Favorite Friday

Good Morning all! And Happy Friday! Here are a few (five) of my Favorite things this Friday 🙂

Enjoy!

FAVORITE FRIDAY:

1.  Winking Wisecracker Jar from Anthropologie

It's ok if you steal another cookie, your secret's safe with me. wink wink.

2. Centerpiece Apron – I LOVE aprons with a vintage feel, this one I almost want to be a dress!

3. Flower Cotton Garland  – A handpainted garland from Etsy.  The artist suggests draping it over a door, as a table centerpiece, wrapped around a cake even! I just think it’s so versatile!

4. Royal Pig Print – a pig and a crown…love.

5. Tulip Skirt Dress – A pretty pink dress that looks so classic to me.

Oh, to dream 🙂 Off to workout now!

 

 

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Good morning and happy hump day! Only 3 more days left to go till the weekend!  I think I can…. I think I can…

Today started off a little slow.  I woke up a little later than normal I think because it has been a long week already.  Since I slept in, I decided I would have to go to the gym when I get home from work tonight. I don’t mind night workouts, but since I work a later schedule I find it hard to motivate myself sometimes.

To get the day started on the right foot, I made some smoothies!! Here is what went into the mix today:

*keep in mind I split this serving with Ian

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 banana

splash of unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (whatever was left in my carton today)

about 1/2 cup water

2 scoops Vegan Protein Powder

1 scoop flax seed

1 scoop chia seeds

1/4 cup nonfat greek yogurt

a splash of POM wonderful pomegranate juice

BLEND IT ALL UP – AND ENJOY!!

Off to work now!

Wake up Call

Good morning!

My morning so far looks like this:

coffee and my computer

Drinking coffee in bed and reading some Facebook…sounds like a good start to my day 🙂 I’m up a little earlier than normal – so hoping to get to the gym soon and not be so rushed!

Off to get my day started!

 

 

Pink Flowers and Rosy Cheeks

Sunday has turned out to be a great day 🙂 Most of the day was spent inside…staying away from the strange weather patterns and gettin’ some work done.

While inside, I enjoyed some of the recent additions to our apartment.  Yesterday afternoon, Ian and I picked up some flowers that were dyed pink…and I put them in a small little vase to brighten up our bathroom.  I just love them.

My day did include one short, but worthwhile trip outside to Sephora to pick up some new make-up.  I recently ran out of my usual foundation and mascara and was in need of some more of “the goods.”  Lately, in the city, it has been so hot that I actually skip the foundation step anyway because it will just drip down my face by the time I get to the subway.  I don’t know if it is the humidity – but I have been loving the  “dewy” look lately — and wanted to invest in some lighter makeup that could stand up to the heat, plus give a “glowy” look.

Laura Mercier Tinted illuminating foundation with spf 20. – this is my first time trying this one!

Tarte – Natural cheek stain in Tipsy.  This is essentially a cream blush – it can also be used on lips!

The picture of me is just with a little of the white Nars illuminator – I will update with how these new products work!

(Side note: For anyone interested the Nars Blush trio is on sale for $55 right now at Sephora. It contains 3 of my favorites in one. Orgasm blush, Laguna Bronzer, and the white illuminator. I think this is a great deal for a great product – esp. because this will probably last me a very long time and one of their blushes is usually close to $30)

And that is some of my Sunday 🙂

Somedays just call for it…

Hi all! When I left you last I had just finished an awesome workout and was getting ready to enjoy the rest of my day.  I ended up getting in a shower and eating some lunch — and then got called into work 😦  SOO, when I finally was on my way home, I called Ian and asked him how he would feel about still enjoying what was left of our Saturday night (about an hour) with a beer and pizza…. Somedays just call for it 🙂

Lucky me, he was up for it! Not too hard of an offer I suppose. We stopped by CVS because it was the closest thing to the subway station and picked up some Sam Adams light beer and some Lean Pockets as a substitution for pizza…hey we tried to be a little healthy.

Believe it or not, this was my first time eating a Lean Pocket. I usually try to avoid these frozen foods at all costs…but like I said before, somedays just call for it.

Not bad after all!

It was just what we needed.  Not a bad Saturday night after all 🙂

This morning, Ian and I tried to keep things healthy once again, and instead of ordering brunch to the apartment (always so tempting in NY ) we saved a little money and kept things simple with egg sandwiches at home!

Sandwich Includes: One egg, slice of turkey bacon, slice of swiss cheese, a little bit of hummus (my go to for flavor) all on a 100 calorie English muffin. 🙂 YUM!!!

These sandwiches are much more filling than one would expect.  Of course, egg seems to stick with me longer than most other foods anyway.

I’m thinking today calls for some reading and lounging around.  Ian and I both have some things we want to work on so it might be a nice day to just relax and not do too much! mom, this means I can call you.

Happy Sunday Everyone!

 

 

 

One Sweaty Saturday

Saturday, I love you.  Even if you are super hot.

Well, there is a heat advisory in New York right now…so I kept my workout indoors yet again.  Although, I have to say I haven’t really found too many days I really enjoy working out outside here…i’m a baby with weather I guess.

My workout shoes...I need more photos!!

The one thing I love about my weekend workouts is that I don’t have the same time constraint weighing down on me as I do during the work week.  So today, I really felt like I was able to get a good full body workout in!

Today’s workout looked like this:

Cardio: 30 minutes elliptical to start

Assisted pullups and tricep dips (2 sets of 12 each)

chest press (25 pounds, 3 sets of 15)

leg press ( 50 pounds, 3 sets of 20)

leg extensions ( 30 pounds, 3 sets of 15)

tricep machine (25 pounds, 3 sets of 15)

Cardio again: 20 minute run on treadmill (1.0 incline, 6.5 – 7.0 speed)

I ended my workout with some sit-ups on a mat. I try to do about 100 mixed kinds of sit ups and then a plank which I hold for 1 min.

By this point, I called it a day!! I was probably repelling people with my sweat haha. (actually, nobody seemed to really be at the gym today, phew!)

Off to enjoy my Saturday now! I see food in my future.

Hot Hot Hot

Friday is finally here!! And it’s a hot one! It’s 90 degrees outside right now and is supposed to reach 100 later today.  You know how people always ask, would you rather be freezing cold all the time, or hot all the time? I always pick being HOT…but days like today are really testing me! Of course I am still drinking my HOT coffee this morning — nothing will stop me!

For this Friday, I’m going to post a few of my Favorite things (even if I don’t own them, I have my eye on them ;)) …Favorite Fridays 🙂

1. Anthropologie “Speeding Dots Scarf.”  You know how much I love scarves, and this one looks so light and summery.

Anthropologie Scarf

2. Free People Lace Maxi Skirt. White, Lacy, and flowy – I lOVE!

3. Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in So Pearly.   I just picked this up last night and I never wear lipstick…I think it is a generational thing because my mom always has worn lipstick and I grew up with lip glosses galore! This one is the perfect mix of a nude color with sheer and shimmer.

4. The Hunger Games book series.  I recently read all three books in this series and they are now making it into a movie. I loved it! And it is now one of my favorites

5. White Candles — I love all Candles, but I really love these candles from Target that are about $1!

Ok, Off to do a workout!! Hopefully the Gym AC is blasting!

Happy Friday 🙂

Healthified Turkey Burgers

Happy Hump Day!

Things have been a little busy this week – so the writing has been a little slow.  I am naturally running behind this morning as well! But, I wanted to share this recipe for turkey burgers that I made last night for dinner.

cookin up the burgers

I read a little while ago in a Cooking Light magazine about The 22 Biggest Cooking Mistakes and how to avoid them.  I was curious to see what I might be doing wrong that I could change.

One thing I learned that stuck with me was “Trading ground turkey for beef in recipes to save fat.”  Ground Turkey has always been a go-to meat for me because it is SO EASY to cook with.  I learned that depending on the kind of turkey meat one buys it might not be saving me much in the fat department!

“A Quarter pound of regular ground turkey contains 3G sat fat. Compare that to only 2.5g in sirloin.”

When buying ground turkey make sure to look for LEAN and white meat if possible.  For awhile I bought one that was more mixed dark meat and found this has more fat. If you get the good kind of lean turkey it tends to have only half a gram of sat. fat. – which is a big time fat cutter!

So, here is the recipe I used for healthified turkey burgers:

Turkey Burgers: 

16 oz Ground Lean Turkey (1 pound)

1 Cup shredded spinach

Add whatever spices you want!

I added:

salt

pepper

garlic powder

Adobo mixed spice

chili powder

Mix up all together again in the bowl. I used my hands to really get it all sticking together.

Begin to form into balls – I made 6 of them.  Stuff the balls with pieces of cheese. I used 2 String Cheese sticks (jalapeno cheddar ones) all together.  I find that using String Cheese really helps with portions!

Put a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat and cook up the burgers! They cook pretty fast – I didn’t time exactly but it was probably about 12 minutes…I always cut one in half toward the end to check.  You could also bbq these if you are lucky enough to have a bbq!

I put my turkey burger over a salad of spinach, tomato, 1/4c avocado, and garbanzo beans.  Dressing was a little olive oil and balsamic.

a big mess of a plate

 

on the side I also had a little roasted cauliflower, which I had cooked up more for Ian to have on the side.  He used two turkey patties and made himself a real burger 🙂

Alright, time to get to that work thing 😉

Have a good day!

 

 

 

New York TV and Movie Tour

Happy Sunday 🙂 Today started off pretty productive! Ian and I woke up early (for us) around 8 45am.  We were hoping to get to the gym earlier to get a workout in before Ian’s basketball game later in the afternoon.  (Trust me when I say he was not worried about being worn out for these games).

Today’s workout included:

2o minutes ellipical to start off

weight circuit of the follwing:

assisted pull ups & tricep dips

chest fly machine

seated row

Then I ended out my cardio with a 2 mile run on the treadmill.

Next up I did my favorite tone it up bikini body circuit and some abs.

After the workout Ian and I were craving something cold — so smoothies it was!

I love my smoothies in a mug if possible because I can eat them with a spoon! It makes it feel like more of a “meal” to me.

Into the smoothies went approximately the following:

SUNDAY SMOOTHIE:

1 C strawberries

1 banana

1/2 C blueberries

2 heaping tablespoons flax seed (ground up in blender)

1 heaping scoop vegan protein powder

1/4 C pomegranate juice

1/4 C greek yogurt

Splash of unsweetened vanilla Almond Milk

YUMMM!!! This was perfect for today and kept us both pretty satisfied for awhile.  We also brought some pb&j for the road though to eat before/after Ian’s game.

Now, I wanted to give a quick re-cap of our Movie tour yesterday!

It was awesome! The tour latest about 3.5 hours and had about 5 stops along the way where we were able to get out and take some pictures.  While most people on the tour were out-of-towners, Ian and I were def. not the only “new yorkers” on the tour and we learned a lot of tidbits we never would have known if we didn’t have a New York tourist day. 🙂

First stop – Washington Square Park. Known from movies such as When Harry Met Sally, any outdoor filming scenes from Sesame Street, Barefoot in the Park.  I can’t remember the rest, but obv. it is a pretty popular area!

(Not the best photo but what can you do)

2nd Stop – Ghostbusters Fire House. Self-explanatory I think 😉 And right next to this firehouse was a street they call “Millionaires Mile” — I guess they basically gut out a lot of the buildings there and make huge spacious lofts inside that sell for millions – attracting all sorts of celeb types. You would honestly have no idea though from looking at the outside — lots of it looks kind of worn down.

Ian being a tourist standing alone

 

Millionaire's Mile /street

3rd Stop – This might have been SOHO which I actually didn’t picture because we just were dropped off to shop for 25 minutes…that was dangerous.

4th Stop – Cosby house!! While the show said they lived in Brooklyn, the house was actually in the city! We learned that on the show the Cosby’s always would take a right turn when they walked in the house…but in real life they would just run into that white house next door.  They even filmed the house next door just kind of assuming nobody would catch on (or care?) I guess. This street actually had lots of famous door steps! Including an Audrey Hepburn movie I can’t remember the name of. (so much for that)

TOTALLY Theo's handwriting

5th Stop – The Friends Apartment Building!!! If you notice on the bottom of the building it is NOT green like Central Perk is supposed to be, which is because Central Perk exists in Hollywood land.  Anyway, it was cool to see the exterior none the less!

I'll be there for youuuu

Along the way the tour guide also handed out some goodies for Trivia games! Of course, Movie Buff Ian knew lots of answers and after awhile had to stop answering because we were in cookie overload. These are black and white cookies like in Seinfeld — obtainable at pretty much any bodega or grocery store, but still special.

Black and White Cookie

The tour included LOTS of other places and movie facts, far too much to document completely! It all ended at this bar…

Inspiration for the bar “McClarens” in How I Met Your Mother.  Pretty cool!  Ian and I ended our day with 2 of these:

margaritas!

Margaritas were calling our names!! It was just too darn hot to NOT order drinks.  And after that we called it a day! haha We walked to the book store and I picked up a new book which I will have to share on here…I’m sad to say The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is still on the back burner for me.

Ok, off to spend the rest of the night curled up with a book and Ian 🙂

Night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday Screen Tour

Good morning! Today is shaping up to be a good one, as Ian and I are headed out soon to go on a Movie and TV tour around the city! I am beyond excited to do this…I tickets for Ian’s birthday and have only heard good things about this tour….I guess we will be going to some TV favorites! Like the outside of the Friends apartments, the Will and Grace offices, the Ghostbuster firehouse.  Another perk is that the guides on this tour are usually actors and actresses who keep things pretty entertaining and they often know a lot about the city and share that along the way!

I think it will be nice to be out of the heat for a little while and get to see the city from a nice air conditioned bus 🙂

Breakfast today: 

A cup of Joe!

And a piece of California style toast — (nothing bad in it) with an over easy egg on top!

One for me, one for Ian.

Off to enjoy the day!!!