WIAW & OOTD: Better Late Than Never

I know I'm late, but don't forget about me!  I'm still here and I still want to tell you about what I ate and what I wore!  A busy day = not taking pictures of everything and not posting at a reasonable hour.  It also means a lack of inspiration on my part, so forgive the little amount of wording and lack of clever stories.

I'm linking up with the wonderful Jenn over at Peas and Crayons today "Falling into Good Habits" edition.

The healthy habits I've been working on?

1. Drinking more water.
2. Having well balanced meals
3. Eat more veggies

How am I doing you ask?? I'm doing OK.  I've been actively working on all three, but sometimes I don't have all my veggies or drink as much water as I should.  It's all about the progress though and that's all I really try to focus on.

So, here's what I ate today...

B- Breakfast Cookie (rolled oats, ww flour, honey, cranberries, dark chocolate) with Coffee

L- Ezekial Bread toasted with Guacamole, Turkey, and Pepperjack Cheese

S- Blue Corn & Sesame Chips w/ homemade salsa and a Caramel Apple with Peanuts

D- Pot Roast w/ Carrots, Onions, and a Sweet Potato

And this is what I wore today:

Let's hear it for orange nail polish!! Hope you're all having a wonderful day.  Is this week going by as fast for you as it is for me?

Weekend Update

This weekend was jammed pack full of fun stuff and I pretty much took pictures of everything, embarrassing myself. But, on the bright side?  Now I get to share all of the weekend through pictures instead of just writing about it!

Friday Lee and I went to a local Mexican restaurant and we had delicious food.  I got one of my FAVORITE all time appetizers there:  queso frito caliente.. basically hot, fried, cheese.  Yummo!  It's ooey, gooey, goodness.  You can't go wrong with that!

Saturday I went to brunch with my sister, aunt, and two of my cousins.  We went to a new local restaurant that serves local, farm fresh, and organic food.  It was my first time going and it's going to be a weekend staple for me from now on, it was fantastic!  We also visited some of the shops in the area including a candy shop that has BARRELS of taffy in any flavor you can think of!  Instead of taffy I opted for Jamaican Me Crazy coffee and it ended up being delicious.  

Later on in the day Lee and I went over to a coffee shop to work on school work and then we ended up browsing a bookstore and window shopping.

 

Sunday Lee and I spent the day relaxing at his parent's house soaking up some of the last moments of summer.  We went on a canoe trip and saw ducks, turtles, lily pads, slime and all of that other summer goodness.

It was a fun filled, relaxing weekend.  One of those weekends that you never want to end.  How was your weekend?  How are you spending the last moments of your summer?

Crock Pot Taco Soup

It's officially Autumn here.  The nights are cooling down, the morning's are crisp, and the leaves are beginning to change into their bright oranges, reds, and yellows.  I love this time of year.  It starts the season for comfort food: hot meals, soft breads, and delicious bakery that remind me of home.

One of my favorite ways to make food during the Autumn and Winter season is with my Crock Pot.  I posted a picture of one of my recent Crock Pot creations in my WIAW, Taco Soup.  It's easy, delicious, and healthy.  I'm going to share the recipe with you and hopefully it can warm you up if you're feeling the chill that's beginning to creep through our homes.

Ingredients:

Soup

1/2 lb raw chicken breast, cubed

2 cans black beans, rinsed

1 can corn

2 cans fire roasted tomato

1 can green chilies

1 packet taco seasoning

Toppings

shredded cheddar

avocado

plain greek yogurt

Directions:

1. Put all soup ingredients into the crock pot on the low setting, mix.  

2. Cook for about six hours.

3. Garnish with any complimentary toppings.

Here are the stats for the soup without any toppings and broken up into 8 servings:

Calories: 205

Carbs: 32 grams

Fat: 2 grams

Protein: 15 grams

Fiber: 10 grams

 In ended up being fantastic and super easy, perfect for a busy week.  I hope you're all having a fabulous Friday! I'm definitely ready for the weekend.  Pumpkin Spice Lattes here I come!  

WIAW: Let's take this to go.

I had a million things going on yesterday.  It felt like that anyway!  I worked both jobs, which ended up being a 12 hour shift total, popped in to see some family at my grandma's, and ended up having to go for a run around 10 pm last night, where I felt like I was knocking on death's door. It was a STRUGGLE!!

So, to get to the point, this is my "on the go" version of eating.  I try to prepare as much homemade food as possible in advance to prepare for days like this and I think it paid of yesterday.  Did ya'll know my WIAW are actually my WIA.. Tuesdays?? Well, they are!

So here's what I ate for Jenn's link up over at Peas and Crayons "Fall into good habits" version:

B- Ezekiel toast with peanut butter and wild-berry preserves

Coffee with almond milk, easy and quick, especially with the Keurig.

L- Taco soup, chobani plain greek yogurt, and a little bit of shredded cheddar, from dinner the night before.

S- trail mix (blueberry kashi cereal, dark chocolate, dried blueberries/cranberries,) this concoction is always in my office waiting to be eaten when I get hungry.

D- Spinach tortellini, w/ tomato, spinach, and garlic. This was quickly made by blending a can of tomato, fresh spinach, and garlic with some seasoning.  

As you can see, quick/healthy/yummy meals, for on-the-go!  

I don't have calories for you this week, because I didn't take the time to count them!  But, I was wondering, would you all be interested in my workout schedule for the week?  I could add it to my WIAW's.  It could be a "this is what I eat and this is what I do to burn it off type of thing."  What do you think?  

I hope you all are having a healthy and happy Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by!  

   

Sunny Mondays

Mondays seem to give me a hangover.  I'm not talking about the "I drank too much" kinda hangover.  I'm talking about the I'm to sleepy to move and do this work kind of hangover.  I look for every opportunity to make my Mondays easier and sometimes, all you need to make Mondays OK is a little pop of color.

Bright bits of teal and yellow are my favorite colors to help me brighten up my day!  What helps you brighten up your Monday? I could use any help that you have to offer!  

And did you all notice the change in the air?  Fall is here in the Yoop!  Is it visiting you yet?

Blueberry Muffins

I'm the kinda girl who likes healthy, easy, yummy food. This recipe is all of the above.  It's simple and I don't know that I can necessarily take credit for it since it's from... a box.  But wait! Don't leave!  I altered the recipe and this is good, I promise.  PLUS the pictures look delicious!

Here's the recipe..

Ingredients:
1 box Fiber One blueberry muffin mix
2 Tbs. applesauce
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1 cup blueberries

Direction:

1. Heat oven to 425, place paper baking cups in a 12 regular size muffin cups.
2. Stir together all ingredients until well blended.
3. Bake 15-20 minutes or until you can put a toothpick in and there is nothing on it when it's pulled out.

Now, I made 20 muffins instead of the called for 24, because I can never seem to delegate the right amount of mix to each muffin tin, oh well, even with 20 these muffins have pretty good stats.

Here they are..

Each muffin has only 90 calories with a healthy 2 grams of protein and fat each as well as 3 grams of fiber.  They end up being a great start to your morning, plus they make your house smell DIVINE!  They are also great for an on the go pick me up.

Let me know if you try them over the weekend! Have a fantastic Friday!

WIAW & A New Look

Jenn over at Peas & Crayons has a new theme for September's WIAW series and I think it's pretty fun!  She's asking us to "Fall into good habits."


So here goes my good habits that I want to work on this month:

1) Eat more veggies!
2) Make sure that I'm getting my water in.
3) Eat balanced meals.

Simple and semi-easy to follow, just how I like things!

So here's what I ate:

B- Kashi Go Lean cereal berries w/ almond milk and blueberry coffee w/ almond milk (217)

S- almonds, cashews, dried cranberries, and dark chocolate (homemade trail mix) w/ chobani blood orange greek yogurt (379)

S- low sodium v8 w/ banana (175)

D- turkey burger w/ onions, tomato, mixed greens, onion baked beans, and sweet potato fries (436)

S- Kiwi and vitagummies (76)

I added calorie content just for interest sake.

Another thing that I wanted to add was a new hair look that I found over at ElleSees.  Here's my interpretation:

I hope you're all having a wonderful Wednesday!  Stop by ElleSees and Peas & Crayons when you get the chance!