Portland, Baby!

Posted on May 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

I know I typically have a standard format for my blog, but today I’m going to shake it up a bit and ditch the normal layout.

I’m in Portland, Oregon for the second ever Vida Vegan Con vegan bloggers conference. Imagine hundreds of vegans. In one place. It’s a beautiful sight to behold for sure! Food kicks butt too.

I arrived around 1130 am yesterday, and took the train downtown to my hotel. It’s so wonderful staying in a town with a great mass transit system. Trains, trolleys, and busses get you from one end to the other with ease, and I’m jealous.

There was an Unofficial VVC meet and great at the White Owl Social Club, and I had a chance to “meet” several people I’ve “known” through blogging, etc, for some time. It was lovely. After was dinner at Portabello’s all vegan awesomeness, where we split several dishes. Then for me, it was off to bed. I was beat!

Conference started today with check-in, including a Swag Bag O Wonder stocked full of amazing foods, recipes, and coupons. Then it was vendor samples, and the sessions began.

Gena from Choosing Raw did a great talk about blog writing. She walked us through some common blogging mistakes (as a former Editor, she definitely knew what she was talking about!) I also realized that I do a LOT of the blunders she mentioned, so I’m going to have to think on that.

There’s much more to see, learn, and do, and I’m looking forward to it all. I’ll leave you all with some pics from the last 2 days. Hope you’re all having as amazing of a weekend as I am! If you’re on Twitter or Instagram, you can find tons of great updates and pics with #VVC2013

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Tagged Blogging, Eating, Travel, Vida Vegan Con 2013

Will the Real Bootcamp Please Stand Up?

Posted on May 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

FOOD

So first of all, the raw granola bars turned out amazingly. I really have to make a big batch of these before all my spring and summer travels start (hell0…they start in less than 3 days!). Besides, my oldest keeps taking them all and I’m almost out…

Breakfast Sunday morning was a cup of coffee and a green juice. Celery, apple, lemon, parsley, and kale. Lunch was a BAS from Whole Foods that I picked up after yoga (sorry, no picture of either!). Dinner is a raw pizza! The crust is a zucchini/buckwheat/oat recipe (slightly modified) from Chef Amber Shea. The sauce is a raw marinara, and topped with onion, pineapple, garlic, fresh basil (that I’m growing!), and bell pepper. After starting the crust in the dehydrator around 10am, I flipped it, dried it a few more hours, then topped with my toppings and put back in for an hour to warm up a bit. Very, very yummy!

after making the dough in the Vitamix (a combo of fresh made oat flour – also in the Vita, zucchini, spices, and buckwheat among a few ingredients)…I spread out a large crust on the dehydrator and popped that sucker in.

fresh tomato marinara ingredients going into the Vitamix to make my pizza sauce

bell pepper, onion, pineapple, and fresh basil for my pizza toppings!

not the prettiest, but for my first attempt at a raw pizza, it was very good and I’ll definitely make it again.

I also made some sweet potato hummus and a few salads to keep for the week.

This morning was a green juice for breakfast (I actually made this one instead of buying it!), and a snack of Suzie’s quinoa cakes topped with the sweet potato hummus and pickles!

romaine, collard leaves, apples, lemon, cucumber, and ginger

FITNESS

I actually slept in yesterday (930 am!), so I really missed any opportunity to hit up a Bikram yoga class. After checking out local yoga and YMCA classes, I decided to go to a Hot Vinyasa yoga class.

It’s been awhile since I’ve worn a HR monitor to one of those, but since I want to compare it to Bikram, I did.

I want to start off by saying this was a tough class. It was 60 minutes, but for those who don’t know what vinyasa is, it’s a constant flow from one posture to another. I had a few moments where I felt I was pushing past my comfort zone, and struggled for about 5 minutes where I took a few child’s pose breaks.

I was shocked (and disappointed) to see my HR monitor only register 247 calories in an hour. I really felt I worked even harder than I did at the Bikram class, but just a portion of the burn. Wow. I did take the watch off for a bit, but put it next to my mat, so I’m guessing the monitor around my chest was still transmitting.

hot vinyasa class. I think I got robbed on this….

This morning I hit up a Boot Camp class at the Y. I figure I have this membership, right…may as well use it to check out group classes other than spin.

I will say that, having been in the military personally, my idea of boot camp is FAR different from the suburbanites I was in class with. Quite frankly, it wasn’t my thing. I was disappointed in the class, and while I got a pretty good burn (368 cal in 45 min), I didn’t feel very “worked out” by the end. I’ll check out a few others with different instructors to see if I take to them any better.

sorry for the dark pic….it was still sort of dark-ish and overcast out

LIFE

Life was quiet this past weekend. D was feeling a bit under the weather, so we really all stayed home. A had volunteering Saturday and Sunday and worked Saturday night, so other than that, it was grocery shopping, farmer’s market hopping, laundry, and kitchen fun.

R swam with her new perspective team again tonight, and it’s so very different. She seems to like it more, so we’ll see if she tries out and makes the switch!

T minus 2 1/2 days to Portland and Vida Vegan Con 2013!!!

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Tagged Gluten Free Living, Juicing!, Raw Food, Vida Vegan Con 2013, Vitamix, Yoga

I Have a Hippie Box (or three….), and One Extra Adult in the House

Posted on May 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

FOOD

I am relegated to the garage. Sort of. You see, I am 1/5 of a family, and while the rest of them are pretty good at eating well, none of them eat like me…..vegan, lots of raw, and food I wouldn’t have recognized as a kid growing up in the Midwest (we’re not exactly known for our tempeh in Wisconsin!).

We have one fridge, which I mostly dominate with fruits and veggies, a deep freezer which is mostly bulk soups, and a pantry that is mostly canned goods, teas, flours, breads, tortillas, etc. However, I have a lot of “other food”…we’re talking bulk dried beans, rice paper rolls, Ener-G egg replacement for baking, a plethora of rices, etc…that don’t fit in the house. So…I have hippie boxes in the attached garage (it’s what we’ve taken to calling “mom’s food”). I started with one, and now have three. One is exclusively for spices (I’m a spice snob). One of these days, I’ll get to have all my food live in the house. Someday

hippie boxes, plus boxes of bulk channa dahl and soy beans (for homemade soymilk), and buckwheat groats

Yesterday I had a raw wrap for breakfast (typical collard leaf stuffed with tons of veggies, guacamole, and pickles), some pineapple for a snack, miso soup and sushi with D for lunch, and some quinoa puffed cakes (like rice cakes) with guacamole and pickles for dinner.

sweet potato, avocado, and broccoli rolls

Suzie’s cakes with guac and pickles! I love that combo…

Today was a Whole Foods salad and a green juice for breakfast, some Post Punk Kitchen red Thai curry rice and kale soup for lunch, and popcorn for dinner (no I’m not proud of that one, but it is what it is). Snacked on watermelon, grapes, and pineapple as snacks.

garlicky kale, spinach, tomato and onion salad, and some roasted spuds

green juice

first stage of the soup. Only change I made from the recipe was to use short-grain brown rice and red kale

a BIG bowl!

I have a batch of granola bars from Practically Raw Desserts going in the dehydrator (based on the batter, these are going to be awesome….), and I have a ton more planned (raw breads, kale chips, more desserty things) throughout the weekend. I’ve been moving more and more towards higher raw eating, and always love finding new ways to make it fun and interesting.

FITNESS

I’m a big fan of hot yoga, as any regular reader knows. For some reason, we don’t have many non-hot studios around here, so I think I got into hot yoga out of necessity more than desire, but I do enjoy it. Especially now that I’m not running, I appreciate more the harder workout that hot yoga is for me.

That said, when I travel, finding regular hot yoga studios is more difficult. Hot yoga is essentially “regular” hatha or ashtanga (or other style normally done in a non-heated environment) yoga done in a heated room. The more popular version of hot yoga is Bikram yoga, which is a more popular/trendy style of 26 specific postures done over 90 minutes in a 105 degree/40% humidity room. After years of doing yoga in my area, Bikram has come to town. I checked it out yesterday….

So here’s my take on it. Bikram style is a very specific sequence; it’s always the same 26 postures done twice each. The room is always lit brightly, carpeted, and there is no music. It’s sort of military-meets-yoga style to me (as a survivor of real military boot camp, I feel I can say this!).

Other hot yoga classes I usually go to are in dimly lit rooms, heated from 95-105 degrees, never carpeted, though floors vary, and the sequences vary as widely as the whims of the instructors. Sometimes I love them, other times I don’t. There’s always music – some traditional yoga music, and some upbeat modern (those are my favorite), and they vary in length from 60-75-90 minutes.

The jury is still out in how I feel about one vs. the other. I certainly was a hot sweaty mess when I left the Bikram class, but I’m not sure (based on my HR monitor) that I actually burned any more calories than normal. I got a little light-headed in the last 10 minutes, and didn’t like that water breaks were prescribed vs taking them when you need in my other classes. That said, I liked the instructor and her explanations of everything we were doing. None of the poses were new to me, so I think that helped. I was also warned that the first class isn’t pleasant, and to give it a few. I’m thinking about sticking to this style for a month to see if I notice anything different – especially if I get stronger due to always doing the same pose sequence. I’ll keep ya posted on that.

my Bikram burn

LIFE

Well, the most notable thing for me is that yesterday I woke up the mother of 3 kids, and went to sleep the mother of 2 kids and 1 adult. Yep…my oldest turned 18. I was fine about it all until I went to bed (which was close to 1 am since I was waiting up for her to get home from her night out!) and started thinking about A being 18. It’s cool…though she’s still a kid with a lot to learn. She doesn’t always think she has anything left to learn, but I was no different at her age.

Other than that, I went to Whole Foods and made the rounds at some farmer’s market’s and U-Pick Strawberry fields. I live in SE Virginia, which is largely tobacco and cotton areas. Finding a big farmer’s market around here isn’t easy (though you can’t tell people around here that the Virginia Beach farmer’s market is small and a little sad….). I grew up in WI where farmer’s markets were as big as a small mall. *sigh

Anyway, I made the trek to a few in North Carolina (I live pretty close to the state line), and came home with a trunk full of fun. Fruits, veggies, spicy pickles (yes…I love pickles), and juices. All in all, a really good haul!

one of the farmer’s markets had these little wheel barrow shopping carts!

D isn’t feeling so hot, so while he took a nap, I finally watched Tron with my youngest R. We made popcorn and enjoyed the movie very much. The rest of the weekend will be wash and prepping foods for the coming busy week! Oh…and I leave for Portland Thursday!!!

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Tagged Gluten Free Living, Juicing!, Movies/TV, Raw Food, Shopping, Vegan, Yoga

Nothing But a Circus Around Here

Posted on May 16, 2013 | 4 Comments

FOOD

Okay, so I’ll have the obligatory pictures of yummy eats in a second, but today I want to talk about the lessons I’ve learned from food in the past month or so.

First of all, my joint pain is all but gone the past two weeks. I had some soreness in my right hand when I had to do a bit of handwriting one day (laptop battery died and I forgot my iPad, so I was forced to go the old-fashioned way – pen and paper!). But that said – it was only very mildly sore, and nothing like the locked up and unable to move and severe pain that I’d been having. Aside from that one episode, my joints have been great.

What does this say to me? It confirms my very strong belief that food is the ultimate medicine. You can harm or heal your body through food. You can eat yourself to death and disease, or to health. I will put the caveat that there are circumstances where food has little to nothing to do with disease, but I don’t think a good clean diet can ever HURT you the way a bad diet will always hurt you. Take me for instance. My autoimmune condition is genetic, yet my food choices are helping me manage it drug-free.

The hives are still hit or miss. It’s nowhere near as bad as it was back in January/February, but I still get boughts of them that are extremely itchy and uncomfortable. Here is what I’ve learned about that…

Hives, first of all, are a histamine reaction and we’re not exactly sure why I’m having them. Could it be related to the joint fun? Maybe. Is it allergies to foods or environment? Possibly. Does anyone feel confident they know why I’m getting them? Hell no.

I’ve had days where I don’t get any. When looking at my food journals, those are the days I ate the cleanest with mostly or all raw foods, limited caffeine, etc. If I slip up and have something with gluten (like today), I will get some intense hives. I can’t make a positive correlation yet, but I think there’s a connection to foods causing my hives. I’ll keep watching it.

Oh, and ice packs are the best thing I’ve found for the hives. Showers and any heat make them worse, creams don’t help (they make it worse by trapping in body heat). So for your future reference if you ever find yourself with a back full of hives – ice it. Trust me.

Okay. Pic time.

raw wrap

new juice line being made by my Whole Foods

blueberry and coconut smoothie

this week’s favorite. It’s a green smoothie with banana, strawberry, pineapple, flax, and romaine.

BAS with romaine, arugula, cuc, carrot, cauliflower, red onion, cherry tomatoes, a spicy tahini dressing, and some grilled artichoke.

today’s lunch bento stack! Raw collard wrap, chopped veggie snack, and some fruit (Muscat grapes and pineapple).

FITNESS

It’s been a very hectic week, so getting in my workouts has been an experiment in time management. Early morning yoga at home with one of my Yoga Today videos and Zumba on the Xbox have been the order of the week.

I did make it to a spin class with AZ this evening after work. It was ok….I wasn’t the sweat ball I normally am, and my calorie burn was only 300 for 45 minutes, compared to the 500+ of the past few. If my butt and leg muscles are sore tomorrow, I’ll feel like it was a good lower-body strength session more than any cardio….oh well.

I see my trainer tomorrow morning.

LIFE

The big life stuff the past few days have been about my oldest daughter. First of all, she’s turning 18 tomorrow, but that’s a whole other post!

I’ve mentioned before that she’s an artist – her specific medium being fashion. She had her Senior Show this past week, and quite frankly, all of my energies have been there. Everything came together in the end, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried that it would all fall apart!

The show was inspired by the circus, and all of the outfits represent different circus things – there’s an elephant, lion tamer, ring leader, big tent, acrobat, poodle, clown, and a mime.

She had eight models (friends) and three “helpers” during the show. She produced all the art work and outfits, choreographed everything, selected the music, etc. The rest of the family helped do everything else! Catering, moving walls, communicating with parents, hosting a “fitting party”, helping find a photographer and videographer, and basically keep her on track (yes…we made a color coded project plan). It was insane and amazing, and I’m incredibly proud of her.

Believe it or not – we took VERY few pictures. There was a photographer and videographer documenting the whole thing (local community college students – keeping in theme that this was a student show), so we were mingling and keeping everything together. Here are a few, but they don’t come close to capturing the show. Perhaps I’ll post more when we get the files from the show.

we had to rent a U-Haul and pick up 5 false walls so A could create a runway and have walls to hang her art. And then take them back. All in the same day. And they’re heavy.

the space that the museum donated for the show

the awesome Chihuly glass centerpiece of the room

the entrance to the runway

drawings (4 are of outfits in the show)

more drawings (and the top 4 are the other outfits in the show)

dress rehearsal

a few of the girls (including A) doing set up before the show

the models in their circus-themed creations! My daughter would be the one on the end in the blue dress – which she made too.

Other than that, sleep and relaxing are the goals for the next few days before life gets hectic for other reasons (like traveling, graduation, more traveling, and the whole “shipping a kid off to college” thing…..).

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Tagged Big Ass Salad, Crazy Children, Gluten Free Living, grilling, Hectic Life!, Juicing!, Raw Food, Spinning, Vegan, Yoga

Falling for Hiking

Posted on May 13, 2013 | 4 Comments

FOOD

I honestly can’t remember everything of the past week. My guess? Smoothies, salads, and fruit are mostly likely what I ate. Nothing is standing out though, so no amazing new (or accidental) creations.

I was lazy a few days. This was my dinner one night…

avocado and pickle on a rice cake! I do so love this combination.

a greens and berry smoothie

FITNESS

I was all over the map last week when it came to fitness. I’m trying to find my groove-thing without running, and I found myself pouting more than once about how life would be so much easier if I could just go run.

I did, however, get to go on a beautiful hike on Saturday. A part of a meet-up group, R and I went with about 20-30 other hikers to a place called Crabtree Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 4 hours from home. My HR monitor said it was 1200 calories burned in those couple of hours.

I live in a region called Tidewater. To give you some type of explanation….it’s flat. Sea level or below, it’s flat, marshy, wet, and flat. The 1-2 hikes I’ve been on haven’t been the most fun, and I was really trying to find out what the big deal about hiking is. Turns out, just a few hours away is the Piedmont region (as R was lecturing to me on the drive), and it’s NOT flat. It made for a much more beautiful and challenging hike, and I’m starting to understand why people like hiking.

On a personal note, R flew to the front of the group and was the first to reach the summit. I was somewhere near the back! We had lunch and then hiked back down. It really was an awesome time. I’m glad she’s my hiking buddy.

R ready to hit the trails!

an her at the summit with the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains behind her

and her at the summit with the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains behind her

LIFE

Since R and I had woken up just before 5am on Saturday to get to the group hike, we spent the night in Richmond at a hotel. We went swimming, had dinner, and then curled up in bed watching the Harry Potter movie marathon on ABC Family until we fell asleep – around 830 or so.

Sunday we met up with D, A, and M in Williamsburg and did a little shopping at the outlet mall and then over to Busch Gardens, where we had a blast (as always). R is tall enough to rider her first big rollercoaster, and she loved it! Yay…looks like we’re a rollercoaster family!

all 5 of us

my girls….

D and I

M and R – about to go on their ride!

random picture of Bumble, who can get comfy and sleep anywhere….

So, all in all, my Mother’s Day weekend was absolutely amazing!

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Tagged Crazy Children, Family Fun, Hiking, photography, Smoothies!, Theme Parks, Vegan

Insomniacs of the World Unite

Posted on May 6, 2013 | 2 Comments

FOOD

Dinner last night was really good. I marinated some portabella mushroom caps in some homemade veggie broth, minced garlic, and balsamic vinegar for about a half hour. The D threw them on the grill for me!

I served them up in a big collard leaf (instead of a burger bun) and topped with cabbage, red onion, sliced tomato, and sauerkraut. I was going to make a quinoa salad for a side dish, but was too lazy and just ate two of my shroom burger wraps instead.

shroom burger wrap

I had absolutely no appetite today. I had very little sleep, and I find that I’m either starving the next day or completely disinterested in food. I was the latter.

I didn’t have anything for breakfast, but lunch was some reheated lentils and rice from dinner Friday night. I don’t think I blogged about it, but it was my usual. 2 cups lentils, 1 cup brown rice, 2 tbsp. of spice (I usually go with something Middle Eastern, and this was no change – I used a Baharat spice blend). Pop it in the rice cooker and that’s all she wrote.

I heated up a bowl and topped it with some shredded cabbage and hot sauce.

Late afternoon I had a plain baked potato with pepper. Boring, but I wasn’t in the mood for anything fancier.

For dinner, I ended up making a savory green smoothie. 4-5 Roma tomatoes, 1/4 yellow bell pepper, a chunk of red onion (I’d guess about 1-2 tbsp.), a celery stalk, a large carrot, and a few big handfuls of spinach. Into the Vitamix and then into my belly.

before blending! Can you imagine sitting down to a bowl of this? Sometimes I can…but today, I blended that BAS and drank it instead! Took much less effort…

FITNESS

I knew when I woke up this morning that it’d be a rough day. I had about 2 hours of sleep and needed to focus. So….I went to a spinning class at the Y. I figured I needed to get my blood pumping to wake my #$% up, and it worked. I can’t get over how many people workout that early in the morning. Crazy.

good burn in that class this morning!

Anyway, my bum is still sore from Saturday’s class with AZ, but I threw on some padded bike shorts and muscled through it.

LIFE

I was up late working last night (until 1 am or so), and since my brain was spinning, I had no hope of actually falling asleep. As it happens, a very good friend of mine was also unable to sleep, so we chatted for a bit in the middle of the night, which was actually really nice. I finally dozed off sometime around 330. I’m surprisingly awake today, so that’s good at least!

It’s a typical Monday evening, though I’m home earlier than usual (as in 7pm instead of 8 pm!). We’re all starting to wind down and for me personally – I’m really looking forward to going to bed as soon as possible!

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Tagged Big Ass Salad, Cooking, Gluten Free Living, Insomnia, Raw Food, Smoothies!, Spinning, Vegan

This Isn’t a “Circle of Life Kinda Thing”

Posted on May 5, 2013 | 2 Comments

It’s a Lion King reference. I hope you get it. If not, the title may be lost on you….

FOOD

It’s been a simple few days. Oatmeal again for breakfast yesterday and an early Cinco de Mayo dinner of lentil tacos for dinner (tacos are easier to feed masses of people).

Irish oats with blueberries and apple pie spice this time.

Today was a green smoothie for breakfast and a salad and coconut veggie curry soup for lunch. Dinner will be some grilled mushrooms and a quinoa salad.

FITNESS

I met up with AZ for a spinning class yesterday morning. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve done one of those, and it was a brutal workout. Even my friend, who spins fairly regularly, thought it was a tough one.

I wore my HR monitor, and it had me at 560 calories in one hour. Crazy.

Today I did a zumba class at the Oceanfront as part of the Healing Life hippie festival. It was cold and windy, so the dancing warmed me up.

LIFE

It’s been a nice weekend. The oldest had her fitting party last night, and it ended up only one girl could spend the night, so it wasn’t as chaotic as I thought it would be.

While the girls hung out, D and I actually sat down long enough together to watch TV. We started watching House of Cards, which is a Netflix-only political drama with Kevin Spacey. So far we’ve watched 3 episodes and are loving it.

Today I went to a vegan meet-up at a hippie festival down at the Oceanfront. I will be honest, I was disappointed. It wasn’t well-organized (no meeting time/location…just the generic 10-6pm hours of the festivities), so I ended up wandering around by myself. I don’t know if it was the wind and cold, but there wasn’t much there. I did stay for a while, talked to the few vendors that were there, and watched a class on sprouting, but overall as a meet-up, it was nothing like the previous ones I’ve been to. Oh well…they can’t all be awesome I suppose.

a flag football tourney was going on while I was there, and I stopped to watch them for a bit.

random ocean shot

walking into the festival

I finally planted my herbs this afternoon too. One pot has 2 basil plants in it, and the other has a Thai basil, mint, and oregano. Hope I don’t kill those.

I’m really excited about next weekend. R, M, and I (and possibly D, but not sure yet – he may be going camping) are going to Crabtree Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains to go hiking! It’s a group hike of about 3 miles total; 1.5 miles up and 1.5 miles back. It’s graduated with a well maintained trail, and was told it’s good for kids. I can only imagine how beautiful it’s going to be. I think if I’m going to get into hiking, I want it to at least be pretty

Finally, a few goofy pet pictures to end the post…

D messing with Bumble. She’s clearly not amused. I kept imagining her thinking “I’m not Simba, you jackass”

A and her friends went to Skinny Dip and brought the pups back some froyo. She was a happy pups.

Both Sammie and Bumble are getting pretty old. Sammie will be 11 in July and Bumble will be 14. Bum has always been an inside cat, but we’re starting to let her be in the yard as long as we’re there too. She loves to explore, but we don’t want her running about the neighborhood. She’s also a bit of a frady-cat, and hasn’t really wandered too far. Today, for example, it took her forever just to walk out the back door….

looking both ways is something we all should do…..

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Tagged Smoothies!, Spinning, Vegan, Zumba

Call Me Elwood

Posted on May 3, 2013 | 6 Comments

FOOD

This week on the elimination diet has been going well. I get this sense of clarity and purpose by avoiding foods. It sounds strange, but it’s been easy to forgo the crackers and wine because I’m on a mission. It’s like I’m Elwood in The Blues Brothers…..”They’re not gonna catch us….we’re on a mission from God”. Granted, my mission was given to me by a nutritionist, but still….I feel like Elwood.

Anyway, I’m not hungry very often, and when I am, after a handful of berries or veggies, I’m good to go.

I’ve had many green smoothies, and most with some brown rice protein powder added to make up for the lack of tofu in my diet.

craved some oatmeal one day. This has about a 1/2 cup of blueberries, a mashed banana, and a ton of cinnamon added too. It was amazing…like dessert.

I took half a head of cauliflower and coated it in coconut white balsamic vinegar and cinnamon and threw it in the dehydrator for about 12 hours. I was hoping they’d be crunchy, but there were good and satisfied that occasional sweet tooth.

common snack….wild rice cakes, guacamole, and tomato. I was sad I was out of pickles, because that would have MADE this.

I had this BAS twice this week. Chopped lettuce, chickpeas, peas, beets, onion, tomato, peppercini, and avocado.

not for me, but made cookies for the fam. They’re vegan oatmeal raisin, but with choc ships instead of raisins.

FITNESS

Yesterday was a hot yoga class with a little funk thrown in. I down dogged to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foster the People, XX, and a few others. The hour was up before I knew it, which just means the class was that good.

Tomorrow I have a spin date with a friend at 830 am, and time permitting, may take R on a guided hike at a local state park at 3. We’ll have to play that one by ear though.

LIFE

It’s been a nice week for the most part, at least in terms of work and home life.

I had lunch with R at her school today, which was really nice. She wants to make it a regular thing, which if I can work it in, would love to do. D was going to meet her for lunch on Wednesday, but he got that nasty stomach virus M had.

M curled up on the floor, feeling icky, and snuggling with his pups.

Tomorrow I will have a gaggle of teenaged girls (17-18 yrs. old) over for a “Fitting Party”. She has a fashion show in a little less than two weeks, and in an effort to get all her models in one place to do final fittings, we’re (read – I’m) hosting a party. It’s going to be utter chaos.

Oh, and I’m getting a new dishwasher installed tomorrow too. Hence why I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the hike. D may kill me if I leave him home alone with that many kids running about.

Sunday I’m going to a vegan meet-up at a local festival, and am looking forward to that too. Hopefully it’ll be a nice and peaceful weekend…well…at least Sunday should be

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Tagged Big Ass Salad, Gluten Free Living, Smoothies!, Yoga

The Pains of Opening Day

Posted on April 29, 2013 | 2 Comments

FOOD

So, we broke another coffee pot. Seriously, I’ve gone through 3 in just a few years. Aren’t these things supposed to last a long time? It’s not like I abuse them or anything, and only one of them was a K-Mart special. Anyway, we went with the Keurig Vue. It doesn’t use the K-Cups, but the newer Vue cups. Everyone loves it. And I got a new appliance.

On the normal food front, it’s been another few days of yummy and mostly raw goodness. Allow me to demonstrate:

whipping up a small bit of guac for a wrap. 1 avocado, a thick slice of red onion, half a hot pepper, some cilantro, a clove of garlic, and a pinch of sea salt. Easy peasy.

the wrap with guac smothered on it. Along with a bunch of other yummy things!

I made another crock pot batch of veggie broth. I’m still saving all my discards like onion peels, leftover spices, any veggie that I’m not going to use in time before it spoils, etc. Pop it in the crock, cover with water, and this time I threw a handful of peppercorns too. Very happy with this batch!

so I realize it doesn’t look very pretty here…

but it made 3 quarts of this gorgeousness!

I made a sprouted wild rice salad. Sprouted wild rice, a little olive oil, red onion, fresh lime juice, garlic, sea salt, cilantro, hot pepper, and red onion.

Beets marinating in a homemade dressing with my very own growing oregano! (it was an accident – I planted it last year and nothing happened…D noticed it came in this year, so I had to use it).

Made the best marinade yesterday too! Balsamic vinegar, siracha, garlic, and fresh squeezed OJ. I put tofu cubes in it all day, and then D grilled it with some pineapple. I dumped it and a teriyaki broccoli slaw and the wild rice salad onto one monster BAS.

I ate maybe 1/4 of it, but it was amazing.

I put the dehydrator to work making raw tomato/pepper wraps. They’re like fruit roll ups, but for wraps instead!

1 – put the veggies in the vitamix

2 – blend

3 – spread onto the dehydrator tray

5 - dry overnight (flipping once after 6 hours)

4 – dry overnight (flipping once after 6 hours)

6 - put it on a plate, with a collard leaf, romaine, tomato, carrots, and some cranberry/pear white balsamic vinegar. Wrap it up and eat it (and then smile).

5 - put it on a plate, with a collard leaf, romaine, tomato, carrots, and some cranberry/pear white balsamic vinegar. Wrap it up and eat it (and then smile).

I met today with a nutritionist. While I think I eat very healthy (most of the time – certainly not all), I do want professional advice since I’m dealing with this autoimmune crap. We’re starting with a month of an elimination diet (though I have targets for specific macro nutrients like proteins) to see if it has an impact on my symptoms. If it does, then we slowly add things back in, wait a day or two, and see if I still feel well. It’s the classic dietary approach when dealing with food intolerances/allergies and I’m kind of kicking myself that I didn’t think of it! I guess that’s why I’m seeing a professional! Anyway, it’s gluten-free, soy-free (which will be a rough one for me), alcohol free, limited caffeine (I’m allowed my 1 cup of black java in the mornings), no chocolate, no oranges or corn, and only spices and vinegars as cold-pressed oils as condiments. I guess we’ll see!

FITNESS

I’ve been to a couple hot yoga classes the past few days, hiked around Busch Gardens for several hours, and met today with my trainer. He kicked my butt!

We stretched, and I like that he incorporated a lot of yoga into it. Then did some foam roller work to loosen some tightness in my calves and lats he noticed last time. Then it was off for crazy intervals on the elliptical, followed by weights and band work (and some crazy lunge version of twister I can’t even articulate well!). I wore my heart rate monitor, and I burned 507 calories in the hour we worked out. Good times.

I will say that I appreciate how much he pays attention to what I want and what I need. With this inflammatory joint thing going on, he’s been doing research on what to do (and not do) with me. Wants me to get the OK from my Dr before doing any kickboxing, in case it hurts my hands or wrists. He also knows I don’t want to use weight machines, since I travel and also need to be able to work out at home. Bands I have, and some dumbbells, so he focuses on those, body weight movements, balance ball stuff, and that I also appreciate a great deal.

LIFE

Thursday evening was some catch-up time with AC. Max & Erma’s has $8 pitchers of sangria on Thursdays, so we thought we’d check it out. Turns out their sangria wasn’t very good, but the company was (as always).

Friday it was gorgeous out. Sunny, warm (but not hot), and just beautiful. It was also the first time I could wear cute open-toed shoes to work! I forgot how painful shoes can be sometimes, and by the end of the day my cute black, white, and red heels were killing me. So opening day (and for that I mean opening day for Cute Shoe Season) was just a wee painful.

This past weekend we had NO PLANS. The oldest went to a Military Ball, so D, M, R and I went to Busch Gardens. We had a blast, as always.

Sunday was cooking, grocery shopping, and general busy work. It felt really, really nice to relax.

Backyard playtime

And putting the new coffee pot box to good use!

And now it’s the work week, but that’s okay too

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Tagged Big Ass Salad, Cooking, Family Fun, Gluten Free Living, grilling, Raw Food, Vegan, Yoga

From Bad Guys to Great Days. Been One Heck of a Week

Posted on April 24, 2013 | 2 Comments

Where the heck has the last week gone?!? Holy cow….I’m so far behind, so my apologies for this late post. I promise, I really am trying to do better!

FOOD

Before just showing a ton of pictures of my yummy food, I will say that other than a trip to Whole Foods on Saturday night, the best food thing was going to Savor the Olive (a specialty olive oil and vinegar shop) and getting quite a few things. White balsamic w cranberry/pear infusion, white balsamic with vanilla/orange, aged balsamic (my stand-by), balsamic w pear/cinnamon, and a gremolata olive oil. Oh yeah. I’m happy!

before….

and after! My fave spring/summer fruit.

tower of BAS wrap

fresh rolls with tofu

smoothie stuff

grilling pineapple – each with a drizzle of flavored vinegar

a little homemade sangria! Juiced citrus, wine, and club soda.

kale and beet BAS with a side of guac, because that’s how I roll

grilled tofu, potato, and zucc. Just a bit of gremolata olive oil and sea salt. Even D snarfed this down.

cuc slices marinated in sesame oil, hot spices, garlic, and other yummy flavorful things

it’s called pineapple stir fry (from Happy Herbivore), but seems more Thai-like than anything. Regardless, it’s awesome.

salad dressing makings. Fresh squeezed OJ, hemp seeds, and balsamic vin.

Mexican stuffed spud. Beans (homemade in the pressure cooker), pineapple salsa, and tons of hot sauce.

BAS

I’m clearly not starving.

FITNESS

The past week I made it to one strength training session and several hot yoga classes.

My favorite had to be Sunday’s class. It was yoga and meditation, and since I keep wanting to learn to meditate, thought it would be great for me.

Yeah. I fell asleep.

I could understand if it was the end, and she was guiding us through some meditating while in my final shivasana. I’ve certainly felt VERY rested in that pose. But….the meditation was the first 15 minutes of class. And I was sitting up. And I toppled over. Yay me.

Since I was up late last night and I have meetings until 10pm tonight, I’m calling this a rest day!

LIFE

Well, not much to say other than busy, busy, busy. I hate it when I’m too busy to blog.

It’s impossible to not write for a week and not mention Boston. My heart has hurt for over a week now at the senseless violence. By Friday evening, D and I were captivated, along with the rest of the world, as the final suspect was brought into custody. We had the news on the TV, the Boston police scanner playing on one iPad, and following the trending tweets about the manhunt on Twitter. It was amazing to listen to and experience in pretty much real-time with the people of Boston and the surrounding areas. I can think of no other city that tells everyone to stay home so they can hunt down a bad guy. Go Boston.

Saturday my little monkey had her swim meet championships, so we spent all day there with her. She did awesome! She crushed her old times in a few of her races. One – by nearly 18 seconds! To me, that’s just nuts.

she’s the one in a full dive – second from the bottom

my baby girl doing her butterfly in warm ups!

the team getting their pre-meet instructions

Sunday was a very, very nice day. Yoga, art museum, kitchen fun, dancing around the house, grilling, and Dr. Who. Perfect end to the weekend.

So now it’s the work week again, and it’s busy as can be…but that’s ok. That means the weekend will be here again before I know it!

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FOOD

FITNESS

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FOOD

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FOOD

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FOOD

FITNESS

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FOOD

FITNESS

LIFE

FOOD

FITNESS

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FOOD

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LIFE

FOOD

FITNESS

LIFE

FOOD

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LIFE

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