>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? 

>Beat the heat

>Helloooo!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful week! Mine has been busy-busy-busy! The poor pup had emergency surgery on Wednesday to repair a protruded hernia (ouch!). He’s doing much better today but not too happy sporting this around his neck:

Cross your fingers he returns to his chipper and smiling self soon!

In addition to the week’s craziness, the weather in DC has been insane! We’re talking 101 degrees today (and humid!) and 103 tomorrow! How’s the weather in your neck of the woods????

During the summer I find myself reaching primarily for COLD foods and drinks. In the mornings, it’s been Green Monsters and smoothies:

^1 scoop vanilla whey, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup frozen pineapple, handful spinach, 1 tsp. flax seed oil, cold H20, ice, stevia.

*Note: Try throwing a handful of fresh spinach into your smoothies. I swear you can’t taste it!

**Note: Add a small amount of healthy fat (ex: flax seed oil) into your smoothies (or over salad) to promote absorption of fat soluble vitamins. Without some form of fat, these vitamins go right down the toilet!

Smoothies that taste like Fro-Yo:

^Vanilla whey protein, fresh strawberries, ice, cold H20, stevia, pinch xanthan gum (to thicken)

^Pre-made smoothies. Naked’s new smoothies made with coconut water have 1/3 less calories. Coconut water is very good in the summer as it supplies electrolytes and more potassium than a banana!

Salads galore!

^Spiralized raw zucchini topped with diced tofu, cherry tomatoes, carrots, sea-salted peanuts, Trader Joe’s Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette, and red pepper flakes. This is a PERSONAL FAV!

And of course, staying cool by the pool!

Save the heat for nighttime…

^4th of July bonfire in Cape Cod

Have a wonderful weekend!

QUESTIONS:

1. What food(s) do you reach for in the summer?

2. What’s your favorite Green Monster?

XX

>Go green AND lean!

>Hiii lovelies,

HAPPY SUNDAY! Hope your weekend was delightful 🙂

This morning I woke after TWELVE hours of sleep (!) and ventured to the gym for a spinning class since it’s SO HOT AND HUMID here in DC. I can’t understand how so many people run when it’s 85+ degrees in the beaming sun. Props to you if you can do this but me, I’d rather wait til the sun sets 🙂

Pre-gym I fueled with a delish GREEN MONSTER!

^Vanilla whey, frozen berries, 2 handfuls spinach, H20, stevia, 1/2 frozen nanner

And enjoyed it on our lovely new deck 🙂

So this morning I WENT GREED AND BURNED MAJOR CALORIES at the same time. How did I do this?

My gym recently renovated it’s spinning room and converted all spinning bikes to ones that HAVE GENERATORS attached. The longer/harder you spin, the more ENERGY GENERATED FOR THE GYM.

Here’s a pic of the bike. You can see the generator on the bottom right-side of the bike:

How cool!!!!!

After class, I stopped at Sbucks for an iced coffee (+ soy) and made this yummy egg concoction:

^Scrambled egg whites + spinach. Topped with Nutritional Yeast and hot sauce.

And not just any hot sauce….

^I’m OBSESSED with this stuff! Have you tried it???

Well I’m off to shop a bit with my sister then possibly hit the pool since it’s soooo HAAAWWWWTTT out!

HAVE A GREAT REST OF YOUR DAY!!!!!

Q: What was the best part of your weekend?? Mine was happy hour on the Waterfront on Friday. Nothing like a delish skinny margarita in the sun 🙂

Q2: Who’s watching Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami tonight?????

source

>Welcome backkkkk

>Hi everyone!!!! I’M ALIVEEEEEE!!!!!!! My life has been NUTS lately! I haven’t been this busy since undergrad when I was doing research, finishing finals, applying to grad school and tryyyying to have somewhat of a social life.

Here is a taste of what I’ve been up to…

Planning AND executing a Bachlorette party for my bestestest friend Brandy in Boston…

^haha, nice face!

Attending a 9hr/day (beginning at 8am) nursing technician course (4 weeks total):

^Our SUPER CREEPY dummy from class, Lol

For the PA programs I’m applying to, most require a minimum of 1,000 hours of direct patient care – which I DON’T have. I thought of getting a clinical research position (ex: administering MRI’s to study patients with brain trauma), which I could easily get from my research background but that really wouldn’t give me GOOD patient care experience. I think having a background (I’ll be a nursing tech until next May) in nursing care will make me a much better physician assistant down the road.

Attending Brandy’s wedding in GORGEOUS York, Maine:

^Rehearsal Dinner

Moving to a new apartment. Same neighborhood, upgraded the pad. And some SERIOUS UNPACKING TO DO:

And spending Memorial Day weekend with the fam in New Hampshire:

^hahaha…found this pic the other day and thought it was appropriate. It’s from a dance recital when me and my sister were 6 and 4 years old!

And now, what I’m LOOKING FORWARD to…

Eating BETTER! Being on the run has made me consume less of these:

^Salad monsters from Whole Foods

^Fruit/veggie smoothies

And (a little) less of these:

^But side note: SO GOOD! MickyD’s has a new Reese’s pieces McFlurry! Yeeee-UM!

And DEF more of these:

^REDIC sweaty workouts

And a little more R&R!!!

Alright kids, I have some studying to do. Have a great week!!!!! GLAD TO BE BACK 🙂

Lauren

QUESTION (!): I want a new mission statement for this blog (as I left my PhD program) – Can ya help me out?!

>Everybodys workin for the weekend

>Hiii loves,

How art thou? Hope your having a dandy Friday afternoon. My morning started early…was in Scienceland before 8am! Nuts, I know. It’s a pretty lax day in the lab, I have two experiments running so not too much craziness–which is nice. I always feel so frazzled rushing around like a crazy scientist on Friday. I try to be like that only Monday – Thursday 😉

Yesterday wasn’t one of my best days. I was home sick with a badddd migraine. I took some ibuprofen and made breakfast in an attempt to rid the monster:

^Microwaved egg puff: 1/4 cup egg whites, spinach, pepper, dash sea salt

Delish as it was — twas no help. If you are unfortunate like me to suffer from migraines you will sympathize with my need to sleep the day away. I HATE days like these. But at least this guy was around to cuddle:

Fortunately my migraine only lasted til about 4pm, so I was able to enjoy some of the day. I started with a Green Monster:

^Frozen strawberries, blueberries, nanner, spinach, 1 tsp flax seed oil, almond milk, stevia, dash sea salt

After digesting, I set out for a 7 mile walk/run. I’d say it was 30%/70%. I decided to go easy on myself considering the chance the migraine monster could creep back any second. I snapped some pics of cute-sy Georgetown:

^Pic doesn’t do justice

And my favorite path alongside the Potomac River:

Feeling MUCH better, I spent the rest of the night relaxing with some snacks:


^Strawberry banana smoothie : Frozen strawberries, frozen nanner, scoop vanilla SunWarrior protein, 1 tsp flax seed oil, stevia, h20

^Diced Honeycrisp apple w/ cinnamon + mesquite

^Baked sweet potatoes : EVOO, sea salt, pepper, organic ketchup

And watching REAL HOUSEWIVES (PS. Who else is pumped for NEW JERSEY to start next week???) and tasting a little vino the Manfriend brought home:

^Yum.yum.yum.yum ❤

This morning I woke staaaaavin’ and whipped up my fav chia/oats creation:
^Oats, chia seeds, 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein, 1/2 smashed nanner, raisins, cinnamon, stevia, dash sea salt and a blog of Cinnamon Raisin Swirl PB

[Insert 5 hours of experiments]

Grabbed lunch from Cosi:

^Was OK. Not the best salad but it’ll do: Spring mix, chicken, grapes, carrots, cucumbers, FF balsamic vinaigrette

[Insert 4 more hours of Experimentland + a few handfulls of trail mix]

And that leads me to the present. I’m about to run home (it’s supposed to rain all weekend so I gotta take advantage of the sun, yo) then meet the sis and some friends for MEXICAN and MARGARITAS!

Happy Friday!!! Have a great weekend!!!!

xx,

Laur

QUESTIONS:

Have you taken a BodyPump class? If so, how many times per week do you typically take the class?

and

What are you most looking froward to this weekend???

I leave you with a pic of Ryan I snapped at CVS today for y’all. Don’t get me wrong I’m TEAM REESE all the way….but the man is looking GOOD!

>Kiss me, I’m Swedish (and Portuguese!)

>Seems everyone is a little Irish on St. Patty’s day 😉

This morning I woke early (for once!) and headed out for a 5-mile run as the sun was coming up….

Perdyy but muddy…

Ravishing after the run, I made a Green Monster in the spirit of St. Patty’s Day:

^1 small frozen nanner, ~1/2 cup frozen raspberries, 1 scoop Sun Warrior Vanilla Protein, 2 tsp Sun Warrior Greens (see below), 1 tsp flax seed oil, 1 cup spinach…Crazy how good this tastes!

New greens:

^LOVE em!

And here’s some workout motivation for the day:

^Saw these two ladies trail running the morning! Did you know there’s a 70+ age category in the Boston Marathon???

Have a great day!

QUESTION: Any St. Patty’s plans??? And do you use Twitter??? I do 🙂 Add me and let’s chat

xx, Laur

>Sushi, shopping woes, and Marathon 2010!

>Hiiiii,

How are yaa? I’m doing swellll. My legs are starting to feel more like legs (and less like bricks) after Sunday’s 15-mile run. I’m hoping to get in one more 7-mi training run before heading to Quebec on Wednesday for a wedding!

Usually I have my outfit picked out weeeeks before but this time shopping kinda slipped ma mind. Last night Kels (sistah) and I had sushi then hit up the mall to find a dress. The shopping (but not sushi) was completely unsuccessful. At least we had a good meal, right??

I had miso soup:

Edamame:

Salmon sashimi:

And split this aaaaaa-mazing “Cherry Blossom Roll” with Kels:

^Salmon, yellow tail, tuna, avocado, seaweed salad a cherry on top!

Side note: If you are planning to visit DC in the near future, come during the Cherry Blossoms! It’s absolutely gorgeous!

So back to shopping, we didn’t have much time so I just checked the two closest stores, Nordstroms and Macy’s. I found nadda! I’m not a frequent Macy’s shopper but I figured they might have some dresses. Baah, was I dead wrong.

Soooo, that leaves tonight to find a dress before we leave on Wednesday. Where should I look??? I’m thinking BCBG, J Crew, and Anthropologie. Any other suggestions????

This morning I woke up late (9am, whoops) and cured my rumbling stomach with a bowl of this heaven:

^1/3 cup oats, 3 tbsp egg whites, 1 tbsp cinnamon, agave, raisins, dash sea salt, blob Cinnamon Swirl PB

Again, this stuff is AHH-MAZING:

Buy. some. immediately.

A few hours later I was staaaaavin again, so I whipped up a Green Monster:

^1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein, 1/2 cup FF Greek yogurt, nanner, 1/2 cup frozen spinach, 1/4 cup mixed berries, 1 tsp flax oil, H20, stevia.

Alright, back to scienceland. Have a great day!

QUESTIONS: Where should I buy a dress??? Are you planning to run a marathon someday?

xox

Lauren

Oh and PS, I am OFFICIALLY REGISTERED for a MAY 2ND MARATHON!!!!!

>Will run for wine

>Hellooooo,

How was your weekend??? I had the laaaaaziest yet most productive weekend everrrrr…..Lazy as in I slept til at least til 1pm each day the watched tons of TV. And productive as in I went grocery shopping, lab each day, did a good core workout, and ran a 15-miler today! Wooooop.

Here are some eats from the weekend:

^Diced honey crisp apple, diced nanner, Kashi go lean, coconut Kefir, cinnamon, stevia

LOVE this new find:

^Any other recipe suggestions for this???

Green monster:

^My recipe is featured on the Green Monster website!

Tuna salad:

^Tuna, 2 tbsp. red-fat mayo (made w/ EVOO), diced yellow onion, diced celery, diced pickles, dill, parsley, pepper, dash sea salt.

Margarita pizza:

^Could have done with 9/10 less cheese. But still dece.

Shriaz (Peter Lehmann):

^Soooooo good. And affordable!

Organic “Oreos”:

^How is that even possible???? Lol.

Fiiiiinally tried this gem:

WOW.

It paired nicely with this guy:

^Cinn Raisin swirl PB + nanner

And tonight’s dinnah (best eats all weekend):

^Baked then broiled sweet potato topped with 1/2 cup Amy’s Low-fat Black bean chili, diced avocado, salsa, and dollop FF Greek Yogurt. I am making this again ASAP. Such a great post-run dish!

Speaking of run, it was soooooo nice today (even ran in ma tank top!) the entire city of DC seemed to be exercising…either running or rollerblading, cycling, walking, boating, etc! And of course I have some pics from my 15-miler 😉

Active peeps:

^Not sure what this is called but it looks neat!

^Flag football, kickball, soft ball games everywhere

^Beach volleyball. Seeeee Seth, just like LA! ha

Aaaaaand some scenic pics….

Watergate:

Georgetown waterfront:

View from Arlington, VA looking at Lincoln/Washington Monument:

And my shirt of choice:

^I think it sums me up pretty well, don’t ya think???

Well I’m off, considering its past 8pm and I’m still in lab…I better head home.

QUESTIONS:

1. Does living in an active city make you more active??

2. What should I do with my new coconut kefir?

3. What are some food ‘gems’ you wanna share with me??? 😉

Have a great night!!!!

xx

Lauren