FATTY FAT TUESDAY!

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HAPPY FAT TUESDAY!



Yay! An excuse to eat fatty food!
Everyone, go get a cheeseburger.........(I had one yesterday...ohymygoshsogood)
Or maybe some chocolate avocado pudding?
WHAT?! Yes. You can thank Jessica at howsweeteats because that lady is a darn DELICIOUS GENIUS (I mean that with the up most respect and no creepiness whatsoever, honest).

Between studying for, yep, MORE TESTS, I've had time to um, eat and shower? Maybe with running and strength training thrown in?
Yeah.

Anyway, lately I've been in a rut of sorts with my work outs. I pretty much do the same workouts every week, which can't be beneficial to my body, right? I've read that if you consistantly do the same thing over and over again, you won't see results. I can definitely say that this is true.

 Every week I run the same amount of miles on the same days, then strength train or walk for the same amount of time for the same distance and time.
I know that this isn't good, but I can't seem to get out of the rut.



Any suggestions? Tips?
I've been thinking about increasing strength training and decreasing cardio, but I'm kinda sorta afraid. There's a nagging thought that my body won't  improve, even though I know that's not true.

Be not afraid...

Sigh. My mind sometimes always corrupts my logical thinking skills. GRR!!

Okay, rant. Over. Moving on to a happier note, FOOD! MY REASON FOR LIVING! (I joke, don't worry).


Lately, I've been enjoying food of all kinds.

Costco granola bars with sunflower seeds and nutty goodness 

GREEK YOGURT of all flavors. Favorite right now is Black Cherry <swoon>

Vanilla Whey Protein Powder. SO. DARN. GOOD. Tastes like vanilla icing. 

'Nuf said.

Newly replenished stash. YES.

Homemade vanilla peanut butter.

As I was saying earlier, the chocolate avocado pudding Jessica from howsweeteats is GAH! Delicious. 

Yummy. 

Scrumpitous (<--ok, that sounds like squid and shrimp..or is that just me?) 

I made it earlier in preparation of FAT TUESDAY, and it did not disappoint.  Can't even taste the avocado. :)
LOVE IT! I will officially be having it tomorrow for breakfast with peanut butter.
pb + chocolate = match made in heaven

I halved the recipe, so it should probably gone by... 8 o'clock tomorrow morning?
Yeah.

Hope everyone had a Happy and Fatty Fat Tuesday!!

 I'll be spending the remainder of it with this guy:

Quite uplifting.

;)

Random Things Tuesday

Day 5 of February = 5 Things

1.  Anyone ever eaten breakfast out of two peanut butter jars? Yesterday I was STARVING for breakfast and had some cereal with yogurt and protein powder and banana and cinnamon (details probably aren't important, but whatever) and scraped every last, um, scrap of peanut butter until there was just my tongue inching in the jar for any last bites (there weren't) and I was STILL hungry so I grabbed my second almost-empty pb jar out of the pantry and proceed to put in all the fixings and consumed that. SUCCESS.





2. Note to self: Next time I run 10.5 miles, remember not to eat a hugh jass salad 2 1/2 hours before.
 'nuf said.

3. To my Physics teacher: What  possessed you to give out a lab, test AND homework on a Tuesday? Don't you know that Hart of Dixie is on? Sigh. Men.

4.  Speaking of obsessions (Hart of of Dixie, NOT Physics..shudder), everyone needs to watch Scandal. 

No, seriously. I. Am. Obsessed. Fitz and Olivia are my favorite couple besides, of course, Rose and Jack, Buffy an Angel (yes, those are all forbidden loves. The best kind). And if anyone doesn't know who the couples I just mentioned are, SHAME ON YOU. (I joke. Not really).







5. I feel the need to make this . Katie is a genius. And so is the title. Tehe.

Happy Hump Day!! (humps as in hills, roller coasters, camels backs..)

Happy Hump Day everyone!

For some reason, this weeks has been slow as MOOOOOOOOLLLLAAAAASSSSSEEEEEEESSSSSS.
Or is it just me?

However it's going for you, we are over the hill people! Over that hill! We are descending down, just like that roller coaster at Cedar Point! What was it called, again?

 

Oh right. TOP THRILL DRAGSTER.
THD and I have a love/hate relationship. You see, I love it when I have an empty stomach, but it hates me when I just ate a GINORMOUS salad full of um, beans and a subway sandwich the size of my face.

Anyway, moving on to real life now because the last time I went on the THD was two summers ago (oh summer, how warm and sunny you are and how I miss you so..)

Classes and life has been CRAAAAAAAAAAAAZY! I forgot that once you reach a certain age, teachers don't care that you have a life and decide to go you massive amounts of homework that make you want to curl up on a couch and watch Titanic (and cry, not drool over Leo..although I do that anyway).



Sigh. I'll never let go.

What was I talking about?
Homework. Besides this thing called 'homework' (what is THAT? WHO INVENTED THAT? WHY?), there's all these tests. One after the other. 
BUT, to get me through these long, suffering school days, I've worked off my frustration by sweating and (of course), eating.   :)

I've been really loving MR. ROW because it makes me feel so dang good. Like, very strong (until I stand up and realize that my entire body feels like jello).



No, that's not me. One, who wears pants to the gym? Too hot. Two, I am NOT a blond. No siree..

Spending 30 minutes on MR. ROW has definitely firmed my body up just a wee bit since I started using it a month and a half ago. 

MR. MILL (aka my treadmill) has been dragging lately. Maybe because I've been staying up later and getting up earlier? Oh well. It's the winter funk that happens every year. (Actually, it was 63 degrees here today <wtfudge?> and tomorrow it's going to be 27 with snow storm, but whatever..)

My favorite part:
Food.

My standard sandwich for lunch as of the past 2 weeks has been the above beauty. That, my friends is a whole-grain flat out wrap full of melted mozzarella, ketchup, SPICES, spinach, turkey pepperoni, parmesaen (you can never have too much cheese), ham, and turkey. Eaten with a side of more parmesaen and ketchup on the side to dip AND cheddar rice cakes that taste like cheetos but are actually GOOD FOR YOU.

HOLY YUM!!!!!!

 You can all be jealous. I don't mind.
(And I just realized that I don't really know how to spell parmesaen and am too lazy to look it up on my computer because my fingers are too tired from being used 5 days a week <READ: SCHOOL>)

And of course, my vanilla cake batter protein 'ice cream' has been made NUMEROUS times to go along side my black chocolate 'brownies' and extra peanut butter.

It's like a 'lil party going on in my mouth every time I take a bite.
Side Note: There's no pics of these two beautiful creations together because, well, every time I make them I  they end up getting eaten before I remember to grab my camera. So, yeah. Just use your imagination.

Also, I'd like to thank Menchies for getting me through these difficult times. They've been there when I needed them. 
At least, until my gift card for free fro yo runs out and they leave me no choice but to spend my own money.
THE HORROR!
(Again, no pic of the fro yo, sorry, because I forgot to take a pic before I inhaled savored every bite. By the way, the peanut butter and strawberry flavors SWIRLED together tastes like legit, straight up pb&j.
Heaven. In. My. Mouth.

More pics (and hopefully of real food this time) to come soon!!

For now, 

HAPPY NATIONAL CROISSANT DAY!! 
 (don't ask)

New Classes = new life, more carbs

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:

1. I'm actually AWAKE, not just 'sleepy and going through the motions'
2. 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:
3. 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.

:)

T F G I F, My brownie obsession

T.F.G.I.F.!!!!!!!!
 (FYI: T.F.G.I.F. = Thank Fudge'n God It's Friday) <--THIS IS A  PG BLOG PEOPLE, PG!

WTF....and CRUNCHY COOKIE BUTTER!

This is pretty much how I feel EVERY Tuesday:

But hey! Tomorrow's Hump Day!!! (mind out of the gutter people....)

This week is Finals Week, which basically means that my life consists of

Studying

Eating

Studying

Sleeping

Studying 

Running

Studying

Shower?

Studying

Notice a pattern here?

BUT, I have been enjoying some a lot of treats to get me through this depressing and PANICKING time of need :)

Like....

Banana Soft Serve...okay, this isn't a treat. It's more like a staple. My family thinks I'm slightly weird for storing chopped bananas in the freezer, but they don't judge.

And,
 the one,
 the only..............
CRUNCHY COOKIE BUTTER!!!!
Okay, so maybe this is just cookie butter with a crunch to it, but there's just SOMETHING about it that makes me get all...excited. Inside.
 And out. <---but only when no one's looking

It's ESPECIALLY good when used as a dip for those cinnamon pita chips from trader joes that got cut off in the above picture because the CRUNCHY COOKIE BUTTER stole the show.
Which is totally understandable.

But you know what goes even better with the CRUNCHY COOKIE BUTTER than cinnamon chips?


This

Okay, not the BEST picture, but, you see, I was in the middle of eating..er..finishing the batch of these when I sorta kinda remembered I had a blog. A food blog. Right.
BUT DON'T WORRY! I'm making a new batch of BROWNIES (yes, they're brownies, just with some rather..umm..interesting ingredients:)) as soon as finals are over. 
Which is never Thursday.


So until then,

 

Horror Films = Fast Running? & Banana Bread!

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!!

 Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

 Let cool (if you REALLY feel the need, which I didn't and ended up suffering from a burnt tongue for the rest of the night. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED). 

But, really, it was worth it :)