Saturday, May 5, 2012

Instant Mini Pizzas

Happy Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day!  Are you doing anything fun to celebrate?  I love themes/ any reason to have a party, and wish I were doing something fun today, but unfortunately exams are standing in the way :(  Maybe next year... or the year after that...

But I'm still finding some small ways to get a few treats in.  With the warm weather, I started off both yesterday and today with iced coffee!


On Thursday evening I brewed a pot of strong coffee and let it cool down, then put it in the fridge overnight.  Then when I got back from the gym yesterday morning (cardio day - elliptical and rowing machine), I enjoyed a refreshing glass of coffee poured over ice, with some added almond milk and a few drops of stevia.  Yum!

Random observation - have you ever taken coffee to the gym with you?  A hot drink is seriously the last thing I would want when I'm working up a sweat, but yesterday when I was on the elliptical, a guy got on the elliptical next to me with a Starbucks coffee.  I saw this happen when I lived in DC, too (there was a Starbucks in the same building as my gym).  First of all, I can barely drink out of my water bottle without spilling all over myself when I'm on the elliptical, so trying to sip hot coffee would be a disaster waiting to happen.  Second, hot coffee is just not thirst-quenching, in my opinion.  But if people in DC and Ohio do it, I guess it's a thing....

Moving on - I've been having a lot of huge salads for lunch lately, which are delicious, but yesterday I was in the mood to switch things up a little bit without spending much time on preparation.  With that in mind, I put together some mini "pizzas," using what I had on hand in the fridge.


I lightly toasted some whole wheat sandwich thins, then spread on a mixture of pasta sauce, tomato paste, and fresh basil.


I added some toppings:  spinach, halved grape tomatoes, sliced kalamata olives, and nutritional yeast.


Then I put them under the broiler for about 5 minutes.


And that's it!  Super easy, and a great lunch alternative to the usual sandwich or salad.


I enjoyed my instant pizzas with some strawberries and a juicy peach.  So good!

After lunch I was craving something sweet and chocolatey, and I decided to make this chocolate cake batter smoothie by Angela at Oh She Glows.


It definitely satisfied my craving and was pretty healthy to boot!  It contained almond milk, old-fashioned oats, a frozen banana, cinnamon, vanilla, carob powder (you could also use cocoa powder), peanut butter (the recipe calls for cashew butter but I didn't have any, so I subbed another nut butter), chocolate chips, and ice cubes.  The hardest part was waiting an hour for the oats to soak!  It would be easy to add a scoop of protein powder, Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese to get in some extra protein, too.

Well I submitted my take-home exam earlier today, so I've got one more exam to go before I'm finished with this year.  So close!  Hope you're enjoying some margaritas/ mint juleps, wearing a fancy hat/ sombrero, and breaking a pinata/ watching the Derby.  All at once, preferably.  Have some extra fun for me!

Song of the day:

"Hey" by the Pixies.  One of my all-time favorites.


2 comments:

  1. Hot coffee in a gym? No thank you! On the other hand those mini pizzas look delightful! I must try those soon! Thanks for the idea. Congratulations on finishing up this semester!

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    1. Haha, okay good, I'm not the only one who thinks hot coffee at the gym is crazy! I had mini pizzas again for lunch today - still good :) Hope you like them! Thanks for reading :)

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