Family Fun (Ultra Cheese Alert)

This Easter was so much fun. I pretty much spent all day with the family, going to church, eating an Easter worthy lunch, and going Easter egg hunting. Also, about and hour of that time was spent taking funny (and SUPER cheese-y) pictures with the fam. Ch-ch-check it!

ok. this was posed. But she was DETERMINED to get that egg.

My little sister, Tatum, was ruthless. She was pretty much in full on sprint the whole time trying to get to the eggs before everyone else.

All of the sissys. Notice how out of place I look. haha.

Here's were I started thinking of funny, cheese-y poses for us to do.

Heres another

AND ANOTHER! haha

My sisters fell backwards off the bench when I thought it would be a good pose to put their feet up in the air. oops.

She was OK!

Action Shot!

My parents. Aren't they just the cutest?!

Fast forward to today. I was SUPER ready to get back into the swing of things after pigging out on Easter candy and Ham yesterday. So I was happy to have my usual breakfast when I woke up.

Half a cup of fat free cottage cheese with Blueberries mixed in and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Whole Wheat Toast with Blackberry Preserves AND Apricot Preserves. Unfortunately my indecisiveness extends past the breakfast table and into my regular life.

After breakfast I FINALLLY got to the grocery store. I was kind of anxious to go to the grocery store because of a funny story that happened this weekend. First a little back story the guy who works in the produce section of the grocery store is super CUTE, I had a class with him in college, so I know him and everytime I go to the grocery store we usually talk. Ok got that?! Good. Now the funny part:

Saturday night my friend Brittani and I hit up one of our favorite dance spots. We usually just dance by ourselves and generally are bitches to any creeps that try to come hit on us. Anyway, there was this guy that kept trying to get my attention while I was dancing, but I kept giving him mean looks and blowing him off. He didn't stop, so finally I look over to say something......and realize it is my produce boy!! Me being a little "braver" than usual (if you catch my drift) ran over and gave him a big hug to say hi. Now we have made small talk in the produce section of Kroger before, but NEVER took it as far as physical contact (just a hug!) in a CLUB before. hahaha. I guess you could say I was a little embarrassed to see him again in the grocery store.

Well, I successfully made my grocery trip, saw the produce boy, smiled, made small talk, and went on my merry way. Geez, that was awkward. haha :)

Came home from the grocery store, unloaded, chopped, bagged, and stored the groceries. Then made up a quick lunch. I tried a new wrap combo!

• Italian Herb Flat Out Wrap
• Swiss Laughing Cow Cheese Wedge
• Sliced Cucumber
• Sliced Tomato
• Spinach
• Dijon Mustard
• Quacker Oats Cheesey Mini Rice Cakes

YUM! I really liked this combo alot! It was very fresh and just plain good.

After lunch I went to a meeting about proctoring for standardized testing in the elementary schools. It is volunteer and not paid or anything, but it would be fun.

Then I went over to the gym to get a little run in.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a long run or a short run, so I decided just to hop on and see how I felt. After a miles I set my goal at 5 miles, but after I finished 5 I wanted to do one more, so I ran 6 miles in all. The only that SUCKS about doing long runs at the gym is that the treadmills are automatically set to cool down after 30 minutes, so I had to constantly reset it to keep it from slowing me down. Oh well.

Now I'm off to cook up some dinner and probably lounge around for the rest of the night. I hope everyone had a good Monday. I know, Mondays generally are bad. But, its almost over!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Grocery Goodies, Reviews, and Runs

Ok, so I'm pretty sure that today actually is Saturday as opposed to yesterday, when I tried to declare it Saturday morning, when in fact, it was Friday. So, I hope everyone is having a great Saturday! So far, mine is going great. Its sunny and warm outside and I just got done with a great run and a great lunch for fuel!

Lets back track to yesterday though. Before work I went to the grocery store for some essentials. We were practically out of everything, so I picked up some basics.

Fruits:

• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Grapes
• Mangos
• Fuji Apples

Veggies:

• Roma Tomatoes
• Purple Cauliflower! I couldnt resist :)
• Cucumber
• Salad Mix

I found a new flavor of flat out wraps that I have not tried yet. Sundried Tomato. I had it for lunch, so I will give my review.

Miscellaneous Items:

• Oikos Greek Yogurt in Vanilla and Blueberry
• Annie's Mac and Cheese (on sale for a buck!)

After the grocery store, I was ready for some lunch. So, like I said I had to try out the new flat out wraps. Usually when I make wraps I put lots of "condiments" such as spicy mustard and salsa and then heat it up, so its kinda gooey and spicy. Today I was feelin' more of a fresh, clean, cold wrap. Heres what I came up with:

• Sundried Tomato Flat Out Wrap
• Regular Hummus
• Turkey Slices
• Chopped Tomato
• Sliced Cucumber

On top of this I added tons of spinach and rolled it up to create this:

Totally hit the spot :)

Review of Sundried Tomato Flavor Flatout:

This was the first time that I have tried this flavor, and I was pretty let down. Don't get me wrong, it wasnt BAD...but I thought that it was gonna be AMAZING! Maybe I built it up too much, but I was not impressed. The Italian Herb flavor is 10 times better, so I think I will stick to that. I will not buy this flavor again. It was my least favorite of the three flavors I have tried.

After lunch I got ready and went to job #1 (Rave) until around 930, when my cute little baseball player came and picked me up and took me to the movies. We saw I Love You, Man. And it was hilarious. I have been in love with Paul Rudd ever since he was Josh in Clueless. haha. The date went really well...and I even think that I am going out with him for date #3 tonight! He is leaving to go back to school tomorrow, so we are kinda "speed" dating.

This morning I woke up to a beautiful sunny day, just as my favorite weather man had promised. I ate breakfast (cottage cheese and toast) you know, you know. Then headed over to my favorite trail for a run. I was ready for a long run, because I had taken the past two days off after my 7.5 mile run two days ago. I DID 9 MILES!! This is a new record as far as distance for me, and I was happy with it. I finished in a little over 90 minutes. Heck yes, my endurance is building...I never thought it would happen!

I have said this before and I will say it again, in my totally not back up by any scientific evidence opinion , Peanut butter and banana are the PERFECT combo for energy and fuel after a long run. Or at least thats what works best for me. So of course I had to have this little number for lunch after my long run.

Grilled "Gourmet" PB&J:

• Whole Wheat Bread
• Naturally Nutty Peanut Butter (2 tbsp.)
• 1/2 Banana
• Cinnamon and Raisins mixed into the peanut butter
• Strawberry Preserves

Blueberry Flavored Oikos Greek Yogurt

This is the first time that I have tried the Blueberry flavor and WOW! This stuff is freakin' amazing. It had little blueberries in it and everything. I think so far it is my favorite!

Now I have to book it to get ready for work, so I'll catch you gals later!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Grocery Day = New Foods!

Wow! I have been busy running around all day! Not that I minded too much, because it was SO PRETTY outside. I think it was in the upper 70s and not a cloud in the sky. I cruised around in my drop-top (ok, maybe I just have sunroof, I can pretend can't I) and my bug-eye sunglasses and just loved every minute of it :)

I started the day with some brekkie. I had toast with TWO different kinds of jelly, because thats how I roll.

Honey Wheat Bread (toasted) with Strawberry and Apricot Preserves.

Fat Free Cottage Cheese with Strawberry

I can not tell you how much I love cottage cheese, as weird as it may be. The only thing is that is so damn expensive now! And I can only eat the Breakstone's Cottage Cheese because I think I have just gotten used to it. I tried a cheaper brand once and just had to throw it out, because it was GROSS! Does anyone else have a different brand that they like?

Anywaysss after breakfast I head on over to the gym. I didn't get in a great workout, but it was better than nothin' and I have kinda been in a yoga mood all day, so I think I'm gonna do a yoga download later on tonight. My workout included:

• 30 minutes on the eliptical - 250 cals burned
• 25 minutes on the bike - 150 cals burned

While I was on the bike I caught up on my intellectual reading with my all time favorite magazine:

If you have not read this magazine and have a slightly "off beat" type of humor, you will LOVE it. Most of the articles literally make me laugh out loud. Yes, I may have gotten some funny looks at the gym today and I may now be known as "the girl that laughs randomly while exercising. haha.

After the gym I ran home to check the mail and found this lovely surprise:

Free Greek Yogurt?! YES PLEASE!

The only problem is that I have NO idea where to find this. And the options at most of our grocery stores are pretty limited. So I ended up having to go to three different places before finally finding some.

My sisters and I have been trying to get my mom to eat healthier and try new foods. She is a southern mom to the core (I.E. uses lots of breads, butter, oils, etc. when cooking) You know, southern comfort meals. So after I picked these up I took some over to the parents house for my mom to try. She tried the vanilla greek yogurt, and said that she liked it a lot. Im hoping to get her into even more healthy eating habits. I wanted to take her picture and get her review for the blog, but she refused to be on camera. So my sister volunteered to give her "greek yogurt virgin" review.

In her words: "Its so thick! Its sticky to my lips!"

Im not sure how much she liked it, but I think it takes some getting used to after only eating regular yogurt...its very different. I told her though, that once she gets used to eating greek yogurt, regular will never be good enough. We'll see if she can convert. Right now the verdict is pending.

Another new product that I saw in the store and wanted to try was a new natural peanut butter, called Naturally More Peanut Butter.

It claims to have 50% more fiber, 25% more protein, and 20% fewer carbs and its made with flaxseed and flax oil. Here is the info.

Of course I just had to try it, so I whipped up one of my grilled pb&j's, here it is in the "hot seat" being grilled to prefection:

And here it is ready to eat! I always have to cut my sammies into triangles, it just feels better that way :) Anyone feel this way about cutting their sandwiches?

Honey Wheat Bread, Naturally More Peanut Butter, Cinnamon, Banana, Blackberry Preserves.

My Review of the PB:

When I first opened it up it was SO runny. I had to straight stir the stuff for a good 15 minutes! But after I got it all to a good consistency is was really good! The taste was great and I really like the texture too. I'm not too into smooth peanut butter, so I liked this because it was kinda chuncky and grainy. Of course it not Mighty Maple, but what is?!

Also, they had these babies on sale at the grocery store, and I have been craving all things fruit lately. So I threw it in the cart:

Now, let me first admit that I usually go for convenience when it comes to most food and I have NEVER tried to cut one of these things before. But I thought I would give it a go, theres a first time for everything right?...but of course I cut it the wrong way, if there is a wrong way.But thats what google told me.

I managed to get out all of the seeds:

Then I just cut it into small chunks. It filled up THREE tupperware containers!

For dinner tonight I had a nice BIG salad:

• Romaine Lettuce and Spinach
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Carrots
• Greek Dressing

And some fettuccini noodles with broccoli and Alfredo sauce (quick but good!)

Now Im off to shower, get in my PJ's, and watch the City. What is everyone else doing tonight?!Hope you all had a great Monday! Lots of Love <3 Ems.

OH Happy Day!

I found them!! I swear people, it was no easy task either. I stood in the bread isle for a good 15 minutes thinking..."ok, here is the arnold's bread, its gotta be here somewhere"...and..."ok, not there. Well, over here are the arnold's buns. Nope." Finally I found them stuffed on the bottom shelf with all of the english muffins. They didnt even have a price! My persistence paid off though. I wonder how long they have actually kept these things hidden from me! Oh you are good Wal-Mart, but this time I came out the victor!

I also found these little babies that I got way too excited about and quickly threw into my cart next to my thins:

Italian Herb Flat-Out Wraps.

I had only ever seen just the plain ones, and those are awesome, so I knew that these would have to be good! It was such a toss up between using the new flat outs or the new sandwich thins for lunch. But those Flat-Outs smelled so damn good, I just had to try those out first. So I made up a wrap:

Turkey Wrap, HUGE-O Pickle, and a few carrots.

Close-Up/Break-Down:

• Italian Herb Flat-Out
• Greek Style Hummus
• Deli Turkey
• Salsa
• Spinach
• Spicy Mustard

Oh my gosh these Flat-Outs were 10 times better than the plain ones. They had such a good flavor, and paired with the garlic-y hummus....oh it was heaven! haha. Also, I found those pickles during my shopping trip as well and decided that I had try those. They were labeled "Spicy Pickles" and they were jarred with red peppers and onions (i think). I had never seen anything like it and they were sooo good too! Has anyone ever seen and/or tried these?!

For dinner last night I tried out the Sandwich Thins and made up a Veggie Burger. This time I did as Katie suggested and thawed it out for a few seconds in the microwave before putting it on the Georgie, and this worked perfect! Thanks Katie, you are amazing, as always!

Close-Up/Break-Down:

• Morning Star Farms Mushroom Lovers Veggie Burger
• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Spinach
• Tomato Slice
• (Another Pickle on the Side)

I got in a pretty good workout today too to go along with my good food shopping trip. My workout included:

• 35 minutes on the eliptical: 300 cals. burned
• 20 minutes on the other thing: 200 cals. burned

After I was finished with this I was at the water fountain filling up my water bottle and just happened to look up at the schedule of classes that my gym was offering. I scanned over the list for Thursday and noticed that they were offering a Yoga class at 1245. I looked at the clock, it was 1240! I thought this would be a perfect way to stretch and cool down after a workout so I hurried over to the yoga studio for what I thought would be a yoga class. When I found the room the door was already closed. I opened it as quietly as I could, and walked into a dark room with about 3 other people and the instructor. Everyone else already had all of their things and they were just sort of sitting there talking to the instuctor, so I just assumed the class had not started yet. I noticed that everyone had two blocks, so I asked if I need two or if I could just use one. That is when the instructor told me that it was up to me because this was a "freestyle" class where we did whatever yoga moves we wanted for an hour and if we needed help we could ask her. WHAT?! I mean I have done Yoga for years, but I still like to have guided instruction! I felt like I couldnt really leave so I stayed around and did what I remembered of some flows and I actually surprised myself with what I could do! I also threw in a couple back bends and leg balances! So in the end, I was glad that I stayed even though I was WAY uncomfortable. haha.

After lunch I got in workout #2. Nothing too big, it was just so pretty that I could not resist a walk/jog on one of my favorite jogging trails. I seriously had the biggest smile on my face all day because it was so gorgeous outside and EVERYONE was outside taking advantage. I even drove with my sunroof down! It got up into the high 60s and there was not a cloud in the sky! I ended up walking/jogging twice around "the loop" which I think is about two miles (so a total of 4 miles).

Todays agenda is a pretty busy one:

• Subbing for 3rd grade
• Working at the mall
• Hopefully squeezing in a workout
• Tanning
• Rollerskating Par-Tay for my friend's birthday!

Hope everyone is having a lovely start to their weekend. What is everyone's plans? Anyone on Spring Break yet?! Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Less Sleep = More Energy?

It was so weird because even though I got a total of about 4 hours of sleep the night before last I had so much energy and got SO much done! Yesterday before 1230 I had:

• Gotten Fingerprinted for Subbing
• Went to the Gym and did a freakin' STRIAGHT HOUR on the eliptical - I have NEVER been able to do this, the most I have even done straight through was 45 minutes. But yesterday I set the timer for 35 minutes, but after it was up I felt like I still had so much energy, so I just kept going and ended up doing a full hour!
• Went to the mall where I work to pick up my manager.

Have I mentioned before how much I adore every single one of my co-workers?! Just look at how cute my two managers are:

Kelli, the one on the right ,was actually a finalist to be on America's Next Top Model, but she did not make it onto the show because she was too short BY ONE INCH! geeeez Tyra!

Moving onto the subject of lunchie: I had bought some tofu, determined to make a Sharon inspired sammie. But the idea has scared the hell out of me, because I have no idea how to cook tofu! But I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. Im adventurous! And it actually turned out pretty darn good. Have a look for yourselves:

Close-Up/Break-Down:

The ingredients include:

• Tofu
• Red Pepper Hummus
• Spianch
• Tomato
• Spicy Mustard

It was soooo good! And I was pretty proud of myself for stepping outside the box and trying something new. I have def. had tofu several times, but never cooked it myself. I also had an apple, some grapes, and some carrots on the side:

After lunch I got a little cleaning done (see I'm tellin' ya guys, SO much energy from NO WHERE!) Then I hung out with the room mate a bit and watched some SpongeBob SquarePants. I dont care how old you are, this show is hilarious! Oh man, I just realized what a huge kid I am...yet again!

I finally decided to get up and take a shower and get ready for my Sat. night out-on-the-town around 8 'oclock! But not before throwing together an awesome mix for din-din.

This was a great mix of ingredients, it was another one of those things that I just threw whatever I could find in, and it turned out tasting great! The mix included:

• Left Over Moroccan Curry Pilaf
• Diced Green Pepper and Tomato
• Sauteed Spinach and Mushroom (Underneath the Rice)
• Steamed Broccoli
• Red Pepper Hummus (Mixed In)

Last night ended up being a lot of fun with a huge mix of friends. I meet up with my friend Jamie and her boyfriend for coffee and I Spy books for a little while, and then met up with some other friends for a few drinks at my all time FAVE place, Stir Fry Cafe. I just love mixin' and minglin' with different friends, and I definitely have an eclectic mix of friends!

As for my Sunday you ask?...Well, as of this morning there has been a national state of coffee-crisis declared, so some grocery shopping is a necessity. Also, I think I may head to the gym and do a little cleaning. We shall see my friends, we shall see.

Oh yes, and Strawberry Shortstuff is having an awesome giveaway, so go check that out.

Edited to Add: My gal Emily is also having a contest for an awesome reusable water bottle, so check that one out as well. If not for the contest, then just because she has a kick-ass blog and a pretty cool name to go with it ;)

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday, tomorrow its back to the ol grind! Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Happy 277th Birthday Georgie!

Happy Presidents Day Loves! What a weird holiday huh? Just like Sophie said, if we are going to make George Washington's birthday a national holiday why not make all of the president's birthday holiday. Then we would get TONS of days off! :)

I have been in desperate need of groceries, so today was a grocery day. I have had an abundance of apples, but no bananas so I have been replacing what I normally use bananas for, with apples. So this morning I used apples in my oats :)

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 apple
• handful of blueberries
• strawberry preserves
• LOADS of cinnamon

After breakfast I hit up the grocery store. I stocked up on all my fruits and veggies and some other essential items. I also picked up some Tofu, because I have been inspired to make tofu sandwiches by a lot of you lovely bloggers. I just hope I can live up to your expertise.

I dropped off the groceries and then hit up the gym! I got in a pretty good workout and was sweatin' it up in there. It just doesnt feel like a workout to me unless your pouring the sweat! My workout was quick and simple:

• 35 minutes on the eliptical - 300 calories burned
• 25 minutes on the "other-thing-that-looked-kinda-like-an- eliptical-but-I-am-never-quite-sure-what-its-called" - 250 calories burned.

I headed home from the gym and fixed up a quick wrap.

Now I am getting ready to run some candy to the girls at work that my mom sent me to give to them. The girls at work love my mom, because she always sends them "goodies". One of my friends from work actually called to ask me if my mom had sent them any goodies for valentines! haha.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the week. Whether you got the holiday off or not! Lots of Love <3 Ems.