Sunday, February 26, 2012

New Toy

This morning I slept in a bit because last night I baby-sat 8, yes, as in 4 + 4 = 8, kids.  They ranged in age from 1 to 11, so it was a full house!  I didn't lose anyone (thanks to frequent head counts throughout the night) so I consider it a success.  My grandma was 1 of 8 kids, and I have NO idea how her parents managed.  Especially without DVDs and Pandora!  While the older kids were watching a DVD and the 1 year old was screaming his lungs out in protest of bedtime, I luckily thought to put on Pandora's lullaby station, which was actually pretty awesome.  I was expecting nursery rhymes and kids' songs, but it actually played artists like Jack Johnson, Fleetwood Mac, and the Mamas & the Papas, along with some classic Disney songs.  Plus it did the trick and put the baby to sleep!  Thanks, Pandora.

Since I took an unintentional rest day on Friday after sleeping through yoga, I went to the gym for cardio this morning instead of my usual Sunday yoga/ rest day.  I did the Fitnessista's "My biscuits are burning!" elliptical workout, the stairstepper, stationary bike, and stretched.  I still wanted to have a leisurely brunch like I've started doing on Sundays, so I had an apple with almond butter, a hard-boiled egg, and a seed and raisin ball before going to the gym with plans for brunch instead of lunch after I worked out.


So when I got my new boots and shorts the other day, I actually had 2 other packages waiting for me as well.  Yeah, definitely had a prolonged shopping spree.  Anyways, one of the boxes contained Sun Warrior protein powder.


I've never bought protein powder before, but after reading about it on a lot of blogs for awhile, and the Fitnessista raving about this particular kind, I decided to give it a try after it went on sale in the Fitnessista's Open Sky shop.  


Since I wanted to try out the Sun Warrior and make a brunch food, I decided to make the Fitnessista's Perfect Protein Pancakes.   I used some almond milk and some rice milk because I didn't have a full 1/4 cup of almond milk, and I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of gluten-free baking mix.  I also did not add any stevia or sweetener because the Sun Warrior already contains stevia and I figured it would be sweet enough with my toppings.


Unfortunately, I thought they were too dry.  I much preferred the "hot apple pie" pancakes I made last week.  I might play around with the protein pancake recipe and add some yogurt or applesauce to see if I could make them less dry.


I topped them with sunflower seed butter and banana which I heated up in a skillet with a little coconut oil.  Oh, and a hefty dusting of cinnamon, of course.  Even though they weren't my favorite, I cleaned my plate and they did fill me up for a long time. 

The other box I got contained a new toy:


A blender!  I love my food processor to death and use it almost every day, but I've been wishing I had a blender, too.  After I ordered the Sun Warrior, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get a blender so that I could make smoothies with the protein powder (and smoothies sans protein powder, too).  


My first smoothie was a huge success!  I made a Classic Green Monster from Angela at Oh She Glows (amazing vegan blog).   I added 1 cup rice milk, 1 T chia seeds, 1 T natural peanut butter, 2 handfuls spinach, a frozen banana, and 2 ice cubes, which was the perfect amount to fill up my glass!


It was absolutely delicious and tasted like a peanut butter and banana smoothie.  Packed full of nutrients and delicious to boot - not too shabby!  I have a feeling my new toy will be getting lots of use.

Now I've got to do some reading for school and work on an assignment, plus watch the Amazing Race :)  Anyone else watching the Amazing Race, or is everyone opting for the Oscars instead?

Have a great night!

My view of the sunset tonight.  I love when I can see a couple of the tall buildings in downtown Cleveland.
Song of the day:

"Brand New Shoes" by She & Him.  She & Him is made up of Zooey Deschanel (does anyone watch "New Girl" on Fox?  SO funny!) and M. Ward.  This video is pretty adorable, too.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good day to me. Gorgeous sunset and song! Zooey is amazing :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a good day :) I love relaxing Sundays. Zooey really is amazing; I used to seek out all of her movies, even the small indie ones, so now I'm super excited she's on TV every week! Total girl crush, haha. Thanks for reading!

      Delete