Looks Like Kellen Isn’t The Only Award Winner In the Hizzouse!

Kellen won an Emmy last year.

But I won the Versatile Blogger Award!  HUZZAH!  Cameron over at Ingenue Mom thinks I’m versatile!  WIN!  I love Cameron’s blog because I love reading about being a new mom from someone my age! It’s such an interesting subject to me.  Plus, Cameron is very into organic things, blogging advice, and taking adorable photos of her baby girl, Isis!  So part of this award is sharing 7 things about myself that you might not know and then passing this award on to 5 4 other bloggies!  I’m going to tell you my 7 fav. foods (in no particular order)!

1. Pasta salad from WalMart

2. Strawberries

3. Nuts, especially almonds and walnuts

4. Spinach

5. Zucchini

6. Bananas with nut butter

7. Choco milk!

So I’m going to pass this award on to the following awesome bloggers!  Go to their blogs and taste the happy!

The Winedown

Not Really Blog Material

Healthy And Fun

High On Healthy

I love you guys!

Thank Goodness For Other Blogs!

Bonjour!  I haven’t blogged in a few days.  I also haven’t read anything in my google reader in a few days.  As a result my iPhone is screaming that there are 70+ posts, 196 tweets, and 3 blog comments that have yet to be looked at.  Sorry Interweb, I took the weekend off.

This is what I lurrv about blogging.  There are sometimes when I just don’t get to it, or want to take a break — and that’s okay!  It’s not a job, it’s not a class, it’s not homework.  It’s something I have complete control over.  I decide the hours I blog and the effort I put in.  I can even blog whilst sipping on my second glass of Pino Grigio if I feel so inclined.

So I took the weekend off.  It was Kellen’s birthday so I was making oreo pie, a giant sign to put on the garage door, and being sneaky.  The weekend was full of fun and indulgence!  So after two days of not so great meals I felt like what I wanted more that anything was REAL FOOD, not too much, mostly plants.  Thank you, Michael Pollan.

So here’s my breakfast.  Two eggs and strawberries.  YES PLEASE.

There were a lot more strawberries on the plate, but I got through them before I remembered to take a photo!

So the title of this post is “Thank Goodness For Other Blogs!”  Here’s why.  Whenever I have had a not so great couple of days it usually coincides with not reading other food blogs.  I get so much inspiration from other bloggers.  Their recipes, workout plans, and books they are reading always find their way into my life.  So this morning when I woke up I knew that I was going to want to read at least one of my fav. bloggers to remind myself how great it is to eat well and take care of my body.  So when I clicked on Healthy Tipping Point this morning I was thinking I would see something wonderful Caitlin had eaten or a fun workout she had done.  Instead I found THIS.

In case you never click on the links I post on here I’ll give you a quick and dirty of the thing that really hit home for me!

React appropriately when you don’t eat super well! If you are thinking about what you eat in terms of being healthy for life then having a couple of off days are not going to set you back in the long run.

There’s no need to give up for the week, the month, or half a year just because you had deep fried chinese food and a couple rum and cokes!  When your body feels tired, overly-full, and generally out of whack what it DOESN’T want is more nasty crap.  LISTEN to what your body is telling you:

“‘Tums! Okay, that was fun, but seriously, I am not cut out to process gobs of fried deliciousness over and over.  Once in a while, okay!  But I’m tired.  Could I please have some juicy fruit and a lot of water?  Thanks, I love you!”

Then I say, “I love you too, body!  How about some strawberries and eggs?”

Right now my body is thanking me by feeling seriously great!

What will your body thank you for today?

Need Flavor? Add Chili Sauce!

I’m not kidding folks, chili sauce fixes most things.  If it doesn’t need fixing, then chili sauce will only make it mas tasty!

Even though my leftovers from last night’s peanutty noodles and veg were already delicious, I thought I would add some chili sauce — just because I COULD!

Check out the beauteous dish!

Here’s something that’s awesome. Running makes me a bottomless pit! I’m pretty much hungry all the time. YUM!

Wonderful Wednesday!

I’ve decided to have a post on Wednesdays for things that are wonderful!  Today’s Wonderful Wednesday goes to my running visor!

Here’s why my Under Armour visor is amazing.

• It works as a sweat band so sweat doesn’t drip in my eyes.
• It has odor guard — so even though the ENTIRE thing is soaked at the end of each run, it never smells!
• It blocks the sun from my eyes when I run.
• It keeps my hair out of my face.
• It fits really well.  The velcro strap velcros no matter how tight you make the visor.
• It has reflective strips on it so I can be easily seen.

So go out and get yourself one of these bad boys, especially if you’re outside a lot!

Amazing Breakfast?

Behold my ability to create a breathtaking breakfast-scape!

Cantaloupe eaten out of the container and choco-shakeology. Classy, dassy.  Sometimes you just need a quick and dirty breakfast.  And today was one of those days.

Be Adventurous!

I have used recipes for a very long time.  But very recently I have started to make things without recipes (ahh, cooking, you are so different from baking!) I figure that I watch a lot of Food Network and a lot of Top Chef, so I can probably throw together at least a few things without a “how-to”.  That’s what I did tonight!

Peanutty noodle and veggie stir fry!

So I know that peanut sauce needs some

• peanut butter
• soy sauce
• lime juice
• ginger

Then I added some extra water and rice wine vinegar to thin it out a bit (I’ve never heard of vinegar hurting anything!)

Here’s a tip I used on my lime.  It wasn’t so juicy, so I nuked it for about 15 seconds — juice city!

I had some asiany noodles in the pantry, so I boiled them up.

I need some veg!  I just used what was in my crisper — green pepper, cabbage, zuc and onion.

They weren’t really cooking up fast enough just with the heat of the pan, so I added some water and a lid — Steam those suckers!  If the way you’re cooking isn’t working out, change it!

Then put it all on a plate and pour on the sauce!  Top with scallions — just because I know scallions in chinese food are delicious!

Don’t know what to do for dinner?  Just think about what you love to eat, think about the flavors that go into it, and give it a shot!  If it doesn’t turn out, remind your family that without you they’d be hungry and that they shouldn’t worry, they have many more years of dinners for you to perfect your culinary skillz!

What Are You Doing With Your Leftovers?

I’m eating mine like a mofo!

It’s not very often that I manage to make a meal without having some of it leftover.  This is especially great during the school year because the leftovers make great lunches.

Leftovers + Leafy Greens = Not your average sandwich and chippies!

I had a lot of leftover orzo bake from Sunday night so that has been my go-to lunch the past two days.  I have not been mixing in any extra greens though (naughty!) but I also don’t need to stretch the leftovers throughout the whole week like I do during the school year.

ORZO BAKE!

In other news, I’m totally loving this song!

*This time baby, I’ll beeeeee bulleeeeeetproooooooof!*

Strawberry Buckwheat Deliciousness + A Time Trial

I had a buckwheat pancake with almond butter, walnuts, strawberries and honey with a side of cantaloupe this morning.  So good.

Eating well never looked so deliciously decadent!

I have a time trial today.  I’m running a mile.

Like a model who won’t wake up for less than 10 large, I wonder if it’s worth getting ready just to run a mile.  I guess I probably should.  I’ll update you later and let you know how it goes.

Mexifabulous!

Thank you, Flavor Bible, for the incredible mexican feast last night!

I started with thinking I wanted to use an avocado in dinner.  So I looked it up in the Flavor Bible:

AVOCADO: lime, cilantro, beans, garlic

So I made an avocado sauce out of avocado, lime, cilantro, and garlic.  Thank you, Cuisinart!

Hmm, I have some black beans.  I wonder what goes with them?

This book is cool because in addition to giving lists of things that taste nice together they also have chefs give their favorite flavor combinations for whatever ingredient you look up. Under black beans I found this combo:

BLACK BEANS: bell peppers, onion, cumin, oregano!

OREGANO!?! Never in a million years would I have thought to put oregano with this!  I also added garlic to the beans which was delish!

And obviously, corn goes with most mexi-tastic meals.  So I grilled some up.

OH! I also made a chicken marinade with lemon juice, olive oil, chili powder, and cilantro.  I let it marinade for about 45 minutes.

Check out that fancy avocado peel boat for the beans!  I wish the pepper would have stayed a little brighter, but I cooked it a bit too long for that.

Grilled corn fantasticness.

Avocado limey cilantro chicken. With some tomatoes.

You know it’s good when the hubs walks in the door and says, “it smells awesome in here”.

Get That STANK Out!

My couch has a corner that reeks.  We have Febrezed the heck out of it to no avail. The odor stings the nostrils whenever you sit on the couch.  Something had to be done.  So I googled “getting sweat smells out of couches”.  The consensus was to use vinegar and baking soda.  So that’s what I did.

I made a mixture of half vinegar and half water.

I soaked the couch corner with it!

Then I mopped up all the vinegar with a cloth.  I got it as dry as I could.

Then I dried it even more with a blow dryer.

Then I covered the area with baking soda and rubbed it in with a cloth.  I left it on there for a few hours.

Then I vacuumed it all up!

Viola!  It doesn’t smell anymore!  What a cheap way to clean up a big mess 🙂