Punkin' Chia Goodness

Hey Beauties,

Sit back and get comfortable because this post is going to be a long one! Don’t worry; I have lots of pictures to make it interesting!

Let’s reverse to yesterday morning, aka Wednesday morning. My day started out as all others-- late and rushed! Why? Because I have a problem that involves hitting the snooze button on ALL THREE of my cell phone alarms probably about 10 times each! Yes, I must be one of the most annoying roommates, but I think my boy is just used to it because he sleeps right through them. Even though the day started out normal, I knew it would be fantastic because I had this patiently waiting for me in the fridge:

This may not look like anything special, but it combined two of my favorite fall breakfast ingredients: pumpkin and chia seeds!

We shall call this Punkin’ Chia Goodness.

     In the bowl overnight:

    ½ cup pumpkin

    1 oz. chia seeds

                Almond milk (not measured, but probably about 2 tbsp.)

   Pumpkin Pie Spice

   Vanilla Extract

  Stevia to sweeten

All mixed up and stowed in the fridge.

  All decorated with:

   Oikos plain Greek yogurt

Sliced Banana

         Cinnamon           

I was thinking this would also be great topped with warmed sliced apples, peaches, or a nectarine. Also a little maple syrup drizzle would be phenom. I will have to experiment!

While I would have loved to sit down at the dining room table with this beautiful breakfast and a cup of warm coffee; circumstances had me eating this in the car on the way to school. Romantic, no?

So a full day of classes (and a GREAT talk with a new professor in the Psychology department) had my stomach rumbling for my lunch. In comes the handy dandy lunchbox.

All packed up with:

La Tortilla wrap containing:

Sabra Hummus

Lots of nutritional yeast

Cukes

Spinach

Are you sick of seeing this yet? Because I am surely not sick of eating it! ;)

I also had two perfectly ripe plums! I sliced them up because these juicy babies are not conducive to eating on-the-go. Believe me, I tried. I failed. Think: sticky mess.

I also packed a peanut butter cookie larabar and an apple for the ride home.

I almost forgot--I rocked this shirt to school:

I actually got a few funny looks, but I also got a few “love your shirt!” comments, so all-in-all I think it balanced out. Would you wear this shirt?

The reason I wanted to wear/buy this shirt goes beyond the simple cuteness factor. I think saying that “smart is cool” is something that should be conveyed to children, and adults alike, from a young age. For whatever reason, unbeknownst to me, being smart is not always looked at as “cool” when growing up. Now I’m not saying that you should always care what others think (in fact I think the opposite)--but kids are impressionable. If a child thinks that being smart will make them less-liked or even made fun of, then they may strive to look “dumb.” For myself and as a parent, I will always deliver the “it’s cool to be smart” message to my child. And if anyone tells him differently (i.e., bullies) I will make certain he realizes that in the future, when it really matters, he will be the one who is at an advantage. I’ve noticed that a lot of the people whom I went to school with, who were seen as the smartest (but maybe not the most socially adept)—now have the best careers! So let’s keep saying: “Yo, Smart is cool!”

Back to the eats. For dinner last night, I went out with a few of my friends who actually don’t know about this little bloggy. They are pretty much my closest (I just typed closet instead of closest, closet girlfriends would have had a much different meaning! Lol) girlfriends—but I still don’t want to reveal it to them just quite yet. It’s kind of embarrassing to have people you’re so close to (besides my family) reading about your day-to-day activities and eats. Hopefully I will tell them someday soon though! Anyway, the point is I don’t have any pictures of my eats! But I’ll tell you what I had anyway!

We went a Mexican Restaurant, so I ate way too many chips and salsa. So addicting! And then I had a fajita veggie quesadilla for my entrée. Healthy? Not at all. Delicious in moderation? Yes! I also enjoyed some sips of my friend’s Papaya margarita! We concluded that this drink had absolutely no alcohol in it, probably because it was half-price margarita night!  Oh well, it was still yummy!

Fast forward to today and this morning’s breakfast:

Eggs all scrambled up with mini sweet peppers and feta.  And the usual carbs: Arnolds thin with sugar free preserves!

The eye-opener:

Well if anyone is still reading after this book of a post, I hope you have a great Tuesday!

I’m off to do some cleaning, get a work out in, and work on school stuff!

<3 Stefanie

Did anyone else have a hard time telling people in your life about your blog? For me, at least for the time being, it's easier to have people whom you don't know personally read! This may be due to the fact that my blog is a baby, and I feel as if I'm still trying to find my identity as a blogger.

               



Don't Knock it Til' You Try it.

Wowza! Yes, I said that. I told myself I would post every day at least once—and that’s proven to be difficult the past few days! To all of you who post multiple times a day, I envy you!

Let’s rewind back to my Sunday Funday. Well, Sunday kinda-funday would be more fitting. ;)

I woke up in the morning…feeling like P. Diddy—my son actually sang that song the other day, which is questionable at best, oops! That song is definitely catchy! Anyway, I woke up in the morning, threw on some comfy clothes and headed to Starbeezy with my Mama for a wake-up call. Hello, iced coffee with 2 pumps of pumpkin spice and non-fat milk.  You never fail me my love.

Before I left the house I had a bowl of yum-ness:

Multigrain Cheerios

Sliced Nectarine

Sliced Banana

Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze

Quick. Simple. Delicious.

Then I did some grocery shopping. I am in love with grocery shopping. Like I could literally go to multiple grocery stores and truly enjoy myself (Nerd Alert!). My Mom, however, does not like to grocery shop; so she cut our trip short after we went to two grocery stores. To her, that was two too many! Let’s just say:  I got it from my Papa. We share an affinity for groceries and food alike!

Sunday’s Workout: I came home and hopped on my bike because it was beautiful breezy day. I rode one mile to my parents’ house; then walked my pupperoni for another mile. Then I went on a hilly power walk with my Mom, and finally rode my bike back home. Call me weird or call me normal, but this did not feel like a work-out AT ALL. If I don’t break a sweat, it’s just considered fun and leisurely. Yesterday’s sweat-o-meter unfortunately stayed at a big 0. Luckily, today is a different story—but I will get to that shortly.

When I got home I enjoyed this fruit plate:

Nectarine & Plum all sliced up.

I forgot how good plums are! But since I got a Costco sized container of them, I will enjoy their juiciness for at least the next week. I have a trick (or maybe it’s just a normal thing), but I’ll call it a “trick”: When I buy fruit in bulk, I try to buy the unripened fruit.  Is unripened even a word? It sounds weird! Anway, I put a few pieces out to ripen and then I put the rest in the fridge. As my ripe fruit depletes I take out the un-ripened fruit and let it ripen. This ensures that I don’t waste any produce! And it works like a charm, especially since I live in a house of only 3 people.

For dinner, I enjoyed another love: Chipotle!! Vegetarian salad bowl with black beans, fajita veggies, fresh tomato salsa, corn salsa, and guacamole! I inhaled this before I could think of taking a picture. Don’t blame me, blame the bowl. ;)

 For a late night snack, I have some pretzels with laughing cow cheese + mustard. Remember how I proclaimed my love for mustard? Then some mint dark chocolate for some sweetness.

And now we have made it to today! I woke up late this morning after a night of tossing and turning (and dreaming of people I know being pregnant). 

Luckily, I had prepared myself a bowl of:

Overnight Green Tea Chia “Pudding”

Yes, that sounds gross, but I loved it. Don't knock it til' you try it.

In the bowl overnight:

• 1 oz. chia seeds
• 1 Packet of green tea powder
• 1 small scoop of Stevia
• Unsweetened Almond Breeze

Topped with:

• Oikos plain Greek yogurt
• Banana
• Cinnamon

I had a full day of back-to-back classes, which involved copious amounts of coffee, and a packed lunch.

My lunch was a nectarine, a plum, a spinach/hummus/cuke wrap, and a peanut butter larabar. Un-pictured--since it was eaten on the go. Literally, while walking to class!

My painting class is STRESSING ME OUT. I feel like I am spending way too much time on this class to the detriment of my other and more important (Read: Major required) classes. What to do, what to do? And this class is actually HARD. We are doing perspective right now and I want to pull my hair out by the end of class. This doesn’t fit well with my plan for a relaxing fun painting class. Oh well, we shall see.

Today’s workout: Turbo 55 EZ

So much fun, and this time the sweat-o-meter was off the charts! ;) Thanks for working my butt off Chalene!

I just ate a salad that looked exactly like this:

• Roasted Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• morningstar farms black bean veggie burger
• sriracha
• tortilla chips
• mixed up with hummus, salsa, and nutritional yeast 

This is my absolute favorite meal and I try to eat it once a day! For either lunch or dinner—I’ve eaten it for weekend breakfast! Haha

Homework time!

<3 Stefanie

Have you ever had a class that you thought would be fun and relaxing and turned out to be super stressful?

Proclaiming my love for mustard...

Hi! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend so far! My goal to get in bed before midnight has not yet commenced, oops! I was in bed at about 1:30 AM last night, but I slept in until 9:00AM so I’ll just say it balanced out. ;)


Yesterday, I worked from 9-5. I have a computer at work, so I did a lot of blog reading, however I don’t have a USB port for my camera—so posting isn’t an option. BUT, I remembered to bring my camera, so get excited for some mediocre and probably quite boring food pictures!

Rewind to yesterday morning, I started my day off with a Pumpkin Spiced Iced Coffee from Dunkin Donuts. This was way too sweet! Next time I will ask for about half the amount of Pumpkin Spice syrup and then it will be delish! To give it some credit, it really did taste like pumpkin pie! I ended up putting a cup of black coffee in the freezer to chill, and then diluting the iced coffee with more coffee!

Meanwhile, I ate a breakfast that you’ve seen before:

In the bowl:
1 oz Chia Seeds soaked overnight in Almond Milk
Topped with Voskos Blueberry (last one! Must make Whole Foods Trip!)
Fresh Blueberries


Delish! Work was so slow, that of course some mindless munching came into play. In the form of cereal in a mug:

Times 2. You never fail me cereal in a mug, never.

Quaker Oatmeal Squares in the maple flavor with unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. These are so good, but addicting. Beware!


When lunch time rolled around, I opened up my handy dandy lunchbox to throw together a salad of sorts. Just FYI: Whenever I say salad, I am usually referring to a huge bowl of veggies that usually does not include lettuce! So we will call it a veggie bowl. The pictures look very unappetizing, sorry!

Anyway, the bowl of goop contains:
Baby Carrots, 2 Roma Tomatoes, Green Beans, Pickles, Hummus, Nutritional Yeast, and Mustard (Has anyone left yet of out sheer disgust?)


One thing you will notice with me is I often eat like I’m pregnant. Simply meaning I like combinations that many others deem weird! But it works for me! Especially when it comes to mustard--I like mustard on pretty much everything! Sometimes I even crave mustard and pickles.


For some carbage, I had a toasted Arnold Thin with more hummus.

I also had a juicy orange to round out the meal.

For my afternoon snack, I opened up this bar:

Which was not good at all. Bummer. I’ve honestly never opened a bar and NOT finished it, even it was only so-so. But this—let’s just say, I took one bite and had to throw it out. I’ll stick to my Raw Rev Spirulina & Cashew bars from now on. So long, 2 dollars. With my afternoon snack in the garabe, I may or may not have had more cereal in a mug. ;)


Before leaving work, I reused my Dunkin Donuts cup (thoroughly washed people!) to make an iced green tea sweetened with a little stevia.

When I got home, it was nap time + snack time. How old am I that my Friday nights consist of a nap!? Haha But really, my sleep was less than stellar this week and if I am going to get through todays to-do list, a nap was going down. Sorry I’m not sorry! My snacklette was some unpictures special K crackers and cottage cheese. Another snack that never fails.


Anyway, first I caught up on Persons Unknown (one more episode to go)! Then I took a napskie. Then my son, fiancée, and I went to Cappo’s for some dinner. Some pizza loving def. went down. I had a mushroom, banana pepper, and pineapple pizza. Again, I like weird combos—but topped with some crush red pepper, this hit the spot.

Well this brings us up to speed. I am currently caffeinating up and ready to tackle my to-do list. I am trying to keep a “bring it on” attitude with this!


Since at about 5AM, I will be on my way here:

I am bringing my laptop, so hopefully I’ll blog and update from MEXICO.


Have a great Saturday loves,


Stefanie


Do you have any weird “pregnancy-like” food combinations that you eat regularly? You saw some of mine, and believe me—you’ll see more. ;)