Weekend Recap: Waffle Fail and Not Quite Date Night

Once again, I’m a little late in posting my weekend shenanigans.  Better late than never, right??  I need to get better at transferring the pictures from the phone to the blog.  I always plan out the post in my head, but never have time to follow through the way I want to.

So this past weeekend was supposed to be a productive weekend.  We didn’t have anything planned, but I did have a few very important things on my To Do List.  (Taxes being one of them!!)

But as always happens, if there are things I don’t want to do, I will find a way to put them off.  On Saturday morning, I thought waffles were a great way to procrastinate….  These are Protein Oat Waffles.

Don’t get excited and ask me for a recipe.  Even though they look pretty, it was a HUGE waffle fail!!  I found a recipe for pancakes made with oats.  You were supposed to put the oats in a food processor to make them into a fine flour.  I skipped that part thinking it wouldn’t matter.  Oh, it mattered!!  That step was in there for a reason.

I, of course, still ate mine after I smothered peanut butter all over it.  But the hubs and the kids weren’t too crazy about the consistency.  Oh well.  Back to the waffle drawing board.

For lunch, I made a hard boiled egg wrap in a Flat Out.

Have you tried these Flat Outs?  I love them!!

Eventually I ended up taking care of my chores.  And to celebrate, Hubby and I went out for a date night.  Well, a ‘Not Quite Date Night’.  We ventured down the street to a neat little place called Double Dogs.

We had to take one kid with us.  The other kid was spending the night at my Mom’s house.  She prefers to keep them one at a time.

And a date night with a little person is not quite a date night.

And it meant we had to share our fried pickles with her.

And then we had to deal with her fits.  She is definitely a two-year old!

But my California Buffalo Burger was delicious.  Here’s the description:  A low-fat Buffalo burger patty topped with fresh spinach, tomatoes, red onion, Dijon mustard, our signature lime sour cream and Provolone cheese.

And I shared my fries with the little one.

On Sunday I was able to get the taxes prepared, filed and put away!!  Yay.  That’s always a chore I hate doing.  Even if we do get a little money back, I still wait til the last minute to do it because I hate the process so much!!

That was what was Marvelous in my Monday ….  even though now it’s actually Thursday.  Oops.

Question of the Day:  What chores do you hate doing that you put off??

Weekend Update: It’s Been A While

Wow – has it really been 3 weeks since I posted???  Sorry, guys.  Life has gotten so crazy lately.  Plus, the germs have been running rampant in my house.  Hubby is just now getting over a virus he’s had over 2 weeks!!  I managed to get the crud, too, just before the big race.  (I’ll get to that later).

I’ve been taking pictures and constructing blog posts in my head, they just never made it to the computer screen.  In fact, when I logged in just now, I realized that I had 3 working drafts for 3 different posts that I never finished.  Oops.  Part of the problem, though, is that when the pictures don’t upload quickly or WordPress is being difficult, I just walk away.

So I’ll try to catch you up quickly, through pictures:

One thing I’ve been doing every weekend is making protein waffles!!  The kids love waffles, but I hate buying the frozen kind with sketch ingredients.

So I’ve been having fun with some recipe testing!  Once I perfect the recipe, I’ll post it.

The first batch was vanilla, and the second batch used chocolate protein powder!  Yum!

I did enjoy a Girls Night Out one weekend!  Half price sushi and $10 off bottle of wine at the Stir Fry Cafe on Saturdays!  Gotta love that!!

My weekends have mostly consisted of a lot of studying …..

… And eating!!  Since everyone in the house was sick, I made a pot of Chicken Noodle Soup, which lasted for days.

I love salmon.  It might be my favorite food.  I also attempted to make mashed cauliflower, but it didn’t turn out so “mashed”.  It looks like rice on the plate.  But with a little garlic, salt and pepper, it tasted pretty good.

Homemade Chicken/Black Bean/Spinach Enchiladas.  Even the kids devour these.  A pan like this lasts for days.

Being sick meant we spent a lot of time on the couch….

…. watching movies together….  We watched ‘Wreck It Ralph’ (twice!), ‘Hotel Transylvania’, and some other random Redbox find that wasn’t that good.

But THIS weekend in particular, I was getting ready for my Half Marathon….

I woke up on Monday with horrible sinus congestion, but I was determined not to let it stop me from running the race.  So I asked all my FB friends what their best remedy for nasal congestion was.  Half said Mucinex D and the other half said a neti pot.  So, I decided to do both!!

That Mucinex D really works!!  It didn’t completely dry me up, but enough where I didn’t feel like my head was in the clouds.

So Saturday, we headed downtown to pick up my race paket from the Expo…..  I was starting to get a little nervous.

I chose Trader Joe’s spinach tortellini as my carb-loading pre-race meal.  Yum.

I’ll save all the details of the race for my next post.  (Which I promise not to take quite as long to post)

Here’s the starting line….  The temperature was 54 degrees.  It was the perfect day!

I was hoping and praying my new shoes would carry me to the finish line!  Yes, I said BRAND NEW shoes!  I know that’s totally crazy, but that’s just how I roll.

And after the race …..  boy, was I glad it was over.

The first 10 miles were awesome, and the last 3 were pure hell.  But I made it, congestion and all.  And only 3 minutes behind last year’s PR!

Final chip time:  2:19:18.  I’ll take it.

Stay tuned for the details.  It was a GREAT race.  I’m already wondering when my next one will be!

So that’s what’s marvelous in my Monday.

Weekend Update: No Green Beer for Me!

The weather was simply gorgeous this weekend with highs in the 70’s both Saturday and Sunday.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a long run.  We took the kids to my favorite park.  Hubby let them play on the playground while I ran.

I had to keep reminding myself that I am running a Half Marathon in 3 weeks!!!  So far, this run was my longest to date: 6.5 miles.  I guess I’m not too worried because I also did the same thing last year.  I focused on more anaerobic training rather than long runs and I got a PR!  So I figure now, if I can run 6.5, I can 13.1.  Right?

But I’ve got a small dilemma in the shoe department.  These Asics are fairly new (since Christmas).  I like them ok, but after about 4 miles, my feet start to hurt.  And they rubbed a huge blister on my toe.  So that’s not going to work for the marathon.  But I’m afraid if I buy a new pair now, I’m not going to have time to break them in before the race.  Or I could wear an old pair with a hole in the toe.  EEK – what would you do???

I was so excited to try out my brand new heart rate monitor!!  I ordered the Polar FT4 after seeing more than a couple of bloggers using this one.  I had a Timex brand, but the chest strap would never consistently pick up my heart rate.  So this was my first run using the Polar.  I’m converted.  This one is WAY better.  There was still a period of time (about a mile or so) where it didn’t detect my heart beat.  I readjusted the strap, wiped off the sweat, and a few minutes later it started working again.  I love how it displays the time and the calories burned at the end.  And it also keeps a training log so I can go back and look at my workouts.  Now that’s pretty cool!

When the run was over, hubby and the kids met me in the parking lot with Subway in hand.  We found a nice spot in the grass to lay our blanket and devour eat our sandwiches.  I was starving!!!

This month’s featured $5 footlong sub is the buffalo chicken!  One of my favorites.  Hubby and I always split a foot long.  The kids are hit or miss whether they will eat Subway or not.  Luke likes the bacon, egg & cheese on flatbread.

Not my favorite pic here but the only one we got of me and the kids.  Ignore the red face and dried sweat….  and little bit has jelly all over her face.

My 7-year old spent the night with a buddy, so hubby and I enjoyed a semi-quiet house on Saturday night.  He grilled us some salmon while I opened a bottle of wine.  Aaahhhh……  relaxing!

Sunday was a busy day.  So busy, in fact, I never took a single picture!  I am happy to report that I finished my Anatomy & Physiology class.  I got a 95!!  Yippeeee!

So that was my Marvelous weekend.  No green beer.  No St. Patty’s Day celebrations.  Nothing too wild.  Just food, fitness and fun.  (and a little studying)!  🙂

I’m hoping for more days just like that.  I need the warm air and the sun for my mental health!!  Winter is so depressing.

Weekend Recap: A Night Away

This week I am linking up with Katie at HealthyDivaLife and her Marvelous in My Monday post.

We had a marvelous weekend and I can’t wait to share it with you!!

Let’s back up and talk about Friday, shall we?  If ever there were a day of temptation, this was it.  A carrier rep brought in 4 boxes of pastries this morning.  And my friend, Kara, brought in homemade cupcakes from the bakery she co-owns, Panache Bake Shoppe.  The pastries I could easily pass up, but this cupcake, it was calling my name.  I had to.  It was worth every single extra calorie!  Do you see that oozing lemon center?  Oh, but the frosting was by far my favorite part!!  YUM!!!

Lemon Drop Cupcake from Panache

I think that extra boost of sugar was what I needed to clean my desk off.  Seriously folks, this is clean.  I should have taken a ‘before’ shot.  You wouldn’t believe the chaos.  Granted, it was organized chaos.  I knew where everything was.  But it needed a good cleaning!!

I was already planning on running after work, but once I ate that cupcake, I knew I had some calories to burn.  I ran an easy 4.2 miles at Lakeshore, and I should have pushed another 2 but I was ready to get home.

Saturday started out beautiful, so I took the little one for a walk/run in the stroller.  My neighborhood is super hilly so this was a major workout.  At the bottom of every hill, I would sprint to the top behind the stroller and then recover at the top.

As you can see, Mickey and George are enjoying the ride as well.  After the 3 mile jaunt, I did some squats and lunges, along with some arm work.

Once the workout was done, the house was cleaned up, and everyone was packed, we headed out the door for Pigeon Forge.

First stop, Tanger Outlets.  Apparently everyone else in East Tennessee had the same idea.  That place was CRAZY!!!

I’ve never seen so many people in the COACH store before.  You’d have thought they were giving these things away.  That is literally the line to check out.  I’m not kidding.  I mean, I love COACH, but I’m not standing in a line like that UNLESS they are giving them away.

I did manage to get a few really cute items at the Banana Republic – 2 dresses, 2 tops and a Spring-y sweater, all for only $68!

It didn’t take long to get annoyed with the crowds, so I took the boy to the arcade!

I had to play Skee Ball ….  my favorite game ever!

From there, we went to check into our hotel.  This is the view from the balcony.  So peaceful.  The weather was incredible this weekend!!

The kids loved the hotel room.  It was actually a suite with two rooms separated by the bathroom.  It worked out perfectly.

For dinner, we decided on pizza.  The Big Daddy’s had a wood-fired brick oven style pizza, which sounded really good.  And the pictures of the pizza on their website looked really good too.

But oh how pictures can be deceiving.  Or maybe I set my expectations too high.  But we were seriously disappointed.  The pizzas were small, not a good value for the price.  For what we paid, I wish we had gone to Mellow Mushroom instead.

On Sunday morning, we got up and headed to Gatlinburg for the day.

We walked up and down the main drag, enjoying the sights and sounds.  This is a great people-watching place!

The boys, of course, loved the car museum.

For lunch, we found a little local place to get some sandwiches.  I had to try their Bloody Mary, which was really yummy.

The whole reason for the trip, though, was because my Groupon was about to expire.  Months ago, I had purchased a Groupon for tickets to Ripley’s Believe It or Not!  Thankfully, I didn’t pay full price for the tickets because Luke thought the place was CREEPY!!!  And yes, part of it is creepy, but he’s a 7-year old BOY.  I would have thought he’d love the weird stuff.  I know I did when I was a kid.

This might have been my favorite thing in the Ripley’s ….  Eminem made of M&Ms.  How cool is that?!?

Or ….  Jimi Hendrix made of Rubix Cubes….

And of course, we all had rub the Buddha belly ….  can you read what this guy is made out of ….  a million dollars!!!

 

It was a really short trip, so we’re already planning another weekend soon.  We started making a list of all the things we’ll do next time.  Oh, and I won’t forget to bring my Nikon with me (I can’t believe I left it at home).

Question of the Day:  Have you ever been to Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg??  What’s your favorite thing to do while you’re there??