Because It's Monday...

...and it's a gloomy rainy day...

...and I have a final tonight

...and I'll leave the dishes until tomorrow so I can get my run in

...and I went to Target yesterday

...and finally, because everyone likes a compliment :)

 What's your least favorite day of the week?

What's your favorite 'Hey Girl'?

Is it raining where you are?

Pineapple Fluff

Pineapple Fluff Cake was just as fabulous on days 2, 3, 4, & 5 as is was on 1 one so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Here's What You Need:

1 box of Angel Food cake mix

1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple

1 tub of cool whip

Here's What You Do:

Combine cake mix & pineapple in a big bowl

Stir by hand

Pour into a 9x13 baking dish

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes

Let it cool, top with a giant scoop of cool whip & enjoy!

I snagged this recipe from Pinterest and it makes me do the Happy Dance for the following reasons:

     1. Pineapple is my favorite fruit

     2. Dessert is my favorite meal

     3. It is super easy to make, is somewhat healthy, and satisfies my sweet tooth

What dessert makes you do the Happy Dance?

Do you like desserts with fruit in them?

Whipped Cream: tub or can?

Burpees (Ugh) and Smoothies (YAY)

Putting a TV next to my treadmill was the best decision ever. Since I've been trying to get my workouts in before work, I needed more motivation than “feeling & looking good” to get out of my warm & cozy bed at 5am. Hence, the TV. I caught up on my DVR on Friday morning and I needed a Plan B to get me through my weekend workouts.

Enter Grey’s Anatomy. I have all 8 seasons on DVD…4 of them are still in the plastic wrap. I figure I can spend the next month or two watching the series all the way through. I can barely remember the first few seasons. Today was an arms & abs workout. I moved up to the three pound weights this week (I’m SO strong) and my arms feel like they’re going to fall off. My two very least favorite exercises in the history of the world: tricep dips & burpees. 

You try doing two sets for 20 seconds each. It’s killer! (I told you I’m a wimp).  Luckily, I survived them and even did my cool down mile outside today. It’s finally warming up! Now I just have to get used to the hills…

Since I've been doing my workouts in the morning, I need something other than Pop Tarts for breakfast. (Okay, there are lots of reasons I need something other than Pop Tarts for breakfast, but for the purpose of this blog post, the reason is morning workouts.) I've been pinning recovery smoothie recipes all week but since I haven’t been to the grocery in two weeks I had to improvise.

Saturday Smoothie:

1 cup of orange juice

1 banana Chobani yogurt (14 grams of protein!)

2 frozen strawberry fruit bars

 What was your Saturday workout?

Who’s your favorite Grey’s Character?

 I forgot how much I love Season 1 George

What’s your favorite smoothie recipe?

Let’s Talk About Cheese

It’s no secret that I eat like a three year old. I eat more frozen/boxed meals that I care to admit & my lunch rotation consists primarily of Chunky Soup and Turkey Wraps (usually paired with baby carrots and whatever fruit I have in the house that week).

Key ingredients for a turkey wrap: tortilla, turkey, CHEESE, spinach, mustard, mayo.

I give The Boy credit for not complaining when all he can find in my fridge for lunch are sandwich making foods.  However, you guys should have seen his face when he realized the only cheese I had was Kraft cheese slices :) After rolling my eyes at his mini-lecture on my cheese eating habits, I started researching and was surprised at what I found.

Kraft Singles full name is actually Kraft Pasteurized Processed Cheese Product and it contains less than 51% cheese. The other 49% consists of “other ingredients.” The ingredients aren't necessarily “bad” ingredients…you should just be aware that you’re not eating natural cheese. You can see the entire list of ingredients in processed cheese here.

Looking at the side-by-side comparison almost made me sick to my stomach. Just so we all in the same boat: Processed cheese is heated to 180 degrees (striping it of most of its natural flavor), cooked with steam, and turned into a liquid. Then it’s pumped through machinery to be rolled out into slices and wrapped in plastic. Also – some processed cheeses can sit on store shelves for months before being sold.

Needless to say, last weekend at Giant Eagle, I stocked up on all-natural sliced cheese. Not only did it greatly enhance the flavor of my turkey wrap, but I feel like a grownup informed consumer knowing what I’m eating.

Both of these came from my fridge. I think it's pretty clear which is which and which one you'd rather eat!

Here’s a cool cheese infographic (I love infographics!) for you to check out and a Fooducate article about cheese if you’re interested in reading further.

PS – Did you know that the average American eats 30 pounds of cheese annually? Seems a little low to me...I eat at least 300 pounds of cheese annually!

Do you love cheese as much as I do?

What are your Top 3 favorite cheeses?

Does learning about food change your eating habits?

Couch Potatoes & Bowling

Couch Potato (n) – a lazy person who does nothing but sit on the couch and watch television, usually while eating.

Last weekend consisted of a lot of couch sitting and a lot of eating…two of my favorite things. The Boy sent me an e-mail last week and told me to come up with a list of my Top 10 Favorite Chick Flicks and that we could watch them since we normally only watch “boy movies.” Big mistake on his part – I sent back a list of twenty AND I have in writing that he will watch them with me and not make fun of them (now if I could only get that promise for the next season of the Bachelor/ette…).

Numero Uno on my list – Father of the Bride (my all time favorite movie!). Since you can’t watch the first movie without watching the second one, we watched them both. While we watched we enjoyed this (sort of) healthy dessert. I don't know if it has a name so I'm going to call it Pineapple Fluff Cake. 

We went bowling on Saturday night with our Pittsburgh Friends. Fun Fact: The bowling alley was BYOB. How cool is that? Blue was the color of the night. I managed to only throw gutter balls 10 out of 20 frames so I consider it a success.

Thanks for the photo bomb Justin....

Sunday was spent catching Justin up on Friends (the greatest television show of all time). Can you believe he’s never seen them? I told him that if he expects this relationship to last long term, he needs to be able to quote every line of every episode back to me (seriously…I’m that obsessed!). We finished season one and he passed his exam with flying colors.

After Season 1, here are The Boy's:

Favorite Character: Chandler Bing

Line Most Repeated: Jack Gellar, buried at sea.

 What’s your favorite chick flick?

Are you any good at bowling?

Favorite character/line/season of Friends?

- Can you believe season one aired in 1994?

Prayers for Boston

The running community is a family & families only grow stronger in the wake of a tragedy. People around the world will be lacing up their shoes to run for Boston today and I'll be joining them.  

Two good reads from yesterday:

“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon,”  - Kathrine Switzer

The Boston Marathon: All My Tears, All My Love

Easter Candy & Wiffle Ball

I'm a little late with this post but...Happy Easter! Are you as pumped as I am that Spring is FINALLY here?

I know I disappeared for a couple of weeks, but I swear it doesn't feel like it's 2.5 weeks since my last post. The Boy spent his Spring Break in Pittsburgh and we got a taste of real life. It Was. Fabulous. Some of the highlights from our week included grocery shopping, cooking/eating dinner together, watching Grey's Anatomy (ok I watched, Justin surfed the internet). We also watched basketball. A lot of basketball. We made the six hour trek home for Easter together too. The drive was so much easier with someone to talk to.                                                                                                                                               ROAD TRIP!!!!

On Easter Sunday, we go to church & then we go to my grandma's.We eat an amazing dinner and head out side for the annual Easter Egg Hunt wiffle ball game. This is just one of the many many reasons I love holidays with my family..as you can see by the millions of pictures below :)

Mom decorated all of our Easter "baskets"

Please note the awkward middle school space

Watch out Kevin...Peyton might eat all of your candy!

I'm happy to report that only one car got hit this year

 

This was an exciting moment because my cousin M & I are both
very unathletic yet somehow I made it to base and she caught a
 pop fly in the same inning!!

The weekend went by so fast. Before I new it I was at the airport & headed back to PA. I'm happy to report that all of my Easter candy made it through TSA :) 

Do you like going on road trips?

What's your favorite Easter candy?

 My top 3: Sweet Tart Jelly Beans, Cookies & Cream Eggs, Reese Eggs

Why are there no direct flights from Louisville to Pittsburgh?