Manic Monday

MONDAY MANIA
So yesterday, I totally did not plan my day very well to get in my Pilates workout (or any other workout). I had to be in Indio by 8am (coming from Redlands is a little over an hour drive). So, I did plan very well to get a morning workout starting from the night before. I didn't go to bed until Midnight and then woke up at 5:45am in order to leave by 6:30am. So, then I didn't really get back to Redlands until after noon. And the time between noon and 3:00pm went by so fast that I feel like they didn't exist. The time was just spent running errands such as going to the post office, the bank, and little things like that. But they just consumed time.

After that I began to prepare some food for a birthday party that I was going. It took lots of time so I had to start early and the party didn't even start until 7:00pm. The dish that I made is called Lumpia which I learned how to make from my mom. It is a filipino dish and has always been a HUGE hit with my friends. Normally I make it with ground beef but in attempt to be a little healthier, I used ground turkey this time. Here are some pics of the process:

Ground Turkey while still cooking on the stove. There are also cut up green and red bell peppers, onions, and black pepper added to the meat.
This is some of the lumpia after being rolled. You basically put about a tablespoon of the meat (after it has cooled) on the wrapper (basically really thin pastry wrappers) and roll them up. And I use a mixture of flower of water as paste to keep them rolled up.

Here's the first batch of finished lumpia. Once they are rolled you can either stick them in the freezer to cook later or cook them right away. You just fry them in vegetable oil until lightly browned since all the meat is already cooked.

So, I was able to finish the lumpia just in time to go to the party. EVERYBODY loved them and I wasn't even able to take any home for left overs. But these definitely were not the only good thing to eat there. My friend, Grace, brought these "Apple Pie Apples" from the Chocolate Factory and they were Oh So Good!!

This is Veronica (the birthday girl) holding onthe Apple Pie Apple and Grace stuffing her face with one of the slices that were already cut. They were Super GOOD!!
Here's a close up of the apples sliced up. Don't they look just scrumptious!?!?

In addition to these delicious apples, Veronica's mom (and Veronica's daughter helped) also made a HUGE birthday cake. It was chocolate cake with sliced bananas across the top. I totally justified all the desserts because there was fruit involved. :-) There was also Neopolitan ice cream which I was able to resist.

So, my original plan was only to stay for about an hour because the party started pretty late in to the evening and I knew that I still didn't get my dose of Jillian's 30 Day Shred. Unfortunately, I didn't leave until about 11:00pm. I just couldn't help it since there was people that I hadn't seen in SO long and I couldn't help but stay and chat. So, I got home around 11:30pm and still attempted to do my workout but about 10 minutes in to it, I just had to stop. I felt like I was going to just fall asleep with the weights in my hands. So, I just decided to stop. I still worked up a sweat but I know I didn't get the most out of the workout. I was able to go to sleep at about midnight.

TIME-SENSITIVE TUESDAY
So, this morning, I had to get to school by 8:00am. After my classes I just ate a quick lunch, which consisted of half of a turkey club sandwich (leftover from yesterday's lunch) and some grapes. Then after school, I went to my first day of work.

My first day of work was pretty good. Everyone seems so friendly and nice. And I got quite the workout while there. Due to some re-organizing that was going on when I got to work today, I got a great physical workout, which included taking boxes downstairs, taking lots of trash down the stairs to the dumpster, breaking down empty boxes, etc. After work i was pretty tired and I almost decided not to do Jillian's workout but then I made sure that I stuck to my commitment. I got off of work at 3:30pm (will be working short days every Tuesday) and went straight to pick up Tyler and take him to his therapy session in Highland at 4:00pm. Then right after that at 5:00pm, I coached my 3rd/4th grade basketball team until 6:00pm. Then I got dinner ready for Tyler and after that I finally got a moment to rest. After I winded down for about an hour, then I was able to do my workout.

So, that is where I am now. Had my workout and started blogging. Now, I'm pretty tired so I will be showering and hitting the bed. I hope everyone had a wonderful Manic Monday and Time-Sensitive Tuesday. :-)