Ricotta Stuffed French Toast

G’mornin’ and happy Saturday to ya!

Ryan and I have already checked the gym off our to do list, which feels great! Sometimes I tend to put it off on the weekends, but I really do prefer going right away.

When you do like to workout on the weekends?

We hit up the gym and split up to each do our own work out, as usual. I did 25 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical while reading the latest issue of Health magazine before heading off to BodyPump at 8:30 a.m. I love that my gym now offers an early morning Saturday BodyPump class. Sch-weet!

By the time our workout was over, we were two hungry people.

Breakfast Time!

Breakfast today was a major success!

Ingredients

If you’ve been reading this blog a lot recently, you know I am on a mission to use up the HUGE tub of ricotta cheese we have leftover from our eggplant lasagna dinner at the beginning of the week.

While I was working out this morning, I brainstormed a way to incorporate the ricotta into our morning breakfast: ricotta stuffed French toast!

I made typical French toast, adding cinnamon and nutmeg, and cooked several slices on the griddle.

Makin' Breakfast

 While the French toast was cooking, I combined ricotta cheese, cinnamon and a little bit of sweetener in a bowl and stirred it up.

I then “stuffed” the French toast with the cheese and covered the cinnamony goodness with syrup.

Ricotta-Topped French Toast

Stuffed French Toast

Syrup Makes Me Smile

Yum!

Ryan and I both loved this breakfast. Complete success!

Today’s Plans

Today’s plans are full of errands, but they’re errands I’m really looking forward to running!

First, Ryan and I are stopping by IKEA to check out furniture and get decorating ideas for our new apartment. I could literally spend half a day in IKEA and never get bored.

Later in the day, I have an appointment at a bridal boutique to check out veils and wedding headpieces at a trunk show. I’m excited!!! I love all things wedding. 🙂

Right next to the bridal boutique is a Fresh Market store. I’ve never been to one, but have heard great things about it, so I’m planning on popping in after my appointment at the boutique. I’m hoping to find something extra special for dinner.

Free Auntie Anne’s Original or Cinnamon Sugar Soft Pretzel Today

Visit any Auntie Anne’s location today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and receive a free original or cinnamon sugar soft pretzel. YUM!

Click here for more details or to find a store near you.

Sadie Turns the Big 0-2

Happy birthday to Sadie!!!

Today is Sadie’s second birthday. Look how teeny she used to be!

Sleepy Sadie

Puppy Sadie

Smiling Sadie

Easter 2008

Picture overload, I know. I just love my lil’ puppers so darn much.

Do you celebrate your pet’s birthday?

In honor of Sadie’s birthday, I thought I’d share a few fun facts about her with you:

• Sadie is 34 pounds, about 10 pounds smaller than the average female vizsla.
• Sadie’s favorite toy is a stuffed pig named Pig Pig and she knows it by name.
• Sadie loves lakes and jumping off my parents’ boat into the water… but is afraid of pools and waves at the beach.
• Sadie can run 6+ miles and still want to keep running.
• Sadie is a cuddler and must be touching some part of you whenever she’s sitting or laying down.
• Sadie has very stinky gas.
• Ryan and I always forgot to work on Sadie’s tricks before puppy training class and would teach them to her five minutes before class. Luckily, she always remembered!
• Sadie was featured on The Daily Puppy.
• Sadie won the 2009 Baldwin Park Doggie Derby (description below).

(Please excuse the following ode to Sadie…)

Sadie’s actually quite a famous dog. Well, not really, but she did win the Baldwin Park Doggie Derby last year.

Doggie Derby Victory, May 2009

Someone at the dog park told us about the doggie derby on a Friday afternoon because he saw how crazy and fast Sadie was when she was running around at the park. The derby took place that Saturday and the entry fee was $15 and all the proceeds went to a charity. It sounded like a neat event, so we signed up that evening and headed out for the derby the next morning.

To participate in the derby, one owner stands at the start line, while the other stands at the finish line. Sadie is extremely owner-motivated, and this worked to our advantage. Vizslas in general are known as velcro dogs and Sadie definitely is one. She doesn’t understand the concept of personal space. The minute I started walking away from Ryan when he was holding Sadie at the start line, she was ready to take off! When he let her go, she shot out like a mad dog for the finish line!

First, she shocked us by winning her weight class (middle weight), and then she shocked us once again by beating out approximately 100 other dogs to win the overall competition. She got a trophy and everything! Ryan and I were proud puppy parents. Sadie was even mentioned in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper! It was the proudest day of her life. 😉

And that concludes my Sadie love fest (for now…).

Workout

At today’s BodyPump class, the normal Wednesday instructor was out sick, so another teacher took her place. Fortunately I really liked the man who replaced my go-to instructor, and I had a great workout. He selected songs from a variety of BodyPump tracks, which kept me really interested. I love not knowing what to expect in BodyPump!

After class, I did 25 minutes of light cardio on the adaptive motion trainer while reading the latest issue of Shape.

Adaptive Motion Trainer

Have any of you ever tried the adaptive motion trainer?

It’s definitely funky at first, but I like it a lot once I find my rhythm. It’s a nice alternative to the elliptical.

Breakfast

Breakfast today was a chocolate explosion! I am loving cocoa oatmeal lately and cooked up a creamy batch this morning.

I started with steel cut oats and stirred in one scoop of All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder and a tablespoon of cocoa powder.

Cocoa Powder + Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Protein Powder

Cocoa Oatmeal

I enjoyed my cocoa oats with a hot tumbler full of my gym’s free Barnie’s cinnamon butter cookie coffee.

Wednesday's Breakfast

Deeeelish!

We’re Suckers

Ryan and I are such suckers.

Whenever it’s the teeniest bit cold outside, Sadie gets to sleep in the bed at night. When I say in the bed, I don’t mean on top of the covers at the foot of the bed. I mean in… the… bed… literally.

"Oh... Hello There."

Cuddle Buddy

Before I snapped these pictures last night, Sadie decided to step up to the plate for once and actually be my doggie model.

She opted for some character modeling and decided to go with the popular doggie nun pose to start.

Sadie the Nun

She even let me snap the coveted profile nun shot.

Serious Nun Sadie

Workout

This morning I hit the gym for a BodyPump class, followed by 15 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill.

BodyPump was great today. I increased my weights during the squat track (by five pounds… ballin’!), which made me feel slightly more accomplished than usual. Plus, the song during the shoulders track was Now You’re Gone by Basshunter – one of my favorite workout songs ever!

Weekend Plans

After the gym and my morning walk with the pup, I came home, showered and packed for our weekend trip to St. Pete.

Ryan and I are leaving right after work to head to my parents’ house. Ryan has plans to meet up with his dad for breakfast for his dad’s birthday on Saturday morning (his dad lives within 30 minutes of my parents’ house), and my mom, sister and I have plans to go to two different trunk shows (Maggie Sottero and San Patrick) to look at wedding dresses on Saturday. Yay!

I love weekends at home and I’m looking forward to some quality time with the fam.

Breakfast

Breakfast today came together in a flash!

I made a breakfast quesadilla on a whole wheat pita.

Breakfast 'Dilla

The breakfast ‘dilla contained cheddar cheese and apple slices. I ate the rest of the apple on the side, but it went undocumented.

Ooey Gooey

For the Love of the Bow

After falling in love with my friend Ashley’s adorable yellow bow bobby pin that she sported at our UCF game day party back in December, I knew I just had to have one!

Ashely’s yellow bow inspiration (she’s on the far left):

Gimme Your Bow!

I finally found a pack of various colors of the bow bobby pins and couldn’t wait to sport it today!

My New Bow!

(I don’t know what is going on with my face in this picture. Please excuse me.)

What is something you saw someone else wearing that you just had to have?

Remember when the Victoria’s Secret Pink sweatpants first came out? Well, the first time I saw another girl wearing them I fell in love and knew I just had to have them!

Some things just call to you, I guess. 😉

Hit the Ground Running

Today is going to be a go-go-go kind of day! My little baby bladder woke me up before my alarm and ever since then I’ve been on the move.

I hit the gym to take my typical Friday morning BodyPump class. These classes are awesome and are 60 minutes of total-body weights.

Picture from LesMills.com

I love ’em because they make me do exercises I hate (squats! lunges!) but I know are important and produce results. Plus on my own I would normally skip working out my chest and my back (blah, boring!), so it keeps me focused on working out my entire body. Gotta love it!

After BodyPump, I picked up Miss Sadie for a 25 minute run followed by a mile walk to get her some exercise.

I was quite clumsy in my morning routine today… I cut myself shaving and dropped my hairdryer on the toe next to my big toe (my pointer toe?). Bleeding from two different places on two different legs… nice! Fear not, I’m recovering well.

Plans

I’m working a half day today and then heading to the airport to fly out to Arizona for a weekend with friends. I can’t wait!

I already am getting that “I miss Ryan and Sadie” feeling in my belly, but I know I’ll have a blast and they’ll enjoy some quality daddy-doggie time. Plus, last night I crafted two love notes for Ryan (one for each morning he wakes up without me) to spread some love. 🙂

Love Notes for my Love-ah!

(I’m hoping Ryan won’t check the blog until after he drops me off at the airport. Ryan, if you see this before, check the drawer in the nightstand Saturday and Sunday morning for a little bit o’ love! ;))

I think I get the whole signs on the door/love note thing from my mom. She would always write little notes on my napkins in my school lunch and still puts “Welcome Home!” signs on our front door when I come for a visit. She’s the best!

Breakfast

Sorry to bore you, but my breakfast yesterday was so darn delicious that I had to do a repeat. I swapped out the chocolate-covered soynuts for a dark chocolate Hershey’s kiss though! Not totally boring, right? 🙂

Hot Cereal with a Kiss

In case you missed my breakfast post yesterday, this combo is butter pecan Flax Z Snax hot cereal, pumpkin, sweetener and a bit of the good stuff (chocolate).

I served my breakfast with a hot tumbler of free coffee from my gym. Today I chose Barnie’s cinnamon butter cookie coffee. Sounds pretty amazing, huh?

Friday's Breakfast

Does anyone out there make an egg nog coffee? I bet that would be phenomenal.

Happy Friday everyone! I’ll try to post a couple times this weekend but I make no promises since I’ll be exploring the hot state of Arizona!