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.

Detox Rantings

Over the past few days, I’ve been feeling the need to just get all the junk out of my system. Unlike most detox-ers, however, I have added to my diet instead of eliminated. What is this magical elixir, you might ask? Enter: Green Vibrance.

I’ve blogged about the amazingness of Green Vibrance before, but I figured I’d discuss it in brief again here. Green Vibrance:

• is the #1 selling superfood on the market right now
• has 25 billion probiotics per serving
• contains certified organic, wild harvested and wild crafted concentrated foods

These are just a few of about a hundred great benefits of this product. Curious to know more? Check out Vibrant Health’s website!

Back to my detoxing… So, I usually take Green Vibrance a few times a week, because I have a problem with consistency. But, when I got sick of being sick, I decided I needed to get my immune system up to par. To do that, I decided to increase my Green Vibrance intake to two times a day for at least 10 days.

I’ve been sucking down this green concoction since Sunday and started feeling it today. The detox crappy feeling has set in. Irritability and fatigue have been upon me the entire day. For starters, my first class was extra stupid and my professor even more irksome than usual. I blame the detox.

American Consumer Culture (clase numero dos) is usually characterized by very strong opinions, people arguing about off topic subjects, and people thinking they know everything when they are actually gigantic idiots. That said, our teacher thought it would be a good idea to create an actual debate today. I knew from the start that this was a horrible idea... When we split up into groups, I saw a kid I find very offensive moving toward me. I quickly told him that this was the wrong group and he needed to go “over there.” I didn’t find anything wrong with my comment, but my Biff immediately let me know that I had been very rude. And let me tell you, for Biff to say I was mean, I was mean. Oops. It was definitely the detox talking.

Along with all of this nonsense, I have been beyond hungry, ALL. DAY. I have no idea why. It seems like the more I eat, the more I want to eat. Ugh. Here are some eats that would have, under normal circumstances, have been suffiecient:

Blue quinoa

 Blue Quinoa Recipe

Three big carrots, sweet potato pudding, nut butter ball, 100 calorie bar, and an apple.

 By the time I got home, I was literally salivating, so I munched devoured a pickle as I made dinner.

Salad beast topped with chicken sausage.

Spring has set in here in Florida, and so has the annual pollen plague. Luckily, my allergies have not revealed themselves. Shortly after my dinner, I realized that our dogs, on the other hand, have not been so fortunate. This means there is lots of licking, biting, and scratching constantly. For those of you who didn’t read my ABC’s post, licking, slurping, and otherwise making disgusting mouth noises is my number one pet peeve. Needless to say, I have felt like punching all of the rats in their stupid little snouts since I’ve gotten home. The poor things.

I realize after putting all of my rantings down that I have been a teensy weensy bit jerky today. Everything, and I mean every little thing, has gotten on my last nerve. So, let me just say, I’m sorry to all those whom I may have offended or if I've come off as being a grouch. It’s really just the detox talking (I know it makes you just want to go buy a big tub of Green Vibrance right now). It's for the better.

I need some stress shield.

Let It Happen

Do you ever have one of those days where you have a long to-do list, and somehow, almost none of it gets done? Monday was one of those days for me. Only three out of about ten tasks were accomplished. Senioritis is taking hold, and I’m letting it happen.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been more of a bottomless pit than usual. This morning, I had a rather filling breakfast.

Green drink smoothie and blueberry pancakes.

An upped food intake my trouble most people, but I’m just gonna let it happen.

Giving the pear some lovin'

Quinoa with spaghetti sauce and roasted butternut squash.

I was supposed to write a paper today, but instead, I donned my itsy-bitsy bikini and enjoyed the Florida sunshine.

At snack time, I munched on yet another blueberry pancake topped with a layer of cream cheese and a giant apple, which is not pictured… I’m getting lazy with the food photos, but I’m just letting it happen.

Another little task I had scheduled was watching a documentary (for class) after talking to my hubby-to-be. Instead, I felt sleepiness creep over me. I just let it happen.

When I woke up an hour later, I did a little yoga, one of the few productive activities of the day. I used this awesome video:

Right after my flexibility-slash-strengthening exercises, I ate yet again.

Broccoli and cauliflower with ranch and sweet potatoe with coconut oil and cinnamon.

For dessert, I had Earth Café’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” cheesecake. 

Cheesecake nestled in strawberry sauce.

So delicious. The consistency was the same as the blueberry flavored cheesecake. I really enjoyed the fact that it tasted like real strawberries instead of artificial flavoring. It had the same crunchy, nutty crust as the first two. What a treat! Thanks again, Earth Café! Blueberry is still my fave so far.

The rest of the night, I wasted more time, taking way too getting for the upcoming school day and sitting in front of the boob tube. This whole slacking thing might be a bad habit to get back into (Yes, back. This used to be routine for me), but I’m just gonna let it happen.

Wedding Planning Zumba Instructor

Hiya fellow food lovers! I hope your weekend was swell. Mine sure was! On Saturday, I went to Zumba instructor training, which was possibly the most exhausting day of my life. I woke up at 5:30, got ready, and had a gigantic breakfast to fuel my long day ahead. 

Looking cute and fitness-y.

Brownie Boatmeal and sliced banana.

 I was beyond full; I thought I wouldn’t want to eat again until Sunday. This meal was also the only one I took a picture of all day. I barely had time to go to the bathroom, much less lay out my food and have a mini photo shoot.

By 7 AM, I was on my way to Clearwater. When I got there, we jumped right into a master class. Holy Sweat! It was definitely the most intense Zumba class I have ever taken. I was soaked in sweat and completely done. Great way to start the day. The training was taught by Jani Roberts, and she was so fantastic!

Zumbaland

Jani teachin' it up.

Instructor and Instructor. :D

Shockingly, after the first lecture, I was already starving again, so I munched a 100 calorie bar to stave off the rumblies.

Another lecture, basic warm up, and basic meringue, and I was famished, yet again. Unfortunately, as I tried to eat my tuna and crackers, cucumbers and carrots, and apple in peace and message my lovey, I was bombarded by some lady trying to tell me her life story. Gah. Whatever happened to people being ok with anti-sociability?

As politely as possible, I continued chatting to my honey and then slinked back to class. Then it happened. Fatigue set it. I’m not sure if it was the early morning or the sickness, but I literally did not have the energy to do anything else full out. I’m pretty sure that I looked like a flailing fish at the back of the class for the rest of the day. In between basic salsa, and basic cumbia, I munch again on some almonds and dried cranberries.

Finally, with certificate in hand and muscles practically paralyzed, I hopped in my car to make the 2 hour trek all the way back home. But first, I scarfed my turkey salad and cantaloupe dinner, which I didn’t photograph due to extreme ravenousness. Then I had some protein cookie bites for dessert.

Shortly after returning home and explaining every detail of my day to my inquisitive mother, this newly licensed Zumba instructor passed out.

I made sure to nix the alarm clock for Sunday morning, and slept until almost 10 AM. When I woke up, I was hungry, obvs.

Blueberry Pancakes

 The rest of the day was spent working on going away party invitations and wedding invitations. I also spoke to my honey about the Big Day for about 2 hours. It’s getting super close, and I’m super excited. Somewhere in between all of the excitement and preparation, I had lunch, copious amounts of Cape Cod potato chips, and dinner.

Turkey sandwich and a pickle.

Squash, mushroom, and onion quiche, and salad beast.

 Invitations go in the mail tomorrow (Monday). This show is on the road, and I can hardly contain myself!