Category Archives: Daily Life!

Celebrating 2 Years

Daily Life!, Food for Thought

This past week marked Nick and I’s 2 year dating anniversary. He had a crazy busy week, and I was my normal busy with Jazzercise and work, so we decided to go out to dinner tonight for a mini-celebration. We have a normal ‘fancier dinner’ place that we go to called Santa Fe Grille. It’s upscale Mexican food, and it’s delicious!

As we pulled into the parking lot, the sign had changed to Springfield Gourmet Taco Company. (I vaguely remember seeing this announcement in the weekly newspaper, but it obviously didn’t stick with me!) Anyways, we were slightly leery, but it looked basically the same as we walked in. The menu had been revamped to include about 50 different tacos from which you could choose. Then you chose how to wrap your taco, hard shell, soft shell, lettuce wrap…the list was very big! Nick went with a steak variety of some sort in a corn tortilla, and I chose the Hawaiian Chicken in a lettuce wrap.

When our food arrived, we were a little thrown off. It was only 1 taco each! We had no idea we needed to order several to make a complete dinner.

photo(40)Luckily, they were AMAZING! Mine was covered in grilled pineapple, cabbage, and a sweet chili sauce. So we immediately waved over the waiter to order 1 more taco each. It ended up being a great meal + a learning experience for the next time we visit the new Gourmet Taco Company!

1234839_10151793048272182_969853993_nLunch + Sam’s Club

Lunch today was pretty light as I was wanting to get in a quick trip to Sam’s before it got any later in the day. Jazzercise kept me busy til around noon, and it made me hungry! So I knew I needed to eat a bite before I got around all the gigantic groceries or else my gigantic appetite would take over. I quickly topped a whole wheat Bagelthin with some cottage cheese and inhaled it before hopping in my car.

Carbs + savory cottage cheese!
Carbs + savory cottage cheese!

My favorite finds at Sam’s today?

photo(38)Pumpkin Pie Coffee Creamer! No less, in a convenient 2-pack! I usually go for the sugar free creamers, but this particular brand only has 20 more calories than the sugar-free. Plus it just looked amazing in the store. So I had to go for it! It doesn’t expire until January, so I can take my time with it. Yes, it’s not the healthiest. But it doesn’t include any real dairy products so it’s a win for this lactose-intolerant lady! I can’t wait for tomorrow morning!

Second favorite find…

photo(41)Cute right?! Fall Owl oven mitt and matching dish towel. These are already displayed in my kitchen. They are way too cute to sit in the drawer!! Our house is feeling very festive this evening  🙂

Well, we’re off to walk Mac and hopefully help our full tummies digest a little more. Have a great Saturday night! I’ll see you all tomorrow after my morning Jazzercise class. Sweet dreams!

 

Return of the Pleasant Evening Walk

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Workouts, , ,

Mac gets at least a short walk 1-2 times a day, regardless of the weather. It’s been a sweaty summer so many of these walks have been super unpleasant and resulted in a stinky mommy. But it’s necessary for him because we don’t have a nice, fenced yard for him to run around in during the day. I’m happy to report that some pleasant weather has finally returned to SW MO this week, and we can finally enjoy our walks again! Mac is especially excited…

photo(42) photo(41)photo(38)Yes, it’s still warm, but the humidity is slim to none, making it feel amazing outside in comparison to the rest of the summer months. I’m excited to finally look forward to our time together outside again. And hopefully this means that Nick will finally be joining us for some evenin’ walkin’ in the near future. If Nick has to choose between sitting on the couch watching TV or going walking in hot and sticky 100 degree weather, the couch always wins. Smart guy, right?

Cute little street we always walk down. So quaint!
Cute little street we always walk down. So quaint!

The forecast for the next 7 days is still in the 90’s each day, but low humidity is also in the forecast. So I’m okay with it 🙂  We’ve gotta soak up some daylight while we can during the next few weeks before the time changes. It’s so depressing when the sun is setting, and I’m still just driving home from work for the day! Then our long, pleasant evening walks will turn into dark and cold mini-walks around the block. I cannot complain though; my love of Fall will keep me happy with or without some sunny outdoor time!

Pretty!
Pretty!

Workout

This morning I woke up bright and early to make it to the gym for a solid hour before my busy day had to begin.

I was feeling pretty spry and lively when I arrived, so I hopped on the treadmill for a 30-minute interval workout consisting of walking, jogging, and sprinting. I love counting down the minutes during an interval workout as opposed to a certain distance. It always makes the time and miles go by so much faster. My 30-min. interval brought me to around 2.9 miles, and I was sweatin’ like a piggy!

I then completed some upper torso work, mostly focusing on my shoulders, chest and biceps with a circuit very similar to what I completed on Wednesday. I’m always a creature of habit, so I’m hoping this weekend Nick and I can go to the gym together so I can change up my routine with some free weight exercises. (I hate that part of the gym unless he is with me!) I finished off my workout with some light cardio on the Elliptical for about 15 minutes before heading home.

Breakfast

Can you guess what my breakfast was today??!! You got it: hot oatmeal with blueberries! I’m still loving it 🙂 And I had some Greek yogurt for extra staying power on the side.

photo(37)And now I’m off to finish up this workday and figure out what we’ll be having for dinner. I’m in the mood to cook and it’s Friday, so this usually leads to me becoming a little creative with our evening meal since I have the extra time. We’ll see what I can come up with!

Hope you’re Friday is going great! We can at least be happy that the weekend is here again!

Search for Flavored Coffee

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Recipes

So I’m a BIG sucker when it comes to flavored coffees in coffee shops. I’ve never ordered just a plain ole cup of Joe at Starbucks, that’s for sure! But only recently have I started experimenting with flavored coffee at home. (Gevalia mocha and vanilla flavors were on sale at Dillon’s a couple of weeks ago – they make my house smell fantastic and fancy!)

photo(23)Since I’ve come to the realization that I can make awesome flavored coffee at home with my completely normal drip coffeepot, I’ve been determined to find and purchase the fun holiday flavors to try. My current mission: find the best Pumpkin Spice ground coffee that I can afford! I’m beyond excited that Fall is quickly approaching, and I want my house to smell like pumpkiny-spicy goodness each morning when I wake up. Is that too much to ask? Nope. Nope it’s not.

Currently, I’m considering ordering this one from Green Mountain Coffee. It has lots of positive reviews! I’m sure lots of good flavored coffee options are going to pop up in my local grocery stores anytime now, but I’m impatient and want to know that my delicious smelling coffee is on it’s way asap!

Google has been slightly helpful in this hunt, but a lot of good seasonal coffee flavors are not available yet for purchase. Sad day, I know 😦 But the anticipation of the season and all its wonderful flavors and smells is still kinda fun! It also makes me excited for peppermint mocha and gingerbread flavors as it gets closer to Christmastime. Can you tell I’m a BIG time holiday lover?? Starting October 1, I’m in heaven for the following 3 months!

So while we wait for Fall and cooler temps to arrive, let’s back up to lunch today…

Lunch

Lunch today came together quick because I threw together a nice chop salad last night so I wouldn’t be so rushed at noon. It contained a spinach spring mix, snap peas, carrots, and mushrooms! A little light zesty Italian dressing topped it off.

photo(36)I may have had a few tortilla chips on the side for a salty crunch 🙂 Yum! And the rest of my lunch is unpictured because it is boring and not healthy at all! I had a spinach, artichoke, and chicken Lean Pocket for my main meal. It was as delicious and filling as a frozen lunch can be. But, to be honest, it was pretty tasty.

I also took a second to cut up a massive apple that has been sitting in my fridge for the past few weeks because it is too big to eat like a normal apple. I don’t think you could’ve bit into this sucker! It filled up this 2-cup container and took me about 20 minutes to polish off at my desk this afternoon.

photo(35)A super filling snack to say the least!

photo(34)Dinner

Dinner started with yogurt. Key Lime pie flavor!

photo(26)I ate this as soon as I came in the door from my Jazzercise class tonight.

I then quickly showered before my main meal: leftover veggies from last night and shrimp salad that I threw together right before I headed off to class tonight.

photo(25)

Shrimp Salad for One

For this easy peasy recipe, I combined:

  • 3/4 cup salad shrimp, thawed
  • 1 1/2 TB Light Miracle Whip
  • 2 ts mustard
  • a little sweet relish
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • Salt & pepper to taste

I let this sit in the fridge for a little more than an hour, and it was delicious! Keep in mind that I love mustard, so I added quite a bit for this small serving. So alter for your taste as needed 🙂

photo(24)Salad shrimp are one thing I try to always keep in the freezer. They are yummy; you can toss them into basically anything; and they are a great source of protein!

Now I’m headed off to relax so I can wake up early and hopefully get in a good workout at the gym before my Friday workday begins. Sleep tight everyone!