The Return of Hot Cereal

I’ve  taken quite the hiatus from hot cereal. Something about 90-degree weather makes me crave cold yogurt, icy smoothies and fresh fruit for breakfast.

Since Ryan and I still haven’t had the chance to make it to the grocery store for the week, I was relegated to the foods that we had on hand to assemble a tasty breakfast this morning.

I decided to prepare one of my favorite fall and winter morning meals: Brownie batter hot cereal!

Dry Mix

This meal is hot, chocolatey and oh-so-filling. I can’t wait until the chill of the fall sets in (in like two months in Orlando…), so that this breakfast makes an appearance much more often.

Brownie Batter Hot Cereal

Yum, Yum Eat 'Em Up!

And because it was literally calling my name from the pantry, I also enjoyed a small serving of homemade granola.

Granola is Addicting

This granola is so, so good! I’m working on getting the recipe for ya!

(If you’re looking for another good homemade granola recipe, check out this one for nutty apricot granola.)

Workout

That filling breakfast was the perfect post-workout fuel.

Today’s sweat session included a cardio hodgepodge that looked like this:

• 10 min. stair master
• 15 min. arc trainer
• 5 min. stair master
• 20 min. elliptical

It felt good to get a little schweaty this morning!

Question of the Morning

Do you crave different foods depending on the weather?

I love warm comfort foods in the winter and adore fruit salad in the summer. Rainy days always feel like they’re meant for homemade soup!

Backyard Haircut

Since BodyPump totally dominated my morning post, lemme catch you up! 

(Special thanks to Vee, who is in the process of becoming a certified BodyPump instructor, for requesting a BodyPump post!) 

Breakfast 

I kept breakfast light this morning since I was heading out to the gym within 30 minutes of waking, and didn’t want to feel like a two-ton whale. 

I’m not someone who can workout on a completely full belly. I do much better on light fuel because a full belly makes me cramp up or want to curl up and go to sleep, neither of which are conducive to a good workout! 

This morning’s breakfast was brownie batter hot cereal. 

Pre-Cooked

The mix included: 

• 1 serving Flax-Z-Snax chocolate cream hot cereal
• 1 scoop All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• Water

Microwaved for 90 seconds, stirring regularly to prevent ooooverflow… 

"A Spoonful of Chocolate Helps the Medicine Go Doooown..."

Brownie Batter Hot Cereal

This combination is so rich and chocolatey. I think I could bathe in this stuff. 😉 

After the gym, I came home, grabbed a Balance Bar, and took Sadie on a walk around the lake near our apartment. 

"Walk Me!"

There was a festival with lots of different arts and crafts and food vendors surrounding the lake. 

Festival

"I Saw the Sign"

I loved the sign that read, “If we are what we eat, I’m fast, easy and cheap.” 😀 

I think my sign would say, “If we are what we eat, I’m cheesy, fruity and sweet!” 

While walking around, Sadie and I both enjoyed a free sample of kettle corn. That stuff is dang delicious! 

I stopped to say hi to some of the dogs up for adoption and fell in love with these two pups: 

Puppy Eyes

Brody Look-a-Like

The second one reminded me so much of my friend Minda’s dog, Brody. He was adorable! 

Here’s the name of the rescue in case any of you out there live in Florida and want to adopt one of these cuties: 

A New Beginning Pet Rescue

When we arrived home from our walk, I was huuuungry. 

I made myself a bowl of roasted Nasoya tofu, broccoli and zucchini, ricotta cheese and marinara meat sauce. 

Veggies + Tofu

Cheese + Sauce

Stirred Up

Wanna know something crazy? I didn’t know you could bake tofu until like a month ago. Well you can, and it’s delicious! 

Backyard Haircut 

After lunch, Ryan and I headed to the backyard to catch some rays. 

Taking Pictures in a Mirror is Hard...

Another Mirror Pic Fail... Practicing on Sadie...

We both got antsy after a while and Ryan asked me if I would give him a haircut. 

Trusting, no? 

Of course I agreed. Check out Barber Julie’s masterpiece: 

Sad Long-Haired Boy

Happy Short-Haired Boy

Ryan's Please Stop Taking My Picture Face

Ryan now owes me $25, but I may settle for some soft serve. 😉 

Today’s Plans 

The rest of our Saturday will be spent running errands to work out some kinks with our cable box (ugh), and tracking down people on craigslist to get a boxspring and a mattress for the bed in our guest room! 

Catch ya lataaa.

Awesome Month

Three cheers for April!!!

I love this month. Yes, it’s probably because it’s my birthday month (April 27, baby!), but I also feel like April is when the weather starts really changing for the better and the sun starts shining a little brighter (in between the “April showers” of course).

What are you most looking forward to in April?

This month I have a bunch of exciting things to look forward to:

• 5K Doggie Race with Sadie on Saturday
• Easter
• My sister’s sorority’s mother/daughter/sister weekend
• Meeting the designer of my wedding dress
• My 25th birthday!!!

It should be a good month!

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast was a chocolatey delight: Brownie batter hot cereal! Ahhhhhh!

Get in Mah Belly!

I combined Flax-Z-Snax chocolate cream hot cereal with a scoop of All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder, a tablespoon of cocoa powder and some water and microwaved it until it was hot and super thick!

Flax-Z-Snax

Coo-coo for Cocoa

Thiiiick Brownie Batter Hot Cereal

I enjoyed my hot cereal with a tumbler full of my gym’s free coffee in Barnie’s cinnamon butter cookie flavor (the best flavor everrrr).

Thursday's Breakfast

It was a great breakfast after a sch-weaty workout.

Workout

My workout today was pretty random. I felt like running, but decided against it since Sadie and I are running in a doggie 5k together on Saturday. I wanted to give my legs a good rest because I feel like I run better in races when I haven’t run several days prior to race day.

My run-less cardio workout looked like this:

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

Can you tell I was easily bored today?

April Fools’ Day

Happy April Fools Day!

Are you playing any good jokes today? Have you ever had a good joke played on you?

One year when my sister was pretty young, my mom and I convinced her to come running down the stairs because we told her that our cat (who was a boy) had kittens. 🙂 Poor Leslie was pretty disappointed to see that no baby kitties could be found.

Two years ago my mom really got me. I had NO idea it was April Fools’ Day, and when I got to work I had a really long email from her saying that she and my dad were adopting a young boy because they were so sad that both my sister and I were out of the house (it was my sister’s first year away at college). I was shocked and even told my boss that I couldn’t believe I was getting a brother. It was then that I realized what day it was and felt like one stoooopid lil’ blonde. 🙂

Cake vs. Pie

The epic battle is in full swing…

Cake vs. Pie!

Cake vs. Pie

While the guys at my work are into March Madness, the girls of our office (plus two guys) have filled out brackets for the epic Cake vs. Pie competition, as seen on Jezebel.com.

Brackets

I have ICE CREAM CAKE going all the way!

My Bracket

Who doesn’t love creamy ice cream and cake in one? It’s the best of both worlds.

Which do you prefer? Cake or pie?

I’m a cake girl, without a doubt (unless French Silk pie is in the running, in which case I may be swayed).

Breakfast

With all this cake and pie talk, I was grateful for a super-sweet breakfast.

Three cheers for brownie batter hot cereal!

Pre-Cooked Brownie Batter Hot Cereal

Mmm, Chocolate!

Friday's Breakfast

I also munched on a handful of Emerald cocoa roast almonds.

Cocoa Roast Almonds

Chocolate for breakfast = A very good thing.

Workout

Today’s workout was good! I took a BodyPump class and followed it up with 10 minutes of incline walking and 10 minutes on the elliptical.

Sadie enjoyed a nice, long walk afterward too.

I snapped a picture of my lil’ girl this morning and laughed because she looks like she’s a little tripod dog with three legs. 🙂

My Little Tripod

I have a soft spot in my heart for three-legged dogs. I think they’re adorable, though I would never wish that on any dog. I love how even with three legs, dogs are still the happiest creatures in the world!

The Ugly Truth

Last night Ryan and I finished watching The Ugly Truth.

I think Katherine Heigl is beautiful in such a natural way.

In honor of the movie, I figured I would share some of my own ugly truths with you.

• I bite my nails. I’ve gotten better about this ever since I started Invisalign (mainly because I can’t bite them when I have my aligners in), but I’ve had this horrible habit for as long as I can remember.
• I eat whipped cream straight out of the can, just like this guy:

Whipped Cream Can Eater

• I make Ryan hide jars of peanut butter from me so I won’t eat the whole thing.
• I rarely floss. I asked my dentist if he could get his wife to floss and he said “no.” I told him that if he can’t even convince his wife to floss, his chances with me don’t look so good. (Tip: If you floss for three days before your dentist appointment, they actually think you do floss.)
• I’m weird about dirty feet. I can’t stand when my feet are dirty and have to wash them off immediately.
• I can’t stand eye drops. When I’ve needed them in the past, Ryan has literally chased me around to put them in my eye (Rachel Green style).

What’s one of your ugly truths??? C’mon, share!!!

I love learning more about you guys and always laugh at the random fun facts you share with me. 🙂

Workout + Breakfast

Today was a typical Wednesday morning. I took a BodyPump class (I added 5 lbs. during the squat track – Yay!), and followed it up with 25 minutes on the elliptical reading Woman’s Day. Yes, I love Woman’s Day. I am a 60-year-old woman at heart.

After my workout, I took Sadie on a walk and we froze our little patooties off. The wind is whippin’ in Central Florida today! The chilly walk was worth it though because I snagged another fresh grapefruit off a neighbor’s tree. It took a good three to four jump attempts to get it, but I persevered!

For breakfast I made a bowl of my healthified brownie batter hot cereal.

Brownie Batter Oats

Wednesday's Breakfast

I ❤ chocolate!!!

I also enjoyed a hot tumbler full of a mix of  Barnie’s cinnamon butter cookie and French vanilla coffee.

Happy Hump Day everyone!