Chocolate blueberry Smoothie

Today for breakfast I made a super yummy smoothie. I have a nutribullet and used the smaller regular blending cup.

The ingredients are Coconut water, Greens (i used baby kale, but spinach will also work well), blueberries, and plain cocoa powder (no added sugar).

It is important to first blend the greens. Unless you have a vitamix if you they will not blend well if you blend everything together. SO start with about a quarter cup of coconut water and a handful of your greens of choice. Blend the greens until they are smooth and then add you fruit. I use frozen fruit from whole foods. This time i defrosted them over night in the fridge but you can leave them partially frozen to get a more sorbet like consistency. In the bag there were about 2 cups of blueberries. The cocoa powder is really to taste. I like about a tablespoon.

I used blueberries this morning because that i want i had on hand. I usually made this smoothie with cherries and it is super delicious as well. It is probably my favorite smoothie. I love that smoothies are a delicious way to get a few more fruit and veggies in.

Happy Earth Day!

Hey! Long time no see 🙂 Today is April 22nd also known as Earth Day. The time once a year the country gets together and decides to think a bit about the planet. Unfortunately, for many people this is the only time of year that people think about the planet. Don’t misunderstand I’m not judging I am no saint myself. While I try to make good choices sometimes I get lazy about it too. I don’t always bring my reusable bags when I go shopping, I sometimes don’t recycle (the recycling is in a different part of the complex than my apt). I tell myself all sorts of excuses, I’m just running in for a few things, it’s only a few recyclables and it’s raining The first few times it is easy to rationalize, but after a while you just develop bad habits.

The amount of plastic bags and items that could be recycled that end up in our landfills and water ways is insane. Each of our individual items may not seem like much but added together its big. It’s up to each of it to make our individual small contributions so together we can make an impact.

They say that it takes three weeks to break a bad habit. With that in mind I would like to use this Earth Day as a chance to challenge myself. For the next 30 days I will use my reusable bags every time I go shopping (I have these cute produce bags im looking forward to using too) and I will recycle all items that can be recycled. I start this challenge in the hopes that after 30 days I will be able to change my bad habits and keep going.

What are you doing this Earth Day to make a difference?

Fruit for Health

Yummy snacks from the Garden

Today I picked some of the fresh peas that I grew this year.  There is something about fresh peas that you have grown yourself that makes them taste so much nicer…Or nice at all as I don’t usually like peas…haha

Exciting Ice Cream find!

So this past weekend, while doing my weekly shop at Whole Foods, I wandered over to the ice cream freezer.  This is not something I usually do, since they stopped carrying my green tea soy ice cream 😦  While I was there I discovered something that I’m sure many of you already have…  So Delicious Cookies n Cream Almond Milk Ice Cream.  I swear you could hear a heavenly chorus as my eyes fell upon it…there was cheesy movie lighting it was bad…lol.  A pint landed in my cart before I could even finish a thought.  I couldn’t wait to get home and try some.

At my Whole Foods the fun ice cream flavors are coconut ice creams.  The Soy delicious (I loved that this brand was fruit sweetened) is not being carried anymore and the almond milk was just in the normal flavors…chocolate, vanilla etc.  So finding a new fun flavor was exciting.

I had a busy day on Saturday so I wasn’t able to try some until after dinner that night.  Soooo yummy.  I was happy to find out that that they do not scrimp on the cookies.  There was a good ratio of cookie to ice cream and because it was almond milk ice cream it wasn’t too heavy.   I have a feeling this ice cream may be finding its way into my shopping basket a number of times this summer….

Mother’s Day

This Sunday was Mother’s Day.  This year I wanted to take my mom somewhere fun.  About a month ago we were out and started talking about gardens.  It came up that we both wanted to go to a place called Longwood Gardens.  It is a little far, but good for a day trip.  It was decided, that’s where we would go for Mother’s Day.

There is a café in the Gardens, but it was being used as a reservation only Mother’s Day brunch.  Just outside of the Gardens, however, is a picnic area.  I thought it would nice to have a picnic then walk through the gardens.  My mother and I are both trying to eat a little healthier right now so for lunch I made us salads, some bruschetta and fresh strawberries for desert.

After lunch we packed everything up and went inside.  Longwood Gardens is a place that I went on a field trip when I was in middle school.  I remember it being pretty and large, but other than that I couldn’t recall.

It was beautiful, there were different paths to stroll along with different things to see.  Some of the areas were more formal garden, like the Italian water garden, and some were more organic.  There is also a conservatory with different tropical and dessert plants and flowers as well.

On the whole it was a lovely day and we were so glad we decided to go there.

 

 

Yummy Fall Foods

I found this chart while looking around on pinterest the other day.  It includes many of the yummy foods that i look forward to cooking and eating once Fall arrives.

Native Food Café

Last week I made a quick trip to LA for work (really quick like less than 72 hrs quick).  While I was there I was determined to find some good vegan food.  In NJ we don’t really have that many options unless we are making a trip to NY or Philly so it is a bit surreal to visit a place that has so many options to choose from. 

I was meeting up with a coworker from the area and using Happycow (love that site!) we found Native Food Café.  I had read about it on a number of different vegan blogs that I follow so I was really excited to eat there myself 🙂

After the 5 ½ hour flight I was starving (ok, not starving but I was really hungry).  I was ready for some yummy food.  We went to the location in Costa Mesa as it was on the way to the hotel.  It’s in this great area with all of these stores with natural and sustainable products. 

Deciding what we wanted was really hard.  Everything sounded fantastic.  In the end I got the Bangkok Curry Bowl -Seared tofu steak on top of steamed veggies, greens and brown rice with a lemongrass and ginger-infused coconut milk curry, topped with sesame seeds and cilantro and she got the Rockin’ Moroccan Bowl– tofu marinated in our homemade Moroccan sauce with grilled veggies and quinoa, topped with currants and toasted almonds.

OMG…so good.  Both bowls  had a great balance of ingredients and flavors.  Though both were delicious I think the Bangkok Curry Bowl was the winner that day.  The curry sauce was amazing and the kale was cooked perfectly.  The only negative is that now I am back in NJ and I won’t be able to go back for who knows how long 😦

Princess Half Marathon- Final Post

It was right after this that I started to really feel a pinching pain in my right hip. It started around the 10k split but wasnt too bad and I was able to put it in the back of my mind. This is something I have experienced before on some longer runs and I knew it wasnt going to go away. Just before mile 8 it became really bad. The pain feels like each time you put weight on the right side someone jams a big needle into the hip joint…not fun.

 

I took a long walk break hoping that I would be able to move into 1m/1m intervals for the remainder of the course. After my first few attempts at run intervals I knew that wasnt going to be a possibility. I had to switch to walking and walking fast. As I now had to reevaluate my goals for this race I made a new plan. For my own sanity and ode to the work that I put in for this I wasnt going to let myself fall behind pace. I was going to complete the remaining miles with each mile in the 16 minute per pace. In my head this became crazily important.

My GPS watch became even more important to me as it allowed me to be able to watch my pace closely and make sure I didnt fall behind. My walking pace varied between 14:30 and 15:45 minute miles. Im not sure what people would make of the expression i was most like wearing on my face at this point. I would like to think it was one of sheer determination, but it probably more like a painful grimic. I was doing my best to put the pain out of my mind though, i had a job to do.

It was around this time where I thought running with my Ipod might have been a little bit helpful. The entertainment and characters were a lot more stretched out. A little background on my internal debate on whether or not I was going to run with music. This is something that I thought a lot about in the weeks leading up to the race. I had always had my Ipod with me on my training runs, however, I wasnt sure that I would be able to take it with my for the half as I wasnt sure how I was going to carry it. In the past I have tried to run with a running belt to carry some of my things, but I couldnt seem to keep them from slipping up and bouncing around my waist. They ended up being a hindrance rather than helpful. This wasnt an issue for my training runs as I wasnt carrying that much with me, but for this race I would need my phone and clif blocks. My skirt has no pockets so I had to tuck my phone on one side and fuel on the other. I figured trying to manage my Ipod too would be too much. I dont think it hurt in any way to not have it and I was by no means bored, but the music might have been nice for those few miles.

Just after crossing out of the MK resort area was the mile 9 marker. There was a nice volunteer there who was offering to take picture for people.

 

Just after mile 9 I came across Atta. Her line was only three people, even though I knew that I needed to keep moving to not fall behind I wanted one more character shot after all these pictures were one of the main motivating factors behind running this thing.

 

Just before the on ramp was the mile 10 marker.

 

Now about that onramp… OMG that is the longest onramp I have ever seen. It just kept going and going, I thought it was never going to end. I was walking on the inside of the ramp on the grass. I know that people tell you not to walk on the grass, but I was being careful and it was necessary for two reasons. One, it was ever so slightly less painful to walk on the grass as it wasnt so hard and two, even though I was walking I was passing people and there just wasnt enough room to go around people on the road. Near the top for the ramp were the army men from Toy Story. They were encouraging us to run faster.

We finally finished with the ramp that just wont end and found mile marker 11

 

At this point I was starting to feel ok, I was still in a lot of pain, but I knew now that I was going to finish this and finish in within my 3:30 time.

About half way through mile 11 the DJs and race announcers were there cheering people on. A little further on another DJ planning music trying to give us that last bit of energy and excitement we needed to finish this. She was playing some Bon Jovi, Livin On A Prayer. A bunch of us had found some energy and were singing along. The DJ just shook her head and commented that that was probably the only 80s song that all of us 20 somethings knew…well she isnt wrong :shrug:

There were also some last characters, Mulan and Mrs. Incredible. It was great Mrs. Incredible was just finishing her set and ran with us as she made her way to the trailer…in heels

Soon after I could see mile marker 12

 

You can see just over the clock Spaceship Earth. This was, it we were finally going to go through Epcot and the finish, just one more mile to go. Im not gonna to lie, I started to get a little emotional at this point. I had been thinking about it and training for it for so long and now it was here.

We went passed the ball on the right side and towards the World Showcase. I felt really bad for Pinocchio as he wasnt getting any love. I think everyone just wanted to be finished by this point. Right after the fountain was the Fairy Godmother. She had a little bit of a line, but nowhere near as bad as it would have been had she been any sooner on the course. I passed on both as I too just wanted to be done. Just at the entrance to WS we turned back to make our way out of Epcot and to the Finish line.

I saw my mom and sister for the last time on the course. There werent that many people in Epcot so they were easy to spot. I guess most people go straight to the finish.

Just as we were out of Epcot I could hear the Gospel Choir, then I could see them. I couldnt believe it, we were almost there. I didnt get a picture of the 13th mile marker as I was pulling myself together. I was determined. I was going to run that last bit through the finish no matter what. And I did, I ran through. It felt so strange.

Just after I crossed the line it hit me, I did it…I completed a half marathon. If you would have told me a year before that I would be standing there having done it I would have laughed and told you never gonna happen, yet here I was.

 There were tears in my eyes as I found a volunteer and received my medal.

Princess Half Marathon Part 3

The road narrowed down to one lane as we started towards the Contemporary Resort

 

 I soon was running under the water bridge and up the hill that everyone talks about. I didn’t find it that bad, I ran down the hill but mostly walked up the other side as there was things to see. About halfway up the hill they had the giant puppets out that they had for the mile 20 spectacular for the full in January. I guess this was our mile five surprise  .

 

 

 

 

 Sorry for the blurriness. I could only slow down a little as the course was only one lane still and I didn’t want to stop in front on anyone. The crowdedness of the course could really be felt in the areas that were one lane. RunDisney stated that there were just under 24,000 runners participating this year .

Hey look… we made it to the fifth mile!

 

 It was just after the mile 5 marker that we turned into the backstage area that would lead us down Main Street USA .

 

 Our path towards the Castle had us entering MK from just behind Tony’s. There were a lot of spectators lining the left side of Main St and Cast Members on the right. There was cheering and lots of energy. Based on what others had said I expected Main St to be really congested and not really be able to run, but this was surprisingly not the case. Magic Kingdom was one of the easiest areas to get the space to run in. The only difficult area was actually going through the Castle.

 

 

 Once we ran down Main St we made a right into Tomorrowland. Buzz was out but I passed. As we made our way into Fantasyland Alice and the Mad Matter were out. The line wasn’t so bad (about 12 ppl deep) so I thought them would make an excellent first character picture.

 

 My eyes are closed in this one, guess I was in need of a quick nap…lol

 After a quick thank you to Alice and the Mad Hatter we ran around passed new Fantasyland. PS It is so fun it to be able to write that we were running around Magic Kingdom. Doesn’t the idea just make you smile

The next character I saw was Gaston. There was no question… I was definitely stopping for this one. Gaston always has great lines. I was greeted with a “Come on over, don’t be shy.” Aside from the Hatter he is the only character that really said anything.

 

 Gaston’s line pretty much lead right into Belle’s since she was my princess on my bib I wanted to wait for a picture with her. Plus now that she has Story time with Belle this is really the only way to meet her in her ball gown without standing in line for 2 hours.

 

 Mickey and Minnie were out just before you ran through the Castle but there line was soooo long that I knew I couldn’t waste the time.

 

 I have to say, running through the Castle was a bit anticlimactic. I expected to feel super great and excited, but didn’t. It was sooo crowded that we all had to walk and we were on top of each other. I tried to create some space so that I could get a picture but there was no way.

 After our run (walk) through the Castle we made a right into Liberty Sq, then into Frontierland. It was here I made use of the real bathrooms. I was surprised to find no lines to use these. I have to tell you real bathrooms during the race were the way to go. They had things like soap and paper towels…the indulgence. As I was walking out I hear two girls quickly talk to each other about using the boys room to avoid the line, I told them they could go ahead to the girls room that there was no one there. They gave a quick thanks and I ran back to the course.

 After Frontierland we ran backstage. They had one area set up for photos with one of the parade floats as a backdrop. When I ran past it was Aurora and Prince Philip, I heard that they were switching out with Cinderella and Prince Charming.

 As we ran out of the backstage area we pasted the mile 6 marker and soon after the 10k spilt, time 1:34 pace 15:16. That mile in MK with pictures and stops really slowed my overall pace. Based on my running watch the mile through MK was just over 25 minutes.

 This was not the pace I was aiming for, but feeling good cardio wise after taking it easy through Magic Kingdom I knew I was going to have to pick up the pace. I made a plan to run the next two miles straight as some of the humidity seemed to have let up, of course stopping for pictures.

 Before I knew it we were at the hearing the half way song This Girl is On Fire.

 Can’t tell but im pretty sure this is the mile 7 marker, though it may be 6.

 

 

 Just after stopping for Mary Poppins and friends I found my mom and sister again. It was funny, I found them pretty easily, waved and yelled Hi and they still didn’t see me. I had to back track a few feet and walk right up to them before they realized it was me. A nice spectator took this picture for us.

 

 I quickly ran off with a “have to go, I’m behind.”