My goodness, I forgot to post a picture of Bill’s homemade iced coffee this morning. Here’s a glimpse, almost gone.

Bill said the coffee was weak, but I didn’t think so. It saved me from almost falling asleep on the highway this morning to work (I kid you not). Plus, it stayed cold for about four hours. This was taken right before my last sip at 11:45 a.m. (yes, it takes me that long to drink my morning coffee).

I should also note that this is Week 3 of NO ASPARATAME. I have had some Sweet n’ Low in an iced latte here or there – but as far as my morning coffee? Nothing, nada, zilch. No cancer sugar! Yes! I will admit that I miss it – but it’s one of those “out of sight, out of mind” kind of things. I just didn’t buy anymore, and since it’s not there – I don’t use it. Funny how it works that easily.

My lunches have been slightly unsatisfying lately, so I decided to bring more variety with me today. I started with a small ham and swiss cheese sandwich on fresh bread from Harris Teeter.

On the side were some leftover peas from last night’s dinner.

… and you guessed it, more fresh strawberries!

This should keep my mouth entertained for a while .

I’m saving a special treat for my afternoon snack. A Peanut- Peanut Butter Granola bar. You read that right. It’s all about peanuts.

Link Love

I was sad to see that Top Chef Contestant Spike Mendelsohn was evicted from his apartment. I mean, I sort of believe his story – but it’s also just weird.

I’m sure that by now everyone is going crazy over the ZestyCook Blog Makeover. Oh, what’s that? You haven’t heard? Get over there now! I promise you some superstar skills. Check out my header as an example!

I think that most bloggers will look at this list and say, “I knew that would be on it!” But it’s always good to check yourself. You never know the 10 Healthy Foods that that could be Sneaking Calories Into Your Diet.

Question

Are you/have you ever been addicted to artificial sweeteners?

No judgment here! Just curious!

Tonight I made up my own granola recipe.

I’ll admit it. It was scary. I am usually one to follow recipes to the T. I use recipes from blogs, websites, books, you name it. But tonight I felt like being spontaneous and trying something new. I jotted down a recipe I created along with other random ingredients I thought about using. I used the recipe in order to figure out what ingredients are a must – mainly for sticking purposes.

I was pretty clueless about the oil, water, honey, etc. But I knew to start with a solid base of oats, wheat germ and flaxseed.

Rose’s Honey Almond Granola

• 2 cups oats
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 3 tablespoons flaxseed
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• cinnamon (to taste)
• 1/8 cup almonds

Directions:

• Mix dry ingredients
• Mix in the wet ingredients
• Add spices and almonds
• Spread on a metal sheet and set the oven at 325 degrees.Before going into the oven.

And after.

And in other experimental news, Bill is brewing homemade iced coffee using a 12-hour method he saw in GQ. Apparently this needs to sit at room temperature for that long until it’s ready. I’m excited to try – though not tonight, since I’m exhausted!

EDITED TO ADD: The granola is good! I tried a taste! Give it 10 minutes to cool and it’s perfect. Could use less sugar though, I think…

Something happened after work today that almost never happens.

BILL WENT RUNNING WITH ME!

That’s right – Bill is still trying to train for the 5K we’re running on Saturday, and he decided to wait for me so we could run together. We decided to go to Rock Creek Park. He wanted to put in 3 miles, and I needed to put in 5. We ran together for about 1.5 miles in complete silence. He said he wasn’t at the stage of talking yet and quite frankly – I’m not really either. I finished up my run in just over 52 minutes and felt the fastest I’ve felt in a while. Probably because I skipped running all together this weekend (and I’m still feeling guilty). I burned a little over 500 calories.

We were both super hungry when we got home and were crawling over each other in the kitchen trying to get something to eat. I stopped Bill in the midst of his fridge search and said, “Show me how you feel after running today!”

This is the result:

And then I showed him how I felt after my run:

That’s right. Victorious!

Honestly, it was a really good run. I haven’t that fast in a long time, and it makes me feel like achieving this goal is quite possible.

We decided to stick with easy tonight. Bill had to tutor around 8 p.m., and we only really had about 20 minutes to each. So sandwiches and veggies it was.

I had some peas and mushrooms with a little bit of salt.

And a Chik Patty sando. Delicious. Yum. Magnificient!

Now onto coffee…

Something ridiculous happened last week that I failed to mention on the blog. I know my girl Mara will totally get a kick out of this (and maybe even be a bit jealous!), but do you remember near Bill’s birthday when his parents bought us a ton of coffee? Well, it turns out they were placing an order last week – and guess who’s name was still left on the shipping address?

Wooooo!

And that’s not even everything. Check out our ridiculous setup.

And now the whole thing:

Super Big Thanks

• To everyone who gave me some advice this morning on computers. We have a lot of Mac lovers out there!
• To everyone who supported my friend Ashley and visited her new blog.

Question of the Night

What makes you feel victorious?