Day 2: Extra Schloppy Beachin'

Woke up this morning to walk a mile to the beach.

While walking with a HUGE bag isn't so beach glamorous, the view was totally worth getting sand in every crevice of my body. Sick. We decided to picnic on the beach after the long walk and after eating, got in the freezing cold Lake Michigan water to throw around a lacrosse ball. We like to improvise, obviously.

This wasn't from today, but it gives a great view of the beach I was laying out on.
Yes, even though it's August, the water is still cut glass. 

The "DePaul famous" Second Dinner (last night): Aldi's clancy pretzels. They are addictive, BEWARE. But, it did cure my salt craving. B and I made ice cream cones. Instead of gorging out of the container, ice cream cones are a sensible way to enjoy dessert and remain closer to the actual serving size.

Breakfast: One Reese's cup, not kidding. I'll work on it!!

Lunch: Since we woke up at noon to go directly to the beach, we brought along an insulated reusable tote filled with PB&J on hamburger buns; mozzarella string cheese; chips; Venom energy drinks (for our beach dranks) and another fan favorite, Skinny Taffy Apple Salad. This is really easy to do and a great snack when you need something sweet or crunchy!

Skinny Apple Taffy Salad
1 container of Cool Whip (I use free or light, tastes the same)
2 crunchy Granny Smith apples
1 can of pineapple tidbits, drained
1 package of low-fat Butterscotch pudding mix

Core and cut the apple into tiny pieces. Mix together the pudding mix and Cool Whip, add fruit and Viola!

Snack: Nothing really, I munched on a few more chips and had another string cheese. Because we didn't get our drank on at the beach, we decided to make margaritas. We used the Jose Cuervo prepared mix (with tequila). They are easy to make, and to make it look like you made effort fill a  blender full of ice, fill it with mix half way, add a handful of strawberries and garnish with a chunk of pineapple. This is a great idea when hosting and works really great with Taco Tuesday (Ole!)

Dinner: We were so close to getting BBQ, but we decided it would be silly to spend money especially with all of the food we bought yesterday. C, a BFF, who came to the beach with us stopped by for dinner too. We  decided to make Sloppy Joes and homemade baked french fries. These are both really easy things to make and at most takes 1 hour! The sloppy joes I make are sweet and without BBQ which went perfectly on toasted buns. I crunch a few potato chips on top of the sandwich, delish. To make french fries, cut up the potatoes in french fry shapes, soak in water for 15minutes and preheat the stove to 450. Pat dry and throw them in some oil and on an Al+ sheet pan with your favorite seasonings, we used salt and paprika. Bake for 45minutes flipping at the halfway point. Simple.

And just because I was too hungry to take a picture...

Have some more sloppy joes. I made 'em extra sloppy for yous. I know how yous kids like 'em sloppy.

Dessert: While we haven't had it yet, I'm considering a small bowl of cobbler accompanied with some ice cream. Yummy

Operation 20: :] Going well, still on track! Going for a long walk to the beach today carrying some extra weight helped a ton. Don't forget, even cleaning the house (which is going to be done today) is burning calories!!