Encounters

Before I show you my food, you’re going to have to put up with a story.  I guess you could skip ahead, but you really don’t want to! [okay, it’s not that good]

I’m sure you’ve all run into the awkward gym encounters before.  “How you doin’?”  Well today was no exception.  I get crazy stares all of the time for wearing my silly Vibram Five Fingers to the gym, walking in the park, to Whole Foods, etc.  I am trying to wear them as much as possible because they make my feet feel the best!  It’s almost hard to wear “normal” shoes anymore.  Okay, getting off subject here…

Encounter 1:  Last week, I was minding my own business, when a guy stops to ask questions about my shoes.  I tell him a few things and he keeps asking more + more.  He didn’t just seem interested in my shoes if you know what I mean.  He finally tells me that he wants to get a pair and that “well they sure do look sexy.” !!!!!! WHAT ???? 

1. Creepy man…please go away!
2. Do not tell me anything I’m wearing is sexy, especially while at the gym…
3. Vibram 5 Fingers are NOT sexy

Encounter 2:  I’m at gym again, minding my own business, again…Enter creep-o #2!  As I get off the bike Mr.HowYouDoin’ puts his arm up on the handle of the bike and starts asking me about my shoes.  He looks to be in his 50’s and he was also a close-talker.  I was polite and answered his questions and said I was off to the stair climber next.  Peace out buddaaaay!  Well don’t you know 2min later he’s on the machine next to the climber and then hops on the treadmill next to the climber and starts drilling me with questions.  THEN the guy next to HIM gets in on the conversation..and here’s where it starts to get interesting.

Since these shoes promote the barefoot running style we started talking about how people have developed over the last zillion years and the 50yr old starts talking about evolution, religion, our founding fathers, the constitution, etc. etc…  He was telling me about all the National Geographic articles he read too.  I was really impressed……

You don’t even want to know where the conversation went from there.  I was on the climber for 10min and pretty much not saying anything and just listening to these 2 debate about evolution, lol. 

Encounter 3:  So then I go to the area where you can stretch and do ab work and whatnot and a guy over there was like “can you run in those??”  I’m thinking please no, not again!!!  But this guy was actually completely normal and not creepy. 

Anyone have any good gym stories to tell?  I’m not sure if these were good…but they were definitely a little off the wall for me!  I just want to be left alone while I’m working out!

Okay…food time :)

I started off with some roasted mint green tea, YUM. 

Cute steeper thanks to my mom! 

And another stellar bowl of oats.  I really think I found my perfect combo.  I haven’t had three bowls that were this on the money, ever!  I used steel cut oats today, to see if the egg white method would also work for this.  It did! 

I splashed a little So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk on top.  After seeing Teri pour a little milk on her oats I had to try it!  When I was younger and used to make instant oats, I would always put in extra liquid so they were kind of soupy.  I like mine super creamy now but loved this little addition of milk.

Super Creamed Steel Cut Oats

• 1/4c rounded Irish steel cut oats
• 1c water
• 1/4c unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 egg white, whisked
• 1/2 banana
• 1t vanilla
• 1/2t cinnamon
• toppings:  1T Raspberry Galaxy Granola, 1/2T pnut butter, 1/2T pistachio coconut butter

1. Boil water.
2. Add in oats and stir for 1min.
3. Lower heat and let simmer for about 10-15min.
4. Pour in coconut milk, thin sliced banana, cinnamon, and vanilla.
5. Stir until combined and cook for another ~5min.  [You want to cook it until it’s a tad runnier than the consistency you want to eat it at.]
6. Whisk in the egg and let cook 1-2min.
7. Pour out + top away!

This was the best bowl of steel cut that I’ve made yet!

What do you think of these bars?  Anyone tried them out yet?  I had one ahwile ago and didn’t like the sesame seed texture.  I wanted to give it another shot though.  I bought the Chai flavor because I thought it sounded amazing!

I actually really liked the texture.  It has a great chew to it.  At first taste the Chai flavor is spot on, but it has a really strange aftertaste that I can’t get over.  I wouldn’t buy it again, but will try out a different flavor for sure.

I wanted to try a new method for walking the dogs.  Teri told me to try this out.  Scoop a few lbs of food into bags and evenly disperse them into the doggie backpack.  We have a backpack for the dogs for when we go camping.  Their food gets heavy and they are more than able to carry it on their own!  Teri said that doing this for walks seemed to make her dog more focused.

Do you think it worked with Kenna??

Fat chance.  She was still just as spastic! 

3rd time eating the Millet Black Bean burgs..still delicious!  At least when I show you leftovers I try to spruce things up a bit!  I made a fresh patty and pan sautéed it along with 3 artichoke hearts.  I like sautéing the artichokes because it dries them out a bit and makes them crispy.

1 big patty, topped with:  avocado, artichokes, tomato paste, sour cream, salsa

And a giant Green Monster!  Don’t let this stemless wine glass fool you in size.  It is very bulbous and holds a LOT of liquid!

In the mix: [i didn’t measure!]

• ice
• cherries
• banana
• avocado
• Living Harvest Vanilla Spice hemp protein powder
• unsweet. almond milk
• a lot of spinach

Tasty!

Next uP?  Blueberry muffins, vegan style!  Mama Pea inspired me after the delicious looking b.berry muffins she made the other day and the way-too-cute post that went along with it.  Her muffins look spectacular but I didn’t have whole wheat pastry flour [a rarity] so I decided to play with the recipe.  It didn’t need to be played with but I love trying things out.

I’m not going to list the exact recipe because it needs a few tweaks first, but I’ll tell you a little about what I changed.

Instead of whole wheat pastry flour, check out this lineup of things I combined:

• spelt flour
• oat flour
• ground flax meal
• coconut flour
• hemp seeds
• chia seeds

I also knocked the sugar down a bit and replaced about 1/2 of the oil for applesauce.  I figured the applesauce would help sweeten and make up for some of the sugar I took out.

I also used sucanat instead of white sugar and added a little cinnamon to the batter.  You know how much I love cinnamon!!  I used coconut milk for the non-dairy milk and we didn’t have plain OJ so I used pineapple, banana, orange. 

The streusel topping.  It was hard not to eat all of this before putting it on the muffins. 

Mama Pea’s batter looked much better.  It was nice and white/creamy with pretty blueberries sprinkled throughout.  Mine might be a little murkier because I used frozen [organic] blueberries instead of fresh.  The sucanat will also make them a bit darker.

Topping added, ready for the oven.

They don’t look that pretty but they seriously tasted AHmazing.  Chris looked at them and said “whoa, those look hearty.”  He doesn’t mind when I make heartier muffins but he wasn’t sure about these.  He couldn’t believe how awesome they tasted.  They were super soft and gooey.  There was no crunchiness from the chia or hemp seeds nor any taste of them really.  The only problem was that they didn’t hold together perfectly.  I think the silicone cups that M.Pea used would definitely help as the paper ones I used, kind of pulled away at the muffin.

Also, I didn’t use much of the coconut flour but that might have had an impact on how well they stayed together.  Coconut flour has NO binding properties to it at all!  It is just finely ground coconut shreds.  Most recipes you see using coconut flour call for a TON of eggs to hold it all together.  Since this was vegan baking, I wasn’t using any eggs.  Coconut flour is full of fiber + protein + flavor, which was why I used it.

There will definitely be a round two for these..and probably a round three.  I love the challenges of vegan baking!!  Hellloooo morning oatmeal topping :)

Long Saturday post, I know…ohhhh well!!  Off to eat muffin #3 and then go to bed.  I’m working all weekend! 

xo

Ashley