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Catch Up Post!

Coco is here! And I have a big wrap-up of recipes and food to show.

First up: here are two breakfasts. Cheesy grits topped with leftover chicken (1/4 cup grits, cooked in water; cheese added at the end). There was a little bit of avocado on there too (avocado came with the chicken salad that this is leftover from).

Oat bran cooked with protein powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and a dash of salt. Topped with sesame seeds and maple syrup.

Have you tried Averie’s raw vegan cookie dough balls yet? Okay, mine are not balls (the first batch was), nor do they have chocolate chips. They are so simple to make.

Averie-inspired Raw Vegan Cookie Dough Yum

Ingredients (1 serving)

  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • a little bit of water

Directions

Mix syrup and flour together. Add a few drops of water at a time until you get your desired consistency. I like mine a little bit too wet for balls (TWSS?).

Variations

  • part wheat germ, part flour (my favorite)
  • part wheat bran, part flour
  • ground nuts for flour (Averie‘s original recipe)
  • part oatmeal or oat bran, part flour
  • grind oatmeal/oat bran in the blender and sub for flour

I also made bread the other day. I just took my Easy Peasy Pizza Dough recipe and subbed in a few things for the flour. Instead of 3.5 cups of flour, I used the dregs of a cornbread mix (maybe 1/4 cup – Jiffy brand), some Heart Smart Bisquick, and whole wheat flour. It came out well. It was a little dense, but yummy with soft butter.

I have 3 more pictures of healthy yums, but I’ll save them for when I’m on the road and lacking in delicious food.

I can’t wait to pick up Sophia tonight and go to the Foodbuzz Festival.

What are you doing this weekend? You know what I’m doing.

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Pardon my list

Please pardon this brief interlude from normal posting. I’m using the blog as a to-do list and calendar for my move in a few days. I’m sure I’ll be adding to this list.

Thursday (today):

  • Yoga at 5:45 (Iyengar Level 2 @ yoga is youthfulness)
  • Pick up Coco after yoga; dinner?
  • Pack as much stuff as possible that I won’t need for at least a week
  • Relocube delivered – done
  • Buy a trolley thing (Home Depot)
  • Buy locks for the relocube (Home Depot)
  • Walk outside for 30+ minutes

Friday:

  • Yoga (Iyengar & Vinyasa @ yoga is youthfulness) in the morning with Coco (maybe)
  • Pick up Sophia on the way to Foodbuzz
  • Foodbuzz Festival 5-9pm
  • Bobby drives us home after his music thing

Saturday:

  • Jog with Coco and Sophia
  • Foodbuzz Festival all day (9am – 9:30pm)
  • Ride home with Bobby
  • Griff’s house party
  • Bobby get rugs from Paul (?)
  • Packing at night

Sunday:

  • Foodbuzz Festival 9:30-11:30 (might have to skip this)
  • Bake instant muffins for trip
  • Finish packing
  • Possibly leave and get 7-8 hours of driving in
  • To buy: fruit and veggies for snacks, tea bags from Daiso, tea from Lupicia
  • Go for a walk or do yoga 30+ minutes

Monday:

  • If we didn’t leave yet, finish up last minute packing and leave – do 7-8+ hours
  • Call relocube people to pick it up (don’t have to be here)
  • Yoga in the hotel OR walking 30+ minutes wherever we get to (socal? albuquerque if it’s day 2?)

That’s all I can think of right now. I’m glad I’m trying to fit in my yoga and walking during the trip… it will keep me sane.

What do you do on trips to stay relaxed?

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Oh my Mighty Tasty!

Yesterday Bobby and I went to Whole Foods to pick up a few things for our road trip and a few things to eat until we leave. We’re out of grits and oat bran, which is a little tragic. We decided to try a new cereal that both of us would like. We settled on Bob’s Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal. This makes a delicious breakfast.

03 bob's red mill cereal

The nutritional info (in 1/4 cup serving): 150 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 31 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 4 grams protein. The cereal is wheat-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free. Ingredients: whole grain brown rice, corn, white sorghum, buckwheat.

Neither of us have food allergies, but we love trying specialty foods. We’re both a little lactose intolerant, but we kind of ignore it. I love trying all kinds of foods though, and gluten free products are usually mighty tasty. This cereal is made of brown rice, corn, sorghum (?), and buckwheat.

It was great mighty tasty. I made 2 bowls of it this morning. I soaked each serving in water before cooking. I didn’t drain them; I just added the soaking cereal to boiling water. Bobby’s bowl was savory:

04 bobby savory cereal

  • 1/4 cup cereal soaked in 1/2 cup water + another boiling 1/2 cup water
  • dash of salt
  • 1/2 shredded string cheese
  • 11 sauteed shrimp (olive oil, garlic powder, chili powder, sesame seeds)

My bowl was sweet:

05 maggie cereal

  • 1/4 cup cereal soaked in 1/2 cup water + another boiling 1 cup water
  • dash of salt
  • 1/2 of a wallaby organic raspberry yogurt
  • a few handfuls of nature’s path smart bran
  • sesame seeds
  • maple syrup (unpictured; added later)

You boil water and add the cereal. Then turn the heat to low and cook it (covered) for 5-10 minutes or until it’s the right consistency for you. You have to stir it occasionally. The more water you use, the bigger the cereal will be. Bobby doesn’t like volume foods for breakfast so I didn’t use as much water for his. I used lots of water for mine.

Mm, mm… mighty tasty. I feel like there might be this whole new world out there of amazing hot cereals that I didn’t even know existed. My staples have always been oat bran, oatmeal, and grits. What should I try next?

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Walk This Way

I loved all of your responses to my Back On Track post. This challenge isn’t really about the food at all; it’s about my mindset. I’m not eating what most people would call “crap”… I’m just trying to be a little more balanced and mindful. This challenge is more about exercise and motivation and the mental part of health.

To get back on track this morning, I laced up slipped on my sneakers pink crocs and headed out for a walk. It was early and I needed some extra hop in my step, so I got a big cuppa joe from 7-11. Coffee is not evil. It’s a lovely lovely drink that makes me happy in the morning. And it’s a great walking buddy.

7-11Coffee

Oh thank heaven!

I ended up walking 4+ miles while chatting away with my dad and then my mom. The last mile or so I just walked and thought about stuff.

When I got home I made some notecards about my back-on-track goals, I read some sweet emails, and I gave myself credit. It’s important to figure out ways to make sure you can achieve your goals. It’s one thing to write them down; it’s another to actually follow through. Here’s the plan…

  • Make notecards that say WHY I want these things (done!)
  • Read the notecards at least twice a day (done today)
  • Make new notecards as I need them
  • Carry said notecards with me everywhere
  • Enlist help (thanks, Bobby!)

How do you achieve your goals?

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I’m Back On Track

A few of my favorite bloggers have recently committed to getting back on track. Caitlin declared the whole month of November as a time to get back on track; Angela is doing it for the first week of November, starting today (the 2nd). I’m feeling it too: I haven’t been doing that much yoga, I haven’t been walking as much as I like to, and, to be perfectly honest, I’ve been eating a lot of crap. I haven’t been practicing mindfulness either, and I find myself munching through the day instead of eating proper meals.

This challenge might be hard for a few reasons – 1) Bobby and I are driving across the country next week; 2) the holidays and lots of decadent foods are coming up; 3) due to the move, I don’t know what my new routine will be (we’re moving to Manhattan btw). But I’m going to try. I’m synthesizing their goals and mine, and this is what I came up with. I’m going to try to do this for as long as I can. These aren’t arbitrary; these goals are what my ideal lifestyle would be so I want to keep up with them.

  1. Go to bed early (by 11:30pm) and get 7-8 hours of sleep a night.
  2. Cut out artificial sweeteners. I’ve been on a diet coke kick recently and it’s time to stop.
  3. More veggies, less fruit.
  4. More cooked foods, fewer raw.
  5. Lots of water and tea.
  6. Cook and plan more (or at least eat out at cheap-yet-healthy places).
  7. Sit down for every meal.
  8. Do something relaxing for 30 minutes every day (yoga, a bath, these exercises).
  9. 30+ minutes of cardio each day (walking, running, yoga).
  10. Give myself credit. Even if I don’t do all of these things perfectly, I’m going to give myself credit for the attempts and partial successes.

Because we’re moving, I’m trying to use up the groceries we have and I don’t plan on buying more. This week I’ll be eating out a lot but I’m not too worried about that; I love eating out and I can always find something healthy on the menu. The only thing that worries me about eating out is the money issue. I wish I was less frugal 😛

The other issue I might have is that this weekend is the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. I plan on eating well, but I doubt that I’m going to get much sleep because two of my favorite bloggers are coming to stay with me and we’re all going together. I am so excited to meet them.

Some of the yummy dishes I plan on making and eating during this November challenge are…

a healthy Thanksgiving meal, like last year’s

3-my-plate

fresh delicious salads

6-lotus-shrimp-pork-salad

lots of squash fries…

6-butternut-fries-agave-ketchup

this fun Indian mushroom recipe

8-mushroom-corn-salad

… and lots more. You should check out my recipes page for more inspiration. This bread recipe was one of the first things I ever posted (December 2007).

braid4

Anyway, back to the “back on track” plan. Today has been a good day so far. I did a yoga class this morning at my studio and I went to bed early last night (crashed on the couch at 9:30pm). I wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, but Bobby has band practice… so maybe not.

And now this post is getting epic. Happy November! Are you challenging yourself this month?