Procrastination at its best!

I am blogging while huddled in a far corner of the library. If you don’t hear from me for a few days, send the search and rescue team. ;) Wait, scratch that, it’s probably because I will be exhausted and taking a 45679 hour nap.

See this stack of research articles:

These are the reason I’m here and these may be the reason for my impending exhaustion.

Instead of search and rescue, you better send a Starbucks barista with a coffee IV. That should do the trick!

Luckily, I didn’t make the mistake of forgetting my snacks this time. I’m prepped for a snack attack.

Does anyone else think this is a Honeycrisp on steroids? Oh well, I’m certainly not complaining—it just means a prolonged foodgasm! ;)

My work-out today was a delightful 4-mile run + 1-mile walk with the pupperoni. Mother nature, will you please give us this weather year-round? It’s perfection. However, you may take back the little present you left me today that has me knocking down small children for chocolate. ;)

Of course, I needed fuel after that run. This resulted in a lettuce less salad of beastly proportions.

If you told me this picture was less-than-appetizing, I wouldn't argue!

In the bowl:

Roasted broccoli

2 tomatoes

Chopped carrots

Hummus + Salsa for dressing

Nutritional Yeast

Morningstar Farms black bean burger

Avocado

Sriracha

Yum, yum, and yum.

Then, for those of you who follow me on twitter saw, I needed CHOCOLATE. So I inhaled a few un-pictured squares of Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Mint. Then I needed something else sweet! So I did what any Mom would do; I raided my son’s cereal stash. And this is what I found:

I tried to make myself feel a little less like a 6-year old by mixing this with Whole Grain Cheerios.

Then I came down from my sugar-high and crashed for a one-hour nap. And it felt gooood.

I picked up my son, took him to foreign language, and now I am here, in the corner of the library, procrastinating by writing this post.

I'm hoping this kicks in soon and gives me a boost of motivation!

Do your thang Starbeezy, do your thang!

Have a fabulous night!

<3 Stefanie

I love...

I love CACAO nibs and the crunch they added to my banana and almond butter. Thanks for the morning inspiration Gina! :)

I love French Vanilla Supreme Keurig K-cups that make coffee taste like a decadent dessert.

I love the beautiful weather today:

I love that I don’t have any scheduled classes, so I can take a nice run in said beautiful weather.

I love that I have many more of these waiting for me in the fridge:

I love that it’s Thursday, one day closer to Friday, which is one day closer to the weekend!

I love that my baby boy will be 8 this weekend! Wow, does time fly or what?

I love that I have sweet potatoes on my counter, so that my dinner can be healthy and delicious.

Last, but certainly not least, I love that you’re here reading! :)

See ya later dolls,

<3 Stefanie

What is your “I love…” statement for day? Or if you have multiple statements, list them all!

Wicked Wednesdays

Hello my little pretties,

Introduction inpired by the Wizard of Oz and the famous line: “I’ll get you my pretty...and your little dog too.” Totally random, but that was my absolutely favorite movie when I was little! I need to watch that again ASAP! I also saw the Wizard of Oz on Stage a few years ago at the Chicago Theatre and it was amazing!

I hope you all had a Wicked Wednesday. ;) Did I just allude to that movie again? As in, Wicked Witch of the West? Why, yes I did. I’m done now. Promise.

I digress. To the food, which is what you came here for right?

My day started out with a banana and an iced coffee. Not enough fuel, but I also had not enough time! So I just grabbed what I saw! It was still good nonetheless.

I headed straight to school for a full day of classes. Let me tell you, I was not happy about being in cold buildings all day! It was so beautiful out!

I did, however, get to wear my new jacket:

Owl Necklace & Flower Earrings

After my first class, I was already starving. I guess a teeny tiny breakfast will do that to ya!

Luckily I packed my lunch, as per usual. The contents, however, had a lil’ something unusual…

The usuals:

La Tortilla Wrap

Hummus and Nutritional Yeast

Spinach

The UNUSUALS:

Sundried Tomato & Basil Laughing Cow

Tempeh

You can kind of see the tempeh poking out.

This was the first time I had tried tempeh on a cold sandwich and it was really good! A great way to get protein in for vegetarians like myself!

I also had the Gucci of apples:

Carrots for veg:

PB & J Larabar (This is definitely one of my favorite flavors)

This highly anticipated box was waiting on my my doorstep when I got home:

YAYYYYYY!!!!!!! This is my son’s birthday present, a Dell Nickelodeon Edition Mini Netbook. I have been so excited to get this!

So, of course his father and I couldn’t wait until Saturday and we gave it to him today! We need to work on our patience!

So as we speak, I am sitting here like this:

And he is sitting here like this:

Quality family time in the technologically depend society of 2010? ;)

And don’t you worry; I will be installing some crazy parental controls on this baby! After the results of some of my recent searches, I may just install parental controls on mine as well! :)

Now we are heading to the library to return our books and get some new ones! We may go out to dinner as well—we shall see.

Have a great night pretties,

<3 Stefanie

Question: Do you have a favorite childhood movie? Have you watched it recently?

Food for thought: Have you tried tempeh? How did you prepare it?

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Hey dolls, I hope you all are having a great Tuesday! (I totally just wrote Monday, oops!)

Mine has been jam-packed and that’s without getting to the school portion of my to-do list. I don’t know about you guys, but I always significantly underestimate the time I think it will take me to get things done! As in, I plan a 2 hour slot for groceries and lunch, and it ends up taking me 3 hours or more! I need to get better at this, no wonder I’m always saying so much to do, so little time. ;)

I totally trekked all over town in my work-out clothes:

I was so excited to wear this Livestrong jacket again! It’s one of my favorites from last year, and today was the perfect weather for it! The hat was necessary to cover my hot mess that I call hair. ;)

I definitely got a few yummy things today:

That larabar reminds me of a lil' something: It's Peanut-Butter Jelly Time, Peanut-Butter Jelly Time... haha

Bar Assortment

I have never tried the Pure Protein bars, but I usually eat a bar every day so I figured why not give them a whirl? Plus, smores sounded too good to pass up!

I went to the health food store to replenish my nutritional yeast and found these babies:

Raw Chocolate Cacao Nibs

How do you pronounce Cacao? Is it caw-cow? lol, My sister and I had different ideas! Anyway, I’ve seen this all over the blogosphere and I’ve been dying to get my hands on some! This is a mini-bag, which is great because I can try them to see if I like them before shelling out more money for a bigger bag. I’m thinking these will be a great addition to my oats and to smoothies!

New Laughing Cow Flavors (!!)

I see some tasty wraps/eggs in the future!

I also ordered cookie cake for my son’s birthday from Mrs. Field’s. Mm, just the smells coming from that store were amazing! Mrs. Field's is in the mall, so I somehow ;) managed to do some a little mall damage:

Workout pants

“Military-Style” Jacket by Decree—this picture doesn’t do this jacket justice. It’s really cute and flattering on!

Then I visited an old friend: Panizzle!

I stuck to the "no pop challenge." Are you proud? ;)

I ordered the pick 2, like always, but they didn’t have my usual Fuji Apple Salad (minus chicken). So I went with what I thought would be the next best thing: Orchard Harvest Salad (minus chicken). Delicious black bean soup was the second pick of course!

What a weak salad! For real, can this even be classified as a salad? It’s more like 2 pieces of lettuce with a slather of dressing. Ehh, at least the black bean soup lived up to its typical foodgasmic status. :)

Whole grain baguette on the side for soup dippage.

Time to hit the books. Hard. Hope they don't hit me back. ;) (Sorry, bad joke!)

<3 Stefanie

Any new or exciting foodie finds lately?

A Falltastic Breakfast

Yes, I love to make up words. I can’t help it--maybe my last name should be Webster! ;)

You’ll see how fitting the title is after I show you my breakfast. But first let’s talk about races. Running races that is, as I’m sure you gathered!

A goal I’d like to achieve in the near future: sign up for a race. Any race really, but I think starting at a 5k would be my best bet. I’ve been procrastinating because I’m super nervous! I’ve never really identified myself as a “runner.” Yes, I enjoy running for leisure. And considering that I’m really competitive, I think I’d really enjoy racing as well. I can chalk it up to being scared of failure. I don’t want to set myself up for failure because then I will be even more intimidated, which will make it even harder to sign up the next time! I'm pretty sure I can avoid this by starting with a small race and building up. I need to think like Nike and JUST DO IT! I think I will en-list my brother and sister and get this ball rolling!

I started my morning with an Autumn-inspired falltastic breakfast: pumpkin oats and pumpkin coffee. I may turn into a pumpkin soon!

Pumpkin coffee a’ la Keurig! With some sugar-free vanilla creamer, of course!

I need to have my Mama grab some more pumpkin creamers for me, hint hint. ;)

I made a big batch of oats for his and hers, but his were scarfed down before any pictures were taken! Typical.

In my bowl:

1 c. oats

Stevia

Pumpkin pie spice

2 tbsp. pumpkin

Topped with:

Oikos plain Greek yogurt (which I’m now out of…grocery run ASAP!)

Pecans

Almond butter

Nectarine

In case you were curious, his bowl contained:

1.5 c. oats

Organic Brown Sugar + Raw Sugar

Topped with:

Lots of nectarine

Chopped walnuts

More Brown Sugar

I’m about to blast some music and clean up the kitchen!

Then this will be dominated:

I’m not even sure where to start! But I do know that I have to practice time management if I expect to make a dent in this!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Tuesday!

<3 Stefanie

Any tips for training/your first race/anything that pertains to a newbie runner? Send em' my way! :)

Peter, Peter, Pizza Eater

Happy Monday Bloggies! Hope everyone’s week has gotten off to a good start!

Let’s do a little rewind back to yesterday evening.

While studying my behind off (it’s too bad studying can’t literally work my behind off), I prepared an easy dinner using this beauty:

Acorn Squash

These suckers are HARD to cut open. I count that as my arm workout, for real!

I simply sliced it up, spritzed it with EVOO on both sides, sprinkled with cinnamon and pepper, and then roasted at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes (until both sides were lightly browned).

I ate it with Oikos plain Greek yogurt and honey mustard. Delish.

Notice the new fall plate my Mom got me simply for blog purposes. Cute, huh? Thanks Mom!

I got my work-out on with Turbo Fire 30. Then showered my stinky face and got to studying.

After a few hours of straight reading (research articles on empathy), I took a break to make my lunch that I ate today.

Wrap with Acorn Squash and Almond Buttahhh--This was pretty good, but it was lackin' a lil something. Cinnamon maybe? I'll try that next time.

Carrots n' Hummus

Apple 

Tropical fruit tart larabar

Fast forward to today.

I had a full day of back-to-back classes. In which I managed to find about 10 minutes to scarf that packed lunch! Besides for the larabar, which I saved for the way home. You see why it's necessary I pack my lunch? I wouldn't even have time to get something if I wanted to!

On my way home, I needed some caffeine, so I stopped at Starbizzle for a Venti Pike Roast with sugar free caramel syrup and steamed soy milk. Mmm, mmm good!

Thumbs up everyone! (in his soccer gear after practice)

I also picked up some new Keurig K-cups: pumpkin spice!! I was so excited when I saw these and there were only two boxes left, so of course I bought both! I can’t wait to have a cup in the morning! Tis' the season.

Finally, I got home--well to my parents house, but it's home all the same. My mom and I took the pup for a walk and then we had dinner! It’s a big football game tonight (Bears vs. Packers) and while I don’t watch football—I still enjoy the pizza that comes along with it!

Thin Crust Garden Veggie from Papa John’s

My plate:

A side of chemicals:

No, I didn’t forget about the “no pop challenge” but my sister and I decided that pizza night could be an exception. ;)

Now I’m about to do some school work and I’m contemplating a night time run.

<3 Stefanie

Any good recipes for acorn squash that don't involve cutting it up before it's cooked?