This is actually the first (and only) way I would eat oatmeal! I used to not like it all, but I started trying it again in college and came up with this mixture!
1/2 cup oats, a little over 1 cup water, pinch salt
cinnamon
about 1 cup frozen mixed berries
splash of milk on top
The frozen berries cool down the oatmeal so it’s ready to eat right away, and the hot oatmeal thaws the berries enough so they’re not frozen anymore. It’s the perfect balance.
I also had a cup of milk and a hard boiled egg for some protein.
Next up? Cup of coffee and sorting through lots of emails for work. I’m hoping we can sneak to the conference room to watch the Inauguration!
I had about a cup of beef barley soup, a grilled ham/ff swiss/dijon quesadilla, some veggies on their last leg, and leftover fruit from breakfast yesterday. It was filling, well-balanced meal. I hit every food group!
So, originally, these were our plans for the day:
Lazy morning and breakfast – Done!
Clean house – Done!
Then, I was going to be home finishing up laundry and prepping for the week while Nick went into the lab to work on some stuff this afternoon. We were going to meet at the gym for BodyPump at 5:30, then come home and eat dinner.
After lunch, Nick headed out. I was folding a load of laundry when the phone rang. Nick was calling to tell me that Bald Knob (an awesome lookout up at Mountain Lake) had lots of snow – so we decided to hike up there instead of doing our previous plans :) It was an amazing afternoon.
For those of you that don’t know, Mountain Lake is actually where Dirty Dancing was filmed and is only about 10 minutes from our house.
Here a few other pictures from today – it was crazy up there! It was about 20 degrees colder, and it was like being in a winter wonderland!!!
Bald Knob is at 4,365 feet and it a short, but steep climb.
When we were up there taking pictures, I got really cold. All I could think about was hot chocolate – so that’s what I had for a snack once we got back to the house.
I had about a cup of skim milk with this Maya Gold mix, plus 2 Almondina cookies.
We took a short rest on the couch and then headed to BodyPump.
Dinner was just what we wanted – and easy!
We roasted some cubed potatoes with rosemary and garlic and a little olive oil at 425 for about 35-40 minutes. While those were cooking I made a frittata with:
1 slice bacon, diced
3 green onions, sliced
4 eggs plus 1 cup egg whites
salt
pepper
1 slice fat free cheddar
Cook the bacon, add the scallions. Scramble the eggs in a bowl and add in the cheese, salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over bacon/onions and let cook until set.
Add some sliced apple, and you’ve got a meal :)
Wow – that took forever :) This meal was a great ending to a fun day.
My Mammaw checked out the blog yesterday and left a comment saying that she couldn’t find the “sample” button :) It made me laugh, because I’ve thought the same thing when reading other blogs! The food looks so good that I often wish I could push a button and that dish would just pop out of my computer screen right then!
While I don’t have a sample button, I did have a great breakfast. We have the day off today in honor of Martin Luther King, so I took my time making and eating breakfast.
A great bowl of oatmeal:
This bowl was:
1/2 cup oats, a little over 1 cup water, 3/4 banana (sliced), pinch of salt
1/3 cup pumpkin stirred in at end
cinnamon
TJ’s Nuts About Raspberries and Chocolate mixed in – I saved the chocolate chips for the top :)
I also had a cup of milk and a cup of french press Kona coffee.
Oatmeal + milk + coffee = Great way to start the day :)
I was really looking forward to breakfast this morning – after seeing all the waffles and pancakes on blogs lately, I knew we needed to make some soon!
We had whole wheat pancakes with pure maple syrup, a mix of clementines/bananas/strawberries, and coffee.
The most exciting part about today was that we had some visitors at church today: Mizero, Children of Rwanda.
What is Mizero?
Our Mission
Why Hope for Rwanda?
15% of children are orphans because of the genocide.
2% of the population are HIV orphans because of the genocide.
250,000 women were raped during the genocide.
Spreading:
* The Good News message of hope, peace, and healing through music and dance.
Bringing:
* Hope to the homeless, the orphans, those with HIV/Aids, and vulnerable by providing shelter, nourishment, and education.
* The Mizero Troupe annually to tour in various countries outside Rwanda.
* Awareness of Rwanda’s beautiful traditions to the world.
Building:
* Self-sustaining communities through our future Arts Academy in Rwanda, which will provide them with a well-rounded, Christ-centered education including both academics and cultural traditions irregardless of of the student’s race or religion.
* Unity between various churches and humanitarian aid groups already in Rwanda.
Hope
* But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:18-22
If you have the chance to see this group or are looking for a group to support, this is a great mission. Seeing a group of children doing this and having a passion for this gives me hope; if these kids can spread a message of hope and peace after going through the things they’ve gone through, anything is possible.
This was an awesome group of children, and they were so talented. They played these crazy drums and sang songs for us, and we had the opportunity to serve them lunch. I do not have pictures of lunch – I didn’t take my camera with me because I thought we would just be coming home for lunch, but then we found out we could bring them food and eat with them, so we went with them instead.
Before we went to the camp where they were staying, Nick and I got a small lunch because we weren’t sure if there would only be enough food for Mizero. I had a brown rice cali roll, some water, and a small bag of dark chocolate m&m’s.
We went to the camp and ate with Mizero and some other people from church – it was really great to see the kids from our church playing with the Mizero kids.
Once we got home (around 4 pm), we took a LONG nap on the couch and I started on some laundry.
For dinner, we had this:
I simmered a cup of wheatberries on the stove in 2.5 cups of water until they were tender/chewy, about 45 minutes.
When they had been cooking for about 25 minutes, I started cooking a mix sliced mushrooms, diced onions, and diced green pepper. Once those had cooked/softened a bit, I added in a pound of lean ground beef. After the beef finished cooking, I stirred in the wheatberries, Italian seasoning, garlic, a can of tomato sauce, and a can of diced tomatoes. I let all of that cook together while I steamed a bunch of broccoli in the microwave. I added some rosemary and garlic to the broccoli and – voila! Not the fastest dinner (because of the wheatberries), but definitely easy :)
Whew – I think I covered everything! I hope your day was as good as ours!
I’m off to catch up on blogs, download a yoga class for tomorrow, finish a load of laundry, and get ready for Iron Chef – night!
Edited to Add: I did have some popcorn drizzled with olive oil last night :) One of my favorite snacks!
