WIAW: Fermented Tea & Toxic Grapefruit

Posted on April 27, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hell-O everybody! Whew! Today has been a lahoooong day! TGTMF (Thank God tomorrow’s my Friday)!

Thank you so much for your sweet comments about my run-in with the law yesterday! Let’s hope there aren’t any more super expensive Cadbury eggs in my future, right?

Good news! The garage door is FIXED! Yay! 😀

Now get this, the guy that fixed it said it had something to do with a component (whatever that is) and that he’s replaced a lot of them since all the storms started. He thinks it may have had something to do with lightning! And I thought I was just going crazy!

Speaking of crazy, it’s that time of week again where we crazy bloggers post picks of ALL the day’s eats…Happy What I Ate Wednesday! Be sure to hop on over to Peas & Crayons and check out all the goods everyone linked up today!

Continuing on down Megan’s List, we have HEAB’s Cookie Dough Smoothie!

Breakfast (8:00am)
Topped with peanut butter (that sunk to the bottom), carob powder,
and carob chips

I loved the combo of flavors in this, though I may use a little less nutritional yeast next time. I like how a little nooch gives a subtle nutty taste, but I thought a whole tablespoon was a little too much for me.

Most notable: this smoothie kept me full for four hours!

 I don’t know about you, but I almost always get hungry 2 hours after having a smoothie!

Followed by Mr. 1/2 Caf Joe
and of course my vitamin candy 😉

Lunch (12:00pm)
TJ’s whole wheat tortilla stuffed with baby greens, carrots, black beans, nooch, and these guys:

My favorite salsa just met its new best friend!

TJ’s Greek blooby yogurt + chias and raw almonds

Snack (3:00pm)
Organic Braeburn apple
On sale at Kroger for…ready for this?

88 cents a pound!! 

Not my fave, but how could I pass up that deal?!

Afternoon pick-me-up (5:00pm)
Did you know if you put a kombucha to your ear, you can actually hear your cells chanting
“We love you! We love you!”?

I’m serious…try it!

Toxic Treat (6:00pm)
Hazardous half a grapefruit

What??

I was at work and needed a zippy! 😉

Dinner (8:00pm)
Snack plate with Yogi Ginger Tea (fave!)

Broccoli, carrots, and the last of the Mmm sauce 🙁
and
TJ’s Cinnamon Cats & carob chips for dessert!

I may or may not have run out of Mmm sauce and finished my carrots after a dive into a jar of sunflower seed butter!

I may not like carrots in AB or PB, but SSB…folks, we have a winner! 😉

And last, but certainly not least my Camelbak bottle of cool, fresh agua x TWO!

Hmm, now I think want another carrot! No, strike that…I DO want another carrot!

I may have started a bad thing here! 😉

Quick, it’s time for breakfast…what’s it gonna be? Sweet or savory?
I go through phases, but I have to say that although I LOVE my eggs, most of my breakfast end up sweet!

Posted in Breakfast, Entree, Snacks, Vegetarian, What I Ate Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 33 Comments

Monday Morning Madness

Posted on April 26, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hello broccoli fans! Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. We’ve been getting a lot of storms here lately…not sure if I live in Tennessee or Kansas with the number of tornado warnings in the past week! Let’s hope I don’t get blown too far away…though I wouldn’t totally object to a little vacation to Oz…just keep the Lollipop dudes on their side of the yellow brick road! 😉

So I decided to do a little post about a typical Monday morning in Casa de Broccoli. Unfortunately, the definition of “typical” lately has been just about anything on a scale from 1 to oh, I’d say, mental breakdown. Yeah, that balance I thought I found after my little staycation? Well, I guess I lost it again. Please let me know if anyone turns it in to lost and found, though I can’t afford a reward 🙁 Howabout cookies?

Before we get started, let me just say that Monday was no exception to the above definition.

  • 6:00am – Alarm goes off.
  • 6:10am – Miraculously find myself in workout clothes and take a second for what I deem a “pre-workout snack“

  • 6:15am – Join my girl J. Dub in a morning workout

  • 6:45am – Curse the day Jackie Warner was born as I lay in the floor gasping for air Finish workout and feel oh so bright about the day ahead!
  • 6:46am – Admire my fancy schmancy media center in my workout room

  • 7:00am – Shower
  • 7:15am – Dry off, put gel in hair and give time to air dry, put on comfy robe and monkey slippers
  • 7:20am – Head to kitchen for lifeforce coffee
  • 7:25am – Breakfast and blog reading

Kath’s Dough Boy Smoothie topped with coconut and Jessica’s Almost-Elvis Granola! Yum!

  • 8:00am – Pack lunch for work
  • 8:15am – Decide what pajamas (scrubs) I’m wearing for the day, makeup, finishing touches, shoot a gun finger to the bathroom mirror, and…
  • 8:40am- Out the door!
Word to ya mutha!

Now HERE is where the morning stops and the madness begins!


  • 8:41am – Hit garage door opener button
  • 8:42am – Get out of car and realize that the garage door isn’t opening properly.
  • 8:43am – Hit garage door opener about a bajillion more times in hopes that on the 326th time, it will actually do something different.
  • 8:46am – Run back into house, rip open the filing cabinet and frantically search for the owner’s manual to try to figure out how in the heck I’m going to get out of my garage!
  • 8:50am – Find manual and disengage garage door, back car out into drive and head back in to “fix” the door (read, do anything to get it to shut so I can make it to work at least almost on time!)
  • 9:00am – Realize that my dad has my only house key and speed dial Bob the Builder (only other person with a key) and tell him my dilemma
Ok, maybe he doesn’t look exactly like this, but I swear there’s a striking resemblance! 😉
  • 9:05am – Call work and explain situation now that I am obviously late to work (supposed to be there at 9am)
  • 9:06am – Start pacing the front step waiting on Bob the Builder who said he was only minutes down the road.
  • 9:09am – Realize I look like a crazy lady and go inside before I scare my new neighbors.
  • 9:30am – Bob the Builder arrives (what’d you do, Flintstone it?!)
  • 10:30am – FINALLY leave the house to go to work…taking with me one key for the house and leaving behind one broken garage door.
  • 10:40am – Say, “What the hay, I’m already late” and stop by the store for this:

  • 10:55am – Get back in the car and head on my merry little way to work.
  • 10:56am – Suddenly realize Andy is “setting me up”
  • 11:00am – Proceed to have a pent-up, came-out-of-nowhere mental breakdown as the officer writes me up a lovely one of these:

  • 11:ooam – Call my dad and scare the heck out of him as I tell him ALL about the morning while still continuing with the previous bullet!
  • 11:30am – Arrive to work, makeup-less (I am so purchasing duplicates of everything and hoarding them in my locker from now on!), sporting my biggest pair of shades.
  • 11:45am – Cleaned up, ready to work (sort of)…and still trying to figure out how exactly going to the store the day after Easter saved me ANY money on a Cadbury Egg!
These things BETTER be worth it, that’s all I have to say!
Anybody ever paid $135.00 for a Cadbury Egg??

PS, It’s ok to laugh! I am…NOW! 😉

Posted in Breakfast | Tagged , | 34 Comments

Cinnamon Raisin Almond Butter Cookies

Posted on April 25, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys! I hope you all had a fabulous bunnified Easter yesterday! How many of you had to wake yourselves up from a sugar coma this morning? Don’t lie!

So I realized something the other day…I’ve been a bad blogger! Yes, I know, 🙁 <- so sad!

I told you guys almost a whole month ago that I would share a new recipe with you and well, life got a bit “in the way” as it tends to do when you’re settling into a new home, fighting with your washing machine, and STILL trying to find time to have a life (what’s that?)!

So, before I get to the recipe, let me first tell you the story behind Heather’s Cinnamon Raisin Almond Butter Cookies.

I set out in the kitchen one day to make my rendition of the famous 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies. I had it in my mind to use this recipe as a starter and make my cookies a bit “healthier” if you will. The idea was great…the result?…eh, not so much!

I started off with my “healthified” cookie batter made up of 1 cup almond butter, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup raisins. After 10 minutes in the oven, they came out tasting like burnt almond butter and well, while that might be appealing to some (yeah, probably not), I knew I could do better!

Next thing I know, I’m throwing fistfuls of oats and whole wheat flour (among other ingredients) into the remaining batter like some kind of crazy cookie baker!

MUST…HAVE…HEALTHY…COOKIES!

And thus these guys were born!

So yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and did my best to recreate these beauties. A smooth almond butter base, chewy texture from the oats and raisins, and warm cinnamon spice rounds out these lower sugar treats!

Cinnamon Raisin Almond Butter Cookies: (makes 40 cookies)

  • 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup smooth almond butter
  • 1/2-3/4 cup granulated sugar (depending on taste, I used 1/2 cup)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit
2. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Set aside.
3. Stir together almond butter, sugar, egg, milk, and vanilla extract.
4. Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Stir in raisins.
6. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet about 2           inches apart.
7. Bake for 10 minutes or until tops of cookies look “shiny” (haha! You like my baker’s           terminology, don’tcha?!)
8. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool for 5-10 minutes before enjoying…or do what I       did and burn your tongue on one straight out of the oven!

Fresh outta da oven!

See the shiny-ness?

Love a perfectly browned cookie bottom!

This time around the cookies came out with a bit more structure to them instead of looking like oatmeal “clumps”, but by all means, if you like more of a texturized cookie, feel free to up the oat-age!

It’s really hard to mess up a recipe like this. You can pretty much adjust the flour/oats to suit your mix-in volume (using raisins, or any other dried fruit) and you can use just about any sweetener (honey, agave, stevia) or maybe go the sugar-free route and sub in some applesauce, banana, or pumpkin!

Whoa, idea overload! Now I seriously want to get back in the kitchen and try some of these variations! 😉

Well, this gal’s off to bed…and I’ll probably be dreaming about dancing cookies tonight!

Great…now I’m thinking of the California Raisins!

Anybody remember these guys…or am I just showing my age? 😉

Posted in Desserts | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments