The Great Debate

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I’m sitting here wrestling with which to share first:

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The WORKOUT or the RECIPE????

Honestly, this is a huge problem because I don’t want whichever I choose to write about first to feel more important or better than the other. They’re both pretty good and left me weak in the knees..

So to play a fair game of eenie-meenie-miney-mo, I will go for the muffin recipe first (please, please don’t scroll down and skip the recipe, it’s pretty fantastic).

pumpkinmuffin

Pumpkin Muffins with Nutella Yum Yum (made that name up on the spot!)

  • 2 c unbleached white flour
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 c pumpkin puree
  • 3/4 c brown sugar
  • 1/4 c honey
  • 1 egg
  • 2 T unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 T unsweetened almond milk
  • 2 t vanilla
  • NUTELLA

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  1. Preheat over to 350. Spray muffin pan (as you can see, I got a little spray happy)
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl.
  3. Mix all the wet ingredient (minus Nutella) in another bowl
  4. Add the dry mix to the wet mix.
  5. Fill cups 3/4 full and top each with about 1 teaspoon of nutella. Use a tootpick or knife to ‘swirl’ the nutella over the top of the batter.
  6. Bake for 13-14 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Ah, I can’t handle how good these are. I made them last night and managed to not even sneak the tiniest taste until I had one for a snack at work. I might’ve moaned at my desk. I blamed it on the computer?? No, I took the credit for all ‘mmms’ and ‘ahhhs’.

Ok, ok, so the workout. Last night I did that upper body pyramid, so tonight I decided to focus on lower body. I actually incorporated some new and haven’t-used-in-a-while exercises!

Each move (except the farmer’s walk) consisted of completing 20 reps, 5 pulsing reps, 10 reps, and 5 pulsing reps. For the moves that are ‘L’ and “R’ sides, complete the 20-5-10-5 on one side, then do the same on the other side.

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To further explanation/demonstration of the moves, here are some helpful links:

It’s all about balance.

IN THE COMMENTS:

Got any new-to-you moves you want to share?

Go-to baking recipes?

Short and…Sweet?

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Welp, I sold my car.

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And now I’m rich. As rich as one can get when selling a 2003 teal Hyundai Santa Fe. 

I went to the mall after work and DID. NOT. BUY. A. THING. yikes.

Making this short and NOT sweet (let’s face it, I’m not a ‘sweet’ person) I wanted to share the quick upper body workout I did tonight followed by hills and HIIT on the bike. Just a pyramid workout, where 1 rep is done of each move, then 2, then 3, up to 10, then all the way back down to one. I used 12 pound weights where applicable.

And yeah, I played around with picmonkey for this graphic because I’m feeling adventurous. And watching Homeland. Not that watching Homeland is a reason to make a cheezy graphic.

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Don’t pin that. It’s embarrassing. 

Also, I just took an INSANE batch of muffins out of the oven. Will share tomorrow. Drooling just thinking about it now. 

MUST STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM NOW.

goodnight!

Things From the Weekend

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Let’s talk about things from this weekend, shall we? We shall.

Friday after work, Tyler and I had pizza and beer and mentally checked out to watch The Purge and The Hangover III. The end.

Saturday, I got up early and cooked myself some bacon and eggs. I ended up only eating the bacon because I undercooked the eggs. Tragic? Not entirely. Me likely the bacon.

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Then I ran 5k. Balance is the key in life.

Then……I picked up my new car! My FIRST new car ever!

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(Yeah, that’s totally the picture they took of me at the dealership.)

I got a brand new Toyota 4Runner.. much better than the 1998 Toyota Corolla and the 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe- although THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR BOTH OF THOSE VEHICLES.

I love love love it.

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I sat in it in the driveway for like an hour yesterday. Totally obsessed. And the best part->

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Hahaha YES. A car with a Party Mode button is my kinda vehicle.

Afterward, Tyler and I met up with our friends Crystie & Greg for dinner at State & Main. We shared the Calamari and I had the Mahi Mahi tacos. It was all super delicious. AND they even had my Okanagan Springs Summer Weizen!

stateandmain

 

Following dinner (And good conversation) the four of us headed to the theater to see Prisoners. It was pretty good, but a little gory. It also made me realize that I can’t sit in public for 2 1/2 hours. My ass HURT.

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Today, I did laundry (exciting), washed the floors (exciting) and cleaned out the Santa Fe to get it ready to sell (exciting)

*NOTE: Everything above was, in fact, NOT exciting.

I also ate a butt-ton of garlic stuffed olives and skyped with mom and dad for an hour

*those were fun.

I totally just remembered the whole Photo Booth thingy on my MacBook, so I thought I’d share a photo of RIGHT NOW. Disclaimer: I have googly eyes and Layla’s paw IS still attached to the rest of her body, you just can’t really see her.

Photo on 2013-09-29 at 17.29

 

Now that I’ve remembered the Photo Booth thing, I totally have to share with you some of the pics I had my mom, dad,  and I take on my iPad. Pretty hilarious. And don’t worry, I won’t hate it if you can’t tell whose who.

9.29 faces

 

We are weirdos and I love it.

Other things of note for the weekend:

  • I signed up for my friend, Athena’s Fall Into Fitness challenge. Check it out if you’re interested!
  • I bought a jar of Nutella (worthy of mentioning, obviously)
  • I get my first month transit pass. Looks like I’m locked into public transit for my weekday commute for October!

9.29 transit

  • I FINALLY got my wedding photos! (They have a giant PROOF written across them in the digital gallery and she’s putting the disc in the mail tomorrow) I’ll post some later this week, just gotta figure a way I can get them compiled!

wedding

 

  • You know the expression “does a bear shit in the woods?” It should be changed to “does Reggie shit in the basement?” Because yes, yes he does. All the time. It’s getting REALLY old.
  • My favorite pumpkin ale (in Canada) Phillips Crooked Tooth Pumpkin Ale

9.29 ale

And with that, I have procrastinated my workout long enough.

IN THE COMMENTS: 

What did you take away from this weekend?

 

 

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins (grain free!)

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Hello, earthlings.

Just wanted to pop in right quick and leave you with a SWEET recipe I tested out last night…and LOVED.

Almond Flour Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins (grain free!)

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Here’s what you need:

  • 2 c almond flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 c unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/4 c agave
  • 1 T vanilla
  • 1 t vinegar
  • 1/2 t baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 1 c raspberries
  • 2/3 c chocolate chips

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Here’s what you do:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with liners (don’t just use non-stick spray on the pan…these suckers WILL stick.
  2. Mix all the ingredients except the raspberries and chocolate chips together in a bowl until well combined. Then gently fold in the raspberries and chocolate chips.
  3. Throw in the oven for 20 minutes, turning the pan halfway through.

*Note: These muffins will appear to be undone…let them sit in the pan for 20 minutes after you take them out of the oven and allow them time on the counter to ‘set.’ I left mine out overnight and they were PERFECT the next morning. Also keep in mind that because these have different ingredients than your average run-of-the-mill muffin, the consistency will be different…but in a good way!

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OMG yum. 

I’m HERE! With a WORKOUT!

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Well crap. I have just been sucking with my blog game lately. 

Let jump right to it.

Or perhaps I should detour right quick and thank everyone for their comments on my last post. Blacking out while drunk is embarrassing enough, but blacking out stone cold sober in the morning on a crowded train is just the pits. I have been super mindful of drinking tons of water in the AM to avoid future recurrences. (PS: my train this morning was stalled by 10 minutes due to a medical emergency on the train ahead. Apparently blacking out is the cool thing to do on the C train?)

I also want to apologize to any other bloggers out there who may, on occasion, get comments from me and who are not seeing any as of late. Yeah, I have also been slacking in that department. Don’t worry, I’m still reading your blog. And obviously liking it. Just know that I am either avoiding motion sickness on the morning train or sitting on my hands to avoid peeing my pants on the bus ride home and thus cannot use my thumbs to type a quirky response to your latest and greatest published goods.

And to my readers, thanks for sticking around. Because…you’re awesome.

I have some posts lined up (and by ‘lined up’ I mean I haven’t typed them yet, but they’re just ideas in my head) about latest meals, a couple of recipes, and some beauty/fashion favorites. I’m thinking of calling them my beaution or feuty finds <——play on words, ya catch that?

For this post, given that I am typing this at 10pm and I still have to shower and give some sort of attention to my dogs and husband, I just wanted to share with you the workout that I did tonight.

HOLD THE PHONE. WAIT.

I forgot that I needed to tell you about the FAB find that TYLER OF ALL PEOPLE discovered tonight. MOM…THIS IS YOUR CUE TO STOP READING THIS POST. I PROMISE YOU CAN READ IT IN 7-10 BUSINESS DAYS.

So this ‘find’ if you will…..apparently lowes.ca has some sort of pricing typo and listed their Margaritaville machine on sale from $98 to $78 dollars. I’m thinking there was supposed to be a ‘1’ in front of those prices, but anyyyywaysss… Tyler found that if I went to Best Buy (where they honor competitor’s sale prices and award an ADDITIONAL 10% off) I could score that sucker for under $70! So, I Speedy Gonzalez’d it over to the Best Buy and WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM I got my Mom her *belated* birthday gift FOR THE GREATEST STEAL OF ALL TIMES.

Back to that workout.

*phew, I just got sweaty over how excited I was getting from typing that amazing gem of a story*

So this workout consists of three sets of exercises. Ok, technically 6 sets since I separated them from ‘left’ and ‘right’. For each set, I would complete 16 reps of each move, then 12 reps of each, then 8 reps of each. Once I was completed with those 3 sets, I would move to the next three sets- which were essentially the same moves, just on the other ‘side’ (so this would be the moves from column one in the pic below) Then I move to the next column and do the same, 16 of both, 12 of both, 8 of both, then onto the bottom set: 16, 12, 8. Last column was 20, 15, and 10 of each move.

Comprende?

(Let me know if I am apparently typing this too late in the night and not making sense at all as to how to complete this workout. If you do, I will promptly swig a mug of coffee and reply with a hopefully better explanation.)

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If you don’t know any of the above moves, check out these links:

 

After I did this, I completed 20 minutes of HIIT and rolling hills on the bike.

And when I got in my car to go home, I couldn’t even lift my leg to the gas pedal because of squishy-post-workout leg syndrome. I really can’t wait to see if I can manage a pair of heels to work tomorrow.

And as Merritt Wever so perfectly said it at the Emmy’s last night…Umm..I gotta go, bye.