My Other Car is a Sleigh

New business idea!!!

Since my genius idea for the weenis was already taken, I’ve been on the hunt for a new business idea. One fell into my lap this morning in the form of a blue mini van.

I pulled up behind the run-down van and laughed when I read the bumper sticker displayed proudly on the back of the van. “My other car is a Ferrari,” it read.

Ferrari

Since the holiday spirit is constantly running through my veins, I instantly had an idea for a Christmasy bumper sticker:

“My other car is a sleigh.”

How awesome would that bumper sticker be? It would look especially fantastic on my Rudolph car.

My Sister’s iPod

Over the weekend my sister put her iPod in my gym bag when we went to workout together. We both forgot it was in there and when I left for Orlando on Sunday, her iPod came along for the journey.

Pink iPod

Since I am sure the iPod is missing my sister desperately, I decided to give it a listen during today’s workout. I literally laughed out loud a handful of times at the songs she had on the old ‘Pod. My favorite jam had to be “Barbie Girl” by Aqua.  I can’t laugh too much though because I owned the Aqua CD and still think it’s pretty darn fabulous. 😉

What embarrassing songs are on your iPod?

My iPod is full of embarrassing songs. I have songs ranging from Disney remixes (think Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast) , Ace of Base, Legally Blonde: The Musical and “Booty Bounce” to old school Alanis Morissette.

I’ve told some of my friends I wish I had the ability to see what songs people listen to while they workout at the gym. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could see the name of a song someone is listening to over their head as they were exercising? I think we’d learn a lot about people that way. Maybe that hardcore bodybuilder is a closet Enya or Michael Buble fan… (Who isn’t a Michael Buble fan? The man has the voice of an angel!)

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast included two fruits I stole from my parents’ house this past weekend.

Tuesday's Breakfast

I enjoyed a creamy cup of Fage Greek yogurt with a sliced Honeycrisp apple and a cold clementine.

Even though it’s flippin’ freezing outside today, this chilly breakfast was still nice and tasty. (I immediately poured myself a hot cup of tea afterward though!)

Just Because

And just because I love her and think she’s the cutest thing in the whole-wide-world, here’s a picture of my Sadie girl:

"I love you, blog readers!"

Sadie was very chilly on our morning walk. I kept thinking she had to pee because she was all hunched over trying to stay warm. I even had her in her argyle sweater, but with her teeny little body, she needs a full-blown parka to keep warm.

"Do you like my sweater?"

Apparently us Florida folks can’t hang in the cold.

How cold is it where you are today?

Homemade Cookies and a Pizza Buffet

I love days at home! The yummy kitchen smells, fun-loving jabs and warm, cozy feeling of being around family is the best.

I also got to enjoy one of my favorite snacks, thanks to a quick trip my mom took to the grocery store for Honeycrisp apples!

Apples and Peanut Butter

An oldie but a goodie.

Dinner was a “clean out the freezer” dinner since we’re off to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the morning to spend the holiday with my grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins.

We had a pizza buffet featuring a Kashi Caribbean Carnival pizza and a tuscan chicken pizza.

Kashi Caribbean Pizza

Tuscan Chicken Pizza

I definitely preferred the Tuscan chicken pizza. I like my pizza to taste like pizza and the Kashi Caribbean pizza was a little too exotic for me.

Dessert

While grocery shopping last week, Ryan and I noticed the Christmas cookie dough on display and I asked him what his favorite kind of cookie dough was. He said oatmeal raisin and I think I’d have to agree. The mix of the oats, cinnamon and sugary dough is heaven.

Tonight I made homemade oatmeal raisin cookies using the traditional recipe found on the inside lid of Quaker oatmeal.

Traditional Recipe

Dough!

I made half of the recipe (and used whole wheat flour in place of white… healthy, right? 😉 ). We were supposed to have 24 cookies, but somehow with a house of five people, only 12 actually made it into the oven.

This house is filled with cookie dough monsters.

The 12 Survivors

Surprisingly I didn’t even eat a cookie! I think I was overloaded on dough.

Now we’re all hangin’ out, watching So You Think You Can Dance and packing up for our early flight tomorrow. We’re leaving for the airport before 5 a.m. Yikes!

Next time I post I’ll be doing so from Pennsylvania… in the freezin’ cold! Brrrr. I hope it snows!

Giveaway

Don’t forget to enter my Trio Bar giveaway!

Usin’ Up Stuff

I hate wasting food. I think that’s why I tend to be a proud member of the clean plate club.

Before I go out of town for the weekend, I rummage through the fridge and pantry for any foods that might go bad and feel the need to save them from perishing by eating all of them. No food left behind!

Today my lunch made use of canned pumpkin I had sitting in some Tupperware and cottage cheese that was skirting on expiration. Is your mouth watering yet? 😉

I blended the pumpkin and cottage cheese with some pumpkin pie spice and sweetener to create a HUGE bowl of pumpkin pie-tasting slop.

Could there be a less attractive word than the word slop? I don’t think so.

What words do you absolutely hate? I can’t stand the word panties. I think it’s creepy. I still have to call them underwear.

Anyway, back to lunch…

I topped the pumpkin slop (ew!) with half of a Honeycrisp apple and a handful of sliced almonds.

Pumpkin, Apple and Almonds

This bowl was HUGE. Don’t believe me? Just look:

Wowzaa!

Get in mah belly!

Lunch was good. That’s all I have to say about that. 🙂

Fall’s Finest in a Bowl

All my love for fall’s finest foods got me thinking… what are winter foods???

It seems like every season has a food. Fall is saturated with squash and apples, but what foods (besides Christmas cookies and hot cocoa) are winter treats? The Googler in me did a quick search and this slideshow from Fitness magazine shed some light on my quandary.

Turns out a lot of foods transcend fall and are winter-ripe too! Mushrooms, pears, squash, apples, figs, beets…

Today’s breakfast was a seasonally appropriate bowl of fall fun.

Oatmeal with pumpkin, Honeycrisp apple chunks and cinnamon protein powder.

Autumn in a Bowl

Pumpkin Apple Oats

I also made a hot mug of Yogi goji berry green tea to round out my breakfast.

Wednesday's Breakfast

Tasty, tasty.

Pumpkin Seeds

Have you carved your pumpkin yet? Don’t throw out the seeds! Click here to read about the health benefits of pumpkin seeds in my latest Examiner article.

Question: What’s your favorite season? What’s your favorite seasonal food?

Fruity Yogurty Oatty Bowl

Lots of tasty things went into my morning breakfast. Apparently I woke up really hungry because I managed to polish off a very large Honeycrisp apple, a pint of raspberries (yep, an entire pint), a cup of Chobani Greek yogurt and 1/3 cup of oatmeal. Fiber overload!

I combined several of the above items to create a fruity yogurty oatty bowl of goodness.

Bowl of Yumminess

What was too big to fit into this bowl went directly into my mouth. Shockingly I didn’t feel stuffed! I have a feeling today may be one of those days where I can just eat and eat and eat and still manage to eat some more. Should be fun! 🙂

After giving my breakfast some time to digest and hittin’ up the grocery with Ryan, I laced up the old sneaks for a 50 minute run. It was beautiful outside today! A lil’ hot, but sunny and breezy. Plus, I was diggin’ the playlist I created for last Sunday’s 5-mile race. Good music makes such a huge difference for me on my runs.

Today’s playlist included:

Katie Ryan – All for You

Big Pun – Still Not a Player

Will Smith – Miami

LeAnn Rimes – Cowboy Sweetheart

Reel 2 Real – I Like to Move It

Chris Brown – Forever

LeAnn Rimes – Nothin’ Better to Do

Mickey Modelle & Jessy – Show Me Heaven (Remix)

Little Big Town – Boondocks

Dolly Parton – 9 to 5

Oceania – Kotahitanga

Phil Colins (Tarzan Movie) – Trashin’ the Camp

Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling

Michael Jackson – Dirty Diana

I realize my playlist likely reveals what a huge dork I am, but I absolutely adore happy, upbeat music and have everything from hip hop to techno remixes of Disney songs on my iPod. I love it all! 🙂

Question:What’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod?