Happy Wednesday! Firstly, here's my weekly update on my autumn slim down challenge: I think that taking a break from the scale last week was a great idea for me, and I continued to push forward with eating smaller portions of healthy, delicious food with some indulgences sprinkled in, and working out daily. I don't think I could lose the scale completely, but I think I might ditch the scale for a week or more at a time more often. Since I first talked about wanting to lose 5-10 pounds a little over a month ago, I've lost 5 pounds. I feel great, and want to continue my weight loss efforts for the next couple of weeks to see if I can tone up a bit more and lose another couple of pounds. (source) For anyone out there reading this whose trying to lose weight, I know that it feels like ... [Read More]
vegetarian
Getting My Kitchen Mojo Back: Lentil Tomato & Spinach Soup {vegan}
Hi there! Hope that you've been enjoying your weekend. Mine has been nice and relaxing. Usually when I get back from traveling, especially with jet lag and all, I feel like I need a good week to recover. This feeling of getting back into a groove has started to take shape, but it won't last... because I have a work trip to Seattle this week! I'll only be gone a couple of days though. With prepping for my Amsterdam work trip and getting ready for vacation, being gone a couple of weeks, and now getting myself organized back at home (hello tons of work to catch up on, piles of laundry, a needy puppy and a dirty house!), I feel that I haven't been at all creative in the kitchen in probably about a month. With nothing on my schedule this weekend, I was happy to have time to get my kitchen ... [Read More]
Vegetarian Living in Austria
Happy Friday! I am SO happy it's the weekend. I've been feeling so crazy busy and tired since getting back from my trip and am really looking forward to relaxing and resting up a bit over the next few days. Today's post is about my eats while in Austria. Let me start by saying that one of the reasons I love California is because it's so easy to be a vegetarian here. Both areas I've lived in in this state, San Diego and now the Bay Area, are wonderful for a girl like me who is into healthy, meat-free living and real food. I can go down the street to a farm and pick up some fruit & veggies, and mostly every restaurant has at least one thing that's vegetarian. I anticipated the cuisine of Germany & Austria to be dominated by meat, but what I found there was that nearly every ... [Read More]
Oven Baked Zucchini Fries
Some days I'd love nothing more then to experiment in the kitchen for hours. Other days, I'm not in the mood for playing around when it comes to my eats. The latter was the case over Labor Day weekend. The entire three days, I just wanted to make some yummy food in as short amount of time as possible. This was my masterpiece-in-less-than-thirty-minutes meal of the weekend: It all started off with one my favorite veggies, zucchini: I adore zucchini fries. Almost anytime I see them on a restaurant menu, I'm compelled to order them. I've made zucchini fries at home numerous times, but for some reason they haven't made it onto the blog thus far, so today I'm sharing my version of zucchini fries! First, I cut the zucchinis into fry-like pieces: Next I whisk an egg in a bowl, and ... [Read More]
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Hazelnut Smoothie
Happy Friday all! My day entailed work, a gym session, taking Harley for a lunchtime walk at the park on this hot but nice day... ...and pizza night! I just enjoyed a few slices of a homemade pie I made: whole wheat dough + mozzarella + roasted red pepper + tomato + fresh basil + arugula + sea salt. The endless possibilities of pizza combinations ensure that making it never gets old! To feed the curiosity that some of you have about what the hell a vegetarian eats from meal to meal (or really, what THIS vegetarian eats), today's topic is one of my What I Ate Wednesday posts... only it's 2 days late, because I was more excited to talk about quinoa green bean salad and throwback travel posts about studying abroad in Sicily this week! My day's eats started off in a pretty usual ... [Read More]
Quinoa Green Bean Salad with Marcona Almonds
Hi friends! Happy Hump Day! Hope you're having a good one. I'm taking a little lunch break to blog today. I ran across this awesome quote earlier: Well isn't that a good healthy living rule of thumb?! And speaking of plants, I have quite a nutritious, delicious recipe to share today: It all started when I happened to see a recipe with marcona almonds somewhere. It reminded me how much I love them, and all of a sudden I was on a mission to nab marcona almonds and create a recipe that incorporates them. Once I decided that I'd make a quinoa salad, ingredient ideas just started dancing in my head. I have a fresh mint plant that I've barely used recently. The other day I got a whiff of the plant while watering it. I love the smell of fresh mint, and I started thinking that I need to ... [Read More]