You Spin Me Right Round

Good morning bloggies! I hope everyone has had a good weekend:)

When I woke up this morning I was HANGRY (despite my late-night noshing..almond butter, anyone?). So, I started my morning with this GLORIOUS bowl of oats. Nom nom nom.

Into the pot went:

• oats
• Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
• an itty bitty banana
• mixed up with Vega Sport vanilla protein powder (after cooking)
• topped with: almond buttah and LOTS of berries. I was craving them, can you tell?

Roooooarrr I love how green the Vega makes my oats:) It’s like a pop of color in my morning!

Thankfully, it’s a beauuutiful sunny day! It makes up for the obnoxious amount of work I have to do today.

The view out my window.

I’m too lazy to go outside in the freezing cold first thing in the morning;)

During breakfast, I read another two chapters or so of Crazy Sexy Diet. I’m addicted! It is SO good, and it’s encouraging me to try out more raw foods. Did I mention that Kris Karr is hilarious? I love a girl with spunk!

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a healthier life, being vegetarian, vegan, raw, preventing disease, or trying to cure disease.

Slash I recommend this book to EVERYONE. It’s like The China Study in layman’s terms, which is what our country (and our world) needs.

Did you know more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese? The stats are even scarier for kids under the age of FIVE. Something needs to be done. Kris to the rescue! 🙂

Since my wisdom teeth have been KILLING me as of late (I’ve been needing to get them out for, what, 2 months now?), I’ve been up on the ibuprofen. I woke up at 4am to drilling pain in my mouth and sprinted downstairs to get the bottle.

The on-call surgeon offered to prescribe me narcotics but I didn’t want to get loopy. Instead, he’s letting me up the ibuprofen and add Tylenol, but I’m just sticking with the regular dose of the ‘profen. Less chemicals in my body = the better.

So, oatmeal, quinoa flakes, and soft fruit have been my food of choice. And sweet potaters. I can never get enough;)

Last night I tried to make a pizza-like quinoa flakes combo, but it tasted AWFUL. I added nooch, tomato paste, and italian seasoning, hoping for a pizza-like flavor.

Smelled awesome, tasted foul. Too much tomato paste! Lesson learned: a little goes a long way.

That’s avocado and beans for healthy fats + more protein. I was sad when all of the ‘cado was covered in my nasty concoction. Boooo, at least that was most of what I scarfed down!

To make up for my experiment, I cooked up another pot of quinoa flakes and added my mama’s pear-sauce, raisins, and beans. Ahhh, much better:)

Before that, I took an AMAZING spin class. I’m addicted to spinning, and it’s been my favorite group class along with Body Pump since last year. The teacher was adorable, must have been in her fifties or sixties, and she was a POWERHOUSE. From a little lady, you would not expect such spunk. Love it.

Among the benefits of Spinning are:

• It’s calorie-torching
• Improve your cardiovascular endurance and health
• Time flies
• It’s low impact
• You can take it at your own pace
• Leg tonage
• Lowering your body’s workout breaking point (becoming more efficient, and releasing endorphins more quickly)
• It works your core
• Group mentality – it’s fun!
• Improved mental stamina
• Improve overall strength

If you haven’t tried spinning yet, I highly recommend it! It’s so much fun, and it makes me feel like supawomannnnn;)

That’s all for now! Time for me to go to church:) Today’s a rest day (at least that’s the plan), and I didn’t bother to shower this morning. At least I did my makeup and put on a cute oufit, right? Sorry God, it’s not you, it’s me.

On another note, one of my New Year’s rezzies is to improve my relationship with God. During this trying time, I’ve been finding a lot of comfort in prayer and in the prayers of others. I’m hoping to read the Bible this year, from cover to cover:)

Have you had your wisdom teeth out? How did you deal with the pain? Slash did you do anything funny after the surgery (vicodin ha)?

I better do something funny. I told my sister to videotape me. Expect a hilarious video a few weeks from now:)

Has anything in your life strengthened your relationship with God? Tell me your stories!

Yes, but that is for another post:)

Have you ever tried Spinning?

Yes, duh. I am going to be a spinning instructor in college, I’m doing the training this summer hollllla:)

xoxox,

Gluten Free Orange-Cranberry Cookies

Good morning bloggie babes! I have a busy day ahead of me, so this post is going to be a quickie.

First of all, you all should know how much of a messy eater I am. I’m talking food drippage in my hair, on my clothes (one of the many reasons I wear scarves..but then it just gets on those?), on my face, and on all of my class notes.

Exhibit A.

My most recent (and not so obnoxious) stains.

You should see my bio notes.

Anywho, this morning I devoured a delicious [jar] of protein oats! Unforch, I forgot to take a picture (still getting back into the blogging thing..I was hungry). Into the jar went:

• 1/2 cup GF rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• 1 melted banana
• ~ 1 scoop Vega Sport vanilla protein powder (I am OBSESSED. Turns your oats green! Roarrr green power)
• Topped with: blueberries, raspberries, and a good 2 tbsp. or so of almond buttah from the jar

Yummmay in mah belly:)

For your enjoyment, here’s a picture of a glorious bowl of oats I had a few days back (and actually got a picture! go me):

Same oat-USVAB-banana combo as above, just with a toonnnn of PB and cacao nibs. Wassup, Elvis bowl!

Besides that, I’ve been snackety snacking on micro muffies. A microwaved muffin! Doesn’t get any better than that:)

Wanna make one? Do this:

Micro Muffie

In a normal bowl, mix:

• 3 tbsp. flour, oats, oat bran, etc.
• a pinch of sea salt
• 1 tbsp. applesauce or oil
• 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp.  liquid (water, milk, etc.)
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• your choice of sweetener (I use stevia)
• handful of mix-ins (raisins, chocolate chips, cacao nibs)
• spices if desired (I used about 1/4 tsp. or so of cinnamon)

Mix it all together and nuke in a greased mug for 90 seconds, then pop out and let it cool, bottom side up (bottums up, bottums up…). It will firm up and not be so gooey, I promise:)

Top with nut butter or whateva you’re feeling, and devour! Nom nom 🙂

Okay, now for the cookies! I’ve been gluten-free since about September or October. It gives me awwwwful migraines and digestive and muscle pains, and since I’ve been off  of it, my symptoms have gone away. So, I’ve been experimenting with gluten-free baking as of late, and recently came up with these babies!

Sorry for the [awesome] picture quality..lately my Droid is my camera of choice:)

Gluten-Free Orange Cranberry Cookies

Makes about 14 cookies (it can easily be doubled)

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup almond flour (almond meal)
• 1/3 cup quinoa flour
• 1/4 cup quinoa flakes
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup NuStevia baking blend (or sweetener of choice)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp. orange extract
• about 3 tsp. orange zest
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (I used dehydrated Whole Foods brand cranberries and soaked them in hot water for about 5-10 minutes)
• about 2-3 tbsp. Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (eyeball this based on dryness/wetness of the batter)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl (except cranberries), and wet ingredients in another.
3. Mix wet and dry together thoroughly, then fold in cranberries (if you followed my method of dehydrated-and-soaked, make sure you drain the water out well).
4. Drop by the tablespoon onto greased cookie sheets, and flatten with the palm of your hand.
5. Bake for about 7 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly golden on the edges.
6. Try to not burn your tongue by eating one fresh outta the oven.

These were perfectly moist and delicious🙂 I froze about half of them so that I can pop one in the microwave every night and have a cookie “fresh out of the oven”. Soooo good! Last night I needed a snackety snack and topped one with almond butter…do it. Now.

I’m off to work on my Econ paper! I’ll be squeezing in a workout a bit later. Hopefully it’ll be a bit more organized than my hodgepodge from yesterday!

I think I have workout ADD…I kept going from elliptical to stair climber to treadmill and back around. Maybe today will be a spinning class🙂

Are you a messy eater?

Yes. I currently have oats on my bathrobe.

What’s your favorite way to eat oats?

With a melted banana, protein powder, almond butter, and berries:)

What’s your favorite dessert/cookie?

BROWNIES! And chocolate chip cookies (the gooey kind). And cake:) Does fruit count as dessert? Fruit + chocolate = super combo.

xoxox,

 

 

 

 

 

p.s. I totally lied, this was NOT a short post. I get carried away;)

OIAJ & Time to De-Stress

This morning, I had Oats In a Jar.

And they were good.

Pre-stirrage

Post-stirrage goodness..nom nom nom 🙂

Into the pot went:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• a melted banana mixed in 🙂

Into the jar went:

• steaming oats
• 2 tbsp. almond buttah from the jar
• a handful of raisins
• cinnamon (obv)

I can’t get enough of the banana-nut-butter oats combo. I’ve been having it every morning for the last week, and it has not once gotten old (way to have some variety, Katelyn!). It’s fine.

If you haven’t tried Katie’s melted banana trick, hon, you are missing out. Try it. Now. (not to be bossy or anything 😉 )

Nom nom nom 🙂 Currently getting banana oats cravings…

But, onto other things!

What time is it? It’s…

 

Time to De-Stress:

You know that feeling where there’s just so much to do, but somehow not enough time in the day to do it? Or that weighted-down feeling you carry around when you’re just stressed?

Hello, high school!

I’ve been feeling ultra stressed lately, so I’ve been looking for some ways to de-stress. Such as:

Tea 🙂

 

Yoga (especially Power Vinyasa! still have to try hot yoga)

 

 

(yes, I know it’s not a yoga picture, but it came up in my Bing search and it made me laugh! 😉 )

Hot chocolate 🙂 The reason for the season, lovies!

 

 

Runnin’ runnin 🙂 And spinning!

 

 

Eating peanut buttah noodles while catching up with friends..

 

 

…and more tea.

 

 

I am such a tea girl. I always have some tea in my favorite thermos! My favorites currently are Yogi teas and Tazo teas – especially their Refresh, Honeybush, and Vanilla Rooibos varieties. Keeps me nice and warm 🙂

 

And baking! Especially these Oatcakes:

Expect a recipe soon! They were to die for – reminiscent of my childhood and perfectly moist. They were delicious by themselves (I scarfed them down, notabigdeal), but I discovered they were even more out-of-this-world with some good pb and apple butter. Mmm 🙂

Question of the Day: What’s your favorite way to de-stress?

Time for me to sign off, y’all – readings on the U.S. economy are calling my name! Enjoy the rest of your evening, lovlies 🙂

xoxox,

We have a mouse problem.

This is not a joke. I repeat, this is not a joke.

I may love animals and think that itty bitty mice can occasionally be cute, but we have mice that are taking my Mary’s Gone Crackers out of the box…through the front panel.

I think I may have a freaky genius on my hands.

^^ Yup, total freaky genius.

Then, during my run two days ago, I spotted an itty bitty baby mouse on a glue trap we had set out (I was not happy with my parents for this), and it was still breathing. I was nearly in tears, lovlies 😦 I couldn’t handle it. Then, I saw another one on the other side of my basement! Let’s just say it was a rough morning.

Plus, we learned that we have a family of mice in our house! Later that night, CKMom found another mouse..in our trash can! And caught it by hand (accompanied by some screaming, but it’s notabigdeal). What a champ 🙂

But despite all that, this morning was loooovely. I was hungry right when I woke up (I usually never am), and all I wanted was peanut butter and bananas. Nothing else. So I whipped up this bowl of yum 😉

Peanut Buttah and Banana Oats

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 banana
• 2 tbsp. peanut buttah 🙂

Directions:

1. Bring liquid to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and add oats. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. When oats are about to be done cooking, mash up the banana and microwave for 15-30 seconds, until hot, mushy, and smelling really good 🙂
3. Add banana to oats before they are fully cooked, and combine.
4. When oatmeal is done cooking, cover and remove from heat for a few minutes.
5. Serve and top with peanut buttah! 🙂

Lots of peanut buttah.

Not as pretty when all mixed up, though…but waaaay tastier!

This was too good. And super simple. Sometimes simplest is best 🙂 I enjoyed this as breakfast in bed (while reading VegNews, obvs), which was so nice considering I’ve been feeling under the weather and had to stay home today.

Not too long after, I got hungry again and decided it was time to lose my Green Monster virginity. (gasp!)

Honestly, I don’t know why I’ve never made one before, but it was time. Plus, I felt like I needed some greens!

Of course, I had to roll In-A-Bowl style. I don’t do smoothies in a glass – as I’ve mentioned before, it would be gone in about T-minus .049712301 seconds.

Behold, my first green monstah! 🙂

And yes, it too was made with berries..and is high-protein!

Berry High-Protein Green Monster

Ingredients:

• 1 packet Vega Vanilla Chai Whole Food Health Optimizer
• 2 giant handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 cup mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries)
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• 1.5 tsp. xanthan gum

And blend, baby, blend!

I enjoyed mine straight outta the bowl, as per usual. And as you can see, it was slightly overflowing..just the way I like it 🙂

Sometimes my favorite foods are the ugliest ones 🙂 I love how the seeds in the berries add a yummy crunch to the smoothie. This was the perfect snackety-snack!

It got in mah belly.

That’s all for now, lovlies! I hope everyone’s had a great day so far 🙂

xoxox,

Sunday with the Fam

It’s another rainy Sunday in our neck of the woods, and I loooove it 🙂 Yes, it’s chilly, and yes, it’s slightly muggy, but I love a good, relaxing day filled with activities accented by hearty meals and a warm cup of tea.

So this morning, I overslept about an hour (the rain gets me every time!), so I had to whip up breakfast and pop it in the oven, then squeeze my workout and shower into the 45 minutes of cooking time. Oh boy. Throw a challenge at a girl, and this is the one you pick? I was not looking for a hectic morning. But thankfully, everything came together beautifully.

I ran .9-something of a mile, not any more, for the very devastating reason that my treadmill blew a fuse just as my mile was about to be done! Boooo. So I ran upstairs, showered, and came down to prepare brekkie for the fam 🙂

Strawbs, blackberries, cherries, apple spread, and nut butters for topping:

Mmm, my famous Apple-Cinnamon-Raisin Muffies in baked oat form 🙂

My plate, pre- giant spoonful of apple spread. After that, there was no mercy on these oats.

They were so perfectly crispy on top and gooey and warm in the middle, packed with cinnamon-y apple-raisin goodness. It’s like oats taken to a whole new level! I will be making these on a much more regular basis. With plenty of variations to come, of course 🙂

I was inspired by Jackie‘s recipe, and changed it around a ton and made it a more breakfast-y and moist version of my muffies.

Apple Cinnamon Raisin Baked Oats

(Adapted from Carolina Vogue‘s Baked Overnight Oats)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups rolled or old-fashioned oats
• 1.5 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, natural applesauce
• LOTS of cinnamon! At least 2 tsp., add more to your liking (I like more 🙂 )
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 apple, cored and diced (Cameo is my favorite!)
• 1 heaping tbsp. almond butter
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 tsp. NuStevia powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 7×11 or 9×9 casserole dish.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, then add wet ingredients and mix, mix, mix!
3. Pour it all into a casserole dish and even out with a spoon, then pop in the oven for 45 minutes and let cool for 5-10 minutes (it needs to firm an eeensy bit).
4. Then cut into squares and enjoy! 🙂

These are incredibly low-calorie and loaded with fruit, whole grains, protein, fiber, and good fats that kept me full for a looong time 🙂

After brekkie, we went to church and then to the local farmer’s market. Unfortunately, I forgot about the farmer’s market until we were already at church, so no camera was on hand; next week I’ll deliver the goods.

But, we did pick up these goodies! We’ll be feasting on yummy things for awhile 🙂

Heirloom tomatoes, giant beets (my fave!), crab apples, apples with "strawberry" in their name (no joke), dill pickles, and raw almond buttah!

I love me some almond buttah 🙂

They also had cashew, sunflower seed, and peanut buttah, but that will have to be for another weekend 🙂

The pickles were so good, esp. with my lunch sammie!

Crab apples! So sour, but I like

The strawburry apples

Did I mention I really like love heirloom tomatoes?

My lunch! We had a make-your-own-sammie Sunday, and I decided on Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread with my homemade hummus, cukes, celery, kale, and sprouts; pickles and daikon on the side 🙂

Slight camera fail

Crunch, crunch 🙂

Ahh, now it’s time to relax with my books and some tea 🙂 My new favorite is Yogi Ginseng Vitality. I love it because it has cinnamon and lots of antioxidant-filled herbs.

For dinner, tonight’s Pizza Night! Followed with our first time having vegan chocolate-chip cookies 🙂 I may have been vegan for awhile, but I can only make so many desserts! I can’t wait to try them.

Have a cozy afternoon lovlies! See you after dinner 🙂

xoxox,

Katelyn