Takeout.. It’s What’s For Dinner

Salutations my friends! I hope you all had a happy hump day and you are counting down to the weekend like I am. My Wednesday started with an early morning 20 minute walk with Louie. He’s pretty active and he’s got a lot of energy in him for such a little guy.

After work and class I met Derek to hop over to the mall to check out Fit2Run. The store at International Plaza had some special events and a 5K fun run in honor of National Running Day. The weather was nasty so after checking out the dynamic stretching session they were holding, we left to do our running and workout at the gym.

Today’s workout in the Summer Shape-Up called for a 20 minute hill treadmill session and Workout 1. I altered the running because I wanted more than 20 minutes, and my run looked like this:

I followed my run with Workout 1 from Summer Shape-Up.. This included dynamic weighted exercises that focused on legs, abs, and arms.

Our workout finished around 8 so take-out was on the menu for dinner! I had a delicious scallop and black fig salad, and Derek had a blackened grouper sandwich. Both were delicious and I’m definitely going to try to re-create the salad at home. While I love cooking, sometimes I just want to kick back and not lift a finger in preparing my dinner – yesterday was one of those days.

My Scallop and Black Fig Salad

Derek’s Grouper Sandwich (Post Mustard and Tartar Sauce smothering)

Although it’s currently ugly and stormy out, I’m really excited for the day, as I have a hair appointment and a date night on my agenda!

What do you all have planned for tonight and for the weekend?

Did you celebrate National Running Day?

Oatmeal Pancakes and a Margarita Festival

My best friend Megan has been talking about an oatmeal pancakes recipe she saw on the Today Show for a couple of weeks now, and I woke up yesterday with a serious craving. After trying out different ingredients, amounts, and combinations, I finally achieved the perfect batter consistency to make some killer pancakes!

Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients

3/4 cups instant oats

1/2 cup flour

1 egg white

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 individual all natural apple sauce (substitute for vegetable oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 teaspoon baking powder

1 packet Stevia natural sweetener

Optional: Mashed banana (if you want banana pancakes)

Mix oats, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large bowl until evenly mixed. In a separate bowl, whisk the vanilla extract into the egg white. Add in apple sauce and stir until incorporated. Combine your wet mixture with your dry mixture and stir vigorously for about one minute. Pour batter onto a lightly buttered frying pan (about 1/4 cup batter per pancake). Cook on the first side until the top of the pancake begins to bubble and the bottom is golden brown. Flip the pancake and cook to achieve an even color on the other side. Serve with syrup or your topping of choice!

Instead of maple syrup, I heated some honey and added about 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry jam to the honey. After mixing it up, I poured atop the pancakes. I didn’t expect to, but I LOVED this little syrup and preferred it to the traditional maple.

I enjoyed my morning meal with my coffee that I drank out of a lovely Eataly cup that Megan brought back for me from her most recent trip to NYC!

After a late breakfast, Derek and I went to the gym. I knew we were on a time crunch, and I wanted to work on speed a little bit, so I did some longer intervals on the treadmill. My run had me super sweaty and looked like this:

I had a couple minutes left after the run while Derek was finishing up his workout, and did some planks and ab work on a stability ball. After the gym we did some painting at the new house, followed by Tampa’s MARGARITA FESTIVAL!

I’ll pretty much go to anything that has the word “festival” in the name. Honestly, I really dislike tequila, but I was still so excited for this event in downtown Tampa. 6 of us went and had an awesome time – I drank a SkinnyGirl grapefruit margarita and it was  so delicious and really refreshing (it was a mere 95 ° outside).

Megan, Myself, Kasey and Jessi

When dinner rolled around we went to my aunt and uncle’s house and had a family cook out. My dad did most of the grilling, and made some AWESOME grouper and vegetables. As he was preparing everything in the kitchen, he asked me, “Hey Mal, do you want to take some pictures of my grouper for your blog?” I had a chuckle, and replied, “OF COURSE I DO, THANKS FOR ASKING DAD!!!!” Here’s a pic of the grouper before we grilled it:

And the finished product:

We ate asian slaw and cornbread with the grouper – it was a wonderful meal and I love when someone else cooks for me 🙂 I’d share the recipe with you all, but Dad says he doesn’t remember what he did.. Next time I’ll write it down as he goes!

I hope you all have a happy weekend and Memorial Day!