‘Semi-Homemade’ Soup & Hula Hoop Cardio!

I don’t know if you have watched or heard about Sandra Lee’s Food Network Show, Semi-Homemade Cooking, but I thought it was an apt title for today’s meal. While Sandra typically combines fresh food with store-bought stuff, I unfortunately didn’t do exactly what she did, but close enough

In an effort to clean out the pantry and the refrigerator, I decided to mix my two favorite things together for a healthy and very filling meal: Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo and Amy’s Black Bean soup.

(source)

PLUS

Amy’s Black Bean Soup

EQUALS

Yum!

Now I have to be honest… cooking soy chorizo is kinda gross. You have to cut off the casing and, especially if you’re a klutz like me, the actual soy chorizo stuff falls apart in your hands, leaving your hands/the counter/the floor/the cats covered in red coloring. Definitely unappetizing…

Cooking soy chorizo

I eventually got it into a pan along with a tablespoon of coconut oil, fried it up, and added half of this batch to half a can of Amy’s Black Bean Soup. You can use more soup or more soy chorizo if you like, but I find soy chorizo to be really spicy… plus I wanted leftovers for the next day

On further thought, you really could make this legitimately ‘Sandra Lee’ approved and add some fresh spinach or herbs to this dish. Make it your own! I promise, it is super delicious, very filling, and incredibly easy to make. The only ‘mess’ was the pan and the cutting board I used to cut off the soy chorizo casing. Super facil! (Super easy!)

On to awesome topic number two… today I went to Hula Hoop Cardio! A local fitness studio offers $5 drop in classes. The classes they offer include Zumba, Hip Hop Cardio, ‘Butts and Guts’ (haven’t been to that yet!), Zumba Toning, and now, Hula Hoop Cardio!

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I had heard of hula hooping as a form of cardio, and several years back, I bought a couple of hula hoops. The roommates and I used them pretty frequently at first, but eventually the two other roommates got bored and stopped. I continued to hula hoop around the house intermittently, but when I moved away for grad school, the hula hoops got packed away. Needless to say, I didn’t think I’d really get back into hooping…

Enter: this class. When I saw in an email from the studio that they would be offering it this month, I got so excited. Let’s be honest, I also read this article in Shape magazine a while back about Marisa Tomei hula hooping, and I thought, ‘damn, I wish I were Marisa Tomei! She’s so cool! I should get a hula hoop.’ (No joke, this is in part why I bought a hula hoop all those years ago…) But back to fitness…

Why is hula hooping a good exercise?

• Other than being fun (thus upping the likelihood that you’ll stick to it, obviously a huge factor in exercise and weight loss), hula hooping doesn’t require any fancy coordination, nor does it require pricy equipment. If you can move your hips, you can hula hoop. (source)
• Hula hooping burns as many calories as step aerobics, boot camps, or brisk walking. (source)
• If you use a weighted hoop, not only will hula hooping be easier, but you will also burn more calories than using a store-bought hula hoop (that said, I used a regular plastic hula hoop and still got a killer work out). (source)

After today’s class, I am more determined to (one day) purchase a weighted hula hoop– they only had one, and a lady grabbed it before I did. She also was the best hooper in the whole class, and now that I know that weighted hoops are easier… well then…

I had a ton of fun and right now, my quads are sore– we did squats and lunges (yes, while hooping!) in addition to some dancing and walking around. I wasn’t the best hooper, but I was pretty darn good! The most important thing is that I am excited to go to class again next week (and I burned 400 calories.) Win win!

Have you ever tried hula hooping, either for fun or in a class setting? Would you be interested in hula hooping, or do you think it’s just a fad? (Definitely a possibility!)

Avocado Pesto Pasta

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day… if you didn’t celebrate with your Mom, maybe you celebrated with a Mom of some sort (pets count! I’m a Mom! ), or maybe you just got down with your bad self. I hope getting down with your bad self included either pancakes, waffles, or doughnuts/donuts… because there’s no better way to celebrate ‘Day’s’ then with SWEETS!

Speaking of sweets… I drove down to Tucson to spend the weekend with my parents, and on Mother’s Day, Dad and I took Mom out to breakfast and made her pay! Just kidding… not really… Dad paid for himself and Mom paid for me and her. We’re precious, aren’t we? (Don’t worry, Mom, I promise to make it up to you once I start getting a paycheck!) Anyway– I had waffles. That’s pretty much the best part of the story. Also, Mom got flowers, a card, and delicious See’s candy from Dad and me, which I’m sure she loved as well

Dad didn’t really do the best job of holding the phone still to take a photo, so this is the best we’ve got. Yay! And clearly, we dress fancy…

Anyway, on to the stuff you were promised!

No, not Molly!

Good try to distract me, but I’m not here to talk about the dog (even though she’s the best puppy everrrrrrr!)

Instead, Avocado Pesto Pasta , recipe from Chloe Coscarelli! We actually ended up halving the Coscarelli recipe and mixing it with Simply Organic’s Sweet Basil Pesto sauce mix. We also made one tiny change in the Coscarelli recipe, which you can see below…

Ingredients

• 1 lb. dried linguini (we used the pasta we had in the house– angel hair. Whatevs, it’s pasta (Italian-foodies, please don’t beat me!)
• 1 bunch basil leaves
• 1/2 cup pine nuts (okay, so check it: pine nuts are crazy expensive. I read online that you can actually substitute raw plain cashews for pine nuts, so that’s what we did! Same amount.)
• 2 ripe avocados, pitted and pealed
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 olive oil (we used coconut oil, because we’re out of olive oil and we heard it’s just as good of oil as olive)
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes (once again, we have a million tomatoes left over from the Market, so I chopped up 2 whole tomatoes and threw them in)

Directions (hint: it’s so easy!)

1. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta cooks, in a food processor, blend basil, cashews or pine nuts, avocados, lemon juice, garlic, and oil. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Drain pasta. In a large serving bowl, toss pesto with pasta and garnish with basil and tomatoes. (This is also the point where I quickly brought the Simply Organic mix to a boil, stirred it, and threw it in with the Avocado Pesto.)

Pesto in the processor.

So my photo skillz (and phone) aren’t the best, so this looks gross, but I promise you, it tastes amazing! Also, since I have a tiny food processor, I had halved the ingredients… if you have a regular-sized food processor, you can blend up more pesto at once!

Yummm!

The finished product! I have to say, speaking as unbiased as possible, I liked Chloe Coscarelli’s Pesto recipe much more than just the packaged Simply Organic pesto, but that’s probably because a) the CC recipe was creamier and b) the CC recipe was fresh. I think if you substitute cashews for pine nuts, you could make this pesto really affordable… so do it!

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Eggplant Sauce

In my ongoing effort to use up all the veggies from our visit to Market on the Move (which, by the way, we’re going to again this Saturday!), I decided I wanted to use up the one lone eggplant I picked up.

Just one small problem… Blake hates eggplants, for pretty much no reason. He says they “look gross.” Awesome… so obviously eggplant parmesan was off the list, as was pretty much anything with the words ‘eggplant’ in the title.

Enter… eggplant mixed IN pre-made sauce! Woohoo! And so my Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Eggplant Sauce was born. The Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells part comes from this recipe, and the Eggplant Sauce (however gross it may seem to you), comes from me.

Without further ado…

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Eggplant Sauce

Ingredients

Eggplant Sauce

• 1 eggplant (skinned, ‘salted’ (salt the eggplant, let it sit for an hour to get all the bitter juices out, wash it, pat dry), and roughly chopped)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon onion or garlic powder (or both)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 3 cups pasta sauce of your choosing (I used regular Marinara)

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

• 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (the recipe calls for fresh, but I used the canned stuff and it seemed fine)
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Approximately half a bag of fresh baby spinach (I used what we had left)
• Jumbo pasta shells

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring salt and water to a boil. Add pasta shells and cook until done, set aside.
2. In a medium sized non-stick pot, add olive oil, eggplant, onion/garlic powder, and salt and black pepper. Cook until eggplant has started to brown. When finished, set aside.
3. While pasta and eggplant are cooking, start making the ricotta mixture. Basically, put all ingredients (except for the pasta shells) in a large bowl, mix well with your hands. It should look something like the picture below, but maybe with more spinach in your case.
4. After the eggplant is done, transfer eggplant mixture into a high powered blender (I use a Blendtec, but you could also use a food processor), add pasta sauce, and blend until well mixed.
5. On a 9×13 baking dish, lightly greased, layer half of the eggplant sauce on the bottom.
6. After pasta shells are cooled, stuff them one at a time with the Spinach and Ricotta mixture. Place each shell onto the baking dish.
7. When finished stuffing each shell, cover with the remaining eggplant sauce.
8. Cover with foil, cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

And you’re done! Yay! When I surprised Blake with this for dinner, I didn’t mention the eggplant sauce, until he asked what kind of sauce I used… and surprisingly, he said he liked it! He said he couldn’t even tell there was eggplant in it at all. Success! And maybe a good idea for you, if you have some veggies that need to be eaten and a family member that refuses to eat them

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Well, I made my first attempt at making an entirely ‘on-my-own’ recipe… not following a cookbook or anything! I have to say, it came out pretty darn well. I was going for Black Bean Chili, but as you’ll see from the pictures, it came out more like soup. I think I know what I need to omit now…

Why did I attempt to make up my own recipe? One, I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who “experiments” in the kitchen. I’m envious of those who can see what’s on hand in the kitchen and make a delicious meal from it (my boyfriend is one of those people, which is great for using up old food, but he always shows me up! ) Two, since our Market on the Move trip, we’ve had a ton of tomatoes to use and I wanted to see if I could use the majority of them instead of freezing them.

What makes this southwest? The addition of some spicy ingredients… And, of course, because it was made here in the hot, wonderful, dry Southwest!

So without further ado, here is my monster creation!

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium sized yellow onion
• 2 medium sized yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped (you could probably use whatever bell peppers you have on hand– yellow is what we had!)
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 28 ounces (ish) crushed tomatoes (I pureed about 28 ounces of all the tomatoes we had in a blender, but I know you can buy canned crushed tomatoes, and I believe they come in that size)
• 2 cans black beans (I used Eden Organic Black Beans)
• 1 cup water (you don’t need this if you use more tomatoes, like I did)
• 2 jalapenos (more if you want it hotter!) – seeded or not, it’s your call. I seeded one and kept the seeds in the other- spicy!
• salt
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers, garlic, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the chili powder and cook about 30 seconds to a minute longer.
2. Transfer onion mixture into a 4-6 qt. slow cooker (ours is a 4 qt., I believe). Make sure that you don’t fill it past 3/4s full, otherwise it could bubble over.
3. Add the tomatoes, beans, water, and jalapenos. Only add the water if you want it to be more soup-like, otherwise leave it out for a thicker, chili-like recipe.
4. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

Want to make it chunkier? You can add some store-bought or homemade soy chorizo, like I did the next day for lunch, or you can cook up some plain couscous or quinoa and throw that in there to soak up some of the more ‘soup-like’ aspects of the chili.

Again, the great thing about slow cooker recipes is that you do all the work in the morning (or the night before, if you’re pressed for time in the mornings), throw it in the slow cooker for the hours you’ll be at work (most slow cooker recipes are 8 hours or so), and then you have dinner waiting for you when you get home!

I really want to investigate using the slow cooker for breakfast foods, and I also heard a rumor that slow cookers can make bread… say what? Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted!

Vegan Mac and Cheese

Good news and bad news! What, you want the bad news first? You sicko! Okay, here goes… our Molly puppy is sick!

For those who want to know more, keep reading below. Otherwise, skip to the cute picture of Molly and continue on to the good news!

Still here? Okay, well it turns out Molly got two kinds of worms from the Humane Society, and girardia, which is an intestinal infection, and we found out yesterday from our vet. Side note: our vet and the vet place we take Molly to really, really suck, and I can’t wait until we’re done giving her meds and getting her shots from them… then we’re going to a real vet!

Anyway, we started Molly’s meds yesterday: she gets powder meds on her food once a day for the worms and pill meds once every 12 hours for the girardia. She is so not a fan of taking the pill meds, so Blake and I have had to get very clever with how we break up the pills to get her to eat them… so far, we cut them up and mix them in with her dog food. Today she figured out what we were doing and wouldn’t eat them, so I gave her parts of the pills one at a time with a piece of kibble… she couldn’t eat the kibble without also swallowing the treat!

She should be done and clean this Saturday, which is good timing because that’s when she’s going on a road trip to meet her “grandparents”, my parents, in Tucson. And yes, we do refer to Molly as our baby!

So close yet so far...

Time for the good news: vegan mac and cheese! Yes, that’s the good news I made some yesterday from Chloe Coscarelli’s book Chloe’s Kitchen (if you are vegan/vegetarian and looking for a new cookbook, I highly recommend this one! Her instructions make sense, aren’t hard to follow, don’t require a lot of time or fancy equipment, and taste really really good. I’d say it’s on par if not better than Lindsay’s Happy Herbivore books!)

Without further ado, the recipe (credit here and here) with my changes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound/box quinoa elbow macaroni (again, going with the low carb thing on Blake’s doc’s recommendation)
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups soy milk (you can also use almond or rice milk)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (I love Bob’s Red Mill, but you can also find nooch in the bulk bins of your Whole Foods/Sprouts/natural health store)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Handful of grape tomatoes (or basically whatever veggies you want– I’m trying to use up the tomatoes we got from Market on the Move!)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon agave (I used the light colored agave)
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (not too much salt when cooking with quinoa– I’ve noticed it tastes a little crunchy if you heavily salt it)
3. Add macaroni and cook according to pasta directions (if you’re adding extra veggies to make this healthier, especially hearty veggies like broccoli, add them in in the last 5 minutes and cook until tender). Drain and return to pot.
4. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, make a roux by whisking the margarine and flour over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add your soy milk, nutritional yeast, tomato paste, salt, garlic powder, and tomatoes (if using) to the saucepan and bring it to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning to taste, and stir in lemon juice and agave.
5. Toss the noodles with the sauce and transfer into the 9 x 13 pan.
6. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of the pasta and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is browned lightly.

And that’s it! Yum, huh? I had never made a roux before, and that was definitely what I had the most trouble with:

Yup, all those explosion-y stains on the stove top are from the roux… it bubbles so watch out! That said, it was very, very easy to make, and it thickened up quickly. You definitely have to keep an eye on it!

The final product:

I would say 4/5 stars for this recipe, definitely. It’s good but it’s actually a little sweet for my taste… I would leave out the agave for sure, and definitely add some more veggies to it.

I ended up pairing it with some roasted asparagus… yes, I love asparagus!

I’m currently in the midst of making my own black bean chili slow cooker recipe, so I’ll let you know how that turns out tomorrow!

 

Quinoa Pasta with TJ’s “Meat”balls!

Okay, lest you think the worst (that I’ve left the bf for someone named ‘TJ’ and he makes amazing meatballs), TJ stands for Trader Joe’s… and the ‘meat’balls are actually TJ’s “meatless meatballs” of deliciousness!!!!

Seriously, one of the best reasons to move back to Phoenix (there are few) is the fact that there is a Trader Joe’s less than 10 miles from where I live. Heck, even if the nearest TJ’s was 25 miles away, it’d still be better than Denver! Colorado doesn’t have any Trader Joe’s in the whole freaking state. Yes, I know, seriously… what the heck?? Whatever, Colorado…

(source)

So anyway, that said, yesterday I made some freaking delicious quinoa pasta – Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta to be exact! Ever since Blake came back with the recommendation from his doctor that he cut back on refined carbs (including wheat bread, wheat pasta, brown rice… things we thought were healthy), I’ve been trying to find things that both satiate us the way carbs do, yet are still healthy for us.

The best part about quinoa?

• It’s a ‘complete protein’: “Quinoa contains all 9 essential amino acids that are required by the body as building blocks for muscles.” (source)
• It’s a good source of magnesium: “Since low dietary levels of magnesium are associated with increased rates of hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias, this ancient grain can offer yet another way to provide cardiovascular health for those concerned about atherosclerosis.” (source)
• It’s also high in iron and calcium, so all of that combined makes it an “excellent food for vegetarians and vegans.” (source)

So basically, it goes without saying that quinoa is what’s up. However, how does it cut it as a substitute for whole wheat pasta? Well, pretty darn well!

(source)

PLUS

(source)

PLUS

(pasta sauce of your choosing)

EQUALS

Awww yeah! (Hey, a little math at night won’t kill you ) And these pictures are actually from today’s leftovers because I was too hungry to get pics when they first come out… yeah, they hold up pretty well

The meatless meatballs were sooo good too! Blake loved them and said they were the best ‘fake’ meatballs he’s tried, which is high praise… I guess… I also steamed some frozen veggies and threw them in the mix, to get some extra fiber and texture in there too.

All in all, I’m basically in love with Ancient Harvest’s quinoa pasta. They have all different kinds too: elbow pasta, spaghetti, bowtie… and maybe more, but that’s just what I saw at Sprouts. Definitely worth it!

Black Bean and Spinach Enchiladas

For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge Real Simple magazine fan. Like, huge. It was “my thing” in high school… in fact, one of my best friends even swore I’d grow up to be the future Martha Stewart.

Unfortunately, due to either poor fine motor skills, or lack of talent, I have not become the next Martha Stewart… not even close. I can barely even hang pictures straight… and don’t ask anyone about my abilities in the kitchen! I mean, it gets done but… it’s not pretty.

Anyway, my lack of talent aside, I still love getting Real Simple magazines and perusing their recipes. So when I found this awesome Black Bean and Spinach Enchilada recipe in (what was I think) the February issue, I knew I had to try it! Even better? It utilizes our slow cooker!!!

I’d been dying to make some vegetarian meals with our slow cooker, so I knew this meal had to happen sooner or later. I ran it past Blake, he agreed that it looked delicious, and a few days later I had purchased the ingredients and given them to him to cook.

Yup, he cooks. And he is very, very good at it. Better than me, some would say (I would say…). Without further ado, the recipe (with our changes), pictures, and review!

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans (I bought the organic kind from Sprouts) (on sale!)
• 2 cups fresh chopped spinach (the recipe calls for frozen, but you have to defrost it anyway so…)
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
• salt and black pepper
• 3 cups of Blake’s homemade salsa (it’s basically an enchilada sauce recipe– RS calls for salsa, but I would highly recommend buying or making your own actual enchilada sauce!)
• 8 6-inch corn tortillas
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped (about 6 cups)
• 1 cup shredded carrots (or grated)
• 3 medium size tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sliced scallions, for serving/garnish
• 1 ripe avocado, cut into pieces for serving/garnish

If you take a look at the RS recipe, there’s a lot we omitted or changed. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add or subtract basically anything you want, as long as you keep the beans/veggie/sauce theme going, and still have it taste delicious

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mash half the beans. Add the spinach, corn, 1 cup of the cheese, the remaining beans (keep these ones whole), ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and mix to combine.
2. Spread 1 cup of enchilada sauce/salsa in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker (we used a 4 quart cooker). Dividing evenly, roll up the bean mixture in the tortillas (about ½ cup each) and place the rolls seam-side down in a single layer in the slow cooker. Top with the remaining salsa and cheese.
3. Cover and cook until heated through, on low for 2½ to 3 hours.
4. Before serving, toss the lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and avocado in a large bowl with the lime juice, oil, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the enchiladas and sprinkle with the scallions.

And the final product…

That is one enchilada next to the romaine/tomato/carrot salad medley. HUGE!

We had about four leftovers between the two of us… they were that filling! They were even better today when I reheated one for lunch… and surprisingly, the salad kept overnight pretty well too!

The only thing I would change about this recipe is adding more spinach too it– 2 cups of fresh spinach isn’t enough, considering how it cooks down. Other than that, it was fabulous! Do you think it would be overkill to have it two nights in one week?

Tell me: Do you have a favorite slow cooker recipe? If you do, I’d love to try it out! I think I’m in love with using slow cookers now!

Also, I’ll leave you with this pic of Molly from yesterday when we took her to the park:

Also, regarding my Mile a Day: Going to the gym in about an hour to use the treadmill (holla at my Run 5k app!) and then tonight we’re taking Molly for a long walk around the park. Looks like it will be a multiple mile a day today!

Teese ‘cheese’ & cinnamon roll crust – what?!

After today’s earlier post, I thought we all needed a little levity for this post! Also, I can’t stop thinking about grilled cheeses and tomato soup (something about it snowing outside and being stuck indoors gets me in the mood for soup), so where better to discuss my love of food than on this blog? It is, after all, somewhat based on my love of food and my (pathetic) attempts at cooking.

“Wait Melissa… isn’t grilled cheese NOT vegan?” you may be wondering… and yes, you are right! Cheese is definitely not vegan (and I guess according to that link, not even vegetarian, but okay), so why in the world am I talking about grilled cheese sandwiches?

Because, my friends, I am not talking about grilled cheese sandwiches… I’m talking about grilled teese sandwiches!

(source)

Ahaha, yay for plays on words! But more importantly, yay for delicious, vegan cheese! Made by Chicago SoyDairy, Teese is an 100% dairy free alternative to cheese and comes in two different flavors, Mozzarella and Cheddar.

(source)

Teese is similar to Daiya cheese, in that it has also gotten great reviews for actually tasting and ‘acting’ like cheese. Plus, you can find Daiya cheese practically everywhere. However, I noticed Daiya cheese didn’t melt quite as good as the claims and, while I was happy with the taste and consistency, I was a little bummed to find it didn’t melt like real cheese.

Enter… Cait’s Cait Hates Cake blog! In her post about Teese, she reviewed the Teese product and also shared some incredibly mouth-watering photos of the black bean and Teese quesadillas she made… seriously, don’t click that link if you haven’t eaten lunch yet

However… here comes the terrible, horrible, no good bad news ever: They do not sell Teese ANYWHERE near me. Within 60 miles of me, there are absolutely no retailers who sell Teese products. And yes, I complained to my Whole Foods store about this. Next, I must complain to my Natural Grocer’s store (note to self.)

It is absolutely tragic because, like I mentioned, I would die for a delicious grilled cheese sandwich right now. Of course, there is a Whole Foods in Scottsdale (close to Phoenix) close to where I live when I’m back in AZ… I suppose I’ll have to wait!

To cheer myself up, I visited vegansaurus.com, my favorite vegan/snarky website, and guess what I found… THIS!!:

From Stormka, it is a cinnamon roll PIE CRUST. O-m-g. Delicious, no?? And if you click here, she has what looks to be an incredibly delicious recipe for Sweet Potato Pie with Cinnamon Roll crust. Be still, my heart!

Oh, and as for the things I’ve eaten today… not terribly exciting but here goes:

Breakfast: Rice bits (holla for being poor) with half a sliced banana, slice toast w/ Earth Balance butter, Celestial Seasonings antioxidant tea

Lunch: Repeat of the other day… whole wheat burrito with Mexican Bean Dip, lettuce, and tomatoes

Dinner: Couscous with green pepper (if it’s still good… I should check that) and spinach, side of some random mock meat I have in the fridge (I think it’s Gardein, so you know it’s gonna be good… I’ll take pictures!)

Snacks: An apple, some pretzels with hummus, and a green drank! Except I forgot to put in spinach, so it was considerably less green. And yes, that is a penis straw. I got it from a friend as a joke… aww yeah!

Day 6: Eat broccoli

One of the words I still find surprisingly hard to spell… broccoli! Today’s challenge from VegNews’ ’31 Changes in 31 Days’ is: Eat broccoli.

First, some health info on why broccoli is so amazing for you:

• Broccoli has nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid, calcium, and fiber (source)
• Vitamin C helps with iron absorption in the body
• Broccoli also can help prevent cataracts, and eases the symptoms of the common cold (source)
• According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, broccoli is also likely to prevent colon cancer
• Boiled broccoli has more vitamin C than an orange, and as much calcium as a glass of milk (source)

To be honest… I had no idea broccoli was so good for us! I always knew it was good to eat broccoli, for some reason, and whenever I would buy bags of frozen vegetables, I’d always make sure they came with some bits of broccoli… but wow! Now I’m actually excited to eat more broccoli

I just decided to saute fresh broccoli with garlic in olive oil and a little salt/pepper. I was intrigued by Isa Chandra from the Post Punk Kitchen version, which you can read about here, but then I was too lazy to do it… :-/

Today I decided not to go to the gym because something tragic happened last night: the boiler in our ghetto apartment complex broke! And, of course, it snowed last night. So not only did I go to bed absolutely freezing, I woke up absolutely freezing knowing that the sidewalks would be icy… so, I decided to stay in bed and keep warm.

However, I did go to brunch with friends this morning to a Latin Fusion restaurant, and I thought I was going to be totally screwed for food options… luckily, this was not the case! I was able to get fried plantains topped with cinnamon, and a “sweet potato mash” that came with grilled veggies. Yum! So today’s food choices were pretty good:

Breakfast: Fried plantains w/ cinnamon, sweet potato mash, 2 glasses mimosas (yum!!)

Lunch: A mock-tuna sandwich from Happy Herbivore, small glass of soymilk

Dinner: Roasted broccoli with garlic and quinoa (leftover quinoa)

Snacks: Gala apple, small bowl of Rice Bits with soymilk

Day 4: Work Out & customized work out plans

I have to say, out of all the 31 changes in VegNews‘ ’31 Changes in 31 Days’, Day 4: Work out has to be the easiest for me. Luckily, I was already planning on working out, and I got my work out done with earlier this morning.

In today’s explanation, vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke says “consistency and application” are the ways to succeed at exercising, and boy is that true. Over the holiday break, for the few days I didn’t go to the gym (because of travel, or the holidays, or family obligations), I felt lethargic and definitely not in the mood to work out the next day. If anything, I kinda wanted to never work out again.

Lucky for me, I’m surrounded by people who value health and exercise. While I was with my parents, my Mom motivated me to work out and go to the gym with her for our health. I would say my family background is moderately healthy– we don’t have anything too crazy that runs in our family, just the normal things. But for some family members, we’ve seen them deteriorate quite rapidly because they didn’t take care of themselves at all- overweight, smoked, drank, you name it, they did it. And they died fairly young because of it.

Since Mom and I have way too many things we want to do in the future (traveling!), we motivated each other and encouraged each other to go to the gym. It’s always fun having a work out buddy, and it’s even better when that work out buddy is your Mom

Today’s work out was devoted to arms, and consisted of:

• 15 min. warm up on the elliptical (1 mile)
• 5 min. bike “warm up”
• 3 sets of 12 bicep curls (8 lb. weights)
• 3 sets of 10 tricep kickbacks (8 lbs.)
• 3 sets of 12 dumbbell shoulder presses (8 lbs.)
• 3 sets of 10 push ups
• 3 sets of 12 “tree hugs” (8 lbs.)
• 5 min. on the rowing machine

Again, crossing my fingers I feel it tomorrow! There weren’t as many people at the gym today, probably because I went earlier (8 am vs. 10 am). There were, however, a lot of people there with individual personal trainers. Looks like a lot of people are taking their New Year’s Resolutions seriously…

I actually found something really cool from Shape – a customized work out plan! Basically, you choose 8 work outs from their selection of videos (lots to choose from!) and then create your own “play list”. It seems really cool! I can’t wait to play around with this and learn some new routines.

Tonight I can’t exactly share with you everything I’m eating/drinking… I’m going to a friend’s potluck in a few hours, and I have no idea what will be there. I can, however, show you what I’m bringing to this potluck…

Happy Herbivore’s Mexican Dip! Yum! It was such a big hit the last time I brought it to a party, I figured I absolutely had to do it again. It’s quickly becoming one of my go-to party foods! You might notice it looks a little strange in the middle… yeah well, when I took it out of the oven, I couldn’t resist trying a little bit… you know, to make sure it tasted okay

So run down of my meals thus far:

Breakfast: Green drank and half a peanut butter sandwich

Lunch: Happy Herbivore’s Mock Tuna Sandwich and a glass of milk

Dinner: (guessing): Mexican dip and my corn tortilla chips… maybe some soup, if someone brings it (I heard they were)… and wine… and we’ll see!

Snacks: I finished up the rest of the green drank because I needed the blender, and then I’m going to have an apple and some almonds before hitting the fiesta tonight.

Tomorrow’s ‘challenge’ is: Get enough vitamin B12. Looks like I’ll be reading up on exactly what B12 is tomorrow…

Until then! A question for you all: What is your favorite dish (vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore) to bring to potluck parties? Or do you usually stop at the grocery store and buy something pre-made? (We’ve all done it!