Simple Pleasures

A lot of times I think I tend to make my diet too complicated. Of course, being gluten-free and vegetarian isn't easy by any means, but I think I tend to make it more difficult than it really is. And I forget the simple things.

Like pancakes.

Pancakes are awesome. You can put anything you want in them, on them, under them, or in-between them...You can make them sweet or salty...You can make them small or large...And they're relatively simple to make. Plus, you can make the batter in advance for a quick breakfast (or lunch....or dinner...) over the next couple of days.

Most gluten-free recipes (I think) tend to over-complicate things. They call for four different types of flour, Xanthan or Guar gum, mix certain ingredients first, make sure this is room temperature, blah, blah, blah...

I've found that most of this just isn't necessary. At all.

When I'm looking for a recipe, I don't look for a gluten-free recipe. Luckily, over the last (almost) three years of being gluten-free, I have learned all about substitutions. Basically what I do, is I find a recipe that sounds good. If anything in it isn't gluten-free, I substitute it for something that is. Voila! Gluten-free awesomeness! And it holds up just fine.

So, yeah, back to pancakes. They're awesome. And I'm going to make some. Here's my recipe:

1 cup of all purpose, gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I use almond milk. Dairy isn't my best friend all the time. It adds a nice sweetness to the pancakes!)
2 tablespoons oil (I use vegetable oil)

Mix everything together in a bowl. Heat up a griddle drizzled with oil. Pour 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the batter on the griddle. Add mix-ins like chocolate chips, M&M's, blueberries, etc... When the edges start to cook and bubbles form, flip them. NOMZ.

Not hard, right? Right. I think a lot of the time we forget just how simple some things are. And we forget how happy they make us.

Pastries and Portabellas

Ow.

My legs are killing me.

I don't think my calf muscles have EVER hurt this bad.

EVER.

That being said, when I woke up this morning I was highly concerned about working out again today. Then I decided that I would just effing do it, and skip any jumping jacks if they were in the mix. (I'm convinced it was the jumping jacks that destroyed my legs.) And I also decided that I would maybe just take it a little easier today than I did Monday. Here is today's workout:

Warm-Up:
15 slow-ish deep lunges
20 supermans
60 seconds butterfly stretch
30 seconds each leg pigeon stretch
15 shoulder pass throughs
30 seconds each arm shoulder stretch across chest

Workout:
12 minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds as Possible–so, work as hard as you can for 12 minutes and do as many rounds as possible of the following):
10 lunges with 10 lb. weights
15 air squats
20 speed skaters (count each side)
10 tuck jumps

Before I worked out, I was on Pinterest. As I've said before, I'm trying to cook more of my own food instead of just buying it from someone else. I found a recipe for some stuffed pastries, and decided that, to reward myself for working out, I would get to bake something! I know, for some people baking something isn't really exciting or a reward at all, but for me, getting to roll out dough, mix up filling, and smell the pastries as they're baking is one of my favorite things. (If I didn't end up going to Cosmetology school, I was going to go to Culinary school.)

My mouth is watering already.

Fast forward to dinner time.

I am a huge Pinterest nerd. I have my boards organized like crazy, and one of my favorites is the one entitled "Food". You can probably guess what that's all about! Anyways, one of the things I saw on that wonderful website was what I call "Portabella Pizza". No, it's not pizza with Portbella mushrooms on it...It's Portabella mushroom with cheese and tomatoes on it!

Here's what it sorta looks like:

Except mine looks nothing like that.

I made mine with seasoned goat cheese and roma tomatoes, then drizzled vegetable oil over the top and sprinkled just a TINY bit of salt and pepper on top. Since Portabellas and goat cheese already have such strong flavors, I didn't really want to mess with how they taste. So, those beauties went in a pan and I baked them at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until the mushrooms were tender. Mine weren't terribly thick, so they didn't take too long.

I love having a side dish or two with my entree, so I decided to make some gluten free spaghetti. But, that's boring. So I chopped up some asparagus and sauteed it with butter, salt, and pepper, then tossed it in with the spaghetti.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to leftovers. :]

Here's a nice photo of dinner during preparation for you.

Bon appetit!

Back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity! Part 2

So, I think this workout is going to be awesome. First thoughts are: Holy crap, this is hard. My arms are burning. My legs are burning. EVERYTHING IS BURNING. These stretches feel nice. This is going to be awesome...I feel it EVERYWHERE.

She suggested halving the reps for first-timers which, at first, I thought was asinine. I was all like, "I can do this! This will be a cake-walk!" But, no.

It wasn't.

Here's exactly what I did:

Warm Up (I did three rounds of this, and the suggested reps.)

50 jumping jacks

10 push-ups

10 air-squats

Stretches

30 second each side lunge stretch

60 seconds butterfly stretch
30 seconds dynamic arm swings
30 seconds wide arm circles forward
30 seconds wide arm circles backward

Workout (This is where I began to modify things, because I was already run down. I plan on working up to the full number of suggested reps, at it gets easier for me)

25 push-ups (suggested was 50)
40 lunges (count each leg)
30 sit-ups
20 air squats
10 burpees
30 second plank hold (suggested was 60, but at this point I could hardly hold myself up)

Sooooo, yeah.

It was hard.  But it felt amazing, truly and honestly.

Now, onto food. I'm trying to get back into making more of my own meals instead of just buying things from the store. My plan is to make a larger batch of something a couple nights a week when I don't work late, then eat those for lunch at work the next days. Right now I'm making a quiche. Quiche is one of my FAVORITE things to make because it's easy and you can put whatever you want in it. It's also an easy way to get rid of left over veggies you've had in your fridge for a while. Here's my easy-peasy recipe:

Preheat over to 425 degrees farenheit.

In a large bowl, whip up 6-8 large eggs with butter or milk. Add 1/2 cup of shredded cheese of your choice. Today I used a Mexican blend because that's all I had in the fridge.

In a separate bowl, mix up your fillings. Today I used veggie dogs and broccoli, because that's about all I had. Add a little flour if your veggies contain a lot of water or if they were frozen and you thawed them, otherwise your quiche will turn into soup.

In a 9" round baking pan or quiche pan, spread your mix-ins evenly along the bottom. Pour egg mixture over the top.

Evenly distribute egg mixture between mix-ins. Sprinkle a little cheese on top.

Place baking pan on a larger cookie sheet (this is in case the quiche fluffs up a bunch and overflows, so you don't have a huge mess in your oven).

Back for 30-45 minutes, or until it is mostly set up. Take quiche out of oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes until completely set up (it will continue to cook for a little bit after you remove it from the oven).

Enjoy! I like to portion my quiche into 6-8 slices, depending on the size of the pan, and then refrigerate the pieces for a quick breakfast. It lasts for quite a while in the fridge, but I'd recommend eating it within a week or so of making it  otherwise it ends to get a little bit stale.

This version of the quiche is gluten-free (crustless!) and I've found it holds up just as well as any quiche with a crust. Like I said, you can put whatever you want in the quiche. It's particularly amazing with sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, and asparagus (which I think I'll have to make next!)

I'm planning on posting some more recipes in later entries. I LOVE cooking and I love adapting things to make them gluten-free and vegetarian. If you have a recipe that you need adapted to be vegan, gluten-free, or vegetarian PLEASE ask me! I'm no expert, but I have had a lot of experience adapting recipes to my lifestyle so I think I'm pretty good at it. :]

<3

Back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity!

So, I'm probably the worst blogger ever.

Obviously, consistency is not my forte, but I'm back.

Last week was crazy busy because work was busy, and my fiancee and I were planning and packing for our trip to Chicago. We just got back last night. We ate great food, saw awesome things, and realized we never want to visit the city of Chicago again. It. Was. Insanity. The drivers are insane, the roads are confusing (so much so that our GPS kept getting confused), the people flip you off when you drive the speed limit (seriously, nobody obeyed any of the driving laws...Everybody was speeding, no one switched lanes for emergency vehicles, half the people didn't use their turn signals....), and everyone was getting shot or stabbed or hit by trains.

Seriously.

The hotel we stayed at had the news on every morning in their little breakfast area and the whole time we sat there eating breakfast, it was headline after headline saying who got killed and how it happened. I don't understand why anyone would ever want to live in Chicago. EVER.

Anyways, we're back, and now that my schedule won't be SO intense, it's time to start really putting my nose to the grindstone and get WELL! I got up early this morning so I could do a work out. I can't remember if I posted this before, so I will again...I'm alternating a CrossFit style workout with yoga and cycling on my stationary bike (and once all this damn snow melts, biking outside on the trails!). The workout I found at The Ascent Blog, which I found via Pinterest. (Don't'cha just love Pinterest?) Anyways, she does CrossFit and posted an entry about a beginner's workout with three different workout/warmup combos and links to videos on YouTube explaining some of the moves. I'll be giving number one a try today. I have a feeling I'm going to be hurtin' tomorrow!

Sunday Funday!

Well, not really.

I worked today.

And we had crappy weather, so everybody stayed home and it was slow, which made for a slow day at work.

Which brings up another one of my diet struggles: Boredom.

When I get bored, I eat. There are usually two opportunities for me to get bored: 1) It's slow at work and we've run out of things to clean, and 2) I have the day off and I'm sitting on my butt being lazy letting Netflix babysit me. Lately the "bored at work" thing hasn't come up much, but I'm always guaranteed to have two days off a week so that's two days of opportunities for me to stuff my face because I have nothing else better to do.

This. Needs. To. Stop.

Tomorrow I have the day off, so it will be my first test of actually making an effort to use this little thing called "will-power" that I have locked away inside of me.

Also, I didn't start my workouts today. (Shame, shame!)

I worked all day and didn't get home until 2 hours after my shift because it's the damn snowpocalypse this weekend. Sooooo, I just decided that I'll shift my workout schedule ahead a day and start the workouts tomorrow when I have the day off, and have the time to really focus on it instead of just hurrying through it to say I did it.

Here's what I ate today (I'll admit right now, I'm not terribly proud of ALL my food choices, but I AM proud of the fact that I didn't snack or eat super huge meals and stuff myself to the point of bursting):

Breakfast
Scrambled eggs and a large, vanilla latte (with skim milk. I would have preferred soy/almond, but it wasn't available)

Lunch
Whole grain white rice with sweet and sour sauce
Water (drank 1/2 liter today)
Chocolate Luna bar

Dinner
Gluten free mac and cheese with veggie dogs
Small organic baked potato with butter and seasoning
Honey and dijon carrots
Razzleberry Peace Tea
Dove chocolate bar

And now I'm watching Wayne's World, possibly one of the greatest films to ever grace the silver screen.

Party on, readers.

Schwing.

Day Two

Day two is already going better. Today my goal is to not eat so much. I tend to get carried away and think, "Oh, this tastes awesome! I want to eat all of it!" I struggle with portion control. And control in general. Ugh.

Anyways, no yoga for me this morning. This is my "rest" day of the workout plan, so I'm thinking I'll do yoga later before I go to bed. Breakfast was delicious...I had a whole grain, gluten-free bagel with banana slices and a new (and delicious) spread I found at Target, Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Blend. (We bought a couple of samples.) It was pretty good...Comparable to Nutella, but not as rich or heavy-feeling. It had more of a salty taste, and thus wasn't as sweet. My only bugaboo about it is that the regular-sized jar of it is $9.99,  and I don't even like paying $4-$6 for a jar of Nutella. Here's my breakfast:

I accompanied this with a large, cold glass of water, and that's it. I feel satisfied, (not full and not still hungry), but we'll see how I last until lunch time.

I do hair, so lunch time is never a set time. It usually falls between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM, depending on if I have appointments and when they are. If it's especially busy (like is has been lately), I won't eat until dinner time.

I started getting woozy and dizzy around 11:30...Still not sure why I've been getting this way lately, but it's making me kind of nervous. I ate a white chocolate and macadamia nut Luna bar and that held me over for another hour until I got lunch, which consisted of roasted garlic, rice noodle soup and a handful of dark chocolate covered raisins. At this point in the day I had drank about a quart of water.

I snacked on handfuls of ranch crackers throughout the day (they were delicious. So delicious.), and picked up a small chocolate shake from DQ on the way home from work. I need to stop doing this before I really get addicted to them.

I'm currently making dinner...Trying out a Pinterest recipe: Hot dog spaghetti, (of course I replaced the hot dogs with gluten free veggie dogs and used organic, gluten free, brown rice pasta), with organic marinara sauce. It looks kind of weird, but I like weird so this will probably be my new way to make spaghetti.

Oh, and I plan on have a nice, big glass of Hogue Reisling (I tried this at Biaggis in Cedar Rapids on a work trip...I was more impressed with the wine than the food. The glass of wine cost me about $8 there, while I spent $8.99 on the bottle back home).

Bon appetit!

Day One

Okay, so day one didn't go that great. I had some small victories, but overall I could use some improvement.

I started off the day with 30 minutes of yoga. I haven't done this yoga DVD in a while, and I forgot how hard it is...Definitely not for a beginner like me. (Plus, I needed some yoga bricks which I don't have so I had to modify some of the poses in ways that probably were counter-productive...) Also, I didn't put my dogs away first and they were curious as to why I was on the floor, so they kept coming over and interrupting me to investigate. In the end, I discovered two things for my next round of yoga: 1) Put the dogs away before starting, and 2) Buy some damn yoga bricks!

Then came breakfast. I ate a whole grain, gluten-free bagel with cream cheese and two small, vegan and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies with a glass of juice.

For lunch I had some mixed vegetables (carrots, snap peas, and cauliflower) in a butter sauce with some iced white tea and a slice of smoked Gouda cheese.

Dinner I had a white chocolate and Macadamia nut Luna bar (which was super delicious, by the way), and some roasted potatoes from Hy Vee with water and a coffee.

I ran to Target after work and after that was feeling really shaky and woozy (why, I'm not exactly sure...In hindsight I'm thinking maybe I needed some more protein today?), so I got a small chocolate shake from DQ.

All in all, not too bad, but it could have been WAY better. I think I need to be better at planning out my meals. I'm fairly busy and when I'm working I'm usually scarfing down food when I have a break between haircuts, and it usually ends up being whatever's easy and on hand, which tends to be chips, cookies, crackers, etc...I think some planning would benefit me.

Also, I'm thinking I need less carbohydrates and more protein to avoid shaky spells like the one I'm still recovering from. (If I remember correctly, at some doctor's appointment years ago I was told I was hypoglycemic, so I really should be watching my starchy foods and carbs and sugar intake to balance that out, but some days I'm reeeaaallyyyy bad about it.)

I was going to do relaxation yoga to wind down tonight and get ready for sleep, but I'm already so tired and fairly relaxed so I don't think it's too necessary at this point. Tomorrow is my "rest" day in my workout schedule (which will technically begin on Sunday), but I will probably still do some yoga at some point, even if it's just the quick, 15 minute one.

I'm going to try tomorrow to plan better for lunch...I have some lettuce in the refrigerator that's beckoning to me...