30 Days of Health & Happiness...

Hello Hello!

I know I know...long time no blog! Well, let's just say I'm back and will be here for a while. I have no excuse so we will get right into this post. 

The hubs and I just came back from a WONDERFUL cruise.  We took in the beaches of Cozumel, Belize, Honduras and Grand Cayman. Pictures to come soon. 

Well, with this wonderful cruise came quite a bit of weight gain :-(. I know... cry me a river. Anywho, I've decided on a 30 day challenge of Health & Happiness! Yes, 30 days of eating healthy, wholesome foods and getting some form of exercise in and 30 days of happiness. The 30 days of happiness is about what makes me happy and to be grateful for all that I have. 

Let's begin, shall we? My day started off with a bowl of Puffins (one portion measured out), almonds and some almond milk. 

Simple and delicious. 

A few hours later I had a black bean bowl made of whole wheat cous cous, black beans, tomatoes, green peppers, onions and carrots. Here's a pic of the black beans being cooked:

A few hours after this I had a fruit smoothie made of mango, pineapple and coconut milk. This was incredibly delicious and I WILL replicate this at home :)

I also had a snack of pretzels and nuts:

Dinner time rolled around and I made home made falafel burgers. These falafels are not fried and are packed with flavor. I had one falafel burger on a whole wheat bun with a salad on the side:

That my friends, is my food for the day!  I also managed to go on a 4 mile walk as my exercise for the day.

Now, onto happiness. What makes me happy? Spending time with my husband, brother in law, sister, brother and my darling, darling, precious niece who is the light of my life! I love her so much!!! 

I'll just leave on that note. Good night, all!

And We're Back...

Good Morning All!

Happy Monday. Time to start the workday. I hope you all had a great weekend. My weekend was full of fun and eventful things. 

We kicked things off Friday night at a Thai restaurant. I got the Garden Green dish which is suppose to be a bunch of vegetables. I was a bit disappointed because there were a bunch of limpy vegetables, such as cabbage and bok choy. I was hoping more for broccoli, carrots and string beans. 

The husband ordered a chicken dish which looked far more interesting than my dish:

Yeah... It's on fire. 

The rest of my weekend included a lot of healthy eats:

We also did a lot of cooking and prepped meals for the week. We are on an Indian food kick and made a pot of channa masala and daal. We also made a batch of falafel burgers. 

I also made a stack of oat waffles for myself for the week:

And that's a wrap with good eats :-)

Hump Day...

Hey Hey People! Happy hump day. 

I hope you guys in the east coast are keeping warm and not putting yourself at risk for frost bite. Today is suppose to be a balmy 25 degrees :-p

I didn't post any food pics yesterday because I feel I've been eating the same meals everyday. Also, let's be real -why bore you!

My breakfasts have been the usual: Oat Waffle with Almond Butter and Banana 

Lunch: Lentil Shepherds Pie with Kale

For dinner, we braved the cold and went to Hoboken. 

We went to Mamoun's Falafel!

I ordered the vegetarian plate combo over salad. This came with hummus, baba ganoush and beans over salad. I ate all of this with a pita. Delish!

I'm hoping I'll be able to go check out a Curves gym today. It's right next to work and a workout is suppose to be 30 minutes. Let's see...

Hope you all are doing well!

Happy Monday...

Good Morning!

I hope you guys all had a great weekend. It's a very rainy morning which makes it very hard to get out of bed. 

Yesterday, I started my day off with a waffle burrito. I'm loving this waffle recipe and will share it in a post soon. 

Yum! Plan on seeing this a lot for breakfasts :-) Waffle topped with almond butter and banana, folded over burrito style!

After breakfast the hubs and I finished up Season 5 of 24. We are so loving this show. Jack Bauer can get away with anything and I believe he just may be superman :-). We are excited to start Season 6 tonight! 

After 24 we are lunch. I finished up the last of the Unfried Falafel Burgers. This is another Forks Over Knives recipe which I LOVE!

After lunch we headed out to run some errands and did our grocery shopping. Afterwards we stopped my sisters place for coffee and cake and to hang out with my sister, brother in law and niece. It's always a good time when we see them. 

I also snacked on some sriracha chips (not that spicy, tasted more like ketchup). 

We made it home and I decided to make a dinner dish that we can have through out the week. I made another Forks Over Knives recipe:  Lentil Shepherds Pie. We will probably have this tonight for dinner. 

The night ended with a veggie burger (from Trader Joe's) and cucumber on the side. 

And... Because we are such exciting people, we started off Season 6 of 24 :-)

So, here's to Monday... The sooner we start the day, the sooner it will be over :-p

Have a good day and Happy Monday!

Happy New Year!

Wow, time flies! We are now in 2014!!! Out with the old and in with the new...2014 is going to be a great year :-)

Of course it's January and a lot of people make resolutions to lose weight. My resolution for this year is to just eat healthy and exercise. I'd like to eat as clean as possible and exercise for good health. 

Lately I've been making a lot recipes from the Forks Over Knives Cookbook and I'm loving them. Even my loving hubby, who avoids vegetables like the plague, loves these recipes. It's helping both of us get into a healthy lifestyle. 

I intend to blog more often and share some awesome recipes with you guys. Here's to making 2014 a happy and healthy year for all!

Here are a few pics of my meals:

Lentil Shepherds Pie with String Beans

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadilla 

Falafel Burger on EZekiel Bread

Vegan Waffle with Almond Butter and Banana

Recipes and updates to come. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Day 9 recap

Good Morning!

Day 9 was another good day. I started my morning off with a big bowl of chopped fruit with a 1/4c of almond flour mixed in. Iced green tea on the side.

At noon I had a So Delicious vanilla yogurt as a snack. Earlier in the day I had stopped by Whole Foods and picked up a brown rice avocado cucumber roll. There were 12 pieces in this roll. The roll tasted good but there was something about that made it not so great :-(

Between lunch and dinner I had 1/2c of plain oatmeal. Dinner was really simple but I forgot to snap a pic. I had brown rice with Trader Joe's Asian stir fry veggies. Dessert was a bowl of cherries and blueberries. I also had a banana a couple of hours later.

I felt really great tummy wise yesterday. I had no issues and also managed to get a sweat inducing circuit workout in!

Now, I'm already on day 10, on my way to work and thinking about breakfast :-)

Day 8: Recap....

Day 8 was by far, the best day of my vegan, no oil diet, so far. I think what made me feel good were my snacks.
My day started off with a mug of coffee and a mug of oatmeal. I had half a cup of oats cooked with water and a banana whipped in.

Lunch was easy. I went to Trader Joes and picked up their Asian Veggie Stir fry. I made this whole packet which was vegan and oil free.

In between lunch and dinner I had two snacks, both vegan yogurts. After lunch I was still feeling blah in the tummy. I was trying to figure out what was really impacting my diet. I thought since I'm having tummy issues, did I use to eat something that helped my stomach? Then I thought about all the yogurt I use to have. I would have yogurt at least 4 times a week. Maybe I my stomach was missing some acidophilus? I then walked on down to whole foods and found coconut milk yogurt by So Delicious and almond milk yogurt by Almond Dreams (review on these to come). I first had the coconut milk yogurt. Thirty minutes after this my stomach was already feeling better! Later on in the day I had the almond milk yogurt. By the time evening came, I was able to do a circuit workout! Then I was able to have a good Ju Jitsu class! Finally, some relief!

Today I'm definitely going to have at least one vegan yogurt.

Moving on... Dinner was vegan Indian food made with minimal oil. I forgot to take pics :-(

Well... Now onto day 9!

Day 8

Good Morning!

We are now on to day 8! I still had my usual 4:30am wake up call from my tummy letting me know it's on fiber over kill! I really hope this stops. I can't help it... On a vegan diet everything you eat has fiber. Yes, this is a good thing but it's also very annoying at 4:30 am :-p

Hmmm.... Have I noticed any other changes? I have lost 1 pound and my skin is clear. Other than these and the stomach discomfort... No.

There are still 22 more days left....

Alright... Till breakfast, my friends....

Day 7: Lunch, Dinner and Everything in Between

For lunch yesterday I got a huge chopped salad from Hale n Hearty. In the salad went:
romaine leaves
red onions
corn
broccoli
chickpeas
mushrooms

All of this was chopped up and tossed in vinegar. I have to say, I'd take a chopped salad over a regular salad any day!

In between lunch and dinner on snacked on the following:
banana
half a mango
3 turkish figs
melon salad

Dinner last night was definitely vegetarian. I just don't know if it was vegan. I went out for Indian and got the paper masala dosa, which was served with spiced tomatoes on the side. I say I don't know if this is vegan because I don't know if any ghee(clarified butter) was used.
The dosa was HUGE and I only managed to eat half of it.

So, that was my day. I noticed I'm taking in a lot of fruit... I hope the sugars don't get to me.

Now, to start off day 8!

Day 7: Breakfast Time...

Good Morning!!

Today is Monday.  The beginning of the work week.  Repeat after me:  YOU CAN DO THIS!  Great, with that said, let's move on to breakfast time!  This morning I enjoyed a bowl of fruit with a 1/4c of almond flour mixed in.  I know this sounds blah, but it was actually very, very delicious!  I woke up this morning craving a bowl of fresh fruit.  Also, since there was no almond milk, I used almond flour, which added create texture.  In the mix went:

1 banana, chopped

Half a pint of strawberries, chopped

Half a pint of blueberries, chopped

1/4c of almond flour

Stir all of this together and you have a bowl of fresh deliciousness!!

PS:  I hope this holds me over till lunch time :-p....We'll see....

Weekend Food....Days 5 and 6...

The weekend went by in a flash!! I managed to continue on with my vegan lifestyle :-)  Below are some of the foods I ate this weekend:

Sweet Potato Lasagna....mmm

Brown rice, brussel sprouts, mushrooms and pickles...

Smoothie time:  avocado, mango, mint,almond milk

Home made sorbet: pureed banana and peach..frozen

Puffins, strawberries, bananas

Dinner: Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato-Vegetable Lasagna

Last nights dinner was absolutely delicious!!! I made Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato-Vegetable Lasagna. This is a recipe from the Fork Over Knives book, made by Rip Esselstyn, author of The Engine 2 Diet and son of Caldwell Esselstyn, author of Forks Over Knives.

For a lasagna that is oil free and vegan, this was delish!! Also, totally guilt free and felt good to have a second helping!!

Day 4

This morning I woke up at 4:30am with tummy aches. Again, I feel from all the fiber I've been taking in and my body adjusting.

Hopefully, my body is adjusting and today will be better. I think I will also try drinking more water.

Overview of Day 3

Today was much better than yesterday. First off, there were no cravings. Secondly, I felt I was able to control my snacking more.

I am definitely eating a lot more fruits and veggies. I feel like I am taking in a lot of fiber but not really getting rid of it. In other words, I feel bloated and fat, even though the scale is showing weight loss. I'm drinking a quart of water a day. Maybe I need more? Maybe it's the lack of fat in my diet? Maybe it's my body adjusting? I don't know what it is but it better go away soon :-p. Seriously though, today is much better than yesterday.

Yesterday's Dinner...Today's Lunch...

Lunch today was an easy fix. I took yesterday's dinner leftovers and packed them for today's lunch. In a Pyrex dish went:
1/3c quinoa
Sautéed veggies
1/2c of black beans

Ah, delicious, nutritious, vegan and oil free!

A Fruitful Breakfast...

I managed to have a very healthy breakfast this morning!  In a bowl went one banana, sliced, half of a container of strawberries, sliced, about 10 almonds and a cup of Puffins multigrain cereal. There was no almond milk this morning, so this was had as is!

I was also able to avoid this catastrophe at work: 

How was your breakfast?

Day 3

Today starts day 3. Despite the bread and cheese cravings I had last night, I managed to sleep really well. This morning I woke up at 6:38am with tummy bloat. At 6:40am, this was taken care of :-p

As hungry as I was feeling last night, I did not wake up very hungry this morning. This is good. So, what do I plan on doing differently today? I want to get some exercise in and try to snack less. Yesterday I only snacked twice (bowl of chopped apple and almonds, guacamole and air baked crackers). The snacks were healthy but I have to remember, just because I am eating healthy doesn't mean I can over eat...ahem... I'm thinking about you guacamole :-p

Alright... Off to conquer another day! More updates later...

Last Night' Dinner

Dinner last night consisted of 1/3c of quinoa and mixed vegetables. This is the first time I made mixed vegetables without using oil. I took whatever veggies I had in the fridge (zucchini, bell pepper and kohlrabi), and diced them up. I took cumin seeds and toasted them along with coriander powder for a couple of minutes. Then I added a chopped tomato and turmeric powder. The juice from the tomato helped move things along. I added the diced veggies and let their natural water come out. Then I added some tamarind paste and lemon juice. I let this cook for another 15 minutes.

I have to say, the tamarind and lemon juice added a great tang to this dish. Toasting the spices added a nice smokiness also.

Dinner was filling and delicious and followed by a bowl of fresh mixed fruit mixed with mint for dessert!

Hope you all had a great dinner!

Brief Overview of Day 2

Today I felt hungrier and thought about cheese... A LOT! I also feel pretty bloated from all the extra fiber I'm taking in.

Dinner today was at 7:45pm, followed by dessert which was a bowl of fresh fruit topped with shredded mint.

Right now it's almost 11pm and I feel bloated and hungry. I'm also intensely craving a loaf of French bread with cheese... Any cheese... I just want cheese :-p

Well, it's time for bed... If I can't have cheese maybe I'll dream about it :-p

Good night and sweet dreams!

Day 2: It's a Whole Foods Lunch...

Today's expensive lunch was once again courtesy of Whole Foods! I had vegan, no oil saag (Indian spinach dish), along side some brown rice and beans. Since I was super hungry I also had some Naked Lasagna (vegan, no oil). The lasagna was so so. I could have done with out the tofu.

Lunch was definitely filling but look out for a post on my snacks for the day :-)