Cold Brew Coffee

I really like glass jars and bottles. Like, REALLY like them.  When I have food or condiments or beverages that come in glass, I have a hard time throwing them out so I try to find other purposes for them.  My real weaknesses are mason jars and pretty bottles.  See example below:

Recently I discovered a way to use my beloved jars to make cold brew coffee.Screw the coffee filter on the top of a quart sized jar with the lid ring.  Pour your water through the filter.

Carefully unscrew the ring and add the lid, if you want.  This step probably isn't necessary, but I'm afraid a fly will land in my grounds, get stuck and die and that would be gross. (I may be a little paranoid on this on...)

Let this steep overnight in the fridge!

Cold brew coffee in the morning!  No fishing a tied up bag of grounds out from the bottom.  My quart sized jar makes enough coffee to last me 2 days.  I pour half into another jar with ice in it and add whatever flavors I want at the time.  Creamer, vanilla vodka, chocolate silk, Kahlua, whatever strikes my fancy that morning.  I have a lid I've punched a whole big enough for a straw that works perfectly for my cold brew to go.  While I LOVE the local coffee place and the wonderful folks who run the show, I can't afford to visit them every morning.  This is a wonderful alternative! 

How do you make coffee at home? 

Living with Less

I've spent a lot of time in recent months thinking about all the STUFF in my life.  There are areas in my house that would make one think that I'm a hoarder.  All this stuff in my home is probably a visual reflection of the clutter in my own mind, so I'm ready to do something drastic.

Exhibit A

This week I found Project 333.  The gist:  33 wardrobe items to work with for 3 months.  Sleep clothes, workout clothes (as long as you only wear them to work out), underwear, and sentimental jewelry (like your wedding ring) don't count.  Everything else does. My strategy:  start with the pants, clean out the items that don't actually fit, pick very few shoes.

I'm about 15 lbs heavier than my usual weight so there are several items that don't really fit right now.  This will be a good excuse for me to box those items up while I get my weight under control.  I'm recently re-committed to getting into shape because my family is doing a Biggest Loser style competition with a cash prize at the end.  I'll need the cash to restock my 33 items when NOTHING fits!  I've been working out 5 mornings per week, eating breakfast, and packing sensible lunches for the last couple weeks.  I've lost 6 lbs, but that is just a tip of the iceberg.  By the time I switch into my second 3 months worth of clothes, I should to be able to donate the first 3 months worth because they should be to big, right?

I'll post pics of the items that make the final cut.  Wish me luck!

Vegan Pancakes from Mars

I have been dying to try a recipe I found on Pinterest for vegan pancakes.  They are made with no sugar, eggs, or milk.  This sounds like an adventure to me!  I didn't get pics of the process because I was to excited to eat them.  Here is how it went:

I had used all the dark chocolate chips in the trail mix I made last week so I subbed some frozen blueberries.  Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.  The mixture turned out pretty thick and didn't pour.  I scooped the mixture into my skillet, but put them to close and they turned into a big blob of pancake.  To save it, I scooped it all into a baking dish and just baked at  350 for about 15 minutes and had one big pancake pie.  The house smelled really good, like baking bread or something.  Ok, so I don't really know what my house would smell like if I were baking bread as I can't remember ever doing such...  Anywho, this is what the finished product looked like. 

Not pretty, but tasted good.  A little maple syrup over the top and voila! Dinner.  I like to have breakfast for dinner, don't you?

I got up a midnight last night because I couldn't sleep.  I realized I didn't have anything for lunch today.  I found another recipe on Pinterest for curried quinoa and had all the ingredients to make it.  I got a big bag of Vidalia onions over the weekend so I diced and cooked one first, then added my quinoa and water.  Boil, reduce, simmer, add seasonings and cover for about 15 minutes.  I added a can of chickpeas because I love them, but the dish wasn't very colorful, so I added a can of kidney beans, too.  It tasted pretty darn good for lunch today.  If I had had any greens I would have cooked them and added them, but I haven't been to the grocery or farmer's market in weeks so I was just working with what I had. 

Come to think of it, I ate like a vegan all day!  Banana for breakfast, curried quinoa for lunch, and veeg pancakes for dinner!  That's pretty good.  I'm not a vegan, or a vegetarian for that matter, but I try and I hope to be a vegetarian someday.  I like cheese, though, and yogurt and honey and lots of other non-vegan things, so I will probably never be vegan.  I just want to try to make an impact in my carbon footprint.  I drive a sports car and don't get 40mpg so I try to make up for it in the food I eat.

Energy Bar Fail

I attempted to make energy bars at home rather than buying them this grocery trip.  Save money, hand pick my ingredients, what could go wrong?



Bag o' energy crumble

I really should have done more research.  No Meat Athlete has a formula.  I've used their smoothie formula and liked it, I should have done the same for the energy bars.  They mostly just turned to crumble.  It won't go to waste, I'll blend it up in smoothies or pour milk over it for cereal or bake it to make crunchy granola or something.  The parts that did stick, didn't stick for long.  I'm eating them anyway because they taste good.

They are full of good stuff.  Oats, natural peanut butter, chia seeds, sesame seeds, dried cherries and dried cranberries.  I will put less chia seeds in next time, I love them, but they get stuck in my teeth and swell up and that is not a pleasant feeling.

What are some of your recipe fails?

Smacked in the Face

Today it hit me.  Like a ton o' bricks.  I was online looking up diet pills and their reviews.  Diet pills, really?!?  I preach to anyone who will listen (and more often than not, people who don't want to hear it) about putting whole, natural foods into our bodies.  I talk about the benefits of eating a mostly vegetarian diet and avoiding dairy as much as possible.  I shame people into giving up soda and energy drinks, yet today I'm looking at diet pills?!?  That probably ranks pretty high on the things you should NOT put into your body, yet I'm reading reviews to see which one I might purchase.  I felt like the worst hypocrite ever!

January 2012 I was about 17 lbs lighter than I am today because I worked for it then.  I was taking gym classes a few days a week, eating well, not sitting on the couch like a bum watching TV drinking wine.  You could see ab muscles and I didn't have to lay on my bed to button my khaki pants on Thursdays!  This week I think I've finally found a workout I enjoy enough to do at home, now I have to get back to eating well.  I'm going to prepare more meals at home and start making shakes for breakfast again.  I know those things work for me, I just stopped doing them.  Hubs says he'll help keep me accountable as we both have goals we'd like to see before summer.  I'll post my progress along the way and pictures of what I'm eating so you can keep me accountable, too.  I fully expect you, my hundreds of followers, to call me out when you don't see me posting progress.  I can do this.

How do you stay motivated?

Green Smoothie

I realize just about everyone has a version of a green smoothie.  I LOVE smoothies.  They are a great way to cram in a bunch of fruits and veggies you may not have eaten otherwise.  I don't usually have an exact recipe for my smoothies, just whatever fresh/frozen fruit I have on hand, maybe some greens if I have them, and a base of either water or Silk.  This time I paid attention to my ingredients because I wanted to be able to duplicate this one:

 

Please excuse my food photog, I'm still kinda new at this

 

 

1 cup fresh, local apple cider

1 gala apple, sliced and cored

1/2 fresh banana

handful of fresh spinach

about 1/4 tsp fresh grated ginger

1/2 tsp chia seeds

 

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 

 

Tada!  Super healthy, super yummy breakfast on the go, because that is all I have time for in the morning.  When it comes to sleep or breakfast, sleep wins every time.