This weekend was such a whirlwind!
After the masquerade party, I stayed up till 1am. Then, I woke up promptly at 7am for a 5 hour Zumba Instructor workshop with my company. Phew! I was pretty zonked after that and promptly re-heated some frozen soup and made toast for a quick lunch. Hubby reminded me via text that our neighbors were having a birthday party, so I went there. Then, I came home, had a quick dinner, and got ready to go out again! I went to a dueling piano bar with some friends to celebrate my friend Megan’s first day of school! She’s getting a second degree, and I’m super proud of her. Happy School Megan! 🙂 Anywho, I stayed up again till about 1am. For whatever reason, I woke up early-ish on Sunday (around 8:30am)…maybe it was Bailey licking my hand? lol I barely had time to make breakfast and get ready for the day before it was time to head out to teach Zumba. I stayed after to work on choreography with some friends from class. Then, it was time to meet another Zumba co-worker to do paperwork. And that brought me to dinner time. After dinner, I finally had the chance to blog my masquerade party post before it was time for bed. Thank goodness I had Monday off from work, because after this weekend, I seriously needed to re-charge. I slept in till 10am! That’s how I know I’m really exhausted…sleeping in that late. Phew!
Anywho, I was off from work today to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In honor of MLK, here’s a great quote by him:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Since I had some time this morning, I decided to make my multigrain pancakes and raspberry sauce (click for recipes).
I had 2 bags of flours (teff and spelt) that were almost empty and decided to throw them into the pancake mix. They were extra-multi-grain. lol
They were also fabulous!
I added chopped almonds on top for extra texture.
Ooh and I tried making the sauce sans lemon to see how it turned out. It was pretty good, but I liked the tang of the lemon juice in the sauce.
It was lick-your-plate, clean-your-fork good. Ooh la yum! 🙂
Bailey says hi!
I worked hard to get a head-tilt photo for you guys. lol.
Lunch was leftovers from dinner last night – fresh spinach spaghetti with meat sauce using Hickory Nut Gap grass-fed beef.
Hubby bought some focaccia at the same place where we got the pasta. I didn’t have time on Sunday to make focaccia from scratch, even though you guys know I luuurve to make it!
Since I had the afternoon off, even though I was spending most of the day relaxing and re-charging, I decided on doing some baking.
I’m also working on a new recipe for you guys!
An instant, no-bake granola bar for one!
If you’re like me, you like homemade granola bars, but don’t like how it makes such a big batch, or such a mess, or takes so long. I’m hoping this will be a winner. 🙂 It doesn’t quite have the same rich taste as a baked bar, but it’s also a fraction of the effort. 😉
***
Even though I was being lazy work-wise all day, I wanted to stay on track fitness-wise. I went to Zumba tonight and had such a good time. At the Master Class with our new ZES, we saw a new dance for How Low Can You Go. The instructor did it tonight and though I liked it the first time I saw it, I reeeally liked it the second. I gotta get the song so I can do it in my class soon! It was so F-U-N!
For some reason, I decided to make homemade enchiladas for dinner. Not sure why. The recipe looked really easy and though it was, it wasn’t a weeknight-post-zumba kind of dinner. I should have stuck with something faster. lol.
Oh well, it was still delicious. We had Spanish rice pilaf and some spicy blue corn chips.
And I got to try my baking experiment – a new dough ball flavor – Chocolate Coconut Almond. Nommmy nom! The recipe needs tweaking before I post it, but it’s gooooood!
Thank goodness I had today off to relax and re-charge. Sometimes I feel like I get so crazy-busy during the week, I need the weekend down time to get back to normal. lol Know what I mean?
Do you use the weekends to relax and re-charge? Do you build time in during the week?
I cannot believe how quickly this 3-day weekend disappeared!
Your pancakes look fantastic! Yum!
With being in school and working full-time, I feel like my whole life is zooming by that quickly, lol!! In due time it will all settle down and I will be soooo glad!
I totally need downtime, every day. At least like 30 mins of just sitting at my ‘puter vegging out and drinking coffee. The other 95% of the day i go-go-go and yeah, I overwhelm even myself. lol
Love the nobake granola bars. I am all about those too! So easy and handy 🙂
I try to relax a bit everyday. It keeps me sane 😉
What a busy weekend but it sounds like it was a lot of fun.
I don’t have too much downtime during the week but I do try to carve out a half hour or so between dinner and the gym just to chill with a magazine or something along that lines. Blogging is actually a relaxing thing but at the same time I know it’s also a “responsibility” of a sort. Yeah, when the weekends come though, there’s a HUGE need for some r&r!
I definitely use the weekends to relax, except for Sundays. I am the most motivated person on Sundays, no clue why! I really enjoy the hours between 3 – 5 p.m., because I’m coming home from work, chilling for a bit before anyone gets home, and starting dinner with the iPod going.
i definitely needed monday to recharge too. we were in st. louis visiting friends fri-sun and their 3 little boys wore me out! 🙂 well, that + my 10 mile run 🙂
omg I love all of those foods! hahaha
I don’t think I am very good at relaxing in general, but I am definitely not good at relaxing during the week – the gym is pretty much my only “re-charge” time, which is why I’m trying to get to hot yoga more during the week!
I really want to try Zumba too – so I think I’m going to try to add that this weekend – it sounds so fun (although I am worried about my overall lack of coordination…)!
Ooh yoga would be fab for re-charging.
You should totally try Zumba! You really don’t have to be coordinated. We have a lot of people in class who aren’t “coordinated”, but you know what…they get in there, they dance their asses off, they get a great workout, and they have so much FUN! It’s not a dance contest…it’s your let-loose time! lol 🙂
Check out my Zumba 101 post for tips before your first class: https://thechiclife.com/2010/03/zumba-101.html 🙂
Bailey is so cutee!!!! and I am so looking forward to that no bake granola for one recipe- right up my alley!
i try to get at least an hour to myself every day to unwind, and then i really use the weekends to unwind + recharge. i don’t know how, but i think long weekends go by faster than regular 2-day weekends do. probably bc you get it into your mind that you have all this time to do so much, and then poof, it’s gone!
I think you’re on to something. The 3 day weekends really do seem to go faster!
That second pic of Bailey is ADORABLE. I love how so many animals do that head tilt thing- it’s so cute!!
If I don’t have “me” time every day, I go nuts. Luckily I see cardio as a time of relaxation because I can just let my mind wander, although vegging out on the couch works too!!
I absolutely need to re-charge and it’s typically on Saturday.
but at home I move more than I do at work, chasing a toddler.
I have been back on track with the EIM Challenge. YAY.
It was a much better week!
xo
i relax every night, watching tv, no distractions
Those pancakes looking freaking awesome! The new dough ball flavor looks yummy. If it wasn’t 11:00 PM I’d be making your regular dough balls right now.
Oh, boy! Those ‘cakes are just lovely – yummm!
I need to get better with my schedule to plan downtime on the weekends and during the week. Lately I have been leaving room for neither and it is starting to get to me.
Lots of yummy recipe creations coming out of TCL!!!! 🙂