Thankful Thursday

I'm not going to even say anything about how I'm putting another picture of food on here. Except that I am, and I'm so excited about it! We love good food here...can you tell? This morning we had overnight steel-cut oats, and added in blueberries and the suggested cinnamon almond sauce. It was GLORIOUS. And filling. I usually don't get that full from breakfast. Check out the recipe here! It's amazing.

So that started my morning off right. Also yoga. Thursdays are yoga days, and even though the first 15 minutes of super early morning yoga are rough, once my body is awake, it's really nice. Another reason I like Thursdays? I get to list off 5 things I'm thankful for! It always makes me feel even more grateful. So here we go.

1. I'm thankful for date nights! We've had a lot recently (tonight is another one!), but have been managing for quite a long time to be consistent with setting aside at least one night a week to spend just the two of us doing something fun. The other nights are just bonuses :)
2. I'm thankful Milo's a healthy boy again. Phew, I was tired of little bugs and him moping around and peeing on things...gross. Plus he's so much happier now!
3. I'm thankful for fun recipes. Cooking and food really ARE a hobby, and it's SO much fun to experiment with new recipes and ingredients and taste the end result. I like hobbies like that.
4. I'm thankful for my new bike Nolan got me! Even though we still haven't had a chance to take it on the trail yet, I'm excitedly ordering myself gear and planning where to go when I do get to go! I love having fun stuff that we like to do as a couple.
5. I'm thankful for fall weather. I know, I'll miss the heat when it gets really cold, but this week was a heat wave (it was 94 in San Francisco on Monday...NINETY-FOUR!)...and it was no good. Hosting bible study in my living room with that kind of heat = sweaty girls. So it's nice now that it's starting to cool down just a bit now. It'll be even better when I can turn on my oven and not fear roasting us alive in here.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

Mmm. It's almost the weekend, and that means more time for cooking. Last weekend we experimented with paleo french toast. No, I'm not strictly paleo. But a lot of the recipes line up with the clean eating we try to maintain, so there you go.

We'd been jonesing for french toast, so I found this recipe to make the "bread", which was spongy and delicious, and the absolute perfect texture when browned in the pan with coconut oil for a few minutes. This is a picture right after it came out of the oven:

And this is after browning slightly, covering in homemade spiced strawberry sauce, and coconut milk. Yum!

The next morning I made healthy, fresh granola sans the oils and sugars, and it was so delicious! I just finished off eating the batch this morning with some soymilk at work, and it was oh so good. So needless to say, I'm excited about the weekend. Plus I have fun things to look forward to: a double date, mountain biking, lunch with a girlfriend...getting ready for our trip next Friday (EEEEEE!!!).

This week we went to our scuba class on Tuesday night after work. Nolan picked me up, we googled some random Chinese restaurant, which turned out to be fantastic, and then we stopped at 7-11 for ice cream bars. Oops. At least we burned off all those calories in the pool for 5+ hours, right?

Scuba was...awesome. It came so naturally, and we found that we were finished with each skill before everyone else in the class, so that bodes well. Being "weightless" and able to breathe normally underwater and play around without surfacing was so fun! Nolan and I were playing catch with a bowling ball for awhile on the bottom, and throwing it as hard as we could at each other. Probably the only circumstance in which we could do that. What I'm not sure about is the ear-clearing thing. I had ear-issues as a little kid, and have never been able to go beyond 7 feet even in a pool without a lot of pain. So I was nervous. With some help from our instructor, I was able to SLOWLY get down to 12 feet (how deep the pool was) and be totally comfortable. But it did take a few minutes, and Nolan was so patient as I waited for the air spaces to slowly equalize. I'm hoping if I just take it slow when we go deeper (60 feet, yikes!), it won't be a problem. But I'm still nervous about it. And so excited. Keep your fingers crossed.

With that:

1. I'm thankful for vacation coming up soon! We're already planning to rent a scooter, snorkel, scuba dive, explore ruins, hike through the jungle, and enjoy the Caribbean for 10 days. w00t.
2. I'm thankful for exciting things happening with people I love. Whether it's having babies, or getting married, or new job opportunities, I love when good things happen to good people. And I'm thankful to have so many of those in my life.
3. I'm thankful for grace. I know I'm a total doof and don't deserve anything from God, or even from those I love...but somehow I receive it anyway. Amazing.
4. I'm thankful for alone time. I'm totally a people-person, but you know sometimes it's nice just to have some time without a schedule or company to just...sit. Last weekend I had to spend a few hours working, but other than that I did things like...take a nap. And do an hour-long stretching "workout" with a cup of tea. It was glorious.
5. I'm thankful for you, who care enough to keep up with this piddly piece of my life. You each mean a lot to me!


What are you thankful for?

Brekkie, etc.

 It's no secret that I'm obsessed with breakfast. It's hands-down my favourite meal of the day. In fact, I was already planning tomorrow's breakfast while driving home from work today. What might be surprising, is that I don't vary up my breakfasts that much. They are almost always 1 of 4 options. I also have a small protein drink to go with them, so I build lean muscle after my morning workouts. It makes a difference.

Anyway, though I maintain a low-carb lifestyle for the most part, I definitely opt for plenty of carbs at breakfast, as long as they are a grain or seed and not something processed or empty of nutrition. It helps me rebuild my energy after working out, and it keeps me full until lunch (with just a small snack in between to keep my metabolism pumping!). Last week, I had this almost every day, with only a day of my go-to Kashi in between:

 

Fabulous, delicious chia seed. With blueberries, pecans, sweetener, dried cranberries, cinnamon and soymilk.

 This week, it's been this every single morning, including the weekends! I feel so luxurious when I have time to actually sit down and enjoy breakfast! Back to this week's trend:

My good friend, protein-packed quinoa! With blueberries, cinnamon, sweetener, skim milk, and pecans. Yum! 

Since I spent an hour browsing Pinterest this weekend (active lifestyle fail), I came up with several great new treats! This is most definitely not breakfast...but when shared with others and not consumed all in one sitting, it's a relatively "okay" treat that tastes amazingly wicked. Let me just say: if you like Reese's cups and PARTICULARLY Reese's peanut butter eggs for Easter, you will love this recipe:

 For only 6 ingredients and all of them natural and pretty healthy, it's pretty incredible that even my finely-tuned taste for Reese's was fooled.


And for something altogether different...

That is how Milo looked on Saturday morning, while waiting for Nolan to wake up. He wanted nothing to do with my blankets and breakfast and warm lap and cooing (all his favourite things). He just wanted his boy to wake up and play.


Looking forward to:
- visiting family this weekend (and meeting our nephew, SQUEEE!)
- ylehsa visiting this week!
- our 5th anniversary next weekend, and inevitably fun times together!
- going up to Placerville the next weekend :)

...and a fun new vacation that is in the works (soon, too!), but we haven't officially purchased tickets, so I can't say where it's to or I might jinx it!