A Snacky Sunday

Today has been one of those days where I can’t stop snacking.

First, almonds before the hike.

Garden Tomato Almonds from Nature Box! 

I literally kept munching on them the entire drive to Boulder.  I had to have eaten almost half the bag.  Maybe Zach was onto something with his eggs and toast this morning before we left…sleep just seemed so much nicer at that moment.

Then, the veggies and pita with hummus at Avery Brewing tap house (and some of Zach’s beer, of course).

(not the actual platter we got…but it did look similar + some cucumber and extra carrots at the end).

The I ate about 6 of these delicious chocolate mints that I took from Avery.  With out guilt, mind you, since I wasn’t able to enjoy any of their beer 🙂

And on top of that, I haven’t been able to keep my grubby little hands out of the Banana Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Cookies all afternoon.  We only have one left, and I don’t think it has any reeses left in it.  Upps.  I’ll save that one for Zach :).  Thank goodness we still have more of the delicious candies in the fridge.

Does anybody else ever get this way, where they literally just can’t stop snacking?  I think it’s partly because I’ve been so active this weekend, but also because I never had a full on meal to start the day, which always spurs snackiness for me.

When I eat a nutritious and REAL breakfast,  I seem to be much more satisfied and have less need to snack, no matter how active I am through out the day.

Oh well. . .  I tried to reset my snacky afternoon by having a satisfying and healthy dinner.

Open face sandwiches with

• fresh tomato
• cheddar cheese
• homemade raspberry spread (don’t judge it until you try it)
• fresh basil
• on sourdough bread.

And a healthy side salad with

• spinach
• grapes
• grapes tomatoes
• parmesan cheese
• carrots
• roasted red pepper vinegarette

I felt much better after this meal 🙂

Gingerale is more fun served from a champaign glass 🙂

Overall, even though I’ve snacked through my day, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed a quiet and relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Zach even played his “best fiance in the world card” and watched a couple hours of girly TV with me.

That’s right, Zach and I lounged on the couch for a few hours and watched Sex and the City.

I don’t know if I’m getting old, prude, or if it was just because I was watching with Zach, but there were definitely some scenes that I cringed a little bit inside watching this…a little red faced embarrassed if I’m being honest.  Who knows, maybe I just haven’t watched it in years and kind of forgot that it is a little raunchier than our favorite Modern Family….

I will still very entertained by the show, don’t get me wrong :).  A little dejavu from high school and college for this Sunday afternoon.

And now, we are going to try and soak up the last bit of weekend we have left.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Goodnight everyone!

Question of the day: Do you ever get relentlessly snacky?  Anything in particular that spurs it?

A Morning Hike in Boulder (and our wedding rings!)

Happy Sunday all.

I hope everyone is relaxing and enjoying their Sunday so far 🙂

The family and I decided to take another Sunday morning hike this AM, so around 900 we headed off to Boulder, CO.

Boulder is the home of Colorado University and the CU Buffalo’s, but it also has TONS of amazing hiking and running trails.

Boulder is a beautiful 30-45 minute drive for us from Denver depending on traffic.

We decided to hit the Sanitas Valley Trail this morning

The trail started out fairly gentle, but we were huffing and puffing quickly!

The hike was fairly challenging with some steep incline in the first 1.5 miles, but short enough to be manageable.

Not to mention it offered some seriously amazing views of Boulder and the surrounding towns.

It was a beautiful afternoon on the trails. . . but a little warm for Gusman.

Until he found himself a little watering hole.  He was a happy pup then.

The hike was about 3 and a half miles round trip, but took us nearly 2 hours.  There were some fairly serious incline and decline, so we were huffing and puffing the entire way.  Even though it was only half the distance of last weeks hike, I felt it all the same!

Thankfully, Zach and I had plans to hit up our own little watering hole after…

Avery brewery in Boulder.

We’ve stopped by here a couple times after hikes in Boulder.  They have an a great selection of tap beers and some pretty solid bar food.

Unfortunately this afternoon I forgot my ID at home, so only Zach was able to order beer…but we managed to share his orders 🙂

Ironically enough a woman from the table next to ours came up and told me she also forgot her ID at home…and tried to explain that her toddler was her ID, but apparently that didn’t fly either.  Don’t forget your ID if you want to enjoy Avery’s beer!

Wedding Bands

I’ve promised good pictures of our wedding bands all weekend, so here you go finally!

I love Zach’s ring.  He designed it off pictures he’d seen online.  It’s a platinum band with copper and titanium thin strips in the middle.  I love how unique it is.

My band is very thin, delicate band with channel set diamonds that match the ones in my engagement ring around the entire band.

It’s BEAUTIFUL and exactly what I wanted.  It looks perfect with my engagement ring and can’t wait to wear them as a set!

So…not a bad Sunday morning if I do say so myself.  Now it’s time to relax for the rest of the afternoon 🙂

Quesiton of the day:  How was your Sunday morning spent?  Do you have Sunday rituals in your home?

Banana Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Cookies (easiest recipe ever)

Did I draw you in with that one?  Oh yeah! 🙂  Drew me in, too!

Yesterday morning as I was relaxing after my run, I came across one of my favorite blogs, hungryandfit.  (check her out, she’s awesome).  She had a post about 3 ingredient cookies that I was IMMEDIATELY drawn to.  You all know me, healthy baked goods?  I’m there.

from hungry and fit

With that picture, I was immediately drooling.  Well I took her recipe and kind of ran with it, creating something a little different but delicious with what I had on hand.

Enter my treat for last night:  Banana Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Cookies.

Banana Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Cookies

Takes 5-10 minutes prep 

Ingredients

• One LARGE banana or 2 tiny bananas
• 1 cup of processed graham crackers
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of reeses pieces

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 and grease (well) your baking pan
• Put your graham crackers and cinnamon in the food processor and pulse until small pieces and put aside into a large bowl.
• Cut up your large banana into pieces and process the pieces in the food processor until mush
• Mix together with the graham crackers in large bowl
• Add the reeses candies
• Bake for 12-15 minutes and enjoy!

Dont look pretty, but don’t let that fool you.

This recipe is pretty flexible.  You could really add anything into the “batter” of graham crackers and banana.  Think chocolate chips, dried fruit, nuts, etc.  I just love peanut butter, and reeses, so I had them on hand 🙂

Taste Review

All together, they’re pretty good!  They’re simple, healthy, and minimal on the ingredients, which I love.  I will admit, they are not cookies, so know that going in.  They are good, but I would need to switch them up if I did them again.   They taste healthy, and as someone who likes that, they work just fine!  BUT, if I were making these for a group, I’d probably add sugar to the mix to sweeten it up some more.

Thanks again for the great baking experimental motivation hungryandfit!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe!