The Carb Monster

Hey Heyyy Happy Saturday!!

For those of you who are being mucho lame like me and ending your ultra fun Saturday at 10:45pm with a glass of wine, The Patriot aka Mel Gibs in his militia best (Grrrr baby, love it), and a blogging sesh... I SALUTE YOU :)

Not to say I didn't have a very fun night!!! I did, in fact, have a wonderful (but early) girls night out with three of my darling friends ...which I'll get to momentarily, but I love those nights where you're already ready to change into your comfiest clothes and spend the next few hours rekindling your relationship with the couch ;)

In the bloggy world, Alyssa's hosting a very special giveaway... simply by donating $1 (or more!!) to the National Eating Disorder Association, you enter yourself in the drawing to win a bunch of amazing goodies. It's such a good cause and even us recessionistas can afford it!!

AND...Lo's Halloween giveaway/scavenger hunt ends Sunday!! I dont know about you, but I'm psycheddddd for this one and have been having a lot of fun trying to capture pics of all 13 things from the list and you should get to it too!!

Let's hop on back to yesterday morning because I had what may very well be TOP 5 oats material for breakfast...

S'mores Oats!!

~1/2 cup oats

~1 cup water

~2 graham cracker boards worth of crumbs

~1 tbsp DCD peanut butter

....I seriously drool whenever I look at this picture... holy decadence for b-fast; a MUST EAT if you ask me!

Did I even have to mention what I had alongside the deliciousness???

Headed off to boyfriend's house shortly after packing what looked like a week's worth of clothes... ugh, I don't know if I'll ever be able to manage realistic packing like.. packing TWO pairs of jeans for a TWO day trip rather than five pairs of jeans "just in case" In case what!? In case I prefer very dark navy blue to regular navy blue skinnies? I've gotta get a grip...

I'm developing the muscles of a barbarian hauling my entire wardrobe around in 2 or 3 different bags every time I leave the house... G.D. it's ridic...

Let's be serious... girl to girls....

Do you tend to overpack for day trips or even vacations??

I know it's always beneficial to have options but I feel like it always ends up being more trouble than it's worth having to lug all that extra weight around!

Anyway... I met boyfriend at the mall because he and his friend James were already there... obvi popped into Forever 21 to check out the goods they got goin onnnn.

A.K.A....NOT MUCH. Ehhh... my current obsession is plaid button-ups (which they had an abundance of) with ties at the waist.. because I'm not such a fan of the button ups that are boxy and a simple tie around the waist instantly turns this kind of top feminine. Besides that, nothing caught my eye really. FAIL.

Met up with BF and received a very thoughtful present!!!! :)

He bought me a cookbook at Borders! (he knows me too well...) "365 Easy Vegetarian Recipes" which is absolutely perfect since I went on my "meatless kick" for about two weeks and found it surprisingly easy when I had good veggie recipes to use... this just made my day! He's such a sweetheart :) Pretty sure he knew he'd benefit from it too seeing as how I ALWAYS need a taste tester to approve new recipes ;)

We stopped at Panera for lunch because I was getting crabby....

*NOTE TO SELF* Don't drive/shop for hours without a snack handy if you are me... I get cranky as a G.D. two-year old when I'm hungry!!!!!

I got the 1/2 sandwich & soup combo...per usual

~The Cream of Tomato soup (of course... I'm addicted to it)

~1/2 a Turkey Artichoke panini (Turkey, tomato, spinach artichoke spread, carmelized onions...yummmmm!)

...They didn't have apples (FAIL!!!!!) so they stuck a piece of bread on my tray, which I left ... didn't you spy the title of this very post??? HA!

Very yummy as always and left my belly full & happy....

BF got the same combo with the Summer Corn Chowder (I had a bite or two.. it was pretty good! Had a hint of seasoning and a sweet aftertaste yum yummm) with a 1/2 of some kind of delish sandwich...

On the way out, I caught sight of the baked goods, especially the cookies and thought "Gahhh, I wish it was Friday..." OH WAIT....

Realizing I'm apparently lost in my own mind and then finally putting two and two together to find out it IS Friday, I politely asked for one of the Toffee Nut cookies so I could celebrate my favorite "holiday" of the week :)

Then proceeded to explain Cookie Friday to BF who, of course with his giant sweet tooth, MORE than approved :) and I'm pretty sure he will be joining me next week for my celebration...

We came home and BF picked up a 12 pack of these precious bebes on the way...
There's a sweet shot of my little cookbook to the left ;)


We relaxed... got in our snuggle time (yeah yeahhh I CAN be lovey dovey at times haha) and then got ready to go out for dinner with BF's brother and his girlfriend, Sara,who I adore!! She's sooo much fun and we have so much in common which makes visits to BF's house even MORE fun because she usually plans on visiting the same nights that I'll be there...


We chat about clothes, exercise, FOOD especially, baking, music, Coach, and vacations...


So us four headed out to Time Out Tavern, our favorite place about 5 mins down the road from the boys' house. They have AMAZING martinis, great appetizers, and pretty decent prices for the quality food you get.


Of course.. since there was a 30 min wait, Sara and I headed straight to the bar to get the martini party started...
Peach Blossom Martini (this x 2!)


When we sat down I immediately ordered the special soup...
French MUSHROOM Soup!!!!
Prepared the same way as their French Onion, but I love love love mushroooms so I'm pretty sure it was fate and we were meant to meet at the Tavern that night (I swoooon) Ironically, I dislike the huge amount of cheese restaurants always seem to pile on top of the soup... the mushrooms & broth were what I was really after!


I knew I needed some protein by this point... I was a little sluggish most of the day and I know when my body is lacking a good dose of protein so I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich on wheat with lettuce, tomato, & cheddar cheese....


Along with sweet potato fries...

The sandwich was good (messy, but good) I would have preferred if they toasted the bread or something... it was falling apart in my hands and I was left with a mess of chicken and cheese... blech!


The fries were BOOOOOOMB!!!!!!!
Nice and crunchy and sooo very sweeet :) Just like they should be....


We also split the Chocolate Lava Cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream between the four of us... no pic because I pretty much inhaled my few bites of the heavenly thing before a decent pic coud be taken. Oooooops ! I can assure you, it was perfection.


We had such a fun time at dinner, caught up with each other.. talked about plans for Halloween (only 5 days away!!!!) witnessed a VERY rude man named Roger complaining and embarassing the hostess right in front of us... My original plan was to save the last few sips of my martini specifically to throw in his face later in the night (EW!) I hate nothing more than rude customers... as a server myself, I could tell the hostess was doing her best to be as polite as possible when the whole time she just wanted to say... Hey. JACKASS. You're complaining to the WRONG person. I wish I had just done it for her... one more Peach Blossom and I probably would have been stupid enough to do so.


Have you ever had a situation at work having to deal with difficult people? How did you handle the situation???


I woke up before BF this morning so I snacked on a Honeycrisp I had brought along and caught up on blogs & played on Facebook, you know, the reg....
Once caveman finally woke up around 10 it was time for breakfast... I made OATS! (Apple-Cinnamon to be exact!) I had to use the not-so-good stuff for my PB... all they had in the house was Skippy PB but it was better than nothing!


Tasted great and held me over for hours and hours.. seeing as how I didn't have a full meal until 6pm, this was a good choice for breakky....


Bid a sad goodbye to BF and the other two chooches, sadly turned down pumpkin carving with BF's little sister :( and thought about how bad I wished I had stayed on the drive home because of this fact, and then drove home...


NOT before stopping at the gym!!


Which was uneventful, to say the least...


My shin splints have been getting worse and worse :( I'm currently icing my right shin at the time actually because of this.... my runs have become worse lately in terms of length and power while running. I ran for 15 minutes... took a break because of the pain, tried the elliptical for 15 mins only to find out it was broken and wouldn't switch to Cardio setting, hopped back on the treadmill... ran a quick 1.25 miles, then was DONE because it was already time to get home and get ready to go out to dinner with my girlfriends!


Snacked on another Honeycrisp after leaving....

Me and three of my friends went to Da Capo.. a place that's been in the area for almost a year now that NONE of us had tried yet. We heard they had good Caprese salad... good enough recommendation for me...


We got complimentary warm rolls with good olive oil.... so I enjoyed one

Follow by TWO appetizer portions of the Caprese Salad for the table....
I had this and another 1/2 of the tomato & mozz combo...
They served their caprese salad with roasted red peppers which I personally was pretty excited about!! Loooove me some roasted red peps! :)


We ordered a large white pizza for the table....
Broccoli, ricotta, mozz, roasted garlic on the whole thing...
...and mushrooms on half for Morgan & I the shroom fiends ahhhh yum!

Had 2 pieces (it was ALL I could handle after the apps, bread, & house Chardonnay)


Oh... that is until our waiter brought us out a free 3-layer chocolate mousse cake (SAY WHAAAA!?!) yeah... needless to say, we hugged Tyler passionately before leaving and offered him marriage in return for his sweet surprise. I think we made his day if I'm not mistaken....


Ahhh so unrelated by the POINT behind this post was my Carb Addiction. Whitney's post totally hit close to home because I have the same exact issue (minus the fact I'm not training for a marathon at the time like super-girl Whit who looks fabulous as ever whether she thinks so or not! :) haha) but it IS something I've been meaning to address...


YES, you heard it right.
Hello, my name is Allio, and I'm a Carb-a-holic....


I need to cut back. I haven't noticed a significant difference in weight or anything, but my body just feels more sluggish and I DO feel more weighed down physically during workouts these days which I think has something to do with the insane amount of carbs I throw into my mouth. I don't mean to do it either...


The culprits???
1.) Oatmeal.... which I will continue to eat each morning because it's packed full of nutrients and I load up my oats with good things like fruit, peanut butter for protein, & this breakfast keeps me full and happy the longest
2.) Sandwiches... I'm a sandwich fiend.. PB & J, turkey, quesadillas, bagels with jam... I love me some bread.. and by the time lunch rolls around, I usually crave it!
3.) Cereal.... when I have cereal, I find it veryyy difficult to end it at one bowl. I could eat it everyday for the rest of my life & that is no exaggeration! I love it... everything about it... but its carbo-heaven.


SO... you will hopefully see more protein based meals & snacks on the Chocoholic homefront from this day forward as I attempt to balance my starches with my proteins on a daily basis.... let's hope it works out *fingers crossed*


Currently??? Watching the beginning of, yet another, Mel Gibson movie (me and Gibby are in love) this time.. We Were Soliders and I'm laaaahvin it already... having one more chilled glass of Chardonnay... and then getting straight to reading a book my biotch Lauryn lent me tonight called Smashed... aka a real-life recap of a girl's drunken adventures beginning around age 16 and ending at 22... hmmmmmmm.. Sounds familiar?? I dunno, maybe.


Happy Saturday Bebes! :)