It’s been a brutal one over here. I feel like I have about a thousand deadlines all at once—just in time for summer. Oh to be able to relax and read blogs all day. A girl can dream right?

Anyway enough depressing talk about my work life. Let’s talk about food since of course it’s What I Ate Wednesday time! Thanks to Jenn for hosting!

So lately I’ve been in the habit of grocery shopping every 1.5-2 weeks instead of every week. I mean, I’m only one person, so I don’t truly need to go every week. But towards the tail end of my supply I start to have a limited selection of fresh produce on hand. This was one of those days. So I had to keep it simple.

Breakfast

The usual! Egg sandwich with one egg, egg whites, cheddar cheese, and apricot jam this time. Sweet and savory mmm.

Lunch

Keeping it simple. String cheese and some hummus toast, just making use of what I had hanging around the house!

Snack #1

Chobani + granola. Running out of Greek yogurt is a major signal that I need to grocery shop. If I still have that, I’m generally okay haha.

Surprise Coffee Break

A coworker and I were both in need of some iced coffee. I said work has been rough lately didn’t I? This helped some.

Snack #2

Apple, plain and simple.

Work it Out

I drove to the gym after work and actually got in an awesome cardio workout. I mixed things up a lot, and ended up spending 20 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the treadmill, and 5 minutes doing some random cardio circuit work. When I have time to make a pretty graphic for it I’ll share! It was definitely a good one.

Then I went home to bust out Week 3 of Ripped in 30. Moving on to Week 4 tomorrow!

Dinner

After I showered and whatnot I went to the kitchen to make some dinner. Pasta with veggies was calling my name. Gotta use up those veggies!

I did my usual trick, and added Greek yogurt to make the pasta sauce extra creamy. Delicious!

Dessert

Dessert was a couple of my recipe fails from the other night. They don’t look pretty but they taste pretty darn good.

And there you have it!

Questions: How often do you grocery shop? Do you try to use up most/all of your food before you hit the store again?

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday to all of you!

I don’t have a lot of time to blog today, but I thought I’d pop in with a quick recipe failure from last night for your entertainment. I finally got to experiment with this product that I mentioned weeks ago.

Xylitol sweetener is an alternative to sugar that can be used in baking at a 1 to 1 ratio. It’s a naturally occurring sugar found in many of the fruits and vegetables we eat on a daily basis. Clinical research has shown that it has some pretty interesting health benefits too, including healthier teeth, stabilized blood sugar, lower insulin levels, and increased endurance. But—it tastes like sugar!

Check out their website to find out more about the health benefits of xylitol.

Ok—back to this recipe failure. I was hit hard last night with a major craving for chocolate chip cookies. I didn’t want to make a full batch, so I quartered my usual recipe and decided to substitute xylitol and gluten-free all-purpose flour instead of the usual sugar and flour. Sounds like it should’ve worked, right?

WRONG.

I ended up with flat, mushy, oddly-spotted cookies. I’m not really sure what happened.

They tasted great, but the texture was most definitely not okay.

(I obviously still plan on eating them.)

I’m hoping to find more time to experiment with this product. The taste was there, I just need to play around a bit more to get the right texture. Wish me luck!

Questions: What was your last epic recipe failure? Do you try baking substitutes often?

Full disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but was provided the product free of charge in exchange for a review and (hopefully) a recipe. Still working on that. All opinions are—of course—my own!

I started by heading to the gym after work on Friday which always feels like a major accomplishment. I did 30 minutes on the arc trainer, and then since the gym was fairly empty, I did a couple strength circuits instead of driving home for a Ripped in 30 workout. It was great to mix it up and do whatever I felt like!

Plus, it was a major time saver. And I was in a bit of a hurry to make it to Matt’s for a house party they were throwing. It ended up being a really great night. It was a picture failure though, sorry! Most of you guys know I don’t generally take a lot of pictures when I’m with my friends enjoying a few drinks. I’m just not the type to bust out a camera on nights like that.

One of Matt’s friends who’s joining us in the Tough Mudder was there, and we started talking about going for a hike/run the next day to train together. Based on my “condition” he didn’t think I’d make it the next morning, but little does he know I have plenty of experience working out hungover.

So early Saturday afternoon, Matt, Andrea, Matt’s friend, and I all went to the Blue Hills Reservation to do some running and hiking. Logan joined us too of course.

I didn’t have my iPhone armband with me so I couldn’t take pictures, but a quick Google search should give you guys an idea anyway.

I also didn’t turn my Garmin on. Totally free running and hiking! #runfree4me

(not my picture)

The trails were really rocky, and really steep at times. I think it was great practice for the actual race which goes up a mountain.

(not my picture)

We ran for the most part whenever it was possible, but if it was too dangerous to run we just walked and hiked as fast as we could. We were definitely getting some pretty strange looks from all the people casually hiking! haha

(not my picture)

At the top of one of the bigger hills, there was a tower with this incredible view of the Boston skyline.

(not my picture)

We ended up running through the trails (with breaks here and there to decide where to go) for almost 2 hours! Pretty great training if ya ask me.

After our run I drove home to shower and EAT. I was pretty ravenous by the time I got in the door. Good thing I had made overnight oats in the best jar ever.

I definitely ate more than that though, don’t worry. PB + banana + toast is my favorite post run food.

Then I had to get ready for another night out, this time in Boston. One of Matt’s friends was throwing a party with a fun piano bar theme. His roommates are fantastic on the piano and guitar, so we made requests and all sang a bunch of classic songs. It was fun to do something different than the usual bar scene, that’s for sure!

I stayed at Matt’s that night, and drove home Sunday morning. This is where the busy weekend caught up with me. All I wanted to do was relax and catch up on two weeks worth of my DVR. I literally never have time to watch TV anymore. It’s quite depressing.

I made a green smoothie (nutrients to fight off a hangover I hoped), then plopped on the couch and guiltlessly spent the majority of the day there. A nap happened at some point too.

I cried during The Office finale. That show will always remind me of my college years. It was strangely emotional to see it end, although I think they did a great job with it. I’ll miss those characters.

And now I’m TV’ed out and thinking about reading a book. I’m still working on Game of Thrones and am embarrassed to say how long it’s taking me to get through them. I never have time to read anymore either. Oh well, it’s good to be busy right?

Questions: How was your weekend? Do you prefer to keep busy all the time or do you enjoy time to yourself?

Oh well, it’s Friday!

First I want to update you guys on my Tough Mudder, which is like—tomorrow basically.

Seriously though, it’s June 1st and is approaching super quickly! I’m really excited about the team that got thrown together at the last minute (is there any other way to do things?)

The line-up is:

• Me
• Andrea (roommate and running buddy)
• Sarah (roommate, has a half-marathon coming up)
• Matt (boyfriend and 19 minute 5k-er)
• Matt’s friend (personal trainer)
• Matt’s friend (fellow track star/sprinter)

So—any guesses as to who the weakest link will be?

Haha! Seriously how did this happen! I was a little bit worried about finding enough people to join our team. Now I’m worried since I somehow ended up with an all-star team that I do not belong on. I guess we’ll see how this goes!

Ok, recipe time. I’ve had a lot of requests for this one, so I decided to actually measure out the ingredients this weekend. Enjoy!

Homemade White Sangria
Serves 8-10 (probably).

Ingredients:

4 cups of white wine (I use Riesling)
1 1/2 cups of vodka (preferably flavored, I used Passion Fruit)
2 cups of ginger ale
~3 tbsp of sugar (or to desired sweetness)
Sliced fresh fruit (citrus fruits are best!)

Instructions:

1. Slice up some fresh fruit and set aside. I love citrus fruits in this recipe, but I’ve also thrown in blueberries, strawberries, and apples. Anything works!
2. Combine white wine, vodka, and ginger ale in a large pitcher and stir with a wooden spoon.
3. Add a few tablespoons of sugar, and stir quickly until it’s dissolved.
4. Add reserved fruit, and give it a quick stir to combine.
5. Chill for a couple hours before serving. It gets better and better with time, and tastes great the next day!

All right guys, go make this sangria, grab a glass or two, and have a great weekend!

2. Traveling for work last week was pretty fun. I ended up finishing my work early, so I killed a little time shopping.

How amazing are these shoes? Found them both on clearance at DSW!

3. I also explored some little shops in the area and discovered a life-changing salted caramel truffle. I’m looking into whether this place takes online orders.

4. A glass of wine makes a flight go by so much faster in my opinion.

5. This somehow found its way into my home last week. I clearly polished it off in no time. $10 down the drain.

6. While I was exploring Whole Foods (for the first time in ages, I never shop there) I spotted these granola bars.

Anyone tried them yet? I couldn’t bare to spend $6 on granola bars but if I find out they’re really good I might have to.

7. This weekend was Mother’s Day of course! My family gets together for a big brunch. My contribution was banana bread (simple recipe here) and my (in)famous white sangria. I’ll be sharing the sangria recipe tomorrow!

8. The spread for Mother’s Day was fantastic. Here’s my plate:

Broccoli and cheddar quiche, bacon, fruit salad, baked French toast, and fruit pizza! I loved loved the fruit pizza and will be getting that recipe from my aunt soon hopefully!

9. A lot of you wanted to know what I thought of The Great Gatsby! Here are my takeaways (without giving too much away):

• I loved what they did with the music.
• I loved Leo DiCaprio as Gatsby, although at times I did feel like he looked a little old for the role (ah! Sorry :-/)
• I’m not a Tobey Maguire fan but I thought he did pretty well as Carraway.
• In general I thought they adapted the novel well, and I liked the written, quoted text that would sometimes appear on screen. But I think for someone who didn’t read and love the novel, this might’ve been weird.
• Matt’s thoughts: he liked the beginning (more action and things going on) and got bored towards the end when it was more about plot/character developments.
• Ok this has a spoiler in it, warning! When you’re reading Gatsby, the whole yellow car accident is exciting and one of my favorite parts. It takes pages and pages to find out that Daisy was actually the one driving and Gatsby is taking the blame for her. In the movie you find out within 5 minutes, so the suspense wasn’t really there. Although I don’t think there’s anything that could have been done to make it better; just one of those differences between reading a book and watching a movie.

10. And last but not least, I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve shared a Logan pic with you guys. He’s so snuggly.

And he loves pillows.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Questions: Have you seen Gatsby yet? What did you think? What was the last thing you baked? How was your Mother’s Day?