Sniffle sniffle

Sorry my nose is all stuffy still.......  blah.

In happier news.....Look at me, I'm blogging.... TWICE in one day.  Ahhh feels nice. 

I managed to escape work at lunch time for my 5 mile run, I felt pretty good despite the runny nose.  It is so nice to escape for a bit during the work day and get away from it all.  

Lunch time runs rock!

After lunch I enjoyed my lovely packed lunch.  

Plugged on through the work day and eventually enjoyed this beauty. 

It wasn't what I expected, but it was still pretty tasty!  

The new Kashi dark chocolate & coconut bar. It was kind of fudgy chocolate, hit the spot as a mid afternoon snack.

After work I hit the grocery store to grab some ingredients for dinner.  Then it was off to do some weeding downtown.  I love gardening, it feels great to do some manual labor and see a difference after just an hour. 

After weeding I headed home to make dinner for the hubby, my dad and myself.  :-)

DINNER

-baked salmon: 400 degrees, 15 minutes, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic and dill

-Jerusalem artichokes: sauteed w/ olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper (they are a tuber from the sunflower family and were delicious! got them from our CSA)

-pesto quinoa- just added some homemade pesto to the quinoa

-sliced tomato

(not the greatest picture.... I was hungry apparently LOL)

Thank you for the well wishes on the race and for finding time for myself.  I'm feeling a bit less stressed.   I'm looking forward to a ladies night at a friend's house tomorrow night, its apple themed..... 

Do you have any great recipes involving apples?  Anything but a main course.... dessert, appetizer, etc. 

Have a fabulous night!!  I'm hopefully getting to bed early so I'll be on time for Kettlebell at 6am tomorrow (lately I've been showing up a few minutes late.... oops).  Just hoping I don't need the Nyquil again, although my nose is so stuffed up!

Britt

Sweet dreams.....

Last night I had to do it, had to take some Nyquil.

The night before I tossed and turned with an achy shoulder (from what I do not know) and a stuffy head/nose. I needed sleep and I needed something to dry my head out….enter Nyquil. Ahhh….. finally sleep.

I enjoyed my sleep so much I kept hitting the snooze button so today’s run will be during my lunch break. Try to get in a quick 5 miles. Thank goodness we have a locker room here with showers.

I am on it this morning and got my breakfast and lunch packed for the day, plus a couple snacks.

BREAKFAST
-oats w/ 2/3 c almond milk and 1/3 c water
-mix-ins: walnuts, dried cranberries, almond butter and ground flax

LUNCH
-sandwich thin w/ turkey, provolone and pesto
-toppings to add later tomato & artichokes

SNACKS
-TJ’s pomegranate greek yogurt
-Kashi’s coconut dark chocolate granola bar (just found these, cannot wait to try it!

After work its off to do some weeding downtown and get things spruced up for the festival & race this weekend!

Do you have any fall festivals where you live? Does it include a road race?

Have a great day!

Britt

Its all Greek to me.....

So after my Greek-esque salad today at lunch I headed back to work.....

As I made my way through the day I got a bit of a sweet tooth.....

Fruit Leather....

Then I needed to fuel up for some post work weeding.  It was my weekly volunteer weeding night!  So a larabar was my fuel. 

I tried to simplify my life and stop at the hardware store down the street from me to pick up a few yard waste bags.... 

The credit/atm card reader was down. (I don't really carry $$ on me)

So I walked across the street to the bank.  Their ATM was down.

Had to walk back across the street over to another bank down the way.  Finally $$! 

Went back to the store to get the bags.  Ugh.  

Had just enough time to run home and change then head back out. 

I always forget to take pictures before & after we weed, it makes such a huge difference.  It feels so good to make things look great in just an hour!

Afterwards I hit the grocery store.  Never got there this past weekend.  By the time I got home the hubby was there but he had already eaten at the charity golf tournament he played in, so I did leftovers. 

DINNER

had a Greek flair to it once again......

-flat out

-turkey burger

-Fix'ins: feta, kalamata olives, ketchup, lettuce and cukes

YUM!

Now I think a piece of the hubby's b-day cake is calling me.... chocolate w/ chocolate frosting....

Do you like gardening?  Do you have a green thumb??  I try... not sure if I do, but I just learn by trial and error.... I think I'm starting to kinda get the hang of it..... I think....

Have a great night!!

Britt

Weeding & Wine......

The location this week was the local visitors center. 

It wasn't in too bad of shape so we made quick work.  (that is me looking up)

Afterwards it was time for some wine.  :)
And maybe a little bit of spinach and artichoke dip.  Yummy!

I think I OD'd on white bread. 

I left early to come home and whip up a quick dinner.  I swear I fall back on sandwiches way too often when I don't know what to do.  I need to stop that. 

DINNER

-garden burger, veggie medley

-sandwich thin

-hummus & spinach

-side of celery w/ yogurt ranch dressing

I'm pooped.  Definitely need to hit the hay early tonight. 

I'm very excited to go to Kettlebell tomorrow morning, they are in their new location, it has to be almost 3 times the size of their original location!  I drove by tonight and could see people working out inside.  Yay!! So excited!

Hope your week is off to a good start. 

How good are you at drinking enough water?  I'm feeling a bit dry tonight, don't think I drank enough water today.  What are you tips/tricks to drinking more?

Goodnight!!

Britt

Weed & Whine (& then wine.....)

That is pretty much what my night consisted of.....

Me and a couple other ladies weeded in front of city hall.  I stayed far FAR away from the vines this time, I got a nasty case of poison ivy back in June and I'm pretty sure it was the vines on the back part of the building.  

We made quick work.  

Then it was time for me to head off to the WHINING portion of the night....luckily that was taking place at City Hall.... Joint Fiscal Committee.  

It has members from the school board and the city council.... with the economy the way it is we didn't get all the funding from the state that was anticipated at the municipal level.  So now its determining where it will come from.... taxpayers, municipal budget, or ack don't say it.... the school budget.  After about 2 hours of go around, we agreed to see if we had any room in our budget through potential cost savings..... ie.  we will see and get back to ya. 

So about 3 hours later I was finally home.....  aahhhh. 

DINNER TIME!

I needed something fast and easy, I had texted the hubby and told him to fend for himself. 

A salmon burger sandwich came to mind. 

DINNER

-light spinach flat out

-Henry & Lisa salmon burger

-spinach

-laughing cow garlic herb cheese (my obsession today)

-Wickles

-side of steamed broccoli w/ herbs de Provence and little grated parmesan

After dinner I remembered I had some Silken Vanilla Creations I had to use.... so cake baking it was. Got this from Carrots N' Cake's blog.

Silken Vanilla Cake

Makes 12 pieces

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup Nasoya Vanilla Silken Creations
• 1 tbsp baking powder

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350* F.
• Spray 8 X 8 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix well.
• Pour mixture into pan.
• Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until center is firm.
• Allow to cool before frosting.
• Enjoy!

Approximately 140 calories per piece.

Its pretty good..... better than the bean brownies I tried.  ;)

I might actually add a little extra vanilla next time, it could have used just a tad more flavor I think.  

Off to finish my wine and relax a bit more.  Still wound up from meeting!

Have a great night!

Britt

Comedy of Errors....

That was my morning....  

I thought I would have all kinds of time this morning, as I decided to run during my lunch break rather than this morning.  I got up about 6:30, got ready and then walked Reggie.  Came back and started to pack my lunch and make breakfast.  

I had put together some overnight oats last night.... but it was so chilly this morning I decided to warm them up, I wanted a nice hot breakfast. As I was running around packing my lunch I failed to monitor the microwave.......

This happened.....  oatmeal throw up....

Shortly after this I managed to dump water all over the kitchen floor, an item the hubby had washed last night had water hiding in it....so when I flipped it over.... it spilled everywhere

But back to my oats.  

I was able to use what didn't get spit up though and made this yummy breakfast.....

-1/2 cup oats and about a cup of milk combined last night (minus what dumped out)

-1/2 cup plain Oikos

-handful blueberries

-sprinkle of dried cranberries & walnuts

-small handful tropical granola

-1T ground flax

-1T almond butter

But at least the oatmeal incident was worth it, made this yummy sandwich for lunch

-spinach flat out

-turkey

-laughing cow garlic & herb cheese

-broccosprouts

-spinach

-sprinkle of dried cranberries (these were key)
Then it was off to work!!

I had meant to blog before heading to work but that didn't happen.  At least my lunch hour run happened and at a fast clip I might add.  

I ran just under 4 miles in about 28 minutes.  I was a woman on a mission today!  

My speed made up for the cooler temperatures and it took me a bit to cool down, so glad our office has showers though!! 

I gobbled up my yummy sandwich and then snacked on my other lunch treats throughout the afternoon. 

-green pepper & string beans (thank you CSA)

-blueberry greek yogurt and TJ's granola bar crumbled

 tried a new brand as it was a bit cheaper.... eh 

 my fave is SF Oikos, but Chobani is ok.... this stuff... I'll pass next time

The day zoomed by.  Now I'm home quickly before heading out to do some weeding at city hall and then I have a Joint Fiscal Committee meeting (exciting stuff... school board & city council... get to point fingers at each other about money).  

Since I'll be gone for at least two hours another snack is required.

-TLC's and some Laughing Cow garlic & herb cheese

Directionally Challenged....

That would be me.  

Apparently I'm awful at giving directions.  I had my Weed & Wine group tonight, I thought I given good directions on the spot we would be at... nope.  Just about done I round the corner and find some of my weeding crew there!  Oopsie.   From now on I'm doing a Google Map of the location we are at!  Also, I'm taking before and after pictures.... I always seem to think of that AFTER we are done!!

Any how.... the day's eats

SNACK this morning

-sandwich thin w/ Bee's Knees Peanut Butter

-camera shy green tea

LUNCH

I headed home to walk Reggie and make a salad full of Crop Share veggies!

-romaine, spinach, green bell peppers, tomatoes, leftover turkey burger, dried cranberries, walnuts, little parmesan cheese and some TJ balsamic vinaigrette.  very good. very good.

Plugged on through my work day, conference calls, millions of email, little road race planning on the side.....

SNACK 

love snack time.  :)

-peach Chobani w/ maybe 1/4 cup of Kashi Heart to Heart

-lots o' water
After work, I headed home to walk Reggie and then was off to weed downtown with my crew.... my lost crew..... thanks to me.  BUT we did weed two areas instead of one!!   

No one was up for wine after.....  :(   

What is wrong with these people??!!  

All work and no play!

So I headed home and made dinner.  BUT while I was out I had the owner of a restaurant I used to work at holler out to me that an old co-worker was in town.  So the hubby and I will be venturing out shortly to grab a beverage and catch up with my old work bud. 

DINNER

I hate getting the house hot with a stove, so it was another grill night.... 

-cod w/ fresh lemon, lemon zest, panko crumbs, seafood seasoning, little EVOO wrapped in foil

-crop share potatoes w/ EVOO, salt, pepper and garlic wrapped in foil

-crop share tomato & basil salad w/ EVOO and balsamic vinegar

The tomatoes ROCKED!!!  So so so good!  

Fortunately our farm hasn't been hit by the late blight, but they are being cautious and cutting back the plants earlier than normal.  So sad, all those poor yummy tomatoes. 

Well the hubby is ready to go, so we are going to walk into town to meet up with everyone.  I LOVE being able to walk into town. Plus it appears to be a gorgeous night, cooling off a bit.  :)

Have a great evening!!

Britt

The Vegetable Fairy......

She visited my house while I was out for my run this morning.

See.....

As I was running down my street this morning, I saw our friend Aviva walking to my house with a bag o' veggies for me from our shared Crop Share. What great service! ;) I see a hugh jass salad in my future for lunch!

I almost missed her though as I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning. Its getting too dark at 5:30 in the morning. :( When I see no sun I just want to stay in bed. Any one have any suggestions on how to get my butt out of bed when the alarm goes off when its still dark out..... this is going to be an issue come fall and winter.

Once I was out for my run, it was great! It was a nice cool morning, still a bit humid but I'll take it! So nice to have some refreshing weather in the morning.

When I got home I watered the plants on the deck and then fixed up my overnight oats.

BREAKFAST

-this is how my oats looked last night
-1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain greek Oikos Greek Yogurt

-this is how it looked this morning.

-then after I added the fixin's

- blueberries

strawberries

almond butter

1 scoop of protein powder

sprinkle of ground flax

YUM! Good breakfast, I liked the cold oats after my run.

It was perfect with a huge glass of water.

Today is another busy one.... work, heading home at lunch to walk Reggie and after work I have my volunteer group of weeders for Weed & Wine. I promised the crew that we would actually go out for a glass of wine tonight after weeding downtown, we haven't really gotten a chance to do that lately.

Have a great day!!

Britt