Losing My Family’s Dog: A Tribute to Rosco

For the past couple of days, I’ve had a heavy heart. After finding out that my family’s dog was really sick with a mass that was obstructing his bowel movements, he had to be put to sleep this morning.

I grew up with Rosco. I remember the day we got him nearly 14 years ago.

When I came home to an empty house one day, my mom, infamous for leaving notes around for everyone, had left me one that read, “There’s a cute puppy in the laundry room!”

Rosco-puppy-1

I found an adorable, excited, stinky black lab in our laundry room. Turns out that this puppy, along with the others in his litter, had been found in a drain pipe, and my parents decided to adopt him on a whim.

Rosco was quite a rambunctious pup.

Rosco-puppy-2

For awhile he had a food complex where he would scarf down his eats as fast as he could, only to throw it up about half of the time –  perhaps because he had spent the first few months of his life in an environment where food was scarce.

He loved to escape from our backyard and run around like a maniac in the neighborhood. One time animal control came to the house, and I remember them opening the back door of their van and Rosco jumped out, looking completely oblivious and happy as ever. Even in his old age, he still was finding ways to get out of my parents’ yard and into someone else’s.

He was petrified of thunderstorms. There were so many times when Rosco would pace around the house for hours on end in the middle of the night while it rained, or when he would bust into one of our bedrooms, probably thinking that hanging out near people was more safe than being downstairs alone.

A lot of the time he had a guilty look on his face when we’d come home, either because he had been sleeping on the couch where he wasn’t allowed, or because he had predictably eaten all of the cat food when no one was around.

In his older years, he would drive my mom crazy by peeing on the palm trees my parents kept indoors during colder months.

Yes, Rosco had plenty of quirky behaviors and nutty antics… but as you do with any family member, we loved him unconditionally. Rocky completed our household, he was one in the family…

Rosco-4

One of my last memories of Rosco is from this past February. I was staying with my parents in Jersey so I could be with my grandma, who had been diagnosed with cancer and wasn’t doing well. I came back from the hospital feeling deflated and heartbroken at the thought of losing my grandma then. I spent hours that night laying in front of the fire cuddling with Rosco, who in true Labrador form, would hang out with anyone as long as they pet him. There’s something about snuggling with your dog that just makes you feel better when life is sad.

Rosco-3

They say all dogs go to heaven. I’m not sure that I’m sold on the idea of heaven & hell, but I like to picture Rosco up there now, in a place where he’s getting pet for hours on end, where it never storms, the cat food is plentiful and there’s lots of room to run around looking for trouble.

Best Easy Day Hikes San Jose: Trail # 1

Now that I’ve lived in the San Jose area for almost 3 months, I’ve developed a couple of favorite spots for hiking and biking. But since I like to explore as much as possible, I recently made a trip to the book store to get a hiking guide for the area. I was a bit disappointed at the selection – or rather, the apparent fact that there aren’t all that many awesome hikes in my immediate vicinity. A lot of the Northern California hiking books had mostly hikes that were hours away. This isn’t good for me because 1.) I like to hike with a certain canine, but she’s an absolute nightmare in the car, therefore I avoid long car trips with her unless necessary…

Harley-car

and 2.) while I like to do all-day hikes, there are definitely a lot of times when I want to do a hike but don’t have the whole day to do so. For those instances, I look for hikes that are going to take me 3 hours or less from the time I get in my car to the time I get back to my house.

In the end, I wound up nabbing this book:

SJ-Day-Hikes

Adam, Harley, and I picked an easy short hike as our first trail recommended from this book and went to a place called Miller Ruins Loop in Mount Madonna County Park.

Miller-Hike-10

The trail was pretty quiet, except for one thing that gave us all a bit of a heart attack. Check out where Harley is looking in the following picture – do you notice anything funky?

Miller-Hike-2AHow about now with the exposure adjusted?

Miller-Hike-2BYes, right after I snapped this photo with my phone, Harley started growling at the man hiding next to the tree, Adam jumped ten feet in the air when he saw him, followed by me yelling out of total surprise. The man was completely camouflaged and said that he was a target for search & rescue. We later saw a search & rescue dog hot on the trail for this guy. Had Harley not noticed him, I think that Adam and I would have walked right by. That’s definitely a first!

Besides that unexpected moment, it was a peaceful hike with typical things, like Harley chasing squirrels every chance she got…

Miller-Hike-1

…my capturing of a pretty moment in nature…

Miller-Hike-6

..and hiking by redwood trees and climbing around some ruins of some sort.

Miller-Hike-5Miller-Hike-4

Miller-Hike-9One interesting aspect of this trail area is that the park has white fallow deer enclosed in one spot. Apparently a couple of deer were given as a gift to the the Henry Miller Estate in the early 1900s. When the land was later purchased by the park, they inherited the deer. Fallow deer are not native to the U.S. The deer are kept in the pen because of “resource management challenges” to prevent the spread of the population. Don’t ask me what that means, because I’m not exactly sure. What I do know is that this was the closest to deer that Harley has come, and she acted like a bit of a maniac. I think she was actually trying to bite them through the fence like the nut that she is. I suppose that’s natural instinct kicking in or something?!

Fallow-Deer-1

Fallow-Deer-2

My overall impression of this hike is that it was pretty, quiet and super easy. It’d be best for beginners, people who are really sore and want an easy hike, or those who are just looking for a nice walk out in the forest. We also saw a picnic area, and it looked like a nice spot to relax and nosh a bit.

Honey Peanut Butter Banana Bowl

Hello and Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there, especially mine!

With my dad at my civil ceremony

                       At my civil ceremony

wedding16

Wish I could be with you today dad, but I’ll be seeing you in just a few weeks!

When I popped into the health food store in my town last Friday, I left with a couple of goodies, including this flavor from Peanut Butter & Co:

bees-knees

Peanut butter blended with honey? Yes please.

I also nabbed a couple of speckled bananas. Even though they were about to be too ripe, bananas are a staple in my house so I figured I’d grab a few anyways. As I was walking out, the man working at the store asked me if I wanted to take more bananas for free, since they were going to go bad soon. I obviously couldn’t turn down free produce or let them go to waste, so it’s been a weekend full of banana eats.

bananas

I put most of the bananas in the freezer, but used a bunch of fresh ones to make dark chocolate chip banana bread:

banana-bread

And then, when I came home from a gorgeous bike ride through the countryside yesterday…

bike-ride

bike-ride-HRM

 …I had visions of a frozen banana bowl in my head. I blended a bit of my new peanut butter with frozen banana, chia seeds, cinnamon, almond milk, and a bit of stevia sweetener, then drizzled it with honey. It was quite the sweet frozen treat!

banana-bowl-1

banana-bowl-2

Exact ingredients in the mix:

  • 1 1/2 frozen bananas
  • 1 TBSP of The Bee’s Knees peanut butter
  • 2 TSP chia seeds
  • 1/4 TSP cinnamon
  • 1/2 TSP stevia sweetener (optional)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, plus a smidge more to adjust texture
  • 2 TSP honey

Yum!

I’m off to clean my house then have some fun. Have a great rest of your Sunday!

Quickie Cardio Leg Blast

Hi friends!

After a couple of days of feeling icky and taking it a bit easy, I’m feeling more like myself today. Having more of my normal energy levels, my Thursday was a nicely active day, with half hour walks with my dog first thing this morning and also tonight, and squeezing in a quick hour of volunteering at the Humane Society walking dogs before heading to the gym for a sweaty workout this evening.

good things come

On my way to volunteer, I slugged down a bottle of Well Well Wow! – a liquid blend of chlorella growth factor and eleuthero that’s meant to energize you without the jittery side effects of caffeine. As I’ve talked about before, I’m a fan of consuming algae. Chlorella is a superfood algae that is thought to detoxify the body. So when the makers of Well Well Wow!, Sun Chlorella, asked me if I wanted to try a couple product samples, I was all for it.

A little tidbit about caffeine and me: We don’t mix together very well. If I drink coffee, I typically just get jittery and feel headachy, yet I don’t really feel like I have more energy at all. I’m constantly drinking tea simply because I like it, but I don’t feel any effects of caffeine from it. And the few times I’ve drank energy drinks in my life? Not only did I think they were nasty, but I again just felt kind of spastic and jittery instead of nicely energized. Since Well Well Wow! is a caffeine-free product that aims to increase endurance levels, I wanted to see if I would feel any effects from it.

WellWellWow

The drink contains chlorella extract, agave nectar and eleuthero extract. Eleuthero is an adaptogenic herb, which means that it’s thought to boost the body’s resistance to stress. By combining the two extracts, the product strives to decrease the harmful effects of stress on the body while also increasing endurance levels, hence why I’ve drank it a couple of times pre-workout to see if I can notice a difference.

In all honesty, I didn’t feel an energy boost from the drink, but the taste of Well Well Wow! was interesting. I can’t say that I loved it or disliked it — I just couldn’t put my finger on what it tasted like, besides a hint of licorice. I definitely sipped it down easily. I think that making decent tasting algae products can be a difficult feat, as they most often taste super greeny. In any event, I do like the idea of drinking something that offers the benefits of algae and decreases the effects of stress on my body, being that we live in environments with so many toxins causing distress on our bodies on a daily basis. If you’re interested in checking out Sun Chlorella’s product line, click here.

Now onto my workout of the day!

Today’s gym session focused on legs. After starting off with a couple of strength training exercises, including leg extensions, dead lifts, and the adductor and abductor machines, I headed to the cardio room to do this quick cardio workout:

Quickie Cardio Blast

When I initially came up with this combo, I didn’t think it’d be too difficult. But by the second set of these moves, I was already starting to feel fatigued and out of breath… which is great! It kicked my butt but I powered through it in about 15 minutes. The workout targets legs but also works out arms, which is why it probably didn’t help that my arms are sore from my triceps workout yesterday! I’m definitely keeping this one in mind for future workouts when I want to feel the burn quickly.

While doing this workout, I blasted my new favorite gym song: Fall Out Boy’s Light Em Up. Fall Out Boy always reminds me of the summer after my senior year of high school, when I continuously listened to their From Under the Cork Tree album while driving. I’m bringing em back onto my playlist, as I love the chorus in this song while working out. I’m pretty sure I’ll be obsessed with this one for a little while! Check it out. :)

Disclaimer: While I did receive free product samples, as always, all opinions expressed in this post are my own. 

A Veggie Lover’s Delight: Salad Pizza

Making pizza at home is one thing I simply don’t get sick of. While I most often make either a margherita pie or one topped with mozzarella, zucchini, spinach, and roasted peppers, I like coming up with new ways to keep pizza night interesting.

With dough sitting in my fridge on Monday, visions of a brand new pizza recipe floated through my head: salad pizza. 

salad-pizza

This meal is the best of both worlds: whole wheat pizza dough to please the carb lover + a healthy dose of mozzarella to make it cheesy, yet it’s also a recipe packed with veggies and goodness to provide your body with lots of vitamins and nutrients. I thought of what ingredients I most often use in my salads and also had on hand at home, and I came up with lettuce, tomato, artichoke hearts, avocado, red onion, plus a touch of olive oil and balsamic glaze for an extra kick of flavor.

Salad-Pizza-Collage

Once I rolled the dough out and chopped all of the veggies, I spread them evenly on the dough with some shredded mozzarella, marinara and seasonings. I popped the pie in the oven until lightly browned….

salad-pizza-3…and then topped it with a lettuce combo of spring mix greens + romaine and drizzled olive oil and balsamic glaze on top.

salad-pizza-4

salad-pizza-5Even my hubby, whose a die-hard fan of the most frequent kinds of pizza in my house that I mentioned above, commented multiple times on how good this salad pizza was. Ya know why? Because it is just that tasty!

This winner of a recipe is below, and if I’ve put you in a healthy pizza kind of mood, here are a couple other fun pizza recipes I’ve blogged about before:

Salad Pizza
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 8
 

Ingredients
  • 1 whole wheat pizza dough, either prepared or ready to roll out
  • 1½ cups low-fat mozzarella cheese
  • 8 pieces of jarred artichoke hearts (4 servings)
  • 2 oz avocado (about ½ medium sized one)
  • 1 medium vine ripe tomato
  • ¼ red onion
  • ½ cup marinara sauce
  • 4 cups lettuce of your choice (I used a combo of spring mix and romaine)
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 TBSP balsamic glaze
  • Mixed up salt & pepper to taste

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. If you need to roll your dough out, do so with a rolling pin on a flour dusted surface. Place on pizza pan.
  3. Chop artichoke hearts, avocado, tomato and red onion into small pieces.
  4. Spread marinara sauce over dough, then top with veggies and mozzarella. Season with a touch of salt and pepper.
  5. Bake in the oven until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
  6. Remove from heat and place on a wooden cutting board to slightly cool.
  7. Roughly chop lettuce, then spread on top of pizza. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic glaze. Add a touch more of salt and pepper if desired.
  8. Cut into 8 slices and enjoy!

Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 slice, Calories: 240 calories, Fat: 10 g, Saturated fat: 3 g, Carbohydrates: 31 g, Fiber: 4 g, Protein: 9 g

“Sick” Food & My New Love for Rowing

I get bored just thinking about doing the same workout day in and day out, which is why I’m always changing up my exercise routine. In the past week, my workouts have included strength training, plyometric exercises, yoga, the stair master, biking both indoors and outdoors, hiking, and my new favorite piece of gym equipment: the rowing machine.

rowing_machine_tips

(source <– this site also has some nice basic info on rowing)

I recently started incorporating the rowing machine into my fitness regimen. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but it caught my eye one day so I hopped on it to try it out.

I really like how rowing fatigues my arms, gives my legs a bit of a break and is low impact on my joints. A bunch of times now I’ve rowed for part of my workout, usually doing 4 sets of 5 minutes as speedy as I can, with a minute break in between sets. When I was checking out the Sarah Fit blog the other day, I saw this row and tone workout video and immediately jotted it down to try ASAP. If you’re looking for something new to try and have access to a rowing machine, do this one! I tried the workout after stretching and doing some ab exercises, then did 20 minutes of rowing afterwards. It was a tough workout and I loved it!

I felt amazing during my workout, but later in the evening started to not feel so hot. I’ve been under the weather since then - just feeling headachy and nauseous – so tonight I ate what I think of as a “sick” meal: a bowl of pastina.

pastina

It’s funny how certain foods bring back distinct memories of specific times or circumstances. Pastina is little star-shaped pasta, and something my mom used to make for my siblings and me when we were sick growing up. I made it for dinner tonight with just a bit of butter, salt, pepper and grated parmesan. My mom used to make it the Italian way and add a beaten egg to the pasta as well.

pastina-1

I enjoy pastina, but I hardly ever eat it unless I’m feeling a bit sick. I suppose pastina only beckons me when I have an upset stomach! Since I ate it tonight, I’m fully expecting to feel back to normal tomorrow. ;-)

Question: What foods remind you of being sick?

Other things of my “sick” food list are regular coke – the only time we had soda growing up was to “settle our stomachs” – and saltine crackers.

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

Hi friends!

As a few of you have commented on, my blog got a bit of a makeover over the weekend. I’m loving the new look, and will be working to change a couple of other things soon!

I just got back from a bike ride with my hubby. It was perfect weather for an outdoor workout, but the ride didn’t go as planned. The trail we chose had a super steep incline, and I was huffing and puffing like a mad woman within a few minutes. My legs are still sore from last Thursday’s leg workout (plus Friday’s hike probably didn’t help my achy legs recover to recover quickly!), and weak legs are never a good thing when biking. It makes a ride feel so much harder! We quickly realized that this trail would not work out, so we opted for an easier trail… too easy. I feel like I barely got a workout in except for the first 7-8 minutes when my heart rate was through the roof. Oh well, the blah workouts make you appreciate the really rockin’ ones right?

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

Being the health nut that I am, I really enjoy watching movies and TV that touch on related topics. When someone recently mentioned watching the movie Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, I looked it up and realized that I hadn’t seen the movie yet. I became interested, and with a few clicks on my Netflix account, the movie was en route to my house.

The movie is about an Aussie named Joe Cross who is very overweight and suffering from a rare autoimmune disease. After as he puts it, “focusing on wealth instead of health” for years, Joe veggiesdecides to make a major lifestyle change. The documentary chronicles his journey in coming to the U.S. to consume juice and only juice for 60 days in hopes of regaining his health. Joe travels cross-country during this time, meeting some interesting people along the way.

While watching the movie, I honestly felt a bit embarrassed for America. Health-wise, our country is in shambles, and the comments that the film captures exemplify just why. Many called Joe crazy for juicing for 2 months and said that they could/would never do it themselves, a ton of people admitted to horrible eating habits but showed no initiative to improve their lifestyles, and as I jotted down in my iPhone notes, someone declared, “I don’t know but I hope that God has ribs in heaven.” Yikes.

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead offered a few stats that I found scary but unfortunately not surprising. 61% of the American diet is processed and refined foods, 30% is animal products, 5% is whole grains and white potatoes, and just 5% is fruits and other veggies. FIVE PERCENT?! The film also notes that 70% of diseases are caused by lifestyle choices.

In the end, Joe makes it through his juicing fast and changes his life for the better. While I wasn’t a fan of the cartoon animations that pop up throughout the movie, I really liked the rest of the film. Joe is a great example of what we already knew to be true — that there is an vital connection between what we eat and our health, and that’s a fact that can’t be ignored. That might seem like a DUH thing to say, but it seems that our fast-food society has lost the importance in that connection, and our nation’s health is certainly suffering because of it.

The movie talks about micronutrients vs. macronutrients. Micronutrients are fruits, veggies, nuts and beans – what us Americans need to consume more of for optimal health. Other people in the movie who tried juicing noted their elevated energy levels, and I think this struck a chord with my hubby. Before the film, he shunned my green monster juices and proclaimed them to be disgusting. Post film? He’s now making juices too, and has been taking an apple, banana, and orange with him to work as snacks. Yes!

I’ve talked about juices on here a lot lately, as I got over my distaste for green monsters a couple of months ago and have been making them on most days for breakfast. In the spirit of Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, here’s my latest favorite juicing concoction:

app-berry-green-juice

Berry Cucumber Apple Juice
Author: 
Prep time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 1
 

Ingredients
  • 1 cup strawberries
  • ½ cup blueberries
  • 1 medium apple (I like Pink Lady)
  • ½ large cucumber
  • A few handfuls of raw spinach

Instructions
  1. Juice all ingredients.
  2. Chill in the freezer for at least a few minutes, then drink on the rocks.

Nutrition Information
Calories: 190, Fat: 1 g, Carbohydrates: 50 g, Sugar: 33 g, Protein: 5 g

Hiking Mantra of the Day: Just Hold On

Mt Madonna Park

Per my usual Friday outdoor workout theme, this afternoon I took Harley for a hike. We went to Mount Madonna Park to do the same hike we ventured through recently, and I quickly remembered why we’ve been going at 7 am and not 2 pm… it’s damn hot around here!

I’m a complete wuss in the heat. It just sucks the life out of me. I’m not alone, as Harley has little endurance in warm weather too…so we were quite the pair today! Besides it being hot and the sun being strong, I worked out my legs at the gym yesterday and they’re feeling pretty damn achy today. 30 minutes into the hike, already dripping with sweat, I debated whether we should just turn around and call it a day. I was thinking that just an hour is okay with me. I had my iPhone music shuffle on, and just then, the Alabama Shakes song ”Hold On” came on.

Harley powering through our hot weather hike

Harley powering through our hot weather hike

I remember listening to that song a lot last year when my hubby was deployed. Back then, hearing you gotta hold on to me meant to just keep pushing through the deployment. Today, the song symbolized me holding on and powering through my sweaty hike. With that, I kept on walking, repeating hold on in my head as the mantra of my workout. Coincidentally, the next song to come on was ”Carry On” by Fun.

A little while later, we hit a shady patch where Harley was playing a game where she’d speed ahead so she could lay down for a few seconds while I caught up, and the incline wasn’t as rough on my sore legs. By that time we were cruising! It’s funny, I always feel like I have to work my body harder in the heat, but I never realized that my heart actually really does work harder during warm weather workouts until I got a heart rate monitor. Today’s hike, which was the exact same loop that I did once before, took the same amount of time, yet I burned 150 more calories than last time. Good stuff!

HRM-6.8.13

With some AC on in the car during the ride home, ice currently on my sore muscles, a frozen berry bowl post-workout snack, and an electrolyte replenishing drink, I am now feeling good and definitely am glad I kept on moving and didn’t let myself turn around!

Berry-Bowl

Side note: I picked up some locally grown strawberries and sweet cherries at the little farm stand on my way home. Unlike my new love for cherries, my obsession with strawberries has been going on for a longgg time. I know what I’m eating for dessert tonight!

strawberries

Question: When you’re having a rough time, whether you’re struggling during a workout, with a relationship, your job, issues with family, trying to lose weight, etc., what mantras do you like to repeat to yourself? 

Besides telling myself to just hold on and take it one step at a time, I also like repeating You’re stronger than you think and Fear less, live more – a mantra that I took away from my interview with Sarah Reinertsen.

Have a great weekend!

Fennel-Endive-Salad

Fennel & Endive Salad with Almonds -n- Cherries

heart fruit

I always eat a bunch of servings of fruits & veggies on a daily basis, but lately I’ve been really putting in an effort to ramp up my produce intake even more. I just feel that eating whole foods as often as possible is the healthiest way to eat. I’m somewhere in between a vegan who eats a high amount of (good for you) carbs, and someone who thinks that eating lots of protein is key. I’ve been trying to find balance between eating a ton of fruits and veggies, while also getting what I feel is enough protein in my diet to feed my muscles, especially on days when I have hard workouts. Today I’m sharing my eats from yesterday to show you what that balance looks like to me.

WIAW

Note that every single day isn’t as clean eating as this. I indulged on Tuesday night and had tortilla chips with my veggie quesadilla dinner + fro yo for dessert, so yesterday my diet was strictly lean and green!

For breakfast, I whipped up a simple green monster:

juicer

green-monster

The color is not so appealing, but I’ve really gotten used to the taste of green monster juices as long as there’s some fruit in there to sweeten it up. Plus, getting an entire day’s worth of the recommended amount of produce in one little glass? Yes!

I squeezed in a lunchtime workout, and when I got home, all I wanted was my usual chocolate peanut butter protein shake.

choc-protein-shake

In the mix:

  • 1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
  • 1/2 banana
  • 2 TBSP PB 2 powdered peanut butter
  • A packet of stevia sweetener
  • 1 TBSP dark chocolate cocoa powder
  • 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder

With a growling stomach around 3 hours later, I whipped up a salad that I first made last week and loved:

Fennel-Endive-Salad

Such a colorful dish right? I picked up a couple of endives at Trader Joe’s recently just because I thought they were pretty. Not sure what to do with them, I chopped them up with fennel and came up with this winning combo. 

Fennel-Endive

There’s something about the mix of flavors in this salad that I really dig – the crunchy, licorice-like fennel, sweet cherries, toasted almonds, sea salt, and a light olive oil/lemon juice/balsamic dressing.

Per yesterday’s post, of course it includes cherries! ;-) The exact recipe is at the end of this post.

Dinner was a little odd yesterday. I wasn’t all that hungry because I had this salad in the late afternoon, but I had something to attend in the evening and wanted to eat beforehand. I decided to make some garlic parmesan edamame, a recipe I saw recently on another blog and have made a couple of times.

Roasted-Edamame

I combined an individual bag of frozen edamame with a bit of olive oil, sea salt, minced garlic and a few TBSP of grated parmesan, then popped it in the oven for a bit. I’m a fan of edamame – it’s a great veggie protein source. A single serving has 17 grams of protein!

Edamame

Later on, I snacked on a Nature Valley granola bar + a banana Chobani Greek yogurt with sprinkled cinnamon.

Nature-Valley

banana-cho

banana-cho-2

I <3 cinnamon.

With that, my day of eats was complete.

And now I’m off to bed, good night!

Fennel & Endive Salad with Almonds -n- Cherries
Author: 
Prep time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 1
 

Ingredients
  • 1 large fennel bulb, chopped
  • 2 small endives, chopped
  • 2 oz shredded carrots
  • ¼ cup dried cherries
  • 2 TBSP slivered almonds, toasted
  • ½ TBSP olive oil
  • 1 TSP fresh lemon juice
  • 1 TSP balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ TSP sea salt

Instructions
  1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic, and ⅛ TSP sea salt.
  3. Pour dressing over salad.
  4. Sprinkle remaining sea salt on top.

Nutrition Information
Calories: 330, Fat: 15 g, Saturated fat: 1 g, Carbohydrates: 46 g, Fiber: 7 g, Protein: 6 g

almond-butter-granola-3

Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Butter Granola

cherries

Lately I’ve been obsessed with cherries. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I stopped at a local farm stand and nabbed some dark sweet cherries. I’ve always liked cherries, but it seems my love for them has been on a whole new level since that purchase. Fresh cherries by themselves, frozen cherries in smoothies, cherry frozen yogurt (ate some last night!), cherries in my salads – I’ve been finding endless ways to incorporate cherries into my diet pretty much everyday. One day last week, I whipped up a new recipe and found yet another way to eat (dried) cherries: dark chocolate cherry almond butter granola!  

Almond-Butter-Granola-1

This granola will add some pizazz to yogurt or cottage cheese, and is a nice sweet treat all on its own. The only downside to this recipe, and to pretty much all kinds of granola in my book, is that it’s addictive. I kept grabbing a handful here and there, and before I knew it, the whole batch was gone!

If you want to slash the calorie count, just cut the chocolate chips and (dare I say) dried cherries out. Almond butter, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, and oats – what’s not to love?  It would be delicious as plain almond butter granola too.

almond-butter-granola-2

almond-butter-granola-3

Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond Butter Granola
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 8
 

Ingredients
  • 2 cups old fashioned oats
  • ¼ cup honey
  • ¼ cup almond butter
  • ¼ cup dried cherries
  • ¼ cup dark chocolate chips or morsels
  • 1 TSP cinnamon
  • 1 TSP vanilla extract

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325.
  2. Melt almond butter and honey on the stove over low heat, stirring constantly.
  3. Add cinnamon and vanilla, mix together, and remove from heat.
  4. Put oats, chocolate chips and dried cherries in a bowl. Pour honey mixture over oats, then stir with a wooden spoon to combine evenly.
  5. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange the granola onto the sheet in clusters, with the chocolate chips either in the oat mixture or positioned on top of oats (This is so that the chocolate doesn’t burn onto the baking sheet).
  6. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until oats are slightly browned.
  7. Allow it to cool slightly, then use a spoon or spatula to pour the granola into a bowl.

Nutrition Information
Serving size: a heaping ¼ cup, Calories: 207 calories, Fat: 9 g, Saturated fat: 2 g, Carbohydrates: 32 g, Fiber: 3 g, Protein: 5 g