Thirsty Thursday

I remember in college Thursday night was the night to go out on for ladies. Most of the bars had no cover along with drink specials until midnight or even all night! Thirsty Thursday were great–drinking everything under the sun, grabbing as many free drinks as you could before the special ended then at the end of the night stumbling to the pizza place or hot dog man and stumbling home.

Now? I’m sitting on the couch with a Turby Twist on my head with a dog snuggled on my left shoulder as I type. I can barely hear because I have the drier and dishwasher running (yes, I am trying to see how high my electric bill can go). Ahhhhh…how things change.

Breakfast was oats, frozen blueberries, flax and TJ’s Apricot-Mango Greek Yogurt (love this stuff)

But it didn’t fill me up like it normally does.

 Maybe it was because I waited until 10A for coffee today?

 I had one cup at home while getting ready and usually wait for my coffee buddy to get in since he gets in around 9A and I roll in at 745A. I IM’ed him the coffee emoticon to let him go but no response. I pinged him again with five coffee emoticons and nothing. I walked over to his area and his teammate told me he called in sick-that scammer! I went down to Starbucks and splurged on a vanilla almond biscotti and grande Pike with two pumps of SF Cinnamon Dolce. Si, perfecto.

 Then I got an email from my library I have some books to pick up that I have been waiting for. Does anyone know how authors get paid by libraries who pimp out their books? I’ve always wondered that and in a way, it’s like a Dewey Decimal system-esque itunes for books! If anyone knows, please enlighten me!

I was on the USDA’s website because I A) A Dork B) Was bored and thought of my idea for LI No, not Long Island LI would be a rapper (kinda like TI) and he would rap about the symptoms of Lactose Intolerance and raise awareness. I thought this would be a fun little ad campaign they could do to let people know it’s ok to come out of the closet with their LI issues and share their stories. But not too much detail though because really all that funkiness going on in people’s stomachs and nether-regions…eww. Maybe I could write them a letter and suggest that??

I sported my new earrings today and got compliments from the females….and the males! Oh city of Charlotte, why don’t you have more hip gay men??

Me looking beat…..if you can’t tell, I like red

 Lunch was great and something unusual for me-soup and sandwich. I love to cook so I like to bring in leftovers of my meals and have always thought that a soup and sandwich was just downright boring for lunch. But it was my only option today as I didn’t cook anything last night and try to save money by not going out to eat lunch. I had Campbell’s Select Italian Wedding Soup My sandwich was Smart Deli Roast Turkey Style Veggie Protein Slices—which are surprisingly good, Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb Cheese, Dijon Mustard and baby spinach on a toasted Thomas Whole Wheat Bagel Thin.

I wish I had more veggies to pile on but paydown is tomorrow so bring it on!

I was really pleased with my lunch! Why am I not like the rest of the world and do it more often? There are so many different options for lunch out there that the possibilities seem endless……

I also perused Run For Your Life  to see store locations and get news. I am in desperate need of new running shoes. I use Asics now but they are worn out and my high arches are killing me after my run and day after (hence ballet flats today as opposed to the Nine West heels I normally wear @ the office).

 It hurt so bad to take Lincoln out before bed because he has so much energy and for a 10 lb dog he can pull pretty hard! I could barely walk yet my legs aren’t hurting too bad. Maybe my body is getting used to this running idea? And I find it super amusing that I am actually looking forward to my runs now (even if I am super slow and don’t go to far!) Maybe these runner people who I formerly called crackheads for enjoying it, are onto something?? 🙂

Bored again, I took a 1.5 mile walk around Uptown Charlotte. They call is uptown and not uptown but no one has any clue why….weird. I walked to the Bank of America Stadium where the Carolina Panthers play and walked back. It was around 50 today so perfect weather outside!

 I was so exhausted on the bus ride home and could barely keep my eyes open. I caught a little nap and woke up just in time for my stop-ophew!  I came home to a happy puppy and some Netflix movies for the wknd!

I made Shake N Bake Chicken with Ken’s Lite Honey Mustard for dipping and a baked potato with greek yogurt and butta for dinner

I caught up with a friend on the west coast since I haven’t talked to her since we went on a cruise back in December. It’s so difficult to catch up with my people out there! I miss my friends 😦

I then made Allison’s Peanut Butter Granola Bars 

I’m all for saving money and eating as clean as possible so these bars were a great recipe to try!

The dry ingredients:

The wet ingredients on the stove top

Mixed together in harmony…..

Laid to rest before going in the fridge for 30 mins (like a cadaver? Wow, morbid sentence there!!)

I had to test one out to see if this was worth it 🙂

The verdict?

FLIPPIN FANTASTIC!!! I cut these into an outstanding 12 bars which I plan on freezing as well and they taste great! I didn’t have brown sugar or hemp seeds but just substituted splenda and more sunflower seeds instead.

Allison-thanks posting this great recipe!!

On another note, I now have a ton of unsweeted coconut—anyone have any tips on what to do with it? I am not a huge baker but if it’s easy I am willing to try it 🙂

Giveaway fun!

 Click here for a chance to win a Precision Pro Scale—this ends tomorrow night so head over soon!

Love tea? Go to Naomi’s site for a chance to win Celestial Seasonings Natural Wellness Kit (worth $60)!

Click here for a chance to win a fun pack of goodies!!

So many opportunities to win goodies-yay!

One more day to go………

I wanna molest your face

That is what a homeless man told me when I was walking to the bus this afternoon. As if I wasn’t having a bad enough day as is.

Ummm thank you? I walk with my headphones on just so people won’t bother me but don’t have music playing alot of the time for safety reasons. This dude though stopped me to tell that he wanted to molest my face and I just looked at him, smiled and pranced away. It must be my new Benefit makeup I got this wknd!

And then I came home to a refridgerator that wasn’t working.

And then Lincoln almost got into some chocolate.

UGH! But it got better soon after!

I’ll start with my food from earlier today:

I didn’t have my normal breakfast of oats, granola or yogurt. I had leftovers of eggs, mushrooms, onions, veggie crumbles and spinach from BFD last night so nuked that and put it on a Trader Joe’s Habenero Lime tortilla with ketchup.

Holy yum! I’ve always been skeeved my reheating eggs but it didn’t taste funky at all.

The snacks

Lunch was chicken cakes and carrot and parsley salad

My afternoon snackage was a Clif Cool Mint Chocolate Bar—which really was refreshing and cool mint. Yay for no false advertising!

 

Fast forward to getting home to a dog wanting to try out chocolate and fridge not working. After that happened, I sat on my floor and wanted to cry after todays events but I just couldn’t. I don’t what was going on but I somehow knew that I would be ok. I can’t really explain it. Thanks everyone for your kind words….I need to figure out a way to go over this with my supervisor the next time I have a review. By that I mean, in a way where I don’t start dropping the F bomb or crying out of frustration!

I decided to make  the one thing that always makes me feel better —homemade pizza with Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough!

The veggies cooking

I bought  Smart Deli Pepperoni Style Veggie Protein Slices awhile back and have been meaning to try

The pizza dough—which isn’t in a funky shape for once!

I used Trader Joe’s Traditional Marina Sauce

Sadly had no cheese though 😦

I snacked on these babies while the pizza was cooking

Fresh outta the oven!

I made up for my lack o’ dairy….I tried Trader Joe’s 4% Milkfat Cottage Cheese for a snack. Thumbs down.  I didn’t like the texture at  all, it was too chunky and creamy for my taste. I don’t add anything to my cottage cheese-I enjoy the flavor on its own and don’t know how people add fruit to it! I normally get the generic brand at the supermarket and will stick to that from now on.

I decided to go for a run tonight to get some frustration from the day out. I must have thought it was alot warmer than it was because it was freezing out! I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t wear my gloves (which I didn’t tonight because I get sweaty and it feels gross) but holy hell, it was bad out. I only did about 2 miles but it felt good to get out there! And I got a few car honks while doing so lol

I came home and made a green monster but with something new—Kefir!

 I’ve never had this before but have seen it on Stephanie’s site so thought I would give it a whirl!

I added a couple of oz of soy milk, ice cubes, baby spinach and chocolate whey to make this beauty

Thoughts on Kefir? Absolutely loved it! It was thick and creamy, just like using greek yogurt in a smoothie. And the strawberry flavor was really smooth and went well with the chocolate whey.

 And I’m spent. Im going to relax in the buble then lounge for the rest of the night—hope y’all had a happy hump day 🙂

A treat for the feet

I went out today for the sole purpose (haha pun intended) of pampering myself but it looks like my feet got the hookup today! But first I had to fuel before the shopping!

I had a wrap with Smart Deli Roasted Turkey, tomatoes,mushrooms, onion, lettuce and Ken’s Lite Honey Mustard and a kiwi

I was a bit reluctant to try the faux turkey but was pleasantly surprised. Plus it was only on sale for $2/package so yay for trying new and cheap things 🙂

And the day of me began!

First stop was SteinMart. Which I never really go to but my friend told me they were having a really good sale. I went online to their site first and signed up for their email notifications and got a 20% off coupon-holla!

Why don’t I shop at Steinmart? I don’t know but am going to start!

I almost bought one of these adorable aprons but passed (I especially love the Domestic Dive one)

And ran into these two cute pairs of rainboots. Decisions decisions.

I absolutely loved the pink.black.white ones but thought they would get dirty easily with mud and rain so went with polka dots (HUGE polka dot fan here!) After the 20% coupon these were only $20-score!

I then saw these cute Rampage blue heels…..75% off!!!

For $9.95 how could I not buy them?

All this shoe action made me think of this video:

Since I was on a roll bargain wise, I headed to the clearance rack and found this cute wallet for $8.85

I refueled with an iced coffee from Caribou

Then got a much needed pedicure. I love pedicures for not only how good they make me feel and how cute my piggies look after but also because the place I go to has the best gossip magazines and god knows I am not spending $4 on those!

The final product (sadly, I rarely stray from red)

For anyone who has a foot fetish-you’re welcome

I broke open one of the bags of Ghirardelli chocolates and tried the Caramel flavored

I don’t like Sundays in the first place but absolutely hate Sunday afternoons. All I want to do is take a nap but can’t because then I won’t be able to sleep tonight. It is gorgeous outside but still in pain from Friday’s tattoo removal session so I am trying to hold off on running on working out with kettlebell until tomorrow.