Last night, as soon as I got home I changed my clothes, laced up my running shoes, and headed out the door for a 3 mile jog.  I thought about doing 4, but with the heat being so hot I thought 3 today and 4 on Wednesday.

After taking a week long hiatus from running I was ready to jump back into a routine this week, heat and all!

I ran 3 miles with an 8 minute and 30 second pace, not too bad considering the weather!

Dinner

Dinner then came together in just 20 short minutes.  I simply roasted some green beans and reheated a salmon burger patty that my mom left me with from the weekend.

I topped the burger and dipped the green beans in a mixture of Greek yogurt, dill seasoning, and a little garlic salt.  The dill makes the dip taste so fresh and light!  Perfect for a summer meal after a hot and sweaty run.

Homemade Luna Bars (based on the recipe by Chocolate Covered Katie)

Luna bars have always been a favorite snack of mine.  Easy to throw in the bag and tasty.  I have been eyeing this recipe for a while now and I am so glad that I tried it!  The recipe is very simple, it comes together quickly and tastes amazing!  A perfect treat-like snack for anytime of the day.

Ingredients

• 3 cups brown puffed rice cereal 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
• 2 Tbsp of protein powder
• melted chocolate chips

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the vanilla, salt, agave and peanut butter and melt together in the microwave.  In a large bowl, combine the puffed rice cereal and the protein powder.

Pour the peanut butter mixture over the puffed rice cereal and mix well.  Use a potato masher to mash everything down, squashing some of the rice puffs.

Place a piece of wax paper down in a baking pan.  Spread the mixture in the baking pan and press down firmly.  Melt the chocolate chips and spread on the top of the bars.  Freeze for about 30 minutes or more before removing to serve!

Enjoy!

Nutrition (recipe makes about 20 bars)

Calories:  122  Fat:  6.6g  Carbs:  11.3g  Protein:  5.8g

Breakfast

This morning, I had a new flavor of baked oatmeal….

Strawberries and cream baked oatmeal!  It ended up turning out pretty good, but I had a little kitchen mishap so the measurements got kind of wacko…so no recipe. 

Over the weekend my mom gave me a kind of stevia that is extremely strong compared to the regular stuff.  In my recipe, I added 1 Tbsp for 4 servings not thinking that was a lot…well that was wrong, completely wrong!  So, I continued to add more and more of each ingredient in hopes to cover up some of the strong stevia taste.  Thankfully, I figured out a winning combo (not sure what it is though!) so I didn’t have to waste the entire batch of baked oats.

Question of the Morning:

• What kitchen mess up have you had lately?