Proud Crock Pot Owner

Who enjoyed their extra hour of sleep? I know I did! A lazy Sunday morning and my rest day from Insanity called for a good breakfast.

French toast with Great Harvest Oat Bran bread. Topped with pumpkin dip:

1/4 cup pumpkin

1 TB Mighty Maple PB&Co

1 tsp maple syrup

2 TB almond milk

Pumpkin pie spice

I had planned to spend all morning reading, but instead I decided it was time to take the plunge and register for my own blog domain. When I started my blog, I wanted to make sure that I was going to keep up with it before I went all in. But this is my 71st post so I decided I wanted to take my blog to the next level so to speak. It’s a work in progress. I purchased the domain name and transferred all of my files but I am having trouble with the remapping part. I will hopefully get everything figured out by the end of the week! If anyone is super tech savvy and wants to lend a hand… email me! (bikingbeforebed@gmail.com)

After a few frustrating hours fiddling with the blog and being on hold with godaddy… it was time for a much-needed break.

Despite my not so good first impression with the local Pinkberry, I decided to give it another go.I was going to get pumpkin again but I decided I needed to be more adventurous… so I got a sample of the new holiday peppermint flavor. I was floored. I am not normally a peppermint fan, but this was probably the best frozen yogurt ever! It was tangy and minty all at once.

At the recommendation of my server I went with peppermint and chocolate swirl topped with granola, chocolate shavings, and peppermint bark. I ate slowly (which is rare) so I could savor every bite. I could go for another right now!

While I was out I swung by Bed, Bath, and Beyond for this baby.

I had been wanting one for a while so I used one of the infamous 20% off a single item coupon and got this for 25 bucks. Score! Now I can start making all of the crock pot recipes I have bookmarked.

Next stop, HEB for groceries!

Light coconut milk, beets (my new weird obsession), roasted red peppers (more hummus is in my future), diced jalepenos, and salsa picante.

I went a little crazy in the yogurt buying department last week. Just needed one of my favorites: Key Lime Pie! I am loving the So Delicious Coconut Creamer. I wanted to try the hazelnut after reading Brittany’s rav review, but they were sold out.

5 for 5 Lara Bars?! They seem to be going down in price every week. Last week was 4 for 5… I stuck mostly with the tried and true. Ginger Snap is my experimental flavor of the week.

Chicken and cheese for my first Crock Pot experiment.

Jonagolds and some bananas.

Lots of produce! Fall veggies are some of my favorites. Spinach, butternut squash, cauliflower, onions, asparagus, eggplant, red bell pepper and a plastic bag (full of cilantro).

After stocking up on food, I was excited to get busy in the kitchen. Dinner tonight was delicious.

Tofu and eggplant curry soup. It was chock full of veggies and definitely packed some heat. Recipe coming soon!

Time to give my eyes a rest. I feel like I have been staring at the screen all day. My bed and book are calling my name.

Question: What is the first thing I should make in my Crock Pot?

Boots and Butterfingers

Oh Saturday, I am sad you are almost over… but I am looking forward to my extra hour of sleep!

A picture recap of my day…

Finally used up the rest of my apples from over a month ago! Applesauce for every meal:)

Homemade butterfingers… Thanks for the amazing recipe Averie!

Clean out the fridge style lunch: Eggs with feta and roasted red peppers, cauliflower mash, and Great Harvest bread with pumpkin butter.

A clean kitchen!

Sweet fashion accessory. I am setting trends:) Only one page so far. I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t go off tonight.

Finally cool enough to break out the boots!

But not too cold for ice cream from the Chocolate Bar. I love when you can mix flavors in a small! Pumpkin white chocolate and rocky road…thumbs up.

Inspiration for next year’s Halloween goodies. It came in a real pizza box! And was 50% off. I guess it would be weird to bring this to a party in November?

Best purchase at the Chantal warehouse sale. I am in love with this color.

I hope your Saturday was a blast!

I wanted to leave you with a fun survey from Entertainment Weekly.

Question: What is your favorite Leonardo DiCaprio Movie?

The results from the mag survey:

Inception 24%

The Departed 23%

Titanic 15%

Catch me if you can 13 %

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape 7%

Romeo and Juliet 7%

Blood Diamond 6%

The Aviator 5%

I think I am going to have to go with the minority on this one. I love Blood Diamond. It is one of my favorite movies ever.

Hanging with Miss Green M&M

I have been looking forward to the weekend all week.

No I am not going on a trip.

Or running a marathon.

Or going to a great new bar.

I am excited because I have no plans at all! Unless you count being on pager duty for work. Yes, by company still uses pagers. I feel so cool. As I have probably mentioned before, I work at a refinery in the environmental section. Everyone gets assigned 6 or 7 weeks each year where we are “on call.” We get to rock the sweet pager and answer any environmental emergency questions that may come up. Getting woken up at 3 am to talk about potential chemical releases is such a blast… not. But this week (knock on wood), I haven’t gotten any pages yet!

Ryan is in Vegas with some of his friends for a big car show. I miss him like crazy, but part of me is excited for some me time! No crazy plane trips and snow storms this weekend.

I got home from work and immediately put on my PJ pants… when it was still light out!

So what am I going to do with my free weekend? I was super excited to pick up the new Jennifer Weiner book I had put on hold at the library. Until I went to pick it up, and realized I had reserved the wrong one! It was one I had already read. Ultimate fail. So I decided to go to “Lindsay’s library” aka my bookshelves full of things I have never read. I came across this one. By the same author as Prep, one of my favorite books!

If I can finish this by November 15, I can participate in book club over at Julie’s blog.

This showed up in the mail today. My brother and I absolutely love the Muppets so I can’t wait to read this article. And the new character in the next movie is named Walter… which is my lil brother’s name!

Hope to read a bit of this as well. I am going to be a food trivia master by the time I finish! A random fact for you: Christopher Columbus’s mother in law worked at a sugar plantation. He can be credited for bringing sugar on America!

With all my reading material, I will need some fuel.

I love the post holiday candy sales. It was hard to find plain candy corn! I had to go to three different stores! The package on the right is pumpkin pie flavored… it is a bit less sweet and has great spice. Its at Target if you feel the need to pick some up! They also had blood orange and caramel.

I also can’t wait to do some baking. I have a bunch of recipes I want to try out. I stocked up on some essentials.

My favorite baking PB. In the biggest jar I could find. This is going to be awesome for a jumbo oats in a jar!

Finally found the big can of pumpkin!

I love that Nestle Semi-Sweet morsels are now artificial flavor free.

And to keep me company: Miss Green M&M

Looking sassy for fall in her cowboy boots.

And all bundled up for winter. I am super excited for this new cinnamon flavor. I have some fun baking ideas I want to try with these!

Speaking of baking, I just signed up for the Great Cookie Swap. It’s a blogger cookie swap. I can’t wait to participate… I encourage all of you to check it out. Who wouldn’t want 3 dozen holiday cookies?

Time to get caught up on my DVR’ed episodes of Cupcake Wars and DC cupcakes.

Question: What is your favorite flavor of M&M? I love almond M&Ms but they are sometimes hard to find. Peanut butter is my second favorite. I am also still loving the candy corn ones🙂

Its the start of Insanity!

On Halloween I started a 2 month challenge. I will get to spend every morning with this guy in my living room.

I will be wearing my new kicks (Asics Gel-Iperas)

I will be jumping around ungracefully while trying not to slip on my sweat that has dripped onto the living room floor.

Yes, you may call it Insanity.

I have never tried a DVD workout program before. But I have been feeling in a workout rut lately so I decided why not? For those of you who haven’t seen the infomercials with the infamous Shaun T, let me give you Insanity in a nutshell.

Insanity is a 2 month workout programs. You work out 6 days a week doing mostly plyometric exercises. Every 2 weeks you take a “fit test” which consists of doing as many repetitions as possible of 8 different moves, each for one minute. There is also an optional eating plan that goes with the workout portion.

So why am I doing this program? I am very competitive and love challenges, even against myself. My inner nerd loved the idea of tracking the fit test results in a spreadsheet and being able to see percent improvement. Yea, I’m a engineer, what can I say? I also love that for the next two months, I don’t have to think about my workouts. I may add in some additional exercise such as pilates or easy bike rides, but I will play it by ear. Since my goal is not to lose weight, but rather to improve my fitness, I am not following the eating plan.

Here are the results of my first fit test.

Date	31-Oct
Move	Fit Test 1
Switch Kicks	104
Power Jacks	57
Power Knees	96
Power Jumps	35
Globe Jumps	11
Suicide Jumps	23
Push-Up Jacks	31
Low Plank Oblique	35

I can’t wait for the final test on January 1. I figure it will be a great way to ring in the New Year (provided my numbers improve)!

4 days in and so far so good! I have been doing the workouts in the morning. I love being free after work. I feel like I have gained so much free time! My legs are quite sore, but in a good way.

I’ll be doing periodic updates. Now it’s time to get caught up on the Office! I wasn’t a big fan of the Halloween episode. I hope tonight’s is better.

Question: Have you ever tried a DVD workout program?

Shopping at the Skymall

During my all day flying extravaganza on Sunday, I had a lot of time for reading. I read 3 magazines almost cover to cover. Self, Health, and Food Network magazine. I only skipped over the hair and makeup sections. Yea, I am the biggest tomboy. My eyes just gloss over when I start reading about new ways to style my hair or apply foundation. I am a proud member of the ponytail and minimal makeup club. I can shower and be out the door in 10 minutes. I normally get ready faster than Ryan!

Anyhow, back to my plane reading. After the three magazines and about half of my book (What Einstein told his Cook), I dug the Skymall catalog out of the seat pocket. Skymall never ceases to amaze me. Its kind of like QVC of Pinterest. You discover things that you never even knew existed, yet somehow you suddenly need them. I normally leave the Skymall catalog on the plane for fear of random purchases:)

I wanted to share some of my favorites that I found. All of the images are from the Skymall website. Don’t go there unless you want to waste some serious time:)

1. Protein Ketchup

This one ounce serving of ketchup has two servings of tomatoes and 15 g of protein. At $1.43 a cup, I don’t think I’ll be switching to this condiment anytime soon. Does anyone else think that this is taking the “protein” craze a bit too far. It seems like everything can come fortified with protein now! While I do use protein powder, I prefer to get my protein from natural sources: meat, eggs, legumes, dairy, nuts etc.

2. Mustache Mirror

How fun would this be in your bathroom? This would make mornings so much more fun! I personally am a fan of the handlebar one in the center.

3. Pierogi Ornament

Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like potatoes and pasta! One of my mom’s quick weeknight meals growing up was Mrs. T’s pierogis. They were so delicious with sautéed onions and peppers. I used to go to a Polish festival in Scranton, PA. The homemade pierogis were out of this world!

4. Universal Skate Sail

This sail can be used to “speed your way to fun, exercise, and fitness.” I’m not sure how much exercise you would get if you were being pulled along by the wind… but it could be fun to try out. Doesn’t look like this snowboarder is getting to far:)

5. Touchless sensor toilet seats

Are people really that lazy that they would spend $160 for a toilet seat with a sensor? This toilet lid will raise as you approach and the seat will raise if you wave your arm. Then both will close 30 seconds after you walk away. I think friendly reminders or maybe a sticky note would do the trick?

Now, because of this post I have the Skymall catalog in my kitchen. Lets hope I don’t make any random purchases!

Question: Do you read the Skymall catalog when you are on a plane? Have you ever bought anything?

WIAW: Apple Cranberry Crisp 2

Happy 11/1/11! At the doctor today, I had so much fun writing this date over and over. I can’t wait for 11/11/11 in 10 days.

Things to look forward to in November

1. “Falling back (yay for light in the morning and an extra hour of sleep)!

2. Starting the Insanity challenge (I am 2 days in so far and I can tell that the title is no lie).

3. Ryan and my one year dating anniversary

4. My half-birthday (Feel free to send half a cake :))

5. Thanksgiving

6. Starting the month with a party…. a WIAW party to be exact.

This week I decided to bring an apple cranberry crisp. It’s rude to come to a party empty-handed!

Yes, I know its November and Halloween is over. I should already be moving on to Christmas like every store in America. But I am going to hang on to my towels a few days longer ok?

Head on over to Peas and Crayons to check out all of the other eats and to join the party yourself! And thank Jenn too!

Breakfast

I tried out a new variety of oats this morning: Silver Palate Thick and Rough Oatmeal. It was on sale at the grocery store this weekend so I decided to give it a try. I cooked in on the stove with 1 % milk, water, and a mashed banana. Then I stirred in some pumpkin and topped with chunky peanut butter (salvaged from the broken glass), cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie spice. It was utterly delicious. Perfect start to November! I need to try these new oats a few more times before I decide if they are better than my beloved Quaker:)

Lunch

I made another turkey loaf… just so I could continue with my turkey loaf salad beasts! I topped a bowl (Tupperware) of spinach with roasted sweet potatoes, canned beets, and turkey loaf. Now I just need to make some more homemade hummus and I will officially be in salad heaven.

Dinner

I made a recipe for dinner that I spotted on Eat, Live, Run for baked polenta with mushrooms, gorgonzola, and tomato sauce. I subbed feta for the gorgonzola since I am not a huge blue cheese lover. I also added some Italian chicken sausage. It was so quick to throw together! I tossed the chopped sausage in a grill pan while the water for the polenta was boiling. Layer everything in a dish and cook for 45 minutes! I will definitely be making this one again.

I definitely went back for seconds!

Snacks

Humongous Honeycrisp apple! On sale by my parents for 99 cents a pound at a local farm. I made sure to grab a few. They were in my suitcase that got lost... luckily I got it back yesterday! Is it bad that I was more sad about possibly losing my bag of apples instead of my clothes?

It is my mission to recreate this Lara Bar flavor. The lime flavor is so intense! According to the ingredients, it’s from lime concentrate. I think this goes into the top flavors along with peanut butter cookie and chocolate coconut.

Dessert

Apple crisp is my favorite fall dessert… well maybe it’s tied with pumpkin pie. This was always the first dessert that my mom made after apple picking. She always stocks up on cranberries so she can whip up a crisp any time of the year. This past weekend when I was home I think she had 7 packages in the freezer! The first time I set out to make this apple crisp, I couldn’t find fresh cranberries… so I modified the recipe to include dried cranberries.

Apple Cranberry Crisp 1

But now we are in the middle of cranberry season! So here is the “original” crisp recipe.

Apple Cranberry Crisp 2

This is my favorite fall dessert. The tart cranberries literally burst in your mouth. The cloves add another layer of spice. This makes a perfect dessert with vanilla ice cream or a dollop of plain yogurt. This would also make a delicious breakfast!

Serves: 4-5

Prep Time:10 minutes

Bake Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

Filling

6 oz cranberries (1/2 package)
3 small apples, cored and thinly sliced
3 Tb sugar

1 Tb flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

Topping

1/2 cup oats

1 Tb flour

1 Tb brown sugar

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1.5 Tb melted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix all filling ingredients and spoon into baking dish or individual ramekins.

Combine topping ingredients and crumble on top. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Enjoy in a mug,

On a plate (with some seasonal M&Ms)

Or maybe just grab your spoon and dig into the serving dish! Who wants to clean an extra plate?

While I prefered this crisp with fresh cranberries, Ryan found it a bit too tart. He like the version with dried cranberries better.

Question: Are you a fan of cranberries? Do you prefer them fresh or dry?

No witches were harmed in the making of this post

Happy Halloween!

My parents door

I’m pretty sad that I only got 1 trick or treater. Am I imagining that way more kids went trick or treating when I was little? I remember going trick or treating in middle school and being given candy by 8 year olds? I never understood why they weren’t out getting their own goodies! I will definitely be bringing most of my candy to work to avoid a major sugar coma.

My festive dish towels

I wanted to do a recap/vent about yesterday aka by never-ending day of travel. My parents and I woke up and the power was still out! We showered in the one bathroom with a window and then headed to Einsteins with the rest of the town. The line was almost out the door! It was so good to have a bagel sandwich! They just aren’t popular in Texas…

Given the weather, I volunteered to take the train to the airport. I used the train ride to get caught up on some blog reading on my phone.
When i got to the airport, i knew it was going to be a long day. I had read my ticket wrong and had not one but two layovers. I guess that’s what you get with a ticket booked with frequent flier miles. The guy at the ticket counter couldn’t get his computer to work properly so he had to hand write by baggage tag. I had a really bad feeling about this but i really didn’t want to lug my suitcase around all day. So i took a chance and watched my bag disappear down the conveyor belt.

At this point i was a bit frustrated. But then a complete stranger made my day. I guess he had been listening to me talk to the ticket counter guy… And when i turned around, he asked if I was a singer because I had a beautiful voice. No one has ever told me that before. I was smiling for the next hour until I boarded my plane. I am determined to pay a stranger a compliment this week… To pay it forward so to speak.After an hour and a half on the train and an hour and a half in the airport, it was finally time to board.

On the plane I read the latest issue of Health magazine and made my grocery list. In no time we were in Cleveland for layover number 1!

The layover was only an hour, and it took almost the whole time to get to my next terminal. Doesn’t it seem that you always land at the furthest terminal possible? At least I got I. Some quality power walking. I always play a little game where I race the people standing on the moving walkway. It’s a great way to get in a mini workout. This time I also “raced” a girl on the escalator while I took the stairs. I won!

On the flight from Cleveland to Louisville I read a book I picked up from the library. It’s called “What Einstein Told his Cook.” the comment on the front describes the author as “Martha Stewart with a pHd.” it’s a compilation of food and cooking questions and their scientific answers. Although the book is quite factual the author has a great sense of humor so it isn’t dry like a textbook. Get ready for some random trivia knowledge to pop up in some future posts.

The last leg of my journey was from Louisville to Houston. I was so glad to finally get back to TX at 8 pm… I had been traveling since 10 am! All I wanted to do was head home… But my prediction came true… My bag never made it past Cleveland. So I sent 45 minutes filing a claim with Continental. On a bright note, both women I dealt with were so friendly and helpful! I love when I get good customer service:)

I wanted to end with some airport eats. Although I do pack some snacks, I like to splurge and eat in the airport. I know it’s quite expensive but I find it exciting to eat some fast foods that I don’t normally eat.

This was actually from my trip to Houston but it was my far my tastiest airport eat. Qdoba burrito bowl with black beans, roasted veggies, pico de gallo, corn salsa and guacamole. I think it was even better than Chipotle!

Obviously I had to get my pumpkin fix the day before Halloween!

Teriaki tofu bowl. The description made it sound much more appetizing than it actually was. The onions were definitely not carmelized:(

a
Good I had two loaves of Great Harvest in my bag!

I felt so awkward when I ordered the “Muscle Punch” after the guy in front of me ordered the “Light and Fluffy.” It was tasty, but I actually much prefer my homemade smoothies.

And now a couple Halloween eats from today.

Pumpkin spinach smoothie meets the Wine Witch! (No witches were harmed in the making of this picture).

Limited edition Candy Corn M&Ms. They are uber sweet, but they are pretty good frozen.

And I leave you with my costume from today.

Two of my co-workers and I dressed as the pink ladies! My whole section went out to a Mexican restaurant in costume. It was a blast to see everyone dressed up.

Sorry for the long rambling post, I just had lots I wanted to share with y’all!

Question: What is your worst flying experience? When I was little my whole family got stuck overnight in the Denver airport. We had to sleep under the seats. I have also had to spend the night in the baggage claim in the Houston airport.

October Foodie Penpal

I’m so bad at keeping secrets. I was so excited to participate in my first Foodie Penpal exchange. This monthly event is organized by the fabulous Lindsay (it’s a good name… what can I say:) over at The Lean Green Bean.

I waited anxiously for my box to arrive and I did a little dance on my doorstep when I finally saw the package. It’s so fun to get wanted mail! A box of goodies beats junk mail and bills any day of the week.

This month I received my box from Alexis over at Fit-Possible. Alexis is a full-time teacher from Orlando who is into healthy cooking and working out. Definitely check out her blog for some delicious looking recipes and fun workout tips. I’ve bookmarked her pumpkin pancakes:)

Alexis outdid herself with a super fun assortment of foods.

I had only tried coconut water once or twice before. I was very intrigued by the Cranberry Grapefruit flavor. I downed this after my first Insanity workout… it was amazing! The flavor was perfect… not too sweet.

Alexis pretty much read my mind with this one. This is my favorite flavor of Lara Bar!

Apple Pie was a new flavor for me. I normally stick to the peanut and chocolate flavors, but this one surprised me. It honestly tasted like apple pie. I love the cinnamon flavor.

I don’t normally consider myself a chip girl. I would pick pretzels of chips if given the choice. But that was before I had these Sweet Potato Tortilla chips. They are so addicting. I’m glad I didn’t have a big bag… I would have eaten them all!

Ryan and I loved these crackers. They were so crispy and salty. We finished them in two days. First we had them with freestyle tuna and then with hummus. They were definitely good enough to just much on plain too.

I wanted to save my favorite item for last… best for last or so the saying goes!

I think this is my favorite “butter” I have ever tasted. I always was a big fan of apple butter but had never tried pumpkin butter. Literally the week before Alexis sent me this, I had been debating buying some pumpkin butter from the grocery store. I’m so glad I didn’t! I’m sure it wouldn’t’ hold a candle to this baby. I want to plan a trip to Florida to visit the Yellow Dog Eats, a favorite of Alexis, just to stock up on this holiday pumpkin butter. It tastes like concentrated pumpkin pie.

It is perfect mixed into my morning oats.

So you want to participate next month? Here are the details.

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. *US Residents only please at this time- hopefully we can expand soon!*

If you’re interested in participating for November, please send Lindsay an email at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)

She will need to hear from you by November 4th as pairings will be emailed on November 5th!

I can’t wait to participate. And a shout out to Alexis for an awesome box! I will definitely be calling her when I run out of pumpkin butter!

Question: Have you ever participated in a food swap? This was my first… but not my last!

Snowy Saturday

What a weekend to visit my family in Pennsylvania. I go from 65 degrees in Houston yesterday to 30 degrees and snowing today in Philly. Talk about a series climate change!

I am currently writing this post from my little brother’s bed on my phone under 3 blankets. Yes… We lost power which also means no heat or Internet. Kinda like camping… In the winter!

Our original plan was to take a nice fall bike ride to enjoy the changing leaves. But due to the weather we obviously had to change things up!

Most of my pictures are on my camera so I will share them once I can use my computer!

I started off the morning with yoga with my mom. It felt so nice just to stretch! My muscles have been quite tight lately.

After a French toast breakfast on high 5 Great harvest bread we headed out to do some errands. We hit up goodwill to look for a purple jacket for my brother’s Halloween costume. He is going as Professor Plum from Clue. We found 3 purple jackets… What are the odds of that happening?!

Then we hit up Great harvest! I picked up a loaf of high 5 and oatbran. We also snagged a delicious red velvet Halloween cupcake.

Lunch was at the farmers market. This is one of my favorite places to eat when I’m home. It’s an indoor market with all different food stalls. I hit up my favorite Greek place. I couldn’t decide so I got a combo platter with Greek salad, beet salad, marinated eggplant, and pita.

Dessert was pumpkin ice cream. In the snow! My brother and I agreed that sometimes we crave cold food even more in the winter… Maybe we are just weird:)

After lunch my brother headed back to college. He wanted to make the drive before the roads got too bad. By this time a lot of places had lost power. I headed over to a local restaurant to meet my friend Katie from high school.

It was so fun seeing her! Although we couldn’t dress up and go out as planned, we still got to chat. And hanging out in a bar with a generator for power with all the locals was pretty fun!

For dinner we went to Golden China, a Chinese food restaurant that never seems to lose power! I remember going there growing up every time we lost power! They had expanded their menu to include sushi! I got a new to me roll with egg, crab, and roe. I also got miso soup and salad.

It was delicious! I’m glad I tried something different and didn’t go with the eel or salmon roll per usual.

My parents and I tried to go to Barnes and Nobles to avoid going home to the heatless house… But it was closed.

I didn’t think a weekend home would turn into such an adventure!

Question: What do you do with your family when the power goes out?

Oatmeal Taste Test Round 2: Starbucks

This morning I wanted to try a new Insanity workout. Although I am not actually following the program, I have been incorporating one or two of the workouts into my weekly mix. This morning I opted to try the Cardio Power and Resistance for the first time. I definitely worked up a sweat. The power jumps were hard! The hardest part for me is that I try to keep up with the people on the screen, and then I sacrifice my form. I think that once I do each workout a couple of times, this will get easier. I finished up with some ab work.

After my workout, as I was rushing around like a mad woman getting showered and ready for work that it would be a good day to do round 2 of testing out “healthy” fast food breakfast choices. If you missed my first test of Burger King’s new oatmeal option, check it out!

Oatmeal Taste Test: Burger King

Some of you may argue that Starbucks is not fast food.

I would disagree. It has a drive thru, which is something I immediately associate with fast food. If someone can prep your food and drink while you wait in your car, it must be pretty fast right? Also, Starbucks are everywhere! Shopping malls, airports… basically anywhere you can find a McDonalds.

Even if you don’t want to classify Starbucks as fast food, it is readily accessible to most people, so I decided to include it in my oatmeal taste test. I had ordered the oatmeal a couple of years ago when it was first introduced to the menu and I remember really enjoying it.

The oats and all of the toppings came separately.

“Perfect” Oats

Nut Medley: almonds, pecans, and walnuts.

Dried fruit: currants, yellow raisins, and cherries.

Brown sugar.

Having all of the topping separate was nice because you could control your level of sweetness.

Overall Grade: A-

Taste: I was a little worried when the cashier handed me my oats because they looked really watery. But the lid didn’t lie! After I waited a few minutes and opened up the container, the oats had thickened up nicely. I loved the toppings. I normally stick to one type of nut or dried fruit when I make my oats at home so it was nice to have a mixture. The dried fruit added plenty of sweetness for my taste so I didn’t even miss the brown sugar. I think that the oats would be even creamier with a splash of half and half from the coffee bar!

Nutrition: Since all of the toppings were separate, the nutrition stats could vary considerably. For the plain oats, nuts, and dried fruit (the combo I used) the stats were as follows:

Calories: 340

Fat: 12.5 grams

Dietary Fiber: 6 grams

Sugar: 20 grams (all from the dried fruit)

Protein: 7 grams

The addition of the brown sugar would add 50 calories and 13 grams of sugar.

Cost: $2.45

Other Factors: My biggest complaint was the excessive amount of packaging.

Carrying bag.

Little bag to hold the toppings. And then each topping was in its own little plastic bag, the plastic spoon, and the oatmeal cup. Phew. What a waste! Next time I would ask for just the toppings and oatmeal without the extra bags.

I liked these oats much more than the Burger King oatmeal… but I still like homemade best… especially since I started taking the extra time to make them on the stove.

I’m publishing this post from my parents house in PA where I am spending the weekend. It will be a quick trip since I have to leave on Sunday at 1… but I’m excited about the potential snow storm!

Question: What is your go to Starbucks order? Mine is an iced grande cafe latte (iced or hot, depending on the season). I get 2 % milk. It is so much creamier than with skim! I always add chocolate powder or nutmeg from the hot bar area.