Best Things About Summer

Well, now that it's mid June and the temperatures have FINALLY decided to dip above 70 it actually feels like summer. I guess yesterday was the official first day of summer but it's about time. I actually even got up at 9 this morning.

This happened yesterday but it was so worthy of sharing. Sweetart. That's pink lemonade and grape flavor. It was the best snow cone of my life! No lie. I didn't catch a picture but I think I'll go get another one today.

And I made a yummy personal pizza.

Toppings were tomato sauce, spinach, mushrooms, chicken, marinated artichoke hearts and fresh mozzarella.

Despite falling asleep at 2am, I got up at 5am and went to Body Pump at 6 am. (it continues to shock me the number of people in the gym that early...) It. Was. Awesome. I mean I do some weight training on my own, but it's always good to have a total (very nice and encouraging) stranger push you to your limit now and then. And push she did. Everything is sore (in a good way) today. Especially my butt. Just in case you wondered. :)

Hunter looks as tired as I felt afterward:

Then I took a 3 mile walk with my friend Audrey and my doggie Hunter. Sorry, no photograph of my sweaty, red face. It was getting hot and Hunter acted like he was going to die. (He's kind of pampered anyways) He looked pretty happy after though.

Had a snack of Dave's Killer Spelt bread. This label is so funny.

You can't see it but it says say no to bread on drugs!

Planted some Zinias. Aren't they pretty?

Oooo, and look what bloomed!

Ate one of the Scott's Loaded Granola Bars

They have a really pure flavor so you can really taste the flavors of the oats, sunflower seeds, berries, pistachios, and flaxseeds to name just a few of the ingredients!

Broke all previous beliefs and tried "the belt thing". Got these two for about $26!

The pictures aren't the greatest, so I'll try to get a picture wearing it this weekend.

Ate some mushroom angolotti with alfredo sauce.

Today I need to plant these:

Cosmos

Penstemon

And think about mowing the lawn. Nhhhh.

Oh, this weekend I'm taking a road trip with Audrey to Oregon! We're going to visit my parents who live in Keizer (45 min North of Salem and 1 hour South of Portland). So I promise I'll have lots to tell when I get back. Maybe I'll even dig out my real camera instead of taking pictures with my iPhone. Maybe.

Have a fabulous Thursday everyone!

Viva La Vegetables!

Pardon my horrible French. ;)

Today was my first day of freedom from work. Man, I miss having the summers off.

I started the morning at oh, 11:30 AM? Truth is, I woke up about 9:30 then laid in bed talking to my Honey and playing around on my new laptop.

So when I finally got up I was off to a late (but wonderful) start. Breakfast was a quick bowl of Fiber One Honey Clusters with half soy and half non fat organic milk. Though it is fine by itself, I like it better with bananas. Everything is better with bananas. (Note to self: buy bananas!)

With breakfast being so late, I didn't sit down to lunch until about 4. For lunch I had some cheese pizza and a spinach salad with orange bell pepper, organic shredded carrot, and cucumber.

Also two small and delicious peaches with some light vanilla Activia yogurt, topped with Grape Nuts. My Honey likes to call Grape Nuts gravel. I actually really, really like them though. :)

There was a little bit of brownie and some vanilla yogurt blends ice cream a little later...

And then to pilates! The Monday night instructor kicks my butt every time! I was one of the last to come in, so I got to be right at the front. :)

Dinner was done just before 9 pm. I had been looking forward to trying this recipe for a while, and finally FINALLY had a chance (and all the ingredients) to put it together.

Taco-Stuffed Pepper Cups

(adapted from Dashing Dish)

2 medium bell peppers, any color

1/2 pound lean ground beef (she used ground turkey, but I was craving beef)

2 tbs chopped onion

1 can black beans, drained

1 can corn, drained

1 c. salsa (I used peach pineapple salsa, though it seems like a strange choice, it blended well with the other flavors)

3 tbs. taco seasoning

1/4 c. reduced fat cheddar cheese (I accidentally picked up fat free, which worked in a pinch, but kind of tastes like plastic)

1/4 plain greek yogurt (it's a great replacement for sour cream!)

shredded lettuce

sliced black olives

1. Preheat oven to 350. Wash bell peppers, cut out tops, and remove seeds. Boil for about 3 minutes, remove and immediately rinse with cold water. Slice each pepper in half and arrange in a lightly greased baking dish.

2. Spray large pan with olive oil cooking spray, and turn to medium high heat. Add onion and ground beef until the ground beef is no longer pink. Add black beans, corn, salsa and taco seasoning. Simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Spoon mixture into each pepper half, (for some reason I ended up with a lot left over, but not to worry, I can make taco salad with the leftovers!) top with cheese and back on the upper rack for about 10 minutes.

4. Once the peppers are removed from the oven, I added greek yogurt, lettuce and olives.

I also made slow roasted sweet potatoes, which was surprisingly complimentary to the stuffed peppers. Lots of color and lots of veggies!

Unfortunately, you can't see much of the pepper in this photo. Moving on.

For a little bedtime snack, I had a bran muffin with some butter, and a glass of chocolate milk. Mmmm!

Do you like Grape Nuts? Do you ever replace sour cream with Greek yogurt?

Mowers and Miles

It's been a busy couple of days.

First, let me introduce the remnants of the cake that I made. You can see that it had been demolished before I remembered to take a picture of it, but you can see that everyone LOVED it! (Including me!) Definitely making that again!

I hadn't been eating a very good dinner lately, either too tired, too lazy or too bored to think of anything quick and easy. One day I ate canned ravioli with popcorn. No, it wasn't worth it. Well, the popcorn was. Orville Redenbacher's Natural Flavored popcorn has all of the flavor (butter, salt and pepper and lime and salt are my favorites) without the artificial flavoring, or fake butter taste. Mmmm mmm!

I did one night, however, whip up this yummy mushroom and spinach omelet. Omelet's are kind of a big deal at least to me, because I'm not very good at making aesthetically pleasing ones. To my credit, I am getting better. First, I cooked some mushrooms, then threw in some chopped spinach and wilted it just a bit, then I added 4 scrambled egg whites, cooked a couple of minutes, then added a sprinkle of flaked Parmesan cheese, and a wedge of broken up Laughing Cow cheese. Folded over the omelet and viola! Super, duper good.

On a side note, the grass in the front lawn was long enough for a jungle, so I went out and bought this mower. Exciting, I know. Mowing the grass is actually kind of a sneaky way to get in a little workout as well! Sorry the picture is a little grainy.

This Friday, I decided to try a new pizza place down the street, Garbonzo's Pizza. I got the Garbonzo's original: pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, tomatoes. I changed out the pepperoni and sausage for chicken and pineapple. It was super good, good ingredients, sauce and of course, the CHEESE. Mmmm! The only thing I didn't like, was they put fresh tomatoes on the pizza, after it had been baked. Next time I'll leave off the tomatoes.

I hadn't been running since Monday and not eating great, not sleeping great I knew I needed to give my body a kick start. It was kind of cloudy and threatening to rain, which seemed like a good excuse to stay in but Hunter was so eager to go, I couldn't disappoint. I planned to just take a walk about 3 miles around the neighborhood, but I still set up my Nike + on my iPhone so I could track my pace and mileage.

If you don't have one of these, I highly recommend getting one. You can either buy the sport kit with includes the part to plug into your iPod, or just get the chip use it with the program already on your iPhone. You can make a cartoon of yourself and save it to your screen saver. When you're consistently running, it will run and give positive encouragement. When you've been slacking, it will sit around and yawn and stretch or play with a paddle ball saying things like "I'd like to go for a run, but my hands are tied up!" I think it's a hillarious way to remember to go running, and stay motivated.

Just a little background on my running history. It started when I took P.E. summer school my junior year of high school, and our teacher was an avid runner. In fact our final was to run 2 miles in 20 minutes. That seemed like forever! Nonetheless, after running/walking 5 days a week in class for an hour, it was an easy feat, coming in at about 18 minutes. Since then, I've been into it more at times than others. Last summer, I ran my first 5k, and went on to even finish a 10k. I've done another other race since then and have come to really enjoy it. Plus, it's a great way to exercise my 90 lb golden retriever with endless (and I mean ENDLESS) energy! Hence, a picture of my pooped out doggie after today!

Ok, back to the run. It was windy and attempting to rain, but I figured that I should just get out and go. So I started walking and listening to my iPod. Man, it was kinda cold with the rain blowing, and a light rain in my face. About half a mile in, my muscles were warmed up, but I was still cold. I was feeling pretty good, so I began a light jog. I've noticed that I take a while to get my gait and my pace at a good place, and Hunter was keeping up right next to me. :) So we continued the whole way, and the wind and drizzle actually let up for the remainder. Good thing too, because right when we got home, it started to rain a little more seriously. I'm so glad I went!

Stay tuned for the feast I'm making tomorrow for my favorite adopted family!