The problem with loving two cities, is you’re always missing one.

I had some fun pictures from the weekend, but I think I packed my camera cord somewhere in my suitcase… so I suppose those pictures will have to wait. All I have is a blurry cell phone picture

Me and Alexa (We’re now long distance roommates. Yes. That’s what I said.)

I got to spend some good quality time with my best friends… which also meant I ate way too much food, and my workout routine sort of took a back seat. But have no fear! The Bikini Boot Camp from Sweat and the City starts tomorrow! I’m excited about the challenge! I think it will help me get back into the routine

What do you do to get back into a workout routine?

<3 Liz

Hey friends, sorry for being MIA for a couple of days. I’ve been busy with work, and I’m fighting some sort of stomach bug So I’ll leave you with this:

Before the stomach bug attacked, we had a classic girls night in. I’d say the picture speaks for itself

That coconut milk ice cream was Ah-Maze-Ing. Regular dairy ice cream tends to bother my tummy, but this stuff was delicious. (Not pictured: Jersey Shore on TV)

Best friends + candy + ice cream + magazines + nail polish = perfect girls night in.

What’s your recipe for a night in with friends?

<3 Liz

Ok that’s not true. It’s actually really hard for me to break out of my routine. I have my whole food-cooking-gym thing pretty well scheduled at home. I know what I’ll eat for breakfast. I know what I’ll pack for lunch. I know what I’ll cook for dinner (depending on the night). I know what classes I want to take at the gym, what days I want to run, what days I workout with my workout buddy. However, at home, it’s all shaken up…

My mommy was super sweet, and bought me my favorite kind of yogurt (aside from Greek yogurt, which is hands down the most amazing stuff ever.)

Yumm, carrot cake yogurt (80 calories and 12 grams of protein? All for 44 cents a cup? Yes please.) I like to add some shredded unsweetened coconut when I’m feeling crrrazy.

My mom also bought me Vitatops, because she loves me. Hehe. But I don’t have my vitamix, which means my go-to breakfast of frozen banana + frozen soymilk can’t happen. Instead I’ve been eating cereal, which never seems to fill me up. *sigh* I also just seem to eat so much more when I’m home. I mean, my mom always keeps things like Wheat Thins on hand, and I am a slave to those stupid little crackers… so tasty…. Anyways. It really messes with my routine. I need to learn how to be more flexible! (And not eat all the Wheat Thins…)

I also miss being able to go to the gym And since Ohio is apparently protesting spring (we got more snow last night) I can’t run outside! What’s a girl to do?!

Thankfully, I brought a trainer with me:

I did level 3 last night! Woohoo! I’m definitely sore this morning. It felt good to get in a workout, even if it had to be done in my living room… in front of my family… (“Oh, that one looks hard!” “Oh, that move would be good for skiing!” “Oh man, keep going!” Thanks, Dad…)

How do you stick to your habits when you’re routine gets shaken up? Any tips?

<3 Liz

Do you have any foods that remind you of your childhood? For me, much of my childhood was filled with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (I know, what a healthy balance ) Now you know how I feel about Kraft’s “Cheese” but some of my childhood foods still hit the spot!

Growing up, I loved making cookies with my mom (well, I still do) and our go-to recipe was the Nestle Toll House cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. I remember feeling so proud when I could remember the whole recipe without having to look! So as I stood in the kitchen with my mom, trying to decide what to make, I thought, why not classic chocolate chip cookies? However, we didn’t have any white sugar, so I did make a few substitutions here and there. Here is what it ended up being:

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes about 3 dozen)

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp milk (or soymilk)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup oatmeal (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Soften your butter and combine it with the brown sugar, vanilla, and milk. You might need to use a hand mixer to get it nice and blended. Then beat in your egg until it’s smooth. Next, combine your flour, salt and baking soda and slowly sift it in.

At this point, I wanted to make some variations. So one third of the dough I dropped into the oven as-is, one third I stirred in walnuts, and one third I added in oatmeal. All three versions came out delicious but I think the oatmeal ones were my personal favorite!

Yummm.

What foods remind you of your childhood?

<3 Liz

First of all, congratulations to Carrie @ Moves n Munchies!

She is the winner of My PB2 Giveaway! I fought with the random number generator to try to get the results embedded in here… but I’m apparently inept, so I apologize, and you’ll just have to trust me on this. Carrie, e-mail me your address, and I shall ship your PB2 as soon as possible! Thank you for all your comments/entries. I’m glad I can share the magic of PB2 with at least one of you

The weather here yesterday was unbelievable! It was 6http://iheartvegetables.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=435&action=edit9 degrees and sunny! I was able to squeeze in a quick run at work yesterday. Although everything is still brown, it was nice to get some fresh air and sunshine.

While I ran, I let my mind drift into recipe mode. I was in a cooking mood, but I didn’t have anything specific in mind. I had some zucchini in the fridge that needed to be used up, and I was craving quinoa. So that’s where I began… I also wanted to use up the last apple and the few carrots I had left. (This was totally a “I need to use up what’s in the fridge before I go out of town” creation.) In the end, here’s what I used:

Quinoa- The Remix

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
• 1 small zucchini chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped carrots (I used like 8 baby carrots)
• 1/4 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of cinnamon
• 2 cups not-chicken broth (I use the veg-friendly chicken flavor, but I’m pretty sure any flavor would work)
• splash of vanilla
• 1 apple, chopped
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries

I started by cooking my zucchini, onion and garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil until the onion was translucent. Note, if you’re using carrots, add these in. I forgot them at first, and had to cook them in later, oops Once that’s nice and cooked, throw it into a pot, add the 2 cups of broth, and 1 cup of dry, rinsed quinoa. Make sure you rinse it, or it can have kind of a bitter taste. Add the salt + cinnamon. Bring it to a boil, then let simmer for ~20min. While that’s cooking, I toasted my walnuts in the oven, but they’re probably be fine just thrown in as is. It’s up to you. Next, I cooked the chopped apple in a tiny bit of olive oil, and added a splash of vanilla. I cooked it til it was soft, but not mushy. Then I just let it hang out until the quinoa was cooked. Once the quinoa had absorbed most of the broth, I stirred in the apple, walnuts and cranberries.

Viola!

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I’m not going to lie, there was a moment during the process where I was like “Oh no, what if this tastes like crap?” because the boy was coming over for dinner… so I didn’t want it to suck. But luckily, it turned out better than I expected. (Boy went back for seconds, so that’s a good sign, right?)

I think what I like best about this recipe, is I’m pretty sure you could substitute a TON of different veggies, making it a great recipe to get rid of near-expiring ingredients. You can also eat it hot or cold. (We ate it hot.)

I LOVE quinoa, but for some reason, it’s not my go-to grain. I usually go for rice or couscous first. (Actually, I really don’t eat that many grains in general. I usually just pile up veggies & beans.) I think I’m going to try to eat more of it, because it was delicious AND it’s a nutritional power house. I’m thinking next time I’ll try some sort of quinoa + nooch combo.

What is your favorite grain? Quinoa? Couscous? Bulgar? Pasta? Rice?

Anyone have a quinoa recipe out there that you want to share?

<3 Liz

Hey loves! So I’m a little behind posting on Valentines day, so forgive me, but I can’t not post about this!

My V-tine surprised me with a trip to “The Nile” ,a local Ethiopian restaurant. I’d never had Ethiopian food, so naturally, I was practically jumping up and down.

In the interest of not annoying every person at the restaurant, I limited my picture taking, but I did sneak in this one. (Sorry it’s such low quality. I didn’t drag my camera with me)

I got a plate with a sample of 5 of the vegetarian/vegan entrees. Oh my goodness, these were SO good! It included:

Yemisir Wat

Split lentil sauce made with flavorful berbere-based seasoning

Azifa (whole lentil salad) —

Whole lentils cooked and mashed, seasoned lime juice and mustard

Ater Kik Alicha

Yellow split peas cooked in mildly flavored sauce, seasoned with garlic and ginger

There were two other dishes that I don’t remember Sorry! One of them was an eggplant dish served cold, and one was a warm potato dish!

All of the food is served on Injera, which is like a spongy bread, and you use it to pick up the food (so there are no utensils involved) which is so fun! Not to mention, everything was delicious! I think my favorite was the Ater Kik Alicha!

Have you ever had Ethiopian food?

<3 Liz

P.S. Don’t forget, this is the last day to enter my PB2 Giveaway!

Valentines Day: The perfect excuse to bake sweets.

After drooling over being inspired by Angela’s 2-bite brownies, I decided I needed some chocolatey brownie-ness in my life. It was good timing, given the Hallmark Holiday.

If there was an award for making heart shaped baked goods, I would have won the award for “Most Improved.” My brownies went from looking like Mickey Mouse to actually looking like hearts. Practices makes perfect. I’m also pretty sure I ate at least 2 brownies worth of dough. Oops. The ones picture below, however, were a trial run, and were just plan circle shapes. Keep in mind, it’s scientifically proven that heart shaped baked goods taste 78% percent better than circle shapes.

These were so freaking delicious

Here is what I used:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies – (adapted from Oh She Glows)

• 1 cup oats
• 1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup soymilk
• 2 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tbsp ground flax
• 1/3 cup coconut oil melted
• 1  tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter
• 1/4 cup white chocolate, chopped

Mix the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. Melt your coconut oil (if needed) and then stir it with the soymilk, agave, vanilla, and egg replacer. Now combine it with your dry ingredients, and stir in the peanut butter and chocolate.

I actually only used the peanut butter in some of them, because I wasn’t sure if it would be good. (Answer: it was heavenly) So I did a practice round of these on Saturday, and then made a fresh batch for my V-tine last night. His didn’t have PB in them, and they were good that way too.

Left: with coconut, middle: just chocolate, right: with peanut butter

Seriously, if you’re looking for a chocolate craving, go make these. You won’t be disappointed!

If you didn’t see it yesterday, make sure to enter my PB2 Giveaway!

Now, I’m off to go read The Omnivore’s Dilemma... I loved In Defense of Food but I haven’t gotten around to this one yet. I’m pretty excited!

<3 Liz