Highlights

Here goes my highlights for this week.


A little Tuesday night visit to this place.

Hello, old friend! It's been awhile.

I vote that queso should be on everyone's weekly highlights!

Getting lost (again) at this beautiful park:

Recreating my fav meal from My Fit Foods, Lemon-pepper turkey!

Brown lean ground turkey
Add LOTS of lemon pepper, fresh spinach, black pepper, fresh lemon juice
Serve with brown rice and baked zuchinni!

And my newest concoction:

Ta-Da! Okay, I'll admit is doesn't look that appetizing (maybe even not at all) but it was still pretty awesome.

Preheat oven to 350
Cook 2-3 eggs (I used 2 egg whites and 1 egg). Leave them a little runny.
Spray pan with non-stick spray.
Put whole wheat torilla on pan.
Spread salsa on whole wheat tortilla. (This is the pizza sauce.)
Add eggs on top of salsa.
Add cheese (I used jalapeno jack) on top of eggs.
Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and tortilla is a little cripsy.
Enjoy!

Thankful Week #6

Always so much to be thankful for.

....running partners. (and no, I'm not talking about Levi. He sucks lately) Since joining my running group, I've really enjoyed running again. I run alone on the weekdays and I really push myself so that come Saturday morning, I can keep up with whoever my running buddy/buddies are. Yesterday, it was just my friend Danielle and I. We chatted the whole way and knocked out almost 6 miles in no time. I had a blasty.

....naps. (Levi happens to be the BEST napping partner, which is great since The Coach is not a napper). This weekend I've been exhausted and to date, I've taken 3 naps. Two naps yesterday and one today. Bliss.

....Church. We finally made it out this morning and I'm so glad. My Sunday is always that much sweeter when we start it out with the word of the Lord. :)

....family and friends. Loved seeing all the ladies at the house on Friday.

Until next Sunday, amigos.

It's a par-tay!

Welp, I can officially cross my off my number one goal for the month of August: host a dinner party/game night. :)

Last week, we hosted Alan's birthday din-din and on Friday I hosted a Scentsy party. My childhood bestie asked me to hold it, and since I'd never done anything like that, I gave it a shot. It was fun to get the ladies together again and snack on yummy treats.

Since the party was pretty light, I decided that bite-size finger foods were appropriate. I made up some turkey and cilantro meatballs and some scones (I decided to make the scones the shape of cookie at the end of recipe since I was running short on time. They looked a bit funky, but were still pretty delish.)

Here's the recipe for the meatballs. Thanks to Gina at Skinnytaste.com

Southwest Turkey Meatballs with Creamy Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

Servings: 12 • Size: 2 meatballs only • Old Points: 1 pts • Points+: 2 pts
Calories: 67.1 • Fat: 1.8 g • Carbs: 2.3 g • Fiber: 0.4 g • Protein: 10.5 g

1-1/4 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
1 jalapeño, seeds removed (leave some in for spicier meatballs)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 scallions
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp cumin
pinch oregano
salt and fresh pepper
cooking spray

Lightly spray baking pan with oil.
Preheat oven to 400°.

Place jalapeño, garlic, cilantro, and scallions into a small food processor or chopper and
pulsea few times until finely minced.

In a large bowl
combineturkey, chopped herbs, bread crumbs, egg, cumin, salt and pepper. Using your hands,
mix welland measure 1/4 cup meat, then
divide in twoso you end up with each meatball 1/8 cup in size.
Roll and place on a baking pan.

The meatballs and scones are on the platter to the far left.

Mom brought the veggie tray (which I've snacked on all weekend) and my grandma brought the cupcakes. Yum! I ate 2 this weekend before sending them off to where my sweets go to die... the Coach's field house. If they were here, I'd seriously eat them all. When I sent them off with The Coach this afternoon, I asked if the other coaches ever bring in leftovers from their house and he said yes. Glad to know I'm not the only crazy wifey who wants certain things out of the casa!

The saleswoman! Steph and Steph Reunite! :)

Please ignore my nasty hair.. it was a long day and I was exhausted.

And the goods:

We were all a little overwhelmed by all the different scents. Who knew there were so many of those things?

I had fun smelling them all and giving my two sense on each one. It sounded a little like this...

oh, Love that!

This smells just like Alan

Umm, no

I don't like the after smell on that one

Okay that smells like a public bathroom, a clean one but a bathroom nonetheless

Hahaha, no one agreed on the public bathroom one or that some of the samples had "after smells." I'm sticking to it, though.

Hosting parties=complete. Woo hoo!

A day of firsts

and fails.

This morning started off around 4 AM when I awoke to a crazy pain in my left calf...charley horse. I nearly cried. The pain lasted a minute or so before I was able to go back to sleep. When my alarm went off to tell me to go to the gym, I will still in such pain that I didn't think a workout would be a smart idea... so i skipped. I hate those days. Boo!

Work was ca-ray-zee, but I powered through it! It's like we are starting a football program from the ground up or something!! ;)

I wasn't able to leave work in time to make my bodypump class so I opted for plan B, trying a new grocery store and sploring (that's how Alan and I say exploring when we are referring to Levi) the park by our house.

First up was the store!

This place recently changed ownership and I had been wanting to check it out. It was pretty average. Some prices were more expensive and some were less, but the veggies looked pretty fresh and really that's what I was going for. I got the use-several kinds of greens, onion, alvacado, strawberries, almond milk, feta, etc..

Some yogurt covered pretzels may have fallen into my basket near the checkout. And I might have munched on a few on the car ride home... ;)

I also got some coconut waters. They're loaded in potassium, which my body's lack of may be a reason for this morning's charley horse fiasco. (naturally, the Google queen worked her magic). I don't know if that's the true cause of the pain or if it's my recent increase in running. Anyway, can anyone drink that stuff without making a sour face?! I know I can't. I don't hate the stuff but I DEFINITELY don't love it.

Here's a look at the goods:

After the store, I picked Levi up to head to the park.

He reeeeaally enjoyed the car ride there.

At first, we just drove around sploring from the car. Then we hit the dog park. Eh. 3 dogs, 300 tennis balls. Levi played for about 10 minutes before I got bored. (I couldn't get him to climb on anything or jump through a loop. Lame.)

Next, we drove to a different part of the park for what I thought would be a nice, long run. Fail. The trail I picked was rocky, steep and unpaved.

I wasn't aware I needed my mountain bike and hiking boots for this.

We did about a 20 minute walk before I was ready to leave. Levi was fading, the trail sucked and I felt lost since I didn't know where any of the billizon trails led to. The evening had not turned out like I thought it was going to and I was ready to be home in the AC (although, since most of the park is covered in trees, it really wasn't that hot!). Levi was ready to go too.

You can't tell from this picture, but he got his nasty dog slobber ALL OVER MY CAR.. AND MY LEG!

When we got home, I wasn't very hungry so I made myself a quick salad and it turned out being one of the BEST salads I've ever had. No joke.

[Contains: 3 kinds of greens, tomato, green bell pepper, feta, olives (added after pic), tomato and basil almond slices, craisins and shrimp, I used olive oil and lemon juice for dressing,] Perfection. :)

Well, the Coach just got home (football 2-a-days make for crazy hours) so I'm going to make him a similar salad to eat during our daily episode of FNL. I think a few strawberries dipped in dark chocolate are callig my name too.

It's almost Friday! See ya!

Thankful Week # 4

I know I'm a little late on this one, but it fits in perfectly with a recap of today... I promise!

Today started off like any other morning. The alarm went off at 5 AM, Levi insisted on me getting up, I finally gave in around 5:15 and he stayed in bed. Punk. (He didn't even budge when I went into the kitchen or see me to the door as I left!) I conquered a bodypump class early, which I'd never done before. I accidentally slept through last night's class... If I was that tired, though, I figured working out probably wouldn't be that effective anyway.

After the gym, I got ready for work and ate one of my favorite breakfasts, oatmeal with a tablespoon of peanut butter. Bliss. I also sipped on some coffee with almond milk and cinnamon. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but today I couldn't resist. (I'm more of a hot green or black tea with honey kinda girl)

Work was busy and I got a ton done. I'm totally a "to do" checklist person, so I made my list and impressed myself as I marked each project off the list one by one. Score! Then later in the day (and this is where the thankful post ties in), my boss gave me a blank envelope and told me to open it. Turns out....drum roll please..dummmmdummmmmmmmdummmmmm.......... I got a raise! whooo hoooo! I truly am thankful as I did not see it coming. Really, I was completely blindsided, but in a good way of course ;)

And that leds me to the rest of this post. So here is what I'm thankful for this week.


...the raise! Duh! I think I already said that but it's worth noting again. It's not just the money that is awesome. It's the fact that my bosses noticed my hardwork this past year and rewarded me for it.

...two great workouts (well, three if you count the 2 mile walk that Levi and I just got back from). I conquered both bodypump (AM) and spin (PM). Spin class was waaaayyy sweaaaattttyy today, my favorite kind of workout. :)

...the show Friday Night Lights. Ummm..it's okay to be thankful for a show, right? ;) Besides being completely awesome and addicting, I love the fact that the Coach and I watch it together since we both LOVE it. As lame as it is, we both look forward to watching an episode a night. I don't know what we will do when we finish all the episodes on Netflix. It will be a sad day, that's for sure.

...a husband that says thank you. It's always nice to hear he's appreciative and notices the small things. Keeps me trucking along every day.

...family. I had such a great time with everyone over the weekend at Alan's birthday get together. i just love hosting little parties like that. Can't wait to have a big house to hold lots of parties and dinners at someday.

...comfort food. Yep, dinner tonight was simple, but a classic. You can never go wrong with good 'ol spaghetti.

yes, that piece of bread is covered butter. We all have our weaknesses ;)


And that is what I'm thankful for this week. Time to shower!

Alan turns the big 2-6

Hard to believe, isn't it?

But yes, this sexy guy is officially old.

Friday was the Coach's actual birthday, so naturally we went all out. Yep, pizza, ice cream and Friday Night Lights on Netflix. You can't slow us down! ;)

If it looks good, it's because it was! (Thank goodness for my smoothie breakfast and salmon salad for lunch!)

Saturday started off early with a 4 mile run with my marathon training group...shout out to Team NEISD! It was great! I followed the run with breakfast (greek yogurt..with a little honey, granola, and mixed frozen barries), cleaning, cooking and some more cleaning and cooking. Alan had to work all morning. Get it, two-a-days!

All the cooking and cleaning was for a little par-tay for the birthday boy at our casa. Family and friends piled in our tiny house to eat, drink and be merry!


I was so proud of Levi for behaving so well. He even found him a new best friend....

Alan got some good gifts.

Including this goofy hat that he REQUESTED! haha

And there was cake, lots of cake. I had some at the party and again on Sunday before packing it up and making Alan take it up to the coaches at the school. Out of sight, out of mind.

After everyone left, Alan, mom and I went out with some friends and we ran into this girl.

Had it really been a year since I'd seen her? That's pathetic. It was great to see her. Jordan was there too, but we didn't snap a picture. That's pretty pathetic in itself too. Fail.

Sunday consisted of sleeping, eating, FNL, and a little shopping (yay for 2 new pairs of running shorts and a tank top!)

Levi was definitely worn out too.

Why do dogs look like such angels when they sleep? So darn cute. Sighhhhh.

Well, I'm going to catch the end of bachelor pad and call it a night. See ya!

I'm throwing in the apron

seriously. I give up.

Over the years, I've attempted and completely butchered everything I've tried to bake. For someone who loves sweets so much, I sure suck at making them. I'll call this a "blessing in disguise" since I can't even imagine the amount of sugar I would consume if I was a stellar baker.

My last attempt was on Friday when I tried to make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies to take to the coaches' party. Ashley does the gluten-free thang so I thought I'll be nice and go that route. Fail. Ash, do I still get brownie points for trying?! Apparently GF flour is NOT the same as regular flour and the consistancy was totally off. Since the batter tasted okay, you better believe I ate some (okay, a ton!) of that batter, I figured I was on my way to success. When I put the cookies on the cookie tray I knew I was in t-r-o-u-b-l-e. They literally spread out covering the entire sheet in a matter of seconds. Check it out.

and that was after being in the oven for FOUR minutes

Needless to say, these bad boys did not see the light of day. I'll stick to making smoothie creations like this one:

It's a chocolate strawberry ice cream smoothie. Contains: almond milk, frozen strawberries, cocoa powder, protein powder and ice. I added chocolate syrup on top for an extra kick. They were delicious and Alan and I scarfed these down. And, I may or may not have finished off the pitcher for breakfast in the next morning ;)

I'll definitely be making these again. Super easy. WIN!