Leopard Geckos

Even though today was a Monday and it was the first day of classes for the Spring Semester, it has been a pretty great day.  It actually started last night.  I had this amazing, but simple, yogurt bowl.

I was in the mood for yogurt and I was lower than usual on my protein count for the day so I decided to have this yogurt bowl.  I used plain Amande yogurt mixed with Vanilla True Vitality Protein Powder, sliced banana, crushed almonds, and cinnamon.  (Yes, there is a ton of cinnamon; I love cinnamon!)

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This morning I woke up at 6am, like usual, and got dressed and sat down at my computer to check emails.  I then logged onto Facebook and saw that Jazzercise was cancelled this morning due to the weather.  (There was icy rain this morning).  I thought that class being cancelled was odd because usually we only cancel when school is delayed or cancelled and I did not get a text message, like I usually do when there is a delay. I went to our county's website and was ecstatic to see that we had a 2 hour delay!!! I have no idea why I didn't get the usual text about the delay but I was thrilled!  Even though I was already dressed, it wasn't like if I had found out about the delay earlier I would have been able to go back to sleep so I basically had an extra 2 hours this morning just to relax and read :)

For breakfast, I enjoyed this yummy yogurt bowl.  Yes, another yogurt bowl.  This one is a little different than last night's snack.

This past weekend I tried a new recipe for gluten free vegan pumpkin waffles.  The first batch did not cook well at all so I saved the second batch for today to make a microwave pumpkin muffin.  I basically just took the batter and microwaved it in this bowl so it was nice and big instead of in a mug.  Then, I topped it with the same toppings as last night except without the almonds and protein powder.  It was delicious!

Lately, I have been craving bananas, yogurt, nut butters, and apples like crazy!!!  I have seriously been eating at least one serving of each every day.  I try to mix it up with different flavors though.  Like sometimes I'll just eat a banana with almond butter or I'll mix them into oatmeal or a smoothie.  At least they are all healthy cravings!

After breakfast (and extra relaxing time) I had work which was nice due to that delay.  Then, I had my first class for the spring semester.  It is the basic special education course.  I never took this when I first started my grad school program because I wasn't sure if I wanted to take another course in replacement to this once since it is so basic.  However, I decided to take it because I figured it would be a good review for the Praxis I plan on taking this summer.  After today's class though I might reconsider.  It was so basic it was boring!  It will be a good review though and an easy A, but I don't know if I would prefer to spend my money on a more challenging class where I will learn something more useful.  I'll have to think about that one before next week's class.

After class, I made a quick vegetable chickpea stir fry.  I was hungry and didn't get a picture.  But basically it was brown rice with chickpeas and frozen mixed veggies (much easier and quicker than fresh on days like these.)  I topped my stirfry with some Sriracha too.

After my dinner, it was time to feed my leopard geckos.  I have two leopard geckos that I got almost 2 years ago.

That is Pebbles on the left and Savannah on the right.

I adopted them when they were 3 so they will be turning 5 this April.  I got two females so that they could live together in the same tank.  They were actually living together before I adopted them and actually they had one other sister, but she got adopted separately.  I couldn't tear these two apart so I adopted them both.  I originally wanted a bearded dragon because they enjoy being held more, but they also eat a lot more, need a bigger tank, special lighting, and their poop is really stinky! Haha.  Though leopard geckos do not like to be held as much, they eat a lot less, do not need special lighting, and they poop in the same area so it is a quick clean up.  They were much more cost effective and time manageable for me.  Plus I read that leopard geckos are great first reptile pets!

Savannah is much more photogenic and easier to take pictures of so we had a nice photo op during dinner:

 Waiting in her hide for me to put in the crickets.

Savannah vs The Cricket: The Staredown!

Gotcha! 

Savannah - 1, The Cricket - 0

I know this is kinda cruel, but my geckos need to live and only eat crickets, no veggies :(

I'm pretty sure she's saying "Mmm that was tasty!"

Hopefully next time I can get some more pictures of Pebbles.  I'll definitely be posting more about these two again!  I'm now off to enjoy the rest of the night before work tomorrow.


Happy Monday!

Great Sage Thursday

Yesterday was an awesome day!  First, I love Thursdays because at the end of the work day it is only one more day and then the start of the weekend.

Second, yesterday it snowed overnight so there was a 2 hour delay in the morning!  I still woke up at 6am like I usually do for work.  I don't know if my body is just so used to getting up at that time that I couldn't get back to sleep or because just like when I was a little kid I was so excited that there was a delay that it was impossible to get back to sleep haha.

Third, tomorrow is my mom's birthday so we celebrated last night by going to our favorite restaurant, Great Sage.  It is an all vegan restaurant and very friendly in dishes that can be made gluten free, soy free, and nut free as well.  We went yesterday because on Thursdays it is half-price bottles of wine with live music!  Can't beat that deal!

Before I get to what I enjoyed at Great Sage, I had an amazing breakfast in the morning!  I love when my breakfasts taste really good, it's my favorite meal, and  in the morning it seriously sets my mood for the morning.  I get totally bummed when my breakfast isn't as good as I was expecting.  Well yesterday was one of those fantastic breakfast kind of mornings.  This past Monday, I wanted to make waffles.  Normally I use peanut flour to make peanut butter protein waffles.  Well, I was craving a pumpkin waffle so I tried a gluten free vegan pumpkin pancake recipe I saw online.  Unfortunately, the waffle didn't cook so well in the middle in my waffle maker.  I hate wasting food and it was obviously still edible and tasted good but I didn't want a half cooked waffle for breakfast any longer on Monday (like I said my breakfast sets my mood for the morning) so I just put it in a container and knew I would enjoy it more when I needed a quick breakfast during the work week.  Well yesterday, I took that waffle and crumbled it in a fruit and yogurt bowl and oh man it was so good.

This included: a crumbled pumpkin protein waffle, amande yogurt (hidden under all that waffle and fruit), slightly microwaved frozen mixed berries, a sliced banana, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

After that tasty breakfast, I had 2 hours more than I usually do in the morning, and I got so much done!  I did a quick ab workout, caught up on some fun reading (currently reading Queen of Babble In The Big City by Meg Cabot), caught up on some blog reading, and got some grad school preparation stuff done.

When I got home from work I had to class manage at Jazzercise.  Instead of jazzercising I enjoyed a green smoothie to hold me over until dinner.  I didn't take a pic but it was a simple smoothie of a banana with spinach and spirulina mixed with almond milk.

Finally, it was time for dinner at Great Sage!!!  I ordered the Apple Cider Barbeque Tempeh which was served with a "bacon" carmelized onion sweet potato stew and cabbage with a roasted pesto tomato with a cashew crust on top.  I didn't get a picture at the restaurant but thankfully in an attempt to save plenty of room for dessert I took half home.  So here's a picture of my leftovers, which I enjoyed for dinner tonight.

I enjoyed this meal, I would get it again, but since they change their menu seasonally and there are like 3 other dishes I want to try there this winter, I probably won't order it again unless they have it on their menu again next winter.

After dinner was my favorite part, dessert!!!  I love that at this restaurant I can order almost every single dessert on the menu without worrying about eggs, milk, and gluten.  I say almost every dessert because there are like one or two that are not gluten free.  Last night I tried the new winter menu dessert, Flourless Midnight Cake.  I'm always afraid of gluten free cakes being to dry and crumbly but this was so dense and was really rich chocolate (perfect for a chocolate lover like me!)  Once again, I could only stomach half this dessert (it was so rich) that I enjoyed the other half for dessert tonight.  Here's a pic of what was leftover.

It is described on the menu as "Dense, rich chocolate cake layered with raspberry mousse topped with chocolate ganache."  

It was so dense it was more like a chocolate brownie rather than a cake, but that was perfectly fine with me as I prefer brownies to cake.  The raspberry mousse paired so well with the chocolate cake and the chocolate ganache.  I love fruit and chocolate and raspberry is a match made in heaven for chocolate, they just to so well together!

Overall, Thursday was a terrific day!  

Today was also a great day as it is Friday and it means the weekend has officially started.  My weekend even started early because there was a 1.5 hour early dismissal due to the prediction of snow.  Unfortunately, that also meant Jazzercise closed so I didn't get a workout in or personal training.  Oh well, I'll be working out tomorrow morning and training after that so I guess it all works out.

Happy Friday!

New Books Page

Even though today was a Holiday and it was a long weekend, it definitely did not feel like a long weekend at all.  I was going to do a longer post today, but I think I'll save that for this weekend.  It is already 7:27pm and I want to enjoy the rest of my night before work tomorrow.  At least it is only a 4 day work week!  Plus my mom's birthday is this Saturday so we're celebrating Thursday by going to dinner at our favorite restaurant Great Sage.  It is an all vegan restaurant and soy free, nut free, and gluten free friendly.

Also, I started a new page on my blog.  I read a lot of books and I would love to keep a record of all the books I read each month.  Unfortunately, with grad school starting back up next week, there probably won't be too many books read in the next few months.  But I love to read so I might try sneaking one in there somewhere.

The Books page will include a collection of the books I read, a brief review of my opinion on the books, and how I rate the book.


Happy Monday!

First iherb Order

After hearing about iherb.com, I finally made my first order.

My favorite protein powder: Sunwarrior Blend Vanilla
A new to me product: Peanut Flour
Free Samples: Amazing Meal and CocoCardio

I used to buy the protein powder at The Vitamin Shoppe but it is actually cheaper online, however I'm not sure if it would still be cheaper after counting in the shipping price since I haven't had to pay for shipping yet.  I got free shipping since I spent over $40.  I figure if every time I make an order at iherb.com I order protein powder, I will always receive free shipping.  Since I go through the protein powder pretty quickly, it's not like I will have massive amounts of the stuff.  Plus, the only time I probably will make an iherb.com order is when I'm running low on protein powder.

The next thing I bought was the peanut flour.  I have heard about peanut flour on so many different blogs and it sounded really tasty, especially since I am such a big fan of peanut butter.  I wasn't sure how similar it was to PB2, but after trying it out I think it has a much stronger peanut taste, which is a definite plus for me.  It also is much higher in protein than PB2.  In two tablespoons of PB2 there is only 4 grams of protein.  In two tablespoons of peanut flour there is 8 grams of protein!  So far I have been using this peanut flour a lot in oatmeal bowls and to make Peanut Butter Protein Waffles.  (I'll post the recipe in the near future!)

Ooh an idea just occurred to me...I wonder how this would taste in plain almond yogurt.  It would become Peanut Butter Yogurt.  Oh and then I can add in some mashed banana for Peanut Butter Banana Yogurt.  I think I know what I'll be having for snack tomorrow.  (I would have this tonight but I have a Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding that I made earlier which is setting in the fridge!)

I then received a free sample of Amazing Meal.

I added it to a smoothie that had almond milk, and half a banana.  Not the most interesting smoothie, but I felt like I was getting a lot of nutrients with the powder.  It was good, but it's so expensive I don't think I'd actually buy the product.  To add greens to my smoothies I usually just add spinach.  However, when I was at a natural food store the other day, I did buy another sample of a different variety of amazing grass.  I'll have to see how it compares.

The last product is the CocoCardio which I haven't had a chance to try out yet.  I'm thinking it might be good to use to make a hot cocoa.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

iherb.com is perfect for buying bulk items at a decent price, especially items that you use on a constant basis like how I use the Sunwarrior protein and now the peanut flour!

If interested in making an iherb.com order, if you enter the code LWZ362 at checkout you can receive $10 off your first order if you spend more than $40 or $5 off your first order if you spend less than $40.

It is a Sunday night but it feels like a Saturday with there being no work tomorrow!  Thank goodness, I definitely need the extra day off.  Since there's no work I'm going to try to stay on top of blogging and be back tomorrow!  Until then, I think I'll catch up on Pretty Little Liars since I never had the opportunity yesterday due to falling asleep early from fighting off a cold and enjoy that Chia Pudding I made.


Happy Sunday!

Posting More

After being a blog reader, I really wanted to blog myself, but not add stress to my life as one more thing to do.  That is why I haven't posted in a while.  I'm hoping to eventually get into a regular schedule for posting but for now random postings is what works best for me and my schedule.

These last few weeks have been very busy with getting back into work after winter break, cooking lots of soups and chilis in this cold weather, trying to find some time to hang out with friends, trying to prevent myself from getting sick, and working out.

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So what exactly has been going on these last few weeks?  Well, at work there have been so many kids absent.  Some have even been out for multiple days...flu?  In the last two weeks, the one classroom I work in the most has had I think as of yesterday it has been 12 out of 29 students absent.  Yikes!  Before snack in the classroom we have been making sure the kids have been washing their hands.  I have been washing my hands even more than normal.  I feel like that's all I do anymore.  Especially since my brother has brought the flu into the house, so now I am in direct exposure to it.  Last night before I went to bed I started to feel a tickle in my throat and I woke up and it's still there.  I have been sucking on Ricola Lemon Mint Herb Drops.

I love how natural these are and so far they have been very soothing on my throat.  I have been eating lots of Clementines (Vitamin C) and even bought myself this Naked Green Machine juice.

Normally I don't spend money on these types of drinks, they are quite expensive, but I really did not feel like buying a whole bunch of vegetables to juice at home.  Setting up and cleaning up the juicer would be much more work and since I was already dragging this morning, this was much more convenient.  I'm trying to relax today and prevent getting sick before it is too late.

I have also been making lots of soups and chilis to help sooth the body and also because it has been freezing here, especially during the week when it was raining/drizzling and there was no sun for like 5 days straight.  Talk about some depressing weather.  I made these meals last weekend, and have been enjoying them throughout the week for easy lunches at work and/or dinners at night.


Tofu Jambalaya:

4 Bean Chili (I'll have to upload the picture later.  Sorry!)


Potato Leek Soup

For some good news, I have been very successful in working out.  I have been decreasing my cardio and increasing my strength training.  I have also been eating more to properly fuel my body and muscles especially after working out.  Wednesday was a killer personal training session and yesterday with my small group personal training, the instructor killed my abs.  I am feeling quite strong in the core section today, though very sore.  I even made some weight gain progress which has led me to be at the highest weight since I've started training so this was very exciting.  It means my hard work is paying off.

Well it is time to go relax some more.  I'm thinking of catching up on some shows like Pretty Little Liars:

And The Bachelor:

I'm also going to try reading some more of The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling:

This hasn't been my favorite book, in fact I don't even recommend it unless you like politics.  It has been a struggle to read.  Some parts of the book keep more of my attention than others, like the non-politics part, but I only have like 150 pages left and I hate abandoning books so I'm really trying to finish it.  It is a library book on a wait list so no matter what I have to have it finished by the 22nd.

Then I think I might make another soup tonight.  I'm thinking about giving this Tomato Soup a try from Kelly at Foodie Fiasco.


Happy Saturday!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is the year 2013!  I hope it is a great year.  So far my morning has started out great.  I woke up with a hot cup of coffee  then enjoyed this waffle that I had leftover from earlier in the week.  I love having breakfast already made!

This was a waffle I made out of oatmeal flour and peanut flour.  Then I topped it with soy yogurt mixed with almond butter.  YUM!

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After breakfast, I caught up on some blog reading and TV shows.  Then I headed to a New Year's Day afternoon Jazzercise class, which was a blast.  When I got home I enjoyed this delicious green smoothie:

In the mix: Almond milk, kale, banana, pineapple, orange

I then spent the rest of the day, the last day of winter break (NO!!!), relaxing and preparing some foods for breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week to be ready.  Later on I enjoyed this delicious dinner:

Brown rice mixed with chickpeas, peas, flaxseeds, mixed in Sage Gravy

This was really good. I'll have to make this for an easy packable lunch next week.  I would have made more tonight, but I already had packed tons of meals for the rest of this week and don't want those to spoil and go to waste.

*****

Now, let's talk New Year's Resolutions.  I do not like to make resolutions just at one time of the year.  There are 365 days in a year.  That is a lot of time to grow and change from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.  Instead, I like to make monthly goals on how I can make myself a better person.

My January Goals include:

1. Eat more healthy.  I am already a very healthy eater, but I would like to eat more clean at home.  When I say eat clean, I mean eat more veggies and fruits and grains and less unprocessed foods.  I actually already pretty much do this, which is why I say eat clean at home.  Even though I barely eat unprocessed foods, when I am home it is much easier to make real food and I should take advantage of this more often.  Outside of the house though, sometimes it is easiest to pack bars and snacks that are already packaged.  However, just because I need something easy, I still want to pack healthy snacks.
2. Gain more muscle mass.  I have been personal training and my goal is to increase my strength and gain healthy muscle weight.  Even though I have gained some, this past month I have trained less than usual due to vacations and the holidays, causing me to only maintain.  I am hoping that by getting back into a regular routine, I will have gained more muscle mass by the end of the month.
3. Drink a smoothie a day.  This goes along with both eating more healthy and gaining more muscle mass.  I am hoping to improve both those goals by incorporating a daily smoothie, and if I drink a protein shake that counts as that day's smoothie.  I always say I am going to do this, but it is hard when I am cold and just want a warm beverage.  This might be an easier goal in the summer but we will see how it goes.  I'll try drinking them after workouts or in the middle of the day to help with this goal.
4. Cook 3 entrees and 5 treats.  With work, I am going to be more busy than I was a few months ago, so I will have less free time to cook, but I would still like to take some time throughout the month to try to make at least 3 entrees and 5 treats.  Hopefully, since I don't have grad school until the end of the month, I can reach this goal.
5. Be more social.  I feel like I have been so busy with school and work lately that I have not been reaching out to friends as much as I should.  Once again since grad school classes don't start until the end of the month, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up with friends.

That's it for now.  I'll re-look at these goals at the end of the month and see how I did and what I can continue to improve on.

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I'm off to enjoy the remainder of my evening before its back to the grind early tomorrow morning.  Winter Break went so fast but thankfully it's a short work week; it will definitely help the back to work transition be much easier.

Happy Tuesday!