The Cat’s Meow

I think the funk has passed  🙂  Or maybe it’s just because the workday is over? Either way, I’m feeling much better now. I don’t know why I have those days/times, but I hate just feeling blah for no real reason, you know?

Nick and I had a run planned after work today so I brought a tried and true snack

1 plain oikos + the last of my TJs fruit and nut medley cereal. I am officially out of everything I bought from Trader Joe’s at Christmas! It’s definitely time for another trip and a huge cooler to bring it all back.

I got to break out my next coffeehouse book while I was waiting for Nick to pick me up! I’m already hooked into this one.

I’m glad I remembered to start this one because I got the next one from my sister for my birthday – I need to not read these too fast, though, because then I’ll just have to buy the next 2 that I still don’t have…

I was not in the mood to go running, at all. Like, not one bit. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous today and I knew that I would feel better after I went. And I did! Strange how that works, huh? 🙂

We ran about 2.5 miles, a little shorter than our normal route which was fine with me. My legs were pretty tight and Nick was sore from his bike ride yesterday, so we just did one loop around the park instead of the normal two. It was seriously the perfect weather today – blue skies, a few clouds, around 80, and a slightly cool breeze. I wish every day was like today. This weather is making me want fall because fall = college football! I’ve been looking at ESPN every day for the past week, seeing what’s going on in the conference and other teams….I can’t wait.

You probably know this already, but we eat a lot of leftovers. Some of my favorite nights to have them are nights that we run after work. By the time we get home, change, go running, get back, and take showers, I really do not want to cook a dinner. It’s nice to have something waiting for us in the fridge and tonight was no different.

We heated up the leftover pork, roasted veggies, and barley from last night, and I think the veggies were even better tonight! All the flavors soaked in and they were awesome and so colorful.

Eating this dinner was easy.

Blogging like this is not so easy.

She likes her lap time in the evenings, what can I say?

Do you have a pet? Do they run your life/household/everything?  🙂

Our only pet right now is Roxy and she is definitely the Queen of the house. She thinks she owns us, not the other way around….but we let her think it! It’s totally worth it when she’s being sweet and cuddling. And how can you not love 13 lbs of fur?

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Un-Satisfaction

Do you ever have those days that are just blah? I think I’m having one.

My oatmeal was awesome, my work day has been pretty busy, but I just feel nothing. Like nothing matters either way. Just “eh”.

Maybe because I ate lunch and am not really satisfied?

I packed an awesome lunch of sliced tomato, roasted yellow squash, and a couscous salad I made last night.

This has:

• whole wheat couscous
• diced zucchini
• diced red onion
• sliced black olives
• 1 can chickpeas
• lemon juice
• oregano
• salt
• pepper

I heated up the squash/tomato and dumped the couscous on top – it was great!

I also have this fruit bowl to end my lunch with

This cantaloupe is lasting forever! Nick’s not a fan, so it takes me a while to eat a whole one by myself.

I thought the beans / couscous would be enough protein for lunch, but I am just not satisfied at all! I may dig into my afternoon snack sooner than expected.

How do you get yourself out of a funk?

Do you think your mood affects your food or vice versa?

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Sweet Start

Isn’t it crazy how one week can be so different from the next?

Last week, I was getting up early to do yoga and this week….I do not want to get out of bed at all!  🙂  I guess I’m resting back up after our fun weekend, but I have been lovin’ that snooze button this week.

So, no yoga this morning, but I am having a good breakfast to jump start my day.

Who says chocolate can’t be part of a balanced breakfast?

I finally used the very end of my bag of the TJs nuts over rapsberries mix – I guess I was holding out!

It’s a good thing they opened a TJs not far from my parents – I’m thinking I’ll need a trip there the next time I’m home.

This bowl had:

• 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, pinch salt
• 1/3 banana, sliced
• handful strawberries and raspberries
• about 2 Tbsp nuts over raspberries mix
• 1 tsp mini chocolate chips since there was only one left in the mix!
• cinnamon

I’m off for another busy day at work, especially this morning. I have to finalize those packets and get them mailed out first thing – I think I got most of it put together yesterday, so I should just have to check through each packet to make sure it’s complete and then get them in the mail.

Are your weeks / days basically the same schedule-wise, or do they change?

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Manic Overflowing

I am happy to be sitting down! Today has been a doozy.

Work was super busy this afternoon, just as I expected. I had a bunch of last minute things to get ready, copied, stapled, etc, that need to be mailed out tomorrow, so most of my afternoon was spent finishing those up and getting the rest of the packets ready.

I took a quick break around 4 for a little shot of protein:

Hard boiled eggs are some of my favorite snacks! They’re easy to carry in my lunch box and the perfect little snack when you’re not super hungry but need a little something.

More work followed and I was working right up until 5 pm.

Nick has his crazy biking/kayaking/running race on Saturday, so he’ll be training some more this week to get ready for that. I know we’ll run 2-3 times, but we were trying to figure out the schedule for the week, which proved to be harder than I thought.

I decided to let him do a bike ride tonight and we’ll run tomorrow – I just had too much to do tonight after being gone all weekend.

I’ve got one load of laundry done (and will be folding that as soon as I’m done blogging my awesome dinner), I made a dish for my lunches this week, made dinner, and packed the rest of my lunch.

Nick’s parents gave us a pork loin to bring home, so I took half of that, made a spice rub and roasted it in the oven.

For the spice rub, I used:

• 1 Tbsp of jerk seasoning
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder

I rubbed it all over the pork, then popped it in a 425 degree oven for about an hour or until the internal temperature is 155-160.

While the pork was cooking,  I cut up a ton of veggies I needed to use and got started on my lunch dish + laundry.

I did one sheet pan with red onions, rutabaga, and orange and yellow peppers.

The other sheet pan had asparagus, 2 yellow squash (for lunches) and cremini mushrooms. We also had just some simple quick cooking barley on the side, topped with a little cilantro to bring out the flavor of the coriander on the pork.

I love roasted veggies!  This was also my first time trying rutabaga – and Nick’s! We both loved it. It’s kind of sweet, but not as sweet as a sweet potato – hard to describe, but I really liked it!

I was hoping to do this meal on the grill, but it just didn’t work out for tonight since Nick needed to do his bike ride. It was still very tasty – I don’t have roasted veggies much in the summer since we do grill so much, so it was a nice reminder of what fall is bringing in a few months  🙂

What’s your favorite veggie to roast?

I think mine are a tie between asparagus, broccoli, and butternut squash. Yum. I could make a meal out of just that!

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Make Mine a Double

Ah…crazy Mondays! They’re already my busiest day at work in any given week, but 2 of my 3 supervisors are out this week so I’m doing some other tasks that aren’t normally mine. It’s just been nutso today so far.

My oatmeal held me over beautifully, and 2 cups of coffee helped keep my eyes open long enough to get through my emails! Double the coffee, double the productivity on Monday mornings.

Why do people do work on the weekends? I would love to show up to work on a Monday and just see that everyone enjoyed their weekends and did nothing work related and not have any emails. Is that too much to ask?

I’m hoping lunch has the same holding power as my breakfast, because this afternoon is actually going to be even busier.

Thank goodness for frozen veggie burgers + random leftovers in the fridge!

I made a huge salad with spinach, romaine, the last of the guac salad and a veggie burger.

This is that huge 7-8 cup container I have – lots of veggies today! It was good and spicy, too.

I just had this dried peach half to finish off my lunch on a sweet note + tame some of that heat from the salad.

Back to work for me.

In Honduras news, I’m hoping this reaches a peaceful ending and that it won’t change our plans for our trip in July. I just hope everything is resolved peacefully, whether we get to still go or not.

Do you do “work” on the weekends for your job?

I do not. 1., it’s not needed, and 2. the weekends are my time.

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Monday Madness

Well, we mad it home safely.  Nick and his mom finished working on the spray skirt around 4:30 yesterday, so we packed up the truck and got on the road. We got home a little before 8 last night, unpacked the truck, and I headed to the grocery store to get the rest of the stuff I needed.

I am glad that it’s light for so long, because getting home later in the evening on Sunday and having to get ready for work Monday morning is never fun. We got all our bags unpacked and most of the stuff put away – I have a fun night ahead of laundry, cooking, cleaning  🙂

Nick wanted a frozen pizza last night for dinner + lunch leftovers today, so I bought him one but when I opened it at home, the cheese on the frozen pizza was moldy! It grossed me out.

We had some of the ham/corn salad topping from the other night, so we both had salads last night at 9:15 or so for dinner. I got in my pajamas, watched a little Iron Chef and then headed to bed.

And now it’s Monday. Our Monday mornings are always a little more rushed than other days because the trash comes today so we’re shoving that out the door while trying to pack up our stuff for work and everything else.

Monday morning oatmeal seems to have special powers, though.

How can your day be anything but good when you start off with this?

• 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, pinch salt
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• 1/4 cup frozen mixed berries to cool it down
• cinnamon
• handful blueberries/strawberries
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon raisin pb

Do you unpack right when you get home from a trip or later?

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Slow to Post

Time just gets away from me when I’m not at home!

This weekend has been a lot of fun so far, and I’m sad that it’s coming to an end.

First, dinner last night:

Nick’s dad cooked some pork ribs + beef, so I had a little bit of each. Plus 1/4 of a huge baked potato topped with Fage and some grilled romaine with that maple dressing. I also had a tiny slice of whole grain bread + butter.

I ended not eating most of the meat because I was saving room for this.

I got my ice cream! There’s a local dairy bar here called Kline’s, and they have amazing ice cream. They have one flavor per week and they always have chocolate and vanilla. This week’s flavor was cherry chocolate chip, so I got a small cone of that last night. They even sell doggie bowls of vanilla ice cream and milkbones, so we got one of those for the dogs to share. It was the perfect ending last night.

————–

This morning, breakfast was pretty simple, but great as always.

I had a cup of coffee, some scrambled eggs, a slice of local fresh bread with almond butter, and a piece of the best bacon ever. We got some from the Amish market and it really is the saltiest, tastiest bacon I’ve ever had.

This plate plus some fruit makes me happy  🙂

We went to church, and came back to the house only to say goodbye to my parents and Nick’s dad. My dad hopped on his motorcycle and my mom was in the van with the dog -I’m hoping they didn’t hit any rain since dad was riding the bike home!

Nick’s dad left today on a trip for work, so it’s just Nick, his mom, me and their dog this afternoon. Since we went to the early service at church, I came back and went the fancy grocery store here for a few things while Nick and his mom worked on making a splash skirt thing for the kayak. I didn’t find some things I needed, but I did get a few. I”ll still have to finish grocery shopping whenever we get home tonight, but it shouldn’t be too bad. I have my list made and I’m ready!

Then….me and Harley dog took a nap on the couch  🙂

We heated up some leftovers for lunch once I woke up and they were ready for a break.

I had some more salad + maple dressing, broccoli, leftover beef, and a piece of that multigrain bread for lunch

I just cleaned up some Harley vomit – I guess he ate something that didn’t agree with him, but I think he’s feeling better now. He’s cuddling beside me on the couch which is making me sleepy again.

I think we’ll be heading home soon – 2.5 hours on the road, unpacking, groceries, then getting ready for the week ahead. Should be a busy rest of the day!

What’s your favorite bread?

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Workin’ Hard for the Clothing

I don’t think I’ve shopped this much since the day after Thanksgiving!  🙂  We had so much fun today.

First we hit up the Amish market – I got a bunch of stuff – some I needed, some I didn’t, but that doesn’t really matter, right?

• oat groats!  (heather, I know you’ll be proud – I need an idea of how to make oatgurt without that heating dish)
• wheat flakes, they look just like old fashioned oats
• walnuts
• pecans
• orange blossom honey
• smoked paprika for cheap! a whole container was only $2!
• whole wheat couscous
• whole wheat pastry flour
• chia seeds! I was so excited to find these. I can’t wait to try them.

We came back home, dropped off our bags, and headed downtown to grab some lunch.

Nick’s mom took us to this really cute little place called the “Tea Room” – it was the perfect place for just us girls to have lunch.

It was pretty small and very busy! Apparently, they are always packed and have lots of reservations, but I loved this little place. They do not have a very large menu, but everything from the scones, quiche, soups, and salads sounded amazing.

The tables are all set with all different, non matching tea cups and they offer over 100 varieties of tea! I would love to come back for their actual afternoon tea, which is from 2-5 each day. Maybe next time  😉

I had the Ann Hardesty’s Chef Salad, which had local turkey, ham, cheese, tomatoes, red pepper, and some croutons along with an orange-mustard dressing. Yum! It also came with this amazing little cheddar biscuit that I saved for the last part of my meal.

I had their unsweet iced tea of the day, which was a mango madness. This was the perfect light lunch for us ladies! I can’t wait to go back.

And then.

We shopped.

And shopped.

And shopped.

The sad thing? The only place we got to was Kohl’s 🙂 I don’t have one near me, so I always want to go when we’re here, and we were in there for over 3 hours! I think we tried on the entire store between the 3 of us. We also helped this lady in the dressing room pick out a dress to wear for a wedding this afternoon – she was kind of freaking out because the zipper broke on the dress she was wearing. She had stopped in to Kohl’s to try to find a dress for a wedding that was at 4:30 today! We helped her decide on a dress to wear and she looked beautiful. It was fun to help another girl find a fabulous dress.

You think we got some good stuff?

Now, some of my stuff was birthday presents from my mom and Nick’s mom, but most of this is their stuff anyways.

This is Nick’s mom’s pile – and yes, that is a little deep fryer in the back. She decided they needed to be able to those deep fried oreos at home.

The middle section is my mom’s stuff she got – we all got the cutest stuff!

And this is my pile  🙂  AND, all of our stuff was on sale. We got some great deals, and Nick’s mom and I got some good skirts + hats for our trip to Honduras next month, which is good because I actually did need those.

We missed you Melissa, Maleasa, and Tiff!

Whew! I’m worn out!

I had one of these ciders when we got back (and after we did our little fashion show and tried everything on again). I love having girls time.

We’re working on dinner and I’m hoping we eat soon! All that shopping has made me hungry.

I think there will also be a trip to Kline’s dairy bar tonight for some local ice cream….but we shall see.

I hope you’re enjoying your Saturday!

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Manure in the Morning

You have no idea what to expect with that title, right?  🙂

We got here safely! Thank goodness, we stopped at a Sheetz to fill up the truck, so I got an iced fat free latte for the trip

This was just what I needed – just enough milk to fill me up until we got to Nick’s parent house for dinner. The drive was good, and once we got past Roanoke, we really didn’t have any traffic.

My parents were already at the house when we got here last night and were helping get dinner ready. What a spread!

So much good seafood!

• Crabcakes
• Shrimp
• Scallops
• salad with this maple dressing – so good!
• baked zucchini/squash with chili seasoning + tortilla chips
• sundried tomato/basil bread with a smear of butter
• plus a small bowl of unpictured fruit

Everything was delicious, but my stomach started feeling really bubbly and weird. I’m not sure if there’s something I just can’t handle or if it’s just because I was so hungry by the time we ate that my stomach just didn’t handle taking in the food well? I hate it though. My tummy was so gurgly and strange for a while after dinner.

And….these did not help my stomach, but goodness gracious.

 

I had to try this.

Nick’s dad took us to this little hamburger joint/bar where they have fried oreos. Yup. My first experience with fried oreos. It was dipped in a funnel cake batter and was amazing. The filling was oozing out of the dough, and the cookie was all warm and soft. Good thing I only had one!

The rest of the night included opening birthday presents + a big glass of water and then sleep.

————

Now on to the manure.

Nick and I got up and ran about 3 miles this morning around 6:30. We ran through the neighborhood next to Nick’s parents, onto a road that goes past some farms and then onto this straight uphill section of a local highway.

It was perfect running weather this morning, and I’m glad we went when we did.

What’s with the manure? Well, there are tons of farms here. Chickens and cows, mostly.

Sometimes, driving into Harrisonburg, all you smell is poo  :)  Don’t get me wrong – it stinks. But it does remind me that there are still people here living off the land. It was nice to run past cows this morning while they were out grazing in the morning sun.

We got back, sat around and drank some coffee and water, then took showers and had breakfast.

I had a bowl of Fage with a bunch of fruit: peach, banana, strawberries, pineapple, and blueberries, plus a little flax and some chopped walnuts/almonds/pecans + cinnamon!

This was just what I needed. I love hot breakfasts, but this hit the spot this morning. I was hot from running/taking a shower and it’s pretty toasty here already so I was happy to find some yogurt in the fridge.

The boys just left on the motorcycles and us girls are headed to the Amish market first. I’ve got to stock up on some grains, pasta, and all the other fun stuff they have.

Then I’m thinking a trip to Costco, the mall, and Kohls at some point  🙂 I have to get my shopping done while I can!

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Weekend of Family Fun Begins…

now! Well, not exactly right now, but soon enough! My parents are already on the road and I can’t wait to see everyone!

My lunch hour was pretty busy since I had to get my hair cut and run a few errands with Nick before we left town. I wasn’t super hungry at lunch time, so I waited until I got back from our lunch break to get my lunch out.

I definitely waited too long! I was so hungry by the time I got to eat.

I had some of the leftover guacamole salad + a few extra roma tomatoes cut up and a small piece of leftover steak.

It was good and spicy, but not very much food. I was still hungry, so I went ahead and dug into my afternoon snack –

1 plain oikos, some TJs fruit and nut medley cereal, and fresh raspberries. Again, good, but I’m still hungry!

I’m hoping we’ll need to stop somewhere on the way so I can get a latte or smoothie or something else filling to hold me until we get there.

I’m not sure what dinner is going to be once we get to Nick’s parents house, but I’m sure it will be great.

Here we go again – another super fun weekend road trip  🙂

I’m hoping to at LEAST do these this weekend:

• lots of talking and laughing
• Amish market for necessities + things I just want and have no room for
• Costco to look for a few things
• birthday shopping with the girls? We’ll miss you Maleasa, Melissa, and Tiff!  🙂
• who knows what else!

What about your weekend plans?

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