brittney breathes

What I Ate Wednesday: Gimme Some Protein

by Brittney on May 22, 2013 · 0 comments

I had totally planned on posting yesterday and then…we took a long walk with Murph and I melted into the couch and declared I wasn’t blogging last night. Hey, it happens.

But I’m back today with my Tuesday eats. Let’s get to it!

Breakfast 8am

I decided to change things up this morning. I hardly ever have hard boiled eggs for breakfast, it’s just not something I usually think to have, but I’ve been trying to amp up my protein intake because I feel my best when I’m eating protein rich meals.

This meal kept me full until 12:30 with no snack! Holy protein.

Lunch 12:30pm

Lots going on here. From left to right: vegetarian taco cups (new recipes and omg I’m obsessed) salad, cottage cheese (yes, with pepper).

I tried to save the grapes for later but I had to have something sweet to end the meal.

Snack 3:00pm

I was so happy to find this little guy in one of my many bags I bring to work every day. Love this flavor!

I also had a handful of pretzels once I got home before our Murphy walk. Sorry, no picture!

Dinner 7:00pm

We had salads on the menu for tonight but I wanted a little more than salad. Since we’ve mastered baking bacon, we decided on BLTs. Hit. The. Spot.

And then a bit of dark chocolate with sunflower seed butter. If you haven’t tried sunflower seed butter before, you totally should! I love the Trader Joe’s brand, but you can also get it at some regular grocery stores.

Question: What is the best thing you have eaten lately? I would have to say the vegetarian taco cups!

{ 0 comments }

Almond Butter Granola

by Brittney on May 20, 2013 · 2 comments

in Featured, Food

Another granola recipe for you!

I found myself with an almost empty jar of almond butter and I wanted to use it up to…not feel bad about opening up the sunflower seed butter jar. Ha!

This recipe ended up a lot tastier than I was anticipating. Super simple ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboards too. Here you go!

Almond Butter Granola

Ingredients:

1/3 cup almond butter
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/3 cup diced cashews
1/2 cup diced almonds
1/2 cup diced walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

2. Combine almond butter and honey in a bowl and microwave until peanut butter melts. Stir.

3. Stir cinnamon and almond extract into the almond butter and honey mixture.

4. In large bowl, place oats, salt, chia seeds, cashews, almonds and walnuts and stir until combined. Add the almond butter mixture and stir until oats are completely covered.

5. Spread out oat mixture onto prepared cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until granola is slightly browned.

6. Let cool until granola is crunchy.

{ 2 comments }

Weekend Highlights + Weekly Menu

by Brittney on May 19, 2013 · 2 comments

in Featured, Weekend Highlights

Can the weekend last one day longer please? I guess I do get next Monday off but…I want this Monday off too!

Friday

I scooted out of work a little earlier than normal since I worked last Saturday. Of course, you know where I went…

Aka one of my favs.

There’s a Target convinenetly (or not convieinently if you can’t hold yourself back!) located next to the Trader Joes and I popped in there to pick up a few necessities. Yes, I went in there and ONLY got the necessities. It’s possible, people.

THEN, I went to the mall (I know I packed a lot in 2 hours) to stop by Victoria Secret. So funny story.

I got a little 4 pack of sushi at Trader Joe’s because I didn’t really eat much of a lunch (who am I?!) so I was eating it in my car in the parking lot of the mall while talking to my mom on the phone. Yeah, I was a sight to see.

As I was trying to put the empty container on the floorboard of the passenger side, soy sauce spilled ALL OVER ME. Like, right in the spot on your jeans where you DON’T want spills happening, if you know what I mean.

I seriously debated on whether or not I could go into the mall smelling like soy sauce but finally decided I should go home and change. Good thing we live close!

K, back to the regular blog post…

Then I had a special appointment…

…to get my hair cut! Don’t you just love the feeling of getting your hair cut? My hair is so incredibly thick (I highly doubt I will ever go bald) that when I get my hair cut it seriously feels like I lose 10 pounds. I never do anything crazy or wild with my hair (I accidentally dyed my hair black one time so that terrified me from doing anything else) but that’s okay with me. I like my plain, slightly layered hair.

Of course we had pizza for dinner. We haven’t been home the past few Fridays so I’ve been missing our Friday night tradition.

Saturday

I got out of bed at 7:45 am frantic because I really wanted to go to Zumba. Turns out, the usual Zumba instructor wasn’t there and it ended up being a Sh’Bam class. Sometimes I like Sh’Bam, sometimes I don’t. Today was a day I really wanted Zumba instead but it was still a good workout.

Then we cleaaaaned. I’m talking getting out an old toothbrush and scrubbing the sinks cleaning. It wasn’t the most fun task to do but our apartment is now super clean. We won’t have a lot of time during the summer to do a deep cleaning like this so it was nice to get it out of the way.

We headed to the evening service for church and saw a couple and their daughter from our Bible study group. Their daughter kept giving Ryan the stink eye

We impulsively went to Outback Steakhouse after for dinner to use up a gift card we had. Meh, not impressed. For the most part, I do not prefer chain restaurants anymore. All of the food tastes the same and isn’t that good anyways. I’d much rather go to a local restaurant. Oh well!

Sunday

We had big plans of sleeping in and having a leisurely morning…and then Ryan woke up at 6:30. And me at 7:30. What has happened to us? Are we too old to sleep in now?

Ryan made breakfast (per usual) for us and we discovered that making bacon in the oven is waaay better than on the stove. I’ve heard of people using this technique but had never tried it until today. You will never want to make bacon in the skillet again.

We went on a walk a little while later and Murph was worn out after.