A Cold Winter In July

Man, its just been one of those weekends. A little picture taking here and there, shopping, lake, family and lots of baking today (we'll get to that later). I' start with some of eats in no particular order. Smoothie in a bowl...
Dark chocolate oat bran with mashed banana and almond butter...
Butternut squash fries baked to perfection...
I love it when they are crispy and not soggy...
Served with a salad that's topped with broken up pieces of a Black Bean Turkey Burger
Cuddly kittens...
Oh, sorry I didn't eat that :)

On to some eats I made for other peeps. Chocolate Chip Cheesecake for my brothers 39th birthday...
and a peanut butter cake with chocolate peanut butter frosting for my nieces 15th birthday because her dad didn't get her one or sing her happy birthday. Whats up with that???...
Wish that my brother and his family of 35 don't come over and eat it all...
and last but certainly not least, cherry yogurt popsicles for the little one...
I also managed to freeze my ass of in the middle July out on the lake....
The 8 beers I drink helped keep me from hypothermia. Ok, I am lying they didn't help. Whats up with that anyway. It was the coldest day in July in like 28 years and it happened to be the day we planned 2 months ago to go out with friends.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I really need to get to the gym in the morning. I didn't eat any of the desserts I made but I did do a little bowl lickin while making them. Opps.

Tonight the little one gave us an at home concert at my parents house. I thought I'd let you lucky gals be graced with a little bit of her presence. Here's a peek...

Now I know shes good but don't go calling agents and crap. Actually, she is probably a little hard to hear in this video but don't worry your ears are thanking you. I am thinkin maybe the next Janice Joplin. I don't know though shes scarily comfortable with that pole in a bikini. She might have a future in Vegas.

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: Is it bad that I completely avoid all products with fake sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame but still give them to my man and little one? Its just hard for me to ween them off of sugar free syrup :(

Raw Or Unraw???

First, I want to say thank you to all the sweet, positive and reinforcing comments on my last post. You girls truly made me feel better and I wish I could carry you all around in my pocket with me all day!! No joke :)

Hey Loves, Sorry for no post yesterday but I have been hard at work in the kitchen since Sunday. More on that in a sec. I will just try and give you a few highlights from Sun/Mon.

Sunday before leaving to go pick up the little one from my mother in laws house I had this for lunch...
Raw salad with broccoli slaw, massaged with guac and a side of acorn squash globs. Before leaving I also mixed up a batch of Raw Mango Bread...
That's sprouted wheat berries going into the mix. I couldn't really form loaves with the dehydrator that I borrowed (thanks HEABS), so I just kinda globed it on hoping for the best...
..by the way I used the wrong tray, but I later fixed that. I put that on to dehydrate and then we headed on our marry way. We had this lovely view on the way...
Monday, I hit the Y and then came home to some dark chocolate, peanut butter topped oatgurt...
Delish!!!

Morning sanck was another swirly shake...















Lunch was Gena's raw marinara, de-rawed with turkey, served over a bed of greens with globs and globs of hummus and a half of an acorn squash on the side....

(someones always tryin to get in on my goods)

Somehow between Barnes and Noble story time, 2 grocery stores and karate I managed to cook up 2 new recipes. Also, my Raw Mango Bread was finished....














Recipe:

• 2 cups sprouted wheat berries (or other grain)
• 1/2 cup chopped apple
• 1/2 mango, peeled and seeded
• 2 large dates
• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey (I used a mix of the 2)
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp mango cubed
• 2 tbsp apple or other fruit cubed

Puree grains, 1/2 cup apples, 1/2 cup mango, dates, o.j., honey and olive oil. Transfer to a bowl and stir in chopped fruit. Form dough into loaf about 1 1/2 inches tall, 3 1/2 inches wide and 6 inches long. Dehydrate @ 90 degrees for 13 to 17 hours.

Pretty simple, no?

Before getting dinner ready I made a new hummus recipe (thanks Clean Eating). It was for a "Raw" Beanless Zucchini Hummus.

• 3 raw zucchini peeled and chopped
• 6 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 pinches cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup raw tahini
• 1 cup sesame or sunflower seeds, soaked
• evoo, for drizzle

Place all ingredients, except oil, into blender or processor and blend until smooth or desired consistency. Serve with raw flax crackers of ww pita.

3 oz. contains 140 cals, 11 grams fat, 8 carbs and 5 grams protein.

Leave it to me to buy tarragon instead of turmeric and pine nuts instead of sesame or sunflower seeds. Honestly I don't know what I was thinking but I went ahead and made it anyway. Turned out OK but I did screw up 2 main ingredients.

For dinner I made my Black Bean Turkey Burgers with fresh green beans and Curry Coconut Chickpeas. Are you tired of the recipes yet? Well, so am I but to bad :)

What would I do without Clean Eating Mag?

• cooking spray
• 1 cup napa cabbage or bok choy
• 1/2 cup onion diced
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup light coconut milk
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, shredded
  
• 1 tsp fresh garlic, minced
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 3/4 cup chickpeas, canned and drained
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of black pepper

Preheat nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add cabbage, saute until it shrinks down. Add onion and pepper. Cook 2 to 4 minutes.

Add 1 tbsp coconut milk, along with garlic, ginger and curry. Saute 2 min. Add remaining coconut milk, chickpeas, salt and pepper. Heat until warm and serve.

serves 2: 179 cals, 5 grams fat, 27 grams carbs, 5 grams protein.

Heres my dinner plate...
I snacked on to much hummus before hand so I wasnt very hungry.

Did my Y class this morning and then came home to a piece of Raw Mango Bread smothered with one side pb the other crunchy almond and a few slices of banana and deli meat...
I Wasnt very hungry this am. That was my first piece of the raw bread and it was extremely yummy especailly with the pb :) I only had a small piece because I am sure it is very caloric.

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: I hate it when chicks come to the gym early in the morning with full on make up and giant hoop earrings. I also cant stand it when they are obviously coated in 6 layers of perfume. *Gag*

What are your gym pet peeves??

Blackberry Bliss

Hello, all of you beautiful and intelligent ladies (and my husband) . Hope everyone had a great Tuesday. Mine was pretty good. After breakfast yesterday I made another swirly creation. This time it was a chocolate covered strawberry smoooooothie. Um...YUM!!!! The strawberry part contained...

• 1/2 cup uvam
• frozen strawberries
• small chunk of apple
• stevia

The chocolaty part contained...

• 1/2 cup ucam
• 1/2 frozen banana
• spoonful of dark chocolate cocoa powder
• few ice cubes
• dark chocolate stevia

The result...
...heaven in a glass.

After smoothie heaven we ran so errand's and then came home for lunch...
Nope, not BEANUT BUTTER this time. I had a salad of

• romaine
• spinach
• broccoli slaw
• brussel sprouts
• corn

and then a mashed black bean mixture that contained lots of salsa, cumin, garlic powder, pepper, and onion powder. Along with that I had some leftover baked chicken nugget thingies and I mixture of ketchup and BBQ sauce for dipping.

Since the man was going golfing after work the little one and I decided to make some plans. I found a You Pick Farm and we headed out the door with snacks in tow on a 25 mile journey to pick blackberries. The place was far far out but we had fun...
The peaches weren't "you pick" but we broke the rules and chowed down one while picking blackberries...
We were gonna buy peaches but when we got back to the stand someone had came and bought them all :(. Here's what we ended up with...
So big and juicy!! (that's what she sa....Ill stop there)The cost: $8.25

Besides a belly full of blackberries we snacked on apples carrots and pb on the way back.

For dinner a made my first "raw" salad...kinda. I peeled a zucchini and tossed it with guac., tomatoes, and lime juice and then served it over a bed of spinach....
Then I totally ruined the rawness with some more baked chicken nuggets...
I had planed on going for a walk since it was my off day from the gym but never got around to it. I decided on the next best thing, "retail cardio". The little one and I hit some shops after dinner because the man was still not home. We were on a mission to pick up some ramekins for blackberry crumble among other things.

We got home late but I still managed a dessert for the little one...
She insisted on whipped cream...
I just mixed the blackberries with some agave and then for the crust I mixed

• couple of spoonfuls of ww flour
• couple of spoonfuls of quick oats
• tiny spoon tip of baking powder
  
• splash of almond milk
• shake of sea salt
• few swirls of agave syrup

Baked at 350 for about 25 min.

Her belly was happy and she is still sleeping!!

This morning I was up at the crack to hit the Y. Then I came home for some Oatgurt,
with?????

You guessed it, blacberries!!!
O, and pb :)

Have a great humpday guys!

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: I pick my nose. haha. Like all the time!! I cant stand for anything to be in it. It just drives me crazy!! Whats wrong with wanting a clean nose??

P.S. How thrilled was I to get an email from Stacy telling me she tried my BEANUT BUTTER. Check it out to see what she thought.

Oh and wish me luck because I am about to take the little one to get the rest of her shots!!!

Kitty Konundrum

So I totally had a post laid out for yesterday. I came upstairs, pulled out the lap top and then got a call form the little one. "Mama"!!!!. So I sat it down and went to check on her needs. When I came back a minute later the kitten (still has no official name) was standing on the lap top and my screen was gone and the mouse wouldn't work :(. BLAH!!! Ill be honest, I was more productive yesterday. Amazing what a day without the Internet can do!

Anyway, here's a quick recap of Wednesday and Thursday. I am guessing this was my mid morning Wednesday snack...

I think it was a strawberry and pineapple smoothie.

• fresh pineapple
  
• frozen strawberries
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• ice
• stevia

Wed. lunch....
Later, after lunch the little one and I decided that we were going to go to a matinee to see the new Hannah Montana movie. Before I left we shared this scrumpdilliumptious snack...
Yes, that is the beautiful Wilderness Poets nut butters melted on top (see a review here). As you can see I had some of the Cashew Cocoa and the Sesame Pistachio. They were the perfect addition to my warm melty Chocolate Chip Vitatop. Mmmmmm.

We then headed to the movies. We were early so I snapped a few pics of sassy pants...
I joined the action...
(man that shadow really makes my nose look weird)

Surprisingly the movie was fab!! and the little one danced her way through the whole thing...



There were only 3 other people there besides us :).

Although the movie was great and I had an awesome time, on the way out the theater I fell and busted my grill...










Hahaha. Got cha...
Later I made Green Pea Guac....
And had some with dinner...
That's roasted eggplant mixed with another one of my random sausages.

Later I picked up the man from the airport. I was so tired when we got home and just wanted to sleep but he really really really missed me....A LOT (if you know what I mean) hehehe!! Anyway, I got to bed later than planned and had to get up at 4:30am to make it to my weekly weight class. Like a tard I did the 50 min. weight class (with sore knees) and then did a 45 min. spin class. OUCH!

Thursday, I apparently made a smoothie....
Packed a salad to take to the park...
and a side of butternut squash fries..
I also had a much needed LADIES NIGHT!! Sadly this is my only pic..
(a long time friend of mine)

No gym today. Just a bowl of yummy almond butter, banana oats..
Thanks to Wildnerness Poets Hemp Nut Butter I am becoming a fan of chunky nut butter!!

What do you prefer? Chunky or smooth?

CONFESSION OF THE DAY: I am totally one of those moms who hopes her little girl wont grow up wanting to be a cheerleader. Love me or hate me....