It’s Monday Already?

This weekend was a little bit backwards from how my weekends normally go – mostly because of the weather.  Saturday started off cloudy and rainy, and I had to go into work for a few hours in the morning, so I decided to get all my weekly chores out of the way right off the bat.

After work, I headed straight to the gym to get in one more workout for the week.  Being at the Y on a Saturday morning between 9 and 11 is really not fun to me because of how crowded it gets, but luckily by the time I was finishing up, it was clearing out.

Despite the crowds, I do love Saturday workouts because they often mean I can spend as long as I want in the gym.  I can move slower, spend more time on things I want to work on, and practically get as much in as I feel like with nothing pressing to rush off to.  That’s definitely how it went this weekend, and it was good to spend some extra time stretching and working on some new moves that I’ve been trying to master. 

Here’s what my Saturday workout looked like:

1. Warm-up + stretch
2. Back squats:
1. 12 @ 95#; 10 @ 105#; 8 @ 135#; 5 @ 155#
2. 5×3: 185#; 155#; 135#; 105#; 95#
3. 15×3 @ 35#:
1. Shoulder press
2. Upright rows
4. Front squats: 5×5 @ 95#
5. 1 Snatch + 5 Overhead squats x10 @ 55#
6. Squat cleans: 5×5 @ 553
7. Sumo deadlift high pulls: 5×5 @ 55#
8. RDLs: 5×5 @ 55#
9. Snatch drills

After my long workout, I headed home to clean my apartment and do my laundry, stopping for lunch in between.  I wanted Mexican, so I cooked up chicken and peppers in a pan on the stove with chili powder and cumin, and had some chips and salsa on the side.

The rest of the day was spent shopping for new workout pants (found a pair at TJ Maxx) and running errands.  And while I was out… all I was thinking about was pizza.  I haven’t had pizza in quite a while, so I was thinking about stopping to pick one up, when the idea hit me: cauliflower crust pizza.  I’d been wanting to try it out for a while, and with some time to kill and a craving for pizza, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  It came out absolutely wonderful too, so I’ll definitely be sharing the recipe later this week.

I woke up early on Sunday and started the day off with a big batch of extra-green spinach banana pancakes with syrup, berries, and bacon.  I’m not quite sure what went wrong this time, but they all stuck to the pan and it was rather devastating.  Luckily they were still delicious (even if they weren’t that pretty), but I think it might be time to buy a new, non-burnt pan…

After breakfast, I hurried off to meet up with a couple friends to hike Mt. Monadnock.  It was the absolute perfect day for a hike – sunny and warm but not brutally hot. 

Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea as we did because the parking lot was packed, but luckily the trail didn’t feel crowded at all.  We took a trail I’d never done before, which seemed far less-traveled than the main one, and we only passed by a few other groups the entire time. 

The clear skies made for picturesque views all around, and I took it all in from the top.  I’m severely directionally-challenged, but on a clear day, they say you can see Boston from the summit. 

How lucky am I to live in such a beautiful place?!  (The correct answer would be: pretty dang lucky.)  I absolutely love it here. 

Once we made it back to the base, I headed home and spent a couple hours out lounging by the pool at my apartment.  It wasn’t quite warm enough for me to want to take a dip, but it was nice to get a little sun.

And the last stop of the day was the kitchen for some meal prep.  Since I did groceries on Friday, my fridge is absolutely filled to the brim with food… Chicken, steak, eggs, fruits, and veggies galore!

This week, I decided to take the easy route and make one batch of meatloaf filling and turn it into two different types of meals.  Sometimes I make a meatloaf that lasts me practically an entire week, but I’m so sick of it after a few days that I’m shoving it in just to keep from wasting it. 

To avoid that, I combined a pound of ground turkey, two plum tomatoes, one green pepper, one egg, about 1/4 cup of almond flour, and a couple tablespoons of tomato paste (ingredients: tomatoes), to make the base.  Then, I put half of it into a loaf pan and topped it with bacon, and made half of it into meatballs.  I baked both in the oven, cooked up some green beans to go with the meatloaf, and peppers to go with the meatballs (I’ll probably add fresh spinach when I actually eat them), and voila – two very different meals. 

I don’t usually add tomato paste to my meatloaf, but I tried it out for dinner last night, and I think it was a great choice.  I had it leftover from Saturday’s pizza, and it definitely gave the meatloaf an extra kick and made it nice and moist. 

I also had quite a few bananas laying around, so I made a batch of banana bread muffins using three bananas, six eggs, about 1/3 cup (maybe?) of almond flour, a big tablespoon of coconut flower, a pinch of baking soda and baking powder, four teaspoons of coconut oil, and a crapload of cinnamon.  (I’m so precise, I know.)  Since the loaf pan was occupied with the meatloaf, I used my individual brownie pan, and they came out wonderful.  It made six pretty large muffins, which would be perfect for either breakfast or dessert!

So between working and spending too much time at the gym and shopping and cooking and hiking and napping by the pool… this weekend certainly flew by.  Sometimes though – like in this case – that’s the sign of a really good weekend, so you won’t hear me complaining.  We’ve only got so many summer weekends to enjoy, and I think I’m off to a good start!

Questions:

What did you meal prep for this week?

What did you do this weekend?

Do you like hiking?