12/29/11

Well, well, well… hey Thursday.

I was up almost all night last night coughing, I’m surprised I still had both lungs in tact when I finally woke up this morning. Ugh it’s freakin miserable. I finally got out of bed at 3am-ish and took as much medicine as I could shove down my throat (mostly children’s lol) and I just feel really poopy today. Oh well, I had better get over it soon because I have a 10 hour drive ahead of me tonight! Branden, Nora and myself are headed to Virginia to ring in the New Year with my brother and his wife! We’re pretty excited about going!

Obviously, after little to no sleep last night, I didn’t go to the gym this morning. Last night for dinner we went to a local Mexican restaurant and I ordered Veggie Fajitas, no sour cream or cheese and with corn tortillas… I ate about ½ of it and took the rest home.

Food Today

Breakfast

½ c Granola w/ ¼ c soy milk

Fresh Juice

Snack

Oatmeal w/ raisins, cinnamon and fresh blackberries

Lunch

Leftover Pad Thai salad w/ brown rice

Orange

Snack

Protein Tofu

Apple (maybe?)

Dinner

TBD – supposed to be having dinner with my cousin tonight so not sure!

Well, like I said, we’re leaving tonight for VA and will be returning on Sunday evening.. I usually end up going grocery shopping when I go down there so I’m sure I’ll do that again to make sure I have food I can eat. J I’m sure I’ll have a cocktail or 2, but I will have Nora with me so I won’t be getting too crazy. I’m looking forward to next week – I’m ready for a new year! Nothing but positive things in sight for 2012, I can’t wait to see where it takes me. J

Until next time… hopefully tomorrow?

Cough-tastic 12/28/11

Well I hate to say it, but another day of no workouts. I was up half the night coughing and got so desperate for sleep that I ended up taking some of Nora’s night time cold and cough medicine and ended up sleeping sitting up! I freakin hate being sick and I hate having to take ‘modern medicine’ even more. I don’t like the thought of putting chemicals in my body and I’ve been trying to kick this cold with just lots of vitamin C and B and eating lots of fruits and veggies but like I said, I was desperate last night. L

I made a Pad Thai salad for dinner last night and served it over warm brown rice… I’m kind of obsessed with cold salads served over warm rice right now! The temperature contrast is fantastic! I’m sure you’ve noticed but I tend to find recipes that I like and cling to them – this is a new clinger! I shared the recipe in a previous post Here and last night I made it with Spinach in place of romaine – turns out I missed the romaine on my grocery list lol. It was still delicious and I’ll gladly accept the extra bit of vitamin C that the spinach has to offer!

I know I didn’t go into too much detail yesterday about Christmas, I was a little short on time… for as long as I can remember, my mom has hosted a big party at our house every Christmas Eve, and now that I’m older I’ve kind of become a co-host. I know I’ve mentioned my obsession with Christmas before but Christmas Eve is EASILY my very favorite day of the year! I love getting dressed up and having my whole family gather together in one place and just celebrate! There’s always delicious food and drinks and lots of story-sharing and fun-having going around.. Now – about this delicious food and drinks.. not always the healthiest choices but this year, in keeping with my vegan lifestyle, I made 2 vegan dishes to share at the party. They were repeat dishes from Nora’s birthday party but they were big hits! I made the 5 Layer Mexi-Dip and Cowboy Caviar and actually, my meat-and-potato loving brother said that the 5 Layer dip was his favorite dish of the night! I was pretty excited about that! I didn’t eat a whole lot that night, busy mingling and… well, drinking. Lol… We enjoyed quite a bit of wine but then we did play the Xbox Kinect for like 2 hours so I had to have burned off SOME of those liquid calories, right? J

I did ‘cheat’ on my vegan life a bit… I was inundated with Christmas cookies and treats and I totally gave in. I kind of just said ‘what the hell, it’s a holiday?!’ but I didn’t really think about the effect it was going to have on me. I was so ill and in so much pain on Christmas day, it was really unpleasant. Not to offer out TMI here but I spent a lot of time in the restroom and had like PAIN in my stomach all day long. A lesson I’ll definitely hold-on to for the next time lol. Other than that, Christmas was fantastic! My Nora had a great time and we even went Ice Skating on Monday! That was a blast and I only busted my ass once lol. (on my way OFF of the ice, of course J)

Okay, Food Today:

Breakfast:

½ c Granola ¼ c soy milk

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins, cinnamon and fresh blackberries (LOVE the blackberries in there! Stir them in right when it comes out of the microwave and the blackberries almost get kind of creamy.. YUM!)

Lunch:

Leftover Pad Thai Salad w/ brown rice

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Optional snacks: (If I’m hungry)

Green apple

Orange

Dinner:

TBD – I honestly have no idea!

I weighed myself this morning and I’ve lost almost 1 of the 2 pounds that I gained over the last week. It feels much better to be eating normal foods again, even if I’ve only been back to it for like a day and a half lol. I’m going to try to focus on getting more raw fruits and veggies into my eating plan so I can take full advantage of the nutrients that they have to offer.

Well, I suppose that’s all I have for today! I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday and I can’t wait to see what the New Year shall bring!

Until tomorrow… J

Hello Holidays!

A long overdue hello!

As much as I absolutely adore Christmas and the holidays, I’m kind of glad to have the big one behind me. I am less than proud of my performance this past week but I knew that things were going to get a little crazy! I made the HUGE mistake of eating dairy this weekend (damn Christmas treats!) and I was ILL on Christmas day. Like I felt like I had an ulcer kind of ill. Definitely taught me a lesson! Beyond the treats I also indulged in just a “little bit” of alcohol (I got real drunk) and pretty much just ate whatever I wanted. Surprisingly, I’ve only gained about 2 pounds which makes me feel much better because I know I can rid of that very quickly!

I didn’t go work out this morning as I have gotten ahold of a crappy cold this weekend and I feel like pretty bad.. so I’ve decided to just get as much sleep as possible so I can shake this! I’m determined to get back at it full force after the New Year. I may be going to Virginia Thursday night so I can’t promise anything fantastic will be happening this week.

Food Today

Breakfast:

½ cup granola w/ ¼ c soy milk

Snack:

Leftover whole wheat spaghetti w/ chunky marinara sauce (small portion)

Lunch:

Oatmeal w/ raisins, cinnamon and fresh blackberries

Snack:

Orange

Apple

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

TBD – possibly pad thai salad?

Well, that’s about all I have for today… hopefully I’ll have more to update soon!

We're Back! 12/21/11

Wellll… long time no blog! Oh man, the last week has been crazy (story of my life this time of year) but today I can finally say that I really feel like myself again! Yesterday was kind of my breaking point… my body just told me NO MORE STRESS by way of shooting pains in my stomach all day, could barely eat or walk and complete exhaustion. After the ridiculous amount of stress with my job, stress with Branden, with Nora, with Christmas in general, with family in general, with LIFE in general, I just couldn’t take any more… SO I ate nearly nothing, went to bed at 8:30 and woke up and had a good workout this morning… and dammit if I don’t feel like a new woman! The fact that it’s nearly 60 degrees surely isn’t hurting!

So this morning’s workout was kind of a mish-mash of things… I started doing one of my crossfit workouts and immediately got bored so then I stopped that and started doing abs then decided I needed to do some arms then decided I wanted to sprint on the treadmill… so I did all of that lol:

Mountain Climbers : 2 minutes

Bike : 2 miles

Side to side bends: 20 @ 20# each side

Crunches: 50

6” Killers: 2 sets of 10

Single-leg bicycles: 2 sets of 15 each side

Curl/Press/Dip w/ dumbbell on bosu: 3 sets of 10 @ 10#

Bent over flye w/ dumbbell: 3 sets of 10 @ 10#

1 minute sprint

Pretty much all over the place but I worked up a sweat and got my heart rate up so I’ll chalk it up as a success!

The food is pretty much all over the place as well… yesterday, all I ate was some oatmeal in the morning, an orange at lunch and some pretzels in the evening. I haven’t been to the grocery store so I have nearly no food in my house right now… SO… about today… lol.

I had a protein shake immediately following my workout then used the last of my fruit to make a juice of apples/oranges/spinach/cranberries and I just ate an apple at work. I’m pretty much starving and really want a giant salad… so I’m going to go get one eventually!

My brother’s family came in town last night (YAY!) and I believe we’ll be ordering pizza at my mom’s house for dinner tonight…

I still have some shopping to do for Christmas and I hope to get some of that finished tonight as well…. I’ve been keeping an eye on my weight and it hasn’t changed much from last week. I’ve discovered that now that I have my own scale in my bathroom, it’s really hard to not weigh myself all the time lol. I’m going to try to not weigh myself again until this Saturday though!

That’s about all I have for today! Hopefully now that things are starting to settle down to somewhat of a normal pace, I will have an easier time keeping up with my blog! Sorry about all of the recent blog fails… it’s just life, ya know?

Anywho, I hope everyone is enjoying this strangely warm December weather!

Until tomorrow… J

Picture Day! 12/15/11

Hey there! It’s picture day!! I’m pleasantly surprised with what I see with my pictures today… after having a rough few weeks this month, I honestly wasn’t expecting much. BUT I like what I see! I’m starting to look more and more like a regular person lol. I see the difference mostly in my mid-section, which is great. J

Anyway, I went running this morning and had a good one! I did the full 5 miles! It felt a bit easier to complete this time than the last time, which made me very happy. It was raining and REALLY windy (my hat blew off my head!) which made it a bit more difficult, but I was okay with that! A little extra challenge now will only make my performance better in March. J Actually, my brother texted me this morning and asked if I wanted to do the Polar Bear Plunge 5k in Virginia Beach on Feb 4^th… I really want to do it! I just have to check my schedule and what-not…

Beyond the running, I also did 100 crunches and 20 pushups (1/2 before and ½ after for each) and stretched after the run.

Last night for dinner I made a Pad Thai Salad which was YUMMY! I’ll post the recipe below. Yet again, I forgot to bring my cookbook to post the other recipes, but this one was simple and I’m sure I can remember J

Food Today

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately following workout

½ c granola w/ ¼ c soy milk

Fresh fruit & veggie juice

Snack:

Apple

Lunch:

Leftover Pad Thai Salad w/ brown rice

I forgot to bring an afternoon snack L

Dinner:

Asian stir fry

Pad Thai Salad

1 bunch romaine lettuce, chopped

1 lg carrot, peeled and grated

1 small red onion, halved and sliced thinly in ½ moons

1 bag bean sprouts

¼ c roasted peanuts

¼ c chopped cilantro

Juice of ½ Lime

Dressing:

¼ c roasted peanuts

2tbs chopped shallot

½ c water

2tbs Agave nectar

2tbs Soy sauce

Juice of 1 lg lime

Pinch of red pepper flake (or more if you like spicy)

For Salad:

Combine lettuce, carrot, sprouts and onion in a large bowl, toss to combine

For Dressing:

-          In a food processor, put in ½ of the peanuts and all of the shallots, process to chop it all up.

-          Add water, agave, soy sauce, lime juice and red pepper flake and continue to process until very smooth

-          Add remaining peanuts and pulse a couple of times so they are just chopped, but still chunky

If serving immediately, pour the dressing over the salad and toss until coated; garnish w/ peanuts, cilantro and lime juice

Serve over cooked brown rice (warm) that has been seasoned w/ salt and lime juice

YUM! It tasted just like pad thai!

Okay, I suppose we’ll get to the main event now: Picture Time!

Here we go, starting with 1^st picture, then last month’s picture and finally this month’s picture:

4/15/11

11/15/11

12/15/11

Like I said, I can see a difference mostly in my mid-section – and I like what I see! What do you think?

Well I’m off to Louisville tonight, going out to celebrate my sister’s graduation with her friends tonight then packing up her things and going to the graduation tomorrow night and moving all of her stuff back home on Saturday. I won’t be doing and formal workouts (unless if I can sneak in her roommate’s P90X dvd!) but we will be moving all of her stuff from her 2^nd floor apartment so I’ll be doing some work, still!

I’ll try to post at some point tomorrow or Saturday and I’ll be weighing-in when I get home. J

That’s about all I have for today…. Keep it classy! J

Beast Mode! 12/14/11

Hello there! I’m pretty pumped up today. A friend of mine posted a video on Facebook that I suggest everyone watch… it’s about being successful and it kind of kicked my ass back into gear! Watch it Here if you’d like.

Anyway, after watching that last night I decided that I was going back full motion this morning! SO I woke up early, went to the gym and actually did 2 of my workouts!

Here’s what I did:

Workout #1:

5 Rounds for time:
Seated Cable Rows	20 @ 30#
Back Extensions	15
Lying BB Skull Crushers	20 @ 20#
Bike	1 mile
TIME:		24:25:00

My time for this workout last time was almost 29 minutes! Happy with the improvement!

Workout #2:

10 Rounds (10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1)
Jump squats	65#
Pushups
TIME:	9:25

My time for this workout last time was over 11 minutes so again, happy with the progress!

Man, after doing all of this I was pretty wiped out but it felt AMAZING! I had almost forgotten how great it felt to get a really good workout in! I’ve been focusing almost completely on running and I need to balance that focus so I can still work the rest of my body enough as well. When I was on the bike in Workout #1, I kept my pace at an average of about 103RPM… I was just amped!

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday- it was a crazy day. I went running yesterday morning and did 2.07 miles in 23:47 which is about 15 seconds faster than last time. I’ll take it! My chest was hurting a bit afterward, I’m assuming due to the cold air, but that passed as the day progressed. Food was pretty typical: Protein shake, granola and juice for breakfast; apple for snack; leftover Veggie Korma for lunch; roasted veggies for snack; Veggie Pasta primavera for dinner.

Tomorrow is running day again. I’m really excited because it’s getting back to warm weather here! I’m sure it’s only temporary but hell, I’ll take it! I’m going to try really hard to do the long 5 mile run tomorrow because I’m spending Thursday and Friday night in Louisville and I can pretty much guarantee that I’m not going to wake up Saturday morning and go running lol.

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately following workout

½ c granola w/ ¼ c soy milk

Freshly juiced spinach, carrots, apples, raspberries, cranberries and oranges

Snack:

Red Apple

Baby Carrots w/ homemade hummus

Lunch:

Leftover veggie chili

Snack:

4 stuffed grape leaves

A few WW pita chips w/ more hummus (I’m hungry today!)

Dinner:

New recipe – Pad Thai Salad

I know I owe you guys a few recipes but I’ve been getting them out of my vegan cookbook and keep forgetting to bring it with me to copy the recipe! I promise I’ll remember to do it soon! J

Well, I decided to join the 30 day weightloss challenge, after-all. They have re-structured the rules so you are no longer required to track calorie intake or calorie burned, which helps a lot! So I had my first weigh-in this morning and I will ‘journal’ about what I ate today later this evening. I’m not expecting to win this challenge by any means, the weight typically comes off much faster in the beginning so I’m expecting these ladies to fly by me as far as their total pounds lost, but I’m still excited to participate!

Alrighty well I suppose that’s all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by!

12/12/11

And the funk returns… I don’t know what’s going on with me lately but I am not diggin this. I am really tired today and I just don’t feel like myself. I had absolutely no motivation to get out of bed this morning and go workout so, I didn’t. I’m having a hard time getting excited about my workouts, I don’t think I’m making the best food choices and guess what? I gained last week. Less than a pound, but still – wrong direction, tonto. I just read a weight loss success story and the lady was emphasizing how important it is to battle your emotional demons before you attempt to tackle your physical weight loss issues and I don’t think I’ve quite defeated mine, or I’ve developed new ones. I’m just really unhappy with a lot of things right now and I’m trying to just ignore it and push past it, but it’s totally dragging me down. Unfortunately, nothing is an easy fix and I’m having some trouble deciding which way to turn… But, again, I suppose I’m the only one that can fix it so I just need to handle my business.

Anyway, weekend recap:

Friday – I was scheduled to do a bunch of weighted jump squats but my knee was still sore from the minor twisting incident on Thursday so I decided to skip the squats and I just did a superset of pushups and crunches (10 rounds of reps, increasing from 1 to 10) Food was typical during the day and we went to a Mediterranean restaurant for dinner where I had a ‘sandwich’ of stuffed grape leaves and hummus wrapped in a pita, and also a couple pieces of falafel on the side.

Saturday – knee was still bothering me when I woke up so I decided to not do my long run. Not happy about it but still confident in my decision as I think it will benefit me more in the long run. Granola breakfast, leftover hummus and veggies for lunch and more hummus, stuffed grape leaves and baba ghannoush for dinner. I went out with some friends Saturday night and drank vodka tonics all night..

Sunday – did pretty much nothing! Basically the only thing I ate all day was MORE hummus and some chips and salsa and then I ordered Chinese for dinner and had mixed veggies with steamed rice.

And now it’s Monday!

Food Today

Breakfast

Granola w/ soy milk

Snack

Green Apple

Lunch

Leftover Chinese veggies and rice

Snack

Protein Tofu

Dinner

Veggie Korma – new recipe!

I made some homemade hummus yesterday! It was the first time I’ve ever made it and it needs some tweaking but I’m still excited about it! And it will be way less expensive to just make my own than it is to buy it pre-made so Branden should be happy about that lol. I’m kind of on a Mediterranean kick right now and I really want to make some stuffed grape leaves.  I actually bought a jar of leaves a long time ago but I’ve never attempted to make them… hopefully soon!

That’s about all I have for today. I’d appreciate any positive vibes/thoughts/prayers that you may have to spare! Hopefully I’ll be back to myself again VERY soon.

Scianara.

Thursday 12/8/11

Hello there! Well we’ll get right to it…

I went running this morning in the 25 degree heat that was Florence, KY at 6am… it was blistery and hilly and kind of difficult 3.25 miles but I felt great for completing it! I’m liking this new running regime that I have going on… granted, I’m saying this before my big 5 mile run on Saturday lol. In addition to the run, I did 50 crunches before and 50 crunches and stretching after. I couldn’t feel my legs when I got home but I can definitely feel them now! Lol I twisted my knee a little bit getting out of my car this morning when I went to scrape my damn windshield... I swear, I always get hurt doing the most stupid things. Nothing too damaging though, it’s happened a million times before and will be fine tomorrow.

Food Today

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately after run

½ c granola w/ ¼ c soy milk

Fresh fruit/veggie juice

Snack:

Banana

Lunch:

Leftover curry w/ 5 whole grain crackers

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

WW spaghetti w/ mushrooms and grape tomatoes… and some other stuff, I’m sure – I’ll update tomorrow J

I ended up making pizza for dinner last night, it was less than delicious. I bought a new pre-made pizza crust b/c the WW one that I typically use contains cheese so I tried a vegan one and it sucked, to be frank. From now on I definitely need to just make my own crust!

Oh BTW – I found the recipe that I used for Nora’s Vegan Birthday Cake! Check it out here. J

Well, there’s not much to report today… so I suppose I’ll end it here!

Stay warm and keep it classy!

Until tomorrow… J

Wednesday, 12/7/11

Howdy! So apparently it’s Wednesday… but I swear it feels  a lot more like Friday! Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking? Either way, here we are!

Well I didn’t quite make it to the gym this morning… Nora woke up at like 5 or 5:30 (gym time) and was crying her eyes out because she just HAD to go downstairs… so I took her downstairs where she almost immediately fell back asleep, and so did mommy. By the time I woke back up it was almost 8am and far too late for a trip to the gym. I did bust out 50 pushups and 100 crunches and did some stretching… so at least I did something, right?

For dinner last night I made an Enchilada Casserole of sorts and I was pretty happy with the way that it turned out! Lord knows I love me some mexi-food! Recipe is below…

Food Today:

Breakfast:

½ c homemade granola w/ ¼ c light unsweetened soy milk

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover veggie chili

Snack:

Protein tofu

Dinner:

Pizza is on the menu but it may be leftovers… they’re taking over my fridge! Lol

So I think I’ve decided to pass on the 30 day weightloss challenge… I just really don’t have the time in my days to calculate caloric intake or calories burned and all of that good stuff… so I’ll just play along on the side. J However if any of you lovely readers would like to participate, feel free to shoot me a message on FB and I’d be happy to forward the details to you!

Not a whole lot to report today… I mentioned something yesterday about debating on how much I wanted to share on here but I think I’m going to keep quiet about certain things for the time being… I think I just need a vacation. J

Enchilada Casserole

1 jar Red Enchilada Sauce of choice

12 Corn tortillas

1can Black beans, drained and rinsed

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 small red onion, diced

1 ½ c corn kernels, thawed if frozen

1tbs minced garlic

Vegan Cheddar cheese (I like Daiya brand)

Shredded/chopped lettuce

2 green onions, diced

½ c diced cilantro

¼ c diced tomato

S&P to taste

-          Preheat oven to 375

-          Combine beans, bell pepper, red onion, corn and garlic in a bowl. Season w/ S&P

-          In a square baking dish, ladel/pour a bit of the enchilada sauce on the bottom, tear 3 corn tortillas in half and layer them in the bottom with the flat edges against the sides of the dish. Put the 4^th tortilla in the center to cover the gap.

-          On top of the tortilla layer, spoon ½ of the veggie mix and spread evenly. Top with some more enchilada sauce and a sprinkling of cheese

-          Make another layer of tortillas, veggies, sauce and cheese

-          Top with another layer of tortillas, then the remainder of the sauce and some additional cheese.

-          Cover with foil and bake for approx 30 minutes

-          At the end of the 30 minutes, carefully remove foil and continue to bake for 5-10 minutes until edges of tortilla crisp a bit, but be sure not to burn cheese

-          Mix lettuce, green onion, cilantro and tomato in a bowl

-          Remove casserole from oven and top with lettuce blend and serve! Yum J

So last night, my mom brought some of my high school stuff over that I had left at her house… in the box was my 8^th grade cheerleading uniform! I put it on and it was too big for me! I had mixed feelings about it; it felt great to know that I’ve come as far as I have to be smaller than my 8^th grade self… but at the same time, it made me kind of sad remembering that I was that large as an 8^th grader. I can’t help but be sad about the life that I missed out on because I struggled so much with my weight. A lot of times, when I think back on my childhood I remember how hard things were and how mean the other kids were to me… I know I missed out on a big portion of my life due to my weight and the self-confidence issues that came along with it, and I hate that. I can only make my life the best it can be from this point out and provide the best life for my little girl…. So that’s what I plan to do. J

Anyway, that’s about all I have for the day! Thanks for stopping by J

Until tomorrow…

Recipes-a-Plenty! :) 12/6/11

Hello there! Well, I’m sore. I’m not mad about it – as my husband says, “That’s how you know it’s working!” No, but seriously…

I got up this morning and ran about 2.15 miles. Since the distance was lower, I ran it a lot faster than I normally would and it felt great! I’m feeling it now but it felt good when I was going lol! In addition to the run, I did 50 crunches before and 50 crunches after and I stretched after. I realized that I’m not stretching enough so I’m going to make time for stretching a lot more often… I’ve decided to put a bit of structure on my runs from now on.. I’m going to do 2.15 miles on Tuesdays, 3ish on Thursdays and 5ish on Saturdays… When I did the 5 miles on Tuesday last time, I was still sore on Thursday and wasn’t able to do more than 2 ½ miles so I’m just trying to plan a bit better. I’m slightly concerned with the weather as it’s only getting cold… considering, again, switching gyms. Urban Active at least has an indoor track… although I don’t really like the thought of running in circles for an hour lol… we’ll just see how bad it really is this winter, I guess? It was about 30ish degrees this morning and I was plenty warm..

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately following workout

Fresh juice of beets, apples and carrots….. um, note to self: Beet juice is not delicious.

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover curry from last night (FANTASTIC, by the way! I’ll share the recipe!)

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

Mexican Casserole – another new recipe! Branden was complaining that I cook the same thing all the time (rice&veggies or noodles&veggies) so I’m trying some new stuff this week!

The curry that I made last night was absolutely delicious! I don’t have my cookbook with me but I’m pretty sure I can remember it:

Roasted Vegetable Curry

2tbs Red Curry Paste

1tsp fresh minced ginger

2tbs minced garlic

1 small/med red onion, sliced thinly in half-moons

1c baby carrots, sliced diagonally medium thick

1 smallish sweet potato, small dice

3c veggie stock

¾ c light coconut milk

1tbs Agave nectar

1tbs Soy sauce

Juice from 1 med/large lime (about 2tbs)

1/3c chopped cilantro

1lb brussel sprouts, sliced in half lengthwise

Med/lg Daikon root, quartered lengthwise and sliced

Med/lg Parsnip, quartered and sliced

1tsp EVOO

Salt & Pepper

1c dry brown basmati rice, cooked

-          Pre-heat oven to 400

-          Combine brussel sprouts, daikon and parsnip into bowl, toss in EVOO and S&P

-          Spread evenly in 1 layer on baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice, spraying w/ non-stick spray as needed (I always line my baking sheets w/ foil for easy clean-upJ)

-          Saute red onion in curry paste on medium for about 3 minutes (I chopped my ginger at this time), add ginger and garlic, stir… add a touch of water if it is sticking a bunch

-          Satue for another 3 minutes or so (I chopped carrots and sweet potato at this time), then add carrots and sweet potato to the mix, stir

-          Add veggie stock and coconut milk, bring to a low boil, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until the sweet potato is tender when you mash w/ a fork

-          Using a potato masher or fork, mash as much of the sweet potato as you can to thicken the mix

-          Stir in agave, lime juice and soy sauce

-          Add roasted veggies, cooked rice and cilantro; stir to combine

That’s it! I was SO happy with the way it turned out! From my experience w/ curry, I’ve decided that curry paste trumps curry powder. But that’s just my opinion. J

As I promised yesterday, I’ll share the recipes from Nora’s party now!

Cowboy Caviar

1 can cooked Black Eyed Peas, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 red Bell pepper, diced

1 small red onion, diced

2 c corn kernels, thawed if frozen

¾ c diced tomato

½ c chopped cilantro

½ - ¾ c Italian dressing – try ½ c first and add more if necessary, shouldn’t be soup!

Serve w/ Red Hot Blue Corn Tortilla Chips… yum!

5 Layer Mexi Dip

Layer 1:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1tsp EVOO

½ red onion, diced

½ tsp Cumin

½ tsp Adobo sauce (from canned chipotle peppers)

1tsp minced garlic

-          Saute onions in EVOO, cumin, adobo and garlic for about 3 minutes

-          Add beans and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes

-          Mash it all together with a fork/wooden spoon/potato masher

Layer 2:

Guacamole (I used Wholly classic guacamole – feel free to make your own!)

Layer 3:

½ - ¾ tub Toffuti vegan Sour Cream

1 small can diced green chiles

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp chile powder

½ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp paprika

-          Combine it all in a bowl and layer on top of guacamole

Layer 4: (can use pre-made salsa here)

1 can diced tomatoes w/ jalapenos

¼ c diced green onion

¼ c chopped cilantro

Juice from ½  to 1 lime (taste)

1tsp minced garlic

Salt to taste

Layer 5:

Chopped lettuce (I used a spring mix)

Sprinkling of vegan cheddar cheese (I like Daiya brand)

                Serve w/ tortilla chips! This was a BIG hit!

Roasted Tomato Bruschetta

2 Pints Grape Tomatoes

1tbs EVOO

S&P

French loaf, sliced medium thin (feel free to sub a different bread)

2 whole garlic cloves

2tbs finely chopped fresh basil

1tbs minced garlic

4 Green onions, finely chopped

¼ c balsamic vinegar

1tsp light brown sugar

-          Preheat oven to 400

-          Coat tomatoes in EVOO and season w/ S&P, roast for about 20 minutes until tomatoes burst

-          Meanwhile, slice your bread and put in single layer on a baking sheet

-          After tomatoes are finished roasting, put in bowl (including juices on pan) and mash lightly with a fork. Add basil, minced garlic and green onions

-          Switch oven to broiler and toast bread on both sides (keep an eye on it – will burn quickly!)

-          Remove bread and rub the hot bread w/ the whole garlic cloves

-          In a small pot, heat the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, let it cook to reduce down for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently

-          Pile the tomato mixture on the bread and drizzle the balsamic over top. Voila!

I’m not going to post the Baba Ghannoush recipe b/c I made a lot of changes to it and honestly I don’t remember them all lol… The cake turned out well, too! My sister said it was good, “very vanilla-y but good”… I said well, it was a vanilla cake… J

Vegan Vanilla Cake

I used a recipe from a blog that I found, which I saved on my TouchPad, which had to be reset, which in turn erased all of my internet bookmarks L… I’m going to try to find the recipe again though! Here’s a picture of the cake I made : J

Well I’m feeling really great today! Still debating on this 30 day weightloss challenge… the only thing holding me back from participating is that part of the scoring requires you to count calories for each day and honestly I just don’t have the time to do that… so I’m not sure. As I mentioned yesterday, it feels so much better to be back in the ‘swing of things’ and in my regular workout routine. I’m having some mental/emotional battles with things in my personal life right now but getting back to bustin’ ass is helping. J I’m a little torn as far as how much I want to share here… I love the idea of being able to share openly and completely, but I’m just not sure I want to open the can of worms that I’ve got going on right now lol… I’ll think some more about that…

Alrighty, time for me to skidaddle… I hope everyone is having a great day!

Until tomorrow…