Hello hello! How is your Wednesday going?

What with being done at the high school, I feel like I have been granted three extra hours to my day. I know that’s silly, because all days are 24 hours, but I have to admit…this is niiiiice. 🙂

We are in the middle of a glorious fall day. It is supposed to be around 70* here, sunny, blue skies, not a single cloud…I love it! Nice fall weather puts me in such a great mood. I’m just hoping it will be like this on Saturday (my birthday!) when I go up north to the vineyards to do some wine tasting with my parents. 🙂

So anyway, I don’t know about you, but I kinda liked doing WIAW as a sort of compilation of my favorite eats throughout the week. So, without further ado….(I always feel Shakespearean when I say that…)

WIAW

Breakfasts

Mixed berry protein smoothie (click for recipe!).

I threw in a couple of handfuls of spinach. I love that you can’t taste it!

Because I went home over this past weekend, I was able to be much more creative with food and take much better pictures using a better camera. Yay!

I also tried something new the other day: I toasted up a Van’s Free blueberry waffle and spread some sunflower seed butter on it.

The crispy, sweet waffle paired with the salty sunbutter was amazing.

Lunches

A simple salad (lettuce, spinach, Craisins, cucumber, and balsamic vinegar) and a Cedar Lane vegetarian burrito that exploded in the microwave. I could eat those things all day every day and I don’t think I’d get sick of them!

I also enjoyed “tuna salad”, green beans, and sweet potato fries. I made the “salad” using a can of chunk light tuna, some diced pickles (the only way I’ll eat a pickle), and about half a tablespoon of plain yogurt. It kind of looks like cat food, but I can assure you, it was good! 😉

Snacks

A toasted English muffin with sunbutter and grape jelly. It was very filling – the perfect quick, healthy snack!

Because it had been a while since I had coffee, I figured stopping by Starbucks to get a tall iced coffee might be a kind of fun change of pace. It’s so yummy, I just wish my stomach liked it more!

I also had a low-fat strawberry smoothie from Panera the other day while out to lunch with my dad. 🙂

Can you tell this picture was taken with my not-as-great camera? 😉

Dinners

One of the best meals ever is this Summer Skillet Pasta from Land O’ Lakes. We initially found it in a little recipe booklet the company sent in the mail, but turns out its online too, which is great for any of you that are interested! The flavors are amazing. We add chicken to it sometimes, but if you use whole wheat pasta, you get a good amount of protein from that, too.

Yum.

My other dinners this past week haven’t been so interesting. In fact, I can’t even remember what they were…..hmm.

Desserts

Chocolate frozen yogurt!

A teeny bag of candy corn. I just love this stuff. It screams Halloween!

And some Amazing Chocolate Cupcakes (click for recipe!) I baked up over the weekend.

I made them mostly for a family I was going to babysit for on Saturday night, but I definitely saved a few me, too! 🙂

I love decorating or specially preparing food for any occasion, especially holidays! I used this Funfetti frosting I mentioned the other day to decorate these cupcakes. 🙂

GOSH they’re so photogenic!

Workouts October 14-20
Sunday: 4 mile walk (an hour) on treadmill
Monday: off
Tuesday: circuit training
Wednesday: jog 2 miles + walk 20 minutes on treadmill <–that’s the furthest I’ve ever gone while jogging! I think the circuit training is really helping to build up my muscles and make it easier to run. I’m just hoping for no more injuries any time soon!
Thursday: rest
Friday: P90X yoga
Saturday: elliptical + circuit training + 5-10 minutes yoga

In other news, Ella was not mad at me for missing her birthday.

She loved the gifts I brought home for her this past weekend. I bought her a little squeaky stuffed animal and some bones. She was so crazy about the stuffed animal that it was impossible to get a picture of her playing with it!

Her food must have caffeine in it or something…she’s rolling around on it in this one:

Haha!
I finally got a good one of her cuddling with it:

She’s such a crazy puppy.

Healthy Thanksgiving Challenge

You might have noticed a new little button along the right side of my blog. I’ve decided to participate in What Would Kathy Eat?‘s Thanksgiving Challenge! For more info on it (and instructions on how to join in!), click on the button below! 🙂

I love joining in for new challenges, first, because I get to see what awesome things other bloggers are doing, and second, because the challenges themselves are fun!

Thanksgiving is such an American, family holiday to me. (I know that other countries have their own Thanksgiving Days, too!) I haven’t fully decided which type of food – or foods! – I want to healthify, but I’ll keep you all updated! 🙂

I’m off to do some homework…have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!!