A Lazy Old Day…

Today started off with a couple of hours of work (a short day because my work family were heading off to Spain for a week! Jealous!) and then ended with a whoooollee lot of lazy relaxing.  I guess last night’s Fancy date night took it out of me!

< Side Note > The sky looked like this for a lot of the day…

Sky Patterns!

I LOVE when the sky is like this.  It’s like the sky is making patterns, beautiful!

Lunch…

Lunch today was a bit of a snack attack.  I was having a hard time committing to one meal.  One minute I was in the mood for eggs, the next a sandwich, the next…donuts! So, I decided to have a couple of different snacks to get me through my midday meal.

I started off with some Ritz crackers topped with muenster cheese.

Hint of Salt Ritz 

Lunch snack # 1!

I paired the crackers with a handful of raspberries.

Lunch snack number two was the real winner! I opted for a whole wheat tortilla topped with peanut butter and a handful of Kashi Go Lean Crunch.  Ahhh yum!

PB and Kashi tortilla

This little baby packed a protein punch, and was delicious!  A nice hot cup of tea rounded out my snack attack lunch.

Hello old friend!

The majority of my afternoon was taken up with a nice Skype chat with my sissy and my mum and then I had a nice old nanna nap.  I blame the nap entirely on this girl…

Sleepy Girl!

She looked so comfortable! Can’t you just hear her coaxing me, “come on human mummy, you know you want to nap”.  You were right again Annie girl! A nap was just what I needed!

After some quality House Hunters watching (and dying inside at the prices of homes in San Francisco), Chris came home and dinner time had rolled around!

Thank you Lentil Soup for providing yet another delicious meal.

Lentil Soup Leftovers

This time I paired the deliciousness with a slice of buttered whole wheat toast.  Perfecto!

Needless to say, today was a no-workout day.  I’m excited to get a nice sweat on tomorrow.  Who’s going to join me?

Now I’m off to shower and hit the sack.  Sweet dreams world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock N Roll?

Work today brought me another dose of wisdom courtesy of Charlie Brown.  I swear, you can learn so much from children’s books.  If you haven’t read one in a while, I highly suggest picking one up, flipping through the pages and having your mind blown!

Go on, try it!

Today, I stumbled upon this little gem…

Charlie Brown Goes to School

Amen, Charlie Brown! It just so happened that a few minutes after reading this, I stumbled upon this…

SF Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon!

(Photo Source)

Was it a sign?? The Rock N Roll Half Marathon is coming to San Francisco! I’ve heard lots of good things about the Rock N Roll series and it sounds like a fun way to start!  It’s not until April 7th so that would give me almost a full 5 months to get ready.  I’m definitely going to see how I go next week in my first ever 5K and if I even like the whole race experience, but I’m keeping this in the back of my mind.  I hear you loud and clear Charlie Brown!

Message for today…try something new!

Lunch…

Lunch today was another delicious helping of last night’s lentil soup.  I love having leftovers, especially leftovers that taste even better the next day.  Best!

Lentil Soup 2.0!

Bonus Workout…

I love Wednesdays because I always get a little bonus exercise in.  Wednesday is music class day for the little ones which means I get in a hilly 3 mile walk with a double stroller and two kids who are continuously getting bigger and heavier! Pushing a double stroller uphill is no joke.  After the plank workout this morning, my arms were seriously sore!

Another little extra bonus was that it was a beautiful afternoon and I got to walk the kids home in the famous California ‘glow’.  If you haven’t experienced California in the fall/autumn, you are missing out!

California dreaming..

Now I am back home and about to start thinking about what to wear tonight because Chris and I have a special date night planned!

We have been saving up our cash back rewards from our credit cards to go out for a fancy shmancy dinner, and tonight’s the night. Woop Woop!

I hope you all have some nice plans for your Wednesday night!

 

 

Hearty Lentil Soup.

So what was the mystery dinner? Did you guess?

Lentil Soup!

It felt like the perfect (almost) wintry feeling day to cook up a big (and I mean big) batch of soup.  As far as soups go, like most things; cookies, KitKats etc. I like em’ chunky! The more good chunky stuff in there, the better in my books.

So I assembled the goodies…

Lentil soup mixin’s

And got to work in the kitchen!

Now, let me start by saying that this soup was good and I mean really good! It even got Chris’s seal of approval (not always easy to get!). I think one of the things that really took this soup over the top was the inclusion of…salsa! I got the idea to use salsa from Erica House and I must say, it was a game changer. My recipe is adapted from her lentil and spinach soup which you can find here.

Hearty Lentil Soup 

Yields A lot of soup Approx 10 Servings 

What You Need;

1 1/2 Cups chopped carrots

1 large chopped Onion

2 Tbs Olive Oil

3 Cups Water

3 Cups Unsalted Cooking broth (I used chicken, but vegetable would also be great!)

1 16oz Tub of Salsa (I used medium which gave a nice heat, but the brave could use hot)

1 1/4 Cups of rinsed, uncooked Green Lentils

Salt and Pepper to taste.

What You Do;

In a heavy pot or dutch oven (I used our le creuset which I loveeee), heat the oil over medium high heat.

Add the carrots and onion and allow to cook until tender.

Once tender, add the water, cooking broth, lentils and salsa to the mix.  Stir to combine.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn to low heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender (approx 60 mins).

Add salt and pepper to taste and dish out generous portions!

Serve alone or like we did in the McD house, with half a toasted, buttered whole grain english muffin.

Enjoy!

Cooking Away…

And now for the best part…

Eating time!!

This recipe was definitely a winner and had Chris and I both going back for seconds.

I hope it warms a chilly night for you all out there!

See you tomorrow!