Busy Morning!

Phew!  It’s only a little after 11 and I feel like I’ve had a whole day behind me!

 

We’ll get to the fun stuff a little later. . . business first 🙂

I CRASHED after I finished my evening post last night.  Zach said one second we were laying watching TV on the couch, then the next second he looked back and I was dead to the world.  I guess I needed some rest!

 

I crawled out of bed this morning and did a nice and easy recovery run on the treadmill.

Workout For the Day

• 4.20 miles
• 5 minutes @ 6.1
• 5 minutes @ 6.2
• Steady run at 6.3, with one minute at 8 every 5 minutes until 4 miles
• Include walk it out @ 8% @ 3.7 until 40 minutes.

This morning was one of those that I was very thankful I had you all around to hold me accountable and get out of bed.  I knew I had a busy morning ahead and was going to want to relax by the time I got off from work late tonight.

When I got upstairs from my run there were a few surprises for us from Zach’s amazing work group

How beautiful and thoughtful is that?

 

Zach is a project manager, and this little flow chart was a mock to his projects, but focused on marriage lessons.

I laughed for a good 5 minutes going through these.  My favorite one

No matter how many times you unload and reload the dishwasher, your spouse will still think their way is the right way.

It’s like the team KNOWS that is our thing.  Zach seriously HATES the way I load the dishwasher (I’m a little careless) and I constantly hear him in the mornings moving things around before he thinks I’m awake.  Hysterical 🙂

Along with those gifts they sent us a VERY generous Macy’s gift card that is already burning a hole in our pockets!

After the fun of the workout and present opening, Zach and I had big plans for the morning :).

But first . . . Zach wanted to me to share with him the joy of our new juicer for the first time.

2 huge carrots, baby carrots, a pear, apple, left over salad, 2 beats. . .

Look at it go!

 

It was surprisingly good!  VERY fresh and flavorful.  The flavors of the carrot and beats were the most prominent.

And just like that, we were fueled and ready for our morning at the COURT HOUSE! 🙂

Marriage license update to come next 🙂

 

 

 

Healthy Raspberry Crumble Bars

So funny story:

I stumbled upon a Whole Foods Raspberry crumble bar earlier this week.

Not the exact Whole Foods bar, but you get the idea 🙂

Zach and I LOVE these bars.  We’ve gotten them many times and the fact that I got one for free at work made me VERY excited for dessert that night.

One problem:  Zach would want to share.  I did NOT want to share.

I felt VERY guilty (really I did…) but the second I got home I admitted to Zach that I, in fact, had gotten a raspberry crumble bar, but that I wasn’t going to share.

Zach knows me….I think he was just impressed that I didn’t just eat it at work and never say a word about it!

Well. . . I’ve felt guilty ever since and decided that to pay back my wonderful fiance.  I would bake him us an entire batch of Raspberry Crumble Bars…double win because I can healthify them! 🙂  And healthify them I did!  I cut down half the butter I was seeing in every recipe by using applesauce made my own raspberry filling with half sugar, and substituted whole wheat flour.  Just a few changes can really boost up the health value of bake goods.  Sure, you can tell my baked goods are healthy, but I actually LIKE the healthier versions more.  More satisfying.  Anyway…

Were you guys guessing this might have been on my mind by the couple of hints I dropped this week?

Healthy Raspberry Crumble Bars

Ingredients

• 1 stick (or 1/2 a cup) of room temperature butter
• 1 cup of applesauce
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 + cup of all purpose flour
• 1 + cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of good granola ( I used Whole Foods Cinnamon Pecan Granola)
• 10-12 oz of good raspberry jam

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 and butter/spray an 8 X 8 pan.
• Mix together the butter,  applesauce and sugar in a large bowl until it becomes completely mixed together
• Sift together the flour and salt in a separate bowl until distributed together evenly
• Begin adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly until everything comes together as a ball of dough.
• Take about 2/3 of the dough and roll it out into the 8 by 8 pan.  It should create about a 1/4 inch layer of dough.
• Spread 10-12 ounces of good raspberry jam on top of the dough
• Add about 3/4 of the granola to the remaining dough and mix together with your hands.
• Spread and/or crumble the remaining dough on top of the raspberry jam.
• Sprinkle the remaining granola on top of the dough
• Bake for about 50 minutes or until evenly browned.
• Let cool and enjoy! 🙂

These are going to be PERFECT on Gus’s birthday hike this morning with some fresh squeezed juice!

Disclaimer:  I made my own jam for this recipe, but didn’t share because honestly it was done very haphazerdly and with whatever we had around the house.  It included a small container of raspberries from the farmers market, about 2/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar boiled on the stove top.  If you want a great recipe, I loosely followed this recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-thornton/raspberry-crumble-bars-recipe/index.html and just tweeked it for what I had.  I have about 2/3 cup left over after using it for the bars).  

Enjoy!

A New Toy and HONEYMOON!

Update:  Apologies for this half posting earlier today.  I’m still learning this this whole blogging thing and really appreciate your patience!   Any pointers are always welcome 🙂

With our wedding 3 weeks away (ahh dear lord!), we’ve been consistently receiving gifts in the mail.

Well this week, Zach got his new favorite.

And my produce budget just skyrocketed…

A shiney new juicer!

Zach was introduced to “juicing” in New York last summer on a trip with friends, and has SERIOUSLY wanted one ever since.

Well — thanks to his old friends from back home, we now have one!

This afternoon, Zach made his first shopping trip for juicing materials.  Hello produce…well everything except the steak and corn are for juicing.  Those probably aren’t ideal for the juicer.

Zach is VERY excited and already talking about CostCo’ing our produce from now own.

We’re going to need more fridge space.

Juicers:  Does anyone have any good recipes, juices, or ideas for good juices?  Please send them my way!

Today

It was a busy morning/afternoon in our household.

First, my long run

Then, brunch at Sassafras American Eatery

By the time we got home it was well past 1 PM.

I spent some time in the kitchen baking for a recipe that I cannot WAIT to share with you guys tomorrow.  I wanted to make something different + great for our hike, and I think I got a winner.  Come back early AM tomorrow.  I’ll be sure to post it before Gusman’s birthday hike!

While I spent the afternoon in the kitchen, Zach was working on something much more exciting:

Our HONEYMOON!

Now this is a part of wedding planning I can get VERY excited about :).

Zach is extremely talented.  One of those many talents, and really possibly a missed calling in life for him, is the ability to play travel agent.

He planned our entire European trip to Zurich, Switzerland in 2010 from the States without ever having been there and it was perfect.

Since then, I have been skeptical that we’d ever be able to top that trip, but after today, I’m pretty sure we’ve knocked it right out of the park.

In Feburary of next year, Zach and I will be heading to St. Anton, Austria!

Hello beautiful!

St Anton, or Sankt Anton Am Arlberg, is a village and ski resort in Austria.

It’s consistently listed as one of the world’s best ski resorts and actually boasts that it helped to popularize skiing.

Zach and I were looking for a local that would allow us to ski most mornings and afternoons to our hearts content, but still have plenty of night life when we’re done with the slopes.

Well, St. Anton fits those requirements to a tee as it is known just as much for it’s “apres ski” as it’s slopes!

We sent out a few messages to apartment owners this afternoon and are hoping to book by within the next couple of weeks.  Exciting!

Dinner

The rest of the evening wasn’t as exciting, but it was healthy, delicious, and full of relaxing.

Dinner tonight was salmon, salad, and toast!

The salmon was seasoned with fajita seasoning and salt

The salad was fresh lettuce from the market with roasted veggies

Of course, the star of the meal, the California bread.  Yum.

And I’m not forgetting dessert, but we snacked on my baked yummy from this afternoon for dessert tonight, so I am going to leave  you in suspense until tomorrow early AM!  Trust me, it’s worth the wait 🙂

A Hint

The Challenge:

I took it a little easy today for the challenge after my long run, but I did squeeze in:

• 140 second plank + 10 hip dips
• 50 oblique crunches L & R
• 50 bridges
• 30 push ups
• 50 calf raises (2 sets of 25)

Today is day 4 of the challenge and I will admit I’ve been surprised by my own strength more than anything else.  I never thought I could do 30 uninterrupted REAL push ups, or hold over 2 minutes in plank, but I keep building everyday.  I think I am stronger than I have given myself credit for.  How cool is that?

Ok – time to relax with the family.  Have a great night all!