Pre-Valentine's Day

After I ate breakfast and drank my coffee, I got changed and did some ab workouts on Comcast. I wasn't expecting much, but I did end up getting a good sweat on. It's weird, my arms feel it more than my abs.

A couple hours later, I got changed (again) and went to a BBQ for a family friend that is turning 16. It was outside, at a park. It was so nice outside today...about 68*. The food was great, too. I have to get some recipes. There was cheeseburgers, broccoli salad (with an awesome vinaigrette), potato salad and some fruit.

Here's the cake. Hubs asked me to put this picture on, even though I passed on it. I'm not much of a cake person (only if it's triple chocolate).

I dropped hubs off at home and my mom and I ran some errands. When I got home, here's what I found on the mantle. A very sweet Valentine's Day card and some candy. Does my hubs know me or what (or is he just getting sick of hearing me), I've been craving chocolate so bad this week, he bought me mini Snickers. He says this weekend is Valentine's Day weekend. I love my hubs!

While he did his stuff, I relaxed while watching Biggest Loser. This was an episode I'm glad I had chocolate. They had a chocolate temptation. Scout was keeping warm and good company.

It's almost dinner time and movie time. I'm off to spend time with the hubs!

Do you watch the Biggest Loser?

Another Relaxing Day

This morning I was going to go out to run 5 miles. Our new kittens kept waking us up every hour. I was pretty much wide awake each time. By the time my alarm went off at 7:30 (only 3 hours after going to sleep), I couldn't force myself out of bed if my house was on fire. I was so tired.

So, I let myself sleep in (still getting woken up every hour) until 10:30. I got up and made our Jim's Organic Coffee . I had a cup along with a banana crunch muffin (I'll include recipes tomorrow). It was nice to relax for a few, before I had to get ready to go to my parents for a BBQ.

We weren't able to stay long (I had to take my hubby home to go to work), but we had some great food while we were there. I had some potato salad, and chicken. It was all pretty good food.

Such yummy chicken with a great sauce!

Dinner was some more good food (about 6 hours later). I opened a bag of Seeds of Change rice that they were kind enough to send me.

The rice had a lot of flavor and a great smell. It was very good and super filling. I paired the rice along with some ground turkey sausage and green beans. What a great dinner!

Dessert was a few hours later. I had vanilla ice cream with some chocolate syrup and a tablespoon of PB. What a good treat for myself.

I know I haven't been eating very well this weekend, but I will get back on track on Tuesday. I don't have anything too bad planned for food tomorrow. So, it should be kind of healthy.

Anything good foods at your BBQ's?

Happy 4th of July!

My beautiful fruit salad: chop everything in bite size pieces, and leave grapes whole. Place in covered bowled over night in the refrigerator, and serve cold. Very nice chilled summer dish.

The best breakfast ever! French toast with a little butter and some light syrup, with a cup of coffee. Such an easy breakfast to prepare.

The fireworks show.


This was just a small amount of the food that was brought to the party. Such great, yummy treats!

The BBQ tasted so good. I tried my husbands steak, it just melted in my mouth...no need to chew.

I set my alarm early, for a holiday, 7:15 am. Of course, I hit snooze a couple of times. I began my day by fueling up with some water, a half of a banana, and some extra fruit salad I had made for our Fourth of July festivities. I headed out the door for my short run this morning of 2.25 miles. When I came back , I popped in a Denise Austin's Pilates DVD and set up my yoga mat for a 25 minute session. I love practicing pilates or yoga after a nice run. It really stretches my muscles out. Afterwards, I finished my workout with a mini 15 minute free weights. It was so nice to work my arms after stretching them for 25 minutes.

After I showered and cleaned up, Jason made me a great breakfast using Cascade Prides' 100% whole wheat stone bread, a couple of eggs and soy milk to make french toast. This is my favorite breakfast, and I could eat a million pieces. I was strong, and only had 3 pieces. I love this bread. I wasn't always a big fan of whole wheat bread, but I decided that I wanted to start to eat better, and this was a start. This bread has nice flavor, but not too sweet. I enjoyed my favorite breakfast with a cup of coffee with some creamer.

After a couple of hours flying by, we got ready to go to our friends' house for the 4th of July fireworks show and BBQ. This is a long tradition and we always have a blast. There is always so much food and drinks. This year, my weakness was the chocolate chip cookies. I had too many to count, I guess it's a good thing that I am working out tomorrow. I brought my fruit salad and some beer.

The fruit salad was made up of 1 full personal watermelon (using a melon baller), 1/2 of a honeydew melon (using a melon baller), 1 lb. strawberries (chopped to bite size pieces), 2 kiwi (peeled, and diced), 1 banana (chopped), and 1 1/2 lbs of purple grapes. I mixed everything together and let it sit overnight in the fridge. I like to make sure the juices from all the fruit soaks together. The salad was a big hit, but not as big as the usual side I bring; the 7 layer dip. That is usually devoured within a few hours. I wanted something semi healthy that I could eat this year.

Our gracious host always barbecues for us, and the guests bring the sides and fireworks. As I mentioned before, there is always way too much food, drinks and fireworks. It is always great to see everyone. This year, I had 1 hot dog in a white bun with mustard (which is my best friend in this type of situation), 2 beers, too many chocolate chip cookies and a couple handfuls of M&M's.

I hope everyone had a great Fourth. Tell me what is your least favorite firework? Mine is the Piccolo Pete's, too loud.

Yummy Chicken!

The finished meal all prepared with wine and ready to be eaten. This was a great meal. Recipe at the bottom.

I love my rice cooker. It's one of the best presents my brother bought me. To the left, the veggies are ready to bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

The chicken baked in the oven for 40 minutes with a little extra sauce. To the left, the veggies are washed and ready to be sliced.

We are on a tight budget right now and needed something fairly inexpensive, but tasty. I chose the Kraft honey roasted garlic BBQ sauce. I was surprised of how good this tasted. It wasn't over powered by the garlic taste, it was very suttle. I will definitely purchase this next time I BBQ. I marinated the chicken in the zip lock bag for a couple of hours in the BBQ sauce. It really had time to soak in.

This morning I got up bright and early for my 9am spin class. The class was full of excitement and a lot of energy. I can't believe how quickly the 50 minutes fly by! When I returned home, I refueled with some coffee and a splash of non-fat vanilla coffee creamer. I also had a small piece of some apple cake that I made the night before. My husband, Jason, and I went to Whole Foods to taste test their "Foods of Fourth of July". Too bad it wasn't going on. I think I must have messed up the time or something.

For lunch, we had left over pizza from the little neighborhood pizzeria near by, Riverside Pizza. It was pretty good pizza, and the customer service was very good. I never felt rushed when trying to decide what we wanted. It felt like we were the only ones there. Jason ordered a combination pizza and I ordered the standard pepperoni pizza. They were both really tasty. The combination pizza used fresh ingredients, and the pepperoni tasted very fresh. I'm glad we live so close to this pizza place. Yummy pizza!

As dinner time rolled around (8pm for us), we started to get hungry. I made barbecue chicken with steamed brown rice and fresh veggies. The veggies I chose were a green and red pepper with three squash. We washed everything down with a glass of Chateau St. Michelle white wine. This is one of my favorite wines.

I topped the night off with a banana while we watched the movie Whip It from Netflix. Very cute movie!

Recipe:

5 chicken breast (boneless/skinless)

1 1/2 cups your favorite BBQ sauce

1 cup brown rice

3 squash

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

olive oil, salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Place chicken in zip lock bag with BBQ sauce for about 2 hours. Afterwards, preheat oven to 350. Place chicken in 9X13 pan with tin foil on bottom with cooking spray (makes for easy clean up). If desire, spread a little BBQ on top of chicken, for extra taste. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, place 1 cup brown rice with water in rice cooker. Cook until rice is softened, about 25 minutes. Chop veggies into bite size pieces. Please on large cookie sheet and mix well with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss with hands. Place in oven with chicken 15 minutes before chicken is complete. Once plated, you can add a little BBQ sauce for dipping the chicken, if you desire. Very easy meal to prepare. Hope you enjoy! I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!