slow cooker mexican stoup

I'm glad you all liked the honeymoon recap! Thanks for all of the nice comments about the husband and I - I really appreciate it!

The past few days have been crazy busy, but I am enjoying getting back to my normal eating habits. My body has kind of been in a vegetable shock, but I know it's going to be getting back to normal any day now.

My days have been full of overnight oats:

served in awesomely cool margarita glasses from here. They could have been one of my favorite actual presents from the wedding.

Coffee may have been consumed in a cup from Cancun...

the husband told me today i like my coffee too strong - meh.

Many salads have been eaten - including avocado and salsa (it's hard to get out of mexican mode)

I missed my hummus as well...

My afternoon snacks have been all over the place - I have been a grazer...

Another bowl of overnight oats was consumed this morning - this bowl was so pretty.. and pretty delicious too might I add!

 After breakfast, I had to run some errands and do some laundry (at the parent's house because we thought ours was broken), so to kill time I ran to the gym, lifted, and ran home. My legs hurt really bad because I ran yesterday as well... and I hadn't run for over a week. Whoops!

I was over at my parent's house for lunch today and my mom made me some veggies and rice - they were really good, but I was super hungry because of my workout. They are unpictured because I'm a horrible blogger and was too hungry to even say hello to mommasita.

When I got home, I was still hungry so I decided I would eat some crackers, carrots, and hummus.

try this... x like 5

 I may or may not have finished off this tub of hummus.

I may or may not have also swirled my finger around in the tub to make sure I got it all.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... don't judge me. :)

quite possibly the best hummus ever

I wanted to make something easy today because I was also making a coffee cake for tomorrow morning (recipe to come!), so I decided to go with the slow cooker!

Slow Cooker Mexican Stoup

What you'll need:

• slow cooker
• 2 cans beans (I used black)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 can drained
• 1 zucchini, cut into large chunks
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• spices: pepper, salt, garlic, crushed red pepper, chili powder
• avocado or meat of your choice to go on top

How it's done:

1. Put everything in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours.

Seriously.. it's that easy! It was delicious too!

brand new baby slow cooker

simple ingredients at their best

chopped zucchini

chicken for the husband

avocado for me!

delicious

This was really filling and I will definitely be making it again. We have some left overs, so I'm sure it could feed four people comfortably. This was inspired by Kath as I remembered a recipe she made kind of like this!

It's been nothing less than busy around here, and I have to go get some things done. Off to do laundry! Oh the joys of marriage... :)

I'll be honest... I don't have a question for you all today. My brain is in a fog.

Until tomorrow!

what's that sound?

Silence. Complete, absolute silence.

This might be the best birthday present ever - the kiddos (my niece and nephew if you're new around here) are off at the neighbor's playing, and I get to relax. Absolutely perfect.

This post is going to be short and quick, because I am going to take advantage of this afternoon and get some things done.

I had a date this morning with Kelsey - we were both supposed to make brownie batter pancakes. Mine, however, did not work out so well. They just would not set! Thanks for the birthday shot out girl!

i know, this looks gross. i may or may not have eaten half the batter before throwing it out :)

When in doubt, I go to oats! Whipped oats a la Kath to be exact. I didn't have any more almond milk, so I just used all water for the liquid. Definitely not as creamy, but delicious nonetheless.

topped with coconut, blueberries, cinnamon, flax, and pb

After this bowl, I didn't even mind that my brownie batter pancakes went bad (okay, I still did, but not as much) - you can never steer wrong with oatmeal!

My mom gave me my birthday presents this morning at, oh... 5:45 am. I cannot sleep lately. I think I'm getting super anxious about the week ahead (yay wedding!). Mom got me a few new reads:

I am so excited to read these two books. I'm going to try to save them for laying on the beach in Mexico on my honeymoon! Mommasita is also buying me my first stash of food for the house as a birthday present. What can I say? I love food - does anyone agree? Question: Do you find it odd I requested groceries for my birthday? :)

As I was cleaning today, I found this in my purse....

Yes, a zucchini.. things just keep getting weirder! Actually my FMIL gave me this yesterday and I forgot to take it out of the purse - haha!

For lunch, I whipped up some quick asparagus with olive oil and pepper:

And a huuuge salad that I really only ate about 1/3 of:

romaine, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, chickpeas, 1/2 avocado, salsa, mustard

For some reason, I really wasn't feeling the salsa/mustard combo today. I'm not sure why, but I kind of ate the "goods" out of there: the chickpeas/avocado!

To finish up lunch, I ate some more healthy fats and protein!

date shmeared with sunbutter - yum!

raisins and cashews

Tonight for dinner we are going to Cooper's Hawk. They have an excellent gluten free menu - the funny thing is whenever I go somewhere that has a gluten free sandwich, I will totally get it even if it's a super fancy shmancy place. Portabello mushroom sandwich anyone? That is what I'm getting! Do you figure out what you are getting before you go out to eat?

After dinner, we are all heading to our new house for some cake! I probably won't do a follow up post until tomorrow. Have a great day!

 Now that I've gotten the rapping out of my system for today (and hopefully for a very long time) - I'll get on with the show.

I went and did a workout at the health club this morning - the humidity is totally killing me. I cannot even handle running outside. I did 3 miles on the treadmill followed by about another 30 minutes of strength training. When I got home, I had one of these guys:

what am i to do when these babies are gone?

Lunch today was leftovers from Mommasita - she cooked herself a great meal last night, and couldn't have it for leftovers today since she was working. Such a shame for mommasita, but big smile on Chelsey's face.

TJ's organic brown rice, sauteed veggies, crispy tofu, frontera grill salsa

 If you have never experienced all that is Frontera Grill, you need to re-evaluate you life for sure. Their jalepeno chipotle salsa is absolutely to die for. It is my favorite!

I had a cashew, raisin, fig mix after lunch. I'm not going to lie, this lunch kept me full from lunch (about 12) straight until dinner (about 6:45). Since when do I EVER go more than 3 hours without eating? Yowza!! 6.75 hours? That is waaaay too long!
I spent the afternoon with the kids and actually fell asleep for a good 15 minutes while watching a movie with my niece. We were just so comfy cuddling on the couch! We then ran out to Target, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Starbuck's. They were good on the errands, so I decided to feed my addictiontreat them to a smoothie.

When I got home, I immediately left to go to my house. I FINALLY got to unwrap my furniture from the horrible plastic wrap because (drum roll please) EVERYONE IS DONE WORKING ON IT! The electrician finished today, and the painters showed up to touch everything up. Needless to say, I was a happy girl.

Another reason to be happy: FH fixed the plumbing! Yes!!!! Apparently there were scraps of new PVC pipe stuck in the plumbing from when it was installed. That got everything all backed up, but FH got it all out! He was very smelly when he came out though. His hands and tools were not the most sanitary (think about everything that came out of that pipe... yuck!)

When I got home, I was ravenous and very happy that Mommasita went out and got me something to eat for when I got home!

I know, it's boring - but oh so delicious! I didn't have time to think about feeding myself today :) . This potato was tiny and also had a little rotten spot, so I cooked up some broccoli as well!

Right when I was done eating, Mommasita and I headed out to find myself something to wear for my rehearsal dinner. We were VERY successful! I found an adorably cute dress which was originally $60 for $23! I love bargains like that! FH was also excited when he saw how much I saved (he's dutch, therefore, he is frugal - haha!)

When I got home from visiting with FH, I needed a snack really quick!

red delicious apple, raisins, peanut butter spoon

I'm not usually a fan of red delicious apples, but it was all we had! I definitely need to go to the store tomorrow to pick up some fruit.

I'm so pumped for this weekend! Reasons why:

• my golden birthday is tomorrow (23 on the 23rd)
• FH and I are going hiking on Saturday
• i move into my house on Sunday!!!

Question: What is going to make your weekend exciting? Are you looking forward to anything?

happy ttttttttuuuuesssdaaaayyyy!!!!!

I'm not sure why I'm in such a spunky mood today, but I am. Despite my horrible night of sleeping and the more than gloomy weather outside, I am just in such a GREEEEAAAT (tony the tiger anyone?) mood!

"t" for tuesday! :)

I had lots of snacks last night for a couple of reasons: 1) I had extra time on my hands (::gasp::) and had some sitting around time - which leads to eating!!!! :) 2) I ran 7 miles yesterday so I needed to fuel up even though I wasn't really hungry and 3) I just love food - no explanation needed.

One of these snacks included a homemade cereal concoction! I call it: Blueberry Muffin Crunch Cereal!

• one toasted blueberry muffin (think warm and gooey)
• handful of raisins
• couple of figs cut up
• blueberries
• almonds and/or other nuts of choice
• cinnamon
• loads of almond milk

THIS

WAS
DELICIOUS!!!

This morning I popped out of bed around 7 and was ready for some breakfast! It was a typical one but delicious nonetheless. I decided to add more toppings on it today to try and up the food intake (which I am always trying to do). I have been consciously eating more lately, but I lost weight. I think it's due to stress (hello wedding in 10 days and moving into new house in 4), but I think eating more will help.

Sometimes I just can't believe how much food I need to eat in order to sustain myself/maintain my weight because I eat so clean/healthy. You can eat so much! For example, on Sunday, my aunt and uncle came over for dinner and my aunt commented on my eating. She said, "my goodness you are like a vulture!!!" Yup!! Proud of it too! :)

Anyways, back to breakfast:

overnight oats topped with blueberries, raisins, chopped naner, coconut, cinnamon, and pb

you are so good to me

I SWEAR tomorrow and Friday (happy birthday to me!) will be different breakfasts. Kelsey and I have a virtual breakfast date on Friday, so expect to see the same food from us!

Have a great Tuesday lovies!

i do not function well after 10

The title says it all - so, if there are typos, misspelled words, or just ridiculous rambling, that is why.

I had a great bike ride this morning - I think I went around 12-13 miles. I tend to measure how good a bike ride is by how wobbly my legs are after I am done. My legs were good and wobbly! :)

After bike ride snack:


Lunch looked something like this:


plus a salad on the side!

I went to a pool party this afteroon with some people I work with - it was so nice to see everyone, especially because I will only get to talk to them for a little while at my wedding I am sure!

On the way home, I made a few stops:

my favorite!!!

I also stopped at Whole Foods, where I managed to spend almost $40? Whaaaattt!! I got a couple of Larabars (anyone ever try coconut cream pie?!), some gluten free oats, unsweetened coconut (helloooo homemade coconut butter), some items from the bulk foods section (cashews, dates, figs), and mommasita's beloved spinach artichoke dip!

When I got back into my car, I snacked on a couple of my purchases.

thses organic turkish figs are so delicious!

I am not joking when I tell you next that I made and ate my dinner in a matter of 15 minutes. I was crunched for time because I had a special place I was going (keep reading), but I needed to eat before I left. I grabbed a package of frozen Trader Joe's organic brown rice, sauteed a few veggies really quick (broccoli, spinach, red pepper, zucchini), and tossed it all in hummus. It was a really quick and delicious meal!!

hi hummus - i am so glad i figured out you could taste a little cheesy

I ate these bad boys on the way out the door...

2 dates filled with sunbutter

The other day FH called me and asked me if I would like to go out on a date tonight. Seeing as we never get to go out due to everything that is going on with the house and the wedding, I jumped all over that! We went to go see Brad Paisley with a few of our friends - if you are a fan of country musc, and you have never seen him in concert, I highly reccomend it. It was an awesome show!

some people (FH) were not ready for this picture

We sat in the parking lot for an hour after the concert trying to get out. It is 1:08 a.m. and I just ate a ridiculous amount of crunchmaster crackers and hummus (too much hummus today). I hate being up this late. I am hoping to sleep until 8 a.m. Who thinks I can do it?