Newlywed, Newly Veg!

Hey guys! Like all Tuesday and Thursday lunch posts, this one has gotta be quick!

And lunch was just that: quick!

Man, that juice was good this morning, but it DID NOT hold me over like oatmeal usually does!  At 10, I had a half of a Lara bar for a snack, and then at 11:30, my stomach was GROWLING.  LOUDLY.  Haha…my stomach is super loud when I’m hungry—it sounds like there’s an animal in there or something!  I think it might be louder than the average tummy.

At 12, I broke for lunch and made a quick, delicious wrap:

Spinach, sprouts, and cheese, microwaved and then topped with a blob of hummus:

On the side, I had some Mary’s Gone Crackers curry twigs and stems, plus some pickles.  Random sides, I know, but I figured I got enough fruit in this morning!  Didn’t want to overload on the fiber, if you know what I mean. 

Delish! I’m packing some sort of a bar as a snack for later on between classes. 

Hope your Thursday is going swimmingly well! 

Much love!

Two breakfast posts in a row?  This is wild!

Yep.  Rising at 6:45 the day after one’s birthday to make some fresh green juice…that’s the definition of “wild” alright. 

Morning, kids!  I just wanted to share my first foray into the juicing world with you!  I’d consider it a success!

Here she is:

A beauty, right? It was kind of a two-step process, actually.

First, in my *new juicer* (which I love!!! Thank you “dogs”!!), I juiced down:

1 carrot stick

1 pink lady apple

1 giant (maybe two inches long?) hunk of ginger

1 big handful of parsley

1 big handful of spinach

Which resulted in a lovely, orange colored liquid.

I have a few questions for all you juicer pros out there, but I’ll save them until the end of the post.  Also, I only took pictures of the final product, but next time, I’ll take more pictures of the process, I promise. 

It didn’t look like much of the greens had gone through, so when the juice was all ready, I poured THAT juice into my blender, along with another handful of spinach and some of the green pulp that had gone through.  It looked like a lot of the green pulp was still whole, even, with the parsley leaves especially, so I just put them right back into the juicer.  Along with that, I put a banana and just a splash of hemp milk to get it going.  So, I guess this is a psuedo-Green Monster?

Whatever you want to call it, this thing is DANG good!  I’m actually very pleasantly surprised.  I tasted the juice before I put it into the ginger, and it was quite good too—VERY gingery.  I think the banana has mellowed out the flavor just a tad, although there is definitely a STRONG kick of ginger coming through.

Swamp juice:

I expected to see some gators swimming around in there!  Guess that’s just the Louisiana girl in me. 

So, juicing pros: a couple of questions.  Do you juice greens like spinach and parsley, or do you just add them in afterwards and blend?  Also, do you consider juice your “breakfast,” (or whatever meal you’re having it at), or would you also have some solid food along with it?  With this one, obviously with the banana PLUS everything else, it’s very filling, so this will just be my breakfast.  But, if you make, say, a glass of carrot and apple juice—is that it? Just curious!  I’m not really sure how many calories are left behind with the juice…I guess it’s time to get googling!

Hope you have a great day!

Later gator!

Hey all!  Hope you’ve had a great Wednesday!  Thanks again for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!  One of my best friends who happens to share my birthday texted me today to inform me that we are 27 years young…I figured that was a good way to look at it!

As planned, Ryan and I went to hot yoga again up in State College.  Maybe our teacher reads my blog and saw me complaining about the “lukewarm-ness” of our last class, because it was definitely hotter today.  Sweat was dripping onto my mat!

Our teacher also changed things up a little…I guess he was feeling a little crazy or something, because he definitely strayed from the traditional 26 poses you usually do in Bikram.  But, we ended up really liking it—the new poses were challenging, I think partially just because they were so unexpected. 

Our teacher makes a big deal about staying with the pose and not letting your mind stray to what might be bothering you or stressing you out in your day to day life…it’s much harder to do that than it might seem!

But, as always, I left class feeling invigorated and cleansed, from the inside out.

Then I ate my weight in Thai food.

We tried out a new Thai restaurant: Cozy Thai.  It was great!  Thai food is a favorite of mine (and definitely vegetarian and vegan-friendly).

I started off with some green tea:

For a starter, Ryan and I got something a bit different: tasty cups!  This was pastry filled with peas, corn, potatoes, and cilantro.  Interesting! 

For our entrees, we both went vegan so that we could share and share alike.  I got Spicy Basil Tofu, and Ryan got some sort of tofu and broccoli noodle dish.  Both were delicious!

Sorry for the blurry pictures—these are courtesy of my i-phone.  Not too bad, right?

For dessert, we went back to Webster’s bookstore just like last week.  Ryan got a few cookies, and I got a “vegan choco-almond whole wheat sprouted grain scone.”  Hmmmmm….chocolate cake this ain’t!  It definitely had a “health food” vibe going on, but overall, it was pretty tasty!

All in all, it’s been a great birthday—good food, good dogs, good yoga…good times!

Hope you’ve had a happy hump day!