Another one bites the dust

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!

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!

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!

^^^ 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

 

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

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!

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