Like a rock...in my stomach

My digestive health has taken a plummet. Good thing I have a gastro appt next week.

2 days in a row I have been super full and bloated in the afternoons and then exhausted at 8ish. Then decide I should probably try to eat something which makes me feel worse.

boo.

I was doing ok with trying to control my food intake which also has taken a nose dive in the past week. My erratic schedule and the heat are reeking havoc on my body.

Ok...forget today. Tomorrow is another day where I can right my wrongs. Starting with a green one (with a little chocolate...maybe not the best choice but it needs to be used)

spinach, flax meal and pineapple

Granola Shmanola

About a year ago I started making my own granola and have been experimenting with lots of different recipes. Usually it comes out ok or even good but every time its a little different. Since trying to go gluten free I have stayed away from oats and was trying to find an oats alternative for granola. I was looking up buckwheat and quinoa recipes and didn't find anythign super helpful so I experimented. Its pretty blech.

The recipe
1/4 cup dry buckwheat groats
1/4 dry quinoa
pecans
almond slivers
cashews
walnuts
flax seeds

Mixed with canola oil and maple syrup
Baked at 176 for half an hour

Then I added raisins and craisins

First of all it burned which I don't mind too much but isn't great. It also has this weird after taste which is definitely the buckwheat. I don't know if its because the buckwheat is raw or has gone bad but I do not care for it. I hate making food that is bad because I don't want to waste it but also don't particularly want to eat it.

Must keep trying for a good recipe. Next time I'll do it without the grain or cook the grain and then bake it.

Loving the monster

The green monster that is. Now that I am in a routine here I have started making smoothies again everyday. And I love making them green. Here are my eats for the last few days. My body is in a quasi funk- don't really know why. Maybe the heat? It 80 degrees at 8am everyday now. Also not sleeping much. Shocker!

dough boy smoothie (a la kath)

spinach

1/2 cup oats

1 cup soymilk

3 small plums

set overnight and blended in the AM

It was good but I don't think I would want something that thick everyday. It also gave me a slight stomach ache and I don't know if that was the oats or overload on soymilk.

yummy veg and chickpea salad with tachina dressing

green monsta! spinach, mango and flax seed. mmmm

 salad and mango

Another Day Another Adventure

This morning I woke up hella early for my Hebrew class. Totally thrown off because I was so tired and didn't give myself enough time.

Made the worst smoothie ever. (avocado, roasted fig, cinnamon, a touch of lemon juice, soymilk to try and salvage.) It was drinkable until I forgot it at home...on the counter...in 80 degree weather. It went down the drain when I got home.

I was super hungry and feeling bloated all morning. Not the best combo. During the class I had chopped mango and plum. Rice, chickpeas, cukes, carrots and lettuce. It was good but I still felt super hungry. I didn't have any other food but didn't really want to eat anyway because I wanted my body to digest the food I had just put in it. I was also having a new reaction...heartburn! So then I really didn't want to eat more.

By 12:30 I was famished. After a failed errand I got a pick me up smoothie, partly because I needed one and partly because I didn't think I would make it home without sustenance and partly because I couldn't be imagine finding the energy to make one at home. It was scrumptious- melon, kiwi, blackberry.

Came home and stuffed my face with a tomato and lettuce on rice cakes and then sunflower seed butter on ricecakes for dessert. And an iced coffee which I also forgot to take with me this morning and needed so badly. I feel much better and my headache is gone. YAY!

Yay for successful dinners

I live with 8 other people so it is VERY rare to get alone and quiet time with my boyfriend. My some weird alignment of the universe the house was empty yesterday so we had a quiet romantic evening.

I made an awesome dinner (I don't he loved it. He likes dairy, meat and gluten of which this meal had none.) Really it was a meal my roommate Tamar would have loved.

Cheezy Rice Casserole (4-5 servings)
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup chickpeas
1 small butternut squash-peeled and chopped
1 small zucchini- chopped into small pieces
1 carrot- chopped into small pieces

Mix all ingredients into a casserole dish. Lightly coat with olive oil and 2 tablespoons of water. Cover and bake for an hour.

Cheez
.5 cup cashews
.5 cup soymilk
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs nutritional yeast ( add to taste)
1 tsp garlic powder
pepper to taste

Grind cashews in a coffee or spice grinder. Add all other ingredients and whisk. Add liquid (water or milk) for desired consistency. Add spices for desired taste.

I made the cheez without my food processor because I am missing my converter but that is what is recommended. Also you can add any veggies to flavor the cheez.

I then added the sauce to my rice and popped it back in for 15 minutes.

Sugar to the veins

Today I am tired and irritated. Yesterday I had sugared soymilk, cereal, peanut butter and went on a nutella binge (which led to my stomach exploding). Correlation?

My stomach and eating has been out of wack for a few days. I can't remember the last time I was genuinly hungry.

Anyway So I am tryign to clean up my eats. Obviously that didn't start with this morning. I was on and off  hungry so I started with warm lemon water. Then over the course of a few hours had an apple with peanut butter, a bowl of cereal and 2 rice cakes with peanut butter (unfortunatly the PB had sugar in it). Then I went all day feeling tired and irritable and super bloated. But 2:30 came around and I figued I should try to put soemthing in my body. I realized one thing I really love about smoothies is you get nourishment and it is easy to ingest and digest. I defintely feel less gross after having smoothies if I am already feeling full and bloated. So I made a variation on a pure2raw smoothies.

Avocado-Beet smoothie

water
1 lemon
half of a large avocado
1 small beet
1 tablespoon chickpeas
cinnamon

I put the water and lemon juice in my smoothie cup and blended it with the avocado and cinnamon. Then when the beet was ready added that and decided to throw in some soft chickpeas for a bit of protein. And since this is with a hand blender that can't do ice I popped a few cubes in to make it cold.

Currently thouroughly enjoying it. And it is hitting the spot for lunch.

Also this weekend I made the best salad I have ever made.

It was a Roasted Sweet Potato-Cauliflower and Lentil Salad. This recipe is in a quantity to feed 20 people.


5 or 6 sweet potatoes
1 head of cauliflower
2 cups black lentils (looked and tasted like green)
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Cinnamon


Chop the sweet potato into bite size pieces and coat with cinnamon and then lightly coat with oil. Spread out on to a baking sheet or other oven cook ware. cut up cauliflower to desired size and coat with balsamic vinaigrette and lay out on a baking sheet. Potatoes will cook for about 45 minutes  at 175C. Cauliflower is about 30 minutes depending on the consistency you want it to be.


Cook lentils according to package- usually take about a half an hour to an hour. (black closer to a half n hour  green, an hour.


After everything is finished and cooled mix in a bowl and put in it the fridge. Serve cold.


Sorry for the vagueness. I don't usual follow recipes or measurements but I will try to take note for the future.


YUM! (unfortunately I don't have a picture but I will make it again and take one then.)

 mini rice cakes

 sweet potato and red lentils

 almond honey flakes, branflakes, soymilk and iced coffee

 what i binged on

 avocado beet smoothies

Back on track...sort of

Today was much although I think the heat is affecting my hunger levels.

Woke up in an awful mood and with a headache. It was one of those days that I should have gone back to sleep. But it was 8:30 and I had stuff to do today which ended up taking the better part of the day.

Got up and was snappy to pretty much everyone until I got some coffee in me. I also made a smoothie with spinach, kiwi, sunnut butter, and a nectarine. Yum. I realized smoothies are how I need to start my morning. I don't need food. I need liquid and smoothies have nutrients in them so its like a meal. Also because my hunger and schedule is all over the place the past few days I haven't been hungry right after the smoothies. So essentially it is my breakfast.

At around 12 I decided that maybe I was feeling a bit lightheaded because I was hungry even though my body wasn't signaling hunger in my stomach. So I had half a pepper that was stuffed with quinoa and lentil tomato sauce. and then I had way to much sauteed sweet potato and butternut squash. It was just so good I couldn't stop. And I kind of felt hungry. It certainly kept me full through the afternoon which I liked because I actually don't like snacking.

Also around dinner did not feel hungry, but felt good after I ate. S made an awesome veggie stirfry. Turns out, boy can cook. And then about an hour or so later felt little pangs of hunger. Had a little bit of the fruit crumble I made and then a rice cake with sunnut butter and dried cranberries.

In general sleeping patterns are awful. I guess I have deviated this blog from that which is funny cause of the name. I kind of want to change it but don't want to start all over. Oh well.

I have been enjoying my workout, though I want to get back to the gym. I have been doing variations on bodyrock.tv workouts. Today I did 50 seconds interval of jumping jacks, one leg weighted deadlifts, burpees and pushups. I was hot and tired after but definitely could have and should have done another set. Yesterday I was so tired after the workout it hurt to wash my hair. That's when you know it has been a good workout.

Random funny stuff