My Favorite Date

Happy Friday, y’all!

Yesterday I took the day off from social media. 1.) Because I was frustrated, and 2.) Because it was not a good day. Especially when a day starts with these two things

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Ok, maybe for some of you having those things makes for a good day? But not in this household- they were for Layla. She was acting really strange with her butt again, so I went to the store to get the ‘necessities’ for what needed to be done. As I was getting into my car, Layla tried to escape, and in my attempts to grab her before she got out of the garage, I completely WHACKED my head on the read view mirror of Tyler’s truck. Luckily, I grabbed the dog in time, but I now have a neat red line/bump/bruise across my forehead.

Anyhoo, my attempts to resolve her issue didn’t seem to take effect, so I made an appointment to have her see a vet tech. Sitting on pins and needles for 4 hours waiting for the appointment time is NOT fun. The good news is, the tech examined Layla and said that I had apparently fixed the problem because her butt was A-ok.

And now we are done with the butt talk.

And now would be the most appropriate time to transition to food. Right? Riiiight?

Some eats we’ve has as of late:

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Homemade Vegetarian Wontons- so good! I gobbled them up.

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Blueberry Purses- using the same wonton wrappers, except with a concoction I threw together with fresh blueberries, a bit of butter and some honey. These were like chips to me. I could not. Stop. Eating them.

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Paleo Turkey Meatballs and Sauce. I followed this recipe, except I used No Yolk noodles. The best part of the ball recipe was that it used almond meal as a binding agent (instead of panko or bread crumbs). It made all the difference! I have had so much trouble with ground turkey because I have not been able to keep patties or balls together; they all tend to crumble. But this recipe with the almond meal, made them stick together and offered an awesome flavor that both Tyler and I enjoyed. And the sauce was SUPER easy to make, too!

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I just made these suckers this morning. The recipe needs to be tweaked a bit, but the flavor was definitely there. Among the ingredients: coconut flour, almond milk, chia seeds, and Click protein powder.

Now on to the workouts (I’m thinking of condensing my workouts to just a weekly post so they are all in one place/I don’t bore you everyday. Thoughts?)

Wednesday: Workout B from BBB and 85 burpees.

Thursday: Treadmill intervals for 30 minutes + 100 burpees (The burpees for this day were actually the challenge for Healthy sELF! I was pumped since I have already been on the burpee-train as of late 🙂

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(Insert my first PicMonkey collage. Sorry, it’s terrible. But I was trying to pay homage to Boston and their upcoming storm. Which you would think they had never experienced inclement weather before. That’s a whole other story..)

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In the spirit of the upcoming holiday (Valentine’s Day) and for the sake of bulking up my post, I decided I wanted to write about my FAVORITE date. And yes, it was with Tyler. In fact, it was our FIRST date!

Tyler had flown out to see me in Boston, and brilliant me decided we could drink the city. Good thing it was up his alley as well. We took the 57 bus from Oak Square (after getting LARGE Dunks coffees) and got dropped off at Fenway. From there, we walked to Newbury Street and really began our adventure. From roughly noon that day, until about 1am when we got back to my apartment, we walked, talked, ate, and drank through the following places:

There might have been more, but my memory is foggy (for obvious reasons). We both calculate that we drank 2039572039572095 drinks and walked 09357209375210 miles- so they countered each other. I do remember at one point, we got pizza and I walked barefoot the last 2 miles home. Gross.

But so much fun.

What’s your favorite date?

Chia Chocolate Chip Cookies

Aaaand I totally thought it was Tuesday. But it’s not. 

Moving on!

Happy Monday, folks. What oh what do I have to share with you today? Well, there’s a recipe. That’s about it. 

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These cookies are seriously delicious. I was searching around the internets to find inspiration and after about 2 hours of wandering, I found it. These are chia chocolate chip cookies that I modified to accommodate what I had in the house and what I actually would want to eat.

Chia Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 1 1/2 c quick oats
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/3 c flour
  • 1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I used Click, an espresso protein powder-my FAVORITE-, which gave it an awesome coffee kick!)
  • 2 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1/4 c butter
  •  1/2 c brown sugar
  • 3/4 c peanut butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 c dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie pans with cooking spray.

2. In a bowl, mix oats, baking powder, flour, protein powder, and chia seeds. 

3. In another bowl (or mixer),  beat eggs and butter until smooth. Add peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add oat mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Take tbsp amounts of dough, form into balls using your palms and place on cookies sheets. Bake 13 minutes and allow to cool.

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I think it’s safe to say these are some of my favorite cookies ever. They have protein. And peanut butter. And chocolate. The chia seeds give it a great twist, too!

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They keep their shape in small, roundish balls. Cue me eating more than intended. And they have a super yummy middle.

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Ok, ok, I’m going to stop describing them. Mmmm….so good.

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I managed to get in the cardio portion of Workout A from Best Body Bootcamp already. I ran about 40 minutes of intervals on the treadmill. It felt SO GOOD to get back on those nice treadmills and really push myself.

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I’ll be getting the strength portion done while I watch Biggest Loser tonight. AND, as an added bonus, I’ve decided to do 10 burpees for every set of commercials (doesn’t hurt that the show is 2 hours!)

And last, but certainly not least, today is the first day of the Healthy sELF challenge.

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The challenge was designed as a way for people to connect through social media as a means of motivating each other to choose healthy options in life. Healthy through food, fitness, love, etc. Today’s challenge was go to meatless. That’s kind of hard when you’re coming off a Super Bowl high and live with a guy who loves meat. But, I managed to come up with an interesting concoction. Insert: tofu tacos with slaw, tangy sauce and warmed grapefruit.

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They had a lot of different flavors and textures, but it just didn’t feel like a cohesive dish. Nonetheless, I got in my protein, kept it meatless, and filled my tummy with an assortment of goodness.

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Question: Do you have a favorite meatless meal?