Out with the old...

Happy Saturday to all!! Today's mission was to clean out my closet!! Out with the old, to make room for the new!!

The day was off to a good start with a nummy breakfast- Egg White Omelet with peppers, a tiny sprinkle of cheese, hot sauce *YUM* and salsa. Paired with a couple of kiwi's and half of a piece of Ezekiel Bread topped with almond butter and cinnamon.





Mucho yum-o!! Then, nothing new- I taught some lessons, did some laundry, got my 10 min of sunshine... normal Saturday stuff. By the time the early part of the afternoon rolled around, I was ready to take on the challenge- oh the closet...

Here's what it looked like to start...



Full of too many clothes that I don't wear anymore. Too much stuff, holding me back from getting new, pretty things! I totally re-arranged how everything was set up, and got rid of clothes that I knew someone ELSE could use! After 2 hours (oye...) here's what it turned out to be...



YAY for organization. Now when I open the door, I don't scream!! I donated my clothes and stuff to AmVets... hopefully it all goes to someone in need!! When you're open to give, you're open to receive, and let me tell you, I'll probably be going through the closet again in a few months to give again. I still have way too many clothes, and unfortunately, most are not... my style... they're just filling the time until I can actually FIND clothes that are! All in good time. I did find a GREAT dress from Goodwill that was a CUTE Isaac Mizrahi. LOVE IT! You never know what you'll find at thrift stores- for CHEAP!

I'm looking forward to re-filling my wardrobe, one piece at a time, and moving along the clothes that are fillers. In with the new, out with the old.

I hope everyone has a FAB Sunday! I'll be at TJ's early doing the grocery shopping for the week! So, until next time, clean out your closet and donate to those in need!! You'll feel good!!! Namaste.

Hello Tuesday!

Good evening, bloggies! What a Tuesday!! Last night, we had some pretty rough storms, but this morning brought a beautiful sky to wake up to!!

Quite lovely! I had gotten up pretty early, so I decided to try my first ever steel cut oatmeal! I simmered a 1/4 cup on the stove (and had to keep adding water to it) for 30 min, and then mixed in a few drops of agave, some frozen organic raspberries, and a T of raw almond butter. It was pretty good!! Really chewy, but filling. I paired it with an orange- yum!

For lunch, I decided to make a salad with a thinned out version of the 'guacamole' I made yesterday for dressing (just added more water). I decided to take a break from work and go watch airplanes land (I work about 5 miles from the airport).

My salad was very good!! Nice size, and light. I got to watch my FAVORITE airplane land, too...


If you click on the picture, it'll get big. Then you'll see that the airplane is SHAMU!!! I LUV Southwest!!!

After work, I stopped by Kroger to get some ingredients I was out of for Happy Herbivore's Black Bean Brownies. While I was there, I picked up a Bora Bora bar to wave off starvation until dinner.

A little blurry (sorry), but VERY GOOD!!

I couldn't wait to get home to try the beanie brownie recipe! I switched on the TV and was pleasantly surprised to find...



WHOO HOO!! Good start to the evening, I must say!! Anyway, I proceeded to make my brownies. Here's the batter, pre-baked. The texture was a little thicker than normal batter...


Like my silver shoes? HAHAHA. While the beanies were baking, I made myself a 'Sushi Salad', made out of roasted nori strips, brown rice, carrots, cucumber, avocado, and soy sauce. VERY VERY GOOD!



By the time I was done eating my 'salad', the beanies were done! They smelled SOOO good.


I cut them up and dug in. My husband had a great idea of putting natural peanut butter on top...



So how were they? Well, they tasted like bananas, but overall, I thought they were good, and so did Brenton. I don't think I would make them for a party that non-vegans... 'normal Americans' would be at, but I'd DEFINITELY make them for us again!!

So until next time, take some time off during your day to enjoy yourself. Go watch Shamu land on a runway!! Namaste.

Serious case of the Mondays!

Good evening all! What a Monday! I woke up feeling a little 'off' and VERY VERY SORE (I still am) from lifting and squatting and kicking yesterday... so I made myself a yummy green drink for breakfast!!



It consisted of 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 avocado, 1 kiwi, handful of baby carrots (organic), BIG handful of spinach (organic), 2 rings of pineapple, squeeze of lemon, and ice. YUM! Kept me full from 6am until 10:45am. Not bad!!!! At work I snacked on a Cherry Pie Larabar (ha, is there anything new there?! no...). Nothing too exciting at work today- same old I guess. For lunch, I made a YUMMY raw spaghetti out of zucchini, carrots, and peppers. The dressing was 1/2 an avocado, lemon juice, dried cilantro, 1 clove (small) of garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and water to thin it out. Talk about almost guacamole!!! SOOOOO GOOD!!!



On my lunch hour I ran to DSW and picked up some cute white shoes (for our upcoming MIAMI TRIP!! WHOO!), and stopped by our local natural market for some Kombucha... which proceeded to fizz ALL OVER ME. Again. It's weird because I open it up and it didn't fizz out, and then all of a sudden, EXPLOSION!!!! Pretty entertaining...

Unfortunately, by the time I got home, my blood sugar was pretty low and I was pretty shaky... guess I needed to pack some more food!! For dinner, it was nothing special- AB and J on Ezekiel Bread, 1/2 C low fat organic yogurt with pineapple and organic raspberries, and some baked tortilla chips with TJ's salsa.

So I guess, just another manic Monday, huh? I'm SUPER SORE from yesterday, so I'm going to soak in some bath salts to try to help my poor little back muscles stop hurting!! Have a nice evening! Namaste.

A new pantry! Mission Organization!

'Ello bloggies! On Sunday, my husband and I decided to tear apart the kitchen pantry and cabinets and do a MAJOR organization project. It's always good to get organized, go through things, and just get rid of the 'STUFF'. Here are the pantry 'before' pictures (don't judge me... ha!)...



Yeah, that's a lot of stuff. So, we proceeded to get it ALL out, and start over.


Talk about crazy! It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate!! We did a major purge, and re-org (as my husband says), and started to put things back...




PHEW!! It took about 3 hours, but it feels good to have some organization now!! We did the same thing to the kitchen cabinets, but I didn't take any pictures of that. Like the mountains of bananas and avocados? Hehe.

Even with all of the work in the afternoon, I still managed to make myself a FAB salad, topped with grilled shrimpies. WAY YUM!


And as if re-organizing the pantry wasn't exercise enough, Brenton and I decided to go out and enjoy the weather by kicking the soccer ball around. Lots of fun!!



After an hour of running around and kicking goals, we were spent! But, not a bad way to get in exercise!!!

Hope everyone had a great Sunday! Until next time, have some fun in your day!! Namaste.

Oh Saturday...

Good evening all! Saturday was an interesting day...

Started it off right with the 30 Day Shred, Level 2.

KILLER! Boy oh boy... I swear she's out for blood. After sweating 800 lbs off, I decided to make myself a pretty hearty breakfast... 2 Egg white omlet with peppers and tomatoes, on top of a bed of spinach. Topped right with salsa, hot sauce (YUM, FRANKS!!), and a little bit of goat cheese. I also had a toasted piece of Trader Joe's Sprouted Wheat bread topped with almond butter and fresh strawberries. VERY YUMMY BREAKFAST.



I went along with my day; did some laundry, taught some flute lessons...



Then, had a quick lunch of a 'breakfast cookie' and a grapefruit. Weird lunch, but that's ok.



We went to see UP that afternoon, you know, that new Disney/Pixar film. I sobbed through most of it. UGH. I thought it was going to be much funnier than it really was... no such luck. This is a film we will NOT have in our library, and that's too bad. I don't want to discourage anyone from seeing it, so go!! I mean, it IS Disney afterall. I was so excited to see this movie because I thought it was going to be soooo funny! Boy was I wrong- and disappointed. Oh well, I still love WDW!

Until next time, go see an UPLIFTING movie that will make you laugh. It's much better than the alternative. Namaste.

TGIF!!!

Good evening, bloggies!! Last night was full of great things!

1- Almost all of the prep for tonight's family dinner was DONE! Yay for less stress today.
2- I found out that one of my best friends from HS (and his wife who is also my friend) is coming back into town! He got a job at our alma mater as the orchestra director. Very exciting!
3- The CAVS won!!!

This morning, I woke up ready to take on the day! TGIF after all! Made a FAB smoothie out of 1/2 banana, 1/2 organic green apple, big handful of organic spinach, 3 organic strawberries, 2 T Bob's Red Mill Flax Meal, a little bit of lemon juice, and a bunch of ice. WAY YUMMY!! I finished off the other half of the banana and apple with some raw almond butter. I wanted to see if it could tide me over until lunch...



Well, it didn't haha. Around 10:15am I had a Larabar (apple pie... YUM!). Then, I had an adventure to Circleville OH with a co-worker.... long story but it involved getting lost, a 1 lane rickety bridge, almost getting stuck in the mud, MAPQUEST giving us directions to 'turn right' off of the highway but didn't give a road name (and later we found out that the road HAD NO NAME...) all in the middle of nowhere! I WISH I had my camera. We were trying to find a rummage sale, and we found it alright... but boy... what a trip! VERY ENTERTAINING to say the least.

Anyway, back at home I hosted our family dinner! I made a yummy Greek meal. I made baba ganoush (did I spell that right?), hummus, and gyros.

Here is the baba... and hummus with veggies:



My husband chopping fruit for HIS fruit salad. He did it all himself: (do you see Dorothy Zbornak in the background?)



And the finished product:



Here's the table with all of the goodies on it:



Take a good look at that tv... yep, the Golden Girls are STILL on... I'm so obsessed.

I made some really nummy gyro meat- ground lamb, onion, garlic, black pepper, marjoram, and rosemary. I don't have a spit or a roaster, so I made it into a meatloaf of sorts...



Not shaved like normal gyro meat, but hey, you do what you gotta do!! Hahaha.

Here's my plate, complete with some really good white wine:



The bread in the top left corner is Trader Joes Naan Bread, and the bread on the right side is Trader Joes Whole Wheat Pita. Both were good, but the Naan was GREAT! Very doughy. Under that pile of tomatoes and shredded cucumber is my gyro meat. SO GOOD.

And then came dessert. My sister got baklava, and we had the fruit salad. YUMMY BAKLAVA!! My husband and I split a piece. We just can't eat a whole lot of sweets anymore. It's a good problem to have I guess...



That plate is not as big as it looks haha. It sure hit the spot!

After dinner, we went outside to enjoy the sunny weather and light a fire.





What a nice day!! I'm very excited about tomorrow because we're going to see UP!!! I don't know if we're going to see it in 3-D yet or not... just depends on what's showing when we decide to go. I'm SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS MOVIE!!! Have a great evening all. Until next time, try making some new food! Namaste.

Almost Friday!

Good evening, all! Today was a big day for me!

1- I was a presenter at the ACT Conference
2- I ate exclusively raw for over half of my day!!

I slept surprisingly good last night, and got up early to make a power shake.



It consisted of a whole banana, handful of organic spinach, tiny handful of frozen organic blueberries, 6 organic baby carrots, a kiwi, juice of 1/2 a lemon, and 6 ice cubes. That, paired with some almonds, and I was ready for the day!

I dropped of my raw lunch that I had made to my parents' house and headed up to the conference. I packed 2 raw almond butter stuffed dates for a quick snack before the fun began...



I was asked to speak at the conference about the role that support staff play in college visits (for prospective students and their families). The session was well attended (about 60-70 people), and seemed to be really well received! My first conference speaking engagement... CRAZY! Here's the room before everyone got in there, about halfway back...



Overall, a great success. Well, by this point, I was really hungry... and looking forward to my first ever RAW lunch!! I made zucchini spaghetti, topped with cherry tomatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic- all organic. For a sauce, I used 1 T of tahini, 1 t of EVOO, oregano, 1/4 avocado, and water, all mixed and mashed together. I liked it, but the oregano was a little overpowering. Next time I'll probably use some other herb... basil probably.

Here it is!! I didn't have a spiraler, so I just used a peeler. This, paired with a good size organic apple and a couple of grapes- it was a great lunch!!



After lunch, I went back to the office to do some work before the end of the day. Nothing too exciting happened there- I was only there a couple of hours! On the way home, I needed to stop at Trader Joe's to get some stuff for our family dinner tomorrow. I'm making a Greek dinner, complete with all of the fixins. While I was at TJ's, my stomach was GROWLING because I hadn't had anything since lunch... 5 hours earlier! So I grabbed a Larabar- Cherry Pie flavor. YUMMMMMY!!! I was so hungry that I ate it in the car on the way home!!!



And that ends the raw-ness... haha. For dinner, I made up some taco-ish type thing... without the tortilla. Just a glop of organic refried beans, chicken, veggies, salsa and hot sauce. Paired with some really good cantaloupe!



Tonight we're going to chop and mix and prep for the big family dinner tomorrow. Hopefully we can find some work out time too... Happy TGIF!!! ...almost! Namaste.