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!

❤ Lindsay

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Good evening!

Depsite yet another night with less than five hours of sleep, I actually had a pretty chill day.  I wasn’t even that tired, although I think it’s finally starting to hit me.

This morning, I purposely slept in and let myself make the hour and a half drive over to Seattle, instead of waking up early enough to catch the ferry.  An extra hour of sleep was definitely worth it, even if my hair did go straight out of the shower into a messy bun, and I’m not wearing any makeup.

Since I was driving, I stopped by Samudra Yoga before heading out of town to grab some breakfast.  I ended up with a 20 oz iced chai with rice milk.

Plus a vegan pumpkin muffin.

I really can’t get enough of their vegan treats.

On my first break I grabbed a coconut curry wrap from the hospital cafeteria.

I had yet another good experience with these wraps from Globespun Gourmet.  It was super yummy.

A bit later I had a salad that I packed for myself last night.

Spring mix, chickpeas, yellow bell pepper, cucumber, avocado, sunflower seeds, and Goddess.  I think the avocado plus my usual amount of dressing was a bit much though.  It was a bit too oily for my taste.  Still tasty though!

My last break I had a bowl of organic lentil soup mixed with some sea salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.

That’s it so far for food today.  I’m sure I’ll grab a snack when I get home though.

Since I was in such a bad mood yesterday, I decided that today I would do a post about the things that I totally love at the moment.  I figure, if I force myself to think about positive things, then my mood will take a turn for the positive, and it actually did help!  Here’s the list I came up with:

1. My favorite boy, Keenan.  Well, duh.

Keenan and I at a concert back in September

2. My favorite puppy, Arlo.  Especially how excited he gets when I come home from work, and his awesome cuddling abilities.

3.  My favorite role-models, the parents.

4.  My favorite shoes this summer, my Tom’s and my Rainbows.  I live in these (along with my Havaianas).

5. My favorite dressing.

6.  My favorite True Religion jeggings. 

7.  My favorite way to sleep in when the sun is shining in my window is using this eye mask. I got it at Victoria’s Secret a few years ago.

8.  My favorite vegan cookbooks.  I use post-its to mark the recipes that I want to try.

9.  My favorite sunglasses that I wear pretty much everyday, rain or shine. 

10.  My favorite water bottle, the 40 oz Kleen Kanteen.

11.  My favorite workout, running.

12.  My favorite weather, sunshine.

11.  My favorite storage device, Ball jars.

13.  My favorite days, “weekends”! 

Speaking of which, I’m about to go start my “weekend”!  I hope you have a fabulous week!

What are some of your favorite things? 

❤ 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!

❤ 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!

❤ 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!

❤ 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!

❤ Lindsay

Cleaning Day

Today was another sleep in day for our household.  Since I had the day off, and Keenan didn’t have to go in to work until 3pm, we lounged around until about noon, before we finally got up and moving.

I started off the day with a delicious nectarine fron Monday’s CSA box.

Then we headed out to Fred Meyer to pick up some food essentials that we’re low on, and I grabbed myself a Kombucha just for fun.

I also managed to smuggle some organic raspberries into the cart, and ate half the container as soon as we got home.

Keenan left for work, and I got busy with some house-cleaning.

First, I attacked our crazy sink full/counter full/table full of dishes, and cleaned up the sink area.

I’d show you the “before” picture, but you’d probably never talk to me again.

Then, I cleaned off the stove, which was also so dirty that I was disgusted with myself.

Don’t we have the tiniest, most ghetto little stove ever??  Once, we got a pizza from Papa Murphys, and we actually have to cut in in half to fit it in the oven.  Sad.

At this point, I definitely needed a snack.  It may not look like much work, but, like I said, you didn’t see the “before” pictures. 

I toasted some frozen gluten-free Nature’s Path waffles, drizzled them with sunflower seed butter, and added a few more raspberries.

It was perfection.  And it gave me the energyI needed to vacuum the apartment, take apart the vacuum to unclog it, re-vacuum the living room, and get in a level one workout from Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred.  I still don’t have the guts to move up to level two, even though level one is getting easier for me.  Some of the strength toward the end is still pretty rough for me, so I figure I’ll give it another shot or two, before boosting the intensity.

Now, I’m going to grab a little snack, head out for a run, and come home and fix dinner.

What have you done to get moving today??

❤ Lindsay

Vegan Stereotypes

Hey you!  How are you tonight?  Fabulous, I hope! 🙂

I started out this morning in a bit of a rush, and downed some Tazo green ginger tea with Truvia and a green smoothie in the car on the way to work.  Have you noticed that mornings really aren’t my thing??

When I got to the hospital, I quickly scarfed down a tray of french fries with ketchup.  I was in enough of a hurry that I didn’t bother snapping any pics.

When my first break rolled around, I quickly searched the cafeteria to see what the vegan offering were for the day, and ended up with two hard-shell tacos containing black beans, brown rice, lettuce, pico de gallo and hot chipotle salsa.

By the time I finished the shells, my plate still looked like this.

So, of course, I just shoveled the rest in with a fork.  Can’t miss any of that delicious good-ness!

After answering phones for a couple more hours, I got another break and ate my lovely salad.

Keenan actually surprised me today, by making me a Mexi-salad, in place of my usual.  Not much of a change, but he used salsa in place of salad dressing, and loaded me up with some tortilla chips to munch along side.  Or on top.

It was sooo good.  Props to Keenan for the great idea!

On my last break, I found some brown rice with onions and peppers that looked really yummy.

And it really was yummy!  I didn’t get anything more than that because (1) nothing looked good, and (2) I knew that I’d be munching more at home tonight, as I always do.  I actually usually snack quite a bit at night, even though I almost never post my nighttime snacks.  That could be a fun post one of these days…

Vegan Stereotypes

Ok, so this isn’t some full-blown awesome post on the different sterotypes that vegans receive, but I do have a fun scene to share from the movie Grandma’s Boy, that shows how most of America reacts to veganism.  This clip is R-rated for language, so if some cussing (including an F-bomb) will offend you, please cease and desist!

I hope you enjoyed the clip.  While it may be frustrating that that is how most people tend to view our attempts to live a healthy, peaceful life, it’s still pretty hilarious.  Not to mention, David Spade is toooooo funny!  I love him.  I actually used to watch Just Shoot Me re-runs almost every night on the WB back in high school.  That was some good stuff. 

I hope you all have a lovely night!  I’m off to enjoy the beginning of my weekend!

Have a good one!

❤ Lindsay

 

I Love You, Daddy!

Hello!  Hope your weekend is wrapping up well!

Today’s kind of an important day, because it is a day all about celebrating our dad’s.  I don’t know about you, but my dad is awesome. 

My dad and I at a Montgomery Gentry concert in 2008 (ignore the stupid hat).

He’s 69 years old, is retired, golfs multiple times a week, drives around in either his Corvette or his big ol’ truck, volunteers, chills out with his fat cat, Scrooge, and makes me laugh every time I talk to him.  He has a pretty sweet life, and he worked really hard to get it.  Keenan even aspires to be as cool as my dad when he’s “an old guy”.  My dad is absolutely the greatest,  totally my hero, and even though I didn’t get to see him today, he was definitely in my mind and heart.  I love you, Daddy!!!! 

Since I was hanging out at the hospital all day working, instead of hanging out with my dad, eating some delicious BBQ or some homemade soup (he might just be where I got my affection for all things soupy), I have some nice boring work food to show you!

Of course, I started off with a nice big salad. 

You know what’s funny?  Earlier I mentioned that I woke up with a nasty headache.  Well, it continued through work, up until I went on break and ate this giant bowl of raw veggies, and then it disappeared.  Coincidence?  I think not.

A bit later, I sat down and enjoyed this wonderful frozen meal from Kashi.

Quick, easy, delicious and vegan.

Lots of veggies, whole grains, protein and fiber.  I’m a fan.

Now it’s time for me to head home to spend a nice evening with Keenan and Arlo, and to prepare for my day off from work tomorrow!

Have a good night!

❤ Lindsay

Starbucks Breakfast

Good afternoon!  I hope all is well on your side!

So, weird story, I walked home from the ferry last night, and when I got to my front door, my newly made house key opened the doorknob lock for me, but wouldn’t turn in the deadbolt to save my life!  This key was actually my second attempt at getting a house key copy.  The first key didn’t work at all, so I took it back and had a new one made.  I was pretty stoked about the key, since it was a cool tie-dye print, but apparently this copy wasn’t to be either.  I guess I’ll be heading back to Walmart again tomorrow, keeping my fingers crossed that it will actually work this time. 

Once I realized that they key wasn’t going to let me in the apartment, I turned around a speed-walked back down to practically where I’d just come from, and went to Keenan’s restaurant to get the other key.  Luckily, everyone in the front of the house was really helpful, and after I told them that I needed to get my key from Keenan, they gladly went and got it for me.

I’m totally counting all that walking from yesterday as my exercise for the day.  Especially since I was carrying my big heavy backpack on my back the entire time, and there were hills involved! 😉

This morning, I slept in until noon again, and got up to get ready for work.  My head is aching.  I think this whole staying up wayyyyy past my bedtime every night is finally starting to get to me.  I’m going to start trying to go to bed before Keenan gets home from work, and just wake up for a bit when he gets home, instead of trying to wait up every night.

In my headache-y fog this morning, I didn’t feel like doing too much food prep, so I decided that a pre-ferry Starbucks trip was in order.  I ordered my usual grande soy chai, a Naked green machine smoothie, and a Two Moms in the Raw gojiberry granola bar.

I’ve already sung the praises of the chai and the Green Machine, so today I’m gonna take a closer look at this raw granola bar from Two Mom’s in the Raw. 

This bar is made up entirely of natural, organic ingredients, and is something you would almost expect to come out of a blogger’s kitchen.

Here’s the ingredient list:

Pretty darn clean if you ask me!  And this is sold at Starbucks?? Say what???  Yup, Starbucks has really stepped up their game lately.  I was also tempted to grab some of the sweet potato chips that were in the same basket as this bar, but I passed for the moment.

I’m really glad to have an easy spot like Starbucks where I can grab myself a bit of breakfast.  The world really is starting to adapt to those of us who choose not to eat animal products, or those who just want to generally eat more healthily.  I’m sure that in the months and years to come that clean, healthy food will be something we can find in more and more places.

What do you like to grab for a quick and easy breakfast on the go?

Have a fantastically super day!

❤ Lindsay