>Look for the smoothie butt

>Good morning afternoon. It’s the morning for me because I kinda sorta…just woke up. To my defense I worked until 11:45pm last night. And by the time I drove home, showered, had a snack, and unwound, it was past 2am. Eeeek. Gotta work on that. Although it’s late I have such a hard time showering and going right to bed. One would think I’d be exhausted after running around for an 8-12 hour hospital shift. Hmm…

Ideas on how to get this girl in bed earlier?

* * * 

Since we just returned from Myrtle Beach and I’ve been working a lot, I stillllll have yet to make to the grocery store. Therefore many of my meals have been boooorning. Still tasty, but lacking a little in the creativity department.

Enter breakfast #1 (yesterday)

1 scoop chocolate protein powder (SunWarrior brand)

handfull frozen strawberries

1/2 frozen banana

hand full fresh spinach

1 t SuperGreens

1 t flax seed oil (healthy fat, yo)

1 t xanthan gum (to thicken, optional)

stevia (1 serving, to sweeten)

H20

ice

How do you know when your smoothie is of the right consistency? 

Well when it get’s a Smoothie Butt, of course..

 Look for da butt. Works like a charm every time.

Breakfast #2 (today)

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (SunWarrior brand)

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/2 cup frozen mangoes

1/2 frozen banana

1 t chia seeds

~1 cup unsweetened almond milk

hand full fresh spinach

1 t SuperGreens

stevia (1 serving)

Ice

goblet wine glass (optional)

Lunch #1 (yesterday)

1 can Amy’s Organic Split Pea Soup

2 T nutritional yeast (cheesy flavor plus added protein and B vitamins)

1/4 cup egg whites (added protein, you won’t taste the difference)

cumin

chili powder

pinch cayenne pepper (for spiiiiice)

Snacks

apples

Think thin bars (almost tried every flavor so look for review soon!)

carrots n’ peanut butter

So there ya have it. My snoozefest assembly of recent meals. But in all honesty, it’s comforting to know I  always have a hand full of meals and snacks on hand when the fridge is nekkked. I always have a stash of the following items for times of desperation/laziness:

– Frozen veggies

– Frozen fruit

– veggie burgers

– oats

– protein powder

– organic canned soup

– magic soup/Indian food starters

– Organic Spaghetti O’s (Call me a 5-year-old if you want)

Some easy peasy meals:

Protein oats

Magic soup (on the fly)

Indian food (a la Trader Joe’s)

Amped-up Veggie Burgers

* * *

Completely random, but I’ve received a few emails/comments recently about how some of you want to try spaghetti or acorn squash but are too scared to cut into the darn thing. And rather than telling you to just try it, I think I’ll save a finger or two.

Simple cutting/cooking instructions (for any large squash)

1. Boil whole squash for ~25 mins. This will soften it up (at same time, preheat oven to 425F)

2. Cut open squash length wise

3.  Line baking sheet with tin foil and spray with olive oil

4. Place cut side down and bake for ~20 mins until soft throughout and browned

5. Spoon/fork out seeds

Ta-dah!

* * *

Have a great rest of your day! So jealous most of you only have a few hours of work left. I, on the other hand, am heading to work at 3pm!

Oh and guess what…I am officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon (Oct 30th)!!!!

Don’t forget to enter my Giveaway! Giving away a great foodie gift package! 

What foods do you always have on hand? 

>In a pinch

>Thank you for your thorough and honest comments on yesterday’s post on animal research. I was anticipating a lot of negative comments so either 1) only scientists reading my blog 2) PETA is crazy or 3) you got the gist of what I was trying to say.

Either way, I hope that I was able to show you another [positive] side of animal research.

* * *

Well, I finally have a few days off. It comes at a good time because my family decided to surprise us with a visit. Made my MONTH!

But I’m starting to come down with a cold 😦

So a get-better-vitamin-packed-protein-smoothie it is!

 In the mix:

1 scoop vanilla SunWarrior protein

banana

frozen strawberries

frozen blueberries

frozen mangoes

hand full fresh spinach

1 T almond butter (to promote absorption of fat soluble vitamins)

H20

stevia

pinch sea salt (brings out sweetness)

And lots of tea…

I will rock my holiday mug as long as I can

* * *

Since I’ve been working quite a bit, quick and easy meals have been on demand…

Maple Peanut Butter Protein Cupcake

So. good. I promise you.

 Recipe here

 And lots of Amy’s soup. The low-fat black bean is my current favorite..

I spice it up with:

2 tbsp nutritional yeast (for added protein)

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

pinch cayenne

pinch sea salt

* * *

What are your favorite meals when crunched for time?

>Work-a-holic

>First off, thank you SO MUCH for your kind words after I told ya about my recent running injury. Ugh, I’m such a klutz! I wish I had better news, but the marathon is still up in the air. Per approval of my PT, I ran 7 miles on Monday and my hip felt okay, but still not ready for the 26.2. I’ll keep you posted in the next few days….

In the meantime I’ve been working like a madwoman. And I can’t say I’m too upset. In case you’re new to the blog, I work as a nursing assistant on a transplant floor where I’m gaining clinical experience to prepare myself for a career as a physician assistant. You can read about my big career change here and here. I absolutely love my job. I’m learning so much!

Almost every morning lately, I’ve eaten this bowl of easy deliciousness:

Night before, combine & store in fridge:

1/3 cup oats

3 T egg whites

1 t chia seeds

1 t flax seeds

3/4 cup H20

apple pie spice

stevia

pinch sea salt

Next morning:

Microwave until oatmeal rises

Mix in 1/2 scoop your favorite vanilla protein (I loooove SunWarrior)

Drizzle with organic maple syrup

Sadly, lunches have been eaten in .25 seconds so this is all I could snap for you:

This was Amy’s Organic Minestrone Soup

I’ve been working several 12-hour shifts so you can bet my feet thanked me with the purchase of these shiny new shoes:

Dansko’s! If you’re on your feet for a long time these shoes make all the difference in the world.

Despite the week’s craziness, the Manfriend and I did sneak out for a nice date night at Dino’s yesterday. Considering I’m allergic to cheese (well the strong, delicious ones) an authentic Italian restaurant probably wasn’t the best choice. But I ordered what I could, and the waiter was nice enough to substitute the cheese with a dairy-free version.

I went with the scallops and sauteed greens:

While the Manfriend ate a heaping bowl of fettuccine, clams, and a white wine and garlic sauce.

His plate won. I probably ate half 🙂

Alright, I’m up waaaay past my bed time. I’ve gotta be on the floor for 7am tomorrow! See you tomorrow night with an interesting science-y post.

Lauren

PS….Here are some of my cheerleader Halloween pics! What did you dress as?

Me and the gals

Me + The Manfriend

>Weekend successsss

>Holaaaaa,

How are you??? Hope you had a splendid weekend! Was the weather bueno??

THANK YOU all SO MUCH for helping out with the SURVEY I posted last night! If you haven’t done it yet I’d greatly appreciate it!

What’s in it for you???



1) Its quick (and from the comments I’ve received) it’s kinda fun!

2) By completing and re-posting (or just commenting if you don’t have a blog), you are automatically entered in my SURPRISE GIVEAWAY!

3) If the label launches, I will be giving away plenty of goodies!

Moving on….



My weekend was pretty fantastic. The weather was nice, I went on a few good runs, did some shopping, and we found our NEW APARTMENT!!! It’s only a couple of blocks from our currently place but it’s SOOOO much bigger and nicer! I can’t wait! We’re moving in June 1st so pics will come 😉

In the spirit of a new apartment, we did some apt shopping. Here are two of my fav purchases:



^Book end

^Theme for bathroom

The weekend was also filled with some good eats. Salads seemed to be the theme (or the theme of the meals I felt like snapping pics of!)

^Whole Foods salad bar (Romaine, kale, organic chicken, egg whites, cherry tomatoes, onions, Cuban garbanzo bean salad, olives, wasabi peas, chili powder, cumin, and chipotle salsa. SO GOOD!

^Manfriend’s meal, and obviously stole a few bites: Shrimp and veggie quesadilla from Surfside (amazing restaruant btw)

^Shrimp salad (Grilled shrimp, corn and bean salsa, romaine, pico de gallo, avocado, cilantro

^Amy’s Tuscan bean and rice soup. A new Amy’s favorite!

^Had a few of these throughout the weekend (1 scoop vanilla protein, frozen nanner, cherries, 1 tsp flax seed oil, handful spinach, almond milk, stevia)

Even better than my food was the MUCH needed R&R…

^Rosemont Shriaz. A personal favorite

^Picked these up cause I haven’t had Jelly Beans in 2349873 years. Crazy how only a few satisfies a sweet tooth. Or maybe that’s cause I’d rather have wine??? 😉

And drum roll please….

^Season 9 has arrived!!!! Whooo! Let’s see if we can stretch this out longer than a week! haha

And some much needed cuddle time with my favorite puppy:

Aaaaand what weekend wouldn’t be perfect without some gorgeous runs in the city?? (that sounds a little nast, ha)

Saturday: 7 mi; L2 Shred

Sunday: 5 mi; L3 Shred

Monday: 5 mi (no shred, ma booty hurts!)

And I still stopped to smell the roses:



^Well not really roses…but still perdy.



And some other pleasant things along the way:

^White House (view from Pennsylvania Ave)

^Potomac River

^LOVE this window (Caribou Coffe3 @ Pennsylvania and 17th St). Reminds me of my BFF Alyson (who I miss like crazy and needs to get her act together and move to DC asap!)

Alight I’ve gotta tend to my experiment, I leave you with this hot stud I stalker-ishly captured the other day:

^This style seriously exists in DC (and pretty much only found in Georgetown). Plaid pants (often Seersuckers), pressed and/or popped-collar polo, blue sports jacket with gold buttons, brown leather loafers with NO socks, and these Ray Bans (I also like them better on Jessica Alba).

There are soooo many of them!! Clones I tell ya! haha

And CONGRATULATIONS to all BOSTON MARATHONERS!!!!

I ran my first Boston Marathon six years ago, and my life was never the same…

Have a good evening and fantastic Tuesday!!! ❤

>On-the-run

>Heyooo,

Happy Humppp Day. I started this morning off right…overslept through my workout, ate a not so satisfying breakfast (due to lack of groceries at the moment), had to walk back to the apartment to grab my lunch that I forgot then ran to the bus, that I missed! Woooo, go ME! ha

Despite all of the chaos, I’m not too grumpy. The frigid weather must have numbed my emotions. Speaking of weather, I’m soooo ready for Spring. Seriously Mother Nature, WTF is going on this year????

So yesterday I posted an article about a very convincing link between soft drinks and pancreatic cancer. Scary stuff. I think it’s also important to note the article didn’t include diet drinks, however, I have come across many articles linking artifical sweetners (ex: Aspartame in Diet Coke) to cancer. This is because your body senses the sweetness and processes this information as if there was an increase in glucose and therefore releases insulin.

IMO, I have always believed that Splenda, Nutrisweet, Equal, were all ‘too good to be true’. Research studies take a looooong time to complete (participants are followed over years). So when a product is released it takes quite a while for substantial evidence to be conducted. Now I’m not saying that Diet Coke WILL give you cancer. I am just a BIG believer of clean eating and eliminating artifical crap from your diet. Did you know that 1 bag of REAL sugar only contains 10-15 calories (depending on the brand)??? That’s nothing! So if you prefer to sweeten your coffee I recommend using raw sugar (available at most coffee shops), agave nectar, stevia, cinnamon, or soy/almond milk.

Soooo in other non-cancer-related news, I have been meaning to post about a new food discovery for quite some time. Behold a new wave of ORGANIC chinese resturants! As the refridgerator situation is next to nothing, the manfriend and I ordered in last night.

I had edamame, steamed veggies (with a side of light white sauce) and miso soup (not pictured):

Setho had chicken lo mein and crab ragoon (not pictured):

Last night I had the WORST. CRAMPS. EVER last night so soup and veggies was just what the doctor ordered. Forutnately those didn’t kick in until after my kick-arse Bikram class! Oh, Bikram how I love thee.

Ahhh, well I’m off to finish getting caffinated (coffee + cinnamon + soy = heaven), purify my antibody by protein A chromatography (cause I’m sure you were totally curious about this):

Then attend a lecture, and scarf down this makeshift lunch:

^Amy’s Lowfat Split Pea soup, Fuji apple, and left over veggies (not pictured):

With this bag-o-spices for da soup:

^Red pepper, cumin, dash sea salt. Really makes canned soup much better. Although, Amy is pretty fantastic on her own.

Have a fantastic day!!!

-L Rose

QUESTION: What are your favorite on-the-run breakfasts and luches????