It has been so long!

Hello Everyone!

This is going to be a very quick post. I don’t even have any pictures to share with you! I want to keep blogging on here but if I do expect there to be some changes since my life is so hectic! I probably will just blog here with some pictures if I have time. I also have a tumblr that is just random stuff that I like or from my life that is for the most part unrelated to food! you can find that here.

 

Just to update you all really quickly! My eating has changed a lot lately. I have been trying to limit my dry carbs, which means I haven’t been having sandwiches for lunch at school instead I bring a salad and a few crackers. Also instead of my beloved cereal (which surprisingly I don’t miss) I have quinoa with banana, and applesauce, and pumpkin… it basically tastes kind of pumpkin pie-y. I really love it!

I also have been weighing everything I really keeping a much closer eye on my portions sizes. by weighing everything every time I know that I am getting the intended amount of calories.

So are these new eating habits working? you might ask… YES!!! Since I started about 4 weeks ago I have lost 5 pounds! I lost 2.5 the first week, 2.5 the second, nothing the third, and then the fourth was this week and with Thanksgiving and all I was more than happy to stay the same! So I am now about 151 or 152!!! Its amazing to me that I am that close to the 140′s!!

School has been really tough for me this year. My classes are super hard and I don’t have many close friends so I don’t get to do much socializing. I really hate hating school, but lately at least I really have been. Hopefully life will improve soon though, because I turn 17 next Friday!!! That’s right people, pretty soon I’ll have to change the name of this blog to 17 and Losing It (or should I? What do you think?) Even more importantly I’ll be able to drive!! That means I (hopefully) will be able to drive to school, the gym, kickboxing, and wherever else I want. For example my back has been bothering me and I really wanted to see a chiropractor but couldn’t if my mom had to take me but once I have my driver’s license I will be able to go alone! Also I am going to try to find somewhere to volunteer a day or 2 a week to hopefully bring some happiness to my boring days.. I am so excited!! For my b-day my madre and I are going into Philly and eating at the Caribou Cafe which is a French bistro with apparently amazing French Onion Soup (which I just happen to be obsessed with!! So yeah… kinda excited for that.

Anyways… I would love to blog and blog but I have Bio to read (just like old times eh?). Hope that everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!! And an early Happy Hanukkah to any Jews reading this!!

Elli

 

The Perfect Summer Day

Today was pretty much awesome. I ran a good race and had a great day spent “down the shore” as we New Jersians say.

But before I get to today, lets talk about last night’s delicious dinner!

Last night became unofficial asian food night. We started out with a bowl of rice stir fried with soy sauce, broccoli, carrots, yellow pepper, garlic, onions, and ginger…

So colorful!

Followed by yesterday’s cooking adventure: Miso soup.

simple and delicious

this was so easy  to make and super healthy! There is no oil or added fat of any kind!

Now onto today!

This morning mom and I got up at 5:30 ate a simple but good breakfast and hit the road down to Ocean City. I drove which was kind of scary but the roads were basically empty so it was really quite easy and I need to start practicing if I want my license in December.

We checked in at the race and then took a stroll on the boardwalk…

what a gorgeous day!

I thought that the run would be on the board walk but it turned out I was wrong it was on the beach!

eek! Running on the beach!?

I was nervous about running on the sand but it was actually fine, nice even, because the sand was really hard and compact. It was nice running on the beach and seeing all the people and watching the waves.

I thought that the 5 miles would take me about 50 mins since I thought that I ran about a 10 min/mile. I run faster on the treadmill but I didn’t think I could keep that up on solid ground where running is harder… but apparently I was wrong.

Almost to the finish!

I ran it in 47:41!! My pace was 9:33! I was so happy and impressed with myself! No only that but I came in second in my age group! I got a ribbon and everything. There were only a few girls in my age group so winning wasn’t that hard but it was still cool…

After the all the awards were handed out ( I love to stay and see who won especially the older people some of whom ran it way faster than I did!) I changed into my bathing suit and we hit the beach for and hour or so!

I haven’t just sat on the beach and relaxed since last summer so this was so nice! I just lay on my towel and let my self get tan burned I think I actually go more burned on the run than on the beach because my sunscreen was not sweat-proof!

After some much-needed relaxation we headed back over to the beard walk for some crazy-awesome-carbolicious-unhealthy-but-oh so-worth-it food!

Aka PIZZA!

*drool*

broccoli takes the guilt away!

We got these beautiful things at Mack and Manco’s the best pizza on the board walk and possibly the best pizza anywhere!

Followed by and sweet and icy treat: lemon water ice

We “walked the boards” for a while then heading home.

Along the way we got the munchies and got some chips to keep up happy!

At least I made this healthy choice!

And now I am back home. Clean, burned, and happy as a clam! Today was so much fun. My mom and I just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful day and each others company It was a great way to celebrate summer coming to a close Tomorrow is the last day of summer! I will probably spent d it pampering myself with face masks and painting my nails so I look totally awesome for the first day…

I hope everyone had an amazing Labor Day and 3 day weekend!

E

 

No more slackin’!

So its been waaaay to long since I’ve posted. Its my fault. I have been slacking off the past few day.

The reality of how close school is starting to hit me and I am kinda in denial Tuesday I was super busy trying to fit in some reading after the first volleyball scrimmage of the season. I may not be playing but managing is far from easy (on the brain at least) and reading bio after I got back was a struggle.

Thursday I went into Philly with the madre to meet this woman who is a grad student (I think?) and who is working at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Weight Management. I am constantly in search of a person who can help me understand why it is so freakin’ hard for me to lose weight! I think I need someone who knows about like physiology or something but they seem to not exist. She was a psychology student but she focused on behavior instead of “feelings” and stuff. I wasn’t really thrilled about going because I didn’t think she would really tell me anything I didn’t already know… but I figured I would give it a try. Surprise surprise she was no help She wanted me to use their “program” which would involve calories counting. Now I have nothing against calories counting I just can’t do it my self. I get completely obsessive and paranoid. On top of that she wanted me to come in a least every 2 weeks. Except she’s in Philly, I’m in New Jersey and I hardly have time to breath during school (especially vball season) season let alone go into Philly every other week. I’m already going to school, doing homework (at least 2 hours a night but often much more), and working out. So it just wouldn’t have worked. Maybe if she was exactly what I wanted we could have made it work but she wasn’t so we won’t

It’s so sad that summer is really ending! I have 3 full days of my summer left Monday I am running a 5 mile race in Ocean City, NJ (did I mention this already?).

Breakfast this morning was this cereal along with some 0% greek yogurt, blueberries ( possibly the last of the season :’( ), banana, flax, pumpkin butter, and honey…

yum, yum, yum

I was planning on not running today and going to a morning kickboxing class but I got there really late thinks to my genius move of accidentally throwing out the schedule. So I ending up at the gym (soo boring!). Here is what I did:

20 mins : Running 6.3-6.5 mph

20 mins: Elliptical

20 mins: Walking 4 mph at 5% incline

10 mins: free-weights (5 lb.)

Normally I would just run but I didn’t want to run too much because my ankles and lower shins have been hurting a little and I wanted to be as kind to them as I could.

After my workout I had the lunch of champions! A PB&J and some fruit ( peach and cherries, also the last of the season, I’m gonna miss my lovely summer fruits!)

Th rest of the day was utterly uneventful… I went to the barn for like a half an hour just to say hey (and forget my cell phone!), then my mom and I went food shopping, one of my favorite weekend things to do (nerdy?).  We didn’t get anything exciting just the things we need, but it was nice to just hang out with my mom.

Then I had a snack and FINISHED MY BIO WORK!!!!!

That’s right people I read 5, 20 page chapters in 4 weeks!! I finished Brave New World on monday (thank goodness!!). Now all I have to do is finish my essay for AP English. I have 2 paragraphs left… my goal is to finish it tomorrow. I will not spend the last 2 days of my summer freaking out about work!!!!

Dinner tonight will probably be some “Black” Bean Soup if I ever get around to making more.

I promise not to let it be another 4 days before I blog again! hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day weekend!!!

E

 

Frenimies

That basically describes my relationship with food right now. Food and I have always had something of a rocky relationship. I mean food is how I got to a place in my life where 30+ pounds needed to be lost. So obviously I love food.

But hate food? You might ask. How can you hate food? You have a food blog for goodness sake! Well… there are days like today, when I just don’t feel like thinking about what I’m going to eat or really feel like eating at all. I have to because I get hungry and I have to eat but sometimes it can be hard always having to think about how many calories are in whatever I might eat and if I can eat it. That is if whatever I want to eat is not too high in calories. I think about that before pretty much every meal and it gets tiring. Sometimes I wish there was just some magic pill that had 1600 calories in it and would keep from getting hungry all day so I could just not eat, and not have to think about eating…

This is maybe the only reason why I want school to start. Because right now (summer) my days seem to revolve around food. During school though my days will revolve around other things. So yeah I’d say that for now food and I are total frenimies.

Part of this change may be because I am basically on a liquid diet right now. Why? One word: braces. That’s right I got my braces tightened yesterday and they freakin’ HURT!!!! My poor teeth got manhandled yesterday. Now even with prescription strength Aleve they still hurt too much to chew pretty much anything.

Here is some of what I have eaten the last day and a half:

Uber-choclately overnight oats

Pumpkin greek yogurt (did not taste as good as it sounds/what I wanted it to taste like )

Green Monster SIAB

Oatmeal : Quick cook steel cut oats (from TJs), smashed banana, applesauce, cottage cheese, almond butter, flax seeds, a few crasins (they hurt but I needed something solid gosh darn it!)

Yes they all tasted good (except for that yogurt: can you say unsatisfying), but I miss solid food! I want something crunchy! :’(

Today is my day off from exercise so I am a little more crabby/whiney than normal… I need the break though.

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Sam over at A Teenage Gourmet was kind enough to give me the versatile blogger award. So here it is 7 random, mind-blowing facts you didn’t know about me…

1.) I hate the ocean, lakes, bays, basically any natural bodies of water. I like to look at them and maybe swim in them a little but they CREEP ME OUT!!!! There are so many weird bugs, fish, animals, and who-knows-what-else in them. They just freak me out…

2.) I am terrible with electronics, computers, etc. My mom knows more about my computer than I do. Perfect example: You know how you can have like “click here” and if you click there it will take you too a new site… yeah I have no idea how to do that. If anyone wants to tell me I’m willing to learn but make sure its clear and as simple as possible because you are working with a beginner here.

*correction: Yay I know how to do this now!*

3.) I love to paint my nails. I almost always have them painted. And I love odd colors too. Not your basic reds and pinks. My favorite nail polish is pastel purple. Right now I am wearing turquoise. I love purples, greens, blues, and orange. Having some funky color on my nails just makes me happy. And if for some reason I don’t have a color on I have clear polish on.

4.) I collect Snowbabies. You know those little white porcelain babies from Hallmark. My mom gets me one every Christmas. I think they are the cutest things ever. Useless? Yup! But I love ‘em!

5.) I am really organized and orderly. I always have little to-do lists for myself and love my routines (ok that you might have known).

6.) I used to write all the time. Like stories and stuff. In like 5th grade I wrote almost 70 pages of a “novel.” Its terrible but I wrote it! Now I almost never write (not counting this blog of course).

7.) I’m superstitious. I believe in karma, and ghosts, and all that stuff. When I was a little baby my mom took me to an astrologer to have my charts read and stuff. I listened to a recording of it and pretty much everything she predicted about me was right! She said I would love to travel, not get along with my dad, and be really close to my mom. All true! There were tons of other things she said to that I don’t remember but they were all true!I’m not super religious, but I believe in some sort of “god.” Maybe not some guy in the sky with a white beard, but I believe that there is something more. I definitely believe in astrology, but I think it’s more than that too. I just don’t know what it is.

So there you go… and now I tag:

Kayla at Kayla.Eats.Healthy

Ann Claire at Ann Claire’s Healthy Adventures

Kelsey at CleanTeenKelsey

Court and Whit at TeensEat (do one each girlies!)

E

 

Today…

…was long. I read a ton of bio and Brave New World. The day just seemed drag on. It was oddly cold (no warmer than 70) and so I just felt slow and sleepy. It was  a day for tea and a good book, not summer reading, bio, and artificial light.

I did do the tea thing though! Mostly because I was really cold but it was so comforting too!

Yummmmm

In my favorite mug no less

Lunch was chocolatey overnight oats. With strawberries, blueberries, Kashi Golean, protein powder, some cottage cheese, and plenty of coco powder! It was majorly filling!

By 3:30 my brain and my belly desperately needed a snack (brain food!).

So I gave them an Apple Cranberry Bran Muffin (only 80 calories!) from Trader Joe’s with cottage cheese and pumpkin butter on top. I found the pumpkin butter in the back of a cabinet unopened. It’s so yummy and pumpkin-y!

And of course a good ol’ bowl o’ fruit (a peach, cherries, and strawberries)! Because no meal is complete with out fruits or veggies.

*drooling*

After a kick-ass kickboxing workout I wanted some major FOOD!

My creative juices were flowing during kickboxing (along with the sweat ) and I dreamed up this beautiful thing.

*sings* You are so beautiful, to me...

Kidney beans, corn, onion, green and wax beans, canned tomato sauce, yellow pepper, and extra sharp cheddar… in a Flatout wrap and cooked in a “panini maker” (2 pans) and a salad for some freshness and green-ness.

All in all today was successful. I read a ton and ate some super good food! Now I am half delirious from being tired! I don’t know how I’m going to wake up at 5:30 when school starts. How I manage to get good grades with so little sleep is beyond me.

Nighty-night!

E

 

Rainy Night Soup!

So it’s a cold, rainy night…whats a girl to do when she wants something warm and cozy but all she has in the fridge is fruit and veggies for refreshing summer salads?

Make soup of course!

2 tablespoons on canola oil, 1 big onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of chili powder, red pepper to taste…

Stir and saute until onions are soft…

pour 1 cup of boiling water over 10 sun-dried tomatoes and set aside…

pour in 1/3 cup of water and the juice from 2 cans of tomatoes, then squeeze in the tomatoes so they get all smushed (that’s a scientific term ) and broken up…

simmer, covered, for 5 minutes…

drain the sun-dried tomatoes and chop those babies up! add them to the pot…

pour in 2 cans of black beans (and their liquid) or you can use 1 can of black beans and one can of red beans if you don’t have 2 cans of black beans like me…

simmer for 5 to 10 minutes covered…

Put half the soup in a blender or food processor and blend until it’s smooth…

pour it back into the pot with the unblended soup!

and what do you get?!

Not-so-Black Bean Soup!

serve with toast and a salad…

eat and enjoy as your tummy does the happy dance!

*from the recipe for Black Bean Soup from  Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home*

E <3

 

It’s Good to be Home!

Hello!

I have missed you all and blogging so much but I’m not going to lie the idea of trying to catch up on all my missed blogging is a bit daunting!

As soon as I can I am going to post my pictures from Minneapolis, Boulder, and backpacking but I haven’t loaded them onto my computer yet.

My trip was amazing! not only the week I spent in Minneapolis and Boulder (bother super cool cities) but especially my 12 days of backpacking where I really learned a lot about myself, what I want from my life and had a TON of fun!

The only piece of sad news I have right now is that my camera got a little wet the last day of my trip and I’m not completely sure that it works, at least the screen is broken so I can’t tell if its taking pictures. But I am going to find out if it can be fixed and if not a new camera will be quickly bought! I might be able to use my old camera for awhile but this may be a picture-less blog for a day or 2 until this little debacle gets sorted out!

During backpacking we had to eat a lot more food than I am used too, as you can imagine we are expending a lot of energy so the calories are needed. But we couldn’t exactly carry tons of fresh fruits and veggies so I ate a lot of dried fruits and nuts! The food was delish but far form low calorie so the next few days are all about getting readjusted to the way I normally eat and getting back to working out.

As nice as it is to be back in my routine and eating the way I like again. Its kind of sad being home. It almost feels as though the trip never happened. What I mean by that is the little world I was in out int he Colorado backcountry seems very far away form this world and its hard to imaging that they can exist together. It’s hard to explain but I am still trying to figure out this updated version of myself who I became throughout backpacking and how to balance being home with what I learned out there.

It sure feels good to be eating fruits and veggies again though! Hopefully I will have another blog later today possibly with pictures of some kind of we are lucky!!

Elli

 

Amazing music and more flatbread creations

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to see my favorite planet-saving, guitar-playing, former pro-surfing singer, Jack Johnson, live and in concert! Whoohoo!

I must admit that I own every album he has released and I listen to his music pretty much every morning when I’m getting dressed.

The concert was AMAZING! I had so much fun! Here are some pics!

I was singing at the top of my lungs for pretty much the whole thing I’m not going to lie, and yet it is seemingly impossible for me to lose my voice because it is fine today! Which is a fortunate thing I guess

Lunch today was one of my new favorite things… a Flatout wrap

Which I toasted (and burned )

and put on it a mixture of 1% and 4% cottage cheese, 0% greek yogurt, raisins, a few almonds (broken into little pieces), and a small handful of raisins. Then I cut it into smaller pieces. Kind of like a sweet pizza!

yum!

Along with all that awesomeness, I had my favorite little fruit combo peaches, cherries, and blueberries! It never gets old

A little later it was snack time!

For my pre-kickboxing snack I had a light Baby Bel cheese (only 50 calories and 6 g or protein!)

And a peach Light n’Fit yogurt with some blueberries and cereal.

That was about an hour ago… now I am off to kickboxing. I am pretty sore form getting back into my workout routine after vacation but it should be fun!

Happy bastille Day everyone!

Elli

 

Wow thank you guys!

Hello! I just wanted to make a quick post to thank everyone who has commented and even just looked at my blog. Just a few days ago I was lucky to have 3 people read this and today I had 26 people come check this little blog out! It is just so cool and amazing to me that 26 total strangers have read something I wrote and some of you actually took the time to comment! So thank you so so much

Also tonight’s dinner was so yummy I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to share it so I will take this opportunity now to introduce you all to my Tutti-Fruitti Oatmeal!!! She is just plain old oatmeal with cherries, banana, 1/2 a peach, strawberries, raisins, greek yogurt, and a little bit of honey. In person (or should I say in oatmeal) she is pink from the cherries, and oh-so delicious!

Along with my pink oatmeal I had a fruit salad ( strawberries, blueberries, and the rest of the peach.)

Incase any of you haven’t noticed by now I LOVE fruit! As in I could eat all fruit and only fruit all day everyday for the rest of my life and be a very happy girl. Although I might need some carbs in the mix too, I do love me some carbs But yes I love fruit and I have it every day, and I am very sad in the winter when all these lovely summer fruits are absent, although then there is grapefruit (which I also love)!! Hehe… ok so now we know that I love fruit, moving on.

My run at the gym was a lot less uncomfortable than this morning’s run, although it had a somewhat creepy end. I ran (and walked) 6 miles, and burned 666 calories, luckily it took me 64  minutes not 66 or I would have been really worried Still kind of creepy though. That’s another little fun fact about me! I am quite superstitious! I believe in karma, and ghosts, and other unexplainable things (not all of them though.)

Another fun fact about me is that right now I am pretty darn tired which is probably why I am just rambling on and on about silly things! So thank you all again for reading my little blog, it means a lot to me!

Elli