Coconut Cake for Dinner

Ryan knows the way to my heart.

Cheeser's Palace Coconut Cake

That little big beauty is a piece of coconut cake from Cheeser’s Palace, a café located in Clermont, Florida that makes the most unbelievably delicious cakes.

Ryan discovered Cheeser’s cakes through his work when one of his colleagues began bringing in a different cake to celebrate the birthday of each person in their department.  He has raved about the cakes ever since he tried his first slice!

About a month or so ago, he managed to snag a small slice of a lemon cake at work to bring home for me to try. I was overwhelmed by how perfectly moist the cake was and how amazingly sweet and creamy the icing tasted. It was love at first bite.

The next day I went to Cheeser’s website and emailed Ryan a list of all the cakes Cheeser’s makes, with the ones I especially wanted to try highlighted in bright yellow. (Wow. I think I may have a problem.)

Well, today I got to try the coconut cake – my number one choice!

Coconut Tastiness

Ryan brought home a huge slice of coconut cake from work today. (It was his boss’s birthday and she selected the coconut cake. Smart woman!)

I was overjoyed and instantly declared that I would be eating cake for dinner! 😀

I enjoyed every last decadent bite.

Dinner Number Two

Of course I felt like I needed something nutritious in my belly, so I made myself a second dinner, but still kept it sweet since my sweet tooth was apparently raging this evening.

I enjoyed my breakfast parfait on Wednesday morning so much that I decided to recreate it for dinner tonight.

Layered Sweetness

"Everybody Loves a Parfait!"

For those of you who are extra observant and noticed the “52” on the wine glass in the above picture, the glass was a free gift from a cooking demo we attended where chefs from Season’s 52 taught us some tricks of the trade at our local Whole Foods. (You may see a recap from another free cooking demo we attended at Whole Foods here. I wasn’t blogging at the time of the Season’s 52 demo. 🙂 )

I made my dinner parfait by layering vanilla Greek yogurt with frozen strawberries and a frozen banana blended together into creamy, fruity soft serve.

Sweet 'n' Creamy

It was the perfect mini-meal after indulging in a huge piece of amazing cake.

My sweet tooth is satisfied. 😀

Love Affair

When I fall in love I fall in love with a new food, I fall in love hard.

I am so excited by the tastiness of something new that I want to include it in every meal!

As evidenced by my new love for Chavrie goat cheese, which I only discovered yesterday, I simply had to include the creamy goodness in my lunch today since our love affair is in full bloom.

Goat Cheese + Broccoli + Pasta

I need to back off from the cheese a bit because I can already feel myself getting a little too attached, clingy and overly obsessed.

I think the $6 price tag on such a small chunk o’ cheese will help prevent this new relationship from becoming a full-fledged addiction.

I included the goat cheese in a pasta bowl with Carba Nada egg fettuccine noodles and steamed broccoli.

Lunch is Served

Noodle Bowl

On the side I enjoyed a small banana.

Nanner

All Together

Lunch was finger lickin’ good (or fork lickin’ good in this case 😉 ).

Now a question for YOU!

What is your most recent food obsession?

Though this goat cheese is definitely my most recent foodie love, my past obsessions have included Monterey Pasta Company’s ravioli, flourless peanut butter cookies, the Pioneer Woman’s sugar cookies, Carba Nada noodles, pumpkin protein pancakes, Babybel cheese, Mochi frozen yogurt, Jimmy John’s sandwiches, and Lindt truffles… to name a few. 😉

Recharging Your Workout Routine

I feel like I flew out the door this morning! I had a lot on my mind as I set out on my run due to an exciting voicemail I received this morning.

After listening to the message, I heard the voice of my friend Leah all elevated and excited saying that she and her boyfriend Matt had some “big news” to share! They’re in Europe so I had no way of calling her back (though I did leave a voicemail on her cell phone just in case 😉 ), but I felt 100 percent positive that the news was going to be that Matt proposed! I checked my email just in case and I was right!!! He proposed in a castle. Romantic, huh!?

I’m SO excited. Leah and Matt are such a fantastic couple. I can’t wait to talk to her and hear all about the proposal. I’m pretty much dying right now since I can’t call her! Ah!!!

Congratulations!!!!

YAYYYYY! 🙂

Morning Run

Another reason I flew out the door this morning was because I was anxious to try out my new running shoes.

"Ready, Ready, Ready, Ready to Ruuun"

Clearly Sadie was pretty excited about our run as well.

We tackled five (blister free!!!) miles.

Stats

(In case you are wondering, I don’t map out a perfect 5-mile route every time. I just stop my watch exactly at five miles and walk for about five minutes to cool down and get back to my apartment.)

I took the guy from Track Shack’s advice and laced up my shoes a little tighter before running. I think this really helped keep my feet secure in the shoes and prevented the formation of any blisters. Sch-weet!

Blister Free, Baby!

I followed up our run with 10 minutes of stretching on my fancy pink yoga mat. 🙂

Breakfast

Twenty minutes after a run my body goes into “give me food NOW” mode. Of course I always obey. 😀

Today’s breakfast was an egg, cheese and veggie bacon bagelwich.

I used MorningStar Farms vegggie bacon strips, which smelled exactly like bacon as they were cooking and turned out surprisingly crisp in the microwave.

MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips

I topped a toasted sweet wheat Alternative Bagel with a Laughing Cow light original Swiss cheese wedge, two egg whites and the veggie bacon and scarfed the bagelwich down in no time!

Egg, Cheese, Bacon, Bagel

Protein Packed

Breakfast Bagelwich

Perfect post-run fuel!

Recharging Your Workout Routine

As I was conquering the weekly long run of my half marathon training plan last Saturday I started breaking up the run into “sets” in my mind.

When strength training, we often do several sets of an exercise, and each time we finish a set it feels like a mini-accomplishment. By breaking up my eight-mile run into four sets of two miles in my mind, I felt like I was able to check a “set” off my running list every 18 minutes or so. That was a lot better than waiting more than an hour to feel like I accomplished something!

It was a totally mental thing, but for some reason this new way of thinking really recharged my run. It also got me thinking about other ways to rejuvenate my exercise routine. Since we all get into an exercise rut sometimes, I figured you might be interested in some of my tips for recharging your workout routine:

• Break up your workout: Rather than doing a lot of cardio one day and strength training on its own the next, combine the two workouts and make them last for two days.

• Change your location: Get out of the gym and go running, rollerblading or biking or take your dog on a hike. If the gym is your thing, visit a different gym for a week (most gyms offer free weekly passes to “potential members”) or visit one of your gym’s sister locations.

• Take a new group exercise class: Take a strength training class to learn new weightlifting exercises, or take a cardio class to get your heart rate up while the time flies by!

• Sign up for a race: Sometimes having a goal in mind can really recharge your workout. Sign up for a 5k or a triathlon and focus your workouts to ensure a strong finish on race day.

• Take a break: If the thought of exercising makes you feel exhausted and you can’t remember the last time you took more than a day off in a week, you may need a few days off to relax and let your body recuperate from your intense training and active lifestyle.

• Do a cardio hodgepodge workout: I’m a huge fan of breaking up my cardio workouts into 10 minute spurts on various cardio machines. Spend 10 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the step machine and 10 minutes on the treadmill and watch time fly by!

• Search for new workouts: Browse blogs or flip through fitness magazines for new workout recommendations. Some of my favorite workouts have come from other bloggers!

• Update your music: Change up the music on your iPod for instant motivation. A new playlist with upbeat music can really rejuvenate a workout!

Question of the Day

How do you recharge your workouts?