Lagging

I've been seriously lagging on my blog posts.

And for you, my dear readers, I deeply apologize!

This past week had been hectic one. Summer quarter started up and I was stressed out with trying to add into a couple classes, and since it is summer quarter CSUEB isn't offering as many classes as the other quarters. Luckily, I was able to get into ONE of the classes I needed. I guess it's better than nothing.

Then a family situation emerged that had to do with my grandma. I was and still am very worried about her. This Tuesday I am going up to see her.

The rest of the week was filled with the gym and this weekend I spent it with my family.

My eating has been all over the place lately, so I am dedicating this week to getting my normal eating habits back on track.

OOOhh!! For an exciting piece of news... I entered to win a shoe give away on Jenny's blog, Peanut Butter and Jenny, and WON!! I am soooo excited!! A huge THANK YOU to Jenny for choosing me as the winner!

I spent the majority of my day today outside and snacked on one of my favorite snacks-- frozen grapes. The weather was perfect for it, and my baby booboo joined me for most of it.

Tonight for dinner, my dad grilled up some tuna. I had been waiting in anticipation all day for it!

 I marinated the tuna in:

• 1/4 cup light soy sauce 
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tbs. crush garlic garlic 
• 1/2 tbs. ground ginger

Added all these ingredients to a bowl and whisked them together. Poured over the tuna and let them marinate for about 1 hr 30 mins.

The tuna was delicious! I like mine to be seared on the outside and raw on the inside.

My tummy was definitely happy after this meal.

That's it for tonight my lovely readers! I promise to post more this week!

Hope you all have a great rest of your night!

XO Jen

Finally feels like SUMMER

It finally feels like summer here in northern California!!

It's been a long time coming. Just a few weeks ago it was cold, cloudy and it even rained!

Now the sun is out shining down and the warm weather is upon us! I couldn't be happier. I can finally tan these pale legs of mine.

With the warmer weather comes the lighter meals and more green smoothies.

Today I made a summer quinoa salad with a balsamic vinaigrette that will last me most of the week!


Summer Quinoa Salad


Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup COOKED quinoa
• 1/2 a red bell pepper; chopped
• 1/2 a orange bell pepper; chopped
• 1/2 cup mini heirloom tomatoes; halved
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• ~handful kale; de-stemmed 
• ~1/4 cup balsamic
• 1 tbs. honey
• salt and pepper to taste

(These are rough measurements; please forgive me!)

Directions:
In a large bowl add the chopped up bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and kale. Next, add the 2/3 cup quinoa and stir to combine. In a small jar or bowl, add the balsamic, honey, salt and pepper to taste. Stir or whisk together to combine. Pour the dressing over the veggies and quinoa and stir well to combine. I like my vinaigrette to have a bite to it; if you don't then add a little more honey to it.

**If you don't have any cooked quinoa on hand, cook 3/4 cup dry quinoa with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil and then cover and let simmer for about 15-20 mins, or until all the water has been absorbed. Then use about 2/3 cup of the cooked quinoa for the salad.

I also made myself a Banana Mango Green Smoothie for lunch and enjoyed it outside while soaking up some rays and tanning my legs!

Banana Mango Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a frozen medium banana
• 3 slices frozen mango
• 1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 c water
• handful spinach
• 1 tbs. ground flax
• 1 tsp. agave nectar (optional)

Directions:

In a blender, add the water, almond milk, banana and mango. Blend until smooth. Next add the spinach, ground flax and agave nectar; blend again until thoroughly blended. Pour into a cup and enjoy! 

After lunch I uploaded some new music onto my iPhone and did some strength training with hand weights and then abs/core. Then I took off to the gym and did 40 minutes worth of cardio.

Came home and made myself up a small bowl of the Summer Quinoa Salad and laid out in the sun for a while.

The sun and warm weather was calling my name, I had to take advantage of it.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday so far!

XO

Lately..

I've been eating some good eats!

A lunch and dinner meal:

Angela's 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

I used brown rice pasta and I didn't have any basil on hand so I substituted with spinach. For the veggies I used some zucchini, asparagus and yellow bell pepper. It was delish!

For dinner one night I threw together a Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic and Quinoa.

I lined a baking sheet with foil and preheated the oven to 450 degrees. I then got my vegetables ready, which were zucchini, mushrooms and chickpeas. Tossed them with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Placed them on the lined baking sheet and cooked in the 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes. 

I always have pre-cooked quinoa on hand, so I just added about 1/3 cup into a bowl and heated up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Once the veggies were done cooking, I added them to the quinoa and drizzled with balsamic and topped with a little parm.

Yum!

For breakfast this morning I tried out Ashley's Pour, Poke, + Spread Eggs from The Edible Perspective.

Sorry for the terrible lighting in this picture.

 I sautéed a small handful of spinach in a pan and sprinkled with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Once the spinach was almost completely wilted, I added the egg and followed Ashley's instructions on her recipe.

It turned out delicious! It is now my new favorite way to cook eggs. Super easy and quick.

The other night, Monday to be exact, I popped open a bottle of Ryhan Estates Sparkling Almond Wine. It had been sitting in the outside fridge for some time so I figured I'd open it up and drink it. Hehehe.

It was perfect for a warm summer night. It hit the spot!

That's all for now! I'll leave you with a couple pictures :)

Do you see the heart??

Hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday! 

Mini Bite

Yesterday I made another batch of the Ultra Fudgy Brownies, but instead made them into mini brownie bites.

It made roughly 28 mini bites and I tasted a couple of them to "make sure" they turned out perfectly.

The verdict is: They did! Perfectly scrumptious and bite sized! 

I hope everyone tonight likes them. :) 

I had my psychology final on Tuesday, the final and class that I've been stressing over, and received my grade on the final and my final grade in the class.

Are you ready??

Grade for my final: 39 out of 43

Whoo hoo!!

Final grade for the class: 101 out of 110 points! (The points were based on the quizzes, the one midterm we had and the final.)

Yesss!!!

I got a B in the class!! I know, you may be thinking, "How is that a B??" According to my professor's grading scale a 91% is a B, not an A.

Suuuuuper lame. But nonetheless I am perfectly content with my grade. I passed the class and that's all I care about. It's better than a C, D, or F.

My stress levels are down and I am feeling much better.

That's all for now! I'll leave you with a couple pictures I took of Jack. He's the best picture model. Haha

Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday. =)

3 in 1

3 recipes in 1 post!

Amazing!

Aren't you excited??

Well... you should be!

I am.

Yesterday I whipped up a batch of Ultra Fudgy Brownies from Angela's Oh She Glows blog that she got from Sweet Freedom.

I swtiched up some of the ingredients though. The recipe calls for spelt flour, sucanat sugar, ground chia seeds or flax, and Himalayan sea salt.

Instead of spelt flour, I used 1 1/4 cup of gluten free All Purpose Baking Flour (Bob Red's Mill), brown sugar instead of sucanat, ground flax and just plain ol' salt.

For the complete recipe go HERE.

One word to describe these brownies--- AMAZING!!

I ate one today along with my lunch which was a bowl of Chia Cherry Pudding.

Yup, fat kid status.

Super delish though! I topped it with a tablespoon of equal parts almond butter to almond milk blended together and a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Chia Cherry Pudding

Ingredients:

• 5-6 cherries, pitted
• 1 tbs. chia seeds
• 1/4-1/3 cup almond milk
• 1 tbs. blended almond butter (or regular)
• 1/2 tsp. pure maple syrup (optional)

Directions:

In a bowl add the cherries and lightly mash them up. Next add the chia seeds and milk, stir to combine. Cover and let sit overnight (if you are making these the night before) in the refrigerator or for 2-3 hours. Remove from fridge, stir the chia and cherry mixture to loosen up, if it's too thick add just about 1 tbs. worth of milk or water. Top with more cherries and the almond butter. Enjoy!

For the blended almond butter:

3/4 cup almond butter

3/4 cup vanilla almond milk (I used unsweetened)

Combine in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a container or the empty almond butter jar and store in refrigerator. 

**If you have more than a 3/4 of almond butter just make sure it's equal part ratio of almond milk to almond butter. 

I crumbled my brownie on top of my chia cherry pudding. YUM!

Lunch and dessert all in one! Score!

After enjoying my lunch outside, I walked around my backyard and took a few pictures.

It's FINALLY nice and sunny out! It's starting to finally feel and look like summer.

Tomato plant

Jack coming to see me

My baby booboos!

Today is a good friend of mine birthday, so I am saving the rest of my appetite for sushi dinner tonight! I can't wait to see everyone.

Oh and one last recipe!

Last night for dinner I made roasted balsamic eggplant and asparagus with quinoa. It's super easy to throw together and not to mention seriously good eats.

Roasted Balsamic Eggplant and Asparagus with Quinoa

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

• 1 small-medium eggplant 
• 5 stalks of Asparagus 
• 1/2 cup COOKED quinoa 
• Balsmaic 
• 1-2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil 
• salt and pepper to taste 
• garlic powder to taste 
• Small handful of spinach 

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Set aside. Cut the egg plant into 3-4 slices, and 1/4 those slices and cut up the asparagus. Put into a medium bowl, drizzle with the olive oil, add the salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste, mix to combine. Add the eggplant and asparagus to the baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Heat a medium size pan and add the 1/2 cup quinoa and spinach to heat through. Once heated through remove from stove and place the quinoa and spinach either on a plate or bowl. Once veggies are done cooking, remove from oven and add them to the quinoa and spinach mixture. Drizzle some balsamic over the top and garnish with some parmesan cheese (optional). Enjoy!

I'm Free!

I'm done! I'm free from school!!

Well, for the next couple of weeks until I go back for summer quarter.

But nonetheless, I AM FREE!!

The past week I've been nothing but one huge stress ball and not that much fun to be around. I've been stressed over one class that I ABSOLUTELY need to pass in order to move on and take other classes that I need for my degree.

Stupid prerequisites.

I'm still somewhat stressed over what I'm going to get in the class, but not AS bad.

I haven't really experimented with anything new as of late. But on Friday I am going to make Ultra Fudgy Brownies for a get together that night. I came across this yummy recipe on Angela's Oh She Glows blog that she got from the cookbook Sweet Freedom. They sound AND look delicious!

I can't wait.

I might make them tonight to make sure they do taste as good as they look and sound.

This week I got back into my gym routine after going through a bit of a rough patch last week. I was in a down and out mood last week and super stressed. I wasn't feeling that great about myself and just took a week off from working out completely. To some people I may come off as if I don't have a care in the world, that I have it easy or that I'm not self-concious at all about myself, how I look, so on and so forth.

That couldn't be farther from the truth!

I'm going to open up a little bit on here, I almost wasn't going to post this. I have a hard time opening up and I tend to keep things bottled up until the last possible moment.

Once I do open it, it ALL comes out. I sound like a blubbering idiot or I my words are just completely jumbled.

Definitely not healthy.

The truth of the matter is, I am very self-concious about the way I look and my body image. I may not come off that way, but deep down I am. It's been something I've struggled with since high school and until now. I believe it's something that most women struggle with and men as well. I've slowly started to accept the way my body looks. I know that I will never have the perfect little toned body or flat stomach. I'm not going to over work myself or drive myself crazy to achieve it either. I workout and keep in shape for myself. I eat healthy and I'm not going to starve myself just to look a "certain way".

Please, I don't want anyone to take what I've put the wrong way. I'm not putting down anyone who is training towards a certain goal, like my best friend. I am so proud of her and support her 110%! I'm not judging or putting anyone down. This is strictly towards me,  I've struggled with this for years and enough is enough for me.

I've learned that I CAN NOT compare myself to others. I've realized I have a different body type from others and that I'm built differently. We ALL are. If someone can't accept me for the way I am and how I look then they can keep on walking.

A couple weekends ago, Memorial weekend to be exact, I finally lost it, crying and all, and opened up to one of my best friends about what has been going on. I felt so ashamed and horrible that I didn't open up to her sooner and I hope she doesn't hold that against me. Or any of my other best friends and family for that matter. Sorries!

I don't want to bother anyone with my problems and a part of me feels ashamed. And I know, I need to get over that.

I've been super stressed with school and other things. I haven't been entirely happy with where I am at this point in my life. At almost 28 years old I really thought by now, at the age I am, I would be further along with my life. I thought that I'd be graduated from college and have a steady job. A place of my own. In a steady, healthy and loving relationship. I have none of those at the moment. I am, by far, the hardest on myself.

When I told her all this, my best friend told me something that really put me more at ease. That life doesn't always go according to plan or how we want it to.

Of course, she said some other things to me that I won't get into detail about, but that sentence really struck home. Something so simple as that sentence seemed to make me feel better. It's so obvious and yet completely true.

It's something that I've told many of my friends before, yet I couldn't recognize it myself. It took my best friend to point that out for me to finally realize it. I am such a control freak when it comes to my life, that I completely forgot that life doesn't always go accordingly to plan or how I want it to. There's always going to be speed bumps or massive potholes along the way. The best thing that a person can do is get over it and keep on moving.

Shanel- Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you so very much.

To my best friends- I love you all so very much! I don't know what I would do with out you all. You truly are family to me. I am so lucky to have you all in my life and very grateful! I appreciate and love you more than you know!

Mango Chia Pudding

I haven't posted anything up since Tuesday.

I've been in a bit of a slump and stressed over school, among other things.

But I wanted to share with you all this really good eat!

In my opinion, anyways.

Mango Chia Pudding.... The chia seeds form a gel like substance/texture when added to liquid, therefore the "pudding" term.

This is absolutely delicious!

Let this either sit overnight in the refrigerator or for at least 2-3 hours before you eat. I made this in the morning and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours so I could eat it for lunch.

Mango Chia Pudding

Ingredients:

• 3-4 slices of mango
• 1 Tbs. chia seeds
• 1 Tbs. almond butter (or any nut butter)
• 1/4 cup of almond milk
• 1 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

Directions:
In a bowl, lightly mash up the mango slices so that they are still a bit chunky. Then add in the chia seeds, milk and almond butter. Stir well to combine. Cover and put into the refrigerator either overnight or for at least 2-3 hours. Before you dig in, sprinkle the cinnamon on top.

The end result:

Satisfyingly fulfilling deliciousness!