Give Aways Galore!

So turns out, I'm not the only one into give aways. Tomorrow, in an effort to remind people to bring in their own mugs and reduce their carbon foot print, bring any reusable coffee tumbler to a Starbucks and they'll fill it with coffee, FOR FREE!! Nice!! Perfect treat to start off tax day, and, if you're like me, your tank is nearly on empty come Thursday, so it's a nice pick me up.
And now, onto my big give away! This is a product, I'm reallllly excited about. I found them about two months ago at Whole Foods and have been hooked every since, Luna Protein bars. According to Luna Bar's website: "LUNA Bar, the entirely natural whole nutrition bar for women, was created to meet the special needs of our bodies" Well, that's awesome for us gals, and I think they taste pretty freaking good too, whether it be the protein bars or the standard bars. And really, you don't have to be a woman to eat these. I gave one to my co-worker Eddie once before telling him it was made for women, he didn't know the difference, (I mean, is there an alarm that goes off that a guy gives up their man card when they eat one of these??) and he really enjoyed it, even after I told him it was a nutrition bar formulated especially for women.

Anyway, here's the stats on the Cookie Dough flavor of Luna Protein
Bars (my favorite):
Calories 180
Calories from fat 60
Total Fat 6g
Sat. Fat 4g
Total Carb. 21g
Dietary Fiber 3g
Sugars 15g
Protein 12g

Today, I'll be giving away a six pack of these Cookie Dough Luna Protein Bars:
Here are the ways you can enter to win:
1. Follow me on Twitter, @AlexaTC, and retweet this message, "@AlexaTC is sponsoring a Luna Protein Bar Give Away, check it out! http://tinyurl.com/ydepu9y" then, leave me a comment with a link to your tweet
2. Go to www.lunabar.com and comment below to tell me what flavor of Luna Bars (protein or regular) you want to try, or already is your favorite
3. Let me know when you will enjoy these Luna Protein bars and how they'll help you get or maintain your health (I eat mine as a mid-morning snack or after a workout).

So, there are three separate ways you can win!

Here is the fine print: This give away is open U.S. Residents only. Entries must be received by Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. CST. A Winner will be announced on Monday, April 19, 2010 and the winner has until Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. CST to contact me, otherwise a new winner will be picked. The winner will be picked at random.

Food, Food, & Give Away Preview!!

Last week I took my cousin Joanna's advice and hit up Costco for a big jar of Almond Butter, If you remember, I tried this last month for the first time, yum! Getting the Almond Butter out of the store turned out to be a challenge after I dropped the first jar I grabbed smack on the floor and the glass shattered, and the creamy butter splattered everywhere. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture, I guess I was too mortified trying to find an employee to help me out. Anyway, buying the Almond Butter there was the best deal I've found, the huge jar from there was the same price (roughly $7.50) as a small jar at Target. It tasted great on my apples as an afternoon snack yesterday at work. =)

If you're like me, you're always looking for new dinner ideas, and if you're really like, you get stuck in a chicken rut. I was in one last week, big time. It doesn't help that I buy bags of chicken breasts from Costco (again, love that wholesaler!), but seriously, how much chicken can one eat?! So tonight, I tried something different, I bought some marinated beef tips and cooked them in a pan with a little bit of oil and steamed some mixed veggies to make this stir fry.
It was delicious, filling, low carb, easy to make, and not chicken!! What a GREAT change. It took about 10 minutes to make, and Ben was raving about it too. If you're in the Twin Cities area, I bought the beef tips from the meat counter at the Lunds in Uptown, and they weren't badly prices, used about a half pound for two of us.

More blog excitement in my neck of the woods, yesterday I won a dozen deep chocolate VitaTops through a give away over at A Fit and Spicy Life, Mellissa's blog! Mellissa and I met at the PFG meet up in February, she sat at the same table as Cindy, Sarah and I. Mellissa writes about her exercise, dining out, cooking, and home adventures, check it out!

I'm a big fan of blog giveaways, it's such an awesome, exciting feeling when you win, and a great way to try a new product, risk free! That said, tomorrow there will be a fabulous give away right here on the blog, so stay tuned so you can be the next big winner!!

She's Out Of My League!!

What a great weekend it's been! I'm starting to feel like, maybe, just maybe, spring is actually here and there won't be anymore snow or wiping winds, can't speak too soon though!

This weekend we didn't have a lot planned, but still ended up doing a lot of stuff, I love weekends like this.

Last night, tried out a new restaurant I had heard good reviews of called Piccolo in Minneapolis. As I've stated before, I'm all about trying new restaurants lately. Well, Piccolo describes on their website that they have "moderate" portions, moderate?? moderate?? I don't think my dog could get full off one portion of their food. Ben and I each ordered the gnocchi, and when the server said, "OK, gnocchi to start?" as his response we both were a bit puzzled, but then figured it out when five, that's right FIVE gnocchi showed up on our plate. Don't get me wrong, the gnocchi was delicious, it came with a wonderful pistachio sauce, but it wasn't near enough to get me full. So, I ordered a piece of cheesecake the size of a saltine and been ordered some pork the size of a golf ball, again, tasted great, but we got more full off the bread basket (and I think they figured it out when they refilled it for a third time), then the regular meal. Moral of the story, we ended up getting sandwiches at Fusion (formally Zeno) in Uptown afterward. If you haven't checked out their remodel, do it! We sat in the lounge on comfortable couches and it was great.

Today Ben and I really decided to soak up the day together. Things have been so busy lately, we haven't had many days like this. We started out the day taking Cooper to the park by our house, and then went to an area coffee shop and enjoyed their deck, and their waffles. Lazy Sundays like today where we can do this are just perfect. This picture isn't too great with the sun, but you can see a delicious waffle and a happy Cooper.
We wrapped up today by going to see, "She's Out of My League" down at Block E (p.s. why is everything closing in there!?!). Oh MAN, this movie was funny. Two thumbs WAY up! I don't know why this hasn't done better at the box office.
Through pretty much the whole last 10 minutes of this movie, I could not stop laughing-- good thing there were only three other people besides us in the theater and two of them were too busy making out to even know what was going on. There are some classic one liners in this movie, if you can still find it in a theater, check it out!

Did I forget to mention I got in a 7+ mile run this weekend, woo hoo! Ran the green way to the new Twins stadium and back and determined I should start riding my bike to work some this summer, it's so easy! I wish I would have taken a picture on the run, but I didn't, so I promise to on the next long run.

How to make a Chick Flick

Are you a sucker for chick flicks? (I'm raising my hand here). Do you sob over Nicholas Sparks novels? (I've only read A Walk to Remember, but it made me misty). Then you MUST check this out. A guy at work sent this to me, and it so dang funny. Not a lot of creativity coming from these movie makers, or Mr. Sparks it seems, but I guess the box office dollars keep rolling in, so why mess with success?!?

This week, I dedicated myself to working out EVERY day this week Sunday through Sunday, and so far so good! I've booked a lot of workout dates with other people, so that is really helping, having a workout buddy makes SUCH a difference. I took a buddy to spin class, met another for a run and tonight Ben and I headed to the gym together. We had planned to do a kickboxing class, but the teacher was late, and rude... I won't go into details, so anyway, I did the elliptical and then stepped on this evil machine:
Oh man, what a workout, I don't sweat a lot, but I was dripping, front of my shirt soaked through. The stair climber gets me every time, if you need to pump up your cardio, check it out!

Also, an update from our Pop Chips contest winner Amy!! Here she is with her winnings:

Now, I don't condone that University of Iowa shirt (I'm a Gopher through and through!), but I'm so pumped for Amy and her winnings. The good people at Pop Chips did better than they said, and sent her a whole CASE of snack size bags of chips in different flavors, YUM!

I'm thinking it may be time for another yummy give away in the near future, stay tuned!

What makes a runner, a runner?

Fellow Runners (and wanna be runners),

Please read this article. It came out last fall, and Ben's cousin Annie pointed it out to me. Both Annie and I consider ourselves runners (it took a long time for me to embrace this title and say, yes, I am a runner), but neither of us have Boston Marathon qualifying times. We run for fun, for stress relief, for exercise, and to accomplish a goal. Personally, I run about a 12ish minute mile. Am I going to go the Olympics? No. Can I finish a half marathon and still be standing?? Heck yes! (As documented below while running the Monster Half on October 31, that's me in the Orange with the killer socks!)
So, if you're a runner like me, who loves to run, but isn't Michael Johnson, give this article (and the comments) a look, and tell me what you think. According to some in the running community, I'm not a runner, but instead a "plodder."

When I first read this article, I was steaming mad, but after reading the comments I was renewed that cocky runners are the minority, not the majority. We need to remember, it's not about how fast you go, it's that you're out there! You're running while others are on the couch, you're running when you could have easily stayed home! PLUS, with all this talk of health care lately, let's remember that the more active and healthy Americans are (no matter how fast they are) the cheaper our insurance premiums will be! (Stepping off my soap box now)

And Speaking of being healthy, Jen over at Prior Fat Girl has challenge for all of us on April 20th, check it out. I'm in, are you in?!?!?!

Another Manic Monday

What a great way to start my week, last night I found out I won a giveaway on my pal Cindy Elizabeth's blog for the new Hungry Girl 123 Cookbook, awesome! I had been contemplating buying this book, so this is great. I will report back on any yummy recipes I try out from here. If you haven't checked out Cindy's blog, you must. She's currently getting herself in shape through a "Couch to 5K" program and also is co-organizer of our walking group that starts next month (yes, next month is May, scary!).

This week, I tried a great new bar, and I had to share. I've tried Lara Bars in the past, and loved them, but Lara's Key Lime Pie bar, is absolutely delicious. It has a perfect flair of lime, along with a hint of coconut and of course the nuts that are mixed in for protein.
At 220 calories, the Key Lime Pie bar is a bit of a hefty snack, but it will keep you full in between lunch and dinner in my experience. The best thing about Lara Bars, is that they're all natural, you can pronounce everything on the label! For instance, their Cherry Pie bar that's currently sitting in my snack drawer has the following ingredients: Dates, Almonds and Unsweetened Cherries. They are also Gluten, Dairy and Soy free if you live by one of those diets.

Whipped up a favorite recipe last week that I have to share with you all, Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins off Spark Recipes, YUM! These are easy, and make a great breakfast on the run. At 93.5 calories per muffin, and how moist they are, I'm sold on these. I made them one night after dinner last week, it was easy, even for weeknight baking.

Pre-Oven Muffin Mix
Yummy Completed Muffins!

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post, that at my shower this weekend, everyone included a favorite recipe of theirs with their gift, score! I'm a huge fan of new recipes (if you can't tell), and I can't wait to report back to you on how they turn out. There are ones for brownies and chocolate peanut butter cookies, and also dinner items like Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken and a Fresh Tomato Pasta.

Weekend Wrap Up

I am pretty much spent this Sunday evening, so this will be a short, but sweet post, my readers. First of all, spring has sprung, and so have my allergies, oof-da! Are anyone else's allergies being a beast? As much as I love to see the buds on the trees this early, they're giving my respiratory system a run for it's money. This weekend, I was also in Wisconsin, so I think being where there's more nature, and farther south where things are budding even more didn't help either.

This weekend started out on the right note, going to Body Pump class, which turned out to be a blogger party! With Meghan as our instructor, Jen, Mary and I were all at the class and we got our butts kicked!
Kudos to Jen for committing to do this class with me, if it weren't for meeting her there, there was no way I would have dragged myself there at the end of the work week.

After class, Ben and I headed to Wisco for my first bridal shower, put on by my Maid of Honor Ashley and her mom Kathy for all of my family and family friends, it was a GREAT time! I'm so used to attending these showers, or helping organize them, that I wasn't sure how to handle the role of the bride. Everyone was so generous with their gifts, and traveling from near and far for the shower though, I feel very lucky to have such nice people supporting Ben and I as we get prepare for our marriage.

Opening an awesome over the sink Cutting Board & Colander, so excited to use this!

With the Best Maid of Honor ever!

The weekend wrapped up with a wonderful Easter with family and driving back home to the Twin Cities (and realizing that pretty much EVERY restaurant and grocery store is closed on Easter around here, it's nuts!).

I got in a 2.75 mile run tonight, not great, but I got out there, and didn't let my allergies beat me. Here's hoping the rain over the next two days will wipe out some of the allergens in the air. If it's going to be crappy weather, it may as well serve a purpose!

This week, I'm stepping up my Minneapolis Half Marathon training... it's time to get it on, stay tuned for details. =) Have a great Monday!