Olive Garden Lasagna Primavera Archives

I’m very happy to say that I went to a wonderful class at the gym with my friend tonight! It seriously kicked my can and I loved every second. I also don’t think I’ll be able to walk tomorrow.

Awesome.

I’ve been very hit and miss with my workouts the past week or two. It’s been very sad. Between sickness, vacations and random kid obligations, it’s been SO TOUGH to fit exercise in! I’ve missed it so much and have definitely felt the void. But, it felt so good to be at the gym tonight! Woo hoo.

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We went to Costco last night and stocked up on a bunch of their fresh berries! Yum. Unfortunately, they haven’t had blueberries in a long time and it’s making me very, very sad. 🙂

This morning I decided to make a double batch of Protein Packed Pancakes so I could top them with the yummy berries.

I topped mine with a little natural peanut butter, strawberries, raspberries and a drizzle of sugar-free syrup.

This seriously tastes just like Strawberry Shortcake for breakfast. SO DANG GOOD!

We grilled chicken again for dinner last night. We all agreed we could eat it every night and none of us would ever complain. I also baked some sweet potatoes (regular potatoes for the kids) and made a big salad.

I like to keep all the salad fixin’s separate so everyone can put whatever they want on their salad. I also think it helps to keep the leftovers more fresh.

Oh, and I’ve decided I absolutely LOVE sliced almonds so much! I bought this big ol’ bag at Costco a couple months ago and I’m now addicted to them. I add them to everything!

I love to put them on oatmeal, salad or on top of my protein pudding.

I had this interesting combination for lunch the other day and it tasted so good to me!

I just made some protein pudding and topped it with a dollop of peanut butter and some sliced almonds. I also had it with some leftover rotisserie chicken. I love the crunch the almonds add!

For lunch today, I just threw a bunch of random leftovers together…

I had salad and chicken from last night and some brown rice and beans from several nights ago. So yummy. I love leftovers! I hate wasting food and leftovers really simplify my life. They make it so much easier to eat well too. Score.

I had this for breakfast twice over the weekend…

Chocolate Chip Cookie Oatmeal! Ummmm, yum. I love this oatmeal so much. The only thing I don’t love about it is that I have to wait for it to cool before I add the chocolate chips, otherwise they just melt right into the oatmeal. I’m not very good at being patient. Melted chocolate chips are good too though. 😉

I also made this wonderful lunch yesterday….

This was dang freaking good and I’m sure I’ll be making it again soon. I just topped a whole grain English Muffin with fried eggs, tomato and guacamole (Wholly Guacamole.) I also served it with a side of delicious strawberries.

Well, I think that’s enough of the food pics, eh? I’ve still been trying to eat “real,” fresh food as much as I can, but I’m sorry to say I broke into the Easter candy yesterday and it wasn’t pretty.

I usually wait to buy Easter candy until a day or two before Easter because it seems to call my name from wherever it’s hiding. 😉 However, I decided to buy a bunch last week so I could just get it done and not have to worry about it.

Well…….yesterday I heard the candy calling me from my closet, so I decided to indulge a bit. Those darn Robin Eggs are too addicting, btw. Oh, and I also ate a Cadbury egg….but only ONE. I consider that to be a success.

It’s a good thing Easter candy is only available once a year because it is just too awesome.

Anyway, we had a fun weekend! Kev’s childhood friend and his family were in town visiting from Oregon, so we went out to lunch with them on Saturday.

We went to Olive Garden and I ordered the Lasagna Primavera. It’s always SO good!

It’s 560 calories (not too bad) and it’s heavenly. I think I’ve ordered it the last 3-4 times I’ve been to Olive Garden. I also had a small serving of salad and a breadstick. Awesome.

On Sunday, we went up to my parent’s house for a fun get-together. We had a yummy BBQ dinner. Here’s my plate…

And here’s a typical pic of my sister and I with ~~our~~ my food…

My mom asked ME to bring dessert, so I made a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies and really yummy brownies. I forgot to take a picture until after they were almost gone!

I’m happy to say I didn’t have any cookies, BUT I did have a brownie….and it was divine.

After we ate, my mom planned a fun game. We usually do an Easter Egg hunt at her house a few weeks before Easter, but this time she decided to do a fun game instead.

She filled a big Easter basket full of candy, toys and random prizes. We split into groups of 3-4 people and took turns using a spoon to try to get as much “stuff” as we could in one minute.

It was a lot of fun. The littlest kids got to use big ladles to get the prizes.

The rest of us just used regular big spoons…

Even us “big kids” got to take a turn!

It was so much fun and my mom had some really fun and yummy stuff in there! I was especially happy to be the proud winner of not one, but TWO candy bracelets. Happy day.