The Much Anticipated Eggplant Casserole Was a Success!

I can't believe I didn't blog at all today! Not even breakfast! Well here it is, the whole day.

Breakfast

I made myself a mocha this morning which is quite a treat. I was just in the mood I guess!

For the main course of the morning I made Cinnamon Apple Oats, and old staple. In the mix

• 1 sliced apple
• 1 cup water
• 1 handful raisins
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tsp. chia seeds
• 1 tsp. milled flaxseeds
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract
• drizzle maple syrup
• splash soymilk

Can't go wrong with Cinnamon Apple oats, Mocha, and a Women's Once a Day!
After I turned in that crazy paper, Savannah and I walked our bikes instead of riding to soak up the sun. Today was HOT! It hasn't been warm like this in a while and we were really lovin it. We stopped and got Blenders! I got a baby blender tropical Guava minus the sherbet, added soy. Delish!

Lunch

For lunch I had a spinach salad with avocado, pre-made chickpeas, a little of Annie's lite Italian dressing, and carrots and hummus on the side.
For 'dessert' I enjoyed this Chocolate Chip Z Bar.
I love these!!

Snack

I've been having some weird stomach things going on lately where I can't tell if I'm hungry or if I'm having a stomach ache or what! I decided to try out this juice (which had a coupon woohoo!) called Good Belly. I measured out exactly 8 oz. which is supposed to have like... a bazillion live cultures in there to help my stomach!
I also gave these seaweed chips a try just out of curiosity and they were well priced.
They were surprisingly good and I gobbled them up!

Dinner

For dinner I decided to finally make a recipe of Susan's from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen that I have been drooling over for quite a while now: Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole. I thought making a casserole would be good for this week because it would supply me with plenty of meals and only one night of cooking yessss!

Eggplants are alien plants! I cooked these for 40 minutes and 425 F.
Chopped up celery, green bell pepper, and white onion.
Chopped up garlic and mushrooms.
Alien guts! I mean, eggplant :)
Chickpeas and spiiiiices!
I cooked the onions, celery, and pepper till they were soft...
Then added the mushrooms and garlic. Then a little while later added the chickpeas, eggplant, and seasonings.
While this cooked I prepared in the blender a mixture of silken tofu, cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder (it was supposed to be onion but we didn't have any!) and water. Then I added that to the veggies and it cream-ified everything!
I placed everything in this dish, covered the top with bread crumbs, and voila! This pretty baby filled up the whole house with the smell of something delicious! I was so ready to dig in.

It was sooo good. Even a little spicy which I wasn't expecting.
Seconds! I have a feeling this is one of those dishes that is going to be even better tomorrow.
For dessert I followed suit with my favorite gals Kath and Tina and made ice cream out of frozen bananas! All I used was

• 1/2 frozen banana
• less than 1/3 cup silken tofu
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. agave syrup
• chocolate chips
• pecans

It is so satisfying and creamy! I do think this shall become a new staple!
It's bed time for bonzo. I really want to get up and run tomorrow morning and get my day off to a good start. I also have a killer breakfast planned, a.k.a. motivation for getting out of bed!

G'night!!

Post-Midterm Resolutions

A little while after my lunch I discovered some cookies and decided to have cookies and milk! I felt like such a little kid :)

Later that night I got caught in one of those "I'm hungry but I don't feel like cooking and I don't know what I want" moods. I knew I just needed to eat something or it would just get worse but I couldn't think of anything. Then I remembered, there's a Pita Pit in town! I got a falafel pita with everything in it and a cranberry juice.
I finally painted my nails woohoo!
It really had everything in it! I was totally satisfied.
I try not to drink juice too often because I've become overwhelmingly aware of the high calorie content since my childhood juice box days. So this was a little treat. I didn't finish the whole thing though, the rest is still waiting for me.

This morning I just barely woke up around 6:50, too late for cycling...I don't get it, I went to bed at 10:30 last night which should have been plenty of time for me to get in some quality zzz's and wake up ready to go... I'm trying to listen to my body because I think it is trying to tell me something. I stayed down till 8 o'clock or so and got up, still sore from my Saturday cardio circut class. That class really kicked my butt!

I made myself a super bowl of Cinnamon Apple Oats for breakfast.

In the mix

• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 medium Fuji apple, chopped
• 1 small handful raisins
• shake cinnamon
• drizzle vanilla
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 Tbsp. milled flax seed
• drizzle maple syrup
• scoop peanut butter

Ta da! Served with a cup of Java, Starbucks VIA with a little agave and soy milk, and two Gummy Vites.
Perfect!
Midterms are finally over and the stress of it all made me realized that...well, it doesn't have to be that way! I'm going to try my best from here on out this quarter to really stay on top of my reading and have a better "big-picture" concept when I'm in class. I need to stop zoning out when I get bored in class and instead figure out why the lecture is important. Easier said than done but I just don't want to be stressing out like a mad stress cow like I was last week! haha.

Here's to being studious!

Hello Sunday!

Good morning everyone! I won't lie... I missed you. It was definitely a tough break ;) I hope your weekend has been going well. Mine has been pretty darn good. Recap:

Shabbos dinner was super tasty and a blast as usual. One of the things the Rabbi and I talked about while we were setting up place settings was that "suffering is a lack of knowledge". That's such a different way of thinking about suffering and his insights were awesome. I was telling him that I just didn't understand what I could possibly learn from having these horrible allergies until I finally got some relief from my new meds. Now, not-sneezing and not having itchy watery eyes is something I appreciate soo much! There is a reason behind every struggle: to learn!

The performance on Saturday went really well. I felt like I was able to be more musical with the text this time and the audience was bigger too! My voice teacher was there and he called me later that day to talk about it which I was really happy about.

The paper... well...I've read almost all my sources and I have a pretty good idea of what's going on now as far as the format I'm going to shoot for. It's just that I haven't actually started the writing process yet. A little more reading and I'll be cranking it out. (or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself). I tend to get overwhelmed with papers, fr

eak out a bit, and then finally churn out something I'm proud of. I wish it wasn't so, but I work well under pressure...more like I finally get down to business when I'm under pressure haha.

On to this morning! I woke up feeling like my allergies are trying to creep into my chest. I decided to go one a light jog and without music so I could enjoy nature!

It's so beautiful in the morning, I just can't get over it.

Look at that wave crash!

This is the path I usually take. It's right on top of the cliff that boarders the ocean.

When I got back I set up my home workout station woohoo! I decided to do a pilates podcast called "Pilates on Fifth Video Podcast, Pilates Mat- 30 Minute Workout". I actually ended up moving around a whole lot, putting the laptop on the ground, moving the mat, moving it back. I was kind of all over the place. It was a really good episode, definitely worked those abs. Those girls are flexible, sheesh!

For Breakfast this morning a made a batch of Cinnamon Apple Oats. In the mix:

• 1 cup water
• 1 Fuji apple, diced
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. milled flax seed
• 1 1/2 tsp. pure maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter

I decided to try this new technique of adding the raisins to the hot water to plump them.
Oats, green tea, and even my little Gummy Vites made it in the shot!

So my schedule for today as laid out on my iPhone last night

Hopefully the day will pan out something like this but who knows, surprises always seem to come up. Kelsey and I talked last night about doing a ten day Raw Diet "cleanse" together which would be awesome! We may do a little preparation for that later depending on what goes down. In any case, we made plans to go out to one of our all time favorite restaurants in Santa Barbara: Sojourner Cafe! If you're in Santa Barbara you've gotta check this place out. They have something for everyone and their desserts...omg don't even get me started. You know I'll be checking their daily specials online before we leave. I get so excited about their food!

Off for a shower and then it's paper time :( Wish me luck!