Cooling down and lots of tangents

The most wonderful thing happened this morning when I woke up and got to wear sweatpants! The weather has cooled down significantly and it feels like a much needed break!

Seriously, the most fantastic part of my morning.

Breakfast was a close second though. Monday’s yogurt bowl made another appearance, this time with blueberries instead of mango.

So good! The blueberries were frozen and when I thawed them in the microwave, a few of them cooked. I love the taste of warm blueberries and I think I’m going to have to bake something soon to satisfy that craving!

And with that bowl, a cup of hot coffee in a cheerful mug!

I have loads of blog things to catch up on so I’ll be running (in the perfect running temps) later tonight. Last night I finally convinced my sister to join me for a class at Barre Bee Fit. We took my friend Amanda’s class at the Lincoln Park studio and Julia absolutely loved it! I pushed myself really hard at times and will be blaming Amanda for any glute and thigh soreness that occurs. Julia and I are crazy people and are already planning on going back to more classes next week!

My mind has been all over the place lately and it’s been making me chortle. This entire week has felt like I’ve just been trying to catch up on sleep (because I babysat very late Monday) so the lack of sleep may be making my mind function on a deeper level wonky. Case in point; I have had Christmas music stuck in my head for four days and all I want currently is a tree and snow and lights and cocoa. Which is bananas because I am all about summer, all day every day. Perhaps I’ll have my own Christmas in July party. Eggnog for one, anyone?

Question: what’s your favorite holiday? Who’s going to have a hard run to celebrate the cool weather?

Happy National Running Day!

This post may have nothing to do with running, but I needed to mention it anyway. Today was a failed cross training strength and core work day, so I coincidentally did not get to do much running. I did squeeze some in during the outdoor time with my students, which is probably the best way to run. No pictures though 😦

After I got home, I dug into the lunch that I forgot to bring with me, which quickly became dinner. I had a few leftover Trader Joe’s cheese and arugula ravioli in my freezer from back in the stone age, so I cooked those up last night with some grape tomatoes and spinach. 

I tossed it with some olive oil and balsamic.

I also had a hard boiled egg with it for some extra protein.

Then I got to some core work!

I somehow made it through the 12 minute workout only needing to stop once or twice. It was much more sore than I thought from Monday’s BBF class. Damned delayed onset. But I felt even more accomplished once I had finished….

Accomplished enough to make myself dessert!

Trader Joe’s has been really helpful in helping me cut down on my crazy sweet tooth today.

It was my light take on chocolate covered strawberries. YUM!

Another shoe post

Good morning everyone!

What a week it has been! It feels like, until yesterday, it has flown by! And, since we’re on yesterday, what a wonder an extra hour of sleep does. I think I’m ready to take on my day.

Checking in bright and early with you all because I have a very busy day and I’m just not sure if I’ll be able to get back here before tomorrow.

Breakfast was nothing beautiful to look at so I will spare you a picture, but I will tell you what was in it. Blueberry Chobani, blueberries, cashews, chia seeds, and Raisin Bran Crunch, which I’ve really been feeling lately. This is bound to keep me full for a while!

My morning was spent eating, drinking coffee, icing my leg, and looking through all my favorite running and social media sites. I came across the Summer Shoe Guide on Runner’s World and was immediately enticed. You want to give me an in depth analysis of my favorite running shoe? Sure, I’ll watch that! I was happy to see that an Asics shoe was the Editor’s pick for the season (I’m unfairly biased, though) and I’m glad they went into the Gel Nimbus 15 too. I’m usually afraid to change up from my usual shoe but the Gel Cumulus seems like a slightly more affordable version of what I run in, so I’m potentially going to give that a try. Maybe. I may just stick to what I know.

Have a great Friday!
Questions: Weekend plans?
What shoes are you rocking when you run?
Any Asics Cumulus runners out there that can tell me all about their sweet ride?

I’ll be at a concert tonight which will hopefully be super exciting due to my friend pulling some strings. Updates tomorrow!

My newest favorite sandwich

My Internet is, yet again, not working. I am less than pleased with this whole situation. This has been forced to be a phone post; sorry about the quality. (Thankfully, all my pictures today happened on my phone so this post can happen at all!)

I’ve discovered yet another reason to be thankful for the Subway that is across the street from work:

(For the record, it’s pretty darn spicy)

Workout: another outdoor conditioning workout! We did abs, arms (which killed ALL of us), and some thighs.
I realized my thigh is in a little more pain than I thought, so I needed to take it easy with that. And I will be getting it checked out. It hurts 😦

Dinner was fantastic! I had this tuna in my pantry and was excited to try it in a recipe.

Obviously I have little time during the week for cooking so I put it in a salad with every vegetable I had in my fridge.

(Cucumbers, carrots, tomato, kalamata olives, chia seeds, and avocados-which are sooooo good right now)

Poured on my most recent favorite combo to dress it up:

The tuna was good but a little too sweet for my liking. I think next time I’d just use plain tuna, or cook my own, and let my dressing combo jazz it up.

Ended my night with catching up on New Girl and some Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt (and maybe some M&Ms)

Question: DID YOU WATCH NEW GIRL?!?!? What did you think?

Missing Downton

I don’t have a lot to say today since it wasn’t too eventful. There were a lot of delicious meals that happened though!

(Bicep update: they are already starting to get sore. It feels awesome.)

Lunch was made about 10,000% more awesome because of this incredible addition.

(They are totally the best flavor of Chip, but I’m pretty prejudiced to anything involving sriracha or people from near my hometown. Woop!)

Dinner was also fantastic. I’ve had a serious sweet potato craving all day so I made sure that was part of my dish. And I put a salad together with all the great things in my fridge/pantry: tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced turkey, cashews, chia seeds, some bacon bits, and asian sesame dressing.

I’m really particular about my salad to toppings ratio. Every sane person knows that it needs to be rather low, since the stuff that goes on the salad is better than the lettuce you put it on.

And for dessert? Some cookie dough greek yogurt in a mug!

It hit the spot!

Now it’s off to try out the new Masterpiece Classic: Mr. Selfridge. Hopefully it helps satisfy the period piece hole in my heart that’s there since the last season of Downton ended.

Anyone watch Mr. Selfridge? What are your thoughts?

Best Dessert Ever

Yesterday I was MIA because I couldn’t find my darned camera cord! That stupid thing keeps walking away from me and hiding; it’s a terrible game of hide and seek. Grr.

Thankfully I outsmarted it and now I’m painting nails, blogging, and watching trashy trashy reality tv (Real World). Isn’t that color perfect for spring?

Tuesday’s Workout: 4.1 miles on the Treadmill. As usual I ran my negative split.

Today’s workout: 5K that I found really boring. It’s clearly time for me to start running outside because I could not shake the boredom of today’s run. I read on my Kindle, I watched TV, and I listened to the music playing. It. Was. Terrible.

Today’s post is mostly about the most delicious desserty type thing I’ve ever stolen the idea for made. I’ve had the most terrible frozen yogurt cravings every day for the last week and I’ve been mostly acting on those whims. I can’t help it that one of the 3 (you read that right) frozen yogurt places within a block and a half of my apartment has the most amazing peanut butter and dulce de leche flavors that make me want to cry tears of joy and then go back for fifths seconds. It’s just too good.

Instead I made the wise decision to look on my Pinterest page for dessert ideas and found this recipe for Cookie Dough Greek Yogurt off of Girl Gone Country’s blog. It struck a chord and I had to have it. Today. Instead of yet more frozen yogurt. (PS. This woman can do ridiculous things with peanut butter. Check it out.)

On my way home I had to stop by Trader Joe’s to get some more honey and I remembered that they have this:

I had to have it

That ish really is bananas. I may have made one of the worst mistakes of my life bringing that into the house because it is now an active effort to keep myself from not eating that stuff out of the jar. With my fingers.

I managed to make myself not Speculoos a sandwich for dinner because it sounded good. The secret is to toast the bread on the lightest setting so the outside starts crisping up the teeniest bit, like fresh baked bread.

Carrots and red pepper rounded it out.

Then it was time for the finale:

Don’t get mistaken. There are many chocolate chips in there too and I was heard saying “this is the best thing I’ve ever made” several times in the 0.001 seconds it took to eat it. I felt like Rachel Zoe.

Make this. Email Katy. Tell her all about how it changed your life.