What I Ate Wednesday, 8/27/14

The weather was just beautiful here today. The cool mornings we’ve had the last couple of days are tricking me into thinking Fall is near. In reality, we’ve got a lot more hot and humid days ahead here in North Carolina. It doesn’t help that Starbucks has already busted out their Pumpkin drinks! Too soon!! Anyway, now that you’ve gotten a weather update, on to what I ate today…

Breakfast

My breakfast was…wait for it….oatmeal!! You would have never guessed, I know. I had to kind of eat and put on my makeup at the same time because I was running a little behind this morning. The oatmeal is made with unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon, chopped walnuts, a teaspoon of local honey, and blueberries. The coffee is the same as last week, Larry’s Beans Bolivia roast, with organic half and half.

Snack

A typical snack for me at work, a Larabar! This is the coconut cream pie flavor which is probably my favorite one that I’ve tried. I also drank lots of H2O like always.

Lunch

I made a salad for lunch and I also had some crackers with pepper jack cheese and salami slices. The salad is a spring mix with cucumbers, raw sunflower seeds, feta cheese, dried cranberries, bacon bits, and topped with balsamic vinaigrette. The crackers are gluten-free by this brand called Crunchmaster. They’re really pretty good for something gluten-free. The salami is by the brand Applegate Farms. I really like this brand for deli meats.

Snack

They got me again! Stupid Starbucks, why must you be on every corner?! This is a soy iced chai latte. I don’t usually drink soy milk, but I actually prefer the way it tastes with chai lattes.

Dinner

I made a new recipe tonight that I found on Pinterest. It came from a blog called Honey, Ghee, and Me. This seems to be a pretty popular site, so maybe you have heard of it. The recipe is Spicy Sesame Honey Chicken and it was quite delicious in my opinion. So, thank you Natalie (from Honey, Ghee, and Me) for this recipe!! This is a crockpot recipe, so it is really easy and perfect for busy days when you don’t feel like cooking. The recipe is also gluten free, if that matters to you at all. [click here for the recipe]

Here’s a picture of some of the ingredients. I actually didn’t end up using the jalapeno because it wasn’t very fresh and had been sitting in my fridge for far too many days. I used some red pepper flakes instead.

 

It doesn’t look as pretty as hers because I didn’t have green onion or sesame seeds…and it was dark out and the lighting sucks. 😦 But it was tasty, so that’s what matters most to me! I put it over brown rice and it was perfect and had just the right amount of spicy and sweet flavor.

That’s all I ate today. Now, I’m just drinking water and about to watch a few episodes of Friends and then calling it a night! Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week. It’s a long weekend coming up for most of us!! If you work on Labor Day, I’m sorry! Thanks for reading.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

 

 

 

 

Sea Salted Peanut Butter Cookies

My last few recipe posts have been decently healthy recipes.  This one…not so much.  But that’s okay, because it’s nice to have a dessert here and there!  And if you’re someone who avoids eating gluten, this is a cookie for you, because it’s flourless!!

I was bored after work the other night and was craving something sweet, so I looked at what I had in my kitchen, and whipped these up.  They are so delicious (about 6 other people who tried them agreed), I just had to share them with you!

Minus the semi-sweet chocolate chips

Ingredients:

½ cup natural peanut butter

½ cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 whole egg

2 tbsp mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Sea salt

Directions:

Step 1:  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Step 2: Combine sugar, vanilla extract, and egg and mix

Step 3: Add peanut butter and mix until smooth

Step 4: Add in mini chocolate chips and stir until they are evenly distributed into batter (if you don’t want any chocolate in your cookies, that’s ok!  Just leave this step out!)

 

Step 5: Spoon out batter onto ungreased cookie sheet (I did spoonfuls about the size of a ping pong ball) about 1.5 inches apart and press fork into balls to make the crosshatch design

Step 6: Sprinkle sea salt on the top of each cookie

Step 7: Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes on center rack

Step 8: Remove from oven and let cool before removing cookies from cookie sheet

Step 9: Enjoy!

This recipe yields 1 dozen cookies.

 

I like eating mine while they are still a bit warm, and I’m sure they would taste great with vanilla ice cream!

Try them!  You will be addicted!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

What I Ate Wednesday, 6/18/14

It seems like it’s been so long since my last post, but I guess it hasn’t really. I ate some things today AND I also had the pleasure of finally seeing Lynda Lou after what seems like forever. We are busy ladies lately. I think we keep up with each other now mostly through the blog, which is a little sad considering we live only a couple miles away from each other. Our schedules just haven’t been matching up lately, but today they finally did! yay!

This is what I ate on this extremely HOT Wednesday…

Breakfast

Man, my picture taking skills really suck. I apologize. And yes, this is another awkward window sill picture aka my attempt at getting some natural light. My breakfast is pretty much the usual: gluten free oatmeal made with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, blueberries, banana, cinnamon, raw chopped walnuts, and a little bit of honey. I also had coffee (this kind from Caribou Coffee) with organic half and half. As you can see I am drinking coffee again, thank God! I have also added dairy back, but I think I am going to continue to limit my dairy intake for various reasons that I will talk about (if/when I ever post about my Elimination diet experience).

Lunch

For lunch I picked up the least healthy salad Chick fil A has, the Cobb salad. 😛 Oh yeah, I also had it with Ranch dressing. I know it’s bad (I hate referring to food as good/bad), but I obsessed over my food for a good 25 days, so you know what, I deserve this stupid “unhealthy” salad! I also ate a granny smith apple in between breakfast and lunch, but I did not get a picture of that. oops!

Snack

This is some delicious Turtle Cheesecake ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s! I told Lynda that when I finished with the Elimination diet and started to add dairy back, we HAD to go to Ben and Jerry’s. It was really her idea, because she was so shocked by the fact that I had never been before. So, today was my first ever trip to Ben and Jerry’s and it was very yummy. I swear I don’t live under a rock, although that might be kind of nice. 🙂

Dinner

Again, please excuse the terrible picture quality and poor lighting. This dinner was not really planned out ahead of time. Meal planning for this week has been kind of a fail. Anyway, this is baked Salmon (my go-to last minute dinner idea). I was craving something pasta-y so a quick google search lead me to this broccoli pasta side dish to go with the salmon. I thought it turned out really good. I used brown rice pasta instead of regular pasta, which by the way tastes exactly like whole wheat pasta to me. Not bad for a spur of the moment dinner.

As I’m typing this I am having a glass of lightly sweetened black iced tea. I usually crave something sweet after dinner, but I think maybe the ice cream from earlier has satisfied my sweet tooth for today at least. Or perhaps the tiny bit of sugar in my tea is enough? Who knows!

Thank you for reading! Hope you have a fantastic rest of your week!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

What I Ate Wednesday, 6/4/14

Better late than never, right? I’m sorry if you guys are sick of me! I totally failed at posting this yesterday. I got really sleepy last night and went to bed pretty early. Then I worked all day today, so I’m just now getting around to doing this.

My day started at around 6:30 am yesterday. I rolled out of bed (after hitting the snooze button one too many times), let Rose out to potty, and started making my usual breakfast.

Breakfast

Do I even need to say what it is? Okay, I will…Gluten Free Oatmeal made with almond milk, blueberries, walnuts, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of raw agave. I also had a cup of chai green tea. Really missing my coffee lately! It will be back in my life soon.

 

Snack

Several hours later, while at work, I ate a Coconut Pie Larabar. I have been obsessed with Larabar’s lately. They are delicious and most of them only have 3-5 ingredients and no added sugar. My favorite flavors are the coconut, cherry, and key lime.

Lunch

I don’t have a picture of my lunch, but it was leftovers from my dinner the night before which was a taco bowl type thingy. Check my last post for that recipe. It was my attempt at making a copycat burrito bowl from Chipotle. Very tasty!

Snack

After my workout yesterday I decided to make a smoothie. My smoothie was made with frozen blueberries, frozen peaches, spinach, coconut water, and a little 100% apple juice. Yum!

Also, if you guys are looking for a pretty inexpensive blender that works great, this basic Ninja Blender is awesome. It also came with a larger container. Lynda recently got the bigger version, that she talked about in her favorites post. This smaller version works great too though. It has chopped up everything I’ve ever put in it. I even used it to grind up some coffee beans one time.

Dinner

For dinner I made chicken and rice soup. The recipe can be found in my last post. It turned out great and I had plenty leftover for lunch today. Such a comforting and filling meal.

Some of the ingredients

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, that’s what I ate yesterday! Hope you guys are having a good week. Who’s ready for the weekend?! 🙂 Thanks for reading.

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley