Sorry to go missing for a couple of days.  Rest, study, errands, and repeat.  That has been my weekend thus far.  Averaging 5 hours of an sleep a night is starting to take its toll on my body, so I did a lot of relaxing yesterday.  Of course relaxing means I wake up the next morning full of anxiety about not studying.  Ah, vicious cycle.

Let me give you a little recap of my weekend eats and activities:

Friday’s lunch was a Flatout stuffed with leftover BBQ tofu.  One of the best wraps ever.  Little tip:  wrapping the bottom half of your wrap in foil keeps the thing together!  You can pick it up with one hand and eat.  Genius.

I managed to snack my way through this bar Friday while studying.  I also devoured a mini bag of popcorn.  Salty and sweet combination makes for optimal studying snackage.

For dinner I had a huge plate of fries.  Yep, fries for dinner.  It was a pretty perfect Friday night.  The hubby was gone golfing with guys from work, so I figured why not eat fries and relax.  I had one HUGE sweet potato left in the pantry which I transformed into a HUGE plate of fries.

Dessert was Cinnamon-Apple protein cake.  So delicious.  I love getting chunks of apple!

Saturday:

The  hubby and I ran 5 miles through River Oaks.  If you ever want to feel about what you have, run through that neighborhood. We rounded off our run with a 2 mile walk back to the car.  It was beautiful outside!  (Houstonian readers-anyone know the trail system in MP?  Where can I put in some miles?)

Saturday’s lunch was a GM and AB sandwich eaten at the pool with my books.  Classy.  I will just let you know, when you bring a stack of textbooks to the pool-people look at you funny!

Saturday’s snacking included some mini-turkey sandwiches.  I used Melba whole grain crackers, Laughing Cow, turkey, and some pickle.  These are tasty and fun to eat.  Other snackings included handfuls of almonds and a couple Hershey kisses (dang my husband for restocking the candy bowl!)

My dinner was a make-shirt burrito which got a little overdone on side.  Basically, I turned a pan on smoking hot while I stuffed a Flatout with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes (I am using Hunt’s canned tomatoes because the fresh ones are overpriced and taste bland right now), cheese, and cajun seasoning.  I rolled it up then stuck it on the really pan and pressed down with a spatula.  Clearly, I don’t have a panini  press or one of those cool all in one griddles.  (Cuisinart- I would gladly try one out for you!)

The hubby was feeling really snacky and I don’t like keeping snacks in the house while I sit at home studying, so we walked to the store and picked him up something.  We also came home with this guy, maybe girl.

Anything cheesecake is bound to catch my eye.

This bowl times 2.  Twenty minutes later, a million calories to burn, and a huge tummy ache.  Lesson learned…for today at least.

Sunday:

Had planned a long run today, but my stomach was still upset from the ice cream extravaganza last night and I am behind on studying.  I ate half a sandwich thin with AB and then did 3 miles of .25 sprint intervals.

Found this Cliff drink on clearance at the store last night and we picked up a couple to try.  It seemed okay after my run this morning-didn’t upset my tummy or anything.  It is hard to tell if it could refuel me after a long run though.  Probably worth the 70 cents though.

We ran by Target for a few things and they bagged our goods in the cute reusable tote.  Earth Day promotion maybe?  Either way, the bag is cute and I can never have enough grocery totes!

I finally replaced the coffee maker that I destroyed.  Well I shattered the pot portion into a million little pieces on the floor.  As you can see, this pot is stainless steel.  My hubby said this should be Karissa-proof!

I am already enjoying the first pot of coffee.  I will be going back for round 2 today.

How was your weekend?  Any great runs or workouts?

It appears some other bloggers share my gum addiction!  In honor of my addiction, here is the inside of my pack of gum.  Extra has added these little sayings to their packages, they make me laugh.

Back up to this morning…

I whipped out the french press and made some coffee.

Mhmm.  Doesn’t that look good?  This was actually some Spec’s coffee.  I have found I like it more than Central Markets and it is cheaper.  Latest flavor:  Vermont Maple Crunch.

Mid-morning snack was half a sandwich thin with Laughing Cow and strawberry jam.

Lunch was cereal, strawberries, bananas, protein powder, and Silk.

Also for lunch was half a toasted pita stuffed with strawberries and strawberry jam.  As you can tell I had some strawberries that needed to be used asap.  I also cut a couple of pieces from my hubby’s leftover donuts.

The afternoon involved studying, studying, and more studying.  I snacked on some Melba crackers, carrots, and grapes.

Dinner was a nice big salad with….you guessed it, strawberries.  On the side I had the other half a pita with Laughing Cow.

I haven’t mentioned it on the blog, but the last couple of weeks have been extra stressful because we have been car searching.  We moved to Houston with only one car.  This worked out fine because I walk to school and my hubby was riding a vanpool, so the car was there when I needed it.  The hubby was recently moved to another facility where he must drive.  (His commute is ridiculous-don’t get me started!)  Anyway, on top of studying we have been trying to find a second car.  Anyone that has ever shopped for a used car knows how stressful it can be, especially when are on an extremely tight budge like we are.  Anyway, we spent a lot of time this weekend dealing with it and another couple of hours this evening….and we found a car!  Woo-hoo!  We have put our deposit down, so lets hope everything goes smoothly.  I am so glad to be done looking, researching, and test driving.  It was a giant time suck on my studying!

I am going to attempt to stay up for at least 3 more hours of work, sleep for about 5, then get up and do my briefing for pre-trial.  I need an extra 6 hours or so today to get caught up!

How was your Monday?  Anything spectacular happen?

My hubby just found out that he got a raise today after his annual performance review!  It was like they knew we were about to drop all of our savings on a car!

Well, at least when you live in South East Texas.  Sunday was a warm one!    I will admit that after my run I didn’t spend much time outside.  Our apartment was disgusting, I had reading to do, and we had about 6 loads of laundry.

But, in honor of the warmth I made up a Summer Sunday kind of meal.  Hamburgers and fries.  Okay, Boca Burgers and baked sweet potato fries which are way better!

Summer Sunday Sweet Potato Fries

Serves 2-3 (or barely 2 in my household)

1 extra large Sweet potato or 2 mediums

Large ziploc

1 Tbsp olive oil

Seasoning of choice

Preheat oven to 425.  Cover a large cookie sheet in foil then spray with non-stick spray.

I cut an EXTRA large sweet potato into fry-like shapes.  I then dumped them all in a large ziploc bag, added 1 Tbsp olive oil, cinnamon, cumin, Morton seasoning salt, and pepper.  Shake, shake, shake.  Spread out evenly onto baking sheet.  Bake about 30 minutes or until reaches desired done-ness.  Turn fries every 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Now time for the burgers:

Oh yes, I really did put that many toppings on my Boca.  Amazingly I could still bite into it!

All together now with a pickle.  YUM!  Tastes like summer.  Now if only I had my friends and family gathered around a bonfire in the middle of a field or next to the lake.

Other Weekend News:

• On a stress snacking note, I snacked on 1 bag of 100 calorie popcorn (Yummy), 1 serving pita chips, and about a handful of jelly beans all day!  Much improvement from the rest of the week
• On Saturday night the hubby and I did an Around the World Circuit that I found over at NHerShoes.  Wow, we were sweaty!  This was really fun, so click here to see the circuit and click here to see a video.

Stuff I am Clicking on:

• Junk Food Addiction may be clue to Obesity:  This might explain why the more sugar I eat, the more sugar I want.

• Calorie Data to be Posted at Most Chains: I know everyone is up in arms about the health care, but posting calorie counts is good.  Hopefully it is a reality check for a lot of people.

Off to study.  Happy Monday!

So I fell asleep on the couch last night about 7pm, slept until 6 this morning, and woke up exhausted.  Looks like the joke is on me this morning.

I am also unprepared for class, therefore, might have to skip this class for the first time this semester!  Ahhh!  That is one of the things I hate about law school most.  You pretty much have to skip class if you are unprepared or you risk being drilled and pissing off your instructor.  Even though I am not 100% prepared for class, I would still get lots out of the class; however, the risk is usually too high.

Let me give you a quick recap of yesterday:

Started my Wednesday off with a GM, 30 mins on the elliptical, and 30 mins of strength training.  Not too shabby.

Lunch was indeed cereal.  1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios, Silk Light (Yum, I don’t taste a difference), banana, few almonds, tsp of AB.

On the side half a sandwich thin, toasted with AB and jelly.  Also, a few more almonds.  These cocoa roasted almonds are so addicting!

I then laid by the pool for an hour and read TX PreTrial.  Exciting…I know.

Dinner was homemade chicken nuggets!  Yes, I made these myself.  I am pretty impressed considering the oven and I don’t usually get along real well.

Flax crusted Chicken Nuggets

4 chicken breast, no skin

4 scoops Flax meal

Morton’s Seasoning

Kroger Zesty Blend-Garlic & Herb

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Thaw chicken breast.  I let them get softened a bit, but still icy. Cut chicken breasts  into desired nugget size.  (When they are still partially frozen it is SO much easier to cut).  Finish thawing.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

On paper plate, or small dish, mix together flax meal and desired seasoning.  See above for seasonings I used.  Take thawed nuggets and roll them into flax mixture until completely coated.

Line baking sheet with foil and spray heavily with non-stick spray.  Place coated nuggets on covered baking sheet.  Make sure nuggets do not touch each other.  Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Turn once after 20 minutes.  Adjust baking time if you want nuggets more or less crispy.

Enjoy!

I got my hands on a few nuggets before the hubby devoured the entire plate.  They were delicious!!!!

I will be back later today with a post on new goals for April and tips for surviving finals with your waistline in tact!

Until then…check out these links:

• Running?  Cheap.  Marathoning?  Not so Much. You may only need a pair of shoes to run, but racing is a whole other story.  I totally admit that my family chips in to pay for most of my racing.  We just couldn’t afford it on one income.
• Different Shoes for Different Feet. I will be the first to tell you that you NEED the right shoes!

To top off my 12 hour school day yesterday I came home to find a broken microwave!!!!!  How am I supposed to eat???????  I don’t have time to turn on the oven and we haven’t grocery shopped in 2 1/2 weeks.  Needless to say, I will be living off cereal until the microwave is fixed!

Good thing the hubby picked me up some milk!  We have never bought the Light version, so he decided to give it a try.  Since I will likely eat cereal for a meal today…I shall let you know!

My hubby also picked himself up this pizza for dinner last night.  Maybe he subconsciously knew our microwave was broke!

I threw a little bit of spinach on while he wasn’t looking!

I ate the last of my salad with 1/4th of leftover Boca burger.  Why did I put a 1/4th of a Boca Burger in the fridge?  I don’t even remember what I did with the other 3/4ths.  I also stole a piece of the hubby’s pizza.  I love CPK.  (He got them on sale for 3 bucks because there is no way I am paying 6 dollars for frozen pizza!)

In other news, I have come up with an AMAZING protein cake recipe!

Apple Cinnamon Protein Cake

3 Tbsp egg substitute (or egg whites)

1 Tbsp applesauce

1 scoop vanilla protein

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more if you are like me)

1/8th tsp/dash vanilla extract

Desired amount of finely diced apple (I used about 2 Tbsp)

Spray microwave safe dish with Pam.  (Obviously I did not do this in the photo above…oops)  Add wet ingredients–eggs, applesauce, vanilla.  Add in protein, cinnamon, and baking powder.  Use small whisk or fork to mix ingredients well.  Try to get rid of all lumps. Add diced apple to batter and microwave 2 minutes.  Adjust time for your microwave.

Anyone else think this has already been the longest week ever???

Isn’t that how it always seems to go?  Oh well.  This would be only about my second time drinking since the new year because of all my training, thus my tolerance has seriously gone down!  This girl will be chugging h2O today!!

Lunch was thrown together quickly so we could get to Purdue’s open practice session.  (I skipped classes yesterday and the hubby got out of work early).  This was some spring mix, topped with veggies, can of fat free tuna salad, and half a toasted sandwich thin.

This little can came in a set with crackers.  I already ate the crackers, so it worked well as a salad topper instead.

Yep, there is Duke v Purdue up on the Reliant sign.  Open practice was a lot of fun.  The players came and autographed and took pictures with all the kids we were sitting next too, so we took pictures and told them all goodluck.  Click here if you care to see a lot of pictures of the Purdue team!

After practice, the hubby and I decided to stroll down and use a gift card we had to Cyclone Anayas. We had really wanted to sit on the patio, but it was windy!

My favorite part about Mexican restaurants.    These chips were especially good, so thin and crispy!  Salsa had a nice kick, but I wish it was chunkier.  I like getting chunks of tomatoes on my chips.  Two of these bowls were demolished.

I ordered the Skinny Margarita .  It was the drink of the month.  It was made with tequila, lime juice, and agave.  It was surprisingly good and surprisingly strong.

My hubby ordered the large Perfect Margarita.  Twice.  I may or may not have drank half of his second margarita.  I cannot help that Patron goes down so easily.

I ordered the enchiladas with mushrooms and spinach.  I had about 4 bites of my rice and 1 enchilada.  I was already stuffed from eating an entire thing of chips.

Each of our meals came with the pretty bowl of black bean soup.  I did manage to eat about 1/4th of this.  I love black beans!

The hubby ordered enchiladas too, I don’t remember what kind now.  I ended up stealing one of his avocado slices and all his diced tomatoes.

The hubby and I then watched the end of the Butler  v Syracuse game with friends.  Go Butler!  Another Bball team from Indiana!

After a long night, the hubby and I had a sweet tooth so we split an unpictured protein cake and went to bed.  The hubby is on the fence about the protein cakes, but since he keeps eating them I think he likes them.  If you haven’t made them yet, don’t be surprised that they don’t taste like birthday cake!  Of course it won’t, it is about 1,000 times healthier for you.  It is a bit dense and obviously not covered in frosting.  I am honestly not a big cake person, so they are perfect for me.  Kills a sweet tooth and helps boost my protein intake!

As I write this post I am snacking on a plate of apple slices.  Honestly I think I could eat apple for every meal.  Apple is definitely my favorite snack.  I slice it all up then sprinkle cinnamon on it…delicious!

Anyway, this morning I hopped up and hit gym!  Since I have been training for races since about October, it has been a really long time since I have gone to the gym without  a mission.

I hit the elliptical and brought this with me.  I love this girl!  So excited to see her on the cover of Shape!

After the elliptical…return of the GM.  I didn’t take a picture because I was literally running out the door.

It is now about 11 and I am skipping the rest of my classes for the day to go watch Purdue’s open practice at Reliant with the hubby!  I am super excited!  Feels so home-y to be watching my Boilers right down the street again!  Posting and food might go undone today depending on how things go!

Wednesday recap:

I promise to get back on regularly posting in the evenings, I am playing catch up with school work this week!

For lunch I had…apple slices.  Like I said, I could eat this every meal!  I also had a toasted sammie with Laughing Cow (Swiss) and jam.  Such a fun combo.

Jam that I am lovin’ right now is Polaner Sugar free with fiber.  It doesn’t have that fake sugar taste, and who doesn’t need a little extra fiber in their diet?  Flavor of the month:  strawberry.

Dinner was boring.  Using up things that need used.

This meal.

With some diced tomatoes and pineapple added.  TV dinners never have enough to them for me.  Even visually I just need more food.  I always add my own fruits/veggies to them to pump up the portion.    The meal was okay.  I didn’t photograph.

I made some “fake garlic bread” with a toasted sandwich thin, smear of Smart Balance, Parmesan, and Italian seasoning.  Surprisingly good.

My hubby got these in the mail for his birthday from my mom.  This is Sublett’s BBQ sauce.  It comes from a little place up in Monticello, IN.  Best BBQ on the planet hands down.  I honestly could have drank some from the bottle, but instead am day dreaming about BBQ tofu!

After dinner my insane sweet tooth was calling.  I decided to do a second try on Janetha’s protein cakes.

Success!  Major key was using a bigger cooking bowl/cup.  I will list my recipe below, make sure the check out the recipe on Meals and Moves linked above!

Protein Cake

3 Tbsp egg substitue

1 Tbsp applesauce (whatever the hubby had in fridge)

1 scoop protein (chocolate)

1 tsp baking powder

Microwave about 2 mins.  My microwave is crappy, so it might be less in others.  I then cut mine in half and added sugar free jam and smear of PB.  Delicious!  This made a huge cake!   I honestly might downsize recipe next time to fit in my smaller cups.

Okay, BOILER TIME!!!!!!

Good morning bloggers.  This morning, my walk to school was BEAUTIFUL!  Perfect temp, lower humidity, the air just had that crisp Spring morning feel.  If I closed my eyes and pretended there wasn’t traffic, homeless people, and pollution it was just like being back home.  Haha, sort of.

This morning was a GNC shake to go.  I also had some apple slices first thing because I woke up starving!  I was up early this morning to finish homework, I slept like crap-more on that in a minute.  I also woke up and did some sun salutations and stretching- my body was stressed and wound up tight.  I felt about 10 x better after my stretching.  My dog also loves when I get on the floor and do stretching, he stretches with me (no joke, he is a Yoga king!) and gives me lots of kisses!

Lunch and dinner were both packed to go because I had to move my 60 min tempo run until this evening after all my classes, aka 730ish.

Lunch was a whole lotta butter nut squash topped with even more cinnamon!  On the side some apple slices and a Cherry pie mini Lara bar.

Dinner was a AB and jelly sammie with a whole apple sliced up and 100 calorie pack of cookies.  I am really trying to stay away from pre-packed food like those, but I felt I needed some processed crap food today!

Anyway, I am having to run tonight because the hubby decided to go meet up with people after work and came home from work 3 hours late even though I told him I needed to go run.  This is a problem because we only have one car, so I can’t get to the park and run (literally no public transport in Houston- they don’t believe in that here).  Needless to say I was an unhappy camper, and we ended up fighting all night.  And I am not a person you want to fight with because a) I am in law school-it is my job to fight and win, b) I am the most stubborn person ever, and c) I will find a way to get my way.

Anyway, not to be a debby downer, but I had a very stressful night and woke up exhausted and still angry.  (Grr I hate waking up in a bad mood).  Enter the stretching.  Ahhh…felt so much better.

Now, school for 12 hours, had to cancel the wine tasting I was going to attend because today is no longer a rest day, and fit in an hour long run tonight after class.  This girl is going to pass out the minute I get home!

P.S. My mom arrives Saturday…all things will be better!

Are you a fair fighter?  How do you handle stress/fights with significant other, best friend, etc?

I know I am not a fair fighter, this little lady has a temper!  I usually say (or scream) my points and then just want to be left alone.  Surprisingly it works well, because my hubby is not confrontational so I think most of the time he just sits there and lets me fight.

Good morning everyone.  Anyone else not want to get out of bed at all this week?  Usually I hit the snooze one time then spring out of bed.  So far this week I am 2/2 of snoozing 30+ minutes!  (Someone, Me, needs a vacation!)

Monday night dinner was this glorious salad.  I basically just threw on whatever I found in the fridge:  mushrooms, plum, tofu, butternut squash, onions

Dessert was a warm cup of hot chocolate.

This morning…

Another green monster.  This one contained

1 cup soy milk

1/2 frozen banana

1 scoop chocolate protein

spinach

Lets hope this baby motivates me to get through the 12 hour day that is my Tuesday.

Lunch was packed in my Stay Fit containers.  1 AB/banana sandwich, plum slices, grapes, and cashew cookie Larabar.

I am going to take the rest of the day off from blogging (although I might try to catch upon Google Reader).  I have a group project, briefs, and studying for my MPRE to accomplish today.

Like McD’s Cafe line? I do- way cheaper than the ‘Bucks.  Looks like Burger King might be jumping on the coffee bandwagon too!

Well I am up bright and early to go spend the day in a MPRE review course.  Ah, the perks of being a law student.

But let me recap Saturday for ya:

Lunch was a Boca burger with mushrooms, ketchup, mustard and unpictured side salad.  Yummy!

A caramel rice cake was eaten as dessert on the way to the watch party.

At the watch party I had a Strongbow Cider.

After the watch party, we ran to the grocery store for a few necessities then came back home for dinner and a movie.

Dinner was a wrap with hummus, mushrooms, mozz, artichokes, carrots, and some honey mustard sauce.

On the side the last of my baby spring mix, and carrots with hummus.  Random I know.

These two silly boys and I watched My Sister’s Keeper.  Has anyone else seen this?  And did you cry the entire movie? Because I seriously think I cried the entire movie, it was incredibly sad!

Dessert was another caramel rice cake topped with some PB and a small cup of hot chocolate.

After the movie I decided to make these babies for later:

Frozen Nana Sandwiches

1 banana sliced long ways, then slice into 3 parts

Spread with nut butter of choice

Add a few mini chocolate chips

Wrap and freeze for a delicious dessert!

I am sure one of these will be enjoyed for dessert tonight!