Check out what I cam home to yesterday:BRAND NEW DOORS!  FINALLY! After almost 2 years of living in our house with old, drafty, out-dated doors – we finally have nice pretty new ones!  WOOOHOOOO!  Now if I could just get rid of that damn awning…

Yesterday was insane – I was up and moving from 6am until midnight!

For my afternoon snack – I had some more edamame:and I FINALLY got to try the Pumpkin Pie Kashi bar that I have been craving for so long!Look at how gooey and pretty the inside is!This bar TOTALLY lived up to my expectations!  It was fabulous – just the right amount of spice – and I loved how soft the topping was!

After work I ran to Target to pick up some drugs for Mike – (he’s caught “the death” if you ask him) – and then headed over to my parents because my brother was home from C-bus, and we were all headed to see my cousin’s play!   We had salad:and CHICKEN KELLY!

I love this stuff!  I know I posted about it before – but I just always assumed this recipe was as well known as “chicken parm” or “chicken piccata” – but apparently it isn’t.  I’ll have to get the secret recipe from my momma and post it for you ladies!

When I got home from the play – I had a package waiting for me (HELLO – PACKAGES ALWAYS MAKE A DAY BETTER – “that’s what she said”)It was my POM samples finally from the wonderful POM Blogger – Diana!   I can’t wait to try these out – but I was so tired last night – I just couldn’t break into them then!

This morning – I started with spicy oats:Then headed home at lunch to check on Death Boy – and made a quick chicken sammich and salad!When I was finished I was totally looking for something sweet – and was super excited to try these balls (”that’s what she said” – boom twice in one post!)They sounded and looked absolutely fantastic….But I think it got too cold sitting in my cabinet, because it was rock hard

And there you have it – I’m ready to finish up this Friday afternoon and head home to do some cooking and cleaning!  My birthday is next week – and I decided I should celebrate this weekend, instead of next – so I’m having a whole bunch of friends over on Saturday – CAN’T WAIT!

I’ll warn you now – I’m one of those people who LOVES to celebrate birthdays….so you have at least a week’s worth of posts coming up with me talking about my birthday – feel free to leave my comments saying “Shut the hell up already!”      Happy Friday!

more animals

For Lando’s boyfriend Frank:

see more puppies

Do you let other peoples attitude – positive or negative – affect you?

I’d like to say I don’t – I just go on my merry little way all the time…

…but I do let others affect me.  What makes me bring this up?  Well this morning, as I was struggling to get through the entrance door at work (where you need a keycard to enter) – I was surrounding by nice, kind, friendly, “morning people” – we all exchanged smiles and held the door for each other.  It’s little stuff like that – where I just walk away smiling – thinking “Gosh, some people are just so nice!“.  One the opposite side of the coin – you have those people who will slam the door in your face, or turn around and see you are coming and run so they don’t have to hold the door – and that irks me – so then I’m crabby (well – I try not to be…but sometimes it happens).

Do any of you do that sort of thing?  Do you let a positive or negative event in the morning affect your whole day?

On a different note – Abbie over at Foods that Fit is putting together an awesome e-cookbook – CHECK IT OUT!

Snacks yesterday included – MORE EDAMAME!and my first Keribar – this was sent to me from Matt in my Bloggers Valentine’s Package!Strawberry Chocolate Chip! Check out the inside!The bar itself was pretty good – reminded me a lot of the Kardea bars, because they had the same shiny, wet look to them.  It did a nice job of tiding me over between work, my workout, and the time I finally ate dinner!

I went on a 4.27 mile walk with Kristin and Lando – so by the time I finally got home to eat – it was close to 8!  I wanted something SUPER quick and SUPER easy…so I went with grilled cheese with chicken.  Boring picture:Better picture:and good ole spaghettios to “wash” it all down!  I threw in some chickpeas for some extra protein!Tonight we have plans so I woke up early and went to the gym for my first run of the week 2 mile run!  

The run was actually pretty good – faster than normal for a “morning” run.  At this point – my mind is focused on the 8 miles I’ll be doing this Saturday – again – setting the bar a mile higher for the farthest I’ve ever run!   Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I felt like a cold breakfast – so I polished off the rest of my PB Puffins, and made some coffee to take to work!Any other BGSU alumni out there? WOOT WOOT!

Lunch today was another salad – but I got REALLY CRAZY with things and had A PEAR!I honestly – can’t remember the last time I ate a pear.  The last time that comes to mind – I swear to god I was like 6!  This one was HUGE but it tasted SO GOOD!

Okay kids – off to survive the rest of my Thursday, and then a family dinner, and my cousins play!   TGIAF!

Happy Hump Day Bloggies!

How are things? 

Not too much shakin’ over here – but I do want to share with you the KICK ASS dinner that I threw together last night!

MEXICAN PIZZA!!

(did you use to have this ever Friday in the cafeteria in grade school???) 

Final product close up!Here’s what you’ll need:

• 8oz lean turkey meat
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 package of TJ’s Whole Wheat pizza dough
• black beans
• lettuce
• salsa
• olives
• tomatoes
• cheese
• whatever other seasonings and toppings you would like!

Spread out the pizza dough and put it in the oven “naked” for about 10 minutes so that it starts to bake (I added a VERY THIN layer of pizza sauce just for fun).

While the dough is cooking – brown the turkey meat and then add the WHOLE packet of seasoning with 1/4 cup of water  (it will seems like a LOT of seasoning).

Pull the dough out of the oven – top it with the meat, and a little bit of cheese – and cook it for another 10 minutes.  It should come out looking like this:I had all the toppings out for me and Mike so we could top it with whatever we wanted:and here’s my pieces!This was DAYUM GOOD – if I do say so myself!  I was seriously proud of myself! 

Breakfast today – MMM.MMM.GOOD – spicy oats!I switched things up for my snack today – and had an Apple Cinnamon z-bar that I grabbed this weekend at Whole Foods……and some BnPB that Erin has been raving about for weeks now.  At first – my verdict was out on this stuff.  I tried it with pretzels, and thought it tasted a lot like paint thinner!  BLEH!

But upon further review – if eaten with something – like the z-bar here, or my apple at lunch – I LIKE IT! 

Lunch was a salad (FINALLY!) – but still without spinach!  The last two times I’ve gone to Aldi they haven’t had any!  What’s up with that?!with a big Pacific Rose apple, and a Diet coke!

While I don’t celebrate Lent in the religious sense – I figured I’d keep with the spirit of things – and sacrifice for 40 days.   Some of the other bloggers out there have posted some really great ideas – and here’s what I’ve come up with!

• fast food (if it has a drive thru – it’s fast food!)
• work snacks (include the NEW tub of Red Vines that surfaced in my department!)

We’ll see how it goes!  Have a good hump day kiddos!