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!

*****

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!

*****

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!

*****

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?

*****

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

Goodnight!

Time For Pants + OIAJ

Ahhh, this morning when I woke up it was a brisk 60 degrees outside. ♥

It was time for pants!

 [Kind-of Blurry - Taken at 7AM]

 Today was my first day wearing my uniform pants since school started.  It felt great not having to worry if my skirt wrinkled, if it was too short, or if my tights got a run, but I felt totally boy-ish.  I mean, I have nothing against long pants [it's usually what I wear at home] just uniform pants. Let’s just say it’s not the low-rise I’m used to [they come above my belly button!] and I swear the boys wear the same type of pants.

Hmph…at least the uniforms allow me more time to prepare breakfast.

*****

Breakfast:

Banana Oats in a Skippy Jar topped with Peanut Butter Granola

Delicious, right?  I think it looks even more delicious in front of a pumpkin. How festive!

This morning I decided to try something new [to me] with my oatmeal.  I added mashed banana for the first time! Not only did it make the oats more voluminous – it also added a nice, sweet taste and a creamy texture…YUM!

*****

Lunch:

Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich, Brown Cow Greek yogurt, Peanut Butter Granola, and dried cranberries

Simple. Easy. Delicious.

*****

After school there was some Cross Country/School drama. 

As usual, we started on our warm-up a few minutes into practice.  As we were running through the school parking lot we noticed that the Soccer, Field Hockey, and Football players were sitting in the parking lot.  Us Cross Country runners paid no attention and kept on going, only to be stopped by a teacher who informed us that we were not allowed into the woods.

It turned out that there was some creeper guy in the woods with a shotgun…and that’s not even the worst part!  Apparently, there were more than 14 shots fired before the police were called. The guy ended up getting arrested and our practice turned into another road run. Everything turned out okay, but it was still kind-of scary…definitely something you don’t hear about everyday!

*****

After Cross Country I refueled with a chocolate-y yogurt mess. ♥

Snack:

Vanilla Dannon Light & Fit, Kashi Go Lean, chia seeds, dark chocolate chips, and a spoonful of Dark Chocolate Dreams

I also had some hot tea because I was FR-FR-FR-FREEZING!

Raspberry Tea - Not Just A Summer Tea

I don’t know exactly what “THAT” is, but if it has something to do with warming you up after being outside in a t-shirt and shorts for an hour then yes, it does do that…

*****

Thankfully I didn’t have much homework tonight because I was planning on baking scones tonight…

Snack:

1 Carrot Cake Scone – fresh out of the oven ♥ [Recipe will be posted soon!]

Carrot Cake Scones

I ate this scone right before dinner and I didn’t care…it was JUST. THAT. GOOD.  Even my Mom couldn’t resist…

…Plus I needed a scone to help me get through cleaning the mess that I left.

OOPS!

 *****

Dinner:

BBQ Pork Chop, a baked potato, and steamed asparagus

Same old. Same old.

*****

Hope you enjoyed your Monday because now I am off to Karate and then I am coming home and crashing!

Goodnight!

Nothing New

Hey Bloggies! How was your Monday?

Mine was nothing special. I was tired all day and felt like I was just going through the motions. I’ll definitely need to get more sleep tonight.

Breakfast was a simple favorite: 2 Whole Wheat Eggo Nutrigrain Waffles with Friendship 1% No Salt Added cottage cheese ↓

Delicious, as always.

By the time lunch rolled around I was starving! I blame all the thinking.

I had a Turkey Sandwich on an Arnold‘s Sandwich Thin with a bag of Sensible Foods Cherry Berry.

I wasn’t lying when I said Cherry Berry was my favorite flavor - It’s just THAT good!

After lunch I had history and then an easy day of Cross Country Practice since we have a meet tomorrow! We only ran 3.9 miles! (I always giggle when I say only because 2 months ago I would have been like “3.9 miles?! I could NEVER do that! I guess that just goes to show you that you never know until you try!)

Once I got back from my “easy” Cross Country Practice I refueled with a Green Monster. ↓

Green Monsters=YUM!

I am so glad I was introduced to Green Monsters! It’s a veggie serving you can’t even taste!

Yes, I had to include two pictures because I probably won’t get to enjoy another Green Monster until next summer. I can’t drink cold smoothies when it is cold outside. Can you?

While enjoying my Green Monster I started my homework and then had dinner.

Dinner:

• BBQ Pork Chop
• Some kind of yellow rice that we found in the pantry
• Green beans with slivered almonds

I love Pork Chops!

It was so nice today that we decided to enjoy dinner outside. I can’t believe summer is coming to an end but at the same time I want fall to come so badly!

After dinner activities included:

• No Karate
• Watching DVR’ed episodes of Flipping Out
• Watching DVR’ed episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians
• Being lazy
• Having a snack
• Blogging

After Dinner Snack

Another Snack

What a boring  nice day! Sometimes I just need a day to relax and unwind. Doesn’t everyone?!

I hope you had a relaxing day!

Isn’t Summer For Relaxing?

I thought summer was supposed to be relaxing! I swear, I am so much busier during the summer months than I am during school. Today was a perfect example…  

This morning I got to relax for a total of 30 minutes before leaving the house to go pick up my uniforms at the tailor. I had to try all of the skirts/pants on that I got altered, plus 3 extra skirts that my neighbor (who just graduated) gave me. We are just about the same size so it was pretty simple; all the tailor had to do was make them a bit shorter.   

Once we were finished there, we stopped by Papa John’s and then had lunch at my Grannie’s house. We got a plain thin-crust pizza.↓    

Papa's in the HOUSE!

 

Served with the signature hot pepper, which I dominated. 8-)  

After talking and hanging out at my Grannie’s for a couple of hours we came home to a bunch of chores. I seriously can not wait until all the packing is over and I can just relax!  

In the midst of chores I got a bit hungry so had some classic carrots and (light) ranch dressing to make up for the fact that I hadn’t had a veggie all day.  

  

Soon after my snack it was time for dinner. On the menu for tonight: Pork and Hominy Stew with garden tomatoes and some TJ’s Roasted Garlic Baguette for dipping. ♥  

Dinner is Served

 

Tomatoes

 

Immediately following dinner was Cross Country practice later followed by Karate. Then, my mom and I went to Kohl’s to pick up a pair of running shoes and some shorts. I love clothes shopping! ♥  

All the shopping must have made me hungry because when I got home I was starved! I threw a few things into a bowl and called it a yogurt mess.  

Yogurt Mess:  

• Vanilla Dannon Light & Fit
• Cheerios
• Emerald Cocoa-Roast Almonds! ♥

  

I love these almonds! They are so good and don’t have any of the sugar as compared to their chocolate-covered counterpart.   

  

Seriously, you need to try them…absolutely delish!  

_____  

That’s all for tonight, folks. Now I am going to curl-up on the couch and watch some Drop Dead Diva that has been sitting in my DVR for weeks. Goodnight!

Too Pooped To Post

Hey Bloggies! How was your weekend? My weekend was packed with family activities; between Saturday’s Lambertville/New Hope Excursion and Sunday’s Crabbing Trip (more about that later) I was too pooped to post yesterday. Let me fill you in on the crabbing fun…  

The Cousins

 As you can see we went with my cousins and uncle. We all drove down together and it felt so long! An hour-long car ride with 3 loud boys do not make for a happy Erika.

 But, once we got out of the car and started crabbing everything was fine.   

Me reading an In Touch magazine

 Don’t get me wrong, I was crabbing earlier in the day but we weren’t catching anything and the boys started getting on my nerves (did I just write that?!) so I went in the car to get away from them read. (I read the entire In Touch Magazine and 40 pages of The Lightning Thief.)  

We finally left our crabbing spot after 6 hours with only 3 keepers. The adults decided it wasn’t worth keeping 3 crabs and decided to give them to the people next to us. Philip was not happy at all.  Oh, I almost forgot…this is a food blog! Here are yesterday’s eats. ↓  

Breakfast:  A yogurt mess with Kashi Go Lean, a Dannon Light & Fit strawberry yogurt cup, ground flax seeds, and freeze-dried strawberries. 

Breakfast

 Lunch:   We got lunch from Wawa. I got Chef Salad with Honey Dijon and a side of baked chips.  

Lunch

 

CHIPS!

 Snack:   For a snack I had a light mozzarella string cheese and a TJ‘s Fiber-Full Fruit Strip. (BTW- Don’t get the Apple-Blueberry flavor, the Apricot flavor is better.)  

Snack

 Dinner:   I didn’t take any pictures of dinner since we ate at 9PM and I was starving so I will just tell you about it. We got take-out pizza for dinner – ½ mushroom ½ onion. I had a slice of each and ½ a Granny Smith apple. Mmmm…It really hit the spot after not eating for 5 hours.  

That’s all I have! Now it’s your turn: tell me what exciting (or not so exciting) things you did this weekend.