HILLS!!

Hi friends! This morning I had to drop my car off to get it inspected~it's not going to be ready til around lunch time so I decided to run home. The HILLS involved were insane. I ran up it about 3/4 of the way then almost fell over, the picture doesn't do it justice....

After I got home, I was hot and tired. It only ended up being 1.4 miles but it was A LOT harder than a regular 1.4 miles would have been. For breakfast I had a slice of my cinnamon swirl bread toasted and a banana boat (banana with peanut butter) This bread is seriously good.

The pic isn't the greatest. I left my camera in my car, and my car is still at the shop....so it's via iPhone. After breakfast I watched Regis & Kelly and then got a call that my car was ready to be picked up!! So, I put back on my running shoes and ran back to get my car! This time I made it in 12 minutes and 24 seconds~I cut about a minute off of my last run. Same distance, just dooowwwnn hill this time. Much easier! After I picked up my car, I went to sell some clothes to Plato's closet. After leaving there $40 dollars richer, I went to TJ Maxx and Target. When I got home it was about lunch time and I was hungry so I put together a quick little lunch. Same lunch as yesterday...cottage cheese, pineapple, blueberries & animal crackers. It's a hot one out there, and I gotta close tonight at work so I won't be home til late. See ya tomorrow! KEEP COOL ;)
Question: Do you wait for your car when it's at the shop or pick it up later? Any of you have the convenience of being able to walk to and from?

The HOTNESS it over....

Last night, the house was really.really.really.REALLY. HOT......

So, we brought this big ol' monster up from the basement. We couldn't take it anymore, something had to be done!

After a couple of hours of this baby running full force, the hotness was over. I even broke out the blanket this morning to sip my coffee under!! Since when was the last time I had the blanket out?! Certainly not in an 89 degree house, that's for sure!!! This morning I tried to recreate my favorite breakfast from The Waffle Shop-grilled blueberry muffin. It wasn't the same, but it did the trick.

On the side, 2 slices of MorningStar bacon and fresh blueberries. It was the perfect breakfast for me this morning! After I finished my muffin, I took some over to my mom's house so she could enjoy them. After I got home I got the urge to bake some Cinnamon Swirl bread. Pictures later....
I ran while the bread dough was rising~2 miles in 17 minutes. Having the house cool sure does make a difference in my running performance and attitude for sure!! Lunch was easy, light & yummy.

Cottage cheese, pineapple, blueberries and......animal cookies :) I ate this while waiting for my loaf of Cinnamon Swirl bread to bake! I found this recipe for the bread while browsing 'Food Gawker' on my phone this morning. I love this site so much I have the app on my iPhone. They gather all the great recipes out there (daily) and share them with the world!! Love it! It was the easiest bread recipe I've ever made....oh wait, it was the first bread I've ever made with yeast and rising (besides pizza dough)
Here she is:

This bread is delicious. The crust is a little crunchy, but I ate the end piece so no wonder. MAKE THIS BREAD. It's yummy and it's easy!! I'm off to my real job, talk to ya'll tomorrow!
Question: Have you ever made bread before? Favorite recipe?

Doggie Pants & Fresh Blueberry Muffins!

It's Monday! Here we go again!
Last night we had dinner at mom & dad's again. This time we had bbq chicken, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms (for me, of course) pasta salad & leftover green beans. We also had bbq ribs but I don't eat those, so they don't count :) After dinner we played dress up with the dogs!! Ruby (my mom & dad's dog) strutted her stuff in a pair of rhinestone jeans and a bow wow couture hoodie! She was less than thrilled!!

It's been so hot and humid lately. Poor Misha is constantly pacing and panting, she doesn't know what to do with herself it's been so hot. Today it was 87 degrees in the house! YIKES!

Today I woke up, ran 2 miles in a quick 17 minutes and 15 seconds. Then breakfast occurred....

One whole egg, one egg white~scrambled with fresh parsley. Cinnamon raisin bagel thin and fresh blueberries. YUM! I worked for a few hours and hit the grocery store on the way home for a couple of essentials. Yogurt, apples, tuna, bananas, lettuce, cottage cheese, NUTELLA & COCO POPS, LIFE & STYLE....oh wait, these things aren't essentials on your grocery list? Alright, alright, these are addictions of mine. I haven't had Nutella in a month and I decided I was going to get some. It's my favvvvoorite snack, especially paired with these Coco Pop rice cakes!! YUMMMYYY. Haven't tried it yet? Go out and get yourself some right nooowww.

After I flipped thru the gossip magazine and ate myself a couple rice cakes I decided I wanted to bake some fresh blueberry muffins. I found this quick and easy recipe so I went straight to work in the kitchen.

Aren't these gorgeous? I can't wait to dig in and try 'em!! After my muffins were baked, I decided to do some Exercise TV on Comcast. Today's workout was: 6 pack ab burn. It's a quick workout but boy can you feel it the next day! Dinner tonight was so simple. I didn't want to use the oven again, it was waaaayyyy too hot. So, I made some panini's on the panini press, mixed salad and some goldfish. Told ya it was simple! My panini was a whole wheat roll, 1 slice of american cheese, 1 slice of 97% fat free ham, 4 pieces of turkey pepperoni and some yellow pepper rings. It was perfect!

Now it's time to finish up the grocery shopping for the week (and cool down somewhere OTHER than our un-air-conditioned house) We are gonna need to tie some ice packs to Misha, she's sooooo hot!!

Have a great night everyone!
Question: Do you dress up your pets?

Pancakes, ice cream & large ET's!

Hope all of your weekends are going well!! Yesterday I worked allllll day, and I have to day it was the most painful long Saturday I've worked in a while. The most exciting part of my day was finding a groundhog in the salon's kitchen. Yes, you read that correctly....a GROUNDHOG. I left the back door open to get some warm air in (all day) and when I bent down to do some laundry, I almost grabbed what I thought was a towel. It wiggled. It wasn't a towel. I had a major minor freak out, so Michele shooed it out with a broom. Talk about action! Whew! I was scaarreedd. Last night we kept it pretty low key. We ate dinner at mom & dad's (steak, potatoes, salad & green beans) then came home and watched a movie and went to bed. I introduced Abram to the movie: The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Anyone ever seen that movie? It was my all time favorite as a kid! This morning we woke up and decided to make pancakes. We used Hungry Jack whole wheat pancake mix. We tried chocolate chips in one, and white chocolate chips in another, split 'em down the middle and tried it out.

 I have never had white chocolate chips in pancakes before. It was pretty yummy! Tasted like a cookie! I used some lite maple syrup on these and ate 'em up! After breakfast we cleaned the house until the gym opened up at 10. I ran 3 miles and used the weights in the girl's weight room....typical Sunday workout. After we got cleaned up, we headed over to visit with my pap for a little before checking out the People's Choice Art's Festival. It's a yearly festival that sells artsy type stuff, I like to walk around, look at stuff, and eat food :) This year, this item caught my eye.....

 He was only $2600....reasonable right? After we walked around, we both decided it was WAY TOO HOT to eat "real" food, so we both got something cool and refreshing. I got a cup of peanut butter ripple ice cream and Abram had a root beer float. My parent's picked up this small bag of kettle corn.

 We are going to eat dinner at my parents house again tonight. It's got AC and my Aunt Darla is visiting from Kentucky so we will probably spend a good bit of time over there. Have a good Sunday night.

Question: Favorite pancake toppings? Fillings?

Wine goes with Party Mix, right?

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I was a busy bee. I worked all day and then as soon as I left work, Mandi and I went home to drink a whole bottle of wine have a couple glasses of wine. On the drive home I KNEW I needed something in my stomach before I drank alcohol so we stopped at Sheetz to grab some cheese and crackers because that's the only thing we could think of that paired well with wine. When we arrived at Sheetz, they had no cheese. So, we went with the next best thing: Party Mix. Mandi said "it has cheese doodles in it, that counts as cheese, right??" haha why yes Mandi, it sure does :)

After our fancy appetizer & happy hour cocktail, we met up with my sister/friends/cousin for dinner at the Ale House. We were celebrating Toni being home from Florida for the weekend. I ordered a vodka soda with lime juice and an asparagus sandwich. Soooooo delicious. In fact, we give it a W.O.W on how good the drink was :)

After a few rounds of cocktails and some good laughs, we took a few "normal" pictures for your viewing pleasure.

J Stephens Salon & Spa's finest :)

I am working all day Saturday but hopefully will be going out for another fun evening with the sister and some friends. This morning I wore my special "dalmatian" glasses just for Misha, aren't we cute?

Have a great Saturday, I might be back later on today with some more pictures/stories....but I will definately see ya'll tomorrow!

Question: Do you ever match your outfits to your pets? Spouse?

Pap's 88th Birthday Celebration!

Hi ya'll. Today was a good one. My sister flew in from Florida for a long weekend, we celebrated my Pap's 88th birthday and I got to eat ice cream cake :) I started off the day with a cinnamon raisin bagel thin and ate it in the car on the way to work. Super safe, I know! For lunch I had the usual, plus a new addition. Quaker granola SMASH bar!! I had pretzel berry. I can't resist new snacks when I see them on the shelves at the grocery store, so of course when I saw these pretty little babies, I had to grab 'em! Cottage cheese, pineapple and grapes

 I also restocked my blueberry stash today while at Pap's, so you'll see these in tomorrow's lunch!

 After I got outta work I met Abram and home and we headed over the mountain to meet the fam. Upon arrival I was put to work in the blueberry patch (no complaints here) we picked 16 pints today! I brought 5 home, any bets on how long they last me??!? Of course we also played on the swings with Helena and Tiya and they just HAD to swing from the trees like monkeys again screaming "Oooo Ahhh Ahhh Ahhh!" Soooo cute!!

 For dinner we had an Italian dish called "scoupels" which is a thin crepe rolled up with parmesan cheese and soaked in beef broth. We also had meatballs, beef, salad, bread, and ziti with marinara. LOTS of good food for Pap's birthday. Dessert we had an ice cream cake from DQ~yum!

 Helena was especially excited about the "birfday cake"

 We are home now and I am going to do "Butt Bible" on Exerside TV. Have a great night!!
Question: Do you feel the urge to buy new food products when you see them in stores?

Butter vs Margarine

Hi Friends! This morning I made myself a whole wheat english muffin with an egg white and a Morningstar sausage patty. It was okay, I wasn't really feelin' the sausage patty though. I won't be eating another one of those for a while, it didn't hit the spot.

 Lunch today was cottage cheese and a HUGE fruit salad that consisted of: pineapple, grapes and blueberries. I didn't snap a pic because I assume you are all sick of seeing my fruit lunches. I worked until 2pm and then had an appointment for Megan to give me MUCH NEEDED and lonnnng overdue highlights. After my hair appointment, I came home and started on the Pizzelles for my Pap's 88th birthday party tomorrow (his actual b-day is today) I started to make these and wondered why they weren't turning out like normal. After a few rounds of them I realized, I used butter instead of margarine. They tasted the same, but they were all flaky and see-thru-ish....haha!

 Pizzelle Recipe (from my Aunt Mary)
*This is a half recipe, which makes plenty of Pizzelles!!
**You will need a Pizzelle Maker
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick MARGARINE
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Beat eggs adding sugar gradually. Beat until smooth. Add cooled melted margarine and vanilla. Sift flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Dough will be sticky enough to be dropped by spoon.

Tonight Abram and I are having a quick dinner because he is going to a friend's house tonight. Whole wheat pasta tossed in pesto and olive oil. Mixed green salad on the side with balsamic vinegar. It was my first time using pesto as a "sauce" for pasta, it wasn't bad. Abram didn't like it though, said it was too pesto-y. Oh well, guess we'll stick to marinara from now on :)

 I am off to meet Mandi at the mall, then hopefully come home and do some exercising via On Demand :) See ya tomorrow!
Question: What sauce do you prefer on your pasta? Pesto? Marinara? Alfredo? Oil? Other?