This morning, breakfast was eaten in the car on the way to church.

Two leftover pancakes, sandwiched with crunchy peanut butter.

Back home, lunch was a fantastic yogurt mess

¾ cup yogurt, 1 banana, ½ cup puffed rice, pumpkin butter, peanut butter

Plus some toasted chickpeas, and a little blondie

A rather brown (but tasty) lunch.

Then, I spent the afternoon writing more thank you notes, doing laundry, grocery shopping/meal planning, walking the (horribly behaved, annoying, hyper) dog, running to school to help a fellow-locked-out-teacher, and straightening up the casa.

In an attempt to be organized, I wrote all meals for the week on my calendar, and I figured I would share them with you – get excited for this week:

Monday: Penne with homemade vodka sauce*

Tuesday: Tuna Melt Nachos

Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken

Thursday: Savory Oatmeal – (I will remember Vegan Thursday this week!)

Friday – Grilled Tzatziki Chicken Burgers*

(*New recipes I am trying in light of my resolution)

Now I’m off to clean more or read…probably the latter. We will most likely scrounge for dinner tonight…a typical Sunday thing for us.

Enjoy the last drops of your weekend!

Do you plan your meals out in advance or just make them up each day?

If so, how do you organize them? If not…props to you. I am much to drained to think of something creative at the end of a long day.

My day was filled with laziness – and I tried to fully embrace it. I managed to squeeze in a walk (mostly for the dog’s sake) and a 60 minute Yoga to the People podcast – by far my favorite free podcast out there. But, otherwise – I lazed.

On the eating front…some highlights.

Toasted banana bread with pumpkin butter, and coffee in the back.

Omelet – exact replica of yesterday’s.

Mr. and Mrs. Sugar cookie

And Meeker and I just got back from The Outback – where I had a chicken Caesar salad, and the best sweet potato I’ve ever tasted. I’m sure it was cooked in a vat of butter – but it did have cinnamon on it, and I loved every bite. I also have some leftovers that will be killer tomorrow.

I can’t believe it’s already the end of the decade…I hope you all have a fun-filled evening!

See you in 2010.

Sweet Potato Oats in a Pumpkin Butter Jar

Alright, I realize it doesn’t look like much at first glance (probably because I used an ENORMOUS jar to make my pumpkin butter), but let me break it down for you.

1/3 cup oats (already cooked in ¾ cup water) went into the food processor with a little vanilla soy milk and half of a cooked sweet potato, and whirred until they were smushy enough. Then I poured them into my fairly empty pumpkin butter jar, and dropped in a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter.

Baby Food Breakfast Revelation

I wouldn’t have created this masterpiece (and it is a masterpiece) without a little inspiration from here, here and here. So, thank you fellow bloggies for your wise comments and creations – I couldn’t have made this breakfast without you.

This grown-up-baby food was pure comfort and it was enjoyed alongside some joe.

Breakfast doesn’t get much better than this…

It started off with very unusual eats, but I just went with my craving.

If you guessed peas, egg whites and avocado, you are correct.

I know it’s weird – you don’t even have to tell me. I was craving vegetables, but I only had about 5 minutes, so I pulled the peas out of the freezer, microwaved for a minute, then topped them with 2 cooked egg whites, salt, pepper and avocado. It was so good – I will definitely be adding this to my breakfast repertoire. It only took me 5 minutes to make, and it held me over until 11ish (4 hours).

For lunch, I scooped a bagel, toasted it, and added a mixture of pumpkin butter and crunchy peanut butter.

It was about 18 degrees today, so we had indoor recess. This makes for a very long day. After making a few copies and toasting my bagel – I had exactly 8 minutes to eat this lunch. The apple was inhaled while teaching my class about the importance of a subject in a sentence.

I also got my weekly Wednesday latte from a certain mom who spoils me. Along with my latte today, she brought me sun butter!

This stuff is so darn good. I dug into this bad boy with my finger when I was still at school at 6:30 this evening. I told you it was quite a Wednesday.

When I got home, I was beyond starving, but I also had a bit of a tummy ache (lesson learned: don’t eat 1.5 oz of sun butter on a very empty stomach) – so I sipped on cinnamon tea (with almond milk) while I cooked dinner for Meeker.

The tea…

The boy’s dinner…

3 heads of broccoli, 1 zucchini, ½ onion, 2 carrots and ground turkey.

I tasted enough while cooking to make the gnawing hunger subside, and then sat and watched The Biggest Loser – which I didn’t get to last night. What a good show. Seriously, I cry at least 5 times each episode – I’m so inspired by the accomplishments and determination of the contestants. I love all of the finalists – I can’t wait until next week.

After TBL, I whipped together a batch of Cookie Dough Babies. This was my first time making these bad boys, and I didn’t have any chocolate chips to add, so it was just dates and cashews.

Heck yeah. Success. I’ve already eaten two.

I made these partially because I wanted something sweet after instead of dinner, and partially because the inventor of these yummy nuggets is having the most fantastic giveaway – and I really want to score some of her loot.

***

You’re probably wondering why I’m up still awake (and semi-functioning!) so late. Okay…in reality, you probably don’t know or care how late I stay up, BUT
I am usually in bed by 9:30, and it is currently 9:32. What gives?

I took the day off tomorrow! Whohoo! (kind of)

I took the day off for 3 reasons:

1. I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. If you can believe it, I took tomorrow off so I could catch up on work. I have insane amounts of grading to do, the end of the quarter is coming up soon, and I wanted to get all of the big stuff knocked out before the weekend. I also have an enormous pile of laundry to tackle and a grocery store trip to make. It just didn’t seem reasonable for me to do all this during a long work week – so, I took the day off.
2. Zac Brown Band is going to be in Denver tomorrow night, and I’m going to see them!!!

   
   

3. At work, only 5 sick days carry over from year-to-year, and I can’t remember the last time I was sick – so I might as well use the days for something I want. Otherwise, they go to waste. Waste not want not.
   

So, with that – I’m off to get a good night’s sleep. I hope you all have happy Thursdays!

Unfortunately, the bitter taste is still lingering. Blech, it’s disgusting. The good news is that it only happens while I’m eating and then goes away about 10 minutes afterwards. Still, though – I’d like it to go away permanently.

I liked my breakfast so much yesterday, that I partially re-created it.

That’s half a banana with pumpkin butter. Crazy good. What’s in the bowl, you ask?

The other half of the ‘naner, one apple, and a handful of pomegranate arils – all doused in vanilla almond milk. Seriously – this is climbing the charts as my new favorite food. Fruit cereal, try it now.

And because I was too full to eat it last night, the doubletree cookie that was left in my school mailbox by a co-worker.

Holy moly this thing was delicious. Thaaaank you Mr. Pallas! Now I just need the recipe so I can eat these every day….

I was so thoroughly enjoying my breakfast that I left the house without my camera OR lunch. Foodie Fail.

However, it wasn’t that big of a deal because I live 5 minutes from my school, I just though “I’ll go home for lunch”. When I was signing out at 11:20 to go home – the girls at the front office said “You do know there’s a staff luncheon, right?” – Um, noooooo!! But I couldn’t be more thrilled!

What’s MORE, it was a Thanksgiving feast!! Turkey, stuffing, pies…the whole 9 yards. But I already told you I forgot my camera, so…lo siento. You’ll just have to take my word for it – everything was outstanding.

When I got home, this box was waiting for me…

Surprise!

I realize I’m probably the last person on earth to discover Vitatops, but that doesn’t stop me from being oh so excited. I am so thankful to the company for sending me these samples!

Meeker immediately ripped into the Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip variety, took one bite and said “Ew, this tastes bland…and healthy” – when I excitedly exclaimed “Well, yeah! It’s got vitamins, and it’s only 100 calories!” He promptly told me that he didn’t care (but he ate the whole thing anyway). I can’t wait to try my first one for breakfast tomorrow. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Three Course Dinner:

1. Self explanatory salad
2. An onion + egg + spinach baked thing. (I’ve yet to give it a name)
3. Bread with pumpkin and peanut butter (folded into a sandwich after the photo)

And that wraps it up! Three great meals, two delicious surprises and one long day…check!

I started my day with some coffee out of my favorite mug. I also had 2 (really tiny…like the size of my fist) pumpkin pancakes and one slice of Ezekiel toast with…

Maria’s Homemade Microwave Pumpkin Butter

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/4 cup water
  
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  
• 1/4 teaspoon clove
  
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 1 1/2 cups (15 oz) canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling mix)
  

1. Combine everything except pumpkin in microwave-safe bowl. Mix well, and microwave on high for three minutes.
   
2. Remove from microwave (Carefully!) and stir really well.
   
3. Stir in pumpkin well, and microwave on high 5 minutes.
   
4. Remove from microwave (Even more carefully!), stir, and let cool.
   

The pumpkin butter totally made this breakfast. That and the Dr. Seuss mug.

I snacked on some Fig Newman’s at 10ish, and then…look how boring my lunch was:

Tuna with celery and a pita.

I did get a very nice gift from a mom…

I took this to not only show you my amazing free loot, but also to show my fantastically seasonal desktop.

Again, thank you Tona for perking up my less than exciting lunch!!

I also snacked on carrots and peanut butter while grading some math tests after school.

I had to make up for the mediocrity that was my food for the day – so I actually pulled out a cookbook for dinner! It’s been a while…

I heart this cookbook. So many of these recipes only require 5-6 ingredients, and they are healthy to boot. It’s produced by the Mennonite community – and I got it as a birthday gift from this girl last year. What a gal…

I also had some discount pasta that had been in the pantry for far too long.

A low-carb variety. It was really good when thrown into this mix…

I cooked ground beef, onions, and mushrooms – then added water and tomato paste. I cooked the noodles in the mess.

The result:

Topped with walnuts. The whole thing was a winner.

For “dessert” I had cheetahs!!

Eaten out the of the pasta bowl. They got all tomato-y and gooshy. I’m so satisfied.

***

As the title of this post suggests…there is some bad news. But also some good! I’ll get the bad out of the way.

My Dad called yesterday to tell me that my parents had to put my childhood dog to sleep yesterday. Hannah (aka. Hannie Bannie) was 15 years old – and was my first (and still BEST) running partner. She lived a very full life, and was such a happy and energetic dog. She loved me so much that when I was in Jr. High, she would jump the 6 foot fence in our yard, run to my school, and (somehow!) get inside, and find me in the hallways. I was always SO embarrassed to have to take my DOG to the office and call my mom to pick her up. This happened more than once.

In the summer, she would follow me to the pool, and jump in the deep end and swim around with me. What a loyal creature.

I thought I was finished crying when I went to school this morning, but then someone said something about dogs, and I burst into tears. The good thing about working with 8 year olds is that they are always sympathetic when tears appear, and they unquestioningly understand sadness over a pet.

You will be missed, Hannie Bannie.

***

And because I don’t want to end on that sad note, and I DID say I had good news…

I finally got my butt in gear and got my Foodbuzz papers faxed in! They had been sitting on my kitchen table for well over a month.

Yes, I am now a proud Foodbuzz Featured Publisher – it’s about time.

***

Edited to add: Join Chocolate Covered Katie’s giveaway! She is also doing some pretty awesome things with Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness. Aaaand she has a cool name.