Once Sad, Now Glad

Arugula is one heck of a flavorful salad green. It makes iceberg lettuce seem like crunchy water.

I love the peppery taste of the leaves and find that it adds a lot of flavor to an otherwise simple salad.

When I saw a 50/50 combination of organicgirl baby spinach and arugula on sale at the grocery store on Monday night, I scooped it up and planned to use the leafy greens as the base for a yummy salad.

organicgirl Arugula + Spinach

This afternoon that’s just what I did! 😀

Colorful Salad

My salad contained:

• organicgirl baby spinach and arugula
• roasted Brussels sprouts
• carrots
• green pepper
• grape tomatoes
• ½ c. Seapoint Farms edamame
• Kerry and Loni’s Bean Tastico salsa

The Goods

On the side I enjoyed a fresh peach and a blue raspberry Ring Pop, leftover from the bachelorette party fun!

Plump Peach

Fun fact about Ring Pops: In my advertising campaigns class in college we had to re-market a product currently on the market to a new niche. I re-marketed Ring Pops as wedding favors to young adult women.

Ring Popper

Everythaaaang

Once Sad, Now Glad

Enjoying the Ring Pop after lunch today made me think about childhood candy and the things I was and wasn’t allowed to eat growing up.

My parents never let me and my sister drink soda, unless we were at a special event (then we’d always order a kiddie cocktail)! At the time I was sad that I couldn’t offer my friends a can of soda when they’d come over to my house to hang out, and I was sad I couldn’t sip on a cold can of Dr. Pepper whenever I wanted.

Now I’m honestly glad I wasn’t allowed to drink soda. I never crave it and don’t think to order it in restaurants. I guess my parents were on to something…

What is something you weren’t allowed to eat or drink growing up? Do you still avoid it today?

Savin’ Them ‘Gs

I’m sure you’ve heard people refer to money as “g’s” before, right?

If Only My Blog Paid Me Like This...

Apparently I’m not well-versed in pop-culture slang, because I never knew what exactly “g’s” stood for when referencing money. Just in case you’re a super-blonde like me and never knew, it stands for “grand” like $1 grand = $1,000. Somebody, somewhere just rolled their eyes into the back of their head (Likely Ryan 😉 ).

I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson… Or will forgive me for telling you something you already knew and thought was totally obvious.

Annnyway, I have always been a g-saver and constantly look for great deals and ways to save my money.

A couple of months ago my friend Merri sent me a text message that changed my life. (Okay, not really, but it was still a good little nugget of information that she shared with me.)

Did you know you can get a polish change instead of a pedicure for $10?

Nooo. Actually I didn’t know this.

Ever since I got that text, I haven’t splurged on a full-on pedicure. I’ve opted for a simple polish change on my toes, which still looks great, but costs less than half the price of a pedicure at most nail salons. Score!

Polish Change Lunch Break

Aside from the price, a wonderful thing about a polish change is that you can often get in and get out of the nail salon in 20 minutes. That means you may even be able to cram it into your lunch break.

That’s exactly what I did today. I managed to save even more time by bringing my own polish since I often take an inordinate amount of time selecting the perfect color.

Self-Timer at a Stop Light! What, What!?

O.P.I Shade: A True Aboriginal

I was in and out and on with my life in less than 20 minutes! Sch-weet!

Lunch

Since I have a long day ahead of me involving a flight to Chicago and our first night of bachelorette party fun, I wanted to be sure to enjoy a filling and nutritious lunch.

I opted for my favorite combination of noodles, Barilla mushroom and garlic marinara sauce, steamed broccoli and freshly chopping spinach.

Noodles + Sauce + Veggies

Apparently My Camera Focuses Only On the Most Nutritious Parts of My Bites...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Noodle Boooowl

I also ate a Colby-Jack string cheese on the side that went undocumented.

Tonight

I am an antsy-pants  girl this afternoon! I just want my weekend of fun to start NOW!

Tonight I will be arriving in Chicago around 8 p.m. and we’ll be kicking off this wonderful bachelorette party weekend by doing Lord knows what. No one is telling me anything about the whole weekend, so I’m looking forward to having a good time at the hands of my wonderful friends. 🙂

I’ll try to keep the ol’ blog updated as much as possible while I’m in Chicago.

See ya from the Windy City! 😀

Gourmet Nutrition Giveaway

Don’t forget to head on over to Jessica’s blog to see who won the Gourmet Nutrition Giveaway!

Of Possible Interest

• Are You Addicted to Exercise? Signs of Exercise Addiction (FitSugar.com)
• Can Surfing the Internet Help You Lose Weight? (Time.com)
• Top 10 Healthiest Vegetables (MyHealthPassion.Wordpress.com)
• Fun Facts about Peanut Butter & a Recipe for PB&J French Toast (ImAnOkie.com)

Question of the Afternoon

What did you do for your bachelorette party? If you’re not married, what would you want to do for your bachelorette party?

Fainting Goats and Talking Dogs

Have you seen this video of the fainting goats?

Insane! I love watching random animal videos on YouTube. My sister and I will spend inordinate amounts of time watching “talking” dog videos.

This one is my all-time favorite “talking” dog video:

“I want my mamaaaa!”

Sadie says this all the time… But she follows it up with “Now go get me some chicken strips, woman.” 😉

You may be thinking, “Okay, Julie… why are you posting videos about goats and talking dogs?”

Well, my lunch included goat cheese and that’s the direction my brain went. Quite the tangent, huh?

Let’s get back to my goat cheese-filled lunch, shall we?

Lunch

Lunch today was deeeelish.

I enjoyed a goat cheese and avocado bagelwich on a sweet wheat Alternative Bagel with fresh spinach.

Goat Cheeeeeeese

I am seriously in love with the Chavrie goat cheese I used on this bagelwich. It’s spreadable, creamy, mild and flippin’ delicious.

For some additional color and crunch, I also included a sliced red pepper and carrot sticks on the side.

The Whole Shebang

Eat Me!

Chomp, chomp, chomp.

Calling All Animal Lovers

Feel free to post a link to your favorite animal videos below. Funny, cute, whatever! I love ’em all.

(Or if you don’t want to post an animal-loving link, feel free to tell me how much you love goat cheese. That entertains me, too. 😉 )

Coyotes, Cows and Turkeys, Oh My!

First things first, your comments about the crazy things you’ve seen while working out not only made me laugh out loud, but they truly amazed me!

Here are some of the things you’ve encountered while getting your sweat on:

• Coyotes
• Road runner (Are you sure you weren’t just watching Looney Tunes? 😉 )
• Cows that somehow escaped the farm
• Family of turkeys
• Man walking on the treadmill at a 1.5 pace while using his arms to do dance moves
• A kid on a school bus who threw a pencil at the runner
• Guy doing push-ups in work attire
• Naked man sweeping his driveway
• Mockingbirds dive-bombing a squirrel that was trying to steal from a bird feeder
• Dog running down the street with a mailbox attached to its leash

And my personal favorite:

• A middle-aged Amish man walking across a road with a dead turkey on his back while his wife walked behind him in her dress holding a gun.

All of your comments reminded me of a weird thing I once saw while working out:

One time a guy was doing ab exercises on an exercise ball near the treadmills at my gym.

Crunch it Out

He had his legs propped up on the ball, and mid-crunch the ball flew out from underneath his feet and into a nearby treadmill.

The problem? A woman was running on that treadmill and the ball caused the treadmill to stop, sending the woman flying. While this was happening, the exercise ball squeaked loudly as the treadmill tried to keep moving.

It was insane! Luckily the woman was okay, but she was clearly very shook up. It also took a good two minutes or so for someone to turn off the treadmill and stop the ball from squeaking, which made the whole scene seem all the more dramatic. Totally nuts!

Lunch

My lunch today included two new things!

• Avocado
• Tabouleh

They’re probably not new to you, but they’re new to me! Well, I’ve loved avocado for years, so it’s not technically new to me, but since I rarely buy avocados, it felt like a new discovery!

Tabouleh

The tabouleh, on the other hand, was definitely a new dish. I’ve tried tabouleh (a Middle Eastern salad featuring bulgur, mint, parsley, and other herbs and spices) one other time at TooJay’s Deli when I was in college. I liked it a lot back then, but totally forgot about it until Sunday evening when my friend Merri gave me a box mix to make my own!

Using Fantastic World Foods’ box mix, I made tabouleh last night while dinner was cooking and let it chill in the fridge. By the time I was ready to eat it for lunch today, it was nice and cold.

I topped a bed of fresh spinach with the tabouleh, along with grape tomatoes, cucumber and celery and half of a large avocado.

Tabouleh + Avocado

I used Ryan’s method to prep the avocado, which made it super simple! Ryan makes the most amazing (and simple) avocado salsa dip and has perfected his avocado slicing technique.

To prep the avocado, simply cut it in half, lengthwise, and twist to separate the two sides. Stab the pit with a knife to remove it before carving a grid into the avocado. Scoop out the avocado! You should have perfectly diced chunks of avocado!

Avocado Grid

Sliced Avocado

My lunchtime salad was definitely taken to another level due to the addition of the tabouleh and avocado. I forgot how much creaminess and flavor avocado adds to any dish (not to mention it’s a great source of good fat!).

Summer Salad

I’ve actually noticed something about my body and food recently.

I seem to feel much fuller off of fat and fiber than I do when I consume protein alone. A simple protein shake might calm hunger pains for a little while, but if I eat a small handful of nuts with the shake or add some high-fiber fruit to the mix, I feel much more satisfied. I guess the whole “eat protein + carbs + fats” at every meal is a pretty decent equation. 😉

Of Possible Interest

• Tips to Avoid Weekend Weight Gain (FitSugar.com)
• 50 Fattiest American Foods (One from Each State!) (Health.com)
• Coupon for $.30 off Yoplait Greek yogurt

100 Degrees

According to my car, it was 100 degrees outside when I drove home from work this afternoon.

Holy hotness!

Just walking from my car to our apartment made me feel overheated, so I knew a long walk with Sadie was out of the question.

Instead, I leashed her up for an early-evening romp at the dog park.

Playin' at the Park

All Smiles

Our time at the park was spent playing a billion rounds of fetch.

Sadie also enjoyed several dips in the lake to cool down.

Water Dawg

Pretty Girl

I think a long session at the dog park makes me hungrier than Sadie and I’m not even the one who sprints around like a mad woman.

Post-park, we came home and I got to work in the kitchen.

Dinner

Dinner came together in a flash thanks to a Morningstar Farms tomato and basil pizza veggie burger.

Pizza Burger

I served the burger on a whole wheat Pepperidge Farms deli flat with spinach and plum tomato slices.

Dinner is Served

Roasted cauliflower rounded out the meal.

Roasted Cauliflower

Mah Burger

Veggies Burger 'n' Veggies

It was great post-park fuel! 🙂

Ryan is attending at a class this evening, so Sadie and I have plans to cuddle on the couch and watch The Bachelorette right now. I’m really looking forward to relaxin’ with the pup.

See ya in the morning!