End of an Era?

Happy Saturday!  How's the weekend treating you?  So far so good on the homestead!

Brenton and I are preparing ourselves for Monday, what might be the end of an era.  We're going to a new doctor- an Integrative Medicine doctor.  He promotes healing/illness prevention through nutrition.  Why doesn't every doctor do this?  We will be talking to him about our ancestral history and getting a script for specific bloodwork tests that will determine where we're at health-wise.  He'll then give us our food and supplement list to follow, and then blood tests will determine if the food/supplements need changed or if we're on the right track.

So, we eat very healthy, you know that (LOL).  However... the end of an era may come for us.  You see, my grandparents were from Italy.  Brenton's great-grandparents were from Italy.  What does that mean?  Most western Europeans back in the day didn't eat a lot of gluten, and therefore, developed an intolerance to it.  This is passed down through genetics.  Ruh roah.  Goodbye to pizza and pasta as we know it... possibly.  We'll see soon!

To prepare ourselves for this transition, I have started experimenting with some GF recipes.  This is one of my new FAVORITES, thanks to Gina (xoxo!).  Quinoa Pita Tortilas.

Seriously, easiest.ever.  Ever.

 Here it is- the quinoa in the coffee grinder.

Mix the quinoa flour with equal parts water (about 1/4 C for 1 serving), and fry over medium heat in butter.   Season with salt to taste.  I added Italian seasoning and garlic.  Fan-Tastic.

 I decided to turn these little beauties into pizza crusts!  Genius!

So I'm still experimenting with this one.  I found out online that you could also make your own RICE FLOUR!  Who knew?!  Here I am, trying out GF cookies.

 Flour?  Sure, we'll try it!!

Who knew?!
No need to buy expensive bagged rice flour!  Just make your own.

Brenton said "YUM!", so they must have turned out ok!  I just used my vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I got from here, and subbed rice flour for whole wheat flour.  They turned out quite nicely!  A little gritty, so my sister says I need to get a Vita Mix.  Yeah, it may come to that, but they really weren't too bad with just a regular coffee grinder!

So, I'm kinda feeling semi-ok with this possible GF life.  I like experimenting with new recipes and trying new things.  It will certainly be a life change, but it can't be that much different than going vegetarian and cutting out junk food.  I'm ready for the journey, whatever it may be.

xoxo

Travel Series.... continued. Breakfast Cookie!

Enjoy! Inspired by the Fitnessista!  <3

xoxo

Oh the Burger...

Hi everybody!  I'm sooooo happy to share that the weight is STILL going down!  151 on the nose yesterday!  4 lbs to go!!  ALLLLLMOST THERE!!

I started the day with a LOVELY Breakfast Cookie

Lunchie was an Apple with Almond Butter and Chili, with a loverly Larabar for a mid-afternoon snack.

Dinner took a little while to make (BUT IT WAS SOOOOO WORTH IT!), so I snacked on a little bit of Barbara's Shredded Oats.  LOVE this.

So I have to share my dinner recipe. THANK YOU GENA AT CHOOSING RAW!!!!  I gotta tell ya, these are the best veggie burgers that I have EVER made.  Ever.

As you can see, I was copying the recipe LIVE from Gena's site hehehehe.

Here is her recipe, from choosingraw.com :

Gena’s Homemade Sunshine Burgers

1 cup sunflower seeds, ground in a food processor or coffee/spice mill

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 tbsp ground flax seed

2/3 cup chopped carrot

2/3 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onion (optional) (**I did put this in**)

2 tbsp water

1 tsp Herbamare seasoning (or to taste) (**I used whatever herbs I had in the spice cabinet**)

--------------------------------------------

Here's what I did:

Preheat the oven to 375

In a food processor, process the sunflower seeds, then process everything else.

Mold into patties and place on an oiled baking sheet.

Bake 15 min, then turn over and bake 15 more.

DEVOUR.

 

I put mine on toasted TJ's Sprouted Bread with Tomatoes, Lettuce, and Brown Mustard.  O.M.G people, this is the best veggie burger ever.  Thanks for sharing, Gena!!!

Dessert was a date, that I got on SALE at Kroger!  Can't beat $2.99 for a big old box of dates!!!

Have a lovely evening, all! 

On the up and up!

Hi everybody!  Sorry I have been MIA for the last day or so-  summer has hit me with a BANG!  Running here, running there, doing this, doing that.  PHEW!

So here's an update!  Friday, I weighed in at 152.8!!  (dances)

For breakfast, I had the breakfast cookie-o-champions:

Massive.  I used Gina's recipe, and then added a little more oats and replaced the nut butter with a little bit of chia seeds.  OH and topped it with a ton of cinnamon.  Yum to the max.


Lunch was about the same as the day before, a TJ's Tortilla (whole wheat, of course) topped with Avocado, Lettuce, Salsa, and my dad added a Tomato.


















And a nice juicy Apple with Almond Butter (oops, forgot to take a picture of the AB.... oh well, you know what it looks like HAHA)

All day I was GIDDY because our CSA was going to start!  I went to my sister's house and picked up this week's shipment-  Organic Greens and Organic
Cherries.  FAB!!!

And some of HEAB's Oaties hiding underneath.  My sister won her Oaties from Angela's Shop 4 A Cause a few weeks ago, and she was kind enough to share with her oat-loving sister.  How nice!


I had to try one!















Pure....heaven.....

So, since we had massive amounts of Lettuce and Cherries, I decided to make a Stuffed Potato and have a CUP of Cherries on the side.  MMMMMmmmmm....

For my Stuffed Potato, I baked a Potato and cut it in half, then topped it with a HUGE handful of Lettuce, a chopped Celery stalk, steamed Broccoli, and a dab of Salsa.  This is one of my favorites.  FILLING!!

Are you participating in a CSA this year?  How about going to Farmers Markets?  I'm excited to see what we get next week!!

Have a LOVELY rest of your Sunday!

The Diet.... Day 1

Happy almost Friday to you all!!!  If you haven't already done so, I'm now on Facebook and would LOVE for you to be my friend!  Click over there (and down a little bit) to follow -------->

I want to thank you for your kind comments so far!  The last post was a lot of ramblings, which I hope will get me where I want to be, and inspire you to come along, too!  Sorry for the delay in update- I was going to post last night, but then there were tornados and power outages that set me back a little bit (GEEZ!).   

Soooooo..... yesterday, I weighed in at 154.2.  We all have to start somewhere, right?


Breakfast was a Breakfast Cookie (THANK YOU GINA!) that I added some Chia Seeds to.  It seriously tasted as good as it looks.  I'll be adding chia for the rest of my Breakfast Cookie days!!

Lunch was all packed up and ready to go-  an Apple, some Almonds, and a huge jar of Rice/Lentil salad, leftover from the night before.

Rice/Lentil Salad (serves 1):

1/4 c of Lentils (dry)

1/2 c of Quick Cook Brown Rice (dry)

1/2 c Frozen Peas

1/2 c Frozen Spinach

2 T Organic Soy Sauce

In a pan, boil water and cook lentils for 10 min.

Add the rice and cook 5 more minutes.

Remove from heat, and stir in frozen peas and spinach.  Let sit a couple of minutes to thaw the veggies.

Strain the water from the mixture and stir in soy sauce.

HOLY YUM, BATMAN.  I love this quick meal!

....needless to say, though, I was STAR-VING by the time I got home.  Must... bring.... snack...

Dinner was a BIG SALAD with Arugula, Spinach, Tomatoes, Celery, and Avocado.  I also made up a dressing to pour on top!  I also chopped up a mango that I forgot to take a picture of.  Doggone it!

Mustard Dressing

2 T Brown Mustard (I used Trader Joe's)

1 T White Vinegar

1 T Water

Mix, pour.  YUM.

After doing a few errands, before the storms (EEK) came, I did Jillian's 30 Day Shred level 1.  I finished just in time because on my final stretch I heard this 'thump thump thump thump' (that's Brenton running down the stairs) "Aaron just called, let's go down in the basement.  The storm is coming quickly and it's pretty strong".  Oh good...  So I grabbed two huge glasses of water, a Larabar (that I didn't end up eating), my purse, computer, and phone, and headed downstairs.  Sure enough, the tornado sirens started going off.  As soon as I sat down on the basement floor, the lights went out.  For 3 hours.  Joy.  After about an hour, the sirens stopped and we went back upstairs.  I fixed myself a piece of bread with a little bit of peanut butter and had a few bites of the BEST cereal in the world- Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls.  But my brain wasn't working to take a picture since I couldn't really see what I was doing to begin with. 

All in all, I ate 1420 calories; 100 calories less than my BMR (whoo!), and exercised off at least 157 calories according to my HRM.  This left me with a deficit of 409 calories for the day, factoring in that my Active Metabolic Rate is 1672.  Not bad!

Oh.... and I weighed in this morning and was 153 on the nose!

Happy almost Friday everybody!

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.

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.

Oat Groats...

After reading The Fitnessista's New oaty love posting, I decided to be bold, and try some oat groats myself! I'm a big oatmeal fan, so I figured, 'oh, heck, why not!'. I went to our local natural market and picked up a pound of oat groats (from the bulk bins), and some Synergy Kombucha (yum!).



Before going to bed (around 9pm) I put 1/2 cup of the groats into a glass bowl with 1/2 cup of water, and let them sit overnight.




By the morning, most of the liquid had been absorbed (sorry for the fuzz!!)




Then, I drained them, and mixed in 3/4 of a small mashed banana, and cinnamon, and topped it with thawed frozen organic raspberries and 6 crushed almonds.




YUM!! It was such a strange texture, but all of the flavors mixed together made it very enjoyable! I just finished my bowl, and should be full for a good long while! I encourage everyone to try oat groats!! This would be a great 'on the go' breakfast, since refrigeration and heat were no factor in making it!

Next time, I might try some other fruit alternatives- apple, blueberry, or strawberry, and instead of almonds, put in a teaspoon of peanut butter? YUM YUM YUM!!!

So, take care of yourself, and take care of each other. Until next time, try some oat groats! Namaste.