Thanks, Simba...

Thursday Recap:

10:00am:  Breakfast- Coconut Larabar

+

12:30pm:  Lunch- 2 Manicotti

And in the world of "most random lunch," I UNEARTHED these from the depths of my freezer because I decided HOT & CHEESY were the only things I wanted for lunch yesterday.  At 270 calories for 2 manicotti  + 80 calories for 1/2 a cup of Bove's Garlic sauce, I deemed this decadent lunch NOT a disaster.  And can we all agree, NOT a disaster for HOT & CHEESY is always a win??J

3:30pm:  Snack- Apple with peanut butter

With thoughts of FALL and APPLE PICKING dancing through my head, I must sayJ

6:00pm:  Dinner- "Happy Salad"

And even though I was 'happy' to balance out my decadent lunch with a lighter dinner, the only bummer was the lighter dinner was due to the fact that I now have a full-blown sick SCOTT on my hands.  And while he was relegated to soup & lounging on the couch, I slammed down this salad while chasing Katie around.  OH...who should I mention is ALSO sick BUT that doesn't mean she slows down for a second!J  Thank goodness for The Lion King...it's the only thing that stops this kid in her tracks...at least for a little whileJ

Well...we'll see how all of Scott's birthday plans for the weekend shake up.  It's not looking too promising at the moment, as he might be celebrating with copious bowls of chicken noodle soup from his beloved basement couchJ

Hope you guys have a healthier weekend!J

Summer spin...

Wednesday Recap:

9:30am:  Breakfast- Smoothie Bowl

In the mix:

• 1/2 frozen banana
• 5 strawberries
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds
• Topped with Coconut Butter & granola

Thus, bringing an end to my jar of ridiculously expensive coconut butter.  Me thinks a LASER FOCUSED trip to Whole Foods for a jar (and a purchase of NOTHING ELSE!) is in orderJ  If you haven't tried coconut butter in a smoothie, you MUST!  The crumbly butter hits the cold smoothie and makes for some  creamy/crunchy bits throughout.  You know me & texture, so this is a GREAT additionJ  (not to mention the fat from the butter helps your body absorb the vitamins & minerals from the fruit even better.  A WIN all the way aroundJ)

Morning Workout:  Power Yoga

A sweaty one...but one that went by WAY too quick!  I wanted this class to go on for at least another 2 hoursJ  Just too much funJ

1:00pm:  Lunch- Flax pancake with peanut butter & maple

I know...a little backwards, but nothing sounded like a better lunchJ

5:00pm:  Dinner- Summer Chili

Sure, we ate this firmly planted in front of the air conditioned, but I thought I gave this chili enough of a 'summer boast' to make it early August appropriateJ

Along with some sauteed diced red onion & garlic went:  

DICED SUMMER SQUASH

QUARTERED SWEET JERSEY GRAPE TOMATOES

THREE EARS OF SWEET CORN

How pretty are all those colors???

Along with all the veggies, I tossed in the leftover pulled Coffee & Garlic pork (about 1 pound)

...as well as a can of crushed tomatoes (+ 1/2 can of water), 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce (used my homemade coffee/garlic one) and a tablespoon each of Coffee/Garlic spice & chili powder.

Bring it all to a boil before letting it simmer for an hour or so.  Top with a little shredded cheese and some roasted garlic sour cream!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Super tasty AND super healthy from the lean protein & all those beautiful veggies of the summer, this will be great to make as all these veggies remain in abundance till mid-September...and hopefully, by then, air conditioning will NOT be a required stapleJ hahahahahah

Evening Workout:  Body Jam

New release for me, so I spent most of the class trying to pick up all the choreo & combinations of this intricate one, which I LOVEEEEDDDDDD!!!  Not to mention, even doing this workout in 'half-speed,' left me completely EXHAUSTED.  Already can't wait till next week when I'll know the steps better and will REALLY be able to dance it out.  

8:00pm:  Dessert- 1/2 cup chocolate milk

Chocolate milk is supposed to be one of THE best foods to have 'post workout,' because it helps with muscle recovery & regained energy.   Oh yeah...and I just happened to reallyreallyreallyreally love chocolate milk and never mind an excuse to have it in MODERATE portions (keep an eye on serving size & nutrition labels though!  Even reduced fat is high in calories.  1 cup of this brand is 170 calories & 24 grams of sugar)  Proceed with caution, BUT at least you get some 'body benefits' in this splurgeJ

OK...well, I must get back to attending to my Katie, who got a cold out of absolutly NO WHERE yesterday...and then proceeded to hand a little of it over to Scott, tooJ  At least she held out for his birthday...thanks, KatieJ

Have a good Thursday, all!

The big 4-0...

Tuesday Recap:

Workout:  30 minutes dance + 2 sets of weights + leg lifts & squats + 1 minute planks

Ohhhhhh...I think I tried everything in the book to talk myself out of this one, especially after feeling a little beaten up from 2 rounds of Power yoga, Body Pump, Cardio Kickboxing & Yin Yoga all within a few days span.  But my biggest selling point to just get it done was that I was already awake and falling back to sleep for those extra few minutes wasn't going to do me any good.  And with nearly all workouts you're not looking forward to:  I was VERY happy I did it once it was overJ  Hahahahhahaha

9:30am:  Perfect fit pancake with sliced strawberries

11:00am:  Snack-  Peach (are you surprised??J)  + 1/2 of a 2% cheese stick (not pictured)

12:30pm:  Smoothie Bowl

And despite that mid-morning snack, I was STARVIINNGGGGG by this point.  Like, 'feeling my energy deplete by the second' kinda hungry!  Thankfully this came together PRONTO.

• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 5-6 strawberries
• Handful frozen blueberries
• 3-4 sliced frozen mango
• 1 scoop protein powder
• Topping:  Coconut butter & granola

3:30pm:  Snack- 5 'hollow pretzels' with a scoop of hummus

And then it was time for the fun to start as we got to celebrating Scott's birthday properlyJ

Starting with his requested meal for the night:  Coffee & garlic roast pork, roasted broccoli & twice baked potatoes!

Those potatoes were the piece de resistance of the meal since they were mixed with ROASTED GARLIC, shredded cheese, Parmesan cheese, butter & milk...AND topped with ROASTED GARLIC SOUR CREAM! (just mixed sour cream with 2 heads of mashed roasted garlic and a little salt & pepper...ACES!)  It was TOUGH not to go back for the other half of the potato...let me tell yaJ  

But I knew there was MORE to be had in the form of CAKE!

Salted caramel Mocha, to be exactJ

Overall, a successful night of celebration with more to come over the weekendJ  VERY EXCITED to keep the party goingJ  

And now back to business today...aka- no cake for meJ  

Hope you guys have a great Wednesday!

Yoga fun...

Morning, all!  Hope you guys had a great weekend!  I actually don't have too much to show you on the food front from the weekend, but should be back up & running with recaps tomorrow.  The only 'food related' pic I managed to get from the weekend was from a 'Girls & Moms night' weekend out at Mafalda's...including our 'newest' girl memberJ

My BFF and our Mom's spent too much time talking about what we were going to do during the Christmas season to worry about taking pictures of our excellent dinner.  

(I don't even need to preface that I'm not kidding here, huh??)

Annnyyywaaayyyy, in the meantime I thought I'd show you a couple of my yoga videos I've taken the last couple weeks (and my apologies to my peeps who have already seen these 965 timesJ)  Thought you might like to see some work/progress of late...

Gotta keep it fun & fancy, right?

So I better run and get started on prepping for a little celebration tonightJ  Someone in this house is turning the big 4-0!  Weeeeeeee!  Katie & I better get to bakingJ

Have a great Tuesday!J