Shop All Day, Party All Night

Yesterday was a bit wild.

I woke up at 7 am. Like was wide awake. I tried to talk some sense into myself to go back to sleep, but it just wasn’t happening. I had a 10:30 am doctors appointment that turned into a noon doctors appointment because the office was so busy. Even though I woke up at 7, I did not have time to eat breakfast. Why? Because I was searching for cute puppy pictures on the internet all morning. Priorities, people.

The truth is, none of them are as cute as my puppy, Pepe.

I love him.

After camping out in my doctor’s office, I decided it was time to eat something. I went to Quizno’s and got a small veggie sub on rosemary parmesan bread. My fave. According to their website, the sandwich includes olives, guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sautéed mushrooms, mozzarella, cheddar and red wine vinaigrette. I opted out of the onions and mushrooms and added pickles. Because they should be added to everything.

Once I was stuffed to the brim, I headed on over to Best Buy. Apparently, I left my camera charger back in Huntington Beach. Instead of driving 9 hours for a little charger, I decided to buy a new one. Of course, I didn’t think to bring my camera to see which charger to get. Luckily, they only had one option, so it wasn’t a hard decision. Once I got up to the checkstand I opened my wallet to pay and found an old Best Buy gift card. I practically got the charger for free and now have $6 on my card. Score!

I then decided to head on over to Marshalls to check out the new clothes. I saved money on my camera charger purchase, so I might as well waste it on more clothes, right? Well, I forgot how overwhelming Marshalls is and I immediately walked right back out of the store. All those racks of clothes and people looking for good deals freaks me out. It’s too crowded and scary and I just don’t know where to start once I get there. Maybe someday I will actually get as far as the clothing racks.

After my shopping extravaganza I decided to head home. It felt like 5 pm and I was exhausted! I looked at the clock: 2:30 pm. How did this happen? Time had gone by really slow and all I wanted to do was go home and cuddle in bed with a S’more Cupcake. So I did. While watching the psycho ladies of Real Housewives of New Jersey ruin a Christmas party, I realized I was supposed to pick up my new prescription. I realize this sounds like my prescription has something to do with being psycho, or New Jersey, but I promise it doesn’t. I rolled out of bed and drove on over to the store to pick up my medicine and my soda of the week, Diet Cherry 7Up. At least it has fruit in the name.

At 6 I went to a yoga class at my gym

Let me rephrase that. At 5:15 I went to a yoga class. That started at 6. There was a lot of sitting in the car playing with my iPhone time. While sitting around in my car, I realized that my phone can take pictures from the front. Funny thing is I knew iPhones did that, but for some reason it didn’t connect in my head that my iPhone could do that. I’m really bad at taking pictures of myself, so this is fantastic news. Plus, I won’t look crazy taking pictures of myself in parking lots anymore. Oh I’m just playing Checkers on my cell phone…no need to stare. 

Then I came home to a disaster.

Meet Puff

Puff is my cat that likes to sunbathe, get his belly rubbed and make you sneeze.

I came home to poor little Puff laying in the driveway with a giant chunk of fur missing on his neck. Upon further inspection, I noticed a giant gash on his neck. I immediately called my mom and told her about it. She then interrupts me and says
“Oh that? Yea, he’s had that for a while. Must have gotten into a fight or something.”

Uh…madre is now in big trouble for not saying anything about this to me before.
I felt terrible for my poor little kitty so I made a vet appointment to get him checked out. On the phone, the vet tech asks if his gums are pink.

My response:

“Uh, well, his gums are pretty white. Like really really really really light pink”

Her:

“Well are they  light pink or white? There’s a huge difference”

I don’t know!! I don’t inspect my cat’s gums everyday to see what color is normal.

I then brought him inside the kitchen (he’s an outdoor cat) because I felt bad for him. We had a cleaning party and did the dishes together while listening to Backstreet Boys.

Loungin’ while I’m doing the dirty work

rollin’

more rollin’

modeling

After our cleaning adventure, I let him back outside, and now I have to catch him again later today for our vet appointment.

I may need an extra cup of coffee today.

Do you get totally intimidated by giant clothing stores? 

What’s your adventure for the day? 

Meal Planning: Weekly Food Staples Part 1

Shopping:

I was planning on going to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, but it turned into TJ’s and Raleys. Oh well!

TJ’s Finds:

almond smooth almond milk

sugar, chocolate coffee bean grinder (yum!!!!)

unsweetened applesauce

s’mashing s’mores (double yum!!!!!!)

Raleys Finds:

coffee house vanilla caramel cream

rosemary

lemon

honey graham crackers

Now that the boring stuff is over, can we talk about this?

This, my friends, is a S’mashing S’more. It’s pretty much a baby s’more covered in chocolate. I’m addicted and I want to eat the entire box. But I won’t because that’s a $3 little box of deliciousness.

Lunch:

So, I didn’t really have a “real” lunch..once I got home from shopping I really had good intentions. I started off with a leftover smoothie and 1 S’mashing S’more and then everything went downhill! I decided to finish up a recipe I’ve been writing (which you will see very soon), and I ate one of the baked goods. So pretty much for lunch I had a smoothie, baked good and a s’more.

At least the smoothie had spinach in it.

That cancels everything eles out, right?

Dinner:

For dinner I had leftover Annie’s leftover White Cheddar mac & cheese with shrimp and a little buffalo sauce added in, and on the side a rosemary butter baked sweet potato! So good.

Rinse sweet potato & dry off. Rub potato in olive oil and place in microwave until fully cooked. Once finished, cut upen sweet potato and top with butter and chopped up rosemary. Delish!

Meal Planning:

Today is Sunday aka my favorite food day of the week.

Sunday’s are kind of random, all over the place days where I rush to get everything ready for the week. A typical Sunday includes taking an hour to get out of bed, an extra cup of coffee, walking all the out to the mailbox in my sweats and realizing there’s no mail Sundays, trying to work out, sometimes failing, hours at the grocery store, talking myself out of hours at the mall, calling businesses and remembering no one is open Sundays, oh yea, and preparing food for the week.

There are a few items that I absolutely always have to have.

greek yogurt

almond milk

strawberries

oats

spinach

nut butter

blueberries

frozen bananas

carrots

other random fruits (this week it’s peaches)

Every Sunday I cut up some fruits & veggies for the week. Today it was bananas to freeze and carrots to turn into carrot sticks

I sometimes plan out my meals for the week, so Sunday is my day to prepare everything for those meals. This week isn’t action-packed so I should have time everyday to prepare things as the days come.

Be sure to check out more of the Meal Planning series. This is just Part 1…I will be back again with Weekly Food Planning soon.

What I Ate Wednesday #2

Breakfast:

The only thing that sounded good this morning at 6am was a big yogurt bowl.

The Mix:

greek yogurt

clustery granola

strawberries

blueberries

sunflower butter (duh)

I haven’t been adding agave lately because I am starting to like the tartness of greek yogurt. My taste buds are getting used to less sweetener!

 

Lunch:

Today the summer camp I work for went on a field trip right next to a Mexican restaurant, so we ran over there on our break. I got a small cheese quesadilla, which I didn’t have time to snap a photo of. I haven’t had a quesadilla in forever…reminds me why I love cheese so much!!

Snack:

Once I got home from work I ate a quick smoothie in a bowl before my meeting and it was greeeeeeeeeeen!!!

The Mix:

spinach

almond milk

strawberries

1/2 frozen banana

frozen pineapple

vanilla extract

Topped with:

granola

sunflower butter

I honestly never thought I would get into the “smoothie in a bowl” trend, but I’m obsessed! They really do fill me up, especially with oats in them (check back tomorrow a.m. for a new smoothie recipe)

Dinner:

After my meeting, I came home to eggplant parm. I didn’t make it, but I’m pretty sure there was eggplant, marinara sauce, mushrooms, onions, a little ground beef and……..cheese!! I normally am not a fan of mushrooms or onions, but I’ll eat anything covered in cheese!

Sorry this post was so short & to the point but I’m exhausted from work and I get to wake up at 5:30 am to sign up for classes, even though I don’t work until 9:30! It’s going to be a long day…but check back tomorrow morning for a new smoothie recipe! Mmmmmmmm

Have a great night!

Sunflower Butter Obsession

First of all, welcome those of you who found me this morning through my guest post at Beautiful Busy Bee! I’m so happy you all enjoyed that post!!
Breakfast:

After I woke up with a terrible migraine yesterday, I decided to set my alarm a little later for this morning. My yoga class was at 10:30 so I set the alarm at 9:30. Of course I decided to ignore my alarm so I woke up at 9:55, not leaving much time for breakfast. Luckily my mom had picked up a couple gourmet bagels yesterday, so I split a spinach parm. bagel with her as I was running out the door.

Yoga was fantastic. I haven’t gone in a couple of weeks because I’ve been busy with work and being out of town, so I think that might be why I’m getting migraines again. This morning’s class was a Hatha Yoga with Guided Meditation, which I never usually go to. The “guided meditation” part of the title has always kept me from going to the class because towards the end of yoga classes I get pretty antsy and I thought the ending 15 minute meditation would drive me crazy, but I actually liked it! I really needed to stretch, I had no idea how tight my muscles were! Taking this class just reminded me I need to make more time for yoga in my life because it’s too easy to save workouts for “the next day” and never do them.

Lunch:

After yoga I drove straight over to one of my favorite stores.

I could spend hours walking around TJ’s and WF. And sometimes I do.

I grabbed chocolate chips, organic blueberries (only $4!), sunflower seed butter (which I didn’t even wait until I got home to open up and try. Um….yum.), and TJ’s brand “Almond Smooth” almond milk (which I’ve never tried before). Luckily, I stopped myself from buying more before I went too crazy. I was actually really surprised by the taste of sunflower butter. I’m not really sure what I expected, but this was a great surprise. I used to eat handfuls of the super salty Ranch Sunflower Seeds, so I forgot how original sunflower seeds taste. It’s funny how our taste buds change, I actually really enjoy plain sunflower seeds now rather than salty flavored ones.

I was starving by the time I got home, so I whipped up a yogurt bowl.

In the Mix:

Greek Yogurt

Strawberries

Blueberries

Honey Almond Granola

Drop of Agave

Drizzle of Sunflower Butter (mmmmmm)

This felt extra filling for some reason, which is a good thing! Maybe it was the addition of my new bff Sunflower Butter?

Dinner:

I’ve been baking away alllll day so I was really ready for dinner! I wasn’t really in the mood for anything specific, so I just grabbed a piece of fish out of the freezer and whipped up a quick meal.

The Mix:

1 piece fish

.5 cup white wine

2 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

handful cherry tomatoes

salt & pepper

cumin

lemon zest

Throw lemon zest, tomatoes, olive oil, wine and garlic into heated skillet

Poke tomatoes and squish tomatoes with back of fork. Be careful, they explode.

Add fish & let simmer in sauce

Enjoy!

Shout Out Sunday: 

I’m starting a new series on the blog called “Shout Out Sunday.” Every Sunday I will post 5 posts from other blogs that I really enjoyed/thought were funny/found thought-provoking that you might enjoy too! To start off the series here are the 5 posts:

Oh She Glows- 10 Ways to Live in The Present

Healthy Tipping Point- Small Ripples

PBFingers- When the Money Isn’t Worth it

How Sweet Eats- Dark Chocolate Macaroon Toasted Almond Butter

Meals and Moves- The Great Fundraising Act

I just found out about this fundraiser today, and I thought it was really important to mention. Janetha of Meals and Moves is hosting a fundraiser for Susan of The Great Balancing Act, who was recently diagnosed with Lymphoma. As you can imagine, hospital bills are ridiculously expensive and the blogging community is coming together to raise money for Susan. Basically, there is a bake sale/auction happening on Monday, July 25th, as well as monetary donations being accepted. There will be around 100 fantastic items up for auction including baked goods, gift baskets from major companies, autographed books and cookbooks and a ton of other awesome items. For more information, visit the Fundraising Page. There are so many ways to help this cause, so I encourage you to donate something, bid on one of the great prizes or promote this fundraiser. I’ve contacted Janetha & will be donating a baked good.

I’ve had several family members diagnosed with cancer, so this cause is really important to me. Please spread around the word of this fundraiser, you can make a difference!

Lastly, today is National Pina Colada Day, so be sure to end your day with an icy cold Pina Colada tonight. See you tomorrow with a blue recipe!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @ThatDeepBreath and “like” me on Facebook! I’ve been neglecting the Facebook lately but I’m trying to actually use it now! Also, I would like to get my Q&A page together so if you have any questions for me, be sure to comment on my Q&A page or email me at thatdeepbreath@yahoo.com. I would love to answer any questions!

Good Night San Diego

I’m having a blast on this roadtrip! I can’t wait to post all the pictures when it’s finished!! Today we were in San Diego…it was a busy day! I’m also taking a ton of pictures for my Weekly Challenge #3! I haven’t had internet access until today, so all my posts have been through my phone. Not so great. Now my posts can be a little more normal!

Breakfast:

Today we went to the continental breakfast at our hotel to grab some breakfast. It was in a tiny room that looked like a ski lodge. Pretty random in San Diego, right? There were Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Oatmeal, Make Your Own Waffles (pretty cool!), and fruit. I ended up grabbing an apple and orange on the way out to have later. The food choice wasn’t that great but it was free so I’m not complaining.

There was a free Quaker Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal packet with a cup of coffee.

(source)

It was not filling at all so I ended up eating my apple when we got to the hotel. I guess all those toppings I put on my oatmeal at home really do help fill me up. I really missed the peanut butter on my oatmeal!!

Lunch:

After traveling aroung San Diego State University’s campus, we found a small Mexican restaurant. The campus is huge so after a ton of walking, we were starving!

I had a veggie burrito with guac, potato, lettuce, beans, cheese and tomatoes. Wasn’t really a veggie burrito but it was pretty good! Later we went to the beach. Of course we decided to go when it was overcast but it was still awesome to see one of the best beaches in San Diego!

Dinner: 

We found a great restaurant called Studio Diner for dinner. It was a 1950’s themed diner that had fantastic food. I ordered the burger with pepperjack cheese, guac & salsa (I think it’s called the San Diegan burger?) and it was soooo good. This was actually the very first time I have ordered a burger in a restaurant!

Of course we saw someone else drinking a milkshake, so we had to get one too! I ordered a coffee milkshake. Ohmygod. Sooo good.

This restaurant was awesome! I can’t wait to share the rest of the pictures from my trip. There are so many!!

Dirt

The past couple of days have been a blur from all of the traveling, but I’ve been having a blast! Once we arrived in Arizona yesterday morning, we spent the day relaxing by the pool and swimming. Later that night, we decided to drive to Flagstaff to stay the night. The town was adorable and I totally fell in love with the local friendly atmosphere. We ate dinner (as posted last night) and fell asleep early. I was completely exhausted after being awake 40 hours.
Today started off with a Cranberry walnut bagel from a small bagel shop in Flagstaff. At around 12 we headed to the grand canyon to go hiking and take a ton of pictures. At about 1 we noticed some storm clouds, but decided to keep going because it was awesome to be there! About ten minutes later there was thunder and lightening. We kept taking pictures and hiking until all the sudden, the wind storm came. Literally, a if a light switch got turned on, dirt and rocks were being hurled at us and we couldnt even see because of the wind. We started running through the wind to get to a bus and almost got blown off the cliff! I’ve never felt that much wind power. So crazy!! I am now caked with dirt.
Dinner and the rest of the night was a little less dusty. I had the most perfect pesto pizza ive ever eaten. We walked around & shopped and I fell in love with flagstaff. I’m exhausted but today was so worth it.
Tomorrow’s Monday…and that means a new weekly challenge!! See you all tomorrow!

No Time to Sleep

It took us 15 hours to get to Arizona and I got about 10 minutes of sleep total. That means I’ve been up for about 38 hours so far, so I’m a little delirious but I’m gonna do my best to sound like a functional human being. The past 15 hours have felt like one big blur. This is the longest drive ive taken for a road trip, but it was worth it!! When we arrived we went down to the gorgeous pool at the apartment complex we are staying in. Laying by the pool was crazy relaxing but the best part was actually being able to get into the pool because the temperature was so high!

Breakfast:

Since midnight I have had a Clif peanut toffee buzz, a handful of “cheddar cheese things” aka Quaker cheddar cheese rice cakes, and a big cup of gas station coffee at 4am.

Lunch:

Lunch was real food!! I was so excited. We went to a great shop with yummy treats and sandwiches. I chose the veggie sandwich with cucumber, sprouts, artichoke, tomato and goat cheese on a flat bread. yum!!!

Dinner:

Black bean veggie burger w/ fries

Tomorrow I’ll have a recap of Weekly Challenge #2: Vegetarian Week! See you tomorrow!!

Slow as a Slug

Lesson of the Day: Do not drink a giant smoothie right before working out.

You will get tired. And want to take a quick nap while the rest of the class is in Child’s Pose.

After I got back from my Pilates class I sprinted for my warm bed and watched Real Housewives of Orange County. Not all California girls act like that, I promise.

After I regained my energy, I decided to make the ultimate comfort food: Grilled Cheese

cheeeeeeesy

If your wondering how cheese got on top of the bread, it exploded in the microwave….I don’t understand it either.

What’s your pre-workout meal? 

Blue Oat Cake

Confession: Yesterday I didn’t make a recipe like I’m supposed to for my weekly challenge…it was a long day at work and I didn’t eat lunch or dinner at home so there wasn’t much time to make anything.

The good news:  This morning I had a delicious breakfast planned.

While looking through Averie’s recipes, I stumbled upon the Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cakes. It looked easy, quick, and packed with fruit. Which I love. 

bluuuuue!

In The Mix:

1 mashed banana

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

a whole bunch of cinnamon

couple handfuls of fresh blueberries

dash of vanilla extract

This was done in about 6 minutes including mixing & microwaving. You could shave off a couple minutes by mixing all of the ingredients together the night before and microwaving it in the morning. I also topped it off with a plop of peanut butter. It was a little too sweet for me, but that was because I added too much brown sugar for my taste. I loved how quick & easy it was, and flexible! You could add any number of mix-ins or toppings. Oh…and…it’s blue!!! I love when my foods turn out crazy colors. It’s so fun!

For lunch I packed a Chocolate Chip Clif Bar, a green apple and a leftover piece of cheese pizza. I have eaten way too much pizza the past couple weeks but I love it! Really, is too much pizza even possible?

Don’t Jump!

Today was very similar to yesterday…a little too similar!! But more on that later.

I didn’t end up eating all of my pasta for lunch, so for dinner I had the rest of my pasta with some extra cheese. This morning I had mixed up whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, half of a red pepper, hot sauce and some italian herbs. For some reason, I really don’t like veggies besides spinach in my pasta. I have no idea why I continue to put veggies into my pasta even though I always end up pushing them aside….someday I’ll learn! It didn’t end up being very exciting but I made up for that with dessert!

pastaaaa

I didn’t have my dinner planned out, but all I knew was I wanted some cheeeeeeeeese in my meal. I could eat cheese all day, everyday!  For dessert I had a sugar cookie with sprinkles that magically appeared in my kitchen. Or I stole it from Mom’s cookie stash…no dessert is safe around me!

Anyway, I said today was a little too similar to yesterday because another baby bird jumped from a different nest and couldn’t move once it was on the ground! It looked like it had just recently hatched, but because we went through the same thing yesterday we knew what to do (or at least pretended to know). I didn’t have time to snap a picture but the baby bird pretty much looked identical to this:

soo fuzzy!

(source)

The source I found that from actually had a great story about when the author tried to save a baby bird…including waking up every couple hours to feed it. So cute! Hopefully no more baby bird decide to jump out of their nests anymore…it’s pretty stressful! Baby birds if your reading this, stay in your nests!!

Are there any foods you can’t stand to mix with other foods but like on their own? 

Have you ever taken in an abandoned animal?  How did you care for it?