Firework Salad

You may be thinking what is a firework salad? Am I right? Ok, maybe not, but in any case I decided to call it a firework salad simply because I made it for dinner before I went and watched some fireworks (clever right?). Lame I know, but hey it works and it was delicious. 

Firework Salad

• 2 cups organic spring mix lettuce
• heaping 1/3 cup diced bell peppers- I used a mix of red, orange and yellow
• 1/3 cup avocado, sliced or diced
• small handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1 hard boiled egg, sliced
• 3 tablespoons mixed pepitas and sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons dried tart cherries

Chocolate Deluxe Protein Parfait

This morning I didn't have a lot of time to workout at the gym before I had to be ready for the day. On the weekends the gym I go to doesn't open until 7 so I ended up with a little over an hour to workout. Let me tell you I kicked butt this morning at the gym. I powered through 40 minutes of cardio and almost half an hour of weight training. By the time I left the gym I was dripping in sweat.

After my grueling workout I needed a quick snack to refuel- of course, parfaits are my go to. It's no secret that I have a love affair with Quest Bars (who doesn't!?!) and heated up Quest Bars are out of this world. That got my brain thinking, why not heat up another type of protein bar? And so I did just that. I chopped up a GF Pure Protein Bar and microwaved it for 25 seconds. It came out all ooey and gooey like a brownie fresh out of the oven. Let me tell you it was DELICIOUS mixed in with greek yogurt!

Pure Protein Yogurt

• 1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons homemade granola
• 1 Gluten Free Pure Protein Chocolate Deluxe Bar, cut into chunks

Cut up protein bar into chunks. Microwave for 20-25 seconds depending on the strength of your microwave.

Place heated up protein bar chunks in with greek yogurt and homemade granola (if desired) and enjoy the ooey gooey goodness!

Hectic Ramblings

I started this post at 5:55 this morning. It's now 5:05 in the afternoon- if that is any indication how insane my life has been the past number of weeks. Please forgive me if I misspell something or suddenly start speaking gibberish as I am extremely sleep deprived. 

Yesterday was just hectic. I spent all morning and most of the afternoon running around doing errands for my parents and getting ready to leave for a mini-vacation. Even though I was tired I wanted to make sure I started my day off on the right foot, so I dragged my tired butt to the gym. I ended up getting in one of the best workouts I've had in a long time and I got to watch the beautiful sunrise over the stationary bike next to me. 

After I scrubbed up from my sweat session I was off to go grocery shopping at Meijer and ran Costco for my mom. I do not enjoy going to Costco at all. There are WAY too many people, kids running around screaming and people blocking the aisles to get free samples.

Once I unloaded all my groceries I was off to UPS to ship a package. My tummy was majorly grumbling, mostly because it was way past my lunch time. I was too tired to make something and thankfully Panera Bread is right next door to UPS. 

You have to be careful ordering at Panera. They try to make all their food come across as healthy when a lot of it really isn't. I ordered the Strawberry Poppyseed and Chicken Salad minus the poppyseed- I don't like salad dressing. The salad hit the spot perfectly and all the fresh fruit was to die for!

I have to go finish packing, but have a good weekend and I promise I will have more posts up soon!

P.S. Don't forget if you want to collaborate with me and be featured on my blog send me an email with a link to your blog at minerrachael@gmail.com