What I ate and What I can’t get rid of

Note: Live Writer and WordPress have been weird with the posts…grr

Thanks for the compliments on the dress and the shoes.  I was definitely out of my element with a long dress and flat shoes, but I think I dig the look.

So now I’m on my second week of What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW), courtesy of Peas and Crayons.

Let’s do this….

Breakfast:

1 packet TJ’s apple-cinn oats, huge dash of cinn, 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats + 1/3 scoop vanilla protein powder (water added at work) (ate at 9a) + 1 travel mug of Vermont Maple + Texas Turtle coffee (with cinn and vanilla creamer (drank at 730a).

Snack:

Small crisp fuji apple at 1115a (needed a snack to get me through my meeting)

Lunch:

Leftover quinoa/turkey burger stuff pepper from Sunday night with a huge dose of hot salsa (ate at 1230p). *This is my plate from Sunday night – I ate out of tupperware at work sans the sides.

Snack:

1/2 cup of PB Puffins cereal and ~20 blueberries (at between 3-430p).

Dinner:

Be warned, this dinner looks like it should be for a 5 yr old.  I wasn’t even going to post it because I felt a little ashamed at eating such a mish-mash of nonsense food, but hey it happens

2 cut up Smart dogs with ketchup and mustard; 1 packet of SmartPop popcorn (eaten between 6 and 730p).

Snack:

Dreyer’s Slow Churned Yogurt Blend: Key Lime Pie flavor.  I die.  I truly die.  I have been on an ice cream kick lately and this is awesome. Thanks hubby for indulging yourself – you didn’t expect I’d like this huh?  I even went on the website to see the other flavors and plan on going to town on all of them.  Nom.

And now on to what I can’t get rid of:

I will never be on the show Hoarders.  I like to purge my closet a couple times a year.  I don’t get too emotionally attached to many items.

But for some reason, I can’t let go of these:

Yep, my undergrad and grad school files.  I have pared down quite a bit (I had about 4x’s this amount), but this last bit, I’m clinging too.  These are my engineering notes, my cheat sheets, my tabbed supplemental notes.  Upstairs I have about half of my old textbooks, too.  If I throw them away, am I throwing away the knowledge that I got from them?  It may seem dramatic, but I do sort of feel this way.  But truth be told, it’s been at least 4 years since I consulted any of my own notes.

Sigh, is it time to let go???

Does your dinner ever resemble something more suited for a 5 yr old?   One of my other faves is mac’n’cheese

Have you kept your old notes and books from school?

~ by Shanna, like Banana on June 7, 2011.

Posted in WIAW
Tags: Can’t get rid of, Edy’s slow churned ice cream, Key lime Pie, old school files, Peas and Crayons, smartdogs, SmartPop popcorn, What I Ate Wednesday, WIAW

Shoes-day!

Granola Give-away at the end of this post   Keep reading…

Well it’s officially Fall (woohoo!), but I’m going to give you another pair of sandals before I go all boots on ya

Business on the top and party on the bottom

This is a pretty typical work outfit for me and I was happy to have a chance to wear my new dress pants purchased from The Limited a few days prior (cost = $80).  The salmon colored cardi is from Victorias Secret and was about $50, while the tank underneath is from NY&Co.  Let’s talk about the shoes though shall we?  These shoes were purchased last Summer from Bakers.  Bakers is a store that pushes the limits on stiletto heights all the while embracing the latest trends — at reasonable cost.  I don’t like to have too many super trendy shoes, but these multi-colored-cut-out-bootie-peep-toe-sandal-slingbacks were too cute to pass by.  They were about $65, which didn’t break the budget  

Let’s look at ‘em up close:

A shoe in hand...

Check out that heel! That’s a 5 incher baby!  Are they comfy?  Surprisingly yes, they are actually fairly comfy — you’re probably thinking yeah right, but compared to other heels I have in this height range, I can tolerate them up to 8 hours.

Do you have two-toned or multicolored shoes?  (send links!)

How long will you keep wearing your summer sandals where you live?

Okay, on to the GRANOLA GIVEAWAY (woot woot)!  Annelies from Attune Foods was impressed by your feedback and interest in their new Probiotic Munch granola, so she’s offered a reader a bag!  To enter, please tell me which flavor interests you the most: Chocolate, Maple Nut, or Apple Cinnamon.  You can write a separate second comment to share which flavor you think they should make next  

(Oh and feel free to respond to shoes questions in the same post..hehe).

Deadline to enter is 12p Pacific on Thursday.  I’ll let you know the random winner by Friday!

Not your Starbucks Pumpkin Scone

What do you do when you’ve had a box of Trader Joe’s pumpkin pancake mix in your cupboard for half a year?  You make lemonade!  Err, no, that’s lemons.  Shoot.  Okay, how ’bout scones?  Yes, much better!  Half the tasty box was consumed over New Years while in Tahoe for the hubby’s 30th Birthday, but somehow my willpower has prevented me from whipping up more batches since then.  But if I bake something out of them, well that’s a whole different story because I’m recycling and being all green.  Okay really, I’m not making any sense, am I?

I assembled some ingredients (note, I didn’t end up using all):

Ingredients with pumpkin scone potential

I definitely played this recipe by ear and was willing to turn off my type-A personality that requires precise to-do lists and highly repeatable actions and decided what will be, will be.

In one large bowl went:

• 1.5  cups Trader Joes pumpkin pancake mix
• 1 heaping cup old-fashioned oats
• 1cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Dashes of pumpkin pie spice (as you wish!)
• 3/4 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix together well.  The dough will be crumbly and not overly moist.  Feel free to dig in with your hands to integrate the dry with wet ingredients.

Divide dough (eyeball it) into 9-12 chunks.  Mold into triangular pieces with your fingers.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Molded scones

Next lightly brush the tops of each scone with soy milk or skim milk (I used skim) and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon sugar.

Cinnamon and pumpkin -- yes please!

Make sure to preheat your oven at 375deg.  Once ready, place your scone-adorned cookie sheet in the oven for 16-18 minutes or until your scones are firm, but not overly dry.

Best served slightly warm with a bit of butter, peanut butter (duh), or TJs pumpkin butter

Shanna's Pumpkin Scones

Gotta tell ya, these turned out pretty fantastic.  Not overly sweet, nice texture from the oats, and filling from the wheat flour.  I’m patting myself on the back right now, fyi..ha!

So now that I’ve created my own pumpkin-y scone, I can say adios to my temptations when Sbux pumpkin scones wave at me behind the glass case

Have you healthified a commercial treat?

30 Days of Insight: Day 09- Five things you want to see change

1. The War – let’s end it please
   
2. Apathy towards making a change.  Stop talking about what you may or may not want to do and just do it.  Or at least spend some time thinking about your passions.  Strive for them.  Work towards them.  Embrace them.
   
3. More conscientious pet ownership.  Spay and neuter your pets, unless somehow you can house and love millions of animals that are otherwise stuck in animal shelters.
4. Societal emphasis on stereotypical beauty.  Let’s look outside of the box people!
5. My tight grip on life: perhaps if I loosen the grip, others will be there to help take some of the load?

What do you want to see change?