Eat everything with a spoon

I did just that today. Let's start off with my best of intentions this morning. I woke up after not having slept all night again, it's really not as fun as it sounds ;) Chest and throat sore from my late-night cough fest, all I wanted was something warm and yummy for breakfast.

Good old fashioned oats (haha, get it, that's what the label on my container actually says... ). I was extra nice to myself and drizzled it with a little maple syrup over the half banana, strawberries, flax seeds, omega 3 trek mix and cinnamon. And oh yeah, we were low on spoons, so I had to use a frozen yogurt spoon. Good thing I keep a stash of those in my utensil draw. Does that mean I go too often.... or does it mean I also have a habit of "collecting" plastic spoons in cases of emergency such as this....? You'll never know.

Hey guys, want to take a guess as to what I drank with my breakfast?!?

Another selection from my box 'o tea. I almost went for chai this morning. Almost ;)

Well then I showed up to work fashionably late at an appropriate time for someone of my health, and not even 30 minutes into my day did my boss send me home to rest up. So rest I did.

I first rested by doing the dishes. Then sweeping the entire downstairs. Then vacuuming all the baseboards and cleaning spiderwebs. I'm glad I got to stay home today because I also got to bond with the other sick member of the house. Woodstock's been doing great; he did the cutest thing EVER today. I heard him attempt his first big boy howl. Or, whatever noise it was a 10 lb. puppy produces in hopes of howling. I freaked out and thought he was hurt, but it turns out he just couldn't find his toy. That nasty cone keeps getting in his way ;)

Then my hunger got the best of me. So I heated up some of last night's leftovers. Are you surprised I even had any extra orange chicken to spare?!?!

My usual trio of meal, drink and Rx. Today, I was determined. And due to my stubborn nature, I successfully used the chopsticks with this meal. Take that...... meal?

When I finished, I laid on the couch to watch another episode of Rick Steves' Europe travel videos saved on my DVR. Does that make me a nerd?!!? If it does, I don't care. It was on France's Côte d'Azur and then I watched a second on Provence. Both areas I'm VERY familiar with, after living in Antibes (in the Côte d'Azur) for the better part of a year. Oh yeah, my 101 year old great aunt lives in Provence, so I had a lot of chances to go over there!

Me and Yvonne, my great aunt from France!

And this is where I used to spend a TOOOOON of time when I worked/lived in Antibes! It's a view of La Baie des Anges, which stretches all the way down to Nice, as seen across the water. This picture was taken in October. Ahhh, the good life :) I would certainly like to go back there again.

Well, coming back to reality after that trip down memory lane, I barely got through the second travel show before I realized I'd slept for nearly three hours. Apparently I conked out. And I had an empty carton of ice cream in front of me ;) Don't worry, there wasn't even a bowl left I just wanted to do my part and help clean out the freezer. Or, soothe my throat, whichever you choose to believe!

When J.D. came back home we nixed our original plan to make game hens. Instead, I craved something odd. Soup and pizza! Being the sweet guy that he is, J.D. drove to Little Caesar's to pick up a $5 pizza while I heated up a bowl of Progresso's tomato basil soup. Except, I hate this soup!!! I tried it once and found it waaaay too sweet for my liking. Alterations were in order, so in went some Tuscan herb blend and for some more flavor, a few pepper flakes. Oh and some fresh basil. Muuuuch better. I'm a firm believer in modifying canned soups.

As per usual, I needed some dessert. I bring you Monique's twist on frozen yogurt:

Literally, it's yogurt, frozen. I put it in the freezer for about an hour then topped it with dark chocolate almond spread and some fun, purple sprinkles. It's not exactly like frozen yogurt, but pretty darn close! And chocolate always seems to make everything better ;)

Before I go I wanted to let you guys all know something. I'm moving my site to a new domain name!! So update your bookmarks/readers/other means of stalking me to http://www.shesgoingdistance.com I plan on blogging solely from there now. Still have some work to do on the site, so bear with me! Also, thank you all SO MUCH for all your well-wishes yesterday!! It made me feel so loved :) You guys are awesome.

Question: What's your favorite nerdy thing to watch on TV when you're in veg mode?? Since you already know mine, I'll tell you something else super nerdy. I subscribe to iTunesU podcasts. Like listening to university lectures about French lit, or American lit, German grammar lessons, astronomy, religious studies, you name it. I think it's important to keep educating yourself even after college.

Banana soft serve fail

I know. Everyone's raving about banana soft serve. With temperatures being in the 100s here, my bananas are turning brown and yucky in less than a day. What's the most obvious solution, then?

Freeze the bananas! Naturally, with frozen bananas, I figured it was finally time to give into banana soft serve.

I don't know about you guys, but I chopped this sucker up into small little pieces and then proceeded to blend it up in my Cuisine Art processor. Except, it didn't get all creamy and smooth. It was lumpy and warm and runny. In the time I tried to process the banana, it basically melted and took FOR-EVER to blend up. I figured I'd try to salvage it with some strawberries, but it didn't help a whole lot.

Look how runny and bubbly it is :( Because the consistency was so lackluster, I eventually left it in the freezer to firm up during dinner. Fail #2: I completely forgot about it until bedtime. By then I started whipping up some overnight oats and realized this blend was waaaay too hard for consumption. Fingers crossed, I put it back into the fridge along with my overnight oats, hoping it'd soften up by the morning.

Eventually it did, but the blend reverted back to its soupy texture by the time I was ready to eat. I half-heartedly mixed up my oats and readied a parfait glass for strawberry banana soft serve overnight oats. Topped with blueberries.

Apparently I'm 0-for-2.... I put a bit too much milk in the overnight oats ;) In all, it tasted fine. Just like fruity overnight oats. Nothing special, or life-changing. I was kind of hoping for something like that. Alas, I may have to try again. Any suggestions as to how I can make this a more enjoyable dining experience??

I went out with some co-workers for lunch, since I didn't have to feed Woodstock for lunch. He got his business taken care of at the vet today and as it starting hitting 98º -- yes like the boy band -- after 4 p.m., I had a craving for some kind of icy coffee beverage. Except, when I picked him up and took Woody home, I saw this unhappy little face.

He's so drugged out and groggy, he's done nothing but sleep all day. I'm supposed to keep a close eye on the pup to make sure he doesn't jump on anything or run around all crazy and fast. I knew I couldn't leave him home alone while I walked to Starbucks, so I got creative and made some iced coffee at home.

I put a splash of milk in a glass in the freezer to let it get all icy and chunky, then French pressed up some coffee. The coffee was waaay too strong for my liking in this application, so I added in a spoonful of home-made caramel, compliments of my sister Aimée!

The caramel iced coffee hit the spot! And it worked two-fold in that I got to stay home with the baby while he recovers :)

Dinner awaits me on the table, so I must go tend to it!! :)

How I'm staying cool

Ah, summer. Glad you're finally here. I love nothing more than high temperatures, over-sized sunglasses and lounging around by the pool reading trashy magazines and high-brow novels. Alright, you got me, I don't read trashy magazines. I rarely even buy magazines (but am currently on a little Runner's World kick, ha, get it?).

Yesterday I had a great deal of inspiration to keep myself cool, but also staying semi-healthy to make up for the liquid calorie fest in which I'd indulged the night before.

After breakfast, I had this craving for carnival fare. However it'd have to wait. Lunch was the leftover "light dinner" I was supposed to have at Applebees, but instead binge drank. The meal itself wasn't half bad. It was on the lighter options: Grilled Shrimp with Island Rice and Veggies. I had several skewers of very spicy and deliciously flavored shrimp, steamed veggies and the most surprising and wonderful rice I've had in a very long time! Why island rice, you might ask?? Oh, because it was FULL of tropical flavors, inside the seemingly average side of rice they stuffed slices of mandarin oranges and one of my favorite fruits of all -- PINEAPPLE! Went well with the piña colada I had the night prior, hehe. The rice was a very tasty surprise and I might have to make this at home some time. In all the dish was 550 calories, but since I only had half of it the night before I had extra room for my carnival-inspired snack. Sidenote: I beefed up my lunch by adding some more veggies because I had eaten most of them at dinner. In went some edamame and carrots then it all went into the microwave for Round 2 of eating.

Do you like to eat crappy carnival food? The 4th of July is rapidly approaching and I could NOT wait until then. Last summer I visited my sister in Newport Beach and she told me about how much she looooves frozen bananas. Intrigued, I purchased one but was not pleased. The banana was WAY too hard to eat, but the chocolate melted by the second. It tasted alright, but it was hard work!

So I bring you my healthier take on this goodie. I've had a banana in the freezer for quite some time now. Putting it aside on the counter for five-ish minutes, I whipped up a bowl of microwave chocolate! The contents included a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips, a splash of milk, a veeeeery tiny cube of butter and a spoonful of Maranatha's dark chocolate almond spread. Frankly, I didn't have the patience to wait for it to melt on a double boiler, nor the patience to clean it up, so in the microwave it all went. Two minutes later I had creamy, blended melted chocolate, with a dark twist.

Upon finishing I sliced off the ends of the semi-thawed banana and set forth with the daunting task of peeling a frozen banana. Which, wasn't actually difficult at all! Since I lacked the foresight to put a stick in the banana when I froze it, I plopped it down on some parchment paper and spooned the chocolate right onto the banana. Then rolled it around in some chopped walnuts and indulged in some girly, pink sprinkles.

Don't judge: I know this looks disturbing but it's SOOO GOOOD!!!

Perfection! My only complaint is that I left the banana out to thaw for too long. Imagine that. It kept sliding out of its chocolate casing, but still, was like a party in my mouth. A 4th of July party? Maybe. I'll let you know next week.

During the afternoon, Woodstock started to get a little stir crazy, so I had to find a way to occupy him. While it's taken four months, he's starting to understand asking to go outside to do his business!! YAAAAY!!! Every time he had to go, he did it outside yesterday and once today. This is a big day, people!!! But, he loved it outside so much, he brought the outdoors in. I was reading blogs and before I knew it, an entire flower bush sat in my dining room. What the heck?!? I attempted to put it back outside, but I think the damage is done.

I didn't do it!!

This is why we can't have nice things.

The two of us were by ourselves because J.D. was out for the second night. I was a good girl and cleaned the house after being away for two weeks took the dog out for a loooong run at the dog park after his destructive little afternoon. Time whizzed by, I didn't even realize we'd been there for an hour! But I think Woodstock made a girlfriend there ;) He played with a short-hair lady weenie FOR-EVER! They were so cute. He was actually kind of sad to leave.

When I came back home, I played around with that new basil plant I purchased. Because I'm silly and forgot to buy tomatoes and mozz. Oops.

Instead, I was craving a green smoothie! What do you want from me, I'm sick?!?! I can have breakfast for dinner if I so please :) So I tested out a Basil Green Smoothie:

• 1 peach
• 1/2 c blueberries
• 1/2 c strawberries
• 1/2 c mixed melon
• 1 c spinach
• 6 basil leaves
• 1/2 c skim milk
• 1/2 c orange juice
• 1/2 scoop Aria protein powder
• splash raspberry extract
• handful of ice

And you know what, it actually turned out pretty good! I may have gone overboard with the basil, so if you're a first-timer, maybe opt for a little less. I'm a huge fan of basil in desserts, especially with strawberries. I sampled after the addition of each ingredient so that's where the tweak of raspberry extract came from. And the orange juice; I had so much basil it needed to be cut with some acidity. For those of you who are pros at green smoothies: HOW DO YOU GET THEM SO GREEN?!?! Mine always look sickly brownish. I did notice, however, after refrigerating the other half that it appeared to have gotten greener after about 20 minutes. Thicker too. Interesting, maybe that's the trick??

I imagine this would be good with more strawberries, mango or even a banana to absorb the savory flavors. I was just a little banana-ed out today and my mango's not ripe enough yet. It could use some playing around with, but it turned out to be pretty darn good.

If you're craving a sweet, fruity smoothie this is not the thing for you! However, I wanted fried egg whites and toast with lemon curd, so it was the perfect compliment to a salty-sweet meal. Last night I started attacking our pile of post-vacation laundry because in just over and hour we're off to brunch with J.D.'s parents. I hear they have an omelet bar so you KNOW my camera will be in tow.

Question: What kind of smoothies do you like?? Do you ever get adventurous with weird flavors?