Here, there, everywhere...

So last week seemed so long. Lou told me he and Christian were going out for drinks after work at an Irish bar, happy hour seemed necessary. I ran home, let the dogs out, changed and met them there. I started out with a Guiness, then another, and another. I was pretty buzzed, so I ordered a Tempeh Reuben, which was really good! I've made reubens with tofu, but the tempeh was awesome. After I ate and drank a bunch of water, I felt much better. 

I got home and drank some more water, and went to bed around 11. I knew going on a run this morning was going to be rough, I don't handle alcohol well, and don't drink often. So when I got up at 7am, I considered throwing in the towel... but it wasn't really an option. I hadn't worked out all week, and I wanted to get a good run in... just to see how I was feeling. The first mile I felt great, my legs weren't sore, and I was loving it. Around mile 2, I started to feel queasy. I almost stopped a few times because I felt sick, but I pushed through. Around mile 4, I felt back to normal, but decided to cut my run short from 8 miles to 5.75. 

I'm not sure what I'll run tomorrow. Maybe I'll shoot for 7 or 8, I'll see how my legs feel. It was a tough call deciding whether to go out or not. I knew I'd be consuming more calories than if I ate dinner at home. And alcohol really isn't good for weight loss... but sometimes I think I just have to have fun and live life! It's all about moderation and balance. And I still did get my run in this morning, so it probably cancelled out last night's indulgences! 

Oh wait, did I mention the round of car bombs? Yeah. There were car bombs. 

Well I got an email with link to the River Run photos. I'm so mad, I really want to buy RR and Disney photos, but 1 5x7 photo is 16.99 plus $5 shipping. I just can't justify $46 on two photos from the races. It seems a little ridiculous to me.  (PS - I've started posing in races. I guess smiling with arms in the air is better than the old non-pose-grimace-look-like-i'm-in-pain-face)

Anyway... 

I had a super full, busy day today, so after my run, I finished my shopping list and got on my way. I decided to photograph my groceries today for 2 reasons. One is to show you what my normal shopping trip looks like, and the other is because I did SO WELL with savings this week on my receipt. This doesn't show the farmer's market, which I will go to tomorrow after church, I'm planning to spend $20 and get 10 baskets of produce. I'll photograph that tomorrow.

Here are the groceries. Most of the things here I got at Publix. JJ and I eat breakfast at home every morning, lunch I pack on weekdays, and dinner is home 6 nights per week. It takes a lot of food, and I try to stay under $100. But that budget also includes dog food, cleaning products and toiletries. I love couponing, and I work really hard each week to get them matched up so I can get many staples for free or close to free. 

As you can see, my breakfast is oatmeal with bananas and soy milk, JJ's is cereal with milk. I had $1 off coupons for both the Horizon Organic Milk and the Silk Soy Milk. The wheaties were buy one get one free, and I had coupons for them. The Irish Oats are kind of expensive at $5, but it lasts 3 weeks and I had a $1 off coupon. 

For lunch, I have my standard yogurt (I had 5 $1 off oikos coupons), hummus (homemade, can of organic chickpeas is $1), fruit and veggies will be bought at the farmers market or store. JJ has peanut butter and jelly, I buy him whole grain bread (buy one get one free with coupon) and organic peanut butter from whole foods, where it's cheapest.  Some other things I got were the All Small and Mighty, they were buy one get one free and I had a $2 off 1 coupon and a $1 off 1 coupon, so I paid $2.99 for 2 bottles of laundry detergent. That's a major deal! Kashi cereals were also 2 for $5, plus I had a buy 2 get 1 free coupon and a $1 off coupon, so I got 3 boxes of Kashi cereal for $4! The pasta was also buy one get one free, as was the wild rice and I had coupons for those as well. Seriously, a little planning and you can get good, whole food groceries for cheap! The only splurges this week were the bacon from whole foods, which I need for a recipe, and the La Croix isn't cheap either.

So here's the breakdown. I spent $60 and saved $66 at Publix! I love when I save more than I spend :)

At whole foods, I spent $22, so that leaves me $18 for the Farmer's Market, but I know I'll spend $20. 

After the grocery stores, I went home, cleaned the kitchen, unpacked the groceries, and heated up some bean, cabbage and veggie soup for lunch. I had some random blue cheese crumbles, so I topped it with them, and the blue cheese made the soup really pop! It was great.  I also had an apple, lots of water, and an iced coffee. 

I did a little watering and planted some new plants in my garden. I lost about 1/3 of the plants with all of the cold weather we had. I planted way too early :( Luckily I had more seeds started, so I had no problem filling the empty, dead spots. As bad as it's been, the weather is great now, and my little garden is taking off on me! 

When I was elbows deep in dirt, I heard the ice cream man! I almost ran after him, but I was going for fro-yo later, so I held off. I did snap a photo though :) 

I had some work to do for my article I'm writing on Kids and Cooking, so I sat in on a cooking demo, and interviewed the owner and chef at a cooking school. 

Then I had some errands to run, and I wanted to get the photos and information for a Bite Club blog post, so I went to Mochi and got some fro-yo. They have 10 flavors of self serve fro yo. You can sample them all, then you make your cup, top it with what you want, and you pay per ounce.

I sampled Irish Mint, Mango and Taro

Look at the delicious fresh fruit! 

I had a coupon for 4 oz. free, and looked at the nutritional info and 4 oz. is 120 calories (plain), so I weighed my cup without the toppings and the fro-yo was 4 oz., then I added some fresh rasperries, blueberries and kiwi. It ended up at 9 oz, $2.12  Look at all the fresh berries though, a great deal! And so healthy! I'm going to be going here often I think...They have a frequent buyer punch card! 

It was so nice out, there were no tables outside, so I ate mine in Frau while I read their literature.

After that I stopped by Hallmark to get some cards for family birthdays, and then went to Victoria's Secret for a pair of free underware. I was sucked in by their 7/$25 special on my favorite underware though, and ended up with lots more... Oh well, you can always use more underware, right?

I also stopped by Michaels and picked up some springy/Easter decorations since my home is still Valentine's Day themed. I'm hoping to get that stuff swapped out tomorrow. 

For dinner, I made a BBQ tofu and quinoa and greens pie. They were both good, but not as amazing as I had hoped. Oh well! 

I was all set to watch New Moon, I got it on bluray today at Target, but I have no idea how to work my TV/bluray/receiver. JJ always does it for me. So I don't know if I'm willing to mess up the TV or just wait and watch it when he can tell me what to do... I'm just going to watch basketball until then! 

Excited for tomorrow, but hope I get a little more relaxing time. Plans are run, church, farmer's market, YMCA, clean the house and then hopefully time to sit on the back porch and read while the dogs sun themselves!