WIAW #2 Continent Pancakes

Hello everyone! Today I’m linking up for What I Ate Wednesday! This will cover about a span of a week and a few things I’ve eaten during that time.

As I sit here working on this blog post I’m eating my protein pancakes that look like I was trying to create pancakes in the shapes of the 7 continents. Or like a mom who is trying to make dinosaur shaped pancakes for her little boys. I don’t know what went wrong in my proportions!

Despite the funky shape they still tasted delicious and filled me up this morning.

Now let’s begin:

On the right: My Mom made some Chocolate Banana Bread with coconut and peanut butter chips. With a layer of peanut butter on top, it was a perfect breakfast choice.

On the left: I made a vanilla iced coffee protein shake. I was pretty impressed with my concoction and hopefully will share on the blog soon once I perfect it.

On the right: We had spaghetti last night for dinner and my Mom made homemade spaghetti sauce.

On the left: I had been dying to have pizza, so we made homemade pizza one night. One pizza had pepperoni and green chile. The other pizza had olives and….a bunch of other vegetables that I did not take any part in.

On the right: Sunday mornings usually mean we put something quick and savory in the oven for breakfast. A popular choice is cinnamon rolls. I haven’t had a cinnamon in awhile so I really enjoyed it. Of course I used the cream cheese frosting, but peanut butter really can go on about anything.

On the left: We have a little baby skillet that can cook eggs just like the one above. It’s the perfect size for making an egg for a biscuit or English muffin.

On the right: We had cauliflower rice for lunch with a stir fry of chicken, broccoli, and peppers. Cauliflower rice is surprisingly good. As long as you don’t think about it not being actual grainy rice, you wouldn’t notice much of a difference.

On the left: Salmon patties with peas and mac & cheese! I’m typically not a huge macaroni person, but every now and then some mac & cheese can make my day.

Here are a few recipes that I am wanting to try out:

PaleOMG|Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread

The Simple Lens| Avocado Brownies

This Gal Cooks| Crockpot Chicken Burrito Bowls

Sprinkle Bakes| Coconut Cappuccino Muffins

PaleOMG| Chocolate Coffee Banana Donuts

That’s a wrap! Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!!

What is one of your favorite things you’ve eaten lately? Have you ever made odd shaped pancakes?

Reunited & MLK weekend

Currently my life is pretty uneventful. I didn’t have school on Monday due to MLK day and I didn’t do anything noteworthy. Well I don’t have pictures anyways. Right now I don’t have homework I should be doing nor do I have  sorority events to fill up my schedule. Yet. That’s the key word.

The first week back has been a lot of fun and super laid back. Getting to be reunited with my friends has probably been the highlight. I really missed them. This semester will be bittersweet because for most of them it’s their last. Ahhh that makes me really sad. I can’t think about it. That will likely be a recurring topic on my blog I already know.

So a few weeks ago I posted about how I was going to try to start eating Paleo. Well the last part of break and so far at school I’ve been failing at doing so. There have been those rare occasions where I have though. After this weekend I think my body is a little upset with me. It does not want anymore cheese/dairy. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Here are a few Paleo-ish things I’ve been eating lately:

Eggs with spinach for breakfast. My new favorite breakfast at home. The key is hot sauce. I need to have hot sauce.

Sauteed chicken with boiled vegetables. Simple, but always good.

Protein pancakes. I love trying new ways to make a protein pancake and this one was a success! I made these for my sister and me one morning this weekend. I’ve been drinking hot water with lemon in the mornings. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know the answer.  (Yes, I know syrup is not Paleo nor is peanut butter.)

Recipe:

• 1 banana

• 1 egg

• 1 egg white

• 1 scoop protein powder

• Dash of cinnamon

• Drizzle of honey

Mash the banana then add the rest and mix well! I use a small skillet on medium heat with coconut oil in the pan. This makes about 2 medium sized pancakes depending on your skillet size too. I topped mine with peanut butter, strawberries, and tiny bit of syrup.

As far as my workout plan for this semester goes I have the 8 week plan for Best Body Bootcamp that I hope to do. It ends just in time for spring break. I loved doing it last spring and am glad I signed up for it again because this is the last time Tina is putting it on. I loved doing BBB because it really got me comfortable going to the weight room because I had a set plan and I saw great results from it.

I’m signed up to take a weight training class that a lot of my pledge class sisters will be in, but I’m not sure if I’ll stay in it. I was planning on doing my BBB workouts during that time. I really want to stay in it, but it messes up my morning flow and work schedule. I can’t be goin’ to class with wet hair and smelling like sweat and that would be frowned upon at work too. People do it, but I get too sweaty for that to be okay. So we’ll see.

Well I’m almost done at work for the day. I promise I had all my work and homework done before I wrote this up! I just have sorority meeting tonight and that’s it! I’ll leave you with a pretty quote below.

What is your favorite part of getting back to school? Are you taking any workout classes this semester?

Christmas ’13

Once again Christmas has come and gone. I look forward and anticipate the Christmas season all fall. Then in a flash it arrives and disappears.

To many people Christmas is celebrated for a variety of reasons. The core reason I celebrate Christmas is to recognize and reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ. Of course I get caught up in all of the materialistic aspects of Christmas along with the magic that comes with this season and forget about the reason for Christmas. But I’m so thankful God sent his son to this earth to die for my sins.

When I think of Christmas memories of time spent with my family fills my head. Once again this year my memory is full from this Christmas spent with family. I believe we ate at my grandparents house 5 nights in a row. Basically we spent a lot of time there. I am beyond blessed to be a part of my family and am thankful for all the time I got to spend with them.

We spent lots of time sitting around the dining room table chatting and playing different games and eating of course.

This post is not well organized to be honest and doesn’t even bring justice to what we did over the 5 days, but I like it this way.

I made sugar cookies for my contribution to the meals we had throughout the past few days. They turned out to be pretty tasty.

This is our Christmas tree on Christmas morning before all the presents were opened and it’s base was then empty.

One of the traditions we have is that my Mom always monkey bread for breakfast on Christmas Morning. It was delicious!

Family photo from Christmas Eve! We opened gifts from cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles the night before Christmas.

Cousins with the grandparents. I’ve been living in leggings and sweats the past couple of days. Denim just sounds awful to my legs haha

Christmas half-selfie. The shirt I’m wearing I got for Christmas and I call it my candy cane shirt haha. I love it.

Now for a look at some of my favorite Christmas gifts.

I FINALLY got a North Face jacket! I love it. I also love the tribal sweater my mom got me and more red/black/grey shirts.

My favorite workout/fitness related gifts were my new yoga leggings, Nike sports bra, and Nike pro capris. Plus a couple of good magazines to read.

These are the random things I got that I’m happy about. “The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis” is a book that my practicum teacher had this semester and one day I read several excerpts from this book and added it to my Amazon book wish list. My Mom ordered us a personalized monogrammed coffee cup. She picked the perfect colors. Lastly I’m obsessed with my Juicy Couture Le Fleur perfume. It smells heavenly.

My plan for today is just to be lazy and do absolutely nothing. Well except I’m going to find some kind of workout to do later. It’ll take awhile to counteract all the eating I’ve been doing. And then I’ll get back to watching my new Netflix obssession: Mad Men.

As for Christmas of 2013 you were a good one! Now it’s time to look toward the New Year!

How was your Christmas? Best gift you received?