Gotta dash!

Leftovers for lunch yesterday with lots of siracha. Spicy yum!

study break snack

T brought us back dinner from a local Vietnamese restaurant. We split two different baguettes; one was pork and the other beef. They had different sauces on them and were both delicious!

I love the cilantro in these sandwiches, it really is a wonderful flavor!

Breakfast of champions- scrambled eggs w. 1/2 the whole wheat toast and a scone from yesterday. They aren't as hard as I imagined they would be after cooling off...They are still soft and tasty though!!

Workout:
Abs and Total body workout
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFfHhRi4dpI
I'm really digging the Hee-Haw move in this workout segment. I could feel my quads hurting after 3 sets!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vsAiarmZN4
So I'm not going to lie- I totally skipped the first plank roll out move and the leg extension. My core just isn't  strong enough to handle this workout completely. Baby steps.. baby little steps

After workout protein smoothie w. cashews and goji berries on top.

Gotta run to meet a friend at the Somerset house! :-D

Bake love fest!

Our internet has been acting funky on me so these pictures are a few days old. T made us lasagne for dinner with the leftover ground beef we had from the weekend

I seriously can't have lasagne without some garlic bread! Yuuum!!

Lasagne with peas? Hey it worked.

we gave little Nomi a much needed bath! You know its time to give her a bath when her ears have some sticky gunk on it. Eeeewww.

It's a love almost borderline obsessive relationship I have w. my dog :-D

 

quick breakfast of Special K and bananas then Zumbatime

Lunch:

roasted parsnips, zuchini, carrots

lasagne leftovers for lunch w. lots of veggies. I may have overdone the portion of pasta. I was HUNGRY!

mid afternoon protein smoothie with toppings: goji berries, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, cacoa nibs

thai laksa seafood soup

late night chinese food dinner from takeaway Chop Chop

duck over rice

no good for you spare ribs but oh so delicious!

I was in a baking mood this morning so I decided to make a few things :). These recipes are courtesy of Eat, Live, Run. Jenna is a Paris branch Cordon Bleu graduate so I definitely trust her recipes. I know they are going to be good!

http://www.eatliverun.com/chocolate-chip-apricot-scones/

There is something almost therapeutic fun about mixing dough with your hands.

The trickiest part for me was cutting the dough into "wedges".

I skipped the chocolate drizzle because I knew they were already going to be sweeeet!

Dark chocolate and apricot scones- straight out of the oven DELICIOUSness! I couldn't even wait til they cooled to try one. It was melted chocolate on my hands good!

Now onto chocolate raspberry brownies. I used organic Daylesford Raspberry Jam that I received in our Ocado order this morning- that justifies making these brownies right??! Oh AND I used a cup of fresh raspberries. That should count as my one a day. hehe..

http://www.eatliverun.com/raspberry-jam-brownies/

If you like chocolate and raspberries, I would definitely recommend making these. They are really good!

I wish I had more people to bake for. We can't possibly eat all this ourselves :-D Sometimes I wonder if I try too hard to sabotage my healthy eating habits- ha! Oh well! Anything is good in moderation :)

before I decided to stuff myself with scones and brownies, I thought it would be a safe bet to eat some breakfast! Never bake on an empty stomach=dangerous!!

Agenda: PUNCH class, Korean studies, salsa

Dance Central

I love leftovers because then we can make steak omelets for breakfast! Oh man.. I'm going to be so meated out after this long holiday weekend. I voiced my concern to Tarek about eating too much meat and he suggested we eat the leftovers this week and go meatless next week. I agreed. I'll just have to make sure to eat red meat alternatives for lunch this week.

Yummmm.. this omelet was perfectly cheesy and salty from the meat. Delish!

She "waltzed" for her tiny piece of steak this morning. T likes to pretend our dog can dance. Cue the lights and music please.

In da gym: While doing the ab exercises with the ball, I realized how badly my core shape is. I could barely do 6 reps of the leg extension with the ball in between my legs! I'm going to try and squeeze out 8 reps next time and work my way up to 12- as pain free as possible. That will be my ab-tastic goal for the summer! :-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vsAiarmZN4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tzsjVfiz0

my muscle recovery potion never tasted so good!!

Protein smoothie for muscle recovery: I also made sure to stretch an extra long time after my workout. I did an overall total body stretch but placed a big emphasis on my hamstrings which were SUPER tight and sore last time.

• skim milk
• frozen berries: mixture of strawberries, blueberries, black berries raspberries, red currant
• banana
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• agave nectar
• scoop of protein powder

T made us lunch while I did some more Dance Central for Kinect. If you like to dance, I would definitely recommend getting this game. I'm currently working through some of the songs on the easy version. All you have to do is mirror the dancer on the screen and Kinect can detect your movements and award you stars on the basis of how many points you get aka how many moves you dance correctly. So far, I've already gotten four stars on four songs and five on one. Waaa hooo! *nerd alert!* As I get better, I fully intend on challenging myself and going from easy-medium-hard!

beef fried rice prepared thai style. I scarfed it down like it was my job. After eating we took Noms to the park and I layed down to finish my book. It was a very easy and semi enjoyable read but not one of my favorites.
http://www.emilygiffin.com/books/heartofthematter.php

Time to get my study on!

Memorial Day bbq

T made lunch for us yesterday after I got back from the gym. I stopped at the store and bought some shrimp and scallops (2 for £5!). Pasta sounded good to me after my tough workout. It actually felt good to sort of "suffer" through another workout. Thankfully, my body is adjusting and isn't as sore as last week when I couldn't move for like 4 days!

Mid afternoon snack of PnB and celery sticks to tide me over til dinner.

T made us a delicious dinner of lamb shanks done Provence style. The smell of the lamb cooking in the house was lovely :)

Mmm.. mmm.. mmm.. all over brown rice.

I didn't feel like anything in particular this morning so I made myself a protein smoothie for breakfast. I put some seeds and wheat germ on the bottom for extra vits and mins.

Smoothie and coffee. Breakfast of lazy Champions. :-D he. he. he.

toppings: Special K cereal, pistachios, goji berries, and raisins

Fridge is stocked for our Memorial Day bbq! Gee, could our fridge be any smaller!!

The hubby worked cooked while I was in charge of cleaning duties and keeping people topped up on beverages

lamb chops and shrimp skewers

Kefta and veggie skewers. The kefta was from Tarek's mom who sent it in a care package with his sister who came over for the bbq.

Miso soaked cod. I let everyone else dig in but got to sneak in a tiny bite; it was delicious and very flavorful.

I did help myself to a ginormous burger with cheddar cheese. It isn't a proper Memorial Day without a burger. I swear- it was worth the calories!

Rainbow trout for the pescetarians at the table. I didn't have any but I heard it tasted a bit like salmon. It looked yummy anyway.

Last but not least, some skirt steak to top off our meat feast!

Agenda: Off to salsa to burn off some of the calories..if I could only get my bum off this chair.. Blergh.

La Reve at Cafe De Paris

Quick snack before teaching Zumba. I spread a tablespoon of goat cheese and topped it with premade spaghetti sauce on wholewheat toast. It was quite yummy! Unfortunately, it didn't hold me through the class. I was SO tired after teaching. T brought up a good point and said maybe I shouldn't practice so much, especially on the day of teaching. It's just so hard to stop. Can't. stop. dancing! :-D

http://www.vitacost.com/ISS-Research-OhYeah-Protein-Bar-Almond-Fudge-Brownie

I grabbed a quick protein bar before T rushed me out the door to his surprise date night. By the way, these protein bars are ammaazing!!! It tastes like pure chocolate goodness and not grainy or "fake chocolate" tasting at all. Of course, this made me skeptical and I had to check out the nutritional stats. Not bad for 30 grams of protein. I had T sneak bites in with me so I wouldn't be eating the entire 350 calorie bar on my own. We were planning on going out to eat after his surprise. I definitely wouldn't eat these everyday but they are a great meal substitute for when you're on the run.

Drum roll puhhhhhhleaasseeeee...............

Tarek took me to Cafe De Paris to watch a Burlesque show called La Reve. We also got lucky because we were originally supposed to be standing in the balcony (there were no seats available!!) but the hostess approached us to let us know there were two seats downstairs at the dining tables and we were welcome to sit there and order our drinks from a waitress. Woo hoo! We got to enjoy the show from the comfort of our own seats. It was especially nice for me because my whole body was aching! :-D I love lucky streaks. I was very grateful to the hostess and tried to track her down afterwards to thank her but she had disappeared! The show was a bit risque, entertaining with comedic musicians, had a bit of magic and was a very different but fun night out.

breakfast before heading out to the gym. I'm going to try a new Tone it Up Workout found here:
http://toneitup.com/blog.php?Bikini-Workout-with-SELF-Magazine-5090
I love these girls and their workouts/fitness tips!

Agenda for the day: gym, study, watch some fooootball aka soccer!

T brought me my guilty celeb gossip pleasure!