This week at the CR Jackson household. . . 1.0

What a week.  Upside: two free tickets to the Roughriders hockey game on Wednesday which meant an impromptu date with my permanent roommate.  We both enjoyed the mid-week break and the chance to do something fun for el-cheapo.  

@ the game!  We had AWESOME seats.

The rest of the week was down hill from there with over tiredness and work stress.  Ben picks me up after work each day and on Friday showed up with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers on the passenger seat.  They were a complete surprise and made me a little weepy.  Such a sweet husband, I have.

We went to happy hour with Johnna, Danny & Maelynn at the Irish Democrat where I indulged in a much wanted/needed key lime pie martini.  I always love spending time with that little family. :)

Ben and I did fairly well this week with maintaining a healthy diet and exercising.  Well, sort of.  We find that it is hard to balance social life with exercising.  Since we get home a little after 5 p.m. and we generally like to be in bed around 9 or 9:30 p.m. to read and unwind from the day, it is a bit of a crunch to try and fit in both the gym and an evening activity.  For example, we normally change to go to the gym, get there around 5:45 p.m. and leave about an hour later.  Then there is supper.  And if we were going to go somewhere we'd want to shower.  Then o poop, it's time we get in bed. . .  I refuse to sacrifice having a social life just to go to the gym, so we are working on figuring out a good balance.

Going along with all that jazz, I have also ordered a couple of books to start educating myself on nutrition so I can decide what is really best for me instead of following some guru's diet plan.  I'm looking forward to those arriving in the mail soon!  One is on health and nutrition, and the other is on essential oils.  I've read on other blogs about all of the homemade junk you can make using essential oils and other expensive crap, and I kind of want to give it a try.  It is better to go natural than continue to expose myself to all the chemicals in store bought things.  I.e. natural house cleaning products, hair products, etc.

To end this post, I will leave you with a couple of recipes that I used this week and L-O-V-E.  First is a smoothie that I threw together that satiated my "need" for something sweet AND it tastes like a Tootsie Pop. Awesome!  Second is a salad that I threw together because apples and avocados were on sale and I was in the mood for some greens.

Tootsie Pop Smoothie

You need:

Frozen mixed berries

Almond milk

OJ

1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder

4 or 5 ice cubes

1 T honey

To do:

Mix everything together in a blender or smoothie maker.  Serve right away. 

Apple &Avocado Salad (for 2 people)

You need:

1 Apple, diced

2 Avocados, diced

2 oven-baked chicken boobs

Spinach

Romaine Lettuce

Walnuts

Panera Bread Poppy Seed Fat-Free Salad Dressing

To do:

Toss spinach and lettuce together.  Grab what you want for your bowl.  Add all the other crap to your liking.  EAT!

NOTE:  Let's do a little comparison here just for fun. . .

Panera Poppy Seed Dressing:

2 T = 15 Calories, 0 from fat

0 g Fat

0 mg Cholesterol

150 mg Sodium

HyVee Buttermilk Ranch: 

2 T = 120 Calories, 110 from fat

12 g Fat; 2 g Saturated Fat

10mg Cholesterol

300mg Sodium

Peace out.