Greenie Monday!

Hello all! Busy Monday, today was! I started things off right with a GM- and added a new ingredient... KALE! Boy those leaves are huge-o!!! But, tasty and a great addition. I needed to spice things up a little bit!!



It made the color SO green! In this lovely glass there was 1 Kale leaf, 1/2 zucchini, 1 kiwi, 1/2 orange, 1/3 frozen banana, and a little bit of water. I paired it with a piece of Ezekiel bread with AB and organic jelly- kept me going until 10:30ish (which was almost 4 hours later), where I had a Cashew Cookie Larabar. YUM!! Lunch wasn't anything exciting, and I forgot to take a picture of it. I had organic black bean soup with celery and the other half of the orange. Since today was so busy and I didn't feel much like cooking, I stopped at Meijer and got Brenton an Amy's burrito (he liked it a lot!), and surfed online to see what I should make for myself. Then, I saw Gena's post about her raw zucchini soup, and I knew I had to try it!!!

Here's all of the yumminess in the blender- look at all those veggies!!! Haha lovely workstation... I've got my recipe up on my computer, my lemon all over the place... oye. That's how I work!



Anyway, blend blend blend away!! Quite the action shot.



Looks a whole heck of alot like the GM I made this morning... but, it tasted MUCH different. Haha and I even had a square bowl to put it in... just like Gena!



I made a chopped fruit salad of organic strawberries and peaches- YUM-O!! I did break the raw rules a little bit by adding some Tabasco sauce to the top of the soup... ah well.

While cleaning up the kitchen, I noticed that I had some little guys growing on my pepper plants outside! I was so excited that I had to take pictures! My little babies!!







It seems like only yesterday that I had little seeds planted in my kitchen- look how big they've gotten! All started from little bitty seeds. Too fun.

Well, I'm off to get ready for tomorrow and watch Anthony Bourdain. New season starts tonight at 10pm!!! Have a lovely evening. Until next time, try your hand at green-ness... whether it's making Green Monsters, raw green soup, or using your green thumb, GREEN is the trend. Follow it. Love it. Green is good.

Namaste.

My New Bedroom!!! Swan Inspired!

Good Sunday all! Today I was a busy bee putting into play what I had been thinking about doing for a loooong time. For those who have not figured it out already, I am a HUGE Walt Disney World fan. HUGE. You don't get much HUGER than me! Well, my FAVORITE resort to stay at while we're there is the Walt Disney World Swan. Since I love it so much, and I'm crazy, I decided to redo our bedroom to look like the Swan!!! Check out my inspiration...















Thank you Tripadvisor.com for using your lovely picture!!! This was my inspiration for the new room, ah I love that place....

Here's the old room. If you remember, it looks a lot like the old bathroom I had too...





Soooo, are you ready? The big reveal! Under $100 later...





MUCH different, huh? It makes the room look so much cleaner and spa-like. LOVE IT!!! Believe it or not, I'm going to be looking online to find an oil to burn that smells just like the lobby of the Swan too... I told you I'm crazy! For those Disers that are interested- it's the Chamomile and White Tea scent at the Body Shop.

Hope you all have a fantastic start of the week!!! Oh by the way, I'm hoping to win the WONDERFUL book that Ms. Fitnessista is giving away!! I hope I win!!

Sorry, no food today! Until next time, do something that makes you happy, no matter how weird it might be!! Namaste.

Vegan Wednesday!

Hello! Happy WednesdayalmostThursday!! Today I had a dentist appt. (no cavities yay!) in the morning so I could take a little more time in the AM than usual. I did some ironing, cleaning, etc....

Made a fantastic FANTASTIC green monster this morning, and paired it with a piece of Ezekiel with AB and jelly.



My WONDERFUL GM was made out of 1/2 frozen banana, few pieces of pineapple, kiwi, spinach, and 1/2 zucchini. YUM!!! Best smoothie in a LONG time! Might have to do a 'round 2' tomorrow!!

Then I went to the dentist, and on to work. At work I snacked on a Cherry Pie Larabar... forgot to take a picture. ...oops.

At lunch I had rice/lentil salad that I made last night, paired with 1/2 orange.



Haha that's not how much I ate- that's the whole batch! Brenton had that for lunch too. It was very very yummy. I'm going to bring it for lunch tomorrow, too. It's made out of...

Equal parts cooked Brown Rice and Lentils
Chopped Onion
Chopped Carrots
Tiny drizzle of Rice Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

That's it! SO EASY and SO YUMMY!!

But, that doesn't take the cake of what I made for dinner. ...I'm getting ahead of myself...

After work I went to a local farmers market. It was 'opening day' so I was very excited. I got some zucchini (for my raw pasta) and some cucumbers.





THEN, there was dinner. OH I AM SO PROUD OF THIS MEAL. Tonight's dinner was inspired by the veggi sandwich that they serve at ESPN on Disney's Boardwalk. Gina had posted about this wonderful sandwich that she, too, has eaten. Here's the finished product (served with a peach)...





Not to toot my own horn... but TOOT TOOT!!! Here's what I did:

I sliced up onion, mushroom, zucchini and peppers, tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them in the oven for 15-ish minutes at 425.

While they were roasting, I made a 'guac' out of avocado, 1/2 small lemon (juice only), salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. I also lightly toasted the Ezekiel bread.

Once the veggies were done, I topped the toasted Ezekiel with the guac and a few basil leaves, and layered all of the veggies (as many as I could!!). This was the best sandwich EVER!!!! I'll definitely do this again!! Brenton liked it too, just not as much as I did I think.

Well, I'm off to do Jillian, LEVEL 3 of the 30 Day Shred. I'm going to bounce back and forth from the 'hard' to the 'modified', depending on the move. Have a lover-ly evening! Until next time, try this FAB veggi sandwich!!!!! And eat vegan. It's really not that hard- trust me.

Green Tuesday!

First of all, I wan to say CONGRATULATIONS to Jenna for making the top 10 for the Murphy-Goode job!!!

So today was the ultimate GREEN Tuesday! I swear, almost everything I ate was green today! I started the day off with a GM to go!! It was made with spinach, cucumber, ice, banana, pineapple, whey powder, and a little bit of water.



Sorry... I also think it was the day of blurry pictures, too.

It was potluck day at work, so I made some weeeeee little 'Carlibars' to share.


Aren't they cute? I made them tiny because I wasn't sure how the office would react to them. I made oatmeal raisin, and chocolate coconut. I thought they were good! Anyway, I had a late morning snack of 1/2 an orange and AB and organic strawberry jelly on an Ezekiel tortilla. I was hoping this would hold me through lunch time, to avoid all of the 'goodies' at the potluck. No such luck... more on that in a minute.



The Ezekiel tortilla is really good!! Love me some sprouted goodness! Plus AB and jelly-- oh it's heaven! The only problem was that any time I took a bite, it squirted all over the place hahahaha!

So, on to the potluck. There weren't a lot of options that I was willing to 'indulge' in (if you will). I did have some melon, 2 tiny meatballs in marinara sauce, and a salad. Well, unfortunately, I ate some MSG (and knew it as soon as I did because I recognized the recipe of the salad from when I was younger... totally SCREAMING in my head), so I stopped eating and immediately took my lunch hour. I needed to do some damage control.

I got some kombucha tea (this flavor I hadn't had before... there was blue-green algae, spirulina, and other goodies in it!):



and a Green bar (since I didn't really eat lunch because of my brief freak-out moment):



This baby was good!!! LOTS AND LOTS of goodies in it- every green veggie you could imagine! Kinda expensive though- $2.45.

This combo kept me full until I got home! ...which was over 4 hours. That's a record for me! The kombucha kept me from feeling sick and horrible, though I did bloat up a wee bit. BUT I could still fit comfortably into my 'skinny pants', so all was well in the world I guess.

For dinner tonight I made a Trader Joe's chicken burger. Brenton had his like a normal burger (bun and all). I topped mine with, you guessed it, more greens!!



There really is a chicken burger under there! I also topped it with salsa, Franks Red Hot, 1/4 avocado, and some onion. YUM.

Happy green day! I love eating and drinking greens-- it makes me feel sooo good! Isn't it amazing what people DON'T KNOW that they're putting in their bodies? That's part of the reason that I don't like normal potlucks... there's so much hidden in foods that you don't know is there, unless YOU made it and are educated about what's good for you and what's not. Oh well- I'll keep trying to spread my knowledge. I don't think people loved the little carlibars that I made, but that's ok. They're not your traditional chemical-laden cookies that everyone that doesn't know any better is used to.

I'm off to do some monster resistance training. I'm aiming for soreness tomorrow!! Until next time- start getting the chemicals out of your foods. MSG is bad, people! BAD!

Namaste <3 :o)

Just Another Manic Monday...

Hi everyone. What a day!!! The Monday after a long weekend... boy o boy! Work was SUPER busy... my car battery died and had to be replaced- on my lunch hour... I had tons of dishes and cleaning at home... oye!! On a good note, I've the Golden Girls on since I got home (it's 9:15pm, and I turned them on at 5pm... that's almost 4 hours HAHAHA!) They always make things better. Here are the meals for the day...

Started the day off right with a GM and a few almonds---


This one had a big handful of spinach, cucumber, carrots, pineapple, banana, and protein powder. The cucumber was pretty strong, but it was still good!!

Had an Apple Pie Larabar for a snack... forgot to take a picture...

Lunch was whole wheat pasta salad with a TON of veggies, and a watered down version of guacamole for a 'sauce'. Also paired it with 1/2 an orange.



YUM!!! ...and then my car died... ok I'm over it. Anyway...

For dinner I made veggi sushi rolls, out of carrots, onion, cucumber, and avocado, wrapped in nori. It looks horrible, but tasted GREAT. I topped it with soy sauce and rice vinegar, and paired it with 1/2 a grapefruit, and a few bites of the 'Carlibars' I made for tomorrow's potluck (at work).







So, food wise it was a good day! I'm ready for a new day, though! Until next time, get over your Manic Monday's! Namaste.

5K Day- 4th of July!

Good evening all. I'm taking a break from getting ready for the week ahead... a 5 day week?! What AM I going to do?!

Well anyway, yesterday, I ran in a 5K. My goal was to run the whole thing... and run it in under 40 min (37 to be exact). I've said it before, and I'll say it again- I was not born a runner. I'm not built like a runner. Endurance is not my thing, and it never has been. I'm more of a bulky sprinter/weight lifter type person. I'm a FAST runner... but for a VERY short amount of time... and then I fizzle. That said...

In the morning, I started the day off with a piece of Ezekiel with AB and organic jelly, and water of course. I didn't want to have too heavy of a breakfast. Now unfortunately, we had to be out the door by 6:55am to get to the race site on time. YIKES! Too bad the night before we stayed up past 11:00pm... DOUBLE YIKES! But, overall, I felt pretty good, and not too tired. Yet.

We got to the race site, signed in, and pinned on my number. Number 2. Ok... weird.



My Superman pose- like I'm going to go save the day or something. So I was all rearin' to go. I had my heart rate monitor on, and my ipod was stocked with 38 min of Disney rides (haha... yeah I know.) Well, the first problem was, once the buzzer sounded to start the race, I couldn't figure out how to start my timer on my monitor! What are the odds... it wasn't until halfway through the race when I finally got it going. I was pushing the wrong buttons I guess. My Disney rides kept me company (for all of you Disers out there, I had Maelstrom, KS (the song part of the ride), EEA (the opening), RoC (whole thing), and LwtL (whole thing) ). I'm thinking next time though, songs might be a better idea just because it'll give me a beat to run to, and I'll better be able to keep track of time.

I started off the run at a slow-ish, but steady pace. I ran and ran (ok, jogged and jogged). I saw my brother in law pass me (after the turn around), then Brenton. I yelled to Brenton "I've run this whole time!!"... and then it hits. My legs did NOT want to run anymore. Yes folks, I had to stop and walk... but only for 20ish seconds to catch my breath. Then I ran again... and yet again had to walk a little bit. All in all, I ran more than I ever had before. Unfortunately, I finished at 40:26... not 37:00... but really, last year at the END of the year, I ran in the 39's, so this being my 3rd race of the year, 40:26 isn't that bad. And it's REALLY good for me. Here's me running and waving to my sister (who's taking the picture) at the end of the race:



Boy was I glad to see that finish line!!!!! Oh the heart rate monitor thing- once I figured out how to start it, I kept an eye on my heart rate... 183 most of the time!!! YiKeS!!! That's part of the reason that I had to slow down and walk a little bit. Considering my MAX is 195... not good.

The next race is sometime at the end of this month- The World Famous Pig Run at the Jazz and Ribs festival downtown. That's a toughie!!! It's at 7pm, and it's always HOT and kinda hilly-ish. Last year at that one the heat gave me and my sister a cramp.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to keep working on my endurance. Any advice would be MUCH APPRECIATED!!

Have a good start of the week! Namaste.

Raw Apple Pie!!

Happy July 3rd everybody!!!



OF COURSE I HAD TO PUT MICKEY AND MINNIE IN HERE SOMEWHERE!!

I am outside with my husband and his parents, enjoying a fire...



and reading Fitnessista's blog (HEHE!).



In celebration of this wonderful holiday weekend, I decided to make something as American as it comes... with a twist. Ani Phyo's RAW APPLE PIE. You can watch her make it on youtube: This is the best pie I've ever made!!! YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS, PEOPLE!!!

The ingredient list is simple (taken from Ani's book, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen):

Crust:
1/4 cup almonds (MY ADDITION TO THE RECIPE LIST)
2 cups almonds (yes, you need 2 different measurements of almonds)
1 t salt (I used sea salt)
2 cups pitted dates

Syrup:
1/2 cup pitted dates
1 orange, peeled and seeded
Splash of water, as needed (I used 1/4 cup)

Filling:
5 cups apples, peeled, seeded, thinly sliced, about 5 or 6 apples (I used 5)
1 cup raisins
2 T ground cinnamon

Directions (these are MY directions, paraphrased from Ani's book):
Finely chop 1/4 c almonds in a food processor, until powdery. Sprinkle in the bottom of a pie pan to coat (this keeps the crust from sticking)
Process the rest of the 'crust' ingredients to form a dough. Press the dough into pie pan, on top of almond powder.
Mix together 'syrup' ingredients in the food processor, and set aside. This should be a thick gel.
Mix the syrup with the 'filling' ingredients in a big bowl, until the apples are fully coated.
Pour this mixture into the pie crust, about 3/4 of the way up. You do have the option to fill the whole pie up just like that, but if you want a nice presentation, arrange the apple slices on the top of the pie in a fan shape.
Refrigerate overnight. Then... eat it. YUM! Here's my process, in pictures:



Here's my crust. See how I pinched the edges? Pretty!!! The almond powder spread around when I was pressing the crust into the pan.



Next, my filling. I poured this into a big mixing bowl, and mixed the apples and whatnot all together.



YUM. Then I poured all of that yummyness into the crust, and arranged the apples on the top.



Here's the finished product! I ate some of the leftover filling... and BOY O BOY IT'S YUMMY! This is going to be my staple dessert for 4th of July... Thanksgiving... Christmas... Yay raw foods!!!

Have a happy 3rd of July!! We'll be watching Red White and Boom soon on the TV! OH I forgot to tell you- we're running a 5K tomorrow... EARLY! We have to be about 40 min from home by 7:40am... ugh!!! Race starts at 8am. I'm going to TRY TO RUN THE WHOLE THING. Now when I say run, I mean jog... slowly. I want to be consistent and try to get my time down to 37 min. Last season my best time was 39 min... so trying to shave off 2 min. might be hard, but I'll be listening to my Disney World rides on my ipod, so it might keep me going! I'll let you know!!

Have a wonderful evening!! Enjoy the fireworks! Namaste.

Raw-ish, Vegetarian-ish week

Hi everybody!! Hope you're enjoying your short work week (I hope you HAVE a short work week!!). I've been busy with this and that... so it's taken me a while to share my recent yummy foodies with you!

Yesterday I had some yummy soaked oat groats for breakfast. I love these little guys! So chewy, so good! I don't think these little guys are considered raw per se, but they're raw-ish. I had them mixed with 1/2 of a nanner, some AB, cinnamon, and some frozen organic raspberries. YUM YUM!!



I'm normally starving 3 hours after breakfast... but after eating groats, I'm still rolling after 4! I munched on a Jocalat bar (aka Larabar). 90% raw (most Larabars are 100% raw from what I understand). I also had a couple of kiwi's.



Lovely late morning snack. After taking my lunch hour, and working some more, I had my raw pasta (aka peeled zucchini, chopped carrots, cherry tomatoes) topped with smooshed tomatoes and garlic. I forgot to take a picture of that... OOPS! It was too good I guess!

For dinner I made my lover-ly 'veggie sushi salad', made out of brown rice, roasted nori, avocado, and carrots.



I could eat nori every single day. I LOVE THAT STUFF!!!

I also made up a batch of my UBER YUMMY bean burgers to have later in the week (and for Brenton to have because he doesn't really like the sushi salad (the nori tastes like fish to him... and that's a no no).

Here are my super simple ingredients:



As you can see, just a couple pieces of whole wheat bread, carrots, onion, peppers, beans, and spices (and OF COURSE Tabasco sauce...). I love this meal!

First I chopped the bread (I used 2 pieces) in the food processor, and then added the veggies.




I chopped all of that up, and then added the beans (rinsed and drained) and spices.



Gave it all a good blending so it looked like bean dip (and it would have been good to just eat it how it was!!) I then threw it on the stove in a greased pan, and put it on a baking sheet to freeze for later.





All while watching my FAVORITE on tv...



Recognize that? I do!! Yes, I've ridden that one...



It's Samantha Brown's favorite Disney Rides... of COURSE I had that on tv!!

Tonight I made an organic red cabbage salad, topped with carrots, onion, tomatoes, and YUMMY CHICKEN CILANTRO WONTONS from TJ's. OMG so good!! I topped it all with a dressing I made out of soy sauce, olive oil, and pepper.



Check out the ingredient list on these wontons (clicky on the picture)!! Love it.



YUM. I paired it all with an orange, and it was a great meal!



Have a fantastic evening everybody! I'm off to do a little bit of Jillian (yeah... level 3 of the shred... o-m-g...). I'll be back either tomorrow or Friday. I'm very excited for Friday because I'm going to be making Ani Phyo's RAW APPLE PIE! I'm going to pair it with some raw banana 'frozen yogurt'... oh so excited! You don't get more American than apple pie and ice cream... even if it is raw!

Until next time, make some yummy, healthy food!! Namaste.