When I got home, I wanted overnight oats. But I lacked the foresight for that last night, so I had to go with one hour oats instead. In the blender:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup coconut milk (the beverage in a box, not canned)
• 1 packet stevia
• 1 T ground flax

Then I let that sit in the blender (unblended!) in the refrigerator while I fed Adrienne, did a load of laundry, and took a shower.

Then I blended. And added:

• 1 T nutritional yeast
• 5-6 roasted almonds
• 5-6 chocolate chips

And blended some more. Then plopped a spoonful of almond butter on top. It promptly sank to the bottom.

I think I might like this combo more than I like overnight oats – they got all puffy and delicious in that one hour. I think that’s all they really needed.

Also, I started reading this book this morning while Baby A was eating.

I pretty much want to cancel any plans I had for today and finish it up. Already hooked.

I started mine off with the crossfit workout of the day. (except I didn’t do 185lbs, I only did 100lbs. I’m just not that strong.)

I workout in our garage while listening to the baby monitor. I used to listen to music, but now I listen for baby A to wake up. (Also, the monitor is a good place to keep my wedding ring when I’m lifting – otherwise I get a ridiculously looking blister on my left hand under my ring finger).

Then I came in for cereal. A bunch of cereal, actually. Uncle Sam’s Flax, Love Grown granola, puffed millet, rolled oats, and ground flax.

Mmmm real milk. I love cow’s milk, but don’t drink it very often. It hit the spot this morning. (Mostly because we are out of soy)

Have a happy day!

When I got out of bed a little later, I had breakfast all ready to go.

It looks boring, however it was anything but. HEAB’s cookie dough smoothie – I can’t believe that raw oats, milk, and nutritional yeast can taste this much like actual cookie dough. You must try it…it’s incredible. So doughy and satisfying.

Lunch – was the same thing it’s been for what seems like months.

It’s delicious every time I eat it – toasted bagel, cream cheese with green onions, spinach

Snack

Some leftover kettle corn and a grapefruit.

And Dinner was a lime fruit bar. Poor Meeker – I promise I’ll start cooking again soon!

In the 3^rd grade world…

We filled our marble jar again!

I let my class choose and vote on how they wanted to celebrate their good behavior – half the class wanted ice cream, and half the class wanted extra recess, so we meshed the two together and had 30 minutes of recess followed by some ice cream.

They were so excited – I wish I could show you the smiles on their sweet little faces.

When I was younger and this happened, my mom’s solution always came in the form of a smoothie. So this morning, I listened to my mama’s advice, and packed the blender with:

• 4-5 strawberries
• 1 kiwi
• 1 frozen banana
• 3 handfuls of oats
• 1.5 cups coconut milk

Mmmm, lick. Tasted like a strawberry milkshake.

Speaking of my mama – I’m headed out of town to visit my parents for a few days – leaving Meeker in charge of the house and the pets. I’m sure my oven (yes, it’s my oven) will see a lot of frozen pizzas while I’m away. See you all in a few days…and don’t worry, I’ll be back for Brownie Sunday.

In the baby world…

Bursting at the seams.

I had my 34 week doctor’s appointment today, and all is well! Baby Cakes is a little over 4 pounds, head down, and ready to go.

Also, I washed all of her clothes and blankets today.

And just about died of cuteness-overload while hanging these little outfits, and imagining Baby Cakes looking adorable inside all of them.

Breakfast

Oatmeal cooked in water, raisins, earth balance, milk, walnuts

Lunch/Snacks

Veggies, clif bar, homemade granola bar, leftover couscous, apples

For dinner, I had really good intentions. I came home, made sloppy joes, and just as I was about to eat I realized that I was disgusted by the idea of ground turkey. Boo.

I made this instead.

Sprouted grain tortilla (Ezekiel), ½ avocado, cucumber, sprouts, kalamata olives

plus a salad

Then I nestled onto the couch with a mug of hot chocolate protein shake.

I haven’t wanted anything hot to drink in months. I think it was the snow, but this tasted so good. Just almond milk and protein powder warmed up in the microwave. Yum city.

Look who else is making herself cozy…

just a giant doggie chillin’ on a small couch

And we are not too far off from making Baby Cake’s room nice and cozy.

Before

During

Meeker did the tedious edging, while I rollered paint all over the wall (and myself). My job was much more fun.

After

Now we just need furniture.

In the 3^rd grade world…

This morning’s journal prompt was:

Are you more like an avalanche or a snowflake?

I’m never ever ever ever going to be a snowflake.

First, I started off this Tuesday with a tough workout. Before I left for the gym at 5:00, I prepped my breakfast.

I threw together ½ cup oats, 1 cup milk, ½ pear, ½ cup frozen blueberries, cinnamon, and vanilla stevia. It all sat for about an hour and a half in the fridge before I ate it up – so delicious.

When I got to school, I had some of Teri’s Tea

hot water, lemon, and freshly grated ginger

Lunch

Leftover risotto with artichoke, edamame, and peas

Plus some chocolate milk on my incredibly cluttered desk.

I love this stuff – I want to buy these little milk boxes by the thousands.

Later in the afternoon…

An apple – times two.

Dinner

It’s Taco Tuesday! (Every week when I’m planning the weekly meals, I ask Meeker what he wants and the only thing he’s ever requested is tacos on Tuesday.) I made a bowl with rice, celery, ground turkey, tortilla chips, salsa and guac.

The ground turkey wasn’t really striking my fancy, so I ate around it, and gave the rest to Punky. And so between the two of us, we licked the platter clean…

In the 3^rd grade world…

I asked one of my students this morning why she didn’t do her homework and she replied:

I didn’t really have time to do my homework last night because I was coloring and I forgot that I had homework.

Here’s to honesty.

(Also, the girl who had #3 yesterday was absent today – I guess she was telling the truth.)

Is that they make me hungrier then I was before I ate them. I know I’ve been through this before – but every few months, I try them again – and without fail, I finish the bowl feeling famished. This bowl should have done the trick: banana, sweet potato, ½ cup oats, almond milk, flax cereal, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter.

But even when the bowl tips the scales at over 400 calories, like this one did, I’m left with a growling tummy. I was furious with my breakfast (even thought it was tasty) and had to eat a bowl of cereal before leaving so that I didn’t keel over from starvation on my walk to work. Stupid oats.

Lunch was light, but held me over nicely. Better than the oats.

Rice noodles in broth with pieces of chicken – all leftovers from last night.

Plus another pink lady in a sweater. (I still can’t get over how awesome that sweater is)

After the kiddos left for the day, I had my favorite bar for snack.

These are so stinkin’ good. (Especially propped up on my Dr. Seuss mug)

For dinner, I had a big fat bowl of roasted veggies with hummus.

Cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, red onion, broccoli, carrots, green beans – tossed in evoo and garlic, then roasted at 425* for 45 minutes. Perfection.

In the 3^rd grade world…

A water pipe in the ceiling of my classroom broke today.

Spewing water through the ceiling (and the lights!!) all over the floor and the kid’s desks. Thank the Lord that the students were not in the room (…can you imagine?!) I left school around 5:15 and the plumber still hadn’t showed up. I’m just hoping my classroom is back in working order tomorrow at 7am!

Banana cut in half with peanut butter, flax seed and rolled oats

Sandwiched up and eaten in the car

Then for lunch (here’s where I really failed at the food-planning thing)

1 cup veggies (edamame + broccoli slaw) + cantaloupe

In hindsight, my lunch, weighing in at a whopping 218 calories was supposed to hold me over for 10 hours. Well…it didn’t. In fact, my lunch made me hungrier than I was before I ate it. Luckily, I found some microwave popcorn in the bottom of my bag and ate that, but still, I was about to gnaw my arm off all day. When I got home, I ate anything I could get my hands on.

Polished off both of these things.

Then a couple of dates + peanut butter (on top of an Eating Well magazine)

When Meeker walked in from work, I was staring into the pantry, just willing something to pop out and ask me to eat it. He saw the distress hunger in my eyes and suggested we go out to dinner to celebrate my favorite day of the week.

Done. A chicken fried rice order as big as my head from Mark Pi’s.

Plus a lettuce wrap.

As hungry as I was, I scarcely made a dent in the carby wonderfulness.

The after picture. I had enough leftovers to fill TWO to-go boxes.

I just finished packing my lunch for tomorrow (you can bet it included a box of leftover fried rice), and I crammed my lunchbox full of food, just to avoid the hunger I felt all day today.

Happy almost Friday!!

So was my run this morning. Running makes me sane. Then there was the breakfast that might as well have been dessert.

¼ cup almonds, 3 dates, 1 tbs. cocoa powder – all into the food processor for a 30 seconds, then sprinkled with raw oats.

Lunch

Green bell pepper, zucchini, carrots, corn, edamame + hummus dressing. A couple of turkey slices on the side.

Plus a kombucha tea to wash it all down.

This flavor was awesome – I love ginger, and this was very gingery. Just want I wanted/expected.

Dinner

This morning I put 1lb. of frozen chicken and ½ bottle of bbq sauce into my crockpot and turned it on low. When I got home – delicious, shreddable, bbq chicken which I put on top of a salad.

Lettuce, corn, cucumber, avocado, bbq chicken, bbq sauce + water + hummus for dressing

Dessert

Protein ice cream – Meeker calls it Price Cream

This enormous (and delicious and dairy free) bowl is only 200 calories: 4.7 g fat, 17g carbs, 26g protein

Into the blender:

• 2 cups ice
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 tbs. cocoa powder
• 1 scoop sun warrior protein powder
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum (a thickener)

I later added some sprinkles because it needed a pop of color.

And that’s a wrap.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Shape Bands – the latest trend in elementary school.

They look like ordinary rubber bracelets – albeit a little squiggly. But when you take them off…

They’re different shapes – like a #1 finger or a diamond ring. They must sell these things for $1 per 1000 bands because every kid in my class has an armful of them. I find them everywhere – on the floor, in my pocket, in my desk, on my desk, on my wrist, turned in with homework…everywhere. Maybe they’re this generation’s slap bracelet?

What’s in the bowl?

More of this yummy mess with an apple to dunk. It’s a little runnier today because I had to change the recipe a bit. My food processor BROKE…sad day. Luckily, I had a little mini food processor in the pantry – but it didn’t work as well. I had to thin the mix out with a little almond milk. In the end, it was: ¼ cup raw oats, ¾ frozen banana, 1 tbs. peanut butter, ¼ cup almond milk. It was as tasty as ever, and the apple dunkers were kind of fun.

I also had a new coffee this morning…

This has been sitting in our pantry for months…eeek. I was a little worried, but it turned out to be yummy!

If you’re wondering what all that grit in the coffee grinder is…it’s ground flax seed. I didn’t wash it out last time I used it for that purpose. A little flax in the coffee grounds never hurt anyone.

Now I’m full and ready to tackle the day! First up, take Punky for a walk. Then yoga at 10am, mow the lawn, lunch and it’s up in the air after that…

Happy, happy Fabulous Friday! (that is what the janitor at my school – Mr. Walt – says every Friday morning when I walk in the door.)