Tag Archives: laughing cow

Trade Em Up Tuesday: An Excuse to Ramble

Totally digging this Trade Em Up Tuesday thing, so thanks very much to Miss Alex for cluing me into that. Much like Thinking Out Loud Thursdays, it’s just a great way to blog on a day when I don’t feel like sticking to one topic.

I would trade…ALL THE SNOW. Snow snow go away, you ruin my plans so many days. Last night’s Group Power class was cancelled due to weather so I had to say goodbye to my Monday lifting party and am hoping I can make it to Thursday or Saturday’s class.

I would not trade…getting out of work early due to snow. OK so that’s a positive! I was able to leave work, hit the gym for a workout, and get home to shower and get cozy by the fire. I had extra time to clear out the mindless-TV hanging around on my DVR (#RichKids, Toned Up) and draft tomorrow’s blog post. At the gym I did my go-to cardio machine the StepMill (30 minutes of speed intervals) followed by two rounds of this arm routine by Rebecca.

I did two rounds instead of three because I started to get hangry!

I would trade…the waiting game. I’m still playing it and I don’t know if I’m going to see a win or a loss. I’ll know by the end of the day tomorrow whether or not I’ve landed a big opportunity. Sorry that I have to continue being cryptic…wish I knew for sure what was going on so that I didn’t have to be!

Continue reading

Cookin’ and Killin’ It

Don’t worry vegetarian readers, I’m not talking about killin’ an animal for cooking (see title). I’m talking about killin’ my goal to cook more meals at home. Yesterday I mentioned I was planning to get a Whole Foods salad after the gym. Well I got to thinking throughout the day as I was researching which recipes I wanted to use for food prep this weekend. I’ve eaten at home, without takeout, every night this week since Sunday. Why not make it a full week of weeknight meals at home, with no takeout? Why not go all the way and just kill it?

That’s just what I did! After the gym (where I got in a killer personal training session by the way, more on that later!) I went to Stop N Shop and picked up ingredients for the meals I plan to prep that weekend, plus some frozen veggies so I could make Tina‘s Creamy Laughing Cow Cheese Veggies. I already had the Creamy Swiss flavor at home though, so I just used that instead of Chipotle. I still kept the frozen broccoli, but I used frozen baby cabbages instead of edamame/spinach because I have never cooked with frozen baby cabbages and wanted to see how they’d turn out (obviously they wouldn’t turn out as good as the roasted kind). I also cooked up a pot of Goya chickpeas and black beans (with added garlic salt and cumin) on the stovetop. I combined the beans, creamy veggies, and some leftover meatloaf into a bowl for a delicious veggie and protein packed meal. Perfect for post-strength training.

Continue reading

March Foodie Pen Pals!

Lindsay‘s Foodie Pen Pals program continues to impress me each month. Not only is she doing a great job running the growing exchange, but this month I was matched with someone much older than me, which I thought was fabulous because I am all about meeting new people of all ages, especially since I entered the working world and started this blog.

Previous Foodie Pen Pals posts:

My pen-pal was Loy of From Grandma Loy’s Kitchen. She is almost 70 and really is a grandmother! So I completely trusted her taste before I even opened the above box. After all, she’s got tons of food experience! The recipes on her blog look amazing.

What an amazing package! The pink notepad is my favorite color (Loy asked me what that was before she put my package together) and I can’t wait to use it at work to make lists (I’m a chronic list-maker). The yellow cloth towels that the goodies are resting on were another piece of the package that Loy picked out with a specific color in mind. She asked for the color of my kitchen wallpaper, and it’s yellow with flowers. Turns out she wanted the towels to match the kitchen – so sweet! My mom appreciated that too.

She also appreciated the sweet chili dipping sauce, savory roast rub, and garlic & herb mix. Why is that? Well, we are having an Easter party with our usual group of formerly-Florida-resident pals, and all three of these items are DEFINITELY going to be utilized in both appetizers (garlic & herb dip with crackers and veggies, along with the dipping sauce for shrimp cocktail) and dinner (the roast rub for our chicken and pork tenderloin). Can’t wait to share how it all turns out!

Heather was visiting the night I received and opened my box, and she squealed with delight when she saw the salted snapea crispsApparently they’re awesome – I can’t wait to break into them! Side note: the company that makes them, Calbee America, also makes baked shrimp-flavored chips. Um, baffling, and yet I REALLY want to try them?!

I’ve been dying to try the Thomas’ 100% Whole Wheat Bagel Thins! I usually stick to their english muffins with my daily dose of Laughing Cow, but now I can try something new, ESPECIALLY since I discovered just yesterday that Laughing Cow now makes Light Cinnamon Cream Cheese wedges – um, yes please, thanks. The Cranberry Nut Goodness granola is honestly not my thing – I’m just not into cranberry, or granola for that matter. However, no food goes to waste! I passed it on to a good friend who loves granola!

Thank you again to Loy for putting together such a great package for me, and customizing it so well! If you want to sign up for Foodie Pen Pals, check out Lindsay’s info page on The Lean Green Bean to find out more!

Also check out what I got my pen pal Brittany of Go The Xtra Mile!

Have you ever tried any of these products? Which would you most want to try?