WIAW: Let it Snow

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Happy “What I Ate Wednesday” (WIAW) to all! I’m looking forward to exploring all of the healthy living eats across the blogosphere in between my freelance PR work today. 

I’ll jump into my eats, but first, please enjoy the view from my gym yesterday.

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Seems like the entire country, including upstate NY, is coated in mountains of snow! On my Monday post about beating the Winter Gym Boredom Blues , one reader asked if getting outside counted as a way an option? Wellllll….yes, my reader friend, but unfortunately sometimes Mother Nature literally won’t allow it – and that’s why it’s helpful to have a few tactics for enjoying your winter time in the gym!

And with that, let’s hop into breakfast. With the snow pounding down outside, I wanted a no-frills comfort food breakfast. After considerable thought (yes I generally but a lot of thought into breakfast…it is my favorite meal of the day after all!), I decided upon a healthified breakfast sandwich with a side of apples and honey.

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Continue Reading →

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WIAW: Never too Cold for Ice Cream

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Good morning! Lots to do today and not a lot of time, as I am leaving for New York tomorrow. Thus, this post will be mostly pictures of food and less mindless rambling. Welcome to another edition of “What I Ate Wednesday,”  (hosted by Jen from Peas and Crayons) where hundreds of healthy living bloggers across the country share their wacky, random and occasionally disgusting eats from the previous day. When I first started blogging, I had no desire to become involved with this “party,” but now I’m hooked! I enjoy chronicling my eats (for one day only – more than that feels like way too much work) and sharing them with the world (or the small audience that reads my blog..).

Breakfast was leftover Challah Egg Nog French Toast from my snow day holiday bakefest on Sunday. 

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The Strawberry Cranberry Compote definitely takes this recipe from good to great! The nutmeg, cinnamon, egg nog and cranberries combine for a little taste of Christmas for breakfast! This would be the perfect dish to make for holiday brunch or the morning after a holiday party.  And guess what, you lucky readers you: I’ll be sharing the recipe this Friday! Continue Reading →

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WIAW: Post-Thanksgiving Health Kick?

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Hi Friends!

Long time, no talk. As I mentioned in my previous post, over the next few weeks, my posts may be a bit less regular as I try to make a few big decisions in this crazy thing called life.

Until then, it’s always fun to document eats and treats in the “What I Ate Wednesday” party. It’s been a couple weeks since I joined the “party,” so it’s good to be back!

Before jumping into the eats, check out this picture from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, which I was lucky enough to watch this year. Santa + a Dreidel! The parade was amazing, and after years of living in NYC, I’m glad I got the chance to witness it.

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After the indulgences of Thanksgivingukkah, I have been looking to make some healthy decisions in daily eats. However, for breakfast yesterday, I had a big-time craving for the french toast roll ups that I made a while back.

For those that don’t remember, take some firm bread, spread some fun fillings on top (like marshmallow fluff, PB & J or Nutella), roll up, dip in egg/milk wash, throw ’em on a skillet and dredge in cinnamon n’ sugar. Please make these the next time you host a brunch. You’ll thank me later!

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For yesterday’s breakfast since the roll ups clearly weren’t sweet enough, I cooked up a blueberry compote to dip them into. Look at me jumping straight into healthy right after Thanksgiving: carbs, fruit and PB. That’s healthy right?  Continue Reading →

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WIAW: Bloody Marys in the Sky

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Hello from sunny (and cold) Nebraska! I’m back in my hometown, Omaha, for a couple of weeks, and as you know from previous posts, being home makes me one very happy Sometimes Healthy Girl.

There is something so warm and comforting about staying in the house that I grew up in and hanging out with my oldest friends in the world. I always say that if “home is where the heart is” then I’m not sure if my heart ever left Nebraska.

Since I was in-transit yesterday, the eats were not really very interesting, but in the spirit of keeping with the “What I Ate Wednesday” WIAW party, here’s a quick run-down of food from the friendly skies and the Heartland.

I stayed with Michelle in the city to make it easier to catch my morning flight and woke up around 6 am to some snowy skies! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, but I did snap a dark and poorly lighted picture of my blueberry muffin and extra large coffee from Dunkin Donuts.

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After that, I snuck in a quick workout at Michelle’s fancy NYC gym before running to the airport. As previous SHLB readers know, I absolutely hate to fly.  So, to calm my nerves, I’ll usually enjoy a bloody mary pre-flight…or two or three.

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Check out all the extra olives! I asked for a couple extra and received a cup full of them. The waitress must have seen the fear in my little eyes. The second breakfast of eggs/toast provided a solid base for a day full of flying.

Once airborne after the typical 30 minute delays at LaGuardia, I ordered just one more of my little friends.

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Nothing like a little mid-morning snack of airplane pretzels and a bloody mary! I had a small layover in Chicago, which left me just enough time to board my plane. So, unfortunately, my plans to purchase a small lunch went astray.

I landed in Omaha, and received a text message from one of my best friends, Jamie, who was just about to board a plane back to her new home Arizona. She had been in Omaha for the weekend and, unfortunately, our visits didn’t overlap. We knew that there was a small chance we might have the opportunity for a short airport reunion, and miracle of miracles, I was deplaning just as she was boarding at the gate next door. Oh, the glory of a small-town airport!

(old pic of us - no time to snap photos during our short airport reunion!)

(old pic of us – no time to snap photos during our short airport reunion!)

We said our hellos/goodbyes, made plans for me to visit AZ and yes, I shed a couple of tears. Feel very lucky that I got to see my old friend, even just a few minutes.

As soon as I got home, I ran to the store for some Sometimes Healthy essentials and a little lunch, since I hadn’t eaten much but bloody marys, pretzels and peanuts in-transit.

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I also noshed on a banana and some trail mix.

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On my way home from the store, I snapped this pretty picture of the sun setting over the small lake by my house.

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It’s no NYC skyline, but it still probably ranks up there with my top 5 favorite views in the entire world!

I ate dinner with my parents, and we opted to stay in the house, since I was a bit tired from my day of travel.

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BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad from Cheesecake Factory with many pieces of the delicious brown bread. Cheesecake Factory is a luxury I don’t have in upstate NY, so I was very excited when my parents suggested it for dinner. I am pretty sure my mother was relived that I didn’t ask to make them dinner and mess up her pristine kitchen. Give it time, mom….

Dessert was courtesy of this bad-boy, and yes, I ate it straight out of the carton. 

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Sorry for partying ya’ll.

Now, I’m off for a gym date with Becca and plan on just spending the day soaking up that Omaha comfort.

Have a great day everyone!


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WIAW: French Toast Roll Ups and Pink Muddy Buddies

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Monday night was a BAD night for sleep, as in I didn’t get a wink of sleep. I remember how I used to pull all-nighters in college all the time like it was nothing, and now, my old bones definitely don’t function right without those Z’s.

Since, I couldn’t sleep, I decided to do something productive….like increase the content of all of my Pinterest boards. For the record, if you’re ever having trouble sleeping, I don’t recommend playing on Pinterest. I got so excited about all of my “pins” that it was impossible to get back to bed. I have had a major craving for Muddy Buddies (or Puppy Chow as some call it) lately, so I must have pinned about 15 Muddy Buddy recipes alone. Then, I decided to make a special Girls on the Run Muddy Buddy Mix for their last practice today.More on that later.

Let’s dive into Tuesday’s eats for “What I Ate Wednesday” (WIAW). Apparently, being tired causes one to make poor food choices. Let’s see how my lack of sleep affected the day’s eats.

Around 5 AM, I decided that it was time to get up and make some breakfast. It was a Pinterest find from just a few hours before I got out of bed: French Toast Roll Ups. 

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Do I really need to explain why I had to make these immediately after I saw them? Sometimes the simplest ideas are pure genius. This is one of them. Take pieces of white bread, flatten them with a rolling pin, slather on some delicious fillings, like marshmallow fluff and PB, dip in egg/milk mixture, cook ’em up in a skillet and coat in cinnamon n’ sugar. Then dip in maple syrup.

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After one dip in the syrup, I thought I had died and gone to french toast heaven.  Continue Reading →

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WIAW: Halloween Health Kick?

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Last week, I spent much of my time in the kitchen, stirring my “witches brew” dutch oven to cook up a whole bunch of tasty Halloween treats. So, this week’s “What I Ate Wednesday” WIAW may dull in comparison to a post that talks about “Pumpkin Butter Wishes and Candy Corn Dreams.”

I tried to keep most of my meals Sometimes Healthy, in anticipation  of the inevitable Halloween candy plunge (or, if I’m ambitious, I may even make the treats from Monday’s post with the leftover candy).

Breakfast was a bit “boring” compared to the creative dishes that I usually whip up for my first meal of the day. I’m a huge fan of breakfast, so when I have the time, I tend to go overboard on my breakfast dishes. However, yesterday’s meal was a standard bowl of Cinnamon Puffins cereal with Almond Milk.

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And don’t start accusing me of dipping into the sugar cereal stash to finish off the remainder of my Almond Milk. I would NEVER do something like that. I’m a healthy living blogger after all.

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Seriously, if you had the chance to start your day with strawberry Almond Milk, would you pass it up? I rest my case.

Continue Reading →

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WIAW: Pumpkin Butter Wishes and Candy Corn Dreams

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During Monday’s Girls on the Run practice, the girls were tasked with running (or walking) around the track for 40 minutes…by themselves. The lesson was about slowing down and taking time to relax and get their thoughts in order. (Funnily enough, I still haven’t master this skill at the ripe old age of 30.) The goal was for the girls to be alone with their thoughts and see where their minds would take them.

Apparently, this is not an easy task for 8 to 10 year-old girls… I finally bargained them into running every other lap alone, and at the end of class, we circled up to discuss what they were thinking about.

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(you want us to be quiet?!)

Their “deep” answers: “my Halloween costume,” “how I can collect the most candy on Halloween” “if I should be a witch or a princess this year”

Clearly, kids have one-track minds around this time of year. Nevertheless, their enthusiastic Halloween spirit reminded me that I needed to jump into the spirit in my Sometimes Healthy way: with food, of course.

I was up late last night baking some goodies for Friday’s post, and I’ll share a sneak preview with you at the end of this post (lucky you!), but first, let’s dive into breakfast for What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW).

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Chobani yogurt bowl, topped with fresh Honey Crisp apples, apple butter, sugared figs, granola and a drizzle of honey.  Continue Reading →

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WIAW: The Time I Carried a Squash from NYC

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Okay, okay, the title of this post is fairly inaccurate. No one would actually go to NYC for the night and come back the next day with nothing more than a squash, right?

Well, actually, the title of this post should have been, “WIAW: The Time I Carried 2 Squash, 6 Cupcakes, 8 Cookies, 2 Chobani Bowls, 1 Whole Foods Salad, Make-your-Own Trail Mix, a Pumpkin Muffin AND Banana Pudding from NYC.” 

(My NYC "contraband")

(My NYC “contraband”)

Every time I visit one of the biggest shopping capitals of the world, instead of returning home with trendy purses and shoes, I come back with “fashionable” food, like kabocha squash.

Somewhere, back in Omaha, my clothes-loving mom is thinking, “How is this child my daughter?” 

In all fairness, kabocha squash is all anyone in the healthy living world can talk about these days…and I can’t find it anywhere in the HV. So, why not capitalize on a trip to NYC?

You may be wondering if I moved back to NYC, considering I have been there almost once a week for the past couple of months. Nope, in fact, I was back in NYC for a very special sleepover. My oldest friend in the world, Emily was in town for work. She asked me to spend the night at her super-trendy Soho hotel on Monday night for a marathon catch-up session and an early morning Tuesday workout.

Catching up with Emily was like a breath of fresh air, as usual. She lives in Omaha, and as the mother of a very cute one-year-old, she rarely has the time to chat on the phone. You know how everyone has their “person?” (It’s the whole Meredith Grey/Christina Yang Grey’s Anatomy friendship thing). Well, Emily’s my person. I could wake up tomorrow morning, dye my hair black, cover my body in tattoos and run away to join the circus. And, Emily would still see ME. No matter what happens or where life takes us, Emily will always be that person that just “gets me”…often more than I understand myself. 

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Monday night, we enjoyed a friend-mantic dinner in Little Italy and fro-yo from 16 Handles and kicked our butts in the gym on Tuesday morning with my tabata workout.

(You MUST try their pumpkin yogurt)

(You MUST try their pumpkin yogurt)

Before I knew it, Emily had to leave for a meeting, and I was left to wander the streets of NYC before hopping on a train back upstate.

I probably would have chased after her cab and begged her to stay if she hadn’t been with her coworkers. The older I get, the harder it becomes to say goodbye to my best friends. You would think it gets easier…after all, Emily and I haven’t been in the same town for 12 years. But, as all of these special people move through the big stages in their lives (babies, marriage, etc.), I find myself really wishing I could be closer to them. Ah, the realities of growing older.

Hopefully, all of this touchy-feely blabbering hasn’t distracted you all from the task at hand: What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW), where I journal all of my weird and wacky eats from the previous day. Well, you’re in for a treat, because my eats on Tuesday started with a creamy fall treat in NYC and worked their way back to the Hudson Valley for a triumphant squash-filled dinner.

As soon as Emily left me, I knew just where to drown my sorrows: Chobani’s Soho Yogurt Bar. As you may remember, I visited the store for the first time a couple weeks ago. I’ve been dreaming about going back ever since.

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I chose the seasonal option: Pumpkin + Cranberry, a yogurt bowl that included a sweet pumpkin butter, topped with cranberries, gingersnaps and other fall goodies. In case you are wondering about the glare on the left-hand corner of the picture, it’s not my poor photography, it’s actually heaven shining down this yogurt bowl to me. Once again, the chefs at Chobani Soho hit all the right notes with this creamy bowl of fall flavors. Continue Reading →

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WIAW: I Got a Schedule, Yo!

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I have an “autumn resolution:” stick to a schedule.

I’m an early riser – up with the dog at  6 AM and on-the-go from there. However, despite my best efforts, I rarely stick to the schedule that I have planned in my head. Inevitably, I’ll get carried away in writing way too many words in a blog post or scribbling way too many notes on the latest chapter in my NASM Personal Training Course. I also tend to underestimate the amount of time it takes to get from Point A to Point B (which around these parts “in the sticks” is never less than 20 minutes). Oh, and I have no idea how Rachael Ray coined the whole “30 Minute Meals” deal, because I’ve never actually cooked a meal that takes less than 30 minutes.

When I first moved to NYC and was working at a giant PR firm, I had a bit of trouble balancing all my client priorities throughout the day. So, on yet another midnight fiasco at the office, I made a resolve to never leave the office without plotting out my exact schedule for the day, from meetings to client work, meals, errands and even touchbases with my friends from home. And, there were no fancy-schmancy planners for this girl. Nope, I simply used some computer paper, some markers and taped it up next to my computer. I did the same for any weekly and monthly tasks as well.

Worked like a charm.

So, as I cram like a madwoman for my NASM test, while also trying to balance some other important commitments, I’ve decided to implement this “sophisticated” scheduling methodology again.

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As you can see, there’s not much slotted in the master schedule for my blog post, so I think it’s best that we hop into yesterday’s eats for What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW), don’t you?

Once again, I was up at 6 AM to feed the pup yesterday morning. Before settling in for an hour of study time, I created this autumn-centric breakfast:

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Baked apple n’ honey, leftover sweet potatoes (from Monday’s dinner) and greek yogurt, topped with dried fruit, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie spice. It checked off the box in many food groups and left me full, happy and ready to learn about “Energetic Metabolism and Bioenergetics.”

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WIAW: Celebrating Fall Flavors

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I think we are all in agreement here that somewhere in between Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Apple Cider Donuts, fall has officially taken the place of Christmas as “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

Cookies, egg nog and the infamous Christmas ham are fun and all, but really, no season packs in the delicious flavors like fall. There is a reason that we rejoice in the September release of the Pumpkin Spice Latte…it signifies that fall and all of its glorious flavors are coming! Thank you Starbucks for giving us permission to indulge in fall flavors before fall actually starts.

Yesterday was the first day of October and though it did hit 80 degrees late in the afternoon, most of the day was full of that cool, crisp fall air that we know and love. The fact that the season was officially in full swing inspired me, and I decided to try to incorporate my favorite fall flavors as much as possible. So, today’s “What I Ate Wednesday” is a celebration of the NEW most wonderful time of the year! (according to me and potentially only me)

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NASM studying has been at the forefront of my mind nearly every day, and since I didn’t fit much studying into Monday, I woke up bright and early yesterday morning to take advantage of the quiet time and engross myself in the muscular system.

Coffee was a must, and per usual, I poured in an extra large amount of pumpkin spice creamer. After about an hour of studying, I took a break to make breakfast with one of fall’s brightest stars: butternut squash.

Yes, you CAN have squash for breakfast

Yes, you CAN have squash for breakfast

To make this breakfast, I simply boiled half of a butternut squash (cubed) and then mashed it up with brown sugar, honey and cinnamon. I then diced up some apples (still have some left from apple picking weeks ago!) and plopped on a healthy portion of peanut butter.  Continue Reading →

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