Better in a jar

I woke up this morning really excited to run.  I didn’t eat the healthiest food this weekend so I felt like I had to push it a little harder this morning.  Before my run I ate a banana.  It wasn’t quite ripe yet but I ate it anyways.

Another swim lessons sessions started this morning so I made overnight oats…in a jar!!  I’ve seen Kath make oats in various jars of nut butter and I decided I just had to try it.  I’ve literally been scraping this jar of peanut butter over the past couple of days so I decided that I would just finish it off this morning. 

In the mix:

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

TJ’s unsweetened dried blueberries

flax seeds

cinnamon

a tiny splash of vanilla

topped with almond slivers of course

As Rachael Ray would say, YUM-O!!  I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this before now.

I think I’m going to do a little shopping today since I have the day off of work (woo!)  It’s my favorite thing to do when I don’t have to work.  I’ll take lots of pics and hopefully I’ll be in the mood to make some interesting meals today!

Food for Thought:

What’s your favorite thing to do when you don’t have to work?

Baking Spree

So after my post last night I decided that I really wanted to bake.  So I made some cake mix cookies.

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup water

Directions:

Mix ingredients together and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375°F.

These are pretty much the easiest cookies you could ever make and they are bangin’.  They’re so fluffy and moist, like little pillows of deliciousness.

We also had some ripe bananas laying around so I also made some banana bread. 

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Mash up the bananas in a bowl.  Mix together the flour, sugar, and baking soda and add it to the bananas.  Add the melted butter and egg. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake at 325°F for 1 hour.

This is a really good way to use up bananas that are a little too ripe but of course you still don’t want to waste them and throw them out.

Anyways, on to breakfast.

Nothing too exciting.  I ended up having the same exact overnight oats as yesterday.

I went running again this morning but I took it kinda slow.  I’m running at 5k in Annapolis tomorrow morning so I didn’t wanna push myself too hard today.  Off to work all day, I’m praying for rain 🙂

Food for Thought:

What’s ypur favorite thing to bake?  I love baking all different kinds of cookies!

Oats, oh how I’ve missed you

I went running today for the first time in wayyy too long.  It felt so good!  I had 4 of these dipped in sunflower seed butter as a pre-run snack. 

 

Although I had to force myself to get out of bed, I did it.  I ran about 3 miles and then I came home to this beautiful bowl of overnight oats. 

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

Raisins

cinnamon

splash of vanilla

flax seeds

Toppings:

Sunflower Seed Butter

Strawberry Jelly (homemade by my Nana 🙂 )

Almond slivers

After staying at the BF’s apartment for 5 days, I realized how much I love oats in the morning.  Of course he didn’t have any real food in his apartment (he’s a guy, and he lives by himself) so I missed “my” food a lot.  When I got home yesterday, the first thing my mom said to me was, “I was worried about you because I didn’t know what you would eat without any of your food.”  Since I recently became a pescatarian (and my BF is an avid meat fan) it’s kind of hard to find something to eat when I visit him every weekend.  I’m sure I’ll get better at it over time, but for now I eat a lot of junk food whenever I’m there which I know is horrible. 

I also need to get better at feeling comfortable with taking pictures of the food I eat when I’m not at home.  I promise, I’ll try to do better from now on 🙂

Food for Thought:

 Have any of you had trouble adjusting your diet when you eat somewhere other than home?

This or That

Good Morning 🙂

I woke up this morning and I really wanted to eat THIS

Not just one of them but ALL of them!

But I decided to eat THAT

I haven’t had hot oats in a long time, but I decided to revisit them.

1/3 cup oats

1/3 cup vanilla soy milk

1/3 cup water

cinnamon

spoonful of chunky peanut butter

spoonful of fig jam

raisins

almond slivers

Although I’m sure those donuts would have been delicious; I think my oats were just as good.

After work today I’m leaving to go for DC to hangout with the boyfriend all weekend so I won’t be able to post again until I get back 😦  I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend and be safe!

Food for Thought:

What are your 4th of July plans?  Does your family have any traditions?

Charlie Horse

I woke up this morning with a charlie horse cramp in each of my calves, lovely.  As a result, I decided not to go running again this morning.  I don’t know what is wrong with me.  Usually if I don’t run for 1 day I feel guilty, and now 2 days in a row without it.  I guess 2 days out of 7 isn’t too bad though.

After crawling out of bed, I moseyed on downstairs to this bowel of overnight oats

1/3 cup oats

a bunch of cinnamon

flax seeds

1 spoonful of peanut butter

1 spoonful of fig jam (I got it at the farmer’s market, so good)

tons of raisins

almond slivers on top

I was tempted to add more peanut butter this morning  (or just eat it by the spoonful) but I decided not too.  Now off to the grocery store before work all day again (last day of swim lessons wooo!)

Pool Days

Hello loves!  Today is a very busy morning for me.  Since I didn’t feel like waking up at like 5:30, I don’t have time to go running 😦  Oh well, I guess one day off is probably a good thing (my legs are pretty sore anyways).  Tomorrow is the last day of swim lessons for this session (the pool I work at has 3 sessions that are each 2 weeks long).  I absolutely love when a session ends because I actually get a break from literally living at the pool.  Today will unfortunately be one of those days though that I will be taking up residence at my good ol’ neighborhood pool.  This is because not only do I have to work all day (10:30-8); but I also have to teach swim lessons today (this morning 10-10:30 and then again tonight 8:15-8:45).  I remember back in the day when I use to look forward to just staying after swim team practice and playing with my friends at the pool all day.  I obviously have moved on from that stage and no longer wish to live at the pool!  But oh well, it’s good money right?  Anyways, onto breakfast.

It was overnight oats again (you will begin to learn that this is the norm for me). 

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

A bunch of cinnamon

Flax seeds

Frozen mixed berries (mmmm)

Topped with crushed pecans

I love adding mixed berries to my breakfast.  It’s so refreshing!

Well I won’t be able to post again until after this long day I have ahead of me.  Wish me luck!

Food for Thought:

What’s your favorite thing to top your oats with?  Nothing compares to peanut butter for me, I can’t get enough of it!

Rough Start

Good Morning! So my first official blog day had a rough start.  I was getting ready to start and I realized, I couldn’t find my camera cord to download all of my food pictures!  Tragic, I know.  So I had to take a little trip to Wal-mart after I taught swim lessons this morning before I could actually get down to business.   Anyways…

I woke up this morning and wanted to get my work-out done early since I have to work later this afternoon (I’m a lifeguard at my neighborhood pool 🙂 ).  As a pre-run snack I ate this little guy

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was so much cooler outside this morning than it has been the past couple days.  I ran about 2.5 miles around my neighborhood before I had to hurry home to eat breakfast before I had to go to the pool to teach swim lessons.  I had made some overnight oats last night because I knew I would be in a rush this morning (yay me!)

 These overnight oats consisted of:

1/3 cup quick oats

1/3 cup vanilla soy milk

A bunch of cinnamon (I didn’t measure, I just threw it in there)

Flax seeds

TJ’s dried blueberries

Then this morning I dressed it up with some TJ’s almond butter and some almond slivers.  De-lish!!  Along side I also had some coffee.  This morning was the fist time that I tried the Starbucks VIA ready-brew coffee packets and it wasn’t bad at all.  Definitely a lot faster than making a whole pot of coffee.  After scarfing down my breakfast I was off to the pool.  I usually ride my bike because the pool is in the same neighborhood I live in.  Since it was so nice this morning there was no hesitation and I biked about 1 mile (to the pool and back).

Lunch today was simple but scrumptious nonetheless.  I was starvinggg (my stomach was literally on the verge of eating itself) by the time lunch time rolled around.  I grabbed a strawberry flavored Chobani greek yogurt and topped it with some Nature’s Path Pumpkin FlaxPlus Granola.

 

 I also had a simple sandwich with:

1 Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin

Crunchy peanut butter

Handful of raisins on top of the peanut butter

  Smoosh the two pieces of bread together and you have one tasty sandwich!  Okay, well I’m off to lifeguard now!

Food For Thought:

Whats your favorite way to work-out in the morning?

(I’m trying to switch up my work-outs so I would love some ideas!)