If You Give a Girl a Cookie...

Desperation cookies.... yes, they are, to me, exactly what they sound like. lol.

Since going vegan I have been really good about cravings.. but tonight I wanted cookies, *desperately!*, and I didn't have any. So, I looked online for a recipe that I could bake and get the quick warm cookie fix I needed without spending loads of time on it.

I found a recipe that I changed up, and like I already said.. I'm calling them my desperation cookies. :)

{Desperation Cookies}

1 Very ripe banana
1/2 c. Oats
2 T. raisins 
Pinch of cinnamon

Mash banana with fork in the bowl and then add in remaining ingredients.
Spray sheet tray with non-stick spray and drop cookie mix by spoonful onto it.

Bake 350º for 15 min.

They were delish, not to mention they smelled super good! For obvious reasons, they smelled like oatmeal raisin cookies mixed with banana bread. Mmhmm.. now you know you want to whip some of them up.

Happy Friday Night Friends!

Peace-Love & Warm Cookies

Linz

Chilly Delights

Last week I got a giant bag of grapefruit, a big bag of apples, bananas, etc.. And while we've been eating them, I have been trying to look for recipes that would help me use them up. 

Phil went to work a little bit later yesterday morning, so after getting G up and giving her breakfast, I decided to whip up a little something for Phil and I to have. 

Thought I would experiment. No yogurt or milk.. Purely fruit, and it was delish!

This is what I came up with...

Here is my recipe:

{Breakfast Blend}

1 red grapefruit
1 apple (doesn't matter what kind, but I think mind was Gala)
1 orange
4 t. chia seeds


That's it! Blend it together and enjoy! I left ours kind of chunky and we just ate it with a spoon.

Refreshing and perfect for a pick me up in the morning!

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Today I decided to do a recipe I found online, but I changed it quite a bit and make it completely different so I'm calling it my Vegan Fruit Sherbet.

It's creamy and fruit, and nutty, and so tasty! I tried some before I put it in the freezer. Mmm Mmm.




{Vegan Fruit Sherbet}


1 c. vanilla almond milk
9 ice cubes
1 c. frozen berries/fruit
1 1/2 T. oat
1 1/2 T. slivered almonds
1 squirt of agave nectar


Add the ice cubes to blender and crush. Add in the milk, followed by all of the other ingredients. 


Blend until combined and to the consistency of sherbet.




Enjoy or freeze until later. I just put it in a glasses container, covered with a lid.

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Mine is in the freezer now, and I can barely wait until it's frozen! :) Giuliana and I will definitely be having some of that later tonight after dinner!




I decided to make a couple batches... strawberry (which tastes like strawberries and cream frappuccino from Starbucks!), and raspberry. :)




Here they are..










So now.. GO, make some of this goodness for the big and little people you love! :) 




Peace-Love- and Frozen Goodness,

Linz :)

 

Warm Granola

Happy Monday! :)

Today was pretty non-eventful. Phil worked this morning and got back this afternoon. He picked us up and we went to the mall so he could get a hot shave at The Art of Shaving before he leaves for Baltimore. That. Place. Is. Fantastic. I was about to ask her if they do legs! ;) ok.. kidding... mostly. :)

So classy, and elegant.

Here's the waiting area...

And of course I had to snap a few of G while we waited. :) LOVE these chairs..

Best way to keep a 20 month old happy..... sugar. :)

She did great waiting on Phil, actually. Which was nice because I really wanted to see how it was done. Totally cool.

Meanwhile... last night while cleaning out my car I found a granola recipe that I had emailed to myself a long time ago. I must have found it online somewhere or something, but regardless.. there it was. I've been wanting to find a good granola recipe for a long time. I tried one a while back with maple sugar and it was awful. Made me feel sick practically after my first taste. WAY too sweet.

This recipe has yummy agave nectar, and it's super yummy.

Mine is actually still in the oven sitting until tomorrow, but I have to admit, I've been sneaking little bites here and there. :)

Here is the recipe...

{Granola}

• 5 c. oats
• 1 c. ground flaxseed
• 2/3 c. agave nectar
• 1 T. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. oil
• 1 t. vanilla
• 4 T. chia seeds
• 1 c. dried cranberries

Mix the last four ingredients together in a large bowl. Once combined add the oats and flax meal.

Spray sheet tray with cooking spray just to ensure nothing sticks.

Bake in a preheated oven at 300F for 10 minutes and then leave granola in oven overnight.

*You could add lots more yummy things in it, but Phil doesn't like a lot going on and I'm giving him some of this to take with him on his road trip.

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In other news.... Tonight after the mall we went out to dinner. I got a salad, which was so yummy, but I ended up getting ranch for it. I probably only just 1 T. on the whole salad, if that, on the huge salad..and then I munched on a couple of Giuliana's fries.

Let me tell you.. I Have the WORST headache now!

Call me crazy, but I think my body was just getting over crap foods, and then even that small little bit made my body mad, and I don't blame it!

However... I reminded myself that I'm doing really good with this and to not let it get me down. I stepped on the scale today and I'm down 4 lbs! In ONE week, and I really do feel better. Inside and out. ..... Minus this migraine.

Well, that's all for now friends... I'm going to go soak up some time with my hubby before I send him on his way.

Peace-Love-& Warm Granola...

Linz

All in a Week

Well, I've got a little sick lady on my hands. :( I swear we have been sick 24/7 since the cold months have started... probably not, but it feels like it. She's just got a runny nose, sleepy more than normal, and a little extra sass. :( I don't blame her for that.. I'm never super chipper and happy when I'm sick either..

I was able to get this shot of her this morning... you'd never know she was sick! :) oh I love her.

So I just realized today that it has been 1 week since I started eating vegan. I've tried a few new things.. learned a lot, and lost 3 lbs! :) I'm not complaining about that at all!

I think I definitely have a lot to learn and am so excited to continue my adventures. :)

Here's to many more weeks of healthy eating and learning! :)

Peace-Love-and Dropping LBS,

Linz

Trader Joe's... I love you.

Hi Friends!

How was your week? Pretty good here.. seems like it went way too fast, as usual!

We're getting ready for lots of things here.. Phil's leaving for Baltimore this week, my mom comes next week, and then a couple weeks after that we are headed to NJ and CT to see family for a few weeks! So So excited about the upcoming events.. except Phil leaving for a while.. but ya know. We'll see him soon. :)

So.. onto healthy things. I've actually been loving the new eating. Believe it or not, I haven't had ANY cravings! Ok... except yesterday when I got a crazy random craving for wavy lays. ha! That soon subsided though and I was able to move past it. ;) ** As I type this I'm watching Giada at Home that I DVR'd today.... of COURSE she is making a double-decker chocolate raspberry cake! **

ANYWAY.. moving on.

So today I went shopping. Another good thing about eating vegan, I am forced into shopping when we need to and I can't just scrounge around for "whatever I can find". That always leads to eating crap.

Oh how I adore Trader Joes... I'm not sure "adore" fits it..... It's just beyond fantastic. Especially now that I'm eating healthier, there are so many great things there! If you haven't been, or don't go often, what are you waiting for?? In fact... you should probably just stop reading this now, and go! :) *please come back to me though, and finish reading!* ;)

Here is my haul form TJ's.

Sorry I didn't take a picture of it once I got it home. Dur. Next Time! :)

I have been looking for a pasta that's better and this one looked great. Just brown rice and water. Can't get much more basic than that!
I got some sun dried tomatoes for a recipe that I'm making this week, along with israeli couscous, pure cranberry juice, a can of black beans, vanilla soy yogurt (which I'm really excited to try in my smoothies this week!), 2 cartons of low sodium veggie broth, a bag of avocados, baking powder, chocolate almond milk, and vanilla almond milk.

I have been looking for a good mix of goodness to put in my coffee because I just can't drink it black. Not my thing, although I would have been forced to do it if I hadn't found this mix. :)

I got the TJ's vanilla almond milk while is SO yummy for coffee.. I also add a little bit of agave nectar. It's the perfect mix! :)

What you can't see in the cart, buried somewhere in there is a meatless "beef". I'm going to try this with taco salads, which I've been craving for about a week now. :) I've heard good things about it, so I thought I'd try it. I also got some soy cheeze, yes, with a Z . :) Hopefully we'll like that too!

Finally those.. Inner Peas. They called my name as I walked past.... I just couldn't ignore them. With a list of ingredients that I could pronounce and totally vegan... They hopped there way into my cart without even asking. :) I didn't scold them.. they looked happy. :)

Let me tell you... worth every penny. Plus, Giuliana LOVES them. I gave her a couple and then tried to go about putting the groceries away.. "Peash-Peash.. Peash" is all she said. ha! Thankfully they're pretty healthy as far as a snack goes, so I gladly handed her a few more. ;)

Now for the Chia seeds. I've heard so much about these and was excited to find them there at TJ's for only a few dollars. I guess I had in my mind that they would be a Whole Foods kind of find, but yay for happy TJ's surprises! :) Lots of Omega-3 and Protein. I opened them and tried them after dinner tonight and they are as good as I hoped. :) They remind me of kiwi seeds which I seriously love. Call me crazy.  I love that kind of hallow seed bite that you get. You'll have to get some and see what I mean.

They'll be going into my smoothies this week as well.. and probably a little bit of everything I make. Seriously, I can't think of anything that little bite won't be good in. :)

Speaking of dinner... Mmm it was yum!

Lemon whole grain pasta with cherry tomatoes and asparagus. It's basically my favorite meal, like ever!

I have realized in the last couple of days that I am going to have to be careful with pasta. It makes my heart happy... a little too happy. Even though it's vegan, it's not going to end up being healthy if I'm eating my weight in pasta! ;) ha! that said.... this dish was amazing, and there are leftovers for lunch tomorrow. :)

Hopefully I didn't bore you with all of this... ha. You probably aren't still reading if I did. Oh well. :) I'll work on it. :)

Tomorrow maybe I'll write about some of the recipes that I'm making this week. I also went to Kroger after Trader Joes. Which is where I got the rest of my things.

At Kroger I was SO excited to see that the Valentines Day candy was 75% off!! Bags of pink, red and white M&M's for only $.97! I'm 300% determined to not touch a single candy... really, truly! What I am excited about is that I am planning on doing a strawberry theme birthday party for Giuliana's 2nd birthday and these puppies are good until October 2013! Score!! This momma likes a sale! :) Into the freezer they went! Now, lets see if I can keep the hubs away from them! ;)

Until next time friends...XO

Peace-Love-and Trader Joes,

Linz <3

Save the Cows!!

Hi Friends--

Thought I would update since it's been a while since. That seems to be a pattern with me, so here we are! :)

So, the latest and the greatest.. I have decided to go vegan. There are many reasons but mostly for health reasons. I have been on "kicks" before where I wanted to eat cleaner, wanted to eat less sugar, wanted to only eat chicken or fish, etc.. and let's not even talk about my New Years resolutions, but I've had enough. I'm over the jumping from this or that idea or way of eating, and I'm really doing it this time.

I want to be healthier.
I want to be more conscious about what I put in my body.
I want to make wish choices when it comes to what I put on the table for my family each night, instead of throwing together a "meat, carb and veggie" meal WAY too often, because.. "that makes a meal".

and I want to be a good example to G in the way that we view foods and treating our bodies.

I am super excited about the changes I expect to see in my life and body. There are so many great foods that I feel I have only just begun to see and taste and I can't wait.

I bought almond milk this week, and I surprisingly LOVE it. I had tried soy milk in the past and wasn't a huge fan, so I was pessimistic about anything that wasn't "the real thing", but it was awesome!

I made vegan cookie bites yesterday, and on my.... YUM! Which reminds me... I think there are 2 left..

Anywho.. :)

Phil and I went to Pei Wei (a quick dine branch of PF Changs) and I got Sesame Tofu.. SO good. Loaded with protein and calcium. delish!


I also bought my first vegan cheese tonight, so I'm anxious to try that on salads for some added healthy goodness :)

All in all... I'm excited about this life change. I'm looking forward to being better to my body, being more thankful for everything God has given us, and taking time to think about how we can make each other better.

I'm doing this for my family too. Phil isn't eating strictly vegan, mostly vegetarian and meat on the weekend. ;) He said he's give it a go if he could "still have his weekends". ;) hehe. of course I agreed.

I feel like as a homemaker and stay at home mom that part of my job is to do the best that I can to make healthy meals. As cliche as it sounds, yes, I feel like a large part of my job lies in the kitchen.
To use my growing knowledge about food to the best of my ability, so that I am providing them with the best.

I'm excited about this. really excited actually.

Today was my second day of eating vegan, and call me crazy, but I feel like I slept SO much better last night than I have in.... I don't even know how long! I also told Phil, it's amazing that after a meal I feel completely satisfied, not bloated and stuff... just full. it's kind of amazing. That could also stem from the fact that I think I'm mildly lactose intolerant. ha, talk about win-win going vegan!

In the meantime.... if you have any vegan recipes or vegetarian recipes that can be tweaked to be vegan, let me know!! I'm all ears and looking for yummy things all the time! THANK YOU Pinterest! ;)

For now.... I'm out. This momma is tired!

Peace~Love~& Almond Milk,

Linz

Lumpy Bumpy Blessings

My goodness.. where does the time go?

I keep thinking about posting on here, and then somethings swoops in and steals my time and attention away. Next thing I know, I'm on here determined to post something and it's been 9 months. Good grief.

So much has seemed to happen in the last 9 or so, months. Giuliana is so much bigger, learning so much, talking so much.. over all just SO much fun! I'm loving being a mommy more and more every day.

Giuliana loves her baby. I pulled out some of my old dolls and there is one that she especially adores. A cabbage patch that I think was one of my favorites as well. Blond hair, blue eyes.. just like my baby now! :) Every time Giuliana sees her she gives out the cutest little giggle... or giggles. She basically doesn't stop giggling until she has picked her up and squeezed her a few times with hugs. It's precious. My heart melts not only that she loves something that I as a child loved, but that she has a "little mommy gene" ingrained in her.. even at such a young age. It amazes me. Girls have this nurturing character.. it's just so sweet.

Giuliana has been talking so much lately as well. She can say just about anything that we prompt her to say.. or at least she usually ALWAYS attempts to say it. I got her little Veggie Tales nativity scene out and she can say Joseph with crazy clear pronunciation, or at least I think so! ;) She says Meh-Meh, for Mary... we're getting there. She loves talking though... which is so fun to listen to, and carry on a conversation with. She has started nodding her head when I ask her questions.. She has actually been doing this for a while, but I notice that she does it now more when she really does mean Yes, and not just something fun to do.

So many more updates on her that I could go on and on about... I'm so thankful for every new thing she does.... every time she tells me she loves me by stroking my face... every kiss she gives me, and every "ahhh" hug I get.... but I'll spare you... and my newly obnoxious cubital tunnel. ;)

I have a new appreciation for each and every thing that Giuliana does... and everything that I can watch her grow into.

Back at the end of September I went in for my yearly physical with my dr.. a new dr, who I absolutely love. I told her about some tenderness that I had been experiencing and she decided to do a very thorough breast exam. After what seemed like so long, and having me switch into a couple positions, she noted a lump in my right breast. I didn't really worry about it while I was there, strangely.. I think I wasn't sure what to think. She recommended, and wrote up a prescription for an ultrasound to check the area. I remember leaving and thinking... what just happened??? On the way home I immediately started thinking the worst... Looking at the paper and seeing "LUMP".... it is just scary. Nothing comforting about it, even when she said that it "could be, and at my age, probably was nothing", but that she couldn't ignore it and I that I should have it checked still. Came home and told Phil.... and I feel like I went into zombie mode for the next 24 hours. Anxiety overload..... just scared.

I called right away that day and set up to have the ultrasound the next day back over in West Bloomfield, at what might be the most gorgeous hospital I have ever seen).

Sitting there in the room with all of the ladies who all looked like they were facing the worst, and had at LEAST 40-50 years on me. All I could think was that I'm too young to be here....

Thankfully I have a WONDERFUL friend who kept Giuliana for us, and Phil was able to come with me. Even though he couldn't come back, it helped knowing he was there. Long story short... they took me back, I changed, and then.. they forgot about me. So now.... not only was I assuming the worst was wrong with me, I was forgotten about and sat for over an hour watching people come in and out getting mammograms, be told there was strange areas they still wanted to watch longer.. watch people come in for surgery.... ugh. I was about to just start bawling..

EVEN longer story shorter.... I was finally taken back to a room, and the ultrasound begun. The nurse was very nice and tried to make small talk about what Giuliana was going to be for Halloween, etc... all I wanted to do was hear that she didn't see anything! Finally after some looking.. She said, "okay.. I'm going to have the doctor come in and take a look, but as far as I can see, I don't see anything!"

RELIEF has never felt so good. I was still a little reserved because the Dr still needed to "okay" it, but if she didn't see anything, maybe I was okay.

The dr came in and after her examination... she didn't see anything either! Praise the Lord!

All said... I am fine. It was apparently nothing more than "lumpy bumpy tissue".

It brought some things to my mind as I went through all of this and think about it..

First of all... God is good. Always. Even when we think our world is going to come crashing down.. God has plans for us. Bigger than our own, bigger than we could imagine.
Secondly... I have a huge problem with anxiety. Honestly.. on the way home and once I got home, all I could think about was that I had cancer and that I was too young to die. How sad is that? Not actually that, but I don't want to live my life that way. If something so big as cancer were to ever happen to me or someone so close to me... How would I handle it? Would I handle it with strength.... positivity.... courage?

I want to live my life in Thanksgiving. Always conscious of the things that God has blessed me with. Here and now. I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband that I am proud to call my best friend... We have a BEAUTIFUL daughter that I would lay down my life for in a second! She is the best thing that has ever happen to us. She makes me a better person daily.. she challenges me... encourages me... and blesses my heart constantly.

I think the lump actually ended up being a source of blessing in my life. It made me think about things.... look at what is important, and pay closer attention to the other blessings in my life.

God never gives us more than we can handle.. and that is something I want to embrace more in my life.

Even though hard times, or times that make me stressed, or down-right scared.... Always remembering that God has something bigger and better for me than all of that... is what I'm thankful for.

Now.... Go gives some hugs and cuddles to the ones you love the most!

Peace, Love, and Extra Snuggles..

Linz