Smörgåsbord of food

Full. That is the one word to describe me right now. Soon you will see why……

Today was such a relaxing and great day, I am kinda sad that it’s almost over with. I was contemplating going into work today but I said screw it. I work hard enough during the week and am not too far behind in my work that I can get everything done during the work week.  The OT pay would be nice but so would actually getting to enjoy my weekend.

After I ran errands with Lincoln, I went to the pool with one of my friends and stayed there for two hours. The pool felt so cool and refreshing since it was 92 degrees out with the humidity in full swing. I brought some beers down and it was nice to kick back and drink some cold ones. When I got back, I was starving and put together a kick ass lunch

Chicken Cake topped with Apricot and Mango Salsa and Brown Rice

Tasty! It was cool and refreshing and enough food in my belly for optimal napping time. When I woke, I got ready to head to Taste of Charlotte, a three day street festival with different tents from local restaurants for samping.

I stopped at McDonalds for an iced coffee since it was hot as balls out and I needed to perk up a little

Please disregard chipped nailpolish. One of the many things on my to do list today that didn’t get done.

Also, I never met a chicken mcnugget I didn’t like but is a 50 piece chicken mcnugget order really necessary??

There was an Old Navy in the same shopping center as McDonalds and stopped there for their $2 tank top sale they had going on today and no sign of the sale at the store, wtf is up with that? Usually there are 20 people working there and of course, I couldn’t find so that was a fail right there. I stopped at my friend Ann’s place so we could ride together to Taste. She lives in a high-rise and I love her view–so much greenery!

We drove Uptown and it was so hot out. Combined with tons of food vendors, people and humidity, it was not nice. But we rallied and was there for the food! How it works is you pay for a bucket of coins, I got 15 coins for $20 and each vendor charges a different amount (usually two to three coins for an item) for their food.

Our first stop was for Indian food, I got the vegetarian platter with potatoes in a spinach sauce and white rice

Free samples of  Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream!!!! I forgot which tent this was but it had HUGE chunks of peanut butter. Heaven.

I got a cajun pulled pork sandwich

Ann got black bean and corn taquitos

Then I had a California Roll

And needed to keep cool so Dippin Dots it was! Cookies and Cream

Free Greek Yogurt sample!

I got two cute rings for $20 as well

So yeah, full. So full I cannot move and feel miserable but it was completely worth it. I need to hit up Bath & Body Works tomorrow for their semi-annual sale, I love this time of year!

Morning goodness

 Big breakfast day–yay! I’ve been eyeing this recipe for Low Fat Oatmeal Protein Pancakes for a while and decided to try it out this morning. You only need a few ingredients for these, which I am a huge fan when that happens and they are items most likely in your kitchen. I hate when I see a tasty recipe and I have to go out to the store to find a million things. Before I talk about the pancakes, let’s talk about coffee. In case, you were curious…..paprika does not taste good in a cup of joe. I found that out this morning when I thought I reached for the cinnamon and ruined a perfectly good cup and had to make another batch. Live and learn!

Looks like a vanilla smoothie when you blend the ingredients

I don’t have a griddle so I have to settle for stovetop pancakes for now that never are round. I will take oval though.

While they were cooking, I nuked some frozen blueberries for 2 minutes so when they came out they were very soft and their juices were oozing out  (hehe)

These were absolutely amazing and tasted like a lighter, thinner pancake. I added a bit of cinnamon to mine for some flavor but you can really play around with these and add different things. This will be a new rotation in my breakfast for sure.

The pancakes were perfect for the workout I was going to have:

10 lb Dumbbell

Reverse Fly (12 reps, 2 sets)

Front Lateral Raise (11 reps, 2 sets)

Zottman Curls (11 reps, 2 sets)

Tricep Kickbacks (12 reps, 1 set)

Tricep Extensions (10 reps, 2 sets)

Kettlebell (20 lbs)

Side Bends (20 reps, 2 sets)

Straight Leg Deadlifts (14 reps, 2 sets)

Upright Deltoid Row (12 reps, 1 set)

Windmill (11 reps, 1 set)

Shrugs (12 reps, 1 set)

15 lb dumbbell

Bench press (12 reps, 2 sets)

Weighted Stability Ball Crunches (15 reps, 2 sets)

Shoulder press (12 reps, 2 sets)

Between sets, I did a bunch of jumping, kicking and moving around. Good thing my creepy Russian neighbor who lives across from me wasn’t watching. He will just sit on his patio, have a cigarette and have his binoculars out. It’s a tad off-putting.

Salvation Army finally came to pick up my stuff this morning so I am free of all of this (I did not donate the printer or Magic Bullet!)

Today is a dog morning and it’s all about Lincoln. We are off to go to the vet, Petsmart and to the boarding place he will be staying next month. We may even fit a bath for Stinky Linky in there 🙂