Recipe Alert: Oat Waffles

Good Morning and Happy Hump Day!  Keep it up guys...just a few more days till the weekend :-)

So, you know those delicious waffles I've been having for breakfast most mornings? Well I wanted to share the flavor and health and give you guys the recipe...an incredibly easy recipe!

Let's get to it!

Ingredients:

1 cup of oats

1 cup of water

1/2 banana

1tsp of vanilla extract

Preparation:

Turn on your waffle maker and set to high. Blend all ingredients.  Lightly spray your waffle maker with some oil. Place batter in and cook until done. Enjoy!

Servings: 2

That's it folks. It's that easy. I LOVE these waffles. They are vegan and fiber packed.

I usually make a stack of these Sunday evening, to have for breakfast during the week. I just pop them in the toaster or toaster oven to reheat.  

You can top these waffles any way you like. My most favorite way to eat them is to quarter the waffle, add almond butter and banana :-)

Soooo delicious!!

I hope you guys make this recipe!

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!

Saturday Shenanigans

Hello Peoples!

I hope you all had a fun filled Saturday and are now relaxing on the last day of the weekend. My Saturday was packed with lots of healthy eats and fun!  Let's get this party started!

My morning began with a delicious waffle made of just oatmeal, water and banana. I topped this baby with some almond butter and sliced banana:

Yum!  

Official recipe coming soon!

After lazing around and then doing some cleaning I was hungry for lunch. Lunch was a quick bean taco. I heated up two corn tortillas over an open flame on the stove. I then topped each tortilla with beans, salsa and a little bit of guacamole. Roasted broccoli was had on the side:

Afterwards, I had some pineapple.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of that. 

In the afternoon I went to a friends place and enjoyed a snack of cheese, crackers and pound cake. My favorite combo was topping a cracker with a little bit of Brie and raspberry jam. 

Check out the spread:

 I feel like this jam was the star of the show. Straight from Paris!

After snacking a few more of our friends arrived and we all headed out into the city for dinner and jazz. 

Dinner was Italian at Via Della Pace, second avenue.  I felt my meal was just ok. I found my pasta and eggplant to be quite salty. I skipped on dessert and had a nice, hot cup of americano instead. 

After dinner it was off to listen to some jazz music. We went to Smalls Jazz Club and it was very nice! This was my first time at a jazz club and I loved it. The music was great, there was some singing and it was a very nice crowd. I would definitely go there again and even check out other jazz clubs to visit. 

And that, my friends, concluded my Saturday!

I hope you all had a great day!

Recipe Alert: Breakfast Berry Pudding

Happy Saturday!

This morning I woke up thinking and feeling: I could really use a delicious breakfast filled with antioxidants, fiber and healthy fats. You know, something that's good for me and will keep me full for a few hours. This is how I came up with a Breakfast Berry Pudding. Originally I was thinking of making a smoothie. Then I thought, why not add chia seeds and make a spoon able breakfast :-). This is exactly what I did and I managed to make a DELICIOUS breakfast that filled all my criteria: delicious, with antioxidants, fiber and healthy fats!

Check out the deets below!

Recipe: Breakfast Berry Pudding

Ingredients:
1 cup frozen berries (I used Trader Joe's Very Cherry Berry Blend)
1/4 cup frozen spinach (You don't even taste this)
1/4 cup almond milk
Water, a needed to blend
2TB chia seeds
2TB sliced almonds

Preparation:
Blend first four ingredients together. Pot in a bowl. Stir in chia seeds. Top with sliced almonds. Allow to sit for at least two hours.

PS: This can also be made the night before. The longer you leave this the more moisture the chia seeds will absorb and the thicker the pudding.

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!

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

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!

It's a Whole Foods Dinner....

Dinner tonight was courtesy of Whole Foods. I stopped by earlier to pick up some ingredients to make blueberry oat breakfast muffins. While at Whole Foods I stopped by the hot foods section and luckily they had plenty of vegan, no oil options :-)

In a little container I packed in "The Green Squad" which had rainbow chard, yellow bell pepper and purple cabbage. I also packed in "The Mediterranean Crunch" which had chickpeas, broccoli florets, tomatoes and olives. Lastly, I layered in some "Detox Salad" which had minced broccoli, carrots, peppers and tons of ginger!! I mixed this all together in my small container and had a deliciously expensive ($10- SERIOUSLY!) vegan, no oil dinner :-p

I also saw Whole Foods was selling books with recipes from Forks Over Knives. That explains the no oil, vegan meals :-)

Day 1 is almost over. So far so good!!