African Bar and Grill and Ginger Beer!

Happy Friday to you all! Are you excited it’s Friday? Did you have yourself a fabulous week? I’m excited it’s Friday, but I did have the day off yesterday since I work Saturday….so I guess it doesn’t really feel like a typical Friday to me. I had a great and relaxing day off yesterday. It began by taking a 5.5 mile speed walk! It started as  I’ll just walk to here, but I wanted to see where the path went, so I went to the road, and then I saw I was only 1 mile away from the city park, and then I got to the city park and wanted to walk around the lake….so that’s what I did with my amazing and wonderful walking buddy, Telli! It’s a good thing I was trying to walk fast, as it seemed to make Telli feel like she wasn’t pulling as hard…but man, that was tough hanging on to her for that long!

           

 

It was a great morning for a walk, a little humid, but cooler and cloudier than most mornings we have had lately! I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of Telli at the lake. It was hilarious and I’m sure the crowd enjoyed watching me maneuver Telli. I don’t quite trust Telli off-leash yet, and technically she’s not supposed to be off leash anyway, but I really wanted to just let her play in the lake. She was only wearing her 6 foot leash, and she so badly wanted to jump and play through the water, but I was trying not to get myself pulled in…too bad no one had us on video, that would’ve been a Friday funny! 🙂

Needless to say, by the time I got back home I was starving! I hadn’t eaten anything yet, as I didn’t think I was going to go that far…..so I put Telli on the patio and made myself a delicious breakfast of Fage yogurt, raspberries, bananas and walnuts! It was so deliciously refreshing!

 

I was really hoping the sun was going to peak out-so I could get some pool time in on my day off! No sun ever came out, so I thought, well why not, I’ll just go down and chill in the hot tub. God must’ve really known how much I wanted to go in the pool. As soon as I got the pool the clouds cleared and it was sunny, blue skis for about 1.5 hours!!! Woo-hoo!!!! Sunny pool time for me!

Telli was wiped when I got back, she didn’t move for a long time…..she’s so cuuute!

 

Dinner

We had dinner plans, and we were so excited! Our friends are moving to Kenya, Africa next week! It’s crazy, we just met them 8 months ago and have been there since they first got the thought, to the many prayers to the packing up and leaving for Africa! They are going over there to help with the Agape International ministry  organization, and they don’t have a time frame of coming back yet…..They are buying a car, house, everything over there! What a great testament of faith it has been to see them go through with this process!

Anyway, we made dinner plans with them to go to an African restaurant! It was a drive for all of us, in a part of town that we’ll just say isn’t the best part of town. After some traffic issues we arrived to a little hole-in-the-wall, authentic African Grill and Bar! We were immediately greeted by Osei (I think that’s how he spelled it). He is originally from Ghana and was explaining to us how the restaurant came about and that they are expanding and building another one about 20 miles away! There were three couples and we had to wait 20 minutes for the final couple to get there…..but don’t worry, we were entertained by Osei! He explained the ENTIRE menu! I was very grateful to see him explain what we were looking at….but he gave stories, told us of what the people in Africa did to make some of the different dishes, etc….WAAAAY in-depth explanation of the menu. It was interesting to hear for sure! By the time the final couple got there, we were only on the second page of the 3 page menu in explanation. We tried some appetizers of Keleweleh (not sure on spelling) It was fried plantains with peanuts! Very delicious and would get again. We also ordered some Chicken and Goat Kabobs and our dinners. I got to try ginger beer! I heard so much about it and it was just as delicious as what people have told me! It was very sweet, gingery and delicious!

 

My dinner, I don’t remember what it was, but in english it was “flat pancakes and beef stew.”

 

The “flat pancakes” were delicious! I ate them right up. They kind of had the texture of a crepe, the taste of a sweet tortilla chip and were perfect to dip in the beef stew. The stew was ok….nothing to crazy or flavorful. One of the guys ordered Fufu (Smashed plantain with soup and chicken), it looked so good! I want to go back just to try that…I’m sorry, I didn’t get a picture…but I promise we’ll go back to try it!

Well I think that sums it up, enjoy your Friday and weekend!!!!

❤ God Bless

 

 

Brrrrr…..

Good morning!!!!! It’s SOOO cold outside! Nate said it was -2 out!

Recap of yesterday afternoon….

I can’t believe it was 2 degrees yesterday and today!! After cleaning and baking all day, I was pretty cooped up and wanted to get out of the house, but the roads were kind of bad so I didn’t want to travel down to Denver. So what do you do in Evergreen to get out of the house when it’s freezing out? Go to Starbucks, Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

mmmm…a Chai Tea Latte never tasted so good on such a blustery, cold Tuesday afternoon!

I saw a commercial a little while ago for Vaseline Spray&Go lotion–and ever since, I’ve wanted to try it! I have this weird thing that I hate putting on lotion, but then my skin turns dry and I kick myself not putting the stupid lotion on. So needless to say, when I saw this cool spray lotion, I had to try it! I’ll let you know how it works!

Of course when I go to Wal-mart, it’s like going to Target.. but not as bad…I can’t buy just one thing. Here are my fun purchases of the day! The spray lotion, a plastic mason jar water bottle kind-of thing…super cute, and “I lilac you” nail polish! It’s the little things in life that sometimes bring a smile to my face–especially on a cold day!:) New things!

Isn’t the nail polish a pretty color? And a fun name! Perfect for spring!

For dinner we made delicious Spaghetti Squash again! I guess the squash was on sale at the store–we have made a lot with squash lately, but it’s so good and it’s so good for you and it’s so easy to make! Much better than using pasta for Spaghetti!

And then it was time to catch up on recorded shows..my guilty pleasure Kim & Kourtney take on Miami and the remainder of the ACM’s that we fell asleep to the other night. Telli must have been cold after coming in from outside because all she wanted was to snuggle with her daddy….and when I say snuggle, I mean sit on his lap! 🙂 Love her….and him!

And now for the workout this morning…..

I did a circuit workout off of Jillian Michaels 30-day shred video! I like to mix it up between workouts I make for myself, and someone telling me what to do. Jillian is able to motivate me through the TV, I couldn’t even imagine having her in my face during a workout! I love this 30 minute shred, it’s a great circuit workout. I did 3 sets of — 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, 1 minute abs. And Jillian doesn’t let you break–which I love!

Well hope you all have a great day, and if your in line of this cold and crazy weather-stay safe and warm!

Next up–WIAW (What I ate Wednesday)

Finish the sentence: It is freezing outside, so I am going to……..

❤ God Bless

COLD+SNOW=DAY INSIDE

I just looked at the clock at saw it is, 12:00….so good afternoon to you all! A “supposed to be” massive blizzard is traveling around the Denver metro right now. I’m saying supposedly because I’m still waiting for the snow to really hit! But the amount of snow so far is keeping me inside enjoying the views from my windows!

I woke up this morning, and because its my day off, I let myself sleep in for a little while-after waking up to let Telli outside. It was a perfect morning to snuggle with the comforter because it was SO cold outside and I left the window open a little bit. I know I’m weird, but I like to have the window open and sleep while the tip of my noes stays cool! I think the forecasters said it was -2 with wind chill this morning. I laid around with Nate (he got to work from home today!) enjoying our coffee and watching the news. It was a wonderful way to relax!

Nate got to work, and I decided it was time to get to work myself! I sorted 7…yes SEVEN piles of laundry…oooffta and changed into my workout wear.

Workout Today:

I started writing down my workouts before I go to bed. Then when I wake up, I already know what I am going to do and how long it is going to take. I have a plan! Last night I must’ve been feeling very ambitious! I was going to do a killer leg workout….but I had to switch it up a little bit, because after only my first set of squats, my knee was hurting….so here was my “insta-workout!”

4 min warm-up on the treadmill.

followed by 20 min of intervals. (1 minute running followed by 1 minute speed walking)

Workout Yesterday:

Well, on this cool winter day I’ve got something delicious baking in the oven. You’ll have to check back to see what’s cookin’! 🙂

Do you have a plan for what you do to work-out? or just go for it?

❤ God Bless