Kale-face

Wow…you guys sure like the EasyLunchBoxes!  Honestly, I wish I could give them to all of you…your comments were SO amazing.  I love that there are so many of us out there who pack lunches to tote to work/school/wherever every day!  We are a special breed.  And it makes me super happy to know that I’m not alone in my food packing addiction.  🙂

Here are my compartments full of yummies for work.  This salad was no ordinary salad…

• spinach
• corn
• edamame
• carrots
• pepitas
• dried cranz
• raw crackers (Livin’ Spoonful coconut curry flavor)

On the side, United Colors of Benetton bell peppers and more raw crackers.  I may as well get this out in the open now…I’m OBSESSED with these raw crackers.  They are just sooo dang good.  Everyone must try them asap. 

And in the same vein as the salad, this soup was no ordinary soup…

First I steamed a couple branches of kale and a handful of carrots in veg broth.  Then, I added half a can of Amy’s Spanish Rice & Red Bean soup. 

Holy hearty heaven.

I probably say this about every Amy’s soup, but this is my new favorite.  It was extremely tasty.  The ratio of rice to veggies to red beans (which I don’t think I had ever tried before) was perfect.  Red beans are legit, yo!

Now that’s what I call lunch gorgeousness.

Work was smooth(ish) sailing.  The day wasn’t ideal, but I worked with one of my fave coworkers, and even the crappy days are tolerable when you have a good companion through it all.  True?  True.

I bought a whole wheat roll on my way home from work to round out my dinnah.  Pronounced like Kailey’s theatahhh class.

I opened that hummus and polished it off in one fell swoop.  SHUT. It. DOWN. 

I also had the second half of the Amy’s Spanish Rice & Red Bean soup over steamed kale and carrots.

YUMMMMMM.

For dessert I had a HUGE green monster with vanilla silk soymilk, kale, spinach, froxen bananas, and frozen strawberries.  While blending this baby, the unthinkable happened…

My magic bullet broke!!!!  The frequency of my kale/frozen fruit combo must have finally just did the poor baby blender in all-together.  I lifted it up and it wouldn’t stop spinning!  :(  It was really scary.  There I was, holding my bullet in one hand while the base was buzzzzzzzing and whirling away in place.  Eeek.

No bueno.  Should I email the Magic Bullet people?  I have a warranty that I’m pretty sure is still current. 

I also had an apple.  And tea.  Shock.

And now, for the randomly chosen winner of the EasyLunchBoxes…

Congrats Samantha!  I’m so happy for you!  Your comment was amazing, too.  :)  Nothing like the threat of heart palpitations to hit a nerve with a cardiac nurse…well played, my friend, well played…

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Adios NYSC, Hola DVDs

Today was a good day for your truly.  And it will be for you too, since there’s a giveaway involved (read on). 

I have nothing very interesting to report.  I started a new book, watched mindless t.v. shows, did Jillian’s shred (level 1), and then made it to the gym for my last workout at NYSC.  I also did some eating.

The single serving Silk vanilla soymilk was a freebie from the 1/2 marathon.  Honestly, the goody-bags you get at races is such a fun perk.

I also made pumpkin/carob chip toast (and only took a pic of 2 of the 4 pieces I had). 

Since brunch was bigger than the Real Housewives’ egos I wasn’t hungry for a while.

I had grapes and several (3) apples, but the weather was so yuck I avoided leaving my PJs until 4 pm.

Since Jillian and I hadn’t had a date in over a week, I figured it was about time we had a little rendezvous.  I think I’m ready for level 2, but our OnDemand Exercise TV doesn’t have that work out available. For the regular Jillian followers out there, how much does level 2 differ from level 1?  Should I buy the DVD?  Also, since my gym membership is now officially kaput, please feel free to pass on any good DVDs recommendations my way?

So yeah, after I shredded it up, I did my last elliptical-ing at the gym.  Four miles and I was out.

Dinner was a Mexican feast!

Pinto beans topped with VeganRella cheddah (too fake!), with a family sized portion of millet, and some guacamole and salsa lovin’.

I added nooch on top and then mixed it all together…the faux cheese eventually melted, but I think the VeganRella peeps changed the recipe.  It used to be my fave vegan cheese, and then I couldn’t find it forever, and now that I have finally found it again…not so much my favorite.  :(  Sad.

I had more carob chips with cashews and raisins for dessert.

And now, the giveaway you have all been waiting for…

Here’s my lunch for tomorrow AND the EasyLunchBox container you could win (well not this EXACT one, but you’re very own)!

Kelly, the gracious owner and creator of these clever, Earth friendly, bento-style containers, has generously offered one winner a container set and one lunch bag (of the winner’s choosing).

Pretty sweet deal huh?  So just comment below about how you would use it and consider yourself entered.  For an additional entry, tweet away (using my handle @edieden) and then re-comment to tell me you did so.

I’ll choose a winner on Friday (4/30). 

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One step forward, 85 steps back

I promised a giveaway, but I just don’t have it in me tonight.  Blogger fail.

I do have last night’s dinner, though.

When I got home I was in such a wretched mood, I really wasn’t hungry.  Sometimes my appetite shuts down shop when I get so worked up…it’s like I am so emotionally drained I can’t even think about anything, food included.  I decided to shower, which really helped calm me down and by the time I was de-patient-ified, I was ready to make dinner.  What do you do when you are worked up?  Do you lose your appetite?  How do you de-stress?  Showers work wonders for me.

I steamed a sweet potato and topped it with chickpeas and pepitas.  On the side I made a fatty salad of kale, sprouts, and carrots massaged with 1/2 an avocado and some plain greek yogurt.  Ok, if avocado and kale had a food baby, I would adopt it faster than Angelina Jolie…this combo is out of this world.  I’m beyond obsessed with kale lately.  Why I suddenly love it so is a mystery…Kyle thinks it’s because it is so close to his name…I’m not so sold on that explanation, but I humor him. 😉

For dessert I polished off some fruit, and called it a night.

Grapples.

Today, I had an appointment today (with my lady doctor)…because the first thing you do when you find out you are soon ditching your job (and thus, your legit health care plan) is schedule as many MD appointments in the next month as possible.  Nameen?

My faith in humanity was briefly restored when a man held the door for me AND let me go ahead of him in line at Starbucks…(this is an old pic, but I had my traveler mug, so it wasn’t that photogenic anyways).

I arrived 20 minutes early, waited patiently in the waiting room for an hour, and finally got up the nerve to ask what the hold up was all about.  “You’re next” they reassured me.  Ok.  Cool.  Sure enough, five minutes later, they called my name.  And…we’re back on track.  Then the nurse’s assistant asked me what I was there for, but after I told her, she said they didn’t do that there.  Uhhh.  Soooo, why AM I here then?  She had no clue.  I kept my poker face, but trust me, I was P-I-S-S-E-D.  I asked to speak to my doctor anyways because (a) she’s awesome, (b) I figured I’d waited long enough to get some face time, and (c) she would probably have the best way to create a solution/plan of attack.

Considering she walked in on me in tears, she was great.  Ha!  I’m like a crying machine lately.  Anyways.  I feel like I’ve been negative nelly in my recent posting, which is annoying because I consider myself a positive person.  Upbeat and fun words only, from here on out.  Sound good?  Great!

While preparing a real meal I smothered some carrots and a roll in hummus.  Death by hummus?  I think that drowning in chickpeas may be the most amazing way to die ever. 

Ok, so it wasn’t a gourmet lunch exactly…but it was already well past lunch time, so I was hungry and not so much in a cooking mood.  I toasted bread, applied as much hummus as the slices could possibly hold, added TWO Boca vegan burger patties and (as an afterthought) added a few pieces of romaine in the name of green-age.

Even though it was WAY too big to fit in my mouth, I made it work.

Because that’s what champion foodies do. 

I stuffed my face so gloriously that I was in a mini food coma on the couch for a few hours afterwards.  I wasn’t hatin’ on it – I bonded with Ellen and last week’s Glee. 

Eventually I was inspired enough to go to the gym, where I rocked out 4 miles on the elliptical, 10 minutes of spinning, and 6 seconds of a way-too-hard arm machine. 

Repeat offender.  Pshh, whatevs, you don’t mess with perfection.

This salad needs to be tried by all: steamed kale, corn, peas, chickpeas, sprouts, and avocado.

Dessert-face.  You know the drill…pretz, carob chips, almonds, raisins, and lots of love heavy breathing.  I like it THAT much.

Again, thanks for yesterday’s uplifting comments.  I swear, it’s so amazing to have a supportive community of (relative) strangers have your back so whole-heartedly.  I can’t even put it into words.  Thank you.

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Grrrrr

Today sucked.  Mondays suck.  I was thisclose to not ranting on the blog, but I just decided to let it all out (it’s pretty therapeutic).  So here it goes…

Approximately one second after stepping foot outside the hospital today I burst into tears.  I knew it was going to happen.  I’d been holding it in all day.  Naturally I called Kyle and he made things better-ish (or at least as better as they could be in the moment), but I couldn’t help how I truly felt (which was a combination of sad/pissed/angry/frustrated).

There were many reasons that led to this breakdown of sorts, and most of the reasons I can’t (shouldn’t) discuss on the blog.  But, as I imagine is the case with any job, some days you just feel like you get totally sh!t on.  For me this can be both literally and figuratively (I’m a nurse, what do you expect?). 

Actually getting sh!t on?  That I can handle.  But metaphorically getting sh!t on.  Well, that just plain sucks.

Feeling unappreciated is one thing, but feeling like you’re 100% inconsequential…ugh. 

On top of that, I was in so much pain from my half marathon that I was almost unable to walk.  One of the MDs gave me a IM shot of Toradol, which reallllllly helped my legs (but left my poor arm in bad shape).

To make matters worse, I managed to lose my beautiful silver-blue Littman (a prized and sentimental gift) with a mere three shifts left in my NY nursing career.  Are. You. Kidding. Me. 

Oh, and did I mention that a patient told me I was “heartless” today as well as screaming at me to “f%$@ off” more times than I can count on both hands.  Yeah.  And I wasn’t even the nurse caring for him. 

Dear sir,

Why, pray tell, do you think I was in your room when you weren’t even my patient, if not to care for you.  Do you really think I like getting yelled at for trying to save your life?  Do you think I enjoy re-clothing you after you have ripped every wire, tube, and line out of your body, and then finally, your gown as well?  Do you think calling me a f$%#ing b%^$# is acceptable in any setting – let alone one in which your well being relies on me?  If you honestly think this is the case, that’s a shame. 

Insincerely,

Elise

In case you were giving this jackass patient the benefit of the doubt – don’t.  He had no altered mental status.  He was 100% aware of what was going on.  And he was just pissed off that the nursing staff was actually making him wear a gown and oxygen (the horror).  His rationale (and this was a hilariously epic argument between him and his nurse) was that he sleeps naked at home, so he should be free to flash his penis to whoever happened to walk by if he damn well pleases (but now picture a grown man screaming this at you, throwing a tantrum, pounding his fists, and throwing his pillows across the room…only to ask for them back 5 minutes later).  Awesome. 

Anyways, I fear I may return to my previous state of frustrated rage if I discuss any more reasons as to why the day sucked, so I will d/c this negativity now, but this was (seriously) the tip of the iceberg in the day’s drama.

I did have 30ish minutes of blissful patient-free eating. 

Big salad with spinach, edamame, corn, pepitas, dried cranz and topped with Livin’ Spoonful’s Coconut Curry raw crackers.  Dee-lish.

Steamed sweet potatoes and raisins.  With a side of carrot crunch.

I bought (4) apples on my “lunch” break, too.  And by lunch break, I mean 2 pm sprint to Starbucks and back. 

Dinner was great, but I’m too lazy to upload the pics, so I will show you tomorrow.  And how about a giveaway too, yes?  Sure.  Why not!  See you on the flip-side.

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Fair weather fan

Saturday started with the ordinary: coffee, blog, tv, yadda yadda.

Eventually I made a brunch platter (of the not so ordinary nature).

Maybe carrots and apples seem weird for breakfast the first meal of the day, but it’s what I was craving.  And if you think I had these without hummus, then you clearly don’t know me at all.

I finished off the rest of the (just opened) tub with a 7 grain roll, followed by grapes.  Nothing like 8 servings of chickpea heaven to get the day started right.

After a hearty mug of tea I headed to midtown to pick up my race day packet.  For all those who were wondering, yes, I was entered in the More/Fitness half marathon.  But I’ll get to that non-event later…

Since I walked 40 blocks to get there, and another 40 blocks to get back home, I didn’t feel that a gym sesh was truly necessary…it was about a 5 mile walk so I think that’s a workout in and of itself.

 

Back at the apartment, I made a big a$$ green monster…which was accompanied by a bowl of almond joy (aka almonds and carob chips).

At this point Kyle and I settled into the couch with HBO on Demand…which turned into a very bizarre viewing afternoon viewing of Basic Instinct.  Talk about an odd movie.  Neither of us had seen it, and, well, yeah.  Uh.  Interesting.  Not exactly your typical mindless weekend flick. 

I don’t like testing new things on my stomach the dinner before races, so I went with the tried and true, savory oats.

If I recall, it had 2 cups of dry oats, edamame, red bell peppers, hummus, and more nutritional yeast than most people use in their lifetime.

 

It was a big one.  And I polished off the entire thing (duh).

For dessert, I had popcorn in the name of carbo-loading (the rest of the year, I just call it normal eating, but the day before races you can eat anything and suddenly there’s a specific reason).  This isn’t the reason I run, but it’s a nice perk 😉

Before bed, I laid out all my clothes for the next day…

Well. 

Sunday didn’t go quite as planned.  In fact, it didn’t go AT ALL as planned.

Issue #1 was the weather.  Issues #2 – 7 were the times I woke up in the middle of the night. 

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to put two and two together.  I skipped the race.  I was up at 6 am anyways though, listening to the pitter patter and wondering if maybe just maybe the rain would come to an end in time for the 8 am start.  Not so much.  Instead, I seized the opportunity that my early wake up call allowed and headed to the gym to log some productive miles on the treadmill.  Not quite the same, but what can I say, I’m a fair weather runner.  I’m clearly meant to be in California.  If this isn’t a sign, then I don’t know what is.  April showers bring May flowers flights home.  That’s what I thought…

Suck it Mr. Weatherman.  After one(ish) cup of java, I hit up the gym…I really wasn’t excited about it, but guess what, I still pushed myself through an entire 13.2 miles (aka a half marathon).  In case you were previously unaware about just how stubborn I am, now you know.  Damn it, I was determined to complete a half marathon rain or shine, even if it meant crawling the last few miles on the treadmill.  So in a way, I DID finish a half marathon (it just wasn’t THE half marathon that I entered – and paid for).

The funny thing about Sunday was that while I skipped the NYRR race, I did enter (and participate in) another race…The Amazing New York Race that is…

It is like a scavenger hunt all over Manhattan, which was sooooo fun.  Here are a few highlights:

Playing on the FAO Schwarz piano.

The Daily News Building (aka Daily Planet headquarters from Superman).

Hanging out with Morgan Freeman.

Treats at Economy Candy.

I had packed goodies (an apple and a Super Protein Odwalla bar) for along the way because we were so hard core we didn’t even stop for Starbucks (now THAT is serious business).  We went everywhere from the South Street Seaport to the Upper East Side between 2 pm and 6 pm and out of 31 teams we came in 4th!!! 

Celebratory beers at Dave & Buster’s 🙂

By 7 pm I was a bit buzzed and ready for dinner, so Kyle and I hit up WF on the way home.

Guess who finally got her hands on some seitan chimichurri!!!  I guess all you have to do is blog about something being MIA and (reverse) Murphy’s Law brings it back!

I bought a pound of it thinking I would save the leftovers for lunch the next day…but we all know how this story ends (of COURSE I finished the whole thing).

My salad bar creation had a little bit of everything: spinach, carrots, bell peppers, green beans, peas, and an avocado massaged kale salad.  YUM!

I had a dessert plate of cinnamon-y apple slices and then called it a night.  What a weekend, right?  I feel like I ran 4 marathons – I went to bed soooo exhausted.

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After work Alias

What’s up buttercup?  TGIF much?  I did OT yesterday because my boss is putting full court press on my a$$.  Working overtime can go one of two ways, and they happen to be polar opposites.  Fortunately, picking up this extra shift did not backfire in my face.  It’s amazing how much more enjoyable work is when the unit is adequately staffed and I can actually spend time with my patients without feeling like I’m hours behind in work (novel concept huh?).  My boss is not the best when it comes to the business-minded side of things in the hospital…but maybe things are turning around?

Anyways.  I had sustenance…again packed up in two EasyLunchBoxes containers. 

                 Pita, pretz, carrots.                     Nuggets, carrots, salad.

Add in two apples, and that, my friends, is how I do 12 hours without losing my sh!t.

After the longest shift of my life, all I wanted was dinner (twss). 

I really like having things to look forward to after work (who doesn’t like a light at the end of the tunnel?).  The good news was that I had fun plans for dinner.  The bad news was that they weren’t until 9 pm…which gave me 2 hours of time to kill between the end of my shift and the dinner reservation (did I mention I was starving, too?).

I bought a pound of grapes from the fruit stand man (pretty sure that’s his official title) to tide me over on the subway ride home.  Since I didn’t get back to our apartment until 8 pm, I had approximately 4 1/8 minutes to change out of my scrubs, scrub my face down, spritz perfume from head to toe, and toss my camera in my purse before Kyle was dragging me out the door!  Now that’s what I call a quick turn-around. 

We went to a restaurant in the LES called Alias.  As much as I love the Lower East Side, it takes soooo long to get there from the Upper West Side.  But it was well worth it.  Not just for the food, but because my friends were visiting from CA!! 

We started with a few bottles of wine, some bread and a white bean dip (that may or may not have had garlic).

For dinner I got a vegetarian “burger” than I vegan-ified by omitting the cheese and mayo.

 

It was pretty legit!  It had layers of crunchy fried onion crisps, a tomato salsa, portabello mushrooms, and a black bean mash in between a toasty sesame seed bun.

It was perfectly hearty without leaving me feeling too full (read: I still had enough room to get my drank on).  The service was great, and everyone else seemed to enjoy their food too. 

After dinner we headed to the teacup bar (not it’s real name, but that’s what Kyle and I have always called it).  The Back Room is an actual speakeasy from the 1920’s Prohibition Era.  You enter through a metal gate that says "Lower East Side Toy Company" and follow a semi-sketchy path (down some steps, through a dark, narrow alley and up more metal steps to a door with an old-fashioned peephole) to reach the bar. 

Drinks are served in teacups (shots in espresso cups & beer bottles in paper bags…to throw off the cops of course). 

A private VIP room hides behind a fake bookshelf (which, as you can see from the pic, is guarded by a very large man). 

We stayed for one round of drinks and then moved on to Pianos, which is another one of my fave bars in all of NYC.  Love it!

After this round of drinks, my memory gets a little hazy…we moved on to another bar, but I’m not sure where exactly.  Any New Yorkers recognize this bar?

It was so creepy I couldn’t stop taking pics, but I have no clue where we were. 

Anyways, we ended up getting back home around 2:30 and I definitely fell asleep in the back of the cab on the ride home.

Sorry Elaine, but this should teach you from high jacking my camera while I’m in the bathroom ;)  This weekend is gonna be packed with a ton of fun – I am so excited!

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Upper Feast Side

What to do when you find yourself starving on the East Side around dinner time?  Hit up Candle Cafe, obviously.

Since this was an impromptu dinner out, I didn’t have my camera on me…but at least Kyle’s iPhone was on hand.  I wish my job gave me fun tech toys (although I’m not sure I would be a fan of having to answer at my boss’ beck and call…so maybe not).

Since we were absolutely starving, we started with guacamole and chips while browsing the menu.  The chips were like Doritos – sans lard.  Delicious. 

Kyle got a Caesar salad to start, while I licked the chip crumbs.

For his dinner, he got the (unpictured) Chile-Lime Grilled Seitan (if you want to see a pic, it was the exact dish I ordered last time I was at Candle). 

For my dinner, I got my beloved Seitan Chimichurri skewers and a Caesar salad. 

I love love love these seitan skewers and I haven’t had them in a very long time.  They used to have them at the Upper West Side Whole Foods’ prepared foods section all the time, but they’ve been MIA the last few months.  I actually asked the person behind the counter last time what the deal was and he said I should write it on the store’s comments cards, so I did…still no luck.

So, as you can see, I was VERY excited to get my hands on the chimichurri. 🙂

For dessert, I whipped an apple out of my backpack that I crunched my way through on the bus ride back to the West side.

Kyle felt it was necessary to take a pic of this momentous occasion…4 inches from my face.  Sweet.

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Go green or go home

Happy Earth Day fellow hippies!  This is one of my favorite days, and in New York, the going green theme has been stretched out – lasting a whole week – so I’ve been enjoying it to the fullest.

Last year on Earth Day I tried (unsuccessfully) to start a bike-to-work initiative at the hospital where I work.  And this year I’m doing the same thing.  Some may think it’s silly (given that I will only be an employee there for another two weeks), but I don’t care.  We had a saying in my soccer days that you score 0% of the shots you don’t take.  So if you are passionate about a goal in life, always try to remember, as difficult or far-reached as it seems to be, if you don’t go for it, you have NO possibility to succeed.  Hopefully my second attempt at creating a more bike friendly hospital environment during the warmer (bike-able) months will make larger waves this time around…

Anyways, enough deep thoughts for a Thursday.

For now I have some Earth friendly work lunches coming at you from the past few days…

I was SUPER excited to try these EasyLunchBoxes.  Kelly, the owner & creator, and fellow UCLA alum, contacted me on twitter to see if I was interested in them…ummm, HELL YEAH!!  As any of my regular readers know, packing my own lunches is VERY important to me, as is being as green as possible.

I feel like these EasyLunchBoxes were practically made for me!  They contain NO Lead, Vinyl, PVC, Phthalates, or Bisphenol A (BPA) and they came with a cute reusable bag that they fit perfectly into, too!

Since my lunches tend to be of the large-and-in-charge nature, I used two of the bento style containers.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much they were able to hold.  The depth of the pockets can be deceiving, and I think I actually ended up bringing more food to work even though it took up WAY less space to carry.

The first contained a bunch off chopped carrots and a simple salad with spinach, raw corn, red bell peppers, and more carrots.

The second held a pita, spinach artichoke hummus, and pretzel sticks.

Rather than eat each item individually, I stuffed the pita with hummus and some of the simple salad and enjoyed it as a big sando/wrap thang, and it was grrrrrrrrrrrreat.

I also had two apples as well, and guess what?  It ALL fit in the bag cooler!

Even better?  It kept my food cool!

This may come as a shock to you all, but I have never stored my food in the fridge at work (it’s small and gross and the nurses lounge is too far from my patients’ rooms to eat anything unless I’m on my lunch break).  So, I just leave it in my backpack and, although it’s never warm by the time I get to take my lunch break, it isn’t exactly chilled either.  It was nice to enjoy a crispy salad for a change, and I was amazed by how simple it was to fit everything in the bag and then in my backpack.

For the life of me, I’m trying to see the differences in this day’s packed eats…but the only real change between these containers and the previous ones is the hummus.

This time I went with roasted red pepper hummus.  I also jazzed up my salad a bit with the addition of pepitas, cherry tomatoes, and raisins (in addition to the spinach, raw corn, bell pepps, and carrots).

YUM.

After work yesterday (at 7 pm on the dot), I swapped my scrubs for clothes not coated in C. diff (awesome), and attempted to slap some life into my face since I was headed to midtown to meet up with Kyle for a UCLA MBA school event.  Ironically, yesterday Kyle found out he was ALSO accepted into UC Berkley’s MBA school.  Decisions, decisions.

I had a glass of red wine while mingling with the other business peeps, but I was relieved that Kyle suggested going out for dinner as we left.

That is me, starving, and trying to decide what to order at Candle Cafe.

If that’s not one of the best predicaments to be in then, I don’t know what is (oh, wait, yes I do…it’s trying to choose between two fabulous MBA schools both in CA…).

I’ll post on the delicious meal we had at Candle Cafe later.

Before I sign off, I wanted to tell all my fellow New Yorkers that Origins is having an awesome GREEN giveaway.  All you have to do is bring in one of your old skin care products (empty or not) and they will exchange it for a FREE full sized cleanser.

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Raw crack double take

I hate working Mondays, so I avoid them like the plague swine flu.  It just seems like nothing gets done over the weekends at the hospital and so with the start of the week comes a bunch of catch-up crappola.  This Monday, I managed to dodge the bullet, and instead of spending the day at the hospital, I finished off a sh!t ton of errands on my to-do list.  I’m not sure which was more fun, but either way I was productive.  My to-do list is never ending.  I swear, every time I cross 3 things off, I find myself adding 6 more things.  It’s really quite alarming.

Sadly, sleeping in ‘til noon wasn’t in the cards, since Kyle woke me up at 7 am.  As a result, I was in and out of consciousness far earlier than I wanted to be, but I made lemonade out of the lemon-y situation (and by lemonade, I mean coffee). 

Accompanying the java was extra froth, strawberries, and a crossword. 

For lunch I made yet another meal that revolved around Livin’ Spoonful’s raw, vegan, sprouted crackers.  I’m freakin’ addicted to these delicious things.  I wish I had a lifetime supply because I don’t want them to ever end!

This time I tried the Coconut Curry variety, which was very similar to the Garden Herb due to the sunflower seed base.  The other ingredients include: organic carrots, flax seeds, coconut, onion, lemon juice, garlic, raisins, dates, celtic sea salt, jalapeno, lemon grass, coriander seeds, cumin seed, ginger, and turmeric.

The coconut and curry were very mild and if they weren’t in the flavor title, I don’t think I would have been able to discern their presence, although, after the second cracker, the curry flavor started to built up a bit.

I had a few bites with hummus, a few plain, and a few with a repeat vat of guac.

I told you I was going to eat the same meal for the next week!  You didn’t take me seriously, did you?  Well my friends, this is a food rut that I may have a hard time navigating my way out of…consider yourself warned.

I popped a Gingerberry Kombucha after lunch and let the fizzy cultures do their thang. 

With all these raw, wholesome, vegan eats, my stomach is quite pleased with me.  Clearly keeping to a more strict vegan regimen is truly what my body likes best.

Once lunch settled, it was time to hand over my body to my lover slash enemy, Jillian Michaels.  One thing I forgot to say about my weekend of Jillian work-outs – I actually did the 20 minutes of exhausting shredding ass kicking, and then went to the gym for 40 more minutes on the elliptical.  If you’re wondering, yes, I’m definitely making a conscious effort to increase the intensity of my workouts.  At the same time, I have found that by killing myself, I’m too sore to do even a mediocre workout the next day.  Clearly, I have yet to find the middle ground between gym monotony and putting myself out of commission. 

Oh, and did I forget to mention I’m running a half marathon this weekend?  I’m definitely not right in the head.  I haven’t logged anywhere near 13 miles (or even 10 for that matter…) on the treadmill, let alone outside in months, so I am very skeptical about how this will all go down.  I’ve been in denial about it’s existence for the past few months and I had a semi-reality check this Sunday when I realized it was, in fact, one week away.  Eeeek 😕

Anyways, I’ll deal with it when the time comes, for the time being I will be focusing on the more immediate future…dinner. 

Another avocado beast?  I can practically feel your cursors moving to close the page out of boredom.  I do apologize, but my taste buds want what they want…and I can’t deny them that, even if it’s the same thing I’ve had for the last three meals.

In this avo mash up was 1/2 an avocado, alfalfa sprouts, raw corn, carrots shreds, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and Garlic Gold garlic/sea salt.

I stuffed the romaine shafts like a pro…

Later Kyle and I went on a walk, and when I came back I was craving sweet thangs.  I ate my weight in almonds.  Actually, I ate 0.34 ounces (I know the exact amount since it was the entire bag I bought from the WF bulk bins), which is a pretty scary amount if you actually think about it (which I don’t).

Multiply this bowl times 5 (ok, 6).  I am glad that so many of you responded to my carob loving post.  And for those of you who don’t dig it, I’m more than happy to eat your share.

Mega-milky (decaf) chai tea put me right to bed.

I’m not exactly excited for work tomorrow, but I am excited to try these EasyLunchBoxes out.

Perfect for my massive work eats, and Earth friendly, too! 

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Raw Livin’

As I mentioned before, Saturday was a late night, so Sunday didn’t really get under way until noon.

Before anything, we went to WF for (our last) huge grocery trip.  On the way home, I got a soy misto.

Even though we were still waiting for our groceries to arrive, I still had everything on hand for a perfect lunch.

The other day I got a delivery from Livin’ Spoonful in the mail, with tons of raw, vegan, sprouted goodies.  I can’t even tell you how long I had been waiting to try these…

I tried the Sunny Garden Herb flavored crackers first, which was packed with organic flax seeds, sprouted sunflower seeds, carrots, celery, onion, raisins, kale, basil, cilantro, lemon, celtic sea salt, oregano, and rosemary. 

WoW!  This was my first time sampling raw dehydrated goods and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how GREAT they were!  I was nervous that they would be dry or stale, but they weren’t at all!  In fact, upon opening the bags, the aroma was the first thing I noticed.  Then I took a bite, and couldn’t stop…

I had Kyle try a bite and even he was shocked by how great they were…I’m going to have to keep him away from them because I need these in my life. 

My intention was to enjoy them with hummus, but they were SO great on their own that I just ate them plain.  Seriously, I will be getting these in my OpenSky shop stat because you all MUST try them.  The Sunny Garden Herb flavor kinda tastes like pizza bites.  How do they do that?  The Livin’ Spoonful people must be geniuses to make a vegan, raw, sprouted cracker taste like something as classic as pizza!

The items on this platter I did dip in hummus.  For the record, unsalted pretzels suck (WFs was out of the spelt kind that I usually get, and this was the only 365 variety left, but I do not recommend). 

And then for dessert, I had fresh strawberries and apple slices.

As much as I realllly didn’t want to go to the gym, Kyle had an appointment with his personal trainer (he has a guy that works him out semi-regularly) so I tagged along to see if I could eke out something of the cardio nature.

Since I failed to post this past weekend, unless you follow me on twitter, you wouldn’t know that I was in serrrrrious agony from doing Jillian’s shred two days in a row.  That b!tch Broke. Me. Down. 

I mean every single muscle (large or small) in my body was aching to the point that just walking to the gym was more physical activity than I thought I could handle.  Needless to say, 50% of my time at NYSC was spent stretching on the mats.  Then I did some low resistance elliptical-ing and biking just to loosen up.  Despite the lack of intensity (that I usually associate with a successful exercise sesh), I felt MUCH better afterwards. 

Once home, I showered and started prep work for dinner.

There were a few things that I was especially excited about, including the return of corn and avocados. 

I know it’s not quite their season yet, but it’s just around the corner!!!  I love me some raw corn.  The crunch, the association with warm weather, the way it accents salads, all good things.  But best of all?  Making a huge vat of guacamole packed with fresh produce.

This bowl of avo coated goodness contained:

• 1/2 avocado
• alfalfa sprouts
• red bell peppers
• cherry tomatoes
• carrot shavings
• raw corn

For dipping, I had romaine shafts on the side, a few carrots, and more Livin’ Spoonful raw sprouted crackers. 

I swear, you guys, these crackers are addictive as all hell.  I ended up eating EIGHT of them today…and that was practicing MAYJ self restraint. 

Later on, I had more fresh fruit for dessert.

TWO apples, and a whole lotta strawberries.  I had a fiber belly after, but I was so content.  It was so friggin’ good, I may just want the exact same meals for the entire upcoming week.

P.S. Looking back on this post, I just realized how high-raw the day was…aside from the pretz for lunch, my eats were (inadvertently) 99% raw! 

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