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!

A Not-So-Relaxing Day Off

This morning (since I don’t have any school) I was able to relax and eat breakfast at a leisurely pace.

I had Cheese Grits…minus the egg because I wasn’t feelin’ it this morning.

Cheesy Goodness!

It is so nice waking up on a cold morning to a hot bowl of grits! Same goes for oatmeal and Cream of Wheat…

I thought that today would be relaxing and I would be able to sit around and do nothing…boy, was I wrong!

Before lunchtime I had already:

• cleaned/organized my desk
• finished all of my homework
• got my eyebrows threaded
• and went shopping with my Mom for Cross Country clothes

As you can see I had a pretty busy day, but it beats sitting around in school!

Lunch was especially delicious. I had a salad topped with a Veggie Burger For One. ♥ ↓

Lunch

In keeping with the chili powder and cumin theme of the burger I mixed 2 tablespoons of Kraft House Italian dressing with a dash of chili powder and Tabasco and used it to dress my salad.

Semi-Homemade Dressing

After lunch I got to relax for a while and then helped Philip with a school project.

After a lot of cutting, pasting, and coloring I got hungry so I had the last piece of Banana Walnut Hemp Manna Bread and some pineapple.

Yum! Pineapple is amazing – definitely one of my favorite fruits!

A couple of hours later I had dinner. I had a classic: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup!

Classic Dinner

 The Grilled Cheese consisted of an Arnold’s Sandwich Thin with ½ a cup of part-skim cheddar cheese and the Tomato Soup was something that we had sitting in the back of our pantry: Campbell’s Select Harvest Tomato and Basil soup!

Now, I know that canned soups are usually full of additives and sodium but this one wasn’t too bad.

Almost All-Natural

The ingredients were pretty good…the sodium…well that was still pretty bad clocking in at 20% daily value.

Oh well…

After dinner my Mom and I took Philip to baseball practice, picked up a few things from Wegmans, and came home. Currently, I am eating some Sensible Foods Cherry Berry and blogging. My day wasn’t as relaxing as I thought it would be, but it was still a nice change-of-pace.

Plus, I still have Monday (Columbus Day) to sit around and do nothing.

Question of the Day:

1. Do you prefer structured or lazy days?       I prefer lazy days during the school year but once summer comes I get bored and crave structure!

Apple & Almond Butter Sandwich

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening!    

Today I didn’t take many pictures of my food, but I certainly made up for it with photos of my breakfast.   

Apple & Almond Butter Sandwich

 

I made a quick, yet satisfying (and delicious) breakfast by combining 3 staples: bread, apples, and almond butter.   

Specifically, Arnold’s Sandwich Thins, Honey Crisp Apples, and Whole Foods 365 Smooth Almond Butter.   

   

As much as I love almond butter I have only found two brands that I really like: Whole Foods 365 and Justin’s.   

Favorite AB!

 

 I tried making homemade almond butter once according to Bitsy’s Kitchen’s recipe. Don’t get me wrong it was a great recipe and it made a lot of almond butter, but it didn’t have the same taste as the 365.   

Okay, back on subject…    

I know you have probably heard of the almond butter and apple combination before, but if you haven’t heard of it, believe me, it is amazing! ♥   

Mmm...Mmm...Good!

 

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Now, that you’re done drooling over my breakfast you can wipe off the drool, relax, look at some recent (not food related) pictures from this past weekend. ↓   

Pyro-Phil

 

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All of the Grandchildren celebrating Babi's Birthday

 

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Not A Happy Phil Before Flu Shots

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Me...Spazzing Out At Babi's

 

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Hope you enjoyed! Now I am off to wash and (maybe) straighten my hair. It was straight in the morning and (due to Cross Country Practice in the rain) now it is curly.

Curls!

 

 Goodnight! 

P.S.  Tomorrow is Rebecca’s Blog Bake Sale featuring my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies! Be sure to check it out (a link will be posted tomorrow) and bid for some delicious baked goods! The proceeds go to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and the bidding starts at 7 AM so set your alarm clocks and ends at midnight.

My Favorite Type of Shopping

Most teenage girls say clothes shopping is their favorite type of shopping, but not me, my favorite type of shopping is grocery shopping.

Don’t get me wrong, I love fashion and I love the mall, but it’s nothing in comparison to the excitement I feel when I walk into the grocery store.  (Wow, I sound really weird right now…)

Today I went to Whole Foods because I had a $20 gift card leftover from last Christmas to use up.

I swear, I could spend hours in Whole Foods. There are so many food items that I just need to have!

Of course, my Mom would never allow me to spend hours in Whole Foods or allow me to buy the whole store so I settled on a few items and left. I also nabbed a few really good free samples while I was in the store. Yummy! ♥

Who wants to guess what I got?!

Nevermind.

I’ll just save you the trouble and post a picture. ↓

• Almond Butter
• Cool Beans Buffalo Bean Dip
• ½ pound of dried cranberries
• Olive Valley Falafel Sticks
• Carrot Cake Larabar (!!!)
• Justin’s Cinnamon Peanut Butter packet
• O.N.E. Coconut Water (Cranberry Grapefruit flavor)

I was so excited to finally find the legendary Carrot Cake Larabar! I’ve heard so many mixed opinions on it that I could not wait to try it.

Okay, I lied. I am waiting to try it. It’s still sitting in my pantry uneaten.

But, I did get to try the Buffalo Bean Dip for the first time. It is absolutely amazing!

I had a load of it for lunch. ↓

Morning Star Farms California Turk’y Burger on a Sandwich Thin w/ Buffalo Bean Dip. Served with a side of raw zucchini w/ more Buffalo Bean Dip and a Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie.

The Dip is so good! It has all of the buffalo sauce flavor without any of the heat. It’s great for the wimps people who don’t like spicy stuff!

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I think that’s it for now…

Questions of the Day:

1. Have you tried the Carrot Cake Larabar yet? What did you think?
2. Are you like spicy foods?

“Banana Bread” Oatmeal

You all know how much I love Baked Oatmeal In An Instant, right?

Right?!

Okay, so maybe you don’t.

But I really do like Tina’s Baked Oatmeal In An Instant. ↓

This past weekend, while eating my baked oatmeal, I thought “I wonder how this would taste with banana instead of pumpkin?”

As you all know (I mentioned it in this post) I am not a big fan of pumpkin. Yes, I ate it in this recipe and I will eat it again, but I wouldn’t choose to have pumpkin everyday.

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Bananas…now that’s a different story.

You can enjoy bananas in a variety of ways: banana bread, banana sandwiches, banana soft serve, the list goes on…and on…and on…

…but now there is a new way to enjoy bananas.

It’s a hybrid of banana bread and oatmeal.

I present to you: “Banana Bread” Oatmeal!

(Creative name, no? )

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“Banana Bread” Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• ½ banana, mashed
• ¼ cup EggBeaters (or 2 egg whites or 1 whole egg)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ~ ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Toppings: (optional)

• granola
• sliced banana
• yogurt
• crushed graham crackers
• chopped walnuts
• coconut butter
• cream cheese frosting

Directions:

• Combine oats, mashed banana, EggBeaters, and baking powder in a medium microwavable bowl.
• Add spices, honey, and brown sugar
• Stir well
• Microwave for 2 minutes on high
• Add toppings
• Enjoy!

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As the last 30 seconds of cooking time ticked away the banana bread aroma filled the air. I needed to have it!

It tasted exactly like banana bread, but it’s easier to make and there is no clean up!

I ate it right up…but not before snapping a picture to show you the fluffiness of the bread. ↓

**You could also use a packet of instant oatmeal (Maple Brown Sugar and Banana Bread flavors work best!) in place of the oats, spices, and brown sugar.**

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It’s no secret that the “star of the show” was my breakfast, but here are some of my other eats for today. ↓

A Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich with grapes, celery, and Laughing Cow

A handful of unsalted peanuts

Chobani 2% Pineapple Greek Yogurt

Chicken cooked in Cream of Mushroom Soup, pesto, butter, and spices, served over No Yolks Egg Noodles with steamed asparagus mixed in

My Mom actually found the recipe for our dinner in an email from Campbells! I was pretty doubtful at first but it was actually really good!

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Hope you had a delicious day!