The Best of Intentions

Dinner today was a PBF classic. 

BBQ Pulled Chicken

Two-ingredient crock pot chicken + BBQ sauce = BBQ pulled chicken! 

And on the side, broccoli tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with garlic salt. 

Roasted Broc

BBQ Chix Sandwich

Dinner is Served

(Sorry about the not-so-hot quality pictures above. I wanted to try taking pics inside to see if daylight really makes that big of a difference and clearly it does. Outside pics whenever possible from here on out!) 

Moving on… 

The Best of Intentions 

I went to Marshalls today with the best of intentions. 

I planned on picking up a pack of Jelly Belly sport beans (I’ve seen them on sale there a billion times), to use as fuel during my 8-mile run on Saturday. 

(Why do I want the beans? I am trying to incorporate some kind of pick-me-up, whether it be Gatorade or sport beans, into my longer runs so my body doesn’t cramp up if I decide to drink Gatorade during my half marathon.) 

Anyway, I go to Marshall’s to try and find the Beans… 

No dice. 

Instead, I picked up these: 

BCBG Pumps

Not Exactly Sport Beans...

Aaand, as if spending $40 on new pumps isn’t bad enough, I swung by Starbucks for this: 

Iced Coffee

What was supposed to be a $2 trip to Marshall’s ended up being a $42 excursion. 

Oops. 

Please make me feel better and answer “YES!” to the following question… 

Are you an impulse buyer? 

I typically stick to a list, but sometimes I can’t resist trying that new flavor of gum… or buying a pair of super-cute pumps. 😉

Little Teddies for Little Tummies

I know I’ve said it before, but I have a small obsession with the gourmet food aisle at T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s. I always find the coolest foodie fare (for cheap!) that I cannot buy at other places.

Yesterday I picked up a box of organic apple cinnamon Healthy Times Teddy Puffs cereal.

Teddy Puffs Cereal

I was snacking on it while Ryan and I made dinner last night. When he asked me what I was eating, I told him apple cinnamon cereal. He picked up the box and then asked me whether or not it was cereal for babies.

“No,” I said before examining the box a little closer.

The slogan on the box made me rethink my answer: “Little Teddies for Little Tummies” … I definitely do not have a little tummy (I really think I could eat an entire half-gallon of ice cream without a problem), but these little teddies sure do taste good! Turns out cereal for little tykes is pretty darn delicious!

What was your favorite cereal as a kid?

I loved Corn Pops. Other favorites were Honey Comb, Froot Loops and Lucky Charms.

(If you’re interested, back in September I posted about the best and worst childhood cereals. Click here to have a look to see how your favorite ranked.)

Breakfast

Today I included my kid-friendly cereal in a yogurt bowl with fresh strawberries.

Yogurt + Teddy Puffs

With Da Berries

Tuesday Morning Breakfast

I also picked up the place mat in the above picture at Marshall’s yesterday. That store has everything.

Workout

My workout today was quite random since I was feeling very antsy and didn’t want to stick to one machine to crank out some cardio.

My cardio hodgepodge looked like this:

• 15 min. stair master
• 10 min. run (1.0 incline, 6.5 pace)
• 5 min. incline walking (7.5 incline, 4.2 pace)
• 20 min. elliptical

I read Clean Eating magazine while ellipticizing (Is that a word?) and left the gym craving roasted chicken with potatoes and green beans… at 7:30 a.m. 🙂

***

Hey, good news, Monday is over! 😀 Hope your Tuesday is off to a great start!

Bridesmaid Dress Unsuccess

After visiting two different bridal boutiques with my friend Laurel, we came up a little short on the bridesmaid dress front.

Pretty Dresses

The first boutique carried a bunch of Vera Wang dresses that were gorgeous (Hello $13,000 price tag!). Since I already have a dress and didn’t feel like selling my car to buy a different one, we bypassed the bridal gowns and headed toward the bridesmaid dresses. 

We specifically went to the first store to see the Liz Fields dresses I loved online (and posted about here).

Unfortunately they didn’t have two of the three dresses I wanted to see, but they did have the halter dress and Laurel slipped into it within 15 minutes of our arrival.

Halter Dress

Note: This print is AWFUL and I would never put my bridesmaids in Hawaiian print dresses. As I said before, they will all be wearing champagne dresses on the big day.

Terrible print aside, this dress just didn’t cut it. Laurel was a great model, but the dress itself felt really cheap. The material was very thin and it honestly seemed like a dress you could buy at Forever 21 for $19.99. Needless to say, this dress is no longer in the running. 🙂

We hopped in my car and headed to our second boutique where we had much better luck.

I really loved a one-shoulder dress, but think it’s a bit over the price range I’m hoping to stay within for my bridesmaids.

Cute Dress

I think Laurel’s boyfriend needs to plan a hot date so she can wear this dress out because it looked great on her!

Pretty!

After dress shopping, I dropped Laurel off at her apartment and swung by Starbucks for a cappuccino before heading home to take Sadie out so our landlord could show our apartment to potential tenants.

Cappuccino

(I ❤ Starbucks gift cards! Thank you to my Aunt Laurie for this lil’ treat!)

First Timer

About an hour later I headed out to Marshall’s for some shopping that I definitely didn’t need to do, but wanted to do anyway. 🙂

You should all know that I succumbed to a trend today: the running skirt.

Pink Nike Running Skirt

White Nike Running Skirt

I ended up buying the white Nike running skirt because the pink one was a little big and I didn’t want it fallin’ down and my hiney hangin’ out as I run. Good reason, no?

I also purchased a banana bread Larabar at Marshall’s for $.70 which I promptly devoured in the car on my way home. Sch-weet!

Banana Bread Larabar

I think I’m the only one not on the whole “I love Larabars” kick because I haven’t found a flavor that I thought was suuuuper delicious yet. This one was definitely the best flavor I’ve tried so far though and I would buy it again if I found it on sale for $.70. 😉

One Last Thing

I totally forgot to post this picture last night, but it made me smile reeeeal big.

My mom is the cutest and for our dinner party with Ryan’s family she had place settings out for everyone with name tags. She even had one set for Sadie which I thought was hysterical and so adorable. 🙂

Sadie's Place Setting

The Beast

Hope you’re all enjoying the last of the weekend.

I’m off to the grocery store with Ryan to battle the Sunday crowd. Watch out!