Glorious PB2

Hello...I must tell you about my new favorite thing.  I mentioned it briefly on my post about my new favorite breakfast, but wanted to provide a few more deets for anyone who was curious.

A few weekends ago, while chillin' at a friends house, one of my girlfriends mentioned this powdered peanut butter product she's been using lately called PB2.  It's basically dry-roasted peanuts that have been pressed and powdered to remove the natural oils.  What you're left with is basically "cocoa powder" but it's "peanut powder".

Super intrigued by this, I bought a jar the next time I was at the store to give it a try.  And let me tell you, this stuff is heavenly!!  There are literally 3 ingredients in this stuff...peanuts, sugar and salt (and only a small amount of the last two!).  Check the ingredients and nutrition facts.  It's impressive!

My main use for it is in my breakfast smoothie.  I was getting frustrated because I wanted "peanut butter" taste but without the "peanut butter" calories and fat in my morning smoothy.  I had enough stuff in there to give me the calories and fat I needed to start my day right, but it was just missing that "it" factor from the pb.  This stuff does the trick!  I don't even need to use a full serving in my smoothy and it not only gives a little protein content, but also that creamy and lovely taste and texture of adding a scoop of peanut butter, without the extra stuff I don't need.

I will say that by no means is this product a "peanut butter" replacement for me.  I am a firm believer in the benefits of the fats and oils and extra calories you can get from a good ole 2 tbs serving of pb, when used in moderation.  Peanut butter banana sandwiches are still my staple "hiking" food and I still adore the quintessential childhood snack of sliced apples and pb.  Best believe I will continue to use the real stuff for these instances =)

For me, this stuff is just a great way to get that lovely, pb taste without setting you back in calories for the day.  Need to get a pb fix / flavor in a smoothy?  Add a tiny scoop of this stuff.  Heavenly and healthy =)

For anyone curious, they sell it at Whole Foods and GNC...and probably any other grocery store that has a relatively large "healthy" or "organic" section.  If you try it, let me know what you think!

Breakfast Smoothie

Due to circumstances beyond my control (aka GNC changing the formula of my favorite protein powder...jerks), I have been forced to give my breakfast routine a bit of a facelift.

Previously, my breakfast consisted of about 12 oz skim milk with 1 scoop of protein powder and it was perfect!  Just over 250 calories and 30 g protein...it was simple, easy and kept me full until mid-morning snack time.  But since I no longer have this wondrous product at my disposal anymore, I've had to get creative.

Enter the rediscovery of my blender.  I don't know why this handy little device was so under-utilized before (I think I was apprehensive to use it since it's a pain to clean every day), but it's become my new best friend!

Here's the breakfast smoothie I've been enjoying the past few weeks:

• - 2 c raw spinach
• - 1/3 c frozen blueberries or peaches (or any fruit, really!)
• - 1/2 frozen banana
• - 8 oz skim milk
• - 2 tbs PB2 - powdered peanut butter (uh...this stuff is kind of baller)

 Yummy yummy!  Depending on how much fruit and milk I add, this recipe is very close to the "caloric" value of my previous breakfast at just about 250 calories and 18 g protein.  However, now I'm getting the added bonus of glorious carbs and loads of fiber from all the nutritious fruits and veggies.  Not to mention, it's delish =)

So, thank you, dodo-heads over in the "formula department" at GNC, for changing your formula.  If you hadn't, I probably never would have discovered my new favorite breakfast smoothie =)

The Gift

Marc & Nicole. Est. 2010

Of course, he loved it =)

 

Yes, yes...it's taken three years for me to finally get a wedding album pulled together.  I really wanted something that was a great quality that would last a long time.  Even though it cost more than a "do-it-yourself" album, I'm so happy with the finished product!

It's an heirloom quality leather, with these fantastic "fold-flat" pages.  I didn't think it would make that big of a difference, but I just love the way the images look that fall across the seam - they're perfect!

 

A massively huge Thank You! goes out to Lauren for all of her help and design expertise in putting together this album.  She is just so wonderful to work with and we LOVE the way it turned out!

Happy Anniversary!

Wow...I can't believe it's been three years!

 

 Marc is a big fan of the "traditional" anniversary wedding gifts and year 3 is leather.  I actually put a lot of thought into his gift this year, so I'm excited to see if he likes it!  I'll let you know =)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!  I'm full of love today =)

Home Run for the Homeless

This past Sunday a few friends and I participated in what has become a bit of a Mother's Day tradition...we "ran" in the Rockie Run for the Homeless 5k.

I say "ran" since it was not my intention to run.  I have given up...I don't enjoy it, I'm not great at it and it's just not my thang.  Sorry, peeps =)

Post-race.  Who wouldn't want to hang out with us?

This race is pretty cool in that your entry gets you the obligatory free t-shirt, but also free beer, free hot dogs and 2 free tickets to a Rockies game!  Um...count us in for that!  If all races provided free beer and hot dogs post-race, I'm sure I'd sign up for more =)

Another cool thing is that the last leg of the race is a run around Coors Field.  How fun?!

Heyo!  Running the bases.

The weather seriously cooperated this year (last year is was dreary and cold).  Just look at that beautiful sky!

My friend, Katie, who was a trooper and stuck with me.

These pics are slightly awkward since we "technically" weren't allowed to take pictures during this part of the run.  We had a security guy yelling at us "THIS IS NOT A PHOTO SHOOT!  KEEP WALKING!"  Sorry, bro...I chose not to hear you!

self portrait.

A funny story to share regarding this particular race.  Katie and I had agreed that we would take our time and let our friends run on ahead of us...we were walking this 5k, gosh darn it!  However, since we took our sweet time getting started ("we're in no rush, let's take our t-shirts back to the car!"  "we're in no rush...let's visit the port-o-potties one more time before we start!") we ended up in last place.

Literally.  The very last two people participating in the race.

Like...they started breaking down the barriers blocking the roads and the city police officers in charge of traffic were yelling at us "Hey!  You're behind the tail!  You need to get moving!".

So...even though we were determined to walk the whole thing, we had to run to catch up with the rest of the race.  Our goal went from finishing in an hour to not finishing in last place =)

And it worked out!  We ended up running all the downhills (I mean...if you're going to force me to run, I'm going to make it as easy on myself as humanly possible) and we didn't finish even close to last.

Our final time was just over 42 minutes and we finished 2381 out of 4897 runners.  Go us! 

How many people get to say that?  We were literally in dead last place and ended up finishing ahead of half the folks there.  That is determination, my friends!

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

The aftermath...

For anyone who was curious, I wanted to provide a follow-up on the aftermath of my little mishap from earlier in the week.

To give you an idea of the impact...

At least this person was nice about it...

Some people were really funny and some were really stupid: 

All the "reply to all" messages telling people not to "reply to all" is where it got out of hand...

I mean, really...how can you not smile at this?  Thanks for the humor, folks...

Not to mention all the phone calls I received.   You wouldn't believe the number of strangers who felt the need to call me personally to ask if they received the email in error (uh…DUH…yes it was in error), or that I should respond to all and say it was an accident (uh…no…I’m not adding to the “reply to all” craziness), or that I should never send an email again (I got some cyber-bullying but just deleted it), or that I should submit a support ticket and apologize to everyone (some people were just mean).  I ended up disconnecting my phone!

And in case you were curious to see the email that started it all from me...

...I was just trying to do my job.  Sheesh.

Anyway...Happy Thursday.  Hope your week is going better than mine.  I have successfully crashed the servers to a Fortune 15 company and have deleted over 15k emails from inbox, and counting (oh yes...still getting emails about this)...

Pinterest Success: Crock-Pot Breakfast Casserole

Hey Gang!

As I mentioned, we had some friends visit us this weekend, so I wanted to have something yummy and simple for us to eat for brunch.  I've recently re-discovered the glories of my Crock-Pot, and I kept seeing these Pinterest recipes for CP breakfast dishes, so I thought I'd give one a try!

There are a ton of variations of this recipe out there, but here's the one I used:

Crock-Pot Breakfast Casserole
courtesy of iowagirleats

Ingredients:

• 30oz bag frozen hash browns
• 1lb sausage, browned & drained (I didn't add this - I just baked some bacon the next morning to serve on the side)
• 8oz shredded cheddar cheese
• 8oz shredded mozzarella cheese (I didn't have mozz so I just used extra cheddar.  I think the mozz was definitely missing, though, and would have made it more "creamy")
• 6 green onions, sliced and divided in half  (just used half a regular onion and half a bell pepper since I had it and needed to use it)
• 12 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

• 1.  Spray a large crock pot with non-stick spray then place half the hash browns into the bottom. Layer in half the cooked sausage, half the cheeses, and half the green onions, then repeat hash brown, sausage, and cheese layers.
• 2.  In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, and pepper, then drizzle over top. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours, or until eggs are set. Serve with remaining green onions, salsa, or guacamole.

Seriously - could this be more simple??

Our verdict - it was good, but could have been better.  I think it was mostly user-error (I let the crock go just a teensie bit too long) so the casserole dried out just a touch.  Also, I omitted the meat and mozzarella, since I didn't want to brown sausage or bacon the night before and I didn't have mozzarella - so I'm thinking that might have contributed to the casserole being a little on the dry side.

However, the fact that you just layer the night before and let the CP do it's thing was ah.may.zing!  I can't even begin to explain how heavenly it was to wake up in the morning with the smell of hashbrowns and cheese wafting through the house. 

I have some ideas for how to improve this (thinking asparagus, mushrooms and swiss cheese and adding a bit more  milk), but this is the perfect type of breakfast for a weekend in the Treehouse =)

Overall, I recommend this recipe if you're looking for something filling and easy for a crowd, but be careful you don't over-cook!

Our next Crock-Pot breakfast adventure will be this french toast recipe - I'll let you know how that turns out!

One of those days...

Today...

...today was one of those days...

...where I wanted to crawl into a hole...

...and die.

Why?

Someone...someone who's initials are "NF" accidentally sent an email...

...just one teeny, tiny email...

...to her entire company.

You read that correctly.

Her.

Entire.

Company.

Oh, and I should mention, that this person's company is over 30,000 people. 

You also read that correctly. 

Not 3,000 people.  Phshhh...no way.  No, 3000 is child's play.

30,000 people.  Thirty Thousand People.

Today...I want to crawl waaaay down deep into a hole and just die =(

Eye-Opening Weekend Visitors

Hello lovelies!

This past weekend, we were so excited to see some old friends from back home.  Scott and Lisa were in town for a wedding, so they took some time to stop by our house on Saturday morning with their sweet little girl, Natalie.

(no pictures of this!  SO mad!)

It was so crazy seeing Natalie - the last time we saw her, she was less than 4 months old.  She's now 15 months and was running all over the house.  It was so cute, but also a teensie bit stressful eye-opening.  We'd never had a baby in our house before, and Natalie's presence made me realize how RIDICULOUSLY non-baby-proof our house is.  Here are some of the shocking revelations I had:

• She ran by the end table and I was like "Oh...goodness our end table has razor-sharp edges and glass!  It's most dangerous end table in the world!".
•  
• She trotted over to the front door and I was like "Holy hell...the gaping hole in the bottom of storm door is the perfect size for baby feet to get stuck.  This is the MOST dangerous storm door in the WORLD!"
•  
• She zoomed into the kitchen and I was like "OMG!  The step going from the dining room the kitchen is just jutting up ready to trip her!  It's THE most DANGEROUS step in the WORLD!!"
•  
• She starting poking around the fireplace and I was like "AHH!!!  We have glass votives holding candles in there...THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS FIREPLACE IN THE WORLD!!!"
•  
• Our bedroom has lots of pillows in it...by far, the safest room in our house.  I tried really hard to keep her engaged while she was zooming around there =)

Basically, I saw my house in a totally new way and was just shocked.  We currently live in a death-trap waiting to happen...it was crazy to think about!  Thankfully, we have no babies on the way anytime soon, but still made me see our house through a different set of eyes.

Aside from panicking that Natalie was going to perish while exploring our home, we had such a great time seeing Scott and Lisa and catching up =)  Hope ya'll made it home safely!!

Geeking Out

For the past few months I have been majorly geeking out.  I re-read the Hunger Games series (I read the whole thing in the beginning of the summer, then I wanted Marc to read them...so I decided to re-read them right around Thanksgiving) and after finishing the last book, I realized that there was still a void in my life...

...and the void was created by the fact that I had never actually finished reading the Harry Potter series.

I know, I know.  That is way dorky.  But let me explain.  Harry Potter got really big while I was in high school, and during that time, I wasn't really reading for leisure.  I was stressed about homework and appling for college and what I was going to wear on to school Wednesday...as are most high-school girls.

Then, in college, I definitely didn't read for leisure, since I was still stressed about homework and getting a job and what to wear to the date dash on Wednesday.  Life was even busier.

Then!  When I graduated college and actually had some free time to read, I decided that I didn't want to read what was trendy and what everyone else was reading.  I didn't read Twilight until 3 years ago, people! 

I don't know why...I just had an aversion to reading what was trendy.  But then I realized that books were popular for a reason.  So, I basically got over myself and decided to join the trends and picked up the first Harry Potter book.

That was in 2008.  It is now 2013 and I still haven't finished the series.  I read the first 5 pretty quickly, but then stopped for a while...and right around Christmas was when I decided I wanted to finish the series, but also realized that I had forgotten what happened in the first 5 books, so I had to start over.

So anyway, I'm FINALLY on the last book, about half way through, and I am so excited!  I've been watching each movie after I finish each book (thank you, NetFlix), so it has been pretty fun to watch these kids grow up with the characters in a short timeframe. 

(Sorry for all of you who cared and had to wait for years for the movies to come out...how frustrating that must have been!)

I'm excited to finish but I'm also sad.  7 books is a lot, but I don't really want the story to end.  And...do they ever clear up this whole Snape / Dumbledore thing?  I'm pretty upset...and I have been a good girl and been holding off on doing internet research so I truly don't know what happens at the end.  I just want closure on the Snape situation!

Here's to my last hoorah...I'm probably going to finish the last book this weekend.  Yay!

Hello May!

Whelp - I guess I got minorly called out for being a blog slacker =)  Shame on me.

Here are some random happenings that have been...happening...lately with the Felices!  This is kind of random, I'm just getting my blog mojo flowing again =)

• Marc's parents came to visit in March!  
• It was so fun and one of the most "productive" visits we've had.  Marc and his dad accomplished SO much around the house - I'm kind of hoping they'll come back to visit to help paint the treehouse (hehe just kidding!).  The project highlights for me were them installing a microwave in our kitchen (FINALLY I can reheat my coffee in a quick and easy way if it gets too cold), installed a water line to our fridge (FINALLY we have ice!) and installed a light in my closet (FINALLY I can make sure my brown shoes match my brown pants before I walk out into the sunlight!).
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• Peak came to visit in April!
• I have been seriously looking forward to this visit for almost a year.  I was so excited Peak took the time to come out and visit during the end of her Spring Break.  I love old friends!!
•  
• We booked a trip to Hawaii in October!
• We are just so so excited about this.  Our friends, Annie and Andrew, invited us to join them in Kauai for a week in October with our other friends, Katie and Kyle.  We are so excited this!  It's still months away, but we finally booked all our flights, and now we're just looking forward to planning some fun activities.  Marc and I are going to add a couple of days in Maui to the mix, so we are just so thankful and so excited to get to spend this time with our friends!
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• Babies and Marriage!
• Not for us...but we are so thankful to have so many friends that are experiencing such blessings right now!  Tons of babies being born, families being made, weddings being planned - I'm really looking forward to celebrating these fun times with friends and family this year =)
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• Fast and Furious 6!
• ...Hey...don't make fun of me for being excited about this.  It opens soon and we are totes going to go see it =)
•  
• I discovered Yoga!
• ...where has this been all my life?  Why am I only just now discovering this?  I started doing yoga only a couple of months ago and I think I have found my "thing".  I wanted running to be my thing, but it's just not =)  I have seriously enjoyed learning how to breath and stretch my body and I am just so excited!  I did my first "birds of paradise" the other day, and it was such a huge accomplishment.  Now, to try and get Marc to come to class with me...=)

That's it for now.  Hope you all have been well!  I'll try to find some fun pics to share over the next month.  Happy Friday and Happy May!!