And That's a Very Good Thing

I tried out a new recipe the other night and just have to share the results.  I present to you:  dark chocolate avocado mousse, created by the very ingenious Julie of Peanut Butter Fingers.

Feast your eyes on what happened when I combined 3 simple ingredients in my food processor:

Come a little closer...

Just a little bit closer...

Judging by the name of the recipe, you probably guessed the "secret" ingredient - avocado.  The other 2 ingredients are honey and cocoa powder.  That's it!  Magical.  Truly magical.  I could not believe how light and fluffy it was - just like you would expect of mousse!  I even used an avocado which I had frozen, and it still turned out this light and fluffy.  I ate half of the recipe one night and stuck the other half in the fridge for later - I wasn't sure how it would keep with the avocado in it, but it tasted just as good the next night!

So chocolate mousse is good.  You know what else is good?  Yoga.  Awhile back I bought a Groupon for a 10-class pass to a studio called Anytime Nirvana Yoga.  

Yesterday morning I finally redeemed my Groupon and went to a Power Yoga Basics class.  I was a little nervous at first because I was one of only two students in the entire class, but that actually turned out to be amazing; it was practically like a private lesson.  I've only ever taken yoga at fitness centers and gyms before,  so I'm used to having mirrors lining the walls.  It was kind of nice to focus on how my body felt in a pose rather than how it looked in a pose.  And it was really nice that the teacher could help me to adjust and get deeper into the poses.  Great start to the weekend!  I even feel a little sore this morning, especially in my shoulders and upper back - lots of low planks/ chaturanga dandasana.

This past week I also officially joined the gym associated with my school.  They had a "guest week" for non-members to try out the gym and the classes for free, and I went to about 5 group exercise classes that week (Caribbean cardio, an abs class, a spin class, and a couple of Zumba classes - so fun!) and absolutely loved them.  Even though my semester is really busy, I feel SO much better when I take time to exercise, and I absolutely love group exercise classes.  I can't wait to try out even more!

Some more good things:  these sunsets that I've seen from my window recently.   

And one last good thing: my very first CSA share!

I got kale, zucchini, a red bell pepper, beets, an onion, broccoli, a hot pepper, 2 tomatoes, carrots, an acorn squash, and 2 apples.  So good!  I made "cheesy" kale chips with the kale and red bell pepper, and I made a stir fry with the zucchini, broccoli, hot pepper, and one of the tomatoes.  Everything was really tasty!  I ordered another share which I get to pick up on Tuesday - can't wait!

So those are my good things recently.  Hope you've got some very good things of your own going on!

Song of the day:

"Stubborn Love" by The Lumineers.  Basically, I just love their entire self-titled album.  

Dark Green Thumb

Hello friends!  

In an effort to change up my lunch routine, I tried out a new recipe today:  smashed chickpea and avocado sandwich.  It's simple but delicious.  

The recipe calls for chickpeas, avocado, fresh cilantro (I subbed in basil), green onion, lime juice (I used 1 T bottled instead of fresh), salt and pepper.

Woops, forgot the green onion in this picture.  

I opted not to rub the skins off the chickpeas (I didn't want to take the time).  You just smash everything together and mix it up, and voila:

I put plastic wrap right on top of the leftover mixture before I put the lid on the container and stored it in the fridge - this should somewhat help to prevent the avocado from oxidizing and turning brown.  

That's it!  Pretty easy and straightforward, but a good way to switch up lunch.  I've never liked mayonnaise so I kind of felt left out of the egg salad-type options for lunch.  But I think this is a great alternative, and I also plan to try making egg salad with Greek yogurt.  

I spread some of the avocado-chickpea mixture on whole grain oat bread and added some lettuce for a delicious sandwich.  Baby carrots and hummus on the side.


So remember when I started growing some herbs?

I planted basil, lavender, rosemary, strawberry, chives, and forget-me-nots.

Well, I used some of the basil that I grew in my chickpea and avocado spread!  

You can probably tell there aren't quite as many pots in the "after" picture as the "before" pictures.  My BFF said I have a dark green thumb - not quite black, but not green :)  I have two pots of rosemary, two pots of basil, two pots of chives, and a pot of forget-me-nots growing.  The lavender petered out, and the strawberries never grew.   But that's okay!  I especially hope that my rosemary keeps growing - between rosemary and basil, I'd pretty much be set.

This morning I took one of my recent favorite exercise classes with my mom - TurboKick!

It's basically kickboxing, as far as I can tell.  I think it's a lot of fun, and very challenging - it's great cardio.

After the class, I tried out coconut water for the first time.

I picked it up the other day, but unfortunately I'm not a fan.  I've read so many things about how hydrating coconut water is because of all of the natural electrolytes, but I don't like coconut... so I think that has something to do with it :)

In other news...

Yep, that happened.  And it was glorious.  Two dollar bills up.

I stopped at the grocery store before the movie to pick up movie snacks.  I tried out this new drink:

It was pretty good, but I prefer Synergy kombucha.  And I had some unpictured Reese's Pieces :)

Lastly, I had to share this audio clip (discovered via Mama Pea).

So hilarious and adorable.  

And on that note, have a great night!

Song of the day:

"Even If It Breaks Your Heart" by Eli Young Band.

It's a Miracle

We have life!

A few days ago I noticed teeny tiny stems starting to emerge in some of my pots (okay, yogurt containers).  Yay!

Aren't they bee-yoo-tee-ful?  All right, they don't really look like anything yet, and there's no guarantee I won't kill them off soon (accidentally, of course), but at least something is growing!

And here's something that's also a "miracle" of nature, but completely terrifying:

AHHH.  Do you see the size of that thing??  It's practically a tarantula.  I drove down to stay with my parents for a night because we had some relatives from out of town visiting with their new baby (so adorable!) and I naturally brought my laundry with me to do free-of-cost.  I turned around to grab some clothes to throw in the washer, and found this scary spider staring me down.

Normally I'm not too freaked out by bugs (other than cockroaches, ick!!) and can take care of a rogue spider without a problem, but this one called for reinforcements.  Aka my mom.  Yes, that's right, I called to my mom that she needed to come downstairs immediately and save me.  Phew, close call.

I'll stick with nature's miracles of the pretty variety, thankyouverymuch.

As much as I love sweet potato fries, I saw some sweet potato wedges on Kath's blog the other day that inspired me to try a slightly different way of preparing them.

I cut a sweet potato into wedges, put them in a bowl with olive oil and cinnamon and made sure they were coated well, then put them on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet.  I put them in the oven at 350* for 20 minutes, then flipped them over and baked them for another 20 minutes at 400*.

I'm glad I tried this because they were SO good.  Really tender and flavorful.

Eaten with some leftover vegetarian meatloaf and roasted broccoli, it was a great meal.

This morning I went to the gym with my mom for a special group exercise program.  It was a neat concept - there were 7 stations with different forms of exercise at each one: spinning, exercise balls, dumbbells/ total body strength, body bars/ lower body work/ TRX, zumba, TurboKick, and tabata.  There was also belly-dancing for a warm-up and chi gong for cool-down.  We were split up into groups and we changed stations about every 12 minutes.  The time flew by!  I didn't look at the clock once.

I think it was a great concept and a really good idea to be able to try out a bunch of different forms of exercise.  However, I did not like certain stations at all (the ones with equipment, basically) because it was way too rushed and there was no time to figure out proper form and focus on executing the moves well.  I really loved the cardio stations, though - zumba, TurboKick, and tabata were all great, and kicked my butt!

The tabata was especially challenging - we did multiple sets of 20 seconds as hard as we could go, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for high knees/ jump squats, then quick feet/ in and out feet on the step.  I've been reading about tabata a lot recently and have done it some on my own, but I find it to be a lot more motivating to have an instructor telling you what to do, and feeding off the energy from/ "competing" with the other participants.  This one really left me drenched.

I had a great protein smoothie the other day - 1 cup almond milk, 1 T natural peanut butter, 1/2 scoop vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, lots of spinach, about 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, heaping 1/2 cup frozen pineapple, 1/2 a frozen banana, water to thin it out, and 2 ice cubes added after everything else was blended up.  This turned out to be a great combination of flavors!  I would definitely recommend it.

Adding nut butter to a smoothie really makes the biggest difference - it's so much tastier that way!

I hope you're all enjoying the weekend so far!

PS  If you want to enter a giveaway for lemon and orange NuNaturals stevia, go here!

Song of the day:

"Blue Skies Again" by Jessica Lea Mayfield.  She has a very pretty, quiet voice and I like listening to her album Tell Me when I'm in more of a mellow mood.  And she's from Kent, Ohio which is pretty close to where I grew up!

Nut Buttah Lovah

Hey guys, how was everyone's Monday?  Hope your week is off to a great start!

I definitely had a good start to my week.  Since I spent the night at my parents' house last night, I took the opportunity to go to the gym where they belong this morning.  I went there almost every day during my winter break because I LOVE taking group exercise classes.  I think I push myself a lot harder in classes because someone else is telling me what to do, rather than relying on myself for instruction and motivation.  I also think it's a more efficient workout because I can follow the instructor and move quickly from one exercise to another rather than having to stop and either decide what to do next or consult my workout plan.

Going to the gym is a family affair when I'm at home - my mom and I went together, and we saw my grandma when we got there.  Over break, I would usually see my grandpa, too, and my sister also went with us a lot.  Today my mom and I took 2 classes:  Turbo Kick (60 minutes) and a precision strength class (45 minutes), which were both great.   I like Turbo Kick because it really makes me work up a sweat - that way I know I've gotten in a great workout!  I'll save you the image of my sweat-soaked shirt, though :)

After I showered and ate lunch, I headed out on a grocery-shopping extravaganza to get food for the week.  I made 3 stops:  the normal grocery store, a health food store for a yummy green juice, and then Trader Joe's to get some almond butter.

"Go Go Green" juice from the health food store (Earth Fare).  Not the prettiest color, but it was delicious - it had cucumber, celery, spinach, parsley, and apple.

After meaning to try this for a long time, I finally got around to buying some almond butter today.  Verdict:  delicious!  I had it smeared on a medjool date and it was drool-worthy.  I'm definitely a fan!

My "treat" - I think the Cherry Pie flavor is my favorite of all the flavors I have tried so far.  I only let myself buy one per grocery trip, though, because they're pretty expensive for just one bar.  Better than a candy bar, though :)

I just got back from my evening class, and now it's time for dinner and Monday night TV!!!  Does anyone else watch 2 Broke Girls and/or Hart of Dixie?  I'm obsessed!

PS I have so much respect for people who work during the day and go to school at night - not getting to school until 5:30 today was rough, even without working a full day beforehand!

Song of the Day:

"Somebody that I Used to Know" by Gotye (pronounced "go-tee-yay," like the designer Gaultier), featuring Kimbra.  (Loving this song right now, even though the title and lyrics should be "who" instead of "that" to be grammatically correct...)