lunch was an epic fail

My morning bowl of oats was awesome, thanks to a new cereal topper and my shiny new white bowl! :)

I got the bowl at World Market for $2.99 and it is pretty much the perfect sized oatmeal bowl.

Cinnamon Strawberry Crunch Oats

• 1/3c. oats
• 2/3c. almond milk [unsweetened]
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2t vanilla
• 1/2t cinnamon
• 1/2t chia seeds
• 1T pnut butter
• 1/3c. Yogi Granola Crisps

The dollop slid riiight off the spoon.

My new favorite brand of cereal!  This is the 2nd kind I have tried, and I absolutely LOVE it.  The flavor is awesome and it is insanely crunchy = happy ashley 

By the time lunch rolled around, I was craving a Green Monster! And this is where the epic fail began…

So far, I have made GM’s with no recipes, just kinda adding things in and they have been successful every time!  I had some cooked kale from last nights dinner that I thought I would use instead of spinach.  Well, the blender didn’t like it so much and left lots of chunky pieces, and I forgot the kale had a garlic + salt seasoning on it :(  I figured my add-ins would be able to cover up the kale mess, but it didn’t work. 

Fail 1 - This was disgusting :)

Fail #2 – My persimmon is finally ripe!!!! However, I don’t think I like them very much.  They are too sweet and the texture is pretty slimy.  Imagine that…a fruit that is too sweet?  I’ll give it a couple more shots…but so far I’m not sold on it.

Lunch Success – Clementine – The only good thing that happened during lunch!

Ohhhh was this little guy tasty!

Fail #3 – Prosciutto + Asiago + Cucumber + Hummus on an english muffin – Doesn’t sound too bad right?  Well, it wouldn’t have been if my prosciutto didn’t taste FISHY!!! YAK!

I peeled off the prosciutto and at the rest which was tasty…but I was gagging from the nasty meat! Bleh!  I ended up eating enough random/failed foods to fill me up and I also munched on some FSTG chips.  This is my last bag from the sample box they sent me and again, these are SO good.  This kind tastes like a straight up potato and they didn’t overdo it with the chive flavor.

Crunch!

Remember my brown hat with the flower?  Chris + I found it last night looking like this…

“It wasn’t me”

GUILTY!

Grrrrrrr, bad Kenners!!!!!!!!!  Side profile mug shot -

Dinner was a HUGE success, but I forgot to get those photos off the camera and I am ready for bed!  Details will be on tomorrow’s post.

To the mountains tomorrow :)

~Ashley

crock pot deliciousness

I took today off as a rest day but still ran around like a crazy person :)  I had a list of errands and some cleaning/laundry to get done.  I planned a crock pot dinner and started it around 3pm.  I snagged the recipe from Kath!  It was for her cranberry crock pot chicken that she  raved about.

It sounded like a winner for sure!  Made a trip to the grocery store to stock up on food for the next 3 dinners, which I am pretty excited about.  While starting dinner, I made a late lunch!

Chicken, bbq sauce, and chicken broth in the pot. I used Annie’s Smokey Maple that I got at Whole Foods for $2.99 [not bad!].  And smokey it was!  The house smelled amazing while dinner cooked away.

The only thing I did differently was:

• omit the ketchup
• cook the kale in a large pan on the stove [I used 2 full bunches and it was just too much to cook in the crock pot]

LUNCH!  Some of the best, if not THEE best, plain hummus I have ever had….AND it’s local :)

Veggies are SO refreshing!  I knew the veg wouldn’t be enough to fill me up and I was craving a green monster…

Usually I make my green monsters pretty calorie dense, but I wanted this one a bit lighter since I was eating/drinking more than just the monster.

It was a bit bland but refreshing, light, and delicious!  

• 2c spinach
• handful ice
• 1/2c. 2% milk
• 1 container vanilla/banana Yobaby yogurt [from samples I got at the mall!]
• 1/3 avocado

Love the little whole wheat mini pitas!!  They’re at Whole Foods and are 365 brand.

As Kath directed….the cranberries went in about 30min before dinner was done. Ohhh natural light at dinnertime…you are missed!

nom nom nom

Ohhh man was this tasty…will be making it again!  I noticed it was kind of like Christmas on a plate with the red + green ;)  I am already envisioning variations, mmm.  I am not the biggest fan of chicken…but crock pot chicken [from Whole Foods] wowed me.  Dee-ricious!!!

I’m working on more gift lists!!! Niiiight!

~Ashley

p.s. I am kind of excited…The photos I submitted on foodgawker.com and tastespotting.com were approved!!  Thanks to Alice, from eataduckimust for pushing me to submit :)  Alice + Jared’s photography has been a complete inspiration to me.

photos are here + here

my morning was deeelightFUL

I’m not sure if there is anything better than waking up to find an empty pnut butter jar!!  Why, you ask??  Because it makes the perfect vessel to hold my morning oats!  The jar may look empty but there is still quite a bit of pnut butter on the sides and bottom that you can never get out with a knife.  Well, pouring hot oats into the container helps to release the pnutty goodness.

I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. 

• 1/3c. oats
• 1 small banana
• 1/3c. 2% milk + 1/3c. water
• cinnamon
• shaved unsweetened coconut
• 1tsp chia seeds
• 1T pomegranate arils
• Yogi cereal

So so so good.  LOVE the burst of juice from the pomegranate!

I finished the POMegranate recipe submission!! I’m calling them POMegranate pOp Granola Bars :)  They are reallly tasty.  You can check out my submission here!

Here were the final photos with the pomegranate drizzle on top.  Similar to ota.bars but not quite the same!

Chris + I [and the doggies] headed to Keystone today for some snowboarding.  It was a gorgeous day out!  I got to try out my new Salomon boots today, which I love!

[point n’ shoot time]

LOVE the lacing system.  Much improved from my last pair!

Great view!

     

Oh yeah, something is up with receiving my blog comments.  There is 1 particular post that is getting spammed like CRAZY with lots of “??????” comments.  So, in the wordpress comment manager I have been clicking “spam” for those so I hopefully stop receiving them.  Doing that has screwed me being notified in my gmail when I get new comments.  Anyway, sorry if I am not responding as much as normal to the comments!  If you had a question and I haven’t gotten back to you please leave me a new comment.

Stay tuned for more gift lists too!!  I have some to add but am totally exhausted!! Night peeps :)

~Ashley