hiatus

woooahh! major blogging hiatus!
i've been on vacation in the north woods for ten days, which, paired with the fourth of july, has really slowed me down!
i'll be back tonight :)

Confession

I have a confession to make. I get up at five every morning for a completely irrational, stupid and highly enjoyable reason.

I get up at five to get a morning workout in before work. This believe it or not, this isn't the confession though. The confession is the reason why. Though it is what I usually tell people, it is not because I don't have any motivation to hit the gym after work's over, or even because I don't have enough energy leftover. Nope, it's for a much more embarrassing reason.

I hit the gym at 5:45 every morning... to watch... BOY MEETS WORLD.

There's nothing like a little Corey, Sean, Topanga and Eric to get my day started off right :) Speaking of, I'm running late so gotta go!! Be back around 7:30 with breakfast!

Do you have any guilty TV pleasures?

Boy Meets World, The Bachelorette, any crime show... hahah.

Mrs. Bentley

That's right. Tomorrow I will officially begin my long awaited journey to become Mrs. Brooke Bentley. And no, I am not talking about the creeptastic perveball Bentley of this seasons Bachelorette.

Bleck.

I am talking about a much more important man in my life.. Mr. DIERKS BENTLEY!! Aka this beautiful hunk of man:

Can you say YUM?

For those of you who have been living under a rock don't listen to country music ;), this man right here pretty much owns my heart. And tomorrow, I am beginning my trip to Country Fest, to see him IN PERSON, where we will probably meet by some odd coincidence and end up running away to elope together. That's the plan anyways.

Ps: I know I'm creepy. Creepy and excited.

On another note, my morning began with another banana smoothie, I'm not even going to post another picture because it's just starting to get repetitive. But I can't help it, I just really love bananas. And cold breakfasts. And smoothies.

Lunch was boring. No pictures needed. But dinner was pretty dang great. I started out with some sugar snapped peas that I smothered sauteed in garlic. These babies were GARLICKY. (Is that a word? Don't care.)

Then I was going to make fish, but daddy surprised me with SUBWAY! For the record, I am a little bit obsessed with Subway. Just a little bit. Especially now that they offer avocado. Yum.

Now it's off to bed so that I can get up early to hit the gym, go to work and then go to COUNTRY FEST!! Yay :)

Who is your celeb crush?

Dierks Bentley, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal, Leo Dicaprio (since the ripe age of 7).. to name a few ;)

Raindance

I woke up at 5 this morning for my usual routine of making breakfast and squeezing in my workout before work at 8, and I slurped down a big banana smoothie and enjoyed a few sliced strawberries before heading to the gym!

Please enjoy my Packer cup and bad wallpaper. Gotta love Grandma's house.

When I got in my car, it looked scary outside! The clouds were really weird.. don't really know how to describe them, but it looked like night time! I snapped a pic on the way because I was seriously just confused by the whole thing!

Yes I do live in the middle of nowhere. It is fun.

About 20 minutes into my workout, it started pouring. The roof of the gym was rattling and I could hear the thunder over the Nsync blasting through my headphones (not embarrassed). 

Knowing I had to work outside all day long, I did a little raindance right there on the treadmill. Okay, kidding, but you KNOW I was thinking it!

I headed out early to get home in time to quickly wash my sweaty face before calling my boss and asking if he needed me to come in today. HE SAID NO!! And so I had the day off. And I was a very happy girl :) Proof that crazy raindances do work! 

I made myself a celebratory breakfast part 2, and loved every bite!

A waffle with PB, bananas and Julie's Peanut Butter Granola!

I was feeling restless and since I didn't get a very good workout in during the morning, I headed back to the gym around noon to walk on the treadmill at an incline for 40 minutes before heading home to watch "I Survived" and not leave my couch for the rest of the day.

I'd say today was a success :)

Foodzie Made My Day

So I came home from work today to find a surprise waiting for me on my doorstep..

MY FOODZIE TASTING BOX ARRIVED TODAY!

I might have been a little too excited.. I was snapping pics on my phone like a crazy person! Haha!

In case you've never heard of Foodzie, it is a website dedicated to promoting and selling local, and Artisian foods. As a subscriber to the site, you can sign up to receive a Foodzie Tasting Box each month.  The box includes 6 food samples from the site, and you receive a new box every month! (You can cancel your subscription any time.)

After looking the site over, I signed up and was delighted to find that my first box was FREE! And after experiencing this box, I will definitely be keeping my subscription to Foodzie! I am in LOVE!

June's tasting box!

It was all wrapped up, so cute!

Now to break into the yummy goodies.. so far I've tried (and almost finished) everything but the Green Tomato Relish! Good thing I took these pictures quickly.. I scarfed down the Falafel Chips and Blueberry Acai Gummies in about 30 minutes flat!

Let me give you the tour...

Green Tomato Relish

Naturally, I'll start out with the only goodie I haven't tried- Wayne's Foods Green Tomato Relish.

-Wayne's Foods is a company based in La Grange Park, IL.

-Foodzie describes the Green Tomato Relish as being "such a favorite at the Macon County Fair that founder Wayne Cox started a business featuring his blue ribbon creation", the Green Tomato Relish. 

-Foodzie describes the relish as having a "piquant-sweet" flavor, using green tomatoes instead of pickles, and going great on grilled and spiced foods.

Blueberry Acai Gummies

Bissinger's Blueberry Acai Gummy Pandas win the blue ribbon as my personal favorite item in the Foodzie box!! I absolutely devoured these gummies! This is especially impressive when you take into consideration that I hate blueberries. I know, I'm crazy, but the texture of blueberries really freaks me out and I've never been crazy about the flavor either. However, these gummies stole my heart! They were soft, chewy, and bursting with fruity flavor! These will definitely be purchased within the next couple of days :)

Falafel Chips

As soon as I saw these chips in the box, I ran to the fridge and grabbed my roasted garlic hummus and cracked the bag! It was the PERFECT combination! These are an unbelieveably flavorful, crunchy, healthy alternative to pita chips. The flavor was fantastic! Definitely a close second to the gummies!

Coconut Oat Bar

"Made with love in Boulder, CO", Bobo's Oat Bars were a nice treat! The texture was perfect, slightly chewy, slightly gooey, and perfectly sized. I didn't like that the bar was considered "two serving sizes".. but the flavor was great nonetheless!

Spiced Almonds

Mrs. Sipps Spiced Almonds are the perfect combo of spicy and sweet! The flavor is indescribable.. a truly unique nut! A must try :)

Miso Chocolate Brownie

Kyotofu's Miso Chocolate brownie is a rich, gooey, chocolatey dessert in a small package. What more could you ask for? Except for one more :)

and there you have it..

FOODZIE YOU OFFICIALLY HAVE MY HEART.

Weekend at Home

What an amazing weekend in Madison!! It was so, so, good to see all of the old v-town crew after a couple of weekends apart! Things were back to normal in no time at all :)

On Friday after work, I drove down to Madison for the weekend. When I got there, I immidiately picked up my life long friend, Meaghan, for a little Red Mango stop :) We tried the new Raspberry Cheesecake flavor, which we both topped with raspberries and yogurt chips! It was FANTASTIC.

love me some froyo!

While walking on State after our yogurt break, we walked past a new store that we'd never seen before and had to do a double take.. Campus Candy is now officially our new favorite place!

view of State from the store

Once we got inside, we found out that they not only sold copious amounts of delicious, old-fashioned and new candies, but also four flavors of froyo and a massive amount of toppings.. WIN! We might have served ourselves to a little more soft serve.. because you really can never have enough froyo!

We obviously had to sit in this giant booth so I could snap an awkward picture of Meaghan.

We had soo much fun! The rest of my weekend consisted of nights full of drinks, popcorn and endless campfire smores, so this morning, I was ready for a little fruit intervention!

I treated myself to a yummy Banana Smoothie!

Sweet, cold, delicious-ness!

Ingredients:

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 frozen banana

1 cup Almond Breeze

1 pinch xanthan gum

Now it's off to the gym and then work. Happy Monday everyone!!

Grad Party Food Coma

Why is grad party food SO GOOD? After attending my cousin Marina's graduation party tonight, I am officially in a FOOD COMA.

I shoved down a pulled pork sandwich, cheesy potatoes and a TON of fruit. It. Was. Awesome.

I didn't have cake, because I have never been a big cake person (unless it's a DQ ice cream cake.. because they are the tits). Buuuuttt, I am thinking about having a PB banana waffle for dessert.. once my stomach deflates :)

Yummmmy!

So today I went to Best Buy to get my camera fixed and they told me that there was nothing they could do, and that it would cost more to get it fixed than it would to buy a new one.. dumb. So I guess I'm getting a new camera! Any suggestions? I am thinking about a Nikon D3000.. :) Come onnnn paycheck!