So after a nice run this morning in the most perfect running weather, I decided to opt for a bowl of warm cereal versus the cold I've been having all week.

I added a cherry soy yogurt, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and a scoop of almond butter to the mix.  It was delicious and entirely hit the spot.

Today is a bit of lazy Sunday here in our household seeing that I've been off from work one full week and tomorrow is the dreaded Monday I return (Actually, it's not that bad ;-), and Ryan has been off for five days and tomorrow is the dreaded Monday he returns.  I keep saying we won't win the lottery until we start playing it...

For lunch today I decided to get a little creative, and started with this.

I didn't have any hummus on hand, and I don't have a blender (it's on my most immediate to-buy list), but I was determined to make a sort of chickpea topping for my rice  cakes.

So I portioned out a serving of chickpeas in a bowl, coated them with a teaspoon of olive oil, and grabbed some additional ingredients; i.e. a carrot, a garlic bulb, and some spices.

I ended up transferring the chickpeas to a plate so I could really get in there and mash them. 

Then I transferred them back to the bowl to add in all the other ingredients, and voila!

Fresh chickpea spread-topped rice cakes.  Divine. 

So I started my day by  fueling with:

While I do love the flavored Silk Live! Soy Yogurts, I wish I could get my hands on the plain flavor.  I only know it exists because I've seen it on their website, but I've never actually seen it in stores.  I could definitely be cutting down on sugars and additives if I used my own mix-ins with the plain flavor.  I'll just have to keep an eye out!
 
Then later today I decided to take this:

And turn it into:

One.

Two.

Three.

And Four.

I haven't tasted any of these bad boys yet, but Ryan says they're really good ....

Actually, what really happened is; Ryan walked in the door ... I told him I baked Pumpkin Scones ... and fifteen minutes later he had inhaled three and said he's going to spoil to his dinner.   So, they sound like they'll be good, right?!

Fortunately he stopped at the three and didn't spoil his dinner, because dinner turned out really tasty.

I fried up some chicken cutlets (Ryan and I are aware of our addiction), baked some butternut squash oven fries with cayenne pepper, and sauteed baby spinach in flax oil with garlic. 

Mmm, mmm, mmm.  So good.

Now we're letting digestion do its thing, and then we're hitting the lanes for some bowling!

So post acupuncture, post spin class, I was proudly able to get up this morning and get a good run in to start the day.  I think my body was still feeling a bit worn down from the extra intense spin class last night, but still it felt good to get going.

Before I headed out to the gym (which I opted to do because it was already hot outside at 8:30 this morning) I ate a light breakfast of yogurt with rice cereal mixed in.

The crunchy texture was a fun change of pace from the hot cereal I eat most often. 

Afterward I definitely had a spoonful of almond butter straight from the jar, but alas there is no picture of that.

After running errands and such, I threw together a light lunch of rice cakes topped with hummus and baby spinach.  Light and nutritious.

No Ryan and I are off to do some last minute shopping for his mom's birthday which is  ... today!

Catch ya later.

I started off this morning with a bowl of sunny oats. 

(If they look a little too watered down it's because they are .... Oops!)

I'm trying out something new this morning ... Acupuncture!  Is it weird that I'm pretty nervous about this?  I'm going to a place that's been highly referred by many different people, and two of my girlfriends help out there on Saturdays.  I'm not sure if today is just a consult ... or if it's a consult and a session because there was a bit of a language barrier with the woman on the phone when I made the appointment.  I guess I'll just how to see!

It feels like an awesome, brisk fall day outside!

Hey!  Did you all have a good weekend? 

Yesterday Ryan and I did a lot of running around in the morning, and then at 4pm we stationed ourselves at our friends' house to watch the Jets game ... aka less than half way through the game my girlfriend and I snuck out and 2 hours  later we both came back with a new pair of boots ... (That's my idea of "watching the game!")  Some of yesterday's eats included:

Over all it was one of the nicer weekends I've had in quite some time.

This morning I awoke to a work-less Monday morning ... the best kind of course ... and decided I really wanted pancakes.  So that's what I had. 

I created one golden delicious monster pancake loaded with almonds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds.

On the side I had grapes.

Now I have to scramble to get ready!  My mom's meeting me at my house so we can journey to Wild By Nature together.  DF WF GF haven here I come. 

So today has been super productive, super early ...and now it's 7:15 and I'm sleepy ;-)

I kicked off the day with a bowl of hot cereal and a blueberry yogurt mixed in, and had some juicy grapes on the side.

Then Ryan and I headed over to Sands Point Preserve to check out a medieval festival.  It was such an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside that it didn't matter what was going on.  The festival was cool, but I think we got the majority of our pleasure from navigating the trails there.  Actually, Ryan may have gotten the majority of his pleasure from the tent that was selling real swords ... but regardless, we had a great time enjoying the outdoors.

I did snack on an almond butter sandwich I had packed, but I honestly forgot to take a picture of it.  We had just stopped back at the car so I could change from sandals to sneakers to hit the trails ... so I was probably excited for the trails, inhaled my sandwich, and didn't think twice.  Oops!

On the way home from Sands Point Preserve we stopped and did our food shopping for the week.  We had needed to pick up a few things for dinner, so I figured while we were there we'd just do a quick shop.  One less thing to get done tomorrow!

Back at home I whipped up some fried chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes, and green beans for dinner.  Mmm mmm.

I definitely ate another fried chicken cutlet in addition to what's photoed here. 
 
Now we're just keeping it low key.  I'm all out of bread so I was thinking of swinging by Whole Foods to pick up a loaf, just one more thing I could check off the to-do list, but I'm really not in the mood to go.  It really is a bit of an inconvenience that Whole Foods is the only place I know that sells Udi's Wheat Bread ... But I guess I finally found bread I can eat and enjoy so I shouldn't complain about it, right? 

Let's see how the night plays out ...

The weebly website was acting a little funky over the past couple of days, so I was never able to actually get any posts up.  So let me just share with you a few highlights of my eats since Thursday. 

Stay tuned, and welcome to the weekend!

I've gotten so caught up in the work week that I just realized there's only two days left until I have a full week off!  Yes!

So snacking on that yogurt post-run last night seemed to do the trick ... I slept soundly through the night sans hunger pains =)

When I woke up this morning I ate a couple of waffles,

and later on at work I ate a banana.  (The yogurt came home with me and is back in the fridge.  I guess I maxed out on yogurt yesterday!)

For lunch I was actually looking forward to another turkey sandwich today, even though I had two in row this week ... but I wasn't sure if the turkey was starting to smell a little ripe.  So that got tossed and I opted for hummus instead.

On the side I ate a bunch of grapes.  They were really good and hit the spot.

When I got home from work I had the whole night ahead of me and wasn't quite sure how to spend it.  Predominantly, it was spent on the couch =)

I ate some split pea soup and a little popcorn for dinner. 

I really wanted some crackers or tortilla chips or rice crackers with the soup, but had none on hand. 

I did leave the couch briefly to go for a short walk ... the weather was beautiful of course.  But now here I am ... back on the couch.  I've been looking forward to this lull in my schedule all week.  It feels just as good as anticipated.

This morning I am exhausted.  I ended up falling asleep last night about 2 hours later than planned, and had to wake up an hour earlier than usual today ... That does not make for a very good combination. 

Sometime around 2AM I may or may not have wandered into the kitchen out of starvation and ate a few handfuls of popcorn out of the big bowl I have sitting on my kitchen table ... I knew I'd be getting hungry from spinning sooner or later.

Then when I woke up this morning I ate two waffles.

I of course I am bringing other things with me to eat because who knows when that appetite will strike! 

I'm not sure if anyone else is like this, but when my schedule is erratic the littlest thing like waking up an hour earlier really throws me off.  Next week I'll be sleeping till whenever I want =)