As of Late

Hey guys!

Thanks for the lovely comments on my last post. It was so cool to read your responses about health-conscious restaurants in your area. So many of you said that you would love to try The Cove! It’s a great place; I wish I could share it with all of you. I’ve only been the one time, so I’m hoping to go again before I move this summer.

Speaking of the move, it has been eating up all of my time! Between listing things on eBay, getting ready for our garage sale and packing in general, I have had very little time. Our garage sale was actually a couple weeks ago, so that lightened the load—but only by a little bit.

Even more recently my life has been sucked up by dance. My ballroom studio has been working for the past few months on putting together our showcase. It consists of several different numbers and has required a lot of work! Each student is dancing a few routines with a partner, and we have some group formations as well. I’m dancing a Waltz routine, a Cha Cha routine and a West Coast Swing routine. Then, as a group, we have a Tango-Cha Cha formation and a West Coast Swing formation. It’s a lot of fun, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t physically and mentally exhausted! I’ve had rehearsals every day of the week from 8 am-11 am, then I get a little break in the afternoon to relax (AKA do Drivers’s Ed and make lunch) before I’m back at the studio again for more lessons. My body is really tired, and the stress/focus is taking a toll on my mind as well. (Don’t worry, I’m not going crazy or anything. I’m just worn out. ) We had our dress rehearsal last night, and it went very well! Our big performance is tonight, (Friday) and I’m really excited. Here are some pictures from our dress rehearsal last night:

A part of my Waltz routine. It’s to the song “So She Dances” by Josh Groban. I love it!

The ending pose for our West Coast Swing group formation.

The formation team!

Like I said, tonight is the actual performance! Wish me luck!

With the craziness of my life lately, I’ve had to keep my meals very simple and very random. So, here’s some documentation of my meals (and snacks) as of late.

One morning I was craving french toast… so I made it. Whole wheat bread (with a completely “clean” ingredients list, yippee! Gotta love Sprout’s.) dipped in a mixture of almond milk, cinnamon, mashed banana, vanilla and nutritional yeast. I adapted it (AKA didn’t measure) from Angela’s recipe for vegan french toast.

Yumm. Topped with peanut butter, blueberries, strawberries and chia seeds.

Another thing I’ve been kind of LOVING lately is waffle sandwiches. Kayla posted once that you can use your waffle iron as a sandwich/panini grill, so I immediately had to try it out. LOVE. If you have a waffle iron you have got to try this. This particular sandwich was hummus, tomato, avocado and black bean I think. It’s my favorite combination.

This one was a whole wheat, all-natural pita with pear and Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet mozzarella “cheese.” Yup, not daiya! I tried a different kind this time and I really liked it. I prefer daiya, since it has a bit more flavor, but FYH is not bad. I like that FYH is in block form, which means I can slice OR shred it. Grilled sandwiches are much easier with slices.

I grilled this with Smart Balance Light (which is vegan), and for some reason, this was absolutely amazing. It was one of the best sandwiches I’d ever made… even though it was so simple! I loved it. 

A few weeks ago, before my life got insanely hectic, I made some blueberry banana nut bread. I have no idea which recipe I used.. I can’t remember, darnit. It was awesome though!

I’ve also been loving Katie’s recipes as of late.

I made her Fudge Daddy brownies, and holy moly! I loved them. ^This picture isn’t very good, but look at how fudgy it is! I had to use unbleached white flour, since I was out of ww pastry flour. I also used about 1.5 T coconut oil and used half baking stevia, half organic sugar.

I also made some of her voluminous peanut butter ice cream to eat alongside it. So delicious!

Then the other day, I made her amazing ranch dressing. Seriously, it was so good! I intended to halve the recipe, so I used half the amount of tofu. I must’ve forgotten that though, because I ended up using the whole amount of seasonings. I only did 3/4 of a veggie bullion cube, and only 1T vinegar.  I also didn’t have any veganaise, so I didn’t use it. Still, this dressing was off the hook! I will make it again ASAP. It was gone in less than 24 hours, woops.

Since I’ve had to be up so early these days, quick breakfasts have become my best friends. Yogurt bowls is one of them. This was Wildwood Unsweetened Soy Yogurt mixed some stevia, chia seeds, a nectarine, puffed wheat, and cashews. It was awesome.

One morning when I had a little more time, I made some pancakes.

I don’t remember which recipe I used (go figure) but it was awesome. I topped these with sliced banana, chia seeds, some raw buckwheat, shredded coconut and a few drizzles of peanut butter. So good!

And very pretty, if I do say so myself.

Well, I’m gonna head out! I’m quite exhausted, so I will catch up with you all soon.

Thanks for reading!