Headache + A Wonderful PB

How was your Monday?

Mine wasn’t too great.  I had a terrible headache all day and it got so bad that I actually fell asleep at 7PM last night and sleep straight through until 6AM this morning.  Needless to say, I felt much better today and was very well rested!

Today’s breakfast was especially delicious, partly because I got to taste my new nut butter, and partly because I was starving!  

Breakfast:

1 Muligrain English Muffin with PB&Co. White Chocolate Wonderful and a side of raspberries

It was perfect in every way!  The raspberries were even good, surprising considering they are out of season.  I’ll miss you, berries!

Although the berries were good, the White Chocolate Wonderful was my favorite part. ♥

I honestly think it is my new favorite peanut butter, beating out my beloved Skippy Natural and Dark Chocolate Dreams.

Now that is love. ♥

I don’t even care for white chocolate itself, but mixed with peanut butter, it is wonderful!

Paired with a nice carbohydrate, like a multigrain english muffin, and it’s perfection.

I need to incorporate White Chocolate Wonderful into tomorrow’s breakfast.  I need to!

I’m obsessed.

*****

Question of the Day:

1. What are you obsessed with?  It can be anything!  Food, dance move, color, clothing, saying, etc.

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!

*****

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! ♥

*****

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!

It’s A New Week!

That’s right…It’s Monday.       

I hate Mondays.      

 I don’t know when my hatred for Mondays started (probably around the same time I started kindergarten) all I know is that Mondays are rough.      

Every Monday I drink my coffee (as usual) but it doesn’t seem to work so I end up going through the day in a fog. Seriously, I have to fight to stay awake in class…       

I only have 2 antidotes for I-Hate-Monday-Syndrome: A) Have a really good breakfast so you’re excited to wake up or B) Purposely miss your bus so you have to run a few blocks to catch it. (Option B has happened to me but I didn’t do it on purpose…)      

 I chose Option A.       

Monday Morning Breakfast

 

  Today’s breakfast was a delicious combination of a multigrain english muffin+Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter+sliced banana and a side of cantaloupe.      

Thankfully, my uncle drove me to school today! Otherwise I may have chosen Option B.       

_______      

Lunch at school was a Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich with a Blueberry Dannon Light & Fit yogurt and some grapes.      

Lunch

 

The sandwich tasted soooo good! I guess that’s what opening a fresh (huge!) bottle of Tabasco will do.      

I Love Hot Sauce!

 

I also packed some cookies to share with the girls at my lunch table. They were all gone within the first 10 minutes of lunch. ;-)      

      

I think my friends liked them.      

________      

After school, I had Cross Country Practice. All of the sports got cancelled except for Cross Country and Football – what does that tell you? It tells you that runners are equal to football players in the toughness category…       

Ohhh yeahhhh!      

We ran around the track today: 3 times around (3/4 mile) for warm-up and 12 times around (3 miles) for workout. It was actually a fairly easy day considering we usually run 4-6 miles.      

The rain may have cooled us off a bit while running but it did nothing for my straight hair… ↓      

“]

Look at my frizzy hair! [In other words...don't look at the zit on my forehead!

There goes the 30 minutes spend straightening my hair…oh well it’s Monday!       

_______      

When I got home I had some carrots and light ranch dressing, a peanut butter cookie, and coconut water.      

Snack

 

After eating my snack I got right to work on homework…lots of studying…      

      

      

…and maybe some doodling.       

      

Seriously, it was mostly studying.      

To my fellow teen bloggers: Doesn’t it seem like Monday is the toughest night of homework? It seems like it to me!      

_________      

After a few hours I (finally) got a break from the homework to have dinner.      

I had a huge salad topped with my Mom’s Roast Beef and a side of Whole Wheat Wheat Thins. ↓      

Dinner

 

Not bad for a Monday Dinner!       

_________      

Question of the Day:       

1. What is your favorite and least favorite day of the week?          Least Favorite: Monday (obviously) Favorite: Friday

Hot Oatmeal + Meet #2

Autumn is in the air!  

I don’t know about you, but where I live the temperature drops to the low 50′s at night. (Ahhh! Goodbye, Summer!)  

Yesterday, in honor of the changing seasons I decided to make a delicious hot bowl of oats… 

The Flavors of Fall...in a bowl!

 

…but not just any bowl of oats; a bowl of oats filled with one of the autumn staples: APPLES! (I bet you thought I was going to say pumpkin! Sorry, but I’m not a pumpkin kinda girl. ) 

 

To make my oats I cooked a ½ cup of oatmeal in water and then added various toppings. 

Toppings: 

• Stewed apples (½ an apple, a few tablespoons of water, a tablespoon of sugar, and a dash of cinnamon all microwaved for 90 seconds.)
• Sensible Foods Apple Harvest
• Bear Naked granola

Yummmmmmmmmm!

 

 C’mon you know you want some.  

________ 

After yesterday’s breakfast all the other meals were pretty boring, so I will do you the kind deed of not posting them.  

Onto today’s breakfast… 

Today for breakfast I really wanted some SunButter. I didn’t really like it at first but, let me tell you, that stuff really grows on you! It’s still never going to replace peanut butter, but still… 

Breakfast

 

 I “broke the fast” with a multigrain english muffin topped with SunButter and served with a side of grapes. 

Today after breakfast I actually had time to spare. (!!!) I took advantage of this time and read some blogs. (Of course…)  

Today a bunch of teachers announced tests tomorrow. You want to know why? Because there is a football game on Thursday! (What the heck!?!?!)  

I’m going to change the subject now before I go on ranting about how stupid that is… 

Today I had one of my favorite kinds of lunches: a Lunch of Snacks! ♥ 

 

I think the #1 mistake people make when preparing a lunch without an anchor (a sandwich, soup, or salad) is just packing junk. I mean, if you aren’t going to pack a sandwich or something you still have to make sure it has staying power! ←Protein, Fiber, all the good stuff! 

Let me show you where I got all that good stuff: 

• Kashi Go Lean Chocolate Pretzel Bar - 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber
• Yoplait Light Blackberry yogurt – 5 grams of protein
• Babybel Cheese – 6 grams of protein
• NSA Peaches – 2 grams of fiber

Now that’s what I call staying power, and believe me, I needed that to fuel me through my intense Cross Country Practice! 

But first let me recap yesterday’s meet. 

Crossing the Finish

 

Yesterday we had a local meet (no hour drive!) at a park that I know very well. We ran against 3 other schools in a giant girl’s race. (AKA Freshman, JV, and Varsity girls ran together and it was longer – 5K distance.)  

When the gun was shot everyone took off and all the seasoned runners started speeding away. I kept with the pack for the most part, but I did have to walk for a bit because I felt a weird spasm in my leg. Almost like something, internally, was crawling up my calf and up to my thigh. (Totally weird, right?) While I got over the general weirdness (and pain!) of the spasm I speed-walked and then gradually changed to a run. 

My total time was 29:27 and I finished 3rd out of the five Freshman girls. Not too shabby! I just can’t believe I shaved 4 minutes off my time since the Flying Pig and the Time Trials!  

[Fast-Forward to the Present] 

Today I didn’t feel nearly as good about running. I was sore and tired, but I still had to run the longest distance I have ever run in one day – approximately 6.8 miles! EEEKKKKK!  

All I have to say is that I probably ran for 4 miles and then after that I alternated from a speed walk to a jog. I think I need a rest day!  

Enough said.  

When I got back from my torturous Cross Country Practice I found a surprise at my doorstep: a box of goodies from the nice people at Manna Bread! 

Manna Bread Goodies

 

I predict a product review in Food, Fitness, & Fun’s future!  

I immediately ripped into the first loaf I saw: Carrot Raisin. 

 

My post-run snack was a slice of Carrot Raisin bread and a pack of Cocoa Roast Almonds. I’m not going to say much about the bread now but the people at Manna Bread definitely don’t skimp on mix-ins – look at all those raisins!  

As usual, snackage was followed by homework and then dinner. 

 

2 teriyaki chicken drumsticks with baked potato and some veggies. Nothing special. 

Now I am blogging and then I am going to crash on the couch. I have some DVR’ed Flipping Out to catch up on!  

Goodnight! 

Taking Advantage of Fresh Produce

This morning I wanted to make something fresh-tasting for breakfast. Good thing I have this fruity french toast recipe from Peanut Butter Fingers.   

  

Every time I make this I make little changes and it keeps getting better and better. ♥ Today, for example, I added a bit of honey to the egg/cinnamon/pumpkin pie spice mixture for extra sweetness and then added a pinch of cayenne pepper to bring out the sweetness. (Just like you would do with salt in baked goods.)   

It was pure yumminess. ↓ Mmmmm!   

  

Lately, I have been practicing taking my time and enjoying my food instead of gobbling it down right away. What can I say? I definitely took my time savoring this dish – it was so good today! The best yet! (Thanks again, Julie!)  

________  

I am glad I took my time savoring my breakfast because lots of chores followed. I had to clean the pantry, run errands, clean the bathroom, and water the flowers. Ughhh.   

The beautiful job I did!

 

I failed at taking my time during lunch today – it was delicious but I ate it in 30 seconds flat.  

My monstrous salad contained:  

• mixed spring lettuces
• romaine
• garden tomatoes
• onion
• garden cucumber
• croutons
• chicken
• corn
• Olde Cape Cod Raspberry Vinaigrette

  

(Side Note: I also cut-up a little salad for Phil’s turtle. LOL! ) ↓  

  

Well,  lunch is over and I am back to the grind – chores and errands.  Talk to you bloggies later! ♥  

Question of the Day:  

1. What is your favorite fruit/veggie that is in season during the summer months?        If you are curious to know what is in-season in YOUR state check out this link! (Sent to me by my very computer-savvy uncle – Thanks Uncle Oz! ♥)