Summer Thanksgiving

Only a few hours left to enjoy of the weekend!  NO! :)

This afternoon was a tad stressful because there were a few issues with tomorrow’s BIG surprise, so while I was at the grocery store I picked up some fresh flowers.

And immediately felt better.  Flowers do that, ya know?

Dinner tonight was a little bit of a mix n’ match.

I wanted to use a summer butternut squash I received from Bella Bean last week.

After I peeled of the skin, and removed the seeds, I cut it into cubes and placed it in a baking dish.

On top I sprinkled:

• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

I baked it at 375 for 45 minutes.  The aroma reminded me of Thanksgiving!

While those are the measurements I used, I would recommend using less butter.  The final result was very buttery.  It was delicious, but I could have done with a little less butter.

We also made BBQ pork chops.

And grilled okra.

I brushed a wee bit of olive oil on the okra before it was placed on the grill, and added a sprinkle of S & P.

For a dipping sauce, we used chili & garlic sauce.

This made the okra a little more bearable :)  I am not yet sold on the taste of okra, and think I may try frying it next time.

Even thought there was a little Southern…

BBQ pork.

A little Asian…

 

 Because of the Asian dipping sauce of course!

And a little Thanksgiving…

 It was fabulous!

Dessert followed dinner almost immediately.

 

Vanilla ice cream with Recee’s Pieces!

Before I head back to finalizing the surprise, I must apologize that I forgot to post snack suggestion #10 & #11 the past two days!!  I can’t believe I did that…  So tonight I leave you with THREE! (insert your hooray’s)

Snack suggestion #10

A hard-boiled egg with freshly ground black pepper.

Snack suggestion #11

Greek yogurt with chopped almonds and honey.

And last but not least….

Snack suggestion #12

One whole-wheat English muffin with peanut butter (or almond butter).

Has anyone tried any of the snack suggestions yet?  Which one(s)?

Can’t wait for tomorrow morning!

 

Three In One

Boy is this Sunday flying by!  I have been spending hours on the computer working on a BIG surprise I have for you tomorrow!

Remember those blueberry pancakes we brought home from Elmo’s after our brunch?  We dug into those around 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

They were sooo good and were full of warm blueberries (after we heated them up in the oven)!

They were a great afternoon snack :)

We couldn’t figure out what to do for dinner, and neither of us were motivated to whip something up a home, so we got pizza!

Plain cheese with a stolen piece of Chris’s pepperoni.  The slice was enormous!

I also got a side Greek salad.

And to celebrate the completion of our first triathlon, we opened a bottle of cabernet savignon that my parents brought back from Italy for us.

Great job picking out a bottle of wine mom & dad!  It was delicious and so smooth.  I had one glass before we headed to the bowling alley to meet our friends Ashley & Matt.

They arrived before us and we caught them playing Duke Hunter!

Too funny.

And what’s bowling without beer?  We got a pitcher of bud light for the four of us.

The bar even provided frosted mugs!

We ended up bowling 3 and a half games, and had a little fun with the last one -everyone was required to bowl with their opposite hand.

My first left handed bowl I got a strike, and every frame after that I got a gutter ball.  No joke!  I was awful.

But I had fun!

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And now onto breakfast and lunch today!

My arms were sore when I got up this morning, but I couldn’t figure out if it was because of bowling, or the tri? :)

For breakfast I made myself (and Chris) PB & J on awhole wheat bagel.

I used organic peanut butter from Earth Fare and Smucker’s blackberry jam.

And also had a  side of blueberries.

Breakfast hit the spot.

 

As did lunch!

After breakfast we picked up friends from the airport, and took Nylah for a 3 mile trail walk, and before we knew it we were hungry for lunch!

I had some leftover Greek salad and leftover chicken.

There wasn’t much salad leftover so I had to add some spinach, carrots, and green peppers.  And I used the dressing that it came with last night.

As a side I had some Kashi crackers and Laughing Cow cheese.

 I probably should have had a sandwich since my 7 day no sandwich challenge begins tomorrow! :)

So there ya go – three meals in one post!

I am off to the grocery store to try and figure out what I should have for lunch all week!

 

Race Recap

Chris and I successfully completed our first sprint triathlon!  I had so much fun and can’t wait to do another! 

We left our apartment at 6:45 this morning and walked out the door into a wall of humidity.  Sweet.  I guess I should be used it by now??  And the temperature on our car read 77 degrees.  We thought the forecast was for clouds and thunderstorms, which we were psyched about because we didn’t want to bike & run in the sun.  Of course when we showed up to the tri site it was bright and sunny – which made it feel that much hotter. 

Here I am getting my transition area ready.

I look like a big dork :)

And here’s my swim to bike and bike to run gear.

I swam in a full piece bathing suit, and pulled on a pair of running shorts for the bike & run.  I didn’t wear the padded bike shorts because it would have been too uncomfortable to run in them, and it’s not like the bike leg was that long.  I can deal with a sore bum for a day or two :)

After we finished getting our transition areas ready, we dug into some bagels with peanut butter.  We weren’t hungry enough to eat as soon as we got up, and wanted to fuel up closer to the start time, so we brought these with us.

And we split a banana 1/2 hour before the swim.

Speaking of the swim, I’m not sure I would do another sprint tri that involves swimming in a pool.  It was crowded, and hot, and no one had proper passing etiquette.  I had to barrel over people a couple of times :)

But aside from that, I loved it!  I don’t know what my official time and splits were.  But I believe I finished in 1 hour and 20 minutes, and if I had to guess, here’s what I think my splits were:

• 400 meter swim – 7 min. 15 seconds
• 12 mile bike – 46 min.
• 5K – 26 min.

Chris started about two minutes behind me, and ended up catching up to me with one mile left in the run (if he was a stronger swimmer, he would have passed me on the bike). I told him to go ahead once he caught up with me, but he said he wanted to cross the finish line with me (sweet, huh?). Of course when we were 50 yards from the finish line, Mr. Competitive decided to take off so another guy wouldn’t beat him.  I tried to keep up but my legs just couldn’t do it!

We didn’t stick around for the awards ceremony because we wanted to treat ourselves to brunch.  Once we scrubbed our numbers off and cleaned up, we went to Elmo’s Diner.

One our way to breakfast, maybe an hour after the race, the sky looked like this.

 

I take back my complaining about the sun being out during our race!  I think I preferred that over the downpour we ran into 2 minutes after I took this picture and the constant thunder & lightning.

I had the hardest time deciding what to order for brunch.  I was hungry, but wasn’t really in the mood for anything – especially breakfast items.  I finally decided on a chicken cesear wrap.

Which came with fries.

And coleslaw.

The dressing came on the side, which I liked.  Usually chicken cesear wraps either have way too much, or way too little dressing.  Don’t you agree?

 

I ate everything except the coleslaw (have never been a fan of mayonnaise), and a couple of fries.

 

We also ordered two blueberry pancakes to go, which we are looking forward to later!

Now it’s time for a movie and a snooze :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!