Crazy Days

Hello!  Getting excited for the 4th yet??  I know I am!  We don’t even have real plans yet, but I know it’ll be great no matter what happens.  I mean, come one, GO AMERICA!!!

This morning was another one of those lovely mornings where I was not exactly a happy little girl.  I woke up in time to go running before work, had my work clothes on, and was ready to head out the door when I noticed I’d missed a call from my dad.  Dang it!  I realized that Keenan and I were supposed to go help him move a clothes dryer this morning.  So, I gave up on my run, hauled Keenan out of bed, drove to my father’s house, and pouted like a little girl because I didn’t get to go running.

We got back to our apartment with just enough time to shower and get ready to go (benefits of having food for work prepared beforehand.)  At some point, I made the decision that I was going to drive to work instead of the usual public transport.  I love getting to spend some extra time in the car with my boyfriend, especially on my grumpier days.  He’s kinda awesome.  I did miss breakfast/lunch in all the chaos, but I ate a peach on the road, and just dealt with being hungry until my first break at work. 

I brought some of my Red Cabbage Slaw with chickpeas to eat for my lunch.

Definitely just as good the second time around.  I will totally be making this again very soon!  It’s just so easy and delicious!

Along with it, I enjoyed a mix of fruit punch and Sierra Mist.

I’m not usually a big soda drinker, but I was craving something fruity and fizzy to help wake me up when I got to work, and this really hit the spot.  I continued sipping on this for the entire duration of my shift.

My second meal was a can of Wolfgang Puck’s lentil and vegetable soup.

I think this is one of my favorite canned lentil soups.  Lots of veggies mixed in with the lentils!

In other news,today I put in a request for a week off of work at the end of July.  What can we possibly be up to???  I’ll let you know when we know more details.

What do you have planning for the 4th??

I have nothing planned as of yet.  We’re definitely a bit along the spontaneous side when it comes to plans.  It’ll be totally sweet though, no matter what we end up doing!

Have a great night, and an amazing 4th of July!!

<3 Lindsay

PS. Check out this article from FitSugar- 20 Vegan Barbecue Side Dishes! Even if you’re a meat-eater, not EVERYTHING at your 4th of July BBQ needs to be loaded with meat and cheese!

Red Cabbage Slaw

Good evening my loves!  How’s it going on your side?  I’m doing pretty well.

Today was a pretty typical day at work.  The only things that were atypical were my meals.  I made myself a special treat yesterday in place of my usual salad that I am pretty darn impressed with.  Introducing, Red Cabbage Slaw!

Recipe to follow here in a moment.

My second meal was the leftovers from my Vegan Caprese Salad from last night.

Still just as tasty today!

I really wanted to get a Subway sandwich when I got to the ferry terminal, but when I checked for my debit card, I realized that I’d left my wallet at home. Tragedy!  My tummy’s just gonna have to be a bit hungry until I get home.  I suppose I can wait another hour and a half…

Anyway, time for my delicious recipe!

Red Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients (makes 4 side dish servings or 2 entree servings)

1/2 head red cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup Vegenaise
1.5T agave syrup
1T canola oil
1T apple cider vinegar
1/4t sea salt

Directions

1.  Put the shredded cabbage in a large mixing bowl.

 Add the carrot to the cabbage.

2.  In a separate bowl, add the remaining ingredients.

Whisk until smooth.

3.  Add the sauce to the cabbage/carrot mix and stir until the veggies are well coated with the sauce.

This recipe is slightly sweet and all natural.  I really liked it because it gave me a huge serving of raw veggies, just like my regular salad, but having a completely different combo allowed me to get a different nutrient profile from what I normally have in my lunch salad.  I’m definitely looking forward to consuming the other half of the recipe tomorrow!

Now I am off home on the super crazy ferry (it always gets hectic on the nights that there are Mariners games).  When I get home I plan on enjoying a quick snack and then going to bed.  I am a tired girl!

Have a wonderful night!

<3 Lindsay

HIIT and Breakfast

Good afternoon! 

 It’s an absolutely gorgeous day up here in Washington!  I hope you all are enjoying some beautiful weather as well!

I woke up this morning determined to run.  I immediately hopped out of bed, threw on some workout clothes and headed for the door.  According to my workout plan, today was supposed to be an HIIT day.   HIIT means High Intensity Interval Training.  It basically entails alternating between pushing yourself as hard as you can, and jogging, allowing your heart rate to recover.  The purpose is to reach your maximum heart rate at a few different points throughout your workout, thus making you work harder and boosting your performance in the long run.  HIIT workouts also tend to be shorter than normal training runs, because the intensity is so much higher.

This was my first time attempting HIIT without a treadmill, so I was a bit wary at first, but it actually went quite well.  I warmed up by jogging for five minutes, then began intervals of 30 seconds of full out sprinting followed by 90 seconds of jogging, for about 20 minutes, followed by another few minutes of jogging (I wanted to get to a round mileage point!). 

Garmin Stats:

I walked home, downed a huge glass of water, and jumped in the shower to get ready for work. 

Once I was dressed, I ate some Barbara’s cinnamon Puffins cereal with almond milk.

Now, I am sitting on the ferry on my way to work, sipping on a delicious green smoothie that my amazing boyfriend made for me.

Pretty sure this one has almond milk, spinach, a couple bananas, an orange, and frozen strawberries and blueberries.  Pretty fruity!

The rest of my day/weekend is going to be spent at the hospital delivering food trays to patients, but I do have a fun recipe to share with you later tonight, so be sure to check back!

<3 Lindsay

Vegan Caprese Salad

Good evening!  Hope you’re all doing well tonight!

I had a pretty lazy evening around the house.  I did come up with a pretty darn good recipe, though, if I do say so myself.  I picked up some basil and tomatoes at the grocery store today, so I decided to put them to good use and veganize a caprese salad.  A typical version of the salad would include fresh mozzarella cheese, but I decided to use baked tofu instead.

Vegan Caprese Salad

Ingredients

1 block extra firm tofu
1 tomato
15 basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Combine olive oil and minced garlic in a small container.  Slice the tofu into approximately 1/4 inch slices, and coat each slice in the oil and garlic.

2.  Place each slice in the baking pan, and cover the tofu in the remaining garlic from the mixture.  Baking for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

3.  While tofu is baking, cut the tomato into 1/4 inch slices.

4.  Once the tofu is golden brown, remove it from the oven.  On a plate, place two of the tofu slices.  Top them with a tomato slice.  Place three basil leaves on top of the tomato, and top them with another tomato slice.  Garnish with a sprig of basil. 

I ate two of these, and plan on saving the rest for my snack at work tomorrow evening.  It was amazing though.  One of my favorite things about summer is fresh, in-season tomatoes and basil.  Absolutely idyllic.  I love this vegan update of a classic dish.

Once dinner was complete, I sat back to chill out, watch a chick flick, paint my toenails, and sip on some Yogi Detox tea.

The movie was When in Rome, with Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

 The nail polish color of the evening was Mod-ern Girl by OPI.

The mid-movie snack was toast with vegan cream cheese.

And leftover berries from earlier.

The movie was meh, but the rest was good.  I now remember why I’m not a big fan of chick flicks.  They’re just too cheesy and ridiculous.  However, I’m about to completely contradict myself and go watch Emma in bed.  Old-school Gwyneth, and quite good.  Plus I re-read the book this past winter.  I can’t help myself.

Have a great night!

<3 Lindsay

Beach Picnic

This morning Keenan, Arlo, and I woke up and immediately headed out of the house to get some chores out of the way.  We went and paid our rent, then went to Fred Meyer to stock up on some groceries.  Our food supply has been lacking lately, so we spent quite a bit of time at the grocery store finding the essentials.  Let me tell you, we now have an AMAZING fruit collection.  I’m stoked.

Since it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to grab some ready-to-eat food to eat down at the waterfront, picnic style.  I tried a new flavor of kombucha, Guava Goddess.

It was quite good.  Not quite as much bite as the flavor that I usualy get; probably because it doesn’t contain lemon juice.  If you haven’t discovered kombuca yet, I urge you to try it.  It has weird stuff floating in it, but it’s just cultures of good bacteria that will make their home in your gut and keep the bad microbes at bay.  It tastes like fizzy juice, I just wouldn’t recommend taking a direct sniff of the bottle (take it from one who knows!).

The main course of my picnic brunch was some brown rice veggie sushi.

I ate a little over half the container with some soy sauce and ginger.  I hadn’t had sushi since becoming vegan, so it was a nice treat to find some that I could eat!

While I ate my little brunch I sat on the stairs and watched my boys play on the beach.

May I just say that my puppy dog smells significantly like rotting sea life now?? Ew!  Time for a puppy bath!

When we got home, Keenan left for work, and I ate a few berries for some workout fuel.

My workout consisted of a circuit that I borrowed from Julie’s blog, and modified for my fitness level. (She is in wayyyyy better shape than I am!)  Then I went on a three mile run around the park.

Garmin Shot:

Today has definitely been a great day so far, now I’m off to make dinner.  One nice thing about being home alone some evenings is that I get to make dinner without having to worry about anyones tastes but my own! 

<3 Lindsay

Office Space

Hey guys!  How have you been??  Sorry I’ve been MIA all week.  It’s just been one of those weeks.

Since I last posted, I have worked a bit, played a bit, gone out to dinner a couple times (including a terrible experience at a restaurant with an incredible waterfront view that had something to do with an iceburg salad and a Boca burger. Ew.), and gone shopping with my wonderful boyfriend.  I got some new Toms! 

Oh em gee. I thought I loved my black Toms, but this is the real thing.  They’re amazing.  And bright.  And another little kid in a third world country got a new pair of shoes!  Toms may be cute and super comfortable, but really the One for One thing is really what makes me love them more than anything.

Today was a pretty typical work day.  I started out with a iced vente soy chai.

Then I got to work and realized how crazy the hospital was today.  Come on people, quit getting sick already!  You’re cramping my style!

Isn't the uniform adorable??

Thank goodness for breaks.  For my first meal I bought a bowl of Yukon Gold potato soup from the cafeteria.

I went back to work and sipped on some Tazo Zen green tea with lemon.

My lunch was a salad that had been waiting in the breakroom fridge for me since yesterday afternoon when I decided to buy something instead of eating what I brought.  I guess I was hungry, because I didn’t notice that I didn’t snap a photo until it was almost gone.

Spring mix, spinach, shredded carrot, cucumber, avocado, sunflower seeds and Goddess. 

I answered about 5 billion more phone calls in the office, then munched on some organic split pea soup. 

I still can’t remember the name of this soup brand, but it’s no salt added, and I DEFINTELY have to add my own salt.  I’m pretty sure Keenan put a bunch of sea salt on it before I left, but I tasted it, then ran and grabbed three salt packets and two pepper packets from the cafeteria condiments to add to it.  With my alterations it was perfection.  This may look like green mush, but like so many other foods (green smoothies, anyone?) appearances can be deceiving.

I finished up my work day, and headed out.  As soon as I left the office Keenan texted me to let me know that they let him off of work early!  Tonight’s looking to be pizza and movie night in our household!  Combine that with tomorrow being a day off, plus payday, and I am a pretty happy camper.

Do you have any packaged foods that you doctor up to make extra tasty?

I will definitely salt up my soups if necessary.  Added salt generally shouldn’t be a problem for you unless you have a pre-existing heart condition, which I do not.  Of course, you can also find me liberally adding hot sauce to many dishes, as well. 

Have a wonderful night!

<3 Lindsay

Runner Envy

Hola, mi amigos! How’s the weekend going??

Mine started out a little frantic. (Is this becoming a recurring theme??) I dropped my Blackberry Thursday night and after lasting me just fine through the last year, it finally decided to give up and give me the white screen of death. After shelling out $100 to the phone insurance company, I should have a new phone on Monday. Today, however, was not Monday. It was Saturday, I had to be up at 8, and I had no reliable alarm clock.

Last night when Keenan got home, around 2am, he set his phone alarm for me, and we went to sleep. We woke up this morning to Arlo puppy kisses, and I rolled over and asked Keenan what time it was. He checked his phone, and mumbled, “Oh crap.” We had slept in until 9. I promptly got up and starting scurrying around the house trying to get ready.

Luckily, I had tried to be a good girlfriend the night before, and had packed all my own food for today, plus Keenan had brought me some food back from the restaurant, so I was all set in that department. I was ready in half an hour, and made it to my ferry with no problem at all.

When I arrived in Seattle this morning, a surprise awaited me. I had completely forgotten that this morning was the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon, and I entered Seattle to the sight of a bunch of people in spandex with big yellow signs on their chests. Honestly, I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I almost started crying. I was so jealous that all those amazing people were out there running their hearts out, culminating months of training, and living out their dreams. I wanted to be them.

I have been so frustrated lately with my crazy schedule, my complete lack of free weekends, and now having my boyfriend coming home in the middle of the night most nights because of his job. I’m trying to handle this stress as well as I can, but since I barely have time to run (my anti-anxiety drug of choice), it’s getting incredibly hard for me. I run as often as I can, but I itch for it every morning that I wake up and I know that I won’t have the opportunity. As I announced a few days ago, I am still planning on participating in the Whale of a Run on July 30th, and will be training as much as my schedule allows.  I’m also spending a considerable amount of time in serious thought about the direction I want to take my life right now, mostly career-wise.  Obviously, something needs to change.  I’m just not sure what, at this point.

Sorry, for my incredibly long rant.  I honestly didn’t plan on going that far into negativity town, but one of my favorite things about my blog is that it really does give me the opportunity to express myself, and anything that I’m feeling at a given time.  Thank you so much for your readership and support.  It means the world to me. 

On that note, let’s see what I took to eat at work today!

I downed a giant green smoothie for breakfast on the ferry this morning.  I made it myself, with coconut water, chai seeds, vanilla Sun Warrior, frozen blueberries, frozen strawberries, banana and spinach.  I added extra strawberries, so it was kinda brown, but EXTRA good!  I wish I’d had a chance to snap a picture!

My lunch was this amazing Mediterranean wrap that Keenan brought me home from the restaurant last night.

It was loaded with their delicious in-house-made hummus, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, red onion, and white balsamic dressing.

My salad for the day was a bit different than usual.

Spring mix, tomato, red onion, mushrooms, chickpeas, quinoa, and Goddess.  It was definitely a good combo, but adding a grain (well, technically a seed) to the salad just made it a bit too heavy for me.  I love my afternoon salads because of how light and energizing they are, but this one didn’t have quite the same effect.  Definitely a good choice if you want something a bit heartier than a basic veggie salad though!

My dinner was more quinoa, with kidney beans, frozen veggie mix (broccoli, caulifower, and carrots) and tamari.  By the time dinnertime arrived the veggies had thawed, and I just warmed it all up in the microwave, as usual.  It was a great combo.  Unfortunately, I forgot to grab pics before it was gone.  My bad…

Time for me to head home and try to go to sleep with my Ar dog, so I can try to have a slightly more sane day tomorrow.  I just have to keep telling myself, it’s almost Monday!  Keenan and I are both going to have Monday and Tuesday off.  I really excited to have a whole “weekend” to spend with my amazing boyfriend.

Hope you have a great night!

<3 Lindsay

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Good afternoon, folks! 

I am still on a roll with the sleeping in thing.  I stayed in bed until almost 12:30pm today, before finally getting up and preparing for work.

Last night was pretty fun.  As soon as I finished blogging last night, I realized that we were out of frozen berries, and decided to make a trip to Costco to grab a bag of frozen strawberries.  Frozen berries are kind of an essential in our household, since they’re a critical part of a great green smoothie.

On my drive out to Silverdale the weather was acting all sorts of crazy.  It was bright sunny, but pouring down rain at the same time!  Washington is totally crazy sometimes.  When I got to the Costco parking lot I looked up and saw a gorgeous double rainbow in the sky.  I tried snapping a few photos, but I realized later on that my data card was still in my computer at home.  I could have smacked myself.

I grabbed that bag of strawberries at Costco, and also came out with a large container of fresh blueberries, a flat of granny smith apples, and a giant bag of tortilla chips.  I actually ended up freezing the majority of the blueberries, as well, and leaving a few out for my snacking pleasure.

Hitting up Barnes and Noble was next on my agenda, but I couldn’t find any books that really caught my interest, so I went next door to World Market.  World Market is like a candy store to me.  So many fun things to ooh and aah over!  I left with a package of soba noodles and four fun placemats to use for food photography, and then headed to Target to check out the new food department.

Our Target recently went through a major re-model to make room for a whole mini-grocery store in the back, including some produce.  I picked up a few things, including a couple of ingredients for my dinner and soem merlot.

By the time I got home I was starving again, so I quickly poured myself a glass of wine and started putting dinner together.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

4 bell peppers
1/2 large onion
1 carrot, peeled
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 cups quinoa, cooked with veggie broth
1/4 cup Daiya shredded mozzarella

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 375F.  Chop onion, mushrooms and carrot into 1/4 inch pieces.

2.  Coat a saute pan with cooking spray, and cook the onion, mushroom, and carrot for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

3.  Once the mushrooms are soft, remove from heat, add the peas and quinoa, and mix until combined.

4.  Cut the tops off of the bell peppers and remove the insides.  Place in a baking pan, and fill each pepper with the quinoa mixture.  Top each pepper with a sprinkling of Daiya shredded mozzarella, and bake for 30-40 minutes.

5.  Enjoy!!

These peppers are fantastic.  Please do yourself a favor and make them asap!!

Anywho, I hope your day totally rocks!  I am off to work!

<3 Lindsay

Sleeping In

Good evening!  I can’t believe how late it is already!  I slept in until 1pm again, so I guess 5:45 just feels early.  After doing the Shred plus four miles yesterday, I’m sure my body needed plenty of extra rest.

After waking up I quickly ate an organic plum from our CSA box, and Keenan and I took Arlo on a walk to the library to return some movies that we had borrowed.

When we arrived home, I popped the top on a Zevia ginger root beer, while Keenan made me a snack.

My snack ended up being two slices of toasted David’s Killer powerseed bread with sunflower seed butter.

I am seriously addicted to sunflower seed butter.  After I picked some up at Trader Joe’s last weekend I have been eating it on everything.  The other night I even had some tortillas rolled up with sunflower seed butter.  Yum!

Once Keenan left for work, I took off on a nice three mile run.

As sore as I was from my workout yesterday, I was feeling pretty sluggish out there.  Even when I would feel like I was running really hard, I would look down at my Garmin and realize that I wasn’t going all that fast at all, by my standards.

After completing my run, I walked home and made myself a green smoothie for recovery.

This ugly, but tasty treat included frozen strawberries, a banana, raspberries, coconut milk, vanilla Sun Warrior, chia seeds, and beet greens.  Spinach may be the most popular green smoothie green choice, but it’s certainly not the only choice.  Kale, chard, and collards can all be used, plus less common greens, like those from beets.  It doesn’t really affect the flavor, but it changes up the nutrient profile, plus keeps me from throwing away a major portion of the beets that I received in my CSA box.

I have a feeling that I am going to have an evening of cooking, vegging, and movie watching.  If you have any other suggestions of things for me to do while my boyfriend is at work, please leave a comment!

<3 Lindsay

Dinner in Half an Hour

Good evening bloggys!  Doing well, I hope!

After I last talked to you, I grabbed a handful of cashews, and headed out for my run.

I decided to run around the bridges by my house.

I continued running around the park until I reached my goal distance of four miles, then walked home.

That is the first time I’ve run four miles since last year.  I felt incredibly strong the entire time, and I kept thinking how good it feels to be out accomplishing something for yourself.  That’s really probably one of my favorite reasons to exercise.  You never regret a workout.

When I got back in I made myself a green juice from a recipe I had seen posted on Katelyn’s blog earlier today.

This:

Became this:

 Juice always makes me feel so energized, and this blend was particularly light and refreshing!

Once my juice was gone, and I had relaxed a bit I set about making dinner.  I wanted something quick, easy, and nutritious, and this meal accomplished that goal perfectly.

Instructions:

1.  Put water on to boil for desired amount of quinoa, adding boullion to the water.  Preheat the oven to 400F.

2.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Put frozen green beans in a gallon-size plastic bag, along with a bit of olive oil and a minced garlic clove.  Shake until the beans are evenly coated in oil, then place on the baking sheet in a single layer, and bake for 20 minutes.  Add quinoa to broth, once it comes to a boil, then turn down low to simmer.

3.  Make Mmmm Sauce and set aside.

4.  Open a can of kidney beans, rinse, and set aside.

5.  Once the quinoa and the green beans have finished cooking, place some quinoa, kidney beans, and green beans all on a plate, and cover in Mmmm Sauce.

So delicious, but so easy. 

Nothing for me to do now, but sit back, cuddle with my puppy dog,  and wait for my boyfriend to get home from work!

Have a wonderful night!

<3 Lindsay