Blog Archives
Think Out the Box When Choosing Your Cereal (Unprocessed Cereal Recipe)
This morning I decided to share a wonderful cereal recipe. I obtained this recipe in the nutrition class for my marathon training session with the Elijah Running Club. This recipe is wonderful, quick to make and you have the liberty of creating it anyway you like it. It takes only a few minutes and its good enough for a breakfast cereal or midday snack. Bonus is that my daughter loves it too!
INGREDIENTS:
Diced honeydew melons
Diced Pineapples
Diced Granny Smith Apples
Sliced Straw berries
Bunch of green grapes
(I’ve also added cantaloupe, blueberries, raspberries, etc in the past)
Lots of Cinnamon
Agave nectar (really just a small amount depending on how much you make)
Walnuts and/or Pecan
Non-Dairy Milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but I may try coconut milk this week)
Clean Cereal Ingredients (except Non-Dairy Milk)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1st – Mix all of the fruits and nuts together in a bowl
2nd – Drizzle a small amount of agave nectar on the top and add a liberal amount of cinnamon
Gotta Love Cinnamon!
3rd – Mixed all the ingredients together and eat alone or with non-dairy milk
This recipe is delicious! If you buy the fruit already diced this should take you 2-3 minutes to make. Enjoy!!
Vegan Jalapeno Cornbread (Gluten-free & Soy-free)
I am so excited that I am exploring more and more with vegan cooking. I know that I can not practice this lifestyle unless without creating dishes at home. I also need room to explore in the kitchen as well. I enjoyed this time of kitchen creation. I was never a big fan of cornbread as a child, but about 2 years ago I began to incorporate it into my meals. Now, I’ve never made cornbread from “scratch” so this was truly a new experience. Well, I found a recipe on my VegWeb app and it turned out pretty good. I had to add my twist so I added fresh jalapeno. I think I’ll continue to explore, but it was pretty good for my first attempt.
Here’s the recipe (I used all organic ingredients):
1 cup of cornmeal
1 cup of flour of your choice (I used brown rice flour)
4 tsp of baking powder
2 tbsps of flaxseed meal + 6 tbsps of water
1 cup of non-dairy milk (i used coconut milk)
1/2 c of unsweetened apple sauce
1 fresh jalapeno (diced)
Mix all the dry ingredients together
Mix the flaxseed meal + water
Fold wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
The mixture will be doughy and think
Fold in the jalapeno
Cornbread Dough with Jalapeno
The dough had an interesting consistency. The recipe suggest placing it in a cold oven. I also decided to use a cast iron skillet that was first sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. The consistency was quite different from when I made my boxed corn meal. lol
Cornbread Mixture Prior to Baking
Gluten-Free, Soy-Free Vegan Jalapeno Cornbread
Here's A Serving
Just Do It! Ready to Do My First Marathon
I must admit that I was never into running. I mean I really didn’t care for running and unless someone was chasing me I didn’t see any reason to do it. In fact, if someone was chasing running wouldn’t be the first thing to some to mind in the past. Well, a few years ago some colleagues encourage me to participate in the Chase Corporate Challenge with them and when I hit the treadmill for the first time I thought would die!! I did not give up, but it truly took me awhile to get into this running this. Then I graduated to running outside – that’s right, ME. The first time I did a run outside along the Chicago lakefront I paused half way through and thought “who is this chick???” Well, several, 5Ks, 8Ks, 10Ks, 15Ks and one 1/2 marathon later I am still getting into this runnin thing. I realize that I have no desire to run a 8 min mile. However, I am amazed that even as a curvy girl I had the ability to run miles and miles a few times a week. This year I am determined to meet the ultimate running challenge (for me at least) by running my first full marathon.
I am so thankful that I am 1 of the 45,000 people who registered for the 2012 Chicago Marathon. Last year registration closed in 31 days and this year registration closed in 6 days! I rarely sign-up for running events as quick as I signed up for the Chicago Marathon, but I am glad that I did this time. I will be doing my training with the Elijah Running Club (ERC). ERC is great and they helped me through my first 1/2 marathon. The couple that runs ERC are simply delightful and they are truly a blessing.
I will be adding a few posts about my pathway to my first marathon. This will be my 1st marathon, but I am positive that it will not be my last….thought I have no desire to have what is known as a runner’s body. I just want to enjoy challenging myself.
Bob Harper (The Biggest Loser) – A Vegan Fitness Guru???
Bobb Harper decided to embrace a vegan diet after his doctor informed him that he had high cholesteral as noted in the blog post: Bob Harper – The Biggest Loser. Bob noted the great benefits of veganism, but did not maintain this lifestyle. However, Bob noted later that his body “needed more” in A Reuter’s interview. This may be the case for Bob, but there are vegans who live very athletic lifestyles.
Here are a few examples: John Salley (Basketball Player); Robert Cheeke (Bodybuilder – Founder and President of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness); Venus Williams (Tennis Player); Daniel Byran (Wrestler); David Zabriskie (Cyclist); Ed Templeton (Skate Boarder) and so many more people….
So, embrace what is best for your body! I’ve had lots of energy working out flowing a vegan lifestyle. However, I do feel it if I am not eating properly or make drastic changes to my diet (like eating something that I have removed from my diet).
22 lbs Lighter & Feeling Great!!!!
I decided to make a lifestyle change when I decided to embrace veganism & hit the gym more consistently. I know that there are many people who embrace veganism because they are animal rights activist. That is fine. However, there are more and more people are embracing this lifestyle because of the health benefits. Many people are virtually forced into this lifestyle due to sickness and disease while others are simply fed up with taking so many meds. Whatever you reason in it doesn’t matter is you follow a vegan diet once a week, 1 meal a day, 2 weeks or month or transition your entire nutrition lifestyle, studies show that many people can benefit from following a plant-based diet to some capacity. I realize that this process is a personal journey. Some people who have been vegan for years some how forget that process of change in the beginning and that irritates me. There are also some people may wake up one they and immediately change their diets, not everyone is like that. We cannot let people put us in a box because we don’t do what they do in the manner that they did it. I know they have good intentions, but one of th best things someone can do is to simply encourage a person to embrace change one day at a time according to their personal life steps. I have not followed this lifestyle perfectly, but honestly January 2011 I wasn’t thinking about being a vegan. However, I am doing it quite well in 2012 and I’ve lost a few pounds to boot 
