Happy Birthday Danielle

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It’s been a busy day and I’ll keep this quick. I have an early morning tomorrow so I’m already up way too late.

I was not feeling the gym this afternoon, I wanted to play with my new phone, I wanted to play with Adam, my leg hurt… But I’m learning that for me one day off exercise turns into twenty, so I hauled my butt to the gym. 30minutes on the elliptical, level 6, random. In the end I loved it; I’m not sure how I managed to skip the gym so much this last year, exercise makes me so happy!

It was our friend Danielle’s birthday today and by the time I was out of the shower the boys were in the kitchen baking burning some cupcakes. I put myself together a snack while they cooked.

Pomegranate and Passionfruit Siggi’s, Stonewall Kitchen Mimosa Jam, and crunchy peanut butter.

I still cannot get over how much the Siggi’s yogurt looks like a big scoop of ice cream, it is so aesthetically pleasing!

We had to pick up beer before we headed to Benji’s house and I brought a soursop nectar to drink along the way.

Sadly it had added sugar and was way too sweet, I tossed it after just a few sips.

I was starving and cranky by early evening but thankfully Benji is practically a gourmet cook and he hooked me up with this plate of awesomeness.

That is sunflower bread from the co-op with strawberry balsamic vinegar,

and homemade gazpacho.

Yum! It was such a fresh and tasty way to satisfy my hunger.

We spent a large portion of our evening at Wine Thief, where I in fact passed on wine in favor of a Labat Blue with Lime.

I also snagged a small slice of communal pizza.

The pizza was good, and upon perusing the variety of the food menu Adam and I declared that we have to go back for dinner soon.

The rest of the evening was spent in a wicked game of Pictionary.  Fyi – my team won 😉  I didn’t partake in any more booze, but I did nibble on this Strawberry Soy Joy bar from BlogHer.

Can how many days can you take off from the gym before you lose your motivation?

Age Math

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Eeek!  All sorts of excitement in the lunch post.  I did not supplement breakfast.  I did snag a small dark chocolate from my BlogHer swag,

but I refuse to file that as breakfast.

Then I was sprinting out of the house because I found out I could pick up this beauty –

I earned a new phone rebate more than a month ago and I have been patiently waiting driving Adam crazy waiting for my new phone to come in!  I’m not that important (at all) but it’s still exciting to be able to check my e-mail on the go!

I’m also a genius (just a bit) so I wanted to share my great idea with you; when I borrowed Adam’s phone in NY I discovered that the old standard I-Pod cases fit the EVOO perfectly –

My phone is protected, it looks cute as all get out, I didn’t have to buy a new case, and I repurposed an old case that would have gone in the trash!

Speaking of dorky and phone related updates…

I resisted for months when my friends begged me to try g-mail and that ended up being a good decision, so I figured I should cave on the Twitter issue too.  I have no idea what the heck I’m doing on there so pretty please go follow me so I don’t feel like such a dork?

While I was out and about I took a phone survey with Moe’s and earned myself a free lunch, love that place!  I got a Moo Moo Mr. Cow –

Moooo, I ordered my baby burrito with rice, black beans, tofu, corn salsa, and cucumbers.

I asked for just a few chips (I proved last night I can’t resist them!) and got some guacamole as my side.

Since I ordered off the children’s menu I also got a cookie, white chocolate macadamia.

I bring in coupons like I’m 70 and order a kid’s meal like I’m 7; does that average out to 25?

Can you help me with twitter?

  1. What the frick is a hashtag?
  2. How does the whole @specific_person thing work?

Smoothies for a Man

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I usually go to the store alone, but when Camile was visiting last week we did a quick trip that was a family affair.  Adam apparently forgot what the plethora of packaged goodies looks like, especially because most of what I bring home each week is produce, and he was excited by something in every aisle. 

The frozen food is the last stop in our store, and the last thing Adam thrust at me was a package of Yoplait Blueberry Pomegranate Smoothie starter.  It’s possible that I smacked him and yelled that going to the store with him was like babysitting an ADHD riddled child; but that’s really beside the point.  When I reminded him that he doesn’t like blueberries or pomegranate he simply crowed “but it’s a new flavor!”  Ok, then.  We did not leave the store with the smoothie starter; we also left behind a thing of peanut butter cookies, a vegan-style Snickers bar, and Camile’s assurance that Adam was aware of her severe nut allergies.

Lo and behold, one of the first free coupons I received at BlogHer was for the Yoplait Smoothie products.  I carefully watch our food budget and I try to keep Adam healthy and happy, but only a monster says no when it’s free.  If Adam and I are ever in Nevada and the Pussycat Ranch is having a BOGO special it’s likely I’ll give him a baseball coach butt slap and a ‘go get ’em champ!’  When Adam found the package in our freezer he was excited but confused.  Thankfully he has a terrible memory, “Of course, I never say no to the man of the house.  No, I would never hit you…in public…with a bag of frozen peas.”

Wife of the year that I am, this morning it was time for smoothies –

*That’s my serving, Adam got a slightly bigger, much manlier, disposable Subway cup.

The instructions say to blend with 1cup of skim milk but I used half skim cow and half plain almond milk.  Each bag contains two servings, live and active cultures, and two full servings of fruit.  I like blueberries and pomegranates so I thought the flavor was good, just too sweet.  Normally I read the nutrition panel and ingredient list before purchasing, but free!

Oh.  Milkfat, sugar, fructose, corn starch.  I love that Yoplait is encouraging people to eat more fruit, but my smoothies only contain fruit, not filler.  And this wasn’t any quicker than assembling one of my normal smoothies.  If you are substituting this for a milkshake or have a serious portion control problem then this is the product for you; but otherwise I say skip it.

Now I’m off to find something with more than 120calories to finish off my breakfast.

Have you tried this or any brand of smoothie starters?  What is your favorite smoothie combination?

Tru Tortilla Chip Craving

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I managed to hold off my snacking urge all afternoon, but we did decide to switch up our weekly meal plan and head to some take out!  Dinner is being repurposed for my lunch tomorrow and my restaurant leftovers are going toward the husband’s lunch so in the end it all works out.

We went with Moe’s, always a good choice.

I was in the mood for a quesadilla but instead I ordered something I was sure to have leftovers with; a rice bowl.  I topped my rice with black beans, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, onions, cheese, lettuce, jalopenos, black olives, medium salsa, corn salsa, and cilantro.

The flavor storm was great and as predicted my rice bowl ended up ginormous.  I ate about 1/3 and packed the rest up for Adam.

I probably should have stopped there but I got a side of queso dip so I also scarfed a sort of disgusting amount of free tortilla chips.

Soooooo full.

We are currently Netflixing the show “Tru Calling;” we are only 1 episode in but it seems pretty good!

What’s Up Doc?

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Thank you for all your feedback on the giveaway.  I really do appreciate every comment I get here on my little corner of the internet ❤

While I worked on my to-do list I this morning I also worked my way through a big pile of baby carrots.

I know people say that baby carrots are just trumped up packaging of the big guys but I really do prefer them.  Babies seem much crunchier and sweeter to me.

At lunchtime I turned to the freezer.  We have a pretty tight food budget this year and I try to snatch up frozen meals on sale so I tend to have a random assortment.  Today I grabbed a Lobster Cheese Ravioli from Healthy Choice.

I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the quality. 

The ravioli were delicious, even a little better than the Buitoni variety we tried the other day.  I liked the generous portion of squash as well, my only complaint is that the marinara sauce was too watery.

Actually, I guess my other complaint is that I’m currently starving!  To be fair though, 260calories held me over for a while, it’s not necessarily the meal’s fault that I’m ready to chew off my own arm.  The husband is having hunger pains as well so as soon as I hit publish I’m off on a snack hunt.

Big girl carrots or baby carrots?  Or carats?

P.S. Opinions on the font size?

The Best Kind of Morning

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Sooo, about that last giveaway … awkward!  Yeah, that was a bust.  No one commented before the giveaway closed, but would you mind commenting on that post now to let me know why that giveaway sucked so hard?  Any feedback would be appreciated.

Today I had the best kind of morning, I started my day off with a run with the husband!  We are trying to work out the schedule and logistics of being able to workout together before class this year.  I’m also trying to work on getting on a proper sleep schedule; I got in bed at 10pm last night and even though it took me half the night to fall asleep, when the alarm rang at 6:30 I got out of bed.

Cons of this morning’s run –

  • We went for 30minutes and I still had to take several walking breaks
  • We ran on a path around the nearby lake so I have no idea how far we went
  • I’m so pathetically out of shape that Adam barely gets a workout when he runs with me

Pros of this morning’s run –

  • I got out there before 7am and ran for 20minutes
  • We got to run near the lake and it was gorgeous
  • I’m looking forward to the journey back to fitness, even especially the hard work and pathetic stats in the meantime

While Adam was in the shower I got my stretch on, and after my shower I put on yoga pants again so I can continue to take stretch/strength breaks throughout the day.  I start classes in 10days so it’s important that I get myself back into good habits before then.

I also made sure to eat a refueling breakfast.  Also a creamy, dreamy, tropical breakfast.

I threw some Plain Fat Free Stonyfield, a large banana, a serving of Goya frozen soursop pulp, and some Naked Coconut Water into the blender and 2minutes later I had perfection. 

Soursop is my favorite fruit (it comes in even slightly ahead of coconut!) and I highly encourage you to try it if you ever get the chance.

I got some carbs into the mix as well with a serving of Kashi Strawberry Fields cereal with Silk Almond Milk.

Every food group minus veggies?  Check.

I have a pretty packed to do list today, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t most looking forward to setting up my new dayplanner –

“See” you for lunch!

What were a pro and con of your morning?

Raising the Bar, A Giveaway

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Things may not be perfect here at Eating Chalk, but I recently raised the bar (for myself) by switching over to self-hosting.  And by switching back to a more fitting name; Eatventures, you’ll be missed!

I wanted to celebrate those big changes by hosting a little giveaway.  I raised the bar, now I want to send one of you some bars –

10 of my favorites to be exact (excluding any chocolate covered varieties because those just don’t ship well).

You have until Thursday, August 19th to enter.  Here’s how –

  1. CC me (emilyhwaxATgmail.com) on an e-mail in which you tell 2 people about the new Eating Chalk.  Leave a comment on this post to let me know you’ve done so.
  2. Link back to this giveaway on your blog.  Leave a comment on this post to let me know you’ve done so.
  3. Link back to this giveaway from Twitter.  Leave a comment to let me know you’ve done so.
  4. Link back to this giveaway from Facebook.  Leave a comment to let me know you’ve done so.

You can do all of the four if you’d like, just leave a separate comment for each entry.

P.S. Sorry for the missing post yesterday (and today), we’ve had a mini internet issue but I should be back tomorrow.