Life is…

A bowl of cherries!!!

 

We may have a problem on our hands.

Synergy has created an addict of me.  I’ve heard rumors of home-made Kombucha in the blogosphere, so I’ve got some research on my to-do list…

I digress.

I woke up effing early Tuesday morning (4:30 am) before work to do some stretching and rise & shine yoga.  Which as you can see, ended up in some AM nibbling in the form of cherries and superfruits kombucha.  I’m 3 for 3 on flavors.  It’s luuuuuurve.

I also ADORE summer fruits, so you can imagine how excited I am now that cherries are back in my life (melons and berries aren’t too bad either).  Mmmm.

Here’s what I packed for lunch the night before.  Dried papaya spears, apple, and super protein odwalla bar.

The salad is basically the same as yesterdays.  I also made one for dinner at the same time (always planning ahead).

For time saving purposes [insert 12 hour shift here]

One of my patients was a complete sweetheart, and since the day wasn’t insanely crazy, I was happy that I was able to spend a considerable amount of time throughout the say just talking to her.  Pretty sure she’s on her way out, so sad.

Look what her family sent me home with!

It’s hard to tell, but this is literally 4 melons worth of fruit…maybe more.  Heyoooo.  Prepare to see a TON of fruity desserts in the future.

When I got home, my pre-tuperwared salad smorgasbord was there waiting for me like a good wifey.

Size quantity DOES matter.

All I did was add in half an avocado…

And these new lovers…

SESAME OAT BRAN sticks.  Yes, I discovered ANOTHER new obsession worthy item.  Fortunately, these are way cheaper than Kombucha AND can be found in the bulk bins section of my local health food store.  They are the perfect topping central ingredient for my salads.  Salty, crispy, and delicious – what more could I want!?

In my eyes, the perfect salad has a million different ingredients, with a hint of everything, including something salty, something sweet, something crunchy, something crispy, and everything in between.  Basically, everything I can get my hands on.  In this salad, the sesame oat bran nibbles, dried cranz, bell peppers, carrots, brocc, chickpeas, and avocado made for a heavenly creation.

Guess what else I had…

It may alarm you should definitely NOT shock you to know that I consumed the entire bag of SP fries in the last 24 hours.

Even though I was already stuffed to the gills in carbohydrate bliss, I still had a fruity dessert plate. 

As I peace out, I’ll leave you with this…

Recently, my friend sent me this hilarious link to her debut on the Runner’s World website…check it out, she’s hilarious! 

(it’ll make you smile, if nothing else)

Back to life, back to reality

Soul II Soul anyone?  HA!

OK, but seriously, I am sorry I’ve been MIA. Turns out, my computer was not pleased with me, and decided to take it out on the power cord…

I guess that thing is supposed to be straight, not stuck at a 45 degree angle?

Nothing $50 and an overnight express order can’t fix…

Good thing I have my own personal Geek squad member Kyle to diagnose such problems!

Soooo, YEA!  I’m baaack!  WooHoo!  I missed you all!  I have a lot to catch up on, too. Although, to be fair, I worked the past two days, so it’s not exactly thrilling material.

I’ll rewind to Sunday night’s snack action.

Fruit bowl + dates + carob chips = mmmm :)

And now on to Monday’s eats!

I packed my lunch the night before, as usual.  My salad contained the above ingredients, minus the self magazine, which was a bit too dry and stale for my taste.

• Spinach
• Carrots
• Sprouts (clover!  I’m addicted, I’ll never go back to alfalfa again)
• Red bell peppers
• Cherry toms
• Sesame/seaweed salad
• Chickpeas
• Cauliflower
• Broccoli

I have NO ability to filter my creativity when it comes to salad making.

The rest of the yummies: dried mango, odwalla bar love, and an apple

This was my first time having dried mango without any added sugar, and I LOVED it.  Although the texture reminded me of raw cow’s hide – it was as taut as an African drum (not that I’m the expert on bongos, I’m just guessing…)!

Work was work.  Whatever.

I got home and made a nice delish din din.

Alvarado street bread toasted with 2 pieces of veggie slice “cheese.”

Add in some seitan cutlets…

Mmmm.

There may not be a cuter fruit than KIWI – aren’t they adorable!

I wasn’t quite satisfied so I threw some of these in the oven.

The process was fairly simple, aside from the smoke detector going off every other minute, forcing me to stand under the alarm waving a pillow for 10 minutes.  Oh the joys of living in a tiny New York apartment…

It all worked out in the end.

Don’t let the blackened charred parts turn you off…appearances can be deceiving.  I polished the entire plate off, and licked the salt from my fingers with complete delight!

One more fruit bowl, and I was off to bed!

I’ll get to Tuesday and today later.  For now, I want to catch up on your blogs, since I can finally comment leave my computer on for over 15 minutes!

empty containers

I couldn’t decide on a title for this post.

The real title should have been “how much chocolate and dessert food can you consume in 48 hours”…but that doesn’t really roll off the tongue.

So, instead I decided to post photos of all the containers I’ve managed to polish off (as if wasting food in our move is my biggest concern).

More death by chocolate (vegan) cake…aka the BEST slice of heaven on Earth.  Yuuuummmmmy!! 

And this was only half way through (the original slice was about the size of a brick).

And for those East Coast-ers who know a good thing when they see the box, here’s Kyle’s birthday cheesecake from Junior’s.

Try not to drool on your keyboards.  I doubt your warranty covers saliva induced malfunctioning.  Mine didn’t.

WF’s vegan pudding…my weakness (well, one of them)!

I had to!!  Dried fruit and chocolate are meant to be together.

Scraped clean (obviously we all saw this picture coming).

And the trend continued…at the WF hot bar.

Included in this packed-to-the-brim container: roasted sweet potatoes, baked tofu, “chik’n” salad, TONS of grains (quinoa, millet, bulgar, and barley), steamed brocc, and a fresh slaw salad.

I pounded it like a champ (reference point: freshman year beer bong).

 

More dessert vanishing acts.  This time with (vegan) blueberry vanilla “cheesecake.”

 

English muffin + pounds of Earth Balance (it’s healthy, right Andrea?)

Maybe I go through these too fast…any thoughts?

This is no joke.  Cleaning out the fridge is such a fun job.

 

More dessert: cookies with soymilk.

Oats with soynut butter…going, going…

Gone!

Empty PB jar :(

Ok, you get the point…I’ve been a fat ass chocoholic finishing everything I managed to get my hands on. 

Good for the mouth.  Bad for the tummy.  Somehow the fact that I have to fit into a little dress for my cousin’s wedding this weekend has escaped me.

I think I should get my butt to the gym, stat!

PS  Wanna win some yummies?  I DO!  Head over to Erinbee's site

It’s too cold for a clever title

Today was a totally snack-y day.  I didn’t even really do meals, I was just grazing all day long.  That’s the bad part about about having days off when the weather is only 15 degrees outside.  I broke the fast with a HUGE glass of chocolate soymilk followed by a CHOCOLATE loaded coffee. 

This stuff is THICK and sooooo good.  I am normally a silk soymilk girl, but this was on sale so I decided to give it a shot.  Man, was I in heaven.  It took all self control to not chug the entire carton on the spot.  I think I’ll be getting a lot more of this.

I did some research for this weekend while sipping my coffee.

Brekkie = 2 pieces of Alvarado street bread toasted to perfection with chunky delish soynut butter

LOVE this stuff.  The entire jar may be gone by tomorrow.

My apple for the day.  Crunch.

Vanilla o’soy yogurt plus chocolate soy milk and chopped up figs.  I think the figs all ducked for cover, but I guess I would too if I were submerged in chocolate and vanilla love :)

NOM NOM.

Later I got my act together and actually prepared some food for a late lunch. 

Alvarado street bread, greek yog, egg beaters and smart deli “turkey.” 

I was pretty full, so I finished some errands around the apartment and then headed to the gym to get my sweat on.  Considering I hadn’t been for a couple days, I wanted to make sure I had a good work out sesh. 

I’m always so aware of when my last work out was and whether or not it was a good one, I don’t know if it’s normal or not, really.  I love variety, so it doesn’t bother me that my routines are different throughout the week, but it makes me feel good when I do consecutive days of exercise, so it’s hard for me to justify days off.  I have finally gotten to the point where I have accepted (albeit somewhat reluctantly) that I just cannot go to the gym on the days I work.  Plain and simple. 

Back when I was in school, my body used to be able to do serious exercise sessions at the gym EVERY DAY.  But now, even though I think my sleep schedule is pretty much the same, my body refuses to cooperate.  When I first started my job, I pushed through it, determined to get in the exercise I wanted for myself.  But as my shifts got harder and longer and the pressures of being new at my job stressed me out, I realized my post-work exercising wasn’t even productive.  Lemme just say, after 12+ hour shifts, the motivation to get on a treadmill just doesn’t exist.  I was having horrible workouts and getting less sleep because I wasn’t even getting home from the gym until after 9, so I was eating dinner around 10, and that’s when I finally realized I had to make a change.  It took me 6 months of working AND going to the gym 7 days a week to finally give in to this.  But now I think my routine is healthier and more effective, which is the entire goal anyway. 

So sorry for the tangent, but I just wanted to say that THAT is why my work outs on my days off are SO precious to me.  Not in a creepy-possessive-gullom-from-Lord-of-the-Rings sort of way, just in a I-love-fitness kind of way.

After the gym I had some roasted BN squash with melty yummy Earth Balance drizzled on top.  When I said “drizzled” on top, I actually meant GOBBED on. 

Exhibit A: above photo with equal ratio of “butter” to squash

I did a bit more of mindless dried fruit snacking (papaya spears) while reading and burning cds for the car ride to VT. 

Look at the SIZE of these papaya spears.  The photo hardly does them justice, but I tried to put my bberry there for the sake of comparison.  I had about 5 or 6 of these.

For dinner I was trying to use up stuff in the fridge/apartment that would go bad while we were away for the weekend.  First, I polished off the lime flavored chips and salsa.

Then I baked some curry sweet potatoes, inspired by LovIN My Tummy’s fry challenge recipe from yesterday.

Curry does make everything better.

Since the amount of greens consumed thus far today has been pretty pathetic…I had a big ‘ol salad, too. 

Lettuce, brocc slaw, edamame, and baked tofu.

While sipping tea and meal planning for next week I watched this week’s ep of OC housewives.  I really like Jeanna.  She’s hilarious – making fun of the others in a clever way that’s maybe a little mean but comical enough to enjoy without feeling too guilty about it (hey, sometimes they are asking for it, right?). 

I’m on my THIRD box of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea, you guys!!!

For dessert I polished off the rest of the coconut date rolls (don’t worry I already got another box) – hehe   :)

I LOVE these!!!  I can’t believe how freezing today was, I’m really in for a shock this weekend, because it’s supposed to be even MORE BRRR in Vermont.  I’m kinda nervous, but I’m packing 8 million layers and the cabin DOES have a fireplace :)

As for the projected forecast…

Weather for Ludlow, VT

Fri

20°F | 4°F

Sat

36°F | 25°F

Sun

40°F | 7°F

Looks like it’ll be a chilly one!!