Converted to Breakfast

I'll be the first to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with breakfast. Generally if I'm not working out very much breakfast just isn't that appealing to me. If I start working out more, however, I get hungrier much earlier (like 9:30...still can't eat as soon as I get up yet). I was advised by a friend that if you eat crap while trying to train for a race, it's going to affect you more than you think. Now this isn't going to stop me from having a little sweet treat or anything :), but it is making me want to make healthier choices if possible.

Ok on to breakfast. A few years ago I went on an oatmeal kick. I would boil steel cut oats, put in a few tablespoons of pureed pumpkin, blueberries, and spices. It is really delicious and kept me full for a long time. Then I just got sick of it and needed a break. Now I am trying to find some healthy and fun varieties for breakfast. Here are a few finds that I am currently loving.


To me this tastes exactly how Cheerios SHOULD taste. I love pairing it with blueberries and raspberries. :)



I love this oatmeal because it has flax seeds and quinoa in it so there's a bit of crunch. The oats aren't as cut and smushy as instant oats are either.


I love Greek yogurt because it has much more protein that regular yogurt. Greek yogurt is also much thicker than regular yogurt because the majority of the water is strained out. It is a little higher in calories than some yogurt, but I don't mind because it has so much protein. The honey is my favorite! It tastes delicious with a little bit of granola added to it.

These are my breakfasts picks for now. Please comment below about your favorites so I have some good recommendations of foods to try. Sorry if you don't like posts about food but I love reading others people's recommendations about foods on their blogs--maybe I'm weird. :)

Yikes, it's been awhile.

Yikes! I didn't realize that it's been so long since I've written something on here. April 25  was the last blog...sorry about that. :/

It has been insanely busy in the Hackett household as of lately. We had an absolutely wonderful vacation in Florida! I think we both came back relaxed and rested--and without air conditioning. Every time we go on vacation we come back and our air conditioning is out. We have now lived in our apartment for about a year and half and just guess how often our AC has gone out. 7 times. Yes, 7 times. We will be moving out when our lease is up in February. :) We're thinking of renting a house somewhere around East Memphis or Midtown...I'm leaning more towards East Memphis because I think it'll be a little safer for me if Mark is gone at work or something. (We really just want to be near Fresh Market, that's pretty much all that matters to us. We're kind of obsessed with it right now).

Back to the AC situation: my sister was nice enough to let us borrow their standup AC unit which was a LIFESAVER. We plugged it up in our room, gathered up the kitties and hibernated in our bedroom until they fixed our AC. She's letting us keep it for the month just in case it breaks again; it will, don't you worry. :/

I got a haircut and got my bangs cut, as seen in the picture below. It was one of those moments where you're indecisive with your bangs. It's either 'they've grown out a lot so I'll just let them be' or 'just cut them b/c I'm bored.' We all know which one won.

Last weekend one of my very best friends Pamela got married. :) It was a beautiful wedding and I'm so very excited for her and Dwight. Here's a picture from the reception:

 Yes the goatee is now gone. I approve :)

When we were in Destin we went to Books-a-Million and I of course immediately when to look at the cookbooks in the sale area (some habits never die). I found this Cooking Light cookbook and knew that it had to have some delicious recipes because my grandmother bought me a subscription to the magazine once and I loved it. So far I've made a Chicken and Rice casserole (it was delicious) and a Vegetable Lasagna (see below). Both recipes were really easy and absolutely delicious. I might be weird, but I kind of like that it has the nutrition info for all the recipes. It's nice to know just in case you need to nibble a little bit more later on. :)

I've also decided, after trying 2 years and failing, to run the St. Jude half marathon in December. In the past I've had 2 stress fractures trying to train for it so I'm trying a different method of training this time. Technically the training doesn't start until around 8 weeks before the race so right now I'm just getting comfortable with running around 3-4 miles and just taking it easier than how hardcore I tried last time. I'm already feeling so much better after a week of working out. It's nice to have a motivator. When I get home from work and all I want to do is be lazy, but I know in the back of my mind that the more training I do the better the race will be. So that's about it, sorry it's been so long since I've last posted. I'll try and be better. :)

Storms, storms, and more storms

When will all these storms end? My goodness, for April it has been a very stormy and tornadic month. Yikes. :/ The majority of our ACAT department all gathered in the printing room to watch the storm come across the river. Apparently there are supposed to be more storms tonight...my poor herbs are going to be staying in our guest bathroom for a long time

 Poor things don't get much sunlight, but now all they see is the white porcelian tile of the bathroom. Speaking of our balcony though, I thought it was time to introduce my little bird mom/friend. She's warmed up enough to me not to fly away every time I get near her. I even managed to pet her little tail today.

I know it's dark, but she's there. :)

Stay safe tonight and happy Monday!

Excited for spring and summer

2 blogs in 1 day=slow day at work. I was reading some older blog posts and stumbled across my lists of fall things that I love. Now that it's warmer outside, I decided to make a list of all the good things about spring/summer. :)

1. Iced coffee. You will rarely see me drinking hot coffee if it is above 60 degrees outside. Dunkin Donuts has my favorite iced coffee, but since it gets a little pricey buying that every morning I make my own using Starbucks Iced Via which is actually really good. I live off these things during the week.

2. Jerry's Snow Cones. I just discovered that you can get your snow cones made with vanilla soft serve last year, I think they're called the Dream something. Anyways, they are amazing and the Wedding Cake flavor is my aboslutely favorite. I've heard that the blackberry one is really good too, so maybe I'll have to get it a try soon.

3. Fresher produce. The one thing I hate about winter is how nasty most of the produce is aside from the winter seasonal produce. I went to the grocery last night and the produce was cheaper than it usually is. Yay!

4. Shorts. I would much rather wear shorts than jeans any day of the week.

5. Water bottles. I know it's a weird one, but for some reason I always equate summer with carrying around a water bottle wherever I go b/c it gets so hot.


6. Higher MLGW bills. :(

7. Beach vacation!

8. Smoothies: Tropical Smoothie has to be my favorite, the Sunny Day, but Smoothie King is also pretty good. Starbucks smoothies? Gross...maybe b/c I made them too often back in the day. Take my advice, don't get them. Just trust me on this one.

9. Sitting on the patios of restaurants and cafes instead of sitting inside.

10. Lemonade and sweet tea.

11. Summer dresses.

12. Weddings.

That's all I have for now, feel free to comment with some of your favorites!

It's Friday!

Curse Rebecca Black for making that horrible "It's Friday" song that is constantly stuck in my head. If you don't know what I'm talking about, search for it on youtube and you'll understand. But, it is Friday!! This week has flown by SO quickly I can't believe it. Mark and I have been so ridiculously busy this week that we literally have only spent one night together. :( Sad I know, but tonight we plan on staying in, relaxing, and finally some time together.

Last night when I got home I went out on our balcony to water our plants and my little bird friend got scared and flew off, so naturally I have to check on her little egg and suprise! there's now 2 little eggs in the nest--so cute. :) I did worry about them last night with the storm (because I'm weird I know), but they're doing just fine. It felt so nice outside so I sat on the balcony for a little bit. We plan on renting a house when our lease expires in January, but I must say that I will miss seeing this:

I know it's dark and blurry,  but I really do love having a lake view and hearing the water splash from the water fountain. It almost sounds like the beach. Speaking of the beach, I'm literally counting down the days til we'll be in Destin. I know it's next month, but it still feels like forever away.



Soon I will be here, relaxing and enjoying doing absolutely nothing. :)

In other news, I know that cats love boxes and stuff, but the other day I set a Whole Foods paper bag flat on the table, and the next thing I know I turn around and:

How he did that, I have no clue.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Cookies!

Do these cookies not look amazing? It's called Angeletti and I found the recipe at Real Simple: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/desserts/delicious-cookie-recipes-00000000056105/page18.html

I need these in my life very soon. Feel free to make me some. :)



I would also like some jelly thumbprints...with raspberry jam please.

Or some basic shortbread with either some Chai Tea or Earl Grey.

I'll be waiting. :)

It's probably a good thing that I'm heading over to Muddy's after work today to pick up some cupcakes. I'm helping Pamela put together her wedding invitations with Kacie too. I think I might need one of these:

Post Monday

I know I know, I like to change our blog template a lot. I have commitment issues with it I think. The blue background was making me have anxiety for some reason, but whatevs I changed it again. I need someone to explain something to me.

You know when you'll be driving on the interstate and all of the sudden traffic gets bad? You're driving along, bumper to bumper, anxiously awaiting the reason for this delay right? So why is it that there is (a) no reason for the traffic and it randomly clears up, or (b) two big trucks on the side of the road with those little emergency highway patrol truck things doing absolutely nothing but sitting there. Now, is it because people are really nosy and HAVE to slow down to see what's going? It's a mystery. Needless to say, my morning drive to work looked a lot like this:



I'm done with whining about that....for now at least. :) Weekend recap for you guys! Friday night Mark was closing at work so I stayed home and did absolutely nothing and it was wonderful. I didn't even have the energy to go pick up dinner or make dinner, so leftover veggies it was. Saturday I went for a quick run/walk around the lake, and for some odd reason it was really difficult. My hands swelled up (the heat maybe) and I got really exhausted quickly, so I ended up just taking a nice walk. Now my shins have been hurting for the past 2 days. I've had a bad history with shin splints and stress fractures, but I mean...I was embarassed that my shins hurt considered at how far I didn't run. :/ Oh well, it happens I suppose. I then cleaned the apartment a little bit, went shopping and found an amazing bathing suit at Old Navy, and came home for another leftover veggies lunch. Mark came home and I decided that we needed to organize our closet which included a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond where I bought really fun organizing stuff (sadly no sarcasm intended..I LOVE organizing). Dinner that night was a delicious takeout from Chang's Bubble Tea Cafe on Macon accompanied by a movie. :) Sunday we both went to church, OBS director's meeting, and an event at First Evan. That's all. :)

Clove was dying to have his picture taken so of course we had to make him happy:

Such a ham.

Last night I made baked ziti with sauted onions, garlic, mushrooms, and zucchini with the best homeade tomato sauce I've ever made if I do say so myself. :)

Oh ya! I noticed that every time I went to water the plants, a bird kept flying out of my flower bed. I then saw this:

So now we have a little bird friend on our balcony. :) Believe me, the cats LOVE it. I left a cracker outside for the mommy bird, but she hasn't eaten it yet. Rude.