Sweet Cheeks

New Home!

2009-10-31T22:24:00.001-05:00

This weekend, I’ve been working away at a new blog…over on Wordpress!

There are definitely more things I still want to do with it, but I’ve got a pretty good start on things and plus, I just couldn’t keep it to myself anymore. :D

So…here is my NEW SITE:

http://hersweetcheeks.wordpress.com

Please change your blogrolls and google readers to this address. I don’t want to lose any of my good friends!

Thanks guys, you all are the best. Hope you like the new changes!

xoxo

Kristi

Me like cookie dough

2009-10-31T14:44:00.001-05:00

Howdy Bloggies! Happy Halloween!

Hope you all are enjoying the beginning your weekends…I know I am! I live for these two sacred days. :D

I took a break from Green Monsters this morning…

and instead started off with a much missed breakfast…its the return of the yogurt mess!

(Greek Oikos, Nature’s Path pumpkin granola, figs, Kroger natural peanut butter, Mighty Maple)

along with some herbal tea:

I have been drinking tea like crazy lately! It just warms me up soooo good.

Speaking of tea, I will be going to the new health food store today to visit their AWESOME tea section. Seriously, I am amazed by it…they have any kind of tea you could possibly want. I won’t be surprised if I come home with a whole cart full of them.

Want to see what I did with the butternut squash from my last post?

It went from this…

To this…

To finally this:

(smothered in Amy’s ketchup, post-picture, obvi)

Yes, I went for the obvious…yes, it’s been done before…yes, it was absolutely fantastic. ;)

I also had a homemade bean burger to go along with my fries:

(followed Kath’s recipe/instructions: here)

which was followed by these little babies:

I tried to rock the natural lighting…gotta work on those photography skills! Any pointers?

dough:

final product:

So what are those lovely morsels, you ask? Well they come from just about the greatest cookbook ever. Yep you guessed it…I’m talking about this gem:

As my very first EDBV recipe, I went for the Super Charge Me Cookies. I made mine with some carob chips and chopped figs (say that three times fast).

Two thumbs up…I’m already in love with this book.

So fast forwarding back to today, I took the opportunity to make a switch up from my usual exercise routines. I have been doing a lot of treadmill workouts or 30 Day Shred routines. I felt like I needed to bust out and do something different. So after 5 minutes of rummaging through my closet, I found this:

Turbo Jam!!!

This used to be my old go-to exercise DVD…talk about a good, FUN workout. This was actually my very first exercise program I ever purchased. It totally took me back to the days when I first vowed to change my habbits and get healthier. Just remembering those days was great motivation for me this morning.

If you have never heard of Turbo Jam, it is an upbeat mix up cardio dancing with a mixture of martial arts thrown in. They play fun music that really gets you up and moving. I LOVE the instructor! She is so much fun and very motivating.

I am so glad I chose to do this today. It was great to switch things up and I will definitely go for this DVD more often now!

Welp, the Madre is calling my name to help her with the Halloween decorations. I’m off to go get in the holiday spirit!

Tonight, the plan is to hand out candies to all the little kiddos around the neighborhood. I love seeing all the costumes!

What are your plans for tonight?

and because I couldn’t resist…

Kristi

Blog Switch? and Product Review

2009-10-27T14:13:00.001-05:00

Hey guys!

Guess who got an awesome package in the mail yesterday?

Looky looky!

ZEVIAAAAA!

As a former pop-aholic, I was beyond excited to find out about the all natural, artificial sweetener-free, zero calorie soda.

I jumped at the chance to give it a whirl…and wanted six of you to be able to try it out with me. Well, the Fed-Ex guy made me one happy camper yesterday afternoon. He actually came right as I was about to sit down and eat my lunch. Perfect timing!

I opted to try the Root Beer flavor first. What did I think?

AWESOME!!!

This is way better than any regular/diet soda. I have completely lost my liking for that stuff…I can just taste the pure corn syrup and chemicals now. It is amazing what changing your eating habits will do to your taste buds.

Even though I no longer like pop, I still missed being able to drink something “fun” occasionally. Enter: Zevia.

This had just the right amount of sweetness and perfectly bubbly and delicious. I think I might have to hide the rest of my package…it’ll be gone before I know it!

Thank you so much Zevia!

(Zevia giveaway winners, be expecting your packages soon!)

*******

Now, I have been doing some thinking about my blog site. I know that over time, many of you have made the switch from Blogger to Wordpress. I have been looking into possibly making the switch myself. I was wondering if you lovely ladies could help me weigh out the pros and cons of switching over. What are the benefits that Wordpress has that Blogger doesn’t?

The plan for the rest of day includes going to work at the bank for a few hours, another date with Bob, and whipping up something delicious in the kitch for dinner, which includes this:

Love me some fall produce!

speaking of Bob, Biggest Loser is on tonight. I have totally gotten into it this season. Need some exercise motivation? Jillian will take care of that, no probs.

Have a great night!

Kristi

Flaxy Pumpkin Bars

2009-10-25T18:45:00.001-05:00

Happy Sunday! I hope you all have been enjoying your weekend. I have had a pretty productive one! My to-do list has been growing and growing and I finally am putting a big dent in it. Isn’t it great to feel accomplished? Makes me feel so much better!

First things first, I started off with a lovely pot of stove-top oats:

~The Mix~

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup almond milk
1 cup water
1/2 naner, melted in
cinnamon, dash of sea salt
frozen blueberries
plain Oikos

Simple and delish. I usually have green monsters for breakfast on the weekdays since they are so quick and I can drink them while I get ready, so my bowls of oats on the weekends have been an extra special treat. :D

After breakfast, I got my boot-ay in gear and started my laundry. I am on the third and final load. Yahoo!

Next up, I had a date with Bob.

*swoon*

I’ll be doing a review of this DVD in the near future. I just haven’t had time to get through all three levels yet. So far, I am loving level one though…but I don’t know if that has more to do with the “view” or the actual yoga part. You catch my drift? Bob, you are one sexy beast!

Then it was time for a much needed mani-pedi. My claws are looking fab right about now. :)

Next up was football, where I supported my team, The Chiefs. Unfortunately, it was yet another disappointing game…Oh, KC, how I urn for you to one day be decent…but I am a loyal fan so I will keep right on supporting!

To mourn to loss of the Chief’s game, I made my way into the kitchen to do some baking therapy.

That brings me to the title of the post…I adapted a recipe I found off of the Hungry Girl website for “pumpkin squares.” I played with the ingredients a bit and finally came up with:

Flaxy Pumpkin Bars

I was excited to whip out this lovely fall ingredient:

In it goes…

One 15-oz. can pure pumpkin
One 12-oz. can evaporated milk (or almond/coconut milk)
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg sub. (egg beaters, or real eggs)
1/4 cup flaxmeal
1/2 cup sweetener of choice
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and mix thoroughly.

Place mixture in a baking dish (8" X 8" works well) sprayed lightly with nonstick spray, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. (It will remain a little soft, like pie filling.)

Once ready to serve (it's delicious eaten hot or cold), cut into 9 pieces.

This recipe was SUPER easy and quick to put together. I have a feeling I will be making this a lot during the cold months ahead, topped with a dollop of Oikos, of course.

Alright blogaroos, I’ve got to get back to my list. I’ve got the motivation today so I need to make the most of it..it never lasts long. ;)

Here’s a toughie Q for you guys:

What is your favorite dessert when its cold outside?

I’d have to say that nothing beats pumpkin pie. But I also love baked apples. Mmmm.

Kristi

Baby its cold outside

2009-10-22T18:59:00.001-05:00

Hello!

Long time no talk…I’ve missed you guys!

There just isn’t enough time in the days, but I have been keeping up with you guys whenever I get a chance. I haven’t deserted anyone!

I’ve been eating some pretty delicious WARM meals lately. The temps have definitely dropped…it has been sweaters and boot weather around here. How is the weather where you are?

Oh, and I forgot to mention in my last post that I found a wonderful little hidden health food shop IN MY TOWN. Ya’ll know how I complain about my lack of Heaven…aka Whole Foods/Trader Joes, so you can imagine my excitement!

I hit the motherload:

Mary’s Gone crackers sticks and twigs
brown rice crackers
Ezekiel bread
whole wheat couscous
Tabbouli mix
bean flour
whole wheat pastry flour
raw honey
coconut
carob chips
whole wheat noodles
plus a few unpictured teabags

I made couscous for the first time and I fell in love with it. It is so fluffy and delicious. I can’t wait to try out all the other fun stuff. Ah, the things that will excite a foodie…;)

I tried out a very Fitnessista-like lunch the other day…

Lovely raw roll ups:

carrots, bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, jicama, avocado

roll ‘em up in your preference of lettuce wraps and top with some cilantro.

I dipped mine into some spicy tai peanut sauce and it was deliciouso!

Now my warmer eats have included…SPAGHETTI!

Spaghetti squash, that is. :)

I roasted my spaghetti squash in the oven for an hour at 400* and dig it all out with a fork. While it was in the oven, I steamed up some broccoli and made up a quick batch of Marinutta (thanks HEAB, you the woman!). Then I simply combined everything for a wonderful veggie-filled warming dinner. Fabulous.

Something else worth trying:

Foil packs!! Foil packs are amazing for fall/winter. The best thing is that you customize each pack, so everybody gets what they want! It worked awesome with my family…including my picky sister. I threw together a mixture of chopped up yellow squash, mushrooms, laughing cow, salt and pepper and sealed the foil pack. Throw them in the oven for 20 minutes at 375*. Mmmmm.

In honor of going “green”:

My newest addition to my aluminum water bottle collection! It is growing rapidly. I found this one at Old Navy, where they sold them for $5!! That is awesome, considering many places I have gone have had them marked anywhere between 10-20 buckeroos. Score!

And last but not least, Jaci wanted to make a blog appearance. It’s been a while! She is still up to her usual shenanignas:

Silly girl…keep away from my socks!

Alrighty, it’s time to log off and watch ~~trash tv~~ Grey’s and Private Practice! Who will be tuning in with me?!

Whatever your plans are, hope you all have a wonderful night!

~Kristi

Winner Winner Zevia Dinner

2009-10-12T17:40:00.001-05:00

Sounds like it’s safe to say that most of you are big Stevia fans! I’ve got to agree…I’ve fallen in love with it, too. Now…

Who’s ready to win some Zevia?!?

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer…

First, I will announce the 5 runner ups, who will be receiving their very own six pack of Zevia.

Runner up #1: Naomi from http://onefitfoodie.blogspot.com/!

Naomi said…

“LOVE to try Zevia, I have only tried one flavor and LOVED it so this would be a sweeeet giveaway to win!!”

Runner up #2: April from http://foodsofapril.com/!

April said…

“I use stevia all the time! a little goes a long way!”

Runner up #3: Devan from http://melonspots.blogspot.com/!

Devan said…

“you are amazing! love this giveaway! i have yet to try this amazing zevia!
my favorite natural sweetner is definatly stevia.. it is my tried and true.”

Runner up #4: Emily from http://funnyemily.wordpress.com/!

Emily said…

“hmm i'm not much of a sweetner person, but i think would like to try truvia sometime. & zevia of course!”

Runner up #5: Savvty!

Savvty said…

“Stevia is my fave”

And for the grand finale, one lucky ready will receive an entire case of goodness…The Zevia Queen shall be…

***drum roll please***

Shannon from http://tropicaleats.com/!!!

Shannon said…

“love this giveaway! I like using raw sugar.. it usually comes in the brown packets at Starbucks and such. :)”

Congrats ladies! This is me doing the happy dance for you:

Please send me an email with your shipping address/info so Zevia can get your packages out to you!

I’m off to get cooking in the kitch. I have been craving baked tofu so tofu for dinner it shall be!

Have a great night!

Kristi

Doing the weekend dance

2009-10-10T10:15:00.001-05:00

Happy Weekend!!! This week has been a hectic one for me, but its all good now because the weekend is finally here!

First off, I wanted to remind everyone again to enter my Zevia giveaway! I will be picking the winners on Monday afternoon. I myself have not yet tried Zevia and can’t wait to get my package! Expect a review in the near future!

This morning was started off wonderfully with a new oat creation.

Chocolate Mint Oats

Into my bowl went:

1/2 cup oatbran
1 cup chocolate mint tea water
1 splash mint extract
1/2 sliced banana
1 tbsp Naturally More PB
cinnamon
carob chips (or dark chocolate chips)

The star of the show:

I found this tea at a local health food shop and I’m hooked! I LOVE fun fall/wintery teas and will drinking a ton during the cold months ahead!

And I don’t even need to tell you guys how awesome this bowl was because lets face it…it can’t fail. ;) And you could definitely make it without the tea if you can’t find it or something similar…just make sure to use the mint extract!

In other news, I received a great package from the lovely folks at POM. Here is the loot:

1 pomegranate nectarine juice
1 pomegranate kiwi juice

The verdict? Tastey! This was a great change up from the original POM. My favorite was definitely the nectarine…but I’m not hatin’ on the kiwi either. Two thumbs up from me, POM!

I received another package that I was STOKED about. I decided that with my first paycheck from the bank, I needed to reward myself for all my hard work lately. Enter: the glorious world that is Amazon. Here is what I ended up with:

WooHoo!!! How’s that for a care package?

I’ve had my eye on all three of these items and decided to go for it. I am planning on trying out the yoga dvd with ~~my boyfriend~~ Bob Harper tomorrow…because today is RUN DAY. Yay!

I’ve already searched through Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan, but everything sounds SO. GOOD. that I don’t even know where to start! Which leads me to the question of the day…

For the people who have the book…What are your favorite recipes from Eat Drink and Be Vegan?

And now I’m off for a run on the Revolving Apparatus of Death since it is so cold out this morning. Want to know the high for today?

39.

Wahhhhhhh. Come back, sweet summer!

I know some of you tough it out and hit the pavement even in the midst of snow, but I guess I’m not THAT hardcore. Oh well, at least I’ll be warm!

Everybody have a beuno weekend!

Kristi

A Grand Giveaway

2009-10-06T18:49:00.001-05:00

Hello! Well again, I have not been able to blog as much I would like as of lately, but the good news is that I’m finally starting to get adjusted into my new schedule with school, work, etc…which means I should be able to handle to more blogging SOON! Yay! I’ve been working hard to keep my grades looking good and am getting the hang of my job at the bank. I’m thriving, people! :D

I have really missed all of you wonderful bloggers and definitely have not been getting a sufficient dose of bloggage, but I am quite positive that that is going to change pronto! But since I love you all so much, I wanted to find a way to make up for my absence…

Can somebody say GIVEAWAY?

That’s right everyone…the time has come for Sweet Cheek’s very first give away! And it’s a pretty dandy one, if I do say so myself.

I teamed up with the lovely people from Zevia to bring you guys a sweet deal, literally! And here’s the best part: not 1…not 2…not 3…(or four or five) but 6 people will be winners!! Do you love me or do you love me?

What is ZEVIA™?

ZEVIA™ with stevia is the first all natural zero calorie soda. It contains no artificial sugar substitutes - no aspartame (Nutrasweet®), no sucralose (Splenda®), and no saccharin (Sweet 'N Low®). ZEVIA™ contains only natural ingredients and comes in six all natural flavors: ZEVIA™ Natural Cola, ZEVIA™ Natural Ginger Root Beer, ZEVIA™ Natural Orange, ZEVIA™ Natural Twist (lemon-lime), ZEVIA™ Natual Black Cherry, and ZEVIA™ Natural Ginger Ale.

What makes ZEVIA™ the world's first all natural zero calorie soda?

The ingredients. ZEVIA™ contains none of the chemically processed artificial sugar substitutes found in diet sodas because it is sweetened with natural stevia. Diet sodas also contain artificial flavors and colors. ZEVIA™ does not. With great effort, expense, and painstaking care, Zevia LLC found the healthiest, all natural ingredients available. Many "natural" sodas contain sugar which means calories. Diet sodas are usually sweetened with processed artificial sweeteners which means chemicals. ZEVIA™ with stevia is the only truly all natural diet soda.

If you want to learn more about Zevia, you can visit their very own website by clicking HERE.

There will ONE grand prize winner that will receive their very own case of deliciousness. Then 5 runner ups will receive a very lovely 6 pack. Sound good? Thought so.

Now how do I enter this giveaway, you ask?

There are four ways to be entered:

1. leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite all- natural sweetener is.

2. for an additional entry, you can add me to your blog roll/follow me. Please leave a second comment saying you did so!

3. link back on your blog for entry number three.

4. tweet about the giveaway for another entry.

So hurry up and get your entries in…trust me, ya’ll want to try this stuff! The giveaway will end a week from today, on October 13th.

xoxo Kristi

Making time for exercise

2009-09-29T13:13:00.001-05:00

Happy Tuesday!

Hope everybody’s week has gotten off to a good start. Mine has been great, seeing as I have Thursday and Friday off from school. LOVE short weeks! We are half way through the first trimester and are off for PT conferences. I still have to go to work of of course, but hey, I get to sleep in. I’m a happy camper. :)

This morning, I had a great breakfast to start my day off on the right foot. It featured a new almond butter that I am now officially OBSESSED with:

After seeing this on Jenna’s blog, I decided to pick it up last weekend at Green Acres Market. 5 dollar almond butter? I’m down.

When I got home, I immediately tried it out. I have to say…I was impressed! It has a wonderful, distinctive taste. I couldn’t figure out what it tasted like at first, but after giving it some thought, I decided that it tastes like cinnamon rolls. Um yeah, I am in love with it. End of story.

I made some overnight oats last night:

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
cinnamon

And this morning I added:

1/2 sliced banana
3 big scoops of Oikos Greek Yogurt, plain
1 tbsp Blue Diamond honey almond butter

And for lunch, I quickly put together this plate:

Joseph’s whole wheat pita
grilled chicken
mozzarella cheese
laughing cow light
spinach

With some veggies on the side to munch.

And my first Honey Crisp of the season!

I was starving by the time I got home from school, so I devoured this all within 5 minutes.

The lovely April from Foods of April brought up a great question that I wanted to address. She asked:

“What does your exercise

schedule look like? School

is making me kind of lazy.”

I have to admit that I definitely have NOT been working out as much as I had been in the Summer. During Summer it was easy to exercise…I had most of my days free to do whatever I wanted to do with them. Now, I am not really “free” until around 6 p.m., and that is assuming I don’t have any homework that night. And like I have mentioned before, a lot of times I am just plain tired and ready to relax when I get home.

So lately I have discovered the greatness of Mini Workouts. On a regular weekday, I have been doing 10-20 minutes of some type of exercise in the morning, first thing when I wake up. Lately I have been enjoying starting my morning off with yoga, in honor of National Yoga Month.

Then in the evening, right when I get home from work, I will do another form of exercise, such as walking my dog, 30 Day Shred, or just some simple strength training moves on my own.

While it doesn’t feel like I’m getting much exercise in, these mini workouts have actually really added up. Plus, I get those endorphins flowin’ TWICE a day instead of just one!

I save my runs for the weekends, which I take full advantage of. This has actually worked out nicely, because since I am not running every day, I have “fresh legs” for my weekend runs. This also helps to prevent burn out with running.

The important thing is to find what works for YOU and your schedule. I believe that fitting exercise into your days is very important, but stressing out about exactly how much you are working out is unnecessary. Do things that you like. I adore fall weather and it has been beautiful outside lately, so I have been looking forward to my walks with my dog Jaci in the evenings. Make it fun! You don’t have to run 5 miles a day to get a good workout in.

And with that, I need to get to work! Have a great day!

Kristi

Race for the Cure

2009-09-27T12:14:00.001-05:00

Whats up bloggies?

Geeze, are we seriously another week down? I am still adjusting to my new (read: busy to the max) schedule and I obviously didn’t do very well with my blogging this week. I will bounce back though, don’t you worry!

Yesterday was the Komen Race for the Cure 5k. I admit that due to my exhaustion as of lately, I wasn’t able to properly train as much as I would have liked. I wasn’t feeling my best about doing this race. But I knew that no matter what, I wanted to participate in it, because it is such a great cause and I have been looking forward to it for a while now. So I set my alarm clock for a bright and early time, laid out my running gear, and hit the sack early.

I made an awesome new breakfast to eat in the car during the 1 hour drive to the race site:

I toasted two pieces of Ezekiel bread and topped it with a mixture of chia gel mixed with a tablespoon of naturally more, 1/2 banana, and cinnamon. It was great pre-race fuel, but I thought that the peanut butter flavor and creaminess got lost in the chia gel, so next time I will top my toast with the tbsp of plain peanut butter, then top that with a chia gel/smashed naner mixture. Mmmm.

Upon arriving, we saw TONS of people there:

And many sponsors handing out freebies (score!)

I hit up the Starbucks station:

Next up was the Fuze counter!

That morning I walked up to the race site feeling pretty nervous about the idea of running and knew that I didn’t feel good enough to race.

At first, I started to feel disappointed in myself, but then I decided to silence that negativity. This race was NOT about me. It was about thousands of people coming out to support an awesome cause and just have a good time together. I was not going to let any negative thinking ruin this.

I knew that there was a non-competitive 5k run/walk that followed the competitive run. Sooo…I made the quick decision to WALK the 5k with my mom. And you know what? It was great. It was a beautiful day, there were tons of great people to talk to, and lots of festivities. I enjoyed every second of it and did not feel one bit guilty about not running.

I am proud of myself for listening to my body and making the right decision. I know that I would not have felt good pushing myself and doing more than I could handle. I needed a break and that is exactly what I gave myself.

After we crossed the finish line, we walked around some more, listening to the live music and hitting up some more freebie stations. There wasn’t even an opportunity for me to feel bad about walking the race…I was too busy taking pictures with guys in weird costumes…;)

(Can somebody please tell me what these guys are supposed to be?!?!)

The day got even better when we went for lunch at a place that I have been wanting to check out for a while now…it is called Green Acres Market. Oh my goodness, it’s like a mini Whole Foods…only with cheaper prices! I was in pure foodie bliss. You all know how I complain about living in a small town with no good foodie options such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Well, you can imagine my excitement when I found this place! It even had a hot bar!!! I gladly devoured a box full of deliciousness.

So even though the day didn’t go exactly as I had planned, I completely enjoyed myself. I love running, but I don’t like doing it when I feel completely exhausted. So I will run when I feel good enough to, and on days that I don’t feel like doing it…I won’t. Lately I have realized the importance of listening to your body and giving it what it wants. Exercise should be fun, right?

Now I am going to take a complete recovery day. I am going to be lazy, relax, and watch trash t.v. :D Hope you all enjoy your day!

xoxo kristi

Hi, I’m Kristi

2009-09-20T13:44:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! Remember me?

Gosh I don’t know where the time has gone this week…I have been so busy! And I have DEFINITELY missed all of you!

First of all, to pick up where I left off on my last post, I did in fact get the job I applied for. You are now looking at a brand new bank teller!

Me:

I scored a job at one of our local banks, and the best part is the location. It is literally a few stores down from my job at the salon AND only about 3 minutes from my house! Ummm, perfect?!? I really love it there…I have already become great friends with everybody there! Thing is, being a bank teller is not easy, folks! I have a TON to learn and it has been a rather stressful week for me, trying to get every thing down. I won’t give up though…I’ll get the hang of it!

So I told ya’ll about my work/intern program that I’m in through my highschool…well this is my job for the afternoons! And yes, I will still be working at the salon, too. So needless to say, with juggling school, homework, bank telling, the salon, and training for my race that is next week, I have my hands FULL!

This week has been kind of overwhelming, which is why I have been mostly absent from the blogging world. All I felt like doing when I got home at night was eating and then collapsing. But I do think that my schedule will actually work out very well…I am just in a transition period right now and still have some adjusting to do.

***

And don’t worry…I have still been partaking in some awesome eating…

My very first bowl of green oats!

(sorry for the horrible pic)

My opinion? Love at first taste.

I combined 1/2 banana, 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk, buttload of spinach, 2 tbsp vanilla protein powder, and cinnamon into my magic bullet blender and whirled it around. Then I combined this with 1/3 cup oatbran. Mixed together. Cooked in the microwave for 2 minutes, as usual.

Toppings: Oikos plain and Naturally More

This is going to be PERFECT for winter! I was seriously beginning to worry what I would do once the weather started getting colder and wouldn’t be able to start my day out with my beloved GMs…but have no fear, green oats are here! (hehe)

***

Last night, I decided to try Heather’s(www.heathereatsalmondbutter.com) recipe for Marinutta sauce!

First, I cut up some veggies to get to roasting:

1/2 butternut squash, 1/2 a red onion, baby bella mushrooms, and some tomaters. I drizzled on some coconut oil and sprinkled some sea salt. Then I roasted them at 425 degrees for about an hour.

For the sauce, I combined 1/2 cup marinara sauce with 1 scoop of TJ’s raw almond butter and 1 scoop of flax meal. I mixed it together and popped it in the microwave for about 45 seconds.

I also steamed some broccoli to throw in.

After all was said and done, here was my delicious bowl of goodness, topped with feta:

Okay…new favorite dinner? Ever? Quite possibly. Go try this now!!

The sauce was a real winner, but next time I’m just going to steam up a ton of broccoli to mix with it. I think the sauce “worked” the best with the broccoli and I found myself wishing I had used more. This is actually a plus, because all I have to do is pop some broccoli in the microwave for a few minutes and I’m ready to go! Awesome.

***

I received a lovely package in the mail towards the beginning of the week…my RACE package!!

This got me so excited and motivated to just run, run, run. In fact, that is exactly what I did this morning! I started off with a piece of Ezekiel bread and raw almond butter, then I was out the door.

I ended up running about 3 miles and taking a nice easy walk for another 1 mile. It was glorious. :)

Oh, and shout out to Jenny, because before I left for my run, I did my 10 minutes of yoga for National Yoga Month. Woo Hoo!

Now I am showered and clean, and just devoured a lovely Sunday lunchie:

A hummus, turkey, spinach, and sprouts sandwich on a whole wheat bun. Leftover roasted veggies w/ketchup, carrots, and sugar snap peas on the side. Plus an un-pictured white peach.

My plan for the rest of today is to relax as much as possible. I definitely need some recovery time so I can take on a new week!

I hope you all enjoy your Sunday and have a wonderful week!

people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things." - Leonardo Da Vinci

Mucho Kombucho

2009-09-12T10:20:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! TGITW (thank God its the weekend) ;)

I hope your mornings are all of to a good start. Mine was spent sleeping in until the glorious hour of 9 o’clock. It felt amazing, and was much needed. I just polished off a new breakfast cookie creation…it’s legit, i promise.

Did anyone else have a weird and twisted love for dipping Oreos in peanut butter when they were young?!? Ever since I first got the idea from one of my favorite movies, Parent Trap, (shout-out to all my Disney movie lovin’ gals!) I was hooked.

So this morning, my creativity was flowing and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. So here you have it…

Nut Butter and Oreo Breakfast Cookie

(yes, I could not wait to capture a picture before I started chowing down, ya’ll understand how that goes)

ingredients:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 mashed banana
dash of almond milk
1-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
cinnamon
protein powder (optional)

combine and form into a heavenly b-fast cookie. Let set in fridge overnight. The next morning, take out of fridge and top with some greek or regular yogurt and your choice of nut butter.

For mine, I used Oikos plain yogurt and Trader Joes raw crunchy almond butter. It was divine.

And now I get to the info regarding my clever title of this post. The wonderful makers of GT’s Synergy Kombucha drinks sent me some awesome coupons to try out all of their Kombucha products!

I had my first Kombucha when I was in Boston this Summer and I fell in love. It love the taste of it, I love the nutritional stats, I love everything about it. And now I am beyond excited that I get the opportunity to try out all the others! Thank you so much GT!

And I also received a lovely care package from the amazing people at Pom Wonderful! A big shout-out to Molly..thank you!!!

Those would be Pom’s new Super Teas. As you can see, I have tried a few sips out of two of them so far…and so far so good!

There are two regular kinds and two light kinds. The regular ones have around 70 cals each while the light have 35 per serving and are half sweetened with Erythritol (a natural sweetener).

Here are the four flavors:

Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea
Pomegranate Hibiscus Green Tea (light)
Pomegranate Wildberry White Tea (light
Pomegranate Blackberry Tea

I’ve got to say that these are SO refreshing! I am a big tea lover, so I couldn’t wait to try these out. They did NOT disappoint! They were nice and light and not overly sweet. I think I prefer the light to the regular because I am used to drinking un-sweet tea, and like that the light versions have less sugar.

And now I am about to get my yoga and running on. I have been staying faithful to Jenny’s awesome yoga challenge, in honor of September, National Yoga Month. And I have about 2 weeks until Race For the Cure, so I need to get my booty in gear!

Today I also for-see some shopping in my future. I need to stock up on some cute business-like clothes, because, oh yeah, I got the job. ;) Ahhh, a cliff-hanger…I will be back with more info about my new jobby job soon…but just know that your girl Sweet Cheeks, is going to be brining in some Sweet Bills. :D

Which brings me to this question:

What is your favorite place to shop for business/dressy clothes?

I can see the finish line now…

2009-09-07T19:12:00.001-05:00

I am officially signed up for my next race!

I am very excited for this one…it a race for the curing of breast cancer.

they have an awesome site if anyone wants to check it out:

Komen Race for the Cure

I will be participating in the 5k run. I am crossing my fingers for a pink shirt! ;)

I love doing races that are for a good cause. It just gives me that much more motivation to run, and to run my best. It also puts a lot of things in perspective. You never what tomorrow may bring…I am very thankful for each step that I take with running and with life in general, but it is very easy to forget to truly appreciate all that you have in life. Races like these are a very good reminder. :)

Yesterday I accompanied my mom to Sams to stock up on some produce goods. I LOVE this place…free samples anyone?!?

Yay!

We also stopped by a local grocery store, where I picked up a few new (to me) things to try:

BROWNIES!!!!!

I have never had the opportunity to try one of these babies and tonight shall be my first time. Get in my belly!!!

I also experimented with the nutritional yeast by putting it on some delicious homemade pizza for dinner!

I used Jenna’s recipe for the dough, except that I used all whole wheat flour. This was my second time making this recipe and it was just as delicious as I remembered.

I topped it with organic tomato sauce, nutritional yeast “cheese”, black beans, ‘shrooms, and chopped onions.

You just can’t beat homemade pizza. :)

Now that I have a nice full pizza belly, I’m going to chill with the family.

Tomorrow I have my interview!!! Eeeek, wish me luck!

Go, Fight, Roarrrrr!

2009-09-04T17:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Happy Friday!

I hope you all are enjoying your days…who’s ready for a glorious three day weekend? *raises hand*

Today, In honor of National Yoga Month, I started off my day with 20 fabulous minutes on my mat. I decided that instead of following along with a video like I usually do, I would just wing it and do whatever poses I felt like doing. It was a great, relaxing way to start my day and I definitely plan on continuing with my yoga practice. If any of you are up for a challenge, hit up my girl, Jenny, for some yoga-liciousness. I have vowed to devote at least 10 minutes a day to yoga every day this September. So come on, join in on the fun!

After my yoga shenanigans, I hit up the kitch for some seriously yummy oat action:

Oatbran (aka oatcrack)…you never fail me.

I tried the “add 2 cups of liquid” technique instead of 1 and it was a major success. Twice the amount of oatcrack for the same amount of calories?!? Count me in! I need to start using a bigger bowl for all this deliciousness!

This bowl contained:

1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 1/2 cups water
hugh jass amount of cinnamon
1 scoop barney butter
1 scoop plain Oikos
raspberries
blueberries

Then I went off to school to promptly ~~cheat off my desk-mate~~ ace my trigonometry test. ;)

I came home for lunch to have a salad beastie:

Thanks to this little gem:

Totally awesome hummus that rocked my lunch.

And this:

HFCS spicy peanut sauce…So good, yet so bad. Somebody please help me out with a replacement for this! Recipes?

This afternoon was devoted to continuing on with the job hunt and I am pleased to say that I will have 2 interviews next week! Woot woot! More on that to come!

Now I am about to have some din din and then will be heading out to watch a little high school football action. We have a big rivalry game tonight, so it is going to be CRAZINESS!

And of course I gotta show some love for my team, so I am contemplating on what to wear…here’s what I was thinking:

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Opinions??? hahaha

Have a fantastic Friday everyone!

xoxo

Bad Blogger

2009-09-01T20:41:00.001-05:00

Hi guys!!!

So first off, I wanted to apologize for being such a bad blogger lately! Things have been rather crazy lately with school having started back up and everything. A lot of times, I come home tired, and don’t really feel like having my brain work to read when it’s been going all day. Ya know?? But I definitely don’t want to leave all my favorite bloggie friends out of my life! From here on out, I will be doing my best to keep up with all you lovely ladies…bare with me! :)

School has gotten off to a great start so far. I really like my classes and am actually enjoying giving my brain a challenge after spending a few too many summer afternoons watching trash t.v. ;) Wait…who am I kidding…you can never watch TOO much trash t.v.!!

A while ago, I mentioned I would doing a business program through my school this year. Basically, it allows me to get out of school for the afternoon and work a job for my “elective” credits. I really loved this idea because after being at school all day, I was never really fond of the idea of going to work ON TOP of school. So this makes it much easier to fit in work AND a job! But right now, I’m in the horrid job searching progress and obviously with the economy the way it is right now, there ain’t too many people willing to help a sista out. I am frantically searching…so keep your fingers crossed for me that I find something!

Ok, you guys want to talk about food now, right?! Well I’ve got something that you all need to try stat!

Enter: Chia Pudding

Pure heaven, bliss, deliciousness…whatever you want to call it.

I have been a tad bit obsessed with chia seeds ever since I ordered 3 pounds of it online. ;)

Here’s the loot:

1 cup Almond millk

1/4 cup chia seeds

lots of cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 banana, mashed

I combined everything and stirred it up really good. Then I let it set and thicken for about 10 minutes, stirred it again, then put it in the fridge overnight. Let the flavors mingle overnight and get ready to have your mouth rocked. :)

Try this! Try this! Try this! Ahhh, it is so good!

Now it’s time for me to get ready for bed…it’s another early morning tomorrow!

Night folks! :D

Happy Dance

2009-08-28T16:13:00.001-05:00

YES, Fitnessista, I’m doing the happy Friday dance!

This week has definitely been a change, as I started back to school on Tuesday. It felt so weird to be back!! It was really hard for me to get my brain back into “school mode” because I’m still in “summer mode!”

I’ve gotten used to going to sleep late and waking up late so my body is feeling pretty worn out by now, having to switch around those times. So I don’t know about all of you, but I am glad the weekend is here so that I can recuperate! this week has just kind of been a whirlwind of craziness. But I think that next week, everything will settle down and become more normal. For now though…TGIF!

On the eating front, I just finished off a lovely lunch, made from leftovers….the best thing for the lunches the next day!

Last night I made an awesome batch of whole wheat pizza, following Jenna’s Recipe. It was just as delish as last time. :)

So for lunch today, I had one of my FAVORITE salads ever…none other than…

Pizza Salad:

This was so so so so (so so so) GOOD! Here is what I used:

1 slice of leftover pizza, torn up
spinach leaves
broccoli slaw
sliced grape tomatoes
chopped onion
tomato paste + garlic powder + sea salt + basil (for my dressing)

Fork lickin’ good

As for dessert, I munched on some yummy grapes:

Lately for dessert, I have been enjoying a very easy recipe from a fellow blogger, Carrots n Cake!

No Bake Peanut Butter Cookies!!!

I made these fabulous little cookies except that I used almond butter and about 1/2 the amount of agave nectar. They turned out very good!! Note: if you decrease the amount of agave nectar, like me, you will probably have to add in a bit of water otherwise they are pretty dry.

This recipe took my 5 minutes to make. So hurry up and make these babies ASAP!

On the the agenda for tonight is going to my high school’s football game. Even though i’m exhausted, one of the clubs I am in runs the concession stands, which means I will be helping out. Then I will most likely come home and crash out. Wild child, let me tell ya. ;)

What are YOUR weekend plans?

Boston Recap

2009-08-24T13:46:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday!

Well, its that time of the year…Summer has come to an end and everyone is making their ways back to school. Where did the time go?!? It amazes me every time how fast the summer goes by.

Good Luck to everybody who started school today and those who will be starting soon!

Now, back to Bahhhston. I will just show you guys some of the highlights of the trip because I doubt any of you wants to see the 1,343,434 pictures that we took. ;)

Our plane left bright and early in the morning, and I was too excited to sleep very much at all the night before…so I caught up on some Zzz’s on the plane ride. Jessica caught me in the act:

I zonked out. hard.

We settled into our rooms,

and then set out to do a little exploring.

We walked right along the Boston Harbor, which was beautiful:

Then made our way to “Little Italy”, this cute downtown section made up of tons of delicious Italian restaurants and shops, and made a stop for dinner.

I honestly don’t even remember the name of the restaurant, but it fabulous none the less. :) My sister has been to Europe and she said that this place reminded her a lot of how Europe had been.

We came back to the hotel and hit the sack. We needed to be well rested for all of the exploring that would take place!

We got a great package on a trolley tour and basically took that around the city most of the days.

One day, we went to the Aquarium. I’m sure all know, after all of my zoo pics from St Louis, that I love any kind of animal attraction. So I was so excited to go to this.

Here are some of the cool animals we watched:

Jelly Fish!

PENQUINS!!!

fish that I wanted to take home:

Sea horse:

I snapped this next picture at just the right time, ahaha:

Here’s some shark action for you:

Moving on to my birthday celebration! It was awesome to spend my 17th birthday in Boston. Living in the small town that I do, I don’t have a whole lot of options for fun things to do. So I got a great recommendation for a place called Douzo, a fabulous sushi place!

This was my very first sushi experience! It was SO GOOD!!!

here are my sis and I waiting to get in:

FOOD!!!

I ordered the seaweed salad to start out with. I LOVE seaweed, so was very glad to see it on the menu. Then I ordered the Scorpion Roll for my main meal. It was a combo of crab, shrimp, cucumber, and avocado made with brown rice:

What a great birthday dinner. Sushi is officially my new best friend. :)

Now here is a look around the city:

And I could go on and on (and on and on) but I better stop there in an effort to prevent your boredom (if you even made it this far, haha)

Oh, I do have one other picture that you guys might find amusing.

It was hard to walk away and not buy that sweat shirt. hahaha

Home Sweet Home

2009-08-23T22:36:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! I’m baaaack! :D

All in all, Boston was a blast. There is so much culture and history there and I learned/saw a ton of interesting stuff. But I am definitely so glad to be home and in my own bed. I am pretty exhausted and can’t wait for my head to hit my pillow and be able to recuperate from this week’s festivities.

Tomorrow will definitely be a relax/catch up day, especially because it is my very last day of Summer. Ahhhh, the horror! I can’t even believe how extremely fast the summer went by this time around. I start school on Tuesday and it hasn’t even hit me yet. It’s going to be weird to have to get into a new routine again but I am ready to embrace the change. I am excited for what life has in store for me, so bring it on. :)

There WILL be a picture recap, but try as I might, my eyes refuse to stay open any longer, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in Boston, so there will also be some pics from a very special birthday dinner!

Also, I will be slowly playing catch up with all of my lovely blogettes. I got a chance here and there to read some blogs on my phone, but near enough to get my daily dose! I can’t wait to see what has been happening up in Bloggy Land since I’ve been gone.

See you tomorrow for the recap!

~Kristi

Bean Town here I come

2009-08-16T12:31:00.001-05:00

Well, I can’t believe it’s finally here, but I will soon be on my way to Boston! Unfortunately not for the Healthy Living Summit, but still, I’m excited. ;)

Our plane leaves bright and early Monday morning! The airport is an hour away from where we are so we will be driving over tonight and staying in a hotel right next to it tonight.

I am *almost* finished packing. I tried very hard to not procrastinate this time around and I feel like I did a pretty good job! I started packing the bulk of my stuff…clothes, shoes, etc a few nights ago and now all I have to pack is my bathroom stuff.

I woke up determined to make today a productive day since I still have a list of things to do before I leave tonight. So as soon as I woke up, I hit the treadmill for a quick interval run/walk to start my day out right. I felt so much better afterwards!

After my run I savored every sip of this lovely Green Monster as I won’t be able to have one for another whole week. Sigh.

It contained:

1 cup almond milk
butt load of spinach
1 scoop of amazing grass, pom mango flavor
1 huge scoop of cocoa powder
1 frozen banana
lots of ice

GM, you will be missed. *tear*

Yesterday while out at Target, picking up a few last minute things for the trip, I picked up this:

My first aluminum water bottle! It was too cute to say no to. ;) I have been wanting to make changes to live a more green lifestyle and I think that this is the perfect place to start. I will be taking this with me to Boston and will not be using a single plastic water bottle while I am there. Go me. :D

On the eating front, I promised more foodie pictures, so here is a glimpse at what I have been enjoying lately.

My latest yogurt mess concoction…Oikos plain greek yogurt with 2 tbsp PB2, Uncle Sams cereal, Annie’s Bunnies, and dried apricots:

Some juice made it’s way into my amazing grass shaker!

Tons of sammie combos and hugh jasses:

Eggstadas:

Stuffed bell peppers and green bean fries: (holy yum)

Recipe to come? I think so.

A new peanut butter…chocolate chip cookie dough, to be exact:

*drool*

Chocolate pudding:

I made this using Oikos greek yogurt (plain) and mixed in dark chocolate cocoa powder and stevia. Topped with a scoop of fro yo, naturally. ;)

And that’s all for now, folks! I’ve got to get my boot-ay in gear and get things done!

Adios for now!

Hum hum Hummus

2009-08-12T21:44:00.001-05:00

Happy Hummus Day :D

Okay, I totally just made up that day, but it seems fitting since I have been eating my way through some serious hummus today. (and lately)

I owe a big thanks to Abby for hosting that awesome hummus giveaway, because somehow, even with my luck, I managed to win it!

Here is the package I received from Abby:

3 containers: red hot chili pepper, roasted garlic, and sundried tomato:

Mini hummus to go!

Cute note:

This stuff has got some awesome nutrition stats. It is super low calorie, which means I get to eat a LOT of it, hehe.

I’ve got to say, this is pretty tastey. (as if there was any doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t like it!)

I also picked up a spicy hummus trio at Sam’s last weekend!

Pretty, eh??

This stuff is super yummy and oh so creamy. Definitely recommend BOTH hummus brands!

Another recent package was this:

Coconut Water!!!

This is my new love. I love drinking one of these babies right after a good workout. They are so refreshing.

I picked up one of these during vacation and have decided that I NEED to order a box of them ever since. So I did, haha. :)

benefits of coconut water:

* Coconut Water is better than processed baby milk- It contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother’s milk and benefits the immune system.

* keeps the body cool and at the proper temperature

* detoxify our bodies and fight viruses

* Full of natural sugars, salts, and vitamins to ward off fatigue

* has more electrolytes than leading sports drinks with 15 times the potassium

* has more potassium than 2 bananas!

*naturally replenishes your bodies fluids after exercise

* cleanse your digestive tract

*raise your metabolism, promote weight loss

*balance your PH and reduce risk of cancer

* Coconut water has 5mg of natural sugars where sports and energy drinks range from 10-25mg of altered sugars.

* Coconut water is very high in chloride at 118mg, compared to sports drinks at about 39mg. Chloride is one of the most important minerals in the blood, along with sodium, potassium, and calcium.

WOW!

That is some pretty good stuff right there, if you ask me. I bought this case off of Amazon, fyi.

And come I’m going to go for a late night summer time swim with friends…I can’t believe I will only be only be able to do it a few more times and then BAM. Summer’s going to be over! Wahhhh.

Night Everyone! <3

Race Time!

2009-08-09T14:19:00.001-05:00

Hi guys!

Sorry my posting has been so sporadic lately. I promise to get back to lots of food filled yummy posts soon! :D

But first, I have a few pics of a race I ran in yesterday. This was kind of a last minute thing and I just decided to go for it. So that makes 2 5k races completed for me! Woot woot!

The race site was about an hour drive from me, so I set my alarm clock for a bright and early 5 o’clock. I have to admit, I wasn’t exactly excited when it went off in the morning. ;)

I whipped up a green monster to take on the road:

My pre-run mix contained:

1 cup almond milk
1/2 frozen banana
1/2 cup frozen mango
1 scoop pom mango amazing meal
spinach
1 scoop dark chocolate cocoa powder

Mmmmmm. :)

And I packed this snacked for afterwards:

The coconut water tasted SO good after a nice run. It is so refreshing. You gotta try it, folks.

I have been continually running throughout the whole summer, but I would have to say that I was definitely more prepared for my last 5k. I remember not being so exhausted, like I was for this one. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my run yesterday, but it was also a bit of a kick of a boot-ay…which we all need every know and then!

Also of note, this course was definitely NOT FLAT. In fact, the majority of it was up-hill and mannnn, could I feel it. And mannnn, do I feel it even more today. Ouch.

My mom was the photographer for these next couple of photos. I actually forgot my camera (gasp!) so she snapped these with her phone.

Around the 1/2 way point:

crossing the finish line…while I’m trying to grab my ipod earbud that is falling out:

My official race time: 28:27.

Not too shabby, in my book. :)

The best thing about the race? FREE HATS!

And not just any hat, but pink ones! There were other colors, too, but I of course opted for the pink. ;)

The cap say “Did I Beat Don?” The whole race was about this hardcore runner named Don who is in his 90’s. He still runs all the time!! I just find that so amazing. He was a speedy one, that’s for sure. So you guys want to know whether I beat him or not, eh? Wellll…I let him win, okay? ;)

All in all, I’m glad I did this race. There is seriously no feeling like the feeling you get when you finish a race. I just love it, and with each race I do, the motivation for running starts up all over again. I’m so glad that I am strong and able to run…and I will be darn happy if I am in half as good of shape as Don in my 90’s. :)

Trip Recap, Part 2

2009-08-06T10:18:00.001-05:00

Good Morning!

Back to my St Louis trip recap, I should say that we weren’t actually staying in St Louis. Our hotel was actually just right outside of St Louis, in the small town of Collinsville…home of the largest ketchup bottle!

Shout out to my girl, Baylee, for giving me the heads up on that one! :) Of course we had to check it out, because we all know ketchup is the shiz.

I wanted to get my picture taken next to it, but when we found it, we had underestimated how HUGE this thing was! It was way up on this wire thing, so there was now way I would have been able to get a pic with it. darn.

We set aside time to go another quite tall object…the St Louis Arch!

I don’t know which was taller…the ketchup bottle or the arch! haha.

After waiting in line for over an hour to get our tickets, we made our way over to hop in the “giant egg” to take us up to the top of the arch. According to the director, it takes 4 minutes to go up and 3 minutes to get back down. There are about 6 little seats in each ride, and luckily we got paired with some nice people. :)

You could literally see the entire city when looking out on top. It was quite the view.

We snapped some pics while we were up there:

The rest of that day was spent shopping. We hit up the downtown area and visited some strip malls. It was a lot of fun, especially since we live in a small town with very minimal shopping.

There were two places in particular that I really enjoyed…

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

This was my very first trip to Trader Joes and I absolutely love it!!! I can’t wait to move somewhere that has a Trader Joes. Everything was such a good deal; they really know how to keep their prices low…hint, hint, Whole Foods. ;)

I picked myself up some nut butta lovin’…

Raw almond butter jars for $4.99!!!! Needless to say, I stocked up.

Sunflower Seed Butter!!

Assortment of bars:

Can you guess what’s in the bag??

If you guessed Medjool dates, you are correct! :)

New-found love:

I spotted some coconut water, and after seeing it on Fitnessista’s blog so many times, I knew I had to try it.

Two words. HOLY YUM.

I actually ordered a box on Amazon since I can’t find it here, hehe.

We also spent a day at a water park, called Raging Rivers. We had lots of fun going down slides, and relaxing in the wave pool and lazy river. :D Unfortunately, I decided not to take my camera in, so there are no pics of that.

All in all, it was a great time, and fun to get away for awhile. I’m so glad that my mom, sister, and I are so close and are able to have such a good time together. The 3 of us being able to spend time together made it a very special trip.

Next up on the travel list…Boston!

Trip Recap, Part 1

2009-08-03T19:10:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday!!!

I hope everyone has had a great start to their week. I started mine off with an old friend that I have missed dearly over the past week:

“Reunited and it feels so good…”

As you can see, I am QUITE the artist. Obv.

The mix for this green monster was:

1 frozen banana
1 scoop Amazing Meal Pom Mango
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tbsp chia gel
ice!

It was quite delish. I was seriously crazing these things the WHOLE time last week on our trip. And sadly there was no way I could make one, so I had to tough it out.

TRIP RECAP:

So back to the trip details…my mom, sister, and I had a blast while in St Louis! It is always nice to get away and I have a big passion for traveling. I have slowly added to my list of “places traveled” but I plan on doing a TON more in the future. There are so many amazing places out there and I don’t want to miss any of it! :D

The awesome thing about St Louis is that there is so much FREE stuff to do! We went to many FUN events that were completely free and had a blast. And you know what that means…more money for shopping! Ahhhh yeaaa.

Thanks to the advice of many lovely blogettes, we checked out some pretty neat places.

Here we are one night at the Botanical Gardens:

On Wednesday nights, the Botanical Garden has free live music performances! After a day of shopping, we packed up a picnic and headed on over.

You’d never guess what I picked up to eat…

WHOLE FOODS HOT BAR!!!

How in the world do I live without one of these stores in my town?!? I honestly do not know how.

Before leaving the gardens, we just had to snap a few pictures. It was SO GORGEOUS there. Definitely a perfect place for pictures!

Me with Mamma Sweet Cheeks:

Now with my sister:

This looks kind of like a sun:

We also hit up the Zoo. Yet another free thing to do! My sister and I LOVE zoos and we were like little kids running around that place all day. It was so much fun!!

Baby elephant:

baby giraffe:

Some wild asses: (my type, if I were an animal. holla!)

HIPPO!!!

I felt sorry for him because his water was so dirty. :/

A cool lookin’ animal…

This little fella was munching on some romaine lettuce:

I was feeling pretty hungry at that point and almost asked if I could have some.

While he ate, his brother was all snuggled up sleeping:

Our zoo day wasn’t completely free because we wanted to see the sea lion show! The price definitely wasn’t bad though…3 dollars per person!

I want a sea lion as a pet now! These guys were so smart and funny. It was amazing to see!

And in an effort not to bore you all with a zillion pictures, I will save the rest for the next post. Your welcome. :)

Now I am off to go watch Twilight with my sister! It has been far too long…I mean, I need at least a weekly viewing! Don’t judge…

Goodnight!

One more day of vaca

2009-07-31T17:03:00.001-05:00

Hey Guys!! Long time no talk!

I have been so busy having fun this past week on vacation which has turned into very little bloggie time. I have been periodically reading about all my favorite ladies lives via my phone when I got a chance though!

Today, we are all pretty exhausted and just wanted to take it easy and relax…poolside. :D Later we will be heading out for our last dinner here in St Louis.

I will be sad to leave but I am also excited to get home. After a week of being away from home, I am always ready to come back. Is anybody else like that??

One reason I am happy about getting home is so I can have one these babies:

It has been far too long, indeed. I am in dire need of greens…in smoothie form. :D

And I’m also pretty psyched about seeing this face:

I miss her so much when I’m away from home!

I’ve definitely got some pics to share with you guys but that will have to wait until Sunday when I get home. I gotta give you something to come back for. ;) And maybe the words “almond” and “butter” would get you guys interested…yes, no?

Anyways, I hope you all have had a wonderful week and I can’t wait to get caught up with all my wonderful bloggie friends! <3

Big Hugs..Audios Amigos!

~Kristi~

A tragedy and a celebration

2009-07-24T21:24:00.001-05:00

Hey Ya’ll!

Welp, we’ve made it to another weekend. WooHoo! This is one weekend I have been looking forward to in particular. I think you all can guess why. :) More on that in a minute.

First of all, a tragedy hit during lunchtime…I will just show you with pictures…I’m sure many can relate:

And here is what I thought about that:

Yep, No more hummus. It’s been a sad day for sure.

BUT luckily, I’ve got great blogger friends who host wonderful giveaways…like the wonderful miss Abby!

Abby pretty much rocked my world with her recent giveaway…and by some unbelievable form of luck, I was one of the winners!!

Oh yes, I got saved by the hummus gods and will be trying out some of this deliciousness when I get home from vacation:

Ohhhh Yeaaaaa.

Thank you SO much Abby!!

Today has a bit crazy over at the Sweet Cheeks residence because we are all getting things ready and packed for our trip. We will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning and hitting the road on our way to St Louis. Actually, we are making a pit stop halfway through to visit some family and spend the night. Then our voyage will continue on Sunday.

Me, being the procrastinator that I am, am packing now…at 10:00 pm, the night before we leave. Ay yey yey.

So the good news is that I will be taking my laptop on the trip and we should have free internet in our room, so I will be able to keep up with everyone’s lives and give some updates hopefully as well. :D

Okay. MUST. FINISH. PACKING.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, whatever you have planned!

Hugs! Love, Kristi <3

4 Days to Vaca!

2009-07-21T10:52:00.001-05:00

Morning everyone!

I just finished off a fab bowl of oats and oh how I have missed them! I have been so addicted to my grass lately…it is pretty, errr, uhh-mazing. ;)

Here is the bowl of lovelyness I had this morning:

Glorious. :D

What’s in this mix you ask?

1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup unsweetened organic soymilk
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp chia gel
1/2 sliced banana
cinnamon
Oikos greek yogurt, plain
Naturally More PB
fresh blackberries

Maaaan, greek yogurt is the SHIZ in oats. Try it asap!

And here is what was consumed last night, thanks to the fabulous Fitnessista!

Raw Vegan Sloppy Joes!!!

This was total deliciousness! The recipe can be found HERE.

And then as if that wasn’t delicious enough, I followed it with some of my homemade coconut icecream:

And of course, ya’ll know I had to top it with some creamy PB. ;)

If you missed the coconut ice cream recipe, you can find it: HERE.

In other news, I’ve got a day at the salon planned for today. No, I’m not getting a massage and a pedicure (i wish)…It’s a workie day. Ahhh well, this girl needs to be making those dolla bills before vacation. Holla!

Speaking of vacation, I have starting making a packing list so I won’t forget anything. I always start packing at least 2 days prior to leaving, because I ALWAYS end up remembering something that I need AFTER I finish packing. Now packing early is not an easy task for me, being the queen of procrastination..but it’s got to be done!

Now it’s time that I stop procrastinating on my blogging, so that I can go get ready for work…After I watch some trash tv, mosey around, play with Jaci, read some more blogs… ;)

Are you a procrastinator?

What do you do to prevent procrastinating?

I will leave you with your daily hunk of eye candy…wolf style:

Thank youuuu, Jacob.

Weekend Shenanigans

2009-07-18T09:42:00.002-05:00

Good Morning Beautiful Ladies! Hope you guys like the little bloggie change-up. It just fun to mix things up a bit every now and then. I've been having fun messing around with it, so who knows what it will look like tomorrow. ;)

I hope you all are enjoying your Saturday mornings. Mine started off pretty grand with this babe:

A lovely breakfast cookie topped with Oikos plain greek yogurt and PB2. The perfect icing. :)

And some tea in my weekend mug:

Now the plan is to hit up the grocery store with Momma Sweet Cheeks for a few essentials. We are going to *try* and be good while shopping and not pick up everything we lay our eyes on…because this next week we will be trying to eat up as much of our food as we can before we go on VACATION!!! *does happy dance* wooowoo!

Then this afternoon I’m hoping to hit the yoga mat and get my zen on.

Yesterday my sister, a few friends, and I hit up the mall because someone was hankering to go to Forever 21…not me, of course. ;) I ended up falling in love with a dress but I was trying NOT to spend any money. This girl needs to be stashin’ it away with two trips coming up. It may have been the hardest thing I ever had to do to put it back. Wahhhhh. I wonder how long it will take for me to give in…bets, anyone?

I <3 pockets. :D

I also liked this one:

And here is some ruffle lovin’ for my girl, Jenny:

Jenny, it was ruffle mania in that store!

And now that you all have had your dose of Sweet Cheeks Fashion, here are a few eats:

Pizza salad:

my first bean burger! using Kath’s recipe:

Some shrimpie action:

yogurt mess:

Okay loves, I’m off to make the most of this weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

"I am your Shield. No buffets of the world can harm you. Practice feeling this shield until nothing has the power to spoil your inner peace."

Bootylicious Buns

2009-07-14T13:34:00.002-05:00

Hey Ladies!

This will be a quickie (TWSS) as I need to get ready and get off to work, but I wanted to check in with my lovely blogettes first!

This morning I started off with some random moves on the yoga mat, then proceeded to check out this Bootylicious Buns video from exercise tv. I was feeling the burn…big time. It was fab. :)

Yesterday I am pleased to report that I had a much better run than the last one! My legs no longer weighed 100 pounds each; they were light as feathers. ;) I ended up doing 4 miles total, with a combination of running and walking.

Afterward my buns workout, my stomach was a rumblin’ so I set out for the kitch, knowing exactly what I wanted.

It involved this:

Ta Da!

The classic oatbran in a jar, HEAB style. :)

I had mixed emotions about this breakfast. On one hand, I was thinking “oh my gosh, foodgasm” but on the other hand, I was thinking about how once I finish this, I will officially be out of not other Barney Butter, but almond butter in general. The horror!

What is your favorite almond butter brand?

Guys, I am getting SO excited for my trips! One thing I am stoked about is being able to hit up Whole Foods and Trader Joes!! It will be my very first Trader Joes visit, can you believe it?? This is most definitely a downfall of living in a small town…you just don’t have access to near as much stuff! I can’t wait to be in foodie heaven. :D

So that is where you all come in…What are some must have Trader Joe goodies? I am already for sure planning on trying out the following:

TJ’s peanut butter pretzels
grind your own almond butter (anybody know how much $$$ this is at TJ’s?)
sunflower nut butter
TJ’s cinnamon raisin doughnuts

Yum Yum Yum!

Alright, I’m off to go get ready for the day. Then tonight I will be getting together with some friends for a little Big Brother viewing. Ok my fellow trash tv watchin’ sisters…who has been watching this? Come on, fess up!

-Kristi

Trip Announcement #2

2009-07-12T10:24:00.001-05:00

Happy Sunday everyone! I’m currently still snuggled in bed, while blogging and sipping on a green monster. I love lazy mornings! I can’t believe another week has passed…Summer is seriously blowing right by!

So referring to the title of this post, I now have TWO upcoming trips to look forward to! In addition to our girls St Louis trip, my sister, dad, and I will be heading to Boston in August! No, unfortunately I will not be there for the Summit blogger meetup (DARN!!!)…I will just miss it by 2 days…very sad indeed. This whole trip came up because my dad gets the great opportunity to travel for his business, especially during the Summer…so my sister and I are coming along for the ride!! I am super excited because first of all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel. And second of all, I will be going to 2 different places that I have never been before!

What is awesome about it is that since it’s technically a business trip, my dad’s company will be paying for the hotel, etc, and we just have to pay for our flight! We will be going up a few days before my dad has to actually work, so we will all be able to do some fun stuff together. Then while my dad works at the shows during the day, my sister and I will get to explore Boston! I am SO excited!

So…if any of you are from Boston/have been to Boston, PLEASE help me out with some suggestions on what to do, where to eat, etc. Thank you!!!

Yesterday I hit up the public library because I was in need of some good reads after finishing Breaking Dawn. Yes, I finally did it. I dreaded the time when I would actually finish this awesome series. But don’t worry, I definitely plan on the reading it all over again in the future. (Edward, Jacob, I <3 you)

I picked out two books;

The Teens Vegetarian Cookbook:

Keeping The Moon by Sarah Dessen

I have heard that Sarah Dessen is a great author so I was excited to check out one of her books. The cookout just caught my eye and I decided to try it out. I peeked through it and it may have some promising recipes. I originally wanted to get Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, but it wasn’t there. :( I did make sure to put myself on the request list for it though!

And I suppose you guys would like to see some eats? Okay, lets take a look…

My breakfasts have been very green-filled as of late:

My current mixture that I have been loving is as follows:

1 frozen banana
3 ice cubes
tons of organic spinach
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
1 scoop all natural vanilla protein powder
1 serving chocolate Amazing Grass
1 spoonful of chia gel (!!!)

Oh Amazing Grass, how I love thee.

Some lunch grub:

A sausage, egg, and cheese sammie a la Kristi :D

1 whole wheat english muffin
2 egg whites (plus salt and pepper) microwaved in a bowl
1 Morningstar soysauge patty
1 slice of american cheese

Here’s a picture that’s painful to look at…

WCW, you will be missed greatly.

It seems like homemade pizzas have been making it’s way around the blog world and I finally gave in last night:

And it was worth it. VERY worth it.

I followed Jenna’s recipe, except I used all whole wheat flour. This was my first time making pizza dough from scratch. I was so proud of myself! (lol) I actually thought it was a lot of fun! After letting the dough rise, I put half in the freezer for another time, then got started on laying some toppings on the other half.

My toppings were: a few pieces of turkey pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, basil, spinach, and mushrooms. I loved it, but I am definitely going to veggie up the leftovers even more with some chopped peppers, onions, and olives!

here is my dessert, inspired by Heather

frozen fruit with almond milk poured over it. (blueberries, mango, and cherries!) The milk freezes over the frozen fruit and makes a cool ice-cream type of effect. This is perfect for a refreshing summer treat!

Okay girlies, I am off to get my strength training on. Don’t forget: if you have been to Boston, let me know some suggestions!

Have a great day, lovely ladies <3

Stonyfield Rocks!

2009-07-08T10:09:00.001-05:00

Hey guys!

I’ve been meaning to give a big shout-out to Kristina from Stonyfield for giving me the opportunity to try out even more yogurty deliciousness!

She sent me a ton of coupons:

Plus an awesome eco-friendly re-usable bag! I definitely am planning on using this the next time at the grocery store!

Now we all know, from the many yogurt-mess bowls that show up on my blog, that I LOVE me some yogurt! Especially greek…especially Oikos! I do love all greek yogurts but Stonyfield holds a special place in my heart, as the first greek yogurt I ever tried. And it’s definitely a plus that it is organic. :D

Now since I have these coupons to get to using, I am planning on experimenting in the kitchen with new ways to eat/cook with yogurt. Stay tuned on that!

In honor of Oikos, I thought I would include a picture of the lovely yogurt mess I recently consumed:

The heavenly mixture included:

3/4 cup Oikos 0% plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp PB2 mixed in, more sprinkled on top
1 Kashi TLC fruit and grain bar: dark chocolate coconut

So delicious, thick, and creamy! I definitely recommend adding PB2 to plain yogurt for flavor. I try to watch my added sugar intake which is why I mostly stick to plain greek yogurt. The PB2 really gives it some extra oomph!

And now here is the homemade coconut ice cream I promised!

Heaven on Earth, I tell you.

Coconut Ice cream:

2 cans of coconut milk
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tbsp vanilla extract

combine in a pot on the stove on low heat to bring flavors together. Plop in an ice cream maker and make according to the directions.

Thats it! My week have been filled to the brim with creaminess, from greek yogurt to ice cream. Ah yes, life is good.

Now I must get off the computer as I have some kiddos waiting for me to come babysit. Have a lovely Wednesday!

Quote of the day:

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it!, I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows. (Michael Landon)

Got Greens?

2009-07-06T13:46:00.002-05:00

Hello! Hope everyone’s week is off to a good start after all the weekend festivities. The fireworks show over the lake was just as fantastic as the last time. It is a gorgeous sight to see, especially when it all reflects off of the water. The bad news is that, being by a lake and all, I managed to come home with a whopping assortment of mosquito bites. Ugh, I look like a pink ladybug!

Back to this morning, I started off with this gem:

That would be a Kashi waffle with natural peanut butter and a big dollop of Oikos vanilla yogurt.

I am used to plain greek yogurt but it was nice to change it up and start my day a little bit sweeter. Ahhh, creamy sweetness. :)

I also had a green monster a la Amazing Grass:

I was so excited to receive my Amazing Grass package last week. I immediately proceeded to tear the package open and much to my surprise…I saw that there was not only my Pomegranate Mango Amazing Meal, but also samples of everything else! Woooohoooo! I am a girl who loves samples…and anything free. I was one happy camper! :)

This morning’s green monster contained:

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 huge handfuls of organic spinach
1 spoonful of flax
1 frozen banana
1 scoop of Pomegranate Amazing Meal
3 ice cubes

It was incredibly yummy and energizing! I LOVE starting my day off this some greens. I am a little ball of energy after one of these babies!

After my breakfast digested I decided to hit the treadmill for a nice run. My mind thought it was a great idea…my legs disagreed. I felt like each leg weighed 100 pounds. Ugh. So I finished up 1 mile and then walked it out for a while before hopping off and doing some stretching. It must have something to do with the awesome strength training workout I did yesterday! Lately I have really been enjoying doing yoga followed by weights for my workouts. So yesterday, I started out with a yoga video called Hips, Buns, and Thighs Yoga from exercisetv.tv. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find it on the website today, otherwise I would link back to it! I’m thinking they took off some of the older ones and put new ones on.

Anyways, after my yoga video (which was intense! Chair poses galore) I hit the weights and strength training moves which included:

walking lunges
reverse crunches
shoulder presses (5 lb. weights)
biceps curls (5 lb. weights)
squats
girl pushups

My body was like jello afterwards!

Yesterday I also tried a Kashi meal:

Oh yes, this is a keeper! It had sweetness, crunchiness , and was all around delicious. Kashi, you never let me down.

Among other eats was this bar,thanks to Meg!

Yet another score. This has got to be my favorite Luna bar so far! If you like white chocolate, you will not be let down by this bar. I totally left like I was eating dessert!

So this afternoon’s plans are unknown at this point. I would be perfectly happy with a leisurely, lazy Monday. :) Unfortunately the weather is less than Summery today so I think I see some Breaking Dawn in my future. :)

P.S. stay tuned for a homemade coconut ice cream post soon! Mmmmm

Hope you all have a Magnificent Monday!

Vacation here I come

2009-07-02T10:57:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone!

First things first, I wanted to thank all of you for the sweet comments about my family and I in my last post. You guys really know how to make a girl feel good about herself! :D

Geeze, where has the week gone? It’s already Thursday! I guess I am okay with this week going by fast because I am ready to get my 4th of July festivities going on! A bunch of friends are heading over to this huge lake not too far away and watching the fireworks show. Watching fireworks over a lake (or better yet, on the lake) is SO PRETTY. And of course i’m going to make sure I get to do a sparkler or two. :)

What are you doing for the 4th of July?

So referring back to my post title, last night my mom, sister, and I booked a trip to St Louis, Missouri! We have been wanting to plan a girl’s trip for this summer to just get away and relax. Well, we are the worst procrastinators EVER, and I have been stressing that we wouldn’t get it planned. I set aside everything else yesterday, and spent all afternoon searching for decent hotels that wouldn’t break the bank. So much stress was relieved last night when it was finally booked. If you have ever been to St Louis, please help me out with some suggestions on places to go/things to do!

This morning I started off with something that has been missing from life for way too long:

A big ol’ breakfast cookie! BUT…this may look like your average normal deliciousness, however, it was quite different. This b-fast cookie is a hybrid! Here is what I used:

1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup oatbran
1/2 smooshed naner
1/2 scoop protein powder
tons of cinnamon
splash of almond milk

I mixed it and let it set overnight, then this morning I topped it with PB2 and Oikos fat free plain greek yogurt! This was a nice change-up to the normal bfast cookie. I really don’t think I could choose a favorite though…I like them both ways! I love oatbran, especially because of it’s nutritional stats. Oatbran has more protein and fiber than old fashioned oats, AND higher amounts of essential vitamins and minerals. It gets two thumbs up in my book!

And here is last night’s veggie-liciousness:

sweet potato fries, edamame, and roasted broccoli

I was just craving veggies! So that is exactly what I made. Rock on, intuitive eating! :D

Here’s a yogurt mess creation from yesterday as well:

HOLY YUM! This was a mixture of greek yogurt, 1/2 sliced banana, flax, blueberries, Nature’s Path flax granola, Barney Butter, and a few M&M’s. Foodgasm, for sure.

Last but not least, some juice:

Now I am off to do some yoga, followed by strength training. This afternoon I will be trying to put together a list of things to do on our vacation! Then I will head off to work, getting home in time to watch So You Think You Can Dance! For all the watchers, who is your favorite? I love ALL of them, but I especially like Philip and Janeane!

Adios Chickas!

weekend recap

2009-06-30T10:41:00.001-05:00

Hi guys! Wow, it has been a while since my last post! I have been busy enjoying the good company of all of my family. It was wonderful to have everyone come into town, catch up on everyone’s lives, and just plain have fun.

On Friday, we helped set up everything for the wedding/rehearsal dinner bright and early in the morning. Then once some of the family arrived into town, we headed out to grab a bite to eat at one of my favorite lunchtime places, Carl’s Bar.

This place has the best sandwiches ever! I got a warm whole wheat sandwich with smoked turkey, swiss cheese, spicy brown mustard, and tons of veggies.

Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner in which my sister, Jessica, my aunt Kathy, and I all helped set up and serve the dinner. We were pretty much the “catering staff.” :D We even got cute little aprons to wear:

Me posing behind the fruit salad I just brought out:

After rehearsal dinner, we headed over to the “after party” (haha) and my uncle, Steve’s, house.

We were pretty tired after the rehearsal dinner though, so I was conked out when we got home.

Saturday was the actual wedding day. It was not until 4, so I made good use of the day and got in a nice run. It feels so amazing to be running again! I felt so renewed and refreshed during and after. Gotta love that runner’s high!

Before we left for the wedding, we snapped a few pics.

Jess, Momma, and I:

The Walmart dress worked out perfectly! I can’t wait to wear the other one now!

The married couple to be:

The wedding was beautiful and being the emotional person that I am, I may or may not have been a tad watery eyed. I loved the wedding colors that they chose: red and lime green. So cute!

We then headed to the reception for some cake!

My crazy cousin from Las Vegas, Jenn, and I:

Steven with my uncle…ummm, did I mention he was tall?

Me with the madre:

After that, we headed over to my uncle Steve’s house, in which the “kids” proceeded to teach the adults how to play beer pong. Oh boy, was that a sight to see…my family is quite crazy though, so they were definitely all for it. I will not scare you with pictures from that event. ;)

Sunday was the lazy day. Everyone slept in and then eventually made it over to the grandparent’s house for a cookout. It was leisurely and very nice to just relax for the evening.

Today everyone is heading back home. It has been a fun weekend and I can’t wait until they all come back again. :)

On the food front, there was not a lot of pics taken. I will back to it soon enough though…especially with my Amazing Grass that should be coming TODAY! And I want to give a shout out to Kristina at Stonyfield for sending me a wonderful package full of coupons, plus an eco-friendly re-usable bag! So definitely expect some great yogurt experimenting in the near future! Yum!

Well, now I have to get ready to head off to workio, but I hope all you wonderful people have a great Tuesday!!

Love, Kristi <3

Me, the busy bee

2009-06-24T16:40:00.001-05:00

Hi guys! Hope everyone has been having a great humpday!

I have been rather busy and have a lot of busyness up ahead of me! Basically, we have a ton of family coming into town because one of my cousins, Shawn, is getting married this weekend. I think I mentioned it a while back…I can’t believe the weekend is almost here! I am very excited because I absolutely love weddings!

My sister and I will be helping out with a lot of the wedding/festivities that have been planned. There are many get-togethers and fun things up ahead, so it will hopefully be a good kind of busy!

Earlier today, my sister and I headed out to go look for a wedding outfit! Gotta find some excuse to go shopping and spend some money, right??

I actually found two dresses that I loved and they were both total bargains so I ended up buying both of them and am planning to wear the other one for another special occasion that is coming up…(more on that to come)

Here is the dress that I will be wearing to the wedding:

I thought it was the perfect little summer dress and I can’t wait to wear it! I have some sleek, black heels to go with it.

And here is dress #2:

Yet another fun summer dress. :) But you guys will never guess where I got these dresses at…

WALMART!!! :D Crazy right? Walmart actually carries some very cute stuff. I got each dress for a cool 10 buckaroos. What a steal!!!

Moving on to some eats, I picked up a Kashi meal that I had not tried before and a while ago and finally got around to eating it a few nights ago:

This was GREAT! I really enjoyed it…especially after smearing a laughing cow all up in there. Mmmmm. This meal has a hint of lime and cumin and there go together so wonderfully. I would happily eat this again!

Plain Oikos mixed and topped with PB2, 1/2 sliced banana, and Quaker Oatmeal Squares:

Close up of the goodness:

I just ordered a 4 pack of PB2. I love it SO MUCH! I really don’t use it much for an actual nut butter substitute…but I just love mixing it into some greek yogurt. I will also be experimenting with adding it to recipes and whatnot for a hint of peanut buttery flavor!

Some lovely juice:

1 beet, 1 apple, 3 carrots, a few cherries (take seeds out first…I learned this the hard way)

the pretty elixir:

Last night I baked up some tofu for din-din:

This was the best I have ever made!! I finally nailed to cooking time…I like mine nice and chewy and not too soft, but I usually always end up under cooking them. This time I cooked them at 425* for 50 minutes. Perfecto! As far as the flavor mixture, I mostly don’t measure anything but here are approximate measurements:

soy sauce (approximately 1 tbsp)
agave nectar (2 tablespoons)
sesame oil (2 tablespoons)
your choice of seasonings.. I used garlic powder, minced garlic, minced onion, parsley, and basil.

I also steamed some broc and cauli, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and a squeezed lemon

Oh, I almost forgot…my post-surgery appointment on Monday went great! My doctor numbed my nose and stuck a scope up in it and said that everything looks perfect! I can totally tell a difference now, even though I am still healing…but definitely feel SO much better already!! And then I received the best news of the day…

I got the a-okay to start running again!!!

And you better believe that is exactly what I am off to do right now! I know I will have to take things slow and build back up, but my body has seriously missed it so much and I can’t wait to jump right back into it!

Hope you have a lovely day girls!

I’m just a yoga lovin’ gal

2009-06-22T12:22:00.001-05:00

Hi girls! Happy Monday :)

I was up bright and early to go babysit for a few hours. I will be doing these early morning jobs every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a while, which is fine by me…I need to make some dolla bills…especially after ordering some Amazing Grass!!! I finally gave up and ordered some…I can’t wait to try it out and review it!

After babysitting, I grabbed my yoga mat and did a mini yoga sesh from exercisetv.tv called A.M. Yoga. I really liked this one! I gotta give a shout-out to my girl, Jenny, because I found this awesome site through her blog. THANK YOU!! I am in love with this site now! :)

I have decided that I want to have more yoga in my life. It really makes me feel incredible every single time that I do it. I feel refreshed, calm, positive, and happy. I am slowly learning more poses but really am rather a yoga newbie. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Do you do yoga? What is your favorite thing about it?

After some yoga, I was feeling pretty good and energized so I decided to hop on the treadmill (because it’s already SO hot outside!) and do some incline walking. It was a great little workout and I happily sang along with my Ipod the whole time :)

For breakfast I was craving a yogurt mess…and here is what I came up with:

Greek yogurt
grapes
sliced bing cherries
sliced figs
kashi go lean crunch
a few Quaker oatmeal squares
a scoop of Naturally More

YUM!

I have to show you my new plate that I found yesterday at Walgreens while I was waiting to pick up some picture prints:

A flower plate!!! I think it is so adorable. The best part is that each petal is like an individual space, so I can fit my veggies, crackers, hummus, etc all on there. Love it!

I have also gotten around to eating a few new bars that I receive a while back in a bar swap with the lovely Meg!

This pic was taken with my phone, so it is a bit fuzzy…the bar was absolutely delicious! It is a Luna cookie and cream bar:

And a Think Thin Brownie Crunch:

I really enjoyed both of these bars. I am especially a huge fan of Think products and absolutely love the Think Thin creamy peanut butter flavor, so I was excited to try a new flavor. I really liked this brownie crunch one and it will definitely take care of any chocolate craving you may be having. ;) My heart is still with the creamy peanut butter flavor, but this one is a close 2nd.

Do you want to see what prints I was picking up at Walgreens??? Here is my newest decoration in my room:

These are pictures that I have taken on various trips and vacations. I really love it in my room…it takes me away on a mini vacation in my mind every time I look at it. :)

And now I off to have some lunch and then leave for my post-surgery appointment. I hope everything goes well!!

I will leave you this a Jaci picture…when I came home from babysitting, I went to the back yard to let Jaci inside. Apparently she has found a new hobby for digging in the garden. She tried not to act suspicious but there was no hiding it:

BUSTED…by all the dirt that was clung to her nose. Oh, Jaci…

I hope you all have a terrific Monday! :D

Love, Kristi

Gotta keep on keepin’ on

2009-06-18T17:13:00.001-05:00

Well, I don’t thing I prepared myself enough for the recovery part of surgery. This past week has been a lot harder than I was anticipating. Since my last post, there have been one too many breakdowns following along the lines of…“I just want a new nose!!!!”

Seriously, I’ve been breathing out of my mouth for a week. fml. It’s just a combination of things right now that is putting me on the verge of losing my dang mind. I have been stuck in this house for an entire week like a packrat, I am VERY antsy on account of I’m not allowed to exercise, Its been extremely hard to sleep so I have been weak and cranky, and I am just plain bored out of my mind!

Ahhh…sorry for the complete negativity, but that needed to get off my chest. Yep. So now that that little mini-rant is over, I shall move on.

First off, I wanted to show you all what I have been living on for the past week:

Thank God for this big fluffy cloud of comfort. I have to have my head elevated while sleeping for a while. By this point though, I miss my bed dearly….very very verrrrry much. I have seriously been on this chair for 98% of this week, haha.

Here’s my snuggle buddy:

She’s a sleepy-head, too.

How can you not smile at that face?? She has been by my side the whole time. :)

Okay, now I believe it is time for some food pics. Although I’ve been sleeping a lot, I have still found the time for some awesome eats, of course.

I bring you: Pink Juice!

Is that not pretty?! This juice contained:

1 beet
1 small apple
1 pear
1/2 cucumber

My favorite Amy’s burrito:

Hugh Jass salads:

lots and lots of fruit:

The last of Heather’s (from Heather Eats Almond Butter) peanut butter banana muffins:

Also eaten warmed, and crumbled on top of Oikos plain greek yogurt mixed with PB2:

I need to make some more of these muffins ASAP. These are for real the best muffins EVER. Make them, I tell you!!

Channa Masala!!!

Topped with greek yogurt and fresh cilantro. Holy Yum

for some odd reason, the chickpeas were hard. (TWSS) Wth? This was still good but I couldn’t get past the chickpeas…weird!

Now, I think Edward Cullen is calling my name, so I will be on my way. I hope you all have a wonderful night!

Love Kristi xoxo

Here is a great giveaway to check out:

http://luckytastebuds.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/big-lucky-giveaway/

I’m a couch potato

2009-06-14T22:46:00.001-05:00

Hello my beautiful friends!

I am happy to report that everything went according to plan with my surgery on Friday! They got me right in for my procedure at 12:00. I had to fast before surgery, so it was definitely weird (and hard!) not eating breakfast in the morning! I did make up for it with a pretty rockin’ b-fast the next day. More on that below. :)

I had a great staff on duty and they were all super nice and caring. The nervousness hit me on the drive to the hospital but once I got there, this staff made me feel much better and at ease. They did have some trouble with getting my IV in my arm…UGH…and I’ve got some pretty B.A. bruises to show for it. ;) The last thing I remember was hopping onto the table…I don’t remember going to sleep at all. The surgery ended up being about an hour but we didn’t end up leaving for home until around 3 o’clock. I was so tired and loopy from the anesthesia so they kept me for a little while longer to let me wake up a little bit more before leaving. Once I was finally able to open my eyes, they gave me some applesauce to eat, followed by some pain meds. Then I came home and crashed for the rest of the day. And that is pretty much what I have been doing since then, too. I’m a couch potato…and I’m not afraid to admit it! :D

I have managed to eat some pretty delish foods though…here are some highlights:

My redeeming breakfast:

strawberry oatmeal pancakes with greek yogurt and almond butter. Perfection. I got this recipe out of my new magazine and I loved it. Tell me if you guys want me to post the recipe and I will next time!

For the first time I tried out a peanut butter cookie Larabar, thanks to Meg! This bar was def. nothing short of amazing. This is up there on my list of favorite Larabar flavors, for sure.

greek yogurt with PB2 mixed in. Nature’s Path flax granola and a figgie on top.

Giant green monster for some more glowin’ skin :) I got this HUGE mug at Walmart last week…and this giant green monster couldn’t even fill the whole thing up! This took me a good chunk of time to slurp down.

Here we have probably one of my favorite go-to dinners:

sweet potato fries, brussels, baked tofu

For dessert, I (well, my mom actually) was able to put together a creation I had been thinking about for a while now…homemade mint chocolate chip icrecream!

Oh Yes..that icecream is green monster style.

Here is what I used:

1/2 frozen banana
couple frozen mango chunks
2 handfuls spinach
unsweetened vanilla almond milk
scoop of vanilla protein
splash of mint extract
dark chocolate chips

I blended everything besides the chocolate chips, in the Magic Bullet and set it in the freezer for about an hour. This was great!! Talk about healthy ice cream!

Well girls, its about time for me to take some more pain meds and hit the sack. Thank you all so much for the well wishes. I love you all!

New hair, blogger inspired meals, and surgery news

2009-06-10T14:21:00.001-05:00

Is it Wednesday already?? The days (and weeks for that matter) are passing by so fast. Summer needs to slow down a bit!

Yesterday afternoon I went into the salon for work and also to get my hair done! Ok seriously…I pretty much love my job. Who can say that they got their hair done while at work?! :D I decided that I wanted to get some highlights for the summer and I also needed a trim. I took a pic right when I got home especially for you guys!

What do you think?

And now that I have that picture up…I have been thinking that all my green monster drinkin’ and homemade juices are making my face much brighter and clearer. I guess The Glow Challenge has another success!

Today I was up early and out the door to babysit again. I am also babysitting family #2 in a few hours this afternoon. Kids can definitely keep you busy, that is for sure! But there are also helping me rank in the money this summer! Before I left this morning, I had a lovely summer breakfast inspired by the lovely Jenna!

1 cup of Quaker oatmeal squares with almond mil and fresh blueberries. I then topped it with a dollop of greek yogurt. It was divine. I used to eat this cereal all the time and totally forgot how much I loved it!

When I got home I made an awesome new lunch, this time inspired by my girl, Dulcie.

I always see Dulcie featuring very drool-worthy lunchtime wraps filled with spinach wraps and melty cheese. I knew I needed to try this combo ASAP! So that is exactly what I did for lunch…but I also added a special ingredient:

This flavor is freakin’ AWESOME! Must have, for sure. For my wrap, I used my favorite Joseph’s lavish squares. I get these babies at Walmart and they rock. my. world. If you haven’t tried them, please do! They are the softest wraps I have EVER used! They use a mixture of flax, oat bran, and whole wheat to make them…so the nutritional stats are great!

I also had an orange on the side:

I can definitely see this lunch repeating a ton in the future. Delish.

Now before I go, I wanted to let you guys know about my upcoming surgery. I have not mentioned it yet, but I went to see an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor a few weeks ago and decided that I needed to have surgery to fix my allergy/nose/sickness problems that I have been having for what seems like forever now. The doctor took me to get a scan and see inside my sinuses. Apparently, I was all blocked up (sorry) and he basically was wondering how I could even breath at all. So we discussed it for quite a while and arranged for him to perform Sinus Surgery…this Friday. I am a bit nervous of course, because it is surgery, after all. But I am also very excited because I have high hopes that this could be the answer to all of my health problems. Once I recover, I will very possibly be able to run better, live happier, and not constantly get sick. I will be recovering most likely all next weak but I will definitely do a blog update as soon as I feel up to it, to let you all know how things went.The only downside is that my surgery is at noon on friday and I have to “fast” until then…which means no breakfast. :( I guess that is a good thing if that is all I’m worrying about though, haha! :D

Well I am off to grab a snack and get to some more babysitting. I hope you all have a wonderful day! Lots of love girlie girls :)

5k Race Recap

2009-06-07T14:25:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! Happy Sunday!

Saturday was an amazing day for me. I woke up feeling much better than I had been feeling, and I knew there was nothing that was going to stand in the way of me racing. I got up at the crack of dawn to get ready for my race because the race was about an hour away from us and we wanted to get there early. I made a great pre-run breakfast to take with me and eat in the car on the way there:

(with a bite taken out of it…oops)

The race was held in a beautiful area and the run would take place right along a river. It was a gorgeous morning with perfect running weather.

My sister was there to support me:

Along with her boyfriend, Steven, and my mamma:

I was a tad bit excited, obviously.

Jessica was the lovely photographer for me:

You know I gotta throw some funny faces in there, too.

Here is everybody heading over to the starting line. I’ve got my pink ipod in and I’m ready to go! Note: I was definitely also sporting my Garmin, which is one the hand you can’t see.

One final stretch before taking off:

I loved every minute of this race and the time seriously just flew right by me. I talked with some runners along the way, jammed my ipod, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I feel so proud of myself for being able to do this. I would have NEVER thought I would be able to run 3.1 miles, let alone actually ENJOY it. Craziness!

I was also a lot more wise on this race. I learned from my mistake on my last race that I need to start off slowly and get into a nice even pace so I don’t wear myself out within the first mile. On my first race, I dashed off full speed like a killer was chasing after me! But this is what it is all about…making mistakes and learning from them.

I was head to head with one guy at the very end. We were talking smack and challenging each other to race. It was a pretty funny way to end the race. :)

Here is a short video of me (and him) crossing the finish line:

We both ended up finishing at the same time: 29:07. Not bad for my first 5k! I was really trying not to focus on my time, and just focus on enjoying the run, but I did secretly have a goal of getting under 30 minutes..and I did it!

After I finished my run, I met back up with the fam and we all hung out, talked to other racers, and listened to the live band that was there! I also pet a few adorable dogs:

Ahhh, SO MUCH FURRY CUTENESS!!

This one decided to dress up for the occasion:

I am so glad to have running in my life. It has been a source of stress relief, it gives me time to myself to think, and a way to feel truly amazing. I have already started looking at upcoming races, so be ready for more race talk in the future!

I want to thank all you for supporting me. I feel so blessed to have this blog and have made so many awesome friends in the process. I don’t know what I would do without you guys!

Race Stress

2009-06-03T16:06:00.001-05:00

Hey ladies!! How is everyone’s hump day going? Good I hope!

Today I got up early and headed out for an early babysitting job. This time, it was only 1 kiddo; a cutie little girl named Kate. She is 1 1/2 years old and a little ball of fun! :)

For some reason, my alarm clock went off later than I had planned (how this happened, I still haven’t figured out), so I needed something quick for breakfast. I resorted to a good ol’ bowl of cold cereal. Perfect for Summer!

The mixture included included:

1/2 cup kashi go lean
1/2 cup kashi vive
handful of PB Puffins (yay!)
fresh blueberries and strawberries
unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
dollop of greek yog.

I was home just in time for lunch, but we are completely fresh out of bread and tortillas (gasp!). So I decided to make a Hugh Jass salad.

The star of my salad was this:

I also threw in some chickpeas, broccoli, cucumber, carrots, hummus, and crumbled kashi crackers. After I snapped this pic, I sliced up some strawberries and put them in there too! A huge orange was also consumed.

So it seems like there is some sickness going around the blogworld…for the past couple of days I have been feeling downright lowsy! My nose has been so stuffed up that I had to go sleep in the living room recliner chair last night because I couldn’t breathe laying down in my bed. Ugh. And as the title of this post says, this has been causing me major race stress. My race is THIS Saturday. This couldn’t be a worse time to get sick and have no energy. This is really hard for me because I have been working so hard to increase my running endurance and I have finally started to feel ready for the race. And right now, running is the last think I want to do. I just feel like laying here on the couch and being lazy, because that is all I have the energy for. I’m not really sure what the best thing for me to do is.

Should I try to get in at least 1 more run before this Saturday or will I just make myself worse?

Sorry for the not so happy writing today, I’m just really stressing out about this because I have been looking forward to this race and want to be able to fully enjoy it.

Anyways, In an attempt to nourish myself back to health, I made a lovely juice this afternoon:

1 granny smith apple, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1 beet, 1 kale leave, and a few grapes (unpictured)

I also added a splash of Pom Juice. This was very refreshing and made me feel much better.

Well, now I think I will take advantage of my down-time and watch some lovely trash t.v. I believe Daisy of Love is on. :) To all of you who are feeling under the weather, I hope you feel much better ASAP! Bye girlies!

Dancing Mouses and Pom Wonderful product review!

2009-06-01T17:34:00.001-05:00

So as I am typing this, there is currently a mouse dancing around in the kitchen!! Eeeeeeeek! Now I am all about loving animals, but this kind of stuff creeps me out! This one is a hyper little guy…he’s in there going full speed!

Anyways, I hope everyone’s week is off to a good start! This morning I managed to squeeze in a quick 2 mile run/1 mile walk before I headed out the door to go babysit. Since I haven’t gotten hired for another summer job like I was hoping, I will be taking care of some kiddos instead! There are two families that I occasionally babysit for. One of them has 3 kids and the has 4, so I definitely have my hands full but I always have a lot of fun as well. The moms are going to try and help me make some money this summer, which is so nice of them. I will be watching the kiddos probably 3-4 times a week. And as usual, I will continue to work at the hair salon on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So night, I spent the evening watching the Mtv Movie Awards with some friends. I was mainly excited about the New Moon sneak peak, which looks SO.GOOD. I seriously can’t wait!!!

Here is some Monday eye candy for you all:

Looooooove him :)

Now, onto my Pom Wonderful review:

I was so excited when Molly, from a Pom Wonderful, contacted me to ask to send some pom juice my way. I more than happily accepted of course!

I was even more excited when the package arrived on my doorstep a few days later…

too excited to keep my eyes open, apparently. :)

there we go!

I brought the package in immediately opened it up. I love pomegranates so I has a pretty good feeling that I would like these. The first sip was tart and flavorful…I LOVED IT! If you like tart flavors, you should definitely try this stuff. I am going to be doing some experimenting with these because I’m sure it would be good mixed with a ton of different things. I’m also thinking about some pom slushies! Sounds like the perfect treat for summer time. My first impression of Pom Wonderful is definitely two thumbs up, so stay tuned for more pom-related things in the future. Thank you SO much Molly! P.S. Their customer service rocks! :D

I also have a few other yummy eats from the past few days to show:

Stove top oats with banana, blueberries, and greek yog:

Tofu and kale chips:

Chickpea salad:

pb and j roll up:

Quick and easy homemade ice cream!

I got this ice cream idea from the lovely Natalie! I made this with my Magic Bullet by combining 1/2 frozen banana, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 2 chunks frozen mango, and some almond milk. I gave it a whirl and stuck it in the freezer for about an hour. This was SO GOOD!! Not to mention easy and healthy!

Now I am going to get ready and head out with some friends for dinner and who knows what else. I hope you all have a fabulous Monday night!

Lazy Summer Days

2009-05-27T18:56:00.001-05:00

Hello!

So today has been a pretty low-key, lazy day…which is just fine with me! I have been enjoying Summer and relaxing. The weather has been rather gloomy and cold today for some odd reason, so I didn’t get to soak up any rays. Instead, I spent the day catching up on re-runs of Dog The Bounty Hunter. Does anybody ever watch that show? My sister got me hooked on it!

This morning, I enjoyed a cute little breakfast cookie:

I topped it with nonfat plain greek yogurt aka clouds of fluff. :)

Although the majority of my day has been pretty lazy, I did have a successful run on the treadmill this morning. Another 3 miles down! I am getting more and more excited for my race with every run that I do!

For lunch, I used one of my new favorite products: Ezekiel tortillas!

plus a baby orangie:

I filled a wrap with my turkey, turkey pepperoni, string cheese stick, laughing cow, spinach leaves,and alfalfa sprouts. Then I stuck it on the George Foreman grill for about 5 minutes. The cheesestick was a great addition because it got all nice and melty inside. mmmm

Oh, I also did 2 loads of laundry in-between my lazy-ness! :D

Then I proclaimed that it was time for a snack, so I headed out to the kitchen and made an amazing shake…green monster style:

So I realized that I really need to buy some new tall glasses for my juices and green monsters because you all probably get tired of seeing this same KU glass every time, haha. I will work on that soon! :D

Anyways, this green monster was especially delicious because I used the secret ingredient.

Here is all that went into the blender:

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
3 cups of spinach leaves (estimated)
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 frozen banana
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
1/4 avocado (secret ingredient!)

Avocado should ALWAYS be put in shakes/smoothies. Seriously, you need to try this if you haven’t yet! It makes it SO creamy, smooth, and delicious. I gulped this down in no time!

For dinner, I wanted something simple, so I decided to have dinner on Amy tonight:

along with a side of steamed broccoli:

This was my first time trying this meal and I really like it! But I wasn’t surprised though because how could I NOT love anything from Amy’s kitchen?! I totally recommend that you give this meal a try!

For dessert, I ventured into the freezer since I have been trying to eat up all my frozen baked goodies…so I can make more of course!

I knew what I wanted when I laid eyes on Heather’s (from Heather Eats Almond Butter) chocolate chip banana nut butter muffins. These are seriously the best muffins I have ever made/eaten. The nut butter put in this recipe makes it a million times better!!

And you know i covered the top of the muffin with some more nut butta lovin’. ;)

I also had a couple handfuls of Moose Munch!

I don’t turn down anything that has caramel corn in it! Yum!

And now I’m about to watch So You Think You Can Dance! Wooohooo! Man, I really sound like one big couch potato don’t I?!? Oh well! :D

Will YOU be watching So You Think You Can Dance tonight?

Double recipes

2009-05-24T12:04:00.001-05:00

Hi guys! How is everyone’s weekend going?

I just got back from walking Jaci in the gorgeous weather we have here today! It’s nice and sunny. Yay!

I made a new breakfast cookie last night, so before I left for our walk, I chowed down:

This is my first time putting greek yogurt on a breakfast cookie and I have to admit; it was pretty darn yummy! It is also keep me full and satisfied pretty well, too. Thanks for the idea, Jenna!

Now, rewinding back to yesterday, I had a great Saturday! I started the day off with another awesome run. I ran a 5k again and it felt fantastic! I am really liking this distance and have found the pace where I am comfortable at. Now I just have to remember to keep this pace during my race in two weeks so I don’t get burnt out early in the race!

Yesterday afternoon was spent at a bridal shower! But before we left, I made a fabulous lunchy:

grilled ezekiel wrap. mmmm

I know I mentioned how much I love weddings and I am so excited that I have yet another one to look forward to! My cousin, Shaun, is getting married on June 22. My mom, sister, and I went to his fiancé's shower. It was a fun time; we played some bridal games and she opened all of her presents. She got some pretty neat kitchen appliances that I was jealous of! hehe. Then we all gathered in the kitchen and had refreshments. There was a cake, nuts, fruit, and punch. It was a pretty set up and I totally forgot to take a pic of it! Sorry! I had a small slice of cake, some nuts and some fruit. I probably could have done without the cake though; I am a total ice-cream gal.

Are you more of a cake lover or an ice-cream lover?

Then we came home and started thinking about what we wanted to do for dinner. I found an awesome recipe that I wanted to try, so I made dinner for the fam. :)

Tofu with Peanut Ginger Sauce

· 5 tablespoon(s) water

· 4 tablespoon(s) smooth natural peanut butter

· 1 tablespoon(s) rice vinegar (see Ingredient note), or white vinegar

· 2 teaspoon(s) reduced-sodium soy sauce

· 2 teaspoon(s) honey

· 2 teaspoon(s) minced ginger

· 2 clove(s) garlic, minced

· 14 ounce(s) extra-firm tofu, preferably water-packed

· 2 teaspoon(s) extra-virgin olive oil

· 4 cup(s) baby spinach (6 ounces)

· 1 1/2 cup(s) sliced mushrooms (4 ounces)

· 4 scallions, sliced (1 cup)

Directions

1. To prepare sauce: Whisk water, peanut butter, rice vinegar (or white vinegar), soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic in a small bowl.

2. To prepare tofu: Drain and rinse tofu; pat dry. Slice the block crosswise into eight 1/2-inch-thick slabs. Coarsely crumble each slice into smaller, uneven pieces.

3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add tofu and cook in a single layer, without stirring, until the pieces begin to turn golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Then gently stir and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all sides are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes more.

4. Add spinach, mushrooms, scallions and the peanut sauce and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are just cooked, 1 to 2 minutes more.

This was SO. GOOD. All of you tofu lovers need to try this asap! The flavors in this dish are so amazing together!! The best part is…I have leftovers! :D

For desert, I indulged in some Coconut Bliss:

We then decided to go rent a movie and kick back for the night. The movie place was out of the movie we wanted to rent, so we found Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. We actually really liked it! This is a good one for a group of girls. :)

And I promised to post the recipe to my oatmeal desert bars, from earlier this week, so here it is:

Oatmeal Desert Bars

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup fat free DRY milk
2 tbsp ground flax seed (optional)
1/2 cup applesauce
2 very ripe mashed bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
squirt of honey or agave nectar
chocolate chips (1/4 cup?)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Spray an 8x8 dish with cooking spray. Mix all ingredients together and spoon into pan. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. May take more or less depending on your oven. Especially delicious topped with nut butter. :)

These are so simple and so delicious!!

Well, I am off to go make some lunch, then tonight I am eating dinner with my dad. We are grilling out and there has been talk about shrimp, pineapple, and veggie kabobs. EEEKKK! My favorite!

Don’t forget to check out Zesty Cook’s awesome giveaway!

Wishing all of you a great Sunday!

Package Surprise..unveiled!

2009-05-22T18:35:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday! Hope you all are enjoying the day!

I started off the day wonderfully with a bowl of oatbran:

The mix-ins were: cinnamon, egg whites, frozen blueberries, and a few frozen mango chunks (they’re hiding). I topped it with Naturally More peanut butter.

After a little blog reading and internet surfing, I decided to get my strength training on and Shred it up with Jillian. I did level 2 while jammin’ to my ipod.

She’s hardcore.

For lunch, I made another wrapwich:

Whole wheat bread on the bottom and part of a Joseph’s whole grain lavish on top. Inside, I stuffed in some virginia ham, american cheese, turkey pepperoni, spinach leaves, alfalfa sprouts, and a french onion laughing cow. I LOVE laughing cow in my sandwiches…I don’t think I could make a sandwich without these now!

Plus a prunie:

After lunch, my mom and I headed out to run some errands, including stopping to get some groceries. We picked up a bunch of produce and other basics. But also found some fun things:

I have never tried the Ezekiel tortillas before so I am excited that I found them today!

After sadly finishing my carton of Coconut Bliss last week, I decided to HAD to get some more asap. That is exactly what I did. :) Once I finish this one, I am planning on attempting to make my own homemade coconut ice cream. Stay tuned!

I have seen this Kashi meal on many blogs so I can’t wait to try this out! Plus, I’m game for anything involving sweet potatoes.

And now I won’t wait any longer to show you guys my latest purchase that I received today!

What could it be?!?

IT’S A JUICER!!!

Is it weird to be this excited about a kitchen appliance? :D

As soon as I got it, I ripped it open and got to work. Here are the ingredients I used:

celery, carrots, 1 beet, and 1 apple

Here is is after juicing:

After pouring:

The color is so pretty! The beet has such an intense color that makes it look awesome. Just think about all the good vitamins and antioxidants that are packed in them!

I have to admit, I was kind of scared to put the food in the chute…those blades were spinning fast! Put once I did, it was FUN! I could have just kept juicing the entire contents of my fridge at that point. Clean up was pretty simple, too. So far, I give this juicer an A+++. I can’t wait to experiment with other combinations!

Now I’m going to see what’s up for dinner and for the rest of the evening. I hope you all have a wonderful evening!

New PDR!

2009-05-21T22:54:00.001-05:00

Hey guys!

I hope everyone is enjoying your Thursday night! WooHoo for a 3 day weekend! Although, every day is a weekend day for me now! :D Does anybody have plans for memorial weekend?

Today has been a great day over here…I have been very happy with myself ever since this morning when I ran the farthest I’ve ever ran! Now, don’t be expecting some huge number because I am very much a beginner. I ran a 5k! This was my goal because it is what I will be running for my race on June 6. I just wanted to do it right then and there to show myself that I CAN do it. It made me feel fantastic and I am now much more confident about my upcoming race. It really made me feel like a “runner”. I was all smiles afterwards! :D

Before my run, I decided to make some stove-top oats. I love being able to to do this in the morning…I usually never have time for it, but now that it is summer, I think I will be doing it much more often!

This combo included:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup water
pinch of salt, cinnamon
1 tbsp ground flax
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
1/2 sliced banana
sprinkle of Nature’s Path flax granola (love)

Is there any better way to start the day?! I think not.

After my run, I got ready for the day and then headed to my acupuncture appointment. This is going so well! I am totally comfortable with it now. I love my doctor! My family actually are good friends with him and his family. He was a daughter and a son that are my age and I am good friends with both of them, too!

When I got back home, it was time for lunch:

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted a wrap or a toasted sandwich ( I am so indecisive sometimes) so I put the two ideas together to create……a wrap-wich! :D It was quite delish. I toasted up both the wrap and the whole wheat piece of bread. Then I stuffed a bunch of goodies in there including: slice of american cheese, ham, spinach leaves, alfalfa sprouts, turkey pepperoni, laughing cow cheese spread. Once toasted, the wrap pretty much became one big crunchy pita chip! It was very yummy on top of my wrapwich. :)

After my lovely lunch, I headed over to the salon and worked for the afternoon. I then came home and made this:

whole wheat wrap with a biiig scoop of natural peanut butter and 1/2 sliced banana.

Dinner was very simple, I heated up a Morningstar riblet and steamed some broccoli with some lemon juice:

I also had some Sabra’s with carrots while I was waiting:

I realized that I have a ton of baked goods in my freezer…so I decided that I needed to start eating them so there will be room for more future baked goods!

This is a homemade chocolate chip banana oatmeal bar, warmed up and topped with almond butter. Barney Butter, to be exact.

Heaven. Tomorrow I will post the recipe for this little lovely! These are so good..and healthy! The only sweetener in these are bananas and chocolate chips. (sugar addicts can add additional sweetener, ofcourse ;)

I am VERY EXCITED for tomorrow because there should be a very cool package in the mail tomorrow…I may or may not have made a little online purchase earlier this week. I am going to keep you in suspense until tomorrow to find out what it is. muhahaha :D

And now I headed to bed! G’night all!

I’m back!!

2009-05-19T13:34:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! Wow, has it really been a week since I last posted?! I don’t even know where the time went. I have been swamped in school and making sure that every little thing gets finished and taken care of before summer. Monday and today, I took my finals. I have one more to take tomorrow morning and then it is officially SUMMER TIME!!!! (insert HUGE smiley face)

Even though I have been extremely busy with school, I did make room for a few other fun events to attend recently. One of these events would be a wedding! I LOVE weddings! I think they are so much fun and I love seeing the whole setup and how pretty everything looks. One of my best friend’s mom was the person to be married, and she was her mom’s Maid of Honor. This is a friend I have grown up with and have know since I was in 1st grade! It was a beautiful, simple, sweet wedding.

Here are some pics:

Jessica (sister), mom, and I:

Jess and the boyfriend:

He is SO tall, so I made him scrunch down so that I was the tall one! :D (he was scrunching a bit in the above pic, too)

My best friend:

And then on Sunday, all of my family threw my grandpa a birthday party! He turned 80! One of my uncles lives on a beautiful farm and my Grandpa spends a lot of time there, so we knew it was the perfect place for the get-together. The weather was perfect! He was so touched at how many people had come and he was all smiles the whole afternoon! I love my Grandpa! :)

My cute little cousin, JJ:

Pretty view:

Monday = school craziness…and now you guys are caught up to today! I started off the day with this:

Then after school finals, I came home and made lunch:

Ya’ll need to try putting sprouts on sandwiches! I just discovered them and there are awesome!

Now I’m thinking about hopping on the treadmill and pounding out a run. Then it will be time to get ready to go to work. Tonight is American Idol! :D

Talk to you all soon!

New race announcement

2009-05-14T20:15:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!

Well as usual, it has been pretty busy around here lately. I am trying hard to get all my school work done AND study for the finals next week. I’m getting so close though! Tomorrow is my last full day of school! Then I just have to go in and take my finals the next week and I’m outta there! I’M SO EXCITED!!!

Now, about the title of this post, I registered for an upcoming 5k race! The date is set for Saturday, June 6. This will be a step up from my last race (which was my very first race) which was a 2 mile run. I specifically chose this race because all the proceeds go to cancer research! So I need to get my boo-tay in gear and get to training! Yippeeee!

I didn’t get a picture snapped of my breakfast cookie from this morning because I was running late, so I thought I would backtrack to RAW Wednesday’s breakfast:

Raw Blended Chia oats!

For this bowl, I mixed 1/2 cup oats with 1 cup of water and 1 tbsp of chia seeds plus a dash of cinnamon. I let them sit overnight and in the morning, I whirled them around in my Magic Bullet with 1/2 banana. Them I topped it with raw almond butter. It was definitely good, but I missed my vanilla almond milk in it.

Lunch was the usual, peanut butter and banana sandwich with a side salad. Only one more school lunch!!

This afternoon, I stopped by my house to grab a quick snack before heading to work. A new (for me) Think Thin bar! Thanks Meg!

Now, the creamy peanut butter flavor holds a special spot in my heart, but this white chocolate flavor definitely hit the spot!

I left work early today because I had my 4th acupuncture appointment. In all of my appointment so far, my doctor has nut the needles in my arms/hands and legs (shin area). This was the first time he was going to put the needles in my face. Of course, I was a little bit scared at first, but I just have to tell myself, “mind over matter.” And my mom came with me and talked to me the whole time, so it was easier to take my mind off of it. It really wasn’t that bad though and the next time, it probably won’t be a big deal at all. I’m actually really loving this! It may early to tell if it is helping with my allergies but I am very hopeful that this will be a success!

Then I came home and was starving for some good food. So, good food I made. :) It was a veggie-fest tonight:

spinach salad:

sweet potato fries and ketchup:

leftover roasted brussles! I am in love with these babies.

And for dessert, I decided to try something I saw on Jenna’s blog (surprise, surprise haha)

Greek yogurt with chocolate PB2 mixed in:

Yep, that would be my new favorite dessert. :D (besides Coconut Bliss ice cream!)

And I thought I’d end this post this a Jaci picture…she wanted to show off her new “toy”:

Have a wonderful night everybody, I’m off to go watch Grey’s Anatomy! Love to you all!

Nutty for coconuts

2009-05-11T19:24:00.001-05:00

Here we are at yet another Monday. This Monday is particularly special for me because it marks my last full school-day Monday of my year. YAHOOO!!! I am so anxious to get to this week over with and then it will be smooth sailing. Finals will be next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday…but I’ve got it all under control. :D I actually don’t mind finals week because they are super short school days and I’m out before noon.

Speaking of noon, that is the time today that I had my 3rd acupuncture appointment. It is going really well! I have gotten past the initial nervousness and uneasy feelings from the needles and now I just go in, my doc puts the needles in, and I get to take a nap! I have been researching all the benefits of acupuncture and it really is amazing! I love the whole natural holistic approach that it has. And I’ve got to admit..I feel better. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the cure for my constant sickness and allergy problems!!

Here’s a look at my artistic breakfast from this morning:

The overnight mixture was my regular mix of 1/2 cup oats, 3 tbsp of almond milk, 1 scoop protein powder, 1/2 mashed banana, lots of cinnamon. Then I topped it with an assortment of blueberries, banana slices, shredded coconut, and Mighty Maple. SOOOO GOOD!

Since I had that appointment at noon, I got to come home for lunch and whip up something real quick:

Sandwich time!

AND my first JamFrakas bar, thanks to Meg! This was so cute and delicious. I would definitely buy these again…or anything Larabar for that matter. ;)

After school I had planned on doing Jillian’s 30 Day Shred but I was darn tired…so I listened to my body and I took a nap!

When I woke up, I figured it was time for some snackage:

an orangie:

A blueberry muffin that my mom made:

A glass of FRS:

And for dinner tonight, I wanted to roast one of my favorite veggies ever…

…Brussel Sprouts!

With some chicken that my mom grilled:

I really wanted to make sure I saved room for a very special dessert that I bought today…

COCONUT ICECREAM!!!!

You have no idea how excited I was when I found this stuff. Being the ice cream fanatic that I am, I knew I had to try this stuff.

It is vegan and organic…and contains a good dose of healthy coconut fat.

Pure. Bliss. Enough said.

I’ve always said, there is no better way to end the day than with ice cream. :)

Now, since I didn’t get any exercise in this afternoon, I’m going to go for a walk with my doggie and my mom. Have a great night everybody!

Question: What is your favorite healthy dessert?

Another one bites the dust

2009-05-10T17:11:00.001-05:00

Hope you all are enjoying your Sunday and spending some good quality time with your mommas! :D

Today has been a much needed, nice relaxing day. I started off with a wonderful bowl of oats, of course.

Wait, that isn’t a bowl of oats…that’s my new CHI!!!

Look at the diamond-y-ness of the letters:

Isn’t she pretty? I was very excited when I found this in the mail yesterday. I had been without one for over a week and my hair was needing some good attention from it.

Now, here is this morning’s actual bowl of oats:

which contained:

1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup almond breeze
1/2 cup water
cinnamon
frozen blueberries
fresh blackberries
a scoop of homemade raw almond butter!

There’s my almond butter, sitting in a Magic Bullet cup. The process of making this was quite difficult…and I’m thinking that its because I tried doing it with the Magic Bullet instead of a food processor? The Magic Bullet did a great job of turning the almonds into almond flour, but after that, it just would NOT blend. I added a teaspoon or two of olive oil to get it going. It helped for about 3 seconds. Sigh. I added a splash of water. That helped and got it more blended and I decided that this was as good as it was going to get. I added in some sea salt and called it good. It tastes yummy…but its definitely not very creamy. Now I really want to invest in a food processor so I can try this again! Anybody have one that they want to recommend???

After breakfast digested, I decided to hit the treadmill for a little run fest. I ran my heart out for a quickie 2 miles and then walked for a while and jammed to my music.

Then it was lunch time…first, I made a plate full of broccoli and Sabra’s roasted garlic hummus:

(they are best friends)

Then I decided to attempt my first try at savory oats…I guess I didn’t get enough oat lovin’ in during breakfast.

I made my oatbran the same as always, with 1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup milk. Then I added a Babybel cheese, a Morningstar sausage patty, and a dash of garlic salt.

I was kind of wary about trying this because I love my oats sweet and with fruit. But this was a nice change. It was so cheesey and creamy!

This afternoon, I settled into a big comfy chair and decided to catch up with Edward Cullen.

eye candy:

But eventually I got hungry and headed to the kitchen to try a new product:

Jay Robb vanilla protein! I added this whole packet, 1 cup vanilla almond milk, a few frozen mango chunks, and a couple ice cubes.

I liked this! I am definitely a fan of this protein powder. I love that they use Stevia as the sweetener, as I try to keep my sugar intake down. This filled me up pretty well, but not too much later, the boredom munchies kicked in…

…and I had quite a few of these little fellas:

Another one bites the dust:

oops!

Now I’m just hanging out with the family and trying to decide what we want to do for a Mother’s Day dinner.

What did you do with your mom today?

Helllllooo Weekend!

2009-05-09T18:44:00.001-05:00

Hey guys!

Wow, has it really been Wednesday since I last posted?! Geeze…bad blogger! This week has really been one fast blur for me. I have been so busy getting things finished up for school, working, more job hunting, etc etc etc! For school, I have all next week and then my finals are the week after that. My last official day will be May 20th. Ekkkk…Summer is just SCREAMING my name at this point!

So I have taken a few pictures of eats and whatnot. here is some of the good stuff:

Coconut peanut butter breakfast cookie:

One of my favorite Larabars: Banana Bread!

Classic banana peanut butter oatbran:

FRS!

Lunchie:

Check out the laughing cow on my sandwich…this is a must try!

And not the best pic, but surely delicious:

I tried to make a green monster using kale this time…but I think the kale was spoiled because this tasted horrible!

So I made a bowl of cereal instead: a mixture of Kashi heart to heart, Nature’s path granola, and shredded wheat with almond milk.

ICE CREAM!

My family stopped for some ice cream after my sister’s graduation last night! Ice cream is my favorite treat food ever! I think an ice cream stop might become a weekly treat?! I think so!

I have been at graduations two nights in a row…hence the lack of posting. My sister, Jessica, has been in the LPN nursing program and her nursing ceremony graduation was thursday night. Then the actual college graduation was last night. College Graduations are looooooooooong. :)

Here is my sis and I last night:

Oh, and this afternoon I attempted to make my own homemade raw almond butter. I will report back tomorrow with pics and the results!

My mom is making us dinner and I think it is about ready, so I better get out there! I’m not sure what the plan is for the rest of the day. I am pretty worn out from this week though, and kind of just feel like relaxing.

Have a great evening!

Raw Wednesday!

2009-05-06T22:00:00.001-05:00

I was very excited to hear about Jenna and Gena’s idea for Raw Wednesdays. I have been wanting to add more raw foods into my eating and I think that this will be the perfect way to slowly start incorporating them in. However, today was hectic as usual and I didn’t have time to find a recipe for a raw meal like I was hoping to do…SO, instead I had 2 raw snacks!

This morning I actually got to sleep in! There was a ~~hella long and boring~~ exciting and interesting assembly about scholarships and I decided to “be sick.” Shhhh… I was back shortly after though, don’t worry. ;)

But this allowed me to be able to get in a good run before school! I did my usual run 2 miles, walk 1 and called it good. I felt great, as usual. :D

Before my run, I had this lovely bowl:

Plus a matching mug..filled with green tea

Stove top oats are my favorite!!

my mix was as follows:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup water
pinch of salt, lots of cinnamon
scoop of protein powder
1/2 sliced banana
frozen mango chunks
Nature’s Path flax granola

And I got to make my lunch at home today…here is what I put together:

I toasted some whole wheat bread for my sandwich, after seeing Dulcie do this with hers all the time. Well, it pretty much rocked my world. Way better than regular bread! My sandwich contained honey ham, a slice of american cheese, a few turkey pepperonis, and spinach leaves. I also had a little bit of channa masala and some carrots and broc.

Plus some of these:

Strawberries photograph so pretty, don’t they?!

After school, I came home and whipped up my first raw snack of the day…an avocado banana smoothie!

I’m in love with this smoothie! You all seriously should try putting some avocado into a smoothie…its the secret ingredient!

Dinner was awesome, too. I still had some baked tofu that needed to be eaten up, so I had that along with a baked sweet potato and kale chips:

This was my first time making kale chips. They are so neat! They have a great crunch to them and are versatile because there are so many different variations of seasoning/topping that you can put on them. I drizzled them with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkled garlic salt and a bit of parmesan cheese of top. Then I baked them at 375* for 15 minutes.

My sweet potato has laughing cow on it…why didn’t I think of this sooner?!? This was heavenly. I looooooove sweet potatoes!

And for raw snack #2, I had half of a banana with a smear of almond butter. Can’t beat it.

I will definitely plan a raw meal for next week’s Raw Wednesday. I can’t wait! This is such a great idea.

Tomorrow, I have a VERY busy day and may or may not be able to post. I have school as usual, then I will be heading over to work for a bit, then home to eat dinner and freshen up really quick before heading out the door to my sister’s graduation! Whew, I’ve got a busy but hopefully fun day ahead of me.

I hope you all have a great day tomorrow if I don’t get a chance to post! Love of love. :)

Go Go Go!

2009-05-05T20:32:00.001-05:00

^^^ That is how my day has been today! Whew, I’m glad I am actually getting a chance to blog! I still have some homework and studying to do…but I just might be procrastinating a tad bit. ;)

As usual, I went off to school and was there from 8:00-3:30. After school, I stopped by home real quick for an snack and then headed to work. I love that my job is only a few minutes away!

Then, right after work, I had my very first appointment for acupuncture. I am getting acupuncture in hopes that it will help my allergies and keep me from getting sick so often. Basically, it will give my body energy and and really bump up my immune system. I was a little bit nervous going to my appointment just because I have never had it done before and didn’t really know what to expect. But it actually went really well! My doctor is very knowledgeable and really believes that this will solve my problems. I am so intrigued about this and what they believe and the body. I find it so interesting!! I’m really hoping this will work for me!

Now, on to some eats!

my mixture for today included:

1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate almond breeze
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp chia seeds!
pinch of salt, cinnamon
frozen blueberries
mango pieces!
1 tbsp Naturally More peanut butter

Absolutely amazing. The mango is what really made this bowl special. This might be my new favorite fruit!

Lunch at school was my usual: peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat, side salad.

afternoon snack: a red delicious apple with goat cheese (unpictured!) I was in a rush to get to work so I just snapped a pic of the apple. Sorry!

I also decided to try something I got in the mail recently:

FRS! Have any of you ever heard of this stuff? It is supposed to keep you energized throughout the day and is filled with vitamins and minerals. It’s secret weapon ingredient is Quercetin, which is an antioxidant found in blueberries, apples, and grapes. It has the ability to enhance your body’s energy system and keep you feeling energized longer.

So this afternoon, I tried the low cal liquid concentrate in the orange flavor. The directions state to mix 1/4 cup the concentrate with 3/4 cup of water. This tastes exactly like Sunny D!! I used to drink Sunny D all the time when I was younger…it reminded me of my childhood. :) I really liked it! As far as how it made me feel, I felt pretty good the rest of the day…maybe it’s too soon to tell if it actually made much of a difference? I will keep you guys posted on it!

Dinner was more leftover Channa Masala with baked tofu.

I think I could eat this every night of the week. Seriously.

Then dessert was my strained Stonyfield yogurt with Nature’s Path granola ontop:

I also chopped up a fig and tossed it in there. Yum!

Now, I really should get started on my homework…but then again, I would love to watch 90210, which just happens to be on right now. Ohhh, when will I learn that procrastinating is NOT a good idea?!? :D

Hope you all have a great night!

Bye bye, weekend

2009-05-03T19:26:00.001-05:00

Why must the weekends always go by SO fast?!? I would usually not be very excited about this, however, I am actually pretty happy because it gets me that much closer to Summer!!!

Look at my new Ipod screensaver:

puts a smile on my face every time I look at it. :)

So today I had some pretty delish eats to show you guys…starting with of course breakfast:

Overnight non-cooked oats:

The night before, I mixed the following in a bowl:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup water
cinnamon
tbsp of chia seeds

Then in the morning, I added:

2 huge scoops of plain greek yogurt (vanilla would be good!)
1/2 sliced banana
scoop of kroger natural peanut butter

This is going be a great bowl for summer breakfasts when I don’t want something hot. The only thing I think it needed was a bit more sweetness. I think that next time in order to add sweetness, I will either: 1.) mash the banana 2.) use vanilla yogurt 3.) add vanilla protein powder. We shall see…

Then lunch was a classic favorite of mine:

1/2 whole wheat bagel with 2 microwaved egg-whites, 1 piece of cheese, and 1 Morningstar soysauge patty. So good. Plus some overnight slaw. And an orange (unpictured)

After my lunch digested, I decided to get in some exercise. But I was feeling like some leisurely exercise, so I hopped on the treadmill and power walked at an incline while I read a magazine and rocked out to my music. The perfect way to workout.

This afternoon’s snack rocked my socks off. I had been meaning to try this smoothie combo based off one that Jenna had posted a while ago. I finally got the ingredient I was missing, so I decided to give it a shot today. Boy, was I glad I did.

For the smoothie, I added these items in a blender:

1 frozen ripe banana
3 chunks frozen mango
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1/4 avocado (secret weapon!)
tbsp flax
scoop of vanilla protein

I blended the heck out of it and the result was nothing short of amazing.

Rockin’ the KU mug.

This was the CREAMIEST, most delicious smoothie EVER. Seriously, you guys need to try this combo…the avocado is what really makes it out of this world!

And now onto dinner…I decided to bake some tofu:

Usually when I do this, I mix together 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 tbsp agave nectar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, and then just throw in whatever spices/seasonings that I want (unmeasured) There was some minced garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, and cumin in this mixture. I baked at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

I paired the tofu with leftovers from last night…another recipe a la Jenna!! I have been trying to get more familiar with Indian cuisine, so I decided to try my hand at my favorite Indian dish yet: Channa Masala!!!

Here was last night’s:

And here was tonight’s:

The channa masala definitely gets even better the day after. It was SO flavorful tonight! I can’t wait to attempt to make more Indian in the future!

Here is the my little evening snack, featuring my new granola!

This stuff is sooo good!

I also grabbed this granola yesterday at the store, too:

I <3 granola. :D

Now I’m going to go spend some time with the Fam and hopefully watch Desperate Housewives!

Oh, and before I go, I wanted to mention that…I was MEAT-FREE all weekend! Lately I have found that meat just hasn’t been all that appealing to me. I am really glad that I am cutting down on it, and I am actually feeling much better, too!

Ok, I’m off! Enjoy the last bit of the weekend!!

Chia-licious

2009-05-02T10:49:00.001-05:00

Happy Saturday!

Aren’t weekends just the best?! I got to sleep in until 9 o’clock this morning. It’s awesome to think that in about 2 weeks, I will be able to do that almost any morning I want! Oh, sweet summer time…

I’m going to back up to yesterday. Yesterday morning I was so excited to attempt my first breakfast with chia seeds!! I decided to follow Jenna’s instructions for Chia oatmeal. So the night before, I combined the following:

1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
dash of salt and cinnamon
1/2 sliced banana
1 tbsp chia seeds

I mixed it all up my oatmeal bowl and put in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, I added 1/2 cup water and cooked it for 2 minutes in the microwave. Then I stirred it again real good and topped it with a tbsp of Naturally More Peanut Butter.

Chialicious Oats

You can just see all the creaminess up in there!! This was SO GOOD. My new love = Chia Seeds. (never fear, PB, you’re still number one.)

Here are just some of the great health benefits of Chia Seeds:

the BEST source of omega-3 and omega-6. They even contain more than salmon!
rich in antioxidants
the seeds form a gel, that once in the stomach creates a physical barrier between carbohydrates and the digestive enzymes that break them down, thus slowing the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar.
ability to absorb more than 12 times its weight in water, keep our bodies hydrated
Known as the running food, its use as a high energy endurance food has been recorded as far back as the ancient Aztecs
a rich source of calcium, B vitamins, iron, fiber, and protein
weight control: keeping you feeling full for a long period of time
lowers the risk of heart disease, blurred vision, and numbness.
contains boron, which is needed for bones

Great stuff, huh?

Ok, now I have another bowl of deliciousness to show you all! This one is from this morning, and it included these two special items:

Which turned into this creation:

Strawberry Banana White Choco Crunch

YUM!!

This combo was actually made on the stove-top. I usually make mine in the microwave because I don’t have much time in the morning before school. But this morning, I decided to take my time and perfect this bowl!

The combination:

1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup water
dash of salt
1/4 mashed banana

After cooking on the stove-top, I mixed in:

tbsp flax
splash of egg beaters (for a protein boost)

Toppings:

1/4 sliced banana
3 big sliced strawberries
a scoop of White Chocolate Wonderful
sprinkle of Bear Naked vanilla almond crunch granola

Now, I’m off to do my morning run! Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

Be sure to check out Fitnessista’s cool give-away!

Interview Day and Goodies in the Mail

2009-04-30T20:08:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! Have you all had a good Thursday? I hope so!!

It’s been another busy one around here. First off, I went to school, as usual. I came home on my lunch hour to grab a quick bite to eat and get changed into dress clothes because this afternoon was Interview Day. I am doing a business/intern program at school next year where you go and work in the afternoon. It counts as credits towards school, so I will still be perfectly on track to graduate my senior year. The people who run this program have the connections to get you a job that you will really like…and help you find a job in an area you are interested in. This is exciting for me because every day next year, I will be done at school at 12:00! This way, I can go to school, have a job, AND actually have a life! All the businesses came to us and we met in the cafeteria to do the interviewing. I had 4 interviews total…a couple banks and other local retailers. But there are much more options that I will have to choose from…this was kind of a practice run. I feel like it really helped me a lot though!

Speaking of jobs, I called the fitness center that I applied at last week, on the quest of looking for a small summer time job, and they said they should be starting the interviewing process soon…I guess there is a lot of people wanting to work there? Noooo! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Now I’m sure you all would like to see what I got in the mail today, right?!

Here is what I came home to tonight: Not one, but 2 PACKAGES!

Thanks to my paint tool, I concealed our identities, haha :)

I was like a kid on Christmas morning! After seeing it over the blogworld for the last couple weeks, I decided to order some Chia Seeds!

That’s right, 3 pounds of pure Chia. Ahhhh!

I ordered from: www.therawfoodworld.com The service and shipping was great. They also have some other cool raw stuff that I’d love to try sometime! You will definitely be seeing many Chia-licious foods in the near future.

The other package was from my very sweet friend, Megan! This is the package I have been dreaming about all week. Megan and I did a bar trade and here is what I ended up with:

Wowza!! So much delicious-ness! I can’t wait to enjoy all of it! Thank you so much, Meg!!!

Now, lets rewind a bit to breakfast:

A breakfast cookie containing:

1/2 cup oats
1 scoop of plain protein powder
1/2 mashed banana
lots of cinnamon
2 tbsp of unsweetened chocolate Almond Breeze
natural peanut butter spread on top (Mighty Maple on one side, Kroger natural on the other)

This never fails me.

And here is what I threw together when I came home on my lunch break: a toasted whole wheat bagel half topped with goat cheese, turkey, and turkey pepperoni, chickpeas, overnight slaw, and carrots.

A random mix of foods, I must say. But it satisfied me!

Once I got done with my afternoon of ~~businesses drilling me with hard questions~~ chatting with the lovely interviewers, I came home and had a snack:

A cereal mixture of Kashi Go Lean and Kashi Honey Sunshine with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and frozen blueberries. You’ll MUST try putting frozen blueberries in your cereal and then topping it with your milk of choice. It is SO yummy! The milk freezes around the blueberries…it’s pretty nifty, hehe!

Then I headed to the salon, my current job. I am just all about jobs lately, it seems!

Dinner was leftovers, but I still took a pic :)

Baked porkchop with green beans and a salad mix.

For dessert, I was, as usual, wanting some yogurt…preferably greek! But as it turns out, I finished off the last of the greek yogurt last night. Major sad face :( BUT I did find this in the fridge and decided to give it a try.

The flavor was White Chocolate Raspberry. I thought it was pretty good. It packed 3 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein for 100 cals. Not bad…but not greek yogurt ;) This would not be an everyday thing for me mainly because of the artificial sweetener in it. I try to limit my intake of that, and stick to natural sources like fruits.

Whew! I am now going to go watch Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice with my sister! But here is a giveaway reminder before I go:

Daily Dulcie is having an awesome giveaway for Holey Donuts! Check it out. :)

Playing catch-up

2009-04-29T19:53:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! Hope you all have had great Wednesdays!

This week has been going by pretty fast for me, which is great because I am SOOO ready for some sweet summertime! <3

Yesterday, I had school ‘til 3:30 and then I headed over to work at the hair salon. I had a GREAT work day because I got my hair colored while I was there! Not too shabby of a work day if you ask me. :D It is now a pretty auburn reddish brown. By the time I got home, I was just ready to eat dinner with the family and chill out for awhile.

But I am back now with some delicious food pics! Here are some of the highlights of the last two days…

Tuesday:

eggbeaters and peanut butter banana toasted bread:

afternoon snack:

George Foreman grilled chicken, broiled zucchini sticks, overnight slaw, and seasoned chickpeas

a no sugar added fudgesicle!

Oikos with strawberries and granola…yes, I am totally obsessed with this yogurt :)

and today’s breakfast: oats!

this mixture contained:

1/2 cup oatbran
1/2 cup almond milk, chocolate flavored!
tbsp flax
1/4 cup egg beaters
cinnamon and a dash of salt
frozen blueberries and cherries
scoop of Kroger natural peanut butter
scoop of Barney Butter, crunchy

DELICIOUS!

afternoon snack:

a La Tortilla whole wheat mini tortilla with natural peanut butter and barney butter (I’m so indecisive) and 1/2 sliced banana

After my snackie, I hopped on the treadmill to have a nice run. I ran 2 and power walked 1. It was fantastic!

Tonight’s dinner was thanks to my momma…she made baked pork chops with green beans. I also had some of my yummy overnight slaw:

a cute lil’ muffin with a smear of pb

I don’t think I could ever have too much nut butta in one day. hahaha

I had yet again, some more greek yogurt. I topped this serving with some chopped figgies:

And there ya have it!

So, today I am sad to say that my CHI flat iron hair straightener died today. :( I looked back on Amazon and I have had it for almost a year. So long, Chi, you had a good run. I am off to go look online for a new Chi right now!

For those who straighten their hair….

What flat iron do YOU have?

The new veggie girl

2009-04-27T19:37:00.003-05:00

Tonight, my dinner was a complete and total Veggie Fest…hence the title of this post, haha. More on that in a sec!

First things first, I started this new week off fabulously with this little gem:

It was delish, obviously :D I then smeared some Mighty Maple on that sucker!

Lunch was the usual: PB and B on whole wheat bread.

After school, I came home and had a pre-workout snack of a babybel cheese and a granny smith apple:

Then I popped in the 30 Day Shred. I went all out and decided to for level 3! I really liked the first half of it…but I don’t know about the second half because I didn’t get to it! I had the DVD going on my laptop and my battery went dead! Oops! So I finished out my workout on my own and did some variations of walking lunges, jumping jacks and push-ups. Then I decided I didn’t want to stop, so I hopped on the treadmill and did some incline power walking while jammin’ to my Ipod. :) Don’t you just love it when your workout is going great and you want to keep going?! Exercise always makes me feel a million times better.

By then, it was around 5 o’clock and I decided what I really wanted for dinner was sweet potato fries! And I had also made a slaw recipe last night that I couldn’t wait to try. But there was also some zucchini in the fridge that needed to be used…which resulted in this:

Easy Broiled Cheesy Zucchini:

ingredients:

zucchini (however many you want to make)
shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, but sharp cheddar, swiss, etc would be good, too)
seasonings (garlic salt, basil, black pepper, parsely)

Set the broiler on your stove. Wash zucchini and chop off ends. You can cut up the zucchini however you want. Next time, I am going to either make then into skinnier sticks (kind of like french fries) or cut them into little rounds. Place on a baking sheet. Top zucchini with cheese and then with seasonings. Put in oven and broil for 5-7 minutes, or until cheese is melted and lightly browned.

And here is veggie recipe number DOS that I made last night:

Description
If you’re looking for a delicious way to eat more fiber, it’s hard to beat an old-fashioned slaw.

Overnight Slaw:

Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar (or other sweetener, brown sugar, etc)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 small head cabbage, shredded
3 ribs celery, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar substitute, lemon juice, vinegar, celery salt, and garlic salt. Add the cabbage, celery, and chives, and toss lightly. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Add the radishes immediately before serving.

I also added some chopped carrots to this. It turned out SO GOOD!!!

So here was what my dinner turned out looking like:

Very pretty, don’t you think? I added some cottage cheese for some protein.

Lately, more and more I have been liking not eating very much meat. I don’t really know if I would want to go completely meat-free any time real soon, but I definitely think it could be something I would want to try later down the road. It is just easier right now to have that option for variety, going out to eat, etc. But for now, I want to experiment with more meat-free meals and incorporate them into my weekly eats.

For my evening snack, I had this:

My new love, Oikos with Bear Naked vanilla almond granola and a scoop of Mighty Maple peanut butter. Perfection!

And with that, I’m off to go finish up some homework. 3 more weeks, 3 more weeks, 3 more weeks…come on SUMMER!!!

Give Aways this week:

Fitnessista: Vegan cookbook and macaroons!!

Heather: Vegan cookbook!

YAY for give aways!!

Question of the day: What is your favorite meat-free meal?

Its raining, its pouring…

2009-04-26T19:04:00.001-05:00

Hey guys!

Today has been such a relaxing day. It has been raining all day..but sometimes I like rainy days. Today was one of those days. I just stayed inside and relaxed with the sound of the rain. It was bliss!

I started off with a leisurely breakfast and some blog reading. BEST way to start the day! Then I made a new playlist on my ipod and got ready for a run. I think that music is so important for my workouts. A new playlist motivates me so much and makes the time fly by. I felt great the whole time I was running. For some reason, I was full of energy and just didn’t want to stop! I ran about 2 miles and then power walked another glorious 2 miles.

Here was breakfast:

I felt like changing it up today and using a packet of Quaker lower sugar cinnamon brown sugar oatmeal. I cooked that with 2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk and extra cinnamon. Then I topped it with my lovely Kroger natural peanut butter. After the picture was taken, I proceeded to top my oats with a bunch of homemade greek yogurt!

Yesterday, I strained my container of Stonyfield organic fat free plain yogurt.

I just placed a strainer on top of a measuring cup (you can use any bowl/cup). Then I put a paper towel in the strainer and plopped the yogurt into it. I did this in the evening and let it strain overnight. The next morning I just scooped it all out and threw away the liquid. Viola!

I had half a container left of this yogurt, so I didn’t end up with a whole lot after I strained it…but it was SO GOOD! It tasted exactly the same as Oikos. I will definitely be doing this more often!

For lunch today, I had leftover Chili’s from last night! My sister and I ate at Chili’s because she had a giftcard to use…fine by me! ;) I ordered the Spicy garlic and lime grilled shrimp salad.

This is how it looked last night:

I will definitely be ordering this again! It was delish!

And this is how it looked today for lunch:

I had eaten most of the shrimpies last night so for lunch, I decided to put in a hard boiled egg and garbanzo beans. (I did leave one shrimp though..do you see it?) I liked this even better!

For a snack, I had an awesome green monster. I was pretty hungry…I couldn’t even wait to take a pic! Sorry! This green monster was especially good and thicker than usual. I must used more frozen fruit than I usually do?

I added:

1 cup almond milk
tbsp flax
two big handfuls of spinach
a handful of tropical frozen fruit (pineapple, mango, strawberries)

And now I’m going to have dinner with the family. I believe enchiladas are on the menu. Mmmmm

I hope you all have enjoyed your day and got in some relaxation before its back to the grind tomorrow! ;)

Oh, and here are two things to do:

1. Go to Megan’s blog and leave a comment telling what you think makes life worth living. She will be compiling a list from them to post later this week. She also has a prize box that she will be giving one lucky commenter.

2. Pray for Jenna and her family. Jenna needs our support during this tragic time in her life, dealing with the loss of her younger brother. Lets all keep her in our thoughts.