How I Fell Madly in Love in January.. with Myself.

Happy Valentine’s Day, guys.  Oh yeah, don’t worry, I’m not a fan either.  

Okay okay, it’s nice to tell people you love them and give out snoopy valentines and eat a bunch of garbage and get dressed up, but I can do (and do do) all that stuff whenever I want, I certainly don’t need a reserved table or date on a calendar to tell me when.  You know what I think would be a much better holiday?  

A day set aside to just love all up on yourself.  

All damn day.  Buy yourself chocolate almonds with salt on em'.  Call out of work.  Make an epic four course dinner.  Savor every delicious morsel and your ability to create such an event.  

This year, while I want to show love to everyone in my life I wanna go ahead and say it: I deserve all my attention.  In the past month I made some huge progress and fell back in love with my body.  I’ve been doing some intense listening to what it really flourishes and blooms on and also what it shrinks (expands) and withers on.  I’m eating intuitively and moving when and how I want to.  No more running miles and feeling like i’m going to die just because it “gets my heart rate up quickly and keeps it there”.  Running is horrible.  I hate it and always have.  This month, I’ve listened to my pop hits and pounded out 9 miles in antarctica on the bike without even noticing.  If I want a brownie I have a bite and take it from there.  Most of the time I’m so in tune with myself that I right away recognize 1- its too sweet and 2- it makes me feel a little like crap.  Does this happen overnight?  Cha, right.  This is journaling, habit changing, heavy introspection and mammoth doses of get realness from some amazing mentors and most importantly; myself.  

The best part about all of this?  Other than eating what I want and not feeling guilty, pushing myself at my fitness but never doing anything that’s not fun and accidentally dropping 20lbs in a month?  I’m swimming in self confidence.  Seriously.  It’s oozing from my pores.  Sometimes I’ll be leaving the gym, sweaty, unmakeup’d, spandex’d out and catch a glimpse of myself in that locker room and can’t help but take a selfie.  No kinda shame.  My body works HAM for me every day and I want to repay it.  I want to feed it delicious, organic, heavenly earth goodies that make me feel strong and clear minded.  I want to spring for a haircut or a manicure every now and then because it makes me feel glamorous.  I wanna drown myself in gold jewelry some days and skip the gym and roll around in bed.  ‘Cause, me.  The time you dedicate to your self care will circle back and improve so many other parts of your life you won’t even notice it until you’re just knee deep in sickening positivity.  Yeah, that's right; sticky, sweet, ooey-gooey, bubbly butterfly happiness.  I SAID IT.

How are you gonna show yourself some love this February 14th, or any day of this month?  What would life look like if you had a reserved amount of time just for celebrating you?

5 Tips for Conquering Your Sugar Addiction

I've got a monkey on my back.  He's mean and shakey, groggy and mood-swingy... his name is Sugar.

I'm not one for "cleanses".  They usually mean you have to drink green juice and/or maple syrup/cayenne/lemon water for a week and/or poop your brains out.  I mean, i'm all for a good poop but no thank you on the liquid dinners.  I'm someone who gets cranky when I don't eat, I'm someone who can't make decisions or even be nice to you if I haven't had my breakfast and don't even get me started about post-workout snacks.  I'm on a schedule, I need fuel and not the kind that comes out of a blender or through a straw, okay?

Enter October.  October is a lot of things: my birthday, my best friend's birthday, my anniversary (and annual weekend away) and hello, the most important event; Halloween!  All of these things mean cakes, pies, dinners, roadtrip snacks and tons of fun sized candy bars all up in my face.  Apparently I went a little overboard indulging myself this year and I've ended up all bloated belly acne face tight pants.  To remedy this, and my crazy addiction I've decided to go back to where I was happily floating somewhere around summer: unprocessed and unsugared.  More specifically, nothing that comes pre-packaged, nothing that has added sugars and nothing sweet basically that doesn't come out of the ground that way.  YEAH THAT COUNTS AS A CLEANSE.

So if you're in my boat, that ill-fitting bottoms boat, here are my top five tips for making it over the mountain that is sugar addiction.  

1- More sweet vegetables in your daily diet.  It's cold out, so luckily there is a bounty of delicious harvest veg at your fingertips.  Roasted sweet potatoes, squash and carrots all give you that zing of sweetness and actually keeps cravings at bay at other times of the day.

2- Add sweetness where it's unexpected.  I always have a box of golden raisins to add into super savory stuffings and sauteed bitter greens.  Sometimes, offsetting that salty or fatty taste right off the bat with some sweet keeps you from craving it when the meal is done.  Start your tomato sauce off with a batch of caramelized onions to counter balance the acidity or use apple cider as the liquid in your plain oatmeal rather than relying on processed sugars.

3 - Experiment with sweet spices.  Cinnamon not only helps in regulating blood sugar levels but it also adds a sweetness to your dish without any sugar at all.  Adding it to your breakfast is a no brainer but try it in savory dishes to give a little "hmm" to your humdrum.  Nutmeg, cardamom and cloves all also have a sweet note!

4- DATES!!!!  No, I don't mean the kind you have to shave your legs or wear spanx for, i mean the sticky little middle eastern staple food with the big, huge caramel-like taste and satisfying texture.  You can certainly pop these pretties right into your mouth from the package or use them to make raw food crusts when you pulse them in the food processor with say a walnut or almond friend.  My favorite preparation is to combine them with some nut butter, cinnamon and almonds and grind them up into a paste, roll them into bite sized balls and pop them when I'm feeling the craving hit around 11pm.  

5- Get plenty of rest and water.  Being sleep deprived or dehydrated are sometimes the only cause of a craving.  When you feel the rush for a sweet food give yourself a big luscious glass of water or re-evaluate your sleep from the night before.  If your body isn't getting what it needs it will always look for the quickest and most cherished form of comfort, which unfortunately for most of us is anything but a nap or 20oz of poland spring.

Good luck, guys!  See you on the other side!

feelin saucy

You know, this healthy eating thing, it's all about balance.  90/10 or 80/20 or however you do it.  You have to allow for indulgences or you'll go nuts.  I did a crap ton of yoga and running this week, so I'm having WINGS.  (baked dairy free tempeh ones, but still)

Crispy Baked Tempeh Buffalo Wings

1 package (8oz) organic tempeh (i used the grainfree soy kind for this)

1/2 cup flour, season with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper

1 large egg (or flax egg if you roll that way)

1 cup panko

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon hot paprika

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt +fresh pepper

Sauce

1/2 cup Frank's red hot

2 tablespoons vegan butter

1. Preheat oven to 400.  Set up steaming method for tempeh.  I  just use a wide bottomed pan with a little water and tight lid for all my steaming, but if you use a bamboo basket or wire thingy go ahead and do that.

2. Slice tempeh into triangles with flat sides; slice the block in half, then half those squares into rectangles, then slice those rectangles corner to corner to make long "wingy" triangles.  Or, you know, just whatever shape you want cause who cares.

3. Place tempeh into steamer and cook for 15 minutes until tender and un-funky. (yes, this takes a lot of funk out)

4. While tempeh is steaming, take out three wide, shallow bowls and place flour + seasoning in one, egg in another and panko +herbs and spices in the last.  

5. When cool enough to handle, dip the tempeh slices from flour to egg to panko and place on greased cookie sheet or silpat.  Place inside preheated oven, bake for  10 minutes then flip and bake for additional 10-12 until crispy and browned.

6. While the baking is happening, heat your butter + frank's in a small saucepan over low heat until melted together.

7. When tempeh is out off the oven, move to a bowl and add in the sauce then shakeshakeshake to coat.  

I served this with a simple "ranchy" red cabbage slaw.  Just slice up half a cabbage real thin like, and to make it ranch, forego the seasoning packet and add about 1/2 cup mayo (vegan or homemade), 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, lots fresh cracked pepper and some fresh dill +chives if you got em.  I make this in the morning so it's a little more tender by dinner time.  If you don't have the time for all this, you can use a more tender cabbage like nappa or even just some romaine lettuce sliced very thin.

Cravings Pt. I

Once in a while you get that uncontrollable hankering for something you don't normally enjoy.  French fries with gravy, a tuna macaroni salad, orange sherbet, okay are those just me?  I get some weird cravings and I never really know why or how.  A lot of the time, I try to deconstruct them.  "What did I do or not do today that lead to this super carby/cheesy/fatty craving?"  "when is the last time I had one of these foods?"  You get the point.  Sometimes, I give myself a proper giant glass of water or a nap and figure out my real craving was rest or hydration.  Sometimes, I allow myself to dive in and indulge.  It's listening to your body and getting to know the cravings that makes it all balance out.  I would agree definitely not to give in to the twix craving every time your boss yells at you (why you're at a job where you allow a boss to yell at you is another story) but maybe once a week, after you've exhausted all the other options and that dreamy gooey crunchy craving is still lingering on your tongue.

Last night the pancake craving hit.  They're something I don't normally eat, mostly because I have enough issue with my blood sugar in the morning, I don't like to add to it by eating sugary treats.  I decided a pancake dinner would be the way to go, that way I could sit on it through the next day and if it was still persistent I'd go ahead and making it.  

Instead of syrup or sugar I served these with a fresh apple compote made with apples, cinnamon and a little honey.  Pancakes for dinner sounds quite alright with me.

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Meyer Lemon Pancakes

2 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons melted butter

3/4 cup almond milk

1 Meyer lemon, zested and juiced

1 1/2 cups bobs red mill AP gluten free flour (or whatever you use)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1. Whisk egg whites until lightly fluffy in separate bowl, reserve.  Mix yolks, honey, butter, milk, lemon juice and zest.

2. Combine all remaining dry ingredients and reserve.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir to combine.  Fold mixture into egg whites little at a time and let sit while you preheat your griddle or cast iron pan.

4. Add to pan one ladle at a time and flip when sides are browned and bubbles are formed on surface.  I like to keep them in the toaster oven while I'm making a bunch.