Betty Crocker

Happy Monday, everyone! Today is a great Monday because tonight is the KICK-OFF WYLDLIFE CLUB! I love my girls, I love my team, and this is going to be one crazy awesome semester! The theme tonight is Bigger, Better, Best, and we have some awesome games and ideas coming your way tonight. So, if you are a middle-school-aged student at Murchison Middle School or any of the surrounding private schools, you are not going to want to miss this!

Now, not to toot my own horn, but I have created a few dynamite recipes these past few days, and I would love to share them with you guys. I have come to the discovery that I love cooking almost as much as I love baking, and I have had so much fun just throwing together some recipes, a little unsure of how they would turn out.

After campaigners on Friday, I came home with one thing on my mind: sloppy joes. I am a huge fan of this comfort food, and I decided to whip up my own recipe with the help of a Tomlinson-family favorite: Manwich. To create these sloppy joes, I first cooked the lean ground turkey on medium heat until my food thermometer read 165 degrees fahrenheit. While the turkey was cooking, I chopped up some zucchini, red pepper, and onion

Fun fact: chopping onions does indeed make you cry

and threw that in the pan before adding a touch of Manwich sauce and letting it cook for a few more minutes before putting a generous helping on a toasted English muffin and enjoying it alongside some sauteed zucchini.

I was so glad that I made enough to last me two days, because it made lunch the next day pretty darn easy. It tasted just as great the next day with some sauteed broccoli, and I already can't wait to recreate this recipe. It was a winner!

Ingredients you will need for this recipe:

• Lean Ground Turkey
• Manwich sauce
• Red Pepper
• Onion
• Zucchini

Seriously, that's all I used! Feel free to get more creative with it, but it tasted pretty darn good with just those five ingredients. I can't wait to experiment with some added flavors!

Last night I returned home from some incline treadmill walking at the gym and I wasn't sure what I wanted for dinner. I had some tilapia in the freezer, but I just don't care much for the taste of this particular brand of tilapia by itself. That's when it came to me: fish tacos. Fish tacos are one of my very favorite meals, and I will almost always order it if I see it on a menu. Well, why not try my hand at some homemade fish tacos? I bathed my tilapia in lemon juice and lemon pepper to add some flavor before throwing it in the oven for 13 minutes and setting to work on preparing my tacos.

I had just purchased some corn tortillas, so I threw some diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, black beans, and salsa onto two of them. All I needed was the tilapia to come out of the oven and I would be able to judge my abilities in the kitchen.

The verdict? Two thumbs up! They were absolutely delicious, and I feel confident that I am going to be able to finish off this bag of tilapia with no trouble at all.

Breakfast + Workout

This morning took me to my trusty treadmill as I completed a little over five miles in 45-minutes. I loosely followed a treadmill workout created by Carrots 'n' Cake, but I changed the speeds up a bit. I am really working on my speed because I am a pretty competitive person, and as I finished my last half-marathon in under two hours, I would love to do the same for the Houston half, but hey, just finishing is something to be proud of in my book! I came home to whip up a little breakfast for which I cannot take any of the credit. That honor goes to Chocolate Covered Katie for creating this recipe: Pumpkin Pie Boatmeal (Baked Oatmeal).

I have mentioned before that I am not an oatmeal fan, but baked oatmeal is a way to sort of trick myself into liking it. I decided on the pumpkin flavor because the official start of fall is right around the corner, and it seemed perfect for this coolish morning. It was super tasty, and left me searching high and low for more recipes calling for the use of pumpkin. Go out and treat yourself to a can of pumpkin today, I promise you won't regret it!

Food Throwback

Going along with my throwback theme, I have decided that today's survey will be a glimpse into my childhood food preferences. I got this survey from Beyond Bananas, and I think you might agree with me when I say my taste buds, as well as my knowledge of smart food choices, have changed a bit over the years!

Favorite Cereal:  Either Froot Loops, Cap'n Crunch (or the berries in Cap'n Crunch), or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. All quality choices. I also went through a major Cheerios phase later in life, aka the high school days. I was a huge cereal eater, and I didn't like milk even back then, so I just ate it straight out of the box and I'm not even exaggerating when I say there were days that I ate an entire box in one day.

Favorite Breakfast Food: Jimmy Dean Sausage Biscuits or S'mores Pop Tarts. Y-U-M.

Drink Preference: Like I have mentioned before, I have never been a soda drinker, but I was a MAJOR apple juice fan. So much so that my mom asked my doctor if drinking so much apple juice was a problem. I think she was mainly concerned about the large intake of of sugar that was happening. The  worst part of it? I only liked it warm.

Favorite Lunchable: Lunchables were the BEST. My parents spoiled me and I had them in my lunch quite often. I loved the pizza and nacho lunchables, although any lunchable would please me! Well, except for those of the hamburger and hot dog variety. 

Favorite School Lunch: Whew. That's a toughie! My lunches didn't change much throughout the year, but what most of my lunches consisted of over the years was a peanut butter sandwich on white bread, some sort of fruit, crackers, cookies, and some candy thrown in by my Granny. I also ate my lunch around 10:00am because I just got SO hungry that I couldn't possibly wait to dig in until lunch time. That probably came as a result of the pop tarts and sugary cereal I was eating in the mornings before school. 

I always had candy in my lunch, and Dove Chocolates were one of my favs!

Favorite Cookie: Otis Spunkemeyer. Chocolate chip. Hands down.

Favorite Snacks:  I am going to have to steal this from Beyond Bananas, because I loved me some Funyuns. My parents HATED them, because they claimed they made my breath stink (they did), but they were oh-so good! I also loved goldfish, animal crackers, and does ice cream count as a snack? Because I ate it pretty much every day after school.

Favorite Home-Cooked Dinner: My grandmother made the best chicken and rice, and I specifically remember requesting and looking forward to it after I returned home from spending a few days in Galveston with a friend. It was seriously the best, and I should really ask for that recipe - it's a good one to have around!

Favorite Restaurant Dinner: Even as a child, I think Hungry's was one of my favorites. The kids chicken fettuccine alfredo - two, please! I also loved 59 Diner and Fuddruckers.

Ice-Cream Truck Snack: Either the Tweety Bird popsicle, remember those?, or the Chocolate Cookie Cone. Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Sign me up!

Favorite Fruit: Watermelon and cantaloupe. I devoured that stuff. I also loved eating apple slices at soccer games.

Favorite Vegetable: Again, stealing from Beyond Bananas here, but definitely corn on the cob. I loved that stuff, and quite frankly, corn was one of the few vegetables I would actually eat. I wanted nothing to do with broccoli, but I did really like green beans. My parents never made me eat vegetables I didn't like just to say that I ate some vegetables, they made stuff that I liked, ie corn and green beans. 

I think we can all agree that my eating habits have definitely changed over the years, whether that be as a result of changing taste buds or just wisening up in terms of making better food choices. That being said, I am thankful that I had parents that allowed me to eat pretty much what I wanted. Obviously, they set restrictions - I could only have a few cookies at a time, and I had to finish my dinner before having any dessert. They wanted me to have a balanced diet, but they also wanted me to enjoy my childhood and if that meant eating ice cream every day after school (okay, and sometimes at night, too), then so be it. I am also glad that my diet no longer consists of Funyuns, but I am not sure I would be able to turn down a Tweety bird popsicle if I happened to be near an ice cream truck!

Question of the day:

What was your absolute favorite snack as a child? Favorite restaurant? How have your food choices changed over the years?

I would say that the biggest change for me is the ice cream. I am not exaggerating when I say I ate it almost every day after school - a mix of chocolate and mint chocolate chip, to be specific - and obviously, that habit had to stop for a number of reasons. I do, however, indulge in fro-yo quite often (as you have probably noticed by now), so I guess old habits die hard, right?

P.S. If you want a laugh, continue reading. I wanted to have actual pictures for this post, as opposed to images from the Internet, so I went to HEB for the sole purpose of taking these pictures. Please, feel free to judge me. As luck would have it, I ran into one of my best friends as I was on this mission. Thankfully, she knows me well enough to know that this is definitely something I would do. I have no shame. The things I do for the blog!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening!

First 21st Birthday

Today was a big day for the clubhouse. We celebrated our first 21st birthday! The festivities started last night and they continued on into today. It's not every day that you turn 21. Gotta do it big!

I don't yet have any pictures from the adventures last night, but I will share them when they become available. What I can tell you that is that we established a new clubhouse birthday tradition and that it is quite the thrill. That's about all I can say for now!

Today Natalie took part in a few Austin adventures - kayaking, ENO-ing, indulging in some belgian waffles for breakfast and some free Red Mango before heading out for a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called North by Northwest. I think all of us would agree that the food and atmosphere were incredible. Sarah and I went for the Saturday special - beef and seafood skewers, and they were delicious. They were so tender, juicy, and they had just the right amount of flavor without being too overpowering. Some warm rolls dipped in the sauce rounded out the meal perfectly. Dessert was on the house - blueberry crumble with Blue Bell ice cream - and we all passed it around until there was not one bite left on the plate.

The birthday girl!

It was the first clubhouse outing, and I already can't wait for the next one. It was such a fun night, and the night is not over yet - we still have some free Amy's to take advantage of and some dance parties in which to partake. Thanks for being born, N. Myers! I am so thankful for you and I love spending time with you and your joyful self. I love you and your crazy dance skills, and I can't help but smile every time you break out in dance to the Hey Arnold theme song. I can't wait for more adventures with you, and I hope your 21st is your best year yet! Love you, little kitten!

The Clubhouse

Two-Ingredient Pancakes

Rainy days make me want to do nothing but stay curled up in bed. So that is exactly what I did. My alarm went off a little before seven and I immediately turned it off and went back to sleep. I ended up getting up about a half hour later, but that extra half hour was just what I needed to be ready to conquer this busy day.

After finally dragging myself out of bed, I headed to the kitchen to make some two-ingredient pancakes that I stumbled upon while reading various blogs. I was a pretty big pancake lover as a kid, but I have been unable to eat them due to the milk that is commonly found in pancakes. However, these pancakes called for two easy ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen: one banana and one large egg. I added in some cinnamon for a little extra flavor, but they truly are as simple as that. The trick is to cook them over medium heat, and not to get too anxious when flipping them. The other key is to not wait too long, and end up with two black pancakes. Hey, I'm learning! Anyway, I made about five little pancakes and topped them with peanut butter for one delicious Friday morning breakfast. I can definitely say I will be making these again very, very soon! I also hope to experiment with adding more ingredients into them, maybe some nuts or some peanut butter. Eating healthy doesn't have to be boring - you can still enjoy all of your favorite treats!

After making some easy brookies (I know, baking from the box isn't really baking, but when you're crunched for time, it will have to do), I had plans to head over to the gym for an easy workout. However, I received a text message from UT saying that due to threats on campus, everyone needed to evacuate all buildings and get as far away from campus as possible, so I decided to stay at my house and wait for updates and make sure all of my roommates were accounted for. I was home with only one other roommate, but no worries, all eight of us were accounted for after about an hour! We had quite the party going at the clubhouse, as we wanted friends to get as far away from campus as possible. We finally got the all-clear message around 11:30am, and it also informed us that classes were canceled for the rest of the day. Score! At least some good came out of a very scary situation, and I am just so thankful that nothing serious came of that phone call.

After receiving the all-clear, I headed on down the road to the gym to complete a quick workout on the treadmill. I went into my workout thinking I was just going to walk today, but then I found a 35-minute treadmill workout from Carrots 'n' Cake that covered almost four miles. I based my times on hers, but I changed up the speeds so that my workout ended up looking like this:

Now I am off to take a quick shower and maybe complete a little bit of homework before heading off to campaigners! Enjoy the rest of your Friday - I hope that it is a little more calm than mine has been!

Back in Business

Sorry for the fitness and food absence, y'all. My workouts haven't been too exciting these days, as I am really getting back into distance-running mode with my half-marathon on the horizon. Well, it's in January, but I am contemplating a half in December so I am just trying to gauge if I think I will be ready for 13.1 miles by then. I ran five miles yesterday morning, which felt good considering I went to BodyPump on Tuesday night and my legs were SORE. I skipped a week of it due to various things and let me tell you, I will not do that again as long as I can help it. My legs were screaming, and usually my legs can handle that sort of beat down. It felt good to push myself though, and I am trying to make BodyPump a regular part of my workout on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Anyway, I knew I would feel better and more confident if I completed those five miles that I had planned for on Wednesday morning, so I just kept on trucking, though not at my usual pace. Lately, I have kept my pace slower than my usual pace, but that has proven to work really well for me, so I think I am going to stick to it until I feel ready to up the pace. I am also ready for a cool front to hit Austin so that I can take my long runs outside to Town Lake! So much better than running nine miles on a treadmill.

Who wouldn't enjoy running to this view?

After my one class of the day, I headed out the door to my first small group of the year. We had our dessert party last week, but this was our first actual Bible study of the year. We are going through Galatians this year and I am really excited about it - I love taking time out of my hectic schedule to relax and talk about some really awesome things. At 5:30 I hopped in my car again and headed in the direction of the Arboretum. We were planning to have a Wyldlife hangout at Amy's Ice Cream at 7:30, but I decided to just head out there early, get a couple things at the nearby HEB, work on some homework, and grab a delicious dinner. And a delicious dinner it was - Zoe's Kitchen! You may remember that my brother and I went there in Houston about a month back, and I raved about his steak kabobs. Well, my normally tough what-to-order decision was made easy and I went with the steak kabobs. They were so tender, so juicy, and just all around good. I don't think I will stray from that order anytime soon!

I'm actually off to try and get in a nice swim before class (and the rain) at 12:30! Enjoy your Thursday!

Throwback Thursday

Okay, I've given in. I rolled my eyes at the growing Instagram and Twitter trend, but I eventually gave in to how fun it is to post pictures of yourself from past years - whether that is a baby or elementary school picture, or a picture from high school.

Pre-K 

My now senior little brother

Friends since Pre-K and now she is one of my roommates 

A little high school throwback

This trend got me thinking of all of the things that I grew up with that are now considered "throwback." Remember how important it was to have the most perfect AIM info? Posting inside jokes with your friends, an inspirational quote, the inevitable initials of your crush - they were all there. And don't even get me started about choosing the perfect font. Along with that, our MySpace bios were ever so important. I specifically remember browsing the web for hours trying to find the perfect layout and song to enhance my already perfect description of myself.

I could go on for hours about the shows that existed when I was younger, and how much better they were than the stuff that is on TV now. Boy Meets World, Full House, Hey Arnold, Rocket Power? Though I will admit, I own all seven seasons of Boy Meets World, so I can take that trip down memory lane whenever I feel a bit of nostalgia for some life lessons from Mr. Feeny. And who doesn't hold their relationship standards to those of Cory and Topanga?

This man has taught me so much (Source)

Hey football head! (Source)

I would also like to take a moment and reminisce on some of the unfortunate fashions that made the rounds when I was younger. Gaucho pants, Juicy sweatsuits, Angel jeans, outfit-matching ribbons, Hollister, scrunchies, choker necklaces - what ever happened to those? I can't help but laugh when I look back at my middle school years and compare them to my eighth grade Wyldlife girls, because they are so trendy and cool, and I was so not. At least I can look back at pictures and know that I wasn't alone! It just makes me wonder when I am going to look back at what I wear now and laugh - I mean, come on, chacos? Yoga pants? Oversized t-shirts? Well, maybe I'll never outgrow those things.

Juicy and super straight hair

Check out that sugar cookie shirt - courtesy of Abercrombie Kids

If you look closely, I (#6) am wearing a choker necklace

Double-whammy: Abercrombie shirt and a jacket tied around my waist

There are so many things that I could look back on, and maybe I will make a few more Throwback Thursday posts and highlight some of my favorite 90's hits, but one thing I cannot do is end this post without mentioning the beanie baby craze. Now, I am not sure what your beanie baby experience was, but mine was a pretty involved one. I had so many beanie babies that I am almost embarrassed to admit that I am fairly certain I had over 300 of them. My mom and I went to actual beanie baby conventions and would browse at the special editions that were going for hundreds of dollars. Remember how important those tags were? I had tag protectors for them, and for some of my bears, specifically Princess Diana, special protective cases. My family will probably shun me for this, but during the mini-beanie baby month at McDonald's, we definitely contributed to the growing trend of childhood obesity because we went there pretty much every day so that we could add to our already-too-big collection. I will have to try to find a picture of them the next time I am home. How much do you think these little guys are are worth today?

Probably my most cherished beanie baby (Source)

I love taking trips down memory lane, especially now that I am in my twenties (so old), and our house has its first 21st birthday coming up this weekend. I promise my regular food and fitness posts will be making a comeback very, very soon! But for now, enjoy my take on Throwback Thursday!

We Remember

I remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001. I was in my fourth grade classroom, and we were supposed to be heading to specials, PE to be specific, when we were told that we were to stay in our classrooms and the PE, music, and art teachers would come to us. The teachers told us that we had to stay inside because of a problem in the ozone. I remember being afraid to even leave the classroom and get a drink of water. One by one parents started coming to pick up their children, mine included, and as we were walking to the cafeteria to pick up my brother, my mom told me what had happened. Being nine years old, I don't think I quite understood just how tragic it really was, at least until I got home and saw what was happening on TV. I just remember being scared enough to not want to ride my bike home that day and making my dad go and pick it up on his way home from work.

BOGO, filled with American flags and surrounded by notecards for people to write their thoughts about 9/11

It has been eleven years and I am still terribly affected by what happened.  I get emotional every time I hear the song by Alan Jackson, or I read news stories, or I see a video that features someone telling his or her story. I am strangely interested in learning about 9/11, and though this is the most tragic thing for which I have been alive, it has also brought about an unbreakable sense of American pride. Amidst all of the election drama and unavoidable disagreements, Americans can band together and know that when it comes down to it, we are one. We are all Americans, and I would venture to say that most of us remember exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing when we heard the news. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by this tragic event, and my unending thanks are with those who serve our country day in and day out. You are heroes and there will never be enough words to express our undying gratitude.

UT remembers

I leave you with a few quotes that really show the spirit of our wonderful country:

• These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of America's resolve. - George W. Bush

• United we stand. In darkness we shine brighter. 

• The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom. --Rudolph W. Giuliani

• You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy. --Colin Powell

• Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. - President George W. Bush

Never forget, and God Bless America.