Colorado Update July 5, 2011
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: Colorado
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This vacation has flown by! I can’t believe we’ll be driving home today!
Some highlights of the trip so far:
1. I climbed my first 14′er! I love to hike and this was my highest climb yet. I’ll do a full write up when I’m home. Just know that it sucked but was awesome all at the same time.
2. Rode my mountain bike. Awesome since we do not have actual mountains at home.
3. Ran my first trail race.
4. Todd had a 50 mile mtb race of which he completed with no issues.
5. Watched fireworks
WordPress app June 30, 2011
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: Road trip
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Wow! I still have an account! I have not been on here in oh, forever. I’ve discovered having an app for my iPhone makes blogging much easier. And I’m going to have to change the name of this blog. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m not 30 anymore!
We’re on the road to Breckenridge, CO, the state where I really should live. Ways I’ve killed 4 hours in the car so far?
Talked to Todd
Watched the movie “Cedar Rapids”. It was pretty good and set in the town of Cedar Rapids. Iowa represent!
I ate a half a bag of Trader Joes peanut butter pretzels.
Stalked on facebook.
Sampled songs on iTunes. Todd talked about his affinity for rap music while racing mountain bikes. Rumpshaker and Tupac topped the list. I pulled up a sample of eazy e’s “gimme that nutt”. I’ll bet he’ll have a hard time keeping that out of his head. Yep, Todd is pretty fly for a white guy.
Messing around with the WordPress app.
What do you do to kill hours on a roadtrip? It’s about a 10 hour drive for us, only 6 more to go….
Delicata Squash November 5, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: Delicata squash
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Has anyone ever had one of these?
I picked one up on a whim at the WF a couple of weeks ago and it’s been sitting on my counter ever since. Good thing it has a long shelf life! I finally put it to use last night for dinner.
I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and then cut it in rainbow slices. After tossing it with some EVOO and veggie seasoning, I baked it at 400 for 10 minutes. After flipping them over, I baked them another 10 minutes. Along with some okra, brussel sprouts and salmon, dinner was done. I burned the salmon a little, whoops! I do like my veggies a little charred though and I really liked the squash. It is a little sweet and the skin is edible. Even the husband ate it! I’m going to try using it in some other recipes in the future.
I am on my way out the door for a run and stair workout before the sun is completely gone. See y’all after dinner!
Consume Chocolate, Be Healthy November 4, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: Kashi, Kombucha, Stonyfield, yogi tea
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Happy Wednesday, y’all! The week is half done for most of you and I’m jealous!
What with all of the Halloween candy floating around here, I figured now would be a great time to try out this new Yogi tea, Mayan Cocoa Spice to help combat the chocolate cravings.
I have had two cups of this herbal tea so far, it’s that good! Obviously, it’s not going to be as great as a real chocolate bar, but I’m giving this tea two thumbs up for having a great cocoa flavor. Plus, it’s made out of ground cocoa shells and cocoa is full of antioxidants, as most of you know. Up to 3x more than green tea, according to this website. So go eat some chocolate and be healthy! Or save the calories and buy this tea!
Breakfast was this great pumpkin pie yogurt from Stonyfield mixed in with some of my fave bulk granola from WF. Amazingly I was able to hold off eating this ’til 7am. Thankfully, my body isn’t used to eating between 3am and 7, so I didn’t need any snacks (forgive the phone pics, I forgot my camera and attempted blogging from my phone).
Lunch was the Mayan Harvest Bake from Kashi. It’s looks a hot mess but is pretty good for frozen food. It’s made out of plantains, sweet potatoes and punkin seeds…really, can you go wrong? It’s spicy and sweet all at once and the perfect portion size. I had never had plantains prior to trying this, so thanks to Kashi for introducing me to somethin new.
I had about half of these grapes for a snack:
And about a 1/2 of this bottle of Kombucha. Had anyone else tried this? It’s got a really different flavor and this is about the 3rd one I’ve tried. Almost a beer-ish taste. Which makes sense since it’s fermented. For as much as I like beer, I’m not crazy about them, I’m thinking it’s just an acquired taste. So I keep trying, though at $3.99 a bottle, I’m not wasting ANY of it even if I don’t like it.
All right, I’m off for a quick run and to make dinner. I’d like to be in bed by 7′ish as I’m going in to work at 3am again and would love a full night’s sleep.
Sabra Addiction November 3, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: baked okra, sabra
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I just bought this Roasted Garlic Sabra yesterday and 24 hours later, it’s gone! I have issues people! OK, granted, I probably have worse issues than a Sabra addiction, but seriously! One day and I ate it all! I have no restraint!
By the way Sabra, I checked your website and you have all of these flavors that I WOULD LOVE to try but the grocery stores here sell only 4 varieties, of which I tried them all. Could you salespeople over there please tell the grocery stores here in Iowa that people have addictions you think there is a market for some flavors besides Roasted Garlic, Red Pepper and Original? Don’t get me wrong, I love them all, but I really, really want to try the Jalapeno. And the Sun Dried Tomato. And the Cranberry and Fig. Much appreciated, thanks.
So I was all set to have a frozen veggie burger and baked veggies, but these filled me up before I could even get my burger cooked! Oh well, there are worse things.
I did manage to bake up some okra and brussel sprouts in between shoveling hummus and chips down my throat. I’d never had baked okra but have seen it over here plenty of times and finally found some fresh at the Whole Foods. It’s great baked, I loved it! I tossed these veggies with a little olive oil and some veggie seasoning and baked in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
I followed up those healthy veggies with a little ice cream. I searched the stores around here for some pumpkin ice cream and finally! Last week I found some!
I did get a little sleep during the day today and got a pretty decent workout in at the gym. I didn’t get to the gym until 6 and that place gets packed! I barely got a parking spot, had to wait for a treadmill and I never could get to a bench. I still got a good workout in though. I had plans to go tomorrow morning but I’ll be going in to work at 3am and won’t be off until 3pm so I’ll be hitting up the spinning class at 5 instead of an am workout. Which is just as well since spinning kicks my butt!
Optimism at 32 Degrees November 3, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: Amy's burrito, pumpkin oats
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I did manage to get called in for some overtime last night and surprisingly enough, I’m still awake! I walked out to this after work:
Frosted windows! I actually had bust out the ice scraper – boo 
As I’m scraping my windows, dreading the upcoming months of cold, cold and colder, I thought, there have to be a couple good things about the cold, right? I’ve bitched about the cold weather on here before and unfortunately, I’m sure I will again, but here are a few things I’ve decided are actually good about the cold:
- Garbage doesn’t smell. You know, in the summer, if you put a bag of trash out in the garbage bin oh like, the day after garbage pickup, and it’s got that whole week to sit and ferment and ripen and smell like a dead cow that’s about to explode in the heat? The smell so bad it makes your eyes water? Yeah, that problem doesn’t exist in winter.
- Bugs die. We don’t have giant, flying hissing cockroaches ’round these parts. Y’all can keep those thangs down South. Oh, and no scorpions or rattlesnakes either.
- Snow on Christmas means all is right in the world. I can’t imagine living somewhere where it doesn’t snow and it’s 80 out. I ain’t sayin’ I wouldn’t like to live in the tropics or desert, I’m just sayin’ it’d be weird. Pine trees just look funky in Arizona.
- Hot chocolate and chili are two food items that I can consume only when it’s 40 degrees or colder.
- Scarves are cute. They look funny in 90 degree weather. We can wear ‘em about 6 months out of the year here.
And that’s about all I’ve got. I”m no snow bunny so playing in the snow really doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve never been skiing so I can’t say I wouldn’t like it…but I live in Iowa. Although we usually have plenty of snow, we lack mountains and I’ve never had the urge to take a vacation in the winter to somewhere that has more snow. Hope all is sunny where you live!
Yesterday morning I started the day off with a green smoothie before meeting my friend at the gym. I ran 3 miles. And that is it. I’m very sad to say I’m now sore today.
Lunch was a veggie wrap on a flat-out wrap with:
- Hummus
- Low-fat pepperjack Cheese
- Red Onion
- Spinach
- Mushrooms
I find I have to add the spinach after heating these up on the George Forman. Wilted, stringy spinach on a sandwich or wrap grosses me out.
I had some Stacy’s cheddar pita chips and sabra garlic hummus for a snack…no pic taken. I was starving when I got home from the store after the gym and tore into the bag and forgot about a pic. Whoops!
I didn’t really have “dinner” until about midnight. I knew I’d be up all night and didn’t want to make something huge before going in to work. Plus, I needed a little sleep before work and didn’t take the time to make anything. So, I resorted to frozen food, but Amy’s burritos are really good!
And mass quantities of coffee, this one with way too much creamer…I still drank it.
A little of this:
And a little of that:
I managed to squeeze in a mile walk at work while watching The Big Lebowski. Watching a movie definitely made that walk seem quick!
After I got off of work I was still hungry so I decided to conform join the cool kids and try my hand at pumpkin oats. I know, I just crawled out from underneath my rock. Pumpkin oatmeal is nothing new in the blog world. Thank goodness I finally tried it though, this pumpkin oatmeal stuff is great! My bowl contained:
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 small banana
- Tons of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice
- Brown sugar
I mixed it all up and put it in the microwave for a minute. Stirred it all up again, added a little more water and popped it back in for about 30 more seconds. I ended up adding a bit more water at the end of cooking as it got pretty thick. And I had a cup of skim milk to wash it all down. What a great breakfast!
It’s now 9:10 am, the sun is shining and I’m getting a little tired now. I should attempt to get some sleep. Hope you all have good, productive days while I’m snoozing away the sunshine!
Halloween Recap and How I Eat on a Hangover November 2, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: goddess dressing, Twilight trailer
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How was everyone’s Halloween? I haven’t been on here in a while, last week was just too busy! There was something going on every night after work and those somethings would keep us out late! Here’s a highlight of some stuff:
Wednesday: Mountain biking! Too much fun! Followed up with an evening at our friends house to toast some cocktails to my best friend on her new engagement! I’m so excited, she’s marrying in wine country next year in California so I have a big vaca to look forward to!
Thursday: Scoured the town for Halloween costumes. Todd actually cooked crablegs! The guy barely cooks but it sure is nice when he does! We chowed down while watching the Office. Sadly, no workout
Like the butter warmer? It’s a Bath and Body works oil burner. Worked like a charm!
Friday: Dinner with the in-laws and their friend from Colorado. We went from there to our friend’s house to help get things ready for the Halloween party she was hosting on Saturday. Again, no workout. I’m a loser.
Saturday: After getting off of work at 3, ran to Sam’s, ran home to get my costume finished and get ready. Spent an HOUR and a HALF on my hair then dashed out the door to take my grams to dinner before the party. Eat at the Golden Corral (yuck but my grandma wanted buffet and there is never a wait at the Golden Corral), drop her off and jet out to West Omaha for the party. Oh, no workout squeezed in there. Workouts for last week in general? BIG FAT FAIL.
The theme this year (every year we have a theme to help the less creative people such as myself) was vampires and werewolves. This theme also made it very easy to find costumes this year what with all the Twilight hype! We all left the house party around 10 and headed over the The Prestige for the last bit of the evening.
There was a fog machine downstairs and I think that’s part of why my pic came out kind of crappy. Here’s most of the people that attended the party.
Sunday: After staying out late and indulging in a little too much of my friend’s homemade “moon juice” which is a carbonated vodka concoction, I got to go in to work at 7am! Thank the sweet baby Jesus for the hour time change! Needless to say though, I still didn’t get near enough sleep and had a killer headache! Sunday I started out in detox mode. I had yogurt, strawberries and granola for breakfast…when I really wanted some greasy eggs:
Mid-morning I walked up to my favorite coffee shop and shockingly enough, got a fruit smoothie instead of a latte. Just trying to replenish some fluids and lost vitamins what with the alcohol intake from the night before and all:
Lunch was a spinach salad with goddess dressing:
Oh, and some grapes from a co-worker:
Later in the afternoon is where I slid a little. I had a slice of veggie pizza from Zio’s, the greatest pizza in the whole city of Oma-hell. Strangely enough, pizza sounded good to my still slightly queasy belly. The nice thing about Zio’s pizza is it’s not greasy and drowning in cheese like most pizza places. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE CHEESE, but my booty does not.
For my “dessert”, I nabbed a chocolate covered marshmallow someone had brought in. Not one single person I work with ever brings in healthy treats.
I managed to squeeze in about a mile worth of walked while at work and after work, Todd and I took the supermutts to the park for a fall picture.
This was not easy to capture but aren’t they cute little turds?
After the park, Todd offered to cook. Again! He managed to take advantage of the SEVENTY SIX degree weather and go mountain biking so he was starving. His specialty are egg sammiches and seeing as how I love egg sammiches myself, I took him up on his offer. I did help though and cooked up some hashbrowns.
And I’d also had some carrots and hummus earlier to fit in some more veggies.
How I ate what with my hangover Sunday wasn’t too horrible. I feel like I ate too much all day since I didn’t do much but walk a little but oh well. You win some, you lose some.
I had better wrap this up as it’s 6:30 pm and I’ll probably be going in to work this evening at 11pm. I’m about 90% sure I’ll be getting called in for some overtime. ‘Til then, check out this video. Are you on the Twilight bandwagon like I am? This is pretty hilarious if you have a sick sense of humor like I do.
Weekend Eats Part II October 27, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: Amazing Grass, Amy's, Annie's, goddess dressing, green smoothie
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Yesterday I managed to post that sweet Oprah video but when I came back later to post about Sunday’s foods, my computer pooped out. I’ve been complaining about this POS for a while but still haven’t bought a new one. I cringe every time I have to use this thing and waiting for it to load pics and open web pages is possibly worse than listening to the Jonas brothers. Oh well, a new computer is on the list.
Here’s Sundays eats:
It probably looks like I’m about the last person in the blog world to try these Amazing grass products, but I have had some of them before. This berry flavor is new to me though so I picked up a little trial packet and added it to my green smoothie which also contained:
- Banana
- Frozen peaches
- Mango
- Acai berry juice
- Spinach
- Vanilla protein powder (EAS brand)
Thumbs up on the Amazing Grass addition. Lunch was just a salad, one you’ve seen on here many times. I didn’t get a pic but I must talk about this dressing though. It’s GOOD. I’ve been a big fan of Whole Foods Italian dressing for a while and once I find a good dressing, I really don’t stray but I’d been eyeing this one for a while. SO GLAD I tried it, it’s awesome! It’s so good I could almost drink it with every meal and there was a time when that was only reserved for gravy.
Here’s the description:
“Creamy tahini mingles with lemon, soy sauce and chives creating this well-loved dressing.” Go try it now!
I had grand plans of coming home and doing something with sweet potatoes but this sight greeted me when I walked in the door:
Not much cooking going on in the kitchen that night! Todd had to paint some trim that was still unfinished so he brought me back this Mediterranean sammich from Panera:
Oh, I also finished off this little bag of goodies….um yeah, I bought these Saturday, whoops! I love ‘em though! Restraint is not my middle name so I can’t have these in the house too often.
I didn’t work out Sunday but did manage a run on Monday. I had a great run Friday but Monday’s run….not so much. I barely eeeked out 2 miles. I had a side stitch about 3 laps in around the track and I barely get those so I’m not sure what my deal was. I just wasn’t feeling it. Perhaps because I didn’t eat much on Monday? I cleaned my house ALL day and sometimes when I’m at home all day, I just don’t get hungry. I had a couple of cups of coffee and a veggie burger later in the afternoon and that was it. Veggie burger compliments of Amy’s All American burger on a sandwich thin with hummus and a slice of chipotle cheddar cheese…way better than Boca…
All right, I hear old episodes of The Office in the other room. I’d better go check it out. Good night!
I Love Oprah (and so does everyone else) October 26, 2009
Posted by aprillove1625 in Uncategorized.Tags: I gotta feelin', Oprah
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I’m a little behind on my google reader and while catching up, I found this video posted on Iowa Girl Eats blog. Somehow a choreographed dance of 20,000 people was organized to celebrate 24 seasons of the Oprah show. It’s too cool!
Need more proof that Oprah is more popular than Jesus?
Weekend Eats Part I October 25, 2009
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I’d like to say it’s been a busy weekend, but really, it’s been pretty quiet. I worked Saturday until 3pm and then drove over to Whole Foods to pick up some goods. Oh, and stopped at Target and Blockbuster. By the time I got home and put stuff away, the Iowa/Michigan game was on. I didn’t realize it was a night game and was happy to see I’d be able to watch it. So I settled in on the couch last night to watch some football. I didn’t work out and I didn’t cook anything. I didn’t even finish watching the game and missed the Hawks win! They’re now 8-0 which has NEVER happened! I fell asleep! Before 9pm on a Saturday night! Whoo! I am exciting!
Breakfast yesterday was a Muscle Milk. I don’t normally drink these but they were on sale at the grocery store, so I figured I’d try it out. It tasted like chocolate milk for the most part and kept my appetite at bay for only 160 calories.
Somehow this piece of pumpkin bread also found it’s way onto my desk…I love pumpkin bread! Though there aren’t many sweets I don’t love.
Yesterday I also received a package at work! I love presents in the mail! I received a little care package from a co-worker down in Louisiana of cooking seasonings and hot sauce. Here’s the one I tried on my veggie philly. The veggie philly was from the work cafeteria and had ‘shrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes and swiss cheese. This seasoning was great and was the perfect addition to my sammich! It was nice and spicy and I can’t wait to try out a new dip recipe using it for our annual Halloween party next weekend.
‘Round mid-afternoon I had this perfect looking apple for a snack a co-worker was kind enough to bring for me.
Dinner was eaten super early. For some reason, I was STARVING around 4pm and didn’t want to go to Whole Foods hungry as I would have been likely to double my grocery bill! As I was driving around Oma-hell looking for some stuff for a care package of local items from here I’m sending to the Lousiana co-worker, I ran across a Greek restaurant I hadn’t tried before. Feta’s was the name and was really good! I had the veggie wrap to go and inhaled it in the car before making it to Whole Foods. The grilled wrap contained lettuce, tomato, ‘shrooms, peppers, onions, cucumbers, feta and hummus. It was great and I wasn’t hungry the rest of the night! Good thing this place isn’t near my house as I’d be eating here all the time!
That’s it for Saturday’s eats….I’ll be posting a new one with Sunday’s eats as I eat a lot and this post is long enough!
