Cookies cookies!

A bowl of my trusty oats for breakfast this morning!Mixed in is a 1/3rd of a banana, dried cherries and blueberries, and chopped almonds. Yum!

This bowl filled me up especially because I wasn't very hungry, but then I decided to make cookies. Oh what a terrible idea for a grazer like me! I wanted to bring some cookies to my friend and boyfriend this weekend and I wouldn't have any other time than today to get it done. I started with peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip which turned out amazing! And then I had to make myself some gluten free ones! So I made Bethenny Frankel's, wheat free vegan double chocolate chip cookies! The first batch turned out not so great because the time she said to cook them was wayyy to long, but the next batch was incredible! They tasted very much like brownies!


These are Bethenny's brownie type cookies. I added walnuts and marshmallows to make them rocky road like.
My delicious mess!


I realized after all that sugar I needed something to calm my taste buds and this salad did the trick. I made my own dressing which I learned how to do from Bethenny's book. And I will NEVER go back to bottled.
All I add is 1 tbs any type of vinegar, 1 tbs of olive oil, 1 tsp brown mustard, and salt and pepper! It is SO delicious and makes the salad taste so fresh!

Off to see the Whaler's at Summerfest and have a great weekend with my bestie and boyfriend!!!

A weekend of reading!

What a calm weekend! I had a great weekend at home with lots of good food! This weekend consisted of reading Bethenny Frankel's book, Naturally thin, and relaxing. I have been learning a lot already in this book. She shares life experiences and really makes concepts very simple and almost makes you say "Duh, I should have known that."

I have been doing very well with being gluten-free. It has surprisingly become very natural already. Sure, there are some temptations (which I do SOMETIMES take 1 bite of), but feeling great is more important than food.

I had a lot of salad, fresh fruit, and oh I made a delicious Thai curry soup!

o Thai Curry Soup

·2 ounces rice noodles (pad thai noodles)

·1 tablespoon olive oil

·1 clove garlic, minced

·1 1/2 tablespoons minced lemon grass

·1 teaspoon ground ginger

·2 teaspoons red curry paste

·1 (32 ounce) carton chicken broth

·2 tablespoons soy sauce

·1 tablespoon white sugar

·1 (13.5 ounce) can reduced-fat coconut milk

·1/2 cup peeled and deveined medium shrimp

·1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

·1 (10 ounce) bag baby spinach leaves

·2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

·1/4 cup chopped cilantro

·2 green onions, thinly sliced

v Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add rice noodles and cook until al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse well with cold water to stop the cooking; set aside.

v Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, lemon grass, and ginger; cook and stir until aromatic, 30 to 60 seconds. Add the curry paste, and cook 30 seconds more. Pour in about 1/2 cup of the chicken broth, and stir until the curry paste has dissolved, then pour in the remaining chicken stock along with the soy sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

v Stir in coconut milk, shrimp, mushrooms, spinach, lime juice, and cilantro. Increase heat to medium-high, and simmer until the shrimp turn pink and are no longer translucent, about 5 minutes.

v To serve, place some rice noodles into each serving bowl and ladle soup on top of them. Garnish each bowl with a sprinkle of sliced green onion.

It was simply amazing! My boyfriend, mom and dad all loved it! It does make a portion for only 4 medium size bowls though, so beware if making for a big family!

My mom also made her AWESOME gluten free oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! They are made without flour and no grinding of the oats necessary. They are seriously the best, good (and small) enough for my boyfriend to devour 6 in one sitting!

Oh another thing, I bought the ever so famous "Babycakes" book of gluten and sugar free and vegan cupcakes and other desserts. I am happy I bought the book, but I was completely unaware of all the ingredients I will need to buy to make ANYTHING in this book. I went to the local Amish (yes, Amish) baking store and bought rice flour, oat flour, and tapioca flour in hopes that those would be the only flours found in the book. I was sadly mistaken, because NONE of the recipes require any of those flours :( I am sure I will find other recipes elsewhere to fulfill those flours, and "Babycakes" will just have to wait.

I will take more pictures this week and be sure to post!

Revelation

Well, I have known for about a year that I wanted to go to culinary school after college. And, as I said in my latest post, my books came from amazon! So I started reading Bethenny Frankel's first book "Naturally Thin" and within the first few pages she tells us where she went to culinary school. It is the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts and I am seriously going after college. I am so excited, because its a culinary school dedicated to health. Also, Bethenny going there is quite a plus!!! 3 years till pure happiness! I know it may seem not me to just go for what I want right away, because I believe in "the Secret." But, I want to experience the four years of college and get a degree!

Finally Friday!

So yesterday I had a whole post, but I ended up not taking many pictures. And what I ate was quite frankly boring. I did A LOT of grazing through food yesterday and I made it a goal today to eat well put together meals.

So for breakfast I had my trusty cup of gloria jeans coffee and the new better oats oatmeal I bought for only $1! It also has all natural ingredients and is delicious.

For lunch I was in a hurry to get to the house I babysit at, so I just grabbed a frozen meal from whole foods. It was chicken tikka masala and it was a DISAPPOINTMENT. For 490 calories I was expecting a lot of chicken and sauce. To my dismay there were literally 3 1 inch cubes of chicken in the whole pile of sauce. If I wouldn't have added steamed broccoli, it would have been terrible. I also had cut up strawberries and blueberries with milk and a piece of chocolate!

It was flavorful, but just wasn't worth the $4.99 or 490 calories.

After finally leaving the kids I hit the gym and did the eliptical for 35 minutes and stairstepper for 25. When I got home I discovered that my books from amazon had arrived!!! I got the skinnygirl Dish, Naturally Thin, and Skinny Italian. The author of the Skinnygirl and Naturally thin is Bethenny Frankel, my all time idol. And the Skinny Italian author is Theresea from the Real Housewives of New Jersey. After browsing Skinnygirl Dish, I knew that I had to have something better than my normal bowl of cereal for dinner. So I did what Bethenny taught me and actually looked at what I had in the refrigerator and made something delicious.

"What is this?" you ask! Well just the most incredible omelette I have ever made in my life! I sauteed a 1/4 of an onion, 1 baby portabella mushroom, and a BIG handful of spinach. Then I whipped together 2 eggwhites and one whole egg w/ a dash of milk. And viola I made an amazing dinner.

Now whats a meal w/o dessert?! I had to try the ever so blog popular frozen banana ICE CREAM. And to my happiness I was not let down! I just froze a smashed banana, took it out and let it get warmer for a few minutes, threw it into the food processor and bam ICE CREAM! I did end up putting some peanut butter in it too!

Also, I had a small bowl of my honey nut chex, because 1 hour of cardio makes me a hungry girl!
Now its off to see what "finally Friday" brings!

Today is the day to check ALL labels

Its SO nice out today! It is even supposed to get up to 77 and no more rain! Well today is when I start checking every label and make for sure that I am not putting gluten products into my mouth. I have been following the no gluten rule for a week now, but I've been cheating here and there and I've also not checked EVERY label.

So for breakfast I was inspired to eat something other than my good old cereal. I got my inspiration from Nutritious is Delicious. I made her avocado eggs with tomato on top. Instead though I used two egg whites. And just like this smart blogger posted it was DELICIOUS.

But she sure wasn't kidding when she said you need to whip whip whip that egg and avocado mixture. I whipped it for probably 1.5 minutes and added a dash of milk and salt. Then sauteed the tomatoes after the eggs were done and threw them on top.


I forgot my coffee at home even after taking a picture of the whole process :( But why not show you guys anyways.
My mom bought this Keurig one cup coffee maker at a Goodwill for only $25! We each get our own flavor and cup in the morning and it takes less than a minute! That's my Gloria Jeans Special Blend I usually stick with.

Well I couldn't just go on with my day without a cup of coffee! So after I dropped off one of the boys I babysit at the park for his play group, the other little one and me headed to my local coffee hut. It's literally a little trailer on an intersection of 2 highways! Never the less, they have some gooood coffee. I got a skinny iced vanilla latte that is only 60 calories and I have to say better than Starbucks!
Yum! So icy and delicious!

Well the little guy was getting hungry so we decided to have a snack. He had crackers and I had just a bite of my plain yogurt with chopped strawberries and blueberries with a bit of Cascadian Farms granola!

SOOO good!

Well after browsing blogs for awhile me and the little guy went to pick up his brother at the park. When we got home they were HUNGRY. So I made there standard mac and cheese and I made my gluten free noodles and steamed broccoli. I made a sauce of olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and basil! A big step up from eating their Kraft mac and cheese and gluten free!

It's even better than it looks! I ate the rest of my yogurt and berries and a few frozen grapes. And a piece of chocolate, I have to have my chocolate!

For a mid afternoon snack I ate a cup full of chex and a few crasins. Also I had part of a red pepper and a small english cucumber with ranch.
The veggies blend right in to the boys' cars plate haha. They actually took and ate most of the veggies away from me! Oh and we finished up the frozen grapes! I am all energized and ready to leave the boys and hit the gym!
Speaking of the gym, I've been going about 4-5 times a week and doing usually 35 minutes on the elliptical and 20 on the stairstepper. I also do a few machines like inner thigh, pull up, and vertical bench as well as abs everyday. I've been feeling really good and ready to go after a whole day spent with the boys so that's a plus!


Well after babysitting I did my normal workout and headed to the local grocery store. I was planning on making thai curry soup, just like Noodles and Co.! Unfortunately my grocery store lacked a lot of the ingredients I needed. Including rice noodles, lemon grass, and red curry paste which are pretty prominent ingredients! So I just got a few groceries and to my happiness my dad had brought home chinese food!

No pictures of dinner, but I had the chinese food, a bowl of granola/chex and strawberries, blueberries, and bananas, and a few pickles!!!

I have to say I did pretty good with no gluten! I had a bite of a ritz cracker and eggroll, but that is barely nothing compared to what I was consuming before.

I think my next post will definitely be shorter and a little more organized!

Only just the beginning

Well, where do I start!? I have done a gluten-free diet before and the results were wonderful. I have always had digestion problems, and when I went gluten-free everything seemed to clear up! But, when I had the blood test for Celiac disease and it came back negative I thought well why not keep eating my favorite cereals then! I just recently was browsing other food blogs and read about how gluten-free diets have been helping a lot of people. Even with some not diagnosed with Celiac! I read on seeing that Celiac disease is often under diagnosed, because the blood test comes back as a false negative. So I became inspired to redo my diet and cut out gluten! I've been on it for a week and back to feeling full of energy, happier, and overall healthier!

Moving on, lets talk about my obsession with all things gluten! If someone were to ask me "what is your favorite food?", I wouldn't even think and instantly answer, "CEREAL!" I am a cereal junkie and when I was living in my dorm room last year, cereal is what was 2-3 of my meals consisted of. I lacked a lot of energy last year and my digestive problems were at full force. I was worried about the cereal aspect the most when deciding to give up gluten, but to my surprise, after a bit of research, I found that many cereals are made of ALL rice, corn or oats and completely gluten free! And to my complete surprise the cereals that are gluten-free aren't only found at whole foods or trader joes. Chex has come out with 5 gluten free type Chex and Rice Krispie's has a great Cupcake Rice Krispie flavor to satisfy my sweet tooth (I just read that rice krispies may contain barley malt, but not confirmed either way)!


My Newest Fav!

In addition, to trying to be better by being gluten-free, I am trying to better my life overall. I believe in the law of attraction, based on the book "The Secret." Though most of my friends and family think I'm crazy, I think we attract everything in life by our thoughts. So positive thinking is a big part of my life. Ever since I watched the movie, "The Secret", I have changed a lot about my life including the way I think and live. I try to better myself everyday and truly believe that anything is possible.


http://consciousflex.blogspot.com/2008/01/secret-full-movie-aka-law-of-attraction.html
Here's a link to watch the movie free online!

Well that's the jest of it. I hope you all enjoy this experience with me!