Weekend Ramblings & Meal Plan Wk #3

Good morning! Happy Monday. Did you have a great weekend? I had an amazing weekend. It was sunny, busy (I just wrote busty haha), productive and thoroughly enjoyable. Here's a snippet of what went on in our neck of the woods.

1.  I gave myself a pedicure and used Turquoise & Caicos by Essie.

2.   After yoga yesterday, I had an amazing shopping trip with the girls. We checked out a local hotspot called Dess911. If you love indie, retro or vintage style dresses, you have to check out this site. I bought 3 new dresses because I just couldn't choose between them!

you can`t tell how awesome these are from the pic....they are all on the site....

the 2 on the right are minis.....the two on the ends have pockets --- love!!!

3. I have officially become a Costco addict. I got my membership on Wednesday and I`ve already been there twice. On Saturday I got some great deals on Liberte Greek Yogourt and goat cheese.

4.  On Saturday, we had "Make Your Own Pizza" night.....sadly, everyone was pooped out (dogs included) and I was the only one who actually made a pizza. Derek passed out as soon as he got home from work and never got up until 8 a.m. on Sunday morning!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

veggie awesomeness

5. I am in love with this 40 minute walking interval workout.

6. You shouldn't  do an upper body workout on the same day as you plan to do some serious gardening. All I can say is I am in pain.

7. My fave garden decor. $2 at the Dollar Store. WIN!

look carefully....we are dog lovers to our core :)

8.  GCB makes for some kick-butt Sunday night TV.

I know some people find this show controversial, but I don`t take it to seriously

and get some good belly laughs out of it....

I also wanted to update you with how my eats and workouts have been going.

First of all, my right knee is still aching like crazy, so I  have scaled back the intensity of my workouts in order for my knee to have time to properly heal. This week, my workouts went a little like this:

Monday - Zumba

Tuesday - 25 minute run, 15 minute ab workout

Wednesday - 34 minute yoga/pilates workout from MyYogaOnline

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 90 minute Kundalini Yoga

Sunday - 40 minute walking interval workout, upper body weights

For once in my life, I am actually listening to my body and trying to give it the time it needs to heal. Frustrating? Yes. Necessary? Also yes.

My meal planning/grocery budget is also going really well. I love knowing what's on the menu, so that I don't have to figure something out each night. I also love extra cash in my bank account :D

This week, our eats are going to look a little like this:

Breakfast
Green smoothies, Greek Yogourt with honey & granola, veggie omlets

Lunch
Wraps, salads, soup, leftovers

Dinners
-Make your own pizzas - I still have one crust left, so I'm thinking this will work for a lonely girl dinner
-Spaghetti (Derek)/Spaghetti Squash (me!) with marinara & sauteed veggies
- Barbecue - Meat and Taters for Derek; Portobellas and Sweet Taters for me & grilled local asparagus
- Bacon & Eggs/Egg N Cheese Sammies
- Chicken Nachos for Derek; Sweet Potato Fry Nachos for me
- BLTs with Caesar Salad
- Eat Out

Whew! What a post for a Monday morning....I guess I had lots to talk about :)

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Have a great day,

Andrea
xoxo

What I Ate Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! We are officially at the halfway point of yet another week....and in the last full week of April. Can you believe it?! Have you been keeping up with Jenn's veggie challenge this month? I've been finding it pretty easy to do and I love all the fresh and delicious eats that I've been fueling up on lately.



Breakfast
I have to leave early for work everyday this week, so I've been taking my breakie to go. I've been loving these Vita Top Cran Bran muffins with some fruit on the side. The weather's been really cold, so we've been amping up our Vitamin C by eating lots of oranges!

Lunch
I made enough Cheesy Vegetable Soup so that I would have lots of leftovers to take with me to work for lunch. Our office has been freezing cold, so I've been really grateful for my hot steamy bowls of soup. As a side, I had a toasted multigrain thin bun with a little butter. YUM!

Dinner
I am in love with this Beer BBQ Tofu. It is so freakin' delish and an awesome addition to a big ol' plate of honey dijon roasted veggies. Comfort food at its finest my friends!!! A glass of red wine capped this meal off perfectly!

I've been bringing snacks with me everyday to work, but I've been too dang busy to stop and grab them! When I do have the munchies, I've been trying to stick to raw veggies with roasted garlic hummus. Cutting your veggies up on the weekend makes for an easy grab n go snack all week. This is such an easy way to add a serving of veggies to your daily eats!

For those of you who've checked out my meal plan, notice how I'm stickin' to it like glue! I've been rockin' out this week!

If you need to change up your eats and want to find lots of veg-spiration, check out Jen's What I Ate Wednesday party for ideas from so many other awesome bloggers!

What have you been munching on today?

Have a great day!
Andrea
xoxo

Meal Planning Monday

Happy Monday! So how was your weekend? Ours was yet another whirlwind. Derek was working a ton and somehow mine seemed to be filled with the normal errands, cleaning the house and catching up on laundry, yoga, trying to catch up on some work,...and meal planning.

Lately I've been feeling like this alot.....

source

Two days off just don't seem like enough! By the time I get all the everyday stuff done, I barely have time to squeeze in some fun and some R&R! I'm thinking that we need to start a petition for 3 day weekends. Whaddya think? Are you in?!

I actually spent a great deal of time this weekend working out a meal plan for the next week to week and a half. I've been wanting to do this forever, but I never sit down and do it and then stick to it. Lately, I've been finding myself at the grocery store ALOT. I'm spending WAY too much each week on groceries. My problem is that I have a rough idea of what meals we're going to make each week, but then I see a recipe online or a friend tells me about something new they've tried and I can't get it out of my mind, so I just make it. The result is food being wasted because it spoils before I use it and a pantry that is so stuffed full of unused things that I can barely move a can without something falling out! I'm telling you, I am totally out of control.

My dad is waiting to get a date for a surgery he has to have and as soon as we know when, I'm going to be taking off to Nashville to spend a few days with him and my mom....so I tried to keep that in mind when I was planning our meals. Derek is busy and doesn't take time to cook for himself, so I'm planning to make big batches of things I can freeze and I bought things like chicken and burgers, so that he could easily barbecue himself some healthy foods while I'm away instead of picking up fast food every day (that's the idea anyways LOL)!

 You'll probably be seeing alot of link love in my future posts because I'm planning to try some recipes that I've bookmarked from some of my fave bloggers. Here is the meal plan that I came up with:

Breakfasts
Chocolate Greek Yogourt
Vita Top Cranberry Bran Muffins
Green Smoothies
Berry Smoothies
Oatmeal

Lunches
Salads
Veggie Sandwiches with Hummus
PB & J for Derek
Soup
Leftovers

Snacks
Microwave Popcorn
Raw Veggies with Hummus (Ranch for Derek)
Hard Boiled Eggs
Fruit: Kiwis, Oranges, Bananas
Plain Greek Yogourt with Fruit
Girl Guide Cookies (Derek bought 'em, so he's gotta eat 'em up!)
Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate

Dinners
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Barbecue Burgers (for Derek)/Chickpea Burgers (for moi) with Veggies on the Barbie
Marinated Tofu w/ Steamed Sweet Tater (for moi)/Marinated Chicken with Baked Tater (for Derek) & Veggies
Grilled Cheese & Homemade Tomato Soup
Pasta with Artichokes, Black Olives & Tomatoes (recipe coming!)
Eggs and Toast
Veggie Stirfry with Rice

I did a huge grocery shop on Sunday and now I have most of the stuff I'll need to make every single thing on this list. I also took the time to wash and cut up some veggies so we have lots of healthy food ready at our fingertips.

I hoping that meal planning will help me to stay within a budget and I feel that it will help me stick to a healthy eating plan ---- I've given myself lots of healthy options, which will help us to stay on track and away from not-so-healthy munchies that have been finding their way into our fingers now and again.

Someday I would love for my fridge to look like this:

Source: Pinterest via Shannon Laullin

A girl can dream can't she??

Now that you know what I'll be eating, tell me a couple of meals that you have planned for your family in this coming week?

Do you find your weekends fly by right before your eyes or do you manage to carve out some time to stop & smell the roses?

I hope you have a fabulous day! Let's start this week off right, okay?!

Andrea
xoxo