Non Stop Go Mode + Cookie Recipe

Busy busy busy was one way to describe my day yesterday. After getting up super early to fit in a workout, I figured to save time I would work out at home. Well it kind of worked.

Someone kept crashing my workout.

 And forget about stretching. She has no concept of personal space.

She's lucky shes so cute.
So after about 30 minutes on the treadmill I was sweaty and done. With my knee still not feeling good, I just went slow and steady.

Then it was off to house sit for family. I got around 3 loads of laundry done and dropped Wishbone off for a bath all before 11:30. I felt pretty accomplished tacking that to-do list yesterday. While she was getting clean, Troy and I met up at Panera for a lunch date. Of course I went with my favorite chicken cobb salad. I really just wanted the avocado.

Did you guys know Panera now serves just half sizes? You can finally order just half a salad or soup. Yesterday I wanted it all since I was hungryyyy. Even though I always order the same thing, I did branch out with the drink. I got the unsweetened berry tea, which was good!

One place you could have found me yesterday was in the kitchen baking cookies from scratch. Usually I always bake from a box, but apparently I was feeling adventurous yesterday.

I made them with gluten so I didn't have any obviously, but my family loved them. Even Troy who never eats dessert had about 5 rejected burnt/weird shaped ones. Here is the recipe if anyone wants to give them a try.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

•  2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 package of chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and butter in a bowl. Mix in both sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Then mix in chocolate chips.
3. Drop into rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

After getting home finally around 9 I crashed. It was non-stop with things to do yesterday so hopefully today is nice and relaxing.

**What is your favorite type of cookie?
**Do you prefer working out at home or at the gym? I prefer working out at the gym. All the people around me motivate me plus I love using all the weight machines.

As of Lately

Thank you all so much for your sweet comments on yesterday's post and on Twitter. It means the world to me and appreciate all of your love so much <3

For right now we are still at home. I will most likely be traveling to Pennsylvania for the services either this weekend or next week. Also, thankfully we were able to get a full refund on our vacation. From now on I am always booking anything with travel insurance because you just never know.

I don't want to be a total debbie downer today, my uncle wouldn't have wanted that. 

So my life lately:

Since I haven't been at my house alot this week, all my meals lately have been in tupperware form. Yesterday's lunch was cut up broccoli, brown rice, and grilled chicken. Simple, but delicious.

Ummm, What's Your Name Again?

Just popping in to share some pictures from the fun we had celebrating my grandfather's award last night.

All the guests were impressed with the beautiful centerpieces my grandmother made. She picked all the flowers from the backyard. It turned out pretty swell don't you think?

As Of Lately...

Ok so I was about to do the happy dance this morning, then realized it's not Friday yet. Whoops.

Some things as of lately:

As of lately-Troy and I are almost finished watching Prison Break. We've been watching about 3 episodes a day can not wait until the end. It's safe to say we are both obsessed. Besides Wentworth Miller isn't exactly bad to look at ;)

Friday Favorites

Hiiiiiii! It's Friday! Vacation beginssssssss! Can you tell I'm excited?!

Hope by the time you are reading this I am safe and sound in Denver!

It's no secret I hate flying. So let's recap all my favorite things that happened this week to get my mind off of it. Sound ok? Ok good.

Spending the day at the beach with Wishbone! Sadly, she seems to have hurt her leg the other night. She has been limping and crying so the family is taking her to the vet while I am away. I'm just very worried about her <3333

WIAW-Pancake Love

It's Wednesday already! Eeek, two more days until Colorado :)

With that trip coming up, so many of my nights have been filled with things to take care. So today's version will be What I Ate Wed Monday. Oh boy, do I have some goodies to show you guys!

Let's get right to it shall we?

Breakfast started off super early since I was in a rush to fit my workout in before 8:30. I can't get up any earlier than 6 to workout. How do you 5am workout people do it? As usual I went with my prepped overnight oats.

Where's Waldo?

Yesterday was the perfect combination of busy and relaxing to start off the weekend. Spent with my two favorite people:

The boyfriend

and Cooper man. Since it was absolutely gorgeous out, we brought our lunch outside for an impromptu backyard picnic.

How To Create The Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Happy Monday friends! Let's hope we are all off to a marvelous week. Thanks Katie for hosting another week!

After this weekend I feel so refreshed. Friday started out not so great thanks to a killer headache and having class at 3pm. An afternoon class at school is not the ideal way to start off the weekend. So, I decided to get a pick me up on my way. A skinny vanilla latte cured my headache and almost made me late for class, but it was worth it.

Weighted One Legged Squat

Hello guys.

Oh holy jeez, do I have a leg move for you guys to try. It's no secret I hate quad day. Walking lunges, ughhhhh they kill my legs. I have to say I like the benefits after it is done. I feel so accomplished walking out of the gym with my jelly legs.

So, yesterday I trained quads with my trainer and we did four long sets of this killer move. Meet the weighted one legged squat. Instead of holding two dumbbells in both hands, he has me hold one dumbbell. For example, if I am squatting my left leg down, the dumbbell will be in my left hand. Aim for 12-15 reps on each set with whatever weight you can handle. At first, when I started incorporating this move into my routine a couple months ago, I was using a 15-20lb dumbbell. Now, I'm up to a 50lb dumbbell. My quads were on FIRE. This move is to tough, but so effective.

The Green Ball is Dead

Oh man it was so hard getting out of bed yesterday morning. Mix howling wind and pouring rain together, and Ashley just wants to lounge in bed all day.

But, I forced myself to the gym for quad day. Let's put it this way- I survived haha. Quads are probably my least favorite muscle to train and I have zero motivation for it. UGHHH, soon enough shorts weather will be here. <----That can be my motivation.

Since my house gets extremely drafty when the wind gets intense, I was freeeezing. Naturally, lunch ended up being comfort food at its finest. Sweet tomato soup with basil. This stuff is good!

Why I Feel Like Betty Crocker

Because...
I can't stop baking this week.

Hi guys. I'm sure you are all stuffed from eating chocolate last night. If not, go buy some now. Seriously, on Feb 15th those big hearts are dirt cheap! And it is Friday! Woot. Cheap caramels and the weekend make me happy.

Last night, I ended up getting a workout in with my trainer. I brought him some cookies since he was working on Valentine's Day. (and i shared his pain for many years). And yes, I'm sure you are saying to yourself, why the heck would she give her trainer sugary sweets?  Well, lo and behold he is human and does indulge every once in awhile. What is the point of going through life and being so restrictive you can't enjoy any food. All in all, he was happy to enjoy some sugar cookies!

 

Of course, I had to bake up some gluten free cookies for myself last night. Who likes to bake up cookies and then not eat the cookie dough? UM def. not me. As we all know, that is the best part of baking! My favorite brand is Immaculate. My fellow gf friend (Hi Kim!) turned me on to this brand almost a year ago. Oh my goodness, these things seriously taste like the real thing! I swear the non-gluten free people in my house like my food better! Let's just say there is only about two cookies left....

After my workout I showered quickly and raced over to my pajama party to celebrate V-day. At least I brought the booze right? (well technically, fake booze)

True Life: My boyfriend is trying to make me fat. Haha not really, but look at all these delicious foods. Fried calamari, baked ziti, and garlic knots...I had about three bites and was full, which is not like me at all. My appetite was just not there last night, maybe because it was 8:30 by the time we sat down to eat. 

 

 Also, when I came home yesterday I found this huge package waiting at my door. What a surprise! I thought it was a Valentine's Day gift. Boy was I wrong.

The package actually ended being dog supplies/treats. Silly me haha. Seriously though I was impressed with all these free goodies for work. I can not say enough good things about Blue Buffalo. Their company is just fantastic for hooking me up with all these fun things. The box came loaded with bags of treats, a tote bag, treat pouches, and some more goodies.

Wishbone was patiently at least trying to be patient to sneak into those treats. (you can see her tail can't stop moving once the food comes out) She was happy with her Valentine's Day gifts!

 **On a side note, I was not compensated at all for this review for Blue Buffalo. I just love the company and wanted to share with other animal lovers! Also, Blue Buffalo produces everything in the U.S.**

Question for the morning:

Did you eat a lot of chocolate last night?  Usually when I get a box of mixed chocolate, I will squish them from the bottom to see if it is a good flavor haha.

Home on a Sunday

Goooooood Morning, 

 Ahhhhhhhh. <-----That's how good I felt this morning when I slept in. I'm home sick from work today so sleeping in on a Sunday is a very rare occurrence around here. Somehow, someway I got the chicken pox. When I was younger I never got them, so I have absolutely no idea how I got them at 22 years old. Verrrrry strange.
These are my plans for today

A whole lot of nothing! Clearly, Wishbone feels the same way <3

 

This morning I wasn't very hungry at all and just needed something light. So I went with a good old Cliff Bar. Chocolate Peanut Butter is the clear winner out of all the flavors.

 

And a surprise treat from Mom. I'll never pass that up! Starbucks is too expensive for me to branch out and try a new drink. So, I always stick with the tried & true favorite: Skinny Vanilla Latte.

 

One thing I do need to check off my to-do list is read through some of this book. Blah

 
When I picked it up from the library yesterday, I started cracking up when I looked it over. Maybe some of you guys noticed it in the photo above. Here's a closer look:

 
The author's name is Seymour Lipschutz. Really?! I thought Dr. Lipschitz only existed in Rugrats haha. Poor man for having a name like that through high school. I'm sure hes making millions being a genius and writing textbooks.

I'm off to bake up some goodies with PB2. How did I not know about this product before last week? Can't wait to try it, since I am a huge peanut butter lover.

 

Have a relaxing Sunday! I'm sure a nap will make its way into the agenda later.

Tell me, what is your go to food when you're sick? I'm not a big soup person, but love crackers when I'm not feeling too hot.

Are you watching the Superbowl or just go for the snacks? I don't plan on watching it this year. Not a huge football fan by any means. 
 

Catching Up

Friends we have so much catching up to do !

Mid-week the boyfriend and I went on a little date. In the middle of the week? I know, I was just as shocked as you were. Usually we get too lazy and always stay inside. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Let's talk about some food shall we?
Before our date since there was no food ready for dinner, we needed something fast, convenient, and healthy. That left hardly any options. We chose Chinese. I always get steamed chicken, steamed mixed veggies, and brown rice. The boyfriend goes so "cat, cat, and dark brown cat?"

Don't let the overload of chicken fool you, there was a ton of green veggies hiding underneath.

Oh the rice. There was so much. We have leftovers for a good three days. We both got a container, but could have easily split one.
 

Anyway, we went to Dave & Busters. For anyone of you that don't know it. It basically lets your inner 7 year old become greedy & competitive to the best of your ability. Haha just kidding, but for real I def. got the most tickets. (I'm sure the boyfriend is rolling his eyes if he's reading this) I let him think he won ;)

Of course I dominated Ski-ball. Won bragging rights about my skills.

Next up was the CLAW MACHINE. Friends, I used to down right dominate this game when I was younger. I was in beast mode last night trying to get all of them.

 

But, it seems when you don't practice your skills for 15 years, you kind of lose them. At least I ended up scooping up one stuffed item. Wasn't sure if it was a little pillow or a stress ball? I guess you're supposed to think about money while looking at it.....  (Wishbone has been eying it so it might become a dog toy within the next week)

 

 After our $25 ran out, we called it a night. We cashed in our tickets and ended up with around 700. The boyfriend wanted to save up for better prizes, but I really really needed new headphones since my usual ones broke. I found a pair of Apple headphones lying around, but they hurt my ears. He reluctantly gave in and I got some new headphones, and my ears thanked me.

I'm off to do some shopping for my trip to Lake Placid. Can't believe it is next week already!

What are you doing this weekend? Sunday is a work day so I hope to get lots of baking in on Sat. I plan to try some new protein recipes.

What type of workout are you doing today? I'm hoping to take an early morning spin class, but depends if I feel like waking up early. Ahhhhhh decisions decisions.

**** I'm putting together a list of You Know You're Gluten Free When....**** 
so leave me a comment or shoot me an email with your answer

<3Ash

No More Chinese, but Will Take More Snow

Hope the weekend is treating you all well! 
Yesterday was a long day so I spent the night in relaxing with the puppy

    
As you can see Wishbone was also clearly enjoying the night in since she is rarely allowed to go on the furniture. But since she is recovering from her emergency vet trip on Monday, rules aside. To all the people who have asked me how she is doing, much better! No more chinese dumplings dunked in soy sauce for her! Only milk bones :)

Some recent eats yesterday:

An oldie, but a goodie. Fitnessista's breakfast cookie and 2 hard boiled eggs. Good for when you are in a rush.

All day I was hoping for school to get cancelled because of the half inch snow we received. Hey, a girl can wish right? You can never be too old to wish for a snow day ;)

  
Friday night ended with catching up on some episodes of Say Yes to the Dress with mom. It seems fun to be a wedding planner without all the stress, hard demanding clients, and basically every else that comes with the job. Just planning the wedding and all the details to make people happy seems fun.

We'll see where Saturday takes me. Have a couple of errands to finish up!

xoxo

-Ashley