Food, Fitness, Fashion

Ok, so I was MIA ALLLLLLLLLLL weekend long! IF YOU DON’T HAVE A LOT OF FREE TIME DON’T EVEN START READING THIS POST! It’s gonna be a looooong post. Let me start off by saying I was a BAD GIRL this weekend. I drank 4 nights in a row, which is a huge No-No in my book. But, I never really do that so I am a little disappointed in myself, but I had a FANTASTIC weekend and really enjoyed myself, so I am trying not to beat myself up about it because it is a very rare occurrence.

Let’s rewind to Friday. After blogging I went to the butcher shop and grocery store with my parents to get the stuff for our Year Til’ party. I made a lot of food and took pics of all of it so here goes:

I brewed this decaf tea all day. Then I added the juice from 5 lemons, agave nectar, honey and Bacardi Lemon to it. Doesn’t that look amazing? It was so tasty…I love when my experiments are a success!!!! I had about 2 cups of this.

So good. Ok back to cooking, first I made Peanut Butter pie.

I mixed a 8 oz. of reduced fat cream cheese,  1 cup of reduced fat peanut butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar until it was well mixed.

Then I added 12 oz. of fat free cool whip and put the mixture into a graham cracker crust and put it in the fridge until it was ready to be served. THIS IS MY FAVORITE DESSERT EVER!!!!! My friends really liked it too. With all the reduced fat and fat free stuff in it, the pie was basically a giant protein bar!!!

Next, I started on the Buffalo Chicken dip. I put 32 oz of reduced fat cream cheese, 4 cups of fat free cheddar cheese, 2 cups of reduced fat ranch, 2 cups of Frank’s red hot sauce in my crock pot until it melted.

Then I boiled chicken in the a pot of hot water for 20 minutes until it was cooked and then took it out of the pot and let it cool for 10 minutes. Once it cooled I used a fork to shred the 4 chicken breasts.

I added it to the crock pot and then cooked it on low for an hour and let it just stay warm until it was served. I served it with scoops and brown rice snacks (which is what I ate the dip with).

Here is a close up of the dip. It was soooo tasty. I loved it and so did everyone else.

I also made No Pudge brownies as a dessert, I mixed one box of brownie mix with 6 oz of fat free vanilla yogurt.

Once it was all mixed up I added put it in a brownie pan and baked it for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. I forgot to take a picture of them when they were done because my friend Paul came over to borrow my brownie pan. But, you can use your imagination, they looked like brownies. These were also  a big hit!!!

Next I worked on a new experiment of a tropical brown rice salad. First I added 1.5 cups of brown rice and 4.5 cups of water to my pressure cooker and cooked it for an hour.

Once the rice was cooked I added 8 oz. of pineapple chunks and cut up and added two red apples, and added about a cup of chopped walnuts.

The dressing was a mixture of these: Juice of two lemons, honey chombani (about a TBSP), a container of fat free vanilla yogurt and some honey.

Here is what the dressing looked like when it was all mixed up:

Here it is all finshed:

It was good, but I think it was a little too sweet. Next time, less honey for sure.

I also made a regular salad

Lettuce, tomato, red bell pepper and cucumber

I made my pasta salad: whole wheat ziti, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, Orange bell pepper, sliced olives, feta cheese and fat free Italian dressing. I didn’t really measure anything I just add things until it looks and tastes good.

I made Italian Potato Salad too (based loosely off a recipe from my co-worker Wendy). I quartered red potatoes and boiled them (like you would do with mashed potatoes), as they cooled I chopped up about 1/4 of a red onion, a whole cucumber with no skin, a container of grape tomatoes, and some vinegar peppers. Then I mixed it all in with red wine vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, pepper and a whole lot of oregano. It was really good:

We also had watermelon and cheese, crackers and pepperoni as appetizers. For meat, Adam grilled up steak and turkey tips. My plate managed to escape the camera, I had a healthy portion of the brown rice snacks with buffalo chicken dip, two turkey tips and little bit of all the salads, no dressing on the regular salad. I also had a small piece of the peanut butter pie for dessert. I had a few of these:

Old pics…same yummy beer! I also how a number of shots of pineapple and Grey Goose. It was a CRAZY night!!!

Here are some pics from the night I had a great time:

Me and three of my eight bridesmaids. We are all sporting my wedding colors: bright yellow and navy blue!

Me, Adam, Kevin and Melissa. There a whole bunch of pics but, since this post is wayyyyyy to long to begin with I will spear you. We had a great time celebrating with great friends:)

Satruday morning I woke up and spent a good two hours ceaning the house and doing the dished (there was a mountian) after all that was done I made a breakfast of scrambled egg whites, a veggie sauage, american cheese on a whole wheat sanswich thin and some grapes:

Sandwich close up:

After I ate, I went to my friend’s May, Colin and Neal’s house and laid out in the sun on thier roof with May and Colin. While at May and Colin’s I had a few chocolate covered pretzels:

Probably this amount times 2.

Around 5pm I went home showered and got dressed and went for a walk, about 2 miles, with Adam. We decided to grab dinner the Navy Yard Bistro I had two beers while there a Harpoon UFO:

And a Dogfish: I had a piece of bread and Olive Oil…yum! I don’t usually eat the bread but Adam told me it was really good and I trust him. This guy loves it bread.

For my meal I got the vegetarian option. It was an artichoke and cheese ravioli with spinach, capers and tomatoes in a lemon garlic sauce. TO.DIE.FOR. It was so good!!! I ate the whole thing, it was such a good portion size…perfect!

Then Adam and I went back to May, Colin and Neal’s house to have a few beers. I had 3 or 4 of these guys (old pic same yummy goodness). I will have to post this silly picture so you can see my outfit (it is my friend Colin chewing on my skirt…) Green high-waisted skirt (H&M), hot pink tank (H&M) black sandals (TARGET).

Sunday morning I woke up and went to breakfast with May. We went to Sound Bites. It was so yummy, the only ting that was bad was they forgot May’s food and we had to ask someone, but they gave her a free bowl of fruit and were very apologetic. I had a coffee (about a mug and a half) and a water.For breakfast I ordered scrambled egg whites, veggie sausage and whole wheat pancakes and May and I split a side of NO PLACE LIKE HOME FRIES…they are awesome!

That’s the home fries they are like mashed potato home fries super good. I ate all of the veggie sausage, 3/4 of the egg whites and only half the pancakes. I had a few small bites of the home fries. My meal also came with a grilled whole wheat bagel, but I didn’t take a picture of it because I didn’t eat it. After breakfast we laid out on the roof again and enjoyed then sunshine. After laying out for a few hours I had a whole wheat English muffin with Trader Joes’s peanut butter at May’s…thanks May!!!!After we ate our English Muffins we went to Stop n’ Shop, we both need groceries. Here is the loot:

Produce:

Arugula and Spinach mixed greens, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, cherries, kiwi, tomatoes, a cucumber, watermelon, bananas  and red bell peppers.

Other Stuff:

brown rice, milk, pretzels (Adam), feta, tuna, Cinnamon twists, turkey, whole wheat pizza crusts, reduces fat mozzarella cheese.

While putting away the groceries I snacked a about 8-10 cherries:

After I put away the groceries Adam and I met some friends for dinner and drinks at the Warren Tavern. I had three blue moons and two Sam Summer’s throughout the night (we were there for about 4 and a half hours).

For Dinner I had a Vegetarian Stir Fry and a side salad. I ate about 65% of the salad with just vinegar:

As for the stir fry, I ate ALLLL the veggies and a few small bites if the rice (so about half of the meal- it was HUGE)

I didn’t get a picture of my outfit, it was Seven For All Mankind A pocket jeans, a navy blue t-shirt that says, ” COPS LOVE ME” on it and my rainbow flip flops.

Today I took a vacation day. This morning Adam and I went for a 3.4 mile run, before we left I had a banana.

After the run we stopped and got iced coffees from Zumes and walked home. When we got home Adam grilled two chicken breasts on the grill for lunch, he had his with rice and corn and I had mine in a wrap with lemon hummus, feta cheese and arugula and spinach mix:

This wrap was sooooo good!

I ate my wrap with a side of cherries:)

After we ate we hung out for a bit and took Oscar for a walk, on our walk we stopped for frozen yogurt, I got a blueberry and Adam got strawberry.

Perfect summer treat!!!! We took Oscar to the Monument near us to play and walked about 2.5 miles. Here is an action shot of him running!Today I am wearing white linen shorts (H&M), a purple racer back tank top (H&M) and rainbow flip flops.

Look how tired Oscar is, sitting on the couch next to me while I blog.

I will be back in a little while a super special dinner post..holy yum. See you in a bit