Late!

So, I wasn’t planning on a post today but I had an blogger-style breakfast and I took some pics so I thought I’d share.

Oh yeah, I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was buy myself a ticket to Lady Gaga at Madison Square Garden on my 23rd birthday.  I’m going alone, and it’s going to be the best birthday ever.

I’m the kind of girl who is very late on fads.  But hey, I went to the kitchen this morning, peered into my jar of peanut butter and found this:So, obviously, it’s my turn to try the blogger standby of oats in a jar? Like I said, I’m late. But hey, at least now I can call myself a blogger.So… I took my Leftover Oats in a Tupperwarestuffed them into the PB jar with thinly sliced banana and some water (so the oats and bananas don’t dry out during microwave time), and zapped on High for about a minute.Took em out, stirred to combine the PB, banana, and oats (I feel like if Elvis were a food blogger this would be his favorite breakfast).  Then debated what the flava of the day would be. Decided on peanut butter, chocolate, banana, and cinnamon.Added copious amounts of cocoa and cinnamon to the oatszapped on high for another 30 seconds, stirred to combine, then added chunks o’ banana to the top.

Served with the biggest honey clem ever

seriously look at it, it’s bigger than my coffee cup.

This made the perfect low-maintenance breakfast.

Today was yet another glorious day of New York springtime weather!  My low maintenance breakfast put me in a low key mood for the rest of the day – I had some errands to run and bills to pay.  Today’s low maintenance ‘fit:

Not quite Fashion Friday material but apparently I can still grill and strut like a supermodel, even wearing a tshirt, denim skirt, and flip flops.  Whaddapppp.

So, I’m about to shut down my technological operation for the evening.  It’s Friday, which means Shabbat is coming in very soon.  Later than usual thanks to springing ahead, but I still gotta get ready!  No clue what’s on tap for this weekend.  Back tomorrow night or Sunday!  Before I go though, I did set up a Formspring account.  After Averie had a little debate about it on her blog the other day, I decided I would give it a shot.  I really don’t expect to get asked anything but hey, I never know.  So if you do happen to have a question for me, feel free to click here and ask.  Lol.  We’ll see how this goes.

Anyways, I’m outie for now.  I miss the blogosphere over Shabbat, it’s odd.  What’s odder is that “blogosphere” is a word recognized by my spellcheck.

PS- Click here to find out how to win some awesome Vivapura products from Bitt of Raw!

Blossoming

Really glad I didn’t scare you away yesterday with all my giggling about balls (teehee).  Seriously though, if I’m laughing while I write the post, how bad can it be?  Apparently you guys liked it too…Thanks 🙂  Listen, I’m a girl who was raised on South Park and Howard Stern.  I definitely don’t have a stick up my ass all the time (only sometimes…like when people are in my personal space).

So anyway, moving on to my slightly more mature, but not entirely ball-free day….

I’m truly astounded how much eating right affects my life.  I saw a friend tonight whom I haven’t seen in about six weeks, and in those six weeks since I’ve seen her last, I’ve transformed dramatically.  As soon as she saw me, she gasped, “Stop doing Pilates RIGHT NOW, you look so good!”  And I know it’s not that I look good because I look skinny.  I look good because I look healthy.

Today was just another gorgeous New York City day in early spring.  I had a lot of work and writing and reading to do so I didn’t get to be out in the sun as much as I would have liked but I definitely took some time to take a walk around the hood.

One of the windows in my bedroom faces directly East, so when the sun comes up in the morning, it fills my room with sunlight.  Occasionally this bugs the shit out of me.  Today, though, I opened my eyes to the flood of sunlight, smiled, and rolled out of bed to feed my coffee needs.

So, yesterday I looked into my McCann oat coffee can and noticed that not only was I running low but I was completely out of coffee (thankfully I discovered this after I’d had two cups already).

I picked up a bag of Starbucks Kenya, ground for the French press.  Love all the cute boys who work at Starbucks who get flustered when I smile.  It’s awesome.

This stuff is pretty good, but I think I prefer the earthy flavor of the Sumatra I bought last time.

Since yesterday’s lazy-girl chocolate oats used up the last of my leftover oatmeal, I had to cook some more this morning.

For the second time in one morning and in one post, I broke into a new bag.  I’m a little bit concerned about opening all these new things, because Passover is coming up really really soon and I’m going to have to clean house and kitchen of any non-Kosher for Passover items, so I have to be sure to actually use up all this stuff before Passover gets here!

Apparently these aren’t any regular ol’ steel cut oats, but AWARD WINNING steel cut oats.

Well, then, lets hope my breakfast measures up.

Does anyone else have an over-boiling problem when they cook oats?  Every single time, I set them on the flame, I look away for thirty seconds, and I look  back when I hear splashing and hissing and find the pot has overboiled.  Seriously, every single time I cook oats this happens.  Any tips?

For this award winning bowl of oats, I selected an apple and a banana.

Drinking some black gold while I wait for the winning oats to cook.

Ta-daaaa!  A prize-winning bowl of oats, peanut butter, banana, chunks of apple, the last few blackberries, and gratuitous amounts of cinnamon.

Along with the usual suspects, yet another breakfast of champions to fuel yours truly.

Since today’s weather was glorious, it called for another skirt

I really just wanted a green smoothie for breakfast this morning, and honestly I’m thinking I should have gone for it because I wasn’t that hungry when I woke up, and breakfast kept me full for later than I usually eat lunch at.  Next time I’ll listen to my gut.  But, no biggie.  When I finally got to lunch, I knew I wanted one thing, and that thing was a SALAD.

Oh, yeah, this is another day I decided not to plan out my meals.  And by “decided not to” I probably mean “was too lazy to think about it last night.”

Lunch was yet another crowd of familiar faces, a colorful salad, a grapefruit, and peppermint green tea.  As soon as I snapped my photos I knocked the tea all over the grapefruit and had to clean it up.  Surprisingly not a terrible flavor profile, though.

Salad mix: Baby spinach, avocado, cucumber, red pepper, carrots.  Dressed in my favorite salsa+tehina+lime juice.  Used up the last of the salsa on this one.  Note to self: Learn how to make salsa.

It may look pretty, but THIS IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO EAT GRAPEFRUIT.  I’m going to stick to my grapefruit spoons from now on.

Later in the afternoon, I still wasn’t feeling too hungry but I wanted to fuel up before Pilates and I’ve had this green monster idea on my mind for a few days, so I tried it out.

A special guest made an appearance for this Green-Eyed monster

Yes, mint!  I’ve been on a serious mint kick, between my mint thins from yesterday, this fresh mint in my fridge, and of course, all the mint tea I’ve been drinking lately.

I’m just obsessed with the fresh and clean flavor of mint, and mint tea is incredibly good for your digestion!  I tend to drink it day-in and day-out, and I have my whole life.

What do we have here?  Since I wans’t that hungry, I didn’t bulk this up too much.  Half a banana, 1/2 c almond milk, 1/2 cup frozen spinach, a handful of fresh mint leaves, and some water to blend.  Next time I’ll add MORE mint, but this was pretty awesome!  I’ve never used almond milk in my smoothies before now and it really makes a huge difference, everything is so much creamier!

Here’s a picture of todays outfit, snapped while drinking said green smoothie.

I know, awkward pic.  Not sure what I’m doin’ up there.  This is just like my outfit from the past two days: American Apparel interlock pencil skirt, which I own in several different colors apparently (since I wear them every day), tucked in tshirt, today American Apparel tye-dyed vneck.  This is my favorite shirt, I have it in three colors, in fact I’m wearing another one earlier in this post.  Uhh, that describes my wardrobe perfectly.  I have a lot of really fun and cool clothes, but mostly I have basic items, over and over in different colors, or when it comes to leggings and tank tops, in the same color.  This t-shirt tucked into a skirt look is kind of my school-and-work uniform, and all other times I’m in sweats and a tank top or leggings and a tshirt.  I also rocked my orange Tori Burch flats and two girls on the bus were drooling over them, which makes me happy in a superficial and girly way.  Hate on me, I like shoes.

My Pilates class was AMAZING.  I really think every class I took this week counted as “the best class I’ve ever taken.”  Every night, I left seeling stronger, energized, powerful, balanced.  As I walked to the studio tonight, I was was revelling in the light of the sun setting over the city, and breathing in the calm spring air.  People around me were smiling.  I felt calm and ready, and I just had this sense that tonight’s class was going to be both powerful and mindful.  And tonight, for the first time, I could literally feel the differences in my body as the exercises progressed.  Usually I’m too focused on the motions or the stretches to recognize how my body has realigned and opened itself until we are prompted to explore our bodies at the end of class, but tonight, I just felt on and good.  I think Pilates really has changed my life.

I met up with a friend after class to catch up and gossip about the men in our lives (she’s married to one of my boyfriend’s fraternity brothers).  I grabbed a cup of Tazo Refresh tea from Starbucks, and we wandered around Austin St., which is a main shopping area, looking at shoes, sweaters, and puppies while I told her about my fears about life and the future and she calmed my nerves by giving me the perspective of a newlywed.

I came home for a disjointed dinner.  I was feeling very relaxed but lazy lazy!  So these are the times when I open up the freezer and toss whatever I can in the toaster.

First it was a slice of millet bread, toasted and topped with mashed avocado and lime, and an apple on the side.

Then my sweet tooth kicked in.

First, another slice of millet toast, this time torn up into little chunks, served with a sliced banana and peanut butter and organic vegan chocolate melted together.

And then a bunch of these.

So I’m about to hit the ol’ Google reader and catch up on your lives but before I go please tell me:

Do you have a uniform or a go-to look? Like I said above, my go-to looks are high-wasted cotton pencil skirts with tshirts tucked in, or leggings and a tshirt, Ugg boots in the winter, ballet flats in the spring and fall, and flip flops any time it gets higher than 65 degrees.  Are you a creature of habit when it comes to dressing yourself?

Are you more of a coffee person or a tea person? Most of my life I’ve been more of a tea person but I’ve always had a soft spot for Starbucks and since I went to Nicaragua last year and fell in love with the flavor and aroma of a fresh brewed pot of freshly roasted beans grown in the backyard, I’ve become somewhat of a coffee lover.  Now I make room for both in your life.  Are you a coffee drinker, a tea drinker, or both?  And what are your favorites?!

Thanks for coming to visit my life!  See you tomorrow!

PS- Does WordPress automatically notify you if someone responds to your comment, or do you have to request notification?  I just want ya’ll to know I do respond to most posts in the comments section – your comments make my day!!

Just dates

Gonna be okay…da doot doot just dates…

Yeah, I’m really really ridiculous.

Let’s rewind to this morning so I can show you what I ate.  It’s kind of crazy to me that suddenly I’m doing this.  When I started blogging I had terrible eating habits and was completely uncomfortable sharing my daily food intake with anybody.  Now I’m excited to share what I’ve been eating! I truly attribute it to having this blog – honestly there was no one in my life I could share my eating problems with but through reading blogs I’ve really gotten a great scope of what a healthy lifestyle looks and feels like.  I actually feel different in the months since I’ve started blogging.

Today, I challenged myself by NOT planning ahead what I was going to eat.  Prior to this, I’ve gotten very off track if I don’t plan.  What happened today?  See for yourself:

Since I ran out of cinnamon yesterday, I made myself chocolate oats this morning.

This is my lazy-girl version of oatmeal.  I cook a bunch of plain steel cut oats every few days and keep the leftovers in the fridge, heated over the stove or microwave at will.  Today it was the microwave.

First, I put a blob of peanut butter and my refrigerated oats in a bowl,

slice bananas thinly over the top,

add a splash of water or almond milk,

then nuke for about a minute.  I pull it out of the micro, whip the bananas and the peanut butter up in the oats, dump 2-3 tbsp of cocoa powder over the top, and nuke again for 30 seconds.

Drink my first cup of the day while waiting.

When microed, I stir in the cocoa powder until the oats are nice and chocolatey

then I add my toppings and enjoy.

Today breakfast was chocolate oats with blackberries and bananas, a honey clementine, and coffee.

Today was some damn fine weather.  I wore a skirt and flip flops!  No, I didn’t wear green.  I rocked purple, because spring time makes me feel purple.

Stephen dropped by for lunch again, and we split a bright and veggie-ful salad.

Baby spinach, grilled asparagus, avocado, yellow bell pepper, carrots, cucumber.

Served with an apple and a honey clem.  The salad dressing was tehina, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper.

We went outside to eat on the porch.  Gorgeous weather, gorgeous food.

Before I went to PIlates I made some date balls, based off of Katie‘s fudge  babies and Averie‘s balls.

In today’s edition of Scenes From The Inside of My Food Processor, I bring you thin mints and pecan pie balls!  Haha, she said balls.

So, into the food processor went these absolutely gorgeous medjool dates, along with some California honey dates my mom brought back from a trip for me.

As usual, pulse away in the ol’ processor until it forms a ball. Ha, she said ball again.

Date paste. Gasm.  This was about the point Stephen came and inquired whether there was peanut butter in the date ball (ha) and I started to sing “JUST DATES” to the tune of (any guesses?) “Just Dance” and he looked at me, rolled his eyes, and walked away.  I know.  I’m ridiculous.  And I didn’t even drink today.

Then I ground up pecans and walnuts into a crumbly mixture. Ha. She said walnuts.  I know, I’m like five years old.

Then I took half the date ball, half the nuts (omg I’m trying so hard), popped it into the processor with liberal sprinklings of cinnamon, and pulsed away.

Did I mention I got more cinnamon?

Not kidding around this time.  I got the big jar.

With the other half of the dates and nuts, I added cacao nibs, cocoa powder, and about a tablespoon of peppermint extract.

When all was done being pulsed, I stuffed the “doughs” into plastic bags and smushed them together.  It’s a really, really, really precise and exact method and you need to do it just so, or it won’t work out, at all.  Reeally.  You have to smush it all together.  It’s difficult.

So when I accomplished that feat, into the fridge went my little baggies to chill for a while, then I rolled and shaped.

Thin mints – these actually have a serious Thin Mint quality in the way they melt in your mouth.  I think it’s the cocoa powder.  I’m considering dipping them in coconut oil chocolate to enhance the thin mint quality even more.

Pecan pie balls – chock full of cinnamon, sweet and nutty just like I want them.  I’m obsessed.

And then into the fridge for safekeeping.

Pilates this week has been AMAZING.  I’m really feeling an incredible stretching burn after every class.  Also, I’ve finally mastered the Open-Legged Rocker, so I’m really excited.

Tonight’s class was so serene and focused for me.  My very first class over six months ago was taken as the sun was setting, and my instructor Spencer prompted us all to “face the sun setting over Manhattan,” and that’s how I knew I was hooked. When I entered the studio tonight, the whole place was filled with that beautiful pink light of the sun just beginning to set, and I knew the class was going to be amazing. Throughout the entire hour, we watched the sun setting over Manhattan.  It was sheer perfection.

After my blissful hour on the mat, I came home to make dinner and chill out.  No getting drunk and dropping a class before a midterm for me this year, sorry to disappoint!

But dinner did NOT disappoint:

Leftover quinoa from yesterday’s beet green dolmas (with sundried tomato, rasins, pine nuts, and spices), grilled asparagus, steamed beet greens, grilled yellow peppers, and carrots.

With marinara+tehina dipping sauce, a grapefruit, and green+peppermint tea.

Dessert? Balls, of course.

I’m working on a new work out playlist.  Does anyone have any fun tunes to recommend? Anything goes!

Hope you all had a green-filled St Patty’s Day!  Since I’m in sweats and in bed, I’m clearly not going out tonight but if you are, I hope you’re having fun, and if you’re not, I hope you’re having fun!

Flashback: Debauchery

Ahhhh St. Patrick’s Day.  This is ALSO my sorority’s Founder’s Day, so long story short, double whammy on the partying.

Warning: This story I’m about to tell you is not flattering at all.  Neither are the pictures.

My freshman year of college, my first real-life encounter with St Pat’s, I had a mystery bacterial infection raging in my throat and I was bedridden for the entire weekend.  Even my social recluse I-don’t-drink roommate developed an Irish spirit and came back raging drunk after two beers and soaked in the third.

It wasn’t until junior year of college that I claimed a (really) memorable St Patrick’s Day story.  This was the semester I’d insisted on taking several three hour classes late at night (6-9:30 pm), and it often left me with a laaaarge break in between.  It was one of these classes where the professor happened to schedule a tiny little thing called a midterm on March 17.

During my break on this one fateful day, my boyfriend “talked” me into heading over to a friend’s house, where there was guaranteed to be a keg and video games.  So while he got his Grand Theft Auto on, I did a little something that looks like this:

All afternoon.

And yes, these pictures are actual documentation, not a representation.

this picture is so classy. and classic.

At some point, I managed to spill beer all over myself and was handed a pair of sweatpants to wear while my pants dried.  Mind you, the friend who’s house we were at is a 6’7 hockey player, and I am 5’2.  It was his sweatpants I was wearing.

Imagine my shock, when not so soon after, I was reminded I had a MIDTERM in fifteen minutes!

My pants were still soaked in beer, so I grabbed my things and ran to campus wearing my friend’s XXL sweatpants and reeking of grain alcohol.  Yep.  Classy classy move.

When I got to campus, my heart was pounding, part from running, part from drankin’, part from knowing I was NOT going to pass this midterm.

So what did I do?

I hightailed it to the caf, pulled out my laptop, and withdrew from the class. Yes, during the midterm.

Then I went back to my friend’s house and kept drinking.

This story is slightly infamous in my circle of friends.  Yes, everybody thought it was awesome.

This story is a classic example of MY LIFE AS A SORORITY PRESIDENT.

This story is TOTALLY NOT my life anymore!

But this story is still one of my favorites!

No, honestly, I do not regret dropping the class or missing the test because I was drunk.  I’d never done anything like that before and I’ve never done anything like that since.  I mean, I’ve withdrawn from classes, but not because I was too drunk to take the midterm.

Hi Mom!  I hope I make you proud!

(My mom doesn’t read my blog, I’m just kidding).

So, now you know, I used to be a drunken sorority girl.  Sometimes, but with increasingly less frequency, I can still be.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Luck of the Irish be with ya’ll, drink green things, and I’ll see you later!

Do you have a tale of St Patrick’s Day debauchery you’re willing to share? Gritty details here people!

PS – Counteract the negative effects of alcohol and get some superfoods in your diet.  Click here to find out how to win beveri Golden Flax Seeds from Caitlin!!  Also, click here to find out how to win some amazing-looking Wholesome Foods granola bars from Heather!

Sunshine!

Spring status today!  I opened all the blinds and let the natural light brighten and warm my house.  It was awesome!  Nice weather makes me want to use a lot of exclamation points!

It was so nice out, I even threw on a skirt to run errands.

Yeah, I’m a scuzzball and threw on a skirt over my workout shirts and sports bra, but who’s counting?

I am still a tid bit off kilter with the daylight savings time thing, mostly thrown off by it staying light out past five PM, but I’m diggin it.

Morning fuel was full of oats and berries:

I restocked on grapefruit last night, and damn am I a happy girl.  In the oat mix: steel cut oats, peanut butter, blackberries, cinnamon, a drizzle of grade B maple.

When I came home for lunch, I really wanted to get in some hip openers before I ate so I would be loose and ready for a bike ride, so I did a hip opening flow from YogaDownload.com.  I had half this Larabar before gettin’ down on the mat:

For some reason, I was super super tight in my hips today.  But!!  I’ve been working on my Half Moon pose and I think I’ve really gotten the hang of it (on the left side anyway).  It was awesome and powerful.

Lunch was also awesome.  It’s just one of those days.  I want to use the word AWESOME a hundred times because my brain is lazy and doesn’t want to come up with any interesting adjectives.  Awesome.

Salad, grapefruit, green and peppermint tea.

This salad was BANGIN’ (not awesome).  Baby spinach topped with carrots, cucumber, organic sprouts, avocado, and grilled asparagus, and the dressing is a simple tehina and lemon juice with pepper and olive oil.

Because my hips still felt tight I decided to skip the bike ride and take a walk around the hood for a bit and run errands.  Picked up bananas, since they were out at the grocery store last night.

Also got to frolic in the sun a bit today.

Stephen came over to enjoy the sunshine in my back yard with me.

We snuck in a shared Green Monster (and some chocolate I didn’t photog)

CEMENT-GREY MONSTER: Banana, frozen spinach, a few blackberries, peanut butter, almond milk, a pathetic last shake of cinnamon.

This was when I discovered the horrible news: I AM OUT OF CINNAMON. I will have to go get some tomorrow.  Oats aren’t oats without cinnamon (unless I make chocolate oats…hmmmmmmm….)

Pilates was one of the best classes I’ve been to in a while.  My triceps are clearly still feeling it from last night, so tonight was killer that way.  We did serious lat and shoulder work, and I’m feeling it all over, which I haven’t been able to say for quite some time.  I’m not sure if I’m pushing myself harder or if it’s the teacher or what but I’m going to keep it up.  Afterwards, I rushed home to quickly make dinner and watch LOST.  I was also really excited about what I made for dinner: Stuffed beet leaves.

I know.  It sounds crazy, right.

This morning while perusing blogs I was inspired by Gina‘s dolma recipe.  Knowing I had a bag of beet greens chillin’ in the fridge, and beet greens can be used exactly the same way as collard greens, the little wheels started turning.

Last week when I bought beets I bought a bunch with this luscious and beautiful greenery attatched.  I chopped it off when I steamed my beets and stashed it in the fridge for later use.

I did the prep on these rolls earlier in the day so I would just be ready to go when I got home from Pilates.   They were a snap to make, because I also already had cooked quinoa in the fridge.  I kind of just did this by eye, sorry I don’t have exact measurements!

I combined quinoa, rasins I’d soaked and drained, toasted pine nuts, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and some seasonings in a bowl.

I trimmed the collard greens of their stems and put them in a steamer basket for a minute or two, just to soften.

I forgot to take a picture of the rolling process, but basically I placed a little mound of the quinoa mixture in the middle of the leaf and folded and rolled around it.

They were pretty delicious!  I have the leftover quinoa in the fridge, it will probably be lunch or dinner tomorrow.

So, like I said, I sped home from Pilates, got home at 8:51, and was seated with a (hastily thrown together) dinner plate ready to watch Lost.

Carrots, barely-steamed asparagus (I was in a rush!), a blob of hummus, beet-green quinoa rolls, a honey clementine, and green+peppermint tea.  I went back for more carrots and some extra quinoa.

OOof, everything hurts!  I’ll feel great tomorrow but wowie!

I’m feeling super lazy right about now.  Normally  I’d come up with something to say, but nothing;s coming to me.  I think it’s time for chocolate and blog reading.

Here’s a simple question: What is your favorite kind of chocolate? Brand, flavor, whatever.  Tell me about it!  I LOVE chocolate and I’m always looking for new stuff I haven’t tried.

Sweet dreams pups.  I’ll catch ya in the morrow.

Adjusting

Sometimes I actually do wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy.

Well, what I assume P Diddy would feel like when he wakes up – A BALLERRRRR.

Seriously though.  Obviously this post is suffering from induced early morning syndrome.  I’m still messed up from the time change – my eyes see the clock say eight thirty but my body feels nine thirty, so time to be up.

The usual morning suspect:

Is it St. Patrick’s Day yet?  No?  Ok, I’m saving an amusing story of drunken debauchery til then.

As I mentioned in my post about trackingmy food intake, I try to set one or two small weekly eating goals to improve my overall eating habits.  Last week’s goal was to eat a salad every day, and halfway through the week I decided to add the extra goal of trying to have at least one green smoothie every day.

This week’s goal is to be more adventurous in my food choices, to switch it up a bit.

With that in mind, I dub yesterday’s salad “Vegburger Helper” –

I have for sure never been a processed veggie burger person – at best they taste alright.  But my mom brought home these portobello-garlic burgers a while back and they’ve been chillin’ out in my freezer ever since.  They’re definitely there for the days I’m running low on groceries and don’t feel like going to the store – like yesterday.

I cooked it on the grill pan, a few minutes on each side until it was heated all the way through.

Sorry I don’t know the brand, these are actually kind of good.  I know they come from like BJ’s or Costco.

I sliced it up atop a bed of romaine and sprouts, tossed with carrots, cukes, avocado, and pickles.  Yes, cucumber AND pickles.  I walk on the wild side.

The dressing was my usual blend of salsa, tehina, and lime juice.  Yeah, this salad was a winner.  This held me over quite nicely until about four thirty, around the time I start to get ready for Pilates and start to want to pre-fuel.

I was freezing cold, the last thing I really wanted was a smoothie, but I’ve been dreaming up this combo for a few days now and really needed to try it.

Blurry Tropical Green Monster – we’ve got a banana, frozen blueberry, frozen spinach, grated frozen ginger, cinnamon, lime juice, almond milk, green tea, and coconut oil.  I bet this would have really benefited from pineapple but I had none.  As-is, it was fabulous (except I didn’t blend long enough and no one likes a chewy smoothie, except for me maybe).

Dinner, forgot to take a picture, and it was discombobulatedly sandwiched around a visit from the boyfriend.

Are you a Green Monster junkie? Do you often find yourself dreaming about different combinations of frozen berries and bananas and spinach and imagining what shade of green your concoction will produce?  What’s your favorite?  And if you haven’t tried the green smoothie, why not?  I know my boyfriend and my roommate are completely skeeved out when I sip my green sludge through a straw, but I’m happy!

From where I’m sitting, it looks like a sunny day out!  Last night in Pilates we did some killer inner thigh work and I’m feeling it now, so I might do some hip openers in a bit, but if it gets warmer today (the weather forecast is predicting high fifties), I’m gonna take the bike out.  I definitely smelled spring in the air when I let the cats out this morning.

Does the weather affect your workout schedule? Are you more apt to want to do outdoor exercise on a nice day, or are you a gym junkie?  Honestly – I’ve been to a gym a total of three times in my life.  Depending on the weather, I’ll do cardio inside on my treadmill, or as you can see lately I’ve been going for a spin around the hood on my bicycle.

Catch ya later, lovers.

PS- thus far have failed to purchase tickets to Lady Gaga but I have discovered that my boyfriend is jealous of my love for her.  It’s a good day.

Somehow, I always forget titles.

My current favorite morning activity involves two things: Breakfast and blogs.

A typical morning for me starts when I am clawed awake by one of three hungry beast cats.  I stumble blearily out of bed, down the stairs, feed them a cup of dry kibble, and drag my way back upstairs to my French press, which is like a shining beacon of morning caffeine and hope.

Toss in one or two scoops of coffee grounds (I hide my coffee grounds in a McCann’s steel cut oats can, no one thinks to look there), depending on how bad the morning is feeling,

pour in boiled water, and wait.

Yes, I have an instant hot water faucet.  It is one of many things that makes my kitchen very very convenient to my life.

After five minutes, press and pour.

GIANT HAND, tiny French press

Hello, Gorgeous!

Today’s mug:

This morning was actually a stumble-all-the-way-to-Rite-Aid-for-cat-food-before-coffee morning because I forgot to pick some up last night, and my three little beasts were starving and screaming at me.  Sorry I’m a bad mom, babies!

This morning was also an oatmeal morning.

In the mix: My perennial favorite, steel cut oats (these are Bob’s Red Mill), peanut butter, sliced banana, half an apple (I ate the rest of the apple while I waited for the oats to cook), a drizzle of grade B maple syrup, and cinnamon.  If I don’t eat cinnamon at least two times a day, something is potentially wrong.

While I eat my oats and drink my French pressed coffee, I do the obvious – read blogs and see what everyone else is having for breakfast.  Thank goodness I’m single and home alone – how will I blog over breakfast when I’m married with babies?  Seriously.

So, as I’m reading blogs this morning I thought I would share with ya’ll some fabulous blog giveaways.  Follow the linkage to find out how you can score some awesome foodie swag.

Jaime is giving away Crofter’s Organic Superfruit Spreads!

Averie has an amazing raw cookbook giveaway going on right now!

Michele is giving away organic, raw, wild honey!!

AND Jess is giving away Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter!  If you enter this one, let Jess know you got the link from me 😉

With that, I’m off to be productive or somthing.  Catch ya’ll later-ish.

PS- they just released the new North American tour dates for Lady Gaga’s tour this summer, and she is playing Madison Square Garden ON MY FUCKING BIRTHDAY!  Now, which organ can I sell…

Cleaner day

So, I basically forgot about that whole “time change spring ahead” thing this morning and was going about my business trying to figure out how my cell phone and my kitchen clock had different times on them.  I’m a genius sometimes.  Thank goodness I figured it out long before I had to be at my internship, but now I’m just discombobulated in general.  I couldn’t figure out why it was a full hour later thn I normally eat and I was only just getting hungry!  A-duh, because it was physically the same time as usual. Anyway, like I said, I wanted to focus on cleaner eating today after yesterday’s Peanut Butter Debacle (I finished one jar and started another).  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some peanut butter, it just doesn’t need to me my main food group every day (peanut butter and chocolate…fine!) So this morning, I started with the most high maintenance green monster I’ve ever made.  I don’t  know what I did this time, if I tried to put too much into the Magic Bullet at once or something, but it took forever to blend up and I kept having to go in with a spoon to mix up the goods to get it to blend.  But once it did blend, I was more than happy.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

I don’t drink beer, but I drink my smoothies out of a beer stein from Berlin!  In place of beer, we’ve got: 1 ginormous banana, 1 cup frozen spinach, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries (the rest of the bag), 3/4 cup almond milk, 1tbsp ground flax seed, more cinnamon than I think I’ve ever used in one sitting in my life, and some water to blend.  This was BANGIN – I could practically feel the cinnamon coming out my nose.  I loved it.  Plus two cups of coffee out the French press. Speaking of coffee, I’ve put myself on a sort of coffee restriction.  It’s so easy for me to just make cup after cup after cup and not even think about it, but I get super jittery, irritated, and dehydrated.  Now, I allow myself two cups in the morning and after that I switch to green or herbal tea.  If I’m feeling really run down by the time I go to Pilates at night, I’ll drink another cup before, but usually I don’t have to lately.  I feel that I have become addicted to coffee – yesterday when I didn’t drink it, I had a headache ALL day and generally felt just awful.  I’m not thrilled that I drank myself into an addiction (lol) and I’m considering weaning myself off but I do really love the whole ritual of the French press.  Wow.  I sound like a smoker. But I don’t smoke. Lunchtime came too soon, because breakfast was a little late, but it was perfection. Salad+grapefruit+green tea.  Superenergized after. I know most of my salads have been pretty much identical over the past week,  but baby steps here people!  I’m just learning to like salad and I really like this one!  Maybe this week I’ll switch it up.  Buy spinach instead.  In the salad mix: Romaine, organic sprouts, carrots, cuke, avocado, sugar snap peas.  Dressing: Salsa, tehina, lime juice.  On the side, one monster grapefruit. It was such a pretty color, I’d intended to take a closeup for you, but apparently I forgot to do that and ate it first.  After I snapped this picture, I went at the rest of the pulp with my grapefruit spoon until I was satisfied I got as much of it as I could.  I love grapefruit.  Because, you know, I don’t say that in every single post already. I try to eat before I go to my internship because I have a tendency to eat CRAP when I’m there.  Usually I forget to eat when I have to go in the morning, and end up eating brownies or things I really don’t want for breakfast.  We always put out snacks like chips and cookies for the kids we work with, even though I always beg for fruit and veggies.  Today I got lucky, they put out hummus and babaghanoush and Stacy’s Pita Chips (aka crack in a bag) and carrots.  I was pretty busy so I didn’t have much time to eat but I did manage to scarf down a handful of chips and carrots and hummus (sadly Sabra babaghanoush is not vegan). That’s a shot of my kids learnin’, that’s all.  It makes me happy. Dinnerrrrrrrr… I was debating with myself all day whether or not I needed to go grocery shopping.  When I caught sight of these babies hanging out on the counter, I decided I didn’t have to. So, since I am a single girl living alone in New York City I often like to use my magical convection oven to roast small batches of things like two yams. That’s just a microwave, you’ll say. Nope, I’ll say. So anyway I stuck my yams in the convection oven on 425 F.  Midway through, my biffle showed up so I cooked dinner for two instead of one. Snacks while cooking – I was freaking hungry: Cukes and carrots, hummus and salsa.  Real attractive photography here. Gala. While the yams were roastin and we were snackin I did some stuff on the stove.  I put some beet greens to steam:

But my makeshift steamer basket had a secret surprise underneath:

Quinoa!!

Basically, I started cooking the quinoa and then about halfway through cooking I tossed the colander with beet greens on top, covered and let steam for about six or so minutes.  Then I took it off, let the quinoa cool for about five minutes, fluffed, mixed the quinoa with the beet greens, and served topped with sliced beets and pesto sauce.

Closeup on mine:

And some yam porn:

Fresh out the oven.  Smellin like brown sugar. Bubblin hot. Ah-ma-zing.

Starch gold.

Mashed up with liberal amounts of cinnamon.

And dessert:

Vegan chocolate melted with peanut butter, and apples.

x4 (on the chocolate+pb mixture)

and probably some cereal for late night snackage while watching TV and chillin.  Probably.

Off to bed now…see you in the morning ❤

Rainy day lazy

Confession: Thursday night I thought I had big plans for the weekend.  When I woke up on Friday morning to a disgusting rainy weekend forecast, I immediately began to rethink things!

On Friday I woke up at the buttcrack of dawn to be in Manhattan for a full-day filming.  I got hired to narrate a promotional video for a graduate degree program in Visual Rehabilitation Therapy/Occupation and Mobility training – basically, a master’s training program for those who work with the blind.

It was a really interesting experience for me.  I was the only hired “talent” on set – all the others being filmed were legit professionals in the field, either graduates from the program or otherwise involved in the curriculum and training.  Most of the day was honestly spent sitting in a conference room, me reviewing my script and the rest just talking.  And it was really cool – it must have been a cool experience for them too – because as they all sat around the table catching up, they all were discussing clients, telling both success and horror stories, bouncing ideas off of each other for how to treat new clients (one man is currently working with a student who is both blind and autistic), and just essentially supporting each other.   I highly doubt my future is in VRT, but it was inspiring for me to see that people who have been working in the field longer than I have been alive are still passionate about their career and their life choices.  I have no idea what I want to do with my life right now (well, I have a vague idea) and one of my biggest fears is choosing a life where I will be miserable and will eventually come to regret what I have chosen for myself.  Apparently it is possible to choose a life that, twenty and thirty years down the line, you are still passionate about.  Thank goodness.

I packed a Victoria’s Secret-bagged lunch for myself, just in case the lunch they provided was chock full of dairy or meat.

In the lunch: Sliced cucumber, sliced carrots, 1/4 avocado, 1 Dr Kracker Spelt seeded flatbread, 1 clementine, 1 apple, 1 grapefruit, Pecan Pie Larabar.  I ate everything except the grapefruit and a few carrot sticks, but the person facilitating the shoot also ordered salads and sandwiches from a nearby place, and the salad was dressing free, FULL OF BEETS and dark leafy greens, and the little bit of dairy in it was easily removed, so I chowed down on that too.  I didn’t take a picture but I was very excited about the beets.

Saturday was a day of rest and relaxation.  I was going to go out Saturday night but it was pouring rain and my idea of a good time last night did not include pounding music in a Guido-packed club (I try to keep my life as Jersey Shore-free as possible).  Mostly I ate a lot of cereal and peanut butter and chocolate (and at one point combined the three in an epic and unphotographed bowl of chocolate peanut butter oatmeal), but I also had this amazing dinner of leftovers:

Leftover spaghetti squash, leftover roasted asparagus, leftover steamed beets, with “vodka sauce.”

I added a lot more sauce after this picture was taken.  I get really excited when my plate is colorful like this.  I also ate the whole grapefruit, because it was so damn good.

Instead of being angry at myself for yesterday’s chocolate-and-fat-fest, I decided (as I was digging into a jar of peanut butter with a spoon) that I’ll use Sunday as a clean-eating day to kick off the week and to detox a bit from OD’ing on the chocolate and PB.  Really, I should have never put peanut butter and chocolate together in the microwave.  It’s so good it’s dangerous.  But…well…it’s awesome.  Really and truly AWESOME.

So on today’s monster cleaner-eating plan:

• Breakfast-Green monster!! Banana, frozen blueberries, frozen spinach, almond milk, ground flax seed, water to blend
• Snacks- fruit+pb, or a Larabar (or both..)
• Lunch- salad MONSTER – romaine, sprouts, carrots, avocado, salsa+tehina+lime dressing (I know it seems like I eat this a lot but it’s really good and I make salads out of what I have on hand, which happens to be all these things)
• another snack at some point, probably whichever I didn’t eat from the morning
• dinner- dependent on whether or not I go grocery shopping today, but there are definitely beets and beet greens and peas in the offing.  I’m really craving green things right now.

On a personal note (like this whole blog isn’t just one long personal note?), I’ve really been making an effort to eat at least three whole meals a day for the past two weeks, despite personal fears and hangups over gaining weight.  What I discovered has been shocking to me.  I don’t weigh myself, never have, doubt I ever will routinely, but my body feels different.  Over the past two weeks, I have been building muscle like I never have before.  At all times, my body feels hard, toned all over, instead of soft and slightly flabby like it has been for quite a while (re: since I quit singing).  I really can only attribute this to my consciously clean and full diet.  I really hope I can keep this up, because I honestly feel so much better than I have in a very long time and I really like it.

So…I’m off to make that green smoothie, catch up on blogs, and then take care of some householdy stuff.  I decided to skip Pilates this morning, and I’m glad I did because as soon as I made the decision to play hooky, thunder started rolling (effectively making all three of my cats panic) and upon gazing out my window, I spied torrents of rain.  No thank you.

So, some questions for ya’ll:

What time do you normally wake up? On Friday when I rolled out of bed at 6:30am, groaning and complaining to my cats (yes, I am that girl), I felt like I was awake at some sacred and forbidden hour when no one else in the world can possibly be awake.  Of course, once I got out into the world and on public transit, I realized just how many other people were actually up right then.  I guess five years of refusing to take a class before eleven AM will do that to you…

What is your FAVORITE FRUIT?? This is honestly a really tough question for me, because I’ve never met a fruit I didn’t like!  I can’t even decide upon an answer.

and finally

Did you watch Lady Gaga’s new video yet????? (Haha JK…actually not JK at all). If you haven’t, CLICK HERE and be ready for an eyegasm of epic proportions!  And OMG they just announced that Lady Gaga will be doing an episode of Glee in the future.  Really, they’re just trying to kill me with happiness this week.

Ummm……..yeah.  I’m crazy.  I’ll stop now.  Off to your blog!

What does $11 look like?

BEFORE YOU PROCEED YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO!!! RIGHT NOWWWWW!!!!!!!

Gaga’s new video “Telephone” – it rivals “Thriller,” I promise.  It’s worth the nine minutes.  This is entirely the highlight of my day (potentially of my week).

Ok you’ve watched it?  Okay good, moving on to my post…

Ah, another sunny and gorgeous day in New York!  I was compelled to put on a skirt because of how nice the weather was.

This morning I woke up, and even though oatmeal was on my plan, I really just wasn’t in the mood for it.  So instead I made a green(ish) smoothie:

Blended together: 1 banana, frozen blueberries, frozen spinach, ground flax seed, almond milk, cinnamon, water to blend.

And of course, coffee.  Next time I make a green smoothie, I’ll make it bigger or bulk it up with a bit more protein and fiber because I was snackish all day, unlike yesterday when I ate oats for breakfast.

In the afternoon, I went grocery shopping with Stephen and dropped eleven bucks on all this beautiful produce:

Well, the jar of Newman’s salsa you see peering out I bought at another store, and cost $5, which is absurd in light of how much I spent at the grocery store to get all those fruits and veg’s!  Next time, I’m totally going to make my own instead.  Take that, processed foods!

In the above picture, you see:

• 3 grapefruits (3/$1)
• 2 lemons, 2 limes (4/$1)
• 2 cucumbers (2/$1)
• 3 yams (59 cents/lb, cost me $1.04)
• bag of carrots (2/$1, I bought one, meaning it cost fifty cents)
• bananas
• gala apples
• Newman’s Medium Salsa

I’m a happy girl 🙂

At home, I mixed up a gargantuan salad for two:

In the salad bowl mix: Romaine, organic sprouts, avocado, carrots, and cucumber.  The dressing is half tehina, half salsa, and the juice of half a lime.

For two, with a side of perfectly juice organic D’Anjou pears.

This is my favorite homemade dressing currently.  Could eat it every day.  Might.

Pears are at least as magical as grapefruit.  Most fruit is magical to me.  I don’t know if I’ve ever met a fruit I didn’t like (yes I even liked durian).

Dessert was this Jocolat espresso bar, shared:

I picked these up a few days ago because I’ve never tried them before but I’m a fan of Larabars.  I also bought the Mint one.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the mint – the problem with using extracts as flavoring in raw/uncooked desserts is that the taste of the alcohol can come through and I didn’t really love that.  I liked this one MUCH BETTER – the mix of nuts, chocolate, and coffee is pretty much amazing.  Of course, I can make this on my own at home, so next time, I’ll do that.

Stephen and I are working on a project together and it’s fun being creative with my best friend.  Step one is called Teach Me How To Dance.  It’s comedic, to say the least.

Snacked on fruit with PB, like this (and other stuff I forgot to take pictures of):

I also grabbed a grande soy latte before Pilates.  I don’t consume a lot of soy, but every now and then a grande soy latte is a good pre-Pilates treat and snack.  I resolve it for myself by saying that the protein/fat/carb content are a great pre-work out fuel up, and the caffeine gives me the perfect little kick.  This is a big change for myself from just a few months ago when I was consuming 2-3 of these per day and trying to convince myself they constituted adequate meals.

After Pilates I made a quick stop at the health food store – I was really craving a frozen treat.  And then I quickly spent eleven dollars on this:

Wow, the difference between this eleven dollars and my earlier eleven dollars is astounding.  I think I’m going to try to stick to as many whole, unpackaged foods as I can from now on because my budget just can’t take it.  But I needed peanut butter and these waffles looked so cute, I couldn’t pass them up.  Plus, they’re vegan.  Convenience food?  Sure.  (Rationalizing it for myself….BAD!)

I really like planning out my meals now.  It gives me something to look forward to.  And today when I got out of Pilates, I was looking forward to this:

On the blurry and colorful dinner plate: Spaghetti squash a la faux vodka – I mixed marinara with tehina and homemade pesto sauce for an Italian-ish flavor profile; steamed beets atop steamed beet greens (wow these are awesome); asparagus, and carrots.  I added a big blob of hummus after I took the picture, for dippage.  And I went back for several more helpings of asparagus and carrots.

Dessert:

I don’t LOVE So Delicious coconut products because they feel a little overprocessed to me, but I do REALLY REALLY like them.  And I really really like the chocolate+coconut flavor of these little bars.  It kinda irks me that it says “70 CALORIES” on the box like it’s a diet food and one of the product’s merits, but I guess in our calorie-fearing society, this is an effective marketing ploy.

Thanks for the advice about my ankle earlier!  I’m still bruised and swollen but I’m taking it easy.  Really I just want to be able to wear high heels by this weekend but I don’t think that’s happening.

I’m off to pack up a lunch for tomorrow, read blogs, and then go to bed.  I have a really early day (for me).  It’s also a big and kind of exciting day!  I’m filming a promotional video for an educational program all day, and I’m really looking forward to it.  No, I’m not an actress or a model of any kind, although I have taken acting classes for fun my whole life and have been in plays before, and did some amateur modeling as a child.  Honestly I kind of fell into this gig by accident but it pays and it sounds interesting so I’ll take it!

I might be disappearing from my blog for a few days, since I have a full day tomorrow, then it’s Shabbat, then I have plans on Saturday night, and then work on Sunday, but I’ll try to stop by and catch up with you all at some point!  But if I don’t get to post or read your blogs or talk to you until next week, HAVE AN AMAZING WEEKEND!!