Getting Ready!

OMG!!  I'm leaving so soon and still have so much to do!!!

I started the day with a long run.

It was a really nice morning!

After a quick shower and some coffee (I just drank it straight, without any milk...it's chocolate truffle flavored, so it was drinkable), I mixed together plain Greek yogurt and raspberry jelly.

Before going to work, I tried to bake some potatoes (I cut up a potato in cubes, mixed with olive oil, salt and pepper, put in the oven at 500 degrees for 45 minutes), but they were totally burned when I took them out of the oven.  My smoke alarm even went off (although it didn't help that maintenance STILL hasn't fixed my oven fan).  So I had to get lunch at Olives (oh how horrible).

roast beef, provolone, lettuce tomato onion, oil and vinegar

The day dragged so slowly at work.  Mid-afternoon, my co-worker Nikky gave me a rice krispy treat snack!

blurry

I also had one of my sweet potato muffins.

Once back at home on this glorious weather day, I ate some dinner while frantically trying to get more stuff ready for Europe.

apple

whole wheat tortilla, Ragu spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, 375 for 8 minutes

Pennsylvania!

And a few last leftover bites of yesterday's blueberry cheesecake.  

Time to rush around and pack!

National Blueberry Cheesecake Day

We'll get to the blueberry cheesecake in a bit....

So I really don't like almond milk in my coffee in the morning.  And I know that I also don't like coconut milk in my coffee in the morning.  This presents a problem, as I have 2 more mornings that I need to have coffee but do not have skim milk (cow milk) to put in it.  Maybe I will like almond milk better if I put some stevia in there also.  I will try that tomorrow.

I headed in to work early to do a short run with Steve and Jennifer-from-the-beginner-runner-group.  We did one lap around a Princeton neighborhood with Jennifer, and then Steve and I did another lap at a faster pace.  With walking during the first lap, we did over 3 miles.

I showered at work (not as bad as I would have thought).  It was a great morning run, so Steve and I may have to keep this up after I get back!

I had a quick snack of Greek yogurt mixed with raspberry jelly, with a later lunch of the pizza shown in the second picture.

(Papa John's pepperoni and sausage.  leftovers!)

Also, remember the coffee debacle from earlier?  Well, I solved that by HOUSING one of these:

Starbucks (tall) mocha cookie crumble frapp with skim milk and no whip

It had chunks of cookie in it!  Pretty awesome.  

So while my days seems very boring (basically work and getting ready to go to Europe for a month), the only things on this blog seem to be food.  I guess that's ok.

Dinner was me trying to use up vegetables in my refrigerator plus the pineapple from earlier.

OK, maybe not a vegetable

Oh yeah, and did you know it's National Blueberry Cheesecake Day???  I picked up a piece of wild blueberry white chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.

I've got to say, it wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped.  Too much white chocolate taste, not enough blueberry taste.  But at least I celebrated!

Must. finish. getting. ready. for. europe.

Memorial Day (a little early)

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

I'm working on Sunday and Monday to make a few more bucks before leaving for Europe, so I spent Saturday at my parents' house in Pennsylvania to tie up a few loose ends for my trip and to spend some time with my Mom, Dad, and sister!

I can't help snacking when I get to my parents' house, since I hardly ever have snack-y foods in my own apartment!

Before my dad and I headed to the mall to exchange some money for euros, I had some of their leftovers for lunch.

Papa John's (one mushroom/green pepper, two pepperoni/sausage)

no HFCS, from Niagra, NY (hence the French)

At the mall, my dad bought a Mrs. Fields cookie for snacking and he gave me some  :)

my dad is the best

Once home, I again couldn't help but snack:

yessssss

Dinner was a little better: hamburger with ketchup, mustard, and onions, corn on the cob, and pineapple, with a side of German beer.

Did you know today is National Wine Day?  Gotta get in on the action!

except it wasn't that great

Dessert had to happen, of course.  It was too windy to start the coals for a barbeque, so we didn't have s'mores.

Rhubarb cream pie....I think?

peanut butter Cheerio treats.  the best.

Thank you to all the veterans who make/made celebrations like this possible!

Work Work Work

My week so far has been work, work, and more work.  Getting ready to leave for Europe and working to make money.

This morning, I had a boring breakfast of coffee and graham crackers and milk.

Lunch was a bit more interesting.  I baked a cut-up potato (mixed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and buffalo chicken sauce) in the oven at 500 degrees for 45 minutes.  Then I added some shredded chicken (which I already cooked in the crock pot) mixed with more buffalo chicken sauce, and mexican cheese and chopped green onions; then cooked it for another 7 minutes (I lowered the oven to 400 degrees) just to heat the chicken and melt the cheese.  It was pretty good!  I really liked the potatoes done this way, so I may have to cook regular potatoes more often like this with different spices and herbs.

On my way to work, I drank an iced tea latte.

I drank most of it before taking the picture.  Oops.

Basically, I made tea yesterday and kept it in the fridge overnight.  Right before I left I added ice cubes and almond milk.  

After a long day at work (which included some energy gel chews, I have to say), I relaxed with a BBQ pizza (whole wheat tortilla, chicken mixed with BBQ sauce, mexican cheese, and some pre-roasted veggies cooked for 8 minutes at 375)

and a yummy beer.

chocolatey

I watched Atonement (man, is my Netflix queue long!).  It was pretty good, although I didn't think it was a great as a lot of people have said.  The scene on the beach with all the soldiers really dragged on for a long time!

The Past Few Days

I had quite a wonderful weekend!
Some highlights:

Katie's birthday on Friday night

Chickie's and Pete's crab fries...yum

Trenton Thunder baseball game, Saturday night

teaching Lori all about baseball!

And then Betsy's wedding on Sunday:

the "Bel" - pineapple juice and rum

Mel + Becca = Bel

me and the beautiful bride!

Guess who caught the bouquet!  Well, guess who was the only single woman there...

What the heck am I supposed to do with this?

Congratulations Betsy!!!!!!

TGIF

This was totally me this morning:

Fortunately, it IS Friday!!  And I have off of work today for WCC graduation!

So yesterday's evening meal did not go quite as healthily as planned.  Instead of a veggie/sausage mix I prepared to eat as dinner at work, I snacked on the goodies we had out for Ladies' Night in Princeton.

Well, at least there were some strawberries in there along with cheese, cookies, and chocolate.

This morning, I had my cup of coffee with skim milk and one of my favorite light breakfasts:

graham crackers and milk!

I crack up 5 graham crackers into a bowl, and then drizzle the tiniest bit of milk over top to make them slightly mushy, but still have a little bit of crunch (and also so I can pick them up and eat them with my hands).

On to the rest of my day...graduation and Katie's birthday!

A New Life

Wow, time really gets away from you, doesn't it?

I feel lifetimes away from where I was (physically, mentally, emotionally) the last time I posted.  I resigned from my full-time job to pursue my dream of being an opera singer.  I'm now living in New Jersey, where I just finished my first year of a Masters degree in voice performance.  Moving and then school full-time with a part-time job (plus homework, plus practicing) has really made me busy this past year.  But, it is time to get back on track to being healthy.  Time to restart my commitment to exercising more and eating more healthfully with this blog!

To start off the day I went for a run.  Five times around the park, the last time at a faster pace.

I WILL get faster!

It's a good thing I went out when I did; by the time I made it back there were already rain drops beginning.

So, this is New Jersey, where the power goes out when it's slightly windy.  So, naturally, the power went out because it started drizzling.  (Actually, there was apparently a huge transformer fire, but still.)  My post-shower breakfast had to be

Makes messes all over the place

Thank goodness the power went out AFTER my coffee had finished brewing.

Fortunately, the power came back on in about an hour, so I was able to cook a healthy breakfast.  I tried a egg/cheese/raspberry jelly sandwich that Julie loves on one of my favorite blogs, Peanut Butter Fingers.

toasted english muffin, shredded mozzarella, egg, raspberry jelly

Unfortunately, I didn't love it.  Maybe it's because I used mozzarella cheese instead of smoked gouda.  The smoked gouda would have given it a lot more flavor, I'm sure.

Now it's off to run some errands on Westminster's campus, go to work, and graduation rehearsal.