Grey skies are going to clear up.....

So put on a happy face.  :)  

Ugh.. I swear I am so tired of bad news.  I won't bring my blog down, but its a definite reminder that life is short and you must live every day to the fullest!!!

So back to the wonderful world of FOOD!

I had my first Pure Bar today, after hearing about them on Iowa Girl Eats.  I noticed them at the grocery store the other day and thought I'd give them a whirl.  I had a Cherry Cashew bar. 

Verdict- I prefer Larabars.  The Pure Bar was more expensive and it was almost like another flavor of a Larabar in the end.  If I couldn't find a Larabar and all they had were Pure Bars, I would it it... but I'd pick a Lara over a Pure if given the opportunity I think.  

I was in such a rush this morning I forgot to pack lunch, so I headed home at lunch time to throw something together.  

LUNCH

big ol' salad

-left over quinoa salad, spinach, left over guacamole, sprouts, Wickles, carrots and broccoli 

That salad ROCKED!!!

But then it was time to get back to work.  I labored away.....  and eventually need a mid-afternoon snack.  

-green tea

-orange

And then more green tea and a Kashi granola bar

Apparently I was hungry today!

I stayed at work a bit later than normal, but got home in time to meet my friend and divy up our crop share goodies.  Unfortunately you'll have to wait till tomorrow for the veggie glamour shots.... they are on my camera, yes I usually slack and use my iphone... I really need to use the camera more!

After getting over the shock of how beautiful all the veggies were and how HUGE the basil bunch was (seriously I'm going to be a pesto making machine tomorrow night), I started on dinner. 

Dinner

• wild Alaskan salmon w/ lemon, lemon zest, garlic, basil and olive oil wrapped in foil on the grill
  
• red potatoes wrapped in foil on the grill w/ olive oil, parsley and a little basil too
  
• tomato salad: tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil
  

Yes if you did not involve basil or olive oil you were not part of tonight's dinner!
Very yummy. 

So based on my food choices today, can you guess what book I'm reading.... Oats, Blueberries, Broccoli, Orange, Salmon, Tomato, Tea, Spinach, Nut Butter.

...................................

.............................

If you guessed Superfoods Rx by Dr. Pratt & Kathy Matthews you are correct!

Honestly I kinda knew a lot of this already, but I think its good to help drive it home and also just knowing something is one thing..... but to actually put it into practice and make a lifestyle choice is another.  

Plus if I can make wise food choices now and possibly prevent future illness/disease, I am all for it.  The bonus part is all these foods taste so good!!

What are some of you favorite "good food" reads?  

Have a great night!

Britt

Jar O' Oats....

Ahh.... finally a good night's sleep!

I actually managed to go to bed before 11pm last night... actually I think it was closer to 10pm!

I woke up just before my alarm went off at 5:25 this morning. Just enough time for me to get dressed, fix myself up a bit, walk the dog and then fly out the door to Kettlebell.

This morning's kettlebell session was hot & sticky, the owner forgot to turn the a/c on last night. We were all dripping in no time, ick. It was a great work out though, even the "warm up" was a bit of a challenge!

Warm Up
Run 400m
5 air squats
8 pushups
10 situps
10 spiderman stretches each side
all done 4 times

Workout- How many rounds you could do in 20 minutes
Turkish Get Ups- 2x's per side
Lunges- 4x's per leg
American Swings x 12
Thrusters 8x's per side

6am is way to early for me to be keeping track of my rounds... so I just kept going and didn't count. :)

After some stretching I headed home, showered up and got ready for work. I decided to finally try a jar-o-oats. I had the perfect almost empty jar of almond butter.

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup milk
• whatever almond butter was in there, 2 tablespoons?
• couple handfuls of blueberries
• (ack! forgot my ground flax)
  

So YUMMY!
This is what I have planned for my mid-morning snack. My first PURE bar ever!
I'll report back.


Hope you have a great Monday!!

Britt

Pool Crasher!

When I wasn't running, eating or sleeping this weekend.... I was doing this.....

No idea how I ever survived living in NOLA during the summer. This weekend's heat and humidity drove me to crash my friend's pool.... Saturday and today. I just couldn't take it. Of course the fact that we don't have central a/c doesn't help either. But still it seems sad to be inside on a bright sunny day, at least the pool allowed me to be outside and not wilt.


This morning before hitting the pool, I headed to the beach for a run! It was close to 80 when I got up at 6:30 so the ocean seemed like a good place to be.... only problem was that it was hot there too and rather calm, so not too much of a sea breeze.


Before leaving the house, I had big glass of water & this......
Cliff Bar
Breakfast Part I

I ventured over with my mom & step dad, they had a 12 mile run planned and I was going to do 15. So figured we would all get done around the same time going at our own paces. I loaded up with my 4 bottles of water on my fuel belt & 2 packages of Just Plain Gu.


Some scenic shots......



I love running along the ocean, its so beautiful! Plus its nice as there are restrooms & water fountains along the way too. The side walks around the beaches were packed (where are all these people when I run this same route in the dead of winter.... wimps).

My step-dad has been through a lot the past year or so, its amazing actually that he is running, let alone training for another marathon. (I'll get to that story some day too) But he listened to his body and played it safe, he only felt up to 10 miles..... so that is all he and my mom ran. Meanwhile crazy me did 16 instead of 15. I met them back at the car and decided to snap a few pictures before heading home.

I got good genes, hopefully I'm looking THIS amazing when I'm 64!

MY MOM

Me & My Mom

Love running with my mom as she always had lots of post run snacks.

Breakfast Part II

Yogurt

Half of a sandwich thin w/ PB, chopped walnuts, ground flax and a little honey YUM!!!

It felt so good to take a shower when I got home. But I still needed something a bit more to eat.

Breakfast Part III

-2 eggs scrambled w/ broccoli, provolone, scallions and proscuitto

-half a sandwich thin toasted

After finally finishing my last breakfast of the day, I started laundry, took the dog for a walk and then hit the grocery store. I needed to cool off and this popsicle hit the spot, yum raspberry!

I packed up and headed to my friends house with the hubby to lounge in the pool. I had some camera shy green grapes & crackers. Also enjoyed a vodka & grapefruit flavored soda water.

After lounging for almost 3 hours it was time to head home, clean up and venture over to my in-laws for dinner. It was the perfect dinner for a hot night, nice and light......

DINNER

-grilled haddock

-corn on the cob

-tomato & basil salad w/ balsamic vinegar & olive oil

-field greens w/ cucumbers, blueberries, lil balsamic vinaigrette

My father-in-law LOVES ice cream so he insisted we go get some after dinner.... who am I to argue with him?

Strawberry Cheesecake Fro Yo..... meant to order a kiddie, accidentally ordered a small, oopsie.

I am so pooped after my run & all the sun today, gotta hit the hay early tonight!

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Britt

Overly ambitious.....

Me??   Never.  ;)

Man yesterday whooped my behind.  Was up way past midnight too, so no blogging. 

Recap of mid-morning on. 

Prerequisite coffee....

LUNCH

-after leaving work to sell my car, sniff sniff, I had little time to make lunch..... so I hit up the cafeteria at work

-whole wheat wrap, chicken salad, loaded with veggies and sweet pickles.  side of carrot sticks.

-SoBe Lifewater.... I was feeling a tad dehydrated but needed something more than just water, was actually relatively light & refreshing in taste

SNACK

-randomly some of the office assistants were going around with popsicles, so I grabbed one, yum!

After work I hit the grocery store for those forgotten items, as well as the local wine store for some required vino for the night. 

Then it was home to prep food.  I was definitely overly ambitious and kind of scatterbrained in my planning.  I should have kept it to much simpler items than I originally planned, but in the end that is what I ran with... the simple stuff.  After prepping, I cleaned up the kitchen, changed and walked downtown for the concert.  

The park was PACKED, which is great!  I met up with some friends there and plopped down on my blanket to enjoy the music, the weather and catching up with friends. 

I also had a summer treat.... haven't had nearly enough this summer.  Ice Cream!  (well technically frozen yogurt)

Annabelle's Purple Cow- black raspberry ice cream w/ regular & white chocolate chunks. yum

A friend also had some fresh blueberries & blackberries so I added those too!

I left the concert just before the end to start setting things up and finishing prepping a few items.  I was running around so much I forgot to snap a picture.  Luckily Elizabeth of Our Life is Delicious was a good food blogger and snapped a picture of the spread!  Thank you E!

Spread of Munchies Included (this is what I can remember right now)

-quinoa salad I made last night

-chocolate chip cookies (also made last night)

-skewers of : tomato, mozzarella & basil

                        roasted red peppers, mozzarella & basil

                        cantaloupe & prosciutto

                        prosciutto & mozzarella

-grilled chicken sausage- italian & buffalo chicken

-guacamole - avocado, tomato & lime juice

-tortilla chips

-whole wheat pita

- classic hummus  (was going to make my own, but ran out of time)

-baba ghannouj

I snacked on stuff all night, I really should have made a plate but just didn't get around to it.  I mainly stuck to the mozzarella, tomato & basil, pita & hummus and a couple of cookies. 

My neighbor brought some fixings for Dark & Stormies.... Ginger Beer & Gosling's Black Rum.  I had a couple small Dark & Stormies and then a glass of Vouvray.  

We finally hit the hay around 2am!!  Ack!

I slept soundly till 8am.  So nice.  Then got ready to meet the in-laws for breakfast.  

I opted for pancakes covered in berries and an iced coffee.  Yum!  I ate maybe 3/4 of this.  I was HUNGRY. 

My mother-in-law is a poached egg eater, but fussy about it.  So the breakfast place made two batches, waitress brought out both.  She offered us the other ones my mother-in-law didn't have so I had one poached egg.  Figured the protein would be good.  :)

So with all the craziness yesterday I didn't get my run in.  :(   But today is my rest day and I'm sticking to it!

I sort of invited myself over to a friend's house to use the pool and now they are having a pool party!  See what happens when I come over someone's house, a party breaks out.  ;)  

So I think I'll wrap up some of my left overs & some of the food I didn't get around to prepping last night.  I have some great toasted french bread for a mixed olive bruschetta I got at Trade Joe's that I must bring!  

Enjoy the day and stay cool!

Britt

Why I don't weigh myself very often......

So this morning I decided to hop on the scale for the heck of it..... my abs are rock hard and flatter than they have been in awhile, my clothes are fitting well, I'm feeling strong and was curouis where I was at.....

I'm up 4 pounds from a few weeks ago? What? It really should have been down if anything.

I just shook my head, cursed at it and then was on my merry way to kettlebell.

I might weigh myself next Friday morning just to see if it was a fluke or what..... till then I'm focused on trying to keep a healthy balance with my eating & training.

This mornings Kettlebell class was a good one, Tabata!

Do 8 sets of 20 seconds at each station, 10 second rest between sets.

• Ring Rows
• Push Ups (OMG spaghetti arms!)
• Ball Slams (alternated btw a 12lb and 20 lb ball)
• Box Jumps
• Swings (54lb bell!)

Good workout!

I headed home to shower up and get ready for work.

Breakfast was a bit of debate, but then I decided on.....

- pineapple cottage cheese, berries, Kashi H2H, ground flax and a little almond butter

YUM!

In just a couple of hours I'll be saying good-bye to my car of the last 3 years. It was a fun car to drive.... when it wasn't at the garage getting fixed all the time. :( I'm ready for something a bit more reliable though, so bye bye BMW and hello Honda.

Today is going to be a hectic one.... between work and the rest of my life.

To Do (outside of work)

• Follow up with potential sponsors for a 5K I'm helping plan/organize
• Pick up stuff I forgot at the grocery store & swing by the wine shop
• Clean the house up a bit
• Prep food for tonight
• Try to squeeze my run in
• Possibly join the hubby for a wake (friend's dad passed away)
• Head down to the concert in the park
• Leave the concert a bit early to become the happy hostess!

Happy Friday, hope your's is off to a great start!!!

Britt

Black Beans & Brownie Mix? What?

Have you heard about these "healthy" brownies?  Stay tuned I made an attempt at them tonight.  First, recap of the day since breakfast.....

MORNING SNACK

-juicy plum & iced coffee  :)

The morning flew right along (yay for that) and soon it was time to venture home for lunch & to walk Reggie.  

LUNCH

I failed to blog about it last night, but the hubby called after his meeting and wanted to meet friends for drinks.... met them and we ended up at a restaurant where it was ladies night, 1/2 priced drinks & entrees.  So I figured I'd order a salad since I was low on greens at home. So today's lunch was.....

most of last nights mediterranean salad: field greens, feta, kalamata olives, artichokes

plus a few add-ins: left over sauteed onion & green peppers, slice of turkey, some walnuts and a couple of Wickles..... not bad

Trudged on through the work day and then hit the grocery store for appetizer fixings for tomorrow night.  I made THE most disorganized shopping list.... I felt like I was walking around in circles, it may have been one of my longest trips to the grocery store ever.  Oh and of course as I headed to my car I realized several things I forgot, but at that point I just had to get out of there!

I headed home, unloaded groceries, said hi to the hubby and had a snack. 

SNACK

The hubby surprised me with a request to go for a run!  He has been so busy with work lately he really hasn't been exercising much, so I was happy to go for a short run with him.  We did maybe 2 miles or so, which was a good start for him to ease back into running.  Put me down for a total of 7 miles today.  :)

After our run we were both HUNGRY, so we just heated up last night's leftovers..... dinner for me then was basically repeat of last night. 

DINNER

-flat out, chicken, cheese, greek yogurt and some salsa

And now the moment you have been waiting for......

Actually I may just have been in the dark on this one, I heard about it from a friend and then googled it and saw it was all over the place.......what rock have I been under?   

Can of black beans + brownie mix = moist chewy brownies?  what?

I had to try it out.  
Pureed the black beans, juice and all.... wasn't sure if I did them enough and then mixed them in with the brownie mix. 

End result.  I'm not 100% sold.  My brownie was still warm so I'll hold off judgement till they cool off...... and I get to try another.  ;)

Since I made some "healthy" brownies, I made some naughty cookies.....   My favorite recipe is from the King Arthur Flour cooking book.  They are the Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.... and yes they involve corn syrup, bad bad bad.  But they test so good. 

See doesn't that look GOOD!

Meanwhile, I was also making a black been and tomato quinoa salad for tomorrow night.  Couldn't just have black beans in the brownies!   Unfortunately I realized the most recent plant I killed on the deck was my cilantro plant.... so I gotta pick up some fresh cilantro tomorrow with the other stuff I forgot at the grocery store. 

Its pretty though, huh?  Oh and even before I read the suggestions I opted not to do the butter & vegetable oil (what's up with that), instead I did 2 tablespoons of olive oil and that worked out well.

I am cookied & brownied out for the night....  gotta clean the kitchen and put everything away, then hit the hay.  I have kettlebell tomorrow, bright and early at 6 am.  

Have a great night!!

Britt

Don't Freak Out.....

But I didn't do my usual breakfast!!

Wasn't all that different but no greek yogurt & no strawberries...... only a little Kashi H2H, but primarily Hodgson Mills Multigrain Cereal w/ Flax & Soy.

First though I went for a run at 6am, holy humidity! It wasn't that hot out, but it was pretty close to 100% humidity.... reminded me of my NOLA days. I think I did 4.5 miles or closer to 5, I haven't mapped it out yet as I kinda made the route up as I went.... felt adventurous this morning.

While I watered the plants on the deck, I started cooking the Multigrain cereal. Then while I showered I let it cool off..... I just cannot do hot cereal after a run but wanted something different than my some old, same old (which is pretty darn good).

Breakfast

• 1/3 cup Multigrain Cereal
• 3/4 water

cooked that up & let it cool, then added

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1 TB almond butter
• 1 TB Sarabeth's Kitchen Mixed Berry Preserve (must try some of their others! especially this one)

An unfortunately blury before.....

And all stirred up.... (channeling a little Elvis)

To Do List Today..... (aside from work stuff)

• Grocery shop for a little post concert gathering tomorrow night
• Put an offer in on a car, eeks!
• Clean the house some
• Start prepping food for tomorrow night
• Maybe do some weeding at City Hall since rain ruined my Weed & Wine plans on Tuesday

Have a fabulous Thursday, tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!! YAY!!

Britt