Happy St. Patty's Day!

Hello!  Happy Wednesday, and Happy St. Patty's Day!  I'm not Irish, but I do like to celebrate by wearing green, and indulging in some green beer every year.  Today was no exception, except for the green beer that is... I actually ended up celebrating with a glass of merlot.  I did wear a green shirt though, and represented.

Today was a fairly normal Wednesday for me.  Nothing too spectacular.  Vlad and I rolled out of our nice cozy bed, and headed out at 5AM for our morning walk.  I didn't do the ipod this morning.  I just wanted quiet time.  Vlad and I walked for about 30 minutes.  It was cold!  I've been getting spoiled with the balmy morning temperatures. 

Breakfast was the usual - scrambled eggs (1 whole egg, and 1 egg white), one whole wheat English muffin with Smart Balance spread, and a small glass of Almond milk.  After breakfast I packed up my big salad and French bread for our fundraising lunch at work.

Today turned out not to be what I expected.  It was interesting though, because when I woke up this morning I just had a feeling that it was going to be a screwy kind of day.  And, it totally was that kind of day.  I felt like I was running, running, running all day trying to get everything done and doing so many jobs at once.  It was definitely not a bad day, just an exhausting one. :P

I did take a time out for my morning snack which was a mix of red grapes and honeydew melon.  I also had a Chobani Greek yogurt, blueberry flavor.  Yummy!

Around 11:30AM, I set up for our St. Patrick's Day fundraising lunch.  Every other month our office holds a fundraising lunch, $5.00 per plate, to help raise money for the families we adopt at Christmas through the Salvation Army.  Each lunch has a theme:  Outdoor Picnic, Soup & Salad, Sundae's on Wednesday, Taco Bar, and today of course we were going for a St. Patrick's Day theme.  Trying... :)

Staff members donate foods and dishes to the fundraising lunch.  We usually create a menu of what we want, and people sign up for those items or add additional items.  Today we had potato soup, chili, french bread with butter, green salad mix, pasta salad, crackers, and two desserts - chocolate chip cheesecake (OMG), and green jello pistachio bars with whipped cream.  Here are some shots of the food...

My salad:  carrots, cucumbers, spring mix lettuce, almond slices, croutons, real bacon bits, and pea pod snap crisps with either light ranch or raspberry vinegarette salad dressings.

French bread slices.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake... this was so rich, so decadent...Holy yummo.

Green jello pistachio bars with whipped cream.

Chili and potato soup - sorry I should have opened the crocks.  I told you, it was a screwy day for me...

Pasta salad.

I had to run errands at lunch - which didn't go well either.  Man, this day was so messed up!  I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or something.  But, when I got back, I dove into some lunch.  I brought a leftover roasted chicken breast from last night from home, but I had some salad from the fundraising lunch and of course I had some chocolate chip cheesecake - just a small piece though.

I'm not sure how much we raised for our lunch today, but I'll let you know.  I was too busy to count the pot o' gold!  It looked like we made out pretty well though! 

Mid-afternoon, my friend Kari stopped by to deliver MORE Girl Scout cookies that I ordered.  What am I going to do with all of these cookies????  Ideas????  :))

Later I squeezed in a banana and a Quaker chocolate chunk low fat granola bar for my afternoon snack,

As soon as I got home and unloaded the 4 bags I carried to and from work today (people call me a bag lady, no wonder I have a bad back), I hit the treadmill.  I really felt great today, and I knew I was going to have a killer run.  I totally did too!  I did a 40 minute run/walk routine on the treadmill, and then a few strength training exercises.  PLUS I can now do the pilates teaser exercise with no trouble at all!  I can't believe it!  I used to not be able to do this exercise at all, and now I can totally ROCK IT!  YES!!!! :D

Tonight felt like a taco night.  Carl and I love tacos, and when we need a little comfort food I whip up a batch of tacos.

Taco Dinner:
- Hard taco shells, and soft shells
- Old El Paso low sodium taco seasoning mix
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- shredded cheddar cheese
- taco sauce
- white shoepeg corn

This is a really simple, and easy meal.  I brown the ground beef, add about 1 1/2 cups of water, mix in the taco seasoning, and simmer until all of the water is cooked out of the beef.  I heat the taco shells in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  I shred some cheddar cheese, and steam some white shoepeg corn.  Carl and I don't put much on our tacos.  I would probably put some lettuce on mine if we had some shredded lettuce, but we didn't, so I went plain tonight just cheese and taco sauce.

I should fess up and tell you that I also snacked on grapes and chips and salsa while making dinner.  Just couldn't help myself. :)

Tonight, we also indulged in some wine with dinner.  I opened a Fetzer Merlot, and it was divine after going through the wine aerator.

Now, Vlad and I are chill-axin downstairs watching the new episode of Ghosthunters on the Sci-fi channel.  TGTTH - thank God tomorrow's Thursday.  I can't wait until the weekend!