Weekend scenes

I can’t believe the weekend is almost over! I need an extra day off of work soon.

Here’s my weekend through less text and more pictures for the sake of time.

Was happy to get a package from White Girl salsa yesterday. I won some last year and it finally came. I was so sad to pick up the box and see stuff was leaking. Even more mad when I sliced my finger on a piece of glass, even though I was very careful opening the box.

This came as a sample in our newspaper. I had it after the gym and thought it was pretty tasty.

After a shower and lunch, I was just as tired as my three boys. I read my book and fell asleep for about five minutes.

Traded in an empty bag of Starbucks beans for a hot cup of coffee. I was one of the few who didn’t get a love cup around Valentine’s day, so I was happy to randomly get one. I tried the blonde roast for the first time and I liked it. I usually like darker blends of coffee, so the taste of the lighter bean was different at first.

Grocery shopped. Just needed a few things to get us through the week.

Shopped at one of my fav local grocery stores, Sendik’s.

Got these for free using a coupon sent to me by the company. Will let you know how they are!

Had to get this salad dressing at the store because I love eating salads, but love them even more when this dressing is on top.

Got my ring cleaned. It’s all shiny and looks new now!

Weekend movies/shows. Can’t get enough of Downton Abbey still.

Read a little. Not as much as I would have liked. My eyes keep getting so tired!

Karma is always on my lap when I am curled up on the couch with a blanket.

If you want to enter to win 12 of the new Chobani flavors, come back tomorrow because I’ll have a giveaway!

Vega Breakfast Challenge, Yoga, and a Relaxing Friday Afternoon

This morning, I got up early, meditated, had a vega packet for breakfast, and then headed out the door for an hour long yoga session at the gym.

I was sent four packets of the Whole Food Health Optimizer to try out from vega as part of their breakfast challenge. This morning, I had Vanilla Chai and I’ll be reviewing the other three flavors over the next week.

I really liked how easy it was to mix with 8 oz. of water and then drink for breakfast.

In exchange for receiving four packets from vega, I was asked to compare something I would normally eat for breakfast (which I had as a snack today). I compared Kashi cereal to the Whole Food Health Optimizer.

Here are the stats:

Since I eat a mostly vegetarian diet, the fact that I was able to get so much protein from this packet was fabulous and so was the amount of iron I received from it! I also don’t eat any fish, so that means the large amount of Omega-3s are a nice addition to my diet too.

According to the information I received from Vega:

What makes Whole Food Health Optimizer so special compared to other breakfasts? It’s 100% plant-based, it’s gluten-free, soy-free and dairy free…and it’s super low in calories. Only one single serving guarantees:

· 100% of your daily vitamins and minerals
· 60% daily intake of fiber
· Healthy weight loss
· Maintaining optimal health

I felt like I did have more energy than normal this morning and also throughout the day.

I caught these two hanging out this morning and got a pretty decent shot of them.

The one hour yoga session was exactly what I needed after the tough class I took yesterday. It felt good to stretch my hips and glutes, which did hurt a bit this morning. I was so happy to see that my favorite yoga teacher was teaching. He said he normally doesn’t do morning yoga and he recently read somewhere that people are more apt to hurt their backs during a morning workout vs. afternoon one, so he would make sure we warmed up slowly. We definitely had a great warm up and that helped to make the rest of my practice go smoothly.

I was hungry when I got home from the gym, so I had a new cereal flavor from Kashi-Cinnamon Harvest. I really liked the taste of it. I would buy this again over Autumn Harvest.

Nutrition Facts for the cereal.

For lunch, I just had a small lunch of a piece of leftover pizza from dinner last night and a new to me flavor of Pop Chips: Chili Lime Potato. It had a similar taste to other Pop Chips and not as much flavor or spiciness as I expected.

Dessert was a small handful of Raisinets.

After a short nap with Karma, I got up and read some fall magazines.

Doesn’t Karma look like his paw is flipping me off here?

I have a huge pile of magazines to get through and needed to start tackling it today! I’ll keep reading them over the weekend too.

And after a streak of afternoon relaxation, tearing up while reading Farm City (the author was in a situation that was similar to a horrible one I almost found myself in while living in CA and the memories came rushing back to me), I decided to get out of the house. I browsed TJ Maxx, got my free birthday treat at Panera with their Panera Rewards card–a strawberries n’ creme scone, and went to Sendik’s grocery store. I couldn’t resist buying some pumpkin beer while at Sendik’s. You know what I am having with dinner tonight!

We don’t have any weekend plans, which is actually kind of nice. I can keep enjoying my relaxing mini vacation! Do you have any big plans for the three day weekend?

A wedding, lazy day, and the hunt for a summer beer

Here’s what we have been up to this weekend:

Saturday

I went to yoga class and while it felt good to stretch, we had a substitute teacher instead of the normal teacher and she didn’t really integrate the poses in a way that made it feel like it was flowing together. Kind of disappointing, but I now appreciate the regular yoga teachers I go to.

Even though I wanted to get some more gym time in, that was not feasible since I had to do some cleaning around the house and then get showered and ready for a wedding in the afternoon.

We went to Craig’s cousin’s wedding. Here is the happy couple (Craig’s cousin is the bride).

After the wedding, I was starving! We headed to Cousin’s subs (I just realized this is ironic since Craig’s cousin got married) and we both got clubs. I scarfed most of it once we were home. I know this isn’t what one should do before a wedding reception, but I was very hungry.

Then it was time to head to the reception, which was at Potawatomi Bingo and Casino in Milwaukee. The reception hall was really nice and huge. I headed right for the alcohol to get myself a glass of Merlot. There was also a candy table! I got some peach gummies.

Dinner was fish and chicken, plus salad, green beans, mashed potatoes, & pasta. Hence why I ate most of that sub–with not really liking chicken and hating fish, I was glad I ate ahead of time!

I didn’t take a picture of my meal, but here is our dinner table. We ate with Craig’s sister, parents, and his Aunt, Uncle and cousin.

Craig and I. I really should have done something more with my hair. I am bad at putting it up, but I figure I should learn how to curl it or do something for these more fancy events.

Instead of a wedding cake, they had cupcakes, which was also a great idea. Loved the cupcake I got, although I couldn’t figure out the flavor of the frosting.

The cupcake frosting even matched my name place card!

Us with the bride!

The other creative thing they had was a photo booth. If our wedding wasn’t so low budget, I would have loved having one of these at ours!

Craig and I took some funny pictures in the booth and then I went up there with Craig’s cousins.

Once everyone settled down and no one was even dancing anymore, a bunch of us went down to the casino. I am totally not a gambler, so this was like being in another world. I have only been to casinos in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, NV. I’ll just say we didn’t spend much time down there because I also don’t like cigarette smoke and because we felt sort of uncomfortable.

Sunday

Today sort of felt like a waste, but maybe I needed the time to relax. We slept in a bit and then went to Home Depot for some more soil so I could plant my flowers. I did that when we returned home, had the rest of my Cousin’s sub and a big bowl of yogurt for lunch, and then it started to pour outside. The house was dark and I started to read The Help, but I felt tired after a little while. I opted to take a nap with the kitties in our bed and slept for an hour. I had to force myself to get up, put some makeup on and get out of the house.

I headed to my least favorite mall, but I wanted to get the Estee Lauder gift and to check out the liquidation sale going on at World Market. Our World Market has to close because a Macy’s is going in it’s spot, which disappoints me because I really like that store. They had just started their liquidation, so there weren’t that many good deals yet. I really wanted this couch and chair, but I know our cats would claw at the material (they aren’t declawed).

Once I was done shopping, I went to a local food store, Sendik’s, and was on a mission. Paige from Running Around Normal had posted about how awesome Buffalo Bill’s Brewery Orange Blossom beer was about a month ago. I wanted to find the beer, but had no such luck. I’ll keep looking for it though! I went to Buffalo Bill’s website to see where I could find it locally and I had to laugh because they spelled “Wisconsin” like this: Wisconson. It doesn’t look like I can get it here, but you never know if some small liquor store carries it.

Instead, I picked up Pyramid Apricot Ale beer. I haven’t had it since living in California and it sounded like a nice summery beer.

I purchased one of my favorite cheeses–Swiss Rye.

Once home, I put it on a pumpernickel roll and it was so simple, yet the delicious flavors blended together and pleased me so much!

“Dessert” was Brown Cow maple yogurt pictured above. I decided to buy that rather than ice cream.

Oh and I finished Water for Elephants on Friday and I really enjoyed the book. I thought it was well written and I liked the characters. I am looking forward to seeing the movie, but may wait for it to come out on DVD.

Night!

Go Packers!

The game is on and I actually didn’t go to the gym during it. I’ll watch most, if not all of it and then head to the gym. Go Packers!

I started my day with a bowl of oats topped with fresh blueberries and chia seeds. I used my China Starbucks cup because I needed a huge cup of coffee. The cats woke us up at 6:15 and I couldn’t sleep anyway, so I got up. I figured it was better that way for waking up at 5:40 tomorrow.

Later in the morning, I snacked on Jessica’s granola and had another cup of coffee.

I headed out of the house to run some errands to Sears, Penzey’s Spices and Sendik’s grocery store.

At Sears, I got the Golla Lynne camera bag I wanted before our trip to Florida!

Before leaving the house, I used the Sears 2 go shopping site on my iPod touch & loaded the page showing the Sears associated CSN linked site for the Golla Lynne camera bag. They had a sale on the bag for $41.99 and Sears itself did not. I asked for the price match and got it. Sweet! The bag was “free” anyway because I got a Sears gift card from my credit card points.

Here is the back of the bag, where a small pocket is.

Here is a somewhat fuzzy picture of the interior color and style. It is roomy enough to hold a DSLR camera and a lens (someday we’ll buy the big lens, I hope).

I like how the bag sits on my hip and doesn’t feel heavy. I think I will end up using it as a camera bag and purse on our trip. The front pocket has more than enough room for my purse items, as long as I stay minimalistic.

At Penzey’s Spices, I got this nice 1 oz. jar of minced garlic for free. Thanks to their catalog coupons, I have built up a nice collection of spices and most of them were free.

If you don’t already get their catalog in the mail, I would encourage anyone to sign up for it to get the free spices and excellent recipes inside. You don’t have to purchase anything to get the free spices either, so that’s an added bonus. The quality of their spices is excellent.

At Sendik’s grocery store, I found this very green and gold display, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

Those are green and yellow peppers packaged together.

Once home, I used some of the spinach I just bought to make a green monster smoothie. I put Silk almond milk, Whole Foods soy protein powder, a half of a frozen banana, some frozen pineapple and ice cubes in it.

I didn’t realize it until I was taking these pictures–maybe the green smoothie with yellow pineapple will be good luck for the Packers!

His and hers smoothies. I always have the large size. My husband doesn’t eat spinach in salads or on sandwiches, but I can get him to drink it in this smoothie. I have found through all of my green monster experimentation–I prefer the flavor of plain almond milk in the smoothie vs. skim cow’s milk.

I don’t think I have ever posted a green monster smoothie on here before. I always make them in the summer, but it’s hard to drink cold smoothies during the winter.

And I realize this post is getting very long, so I will end it with a picture of the pizza I ate while watching the beginning of the Packers vs. Bears game.

Later on, I’ll go to the gym for some elliptical, biking and weights.

The Pack is in the lead at 14-0 right now, so let’s hope we win the game! If you read my blog, you know I am not a huge football fan and neither is my husband. But, for the sake of my home state’s very dedicated football fans, I hope we win.

Stonyfield Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt review

After work today, I went to a smaller, local grocery store because it is often better than the big box store I go to in terms of carrying unique products and flavors. My goal was to use up some of my free yogurt coupons. I found everything I wanted and tried one of the yogurts this afternoon. Until today, I had never tried the Oikos line from Stonyfield.

I picked out the Stonyfield Oikos Organic Greek Strawberry yogurt. It was so creamy and delicious! I think it may have been one of the creamiest yogurts I have ever had. It didn’t taste as thick as other Greek yogurts. I definitely liked the creaminess!

The nutrition facts are pretty good too:

Thanks to Stonyfield for sending me the coupons to try this yogurt out. I have been really impressed with all of their products. Plus, I love their Rewards program.

You can try some for free if you win my giveaway that ends tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.

Over the weekend, I will try the Stonyfield Mango Honey and I’ll let you know how it is.

Now enter to win some coupons!