Laughing Works Your Abs! :)

Hi everyone!

I’m SO glad today is Thursday because that means tomorrow is FRIDAY and I am going home!!!!! =) Today was a busy day where I did random monotonous things that, while boring, needed to get done. I ended it with a great run, filling din-din and packing for the weekend!

This morning for breakfast I switched it up a little and had overnight oatmeal. Last night, I soaked 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 cup water and a bit of sea salt. This morning I stirred in a spoonful of peanut butter, a 0% fage, a sliced banana, tons of cinnamon, raspberries and topped it off with maple syrup!

Now that’s what I call a great start! It kept me full for hours

And for lunch, I made a new favorite: a turkey bacon (2 slices) and hummus sandwich. I just can’t seem to get enough hummus can I?!

I love this combo because its chewy and satisfying, with tons of protein for staying power. I also packed almonds, a string cheese and an apple. I ate the almonds and cheese mid-morning and had the apple with my sandwich (as usual…I’m boring).

When I got home from work it was POURING but I planned a run so I sat around, ate a snack and waited. I tried out a new product:

And I made a mini pb&j with it!

I really liked it! I think for a sandwich for lunch I would need more than a 100 calorie bun, but combining it with something else or using it for a snack like today would be great! I felt like I was eating two slices of bread but it had the calories of one slice. Good for all you volume eaters!

After the rain stopped and my snack digested, I set out on another 5 mile run. I ran pretty fast and it felt great. I’m really liking the 5 mile distance and its feeling really good to me. Today my heart rate was down a bit, showing that my body is getting used to running long distances. No huffing and puffing here—yay! Pretty soon I’ll be able to kick it up a notch!

When I returned I made a quick dinner because I was starving: a can of Amy’s split pea soup (its still pretty overcast here and REALLY windy so soup was perfect!) and a morningstar farms black bean burger with provolone, ketchup and hot sauce on another toasted Arnold’s Sandwich Slice.

Perfect for a quick refuel!

Of course I was hungry again in an hour so I had a HempPlus oatmeal packet with some chocolate chips for a dessert

As for work today—it was monotonous, as I said before. Not all pastry chefy things can be fun though! There are definitely boring moments to any job and today I had mine. I started out with peeling all these potatoes for the focaccia bread:

Like magic it turns into THIS:

Sprinkled with chopped olives, fresh herbs and parmesan cheese.

After all the potatoes, I stood and pitted olives (for the bread) for a good solid hour. I can’t believe I didn’t cut myself with all those olives! I told you, it’s not ALL fun and sugar!

And then……the most boring of it all……I peeled and cored 50 pears for a dessert tomorrow night. They are doing poached pears with gingerbread and it took me about an hour and a half to perfectly peel all those dang pears. I also have a small hole in my index finger from the peeler hitting me repetitively. Bah.

I took a break in the middle of pear peeling to eat my sandwich and bake this pumpkin pie:

While Adam plated up the pumpkin cheesecake I made a few days ago for a lunch function dessert today. Here it is topped with pate a choux lattice and served with a fresh strawberry. How perdy!

For the last hour and a half, I also rolled out the cracker bread dough I made a few days ago in the pasta machine to bake off. This produces very very thin spicy crackers that we serve in our daily bread baskets. I used tons of red pepper flakes and fresh herbs in the dough. It’s very tasty!

I also worked on a special surprise but I can’t tell until Saturday when I “unveil” it!!!

Tomorrow I am hoping to get out of work a little earlier (even though we have the dreaded Deep Clean) so I can rush home, take a quick shower and get on the road. It’s 2 1/2 hours home and I really don’t want to hit Friday traffic and just sit there. Ryan and I are going out to dinner tomorrow night and I can’t wait! I feel like I’ve been gone forever! I’m sure being home this weekend will make it even harder to come back though on Sunday.

And now………..the moment all of yall have been waiting for! This is STRAIGHT from Ryan’s mouth (well kind of…he emailed it to me). He has been SUPER into this contest all day long. Seriously, he has taken notes and had “lists” of top stories and all that. I talked to him at lunchtime and he said he couldn’t stop laughing at everyone’s stories and how fun it all was. He even raced back to his office after playing golf and risked being late for the World Series tonight just so he could check your stories one more time and email me the winner. So, here it goes:

“I would like to congratulate everyone for some hilarious cooking stories, you make me feel much better about my kitchen disasters. Before I get to the winners, I must share my own experience. My freshman year at Florida, I had those late night muchies and decided to cook up some quesadillas in the dorm kitchen. Of course I leave to go check something for a few minutes, come back, and the kitchen is filled with smoke. Well naturally the fire alarm goes off for the entire building. And the other 4 dorms attached to this one. Of course its January, so there are about 400 students standing outside freezing while 5 fire trucks and 3 police cars arrive to check on this disaster. Of course my roomate decided he must announce to all that it was me!!!!!!!!!

All of your stories were fantastic. For honorable mention (he put the comment number before the name so you guys could go back and re-read the stories yourself!) : 4 Healthy Hostess, 8 Julz, 25 Tracey, 26 Linds, 29 Kimberly, 35 Lora, 40 Katie K, 50 Sarah Fl, 60 El

Most Disgusting: Raybelle, I was hungover this morning and I almost got sick

Top 3 : 57 Janelle, 23 Kirsten, 58 Kelly (I actually busted out laughing).

The winner has been sent to Jenna and she will announce!!!!!!! Im off to the World Series now, Go Rays, Phillies Suck! ”

And the winner is…………………Jenny! Her comment was number 16! Jenny, please don’t include any watches on your Thanksgiving menu this year! Oh, and email me your address so I can send out your prize asap!

I loved reading ALL of your stories. They were SO funny! I actually was telling Adam about them at work today and we were both cracking up. You guys are the best!