Off for the weekend...

...No, not off from work! Rather, out of town to play two shows tonight and tomorrow night! (Getting home laaate on Saturday!!)

So I'll leave you with a quick post. Here's what my lovely breakfast is to start fueling a long day. My dilemma is that I want to get a workout in but I always wake up hungry, so I'm just eating now and then hoping a short run/workout won't bother me too much.

-oat bran bowl with grapes, a chopped fig, flax, pumpkin, cottage cheese, and PB.

Some of yesterday's eats included:

My wonderful, sweet, amazing boyfriend brought this home to me on Sunday when I had been having a rough weekend:

Letting the pictures speak for themselves....


I can't figure out if it's prettier with or without the flash, so here's with the flash:

You *know* you want some!

This is by far THE BEST gelato (or ice cream or really any other frozen treat I've ever had. Just throwin' that out there! And it probably isn't long for this world, seeing how it's sitting in my freezer! People, seriously, I can't describe how incredible this is!)

OK sorry, back on topic!

Or rather, going back to being grateful for all of the things my bf does for me, including little surprises he picks up for me without telling me. Like this Halloween Smiley Cookie. There's a restaurant in town know for their original smiley cookies and they do decorations for different times of the year. He and I split this, and yes I know there's probably 400-500 calories in this, and yes, I'm also totally OK with that! :)


A random snack.

Yesterday, I also went out to lunch at a Greek food restaurant with my former roommate and had pita and hummus and a whitefish with tomatoes and spinach topping and rice. And later after teaching, I went over to my friend's house and sipped Gentleman Jack and had one slice of pizza while talking and playing Trivial Pursuit on the Wii! So much fun and I was out until 2:30 then I woke up at 8:15 with my alarm! Not enough sleep but that OK!

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For a chance to win some Chobani love go here.

And for the chance to win some healthy and delicious cereal go here.

Alright friends, I'm off to finish up a few things and play two shows. I'll be back on Sunday!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Blah day.

Good evening everyone. It's Monday around 9pm and I wanted to recap my day quickly, because there were some lovely eats. As for exercise...does a 40 minute walk and a few push ups count? ;-) Honestly, it's getting colder here (= 50 degrees is cold for me!) and although I don't want to make excuses, it made it really hard to want to exercise. (And my gym was closed for Yom Kippur.) So I just enjoyed the walk.

BUT...

I did sign up for a 5K race this Sunday at the local zoo! It should be super cool, because I'm heard that you can see the animals while you run! And all the proceeds benefit the zoo, so it doesn't matter that I will probably have to take many walking breaks. Plus, my boyfriend is running it with me! I'll let you know how it goes!

Onto my food.

I made a bowl of oat bran today, but I need to switch it up soon, because I didn't enjoy this very much. *Gasp*

-pumpkin
-ground flax
-some black grapes cut up
-1/2 a banana
-cottage cheese
-PB

With coffee:


Then I was literally on the computer all morning (blog addiction! But don't tell anyone!) until lunch. (Wow, that really makes it seem like I have no life!)

I made this lovely meal:


Started with this:

(one zucchini, 1/4 white onion with EVOO and garlic)

Then I added this to the pan, which was EXCELLENT, by the way!


Leftovers in the pan:

Up close and personal:


With dry toast. I hate butter! I do salt it though--is that weird?

Went out for a walk, did some work around the house, overall it was a very lazy day! I need to do something with myself in the mornings! But tomorrow and Wednesday I have LONG days of baby-sitting 8:30am-12:30pm, then teaching all afternoon (3-8 and 2-8 respectively) both days! So I'll keep busy enough. And I'm honestly exhausted. I have no idea why, but I considering getting in bed right after I finish this post to be asleep by 10pm. That's super early for me, but my body is asking for sleep. I don't see why I should fight it. I just hope I'm not getting sick! (By the way, I sleep a ridiculous amount--like I think I need 9 to 10 hours each night (does anyone know why this is?!?) and the past 2 nights have been closer to 6, so maybe that's why!)

How much sleep do you get every night? How much do you think your body really needs and does its best at?

I use to survive on 3-6 hours in grad school, but I felt awful all the time. Now my body has rebelled and insists on at least 6-8 every night, but more like 9-10 is better!

Back to food though. I had a quick snack before teaching from 5-7pm.


And finally for dinner, I made soup and toast, because I have been freezing for the past 3 days! I wanted something warm!


I ate the whole can. Everyone knows there is not really two servings in there!


Toast with cheddar cheese!


And since I have been hungry ALL DAY (argh!) I made a dessert sampler plate--YES, this is a VERY good idea, in case you were wondering!


-1/2 a banana
-1 Kashi Trail Mix cookie
-PB
-1 square amazingly ridiculously good 70% dark chocolate bar from Whole Foods!
(And unpictured, I had sugar free hot chocolate with this!)

**Edit: I'm not going to lie. I had two more squares of dark chocolate, more PB and the other half of the banana! Such is life!**

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Onto other matters. I have been given this award by Kris and Nancy!


Thank you girls!

And for my nominations, I present this to:

1) Michelle: She's doing clinical rotations in Minnesota, but this girl's a Pittsburgher at heart and we share that love! She also a darn good runner, but sadly I don't share that with her!

2) Emily: Studying hard to be a dietician, completing an awesome internship, and the first (and to date, only!) food blogger I've gotten to meet in real life!

3) Heather: I love her eating style and her general positive attitude. Such an inspiration!

4) Caitlin: She's a wildly popular food blogger (for good reason!) and she probably won't ever even see this, but I just had to give her an award for all of her accomplishments, her general outlook on life and her endless energy! She pretty much amazes me EVERY SINGLE TIME she posts!

5) Jess: She's still in high school but this girl knows what she wants from life and has her stuff together! And she has a kick a%& blog, too!

6) Sarah: What an amazing runner she is, regularly hitting the double digits of miles! I think if you added up my mileage for the whole week, it still wouldn't break the big 1-0! Plus, she's freaking hilarious in her writing style!

7) Sophia: This girl is living life fully in Southern California as she embarks on her college career! I'm so proud of her for fully beating ED (from one recovered woman to another!) and we share the experience of both being missionary kids! (More about this in a future post!)

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OK, I'm going to get in bed and read about teenage vampires. (A.k.a, Breaking Dawn, or the 4th and final book in the Twilight series, which I just started for my FIRST TIME!)


Have a wonderful night everyone! No post in the morning tomorrow because it's an early morning for me. Goodnight!

Happy Saturday!

Good morning!

I woke up very hungry for some reason (frequently happens after strength training) so I made breakfast right away. I had a bowl of oat bran with:

-organic ground flax
-1 chopped fig
-1/2 a peach
-1/3 C (?) cottage cheese
-PB

And with coffee:

Right after blogging this morning, I'm off to teach at one studio in the morning and another studio in the afternoon. Only about 3 1/2 hours of teaching, but there will be a lot of driving, as there are on most of my Saturdays.

Yesterday I made another fabulous lunch of a rice bowl with tons of toppings:

This included:

-brown rice
-last of the sauteed cabbage
-1/2 can of tuna
-1/2 sauteed zucchini with tofu
-cheddar cheese
-avocado
-salsa

I'm out of salsa, so I need to get that, and today I plan to have this meal again with the remainder of the tuna and the zucchini. :) It's REALLY tasty!


My sweet tooth hit HARD yesterday night so at first I had a banana with PB.

Then I was still craving sweets so I had the other half of a cupcake that I bought from a local bakery that had their $1 cupcake day on Wednesday. (I never blogged about the other half, eaten on Wednesday night.) I believe this flavor was vegan too, although I ordered it simply because it was so chocolatey! :)



Oooh! It stands up. (*I'm so proud*-haha!)


And another random snack from yesterday:


Plus, look what came in the mail! A free sample!


It might have to get eaten today.

Well, I'm running late to go shower and teach, so I'll see you all tonight to read and comment! Hope you all have a FABULOUS Saturday! :)

Nutty, Clustery Giveaway!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I have a new giveaway for you all, but first let me catch up on some food quickly. Here's some of what I've been eating lately. Breakfast today was a lovely bowl of oat bran:


-oat bran
-ground flax
-raspberries
-Naturally More PB
-Almond Butter
-Cottage Cheese

With coffee:

I always seem to have plenty of breakfast pictures for you all and today is no exception. Here is yesterday's breakfast:

A mushroom and spinach omelet with salsa and a piece of ww toast with almond butter.

**I woke up craving mushrooms, so that's what I made. Who craves mushrooms other than me? Seriously! What's the strangest thing you crave regularly or have craved recently? Other than those mushrooms, my regular craves are broccoli, red peppers, chocolate, peanut butter, and oat bran.**

Yesterday I went back to my doctor because my finger infection is NOT going away!! I have started a third course of antibiotics (but a different kind this time--a nastier antibiotic!) and that's one of the reasons I've been eating a lot of yogurt. I've also been taking a probiotic supplement because three courses of antibiotics are really rough on your body! I m really hoping that this new antibiotic clears it up!

Back to breakfast from Monday morning, which was a bowl of cereal:


This was a base of frozen strawberries, with two kind of cereal, plain yogurt and peanut butter.

Later that day I snacked on a yogurt with more cereal and an apple with peanut butter.

And going back all the way to Sunday was another great bowl of oat bran:


-flax
-cottage cheese
-grapes
-almond butter :)

And for lunch I made a "real" meal of an Indian spiced sausage from Whole Foods (I have one more of these that will probably get eaten later today!) as well as sauteed veggies and spaghetti squash topped with hummus. And some red wine! Woo!


On Sunday morning I played with my church and in the afternoon I played an awesome show with a local rock band which was so much fun!

At some point for dinner I had some sauteed veggies with almond butter on them. Don't knock it 'til you try it! This is so good!


And another apple, yes with MORE almond butter.

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And now for the new giveaway of a product that I personally love!!

I am giving away two packages of Nature Valley Nut Clusters in Nut Lovers and Roasted Almond varieties, along with two coupons for $1.60 each off this product! Additionally, I will select a second winner to receive just two coupons also for $1.60 off the product! You can view the full product details and nutritional information here.


How to enter:

There are many ways to enter. Please leave a separate entry for each one you do! I will select the winner via random integer generation next Wednesday, Sept. 30th!

1. Leave a comment on this post telling why you would like to try this new product, or if you've already tried it, what your thoughts on it were.

2. Follow my blog and/or add me to your Google Reader or let me know if you already do.

3. Spread the word about this giveaway by linking back to it on your own blog.

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I'm off to work out then teach all afternoon! Happy hump day!