frozen yogurt, you are my only vice

just a few pictures from my fantastic relaxed Sunday!
the first picture is of my new favorite creation: a yogurt bowl. i have been eating this for different meals for days! breakfast, lunch, or snacks, it really works just play around with the portion sizes, its filling, packed with protein and delicious!
Yogurt bowl

• 1 6oz container of greek yogurt, any flavor
• 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder
• 1/2 cup your favorite cereal
• 1/2 almond milk
• 1 tsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp flaxseed

mix together and fall in love! its all i eat! well not really. yesterday we went out to healthy kitchen to grab some seriously craved frozen yogurt. i love frozen yogurt. i was so surprised not to even get slightly sick from it! it was a delightful surprise. i got the vanilla flavor on the bottom, red velvet cupcake in the middle and birthday cake on top, covered with an assortment of fruit.

after noshing on that, i basically just went home, worked on some comics and slept :)

how do you like to relax?

through food? sleeping? exercise? leave a comment and let me know!

whats for dinner?!

.....eggs? and zombie self portraits?
ugh lame. unfortunately this is all i am stuck with for the time being, as i am going to be allergy tested tommorow for 3 hours. the only upside is i get to start m weekend a lil bit earlier than everyone else :) the allergy testing consists of me not being allowed to eat from when i wake up until we're done, i am going to die of hunger. but hopefully it will clear some things up for me, for the whey allergy i am absolutely sure about.
speaking of which, i cheated and ate a yogurt today.

I REGRET NOTHING. i discovered the joys of sugary yogurt! i usually don't eat sugary fruit yogurt, because after 15 years straight of just eating pure sugar sweets for breakfast lunch and dinner, sugar loses its appeal after awhile, its only the past two years where i've been a little more sugar resistant.

but this strawberry chobani was just completely out of this world. i mean sure, after it was eaten, i did feel sick, along with sharp pains on my inside, and breathing was a little off, but trust me, i was in lalaland after i ate it. i'm sorry, i just can't find yogurt substitute that i like, they always taste watery, its the one thing i cant seem to shake.oh well.
oh note: i am feeling a healthy cookie recipe for the future! fingers crossed!

Question of the day: do you ever eat something you're not supposed to?
For me its a few things, that i shouldn't eat but i eat anyway, like for instance yogurt, as you already know.

leave a comment and tell me! i'd love to know!

Sundays are the golden day of the week

Although yesterday was pancake day, which is how a perfect day starts, Personally, i love Sundays. i think they are the perfect day to just sit on the couch, and just veg out eating junk food and catching up on my soap's( Gilmore girls, Grimm, and i can't forget that Sunday is the best day of the week to catch movies on TV!) yes i am a true couch potato at heart.

So today, my sister and her boyfriend traveled to portland maine, on a trip to take pictures for their photography projects. Having been there a few years ago when i was about 13, she is slightly familiar with the area. One thing i remember from that trip? It was where i ate my first red velvet cupcake ever. So, Portland has a special place in my heart for introducing me to my favorite dessert of all time. i have never found a cupcake to match that of the Two fat cats bakery red velvet cupcake.
well of course my sister has to bring some home for us,

Now, unfortunately back in the day i was not as smart as i am now, and i wasn't interested in my digestion's health, just as long as i could eat a cupcakes from that bakery i was happy even if i developed a severe stomach ache. Now, if it only had a little bit of dairy in it, i would be fine with it, but it doesn't. These cupcakes scream butter cream and all sort of fats and oils my Whey allergy and IBS cannot handle. I had to make do  with what i had. Thus, i created a vegan red velvet Frozen yogurt that's so simple you can make it whenever!

Vegan red velvet frozen yogurt
Serves 1

• 1 frozen banana
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder + 1/2 tsp
• 10 drops of red food coloring
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp almond milk

place all items in a blender until smooth

serve with your favorite toppings!

Now you may have noticed threes a lot more cocoa powder than you would put in a regular recipe for red velvet, rest assured, banana has a very strong taste, that is really hard to mask, so in order to hide the flavor i had to put in excess.

do you remember the first time you had your favorite food?

leave a comment, I'd love to know!

I just remember being absolutely flabbergasted by the sheer delicious taste of that red velvet cupcake. By the end of that weekend, we had bought 18 cupcakes in 2 days!

a delightful day off!

Ah another year has come and brought midterms, and just like that they are over. It's strange we spend 2 weeks reviewing for only 2 days of testing. 

Actually there are 3 days of testing. 2 whole days and 1 half of a day for language exams. luckily for me i quit french this year so instead my friends and i decided to celebrate by going out to breakfast!

we went to an old favorite Kristen's in Braintree square. i have always loved this place. My mom used to take me every now and again if it was a slow day during the summertime. they have an extensive breakfast menu, with the specials written on the chalk board wall. 

We walked in and got a table in the back, it was very quite back there, perfect for the three of us. Our waitress was almost immediately there to welcome us and offer coffee, she was so sweet, and had a southern accent! which is something hard to come by in the north east. 

as we sat and got cozy we looked over the menu, which all looked delicious, 

Leanne decided on getting the strawberry pancakes,which funny story, while they were being made our waitress came back from he kitchen flustered, to tell Leanne that the cook had read the order wrong. He had read the abbreviation for 'whipped cream'  as 'white chocolate" and ended up sprinkling white chocolate chips into the batter, and was worried Leanne would be upset by this. we were dumbfounded, UPSET BY WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND STRAWBERRIES?! AS IF! she was so stoked.

i myself ordered egg whites, a fruit cup of citrus fruit, and a whole wheat bagel not toasted. i really do love bagels, its as if i am eating a loaf of bread!

Ian ordered eggs Benedict ( i think) it had hollaindaise sauce. that's really all i remember from his order...sorry Ian!

our order was out on the table in 15 minutes flat! i was very impressed by how quick and efficient they were in getting our food out. 

the price was extremely reasonable between the three of us. I love this place, it makes me feel welcome and cozy. i believe its praises are no where near sung enough!

we're back to school tomorrow for a half of a day, so it really feels as though this week never happened!

here are some other pictures from our adventure! such as the remains of the pancake massacre of 2012

isn't she adorable?

when you go out to breakfast, where do you like to go?

I'd love to know!

Not all Salads are Created Equal

so far, so unproductive. I haven't gotten much studying done today, but how can I be expected to study when there are so many things going on? like my room being a mess, legally blond 1 & 2 being on today, one after the other, and so much sleeping to do? these are troubled times to study. So I'm going to put it off until its almost unavoidable. 

I posted a picture of yesterday's lunch: a veggie burger from morning star, in an open face sandwich on barely bread, with a side of red peppers and carrots, with some sliced cucumbers. i was a little antsy to try these, I am not a big morning star fan, their products are good calorie and fat wise, but ingredient wise....eh.  My mom bought them a few weeks ago, but i didn't eat them until yesterday because i was wary of the content of milk in them, having an allergy to whey can really put a hold on things. They were actually very good though, and to my surprise mostly made of vegetables! The first few ingredients were carrots, red peppers, and water chestnuts, along with a few other things. so i plan on eating those again.

today's lunch was a salad. i love salad. They're packed with nutritional value, and they are incredibly versatile. While they can be nutritional, they can also be very bad for you. I'm saying this because I know it's the new year so alot of people are going to be on a salad kick, so this just needs to be said

Not all Salads Are created Equal.

they're not. For example, let's look at restaurant salad's. you can order a salad from a restaurant and think that its good for you, but fact is, it's probably not. At the 99 restaurant, one of their Grilled Cobb salad adds up to about 860 calories! and more than half of those are from fat! many restaurants like to make their salads huge in portion with guilty add ins, like bleu cheese dressing, bacon bits,pounds of cheese, mayonnaise, pasta etc.

so whether you build a salad from home or order from a restaurant, stick to these guidelines:

•  1 protein ( grilled chicken, a hard boiled egg, beans, tofu) to help keep you full
• 1 item containing healthy fat ( nuts, avocados, or low fat dressing)
• 1 carbohydrate (whether it be a sweet potato, whole wheat pita bread, or brown rice,)
• 3 or more vegetables( make sure to see if they have been grilled or fried, both of which would add a lot of unhealthy oils and calories to it)
• top it off with some fruit!( many seasonal salads contain fruit which is full of vitamin, and very good for you)
• always try to make sure that you can get dressing on the side. most restaurants drown their salads in dressing for reasons unknown
• make sure it has dark leafy greens, ice burg lettuce is a no go. ice burg lettuce has the lowest of nutritional value, so you're bound to be hungry later, stick with spinach, kale or romaine.
• stay light on the cheese, you never really need more than the healthy amount of 1 oz.
• go light on croutons, won tons, pita chips on top etc. they add unnecessary calories 
• because it has the word "salad" in the name, does not make it a salad ( i.e. pasta salad)

i feel as though this needed to be said because i go out and see people who are trying to lose weight, eat salad s that are actually very bad for you, but to be kind I've kept my mouth shut and not said anything until now.

Have you ever eaten a ton of something thinking it was good for you, then having it turn out not to be?

Like on Seinfeld when Jerry thinks all the frozen yogurt he is eating, isn't going to cause weight gain?

tell me, I'd love to know!

another long week

Its snowing! about time to, we haven't gotten snow since Halloween! 

i cant believe its almost been a week since i last blogged, I've just had so much to do, i still do. every night this week, i have had to write a paper. I'm not even joking. Tuesday i had to write my art history project report on futurism (which i hate), Wednesday night i had to write my own study guide for English class, and Thursday night i had to finish my document based essay for social studies. i always thought it was so interesting, how a week before midterms the teachers have to pile work onto us, as if studying for our tests wasn't enough! on top of that i am still getting over my cold from a week ago. it is so frustrating, i just feel like a giant lazy lump. 

ah well, i was too tired all week to really do anything, except school work, which explains why i was MIA for a week. i haven't even written a new recipe this week! just made a few smoothies. 

Karlyle, on the other hand has been baking up a storm!

making gingerbread men and mini pumpkin pies galore! she's been a busy girl this week.

in other news this week, i have attempted to give up artificial sweeteners such as equal, my one and only vice. i became addicted to it, putting it on everything, sometimes just eating it plain! it was gross, so for this week and the next i am going to abstain from eating anything with artificial sweeteners in it.  so far so good, but i do miss having sweet things :(

well, anyway back to hitting the books! wish me luck on midterms

Have you ever crammed for a midterm or final?

tell me! i'd love yo know

i'm going back to bed

• 

Well i woke up this morning still sick as a dog so i decided it would be good for my immune system to have a healthy Green smoothie and a bowl of instant oatmeal with blueberries. Green smoothies are so good for you, its kind of like a detox drink if feel sick or if you ate a bunch of junk food, which you don't do very often. the idea is basically like any other smoothie: fruit, ice, milk. There's a catch though, you add in your favorite green plant like spinach, romaine, or kale. it's really simple and delicious!

My Green smoothie

• 1 orange, peeled (or 1 cup of orange juice)
• 1 tsp ground flax seed
• 1 tsp chia seeds (you can change flax seeds or chia seeds for any other nut or seeds, i.e. sunflower seeds, walnuts, almond but you'll have to increase it t 1 tbsp)
• 1 cup of your choice of milk (i used unsweetened almond breeze)
• a few green grapes
• a handful of raspberries
• a sprinkling of blueberries
• 2 handfuls of a leafy green ( i chose spinach
• 1 scoop of protein powder

in a blender first blend the orange, almond milk and spinach, gradually add in the rest of the ingredients, along with ice. now blending this might take a little bit longer because you want it to have a smooth taste, not gritty so i would blend it for about 6 or 7 minutes on your highest setting.

There are so many healthy benefits from this  smoothie, vitamin C from the oranges, super important omega 3's form the flax and chia seeds protein, and natural sugar from the fruits. Lets hope it works its magic on my cold!

I went in to work last night and was trying so hard to get everything done yesterday, but with no such luck. i have been feeling slightly off all week, but i should have known yesterday when i woke up and then went back to bed directly afterwards, and slept through the whole block of How i met your mother.

so, i went into work, and looking back i actually did get a lot done which is good, but as the night went on i started losing it, so i went home without getting everything done.

And with that note, my sister and i just watched really stupid lifetime movies.seriously, i recommend it if you're feeling bad.

What do you like to do when you are feeling under the weather?