Starting with breakfast.  This multi grain cereal from Trader Joes is delicious.  The grains are a bit larger than plain rolled oats and nice and chewy.

I cooked it with 1/2 almond milk + 1/2 water and smothered it in pecan butter + chocolate cherry almond butter, with cinnamon honey grahams + cherries on top. 

Ummmm, delicious.

You can see the glob of the chocolate cherry almond butter in front of the spoon.  It was overtaken by the pecan butter waterfall.

You must make this pecan butter.  Must!

My mom + I were out and about early.  She’s on break right now from teaching [speech therapist].  We headed to downtown Willoughby to run a few errands and stopped by my dad’s office while we were there.

Hi Dad!

Santa ate too many tootsie pops!  I used to LOVE this candy jar when I was a kid and would visit my dad’s office.

Cute mom

One place we stopped was The Gourmet Soap Market.  My parents got me a gift certificate to use while I was in town.  It was a really cute store!!  I definitely had a hard time deciding what to get.

Soap cupcakes!!

So cuuute!

I ended up buying a jar of organic face scrub made with ground cacao beans and a few other ingredients, along with a bar of shampoo soap.  I can’t wait to try them out!! 

Soup + salad for lunch, which is what I’ve eaten almond every day.  I added a handful of smoked paprika almonds on top of the salad, which were deeeelicious.  Extra crunch + flavor.  I also love using hummus as a salad dressing lately.  Mama Pea got me hooked on that method when I was doing the book photo shoot last month. 

After lunch there were more errands and a quick walk on the treadmill, then a shower, and we were off to where my grandma lives.  [dad’s mom]  We had a lovely dinner in the dining/banquet hall and then went to her condo after to open Christmas presents.

Since I’m leaving to go back to Colorado today [Christmas eve], we wanted to celebrate while I was still in town.  Chris was missed.  

Grandma + dad

Such a pretty tree!

The bro, grandma + me

My mom wanted me to tell you they were on their way to an ugly Christmas sweater party after we were done.  So excuse her sweater…haha

Love this one of my parents.  My dad’s necklace was most definitely blinking!!!

Love this one too!

Apparently my dad was excited..

My dad set up this tree in my grandma’s condo for her this year.  I think the white is so pretty!

Josh + me showing off our new hats.  My brother just started running, so my mom got him all geared up for winter weather!  My grandma got me the knit hat + scarf which I love.  It’s hard to tell in this photo, but the top of the hat loosens and you can actually wear it around your neck as well.  Very versatile!

After my grandma’s the fun continued.  My parents went to a party and I hit up Trader Joes for a few last minute foodie gifts and ingredients.

I think it’s deadly to put a Trader Joes + Anthropolgie right next to each other!!!  Torture!!  Anthro was having a really big sale.  I didn’t have a ton of time but got an awesome deal on a cute jacket!  It was normally $100, then on sale for $50 and then an additional 25% off!  I was pretty pumped.

After errands…….are you still with me??  It was now 10pm at night, it was time to use the TJ’s ingredients and start baking.  Yes, you heard me right.  My aunt, uncle, AJ + Jenna came over to hang out while I baked.

Baking what?  Mama Pea’s doughballs of course!!  I made a double batch of the peanut butter cookie dough balls and the sugar cookie dough balls.  I wanted to make them for my aunt + uncle to put out for part of Christmas dessert.  Even though I won’t be there, I still wanted some of my goodies around for munching!!  After tasting the raw + baked cookies, my uncle decided these are not going out for Christmas dessert.  He doesn’t want to give any of them away!! 

This was my first time making the dough balls, and I had no problems at all.  I followed the recipe exactly, using Earth Balance and the correct flours and correct proportions.  I used Trader Joe’s creamy, unsalted, organic peanut butter and gave it a good stir before adding to the mix.  This was not a recipe that I wanted to tinker with, nor does it need tinkering.  Both dough balls baked perfectly and were completely outstanding!!  Everyone raved and of course had fun making jokes about balls.  

Despite the fact that it is now 2am, I’m on a dough ball high, and am completely exhausted, this day couldn’t have been any better. 

Except if Chris could have been here!!

Time for bed…my eyes are heavy.

See you back in Colorado for Christmas!! 

Wishing everyone safe travels, good times, lots of laughs and even more love this holiday season.

Ashley

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I have.

At least 6 of them.  Basically every time I go in the kitchen, I eat one.  They’re crunchy, not too sweet, and totally addicting.

After a hard swim, this was the perfect snack! 

• 100m warm up
• 500m freestyle
• 250m aqua jogging
• 500m breaststroke
• 250 aqua jogging
• 500m freestyle
• 50m cool down

= 1.36 miles in 1hr 3min

To round out my hat trick from yesterday, here is goal #3.

It may not look like anything spectacular.  It really doesn’t look like much more than a glob of orange muck.

However it is the most delicious muck you will ever eat and it couldn’t be easier to make.

Coconut Curry Mashed Sweet Potatoes [serves 1]

• 1 medium sweet potato [~3/4lb]
• 1t curry powder
• ~1/8t salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/2-1T coconut oil [unrefined]
• 1/4c milk of choice

1. Pre-heat oven to 400*
2. Wash the sweet tater + prick with a fork multiple times.
3. Bake for 45min – 1hr, until soft throughout.
4. In a bowl, toss in potato + all ingredients.  With an immersion blender, hand mixer, in a Vita Mix or food processor, process until creamy + smooth.  Add more milk if needed.

When I took the first spoonful, my eyes opened wide with excitement.  A definite winner.

And then today….there were brussel sprouts.

The best brussel sprouts ever!  I’ve perfected my pan sautéing method for these little green balls of deliciousness.  I even prefer this method to oven roasted!  You might think I’m crazy when I tell you what these were flavored with, but just trust me.  Do I ever lead you astray?

My Favorite Brussel Sprouts [serves 1]

• ~10 sprouts, washed + halved
• 1T coconut oil [unrefined]
• pinch of salt
• splash of balsamic vinegar [optional]

1. Over medium-low heat, add coconut oil to a sauté pan.
2. Once hot, add sprouts, cut side down.
3. Let sit for ~8min, until nice + crispy.
4. Flip once and let brown for another ~8min.
5. Toss a few times and let cook for another minute. 
6. Add splash of balsamic [~1/2T], for a little sweetness, if desired.

I love how my stainless steel pots + pans brown things like this.  They’re really not as hard to clean as you’d think, either! 

But back to the sprouts….coconut oil + sprouts? 

The coconut flavor mellowed out and ended up pairing extremely well with the sprouts.  My favorite part are the little layers that fall off and get super crispy.  Cooking the sprouts over med-low heat, allows them to reach a delicious soft, but slightly crunchy, texture.  I’m not sure I will ever cook these any other way.

Amidst a slew of errands today, I decided to pop in JoAnn Fabrics.  I wanted to see if they had some cheap fabric, as an alternative to buying new kitchen towels to use in photos.

Ashley had the same idea a few weeks ago and it proved to be SO much cheaper!!  I bought 5 different patterns, 1/2yd in size, for $8.50 TOTAL.  Typically you can barely get 1 towel or placemat for that price.

Score!

For some reason I’ve been extremely exhausted all day.  I slept a peaceful 7hrs last night, so I’m not sure what it is.  During my swim I felt okay but also a bit tired.  In the late afternoon/early evening I started to get dizzy out of nowhere too.  I was definitely hydrated, had enough to eat, and made sure to eat another 2 graham crackers to make sure I wasn’t low on sugar.  Nothing helped!  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be back to normal. 

Night!

<3 Ashley

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I checked a few blogs before making breakfast this morning and discovered something amazing thanks to miss Angela.  She said she has seen this on other blogs, however it is new to me.

And amazing.

Peanut Butter Banana Topping

• 1/2 banana
• 1-2t maple syrup
• 1T peanut butter

1. mash.

It was hard to leave this in the bowl while the oats cooked.  It’s sort of like the banana scramble, but less ingredients and you don’t cook it.  Both are completely delicious.  I DEFinitely could have just slapped this on a bagel or english muffin but this morning it was an oat topper.

Gaaaah!!  I loved adding the banana for the flavor but also it’s spreadability factor + creaminess.  Angela added coconut butter, which would also be amazing.  I can’t wait to try it with my maple cinnamon almond butter, which I’ve been out of for a week!  Ah!

Blackberry Stuffed Scottish Oats

• 1/4c Scottish oats
• 1 1/4c water
• 1/3c unsweetened coconut milk
• 1T chia seeds
• 1/2 banana
• 1t cinnamon
• 1/2c frozen blackberries [they thawed perfectly when stirred in at the end]

Cook as directed in my crazy Oat explanation from the other day.

Top with: cacao nibs + banana deliciousness + jelly

Oooh…eaten out of my *new* rectangular plate-bowl.  Perfect for my summer plated oats!  The spoon is an older C+B purchase and it’s actually an iced tea spoon   I loves it.

Gobbled these right UP.

Lunch started with:

• locally made whole wheat tortilla
• local goat cheese [haystack mountain, my fav!]
• heirloom plum tomato
• s+p

It was filled with:

• sautéed portabella
• 2 whisked eggs

1. Whisk the eggs in a bowl.
2. Pour over sautéed veg and cover with foil or lid. [med-low heat]
3. Do not stir or scramble the eggs.  Just let cook until done ~3-5min.
4. Slide out of pan, top on tortilla, wrap + cut.

Perfecto!

I love goat cheese!  [but I didn’t always!]

Today was a good day of EATS. 

Dinnertiiiiiiime!

Lemony garlic green beans.  YUM.  Picked these up at the market today on S. Pearl St.  I was not impressed at all.  Boo.  There was a wide variety but 90% of the produce was not local and much of it was also not organic.  Ohhh well. 

Salad in our new amazing salad bowls, that were on sale!  Another C+B purchase yesterday.  They are the PERfect size for salads.  I love that it is really wide, like plate size, but has the rounded bowl-like sides.  Hmmm, also a good cereal bowl   I have been out of GREENs for a few days now and have been craving them like craZy!

contents:

• local organic lettuce [purchased from Natural Grocers]
• avocado
• croutons [toasted a slice of bread]
• carrot
• haystack mountain goat cheese
• hemp oil/balsamic/apple cider vin

On the side was a grain mix I got at Trader Joes, while I was home in Cleveland.  It was extremely delicious.  I loved the different textures.  It had a mix of Israeli couscous – red quinoa – baby garbanzo beans – and a few other delicious things. 

Lemony Garlic Green Beans

• 3 handfuls of green beans, washed and ends trimmed
• 1 lemon
• 1T olive oil
• s+p
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1. Saute garlic in the olive oil over medium for about 1min.
2. Add green beans.
3. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon and slice the rest of the lemon and add to the pan.
4. Stir as needed and cook until desired doneness is reached. [~8min for me]

And now it’s time to embarrass myself!  Actually, I was excited to make this video and briefly tell you a few things I’m working on with my barefoot running.  I like having Chris photograph and/or video me because then I can check out my form and see what I might be doing wrong. 

Anyway…here goes!

Running back.

It was a great little 200-250yd run.  My feet felt great!

And my gross foot.  Just dirt though, no blisters or cuts!  Actually, if anything, the ground is making my feet extremely soft!  I’ll talk about preventing blisters when barefoot running soon! 

Sorry to leave you with a photo of my gross foot.  I’ll try not to do it frequently…but I know you’re all concerned for my toes! hehe

I guess I can also tell you the rest of my workout today:

• walked in my VFF’s for 3 miles around the park and back home
• walked Dakota about 1mile? [Chris walked Kenna]
• little barefoot run

strength training:  everything below x3

• bicep curls [20lbs]
• tricep extensions [20lbs]
• lateral shoulder raise [10lbs]
• front shoulder raise [10lbs]
• standing shoulder press [10lbs]
• lunges [10lbs]
• a few different types of crunches

Then I foam rolled it out and did a few yoga stretches and it felt sooo gooood!  Goooooodnight!

Ashley

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