Trip to Whole Foods=Happiness. :-)

Dad and I were in the kitchen at the same time this morning, bright and early.  When dad said he was getting bored with cereal, I decided to get to work on making us both a bowl of oats. 😀

My family enjoys oatmeal, but they haven’t quite reached the ability to eat a 3/4 c. portion like I normally do. 😉  So I just made each of us a 1/2 c. portion and threw all kinds of delicious toppings on.  I didn’t really count or measure or anything, but here’s a good approximation:

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1 c. milk
• 1 banana
• 1-2 T. dried cranberries
• 1 T. crushed flax

Topped with:

• about 2 T. walnuts
• about 3-4 T. Natures Path Organic Pumpin Granola
• 2 tsp. coconut

Loved it!!  Not quite as filling as my usual bowl, but it was exceptionally tasty today. 😀  I think that’s due to the Nature’s Path granola cereal.  So incredibly delicious!

It was a cozy, rainy morning.  What would be better then making a trek to Whole Foods? 😀

I ate a sweet golden delicious apple on the drive…

+ a Grande Soy Latte.  This cup size looks bigger to me for some reason.  It wasn’t full all the way though either, so I’m wondering if this is normally a venti, but they turned it into a grande due to not having enough grande cups?  Or maybe I’m just losing it, and this is always the same ol’ grande cup. 😉

There were multiple stops on the way to Whole Foods.  I passed a ton of lovely farmers markets, and bought some gorgeous (and cheap!) produce items.  Then there was Trader Joes, which was the highlight of my shopping trip…

…due mostly to this treasure:

I ran out of almond butter and oat bran this week…how’s a girl to survive without those necessities?? ha…I’m super happy to be restocked!

Whole Foods was lovely, as always. 😀  I found some great deals, and found myself sampling a ton of free food samples. 😀  First there was the cantaloupe and pineapple chunks.  Then there was the pink lemonade.  And the robusto cheese and poppyseed sourdough bread practically screamed my name.  The robusto cheese has these little crystals in it, and is my absolute most favorite cheese ever.  Simply amazing!

Then I found these Food Should Taste Good Multigrain chips which a friend recommended that I try.  I had one last Free coupon that was sent me from a couple months ago, and I decided this was a good time to use it!

Mmmm….loved ’em!  They’re nice and crunchy, slightly salty, and a little sweet too.  The sweet potato flavor is still my favorite, but these are pretty high up on the list of faves too. 😀

I brought along 1/2 a pita bread and the last of some tomato slices, and bought a couple slices of organic herbed turkey at whole foods.  On the side I had a handful of the multigrain chips and a strawberry oikos yogurt.  I’m not always a huge fan of flavored, fruit on the bottom yogurts (other then the beloved pineapple chobani of course!! 😀 ), but I really enjoyed this one.  It wasn’t as thick as chobani, but held up a lot of flavor with nice chunks of strawberries.  It made the perfect dessert!

When I came home, I had to make sure the almond butter was okay! 😉  I dunked some kashis in it for an afternoon snack…

And before I knew it, I was off again to finish up grocery shopping.  This is why I can’t always go to whole foods…it makes grocery shopping a full event!  Not that I mind when I have the extra time! 😀  And I haven’t gone in so long that it was an extra special treat.  But I also knew that I needed to finish up some homework and my cold is still leaving me with not as much energy as I should normally have, so I was happy to be home once again from my second shopping trip of the day.  Whew…

I caught up a little on homework when I came home, waiting for dad to finish up work.  He was planning on a run tonight, and I decided a walk would be nice since it’s my day off from running.  So we headed out and met up at the 1.5 mile mark (dad was running 4, I was walking 3, and somehow we always meet up at the same spot for a few minutes on the way home… 😀 )

Oh, and I ate 1/2 a Natures Path Organic Hemp Plus granola bar with raisins on the run…which explains the blurry photo. 😉  These bars are super delicious!  Loved ’em!  I’m not sure how filling these would be, but I’ll be sure to test that out at some point too. 😀 

And the nutrition label, which is always fun to look at. 😀  A little high on the sugar side, a little low on the fiber…which makes me think these would be perfect to accompany a meal, almost as a “sweet ending.”  Or as a quick snack before I’m off for a walk/run when I know I’ll be eating soon but just need enough for a little bit of energy and “hold me over” power.

Dinner was an idea taken from Martha Stewart! 😀  Penne with Grape Tomatoes and Mozzarella

It’s such a basic recipe, that you could really do what you want with it.  It’s one of the easiest summer meals to put together too, which I love.  Instead of using thyme, I used a couple of handfuls of fresh basil from the herb garden.  While the pasta was boiling, I threw this mix into a bowl:

• handful of chopped, fresh basil
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 pint of fresh cherry tomatoes
• 8 oz. small, fresh mozzarella balls
• 1 T. white wine vinegar
• 2 T. olive oil
• salt and pepper

I also ended up adding some balsamic vinegar because it just seemed right for this recipe!! 😀

Once the pasta was cooked, I mixed it all together and popped it in the fridge for dinner.  It was very simple and very tasty.  😀  I think it would have been great with the addition of a green bell pepper and black olives too.  YUM!

On my side salad, I poured a bit of orange juice for a citrusy spritz. 

Mom told me to start using up some of the frozen blueberries in the freezer so they don’t go to waste.  Oh, what a chore! 😉  Frozen blueberries + a banana + icecubes + 1 T. peanut butter + 1 c. milk…perfect! 😀  I loved how thick it came out, which made it perfect for eating with a spoon.

I finally finished my menu project for the summer class!!  There’s about 50 pages worth of material, and now I just need to get it all organized into a professional layout, and then mail it in.  After that, comes the volunteer project assignment paper which is due midweek next week, and then I’ll be done.  Phew…can’t wait! 😀

Happy Early Friday! 😀  The weekend is almost here…woohoo!

Exercise: 3-mile walk

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