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By Liz, November 14, 2009 4:37 pm

Hey guys! Happy weekend to y’all that have it off. As usual, I am working but…I have tomorrow off. That is my first day off from everything in 3 weeks. I’m pretty stoked!

Yesterday, Friday the 13th, was actually neither a lucky or unlucky day; just run of the mill.

I just wasn’t feeling cardio at the gym and had already hit my running mileage for the week, so I started my day with 1 hour and 10 minutes of yoga ala Rodney Yee. My fave video of his is Power Yoga: Total Body, which is the video I did yesterday morning. I broke a good sweat and felt all loose and stretchy afterwards. Totally what I needed!

Breakfast was extremely amazing yesterday.I made pumpkin oats.

Cooked in the pot: 1/2 cup oats, 1/2c. milk, 1/2c. water, 1/2 a banana

Mixed in after cooking: 1/2c. canned pumpkin, 2-3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Toppings: peanut butter, pumpkin butter, chopped walnuts, Barbara’s shredded oats cereal

Apple crisp oats mooove over, there’s a new oat bowl in town. This is now my new oat addiction, for the time being.

Yesterday was actually really low-key at work and in the afternoon. Jacob and I went grocery shopping. I picked up my Project Feed Me items from last week and for this week.I got both crunchy AND creamy peanut butter, and some Betty Crocker Beef Stroganoff boxed meals. My bag full of PFM foods is getting pretty full. I can’t wait to drop off a huge bag(s) of food to the food bank when PFM is over!

Dinner last night was suuuuper tasty. I made paninis (aka fancy grilled cheese sammies )

That there is 2 slices of ezekiel bread, buttered, stuffed with brie cheese, apple slices, turkey and dried cranberries, subsequently grilled on the Foreman. Yum!

I got my veggies in with a small side salad of spring mix greens, radishes and broccoli with some Tuscan Style dressing from TJs. A nice glass of wine accompanied dinner, too. (For all you TJs shoppers, check out the new Charles Shaw, aka two buck chuck, called Nouveau. I guess it’s only around during the holidays and for 2 bucks it is one of the best cheap red wines I have ever had!)

After dinner, I hung out with all the roomies. Sometimes we are all just doing our own thing and don’t get a chance to sit down together and hang out, so last night was a real sweet treat to spend some quality time with the peeps I share a home with.

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Welcome to Saturday! How was the trip from Friday? Good, I hope!

Jacob made me breakfast in bed this morning. What a guy! He didn’t make no ho-hum breakfast either. He made me 3 utterly delicious slices of french toast (using ezekiel bread). I had that slice x3. YUM! Sadly, before I knew it, it was time to get ready for work. High ho, high ho it’s off to work I go….

Lunch…A light salad, just some greens, veggies, chicken and Tuscan dressing.

Grapefruit…Yumminess…And yes, I totally licked both the container and the spoon clean. No peanut butter left behind

Well, in t-minus 30 minutes I will be off work, rushing home to prep dinner for my parents. I’m going over to their house tonight, making them pizza and cookies, while they help me fill out my application for hopefully transferring to Humboldt State. Kinda exciting!

Catch you on the flip side (Boondock Saints anyone?)…

Oh, by the way, I apologize for the icky line running through all my pictures. My camera is to blame, and I have no idea why it’s fudging up like this. Hopefully, I will get a full refund or a new camera soon! But in the meantime, just try to imagine that line is not there.

Comments (8)

By Liz, November 1, 2009 8:46 pm

I’m all in the holiday spirit over here! The beginning of November is like the gateway to the holiday season. I can’t wait till Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years, then my birthday! And they’ll all be here before I know it. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s recap this day, November 1st.

Actually, I want to recap the cookies I made last night first…

These were truly the best cookies I have made…ever! I switched my usual recipe up a little. I also used chocolate chips and some Halloween treats (reeses and snickers). Here’s the recipe:

The Best Cookies Liz Ever Made

• 6 tbsp. butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2c. brown sugar
• 1/4c. regular granulated white sugar
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2c. chocolate chips
• 3 reeses cups
• 5 mini snickers

Directions:Preheat oven at 375 degrees F. Melt butter in medium sized bowl. Stir in vanilla, sugars, egg and salt. The add half the flour and baking soda. Stir in candies and chocolate chips. Finish by adding the last cup of flour. Combine until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Drop onto greased pan in large spoonful (2-3 tbsp). Bake for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Just to re-iterate again, these cookies were amazing. They weren’t exactly healthy, but they were delicious…and sometimes delicious things don’t need to be healthy. I enjoyed them and savored every bite of my cookies.

Okay, now to today….

I woke up and went right on my long run. It was my last long run of this cross country season. I ran 8.5 miles in 1hr 22 min. I was proud because I ran my typical route around town a good 5 minutes faster than usual. Maybe it was all the cookies and candy . I felt great!

I wanted a super super healthy breakfast after my indulgences last night (I had a fair share of candy, in the upwards of 10 pieces!). So what better than a green monster to start my day?

Plus a slice of ezekiel toast with butter for something solid.

I worked for 4 hours today. Lunch was leftover chili and strawberries for dessert. I think you guys have seen enough pictures of chili, so I won’t bore you with that.

I had an extremely stupendous snack after work though, that is very noteworthy.

I used Tay’s idea for custard oats. I didn’t follow her recipe exactly. Here’s what I did: Cooked 1/2c. oats, 1 cup water and one egg on stovetop. Topped with cinnamon, brown sugar and 1 tbsp. of peanut butter. I am going to make these a regular appearance on here. The egg made the texture of oats so thick and custardy. Totally delish! I love the fact that the egg adds more staying power also.

Jacob and I went grocery shopping after my snackie. We loaded up on all the essentials plus a few fun things. Oh, and I didn’t forget my Project Feed Me items for last week…

I chillaxed with a glass of beer for a bit…

Then I made dinner…

I tried out a new soup recipe, black bean soup from Rachael Ray. This was supposed to be a thicker “stoup”, but it came out pretty thin. It was spicy just to the point of perfection for my tastebuds. I really liked it. I accompanied my soup with a grilled cheese sandwich made with 2 slices of ezekiet bread and pepperjack cheese.

All together:

I had the last of my jug o’beer with dinner too. This was pure comfort food at it’s best.

Dessert was a coconut bar and 3 mini Halloween candies.

I’m watching Saw right now with Jacob and Justin (one of my roomies). They’re getting drunk on sake because Justin’s truck broke down, so he’s drowing out his sorrows with alcohol…haha, I’m refraining…early morning workouts and hangovers don’t mix well.

Have a good night y’all!

Comments (7)

By Liz, October 21, 2009 9:47 pm

Good evening guys!

Today was not the typical Wednesday. Not in any super unusual way, it was just different in the way that I didn’t do my usual schedule of things. It kinda threw me off to tell ya the truth.

Anyways…

I didn’t get hungry for my lunch until 3:30. Totally not me, I’m usually starving by 11 or 12. Jacob packed me a really cute lunch today.

Happy! That’s what it looked like before I ate it…and here’s what it looked like after…

My salad included spring mix greens, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato, radish, cuke, shredded chicken and goddess dressing. Super yum. One of the guys down in the bike shop gave me some candy today at work.

It’s almond toffee with dark chocolate. I can’t believe I was able to restrain myself and wait half the day to eat it after lunch. It was way way delicious. I forgot how much I liked toffee. I also had a pear.

Kona was very intrigued by my picture taking.

After eating my late lunch I did some studying then Jacob and I went grocery shopping. I bought two especially special items while shopping. One of them I’ll show you guys soon…but I’ll give you a hint : HEAB. The other special item that I got was Project Feed Me items.

This weeks items were two cans of tuna. I also caught up and got last weeks items, which were two cans of chili. If anyone doesn’t know about Project Feed Me, go over to Natalie’s blog and check it out. It’s a great way to help your community by donating items to your local food bank. I think it’s a great idea and am so happy to be a part of it. Great idea Natalie!

Dinner tonight was spaghetti squash with meat sauce.

I cut the squash lengthwise and cooked it face down on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes at 450 degrees. Then I ran the insides through with a fork and the result was stringy squash strands. I made a meat sauce to top the squash with. I sauteed onion and pepper, then zucchini and yellow squash, broccoli and spinach. Then I cooked up some lean ground beef seasoned with pepper and garlic powder and added that to the veggies once cooked. Pour in 2 cans of tomato sauce and 1 can of diced tomatoes, season with basil, thyme and garlic powder. Voila…meat sauce! I also made garlic bread with 2 slices of ezekiel bread smeared with butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese and garlic powder.

This was a lot of food! I finished the bread but only ate about 3/4 of the squash and sauce. By the way, I made my plate all pretty and ready for a picture. Then I sat down to eat and totally forgot to take a pic! So, what you guys get is a semi-eaten dinner photo. Silly me!

I also accompanied my dinner with a glass of red wine. Just some two buck Chuck…nothing special.

I poured the wine in our new Halter Ranch glasses. Jacob made a comment after his first sip of wine that he felt so spoiled after all the wine we tasted on Sunday. We tasted some really great wine and the cheap stuff just does not compare! One of these days we’ll get a really good quality bottle, when we have a little more money.

A little homework is waiting for me tonight. Thank goodness it’s nothing crazy and I won’t be up till 11 or 12!

Goodnight folks. Sleep well!