2009 January 11

After my post this afternoon, I immensely enjoyed my afternoon nap. I passed out for 2 glorious hours and felt so fabulous afterwards that I treated Abbie to a one mile walk around a local park.

Before the walk I munched on a Peanut Butter Larabar.

Got to love the 10 for $10 sale going on at Publix right now for Larabars!!

I must have got more of a work out then I thought cheering on the marathoners today because my hunger has been out of control today. The Larabar barely hood me over through the walk and when I returned I immediately set out on making dinner.

Tonight I decided to reach into the creative bin in my head and did a fun spin on lasagana. I think I’ve actually seen this done before, but I just took the idea and built my own recipe.

Zucchini & Yellow Squash Lasagna

2 Zucchinis
2 Yellow Squashes
1/2 pound Ground Turkey
1 can No Salt Diced Tomatoes
1/2 small Onion
1 clove Garlic
1/2 jar Tomato Pasta Sauce
1 cup 2% Mozzarella Cheese
7 oz Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1 egg white
Oregano
Thyme
S& P

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Slice the zuccini and yellow squash length wise, season with S&P, bake in oven for 10 minutes
In a small skillet sautee onion and garlic
Add ground turkey to onion mix and season with thyme, oregano, S&P
Once turkey is brown add tomatoes and pasta sauce
In a seperate bowl mixx the cheeses, egg whites and seasonings
Once all three seperate parts are done start layering the lasagna in a bread loaf pan. Start with the meat mixture, squash, cheese and repeat until out of ingredients
Cover with aluminum and bake for 25 minutes, remove aluminum and cook 5 more minutes until done.

On the side I had a piece of Toast, I drizzled with a little bit of Olive Oil and Garlic Salt.

I always am impatient when food comes out of the oven so I didn’t let the lasagna sit long enough, which is why it fell apart on me in the bowl. Atleast it still tasted good. I really enjoyed this meal and would make it again in a heart beat.

For dessert I’m planning on having this Apple heated up with Cinnamon and Fat Free Cool Whip. I haven’t had the urge for dessert yet, but I know it will strike.

I get several questions on how I grocery shop and about how much money I spend per week on groceries. I am a single health consious girl who eats about 90% of my weekly meals at home, so I rely heavily on my weekly grocery trips.

My weekly grocery budget for groceries depends on how much food I have left in my fridge. I try to shop every Sunday, but for due to odd timing with the holidays and Caitlin’s wedding I never had a chance to hit up Publix last week and ate my fridge dry.

As you can see I was in desperate need of groceries! This is usually not typically how empty my fridge gets so this this week’s grocery haul was a bit larger then normal. With that in mind here was what I came home with.

Yesterday’s purchases from Whole Foods….. not a weekly thing, but I believe worth noting.

Blueberry Spelt Muffin ….. $1.79
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie ….. $1.79
Honey Graham Bears ….. $2.49
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bar ….. $0.99
Honey Graham Z-Bar ….. $0.69 (x2)
Blueberry Z-Bar ….. $0.69
Harvest Whole Wheat Crackers ….. $2.50
Annie’s Cucumber Yogurt Dressing ….. $3.00
Amy’s Butternut Squash Soup ….. $2.00
Amy’s Chunky Tomato Soup ….. $2.00
Whole Wheat Flour ….. $2.99
- Whole Foods Total ….. $21.62

Next up, Publix. Now this is usually my one stop shop for the week. I know I could probably save money coupon hopping at other stores, but honestly I LOVE PUBLIX. It’s my favorite non-organic grocery store and I can’t imagine shopping anywhere else for my weekly grocery needs. They’re clean, helpful and always very friendly.

Produce

Spinach ….. $2.00
Cherries …. $2.48
Cauliflower ….. $1.67
Broccoli Slaw ….. $1.67
Tangerines ….. $1.50
Tomato ….. $0.61
Cucumber ….. $1.29
Boniato ….. $0.58
Zucchini ….. $1.48
Yellow Squash ….. $1.98
Blackberries ….. $1.29
Strawberries ….. $2.99
Braeburn Apples ….. $1.79
- Publix Produce Total ….. $21.33

Everything Else

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts ….. $2.59
Ground Turkey ….. $2.99
Stacey Pita Chips ….. $2.50
Shredded Mozz Cheese ….. $2.79
Flat Out Spinach Wraps ….. $2.00
Part Skin Ricotta Cheese ….. $2.00
Stoneyfield Yogurt ….. $0.60 (x3)
Sauerkraut ….. $0.65
Peanut Butter Larabar ….. $1.00 (x2)
Black Beans ….. $0.75 (x2)
Peach Halves ….. $1.23
Egg Whites ….. $3.99
Refried Beans ….. $0.99
Kasher Baby Dill Pickles ….. $1.89
Arnolds Multigrain Thins ….. $2.99
Cous Cous ….. $2.19
Raspberry Seltzer ….. $3.67 (x2)
- Everything Else Publix Total ….. $41.44

This week’s Grocery Total ….. $84.39!!

Keep in mind this total is making up for not grocery shopping last week, includes a bonus trip to Whole Foods and will cover three meals a day plus 2 snacks a day for the next week. I don’t think that’s half bad, even if it is just for little ole me.

Now my fridge and cabinet are now happily filled.

ANd just for fun I thought I would show you guys my chocolate stash. I seem to be a collect of chocolate so when ever I get some I hide it away in my butter tray of my fridge. Keep in mind this doesn’t even included the Butterfinger I earned today and added to my stash.

Trust me it takes will power to have that stash, but honestly its so well hidden I forget its there. If you need a place to stash treats, try the butter tray trust me it works!

I’m very excited because I just discovered the Golden Globes are on tonight! I’m watching the Red Carpet Pre Show at the moment drooling over all the fabulous dresses and hot men. I’m going to grab a cup of tea and sit back and relax while enjoying the awards. Anybody have good picks for whose going to win tonight?

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I have no voice! I have been cheering on over 25,000 Walt Disney World Marathon runners as they passed the 21 Mile Marker for the last 5 hours! It was insane but so much fun.

I was very excited to volunteer today, but when my alarm woke me up at 4:30 this morning I was less then thrilled. I did force myself out of bed and had a very early breakfast to get me going.

I picked up a Spelt Blueberry Muffin at Whole Foods yesterday that I happily had with some Cherries and a Tangerine.

I got to the volunteer parking area for the Marathon right on time and headed to the volunteer tent to check in and pick up my supplies. The tent was very organized with several hundred people checking in at once.

Upon arrival I was given a Snack Box and a Wind Breaker.

The snack box included an Apple, Granola Bar, Blueberry Muffin, Water and a Butterfinger.

Let me telling you, being a screaming fan is a lot of work through out the 5 hours I was on my feet I worked up quite an appetite. I ended up eating the whole box, minus the Butterfinger.

After I picked my stuff up I headed to a bus, who drove me and the other group of volunteers to Mile Marker 21.

Before this point, I was not exactly 100% sure what I was doing. I had signed up for “Screaming Fans” but as you can imagine that didn’t leave much explanation. When we finally arrived I understood what my duty was, to be a screaming fan.

We were there from the first runner to the last runner, cheering, encouraging and applauding all of the runners. We were a big support group that kept the runners smiling and motivated. It was an awesome job!

It was really interesting to see the whole race progress and all the different types of runner run by and their level of skill.

The first male runner ran past our mile marker around 1:54 or something close to that. He was intense, but had a funny Pluto hat to show some spirit.

The first Female ran by about 20 or 30 minutes after the first male ran by. She was barely sweating and in great spirits. She was throwing her hands up and fists with a big grin on her face.

The runners cam sparatically for for the first hour of standing, but then all hell broke loose. Thousands upon thousands of runners came by and I cheered and shouted for everyone of them. Each racer’s bib had their name sprawled across so we were encouraging each runner personally. They really enjoyed it and would smile as they passed and I swear some sped up as they passed. It was really rewarding.

I saw several funny Disney outfits, great t-shirts and funny hats. I also saw bloody nipples, people limping and people puking. We even had one person pass out right after the mile marker. It was intense!

One of the fellow volunteers had run the race the year before and was giving me the inside into the race. She said its a fun race to run. She ran with a camera and along the way took pictures with many disney characters, parade floats and various places among the parks. Running through the parks is a big highlight of the race, but each park is only about 1 mile – 2 miles long, a very small fragment of the total 26.2 total miles of the race. The majority of the race is made up of long empty roadways, which is why they need volunteers like us to cheer and encourage the racers along the race.

Many runners who passed Thanked us for coming out and supporting them. I was there for over 5 hours shouting and cheering, I never realized how hard volunteers work on the side. It makes me thankful for all of the hard work the volunteers put into all the races I will run. I will remember to truly appreciate and thank the volunteers from any future races I run.

Once the clock reached 5:53, they closed the 21st mile and sweeped all of the remaining runners who didn’t make the time on to a bus to take them to the end. It must be hard to have made it that far and to quit like that.

I felt thankful and exhausted to be back on the bus ride back to the tent. At the tent I picked up my Thanks for Volunteering from Disney, A Free Park Ticket!