Is It Wrong?

That my breakfast consisted of Starbucks alone and only cost $2?

Skim Green Tea Latte-my throat was killing me this morning (thanks to the sick baby who was at work yesterday) and wanted something different from coffee but hate tea straight up. I haven’t had one of these in two years and forgot how much I loved it

Reduced Fat Very Berry Coffee Cake

That I got all this for under $10 and just learned what patty pan squash was today?

That I didn’t have time to make lunch which resulted in me grabbing something frozen from home and enjoying it immensely?

That the most enjoyable part of my lunch (full 30 minutes thank you!) wasn’t the pesto tortellini but catching up with this lady via You Tube?

That I’ve been calling Lincoln Mr. Bigglesworth since he is so silky smooth and practically hairless?

That even though it was 95 degrees out with ridiculous humidity I made a hot dinner?

Grilled turkey, ham and Monterrey jack sandwich with T Marzetti’s Light Ancho Chipotle Ranch spread on whole wheat with roasted okra, red peppers, zucchini and patty pan squash with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, paprika and pepper.

That when I saw Jake and Vienna have parted ways I smiled on the inside since I knew it would never last?

Keep it real girlfriend

That I went shopping tonight for my NYC trip next wknd, spent over $120 and only got a wallet, shoes and a halter top for the trip? Yes, it is. I hate when I go into a store just to look and walk out $200 later when I had no intention of buying anything. But then of course, when I have money put aside specifically for the trip, nothing. I did get some cute skirts for work, a workout tank and an awesome dress though! Thankfully I have off tomorrow since my washer/dryer people are coming here to pick it up and think I am going to drive down to SC (hello lower taxes and cost!) to do a little shopping. If I can bear it, I may even go to the pool but it has been so icky sticky nasty out lately, I may just read in the pool and get my tan on.

I’m soooooo enjoying everyone’s comments on what your favorite books and songs are! Keep em coming–you got until Thursday to enter to win a fun package 🙂

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!

Got it!

I got the place I was looking at today! I met up with the owner this afternoon and he showed me the place and I instantly fell in love. It reminds me of a rowhome whereas when you walk in the front door, it’s a small storage room/office then the living room and then the bedroom with the kitchen in the back along with another entrance. It has hardwood floors (which I will have to train Lincoln to like since I love them), lots of windows and natural light and a side yard and backyard for Lincoln (and for me to grow veggies and herbs…..really herbs not the ghanja). And it has private parking and my neighbors are all doctors and surgeons….woot woot! There is a hospital two blocks away and it’s a convenient location for them. It may be convenient for me if one of them is single, straight and without mommy issues.

And it’s within walking distance to a number of things…..Starbucks, Caribou, Harris Teeter, Bank of America, a number of restaurants and bars and a beautiful park to take Lincoln and where I can go running. I am most excited about the convenience since I can walk to everything and there is a bus line across the street that takes me two to work. Hello convenience, it’s nice to meet you. My commute will be 15 mins top each day and it is in a younger, more alive area with easy accessibility to much more things that I have now.

On the porch of my new home 🙂

 I don’t move in until July but it’s all good and I am happy to not have to look anymore. I just have to fill out the application and drop off tomorrow along with a security deposit. YAY for a new home 🙂

I started my day off with a bowl of Chobani Greek Yogurt, a smashed banana and Kashi Go Lean Cereal.

And some Love Lessons

Damn you, Lifetime Movie Network.

My friend and I went to Bark in the Park this morning and it was great. It started at 10A but we arrived at 945A and thinks were rocking. I got so much free stuff it’s sick!!! Four bottles of dog shampoo, over 20 kinds of treats and food samples, dog bowls, key chains and more! Plus Food Lion was sponsoring and got some reusable shopping bags-yay for green!

I came back home and had a quick bite to eat before heading out to see the house. I drove back just in time because it started downpouring and hasn’t stopped yet. I wanted to go out and celebrate but I just didn’t want to mess with the rain tonight. Besides I have a date with George Clooney.

And made an awesome dinner of split chicken breast, okra and a sweet potato.

A great end to a great day!

Props to the hippies

Today was an interesting day. It was sunny in the first part then slowly became cloudy….outside and inside.

I started the day off right though because I had a free drink coupon for Starbucks. I decided to go big or go home and got a Venti Iced Raspberry Soy Latte. Look at that color! It’s one of the prettiest color of coffees I’ve ever seen!

My Starbucks baristas looked at me like I was crazy though since I always get drip coffee or iced coffee. I told them the only reason I got this was because it’s free because I refuse to spend $4 ot $5 on a coffee drink. Seriously, how do people afford that every day? On the other hand, under two bucks and free refills I can totally roll with.

My email box wasn’t completely flooded when I turned on my computer so I felt somewhat at ease. Also, Stinkalicious called in sick today which automatically put me in a good mood 🙂

I had a nutty breakfast of Trader Joe’s 0% Greek Yogurt, Very Cherry Frozen Fruit and their Blueberry Flax Seed topped with coconut granola.

Won’t stay too pretty for long!

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I would marry Trader Joe’s if I could.

It’s Tuesday so that means the hippies were out and got some mad deals on produce for the wk…..

Yes—sweet potatoes, tomatoes, apple, pear, onion, zucchini, squash and okra for only $7, not too shabby at all. I love that they are here twice a week and that I’m buying locally grown stuff. When it gets nicer out, the square they are in has other vendors out and music, it’s quite fun. But then again, it makes me not want to work…..but when does one ever feel like working? I also love that the head hippie lady has the nicest arms. I am talking Jackie Warner league. I want to make a shirt for her that says “Hippies Have Guns” with her posing, I think it would be cute 🙂

Quiznos had people out on the corner handing out free stuff so naturally I wondered over there to see what the fuss was about and scored a free lunch bag (with coupons inside, thanks Quiznos!)

The rest of the morning flew by while I helped with other people’s stuff, my own and various projects. I had an orange for my pre-lunch snack.

And lunch was served! I had a burrito bowl with black beans, diced jalapenos and onions, tomatoes and shredded cheese over brown rice with salsa/greek yogurt sauce.

 I’m not even a huge rice person but think I could eat this every day and be happy.

This afternoon was a blur. I was on a couple hour long calls, taking care of my own stuff but then helping other people on my team (I love no matter how busy I am I offer to help if people are drowning in work but when I ask no one helps me? Detect snark? I hope so.) It started to darken outside and made me want to just curl under my cubicle and take a nice, long nap.

I walked over to Harris Teeter to get out for a few and pick up some bananas and Kashi Go Lean bars since this was the last day of their $1/bar sale.

I caught up on some reading on the bus ride home so I wouldn’t fall asleep. I’m currently reading Spin by Robert Rave. Think Devil Wears Prada meets the celebrity gossip world. It’s great 🙂

I had a bunch of pork in the freezer and decided to try this recipe I saw on myrecipes.com…..Pork Chops with Maple Mustard Glaze. Come to think of it, apples would have been really good with this as well.

Browning the pork, I kept saying “Browning the pork, browning the pork” ala Beavis and Buttheads “Breaking the Law”

I cut up some fresh okra that I bought from the hippies and sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil, pepper and garlic salt and baked at 375 for 17 mins. I’ve only had fried okra before and was anxious to try it! I had one more serving of cheesy/onion mashed taters on hand so nuked those while everything was finishing up.

Lovely plate of goodness

This was a random but great dinner! I really liked the pork recipe-it was sweet with a bit of tang to it. And okra, omg. This will be a new go to for me, it’s so easy to make and nutritious, you can’t go wrong!

Lincoln and I spent some quality time together afterwards. By quality time, I mean me rubbing his belly

My night-time snack was a pear from the hippies

I think I am going to turn off the tv for the rest of the night and zone out to Pandora. And probably some reggae due to my hippie-licious day. Thanks hippies for all the goodies today that I incorporated into my meals and snacks. I can’t wait to use the rest of my produce throughout the week until you are back on Friday.