Mugs

I can always count on my mom to throw a new healthy recipe at me when I'm home. This morning before I woke up she left me this recipe on the counter:

Grainless Banana Bread in a Mug

I substituted almond butter into my mug, and made peanut butter for my dad. That paired with a warm cup of black coffee started off my morning swimmingly. I believe she found the original recipe here.

I've been back in the Chi now since Thursday night. Before boarding my flight, I found myself a real treat at the BWI airport:

Who knew Jamba offers Pumpkin smoothies? I opted for a small, and got it 'light' which I believe cuts out some of the sugar, shaving it down to closer to 200 cals. Still considered a treat in my book, but a tasty way to start off my trip.

Also, a big obligatory thanks to the sis and her pal Manda who braved the Chicago rush hour traffic on Thursday and picked myself and my 80 lbs of luggage up from Midway airport so that I wouldn't have to take the L. Can we just talk about how my big suitcase weighed exactly 50 lbs? 50.0. The Southwest lady at the check-in desk literally congratulated me.

Had to blur out some of Bri's offensive language.

Last night I decided to try to create my own version of a pumpkin smoothie. I threw in:

- 1/2 ripe banana 

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-3 TB honey

-1/3 cup cottage cheese (to thicken it up)

-A few ice cubes

-1/2 - 1 cup vanilla almond milk

-1 TB almond butter

-1 TB flaxseed

As you can see,  I paired that with some leftover green bean casserole and called it a dinner. I'm weird,  I know. I enjoyed the smoothie, and may throw some vanilla extract in there next time.

The weekend, in short, was a whole lot of Christmas, a whole lot of Jane, and a whole lot of snoozin'.

Grams & Santa

I stumbled upon this on Pinterest the other day and loved it. It may very well me my 2014 mantra.

I have some last minute Christmas shopping to knock out today, along with a basement workout on our elliptical/bike. Yes, I'm one of those people who waits to buy presents. It makes it easier to buy it here versus Baltimore and then have to pack them all.

Enjoy your second to last Monday of 2014 - I hope it treats you well.

Cheers -
K