Posted in Vegetarian/Vegan on December 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »
In the past when making green lemonade, I’ve used Gala apples. This time around, I used green apples. I also used a whole large lemon. What a difference in flavor! So yummy! So lemony!
Ingredients I used for Green Lemonade (based on Original Mean Green Juice Recipe here):
*This makes about 3-4 cups of juice (Champion Juicer).
Posted in Jogging on December 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I’ve tried exercise plans and tried them again. I’ve tried to jog, but I always hit a plateau before I get to a decent mileage. At present, I can jog 0.1 mile intervals. It’s sad, I know. I’ll alternate walking and jogging until I’ve done 0.5 miles of jogging. Then, I’ll keep walking until I’ve reached a total time of 20, 30, or 60 minutes, depending on how I’m feeling.
I also find excuses that keep me from jogging, such as I need to find something on Netflix or a TV show to watch as I jog. Yup, I’m more motivated when I have something to watch or listen to.
What do I want from jogging? I want to be more fit, it’s great for your mental state, and I want to be able to jog long enough distances that I can do races again, such as 5K’s, maybe 10K’s, and even triathlons.
I had printed out the treadmill version of Couch to 5K, but I didn’t get far past the first week (Remember the distance plateau?). Of course, it hasn’t helped that since school started, I seem to be sick with something or other every two weeks. That can definitely mess up any exercise plans.
Recently, I tried a new tactic. On the Couch to 5K website, I listened to the podcasts, where they have music to go along with someone’s voice telling you when to walk or run. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t a fan of the boring music. Sorry.
They did, however, have a plain podcast with just the voice every interval, telling you what to do. The website said you could add your own music in GarageBand.
I decided to make my own podcast with the blank podcast (no music, just voice), and I’m so glad I did!
I downloaded the blank podcast, dragged it to iTunes, opened GarageBand, dragged it to the workspace, and then added my personal iTunes music to go along with the workout. It’s easy to tell when there’s a voice, because the wavy line shows up (sorry, I can’t describe it better or more scientifically). I decided to use a different piece every time the intervals changed from running to walking or back, and I alternated fast, upbeat songs with slower ones. When I was done, I clicked on Share-Send podcast to iTunes. It was great!
The songs I picked are from Bend it Like Beckham, TobyMac, Glee, The Sound of Music (I love organ music), Sense & Sensibility, The Princess & the Frog, Michael Bublé, and Tangled. Yes, it’s definitely a mix! I’m excited to use my jogging podcast, and I’m sure I’ll do okay on Week 1, but I worry about getting through and beyond Week 2.
Here are the songs I picked:
Running Week 1
Warm Up
Darkshan – W
Intervals
Baddest Ruffest – W/R1
Hey, Soul Sister – W
Start Somewhere – R2
Processional & Maria – W
Tonight – R3
I Dreamed a Dream – W
Hey Devil – R4
Willoughby – W
Get Back Up – R5
Almost There – W
When We’re Human – R6
Ma Belle Evangeline – W
Down in New Orleans – R7
Kingdom Dance – W
Dig a Little Deeper – R8
Cool Down
Haven’t Met You Yet – W
When Will My Life Begin – W
I See the Light – W
Posted in Gardening on December 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »
My garden is coming along well. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, so we actually have grass! I’m glad I added homemade compost. Everything seems to be growing better than last year.
Above, we have a mixture of lettuce (butterhead and farmers’ market mix)
Spinach, carrots, romaine
Broccoli, spinach, swiss chard, rosemary, thyme, strawberries
Yummy kale!
Posted in Cooking on December 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Want sushi, but you don’t want to take the time to cook the rice, mix in the sugar/vinegar, and wait for it to cool? Trying to make sushi more raw?
Spread hummus on nori, and then top with your normal sushi toppings. I also like to sprinkle the hummus with ginger.
I topped the hummus with avocado, cucumber, and carrot.
Add some soy sauce and they’re delicious!
Posted in Cooking on December 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I decided to try making an apple pie. I used the recipe from the Food Nanny cookbook. I admit that my pie crust skills require more practice. I also would like to share that making an apple pie is a lot of work. You have to peel and chop apples, wrestle with two pie crusts, and hope that the edges of your crust won’t burn in the oven.
Still, it was a raving success!!
I gave up trying to roll out and transfer the bottom crust to the pie pan. I ended up pressing it into place with my fingertips. Note the fingerprints?
Look at all of that sugar!!
I also gave up trying to transfer the upper crust to the pie, so I dumped the Silpat mat upside down on top of the pie pan.
I patched a hole in the crust…
Luckily, I had a pie crust shield to keep the edges from burning.
It turned out great!
Mmmmm!!!!
Yes, I definitely plan to make this again!
Posted in Cooking on December 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »
As it’s the holiday season and the sweets are abundant (you know it’s bad when your breakfast is a chocolate chip cookie), I want to supplement this week with green juice. I stocked up on some veggies/fruits at my wholesale warehouse and a farmers’ market grocery store. I’m hoping that by getting some exercise and drinking some green juice or eating some salad every day, I’ll hopefully be able to come out of the holidays reasonably healthy. =)
I’ve also got some grapefruit, carrots, mandarins, and my garden (coming along nicely) that I can also eat to make life a bit healthier. The more raw foods I eat, the better!
Yum! Yum! Yum! Those veggies/fruits look so good!
For the green juice:
For snacking:
Posted in Cooking on December 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Need to satisfy a chocolate craving and you’re at the point you’re eating chocolate chips out of the bag?
Mix up a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies (complete with raw sugar, organic applesauce, and maple syrup). Add cocoa and peppermint extract. Bake and you’ve got a fantastic, chocolate-mint-craving-soothing treat!!
Posted in Frugality on December 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »
In an effort to save more money on produce, since I want to buy a lot for making veggie juice and smoothies, I saw online that a lot of people who eat raw foods, veggie juices, vegan meals, etc. find wholesale prices quite helpful. After looking into things some more, I decided to renew my membership at a wholesale grocer (it’s been a few years since I’ve had one). It came out to about $4.20 a month. If I save that much on groceries, then it makes the membership worth it.
I came home with a 10 pounds of grapefruit, 10 pounds of organic carrots, a huge bag of romaine hearts, a large package of organic spinach, and some blackberries. I also walked around the entire store and made note of things that I could purchase on later trips (A little at a time!).
The carrots (organic) at the wholesale store were $0.60 a pound. At my local grocery store (known for it’s low prices), organic carrots were recently $1.27 a pound. That’s $0.67 a pound less and a savings of $6.70 if I had purchased the same amount of carrots from my local store. That $6.70 was more than the cost of the month’s membership, so to me, it was worth it!
So far, most of the grapefruit have been juiced in my citrus juicer (and stored in mason jars). The blackberries have been great snacks at work and they’ll probably go into my next breakfast smoothie. I’ve already used some of the carrots and spinach in my juicer, and I’ll add in the romaine the next time I make veggie juice. The veggies will also be great for lunch or dinner salads.
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