Nese Please????

I'm sure you've heard me say I don't eat Nese. You know - Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Lebanese. No Nese. It mainly started with the rumor that the Chinese eat dogs & I just can't seem to get past it. Then I had hibachi at Disney because the other 17 people in the group wanted it. I wasn't a fan. I don't find that it's seasoned at all. Anyway, this brings me to today's discovery. I can't even believe I'm going to admit this. Today for lunch I had a Chicken Shawarma salad.
SHOCKING I know!! What's more shocking?? It was soooo good! I bet you're wondering how this came about. One of the guys that works with me wanted to do something for me & my co-worker so he said he was bringing in lunch for us. I agreed to it because I wasn't going to say "Oh I don't like that bring something else". It's not bad in calories either. It's 403 calories & it was a HUGE salad. I didn't eat all of it. He got it at Albasha which according to a friend is the best of the best in Greek/Lebanese food in Baton Rouge. The hummus was delicious! Way better than anything you buy at the grocery store. I wonder if I can go buy like a pint of it to have for snacks??  I only ate a little bit of it & I had 1 pita.  Pretty healthy lunch I think. She also said that Greek & Lebanese is basically the same thing so maybe I can still claim not to eat Nese but say that I do eat Greek???  The only problem is I feel like I smell like a giant clove of garlic.  I guess I don't have to worry about vampires.

Yesterday's workout - 3.1 mi. run
Today's workout - Yoglates

Toodles!

Bored!

That would be me. Ever have those days when you have stuff to do but you don't want to do it? That's me too. sigh.

The weekend wasn't anything exciting either. The food was the most exciting part. It was a bad, bad eating weekend. When I say bad, I mean I ate really good. Seafood gumbo, a salad with the best ranch dressing ever & a shrimp po boy. Not the best shrimp po boy ever but a pretty good one. After dinner we went to the LSU game. It was chilly & there was a chance of rain but the weather people said it shouldn't cause any problems with the game. Well, you know what that means. Approximately 25 mins. into the game the rain started. Along with thunder & lightening. We went home.

Saturday we had lunch at Applebee's. We don't eat there often because it's not really convenient but it was so good. I had this club sandwich that was turkey, ham, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato & BBQ sauce & then it was grilled. O.M.G. Really really good. Throw in some Cadbury eggs & Dr Pepper & you've got a calorie count of epic proportions! Notice, there are no pictures of my food. I guess I was so hungry I completely forgot to take pics.

Sunday I spent the day at home with my mom. We got their income tax done & while fixing one computer related problem we came across another one. I'm no computer expert & it annoys & frustrates me. That would be where the Dr. Pepper came in. sigh.

I've noticed since I'm exercising so much I'm eating more so I'm trying to make good food choices. Obviously, I'm not always successful but I'm doing way better than I've ever done. I tried one of these last week.
It's one of those protein bars that everyone is crazy about. I figured it would taste weird & I wouldn't like it but y'all it was delicious!! Now these things aren't low in calories like I thought when I first heard of them. It's 250 calories but it's not a bunch of processed crap either. I don't like peanuts unless they're mixed in with other stuff. I bought this one because it was the only kind Walmart had. I'll try some of the others if I find them somewhere.

My workouts last week were much better than my eating last weekend.
Sunday - ran 3.1 mi.
Monday - Jillian's workout
Tuesday - Yoglates
Wednesday - ran 2.5 mi.
Thursday - Yoglates
Friday - Jillian
Saturday - REST

This weeks workouts so far:
Sunday - ran 3.5 mi. Longest run I've ever done!!
Monday - Jillian's workout
Tuesday - Yoglates

Not a bad start to the week!

Toodles!

Friday Love!

So so happy that it's almost the weekend. Just another hour. We have plans to go to LSU's baseball game tonight but the weather may have other plans. It's been sketchy. Whether the game is rained out or not will determine dinner plans. 

Speaking of food. I had lunch with my friend Wendy today. We went to Zoe's Kitchen. YUM! I love that place.

I've been on the hunt for some good mascara. I've tried lots & nothing has wowed me. UNTIL NOW!!!

I bought this set through drugstore.com. I got it because it's sample sizes of 3 different mascaras. It was about $13. I think sample sizes work better for me since you're supposed to change out your mascara frequently. I usually don't because I don't want to waste any. Anyway, the one I'm using now is "Curl & Lengthening". LOVE IT!!! It definitely works & I'll buy it again. I haven't tried any of the others yet.

Does anyone use this?

My MIL makes the best roast & this is what she uses to season it. We've started buying it & we put it on all sorts of stuff. I used it in my scrambled egg last night. I had breakfast for supper!! YUM!

I like soup but I like creamy soup which in turn means fattening soups. I found this a few weeks ago.

LOVE IT! The whole can goes in the microwave & it's a single serving & like 160 calories a can. It's really good. I tried creamy chicken this week & it was good too. It tasted a lot like chicken noodle soup but there were no noodles. I'm trying not to eat a ton of processed food but this is great to bring for lunch sometime. I drink a ton of water everyday so I'm not overly concerned about the salt.

Something else I'm loving these days.....

Yep, those are Velcro rollers! I used these back in the day & I'd forgotten how easy they were. So easy that you can roll your hair in the car & take them out when you get to your destination & your hair will look great. I know from experience. I was not the rollee, I was the driver of the car.  That's my public service announcement for the day! Anyway, I decided to try them one morning. Since I've been working out most days I also have to wash my hair on those days. No more 2 day hair. I'm trying to cut down on the stuff that damages hair since I'm washing more often. that's where the rollers come in. I've been using them everyday for about 2 weeks & I haven't touched the flat iron. The rollers give me plenty of volume which I love & they're not damaging my hair. It's a win win!

These are my most favorite candy every. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! As far as I know they're only sold around Easter. If you know differently please don't tell me. I need to keep this as a yearly treat! I bought a pack last week & I've been enjoying them some this week. I could eat several at a time. Seriously.

So what are y'all loving today??

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

Without a weigh in. I haven't been weighing on Wed. More like Fridays but a lot of the time I forget. The scale hasn't really been moving which is good & bad. Good that it's not moving up, bad that it's not moving down. I don't know if I've hit a plateau or if it's because I'm working out & the whole building muscle thing. I'm trying to not pay too much attention to it. I just want to be thin & toned up. That's not too much to ask right?? HA!

Cold Boudin, Hot Couscous, Come On Tigers, PUSH PUSH PUSH! What is that you ask? It's an LSU cheer. Don't ask, I have no clue. That is the extent of me knowing anything about couscous. I've seen a couple of things about it on some blogs I read so when I just happened to see it in the grocery store Sunday I bought some.
I got the one that had a Garlic & Basil seasoning pack in it. Of course that makes it more salty than what's healthy so next time I'll just buy plain & we can season it ourselves. Yep, I said next time. It was sooo good!! I really liked it. It reminds me a lot of the Quinoa. It's sooooo easy to make too. I mean, like really easy.

I know I've mentioned lately about all the rainy weather we've had & there have been some days that I couldn't run because of it. I decided that I needed an alternative for the rainy days.  That's where she comes into play.
I was pretty sure I was going to totally regret this. I don't watch Biggest Loser & all I know about Jillian is what I've read. I made a special trip to Walmart after doing some online research about which DVD to buy. I stood there for 20 mins. looking at all of them because I DID NOT want to buy Jillian. I bought Jillian. sigh.

I started the week with a run Sunday evening. I don't go to Yoglates on Monday's because I don't care for the teacher. I decided to test out Jillian. Supposedly, the video is 30 mins. It was more like 40 including the warm up & cool down. My friend Wendy said Jillian is notorious for lying about how long a workout is. I was expecting her to do a lot of yelling. I read a lot of reviews that said that. I didn't think she yelled. She has a deep voice so maybe to some people she was yelling at them but to me she wasn't. I didn't hate her. I didn't love her either though. The DVD was a great workout. I burned a ton of calories, worked up a sweat & wasn't able to do every rep. I definitely recommend it. I expected to be really sore Tuesday but surprisingly I wasn't. Then I started thinking the soreness would kick in today & I'd have a hard time running. Especially since I went to Yoglates yesterday. That didn't happen either. I'm chalking it up to the fact that some of the stuff in the video was stuff we do in Yoglates & maybe I'm actually in better shape than I thought???

I ran today but only 2.5 miles. I was slow, slow for some reason even though my legs felt good. That's ok I was running. Tomorrow is Yoglates & the rain is back on Friday so I'll either go to Yoglates or have a date with Jillian. We'll see.

If you're a runner this site has some hilarious shirts!!! One More Mile Running I especially love the one about "Rum" & the one about putting a pic on Facebook!!!

Toodles!

Ole`!!

It really is the strangest thing. I NEVER used to eat Mexican. All I liked were nachos & taco's & who needs to go to a Mexican joint for that? Not me. Yeh, well, it's rare that we go a weekend without going out for Mexican these days. It may be getting a tad ridiculous. Saturday, I was meeting Allison & Joni at Casa Maria for a little farewell lunch for Joni. Her & her family are moving to New Orleans.

Of course there has to be guac!!!

The queso was really good too!!! Somehow I managed to forget to take a pic of the nachos. Probably because I was too busy stuffing my face with them. They were soooo good. I'm not sure if you know it but nachos at a Mexican restaurant are some of the worst things you can eat. They're like 1000 calories. Seriously. Then the fact that I might have been putting queso on top of mine. Luckily, Joni & I split an order! Sometime yesterday afternoon it occurred to me that they didn't have jalapenos. I can't believe I didn't realize this. They were supposed to. I love jalapenos. I'm the person that carried on for years about the fact that Ole Miss didn't have peppers for the nachos. They didn't have Dr. Pepper either but that's a whole different story. Suffice it to say, Oxford, MS was never high on my list of places to visit.

Me, Joni & Allison. I haven't perfected the self portrait.

My hair is flat because the wind was blowing 250 mph. Slight exaggeration but it was blowing A LOT. I should have worn a hat. It would've saved a lot of time.

Sunday I went to a birthday party. It was for our Godchild Lane. He's 7 today. Happy Birthday Lane!!
This picture cracked me up because Lane was actually reading the card & the other kids too.
Dean & I keep the kiddos outfitted in the latest LSU stuff! You can't tell but this jersey is the pretty LSU purple. BTW, the birthday cake was delish!!!

Toodles!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been absent from the blog this week because frankly, there's not a thing going on. We're not Valentine's people so no fancy gifts & we don't like to wait for a table so we won't eat out. No biggie since we eat out so often anyway.

Last weekend when we went to Caliente I tried something that always seemed very weird to me.
Fish tacos! Is it just me or is that one of those things that just don't seem to go together? You know, like BBQ chicken on a pizza. Sorry, I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to try that. Anyway, back to the tacos. They were AMAZING!!!! The fish was Mahi Mahi & it came with grilled veggies & rice. I even got whole wheat tortilla's so it was a pretty healthy meal considering we were eating out. I even ate my grilled veggies. My only issue with the tacos is that they're so messy. I ended up eating them with a knife & fork. The meal came with 3 tacos. I ate 2 & brought the other one home along with some of the rice & veggies. It made for a delicious Sunday lunch.

Saturday we spent the afternoon at Dean's parents visiting. On the way home we went to Mass & then to do some shopping at Sam's. We actually only bought things we need this trip. That doesn't happen often.


Are y'all Valentine people?

TGIF!

Soooo, I cooked again!! Can you believe it? I can't. This time it was an entire meal. The majority of the time I cook (which isn't a lot) is a one pot deal. You know, a casserole or something in the crock pot. This time I cooked a meal. Are you impressed?? You should be! HA! I got the recipe from Karen's blog. It was easy & different so I tried it. It's called Ritz Chicken. Here's the recipe:

2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers smashed into pieces
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (Karen says this is optional but it's cheese so that's not optional to me!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the chicken breast horizontally so you have 4 thin breasts.  Melt the butter in a flat bowl & set aside. Take the sleeve of Ritz crackers & empty it into a ziploc bag. Crush the crackers. (Karen says use a mallet but I was a little nervous & didn't want my bag to bust & crumbs go everywhere so I used her other tip - a soup can! Just roll it over the crackers). Add the 1/2 cup of cheese into the bag of crackers. Pour the crushed cracker mixture into a pie plate. Dip the chicken in butter & then dip in the crackers. Place the chicken on a cookie sheet. Put a piece of aluminum foil on your cookie sheet & put the chicken on that. The clean up is much easier. Sprinkle the chicken with the remainder of the cracker mixture. Cover with foil & bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees & then 20 minutes at 375. The only think I did differently from Karen is I added seasoning to the chicken. We don't cook anything in my house without seasoning.  I did Quinoa to go with it & I added a bag of frozen seasoning blend (bell peppers, onions & celery) to it while it cooked & I opened a couple of cans of green beans.
Isn't it pretty?  I thought so. That chicken was really good & this is definitely something I'll do again since it's also pretty healthy. It reminded me a little of shake & bake but I liked this better. It was crispier & had a better flavor.

Thursday, me & a couple of co-workers had to work at a conference. We were there through lunch so before heading to the office we ate lunch (on the boss - hehe). We went to a local restaurant, Capital City Grill. We've eaten here several times but not lately. I had a salad & spicy Cajun pasta.
Penne pasta with shrimp & crawfish in a spicy alfredo-like sauce topped with parmesan cheese. It was delish! I even had enough left over to bring Dean to eat for supper last night. 

This weeks workouts:
Sunday - Rest
Monday - 3.1 mi. run
Tuesday - Yoglates
Wednesday - Rest (not intentional. It was supposed to be a run day but I needed to be at work early & it was raining when I got home)
Thursday - Yoglates - Can you say 90 Burpees & 90 Pushups?????
Friday - Yoglates - Only 80 Burpees & 80 Pushups today. It was a different teacher!
Tomorrow is a run day. I'm not sure if I'll do 3.1 or not. I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore from the last 2 days of Yoglates so I'll see how I feel.

The only plans we have for the weekend is to go to Dean's parents tomorrow & of course dinner out tonight. We are not partaking in any Mardi Gras festivities this year. I'm just not interested. Do y'all have any fun plans?

Toodles!

Cooking!

Everyone that visits here regularly knows I'm not a cook. There's no denying it. Well, last week I tried a baked ziti recipe  that turned out good & I also baked. I made some healthy apple cinnamon muffins. The recipe used almond meal instead of sugar & flour. They were just ok. I've been told healthy food doesn't last long & that was true with these muffins. They started getting black spots all over them after just a couple of days. They were just ok the first day, by the 2nd day I didn't like them. Oh well.

So, awhile back when I was reading Carol's blog she'd made banana bread that looked amazing. It didn't sound too hard. I did have to email her & ask a few questions. I think she understands now just how much I'm not a cook. She probably also has some sympathy for my mom & Dean who have to deal with all of my questions when I do attempt to cook.Click the link for the Banana bread recipe. I had some pecans in the freezer so I added those. Well, this is a perfect example of the things I do wrong when cooking.
Notice how those "pieces" of pecans look more like hunks & not pieces? That would be because I completely forgot too chop them & I just threw them in. You should've seen me attempting to chop them with the whisk in the batter. sigh. You'll also notice the bunt pan. That's not part of the recipe. Carol said it made a lot & I could use several loaf pans & a muffin tin. Well, after looking around I realized I only had one loaf pan & one muffin pan. I didn't want to have to wait for pans to cool & wash them & then use them again so I pulled out the bunt pan. It worked fine. The picture above is before I put it in the oven. I completely forgot to take a picture of it after it came out but it was very pretty.
I promise these weren't burnt but they didn't rise like they were supposed to. I have no idea why but they tasted really good. I froze the loaf. It wasn't as pretty because I had a sticking problem. I'll definitely make these again. It was really good. I've mentioned before that our oven cooks hot. What is the best way to handle that - turn the temp down & leave it in longer or leave the temp at what the recipe calls for & take it out sooner??

Friday night we went for our usual Friday night Mexican dinner at Caliente. Jose the bartender was working  so we were able to get our special blue margarita's!
Yum!!!

With the Super Bowl being in New Orleans there were all sorts of celebrities there. Very exciting. Some of the excitement even came to Baton Rouge. If you're a New England Patriots fan you may recognize this guy.
It's Rob Gronkowski. He plays for the Patriots. I didn't know who it was but I saw the picture on Twitter that he was on the bar at one of the local bars by LSU. The black thing on his arm is a cast or brace or something. He broke his arm recently. Not sure he should be drinking on a bar with a broke arm but whatevs!!! Apparently, "Gronk" as he's called, had a really good time in NOLA & BR.  I've heard several stories about how much fun he had.

We didn't do anything Saturday which was nice. I got in a really good nap. Dean fried shrimp & fish & I sat on the patio while he cooked.
The weather was fabulous & so was my wine. We're having unseasonably warm weather which is great in that I hate the cold but not so great in that mosquito's are everywhere & they're the size of small mice. Not good!

Sunday I did a little shopping. I was in the market for some capris for Yoglates & I wanted a new pair of tennis shoes. Not to run in, just to wear around. For my "in real life people" reading, yes you read that right. For the rest of you I'll explain. I've never been a tennis shoe wearer unless I was exercising or working in the yard. Well, I want some to wear around. I found these at Academy & fell in love!
When I saw them it was love at first sight. Then when I saw the price I almost passed out. $39.99!! REALLY??? SERIOUSLY?? NO WAY!!! YES WAY! There's a catch. Of course there was. I don't find stuff that cheap. If you're a ladies size 11 these are the shoes for you. Sadly, I'm a ladies size 9. Which is something else that's weird. I've worn an 8 or 8.5 my entire life. When I started running I had my feet measured & I became a 9-9.5. WEIRD! I didn't think it was a big deal that they didn't have my size. After all that's what the internet's for. Apparently, these are discontinued shoes. I found one other pair online in a size 5. I couldn't squeeze this foot in those if I wanted to. sigh. Needless to say the only ones I've found that I like as much as these are $115. Too much for shoes just to wear around & not run in & I can't get them to run because they don't fit my foot correctly for running. It's a real bummer!

Toodles!