As the Week Comes to an End
I can finally say Happy First Day of Fall!
Let’s look at what happened this week, shall we?
Number of posts written: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and now 6! Must have been motivated this week!
Miles ran: 13. Plus 11 tomorrow morning…gulp.
Days off from work: 3. That’s not going to work for me come rent-paying time.
Cups of tea drank: Too many to count. Helloooo, vanilla rooibos.
Number of times I’ve made these pancakes: 3. I have an fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell pancakes.
Please ignore that Pacman pancake — I got hungry.
Rooms that I’ve deep-cleaned this week: My kitchen and bathroom (the hardest two!). And I even re-organized my kitchen pantry. That’s what 3 days off from work will do to you.
Best recipes of the week: Don’t make me choose.
These sandwiches rocked.
But so did these enchiladas.
And this chili (minus the chicken :P)
And these potatoes.
And this zucchini bread.
What’s even better than homemade zucchini bread?
Homemade zucchini bread and pumpkin spice steamers. And Jersey Shore an intelligent book.
I used this recipe for pumpkin spice syrup and mixed it with some warm vanilla almond milk. I cut wayyyy back on the sugar (from 1 1/2 cups to 1/4 cup) — vanilla almond milk is sweet enough already!
The magic of a pumpkin spice latte, without the espresso, so it’s perfect for late night sipping. You know, in case you want to be able to fall asleep. Or caffeine hates you.
Fall in a cup.
For less than $4 for a tall…
Number of remaining episodes left until I ditch Glee? 2. Enough with the dumb plot line. I get it, Sue hates the glee club. More singing please.
New fall shows I’ve watched (in hopes that they can replace Glee if need be): Up All Night, The New Girl and Free Agents. Verdict: Up All Night is hilarious!! The New Girl, unsure. Free Agents, no thanks!
Number of hot dogs Joey ate at the Rockies game: 2. And then the sandwich I packed him. Where does he put it??
And why the heck was he eating it like a piece of corn?
What I’m doing now: Hanging with this little girl.
We’re off to do some at home yoga!
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Pick a question and give me your answers!
Things I’m Looking Forward To
Fall officially begins tomorrow (note: did you know you don’t capitalize the names of seasons?), which means taking a look at all the things the season will bring.
Like running my half marathon.
Okay, if it wasn’t for Sunday’s awesome run, I would have said I’m feeling really burnt out with training. Mentally, at least. I hate waking up early for weekday runs and I hate going straight from a long run to work for 8 hours. And last week, I really hated bugs.
Signs of Training Burnout:
- You have long run irritability
- You have almost-end-of-the-run, just-want-it-to-be-over-already irritability
- You have short run irritability
**Note: After taking a week off from early runs and having the day of my long run off from work, I’m feeling a renewed sense of enjoyment for running 😛
But really, I’m excited for training (the hard part) to be over with and the race (the fun part) to be here.
Or maybe I’m just excited to go to Snooze again.
Pancake flight for the win!
Squash. Nuff said.
Pumpkin spice lattes.
Apples.
The pumpkin patch.
Carving those pumpkins.
Watching the leaves change.
Soup, stew, chili.
Continuing the search for a perfect pumpkin beer.
Which leads me to my next point.
Overdosing on pumpkin.
Okay, you get the point 😛
Note how football is not on the list. Try to convert me all you want, Joey, but it’s not going to work.
I also really want to go to a murder mystery dinner show!! Anyone care to join me?
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What are you most excited about this fall?
Have you ever been to a murder mystery dinner show?
WIAW: I Am the Carb Queen
Wasn’t the low-carb fad stupid?
Carbs provide you with energy. And allow your brain to function. And taste damn good.
As I was going through pictures of what I ate yesterday, I realized I’m a carb fiend. And damn proud.
Apparently my love of carbs also causes me to use the word “damn” a lot.
But enough talking, and more showing.
As always, a big thank you to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting our WIAW party 🙂
Pre-run fuel:
Unpictured banana half + a smear of peanut butter.
Yes, “a smear” is an exact measurement.
Breakfast:
Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Banana Bread Pancakes.
Aka, the fluffiest pancakes ever.
I saw Heather make these a few days ago, and knew they had to be mine.
And she was right, they are fantastically fluffy.
Dear lord.
Topped with chocolate hazelnut butter “sauce” (aka thinned with a bit of almond milk and microwaved for a few seconds) and peanuts.
Besides the fact that these were insanely fluffy, I think what made them so good was the fact that they involved brown sugar. My usual pancakes don’t have any sugar at all, so these had my taste buds dancing.
I halved the recipe, made 7 fluffy pancakes, ate 3.5 and saved the other half for later this week — score!
Tea on the side.
Decadently sweet pancakes + minty tea = perfection.
Lunch:
Assembled at my parents’. Because feeding yourself other people’s food is always more fun.
Whole Foods mac and cheese, grilled squash and homemade sweet potato fries.
If only it had been my mom’s homemade mac and cheese, too.
Afternoon snack:
Almonds and raisins.
Only this is a recycled picture and it was actually almonds, raisins, peanuts and chocolate chips. And I actually did take a picture, I’m just too lazy to go get my camera. <— Bad blogger.
Dinner:
Grilled eggplant subs with fontina and tomato jam.
Eaten at another horribly played Rockies game. It was the last game I’ll attend for the season and not a good note to end on.
Even though Tulo made a special guest appearance. And struck out…
Nighttime/post cold Rockies game snack:
Um no, I did not eat a whole loaf of zucchini bread. I don’t love carbs that much.
But I did have a slice. And some warm almond milk. Are you surprised?
Most of the time, I try to make my baked goods healthy, but I wanted real zucchini bread. With regular old flour, sugar and oil. So sue me.
I used this recipe from Brittney. Thanks, Brittney!
It’s moist, it’s dense but not overly so and it’s delicious. Just the way zucchini bread should be.
So I think I had the bases covered yesterday — pancakes, pasta, bread and… more bread. Go me!
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Are you a carb fiend as well?
What’s your favorite baked good?
Lauren Loves Good Food 