Tag Archives: Two Moms in the Raw
What I Ate Wednesday: Gritty
I feel like my eats have been all over the place due to the long weekend. I totally ate “off schedule” in a sense Saturday, Sunday and Monday and Tuesday, and by that, I mean, there was a lot of snacking going on rather than my standard “3 meals plus one snack” a day. Not only that, much of what I consumed wasn’t exactly healthful, but I have to say, sometimes that in and of itself is good for the soul. What I have to offer you all this week on this lovely What I Ate Wednesday (thanks Jenn for hosting!) is a random compilation of eats consumed throughout the week. Now that I am looking at it all, the meals I did take photos of are basically my standard eats, so apologies in advance for not showcasing some of my more “snacky” (and thus more fun) moments in food from the past week!
This was lunch before heading off to Boston on Saturday. I had some Trader Joe’s minestrone soup (full of veggies, beans and brown rice) heated with other veggies like grated carrots, daikon, cucumber, and greens.
On the side, I had a wedge of Dr. Cow’s kale and cashew nut cheese, raw onion strings and raw One Lucky Duck “cheesy” crackers.
The best snack of the week was a raw granola bar, courtesy of 2 Moms In The Raw.
I love these bars– they are all raw of course, full of seeds and dried fruit. I prefer these bars mostly for how chewy they are!
I settled in with some vanilla rooibos tea to accompany my bar– together, this particular bar and this particular tea are a perfect comforting combo!
I slow-cooked this week, preparing my favorite recipe for green Thai curry, full of veggies like baby corn, snow peas, sweet potatoes, summer squash, tomatoes, onion, and two kind of peppers. I also dumped in a can of chickpeas for protein.
While I don’t have a pic of my dinner plate, just picture this curry on top of brown rice and served alongside steamed broccoli, string beans and baby carrots.
I did try one new dessert this week– this here Tazo brand gingerbread dark chocolate.
It definitely wasn’t a favorite– the gingerbread spices made the chocolate gritty and it didn’t melt in my mouth. Oh well, you can’t win them all right!
Well friends, that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope you all have a great day– both in food and in life!
Do you like “flavored” chocolates? Usually, I am disappointed when I try a spiced or flavored chocolate, unless it is sea-salted, which I adore!
I’m feeling better. . . so why am I exercising even less?
I think my pesky injury is at about seventy-percent better by my (unprofessional) estimations. My limp is pretty much non-existent, and I can walk at least 3 miles at a time without really experiencing too much pain during or after exercise. Based on my epic amounts of moaning over the fact this injury has kept me from running and any other forms of moderate to intense exercise, you would think I would immediately step into some kind of consistent workout routine this week, now that I am feeling much better. However, quite the opposite has happened: this week so far, I have exercised less than that which I have managed to accomplish when my injury was in full force. Rather than just jump back into more cardio and weights, I have done barely anything as far as exercise goes over the last few days, when technically I could easily have completed a few good cardio/weights sessions. What gives, you ask?
Well basically, I have allowed two major things to happen to myself this week: 1) relaxation and 2) life.
(Source)
For once, rather than immediately begin a more rigorous exercise routine at the first sign of possibly being fully healed (or at least I think I am almost fully healed!), I decided instead to be smart. Giving myself this week to really and truly rest and relax is a strategy I am employing I to not fall into the re-injury trap. Just because I don’t have a ton of pain does not mean I can or should exercise more. I am letting myself continue to take it beyond easy to ensure that when I do pick up on my exercise, I am in fact one-hundred percent good to go!
So while letting rest happen. . . I also allowed for life to happen too! Usually, I am so set-in-stone about my workouts that I refuse to skip them for any reason. That means I often turn down fun social opportunities in order to “be committed” to healthy living and my fitness. However, this week, I let myself take advantage of all the opportunities for non-exercise related enjoyment and relaxation that I do not indulge in very frequently. Any ya know what– it felt so good! I feel like I connected with parts of my life that often are crowded out by the hours I devote to exercise, which was such a good feeling.
For example, rather than immediately hop on over to the gym after school yesterday, I decided to join my BFFs from work on a coffee date instead at a local favorite, Brewed Awakenings!
I used to do this all the time with my friends– we’d actually set a weekly time to meet and catch up on both school and non-work related things. Though we often see each other in school, these gatherings gave us a chance to relax and truly enjoy each other’s company outside of the sometimes stressful and busy work environment. It’s such a chat-fest– we laugh, unwind, and just have fun, usually for over two hours!
Yesterday, we got together after what has been way too long and it was so awesome. Even though I see them on a day-to-day basis for the most part, it was exactly what I needed mentally to feel refreshed and invigorated– in a way no cardio workout could ever deliver. I love you girls!
I ended up gabbing over a cup of ginger tea, which was perfect for soothing my throat after a long day of teaching and talking.
This particular tea bag deserves special attention for being so round and cute.
Since I have been opening up so much time with my lack of exercise this week, I have returned to some of my other more enjoyable long-lost habits, such as shopping! I have been spending a lot of time (maybe a bit too much) online browsing for the perfect comfy black boot. After hours of scouring the web, I placed an order. In fact, the box just came!
Isn’t it ironic that after hours of online searching. . .
I came away with the same exact pair of Frye boots that I recently ordered. . . only in black!
I guess sometimes it is just best to stick to what you know and like! But hey, at least I had the time to browse online for so long to rule out all other black boot options. That’s what you get when you don’t go to the gym and live it up a little instead!
And, of course, less time exercising means more time to sit and savor yummy snacks, like this Two Moms In The Raw Blueberry Granola Bar! With all those nuts and seeds, you need a bit of extra chew-time!
So there’s my answer to the burning question of “Why am I feeling better, but exercising even less?” I really am proud of myself for letting loose this week, though I imagine soon enough my itch for more regularly scheduled movement will return. Even then, though, I plan to incorporate more rest and more life into that routine!
Do you ever let exercise get in the way of rest or life?
Breakfast Bonanza
In an ever-lasting effort to add variety, nutrition and excitement into my mostly gluten-free and vegan diet, I purchased a few new foods that have caught my eye on the grocery store shelves.
Since January 1, I have tried many a few different gluten-free breakfast grains in the form of hot, creamy cereals. First, I demolished a box of quinoa flakes. Then, I attacked a box of brown rice cereal. Now, I am on to my most recent favorite hot breakfast cereal grain: cream of buckwheat!
All it is is buckwheat in a slightly processed version for quick cooking. I combined a quarter cup of this cream of buckwheat with a cup of water, a teaspoon of chia seeds, and some cinnamon, and nuked it for two minutes in the microwave. I stirred, and gave it one more minute of cook time. It came out perfect– all the water absorbed and the contents of the bowl looked nice and fluffy.
I added my usual banana and nut butter, and eagerly dug in while catching a DVRed episode of Teen Mom. By the way, I get up early enough so I can enjoy my breakfast while watching a full hour-long show off of the DVR (fast forwarding through commercials of course) before work. Gotta get my tv fix in nice and early. That’s real dedication to my shows (and a slight obsession!).
Umm. . . hello new favorite hot breakfast grain! This bowl had by far the most pleasing texture of any grain I have had in porridge or cereal form lately. The buckwheat groats almost were the texture of a less squishy tapioca, which created a fantastic chew. The cereal was mild-tasting, with a creaminess that the quinoa flakes or brown rice cereal just can’t match. I am officially all about cream of buckwheat. If you see it in your local Whole Foods, I recommend you try it! It’s also a great way to get in a sort of unusual grain nice and early in the morning!
When I went to Back to Basics Natural Food Store a few weeks ago, I spotted something that immediately became a must-buy-now kind of item– Two Moms In The Raw Blueberry Granola.
Two Moms In The Raw is a company I have heard of before on other blogs, but have never seen their products around here in RI– until now! Raw, vegan, and gluten-free, this granola actually came in the form of bars or planks, as I am want to call them!
Packed with nuts, seeds, oat groats, buckwheat groats, dried blueberries. and even apples and sweetened with agave, this granola plank was ideal for a person who really likes a good, deep chew (and I am definitely one of those people– just ask my husband who thinks I chew almost too much!). I ended up cutting the plank in half (each one is 200 calories), and breaking it up in my hands so it resembled a true granola in regards to size and texture. It’s a bit on the sticky/chewy side, so it took a tiny bit of work to get a bowl like this.
You can probably guess what else I added: coconut milk kefir, a sliced banana, cinnamon, and a spoon of almond butter of course! I am a creature of habit and can’t imagine a breakfast without either a banana or nut butter!
What a superb breakfast bowl! The granola was chewy, not t0o sweet, and hearty. If given the opportunity, I would definitely purchase it again. I kind of wish it was in a broken up form in the bag, as I am quite lazy and chopping it up myself is a step that takes thirty seconds to do, but wish I didn’t have to do! Oh well, this granola just makes me work for it I suppose!
After my raw ginger bread breakfast fail a while ago, I am glad I had a couple of winners this week. I just would like to remind you friends that I purchase all of these products with my own dinero, and any reviews I provide come straight from what my taste buds and stomach tell me to say about these new foods. I love reading product reviews myself mostly just to get ideas of things I may want to try (from unbiased sources of course), and I hope you enjoy reading about some of new foods I taste-test, which seems to happen fairly often these days!
Do you like reading (unbiased) new food product reviews?
