I am not one of those people, although sometimes I envy them. I eat breakfast almost every morning, because if I don’t I will end up very hungry and often grumpy within a short period of time.

Sometimes breakfast is a big production, waffles, french toast, omelets. Sometimes it’s big, but easier to prepare, like a bagel or toast and scrambled eggs. Sometimes it is on the run, a bar or fruit as I wait for class to begin, or a quick protein shake.

Cereal is sort of a middle ground for me between eating on the run and having time to make eggs. It is quick. Just pour some in a bowl, pour in some milk, grab a spoon, and eat up. And it tastes good.

I got to enjoy some of the prominent cereals of my childhood this month when I was sent a package of Big G cereals from MyBlogSpark.

I received Cheerios, Chocolate Cheerios, Cookie Crisp, Golden Grahams, MultiGrain Cheerios, and Total.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who grew up eating these. Cereals were one of our staple breakfasts.

My favorites from this package were the Golden Grahams and the MultiGrain Cheerios which are slightly sweeter than regular Cheerios.

General Mills and MyBlogSpark will send one of you a package of cereal as well.

The package will include one box each of the same cereals I received: Cheerios, Chocolate Cheerios, Cookie Crisp, Golden Grahams, MultiGrain Cheerios, and Total.

To enter to win leave a comment here telling me what your favorite cereal is.

I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday, October 26, so hurry and get those comments in.

*Disclosure: The cereals and giveaway pack in this post were provided by MyBlogSpark and General Mills as part of Big G Breakfast Solutions.

Drumroll please.

And the winner is…

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2011-10-04 05:33:59 UTC

Allie Finch

She commented: I love simple cooking too, where a few simple, fresh ingredients shine. It would be difficult to narrow it down to one, because most of my meals are pretty simple — just whole foods thrown together & seasoned to taste usually. My current early fall obsession is quinoa with thinly sliced radishes, olive oil, lemon, sea salt, & fresh tarragon.

Congratulations Allie! I can’t wait to see what you cook up!

And thank you to everyone else who entered! I love hearing from new people and I hope you come back to check out some of my regular posts and recipes.

Have a great night!

*As part of the Dinner@6 contest sponsored by Blue Cash PreferredSM, American Express provided me with a $100 gift card to giveaway to one lucky commenter. Here are the official rules.*

Recently, Foodbuzz teamed up with American Express for a little contest called Dinner@6.

Twenty bloggers, including myself, were given the opportunity to compete by creating a dinner recipe with 6 ingredients or less (excluding salt, pepper, and oil). The winning recipe will receive a $600 AMEX gift card. Additionally, each blogger gets to giveaway a $100 AMEX gift card.

I’ve been tweaking a recipe for salmon cakes over the past few months and decided that this was the time to perfect it. Using only 6 ingredients was a welcome challenge, because I love simple ingredients in a delicious recipe. The more easily I can prepare something, the better, in my opinion.

Roasted Red Pepper Salmon Cakes with Steamed Broccoli

Ingredients:

• 12 oz of canned, skinless, deboned salmon, drained
• 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs (you can make these by tearing a piece of fresh bread in hunks and processing in a food processor until you have bread crumbs)
• 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper + extra salt to taste (for broccoli)
• 1/4 cup mayonaise
• 2 large slices (~ 1/2 cup) of roasted red pepper from a jar cut into pieces
• 1 large head of broccoli chopped into bite-size florets (~ 4 cups)
• ~ 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350°
• Next, combine the canned salmon, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, mayonaise, and roasted red pepper in a food processor. Process until you have a uniform mixture and the ingredients begin to form a ball in the bowl.

• Remove the salmon mixture from the food processor and roll into a ball. Then divide the ball into 4 equal pieces and roll into 4 smaller balls.
• Heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil over medium heat in a seasoned cast iron skillet (a nonstick or other skillet will work, but will probably not form as nice of a crust on the cakes).
• Place the four balls of salmon mixture into the skillet and flatten the balls into patties with a spatula. Cook the patties for 4-5 minutes on each side, until they are golden brown.

• Transfer the patties to a cookie sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.
• While the patties are finishing up in the oven, steam the head of broccoli using a steamer or your stovetop. Test the broccoli after about 8 minutes and then remove once it is cooked and just has a slight bite to it.

• Remove the salmon patties from the oven and plate them (1 to a plate) add some steamed broccoli to each plate and top the broccoli with the freshly grated parmesan and a very light sprinkling of salt.

The salmon patties are moist and delicious because of the mayonaise and fresh bread crumbs. The use of the cast iron skillet leaves them with a beautiful brown crust and adds a bit of a crunchy texture.

The broccoli was steamed to perfection, with just a little bite and was delicious topped with the parmesan cheese and a little bit of salt.

Remember that $100 gift card from American Express? To enter leave a comment on this post by 9/30/2011. I will randomly pick a winner by 10/3/2011.

What is your favorite recipe that uses 6 ingredients or less?

As part of the Dinner@6 contest sponsored by Blue Cash PreferredSM, American Express provided me with a $100 gift card to give out to one lucky commenter. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. Here are the official rules.

Up until today my training has been pretty light and uneventful. Today, however, was my first run that felt like a long run!

I ran 6.25 miles!

I don’t live very close to a safe area of the bike trail anymore, so I did my run on the treadmill at the gym. It was a little boring, but I expected that and had charged my iPod ahead of time to get me through it.

I kept my pace pretty slow and felt good through most of the run. I had a couple short aches or pains, and the last 2 miles I had to really push myself to get through it, but I did. I also followed it up with some abs, pull ups (assisted), leg work, and stretching.

I’ve been working on staying hydrated and properly refueled all day.

I’ve mentioned it before but in college I majored in Exercise Science. One of my classes was research based. The research project I worked on was testing the effects of chocolate milk consumption post-strength training. We chose this project because the benefits of consuming chocolate milk post endurance exercise were well proven at the time.

I was reminded of this project a month or so ago when Lindsey with the Refuel with Chocolate Milk Tour. They were at a race here in Sacramento. I wasn’t able to take part in that particular race, but I was interested in what Lindsey had to say. She sent me some press releases which I read, took action on, and wanted to share with you.

Three studies (and there are many more) have shown improved performance, quicker exercise adaptation, and better body composition in athletes that drank low fat chocolate milk after exercise compared to athletes that drank a carbohydrate beverage with the same calories and athletes that drank no-calorie beverages. One study showed a positive impact on male runners from chocolate milk consumption.

Low fat chocolate milk has the idea protein-carbohydrate ratio for recovery. It is also much less expensive than other recovery drinks. If you have any questions feel free to email me or check out the Refuel with Chocolate Milk website.

I generally limit my consumption of dairy, so since I started training for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon, I’ve been using chocolate coconut milk and chocolate almond milk for recovery. I drink 1-2 cups after my longer runs, like this morning’s.

I also tried a fancy new drink today: GT’s Synergy Enlightened Raspberry Chia Kombucha!

I am in love!  I didn’t mind the chia seeds at all, in fact I liked them! And the flavor was really good. It was less effervescent than other GT’s varieties, but still awesome!

And for a little extra fun. Lindsey provided me with some Refuel with Chocolate Milk goodies to giveaway!

The bag includes a water bottle, a reusable cereal and milk container, a fun foamy football, and some information about refueling with chocolate milk.

If you’d like to win the bag and the fun stuff inside leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite post recovery food or beverage is.

I’ll pick a winner next weekend!

*Disclosure: Some of the information in this post and the giveaway was provided by Refuel with Chocolate Milk. The opinions are all my own.

Also, please note I am not an expert and not a certified personal trainer or anything of the sort. These are just my opinions based on my personal research.

Thank you all for your recent comments and encouragement on my haircut, Tyler’s anniversary, and our upcoming adventures and life in China! I appreciate the support and knowing you are just as excited for our adventures as we are!

This is my last day at my summer internship. I’m excited to have the final weeks of summer to wrap up travel plans and apartment stuff, and get prepared for the next semester.

Tyler and I have had a fun week with anniversary celebrations, get togethers, etc., but I’ll tell you about those later.

In the meantime I wanted to make all of your weeks even better with a little giveaway!

So who is this new duo?

You may have heard already, as many of my fellow bloggers have posted about this already, but Stonyfield, one of my favorite yogurt companies has paired up with Activia to bring us Stonyfield Organic Activia!

It is the first organic yogurt with the probiotic cultures Bifidus Regularis. These probiotic cultures are supposed to help naturally regulate the digestive system when eaten daily for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.

Stonyfield Organic Activia comes in 4 ounce 4 packs and is available in strawberry or vanilla varieties.

Stonyfield provided me with a free two weeks supply of Stonyfield Organic Activia. I’ve had one yogurt everyday for the past four days, and I’ll check back in when I’m done with the challenge and let you know how I feel and whether I think it helps.

Because they want everyone to be able to try Stonyfield Organic Activia they are offering a refund of $12.00, good between 5/1/2011 and 9/1/2011 to anyone who purchases (does not apply to free coupons) Activia and doesn’t love how they feel. That’s customer service right there!

Stonyfield also provided me with four coupon packs to pass on to all of you, so that you can try Stonyfield Organic Activia. Free is always the best way to try things, am I right?

To enter to win a coupon pack for two weeks of free Stonyfield Organic Activia simply leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you. Tell me about your weekend plans, your favorite food, anything. I’ll post the four winners here on Sunday July 31, 2011 and notify them by email.

Don’t forget to stop by Stonyfield’s website. They have great coupons and a rewards program, myStonyfield Rewards, where you earn points for buying yogurt (there are codes on the tops of the yogurt containers which you can submit on the website and earn points for purchasing them) which you can then redeem for more Stonyfield products or other green products.

*Disclosure – the Stonyfield Organic Activia and coupon packs were provided to me by Stonyfield free of charge.

Here’s a little win win win of my own

Tyler and I sat out in the park near our apartment on Easter Sunday. A little boy came over and gave us these two flowers – it totally made my afternoon.

Win # 1

I’ll start with the winner of the Betty Crocker Loaded Mashed Potatoes:

Andi: I loved ‘loaded’ mashed potatoes … as unhealthy as they can be, they are SO delicious. 

Congrats girl! E-mail me your shipping info and I’ll send it on so that you can get your prizepack!

Win # 2

Yesterday Tyler and I went out to walk to Safeway and RiteAid. We got about a block before Tyler suggested we go for fro-yo first. Well, happy day, Wednesday is $1 fro yo at Big Spoon! You can get a small cup filled with up to 8 oz of fro yo and toppings for $1 (okay $1.09 with tax).

Vanilla fro yo with cookie dough pieces for topping. Both Tyler and I’s fro yo creations came out to under 6 oz – next time we’re going to put toppings on the bottom to get the most out of our dollar (you can stack the fro yo pretty high over the toppings). The 8 oz is the perfect serving for a nice dessert. While it isn’t exactly real food, I’m okay with a little indulgence – exam time requires little sanity saver like this.

Win # 3

Tempeh Tacos

I sauteed tempeh with diced red onions, orange bell pepper, and some diced tomatoes, and seasoned it with garlic powder, paprika, chili pepper, and red pepper flakes. I topped my tacos with cheese and salsa.

Well that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll have time to post this week, but if I don’t just pray for me that I’m getting through the 4 finals I have in a matter of 7 days. At least I only have to do this two more times after this round.

Do you like soft shell or hard shell tacos better?

I prefer the soft shell variety, but Tyler loves hard shell tacos.

Tuesday and Wednesday I brought lunches to school to eat between classes.

Warm quinoa, leftover balsamic brussel sprouts, and grilled tempeh with balsamic vinegar.

Romaine, quinoa, peppers, onions, and tempeh, with a homemade red wine-dijon vinaigrette.

Tyler and I worked together to make some delicious dinners.

A grilled chicken salad with romaine, peppers, onions, and grilled chicken drizzled with sweet chili sauce.

Leftover quinoa, leftover grilled chicken, and broccoli seasoned with a little chicken broth, onion flakes, and Season All.

To complement the healthy eating, I’ve gotten in two great workouts.

Tuesday evening I did a 45 minute interval workout on the elliptical, some quick abs, and then Tyler and I went for a 15 minute run (with a walking break) outside.

Wednesday morning I started with a 10 minute warm-up on the elliptical. Then it was time for strength training – I designed a fairly simple workout using this article I saw in the latest issue of Women’s Health. I went through each move and then repeated that for a total of 3 sets.

• Assisted pull-ups (8 reps)
• Reverse Fly with 5 lb dumbbells (15 reps)
• Biceps Curl with 8 lb dumbbells (20 reps)
• Dumbbell Cross Jab with 5 lb dumbbells (15 reps)
• Lying Triceps Extension with 5 lb dumbbells (15 reps)
• Alternating Lunges holding 5 lb dumbbells (15 reps)
• Vertical Leg Hip Raise (15 reps)
• Plie squats (15 reps)

The strength training was no joke. I was tired, but I managed to finish my workout out with a 32 minute interval workout on the elliptical and then a 10 minute cool down walking on the treadmill at 4 mph.

I also went for a 15 minute walk before making dinner since I had a 3 hour class to sit through Wednesday evening.

Nothing like real food and good workouts to help you stay motivated and on track.

A few weeks back I received a package from MyBlogSpark and Betty Crocker.

Betty Crocker has come out with a new product – Loaded Mashed Potatoes. I haven’t tried the Loaded Mashed Potatoes, and I don’t think that I will. It’s not because I have something against mashed potatoes from a box (although I strongly prefer the ones not from a box), it’s the ingredients in the Loaded Mashed Potatoes that make me not want to eat them. See for yourself.

While the nutrition label says these contain 0 grams of trans fats, you can see from the ingredient list that they do contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil – aka trans fats – just not in an amount they are required to list on the nutrition panel. They are also made with monosodium glutamate – or MSG. I personally avoid consuming trans fats and MSG and therefore do not feel good about eating these myself or feeding them to Tyler.

Fortunately, the Loaded Mashed Potatoes aren’t the only part of the prize pack. I’m very excited about the OXO mixing bowl (who doesn’t love a good mixing bowl!)

Now for those of you that would like a new OXO Mixing Bowl, or pot holder, or spoonula (isn’t that a great word), or would like to try the Betty Crocker Loaded Mashed Potatoes, here’s a little giveaway!

You can get your own prize pack like the one shown above (including a box of the new Betty Crocker “Loaded Mashed” potatoes, a mixing bowl, a magnetic hanging pot holder, a silicone spoonula, and a measuring cup).

To enter to win the prizepack

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite mashed potato topping.
2. For a second entry “Like” Jogging My Memory on Facebook by clicking here, and leave a second comment letting me know that you did so.

The giveaway will end on Monday, April 25, 2011 at 9pm PT (that’s midnight ET), and I’ll post the winner on Tuesday morning, so keep an eye out!

*Disclsoure: The information (about the product), prize pack, and giveaway in this post are provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark. The opinions are all my own

Doesn’t he look happy! I enjoyed hanging out with this guy today for a few minutes. I think he was locked out of his house or maybe he was lost but he decided to hang out by our back porch for a good portion of the day. He got some head rubs and sweet talk from me. I’m a softie for kitties.

I definitely enjoyed myself today (minus the half hour that I was ticked because we didn’t have any bread for me to make lunch with).

Despite a lingering stomach ache (I think I need to use more discretion about portion size when I eat refried beans…) I enjoyed my workout with Tyler this morning. I lifted weights for about twenty minutes. I also moved down to only 58 lbs of assistance in pull ups (down from 64 lbs). I followed up the strength training with 2.5 miles on the treadmill and another 2 miles on the elliptical.

I enjoyed breakfast – in the car. Oatmeal with peanut butter and brown sugar. Lunch was also eaten on the go: a banana, Wheat Thins, and an Attune probiotic chocolate bar.

I’m not sure I exactly enjoyed spending almost 2 hours at the DMV or giving them the rights to our first born child (kidding, sort of), but I did enjoy having something else we needed to do taken care of.

I enjoyed leftover tacos!

I really enjoyed chatting with my little sister this evening I miss her a lot and wish we lived closer together.  And I enjoyed this banana, greek yogurt, and ground flax for dessert after class.

I enjoyed the same thing last night hehe. Can we say favorite dessert?

Two of you get to enjoy yourself, because you won a package of Svelte sustained energy protein drinks!

Congratulations:

Danielle

and

Mindy

Please e-mail me (julia@joggingmymemory.com) with your shipping information

Thank you everyone else for entering! I love getting to help others try new products, especially when they are as fantastic as Svelte is! I’ll keep you updated on any sales of svelte that I find! Don’t forget to follow svelte on twitter.

*** Disclosure: This giveaway was provided by svelte and Cal Naturale

We went to a Law Review event last night – Bowling!

We both did pretty well – the first game I scored under 100, but the second game I pulled out a 118 (easily one of my highest bowling scores ever). It was a lot of fun!

Today Tyler made us both brunch. He’s been helping out a lot in the kitchen and trying to learn more about cooking. For brunch he tried his hand at waffles.

Tyler did a fantastic job – the waffles were light and fluffy and delicious. Unfortunately the black hole of my phone/Dropbox ate the photos of the of waffles – they must have been good.

After brunch we pulled out our green thumbs.

We had some seeds leftover from planting herbs a few years ago and I decided I wanted to have a go at it again, especially since it would help flavor our foods for cheap!

We planted Genovese Basil, Chives, and Cilantro.

I hope the seeds are still good. We’ll see in a few weeks.

Remember the Svelte sustained energy protein drinks I mentioned the other day? Well I forgot to mention that they are dairy and gluten free – I know that is important to some!

I also “forgot” to mention something else…two of you will get to try Svelte! The awesome folks at CalNaturale/Svelte have offered to send two of you a pack of 4 Svelte drinks including one of each flavor: french vanilla, spiced chai, cappuccino, and chocolate, so you can try them all!

There are two ways to enter the giveaway (the first is mandatory):

1. Head to the Svelte website and then leave a comment here telling me something interesting you learned on the website.
2. Link to the giveaway on your blog OR tweet about the giveaway (something like “Check out this giveaway for @CalNaturale Svelte protein drinks by @JuliaJogging: http://bit.ly/fTDp3H”) and leave a comment with a link to the post or your twitter handle.

You have until 9pm Pacific Time on Wednesday February 2, 2010 to enter to win a pack of Svelte drinks. I will announce the winner on Thursday so keep an eye out (if you win you will need to e-mail me your contact information).

Hope you had a great weekend! Get those Svelte giveaway entries in!

Before I give you all of the juicy details about the giveaway, I just wanted to let you know about the changes I’ll be making regarding the blog. Coming back to Sacramento and getting my grades made me realize that I needed to re-prioritize some things in my life. I’ll be spending more time this semester focusing on school and opportunities for the summer. In order to do this I’ll need to cut back on my blogging. I’m not going to stop blogging altogether, but I am going to cut back my posting to 2-3 times per week. Because of this change, I’ll also be posting a little differently. I won’t be posting all my daily eats anymore. Instead I’ll be focusing on posting fun new recipes or meals, great restaurants, new product reviews, and exciting events – I think this will be a really positive change as well as an opportunity to make my posts more interesting and more thoughtful.

I hope that you’ll join me as I embark on this new schedule and style of blogging!

Now for the great stuff!

When I got back to Sacramento last weekend, I had a number of packages waiting for me, including one provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark!

In honor of the New Year Progresso is holding a “Souper You Debut” contest from January 4th until March 15th for the chance to win a full makeover in New York City! Click on the link above to see the full details and to learn how to enter!

I was lucky to receive one of the Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Packs which included 15 cans of soup, a soup mug, and a jump rope that counts the number of jumps for you.

I think this is a great aid to kick-starting those New Year’s resolutions!

Soup is one of my favorite foods in the winter. It’s quick and easy to prepare, it keeps me satisfied for a long time, and it keeps me warm on colder days. Progresso has a huge variety of soups including some vegetarian options. Many of their soups have 100 calories or less per serving (take note – a can of Progresso soup typically contains two servings). A can of soup along with some crackers or bread is the perfect size meal for me.

Earlier this week, I had a can of the Progresso Light Chicken Vegetable Rotini Soup.

This is a great take on chicken noodle soup with the added veggies! The rotini was really thick and delicious and the carrots and other vegetables were nice and soft. The soup had a lot of broth, which tasted pretty good. Overall, I really like this soup – especially the rotini and extra dose of vegetables!

Today I had a can of the Progresso Reduced Sodium Garden Vegetable Soup for lunch along with a serving of oyster crackers.

The soup contained a wide array of vegetables including white potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, corn, carrots, celery, and onions as well as kidney beans. I’m not a huge fan of beans, but combined with all the other vegetables and the broth, I didn’t mind them, and I appreciate the extra oomph they add to the soup.

You can win one of these Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Packs provided  by Progresso through MyBlogSpark:

• To enter,  leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to win the Progresso Souper You Debut Gift Pack.
• Limit one entry per person.
• The giveaway will end Friday, January 22, 2010 at 12pm noon (Pacific Time).
• The winner will be drawn at random (using random.org) and announced Saturday, January 23, 2010!

Get your entry in and feel free to tell your friends – who doesn’t love free soup!

*The information, products, and giveaway in this post were provided from Progresso through MyBlogSpark.*