pumpkin oatmeal

so, sometimes i like to pretend i'm this really important health/fit/lifestyle blogger and have lots of followers and companies send me stuff so i can review it on my super successful blog. and in this pretend fantastical world in my head, some of my "readers/twitters/followers" (aka natalie and christine) were wondering about my pumpkin oatmeal recipe that i tweeted about yesterday. so of course, since i had SO many readers just dying to know how i made it, i decided i'd post a little recipe/how to in pictures. 

first, a little confession. so you know how everyone is obsessed with pumpkin spice lattes? well, i am too. well, i'm obsessed with the idea of them/the season/the excitement etc. however, i don't actually really like the taste of them that much (shh, don't tell). so, feeling left out of all of the pumpkin hooplah, i decided to try to create my own concotion. i was inspired by PB Fingers and Carrots n' Cake for their pumpkin smoothies/other things. i had been drinking a lot of smoothies in the morning, so i wanted to have something different for breakfast. 

INGREDIENTS:

 i love mccann's oatmeal. no sugar, inexpensive and it it cooks super quickly in the microwave!

 i love almond milk. in cereal, in coffee, on it's own. seriously. try it. i've only been drinking it for a few months, but i prefer it 100% to milk. and apparently, it has more calcium.

i got this pumpkin at whole foods. i probably wouldn't have bought organic, but it was all they have. i don't really feel like it's necessary to buy organic canned foods. do you? i don't really know, but it's more expensive.

 cinnamon and splenda. so a lot of people are anti splenda and fake sweeteners. but guess what? i'm not. but you could obviously use real sugar or stevia or whatevs. 

DIRECTIONS (ready carefully it is REALLY complicated):

-Put oatmeal in bowl. Put as much as you want. i am a beast, so i put a lot. 

 

-Fill bowl with almond milk so it covers all of the oatmeal. if you like your oatmeal less wet, use less almond milk. 

-Then, put a big scoop of pumpkin into the bowl and mix all three ingredients. You can put as much or as little pumpkin as you'd like. I think the best way to measure is when you mix it, make sure all of the oatmeal is a light orange color. 

-Put in microwave and nuke it for 1:30 secs. Feels like eternity, i know. 

-Toss in cinnamon and splenda and stir well.

ENJOY!!!! it will keep you full for hours, and especially on a morning like this, it's a great comforting way to start the day. i'm a tool. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!

happiness is a full fridge

 

this is what my fridge looks like right now. i am beyond excited about this. baby bel, eggs, hummus, almond milk, peanut butter, apples, cukes, bananas, cheese, BEER, oh my. not to mention that T stocked the whole thing while i was at work. happiness is a full fridge?

poop in your shoes and grocery shopping

yesterday was a super relaxing day. we took it easy all weekend because the next three weeks, i will occupied with wedding related (not mine, duh) activities and then we are moving on july 5th. i wanted to nothing, and that is exactly what i did. i headed to soul cycle on sunday morning. legit it is the most fun workout ever. i've said it before and i'll say it again, if you live in nyc, you must try it. i recently was trying out a gym and went to one of their spinning classes and i wanted to die i was so bored. in soul cycle, you will never, ever ever get bored. you will sing, yell, clap, lift weights, and finish class convinced you can do anything. seriously. kelly ripa goes. and she's jacked, so if that's not good motivation, i don't know what is. 

after i pretended to be kelly ripa for 60 minutes, i headed to trader joes. this has pretty much become a sunday tradition, and i don't know what we are going to do when we move. we always get the same thing pretty much, so i figured i would show you what i fill my belly with on a given week. please note i have excluded the copious amount of brownies, waffels and dinges, pinkberry and other various treats that i also like to dabble in. 

i divided it into a few categories. breakfast. snacks. and dinner. lunch is usually a combo of all three if i don't hit up the caf at work for sushi.

as you've seen on the blog, i usually have either a think thin bar with a piece of fruit for breakfast, or i will make a shake after a good morning workout. i also loooove cereal so that is an essential purchase. i decided to try almond milk also to see how it tastes in shakes and/or with cereal. ps, have you tried the peanut butter think thin bar? it's legit like eating a reese's for bfast.

snackzzzzzzzzzzzzz. love me some sesame almonds, and t is a huge fan of the wasabi ones. also, baby bel is a main staple in my lunch box. fresh popcorn is also a favorite, esp. if you can find ranch seasoning and watch oprah whilst eating it. also, power berries. if you haven't tried them, you need to run to your nearest tjoes and hoard 8 packages. they are SO SO good and i pretend they are healthy because they are "dark chocolate" with "antioxidants" and "berries". i also got raspberries because they are finally in season and not 9.99 a container. i even sprung for 2. balllllerrrrrrr.

dinn. lots of meatless balzzzz. and nugzz. and broc and cauliflower. those are my main dinner ingredients , simple but to the point. also, we tend to order out a lot. it's a bad habit but seamlessweb is my bfffaeae so it's hard not to induldge one in a while  thrice a week. for dinner last night, i made shrimp scampi and a cranberry spinach salad. see? i do cook. proof here:

it's an ina recipe modified to not include 13 tons of butter. and i use "whole wheat" panko bread crumbs. so again, it's healthy. like i might as well just have eaten celery. after dinner, t and i attempted some yoga for our ailing body parts. we made a little yoga studio in our living room, which is now mostly empty due to the impending move. 

also, t's mad because he's afraid people will think that's MY bike, not his. mine is the other one that occasionally makes an appearance here, but truth is i can barely ride it and i'm afraid of it. after yoga, we stretched a little..and i did the new to me stretch which t titled "poop in your shoes"

clearly, i was concentrating very hard here. it was a great sunday. what did you do? 

the weekend so far

soooooo..it has been a very low key weekend so far. and i imagine it will continue to be that way. last night, after a ridic. long day at work (got to the office at 6:30 am), t and i went out to dinner at my new fav restaurant. i found it in an article here, but hadn't had a chance to check it out until now. bare burger has three locations in the city (murray hill, nyu area and queens somewhere). it has literally every type of burger you could ever imagine on the menu. think ostrich, elk, turkey, chicken, lamb..you get the point. to start off, t and i shared the pickle appetizer. when they arrived at the table, i was in heaven. 

if you know me, you obviously thought: oh, duh, they were in mason jars..no wonder she flipped. if you don't know me, i love mason jars. just thought you should know. 

t was very happy with his diet root beer. yes they have that sh** on tap.  for my burger of choice i went with the veggie burger in a lettuce wrap with a side of cranberry/spinach salad. it was bomb. com. it also has swiss cheese, onions, avocado and delish djon sauce. i was a happy camper. t got the bison burger, which was tasty too! (i liked my veggie better though) so after seeing the pic below, who wants to go back with me??

as for the rest of friday night..it looked something like this:

and this

what the hell is wrong with this guy in the mask? seriously? also, i don't like ashley. she's no ali. not that i'm biased. 

aaaaand i also read every blog i could think of, finished kite runner and  may have gotten a spot in the NYC marathon. more on the marathon soon. this morning i did an easy 5 mile run and some lifting at the gimnasio. wow i haven't said in a long time. it was raining out and i was being lazy so i hit the 'mill. i also did some core exercises and other weights. pretty boring. 

it's cool. i know i look possessed. whatevs. one weight exercise that i did that i do really enjoy are modified clean/jerks using a 20 lb ball. (don't worry, i don't actually know what i'm talking about. i literally just asked tim what i did bc i had no idea). here is the movement from start to finish. ps  excuse my obstructive, sweaty side pony and herniated expression. 

 it's actually kind of fun and is an awesome core workout, but also works your arms and shoulders tremendously and gets your heart rate up. i did 3 sets of 12 with other ab/arms stuff in between. i know it looks really easy and i look weak and pathetic in my attempt. but it really is fun/hard at the same time. aaaaaaaand after working out....we ate bim bim bap. which if you haven't tried it, you need to immediately. it is the most delicious combo of veggies, mustardy garlic sauce, chicken and brown rice. need i say more?

okay, maybe i should because it doesn't look that appealing there? but it's SOOO good and you should try b-bap on 54th and 9th because they are really kind people and trying to make their business work. i highly recommend and it's not expensive either. plus, b-bap is cool inside. 

now time to think about dinner..

food, cats, and running

so basically, when i looked at the pictures i've taken in the last four days on my iphone, food cats and running was the them i came up with. this is not okay. at all. i hate being that girl who loves cats but doesn't want to be a "cat person" fyi to all you cat haters, i'm also a DOG person and a mouse person and a horse person and a turtle person. (seriously). any way, this week has been a crazy one at work. we are gearing up for our summer associate interns (about 60 of them) to arrive on monday, and also have been hosting about 200 other students for various other events. we had a three hour long reception last night and all i got to eat were some grapes and cheese. not cool. what is cool though is that i finally got to try waffels and dinges (awesome nyc food truck) on monday with my co-workers. to say that it was good would be an understatement. 

it's fine that i had a giant waffle for lunch, because i had a think thin bar for breakfast (they are SO good and SO filling) so it's totally okay right?

also, can we talk about this heat? i'm sorry but i hate it. i love summer but getting to work sweaty and frizzy is not my idea of a good time. i'd rather be wearing two fleeces and two pairs of pants on my commute (um that happened) then sweating the whole time. case in point that this heat is making me feel not myself..i have been drinking water. A LOT. for those of you who know me, i don't like water. i'm not into water. i mean, i think people look cool when they carry giant water bottles, but it's just not me. until this week. i have been downing it. i have also learned that i much prefer to drink water when it is NOT cold. i don't like cold water. i like it luke warm. okay, yes also weird. 

i have also developed a new obsession with these granola bars. i know they are not new, and probably not the best thing in the world for me, but i just can't stop (cue the ne-yo). i had 2 yesterday, and stopped myself before diving in for a third. 

this is jack. he likes to stretch and foam roll with me. he also sits under me while i do push-ups and tries to cuddle while i am attempting a .5 second long plank. it's annoying, but i'm a "cat person" remember? so i put up with it. this morning, i hit up the treadmill. way too hot to go outside for a run. i ran home from work the other day and i was tired and thirsty after 3 minutes. this morning, i did an easy/slow 4 miles. i am feeling a little lost without a training plan right now, so i need to fix that stat.  

this is my awkward attempt at being a cool fitness blogger. i succeeded at the awkward part. at first, i looked at the mirror and took the pic, but i looked possessed and super creepy so i just decided to "casually glance elsewhere" muahaha. check out my new running tank from zappos. 20 bones and they delivered it to me over night. it's a dri-fit tank and i wanted it in a cool color (like orange) so i wouldn't end up looking like a ninja, but oh well. okay, have i scared you yet? it's 6:40 am and i've written a really strange blog post..today is going to be an interesting day. i shall leave you with two more pictures. cats and food. shocker. 

do you know how much i love yogurt covered pretzels? 

and cats? and ikat print? 

protein shake because I AM A BEAST!!

happy sunday morning! i am just relaxing at home, after going out and downing an iced venti vanilla latte. then, we got back, we decided to make protein shakes for bfast, instead of the usual egg whites and turkey bacon. i am still full from a massive glass of goodness. we got a blender last week, so t has been making them for breakfast every morning, but this was my first attempt. i'd say the outcome was b+ work. it wasn't thick enough like the delicious peanut butter split from juice generation, but it was definitely a lot healthier than that and had things in it that will help my muscles!!

first ingredients: ice (i will add more next time), a spoon of peanut butter, half a frozen banana and skim milk. i debated adding greek yog for texture but i thought the sourness would just overpower so i'm glad i vetoed that one. 

for nutrients, i added a scoop of chocolate protein powder and then an eency weency teaspoon of glutamine, which is for restoring muscles. i hope it works, because boy do my muscles need to be restored. 

this is what the final product looked like. again, a little watery but still pretty darn good. i am so FULL. 

tim is such a beast he drank his straight from the blender. now, off for my first long run in a week since my knee/quad have been really hurting. please glutamine magically heal me!

todd english's food hall

this weekend my mom visited and we had a ball. she suggested we check out the newly opened food hall in the plaza hotel. it's essentially what americans know as a "food court" however, it felt nothing like one. it's based on the classic food halls at famous department stores like harrod's. like everything else in the plaza hotel, it's incredibly glamorous and luxurious.  there are many different food stations such as a raw bar, pizza, a bakery, a flower stand, cheese selections, housewares etc. i took lots of pictures because the actual space is so beautiful. gorgeous tiling, intricate woodwork and of course every delicious treat you can think of. definitely a foodie's dream. i highly recommend that you check it out. next time i go to the plaza though, i'm going to find eloise. 

whooopaaaay paaaaayyyy

i think that i feel about whoopie pies the way many bloggers feel about macarons. i LOVE them. i HEART them. i WANT them in my tummy. it's interesting because two of my favorite places (maine and lancaster, pa) are known for whoopie pies. i wonder where they came from first? does anyone know? regardless, they are delicious and i have loved them since i was a wee one. peanut butter, chocolate, red velvet...mmmm mmmm mmmm. i really thoguht they might take off as the new cupcake, but i've yet to really see them many places. overall, i think they're perfect...it's almost as if they're tasty little cupcakes in macaron form...and who wouldn't love that?