Carrot Cake 2 Ways

Carrot Cake

I told you I would be having more cake tonight. My dad's all time favorite cake is carrot cake. So that's what I usually make for him on his birthday. We have a family recipe that was my grandmother's. Her recipe yields a deliciously moist and decadent cake.

Carmina's Carrot Cake

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 1/4 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup walnuts

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. In a larger bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Stir in the nuts. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

As you can tell, this recipe isn't lowfat! It's prefectly fine to have once in awhile, as I believe all things in moderation. However, my mom requested I make a healthier cake for my dad. So using my grandmother's recipe as a starting point I came up with the following recipe.

Mon's Carrot Coconut Cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1 egg
• 3 flax-eggs*
  
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups shredded carrots
  
• 1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
  

Sift dry ingredients and set aside. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, applesauce, vanilla, carrots, and coconut. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the walnuts. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

*Notes:
-For the flax eggs: combine 1 tbsp flaxseed meal with 3 tbsp warm water for each "egg". To substitute for 3 eggs, I used 3 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 9 tbsp warm water. Let the mixture thicken for a few minutes.
-I used a 9" round cake pan and it came out pretty thin. I recommend using a smaller pan, for a thicker cake.

Orange Zest Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package reduced fat cream cheese
• 1 c powdered sugar
• few tablespoons of milk (depends on desired conisistency)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
• zest of one orange
• coconut to decorate

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Fold in the orange zest. Frost the cake and decorate with coconut if desired.

*This frosting is sweet, but not overly sweet. You may want to experiment with the proportions of sugar/creamcheese to suit your taste.

The finished cake

My cake turned out dense, moist and delicious as well. It's full of texture from the walnuts, carrots, and coconut. I have to say the frosting is the best part!


My dad was happy he blew out all of the candles! He kind of cheated though because there definitely was not 50 candles on his cake!

Big Mistake

Cake #1: Marble Cake

I had too much cake and now I am supposed to run a couple of miles. With cake in my stomach. Big mistake. At least it tasted good.

Where did April go?

Whoa this month has flown by. In general, I feel like this last year has disappeared right before my eyes. Nonetheless, I'm happy it's the last day of April because maybe now we'll have nicer weather. I'll gladly be done with rain/snow/cold.

This morning I changed up my usual oatmeal breakfast. I woke up still full from last night's dinner so I didn't want anything too heavy. I decided on a yogurt granola parfait. Basically, I layered a cup of lowfat plain yogurt, 1/2 cup peanut butter granola, and a sliced banana in a bowl. This breakfast had about the same amount of calories as my usual oats, about 400, but since it doesn't have as much volume I thought I would need a mid-morning snack. Suprisingly, the granola-yogurt combo kept me full until I had my lunch at 1. It must have been the right ratio of carbs-protein-fat. Love it when that happens!

I bought a veggie-hummus wrap for lunch. It was pretty good but I wish it had more hummus, I couldn't really taste it.

I also had a large cold press coffee with a splash of milk.



I brought an apple but I'm satisfied right now so I'll probably have that as a snack this afternoon IF I need it. But I might not because...

Today is my dad's 50th birthday! (Happy Birthday Dad!) So that means, this afternoon is going to be filled with lots of cake. We are having marble cake here at the office, and then carrot cake at home. I never turn down cake ;)

*EDIT* I did have the apple at around 4 because I was getting hungry and I thought it would prevent me from overeating cake...it didn't work.

Tasty Chickpea, Asparagus and Orzo

Dinner last night was heaven.

I made Heidi Swanson's Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice Recipe.

Heidi is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I'm seriously going to Barnes and Nobles to pick up a copy of Super Natural Cooking.

I followed her recipe exactly except I used whole wheat orzo instead of brown rice. (I didn't have any cooked brown rice, so I chose orzo to make it a quick meal.) I also used a little less oil then called for. Oh and I threw in mushrooms that were about to go bad; and I added pine nuts, rather than almonds. The result? Outstanding.

The chickpeas getting nice and crusty in olive oil and sea salt

With the asparagus, mushrooms and orzo.

With the tahini dressing

This recipe is perfect for a weeknight, as it came together really quickly. It is supposed to make 4-6 servings. Ha. If your family is any thing like mine, it will only make four. It is however, SUPER filling. I was almost too full after I ate my bowl...but it was so good I licked the bowl clean.

FYI, my dad was wary at first. He doesn't like asparagus, (or broccoli/cauliflower/peas) so I carefully served his portion without any. He LOVED it. Mission accomplished :) It makes me feel so good to make these delicious dishes that are super healthy and tasty for my family.

Fresh Lunch and A New Find

Today is going by kind of slow. The phone rings nonstop. This temporary job reinforces how much I dislike corporate office jobs. I cannot be sitting around all day. My body needs activity.

I got hungry, more likely bored, around noon so I had an orange. I always forget how much I like citrus fruit. They aren't ever my first choice, mainly because they tend to be messy to eat and therefore not the easiest to eat outside the kitchen. But I'm glad I threw one in my purse this morning.


Fortunately, I had a chance to "escape" for lunch. I was planning on a mediterranean veggie sandwich/black bean soup combo from Panera, but I realized I was craving a big, fresh salad. I haven't had a salad in the last couple of days so I went to Byerly's salad bar again.

• Green base: romaine and baby spring mix
• Shredded carrots
• Cucumbers
• Green Peppers
• Cauliflower & Broccoli
• Grape Tomatoes
• Black & Kidney beans
• Cashews (these made the salad)
• Red Wine Vinegar + Olive Oil

This salad satisfied my craving. When I mixed the salad up, all of the good stuff went to the bottom of the container. I definitely enjoyed the bottom of the salad more ;)



Most of the time, my drink of choice is water. Coffee, unsweetened tea, and wine are really the only other things I drink on a regular basis. Sometimes, though, I want to drink something else. Most of the bottled beverage choices are too sweet, loaded with junk, or taste too artificial. But today I tried Honest Ade Cranberry Lemonade.




This stuff really tastes like freshly squeezed lemonade with just the right amount of sweetness. The whole bottle was 100 calories, so not bad at all for an all-natural bottled beverage. I'll have to remember this in the summer!

Just a few more hours left today. I'm already excited for dinner tonight. I'm trying out a recipe that looks amazing. Hint: I found it on 101 Cookbooks.

Sunny Day at Last!

Good Morning! I'm in a cheery mood this morning because the sun is shining :-)

My parents made it safely home after a wonderful birthday celebration week in Acapulco. Although from their stories, I can't say it was a relaxing vacation. They brought home yummy Mexican treats that I'm excited to have. Oh! And aside from scrubbing the kitchen countertops this morning, I think my mom found the house looking clean. Whew!

To warm me up on another chilly morning, I made the usual bowl of oats. Today's oats were made with soymilk, cinnamon, banana, raisins, wheat germ, and almond slices. Another great combination of flavors and textures. I LOVE the chewiness of raisins in oatmeal.




I'm not sure what lunch will be like today. I was too exhausted last night to pack a lunch so I grabbed a couple of snacky things this morning. I'm thinking Panera might be a good choice...

By the way- I am feeling the burn from the toning exercises I did yesterday. I underestimated that dvd!

Too Much of a Good Thing

My parents are getting home tonight so that means my sister and I have been trying to clean/ straighten up the house. My mom is a neat freak so when she's gone, things tend to get not as neat. In order not to make a bigger mess, dinner was leftovers again.

Honey Mustard Chicken on a whole grain bun with

grilled zucchini and red cabbage on the side.

Then came the craving for something sweet. Yesterday I made a batch of my signature cookie- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Melties. These are so good they practically melt in your mouth. So I had one...and then another, and another and well you get the point. I took a picture of the first one, but it didn't turn out. I can't handle myself around these cookies so I need to be done baking for awhile!

Afternoon

I had a Clif Z bar, Honey Graham flavor at work and half of a grapefruit as a pre-workout snack. The grapefruit tasted extra good, it was juicy and hit the spot.

I went for a 2.5 mile run around the lake in front of my house. It was cold (39 degrees!) but besides the wind, it was actually nice running weather. Back home, I did some toning exercises using a balance ball and a resistance band. I tried the DVD that came with the balance ball and band. It has three 20 minute segments: Lower Body, Upper Body, and Core. It was pretty decent for a lighter workout and gave me some new ideas.

My parents are due home within the next hour, I better finish up!

Mexican Chopped Salad Leftovers and Mixed Berry Yogurt

My morning oats kept me full for almost 5 hours! I debated having my yogurt about two hours ago but decided I really wasn't hungry.

For lunch I had leftovers from last night's Mexican Chopped Salad. It tasted extra delicious today. I'm not sure if this is because I have an appetite today or if the flavors were more intense. I also warmed it up so that might have increased the flavor too. Along with the salad, I had a serving of Kashi crackers and homemade mixed berry yogurt.




Okay, in reality the yogurt is semi-homemade. What I did was mix plain lowfat yogurt with frozen berries. My reason for doing this is simple- I don't really like eating store-bought fruit yogurt. My family doesn't like to eat artificial sugars so we buy the real sugar sweetened yogurts. This is fine, but personally it's too sweet and caloric for my liking. While I don't really like plain yogurt, I find that if I mix fresh or frozen fruit with it, I get the best of both worlds. I usually prepare the yogurt the night before so by the time I eat it the next day, the fruit isn't frozen any more. Of course, fresh fruit tastes better but unfortunately fresh berries still cost a fortune at this time of year in Minnesota.

Coconut-Banana-Almond Butter Oats

This morning I made my favorite oats with banana, cinnamon, wheat germ, and almond butter but added a little extra something on top...

Coconut!

This is such a delicious combination. Yum Yum Yum. A delicious way to start the week.

Sorry for the short post but I have to get to work. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Lazy Sunday

Today was one of the most unproductive days I have had in awhile. I guess my body needed a rest because I fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours this afternoon! I haven't taken a nap in so long! I have to admit that it felt great. Oh and good news, the sun was out today although it was still quite chilly. At least, no snow!

This morning I was up early with Brody. I made some coffee first thing and had a bran muffin that I baked yesterday. It was kind of dry but the parts with banana chunks were good. (I will post the recipe and full review later.) I sat in bed watching the Food Network (have I mention I am obsessed?) and drinking coffee. It was a wonderful leisurely way to relax since I was home alone.

A few hours later I got hungry for real breakfast. I was going to make a bowl of oatmeal but the bag of oat bran caught my eye. S to change things up, I made a bowl of bran instead. On the stovetop, I boiled a cup of almond milk with a cinnamon stick. I added 1/3c oat bran, 1/4 c pumpkin, 1/2 banana, 1 tablespoon raisins and more cinnamon! Usually, when I make any type of hot cereal, I don't add any sugar because I find that the fruits/nuts/milk that I add are sweet enough. However, any time I add pumpkin, I find that it does need extra sweetening. I ended up adding about a tablespoon of brown sugar. Half mixed in, and half sprinkled on top which caramelized into deliciousness. I wish I had a picture of this beautiful orangey bowl of bran, but I was sans camera since my sister borrowed it for prom.

After breakfast, I sat down to read the chapter on carbohydrates in my text book. I'm such a nerd, I LOVE reading about nutrition. There was an "Expert Opinion" section on the benefits of a high-carbohydrate diet. I thought it was interesting so I wanted to share this passage:

"The great civilizations of the world developed and flourished consuming high-carbohydrate diets. The classic examples are the Chinese civilization, based on rice; the Egyptian and Babylonian cultures, which consumed wheat; and, in the Americas, the Maya, Inca, and Aztec peoples, whose staples were corn and beans. Except for the affluent countries of the Western world, the majority of the world's population continues to consume a high-carbohydrate diet derived from cereals, legumes, vegetables, and fruits....Ecologically, a high-carbohydrate diet makes better use of the world's resources. Cereal crops and legumes require about one-fifth of the resources needed to yield the same energy that beef would require. Thus, the available resources of the world would not be sufficient to produce the high animal fat diet of North America for everyone." - Dr. William E. Connor

It's a good thing I love my carbs!

After studying, I thought about running, but I didn't feel like I was energized enough for my long 90 minute run. So what did I do? Watched Giada's Weekend Getaway and A Cook's Tour. Another show came on afterwards and that's when I fell asleep for 2 and a half hours!!! It was 5:30 when I woke up!

Despite not eating lunch, I had no appetite. I've also felt dehydrated all day long. I keep drinking huge glasses of water but my thirst isn't satisfied.

Like I said, I wasn't hungry but my sister was so I got to work on dinner, a mexican chopped salad. This salad was very easy to make. I brushed honey mustard on top of a few chicken breasts and baked them in the oven a little under an hour. While the chicken was baking, I chopped the ingredients for the salad:

• Tomatoes
• Onion
• Green Peppers
• Avocado
• Corn
• Apple
• Cilantro

Once the chicken was done, I chopped that up and added it to the bowl. For a dressing, I tossed the ingredients with lime juice, chipotle pepper juice, a little bit of EVOO, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper.

Served on top of a bed of lettuce with chili-lime chedder cheese quesadillas.

The salad tasted fresh and a great combination of flavors. I wish I would have actually had an appetite so I could have enjoyed the meal more. I'm having leftovers for lunch so I'll be able to enjoy it then!

I am trying not to feel too guilty about not exercising today. I feel like such a couch potato today. Ahh tomorrow I can get back on track and start a fresh week, right?

Saturday Wrap-Up

This is what I woke up to Saturday morning.

Snow and a freezing 31 degrees.

This was not welcome for a few reasons. First off, it is the end of April and supposed to be SPRING. This feels more like March! Secondly, Saturday was my sister's junior prom. Snow isn't really what she had in mind when she picked out her dress. Oh the joys of living in Minnesota.

We were up quite early on Saturday because my sister had a hair appointment, Brody had a grooming appointment, and I went to the gym/bank/grocery store. I had a Kashi Peanut Granola bar before my workout and small latte afterwards.

While my sister was having her hair done, I got to work making a yummy filling breakfast. I needed to make a nutritious breakfast for her because she needed the energy for the long day. I chose to make Oatmeal Brulee. I saw this on Kath's blog the other day and it looked so good, that I just had to try it.

I followed her method except I added raisins instead of walnuts. It came out delicious, served with a drizzle of agave nectar. Renata loved it as well.

We had a busy afternoon filled with picture taking, fashion tape, makeup touch-ups, and beautiful dresses. My parents were sad that they missed her junior prom, but I emailed them pictures so they could "see" her on the big day. Here's one of the pictures of the cute couple.

By the time Renata was in the limo, on her way to dinner it was 5 pm. I was starving so I went to dinner with two of my good friends. We chose Bonfire, one of the only non-chain restaurants in the neighborhood. I have never been disappointed with what I order here, and last night was no exception. I started off with a glass of Pinot Grigio and some tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa. For dinner, I had a spaghetti with fire roasted shrimp, tomatoes, feta, and basil. I could tell it was drenched in butter, but I don't eat butter very often so it was fine. My friend was craving dessert and I never turn down dessert! The three of us split an amazing warm, deep dish chocolate chip cookie with vanilla bean ice cream and fudge.

All in all, it was a long saturday, but lots of fun.

Black Bean Chili topped Sweet Potato

When I'm in the mood for something comforting and filling, this is my go-to meal.

I bake a sweet potato in the microwave, split it open, add a cup of chili and finish it off with a dollop of plain greek yogurt. This meal is not only super satisfying, but full of fiber and protein. This should keep me full through my run in a few hours.

If I don't have homemade chili in my fridge, I use a store bought vegetarian chili. I usually use Trader Joe's but today I tried a new one : Health Valley's Spicy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili. My only complaint is that it's really not spicy! It has a slight kick, but not spicy enough for me.

Morning Snack

This morning I had another one of my favorite comfort foods, a bowl of oatmeal, as a snack. A serving of oats made with water, half of a pear, cinnamon and a few sliced almonds.

What are some of your favorite comfort foods?

The BEST smoothie ever.

This morning I made a smoothie for my sister to take on her way to school. Since I had all of the ingredients out, I decided to make one for myself as well.

Vanilla Peach Smoothie

• 1 cup Almond Milk
• 1/2 banana
• handful of frozen peaches (about 1 cup)
  
• 1 scoop Kashi Vanilla GoLean!
  

Wow. This combination was deliciousy creamy and sweet. I generally don't like to add protein powder to my shakes because I don't like the powdery taste. This must have been the right ratio of protein to milk and fruit because it didn't have that grainy protein taste.

Happy Friday everyone!

Broccoli Teriyaki Tofu Stir-Fry

Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan's

Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Stir-Fry

Dinner tonight was SO flavorful. This recipe turned out wonderful! I think the homemade teriyaki sauce is what made the dish. It tasted nice and fresh thanks to the freshly grated ginger and garlic. By using tamari rather than soy sauce, the dish was perfectly balanced. I hate it when dishes are overpowered with soy sauce because all you taste is the salt.

I followed the recipe almost exactly except I made a few modifications due to not having some ingredients.

• Replaced sesame oil with walnut oil and used cornstarch instead of arrowroot powder for the teriyaki sauce.
• No cashews. I was going to use peanuts, but I'm kind of sick of peanuts thanks to earlier today when I consumed massive amounts of peanut butter cookie dough.
• I used broccoli, red peppers, mushrooms, and yellow squash.
• Right before I turned the heat off, I added crushed red pepper.

Served on top of brown rice...

Delicious.

Oh and I wasn't kidding in my previous post when I said the cookies were addicting. In the course of the afternoon, I've eaten like half of them. I think I need to give away the rest!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

As a result of licking too much of the cookie dough batter off the beaters, I wasn't hungry for lunch at all, but it was already after 1pm, so I decided I needed to fuel my body with actual food. My originally planned lunch was too heavy so I just made a quick sandwich. It was just turkey, spicy dijon mustard, alfalfa sprouts, some mixed greens, and leftover cabbage on healthy hemp bread. I also had a few baby carrots and of course, taste-tested the cookies. 

I got caught up at work, so I wasn't able to make it to yoga :( I'm going to try and make it to a later one but we'll see...I need to study. 

Dinner tonight is a recipe from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. I'm excited!

By the way, I also made another cookie using the Dark Chocolate Dreams. These cookies turned out good but too sweet for my liking. I was distracted and didn't take into account the added sugar in the chocolate peanut butter and ended up adding a whole cup of brown sugar! This recipe has potential so I will post it once I "fix" it. 

Dark Chocolate & Peanut Dreams Cookies

Dark Chocolate Dreams: peanut butter blended with dark chocolate.

Inspired by a jar of Peanut Butter & Co's Dark Chocolate Dreams, I attempted to bake a flourless peanut butter cookie. The recipe is incredibly easy and comes together fast.

Because of the added sugar and vanilla already in the chocolate peanut butter, you don't need to add a lot of extra sugar. The salty peanuts add a nice crunch and saltiness. While I don't think this recipe is perfect and needs a bit of playing around with, I have to admit the cookies are addicting. If you make these, let me know what you think!

Dark Chocolate & Peanut Dreams Cookies

1/2 c Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter

1/2 c all-natural crunchy peanut butter

1/4 c sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 c salted peanuts, coarsely ground

Cream together the chocolate pb and crunchy pb with the sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

Stir in the coarsely ground peanuts.

Drop tablespoons of the dough onto a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350* for 12-15 minutes.

Makes about 12 cookies.

These cookies taste best accompanied by a cold glass of your favorite milk.

*EDIT* For fun, I have decided to enter these cookies into the Great Peanut Butter Exhibition Cookie Contest.

Coconut Almond Oatmeal

Today is the kind of day where you want to stay in bed all day and watch tv. It's pouring rain. To lift the gloomy mood, I think I am going to just work for a few hours and then go to Vinyasa Yoga at noon. I haven't been able to make it to class these last few weeks, and I miss it.

On a brighter note, my breakfast this morning was delicious.
I started with my standard base of oats, cinnamon, almond milk, and banana. Once cooked, I sprinkled wheat germ, sliced almonds, and coconut on top.

I love coconut.

These oats weren't creamy because the wheat germ dries them out. I've found that only happens with almond milk, so maybe I just need to add extra liquid?

I hope the sun is shining where you are!

Burgers with Jenna's Mom's Cabbage

YUM!

I was on my own for dinner tonight. On the menu was leftovers from Monday night: my mom's veggie-beef burgers on a whole grain bun with chili-lime cheddar cheese. I paired the leftovers with something new: Jenna's Mom's Cabbage. The cabbage is so good! I'm glad I finally had a chance to try it. I followed the recipe pretty closely except I cut it in half and only used a a few teaspoons of walnut oil instead of the butter. I could have eaten the whole thing, but it's a good thing I didn't because there are plenty of leftovers!

I'm playing "mom" for the next week while my parents are out of town. That means I have to cook, clean, and take care of my sister and Brody. I usually do a lot of the cooking anyways, but I have to do extra stuff this week like pack my sisters lunch, brew coffee in the morning, load/unload the dishwasher, etc. Whenever my mom is gone, I realize how I spoiled I am to be living at home again.

Everyone around me is going on fun vacations! My parents are on their way to Acapulco, and one of my best friend's is going to Vegas in the morning. I love traveling, but my next "getaway" isn't planned until the end of May.

As I write this, I'm sipping on a glass of red wine. I'm starting to get sleepy and I still have things to do!

Almost done!

I'm glad the end of work is near since I'm finding it difficult to sit indoors and be productive on such a beautiful day.

For lunch I had plain yogurt with kiwi, a hummus-veggie pita, and a few baby carrots. The pita was falling apart because it was one of those small ones and I stuffed it too full! Oops.


For an afternoon snack (and excuse to get outside!) I went to my favorite coffee shop, Coffee Bene. I LOVE this cafe. It is located right by St. Thomas' campus and I used to walk there almost everyday when I lived in the neighborhood. I miss living there. Of course, when I lived there I always wished I was living back in the suburbs. Sigh, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

My love affair with Coffee Bene started when I discovered their fat free, low calorie bran muffins (they have awesome coffee too). I had these for breakfasts several times a month during college. The thing about bran muffins is that they are either too dry or full of fat. But these are moist, dense and delicious. I have no idea how they make them so big and dense, yet low cal. They remind of Trader Joe's bran muffins, but taste much better.

Look at the size of this thing...


Because this muffin is so dense and heavy it fills you up almost instantly and thanks to the fiber, keeps you full for a long time. I also had an iced coffee with a splash of soy milk to wash it down.


My stomach is very full right now, but happy.

PB Granola and Banana Oatmeal

From the moment I found out Peanut Butter granola existed, I have been wanting to try it. The only problem is that I can't find it at the grocery stores near my house. I love Whole Foods but the closest one to me is about 20 minutes away. I was spoiled during college when I lived close enough to walk there. Anyways, my office is somewhat in the area so yesterday, I stopped at WF on my way home and found the PB granola! Yay, so exciting! By the way, I picked up several "new" products that I can't wait to try, so watch for those reviews in the coming days.

I knew I wanted Peanut Butter granola for breakfast this morning, but I wasn't sure how to prepare it. I don't think it would keep me full as long as oatmeal so I decided to use the granola as a topping. I prepared a serving of oats with almond milk, half a banana, cinnamon, and a tablespoon on peanut butter. On top, I sprinkled half a serving of the granola.

Delicious, creamy, peanutty goodness.

It is another gorgeous day. I really hope I can spend time outdoors today.

Spicy Start, Sweet Finish

Running today was so hard. We ran outside and did speed intervals: 3 minutes running 5 beats below AT, 2 minutes at AT, 1 minute over AT, 2 minute recovery, 2 minutes above AT, 2 min recovery. We had to do that 3 times against the wind. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end.

Before my run, I had a photo shoot with Brody ;)

For dinner, I needed something quick and easy because I did not feel like cooking tonight. I made a falafel-hummus sandwich on hemp bread. I added a little bit of greek yogurt-chipotle sauce. It was okay, the falafels were kind of dry since I made them a week ago. My tastebuds experienced a spice explosion from the spices in the falafel and chipotle.

This sandwich filled me up. It had so much protein from the bread alone- 14g!

French Meadow Bakery's Healthy Hemp bread is AWESOME. I'm not sure if it is available outside of the Minnesota area, but the good news is you can order it online. It works best to keep it in the fridge/frozen and then toasting it when you need a slice or two. The bread is sprouted and yeast free so it's easy to digest. The nutrition facts are amazing. Per 2 slices: 190 calories, 4g fat, 10g fiber, 14g protein! You should really try this bread!

For a sweet ending I had a bowl of cantaloupe. Sweet and juicy. I love melons because they are low calorie so you can eat a lot! This whole bowl was only 75 calories.

I also had 2 small Hershey Bliss chocolates.

I still have somethings to do tonight. I need to try and get some studying done for my independent learning nutrition course, pack tomorrow's lunch, and prep tomorrow nights dinner. I'm hoping I can still get to bed at a decent time. Night ya'll!

Time for Change.

We've reached a critical moment in the history of the earth
and it's Time for Change.
Your generous donation to WWF will help us
make change this Earth Day
and continue to work to protect the future of nature.

This morning I woke and thought about what I was going to do today to make a difference. I found some links on Tina's page that are great resources for ideas. In honor of Earth day, I chose to make a small donation to the World Wildlife Fund. I love animals and it breaks my heart to know some animals are on their way to extinction...

Anyway, today I tried something new: I waited to eat breakfast once I got to work. I did this because 1) I was running late again; and 2) I wanted to wait a little longer to eat so I don't get hungry for lunch so early. It seems to have worked well. I had coffee with soymilk at home and on my way to work so at least my stomach wasn't completely empty.


My oats today were combined with a chopped apple, cinnamon, raisins, wheat germ and sliced almonds. They were a little drier today from the wheat germ but so good! The bananas in my house are either too ripe or not ripe enough. I'm picky with my bananas ;) I don't mind the overripe ones because that gives me an excuse to bake later this week!


I let my dad borrow my camera last night and he returned it with low battery. I was able to take a picture of breakfast but then it shut off so I'm not sure if I'll be able to take pictures later on.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Earth Day!