What I got

So I am sure everyone and their mom is sick of the trite “these are my goals for the year” but I finally figured out what I’m gonna do this year. Feel free to read on or feel free to click away, it’s up to you!

*Pay off one credit card by 2/15/11.  I will be so happy when that one will be done with. I also need to work on my other high balance credit card that’s currently enjoying a 0% interest rate until July. I get offers all the time for 0% balance transfers so whenever this one runs its course, I’ll just transfer it again. Ideally, I wanted to pay the high balance one off by 11/30/11 but I’m going to……..

*Quit my job. Wow, writing that out as a goal is a bit scary. I’ve thought long and hard about this and it’s what I have to do in attempt to be a happier me. I would love to put in my two weeks notice tomorrow but I need to take care of some doctors appointments first, save up some extra cash, etc. Target date is going to be late March/ early April. This will give me some time to take a road trip (with or without Lincoln–we will see!), figure things out and end my lease.

*Check out cities that could potentially be my new home. This August will be my fifth year in Charlotte and I am just not diggin it. Ideally, it seemed like a nice place to live since it’s a growing city but it’s too conservative, preppy, vanilla and southern for me. I’ve made friends but friends alone can’t keep me in one spot and alot of people look like cookie cutter versions of J Crew catalogues. If you dig that, fine, but I need some diversity and not a city full of the same people. Also, the dating here has kinda sucked. I would like to meet a normal man but all of the guys here seem to be on one each of the spectrum: young John Edwards-esque prepsters who were pastels (um, no), Croakies who can only hold conversations about golfing, the NRA or their MBA or country boys who are looking for a redneck princess. Just not what I’m looking for in a dude.

For those of you who don’t know what Croakies are:

*Pay a little more on my car payment each month so I can pay it off quicker

*Cut down on Starbucks and eating out. This pains me but I spend way too much money on my coffee each week when I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home to make coffee with. Starbucks used to be an indulgence for me but now it seems to be an every day thing, even if I do just get their drip coffee. I eat about two or three times a week and try to use a coupon every time I do so I will either cut down on that or nix the hooch when I do go out.

*No new clothes until March. I have a lot of clothes, even after donating a bunch to the Salvation Army last week. So to cut down on the crap in my closet that I may wear a few times, no new clothes until March. This means no Ross, Marshalls, JCP, etc. I will still buy cheap threads at the thrift store but want to see if I can go two months without buying new digs.

*Plan a stay-cation instead of jetsetting all around the country. A majority of my disposable money goes to traveling. I love to see my friends and visit different places but if I cut down on this each year, I could save thousands of money. I only have one trip planned this year for my best friends 30th birthday in Phoenix and that’s it. I need to keep it to a minimum for once.

*Sell what I don’t need. I used to be the ebay queen and miss the extra cash it brought me! It started in college when my boyfriend broke up with me so being the vindictive, bitter girl I once was, I listed all of his crap he wouldn’t pick up from my place on ebay with low starting prices (like cents not dollars low). To be even extra evil, I sent him a link of all of his stuff online. My motto-break my heart, I sell your stuff.

*Try out new ethnic recipes. I seem to stick to Mexican, Italian and Chinese when cooking at home so I want to step out of my comfort zone and starting making dishes I’ve never attempted before.

*Be more consistent with taking my vitamins. I have a bottle of vitamins at both work and home but rarely seem to take them. I am going to be aware of taking them and try to take one every day after lunch.

*Cut down on my meat intake. If you’ve noticed a theme in the past week, it’s been a lot less meat than I normally eat. I don’t think I will every go full on vegetarian but I can definitely cut down on my chicken, pork and red meat consumption.

*Use skim milk or almond milk in my coffee instead of half and half.

So, more goals to come I am sure but that’s all I got for right now. I started off this morning anything but perky. That Craigslist Killer movie freaked me out! Plus being the true crime buff I am, I stayed up until midnight watching the behind the mind of the craigslist killer segment with the cops who caught him and an interview with one of the chicks he assaulted. Pair that up with three cups of coffee earlier in the day and sleep was not coming easy to me. I had leftover coffee from yesterday so I wouldn’t have to worry about making coffee this morning and made an older but goodie-iced coffee!

If you haven’t heard, Starbucks is offering $2 Artisan breakfast sandwiches with any drink purchase this week!

I got the turkey bacon, egg white and cheese sandwich.

Mmmmm, hello gooey cheese, I am going to eat you. $3.50 for coffee and a savory sandwich, not too shabby.

Dinner wise, I was planning on leftovers but two enchiladas weren’t going to hold me over so I made a salad out of the veggies in my fridge: red and orange peppers, celery, broccoli and green onions. I threw the veggies in my magic bullet and poured in a little dressing along with them to soften them up.

I did that while heating up my enchiladas. They were looking a bit measly so I poured some extra El Pato sauce on them and sprinkled with more cheese. A vegan, I shall never be.

A perfect, random meal. Love.

So yeah, that’s all I got. Hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday!!

Meatless Monday Round 1

More like Meatless Sunday and Monday. Last night, I whipped out my new William Sonoma Soup cookbook I got for Christmas and picked something I’ve never made before…..black bean soup! Are you shocked? I know you all haven’t seen my eating any beans at all in the past few days so why not? And yes, I know at the rate I am going I am going to morph into a black bean at any moment but I am willing to take a chance. I like to think of it as making up for lost years. My parents never made us eat beans while growing up and they still don’t eat beans to this day. Whenever we go out for Mexican food, they always order double rice instead of getting a side of refried beans (I still don’t know how some don’t like this, hello, it’s smothered in cheeeeeese!). But me, I love the frijoles. Black, white, garbanzo, dark kidney, chili, I’m equal opportunity to it all. I wanted to start doing Meatless Monday again so I could vary up my routine a bit from the usual chicken, pork or beef. One of my goals for 2011 is to cut down on my meat intake so this goes hand in hand with it.

Back to the soup, I can’t post the recipe for obvious reasons but I will show via pictures.

I felt like I was making chili but without tomato paste and less tomato. The recipe called for two cans of black beans and I used two and a half to beef it up a little more and cut down on the chicken broth by four cups.

 Instead of making the soup, then ladling the black beans into a food processor or blender, I put them in the magic bullet before making the soup to give them a soupy consistency.

I was skeptical about the recipe at first since it called for chipotle peppers in adobe sauce and I am not the biggest fan of the smokier flavored pepper but wanted to give it a shot. If you like chipotle, you will love this recipe as it seemed to highlight that flavor the most (besides the black beans, duh)

Even with cutting down on the chicken broth, this still made four huge portions as it was called for in the book. It was a perfect meal for a cold night and I’m stoked to have learned yet another soup to make. I didn’t think it was too spicy since the chipotle peppers are more a slow, smokey hotness but it had my eyes watering a bit. I put a dollop of sour cream in it and topped with green onions for a little more zing. I can’t wait to nosh on this throughout the week and even put a container in the freezer for some enjoyment later on. I don’t mind leftovers as all but three is my normal max number of times I can eat leftovers of one thing in a week.

And today was more meatless fun. I’ve tried to do the whole veggie thing in the past and didn’t succeed because I wasn’t prepared but was this time around. I hate some Chobani greek yogurt for breakfast and snacked on hummus and veggies in the afternoon. Lunch was leftover enchiladas

Being Monday and the first full week I’ve worked in forever and just wasn’t feeling the whole work vibe today….or doing anything for that matter. I ate lunch at my desk while catching up on world events celebrity gossip then took a 20 minute stroll just to get some blood flowing. Luckily, it was cold out and not a lot of people who were outside but the ones who were out there I would try to out walk out, without them know of course because I’m sneaky sneaky like that. I cut into Starbucks in the way back in to say hi since I haven’t been there in four days. Yes, you read right, I haven’t been to Starbucks in four days. One of my resolutions is to cut down on  the money I spend on coffee. I am not going to go cold turkey on the Buckies but really don’t need to be spending extra cash when I can bring my own every now and then. My baristas were excited to see me an asked where I’ve been so I told them the whole resolution thing and I don’t think they approved. So for that, they got me a grande pike with peppermint stat because they are cool like that. I love my baristas but I love free coffee even better!

After lunch, I was useless. I think I did ok with looking like I was busy or doing something work related but in reality, I was paying bills,  budgeting, finishing up what my goals are for the year (a little behind on that one). I got alot done in the morning but just felt unmotivated in the afternoon. No matter what I did, time seemed to creep by very slowly and was counting down the minutes until I could get out of there. For dinner, I had a fresh pack of Nasoya cubed tofu in the fridge and wrapped in paper towels last night and pressed a plate on top of it to get all the liquid out. I’ve tone sesame tofu, tofu tacos and bbq tofu but wanted to mix it up with a different sauce to try. Then I remember my Cloister Honey Arbol Pepper honey marinade!

I haven’t tried this yet but recalled the Cloister Honey dude telling me it would be great to cook on shrimp or scallops and figured it would be equally as great on chicken or beef so tofu cook this stuff couldn’t be bad. The hard task was mixing it up in the jar since all the pepper flakes were at the top and it was tough! Then I remembered it is honey and kinda difficult to mix up.

I spooned some on the tofu and let sit for a few minutes while I began chopping up mushrooms and broccoli and got some brown rice cooking. When I make stir fry I like to add some garlic, red pepper flakes, ginger, black pepper and salt but only added garlic and pepper this time since I didn’t want to take away from the flavor of the honey marinade.

Scrumptious! I topped with green onions and once I did, I remembered that I had chopped red peppers in the fridge that I was going to cook as well. I hate when that happens! Of course this was eaten with chopsticks to make it seem somewhat authentic plus that slows me down from scarfing the whole bowl down.

The rest of the night involves me, the couch, a dog and a man.

But which man?

Nights like this I miss my DVR.

PS-I emailed Groupon today along with the picture of the Groupon with Groupon misspelled. Subject line? Misspelling of Groupon on a Groupon–eek!

No bean left behind

I wanted to salvage my white beans I made the other day so I went with making enchiladas with white beans and black beans so they wouldn’t go to waste. I hate throwing food away especially when only a little portion of it was burnt, so why not try to use it? As God as my witness, no bean shall be left behind!  Nothing that a little cheese, veggies and spice can’t fix! I  added green onion, shredded cheese and red, yellow and orange pepper to the dry mix along with the beans

I let that sit, added some chile powder and garlic to the mix then took half a can of El Pato, green onions, 5 oz light cream cheese and mixed in my magic bullet until semi-smooth.

Added the wet mix to the dry mix

Then softened up the tortillas by dipping into water in a saucepan for five to ten seconds ( I usually use chicken broth but was lazy and didn’t feel like opening up a container to use such a little amount)

Spooned portions of the mix into the tortilla

Wrap that bad boy up and then fill the pan full of cheesy fiberlicious goodness, sprinkle with the rest of the El Pato and 1/3 cup shredded cheese

Cook for 13 minutes at 375 and done!

I would die in a world without cheese. These were fantastic, filling and I was stoked to make use of the beans that were almost thrown out this past week. Plus this made four meals for this upcoming week so I won’t have to worry about making something for work for a good part of the week.

After dinner, it was time to work out. I did a kettlebell/dumbbell session and it was a great session to start the new year off with!

Kettlebell-20 lbs

Upright Deltoid Rows (13 reps, 3 sets)

Bentover Row (13 reps, 2 sets)

Halos (13 reps, 3 sets)

Shrugs (13 reps, 2 sets)

Lateral Bench Press (13 reps, 3 sets)

Dumbbell Raise (13 reps, 3 sets)

Squats (13 reps, 3 sets)

Side Bends (20 reps, 2 sets)

Around the worlds (35 reps, 2 sets)

Between the legs pass (35 reps, 2 sets)

Dumbbell-15 lbs

Tricep Extensions (13 reps, 3 sets)

Curls (13 reps, 2 sets)

Shoulder Press (13 reps, 2 sets)

Misc.

Push Ups (15 reps, 2 sets)

I brought back an oldie but goodie for breakfast this morning….oats! I can’t seem to eat oats in the summertime and it’s definitely a cold weather meal for me. I haven’t had them since September so thought it would be a good idea to bring them back for a guest appearance. I don’t have a standard mix in I add each time (except for flax seed, I always add that in) and this morning decided to switch it up even more by making it a sweet one with banana and white chocolate morsels (only so I could throw out the bag and say bye-bye to those little rascals)

I also added a drip or two of agave nectar and you know what I have to say about this bowl of oats?

Holy balls.

Yep, that’s all I can say since it was so fantastic.

I had a Groupon I’ve been wanting to use for awhile for Sunset Grille. Not only do I love Groupon b/c it’s cheap but it also gives me the chance to try establishments I would’ve had tried before. I’ve been using Groupon since early 2010 but it seems like the prices are going up on there-anyone else notice that? I remember when I first started using it, it seemed like you could get stuff for $5-$10 and now, more of them seem to be around $20 to $30. I don’t like. I was especially concerned since Groupon wasn’t even spelled right on the Groupon. What if Sunset Grille thought I was trying to scam??

Questionable stuff I tell you.

They brought us these little fried dough balls, sprinkled with powdered sugar.

 I was on it like white on rice. They best way I could describe them was like a soft funnel cake ball. Unfortunately, that was the best part of my experience there. My friend and I decided to go for salads and the prices were absolutely insane. If you wanted salmon, chicken or beef on it, an additional $5! I could’ve been the frugal girl I am and just brought my own in because I refuse to pay that much for a measly portion of meat on my salad.

I ordered the large portion of the Sonoma County Salad. How they describe it:

Romaine, Laura Chenel Chevre Goat Cheese, Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives, Red Onion, Roasted Beets, Blood Orange Vinaigrette.

And there it was, a glorified greek salad. Maybe I was expecting more for a large salad or it to pop since the ingredients sang to me.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good but if I would have gotten meat on it and paid $13 for this salad, I would have been very disappointed. My friend got there asian chicken wonton salad and it looked like something you would get at Wendy’s. Hers was $13 and it she kept calling it a $5.99 salad. If I am going out to spend that much money on something like a salad, I want something substantial that will fill me, not a small plate of lettuce with a few add ins. Sorry, Sunset Grille, I won’t be back.

Hope everyone had a great and hopefully long weekend. This is going to be the first week I’ve had to work all five days in over a month and it’s going to be rough.

PS-Check out Prevention RD for a Larabar giveaway!!

A Tale of Two Pineapples

Happy to see so many people like roller skating! I used to love it as a kid and it was my first time roller skating since i was 14 so it was fun to try again as an adult. Not gonna lie, I was terrified at first b/c I was thinking I would break my neck but it was just like riding a bike. Soon after, I was skating my way round and round. But no backwards skating though, that’s too gangsta for me. I was amazed by the young kids and their skating skills. There were even groups of skaters who were synchronized skating. It was awesome and I kept joking around how I wanted to see skating gangs like West Side Story but no such luck. Skating was so big back in the day but I kept wondering how does one get into roller skating these days? Do they come from a line of skaters? Do the young boys who skate tell the girls this and it makes them go crazy? So many questions. 

When I got back Sunday night, I needed a drink…..badly. I stopped at Dilworth Neighborhood Grille to get some grub and a beer. I ended up befriending some of the wait and bar staff who were off that day and the day drinking began! We sat outside, had beers and talked, it was a bunch of fun. Yay for Sunday Funday drinking! After three hours there, I finally ordered some food to go and got the Chicken Spiedie Pizza (even though I originally went for wings). I don’t know what their Spiedie sauce is but this was the bomb!!!! 

 

 

I had Monday off as well to get stuff done which was all done by 10A. I decided to take myself out on a picnic date to Freedom Park since it was a gorgeous day. You can really tell fall is right around the corner with the cooler mornings and not so sweltering days. I love it. 

 

 

 

 

 

It felt so good to be out, enjoy some fresh food, read and just be. Now if I could only swim in the water……. 

A Cherry Misty Float was in order after that 

 

For some reason, I was in a baking mood the other night. I’ve had this recipe for Coconut Pineapple Loaf Cake from Martha Stewart Everyday saved for a while now and finally decided to try it out. I didn’t have any butter on hand but subbed extra virgin olive oil  instead (thanks for the tip Mo!) 

Toasted coconut

 

After smelling the yummy goodness of coconut and pineapple for an hour, it was done—success! 

 

 

I think this will be really good warmed up over some greek yogurt. 

And then the fail of the night-Pineapple Stuffed Jerk Chicken also from Martha Stewart Everyday (can you tell I had a surplus of pineapple on hand?) Sounds like a great idea and looks gorgeous on the website right? Well mine could have turned out great but apparently I don’t like to read directions. Instead of having two different mixture bowls of stuffing and spices to coat the chicken, I added them together. In theory it should have been ok since they all would be going to the same spot but it was horrible. I finished half of my chicken and had some leftover pizza instead. 

 

Looks appetizing right? 

 

Good lord, this was rank. Maybe it was the all spice I didn’t like or just the ugly appearance of it but I wasn’t a fan. Thankfully, I salvaged some of the chicken to use in salads throughout the wk.

Fit in a nice walk afterwards 

 

Breakfast this morning was an egg and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin 

 

Cheese on the inside, sneaky sneaky

Lunch was a BIG Salad with spring mix, chicken, turkey pepperoni, shredded cheese, mushrooms, onion and tomatoes with Chick Fil A Fat Free Honey Mustard 

 

 

I fit in another walk this afternoon and covered about 1.2 miles. It felt so good to get out and come back to my desk knowing that I won’t have a ton of emails that I need to rush to answer. 

Influenced by my trip to Phoenix, I made mushroom and black bean enchiladas for dinner 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous! I hate how when I am looking to make something vegetarian, I can’t think of anything but when I’m not even trying, whip something delicious up 

I had an ok kettlebell session afterwards. I really wasn’t in the mood to work out but am happy I got off my butt for a half hour 

Kettlebell-20 lbs 

Swings (13 reps, 4 sets) 

Shrugs (12 reps, 2 sets) 

Upright Deltoid Row (13 sets, 3 sets) 

Side Bends (20 reps, 2 sets) 

Dumbbell-15 lbs 

Curls (13 reps, 2 sets) 

Concentration Curls (13 reps, 2 sets) 

Shoulder Press (13 reps, 2 sets) 

Front Lateral Raise (13 reps, 2 sets) 

Dumbbell -10 lbs 

Deltoid Lateral Raises (13 reps, 2 sets) 

Tricep Kickbacks (13 reps, 2 sets) 

Tricep Extension (13 reps, 2 sets) 

PS—Click here to enter to win a $40 CSN gift card at Ashleigh’s Slice of Life

Nightime Napping

It’s 9P as I’m starting to write this and I just woke up an hour ago from a nap. Was I planning on napping? Hell no. Did it feel good? Hell yes. Will I have trouble going to bed tonight? Another hell yes. But I just feel gooooood right now so bring it on. And there’s only one more day to go! I stayed late at work today due to a problem that should have been fixed a month ago but never was and now that it’s month end, needed to be resolved.

I had greek yogurt soup for breakfast. I put in extra frozen berries and it’s juice along with the greek yogurt and it just got a little too liquidy so I added granola on top for a cereal like effect. I didn’t like it at all and will need to watch my juice next time.

I spent the morning training an associate on our process and had time to go to the library to see if there were any books or movies I wanted to get but found nothing. The library is now closed on Fridays due to budget cuts within the county which just sucks. I used to enjoy walking over there on Friday afternoons when it was slower at work. I didn’t enjoy sketchy homeless man following me around the library with his hands down his pants (I so wish I was making that up).I did get a chance to get on the reserve list for two books I’m looking forward to reading.

Quizno’s was for lunch today b/c I had a coupon for free chips and drink with the purchase of a regular sub. I got the Ranch Turkey and Swiss and had a bag of Baked Lay’s Barbeque Chips. When is someone going to make Baked Salt N Vinegar Chips?? Waiting…..

I walked over to Harris Teeter this afternoon and picked up some spinach, bananas, oranges, kiwis, carrots and Kashi Bars.

Afternoon snack

I didn’t have too busy of a day but was just beat by the time I got home. I took Lincoln for a 20 minute walk and then dinner was served. I had a BIG salad with spinach, red onions, mushrooms, carrots with Ken’s Lite Honey Mustard (which is amazing, it doesn’t taste “lite” at all)

But I had no tomatoes and a salad isn’t a salad in my book if it doesn’t include tomatoes.

I had leftover enchiladas that I made earlier this wk and a serving of Baked Tortilla Scoops

I swear, these get better the longer they sit. Thanks Aztecs for starting the trend. I love how the history says “There does not seem to be any reference to the term “enchilada” that dates back to the Aztecs.” Can you imagine a bunch of archaeologists finding ancient Aztec scripts and they mentioned enchiladas? That thought just amused me.

I got my Fitness magazine in the mail so I have something to read on the bus tomorrow!

And thank you Lord —Pay day is tomorrow! This is a pretty sweet paycheck for me since I had a lot of OT pay and am taking a $100 of that to spend on myself and get some new clothes. Since I have money readily available, I am sure I will find nothing. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

***Giveaway alert—click here for a chance to a win an assortment of Honest Tea Drinks!

I found out my friend Shalon who moved away from Charlotte back in February is going to be in town this wknd and that just made my day!! I was supposed to go see her this wknd but have to go into work on Saturday for hopefully a few hours to test a new system that’s launching. Sucks that I have to go in on a Saturday but I am just trying to see $$$$ and remind myself it’s time and a half pay. We are going to have dinner and drinks tomorrow and can’t wait!

Ok so all in all, pretty lame day. Nothing really interesting happened, no fun sightings, funny quips, etc. so apologies. I leave you with the random song of the day stuck in my head.

Country Grammar

I started today out with some would say a non traditional breakfast…..a whole wheat wrap with Trader Joe’s Organic Hummus, lettuce, half a tomato and mushrooms.

Surprisingly good and filling. May need to try this again. Nothing remarkable about this morning it was pretty quiet. I’ve been in a better mood lately at work and I think my co-workers think I’m getting some loving on the regular or something. Even I think I’m extra preppy for my normal demeanor so who knows. But keeping a positive attitude while at work was one of my goals for this month so I’m definitely on that!

I deal with a lot of nasty people in my industry(I guess dealing with millions of dollars on a daily basis makes some people that way?) And dealing with a particularly rude one this morning I sent him a quick “Thank you” for finally emailing me documents that I’ve been requesting for almost a month now. He responded back with “Your welcome” ummm its you’re. It took everything in me (and the fact I don’t want to be fired) not to respond with “Its you’re biznatch!” You can be nasty to me for no reason but at least I know how to use your as opposed to you’re!

I had leftover pork enchiladas for lunch.

I’ve made enchiladas before but never with pork and this was hands down the best batch yet. I don’t know if it was the succulent (how do you like that big word!) pork or the full fat cream cheese but I was in a fatty lactose heaven!

We had three people out this afternoon (yeah I work on a team of six) so things were a bit hectic after lunch. Most of it involved cleaning up  other peoples problems which is annoying but unfortunately part of the job. But its all good since I already have a few hours overtime this wk. Which means extra time and a half money so bring it on! Anyone else get paid OT?

 

I then decided to go for a run. I don’t like daytime running at all but figured it was going to be light out for a while go and get that done with. There weren’t too many people out on the trail and the sun was shining and things were perfect. I love how the light was shining on me and it was silent except for my footsteps. What I didn’t like was looking at my shadow and seeing my big booty shadow. But then again, it was kinda encouraging. I haven’t ran in a while so it was tough me. I would run two or three minutes then walk one and repeat. My ankle was killing me sporadically (thank you Clueless for giving me that word), I couldn’t breathe and my heart rate was getting into the 190’s/200’s so I had to slow it down a bit. Regardless, a good workout. I covered about 4 miles in 50 minutes and had a nice calorie burn!

Yeah, 169 was my average hr. EEEK!

I have no fresh veggies on hand and no meat so dinner tonight was easy to decide on. When in doubt I BFD! I went with egg in a hole which I’ve seen but never made. I took two pieces of bread, made a hole in each with a glass then put on the stove top with 1 tbsp melted butter. I whisked two eggs with salt, paprika and shredded cheese then poured it into the hole.

I laid out a dab of ketchup for each piece of bread and spread Trader Joe’s Superfruit Spread on the cut out pieces of bread

Carbs, eggs and cheese? Count me in. I loved it!

These are officially the devil’s work

And their packaging lies. It says one serving is 50 pieces (40g). I measured this out and this did not look like 50 pieces to me but then again, I could just want more but want have more and am bitter about that.

Has anyone heard of the show Sunset Daze? It’s a new reality show on WE about a retirement community in Arizona. Some are saying it’s Golden Girls meets Jersey Shore. I cannot wait to watch it! I am just hoping there is no hot tub scenes or making out at the bridge club.

And check out Missy Maintains for a chance to win a Seventh Generation Cleaning Kit! Ends on Friday so hurry over there 🙂

Another one that ends on Friday is for a nice Wiseman Tea Package including a pot and samples of tea–check out the contest over at Danica’s Daily!

Durst Dunst

Happy Monday all! First things first—thanks for the nice wishes on my new pad. I can’t wait to move in and am soooo excited! Unfortunately, I am renting it because if I wanted to buy a house in that neighborhood it would cost a pretty penny but I am fine with that for now. I drove by yesterday to drop off my check and there is a bus stop right in front of there. And have I mentioned it is in walking distance to bars, restaurants and three coffee places? 🙂 So yes, very excited!!! 

Today was a great day. I wasn’t covering anyone for the first day in over a week. I didn’t have any chest pains due to stress. And I got my camera back since I left it at my desk at work so let the food porn commence! 

This morning for breakfast I had strawberry Chobani greek yogurt, blueberries, blueberry flax and coconut granola. 

 

I always mix together in the break room and people tell me how good it looks. Funny since I am always staring at their bacon egg and cheese croissandwiches.  And I am not apologizing for thinking this looks good: 

 

Regardless it nice having people salivate over me something I made.
 

I had a big salad with orange and red peppers zucchini red onions shredded cheese topped with tuna and Trader Joes Feta Dressing for lunch. 

 

 

I love that fresh veggies are so cheap right now. I owe it all the hippies….which I was singing that to the tune of ” I did it all for the nookey” before b.c I’m a dork like that. Whatever happened to Fred Durst by the way? 

Always classy

 And does anyone ever get confused with his name and Kirstin Dunst? 

Sobriety is a beautiful thing.

 No? Ok my weirdness again.
One of the teams had leftover pizza today and very rarely do I meet a piece of pizza I don’t like, so I decided to help them out by taking a slice off their hands. And I was a semi good girl by choosing veggie and not the sausage slice. 

 

And then we had a organization wide mtng to announce the new manager that was hired to replace one who left. Yeah….my mngr took the role. Which sucks….hard. I’m happy for him but not happy about this since good mngrs are few and far between. His position is now open and they are taking applications. When I got back to my desk I got bombarded with ims asking me if I am going to apply for it and people urging me to do it. 

Do I want it? Career and money wise it would be a good move but I really cannot work with Stinkalicious yet manage them. I dislike Stinky so much that I am willing to take a hit on my career. And yall know how unhappy I am in my role so yeah…much dislike. I don’t wish them ill will or anything. I just don’t dig people with a bad work ethic. Example….one of my coworkers was drowning in work this afternoon. I stayed an hour past my normal time to help while Stinky left at normal time. Another example….very rarely do I take a full lunch break. Stinky takes a lunch break plus five smoke breaks (yes I count them and I can tell you what time they are taken) and then complains about not having enough time. I know this is petty crap but when I’ve had friends laid off b.c they don’t have seniority yet are hard workers but this slacker still has a job it gets my blood boiling.

For dinner I had split chicken breast and baked okra and mushrooms tossed in extra virgin olive oil, garlic salt and pepper

 

I also made pork enchiladas since I don’t eat enough Mexican food throughout the week.

I likes it spicy

Pork seasoned with garlic and paprika cooking

Pork, cream cheese, enchilada sauce, onion and jalapeno resting together

 

I can’t wait to dig into these! 

I maybe got four hours of sleep last night. I was absolutely exhausted but kept tossing and turning so I would like to make it an early evening but don’t think that’s going to happen. 

I am enjoying a Skinny Cow sandwich as we speak….or as I type 

 I have been on yet another Arrested Development kick. And I am doing the Gob Chicken Dance because I am crazy and trying to scare Lincoln (he is NOT a fan)

 Hope it’s a magnificent Monday for all 🙂

OH! And click here to win a lovely package of random goodies 🙂

And click here to win a Cabot cheese gift box, hello dairy. I love you.

And this isn’t a giveaway but I absolutely love this idea on Fit Chick In The City, click here to submit one of your favorite workout songs and on Friday she is going to post a new playlist of everyone’s songs. Yay for getting new jams to workout, dance, sing or just have fun to!