Bloops and Blops

There has recently been a lot of bloops and blops in my life.

Case #1 Green Bloops and Tofu Blops

I made Peas and Thank You’s Green Tofu Curry on Thursday and absolutely loved it. No surprise though considering every one of Mama Pea’s recipes are great. Green blop? Don’t mind if I do!

Case #2 Blooping Chocolate Peanut Butter

I made overnight oats… I just didn’t wait over night. I woke up and felt that it was an overnight oats kind of a day, so I made the mix (added extra chia seeds so it would really soak it up) then put it in the fridge and distracted myself for as long as possible.

I made it 1 hour and 20 minutes before blopping on some bananas, strawberries and Maranatha chocolate peanut butter.

In the mix:

• 1/3 c. oats
• 2 T chia seeds
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1 T Goji berries

covered with unmeasured amount of almond milk, water and coconut milk creamer.

Set in the fridge for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It can work as short as 20-30 minutes, but preferably overnight.

Case #3 Whole Foods

I had an impromptu meeting with my best friend before she left to school, which conveniently made me pass Whole Foods at lunch time. Hollaaaa Food Bar!

A few bloops and blops of:

• Dal with Spinach
• Curried Cauliflower
• Black Beans
• Roasted chicken
• Thai steamed vegetables

Even though Whole Foods was absolute mayhem, I had to park in the back near the dumpsters and my head was spinning like crazy, I loved it. It totally hit the spot

Case #4 Leaving Whole Foods

As I was leaving the Whole Foods parking lot, I was sipping some water and accidently got a few blops of water on my leg.

Anyone else see the smiley face? I think my jeans also loved visiting Whole Paycheck Foods

Finally, Case #5 The Dog

One minute he looks like he’s paying attention

Next minute he blops onto the deck. Rough life pup.

Do you ever have any of those weird accidents where something ordinary looks like something extraordinary? Like the Grilled Cheese that looked like the Virgin Mary ?

and

What is your favorite thing to get at the Whole Foods Hot Bar?

Guilty

I am so guilty of so many guilty pleasures in the past 15 or so hours.

Dinner

My family and I enjoyed the last bits of the summer heat with a light, summer dinner outside

Insalata Caprese

Grilled Chicken Tender marinated in a soy-sauce mixture.

Fitnessista’s Chopped Greek Salad

Peas and Thank You’s Creamy Lemon Pasta, again

With beautiful Mount Rainier in the background and a deer that shared a bit of dinner with us.

I am so guilty of enjoying every minute of this.

Dessert

I’m not usually a huge dessert person, a piece of dark chocolate usually will do, but I just couldn’t resist the Fitnessista’s Easy Chocolate Mug Cake

It got a bit stuck on the bottom, so it’s a little rough, but it was absolutely divine.

Topped with some honey for extra moisture and sweetness. I have been craving this ever since!

Oh. so. guilty.

Breakfast

Guilty of topping overnight oats with a big blob of peanut butter, but leaving half of the peanut butter blob in the bowl cause I just wasn’t feeling it.

Also guilty of sneaking in some chocolate chips! 70% dark cocoa.

Chocolate for breakfast? Don’t mind if I do!

I’m nannying today, tomorrow then I’m done with getting up before the sun rises until school starts!!

How are you enjoying the guilty pleasures in life?

VOO

Morning bloggies!

The weatherman did not keep his promise. He promised me sun. I wake up this morning at 6AM for no reason than there were screaching ducks outside my window. I look outside and there’s clouds that are threatening to rain. There goes my walk with the puppy and yoga on the porch. Sigh.

Breakfast

I didn’t have any internships or have to nanny so I had all of the time in the world for breakfast. I kind of used all of that time too to make Oh She Glow’s Vegan Overnight Oats.

I attempted a banana and peanut butter softserve by putting a frozen banana and 1 T banana in the food processor. The food processor decided to throw a fit so this is as far as I got with it:

So I scooped it out and put my arm on “whip” mode and came out with this:

Much better.

I layered with Overnight Oats that I put in the fridge last night and organic rice puffs with carob chips on top.

Oh yeah.

I loved this mix, but it took me a whole bunch of time. I usually only have about 15 minutes for breakfast in the morning to make it and eat it, so I would really have to hustle if I wanted to make this most morning.

Grant and I are off to the cabin for another weekend! Hopefully the clouds will clear up!

Have you ever made Oh She Glow’s VOO?

Octopus Crossing

This bloggy may or may not have taken a trip to the Aquarium with the kid she is nannying.

So yes, this summer I have an internship with an architect, an internship with a project manager and I’m a nanny.

Breakfast

It was an earrrrrly morning for me. I knew that I needed a hardy breakfast to last me through the morning.

Overnight Oats! However, this was as much about the oats as it was about the topping.

In the Mix:

• 1/2 c. oats
• flaxseed meal
• chia seed
• 1 T 65% cocoa chips
• So Delicious Coconut Milk creamer
• almond milk
• water

Put into the fridge overnight and heavily topped this morning with:

• french vanilla granola
• 1 1/2 T almond butter
• 1/2 a naner

Lunch

This breakfast lasted me perfectly for a noon lunch

Asian inspired salad with spring greens, tangelo, baked green beans and raisins. Forgot the dressing so I “borrowed” some of the family’s olive oil vinaigrette.

Back To Nature Basil Sunflower Crackers

and an unpictured White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Luna Bar to leave me a bit more satisfied. Such a yummy treat.

Aquarium

In the afternoon, I took the kid I am nannying for to the Seattle Aquarium

We spent almost an hour at the touch pools touching starfish, sea anemones, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and feather duster worms

For some reason the lion fish is always my favorite

Ended with a beautiful view of the Puget Sound

Dinner

After almost 12 hours (!) of nannying today I came home and made dinner for my family

Perfect Stir Fry

I didn’t make enough of it, so I ate some baby carrots and I’ll grab a bowl of cereal or oatmeal to fill up my stomach.

Like I said, I am pooped. Only one kid, but he sure did run me around.

What is your favorite animal to see at the aquarium?

The Price I Pay

I am so spoiled to be able to wake up to this:

and this

oh, and this wonderful puppy’s face too

Though he may not be so wonderful when he is trying to eat my breakfast

Breakfast

I was way too tired last night after watching The Kite Runner with my dad, so I made my overnight oats first thing when I woke up this morning. I read blogs for 45 minutes to keep me distracted and thankfully they turned out really well.

In the Mix:

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1/2 T chocolate chips (conventional milk chocolate ones–the only thing we have here)
• a couple shakes of cinnamon
• a few drops of vanilla extract
• enough almond milk to lightly cover the entire oats

Topped with:

• Justin’s Maple Almond Butter

I wish I had my So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer to sweeten the whole thing up, but unfortunately I forgot to bring some up here

Even Grant was attracted to the deliciousness of the oats, and needed to check them out.

And he even left a bit of him in the bowl.

Dog hair. Just some added protein, right? Now that I am home, I find dog hair in all of my dishes. Once the dog gets near the food, the food automatically has to have hair in it.

I guess that is the price I have to pay for being able to see his face every morning and cuddle with him whenever I want to.

Do you ever find pet hair in your food?

Upgrades

The final meal I ate in my apartment:

Overnight oats with 2% milk and So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer topped with blobs of sunflower seed butter, peanut butter, and dark chocolate peanut butter.

Holy yum. The creamer made it taste super sweet.

Sub-par leftover fruit.

I worked my way around the incredibly bruised part of the banana though.

Moving back home for the summer I have found has resulted in major upgrades:

A tiny bedroom

to

My big, colorful bedroom at home. It’s definitely under attack right now from the move, but I’ll post pictures once it’s pretty and organized to my standards again.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my  bedroom in college doesn’t typically look like that. That picture was taken 2 days after move-in. This picture was taken last night:

frightening!

Anyways, the best upgrade in my opinion is the kitchen:

From this tiny thing filled with towels that don’t soak up water and knives that barely can cut:

To this beauty:

I have counter space!

Another upgrade would be the desserts. I never really made myself desserts when I was at college. I’m more of the cooking type than the baking type. However, my mom loves to bake!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting.

I helped myself to two of these today, which is probably why I am currently dealing with a horrendous stomachache right now

Oh well. Apparently I put a nice project on myself today when I suggested that somebody should clean out the pantry filled with cereals from last summer and who knows what else in the back of the pantry.

Apparently my mom thought that this somebody should be me.

Which is why I am now looking up articles on how to better organize a pantry. Nothing is really helping though.

Do you have any tips for organizing a pantry?

The Great Soy Debate

Hey bloggies! This week is going to be absolute madness! It’s the week before my final presentation for my studio class, so essentially I will be working 24/7 on this project. Because of this sudden time consumption, I’m limiting myself to only one post a day I really love posting twice a day so I can get more in depth on the food and some issues, but its just not going to happen. Ugh.

Breakfast

I felt so behind on my blog reading from the weekend, and I knew that I wasn’t going to have much time to read today, so I made overnight oats to give myself more time to read all of your wonderful blogs. It’s such a guilty pleasure of mine to go through blogs in the morning!

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/4 c. coconut millk
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1 T chocolate chips

Topped with:

• a bit of vanilla that I forgot to put in last night
• a couple of shakes of cinnamon
• coconut flakes
• 1 1/2 T TJ’s Flaxseed Almond Butter

I don’t know how this bowl of oats disappears so quickly. One moment its full, the next moment I’m desperately scraping the sides for more oat-y goodness. Such is life.

I also had a side of a banana covered in cinnamon

and the entire breakfast

Lunch

I don’t have any food in my kitchen right now, so I knew I was going to Holy Cow today. After eating loads of pasta, coconut cake, and other heavy homemade foods, I have been desperately craving a salad.

Okay, so it was also really cold today, so besides the small salad I got a bowl of Corn Chowder soup (made with whole ingredients, nothing artificial, and its even made with sea salt!) with organic, local crackers and a freshly made whole wheat roll.

Wow. I love Holy Cow and all of their organic, whole grain, local, fresh food. No weird preservatives in any of the food. Now that is some true love.

For the salad I think I had more toppings on the salad than I did actual leafy greens.

In the salad

• local greens
• corn
• chickpeas
• beats
• olives (they were pretty nasty!)
• carrots
• onion
• goat cheese
• cherry tomatoes
• topped with Raspberry Vinaigrette.

Notice the lack of my beloved Tempeh? Don’t worry–they offered it. Just after doing a bit of research last night, I’m not so sure if this love and I are truly meant to be. Enter  The Great Soy Debate. I first learned that my beloved Tempeh is essentially a soybean cake, ok, no biggie right? Ehhhhh…maybe. Here is what I have gathered on this subject.

Soy originally started in Asia and have known to be a great source of protein for vegetarians. Soy was also thought to decrease the risk for heart disease, osteoporosis and relive menstral symptoms. However, soy beans, when raw, are not adequate for human consumption. In Asia, the soybeans were soaked for a very long time and fermented. This cooking method, however, is what causes some of the health problems–where this debate sources from.

Soy contains high levels of phytic acid. Phytic acid is found in all legumes, but soybeans contain by far the highest amount. Phytic acid blocks the body’s uptake of essential minerals like magnesium, calcium, iron and especially zinc. Furthermore another shocking problem with soy the isoflavones found in soy can act like estrogen. Since many babies (approximately 25% in the United States) are fed a soy-based formula, they are being fed essentially estrogen. This can be like a baby receiving 5 birth control pills a day! (source)

These facts don’t even touch on the fact that 90% of soy produced in the United States is genetically modified and has one of the highest percentages for being sprayed with pesticides (source).

These are really scary facts. I can definitely see why some health bloggers are trying to avoid soy.

I avoided tempeh today, but I think the occasional soy (the non-genetically modified stuff) shouldn’t be something to completely fret over. Personally, I’m going to avoid general products made with soy (such as chips) but I still might indulge in the occasional tofu or tempeh.

What is your take on the Great Soy Debate?

…In a Margarita Glass

Hey bloggies! Wow with Relay for Life and a field trip today I feel like I have been missing out on the blogging world. I had 30 new blog posts that I can’t wait to get to…I just need to find the time!

Snack

With my metabolism still cranking from Relay for Life I enjoyed my 341th snack of the day with a smoothie…in a margarita glass

Notice the lack of green smoothies? Ever since some mishaps with green monsters I have avoided them since. Sorry spinach!

In the smoothie:

• frozen nana
• frozen peaches
• coconut milk
• water (to thin it out a bit)

One of the simplest smoothies ever and it was spectacular! And probably the closest thing to a margarita my margarita glass will ever see.

Breakfast

I went to sleep at 8PM last night absolutely exhausted and had to get up early for a field trip so I made overnight oats…in a margarita glass

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• flaxseed meal
• chia seeds
• Organic chocolate chips
• almond milk
• water

Toppings:

• 1/2 of a naner
• 1 T TJ’s flaxseed almond butter

As usual, it blew my mind. I’m absolutely in love with the TJ’s flaxseed almond butter I have. I love that I have to use it up before I move back home, so I have a great excuse to eat lots and lots of it

Do you have a special dish ware that you love to serve food in?

An Apple Saves the Day

Hi bloggies! I hope everyone is celebrating mother’s day with their madres

Breakfast

I enjoyed some very chocolate Overnight Oats this morning

In the Oats:

• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 3/4 c. almond milk
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 c. water
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• a sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 T chocolate chips

Thrown into the fridge overnight and 1/2 a banana sliced on top.

These were definitely really yummy, but I might like it with out the protein powder, it got a little too choolately.

Snack & Crash

I went into my studio this morning to work on a project and munched on some unpictured trail mix that contained corn puffs, Life cereal, raisins, coconut and lots of chocolate chips. It was at the end of the mix so there was an insane amount of chocolate chips. Apparently this made my blood sugar level spike, then absolutely crash. I started to get dizzy and lightheaded, so I decided to come home for lunch.

Lunch

By the time I got home my limbs were feeling numb and shaky, and it was hard to stand up. I immediately ran to the kitchen and chowed down on an apple.

Though I was still a bit shaky while making my lunch, I started to feel a lot better.

Lunch was inspired by Katie with a quinoa and tuna salad. Thankfully I had quinoa leftover from yesterday, so I just combined that with the rest of the ingredients.

In the tuna salad

• 1/2 c. leftover quinoa
• 1 can tuna
• a couple of blobs of Chobani greek yogurt
• 1/2 a pickle
• onion
• pepper

on top of a bed of spring greens and a chopped organic carrot

It was a phenomenal mix. I’ve never added quinoa to a tuna salad, but it was definitely a winning choice.

Later

Time for an update on my goals from last week and some goals for this upcoming week as well!

Mexi-lunch

Good Afternoon everyone!

Breakfast

I love waking up knowing I had this waiting for me

Overnight Oats!

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1/4 c. almond milk (I ran out)
• 1/4 c. coconut milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 T chia seeds
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• sprinkle of cinnamon

Put in the fridge overnight and topped with:

• 1/2 a nana
• dark chocolate PB

I didn’t include the chocolate chips because I knew I was going to top with the PB. The PB was definitely yummy, but I like the chocolate chips better

I also made my first “healthy” breakfast recipe I tried when I was a junior in high school.

I was a junior counselor at an adventure camp and the cook happened to also be a nutritionist. At this point in my life every time I ate, my body told my brain to throw up the food because it was making me sick. I never did because I thought that I would become bulimic. Therefore I just slowly ate less and less because all the food was making me sick. The nutritionist told me that my body wanted me to throw it up because I was eating such awful food, it was like poison to my body. The next day he made me this breakfast:

A naner covered in coconut milk and topped with cinnamon. It always reminds me of cool, summer mornings

I started eating this every morning and slowly my body stopped telling me to throw up the food I was eating.

I used coconut milk from a carton this time, but it is definitely better with coconut milk from a can because it is thicker.

Lunch

After eating an unpicture kiwi and my last cantaloupe spear for early afternoon snacks, I dug into my Mexi-lunch

A Mexican-inspired wrap

• whole wheat tortilla
• pesto
• salsa
• mixed spring greens
• brown rice
• red and orange bell pepper

I forgot the goat cheese this time, but I was still hungry so I included it in my goat-cheese nachos.

I absolutely can not get enough of goat cheese obviously. I didn’t even touch the salsa on the side because the goat cheese and blue corn chips were just phenomenal by themselves.

I have zumba in a little while and chapter afterwards! Hopefully I can get a good picture of dinner tonight

Do you remember what your first turning-point healthy food was?