Life Lately- A Little Food, A Little Progress, A Little Thought

Hello, poor, abandoned blog!  I’ve not written in a long time. Why?  For a few reasons.

1. My job has been so demanding that I haven’t had much energy for anything besides getting things done at the office and getting my exercise in.
2. My Post-European Travel Despair has yet to dissipate. Happens every time I come back. Usually lasts until I can start planning my next trip.
3. I’ve been cooking a whole lot less because of the aforementioned things.

Between my bouts of misery and stress, I have, however, still been progressing in living a healthier life and surrounding myself with healthy food.  As I said, I haven’t been whipping up meals on my own as much, but I’ve been seeking out more ready-made or quick to make, no-cook healthy foods.

Oh, and I discovered coffee.  I’m not quite sure how that happened.  For my entire life up until about two months ago, my burgeoning hatred and mistrust for anything coffee-related was a defining aspect of my being, but something changed.  “I think I want to try coffee,” I announced one night after dinner.  My best friend bestowed a few Keurig cups on me, and it was all downhill from there.  At this point, I’ve become enough of a connoisseur to assure you I do hate K-cups, and I’ve developed a preference for medium-bodied varieties brewed in a French press.  Seriously though, I still have barely a clue what I’m doing with coffee.  I just know that our loves deepens with each passing day.

 

My favoritest coffee so far.

I kind of wish I’d discovered it before taking on a healthy lifestyle.  I would have loved to be able to enjoy a pumpkin spice latte in total ignorance of the horrific nutrition facts (even the “skinny” Starbucks version has something like 260 calories for a 12 oz, plus around 4 bajillion carbs and grams of sugar).  Having forever been a pumpkin spice loving, coffee hating creature, I always felt miffed on missing out when pumpkin spice latte season rolled around.  Luckily I found a recipe for a truly “skinny” version, and edited it down into something I could enjoy without guilt!  You can, of course, use real sugar and real maple syrup in this.

Recipe (made in a French press):

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 tbsp coffee (hazelnut coffee tastes best, in my opinion)

2 Tbsp Walden Farms Pancake Syrup (or syrup of choice)

8 oz skim milk

2 tsp sweetener of choice (I like Splenda or Truvia, but whatever works)

-Brew the coffee + pumpkin pie spice with 18 oz of water.

Fill the bottom of your mug with the syrup.

Shake the milk until it's nice and frothy, then heat it in the microwave for about a minute.

Pour the hot coffee and milk into your mug and stir in some sweetener if you prefer.

Enjoy your 80 calorie latte!

Other things I’ve discovered:

Quest bars- holy omg.  These. Things. Are. Amazing!  Especially when you heat them up in the microwave (most of them).  The Quest protein chips are amazing, too (though probably not in the microwave).  I’ve been focusing on a more low-carb/low sugar diet recently, and these things really go above and beyond in that aspect.

And continuing my trend of "What Can I Just Slap Together" meals, we have:

Oatmeal and sliced bananas, with coffee of course . . . 

Toast with cream cheese and apple butter, with coffee . . . 

Mom's homemade banana bread with cream cheese, cinnamon apple butter, and...you guessed it....

Scrambled eggs on toast with Canadian bacon...

Oh, and the delicacy I like to call Bachelorette Pizza. It's toast with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, mini pepperonis, and fresh basil on top.  The basil looks fancy and the pepperonis are cute, which makes it not look as sad.

It's not actually all that sad.  It's actually pretty delicious.  

Which brings me to last night’s dinner- beet and apple salad with balsamic vinaigrette. 

My mom’s single apple tree has proven itself to be a veritable orchard unto itself, and we’ve had to get very creative with ways to use up the plethora of fruit.  I have about four quarts of applesauce tucked in my freezer at the moment, along with three varieties of apple butter, two more quarts of applesauce, a jar of cinnamon apples, and a bowl of raw apples in the fridge. Oh, and two bags of dried apples on top of the fridge.  Needless to say, about every meal these days is accompanied by some sort of apple product.

Anyway, it was simple salads for dinner because yesterday was one heck of a day.  For the sake of being a bright-eyed, positive professional, I won’t hash out details, but my work day was rough.  Don’t get me wrong- I love what I do, find it very rewarding, and feel supremely lucky to have found a position that goes along with my degree and allows me to be creative.  That’s not the problem.

The problem, at its very core, I think, is that I’m not Southern.  By all technical accounts, I am, but by all accounts of my behavior, personality, and soul, I am not.  I had a good heart-to-heart with my mom about it, and she reminded me I am still young, and I am still free to chase my dreams.  There truly is nothing holding me back, besides maybe the necessity of keeping a few fluffballs with me wherever I go.  And what has been my dream forever?  When people ask me, if I could do anything, what would I do, what do I say to them?

I have a few answers to that, but there’s a common thread throughout all of them, and it’s that none of them have anything to do with living in rural North Carolina.  They all have to do with being far, far away from it.  Europe, more specifically.  So, what IS holding me back?  I sometimes feel a bit down about being a nearly-30-year-old woman who has never come close to being in a committed relationship, having no kids, having no home of my own, no grand salary or savings, etc.  Ok . . . maybe “sometimes” is an understatement.  I feel pretty crappy, undesirable, and unaccomplished for the vast majority of my waking hours.  But maybe I’m missing the positive aspect of my lack of ties to anything permanent and lasting: I have complete freedom.  And perhaps I’m squandering it.

I can only hope...

I’m not sure what I’ll do next, or how I’ll make it happen, but I think it’s time to get what I really want out of life back in focus.  There is so much pressure- especially in the South and especially in your late 20s- to be stable and have everything figured out, but that seems to refuse to happen for me.  And maybe if I get back to chasing what I really want, it will finally come together.  

Watermelon + Heirloom Tomato Summer Salad

Beauteous, no?

Most people reading this will know I recently returned from am amazing trip to the United Kingdom, where I enjoyed some especially amazing meals.

For some reason, whenever I travel somewhere new, it's always that first meal that really knocks my socks off and sticks with me.  On this trip, that meal took place at Draper's Hall restaurant in Shrewsbury, Wales, and began with an appetizer of watermelon and heirloom tomatoes.

The original!

When I got home, I knew I wanted to reproduce it!  The flavor combination was unexpectedly complementary and so refreshing on a hot summer's day....not that we experienced any of those in Wales, but back home is another story.

It's also a delightfully easy, no-cook recipe.

What you need:

About 3 cups chopped watermelon

1 large heirloom tomato

About 2 tbsp feta cheese

A sprig of fresh rosemary

6-10 large basil leaves

A dash of salt and black pepper

Makes 4 servings

Just chop it all up, toss together, and serve!

Nutrition Facts:

Calories- 53

Fat- 1.5g

Carbs- 8.7g

Sugar- 6.5g

Protein- 2g

Pretty healthy! Plus it's just pretty to look at. Surprisingly filling, too!

And it paired very well with some prosciutto-wrapped roast asparagus (that recipe shall be shared next).

.....On to things I could not replicate, sadly:

Draper's Hall Restaurant exterior in Shrewsbury.

Boyfriend's lamb dish.

My beer + bernaise sauce dish.

Some sort of chocolate mousse something.

I did have some success with recreating this face!  Boyfriend highly approved of the salad.  No leftovers!

                                     

Vanilla Berry Protein Pancakes

 I think I've finally perfected them, so here is the final recipe!

Mmm...fresh raspberry vanilla.

A few weeks ago I decided I really needed to focus on upping my protein intake in light of how much more I was working out.  I wound up overdoing it and making myself sick, mostly because I was in a frenzy to try all the protein powder recipes I could and gorged myself on the (crazy low calorie) results, but I'll spare everyone the details there.  Since I've been experimenting for weeks though, I can guarantee any protein powder recipes I share here are absolutely delicious, and don't taste like protein powder nastiness at all.  Just beware if you decide to eat a few batches of these a day along with the apple pudding muffins I shall share soon...

I have to say though, I bet none of what I've made would taste as good with another protein powder.  I highly recommend the BodyLogix Natural Whey.  I initially bought it just because it seemed to the the best powder around so far as giving me the most protein for the least calories, and I was shocked that it was also the best tasting I had tried, by far!  The vanilla flavor is like a white chocolate milkshake, even just mixed with water.  Not to mention it is one of the less expensive powders out there, to boot.

My Nana tells me these do not look good and she can't believe they would taste ok with protein powder, but she's wrong, I promise.  They taste different from your average IHOP rendition, for sure, but they're also way, waaaay healthier.

On to the recipe!

What you need:
1 scoop BodyLogix Natural Whey
1.5 tsp Ener-g Egg replacer
1/4 cup King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat Flour (white whole wheat works, too, and is 10 less calories)
1/4 cup low fat 1% cottage cheese
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp Stevia
(optional) handful of your berries of choice
(optional) pancake syrup/toppings (look for Walden Farms 0 calorie syrup- it is a miracle in a bottle!)

Makes 4 medium sized pancakes.

What to do:
Add all ingredients except the optional berries to a blender and blend until everything is nicely combined. Heat a greased skillet over medium heat, pour some batter in, toss in some berries if you like, and cook them like you would any other pancake!

Nutrition facts (without berries or toppings) for the WHOLE stack:
285 calories
2g fat
33g carbs
33.5g protein
4g fiber
2.5g sugar

These turn out pretty moist, so it's not entirely necessary to top them with anything, but it doesn't hurt.  They don't fluff up as much as your average pancake though, so if you toss in something like blueberries, it gets tricky to cook them evenly on both sides (because the blueberries are thicker than the pancakes).  I chopped up some raspberries from my dad's garden for them this morning and that problem was avoided!

You can also substitute plain Greek yogurt for the cottage cheese, but you wind up with a denser pancake.  The cottage cheese is better for fluffing them up, it seems.

Suggestions for making them fluffier without losing nutritional value are welcome!  I like this version a lot, but it's always fun to try more variations and see what I get.

Previous versions:

The very first try.  Not bad, but very dense...

Getting better....more pancake-shaped at least....

Mmm blueberry!

Pancakes, Plane Crashes, and Picnics in the Clouds (Memorial Day Weekend, Part II)

The creek just beyond the Boone Fork parking area.

Day two of our holiday weekend entailed a mountain expedition the likes of which we have never attempted before.  It wasn't the longest hike we've been on, but it was certainly the most strenuous- and I loved it!  I must have been on an adrenaline high though, because I could tell my boyfriend was giving me the "Are you insane?" look when I talked about us doing a much longer hike to the end of the Grandfather Mountain profile trail sometime.  Once I was off the mountain and downing my normal amount of oxygen, I felt a little less confident that it would be a good idea, too, but it's still a goal for someday.

150 calorie stack of pancakes! Om nom nom!

First things first, we started our day by whipping up some pretty delicious coconut flour pancakes, which you can find the recipe for here at Foodie Fiasco (a website I'm having quite a field day with currently).

The goal in mind for our day was to hike into the Grandfather Mountain trails from trailheads outside the park (thus avoiding the rather pricey ticket you need to access the park otherwise.  This isn't frowned upon, fyi- they make it clear that hiking in is an option.  The only drawback is there are areas you won't be allowed to access once you're in the park.)  

I would have liked to hike all the way to the beginning of the profile trail, but for the day I decided that getting to Calloway Peak would suffice.  Also on this hike I got to face my two greatest phobias- heights and snakes!  Hooray!  I am proud of how I did with the heights; maybe not so much with the snake.

We began our ascent up the Craggy Way trail, I believe it was called.  It was appropriately named, for sure, and definitely the hardest trail we could have chosen for getting there.  The views were worth it though!

This is about where we came across the snake lying to the side of the trail....

...the drawback is your most slithery woodland friends enjoy these sunny views as well.  It took me a good minute and earned me a very annoyed boyfriend, but I finally mustered up the courage to walk by the little creature.  Give me a wild mountain lion and I'll get as close as I can, but don't expect me to get within 50 feet of a two foot snake knowingly.  I'm so rugged.

I'm also having fun with HDR toning lately, as you can see.

The end of the Cragway trail brought us to another trailhead where the mountain environment started to change quite a bit with the increased elevation.  The dirt gets darker, the ferns get thicker and greener, and everything becomes more dark, lush, and mossy.  Mountain top woodlands like this are some of my favorite scenery in the area.  They feel so separate from the rest of the world below, and it becomes easy to believe you've traveled much further from home than you actually have.  Fantastic stress relief for when you need to feel far away from your problems.

Some spectacular views started popping up once we hit the top of the tree line!

View from the Linn Cove Viaduct Overlook.

Boyfriend embracing the clouds.  They definitely provided some welcome relief to the sweatiness this hike will cause!

 Close to our destination, we came across the wreckage of a tragic plane crash that happened in 1978 (read a bit about it here).  I couldn't believe how spread out the pieces were across the mountain top.  Very sad and eerie, but morbidly fascinating to walk around.

He walked around looking for the propeller, which he wanted to take home with him if we found.  Because carrying a plane propeller for 4 miles up and down a mountain would have been great fun.

Welcome to Mirkwood Forest.  Please stay on the trails, mind the elves, and report any sightings of SOUS (Spiders of Unusual Size) to the park services. 

Soon after exploring the wreckage, we came upon the ladders and cables I knew we would have to deal with eventually.  Going up these with Charlotte in tow was easy enough, but coming back down was another story.

This is also where I got to deal with my second favorite crippling phobia- heights!  I laid my whole body on that ladder and did not look behind me....

....if I had looked behind me, I would have seen this.  This is nice when you're not dangling over it.

At our destination, we were lucky enough to be approached by someone carrying a Digital SLR camera who asked us to take a photo of her group, and took one of us in turn, so for once we didn't have to settle for a selfie (you'd be surprised by how terrified the average person is of using my very basic Digital SLR, so I normally don't bother asking anymore).

Hiked all this way and of course it's too cloudy to get the view in the photo!

Fellow hikers were so amazed that our little dog made it all this way.  Little dogs can do big things, too, if you let them!

We did get some moments between the clouds rolling across for some excellent views.

Far over the Misty Mountains...

Our wee picnic in the clouds at about 6,000 feet above sea level.

Sammiches were had, but were scarfed down far too quickly to be documented.  I can tell you that simple turkey + provolone sammiches go up approximately 400% in deliciousness after a 3.5 mile uphill hike though.

Storm clouds were rolling in on our descent, but we made it out of the woods safely.

After making our way back to the car, we ventured out to our favorite dog-friendly restaurant in Boone: Cafe Portofino, where Char was fawned over and gleefully worshiped by the locals imbibing on the porch.  We couldn't resist having a hard-earned Crispin cider, too.

We haven't decided on our next hiking challenge yet, but I can't wait for it!

Memorial Day Weekend Part I- Picnic at the Falls

This Memorial Day weekend, I decided lots of mountain exploration was going to be on my agenda.  The destination for Saturday: Brevard, NC, self-proclaimed Land of Waterfalls.  I've also been getting into the Farmer's Market scene more and more, so I had the idea in mind that we should get up early, hit up the local market, and scrounge up a locally-sourced picnic.  The Boyfriend had a better idea though- why not check out the markets in Asheville on our way up through the mountains?  So, we blindly chose two that sounded like the most interesting and ventured forth!

First stop was the Asheville Tailgate Market, which was in a lovely little shaded area of the UNCA campus (and for that reason, it will be the one I'm most likely to return to).

"Eat No Evil!
....I've slowly become mostly vegetarian, but I do eat a little evil still, sorry.

We scarfed down all the free samples we could manage (becoming quite a weekend trend for us), picked up some divine rosemary fig goat cheese, and I actually tried some sausage.  Vegan sausage.  And loved it! (note: I'm not vegan, and sausage is one of my most-hated "foods.")  Too bad we had no way of cooking it or a way of getting it home safely before it might go bad.  Next time perhaps.

We headed over to check out the Asheville City Market next, which had many of the same vendors, but there I was lucky enough to find the Turkish Delight goat cheese that was sold out at the tailgate market.  We found some suitable bread, a dessert, then stopped by the local Whole Foods market for things we were still missing and hit the trail, adorable picnic basket and all.

Triple Falls was our first destination.  The day was a bit more overcast and cool than we had expected, but those are ideal conditions for pasty ginger people, so we weren't complaining.  Boyfriend still put sunscreen on.

Mmm, what could be in this little basket?

TONS of goodies! (Sammich meat not pictured)

We picked up this lovely rye bread from The Simple Bread booth at the Asheville City Market, and the guy running the booth was kind enough to toss in a tiny loaf of sourdough for us, since my boyfriend was so enthusiastic about it.  It made for pretty awesome sandwiches!

I was a bigger fan of the rye and Turkish delight goat cheese though....

....even better topped with some Strawberry Basil Sally's Greatest Jam.  Sally herself was at Greenlife (Asheville's Whole Foods market) when we stopped in, and I was freakishly excited to see that she was setting up a tasting booth with all of her jams!!  I circled the store a billion times until she had it all ready to go, and she was kind enough to allow me to sample all of it, which completely made my day.  I HIGHLY recommend all of them! She has so many unusual combinations, all of the loveliest things, like Blueberry Lemon Thyme, Peach Mint, and Fig Sweet Onion Rosemary.  I told her I know I'll have all of them eventually, and I'm definitely trying out the recipes on her website.  Stay tuned...

The grand finale: Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin by the The Herban Baker.  Completely delicious.

"Where is mine, Mommy and Daddy?" Char asks.  She got some turkey; don't worry.

 After our little lunch, it was time to explore/carry Charlotte up the waterfall to reenact a certain Disney movie scene.

Charlotte was totally thrilled about this, as you can see.

We wore our swimming stuff, but, uh, that water was just a touch too cold.

Next was a short trek down the hill to check out Hooker Falls, which was pretty meh compared to the other waterfalls, but the water was calmer and easier to wade into.

It took quite a bit of coaxing to get Char to go in...

"Nope, nope!  No thank you, Daddy!  Let me out of this stuff!"

Char is not much of a water dog, disappointingly.  I'll blame it on all the time she spends with the cats.

The second part of our plan was to wander around the White Squirrel Festival in Downtown Brevard until one of my favorite bands, Scythian, was to go on stage around 9 pm.  Our plans were ruined upon getting there and seeing "no pets allowed" signs barring the festival streets, however (boo-HISS-really?? It's an outdoor festival!).  So, not wanting to leave Charlotte in the car for hours, we just flitted through the festival quickly and made our way home.  Maybe I'll catch you next time, Scythian....

We did get to see one of the festival namesakes at least- a real white squirrel!