Inspiration

Hey you guys! I know, I fell off the face of the earth again. I'm not going to claim that I'm back for good because really I'm just hanging on to this blog by a thread but I do think of you guys and take pictures of things I know you will enjoy :)

It has been oppressively hot here so cooking is really not an option at the moment. I've been enjoying foods that can be eaten cold and enjoying every second of it. I'm going to be making a cherry chocolate smoothie for breakfast tomorrow and it's going to be so good. I made blackberry vanilla ice pops and those are awesome too. But once in a while I'll eat something really ordinary and it will inspire some really amazing meals. Which is why I'm here today.

Last week I enjoyed a really simple meal that I grabbed on the go and it turned into meal inspiration for two different meal!  First, the inspiration:

Super simple brown rice veggie sushi rolls. I love these things and rarely ever get them because they tend to be expensive. I decided to use the basic flavors to make new dishes for hot, humid summer days and I think they came out great!

It all started with some Thai Sticky Purple Rice from Alter Eco. I LOVE this rice. Sticky rice is my favorite and make it fair trade and purple and count me in ;) This was the perfect choice. I wasn't super happy that I had to turn the stove on but cooked enough to get a ton of meals out of it.

So first I made tomorrow's lunch and decided to make 2 large spring rolls using brown rice paper wrappers. In addition to the wrappers I used a lettuce leaf, some of the rice (cooled completely), shredded carrots and cucumber and some shredded nori. I also made a super quick peanut sauce using powdered peanut butter, low sodium tamari, a tiny bit of agave and was thinned out with some water. I would have added sriracha but mine was about 3 years past its prime. I added some edamame for the side. Don't these look great?! Aside from the tear you can see I think I did a good job wrapping them.

While I had everything out I made my dinner for tonight. I made sushi inspired lettuce wraps with butter lettuce leaves, sticky purple rice, shredded carrot and cucumber, avocado and shredded nori. The only thing I wish I would have done was make more peanut sauce because they were a little dry but otherwise they were delicious!

Later on in the week I'll probably make a simple deconstructed sushi rice bowl with the rice, shredded veggies, avocado and shredded nori and I'll make some peanut sauce to drizzle on top. I love that simple sushi rolls inspired three meals :)

I do have some great meals planned for tomorrow so maybe I'll take some pics if I don't forget. We shall see!

That's all I have for today! I hope you are all doing well, staying cool and enjoying your summer!

Coconut Macadamia Date Bites!

Hey everyone! So clearly I've been slacking on POSTING about my cleanse but I have not been slacking on my cleanse. I have to say the one thing that has really gotten through to me this time around is moderation. I tend to lean too far in either direction (I'm either eating super super clean or processed galore) but I've been transitioning more toward moderation with this cleanse and I feel happier and healthier than I have in a while. I also find that I'm craving the good foods more and I'm more inclined to not be lazy and to actually prepare my meals for work and just create better habits.

As far as happiness I've been doing well for the most part but I've been tested a bit too. I still give in to the anxiety and aggravation/frustration that I'm prone to (lets me real, it may be sunshine and butterflies here but the "New York" comes out quite a bit outside of the blogosphere, ha!) but I'm more conscious of it and I try to balance it out. I'm typing this in a dark room with my candle lit and I'm in meditation mode :)

So onto today's post. I wanted a sweet treat and I had a bunch of macadamia nuts that were a bit on the pricey side so I decided to use them to help satisfy the rich, sweet craving I had. I love the combination of nuts, coconut and chocolate so Coconut Macadamia Date Bites were really a no brainer! Healthy, sweet, decadent and delicious, these bites are definitely worth a try!

Coconut Macadamia Date Bites

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of macadamia nuts (can substitute with almonds or nut of choice)

Heaping 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Heaping 1/4 cup raw cacao nibs

*15-20 soft pitted dates (soak if necessary)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch salt

Directions:

1. Process macadamia nuts in the food processor until finely chopped. They should be chunkier than a powder but not too many large chunks. Put into a medium sized mixing bowl with shredded coconut.

2. Process dates until you make a dough. Process in vanilla and cinnamon.

3. Add date dough to the mixing bowl and mix the dates with nuts and coconuts.

4. Add cacao nibs and mix in. I used my hands to mix the whole mixture.

5. Roll into bite sized balls or press into a pan (to cut into bars after being refrigerated for a bit).

Store in the fridge and enjoy!

*The number of dates depends on the size. If you have giant fresh ones I would go with 15. If you are rehydrating dried ones you may need to use more. I used 18 pitted Medjool Dates from Trader Joe's if that helps!

I hope you try this recipe! If you do, let me know if you like it! If you don't have a food processor you could always just cram the nuts and coconut into the pitted dates and sprinkle with cinnamon ;)

<3

Health & Happiness Cleanse: 4th of July

Hey everyone! Happy 4th of July! I hope you are all doing fun 4th of July type activities. I've decided to lay low today and just kind of be mellow. So far I've eaten very healthy meals but have nothing planned for dinner. I don't know what I want and I don't know what I'll have but I am going to try to make it healthy and cleanse friendly. I don't think it'll be too difficult considering my fridge is packed with gorgeous produce. I have eaten breakfast and lunch so far.... I might do a juice a little later if I get hungry or I'll just enjoy dinner.

I also did a little bit of prep so I have some other quick options to grab since salads and veggie dishes can be time consuming to make from scratch. I'll show you those as well! One of them is a sweet treat that came out SOOOOOOOO GOOD!

For breakfast I was craving some oatmeal so I made some oats with cinnamon and peanut butter mixed in to it and topped it with some banana and coconut. Oh my goodness it was so decadent and delicious but super healthy at the same time!

I *attempted* to make another batch of baked fritters today but decided to get all crazy and change up the recipe. These are broccoli, zucchini and corn fritters and these are the only two that baked up into normal pancakes. I don't think I got all of the water out because the other ones were just gooey and fell apart. I had the two surviving fritters for lunch with a slice of avo toast.

I salvaged the other fritters and made them into a hash. I figured I could eat it on top of rice or in a burrito bowl or in a tofu scramble so I saved the failed fritters to use throughout the week. As I mentioned this batch has broccoli and corn in addition to zucchini and also has green onion and garlic. Super clean and healthy and definitely tasty.

Finally for a sweet treat I made some date bites!! These are a little extra special because they have macadamia nuts in them along with coconut and cacao nibs and they are delicious. If you are interested in the recipe let me know in the comments and I can do a recipe post for this in the future!

I hope you are all enjoying the day! I'm so excited about my three day weekend :) I'll be back tomorrow with some more eats :)

Health & Happiness Cleanse: Day 5

Hey everyone. As expected, yesterday was just a really long day so I didn't photograph or post anything. I did photograph everything I've eaten up until this point today for you to see so I'm definitely trying! I haven't had dinner yet and I don't know what I'm going to have but I suspect a ton of veggies will end up on a plate in some form.

Anyway, here is what I've eaten today.

Breakfast was avocado toast. I've been loving it lately.

These are my snacks for the day. I had a large container of juicy, sweet watermelon and an individual serving size package of raw almonds. 

Lunch was leftovers from my yummy lunch on Monday! A lot of salad and zucchini fritters. Definitely going to make another batch of those soon.

Today was a little challenging on the happiness front... Normally I'm good about not getting aggravated by things but starting off my day with car issues and having a bunch of stuff pile on top of it really got to me. I'm relaxing now but I'm definitely having a harder time shaking it off today. Luckily I have a three day weekend coming up so hopefully that will help.

I hope you are all doing well <3