Just Peachy

Lots of fun end of summer things happening here this week.  There is a shift in the air and I can tell fall is coming.  The weather is perfect, sunny, warm and breezy.  Makes me love staying in bed a little longer and listening to the birds and catch up on all my blogs reading. 

However, one cannot stay in bed all day...I'm usually up early, ready for work and have a long to-do list to get through.  Laundry always hits the list and I found a surprise opening the dryer the other day.  Oops...I guess I left one of my lavender sachets in my pillow case, washed and apparently dried it and hello explosion! Lovely, now my dryer keeps spitting out lavender bits. 

 

 

dryer weeds

 

 

nice one, Lynda

My bike and I have been working over time and I've been riding all over town filling up my basket with lots of vegetable treasures.  Here's my loot from the farmer's market the other day. 

I made a wonderful tomato salad and keep discovering new ways to make zucchini more exciting. 

Testing out my veggie burger book....thanks Maureen this book is my new bible. 

Spending some time out on the pier with family and friends.  Great to be outside all night. 

 

Finding signs of summer in the city.  Small patches of tall sunflowers brighten up buildings and say hello. 

 

And speaking of saying hello...say hello to my new wall color.  Yes folks the apartment is painted. 

 

Before....

 

 

And after....

 

Still needs finishing touches...but it's bright, clean and fresh.  It's so exciting to change up a space.  So as summer is winding down I'm feeling very grateful for where I am today. 

 

Lucky and happy to have my health, my husband, family and friends all around me.  What a beautiful way to celebrate the end of a season.  I'm feeling just peachy. 

 

 

What are you grateful for today?

Stepping up my Workout

Not much time to exercise? No problem.  I only had about 30 minutes the other day to workout, while I was baking something in the oven.  Multi-tasking...we all do it. 

I knew I had no time to go to the gym, so I had to get creative....my though: I'll lap around my building like a crazy woman.  You can see that, right? Well actually I made the best of it...the stairs became my mission.  I live on the fifth floor of my building, so I decided to get real familiar with the stairwell.  Hello stairwell...

And I mixed in a little circuit training using my own body weight and the hallway in my apartment building.  Lucky for me it was early...because I think people would have thought I completely lost it racing up and down the stairs and lunging in the hallway.  Hey, I did what I had to do. 

I started out going down the stairs...this part I liked.  Then I'd run a complete lap around the building, to the other stairwell, run up and back across to the other side. 

Lunging in the hallway to the other set of stairs.  I did this about four times, checked in of my baking, (total geek, right?) and went back into the apartment to incorporate some ab work, push ups and planks. 

The result: a sweaty mess at the end.  I should have worn a gray sweatsuit like Rocky and thrown my hands up in the air at the top of the steps...because at the end, I felt like a champ.  All that running and climbing in a quick 30 minutes workout...I worked up quite a sweat. 

Have you ever had to create your own workout? What are some creative workouts you've done?

Nutty

I've completely lost it. 

Gone totally nutty. 

I started to soak my nuts..yes, it's funny to even type.  Have you heard about this? It's been on my health radar for quite some time now, and I decided to just jump right in and give it a try. 

I've seen other raw foodies/bloggers talk about it and wondered why?

ignore the Chocolate Sundae Syrup behind the nuts...Joe's favorite topping on vanilla ice cream

Well, here it is in a nut shell...no pun intended, but pretty darn funny, right? I did a little research, and by research I mean I looked it up on Google and came across a lot of the same information.  Pretty neat stuff. 

Here's the low down. Let's talk almonds for a minute.  Apparently there are these things called enzyme inhibitors on the nut that protects the nut or seed until it has what it needs for growing. When you soak the nuts, 'the water releases the toxic enzyme inhibitors and increase the life and vitality contained within them.' 


I didn't really think about nuts that closely, all I wanted was a little more protein in my smoothies, and I'm not the chemical protein powder type.

According to Raw Food Living the benefits of soaking nuts and seeds:

*Enzyme inhibitors get neutralized.

*The amount of vitamins your body absorbs increases.

*Gluten breaks down so digestion is much easier.

*Phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of vital minerals, is reduced. 

 

 

So here's an easy Back to School smoothie idea that I've been enjoying the past few weeks.  This has kept me going and full for hours. 
 

 

Banana Almond Smoothie

 

 

Makes 1 large or 2 small smoothies

Prep time: 5 minutes or less

 

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana

1 cup of almond unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 tablespoon almond butter

A small handful (about 1/4 cup) of raw *soaked almonds

1/3 cup of old-fashioned oatmeal

1-2 cups of spinach

2-3 ice cubes

¼ to 1/3 cup of water *optional to thin out the smoothie if it’s too thick

 

Blend all ingredients into a blender until smooth.  Serve immediately and feel healthy! You’re eating real foods.

 

·        I soaked my almonds overnight to soften them for the smoothie.  If your blender is powerful enough, you can skip this step.  If you have time try soaking the nuts for at least 20 minutes or overnight.  Let me know what you think.  Changing the water often or at least once a day.

 

I loved how nice and thick this smoothie was with the banana, oatmeal and nuts.  Give it a try today and let me know what you think. 

 

Have you ever soaked nuts? What is your favorite type of smoothie? 

 

Wishing you all a peaceful weekend.

 



Black Bean Brownies

Hey there...lots of stuff going on here in Hoboken.  Home improvement/closet overhaul projects.  Picking a new paint color for the dining/living area and testing out chocolaty brownies!!

Which one do you like?

a b or c

I know a & c are very similar...
 

new paint color for the dining area

sample line up

Closet clean outs...yikes....why do I keep all this crap?!

Before and after picture coming soon. Still a work in progress.

And spilling red wine on an old carpet...oops, guess we're adding a new rug to the list of what we need for the house. 

yes it does look like projectile vomit, but trust me it's red wine. 

With all this stuff happening, I need chocolate!

Chocolate gods...help me out...it can't be the regular size Snicker bars I used to inhale while working at the Skungamaug Golf Course high school/college.  (My way of handling the old, drunk men who would hit on me-gross!)

No this craving has to be rich, gooey, chocolaty and delicious... and maybe somewhat healthy for me. 

Enter...Black Bean Brownie Bites!

A few months ago, I discovered another great blogger from Connecticut, Susan who blogs here.  She had a similar recipe for brownies using chickpeas.  I switched some things around, added oatmeal and tried using black beans.  The result...two thumbs up!  Wow, are these babies just what I was craving!  Chocolaty, moist and delicious.  After several attempts...hard work I tell you..here is the recipe. 

Best Ever Black Bean Brownies

yields: 24 mini-cupcakes or 12 to 14 regular cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups of black beans, rinsed and drained (about a can and a half)
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa
1/3 of agave nectar or honey (a little more if you like it sweet)
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips (I didn't fold them in, just placed on top of each before baking...makes them look so cute)

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line cupcake tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.

2.  In a small saucepan, melt the coconut oil and unsweetened cocoa powder.  Stir to combine and remove from heat quickly.  Only on stove top for about a minute to melt cocoa and oil.  Set aside.

3.  In a food processor, process oats until they are more like an oat flour.  It's fine if some flakes are larger than others.  Add black beans, honey or agave, salt and process until smooth.  Scraping down the sides if necessary.  If you don't have a food processor, no worries, just mash beans and everything together to combine. 

4. Next add in the eggs and vanilla, pulse to combine.  Transfer into a medium size mixing bowl and add in the chocolate coconut oil mixture.  Stir to combine and scoop batter into prepared muffin tin.  Place the dark chocolate chips on top.  I used 5 chips for a regular size cup and about 3 or so chocolate chips for the mini-muffin pan. 

5.  Bake at 325 degrees for about 12-15 minutes.  Check after 10 minutes, they should be firm to the touch and chocolaty brown. 

Close your eyes while you eat these..you will be transported to a chocolate heaven! Enjoy!

And a few inspiration quotes to get you thinking....

'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.  Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  And most important, have courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you want to become.  Everything else is secondary.'

-Steve Jobs

and
 

Here's a quote I found in my fortune cookie the other night. 

it says..'you are the crispy noodle in the vegetarian salad of life' 

I'll take that.  Somedays I feel like a crispy noodle!
Have a healthy day everyone...and make these brownies!



#HLS12: Part II

Where were we....oh yeah up in Boston at HLS. 

We started our day with a Wild Harvest sponsored breakfast...which I apparently snapped no pictures of?! I guess I was all about eating and talking with everyone...oops!

Our sessions and keynote speaker started and kept us very busy all morning.  We also were treated to a mid-morning Cross-Fit workout courtesy of Reebok.  They gave us sneakers so we would all be up to the challenge in brand new comfy shoes.   Hello happy feet!

After we got our sweat on...it was back to business.  Learning so much about this 'thing' called blogging.  Some of the common themes throughout the day, were to stay true to yourself, be who you are and reach out to people in your community.  It was great to listen all morning and be surrounded by other women bloggers doing wonderful things. With all the crazy information online it was inspiring to hear healthy messages that bloggers are sending out in the blogosphere. 

 I also loved the live twitter chats going on throughout the sessions.  Between taking notes and tweeting...I was typing like a crazy women.  I'm completely addicted to twitter!  After information overload...it was time for lunch. 

Lentil chili and avocado & tomato salad with pita bread.

 

More overload and words of wisdom...and then out in Bean Town to explore.  I haven't been to Quincy Market in years.  My dad would always take us up to the restaurant, Durgin Park when we were young. 

It was nice to be back, walking through Faneuil Hall remembering those special moments with my dad.  He loved taking us to Boston for the day and teaching us all about the history of the city.  He was a history teacher after all and made sure he shared his love for it with anyone that would listen to him! I never appreciated it then, but now I do...thanks Dad.

This time (sorry for the fuzzy shot..hello flash) it was with an amazing group of bloggers.  These ladies made me laugh and were so sweet.  A wonderful Saturday night girls' night. 

We ended up in the North End...hello Italian food and went to Fiore.

We enjoyed a terrific meal all the while knowing that Mike's Pastry Shop was our next stop.  The place was hopping, but luckily we ended up with a table.  Cannolis, the largest lobster tail pastry and hazelnut gelato hit the spot. 

I don't think anyone talked for a few moments...total crickets while we were seriously enjoying our dessert. 

After a lot more of these...

And then we all hit the hay, gearing up for our 5K fun run the next day.  While running...I found Min, my new friend from Austin, TX who has a beautiful blog called Savor the Rainbow.  We ran all around Cambridge and looped back to the hotel. 

Can you find me? I'm down on the bottom left...in green.

 

Another nice breakfast and blogger round table talk. 

Then it was time for good-bye's and packing up for the train.  Sad to see it come to an end.   

I grabbed a late lunch for the long ride home and was happy I did after a few hours of travel. 

As the train chugged along the beautiful coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, I thought about all the fun I had this weekend and was super excited to see Joe at home.  He was so sweet to have dinner waiting, (with flowers..wow) and a big smile on his face.  Thanks babe...you're the best! 

Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts...this week. 

It's always great to travel, but just as nice to return home. 
Wishing you all a peaceful day!

#HLS12: No Blogger Left Behind

What a pleasure it was to be in the presence of such a wonderful group of ladies this weekend.  I attended the Healthy Living Summit up in Boston.  This was my second year going and I felt like a sophomore going back...knowing a few more people and not nearly as scary as my first year not knowing anyone! Yikes!  I spent lots of time learning, socializing and meeting some amazing women bloggers, fitness professionals and registered dietitians. 

Lots of wonderful swag upon checking in...

Add lots of reconnecting with fellow bloggers. 

Here's Heather and I before lunch.  She was one of the speakers on Saturday and taught us so much about social media.  Her blog is Running with Sass, she's a great runner and inspires us all to live a more balanced life. She certainly knows her stuff about social media.  Thanks girl!

 A whole group of us grabbed lunch at Whole Foods where I built myself a beautiful beet and lentil salad. So wonderful!

After lunch I reconnected with my old Tolland High School friend, who happens to work in Boston! My friend, Tricia from my softball days.  We caught up, laughed and did a lot of remember when....

It was so nice to see her and go back to our younger days growing up in a small town.  We were so busy chatting, that I unfortunately didn't even get a picture of us!

Friday evening was our kick-off cocktail party at the hotel.  I was thrilled to meet so many other IIN graduates!  And many first time HLS summit bloggers.  Wow, lots of new blogs to follow. 

There's so much more from the weekend...stay tuned to for Part II...tomorrow. 

Lots of stuff to catch up on today...being back to real life....

Boston...such a great city, the Healthy Living Summit and Healthy Living Blogs made everything so nice for us all weekend long.  Their energy was contagious. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.  This weekend inspired me so much to keep learning, share my recipes and helping others live well. 

Wishing you all a great day! 
Who/what inspires and motivates you to be healthy?