Saturday, June 22, 2013

Day 423: A Weekend Blended With Goodness

Yesterday (Friday, June 21) was a good, productive Friday! I've been drinking my green juice for breakfast, having a healthy lunch, more juice as a small snack in the afternoons, and then a small dinner IF I get hungry in the evenings. I can already tell a HUGE difference in how I feel now compared to how I felt in May when I was misbehaving in the food department.

I went to the Banh Mon Food Trailer for lunch yesterday with my friend Megan since they were having a "Grand Reopening" celebration and web video shoot. The awesome folks at Banh Mon have had a bit of trouble in tasty sandwich paradise, and they had to close for a little while due to some ridiculousness the city was battling them with regarding their business. We had to show our love both for the Banh Mons and my juicing guru Josh of Joshua Productions, who produces their commercials and does some marketing for them.

Go and eat this. It's DELICIOUS.
After work, I got to visit Nick for a bit to check out how he's doing with his new hobby. He recently got into archery, and he is LOVING it! I'm so glad he picked up an outdoor activity that will get him moving and exercising. He says his arms are really sore, but that's a GOOD THING, right? I'm actually considering picking up archery also, but I will have to get a smaller bow for obvious reasons...

Yeah, it's taller than me.
He has a groovy wrist guard, some snazzy gloves, and a convenient place to hang his bow in his room. I hope he'll let me post a photo or video of him at target practice sometime soon!

After a small dinner, Nick treated me to some Orange Leaf Yogurt where we ran into our ol' college pal Eileen and 2 of her little ones whom she treated to yogurt for sitting still for a little while to be photographed. I totally understand how hard it is to photograph wee ones. I definitely tip my hat to people who do it for a living!!!

It's always great to bump into friends!
As for today (Saturday), I took the time to really incorporate the new blender my dad bought for me into my day so that I could see if it could really do all the things it claims to do on the box.

Um.

THIS BLENDER IS AWESOME!!! 

It took me a while to find a smoothie recipe that included ingredients that I already had in my apartment for breakfast, but I was able to find the perfect one to make a grape, spinach, and coconut water smoothie...

I should've taken a close up of the smoothie...
It was so yummy!
I was really supposed to use coconut milk instead of coconut water, but it was all I had, and I figured it wouldn't be bad. I thought it was quite delicious! Not only was it delicious, but it kept me full for HOURS!! 

I went to my apartment complex's gym to walk/jog for half an hour, and then I got ready to run some errands with Nick in Beaumont. He treated me to lunch for a sandwich at Schlotzky's, and then I went to Kroger to pick up more fruits and vegetables for juicing and making more smoothies.

The book that came with the blender my dad gave me has SO many delicious and easy recipes in it! I decided to try a zuccini pesto dish and making mashed cauliflower (one of my favorites) for dinner.


Smashed cauliflower & cheese recipe
Creamy pesto + zucchini pasta recipe
The avocado I had wasn't ripe enough, so it made
 the pesto thicker than it probably should have been.
It didn't look very appetizing,
but it was actually pretty great!
A forkful of raw nom.
The pesto would have been much better if the avocado was a bit more ripe. I also think I would have enjoyed it more if it were warm. Next time, I think I 'll bake or steam the zucchini or use whole wheat pasta instead. It's going to be a while before there's a next time, though, because HOLY CRAP PINE NUTS ARE BLOODY EXPENSIVE!!!!! Good grief! 

As for the mashed cauliflower, I think I put too much milk so it was a bit runny. Still tasty, though!


Dessert is not pictured here, but I made an AMAZING low calorie chocolate peanut butter smoothie that was pretty mind blowing. I split it with Nick so that it wouldn't be too much, and I definitely plan to enjoy this treat often!! We inhaled it too quickly for me to remember to photograph it...haha!!

I think my favorite thing about the blender is how EASY it is to clean, especially compared the juicer. The juicer has 5 separate parts that I have to clean each time I use it while the blender only has 3, and the blender parts are much less complicated to clean as well. Again, I can't complain too much because the blender and juicer are most definitely luxury items that I was blessed with as gifts from others. I'll clean them all the live long day if I have to! 

I still intend to use both appliances as much as I can because they've both introduced such healthy and delicious meals to my life! It's very satisfying to know that I have so many options now that I have these tools at home. 

My muscles ache from moving and being active, my tummy is full of delicious healthy food, and I am beyond grateful. It has indeed been a weekend blended with goodness.

I'm looking forward to celebrating Nick's birthday a day early tomorrow by bringing him to see Monster's University! Gotta support his future workplace, right?? ;) Cheers, everybody! Here's to being happy and healthy. 


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