Easy peasy meals aaaand some emotion

Wow, you are all an incredible bunch. Here I am providing you advice on how kick peer pressure to [binge] drink in the butt, and you all seem to be doing just fine on your own! One great tip came from Sarah:

"Take cash and leave your card at home. By only bringing a 20, you can only really buy a drink or two and allows for the 10 mile run"

Not only great for sticking to 1-2 drinks, but also good for your wallet!

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This morning I woke to a steaming pot of Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oats thanks to my slow cooker. Seriously y'all, you need to break out your dusty crock pot and jump on the slow cooker overnight oats train.

Last night my pot magically went from this..

To this!

Into the pot went:

Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oatmeal a la crock pot

1 1/4 cup steal cut oats

1 can pumpkin (pure pumpkin, not canned pie filling)

3 cups water

2 cups Hemp milk (can use any milk)

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

stevia (~6 servings)

2 pinches sea salt

Directions:

Whisk pumpkin into liquid

Cook covered overnight on low (6-8 hours)

Next morning:

Whisk in 1 cup water if too thick

(I added 1/2 scoop vanilla protein (SunWarrior brand) and a drizzle organic maple syrup)

*Reheating leftovers: If oats clump after being stored in fridge, whisk in ~1 cup water or milk 

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Today I had the day off and was uber productive. I woke around 9am, scarfed said oats, sipped coffee and browsed online while cuddling the pup. After digesting, I jogged to the gym (1 mile each way) for a KILLER BodyPump class. Confession: I am completely obsessed with BodyPump. I've noticed such a change in overall muscle tone by incorporating the magical class into my workout routine 3X per week.

Lunch was aaaahmazing. I had last night's Mexican-Style Cheesy Chili and Spaghetti Squash. Perfect ratio of protein and carbs after a muscle-pumpin' sesh. After lunch I scrubbed the apartment clean, waked the pup, then made an incredibly delicious and easy dinner thanks to Julie for posting this recipe from realsimple.com.

Honey-Soy Glazed Salmon with roasted asparagus

Only 6 ingredients!

1 skinless salmon fillet (cut into 3 pieces)

asparagus

1 T honey

1 T soy sauce

sea salt, black pepper

Directions:

Steam asparagus until soft

In a separate dish, mix together honey and soy sauce

Place salmon fillets and cooked asparagus on baking sheet lined with tinfoil sprayed in EVOO

Season fish and veggies with sea salt and pepper

Broil for 5 mins

(Remove from oven)

Drizzle 2/3 honey/soy mixture over fish and veggies

Broil another 2-5 mins. 2 for medium cooked, 5 for well-done

Drizzle remaining mixture over fish

To compliment the dish, I also prepared a batch of baked sweet potato fries (or discs in my case, ha) seasoned in Old Bay, sea salt, pepper, and EVOO spray.

(Directions here)

And enjoyed a glass of Cabernet on the side.



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I leave you with this beautiful song by Adele. Saying I'm obsessed would be an understatement. Warning: It's an incredibly powerful song but made be me very emotional because I'm sure many of you can also relate to a point back in your life....