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Free Week of Yoga During National Yoga Month

September 1, 2009 by

Hey there. I’ve had such a long day. It seemed like it was never going to end. It doesn’t help that it was 72 degrees and sunny outside and I wasn’t able to get out for lunch. I kept hearing people say how gorgeous it was outside, so I decided to leave work earlier than planned.

Seeing as September is National Yoga Month, I headed to an outdoor mall near my house to check out the new yoga and running lines at Lucy and the Gap.

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Me, in my most comfortable yoga pose and clothes!

Lucy had a bunch of brand new yoga and running gear – in fact they were just putting out some cool new t-shirts when I arrived. Lucy gear at full price is way too expensive for my budget so I have to wait for things to go on sale – I’m sure more than one of you can relate. On the other hand, the Gap had hardly anything on display, except for yoga pants, which was a big disappointment. Maybe I just need to go to their new affiliate store Athleta to fill my yoga and running gear needs.

On another note, both Lucy and Athleta have online communities that you can participate in by adding comments to a blog or attending events, etc. Way cool!

And, if you’re interested in trying yoga during National Yoga Month, check out Yogamonth.org. They have a promotion running right now where you can attend a free week of yoga classes in September at a studio near your house. You just fill out the form and it brings up all of the participating studios near your zip code.

Well, after my short and fruitless shopping excursion, I picked up dinner at Noodles cafe and headed home.

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I had a cup of tomato basil soup to which I added a bunch of fresh crumbled feta cheese. I’ve never had Noodle’s tomato basil soup before but I could have sworn this looked, smelled, and even tasted like tomato sauce and NOT tomato basil soup. I’m almost wondering if they gave me a scoop of their marinara sauce and not the soup! It was ok enough to eat though, but not what I expected. I also made a little homemade hummus bread…

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I took two very small pieces of leftover ciabatta bread and spread about 2 tbsp of red pepper hummus on top, then sprinkled the bread with fresh crumbled feta. The hummus bread was great alone and also for dipping in the soup!

There were too many rice krispy treats left from last night’s dessert, so I thought I’d have a couple more to help us get rid of them faster – he he!

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I even added a dollop of MaraNatha all-natural creamy peanut butter to give my krispy a little protein and MUFA kick. The only thing that would have made this simple dessert better is melted chocolate. Hmmm….maybe tomorrow!

I’m off to do a little magazine reading and then, hopefully, hitting the sack early tonight.

Take care everyone and see you in the AM!

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A Childhood Favorite

August 31, 2009 by

Evening everyone. I had a super productive afternoon at work reviewing a bunch of health and medical studies that will be coming out next week. I also edited a few product videos that will be released in the next month or so. See – you can accomplish quite a bit on a Monday – even without Starbucks!

Late this afternoon, i snacked on some yogurt that I brought from home…

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I had Trader Joe’s nonfat Greek yogurt, blueberry flavor. I swear this yogurt tastes like blueberry muffin batter – no joke!

I didn’t get home from work until nearly 6:15 PM (again – ugh!). Even though I was pressed for time, I was able to make the fastest turkey tacos ever. They were on the table, ready to eat by 6:45 PM. Snappy, snappy!

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They were also really tasty. My taco consisted of a bunch of chopped roma tomatoes; at least a cup of red leaf lettuce; Tillamook Vermont white cheddar cheese; taco meat made with ground turkey, yellow and green bell peppers, onions, and taco spices; and a big dollop of Wholly Guacamole – all on a whole wheat soft tortilla – so YUM!

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For dessert, I made a childhood favorite, Rice Krispy Treats..

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I like to make them using about 3/4 of the butter that it calls for in order to cut down on some of the unneeded fat. I also added a few red and blue sprinkles to this batch just to give the krispies some color and add a little fun!

Now, I’m headed to bed…need to be up by 6 AM for my very cold run – it’s supposed to be 45 degrees tomorrow morning. There may even be a frost…I can’t believe it will only be September 1!

Also stay tuned tomorrow as I start my own daily shot of wellness with Zola juice shots. 

Have a great night everyone.

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A Panini Novice Makes Good

August 30, 2009 by

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the late post, but I’ve been gone for most of the day. I went to see my brother-in-law compete in the Chicago triathlon, which was awesome! But, I’ll get to that in a minute. 

Before we headed to the city, I did my typical long Sunday run of 6 miles. It was perfect weather for running – really cool and no wind. After my run, I chowed on a protein-packed breakfast because I didn’t know when we would be eating lunch…

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I had a container of Trader Joe’s vanilla Greek yogurt mixed with blueberries, walnuts, and a big dollop of MaraNatha all-natural creamy peanut butter. I wasn’t sure how the pb would taste with blueberries but it was fantastic!

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So creamy and yummy – like peanut butter fluff! I also had a little more of my Zola Energy smoothie…

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After breakfast, we headed downtown for the event. Traffic was really light going downtown and thankfully, parking was a breeze. We met up with my in-laws and my sister-in-law and her three children near the finish line.

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Isn’t this an awesome photo! I am definitely not the triathlete type – I can swim to save my life, but that’s even debatable. But, I saw the finish line and all of the spectators and it so made me want to run a marathon. We only waited about 30 minutes before my brother-in-law came into view. And, while he was running his last 100 yards,  his youngest son ran on the course with him and they jogged hand in hand over the finish line – so cute!

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This is the triathlete’s medal of honor – how cool is that!

After the race, we all chatted for a bit while the kids ran around. I started to get hungry so I munched on a Luna bar I had stashed in my purse.

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This is my first ever LUNA bar and it was pretty tasty, although it had a slight aftertaste.

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I had the peanut butter flavored bar which had 180 calories, 3 g of fiber, and 9 g. of protein. I’m sure this bar would make a great post-run or post-workout snack.

As it turned out, it took over an hour before we actually sat down for lunch at an outdoor cafe in Millenium Park. By this time, I was so hungry that I could have eaten fish – ok, not that hungry.

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I did split a chicken sandwich with my father-in-law. It was good, but not worth the $12 we paid for it. After lunch, we all said our goodbyes and we headed back home. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get home (way longer than it should have) so we stopped at Barnes and Noble for a Starbucks refresher. I had my typical Frap and enjoyed every sip (sorry, no photo!)

For dinner, we decided to use the panini maker that we borrowed from my in-laws. I made a Greek-style panini…

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This was my first time making a panini – a panini novice of sorts – so I was not sure how it was going to turn out. I made my panini with red pepper hummus, sauteed red and green bell peppers, spinach, hot peppers, and feta cheese. I topped it with a homemade cucumber-yogurt sauce. It was absolutely outstanding! I actually made the sandwich for Mezzetta’s sandwich contest, so I don’t want to give the recipe away just yet! But you may find it on my other blog – Bistro Chic – pretty soon!

Now, I really need to get to bed. All of this fresh air has made me exhausted. Have a great night everyone!

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Good Luck Chicago Triathletes!

August 29, 2009 by

Hello All. I just arrived home about an hour ago from a very busy afternoon and evening. I’ll try to make this brief because I have an early day tomorrow – you’ll see why at the end – he he!

After breakfast, my husband and I headed out to run errands, go to Target, etc. Then we stopped for lunch at a Chicago favorite – Portillos! I do not eat fast food very often, in fact very rarely. But, I do love Portillos. I usually get an all-beef, Chicago style hot dog, but today I went the semi-healthy route…

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I had a gourmet garden salad with mixed greens, green peppers, carrots, grape tomatoes, and cubed cheddar cheese, topped with raspberry vinaigrette. It wasn’t the best salad that I’ve had, but I needed something healthy to balance the other thing that I ate…

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Yummy crinkle-cut French fries! I try to avoid eating French fries for the most part, because when I eat them, I just can’t seem to stop. And, Portillos fries are some of the best I’ve had – thank goodness they are not bottomless like Red Robin!

After lunch, we headed home to do a little work. My husband did paperwork for his consulting business and I did research for work and answered a few emails. I then became so sleepy that I dozed off for about 30 minutes. It was a perfect cat-nap to keep me going for the rest of the day.

Around 5 PM, we headed to a local fair/car show near our house. It was located on the grounds of a school and they were raising money for charity. I am not a car person, whether the car is old or new. But, the fair also had many local vendors displaying their products/crafts, which were fun to browse. 

Dinner was a quick one at TGI Fridays. When my husband and I first moved into our house, we went to Fridays nearly every week. I have no idea why we were such loyal patrons other than, at the time, there were very few good restaurants in the area. After doing that for a couple months, I became burned out on Friday’s and never wanted to go there after that.

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Tonight, we did a double split – splitting both the appetizer and the entree. We started with one of our old favorites – the Tuscan spinach dip. It was really good and tasted just like I remember. Next, we split the parmesan-crusted chicken with 3-cheese tortellini and a side of caprese salad.

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I had so much spinach dip that I seriously could have not eaten a bite of the entree and been fine. However, I did end up eating about 1/4 of the chicken, 1 bite of the tortellini, and scoop of the caprese salad. The meal was good but I will probably not be heading back to the restaurant anytime soon. There are too many other restaurants to choose from to rely on Fridays for my meal.

After dinner, we headed to Trader Joe’s to pick up a few staples, like feta cheese, yogurt, and whole almonds. I was so surprised to see how busy the store was and it was after 8 PM! 

Well, I am now off to bed. I know, 10:15 PM is so early for Saturday, but my husband and I are headed to downtown Chicago tomorrow to watch the annual triathlon! I’m so excited because it’s the first triathlon I have ever seen in person. My brother-in-law is racing in it and he starts around 8 AM. I don’t plan on getting down there that early, but we want to see at least one transition and see him cross the finish line. I can’t wait to cheer on all of the athletes. I remember running in the 1/2 marathon and feeling so appreciative of all the people who came out to cheer for us.

Because Sunday is my run day, I need to get up extra early (like 6 AM) in order to be done with my run and ready to leave for the event by 8 AM. We’re driving down there and parking somewhere near the finish line, which is probably a mistake because it’s going to be a madhouse down there. Oh well, I’ll keep my fingers crossed!

Good night!

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Thanksgiving in August

August 28, 2009 by

Evening everyone. Because it has been raining for most of the day, I didn’t feel at all guilty about deciding to stay home all afternoon. I had a great afternoon catching up on emails and on reading. However, I did make a special trip to the market to prepare for our “Thanksgiving in August” dinner. Confused? Let me explain…

For the last few weeks, my husband has been going on and on about wanting turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. He gets like this around this time every year – where he craves Thanksgiving dinner in the summer. Well, Thanksgiving is over 3 months away, but I thought I’d humor him…

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For dinner, I went to Fresh Market, a gourmet market near our house, and bought a white wine and herb rotisserie chicken. I paired the fresh white meat chicken with mashed red potatoes and super sweet carrots. I also made a little homemade chicken gravy on the side.

Everything tasted fantastic but the mashed potatoes were especially good. After I boiled them, I added a little butter, a little skim milk, and a bunch of chicken broth to make them really creamy – soo goood!

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My husband, of course, loved the meal, and even offered to make dessert – double chocolate Ghirardelli brownies.

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He also added some walnuts for extra MUFA. These are by far our favorite brownies because they are so full of chocolate. I’ve tried several times to make brownies from scratch, and they either turn out really dry or really mushy. If anyone has a great recipe for brownies, I’d love to get it!

Ok, I’m off to bed now. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow, that all begins with yoga at 8 AM!

Night all!

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Catching up on some reading…

August 27, 2009 by

Hey there! Boy, do I have a lot of reading to catch up on. This week, I not only received the Full Plate Diet to review, but I also received two of my favorite fitness magazines – Shape and Fitness. And, you all know how I love my magazines!

Magazines

For today’s breakfast, I had a big bowl of Cheerios Multigrain topped with 1/2 cup blueberries and 2 tbsp walnuts. But, when I went to go pour in my skim milk, I realized that the milk was 6 days past the expiration date – ugh!

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If there’s one thing I hate, it is smelling and tasting sour milk (although I love buttermilk – so I that’s odd). I smelled the milk and it didn’t smell bad but it didn’t smell fresh either. So, not wanting to take any chances, I dumped out the cereal and started over. What a waste of a good bowl of cereal.

Once again, I arrived to work on time at 8:30 AM. This start time is my personal goal and not mandatory due to our awesome flex time option. As Fridays are my day off from work, Thursdays are always jam packed with things to do before the weekend. And, today was no different. I had so many things to do today – review medical studies (because that’s what I do for a living) and also work on a staff training program that I, along with 6 other people, will be implementing in the next few weeks. Luckily, I was able to take a quick break for a snack that I had stashed in my drawer…

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A Nature Valley Oats and Honey granola bar – mildly sweet and tons of crunch!

I didn’t end up eating lunch until after 1:30 PM, because I seriously was not even hungry and I was really engrossed in what I was doing. I made myself leave the building – even though it was raining – to get something to eat.

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I had a simple, but filling bowl of minestrone soup that I picked up from a little Italian cafe near the office. Can you tell I love parmesan cheese? I also had a big diet coke – mainly for the caffeine.

Lunch kept me going through the end of the day which was 5:30 PM for me. But, due to rain and the traffic, I didn’t get home until 6:30 PM. So, I made a quick, healthy meal for dinner….

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It was a sample platter of sorts. I had a grilled Polish sausage, about 1 oz of Tillamook Vermont white cheddar cheese, black grapes from Costco (I didn’t even know there was such a thing as black grapes), grape tomatoes, and a 1/2 of a nectarine.

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These tapas-like dinners are great when you don’t want to make a big meal or you don’t have enough food to make a big meal – ha! Tapas also remind me of Barcelona where my husband and I practically lived on tapas.

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Now, I’m so tired I need to get to bed, but not before reading a few pages!

Take care everyone and see you in the AM.

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New Diet Book in the Mail!

August 26, 2009 by

Hey All! Hope you had a great afternoon. I’m winding down for the evening, as I’m sure many of you are. Tonight, I had planned to read through the new book I received in the mail – The Full Plate Diet (January 2010), but am just too tired to read anything that I need to pay attention to. And, with all new health, fitness, or nutrition books – I want to give this my full attention.

Full Plate Diet

From my very brief look at the book, the diet – which is more of an eating plan rather than a restrictive eating regimen – focuses on adding fiber to your meals throughout the day. The pictures and layout look awesome! But, I’m really interested to see what tips the authors give on how to add daily fiber without feeling too full or bloated (a problem many people have). I’ll keep you posted on that one! Also, be on the lookout for my review in the next week or so.

As for my afternoon, my schedule was packed with more meetings and other desk work. I did manage to snag a few birthday cookies as an afternoon treat….

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Hmm, they were so yummy, it was hard to stop at just two.

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Per usual when I’m eating sweets, I enjoyed the cookies with a spot of hot tea – this time it was Bigelow Chamomile tea.

I didn’t arrive home until after 6:30 PM today. My days just keep getting later and later. Pretty soon, I’ll be driving home in the dark – ugh! Because I arrived home so late, I didn’t feel like making a big dinner, so I warmed up leftovers from Monday night…

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I had my husband’s pasta sauce over Trader Joe’s whole wheat penne with a side of fresh green beans. Honestly, the sauce even tastes better after it’s been sitting around for a few days. So, having leftover pasta and sauce is always a welcome meal for us.

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It’s really easy to overeat when it comes to this sauce, but I tried very hard not to tonight. 

Now, I am headed to bed. Tomorrow is an early run as long as it’s not raining too hard – blah. I shouldn’t complain though because we need the rain.

See you in the AM!

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Running With Cake Welcomes Foodie BlogRoll!

August 25, 2009 by

Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a great evening. I want to say a special hello and welcome to all of my new, way cool foodie friends at Foodie BlogRoll! It’s so great to finally be a part of a community dedicated to food blogging. I’ve already had so many of you come to my site and I’m so thankful that you did!

If you’re still curious what Running With Cake is all about, check out my Q&A section, or read a few of my more popular blog posts, including:

Please feel free to leave a comment on my site – I’d love to hear from you!

As for my day, I’ve had this strange anxious feeling all day. We are just 8 weeks away from our huge meeting and I’m feeling so overwhelmed because I still have so much to do. It’s not much fun going to work these days when I’m so stressed. I need to find my calm, happy place – Om, Om….

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For lunch, I had a simple sandwich made with about 1 oz of low-fat salami, sliced ham, and piece of Swiss cheese, all on a slice of Brownberry Double Fiber bread. This bread has 6 g. of fiber in just one slice – that’s more than 20% of the recommended daily fiber for the average adult! I also threw in a few grape tomatoes on the side.

Later in the afternoon, I was getting very tired and had that sinking feeling in my stomach that I get when I’m stressed. I needed to get out of the office for a bit, so I headed to Barnes and Noble for a quick browse of the latest magazines. And, I also picked up one of these babies on my way out the door…

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Ahh, just what I needed to keep me awake all afternoon.

I didn’t get home from work until almost 6:30 PM and really didn’t feel like making a big dinner. My husband was working late, so I just made a simple homemade turkey-veggie burger…

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First, I sauteed a bunch of veggies – like carrots, yellow peppers, onions, and grape tomatoes. Then, I mixed all of the veggies with about a 1/2 pound of lean ground turkey meat and added salt, fresh ground pepper, and garlic and onion powder. From this mixture, I was able to make 4 nice size turkey patties and froze 3 of them.

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Here is the finished, and cooked, product – so yummy!

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Because I really wasn’t planning on having a burger tonight, I didn’t have any real burger buns in the house. But, I made due with another slice of the Double Fiber bread.

Now, I am so zonked that I need to call it a night. Tomorrow is my off day for running, so I feel like I should either take advantage of the free morning and sleep in, or get up just as early and get to work before 8 AM. Stay tuned to see how that one turns out!

Night everyone…

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The Secret is in the Sauce

August 24, 2009 by

Hello All! Hope you had a great day. My whole day flew by today, probably because I was super focused and productive. 

Unfortunately, I was not able to get out for lunch so I just ended up eating at my desk – blah!

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But, at least I had something good to eat – homemade chili with beans, grape tomatoes, and spinach! It was just enough to push me through to the late afternoon. But, around 4 PM, I started to get a little hungry so I grabbed a quick and healthy snack…

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An Oikos Greek yogurt – vanilla flavor with a 1/2 Nature Valley All-Natural Oats and Honey granola bar mixed in. The granola bar was kind of an impromptu snack – there were a bunch of granola bars leftover from a meeting and I was able to snag a couple before they were all gone!

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I didn’t end up leaving work until after 5:30 PM because I really wanted to finish the project I was working on. I never ended up finishing it, but I came pretty close.

By the time I arrived home, it was after 6 PM. To my surprise, my husband had spent most of the day making his famous homemade pasta sauce. I swore that I would not disclose the recipe, but let’s just say it’s made with a whole lot of tomatoes, ground turkey, and a bunch of other fresh ingredients.

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The recipe has been handed down over three generations and really hasn’t changed much in the process. But one thing is for sure, the art of making the sauce takes quite a bit of time so my husband literally quadruples the recipe, which makes 12 quarts. Luckily, we have an extra huge sauce pot to fit it all in!

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The sauce can be used for a number of different dishes, including baked ziti, lasagna, meatball sandwiches, or just plain pasta and sauce. Tonight, we had the sauce over Trader Joe’s whole wheat rotini noodles with a side of steamed carrots. Totally yum!

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We always end up freezing at least 10 containers (thankfully we have two freezers!). It makes for a tasty and quick midweek dinner, and can easily be beefed up with a salad or other veggies on the side. And, if we ration out the sauce just right, all of these leftovers may last us until Christmas! 

After dinner, I had to run a bunch of errands. I was able to get to the library, Costco for gas, and 3 other stores all in 1 hour – and I was even driving the speed limit! My last stop was Barnes and Noble to pick up a cookie at the request of my chef-of-a-husband. I did have a about 1/4 of the giant chocolate chunk cookie with some skim milk (not pictured) and it made for a nice bedtime treat.

Now, it’s off to bed for me. As a reminder, check out RWC on alltop, I am now listed! Yeah!

Night everyone!

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You Can Mango My Salsa Anytime!

August 23, 2009 by

Hello Everyone! I am back from my nephew’s birthday party and am totally exhausted! It’s amazing how little kids can wear you out, especially when they’re all jacked up on sugar!

The guest of honor, my nephew, chose his special birthday dinner. And what else could a 4-year old want for dinner  but PIZZA….

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There were several kinds of pizza to choose from – pepperoni, sausage, and plain cheese. I had 3 small slices of cheese pizza and a scoop of fruit salad to balance the cheesy, greasy pizza. I also munched on quite a bit of homemade mango-pepper salsa, courtesy of my mother-in-law, which was fantastic…

8.23 mango salsa

Hmmm…sooo goood! Whoever thought to replace tomatoes with mangoes in salsa was a genius! The flavors of mango, peppers, onions, and cilantro are amazing and the dish itself is super versatile, going well on a tortilla chip or used as a sauce over fish or chicken. 

We ended our birthday celebration with Spiderman-themed cupcakes. I don’t think I’ve had cupcakes with red and blue frosting in ages…

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It was hysterical to see all of the kids eating these brightly frosted cakes. By the end, they all looked like a cross between a smurf and a clown! Too cute!

Now, I really need to head to bed, considering tomorrow is my early run day and, of course, I’m off to work right after that!

Have a great night everyone!

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