Weekend Adventures and Monday Meal Prep

I went into this weekend without having a lot of plans.  I thought I would just kind of hang around the pool, clean some, do some food prep, and just chill out, but that isn't quite what happened.

My mom ended up taking a ride with her Harley group from Charlotte to Old Salem for some Moravian Bread from the bakery.  I live about 5 minutes away from Old Salem so I decided to meet her over there.  She had bought me 2 all inclusive tickets to Old Salem on Groupon that I still need to use so we had talked about using them Saturday, but by the time we walked over to the bakery it was about 2pm so we decided to wait and use them another day.  We bought some lovefeast buns, shortbread cookies, and a gift set of their Moravian cookies that I am taking home to the rest of my family next weekend.  I can't wait to go back and see everything that Old Salem has to offer!

(Some how I accidentally deleted the photo collage I made so here is a screen shot from Instagram)

After Old Salem we grabbed some lunch at Jeffery Adams on 4th street in downtown Winston Salem.  It was my first time there and it was delicious!

My mom had already planned to leave Winston Salem and go to Love Valley to meet up with some of her friends so I just invited myself along.  I have never been to Love Valley, aka the "cowboy capital" and I wanted to see what it was all about.  It is definitely a different world, but I had fun.  We went to an auction in town to raise money for the children's mule association, cooked out, went to the saloon Saturday night, and went for a trail ride Sunday morning.

I got home about 7pm Sunday evening and although I did make myself stop at Trader Joe's I did not feel like doing any meal prep.  Luckily I didn't go to work until 2pm yesterday so I got up and did a few things to help me prepare for work every day this week.

I ended up baking the sweet potatoes I got last week from my Backyard Produce order to have for lunch and also to make some sweet potato banana bites that I found from The Lean Green Bean.  I also cooked a cup of dried tricolor quinoa and some power blueberry muffins I found on the Domesticated Academic's blog using the blueberries I got last week in my produce order!

**A few notes regarding the recipes I made:

1. I ended up with 21 mini bites from the sweet potato mixture (I made each one with 1 tbsp of batter) and I calculated them to be 50 calories each.  The ones in the larger muffin tins I made double size so they are 100 calories each.

2. I halved the blueberry muffin recipe because I didn't have enough flour to make the whole thing.  My batter was very dry so I did add about 2-3 tbsp of water to help it come together.  I got 7 muffins from the batter, which came out to 184 calories each.  I wouldn't say these are a "clean" recipe, but they are healthier than other muffin recipes I've seen plus there is some added protein from the Greek yogurt.  These are delicious and I can't wait to make them again!

Chase and I also watched Silver Linings Playbook Friday night when I got off work and I thought it was really good.  I have always had an interest in mental health and took a mental health elective in school and did a psych rotation during my 4th year.  

Just saying hi :)

Overnight Oats

Thanks to Julie over at Peanut Butter Fingers I decided to try something new for breakfast this morning.  I made a bowl of overnight oats! I will admit that I have been reading Julie's blog for awhile now and every time I see her eating overnight oats I think how easy they would make breakfast, but for some reason I haven't taken the plunge and actually tried them!  I decided that these would make for a good breakfast this week since it is a shorter work week and I didn't want to have to buy a ton of groceries that I may or may not use.

Overnight Oats:

1 6oz container of Chobani Strawberry-Banana Yogurt
1/4c Skim milk
1/2c old fashioned oatmeal

Mix everything together and refrigerate overnight.  It was so yummy this morning!  I had a banana too once I got to work, but I am pretty sure the banana would be good in the actual oatmeal as well.  I can't wait to experiment with this general concept :)

Banana Oatmeal

I tried this concoction one evening when I didn't really feel like cooking and wanted to make something filling but easy.  I had a banana that was on the verge of being too ripe and I wanted to use it up before it went bad.

I cooked 1-serving of old fashioned oats with water in the microwave as directed on the package.  Once they were cooked I drained out what little water remained and mixed in the mashed up banana, 2 tbsp light brown sugar, a little cinnamon, a little vanilla extract, and 2 tbsp fat free half and half to make it extra creamy.  It was delicious and really easy since I cooked the oats in the microwave.  I will definitely be having this again!

Baked Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

I found this recipe on Slender Kitchen the other day when I was browsing through some healthy living blogs.  I love oatmeal, but don’t always have the time to make it in the mornings.  I have been on a pumpkin kick and I thought this would be a great way to put the two together.  I also wanted to find something for the winter that may be used in place of my smoothie obsession some days.  I worked from home last Friday and made this that morning and it was delicious right out of the oven.  It takes about 20 minutes to cook so I was thinking of a way to enjoy it without having to worry about it in the mornings when I work.  I decided to double the recipe and cook it up Tuesday evening then I would have breakfast Wednesday and Thursday morning ready to go.  I love this oatmeal because it is dense, kind of like bread, and it reheated really well.  If I had been in a rush I probably could have wrapped it in a paper towel, but I reheated it in a bowl and ate it with a fork. 

Baked Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal:

1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp mini chocolate chips
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Spray a small ramekin or other oven safe dish with cooking spray. Pour in the oatmeal mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes. At the end of baking, place under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to crisp up the top.

Enjoy!

 (this was the single serving I made last Friday morning--I made it in a small ramekin)