All posts by harkey12

Labor Day Fun!

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Jazzercise

It’s been a great day here around the Harkey household! Any day that I get to break away from my normal schedule is all right by me.

Workout

This morning I slept in til 6:30 (it could’ve been worse!), and I quickly leashed up a sleepy Mac for a quick run. He was a trooper and the run was just long enough to get me nice and warm before I continued my morning’s workout at Jazzercise. Plus, it was actually cool outside while running this morning. I’ve been waiting for a nice morning, and today was it! I could’ve keep running for miles…at least I felt like I could have in the beautiful morning air. So invigorating!

We arrived home pretty quick though because my tummy was growling, and my coffeepot was a waitin’!  I ate and gave myself enough time to digest before heading to our special team-taught class.

On holidays, we often hold 1 Jazzercise class only and invite our students to bring their friends and family for free. This morning we had an almost-packed house, and I team taught with several of my fellow instructors. We tag team the stage, each teaching a few songs before handing off the mic. So fun! And one of the other instructors was nice enough to snap a few pics of me on stage…

IMG_1652 IMG_1648 IMG_1651Yup, that’s me in the yellow top and crazy pants! The class energy was great, and I was beyond sweaty after class.

Breakfast

Breakfast today was delicious and quick since I threw some overnight oats together last night before bed.

IMG_1644 IMG_1645I combined…

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1 TB chia seeds
  • 1 6 oz. container light yogurt, Pumpkin Pie flavor!
  • 1/2 cup Light vanilla soy milk
  • a couple shakes of pumpkin pie spice

and I let that sit in a covered container in the fridge overnight for the oats to soak up all the milk and yogurty goodness.

It was very pumpkiny and fit the morning with the cooler weather. Yum! I also enjoyed some fresh blueberries on the side and lots of hot coffee. 🙂

Dinner

The rest of my day was spent grocery shopping and doing several loads of laundry (thrilling, I know). It was nice and relaxing though. So relaxing though that dinner kinda went by the wayside. I had a quick salad to tide me over while I baked a spaghetti squash!

My salad had lots of veggies, including some mushrooms I grabbed today while shopping. I have never been a mushroom lover, but I know they are healthy and great for you. So I thought I’d give them another go.

photo(18)They were actually pretty tasty and filling! I think I’ll have to start keeping them on hand for my salads on a regular basis.

The spaghetti squash was delicious, and I paired my portion with marinara sauce to eat as my main meal. I had to forgo a photo though as it looked like puke on my plate. Not appetizing at all. But I swear it was good. 🙂

IMG_1646Happy Labor Day from Mac & No Cheese! Now get to bed early because we’ve gotta go back to work tomorrow bright and early. Enjoy your night!

 

Easy Orange Crockpot Chicken

Recipes

Ready for an easy and quick recipe that you could most likely put together with what you have in your pantry right now? When I look at a recipe, if it has more than around 8-10 ingredients, my mind shuts down and I look for a different recipe. So anything that can deem the word Easy in the title is okay by me.

I knew I was going to be exhausted after Katie’s Bridal Shower yesterday, so before I left for the day I threw the recipe below together in my crockpot so Nick and I could have a nice Sunday evening dinner. And it was a definite hit as Nick went back for seconds 🙂

Easy Orange Chicken Crockpot Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 5 large chicken breasts, frozen
  • 2 cups baby carrots
  • 1 red onion, medium
  • 1 cup Catalina dressing
  • 1 cup orange marmalade
  • 1 1/2 TB lite soy sauce
  • 2 ts garlic salt

Place the frozen chicken breasts directly into the crockpot. I left mine frozen because my crockpot is newer and always just about scorches my meals if I’m not careful. If you’re using thawed chicken, just reduce your cooking time a bit 🙂

Slice up the onion into small chunks (not diced) and place the onions and the carrots around the chicken in the crock.

In a separate bowl, mix up the remaining ingredients into a smooth sauce. It should be smelling pretty orangey! Pour this sauce directly overt the chicken and the veggies. As the mixture cooks, a lot of liquid will appear so don’t worry about it being too dry. Don’t add extra liquid!

I let this cook on Low for 6 hours and it was ready to go. Adjust your cooking times to your crockpot. My chicken was falling apart it was so tender! I also shredded up the chicken a bit during the last 30 minutes to let the chicken soak up more of the delicious sauce.

Mmm orange chicken...
Mmm orange chicken…

Yum yum! I served our orange chicken with some sauteed squash that I received from one of my Jazzercise students this past week.

IMG_1643Try out some orange chicken for yourself and let me know how it turns out or if you have a fun twist for the recipe!

Hope your Labor Day is off to a great start!

Bridal Shower Weekend, Part II

Daily Life!

Food, friends, gifts, a long run, and Jazzercise..plus I don’t have to go to work tomorrow??! Yup it’s been a fantastic Sunday Funday!

Breakfast

I wanted a hot and filling breakfast this morning, but didn’t have a lot of time to spare before my 9:15 AM Jazzercise class. So I whipped up some oatmeal and cut up a fresh pear for the side. I also chopped up a few smaller bits of the pear to throw into the oatmeal. It was delicious and satisfied my craving! And obviously I had several cups of hot coffee on the side. 🙂 I wouldn’t survive the day without it!

IMG_1623Workout

I was not planning on waking up early this morning to run. I was striving to sleep in as late as I could and still make it to teach my Jazzercise class. But my body had different plans, so I was awake at 6:30 AM. I decided to drag my tired body out of bed and do something productive, so I headed off on another 5K run. I ran 3.46 miles in 30 minutes, so I think I’m on pace to have a great, fun, and relaxing run with my girlfriend Carley on Sept. 14. These early morning runs are making me really excited about running. I’m finally enjoying running! My next goal: Run a 10K.  It’s on my TO-DO list!

After I got home and cooled off and had breakfast, I headed off to teach class. I had a great class with a fun set. After my workouts, I was completely energized and ready for my day!

Katie’s BIG Family & Friends Shower!

Katie’s wedding shower started at 3 PM this afternoon. My mom met me at my house, and we headed over to make it by 2 PM to help the other bridesmaids. Katie chose to have the shower at the Springfield Botanical Center. Her wedding will be there in a beautiful garden, so it made sense to have the shower there in their party room so everyone will know where to go on the Big day!

We arrived to a big room with lots of round tables ready to be decorated! I immediately jumped into action to help Cori, our ring-leader for the day.

IMG_1628The colors were black and gold, making our decorations fairly simple. My party favors were placed around the center pieces. I ended up with exactly enough to fill up each table. I was slightly proud! And then the food arrived…

IMG_1630We opted for cupcakes instead of a big sheet cake. They were homemade red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Um, YUM! Too delicious for words. We also had different teas for people to choose and cheese, fruit, and veggie trays. It was all a hit!

IMG_1625Most importantly, Katie and Jesse were so happy and acting so in love. I’m beyond excited for my best friend. BTW, isn’t her chevron dress so cute?? I’m obsessed.

The afternoon was concluded with all the gift opening!

IMG_1640They got lots of good stuff! I definitely need to look into this whole wedding thing. Registering at Bed, Bath & Beyond could greatly benefit my kitchen! HA!

Entire wedding party, including Katie's brother.
Entire wedding party!

It’s a fun bunch to be a part of! Plus Katie’s brother is going to be her ‘Mister of Honor’! Creative, right? He’ll be the most handsome man on our side of the church 🙂 haha it’s going to be such a fun night. We’re only a month away from Sept. 28!

IMG_1632 IMG_1633Above all, Katie is beyond happy, and she was glowing all day. I hope that when mine and Mr. Nicholas’s time comes, we’ll be just as happy and excited. Yes, I’ll admit I was slightly stressed about this long weekend of wedding festivities, but it was fun and SO worth every minute of preparation when the bride and groom arrived!

Hope you all have had an amazing holiday weekend. I definitely have! Tomorrow’s fun will include a 9 AM team-taught Jazzercise class and hopefully some fun times with Nick and Mac afterward. Nighty night!