I'm Moving!

I'm officially fed up with blogspot so I am moving to WordPress! My new address is QuarterLifeWellness.wordpress.com I am trying to get stuff together over there, and it will be a slow process since I am in the middle of super busy times at school, but I will be blogging there from now on! Excited for the new page and hope everyone else is too!

It's Friday!

Morning to all! Really quick post this morning because I had such an AWESOME breakfast I wanted to share!

Pumpkin Oats:

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup oats

1/2 packet stevia

A few shakes of cinnamon

1/2 banana mashed in oats

1/2 banana sliced on top

1/4 cup organic pumpkin puree

1 tbsp natural peanut butter on top

This along with some Sugar Cookie coffee! YUMMY!

Last night Joey got us gyros for dinner.

It was my first encounter with meat in over three weeks. Don’t get me wrong they were very good, but I’m in a current state of purgatory about meat eating. I’m going to think about it and start a new year with a decision. Any comments/thoughts about this are more than welcome!

Time to start studying and hit up the gym! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

It Feels Like the Weekend to Me

Good evening to everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful day! My days have just been wearing me out here lately. I got a very pleasant surprise today when I went to foodbuzz.com and saw my profile featured on the front page!! VERY EXCITING!!

Started off the day with another yummy Green Monster and a cup of sugar cookie coffee!

Today’s Recipe:

2 cups spinach

1 tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp flax seed meal

1 tbsp chia seed meal

1/2 scoop chocolate soy protein powder

1 cup almond milk

1 banana

It was quick downhill after breakfast because I started having really bad stomach cramping and such so I had to lay back down for a bit until I was feeling better :-(

Once I felt okay, I headed to the gym to do 45 minutes on the elliptical, interval, level 12. I also did the aspects of Whittle My Middle which I need an exercise ball for (I was short on time, so I’m going to finish up the rest at home later).

I hit up Walmart and picked up a few necessities: apples, natural peanut butter, razors (I HATE when I have to buy these, because I have to get really expensive ones because I’m crazy prone to razor burn if I use anything else, which bums me out because I’d MUCH rather spend $12 on something else!)Burt’s Bees Deep Cleansing Cream (I wanted to try this because it was natural, and I have some acne problems so I am always looking for good products that don’t overly irritate my face),

and a few LaraBars (apple pie, cashew cookie, and peanut butter cookie).

Lunch was 2 leftover vegan pancakes smeared with my new natural peanut butter, 2 organic carrots, and 3 dates! Yummy!

I had to work today from 2-630 (well I was SUPPOSED to, I got let off at 5, so irritating), so I brought the Cashew Cookie LaraBar for a snack.

It was pretty good, but Apple Pie is still my favorite so far.

Work was something else today. As I said before Banana has been really lagging lately in sales so they are cutting hours all over the place. Very stressful, cuz Jill needs some cash money. But oh well, what can I do!

To pep me up after work I stopped by Price Cutter for the few items I forgot to get at Walmart, ha, and got some Van’s organic waffles

and Raw cinnamon honey for fun.

When I got home first thing I did, after letting Noodle out, was to make up a snack! (having a late dinner tonight with Joey) so I toasted a waffle and spread some honey on and DAYUM, this stuff is sooooo good!. Its kind of a weird consistency actually, a little thicker than not raw honey, but it is so vibrant and fresh! I spread a little on the waffle and popped it in the microwave for 5 seconds and then it was very easy to spread the rest. I HIGHLY recommend this goodness.

Well I gotta practice my presentation a few more times before Joey gets here. I have started practicing out loud a few times every day (I’m very anal about presentations, I get so nervous so I like to overly practice, it makes it a lot easier).

Here’s a picture to make everyone smile. My puppy Noodle is the cutest :-)

Vegan Pancakes

Helloooooooooo everyone! Man, it has been a very long day, but let me tell you, my dinner just made it so much better! Tonight’s recipe: Vegan Pancakes! So, I also found this recipe in the Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook, and I must say, I was a little skeptical at first with the amount of ingredients, but I tweaked it slightly and it turned out so good! I am loving the recipes from this books because they are seriously simple and fast, and I have no time lately so they are exactly what the doctor ordered!

Cooking Ingredients:

1/2 tbsp baking soda

1/2 tbsp veggie oil

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup almond milk

*That’s IT, seriously!

Cooking Instructions:

1) Mix all the ingredients together

2) Spray a skillet with Pam (ok, not sure this is vegan, but oh well)

3) Heat the pan on stovetop at medium heat

4) Cook like regular pancakes

5) Enjoy!

This batter made 6 large pancakes (I only ate two for dinner) and am very excited for leftovers!

*Side note: The batter is much thicker than a normal pancake so I kind of had to use the bottom of my spoon to spread it out on the skillet. And of course, they don’t taste exactly like pancakes, they are fluffy and delish, but they grow up more like a biscuit.

I didn’t want to use syrup so I heated up some of my frozen blueberries from my HUGE bag, ha,

and added a smidge of agave nectar to the mix. It turned out great!

In a totally unrelated to breakfast for dinner kind of way I had a little broccoli and chickpea mix as my side dish.

Overall, fab dinner! I can’t wait to try to pancakes next time with vegan chocolate chips! YUM!!!

Lunch today was leftovers: 1 green chili quesadilla,

a little whole wheat pasta/chickpea dust and some broccoli,

and 2 dates!

Snack was a LemonZest Luna bar,

which tasted a little fake sugary to me, some blueberry tea from Khaldi's (best coffeeshop! I just learned today it was actually named one of America's top 10 coffee shops according to GQ magazine, pretty cool!) and an apple.

Overall it was a long but good day. I have so much to do tonight still with my presentation. As I told Joey earlier today, I keep working on my presentation and waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it just still isn’t insight. Boo! Wish I could watch Top Chef tonight, but no time. Love any kind of cooking show. Well I best stop procrastinating. Hope everyone has a fab night!

Recap on Taco Tuesday

Good morning! Hope everyone had a wonderful night! I wanted to start off the day with a quick blog about my awesome dinner. It was Taco Tuesday, so I had to make something Mexican. I decided to try a quick and easy recipe I got from the Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook (something I picked up from home because years ago I was a vegetarian for about a year). I chose the Green Chili Quesadillas. Let me tell you this meal took me about 10 minutes from start to finish and it was soooo good!

Cooking Ingredients:

1/4 can vegetarian refried beans (I used a green chili mixture)

2 tbsp diced green chilies

2 tortillas (I used Ezekiel sprouted grain)

Shredded mozzarella cheese (I used vegan)

Salsa (I used fresh)

Cilantro

Cooking instructions:

1) Spray a pan with Pam and heat on stovetop at medium

2) Add green chilies to the refried beans and mix

3) Place tortilla flat on the skillet and spread the bean mix, shredded cheese, and cilantro on one half

4) Once tortilla has softened fold in half, let heat for around 2 minutes, then flip and heat the other side 2 minutes.

5) Enjoy!!

These were SIMPLE and really delish. Wonderful crunch to the shell and soft, spicy beans on the inside.

I heated up some Birdseye Steamed broccoli for a side and I was set! (*I forgot to mention the other day when grocery shopping I stocked up on 5 bags of Birdseye steamed veggies because they were on sale for 88 cents each! Score!)

For a late night snack I had some Ezekiel cinnamon raisin sprouted grain cereal in almond milk. This cereal actually tastes pretty weird, but I have already acquired a taste for it and now I really enjoy it.

This morning started off again with a Green Monster!

Today’s Ingredients:

3 ice cubes

1 tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp flax seed meal

1 tbsp chia seed meal

2 cups spinach

1 banana

1/4 cup organic pumpkin

It was very good, I meant to throw a little cinnamon in, but I forgot! Bummer.

Well its homework time for me! I have today off for my workouts, every body needs some recoup time, always remember that! Hope everyone has a great day!