Its a Chocolate Covered Day…

How is everyone’s weekend going? Mine is going great! My in-laws are here and we spent the day hanging out and hitting up The Laugh Factory in Hollywood. Great stuff!! I didn't have too much time to take some food photos though but I did however find some time to try out some awesome new recipes. The football game was on with two teams Im neutral on, so this gave me a good 2-3 hours to test out some stuff.
Ive been wanting to try out these wonderful sounding  recipes by Katie for awhile and in spirit of her amazing giveaway I decided to rock it out and have a chocolate covered kind of day!
First up, I made some 24 Carrot Cake Cupcakes. They are super moist and delicious. I added a ton of cinnamon to these muffins which was really tasty. I loved the chunks of carrot in it as it gave the muffin a really nice texture. Some of them I topped with some coconut butter as well. These are a keeper!

Next up, I really wanted to try the Love Muffins. I love this recipe because it’s versatility, although its great on its own too. Fabulous! I made a couple of versions, first up was the Elvis. Lots of peanut buttery banana goodness in these little muffs! Some I even topped with a quick peanut butter icing and some crushed banana and peanuts.

And I also had to try the Jelly doughnut version…

These recipes were all fabulous! And I knew that at the end of my baking extravaganza I would have to end the day with some babies. Peanut butter cup babies to be exact!

Overall Im so happy with all of these recipes! They turned out great and I loved the flavor and texture of them. None of them were overly sweet which was really nice too. So you can definitely eat them any time of the day. Thanks Katie for some great recipes!

How is everyone’s weekend going so far?? I’d love to hear what you all have been up to lately! Tomorrow is my family’s last day here so we are gonna just be hanging out and watching some football in the morning I think. Then after we take them to the airport its massive laundry and grocery shopping time for the week! Have a lovely weekend everyone!!!

Cool bar giveaway! 
Awesome book giveaway..

Coffee Banana Balls!

This morning workout was mucho better than yesterday. My legs were unbelievably sore from Core fusion I think. (Which is good! Breaking in some new muscles, awesome!) But finally today all was a-ok. Although I gotta say Im so looking forward to my rest day tomorrow. Woohoo! Ive been rockin’ the cardio pretty hard this week!
Unfortunately this is going to be a bit of a short post. My in-laws are coming tomorrow which means some major cleaning has got to be done! And I've totally procrastinated as usual.
I did however, had a huge craving for something banana-y today and so I whipped up some Coffee Banana Balls! (Anything to keep from cleaning!)


Coffee Banana Balls
30 grams cashews
80 grams dates
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp. Coffee beans
1/3 c. Just Banana chips*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. Maple syrup
1/2 Tbsp water (if needed for consistency)
pinch of sea salt
I combined all my dry ingredients and blended those up first. Then Added in the dates, maple syrup, vanilla and water if needed. And voila! I also crushed some dehydrated banana chips and rolled a few in them.

*These are the banana chips that I used. Just dehydrated bananas. You could make your own too. Im sure that would work just fine.

Overall these had a really awesome strong coffee flavor with just a hint of banana. Soo tasty! I do love my coffee! And you can never go wrong with bananas that's for sure.

My day also consisted of the usual salads but I did finally try out Averie’s Tahini Cesar dressing and it is awesome!!! Love it. It just added such a wonderful flavor to my veggies.

I ended the day with a big pile of veggies and some egg whites.
 
This has been my go to meal for awhile. Might be a bit boring but I find it tasty and super fast. I love it with a big pile of ketchup on the side. 
So have you ever found a product that has just totally helped you out big time? I just did. Fit Flops! Granted not the most stylish things in the entire world but they are the coziest shoes ever. I used to get these major charlie horses for awhile. I could not for the life of my figure out what was causing them. I kept asking people and got answers ranging from dehydration to Potassium deficiencies. But they were really frequent and hurt! But I started wearing these a few times a week and my feet and leg muscles do feel way better. I don't know if its because they offer more arch support, but wow, what a difference.

Love the Fit Flops! Do you have any products that just totally helped you out in a big way? Would be great to learn about some new items that out there on the market that actually work pretty well.
Anyways I must be off now for some cleaning and packing for the fam. I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far!! (Its almost Friday!!) Any big weekend plans coming up?
Im so sorry if some of you had problems commenting (blogger was acting up!) Should hopefully all be fixed by now but if not just let me know. Thanks so much Ameena for testing this out for me. I totally appreciate it!

xoxoxo!!!

Congrats Bradi on your blog anniversary! Thanks for a great Giveaway! 
Shelley has an awesome giveaway going on.

I have been wanting one of these for such a looong time! Thanks Katie!!!

Ive met my match!

I used to think there was never a fruit or vegetable I didnt like until I picked up this juicy number at the grocery store. It had potential. Melon? Yup…I like melons…..

Looked tasty enough…

Final verdict…hit the trash! Grosssssss! It had a weird flat acidic taste to it. Bleh, funky texture (mealy) and overall nasty. I cant even describe it. Even when things are gross I still have my husband try them.

“Eww this is sssoo disgusting, wanna try?” haha. But not this time. Maybe I just got a bad one at the store or something. But now I can officially say I've met my fruity match.

Moving on though today started out like any other day. Its a gorgeous 75 degrees out and I whipped up myself a big bowl of oats and some eggnoggin’ coffee and then hit the road for the gym for a rocking spin class. After that was a quick swing by Whole Foods for some staples. (I was out of squash and almond butter!) and when I went to put my groceries in the trunk I saw this…

Really?! Not even a note. I'm not a fanatic about my car at all and seriously it would have been way more of a hassle to deal with the insurance companies to just bang out a small dent. So I would have just let it go. But it kind of irked me they didn't say anything or leave a freakin note. Its not even like a small knick either! That's a decent size hit to my car. So not cool.

Ok done now. I'm just more ticked that they didn't say anything is all. Aahh well! I believe in Karma big time so its ok.

Came home and unpacked the groceries then time for lunch. I ended up with a salad. Big shock! I made a quick dressing using some strawberry jelly, balsamic Vinegar, mustard and black pepper.

and lots of apple and yogurt action!

I was so excited since I finally got to try out the Core Fusion DVD that I had!

I was a little sore from spin this morning but I still wanted to try it out. So I moved the coffee table and set up my little mat.

The dvd requires you to have a chair available, some small weights and a belt. Its divided up into 5-10 minutes sections which are: arms and upper body, legs, glutes, abs and then some stretching. This is such a fantastic workout. Whew. Ive tried other workout dvds and never felt like I got too great of a workout from them but this one hurt! You basically use all your own body weight in order to do different lifts and strengthening exercises. I LOVED it. Very sore now but sooo worth it! Im doing the 30 day challenge with Dori and cant wait to see my results. Its was about $12 bucks at Best Buy. Totally worth the cash in my opinion!

After that I made myself a huge glass of hibiscus tea.

I added a little vanilla stevia and it tasted like fruit punch. Completely delicious and refreshing!

Then I embarked on massive amounts of cleaning. It was such a productive Sunday. Not just beauty cleaning but like ripping stuff out of cabinets and rearranging stuff type cleaning. Glad that's over with though! I got some great looking shrimp and made up a little seafood zucchini pasta toss.

I flavored it all up with some parsley, basil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, black pepper and a bit of parmesan. Really hit the spot.

So over all despite the fact that someone smooshed my car I still had an excellent day. Have you ever had anything like this happen to you? Im also on a huge make your own sauces and dressings kick. Any favorite go too mixtures you have created lately?

Workout song for today - “Fever” by Cascada

I hope you all have a wonderful and fabulous start to your week.

xoxox!!

Waterpik toothbrush giveaway!

Soup-er giveaway from Missy!

Keurig giveaway!

Vegan Thursdays!

 

Yesterday I was sssoo unnaturally tired. Usually when this happens my body is fighting something so I decided to rest up! I spent the night relaxing and hanging out with the couch and now Im feeling much better! But late to post… I did however rock out to Vegan Thursdays thanks to the lovely and talented Miss Katie! Awesome idea!! Vegan or not I think incorporating more fruits and veggies into our diets is a great thing!  So for last nights meal I decided to make one ginormous amazing salad. There's no real measurements here. I just eyeballed everything. Would have been killer with some lentils too but I was out=)

Roasted Veggie Salad with Tahini dressing and Romaine

Handful of Romaine

cilantro

basil

eggplant

broccoli

butternut squash

garlic

ginger

cinnamon

Tahini

1/2 lemon

pepper

water

Chop your broccoli, eggplant and butternut squash and sauté up in a small pan. Season with garlic, ginger and cinnamon. Meanwhile chop some romaine and toss with cilantro and basil. Place onto plate. Pour roasted veggie onto Romaine mixture.

Dressing:

I took  about 1 Tbsp. of tahini and watered it down a bit with some water and lemon juice.

Pour dressing all over salad and top with lots of cracked black pepper and enjoy!

I gotta say I loved the warm veggies over the crispness of the romaine and fresh herbs. The dressing just seemed to marry everything together a bit more. Delish and super fast! This whole salad made a HUGE plate, filled me up and was less than 200 calories to boot! (Dont worry there was plenty of squash and almond butter action happenin later on)

Today, since Im feeling mucho better I decided to make this tasty amazing vegan breakfast cake. This recipe takes 5 minutes to prepare and is awesome. I grew up eating this and always look forward to it. Its still a favorite even after many years. The recipe has been passed down in our family for generations. My mom took the original recipe and veganized it. It can be found here:

But in case you dont have the book Im going to post the recipe anyways!

Vegan Crumb Cake:

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 c. flour

1/2 c. vegetable shortening (preferably non-hydrogenated like Spectrum)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer

1/4 c. water

3/4 c. vanilla soy milk

-Preheat oven to 350 coat an 8x8-inch square baking pan with non stick cooking spray

-In bowl, combine sugar, flour and baking powder. Cut shortening into flour mixture with 2 knives until shortening is smaller than pea sized. Remove 1 c. of dry ingredients and set aside.

-In measuring cup mix egg replacer with 1/4 c. water and stir. Add vanilla. Fill the cup the rest of the way with the soymilk. (Should be about 3/4 c) Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir to combine.

-Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with reserved dry ingredients. Bake for 45 minutes or until tooth pick insertered into center comes out clean.

-Allow to cool before serving

Variations: This is amazing with all kinds of fresh fruit topped or added into to the batter.

Enjoy!!! This is my quick go to cake too when people are over. Turns out great everytime and is always a winner! The crust is nice and crunchy and the cake is super moist.

Not only did this huge salad and cake make my day but Morgan also passed on this awesome award to me! Thank you ssoo much!!

And now 10 things that make my day!

1) my family, friends and bloggie friends. You all make me smile so much!

2) Coffee…is there anything better than a big cup of fresh coffee?

3) Working out! I love my sweat seshs

4) Red Wine…I am in love with a glass of good quality red wine..ssoo good! (What are some of your favs?)

5) Being outdoors..I LOVE being outside even if its just laying out and reading. I love the feel of the sun on my face

6) Cooking!

7) My health..Its something I used to take for granted but no more! I really appreciate the ability to be able to do all the things Ive always wanted

8) Massages…There is nothing like a good massage!

9) My sense of humor. Its gotten me through some rough times=)

10) Entertainment…anything from movies to music and everything in between.

Thank you so much Morgan! You rock!!

 

And now Im off for the night. I hope you all have a wonderful start to your weekend!

xoxoox!!

Back to work!

Hey my sweet bloggies!! How is everyone doing? I hope you are all having a fantastic week so far. Getting closer to the weekend ;) I started getting up and doing the morning workout thing again. 6am! not too bad compared to my 4:45am workouts from before. (Now that was tough for me!) but 6 is waay more reasonable. My body likes this as I found I have the best workouts in the morning. Nice and fresh and no food in the tummy yet. So makes for a fab workout sesh!

Just a quick note but do you ever notice that when January rolls around there are a TON of ads stating claims like “Eat this and lose weight!” “Lose 10 lbs in 3 weeks!” etc etc…They are always around I just notice they are really kicking come January. I think its weird since I don't think there's any “miracle” weight loss plan. Do you ever notice all these ads too? Crazy I tell ya!

But I digress…my workouts always leave me hungry. So of course I had my oats for breakfast (no pic since I ate these at work) and for lunch and big salad complete with vegan slaw dressing! Does this ever get old? Apparently not cause I eat it every single day!

Always a winner in my book. Moving on though, I spiralized my little heart out for dinner tonight.

I was using up veggies in the fridge so sauteed up some leftover turnips and cauliflower and then tossed in the zucchini noodles. Added in tons of garlic, onion powder, some Braggs and hot sauce. Then once on the plate I topped it with tomatoes and some eggplant hummus. Sounds like a weird combo with the braggs, hot sauce and hummus but it turned out super good! Kinda salty, spicy and smokey all in one bite.

And again Im in the squash and almond butter. I just ate my way through my second Kaboucha this week so far. And now I have to make an emergency run to the market for more..

I sat down with my big steamin bowl of squash and watched Tabitha's Salon Takeover. I needed to turn the brain off for a little tonight and just veg. It amused me for a bit!

Later on I indulged in some chocolate raw balls right out of the freezer. Dark chocolate with an almond piece inside and rolled in coconut. Sooo good.

Im kinda get on food kicks at times. Where I just crave the same thing all the time! Do you ever get food cravings? If so what food kicks are you on? I think right now mine are pretty much all the foods listed. Ha! Although since Im running out of those staples Im gonna get a bit more creative tomorrow!

xoxoxox!!

Greek Yogurt giveaway!
awesome Chobani Giveaway!

Out with the old and in with the new!

Last day of my fabulous and wonderful vacay. I was lucky enough to get two full weeks off and I enjoyed it to the max. Now time to buckle down and get back to real life tommorrow. Today was so toasty warm out so I ended my vacation by taking a fantastic walk. I just wanted to be outside so I wandered around all afternoon. It was a perfect day.

The morning started off with the usual oats and workouts. My goal has been to expand my workouts and try all new stuff. So after my cardio sesh I hit up a new abs class. It was f-AB-ulous. (couldn't resist) Little sore but doing good. What I love about working out is you can keep the whole ‘out with the old and in with the new’ mantra the whole year! Each day no matter what, you can always hit the gym and sweat out your old self and break in a new healthier version. I love this outlook and being able to start over new and fresh each day.

I was having a BPD (Bottomless Pit Day) Couldn't stop eating everything in site! Which is ok. It happens!

Some of the eats included:

Tons of salads..

And plenty of squash with almond butter.

I also cut up some grapefruit and added some shredded coconut and toasted almond slices on top. It was great. Came in a cracked bowl and everything!

Then came the time to take down the tree. So sad. Its so festive but I knew if it didn't get done now we would have to wait until next weekend. (I’ve mastered the art of procrastination) So down it went! Picture also features some lovely cat tape we have on our couches. Awesome.

And tonight I tried something new (to me) Protein ice cream. Wow is this awesome. I took the basic recipe that the lovely Heather uses. Ice, protein powder, almond milk, stevia, xanthum gum and a dash of cinnamon. It was ssoo tasty. Mine was more runny though, I was hoping for more soft serve so maybe i need more ice? Either way it hit the spot.

The ‘out with the old and in with the new’ is an approach I love to incorporate into my day. I love being able to start my day fresh and new each morning. Its time to kick off the new year healthy, fresh and vibrant!

I hope you all have a wonderful evening!

xoxox

Cool giveaway from Merit to the carrot!

Awesome nut butter give away!

chocolate bar give away from the amazing Morgan!!

Happy New Years!!!

 

Happy New Years everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and fabulous holiday! Mine was pretty low key. I’ll recap my NYE.. Started off my day with some oats and a workout!

Yeah calorie buster! When I got back though it was definitely time for some lunch. I made a quick salad with cucumbers, broccoli sprouts and some mandarin oranges. (With some vegan slaw dressing of course!) It was a wonderful combo of sweet and tart!

I roasted up some Kaboucha squash and I was really excited because i had an empty almond butter jar. I whipped up my steamy squash with cinnamon, vanilla stevia and a splash of almond milk and dumped it into the jar. It was AWESOME!! Why have I not tried this before? The hot squash melted all the almond butter into it and made for a super delicious combo. Im hooked!

For New Years eve we tried to go out to my favorite restaurant ever, Kay N’ Daves. I was super excited for some awesome healthy Mexican food and was so bummed that when we got there, they were closed for New Years!! aahh. Bad planning on our part. Super starving and I so didn't have the patience to drive around on NYE so we stopped by the grocery store, picked up a few things and booked it home. So no worries. We whipped up a quick and tasty instant dinner! Sometimes I think its nice when things happen just randomly. Makes it more fun in a way.

I ended up making my own pizza kind of thing. Just a ton of veggies with some melted mozz and then some marinara to dip in.

Craving some veggies too so a repeat of lunch.

Austin had some ‘real’ pizza! Meat lovers on a rising crust.

We spent the night curled up and watching a bunch of movies. We saw 500 Nights of Summer, Slumdog Millionaire and The Box. My favorite was Slumdog by far.

Today though I havent been too hungry for some reason. It happens so Im just kinda picking my way through the day and making some New Years Goals!

New Years Goals:

1) Enjoy and appreciate my health to the fullest. I plan to try and do what's right for my body and not necessarily what I “think” I want it to be. =)

2) Live in the moment more and stop worrying about the future so much. Just enjoy what I have right now!

3) Visit family much much more.

4) For my workouts Id like to step it up and mix it up!

5) Stop calorie counting and just eat intuitively.

6) Plan for some new adventures! Id like to travel more or at the very least find some cool things here in L.A to explore. There's a lot to do!

7) Say hi to random people on the street more.

8) Be happy and Healthy and find an inner peace!

Thats all I got at the moment. Might end up tacking some more on. Even though these are a bit vague I think they will help me find a balance for the New Year which Im very excited for.

 

Since I've been in a snacky mood I made up some Oh She Glows inspired crackers. I'm still playing with the recipe and will post when I get the consistency a bit better. I used brown rice, quinoa, chia seeds, poppy seeds, roasted garlic, caramelized onions and braggs in mine. (Along with some sea salt and pepper). They were very crunchy which was nice. Very hearty.

Dinner tonight was some black eyed peas and greens. I gotta have some good luck in the coming year!

I guess I am a bit superstitious! Do you have any good luck foods that you eat on New Years?

Growing up my mom always made pork and sauerkraut (well Tempeh and sauerkraut to veganize it) and black eyed peas. Id love to hear what good luck foods you made for New Years!

 

Take care and happy new years everyone!!!

Mom on the Run is giving away a great cookbook.

Cool VitaTop giveaway!