Milkshakes for Dinner

This just in: The Nordstrom Rack in Orlando is aweeeeesome. Holy shoes! Holy dresses! Holy cute tops on clearance!

My mom raised me to be a bargain hunter. Almost all of my clothes come from the Banana Republic or J.Crew outlets, T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, RueLaLa.com (a website with deeply discounted designer duds) or Off 5th (the Saks 5th Avenue Outlet). Sales and clearance racks are my friend, so I was in heaven when we arrived at Nordstrom Rack and I was surrounded by awesome deals.

I left with a cute and feminine white linen dress, and a classy coral short-sleeved jacket and a flower pin for clothing or in my hair.

Ryan even nabbed a few goodies, including a pair of Lacoste sunglasses for $40 and some awesome ‘80s gear for his bachelor party in two weeks.

Unfortunately I didn’t find any wedding day shoes (the whole purpose of the trip!), but we enjoyed browsing around the store anyway.

Dog Park

After our trip to Nordstrom Rack, we headed home. Within 30 minutes, Ryan left for soccer practice and Sadie and I headed to the dog park for an hour of puppy play time.

Sadie loved playing with the other dogs and jumping in and out of the lake. I had a good time chatting to a girl whose dog was half vizsla! It looked a lot like Sadie, but with a more square-like head. She was a sweetie pie!

The dog park is honestly one of my all-time favorite places in the entire world. Watching dogs just be dogs makes me so happy. They’re the most excitable, carefree animals and watching them romp around warms my heart.

Milkshakes for Dinner

Post-park, Sadie and I came home to meet back up with Ryan and get crackin’ in the kitchen.

Since Ryan was overheated from soccer practice and Sadie and I were still a little hot from the dog park, we decided to make healthified milkshakes for dinner.

I made myself a mango milkshake that packed a protein punch using frozen mango and EAS vanilla protein powder.

To make my milkshake I blended:

• 1 c. frozen mango chunks
• 3/4 c. Haagen-Dazs vanilla frozen yogurt
• 1 c. milk
• 1 scoop EAS vanilla protein powder

Milkshakes for dinner may have been the best idea I’ve had all month.

I think one day I should make myself a milkshake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now that’s my kind of challenge. 😀

Day of Errands

Aren’t Sundays perfect for running errands and checking things off your to do list?

After a 20 minute walk with Sadie this morning, Ryan and I headed to church before hittin’ up the grocery store with our green bags.

I absolutely love green bags. Not only are they environmentally friendly, but they make transporting groceries a billion times easier. What would fit into 10 plastic bags can easily fit into two large green bags. I’m all about efficiency. 🙂

(Please note the scab on my knee from Thursday’s wipe out with Sadie. Grr.)

At the grocery store I impulsively bought a peanut butter cookie Larabar.

Shockingly enough, I actually liked this Larabar a lot. I know I’ve hated on almost every Larabar I’ve tried in the past, but this one reminded me a lot of the taste of the flourless peanut butter cookies I adore. It was peanut buttery goodness, fo’ sho’.

Lunch

Lunch today seemed more like a dinner to me, but Ryan was cravin’ turkey tenderloin, so we had a dinner-like lunch!

The turkey tenderloin was super easy to make. I simply plopped a Jennie-O applewood smoked turkey tenderloin in a shallow baking dish and baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

The result was amazingly moist and flavorful turkey meat.

We have a lot leftover so I believe this lil’ baby will be popping up again in a meal in the very near future.

More Errands

Now Ryan and I are off to run some more errands! I need to return some shoes and am hoping to scope out the bridal shoe selection at Nordstrom Rack!

When I lived in Illinois, I loved Nordstrom Rack solely for their shoe selection (Did you catch that pun? 😉 ). I’ve never been to the Nordstrom Rack located in Orlando and am hoping that the Orlando location has a wide variety as well.

I hope you guys are enjoying your Sunday and hopefully taking some time to relax. 😀 See ya soon!

(P.S. This is my first post using Windows Live Writer! Ballin’!!! 😀 )

Recreating Restaurant Meals

One of my favorite things to do is take an unhealthy meal and make it healthy. I love the challenge and honestly believe any indulgent dish can be transformed into something that’s good for you with a little creativity.

The past two times Ryan and I visited his mom in Sarasota we’ve enjoyed breakfast at The Broken Egg.

The Broken Egg

Both times the banana walnut streudel French toast called to us. The dish was sweet and so flavorful, made with doughy bread in a buttermilk and egg batter and topped almonds and whipped cream.

You could literally taste the butter in each bite. It was flippin’ phenomenal! 

I woke up this morning craving this dish and figured I could easily recreate it in a healthier way.

I started by whisking two eggs with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. I dipped two pieces of whole wheat bread into the egg mixture before cooking them on the griddle.

While the French toast was cooking, I chopped up a banana and quickly cooked it on the griddle as well, which made our apartment smell amazing!

Once everything was done, I topped one piece of French toast with the warm bananas, added the other piece on top and sprinkled the dish with slivered almonds.

Banana Almond Stuffed French Toast

Banana Nutty Goodness

Of course I topped everything with syrup. Buddy the Elf would have loved it! Afterall, according to him, the four main food groups are candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup!

Breakfast is Served

Delicious Bite

 Gotta love a healthy breakfast that tastes indulgent! 😀

Ryan and I are off to take Sadie for a walk before headin’ to church.

Catcha lata!