Sunday Funday

Sundays are the perfect day to kick back, leisurely drink a second cup of coffee and walk around farmers markets. That’s exactly what this blogger did today. I forgot to bring my camera to the Montavilla Farmers Market this morning.

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I met up with my cousin and his girlfriend (my friend & running buddy) and we walked around to all of the different booths. I sampled everything from gluten-free granola to keilbasa to peaches. My stomach really prefers when I practice proper food-combining, but who can pass up free food samples?

After walking around the market, we tried a new-to-me pizza place,  Flying-Pie, for lunch.

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Tonya and I split a vegetarian gluten-free pizza and Nick got a slice of pepperoni/sausage/olive/pineapple pizza. We all agreed that was it was good, but not the best pizza we’ve ever had.

I spent the rest of the day grocery shopping (and forgetting basil so I had to go back to the store,) cleaning up the house and making dinner. I made a nice little Greek feast for us (Nick and Tonya) this evening.

It included:

Roasted Tomato Basil Hummus with Pita Bread

Recipe from Happy Healthy Life Blog here.

Greek Salad: cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, Kalamata olives, marinated mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, basil, mint and Balsamic vinegar.

Lamb/Beef Kebabs

Recipe that I based them off of here.

So there you have my exciting eats of the day. I also indulged in my sister’s rice crispy treats before and after dinner. I asked for her recipe and she look at me like I was crazy. I never make rice crispy treats and apparently, they taste best when you don’t follow a recipe, but merely melt the butter and mini-marshmallows, stir in your cereal and spread them into a cake pan. The secret is to not smash them down, but to “let them breath.” However she made them, they tasted good!

Have a great, relaxing night. Take care! I’m going to wake up and take Layla on a 30 minute run first thing tomorrow morning.

Good night!

Kilee

Inspiration Board 2.0

Hi! How is your weekend going? Mine has been good. Pretty low-key around here. I took Layla for her morning walk around the neighborhood, had my coffee and breakfast and then devoted a good three hours to this:

My new inspiration board. A few months ago, I posted about my inspiration board and how to make one. For the past two weeks, I’ve had this little voice in the back of my head nagging me to make a new one. My life feels like it’s at a cross-roads right now and I need a little direction. So what did I do? I spent some extra time writing in my journal. I have never been a religious journal writer. Mine is usually just filled with to-do lists and goals that I want to work on. Whenever I start to feel like I need to re-evaulate where my life’s going, I spend a little more time reflecting in my journal. Recent entries may or may not have included my thoughts on:

• Things that make me happy
• Where I see myself in 1, 3, and 5 years. 10 years always seems so far away!
• New ideas for Whole Nutrition
• Feelings that I have been carrying around with me for awhile that I want to work through
• My core values. What makes me me?

Get the picture? After spending that time reflecting, I knew that I needed a new vision board. I bought a foam board and some art supplies at Target. (Back to school prices are the best! $1 for Crayola markers right now.) I went through a giant stack of magazines; cutting out images that inspired me. (Mom – thank you for always sending me your old ones!)  And used rubber cement to glue it all together. Instead of writing down individual goals to paste onto it, I tried to categorize different areas of my life: relationships, career, happiness, health & spirituality. It’s funny because once you paste all the images up in the different categories, you see that they all correlate with one another.

Feeling very accomplished after completing my board, I set off to tackle my 6-mile run in the sunshine. I chugged a coconut water before hand and grabbed my iPod. Usually I wait until after a long run to drink my coconut water, but I was feeling low-blood-sugar-like beforehand and didn’t want to wait another hour or so for a snack to digest. What do you do? Drink your electrolyte drink before, after or during a long workout?

My post-workout smoothie was gag-worthy. I must have been somewhat delirious after my run because I thought that powdered greens, cod liver oil, maca and mesquite powders, coconut milk, whey protein powder, cherries, almond butter and ice would be a palatable smoothie. I was wrong. I drank it anyway because I can’t stand to waste my expensive, health foods.

Dinner tonight was one of my “clean out the fridge” stir-fries. I  chopped up some onion, mushrooms, carrots, sugar snap peas, spinach, edamame and Southwest Sunshine Burger and cooked it over medium-high heat in a skillet. When it was done, I squeezed some fresh lemon on top with a splash of Braggs aminos. Delish!

I’m going to go read some books that I downloaded on my Kindle. Have a great night!

Readers: Have you made your inspiration board yet? If you have, do you look at it daily?

How to Get Yourself Out of a Bummer Mood

Hello! How’s your day going today? I am feeling good thanks to another fabulous Tone It Up workout that I did this evening. It’s funny how I can feel so lazy and “blah” and then once I do my workout, I’ll feel totally refreshed and energized. One of my favorite benefits of exercise is how good I feel after I do it.

I know I’ve been away from the blog for the past few days. Sorry! I have been battling a cold/allergies and I have to practice what I preach, “relax and sleep when you’re not feeling well.” It’s so much easier to tell others to do things than to do them ourselves, right? Well, I’m back and I’ve had some time to think about today’s post. I wanted to share with you some tips that I’ve developed from personal experience.

How to Get Yourself Out of a Bummer Mood

If you are anything like me, there are some days when you feel upset about everything. You got into work late, you had to deal with a cranky person on the phone, you’re unhappy with your job, you can’t find a boyfriend/girlfriend or you’re upset with your partner, you don’t have enough money to buy a new iPad. Have you had any days like this? I admit that some days it seems like my problems outweigh my blessings. Deep down, I know this isn’t true, but it’s how I feel at that moment in time. Usually I can make myself snap out of this mindset by reminding myself how fortunate I am to be loved by my family and friends and how lucky I am to have a roof over my head, nutritious food in my fridge and a healthy body. However, there are still some days when I need to take a little more action to get myself out of my “bummer mood.”

Here are my favorite tips for shifting your mindset when you’re not feeling your best:

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1. Write it down. When it feels like everything is going wrong in my life, I take out a piece of paper and make a list of everything that is bothering me. Once I have my list written down I come up with a possible solution for each situation.

Just like that, I already feel better knowing that I have an action step to take and it’s as simple as picking up the phone and calling someone for assistance. Sometimes your issue can be larger than a computer repair.

Attracting new friends can seem like a daunting task until you step outside of your comfort zone and put yourself in a new setting. Sign up for a running club, take a class at your local community college, or volunteer with an organization. These are all great settings to meet new people with similar interests.

2. Call a friend and make plans. Last Sunday I was at home and felt really lonely. What I wanted was a big batch of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. However, I knew that a sweet treat wasn’t going to cure my loneliness at the time. Instead, I texted some of my close friends to see if they wanted to come over for dinner that night. They said that they could use a study break and would love to come over. Instantly I felt better because I now had to plan a menu, prepare a meal and enjoy dinner with some of my friends. Next time you’re feeling blue, invite someone to do something. If they can’t, find someone who can. I will literally call all the contacts on my phone until I can make plans with someone.

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3. Do a 5-min meditation. Lately, when I get home from work, I feel exhausted and worn out. All I want to do is plop down on the couch and turn on the T.V. A great alternative that I’ve put to use is to go in my room, shut my door and do a 5-10 minute guided meditation. I simply type “guided meditation” into youtube.com. I lay down, close my eyes and follow along to the meditation. When I’m done with my meditation, I feel relaxed and ready to ease into my evening. A 5-minute meditation can turn a “blah” mood into a good mood.

4. Eat a protein/carbohydrate combo. I do not always advocate turning to food to improve your mood. However, if you haven’t eaten in the past four hours and feel a little “low,” try pairing a lean protein with a high-fiber carbohydrate. Some snack combo examples include: 3 slices of organic turkey breast with a handful of baby carrots, 2 Tablespoons of almond butter with an organic apple, a scoop of protein powder blended with 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1 cup almond milk and 2 ice cubes. I promise that you will be feeling energized within 20 minutes. If a snack-size amount of food won’t cut it, go ahead and make a balanced meal with some lean protein, healthy carbohydrate and a little fat. Just remember to keep it light and don’t use this as an excuse to sneak some chips or candy. These will leave you feeling worse than before you ate them.

You already know how much I love my ToneItUp workouts :)

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5. Commit to your favorite workout. Nothing makes me feel as good as a sweaty workout. Well, almost nothing ;) Sometimes when I score a really great deal on a new outfit, I feel pretty darn good! The reason why exercise can boost our mood is because our bodies release a type of “feel-good” endorphin during exercise.

Don’t feel like working out? My top three tips for motivating myself to do a workout include: telling myself that I only have to do it for 10 minutes. If I still don’t feel like working out after 10 minutes, I can stop. Most of the time, I already feel good after 10 minutes, so I continue on with my workout.

Another thing I do is ask myself why type of workout I absolutely do not feel like doing. Then I give myself permission not to do it and instead think of one that I do feel like doing. For example, if a 3-mile run sounds awful, but a weight training circuit sounds better, skip the run and do the weight workout.

My third way of motivating myself to do a workout is to watch a few workout videos on youtube. Once I see someone else working out and looking like they’re enjoying their workout, it usually motivates me to join in and bust out a workout.

There you go! These are my time-tested tips for getting yourself out of a bummer mood. I want to clarify that I am not trying to offer these to support people with depression (you should seek medical support if you think you suffer from depression) and am solely trying to offer suggestions for those who have the occasional “bad mood.”

Readers: What are your favorite ways to improve your mood when you’re feeling down?

I snapped this photo last Friday after running along with Portland waterfront with my friend, McKenzie.

Gluten-Free Vegan Cheesey Kale Salad

Hi everyone! I’m happy to report that after a day home from work and spent in bed with Layla, I’m back to feeling good. Sometimes I think that exercise can pull you out of feeling sick. (Not always. Listen to your body. My body said “no exercise” the past two days, so I didn’t, but today was another story.) This morning Layla and I went on our morning walk and then after work I took her on a 25-minute run and then I did a 20-minute yoga podcast off of iTunes. She did not participate in the yoga session because she’d rather fling her bones around and run up and down the stairs.

I finished my yoga with a chakra-meditation and I have to say that I am feeling quite energized. I’ve read a bit about balancing one’s chakras, but have never fully practiced it until now. Don’t worry; I’m not going to get too “woo-woo” as Blake would say. I’m just working on my meditation and spiritulaity practices.

Onto my recipe of the day. I created this salad because I love kale salads and wanted to make one with a cheesey flavor. Nutritional yeast is great for vegans or people like me who mostly avoid dairy products. Make sure that you actually massage the kale or it won’t taste as good!

Gluten-Free Vegan Cheesey Kale Salad

Serves 2-4

1 bunch kale (I don’t know the exact variety I used, but it was green and firm)

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half

Dressing:

1/4 cup Veganaise (or organic mayo if you choose)

3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

Juice of 1/2 a lime

1 Tablespoon filtered water

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (I always use Braggs brand)

1/4 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Chipolte blend

1/4 teaspoon coarse red sea salt

1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika

Wash and dry the kale leaves. Remove the tough stems from the kale. Slice the kale leaves into 1/4″ slices. Place them in a salad bowl.

To make the salad dressing: place all of your ingredients in your Magic Bullet, blender or food processor. Blend until well combined. Pour the salad dressing over the kale. Now, it’s time to roll up your sleves and get a little messy. Begin to massage the kale until it starts to lose some of it’s firmness (about a minute or two.) Add the shredded carrots and sliced tomatoes and toss. Refridgerate until ready to serve. This salad makes about two meal-sized salads or four side salads.

I have copied many of New Season’s Market’s salad recipes. Let’s see if I can get them to copy this one of mine ;)  And, I will end this post by showing that even healthy chefs like myself, will sometimes randomly throw items together and call it dinner. Tonight I enjoyed my cheesey kale salad with a brown rice tortilla filled with sliced turkey, Trader Joe’s masala lentil dip and whole seed mustard. Random, but tasty. Tip: I always heat my brown rice tortillas in a skillet before eating them because it gives them a softer texture than straight out of the bag.

Let me know if you try the salad out. I promise that it’s a keeper. Have a great day today!

Take care,

Kilee

Gluten-Free Vegan Mocha Ice Cream

Hey hey! How are you doing? I’m feeling just a little under the weather tonight, so I’m going to lay low the rest of the evening. Before heading to bed to read, I decided that I needed a sweet treat that was cold and did not involve driving to the nearest fro-yo shop. (We have 3 within a 1-mile radius.) My mind wandered back to last summer, when I made banana soft-serve just about every night. My banana soft serve is loosely based off of Averie’s. She always comes up with such good flavor combos!

Gluten-Free Vegan Mocha Ice Cream

Serves 1-2

1 cup cut-up frozen bananas

1/3 cup vanilla coconut milk (The kind sold in the refrigerated section nowadays. You might need more or less depending on the consistency that you desire)

2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder

1/2 of a Starbucks Via Decaf Italian Roast packet

Stevia to taste or your favorite sweetener

Put all of your ingredients into a high-powered blender. Slowly turn it to high speed for roughly 30 seconds. You may need to stop the blender and use a spoon to stir the bananas or use your tamper while blending. After the “ice cream” has fully blended, transfer it into a serving dish or two and place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes until it is the consistency that you prefer. You can pretend that you are at your favorite fro-yo shop and top it with fun toppings. I topped mine with some sweetened raw cacao nibs. Delish!

So, I’m going to call it a night. My friend lent me Mona Lisa Schultz’s, “The New Feminine Brain” and I can’t wait to start reading it.

Readers: Have you tried banana soft-serve before? What’s your favorite flavor?

Connecting with Friends & Family

Hi! I hope that you are feeling well and staying active so far this week. I’ve found that the move active I am, the better I feel. Is this the same for you? My Monday has been pretty standard. Some of the highlights include:

A 30-minute walk with Layla this morning.

Bringing the vegan, gluten-free chocolate cake that I baked last night into work for our boss’ birthday.

Mailing off the Purebars and some gluten-free “Super-Charge-Me” cookies to giveaway winner, Faith.

Doing a little ToneItUp workout after work.

Salad bar, rosemary steak & Kombucha from New Seasons for dinner.

Now I’m curled up on the couch with Layla and my mug of cinnamon tea, watching The Bachelorette. Who else loves Ben?!

Yes, Layla has a no-bark collar because she has a few issues to work out

Tonight's Tea Bag Quote: "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galileo Gaililei

Recently I’ve been taking some time to think about what makes me feel good about myself. I’ve always been somewhat in tune with how sleep, diet, exercise and relationships affect my mood. Something that I hadn’t thought about is how my communication with my friends and loved ones can make me feel about myself.

In today’s modern world it’s so easy to loose direct contact with the ones we care about. 100 years ago, you had to either pay a visit to your friends and family or write them a letter. Today’s means of contact are much less personable. Texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc. take the meaningful and personal connections out of our communications. For example: texts make it much harder to understand where someone is coming from because they lack voice inflections, Facebook makes it way too easy to feel like an outsider peering into someones life & I’m still confused about how to be personable on Twitter (although I do have an account.)

What I’m trying to get at here is that it’s easy to feel disconnected from our friends and family nowadays. Technology and social media have made it so convenient to “stay in touch” but they’ve also made it more difficult to have meaningful, human interactions with others.

I’ve noticed that I feel amazing when I spend actual time with my friends and family members. I also like to set aside some time to call people when I’m not driving or multi-tasking so that I can give them my full attention. I enjoy hand writing thank-you cards to let people know that I truly appreciate their gifts and kindness. None of these gestures involve social media.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve noticed that I feel uneasy when I can’t decipher what someone means by a text. I feel isolated when I’m by myself looking at people’s party photos on Facebook. I feel unexciting when I scroll through 10 blogs back to back with eventful posts. I think that we as humas crave meaningful interactions with others.

Does anyone else feel this way? It’s something that I’ve just recently noticed as a theme in my life. Therefore, I plan to:

1. Spend as much of my free time with my friends and family as possible

2. Call my friends and family who I can’t meet up with when I have a free afternoon

3. Stop scrolling through Facebook & Google Reader on a daily basis. I’ll try it every other day for now!

Readers: How do you feel about your connections with others? Do you ever notice that you feel better or worse with different types of communication?

Saturday at the Coast

Hi! How is your weekend going? Mine has been a whirlwind thus far. I got off of work on Friday, did this ToneItUp workout.

Post-workout berry smoothie

I then got ready & packed in 30 minutes! Here were some of my “eats” that I packed Friday afternoon:

ThinkThin protien bar, Zico coconut water, powdered greens & stevia packet

My mom, sister and I helped Laura and her family assemble her wedding invitations. Later that night I drove back to the coast with my mom. Yesterday I had a perfect Saturday at home: coffee talk with my mom (in bed,) shopping at the Seaside outlet mall (new shampoo and workout shoes,) and a 7 mile run on the beach. It was the typical rainy coastal weather and my beach run looked like this:

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Then I got to go out for dinner with my parents. Our waiter was one of my friends from highschool whom I had not seen in about seven years. It was really good to see her and we had a wonderful dinner.

My dinner consisted of: a glass of Pinot, side salad with balsamic vinegarette, hazlenut crusted salmon drizzled with brown sugar butter sauce and vegetables. It ate and loved every last bite. :)

My dad and I then drove back up to Portland and called it a night. Today is another rainy day. I’m going to be prepping for the week and getting caught up on laundry.

This morning I spent some time working on my personal development. Every 3-4 months I like to devote some extra time to focus on “checking-in” with myself and evaluating my goals. I learned about Christine Hassler, “Quarter-Life Crisis Coach” though my favorite blog: TheDailyLove.com. (*If you haven’t already done so, go sign up for their daily newsletter & then meet me back here*) I subscribed to her Transform 20 Something Coaching Kit:

I also listened to The Feminine Power Teleseminar Replay here. It was lead by Katherine Woodward Thomas & Claire Zammit. Here’s a description of the 75-minute teleseminar:

Don’t these tools sounds amazing? I highly recommend both of them. I’m off to work on my “Quarter-Life Crisis” & “Unleashing My Feminine Power.” Have a great Sunday!

Weekend Shower Fun

Today I wanted to feature my friend Laura’s bridal shower. Remember a few weeks ago when I was making mini quiches? Her shower was recently feature on the blog, Hostess with the Mostess. The amazing fête was planned by Lindsey, Laura’s twin sister and our friend, Jessica of Modern Moments Design designed the invitations and printed decorations. It was amazing to say the least. Lindsey and Laura need to start their own business because they are the most talented decorators/hostesses/interior designers I know! These photos speak for themselves.

Lindsey, the bride, Laura and I

Are you speechless of how beautiful it was? You can see more of the professional photos here. I’m thankful that I got to spend time with my friends and celebrate Laura’s upcoming wedding. I didn’t get to try my quiches (the crust had flour,) but some of the shower guests assured me that they tasted good. I advise anyone preparing mini quiches the day before an event to place a paper towel in the the container that they’re storing them in. This will help keep the quiches from absorbing moisture becoming soggy.

I did help myself to quite a few of the coconut french macarons. Such a delish gluten-free treat! What’s your favorite party treat to enjoy?

Trader Joe’s Loot

Hi! I hope that you are thoroughly enjoying your week this week. I have to admit that I’ve been feeling pretty sleepy after last weekend. This afternoon at work I started to think about things that I really enjoy doing and make me feel like “me.” Cooking dinner came to mind. I’m not sure about your summer cooking regime, but mine includes throwing a salad together or heating up random ingredients in a skillet. Tonight was going to be different. I decided to find a recipe that looked tasty, go grocery shopping for the ingredients, put my comfy clothes on, pour a glass of red wine and cook a real meal.

Luckily, Megan at Healthy Hoggin posted a delicious sounding broccoli soup recipe here. I headed to Trader Joe’s with my shopping list in hand and loaded up the basket. I tend to always grab the little hand basket and about half-way through my shopping trip wish that I had taken a shopping cart instead! Here were all of my ingredients and impulse purchases:

Zico Chololate Coconut Water (my friend, Gina, raved about this and I have yet to try it,) Charles Shaw Cabernet Savonion, Organic Broccoli Slaw, Organic Broccoli Florets, Crunchy Curls Lentil & Potato Chips, Graprefruit, Lemon, Lime, Bananas, Orgainic Eggs, Cafe-free Egg Whites, Mix of Chopped Onion, Carrots & Celery, Hummus Dressing, Mandala Lentil Dip, Organic Blueberries, Organic Grape Tomatoes, Oragnic Greek Yogurt, Raw Goat’s Milk Cheddar, Nitrate-free Turkey Breast, Brown Rice Wraps (refridgerate these – mine started to mold when left out on the counter,) Greek Salad & most importantly, Layla’s bones.

Isn’t it fun to see what other people buy at the grocery store? My sister rolled her eyes as I took the photo of my Trader Joe’s loot. Okay, back to dinner. I followed Megan’s recipe as closely as I can follow a recipe (I like the bend the rules, alot) and it still turned out delicious.

My mug of soup was topped with a little freshly group white pepper, a pinch of Hawaiian Red Sea Salt and a drizzle of Organic Garlic Olive Oil. I added a side salad with my new hummus dressing. I urge you to try this healthy, brocolli soup recipe when you have about an hour’s time to cook dinnner.

Let’s take a little T.V. break. I DVR most of the shows that I watch, so I’m probably not caught up with you. But, here are the shows I’m loving this summer: The Voice (I’m not done, so don’t spoil who wins,) The Bachelorette (Ben’s my favorite) & The Kardashians (classic.) What are you favorite shows this summer?

Edited to show Layla’s contribution to dinner clean-up:

Celebrations All Around

Hey! How is your week going so far? Mine has been a little sleepy after Laura’s Bachelorette weekend in Black Butte. I had so much fun hanging out with the girls and soaking up the sun. The weekend ended up being full of physical activities (which I loved!) Friday morning, my friend Rachael and I went for what was supposed to be an hour-long run. Neither one of us has spent much time in Black Butte and we ended up getting lost and walked around for two hours after our run. Luckily our friends found us and drove us home.

Saturday morning, my friend Marci (who’s a personal trainer) led me in a hard-core full body weight workout. It kicked my butt and I had so much fun working out with her. She is in amazing shape and gave me some great tips. Later that night, I got my second workout of the day in the form of a scavenger hunt. This was one of the highlights of the weekend. We were split into four teams and the clues for the scavenger hunt were answers to questions about Laura and her fiancé. We sprinted around the pool area while breaking a sweat.

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After only getting four hours of sleep Saturday night, we all needed a little R&R on Sunday. Luckily the sun was out all three days and we got to lay out by the pool each day that we were there. It was such a fun weekend!

The celebrations didn’t end this weekend – my friend and co-worker, Kristyl’s birthday was Monday. Earlier this year she found a cake recipe that she wanted me to bake for our office birthday lunch. Everyone at work loved it! (I didn’t try it because it was not gluten-free.) The recipe can be found here at the Health Magazine website.

While baking the cake, my kitchen went from this:

to this:

My tips for keeping a clean kitchen while doing a lot of cooking and baking are to:

• Clean up as you cook.
• Try to reuse the same bowl or utensil by rinsing it off instead of taking out a new one.
• Immediately put used dishes and utensils into soapy water in the sink.
• Wash dishes while your food is baking in the oven or cooking on the stove.
• Wait to wipe down the counters until everything is washed and put away.
• Lastly, sweep the floors once everything else is cleaned up and you are done in the kitchen.

I’m off to get ready for work and go for a 5-mile run tonight with my friend, Tonya. Have a great day!!!

Purebar Giveaway Winner

Hello! I am back from being without my laptop all weekend. I had such a fun time over in Black Butte for my friend’s bachelorette weekend. Layla and I were pretty tired when the alarm woke us up this morning. She stayed with Blake’s mom for the weekend and I know that she had a blast playing with their dog and spending time with them.

That brings me to an exciting announcement: the Purebar Giveaway winner, selected through random.org is:

#3 – Faith at Lovely as Charged

Please email me (kilee@kileejohnson.com) with your address and any foods that you avoid. I’ll be sending your bars and cookies to you this week.

I’m off to drink my coffee and get ready for work. Have a great day today!!!

Healthy No-Bake Cookies

Happy “almost the weekend” day! I had a jam-packed day yesterday. Layla and I were up and on our run by 6:30 am. Then I worked all day, used a groupon to for a mani-pedi, stopped at Target for my last minute weekend trip necessities, made some dinner, packed my bags and made up a new recipe.

Sometimes I get asked how I come up with new recipes. There are three ways that I usually develop new recipes:

a. I obsessively search google images for the type of recipe that I want to make. I then choose the three recipes that look the best and morph them into my own new recipe.

b. A lot of the time I get inspired by a fellow blogger’s recipe, or one out of Bon Appetite or the Oregonian FoodDay section. Because I have a really hard time following a recipe, I usually make changes to it as I prepare the dish.

c. I get an urge to bake something sweet, look in the pantry at what I have on hand, mix something up and cross my fingers that it turns out.

They all sound so sophisticated and scientific, right? Not so much. Sometimes the recipes turn out, sometimes they go in the garbage. I have fun in the kitchen and that’s all that really counts. Which leads me to today’s kitchen experiment, No-Bake Cookies.

I needed to make some “easy to pack” cookies that did not involve the oven because it’s hot (85 degrees) in Portland today. For today’s new recipe I used all three methods mentioned above. First I googled “healthy no bake cookies” and came across Angela’s recipe. From there, I opened up my cupboard to see what I had to work with. This girl does not like driving to the store for baking ingredients, so I try to keep a well-stocked pantry. I’m pleased with how they turned out, but they aren’t perfect. Give me two more attempts and they will be. Third times a charm when it comes to my recipes.

Healthy No-Bake Cookies

Adapted from Oh She Glows

Makes 2 dozen cookies

1 cup gluten-free rolled oats

1 cup Enjoy Life Perkey’s Flax Crunch Cereal

1 cup trail mix

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Your choice: 2 Tablespoons chia seeds, 2 Tablespoons buckwheat, 2 Tablespoons raw sunflower seeds, 2 Tablespoons goji berries, etc.

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup almond butter

1 large banana, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of espresso powder

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan, over low heat, melt the chocolate chips with almond butter, stirring occasionally.

Once the chocolate has melted, add the mashed banana, vanilla and espresso powder.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Drop by tablespoons onto the cookie sheet.

Place the cookies in the freezer for an hour or two. Enjoy them straight from the freezer or let them thaw for 20 minutes first.

Let me know if you try them. I want to play around with this recipe a little more.

I’ll be MIA this weekend. I’m headed to Black Butte to celebrate my friend’s bachelorette weekend. I’m super excited to go and spend time with my girl friends. I hope that you have a great weekend and don’t forget to enter my Purebar Giveaway!!!

Purebar Giveaway

Hi everyone! How was your 4th of July weekend? I hope that you had a fun and safe 4th and used some of my tips for staying healthy over the holiday weekend. I was a party-pooper this weekend. I worked Saturday and Sunday and by the time that I got home Sunday afternoon, I knew that I would be better off staying home and relaxing than battling the traffic to rush to the coast and then rush home for work Tuesday morning. So, I took a whole 24 hours to hang out with Layla.

There were lots of walks:

Hours spent on the couch watching the Cooking Channel, E! & Bravo:

And a little time spent doing chores around the house:

I did however, show my patriotism through my snacks yesterday:

I was chuckling to myself as I made my deviled eggs the other night because I was using Veganaise to make them. Has anyone seen the Eggies infomercial? It instantly made me crave deviled eggs!

With the 3 day weekend wrapping up and having to head back to work today, I thought that this would be the perfect day for a giveaway. A lovely friend of mine, who works with Purebar, was kind enough to send me a whole box of Purebars and Promax bars. I love how natural the ingredient list is:

All of the bars are gluten-free & vegan and half of them are certified organic. The two chocolate flavors are my favorite (surprize) and are such a welcomed treat for snacktime. She also sent two samples of the stevia-sweetenend Promax bar. I wish I could say that I was a fan of these bars, but they had a funny texture and taste. Have any of you tried them? What did you think?

That brings us to the giveaway. One lucky reader will receive this box of Purebars and Promax bars and a batch of healthy cookies baked by moi. All that you have to do is leave a comment in the comment box below and tell me what your favorite type of “bar” is. I will randomly select a winner on Sunday, July 10th at 9 p.m. Pacific time. Everyone may leave one comment entry below unless you want a bonus entry. You may submit bonus entries by:

(a) posting a link to the giveaway on your Facebook wall

(b) tweeting about the giveaway on your Twitter or

(c) sending out an email about the giveaway to at least 5 of your friends.

You may add one bonus entry per method mentioned above.

For those who have Twitter, I have recently joined. You can follow me here.

Have a great day and don’t forget to enter the Purebar giveaway!!!

4th of July Menu

Happy 4th of July Weekend! I hope that you are having a fabulous weekend so far. I started off my Friday with a 6 mile run after work and then headed to my friend, McKenzie’s house for a delicious gluten-free dinner. She made gluten-free pasta with grape tomatoes, broccoli and chicken sausage and served it with a spinach salad and some yummy wine. To top it all off, she baked strawberry shortcake with Pamela’s baking mix, fresh strawberries from the farm near her house and homemade whipped cream. It was an amazing, relaxing, fun and much-needed girlie evening. Love you Kenze!

This 4th of July, I will not be cooking or baking anything, but I have a little menu planned for what I would have made if I were to be hosting a party. Here’s what my party menu would include:

Spinach and Strawberry Salad by Whole Foods

Caramelized Onion Stuffed Turkey Burger with Guacamole, Fresh Spinach & Feta by Broke & Healthy

My Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Vegetarian Maple Baked Beans by GF-zing

Summer Berry Trifle by Unconventional Kitchen

Don’t all of these recipes sound delicious? I have a nice, fun-filled weekend planned. After I finish up with work tomorrow, I’m dropping Layla off at the doggie hotel and headed home to Gearhart, OR for the 4th. I’ll be following some of my tips while celebrating this patriotic holiday. I hope that you have a happy & safe 4th of July.

Reader: What are your plans for the weekend?