Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July! My family and I ended up spending the day in DC for the first time ever! I've lived in Northern VA my entire life and have never gone to see the national fireworks.

Anyways backing up to Friday! I started off with Kashi waffle topped with some vanilla chobini
And of course some juice! Apple, Beet, Carrot, and Ginger!
Then later for lunch, a wrap with eggplant, spinach, tomatoes, hummus, cheddar and swiss cheese.
After lunch I finally fixed my blog layout! It took forever but I finally got my 3 columns! To celebrate I snacked on some strawberry banana fruit crisps!
And some cinnamon raisin wheat bread with maple PB& Co peanut butter.
For dinner my mom made a quiche!

And then for dessert a triple berry pie with a streusel topping.
And of course I topped mine with some vanilla ice cream! It was delicious!
For 4th of July I started my day with another juice! Orange, carrot, and ginger. Yummmm!
Then I made myself a wrap for dinner and we started packing up food to bring with us! We quickly ate lunch before heading out! I had an Annie Chun's Peanut Sesame bowl
Once we got into DC we immediately set ourselves up on the mall and then went to explore the folk festival that was set up. We bought some spiced almonds and pecans and then later got some fried plantains that escaped the camera.
Then my sister and I played several rounds of hangman- you have to love our word choices.And we took tons of pictures! Here is my sister, me, and my dad! My mom and brother spent most of the day reading and not paying attention to us!Eventually we busted out dinner, the rest of my family had fried chicken but I stuck to a wrap with a veggie burger, spinach, tomatoes, cheddar, and hummus!
Then it was fireworks time!After the fireworks we walked up 2 metro stations so that we could get on before everyone else and not have to wait in the mass crowds of people for the metro. It worked out pretty amazingly and we had no problem getting back home!

Today I wasn't feeling that great so when I woke up I had some Wolfgang Puck Butternut Squash soup for lunch. It was delicious!

I really haven't done much today except lounging around because I'm not feeling great, and that is probably what I will continue to do for the rest of the day!

Oh and I almost forgot! Check out Danica's blog for a change to win some Amazing Grass!

Breville Juice Fountain Plus!

Well from the title of this blog I bet you can guess what finally came in the mail for me today!
My juicer yay! This morning my mom, sister, and I went out and about shopping around Manassas. We were mostly picking up a part for my sister's car and browsing for dorm stuff for my sister. They ended up getting nothing except the car part and I ended up with presents for a friend's wedding in a couple weeks and more picture frames! We then stopped for lunch at Taco Bell, which I haven't been to in forever. It was good, but not great, probably not worth all the grease and fat that I'm sure were in there. When we came home I spotted the big box on the front steps and immediately tore it open! Of course at the grocery store yesterday I stalked up on some apples and beets in anticipation of my juicer coming. My first juice was made of an apple, a beet, and a bunch of little baby carrots- which I discovered are dangerous in the juicer because they fly back out!
Ahhhhh this is so amazing I don't know how I lived without this! This juicer was supposedly used but I think it was probably used one time. It works amazingly, came with the original box and instruction manual and even the little product registration form. The price sticker on the box was from Bed Bath and Beyond for $150 and I got it on e-bay for $27 plus about $20 for shipping- what a deal!!!!!!!!! Anyways the Breville Juice Fountain Plus has an 850 Watt Motor and two speed settings. Softer things, like watermelon or blueberries, use the low setting while harder fruits, like apples and carrots, use the high setting. And if you are in doubt about the setting there is a little guide in the book that lists a bunch of fruit and veggies and the settings that you should use! The juicer boasts that it can fit a whole apple in its feeding shoot and of course I tested that claim. My apple fit, but it was a very tight fit and it was a pretty normal sized apple. I think any slightly larger apple wouldn't fit, but cutting an apple in half is not that difficult to do. The best part of this juicer is how fast it is. I put that apple in and almost immediately the entire thing was juiced. There is no waiting around for all the juice to drip out, it is instantaneous. It also comes with the juice container which comes with a froth separator, so when you pour your juice you have just juice! And cleaning it is pretty easy too, you can put everything straight into the dishwasher but I knew I would be using it again later today so I just hand washed everything. Everything rinses off really easily except the actual blade/ strainer part, but it comes with a little brush that cleans it off pretty easily. All in all I was super impressed and highly recommend a Breville if you are looking for a juicer.

Anyways after my juicing excitement I took my dog to the dog park for her to play! This was her second time there and she still isn't really use to it. She is much more interested in sniffing the ground and smelling everything than playing with the other dogs. When I came back I had a snack of a banana with the most awesome peanut butter ever aka PB&Co's Mighty Maple!
Then for dinner my mom made BLT's and we had watermelon on the side- a perfect summer meal!
While chopping up the watermelon I decided I absolutely had to try juicing it because watermelon is so juicy! So once we put dinner away I demonstrated my new juicer to my parents. We juiced the watermelon and tried some of it. Then we decided to add some carrots to it and my dad and I thought it was much better, my mom did not. Then we decided to throw in a random orange that we had hanging around the house. It ended up being a pretty delicious combo- watermelon, carrot, orange juice!
Anyways I'm sure tonight will end much like last night,
Homemade ice cream sandwich with homemade cookies- yumm! I'm not really sure what our plans are for tomorrow and 4th of July, but everyone is off work so we are maybe going to DC for the fireworks!

Random Pasta

Today has been almost the same as Monday! I wasn't at all hungry when I woke up at 10:30 so I skipped breakfast. I caught up on facebook and blogs and read some more of my book. Then around noon I ate the rest of my bunny butts from yesterday.
After lunch my sister and I went to Fairfax- again- to pick up the pool pump- again. And of course I stopped at Robuks and got juice! This time I got an apple, beet, carrot, and ginger! It was delicious! My sister got a strawberry banana smoothie and she really liked it- but she said she didn't like my juice :(
Then I came home and finished reading the Pact by Jodi Picoult book. This was my first book by Jodi and it was really good! I need to get My Sister's Keeper next so I can read that before the movie comes out! After I finished my book I started packing for Ohio! I'm so excited! My grandparents are calling it a long weekend but I could very well be gone for a whole week haha. I'm heading up to my grandparents house in West Virginia tomorrow evening and we are heading to Ohio on Friday morning. We are staying until Wednesday and depending on what time we leave they will either bring me all the way back to Haymarket or I will stay at their house and they will bring me back Thursday which will be a whole week! I also didn't realize until yesterday that this is Memorial day weekend so hopefully we won't get stuck in tons of traffic on Friday- we are going the opposite direction of the beach so hopefully everyone else is going to the beach?

For dinner my brother was making chicken so I made my own dinner! I sauteed up some zucchini, squash, and mushrooms for them to eat with their chicken. I took some out and added some onion and garlic, tomatoes, and made a sauce with some white cooking wine (which was not very good but it was all we had because my parents don't drink wine) and some of this manghego sheep milk cheese!
Then I tossed in some leftover spaghetti noodles from last night and topped it with some goat cheese and fresh basil! It was pretty awesome! Pasta made from whatever is around is pretty much the best kind of pasta ever because its always different!
Now I'm watching the American Idol season finale. I haven't watched it at all this season -or any other season- but sometimes watching the finale is interesting. Anyways I decided that I liked Chris because 1- he's a Christian, 2- he actually has a good voice, 3- he looks normal (actually he is pretty gorgeous), and 4- he plays the guitar and piano. And to top all of it he just played a duet with Keith Urban who is hands down my favorite singer ever!

I'm not sure when I'm going up to Ohio tomorrow but I'm not too sure about the internet situation up there so I'm not bringing my computer because I don't want to lug it around if there is no internet! So I might not be updating for a week but I'll post a big update when I get back! I hope everyone has a great memorial day weekend!

My computer is back!

The fedex man came and brought my computer back today! yay!!!! I missed it so much. Yesterday I was still not that feeling great. I started my day with a Kashi waffle topped with Fage, lemon curd, and a banana. It was delicious!
The pool pump that I picked up on Friday was still broken- now its cracked or something, so I had to take it back to Fairfax- which meant more juice! yay! I got an Apple, Beet, and Carrot juice this time and it was delicious! I think next time I would get this combo with ginger because I loved the ginger in the other one!
yeah I took the picture when I got home and it was already halfway gone haha
Then for lunch I made a quesadilla with leftover taco meat from taco salads earlier in the week and an assortment of all the random shredded cheese we had in the fridge that had very tiny amounts left ( i think I used up the end of 3 different bags of cheese). Topped with a dollop of sour cream and it was amazing!
Then for dinner last night my mom made fajitas and I totally forgot to take a picture! I think it was because I really wasn't feeling good at that point. But they were delicious!

This morning I was feeling much better and I started the day with a Kashi waffle topped with some vanilla chobini. It was definitely amazing! I wasn't super hungry and this was the perfect breakfast.

Then for lunch I made some bunny butts! Rotini and 4 Cheese with some chopped up tomatoes! yummmm I love Annie's!

After lunch I made Scotcharoos for my mom. They are super easy and super delicious! Melt together one cup of peanut butter and one bag of butterscotch chips. Usually about a minute and a half melts them together. Then stir in 6 cups of rice krispies. Then press it into a 9 by 13 pan and stick them in the fridge. In an hour or so you have rice krispies only better!Then I went to take my car in for an estimate for the insurance people who finally called me yesterday! Its going in next week to get fixed so yay! In other news my sister's car is now also broken. Her car wouldn't start and actually had to be towed to the place to get fixed! And my brother is still driving on a spare tire and has yet to get that in to get fixed hahah. I predict my mom's car will break next!

Anyways when I got back from getting the estimate for my car I took my dog on a nice long walk. A cold front has come through and it would have been perfect running weather yesterday and today except I felt like death yesterday and although I feel better today I didn't feel good enough to go run. When I got back my dad made some spaghetti and I topped mine with goat cheese! And I had some mixed veggies and garlic bread on the side. I'm not the biggest fan of spaghetti, especially because in my family spaghetti sauce isn't spaghetti sauce unless it is overloaded with meat but I put some goat cheese on it and it made it much better!Now I think I'm going to go have a bowl of ice cream and then read some more! I'm going to Ohio on Friday for an extended weekend with my grandparents and cousins! I'm so excited! It is all kind of a random last minute thing but I'm so excited!

I Hate Season Finales!!!

So first things first, here is a picture of my new haircut! I've been styling it differently every day and I think I decided I like it flipped out a tiny bit but not a lot the best.Anyways my room is still not in order! At least all my clothes are unpacked now so I don't feel like a homeless person when I'm getting dressed in the morning! However the rest of my room is still a hot mess but I'm not worrying about it until after my VRA's tomorrow!

For lunch on Wednesday (I know I've gotten bad at updating without my computer!) I tried some of the Buitoni reserves that I've seen popping up everywhere! I'm really sad because apparently I signed up for the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program right after they sent out these babies! Everyone else except me got them- so I went out and bought some myself because they looked so good! First up was the cheesy ones haha!
Which I topped with Buitoni pesto which is probably my favorite store bought pesto sauce!
And it was so delicious! Super rich and creamy and had an amazing taste. The ricotta cheese made for a great background for the rest of the cheeses and made it super creamy and delicious. I just wish they came in bigger packages because it would take three of these boxes to feed my family. I ate half the box for lunch (the serving size is only 2) and then found myself reaching into the fridge and pulling out one every once in a while for a snack for the next few days haha.
Later in the day I took Charlotte out for a run and made my first Green Smoothie when I got back! It had a banana, a cup of spinach, and a cup of milk. It was surprisingly good! I think it had a little too much banana for me so I would add some other fruit into it next time and I would use yogurt next time instead of milk, because I'm not a fan of milk anyways.
And I also snacked on a small handful of these babies- chocolate covered sunflower seeds. Last week was teacher appreciation week and a student brought these in for my mom and they are delicious!
Then for dinner was making burgers, so I made a yummy Morning Star pizza burger! Topped with smoked cheddar, campari tomatoes, spinach, and sabra roasted garlic hummus!
With a side of juicy watermelon!
For breakfast yesterday I needed a change of pace from the waffles, so I had some Cinnamon Pecan Special K with some Vanilla Chobini. It was delicious!
Then I went to Fairfax to pick up the pump for our pool that was getting fixed so that we can hopefully open the pool up this weekend! While I was out that direction I stopped at Robeks for some juice! I got a G-Snap which was orange, carrot, and ginger! It was so delicious, the ginger just gave it that extra 'snap' haha.

Then I came home for lunch and had this Simply Asia spring vegetable rice noodle soup bowl. I had high hopes because I love Annie Chun's noodle and soup bowls, but this was super disappointing. The broth really didn't have much flavor at all and there weren't that many vegetables in it. It certainly doesn't look anything close to the picture on the box. It was really bland and disappointing- I would not buy it again.
For dinner last night my dad was grilling chicken so I decided to bust out one of my frozen Kashi meals. I went with the Tuscan Veggie Bake. It was okay, not great but not awful. I added goat cheese on the top which improved it immensely. All in all I probably wouldn't buy it again but I would eat it if someone else bought it and it was sitting in the freezer.

I was still hungry after this so I made some toast with Almond butter. I have this oatmeal bread that is surprisingly really good and some Nature's Promise Almond butter which is also surprisingly good. At first I wasn't a fan of the almond butter- this was the only kind they had at Giant, but I think it was just because its not chunky and I really want the almond chunks in it! But as I've continued to eat it its actually got a really good flavor- its just missing some chunks!
After dinner it was time for Grey's. Can I just say how much I hate season finales! Grey's was definitely the worst, Private Practice was also really distressing, and so was Lost and I'm sure Desperate Housewives will be just as bad. I hate cliff hangers and I hate when they kill people off a show (especially when its 2 people!)

Anyways now that thats off my chest! Today I woke up at the wonderful hour of 11:30 and decided to skip breakfast. I'm currently boiling water to try some of the mushroom Buitoni reserve for lunch! I'm heading up to West Virginia this afternoon to go up to my grandparents house. Tomorrow is the VRA in Winchester (which is closer to my grandparents house which is why I'm going up there tonight). I won't be back until tomorrow evening, so I hope everyone has a great Friday!