I Walk In This World

Morning blog peeps.

When I got home from work last night, my super kind and helpful in-laws where in the kitch making dinner for Hubz and I!!  They greeted me with a smile, told me they had already taken Hillary out for her evening walk, and that dinner would be ready at 7pm, so that I could have time to jet to the gym beforehand.

I tell you…this is the life. 

Hubz had requested one of his Mom’s favorite recipes…called Chicken Delight.  I think it’s creamy mushroom soup and sour cream (yum!) mixed with spices and chicken, then topped with stuffing and baked in a casserole.

On the side we had sauteed veggies, of which those cool long beans and the zukes came from the in-law’s garden.

My plate (plus another spoonful of that delish casserole once I had cleared this portion!).

My mother-in-law and I had after-dinner cocktails.  On a Monday night, no less.  Erin is a party hound!  We had mango mojitos that were VERY good.

And just to make sure you’re all properly jealous…dessert.  Tonight I was treated to a creamy red raspberry dessert on top of a graham cracker crust.  And the raspberries are from their garden too.  This was devine!

A super big hug and thanks to my inlaws for this fabulous and stress-free evening!

At the gym I did 5 minutes powerwalking to warm up the muscles and sore ankle.  Then did a 30-minute run while watching Friends on the gym tv.  Then a cool down.  Then stretching.  Good Erin!

After lunch, I took a walk around the property here.  We’re just going to move into treehugging mode for a few pics, so come play along…

How beautiful is this mushroom?!

Reminded me of “amber waves of grain.”

Does anyone see the honeybee??

Headshot!

Ah.  All the potential in the world…the little acorn. 

(((nature)))

Lunch in da cube farm…

• grilled ham and cheese on a multigrain roll
• celery with crunched natural PB
• fluorescent watermelon (sorry…bad lighting)
• a container of applesauce I ended up not eating

And Breks.  A mango banana (plus 2 strawberries) smoothie.  In the new smoothie cup.  Not too shabby.

***Disclaimer***

Football season is fast approaching and I would just like to officially state the IWITW is, has been, and will always be a Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Zone.  All Steelers fans are welcome and the rest of you will be inundated with my football cheers and jeers each Sunday or Monday once the season is here.

Any other football fans out there?

Evenin peeps.

I need to chillax, a bit of a stressful day here at IWITW.  Without further adieu…

Dinner!  Yesterday I sauteed all of these TJs Organic Free Range Chicken tenders, which, you’ll note, were also sustainably farmed and raised without antibiotics.  This is an indicator that the chickens are, in fact, free range.  Antibiotics are administered, preemptively to birds to ward off the horrid diseases they can contract from massive over crowding in wire battery cages in a traditional chicken processing plant.  Free range birds, not subject to overcrowding (and the horrific treatment that goes along with that….crowded birds become mean to each other and I will let you envision the rest), don’t need antibiotics to be healthy.  Also, don’t be fooled by labels that say “raised without hormones, or hormone free.”  The use of hormones in raising chickens has been banned since the 1950s.  But these producers are smart and know that this phrase makes people feel “good” about the chicken they’re buying.  Don’t fall for it!  Just a little bit of Ethical Eating trivia for today.  I’ve created an Ethical Eating page up there at the top, where I’ll be posting my thoughts and snippets of info for y’all. 

About 2 of those tenders went into making my latest crockpot wonder…Cashew Carrot soup with chicken, white beans, wild rice, broccoli, and sweet taters.  Served with a side of locally baked whole wheat bastone with buttah.  Look at this bowl of delish!

Oh, I forgot.  I got my rings back on Saturday!  I had them at the jeweler (for 2 weeks *cry*) to get re-rhodium plated and cleaned and checked for damage. 

A little Hilly-Hubz wrestling goin down.  Who says little dogs aren’t tough?

So, the blog title.  At the store tonight, I found this FreeBird chicken.  You can read the label, like I did, and see what you think.  I need to do some more research about this company before I give them a good ranking from IWITW regarding Ethical Eating.  I am hopeful they’re legit…but I need to check it out.  Will get back to you.  Or, let me know if you know anything about this company!

A little pre-workout snack.  I had a GENerous handful.  At the gym I ran for 30mins on the treadmill.  I was a hawt mess afta, but man, I continue to be supa psyched at how long I’m now able to run!

Lunch.  Today was my boss’ birthday, so there was a lovely homemade cake to celebrate.  I couldn’t *not* enjoy with everyone else.  :)  Plus, I’m a sucker for homemade cake.  Store cakes get the heave ho, but homemade puts a smile on my face.  And ya know what, it was REALLY good!

• ham + American + lettuce on run-of-the-mill whole wheat
• organic sliced carrot
• cherries
• CAKE

I’ll leave you with a pic I snapped of the bag of farmers market goodies I took to my sister in Philly on Saturday.  This bag cost me $4 and contained that yellow squash, 2 Jersey maters, and 4 ears of corn. 

There are definitely farmers market perks to living in the Garden State, that’s fo sho.

Nite people!

Happy Saturday blog friends!

I’m eating Breks as we speak and waiting for the sista to arrive.  Today we’re going to pick up our bridesmaids gowns for her wedding!!!  I’ll try to post pics tomorrow.

Friday was chock full of fun messy food!

But first, my Breks today…

• one of my whole wheat blueberry muffins with a little yogurt butter
• handful o cherries (time to restock!)
• coffee a plenty

These muffins are SO good!  I linked over to the recipe in this post.

After a giant night of sleep (hello 8.5 hours) I feel bright and and refreshed!  Last night Hubz and I watched Religulous with Bill Maher.  It was good and raised a lot of solid questions for the religious community.  Has anyone seen it?

Din on Friday was takeout from my second husband…Chipotle. 

•  Chipotle’s Burrito bowl with the spicy beef barbacoa, black beans, lettuce, cheese, GUAC, and fresh tomato salsa
• I ate about 6-7 of those amazing chips + more guac

Here’s what the bowl SHOULD look like once you dig in!

I ate about half, total.  Their food is just SO so dang delicious.

If you’re not familiar with Chipotle, you SHOULD be.  For ethical meat eaters like Hubz and I, Chipotle is an amazingly aware, ethical, and sustainable chain restaurant.

From their website:

Since 2001, all of the pork served in our restaurants has been from pigs raised in this humane, ecologically sustainable way. In addition to all of our pork and all of our chicken in the US, more than 50 percent of our beef is naturally raised. And we’ll continue until all of our meats in all of our restaurants meet this standard.

And what’s cool is that you can click on a map of the US and see how your state offers each type of meat in their restaurant.

My pre-din Friday night drink.

• Magic Hat Brewing Company’s Lucky Kat IPA

Friday’s exercise was a 30-minute run on the treadmill followed by extensive stretching for my ankle and shins.  And so far, my shin splints have not returned, thankyouverymuch.

Lunch at work also ended up messy, which was fun.

• I treated myself to a salad bar salad loaded with veg and protein, topped with my homemade honey dijon dressing
• POPCHIPS!
• bowl of cherries

My work friends and I sat outside and enjoyed nice convos and the beautiful weather.

Friday Breks was my standard smoothie.

• Banana, mango, raspberry smoothie ala television.

Ok, I gotta jet and go do wedding stuff with the sista!

Today is 1 day closer to the end of the week.

*does a cartwheel*

My work is slowly driving me insane.  Just this week though.  I cannot wait for Funday Friday to arrive.  And I don’t even really have plans.  Maybe just some sunning by the pool!

Din last night was simple but very good.

• Supreme grillers (turkey sausage with hot peppers) with mushrooms & onions from Pounds Turkey Farm outside Pittsburgh, PA
• baked yam
• steamed broccoli & peas in a soft cheese sauce (lite)
• water

I snuck in a 4K run between walking the Hilly dog and making dinner.  Felt good.  Actually, I am MEGA EXCITED I ran that far.  First time in many a year!!!! 

My ankle just sucks forever until infinity I’m guessing.  I don’t think it’s ever gonna heal.

[Work happened here, from 12:30pm-5pm.]  A little pretty from my walk in Nature for your enjoyment.

Lunch.

• crunchy natural PB & my mother-in-law’s fabulous strawberry jam on TJs 7-grain bread
• babied carrots
• melon balls and a few slivers of mango
• camera shy chocolate mini meringues (5)

[Work happened here, from 9am-12pm.]

Breks.

• Peachy Keen smoothie with peach slices + half a banana + fresh watermelon juice + ff vanilla yogurt + ice
• COFFEE!

And b/c my In-laws are cool and read my blog, I wanted to post 2 photos of Bed & Breakfast Breks from a recent road trip of their’s!!  Their Guest Photos…

• yogurt “banana split” topped with blueberries, rapsberries, granola, and fresh whip cream.
• seafood quiche (baked to perfection they note!)
• pork sausage links
• cinnamon raisin bagel
• kiwi + orange garnish

Total YUMZ right!

Does your family love B&Bs when traveling as much as ours does??

And in closing, a few fun bits from the blog world:

• Allison has just posted her Week 3 Results of her Clean Life Eating Challenge
• Ashley got a supa cool early bday prezzie from her ‘rents
• Julie is confused about what time of year it is!
• Kath appears to be in love with goat cheese as much as I am

Ciao!