Juicing: Day 6

Today we are switching over to juice as two meals a day. I didn't have enough time to prepare everything so I might be eating carrots and celery with honey mustard dip for lunch...

Today's juice:

1/3 bunch kale
3 carrots
4 apples

I made two servings for Stu, and I made myself a fruit smoothie:

1 banana
1 c. strawberries
1 c. ice
1/2 c. yogurt
1/4 c. oats

I then discovered that I could use the pulp that came out of the juice to make smoothies - just mix in some water/ice! So, now we can use all of it instead of pouring the pulp down the drain, which has made me sad every time I had to do it! So tomorrow I will be going to two "smoothies"/day while Stu drinks the juice. Perfecto!

We also made a really healthy dinner last night:

Omelettes!

I cut up a bell pepper so that I had a 1/2 inch "cookie cutter" slice...then I poured my egg into it and cooked it sunny side up. I added chopped mushrooms, green onions and bell pepper, plus a sprinkling of cheddar cheese, pepper, and onion salt. Stu had a regular cheese and ham omelette, so it wasn't as healthy but it's healthier than what we usually eat for dinner.

Then...I pulled a Slytherin and made Vegan Brownies. I did NOT tell Stu what was in them and he ate two. ...am I a bad person? Stu, if you're reading this, I just wanted to try the recipe, I didn't expect you to eat (or like) some. I'm glad you liked it, and I'm sorry I kept you in the dark. Don't be mad. Please?

Here's the brownie recipe:

1 15oz. can of black beans
1/4 c. honey
2 bananas
1/4 c. instant oats
1 pkg. hot chocolate mix (I added this in for sweetness)
1 tsp. vanilla (next time I'll up it to 1 1/2)
1 tbsp. cinnamon (next time I'll make it a 1/2...I don't much care for cinnamon)
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT oats in processor and blend until smooth. Once smooth, add in oats and put in greased 8 X 8 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes (the recipe said 30 but mine only took 22) at 350. You'll know it's done once you stick something in the middle and it comes out clean.

They are really fudgy brownies (my personal favorite) but they do NOT taste like out-of-the-box brownies...they taste rich and cinnamony (hence the more vanilla next time). However, they were really good and we ate them with just the tiniest bit of powdered sugar, and a 1/2 c. of strawberries each.

That dinner filled me up, which was surprising, but nice. That's three recipes I found on Pinterest that, with a few tweaks, turned out pretty good. Yay!

I can tell I've lost weight in my face, but I need to exercise to tone while I lose...still looking through things to see what will work best. I'm thinking a mix of walking and Tae-Bo. What I'd really love is to swim 3x a week and walk a few miles 2x a week. I'm definitely going hiking this weekend so that will be 1x.

Also, I am going to bed around 11 now and sleeping mostly through the night (only waking up once the past two nights) and then getting up at 6:45. O.o (It helps that it's light out!) Crazy.

I'm behind on my NaNoWriMo since yesterday was nuts but I'm hoping to catch up today. We moved some furniture around last night so I need to finish that up as well but the house is a mess and stressing me out.

Can anyone balance health/cleanliness/work/play???????????????