Newlywed, Newly Veg!

Hey guys!  I’m glad you liked my Mardi Gras Slaw! I’d definitely recommend bookmarking that one for the next time you need a quick, easy dinner or potluck contribution. 

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  I was raised Unitarian, but I also went to an Episcopalian school from kindergarten until high school, and growing up in Louisiana, I have a lot of Catholic friends, so I’d usually attempt to give something up along with my school friends…although I was the kid who gave up broccoli and homework!  Clever, right?

What about you—are you giving something up for this season of Lent?  I have a few friends who are giving up Facebook—brave souls!!! I’ve also seen more than a few people not giving something up, but rather adding something good into their life, and I like that idea a lot! 

Speaking of adding good things into life, the lovely Michal over at Lil’ Earth Muffin (is there a cuter blog title?) gave me this Sunshine Blogger Award as a blogger who brings sunshine into her life!  Thanks Michal!! You bring sunshine into my life too!

As part of the award, I’m supposed to nominate 12 other bloggers, but I hate choosing!  And besides, you ALL bring me sunshine every day…even when it’s cloudy out, like today!  So, if you read this blog, consider yourself nominated!

Despite the clouds, I took Ella out for a nice long walk this morning—2.5 miles.  I think taking her on these walks isn’t just helping my mood—it’s helping her as well!  I had Ella for two years before we got Baxter, so I think she enjoys being by herself with me—I bet it reminds her of her glory days, back when she was an only dog!  My older sister makes references to “the good old days” before I came along—it must be an older sibling thing. 

For lunch, I went the lazy (but good!) route:

Amy’s Vegetable and Tofu Pot Pie:

Mmmmmm…I LOVE Amy’s.  How is it that everything they  make is SO tasty?  My only complaint about this meal is that it’s kind of small for 420 calories…but, it’s also more filling than it looks!

We’re going to hot yoga in State College tonight—I’m so excited! We haven’t been in forever because of my trip home, and then the bad weather! It’ll be nice to sweat for a while.

Not sure about dinner…I guess we’ll probably eat in State College.  It might just be a Green Bowl night!

See you tonight!  

Hello, hello! Happy Mardi Gras!

My afternoon was a lonnnnnng one.  Ugh—it’s always hard to get back into the swing of things after a nice little break. 

After a long day at campus, at least we came home to dinner already prepared!  Before we left for school at noon, I threw together our salad for tonight:

Purple, Green and Gold Mardi Gras Slaw

Ingredients

1 head of purple cabbage, chopped

1 cup frozen shelled edamame

1 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup safflower oil

1/2 cup plum wine vinegar

juice and zest of one lime

1/4 cup tamari

1 tbsp. agave nectar

Directions

Combine all ingredients and allow to marinate for at least two hours.

Mmmm…this salad was great!  We cooked up some brown rice to serve it over, which was the perfect accompaniment.  There were so many different flavors and textures going on with this meal!

Do you have fun Mardi Gras plans?  We’re just chilling…it’ll probably be an early night for this household!  Here are some pictures of previous Mardi Gras shenanigans:

By the way, the sugar challenge has been going…well, okay.  Other than a few obvious splurges (hello, chocolate mousse), I’ve been hitting between 15 and 30 grams a day, which is definitely within my “stay under 40 grams” goal.  Ryan had a Coke in the office today (it came with his lunch, but he didn’t drink it), and I saw that it has 39 GRAMS in one little can!  Crazy stuff!  Not drinking soda is definitely giving me an edge in this sugar challenge…now if I could just get my night-time sugar cravings under control! I’d like to hit zero a few more times before the challenge is over. Maybe tomorrow will be a zero sugar day?  We shall see!

Night y’all!