Tag Archives: breakfast

You Have a Brownie? In A Bar?

Posted on by
11

Goooood Morning! :-)

Hope your Tuesday is going well! Any extra rest I got by relaxing this weekend is no where to be seen. I hit snooze about 3 times this morning and still feel a bit like a zombie.

Cup o’ joe #2 is upon us. In a big way. My office has started to stock unsweetened Almond Milk in the fridges which greatly improves the quality and flavor of office brewed coffee. Thank goodness.

After inhaling the delicious Baked Chicken Tenders last night, I started this morning off with a tried-and-true breakfast staple.

Can you guess?

It just doesn't get old.

  • 1 C 1% Milk
  • Frozen strawberries
  • Frozen Blueberries
  • Scoop Vanilla Elite Whey Protein Powder
  • Handful of organic spinach

 

Fills me up all morning, and packs 3 servings of fruits (strawberries and blueberries) and veggies (organic spinach). I’m considering adding coffee to it tomorrow as an extra wake-the-heck-up sucker punch.

**********

My Marathon Training Guide (guess who figured out how to use Google Docs??) has this on the agenda for today:

3 m run

I’m adding in 30 minutes of resistance training (today in the form of TRX) to get a well-rounded workout, and because it seems that Tues/Thurs are low mileage days for a while as far as running is concerned, I’m hoping to add in weights/resistance training on those days to stay strong.

(And because all of you who have commented have told me how much weights, conditioning and strength training helps with marathon training!) :-)

I really like that the marathon training is starting off “slow” (relatively speaking!) and the first month and a half is all mileage I’ve seen before and am comfortable with.

Once that first 14-miler long run hits … you can bet I’ll be singing a different tune.

I was scrounging for a pre-workout snack to bring to work with me this morning and I discovered an all-natural protein bar sitting in the back of the pantry that, quite frankly, just blew Lara Bar out of the water. (I may not be a convert afterall!)

The Pure Organic Chocolate Brownie Bar.

"When healthy, met brownie"

I’m not going to lie to you all and say it tastes exactly like a normal brownie but healthier. Because it doesn’t. You can’t achieve chocolatey, chewy, perfect brownie taste in a bar, it’s not possible.

That being said, this bar come darn close. It was delicious, didn’t taste fake or like it had a ton of crap in it, and the walnuts took it up a few notches. Even better? They sell them at Trader Joes!

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE PURE BAR INGREDIENTS: Organic dates, organic walnuts, organic agave nectar, organic almonds, organic cashews, organic brown rice protein, organic cocoa.

Certified organic, gluten-free, raw, and vegan.

Sign me up. I’m sold! :-)

 

What’s your all-time favorite protein (or non protein) bar?

How do you psyche yourself up for the loooong marathon training runs?

Are you a bigger Blair or Serena fan?

I’m a HUGE Blair fan… I can’t deal with Serena’s wishy-washiness and the way she talks like she has rocks in her mouth.

 

 

 

Weekend Scramble

Posted on by
6

Gooood morning! (Well, afternoon now!)

After I fell asleep at 10pm on the couch last night, we slept in until around 10:30 this morning and I woke up feeling completely refreshed and rested – probably the same way Lindsay Lohan felt this morning after her sober night out. 

We also woke up with ~4 mosquito bites each (mine being on my face…. great placement. Hello Cortaid!)

Today’s workout may happen later, or it may be my rest day of the weekend (the latter is looking more likely). All I do know is that I’m more than a little happy I ran those 6 miles yesterday and got it out of the way! (Even if I almost died of boredom on the dreadmill. Next time wind resistance > treadmill boredom!)

Breakfast

Neither of us realllly were in the mood to cook so we went with an easy weekend breakfast!

Rotisserie Chicken, Mozzarella, and Paprika Scramble with Hemp Bagels!

Boyfriend makes the most delicious scrambled eggs I’ve ever had, so he was on cooking duty this morning :)

As an appetizer… we munched on some Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies! They’re just so darn good.

Adding the extra chocolate chips was an excellent decision.

I’ve talked about these Hemp Bagels before but I can’t say enough about them!

19 grams of protein each (we split the last one we had left), ~270 calories, and they taste like sprouted wheat sourdough – with LOTS of seeds! I highly recommend. We found them in the freezer section at Whole Foods. They’re also Vegan!

Perfection.

We’re off to run some errands and enjoy a relaxing Saturday! Hope yours is going well! :-)

What’s your favorite weekend breakfast??

While I love the occasional french toast, pancakes, or waffles, egg scrambles and bagels with goat cheese take the cake!

What do you have planned for this weekend?

Not much over here! We were go-go-go last weekend so we’re planning on relaxing, grabbing a couple drinks this evening, and doing a little shopping tomorrow!

Spice Up Your Life

Posted on by
4

Not only did I own the CD, I also owned the movie. On VHS. One step further? I still have (multiple) Spice Girls songs on my running playlists. Nope, still not embarrassed.

 

 

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

The 2nd happiest day of the week (Saturday taking top-billing here), is finally upon us.

The sun even decided to show up today… it’s like it knows the significance of its presence over a weekend.

Breakfast

Would it shock any of you to hear that I inhaled a smoothie (surprise surprise) as usual today?

I swear I had good intentions to turn some leftover quinoa into “oatmeal” and add some delicious toppings. But, as usual – the promise of fruits, veggies, protein, and the general deliciousness of the smoothie, won out.

  • 1 c 1% Milk
  • Heaping scoop vanilla Elite whey protein powder
  • Handful spinach
  • Frozen strawberries
  • Frozen blueberries
  • Cinnamon
I swear the cinnamon makes all the difference.
Did you know aside from being my most favorite spice on this planet it has some surprising health benefits?
  • Studies have shown that just 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon per day can lower LDL cholesterol.
  • Cinnamon may have a regulatory effect on blood sugar
  • Cinnamon has an anti-clotting effect on the blood
  • When added to food, it inhibits bacterial growth and food spoilage, making it a natural food preservative.
  • It is a great source of manganese, fiber, iron, and calcium.

My favorite things to put cinnamon in/on? Sliced apples, oatmeal, smoothies, PB Sandwiches, cookies, breads, pancakes, french toast, waffles, and…. well ok almost anything really! :)

Including these:

Workout

Since I totally neglected to share last night’s workout… I decided that since my quads were as useless as Hugh Hefner’s Ex that a long power walk to the Golden Gate Bridge and back with my lovely friend Lexi was in order. Overall we covered ~6 miles, had some great girltalk time, and my legs feel good as new this morning!

Sometimes backing off and slowing down is just what you need.

 

With that, I’m off to meet boyfriend for lunch! Apparently lunch dates and myself are likethis these days!

 

What’s your favorite spice?

What’s on your playlist that you’re not even a little bit embarrassed about?

(I have Bieber, Glee, Taylor Swift… you name it, I have it!)

Peanut Butter Breakfast

Posted on by
9

While visions of cookie dough rolls danced in my head, I slept like a solid rock last night.

Which didn’t make getting up to my alarm (I hit snooze 3 times) any easier this morning!

What did brighten my 60 degree, foggy, cloudy, and slightly misty (really SF? really?) morning?

Oats In A Jar

Step 1: Eat a jar of Peanut Butter (over time… or all at once. There are no judgements here).

Step 2: Save said empty jar of PB.

Step 3: Cook oats like you normally would (we used SteelCut oats and made a huge batch, the long and slow way (boiling/simmering for 25 minutes) and added some brown sugar, honey and a bit of butter to flavor.

Step 4: Put oats in empty PB jar – let sit overnight in refrigerator (I waited for them to cool down since I have an intense phobia to putting hot things in plastic… (all kinds of thoughts of it melting the plastic and me eating it happen)

Step 5: Top with fruit and/or granola, etc(I topped mine with a Banana) and enjoy!

Step 6: Scrape the PB jar clean until nothing remains. (Optional step that I obviously took full advantage of. The picture below is before I really got creative in getting every single morsel of PB out of that darn jar. Multiple utensils were involved.)

 

A (free!) sugar-free vanilla (1 pump) nonfat latte from Peet’s went alongside the oats.

 

Somehow my mom gets hooked up with these little beauties every time she goes into Peets… and then passes them on to her loving, living-on-a-budget daughter. Thanks Mom! :)

 

Now that all of that caffeine and peanut butter has been consumed, it’s time to get some work done!

Hope you have a great Wednesday! (We’re half-way there!) :-)

Monday Monday

Posted on by
6

Gooood Morning!

Hope your wake-up wasn’t as difficult as mine was! (To the point that I didn’t even hear the alarm going off until it was in full swing for about 5 minutes). Apparently, I was exhausted.

If you missed any of this whirlwind weekend’s posts, you can check ‘em out here:

Bridal Shower!

Lou Seal

Birthday Booze Cruise

I woke up starving this morning and in the mood for some fruits, veggies and filling protein (powder).

Obviously even in the cloud, fog and cold weather, a smoothie made the cut.

Green Monster Sludge

  • 1 C 1% milk
  • Whole Foods Frozen Mixed Berry Concoction (I would have looked at the label to see what it was comprised of but since I don’t even remember making my smoothie I was so tired, that clearly didn’t happen)
  • 1 Scoop Elite Vanilla Protein Powder (I finally looked at the brand that boyfriend buys! If you like Whey Protein, this stuff is TASTY.)
  • Agave Nectar
  • Couple shakes of cinnamon
  • Large handful of spinach

Hit the spot. I chugged it the instant I got to work.

Speaking of protein powder, I’ve been so very intrigued by all the positive reviews for SunWarrior Protein Powder, and today the stars aligned.

I don’t have any chocolate protein powder (I’ve been making “chocolate” protein shakes with Vanilla Protein and cocoa powder) and Gina is doing an amazing promotion for it via Open Sky.

So I bit the bullet, took the sale price, and it will be delivered shortly.

 

I’ve only ever used Whey Protein so I’m both skeptical and excited to try this “Raw, Vegan” protein powder.

Some benefits?

  • Made with 80% protein, Sunwarrior has the Highest (non soy) raw (Not Heated over 90 Degrees) whole grain sprouted vegan protein on the market.
  • Highest Net Protein Utilization score of any vegetable based protein and the highest ratio of amino acids converted to proteins.
  • Sunwarrior is created with a Low Temperature natural Enzyme process that does not use any chemicals or acid hydrolysis (like most proteins do).

I’ve heard nothing (seriously, nothing) but rave reviews about Sun Warriors and when the price is right… well we all know I have no problems rationalizing purchases. ;-)

Just like Kimmy K has no problem crashing her fiance’s bachelor party while she was having her own at the club next door.

With that, it’s time to close some deals and take some names… see you after lunch!

Are you an impulse shopper or do you think/research things through?

Are you a sucker for a good deal?

I used to be an impulse shopper but now I’m really, really trying to think things through and research before making purchases. If it’s something I already want, and it magically and miraculously is on sale, I love finding a great deal!