Counting Down the Days…

Happy Humpday!  I, for one, can’t wait for this week to be over. 

During a much needed mental break today from work, I figured out that I have just 6 more working days until I have a long weekend.  I took next Friday off to go on our last camping trip of the year. 

After I return from that trip there’s only 33 working days until Thanksgiving, and then after that just 19 working days until my Christmas week off!  This year has definitely flown right by, tomorrow is the first day of October already!.  And although I’m not a fan of cold weather I love this time of year.  It’s going to be a busy 3 months for me, but I’m excited and can’t wait to share some of our fun weekends with you guys.

Let’s get to the food though! 

My breakfast juice was pretty much the same as yesterday, just as delicious!

And I enjoyed this out on the deck.  It was a little chilly this morning but we know there’s not going to be many more mornings we can spend outside on the deck so we’re taking advantage of it while we can.

See that mum in the background?  That bloomed way back in August, I’m surprised it’s still so pretty looking. 

My juice once again held me over until lunch time.  I had another big salad but added avocado to it today, and some carrot strings.

I gave it another try but I still just don’t like avocado.  It’s in the back corner to the right I mixed it up in the salad but just didn’t like it.  I ate the whole bowl but just couldn’t really enjoy it because of the avocado.  Oh well, I guess it’s just not for me.

Once again I snacked on a HoneyCrisp apple for a snack in the afternoon. 

Once I got home Andrew got busy making some soup for his dinner, while I tried to decide what I was going to have.  I had a million leftovers from last night’s dinner so I did a little leftover spin on it.  I had lots of brown rice (and still do) I added a little water to it and then some taco seasoning and microwaved it for 45 seconds.  The result was tacos, using the rice as the filler and lettuce leaves as the shell.

I put a little taco sauce on each one (all natural ingredients) and then used a little salsa as well.  This salsa is awesome, it doesn’t taste like any jarred salsa I’ve ever had, it tastes so fresh!

While I was eating this I roasted up some more potatoes like last night and had those as well.

Minus a couple that Andrew popped into his mouth while I was taking pictures:

That plate is a dessert sized plate by the way, I don’t think anyone could eat a whole dinner sized plate of those things, no matter how good they are.

Morning Routine Makeover

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this on the blog before but I’m not an early morning person.  It just seems like my body hates getting up before 7:30.  I shower at night just so that I’m more likely to get to work on time.  I’m a big time snooze abuser.  I typically get up 20 minutes before I need to leave, get ready and run out the door.  I hate always being in a rush in the mornings, so I decided I need to change my habits.

Tuesday morning I set an alarm I have to get out of bed to turn off, (instead of the alarm on my cellphone which is right on my night stand) 15 minutes earlier, and then today another 15 minutes earlier then that.  It gives me time to prepare my juice and clean the juicer, and have a little bit more time to get ready and make sure I’m ready for the day.  In turn my drive to work is more pleasant, and I’m having a much easier time in the morning.  Tomorrow I’m going to go another 15 minutes early and then Friday 15  more, that will ensure I have plenty of time in the mornings. 

Let’s just hope this works next week as well.

Are you a morning person?  Any other tips on how to stop hitting the snooze each morning?

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Feels Like Home

It feels so nice to spend my evening blogging!  I can’t tell you how at home I feel sitting in front of my computer recapping my day.  I’ve definitely missed this.   In my large recap I forgot to mention something I bought last week.

Anybody love a good bargain story?  I went to an outlet with my family and Andrew last week.  It was mostly Waterford Crystal but they also had a huge selection of Dr. Weil kitchen products.  I bought this brand new juice extractor and am so happy with my purchase.  The exact one I got is The Dr. Weil 9806 The Healthy Kitchen Stainless-Steel 2-Speed Pro Juice Extractor.   If you look on Amazon the MSRP is $375 and they have it on sale for $243.   I did even better then that, much better!  I got this juicer for only 70 bucks!  And so far it has worked perfectly.  I’ve never had another juicer to compare it to, and I’m not sure if it’s better then some of the top brands, but it is good.  The pulp seems really very dry and I’ve had no issues with it. Of course it’s only been a week but so far so good.

My kitchen essentials!

I’ve loved experimenting with the juicer, and of course I went right to the blogger who I felt could help me the most with my new juicer and help me come up with a plan for a “mini cleanse”.  I sent Gena of Choosing Raw an email and she got back to me immediately with some great tips.  Thanks so much for all your help Gena.

I started today with my favorite juice so far.  It has all my favorite flavors and I really enjoy the fresh taste, I looked at many recipes and came up with one that tastes great.

• 1 carrot ( I will increase this I think tomorrow to 2 or 3)
• 2 apples
• 1 lemon
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 1 romaine heart
• Large handful of spinach

The flavor is out of this world! 

I wasn’t sure if I could handle just juice until lunch time, but this combo kept me satisfied until lunch time.  It’s not the same as being full after a bowl of oatmeal, but the hunger stayed away until about 11:30 and I broke for lunch at noon.

My lunch today was a big salad, the pictures don’t really do it justice it really is very big.

Very green!  I had another whole head of lettuce, a cucumber, and 3 stalks of celery, with balsamic vinaigrette.  Gena suggested having an avocado with my salad but there not something I ever have on hand, I’m not sure I like them to be honest, but I’m definitely going to buy one tomorrow and mix it in with my salads soon.

Around 4 I got hungry and I snacked on my first honeycrisp apple of the year!  I was so excited to see these at the store, but why do they have to be so expensive!?

And yeah I wore jeans to work on a Tuesday, I’m a rebel.  This apple was just a delicious as I remembered.

For dinner it was kind of a “whatever sounded good to me at the time meal”

I had brown rice:

Roasted potatoes with a small amount of EVOO (using the Misto) and sea salt:

Greenbeans and broccoli steamed:

All together:

 

 

Although these pictures are outside, it was gray and cold, so I took this plate back inside and happily gobbled down every last bite.

Now I’m just waiting for Andrew to come home so I can spend some much needed quality time with him.  I also have a little bit of kitchen cleanup to take care of from dinner. 

Thanks for the warm welcome back, I’ve missed chatting with you girls!

Back To Basics

For me that means back to blogging.  These past weeks have been insanely busy for me, and this blog was one of the things to fall by the wayside.  I was eating really repetitively and didn’t fell it was necessary nor interesting to post my peanut butter lunch everyday.   The busier I got the more boring meals got, and the less likely I was to blog about it.  But I’ve really missed sharing things with you guys, and I’ve really missed taking the time out of my day to recap what I ate.  I realized this blog wasn’t just about food, but it’s helped me to keep track of so many important things that have happened this year. 

This afternoon at work I was thinking about my blog and getting back to it.  I decided that although I have taken no pictures of food for the past few weeks, I have a lot to share, and although I’ll start with my regular food blogging tomorrow I wanted to update you all on what I’ve been busy doing.

Shortly after the camping trip in my last post, Andrew and I took a trip out to Ohio to visit my first childhood friend, Tiffany.  We lived right across the street from eachother for about 8 years, and so many of my early memories involve her and her family.  Last summer I was honored to be a part of her wedding, and this past July she gave birth to her first child, a beautiful baby boy named Logan.  I posted about him here.  We both took a long weekend and traveled out to Ohio to see him. 

But it was definitely worth the 8 hour each way drive to hold him, and kiss those chubby cheeks.

 

Andrew definitely got in on the baby loving action too.

It took a lot for me to leave Ohio come that Monday morning.  Tiffany’s family is so much fun, she’s one of 5 kids, and they are all hilarious to be around.  Her family was very welcoming, and it felt like we don’t live hundreds of miles apart when I’m there but right across the street still.

Just a week after that was my cousin Nicci’s bachelorette party.  She decided she wanted to just hit up a local bar and that everyone, even the boys, were included.  I think it’s pretty obvious that there were lots of drinks consumed, and even more pictures taken.

Nicci and I, what a beautiful bride!

Group shots of Little Guinness. My favorite shot by far.

Did I mention we were pretty much the only people at the bar?  It was like we rented it out just for her party.

Cute couple!

Of course 2 weeks flew by after that night and it was time for the wedding weekend!  It was absolutely beautiful and overall the day was pretty much perfect.  But we did have to spend some time partying after the rehearsal Friday night.

Once again there was lots of drinking, this time no shots, just lots of wine and champagne, we were celebrating afterall.

How adorable is my cousin?

Dance music from a clock radio and lots of delicious Italian food.

After all the wine and champagne were gone from the room we went on an adventure to find a bar.  Unfortunately the only proof I have this are horrible blurry pictures of our midnight walk.

For some reason all bars were closed and we were left to go back to the presidential suite and just continue the fun without anymore drinks.

The next morning we were up at 9 and started getting ready almost instantly.  It was a fun but emotional day and we were all excited for the ceremony to start.  Without videos to post it’s hard for me to explain what a fun and perfect ceremony it was.  I also have pretty crappy pictures from the ceremony too.

Mother of the Bride and Brother of the Bride.

That’s me walking down the aisle.

The Beautiful Bride!

After a great ceremony came a fun reception. 

 

Peacock Ice Sculpture.

The Newlyweds!

That my Mom and me, isn’t she beautiful?

That’s my handsome Dad!

Soultrain!

My handsome date and I.

Amazing centerpieces!

My favorite picture of the evening.  My grandma, grandpa and myself.  I blew this up and plan on framing it.

All-in-all the wedding was a great success.

Just one week later, this past Saturday, there was some more wedding related fun, this time a Bridal Shower for my friend Laura.  I was taking pictures with her camera most of the party, so I only have a few to share.

The toilet paper wedding dress game!  Always hilarious!

 

And that’s pretty much all I got!  I thought I got more then that!

Well anyway that’s what’s been going on for me.  I look forward to getting back to regular blogging, and can’t wait to start food blogging once again tomorrow night, I know this was a really picture heavy post, so thanks if you made it all the way through!