Simple Meals.

I hope everyones Monday went wonderfully!

Today was my last morning that I’ll have free during the week!  I woke up early and went to Bikram at 8.  It was a great way to start the week.  Loved every minute.  I came home and made a bowl of simple oatmeal.

Oats, skim milk, banana, raisins, cinnamon, and honey.

So good!  I also had a nice big, crunch honey crisp apple.  I did work and had lunch for the rest of the day.  Oh yeah, I also made spaghetti sauce for tomorrow night!  I thought I’d do that today since I had time and I won’t have time the rest of the week.  Class tonight was pretty good.  I got my first paper back and I got an A-!  So I’m pretty happy with that!

I came home and made dinner for my sister and I.  BBQ Chicken, Sweet Potato, & sauteed string beans & garlic.

For dessert, I wanted to make Banana Whip, but we don’t have a food processor here.  So instead I had a chopped frozen banana with Naturally More Peanut Butter and a big scoop of Vanilla frozen yogurt.  It was great, but I really wanted a creamy banana whip/PB combo!

I also just tried Newman’s Own Organics Dark Chocolate covered Peanut Butter Cups.  I really enjoyed them!  I think I might love everything Peanut Butter.

Now it’s off to do work for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow I have student teaching with the 1st graders & then I have night class.  Shall be a long, exciting day!

See you laterrr 🙂

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Remember 9/11.

Happy Friday everyone!  Today is even more special because it is 9/11.

So far I have had 2 out of my 4 classes and I already feel as if I’m not going to have enough time to do all of the reading that is required.  It is actually quite ridiculous.  I probably won’t have a life.  But I do enjoy the subject matter so it won’t be TOO terrible!

After class, I came home & made dinner for my sister and I.  Tonight I made us Turkey Burgers, Corn on the Cob, Sauteed string beans, carrots, & garlic.

It looks like there are hardly any string beans and carrots because I was eating them as I was cooking the rest of the food.  So when it was time to put them on my plate, there was a little problem!  Also, this corn was SO good!  It is either from NY or NJ and I bought it from Whole Foods.  Thankfully, I have 3 more pieces in the fridge!

Really good Turkey Burger.  I ended up topping some of it with Ketchup and some of it with Tex-Mex Hummus.  Loved it!

After dinner, I had some more Newman’s Own Organics Dark Chocolate & I also tried out ANOTHER Newman’s Own Organics product…Cinnamon Hermits made with Newman’s Own Organics Raisins and Organic Molasses.  I had very high expectations for these.

They lived up to their expectations.  The only thing that I wish would be that they were a TAD bit bigger.  But I’m not complaining because they were still veryyyy tasty!  I had the Cinnamon flavor but they also come in Original and Ginger.  If you have never tried these out before, I would definitely give them a try.  The ingredients list is nice and short too: Organic Unbleached Wheat Flour, Organic Raisins, Organic Molasses, Organic Sugar, Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Oats, Organic Figs, Raisin Paste, Cinnamon and other Spices, Leavening (Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Salt, Rice Bran Extract.

So you can feel pretty good about eating these!

I spent a lot of time last night trying to keep up with some reading and other assignments & I decided to call it a night around midnight.

This morning I woke up to very dreary, cold, and wet weather.  It would have been a perfect day for hot oatmeal, but I already had a bowl of overnight oats waiting for me.  Oh well!

This concoction was of course, my favorite one… Banana-Date Overnight Oats with Flax!

It was so creamy and delicious!  Along with the overnight oats, I had a cup of Green Tea and a Gala Apple with Cinnamon.

Now I am just relaxing, catching up on the blog, & watching Regis & Kelly.  When I’m finished here, I’m going to clean up the kitchen and get down to work with reading if I don’t fall asleep!

Later on I plan to make some split pea soup, veggie black bean chili, and maybe some black bean burgers that I can freeze for some quick dinners!  I also plan to go to the gym at some point today to run 4 miles.  But first I must get a good chunk of reading done.  That just reminded me…yesterday when I was running, some lady was running while reading the newspaper.  Yes, you read it correctly.  Weird huh?  Real safe too.

I will catch ya all later! 😛

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Tired & Hungry!

Tonight when I was finished with classes, I was exhausted.  So instead of running, guess what I did?  I ate.  I met my sister for dinner at a place called La Viola’s.  I ordered a mixed greens salad in a Balsamic Vinaigrette so start.  I actually shared that with my sister.  For my entree, I ordered the Farfalle Marinara bow tie pasta with shrimp in a pomodoro sauce.

The funny thing is, I don’t really like shrimp.  But I was really craving a simple pasta dish and this was the simplest on the menu.  So I topped it with some parm and ate most of the shrimp.  I don’t know, it’s just something about the texture and even the taste about shrimp that I just don’t like!  I’m weird.  Along with our entrees, my sister and I downed 2 loaves of Italian Bread.  hahaha I guess we were hungry.

I was chilly when I walked in the door so I made some hot tea to warm up!  Along with that, I opened up one of my Newman’s Own Organics Products!

Yum.  Dark Chocolate!!  Love it!  I snapped off two squares which are pretty decently sized and ate it along with my tea.  I really enjoyed this chocolate.  If you are not a huge dark chocolate fan, this bar is for you!  I used to HATE dark chocolate but over the past couple of years I have found a love for it.  This bar had the perfect balance and was not too intense.  I’m excited to eat the rest of it!

Since I did not get my run in today, I will be doing 7 miles tomorrow, 4 on Friday, and 15 miles on Saturday!  I also want to prepare something before I go to class tomorrow so I can have an easy dinner when I get home!  I was planning on making spaghetti & meatballs but I just had pasta tonight.  Any ideas?!?!

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Some new things.

hello everyone!  I am just going to do a quick update here!

I am basically all moved into Philly.  School starts on Tuesday, which I am incredibly nervous/excited about…can’t decide!  When I arrived at my sister’s my apartment, I was surprised by two packages that I had forgotten about!

Sally, from Newman’s Own Organics, sent me an enormous amount of their products.

I can not wait to dig into this.  I would have to say the number one thing I am looking forward to is the Cinnamon Hermits.  Never had them & they look DELICIOUS.

I had another package from Tim.

Naturally More Peanut Butter aka the Best Peanut Butter ever made.  I know that Almond Butter is the new peanut butter, but I have to admit I have not been too crazy about it!  Maybe Naturally More will change my mind.

Well, I can’t wait to review some of these products over the next couple of weeks!

Anyway, I am now back down in Margate for the weekend!  Tomorrow morning I plan to wake up and do my 14 mile run.  I am really excited about that.  Afterwards, I plan to chill out on the beach all day and soak up some rays!

When I got down to Margate, I had to throw together a quick dinner for myself…

Black Bean Burger, Sauteed String Beans, Carrots, & Garlic, and Peas.

Good thing I still had some yummy Black Bean Burgers in the freezer.

and yes, I did eat that whole bowl of peas…I just could not fit them on my plate.  I love Peas!

Tomorrow night I hope I can get some Banana Whip, but we will see where the night takes me.  Stef, if you’re reading, I’ll give you a call if I go! haha.

Right now I’m just relaxing and watching 10 Things I hate about You.  It’s on t.v. and I haven’t seen it in forever.  Good movie though…haha.  It’s pretty cool that Heath Ledger is in it.

This post is ALL over the place, but hey I said it would be quick!  Today I also went to get new running sneaks!  The guy who waited on me was the coolest guy ever.  I told him I wanted to start from scratch so I didn’t tell him what shoe I ran in at first.  He REALLY knew what he was talking about.  Probably the most knowledgeable person that I have ever had fit me for shoes.  I USUALLY run in Brooks Adrenaline’s.  He fit me for Brook’s Ravenna’s.  He also put some inserts in there as well.  I loved them when I tried them out at the store, so we shall see how it goes!  They offer a little bit less support than the Adrenaline’s.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to wear them in my run tomorrow.  It probably is not a good idea to try out a shoe for the first time on a 14 mile run.  So I will stick to my Adrenaline’s for tomorrow.  Next week I plan to work these into my life!  Very, very excited.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!!! 🙂

By the way, my Granny is doing a lot better.  She is in much better spirits & will actually be moving from the hospital to a rehab center tomorrow.  She is kind of nervous because she feels that she can’t do a lot of things on her own.  She feels comfortable in the hospital with their support and she will be getting less support at the rehab center.  Let’s just hope things keep looking up for her.  Thanks again for everyone’s kind comments!

-Mary

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