Disclaimer – Please excuse all the parenthetical digressions and unnecessary quotation marks.  I was feeling “parenthetical digression-y/unnecessary quotation mark-y” when I was writing this apparently.  (Note – 2 offenses already, and I’m still on my 1st paragraph). 

Are you tired of looking at my Chobani breakfast pictures? I am!  I don’t think I’ll be buying another one of those 12 packs for a while!  There are too many to go through before they expire, so I feel FORCED to eat one every day for breakfast – it’s STRESSFUL!   (and let me tell ya – all this homegirl wants is SPICY OATS!) 

Above rant aside – “here’s breakfast“:

Even though I’m sick of them – they still taste delicious! 

Snack to hold me over until lunch: an apricot Fiberful bar (I love these things – they really do a great job of tiding me over!  And they are only 60 calories)

Lunch – Skh-skh-skhettios!

That’s right – this 27 year old eats Spaghettios for lunch every once in a while!

Of course I tried to “class it up” by adding some white beans (Great Northern?), some hot sauce, and some crushed red pepper:

Very tasty!  Very sodium filled!

I picked up a new flavor of tea when I was at the store on Saturday – and I have been dying to try it:

I’ve had Celestial Seasonings ICED Blueberry tea and LOVED IT!   Let’s just say – the hot tea – did NOT DISAPPOINT! 

After a busy day at work – I came home to “the usual” – a hungry husband, and a package (TWSS?) (the “usual” response – “I got a package” jig ensued)  

Two new loaves of Nature’s Pride bread, from the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program!   Having just gotten some delicious, healthy bread (FREE!!) – I  immediately put it to good use! 

We had all the supplies for Turkery Reubens (in a constant battle with “Buffalo Chicken” for “my favorite sandwich of all time” title), so I got right to work.  To start – I cut up a potato to make some “baked fries” as our side – and threw those in the oven first since they take the longest to cook.  Then – I started to piece together the sammiches:

Lean Butterball turkey from the deli, 1 BIG handful of sauerkraut per sandwich, and 1 slice of swiss cheese, thrown in the oven (top shelf) for 5 minutes at 400 degrees:

While the sammiches were in the oven, I whipped up some quick homemade Thousand Island:

• 2 tablespoons of light mayo
• ketchup (I didn’t measure, but I probably put just as much ketchup in there as I did mayo)
• 1 spoonful of dill relish

Voila! 

Not the most photogenic of dips!

End results:

Yeah – this.was.AWESOME!  And SO much healthier than any Reuben you can get out at a pub/bar/restaurant!  Not to mention the fries were baked instead of thrown in the fryer! 

This dinner even got Mike’s approval (although – the top slice of bread was a little hard), so I think it will be put into a more regular rotation.  My poor omnivore husband.  He gets stuck eating so many veggie based meals because that’s just what I love to cook!   All he secretly wishes for is a regular “meat and potatoes” sort of dinner!  He’s such a trooper! 

Half way through the work week – hang in there ya’ll!  Happy Wednesday!

I’m glad to hear so many of you are excited for October!

I have to be honest -  October is my ALL TIME, FAVORITE MONTH, EVER! So I, am obviously just a little excited! 

For breakfast on Sunday – I woke up craving something HOT – in every sense of the word. End result – Egg sammich with some SPICY peanut butter!!!!  Oh-la-la! 

AHHH – Bliss!

Then – it was off for 3 hours of  training class, so that I can help rescue sweet little faces that look like this:

The Boxer Rescue Training went really well!!! – I am so super excited to be volunteering with the group – It’s a fantastic cause that is near and dear to my heart, and all the people seem super nice!  And don’t worry – when I had my first meeting with the Director – I had said “Ohhh, I’m not sure about fostering – I think I’ll just start with volunteering at events and helping with applications” – but I bet you in no time – I’ll have a sweet little foster puppy brother/sister for Lando! 

Once I got home from training – Mike and I were starving (we had planned on going to a sit down restaurant, but our bellies were so hungry) – Mike picked:

Which I turned slightly healthier, by picking:

Which I turned “even healthier” (???) and delicious by pulling apart the chicken, and making my own delicious buffalo chicken wrap:

YUM!  The whole wrap ended up being about 300 calories! 

After watching Changeling (GOOD MOVIE!!!) – I was finally  hungry for dinner – and when faced with a beautifully stocked produce drawer that I could have made any number of wonderful things to eat with:

I ate these:

I have seriously been a “Chip & French Onion Dip” eating machine the past two weeks!

Here’s a question for ya’ll – do you go hunting for all the “books” in the bag???

I’m not sure if anyone else calls them “books” – my Mom always did when we were little (not that we had chips all the time) – but that is what I call them now, and for some reason, they taste 4,592,736 TIMES BETTER than normal chips! Anyone else with me on that?????

After that – it was time to do some work on the computer for the Rescue, and for the blog!  After long weekends like that – this little spaz turns into quite the little calm, cool, cuddle bug!

My favorite way to end a fantastic weekend!

Tonight – I’ve got some fun Mom/Daughter dinner date plans – expect a full recap! 

Happy Tuesday!

And by “got loose” – I mean – I let her off her leash.  Did I scare ya?

As I mentioned early – my weekend plans involved dogs at all times!   Don’t believe me?  Allow me to show you! 

Saturday morning – I had made plans with my friend Jen to go to the dog park/lake out by her house.  When I woke up and it was raining – I didn’t even bother to call her – I knew our pups were playing together – rain or shine!!!

We were up and out the door by 8:45, so I just made a quick breakfast of Blueberry Chobani and Cheerios before I left!  (Spicy Oats to return this week – I promise!) 

Lando was a wonderful helper/navigator on the way there:

Very watchful! 

After getting to Jen’s and visiting for a little while – (JEN – I LOVE your place!), the rain had let up just enough that we headed out to the lake.  I didn’t get any pictures of Lando and Brutus (her 7lb toy fox terrier mix) running around the house – they were moving too fast!

What I did get a picture of – was probably the highlight of my day…

Jen’s dog Brutus, actually knows how to put the car window down himself.  So as Jen was driving – Brutus hopped into her lap, jumped toward the window and opened it a crack himself!   Hysterical, right?!  Wait it gets better!

Lando, seeing this show of doggy intelligence that is such a foreign concept to her, immediately jumps over into Jen’s lap, and proceeds to fight Brutus for prime “head-stickin-out-the-window” positioning.   Non-dog owners, are you rolling your eyes yet?  I know, I know.  But it really was hysterical.  There was a whole, huge, empty car, and the two of them are both fighting to stick their head out of the window.   Not to mention – they couldn’t be doing this in my lap (the passengers) – they needed to be doing it in Jen’s lap (the drivers) 

Once we finally got to lake – I let Lando off her leash (after Jen coaxed me – I am such a wussy doggy mama) – and Lando was in her glory! 

Rompin’ everywhere so fast, she LOVED being on the loose, I could hardly even get a picture!

Brutus was pretty quick himself!! – I wasn’t able to snag a picture of him (although – it was rainy so I didn’t have my camera out too much)  Here’s Lando watching Brutus (and subsequently Jen chasing Brutus) run towards these two dogs he was obsessed with! 

By the time we got home – it was already 1pm, and both Lando and I were totally pooped! I can’t remember what I ate for lunch (apparently nothing since I don’t have a picture) – but I do know Lando and I promptly plopped down on the couch and cuddled up to watch some TV/take a nap!  She was so exhausted!   Thanks for a great time Jen/Brutus – we need to do that again SOON!

Once I got movin’ again - I hit the gym to do some walking on the treadmill, and then came home and made one of my favorite dinners!

Shirataki noodles, with roasted broccoli, red peppers, and beans:

This whole huge heaping bowl was less than 200 calories – and amazingly delicious!

Since Mike had such a long week, and had been at the law library all day Saturday – we decided to just lay low Saturday night, and have a few drinks while watching the Penn State game.  Shockingly – my drink of choice was – Sauvignon Blanc!

I love Dancing Bull - I’ve had it plenty of times before (although – they did just get a new LABEL – I like!) – it is one of my favorites because of the very strong undertones of citrus/grapefruit!  YUM! 

At one point – I got up to go change laundry from the washer to the dryer (Lando decided to pee on the guest bed while I was chatting on the phone with VG), and I came back to this adorable scene:

In the two whole minutes I was gone – she managed to snuggle right up with my brother Matt – she’s a sucker for dog lovers – she knows one from a mile away!  How could I stay mad at a face like that??

Hope your Monday is going well – everyone ready for October?!?!?!?!