciting part of this post! A giveaway!

Here's what you can win!


And here's how to win them! There are many ways.
(Please leave a separate comment for each entry!)

1) Leave me a comment telling me what Amazing Grass product you would like to try the most and why.

2) Spread the word!! Please link back to this giveaway on your own blog and leave the link where I can check it out! If you don't have a blog, tell at least 3 friends about it!

3) Add me to your blogroll and/or Google Reader!

4) Follow me with Google Friend Connect

5) Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/gymcat

That's all folks! I'll select a winner a week from today on Thursday, November 5th!

Amazing energy from an AMAZING product!

I hope everyone's having a great week so far!

Last week, I received an e-mail from Teri Jo at Amazing Grass offering to send me samples of their products for me to try and review on my blog. I received the shipment yesterday and got super excited when I opened it to reveal this:

Of course, I had to immediately try one, as I've seen them all around the blog world, but never gotten to taste them! It was perfect timing as I was due to go play racquetball with a friend and I was hoping for an energy burst! I mean, the list of ingredients is incredible! So many antioxidant-rich greens and fruits and vegetables!

I tried an Original Blend Amazing Meal and mixed it with 10 ounces of water in the shaker that she also provided for me.

Enjoyed with a Chobani yogurt with Uncle Sam cereal.

And the result? AMAZING!

I love the taste and the fact that it mixes well with water, so there are no chunks of powder left in it. And the thing I loved the very most?! Was how much energy I had all night while playing racquetball! In fact, my friend and I ended up sharing the court with extremely advanced players (we aren't really to that level!) and we played an intense game for two hours and this meal provided me A LOT of energy to use up while playing! Never mind that I am SOOO sore today! Or the gigantic blood blister that I got from the intense game. (Eww, I know!)


Naturally, I couldn't wait to try another one, so this morning, after getting a much needed 9 1/2 hours of sleep, I tried this:


This was absolutely delicious! It tasted like chocolate milk, and being the chocoholic that I am, of course I loved it! :)

I will definitely be taking one of bars along for a snack while I'm teaching violin all night to little kids and I'm super excited about trying those, too!

Also, check back to my blog for a giveaway coming up soon. I'll give you one hint: it's AMAZING! :)

So in other food news, I made a delicious omelet for breakfast, consisting of:

-1 egg, 1 eggwhite
-sauteed kale and red onion
-sliced avocado
-Monterey Jack cheese
-WF salsa

The end result was spectacular!

With coffee:

It's OK, you can be jealous! ;-)

I must have really been on a food roll today because I also made a PHENOMENAL sandwich:

-Nature's Pride 12 Grain bread (this is exceptionally delicious bread!)
-tuna w. light Italian dressing
-avocado
-Monterey Jack cheese melted on the bread right after toasting it...like this:
-1 gigantic leaf of sauteed kale with EVOO:
Layer it up:
And the end result was definitely something I need to make again, soon! (Read: tomorrow most likely!)

Here's a deliciously ripe pear that I snacked on yesterday:

Here are three quick giveaways for you all, to keep you busy until I have my own giveaway, coming up very soon!

Jenny is giving away Fiber One muffins! Fiber is good, muffins are good. Yep, I want to try these! :)

AnAppleADay is giving away TSP Spices, that come in little 1 tsp serving sizes!

And Missy is giving away a Progresso Panko Gift Pack! Looks great!

I'm heading off to bed now. Have a good night!

Yes, I am a dork.

I went to the gym yesterday, to use the treadmill while watching the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships! I had a great time, and a 90 minute workout (roughly 30 minutes running, 60 minutes walking) but I do fear that this officially qualifies me as a gymnastics dork! :)

Anyway, the highlight of my week was the delivery of a case of Chobani Greek yogurt that I won!

It started with a big box that said:

Which I opened to reveal this:

I can't get these in the grocery stores around where I live, so I think it was at this point that the incredibly excited shrieking began! Luckily no roommates were home or they would have thought I was OFF.MY.ROCKER and probably would have started calling around to find a mental facility to commit me to! ;-)



All three flavors have similar nutritional facts and they are quite good! They have a little too much sugar for me to buy on a regular basis (I normally stick with unsweetened!) but they are truly INCREDIBLE! They are so creamy, very sweet but not overly so, and are pretty large portions for 140 calories! I have REALLY been enjoying these and I can't wait to eat the rest of them. As of now, I've tried all three flavors and they are all fresh and crisp tasting, so it's impossible to pick my favorite!

Thanks to Ellie from Inside I'm Still Dancing and Chobani for giving me the chance to try these!

Onward...to several breakfasts I've enjoyed recently.

Keepin' it simple with oat bran, almond butter, and a blueberry Chobani!

Slightly more complex...oatmeal with a banana, PB, blueberry Chobani and cottage cheese. This ended up being way too much food and I saved some of it for later in the day.


Swap the banana for grapes and you've got the same b-fast!


Nothing you haven't seen. Oat bran with cottage cheese, a banana, flax, carob chips and PB. Drool worthy. (OK, I've gotta admit that most of my breakfasts are freakin' amazing and it's definitely my favorite meal of the day!)

With coffee. In case there was any doubt, I have coffee EVERY SINGLE morning, no exceptions, even if it doesn't make it into the picture! :) But in this case it did.

One more...


I went on a cooking spree earlier this week and braved my acorn squash, with the crappy knives that I have in my current living situation. When I finally move out next year, I WILL be buying sharper, better knives! But for now, I made this...

Just roasted with EVOO til they were done. I don't even remember how long. Sorry.

And I made my usual pan of veggies. I added kale this time for variety!


Finally I made a pot of split yellow peas simmered in this:

with a spoon of this:

It turned out great, but sadly the pictures of it did not! :-(

Those veggies came along as part of a meal the next day:

Along with a Chobani and Fiber One cereal:

One more bagel while out and about. (Example of my on-the-go lifestyle: On Saturday I left my house at 8:30am and got home around 1am! Word.) Although this bagel and its side dishes were my Wednesday dinner when I taught from 2pm to 6pm and then drove an hour to an orchestra rehearsal from 7:30-10:30pm!

I try to keep spreading the Operation Beautiful love while I'm out!


Plus my favorite:

Sliced with hummus is good:

But plain is the best!

And:

By the way, I ADORE this particular flavor of Luna bar!! I seriously eat (at least!) one of these ALMOST EVERY SINGLE DAY! (Even though most of the times the pictures don't make it onto the blog!) Yes, I know it's not exactly a whole food, but it's SOOOO delicious and low glycemic so it keeps me full for a long time!

Best snack ever.

And don't forget dessert:


I grabbed lunch with my boyfriend this week. Foot long ham on wheat with cheddar, yes I would like it toasted, please. :)

Many of my nights end with a glass of wine! Resveratrol is important! ;-)

This bag of chips didn't last too long. I guess it doesn't when you count three servings as "dinner" and call it even. *Ahem* Which I might or might not have done. (In my defense I was driving home, ready to gnaw off my arm and didn't have any other food on me. Those suckers didn't stand a chance, anyway!)


Chocolate gelato while reading blogs? Yes, please.

Finally, I've been downing these and Emergen-C like it's going out of style, due to how many kids I tach ever week and how many of them (and their parents and their siblings...) are sick! I'm amazed that I HAVEN'T yet gotten sick!

I'm sorry that this is so long!

Hope everyone is having a great day!