What a week

Not that it is over yet I still have the weekend but I had alot of fun when I was in New York with Eddie, we really just hung out and enjoyed each others company. We also went on a really nice long walk around a trail it was about 5 miles all together and then I ofcourse had to enjoy the playground and eddie came along lol. Did you know that there are playgrounds with rock climbing walls!!! I was thrilled and even after a 5 mile walk in 90 degree weather I took full advantage of them.

Also my next few posts I think and am planning on being a May Favorite things and Whats in my purse then a packing post and then I am off for vacation!! I will try to post there but no garuntees. 

Some pictures of my time in New York 

The walk was alot of fun we even saw some goslings :) I was so excited Eddie was afraid the rather large father goose was going to chase us 

I ofcourse had to add the handsome Mr. Chester to my pictrues and the Top right is is the amazing sunset last night. Please ignore my bright red mouth also I had some gatorade and welp thats what happens when you drink red gatorade. 

I hope you all had a great week and I look forward to a new post soon! 

Stephaniexx

Its Starting to Feel Like Summer

As I sit here listening to Country Music with the sun shining through the back window I am so happy the rain has moved on and it is starting to really feel like summer is here! I am putting together a summer playlist and CD and getting ready to visit Eddie for a few days, so there are sure to be some adventures with the weather being nice and heading back to New York for a few relaxing days. 

I also hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial day and took a moment to think about those who are currently serving our country and those who have served us in the past. I really enjoyed the towns parade in the morning which was the perfect place for remembrance and honoring those who have served our country

My memorial day was very nice got to spend it with a lot of my family hanging out and bbqing my favorite dish which was actually on the healthy side was one that my mom it was a delicious tomato basil and mozzarella salad and compared to the endless potato salad, pasta salad, potato chips, taco dip ect. it was one of the better options to consumes ( while I will admit that I did indulge in some pasta salad because its one of my favorites). 

and finally I am so excited because I took some time to enjoy the sun although I regret the extent this morning because I am a bit burnt as you can see

Hope every one has a wonderful week talk to you soon!! 

Stephaniexx

Haul Time!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! In my family this weekend marks the official start of summer even though it doesn't feel too much like summer in New England right now but we can only wish we don't have another week like this past one again for the summer, and it is supposed to reach the 80s this coming week. ( I really need a nice base tan before vacation or I will look like a lobster day 1 ) 

Now the purpose as you know from the title of this post is... that after my rough week of not being able to eat variety or healthy for that matter and being in pain I decided that I was due to finally venture out of the house for some retail therapy. I still plan on hitting target in the near future but for now I just went to Kohls Marshalls and DSW. Essentially what I purchased were summer items that I really needed, or just really wanted for vacation which is coming up in two weeks. 

The first two items I purchase were from Kohls now I am not normally a kohls shopper but my mom needed to return something so I decided to shop around a bit. The first dress is the first maxi dress that I have found to fit me right. I still have quite a bit of weight I would like to lose and have a body shape which combined makes maxi dresses what I thought was impossible to find, however I really lucked out in Kohls it was the first dress I tried on and I loved it! I really like the maxi dress trend they are very comfortable and you don't have that cautious is my dress way to short right now fear as you do with a lot of dresses today. The second are these adorable sail boat shorts I fell in love with them the second I saw them They are a little short but I think they will work out. 

The next item I purchased at Marshalls, is an Elizabeth Arden face mask while I loved the last face mask that I found at lush, I wanted to try something different so seeing as this was only 6 dollars for what I know to be a fantastic face product company I went ahead and bought it I am excited to try it out as soon as my cheeks stop being sensitive to touch. Second I found a DSW for a pretty good deal, I was looking for a pair of flip flops that weren't like old navy flip flops when I saw these braided sandals I fell in love and they are very comfortable and will be great for walking around on vacation. 

So these items were some of my favorites for summer that I am excited to wear/use. I hope you enjoyed this post and check back soon!! now that I am healed I will hopefully be posting more frequently in my free time. 

Stephaniexx

Pastina Pastina Pastina

As you may or may not know I had my wisdom teeth removed on Monday which means my food choices for the last week have been very limited. I truly have been living off yogurt and Pastina Now if you don't know what Pastina is it is basically these tiny little pasta stars. Now they are very good but when they are all you can eat it gets boring, so I being my creative self have come up with different ways if eating Pastina and so far I have 4 of them 2 pretty general and classic and two a little out there but I promise you they are all delicious.

1. The classic butter and salt, so this was my original taste of Pastina and it is very good and very simple but I wanted something different 

2. So I moved on to pasta sauce newmans  own is my favorite sauce at the moment and it was delicious but again in the mood for something different 

3. Which brings me to dinner the other night when my family was having tacos and I was stuck with same old Pastina well guess what I did I too some of the liquid that was in the meat with the taco seasoning and poured it in to my Pastina and it was delicious I could not get enough if it honestly you may think I'm crazy but try it and you'll love it 

4. Lastly I am a barbecue sauce addict not joking here I'm obsessed and knowing my obsession Eddie who had come to my parents to help take care of me goes I'm surprised you haven't put barbecue sauce on it yet I took this as a challenge and I accepted so barbecue sauce on Pastina don't hate till you try it cause its fantastic! 

So if you are with me in the unlucky bunch with wisdom teeth removal try these combinations because I am four days in and I promise the same foods get old quick. 

Also a side note I am in the process of trying to purchase a new laptop so until I get it my posts will be from my iPhone or my moms iPad so if they aren't quite as organized as the posts from my computer I am very sorry.

If you enjoy the Pastina varieties try them out and let me know in a comment below! 

Stephaniexx 

Good gracious I'm a college graduate!

I have done it I graduated with a bachelors degree in Biology. I had such an amazing graduation day the weather was great my family and eddie were all seated in the front row and we went out for a wonderful lunch after the ceremony. Now I am bed ridden with my wisdom teeth getting pulled this morning and I look a but like a chipmunk but thankfully not in too much pain and I am really excited to catch up on some reading!! Hope you all have been having a wonderful week and I will talk to you all soon! 

Stephaniexx

In need of a Gym free workout!

So as you may know if you have seen my recent posts I am graduating this week so I have alot of things going on which also means that I have been eating horidly and have had not much time to get a work out in. So I browsed some fit blogs and came across an awesome workout by sarahfit! Now this is an outdoor workout which I really enjoyed because it has been pretty nice out so I was excited to do a workout outside which didnt require me to get to the gym. Outdoor workout Just click that link and it will bring you to her youtube video! she also has alot of imformative workout videos and such that I would deffinitly recomend checking out too!! This work out is a whole body workout and the only weights you will need is your own body weight, it is 5 sets of 4 different work outs completed in a circuit. 

First is me pre work out then me post work out and finally the time it took me to complete the circuit. If you take on this challege work out be sure to let me know in a comment below as well as your time I cant wait to do this challege agian and try to beat my time!

Stephaniexx

Crazy Hectic Week

This Past week has been a bit crazy, I had finals and final papers and then mothers day today and now comes senior week :) but I am going to try to post I promise and then the following week I will be laid up in bed probably with getting my 4 impacted wisdom teeth pulled argh lol but I have to and I will try to do some healthy meals you can eat while you cant eat lol I have lots of ideas churning for the summer so be sure to keep checking out my page it is sure to get crazy 

Come Hungry Leave Happy! My week in food lol on the left is my amazing pulled pork sandwich at a local bar it was delicious On the top right was my cajun chicken wrap at a restaraunt near my brothers school it was delicious and they serve it with homemade chips which was awesome! and Lastly my huge strawberry daquri celebration for being done with undergrad!

Mine and Eddies shopping adventure to find mothers day gifts! I got my mom the Hibiscus plant on the top right and eddie got his mom gardening tools. 

Ofcourse I couldnt not include some more adorable shots of the puppy!! 

And my friends having some fun at the local bar :) 

Stephanie xx

Peppers and Onion Pizza

Hello lovies! I am now two finals down two to go and so happy!! I have a last few days of studying to get in and then hopefully by thursday I will be all done then on to senior week festivities. In leu of my cheery mood I decided to post pone studing for alittle later and post a pizza recipie for you guys and here it is! Last week I had a craving for pizza and pepperoni and so I decided to whip up this pizza quick for lunch one day. It is probably one of my favorite pizzas next to chiken and pesto 

Ingredients: 

- Pilsbury artisan pizza dough 

- 1 onion

- 1 green pepper

- tomato sause

- romano cheese

- pepperoni pizza 

YUM! so first you start by pressing out the pizza dough on to a cookie sheet while the oven pre heats to 400 degrees 

Next put the dough in the oven for about 10 minutes so it starts to bake, while the dough is baking prepare the peppers and onions by cutting them in to cubes or to your liking

After 10 minutes of baking lay down the pasta sauce on the pizza dough and spread the peppers and onions across the pizza

next add the pepperoni and romano cheese

bake for an additional 15 minutes and you have some crispy delicious pizza! 

Just a side note if you are looking for quick easy pizza dough the pilsbury doughs are fantastic!!! they are simple and pretty much lay out perfectly with out to much working of the dough and no rolling pin needed (which is great cause I dont have one lol) 

Stephaniexx

First Week of May Photo Collage

Hello all!

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful first week of May I know I have. There was alot going on this past week and even more this coming week as of today I am 2 finals down and have 2 more to go, I can't even begin to explain how happy I am to be graduating but I am really sad that I will be moving so will not see my friends quite as much and also will be away from eddie which will be hard but we have plans of how to see each other and we are going to work through it taking it day by day. So this past week I got to go see Jillian Michaels and hang out with my friends and just alot of fun stuff so here you go :) 

So asside from the pictures going out and of me lol I went to Jillian Michaels Live which if you are interested in knowing more about that you can Click Here and go read up on that :) and Also eddie plays softball so I got to hang out at the field a couple times this week and the other two are of food!! So earlier in the week I made Taco Bites So be sure to check that out I also made a pizza with peppers and pepperoni which I will have a post up about probably tomorrow. 

NOW prepare you self for some cuteness because I just cant help myself 

Eddies Dad got a Puppy!! his name is chester and he is an adorable 14 week old chocolate lab!! Him and eddie took a nice long nap together lol 

Stephaniexx

Jillian Michaels!

If you haven't figured out why I was in Connecticut last night yet then you will now! I went to the Jillian Michaels Maximize your Life Tour! It was great she is such an inspirational and motivational speaker and touched on everything from Eating Healthy to Exercise to Improving your Self. Now I do have a minor obsessionwith Jillian I listen to her podcasts have watched every season of biggest loser and just think she is a fantastic role model to so many people, and truelly she has very simple concepts that are just so reasonable for everyone and anyone to follow. So since I am sure many people are not going to get out to be able to go see her I am going to take a few of the things that I learned there and give that information to you. In no way should this replace going to see the show because honestly it was amazing and she is hilarious and I absolutely recomend going to see her live. I also only have like a breif little outline of what I took ut of it and you may take something completely different out of itso GO SEE THE SHOW! its worth it. 

Essentially I am going to just give you guys some of the notes that I took on my phone durring the show (yes I am that neurotic that I took Notes) and then give some comentary on my opinions and such. 

- Read food Labels Carefully ~ When you are look at something that says its healthy really take a look at the label because alot of companies make them to confuse you, check the serving size! 

- Check the Ingredients ~ Ingredients are listed in the order of what is most prevelant in the food, I think it is very important to check Ingredients there are so many artificial dyes and colors and chemicals that are in foods and it is so important for you health not to eat those chemicals 

- "clean 15" ~ essentially these were foods in her presentation that have thicker peels and skins that pesticides have harder times breaking through and getting to your foods so these are foods that if you can't go organic it is not as bad as those with thinnner skin. So sweet potatoes great, mangos great, strawberries go organic :( I know that was rough for me to hear because I LOVE my strawberries and I lack some money in the back pocket lol but it makes sense

- Spend more money on organic meats that organic fruits and veggies ~ now have you ever seen the movie food inc. its pretty gruesome but if you want a reason to buy organic meats check it out 

- Eat 4 meals every 3 to 4 hours~ Now while I am an epic picker lol I think this is a good concept to organize my meals and keep them to eating 4 a day 

- Stop using workout machines~ I LOVE THIS CONCEPT when you sit on a machine and move in one motion constantly maybe that muscle is soar but when youre walking around doing house work are you using one muscle at a time ofcourse not you are using your whole body and thats how you should work out by using your whole body! 

- Train in Circuts ~ this helps to keep your heart rate up and you moving constantly and have one of the exercises in the circuit be a heart rate increaser like jumping jacks or burpees or jup rope or jogging in place

- If you love something do more of it ~ for example I love blogging maybe I don't have thousands of followers or views or make a ton of money but I love doing it I love thinking up different posts and writing down my thoughts and so I am doing more of it!! 

- Gear your environment for Success ~ So in your house remove temptations, pack your gym clothes the night before so they are there and kind of a like hey I have to get my butt to the gym, Pack your lunch the night before so when someone says to you hey want to go get sandwiches no I'm okay I brought my lunch. 

So those are just my quick little notes that I took I would really recomend that every one see the show if they can it was a really great experience and I had a great time! 

Stephaniexx

Yummy Taco Bites

I am going to start off this post by saying it is midnight guys and I am getting up at 7 tomorrow to get up and drive back to New York because I am currently at my parents in CT for a very exciting reason which you will find out in a post tomorrow!! but essentially my purpose for telling you this is that I am tired, and going to be even more tired tomorrow so I am sorry if this post is thrown together alittle but I havent had the chance to get it up all week because I have been busy with finals and I wanted to post this and then post something specific tomorrow so yeah I am trying to get it up at midnight. 

So anyway I made these the other day as a spin off of my Pizza Bites which you can find at that link and If you like this recipie I would deffinitly suggest checking those out as well. 

Ingredients

-  1 packet of Taco Seasoning

- 2lbs of ground beef ( can use less ) 

- Flower tortillas about 4 

- 1 tomato

- Mexican mixed cheese or any mix that you would like

So how are you going to make these gems

- First cooking your ground meat in a frying pan and transfer it in to a large bowl

- Drain any water that is in the bowl I found that my meat got very watery so I had to drain it quite a bit

- mix in the taco seasoning to your personal liking eddie is not a fan of too strong of taco seasoning so I only used about half of the packet for two pounds of taco meat

- Then cut out the tortillas and put them in to the muffin tin so that they cover the bottom I use a large mug for size 

- Fill in the cups with the taco meat

- Some of the cups I added diced tomatos which was really good

- then top off with cheese and bake in the oven at 350 for about 15minutes 

I ended up having a lot of left over meet after I made a muffin tins worth of these so with what was left over I made a taco salad to bring for lunch the next day so you could either make a second batch of bites cook less meat or do what I did and use it as a meal plan for the next day. 

Hope you enjoyed this recipie and leave some feedback in a comment below. I am going to try to catch some zzzzzsss now :) 

Stephaniexx