2010 February|Chia Seed Me

Feb 28, 2010 Posted by candice on Feb 28, 2010 in 20 day challenge, breakfast, emotional eating, lunch, mental notes, the hubs | 2 comments

a birthday week

picking myself up and dusting myself off…

So, basically a lot of life happened this week, which detered me from regularly posting or updating on the challenge. I knew this was going to be a crazy busy week, but I didn’t realize just how crazy. Jonathan has been working on a project at work for about a year now. The university he works for (and our alma mater) has launching the largest fundraising campaign ever in the history of the school. He is the assistant director of marketing, so his role has been huge throughout the entire process. Anyway, the campaign went public for the first time on Friday at a big event on campus. Then, on Saturday, at halftime of the basketball game, there was another big announcement about it, and we spent the day passing out t shirts to students. So basically, every night this week was filled with working and getting ready for the big day. Plus, Friday was Jon’s birthday, so any free time I had this week was spent shopping, wrapping and baking. It’s been a whirlwind.

It’s also been the longest I’ve ever gone without posting. I missed it so much! I feel like the spring was missing from my step all week. I have to be honest and say that between work madness and birthday festivities, some not so good food choices resulted as well. I did do some good things too though. For instance, I exfoliated my face every three days, drank more water this week and didn’t eat one spoonful of Kashi cereal (yay!). I have to admit that the other parts of the challenge were hit or miss. I actually wasn’t as committed this week as I was before I started the challenge. Boo. I participated in what some would call “emotional eating,” which I’m not proud of. It’s something that I struggle with often, but the emotional eating monster struck extra hard this week. Stress, stress, stress.

BUT, one part of the challenge that I am really being tested on right now is not beating myself up when I don’t do so hot. I’ve actually had a lot of practice with that one lately. And truly, I think it is one of the most important skills to practice. Loving my husband and being there for him in every way possible, and still staying on top of my own job took precedence over blogging and sticking 100% to my challenge this week. And I’m okay with that. In fact, that’s the way it should be.

So, it’s a new week, and I’m still shooting for the same goals. Life and all of the routines that come with it should be back to normal starting tomorrow. I feel a bit silly that I’ve lost an entire week of only a three week challenge, but there is nothing I can do about that now. That is, nothing aside from jumping right back in and doing the best I can this week.

Off I go to do some more prep for school tomorrow. Because the first part of the weekend was so busy, I spent most of today working on grading research papers and planning for this week. And I’m still not done. I did manage to squeeze in time to make a soup for lunches this week, which I’ll post later, as well as one episode of Amazing Race. Love that show!

I hope everyone has a great start to the week. Thanks to those of you who’ve stuck around through my hiatus. It’s good to be back:)

I’ll leave you with a few pics from the last few days.

Friday’s eats – cashew cookie Lara, banana (to be wrapped inside almond butter filled wrap) and spaghetti squash concoction which included spaghetti squash, brussels, corn, green beans, chick peas, sliced almonds and humnut sauce.

Gotta love the hubs. This is his breakfast specialty (except for green monsters of course:). It’s all about presentation of course. Ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin with cashew butter and sliced banana. And two almonds to top it off.

Happy birthday to my hero, my best friend, my love.

eats!

Hi! How was everyone’s Monday? I like Averie’s line from her post today “hopefully your day has been going along nicely and that you’re at least savoring some memories from the weekend.” I feel like I’m heavier on the savoring from the weekend part. O’well, can’t win ‘em all:) Really, though, today hasn’t been half bad. The school where I teach is having their yearly fundraising week. The students choose a charity to raise money for, and I won’t even go into all the millions of ways they raise it. Let’s just say anything from selling cupcakes to having paid assemblies for the students to attend. Their goal is $200,000 by the end of the week. Amazing, huh? Anyway, so there is an assembly every single day, and the kids all dress up and what not. It’s a fun time, but the kids just don’t understand why they have to do schoolwork in the midst of all the festivities (insert sarcasm).

Anyway, onto some eats from the past couple of days.

Crappy picture, excellent meal. I threw in about 3/4 cup plain soy yogurt, sliced almonds, clean granola, cinammon and blues! I love yogurt messes…I have a toned down version (just soy yogurt, a smidge granola and almonds) almost every afternoon for a snack. I always forget to snap a pic, but I just can’t get over how great they are.

Jon and I almost always grab something to eat after church on Sundays. One of my go-to’s is Pita Pit. Also, our librarian at school’s son owns Pita Pit so he delivers pitas for the teachers every Wednesday. It’s really one of the only places that I’ll really eat out at. It’s def. not easy to find clean eats at restaurants here in small town Oklahoma. All this tasty goodness included: whole wheat pita, spinach, bell pepper, onion, mushroom, sprouts, tomatoes, pineapple, babaganoush and a tad bit of hot sauce. So good!!!

Dinner last night was kind of a random assortment, but nevertheless everything I was craving. Baked sweet potato rounds, roasted carrot chips, steamed green beans and a slice of Ezekiel toast spread with hummus. All with a side of unsweetened ketchup. I gave up ketchup a long time ago, even though I loved it, because it had sugar in it. Well, I happened to find this version at Whole Foods last weekend, which has only tomatos and salt. I can’t bring myself to even think about complaining about the salt;) It totally made this meal, though. That and the hummus of course.

And, lastly, lunch for work. Jon snapped this photo while I was still in the mixing stage, and I forgot to get a final shot. This salad is one of my favorites, and I’ve recreated it time and again – spring mix, 1/4 cup chick peas, 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup corn, chopped artichoke hearts, sliced almonds, chia seeds, chopped onions and balsamic for dressing. What can I say? I like my salads extra large! The only thing I forgot was avocado…how could I?

Well, I’m off to read up on some of you fine people’s blogs and not possibly grade some research papers. Hope everyone has a great night!

20 day challenge..what what!

I did some thinking this weekend, and I’ve decided to start a very specific, very pointed 20 day challenge. Let me back up a bit.

On January 1st, I set a goal to lose 20 pounds by the end of March. As I mentioned in Saturday’s post, I realized several weeks ago that I wasn’t on track to make that goal. I wasn’t disappointed at all because my progress was steady, and I’m not really all about deadlines anyway. My clean eating lifestyle is just that – a lifestyle – so if it takes me a couple extra months to get to my “happy weight” then that’s fine by me.

That being said, I do still want to make progress. This past couple of weeks, my weight loss discipline has started to wane. I’ve been doing a lot of mindless snacking when I’m not hungry, and while it’s always on clean foods, it’s definitely hindering my efforts. So, I decided to initiate a plan in order to finish strong through my original goal date. I’m throwing out the number of pounds goal and instead just focusing completely on sticking to the guidelines of my challenge. I’ll make as much progress as I can, and then celebrate whatever results I see in the end!! Sounds good, eh?

So, here are the deets:

Eating Goals
-   Eat only clean foods
-   don’t eat after dinner unless I’m truly hungry
-   eat five (six if needed) meals each day
-   drink 80 ounces of water each day
-   drink at least 12 ounces of green tea every day (b/c it’s so dang good for you, not b/c of the weight loss rumors:)
-   only clean drinks
-   no snacking in between planned meals/snacks
-   2-3 healthy fat servings each day
-   at least 4 servings of vegetables each day
-   take vitamins/supplements every day
-   no Kashi go lean cereal

Workout Goals
Monday: arms/chest/abs
Tuesday: cardio – 40 – 60 minutes including at least 20 minutes intervals
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: cardio – 40-60 minutes including at least 20 minutes intervals
Friday: legs/glutes/abs
Saturday: cardio – 40-60 minutes including at least 20 minutes intervals
Sunday: rest

Other Goals
Work on not beating myself up when I slip up
Work on not feeling guilty about illegitimate things
Focus on today and not the future
Exfoliate my face every 3 days
Use my white strips

Honestly, I love challenges. I’m excited to get back to the basics. Keep in mind a couple of things, though. First of all, I already do most of the items listed under “eating” and “workout” so it’s not quite as strenuous as it may appear. I put those things on the list still so they’ll be fresh on my mind. The key things I need to really change and improve on are the water intake (I’ve been slacking), the eating after dinner, the mindless snacking and the ahem, crack Kashi issue. As far as workouts go, I just need to be more diligent about writing down my specific workouts and making sure I’m getting the weight training in. And, regarding “other goals,” well, I pretty much am terrible at all of those things as of now, so I’ve got some serious work to do there. Second of all, I don’t advocate guidelines that are this rigid for extended periods of time. I’m all about moderation and including indulgences in life, but I’m also all about giving it all I’ve got for short periods of time, and really finding out what I am capable of!

I’d love to invite you to join me in this challenge or create one of your own! Sometimes we just need some inspiration and fresh goals to motivate ourselves. Let me know if you are doing a challenge as well. I’ll be updating my progress, daily, on the “20 day challenge” page, so check for updates there. I’ve taken measurements, so that I can check for progress at the end, however, I’ve also written down some thoughts on how I’ve been feeling mentally and physically, so that I can chart progress that way as well. If you’re interested, you can check those out on the “20 day challenge” page as well.

Well, that’s all for tonight. The challenge starts today and ends on March 13th, which is the day that Jon and I leave for our Dallas getaway…yea! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Here we go again, Monday!

Olive says goodnight!

“breakfasty” things and some thoughts…

Wow, this week has been so busy! I’ve missed blogging so much. School has just been completely overwhelming, and I haven’t been able to spend the time posting or reading that I would like to. I know there are always going to be those times, but in the spirit of honestly, I am feeling a little “down-in-the-dumps” today. I’ve never really had the drive to be a career focused woman. I’m much more interested in being a wife and homemaker, but I’ve found myself in a job that takes up so much of my time, even outside of actual work hours. It’s really hard to find time to do anything else. So, I apologize for being a slacker this week. It wasn’t because I didn’t have plenty to say or because I didn’t miss blogging. It was simply a matter or no time! This coming week is not looking much better, but I’m going to try my best to carve out more time for other things, and, just as a side note, three weeks from now is Spring Break…yea!!

So, here are couple of things I want to share from the last few days:

A great oat combo!

1/3 cup oats
1 cup water
1 spoonful of canned pumpkin
cinnamon

Toppings:

almond butter
sprinkle of kashi go lean crunch
dollop of soy yogurt
blues!

This was a serious bowl of oats, lemme tell ya. I had high ambitions because Jon and I laid in bed for awhile after we woke up this morning; so by the time we got up, got dressed, went for an hour walk with Olive and then came back home, I was famished! This concoction definitely took care of my hunger.

Next up – my favorite breakfast from this week:

So sorry for the crappy pictures. Here’s the deal – I always borrow Jon’s camera from work to take my blog shots, but lately he hasn’t been able to bring it home, so I’ve been shooting with the iPhone – not ideal. We are working toward getting a camera of our own in the next few months, and I cannot wait. Until then, this will have to suffice at times.

This is an Ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin, topped with a spread of almond butter or cashew butter and sliced banana. So easy. So transportable. And delish. Love it.

Last…and certainly not least – is something new I tried this week for a midafternoon snack. The coconut milk yogurt that I got from Whole Foods last Sunday.

I topped this vanilla flavored coconut yogurt with some granola and sliced almonds. I did NOT like it. The texture and the flavor were just not working for me. The texture was very gel like, and the flavor just seemed off. I’ve seen a lot of coconut yogurt around the blog world, and I’ve been itching to try it. I’m glad I finally did, but I definitely won’t be buying it again. I tried to finish this one, but I just couldn’t do it. It’s very rare for me to try a new health food that I don’t like, but it happens. o’well…this stuff is not cheap and not available in Stillwater, so it kind of works out. I’ll stick to my Whole Soy, thank you very much.

Last thing before I sign off for the night. I have been struggling this past week or so with snacking. I try to stick to 5 small meals a day, with no random eating in between, and it totally works for me. The snacking I’ve been doing has not been out of hunger, and that’s why I have a problem with it. I am still working toward my goal of losing 20 lbs. I’ve lost about 8 lbs. so far, and while my goal was March 22nd, there’s no way I’m going to make that date. And I’m totally fine with that. I’d actually be happy for it to take a little longer, and for me to be able to enjoy life a lot more along the way! This is a lifelong lifestyle for me, so there really is no hurry.

BUT, I do still want to continue making progress. So, I’m really going to be working on cutting out the mindless/stress eating. It negatively impacts the way I feel, mentally and physically. I feel disappointed in myself and my body doesn’t take to it very well. Eating too much throughout the day makes me feel sluggish and heavy, with very little energy. One way I’m going to try to combat it is to think of something else specific that I can do when I feel the urge coming on. Some ideas include lighting a candle and laying down to rest for 15 minutes or so, taking deep breaths and thinking of the progress I’ve made and how I want to treat my body like the temple that it is, calling someone (hi mom!) and talking out how I’m feeling, or hopping on one of my favorite inspirational blogs to get motivation.

Questions of the day: do you ever eat due to stress or mindlessness? What kind of things do you do other than eating when you need something to just calm you down?

I hope you all are having a great weekend and getting some rest and relaxation in! See ya later!

LOVEly day

I love Valentine’s Day. It’s not that I so much enjoy the commercial side of it all, because I don’t. But I love that it is one entire day that is set aside for Jon and I to just focus on each other and do fun, special things, such as….

take a day trip to Tulsa to go to Whole Foods

Like a lot of you, I’m sure, one of my favorite places to go is Whole Foods. The closest one to us is about an hour away, though, so we don’t get to go very often. This was my plate at lunch! Embarrassingly overflowing? Yes. Out of this world delicious and worth every bite? Yes!

Most of my plate was filled with romaine topped with everything from artichoke hearts steamed kale, shredded beets, chick peas and black beans to green and yellow bell peppers, sliced almonds, onions and oil-free orange ginger dressing. On the side I had a couple of different “salads” and one lonely falafel ball:) One salad had wild rice, pearl onions and several other tasty items that I cannot, for the life of me, remember. The other was wheatberries with kidney beans, dried fruit etc. I also added on some sliced carrots, sauteed in lemon juice. I can’t even begin to express to you how great this meal was. I die.

As pictured, I also had my first ever Kombucha. Aside from it spewing all over me when I opened it (apparently this is common), it was great. I took one for the road as well, but have yet to break it open yet.

While the food was some of the best I’ve had in awhile, the company was even better.

Disclaimer: we both hate this photo and agree that it doesn’t look much like either one of us, but it’s the only one I got all day:(

I seriously had the hottest date. I love my husband for so many reasons beyond what I can even express here on the ole’ blog, and not just because he is charming, selfless, makes my breakfast at 5:45 am every morning and always supports me in everything I do. Also, because he is the most fun person I know, he makes me laugh like crazy, and he is my soulmate. Sometimes I feel like I just don’t know how to express how much I love him.

After eating lunch we headed to the mall and did a bit of casual shopping together. Then, we headed back to Whole Foods (ha!) to fulfill our plan of buying some loot, including ingredients to make dinner together once we got back home. Unfortunately, the dinner never happened because we snacked a little too much on our goods plus Starbucks soy lattes, but here’s what we made it home with:

honeycrisp apples!!!, cashew butter (my first:), coconut milk yogurt, flax tempeh, vegan sour cream (one of the ingredients for the planned meal that fell through), roasted garlic humms, Almond Breeze, whole wheat penne, raw cashews (on sale!), couple cans of Amy’s soup, organic dates, artichoke hearts, kombucha, low sodium vegetable buillon, and Clif Builders bars for the hubs.

So, that pretty much wraps up our V-day. We had intended to keep it low key all along because we’re taking a little mini vaca to Dallas on Spring Break. This was just the perfect day, though. On Monday, my students kept asking me what I did for Valentine’s Day, and I’m pretty sure they’ve lost all faith that I’m even halfway cool now that I told them I went to Whole Foods. Some girls want flowers, I want clean foods. So sue me:)

I hope everyone else had a great day as well! Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Do you love it or hate it? I love hearing other people’s opinions on this holiday.

I’m off to do some work for school. Bye!

weekend highlights…

…minus Valentine’s Day. I’m saving it for the next post. I think it deserves it’s very own:)

Saturday Jon and I got up and got to work cleaning the house. It always takes forever to deep clean the entire house, but it’s so worth it because we both feel so great when it’s done!! After that I packed up all of my school stuff, and we went up to his office to work. Jon is in his busiest season at work, and my job in general is busy season because I’m a 1st year teacher. So, we knew we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the rest of the weekend unless we knocked out some of our work.

Here are some food highlights from the weekend:

Lunch on Friday (because I took off to stay home and work) was a Joseph’s Protein pita filled with avocado, spinach, zucchini, squash, pickles and nutritional yeast. I had it with a side of hummus for dipping and a sliced pear with sprinkled cinnamon! So fresh and so delicious, yet so simple!

Friday afternoon I headed to the coffee shop to have a change of scenery while I graded. I took along an AB banana roll up – a Joseph’s pita (should there be a limit on these things?) smeared with almond butter and sliced banana, all rolled up! Transportable and tasty!

This was today’s snack on the way home from work. It was the most beautiful apple I’ve ever eaten. I picked this baby up from a certain store that Jon took me to on Valentine’s Day. That’s just a little teaser for tomorrow’s V-day post. I also had a certain kind of nut butter smeared on it that I’ve been wanting to try for ages. It may also have come from this certain store.

Apologies for the picture quality…this bowl was so much better than it looks. I often borrow a camera that takes beautiful pictures from Jon’s work, but lately I haven’t had it so the iPhone has had to suffice. boo.

And finally, tonight’s dinner. I was having a serious craving for a giant bowl of veggies, and that’s exactly what I got. A little too big perhaps:) I tossed together cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, squash, onions, carrots, mushrooms and spinach. I sprayed it a few times with Braggs, and dumped in a small handful of raw cashews. I also added a few pieces of Tempeh that I picked up the other day as well (more to come on that). This was the second time I’ve ever had Tempeh, and the first time I made it I did not care for it at all! I’m so glad I gave it a second chance, though. It was really good in this stir fry with just a bit of Braggs sprayed on. I’ll definitely be highlighting it again in the future once I decide on another way to cook it.

Well, that’s it for the highlights. Unfortunately, I have got to go do some serious grading. Blah. I’ll be back tomorrow, though, with a fun post on what we did and where we went for Valentine’s Day! Hope everyone is having a great President’s Day!

potatoes au grautin

Tonight I made a clean version of an old favorite, and it was delish.

Growing up my mom used to make potatoes au grautin from the box on occasion. Honestly, it wasn’t too often that one would find a processed or “boxed” food on our kitchen table. My mom always made homemade meals from scratch, and she prided herself on feeding us mostly healthy food and everyone coming together at the table for a family dinner. At the time I never really understood why I had to come in from playing outside to sit at the table with everyone, but now I’m so thankful for those memories, and I won’t have it any other way with our (future) children.

But back to the occasional “PAG.” I used to love those cheesy little spuds, but of course nowadays they don’t exactly fit into my repetoire of clean foods. So, tonight I veganfied (?) them!

Alongside a tasty mushroom burger…

Indulgence at it’s finest.

I started out by slicing a sweet potato up, sprinkling the rounds with ground red pepper and garlic powder and baking them for about 20 minutes. Next I mixed up some toasted pine nut hummus, nutritional yeast and water to make my new favorite humnut sauce. After the potatoes were baked, I arranged them on a plate and poured crack the sauce all over them. Yum! Next time I would bake the sweet potatoes for a little bit longer because they were a little too soft for my taste. Otherwise this meal rocked!!

For the mushroom burger, I just sauteed some portobello mushroom wedges in balsamic vinegar until they were cooked through and soft. Chopped onion, tomato, avocado and smushed it all between an ezekiel bun. I may also have added a teensy bit generous spoonful of humnut sauce to the burger as well;)

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. I took the day off from school tomorrow because I am so buried in grading I can’t even see my way out. With sophomore projects and junior research papers both piled high along with several random assignments that are waiting to be graded, I just needed a day at home to catch up and breathe. So after a workout with the hubs bright and early, I’ll have my head in the books papers all day.

It’s going to be a busy weekend even with the day off. Jon is cooking something up for Valentine’s Day, but we’ve planned on keeping it low key because we’re going to Dallas for a couple of days over Spring Break (only 4 weeks away!) as our real Valentine’s celebration. I can’t wait. I live for having days on end with nothing to do but explore and hang out with my favorite person!

Hope everyone is having a great night. TGIF (almost!)

on a scale of 1 to 10…

Hello!

Tonight is going to have to be a quick post because I’ve spent way too much of my time watching The Biggest Loser and grading projects for my sophomores, and I’ve got to head to bed!

I started my day off with overnight oats, primarily because we are out of soy milk, so I couldn’t make my usual green monster. Last night I mixed up 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup soy yogurt, 1/3 cup water, a heaping spoonful of canned pumpkin and cinnamon. I set it in the fridge overnight, and then this morning hubby added in sliced almonds and some blueberries. Yummo! I always love having overnight oats! I usually really enjoy them cold, straight out of the fridge, but it was so cold outside this morning that I decided to heat them up. They kept me warm all the way to work!!

*good oats…bad, bad pic

Dinner tonight was our usual Tuesday night enchiladas, aka “our addiction.” We LOVE this meal. Jon and I honestly just cannot get enough of Mexican food, so obvs. we have to healthify it. I like our version just as good or better as the restaurant version we used to get so often. I feel a heck of a lot better after eating this one though!

* this pic is so bad I almost didn’t post it. Don’t judge the ‘lada because of the sad iPhone pic.

1 Stacy’s whole wheat tortilla (more on these later)
2 slices of portabello mushroom
sauteed spinach
chopped onion
diced green chilis
nutritional yeast (protein)
green enchilada sauce

Wrap it all up and pop it in the over for about 10 minutes, and you’ve got yourself a gooey, smokin’ hot enchilada. Add a big scoop of homemade, healthy guac and a small side of refrien beans – perfection. If you love Mexican food, you would love this meal, promise.

Question for tonight: do you have levels of healthiness when you think about the food you eat?

Let me explain. Even though all the food I eat is clean, I still put it in levels in my mind for some reason. For instance, sauteed veggies over spaghetti squash would be about a 10 on the scale of healthiness, whereas my vegan enchilada meal is about a 5 or 6. In reality, neither meal is “not clean” or unhealthy in any way, but I still put these “labels” on my food sometimes. Does anybody else do this? I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing, but it’s kind of curious. Just wondered if I’m the only crazy person food labeler out there.

That’s it for now, friends. I’ve got to get to bed – I’ve got a busy day ahead involving a english department meeting over lunch, meeting with my principal during my planning period and a workout + hair appointment after school. Gotta decide whether to grow it out or keep it short. Ahh, decisions decisions!!

Night!

vegan love

Happy Monday evening! Sabai di mai ka (just felt like throwin’ a little Thai in)? Things are going pretty well here. Sometimes it is sorta refreshing when a day doens’nt go just like you planned, ya know what I mean? This morning I got up, got ready for work and off I went, thinking that today would be just like any other day. But by 10 o’clock, it was snowing hard enough that I decided to get a cover for the classes I teach after lunch and go ahead and make the hour trek home. The bad news is that it turns out I really didn’t need to leave early because the roads never got bad (I feel like an idiot a little bit silly). The good news is that I miraculously got squeezed in for a doctor’s appointment I’ve been needing to have, and I got a little extra grading done on my research papers. Score!

I also had an awesome day of eats! It all started this morning when I decided to have the hubs put a little twist on my usual green monster. Don’t worry, it was still green:) Unfortunately, I didn’t get a pic to prove it, but it really was…promise. This combo was excellent. I will def. be having it again in the very near future. I the sweet husband combined:

a couple big handfuls of spinach
chia seeds!
half a banana
1 cup soy milk
1/2 tbsp almond butter
1 big, heaping spoonful of canned pumpkin
sprinkle of cinnamon
ice

Wooooweeeee this was good! I tell you what, I am hooked on pumpkin. The flavors of the pumpkin, cinnamon, banana and almond butter totally hit the spot. I was going to have him add a bit of nutmeg as well, which I think would be a great addition, but we didn’t have any on hand so that will have to wait. You may have noticed that I left out the usual Amazing Grass. I really did miss it, but as discussed in this post, I’m trying to cut back a bit. I may just start having it a couple of mornings a week as a special treat:)

For lunch I swung through Whichwich on my way home. I hadn’t had a good ole’ tomato and avocado from there in ages, and it totally hit the spot! I always get the same thing (don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, right?) – tomato and avocado on wheat with lettuce, bell pepper, red onion, pepperocini, pickles and crushed red pepper. I could so down another one of those right this second….but I won’t.

I snuck in a couple of snacks while grading research papers – first, a tall soy latte from our local coffee shop and then a mix of yogurt, almonds and a few puffins before going to work out a little later. I don’t usually eat two snacks in the afternoon, but that’s just how it worked out today – like I said, nothing went as planned!

Okay, now for din din. I got this idea from HEAB the other day, and I just tweaked it a little bit. After cutting it in half, I put a spaghetti squash in the oven on 375 for about an hour. After it was done, I scooped out all the insides. Then I mixed a bowl full of “spaghetti” with some steamed turnip greens (microwave for about 30 seconds with a tad bit of water) and the most amazing, creamy, vegan sauce I’ve ever had! This sauce, I believe, was created by Mae. I just remembering reading somewhere about her “humnut” (hummus + nutritional yeast) sauce, and while I didn’t know what proportions she used, I knew I had to try it anyway. So, I basically just scooped about 2 tbsp of roasted garlic hummus into a bowl and added 3 tsp of nutritional yeast (my new wonder drug:) and a little water for thinning. I then poured the sauce over the squash and greens, mixed it all together and topped it off with a sprinkle of black pepper and pine nuts.

(So sorry that the picture is kind of rough. I only had my iPhone. Sad. This meal deserved better.)

Now, I can honestly say this is one of the most indulgent tasting vegan meals I’ve made thus far in my vegan journey, and it was so simple. It took me longer to type out what I did, than it actually took to do it (not counting oven time for the squash)! Seriously! It was to die for. It really did taste like a healthified version of mac and cheese. It was so creamy! I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you.

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this post. Too many words, too little pics. I’ll do better next time;) I hope everyone is staying warm and having a great week so far. I’m pretty stoked because I’ve got overnight oats “doing their thing” in the fridge right now. It should be a tasty drive to work tomorrow! Have a good night friends!

BTW…I am so enjoying the Sarah Bareilles station on Pandora right now. Try it out if you get a chance!

Pumpkin Protein Waffles

Happy Saturday blog friends! How is the weekend going so far? Mine is going way too fast. Today, Jon and I went to OKC so I could go to a baby shower for my friend. He dropped me off and went to hang out at Barnes and Noble, and I got to hang out with my girlfriends from college! It was so nice to see them…it had been way too long.

Since I didn’t get a post up yesterday, I want to catch up by highlighting a couple of meals from the last 2 days.

First up is this:

I finally got my Jay Robb! I’ve been wanting to try this protein powder for so long, and it finally came in the mail. The morning after I got it, I decided to try it in my green monster. That was one of the main reasons why I wanted to order it. So, into the blender went:

1 cup soymilk
2 big handfuls of spinach
1/2 a banana
chia seeds
2 tbsp Jay Robb

Okay, I have to admit that I didn’t love Jay Robb. I know, I know. It sounds crazy, but I really didn’t like it much.

Pros
24 grams of protein
short ingredient list- whole grain sprouted brown rice protein, natural flavor, stevia
eco-friendly packaging

Cons
a bit chalky
expensive if you have to order it online
flavor seems off

I just did not like the way this protein powder tasted. I very rarely sweeten things these days, so I think that may have something to do with it. If you are a person who really likes stevia or uses it a lot, you may like the taste of Jay Robb much better. I’m not much of a fan, though. I was a very sad girl, missing my usual green monster all the way to work.

Now, let’s move on from to the more positive side of things. I vowed to never use this protein powder in my morning smoothie again, BUT that doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to use it in other things. And with that I present to you my crazy good breakfast from this morning…

Check out the thickness!

Pumpkin Protein Waffles

1 cup oats
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 heaping tablespoon of Jay Robb

adapted from original recipe from onefitfoodie.com

I threw all the ingredients into the blender and switched it on for about a minute. Then, I poured it into the waffle maker and let it cook for the normal amount of time (until the light went off). The batter was so thick I had to scrape it out of the blender with a spatula. I wondered how the thickness would affect the final product, but it just made it thick and hearty! The pumpkin flavor was subtle and it mixed so well with the almond butter and banana. Also, I didn’t miss syrup at all! The texture of the banana was enough to counter any dryness. Basically, this was just a warm, thick, soft plate of heaven! I topped mine with almond butter and sliced banana, but there are endless possibilities! It was so, so good! And it held me over for a good four hours or so. You’ve got to try this recipe. It will definitely be a good way to still use the Jay Robb because I couldn’t even taste it in the waffles, but it added some much needed protein.

And I’ll leave you with a picture of dinner tonight from Pei Wei. Pei Wei is one of my favorite restaurants to eat out at. It’s pretty clean if you choose the right thing, and it’s so delicious! I ordered the Spicy Korean with vegetables and tofu and brown rice.

I ate about half of this and brought the rest home for leftovers. The only negative about this meal is the high sodium content, but it’s certainly worth it on occasion!! Otherwise, the nutrition stats are pretty good.

I hope everyone has a wonderful night! Until tomorrow…

short and sweet

This post is going to be short and sweet. My students turned in their research papers today (blah), so I’ve got a pile of grading a mile high that I’ve been attempting to sort through. Plus, tonight has just gone by really fast, and this girl has got to hit the sack!

If there is one thing besides clean eating and exercise that I find imperative it’s sleep. Getting up at 5am every morning, it’s nearly impossible to get 8 hours, which would be my dream (no pun intended:). I do strive to get at least 7, though, and it’s going to be pushing it at this point.

I made a fun little run to the health food store after work today. Most people would think I am crazy considering how excited I get at the health food store, but I just love browsing and seeing all the different foods, and of course picking up a couple of special treats while I’m at it. And of course you of all people probably can identify. Here is a picture of my loot.

I’m not going to go into detail about it all tonight, but definitely expect some reviews coming soon because several of these items are new to my repetoire, and so far they have totally blown me away. And with that I present to you dinner:

a little less than an ounce of soba noodles
brussels
broccoli
cauliflower
onion
garlic
turnip greens
mushrooms

First, I sauteed the onions and garlic in a little bit of evoo for a few minutes. Then I tossed in all the other vegetables besides the mushrooms and turnip greens. As I sauteed them, I sprayed Braggs on intermittently. As soon as those veggies were done, I added the mushrooms and turnip greens just for about a minute. Once they were done I mixed them in a bowl with the cooked soba noodles, and then sprinkled nutritional yeast all over it (my favorite part!).

Wow. That’s all I have to say. The veggies played the starring role in this meal, and the nutritional yeast was like the icing on the cake. The soba noodles have probably become my favorite noodle (haha), but I like to say I had some soba noodles on my vegetables rather than the other way around. This was just such a great combo that I could probably have every night. I promise I won’t bore you, though. Definitely expect the nutritional yeast to make a second appearance tomorrow, though!

Okay, that’s all for tonight. I hope everyone had a great day…and here’s to a great Thursday as well:)

more than I bargained for

Hi everyone! How did your day go? Mine has been pretty good so far. We had another snow day today. We haven’t had classes since last Wednesday. If you read the day before yesterday’s post, you can probably tell that the shock factor of being out of school has worn off. I have to say I was initially shocked when I found out last night, but I’m honestly starting to get kind of used to this whole stay at home and work thing. I’m kinda liking it;) Unfortunately, I’ve already received an email today saying that school will be back in session tomorrow, so the fun’s over for now.

This morning was a little more eventful than expected. Jon had to work today, so we got up and went to the gym to get some cardio in before he had to leave. There was also a Pilates class at the gym at 8:15 that I really wanted to go to, so I came home and helped Jon get out the door for work, and then I drove back to the gym to do pilates. I’ve done Pilates several times before and really enjoyed it. While I enjoyed it today, it was HARD! We started off working abs and continued working abs for the first half hour of class, then we worked obliques, arms and legs. By the time it was all over, my body was seriously over it. It did not want to move. So, I stumbled out into the cold, pulled myself up into my husband’s Explorer (he drove my car today), turned the key, and….nothing. Nothing happened but this annoying little clicking noise.

Plan B consisted of walking home because Jon was in an important meeting, and I couldn’t think of anyone else to come and get me. The good news is that we only live a couple of miles from the gym. The bad news is that while the streets are mostly clear of ice and snow, the sidewalks have not been attended to AT All. Also bad news was that all I had on was my spandex capris and a tank top with a light jacket. I figured I didn’t need to bundle up just for the little jaunt between the car and the gym. Either way, I definitely got more than I bargained for as far as exercise today.

My eats today were pretty basic, and unfortunately I didn’t have the camera so all my pictures were taken with the iPhone, and they are not pretty. O’well, you’ll get the idea I suppose.

I started off the day with a toned down version of my usual green monster. When I got back from exercise round one I was really hungry, but just wanted something light and energizing to get me through Pilates. So, I tossed the following into the blender:

2 handfuls spinach
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup soymilk
1 scoop Amazing Grass
protein powder

I was a bit concerned about how this was going to taste because I left out my usual 1/2 banana and the other 1/2 cup of soymilk I usually add. It was pretty tasty, though! I never realized that I didn’t need the banana. I’m happy happy though because sometimes I’m looking for just a little pick me up that isn’t overloaded with carbs (not that I have anything against carbs:) and is lower in calories. This was the perfect solution, and it had plenty of protein.

By the time I got home from exercise round 2 and 3, all I could think about was sprinting to the hot shower to thaw out from the frostbite that had taken over my fingers and toes. The pain of the cold had masked my hunger, but man, once I got all warm, my stomach did not hesitate to let me know that it was HUNGRY! So, I made a yogurt bowl.

1 container blueberry O’soy yogurt
2 tbsp sliced almonds
3 tbsp clean granola
small chunks of frozen peaches that I found in the freezer
1 tbsp chia seeds

Yum! Yogurt bowls are seriously one of my favorites!! I love the mixture of crunchiness and yogurt. I don’t know why I don’t have this more often. It’s hard to give equal time to all my favorite things, though;) I’m sure you guys can identify.

Since I was housebound with no car, I spent the morning working on school stuff. Not that I would have done any differently had I had a car…I’m just a workaholic. Seriously, it’s sort of a problem, but a problem for another time and another post. Jon swung by during his lunch hour and picked me up, and we went and jumped the car. Turns out a dead battery was it’s only ailment…thank goodness. Afterwards I decided to treat myself to some Pita Pit.

This baby had the works (the pic does NOT do it justice…don’t be fooled)!

whole wheat pita
babaganoush
avocado
spinach
onion
tomato
bell pepper
sprouts
pineapple
hot sauce!

Love this meal!!

Also had this little pick-me-up a few minutes ago – fuji with cinnamon sprinkle and the rest of our soymilk with another half scoop of Grass.

Well, I’m off to go to the grocery store and then it’s back home to make dinner (tbd), cuddle up on the couch and watch LOST! Any LOST fans out there?? We’ve been waiting months for this season to begin, and I can’t believe it’s finally here!

Have a great night!

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