Pizzzzzahhhhh

You know how you have those days where everything goes according to plan? Well, my yesterday was nothing like that.

I had it all mapped out a little something like this: after work run 3.5 miles, shower, hit up starbucks to work on my website and grab dinner, get my grocery shop on and end the day baking the avocado cake I've been dreaming about since seeing it on Hillary's site. Where oh where did it all go wrong you ask? Why, at the very beginning of course.

Just as I was about to head out for my run, I got a text from a friend asking to walk that I've been too busy to workout with the past few times she's asked. I didn't want to tell her no again so I nixed the run and went for an hour walk instead (doing the same mileage at least). This obviously took way more time than I had planned for, but it was still a nice to slow down for once.

I ran home to take my shower and surprise! My whole extended family is there for a dinner I knew nothing about? Figures. After dinner, I thought I'd save time and stay home to work on my site, which I did for a while - until my starving boyfriend called begging for dinner. That somehow turned in to me driving around for about a freakin hour and by the time I was done, all the grocery stores were closed = no avocado cake. I was crushed. Crushed. And I was running so late, I had to speed shower in order to get to bed on time. My bedtime deadline is no joke, people!

All in all, I got about nothing done I had set out for the day. Sigh.

However, today is a brand new day! And since yesterday was so unsuccessful, today is bound to be wrought with accomplishments. I feel karma tipping the balance in my favor (:

fresh eats.
So I had this awesome idea for breakfast today - in my head at least. In reality, not so much. I was feeling something savory, so I thought a pesto, mozzarella and egg sandwich would be bomb. Yeah, it was a bomb alright. It probably should have stayed in my head. Terrible! Yuck, so gross. I ate the whole thing because I didn't have time to make anything else, but I will definitely NOT be making it like that again! No worries though, I've got a couple new ideas floating around in my little brain that should make it edible at the very least.

To make up for the sucky breakfast, I had a yummy nut butter wrap as a snack!

I may have went to town on the White Chocolate Wonderful...

Folded a la GirlMeetsHealth style, of course. Deeeelish! For lunch, I decided to brave The Oven and make my own healthified pizza. I grabbed this little bundle of joy:

And made this little piece of heaven.

My own personal whole wheat thin crust cheeeeese pizza. Close up please?

I will definitely be doing this again! I wish I would have thought to pack some veggies for toppings though. Next time for sure!
Questions:

• How do you deal when nothing goes according to plan?
• Favorite pizza toppings! I want them - now.

Now, let's try to make this a better day - I'm off! I'm switching rooms so I have a lot of moving around to do plus I still have to workout and make dinner (best veggies burgers ever anyone?). Have a good night bloggie loves!

Fudge Babies

Is anyone else tired of all this rainy weather? Every time I look outside, it's just so gloomy. I seriously need to consider moving to a sunnier locale. North East Ohio just isn't cutting it for me anymore. Who wants to take me in!?

fresh eats.
Remember those delicious coconut banana muffins I previously stated were all gone? Well I had forgotten I slipped a couple away before the wolves (aka my family) descended and froze them! Hurray for pre-planning!! I snuck one out yesterday morning and topped it with a little PB&Co.

These will be made again. Soon. Possibly tomorrow. More likely tonight.

Dinner last night was an Italian Grandma special: Funghetti!

It's definitely in my top five favorite pasta dishes. Funghetti, for those who may not know, is mushrooms in an aioli sauce over pasta. Really simple and quick to make, it's basically a mixture of olive oil, mushrooms, spices and pasta topped with romano cheese. I could throw in an exact recipe if anyone wants it, just let me know!

After dinner, I began a project I've been putting off for a while: Blog Renovation. Of course, a headache quickly followed. Apparently I'm not very cPanel savy. To relieve my blogger woes, I decided to make a batch of these Fudge Babies I've heard so much about.

I wasn't exaclty sure if I'd like them or not, so I halved the recipe and made eight different varieties. I give to you: My Little (Fudge) Babies!

Aren't they just the cutest?! I made two of each kind: original, cocoa dusted, smores (with a mini marshmallow inside and rolled in graham cracker crumbs), chocolate chip, peanut butter, peanut butter glazed, and sugared. I haven't tried them all yet, but I can admit that I like them more than I thought I would. I'm not really a date kind of girl (I'm the marrying kind haaaa), but these were pretty tasty. Thanks Katie!

Cut to today - I really didn't know what I wanted for breakfast and I spent some time last night thinking about it before I fell asleep (tell me I'm not the only one who dreams about breakfast!) when it hit me. Cereal. I know it seems like a Duh! kind of statement, but I realized that I spend so much time making pancakes, oatmeal, overnight oats, omelets, scones - that I've basically forgotten the classic!

Of course, I had to decide I wanted cereal the day I ran out of almond milk. I had about 1/4 cup left so I threw that in there on top of some Three Sisters Honey Oaties, chia seeds, half of a banana and a scoop of White Chocolate Wonderful. A pretty satisfying meal if I do say so myself.

fit happenings.
Consider my running rut officially ovahh! On Saturday, I ran my five miles in 52:10. Way slower than my PR, but hey, I'm getting it done baby. No complaints here. In an effort to get organized, I've decided to start planning and posting my weekly workout schedules. That's prime time dedication for this chick, believe it!

Not too shabby. I don't know though, I feel weird doing only strength training on certain days. I'm a heart pumping cardio junkie! Maybe I should throw some cross training in there?

In Urbanathlon news - you probably all thought I dropped it, didn't you!? - they finally put up their training program! Well, sort of. They put up the first segment which covers weeks 1 thru 3. And it looks pretty legit guys. If you're curious, you can download it here.

Five pages of pure awesome. I'm still working on finding a partner for this adventure, however. Someone will eventually give in to me!! I'm persuasive like that. Trust me.

Questions:

• What's your go-to breakfast in the morning? How often do you switch it up?
• Do you make a weekly workout schedule? If you do, do you follow it?
• Do you want to do the urbanathlon with me? Actually, forget that one. I know you do.

I'm off loves! The rest of my day looks something like this: Run. Shower. Blog stuff. Dinner. Fudge Babies. Have a good day!

Get Loaded: A Lesson in Loading Yogurt

So I totally love that you guys love sushi every bit as much as I do! I'm thinking a virtual sushi party is in order? Could we arrange that!? I'll start working on it now!

getting loaded.
If I had to pick just one snack for the rest of my life - it would undoubtedly be loaded yogurt. There's just so much you can do with it! No loaded yogurt is the same! When I first start making them, I didn't really have any set plan. I may or may not have just randomly thrown things in a bowl. Now however, after months of experience, I have a whole system. A super top-secret system which I would like to share with you now. Prepare your innocent little eyes because this post will self-destruct.

base.
First things first - the yogurt. Some people prefer soy yogurt, some people love their low-fat, but I (and I'm sure a bunch of you bloggies) will always heart greek yogurt. It's just so rich and thick! The perfect conveyor for all my loaded goodness. My favorite brand?

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Why Fage of course! Though Trader Joe's also puts up a good fight for first. Don't take my word for it, though. Try out a bunch of brands! I've heard good things about Oikos, but I would definitely avoid the Yoplait. Yuck.

flavor.

Now I wouldn't advise this step if you're working with already flavored yogurt, but if you've got your little mitts on the plain or vanilla variety - you can spice things up a bit with just a dash of cocoa powder, carob powder, vanilla extract, brown sugar, cinnamon, whatever you'd like! I personally love choco-tizing my yogurt, but that's probably because I have some serious addiction issues with chocolate. I can quit whenever I want!

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sweetner.

Now I don't know about you, but to me, greek yogurt tastes about as sweet as a spoonful of rocks. Why not cover those rocks in agave nectar, honey, maple syrup or jelly? Blueberry jelly, preferably. And no rocks. If you're crazy you don't have a gigantic sweet tooth like me, you could skip this step. I guess. But then we probably couldn't be friends.

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Note to self: I apparently need to find out where they sell the industrial-sized agave nectar.

fruit.

Let's get real here - we wouldn't be health food bloggies if we weren't trying to slip fruits and veggies into every food possible. Why stop at loaded yogurt?! I personally tend to favor strawberries, blueberries and bananas in my loaded meal, but you could also have some success in blackberries, raspberries, kiwi, apples, maybe not oranges so much, but hey if that's your thing, roll with it. Go crazy.

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crunch factor.

Everything tastes better with a little crunch. It's science, people. I don't make the rules. To get that sought after crunchiness, try adding some uncooked raw oats, granola, cereal, puffed rice, graham crackers, whatever floats your boat. I love love love Puffins in mine!

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So good! I promise, they won't get soggy. I also like throwing in a handful of Honey O's or even some crumbled Kashi Cinnamon Shredded Wheat. Seriously. Yum.

naught bits.

Now comes my favorite part - the naughty bits. Things like dark chocolate chips, cacao nibs, crumbled cookies, muffins or vitatops, whipped cream, get creative! The only thing I would advise against is peanut butter. For some reason, the thick texture of peanut butter does NOT go well with the rest of the yogurt. Trust me on this one. But fear not, because where peanut butter fails, peanut butter sauce will never let you down. Just mix a little almond milk with your peanut butter and voila! PB sauce! It's totally genius. It's also changed my life dramatically in ways I never thought possible.

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White Chocolate Wonderful. There's nothing better. I've given up even trying. So now, I'm dying to know:

What's your favorite loaded yogurt combo?

You know I'm always trying to squeeze new ideas from you guys. Don't front, you love it. (:

Sushi-tastic

You know how I was talking about my running rut lately? Well I have my long run today and you know what? I'm totally feeling it. And that is thanks in a big part to Nichole and her awesome post yesterday about endurance. Check it out! I'm using it as my inspiration for this week (:

fresh eats.
While perusing through How Sweet It Is the other day, I happened upon a recipe I knew I just had to try. Whole Wheat Banana Coconut Muffins. Yeah. Whole Wheat AND banana PLUS coconut equals INSANITY! I advise you to make these immediately. They were so nice and moist and had just a hint of coconut. Seriously awesome job on this recipe. I would show you a picture - but they were eaten by my family almost immediately. Next time though! Because we all know there will be a next time. I also finished the last of my TJ's guacamole hummus yesterday. So sad. I guess it's time to break out Megan's recipe. I'm sure it's every bit as good!

For dinner, I was still feeling a little asian persausion. This time, however, I went Japanese. My favorite Japanese, acutally = Sakura's.

The building is lime green with cute white and pink flowers painted all along the walls. As if that wasn't enough for me to fall in love, they just happen to have the best sushi in town. And you know I got myself a feast, baby!

Let's get accquainted, shall we?

Miso Soup

Green Salad with Ginger Dressing

Spicy Salad - Octopus, Crab and Shrimp in Spicy Sauce

Orange roll - California Roll with Roe

I like to put the spicy salad on my sushi. I'm just so clever. So good. I think I could eat sushi every night and not get tired of it.

What's your favorite kind of sushi?

I'm obviously assuming that everybody loves sushi. Not loving it just refuses to process. Okay, I'm off love bugs! I've got five miles to run, a boyfriend to eat dinner with and a room that needs cleaning. Aren't Saturdays just lovely?

Oh! And check out my Blogroll page! Totally updated it. (:

How Does Your Garden Grow

Morning bloggies! It was pretty funny seeing what different names you guys had for one eyed jacks. I can see why Momma Fit went with 'one eyed jacks' - at my precarious young age, I would have never touched anything called 'toad in a hole'! (:

fresh eats.
After my too fresh breakfast yesterday, I was in a tropical mood. And what better way to satisfy than by whipping up a yummy smoothie?

Well I guess I could have packed up and sailed off to the Bahamas, but I didn't quite have the time for it. This Cherry-Banana smoothie hit the spot though! In the mix:

• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup frozen cherries
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 TBSP chia seeds
• 1 tsp spirulina
• 1/2 scoop protein

So. Good. Even my little cousin liked it. And he doesn't like anything! This kept me full for a while. So long, in fact, that I didn't even notice I was hungry till it was time for dinner! I decided to satisfy the little asian in me.

Steamed Buddhist Delight. A mix of veggies and tofu with a side of brown sauce. The only thing that would make it better would be brown rice. But sadly, no place around me even offers it. Oh well, I just shove it all on my father!

Duhlicious. I inhaled this bad boy. It never stood a chance. After my run, I came home famished again so I decided to try working on a new dessert. Chocolate loaded greek yogurt! It was pretty good, but it still needs a few tweaks. I so *heart* greek yogurt.

fit happenings.

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to someone very special to me.

My garden! This little beauty is going to soon be supplying me with some awesome veggies. Since I had the day off, I went over to weed. Which is way more of a workout than I would have though, by the way. This is my first year having a garden and I cannot believe how fast weeds grow! Why is it that people have to spend so much money and hay trying to grow grass in their lawns, yet where I don't want grass, it grows nonstop? Figures.

Here's a little pepper growing strong! I'm not big on peppers to be honest, but my uncle sure loves them. His hot pepper jelly? Oh, you already know it's good.

And here is some gorge kale. I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna do with so much kale (I retardedly bought six of them), but I'm sure whatever I figure out will be delicious! I've also planted a whole slew of other veggies, like lilac eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, spinach, broccoli, lettuce and even some cantaloupes! Expect more pictures soon.

Yesterday was also my day for a short, three mile run. As most of you know, I'm currently training for my first half marathon in September. I started off following the Hal Higdon program, but I decided after hearing that a lot of you bloggies change up your schedules, I could too! However now I'm starting to wonder if it was Hal at all - maybe it was just me?

Even after switching up my schedule, I'm still feeling lethargic during runs. And I can't understand why? Instead of looking forward to my long runs like I normally do, I'm counting down the minutes till they're over. I hate it. I'm hoping that if I just keep running, I can essentially run through it. Runners out there, has this ever happened to you? And if it has, what did you do to fix it? 

I need some help here people! I'm sure you guys won't let me down - have a great day loves (:

Breakfast In 5 Minutes Or Less

In my last post, I saw this:

Well say no more Ms. Hungry Scholar - Fit n Fresh is here to save the day! It's crazy to me that everyone doesn't already know how to make these, Momma Fit used to cook them up for me all the time as a kid. Go Momma!

First, you need to gather all the ingredients.

That was easy. I love easy! Which probably explains why I love one eyed jacks so much. Next, take a small juice glass and press it down into the middle of your bread.

It will leave you with a nice little 'eye'! You could also use your hands for this part and just rip out a circle in the middle, but I like to be professional with my breakfasts.

Get your griddle or pan ready so that it's nice and hot! You can put a little butter on both sides of the bread, but I normally just spray it with olive oil. Throw your bread on the pan, as well as your little eye - waste not, want not!

Now comes the fun part! Crack your egg open and drop it right down in the middle of your bread. Like so:

Let it sit for a few minutes and then give it a little flip.

Leave it alone for a minute or two and then - ta dah!! Breakfast is served!

Now seriously, how good does that look? And it took me about five minutes from start to finish. The yolk stays nice and gooey and the bread gets nice and crusty.

A perfect day following each breakfast is guaranteed. Now it's your turn!

What was your favorite breakfast as a child?

Just Call Me McGuyver

I want to start off by saying thank you all so much for your kind words and sympathy for the loss of my grandmother recently. I really, truly appreciate it. Free hugs for everyone! And also a big thank you for anyone who commented on my lovely little sibs - it's gone straight to their heads, I can assure you that!

But let's get down to business, shall we?

fresh eats.

In keeping with my peanut butter + chocolate theme, I didn't have a choice. I was forced by myself to make my yummy peanut butter pancakes again. But this time - better.

Behold! The Mega Peanut Butter Pancake. I had to flip this bad boy with two spatulas! Topped with Dark Chocolate Dreams sauce and with a side of sliced banana - I almost couldn't bring myself to eat it. Almost.

And yes, it was every bit as good as it looked.

I didn't exactly have a solid lunch because, to be honest, I'm a sucky lunch maker. But I did have this little gem I picked up on the way back from Pittsburgh. (Please excuse the sucky iPhone pics, this girl forgot her camera at home!)

Yeah. You read right. Guacamole hummus. I love guacamole. I love hummus. And I was right to assume that I'd also love guacamole hummus. Seriously, I may have just created a monster. I've almost devoured the entire container. Anddd I've had it for two days. And on top of that, ironically enough, I just saw that Meghan at The Oatmeal Diaries had whipped some up herself the other day! Uh oh....

For dinner, I really wanted to make something other than oatmeal. But at work, this beast is my only means of cooking anything:

The pizza oven. Classy. So, I had to attempt to McGuyver me up some grub! Or MacGruber it up, possibly, in this case. I decided on some french fries and a jam and cheese sandwich. I don't know why, but I've been in a real jam + cheese mood too lately. At least no one can say I'm not giving into my cravings.

I chopped up a potato and made some makeshift fries in a personal pizza tray. Score +1 for Alycia. Next I threw in my jam and cheddar cheese sandwich. I got a little artsy with this pic.

I've just got awesome skillz with an iPhone apparently. Don't deny. After a few seconds in this bad boy (since it cooks at a sweltering 500 degrees), I got this delicious gooeyness.

Yum much? Alycia = +5. Mean Pizza Oven = -35. And dinner was served!

Not bad, right?! I know, I was impressed with myself as well. I need my own reality show. You all know you'd watch it. Right now, I'm off to watch the newest Harry Potter, since Nichole has reminded me that I've yet to see it. And that just won't do when we're off at Harry Potter World!! (;

What's the best meal you've ever made at work? Or if you have any ideas on meals I could make at work (cause I'm greedy like that), feel free to share!

257

That's the number in my blog reader right now. Ahhh... I feel like a trauma victim. And I was just caught up! Oh well, I apologize for the absence guys. My great grandmother passed away rather suddenly and I had to make a trip out to Pittsburgh for the funeral over the weekend. I try not to get very personal in this blog, but I will say that she was a very lovely lady and I will miss her very much. However, I'll admit it was so nice to spend a weekend with my family, even if it was under sad circumstances

This is me and all my little siblings (sorry for the intense red eye!)

fresh eats.
So here is just a collection of random eats in the past few days:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Overnight Oats

Enormous Salad Beast

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

Chocolate Cherry Bomb Protein Shake

One Eyed Jack!

Chocolate Banana Oatmeal

Loaded Greek Yogurt

Are you guys sensing a pattern here? I've been in a peanut butter + chocolate mood! Which is totally cool with me. (:

fit happenings.
I may have another member on the Urbanathlon boat! Over the weekend I worked my charm and got the okay from the brother! He's not exactly a runner however - once I literally had to push him to get him to run 2 laps. No lie. This was about a year ago, though, so we will just have to work on some improvement little bro! According to Facebook, the training program should be up by the end of this week. I'm pretty stoked guys.

And speaking of training, I'm just gonna say it. I'm not diggin the Hal Higdon Half-Marathon program. I feel as though I was doing better on my own! But instead of giving up on it completely, I think I'm just gonna make a few Alycia-style changes to it. I tried to space out the runs more evenly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with the longest runs being on Saturdays. I also put the full rest day on Friday because I'm a firm believer in resting your legs before running a new distance. If it goes better, expect a post!

Do you guys ever change a training schedule? Or am I totally stupid for messing with the sacred Hal Higdon?!

Now - to attack this blog reader!