Exciting Announcement!

Normally, I love Thursdays, but this one just beat me up! It was my one day this week that I didn’t have to do anything, and I was looking forward to relaxing… but I had a ton of chores around the house I needed to get to (and I’m still not done ).

Today, I washed Brent’s comforter, folded a load of laundry, washed a huge load of dishes (by hand, not in the dishwasher haha), unpacked a bunch of groceries, got a bunch of books together that I’m going to donate tomorrow, and still had time to make myself three meals and watch Dance Moms, of course .

Since I ran out of Israeli couscous (my new favorite grain!), I made some risotto with my chicken breast and broccoli today.

The chicken was frozen – so I defrosted it in the microwave, diced it up, threw some seasoning on it (salt, pepper, cayenne), and sautéed it. While the chicken was defrosting, I cooked the arborio rice with garlic, salt and pepper, and chicken broth. It was perfect and super delicious

I’m always bad at judging portion sizes when I cook grains because they get bigger when they cook. There was a little bit left that I couldn’t finish, so next time I’ll know to use less rice.

For my afternoon snack, I made myself some French Toast. I love French Toast, but I almost never have it because it’s rare that we have bread around the house. Since I’ve been kind of obsessed with turkey sandwiches lately, I couldn’t wait to use up the rest of the loaf for just for this purpose.

I think that French Toast kind of has a bad rap because a lot of people think of it as being super unhealthy. But if you make it like I do, it’s really not unhealthy at all! I used three pieces of whole-wheat bread (60 calories a slice), with an batter of 1 whisked egg and a splash of fat-free milk. After dunking the bread in the egg wash, I simply cook it in a sauté pan using calorie-free cooking spray and use only a tiny drizzle of maple syrup on each slice (you could even use sugar-free syrup to make it even less calories!).

The whole snack was only about 300 calories. Even though I’m not technically counting anymore, it’s still nice to know that I’m staying on the low-calorie end of things. (It also boasts 16g of protein and 6g of fiber, in case you were wondering).

Meet Wesley!!

Haha! Isn’t that picture so adorable? He’s a cutie-pie.

I’ve had my guinea pig Wesley for five years now. When I started college, he stayed at home, so my mom has been his primary caretaker for the past three years. Recently, Brent and I decided that, now that we have our own apartment, we should take Wesley off my Mom’s hands and I can kind of reclaim him as my pet.

(Awww! That’s a really old picture of me and Wesley from 2008).

When Brent and I first knew that we were getting a place together, we really wanted to move someplace that would allow us to get a cat. We’ve been dying to get a cat, but we ended up finding the apartment that we moved into now and had to compromise on that. Now that we know that we’re allowed to have caged animals…

We’ve decided that we’re going to take the plunge and get another guinea pig!

Brent and I are both super excited about this. We love guinea pigs and can’t wait to have a little baby piggie in the house. We’ll most likely be moving again about a year from now, but most apartments allow caged animals and hopefully we’ll even find one that will let us have a cat, too!

I can’t wait to show you the elaborate cage set-up Brent has in mind and pictures of the new little guy. We’re getting him on Sunday!!

Healthy Goals Checklist

At least 100g of protein.Check! I got 101g today.
At least 4 servings of fruits/veggies.Check! I got 5 servings today.
(Tentative) At least 25g of fiber.No check. This one is so hard! I only got 20.5 today.
At least 100 oz. of water.Check! I got 108 oz.
No more than one treat.Check! I had one serving of Dove Chocolate & Peanut Butter Promises.
Exercise and/or stretch.Check! I’m going to do some stretching before I go to sleep tonight.