Farmers’ Market and Shopping in the Big City

My mom came to visit me this weekend, and yesterday we got up bright and early and headed down to the Des Moines Farmers’ Market.  We got there at about 8:30 and it was already packed!  The public parking garage was nearly full and the streets were crowded with people, dogs, and ginormous Volkswagen-sized strollers. [...]

Read Full Post »

A Weekday of Eats & The Best Idea Ever

Breakfast Green Smoothie w/Banana, cocoa powder, almond milk, a bunch of spinach, and a few frozen cherries Lunch A few mini pitas with hummus, 1/2 a cucumber, 1/2 a red bell pepper Dessert Laura’s Wholesome Junk Food cookies – Anna Banana Split Snack Granny Smith apple and an unpictured Larabar (Ginger Snap) Dinner Toast (Food [...]

Read Full Post »

A few videos on weight loss and plastic surgery…and bikini time!

Okay, so as a follow up to a November 2008 news piece about my weight loss, the news station did an update on my plastic surgery and weight loss (they interviewed me back in January but the story aired this May). The piece was about the “ugly side of weight loss” and I think the [...]

Read Full Post »

Bagel F’in Friday, Yoga Update

My favorite thing about Fridays?  A plain bagel with peanut butter! There is a story behind Bagel F’in* Friday (*hey, my parents read this blog).  Before I lost weight, I used to get a bagel from our cafe here at work almost every day (the bagels come from Breuggers).  My favorite combinations were: asiago cheese [...]

Read Full Post »

Black Bean Pasta Salad – Recipe

I love cold salads in the summertime.  When I worked at The Bakery, we used to make a different type of pasta salad every day and I loved coming up with different combinations of ingredients and flavors.  I saw a recipe for Black Bean Salsa in an old issue of Women’s Health and thought it [...]

Read Full Post »

My New Fitness Adventure

So I’ve signed up for a program here locally called Farrell’s Extreme Bodyshaping (FXB).  It’s a 10-week, 6 days a week, 5:15 a.m. (!!!!) program combining kickboxing and strength workouts on alternating days.  There is also a nutrition component, and I’ve been assured that I will be able to adapt it to a vegan diet, [...]

Read Full Post »

Roasted Veggie Pizza

This was supposed to be a grilled veggie pizza. I bought a bunch of veggies with the intention of firing up the grill and giving them all a good char, but Iowa weather has been cruel the past week and not really conducive to being outdoors, unfortunately. Where is spring!? I fired up the oven [...]

Read Full Post »

TLT(A) – Tempeh bacon, Lettuce, Tomato (& Avocado)

My lunch today consisted of this sandwich (open-faced) with some baked beans and a few Popchips. There are a few types of vegetarian bacon on the market, this one is new to me and honestly it was only so-so. It only vaguely smelled and tasted like bacon.  I personally like the taste of this one (also [...]

Read Full Post »

A day of eats

Today was kind of atypical as far as eating goes for me, since I was out and about and ate lunch and dinner away from home.  I’ll do this again on a weekday! Breakfast – Banana Chocolate Smoothie with Cherries and Spinach (shared this with Luke) Lunch – I went shopping today and found myself [...]

Read Full Post »

Banana Chocolate Smoothie – Recipe

Honestly, this smoothie is more like a milkshake.  Except it’s pretty healthy!  The only sugar is from the banana and the tiny bit of agave syrup I add.  You could also use a juicy date or honey in place of the agave, or even stevia.  I am kind of obsessed with this smoothie lately.  In [...]

Read Full Post »