Sunday, February 27, 2011

Recently...

I re-discovered my love for oats and coffee (french press, please!).


Cuddled with my cute kitty.


Drank green smoothies.


Had a fun dinner date with friends! 


Walked down by the river, in awe that soon all the land around it would soon be underwater.


Made wonderful granola bars, that are actually pretty nutritious, unlike most packaged bars.


Ingredients: 
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup crushed Quaker Oatmeal Squares
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped mission figs
1 tbsp chia seeds
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup honey

Mix together dry ingredients, set aside. Mix together wet ingredients and microwave until it can be stirred smoother. Add wet to dry and mix. Line a square pan with parchment, plastic, or tinfoil, and press mixture into pan. Place in refrigerator to until bars stick together well, and then cut into 12 bars.



Yum! And the nutrition facts - 


Not too shabby! I just used whatever random ingredients I had on hand to make these, so feel free to sub whatever you like. Just make sure to have a good wet to dry ratio to keep the bars together. Much cheaper and healthier than store bought :)

And with that, I'm off! I enjoyed a weekend of rest and fun, and now tomorrow I start my 12-week half-marathon plan! I can't believe it's only 3 months away. I'll share that soon :)

I hope you had a fabulous weekend!

~Kasey

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Catch Up!

Hello Friends!

Sorry about my lack of posts the past few days days... I've been busy! With what, you ask? I'm not sure, specifically. Just the usual cooking, working, reading, running, spending time with my lovely family, things like that.

So instead of doing a day by day recap, I'll just show you some of my recent eats.

Breakfast:


Whole wheat pancakes with Nutella and banana - A delicious Valentines breakfast I made on Sunday and served to my hunny in bed.


Valentine's Day breakfast - Nutella Cupcakes (made vegan, of course), blackberries, a clementine, and grapes. I thought a cupcake for breakfast was appropriate for a holiday!


Today's breakfast - a grapefruit and kiwi. Much lighter than the days before, but very delicious!

Lunch:


Veggie sub and cheddar broccoli soup from Erbert and Gerbert's. Dillon and I went to walk around downtown on Sunday since it was nice outside, so we stopped there for lunch.


Log Seitan with hummus and kale on a sandwich thin with carrots and grapes was lunch yesterday.


Pretty much the same today as yesterday - just a wrap, not a sandwich.

Dinner:


More seitan for dinner on Sunday with roasted broccoli and brussel sprouts. I made fish for Dillon because he wasn't approving of my weird hippy food.. haha :)


Yesterday's romaine with italian dressing and more seitan with hummus. Can you tell I'm loving the seitan? It's so tasty and full of protein!


Then tonight was a veggie burger with more roasted veggies and berries. Dillon had a turkey burger.

Other Notable Things: 


A yummy Summit Pumpkin Porter enjoyed on my Sunday out with Dillon.


These delicious No-Bake Chocolate Macaroons. Seriously so good - and I don't even usually like coconut! They are so easy and tasty!


Beautiful flowers Dillon sent to my work on Valentine's Day! I got roses and chocolate at home and lilies at work - What a man! I'm a lucky lady.

As you can see, it has been a busy few days - but a lot of fun and full of delicious food! Weight wise, I'm still doing well. I'm hoping to break 150 by then end of the month, and I only have 1.8 pounds to go before then. I hope it will happen soon!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and Valentine's Day!

~Kasey

Friday, February 11, 2011

From My Hunny

A nice surprise was waiting for me when I got home!


Flowers ♥


What a beautiful, thoughtful gift from my hubby :)


Flowers + Chocolate - I'm such a lucky lady!

We usually celebrate Valentine's Day early to beat the rush - and, well, I'm quite impatient! We had a hot date of getting our taxes done tonight, but tomorrow night we have reservations at the Hotel Donaldson downtown for a fancy, late dinner.

I love Valentine's Day, and I can't wait to get all dressed up for our dinner date tomorrow. I will definitely not be worrying about calories or anything - occasions like this are meant to be savored!

But the calorie counting is going well, and I feel like I'm making progress, slowly, but surely! We'll see how this weekend goes; I'm planning on making Nutella Cupcakes and maybe another baked good. Hopefully I'll be able to use some self control :)

Sorry no pics of food - my eats were pretty boring today. I'll try to do more cooking this week so I'll have some new things to share.

Happy Weekend! 

~Kasey

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Clear Your Mind

Today was a great day off! I read, ran, went to yoga, baked and cooked an awesome meal.

I haven't gone to a yoga class in so long! Today I went to the gym and ran for 45 minutes before going to yoga so I could get in some cardio and strength today. I should really go to yoga more because its challenging and relaxing at the same time.

One thing, though - I'm terrible at clearing my mind. I know I need to just be focusing on my breath and body movement, but I can't turn my damn brain off. I have this trouble at night too when I'm trying to go to sleep.

That just means I need to work harder at it, I guess. Try to take more yoga classes and take time each day to try to clear my thoughts. I think that would be something good for me to work on.

Anyway... On to the eats!

I work up really hungry this morning, so I had the usual x2.


I didn't go to the gym until around 11, so I took this as a snack while I ran some errands this morning.


Green monsters are so pretty! This had about 3 cups of spinach, 1 cup of soymilk, 1 tbsp of peanut butter, and 1 small banana.

Then I was still hungry before my workout, so I had 1/2 of a Clif Bar that I picked up at the grocery store.


This is a new flavor, and I liked it a lot! Of course I do love bananas, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with this.

Then after almost 2 hours of working out and 910 calories burned, I didn't feel like cooking lunch - I just wanted to eat!


Chips, salsa, carrot, and pickles. Mmmm - a very random, but tasty lunch.

Then I was on to my baking.


Dillon loves coconut, so I wanted to make him some macaroons. I decided on this recipe for Hippie-roons from the Hungry Hungry Hippie.



They turned out a little flat, but still very good. I even liked them, and I don't even usually like coconut. Dillon was a happy camper.

I also made a fancy dinner today - Mushroom Risotto with Caramelized Onions from Oh She Glows. I've never made risotto before, and it was a process. It was so worth it, though! This is an awesome recipe. The only changes I made was I used brown rice, not barley as I didn't have any, and for liquid I added 1 cup of red wine. Check out Oh She Glows for a great description on how to make it - She takes much better pictures than I do! I just love her blog.


Working on this dish for over an hour was so worth it! The mushrooms were very flavorful and the caramelized onions made the dish.

And one of the best parts was the nutrition facts - 

Click here for additional nutritional information.

This dish made 4 servings, so that's only about 323 calories per serving. It was so rich and filling that you would never think that calories were that low! There's quite a bit of fat, but it's good fats from the olive oil.

I enjoyed this wonderful meal with a glass of Pinot Noir.


And I'm sipping a second glass now :)

I'm sure I'll have a snack later while watching Law and Order SVU with the hubs. Popcorn maybe? We'll see.

It's back to the grind tomorrow for me. Hope you had a fabulous day!

Hazel says Hi!
~Kasey

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

My Day in Food

Today I had another pretty good day!

I took a much needed rest day from the gym, and woke up without my alarm! It always feels nice to wake up on my own :)

Breakfast was the usual.


Ezekiel bread with almond butter, banana, and cinnamon. Served with hot lemon water. I haven't had any coffee in almost a week! Not that I think anything is wrong with coffee, but I know I had been over-doing it with the caffeine. Hot lemon water is so refreshing!

I enjoyed this while having some me time, blogging, reading, getting ready for work, etc..

Then I had my first snack at work.


An organic apple and 12 almonds - which is half a serving. I eat a nut + fruit combo pretty much every work day for a snack. It's a great carb/fat combo that helps keep me satisfied. 

Then before I knew it - It was lunchtime!


4 cups of romaine, 2 tbsp of light zesty italian dressing, 2 carrots, another apple, and a clementine. Lots of delicious raw food!

2 hours later I had my last break and another snack.


Another clementine with the other 1/2 serving of almonds. 

It was so sunny outside!! I always pick the spot in the break room that's in the sun when I can. I miss the sun! It's been such a long winter.

After I got home I was feeling lazy, so diner was pretty uninspiring.


A sandwich thin with 1 tbsp almond butter and 1 tbsp jam, some tortilla chips, and salsa (shared with Dillon, of course)

Then I wanted something sweet - Banana Ice Cream!


1.5 frozen bananas, 1 tsp cocoa powder, and a splash of soymilk. Process until smooth!


It's just like soft-serve! And only 100 calories - so much healthier and cheaper!

Calories consumed today: 1255 - I may end up having another small snack during Parenthood. We'll see if I get hungry again, but overall, a good food day for no workout!

Parenthood is almost on, so I'd better wrap this up. I'm loving my iPhone for taking these pictures. It's so easy. I just can't get enough of it :)

I have tomorrow off (Woo!) because I have training on Saturday, and I already have a list of things I want to get done. It should be a good, productive day!

Hope you had a great day!

~Kasey

How To: Peanut Butter

Good Morning!

The last time I made peanut butter I took a bunch of pictures to share with you! It took me awhile, but here's how you make fresh peanut butter.


Put about 1.5 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts into a food processor. I buy them from the bulk section of my grocery store.


Start to blend.


It will start getting chunky - keep blending.


Scrape the sides as needed.


It forms into this big clump of peanuts - that's good! You're almost there.


Keep blending - you can see it's getting smooth.


Smooth!! You can stop it to add a pinch of salt here if you like, and blend a bit more.


All done!


Make sure to keep blending until it gets nice and drippy like this.


Then put in a jar and in your refrigerator. 

See? It's so easy. With peanuts, this whole process only take about 5-8 minutes. With almonds, it takes more like 12-15 minutes to get smooth, but it's the same process. You just need a bit more patience with almonds. 

This is way cheaper than buying natural peanut butter and a lot less wasteful! Plus, fresh anything is better than the alternative! I haven't bought a jar of nut butter since I started making my own. I make a batch every Sunday because we usually go through a whole batch each week! I'm a nut-butter-aholic, what can I say ;)

See you later tonight for a recap of my day - Hope you make some nut butter!

~Kasey