Family Bonds

Hey bloggies! I hope everyone survived their Monday. I was going to post this earlier, but I got called in to nanny until the Monday/Tuesday nanny showed up because she slept through her alarm! Yikes. It was a crazy morning to say the least.

Even though this has been said over a million times, the blogworld is filled with absolutely amazing people. Your responses to my journaling post absolutely blew me away. Though I responded sporadically to some of them, I re read all of them at least twice, if not three times. I’m glad to know I am not the only one to struggle with the blended relationship of food and family. Everyone’s advice was great and I loved hearing the different opinions on the subject. So thank you, thank you for being the very best readers.

Though some weeks can be tough with my family, this weekend bonded us a lot more.

We bonded over water sports. My mom, brother and I wakeboarded and/or water skied this weekend. I learned how to water ski when I was 8 years old, but stopped when I learned how to wakeboard. Recently, I’ve picked up water skiing again and have been working on slalom skiing. So far I can successfully “drop a ski” where I get up on two skies, then once I’m comfortable drop my right ski and slalom from there. I worked on trying to get up on one ski but it didn’t quite happen this weekend. It was very fun though with my brother pulling my up on the boat and my dad, mom and sister cheering me on from the dock.

We bonded over swimming. Though my sister is 24 and I am 20 we still called my mom down to say “GO,” so the race to the buoy between my sister and I was fair.

We tied.

The family bonded over breakfast

Lemon-Poppyseed Waffles with microwaved frozen strawberries and and dusting of powdered sugar.

To make the Lemon-Poppyseed Waffles I used a whole wheat waffle mix (I really like Kodiak Cakes), added juice of one lemon and about 1/4 c. poppyseeds to make 6 waffles. Easy peasy lemon squeezy

We then bonded over dinner that night too!

Chicken Curry from The Healthy College Cookbook, Tandori Naan and Saffron-Spiced Rice from Easy Indian Cookbook.

And I bonded with my body by taking a nap here.

Glorious.

I have so many ideas for posts and no time to write them! I swear I always have the opposite problem. Oh well. See you tomorrow morning for a recap of Course II of Cake Decorating

Are there any specific activities that your family really bonds over?

Hypocritical

As I was outside, bobbing up and down on the dock I was thinking of how hypocritical I am.

• I pray that I will get tan, yet I reapply SPF 45 every two hours so I don’t get skin cancer or damage my skin.
• I added six new blogs to my google reader, yet I don’t have enough time to read my google reader.
• I am so critical about how lazy some people are, then I realized that I have been laying around all day too (minus a super short one mile run)
• I get annoyed with how short tempered people are, but if I’m having one of “those days” you better watch out.
• I wanted balance in my meals, yet today’s meals seemed to be pretty starchy.

Lunch

1/2 a sandwich filled with spinach, red onion, turkey and dijon mustard

Leftovers from Indian food last night

Besides the sandwich filling, it was pretty carb-y.

Dinner

Usually I’d balance out the heavy carbs meal with a lighter dinner. But nope, I did not.

I made another batch of Naan, with my mom’s fettuccine alfredo and a salad

Hi, I’m Michelle and completely addicted to starches.

Oh well.

Do you find yourself thinking about how hypocritical you are? What do you find hypocritical about yourself?

Basset Hounds are like Curry

Ok, so you may be completely and uttely confused by my post title. How are Basset Hounds like Curry honestly?

 (source)

Ok, so here’s my little explanation: you know how people say Basset Hounds are so ugly they’re cute? Well I think curry is so ugly its divine.

I don’t think there’s a better analogy

Dinner was served a ‘la TJ’s Indian Earth Fare

Bringing back my favorite : Punjab Eggplant

Served over brown rice for some serious lovin.

Speaking of some serious lovin’, my nails got some much needed TLC at the nail salon.

An easy to maintain clear gloss with a pretty design on my thumb nail. Though it is super difficult to get what you want at the nail salon when the person doing your nails doesn’t speak English, she did a great job.

Do you often hit up the nail salon? Sadly, I go less than once a year. But it is definitely a rewarding experience!

Perfect Stir-Fry

Hey bloggies! I didn’t have much time open for posting yesterday. I’d rather go for a good quality of posts where I have time to think it over rather than have a multitude of cruddy posts. So onto yesterday’s eats and activities…

Breakfast

I’m having to start to get creative with my breakfasts because I am so limited on food due to me moving in 2 days! I only have enough oatmeal left for one bowl and I’m trying to save that.

I ended up having a fruit bowl, scrambled egg veggie wrap and toast with PB and guava jelly

I loved the stars around the bowl!

Snack

Afterwards Richard and I were off to the outlet mall.  I got pretty hungry during the hour long drive so I snacked on a Kardea bar.

I have been so impressed with the flavors of these! They are spot on and take me to a different place every time. The lemon ginger was great. Strong on the lemon, with a perfect hint of ginger. I always feel like I’m in a jungle when I eat these. Is that super strange? Don’t answer that.

Lunch

Richard and I got back from the outlet mall at 2:45 and we were both starving! I made a sandwich packed with veggies and scarfed it down before anyone could say “yum”–or take a picture of it.

But I will show you what I got at the mall:

A lightweight yellow jacket from Esprit, the best running shorts ever from Adidas

Replacement earrings for the ones I lost the night before at Claires. Nothing says classy like $7.99 cubic zirconia earrings

Workout

I already worked out with the shorts. They are the perfect length so I don’t have to roll them and don’t have any weird extra material in front like my 5 pairs of Nike Tempo Shorts. I think these are my new favorite shorts. Expect to see many pairs of these shorts in my shopping excursions.

I went on the elliptical for 30 minutes and was really feeling it. I got totally lost into my work out when a girl nicely tapped me on the shoulder cause it was her turn. Whoops! I really appreciated that she was nice about it. All the other ellipticals were full so I jumped on a bike and spinned intensely for about 30 more minutes until I needed to go home and get dinner ready.

Post-Workout Snack

I was excited to go for another homemade frappachino with chocolate protein powder. It’s seriously the perfect post-workout drink!

I drank this baby while prepping dinner.

Dinner

With my creatives-senses tingling, and my food stock dwindling I’m surprised that I was able to come up with the perfect stir fry.

Stir-fried frozen veggies on top of brown rice.

• Stir-fry the veggies in 2 T of olive oil (sesame is preferred, but once again I’m short of food)
• one cooked, take off heat and add 2 T soy sauce, 1 T peanut butter (I used crunchy), a squirt of lime juice and a few shakes of minced garlic.
• eat and enjoy!

It is such an easy recipe and the sauce turned out to be fantastic, I’m really pleased. I’ll make it for my parents during the summer but I’ll add some marinated chicken into the mix for them.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday! I’ll be finishing up a portfolio and packing. I really need to start on the packing business. Only two days till I move!

What is your favorite pair of running shorts? Do you have a favorite brand? I’m addicted to Nike, and I was actually pretty reluctant to get the shorts because they are Adidas, but they fit and work wonderfully!

Hungry-Hungry Giraffe

For dinner I knew that I had to feed my hungry-hungry giraffe. Despite his leaf-eating siblings, he prefers Indian food.

Leftover Punjab Choley on brown rice and Tandori naan.

He finished it off quite well. I think he may be getting fatter by the bowl

I followed up with a very familiar So Delicious Coconut Milk Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with mesquite and strawberries

I swear that there was a lot more than it looks.

Goals Update

As we’re heading into Friday I thought I’d do a check of this week’s goals.

As you can tell by the filled in boxes, this week’s goals are going very well. I’m actually about to partake in a 10 minute clean of my room after I finish this post. I love having the message to slow down while eating! It’s actually working! I’ve stopped munching down on my meals while exploring other blogs and just sat at my dining room table desk and focused on my food. It makes the meal feel like it lasts longer and I really enjoy all of the flavors a whole lot more. I highly encourage you to try this, if you already don’t do it!

Do you sit down at a table and eat, or are you usually on the go? Or are you a college student whose apartment is so small we don’t even have room for a table?

Two-a-Days

Yesterday I enjoyed a zumba two-a-day. In my first class my teacher is pregnant, so she doesn’t have the spunk she used to used to have and all of the moves have really slowed down (not her fault obviously), but it’s not really a work out anymore. I’ve been getting a little frustrated at this so I went to another class a little bit later with a different teacher. It was a lot more modern and pop than my other zumba class (we even danced to Lady Gaga AND Ke$ha), and boy was I a sweat monster after that class! I later went rock climbing for 2 hours. No overhangs today, but lots of bouldering!

Dinner

Before heading to my awesome work outs I fueled up with some INDIAN FOOD!

It started off with TJ’s Punjab Choley and I threw in some naan and brown rice. I fed it into my giraffe bowl because giraffe’s like Indian right?

Giraffe’s absolutely engulf Indian food

Omigoodness this thing was yummy. I’ve never had naan before and I was absolutely spectacular!!!

Though I was really full, I still wanted dessert. I’m trying to clean out my fridge before moving out, so I went with So Delicious Coconut Milk Chocolate Chip Ice Cream that I’ve had in there for a while with a chopped strawberry and a sprinkle of mesquite.

It didn’t last long

I hope all of you bloggies have a fantastic day! I’ll be back later with a wonderful breakfast.

Do any of you participate in Zumba? What has been your experience with it? I’ve had both good and bad instructers. Usually when there are people that get REALLY into it, it becomes a whole lot of fun.

I Gotta Run!

Usually this would mean I have itch to go running but this whole day has been absolutely jam-packed with really fun activities and I’m only going to be doing more as the day goes on! I just gotta run!

Breakfast

Breakfast was a random mix of foods. I’m absolutely loving the banana and sunflower seed butter wrapped in a tortilla! I was craving it last night and knew I had to have it this morning.

It also came along with toast covered in maca, cinnamon, mesquite and truvia; as well as 3/4 of an orange and some cantaloupe.

I think the calorie count was a bit high on this, but it kept me full for a really long time. It was definitely worth it

Lunch

I’m joining Kalli in smoothie friday with a very tropical creation.

Most definitely not a green monster, but I’m a bit scared to try one again after yesterday’s disaster. I think it may be the peach where I went really wrong.

In this very tropical smoothie:

• frozen peaches
• frozen bananas
• frozen strawberries
• almond milk
• coconut milk
• banana for garnish

A super simple smoothie but it was pretty good. I kept getting brain freeze though!

I also wanted something carby so some brown rice with a little soy sauce accompained the smoothie

All together.

I got a huge kick for some chocolate so I broke into the dark chocolate Attune bar.

It was really good, but I think I’m still a sucker for the almond milk chocolate

I went outside to play cards with Richard but my stomach was killing me for some odd reason. I went inside to put on some sunscreen (I had realized that I forgot to spray some on! Yikes!) and I sipped on some water and ta-da! my stomachache was much better. It’s funny how you can be dehydrated and not really even realize it.

I’m off to run to play some more with some friends. Afterwards I’m having roomie dinner and it’s Cally’s turn to cook.

Any dehydrated stories? I was hiking during the summer and had absolutely no idea why I was having really bad stomach cramps, my legs were cramping and I felt nauseus

Quinoa, Parsnips and a Book Review

How is everyone’s weekend going?

Last night I finished Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen. Overall it was a great read for someone just transferring into living a healthy lifestyle. The author emphasizes eating lots of fruits and veggies and exercising. I would absolutely love to give this book to my overweight dad to push him to adapt a healthier lifestyle.

However, one of the negatives of this book was that it felt like I should be a hypochondriac. A lot of the chapters went over lots of different disorders and I felt that I have about half of these I took the test at the end which told me that I might have bipolar disorder because I sometimes have mood swings (um, because I am a girl and have a period thank-you-very-much) as well as a few other disorders.

I personally found this book slightly repetitive since I already know that living a healthy lifestyle is great for you in the long run. It wasn’t my favorite book, but it was in interesting read with some great facts such as the reason women have softer skin is because of our high levels of estrogen.

I’m excited to start a new book:

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, a health food bloggers staple. I’m excited to start reading it tonight!

Lunch

Before heading to a track meet I pretty much screwed up my lunch.

I had a beautiful wrap planned since I need to use up the brown rice I have in the fridge, but instead I killed it by eating 1/4 of a loaf of banana bread. I actually feel ashamed with myself. I just cut off a piece, then another, then another, and then there was only a wee bit left. And thankfully I left it on the plate, but I still feel awful.

I also had a berry smoothie

In the smoothie

• 1/4 c. blueberry kefir
• 1/2 c. very cherry frozen berry blend
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 1 T flaxseed meal

It was a relatively good smoothie, but I hate the little seeds that are in the berry blends! They just really annoy me

I wasn’t feeling super hot about such an overall awful lunch. I’d much prefer to have a homemade pita pizza or a wrap instead a ton of banana bread and an ok smoothie.

Snack

I got pretty hungry after the track meet and going into studio for a bit and I ended up having two snacks. An unpictured cup of brown rice and then half of a banana with sunflower seed butter

The second snack finally filled me up enough for a good hour nap.

Dinner

I have been pretty adventurous since starting the blog and just couldn’t help but cook Krista’s Coconut Quinoa and Oh She Glow’s Nut Butter Parsnip Fries.

Both recipes were absolutely mind-blowing! I have never liked quinoa until this recipe!!! I absolutely can not wait for left overs tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a great Saturday night. I think I’m going to have a nice night in.

What is your favorite quinoa recipe?

An Itch to Scratch

I have the worst, biggest itch right now. A serious itch to go for a long run. Things have been super stressful in the Give Me the Almond Butter world in terms of relationships with people, school, work outs and social engagements. I kind of feel like I’m about to crack. I wish it was daylight out so I could go for a long run to clear my head and pump my body full of endorphins.

Rock Climbing

I did manage to go climbing with a friend from studio which was fun. I climbed this overhang 4 times so I’m really proud of myself. I’m definitely getting to be a stronger climber with better skills and a little bit more endurance.

My friend who works at the wall was super busy giving lessons to new climbers, so we didn’t get to talk. If I can’t go for a run, I do like to talk things out, however it definitely didn’t work out tonight

Dinner

On the brighter side of things I celebrated Indian Food Wednesday in my newly painted giraffe bowl!!!

Vegan Gajar Halwa and Pav Bhaji on top of brown rice.

Don’t worry, the giraffe was well fed

See how fat my giraffe is? I told you he was well fed

It was definitely a great dinner. Time to destress a bit and wait for the weekend

Do you get serious needs to go running?

Yoga and I are Just Not Meant to be

It’s official. Yoga and I are not suitable for each other, or at least not this yoga class that I’ve attended for the second time. Some factors that contributed to this decision are:

• 90% of the class is conducted from downward dog and only downward dog. The instructor is obsessed with downward dog. My wrists were in screaming pain 15 minutes into the class, so I ended up in child’s pose with the obese person next to me a lot of the time.
• We only did one balance pose. One.
• I’m a freak about hygiene and the instructor hasn’t showered in days. Maybe weeks.
• And the last call was when my favorite yoga pants are falling off and they’re spandex.

We’re done.

Prior to this decision I was caught in a torrential downpour.

And I had an umbrella with me.

I peeled off my jeans, put rain boots on and headed outside to go grocery shopping.

Grocery Shopping

Here’s my loot from Market of Choice and Safeway

Tortillas, strawberries, apples, bananas, pecans, kiwi, orange, grapefruit and an avocado

Corn puffs, fish oil, coconut milk, blueberry kefir, yellow onion, tomatoes, coconut milk creamer, hemp hummus, chia seeds, another orange, wild oats & honey bread, cantalope spears, Chobani greek yogurt, parsnips.

What wasn’t on the grocery list: coconut milk creamer (I’m not out of my current stuff but it was majorly on sale!) and cantalope spears

I’d say I did keep a good job sticking to the list!

As apart of my Limit the Bill budget of $75 dollars I did fairly well for the 3rd week straight!

Market of Choice…… $29.98  <–I got realll nervous about the fact it encroached $30!

Safeway……………..$37.92 <– my lowest bill ever from Safeway!

———————————–

Total……………… $67.90

Woot! Woot!

I’m actually surprised that I was still under the budget considering I bought fish oil which is pretty expensive!

I tried out my first supplement of fish oil…

and it’s a horse pill. Oh well, I think I can take it if it’s helping my heart and my brain

Dinner

After having a disastrous yoga session (but a great session of intervals before hand!) I treated myself to some Indian!

I made Gina’s Vegan Gajar Halwa again as well with some TJ’s Pav Bhaji over leftover brown rice

Yummmmm. I was really pleased that the Gajar Halwa came out at the right consistency this time

Time to work on some homework and get ready for bed.

What is your relationship with yoga and/or yoga classes? I definitely like practicing in my own room better. I’ve had a lot of bad experiences in a yoga class