I made a plan

With the health and nutrition expo post out of the way (which was a very large post I might add) I can tell you about all the great food I’ve been enjoying over the past few days while I’ve been snowed in. I haven’t been cooking much, but I’ve been enjoying many semi-homemade meals. Those are the best anyways…aren’t they? I’m all about convenience over here. Here are some of those fantastic semi-homemade meals I was talking about.

First there was a spiralized zucchini, apple, and sliced cucumber raw salad with a lemon juice and walnut oil vinaigrette.

There was whole wheat veggie lasagna from Trader Joe’s (which was phenomenal by the way). Very easy to read ingredient list. I’ve been talking about ingredient lists a lot-haven’t I?

There was a heart-y breakfast of whole grain waffles topped with strawberry Chobani yogurt and flax seeds with a side of banana and coffee in a heart mug.

There was also some veggie soup with hot pepper flakes, and a tomato/cheese quesedilla on a brown rice tortilla. All this ‘dilla (as Peanut Butter Fingers aka Julie likes to call it) needed was a little Annie’s Organic Honey Mustard!!

There was home-made pizza with Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough. Toppings included tomato and basil marinara sauce, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach, and mozzarella cheese. This one I had to go back for seconds. It was too good to pass up.

And then there was another breakfast. This one included a banana chocolate chip power muffin, Chobani peach yogurt, and coffee. I liked the peach flavor of this yogurt, but it was still a little tart for me. However, this little breakfast packed in 21g of Protein! Can you believe it?

There were also a few smoothies in the mix. Some really good ones too. First up was a hemp smoothie I made with hemp seeds, raw cacao nibs, frozen banana, Peanut Butter & Co’s The Bees Knees, and water.

The other was a delicious concotion of unsweetened chocolate almond milk, Amazing Grass Chocolate greens packet, Nutiva hemp seeds, organic maca, organic spinach, frozen banana, and Peanut Butter & Co’s The Bees Knees. This one was out of this world. I think it was the peanut butter. Or maybe it was the combination of peanut butter, chocolate, and banana. What do you think?

The wonderful people over at Amazing Grass and Nutiva have sent me some samples of their products to try out and review. You all know how much I love Amazing Grass greens already, but I thought I would share with you again.

It’s always good to get your greens from the natural sources, but when you don’t always have those sources handy or a way to blend them up, this powder is just perfect. It has all natural and organic ingredients and one serving gives you the antioxidant equivalent of 7 servings of fruits and veggies. On top of that it blends really well in juices and smoothies and the chocolate flavor tastes great. I’m not as fond of the plain or berry flavors of powders, so I stick to the chocolate.

Nutiva’s organic shelled hempseeds are delicious. I haven’t had many other brands of hempseeds, but these are by far my favorite. I love the nutty flavor of hempseeds on pretty much anything, and they blend up real well in a smoothie too. Nutiva carries a huge line of products including hemp protein, organic shelled hempseeds, hemp oil, coconut oil, hemp and flax bars, and so much more. Hempseeds are becoming increasingly popular and are known as the worlds most nutritious seeds. I also love the fact that the seeds are grown without any chemical pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. That to me is just wonderful.

This little packet of hempseeds packed in 11g of protein. I also added in some organic maca for good measure.

As if that were not enough food, there is more. I made an egg scramble with one egg, one egg white, and some cheese. Then I ate the egg scramble in between a cinnamon raisin English muffin. Hey don’t knock it until you try it. On the side was a veggie sautee of baby portabello mushrooms, zucchini, and red onion in a spicy marinara sauce. It was so so filling. A little spicy, a little sweet-the perfect combination to me.

Ok enough with the food lets talking about getting sweaty. Well sorta. Last night I decided to go ahead and make a workout schedule. I seem to be able to stick to schedule better than just say “oh I will make up a workout plan as I go and see how I’m feeling each day”. That doesn’t work for me. And sometimes schedules don’t either, but I thought I would give it a try anyways. So I updated my workout schedule with upper body workouts and core workouts. It is only a plan for the next 2 weeks until my surgeon appointment next Friday. Hopefully at this appointment I will find out if I need surgery on my ankle or not. I gotta do something to get moving because this whole “can’t use your legs or feet” thing is really starting to get to me. Especially when I’ve been cooped up in my apartment for 7 days straight due to snow. I’m hoping this plan of action will keep me motivated to workout everyday even if it is just upper body.

So here is a question for you:What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? Do you love or hate the holiday?

Coming Up on Eat, Drink, and Be Hopeful: One Spectacul-ARRGGHH (said like a Pirate) giveaway. I wonder what it could be?!?!?!?! It won’t disappoint-I promise you that.

Tagged as: Amazing Grass, Chobani, egg sandwich, flax seed, homemade veggie pizza, Nutiva, progresso soup, trader joes whole wheat veggie lasagna, waffles