Hi friends! Hope that your weekend has been great. Here are the highlights of my past couple of days: My Friday morning began with a quick hour hike with Harley at our favorite nearby park. The hike became a bit adventurous when we found ourselves in a standoff with a fox - and I must say, my dog looks a lot like a fox! We all stared at each other for awhile, and then the fox ran into the fields and crouched down. I wasn't sure if it was planning on attacking us or if it was just scared himself, but I didn't want to take any chances, so we turned around. I snapped a grainy pic of him with my phone: The park is crawling with ground squirrels that Harley has always been interested in, but ever since she caught one a few weeks ago and it squeaked for its life, she's OBSESSED. It's annoying ... [Read More]
pumpkin
Pumpkin Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
Lately I've been borderline obsessed with eating pumpkin - everything from pumpkin smoothies, pancakes, and ice cream, to smearing pumpkin cream cheese or butter on my toast and sprinkling pumpkin pie spice on anything my heart desires. Pumpkin is such a quintessential fall-time flavor. The funny thing is that I never really liked it until last fall, and my how my taste buds have changed! Last week I was talking to my cousin Noelle, and she requested I come up with a pumpkin cupcake recipe with cream cheese frosting. Well, you don't have to ask me twice! ;-) In the midst of baking my pumpkin goodies, I decided that I wasn't really making cupcakes, but more so muffins. I then proceeded to get myself all confused in figuring out what the heck the real difference is between muffins and ... [Read More]
The Perfect 200 Calorie Pumpkin Pancake
When I found out last night via Twitter that yesterday was National Pancake Day, I knew I'd have to celebrate it a day late and whip some up for breakfast in the morning. After all, I love pancakes and celebrating any fun, silly holidays! I know that some people don't believe in counting calories. It''s all a matter of personal preference, but I like to know what the food I'm taking in consists of. Plus, I usually log all of my eats into MyFitnessPal, so it kind of forces me to know how many calories I'm eating whether I want to know or not (except when I eat meals out - in which case it sometimes is a guessing game!). I like to consistently eat healthy, but if I don't keep myself aware of the calories I'm consuming, I tend to eat more than I need to. And that is no bueno, since it can ... [Read More]
Pumpkin Pecan Banana Bread
Earlier today, my father-in-law flew into San Diego to visit my hubby and me for a long weekend. Whenever loved ones come into town, I have a fun time making goodies in the kitchen. My signature drink to make when I have guests is sangria, while I like to mix up my homemade meals and treats. Last night, this is what I whipped up in preparation for his arrival: Holy pumpkin, this bread is delicious! I've adapted this vegan recipe from the Skinny Bitch cookbook, and it comes up insanely moist and delicious. Pumpkin Pecan Banana Bread Makes 10 servings Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour (I usually do 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of white) 1 large ripe banana, mashed 1 1/2 c pure pumpkin 1/2 c canola oil 1/2 c almond milk 1 c evaporated cane ... [Read More]
Pumpkin Pie Smoothie (Take 2) + Blog Update!
As you may have noticed, Foodie Meets Fitness has turned into Foodie Loves Fitness! I've spent many hours trying to figure out all of this tech stuff and am so excited to finally have begun my transition to a new site. It may just be because I'm not all that technologically savvy (go figure, I work in public relations in the technology industry!), but I have put in a serious amount of time staring at my computer screen this week. Has anyone else spent hours just looking at website themes?! Perhaps I'm just picky. Or have no idea what I'm doing. Or both. But I'm learning! Anyways, if you go to my WordPress.com site from now on, you will be redirected to this URL. As you can see, foodielovesfitness.com is up and running, but in the coming weeks, I will making a lot of fun changes to add ... [Read More]
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies
According to a Yahoo! News article I read the other day, 40% of food in the U.S. is wasted. This equated to $43 billion of wasted food in 2011. That's a whole lot of grub getting thrown out! I have to admit, sometimes food goes bad in my kitchen. I think it has to do with a few things: A.) The majority of the eats I buy are perishable (yeah, I'm produce obsessed) and only stay good for a short period of time. B.) When you cook a lot as I do, you tend to use a little bit of this and a slice of that, leaving you with open jars and half-eaten foods to remember to eat later. C.) I'm mostly living by myself right now. This makes it harder to buy the right proportions of food, especially because I measure out a lot of what I eat and don't consume all that much (despite the fact that I'm ... [Read More]