It's Only Uphill from Here

I woke this morning thinking that today was bound to be better than yesterday, because, let’s be honest, yesterday was pretty bad. Five AM and I got reacquainted and I banged out a paper that’s due tomorrow (Thursday). Nothing like procrastination. At 7, it was break time, and I ate a breakfast of champions.

I found this recipe on Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free and made it last night with necessary adjustments. 

Apple and Carrot Breakfast Cake

Original recipe

You could use a regular blender for this, but make sure to chop the apples and carrots first.

2 cups Better Batter flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 apples, quartered (leave the peels on)
1 cup of carrots, peeled and chopped (about 3 medium carrots)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare an 8×8 baking pan with cooking spray. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until evenly combined. Place eggs, vanilla, apples, and carrots into the VitaMix.  Start on low and quickly increase to Variable 10 while using the tamper to push the apples and carrots into the blades.  Switch to High and blend for 20-3o seconds until thoroughly mixed.  It will be thick. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients by hand. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean (I think my liquid was too thin, and I ended up having to cook it for an hour!). 

Top with freshly whipped cream, homemade yogurt, or cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!

Cake with cream cheese and banana/chocolate/green smoothie.

So lovely. It’s a perfect breakfast cake-not too sweet and very healthy and nutritious. I realized that I didn't take a picture of the final product in it's whole form. Obviously, I was too excited to dig in.

  

After I had breakfast and completed my paper, I thought it would be a good idea to take Lucy for a sleigh ride. I was sorely mistaken… After about 25 minutes of rolling around the neighborhood, I noticed three large dogs roaming the street in the distance. Lucy and I have a routine that when we see a dog, I skate faster, keeping her focus on the road instead of the other dog. Well, that plan today was unsuccessful. Long story short, I ended up hitting approximately 79 MPH and then abruptly being jerked to the ground when Lucy thought it would be a good idea to stop and greet the other dogs. With bruised knees and ego, I limped home in pain and felt the bad mood from yesterday creeping into today.

This proceeded to swell to the size of an orange. Awesome.

The more I thought about it and the more intense the pain got, the more my anger grew. I spoke to my poor fiancé immediately following this incident. I say “poor fiancé” because I spent about an hour venting about how stupid dogs are and how everything in my life seems to be sucking right now. I realized that the only cure for this problem was sleep. But first, I had to eat lunch.

Mushroom, onion, red pepper, and spinach scramble on tortillas.

 I woke up feeling about a million times better than before. Thank heavens. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for my weekly vacay to Biff’s house and cooking dinner.

Chicken tenderloings, spaghetti squash, and sauteed greens with Cape Cod chips on the side. Beware: Cape Cods are addicting.

 This dinner was so yummy and comforting. Good food always manages to lift my spirits. After dinner, the fam and I headed to church. I figured I could use some inspiration after my less-than-stellar day. I’m really glad that my day slowly improved and I didn’t stay in my crap-mood rut. Two days in a row is simply unacceptable. I’ve already made up my mind that tomorrow is going to be awesome. I can feel it.