coffee, yogurt and running

Yesterday Andy and I spotted this sign while out doing errands. I had to stop and get some pumpkin pie frozen yogurt. It's my favorite!



I got a taste of pumpkin pie and cheesecake yogurt with some captain crunch on top. You can't tell but this is only 1/4 of the HUGE self-serve cup they give you.



Andy got blood orange. It was so delicious. Next time, I'm getting that flavor. Yogurtland gets two thumbs up. I love how creamy it is.



I was still craving yogurt this morning so I had some blueberry chobani with my morning coffee.



I found this coffee at Whole Foods. I was inspired by a post I saw on Heather's blog. It's great! I'm pretty happy. Thanks Heather!



Blueberry chobani is my second favorite greek yogurt flavor. I think my favorite is pineapple chobani. I'm addicted.

Andy went on a run last night (his first since his surgery) and it inspired me. I seriously cannot wait to start training again. My plan is to take it slow and easy. I was considering doing the Couch to 5k plan again since I know I'm not slow enough to just go out and run 3 miles.

Have any of you started running again after an injury? How did you get back out there?

I have physical therapy tomorrow, I have a list of questions for him.



This is how I've been spending my time in therapy. Hooked up to electrodes and ice.

We'd love each other more if we were in Napa

haha. Andy and I are sort of obsessed with going to Napa and asking Thomas Keller to move in with us. I never said anything about us being normal. In fact, we are quite strange.

Andy and I are going to a blogger meet up today with Sophia and I am quite excited about it!



Let's talk about perfect couples now, shall we? This whole wheat roll, carmelized onions, turkey, spinach, sundried tomato aioli and avocado sandwich was perfect. I truly believe that avocado and turkey are a match made in heaven. Have you ever ordered a sandwich at Whole Foods? It's a worthwhile investment for sure.



And to think, I thought my sandwich was perfect...Andy's roast beef and arugula was out of this world good.



At Whole Foods, I picked up a Blackberry Wallaby Yogurt. Normally, I'm crazy for the "perfect couple" of granola and yogurt but this yogurt was too thin for my taste. Give me greek yogurt anyday!





The kind folks over at Jay Robb sent Andy and me some protein to try out. We ran a "practice" 5k at the park and definitely needed some protein to help our muscles recover. We chose the vanilla whey protein for today.



I made us 2 big shakes using almond breeze (unsweetened vanilla), frozen peaches, strawberries, one whole banana and 1 packet of Jay Robb Vanilla Whey Protein.



I'm thrilled to tell you that this protein shake wasn't chalky at all and tasted like heaven after a 3.5 mile run. I was in love. Now I can see why other bloggers rave about Jay Robb! I can't wait to try the other flavors. Whoop!!!!!! Seriously...it's the best tasting protein powder I've ever had!

Do you know of any "perfect couples?" Tell me about them. I'm always down to try out new things.

Have you tried Jay Robb's protein before?

Three Day Weekend! WHOOOOOOOOO

This is my last weekend of freedom. On Tuesday, I will start taking six classes at night on top of subbing. I am nervous and stressed about it. I have tried reminding myself that I took four classes the semester I graduated college on top of working 35-40 hours a week and did fine but surprisingly that does nothing to console me.

For the record, I have classes Monday-Thursday.

Monday: I have 2 classes from 4pm-10pm
Tuesday: Only one class from 7pm-8:40pm
Wednesday: 4:15pm-9:50pm (weird?)
Thursday- 4pm-5:50pm.

I don't necessarily NEED to take six classes so I have decided to possibly drop a class if I don't like it. At the same time, it'd be nice to have more classes out of the way before student teaching.



Brandi was nice enough to send me some maple almond butter (and other goodies!) for guessing a blogger that influenced her meal correctly. I decided the maple flavor in the almond butter would be perfect on top of some chocolate chip waffles.



It was perfect! Especially with a veggie egg scramble.



Pancakes are always something I manage to screw up but waffles? Always turn out decent! And I love to make big batches that I can easily freeze and pop in the toaster later.



The egg scramble was just two eggs scrambled with one orange bell pepper and one zucchini. I split it with Andy. (Gotta sneak my protein and veggies in somehow!)



Lunch was a surprise. We have a gift card for Applebee's so we tried to find an Applebee's. Well none exist around here! So we went to Whole Foods. (Which is 5 million times better!) I got a turkey avocado sandwich with caramelized onions, sun-dried tomato aioli and spinach.



on a whole wheat panini.



And a Tazoberry black tea.



Andy got roast beef with lettuce, tomato, sun-dried tomato aioli and caramelized onions.



And a mango iced tea.



And I tried a few bites of this pesto pasta salad. It was delicious but too creamy and heavy for lunch.



Dinner was out again. We met up with some friends at a local mexican place. I ordered a cranberry margarita.



With an extra shot. Of course. (Hey it's the weekend!)



And a big pile of chicken and veggies. I ate 4-5 bites and boxed the rest up. That margarita filled me up!

I have been trying to limit myself to one alcoholic beverage a week. But I had half a dos equis and margarita this week. Plus today is a big football game thing (Can you tell that I don't understand sports?) and we are planning on going to a friend's house to watch the game. I bought myself some raspberry hard cider just for the occasion.

So that means no alcohol Monday-Saturday for me!

Hope you are having a good weekend, I plan on having another arms and abs day today. I ran a little too hard yesterday and really irritated my knee and heel. Lovely!

Bran is not so bland!

I read about these muffins somewhere and decided that I had to try them. I always crave pastries in the morning but they are usually 200-500 calories! I needed something that would fill me up without weighing me down. LOL

Enter Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Both stores carry baked goods by Zen Bakery. Zen Bakery makes vegan and wheat free treats. We got the Blueberry Raspberry Bran Muffins.



I usually eat half on my way to work and the other half on my lunch break. (When I don't eat donuts. I really need to stop that!)



Here is the muffin next to my phone for size comparison. It's huge!

So if you live in California, check out these muffins! They are fantastic!

Grocery shopping date

Well I finally did it! I made a grocery list and a meal plan for the week. It felt so productive! After talking to my co-workers today about the wonder that is www.mint.com , I had no other choice but to try to be financially savvy. I love budgeting and actually sticking to it. It’s been tough but somehow it’s working. My weight loss on the other hand is not going as well. So I need to start planning out my meals better. I keep forgetting to bring a lunch to work. Ugh.
So Andy and I had a date night at Whole Foods and Trader Joes. There is nothing better than a date over errands…okay maybe there is.
At Whole Foods we bee-lined over to the deli for sandwiches made in the Panini press.
I got turkey and jack cheese on a whole wheat Panini roll.

I got it with tomatoes, red onions, lettuce and sun-dried tomato aioli. Insanely delicious? Crazy delicious? You decide.

From the top.
Andy got roast beef and jack on a ciabatta roll. It was also very good. I tried a bite of course.

I splurged with a 140 calorie Izze. I should not have. I repeat; I should not have. The carbonation made me feel ill.

But this is my second favorite flavor of Izze so I couldn’t resist! Grapefruit is my favorite. I will buy it anytime I see it.
After Whole Foods we stopped by Trader Joe’s where I sampled some steel cut oats with pineapple. I have to make some of the steel cut oats I have in the pantry. I think I need to soak them overnight. Not entirely sure what the best method for this is. We’ll see what I do tomorrow.

After all that eating, we shopped. At Whole Foods we got produce, chobani yogurt, and some unsweetened vanilla almond milk. (Thanks for the tip Ashley!) I think I’ll try making a smoothie with almond milk this week! It’s way lower in calories than milk and supposedly tastier. I got more blackberries, some blueberries and apples. The apples are for Andy. I’m not really a big apple fan.
At Trader Joe’s we got Panini rolls, turkey, white cheddar cheese slices, pork loin, chicken breast, polenta, mango mochi (my favorite dessert on the planet!), and some frozen lunches. I need to bring my lunch the rest of this week!
So my meal plan for the rest of this week is
Wednesday- Turkey/Cheddar Paninis and salad (breaking out our fancy Panini press that we never use. Oy.)
Thursday- pork loin and lemon pepper broccoli
Friday- we are going out for Indian with friends.
Saturday & Sunday- we will be in San Diego!
Monday- homemade chicken tikka masala. (I know, I know we are having Indian on Friday. But honestly we rarely tire of a good thing! And my homemade version is a lot less fattening than the restaurant kind.)
Tuesday- I am going to try to find a good polenta recipe! Any ideas?
Anyway that’s all I have for now. I’m going to try my best to stick to this plan. Monday may or may not change because of Martin Luther King Day. Holidays off work are a good excuse to go out.
Now I’m off to watch Dane Cook on Comedy Central and enjoy some mango mochi. : )