The Messy Eater: Snack

WOWZA! Is it really Thursday? ARE YOU SURE?

We're so close to Friday, but yet, so far.
People today kept saying to me,
"Gosh, I can't believe tomorrows Friday! It feels like we're so close to the weekend! Wow that went fast!"
Um, no.
Not for me.

This week has gone by soooooooooooooooooooo slowwwwlllyy (like molasses) that it's hard to believe it is a 4 day week. Definitely feels like, ooo a 10 day week? Yeah.

Tuesday was the start of a new semester, which means new classes, new teachers, and more homework.
YIKES!

I thought finals week was rough (was it really only last week?! WHAT?!). Day 3 of classes and we've already been assigned chapter(s) <---(that would be more than one) of reading, tests to study for, POP QUIZZES (oh how I loathe you) and the promise of more to come.
How kind.

This was me on Tuesday. Minus the whole forgetting what I ate part.

HOW CAN YOU FORGET WHAT YOU ATE?!

I've been seriously longing for the days of elementary school where my biggest concern of the day was whether or not I'd get to be star student. You know, the special teacher's pet child for a whole that consisted of special treatment and special snacks and nap time? Nap time.
Sigh.
I miss you.

So this week has been spent getting used to new classes and my new schedule of morning classes.
Ugh.
There's a reason I didn't have classes in the morning first semester;)
Anyway, I've had to switch my work outs to afternoons instead of mornings, which honestly hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be because of three things, I suspect:

I'm actually AWAKE, not just 'sleepy and going through the motions'
I have more ENERGY, which makes sense I suppose; my stomach usually can't handle any food if I run right when I wake up in the morning, and little food if I cross train and strength train in the morning, MEANING: I didn't have the energy food gives me, resulting in a lackluster work out. Every day. So this leads me to:
I now eat two meals and a snack before I work out. Now I get to eat and digest THEN work out, which is SO much better than just waking up and working out. I give props to all of you who have no choice but to work out first thing in the morning because of your schedules. Major props.

Moving on, I HAVE made time to bake and eat this week. Of course I have.
I experimented with a new version of my family's recipe for Halva:

Halva is a greek dessert made out of cream of wheat, water,sugar, butter and cinnamon. My mother and I started to experiment with different substitutes for the original 5 ingredients a while back and now use somewhat healthier ingredients. For the most part.

This is a good pre-work out snack or breakfast with some greek yogurt and fresh fruit.

It is definitely one of those gut sticking foods that stay with you for hours and hours. And I do mean hours.

I had several pieces after dinner one night (carbo loading at its finest) and ran right when I woke up the next morning feel great! Recipe to come soon!

Speaking of carbo loading..

I've been experimenting in the kitchen with some granola recipes. I made this almond-maple granola the other night, but it's still a work in progress..

granola, peanut butter sauce, strawberry jam, vanilla protein ice cream = YUM

However, that hasn't stopped me from eating the trial run batches :)

more granola with OIKOS TOASTED COCONUT VANILLA GREEK YOGURT

On strength training days I've been having this new concoction I like to call Vanilla Cake Batter Protein Ice Cream.
It may look plain and boring, but HOLY SMACKRAL is that good. Like, mouth watering good. To me, it tastes sort of like cake batter. But that's just me. There's hints of coconut (of course), vanilla, maple, and a slight hint of banana. Ever so slightly. It all blends together to make a creation like nothing I've ever tasted.
Except maybe cake batter :)

Vanilla Cake Batter Protein Ice Cream

2 cups vanilla soy milk

1/4 cup sugar free maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients in a freezable container. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours.

1/2 chopped frozen banana

1 pkg sugar free vanilla pudding mix

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1/4 cup + 2 tbs. coconut flour

-After freezing milk mixture, thaw slightly in microwave for 45 seconds.

- Place mixture in food processor and blend along with banana.

-Add in remaining ingredients, one at a time, until chopped banana is broken down and remaining ingredients are blended thoroughly and mixture is thick, similar to soft serve.

-Move to a bowl and EAT!!

NOTE: This makes a HUGE serving, so you can always freeze any remaining soft serve you don't eat in the freezer again. Just make sure you thaw it out again when you want to eat it later.

2ND NOTE: This tastes SOOO SOOO SOOO good with my black chocolate brownies.

Especially topped with my vanilla peanut butter sauce. But I'll tell you about that later.

Alright people, I'm off to try to make sense of what-ever-the-heck I'm supposed to be studying for a test tomorrow!

OH! ONE LAST NOTE!

3RD NOTE:

HAPPY NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER DAY!!

Do me a favor, will ya?

Eat some peanut butter for me.

Happy Friday!!!!

<Insert Friday Song of Choice>

Source

(the song we all love to hate)

(please ignore the subtitles; they mean nothing about me, I swear)

First full week of 2013 down, and only 51 more to go! (And no, I'm not that smart, I had to look that up; but I'm flattered if you thought I was :))

1st semester classes are nearly over; now all that's left to do is STUDY STUDY STUDY for finals and pray I don't bomb.

The only interesting part of my week was hearing about that girl who got her tongue stuck in a metal water bottle.

poor kid.

I ALWAYS carry my handy dandy and trusty water bottle with me, so I was especially curious to hear about that. I tried to stick my tongue in my bottle, but it wouldn't stay. Very discouraging, I'll tell you.

Just for you, I restrained myself from putting up a picture of my tongue in there. Just use your imagination. (Second thought, don't..too gross)

On a much less-disgusting note, Thursday was a good day solely because of the run I had in the morning. 8 miles at an average of 8:20 min/mile (give or take 10 seconds) all in the comfyness of my basement and Supernatural. Ever seen that show?

(they deserve to have a large photo, trust me)

I just started watching the series in the morning on TNT because it's on everyday from 9-12, which is usually when I run these days. The network runs through the whole seriess, and they're just showing season 1 now, so I'm watching/ recording all the episodes.

OHMYGOSH does it get your heart racing! (And no, not just cuz of their looks, they don't hurt, either;))

This show is SO IDEAL FOR RUNNING because I'm constantly on edge and for some crazy reason run faster while I'm watching. For example, when the guys are chasing or being chased by a demon, ghost, murderer, etc., I START TO RUN FASTER.

WHAT THE HECK?!

This is a new thing for me and I'm probably-most-likely going to obsess over this for the next week or so. Maybe I should start watching horror films while I run?

But, as I mentioned in my previous post, my runs have been pretty spectacular, in part, to this lovely thing of carbs:

This is what I call Banana Berry Coconut Jam Grape Bread. Too long? O.K., how about Banana BCG Bread? Whatever the name, I still like it. Now, I made this recipe two ways; one with berries, oat flour, bran flour and coconut flour(yes, I'm still loving coconut), and the other way with no berries and just oat & coconut flour. I decided I liked the version with berries and less oats, but you can substitute whatever you want!

Behold, I give you:

Banana B.C.J.G. Bread

Dough

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup milk (I used vanilla soy milk)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sweetnener

3 large and VERY RIPE bananas, mashed

1/4 cup dried fruit and/or chopped nuts (I used craisins and pecans)

Filling

1 cup grapes

1/4 cup sweetener of choice (I used maple syrup)

1/4 cup flour of choice or corn starch (coconut flour works well)

4 tbs. jam (I used strawberry jam)

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For the dough:

-To make oat flour, process 2 cups oats in food processor until ground into flour.

- In a medium bowl, combine oat flour with coconut flour, milk, salt, vanilla, sweetener, mashed bananas, and mix-ins. Mix well.

For the filling:

-Wash grapes and place into food processor. Blend until foamy liquid forms. Add in sweetener of choice and flour and process again.

-Take a normal loaf pan and press half of the dough mixture into the bottom and press down firmly.

-Pour grape puree filling on top of dough. Drop jam on top of filling and swirl with a knife. -Take remaining dough and spread on top of filling (it will be clumpy; that's okay!

NOTE: I added blackberries to the top of the bread right before it went into the oven; I DEFINITELY recommend doing this!!