I know it will be a good day when I have time to make french toast for breakfast.

Mid-morning I munched on a pear.

At around 10:30am, our new freezer was delivered.  Ok, don’t get me wrong – I really wanted this freezer.  I helped pick it out, thought it was great.  But that was before it was sitting in my dining room.  Now I have a 13.7 cubic foot freezer sitting in the middle of my front room… right next to the kitchen table, adjacent to my desk where I work, and across from the piano and the staircase.  Uh… random?  S doesn’t mind at all.  For him, it’s not about a house being a “home” but more about the functionality – a freezer is very helpful and is used often.  So why shouldn’t it be in the middle of the dining room?  Men….

I’m not sure what was going to happen.  When the guy delivering it put it in place, I was this close to asking him to turn around and take it back.  But I knew if I did that, S would absolutely kill me.  Plus I was in the middle of a meeting for work and so was kind of distracted.  So for now, the freezer stays.  We are going to wait for a few days and see how we feel then.  Maybe try to move it somewhere… I want it upstairs, but S says if we put it up there it will be really inconvenient and we would rarely use it.  I don’t agree… and think it is much more inconvenient sitting in the middle of our front room.  Plus the fact… it puts ice cream within arms reach of my desk for work.  So I don’t even have to get out of my chair to get the ice cream.  NOT a good thing.

I guess we shall see.

Lunch was some quinoa with roasted veggies:

a Gardenburger tomato basil burger:

and a kashi cereal bar.

S and I were going to go to the gym after he got home from work, so I held off from going in the afternoon (which… as you know… never makes me happy.)  But I also had a bunch of bananas that were slowly going bad, so I decided to do a little bit of baking.  I started with some healthy banana muffins.

This recipe was fast, healthy, and tastes great.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

100 grams oats
3/4 cup flour (I used 1/2 cup all-purpose white, 1/4 cup whole wheat)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup yogurt
3 tbsp egg whites (I used 1/4 cup eggbeaters)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions
1.preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.grease muffin tin with Pam or use muffin holders
3.combine flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl, mixing well
4.in another bowl, use a mixer to beat the banana, splenda, egg whites, and vanilla. then stir in the apple sauce
5.stir all ingredients together
6.pour mixture into muffin tins, 3/4ths full
7.bake for 15-20minutes, you can also use a toothpick: stick in center of a muffin, if it comes out clean then the muffins are done.

Once those were done, I made some “Fool Yourself” cookies.  I got this recipe back when I was following Body For Life pretty closely.  They are healthy, have some protein, and very quick and easy.

“Fool Yourself” cookies

1 banana, mashed
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2/3 c oats
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Mix all together, drop by spoonfuls onto sprayed baking sheet. Bake for 10 min at 300 degrees.

Simple, right?  And very good.

I nibbled on my baking all afternoon (I had to make sure that it tasted ok!) and of course scraped all the bowls and ate some batter.  The batter is always the best part of baking!

I also had a golden delicious apple.

S was supposed to be home by seven to go to the gym.  When my phone rang around 6, and it was him, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.  Whenever he calls on his way home it is never good news.  It is usually I-am-running-late-so-we-can’t-go-to-the-gym news.  Which of course was what it was tonight, too.  He caught the shuttle to the wrong bus station, so then he had to get to the right one.  And by the time he had done that, he had missed the train so he had to catch the next one.  Which meant he wasn’t going to be home until 8 so I should “probably go to the gym without him”.

So while I was sitting at home in the afternoon, wishing I could go to the gym when I had energy and it was not as crowded…  I could have been at the gym by myself.  Because I ended up going by myself anyways, only a lot later when it was packed and I was tired.  Great hoogley moogley.

I did the stairmaster (the stepmills were all being used, of course.  As were all the ellipticals and all the treadmills) for 30 minutes and called it a night.

When I got home, S had just gotten home as well.  I made monster sausage salads for dinner:

Look at all those goodies.  Romaine, broccoli, carrots, edamame, egg whites, veggie sausage, cheese and croutons.  Drizzled with olive oil and vinegar.  Divine.

I ate dessert crawled up in my warm bed with a book.  I have been absolutely freezing the last few days as it has gotten colder, and my bed was exactly where I wanted to be.  I had a Godiva dark chocolate:

A handful of Trader Joe’s Black Cocoa Almonds:

And three balls of marzipan that I brought back from Switzerland.

I think that eating while curled up in bed reading a book is perhaps one of my favorite things ever. But it is also not great to do… so I try to avoid doing it – especially at night when I am more likely to binge or overeat.

Before I go to bed, I have some totally exciting news to share.  A few weeks ago, while I was in Switzerland, I was contacted by CSN Stores.com.  I finally got a chance to get back to them… and they are going to be sending me a spiral slicer to try!!!  I am so, so excited.  I have been wanting to try one of these for a long time, after seeing them on many other blogs.  There are so many things I want to make…  veggie chips, zucchini spaghetti…

CSN Stores is a company comprised of more than 200 different shopping sites.  They really have something for everyone… from cookware and cooking gadgets (like my soon-to-come spiral slicer!) to wine accessories, to cool furniture like these counter stools.

I am going to a full review after I receive it and try it out.  Stay tuned!  Thank you, CSN Stores, for this opportunity!!!!

Now I’m going to bed with visions of spiral slicers dancing in my head.  Wednesdays are my days from hell with 6am meetings and 9pm meetings.

G’night, ya’ll.