Obsessed with the Olympics

Like so many other people, I have become obsessed with watching the Olympics.  Minus the Opening Ceremonies, this year's Olympics have been one of my favorites to watch.  The Olympics have been so incredible this year with so many inspiring and amazing athletes.  Every night after work, I watch the various competitions (I mostly have been paying attention to gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball, and diving).  And then in the morning, all my favorite athletes are highlighted and interviewed.  It's sad but I feel like I know them because I have watched them so much over the past week.

How can you not love Missy Franklin.  SHe is a 17 year old, gold metal winner who is still so down to Earth and a "normal" teenager.

Rogers (aka "The Professor") and Dalhausser are a great team to watch. Their chemistry (haha like that corny joke right there) is unbelievable.

The "greatest beach volleyball team of all time", May-Treanor and Walsh (who had 2 children since the last Olympic games) are going for their 3rd Olympic win.

First USA team gold since 1996...unbelievable!

Yup, that wink is meant for me.  If I knew how to wink without looking like an idiot, I would wink right back at you.

Last weekend, I watched the Olympics for a pretty good portion of my Sunday (and by that I mean basically all day minus when I left for brunch and the grocery store...food, obviously).  BUt when someone asked me what I did that day, I felt totally okay saying that I stayed home watching the Olympics.  I mean, it only happens once every four years right!?

I was talking with a friend last night and we agreed that not only are the actual Olympic Games amazing, but the commercials are too!  I know it sounds stupid but I'll totally admit that I don't mind the commercial breaks.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

My friend Ally told me about this one and I LOVE it.  By far one of my favorites.

The Olympic athletes aren't always serious.  Fitting in with the "Call Me Maybe" craze, the USA Olympic swimmers made a video themselves.  I know this song is so overplayed, but I couldn't resist.  And I know you will press play because there are some pretty good looking men swimmers in the video:

Have a great day!  Don't forget to enter the PB Crave giveaway HERE.

PB Crave Recipes

Keep entering the PB Crave giveaway HERE!  You can enter the giveaway until midnight on Sunday.

When I received PB Crave, I was so excited to try some new recipes.  PB Crave's flavors are a great way to change up an old peanut butter recipe favorite.  Do you have a go to peanut butter cookie recipe?  Try making it with Razzle Dazzle to make your cookies extra special.  Do you crave smoothies on a hot summer day?  Add CoCo Bananas to your smoothie to give it some extra flavor.

I'm going to share two different recipes that I made using different PB Crave flavors.  The first is Cookie Nookie Rice Krispie Treats.  It's definitely a classic sweet treat with some pumped up flavor.  I brought these to a friend's apartment while watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and they were a huge hit

Cookie Nookie Rice Krispies:

Ingredients:

3 tbl margarine

4 cups mini marshmallows

3/4 cup Cookie Nookie

6 cups Rice Krispies

Instructions:
1. Lightly grease 9 x 13 pan. Set aside
2. Put Rice Krispies in a large bowl.  Set aside.
3. In a medium pot on low heat, melt margarine and marshmallows. Stir constantly.  Add Cookie Nookie and stir until incorporated.
4. Add mixture to Rice Krispies.  Stir until Rice Krispies are completely coated.
5. Pour and press into pan.
6. Let cool, cut, then enjoy!

CoCo Bananas is my favorite of the peanut butters, so I obviously had to make something with it.  The second recipe is CoCo Bananas Granola Bars.  I decided to try and go a little bit healthier with this one and change up an Elvis Granola Bar recipe that I saw here. 

CoCo Bananas Granola Bars:
Ingredients:
4 cups rolled oats
2 tbl flax seeds (or chia seeds, both add texture)
1/2 cup unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup unsweetened banana chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup CoCo Bananas
1/2 cup + 2 tbl honey

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 9 x 13 pan and set aside.
2. Combine oats, flax seeds, peanuts, banana chips, and chocolate in a medium bowl.  Set aside.
3. In a medium pot on low heat, melt and combine honey and CoCo Bananas.
4. Add melted peanut butter and honey to bowl.  Stir until combined.
5. Pour and press into pan.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.
7. Let cool, cut, and enjoy!

There are so many other delicious recipes to make with the PB Crave flavors!  Be sure to enter the giveaway HERE for your chance to win all 4 PB Crave flavors.

GIVEAWAY!

Today is Sweet Tooth Runner's first ever GIVEAWAY and it's an awesome one (if I do say so myself).

A few weeks ago, I read about PB Crave and immediately knew that I had to try it.  PB Crave is a natural peanut butter that combines honey and incredible flavors to make four amazing, unique, and addicting peanut butters.  They use actual chunks of Belgium chocolate and and pure, natural MEL-O honey to make these peanut butters stand out.  The flavors are:

Choco Choco: Semi-sweet and dark chocolate with peanut butter and wild honey

Co Co Bananas: Natural banana flavor with peanut butter, semi-sweet chocolate, and wild honey.  This flavor is also lactose free!

Cookie Nookie: Natural cookie flavoring with peanut butter, semi-sweet chocolate, and wild honey.

Razzle Dazzle: Natural raspberry flavoring with peanut butter, white and semi-sweet chocolate, and wild honey.

I love that the flavors have a just a hint of flavor and pieces or swirls of chocolate throughout the jars.  The flavor is not too overpowering so the peanut butter flavor still comes through.  While all of the flavors are amazing (and trust me I quickly tried them all), my favorite was the CoCo Bananas.  I have always loved the combination of peanut butter, chocolate, and bananas.  CoCo Bananas truly finds the perfect balance in these flavors.

Not only does PB Crave make incredible peanut butters, but it also gives back.  PB Crave donates 2% of its profits from every jar to Project Peanut Butter, a non-profit organization that serves hundreds of thousands of malnourished children.

PB Crave can be found at some Whole Foods, Fresh Market, or Earth Fare....

BUT one lucky winner a ChocoChoco Variety Pack of $20.97 value shipped to their door!  The giveaway will end Sunday at midnight.  I will randomly select a winner and contact them for their information so that they can receive their PB Crave prize!

Includes a jar of each flavor!

To enter the giveaway:

1. Like PB Crave on facebook here

2. Like PB Crave on their website here (enter your email in the "join our family" section)

3. Follow PB Crave on twitter here

4. Follow PB Crave on Pinterest here

Be sure to comment on this page for each Like or Follow you do.  In each comment include what you liked/followed as well as what flavor you are most excited to try and/or how you would enjoy your PB Crave.

Good Luck! Be sure to post, tweet, and share this giveaway with your friends and family!

Look forward to tomorrow's post when I will share two recipes I made using PB Crave.

A Special Birthday and the BTN Big 10k

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister, Danielle!  It's the big 3-0 and I wish that I could be there celebrating with her (and eating some Dessert Gallery diner cake).  I love you and hope you have a special day!

This past Saturday was the BTN Big 10k.  Having gone to Michigan, I am obviously a huge Michigan fan and will take any opportunity I can to sport my maize and blue pride.  I was clearly excited for this race!  The packet pick-up was at Fleet Feet, not far from my apartment.  I went after work on Thursday and it was extremely easy and fast.  I don't think I have ever gone in and out of a race packet pick up so quickly...definite plus!  The race shirt was a dry fit running shirt supporting your Big Ten school.  I love the shirt and will definitely be sporting it once its cooler outside.

The morning of the race, I ate my typical pre-run snack: 1/4 of a banana and a "lara-ball".  I wore a maize and blue sport bra and a neon yellow running shirt to show off my Michigan pride.  

The race started at 7:40, so I was up and out of the apartment by 6:30.  I have to admit, I'm kind of getting used to the early Saturday mornings.  The past couple days it had been really hot in Chicago, but the morning of the run it was 75 degrees and not humid.  Not bad for running weather!  

The race started at Soldier Field and went south of the city.  It was along the lakefront path and there were gorgeous views the entire run (always a plus).  Throughout the course, there were people dressed in football uniforms, fight songs playing, and even a slip 'n slide at the halfway 3 mile point.  I swear that each time I passed a stereo, the Michigan fight song was playing.  Talk about perfect timing!

I felt really good the first half of the run. Maybe too good because my first three miles were fairly faster than I usually run.  I started to slow down (most likely also because I was getting tired from going faster) for the last 3 miles but it was a good thing. Also, the second half of the run, the wind pushed against me for a while.  Overall, I had a pretty good run.  I finished in 58 min and 10 sec (about a 9:30 mile/min).  I'm keeping ahead of my last year pace, which is always motivating and exciting!


After the run, there was a tailgate area set up with food, beer, and games.  I met up with Lindsay by the Michigan tent, another blogger and Michigan fan!

A couple other friends ran and we all met up after everyone finished.

And then, naturally, we went to brunch!

Tomorrow, Sweet Tooth Runner is having it's first ever GIVEAWAY!  Be sure to check it out...you are going to LOVE it!

Happy Friday

It's been a long, slow week but it's finally Friday! I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the weekend. I know that I have a fun packed weekend ahead starting off with an Olympic opening ceremonies party tonight and the Big10 10k fun run tomorrow followed by brunch.  The Big10 10k is a fun run where everyone supports their Big Ten school and I will obviously be sporting some University of Michigan colors.  Get ready for pictures and details on Monday.

Also...get excited and ready for an awesome giveaway next week!  Hint: it involves one of my favorite foods.

But for now it's time for Friday Funday!  Enjoy!

Summer Pizza: The perfect pizza for a summer night.  To make it even easier buy pre-made dough.

Fat Kid Cake: The ultimate combo of Oreos and Reese's.  Please someone make this and bring it to me.

Fat Pills? I wish this was still true (then I'd definitely chow down on some of the cake above)

Find Your Calling: Interesting article with fun/cool diagrams.

Coffee Cubes: My friend does this and I think it is genius!

Workout Motivation:

Goat Cheese Hush Puppies: Um...wow.  Words cannot express.

Speaking of Dogs: Who doesn't wish their dog could text them?

In Honor of the Olympics: This is one limber 86 year old!

Everyone have a great weekend and enjoy the start of the Olympics!

A Little Opps and the Olympics

The lululemon by my apartment has free running groups to help prepare people for the half and full marathon.  These groups are led by what they call their "running ambassador".  They have group runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays, as well as speed training on Wednesdays.  I decided to try the speed work run.  I was excited to run with and meet some new people.  I realized too late that what I thought was a 6:30 pm run was actually a 6:30 am run.  Oops!  I will definitely make sure to remember that minor detail for next week!

The Olympics start tomorrow and I am so excited!  I love the excitement and camaraderie that always builds around Olympics time.  I am by far someone who loves summer Olympics more than winter.  Everyone has the sports they love to watch.  Mine are swimming (for Ryan Lochte obviously), diving, soccer, and volleyball.  

I heard on the news the other day that this is a big year for women at the Olympics.  First of all, this is the first year that USA has more female competitors (269) than male (261).  Also, this is the first Olympics that Brunei, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia will have women competitors.  One female athlete that I am definitely excited to watch is Missy Franklin.  Even at such a young age, Franklin is the first American female swimmer to qualify for seven events.  In all of her interviews, she sounds like a sweet regular (meant in the best way possible) teenager.  She states that she hopes to do her best and simply enjoy her time at the Olympics.

Missy Franklin

Tahmina Kohistani

Couldn't resist adding a picture of Ryan Lochte (and you know you are happy I did)

There are always some odd sports that are part of the Olympics.  I am personally surprised to see table tennis, shooting, archery, and race walking (you should see me walking down Michigan Ave on a weekend. I could surely compete in this event) as part of the summer Olympics.  Check out these weird Olympic Sports and see what other people think of them as an Olympic sport.

Seeing race walkers always makes me laugh because they always look so silly wiggling their little butts.

I'm excited to watch the opening ceremonies tomorrow with a couple of my girlfriends!  We are all bringing snacks to represent different countries.  I'm excited to see what yummy things my friends think to bring.  And obviously I can't wait to see what amazing performance is done and the lighting of the Olympic Torch!  Let the Olympics begin!

Actually Using My Pins

Just like so many other people, I love Pinterest.  I pin things all of the time.  I love that I can keep track of all the interesting recipes, workouts, and quotes that I have found on the Internet.  I have accumulated tons of recipes and workouts that I was convinced I would make.  Unfortunately, just like so many other people, my Pinterest boards grow and grow and yet I do not fully utilize them.

Today, I changed that! Twice!

As part of my training, I'm suppose to do weights on Mondays.  I usually do my usual weights and call it a day.  Today, I did two strength sequences that I pinned.

I modified the abs workout by doing a plank at the end instead of the v-sit (for no reason other than I like planks better).  I was glad that I switched up my workout.  Doing the same thing can really get boring and this definitely mixed it up.  I'm sure my abs will be sore!

For dinner, I made a pinned recipe that I hadn't tried before.  It was Black Bean, Corn, and Cilantro Frittata.  Frittatas are extremely easy to make and are great for breakfast or dinner. You just prep some veggies, beat the eggs, put it in the pan, and bake.  This recipe had a southwestern twist and sounded awesome.  I made one minor change to the recipe.  I'm picky about the type (and by type I actually mean color) of peppers I eat.  I do not like red peppers at all...weird I know.  So instead of using frozen onions and peppers, I used fresh ones that I sauteed

I used to make frittatas all the time and used a 9 inch pie pan.  Apparently, I hadn't made one since I lived with my roommates a little over a year ago.  When I went to search for "my" 9 inch pie pan, I realized that I never owned one and that it was actually one of my old roommates.  Opps! I improvised and used a 9 x 9 inch pan instead.

I topped it off with some salsa and Sriracha.  It was delicious!  I am so happy that I finally made this recipe from my Pinterest board.  I will definitely start making more of the recipes I pin in the future.