Monday, September 26, 2011

Starting Over...Again

Well I have not posted since last Wednesday....not good. But I have been not feeling well. I still have this nasty cold that is hanging on and will not go away. I also quit my job. Well...because it was awful. I was just not happy and it just was not the right place for me. You just cannot be a teacher and a custodian at the same time. You can't have control of your classroom and plan activities if you are having to clean the bathrooms and mop the floors while the children are in school. It just isn't right. I have no idea why this daycare dose not hire a custodial staff to come in after the day is over to clean. Many of the other teachers their also expressed their opinions to me about this, and I just don't think it is right to have your staff doing all that work on top of the work they are already doing. Now I am starting fresh and going to get on the sub list and I am going to be happy!

I have several photos of my breakfasts for the past few days...it has been pretty much the same thing. I have been forgeting to take pictures also. But I don't feel too hot and I have been drinking tons of tea! I love tea!

Fridays Breakfast my last day at my yucky job! yay!

Fage 0% with chia, coconut, honey and banana with a glass of apple cider
I am so glad to be done with my job. I know I made the right choice and the cool thing is that everyone supported my decision. Your job should be something you want to do not something that makes you cry when you come home from a long day.

Saturday morning breakfast. Fage 0%, with honey, chia, granola, coconut and banana! Yum.

I loved the message on my tea bag. I got up a bit earlier than Justin because I couldn't breathe because my nose was so stuffed up, so I let him sleep.

Some Emergen-C on the side.
Saturday we watched the PSU game and then I wanted to get out of the apartment for a bit so we went to Lowes to get stuff to make shelves in out nook in the bathroom! Justin has put them up I will put pictures in the next post. We also went in Pier 1 I love that store I want to get everything in it! I got to placemats a really awesome decorative pillow for $7!!! I also got these cool wall clings to make our lving room at bit more colorful! Take a look!
Isn't the pillow pretty (the one in the middle) it was such a good buy! And I love the wall art!
I also got some books from Book-a-million they had a bunch of good reads for $3.95 each and you buy 2 get one free! Lots of reading! I am reading the new National bestseller One Day. So I will have to let you know how it is!

Lunch today...it looks good but it actually really wasn't so I ended up throwing it out...bleh.

A Lean Cuisine Steamer...not buying them again.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Feeling better :)

Today I woke up feeling a bit better I think I will still need some NyQuil to help me sleep because of my stuffy nose but other than that I feel much better.

For Breakfast my toasted oatmeal with a dallop of Fage 0% with honey and chia seeds. I decided I will not eat it like this again because my oats were warm and it made the yogurt warm...bleh. Nice time I can try it with cold oats...might like that better. But it wasn't too bad.
I just love oats for breakfast!

I had Dutchess Grey Tea from Trader Joes! It is a lovely take on earl grey. :)
Today was the Trikathon (kids bring trikes to ride to raise money for St. Judes Hospital) at work, and I hurt finger catching a child from falling. I bent back my nail to the quick...ouch!!!! IT was bleeding and hurt pretty bad. But I got off work early after the trikathon and take down of all the racing flags. I got to leave at 12 pm. I went and met Justin for lunch at Panera we packed our lunches but I bought us both frozen mocha's for a surprise! :) I went to go get lettuce for tonight's dinner, and some Miracle Whip! Then I came home called some people about getting on the sub list and requirements. Then I took a nap, that is the best thing to do when you are sick. I felt much better.

For dinner I made BLTs I love them! It was fast easy and a nice and light dinner.
so yummy!! and hardly any dishes to clean up!

Justin had a Great Lakes Imperial Red Ale I tasted it and it was too bitter for me. I had a Sam Adams Octoberfest which is right up my alley! Lots of body and tastiness!

Season primer of CSI is on tonight! I am going to go watch! Then it is off to bed!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Glorious Morning Muffins!


Yesterday I felt like baking and I found this yummy recipe off of the back of the Gold Medal Flour package so I decided to make these Glorious Morning Muffins and I am sure glad that I did, because they are delicious!

The cool thing was I also looked up the recipe online and my muffins look exactly like the picture from the Gold Medal Flour website! :) score! So here is the recipe.

Glorious Morning Muffins

2
eggs
3/4
cup vegetable oil
1/4
cup milk
2
teaspoons vanilla
1
cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1
cup Gold Medal® whole wheat flour
1
cup packed brown sugar
2
teaspoons baking soda
2
teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2
teaspoon salt
1 1/2
cups shredded carrots (2 to 3 medium)
1
cup shredded peeled apple
1/2
cup coconut
1/2
cup raisins
3/4
cup sliced almonds
  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 18 regular-size muffin cups or grease with shortening. In large bowl, beat eggs, oil, milk and vanilla with wire whisk until well blended. Add flours, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. With spoon, stir in carrots, apple, coconut, raisins and 1/2 cup of the almonds.
  2. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup almonds over batter.
  3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from muffin cups.
Makes 18 muffins 
 
 
 
The only thing I added in the recipe was 2 tbsp of ground flax with blueberry from Trader Joe's. I thought it would be good, but to be honest these are packed with so many other flavors you can't taste the flax at all.
These muffin are super moist with all the apple, raisins, and carrots. They are so tasty and I love eating one with a hot cup of tea. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Shredding all the carrots and apple seemed like a lot of work but it is worth it!

Unfortunately today I am not feeling to hot I have an awful sore throat and stuffy nose, I think I am getting a cold. I couldn't talk very much yesterday because it hurt. My mom called me and I couldn't call her back to talk because it just hurt so bad. Sorry mom :( So I will be going to bed early tonight.

I decided to make a big batch of toasted oatmeal, it is made a different way than other oats, and it is soo good and chewy! I will have to post about how I make it another time, I was told this way to make it by one of my friends who is a nutritionist and she doesn't like mushy cereal. It is very tasty!
Toasted oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins, and a drizzle of honey. Good Earth Original tea, and a Glorious Morning Muffin!
Yum! I made a big batch so I get to eat it tomorrow again! Like these cute ramekins they were $1.30 at our grocery store. I got 2. I like to eat out of colorful dishes and they make nice pictures!

Work today was rough because I wasn't feeling to great, ugh and I have a feeling tomorrow isn't going to be that great. Tomorrow is Team Trivia with our friends here but I don't know if I am going to be able to go, not if I feel this sick ugh. For dinner tonight I just wanted soup because it was such a gloomy and rainy day. This soup was good but I kinda wished we he chiken noodle, but I would love to have this soup again!
It ending up being a lot of food, very filling. We made semi-homemade bruschetta!
The soup is one of Bertolli's Meal Soup meals for 2.

Tomato Florentine & Tortellini with Chicken


Justin made our semi-homemade roasted red pepper bruschetta, he baked the crostinis  brushed with olive oil, garlic and a sprinkle of parm. cheese. I mixed the semi-homemade mixture. Some feta that was in oil with olives, mixed with the roasted red pepper bottled bruschetta. It made it 10 times better!
Well I need to go take some medicine and then get to bed, and I hope for a good nights sleep because I didn't have one last night. Sniff sniff. Goodnight!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Tring to be Thankful

My job has been taking quite a bit out of me. It is not what I was expecting and I don't particularly like it very much. But I am going to stick with it. I have very long hours which make it hard for me to keep up with my posts. My first long day I came home and cried. I felt like I had been hit by a truck all my muscles hurt and it was just a stressful  day. Some of the kids are so sweet but some are just delibaratly naughty even when they know what their doing in wrong. Many are oppositionally defiant. You ask them to clean up and they run and hide and even when you bring them back to clean up their mess they just stand there and refuse to. And the consequences of a 'time out' don't even seem to phase some children, like they could care less. To be honest this behavior is a bit shocking to me, and I haven't witnessed it very much, but I have seen it in a lot of the children at my job. I pray that I will have patience because I know with this job I will need it.

I am enjoying the weekend, even though it seems to go by to quickly. During the week I am still able to snap a quick picture or two of my breakfast before I eat it! So here are some pictures from this week and weekend.

Thursday morning breakfast overnight oats, I made it with vanilla Chobani and vanilla soy milk. Toppings: walnuts, coconuts, chia seeds mixed in, and PB.

This breakfast did not taste that great, the vanilla yogurt overpowered everything and it was pretty bland, I am going to try some recipes with out the yogurt.

Friday breakfast Chocolate overnight oats that I heated up in the microwave! This was a great recipe. No yogurt. for overnight I combined 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup chocolate unsweetened almond milk, 2 tbsp chia seeds, and the sweet secret a packet of diet Swiss miss cocoa mixed in! Amazing results. oh and half a banana! It makes a huge amount of oats. I couldn't eat it all though I wish I could have. I will have to make less next time.

On top raspberries, coconut, cinnamon swirl PB, and Yogi green tea

Today's breakfast, we didn't realize we only had 2 eggs so our omelets were more veggies than eggs. with 2 links of morning star sausage. Like our mugs! They were a wedding gift!

For tea we are having Good Earth Original, which is now Justin's new favorite tea! I always introduce him to the good stuff. This tea is sweet without sugar and spicy, sooo good!

Justin bought me flowers on Friday, since I had such a rough week. It was such a nice surprise, he is wonderful! I put them on our new Lenox crystal vase, so pretty.

I love roses! These mini ones are too cute!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

First Day of Work

Today was my first day at my new job. I was pretty good. Things are just done a whole lot differently than they were at my last job. The children are so sweet and they seemed to really like me a lot and remembered my name very quickly. Today I was with the PreK class that was mostly 4/5 year olds. The teachers in the classroom are super nice and gave me the low down on what daily things I would be doing, since I am a floater teacher. I am so tired and I don't think I really did that much today but I guess I was nervous too which can cause a bit of stress. There is so much more to tell about my day, but I don't have the energy to type it all out, even though I would really like to, it would probably just bore everyone that reads this blog! haha

I am so glad I had a filling breakfast because, I didn't get to eat my lunch until 2:00 pm! AHH that was crazy, the teachers eat with the children but they serve lunch and they have stuff like canned green beans, and chef boyardee ravioli, which I don't particularly want to eat....and they serve milk which I really don't drink. It was very different from anything I have experienced before, they also say grace before lunch, which I have never seen happen before in a non-christian establishment. I hope I can find a way to eat at least some of my lunch and not have to wait til 2:00 pm. You are just with the kids all the time and you aren't supposed to eat different food in front of them, but none of the children bring their own lunch...which I also thought was interesting.

But here is my hearty breakfast that I whipped up the night before! A bowl of overnight oats! Seriously, amazing because I just heat for 1 min and it warms it up and it tastes like oatmeal except a bit more yogurty... This breakfast was so good.

Tropical Overnight Oats! 1/3 cup (equal parts) of oats, silk light vanilla soy milk, pineapple chobani yogurt, I just used a whole 6 oz container of yogurt.

Mix in the night before: 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp coconut flakes (I love these bowls!)

Toppings after heating for 1 min: more chia and coconut, and spoonful of peanut butter!






I made more overnight oats for tomorrow breakfast since I have to get up at 5:30 am! ugh...So no pictures of lunch or dinner today. For dinner I just had leftovers from Team Trivia night at the Mountain State Brewing Company. I had a flat-bread pizza with artichoke and prosciutto and lots of garlic and some cheese! I was so good, and the beer wasn't bad their either. I have to remember to bring my camera when we go out to restaurants. I always forget. Time to get ready for bed already, I am tired.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Super Bored....

I am super bored today. I am glad I start work tomorrow because I don't know what the heck to do with myself. I don't want to go out to any stores, which is basically the only thing to do around here. I know if I do that I will just end up buying things I don't need. I need to find a community park or something to walk around in. I have yet to find anything like that. The morning my breakfast was nothing fancy, I didn't feel like making anything elaborate. I just had an English muffin...
and as you can tell I started to eat my breakfast before I took a picture...whoops. Oh well, I was hungry.
It has been hot in our apartment today. I have been doing laundry which makes it even hotter with the dryer running. I wrote a few thank you notes and sat out on our deck awhile. Then I watched a few episodes of Say Yes to the Dress! Having cable TV is so nice, but when I watch a lot of TV all day it makes me feel like a bum even when I am doing other things around the house.

I also did my makeup full foundation and everything, not what I wear everyday, but I definity could as a day look. I will share some photos.
oh yes full face makeup looks so good with Underarmor shirts...lol

I usually just wear a tinted moisturizer and some blush/bronzer and some cream eyeshadow and some mascara. I have eyeliner on with this but it still looks very natural...I like!
Lunch today was just leftovers from last night, so I didn't take a picture since it was on yesterdays post. Don't know what to do for dinner tonight, don't really feel like cooking, or doing much of anything. Boredom has a way of making me feel like a bum, and lethargic too...I think I wanna take a walk with hubby when he gets home.

Monday, September 12, 2011

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,

 Would you be mine?

This morning was absolutely gorgeous! Nice and cool and sunny! It is almost my favorite season!
A quick breakfast. I didn't feel like dirtying up a bowl so I just left it in the container.

Mixin's: Chia seeds, and coconut flakes.
Pretty tasty a quick breakfast with my coffee with coconut creamer, and then I went out to do my morning exercise. I am going to have to change my routine when I start working, because I am not going to have time to exercise in the mornings.
I did 3 laps around the stadium and 3 times up and down the law school steps. I am trying to push myself with running, I make it a goal to start running when I reach certain poles and then have to run until I reach another. It works well and helps me push myself. I wore my new Underarmor shirt today, it is pretty nice and keeps me cool.
I came back and took a shower, checked email, and cleaned up our apartment a bit.
The yogurt kept me full for quite a while and drinking lots of water. Go me! So when lunch time rolled around this is what I had.

La Tortilla Factory High Fiber wrap, turkey, some shredded cheese (microwave for 1 min to melt the cheese a little) then I added some cut cherry tomatoes and Sabre garlic lovers hummus, a bit of pepper ground and then wrap it all up! So filling.

Ice tea with a splash of cranberry juice and chia seeds. They turn into a slushy like gel when you soak them in liquid. It looks weird I know but it is pretty good, like a slushy gel drink, reminds me a bit of bubble tea with out the chewiness.

The maintenance people were coming by today to change the furnace filter so I left the house for awhile. I went to the strip mall with Kroger grocery store to look at some of the shops. I found a Vera Bradley store! (Justin knows that is trouble) I also went into a nice jewelry store called Joyce's the lady cleaned my rings while I looked around now my engagement ring and wedding band are all sparkly. They get dirty so quickly. They had some beautiful and quite expensive jewelry in there, but it was fun to look. I also went into Chico's and I bought a cute belt that I think will look nice with a dress or to belt a sweater. Can you tell I am excited for fall!!
Justin came home and then the Comcast guy came to hook up our cable for us. Now we have interesting shows to watch. Although I am not the biggest TV watcher. Then I made dinner! I didn't snack at all today so I was pretty hungry around 5:30 for dinner. I basically whipped up random stuff that we needed to eat up. It was a easy fast dinner, not the most healthy but nobody is perfect.

Pasta with light alfredo (by Classico), mixed veggies, light polish kielbasa with scallions and a perogie.

finished of the little bit of pasta that was in the box and the leftover kielbasa, and 3 perogies in the fridge, that needed to be cooked so they wouldn't get freezer burnt.
It was a nice day. I have tomorrow off and then Wednesday is my first day on the job. Hopefully I will still have enough energy to blog. Time to go spend some time with my sweetie!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Weekend Delight

We had a wonderful weekend with my parents back in Maryland. It was great to see them again and get to spend some quality time. Friday night Justin and I got in too late to have dinner around 8:30 pm, so we stopped on our way at the Hagerstown Outlets, we got a slice of pizza at the food court and the went to the Underarmour store! They had some great deals, Justin got 2 shirts and I got 3! I am going to wear one tomorrow for my jogging! We got home and showed my parents the wedding photos on the big screen TV. I was pretty cool to see them so big! Then it was bed time.

Saturday morning we got up and my Mom made us cheesy omelets with asiago rolls from the bakery! I didn't get to take any pictures though because my camera died and I forgot to bring the charger...fail. We lounged around for awhile and then got dressed and went to Bloomingdale's to complete our registry for our china! WE had a 20% off coupon and we were going to get maybe 3 more sets of our china pattern. (It is Alana by Waterford, so elegant) But it turned out if we signed up for a Bloomies card then we would get an extra 20% off on top of the other 20% and have free shipping! So we just went ahead and got the rest of our china! It was a really great deal. I cannot wait to use it!

After Bloomies and a few other stores we went to P.F. Chang's for lunch! I love their lettuce wraps. This is when I wished my camera had not died so I could have taken pictures. We got the chicken lettuce wraps to share and Mongolian beef and crispy honey shrimp to share for our entrees. For dessert the banana spring rolls with pinapple coconut ice cream! So Amazing!

We went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things to bring back to WV, because we dont have one here. :(
Then back home to watch the PSU vs. Alabama game. PSU was doing great in the very beginning and then it was a tough game from there, needless to say PSU lost :( boo.

It was still a great weekend! Today we went to church then we took my parents to an amazing sushi place called Rolls n' Rice for lunch/dinner! After that we packed up the car and it was time to come back home. Now, I am relaxing, posting this entry, and enjoying a Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale! Hopefully pictures tomorrow, I need to charge my camera!


Friday, September 9, 2011

Save the Fruit

For lunch today I had some a leftover enchilada and it was very delicious! We are going to be leaving this evening to drive to Maryland. My issue is that I have fruit that I know is going to go bad unless it is eaten. Justin for some reason does not like bananas so that is an issue when I buy a bunch and I am the only person that eats them, they get to ripe to quickly and I can't eat 2 bananas at a time, and really who wants to do that. We also had peaches that I cut up that were going bad. They were super ripe. I had some as a snack after my lunch but I don't think I can eat anymore. I just hate seeing food go to waste.

I guess I will just have to throw them out before we go. I could take the bananas home, I guess...Does anyone know a good way to save bananas that are already ripe but you can eat them right away? I have put them in the fridge but they always get freezer burnt.

Someone help me save the fruits!

Black Bean & Spinach Enchiladas

So colorful!

This recipe was given to me by Justin's Aunt Maureen! I made it yesterday for dinner and it was awesome!! I loved it and so did the hubs! :) Without any further ado here is the recipe and then I will tell you what I used for certain things.

Black Bean & Spinach Enchiladas

  • 1 frozen package chopped spinach (cooked) 
  • 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained (and I also like to rinse them too)
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 1 pkg flour tortillas (6 inch)  (What I actually used was the 100 calorie tortillas by the La Tortilla Factory, they are much better for you than regular tortillas)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 tbsp lime juice (I used a fresh squeezed lime but the juice from the bottle would work too.)
  • chopped tomatos ( grape or cherry, then cut in half)
  • approx. 1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese (you can substitute whatever cheese you like, I think I used a Mexican blend)
  • 2 scallions finely sliced

Preheat over to 375°. Combine spinach, black beans, and salsa. Fill tortillas with filling and roll. Place in a (lightly oiled, spray with cooking spray) 8x13 pan and bake for 15 min. Combine sour cream and lime juice and cut all veggies while the enchiladas are baking. Remove enchiladas from oven and spread sour cream and lime jucie mixture on top of enchiladas. Top with shredded cheese, tomatos, and scallions. Return pan to the oven for 5 min.

Serve and enjoy!! This recipe was so good and it is pretty healthful! For us it made 5 large enchiladas. A good option if you have a no meat dish once a week. In our home it happens more often than that!

So... for pictures, while I was making the mixture of spinach, beans, and salsa I completely forgot to take photos, fail on my part. But this recipe is pretty self explanatory.

I only remembered to start taking pictures after the enchiladas were in the oven...oops.

fresh squeezed lime juice

combining sour cream and lime juice

Justin made margaritas on the rocks while enchiladas were baking!


Like the new table cloth?!

only thing missing is a little extra salsa for dipping!

This recipe seems like there is more spinach than black beans but hey that's OK with me!
If you make this recipe tell me how it was or if you added anything different!! What is on your menu for tonight? And what do you have planned for the weekend?

We will be going back to Maryland to visit our parents and to get some more things that we forgot to pack during our move! Maybe I can make some yummy meals for my parents! Enjoy your weekend!