Last day in Minnesota. I’m enjoying schooling my little brother in the competition for best aunt/uncle and finally accomplished my goal of trying out the new Confetti Cake blizzard at DQ.

On they way over to Wabasha, we stopped and saw my new baby nephew.

Do we lo0k like naturals or WHAT? We’ll be in Minnesota till Tuesday so my internet access will be… limited!

Have a great weekend!

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies (via Two Peas & Their Pod)

Ingredients:

Directions:

The lovely ladies… we met up with two other couples tonight for “happy hour.”

Totally scandalous that we went somewhere with “bar” in the name, right? I still just ordered Diet Coke though I can’t say as much for Kevin James. I’d review the restaurant, but I’m never going to show my face in there again. Haha. We stayed for over three hours just laughing, chatting, and catching up. I don’t think our waitress could have been too pleased since we just had a few appetizers and drinks. Haha. We actually thought she had gone home when it came time to pay, but they found her somewhere. And asked her to split the check. Awesome customers.

Classic parking lot pic!

Earlier….

Lunch today was sweet potato wedges, Pirate’s Booty, and Dr. Zevia – eaten in bed at 3:30PM (half day Thursday, people!). The perks of being an adult…

I kept the salt nearby. I like my potatoes salty!

Sea Salt on my nightstand plastic drawers. Good spot for it!

I got a new flavor of Pirate’s Booty they had stocked at WF – Sour Cream & Onion. Pirate’s Booty is like the best to lick out of the bag – it leaves a lot of delicious salty residue!!! Same thing with pesto. And Red Hot Blues! I’m happy to say that the bag is empty NOT because I ate it all. But because I already portioned some out as snacks. Okay. As a snack for tomorrow.

My face matches my shirt! And my iPhone! I was waiting impatiently today for ZWOW #18 to come out. No such luck. So I randomly decided to run a “fast 5.” That was after a super lazy mile, and I did a cooldown for a total of 7.

5 miles – 38:30 @ 7:42 pace.

I’d like to see that number a lot closer to 35. But my running has been lame for about a month now so I’ll accept it.

Earlier still…

A luscious smoothie this morning.

Berries + skim milk + Greek yogurt.

I burnt my toast. Boo. I accidentally pressed the bagel button. According to Kevin, that’s trouble. So just the smoothie for me, and I didn’t even bring a snack to work! So I was dying of hunger when my co-workers started talking about Qdoba but had already planned lunch at home with Kev-Kev.

I scored a whole taco!!!!!!!! They love me because I bring in the cookies all the time! It pays off. Speaking of cookies… you know what tomorrow is!!

Sweet dreams!

Which would you rather go to – the Olympics or the World Cup? Question is compliments of our lively table conversation tonight.

And, have you ever stayed in a hostel? No. But apparently my husband has quite the tales.

What’s your worst customer behavior? Generally it’s just taking a really long time to decide what I want to order.

The showy ladyslipper workout is not quite as scandalous as it might sound. I actually think this notepad came from my mother-in-law with the Minnesota State Flower. I just had to look up Colorado’s – the Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine. I’ll have to keep my eye out for that.

I interspersed this workout with half mile incline intervals on the treadmill. I miss my stepmill!! Those things are like miracle sweatbreakers.Treadmill incline is my best alternative for the moment. I did 3 sets of the lower body moves, each movement for 1 minute AMRAP.

My favorite move was the around-the-world lunge. Have you tried these little treats?

I was beat after that workout, and my stomach was a little bit upset. I’m sure eating some red hot blues pre-gym wasn’t doing me any favors!

Real life model. Lol.

Earlier…

We actually went to Whole Foods today! When we moved to Denver, I thought we’d go alllllll the time. But it turns out we don’t. King Sooper’s is just so much more convenient. I’m kinda sorta hoping our next move (July 13th!!!) brings us closer to one.

But we’re basically failures in life since we didn’t bring our own eco-friendly bag. And look at those healthy goods popping out the top. Red Hot Blues & Pirate’s Booty! We actually only went to WF because we were next door for dog food!! We really do feed him more than peanut butter and fro-yo!

I insisted on going down every aisle. Kevin loves that. But I kept it to one large bag. That’s good, right? And that even included the Cookie Friday supplies for this week!!

What winning combo did we select from WF for dinner? Pizza and pop, my friends. What do I think of Dr.Zevia? Hmm… All think all the Zevias taste a little watered down. Which is fine. It makes me feel hydrated. Kevin’s not a crazy fan, but he’ll allow them. A 6-pack was $5 today so we figured that was a decent deal. I mean pop costs 60 cents in a pop machine here!! Isn’t that terrible?

The crust was super thin. I liked it. It was actually a pepperoni pizza, but we put all the pepperonis on Kevin’s side before baking it.

I was kind and threw Boyd a crust. Nothing like reinforcing his bad behavior of lurking and panting while we’re trying to eat. I mean he’s literally at my knees if we’re eating on the couch.

Can you believe I’m banished to the bedroom right now? Kevin is taking a quiz and finds my hotness distracting. Lol. Either that or my rampant chatter and harassing of the Boykin.

Where do you grocery shop most frequently? Our realtor was passing on some rumors that Trader Joe’s is on its way. I know, finally, right? There’s one in Rochester, MN! My mom goes there!

What’s the cheapest pop machine you know of? Is there still one for 25 cents in the faculty/staff lounge at Emmaus? Lol. It’s hard enough finding a pop machine for 50 cents now!! Fun fact: I never saw a pop machine in the DR. I think it might be an electricity thing? They don’t really do cans there either.

Do you like the new stripes? What I hate about this layout is that you have to click twice to get into the first post. I’m trying to fix it. Not sure if it’s even an option since I use WordPress.com. The stripes are from Pugly Pixel. The title font is Jacques & Gilles.

Oh, and do you know your State Flower? It’s important.

An empty Peach Fro-Yo container!!!! Man, his face and ears are all gross & crusty now.

I wonder why…

Boyd had no shame about putting his entire face into the container. I’d have to say that’s a family trait of ours…

MUCH earlier…

We did it!! We got up and worked out before 8AM today!! It wasn’t that bad. Really, the worst part is getting out of bed. Once those feet are on the floor… We got up at 6AM because we knew we were going to have a late night out house hunting.

The only problem is that I run much more slowly in the morning! But it feels just as fast. When I was running at 6.0, I could have sworn it was at least 7.5!! Nonetheless, I cranked out 4.5 miles in about 40 minutes. I’ll take it.

Lunch today was quinoa & black beans over greens with a sprinkle of sharp cheddar. Totally hit the spot. I was kind of ravenous after my run this morning!I actually briefly considered having the quinoa for breakfast.

Let me just hit dinner real quick, and then move along…

Yeah… that was a carb-y dinner to have at 9PM!! I actually admitted to Kevin that I was looking forward to spaghetti all day. Haha. I was ashamed to admit it since I count it as one of The Boring 3. I added in a whole bunch of greens again by just pureeing it with the spaghetti sauce. In fact, it turned green like my green mac ‘n’cheese so I ended up adding an extra can of fire roasted tomatoes to coax the sauce back to the normal range of color.

So when we were looking at houses today with our realtor, we noticed a cute feature:

There would be a little “window” covered with chicken wire in the fences between houses for the dogs to peek at each other!!! BOYD NEEDS THAT!!! Unfortunately, we weren’t wild about that house. But I think we could DIY that.

Speaking of DIY:

My friend Ashlee recently started blogging again, and I know you guys will want to check it out @ The Crafty Dough Puncher. She DIYs things that don’t include spinach or sweat, has a beautiful blue-eyed baby boy, and makes stunning cakes. Check it out!

Do you DIY? If so, what was your last project? Just the WODs. And I can puree spinach or kale into most anything.

Runners, do you run more slowly in the morning? Yes. And that’s why morning races are painful for me.

Have you ever played the Bigger, Better game? Me, no. Way too shy. But Kyle MacDonald did and traded one red paper clip all the way up to a two-story farmhouse!!! And wrote a book about it! Maybe we’re taking the wrong approach to house hunting….

I even prepped up some breakfast!

Scrambled egg muffins! I just scrambled some eggs with a bunch of veggies and baked them in a cupcake tine. We’ve been eating eggs or oatmeal for breakfast almost every day, but it’s been cutting into my sleep time! No more of that nonsense!

Microwaved and put it on a whole wheat English muffin with a little Melt. So quick.

Lunch was quick and easy too. My boss likes these little mixes and suggested I try one. I checked out the nutrition content and it wasn’t too shabby so we gave it a whirl. The word “creamy” made skeptical about the dressing, but it really wasn’t too bad.

I made it an entree by topping it with 1/2 a Morning Start Chik’n patty. So good. Now I really want it again for lunch tomorrow. But we ate it all.

My hottie-boom-body in sleeveless. We’ll allow it for the WODs. And this was a sweaty one.

After we had agreed that we would “only run” tonight, I had the urge to do 100 burpees. Don’t ask me where these little ideas come from. But I decided it would be easier to break them up like so:

Today’s WOD:

• Run 1 mile (8:03)
• 25 burpee tuck jumps
• Run 1 mile (7:53)
• 25 burpee deadlifts
• Run 1 mile (7:43)
• 25 burpee plank row & press
• Run 1 mile (7:23)
• 25 burpee broad jumps

Those burpees took me a total of 15:41 for a workout total of 46:03.

KEVIN ONLY DID 80 BURPEES! He claimed that he heard me say 20 – not 25. Yeah sure. I just had to tattle. I was a middle child. I never got enough of it!

And then we ate it all back. Haha. It’s not my fault. I got this text:

We were actually planning to grill burgers tonight, but we opted to go for the deal. And no dishes. Lol. I’ll keep that kitchen clean one way or another.

And just when I said we didn’t repeat restaurants. Juicy really is the cutest burger place around.

Pepperjack, jalapeno, onion, & BBQ!

Cheese fries. I’d like to say we shared these. But we didn’t. Those were just mine. On a Monday. Woops. Nothing like a little extended weekend junk food.

Man, Kevin was extra photogenic today. I snapped this candid when he thought I was taking pictures of myself. Those always turn out the best. He was saying,”I like the way your hair looks right now.”

I think he was being sarcastic. Hence I am not pictured. Lol.

Oh, we got the Boykin again!!!! He’s pictured here staking out the stovetop (I was prepping quinoa for mañana).

How do you prep for your Mondays!? I need to keep working on this. My Mon-Wed block is always super crammed.

Do you play any fun tricks on your pet? We also like to put Boyd in laundry baskets and push his bone underneath door cracks. Hehehe.

Do you have pet insurance? Lol. I heard people in the office talking about this today. What can I say… I sit in the aisle. I hear a lot. Apparently someone’s dog had like a 5k surgery!!

Still freezing.

Need more comfort food.

It looks pretty gross, right? I’ll admit it. I was afraid to test it. I’ve added greens to things before, but usually to things with red sauce so they don’t look so, well, green! Now that I see this picture, I can’t believe I ate it. I would have never even tasted it out of anyone else’s kitchen, but I saw what went in it… so I had to try it. And it was really good! Like better than the Buffalo Chicken Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Seriously!

It all started with this:

I haven’t been able to find my beloved kale mix in our neighborhood King Sooper’s lately. Boo!! So I decided to try this giant bag of greens. It was the cheesy POWER bubble that won me over.

Here’s how I did it:

• 3/4 box whole wheat pasta, cooked & drained
• 4 cups of POWER GREENS blended with 1 cup of skim milk
• 1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 Tbsp Melt
• 2 cups 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

I cooked ingredients 2-6 on the stovetop for a bit to get the cheese melted and then combined it with the noodles in the pot. I topped it with some a few TBSP of Panko mixed with a swig of EVOO.

I swear it was so good, but you don’t have to believe me. I can’t believe Kevin didn’t complain more. I guess he trusts me because I’m a pretty harsh critic of my own cooking.

Kevin has been absolutely swooning over this big container of crushed red pepper he found today. That should last at least till the end of the month. The man’s obsessed!

Okay. Done with the pictures of ugly green things… and I don’t mean Kevin although he is wearing green. Total coincidence!

Last night…

We went out last night! On a SATURDAY! In the RAIN!! You know it had to be somewhere special for me to risk getting my hair wet…

We first went to Sazza Pizza in September when we were brand spankin’ new to Denver, and I’ve been wanting to go back ever since. We just have a hard time repeating restaurants. Perhaps because I grew up in Wabasha, MN, where the options were Chinese or DQ? Not bad options. But we’re loving the variety.

And guess what? The owner (? pretty sure he’s the owner) remembered me! My name even!! I was so shocked. How sweet of him! We were really impressed. He’d seen my blog back in September and still rememered.

Well, I had to order practically everything on the menu. I was thinking of you guys!

Sunshine salad.

Just as I suspected, I would totally go there just for the salad. The lemon dressing was delicious. It totally tasted like sunshine!

FIELD GREENS, TOMATOES, BELL PEPPERS, CUCUMBERS GARBANZO BEANS, AVOCADO, SUNFLOWER SEEDS, CHEDDAR tossed with our creamy lemon vinaigrette

Now I’m on a quest to recreate that salad at home!

I wanted to go for the chicken enchilada pizza, but changed my mind at the last minute for bbq chicken. I wanted the pineapple! I love pineapple on pizza so much, and Kevin turns up his nose when I do it at home. So I feel it’s silly to buy pineapple topping just for me.

I noticed in the reviews that some people complained that it wasn’t enough food. I think they are crazy. I ran 4 miles, lifted weights, and cleaned for 2 hours before coming, and it worked for me! I actually love that it’s a little lighter fare and you don’t feel gross inside afterwards! I think we ordered small pizzas both times, but if you aren’t ordering anything else you could also order one that’s a bit larger.

I think Kevin was hesitant to come back because they don’t have Diet Coke. They’re mostly organic! Diet Coke is basically the anti-organic so it’s perfectly understandable. But we loved our little Virgil’s sodas. Kevin went with root beer and I had the cream soda. It was totally a treat.

I talked Kevin into ordering the dessert pizza because I knew he would love it. It was a berry cobbler pizza. Totally up his alley. You guys know I’d eat cheeto and avocado pizzas all day before choosing a sweet one, but I felt I should taste a slice. But I let Kevin eat the rest, and he was in heaven. I think that thin crust is perfect for dessert pizzas.

Happy girl. We stuck around quite a while, just chatting and enjoying our evening. Kevin told me a story about how he once went on a date in high school and saw Big Daddy in the theaters. How OLD is he? Haha. You learn something new every day!!

P.S. Girls, Sazza would be a great place for a blogger meet-up someday in the distant future when I’m feeling brave. I might need a few months to work up the courage. You’d think be less chicken. After all, I met Kevin online…

Do anything cool for your mom on mother’s day? If you call a blog post cool… Nobody? I did manage to send some healthy snackables that arrivedearly.

Will you eat food that looks gross like my mac ‘n’cheese? Only if I made it… Although I did have to eat sancocho a few times due to social situations… Love you, Dominicanos!

Favorite green? Spinach is my safest bet still, but kale is closing in on my heart.

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

10 Things I Appreciate About You, Mom:

1. Taking me to endless piano lessons, auditions, and competitions. Music Mom!
2. Teaching me to make hot cross buns, strudel, homemade bread, and more!
3. Being a great role model of wife & mother.
4. Helping me plan the best wedding ever, and even doing all the flowers!
5. Supporting me 100% in all the big life decisions from moving overseas to Winona to Denver and reading my little blog.
6. That you’re always up for a new challenge! (My mom has recently taken up rowing! )
7. You don’t take yourself too seriously (see reverse charades!).
8. You’re still dating my dad after 32 years.
9. Your athletic prowess!
10. Your phone calls. There’s nobody I talk to on the phone more than my madre, and I’m not afraid to admit it!

Her children arise and call her ‘blessed.’ Psalm 31:28

Backseat Boyd!! He got to go all the way to King Sooper’s! That’s a long ways for the Kreisels on a Friday night! I was exhausted after a 7 mile run & ZWOW #17 and needed some refreshments. We were supposed to be babysitting, but they canceled on us! Who does that? I told Kevin that if this situation presented it to ourselves someday, we’d keep the babysitter and just go for fro-yo! Who turns down free babysitting? Maybe they found my blog… hahaha.

Anyways. The trip was a huge success because we managed to block Boyd from jumping into the passenger front seat while we were shopping! He always does that. And it’s fine, but he’s always so wet and hairy!! Lol.

I sat in bed and ate peach fro-yo while poor Kevin studied away. I did manage to catch up on some of my correspondence. And not spend any money online shopping! I call that a good night!

Corrie Anne woke up first this morning!!!!! No. I didn’t get up nicely and surprise the boys with breakfast. I whispered in Kevin’s ear,”I’m awwaaaaaaake.”And proceeded to talk his ear off. I teased him all day that he was going to write a Facebook status asking for advice on how to get me to sleep in later or take more regular naps. Hehe.

I did make breakfast eventually, in a futile effort to at least partially redeem myself. I used this recipe for oatmeal & banana pancakes. I loved it because I had zero problems flipping them! I made a little top with chopped apples + water + vanilla + cinnamon + nutmeg + truvia, cooked for about 15 minutes on the stovetop.

And then something incredible happened…. FREE STARBUCKS!! When we arrived for our weekly strategic planning meeting, the computers were down due to a brief power outage!! So everything was free. Of course, we ate breakfast at home this week!! Haha. Oh well. We were thankful for the free lattes. It’s been freezing this weekend (booooooooo!!!!!!) so we went with hott.

After Sbux, I hit the gym to try out this bad boy. I got a new speed jump rope that’s specifically advertised to help you learn to do the ever-evasive double unders. I don’t know why they are so dang hard for me! I swear I just need to get the rhythm in my brain. I have a new tactic in mind of listening to videos of people doing double unders on YouTube until I have it down. It should work for me. I’m a musician.

Today’s WOD: 15 Minutes AMRAP

• 100 jump rope jacks (jjax with rope)
• 20 alternating plank front raises
• 20 alternating step back lunge/row
• 20 squat rotations

I didn’t quite make it through 3 rounds in the allotted time! I got tripped up with my new jump rope and took quite a beating. That thing is skinny, but it’s going to leave some welts! I finished off the third round for fun, and then ran an easy 4 miles.

Grilled cheese + tomato soup for lunch! I told you it was freezing out!! I wanted to add avocado, but it predictably wasn’t ripe enough yet.

After lunch, I had a completely unexpected urge to clean. So I went on a 2-hour rampage doing laundry, mopping, organizing the cupboards, and purging the closet! We have the most aggravating pantry ever so it’s always a mess. It’s really tall, skinny, and deep! You can never find what you’re looking for, and I always end up buying extra because I couldn’t find something. Plus I think I’ve managed to spill flour on every shelf. Regina helped me through it (new album 5.29.12!!!).

A little weekend reading: I read the best blog post this week. If you haven’t read it, you have to check it out: Make Room for What You Value. What inspirational/exciting post have you read lately?

Favorite household chore? Haha. I thought I’d ask that in a positive way. I actually kind of like doing dishes. Cleaning them. Not putting them away. Same with laundry. I don’t mind putting the sorting, switching, etc. But the folding and putting away is lame.

Best housecleaning music? Fun fact: I always listen to classical while baking Cookie Friday cookies. Do you think that’s making Kevin smarter when he eats them? I like to listen to Regina when cleaning and country while making breakfast. It’s a very complex system.