i heart food

Okay so I have pretty much stopped blogging altogether and have contemplated getting back into cooking and blogging, but let my lack of motivation, planning, and time management prevent me from taking that first step.

I just got back from a “work trip” in Napa and San Francisco photographing for a blogger. We treated ourselves, ate well, but in moderation, and tried to walk when we could, but I still felt I could have made more healthy decisions. Now, this Saturday my husband and I will be leaving for Rome, and I’m just thinking about how much I should be working out to compensate for splurging for the past week, well, couple years.. 

How many times have I revisited my blog vowing commitment to healthy eating and exercise? Finally settled in the new apartment, enjoying married life, can afford a gym membership, and diving head first into life as a photographer... and still I feel some unsettled anxiety, like I’m ready for an imminent life-changing event to happen again.

After living at my current residence for about seven months, I just went grocery shopping for a full week’s-worth of meals for the first time yesterday. With work, classes, wedding planning, etc. I not only neglected my little blog (which I am ok with) but also managed to forget all the good habits I created for myself: 

1. enjoy preparing and cooking my own food - it makes the meal that much more satisfying when I’ve taken the care to make it myself

2. buy clean, whole foods, and plenty of fruits and veggies to snack on

3. shop for yummy healthy food that I can look forward to cooking up - and it doesn’t have to be elaborate (the real meat and potatoes of this post)

After years of eating pretty clean, exercising regularly, and being mindful of keeping my mind, body, and spirit healthy, I for some reason thought I had to change what I was doing to improve, 

(Read: “wedding diet” was on my mind as was toxic)

I know what works for me and maybe I can switch things up a little bit, but I like what I eat on a daily basis AND it leaves me satisfied and nourished.

 I posted my grocery list however long ago and haven’t strayed too much.

+ BREAKFAST: oatmeal or poached egg on ezekiel bread

+ MORNING SNACK: vanilla almond milk latte

+ LUNCH: big salad of the week

+ AFTERNOON SNACK: apples, peanut butter, bananas, grapes, hummus, carrots

+ DINNER: soup or sweet potato scramble

And that’s basically it... but it works for me and it takes some decision making out of my day. I can come home from work and know there are a few things I can prepare that are healthy and nourishing instead of swinging by Trader Joe’s and picking up whatever they are selling as a free sample (they get me EVERY time!) 

Off to Pilates and seriously looking forward to my smoothie afterwards. Whoever was in line next to me, God bless you for the recommendation - it’s the best smoothie I’ve ever had and i literally think about it every day.

Recently, actually exactly one week ago, I received an email from Crate & Barrel: “Only 8 weeks until your wedding day! It’s not too late to add to your registry...” I made up the second sentence by assuming the content because I saw “8 weeks” and my heart dropped. EIGHT (now SEVEN) weeks until I get married. This is so exciting and so terrifying at the same time and I think this is what is considered “crunch time” - literally and figuratively. 

That day I signed myself up for butt-kicking pilates classes and also happened to watch a documentary focusing on sugar in our diets. 

Without adequate time to blog lately, I have missed to other side of the blogosphere as well - a wealth of knowledge (that must be filtered, of course) that encourages health and understanding. I love motivation to read the food labels, listen to my body, and exercise regularly. 

For AT LEAST 7 weeks I am going to cut sugar out of my diet. Not completely, but the slashing has begun. 

HOW I MODIFIED MY FRIDGE

switched to plain nonfat Greek yogurt

switched to reduced sugar vanilla almond milk (it’s a journey, I will get to original at some point) 

hunted for granola high in protein, low in sugar and free from unpronounceable ingredients

ditched the sweetened white chocolate wonderful PB (though it has been my version of dessert for years) for plain peanut butter

tossed most of my salad dressings containing sugar

bought organic tomato sauce lower in sugar than others

bought lots of fruits and vegetables to add natural sources of carbohydrates and sweetness to my life

Switching to the reduced-sugar almond milk was one of the harder transitions but as of today (three days later), it’s already getting easier to enjoy my morning latte without making a face after the first few sips. 

This weekend I am going to Austin and am trying to plan for the best to hold strong in avoiding sugar. It will definitely be a challenge to avoid sugar and alcohol when surrounded by friends, but I’m just telling myself “7 weeks and I’m home free”... while in the back of my mind hoping that by at least four weeks in the lust for sugar will have mostly subsided anyways. 

(as previously mentioned, creativity isn't my strength at the moment)

This morning I woke up to a winter wonderland, and, since I don't start work until 1, I got to enjoy the quiet calm the accompanies the an overnight snowfall. Dallasites (or those who have to be at work at a normal hour) have complained and groaned because it's spring break yada yada yada, but I could not be more enchanted. Looking out my window in the morning to see snow is not something you get used to quickly after growing up in socal. 

No morning could be more perfect for pumpkin spice oatmeal.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup water

1 heaping tbsp pumpkin puree

1-2 tsp splenda brown sugar blend

1 tsp cinnamon

1 dash pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup vanilla almond milk

DIRECTIONS

Bring water to a boil and add oats. Reduce heat and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until most of the water is absorbed. Add pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin spices and stir until incorporated. Transfer to a bowl and pour almond milk on top. 

Lately the most I have cooked for myself is espresso (if that even counts). I never understood why the so most of the population enjoys the majority of their meals away from home. Now that I have started working and pretending to live in the real world I understand why. It is exponentially easier to drive home from work and see a glimmering pre-made or pick-up meal at the end of the commute than have to conjure up some healthy, satisfying, cheap meal in two minutes because my stomach is telling me “eat now or die”

So I’ve gone back to making my own coffee instead of starbucksing every other day. And I have started cooking the same three things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (interchangeably, just to spice things up). 

In four months I am going to be a wife. It’s not so much a reason as it is motivation to get some good recipes under my belt. Creativity, I dare say, has stood me up, and I am more than willing to delve into my roommate's Cooking Light and start… cooking light. (like i said, muses have left me)

I graduated from college and that little room of equipment they call a gym is no longer a real option. I have also exhausted all my free memberships in the area and am facing the reality that a gym membership is not in the cards for me in the foreseeable future. 

Cold weather, less daylight, and my work schedule have made it hard to rely on running outside for cardio. But I do what I can. 

I love bundling up and braving the elements, but there are those days I am just not down. To make up for my lack of consistent cardio, I try my best to walk more often, and do more at-home workouts in my free time. Even a few 15-minute sessions a day. 

Finding a beautiful walking or hiking trail is also a wonderful thing. 

Click here, and here, for a couple of my at-home workouts that require little to no equipment. 

A while back a friend of mine asked me (very kindly and very clearly) to post about living on a budget - grocery shopping, eating healthy, minimize waste, etc. I still haven't. But I'm hoping I can taylor this post later to fit his blog, because routine is such an important part of eating healthy, especially while living on a budget. 

Routine doesn't have to mean eating literally the same exact thing day after day, but being aware of what you like to eat and will eat is a good place to start for building a routine shopping list. 

For example, using similar ingredients for multiple recipes throughout the week: banana oatmeal one day and peanut butter banana sandwich the next, or sweet potato fries one day and sweet potato egg scramble the next. The list literally goes on and on (as I posted a while back)

For now, it's been best for me to stick to routine rather than seek out brand new recipes; I find it more fun and resourceful to come up with new recipes using ingredients I already have in the kitchen. 

poached egg on toast literally every day of my life, unless I have oatmeal because I ran out of eggs

And coffee. I feel like this is a given with a title "ROUTINE ROUTINE" but to be extra clear, this is also part of my every day

In my fridge: eggs, Ezekiel bread, greek yogurt, hummus, carrots, kale, brussels sprouts, vanilla almond milk, marinara, peanut butter

In my pantry: granola, oats, pasta, cinnamon

On the counter: tomatoes, onion, sweet potato, bananas, apples

There is nothing more Texan that breakfast tacos, nothing at all. Every time I am in Austin it is a ritual to walk to Jo's (not from the house, but from blocks away where I found parking), seek out breakfast tacos, scarf them down, and then, you know, do all the other Austiny things. 

Sometimes, though, and I hate to admit it, when I buy breakfast tacos, they are soggy and have been sitting in tin foil probably a short while but I'd venture to say since the weekend before... You never know EXACTLY what is sitting under that heat lamp. 

Luckily, my fiance can whip up a breakfast taco in no time. And with a hot cup of coffee or a glass of orange juice, there is no better way to start the day.

INGREDIENTS

flour tortillas, warmed | eggs, scrambled | freshly diced white onion and tomato | freshly chopped cilantro | freshly sliced avocado | green salsa

warm tortillas in the microwave or on the stove

scramble eggs over low heat until cooked but still soft

Last weekend Andrew and I drove down to Austin for no reason other than the fact that we missed it and needed a change of pace for a whole 30 hours. We managed to clock quite a few miles purely wandering the city and hiking around the greenbelt and Lady Bird Lake.

Texas’s summer heat puts such a damper on my willingness to step outside for more than the 45 seconds it takes to walk to my car. For some, the cold probably has a similar effect, but I love it.

Getting outside in the chilly fresh air, wandering, and exploring -especially when you get to look forward to a hot cup of coffee afterward (or before) (or both) - is so rejuvenating. 

After graduating from college, moving, getting engaged, looking for a new job, applying to graduate school, it seems like getting outside offers the most continuity. Oddly. I can count on the crisp air on my cheeks, the excitement from discovering a new place to explore, the imaginary lives i make up for people when i walk past an especially adorable home... 

Whether it's hiking in California or making my way an 1/8 of the distance around White Rock Lake or having my fiancé bring me to the dried riverbed at the Greenbelt Trail, it all feels like home somehow.

the title is no indication of the content of this post, and the content of this post has nothing to do with anything, and in that way, it's fitting

What is a girl to do when she lives less than a mile away from Trader Joe's and realizes that the only meals she cooks for herself come with instructions "Add two tablespoons water, heat, stir, let cool"

Less of food and more of people and events, my photography has taken me outside the kitchen, and it's been an exciting venture.

"Dallas-based photographer and stylist" yada yada yada

Not giving up hope, though, that I will be back in the kitchen soon. The holidays are fast-approaching! Which means I will be trying my hand at some break-and-bake cookies, tasting whipped cream out of the can, and testing egg nog/rum ratios. Sure to report on all that ends jolly and good. 

There is a back-and-forth between juice lovers and haters and believers and and non-believers and followers and people who hate the followers...

My opinions have definitely wavered:

Juice is obviously good for you. No. Juicing depletes nutrients. No. We fixed that. No. It's too much sugar. We added vegetables. But the vitamins and minerals are oxygenated. We fixed that too.

So I'm just going to go with my gut and make a wild claim that I believe green juices are healthy. And I found some today that were much more delicious than any others I've unhappily downed. They have a lighter and fresher taste while managing to pack in SIX POUNDS of organic produce. The story behind the company is pretty incredible as well.

And to be honest, my working out and eating schedule has been a little off. Not completely derailed.. but there's a reason this isn't a fitness post. I have been working 7 days a week for the past month and today was my first day off in... too long. And that was only with the excuse of taking the general admissions exam for graduate school. Needless to say, this was relief in a bottle and I strongly encourage anyone with juice qualms to try this line.