Blonde moment

Bonsoir mes belles! I’m writing this from the exact same position as last night’s post- on my big red comfy couch, with some Real Housewives blaring and some snackage going. I promise I’ve gotten up since last night J

This morning I took full advantage of not having roommates to wake me up or classes to go to, and slept until the glorious hour of eight. Not late for most people, but I’m an early bird! I made a supersized cereal bowl:

Fiber One with a sliced nanner, almond milk and cinnamon

I was super excited to take Garmy for his first run! Unfortunately, when I went to check on him in the corner where I’d plugged him in…the screen was blank. WTF? I unplugged the charger and put it back into another outlet. Success! Apparently I had a seriously blonde moment last night and plugged it into a non-working outlet. Yeah, I’m intelligent.

Since I’m dying to try it out this weekend, I decided to switch my cross-training and run days and go for a run tomorrow. Instead, I did an hour on the elliptical in my garage while watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls on DVD. I forgot how much I love that show! Back in the day, all I wanted was a Dean to my Rory J

For lunch, I made a Mediterranean salad inspired by my favorite Eva’s creation:

Romaine, tomatoes, carrots, sliced black olives, capers, minced garlic, Veggie Patch falafel balls, Sabra sun-dried tomato hummus and oil & vinegar, with Rice Works Sea Salt pita chips and red grapes

The star of the show was definitely this:

Sabra Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus = new favorite hummus of all time. Seriously, if you’re a hummus freak, try this flavor!

I spent the afternoon doing some reading, but took a break to bake some granola from The Kind Diet, which I’ve only paged through but loved so far! The recipes seem great, and there are tons of mouthwatering photos. Since I didn’t have all the recipe’s ingredients on hand, I improvised a bit:

 

Melted coconut oil, sunflower seeds, unsweetened shredded coconut, chopped pecans, dried blueberries; coconut oil, vanilla extract, maple syrup and turbinado sugar

Finished product

After snacking on bites throughout the cooking process, I knew I had to sample some with my afternoon snack! Not to toot my own horn, but I came up with a seriously incredible baked apple creation:

Jonagold apple, cored and microwaved for 2 min in ½ c almond milk, with a handful of granola, sprinkle of cinnamon and spoonful of PB&Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl

This was SO GOOD! After I took a picture, I mashed it all up with a fork. The peanut butter melted into the almond milk, which infused the granola and apple. (When I use words like “infuse” to describe a snack, you know it’s a foodie win):

For dinner, I made something I’ve been wanting to try for awhile: spaghetti squash!

½ spaghetti squash, topped with EVOO and fra diavola pasta sauce, with a side of roasted brussels and asparagus

I loved this stuff! So filling but not heavy. The spicy fra diavola complemented the sweetness of the squash perfectly! My dad had a bite and gave it a thumbs-up as well. For dessert, I had something you’ve all seen before:

Jonagold apple with Nuttzo for dipping

Since then, I’ve been procrastinating starting a paper by watching reality TV and munching on CIAJ- cereal in a jar!

 

Kashi Good Friends Cinnamon Raisin cereal with almond milk in the remains of a PB&Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl jar

And on that note, I’m off to conquer that paper! I am home to get work done, after all J Have a great night and awesome Saturday!

What’s your favorite brand of hummus? If you’re not a hummus fan, what’s your condiment of choice?

PS- If you haven’t already, you have until midnight tonight to enter my Le Creuset giveaway! I’ll be announcing the winner in tomorrow’s post!

Homeward Bound

Hey girlies!! I'm currently writing from the comfort of my big red comfy couch (anyone remember that show?), sipping a mug of peach tea and enjoying a slice of walnut loaf with Nuttzo. Life is good :)

This morning I woke up at 6:15 to get a light workout in before class. After inhaling a banana with a smear of Naturally More, I did 30 easy minutes on the elliptical while rocking out to DJ Earworm, followed by some abs, arms and stretching. Breakfast was in a bowl, as usual:

Simply Fiber, frozen raspberries and almond milk

Immediately post-class, I headed to Penn Station to meet my mom for the train home (she was in the city for a dinner party last night). I ate lunch en route:

   

Whole wheat wrap stuffed with veggie burger, hummus, roasted peppers and sprouts from a deli; organic Fuji; raisins and Honey Graham Clif Z-Bar

The trip home was easy-peasy, and by mid-afternoon I was snacking away:

 

Kashi Good Friends Cinnamon Raisin cereal with almond milk and cinnamon; handful of mixed nuts (times about ten)

I was also excited to open two packages that had arrived in my absence:

The Kind Diet

I'm SO excited to finally read this! I've heard rave reviews about it in the blog world, and finally ordered it for a great price on Amazon. I've paged through the recipes and they look amazing, I can't wait to try them! As awesome as this package was, the real excitement came with the next box:

Garmin!!

YAYYY!!! I asked for this as my birthday present from my parents, but couldn't decide whether I wanted to take the plunge and finally get one until a few weeks ago! I've wanted one since discovering on this chica's blog about a year ago, and I'm so excited to try it out! I've already dubbed him Garmy. Creative, I know. I can already tell we're going to be fast friends :)

Tonight, my parents and I decided to go out for dinner and then to the movies to see Shutter Island. We went to Spice, an Indian BYOB near the theater. It was great! We started off with two appetizers, tangi eggplant and pickled veggies:

Thin slices of eggplant seasoned with lemon juice, chat Masala, tamarind garnish and crispy fried coconut garnish; chili and lemon pickled vegetables

For my entree, I had something near and dear to a certain Fitnessista's heart:

Baigan Bartha: clay oven baked eggplant puree with onion, tomatoes, peas and ginger, with white rice and two pieces of tandoori roti

Perfection. I also sampled some of my parents' salmon and shrimp dishes, which were equally delicious. 

I loved Shutter Island even more the second time, if that's possible! I picked up on so many things I'd missed the first time. Mike still has yet to see it, so I think a third showing may be in order :) What can I say, I like my Leo!

Well chicas, this girl is off to watch some Real Housewives of OC and catch up on some Google Reader. I'm hoping to take Garmy our for a spin tomorrow, depending on the weather! Hope you all have fabulous Fridays...it's almost the weekend!

Which celebrity makes your heart melt? Clearly, I'm a Leo girl, but I also have super crushes on Adam Brody, Josh Hartnett and Taylor Lautner (hey, he's legal now)! Spill!

PS- Tomorrow is the last day to enter my Le Creuset giveaway! I'll be announcing the winner on Saturday. 

The New York Diet

‘Ello, poppets, and happy hump day! I’m so glad to be almost done with this week. I’m going home for the weekend tomorrow afternoon, just to study for midterms and get some serious paper writing done. I always study better at home, where I have a room of my own with fewer distractions!

Just to warn you, today’s eats have been pretty boring. I’m trying to use up the contents of my fridge before heading home! I’m sure I’ll get creative this weekend with a full kitchen at my disposal. Anyhoo, here’s breakfast:

Simply Fiber, frozen strawbs, almond milk

I got a 6 mile run in this morning, which was AWESOME! I finished in 49:56, a new PR for me J In two and a half weeks, I’ve shaved 3:38 of my six-mile time. My goal is to run the half in under an hour and forty-five minutes, so hopefully I can keep improving! I followed my run up with lots of stretching, of course!

Lunch was a massive salad beast, eaten in a hurry before class:

Half a container or organic baby spinach, a whole cucumber, a tomato, chopped greem olives, half a block of Lightlife Tempeh, and humnut sauce, plus Ezekiel for humnut-mopping purposes.

I also had an unpictured apple slathered in sunflower seed butter on while walking to class. In the process, I got nut butter on my chin and didn’t realize until I went to the bathroom between classes. Cute.

Obviously, some snacks were consumed to help pass the afternoon:

Sunflower seeds + raisins. Perfectly silent snacking.

For dinner, I kept it simple and made a simple stir-fry with steamed broccoli and package of Westsoy seitan, cooked in soy sauce and topped with nooch. Easy peasy.

Dessert was of the double-fruit variety:

 

Organic fuji, nanner with Naturally More PB

I’m really surprised that I haven’t had any horrible sweets cravings since Lent started! I was expecting my challenge to be excruciating, but I’ve found that fruit and nut butter is always enough to satisfy my sweet tooth! The only time I crave something is when I see something especially delicious on someone’s blog- ahem, the anniversary wedding cake on this chica’s most recent post. If I were to break this Lenten promise for something, it would look just like that J

One of my favorite features on nymag.com (which I stalk religiously) is their “New York Diet”, which features the food diary of a different celebrity every week. They’ve had some pretty gourmet ones (Jacques Torres), some funny ones (Judah Friedlander), some famous ones (Rachel Ray), and some sad ones (a model during Fashion Week…I thought it was supposed to me a joke at first, but it was just horrible to read, really). I was browsing their archives today and came up with two I thought all of you might be interested in, with all the Oprah hype of late: Alicia Silverstone and Michael Pollan. Both are really interesting, and definitely worth a read! Both eat a lot of whole, natural foods, which I’m not really surprised by, but it’s interesting to see how they incorporate it into eating meals out!

Well, that wraps this up! I’ve still got to pack and finish some reading tonight, so I better get to it! Aurevoir, mes belles!

In light of my food-on-the-face incident this afternoon, what’s everyone’s most embarrassing moment? When I dislocated my kneecap, I happened to do it in front of my biggest crush. I think I was more mortified by hopping off the field on one knee crying than by actually hurting myself…

PS- Don’t forget to enter my Le Creuset giveaway!