My days are completely messed up because of being on break from work- today felt like Saturday all day (which is totally fine by me!) I slept in a bit and when I got up I munched on a bowl of oats and sipped a red rocks tea latte before my PT appointment.

The oats were made with water, cinnamon and vanilla bean and topped with a spoonful of better n’ pb. For the latte I used a new kitchen gadget that Isaac got me – a mini milk frother. I heated 1/3 cup of almond milk, frothed it and poured it on top of my tea. Just as good as Starbucks and much cheaper!

Physical therapy went well. Today I received my second dry needling session in hopes of loosening up the muscles in my left thigh. My first dry needling session definitely helped loosen my back muscles but didn’t stop the tingling completely so hopefully loosening the tightness in my leg will help. I’m a little sore this evening but that’s normal. I really hope to see a vast improvement with the tingling in my leg soon!

I swung by Ell on my way home for some salad toppers – a little protein (Twin Oaks tofu), a tofu dill spread and sun-dried tomatoes. Once home I put the toppings on a bowl of romaine, sugar snap peas and mushrooms. It turned out to be quite the salad:

While in line to check out at Ell I ran into a blog reader who lives in the area. Hi Ashley – it was great to meet you!

After fighting on the phone with Best Buy for over an hour about a defective computer battery (ugh!) I made it to the gym before the after-work rush. 25 minutes walking on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the elliptical and some arm strengthening exercises later I was home making Quinoa Chickpea Confetti Casserole from ED&BV. We’ve made it before with zucchini instead of fennel and loved it so this time I tired the fennel and decided to use red quinoa instead of regular. We definitely liked the addition of the fennel and the red quinoa didn’t change the flavor of the dish at all.

Quinoa, bell pepper, chick peas, fennel, lots of spices and Balsamic Maple Sauce (another recipe from ED&BV) make this dish healthy, satisfying and delish!

After dinner I had a mug of hot tea with a teaspoon of deliciousness a.k.a Chai Spice Honey, a gift from one my best friends who knows I love tea. <– Thanks Jess!

The honey is a blend of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and white honey. It adds a sweet, warm spiciness to tea. So good!

Today was my first attempt at trying to get back on track after indulging a little too much these past few months. I ate all the meals pictured here along with a few Equal Exchange tamari roasted almonds (stocking stuffers from Santa), dried cranberries and a navel orange as snacks. No cookies, no babka and no chocolate – score!

Last but not least, I got my hair cut today at Red Salon Organics. I’ve had trouble finding a hair salon and stylist I really like here in Richmond but today’s experience was great. I like the fact that they use organic hair products and most important- I like my cut! I’ll definitely be going back.

I hope you had a lovely Tuesday!

Question of the day – What do you do to get back on track after eating unhealthfully? For me, I try to stick with whole foods (whole grains, protein, healthy fats, veggies and fruit) for meals and cut back on sweets, processed foods and snacks.

Thank you so much for the kind comments, emails and tweets. I really appreciate it – knowing that I had all of you sending positive vibes my way definitely helped to make me feel better yesterday.

After your words of encouragement it was time for me to say, “out with the frozen meals, in with the fresh produce, fermented foods and homemade tasty treats!!”

Not dissin’ Amy’s, because I really do LOVE her products – especially the Indian Mattar Paneer, but I was in need of some fresh veggies.

After an impromptu appointment with the Physical Therapist mid-morning, I packed a simple lunch to take back to work – salad with cucs, tomatoes, roasted red peppers and goddess dressing, carrots, and plain greek yogurt with the last of my Galaxy granola.

Post work I met up with Isaac’s mom at Whole Food’s for a Kombucha and Kimchi demonstration led by Tim.

As I’ve learned more about healthy eating, I’ve become increasingly interested in fermented/cultured foods because they are, among other things, great for restoring good bacteria and improving digestion. Although I’ll admit that until recently, the majority of fermented things I consumed had alcohol in them.

Since reading other healthy food blogs I’ve learned about the wonders of fermented foods (hello, my dear friend kombucha) and even made my own yogurt. Needless to say, I was pretty pumped to see a Kombucha and Kimchi making class on the Whole Food’s calendar. <– Especially since GT’s is off the market for the moment.

Pounding the cabbage with a meat hammer helps to release the juices.

Kimchi ingredients (Napa cabbage, carrots, scallions, diakon, ginger, garlic, chili flakes and sea salt) chopped and ready for fermentation.

Tim showed us how to prep both the kombucha and kimchi but of course, we weren’t able to taste what he prepared because it takes days for each to ferment (about 8-12 days for kombucha and 4 for kimchi). Lucky for us, Tim brought some kombucha from home to share with the class.

Also exciting was the fact that Isaac’s mom won the giveaway of a kombucha baby and the prepared tea. She’s going to start the batch and then give me the baby so I can start my own – I can’t wait!!

If you’re interested in making your own kombucha or fermented veggies I’d highly recommend checking out the Pure2Raw Twin’s kombucha video tutorials and their post on making your own fermented vegetables. These ladies know their stuff!!

Also, here’s a great link about the benefits of eating fermented foods.

After the demo the hot bar/salad bar was calling our names (per the usual when visiting Whole Foods).

I did what I normally do and filled up my container with spring mix and then piled a bunch of salads and veggies on top. One of my favorite dishes at Whole Foods is the Cracklin’ Cauliflower – it’s spicy and super tasty. I need to try remaking it at home!

The class must have inspired me because when I got home I made some Super Charge Me cookies and almond milk.

Best. cookies. ever!

The cookies are for Isaac to share with his Frisbee team, but of course I had to taste test one last night (and this morning) – just to make sure they were suitable to share. As for the almond milk, I followed Gena’s Almond Milk recipe and it turned out great – although I do see myself needing a nut milk bag in the near future if I want to continue making my own. I also realize that if I plan to make all these fermented goodies I need some Ball’s Glass jars ASAP!

As you can probably tell from this post – I am a bit cheerier today (your comments really did help)! I just polished off breakfast of iced coffee and banana overnight oats, both of which used the homemade almond milk.

Here’s the Banana Overnight Oat recipe I follow.

And last but not least, I realized that we have the cutest mushrooms growing in our backyard!

Today’s going to be a good day!

-Brittany

A funny thing happened the other morning. I was eating breakfast and Isaac asked if I wanted coffee and I said, “No, I’m too hot for coffee,” as I proceeded to eat my oats in a jar.

I was too hot for coffee but not too hot for oatmeal, that’s totally normal right?

And, when your jar of nut butter looks like this, you know it’s time for oats in a jar.

Although I still crave warm oats from time to time in the warmer months, I have realized that it’s just way too hot to be sipping hot beverages this time of the year. I started thinking ahead and 3 nights this week I’ve brewed green tea, let it cool, put it in the fridge overnight, and woke up to a iced mangosteen green tea the next morning.

STASH has a great selection of high quality teas.

Most tea bags, including Stash, suggest that when making iced tea you should brew the tea double strength. This means that you use twice as much tea as normal (aka two bags instead of one for 8oz) and steep for just 3 minutes. This works better than using 1 bag and steeping for twice the amount of time because often times the tea will get bitter.

I used 4 bags the first time and made 16 oz, then for the sake of saving some cash money, I tried making 16 oz with only 2 bags. I could hardly tell the difference so I’m fine without brewing it double strength. I’m sure it’s different for different types and brands of tea so it might take a little trial and error with your favorite tea.

Iced Green Tea

• Heat desired amount of water on the stove top until just about boiling
• Turn heat off, add tea bags and steep, covered for about 3-5 minutes
• Take the tea bags out and allow the tea to cool.

Once it’s cool you can pour it over ice and serve immediately or put it in a container with a lid and place it in the fridge to get even colder. I like to put mine in the fridge overnight and wake up to cold green tea in the morning.

It’s cool, refreshing, and much cheaper than a Starbuck’s Iced Green Tea.

In other news, look what was waiting on my doorstep when I came home for lunch today!

A FruitGuys TakeHome pack.

FruitGuys contacted me to tell me about their organic fruit and veggie delivery service and offered to send me one of their fruit and veggie packs to try it out. I’m a lover of all things produce so of course I was up for this delivery. In addition, I liked the idea behind the company, which was founded on the premise that bringing healthy brain food to the office can boost productivity, improve wellness and help companies improve their bottom lines.

They offer to send the goods to offices or homes, and focus on providing produce to the American workforce by getting companies on board to purchase weekly deliveries of fruit for their employees. Pretty cool, huh?

The produce changes from day to day to bring the purchaser fresh, seasonal, mostly-local produce. Here’s the Fruit and Veggie selection for the East Coast this week:

My package  included the exact items listed on the website- rhubarb (Florida), apples (Washington State), oranges (California), grapefruit (Florida), basil (Florida), mushrooms (Pennsylvania) , parsnips (Pennsylvania), and romaine lettuce (California)!!

It’s like a CSA delivery without having to leave your house.

It even came with a info sheet with a description of Rhubarb (which I needed because I’ve never had it before!) and two recipes – one for Spiced Cauliflower and Parsnip Soup and the other for Strawberry Orange Rhubarb Muffins.

I put the Crimini mushrooms to use for lunch.

I threw together some veggies, leftover grains (bulgur and quinoa), protein (pressed plain tofu) and used the leftover peanut sauce from my spring rolls as the dressing. It was filling and super tasty. I loved the combo of flavors.

And for dinner, I used more of the leftover peanut sauce for spicy peanut baked tofu with millet and green beans.

Spicy Peanut Baked Tofu

Ingredients:

• 1 package of extra firm tofu, pressed to remove liquid and cubed

Sauce:

• 1/8 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 T tamari
• 2 T rice vinegar
• 1 T white miso
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I added extra)

Preparation:

1. Mix sauce together until well blended.

2. Pour the sauce over the tofu and stir to cover all the pieces.

3. Marinate the tofu in peanut sauce, in a covered container in the fridge for at least an hour. I marinated mine for about 5-6 hours.

2. Pre-heat oven to 350° and bake the tofu for 30-40 minutes on a non-stick pan.

It came out looking like the chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a (favorite food flashback for me) and tasted textured, kind of crispy, and a bit peanuty. Overall, very very tasty. It might become my go-to tofu recipe! And, I’ll definitely be making the peanut sauce again. It’s so versatile – I’ve used it for 3 different dishes over the past 2 days!

Okay I’m off to hit the hay – tomorrow is Friday! Who’s excited?

-Brittany

Hi Friends. I hope you enjoyed the lovely guest posts over the past few days. While away I’ve been soaking up the sun and enjoying California to the fullest. Since I was young, I’ve always said I wanted to live in California and this trip, which was packed with scenic views, shopping, healthy food options, Farmer’s Markets, and amazing weather only heightened that desire. Who knows- maybe at some point my California dream will come true and we’ll get to move out West!!

With all that said, here’s all the fun stuff I’ve been up over the past few days:

1.) Making green smoothies to share with Laurel. This one had unsweetened vanilla almond milk, frozen banana, fresh kale from the garden, and Jay Robb’s vanilla protein powder.

They had glass straws at the house we were staying at and I was so excited to try them out. It was fun to sip out of, plus it’s eco-friendly and easy to clean. I think I might need to get myself a few asap. The blender didn’t fully chop the kale as the Vitamix would but we actually liked the added texture, plus the vanilla Jay Robb’s was super sweet. This was actually my first time with Mr. Robb and I must say, he’s a winner. I hope HEAB doesn’t mind sharing her man.

2.) Trying out a new yoga class and having a delicious raw meal with friends. Laurel was invited to a Taoist yoga class in downtown Ventura by a friend she met at Expo West. <– BTW, I’m still jealous that she got to attend the Expo!!

So we took a day trip to Yoga Jones for the class and it was much different than any other yoga class I’ve ever attended.

Most people in the US practice styles like Vinyasa or Hatha, which originated in India. Taoist yoga, also called Yin and Yang Yoga, is from China and includes postures of stillness and movement for promoting growth, clearing energetic blockages, enhancing circulation, developing core strength, muscle tone, balance, and stamina.

Taoist yoga consists of three primary objectives:

1. Increase your life force, which consequently expands life all around you. This is accomplished through the breath.
2. Build awareness of self through the unity of the relationship between mind, body, and breath, and transform that into a sense of peace.
3. Use movement to improve health and the mind-body connection.

Other principles of the practice include:

• Practice non-violence, or ahimsa. This also means treating your body with respect, and not pushing yourself in any way to the point of tension.
• Motion is medicine. This is a common theme in Eastern body movements in that, by taking the body through a series of regenerative postures, blockages are released and the body is set upon a course of healing.
• Respect the breath as the life force. Taoist yoga practitioners use breath as the absolute foundation for every motion, every thought.
• Everything small is big. In Tao, the belief is that all big things are made from small things, thus everything small is big. This is a simple of an explanation as it gets, but it’s a way of demonstrating that how we treat ourselves individually radiates into the world. (Source)

The class draws from 5 different elements – fire, earth, water, metal, and wood. The poses are somewhat similar to that of Indian styles, only they have different names and the movements are less rigid and more fluid. And, here are a few differences I noticed from the class itself- no yoga mats, everyone wore looser fitting clothing and kept their socks on, It took a while to loosen up and get used to the fluid movements, but overall it was a fun and super relaxing class. If you’re interested in learning more about it be sure to check out Paulie Zink’s website. As you’ll see from his website, he’s one flexible man!

Yoga convened and we headed to our yoga teacher’s place for a raw meal. She was a sweetheart and had raw treats ready to share with us when we arrived.

Lydia’s Organics Italian crackers that tasted like wholesome bread after being dipped in water for a bit.

Cornerstone Living Foods Crunchy Raw Flax Crisps

These treats were tasty but not as good as the raw crackers the Pure2Raw twins make.

Delicious guacamole seasoned with dulse in place of sea salt.

Zucchini noodles.

A massive, massive, salad!

Here’s the whole picnic style setup for four with the salad, noodles, raw marinara sauce, tomatoes, turmeric, broccoli, sprouts, and an amazing homemade dressing.

Amazing, right?

Here’s my bowl before filling it with deliciousness.

And here it is after.

Everything was so delicious and Laurel and I had such a lovely time sharing a great meal with two amazingly generous people, Shanti and Shan. We ended up chatting all evening and found some a unique synergy between us all. For example, through our conversations we found out that Shanti works for Nutivas, the company I get my coconut oil and hemp protein from. It’s such a small world!!

3.) City Touring. Laurel has a freelance job demoing Sea Snax (more on them later as I have a bit of info to share). Each day she was at a different organic food market in L.A. demoing the product. Isaac and I tagged along with her and explored whatever part of the city she was stationed in. Of course, I also took it upon myself to explore all the organic markets including Erewhon, the Santa Monica Co-Op, and multiple Whole Foods locations- a health foodies dream!

While she setup shop at the Pasadena Whole Foods we went to check out the Rose Bowl and then strolled around the shopping district.

The best part: I visited a Lululemon store for the first time ever!! I didn’t buy anything this time around, but I now have a strong desire for a pair of Wunder Under Crops. Now I just need to save for a couple weeks.
We also stopped by another little shop that caught my eye, Bird Pick.

The sign is fitting, no?

I couldn’t resist one of their teas and ordered a unsweetened Tropical Sunrise.

So tasty. I sipped on this while Isaac was continued his L.A. burger tour and went to Jake’s Burgers. I saved my appetite for lunch with Laurel back at Whole Foods- the $5.99 salad/hot bar was calling my name.

I got my usual – spring mix topped with tons of the signature salads and veggies. Twas delicious!

4.) Hiking. Over the course of the week we also did a lot of hiking and sight seeing. Beautiful views and a great workout – what could be better?

This one was taken right around the corner from where the house we were staying at in the Hollywood Hills.

The skyline.

Laurel aka best L.A. tour guide ever.

Hiking to the Griffith Observatory – per Lynn’s recommendation!

Hiking to the infamous Hollywood sign. The crazy part is that when you get to the top of the trail you’re actually behind and above the sign (up near the satellites) rather than in front of it.

I find it amazing that just a few miles outside of L.A. you can find some challenging hiking spots with fabulous views of the city.

And, here’s a little reel of photobooth style photos of the mister and I from the top of the observatory.

There’s more to share, but I don’t want this post to go on forever and get boring so I’ll save the best (lots of yummy food) for later.

I hope you’re having an excellent weekend.

- Brittany

What a day! Did anyone else wake up to blizzard like conditions? I popped out of bed all ready to hit up the gym only to realize it was snowing… again. We weren’t suppose to get much snow so I decided I should still go. Although I did play it safe by driving Isaac’s (4 wheel drive) vehicle. It’s a good thing I did – everything was cool on the way there, but the way back was treacherous. Not only were the roads slick, but heavy winds were blowing the snow every which way. I went 5-10 mph the for the entire drive home while listening to the radio and realizing schools were closing left and right. I came home and realized that my office was closed and everyone was working from home. It was definitely nice to stay at home with Isaac (since he was off school as well).

After getting everything straight I was starving. I made some stove top pumpkin oats, using a mixture that I had prepared the night before and left in the fridge to do its thing, and by thing I mean, get creamy. The mix: 1/2 cup oatmeal, almond milk, and water mixed with 3 tablespoons of canned pumpkin, cinnamon, stevia, and raisins.

The blob on top is chocolate tofu pudding I made as an after din snack in honor of this lovepie. It was frothy and quite tasty, but the recipe hasn’t been perfected so I’m not going to post it just yet.

I also had a mug of Climber’s High tea.

Oh yea, I wanted to show you all what I use to steep loose leaf tea – it’s an Finum mug size brewing basket that a friend gave to me as a gift during college. I use it almost everyday and love it.

Obviously a high energy tea was necessary for sitting on the couch all day with Olive snuggled beside me.

Despite being home with a fridge full of food, I was craving Indian for lunch so I heated up my favorite Amy’s meal.

I snacked on a little granola

Notice how the bag is almost empty and it’s only been 1 week. It’s that good. Almost better than the Raisin Cinnamon, but not quite. I think they’re about equal.

So crunchy!!

For dinner I made a new recipe starring some tomatoes that were canned from Isaac’s parents’ garden last summer.

Tofu, that doesn’t look like tofu

And, frozen basil cubes that I picked up for the first time this weekend at TJ’s.

Just want I need, considering the state of our basil plant.

The final dish, Tofu Tomato Sauce with ww noodles, turned out looking like this:

This homemade creation was WAY better than plain ol spaghetti — with no meat or dairy!

I promise I’ll share the recipe at some point, but I’m submitting it to the Nasoya Tofu recipe contest!

Boo. I feel badly that I tried out two new recipes and didn’t share either, but I shall have them for you soon enough. Just don’t leave me.

-Brittany