Weather

I was feeling under the weather this weekend. It made for a pretty lackluster holiday. Oh well, sometimes your body just demands rest.

Thursday ended on a sweet note.

Hot cocoa and a frozen Veggie Girl-inspired Blondie oh my these just get better and better!

It all started off well on Friday with a small iced coffee.

Then I made this beautiful bowl.

A plain (organic) yogurt base, Heritage O’s on that.

PB puffins in one corner.

Clifford Crunch in another.

Beautiful kiwi down the center. It was delicious. I can’t get over my kiwi love.

Later on I got a migraine that knocked me out, I had to just lie in the dark and sip on tea for the next couple overs.

So, for the past few days, I haven’t eaten much.

I snacked on cheddar crackers. I also had a Clif Z bar and handfuls of cereal straight from the box. Nothing too exciting.

Today, I made this.

Garlic bread- times a million. Just roasted the garlic till it was soft and warm, spread it all over the bread, topped with some whipped butter and broiled to perfection. I had a bunch and it made my tummy happy.

This weekend made me hate being a woman a little bit because it’s the hormonal imbalances that lead to such extreme migraines. Oh well, at least it’s only a few times a year where they’re unbearable. Oh well, I feel much better now, and should be ready to go for tomorrow!

Later lovers, I’m trying to stay awake for the Next Food Network Star

 

Hello, Beautiful!

How you is? One of my students used to ask me that everyday, 180 school days later and he still wouldn’t say “How Are You?”  Oh well, he learned his alphabet at least!
Last night I had a snack before bed.

Perfect nectarine x2.

I ate such good food today, but it started weirdly.  I woke up so tired for some reason, and I had all these plans to make juice but when I put hand soap on my toothbrush (not in my mouth thankfully), I realized I didn’t need juice, I needed rest, so I crawled back under the covers for an extra 20 minutes.

So, it was iced coffee and a Bagelful instead!  Hehe, it was good.  It helped that I could walk and eat at the same time… I saved most of the coffee for an in school treat (partially because you’re not allowed to drink on the bus, hah).

The coffee was extra good because of this.

Southern Pecan Organic Beans.  Omigosh.  So delicious.  I added a little milk and a little sugar (I made it really strong for some reason).  The smell that comes out of the bag just makes my morning… and once it starts brewing the whole kitchen just comes alive… and since I live in a box my whole place smelled fabulous.

School was great as usual.  The sentences just keep getting better.  Our team just keeps working better and better together.  If you know how bad my school year was you’d know this is the direct opposite of that.  It helps me deal with the huge fear that my (soon! hopefully) degree will be wasted… during the school year I really thought I wasn’t cut out for teaching, but I guess it was good to have a tough first experience so everything else can look better, and the hard times I know I can get through!

When I got home, I did what I normally do, sat in front of my computer screen in a daze until my stomach started growling. 

I made a K parfait, sorta.  Mine was PB2 with plain yogurt (I just couldn’t bring myself to buy Greek for 8 dollars, sorry), layered with PB Puffins and strawberries.  I think her version with muffins outshines this but it was so yum! (Eating with a pink baby spoon made it sooo much better)

A little later, I needed more chewing, so I threw together a sandwich.

Maple Turkey, spinach+ olive oil mayo on toast.

Also delicious.  I did chew something weird texturally, but I just moved on and kept chewing since it tasted so good.

Then I gave into a huge craving for rice and beans.

I have a rice cooker/steamer so the rice was perfect (it’s brown) with Pinto beans, because what I really wanted (Kidney) I didn’t have.

Topped with this.  Use the skin as your smushing mixing bowl, y’all!

There was a ton of Tabasco on top. The beans were cooked simply with Goya and my mother’s sazon it’s this secret mix (ok she’d actually tell you the ingredients but not the amounts) and it makes everything taste a million times better.  Just like home!  I remember being a kid and watching my uncles, grandpa and mom eat avocado with rice and beans and thinking that was gross.  The ignorance of youth!

Then I blog surfed and joined Megan’s water challenge.  I drink maybe 75% of my needed water in a day… but I walk a lot outside and I know I need more!  So, my goal is 80 ounces a day. 

Do you guys drink enough water daily?

Don’t forget that for every 15 minutes of physical activity you should replenish with 2 ounces (on top of the 64).  Did you know that?  That means if you workout for 60 minutes a day your target should be 72 not 64.  Something to keep in mind.  When I started my healthy living (the for real time last year) I had trouble with the water.  I was working/living at my job as a nanny so every morning, I’d fill a pitcher with 64 ounces of water and just drink out of that- then I didn’t have to worry about counting and keeping track.  Worked wonderfully!  Another trick is to put 1 penny in your right pocket for every 8 ounces you want to drink (right now mine would be 10).  For every glass you drink, move a penny over to the left pocket.  When you’re right pocket is empty you know you’re done!

I need some dessert (and water) and I honestly haven’t exercised yet today so I’m going to hop up and get some movement in my life even if it’s just rocking out to my iPod.

Long weekend here I come! Wooooooooooooo!
(I’m really just going to wash dishes but still no alarm tomorrow!)

 

Seussical

Ahh, good ole Dr. Seuss is so fab and I love that musical but not nearly as much as the Wiz (oh MJ ().

In my non-sleeping time this morning, I was dreaming of PB2.

Even though I originally wanted to have my first PB2 experience in a K parfait but this morning I was in too much of a daze for thoughts… so I just threw some in a smoothie.

Along with that delicious powder, I had a frozen banana, organic skim and that other chocolate yogurt.  Twas so good an peanutbuttery.  Love love love!  Thanks Cammy!  I won it from her fab blog, yay!

I felt awful on the way home from school.  Obviously, I need to get back to my juice because I cannot experience that again.  Yuck!  (I’m attributing it to the switch from pure enzymes and vitamins and all that jazz to a bunch of protein and I know I’m protein-sensitive).  I ended up feeling better after a liter of water and some fresh air walking before entering the building.

I came home with a huge appetite.  So I made a lunch to match.

Started with a spinach salad with loads of strawberry slices and some cucumbers.

Along with the cucumbers that are lining the side of the bowl, I had adult carrots and celery dipped in Artichoke Kalamata Hummus… yum!

Then I moved on to the main event, ham and swiss on fresh bread that I popped in the oven for a bit.

Perfect lunch!

Later when I got hungry I decided to have even more protein. (Yes, too much leads me to a migraine and yet today was so protein centric but I was craving it- I think that the more of it you eat, the more of it your body thinks it needs even though we, as Americans, definitely eat more protein than necessary).

Aaaaaaanyway, I had green eggs (aka two eggs with pesto whipped in) and an english muffin with blackberry jam.

Breakfast for dinner is the best!

I had a great work day, I love our summer school program.  If I end up staying in the area, I hope I can work with this teacher, he’s amazing and I know I would be so much better prepared for my first solo year under his ‘care’ beforehand.  We took our insects inside yesterday and placed them in a terarium… but the cricket ate them all.  We now have a wild cricket living in his own spot.  A cricket farm (?) that we made out of soda bottles (and that stinks), an ant farm that’s fabulous, and some butterfly larvae.  The kids are so cute, today they focused on doing scientific drawings.  We went from ant pictures wearing stunna shadez to really accurate drawings and the cutest spanish sentences about them.  I’m so proud of our kiddos!

Link love time?  Yes’m.

Snackface is giving away some Veg News goodies. There are too many to list… but check it out. You’ll like it!

Angela is holding the Summer Glow Boot Camp.  She’s so fabulous and this will be such a good life, lifestyle and body changing month due to all her hard work.  Join me on SGBC?

Luckytastebuds wrote a really great post today about weight and health and the reality that size and health don’t necessarily go hand in hand.  Chchcheck it out!

I’m off to go exercise myself and do my SGBC exercises for the day.  Later lovers!

P.S. Seussical- green eggs and ham today. Surely he would have loved PB2 as well