Just a regular Thursday

Just another Thursday, nothing special about it.

Woke up this morning at 5:30 a.m, a whole half hour before I needed to get up. I hate when that happens! I rolled myself outta bed and proceeded to get ready for school. Lagged a bit this morning, that's for sure. Before I headed out of the house, I made myself a Green Monster for breakfast to drink on the drive to school.

This Green Monster consisted of:
1/2 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 a banana
handful of spinach
1 scoop Arbonne Vanilla Protein
1 scoop Arbonne Fiber
1 Tbs. Chia seeds

Mmmm...exactly what I need this morning!

Driving to school this morning, slightly cloudy.

When I got home today I received a message on my Facebook from my best friend Jenna, who is the one running the Detox Cleanse, with a list of "Detox Do's and Don'ts". It's basically a list of foods and items that we should avoid and foods that we should consume. When people hear the words, "Detox Cleanse" some immediately think it's a cleanse where you don't eat and depend mainly on liquids. That is soooo not the case for this type of detox cleanse! Basically it's cutting out all the unhealthy foods and drinks (no soy, dairy, or gluten) and eating clean. I.e.- more veggies, lean proteins, foods with a higher fiber count, less sugary foods, and fruits and veggies with a higher ANDI score, just to list a few. You still get to eat on this! Just no overeating or snacking.

After going over the list I won't have to change much in my current diet. I do and eat pretty much everything that is listed on the do's and the examples of healthy foods. SCORE! What made me super happy was the fact that GLUTEN FREE OATS was on the list of things I can eat, I can still have it in my diet!! Yeaaayy!!

I am excited to get this started, 3 more days!!

Oh and I had this for dinner too! Turned out so good! My first time cooking and eating brown rice pasta(gluten free!)

This bowl of goodness consisted of brown rice pasta, left over honey dijon chicken, kale, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, seasoned with dried basil and thyme and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Yum!

Chocolate Oat Bars and Stuffed Bell Pepper

Hello Ta-ta-Tuesday! (haha)







Went to class today and my campus finally has a Starbucks on site!! This made me very happy today because I absolutely love their Zen green tea. It's pretty much the only thing I get at Starbucks, hot and cold. Yuuuum.

When I got home from class today I put together some Chocolate Oat bars from a recipe I came across on Love Veggies and Yoga  and adapted it a bit. Super simple to put together and oh so yummy! My oat bars consisted of chocolate, almond butter, oats, chia seeds, agave nectar, raw almonds, dried cranberries and dried plums. I don't think I'll be able to eat these once I start my detox cleanse so I might as well now! Haha. (Don't kill me Jenna) I'm pretty sure if I nixed the chocolate out of these, I probably could. Right?? lol. I'll have to run it by Jenna. :)

Oooo wait!! All the ingredients except the chocolate chips are gluten free... bought at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. YEAAY!!

Okay, back to the making of the Chocolate Oat Bars:

First I melted the almond butter and chocolate in the microwave 

with 2 tablespoons of vanilla almond milk for about 30 seconds. 

Make sure to watch it so it doesn't burn. 

Then I added all my other dry ingredients in a bowl and poured the 

chocolatey goodness over. Stirred it all together to combine all the ingredients. 

You want this mixture to be fairly dry. If the mixture isn't dry enough add more oats one tablespoon at a time. Press the mixture into bars or into balls.

Pop in the freezer for about 30 mins, or until it has set up, and then enjoy! 

(After it sat in the freezer for a while.)

I wrapped them individually in plastic wrap then put them in a 

plastic zip top bag and back in the fridge.

Rice puffs would also work great with this. I'll have to try it out next time!

Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Oat Bars which I adapted a bit from Love Veggies and Yoga

Chocolate Oat Bars

Ingredients
1/2 cup of oats
2-3 tablespoons chocolate chips
2-3 tablespoons milk
*The ingredients listed below can be switched up and substituted with other items. :)
1 tablspoon chia seeds
~ about a handful of almonds
dried crandberries (eye ball it)
dried pitted plums, cut up.
~ 1 tablespoon agave nectar

Oh yea, and a stuffed bell pepper for dinner tonight. No biggie. ;-) It was a yellow bell pepper cut in half stuffed with quinoa, cut up red and orange bell pepper, spinach, mushrooms, and onions with garlic, salt and pepper (All the ingredients, minus the cut in half bell pepper, were cooked before stuffing the pepper). YUUUuummmmm! Threw it in the oven and baked it at 375 (preheat oven before hand!) for about 25-30 mins, or until the bell pepper is slightly soft but still somewhat firm.

Stuffed Portabella Mushroom

Good evening all!!

I just had the most amazing, delicious dinner!!

I took the recipe Stuffed Portabella Pizza from Oh She Glows and adapted it a little bit. For the "cheeze" sauce she uses nutritional yeast. Instead of using the nutritional yeast, I used goat cheese and oh my gawd it was yummy! I also cooked up and added some spicy italian sausage to it. Why?? Because my dad HAS TO have meat and I cooked this for my parents and I. So I added the italian sausage to his portabella and left it out of mine.

It was a hit! I knew my mom would love it, her taste in food is similar to mine. The main person I was worried about was my dad. He loves his meat whereas I can do with out it. I'll still consume chicken and fish, but all other meat is off limits. NO WAY JOSE! But he loved it! Mainly because there was meat in it, haha.

Stuffed Portabella Mushroom


Ingredients:
4 Portabellas (or how ever many you want)
1 cup pizza sauce
Goat cheese
2 cups spicy italian sausage
1/3 cup of each- red and orange bell pepper; diced
1/3 cup sweet onion diced
Red pepper flakes
2-3 large basil leaves, finely diced

Method:
Preheat oven by setting the broiler on low. Take a baking sheet and line with foil, silicone non-stick baking mat or parchment paper. Makes it easier to clean up. :) Remove the stems of the Portabella and gently clean/rub the mushrooms with a wet cloth. Place the Portabellas "belly" side up on the baking sheet. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of pizza sauce into each Portabella, then crumble on the goat cheese on top of the pizza sauce. Next chop the onion and bell peppers and sprinkle on the Portabellas. If you want to add the spicy italian sausage, cook before adding to mushrooms. Add to mushrooms after adding the goat cheese and before the bell peppers and onions. Finally shake on the red pepper flakes and sprinkle on the basil. Pop them in the oven on the middle rack and broil on the lowest temperature setting; takes about 10-12 minutes to cook. Serve immediately and most importantly ENJOY!

Mini egg bites

This is yet another healthy but tasty recipe! These mini egg bites are super easy to put together and make. I don't have exact measurements for this but I think you'll get the gist of it. You'll need a non-stick mini muffin tin! The recipe below is what I added to the mini egg bites. You can change up the ingredients if you like. Thankyou Shanel for telling me about these and the inspiration! <3

Mini Egg Bites

Ingredients:

4 eggs (makes roughly 12-14 mini egg bites)

About a 1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms (does not need to be cooked before hand)

A handful of baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped (does not need to be cooked before hand)

Salt and pepper 

**You can always add any sort of meat, just be sure to cook it before hand.

Method:

Beat the eggs and add the salt and pepper in a bowl. Fill the mini muffin tins with the mushrooms and spinach and whatever else you would like. Remember, it you add any sort of meat, make sure it's already been cooked. Then add the egg mixture but not all the way to the top. (If you want, you can spray the muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray to make it easier for the egg bites to be removed after cooked.) Cook in the oven at 375F for 8-10 minutes, or until the egg mixture puffs up and is set in the center.

Enjoy! <3