Thursday nights I don’t get off of work until 7pm, so an easy and QUICK dinner is essential.

I whipped up a batch of my vegetarian stuffed peppers with a couple of alterations.  I subbed Morningstar Farms meal starters for the tempeh, and I omitted the spinach.  We simply had the grillers on hand rather than the tempeh, and I forgot the spinach!  Oops!

Even with my substitution and omission, the peppers were a delicious meal

Wedding Crafts

And the crafting continues!

Because I was able to pick up most of our wedding signage the other day, I feel as if I have been crafting away every chance that I get to piece things together!

Tonight, Brian and I will be having a friend or two over to help us finish some projects.  The wedding is 6 weeks away, which means we still have plenty of time for these little details, but I am the type that likes to get things done early.

I would rather be scrambling and crafting like a mad woman right now, so that things are as smooth sailing as possible coming that first week in July!

Question of the Morning:

• Are you the type to get it done early or do you enjoy the pressure of waiting until the last minute!?
  

Yesterday, I spent my lunch break at Kinkos printing signage and table numbers for our wedding.  Seeing everything in print really made the wedding feel “real!”

I am more than happy with the way everything turned out, and I can’t wait until I get to see it all in it’s place on our wedding day.

Lunch

Because I ran this errand during lunch, I had to improvise in the lunch department.  I quickly ate some tuna mixed with black and red beans in my car.

I also had some hummus and carrots on the side.

Simple and satisfying.

Workout

Today was the second official run with Brian in our 6 weeks to 6 miles training plan.  Literally, as soon as I walked in the door to our apartment I put down my bags and jumped into my running gear.  We were out the door in no time and banged out 4 miles.

This was one of those runs that left us both feeling on top of the world.  We could have easily continued our run into 5 or 6 miles, but with other things on our to-do list and because we didn’t want to “overdo it” we stopped at 4.

I just love it when a run actually feels GOOD!  I feel like so many times when I am following a training plan, my runs don’t feel that great, but I keep plugging through anyways.  Yay for a great run!

Dinner

Dinner last night was quickly thrown together.

I heated up a piece of cod that I had baked earlier in the week and paired it with steamed green beans and a tomato and basil salad.

While I LOVE cod and green beans, the tomato basil salad completely stole the show

I sliced up one half of a tomato, ripped one basil leaf into pieces, topped the tomato and basil with about a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and added salt and pepper.  YUM!

This tasted of summer to me, and was a great reminder that summer is ALMOST here

Of Possible Interest:

• A Better Way to Measure Food?  Huffpost Health
• Last Minute Healthy Wedding Tips:  Fitsugar
• 10 Easy Tofu Recipes:  Women’s Health Magazine

I have been keeping it very simple with a bowl of hot oats that I either eat when they are still hot, or allow to cool down and eat at work.  Either way, I top the oats with a dollop of peanut butter and ENJOY!  The simplicity just makes this breakfast oh so delicious.

Lunch

Lunch yesterday was a delicious salad bowl eaten in the beautiful outdoor weather.  Eating outside is one of my absolute favorite things, and when I am able to do it midday it completely reenergizes me!

My lunch-time salad bowl included:

• Spinach
• Romaine
• Red onion
• Chopped celery
• Roasted sweet potato
• Red kidney and black beans
• Baked cod
• Salsa

What a delicious combo!  This bowl was easily thrown together while I made my dinner the night before, and in my opinion this meal was much better than any takeout option for a quick lunch at work.

I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday!  I’ll leave you with a little reading material from blogs that I have spotted in the past couple of days.  Enjoy!

Of Possible Interest:

• Strength is What’s Beautiful:  The Lean Green Bean
• Oatmeal Breakfast Ideas:  Fannetastic Food and Peanut Butter Fingers
• Your Twenties:  Fitting It All In
• Save Like Danny Tanner and Live Like Uncle Joey:  Our Freaking Budget
• 2 Ingredient Chocolate Frosting:  Oh She Glows
• Yoga Tripod Headstand Tutorial:  Peanut Butter Runner

I whipped up a batch of pumpkin enchiladas.  This recipe never seems to disappoint, but I always forget just how good they are until I make the recipe again.

Lots of requests come to me asking for quick, healthy, and interesting week night meals and I highly recommend this pumpkin enchilada recipe!  It’s pretty low calorie, sneaks in some undetectable and nutritious veggies, and depending on your family size makes leftovers for later in the week!

If you haven’t yet…give it a try

Workouts

A couple of weeks ago, I completed the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon.  Since then, I have taken a bit of a break from running, but Sunday I got back into the swing of things and took Brian with me!

The day before our wedding, we are running a local 6 mile race called the Firecracker 6.  Brian and I ran this race in 2011 and in 2012, and we are ready to hit it again in 2013!

We are encouraging our wedding party and guests to run with us.  If you are in the area on the 4th of July, we both highly recommend the race too!  The course gives a great view of downtown Indianapolis and it is just a fun race to participate in…and you get beer at the finish line

Our first official training run was on Sunday, just an easy 3 miler.

Right now, we don’t have any time goals.  Our goal is to run the race together, watch all of our friends and family cross the finish line, and HAVE FUN!

Here is what our training plan will look like:

Wish us luck on our road to 6 miles!

Of Possible Interest:

• Vegan Burger Recipes:  Fit Sugar
  
• 20 Healthier Lunch Ideas:  Averie Cooks
• Functional Training White Board Workout:  Peanut Butter Fingers

This weekend was probably the most relaxing, refreshing weekend that I have had in quite some time.  I did not get on my computer at all until Sunday evening, I took a break from wedding planning until Sunday evening, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my relationship with Brian and God and I am so thankful for it.

Brian and I spent the weekend at the Our Lady of Fatima retreat center in Indianapolis with several other engaged couples on our Tobit Marriage Preparation Weekend Retreat.

This retreat is something that our church requires all engaged couples to attend before officially joining in marriage.

When I found out that we had to go and that it would mean an entire weekend away from “work” I grew anxious.  I had no idea what to expect, I had a million things on my to-do list, and I felt very overwhelmed.

Even on Friday, just before heading to the retreat center for the weekend I was having a full moment where I was trying to organize my thoughts, everything that needed to get done with my personal life, the wedding, and work and I just felt stuck.

This retreat could not have come at a better time.

We were able to listen to currently married couples discuss their experiences, problems, and positive things that had occurred in their marriages over the past several years.

Most of the time was spent with each other discussing our future.  This was truly a weekend to focus on the actual marriage rather than the wedding.  I so needed that, and this weekend allowed me to take a step back and remember all of the wonderful reasons why I wanted to commit my life to Brian in the first place.

The retreat center is seated on 13 acres of land with a ton of walk paths and trails.  Thankfully, the weather was nice so in our down time, Brian and I were able to explore the area.

It was beautiful!

We were also able to connect with quite a few of the other couples, and I can’t wait for these new friendships to blossom!

After a weekend away, Brian and I are both feeling refreshed and more ready than ever for our wedding and the marriage that will begin in a short 46 days.

If you are Catholic and your church gives you the option to attend the Tobit retreat, I HIGHLY recommend it

I hope  you all had an amazing weekend as well and are ready to conquer the week and any big challenges or events that you may have ahead of you!

Time to Share:

• What is one highlight from your weekend?
  

I tried the Overnight Kale Salad that I read about on NutritionElla’s blog, but I subbed quite a few of the ingredients in the original recipe from Women’s Health Magazine for items that I had on hand.

Here is a comparison of the original recipe and what I ACTUALLY used:

• 3 Tbsp Champagne or other white wine vinegar–i used red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp finely minced shallot–i used red onion
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 2 bunches of kale
• 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds–omitted
• 1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese–i used feta
• 2 Tbsp pine nuts–i used sunflower seeds

The end result was delicious.  Allowing the salad to sit and marinate overnight and throughout the day really softened up the “rough” texture of the kale and really allowed the flavors to meld together.

When Brian asked what was for dinner and heard me mention kale salad, he was less than thrilled.  After he tried the kale salad, he didn’t just eat it…he actually said it was good!  He said that he loved the dressing too!

Success

After dinner, Brian and I both packed up our bags to get ready for the weekend.

We are heading to an overnight pre-marital retreat.  I honestly don’t know what to expect, but I am excited to spend this weekend “unplugged” with Brian to really focus on our future.

I hope you all have a great weekend too!

The thing that called to me about this recipe?  The word OVERNIGHT.  As I got home around 8pm last night, I knew that I needed to get some things ready for today like breakfast, lunch, and part of dinner since today will also be a late night arriving home.  This overnight salad seemed extremely simple and convenient, so I gave it a go!

I did some improvising by subbing some of the ingredients with things that I had on hand, so hopefully it turns out!

For those of you who don’t know what kale tastes like:  I would compare the taste of kale to spinach with a rougher texture.  It has a slightly earthy flavor, but when blended into smoothies the taste is 100% non-detectable.  

I hope this helps anyone who hasn’t jumped on the kale bandwagon yet!

Now let’s talk about what I have been doing to stay active lately…

Workouts

Since I am no longer training for a half marathon, I am making sure to embrace other forms of exercise to get in my necessary cardiovascular activity.

Yesterday, I completed my first indoor cycling class in over a month!

The sweat was dripping off of my face, my quads were on fire…but I am pretty sure that I had a HUGE grin on my face during the entire class.  I just love spinning, I love being active, and I love that “oh I’m so tired” feeling that I get when I give a workout my all.  It was a great way to start the day!

Lunch

Yesterday, I was able to come home for lunch!  Being able to go home for lunch is a treat in itself.

I had some errands to run, and because I work very close to my home and some errands I had to run were closer to my home than to work I made the pit stop at home to eat, blog, and just relax for a minute.

I find that when I eat lunch at work, I am tempted to not take a lunch break, work through lunch, or cut my break in half so I can go back to work.  When I DO take a break, I find that it helps my productivity that last part of the day and lets me feel somewhat refreshed.  Breaks are necessary for me!

Yesterday’s lunch was a delicious salad of romaine and spinach topped with zucchini, tomato, chickpeas, tuna, bell pepper, and red wine vinegar.  Delish!

With the 80 degree weather here in Indiana I have been LOVING the salads for lunch lately…heck!  I ALWAYS love a good salad for lunch

Question of the Morning:

• What is your favorite go-to lunch?

Not only is kale a cool buzz-worthy veggie right now, but kale has awesome nutritional stats as it is high in iron, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, and a ton of other good stuff.

Lately, I feel as if kale is everywhere I turn…at least in the blog world!  After coming home with a big bunch of kale I started to search some of my favorite blogs for delicious kale recipes.  I found so many different resources out there, that I decided to compile a bunch of these recipes all in one place.

I hope you find a recipe you want to try!

Kale, Chickpea & Feta Greek Salad from FANNEtastic Food

 Deb’s Kale Salad with Apple, Cranberries and Pecans from Cookie and Kate

 Green Lemonade Smoothie from Eating Bird Food

Kale Chips from Kath Eats

Creamy Massaged Kale from Power Cakes

Tomato Kale Soup from Nutritious Eats

Simple Kale Zucchini Butternut Squash Quiche Pie from Purely Twins

Kale Salad with Pecorino and Chili Flakes from Greatist

Overnight Kale Salad from Nutritionella

Kale, Sweet Potato, and Bean Soup form NHerShoes

Lentil Kale Crock-Pot Stew from ME, Treble in the Kitchen 

Question of the Day:

What is your favorite way to cook/enjoy kale?

So I had a bit of both!

I made a small bowl of hot oats with extra water to make them extra voluminous (<—that’s a real word!), topped them with a dab of peanut butter, then sauteed up some zucchini, bell pepper, onions, spinach and scrambled up two egg whites.

This breakfast was filling, but not the “oh I ate too much!” kind of filling and I really enjoyed having both options of sweet and savory to start my day.  Yum!

Wedding Invitations

Originally, I planned to go to bed very early last night because I have just been feeling a bit tired lately.  I had a big change of plans when I received a message from Brian as I was leaving work that our invitations were finished and ready to be packaged up!

Because the wedding is in 52 days (!!) we want to get the invitations sent out ASAP, so we put aside everything else we had to do last night and put together all of our invitations so that they could be mailed out today.

We both really LOVE how our invitations turned out, but I don’t want to show you the full spread just yet.  I will show you all once I am sure that all of our guests have received the invitations in the mail.  I don’t want to spoil any surprises!!

Now, I have to run to the post office to get these puppies in the mail!

Now, back to Mother’s Day….

Mother’s Day

Saturday night, I drove home to attempt to surprise my mom for a little Mother’s Day visit home.  Unfortunately, my mom had a feeling that I was coming home, so the surprise aspect didn’t quite work out, but the visit was still great!

Mom and I started the day yesterday with a homemade bloody mary (a favorite treat of ours!) and homemade eggs benedict.  Boy, was this a delicious way to start the day!

I have only had eggs benedict one time before this, so I was a little nervous about attempting to make this dish.  Thankfully, the Food Network’s Alton Brown had a recipe that didn’t seem too difficult and was very easy to follow.  Mom’s was made the traditional way with Canadian bacon, mine was made with sauteed spinach and a tomato.

By the end of the meal, Mom and I were both licking our plates clean!

Typically, our Mother’s Day is spent helping Mom get her garden ready for the year.  Check out some pictures from last year!  This year, Mom actually had most of the planting already done and actually planned on working on a good portion of her garden next weekend because the weather wasn’t exactly cooperating.

Even though we weren’t able to help Mom in the garden much, we got her something new to add to her garden:

A lilac bush! (Lilac’s are her favorite!)

I can’t wait to see how that little bush grows!  The tag said it is supposed to get around four feet tall.

When dinner rolled around, my sister and I got to work in the kitchen to prepare a tasty meal to celebrate our mom.  This meal was so tasty….grilled asparagus (if you haven’t tried it…add it to your list of things you must try now!), homemade caesar salad, and grilled shrimp.  After looking at last year’s meal….it looks mighty similar…

The shrimp had a delicious “grilled” flavor, the caesar is always a favorite of mine, and the asparagus was slightly crisp yet soft at the same time.  Perfection!

Of course we saved room for dessert:

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Oatmeal Scones.  I used this recipe as a base line, but omitted the bourbon and the ginger.  It was delish!

After dinner, I packed up the car and headed back to Indianapolis.  I love being able to shoot home for a quick visit now and then.  The drive is only two hours, so coming home is never too much of a hassle.

I am so thankful to have an amazing mom to set a great example for my siblings and myself, and I am happy that we were able to celebrate her special day together!!

Of Possible Interest:

• Vegetarian Meals for Meatless Monday:  Fitness Magazine
• 8 Yoga Poses You Can Do From a Chair:  Spark People