Breakfast

Oatmeal cooked in water, raisins, earth balance, milk, walnuts

Lunch/Snacks

Veggies, clif bar, homemade granola bar, leftover couscous, apples

For dinner, I had really good intentions. I came home, made sloppy joes, and just as I was about to eat I realized that I was disgusted by the idea of ground turkey. Boo.

I made this instead.

Sprouted grain tortilla (Ezekiel), ½ avocado, cucumber, sprouts, kalamata olives

plus a salad

Then I nestled onto the couch with a mug of hot chocolate protein shake.

I haven’t wanted anything hot to drink in months. I think it was the snow, but this tasted so good. Just almond milk and protein powder warmed up in the microwave. Yum city.

Look who else is making herself cozy…

just a giant doggie chillin’ on a small couch

And we are not too far off from making Baby Cake’s room nice and cozy.

Before

During

Meeker did the tedious edging, while I rollered paint all over the wall (and myself). My job was much more fun.

After

Now we just need furniture.

In the 3^rd grade world…

This morning’s journal prompt was:

Are you more like an avalanche or a snowflake?

I’m never ever ever ever going to be a snowflake.

I was left with a jumbo pot of white chicken chili and three dozen naked sugar cookies just begging to be decorated.

However, at 5:45 – my friend Sarah called to say she was only 20 minutes from my house and would I mind if she stopped by. I was thrilled!

I quickly set the table, threw together a salad, whipped up some cheesy bread and – bam – dinner party for three.

After dinner, we tackled the cookies, equipped with frosting (powdered sugar/milk/food coloring) and sprinkles.

(Meeker was thrilled that I didn’t force him to do all the decorating with me.)

At around 8:00, the doorbell rang and it was my bestie, Jocelyn, and her mom. She couldn’t make her flight out of town (due to the snow), so we had two more dinner guests! Selfishly, I was very happy.

Now everyone is gone and it’s time to nestle in on the couch – one of the things I like best about blizzards. Hope you are staying warm and snuggly where you are, too!

Breakfast

Green Monster Swirls! ½ frozen banana, ½ cup frozen berries, 2 cups spinach, 1 scoop protein powder, ½ cup soy milk, 1 cup water, 2 handfuls of ice cubes

Lunch

2 biscuits with cheese and spicy mustard

2 gnarly carrots dipped in peanut butter

And a green apple.

The Main Event – Dinner

Dedicated to Pistol Pete who said he couldn’t wait for the day I feature a juicy 16oz Rib Eye, green beans and mashed potatoes on the blog.

I couldn’t get the thought of red meat out of my head today. In fact, I walked in the door chanting: Steak! Steak! Steak! – Meeker has never smiled so big, and he immediately made my wish his command.

I got about halfway through this plate before I got full. Meeker looked at me, shook his head, and commented that I was not a seasoned meat eater, before inhaling the remainder of the food on my plate.

In the 3^rd grade world…

At 11:20, I had recess duty in the pleasant sunshine. But come 2:45, my students were screaming and pointing at the windows…

Our first snow!!

Obviously there was much excitement, so I let the kid’s stand at the window for a full 5 minutes until the ground was covered.

Then we got back to work danced and sang along to We Are Family
until carpool started at 3:15ish. The first snow is always a good excuse for a little celebration.

That’s exactly what I did this morning (after coffee and a green/brown monster).

The monster: spinach, kabocha squash (roasted), an orange, a handful of frozen berries, water

And I swear, there is no better workout thank shoveling a driveway full of heavy, wet, spring snow

Ahh, springtime in the Rockies. All that work really revved up my appetite!

Lunch – salad and toast

Lettuce, roasted cabbage, steamed cauliflower, crumbled bison burger, hummus, balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast

I ended up picking out a lot of the bison and giving it to Punky. I just wasn’t feeling it, and Punky loved me for it. Other than that, it was delicious. But the toast was the MVP.

A friend (whom I call Mother Mary) baked this bread for me, she used hand ground millet – it’s insanely good. Meeker and I have polished off half the loaf that I brought home on Sunday.

The rest of the afternoon was spent grading, planning for next school week, and snacking on trail mix.

When dinner rolled around, I thought I would try a new breakfast dish…sweet potato hash brown. First, I shredded the ‘taters in the food processor, and set them on the counter to dry out a bit (this makes them nice and crispy…or so I’ve read)

Then I cooked them in olive oil on high heat, and topped with an egg and more toast.

Absolutely delicious. The hash browns were SO sweet.

Weeee! Meeker just walked in the door with a Dairy Queen Sundae to share. Love that boy.

Trail Mix + four yogurt covered pretzels for breakfast

Bellatrix loves all people food…including trail mix.

She ate the chocolate chips I left in the bowl

Plus coffee

Taco salad for lunch

Last week, I saw Angie bake her tortilla at 400* for 20 minutes, so I copied her. Genius.

Then a started in on the baking – first up, a recipe I made inspired by Averie’s raw donut holes!

(Almost) Raw Vegan Flax Cookies

I had to change it based on ingredients we had on hand, so you can find my recipe here.

Since Meeker LOVES his chocolate chip cookies, I whipped up a batch of those too.

I also love winter walks when the sun is shining…

and this stream by our house.

As well as this boy and his dog.

Then I ate some of my favorite foods for dinner.

Baked sweet potato rounds, dipped in peanut butter + mashed cauliflower

I thinly sliced the sweet ‘tater, sprinkled with cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and then baked 15 minutes on each side at 400* – then dipped in peanut butter. There is nothing better.

For the cauliflower mash, I steamed one head of cauliflower, then dropped it in the blender, added ½ cup of milk, 1 tbs. butter, salt, and blended until smooth. Waaay better than mashed potatoes. I’m serious.

What was one thing you loved today?

Second, I started to make oatmeal after my workout, I put extra, extra water in the pan, turned it waaay low, and went upstairs to get ready for work. When I came back down (30 minutes later) – I was faced with a burnt, sticky mess on the stove. Somehow the oats boiled over (despite the big pot and low heat) and made a nasty mess. Boo – no oats this morning.

However, it did give me an excuse to eat my latest obsession – something I have dubbed cereal mash.

• 1 cup Kashi Honey Sunshine
• ¼ cup puffed rice
• ¼ cup applesauce
• Sprinkle of chocolate chips
• Sprinkle of coconut
• 1 tbs. almond butter

Mix it all up and make a mess…

Yummm. The applesauce makes the cereal kind of mushy, but not as soggy as milk does. It is perfection. I’m kind of glad my oats burned this morning.

And some coffee (labeled in case I forget what I’m drinking).

I will leave you with a picture of my sweet pup enjoying the snow when it started yesterday morning…

I love that little face.

Hope your Mondays aren’t too messy!!

Since I am halfway through Nat’s 30 Day Shred challenge I thought I would do an updated. Here are some thoughts:

First, I jumped into this challenge after training for a ½ marathon, so I didn’t really expect a 25 minute workout to push me very hard – but it does, and I love it. I started out doing level 1 for two days, but then decided I was more fit than level 1, so I jumped into level 2 on day three, and have been alternating between levels 2 and 3 for 13 days. They are both difficult, but for different reasons. Level 2 is harder for my muscles and level 3 has more intense cardio. I like switching back and forth. The limiting factor for me on both is my upper body strength. My shoulders STILL burn throughout almost all of level 2. However – it is getting easier. Slightly. Some changes I have noticed in myself:

• I can do real push-ups for the first time in my life
• My balance has improved
• My core feels stronger
• I no longer cry when I have to do chair sits/ v-flys.

I can’t say I have seen any difference in the appearance of my body – but I do feel strong, and I’m liking that. I enjoy a lot of the exercises, and I have also discovered some new moves that I LOVE and will definitely work into my workouts after the 30 days are over.

• Plank Jacks: plank position, moving your legs like you are doing jumping jacks. Awesome cardio and core workout.
• Plank Twists: plank position, alternating pulling knees in towards opposite arms. Again, fantastic core burn.
• Jumping Lunges: jump from lunge, alternating the forward leg in the air, and lunging back down. Challenging and wonderful.

(I just realized that it is really difficult to describe these exercises in words – maybe I will have to do some picture/video explanation another day, when I didn’t just finish exercising in my underwear)

After working out, I started experimenting with some vegan pumpkin pancakes with mixed results.

I’m not going to share the recipe because it still needs some tweaking. The texture was a little off, but the tasted was excellent.

The first two batches went to the happy apple dog – and she loved them. On the 3^rd batch, I added more baking powder, some sugar and a little more water. The result was the above photo. Each pancake was about the size of my palm (pretty small), and I had 2 more, topped with peanut butter. I’m not disappointed, but rather excited to keep experimenting!

Until then, I’m taking a note from Bagheera as to what I should do for the rest of this snowy day.

Have a fantastic Sunday!

But before we get to that, I tried a new drink that I got as a sample after my race a few weeks ago.

It claims to “control the appetite” – so I decided to give it a try when the mid-afternoon hunger struck. The stats aren’t bad…

It does have some weird ingredients, but it held me over until about 5:30 – tasted good, too.

After the “snack” wore-off, I made some good veggie/turkey soup. When it’s been snowing for 2 days straight, you’ve gotta make soup. Am I right?

This was my first soup of the season and it was so good.

I like to use ground turkey in soups – keeps me full – plus every veggie I can get my hands on. This particular soup included: onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers and the white addition is hominy. I also added some Italian seasoning and about 4 cups of water. A good mix.

Here it is pre-cooking. After bringing it to a boil over high heat, I let it sit on low heat for about an hour.

Here’s (one of my) bowls.

I had 2.

Then I decided that it had been too long since I had made (or eaten) dessert…so I tried my hand at a recipe I saw on Rachael Ray. I didn’t have cranberries, and instead of store bought pie crust, I used pastry dough that I made a while ago and stored in the freezer. Other than that, I followed the recipe.

Oooh flaky pastry dough…I love you so much. This was delicious. I forgot how much I love baked apples. A great ending to a Thursday – my favorite day of the week. Now I’m off to watch The Office.

What is your favorite day of the week and why?

Katie

This was taken at 8am, after Meeker attempted to dig us out, and it has been snowing like crazy
all day long.

If you didn’t already guess…I had another snow day today! I can’t really believe it. Consecutive snow closures haven’t happened (to me) since I was a senior in high school…and that was in MARCH, this is still fall! I think we’re really in for it this winter…

We had so little food in our house that the only option for breakfast was squash.

I’m not complaining.

This is about ¼ of a butternut squash, chopped and cooked with a little butter in a sauté pan. I also added cinnamon, sage, and nutmeg – then drizzled the whole thing with maple syrup. It was divine.

Next, I did day 4 of the 30-Day-Shred (thank goodness for workout DVDs on days like this!!) and it kicked my butt (again). I may have started crying at one point.

While I was working out – Meeker pulled a chicken out of the refrigerator, and roasted it. It was beautiful.

We picked at the bird for a while, but then decided that we really needed to brave the storm for groceries- especially if this snow doesn’t let up soon. We didn’t want to be buried in our house with nothing to eat. So, we got in the car and…got stuck 5 seconds later. Luckily, I married a very strong boy, and he was able to push my car into movement both times that I thought we were going to have to abandon the car and hoof it the rest of the way.

We did make it to the grocery store and back and I only wanted one thing when we arrived home. Fruit.

In the form of cereal.

That is one gala apple and a couple handfuls of pomegranate seeds with cinnamon and vanilla soy milk. Gah – this is so good. I will never be sick of it. I also had a toasted ww English muffin with butter on the side.

It is still snowing and blowing, and I can’t see an end in sight, so I am going to make something warm to drink, and curl up on the couch with my book.

Have a great Thursday! If it’s sunny where you are…send some rays our way!

I woke up at 5:00, looked out the window and thought… “no way” – there was hardly any snow. However, I checked anyway (hoping for a delay, at best)…and I found out the entire school district is closed. That’s wild.

I tried to go back to sleep, but was too giddy about the day, so Meeker and I got up and went for a winter wonderland walk in the wee morning hours.

While we were out…it really started snowing. The storm is here!

I know, I know…if you follow my blog, you have heard me express my disdain for cold weather on numerous occasions, but when it gets me a paid day off of work, I can’t really be upset.

Punky loves me and the snow.

To warm up…I made nice, strong coffee and a pumpkin baby-food-like breakfast.

Plus, Fig Newman’s.

• ½ cup plain yogurt
• ¼ cup pumpkin
• Heap of cinnamon (plus more for sprinkling on top)
• Maple syrup

Mix all together and throw it in the microwave for about 40 seconds. Then top with mini-chocolate chips (they melt better). Deliciousness.

Now I am off to do day 3 of the 30-Day-Shred. (Thanks for the challenge, Nat!)

I hope you are staying warm and cozy today! Enjoy the day.