Feelin Good!

Breakfast

Finally we're at today! Last night I prepared a version of overnight oats that is more like yogurt oats. I probably should invest in a container of nut milk but I'm a little nervous that having milk around may become an invitation to eat cereal... I haven't had any cereal since my cleanse/raw diet and I am scared! Yes, I am scared of cereal and granola! I love them so much that sometimes I can't say no! I need to get my confidence and will power and self discipline and have a pow-wow with my granola loving self and get over it! hahaha In the mix:

• 1/3 cup soy yogurt
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp. chia seeds

I let all that sit in the fridge over night and in the morning I topped it with

• 1/2 banana, sliced small
• three strawberries, sliced small
• mixed berries
• 1 Tbsp. almond butter
• 1/2 Tbsp. of Kelsey's raw flaxseed coconut banana pancake mix

Mixed it all up and viola!

The oats had absorbed the yogurt and were soft and mixture was thick and yummy. I think the chia seeds really make a difference. I also had a mug of peppermint tea and my Cleanse tablet and Women's One a Day.
Lunch

After section and a productive practice sesh, I came home and made a killer lunch. In my salad I had:

• 1 cup chopped cabbage
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• three small tomatoes
• 3/4 cup snow peas
• 1 cup cooked beets
• rice from last night mixed with kidney beans
• two salad tossers, I mean carrot sticks!
• 1 Tbsp. Tahini Dressing

I chopped the cabbage and poured the vinegar over the top to let it marinate a little while I prepared everything else. I thought this might help soften the cabbage and cut down on the amount of the dressing I needed to use. It was delish!
I also had a Fuji with a Tbsp. of almond butter. I left it in the spoon for better scooping action!
Later I had another seriously juicy orange. These babies are a mess but sooo sweet!

Snack

I whipped this post out in record time and now I am going to allow myself to veg out a little and enjoy this chocolatey Z bar. Remember these? Yeah, it's been a while!
I've already done all my dishes, packed my dinner for my four hour work shift at 6, practiced my entire program, and blogged up to the present! Small accomplishments but I'm feelin' good! See ya later :)

Raw Spring Pesto

Lunch

Today for lunch Kelsey found a recipe on a blog for Raw Spring Pesto. It had cashews, pine nuts, cilantro, basil, lemon juice, garlic, and cumin. We each ate one in a red cabbage leaf topped with cucumbers, tomatoes, and salt and pepper. It was like eating a creamy pesto taco! So good!

I had it with two exciting looking carrots. That twisty one is my favorite haha.
For a little something sweet I sliced up an apple and enjoyed them with a Tbsp. of cashew butter. The only problem with my homemade cashew butter is that it's not creamy like the store bought stuff and ends up being more like homemade cashew crumbles. How do they make it so saucy?? I really don't want to add oil but I want my butters buttery!
It was very had to resist making another smoothie but I did. One a day is good!

Now I'm backstage at opera, again, a typical place for me these days. But tomorrow we have a break because our first performance is on Friday!! We're using our free time to celebrate Rebecca's Birthday by going out to dinner woohoo!

Dinner post coming soon!

Busy Sunday

This is Ani's Raw Food Kitchen cookbook that Kelsey and I are making all our meals out of just for your information!

You know you're going raw when...

Brunch

On the menu for breakfast this morning was the "Spanish Scramble" This included:

• 2 cups almonds, dry
• 1 cup sunflower seeds, dry
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 2 tsp. turmeric
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1 cup tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup scallions

My food processor isn't that big so I mixed the sunflower seeds and almonds together to process them in batches.

Then I transfered everything to the blender and added the water, the salt, and the turmeric.
My blender was having a hard time with this intensely thick concoction!
Served on a bed of spinach with salt and pepper.
It's supposed to make four servings but I think these servings are huge! I woke up late so this was sort of my brunch. It sat pretty heavy in my stomach though and I don't think I will be eating this much at one time again :/
Chelsey wanted to taste the homemade almond mylk so I tasted some with her :) Then I rushed off to work!
I rushed home from work only to pack up and leave again for opera rehearsal, ugh! I made the tastiest smoothie though. It was more like a dessert smoothie! I used

• 1 small banana
• 2 small pitted dates
• 1/2 tsp. carob powder
• 1/2 tsp. cacao nibs
• 1 tsp. almond butter
• about 1/4 cup frozen strawberries

I packed a portion of the Confetti Salad with Cucumber Orange Dressing, two peeled carrots, and a cherry pie lärabar.
When we first arrived there was some downtime so I tried not to be obnoxious while eating this carrot!
By the way, this is my new camera case. Isn't it cute!?

Dinner

When we were released for an hour I parked myself down in the dressing room and had dinner. I gave this salad an intense shake to mix everything around. You can't really tell in this photo but there were a whole bunch of walnuts and dried cranberries at the bottom. Yum!
Blogging, what what??
I love this water bottle. (Don't mind me goofing in the back...) I read somewhere that using a straw can help increase the amount you drink. This is the most convenient water bottle I've ever own. I totally recommend it!
Later, I attempted to do some of my theory homework while sipping on my dessert smoothie. Bendy straws make it even better haha.
During a break in the dressing room I chowed down on my other carrot. My costume is perfect for carrot eating! By the way, that is definitely stage-ish make up. I never wear that much blush otherwise, come on!
I did also eat my cherry pie lärabar but I guess I forgot to upload the photo! It's really annoying when that happens because if I were to add it now it would appear at the top of the post and I would have to drag it down through all the text...sigh. I need a better way to blog here people. Suggestions???

We finally finished at 11 PM :/ Best believe I came home, washed all that crap off my face and went straight to bed! It was a good Sunday :)

Lunch at Home is Always Good

Lunch

For lunch I made a tasty sandwich with

• yellow mustard
• romaine lettuce
• sprouts
• grilled red bell pepper
• tomato
• onion
• cilantro
• a little hummus
• salt and pepper

Sliced kiwi, carrots, sugar snap peas, and hummus on the side. And the rest of this diet iced tea for a drink.

A little while later I throughly enjoyed a bowl of my favorite cereal. I really need to get over this stuff!
Opera rehearsal at three, work at six, no rest for the wicked!

Hopefully I will get a chance to practice my italian pieces later today!

Adios!

A Burrito During Finals is Standard, Right!?

I may have had seconds...it was just too good!

Snack

Later I headed to the library to crank out a paper. I had such a late breakfast that I didn't think I needed a lunch but I did bring some snacks. I tried to be quite with these carrots!!

Later I busted out this Mountain Mix Clif bar.

Savannah gave me the rest of her trail mix woohoo! We were at the library waaay too long! By the time I finally left it was already 10PM and I was starving!

Dinner

I was so not in the mood to try and cook something so I caved and bought myself a burrito!
I tried to do the cut it in half save one for later method...but I was too hungry!
For a little sweet treat I used half of a banana, sprinkled it with chocolate chips and nuked it for 15 seconds.
I still had a chocolate craving so I made some hot chocolate and that was it!
I was a little too full after all that but I just keep telling myself, it's finals week, this week is crazy and it's almost over!

Life's Short, Eat Ice Cream For Dinner!

Snack
Before the audition I tried to get a little work done on the theory paper. I snacked on some carrots and hummus while I worked. Also, I got a twitter account! (mostly I was procrastinating the paper as usual...) You can see posts on my blog but I'm still figuring out how to make it look more savvy.

Lunch
For lunch I wanted to make foods that would sit well in a nervous stomach so I cooked up some brown rice. I added a cup of frozen veggies, paprika, cumin, corriander, white pepper, and a little salt. It was actually pretty tasty considering it was so simple. The hummus really completed the flavor.
I also sliced up an apple but I didn't get through all the slices until after the audition.
After the audition, which went just fine, I sat in for the run through of Act I of the opera. I am in the chorus and that was the first I'd seen of the opera since they've started working last quarter. It's going to be such a good show! Afterwards, it was finally time for me to come home and relax with Savannah and Amanda! I just couldn't get in the mood to cook anything so I went with a classic: carrots and hummus. I did just three tsp. of hummus and 1/2 tsp. olive paste. It was so nice to just let everything go for a little!
Life is short... sometimes you just gotta have ice cream for dinner!! I just wasn't hungry for normal dinner food for some reason. Amanda and I made the trek to the store where I picked up one of my all time favorites: Coconut Milk Mint Chip Ice Cream!!!! It is so creamy and decadent I could eat the whole pint!
I did go back for some seconds and this time with blueberries. I just couldn't get enough of this stuff :)

Breakfast
For breakfast this morning I decided to use this can of pears I bought a while ago because it was on sale. I figured I could incorporate it into a batch of oats. In stead of using water to make my oats I used the juice from this can!
In the mix:

• 1 sliced banana
• 1 small handful raisins
• 1 cup pear water
• approx. 4 or 5 pear slices
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tsp. chia seeds
• 1 tsp. milled flaxseed
• shake cinnamon
• splash vanilla
• toasted pecans
• blueberries

For some reason the oats came out a little runnier that usual but they were still delicious. Toasting the pecans in a pan really makes a difference in their taste.
Banana-Pear Oats with a side of quality Java which included Starbucks VIA, sugar free vanilla syrup, and soy milk and as usual, a Women's Once a Day.
I ended up adding some soy milk to the oats mostly because they were piping hot! I couldn't handle it! Seeing porridge with milk on top always makes me think of that scene from Beauty and The Beast...ahh, I'm such a little kid!
Well, I'm mere hours away from being totally free from class, work, and rehearsal for the weekend but I still have a lot to get done in the next two days. Hope your Friday has been going well!

Green Smoothie Success!

Snack

After class I had totally forgotten that I was supposed to proctor a make-up exam! So by the time I got home I was pretty hungry. I decided to make a green smoothie. The ingredients were:

• 1 huge handful spinach
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 scoop peanut butter
• 1 tsp. agave
• 4 large ice cubes

It was sooo good! I was totally feelin it!
Kelsey baked a Kaboucha squash which we picked at a little. Karate Chop!!
Attack Squash!

Dinner

For dinner I mixed up a salad of

• spinach
• grape tomatoes
• avocado
• seasoned chickpeas
• mixed olives
• mushrooms
• balsamic vinegar

On the side were some carrots and hummus.

Alex and Aaron came over to study and I served them carrots too!
Savannah, Amanda, and I got tickets to a concert downtown for tonight! On the way down I had a Honey Graham Z Bar.
Lecker! (That's delicious in German haha).
When we got back I decided that a little cookie dough wouldn't hurt. It's almost gone! :(
I am exhausted! This week has been so stressful and it's only Tuesday... I'm going to put myself to bed right now!!!

G'night!