To Infinity… And Beyond!

Last night I received a package of three different flavors of granola from Galaxy Granola.

Box of Yum

(Is it just me or does the name of this stuff make you think of Buzz Lightyear?)

Aside from peanut butter, another food I cannot seem to control myself around is granola (and cereal… and cookies… and ice cream…).

Fortunately Galaxy Granola uses applesauce instead of oil when baking the granola, eliminating a lot of unnecessary fat and keeping the calorie content of the granola lower than many others. The best part? It’s still 100 percent delicious!

Galaxy Granola Highlights

Galaxy Granola

After dinner last night I dug into each bag. I just had to try them all, right? 😉

My favorite was the Vanilla Almond, but the Not Sweet Vanilla flavor was a close second.

I incorporated the latter into my breakfast this morning, topping a bowl of thawed frozen strawberries and Greek yogurt with the crunchy goodness.

Strawberries + Yogurt

Granola Goodness

All Stirred Up

GREAT breakfast!

I think this granola would make a great base in a trail mix with nuts, chocolate chips and dried fruit. Yum!

Workout

Today’s workout was one of my “hop around” workouts that I do when I’m not feelin’ anything in particular.

• 15 min. stair master
• 10 min. adaptive motion trainer
• 25 min. elliptical

It was good… not great… but it made me sweat and that’s what counts, right?

My walk with Sadie after the gym was drizzly, and Sadie stopped to shake off the wetness every other minute.

"...Shake, Shake, Shake ...Shake Your Booty"

"Stoooopid Rain."

(These pictures are from last night’s trip to the dog park, but I didn’t want to overwhelm last night’s post with the billions of Sadie pictures I took. 🙂  )

Despite the rain, we managed to have a decent walk, but it was cut a little short due to the inclement weather. We followed up the walk with several rounds of indoor fetch. Fortunately nothing was broken in the process.

Looking Forward

Even though I still have a snack to eat in between now and lunch, I am anxiously awaiting lunchtime so I can dig into dinner leftovers!

Are you a leftovers lover or a leftovers hater?

I’m a leftovers lover fo’ sho’!

Steak, Champagne & Chocolate

Sounds like the makings of a good Valentine’s Day, no?

Our date at The Capital Grille was wonderful. That place really knows how to make Valentine’s Day extra special.

Ryan and I decided to get dressed up for our special date since we don’t frequent fancy places like this all too often.

Me & My Valentine

All Dressed Up

The service at The Capital Grille was amazing. Our waiter, Kenton, was knowledgable, attentive and had great recommendations.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we were both given a complimentary glass of champagne to enjoy right when we sat down.

Champagne!

Ryan made a beautiful toast. I can’t believe that next year on Valentine’s Day will be a married couple. Wow-zaa!

To start, we split a bowl of the lobster bisque. It was amazingly creamy and had generous lumps of lobster meat throughout. Between the bisque, champagne and freshly baked bread, our meal was off to a great start!

We both took Kenton’s recommendations to heart when ordering our main course. I ordered the filet mignon with cippolini onions and wild mushrooms while Ryan opted for the Delmonico steak.

My Filet

Ryan and His 22 oz. Steak

Both were very good, though Ryan’s was better. 🙂

The real show stopper??? The lobster macaroni and cheese. Thank you to those of you who recommended we order this. It was beyooooond amazing.

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

We also enjoyed steamed asparagus, but it didn’t hold a candle to the lobster mac.

Asparagus

When our check was delivered, our waiter brought me a gorgeous long-stemmed red rose and a box of chocolate truffles for each of us to enjoy.

Rose and Truffle Boxes

Our Valentine’s Day date was perfect. My date was the best and the restaurant he selected impressed both of us. I have never been to a restaurant that pulled out all the stops like The Capital Grille did for Valentine’s Day. It was quite a memorable experience!

Lucky for Sadie, we didn’t forget about our puppers and asked our waiter to box up our steak scraps for our girl.

Ryan’s car smelled divine on the way home because of our yummy bag of leftovers!

Drivin' Home

Though Ryan and I love getting dressed up for a fun date, after putting on our pajamas, we both agreed that loungin’ around in comfy clothes, cuddlin’ with Sadie is the real us. Throw an ice cream Snickers bar into the mix, and you’ve got the perfect conclusion to a wonderful Valentine’s Day! 😀

Valentine’s Day Mission Gifts

In case you were curious as to what $15 (more or less) allowed me and Ryan to buy for each other on our Valentine’s day mission, here are the goods:

Ryan’s Gifts (aka Foodie Fun Bag):

• 2 Clif Bars (Carrot Cake & Banana Nut Bread)
• Farmgirl Apple Cinnamon Pancake Mix
• Yogi Green Tea Triple Echinacea
• Whole Foods Gourmet Spiced Olives
• Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

I made sure to fill Ryan’s goodie bag with foods I know he loves but doesn’t buy very often. The Jelly Belly jelly beans were extra fun. They were like the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans from Harry Potter… You didn’t know if you were going to eat a  good flavor or a disgusting one (like a caramel corn jelly bean or a rotten egg jelly bean). We had fun with that until we both tried a moldy cheese jelly bean. Yuk!

My Gifts (aka Girly Fun):

• My Best Friend’s Wedding & The Wedding Planner duo movie DVD
• Yankee Candle (Apple Spice)

I loved my gifts! My Best Friend’s Wedding is one of my all-time favorite movies. My best friend/college roommate Laurel and I used to watch it on repeat in our room. “From the moment I wake up…” 😀

I also opened a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift from my parents: Gap Body red pajamas with teeny white polka dots and fuzzy red slipper socks. I love ’em! Thank you!!!

V-Day Gift from the 'Rents

My mom always did a great job of making Valentine’s Day extra special and emphasizing the importance of showing friends and family how much you love them today as well.

On that note, I gotta tell you guys how much I love you and appreciate your comments and constant support of this blog that means so much to me. ❤

Overactive Nose

This morning I feel like my nose is on smell patrol!

Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

Today I have been very sensitive to even the slightest smells.

It started when a stinky person got on the stair master next to me at the gym. I promise I’m not just being mean, they really were stinky. You know the type… Drenched shirt, dripping hair, sweat on the floor next to their machine…

After completely 20 minutes of a stinky stair master workout, I took my sweat session to the treadmill and the elliptical to finish it out.

I came home and leashed up Sadie for our morning walk.

Ready for Walkin'

Thankfully the air on our walk smelled fresh and crisp. We even enjoyed the sweet smell of citrus when we passed a grapefruit tree.

After our walk I took a shower and was one again overwhelmed by a new smell. Last night we ran out of our girly moisturizing soap with aloe for soft and silky skin, and Ryan broke into his “man soap.”

Kiehl's Man Soap

He received the “Ultimate Man Body Scrub Soap” as a gift for Christmas. It smells really good… but like a guy. So now I smell like a guy. A good smelling guy… but a guy nonetheless. Sexy, no?

On to the last strong smell…

As I was blow drying my hair, Sadie came in to keep me company and did a little stretch before heading into the bedroom to watch me complete my morning routine from our bed. About 1.5 seconds later, I realized that mid-stretch Sadie let out a stink bomb!

Our bathroom smelled like a mix of man and flatulence… but I guess those two smells go together pretty frequently anyway.

What is your favorite smell?

I love the smell of:

• Cinnamon candles
• Freshly baked cookies
• The beach
• Sadie (her fur, not her gas)
• Ryan
• Freshly baked bread
• Cinnamon rolls
• Pizza

Breakfast

After Sadie’s gas attack, I was ready for some good smellin’ stuff in my life again. Enter breakfast!

Today’s breakfast included cinnamon lavash chips that I baked in the oven using a Joseph’s lavash bread. I dipped them in yogurt pudding made with Chobani Greek yogurt and a spoonful of butterscotch pudding mix.

Breakfast

Butterscotch Yogurt Pudding

All around good breakfast!

Freegans

Hooray for Friday! I love the energy on Fridays. Everyone seems 10 times happier.

Plus, there was free food in the break room this morning, which made all the freegans happy. Unfamiliar with the term “freegan?” A guy I used to work with informed me of this term used to describe people who will eat anything, as long as its free.

I’m sure you’re familiar with these people. Anytime something free is suddenly available in the break room or at an office potluck, they load up as if preparing for hibernation. Freegans can also be found prevalently around college campuses and are frequently seen hording free pieces of pizza  in their dorm room to enjoy throughout the week.

Are you a freegan?

I passed up on the freegan frenzy since I was nice and full from my yummy breakfast.

Friday's Breakfast

Yeah, you know that’s my College Park Orthodontics free coffee cup! I’ve been rockin’ it almost daily. It’s awesome.

CPO, what, what!?

Ballin'!

I think I may be a little overly excited about this free mug. Might I be a freegan, too!? Ah!

For breakfast I enjoyed a small pack of Kay’s Naturals French vanilla protein cereal on top of Chobani Greek yogurt.

French Vanilla Protein Cereal

Yum Yogurt

This was my first time trying the French vanilla flavor of Kay’s Naturals protein cereal and I loved it! 😀 It was crunchy, sweet and very flavorful.(I bought it online at Netrition.com.)

Also, the nutrition facts are pretty impressive. One pack of the cereal has 100 calories, 15g carbs, 3g fiber, 3g sugar and 9g protein. Plus it’s all natural so it’s sweetened with honey, cinnamon and vanilla extract. It’s also gluten free.

Workout and Walk

I woke up this morning feeling wishy-washy about going to BodyPump. I walked to the gym thinking I’d do my own total-body weights routine.I even got on a cardio machine for a little warm up for about 30 seconds before changing my mind and rushing into BodyPump just in time! I scrambled to get the weights and everything ready, but I made it! So indecisive.

I’m glad I went to the class though because it was a good one. I am obsessed with the song “Now You’re Gone” by Basshunter that was played during the shoulder workout. It makes me wanna sing and dance, but at 5:45 a.m., I think I’d get smacked in the face by other people in the class if I was too enthusiastic.

I finished up my workout with 25 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical.

Then it was time for Sadie’s morning walk. Since Ryan has the day off work, he joined us. While he was grabbing a jacket, I snapped this very presidential-looking picture of Sadie.

Wise Old Sadie

Yes, she is wearing a red t-shirt. 🙂 She gets cold really easily since vizslas have no undercoat and she’s so flippin’ skinny.

I ordered this t-shirt for her last year around the holidays. It says “Santa Paws’ Little Yelper” on the back. I’ll snap a picture of it this weekend for ya. It’s way too big on her, but it looks adorable. She actually likes wearing it! Whenever we bring it out of her little doggie storage bin she jumps around and wags her tail. She must get her love of clothes from her mama. 😉

Weekend Plans

After work today I’m swinging by the apartment to pick up Ryan and Sadie for a weekend at my parents’ house in St. Pete. We have wedding planning appointments with a florist and a photographer. I also have an appointment at a bridal boutique to try on dresses tomorrow at 11 a.m. Can’t wait! Will it be simple or sha-zaam???

For those of you with wedding planning experience, aside from food, drink and the overall expense of the reception, where did you end up spending most of your wedding budget?

All this finance/budget stuff is tough! Thank goodness Ryan is number-savvy. Every time I’d send him a potential wedding venue he’d reply with a spreadsheet breakdown of all the costs. I love my little mathematician.

I’ll Trade You Dinner for Lunch

My camera battery died. Oh dear.

I’ll make a deal with you… since my lunch today is a repeat from yesterday’s seafood salad pita pocket, I’m going to bypass that recipe repeat in favor of pictures from last night’s dinner. Sound good? Good!

Just in case you missed my seafood salad pita pocket post, here’s a recap via one picture:

Yum, Yum

As for dinner last night… enter Kraft white cheddar organic macaroni and cheese.

Kraft Organic White Cheeddar Macaroni and Cheese

(Please note the glowing Christmas tree in the background for some holiday flava.)

I made this noodle delight since Ryan and I were feelin’ a quick and easy dinner. I added 2 percent milk to the cheese sauce, but omitted the butter. Neither of us missed it at all!

Bowl o' Mac

The white cheddar flavor is great! We both preferred it to Kraft’s original organic macaroni and cheese. This actually tasted a lot like Annie’s organic white cheddar mac and cheese that Ryan and I tried two months ago.

I love that this carb-heavy meal also contains 10 grams of protein per serving.

Delicious

Posting about this makes me want another bowl! What a comforting childhood meal. The organic variety is great because the super-scary ingredient list on the normal mac and cheese boxes is condensed dramatically. Gotta love it!

Were you a macaroni and cheese kid growing up?

I’ve always loved mac and cheese and used to get so excited when my mom would buy the boxes of pasta with the noodles shaped like my favorite cartoon characters. I would always ask my mom if I could add the cheese to the noodles. It made me feel helpful and important. 🙂