2010 March|Chia Seed Me

Mar 30, 2010 Posted by candice on Mar 30, 2010 in Uncategorized | 4 comments

operation beautiful

Reminder #65464 about the chia seed giveaway! Don’t wait another second to enter. Do it! Do it! Do it!

Hey everyone!

All day I have been thinking that today is Wednesday. I’m not sure why…maybe it’s just wishful thinking:)

Have you heard of Operation Beautiful? I just recently started reading Caitlin’s blog, and I think what she is doing is amazing! So, today I decided to take part!

As you guys know, I’m a high school teacher. So, I snuck in the bathroom this morning before school and left these. I tried to stick them on the inside of the stall door, but they wouldn’t stick! ha! So, the bottom one ended up on the toilet paper dispenser. oops. I’m hoping that won’t taint the message:)

This totally made my day, and I think I just might start making a habit of it!

And speaking of beautiful;)

Sorry for the short post tonight – I had to work on school projects for several hours, and the night has flown by. I so missed surfin’ the blog world and visiting everyone, but there’s always tomorrow I guess!

See you guys!

countin’ the cals..what are your thoughts?

Don’t forget the chia seed giveaway – only a few more days!

Hey all! How has everyone’s Monday been? Mine’s been just fine, but I’m glad it’s over and we’re on to Tuesday! Jon and I are going to my hometown for Easter this weekend, and I am stoked! My aunt and uncle just had a baby last fall, but they live out of town so this Saturday will be my first time to meet her. I can’t wait!

I started off this morning with my usual green monster (not pictured, I figure you guys know what my gm looks like. You don’t need to see it everyday:) – 1 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp natural peanut butter, 2 handfuls of spinach and a half a banana. Okay, are you ready for my shameless plug for my chia seed giveaway? Chia seeds really make all the difference in my morning green monster. On days that I include them (which is most) I stay don’t get hungry near as quickly as I do on days that I don’t have them. Plus, I have had a problem with anemia in the past, but between the iron in my spinach and the iron in the chias, I know I’m getting a healthy dose!

Here are my snacks – all packed up and ready to go for the day! I ended up not eating the carrots and cucumbers and only eating half the larabar because I was just too busy!

Lunch was spaghetti squash with steamed brussels and humnut sauce (1tbsp hummus+1.5 tbsp nutritional yeast+water).

Love this little meal! This combo was originally posted by Heather, and I have been addicted to it ever since. It really tastes like a vegan form of mac and cheese – the texture is a little different, but the health value is phenomenal!

Due to a lack of sleep last night, I have been super exhausted all day. So exhausted, in fact, that Jon and I totally copped out on dinner and went with cereal and peanut butter toast. So exhausted, also, that I failed to snap a shot of it. Oops! We are both huge cereal mixers, and we’ll mix just about anything. My mixture included Kashi U Black Currant and Walnut + Post Shredded Wheat ‘n’ Bran + Puffins with almond milk. Not the most fancy dinner I’ve ever had, but it worked!

One thing I wanted to mention tonight is that I’ve started “sort of” counting calories again. I’ve basically started keeping a rough estimate using Spark People. I usually just calculate how many I eat up until dinner, and then I have an idea of the range I should stick to from them on.

It seems that it isn’t very “popular” in the world of health food blogs to count calories, and I understand why. One of my biggest goals with my health is to learn to eat intuitively and not count calories. However, I am still in the weight loss phase, and I know that lately my portions have maybe become a bit distorted, which is affecting my progress. So, while I think it is a great ultimate goal to not count calories, it works for me to check in occassionally and just give myself a bit of a reality check. Just keepin’ it real;)

One other thing I wanted to add is about my recipe for Mexican Fiesta Pasta. My sister made a batch last night, and one thing she mentioned (besides that she loved it:) was that she used less ground red pepper than I advised, and it was still super hot! So, I just wanted to mention that if you’re planning on trying it out, you may want to use ground red pepper “to taste” rather than the full 2 tbsp that I recommended. I’m a GRP addict!

Question for today: What do you think about counting calories? Do you think there is a negative vibe in the blog world about counting calories?

Have a great night everyone!

sunday eats

Don’t forget to enter my chia seed giveaway! There aren’t many entries so far, so you have a great chance of winning!

Today has been a great day! We got up and went for another 3 mile run this morning, which felt great. I think I finally got my mojo back. I like it:) Plus, I randomly decided to read our marathon race recap (we’re coming up on the 1 year anniversary!), which of course made me want to go out and run one tomorrow. haha.

Breakfast this morning was 1/3 cup of oats cooked in 3/4 cup water, 1/3 cup soy yogurt, 1 tbsp natural peanut butter and some strawberries. Yum!

Unfortunately our run went a little long this morning (and we got a late start…oops!), so by the time we got ready for church we were about 20 minutes late. We just decided to download one of our pastor’s sermons and listen to it at home instead – dress and all!

I started getting hungry for lunch a few hours later, and I just couldn’t decide on anything. This happens to me quite often – I just can’t decide on a meal so I end up just eating something random. It hit the spot though, and held me over for a couple of hours.

I went with baked sweet potato rounds, seasoned with ground red pepper (of course!), garlic powder and Mrs. Dash salt free seasoning. I also mixed up some humnut sauce (1.5 tbsp nutritional yeast + 1 tbsp hummus + water) for dipping and a some protein.

Later I snacked on an ezekiel english muffin with a slather of natural peanut butter to get me through until dinner.

I can never resist hot carbs with nut butter!

Today was a little low on veggies, but a Chipolte salad came through and saved the day for dinner. I forgot to grab the camera on the way out the door, sorry! My salad was stock full of romaine, fajita veggies, black beans, pico, salsa verde and guacamole! If you have a Chipolte near you, you must try this salad. The veggie tacos are awesome as well!

I’m off to finish watching Amazing Race and then hit the sack! Have a great Monday!

basic pasta sauce

Don’t forget to enter my chia seed giveaway that is going on – only 6 more days!

Happy weekend everyone! How has your Saturday gone? I love Satudays, and this one has not disappointed.

Jon and I slept in this morning, and then got up and headed out to our favorite running spot. We have a small “lake” out north of town that has a 3.1 mile asphalt path all the way around it. We actually did most of our marathon training out there last year. Anytime we mention to someone that we once ran around it over 6 times they think we’re crazy. And we probably are.

Anyways, we only made it around once today. The wind was blowing about 30 miles per hour, and coming off the lake it was chilly! But I have to say it felt great. I have been having a hard time getting motivated for running lately, and I think I needed a good, solid, happy run to cure me!

We didn’t get going until about 11am, so I decided I need a little carb boost for energy. I popped about 5 of these little guys

High in carbs and all the sugars are natural. No added sugar for this girl!

A couple hours later we decided to hit up Panera for lunch. Since it was about 1′clock and I’d had almost nothing to eat all day (so abnormal for me!), I upped the ante a bit and went for a pick two: half a Mediterranean Veggie sandwich (hold the feta please!) and a cup of black bean soup. Against my initial better judgment I also had a whole grain baguette. I guess my body needed the carbs!

After lunch I spent a little extra time at Panera getting some grading done while Jon went home to work on some design projects. I have to say that grading is by far my least favorite part of teaching. Getting through those essays was brutal today, and I still have half of them left! Guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow afternoon:(

One afternoon of grading, a Starbucks soy latte, and some Lost watching later, we decided to cook up some dinner. Tonight was another “eatin’ cheap” creation. Very simple – “Basic Pasta Sauce.”

Ingredients:

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
3-5 button mushrooms, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
minced garlic
italian seasoning
oregano

Add chopped onion and garlic to skillet and cook until onion starts to get soft. Next, add diced tomatoes, both cans of tomato sauce, chopped mushrooms, 1 tbsp italian seasoning and 1 tbsp oregano. Mix together, then cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

While this is not a ground-breaking recipe, I love it because it is so fast, easy, cheap and it pleases the palate. Leaving the meat out of the sauce reduces cost, and bulking it up with veggies is great for taste and satiety! If cooking only for myself, I would have added some chopped squash and zucchini, but Jon isn’t a fan so we stuck with mushrooms and onions.

Jon poured his sauce over whole wheat spaghetti, and I went with bulgur as my base. Often times I’ll sub in bulgur for spaghetti because it has fewer calories and has 8 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein per 1 cup serving.

I also had a side salad of mixed greens, chopped carrots, cucumber, onions and chia seeds with balsamic poured over the top along with garlic bread – aka ezekiel toast with Earth Balance vegan butter, garlic powder and nutritional yeast.

This piece of toast x 3.

This meal really filled me up with all the volume foods and veggies!

We are off to rent a movie we’ve been wanting to see called Brothers. Has anyone seen it? What movies have you guys seen lately that you loved? I’m always up for suggestions!

chia seed giveaway!!

I told you I had an exciting announcement! Want to win some Chia Seeds from ChiaSeedsDirect.com?!

The wonderful folks at ChiaSeedsDirect have been kind enough to offer CSM readers a chance to win a free 2lb bag of chia seeds!

Here’s how you can score up to ten entries:

for one entry leave a comment on this post
for two entries tweet about the contest with a link to this post and let me know in the comments
for three entries link back to the contest on your blog and let me know in the comments
for four entries add ChiaSeedMe to your blogroll and let me know in the comments

Contest is open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

For anyone out there who isn’t yet familiar with these little “seeds of wonder,” they are nutritional powerhouses that are high in Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, fiber, protein, calcium, magnesium and potassium. Additionally, Chia Seeds can soak up water many times their weight. So once you’ve digested Chia Seeds, you’ll have a feeling of fullness that’s usually associated with eating a full meal. This will help eliminate food cravings. Chia Seeds also work to slow digestion and the body’s absorption of carbohydrates. This helps maintain for longer the feeling of fullness and minimize blood sugar spikes (from ChiaSeedsDirect.com).

These are just a few of the many benefits. I love to add chia seeds to my smoothies, stir-frys, salads, baked goods, bars…well, actually to just about anything!

Here is some info about ChiaSeedsDirect:

they offer the highest quality chia seeds at very low prices with free shipping on all U.S. orders. You can check out their website here.
They have also been kind enough to offer the opportunity to download a free 16-page booklet on chia seeds, chia seed benefits and chia seed recipes (score!). The link to this free booklet is http://www.chiaseedsdirect.com/frreonchsehe.html

Good luck everyone! Contest ends on Friday, April 2nd.

a big announcement!

Hey everyone! The week is over half way through! Tonight has been so busy, so this is going to be short and sweet.

I’m so excited about an upcoming announcement that I’ll be posting in the next couple of days. You definitely won’t want to miss it! I promise it will be great, and will obvs. involve a “sprinkle of chia seeds”:)

I’m actually posting from my husband’s computer because the power cord to my macbook broke yesterday, and it is beyond dead. I’ll be getting a new one tomorrow, and then I’ll be back to regular posting.

I’ll leave you with a random picture that happens to be on this computer. This was taken by a friend of ours when Jon asked me to marry him. Fun! Too bad we didn’t have our little Canon Rebel then;)

G’night!

Mexican Fiesta Pasta

Hi!

Whew! Today has been kind of crazy. Do you ever have those days where it seems that everything seems to go wrong? Well, that was today all the way up until 5pm when I arrived home from work. Enough about it, though, no need to carry it on!

I just have to say, first of all, thanks so much to all of you who have been stopping by and checking out CSM. Next to seeing my sweet husband, blogging is one of the highlights of my day. So, when I see that people are swinging by it thrills me to no end! I would love to hear from each of you in the comments, so that I can know who all is out there! Please drop me a line if you get a chance! Don’t be shy:)

And thanks so much to those of you who have been dropping me a line – you totally make my day!

Sorry guys, but lunch today was kind of a repeat. I love taking leftover for lunch, so when I have a large batch of something, such as Veggie-tel, I kill it! I did swap out the apple for a pear – just to add a little excitement. Oh, and threw in some chopped avocado as well. Somehow I forgot it yesterday. Doh!

I snacked on some baby carrots and sliced cucumber right after school today. I had to hold one little hoodlum after in detention. I threatened him with his life had a good little chat with him, so I’m hoping tomorrow is the last day we’ll spend time together after school. Somebody’s gotta keep these kids in line! These veggies held me over until my real snack on the commute home – a banana and a brown rice cake slathered with cashew butter. My cashew butter is almost out, which is not good considering the new budget implementations. Good ole’ PB will have to come to my rescue. It’s never a bad thing to get back to the basics I suppose.

Speaking of budget implementations, yesterday I promised a budget friendly delicious meal, and I definitely can’t go back on a promise. So, without further ado…

Mexican Fiesta Pasta

Ingredients

2 cans rotel (generic works great!)
1/2 chopped onion
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can chili beans, rinsed
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 can of corn, no salt added
1 12 oz. pkg whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp ground red pepper (or to taste) – I douse it!
1 tbsp cumin

Directions

Cook pasta
While pasta is cooking, dump everything else in a large pot (yes, everything else!)
Let mixture cook through while pasta is boiling
Drain pasta and add to mixture

That’s it! That’s one of the many joys of this meal. It takes all of about 15 minutes to make. It’s clean. It’s delicious. It’s cheap. Doesn’t get much better.

One thing I’d like to mention, considering this recipe has a lot of canned goods that go into it, is to be very careful when picking out your canned items. When I first started eating clean, I realized how many random things like sugar, salt, high fructose corn syrup etc. can come in things as simple as a can of corn or beans. There are definitely versions that are clean, you just have to look for them. I often buy Great Value because most of their canned beans, such as black, are pure and simple…they way we like it!

Well, that’s all for tonight! I’m off to respond to a couple of emails and then hit the sack! Hope you all had a fantastic day:)

eatin’ cheap

Happy (end of) Monday everyone! While Monday’s aren’t my favorite, it feels nice to have one day down and only four to go. I’m not going to lie – work today was a bit on the stressful side. It’s just hard getting back into the groove of things after sleeping in and doing only things I love for an entire week. It’ll get easier, though, at least it better!!

I started off this morning with a green monster per the usual. I am seriously addicted to my morning GM. Unfortunately, I am almost out of Amazing Grass. Jon and I are trying to really buckle down with our budget for the rest of the month, so I may have to go without my grass for awhile (gasp!).

These pics are actually from yesterday. I only wish I left for work late enough to take pictures in the natural light. Yea for Sundays! Besides, I wore the same outfit, so it’s basically like I took it today:)

Lunch today was leftover Veggie-tel and an apple.

Later I munched on some baby carrots for a snack and then followed that up with Whole soy yogurt and a mix of sliced almonds and Back to Nature granola for toppings on my commute home. This granola will definitely be up for a review soon because it’s really one of my faves.

I planned on making it to the gym today, but work got in the way. The teacher I plan with called while I was driving, and we proceeded to try and work out some school stuff for the next hour. I was sad to miss my workout, but Jon and I made up for it by taking a nice nap when we got home! Hey, the first day back is hard, ya know?

Tonight we took a trip to the grocery store to get a few things that will last us the next week and a half. I planned out four meals that are pretty economical, and they don’t taste too bad either! I’ll be sharing them throughout the week. I’m not always the best at economical grocery shopping (i.e. nut butters), but we are really trying to make some changes around here, so I’m going to be focusing a bit more on how to eat cheap and healthy!

First up for tomorrow will be a recipe I call Mexican Fiesta Pasta. If you like Mexican food, you’ll love this! It’s cheap, it’s easy, but it’s clean! Here’s a teaser;)

Have a great night everyone – on to Tuesday!

“You may be only one brave decision away from the most important turn in your life.” – Beth Moore

a list

Last day before back to work! I think I’ve come to terms with it over the last couple of days. I was reading a little of my new Self Magazine today, and there were some suggestions for making days less stressful that hit home with me, so I thought I’d share.

1. Recognize the opportunity for fun/pleasure – don’t automatically expect work tasks/assignments to be stressful and not fun. View projects as a chance for exploration and a chance to create something.

This one is big for me. I have to use creativity a lot with teaching. I often dread having to create lesson plans because I expect it to be difficult and not enjoyable. It’s all about changing your perspective.

2. “There is no such thing as ‘guilty pleasure,’ it’s all just pleasure (Wish*)” – Take a break to do something you enjoy several times a day…and don’t feel guilty about it! The time spent recharging will give you energy to tackle tasks with excitement.

For me this would be blogging or reading for pleasure. I sometimes feel guilty for taking time to do those things because I feel that I should be working on school stuff of cleaning up the house/doing laundry etc. Take time to RELAX!

3. “Make a concerted effort to note how much went right, regardless of how humble those triumphs may appear (Wish*)” – When you start paying attention to and focusing on the things (no matter how small) that went right in a day, you automatically will feel less negative.

I was reading through an old journal today and came across a period where I had written down daily things that had happened that brought me joy. I did it on a day-to-day basis, listing specific events or moments of that day. It was inspiring for me to read even today! I am a person who sometimes has to make an effort to focus on the positive, and I think this is a great way to do that.

Here is my list for today:

slept in (didn’t have to wake up to an alarm)
went to Panera with Jon to have a quiet time with the Lord
saw the little guy I used to nanny for
took an hour nap
got to spend the whole day with Jon
wore a new dress

I’d love to hear your list of joyful/positive things!!

little O at the pond the other day (before the big snow!)

*LeslieBeth Wish, Ed. D

happy 1st day of Spring! ha!

Spring really came in with a bang today! The temperature dropped about 45 degrees and it’s been like a blizzard for the last 12 hours.

Mom and Dad McCoy left at about 11am this morning. We had a great time having them visit. Yesterday we hit up almost every bargain store in our little city (the McCoy’s love a good bargain!), ate some Mexican food for dinner, grabbed Orange Leaf for dessert, then topped the night off by playing a good couple hours of Wii.

Sorry for the iPhone photos! I ordered enchiladas with spinach and mushrooms and verde sauce on top (subbed for the cheese sauce). I ate one of these enchiladas and most of the rice and beans. I try to not usually order rice and beans with my meal, but for some reason I decided to splurge. They were pretty good, but probably not worth it. O’well. I also had about half a basket of chips. Dang tortilla chips – almost always get the best of me. Little know fact – chips and salsa is my all time favorite food!

This pic does NOT do my yogurt justice. Next time I’ll have to cart my dslr into Orange Leaf. I had the non dairy Pineapple yogurt. For toppings I added strawberries, blueberries, cashews and one each of a piece of snickers, brownie and reeses. I figure that’s the wonder of self serve yogurt shops – you can get the teeniest amount – too bad you can’t do that at all restaurants!

So, I’ve basically spent the entire day sitting on the couch with Olive and Jon watching the snow fall out the window and working on a combination of work stuff and blogging. We did take a little break earlier to catch up on 3 episodes of LOST – which were awesome by the way. It has been a glorious second to last day out of school. I’m really bad about dreading going back to work so much that I let it taint my time off work. Yes, I realize this is ridiculous, and it’s something I’m really working on. I’ve been okay today, though.

Oh, and somehow I forgot to mention that I’ve kind of been eating all day as well. It’s one of those days where I just keep finding myself snacking. I think it mainly has to do with being cooped up inside all day with bad weather. Here’s a quick recap of my eats so far today:

Breakfast was 1/3 cup of oats cooked for a minute and half in 3/4 cup water. I added about half a container of soy yogurt on top with a bit of cashew butter and a sprinkle of granola. Yum! I absolutely die over cold yogurt on hot oats.

Next up was lunch – a new concoction that I like to call Veggie-tel (veggies+rotel, kind of corny I know:)

To make Veggie-tel

Sautee brussel sprouts and carrots in a bit of Evoo and garlic
Meanwhile cook 1 cup of bulgur
Add one can of rotel tomatoes + half an onion chopped in big chunks
Add one can of chickpeas (rinsed to eliminate extra sodium)
Simmer veggie/rotel concoction over medium heat
When almost all the water has cooked off the bulgur, dump the entire pot of bulgur into veggie mixture
Last, add your favorite spices (which for me is ground red pepper) and a couple handfuls of fresh spinach
Heat through until spinach is wilted
Serve with chopped avocado on top!

I loved this meal!! It is so fun to me to just throw together my favorite ingredients- i.e. rotel, brussels and chickpeas – and create a fabulous meal!

While watching LOST a couple hours later I may have eaten a couple handfuls of M&Ms, which I seriously regretted about 30 minutes later because my stomach was not agreeing. I don’t know why I do that sometimes. It’s like I just get in a zone and eat mindless things that I know are not going to make me feel good. Live and learn I guess.

Does this ever happen to you? I have gotten a lot better about not beating myself up over such instances, but I still regret them. How do you avoid/deal with times when you mindlessly eat foods that basically just make you feel like crap? Do you think this is something that can be overcome? Or is it something that as humans we will always deal with?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, and I hope everyone has a great Saturday evening! Jon and I are going to rent a couple of movies me thinks – maybe Precious or Time Traveler’s Wife? Maybe both? We shall see!

70 today, snow tomorrow

I can’t believe it’s already Friday of Spring Break. This week has gone by so fast! I still have a couple of posts I want to get up from the last few days, but I thought I’d sneak in a little daily post this morning. Jonathan’s mom and dad are going to be cruising into town in about an hour and a half, and we still need to finish cleaning up the house and go grocery shopping…eek!

We started off this morning with a two mile walk/run. It was supposed to be a two mile run, but the wind was blowing so hard so we wimped out for about a half mile. We finished strong, though!

As soon as we got back I realized how fast we were going to have to fly to get everything done before my MIL and FIL arrived. So, we put it into high gear – so much so that I didn’t stop to eat anything until about 11:30. By that point my body was not very happy with me. It cheered up really quick though after I practically inhaled this

This was a super green monster! I put in 2 big handfuls of spinach, 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 tbsp almond butter, a little over a cup of soymilk + splash of almond milk to finish off the carton, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 banana and one scoop of Amazing Grass. I added in the oatmeal today because I’m not sure when I’ll eat again. Plus, because I ate so late I was ravenous!!

I am loving this day so far because it is so nice outside – I even got to snap my monster photos on the deck! I just realized this morning, however, the extent of the snow that is forecasted for tonight and tomorrow. They are now predicting “blizzard like conditions” and about a foot of snow! That’s OK for you – 70 degrees today and a blizzard tonight/tomorrow. I guess I better jet so I can get some groceries stocked!

I hope everyone has a fantastic day! Happy Friday to those of you who have worked all week:)

dallas day three

Day three was inevitably less relaxing than days one and two. After sleeping in, we got ready, ate some Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with soy milk and banana and headed out for our last day of fun!

First, we had to drive to a Best Buy that was about 20 minutes away. The package deal that came with our camera also came with an extra lense (yay!), but we had to pick it up at the other store. After picking it up, we hit up a Panera that was right across the street. We had been craving an everything bagel all weekend, but surprisingly hadn’t run across a Panera at all! So, despite having just eaten cereal an hour and a half earlier, we both decided we had room to split a bagel and cream cheese. Yes, cream cheese. I know it’s not vegan. As far as I’m concerned, sometimes you just have to step outside your box to really live life to the fullest. For me on that particular morning, that included eating about 2 tbsp of cream cheese.

I believe it’s about what we do 90% of the time that really matters. Honestly, that’s what I had to convince myself of in order to be vegan. If I thought I had to be perfect and eat vegan 100% of the time, I never would have even tried. I think a lot of people want to take on a healthy lifestyle or want to become vegetarian or vegan, but they’re scared that they’ll fail. Or they’re scared that they won’t be able to avoid all dairy/meat all the time. Why do we always feel like we have to put labels on ourselves and not step outside the box that we put ourselves in? If a person cuts out meat even 75% of the time, isn’t that better than not cutting it out at all? We need to show ourselves some grace and not expect perfection. Perfection is boring anyhow. Let’s just live. This wasn’t all sparked just by the bagel, haha. It’s something that has been on my mind for awhile now.

Back to day three. After Panera we met up with my sister and did some shopping. I hit up Forever 21, Banana Republic (sale racks!) and Gap. I actually found a few things on sale, which was exciting because my wardrobe needs some serious revamping! I don’t know about you, but I am so tired of winter clothes! Unfortunately, there is a chance of snow again this weekend. Winter, will you ever go away?

Anyway, we broke for lunch at the food court in the mall mid-day. Normally, I shun food courts, but this one wasn’t half bad. I ended up with a Whichwich sandwich. Avocado and tomato with lettuce, pickles, cucumbers, mushrooms and bell peppers on whole wheat. I didn’t get a pic unfortunately, so you’ll just have to take my word for it – it was amazing as always.

After shopping we headed back to the house to pick up this girl

and this guy

and then headed back to Ikea for round two! We had to rush through the first time we went because they were closing, so we wanted to go back and pick up a couple of extra things.

After Ikea, it was time to head home. We did grab some Chipotle on the way home, but I failed to get a picture. I was packed in the front seat of our mini with Olive in my lap and stuff packed all around me, so it was all I could do to eat my food, much less photograph it. I got my usual vegetarian tacos with black beans, grilled veggies, corn salsa, verde salsa and pico, with guacamole on top obvs.

The ride home was pretty uneventful except for one little stop. Starbucks. You won’t believe what I did. Everything started out really well. I ordered my usual plain soy latte at which point the barista told me that they were out of soy. What?! He then went on to offer me a dark chocolate cherry latte made with fat free milk. Now, I’m no genius, but if someone told me they wanted a plain soy latte I would not translate that to mean that he/she may want to try a sugar laden, full dairy drink. Would you? Either way, I politely refused, then ordered an iced passion tea lemonade, minus the sweetener. As we were waiting for our drinks, the barista says “would you guys try something if I made you a sample?” Ignoring the warning voice in my head, I joined in with my sis and Jon by agreeing to try the “sample.” Now, in my defense, I was expecting the “sample” to be about the size of a shot. Oh, no no. It was a full eight ounces. So, he serves up three of these mystery drinks. This is the point where “no” would have been a good response. My sensitivity got the best of me, though, and I felt too bad to refuse it. That’s not all, though. The barista proceeds to insist that the drink just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t chug it down as fast as possible. That should have been red flag number 546. But, of course I proceeded to start gulping this mysterious drink as fast as I could. I have to admit that it was cool that way the drink was hot on top, but cold at the bottom – meaning that as I drank it, it was warm on the roof of my mouth, but cool on my tongue. I think he said the drink was called an “undertow.” Have any of you heard of it or tried it?

Anyway, so it wasn’t until after I had gulped down about half the drink that I stopped to breathe ask what was in it. He responded with “espresso (good so far ), half and half (uh oh), and sugar free vanilla syrup (crash!). I couldn’t believe I had just chugged the antithesis of what I had gone in there to get. Not only that, but after the absurdity of the beverage I had just injested, I could barely get down even a quarter of my iced tea. I seriously felt sick for almost the entire rest of the drive. I thought I might never recover. Lesson learned. Do not, under any circumstances, allow a barista to take advantage of you by giving into his request to try some mysterious drink when he obvs. is just so bored in small town OK that he would do anything for a little entertainment.

After another couple of hours in the car, we finally arrived back in OK later that evening. We were happy to be home, but sad that our mini vacation was over.

Day four away from home centered around my grandma’s funeral and a drive to the town that she grew up in for the graveside service. Even though it isn’t food oriented, I may do a post later on just for my own need to document the day. I should be back to some fun food posts soon, though!

dallas day two

Day two of our little mini vaca was quite fun! Before I get to that, though, let me finish off day one.

As anticipated, we hit up Whole Foods for lunch. This picture is actually from day two/Whole Foods trip numero dos. I got pretty much the same thing both days, though. Hey, when you don’t have a Whole Foods within an hour radius of where you live, you gotta take advantage of it!

I had a salad with onions, peas, corn, artichoke hearts, cauliflower, mushrooms, grated beets, grated carrots and hummus. On the side I had a delicious raw kale salad, a zucchini salad, and cappelinni with a lemon marinade and tomotoes. So, so good!!!!

Saturday night Jon took me to our hotel – Aloft. It’s a lower scale version of the W hotel, which we only dream of staying at! Aloft was really nice, though, and we loved having a night away! We only stayed there one night, and we stayed with my sister the other nights. Sunday morning we slept in of course, then got up and went on a hunt for our camera. We ended up finding a really great deal at Best Buy. We decided on the Canon Rebel xsi. We love it! I am now obsessed with it, and I carry it everywhere I go;) I think Olive is getting a little jealous. We also did some fun shopping at Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Crate and Barrel.

Warning: there may be some really random pics coming up on the blog because I tend to take a picture of everything I see!

Later that day we met up with my sister and spent some time at Ikea. We got a few odds and ends. Once we get them up around the house I’ll post some pictures. I snacked on a Cliff bar on the way to Ikea. You definitely don’t want to get caught in the middle of Ikea hungry.

After galavanting around Ikea for about 2 hours, we headed out for dinner. My sister knew of a vegetarian/vegan restaurant that she wanted to take me to. She had never been there, but a couple of her friends had and they said it was great. It was supposedly in a Hindu temple, but that was all we knew.

Unfortunately, we were not impressed with the look of the buffet. I know a lot of people LOVE Indian food, but I am not a fan, and there was a high percentage of Indian dishes. It was definitely a very cultural experience, but we opted out of eating there and decided to hit up a different vegetarian restaurant called Cosmic Cafe that she had taken us to before, but not before I snapped some shots of the temple.

Cosmic Cafe is so quirky, and they have a great menu. I wish I would have taken a picture. We started off with the hummus because it is to die for! It comes with warm nan for dipping.

I ordered the “Pizza Mystica,” which consisted of black bean burger crumbled on top of nan with a tomoato sauce, mushrooms, spinach, onions, and some other veggies. I asked for them to hold the cheese. This pizza was excellent, and I totally want to reinvent it at home!

My sis and Jon both ordered the veggie tacos. I had a few bites of course. They were awesome as well! The black beans that came with them were a little undercooked, but the white rice was awesome! It had some sort of flavoring on it that I couldn’t quite place.

Throughout our entire dinner I was facing a menu board that was advertising vegan cakes – chocolate, hazlenut chocolate and vanilla chai. So, naturally, by the time I finished eating I convinced Jon and Cristen to share a slice with me. We ate about half this slice, then I finished the other half off for breakfast the next morning. Hey, it’s vacation, right?!

I kind of felt like the blueberries and green sprinkles were a little random, but I wasn’t about to complain! ha!

Here are a few shots of the restaurant. This place is so fun; I can’t wait to go back!

After dinner we headed back to Cristen’s apartment. It was pretty late, and we were all exhausted! Besides, the babies were waiting for us after having been locked up for several hours.

That’s all for day two! Stay tuned for day three tomorrow. Day three was kind of a half day because we had to get back to my hometown by evening, which is about a 3 1/2 hour drive. Sorry this post is SO long, I think I definitely set a record for number of pics. I am loving my new camera, though. I just need to figure out how to use it!

I’m off to make some spinach enchiladas with green verde sauce. We aren’t necessarily celebrating St. Patrick’s day, but I guess it kind of works out! Hope you all are having a great day!

I’ll also be working on a post to sum up the 20 day challenge. I’ll have that up asap. Let’s just say it did not go as planned, but I’ll go into more detail later:)

dallas day one

Comin’ to you from the iPhone this morning! Sorry I’ve been MIA lately…there has been a lot going on around here. I mentioned several days ago that my grandma has been really sick. Yesterday morning she went to be with the Lord. While it seems surreal that she is gone, she’s much better off now that she’s “home” and not sick anymore.

Because we already had hotel reservations for our Dallas trip, we decided to go ahead and come a day early so we can So, we packed fast after work yesterday and hit the toad. We hit a lot of construction and traffic, and what is normally a 4 hour trip became a 6 hour trip- not cool! Either way we got here at about midnight last night, and we didn’t go to bed until 2ish. I can’t keep those kind of hours anymore!

We didn’t wake up until 10:30 this morning; we had planned to get in a six miler, but unfortunately yours truly is still feeling under the weather. So, the run got postponed and we opted for a walk with my sis and the dogs down to the corner cafe. I ordered an iced house coffee, and then came back and had a bowl of Kashi Heart to Heart with soy milk and a half of a sliced banana. I’ve never had this Kashi cereal before, but it was pretty tasty. I loved how it was in the shape of hearts- made me feel like a kid again!

We’re about to get ready to head out for some shopping- clothes and camera shopping-yea! Hopefully by the end of this weekend I’ll be posting pics of much better quality!

I’ll be back later- potentially with some pics from my favorite lunch spot. Any guesses? Think Valentines Day celebration;)

exciting news

Jon and I are going shopping for a new camera next week!! I am so stoked. I have been taking all my blog pics with my iPhone, and it’s become so uninspiring. I’m sure you feel the same way;) We have wanted a new one for awhile, and since Jon’s side business has really taken off we’ve finally come to a point where we can get one. Now the problem is just deciding which one to get. Neither of us knows much about them, so we’re going to have to learn a lot…not only to buy it but to figure out how to use it!

Does anybody have an recommendations? I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Canon Rebel, but aside from that I don’t have much to go on. I’d love any suggestions you guys might have!

These past few days have been CRAZY. On Saturday, my mom, step dad and sister came up to visit for the afternoon/evening. I love hanging out with family. My mom and I cooked dinner together while my stepdad and Jon went to Lowe’s to get a deadbolt for our front door. Awhile later my sister got here, and we spent the rest of the night eating and just hanging out. It is not often that my mom, sister and I all get to spend time together, and it was definitely the highlight of my week. I wish we could do it more often.

Sunday also involved family, but was not nearly as pleasant. My grandma recently found out she has pancreatic cancer, and her health is declining quite rapidly. She doesn’t have much longer, so we drove to my hometown on Sunday, picked up my sister and went to visit her. While I’m so glad we went, it was really hard to see her in the state that she’s in. Needless to say these last couple of days have been a bit dismal feeling.

I do have some random pics of some eats from the last couple of days. I promise that once we get our new camera (and figure out how to use it;) food pics will be much more exciting. I can’t wait!

Regardless…

One of my favorites as of recent – stir fried carrots, zucchini, spinahc and brussels with soba noodles, doused in nutritional yeast obvs.

This is the kombucha that I brought home from Whole Foods when we went there on Valentine’s Day. I saved it ever since then and finally broke it out after our 5 miler on Saturday. It was totally worth the wait!! Now I just need to figure out how to get another one…

This has become my current favorite way to eat oats – cooked in water and topped with soy yogurt on one side and almond butter on the other. Sprinkled with a bit of Bob’s Red Mill cinnamon apple granola. This is addicting. I am so addicted to the combination of yogurt and granola. I may have to add that to my challenge list. haha! yeah right.

And last but not least, dinner tonight. I kept it simple because Jon wasn’t home to eat with me, and I just didn’t feel like spending much time on dinner.

Avocado and hummus sandwiched between ezekiel bread. Exactly what I was craving. It totally hit the spot. I love simple meals like this. Obvs. this meal was lacking a bit in the veggie department, but I’m never low on veggies so I didn’t worry about it too much!

I hope everyone is having a great start to the week. Only four more days and I’ll be on Spring Break when I get to spend every waking moment with the Mr. It seems like a dream right now.

G’night!!

it’s about time

My food philosophy page is finally up and running, so go check out my story when you get a chance!

stress less

It’s amazing how different I feel when I’m focusing on being in control of my eating and exercising. And I don’t mean just “sticking perfectly to my plan” or “working out everyday.” I mean being in control no matter the situation. For instance, today was my planned day to do cardio. I have been looking forward to it because I haven’t done any cardio since Saturday, and last night Jon and I started contemplating running a certain race in April (contemplating, I said!). In other words, I’m rarin’ to go! However, when Jon called today to tell me that he had an appointment with a client at 5:45 and he wanted me to go, the debate began.

Do I try to workout, rush home, take a shower and take a chance of not being ready to go with him in time? Or do I move my workout to tomorrow (which was supposed to be my day off), come home, get some school work done, and be ready to go support him?

I have to admit, my initial reaction was to be a control freak and go for option A. But I’ve really been working on releasing that control, being okay with getting off the treadmill before I’ve run exactly 4 miles. I’m proud to say I went with option B. I feel great that I was able to recognize what the healthier, less stressful choice would be…and went with it without looking back. So often I put undue pressure on myself to strive for perfection, and when I stop and think about it, do I even want to be perfect? How fun is that? For me, this expands even beyond diet and exercise to relationships (ie. if I don’t cook dinner for Jon every night, then I’m a horrible wife) and to work, of course.

I love the quote that I ran across on Katie’s blog today.

Eat what your body truly craves, exercise (but not excessively), feed your soul, and–above all–try to stress as little as possible.

This quote should be my mantra. Sometimes it’s the concept I struggle with the most, despite the fact that it’s who I want to be so badly. I think I’m getting there, though.

So, what about you? Do you struggle with the idea of reaching (or not reaching) perfection? Do you take joy in the process of getting to where you want to be rather than stressing about not being there quite yet?

And with that I’ll leave you with a pic of the lil’ snack I’ve been enjoying while writing this post. I’ve been wanting to try a Pro Bar for a long time, and the coffee shop we’re at has several different ones to choose from. I went with the Sesami Goji flavor. While the ingredient list is a bit long, it’s entirely recognizable and has some stellar stuff in it like organic goji berries, sesame seeds, organic oats, raw organic coconut, organic pumpkin seeds, hemp seed etc. Pick one of these up if you get the chance. Just FYI – with 400 calories for one bar, it is more of a meal replacement rather than a snack.

back to business

Today was a pretty good day, especially considering I only got 6 hours of sleep last night. I am starting to really feel it now, though, so I’m gonna keep this short and sweet.

Today was my first day back on my challenge full swing. You can check out the challenge, as well as my update for today on my “20 day challenge” page.

Lunch today was easy, as I had made up a huge amount of soup yesterday. I am probably going to get really sick of soup by the end of the week. I really enjoyed it today, though!

I added all of the following into a giant pot and let it heat through until the veggies started getting soft.

chopped squash
onion
diced tomatoes
brussel sprouts
corn
zucchini
black beans
chick peas
vegetable broth
chili powder
garlic powder
ground red pepper

After it cooked for awhile, I added about 1/3 of the mixture to my food processor and puree’d it for about 2 minutes. I also added a bit of water to the mixture. I then dumped it back into the pot, and continue letting it all cook for about 30 minutes.

It was fantastic! I really love this soup, and it’s a good thing because it made A LOT!

Next up is tonight’s dinner. When I got home from work I opted out of going to the gym and instead decided to give Jillian’s Micheal’s 30 day shred video a go. I hadn’t done it in forever, and let me tell you, it was brutal! I had almost forgotten how tough her 20 minute workouts can be. If you haven’t ever tried her videos, you should definitely check them out. They’re a great workout if you want serious intensity, but don’t have a lot of time. I digress.

By the time I finished working out and took a shower, I was famished and I really couldn’t feel my arms or legs. haha. So, I decided on something super quick and easy. Enter black bean burgers.

Black bean burger on an ezekiel bun with a bit of leftover homemade guac, hummus, alfalfa sprouts, pickles and tomato. With a side of steamed brussel sprouts – my fave! This meal was awesome!! Especially considering it took all of about 6 minutes to make. Win win!

Well, that’s all for today. I’m off to bed to try to make up for last night. Making up sleep never really works for me unfortunately, but I can always try!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

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