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.

Getting Back in the Kitchen

I finally spent some quality time in the kitchen making delicious food - it had been too long since I had done much more than put together bowls of yogurt and salads.

First up:  guacamole!

I had a perfectly ripe avocado, to which I added some chopped red bell pepper, a diced onion, about a tablespoon of lime juice, a sprinkle of cayenne, and a dash of salt.  So good!

I snacked on the guacamole as I made my main course - pizza!  I followed this recipe, using 2 cups white whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup regular all-purpose flour, sans rosemary.

I topped it with some homemade pesto.  When I make pesto for myself, I just eyeball the ingredients depending on how much basil I have on hand.  I added basil, skim milk, olive oil, parmesan cheese, walnuts, salt, and pepper to a food processor and voila, pesto!  I had a pineapple begging to be cut up and enjoyed, so I decided to put some fresh pineapple on my pizza.

I was excited to use my mom's pizza stone this time, and it definitely made the bottom of the crust turn out softer and tastier.  I baked this at 500* for about 12 - 14 minutes.

After dinner, I had one thing in mind:  Mama Pea's hot apple pie smoothie!

I used an apple (which I didn't peel, even though I used a normal blender and not a high-speed one, and it turned out fine - I can't stand wasting that super nutritious apple peel!), cottage cheese, skim milk, almond butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey (I didn't have maple syrup or stevia), salt, and 10 ice cubes.  I left out the protein powder since this was an after-dinner treat, but I would have added it if I were eating this after a workout or as a meal.

This morning I kept the momentum going and prepared a delicious brunch:

I had a fried egg sandwich, fresh fruit, and a cappuccino.  SO good.  For the egg sandwich, I toasted whole wheat sandwich thins, spread some leftover guacamole on one half, and added a fried egg (cooked in a bit of olive oil).

I had some more fresh pineapple, along with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.  Summer fruit is the best!!

I also made myself a cappuccino by heating up 6 oz. of skim milk in the microwave, using my little frother to whip it up, and then adding it to 2 shots of espresso which I used my dad's coffee machine to make.

It definitely felt nice to get back in the kitchen and spend some time preparing good food.  Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Song of the day:

"Shadow Days" by John Mayer, off his new album Born and Raised.  I heard a radio interview with John Mayer recently, and I didn't realize that he had been off the scene for about 2 years.  Apparently he gave a couple of scandalous interviews and received a lot of criticism, so he had been lying low.  I did hear a radio DJ (on a college station) pronounce his name as John My-er instead of May-er recently, so maybe he totally fell off of some people's radars, haha.

Rocket Man

I started off my day with Amanda Russell's 4-minute morning workout - 1 day down, 20 days to go of the challenge!  I rolled out of bed and did it right away, PJs and all.  It was kind of funny to hear my joints cracking and popping - I think I'm creakier than the average 24-year-old because one time I got off the couch and my grandma asked if I was the one making all of those noises, haha.  Despite my protesting joints, I got through the workout and even did the headstand!  Up against a wall, but still, I was surprised I could do that.  Mayyyybe I'll work up to doing one without the wall.  Maybe.  I hate being upside down and get a little panicky, though, so maybe not :)

I think starting the day out with a little exercise is great for many reasons - it sets a precedent for making healthy choices the rest of the day, and it can spur you to work out more later (today I hit the gym for some cardio on the elliptical, rowing machine, and stair master), or if you don't get a full workout in later, at least you did something!  Even if it's only 4 minutes, it's better than nothing.

I'm also trying to do Angela's salad-a-day challenge.  I decided to use a LivingSocial my parents got me for Easter and checked out Tropical Smoothie Cafe.  I got the "Smoothie and a Half" deal (a smoothie and half a salad) - I chose the Triple Berry Oat smoothie (strawberries, blueberries, cranberry, multi-vitamin, ground flax seed, whole grain oats, whey protein - and I asked for it without Splenda) and a Southwest Chicken salad (romaine, field greens, chicken, southwestern rice with corn, black beans, and asparagus, tomatoes, onions, salsa, and guacamole - I asked for it without the ranch dressing).

The smoothie was HUGE and very good, and I was excited that they had ground flax seed.  The salad was really good, too, although I don't think it actually had an asparagus in it.  It definitely didn't need the dressing since it already had guacamole and salsa on it.

So I saw something very strange when I was driving today.

The license plate said something to the effect of "A Rocket."

I was really shocked when I saw this thing drive up next to me.  Is that even allowed to be on the road??

I can't decide what it looks like.  Kind of like a plane without wings/ a ride at the fair?  And I'm pretty sure that guy should be wearing a helmet.

It might have even been stranger than the time I saw a gigantic pair of legs being transported on a semi.

I have no idea what that was for, but I really hope it was some wealthy man commissioning a statue of his wife, haha.

And then when I pulled into my parents' driveway, I was greeted by this guy:

AHHH!  I hate snakes.  I drove past it and then realized what it was, so I stopped to be sure, but kept my distance.  Between the deer and snapping turtle, and now a snake, I'm having lots of wildlife encounters lately.

I'm off to meet my friend for dinner and a movie tonight - enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Song of the day:

"California" by Delta Spirit.  I just started listening to this band and I'm really liking their music so far.