Lyrics to my soul and food in my belly

Or at least to my vocal cords.

I am a H.U.G.E. fan of singing in the car. I do it on the way to work, on the way home from work, on the way to the grocery store that is 2 minutes away. I am always a huge fan of eating something I just purchased on the car ride home from the grocery store (another one of Tim’s pet peeves- that’s two in a row). Usually it is something like a container of blueberries- sometimes those poor things never even make it into the house but other times I’ll get myself a treat like some animal cookies crackers. In any case I sing in the car. I eat too. The point here is that I sing.

Right now, I am OBSESSED with the song “What makes you beautiful” by One Direction. First off, there is a great message to the song that is really all about confidence but not being full of yourself and how sometimes the girl that doesn’t always try to stand out is the most beautiful one in the room. While I have come to love the lyrics it was really the sick beat that that made my feet wanna move that captured my love. Yep. I said “sick” beat and I’m not even ashamed.

I was a little ashamed when I played this song for my mom’s friend and client Kim who then told me it was her girl’s favorite song at that moment as well. They are significantly younger than I am- like elementary school and middle school but honestly I think it just goes to show how cool those kids are- not how weird I am.

So here is my current play-list to sing to in the car (not all work-out appropriate, most of the songs I mentioned last time we talked music still apply with some additions)

  1. What Makes you Beautiful- One Direction
  2. Drive By- Train
  3. TTYLXOX- Bella Thorn (yes from Disney channel- download it now you won’t be sorry)
  4. Words- Train
  5. Save Me, San Francisco- Train (so I have a new thing for Train I see)

And now I just realized for the first time that I sing 5 songs in the car on repeat for 30 minutes on my way to work. That’s only a few of them repeating – that’s not too bad right?

Well I may be a little pathetic but that is no reason to let you all down so I just found out that Fitness Magazine has a pretty extensive play list on their website with the 100 best workout songs. But then I read the reviews and well they sucked so it seemed like a waste of time to go through them all- feel free though haha! So I still go back to my running list quite frequently but my car list seems to vary. My car list has songs that have some potential of me sounding less like a dead bird and more like a beautiful hummingbird (or a MOCKINGJAY if you are a Hunger Games fan) while my running list doesn’t not ever need to be sung because I am usually far too out of breath to mumble anything.

As I mentioned a few post ago my food has been well less than impressive. To someone that loves sugar and doesn’t mind gaining an extra few pounds it has been fabulous. But for someone that is getting married in a little over 4 months, would like to lose a little bit, and start running more, well it was depressing. BUT I am getting back on track and trying to make some healthier but satisfying choices (which is so freaking hard sometimes)!

But my sister is great about finding recipes that are healthier versions of food you would love to eat and she passed along this recipe for a hamburger quesadilla similar to the one that Applebees serves. Well I couldn’t really make it to the recipe because apparently it is extremely difficult to find pico de gallo in anything that resembles a grocery store so I justh made up my own version.

Pretty simply. We grilled 2 fairly large burgers and while those were cookies we put one large tortillas in a pan with oil to warm it up. Then I put the cheese, onions, and peppers on the tortilla (just half of it) and melted it all together. I slapped the burgers on top the cheesy goodness and folded the tortilla over. Cooked it on each side for a few minutes and VOILA. Delicious. Served with corn and rice on the side.

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What I was most surprised by was how well this heated up for lunch the next day! The tortilla wasn’t crunchy but it was really tasty still!

My breakfast I have been either drinking a smoothie with strawberries, almond coconut milk, bananas, and fat free yogurt or just throwing a bunch of berries in a to-go container and eating it when I get to the office! I may very well get all of my fruit servings in one sitting. A spoonful of natural peanut butter makes the medicine go down (you heard that here first so if it becomes famous- I’ll find you)

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I also made artichokes for the first time! Maybe I should embarrassed to say this but I had to call my sister to find out how the heck to cook these things! Turns out that she is an artichoke genius AND that they are easy if you have a steamer! I chopped off the nasty part of the and and put them in the steamer for about 20 minutes since they were baby ones. After I got them cooked I wondered how to eat them but I remembered seeing my sister eat them once and she just pretty much took all the tastyness off the leaf with her teeth and swallowed. So I followed that method and I REALLY enjoyed them! I’ll be making them again soon (because I enjoy them and because I have more in the fridge). I served them with some carrot, rice, and peas steam bag and some tilapia!

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We also made one killer breakfast this weekend since Rose was there visiting! Usually we end up having cinnamon rolls but since I knew our dear friends would be getting in late and chances weren’t great we would have had too much um milk to drink and be feeling sick the next morning we went for the ultimate breakfast! French toast topped with berries and whipped cream. Oh and an egg on the side for added protein. Oh and the bacon. Yea we had bacon too. Waffle House and Ihop don’t even compare to the Laney/Stiller household breakfast!

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But no food post would be complete without some mention of SUSHI! My favorite food of course! So last week I took a quick trip to Cincinatti with 2 co-workers and when we got in we just wanted to find a casual but delicious Sushi place and Ross (who loves Sushi like I do) had done his HW and had the name of a place not too far from our hotel. It was called Budina Pan Asian. It was more like a Panera where you order your food at the counter and then go take your seat. It looked a little sketchy not gonna lie but I’ll tell you what… hands down (and Allison agreed) the best Won Ton Soup I have never had! And I eat sushi a lot which means I eat that soup a lot. It was just normal soup but the flavor in that little cup was really impressive. I actually wish I would have had more!

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We certainly didn’t hesitate to order a variety of items! The rolls ranged from the normal Rainbow roll to the spicy rolls to some we had never heard of but sounded delicious! And since we all agreed that the best part of PF Changs is the lettuce wraps we decided to try an order of those too!

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The wraps were pretty much no where near comparison to PF Changs but it is hard to replicate pure perfection. It was really good though- no complaints from me!

I need a recipe for lettuce wraps.. ANYONE?!

Then after Sushi (my favorite food) we drove 10 minutes to find my favorite dessert… ladies and gentleman that’s right.. FRO-YO!

As I’m sure I have mentioned before I typically feel like I am cheating on Menchies when I hit up a few Fro-Yo place but there was no Menchies in site so we tried Orange Leaf and well I loved it!

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First off, their décor was really cute! They had these orange swivel chairs that you could tell the kids loved. They had a bunch of flavors and toppings and had a squeeze bottle of marshmallow topping which I happily used. Honestly, I wish I could even remember what I got right now haha. I believe it was peanut butter, cookies and cream, and twist. With ; my usual candy toppings!

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I was in L.O.V.E.

Additionally, sometimes I like to take advantage of the fact that I write a blog and even though I don’t have thousands of followers it makes me feel better to announce fun and happy news that happens to my friends. So special shout out to Erin and Mike who recently got engaged! This is now the second set of amazing friends that got engaged- special congrats to Jency and Mike (not the same Mike in case you were wondering) and we just couldn’t be happier for our friends! They are all seriously amazing people who I am so grateful for! They deserve the best and they all deserve each other because well… they are the best! So to my newly engaged friends… CONGRATULATIONS on the internet. I think it’s a big deal!

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What foods are you obsessed with?

What is your favorite flavor of Fro-Yo… I promise to try it!

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CrossFit Fun and Weekend Highlights!

Another weekend come and gone- they go by too fast don’t they? I apologize for being M.I.A. over the last week or so! As you know from my very generic post last week, work was INSANE and filled with meetings and dinners. Delicious dinners that made my pants a lot tighter. It’s all good though- I suppose that is part of being in the corporate world… the work day rarely ends when you leave the office! Before I get to my weekend fun I want to tell you about the awesome workout I had Thursday  night! It was awesome for lots of different reasons

  • Tim came with me
  • Kari and Joy were there who I just love to kick some butt with
  • We ran a mile for a warm-up and I needed that
  • I was sore for days!

The workout we did was outside since the weather was fabulous! We did everything from play tug-of-war (which I realized, with Kari’s suggestions, if you are the anchor at the back of the rope and have the thing looped around your waist- just turn around and run… run your heart out) which my team won, run suicides with the cones, burpees, pull-ups, jump rope, hanging knee raises, one-legged squats, and just worked out excuse my French but asses off! It was an intense workout and I was sure to give it 100%!

workout

Hey it may not look pretty but I was trying!

And even through all of the grunts, yells, swear words, and sweat we still managed to laugh and have some fun!

workout 2

I have found the more I mix up my workout the better. For one, I get bored easily and you can’t just mentally keep doing the same things over and over. Two, your muscles also get bored easily. You need to give them something new to do. Three, it keeps me challenged. If you are constantly creating and achieving measurable and realistic goals you will feel better about yourself and all that your body can do. That would probably be my biggest hint to anyone that is just starting to workout… MIX IT UP! Do something FUN and just enjoy yourself. Life is a ride-take care of yourself and have a TON of fun along the way!

These women are seriously strong and have hearts that go on for miles. They really do inspire me each and every day and I cannot even begin to thank them for everything they do for me. They probably don’t even know it but their strength and commitment to their health really keeps me going day in and day out. It’s funny how often we are inspired by others that are probably not even aware that they are inspiring us!

In any case my weekend was also filled with Friday fun (I took a mental health day) where I got my haircut and picked up Peyton for a play date at the park and then had a slumber party!! The park was a really great day and we had fun racing down the slides and swinging. Well she had fun in the swing… which who wouldn’t when  you continually request for “under doggies” and get them all of the time.

My mom met us at the park for a quick run down the slide in her beautiful pink pumps..  now that is a hardcore grandma!

mom and pey park

Oh the life of a 3 year old!

We went to Menchies (it’s our regular slumber party spot) where she impressed myself, Tim, and the guy sitting in a nearby table with her Spanish skills. Tim loves this because he loves how much Spanish he retained after taking it in grade school so he likes to whip out his Spanish skills every now and then. Especially when  he gets to use them with a 3-year old I guess! Pey was exhausted and only made it through oh maybe 10 minutes of The Incredibles before she passed out on the living room floor. I made it through a little over and hour and Tim made it through the entire thing. In the morning we enjoyed pancakes and eggs- our favorite!!

After dropping Pey off and running some errands I headed home for  quick nap before heading to my bestest’s birthday celebrations at her parent’s house! Kara’s parents have been like second parents to be since I was in middle school so it is so nice to be there to just hang out with the family. Her little sister Lauryn is practically my little sister and I love hearing of all her new adventures… cheerleading, crafting, driving, and all of her many accomplishments (which is an EXTREMELY long list because she is amazing). So we had a great dinner of Italian sausage, beans, fruit and had this delicious chocolate pudding, mint pie for dessert! I love chocolate, I love mint, and I love cool whip… so this was a dream come true! I think there are some cute pics to come from Momma Lanzer’s camera but I haven’t seen any yet to post!

Sunday was filled with Wedding planning! We started on our table numbers, we went to pick up candle holders at the store and a bunch that we are borrowing from family (thank you Karla and Katie)! We chatted about tuxes, transportation, and honeymoon stuff. Well mostly just discussed that Tim was looking at honeymoon stuff since it is a surprise to  me! It was really the first time Tim had any time to talk about the wedding so I think he enjoyed being brought up to speed on some of the things I already decided during tax season! Plus, it felt good to get things crossed off the list!!

Not the most eventful weekend but was filled with laughter! As usual it went by WAY to fast and Monday morning seemed VERY early BUT I have this weekend to look forward to now!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Hi all! I know it is tasty Tuesday but in light of the holiday today I thought I would sub in a different post and catch up on food updates tomorrow SO

Today for Valentine’s Day I spent most of my day flying on a plane back and forth to Chicago for work but when I got home I was excited to see Tim walking through the door 10 minutes later!

I had forgotten about Menchies “double smiles” deal today for Valentine’s Day!! So Tim and I decided to have dessert FIRST! Which in my eyes is always the perfect way to have any holidays… Frozen Yogurt for dessert before dinner! I was VERY happy!! (please excuse the not so pretty look I had going this evening… long day)

So I had some peanut butter, cookies and cream, and some vanilla and chocolate twist from Menchies. I then topped it off with some cookies and ice cream bars of sorts! Not exactly on my path to fitness and wellness but certainly a delicious treat for Valentine’s Day!!

Since I had been on a plane all day long  and Tim had been busy at work and watching his brothers basketball game we decided cooking dinner was just out of the question and Tim felt pretty confident that Chinese Food was on his agenda so that is what we had! It was a delicious Valentine’s Day meal!!!

So I just loved my Sesame Chicken! Even though it was not some fancy dinner it was just perfect. Tim and I had a nice evening together catching up on some TV and eating so freaking good yucky Chinese food ;)

So Happy Valentine’s Day to all! I hope you had an amazing day spending it with someone you love and just for the record if that means you spent the evening with yourself, I personally think that is fantastic! You should love yourself more than anyone could ever love you!

Tasty Tuesday Updates!!

I have lots of delicious food updates from this past week! I have been making a huge effort to make healthier choices which of course means more cooking, less eating out, and better for you foods! It was hard to chose just a few highlights but here are some of the major updates!

Big Lunches

Lunch has been interesting! As you can see I am a VERY hungry girl at lunch time but it has been filled with salads, delicious La Croix, Chobani Greek Yogurt, Strawberries, and Carrots! I usually only make it through half of these items but it is nice to have choices- plus it makes for a really tasty 3pm snack!!

I also enjoyed a tasty baked potato for lunch the other day (not the same day- gosh I am not that crazy). Although I did manage a turkey burger with this baked potato and a side of strawberries for dessert! I like to top my baked potatoes with broccoli (overcooked broccoli actually- I like it really soft) and a little bit of cheese and bacon with sour cream on the side.

Breakfast

I have also been enjoying some more 100% Steel Oats from “Good Food Made Simple” that I purchased at Sam’s club. This round I decided to make the honey one and I added in a small handful of chocolate chips! Honestly, I think it was too much chocolate for me (which is very difficult to say) BUT it was still really tasty!! If you want to read more about my first experience with these oats check it out here.

Treats

One of the highlights of the week was Friday night when Tim took me out to Menchies!! OOO how I love Menchies! I was feeling a little under the weather so the frozen yogurt felt really good on my sore throat…. well the delicious taste was a bonus haha. I had some banana, chocolate, cookies and cream, and peanut butter *yea a little bit overboard* and I mixed in some candy. I had far more than Tim haha but it was worth it

Normal Dinners

I have been doing pretty good with my healthy balanced meals at dinner! I managed some delicious baked chicken with green beans on the side and some honey mustard dipping sauce!! I forgot how much I LOVED this meal since I used to eat it like every day in Boston! It was a simple and easy meal to make.

Tim even made some really tasty meatloaf the other day! We are a big fan of putting everything into meatloaf… ground turkey, oats, eggs, ketchup, peppers, onions, and whatever else we can think of!

I had dinner tonight actually at my parents! We have all natural Buffalo steaks with mushrooms and zucchini on the side! I think I ended up eating most of the mushrooms while I was cooking (I guess mom and dad won’t put me in charge of that again hehe) and while I am not a huge red meat girl the steaks were pretty good. I think I like Bison much more than a regular steak. I also tasted this all organic chocolate that my mom got at Whole Foods but I can’t say this hit my taste buds in the right way at all!

Lots of veggies!

and a full delicious meal

Before the dinner we enjoyed a Smoothie from my mom’s new Vitamix smoothie maker. This blender is CRAZY and works like no other blender I have ever seen. We put spinach in this smoothie and wheat grass and some Kumquat fruits, Greek Yogurt, and some Almond Milk! It looks pretty weird to start..

And still looked pretty weird while it was blending

and actually looked pretty weird in the glass but tasted surprisingly good!

Dips

The other night I decided to combine 3 of my favorite foods… avocados, mangos, cilantro, oh and lime juice. It tasted delicious and I think it would be really good served on Chicken or something but I never got that far… I’ll try that next. I cut up 2 avocados, 1 mango, a few teaspoons of cilantro, and just a squeeze of lime juice! Highly recommend and if you find a good use for it let me know! So far I just eat it with a spoon or some chips!

Game Night

Tim and I went over to Kara and Dana’s for game night the other night and not only did we have a blast playing games but we also have a GREAT meal made by Dana!! Dana made some lasagna for the first time and it was sooo good. Kara’s salad was also delicious just for the record! I was so proud of Dana’s meal and wish I had more room so I could have had quite a bit more but he did such a great job so I think I’ll be asking for this meal again!!

D was so proud!

and my belly was happy too!

Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday was INSANE! Casey and Mark had a party with a ton of great friends and some really tasty food! Tim and I were in charge of the Rice Krispies Treats which I had not made from scratch in a really long time so it was a ton of fun. I have a love for marshmallows so as you can imagine this is one of my favorite desserts.

Casey made some delicious pierogi and chili!I even made the pierogis for lunch the next day!! Tim had the chili- thank you Casey for our left overs!!

Molly also made this tasty taco dip that had guacamole in it. I have had the taco dip before but I have never had it with the guac inside so that was like opening up a present Christmas morning and realizes it was something you had wanted that you didn’t even ask for!!

Oooo and let’s not forget about the pulled pork Casey made for the pulled pork sandwiches… I think I’ll make this in the crock-pot one of these days!

Lots of pulled pork

And of course that wasn’t all! Here is the entire spread…

SOO much fun!

Dinner at Jen’s

I also had dinner with Casey and Jen the other night at Jen’s house! Jen made chicken parmesan with noodles and we ate some buffalo chicken dip as an appetizer! Jen was such a great cook and we enjoyed a nice girls dinner!

Jen was very proud of her meal and she should be- delicious!!

and once again my belly was happy!