Dealing with Disappointment (and CHOBANI!)

Today has been a downer. I've been in quite a funk this whole week, trying to get myself on track with school, running, cooking, homework... LIFE. And things just haven't quite been adding up the way I would hope. You ever have those times when you're just about at your breaking point and the littlest things sets you off?

Yup. That was me this morning.

You see, I was going to do my second WIAW post, but as I went to take a picture of my breakfast this morning (which tasted kind of...ehhh. Not really worth sharing...) my camera told me there was a problem with the memory card.

Would you like to reformat? YES.
Reformatting will delete all pictures on memory card. OK.
*Wait three minutes*
Reformatting failed. OK.
Would you like to reformat?................ Cycle repeats. 20 times. Girl almost throws camera out window and starts to cry. Girl turns off camera with a sigh, finishes breakfast, and moves on to go to school.

And then little irritance number two...
I recently bought a bodybugg SP system. It's been okay... kind of fun to know how many steps I take during the day and such and it has been helpful for me to reconcile that I burn more than I would have thought, so I've been eating more appropriately, but today, the app just wouldn't load. I press it... it says loading and then just stops and returns to the home screen.

WHAT?!!

That's been the kind of day I've had. And it is frustrating.

So here's my advice: we cannot control many of the things which will come our way in life. Irritants, whether they be big or small, are inevitably going to set us back... but only if we let them. Yes, you can get annoyed. In fact, please do. It's unhealthy to bottle up the stress. But after you cry/scream for your 5 minutes, you just have to take stock of things and find a new goal. Put it in perspective. Ask yourself- is the energy I'm using to stay mad about this really worth it?

And then we find new things to make us happy. Like a lovely little shipment from Chobani, courtesy of Lindsay. (Thank you so much! It made my day! Seriously...after what happened today...It was like Christmas!) I managed to get my camera on the non-card mode, which meant it can take a whopping 4 pictures, but here they are:

STEP ONE: The box

STEP TWO: The inflated silver thingy

STEP THREE: the freeze packs

STEP FOUR: LOTS OF YOGURT!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
(to ask yourself, although you are free to share) WHAT DISAPPOINTMENTS HAVE YOU HAD TO OVERCOME THIS WEEK?
AND....What's your favorite CHO flavor? What should I try out first?

Strawberries and Cream yOATgurt

All right, then. I posted about these in my WIAW post, but it just didn't seem the appropriate place to put a recipe, you know?

So let's get on with it :) Besides, I like posting pictures of yummy food, despite lacking photography skills on my part. But you do what you can... If it tastes good, I think I'm satisfied.

These are super creamy and they really warm you from inside out. Especially when you add some delicious toppings...like peanut butter. Because that improves everything. I pity those with nut allergies.

CREAMY STRAWBERRY yOATgurt (easily doubled)

1/4 cup rolled oats

1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds (optional)

1/2 cup almond milk+ 1/2 cup water (or some combo of the two)

2 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt (plain, vanilla, or strawberry)

1 cup frozen strawberries, partially thawed

Sweetener (optional)

Toppings (optional)

Peanut Butter

 Kashi GoLean Crunch or Granola

Slivered Almonds

White Chocolate Chips

1. Combine liquid, oats, and chia seeds on stovetop in medium size pot. Heat on high until it begins to boil, and then stir constantly for 2 minutes to make sure the oats do not burn.
2. Reduce heat to medium and let cook until about half liquid is absorbed (about 4 minutes). Stir in yogurt and let cook again until it begins to thicken.
3. Add your somewhat frozen strawberries and stir. (It turns pink!)
4. You may cook for a few additional minutes to thicken, but I liked mine runny because it was more like warm yogurt/oatmeal. Sounds weird, but delicious.  
5. Top with whatever you like, and ENJOY!

Natural Food Store Review +WIAW

Yesterday, I fell in love. With a store.

To be fair, it was a cute little store, stuffed to the brim with organic and vegetarian products. I had never seen anything like it near me- the closest I'd come was the giant Whole Foods monolith an hour away in West Hartford. But this was in my very town! Sadly, my new crush and I did not have much time together, since my mom had to go to the bathroom and kept reminding me to 'make my choices and get out'. But I could have stayed for an hour. Maybe two. Just LOOKING at all the possibilities. It was my new health food dream come true.

Maybe if you live down in shoreline CT you should stop by. It's called, quite literally, 'The Natural Food Store' in downtown Niantic. But that's enough of that. Here are some of my new finds, which I'm excited to try out:


Arctic Zero Ice Cream- High Protein and looks sooo good. (If you can't tell, this is the coffee flavor.)

Nutritional Yeast. I've been searching and searching and FINALLY found it!



The Uber-cool bag....



Ultra Energy Bar- with 22 grams protein. You know me and protein. It's good stuff! And look at this! Cookies and Cream! I can't wait to sample all my new goodies!

  On to WIAW. The theme is 'FALL into good habits'. What's my good habit? Well, mine is pretty simple, actually. It's...eating. For those who don't know my story, check out the food philosophy page. In short, though, my eating habits these past few weeks have fallen apart. I've really been giving in to restricting urges and it's time that I took control back. My body deserves to be fed, and it deserves a healthy, balanced diet that can fuel my running and daily activities and not leave me an emotional wreck. So the goal for me this Wednesday, and days to come, is to EAT. More. More calories, more often, more nutritionally-concious. It will be good for me.
 

Today's breakfast started off nice and hearty with some Creamy yOATgurt on the stove (recipe to follow). The flavor I settled on was strawberries and cream, topped generously with some peanut butter to make a little PBandJ yOATgurt.



I may also have had some ah-mazing coffee. Another new obsession. It's fall and pumpkin is everywhere, what can I say? It's simply delicious, and the smell just makes you want to hug someone. Spread the love, won't you?



Lunch included a veggie burger on toasted whole wheat bread, Spicy Pizza Hummus and cauliflower for dipping, and some cocoa roasted almonds to snack on before practice.

Haven't gotten to dinner and evening snack yet, but I'm pretty sure the agenda will include some fresh roasted spaghetti squash and Spinach N Veggie Wraps.



And dessert? Well, I'm thinking that coffee ice cream looks pretty good ;)

Why Everyone Should Love Speedwork

I'm anticipating another Uber-busy week coming up. School will take off as normal, I assume, and I'm going to have to drag myself out of bed and get moving each morning in order to make it to the bus stop and through 3 hours of classes before the next real break for lunch. So of course, I need to be extra prepared with a filling breakfast that can carry me through!

Before I share my (hopefully) delicious new recipe, let's talk about speed work. Duh duh duh.... I know. If you're strictly a distance runner like me, the very phrase brings chills to your spine. To be honest, despite the title of this post, I don't love speedwork. I actually kind of loathe it...but just a little less than I did before.

You see, I had to face a grueling set of speed drills this morning at 8:00 AM, which is either a really good thing or a really bad thing depending on how you spin in. If you want to look at it negatively...it was 8 in the morning on Labor Day and I would really have preferred to be snuggled down in my warm bed, head buried deep in my yummy-scented pillow. If you want to put a positive spin on it, though... the fact that it was 8 meant that my mind hadn't completely woken up to figure out what the heck I was doing to it yet, so I got in maybe 200 meters before I had a mental breakdown. Hey. That's 200 meters more than last time, so I'm happy.

But the long and short of it is: speedwork DOES help you. It can't be denied (I've looked for a way. No go) The reason speedwork helps improve performance is it literally 'creates' a different energy-usage pathway in our muscles so we can burn through glycogen more efficiently. That means increased metabolism, people!

In more detail, our body only has so much accessible glucose at any given time, and this gets quickly used up in short sprints through Anaerobic Respiration. However, longer, sustained workouts activate Aerobic Respiration, in which the body has to use available oxygen for conversions. The more we build our Anaerobic pathway, the more we can prolong the time that the body starts Aerobic Respiration, and the more we can burn through any excesses of glycogen (essentially, sugar). So it helps our body out! Yea speedwork! (I'm not cheering, either, don't worry. I still do not love it, and probably never will.)

But let's get on to something I do love. Like food. Like maybe... FROYO!! Or even better...

CHOCOLATE BANANA PROTEIN FROYO

Okay... with some chopped espresso beans too :)

1 ripe banana, mashed

8 oz Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt (could use vanilla or honey, also)

1-2 T. Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder

1 Packet Sweetener (optional)

2 T. Chopped Coffee Beans (optional)

Banana

Banana and Yogurt

Everything!

AND FREEZE!

1. Combine all ingredients and stir well. Place in freezer for at least 1 hour. Take out and thaw for a few minutes, stirring up or putting in blender to obtain soft-serve consistency. ENJOY!

Nutritional Information for ENTIRE RECIPE: 250 calories, 1.5 g fat, 24g protein, 33g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber

A Plethora of Pumpkin

School starts this week, and I cannot believe it! People always say that summer flies by... but they's be right about that. It's a sad, sad story for those of us who want that extra time outdoors in the sun, getting tan and eating ice cream at the beach (by now it's back to being too cold for good old Long Island Sound).

But I'm still excited. I mean, it's my Junior year! Okay, so I'm about to become one BUSY girl between XC and AP homework, but this is going to be the year when you really start to have fun at school: prom, spirit week, SATs, and just being an upper classman! But I'm nervous to see how I do keeping up on the blogging. It's a lot of fun, so I don't want to give it up.

I just hope you're enjoying it as much as I am.

What was I doing to prepare? Oh, you know... cooking.

Lots and lots of cooking.

I figured I could make a plethora of freezer meals/ already cooked oatmeal that will get super thick and creamy in the fridge so I will have another 5 minutes here and there to do other things. It better be worth it...I was cooking for 4 hours. (Who am I kidding? I loved every minute of that four hours. It was like my little present to myself. OF COURSE it was worth it!)

One of my favorite flavors, next to chocolate and peanut butter, would have to be pumpkin. Especially since school is starting up, I can finally say that it's "fallish" enough to start putting the pumpkin in just about everything. Plus, I was trying to be economical by buying the GIANT 40oz can, only to realize that most recipes don't call for more than 1/2 cup or so...

Oh well. All the more pumpkin-y items to make!

Here are the recipes that inspired my little pumpkin party:

• Powered Up Pumpkin Oats by Lindsay at 'A Pinch of Yum'
• Pumpkin Muffins  by Katie at 'Chocolate Covered Katie'
• Pumpkin Protein Pancakes by Julie at 'Peanut Butter Fingers'
• Apple Cinnamon Chobani Bread (which I made pumpkin!) by Kelly at 'The No Sugar Sweet Life'

And best of all... I still have about 1/3 of my can of pumpkin left! Looks like there will be more baking in store for today! Now the awful dilemma as I decide what I want to make... (I'm trying to make things that will keep well or can be frozen so I can heat them up for a speedy pre-school breakfast or workout snack! See my post about what makes good pre-workout fuel here.)

Here's what I did to adapt the recipes:

• Doubled the Pumpkin Oats Recipe so I could eat it TWICE, it was THAT good. Also, substitued 1/2 cup Kashi GoLean for the bran flakes to give it some more clusters, added 1 tsp dark chocolate cocoa powder in at the end, and substituted brown sugar with honey. Also, by leaving it in the fridge overnight, it got MUCH thicker and creamier, so I added another 1/2 cup almond milk before heating again and it was AWESOME. Even better than before, if I do say so myself. You could also eat cold as a pudding and I bet it would be great.
• For Katie's muffins, I actually quadrupled the recipe so I could make 4 muffins and freeze them. Instead of chocolate chips, I added raisins, chopped walnuts, and coconut flakes. As a side note, I had to bake for longer because there were more muffins (about 20 minutes instead of 12).
• For the Pumpkin Protein Pancakes, I subbed Greek Yogurt for the cottage cheese and also added 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder to the mix. I added 1/2 tsp baking soda because I wanted my pancakes even fluffier (it worked!) and then, because I'm a naughty girl, I added chocolate chips to the batter (no measurements here!)
• The Chobani Bread was slightly more work to recreate since I was totally changing the flavors, but I proceeded with as much confidence as I could muster. HA! Recipe, you shall not phase me! Instead of cinnamon, I used pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have this on hand, combine some nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger). I subbed the agave with molasses for a different, deeper flavored sweetener (I used 1/4 cup). Instead of apple cinnamon yogurt, I used plain with 2 drops stevia, and then instead of the applesauce I used 1/2 cup pumpkin puree. I STILL used the softened apple in the bread because pumpkin-apple is actually a very nice combo and it gave the bread the extra lightness a midst a more dense cakey-part. As an attempt to be creative, near the end of the bread's baking I mixed together 1/4 cup oats, 3 T. chopped pecans, and 2 T. brown sugar and took the bread out to sprinkle these on. I then turned the oven to broil and waited to get a nice crust on top. Yumm!

Phew! Well, now you know how I spent a good portion of my day. How was your Saturday? Do you ever get really caught up in the kitchen just going around like a whirling dervish and trying to make 10 things at once? Tell me your story!After all, as I had to remember when trying to make adaptations:

IT IS BETTER TO DO THE WRONG THING THAN IT IS TO DO NOTHING.

What do you think of today's quote? Tell me!

First 4F Challenge: a Healthy Coffee Coolatta

Breakfast today was a fail. I tried making some Overnight Oats last night, because my oatmeal obsession is still going strong, but they remained liquidy and kind of tasteless. I even tried adding some yogurt pre-overnighting and it didn't help. Anyone have any advice? Oh, well. You win some, you lose some. And since the oats lost, something else could win...

An awesome mix of strawberry Greek Yogurt and Delicious Kashi GoLean for protein, fiber, and staying power! (I also had an apple, because I love them, and some fruit seemed to be needed for this meal.)
Plus, the good thing is I am really lazy today could put my cereal straight in the yogurt cup and had NO CLEAN UP! After yesterday, I was in no mood to clean (though I could go for another cauliflower pizza today!)

So I mentioned in yesterday's post that I wanted to start another Foodie Blogger Challenge. THE 4F!

'Fast-Food Fantasy Friday' ('for foodies'. Maybe the 6F?) That's right. Take a favorite dish that you like to get out at a restaurant, preferably a fast food or at least a chain, and then remake it so it is more economical, healthful, and maybe, dare I say it? TASTIER. Try and post nutritional information and cost for both original and your versions for a comparison. And if you do take on this weekly challenge, please link back to me or at least post a little gadget thing (I'm working on designs!) Thanks to everyone!

I myself have a coffee weakness. I love the stuff black, but also in iced form with oodles of sugar and milk. Particularly Dunkin' Donuts "Coffee Coolatta" (although I wouldn't snub my nose at a Starbucks frappacino or a Peet's Blender either. Or a DQ moolatte... the list goes on on and on.)

It's an interesting story, actually. The idea for 4F came up a while ago, but I wasn't actually intending to make my submission when I was creating this marvelous little beastie. I wanted ice cream. I wanted Katie's Vanilla Frosty (seen here)

Well, I didn't have the tofu, so then I decided I was just going to change it to one of her ice creams. HA! Luck was against me again. Because I can be a little bit ditzy (and because I had no option- I have no ice cube tray. What is this madness?) I froze all the milk in a LARGE dixie cup. I took it out and I have this HUGE, 16 oz frozen milk cup. There was no way my little blender could handle that. So dutifully, I began to try and mutilate cut it into smaller cubes.Not really working out either. At last, it thawed enough that I was able to take the knife and 'shave' the whole thing. Like an icee or a slushie in consistency, if you will. And it probably took a good 25 minutes. But during that long stretch of time, it came to me. This milk-mistake was not meant to be ice cream- although that would have been lovely. It was meant to be my first 4F, forever something near and dear to my heart. It was meant to be...

DUNKIN' DONUTS COFFEE COOLATTA- 4F

ONLY 3 INGREDIENTS!

2 cups non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond)

2 packets instant Hazelnut Coffee, or any flavor variety for a variation

3-5 Packets Zero-Calorie Sweetener

In the mixin' bowl

1. Freeze the nondairy milk. I DON'T recommend doing it all in one cup as I did, because the shaving will be hard. Try doing it in several small ice cube trays.
2. After at LEAST 2 hours, or when frozen, take out your milk and 'shave it'. This can be done if you have one of those Italian Ice Shavers, or I bet you could use a food processor also. What I did was take a large, very sharp knife and kind of 'grate' the sides of the ice so it sort of peeled off. You could also do some chopping up if you chop it very fine. (Those chunks in my picture? Not good)
3. Throw ice milk shavings in a bowl or large measuring cup (see Pyrex in background of picture). Do this as you go so that your ice shavings don't melt completely all over the place.
4. Pour in instant coffee and sweetener to taste. Mix it all up and let it melt just the tiniest bit so there is a coffee brown liquid, and then stir again to re-coat everything. This gives it that optimal melty slushy thing that DD and the Bucks have going on.

DUNKIN DONUTS Small Coffee Coolatta: 350 calories, 22g fat, 40g carbohydrate (35g sugar), 10% DV Calcium, 3g protein. Cost: $2.75

Sarah's 4F Coffee Coolatta: 70 calories, 3g fat, 5g carbohydrate (4g sugar), 90% DV Calcium (I used the extra calcium almond milk.), 3 g protein. Cost: 80 cents

TASTE? AMAZINGLY COMPRABLE!!

Today I found an amazing quote that I thought I'd share, for running and for life: 

SUCCESS ISN'T HOW FAR YOU GOT, BUT THE DISTANCE YOU TRAVELED FROM WHERE YOU STARTED. -Steve Prefontaine (if you don't know who he is...well, look him up. Probably greatest American Distance Runner ever. A hero of mine!)

So think about that next time you're considering whether or not you succeeded. No, you didn't meet your 7:30 split at the 5K. No, you had to walk that last mile because you thought your shins were going to give out on you. But metaphorically... you've traveled beyond your past limits, and THAT, my friends is success.

*Other note- official XC practice starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!!*

Question of the Day: How far have you come in YOUR journey towards success? And what would you say being successful is?

Cauliflower Pizza and Cleaning the Cupboard

Hooray! I did it! My OCD has been temporarily assuaged, until another family member comes along and moves something, of course, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen.
Just like Sonia and Heather challenged today, I reordered my kitchen cupboard. It looks a ton better and should help me cut down on some waste from buying extra packages when I already have some lying around!

See Everything in disarray? The open packages? The similar items on TOTALLY different shelves? Well, it bothered me. It may not look so bad, but IT WAS!

 So, after an intense hour in which I took out empty packages, combined half-full ones, sorted goods by use and flavor, and cleaned some disgusting sticky/moldy junk out (yes...I know. It made me sick to think that was in our cupboard. Maybe take a peek at what's hiding in YOURS...) it was much better.

You can't tell that much has changed in this picture...but it has

The Canned Foods all sorted out

ORGANIZED!

Nuts and Nut Butters...

And a nice little section for the Asian Food!

 I also discovered some nifty things that I didn't realize we had. I'm going to have to find uses for them, obviously :)

Sour Cherry 'Spoon Fruit'

Tikka Masala Mix- okay, so not 'weird' but I could do so many things with this...

Well, after cleaning everything out, my stomach was telling me it was time for dinner. Something that had been intriguing me for quite a while was Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Since we had a head of cauliflower on hand, I decided to give it a try. HOWEVER, I neglected to check and see if we had every ingredient necessary (no eggs or cheese, which make up a good portion of the ingredients!) so I had to make some modifications. Surprisingly, they worked! I felt so proud and creative I almost cried. I'm learning how to actually cook! I never thought I'd see the day!