Craving Veggies

Hi guys!  I'm so glad you share my love of chocolate covered fruit.  Also, because there is fruit and dark chocolate involved, I feel good for bringing you a new health food. You're welcome.

Now let's get to today's post because I ain't getting any younger here.  It's a rare occasion when I don't get my daily recommended veggies.  I often eat a freakish amount of produce at the amazement of my coworkers and the dismay of my husband because this habit takes me grocery shopping about 5 times a week.  I realized that Monday and Tuesday were very veggie light, so today was my veggie catch up day- I was actually craving fresh veggies.

I conveniently forgot my lunch and hit up the salad bar near my building at work:

• Spinach, green peppers, salsa, black beans, baby corn, hummus, scoop of 2 pasta salads and celery slices

It was delightful!  I doubled up on more veggies for dinner with an eggwhite, zucchini, and boatload of green bean scramble:

I demolished this after work, post hitting up el gym where I focused on chest and tris after 35 minutes of cardio intervals.  I feel like Jell-O so all is well in my world!

Don't worry- I made sure to get in my snack of the day.  May I present the Starbucks cookie:

Don't worry- I'm still good with vegetables here.  Chocolate is made from the cacao plant. Are you following my logic?

I think I'm good and balanced for now.  Just in case, I've packed my lunch wrap (wild salmon, spinach, broccoli slaw, peanut sauce, thai spice mix) for tomorrow and made sure to include enough green stuff.  Here is your preview:

Questions for you: Do you balance your veggies throughout the day?  Or are you like me and make sure to get a good balance throughout the week? I clearly don't worry too much about getting all the right nutrients on the daily but look at it on a weekly basis.  For example, I think I fulfilled my bread requirement on Tuesday so I'm good for a couple of days!

PSA: Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds

Before I get to the real purpose of this post (life changing!) I thought I would run you through the madness that usually takes place a few nights a week when I try to prepare for the next day.  On Tuesday night I had class and got home at 10:00 PM, so I moved quickly.  I like to prep the hubby's dinner, my breakfast and/or lunch, and get my stuff together as much as possible so I can get dragged out of bed at the latest moment possible.

First up is lunch prep:

I don't feed my hubby anything that I wouldn't theoretically feed myself.  Tomorrow's lunch is organic chicken, sweet potatoes (pre-roasted in my weekend prep), zucchini and green beans sauteed in garam masala and other random spices for an Indian-inspired stirfry.

Next I made my superfood breakfast cookie:

Superfood Breakfast Cookie:
-1/2 cup oats, 1 tbsp hemp protein powder, frozen pomegranate arils, chia seeds, and Odwalla Superfood juice all mixed up and refrigerated overnight for my morning chowing pleasure.

Gina is a genius!

Finally, I danced around the kitchen with my new love:

Um, yes.  I'm delightfully awkward both in pictures and in real life!  And I still have no shame.
What I'm holding is this stuff:

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds
I'm warning you that once you get them and try them, your life will change.  I am also pretending that I don't remember where I hid these guys until next time!

Question for you: What food has changed your life lately? 
The product above, chia seeds, and always almond butter!

My Dang Quesadilla

Hi Beauties!  How are you doing?  I am so glad you girls (and guys?!) enjoy being a kid!  You guys are fun and I loved the highlights of the activities you love to do:

• Circus
• Rollerskating/iceskating
• Chuck E Cheese & the McDonald's playground
• Waterparks, beach, sand, picnics
• Trampolines, rollercoasters, swings
• Games: hide and seek
• Museums and the zoo
• Disneyland
• Baths- (although there is wine involved, so I'm considering that a more European childhood perhaps)

I think we've gotta plan a bloggie field trip!  Anyone with me?

Back to my adult life, I cooked up a little fancy Oscar party for two on Sunday night:

• Spinach, broccoli slaw, green apple, tomato salad with spicy peanut dressing
• Baked mussels with marinara and garlic (not my  bag, but my male counterpart LOVES them)
• Organic chicken, almond, sesame, onion, and green bean stirfry.  Twice baked sweet potatoes with cheese
• Mixed olives and cheese on the side

Dessert was personalized for our calorie needs:

Hubby had the dulce de leche and I enjoyed this Cefiore fro yo.  This is hands down the best store bought fro yo I have ever had.  It's tart and creamy and I'm in love!

I topped it with frozen pom seeds and dark chocolate covered pom seeds.  LOVE.  I still have 3 more servings left and I'm spreading them out for my desserts this week!

I've also been enjoying this dang quesadilla for lunch and dinner throughout the week.  Just enjoy three of these and you'll get my meals for the week in a summary:

• Pink lady apple and gouda cheese on a sprouted grain tortilla with extra crunch-age on the side

Questions for you:
1. What's your favorite lower body exercise?  I like squats assisted with a balance ball
2. What's your favorite ice cream?  I love fro yo best, but real ice cream is mint chocolate chip!

Never Too Old for a Field Trip

Last week was one tornado of a week and this weekend has followed in its tracks!  I must be getting old, but time seems to be traveling so quickly- not a bad thing when it's the bad stuff, but I wish it would slow down for weekends and weeks that I have work and school deadlines breathing down my back!  Enough of that- let's get to what we did on Saturday.

One of the great things about living in the San Francisco Bay Area are the cultural amenities.  We live about 30 minutes away from the city and we really love mixing things up and coming to play tourist for the day.  Yesterday we went to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  We have both gone there for field trips back in the day and this was a great time to explore the newly pimped out museum.

The website describes it as "the only place on the planet with an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum, and a 4-story rainforest all under one roof" and hubby and I spent 5 hours exploring.  It seems like we were the only adults there without rugrats, but hey- it's still only 6 months into our marriage and I made sure to make all the requisite bathroom stops, so I perfectly replicated the child-like experience for my date that day.

We started with a beautiful drive into San Francisco.  The weather was gorgeous.

We explored the rainforest

 Stopped to see an albino gator (he's in the back)

Learned about the carbon footprint of a fruit plate:

(Thumbs up to fruit plates, as long as they are local!)
I stopped for about 15 minutes to watch the Penguins in the Africa exhibit.  I wanted to take a couple home with me.  Who doesn't love penguins?

We also went up to look at the roof- this building has a living roof, making it one of the most sustainable buildings ever.  It is stunning from the inside too!

We were starving by about 3:30 and stopped for a late lunch while waiting for the planetarium show.  All the food here is local and organic and it was no PB&J sandwich!  We shared both dishes.

First up, shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce:

Next up- curry chicken salad with almonds and mandarin slices:

Both were ridiculously good and restaurant quality!
I would love to go back and visit when they update their new prehistoric mammal exhibit or to spend the day exploring.  It was so nice to get away and pretend to be a kid!

Now I'm back to adult-land with homework, gym, housework, and other shtuff to do!

What are your favorite kid-like activities?  Mine include field trips, random playground equipment explorations, any type of museum, and trampolines or jump houses!

Yo Yo Yo

Hi Dolls!  I'm crazy busy and chasing my tail, but I just couldn't stay away!  I've been digging on some good food and I would like to feature the snack of the week!

Plain tart and dark chocolate fro yo with kiwi, blueberries, and a sprinkle of coconut and dark chocolate shavings.  Heaven in the middle of a cu-razy day!

I've got some nutty projects at work, nutty projects at school, a busy home, and time with my hubby!  All good things- no complaints!

Take care lovelies! I'll be back with regular programming soon!  XOXO <3
What's been keeping you busy lately?

Awesomely Bad Combos

One thing healthy food bloggers are known for is mixing together obnoxious combos and starting a revolution by getting other to follow along.  Have you ever thought of putting cocoa powder, cottage cheese, and protein powder in oats?  How about eating your oats from a near empty peanut butter jar?  Do you have the impulse to mix pumpkin into greek yogurt and sprinkle it with ten superfoods as well?

I've been digging the odd combos lately and wanted to share a couple with you!

First up- a flourless wrap by Alvarado Street Bakery filled with sliced apples and a slice a gouda cheese.  The cheeze and apple combo were awesome.  I also had it with the rest of the apple and sugar snap peas.  'Twas fabulous!

Next was cauliflower and green beans sauteed in veggie stalk then I added tomatoes and when the veggie stalk began to reduce, scrambled in two whole eggs.  I accidentally spilled half of my remains of nooch and drowned it in spicy peanut dressing.  It was surprising good, healthy, filling and high protein!  I called this dinner.

I mixed up my workout with:

• 5 minute warm up on the elliptical
• 15 minute interval run on the treadmill
• 10 minutes of intervals on the stairmill
• 5 back exercises that I can't even describe, but they took me about 25 minutes to complete

I've been guilty of falling into the cardio princess zone so I've been doing shorter, more intense spurts of cardio mixed with lifting.  I have been supervised by my personal trainer (hubby) and haven't been able to have full use of my arms in about three days, so I'm assuming I'm on the right track! 

Tell me what you've been doing to mix up your workouts?

What are you favorite food combos lately?

Got a question for me?  Ask me here!

Pancake Monster

Thank you guys for all the wishes on my last post!  You sure know how to make a girl feel special :)

I love reading your comments and besides making my head infinitely larger with each comment, ya'll sometimes even like my eats.  The fabulous Jenna asked me how I make my microwave protein pancakes so I decided to write out the recipe.  I have a bit of a problem with following recipes as I like to get creative (nevermind my problem with authority) and make my own up along the way.  I adapted this from lots of blog ladies who could actually flip pancakes!  I started making microwave pancakes when my regular pancake attempts looked like this:

I could never flip them, so I would end up in a blob.  Once I came to the realization that I will never be a pancake flipper, I put the whole mix in the microwave and got this:

Here is the recipe:
Microwave Protein Pancakes:

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 whole egg or 1 eggwhite (I have also done the flax egg thang)
• Fruit substance- you can use one of the following: 
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 smashed banana

• Protein powder of choice- I use 1/2 scoop of vanilla whey by Cyto Sport or 1/2 scoop Trader Joe's Chocolate Hemp Powder
• Chia seeds and/or flax seeds
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Liquid choice (pick one)
• Splash of almond milk
• POM juice
• Odwalla Superfood juice
• Water works too

Directions: Add all dry ingredients, mix in all of the wet ingredients- the liquid of choice should be used only if you feel like the batter isn't thick enough.  Nuke in the microwave for 90 seconds- if it is still squishy, add another 30 seconds at a time until it looks done.  Remember, food continues to cook even once the clock is up!
Top with toppings of choice- I like Greek yogurt, almond butter, cacao powder, cinnamon, or fruit.

The nutritionals on this vary, but it can pack anywhere from 350-450 fabulous filling protein and carb delicious calories.  Give the recipe a try and let me know how you like it!

Other things I've been loving:
Homemade juice pulp crackers (pre-cutting!):

Kumquats!

They are the size of large grapes and you can eat the whole thing.  Find out more about them here!
They are grown in California, so I guess they are semi-local for me.  I eat them and twitch each time because they are so sour they are sweet- if that makes any sense!

Announcements
Beth from Dining and Dishing  I need your contact info so I can get you your prize!


What's your favorite bizarro fruit?  I like kumquats (plus it's a fun word to say) and all the hybrid fruits like those donut peach things!

Have a great Tuesday!