Oh Monday, why must you be here already?

Morning folks. I hope you all are geared up for another work/school/or whatever you may be doing, week!

My knee is still hurting this morning, so I listened to my body and gave it the rest it needs. I am hoping that it will *magically* heal itself, because I am dying without my morning run this morning. However, I am trying to be positive, think happy thoughts, right? At least I have my good health 🙂

Last night I made one of Gina’s breakfast cookies. Mine included 1/3 cup oats, 1/8 cup milk, 1 tablespoon Banana Monkey PB and 1/2 of a naner.

Ugh, plates, why must you be so hideous? Good news though, we are hopefully getting new ones *relatively* soon! So bear with me folks!

This breakfast cookie, as Gina would say, rocked my face off. How and why did I not try these sooner? These will be a common breakfast option, as I don’t want to bore you with my standard toast w/ nut butter. 😉 With the cookie, I had another banana. Yea… errr.. I guess I want a little crazy with the banana theme this morning?

I was a lazy bum last night and didn’t put together any lunch for today, so instead, I get a lunch prepared by Lean Cuisine. Stuffed cabbage with whipped potatoes, which I must say, is actually pretty good. On the side, I have two pieces of delicious, crusty bread, which I will most likely smear with a little almond butter.

Snacks are still up in the air! I am all out of bars, MAJOR 😦 :(. I need to go venture to find some, possibly today during lunch, we shall see.

Anybody have any fun or exciting plans for the week?

Mexican Fiesta!

Hola! We had a Mexican Fiesta over here tonight, and boy oh boy was it tasty! We had all of the fixin’s- ground hamburger with taco seasoning, tomato, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa and guac, made by yours truly!

All the fixings:

My three dipping ‘sauces’- spicy salsa, sour cream and guac. I did a pretty stellar job on the guac, not to toot my own horn or anything 😉

Close up of the fab tacos

All together now, with some chips on the side, aka crack. Once I start eating them, I can’t stop.

There was definitely a third taco that was consumed! I am one fully lady, however, not too full for dessert. We have some brownies left that “have to be eaten” or else they will go bad… a scoop of the new ice cream I bought earlier will go G.R.E.A.T. on top of a thick wedge. 🙂

By the way, our kitchen table currently looks like this…

We started a puzzle this afternoon of the Chicago skyline. I got it on my trip to Chicago this summer. Love that city! So needless to say, dinner was eaten on the couch.

I am off to relax and enjoy the last few hours of my weekend before I hit the hay. What is a dish that you haven’t had in a long time, but love?

Hurray for Yoga!

Afternoon!

The lunch post is a little late, because this lazy bum has been loungin!

After breakfast, I headed straight to the grocery store, because I needed fresh produce like whoa. Here is my loot:

-Peaches
-Cantaloupe
-Strawberries
-Grapes
-Bananas
-Green bell pepper
-Cucumber
-Lettuce
-Tomato
-Sweet Potato
-Avocado (very ripe, need to incorporate this into dinner!)
-Broccoli

-Lean pockets
-Lean Cuisine
-Yogurt
-Cheddar Cheese
-Deli style sliced chicken
-Ice cream (with strawberry and blueberry swirls, num!)
-Forgot to photograph eggs and a loaf of bread from the bakery

I snacked on a bowl of trail mix with some dried fruit mixed in, which went unphotographed.

After a little pick me up from my snack, I did yoga for the first time!!! Being this was my first time, I did one of their free classes- Power Yoga for beginners. Verdit? I liked it! I think it will take a few classes to get into the grove, but I plan to stick with it, maybe once or twice a week? Do you do yoga?

For lunch, I wanted to incorporate some of the fresh produce, since I have been lacking in that category lately.

Blueberry yogurt with Bluberry Special K, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, strawberries and banana. Also, a piece of the fresh bakery bread with butta.

Ahhhh, tasted SO good. I have felt a little off and unhealthy the past few days, eating tons of processed, and little to no ‘fresh’ foods. While I do believe you can healthfully incorporate packaged foods into your diet (hello chips, brownies, Lean Cuisine, etc. 🙂 ), you always need to balance it out with the good stuff: fruit, veggies, yogurt, protein… you get the picture.

I’m off to read on our balcony for awhile. I need to find my book, it has been awhile!

Lazy Sunday

Morning friends. It has been quite the lazy morning here in this household. I woke up around 7, surfed the internet for awhile and cleaned!

I also am contemplating buying the CSS package from WordPress. Has anybody ever had any experience with this? I want to make my blog look more ‘me’, and the free stuff is just too limited!

This mornings eats include a few unphotographed bites of a way too overripe banana with peanut butter. When Mike woke up, we made cinnamoin rolls with cream cheese frosting, which he snuck into the grocery trip last week. Trickster! 🙂

I had a sandwich thin with almond butter, half of a cinnamoin roll (I couldn’t resist the cream cheese frosting, holy moly delicious) and a glass of OJ with pulp. I love pulp.

Mmmm, look at that yumminess!

Well I’m off to the store because we literally have NO fresh produce, yogurt or milk. I am going insane!

Catch ya later, gators!

There’s a first time for everything

Whew! What a day. I’m so happy to be home and in comfy clothes. I have the digs all to myself for awhile, Mike went to a movie with his dad, so it’s time to catch up on some of my tivo’d girlie shows 🙂 Veryyy excited.

We literally worked all day at both of our ‘old’ houses, until about 6, cleaning, moving heavy furniture out, etc. Fun way to spend a Saturday, huh? At least it is all done! And I forgot my CAMERA and my PHONE! So no pictures of my snacks, but I do have a recap available: peanut butter cookie Larabar (my favorite, by far), an apple and about a fourth of my friends turkey Jimmy Johns sammie.

When I got home, I was still hungry, but not ready to cook up dinner just yet. To hold me over, I had some delicious buttermilk bread with butta.

Last weekend I picked up some tofu, which I have been wanting to try for some time now. Since Mike wasn’t going to be home for dinner, and refuses to try it, tonight was the night to break it out! I have seen Caitlin bake up some delicious looking tofu, so I referenced her site on how to make it.

I tossed my tofu in a few tablespoons of BBQ sauce and about a tablespoon of honey. I baked it for 30 minutes at 325 degrees. Along side I had some green beans, and some delicious parmesan risotto. This is the first time I had tried this kind, but I will definitely be picking up this kind up again! I was a big fan of the tofu as well 🙂

The risotto box so ya’ll can look for it in your grocery store.

I also had a beer with dinner to decompress from the day. Nummy stuff I tell ya!

Well I’m off to watch some trashy tv and catch up on some blogs. There will be some type of dessert or snack later most likely.

I just realized today marks my one week anniversary of blogging. Haha. I’m a cornball. But in all honesty, I love blogging and being part of the blog world. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you continue to. Night!

Movin’ and shakin’

I have to make this post speedy! We are headed out to our unglamorous afternoon 😦 Mike is driving so that between destinations, I can look for recipes in a few cookbooks I am bringing along. One of my favorite things to do!

I made it 10 miles this morning, in about 1 hour and 35 minutes. Whoohoo! It felt GREAT until at the end, my knee started to give out a bit.

I’ve had this happen before, and usually, if I take a few days off from running, it’s all good. So that is going to be my prescription for the time being. If it doesn’t get better I, of course, will get it checked out by a real doctor. Tomorrow looks like it may be the day to try yoga, a la Jenna, at yogadownload.com.

After long runs, it usually takes awhile for my hunger to kick in. But due to having to rush out the door, I put together a quick lunch of a Chicken Parmesan Lean Pocket, strawberries and blueberries with some whipped cream for a little added sweetness, and these new Alexia chips.

These are supposedly ‘Natural’ chips made from 100% real vegetables, 0 grams of trans fat per serving and no artificial preseravties. Pretty good ingredient list for a chip of sorts, could be better. Always got to try new fun foods once though I think!

I know my hunger is going to kick in like WHOA this afternoon, Mike doesn’t know this yet, but I am going to request a stop at Whole Foods to pick up some snackies.

Enjoy your afternoon bloggies!

Over the top

Happy Saturday! Sorry I was MIA last night, we had a little bit too much fun 😉

112 Eatery was a great local neighborhood find! The restaurant was pretty small, but the layout and the design made it feel just the opposite. This was definitely a local favorite, the restaurant was still packed when we left at 10.

Mike wanted to take a photo of the bar. Pretty neat!

When you sit down at your table, you are greeted with salted spicy almonds and olives. The almonds were tasty, but the olives tasted a little bland- blah.

Followed by a BREAD BASKET!!! Now, I know a lot of people shy away from bread, especially white bread, but this is one love of mine that I can’t pass up. The bread was warm and chewy, I had one piece with a small dab of butter.

The appetizers on the menu didn’t appeal to any of us. Mike, as well as one of our friends, isn’t particiularly a seafood fan. All but three of their appetizer choices were seafood, and the other three, well, didn’t sound too hot either. So instead, we ordered Cauliflower Fritters. (My photo, followed by a much better photo from their website)

Meh, I had a bite and wasn’t too impressed. However, Mike and our friend Luke, LOVED these. Boys and anything fried, huh? 🙂

For dinner, I had heard that you can’t go wrong with the burger and fries, so that is what I got!

Holy.totally.not.good.for.you.! But oh, oh, so good! The burger was topped with brie cheese by the way. I had about a little of 1/2 of it, maybe closer to 2/3? The french fries were ‘double fried’ and extra crispy on the outside, but soft in the inside, just the way I like it. I had a few handfuls of these bad boys as well.

Mike and our friend Jodi (hi Jodi!) ordered the gougère & fried mortadella sandwich, which was basically a spin on a classic ham and cheese. After a bit of disappointment due to how tiny it was, Mike put it in a hilarious way, ‘It was really good plane food!’. What a comedian 🙂

On the side, Mike ordered pan-fried gnocchi w/ parmesan reggiano…. there are no words for this dish. Wow, so good!

Now, I had only ever had the kind of gnocchi you buy at the grocery store. Folks, that doesn’t even come close to the real deal. It is a definite must try.

The four of us also split a bottle of Riesling 🙂 We headed back to our place after for a few more drinks and some Rock Band action. By the time that our friends left, I was exhausted and didn’t have the mental capacity to get me through writing this post. But I may or may not have had a few spoonfuls of ice cream, I’ll leave that one up to you to guess. But here the post is this morning!

So I set my alarm for 8:30 this morning, which is super late for me to wake up, even on a weekend. I find myself getting up at 7 even on the weekends. But with the late night, I let myself ‘sleep in’. I had half of an Arnold’s sandwich thin (love these), with Jungle Banana PB Loco peanut butter. I told ya’ guys I had a huge stash of nut butter flavors- although they are only limited to pb and ab.

I am off to the gym here in a few minutes to attempt to run. Ugh… the thought of running right now. I’ll be fine though, I’m just too comfy in my pj’s!

We have a not-so-fun day today. Mike and I both have to go to our respective ‘old houses’ and clean them out since our leases end September 1st at the old digs. I also have a few last pieces of furniture that we need to pack up and take out to my aunts. Hopefully tonight I can curl up on the couch and relax.

But an exciting thing that I get to look forward to- in less than a week I get to go to DALLAS TO SEE MY MAMA!!! Mike is coming with, and my brother is flying in as well. Ahhh, I love going ‘home’, its the greatest feeling. And plus, you guys will get to go on a mini-vaca with me too, I’ll be sure to take lots of photos.

Ok, I am off my friends!

What is your favorite thing about going ‘home’ to your parents house?

Exhausted

Hey lovelies.

I am SO exhausted. Why Jenna, why? Work was super mellow today, no idea why I feel like I could go curl up on my comfy couch and sleep for 10 hours straight. That can’t happen though, but I think I would rather take the alternative anyway 🙂

Tonight, Mike and I are going on a ‘double date’ with some of our friends to 112 Eatery. I’ve heard great things, so I will give you guys a full recap, don’t you worry. I am going to try to be brave and take my camera out in public for the first time. Yikes!

I’m not sure of post dinner festivities, so I may or may not be back tonight. 😉 If I am back, I could be drogging, as Caitlin has come to coin the term, which I adore.

On to eats…

May I present to you, a four berry, white chocolate chip scone? Why yes, I may! It was to.die.for. These guys are 100% worth it and 110% necessary.

Look at those berries!!!

Nom nom nom.

Lunch was courtesy of Jimmy Johns. Veggie sammie with mozzarella cheese, a tiny bit of mayo and avocado smear. I also had about half this bag of Salt and Vinegar chips.

Afternoon snackie was my delicious PB Banana Bliss cake, which I am still so proud of myself for creating the recipe from scratch. I promise my thrill over my self created recipes will die down once I start coming up with more 😉

Dinner isn’t until 8:30, and this chica is starving, so I am off to find a snack.

What are you doing tonight?

Dreary Friday

TGIF my friends!!! This has been a long week for me at work, so thank goodness it is time for a little play.

However, the weather here in Minnesota isn’t going to be too great this weekend. Cold and rainy. Seriously Minnesota, your summer weather has been absolutely cruddy. Oh well.

Friday is SCONE FRIDAY in my book. There is a little restaurant in the skyway that is a hidden treasure. On Fridays, a few of my work friends and I treat ourselves to coffee and treats (scone for me). They have at least 12-15 scone varieties, and they are the size of my head, literally. The past two weeks, by the time I got there, they have been SOLD OUT! Gasp! So I got to get movin’ and shakin’! I will snap a photo of course, but here is a stand in.

I literally can’t find one thing that sounds good to bring for lunch, do you ever have that happen? So I am going to say, screw it, I will get something from somewhere around work. 🙂

For a snack, I did pack some Peanut Butter Banana Bliss Cake. You must try this stuff!

Ok friends, I’m gonna boogie to work! Check with you later. I hope your Friday speeds by!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Experiment gone RIGHT!

“Holy f, it doesn’t get any better than this”. This is a direct quote from Mike in regards to my baked creation that I literally dreamt about last night. Now, Mike usually doesn’t like anything even ‘semi-healthy’ for the most part, so for him to state that about this creation, it MUST be good. However, you are going to have to wait until the end of this post to see what I concocted! 😉

My apple crisp bar (second half of breakie)

As stated in my morning post, lunch was catered at work today from a local restaurant called D.Brians. I got a turkey sandwich on wheat, with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and light mayo. On the side was a bag of Baked Lays, an apple and a cookie. I swear this week is semi-abnormal. I feel like I have been having tons of baked goods, which I LOVE, but usually don’t have as many as I have had this week. You only live once though, right?

This afternoon I munched on a few handfuls of trail mix, and a few of these guys. (Spiced up the picture a bit, he he)

Super corny, but better than a boring beige desk if you ask me.

Immediately when I got home, I bolted into the kitchen, got out my KitchenAid, and started on my experiment. Due to eating loads of dough **hint hint** I wasn’t extremely hungry for dinner. I had a few bites of Mikes pasta and about half of this Asiago bread.

Followed by a light dinner of exactly what I was craving. A bagel and cream cheese with some honey pretzel twists. I wasn’t able to get to the Farmers Market today, I am in desperate need of some fresh produce, HELP!! 😦

DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!!!

May I present to you, Peanut Butter Banana Bliss Cake with a Peanut Butter Glaze. HOLY MOLY YUM!!!! Out.of.this.world!!!

These photos DO NOT do this guy justice.

The first photo is without glaze. At this point, we tried the cake without the glaze. The banana flavor came out strongest at first, but then you ended with a peanut butter taste.

You definitely do not need to add the glaze, but we both agreed it would be even BETTER with a final addition of a little bit more peanut butter taste coming through. So, I added the ‘glaze’ to a small portion to try (so I didn’t ruin this beauty if it was horrible move).

After this bite was Mike’s now famous comment! This is a must try!!!

Peanut Butter Banana Bliss Cake with a Peanut Butter Drizzle

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (or any type of nut butter)
1/2 half of a yogurt (plain or vanilla flavored)
1 ripe banana- mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

Mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes in a 9×9 pan. Let cool.

Peanut Butter Glaze- Mix powdered sugar, milk and peanut butter to your consistency liking. Spread on top of cake. ENJOY!!!!!

What is your greatest kitchen success? Please share!

**I’ve also updated my ‘about me’ page. I’ve expanded it so that you can get to know a little bit more about me. Enjoy!