Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

I'm currently at the lake with the family soaking up some sun!

YAY- Road Trip!

I slept until the glorious hour of 9 AM this morning. It was incredible. I took my time getting everything together this morning and made it to the lake just in time for lunch. I had a chipotle black bean burger topped with melted Swiss on a whole-wheat sandwich thin with cucumbers, tomatoes, ketchup, and mustard. We had a nice little spread of sides from Catherine's Market, and I rounded out my burger with broccoli salad, roasted mushroom salad, and a farro and vegetable salad.

Yum!

This afternoon's festivities included a boat ride, baking whole wheat chocolate chip cookie bars (recipe to come later), eating watermelon, and a walk with my dad.

We just finished up our dinner feast which included steak and tons of colorful veggies- corn on the cob, steamed green beans and onions, roasted asparagus with cherry tomatoes, and a half a sweet potato. Lake dinners are always so delicious!

If you're going to eat a lot, it might as well be veggies right?

Since I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, I'll catch you up to speed and show you some foods I've been loving lately:

1. Salads:

I crave leafy greens (even more than usual) when the weather gets warm and have had some pretty spectacular restaurant salads recently...

Brio's Grilled Salmon Salad. Always a favorite!

Cheesecake Factory's Skinnylicious Spicy Chicken Salad. I have to say- they really did something right with this new Skinnylicious menu. 

Berry Good Salad from Urban Cookhouse. Berries, grilled chicken, pecans, and feta- what more could a girl want from a salad?

Panera Bread's Strawberry Poppyseed and Chicken Salad with a whole grain baguette on the side. I was pretty impressed with this salad's nutrition stats-only 330 mg of sodium for the whole thing!

2. Vegetarian Meals.

So wholesome. so pure.

Quinoa topped with green lentils and roasted sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts and drizzled with Bone Suckin' BBQ sauce.

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms from Whole Foods are delicious, especially with Alexia's Waffle Sweet Potato Fries to go with them.

Sunshine Burgers are really the best veggie burgers. Too bad they're so dang expensive!

Tofu and Veggie Stir Fry (tofu, carrots, cabbage, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and tamari) from Golden Temple. 

3. Sunflower Seed Butter and Chia Seeds.

I've been on such an almond butter and flaxseed kick lately, I've totally neglected these guys. I will never do it again- these two star ingredients have helped make my breakfasts even better than usual.

Oatmeal made with almond milk, chia seeds, sliced banana, blueberries, blackberries, chia seeds, and SunButter.

Greek yogurt bowl with 1/4 C oats, sliced banana, blueberries, chia seeds, and SunButter.

4. Ice Cream:

Does this even need an explanation?

Whole Foods Cookies and Cream Gelato!

Vanilla + Salted Caramel Pretzel fro yo with Reese's, almonds, and raspberries. Fro yo is my one true love.

In other news, I shot a gun. Yeah, you heard me.

 I feel so hardcore.

And finally my workouts for the week:

Monday: Spinning + YStrong (basically the same thing as BodyPump)
Tuesday: YCross (55 minute bootcamp style class) Holy cow. I was DYING during this class. Great workout!
Wednesday: Spinning
Thursday: 45 minutes on the AMT + yoga
Friday: 1 hour personal training session (we used resistance balls, medicine balls, and bosu balls). My abs are feeling it today!
Saturday: 4 mile walk
Sunday: off

Hope you all have a fabulous and relaxing weekend!

Done WIth Finals

Hope everyone had a festive Cinco De Mayo!

I'm officially done with exams and have a little break before summer classes start in June. My meals were pretty repetitive this week and looked a lot like this:

Overnight Oats topped with Love Grown Foods granola for a quick and easy breakfast.

Pomegranate Chobani, 1/4 C oats, 1/2 diced apple, blueberries. and 1 T almond butter. I love yogurt, fruit, and nut butter!

Packed lunches- pb&j on sprouted wheatberry bread, an apple, and veggies.

Whole wheat naan pizza with pesto, sautéed spinach and red bell pepper, part skim mozzarella cheese, and chicken sausage. This might be my favorite food in the entire world. I can't even explain how good it is.

On Thursday night, my friend Killette and I met for frozen yogurt. It was a great way to celebrate exams being over, but they have obviously upped their prices because this cup cost over $6.00! When the cashier told me the price, my jaw dropped, and I even questioned her to see if the price was accurate. I didn't even get that much yogurt!

I got a mix of caramel pretzel and vanilla and topped it off with granola, pb cups, and coconut.

After work on Friday, I headed to the lake for the second weekend in a row! I also had this awesome lunch at Organic Harvest:

I ordered half of the Jack and Veggie Panini on 3 seed bread and a cup of the Italian bean and pea soup. I love how wholesome all of the food here is!

My brother left for his internship in Houston this afternoon, so we had a going away party for him last night! He cooked us steaks, and my mom prepared tons of veggies. 

Filet (half for me), sautéed mushrooms, half a sweet potato, half an ear of corn, green beans and onions, and asparagus and cherry tomatoes. Talk about a plate full of delicious foods!

Kodiak Cakes are quickly becoming a Saturday morning breakfast tradition at the lake!

Topped with the requisite pb, berries, and light maple syrup.

I had a relaxing morning at the lake watching two episodes in the second season of Downton Abbey! 

Has anyone else watched this show?? It's so intriguing!

Before my brother left, we had one last lunch ride and lunch again at Sinclair's. This time I ordered the Shrimp and Avocado Salad, but I substituted the cheese and artichokes for tomatoes and almonds. Much better combination, in my opinion!

I headed back to Birmingham mid afternoon to meet Laura for a fun Mexican dinner at El Barrio, a new to us restaurant. It was an outstanding meal!

We started out with sangrias and chips and salsa. Everything was so fresh, and the salsa had beans in it, which made it extra good.

For my main course, I chose the Veggie Quesadilla, which was filled with spinach, mushrooms, charred corn, and goat cheese. Hello, favorite foods! It also came with a salad to round out the meal.

Now that we've gotten the food out of the way, here's what my workout schedule looked like this week:

Monday: spinning + pure barre 

Tuesday: 25 minutes elliptical + yoga

Wednesday: spinning + yoga

Thursday: spinning + yoga

Friday: yoga + 1 hour walk

Saturday: 30 minute run + sit ups and pushups

Sunday: haven't decided yet!

Let me just saw how amazing I feel after practicing yoga 4 times this week. Exercise is so therapeutic!

Have a great night!

New Study Snack

2 finals down, 2 more to go!

Here are some food highlights from the week so far:

As I'm sure everyone probably already knows, I have a slight obsession with Greek yogurt, but this week I tried something that took my obsession to a whole new level. On Sunday, the cashier at Whole Foods asked me if I'd ever tried freezing Greek yogurt before. I told him I hadn't, and he assured me that I must try it ASAP because it would be life changing. Later that night, I stuck an Apple Cinnamon flavored Chobani in the freezer for 30 minutes and sprinkled some Love Grown Foods Sweet Cranberry Pecan granola on top. It was so good I've had it two nights in a row!

Favorite new study snack.

Last night I was STARVING when I got home from back to back classes of pure barre and spinning. After studying and taking tests all day, I was ready to burn some energy! It was my last day before my pure barre sessions expired, but I really wanted to do some cardio too, so a double workout it was. Both awesome classes! I threw this dinner together in about 10 minutes, and it totally hit the spot.

Couscous topped with sautéed spinach, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, a tuna burger, avocado, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

For lunch today, I met a friend at a new restaurant called Taco Mama. It had a really cool, casual vibe and the food was really good too! Even though they had delicious looking things like flounder tacos on the menu, I decided to create my own salad with chicken, black beans, tomatoes, grilled onions, and guacamole. It came with a cilantro lime vinaigrette on the side, but I just used salsa. It was very fresh and filling!

Salsa + guac = best dressing ever.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!