Snow + gloom + not wanting to work on my resume = baking day.

Simple math, folks.  And let’s not mention that that happens to be the only math I’m capable of doing.  I was an English major after all.  We don’t do well with math and science.  Which is why I won’t be going into the medical field, thankyouverymuch, Mother.

Anyways.  I think it had something to do with the giant poppy seed muffin an ex-co-worker (how’s that for hyphenation?) was eating the other day, but I was struck with the strong need to bake up a batch.  Let it be known that you can find poppy seeds on the baking aisle with all the other spices.  It will cost you $3 and you will probably never use it again, but like I said, it was a strong need to bake up a batch.

I halved the recipe.  Because I can’t trust myself around baked goods?  Absolutely not.  Because when you live in a two-person household where only one of you is helping eat baked goods and the other is going out at 9 PM on a Thursday to get a pint of Ben and Jerry’s that they will finish in one sitting, you risk the chance of having those baked goods around for too long and getting a distinct whiff of mold when you go to put a piece of zucchini bread in your mouth.  Not that I would know anything about that.

I used sour cream instead of buttermilk because it’s what I had on hand.  And if you have to ask why I keep sour cream on hand, you clearly don’t eat enough sour cream.

I think that’s why the texture of mine is more biscuit-like than muffin-like, but those imperfect little muffin tops are what we like to call character.  Or what I like to call delicious.  And these really are.  Especially when you wait the full 18 minutes it takes them to bake stalking to oven, switching the light on every 2 minutes and eating one right out of the oven without waiting for it to properly cool.  Even though I’m pretty sure I only have half the amount of taste buds a normal person has (read: a person who doesn’t burn their tongue on daily basis), I can tell these are good.

 Craving satisfied.  And just in time for the sun to come out

Have a happy weekend, friends and make these muffins.  And you know what?  Go ahead and make all 12.  You’ll thank me later.

Two days ago, I had sent Joey no less than 3 texts asking important questions.  You know, stuff like “Even though I don’t have a job, can we still afford to take a vacation to Europe?” or “How do you turn the TV on?!”  Pressing stuff.

When he finally replied, it was with “Do you want Girl Scout cookies?”  I asked if he had gotten any of my texts and he replied, “Yes I did.  Do you want Girl Scout cookies??”  Then he proceeded to call me to ask what kind of Girl Scout cookies I wanted.  Either a Girl Scout had a gun to his head or he really likes those cookies.

Even though I distinctly remember telling him to get a box for himself and I would just have some of his, he returned home with four boxes.  Did you know there’s 11 different kinds of GS cookies??  I guess I should be glad he only came home with four. 

I’ve always been under the impression that I liked GS cookies, with Samoas and Tagalongs being my favorites, but after opening those boxes last night, I stand corrected.  Guys, those cookies are not good.  And it has nothing to do with the fact that hydrogenated oil is one of the first of like a million indecipherable ingredients listed on the box — if there’s peanut butter or chocolate, I’m willing to overlook those kinds of things.  It has everything to do with how they taste like poorly made junk, and can we just talk about the size of the cookies?  If I’m going to eat a cookie, I need it to be a substantial size.  I get the feeling you would need to eat at least one sleeve of GS cookies to get your fill.  I think I’m starting to understand why he came home with four boxes.

Of those four boxes, one tasted like a chalky and sour punch in the mouth.

Another tasted like how I imagine a dog treat would taste like.  I wish I was kidding.

Don’t even get me started on Thin Mints.  What is it with those cookies??

I still stand by my opinion that of all those junky cookies, Samoas and Tagalongs are the least horrible, but seriously, save your money for the Boy Scouts.  You can’t mess up popcorn, right?

P.S. Can you go to jail for speaking out against Girl Scout cookies??

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Do you ever buy Girl Scout cookies?

Do you have a favorite?

Is there a product or trend that you can’t understand the popularity of?  I would add Twilight, beer and Taylor Swift to that list.

I’ll admit, I had no idea.  Thank goodness for Twitter, the home of real news.

Maybe I didn’t notice because everyday is national peanut butter day in my life.  And speaking of things you were born loving, peanut butter is my most primal favorite food.  I can remember having a banana and peanut butter as a nighttime snack when I was younger, smearing some Jif on a slice of bread, folding it in half and washing it down with a glass of milk, slicing up an apple and dipping it in the jar and how could I forgot the DQ peanut butter sundae phase I went through.

Through thick and thin, peanut butter has been a life long love.  It’s just one of those foods that I will always with associate pure, simple, honest happiness.

So in case you’re at a loss for how to celebrate this most monumental of national holidays, I give you my 5 favorite ways to eat peanut butter.

1. On a banana or with an apple.

I don’t know what people who don’t like peanut butter or who are allergic eat as snacks.

Nine times out of ten, if I need a snack some fruit and peanut butter is my number one choice.  It’s filling and delicious, yes please!

2. Peanut butter toast.

Peanut butter toast is one of those things I can trace back to early childhood and my mom.

Joey thinks the idea of warm melty peanut butter for breakfast is nauseating.  I think he’s completely insane.

Who doesn’t love having a sticky mouth?!

3. In cookie form.

Have you ever had one of those giant peanut butter cookies they sell at Whole Foods?  If you ask me, that’s the epitome of a perfect cookie.

4. In a dressing.

For some reason, I’ve spent the past 22 years overlooking peanut dressing.  For shame!

If you need a good one, this is my personal favorite.

5. The classic: a good old PB & J.

I can be quite the food snob, but even I will admit there’s nothing like a plain and simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Nothing fancy.  Just a two slices of bread and a couple minutes of work.

There’s only one rule.  PB & J gets cut diagonally.  No if, ands or buts. 

I could list about 100 other ways you could enjoy peanut butter, but sometimes it’s the simple ones are the best.  In that case, I guess I should have just taken a picture of me eating peanut butter with a spoon, huh?

Happy National Peanut Butter Day!

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What’s your favorite way to eat peanut butter?

Is there something in your life that represents pure happiness?

Would you believe it if I told you I used to love milk.  No, not love.  Love.

You probably wouldn’t because this blog features almond milk as my milk of choice.  But you know what?  I don’t love drinking a glass of almond milk, so I certainly don’t love drinking a glass of almond milk.  Unless it’s flavored.  Chocolate or vanilla almond milk is delicious. 

A few months ago I was struck with the brilliant idea to drink a glass or real milk, which I just happened to have on hand because I had a recipe that called for 2%.  It was in this moment of pure spontaneity that I remembered how much I truly adore real milk.  In buying almond milk for the past year, I feel like I’ve sort of turned my back on who I’ve always been.  Since that night, I’ve been buying organic milk and I haven’t looked back since.

This wasn’t a decision I made because I needed more protein, or calcium or calories.  I made it because I wanted it.  Funny thing about the human body, it kind of knows what it wants without your brain having to think about it.  Have you ever ended a weekend splurge fest with a fierce craving for a big salad, or spent a night out drinking and all you could think about when you woke up the next morning was water?  Yeah, me neither…

I’ve found that as my ideas about the healthy living blog world change, so does my perception of what foods look, sound and taste good to me.  Nutritional yeast sauces, chia seed puddings, flax crackers and all kinds of gums and protein powders.  Those things work great for others, but for me, they’ve never tasted as good as the things they’re trying to replace and since I have no reason not to eat the real things, I shouldn’t have to rely on those less familiar ingredients.  The blog world makes it seem like everyone is eating these things.  That baked goods have to be vegan and every recipe has to include ingredients to add extra protein.  I don’t agree.

Guilty.

I want to eat old-fashioned favorites.  Mac and cheese, enchiladas, red beans and rice, pizza, pork roast.  Just kidding, I’ve never liked pork roast, but my mom has been trying to convince me otherwise for the past 22 years.

Am I saying I’ll never eat chia seeds again or suddenly crave tofu?  No.  I’m just saying, there are certain things I’ve loved since I was a kid (you know, back when weight and health weren’t an issue), and no one should turn their back on those things just because they’re less prevalent in the blog world. 

Here’s to real milk!

If you invite a friend to a candlelight yoga class and you end up being the only two there, prepare yourself for lots of awkward eye contact with the teacher.

And if you go into final shavasana with ten minutes of class left, prepare to zone in and out while your teacher talks about clouds floating in the sky.

The whole experience was odd.

Baking.

On Thursday, I made zucchini bread and marbled peanut butter brownies.  The second was a last gift for my co-workers, the first was a gift for myself.  And I’m not sharing.

I got the brownie mix as a Secret Santa gift.  Cute idea, but in reality, chipping away at the brown sugar layer was not all that fun.  The brownies turned out more cake-like than brownie-like, but that didn’t stop me from eating two before I even got them to work. 

Enjoying your last day at work.

There was a giant cookie cake, lots of hugs and people telling me “congratulations!”

I’m not sure not having a job is really a thing to celebrate, but if it means people are going to start sending me cards and money in the mail, then I’ll immediately take back that statement.

I’ve eaten more of that cookie by myself than I care to admit.

Learning how people with normal 9-5 Monday through Friday jobs live on the weekend.

I told Joey I was going to sleep till noon on Saturday.  I made it to 8:45.

I ate breakfast in bed, read a book, took a leisurely run, made a lunch that didn’t involve heating up leftovers, watched Joey bowl in a tournament and went out to dinner with friends.

Where I got a sign that I’m meant to be a future politician.

I think not.

Catching up on lots of recorded TV.

Dare I say I thought Daniel Radcliffe was pretty funny on SNL?  Or maybe I was just shocked that he was better live than in the HP films.  Let’s face it, the acting isn’t what makes those movies good…

Did anyone catch Bill Cosby on Late Night?  That guy is so great!

Normal Sundays.

If making a giant batch of pancakes at 10 AM, sipping tea and finally deciding to go to the grocery at noon is normal.  And to me, it totally is.

Like I said, I don’t think being unemployed is a reason to celebrate, but if I can go to free Sunday yoga and accept a spontaneous invitation to see a movie, I kind of feel like celebrating!

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What are you up to this weekend?

Have you ever had a weekend job?

Are there some things you’ve put ahead of blogging lately?

I’ve been reading all your comments on my last post the past couple of days and have felt absolutely blown away by your responses.  If you’ve been reading for a while or know me in real life, you may have noticed I’m slightly highly emotional, so to say I have been moved by everyone’s comments would be an understatement.

If I could, I would thank each and every one of you in person, and give you a giant hug, but seeing as that might be unrealistic I’ll just write you all a lengthy comment in response

I sincerely hope you all have a lovely weekend.  Go eat, drink, laugh, move and don’t waste even one minute worrying about anything!

-Lauren  

We told each other things neither of us had ever admitted out loud. About the negative and irrational things we say to ourselves in our heads. About weight, health, food and who’s really running our lives and the way we think about ourselves. Yeah, it got a little heavy.

But it also had a happy ending. Just wait, I’m getting there.

Somewhere along this “healthy living” journey, I developed all kinds of unhealthy thoughts. Butter, real milk and anything too sugary or processed became scary and Earth Balance, almond milk and nutritional yeast replaced all those things. After all, that’s what everyone else in the blog world is eating, right? I started worrying about what time I finished a meal and how many hours needed to pass between that one and the next one. Or that if I had a sugary pancake for breakfast I would probably be hungry in an hour, so it was better to eat something else, even if it wasn’t what I really wanted.

I know it sounds like I’m painting a very restrictive picture here, but know that I never made things off limits and I’ve always lived with a “everything in moderation” attitude, so it’s been more the irrational thoughts, rather than irrational actions. But still, the thoughts I have on a daily basis are not the thoughts a normal person deals with. It amazes me that there are people who don’t think about food all day. And deep down, I want to be one of those people. More than anything, I want to eat like a normal person.

Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it -not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

-Ellyn Sater

Will I ever stop thinking about food? No, probably not. But I can work on correcting some of the disordered thoughts I have surrounding it. I can eat the things I want to eat, when I want to and feel this huge sense of liberation and happiness when I do. I can keep doing the things that make me feel good about my body. For instance, there are many times when I feel… puffy? But when I’m doing yoga, I feel awesome about myself. I don’t care that I have some extra luggage on my stomach or that my arms don’t like Jillian Michaels. I feel strong and beautiful.

And I can stop and think about how these negative thoughts developed. My sister should be a psychiatrist for helping me realize that my fears about my body/weight totally stem from being out of shape and maybe a little overweight at the end of high school/beginning of college. A time when I kinda just didn’t care what I put into my body or how it made me feel. She also reminded me that I’m not that person anymore. And that I never will be. It made my heart hurt to hear her say mean and untrue things about herself, as I’m sure it broke her heart to hear me say similar things about myself. Would we ever say those kinds of things about a loved one? Then why should we say them about ourselves?

Writing this post is really scary. It’s scary that readers, friends and family might think of me differently. It’s scary that I might be judged. But what’s scarier is that somewhere some poor girl who has similar irrational thoughts might feel like she’s the only one or that she can’t admit thinking these things to anyone. To her, I would say that talking these things out is so therapeutic. And liberating and reassuring. So as nervous as I am to hit publish, I’m doing it anyways.

Now.

I love the healthy living blog community, I really do, but sometimes it’s really easy to get caught up in the online world and lose sight of what’s realistic and what’s not.  The healthy living blog world sometimes warps my perception on things.

It’s fine to drink real milk and drink an occasional soda.

2. Laugh.

Need me to help you on that one?

3. Show your loved ones how much you care about them.

We celebrated my dad’s birthday this weekend.  I love that slightly crazy man.

4. Tell someone how amazing they are.

You two hot dog eating girls are perfect.

I mean it.

5. Let yourself be happy.

No matter what it takes.

To me, that means dancing to “Crazy in Love” like you are Beyonce, having a lazy morning instead of rushing around at the grocery store, skipping that race and just enjoying a run with your sweetie and eating tasty things.

Happy Sunday! 

You would think.

In all actuality, I was driving around with the windows down and no jacket on.

No jacket.  In January.  In Colorado.  Somebody pinch me.

Unfortunately I woke up to snow, cold temperatures and wind this morning.  Maybe I really was dreaming.  I guess I just need a repeat of yesterday’s cold weather food.

Thanks to Jenn of Peas and Crayons for hosting the weekly WIAW link-up.

Breakfast:

I had a batch of simple cornmeal pancakes (which I learned are actually called hoecakes down south) and a cup of vanilla rooibos tea.

Mid-morning Snack:

After my run, all I really wanted was a nice crispy apple.

Honeycrisps are amazing, but Galas have been my long time favorite.

Lunch:

And speaking of long time favorites, nothing beats a classic grilled cheese and soup combo.

I made my mom’s cream of broccoli soup last week and the leftovers made for a perfect lunch.  How weird is it that when I told my mom I was using her recipe, she replied saying she was making the exact same thing.  Cue twilight zone music.

Admittedly, I am a total grilled cheese snob.  Kraft Singles are so high school.  Real cheddar, or better yet, real pepperjack is in now. 

Dunk.

And devour.

Afternoon Treat:

Perhaps the only sign that it was nice outside yesterday.  I was thirsty and thirsty for something cold.

Okay, pretend this is a picture of an iced vanilla mocha Americano.

I have not the patience to try to get the picture off my phone.

Dinner:

So I know I’m about 10 days late on this one, but I made black-eyed pea soup.  For warmth and good luck.

A girl at work told me the whole BEP for good luck in the new year thing only works if you cook the beans yourself.  Thank goodness dried beans were cheaper than the canned variety I usually go for.

Dessert:

Shanna, why did you send me these??

So addicting and delicious.

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What’s the weather like where you live?

What’s your favorite cheese to use on a sandwich?

What’s your favorite kind of apple?

But to be fair, I don’t really want to get over them.  And I may or may not have made two batches this morning.

One for eating while I photographed and blogged about the second batch.  There was no way I was waiting to finish this post to eat these.

Excellent choice. Pats self on back.

If you’re a fan of cornbread, you will love these.  I added in some whole wheat flour (it makes them less crumbly), but I’ve also done it with just cornmeal and they were just as good, only a little messier. 

Simple Cornmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon butter

1. In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder and sugar.
2. In a measuring cup, add milk and butter and microwave for 30-45 seconds, or until butter has melted.
3. Add milk and butter mixture to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
4. Heat a griddle over medium heat and cook pancakes to golden perfection.

My mom got me a beaker measuring glass for Christmas and it is way cool.  Cooking is totally a science so it makes perfect sense to use a beaker.  And I always thought I had no scientific intelligence.  Psh.

If you’re feeling up for it, you could add some chocolate chips to the batter.

Me, I’m always up for it.

But I would suggest skipping the butter, otherwise it will just melt your chocolate and you’ll have ugly brown pancakes instead of bright golden yellow ones.

Not that I would know.

Be careful not to drop any weird items in your milk.  This incident slightly  mortified me.

Have you ever seen a more perfect looking pancake?

Say no.

At this point, I give you full ownership and you can top with what have you.

But,…

I’ll just give you a head’s up that all they really need to a drizzle of maple syrup.

And that, my friends, is the definition of a perfect pancake.