Pasta Sauce and Smashing Pumpkin (pie)

Happy Monday!  I hope getting back into the grind wasn't too painful.  I just pretended it was Tuesday or something and just got my booty in here.

As part of the Foodbuzz tastemaker program, I received some Classico® Light Creamy Alfredo Pasta Sauce.  I received the product for free, but the recipe and review are all my own. 
I decided to go the untraditional route and do a baked quinoa pasta.  Did you know such a thing exists?  I didn't, but I knew that the added protein would be beneficial and I went with it.

I added the following ingredients:
- 1.5 cups cooked quinoa pasta
- 1/2 cup each of peas, carrots, and onions
-1/2 container of Classico® Light Creamy Alfredo Pasta Sauce
-1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
-3 natural spicy Italian chicken sausage links
-salt and pepper for tasts

Baked at 350 for 35 minutes and it was ready to go.  I ate it with some marinated roasted bell peppers in apparently extremely dim light:

I also wanted to show you my Thanksgiving experiment/crime scene.

I only like the filling and the hubby is cutting weight for a tournament- we massacred the poor adorable pie:

Can't say I regret it in the least bit- it was delicious!

Weekly Prep Returns

Now that we have our new kitchen, I've been more in the mood to cook in a new, lovely environment.  So much so, that I even got back to my weekly prep.  I developed a bad habit of not bringing my lunch to work every day and I needed to stop that stat.  Having healthy options in the fridge will do that quickly!

The first thing on my list- egg salad.  I usually think of it as a summer food, but it's pretty awesome if you think about it.  It has protein, healthy fats, and can include some veggies if you spike it like I do.

My recipe is simple:

• 5 medium eggs, boiled and chopped
• Chopped celery and onions- 1/4 cup each
• Paprika
• Dill
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1.5 Tbsp organic mayo
• 1 Tbsp yellow mustard

Just mix all ingredients and refrigerate for 30 minutes or eat right away. 

 Next on my list was tabouli. I also made it before here with quinoa instead.  This time I went with whole wheat cous cous.

 I used all the same ingredients, except for subbing halved cherry tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes:

• 1 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
• 3 tomatoes, diced
• 2 cucumbers, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt and pepper to taste

To round out my prep, I roasted a pound of butternut squash with olive oil, paprika, salt, and pepper.  The silly people on the package say it serves 5.  I don't think they met me.
 

After all that prep, I was ready for a snack and had some kiwis.  They have been sitting in my fridge for weeks and were so good!  Now I'm set for a few days and won't be tempted by the hot bar.

The holiday drinks at the Starbucks in my building may be a different story though!

Any new meal planning or prep ideas that have been working for you?

Butternut Squash Black Bean Enchiladas- A Real Recipe

Now that it's getting cooler, I've been drawn towards warmer foods and keep wanting people to cook for me.  Since we can't go out every day and I'm the cooker around these parts, I settled on making enchiladas this Sunday.

The only problem?  I have never made enchiladas in my entire life, but I was going to do it one way or the other.  I made some simple cilantro rice to go along with the meal, and then got onto the main event.

Ingredients:

• 1 can enchilada sauce
• 5 whole wheat tortillas
• 1/2 pound ground turkey
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, paprika
• 1 can green chiles
• 1 cup mixed shredded cheese
• 1 cup cooked butternut squash 
• 1/2 can black beans
• Lime and avocado to garnish

1. Brown the turkey in a skillet with olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika, and set to the side.

2. Mix in the turkey, chiles, shredded cheese, butternut squash, and black beans in a bowl

3. Pour a layer of enchilada sauce at the bottom of your baking dish

4. Stuff each tortilla with 1/3 cup of the stuffing and roll up- repeat until finished

5. Pour remaining enchilada sauce and sprinkle with cheese

6. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until the cheese is melty and everything is warmed through.

7. Enjoy

Square Salmon Cakes

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get any awards for the title or for the recipe, but I made square salmon cakes!  Like crab cakes, but salmon and not round, but square!  I'm easily amused here, so let's entertain me for a few minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 can wild Alaskan salmon (I used Trader Joe's brand)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1 shake white pepper seasoning
• dried dill to taste
• garlic powder to taste
• salt to taste

Directions: 
-Mix all the ingredients above
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees as you mix everything
-Spray muffin tins (they don't have to be square) with olive oil/cooking spray
-Fill muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden
-Enjoy

Optional: Sweet Chili Aioli Sauce

• 1/4 cup organic mayo
• 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce

Mix together and serve in your favorite sauce contain.  We were classy and ate ours in our mini I <3 NY mug.

You can eat these from square plates, but that's optional too.  One recipe will serve 3-4 people as an appetizer or one very hungry husband.

Easy Quinoa Veggie Pilaf

I like the concept of instant gratification.  Maybe it's a generational thing, but I like it a lot especially when it comes to cooking.  Although I enjoy the process of making some foods with complex flavors, my inability to follow a recipe and complete lack of patience keeps me from making foods like risotto and other slow meals.
This recipe is simple, easy to adapt, full of flavor, and healthy.  It can be served on its own with a salad or makes a great side to a main dish- I present my quinoa veggie pilaf.

 

Ingredients:

-1/2 box of your preferred quinoa (I used Trader Joe's organic quinoa)

-1 cup stock of choice (I used veggie stock)

-1 cup frozen peas

-1 cup broccoli or any veggie of your choice

-1.5 cups water

- salt, pepper to taste

- 1 clove garlic finely minced

- dried dill to taste

*Cook quinoa in water, stock, garlic, and spices, adding the broccoli about 10 minutes into cooking.

*Once 15 minutes have passed, add frozen peas and cover pot to steam the peas and absorb extra liquid

*Serve and feast

Quinoa is one of the staples that I'm still eating up despite being done with our 'cleanse' and it's a filling grain with lots of protein and complex carbs.  It keeps me full long enough to not go looking for my next piece of chocolate, which is surprisingly not my main sustenance these days.

Tonight my husband ate this pilaf with beef tri-tip.  I ate my beef with a mixed herb salad.  For whatever reason, I've been wanting red meat, so I'm rolling with it.  It only took a mere 15 years for me to get back into red meat but I suppose tastes change.  I wasn't going to mention it on here because I have been so bipolar on my diet but everything in moderation, right?

P.S. Happy Anniversary to my parents- 37 years together and still in love <3

My Day in Numbers

I've seen a few numerically inclined blog ladies do a few fun numbers posts.  Here is my last 48 hours in numbers:

24: Roughly the number of hours I spent awake and working in the last 48 hours

6: The number of hotel food 'opportunities' I have had over the last 48 hours.  This halibut was really good.  The rest was alright.

21: The number of floors I had to ride to get to our meeting space over and over again in the high speed motion sickness machine (elevator). 

4: The number of hours of sleep I got last night
3: (but realistically 8) the number of pictures it took to try to get a decent shot of my work outfit to make sure it looked OK since I didn't plan it so well.  Apparently me and iPhone self-photos don't mesh.  And hello booty.

2: The number of buttons I broke on my keyboard at this meeting.  I'm a savage.

1: The number of recipes I will share with you tonight:

Vegan Wheat-Free Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Ingredients (cupcake batter):

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Flax eggs (~2 Tbsp ground flax to 6 Tbsp water)
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice mix
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup coconut milk

Ingredients (frosting):

• 1/2 - 3/4 cup Tofutti cream cheese
• 1/4 cup honey
• Meyer lemon zest and juice (I used half of a lemon)
• Vanilla extract to taste

Instructions: I have to admit I winged this recipe and this makes a really dense muffin/cupcake.  This batch will make 20 mini cupcakes or about 8 regular cupcakes.  Instructions are very loose.

1. Combine all dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, shredded coconut, pumpkin spice)

2. Add in wet ingredients (flax egg, shredded carrots, vanilla extract, coconut milk, agave nectar) and mix until combined

3. Scoop batter into cupcake wrappers and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes

4. Make frosting by combining all ingredients and mixing for 1 minute (I mixed by hand)- set in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes

5. Frost cupcakes when cooled

6. Enjoy

Ciao Bellas ;)

Black Bean Burgers

I really enjoyed reading your comments to my last post.  There were a lot of thoughtful responses (which I love) and a lot of great food rules.  I encourage you to read the comments here.  While the jury is still out on the mystery cheese (vegan cheddar) I am still enjoying my vegan eats.  I can't really say that I have felt limited since I live in my own bubble. I bring my lunch to work daily and most of our friends and family already know that we have made some modifications in our foods, and the others just know that the food I eat is 'weird and healthy' and I'm perfectly fine with that.

Given my fear of mystery meat, I still wanted to make something that incorporated some protein that I could eat.  This week I cooked up a ton of black beans and I made my first attempt at Black Bean and Millet Burgers.

Serving suggestion ;)

Here is the recipe- it can use a few tweaks like more spice, but it worked for me and is a great base recipe.

Black Bean and Millet Burgers:

• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 1/2 cup cooked millet
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 2 Tbsp coconut milk
• Cumin
• Salt
• Pepper

*Place all ingredients in food processor and whirl until ingredients are combined
*Scoop the 'burgers' onto sprayed cookie sheet (my recipe made 5 large burgers)and bake at 370 degrees for 20 minutes
*Enjoy with your choice of sides

I baked these while I made my husband some baked chicken and some other sides.  I also popped in my Shape Pilates DVD and did a quick workout while my food baked- multi-tasking at its best!  While I was doing my DVD I was thinking about Melissa's post today about blog comparisons and how long people generally work out.  I used to work out for hours but now I keep my workouts to 60-90 minutes for yoga classes, or 30-40 minutes for cardio.  I know some bloggers spend a lot more time than this and a lot of 'real life' people spend a lot less than this and either extreme can create a triggering reaction.  It took a while, but when I read people's routines I think 'well that's nice' and love to read the variety and people's goals, but I don't internalize it.  Most of the time workout posts motivate me to try harder but I know my bad knees won't let me run a marathon, so I move on to the next delicious cookie post.

Question for you: Do you ever make your own burgers?  What kinds?

It's Getting Steamy Up in Hurrr

This evening I went to a sculpting class at my cult gathering yoga studio yogaworks.  The class is called Sculptworks and incorporates strength, resistance bands, yoga, pilates, and dance style stretching and exercises in a cardio and strength style circuit.  And I love it when I'm not busy being lazy.

This evening I took the class with one of my regular hatha yoga teachers and he made sure to kick my booty.  The soccer moms in the class agreed.  The instructors usually ask us if we want the AC on since we are the ones moving and they are usually walking around and correcting form.  Although I'm usually cold, it was unreasonably warm when the instructor turned on the AC.  I kept going and thought that I was getting a monumental workout until about 15 minutes later when he realized he had turned on the heater instead of the air conditioner. I'm just glad that nobody passed out like I almost did in my first hot yoga class.  That would have been messy. 

I decided to keep up the hot trend with my soup tonight.  I have to admit that I've been eating the same soup almost every day for the last 3 weeks.  It's a bit of a problem and I'm OK with it.

I also have to admit that I don't 'make' any of it.  Please meet my dream team:

Trader Joe's Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup- delicous.  Add your frozen or fresh veggies and bring to a simmer.  Add some Slap Ya Mama seasoning and your soup is cooked and spicy.

Sometimes I add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese if I really want to steam up my own glasses.

Questions for you:
Have you ever done hot yoga? Yes- and I like it now that I got past the initial trauma
What's your favorite soup? This soup and miso soup

Winter Salad

I don't know about you, but there is nothing less appetizing to me than attempting to choke down the bushels of veggies I can normally scarf down during the warmer months.  I realize I live in California, but 50 degrees is not warm to me. I still can't tell you why I eat frozen yogurt until my lips turn blue on cold days, but that's another story for another time.

These days I have been roasting veggies and adding frozen veggies to my soup and one night I threw this together to sneak in more produce for dinner.

My Winter Salad
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice (Trader Joe's)
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup roasted squash, chopped
• 1/2 large apple, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup lemon (or citrus juice of choice)
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

*Cook rice according to package instructions and set to cool.
*Add in the celery, roasted squash, apple and dried cherries, mixing to combine all of the ingredients
*Make a dressing with the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and pour over the ingredients, adding salt and pepper to tasked
*Combine and set to cool in the refrigerator

We added this to the rest of our dinner- which I think may have included pizza that night...and probably chocolate.  I loved the sweet, crunchy, and tangy combination.  Hope you give it a try!

I Eat the Same Food

Happy Monday or Sunday, depending on when you are reading.  I hope you are all doing fabulous today.  I've been around and making my way through work, work travel, and making sure that I show my face at home often enough to be recognized by my husband.  I'm not sure it's working.

I have found that since I started my first healthy eating journey, nearly 14 years ago, I have been a creature of habit.  I once went on a diet where I cycled boiled chicken breast, cottage cheese, and plain rice every three days.  That did NOT inspire me to stay on a healthy eating journey.  In the fat free haze that we all like to call the 90s, I ate gummy bears and bagels, because no fat = healthy. Duh!  I also watched way too many episodes of Friends, but I'll let that slide.  Let's not even talk about the lifetime supply of Balance Yogurt Honey Peanut bars that I hoarded for my 'protein needs' during the low carb madness.

Years later, I find myself still eating the same things over and over again, simply out of convenience and because I hate change.  Thank goodness I don't blog my daily eats, (for several reasons). 

Take for example the salad that I have been demolishing on a daily basis.

I started with the following ingredients:

• a ripe bartlett pear 
• my new favorite honey goat cheese (from Trader Joe's. run there and get yo'self some...no regrets)
• roasted tofu 
• almond slices
• a fresh bed of organic herb greens
• dressing of choice (I used balsamic)

It's easy, simple, healthy, hits all my food groups, and allows for my daily lunch dessert.

This salad, though not representative of my daily eats, is me.  In my brief time away from complete immersion in blogs, I realized that my way, is the best way for me.  I don't run- in fact, I have not done structured cardio in over a month.  Are you still reading? 
I don't eat/ingest/inhale protein powder because I don't need it.  I also haven't budged since canned pumpkin has hit the shelves and changed lives (we have it year round here- I didn't even notice the difference).  I love having an outlet to write and share and I have to admit I'm a sucker for chia seeds and almond butter.  I love yoga and strength classes, and a walk outside in the fresh air is ten times better than the dreadmill.  However, I eat the same food almost on a daily basis, and I'm cool with that.

Are there any foods you eat repeatedly?  I'm sure I'm not the only one :)

Overnight Oats Leftovers

Hey Guys!  I hope you are all enjoyed your weekends and have had a great start to the week.  I'm hoping to bring some moderate amusement to you this week with some posts and a giveaway!  I have now joined the cool kids and will  be doing a giveaway shortly with CSN Stores (featuring the le creuset product line in one of their online storefronts).  Please check back here for more details and an opportunity to win soon!

If you have been reading this blog for a while, it is clear to state that I am no culinary genius.  I do like to make things ahead of time so that I can have something to feed my family of two while I'm running like a chicken with my head cut off throughout the week.  This last week I read on Oh She Glows about how making overnight oats ahead of time in a large batch is not only easy, but tastes better.  I went with it, and although it ain't pretty, it was awesome.
Brace yourselves for this picture. This item was clearly for me only as my husband would not even look at it without making a face. More for me.

Recipe:

• 1 heaping cup of oats
• 1.5 cups of milk of your choice
• 4 scoops of protein powder of choice (I used chocolate hemp protein)
• 2 Tbsp chia seeds
• 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
• Optional: nut butter (I didn't use any), ground flax, cinnamon, sweetener, or anything else you put in your overnight oats.

I mixed everything up, hence the very appetizing tupperware and popped it in the fridge.  The next few days I had overnight oats ready for me!  This made about 5 servings and was very filling.
I made myself a breakfast sundae and really enjoyed it

Overnight oats, sliced banana, plain yogurt, and almond butter.

Question: Do you have any favorite time saving breakfast ideas for me? I would love to hear them!

Chunky Guac So Easy Even I Can Make It

It's summer time and nothing tastes as good as a cold drink and some appetizers to go along with it, preferably in the form of dip and chips.  For some reason, restaurants have gotten away with charging me $6 for guacamole and chips and this time I was not going to let them.  I present my guac- so easy even I could make it!

Here is what you need:

• 2 avocados
• 2 limes for juicing (I love extra lime flavor)
• 1/4 diced red onion
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1 small spicy pepper
• Salt, pepper, cilantro, and chili powder
• 1 large tomato or 3 small tomatoes

First, cut up your ingredients- make sure that the avocado is chunky when you cut it

A lesson to you all- even if you are proud of the spicy peppers your husband grew in your backyard, do NOT take a bite just to see if it is in fact spicy.  It will save you some expletives thrown in the kitchen.

Add your remaining ingredients after you have recovered.

Close the lid and shake, shake, shake!  This is the easiest way to combine the ingredient if you are lazy like me.

 This was so easy and cheap. Here is the price breakdown:
Avocados- $1.50 for 2
Limes- $.20 for 2
Cilantro- $.25 for the portion I used
Tomatoes and peppers- free if you find a farmer who will share
Spices- check your cupboards
The grand total for this is $1.95.  Take that, fancy, expensive restaurant.

Question for you: What is your favorite thing to make at home that restaurants charge your first child's college tuition for?

Indian Pizza and Yoga

Tonight after yoga all I had on my mind was the whole wheat pizza crust I bought at Trader Joe's this past weekend.  I was also eager to use my new secret ingredient- I'm pretty sure this is new and it's awesome!

This masala lentil dip is like taking Indian food home with you minus the experience of waiting for the food to come to your table and then devouring too much of it along with the fried bread that comes with it.  Or maybe it's just me.  Anyways, pizza it was!

Indian Pizza:
-Heat up some peas, eggplant, artichoke hearts, and spinach in a pan in some water with salt and pepper to soften it up and to make the pizza process quicker.
-Prepare and pre-bake the crust at 350 degrees in the oven for 10 minutes
-Top crust with 1 Tbsp masala lentil dip and then add fresh basil, peas, eggplant, artichoke hearts, and spinach. Sprinkle with chili powder.
-Bake for another 10 minutes

Devour

You have to eat it with a fork because if you are like me, you have overdone it with the toppings.  I overdo everything and had way too many toppings!

While I was making my selfish pizza, I also made husband some cheesy tomato, chicken, carmelized onion, artichoke and eggplant pizza.

The secret ingredient was pesto and clearly I need help on my pizza flipping/shaping skills!

Yoga Class Review- Sculptworks
I've been getting much more than a stretch at my yoga studio.  One of my favorite classes so far is Sculptworks, a class that combines strength training, dance-inspired stretching, pilates, yoga, and interval training.  We use a yoga wall that is used to hold resistance bands and the 55 minute class takes us through upper body and lower body strength including shoulders, bis, tris, back squats, lunges, and even mountain climbers.  There are ab exercises as well, but the instructors emphasize that if the abs are properly engaged, you will do abs all through the class.  I can agree to that since it hurts to sneeze the next day.
I have done this class twice so far and LOVED it!  The 55 minute class goes by so quickly that you don't even have time to look at the clock.  I like how the instructors check each students' form and correct it if they see something wrong.  I also loved the calming but upbeat music and can't wait to do the class again!

Summer is Here!

Thanks guys for the kind welcome and for all the fun suggestions.  I am coming out of my funk and have had some pretty fun workouts including weights and pilates, both of which have been great workouts :)
In other news, Summer decided to finally come to California.  It seems like we skipped from our version of Winter straight into 90 degree weather and it's quite nice!  Nothing says Summer to me like grilling out, and that's just what we did when we decided to have a spontaneous cookout tonight with just the two of us.
Please meet the newest member of our family- Mr W:

I pretty much sat back and let the grill master do his job, except when I nudged him to check stuff and tried my hardest not to micromanage.

We grilled lots of stuff:

• Steak
• Chicken
• Cod
• Salmon burgers
• Asparagus
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Pineapple

Our final goods:

Everything was perfectly done for me :)
My contributions were Mixed Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic:

• Easy roasting recipe: Red potatoes, purple potatoes, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes roasted with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary roasted at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

I was pretty in love with all the colors.  I also made a pasta salad:

• Easy Pasta Salad: Whole wheat cooked drained pasta with red onion, red bell pepper, shredded carrots, cucumber, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, splash of soy sauce, lime juice, pepper, and sesame seeds to garnish along with garden fresh cilantro

We also had fresh juice, but more on that in a different post.  Since there were two of us and I tend to cook like there are ten, we have A LOT of leftovers.  I'm going to attack that grilled pineapple for breakfast, I think.
I hope you are enjoying Summer wherever you are and have a WONDERFUL Monday :)

Defining the Relationship

Smells gooood!
Thank you for sharing all of your fabulous childhood memories with me.  I loved all your answers.  In case you missed them- here are some fabulous ones:

My lovely sister in law: The smells that remind me of my childhood are mangoes , my uncle had a mango ranch and every time they were in season we got huge boxes of that yellow goodness!
Good times :)
Jessica Comfort food scents remind me of my childhood, but I'd have to go more with perfumes my mom used to wear and other scents like that.
Anne Marie  My grandmom or mom's homemade spaghetti gravy reminds me of my childhood.
Ildie: DILL. Fresh dill. My mama used to make all of her own pickled vegetables and she loved adding dill. :)
Shannon : I have so many smells that trigger childhood memories. There is a certain flower smell that reminds me of summer in Woods Hole (Cape Cod). Always makes me smile.
Kalin: the smell of tomato plants (the plants themselves have a distinctive scent) makes me think of childhood. we grew a ton of 'em as a kid, and i was always roaming through our tomato patch stuffing my face with them.
Jolene: I agree with Kalin about the tomato plants - they totally remind me of my childhood. So does campfire smell, and chocolate chip cookies!
Mo  the smell of meatballs and baked ziti remind me of sitting in grannies kitchen testing her meatballs. we both knew they were ready for hte sauce but we both liked to "taste" them... for quality assurance...
Gabriela :The smell of my house after being away from it always reminds me of childhood...I love this place, and it holds so many memories!! Chlorine is another childhood smell, from spending way too many days in my pool as a kid!

So very awesome- as are all of you!  I love that you were able to share some fun memories mixed with delicious smells.

The Talk...
In the past few months I have been working through a bit of a workout "defining the relationship talk". I don't call it a break-up, but more of a pause to evaluate things. 
I am not a runner, I don't have any kind of a sport to build endurance or strength for (unless you count power chocolate eating or shopping), and I am not looking to lose a significant amount of weight.  To add to that, I also don't follow a strict diet (makes me rebel and go apes*it), nor am I vegetarian, vegan, high protein, or gluten-free. 
None of these things have meant that I have gone to the gym for less than 4 days a week or not enjoyed my time there, but I seem to always be looking for the next new thing when really, I have fun doing my own thing.  I love making up an obstacle course among the juiceheads at my gym, running on the treadmill for no particular length of time or distance while listening to music so embarrassing I sometimes take my headphones off to make sure I'm the only one who can hear it, or benching by myself with no spotter (doesn't matter that it's just the bar with the Cheerio size weights or that the person next to me smells like poop) only because I want to know that I can.
I know a bit of focus is good, but I like coming in with a general plan and then doing my own thing.  Maybe one day I'll have a hard core training plan, but for now, I hit all the muscles once a week and do my cardio thang.
The other day I ran 3 miles for fun and lifted shoulders like a maniac (shoulders are my favorite). 
I think I'm in the happy, butterflies in the tummy stage of the relationship.  I think there is still a little mystery left and the open door peeing policy is NOT welcome.

The Other Talk...

Another item that I have been defining lately is my relationship with meat.  I am not a huge fan, but eat organic chicken or wild fish maybe once a week.  I don't crave meat, but if I do, I want it to be from a reliable source.  I know there are a lot of fabulous veggie bloggers and I love them all, but I just can't commit either way and I ain't gonna.  Plus, I have an irrational fear of anything that is supposed to taste like meat but isn't.  No veggie hot dogs or chicken nuggets for this girl. 
I love tofu, but I'm not sold on its benefits or harm, so when I eat soy, I go for fermented soy in the form of tempeh.  I tried it again in my Tempeh Tacos, and I am pretty sure this one and I are in it for the long haul! Really, I want to marry tempeh.

Tempeh Tacos

• Pan sear 1/4 block of Trader Joe's tempeh with taco seasoning and oil spray
• Heat up 2 small tortillas of your choice- I prefer corn
• When your tempeh is hot enough, build your taco with Mango Salsa an LOTS of guacamole or toppings of your choice
• Devour along with the whole farmer's market tomato

While I'm at it, I have to gush about my real relationship.  My husband spent his evening helping me do my grad school finance homework for fun tonight because he is a math genius.  He also washed all the dishes and is patiently waiting for me to come to bed so we can have our Modern Family date.  If that isn't love, I don't know what is.  I'm off like a prom dress!

Tell me about your gym/workout relationship- is it true love?  I also want to hear about all the things you are training for!

Homemade Granola

Hey Guys!  I can't believe how fast the week is flying!  I hope you are doing well!
I really enjoyed the discussion you guys had on my last post.  I think it depends on our blogging styles, but most of us seem to enjoy life and even embrace the imperfect. If you want to read a really inspiring post, Amanda did a really great one on Tuesday.

Today was spent doing my work thang and not much else!  I got in a random salad for lunch:


I had a random clean-the-fridge combo of spinach, broccoli slaw, apples, parsley, cucumbers, tomatoes, hardboiled egg, black olives and mustard. Perfectly crazy and perfectly satisfying!

When I got home from work, I knew I wanted to make some homemade granola. This could be a potentially dangerous experiment because I can't ever control myself around granola, but I would rather eat my own less junky one than one from the store. Here is my take on granola:


Mango Chia Pumpkin Spice Granola:
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 1/2 cup Trader Joe's dried berry mix
- 2 Tbsp Maple Agave Syrup
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/4 cup natural mango juice (I used Naked juice)
- Shake of pumpkin spice
- Dash of unsweetened cocoa

Mix all the wet and dry ingredients, spread on a prepared cookie sheet (I used wax paper and a little spray) and bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. I'll have to let you know how it is when I try it but it smelled like heaven!

I'm making this another quickie because it's 9:10 PM and I'm still trying to digest my dinner so that I can get to the gym for some cardio and to torture another body part or two with weights. Please don't ask me to explain, I have no logic and I'm not sure what I'll be doing when I get home all hyper and stuff- guess I'll figure that part out later!

Question for you: Do you like granola? What are the foods that challenge your portion control skills?

Mine are granola, CHOCOLATE, any kind of good cereal, and burritos. True story- once I start eating a giant burrito, I can't stop!