Strawberries N’ Cream Smoothie

Currently, it is 60 degrees outside.  So why was I craving a smoothie this morning?

The world may never know…

[Yes, that was a quote from the Tootsie Pop commercial.]

Anyways, this morning I decided to make myself a smoothie, but not just any smoothie…

…a Strawberries N’ Cream Smoothie!

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Strawberries N’ Cream Smoothie

                    An FFF Original

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups frozen strawberries
• ½ cup cottage cheese
• ~ ¼ water [to get things moving]
• 30 grams vanilla protein powder*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powdered creamer [or 1 tablespoon vanilla liquid creamer or vanilla extract]
• 1-2 sweetener packets

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in blender.

1. Blend until smooth and well-blended.
2. Enjoy!

*Note: I didn’t have any vanilla protein powder on me so I subbed Original Amazing Grass. Not a good idea if you are going for the strawberries and cream taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Otherwise, it was very good! Just make sure you use vanilla protein powder. Haha!

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Have a great Halloweekend!

County Championships + New PR

Yesterday I told you that I was on my way to Cross Country County Championships.  What I didn’t tell you was that I was not in the running mood at all.

We actually had a discussion about the whole I-Hate-Cross-Country-Meets-Yet-I Still-Run-Them thing.

[*Note: These pictures were not from yesterday, I just felt the need to include them because a post without pictures would be boring!]

After heavy debate we came to the conclusion that it was just a nervous thing because we love running!  We just hate the pressure.

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Back to the actual race.

There must have been at least 20 teams at the County Championships because it was packed!  The meet was at the same place as this meet.  Junior Varsity [JV] ran first, then Freshman, and Varsity last.  I found it pretty weird that they didn’t split it into “girls” and “boys” as usual, but oh well!

When the gun was shot I took off sprinting as usual and felt really good!  This course is infamous for its large hills, but they didn’t even seem to faze me.  I finished the 3.1 miles at 25:45 = a new personal record! [PR] It’s always nice to see progress and I saw a lot of it yesterday, considering the last time I ran that course I ran a 29:17!

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Question of the Day:

1. What have you accomplished recently? Big or small accomplishments – brag about yourself!

School<Running

Hello Bloggies!

Today, I have no school due to some school holiday! Yay!

I was able to sleep in and hang out.  Philip still had to go to school though.

Poor kid.

Oh well, it’s not like he’s doing any schoolwork.  They are having a Halloween Parade and a party.

What I wouldn’t give to be in Elementary School again…

Once I got home from walking Philip to school I had some delicious pre-meet breakfast.

Breakfast:

1 Sandwich Thin smeared with almond butter and drizzled with honey

Mmmm. Michelle sure knows what she’s talking about in terms of  the honey + almond butter thing.

AB and honey are almost as good as PB and chocolate.

Almost…

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Now I am going to read blogs and do homework until it’s time for my Cross Country Meet. 

Wish me luck!

Back On Track

I really love my healthy foods.  ♥

Like this morning’s breakfast for example… ↓

Breakfast:

½ cup low-fat cottage cheese, stewed apples, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Peanut Butter Granola, and ground flax seed

Followed by a healthy lunch at school… ↓

Lunch:

Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich, Sensible Foods Sweet Corn, and NSA Mandarin Oranges

Ahhh, It feels so good to be eating healthily again!

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After lunch I was able to go home on the bus.  I decided to “skip” Cross Country Practice today, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t run!  I did 3 miles in my neighborhood. [For me "around the block" is exactly 1 mile, so I would do one mile, get a drink, reset my timer, and start back up again.  Just clarifying.]

Here are my splits:

Mile #1:     7:43

Mile #2:     7:40

Mile #3:     8:27

I can’t believe I was going that fast in the beginning, I was so shocked I even tweeted it!

 @FoodFitnessFun Erika

Just ran 3 miles in less than 24 minutes! Who am I?!

Hopefully, this run will reflect my Cross Country Meet tomorrow!  We made it to County-level!

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After my run I stretched for a bit and then refueled with banana soft serve.

Snack:

Banana Soft Serve: Banana, ~1 tbsp. chia seeds, ~2 tsp. cinnamon, dash of milk, sweetener, and chopped walnuts

As you can see, this wasn’t your average banana soft serve.  This is the best one so far!

This one is well-deserving of multiple pictures…YUM!

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The rest of my afternoon was filled with grocery shopping for this weekend’s Halloween get-together and cleaning the house.  [Gotta remember to do homework tomorrow!]

Dinner:

BBQ Pork Chop, Annie’s White Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese, and steamed broccoli

Notice the difference in lighting?

Now that it’s getting darker sooner a lot of my nighttime pictures are going to be lesser quality [to say the least.]  This picture was actually taken in the room with the best artificial lighting – the living room! LOL! You would never know that the above picture was taken on a side table.

Question of the Day:

1. What do you think of the artificial lighting in your house?  Do you have a special spot to take pictures?

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Hope you have a great Thursday and soon-to-be Friday!  Now I have to go put some Jello Eyeballs into the fridge…

Goodnight!

Bad Blogger!

I have been a bad blogger lately.

I haven’t been taking pictures.  I haven’t been posting.  I haven’t been commenting.  [As much as usual.]  And I haven’t been eating as healthily as I can.

My schoolwork has really been picking up and instead of spending 1-2 hours on homework it has been closer to 3 hours spent on homework!  Plus I have 3 projects due next Tuesday.  Thankfully, I have a 4-day weekend to work on it all, but it is still going to be tough considering it’s Halloween and I am having a sleepover.  But, as Tim Gunn, would say “Make it work,” which is exactly what I am going to do. I also have to remind myself not to devour all of my Halloween candy to the point that I feel extremely…gross!

                                      (source)

Confession: Today at school kids were selling small baggies of candy for $1.  Each bag had about 8 pieces of candy [Milk Duds, Mini Snickers, Mini Twizzlers, etc.]  I bought one and ate the entire bag during my classes because I was “bored!”  Not good.

On the bright side, my $1 went to Breast Cancer Research!

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Enough negativity!

Let me show you some of my healthier and tastier meals and snacks. ↓

1 Multigrain English Muffin with Neufatchael cheese and Strawberry Polaner + a hardboiled egg

Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich with NSA mandarin oranges and a Babybel cheese

Rotiserrie Chicken with gravy, roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli

Fab Five Banana Pancake Minis topped with Dark Chocolate Dreams, chocolate chips, chia seeds, and sugar

My kitchen lighting does not make for good pictures…

…but these pancakes still look pretty darn delicious! ♥

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I hope to “start over” tomorrow and get back on track with the whole healthy eating thang.  I can’t wait – I love my normal healthy food and this past week has been filled with pizza, candy, and copious amounts of Nutella. 

Questions of the Day:

1. Do you ever fall off the healthy eating track?  How do you get back on it?
2. [For my fellow teen bloggers]  Do you still go trick-or-treating?
3. [For everyone!]  How are you?  What’s new in your life?

Goodnight!