WIAW: The Wrong Ice Cream!

March 29, 2017March 28, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Today is Wednesday. But it feels like Thursday…which is good, because I’m off Friday for a bachelorette party so today is technically my Thursday as well. It’s pseudo-Thursday because tomorrow (Thursday) is my Friday. Make sense?

Okay, enough confusion. Today’s What I Ate Wednesday features some pretty good food, including treats from a new Mexican restaurant. And some mislabeled ice cream – which I’ve never seen happen before! Here we go…

Breakfast was a smoothie – it’s pretty ugly I know, but it was delicious. It was berry, banana, spinach, oats and brewers yeast.

Lunch was out with some of my coworkers! We went to a new Mexican place in the neighborhood and I had chicken fajitas – they were delicious. The chips and salsa that came with the meal were really good too. The best part? The food came super fast AND I had leftovers!

For a snack, I had some strawberries and pineapple.

And some homemade nut butter.

Dinner that night was great – it was a veggie burger, corn bread (there were more pieces eaten than this one) and a quinoa salad I made – it was quinoa, asparagus, peas, broccoli and feta.

For dessert, I had bought Mitchell’s peanut butter chocolate chunk ice cream at the store. Imagine my surprise when I opened up the pint and it was NOT the right ice cream! That, my friends, is a chocolate ice cream- not peanut butter. 😦 Luckily B likes chocolate ice cream but I was pretty bummed it wasn’t the one I was jonesing for. I guess it got mislabeled?

I ended up finishing off the day with some Halo Top instead (unpictured). And B enjoyed the ice cream 🙂

Some questions for you for today’s What I Ate Wednesday:

Do you like chocolate ice cream? No! Ick.
Have you ever opened up a food item only to find it wasn’t what you were looking for/expecting?

Training Tuesday: Twilight on the Treadmill

March 28, 2017March 25, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 7 Comments

Now that March is coming to an end, racing season really is here. All the signs of racing season are in the air – the weather’s getting warmer, Boston is just a few weeks away (not for me – but for my running friends) and I even got in an outside run this week!

I had a GREAT week training wise. I ended up at more mileage this week than I have in quite some time, mainly because I did my long run Saturday instead of Sunday this week, bringing my miles to more than 30 for the week!

Sunday: 7.7 treadmill miles. I had 7 on the schedule and I was a little nervous about it. The weather was cold, misty/snow/icy out and I was not feeling like going outside, so I hit up the treadmill again. I tried to find a movie to watch that I could download from Netflix or Amazon and came across Twilight. I’ve never seen any of the movies or read the books so I decided to give it a try – it was definitely entertaining enough to keep me running for 1:10 and then a cool down – which got me to 7.7.

Monday: NOTHING. I had a cross training day planned, but FW had other plans – he woke up at midnight and didn’t get back to sleep until after 3-3:30 a.m. Which meant that I didn’t get to sleep until after 3:30 a.m. and couldn’t bare to set my alarm for 1.5 hours later- I decided to “sleep in” until 7 and not get in my cross training.

Tuesday: 5.75 miles on the treadmill. After Monday’s day off, Tuesday my legs felt great! I had 3.5 on the schedule but felt good enough to keep going and did 5 before stopping to cool down.

Wednesday: Speed training day! 35 minutes tempo run and cool down=5 miles on the treadmill. I was SO SO SO tired Wednesday morning that a tempo run sounded AWFUL. Thank goodness for Netflix -I managed to get in my 35 minutes and a little bit more, thanks to finishing up Twilight.

Thursday: 5 miles on the treadmill. I had 3 on the schedule but wanted to watch an entire episode of The Walking Dead. That gave me 4ish and then with my warmup and cooldown I was at 5.

Friday: None – rest day!

Saturday: 8.12 miles OUTSIDE. I had 8 on the schedule for Sunday but since I knew I was booked most of Sunday (including starting the day early with a bridal brunch) so decided to get in my long run on Saturday.

I hadn’t run outside in ages and since it was 50 degrees, I decided to head out for a run. It felt good to be outside, but HARD. I had to stop twice, but I did take some pictures on the run.

And that was it for the week – ending with a total of 31.64 miles!

Some questions for you:

How do you do tempo runs? Inside? Outside? Usually inside on the treadmill unless I have someone to get me moving faster outside. Inside I write down minute-by-minute my speed goals and put it on the treadmill with me!
What’s a good movie to watch on a treadmill to kill some time?

Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

Spring Weekends, One Sentence Per Photo

March 26, 2017March 26, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 8 Comments

We started off the weekend with some time outside swinging.

Playground time was followed by dinner out at Boaz, a fast and delicious local Lebanese place.

And when it’s 75 degrees, you always finish the meal off with ice cream.

Mitchell’s is the best.

Peanut butter frozen yogurt for me, regular plain (non-frozen) yogurt for FW.

It really was a gorgeous night.

Saturday started off with a long run (for me)- 8 miles.

When it’s 50 degrees at 9:30 a.m. you take advantage of the weather and it was my first outside run in ages!

The rest of the day entailed a trip to the Market (for our weekly groceries), Gallucis (for pizza supplies) and Asiatown (for candy!).

When your baby sleeps in the afternoon, you have time to meal prep!

Preparing for a bridal brunch means baking granola.

Fact: Homemade pepperoni pizza with fresh basil is the best.

Sunday brunch with homemade lox is the BEST.

I love these ladies!!

These cupcakes and cookies were amazing.

Me and the bride-to-be!

And we finished up the day with dinner with B’s family. Sadly, no pictures😐
Some questions for you:

Did you get to spend some time outside this weekend?
Do you like lox?

I’m linking up with Katie and the weekly wraps.

WIAW: Bacon and Brinner

March 22, 2017March 18, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

Woowoo, WEDNESDAY is here! And today’s What I Ate Wednesday post features BACON. No need for any intro, onto today’s WIAW eats.

The day started with a small strawberry mango spinach broccoli smoothie – I made a smoothie for B and FW and had a little glass for myself.

I ate breakfast at work – you can see the ugly smoothie in the background (it looked prettier in the Vitamix), along with my egg white brewer’s yeast oats. And a few nuts sprinkled on.

I was really craving fruit that morning, so I also jammed on pear and a cutie.

And then my mid-morning snack was an apple and cashews.

Lunch was this DELICIOUS giant bowl of veggies. Roasted purple Brussels sprouts, broccoli and sweet potato. And some peas and a little bit of pork.

Again, more fruit – in the afternoon I had some cantaloupe and blood orange.

And more nuts! As I got home, I knew B was coming home late so I ate some honey roasted peanuts. That and some peanut butter held me over until 8’ish when we had dinner.

Dinner was brinner! Egg whites, toast, avocado, bacon, tomato and spinach. One of my AVORITE dinners 🙂

And that was it! Some questions for you for this WIAW:

Do you like bacon?
Are you a smoothie person? Any favorite combos?

Training Tuesday: Week Three

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 9 Comments

I’m on week three of my half marathon training plan and finally getting into the groove of the new training. This week was a pretty easy week in terms of mileage – one tempo run and my longest run was 6 miles (which ended up being 6.7 total), but it felt good!

I also ordered myself a new Sparkly Soul headband this week. I’m an ambassador (but I didn’t get this headband for free or discounted or anything) and I love their headbands. I felt the need to get something sparkly and girly – and this fits the bill! It’s a thin pink headband and I love it.

Sunday: 6.7 treadmill miles. I had 6 on the schedule and I ran for 60 minutes and did 6.34 in that time period. I then did a little cool down and ended up at 6.7.

Monday: Crosstraining day – ended up with 48 minutes on the elliptical.

Tuesday: 4.04 miles on the treadmill. I had 3.5 on the agenda, but I was able to get in 3.5 plus a cool down before FW woke up. Yay for Daylight Saving – maybe that’s why he was sleeping late?

Wednesday: 6×400 meter workout- ended with 5.35 miles on the treadmill. I did the intervals (at 7.7 mph pace) and then finished with a few miles to cool down.

Thursday: 4.65 miles on the treadmill. I had planned on 3 miles, but FW slept longer than expected and I was feeling good so I ran 4 and ended with 4.65 with my warmup and cooldown. ,

20170202_065122

Friday: None – rest day!

Saturday: 4 miles. 3 on the schedule, ran for 30 minutes and then wanted to keep going and do a cool down. Ended up with 4 total, including cool down.

I wore my skirt and my new Sparkly Soul pink headband, which I love! It’s thinner than I typically wear but it stayed on perfectly. And I think it’s cute.

Total- 24.74 miles!

Some questions for you:

Do you have any running skirts?
Do you stay inside when it’s cold/snowy and stick to the treadmill or are you an outdoor runner?

Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

Weekends Waiting for Spring

March 20, 2017March 19, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

Happy spring! That’s right spring is officially HERE… though it doesn’t feel like it in snowy, COLD Cleveland right now. Despite the weather not being the greatest, we still had some fun this weekend.

St. Patrick’s Day B and I both had to work and for dinner we opted to have Chinese food. Yup, super Irish, I know 🙂 (confession – I’m not Irish)

At least FW had something festive for dinner – a green smoothie 🙂 Mango, banana and spinach!

I was BEAT after this week and ended up passing out early while FW finished some Guinness on the couch. St. Patrick’s Day as parents=success.

Saturday morning started with a 3.5 mile run.

And then a birthday party! FW got dressed up in his bowtie.

There was delicious food – my favorites, including pickles and lox!

FW got to play with some of his other baby friends.

That afternoon my shirt came in the mail! I was pumped to wear it out that night when we decided to watch college basketball.

We went to Masthead for pizza, beer and NCAA basketball. FW and B look like the game they’re watching isn’t going there way here, don’t they?

I love their thin crust pizza and salads. Even though the teams we wanted to win didn’t win, at least we had some good food, right?

Sunday it was nice to relax and be productive. I spent the day running (7.7 miles on the treadmill), meal prepping, cleaning (Confession – B did the cleaning), baby proofing (again, this was all B) and making granola and smoothie bowls.

The best part about a homemade smoothie bowl is you can add whatever toppings you like. I had coconut, homemade almond butter, homemade granola (see above), blueberries and pineapple.

Sunday night we enjoyed some comfort food (lasagna!!) at B’s parents’ house. With ice cream sundaes for dessert. A pretty good way to end the weekend.

Hopefully spring actually comes this week – I am ready for warmer weather!

I’m linking up with Katie and the weekly wraps.

WIAW: Black Truffle Pizza

March 15, 2017March 12, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Happy Wednesday! I missed last week’s What I ate Wednesday because frankly, I was busy and tired. It was one heck of a week and I’m glad it’s over but I’m already ready for Friday! Alas, it’s not Friday- so here are my WIAW eats from last Thursday.

The day started with a small smoothie and some BF egg white oats. The smoothie had BROCCOLI in it – yes, broccoli! You can see what’s going in it, below:

And here is the complete meal.

A mid-morning snack of some mixed nuts.

Lunch was DELICIOUS. We went out and I feasted on this truffle, mushroom, arugula pizza and a kale salad with oranges and goat cheese.

I was pretty full but had a snack before dinner of some homemade almond butter I made in the Vitamix.

Which held me over until dinner – egg whites! Egg whites, spinach, tomato and toast.

And dessert – ice cream 🙂

And that was it! Some questions for you for this WIAW:

How often do you have ice cream? Do you eat it in the winer?
Have you ever made your own almond or other nut butter?

Training Tuesday: A pretty average week

March 14, 2017March 14, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

BRR! Where did the springlike weather that we were having just a few weeks ago go? Thank goodness I’m still early in my half marathon training and don’t mind the treadmill – because there was no way I was running outside much of this week. Speaking of which, it was a pretty uneventful, average week for me in terms of training.

I rounded out the week with 23.33 miles:

Sunday: 6.33 miles on the treadmill while FW slept. I was hoping to do 5 or 6 and made it to 6! FW woke up while I was running but B kept him entertained. Post-run baby hugs are the best 🙂

20170305_110627

Monday: 27 minutes on the elliptical. Had planned to do more, but of course FW woke up I was working out and eat it too

Tuesday: 4 miles. 3.5 miles with.5 cool down on the treadmill.

Wednesday: 5 miles. 30 minute tempo run on the schedule. Started out super tired, but ended up running a little longer- 40 minutes, then cooling down. All done inside, on the treadmill.

Thursday: 4 treadmill miles. 3.5 running and .5 mile cool down.

Friday: None – rest day!

Saturday: 4 indoor miles. It was COLD out. And by cold, I mean 20s and oh yeah, IT’S MARCH! That – and since I was going to be out late Friday night, I decided not to sign up for the state Malachi 5 mile race. I had 3 pace miles on the schedule and ended up doing 3.31 at 9 minute mile pace and cool down for until I got to 4.

And that was it for the week – 23ish miles!

Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs!

A night out!

March 13, 2017March 13, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 6 Comments

What a weekend. B and I finally had a laid back weekend with not much planned and it was much needed. We were able to have some fun, relax, run, be productive AND get a night out!

Friday was a good night and our night out. B and I had a babysitter (his sister) because we had plans to go out! I had an event that night – the 25 under 35 Movers and Shakers Awards where I was being recognized!

After the awards, we hung out a bit with Christy and Cari and then B and I went out for dinner! We went to Alley Cat and had some great food – we shared some clam chowder, oysters and an amazing lobster roll.

I’m still drooling over that lobster roll. It brought me back to the East Coast – and trips to Maine and Cape Cod. YUM!

Saturday morning started out with a run, 4 total miles (3 at 9 min/mile pace). Followed by a trip to West Side Market and Gallucci’s to pick up some groceries for the week. I am trying to do better at meal planning and we have dinners for all week planned out!

both are so excited to be photographed at the market

For lunch, we hit up Boaz Cafe which may be my new favorite restaurant. B had a lamb roll up and I had a make your own bowl – chicken, baba and so many more great toppings. The food is so good and so fresh and so affordable (his lamb roll and my giant salad were $11 total!!).

Saturday afternoon I did something I haven’t done in forever- i baked cookies while B and FW napped! It was great- I made something quick (bars) but it was so nice to get back to baking. I’ve missed it!

That evening we stayed in and after FW went to bed, made some pizza and watched a movie. I love homemade pizza, especially when B is the one making it! (which is always)

We ended up watching Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which was just an okay movie. The real reason we watched it is because I went to high school with the real Mike and Dave (Dave was my year) and I had to see what the movie was about. I know it is only loosely based on the story (the real wedding wasn’t in Hawaii – it was in NY and my friend’s sister ended up going ha) but it was still funny to watch. Would I recommend the movie? Ehh, it was okay …

Sunday morning started with 6ish miles on the treadmill and then some meal prep.

Then it was time to check out some Open Houses! FW actually was napping and we missed one of the houses but the second one was nice. I really liked the house, so we shall see … then we ran some errands – and FW sat in the grocery cart for the first time!

And I got kombucha. Yum!!

That night we spent the evening at B’s parents house for our traditional Sunday dinner but this time WE cooked for B’s mom’s birthday! We made homemade pasta, with asparagus, peas and onions. I didn’t get to snag a photo, but it was great!

And that was about it. The weekend ended and now it’s time for conquering Monday. Here we go!

Some questions for you:

Do you ever make homemade pasta? Yes, B and I make it probably about once a month or so?
Do you like kombucha? Yes, I’m addicted to it, especially the homemade kind from my local tea shop!

I’m linking up with Katie and the weekly wraps.

Family Travel Tips: The Biltmore with a Baby

March 9, 2017March 7, 2017 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

B and I love traveling. We’ve been around the globe together, from Cambodia to Mexico City, Burlington to Los Angeles.

I’m not gonna lie, traveling has slowed down a bit since FW was born eight months ago. Since then, the only places we’ve gone outside of Cleveland have been New York to see my family and Columbus for a weekend getaway. But we finally got in a little family vacation, with a trip to Asheville and Atlanta.

One of the highlights of Asheville was the trip to the Biltmore. If you haven’t been before, I highly recommend it. AND if you’re traveling with a baby – it’s definitely doable! Here are some tips to make it work:

5 Tips to Experiencing The Biltmore with a Baby

1. Go early. We bought tickets for 9 a.m. and got to the house around that time. It was great- not only was it nearly empty (look at all my photos – where are all the people?!) but it was prime time for FW. He is a morning person and naps well in the a.m. so going there when he was in a good mood – and then sleepy – was perfect! He was great for the self-guided house tour and even napped a little bit.

Selfie when got there. See – nobody on the lawn or anywhere!

Snoozing in the Halloween room at the Biltmore

2. Buy tickets in advance.

Don’t waste time going to the ticket office the day-of your visit. You’ll either waste time in line or not be able to get in and see the house when you want (fact- this happened to B and I a few years ago when we first went to Asheville around Christmastime. We went to get tickets the day of and they were sold out!). Instead, buy tickets in advance. I’ve been told that some AAA offices sell discount tickets (not the ones in Cleveland, sadly), but if you buy your tickets more than week in advance, the Biltmore often offers a discount. And if you’re going with a baby, great news – they’re free!

3. Travel light.

My definition of “traveling light” has changed significantly since FW was born. Babies need so much stuff! But for the Biltmore, since I knew we’d be walking around a lot and have a baby to carry, I wanted to bring as little stuff as possible. And we did! In my Baggu (which has become my all-purpose FW bag) I had our Skip Hop diaper changing system with some diapers and wipes, 2 small toys, a bottle, my wallet, my Baby Bjorn and our tickets. That was it. And guess what – I didn’t even use any of the toys OR the bottle during the trip!

4. Go stroller-less if possible.

Yes, the Biltmore lets you bring in strollers (yay for them!) but there are TONS of stairs in the house. Knowing this, we opted to go stroller-less and were very happy. B wore FW in our backpack carrier (I also had my Baby Bjorn in case FW didn’t like the backpack – it was our first time using it for a long time period) and it worked out perfectly. We were able to go up all the stairs and not miss any of the exhibits. We were even able to go for a walk around the grounds, including visiting the ponds and gardens, without having to worry about the terrain, more stairs, etc. Which brings me to the last tip …

20170205_090629

5. Explore more than just the house.

The Biltmore is more than just the beautiful historic home. It has several gardens, a village (with a winery!), walking trails, ponds, etc. If your baby is being good, explore as much of it as possible! And if you’re going early (see tip #1), you’ll find you have much of the grounds to yourself.