I love bread

Before I headed out for my errands, I ate some lunch. Behold, finally, some good natural light in my kitchen!

Lunch was leftover refried bean cakes with some mixed veggies, pita & hummus, and a pickle.  I love throwing lunches like this together, you get a little taste of everything 🙂

When I went grocery shopping today, I came across some bread, so I decided it would go well with my dinner 🙂

I love that this bread has real chunks of garlic in it and not that nasty buttery garlic spread.

I love bread. I love carbs. I’ve gone back and forth on here about how much I need or whether certain ones are good or bad.

But the bottom line is, I love them, I need them, therefore I’m going to eat them. But I still need to maintain some control! So I cut off my one piece…

And then put the rest in a freezer bag to save for later!

It also helped that I got garlic bread, so I’m not tempted to get out a piece and spread peanut butter on it, ha ha!

For dinner, I made spaghetti and topped it with some light Ragu sauce (tomato basil) and kidney beans for some protein.

For once, I actually measured out the right portion of spaghetti (which equals 1 cup cooked). I took what I would normally get out of the box and then cut that in half!

We’re getting ready to watch “Halloween 2” which seems weird for this time of year. We watched “Saw VI” last night, which was okay but it’s like they keep upping the ick factor instead of making the story more interesting.

But it was okay. We’ll see about this next one!

Seen any good movies lately?

Snow, waffles, ambience

We got a few inches of snow overnight and into this morning. I had a fun walk with Suzie!

Last night when we were waiting for it to start snowing (we stayed home and cozy), I had decided to make waffles in the morning!

My parents tried this mix recently and didn’t like it. I was bummed for them, but it worked out for me. 🙂

I used 3/4 cup of the mix and then added 1/2 cup soy milk, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup applesauce (for the egg) and 1/4 cup pumpkin (for the oil and flavor).

Plus some pumpkin pie spice, I almost forgot that!

The batch made about 5.5 waffles, so I had two drizzled with peanut butter and syrup and topped with a lovely banana.

Yumalicious!

Coffee was a must have, especially after my frigid trek outside (it’s in the single digits with the wind chill right now).

Just French vanilla coffee and soymilk. The way I like it 🙂

Right now, I’m listening to the “New Age Ambient” station on Pandora and thinking of doing some yoga on my own. It’s quite relaxing, I like to listen to it at work too.

Eventually I’m going to have to venture out for a while to my mom’s and the grocery store. But I’m taking my sweet time!

What are your plans for the day?

Green soup and stir fry madness

Yesterday for breakfast, I bulked up my oatmeal!

I used 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup plain soymilk, 1/4 cup of water. Then I added a tbsp of flaxseed meal, and my usual bananas and PB. This definitely kept me full for a while!

For lunch, I tried another new soup for me. I remember the days when I thought split pea soup was just what they used for The Exorcist!

It was quite green!

While it wasn’t my preferred consistency of split pea soup, it had a very unique taste to others I have tried.

It was kind of “peppery” and even a bit on the spicy side. I really enjoyed it. Whole wheat English muffin on the side.

I was planning on making baked tofu for dinner but then I remembered the tasty stir fry I made last week and all of the ones Mari has been enjoying lately.

So stir fry it was!

I started with the tofu this time, pressing out the water and browning it a bit.

Then I added this entire bag of veggies.

Then I poured a tablespoon of each of these into the skillet.

It was an interesting combination for sure, but it came out great! Sweet, hot and salty? Yes, please.

The veggies were good, I love asparagus and squash. I almost got a different bag but I’m so glad I went with this one.

Pita on the side with some Smart Balance Light. Perfect dinner!

I’m going to have to take a page out of Mari’s book next time and add some peanut butter!

Vegan brownies for dessert of course 🙂

 

I can’t wait to make more recipes out of My Sweet Vegan…perhaps later today?

Even if no one reads…

My best friend Courtney recently started a new blog and I hope she doesn’t mind me mentioning it here. But it has really inspired me.

It’s called “Even if it doesn’t pay…” and she discusses a lot of things going on in her life but mostly how all of this has inspired her to start writing again…even if it doesn’t pay. She’s very talented!

It got me thinking about my own blogging and how I have days where I think absolutely no one cares about or reads my blogs. I even feel silly sometimes putting all this out there.

But I know that’s not true. Sometimes it’s hard though, to see how well others blogs are doing and how even though I have been blogging for almost 2 years now, mine just hasn’t taken off the way I’d hoped it would.

But this brought me back down to Earth. Numbers of page hits, readers, and stats are not why I blog. I blog because I love it!

I blog about food because I love to cook and eat, especially now that I have a healthy relationship with food again. Especially now that I’m vegan!

I love to blog about exercise because I love it! I love to run, I love to sweat, and I love the Zen that comes from practicing yoga.

I love the way my body, mind and spirit feel because of the way I live now.

And I love all of you who stop by, leave me sweet comments, and make me feel like what I do matters to someone other than myself.

So, in the spirit of my dear friend, I’m going to keep it up, with a positive focus, and have fun.

Even if no one reads it.

🙂

Unexpected 2 miles

I surprised myself again yesterday.

It is always an interesting experience when you try to talk down a workout or not expect much from yourself and then you end up exceeding those expectations. It’s quite a feeling!

Since I did yoga on Thursday, I had it on my mind to do some cardio on Friday.

Technically, I needed to do a 2 mile run since I switched my cross-training day and also because of snow, it was highly unlikely that I’d run on Saturday.

But as the day went on, I started to think the treadmills would be full, so I’d better prepare for the elliptical. Or perhaps I’d take it easy and do the bike and read some…blah blah blah.

When I got to the gym, ALL the treadmills were EMPTY! This never happens.

There are only five and usually they are occupied, even on a Friday afternoon with snow in the forecast. I’ve actually been at the gym before when we closed early for inclement weather.

Today must have just been my day. So I jumped on, warmed up and started my jog toward 2 miles. I jogged for about 5 minutes and then did a few intervals – 3 minutes easy then 2 minutes at a challenging speed.

Here’s how I finished –

Distance: 2 miles

Time: 20:07

Pace: 10:03.5/mile

While I have certainly ran outside faster than that, for the treadmill this was awesome.

I also did a few sprints here and there, at one point, I managed to get the treadmill up to 8.0 mph! Usually at 7.0 or 7.5, I’m grabbing for the hand rails but I managed to swing my arms and keep up for a minute!

Though I usually don’t like to set race goals because they intimidate me, I have a feeling that sometime this year I will smoke my 5K PR of 29:28.

Since I’m doing several 5Ks this Spring, I’m not going to pick which one it will happen at, ha ha.

Have you surprised yourself during a work out recently? How did it make you feel?

Camera vs. Blackberry

This morning for breakfast, I tried the teeny tiny GoodBelly shot.

It’s always good to start the day off with a smile 🙂

I liked the flavor of this one but not quite as much as the mango. I also kind of wanted more so I don’t know that this size is good for me – I think I’ll pour two in a cup next time 😉

I also had an English muffin with natural PB to round it out.

Mid-morning, I had a banana.

Here it is: the first official Blackberry photo!

I can’t tell the difference, can you? Actually, I think it might even be better.

For lunch, I had leftover chickpeas, green beans and a pita. I actually got hungry before 11 this morning, which bothered me at first but I’ve learned that our bodies do things for a reason so I ate a little early today.

This lunch was not quite filling enough so I had my afternoon snack a little early. But this granola bar was good! Tasted like pancakes (the syrup I guess).

After work, I was headed to a yoga class, but felt quite hungry so I stopped for a snack first.

It wasn’t the best but it held me over pretty well. I think I might have to start bulking up my meals again to keep from needing to snack as much.

After my class, I had to head to a meeting at church (busy day!) and I was freezing plus knew it would be a while before I ate again, so I ordered a new drink (for me) at Starbucks!

It’s a soy Awake tea latte. I saw it online when I looked up nutritional info. It was perfect.

I still enjoy the chai latte, but Awake is actually one of my favorite Tazo teas, so I think I’ll be getting this one again soon.

I came home very hungry (again) so I threw together some stuff quickly.

Vegetarian baked beans, green beans, and a piece of toast with Smart Balance light. It hit the spot! I think I’ve officially turned into a green bean now though, ha.

Of course I had to finish it off with another delicious vegan brownie 🙂

Today was a whirlwind but I’m feeling great and that is all that matters. We’re expecting some snow tomorrow so I’m just praying we all get around safely!

Good night all 😉

New phone!

Hey guys, it’s official…I finally got a new phone 🙂

On the left is my old slide phone with absolutely nothing to it except making phone calls and text messaging (which didn’t know half the words of the English language) and liked to turn itself off randomly.

On the right is my new Blackberry, woo hoo!

It was so worth waiting for. I can do so much more with this new phone, plus it’s my favorite color 😉

Anyway, let’s talk about food, shall we?

I had another Breakfast and Dinner day as far as pictures go.

Pumpkin oats 🙂

Somehow snacks and lunch escaped. But that’s okay. For those of you interested in my fitness program, I had an awesome run yesterday too.

If it’s Wednesday, there must be wine!

I could not find Cycles Gladiator on my nifty vegan alcohol website, but honestly, I did not care for it too much so I likely wouldn’t buy it myself.

It just didn’t have much flavor. Plus I’m more of a red girl.

For dinner, Margie made this DELICIOUS veggie soup which I am very proud to say she got the recipe from one of my favorite vegan blogs Cooking for a Vegan Lover!

Croissants on the side, a la Aleta!

For dessert, we had the awesome vegan brownies.

Another awesome girls night.

I have the main dish next week, so I’m going to have to start looking at recipes!

Do you have a regular girl’s night?

I highly recommend them 😉

Yoga calling

My training schedule called for a 2 mile run, plus some weights if I felt up to it.

But around lunch time, I really started to feel the need for yoga. Like I was craving it! So I changed days around and made today cross-training aka yoga 🙂

Perhaps it was influenced by the headband I wore today? Ha ha.

So I went after work to a class for newbies but it was a bit more vigorous than that.

I had a few issues to start with: the instructor went a little too fast, the music didn’t feel right, plus the small room was really crowded!

But somehow I managed to focus and tried to get the most out of it while I was there.

Even though it wasn’t my “ideal” class, I still felt really great when I left there. I’m so glad I started this yoga challenge 4 weeks ago. I hope to keep it an integral part of my routine for a long time to come.

My question today for you is…what are some of your pet peeves in yoga classes?

Today, I found the instructor to be a little too high energy and unfocused. Plus she kept calling the poses by the wrong names.

But, I don’t want to judge too harshly, the class was free and Lord knows I call stuff wrong all the time. Namaste.

Vegan brownies rule

For my contribution to our girl’s night potluck, I decided to test out a new cookbook that Court gave me for Christmas.

I love the name, plus the entire cookbook is desserts! Doesn’t get much better than that.

I chose to start out with something I thought everyone would like…brownies!

I laid out all the ingredients, including some substitutions (like applesauce for oil). I also halved the sugar it called for because I know that is easily something to do that saves calories.

Since I used applesauce and didn’t have brown sugar, the “crumb top” was more of an “icing” but I just went with it.

I thought they turned out great! Everyone remarked that they tasted like fudge and I would have to agree. Nice and chocolatey, not overly sweet, just right.

I love recipe successes! I highly recommend this one, you won’t miss the eggs or dairy, seriously.

What is your favorite cookbook?

Heavy legs

When it was almost time for Farrah and I to go for our 4 mile run today, I didn’t want to. I felt kind of tired and just blah mentally. I even tweeted about it!

But I looked to the positive: the temperature is in the high 30’s and there is suddenly an abundance of sunshine. So at the very least, I can go outside and get some Vitamin D, right? I also felt very thankful for my training partner and friend today 🙂

I knew I was slow when we first started but truthfully, Farrah spent most of our run several feet in front of me. But I just kept chugging along. I never felt like walking or slowing down, my legs just felt “heavy” and didn’t want to move any faster than my pace.

Distance: 4.31 miles

Time: 43:14

Pace: 10:02/mile

Funny how that run felt slow, huh? I’m very pleased with how things turned out. And I’m glad I didn’t let my mental funk talk me out of running today.

If you’ve ever not felt like working out, what did you do to get yourself moving?