Happy Humpday!

Wow, time is flying! I can’t believe today is Wednesday AND I can’t believe we’re into December!

Update from yesterday: I did not go running yesterday, I wore my shoes a bit to get used to them, but am going for a run later today. Yay!!

Product Review

A couple days ago I finally tried a Chobani (Chobani fairy? Please make my Christmas! It’s so hard to find Chobanis here in Dulls-ville!). I picked up the peach flavor at a Fresh Market store in Sarasota while we were there for Thanksgiving. All I can say is YUMMMM!!!! Wow, I really wasn’t expecting to taste that big of a difference from the Oikos Greek yogurt, but I thought it was so much creamier and just better.

Obviously I enjoyed it so much I and was so excited I had to taste it first before I found my camera. I was really impressed with the nutritional info, too. (You can check it out on Chobani’s website here). 14 grams of protein? Whoa! Based on a daily intake of 2,000 calories, that’s 28% of your daily protein needs!

I would totally recommend this and I personally can’t wait to try the other flavors (and the plain nonfat). I have never even seen a strawberry Chobani in stores, so hopefully I can find one sometime soon-ish!

Deals and Steals

Ok, so I’m just going to throw this out there. I’ve shopped at Big Lots. While the stores themselves are usually a little unorganized/ not the cleanest or fanciest, I am now totally hooked. I went in to a local one on Monday because I was searching for a pretty, inexpensive tree skirt, and I honestly didn’t like any that I saw at Target, Michael’s, Marshalls, etc. And I refuse to settle. So I found a gorgeous tree skirt that matches our tree beautifully, and then I figured I’d head over to their non-perishable food section. Hey, I’m a foodie, why not?

Oh. My. Gosh. I’m totally hooked and hitting that again! I think what I was most excited about were my finds of Annie’s Organic Pomegranate Vinaigrette Dressing and Annie’s Organic Green Garlic Dressing – each were 80 cents. Um, do they even know how much these sell for at other stores? I’ve seen them $4 and up, each in the Publix Greenwise department!!! So I picked up one of each for myself and for my mom (Merry Christmas Mom!) I was talking to a worker there and she was telling me they get a lot of organic goods there, so it might be worth a scope out if there’s one by you!

Food/ “Recipe”

Anyway! I used the Green Garlic dressing in our dinner from Monday night. My mom had a ton of huge Swai fillets (it’s a fish, also known as Basa Fish), so she gave a couple to Ross and I to take back with us. The fillets were so big, I split one in 3 pieces (2 used in dinner, 1 in Ross’ lunch the next day). I coated each piece in the Green Garlic dressing, then lightly dipped it in bread crumbs and cooked it in a skillet over medium heat with a small amount of EVOO. (I don’t know how much, I use a Misto sprayer and just sprayed the bottom and then sprayed again whenever it got stuck). When the fish was done I drizzled a little more of the Green Garlic dressing on top of the fillet (which by the way was one of the most tender pieces of fish I have ever tasted!).

I served them with peas (frozen, that I pretty much killed when I nuked them way too long!) and homemade mashed potatoes, yum! (The mashed potatoes = 3 white potatoes, peels on, cooked until fork-tender, mashed with a couple tablespoons of fat free sour cream, a tiny bit of butter, garlic powder, and a pinch of kosher salt). I had to test this out because I’m making this for a holiday party that I’m going to with hubs on Friday night (a 5 lb. bag of white potatoes is $1.99 at Publix!).

Christmas Decorating

I know I’ve been promising pictures of our decorating, so here are a few sneak peaks. There are no cute pictures of us newlyweds in front of the tree yet, because, well, to be honest, I felt I looked like crap last night and didn’t feel like looking cute (read: I was comfy in my sweats). So here are a few pictures from our tree.

Full of all sorts of pretty golds and reds. (Which is kind of ironic because we bought our ornaments sporadically last year in post-Christmas sales and some this year pre-Christmas sales, and we totally weren’t trying to be matchy-matchy).

And LOOK! Jack Frost decided to decorate for Christmas too!!

Check out all that frost on my neighbor’s SUV! Big deal! This doesn’t happen very often in Florida, folks!

Well I need to go be productive. Expect an entire Christmas related post in the future…pictures of all our decorations, us being cute newlyweds celebrating Christmas, new traditions, cookie baking/ decorating with friends, and more!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!