Fiesta Burgers

How to make a hungry boy happy: Have a big burger waiting when we arrives home!

Ryan got caught up a little late at work this evening, so I got to work in the kitchen solo. Initially I was going to wait for him to arrive home to grill up the burgers since the grill intimidates me, but my stomach was growling and I figured he’d enjoy having dinner ready when he walked in the door.

Though I wasn’t brave enough to fire up the grill, I did manage to make a mean couple o’ burgers on the stove.

I combined lean ground beef with salsa to make fiesta burgers!

Fiesta Burger

 I topped my burger with ketchup, mustard and relish and served it on a a bed of fresh spinach.

Burger 'n' Beans

Along with the fiesta burgers, we enjoyed green beans with a little bit of butter.

Green Beans with a Bit o' Butter

I really enjoyed the addition of the salsa to the burgers. It added a lot of flavor and kept the meat nice and moist.

Oh-so-easy!

I’m about to press publish on this lil’ post and watch The Bachelorette (and watch Frank drop a boooomb)! Ain’t no shame in loving girly reality t.v.! 😀

Question of the Evening

If you were going to make a romantic meal for someone, what would you make?

When Ryan and I were dating I think he was most impressed when I made my first whole roasted chicken with carrots, potatoes and onions, so I’d probably make something like that. It smells fantastic and has that wonderful, comforting homecooked taste!

Typical Lunchtime Sides

Meat ‘n’ cheese. The old stand by!

Roast Beef + Provolone

Sometimes I forget how delicious a simple sandwich made with lunch meat and a slice of cheese can be.

The Spread

Today I was reminded of just how tasty this elementary school staple is when I bit into my roast beef and Provolone cheese sandwich.

I used a slice of Land O Lakes Provolone cheese with smoke flavor in the sandwich, which was fantastically flavorful and packed a protein-punch (6 grams!) to boot . Yum!

I included fresh spinach, deli mustard and sauerkraut on the sandwich to make it a little more “adult.” 😉

Spinach + 'Kraut

On the side, I snacked on green pepper slices and two large handfuls of cherry tomatoes.

And a Side of Nutrition, Please

I love eating fresh, raw veggies at lunchtime. They fill me up, pack a nutritional punch and aren’t too bad to look at either. Talk about vibrant color!

Though I love raw veggies now, when I was growing up they rarely made an appearance in my lunchbox.

As a kid my side items of choice included:

• Gushers (Seriously, how good were these?)
• Hi-C fruit snacks
• Fruit roll-ups
• HoHos
• Apple slices

I also remember always feeling jealous of my friend Kristen’s bag of Harvest Cheddar SunChips!

When you were growing up, what were your typical lunchtime “sides?”

Chocolate Yogurt Mousse

Man-oh-man, I sure could use another day off!

This weekend totally flew by… Let’s hope this week does the same! 😀

Breakfast

It can be tough getting back into the swing of things on Monday mornings, so I like to start ’em out on the right foot with a tasty breakfast.

Today’s morning meal was fantastic!

Monday Morning Breakfast

I made myself a bowl of yogurt mousse (just like yogurt pudding, but today’s concoction was this was thicker and more mousse-like for some reason).

I made the mousse by combining one cup of Greek yogurt with nine grams (one large spoonful) of chocolate instant pudding mix. I stirred the two ingredients together until the chocolate powder was evenly dispersed and the mixture became super thick.

After topping the chocolate yogurt mousse with fresh berries and Gerber Graduates cherry puffs, my breakfast was ready for eatin’.

Yogurt Mousse + Berries + Puffs

Lots o' Flava

I use the Gerber Graduates cherry puffs in my yogurt bowl because they are delicious and I actually trust myself around them.

I ❤ Baby Food

The puffs are perfect because, unlike most cereal, I can manage to stop eating the them after a serving or two. They provide the sweetness, texture and crunch I desire in my yogurt bowl, but I don’t have a huge box of cereal calling my name from the pantry.

“Juuuulie. Eaaaaaat me. No, eat allllll of meeeee.”

Along with my yogurt bowl, I also enjoyed a banana.

All Together

Meant for a Monkey

Workout

Before breakfast, Ryan and headed to the gym and were talking about how great we both slept last night. I’m not sure if it was the 20 minute walk we took Sadie on late in the evening yesterday or what, but I’ll take it! I rarely sleep through the night without waking up at least once, so I was a happy camper.

We arrived at the gym a little before 5:45 a.m. and I  headed to BodyPump for a sweaty strength-training workout. Loved it!

Post ‘Pump, I came home and took Sadie on a 40 minute walk without my iPod.

Sadie Girl

I’ve been leaving my iPod at home a lot lately on my morning walks with Sadie and have really enjoyed the quiet calm of the morning before the hustle and bustle sets in.

Plus, now I can hear the passersby talk trash about how skinny Sadie is and curse them under my breath. 😉

(For those of you new to the blog, Sadie is quite a skinny-minnie. She has access to food at any time and our vet said it’s very common for vizslas to be so trim because of their energy levels. We’re workin’ on gettin’ a few extra pounds on those bones and have people stop us alllllll the time telling us how skinny she is. I feel like whenever I take her running with me people think I’m like a drill sargent trying to make her lose those last five pounds or someting. Not the case AT ALL. 😀 I love my skinny beast.)

Off to work I go!

Question of the Morning

Do you workout with or without music?

I LOVE listening to music during my workouts and find it very motivating to get lost in the music and sweat it out! 😀