MIMM – Page 7

Summer Weekend: MIMM#85

August 29, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

I really don’t want summer to end. This was my last weekend for the pool, but I fully enjoyed it. With the almost 90 degree temps, the water was very refreshing and I remembered to bring my pool noodles to float around in.

Friday night was very relaxed. I hung out on the couch for a while and watched a movie before bed. I slept SO well Friday night. I have definitely noticed the difference in my sleep from when I am running around and then hop into bed versus relaxing on the couch for a bit before bed. Thanks to my obsession over my fitbit and sleep patterns.

I woke up Saturday nice and refreshed. I ran some errands and dropped off my car for an oil change in the morning while I headed to the gym to swim. I am so glad I can still swim even with my foot issues. I got in an easy mile and a half total swim and my car was ready when I walked back to get it.

Next it was time for some lunch. Now that I have a toaster, I love making toast and decided on an open faced sandwich with turkey, cheese and avocado.

I then made some chocolate zucchini bread. I learned in this process that zucchini does not shred well in a blender attachment, that would be zucchini puree. So I spiralized my zucchini and then chopped it since I don’t have a cheese grater. It came out tasty, though wasn’t a fan of the frosting in the recipe. I would use real cream cheese or butter for a frosting since I am not vegan. The bread was good though.

At 2pm, I decided to head to the pool for a couple hours. Then my friend kidnapped me and we ran some errands. It was nice to get out and about though we were both kinda tired after a couple hours. As we came back to our apartments we ran into another friend who was taking her kayak out on the water. We grabbed some snacks and that helped to perk us up. I think we were both hungry. Then we hung out by the water taking turns in the kayak. I didn’t go as I was tired from the day and my swim, but it was fun to sit and chat and watch as the sun set. Soon it was 9pm and I was ready to head home, shower and settle down before bed. I actually also took a salt bath too as I was on my feet quite a bit.

Again, Saturday night I slept really well. Almost 9 hours of sleep too! I made some protein pancakes and since I took off from teaching yoga this week to let me foot rest a bit (when I return I still won’t be doing all the poses but should feel more prepared), I headed to the gym to swim again. I only did a mile as I could feel my arms were getting sore from Saturday’s swim.

Once I got home, I caught up with my mom on the phone and then worked in the kitchen for a couple hours. A co worker is coming back to work tomorrow after being out for a month from a surgery so I made a chickpea cookie cake for her. Since I had leftover chickpeas, I made a smashed chickpea, pesto, turkey, spinach sandwich.

I also had extra zucchini from my groceries and saw Amanda’s recipe Saturday and had to try out zucchini brownies. These were delicious!! Bringing some to work as well. And still more zucchini was mixed into my cauliflower fried rice mix for a side dish for dinners this week.

At 3pm I headed to the pool. Though I needed to work on some yoga and blog stuff, the pool took priority being my last pool day of the season. Next weekend I am heading to Virginia so I will get a beach instead but had to enjoy some sun and reading time. I also took a couple dips into the pool and floated around. The water felt great.

2016-08-28 16.02.42 — last pool selfie and I’m still pale, but I have some “tan” lines you just can’t tell haha

At 5 it was time to head back and prepare dinner and work on the things I was putting off earlier in the day. I like to have a few hours to get a few tasks done and then watching a tv show or movie before the week starts. Now that the Olympics are over, I am back to my no tv during the weekdays. I enjoy it as I am more productive and then tv is more enjoyable on the weekend.

That wraps up my weekend. Not super exciting but I enjoy baking, cooking, swimming and reading. I think that makes for a successful summer weekend. Looking forward to a 3 day weekend next weekend and a mini trip.

Do you like meal prepping?

Have any plans for Labor day?

Pool time and Reading weekend: MIMM#84

August 22, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Oh hey there Monday. We are back. This weekend had the perfect balance of productivity and laziness. Laziness was necessary on Sunday as it was a rainy afternoon, but it was perfect. Sometimes I like living alone and I treasure the time I get to myself before my time of kids to occupy comes around.

All last week I struggled to stay awake past 9:30pm. Friday I struggled to stay awake past 8:30 and crashed in bed shortly after 9pm (I know my life is sooo exciting…). It was wonderful to sleep without an alarm to go off. A pretty solid 9 hours and waking up to the sun on Saturday morning was just what I needed.

Saturday morning I ran my usual errands and then headed to the gym to swim. I made it 2 miles and slowly got my jello legs back to the locker room to shower and get dressed. I decided to run 2 more quick errands since I was out already and luckily they were quick because I was so hungry and thirsty by the time I arrived home. I just didn’t want to go out again and luckily I didn’t have to. I made some lunch, a quick Wegmans perfect portion steak and some other leftovers. I felt so much better once I had food and tons of water in me.

I then headed to the pool for a couple hours. The sun was wonderful on Saturday and it was about 10 degrees cooler than last weekend so 90 instead of 100 degrees F. HAHA. I read for about an hour soaking up the sun and finishing my Yamas and Niyamas book. Then I hopped in the pool which felt good as I was literally dripping sweat just reading and not even moving, but I had to finish my book.

To be honest I was kind of tired of swimming after swimming 2 miles and there wasn’t anyone at the pool that I knew, so after about 20 minutes in the water, I decided to get out, dry off and head back home to work on dinner.

I made a pesto chicken pizza. I bought some of Paleoful’s pizza dough mix before they went out of business and it was delicious. I have never been a huge tomato sauce person and I remembered that Trader Joes has this pesto frozen pizza that is really good so I recreated that and added chicken since I had some to use up. It turned out really good.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing. I somehow decided to restart watching Gilmore Girls from the beginning. Still remains my favorite TV show that I re-watch all seasons of probably twice a year.

Sunday morning I got up and was motivated to meal prep. I love using my time Sunday morning to get veggies roasting and throwing chicken in the crockpot, etc. I also turned on the Olympic marathon to watch the middle to end of it.

I made some pancakes for breakfast of course with my new protein powder thanks to the giveaway I won on Becky’s blog.

Bobs Red Mill protein powder — Love Bob’s Red Mill brand

By the time I finished my meal prep, I had about an hour to make a yoga sequence and then it was off to teach. I can tell that summer is coming to an end as my class size is growing, more people back from vacations and busy summers.

I headed right home after yoga and had a snack before deciding I should get to the pool before it rains. Well, I was at the pool just under an hour when it started to drizzle and even though there was no thunder and the rain felt nice, it was hard to read my book while it was raining so I headed home. Since I got fully wrapped up in my book and the rain only got harder outside, I decided to read on the couch. Other than grabbing a quick dinner thanks to my meal prepping earlier in the day, I pretty much was on the couch for the next 3-4 hours. I successfully started and finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in one day!!

It was then time to move to grab dessert (OMG my smores M&Ms are almost gone) and write this post.

Though I hardly moved Sunday afternoon, being totally wrapped up in a book that I sat for 3 hours was amazing to me and I call it productive since I finished the book. I guess you could say it was a sun and reading kind of weekend. Now that I am refreshed, it’s time to get back to routine for the work week.

Are you a Harry Potter fan? Did you read the latest book?

What did you do this weekend?

SUP Yoga, Sister Time and Beach Time: MIMM#83

August 15, 2016 by Alicia 8 Comments

Hello everyone and happy Monday!! Actually bittersweet Monday as my sister leaves today. She came in on Friday evening and we had such a fun weekend. Luckily Brian was able to join us as well. Thanks Katie for the link up.

Saturday morning we headed to SUP yoga. Brian made a great photographer (slowly teaching him how much I love photos 🙂 ).

There was that time I held tree pose for a split second.

In the afternoon since it was basically 100 degrees outside, we headed to Cherry Hill, NJ and went to the mall. First stop was lunch at Bobby’s burger place as we had to bring Theresa there.

Then we looked for an outfit for engagement pictures. Just as we gave up, we found a shirt for me. Now to find something for Brian that goes along with it.

We then headed to Wegmans and came home to make some stir fry for dinner.

Dinner was followed by watching the Olympics until 11pm. Michael Phelps last race OMG. I know he said he wasn’t coming back last time but I think now he seems to be satisfied. Who knows but it was fun to watch him win gold yet again.

Sunday morning I was up shortly after 7 and worked on some meal prep, then I got Brian and Theresa up and we were out the door in like 15 minutes after that. It was time for a day in New Jersey. First stop, Peter’s diner. So the funny thing is we were simply looking for a diner on the way and when we got there, Theresa and I realized it was the one diner we went to 2 years ago. Like out of 200 diners in the state, we picked the same one…

Last time we had eaten dinner there and this time we were eating brunch. The food was good but they seemed to be short staffed and they never refilled my water. Also if you want to check out a list of diners and reviews, I love Hollie’s blog. Maybe next time I will pick a diner I haven’t been to. I mean there are only another 199…

Next stop was the Cape May zoo. The zoo and parking are completely free. It’s a small little zoo (sorry I am spoiled being from Chicago), but it was nice to take a quick walk through. We breezed through in an hour as we were eager to get to the beach.

Finally the beach. I managed to parallel park for the first time in who knows how long and then we headed to the beach with hot hot sand. We immediately ran for the water. Probably not the smartest as I didn’t properly apply sunscreen. I had applied some before walking the zoo but that was it. After swimming and hopping waves for a while I applied more but I have come to realize spray sunscreen and spf 30 don’t work for me and at the end of the day I had quite the burn on my shoulders and part of my back. Basically the parts that were out of the water the most, because really I was mostly in the water.

The coolest thing though was that we got to see dolphins in the distance. It appeared that there might have been some sort of dolphin watching boat ride, but it was really cool to see 3 to 4 dolphins in the distance.

We left the beach at 5 and the drive home felt like it took forever but it was really just 2 hours. We got home and quickly cleaned up and I got dinner (burrito bowls) together and we had some friends over. It was an entertaining dinner with a 3 year old and lots of fun.

Afterwards it was time to wind down, we watched some Olympics and then my sister found a movie to watch, The Other Woman.

This weekend was tons of fun and just what I needed. It was also nice to see my sister. Now off to start another week.

What’s one fun thing you did this weekend?

Weekend in a Flash: MIMM#82

August 8, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

This weekend went by in a flash. It was so fast but I do feel I was productive with my time which is always important. Let’s get into the highlights of the weekend.

Saturday was my day to run errands and also fit in my swim. I was able to swim 2 miles and it went much better this week than last week. One guy at the pool was watching me swim and asked why I wasn’t at the Olympics. HAHA I laughed and said “I’m not THAT fast.” Though I feel like I probably have improved since my 1 year on the swim team in high school, I am still slow compared to swimmers but I enjoy my time in the pool and appreciate the comment.

In the afternoon, I helped my friend make some cookies and helped with party stuff for her 3 year old son. I then spent an hour at the pool beginning to read my new book The Yamas and Niyamas which I heard about from Alisha Leytem in her recent video of book recommendations. I also just got the Harry Potter book so need to read that too.

I came home and made some dinner. My goal this week was to use up meat from the freezer so my grocery bill was finally a bit lower. I also plan to snack/eat out for dinner two nights this week so I knew I didn’t want to buy too much as I usually do.

I think my dinner turned out pretty colorful.

I then made some blueberry scones. I kept seeing recipes for scones and had not made them in forever. I searched for some dairy free recipes and came across that recipe I used. My usual scone recipe uses buttermilk and I feel better when I am dairy free (or at least dairy free milk options). The scones fresh from the oven were amazing.

Sunday was my productive morning. I worked on food prep and cleaning up. I barely ate breakfast I was so motivated to get things done. Oh hey you can see my table again!! I never eat at the table but my sister is coming to visit this coming weekend and I wanted to have it clear to eat meals together.

I had some brunch at 11 and then headed out to teach yoga. Straight after yoga, I headed to a nearby park where my friend was having a birthday party for her 3 year old. I came towards the end of the party which was fine and just chatted with other neighbors and munched on popcorn, cupcakes and cookies (my second lunch?).

We wrapped up at about 4pm and on my way home, I somehow got stuck in the middle of some parade of jeeps with US flags. I wasn’t sure if it was a funeral line as I didn’t see funeral stickers but I don’t believe you were supposed to break up the line and there were tons of police escorts. There must have been 50 cars/jeeps or more. For a half mile a police car was behind me but I was pretty sure he wasn’t pulling me over and I was just trying to get off. I had to take 1 exit early as I was weaving between cars and seemed to not be able to get around them so I took a bit of a detour but finally made it home.

Then it was off to the pool again. I can’t get enough of the sun. It brings me so much happiness. Some more reading and sun time was nice and then put together some shredded chicken and veggies for dinner.

This shirt sums up my Sunday, “Sweat Now Dessert Later” and I definitely sweat and ate dessert on Sunday.

My evening was spent watching the Olympics from Gymnastics to Swimming, those are the two I like to watch. I got hooked on Gymnastics during the 2012 Olympics watching Gabby and now there is Simone who is killing it! I am hoping we can keep the Olympics on at work so that every time I walk through the kitchen I can see what is on.

Have you watched any of the Olympics?

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