WIAW: Turkey All Around

It's Wednesday!!

It's always my favorite time to blog because I get to join in on the What I Ate Wednesday parties with Jenn and brag about the delicious food I've eaten.

These are a little chaotic and piecemealed from a few days. I had some yummy food one day that I wanted to share and some from another. But it's all yummy food so you don't mind, yes?

Breakfast on Sunday:

 1/2 plain and 1/2 full fat vanilla honey Greek yogurt with pumpkin flax granola

Dinner on Sunday:

 Mom's homemade turkey noodle soup, biscuits made by moi, and sparkling cider

Michael and I went to the gym for the first time together and I thought I'd treat him with an actual breakfast rather than Greek yogurt which seems to be my staple for breakfast (probably cause I'm laaaaazy)

Breakfast on Monday:

 1 egg and 1 egg white scrambled, sweet potato hash w/ shallots and garlic

Lunch on Monday:

Unpictured  1/2 plain and 1/2 full fat vanilla honey Greek yogurt with pumpkin flax granola

Use your imagination or just look at the picture at the beginning

 After class Michael picked me up from school and took me back to his house for some delicious food.

2nd Lunch/Snack/Let's Not Starve Brittany on Monday:

  Leftover bowtie pasta with garlic cream sauce, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, and artichoke hearts.

While Michael made dinner, Michael's mom built up a nice warm fire

It's been cold around here and it's gettin' colder so it's definitely a plus to have a warm fire

Dinner on Monday:

 Herb roasted turkey, stuffing, roasted veggies, and cranberry sauce. With a glass of Pinot Grigio.

All made by my rockstar boyfriend.

And what 2nd Thanksgiving isn't complete without dessert?

 

Dessert on Monday:

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream

Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment and wasn't feeling so great and mostly cuddled with my kitty and Michael and watching Christmas movies...well he did, I napped.

Cuddle buddies for life!

Michael went out and got me lunch and brought back these delicious cookies I've been dying to try.

Best boyfriend award? Yes.

Poor Link has had this cut under his chin and it looked pretty bad so I took him to the vets to get it checked out. Poor guy is stuck in the Cone of Shame

Poor bebe.

Has anyone else has Thanksgiving Round 2 yet?

Tis the Season

Happy Monday everyone!

For once I'm actually not Miss Grumpy Pants about Monday...maybe it's the Christmas stuff I've been doing all weekend. Or maybe it's because I'm almost done with this semester.

Either way this post is about something marvelous

It's Christmas time!!

After stuffing myself with some good (but healthy!) Thanksgiving food I was really looking forward to officially putting up Christmas decorations and listening to Christmas music...not that I haven't been doing that for over a week anyway....

Friday Michael and I actually braved the mall so I could get a curtain rod to hang my Christmas lights and then decided to get a few Christmas gifts. Thankfully our mall isn't like other malls where people are smashing into each other trying to get stuff on sale. It was relatively quiet thankfully, I'm not a big people person.

I did this a few times when walking around the mall...poor poor Michael.

After getting a little shopping in my parents, Michael, and I went and got our Christmas tree

We got everything home and decorated the tree and then promptly took a nap while watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

 

Think we have enough lights strung around the house?

 

 Our Christmas tree that I picked because I always pick the best trees

Left to right: Hand knitted stockings by my grandma, nutcrackers, my mom's nativity scene, and a Christmas Breyer horse.

Can you tell our family is very into Western stuff?

On Saturday Michael's family took me to cut down a Christmas tree for the first time.

 Lots of trees

The tree's name is Milky Way

Obligatory couple shot.

 Me, Michael, Michael's stepdad's mother Barbara, Michael's sister Sarah, Michael's stepdad Bill, and Michael's mom Robin.

After cutting down the tree we got some hot chocolate and cider and relaxed until we packed up the tree to head back to Santa Cruz for lunch.

I had such a marvelously fun time and I'm very thankful his family included me.

After we got back home and Michael and I took yet another nap (I swear I get enough sleep at night) we got packed up again for my first hockey game!

Michael's family are HUUUUUGE San Jose Sharks fans, but since the NHL season isn't going on we went up to San Fransisco to see the Bulls play.

I even got to see a couple fights, albeit small ones because the refs kept breaking them up. Lamesauce.

Silly hat, but hey, it kept my head warm. I was freezin

Yummy fake cheese and oversalted pretzels. Gotta indulge

Michael, me, Sarah's boyfriend Ryan, and Sarah.

The game was so much fun!

On our drive home we stopped by Krispy Kreme for some donuts and boy are they delicious right off the line. Yum!

Michael's family was very generous to take me along to all these things and it definitely made my weekend marvelous!

As a side note, I finally started tweeting!

I know, I'm lame, waaay behind in the times.

But over there 

I put up links to my Twitter and Pinterest accounts.

You'll follow me yes?

I even have a nifty little slideshow of my Instagram pictures.

I'm starting to become hip with all this technology stuff...

and let's pretend I didn't just sound like my 61 year old stepdad...

Questions for you:

Have you started decorating for Christmas?

Any fun Christmas traditions?

Fit Fridays #3

Yes yes, I know it's Sunday and not Friday, but let's just pretend it is k?

Okay good.

Sunday:

Another run day. I ran 2.25 miles alternating between jogging for 90 seconds, walking for 90 seconds and jogging for 3 minutes and walking for 3 minutes for 30 minutes. Surprisingly going from 90 seconds to a 3 minute jog felt extremely hard even though it's technically only 30 seconds more.

I was going to go to Zumba, but my instructor wasn't there again so I skipped.

Monday:

I had homework that I needed to finish before class started so I skipped out on a workout today

Tuesday:

Michael came over and we ran the same thing I did on Sunday

  I didn't exactly want to run because it had just been sprinkling before we went out. I was trying to convince Michael to just say screw it, but he's a good influence and ordered encouraged me to get my ass out the door go for a run.

Very cold.

 My Zumba instructor still wasn't there so I didn't go to class again.

Wednesday:

I had a personal training appointment and we did A LOT of upper body and core work. By the end I could barely lift my arms up and was beyond exhausted

Thursday:

Turkey Day so I didn't exercise!

All in all it wasn't too bad and Wednesday was definitely an ass kicker. My trainer did say I have gotten stronger which is a big plus for me.

Being Thankful

Who all is still in a food coma from Thanksgiving?

Thankfully (ha..) I'm not, I didn't overstuff myself this year which is a miracle.

Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of the wonderful food I made and ate...whoops

So just use your imagination to picture everything k? 

The day before Thanksgiving I spent a few hours with Michael in the kitchen making a homemade cranberry sauce, cornbread for my cornbread stuffing, and pumpkin and apple pasties.

Thanksgiving morning I tried making this cranberry pumpkin baked oatmeal I found, but it didn't work out at all so Michael and I just had some Greek yogurt with granola before jumping into the kitchen to finish cooking.

I spent a majority of my Thanksgiving in the kitchen with Michael making cornbread stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, herb rubbed turkey, and whole wheat rolls (okay I didn't make these, but I popped them in the oven to warm up).

This year I was determined to make everything as healthy as I possibly could and I didn't a damn good job if I do say so myself. The stuffing was made with whole wheat bread and the cornbread was even made with whole wheat pastry flour. The mashed potatoes were made with a small amount of low fat milk and was mostly flavored with garlic. The veggies were just tossed with a little olive oil and salt and pepper which was my substitute for that marshmallow crusted sweet potato dish everyone makes.  Everyone enjoyed dinner and I got a lot of props for making a delicious dinner. Thanks to my sous chef/boyfriend for helping me make everything and keeping me sane when I was going to start chucking brussel sprouts at people when they pissed me off....

Michael and I went for a walk after dinner to walk off dinner

When we got back my older brother was determined to play a board game so we cracked out the Marines version of Monopoly in tribute to my other older brother who is in Afghanistan currently.  All in all it was an amazing Thanksgiving that made me really enjoy my family and amazing boyfriend.

This year I'm thankful for a lot of things considering everything I've been through but I'll run through just a few.

I'm thankful for my generous and loving parents and family. I couldn't make it through life without these amazing people supporting me and an older brother who makes me laugh whenever he's around. I'm also thankful for my oldest brother who sacrifices time with his family to protect our country in Afghanistan.

I'm thankful for Michael who is not just an amazing boyfriend, but a wonderful best friend. He keeps me centered when I'm about to go batshit on the most mundane things. He makes me smile even when I don't want to and he supports me in everything I do.

I'm thankful that my grandmother is getting better after suffering a heart attack not too long ago. She's such an amazingly strong and brave woman and I'm just in awe of her.

I'm thankful I have gotten healthier after going through an extremely rough patch a few months ago. I'm thankful I have the strength to exercise and just enjoy life.

I'm just thankful to be alive and healthy with people I love around me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And let's not forget now that Thanksgiving is over

It's Christmas Time!!

Fit Fridays #2

Happy Friday!!
It's time for Fit Fridays again and this time I even created a little button to go along with it, I'm talented like that.

Or I'm incredibly technologically challenged that I'd be so excited for making this...I don't know.
Anywho...

Sunday:
I started the next week of my running training so I ran for 90 seconds and walked for 2 minutes for 20 minutes. My body certainly didn't like it.
I was going to do Zumba, but it was a sub and I wasn't feeling all that great anyway so I just stayed home to rest.

Monday:
I did a legs day at the gym which consisted of squats, leg presses, lunges, split lunges, hip abductors, calf raises, and leg curls. Needless to say my legs were exhausted.

I could barely walk all day and stretched as much as I possibly could.

Tuesday:
Did my run which got me about 2.25 miles and skipped Zumba again cause it still wasn't my teacher.  Running usually gets better the 2nd day but I was still having a hard time getting through the run. It also didn't help that my legs were still hurting like hell.

Wednesday:
I was still in so much pain that I just did a tougher yoga sequence to try and help my legs. I also took Boogie on a 2.5 mile walk to try to move around.

Thursday:
The last day of running for the week and I figured out why it was so hard to run, unknowingly I've been running up a hill at one point. Sneaky bastard.
I do get to see this adorable little guy every day I go for a jog

I've still been doing yoga every day and Link is definitely enjoying it

This is Link basically all the time.

Any fun weekend plans?

Pumpkin Bread Pudding for Two

Lately I've seen a bunch of recipes for pumpkin stuff, I mean hello! Thanksgiving is next week!

And while I do love me some pumpkin pie I'm trying to keep things healthy so I wanted to figure out some kind of dessert that combined the taste of pumpkin with something that wasn't crazy bad for you.

So that's where bread pudding came in...

Dairy-Free Pumpkin Bread Pudding 

For Two

Serves two...obviously

Ingredients:

2 slices of day old whole wheat bread

1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/8 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup!)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)

1/8 cup raisins

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon      

How do I make it?

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. If you haven't let the bread sit out over night, pop it in the oven to toast up a little bit. If you did, skip the toasting and cube the bread.

3. Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl. Add raisins and mix together.  Add bread and fold gently to coat all the pieces. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes to soak up some of the liquid.

4. Scoop bread into a ramekin (or two whatever you want) and bake for 35-40 minutes. The top will be a little crispy and the middle will be a little gooey. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Per serving:

Calories: 181    Fat: 2g    Carbs: 39g    Sugar: 25.5g    Protein: 4g

How was it?

It was aaaaamazing! The bread had a creaminess to it that reminded me of pumpkin pie with just a little crispiness from the top.  The raisins had a nice little burst with each bite. I highly recommend you go make it and eat it for Thanksgiving...or anytime you feel like it.

What I Ate Wednesday

Sorry for the lame-o title, my brain just couldn't come up with some witty title.

But that doesn't matter because it's What I Ate Wednesday with Jenn and it's a freaking party!

Lately my eating habits have been all over the place; partly because I've been crazy busy with school and staying active, partly because I feel guilty eating sometimes. I'll go into that another time.

I went for a run yesterday morning and when I got back I was exhausted and in need of some sugar so I ate the last juicy plum we have

After running to Victoria's Secret to exchange a pair of leggings for a smaller size I ran back home to have my brunch since I didn't end up eating anything until like 11

Brunch:

1/2 plain 0% fat Greek yogurt, 1/2 full-fat honey vanilla Greek yogurt w/ vanilla almond granola

Whole wheat toast with creamy peanut butter 

I decided to try out a new recipe, though I'll only give you a sneak peek, I'm mean like that

Recipe coming soon, promise!

I had psych class today and was incredibly thirsty the whole time so I chugged some water when I got home and started homework. Exciting life I lead right?

Dinner:

Veggie burger with organic ketchup and spinach in a whole wheat pita

2 baked sweet potatoes with a little butter and sea salt

And for dessert I experimented with a new recipe which I will have up soon

Dessert:

Dairy-Free Pumpkin Bread Pudding

After eating this yummy bad boy I put on my Christmas pandora station and relaxed in 2 pairs of pants cause it's that damn cold...don't judge.

As for my fall habits:

I've been running over 2 miles 3 times a week and doing yoga every night

I've upped my water intake, I always seem thirstier during the winter

I've been incorporating more veggies into every meal, even mac and cheese!

Any delicious new recipes you've tried?

Anyone else drink more water during the winter or is that just me?

Baby It's Cold Outside

Happy Monday everyone!

Raise your hand if you get the day off *raises hand*

My day off will consist of homework and more homework, exciting right?

But homework is boring is this is Marvelous in My Monday so let's talk about something marvelous.

Fall/winter has finally hit Santa Cruz! I'm so excited.

It's consisted of lots of kitty cuddles...

Layering up like crazy...

Hot chocolate...

 and hot breakfasts...

 Running at freezing cold temperatures in the morning...

 My poor hands were purple by the end, time to layer up for runs

I love the fall and snuggling in my bed and this basically describes my mornings

And finally, because I promised my dad I would wear the stupid hat and post the picture on here

Rooting on my team, the Chicago Bears