friends

Swim, Potluck and Gingerbread: MIMM#98

December 5, 2016 by Alicia 2 Comments

Hey there. How was your first December weekend? Mine was pretty good and busy.

Friday morning I was really in a good mood. Brian told me I had a case of the Fridays lol. After Thursday was done and month close was done, I went to yoga that night and it really did make me feel better. I have been missing attending classes since I don’t live near any yoga studios, but I found a nice one around the corner from my office. I like it but it means that I get home around 9pm and then don’t have much time to wind down.

Anyway I only have one more week of work and then work on moving, so this weekend I did a lot of cooking, baking and crafts.

Linking up with Katie for MIMM.

Saturday morning I headed to the pool after breakfast.

I didn’t feel as great as Sunday when swimming. My shoulders started to ache and then once they finally warmed up, my left foot started to feel like it was going to cramp. I took it slow. Slow and steady wins the race. I made it to 1.5 miles and then decided to stop. I just couldn’t push farther and I needed energy for the evening.

2016-12-03-08-26-00 — before last swim at LA Fitness

After my swim, my plans changed as originally I was going to meet up with someone for dinner Sunday, but since she cancelled, I decided to go to Wegmans after my swim and get my few grocery items. Somehow I still managed to spend $50 but oh well. I think I am in pretty good shape for using up most of my items.

The afternoon consisted of making gifts for my co workers (which will be in a separate post this week) while cooking. I also made vegan mac and cheese for the first time. I made this recipe with the cashew base. I also loved how you didn’t have to soak the cashews, but I was not waiting around and already eating a late lunch. I mixed it with some roasted brussels. I always see people mixing mac and cheese and broccoli which honestly doesn’t appeal to me, but I needed to finish my brussels and that mixture was pretty good (even if the picture doesn’t look that appealing).

I also made some gluten free snickerdoodles. A few of my friends are gluten free so I wanted to bring some cookies to the potluck. Also these are egg free, so I enjoyed eating the dough a bit too.

The afternoon flew by and then I changed and headed over to my friend’s apartment for a potluck. I made WAY too much food, but there were 8 adults and 1 kid and we split it, so I came home with just a serving size of each of my dishes left. I made my quinoa salad and brought the mac and cheese and cookies. We had quite the spread of food. From chips, guac and salsa appetizers to bean chili, pizza, quinoa and regular salads and my mac and cheese. Then dessert was cookies, apple crumble, brownies and ice cream (which I can’t have).

We got a lovely group photo and somehow I put on my coat at 10pm and stayed talking until midnight…

On Sunday I slept until about 8 and then got right to laundry, roasting veggies and making gingerbread cookie dough. I then taught my last yoga class before I move. My Tuesday class was suddenly cancelled as I learned last week, so was annoyed by that, but oh well. It was nice to say goodbye to one class.

I came home and made gingerbread cookies. I think I have been making gingerbread cookies for the holidays for at least 4 years and I love the tradition.

I always forget how much they spread and so Brian suggested turning those ones into minions.

That took a couple hours, only fitting 6 cookies on a cookie sheet and then having fun frosting them. After snacking on gingerbread cookies, I decided to eat something healthier, a bowl of broccoli and then cooked up some pork chops for dinner.

As I ate, I watched Holiday in Handcuffs. December is my crazy tv time where I want and do watch sooo many Christmas movies. I have a lot that I recorded on DVDs years ago and love watching them over and over.

At the same time I am counting down to Fuller House Season 2 on Friday. I may or may not be preoccupied by that instead of packing next weekend…

I’ll also be finishing this book this week. I love the book cover!!

Instagram Friends, Pool Time and Packing MIMM#80

July 18, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hey there, happy Monday!! I don’t know where the month of July is going. I hate all the overtime I have had to put in at work lately and the month is flying by. But I am happy because this week is vacation, other than today working remotely, but then off until next Tuesday. I think there is a pattern in my vacations, I am usually off the grid so no one can reach me. I love it. Actually, you should check out Davida’s recent post about digital detox. It is good for everyone. I am constantly on my phone and checking it. Part of it is because I connect with so many like minded people on social media which I love! Technology today is really amazing with how connected we all are. That brings me to one of my exciting things over the weekend, I got to meet Mary (@fourthehealthofit on Instagram). Mary and I have been following each other on Instagram since I started doing yoga challenges on there in March 2014. March 2014 was a major turning point in my life since I was laid off from my first job after college on Feb 28, 2014. I had joined Instagram in December 2013 after my sister begged me to because she didn’t like my food pictures being on Facebook, she said Instagram was for that.

Then I discovered yoga challenges, my first one I heard about from Erin’s blog. She led it with a couple other people. I believe Mary and I were both part of that challenge or another one that Kim (@kimberlyallanyoga) led. We have both since taken a bit of a step back from multiple challenges each month, but whenever I post a yoga photo or a selfie or something, we both check in on each other’s pages. When I learned she was in Pennsylvania and then noticed her tags and she was near the same county that I live in, I asked if she would like to meet up. We found a park that was about half way for both of us to go to, only about a 30 min drive for me and met up there. We walked the trail twice and I think that was a bit over 4 miles per my fitbit guesstimate and just talked about our lives, everything from careers, colleges, family, and fitness. Time flew by and we were hot and sweaty after that, but Mary agreed to take a picture. I mean, it didn’t happen unless there is a picture right?!

It was lunch time as I headed back and I was craving Panera. I didn’t have much food at home since I wasn’t going shopping this weekend and heading out of town. I got the strawberry chicken poppyseed salad and bacon turkey bravo and an iced tea because I was so hot.

I got my food to go and when I got home, I set down my stuff and immediately took a cold shower. As hungry as I was, I needed to cool off first. Then I was ready to eat. I texted my friend to see if she was heading to the pool and she was waiting for her son to nap and then they were going to eat and head over. After I finished my lunch I met up with them and we headed to the pool.

We spent about 2 hours in the pool and spent a little while in the sand before the thunder started and they had to clear the pool. It rained a little bit but it was a quick passing storm. By the time I had taken my second shower when I got home, the sun was coming out again, but that was OK.

I made some dinner, mostly from my freezer stash, a turkey patty and I had some roasted veggies that I whipped up quickly in the morning.

In the evening, I enjoyed much needed couch time relaxing and watching too many episodes of Life Unexpected, I actually finished the second and final season Sunday morning.

Sunday morning was quite laid back since I didn’t have to do a bunch of meal prep. I spent the morning packing up everything and cleaning up the apartment. With the fridge being so empty I was finally able to wipe it down ( <– the things we get excited for as adults…) . I headed out to stop at Target for some snacks for the road and teach yoga and then it was time to drive.

Looking forward to a week away, time with Brian, his family and seeing a friend in Canada.

I will still have my usual Yoga Workshop Fridays post up this Friday, so be sure to come check it out. If you leave any comments or questions, I will get back to you in a week.

Hope you all have a great week!

Wedding Weekend: MIMM#77

June 27, 2016 by Alicia 1 Comment

How did the weekend come to an end so quickly?! I even had a 3 day weekend since I was traveling for a wedding. It was such a fun weekend with friends. I actually didn’t take too many photos during the wedding as I was enjoying the present moment but I have some good ones, so let’s look back.

Friday morning I left around 8am and made good timing getting to Binghamton, NY shortly after 11. When I arrived, it was time to find some food. We enjoyed some spiedie salads. The afternoon was spent running a few errands.

In the evening we joined in on the rehearsal dinner at The Lost Dog, that we were kindly invited to even though we weren’t in the wedding, but Brian’s brother was. The dinner started at 6pm and we started with drinks. Since I saw a mojito on the menu, I decided to give it a try.

The bad part in that was that I had not eaten, other than a banana and small muffin, in 6 hours. Despite drinking it slow, that was the first time I got slightly dizzy from a drink and it was not fun. I was so hungry which didn’t help because when I get really hungry I just feel sick. It took forever but we finally ordered and got food shortly after 7. I got a quinoa wrap and sweet potato fries which I inhaled, so no picture. I really want to recreate the wrap though as it was really delicious. After guzzling water (thank goodness for awesome refill service on the waters) and digesting some of my food, I was feeling a bit better. I’m pretty sure I had a water baby when we left as that is what it felt like.

We had tickets to the 7:40 Finding Dory movie at the theater down the road. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you MUST go. Being that it was a later show, there were many adults there and only a few kids, one of which definitely had a breakdown in the middle of the movie, at least it didn’t last too long. I would definitely see the movie again, but most likely will wait until I can buy it.

Saturday was the day of the wedding, but it wasn’t until 4. We enjoyed sleeping in and around noon I crashed the hair party. I got my hair put up and the bride’s sister did my make up.

After that I had a couple hours to hang out before we headed to the wedding. The wedding was fully outdoors and when we got there, the clouds were covering the sun so it wasn’t too bad, but then the sun came out and it was HOT. It was about 90 degrees.

They ran out of water bottles and we were all standing and fanning out our dresses to stay cool. They had an awesome horse and carriage which brought over the bridesmaids, grandparents, parents and bride. Since it took multiple trips though, it was a long wait. However, very beautiful!

Once the ceremony got started, it was fairly quick and then we made our way over to the reception area, which was outdoors but covered so it was perfect. The decorations were beautiful and with over 100 people, you never felt crowded. I loved that they had iced tea and lemonade in addition to soda, water and an open bar. There were also a ton of food options, though the seafood wasn’t ready until later, but I don’t really eat seafood. They had salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage and more.

The rest of the evening was dancing, wandering the area (big open fields!!), eating cake and having fun.

We got back at about 10pm and crashed hard (I blame the allergy pill Brian and I both took as my nose was so stuffed after being outside).

Sunday morning I slept until 8:30am!!

At noon, we headed over to hang out with the newlyweds and the groom’s family for a bit of a pool party. It was also kind of a dog party.

I left the pool at 2pm and headed home. Since I only had breakfast and a few veggies, I stopped at Tim Horton’s for a cookie (eaten while they made my tea lol) and iced tea and that held me over until dinner amazingly.

I got home around 7pm after stopping at the store and it was time to unpack and meal prep for a couple hours. Meal prep is very important to me and I always miss my kitchen time when I am away.

meal prep 0626 — spaghetti squash, zoodles and ground chicken and veggies for lettuce wraps this week

And that ends my weekend. I am excited for another 3 day weekend next weekend for 4th of July, though I don’t really have plans, it will be a nice low key and get stuff done around the apartment weekend for sure.

Do you meal prep after traveling?

What did you do this weekend?