Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Master Cleanse

So yesterday was my first day on the Master Cleanse – cheaters style :P

Haha yes, I must say even day one I broke down a little. I read online lots of ways you can cheat, and one website said that raw veggies are fair game. However I saw one blogger who said she would suck on a teaspoon of peanut butter so….

My diet yesterday consisted of 6 servings of the lemonade (eight is the amount you are supposed to drink), lots and LOTS of tea (which is technically a cheat but like, really???), a teaspoon or two of straight maple syrup (it is part of the lemonade and trust me, it has never tasted so good), and probably total a tablespoon of peanut butter.

Today I had more herbal tea, a ½ teaspoon of hummus, another tablespoon and a half maybe of peanut butter, about ½ cup of applesauce (some blogger cheated on an apple and hey, applesauce you don’t even need to chew), three teaspoons of maple syrup…and 6 servings of the lemonade drink. I make the lemonade doubled each time and prefer that.
Oh.
I also sucked on two toasted pecans. Yup. It’s bad.

The hunger doesn’t get me; in fact the lemonade and tea do wonders for my hunger. It’s just that I obviously love food and am very passionate about it and not being able to eat and taste all the flavors destroys me. I am not sure how I can make the next 8 days without cheating…but I am going to try and cut back. As in maybe 1 teaspoon of peanut butter and ½ cup of applesauce tomorrow? We’ll see. My day tomorrow is pretty busy and nonstop, which is awesome news because then I won’t be thinking about food as much.

I did torture myself today watching a Food Paradise show on doughnuts…but ONLY because Voodoo Doughnuts was on it…

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I’ve taken no pictures lately so I figure I’ll keep you entertained. Any myself, because they just look so damn good.


I also began my week of unlimited yoga this week! Had my first class today, yoga and strength. Pretty good, but I must say I prefer straight yoga better. I get to try that tomorrow!


Overall, in many, many ways being back sucks. I am so intensely lonely, and wish i would have car access more so i could visit my friends at OSU and UO. I just really sit around all day watching tv or reading...Life really isn't very enjoyable :/

hopefully i will get a job soon...

bye bye. 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Guess Who's Eating Kale

Gracie!
I swear it’s a miracle. I made my own take on Veganomic cornmeal crusted tofu for dinner tonight, and accompanied it with a massaged kale salad. I then had to make a “Gracie friendly” salad for her vegetable of the day, and I had some extra kale salad left over. So I forced Gracie to take ONE BITE of kale…and she didn’t hate it! I can’t say she had much positive to say, (it was constantly, “this isn’t lettuce!”) but I added some more of her romaine and some of Gracie’s yogurt dressing and she ate it all! Seriously a miracle, and I’m so impressed. 


In other news, that crusted tofu I made? It was crusted in pretzels. Yup. That’s right. Pretzels. Here’s the recipe:
with ketchup and mustard

Pretzel Cornmeal Tofu
Serves 3
  • 1 package of extra firm tofu
  • ½ c almond milk
  • ½ c crushed up gluten free pretzels
  • 1/3 c cornmeal + 1 T
  • ½ T guar gum
  • ½ t chili powder
  • ½ t dried minced onions
  • ¼ t tarragon
  • ¼ t cayenne powder
  • ¼ t cumin
1.     Press tofu between two kitchen towels and place some heavy cookbooks on top. Let it press for about 15 minutes
2.     Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400F and grease a baking sheet with olive oil
3.     Mix together the 1 T of cornmeal and ½ T of guar gum
4.     Mix the other dry ingredients together
5.     Cut the pressed tofu into 10 strips
6.     Place tofu in almond milk mixture one strip at a time, then place in bowl of dry ingredients. Make sure to coat both side of the tofu with the dry before placing it on the baking sheet
7.     Bake tofu for 20 minutes, flip the strips, cook for 20 more minutes





and this is how you make pretzel crumbs:
stomp stomp stomp

In other news...I did yoga at home for the first time today! It was awesome! I am really trying to make some changes in my life, and much of this new positive change stems from severe heartbreak...bittersweet eh? Well one of the biggest changes I have decided to make is around my severe depression. For the first time in my life, my outlook on myself and my situation has directly cost me something, and I am determined to make a change. I am no longer going to allow myself to slip into such severe depression and I am going to try to stop being so hard on myself. I spoke to my therapist about this, and he is in awe that for the first time in the two years since he has known me, I have come to this realization: that I don't have to be depressed - it isn't who I am, just something I deal with. It may take a long time until I no longer feel like my depression is a part of me, but this is a huge start. I am simply refusing to let myself give in to it. 

This year I am actually going to better myself. 

And this all originated around trying to win a guy back ;) haha pretty pathetic huh? Well the other part of my transformation is FINALLY getting to my goal weight. How? Well I am going to start on the Master Cleanse. Yes, that's right the infamous Lemonade Diet. Here’s a little outline of my plan for the next week:

Before Master Cleanse
Tomorrow: drive with my sister to school, run 3 miles home, do an hour of yoga
Thursday: snowboarding
Friday: either running for half an hour, walking for an hour, biking for an hour, and maybe some abs/core focusing...maybe
Saturday: yoga, probably a nice walk - bonus points if I run instead
Sunday: sister snowboarding!
Start of Master Cleanse
Monday through all of Wednesday: week of unlimited yoga and light walking

So hopefully I will have the strength to go through the entire 10-day Master Cleanse. I am really counting on it. I just need a jumpstart for this weight loss. 

My goal is 125 pounds. 
Which was my weight the end of Junior year, the ONLY time i have felt good about my body in my life. 


Wish me luck!

this inspirational photo is me finally beating a game called 300 miles to Pigsland...makes sense :)

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Justin Cakes

Only 14 days…right?
I promise, once all my friends have left to go back to school, I will post more. I have just been trying to spend as much time with my friends as possible before everyone leaves again.

One thing that has been really neat about this break is that I got a lot closer with a few people who were always my friends, but never that close. That alone gives me a sense I did something this break, even though I really haven’t :P hah but it has been a really fun break, and I think I appreciated my friendships more once I got back. I had missed all my friends from home so much in Ireland, and I really realized how much my Oregon friends meant to me, which was a mindset I embraced this break.


Things have been a little rocky at home, and settling in is still in the works. I am looking at jobs now, however I really don’t want to get settled in a job right now. I want to go to culinary school in New York very, very badly. Haha that is mostly where my mind is set right now – getting out of here. Going somewhere else, exploring. But I know I need money to do that, which is what I am trying to focus on right now.

In other news it is wet-nonsticky snow today, and I haven't gone running in quite a while. I have been gone visiting friends at college especially the past week, and I have also haven't had the energy. I was goign to go snowboarding today for exercise, but seeing my friend off interfered so i am going tomorrow instead. Soon enough, after this guy I'm in love with leaves...I'll be alone without friends and can focus on running. Haha bittersweet much? I will be snowboarding a lot hopefully, and I really want to get back into running. It just is a lot harder around here because there are so many more hills! Hopefully soon i will step it up. That is a bit of a New Year's resolution I guess. 

My gluten-free diet is off and on too. I am trying as best I can not to eat gluten, but it is still very hard to do.


BUT I have a cupcake recipe inspired by one of my best friends Justin, and it is gluten free.

So here is the “Justin Cake,” which I would positively place on a menu if I have a cafĂ© :) 



The Justin Cupcake (rum extract-soaked coconut, toasted macadamia nut cake, with chocolate frosting and caramelized macadamia nuts on top)
Makes 18 large cupcakes and 9 mini ones


for cake
  • 2 cups brown rice flour
  • 1 1/4 cup toasted processed macadamia nuts (about 1 3/4 cups of macadamia nuts)
  • 1/8 cup Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp xanthum or guar gum
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 1/4 cups agave or maple syrup
  • 1/2 +1/6 cups canola oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp coconut extract
  • 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 1/4 cup shredded coconut + extra for garnish
  • 1 1/2 T rum extract mixed with 3 T water
for candied nuts
  • 1/4 cup of macadamia nut halves
  • 2 T packed brown sugar
  • 1 T earth balance margarine
unfortunately, the chocolate frosting isn't my recipe, and the author hasn't posted it online so i can't show you :/ however it is Alicia Silverstone's chocolate frosting, so if you have her cookbook you're grand, and if not any recipe should do

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and throw the macadamia nuts in a baking dish and let them brown in the oven for 10-15 minutes, shaking them around partway so they toast evenly
  2. While the nuts are toasting mix the coconut and rum-water mixture and allow to soak for at least 1 1/2 hours
  3. When the nuts are done transfer them to a plate and put them in the freezer. Once cooled completely, process them in a food processor until they are chopped up relatively fine
  4. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, including the cooled and processed nuts
  5. Whisk together all the wet ingredients, not including the soaking coconut
  6. Slowly incorporate the dry into the wet, and once smoothly combined mix in the soaked coconut
  7. Scoop batter into tins, it will be a relatively sloppy batter
  8. Bake in 350 F oven for about 18 minutes for regular cupcakes, and about 10 minutes for mini ones
  9. While the cupcakes are baking make the chocolate frosting, and candied nuts
  10. To make the nuts melt the earth balance and them mix the nut halves in over medium heat in a pan
  11. Once nuts are coated add in the sugar and cook until caramelized, then quickly transfer to a cool nonstick baking sheet. 
  12. Allow baked cupcakes to cool before frosting, then topping with shredded coconut, and candied nuts
so...yummm....

some of my prettiest


for Justin's family :)


sorry it took so long to post again, after this week i will really try to be better. i hope you enjoyed this cupcake recipe inspired by Justin, i am pretty proud of it. 

so long! thanks for reading.

...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2F4EFYM_MA because I want to end this making sure you all are smiling :D

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Christmas and Cookies

Well it has been over a week since I last posted, but that is mainly a result of my first week back, posting a blog entry was not a very pressing issue.


Last Tuesday I left for Seattle to go on a ski trip with one of my oldest friends Craig, his family, and his friends Byron, and Eli. The train ride up there was pretty rough, because I was fighting a travel cold at the time. But getting up early in the morning to leave was pretty easy, because my body was not completely over the jetlag. Once we hit the road though, the drive went pretty quickly because I was talking to new people and also catching up with an old friend. Then when we got to Stephen’s Pass we got right to skiing, it being the first time all of us had been to the mountain since last season.  Eli and I had snowboards, which was nice because it is always more fun when it isn’t just me and a bunch of skiers.

The snow wasn’t brilliant, but it was okay – just icy. Apparently the whole Northwest has been getting pretty crap snow so far this season. We had fun anyway, and our second day of skiing Eli and Byron switched skis and the board and both did very well. Besides skiing, it was really just a lot of chilling. Haha pretty low-key, and our last night and day we went to explore the town of Leavensworth, where we were staying. It was a super cute Bavarian town, and reminded me of some of the little villages in Disney Land.

It was one of the most fun ways to start of break, and I absolutely adored my company. I am so thankful to Craig’s parents for letting us all come, and especially the amazing hotel we stayed at, The Sleeping Lady. I would go back to Stephen’s Pass just for that adorable little accommodation place. They had a buffet for breakfast and dinner, and it was so amazing that there was actually food I could eat there. We all got to stay in little cabin-rooms of our own, and even though the guys and I had a few noise complaints from our room…it was a really fun accommodation.

Well going home after that was rough, I did not want to leave Leavensworth and was especially dreading the 3 hour train ride back to Portland. But alas, I did go home, and as much as I wished I could go back to Seattle to hang out with those three more, Craig already had plans to visit Portland on the 27th, so there was that at least.

So Christmas day was busy with lots of baking. As far as gifts and such it was a pretty good Christmas, I got a ski pass which is all I really wanted. It is also nice not having to worry about homework. For Christmas dinner I made roasted squash and brussel sprouts, hazelnut vinaigrette, crusted tempeh, cranberry wild rice soup, and stickey toffee pudding for dessert. Pictures are below.

carrots, onions, and celery for the soup

with the cranberries and all the good stuff






plating the pudding


I was very proud of the sticky toffee pudding from here, because it is a dessert the other girls in my family are obsessed with. The dessert itself is very rich and always seemed complex to me, but the recipe was actually very easy to follow!
dates and almond milk

and then add the flour right into the pan

and out of the oven poked with holes

just look at all that toffee

topped with coconut milk ice cream!


I curled my hair too, and we got some attempts at Christmas card photos. Who knows if that will actually work out however.
eh?


Running has been off and on, my run yesterday was simply not enjoyable and I attribute that somewhat to all the Christmas gorging on food. I need to work more on self-control with eating; it is very frustrating. Right now as I sit in a car (and have been sitting for an hour, going a whopping 10 mph) things seem bleak. I am tired and frustrated and battling a lot of depression that comes with being tossed back into my old life, and finding less changes than I was ready for. We will see how job hunting goes, but for now my goal is to try and run, try to eat less, and try to busy myself with my friends, because that improves my mood. I also am going to attempt a Pumpkin-Pie muffin when I get back, so hopefully that works out.

Despite my current grim outlook on life, I do have a new recipe to share. My dad says they are his favorite cookies I have made so far, and they really captured the taste of the Berry Oat Wondie bars from Flying Apron Bakery. The day after Christmas, I was craving some carbs and sweet cookieness. But I wasn’t feeling the heavy rich chocolate or shortbread taste, so I went with a berry oatmeal cookie instead. I am pretty happy with them. They are moist from all the berries, as I used frozen berries and some simply ended up getting smooshed into the batter. If you are using fresh, or more firm berries, I would suggest decreasing the cooking time by about 5 minutes. Or just check them as you go.


Berry Oat Cookies
Makes 25 cookies

  • 2 cups gluten-free oats
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • ¾ heaping cup of mixed berries
  • ½ cups safflower oil
  • ¼ cups agave or coconut nectar
  • ¼ + 1/8 cups of brown rice syrup
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Mix dry ingredients together in a mixer with a paddle attachment.
  3. Add the brown rice syrup, agave, vanilla, and lemon to dry ingredients.
  4. Once ingredients are fully incorporated fold in the berries.
  5. place spoons of cookies on an ungreased baking sheet
  6. bake for about 15 minutes if you didn't use berries that mushed into the batter. if your berries mixed into the batter so that the dough was very moist, bake about 18 minutes, until golden on top. 




Well, there you go! A summary, a dark musing, and a recipe. Haha hopefully my stomach will quit this nausea soon, and I can sleep or at least not feel sick the rest of the car drive. MLIA.
Haha enjoy the rest of your day.