Freezing Weather and Soft Serve Ice Cream

Are y’all staying warm in this freezing weather?? I can’t believe the temperatures some of y’all are having! In Texas it’s not quite as cold as it is for y’all who are in the negatives, but it’s really cold for Texas! It was 16 degrees yesterday morning when I woke up and the highest it ever got was 30. I know this is normal for some of you, but it’s not for me, and I am never prepared for weather like this! I know, I’m a baby in the cold.

Because it was so cold in the morning, and I knew I needed to get in my run before the afternoon, I switched up my marathon training schedule a bit. I was supposed to run 6 miles yesterday and do cross training today, but I ended up doing my cross training yesterday and I will run 6 miles later today.

I did this workout from Pinterest (follow me!) and then did my own short leg workout.

This is a perfect workout for you to add on to another workout you have already done for a little extra strength. I am making sure that I am keeping my legs strong since I will be running more than I am used to for marathon training. I don’t want to hurt a knee or anything else on my leg because they are too weak. I know that maintaining my strength workouts will be important for my training!

After my workout I showered and got ready to go meet Ryan at his work for lunch. I was excited to wear a new outfit that I got this weekend while shopping with my Mom.

I got the gray dress for $10 (regular $70) and the yellow sweater for $10 (regular $45). Perfect outfit for my  new job too!

I packed Ryan and I leftover lentil enchiladas from Sunday night for lunch with apples and bell pepper. The best part though was dessert. Ryan’s work has a soft serve ice cream machine so we thought it was the best decision to balance out our nutritious lunch with ice cream. 🙂 Obviously this makes the most sense. And yes, it was freezing outside, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this treat. I don’t have a big sweet tooth, but I have always loved ice cream. 🙂

Vanilla is always the best choice, always.

I wish we could have lunch together more often; it was so nice!

After I left Ryan’s work I went to get my fingerprints taken for work, and then headed home to finish meal planning for the week. Then I went grocery shopping and came home to start cooking dinner.

We had vegetarian chili with some cornbread (both recipes from Peas and Thank you. I am seriously obsessed with this cook book!) I made the chili with tempeh, and Ryan and I both really enjoyed it!

Ryan didn’t even know there wasn’t meat in it at first. And for those of you who don’t know, he is a meat lover!

The cornbread was a perfect side for this dish, and I crumbled about half of my piece of cornbread into my chili, which made it even better!

Oh, and one more random fact for you. I wore this “S” sticker on my sweater all day without realizing. I wish I could say this doesn’t happen to me often, but I am the queen at forgetting to take tags and stickers off.

I’ll leave you with that. I’m going to spend today doing some food prep, running, a little cleaning, and hopefully a little reading! As always, if you try my leg workout let me know how you like it!

Questions:

1. If you have run a marathon, how much strength training did you incorporate into your workouts?

2. Favorite ice cream flavor? 

3. Have you ever cooked with tempeh? What do you like to make with it?

4. Tell me something you are looking forward to today or this week? 

 

The Time Change Messes With My Head

Good morning! I hope everyone had a fantastic Saturday, and I hope you can all have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday. Ryan and I had a blast last night on our date, but I will write more about that tomorrow.

Does the time change mess with anyone else, or is it just me? I was pretty excited that we gained an hour of sleep, but I woke up naturally this morning at 5:30 a.m., and I’m sure my body thought it was 6:30 instead. Luckily I figured I would wake up when it was still dark outside and Ryan was still asleep, so I brought my computer to the hotel we stayed at so I could entertain myself before he woke up and we could go get breakfast. 🙂 So glad I thought ahead.

Anyways, here are my workouts from this past week.

Monday: Sunrise Circuit from Julie and 2.5 mile run

Tuesday: 7 mile run and sleek and slender abs 3x

Wednesday: speed work: four 400’s and four 800’s. (I would do one 400, walk one minute, one 800, walk one minute and thirty seconds, and then do it again until I completed four of each.) and the lower body blast workout from Danica 

Thursday: 5 mile run and 8 minute abs

Friday: a workout from the 7 minute workout app Julie recommended, this 10 minute arm workout video, one set of this arm workout, and other random things like burpeees. 🙂 Totally just started doing things at 5:15 a.m. It gave me a workout and made me sweat, so I was pleased. 🙂

Saturday: 10 mile run. Felt great and mostly uphill I might add.

I have to admit though, I was feeling so great during this run that I didn’t even know that it was this much uphill until I finished and saw this on my Garmin.

Also, in case you don’t know, it stays hot here in Texas for a while, so I was pretty excited that it was finally cool enough for me to wear running capris and a light pullover.

I don’t like running in the cold, but yesterday’s weather was just perfect! Not freezing, but not so hot I was sweating like a gross man.

Meal Planning

I have not meal planned for this week yet. I know, gasp, sin, oh well. I will try to later today, but I’m probably just going to try to pick some simple things, maybe a few new recipes, so that I can have a quick trip to the grocery store later. Tomorrow is Ryan’s real birthday, so we talked about me making his favorite meal, cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese, and chips and queso, but we had burgers last night so I’m not sure if he will still want me to make that or something else. He might still want it though, he really likes that meal. 🙂

So if you have any good meal ideas for me to cook this week, preferably easy, please share! I especially love crockpot meals, and I need new ideas for some vegetables to cook! So come on all you professional bloggers/cookers, send me some ideas! 🙂

I will be sharing more about my weekend and celebrating Ryan’s birthday tomorrow!

Everyone have a great Sunday! 🙂

Weekly Meal Plan and Pumpkin Protein Pancakes!

Yay for Sunday! My favorite day of the week! I think Sundays are perfect because I let myself relax on this day, I usually don’t wake up to an alarm, I go to church, enjoy family time, good food, and just relaxing. Sounds like a good way to start off a week to me! 🙂

So if you follow me on Instagram you have seen that my poor husband hurt his ankle pretty badly on Friday morning. He went to play basketball with some guys at 6:00 am, and in the last 15 minutes of playing he came down wrong on someone else’s ankle. 😦 Now his poor ankle looks like this.

I should have taken another picture of his hurt foot next to his other one so you could tell just how bad it really is, but just trust me, his ankle is more of a cankle right now. 😦 Luckily he didn’t have work this friday (he is off every other Friday at his new job), so he was able to rest it all day. On my way home from school I picked up a milkshake to make him feel better. Even though Ryan was hurt, we still had our date night with homemade pizza and a movie in our living room. Those are the best date nights. 🙂

This pizza is delicious, and I will be sharing how I made it soon. 🙂 Oh, and if you notice, the green and red vegetables are only on half of the pizza. Guess whose half has vegetables and whose half does not? 😉

Yesterday our sweet friends, Bryan and Ruth, came over and just sat with us in our living room all day talking since we couldn’t do much else with Ryan’s injury. Ruth and I went out about lunch time to grab us all something to eat at Chick-Fil-A, and then we played cards for the rest of the afternoon. We had a blast, and it was such a great reminder of how we have been blessed with such awesome friends!

Sorry, this was the only picture I got with our friends from yesterday. But all of their hands are included in the picture so it’s better than nothing right? 😉

For dinner I enjoyed a little left over spaghetti (made with spaghetti squash) and a small bowl of leftover butternut squash soup. Everyone eats these two foods together right?

Please notice I am eating the rest of the spaghetti out of the tupperware I was keeping it in. Using tupperware means one less dish to clean. 🙂

So now that everyone is caught up on my weekend, which I know you all care deeply about, let’s get to this week’s meal plan. 

Sunday: Whatever we can find, maybe leftovers, maybe breakfast for dinner. We will figure it out 🙂

Monday: Avocado Chicken Parmesan and vegetables(we just had this two weeks ago, but Ryan loves it and requested it again)

Tuesday: Chilli (even in Texas our mornings and nights are getting cold so this meal sounds perfect!)

Wednesday: Meal at the church

Thursday: Sweet chili glazed salmon with vegetables (and I will have some chicken in case Ryan doesn’t like the fish)

Friday: Still not completely sure, but I’m thinking maybe fajitas.

I haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping this week so I will probably try to get out at some point this afternoon. I don’t like leaving my grocery shopping until Sunday, but sometimes it just happens.

Last Week’s Workouts

Monday: Danica’s full body x2 strength workout from itsprogression

Tuesday: 5 mile run

Wednesday: Jumping jacks circuit workout from pbfingers

Thursday: 6 mile run, plank

Friday: really wanted to work one out, but couldn’t fit one in. I know the extra rest was good for my body.

Saturday: A new full body workout that I made up and will be sharing tomorrow, plus a two mile run.

It was a good week of workouts and now I am enjoying my day of rest. 🙂

But before I go get ready for church I want to share with you the recipe for the pumpkin protein pancakes I made this morning!

I would say these are perfect for a Fall Sunday morning, but in all honesty they are good enough for any morning in any season. But, especially good in the fall…on a Sunday morning. 🙂

I like these because unlike many protein pancakes, it doesn’t require any protein powder, which I am currently out of right now. Plus, protein powder can be pretty expensive, so if you don’t have any it’s not a problem! Here is what you will need:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup pumpkin
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Now just follow these easy steps and you have a nutritious, filling, delicious breakfast!

1. Mix half of the banana with the eggs, yogurt, oats, and pumpkin. Stir and combine well.

2. Next add in the baking powder, vanilla, honey, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

3. Mix all of this well (I even used a little hand mixer we got at our wedding so that the oats were well blended.)

4. You will want to make sure the oats are fully blended so that you have a type of batter.

5. Cook them over medium heat

6. When you are done put them on your plate so you can fix them up the way you like them!

7. Finally, EAT! 🙂

I highly suggest you make peanut butter frosting (pb2, water, plain Greek yogurt, and a little honey) to put on top of the pancakes, with the other half of the banana that you didn’t use to cook the pancakes. Oh and if you have strawberries, add those too. 🙂

This meal was so good, and I am ready to have them again!  Please let me know if you make them and how you like them!

Questions:

1. What are some of the meals you are making this weekend?

2. Have you ever hurt your ankle?

3. Protein pancake lover, yes or no?

4. Favorite topping for your pancakes? 

5. What fun thing did you do yesterday? 🙂

Late, But Our Weekly Meal Plan

Hey guys! This past weekend was jam packed for me, but it was absolutely wonderful! My brother’s wedding went perfect, and I now have a wonderful new sister-in-law! 🙂 I would like to write about their wedding, but I want to wait until they get back from their honeymoon to see if Kaleigh wants me to wait to post the professional pictures. Also, I still need to write about my wedding! (I know I’m super late on writing that post, but I want to write about my rehearsal dinner before I write about the wedding, and the pictures from the rehearsal are on my parents’ computer, not mine. I will eventually finish these posts. 🙂 ) But I have to share a few pictures from their wedding this past weekend.

…Well never mind. I am having major issues putting pictures on my blog lately. For almost a week now anytime I have tried to put pictures on my blog it says that the image exceeds the maximum upload for this site. I am doing the same thing I always do, so I don’t know what to do. Has anyone else had this problem or have any tips for me?

Anyways, here is my meal plan for this week. 

Monday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tuesday: Spaghetti with spaghetti squash as noodles

Wednesday: Dinner at our church

Thursday: Butternut squash soup and chicken sandwiches.

Friday: Homemade pizza (date night at home!)

I am excited for this week’s meals, and Ryan and I are very excited to eat at our church this Wednesday night. They have a meal every Wednesday, but this will be our first one to go to.

And here were my last week’s workouts:

Monday: 16 mile run

Tuesday: yoga

Wednesday: 2 mile run plus my Autumn Arms Workout except instead of doing it for ten minutes, I did 12 reps of each exercise and did 3 sets.

Thursday: 5 mile run

Friday: Burning Leg and Ab Workout

Saturday: Wedding day (rest…sort of 🙂 )

Sunday: Rest day, played some football with my family. 🙂

Also, today I switched to first grade for my student teaching! I have been with fourth grade since school started, and now I will be with first grade for the rest of the semester. I really like the younger ones, so today was great! 🙂

Questions:

Any tips for me uploading pictures to my blog? 

What meal are you looking forward to cooking this week? I am really excited to make butternut squash for the first time! 

Weekly Meal Plan…Sort of :)

Hello readers! I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I know I have, and I am writing this as Ryan and I watch the newest episode of Revenge. Anyone else watch this show? We love it!!

We went to church this morning which was AMAZING! We love our new church home, and the spirit is so alive there it’s incredible! I think there was like five people who got saved this morning, and there were a couple of people that joined the church!

After church we came back to eat, relax, and watch football. Such a great Sunday! We enjoyed some delicious cheeseburger wraps for lunch. I had vegetables with mine, and Ryan had chips and queso. 🙂 Here is my plate

I planned to make these wraps last week, but I never ended up making them since we unexpectedly went out to eat one night and had leftovers the other night. It ended up being a perfect meal for watching football. 🙂 I love these wraps though; I will have to share my recipe soon! I made it on flatout bread, so yummy!

Here is my meal plan for this week:

Monday: Avocado Chicken Parmesan that I planned to cook last week but never did

Tuesday: Leftover creamy chicken tomato soup from last week (this recipe made a ton! After Tuesday I am freezing the rest)

Wednesday: Figure it out before I go grocery shopping tomorrow

Thursday: Figure it out before tomorrow

Friday: Ben and Kaleigh’s (my brother and his fiancee) Rehearsal Dinner!! 🙂 🙂

So, in case you can’t tell, I didn’t get to meal plan as much as I wanted to today. So if anyone has any ideas for what I should cook, I would love to hear them! Luckily for me, I don’t have school tomorrow so that gives me time to grocery shop and food prep for the rest of the week.

Also since I’m off tomorrow, I am hoping to go for a long run! I made sure I had some good fuel for tomorrow. Here is a picture of my dinner.

Black bean veggie burger on a bed of spinach leaves with tomato, bell pepper, avocado, and salsa. I also enjoyed a baked sweet potato and roasted zucchini and squash. It hit the spot and perfect for a run in the morning!

Now here are my workouts from last week:

Monday: Super Sweaty Circuit

Tuesday: 5 mile run

Wednesday: 30 minute fartlek run, 6x’s hills, and random leg and ab exercises

Thursday: 5 mile run

Friday: My Autumn Arms workout (but this time I did 12 reps of each exercise for 3 sets), my after run ab workout (I only did one set though), and a bike ride with the Hubs.

Questions:

1. Any meal ideas for what I should cook Wednesday and Thursday?

2. What are you looking forward to this week? I am looking forward to my brother’s wedding!