Ski-wee Herman

Trader Joe's continues to impress me.  Last time I was there I found this "European Style" yogurt and thought I'd give it a try.  I haven't been able to get enough of yogurt lately (for breakfast, for snacks, for dessert) and when I studied abroad, I absolutely loved the yogurt in France, so the European description definitely appealed to me.  And it didn't disappoint - I will definitely be getting this yogurt again.

Sometimes when it's so hot, I just don't have a big appetite.  Or I'm just too lazy to chew.  Either way, smoothies for lunch are great options when that happens.  

This smoothie was SOOO good.  It had 1 cup of milk, 1 T chia seeds, 1 scoop of vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, 1 T natural peanut butter, rainbow chard, 2 small peaches, strawberries, cherries, and a frozen banana (plus some ice cubes).  I cut the peaches over the blender so that the juice would drip right into my smoothie - they were too good to waste a drop!  The smoothie was super tasty, and I felt good that I was able to sneak some greens in there without it affecting the flavor at all.  

It didn't even all fit in that huge cup!  I had some leftover which I put in the fridge - I'd never done that before because I was afraid the texture would be ruined, but that wasn't the case at all.  It still tasted good the next day!

I put my ice cream maker to use again - this time making classic vanilla bean ice cream.  My dad said it was probably the best ice cream he's ever had - I'll take it!  

With some fresh cherries on top... swoon.  Perfection.

Another delicious way to enjoy vanilla ice cream: in float form!  I used Zevia root beer, which is sweetened with stevia and doesn't have any calories.  I also love the black cherry soda and ginger ale - they're all yummy, and I think they're much better than diet soda or regular soda.  My grandma used to make me root beer floats pretty much every time I went over to her house, so this took me back.

You know what's great?  Getting a freshly baked cookie at work!  :)

You know what else is great?  Fun summer activities with family.  My family and I didn't get to go on our usual summer vacation this year, so we did a few local things together as a family.  We went to an Indians game, and had awesome seats.

And I didn't get to see any fireworks on the 4th of July, so I was excited for the fireworks show after the game!

We also went to a water ski show.  I am completely in awe of these skiers - how amazing are they??  This was a father-daughter team.  Unfortunately I couldn't convince my dad to try this with me.  Ha!  I would never be able to do that.  

One of the fearless, daredevil skiers was called "Ski-wee Herman," like Pee-wee Herman - it only took me about halfway through the show to put that together, haha.

Check out this FOUR tier pyramid.  What?!  Insane.  I can barely stand up on a pair of water skis and make it around the lake once.  I am totally blown away by these talented skiers.

Now for a critter update - check out this hummingbird!  It got trapped in our screened-in porch so my dad and I propped the doors open and it flew out, but it must have been really tired because it just sat on the top of this door for quite awhile.  

Can you see me in that reflection?  I had to stand on my tip toes and reach way up to try to get a better view.

And check this out - my dad actually got to hold the hummingbird.  Crazy!!!  The hummingbird eventually flew away and seemed okay.  We've seen quite a few buzzing by and eating at the feeder since then, and I think he's one of them.

Oh hey little buddy!  I looked out of my bedroom window to find this deer walking up the creek.  Look at his cute little antlers!

In other news, I'm still working on painting my table and chairs.  It's a long process, but I'm making progress.  

Are you still reading?  Sorry, I know this is a long post.  If you are, you should go here and enter Gena's juicer giveaway!

Song of the day:

"Heartbeat" by JJAMZ.  I posted another JJAMZ song before ("Never Enough" - also my inspiration for the title of my last post) and now that their full album is out, I can officially declare Suicide Pact as my favorite album of the summer, and possibly the year.  I'd definitely encourage you to check it out!

Shake Your Cocoa-nuts

Hey guys, how's it going?  Once again, it's been awhile since I've blogged, so I've got a few things to catch up on here.  First a delicious new discovery:

My mom picked up this huge container of cocoa-roasted almonds at Sam's Club this past week, and they're SO delicious.  Except...

...we realized there's sucralose in them, which is basically Splenda.  Boo.  I've really tried to eliminate fake sweeteners from my diet.  But that doesn't mean I haven't still enjoyed a small handful of these here and there.  

When I've got the time, I really enjoy putting some extra effort into brunch for myself on the weekend.  This past weekend was no exception.

Scrambled eggs with spinach and topped with Trader Joe's salsa, an amazing bowl of berries, and a frothy cup of coffee.  Perfection.  Do you like my Peter Rabbit bowl?  Haha.  

I've been able to start working out again since my feet have pretty much healed (thank goodness), so after a workout this past week I brought back the long-lost protein smoothie.

It had 1 cup skim milk, 1 T ground flax seed, 1 T natural peanut butter, 1 scoop vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, organic spinach from the farmers' market, and 1 frozen banana.  Yum!

Along with my summer-y drink, I've been able to enjoy some summer-y activities lately, too.  I love having a break from school!

I went to a wine festival at a local winery with some friends last week, and it was so fun to spend time and catch up with them, and to taste some local wines.

And I got to go to a concert at my favorite concert venue!

Even though it wasn't a very sunny day, we spent some time boating this past weekend, too.

This is the crib, which is the main intake for the Cleveland water supply.  

Other than that, I've started on a little project.  Well, a not-so-little project, actually.  I'm going to paint my kitchen table and chairs black, but it's quite a long process!  I'm documenting it and will share the steps after I'm finished, assuming it all turns out okay.  Here's the before shot!

So that's what I've been up to.  What about you guys?

Oh, and I refuse to accept that I don't live in a tropical area - I'm trying to grow some avocado trees.  I actually grew an avocado tree for a few years but it recently withered away, so I'm determined to try again.

Song of the day:

"Free Energy" by Free Energy.  This is the band I saw last week - so much fun live!

Gimp Life

Bonjour mes amis.  How are you doing?

I spent a wonderful Sunday afternoon boating with my family, but it ended in injury.

Injury of the lamest variety.  I forgot my shoes on the boat when we were taking it out of the water, but I figured I would just hop in the car when my dad stopped at the top of the ramp before driving to a spot in the parking lot to clean up the boat.  Except... my dad didn't stop at the top of the ramp.

So I thought, no big deal, I'll just walk barefoot to the car.  I was mostly grossed out because it was not a very clean parking lot, to say the least, so I tried to hurry to avoid the grime and the hot blacktop.  This turned out to be a terrible decision, though, because I ended up burning my feet.  I developed 2 HUGE blisters on the balls of both of my feet  Seriously, grossly, shockingly huge.  I've had trouble getting around since Sunday and have had to hobble on the sides of my feet.  I can't even drive.  And I may have crawled up the stairs a few times... and scooted down them :)  Yep, pretty pathetic, right?

It doesn't hurt, it's just really annoying.  I don't like not being able to move around as much as I want!  I've never been laid up with an injury before (knock on wood), and as minor as this is, I'm anxious for the blisters to go down so I can walk normally again.  And Gina at the Fitnessista started her Summer Shape Up on Monday and I haven't been able to participate :(  As soon as I can get moving again I'm going to join, though!

Adding insult to injury, today I received a couple of new workout DVDs that I bought from Groupon, and I really want to try them out!

Source

The Fitnessista is a big fan of Shaun T, so I jumped at the chance to try some of his workouts (and couldn't pass up a good deal, per usual).  Has anyone else tried these DVDs, or any other Shaun T workouts?  (I still need to do a final review of the Physique 57 DVDs, too - soon, I promise!)

So that's pretty much what I've been doing.  Sitting around.  And sitting some more.  I did make myself a delicious smoothie after work today.  I named it the choco-nana-nut.  Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?  :)

It had 1 cup almond milk, 1 T natural peanut butter (Trader Joe's brand - very smooth and delicious!), 1 large frozen banana, and 2 T Ovaltine.  I just happened to see a huge tub of Ovaltine in the kitchen cupboard and it made me nostalgic for my youth - I used to have a big glass of Ovaltine after school almost every day - so I decided to throw some in for old time's sake.  You could also use cocoa powder or carob powder instead.

I went to the farmers' market over the weekend (finally) and got a nice big bunch of kale.  I'm planning to make a massaged kale salad, and maybe try sautéing some of it?  We shall see.

PS If you are like me and enjoy seeing weird skin things (but not blood! eek!), scroll down past the song of the day for some lovely pictures of my blisters.  But please stop reading now if you wish to save your eyeballs from the horror.

Song of the day:

"Hold On" by Alabama Shakes.  I'm obsessed with this song right now - there's something so primal about it.  In a good way.  I had no idea the lead singer was a woman until I looked up this music video.  I bet this band would put on an awesome show!

Okay seriously, stop reading if you don't want to see gross pictures.


Really.


Okay, ready?

Left foot.

Right foot.

Right foot again.

So there you have it.  Don't walk on blacktop in your bare feet.  You've been warned.

Bad Blogger

I've been a very bad blogger.  I don't feel like I really have a lot going on, but all of my days have been absolutely packed.  I've been taking a few pictures here and there, though, so I'll use them to share what I've been up to.

First things first - I've successfully woken up in time to do 6AM workouts 3 times since I last posted.  Luckily I just stumble blearily down to the basement, so I don't have to worry about my bangs sticking up everywhere.  Although I don't love waking up that early, I am always so happy to get my workout in first thing in the morning; if I wait to exercise after work, something else almost always comes up and I don't get around to it.

I'll write more about the Physique 57 DVDs once I've done them a few more times, but so far I'm a fan!  I've done the classic 57-minute DVD twice and the 30-minute ab and arm booster DVD once.  The workouts are definitely tough and I struggled to get through a few of the exercises - mainly the ab routine!  After I did the classic DVD for the first time, I could really feel it the next day in my booty and my lower abs <-- good signs!  I particularly like incorporating the ball into the workouts - I could really feel the burn in my inner thighs, which is great since that area is typically difficult to target.  And the ball also greatly increases the effectiveness of the ab exercises, from what I can tell (as evidenced by my extreme shaking, haha).  So far so good!

Check out these beautiful flowers which greet me when I go to work:

I still need to work on improving my lunches - this is basically what I've been eating every day (apple, carrots, bell pepper, sugar snap peas, Larabar).  Tasty, but I could use some more variety and creativity.

Someone wants to share my lunch.

I've been mooching off my parents so far, but today I finally stopped at TJ's to get some food of my own.  Hopefully that'll help me to mix things up a bit.

My haul:

Brown rice cakes, seaweed snacks (excited to try these for the first time), beer for a Memorial Day party, spinach, steamed lentils, Greek yogurt (it's been too long! Can't wait to dig into this container), sunflower seed butter, raw unsalted almond butter, natural peanut butter, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, salsa, cherry and cashew cookie Larabars, B vitamins, white bean basil hummus (sounds interesting - can't wait to try it), dry roasted unsalted pistachios (I haven't had pistachios in SO long, very excited for these), sweet potatoes, and a baguette to go with bruschetta that I'm planning to make for the Memorial Day party.  Oh and there are some medjool dates hiding somewhere in there, too.  There have been so many desserts and treats around lately and I've been over-indulging, so my plan is to snack on a medjool date to satisfy some of my cravings for sweets.

I think Barbie was out shopping while I was at TJ's.  See that bubblegum pink Mercedes convertible?

A new favorite snack of mine:

Whole wheat bread with peanut butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and some granola that my sister made.

I had a coffee date at my favorite local coffee shop (Angel Falls) with my BFF who was in town from DC.  I got a cortado, which is 6 oz. of milk with 2 shots of espresso.  Bzzzz.

I brought some work with me to do after my friend left.

More coffee today.  It wasn't actually 95* out, but that's what my car was reading when I first got in.  Great day for iced coffee!

Plus a chocolate cookie with walnuts (both from Panera).  About those medjool dates to satisfy my sweet tooth...

Other happenings include a day at the racetrack.

The muscle cars were my favorite.

But the semi with a jet engine was pretty cool, too :)

I got a little overzealous with my library holds.  Lots to read/ watch/ listen to!

Last but not least, did  you know that wiper blades don't come in pairs?  You have to buy two separate packages.  Mmhmm, I didn't know that.  Also, I decided which brand to get based on the packaging.  (Bosch won, clearly.)  That's logical, right?  I'm such a sucker for marketing/ good design.

And I think I'm all caught up now.  Hope you enjoyed that hodgepodge of random stuff.  Oh, one more thing - I've already worn my new maxi dress twice and have gotten compliments each time.  Success!  So if you've been hesitant to try one on, I say go for it!  It's super comfy, and looks very chic, in my opinion.  I mean, come on, doesn't a floor-length dress make you feel fancy?  I've already got plans to wear mine again this weekend, haha.

Off to tackle a million and one things on my to-do list.  See ya later!

Song of the day:

"Beekeeper's Daughter" by the All-American Rejects.  I know, I know, but I had to.  I have a soft spot for AAR (I get nostalgic every time I hear any song from their debut album - it instantly takes me back to summertime in high school, driving around with my best friends, singing along with the windows down).  I got to meet the band one time at Warped Tour (yup, I definitely thought Warped Tour was the coolest thing ever when I was in my wannabe-punk stage) - the guys had a signing tent - and I can assure you that Tyson Ritter is just as beautiful in person.

I even got a picture with Tyson <-- prized possession, haha.