Good Monday Morning!

I hope that ya’ll had an excellent weekend!

The BOY and I were super low key, which meant that I was in bed every night between 10-11pm and sleeping until 8am.  I must say 9+ hours of sleep per night does a lot for your energy levels.  I am feeling refreshed after a crazy work week and ready to tackle the day.  This is easy for me to say, remember, because I don’t work on Mondays : )

 

 

My first job was to tackle breakfast.  For me breakfast is the hardest meal of the day to figure out on Passover.  I didn’t prep anything last night and just wasn’t in the mood to make pancakes.  Smoothies for breakfast don’t typically fill me up (especially since I couldn’t add oats), but I decided to try making a hearty Chocolate Almond Butter and Banana Green Smoothie.

 

 

Mostly because I had the ingredients in the house and because a smoothie sounded refreshing this morning.

 

 

I may have gone a little overboard in an attempt to fuel myself through this mornings workout, so feel free to adjust ingredient quantities as desired.  I will tell you that this smoothie comes out thick which is perfect to sip slowly while you check email and prepare for the day ahead.

 

 

I was able to find a similar recipe on the blog for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Green Smoothie.  It was just over 1 year ago, and I can’t believe it was warm enough for me to exercise in the back yard!!!

 

 

After breakfast, it was off to tackle ‘Barbara’…

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

 

 

I chose to do ‘Barbara Lite’ as recommended for those doing CrossFit less than 2 months.  I think I’m right at that 2 month cusp, but 150 pushups just seemed, what’s the word…oh yeah, impossible!

 

Barbara Lite

10 Pull-ups (I used the green band)

20 Push-ups

30 Sit-ups

40 squats

5 rounds with precisely 3 minutes rest in between each round.

 

This was a really challenging workout but thus far one of my favorites.  No heavy weights to lift and a busy group of people getting their work done while cheering each other on.  I may feel differently in the morning when I can’t move…I’ll let you know.

 

 

The last task of the day (because I got a lot of laundry and boring house stuff done yesterday) was meal planning.  And this week’s planning was fairly simple.  Tomorrow night is the end of Passover and the BOY will be ordering a pizza the moment he walks in the door with or without me.  Plus, I have dinner plans for Thursday.  I wanted to make a Sweet Potato and Kale Soup today for lunch this week, but the grocery store was out of one ingredient and a few others didn’t look so fresh, so I scratched that idea.

 

Sunday: Beer Can Chicken

 

Monday: Grilled Flounder with Broccoli (Hooray for grilling season!)

 

Tuesday: Pizza for the BOY/Thai Veggie Burgers for Me

 

Wednesday: Grilled Garlic Pepper Shrimp (from the BOY’s BBQ book)

 

Thursday: Out to Eat

 

Friday: As always, we shall play it by ear

 

Lunch: Strawberry Balsamic Quinoa Salad

Snack: Coconut Fudge Balls

 

 

Do you drink smoothies for breakfast?

What is your favorite one?

Anyone play an April Fool’s prank today?

 

 

 

Chocolate Almond Butter

and Banana Green Smoothie

Ingredients

1 handful of kale

1 banana, chopped

1 cup of almond milk

2 tbsp (14g) of cacao powder

1 tbsp (10 g) ground flax seed

2 tbsp (32 g) of almond butter

Ice

 

Directions

Place all ingredients except ice in the blender.  Combine well.  Add ice and blend to desired consistency.