Come on, you think I’m baking this early in the morning? Phat chance! I did cook up something fun + new in my VitaMix though!

Enter: Amazing Grass Amazing Meal ~ Original Blend ~ [thank you lovely sample fairies!!]

Yes. Carrot chunks. Along with: ice, vanilla almond milk, few dollops of Oikos plain, Amazing Meal, 1/2t cinnamon, few shakes of nutmeg, allspice, ginger, 1/4c oats, 2T walnuts, 1/2t vanilla, 1/2 naner ---> BLEND -------> Liquid Carrot Cake

I wanted to change things up from my normal GREEN Monster and after seeing Gena’s recipe for a Carrot Cake Smoothie, I thought I would try to whip up something similar. I just loved the thought of an ORANGE Monster in the morning and I wanted to see how carrot cakey I could get it.

How did it turn out? Well, at first taste it was somewhat bland and too carrot-ey. I didn’t juice my carrots like gena and I could taste the pulpy carrots which was not too pleasant. I decided to add the 1/2 banana, more spices, and a little more almond milk. I turned the VM on full blast to really smooth out the texture. I looooooove the VM for making things so smooth + creamy. I would be willing to try this again but it definitely wasn’t my fav. I would give it a 6/10. Still more than slurpable though and extremely filling! I finished about 3/4 of it.

This is your brain. This is your brain on Amazing Meal. Questions? [please tell me you remember the commercial I’m referring to here!]

buBBLe….BuBble :)

More orange food! The soup changed from a deep orange yellow to way more orange looking today and the flavor was even better. This soup is definitely a good 8/10 in my book. It is loaded with flavor and extremely healthy which earns it an extra point! Herbed goat cheese is in the spoon. I swirled it in…YUM

Lunch with a side of Bubbly Juice! I’m all about the bubbles lately it seems…

Leftover sweet tater chunks with a dollop of Oikos plain [so versatile!] with a little bowl of sourdough bread cubes for dipping in the soup. I would have loved to eat saltines with this but I don’t have the best relationship with those light + crispy little crackers…Meaning: I will mostly likely eat at least 1/2 sleeve in one sitting. I try to keep them away!

I made two different batches of ota.bars for the Bake Sale For Haiti winning bidders. The front is apple, cranberry, almond and behind is “cinna-fuse” which is apples, apricots, almonds, walnuts, + cinnamon. Besides all of those ingredients they are packed with organic rolled oats, wheat germ, brown rice syrup, sucanat, unrefined coconut oil, pepitas and more!

Can you tell I’m missing my granola bar business? :( I also delivered some to 2 of my biggest ota fans! Natalie + Laura :)

My plan was to hit the gym and then instead of coming home and ~~stuffing my face with food~~ eating a light snack, I would make a cup of tea. I was going to try Tea Spots Red Rooibos Almond Vanilla. This smells incredible!

I walked to the gym [still excited about that] and hopped on the bike for 30 minutes. I would have liked to stay on for 45 but there is a time limit because there aren’t a lot of cardio machines…gah! Time flew as I read my new Real Simple magazine. Did any of your cash in on the deal Amazon was running around Christmas??? There were 10 magazines you could subscribe to for FIVE DOLLARS! I jumped on the chance and ordered RS. One issue normally costs $5. Woop!

Came home, whittled my middle, and did some curls. I know, why didn’t I do that stuff at the gym? It was getting dark out and I wanted to get home. Also there isn’t much floor space to whittle! After whittling I made my tea. The pre-brew smell rocked, but after steeping it smelled kind of gross…almost plastic-like. Ick. However, I liked the taste. Every time I went to sip it though I smelled that weirdness. I have a few cups worth of the loose tea and will definitely finish it but probably won’t buy again. The flavor was good though, strong enough and not bitter. I didn’t add sweetener or cream!

on.to.dinner.geeeeeez. What time is it? Yeaaaah…dinner wasn’t ready til about 8:15…woops!

I got the idea to try to make BBQ tempeh and just went with it. I picked up a few red taters to turn into fries [chris’s fav] and some BBQ sauce. I got Annies Organic Original because it was $3.29. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that good but didn’t want to spend $5-8 for a better jar. It was a bit too sweet for me and had a distinct celery taste. Celery seed was about halfway down on the ingredient list….I like celery but the taste in this was someone strange.

I added some adobo chipotle sauce, chili powder, and cajun spice mix along with a few splashes of hot sauce. It helped a bit.

Fries: 400* –> 3 red taters –> 2T olive oil –> garlic powder/salt/pepper/rosemary/oregano/parsley/basil –> bake ~40min –> awesomely delicious

I sauteed 1 small onion and then added the marinated tempeh until it was heated through. I made Chris a samich but put mine over 1 slice of french bread from WF. It was realllllly good! I found a brand of tempeh that I love [West Soy]. To me, it tastes like rice [I get the 5 grain]. Chris liked it a lot too and we had a salad on the side.