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Thinking Out Loud: Embracing the ADD

Posted on February 13, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

Big thanks to AMANDA for giving me a reason to skip an intro today!

1. Remember that book I said I got sucked into on Monday night? Well, last night, I FINISHED IT! Such a good, easy read, but with enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat! It’s funny, I only picked it up was because it was on the $2 rack at the bookstore a few months ago…ok, and I thought the cover was pretty! 😉

2. Banana scones with ~~almond~~ peanut butter glaze…you need these in your life STAT! As soon as I spied Madison’s post for these a couple weeks ago, I KNEW the fate of the two bananas lying on my kitchen counter. I took them to work with me and they were a HUGE hit! True story, this is only the second time I’ve used my almond flour and the last time, I made scones too!

3. Ok, so I know I’m pushing 30 now ♫ Ah, Push It! ♫, but have I really gotten so old that I can no longer appreciate currently trending “music”? Seriously, Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love”? Wtf IS that?! Surf board…? WHAT? I’m not linking that shit!

4. But I know I’m not THAT old! I heard a (relatively young-sounding) radio DJ refer to someone as being “long in the tooth” the other day. I have NEVER heard anyone use this phrase before. I looked it up and apparently it is another way of saying “old” and comes from the fact that horse’s teeth grow longer as they age. Weird!

5. I took Tiger to the vet over the weekend for his first check up in…three years? Better late than never, right? Don’t answer that. I’ll spare you the pics I took of him when we first walked into the office (think hair standing on end and ears flat) and leave you with this shot of my statuesque little man. Yeah, looking at this picture ALMOST makes me forget his recent terrorizing of my house.

6. Apparently my body has adopted a new sleep schedule. All this week, I’ve been going to bed around 9 or 10am…instead of faceplanting as soon as I get home…and have been sleeping until 6:30pm. So yeah, I’ve basically gotten NOTHING done this week.

7. These are seriously the CUTEST things I’ve ever seen in my life! Yeah, we won’t even talk about the amount of time I spent cruising Foodgawker, drooling over Valentines Day treats last night…and I have no intention whatsoever of making any of them!

8. I FINALLY got my hands on a Cookies & Cream Quest bar last week. And the verdict? ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY AMAZING! The perfect balance of crunchy cookie and creamy…well, CREAM! I see a box in my not-so-distant future! ;

9. It’s funny all the new ways I can think to bastardize these vegan pancake fails…cream cheese and jam has been happening at LEAST once a day lately. Oh and I’m only halfway through the stash! That’s funny…right? Say yes or I’ll cry!

10. So this was supposed to be a super easy, “get ‘er done” type post so I could conquer my never-ending unread list on BlogLovin’, but then it took me like twenty minutes to title the damn thing and I swear, for every link I included on this post, an hour was lost to ADD…and this is the moment where I got my post title! 😆

Ok, I’m out! Be sure to check out Running with Spoons where we all have a chance to embrace our inner Dug the Dog! “SQUIRREL!” 😯

Are you easily distracted?

Link me up something PRETTY to look at!!

Posted in Thinking Out Loud | Tagged books, music, night shift, pancakes, Quest bars, Tiger | 38 Comments

WIAW: Pancake Fails & Waffle Wins

Posted on February 12, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

Alternate title:

Sometimes I Surprise the HELL Out of Myself!

So after I failed to get a good nap in and struggled through my shift Sunday night/Monday morning, I came home, ate something, popped a B-dryl (yeah, we’re tight like that now), and at 8:30am, totally faceplanted.

And didn’t move an inch until my alarm buzzed at 6:30pm!!!

I know! 1. I never sleep that late and 2. I never sleep that LONG! It was a glorious thing and I took about 1.359 seconds to bask in that acknowledgment before my mind was forced into the present and realized I had ONE HOUR to get out of the house and make it to work on time! Cue hyper-Heather mode!

In 45 minutes, I was showered, dressed, partially-makeuped (hey, something had to get cut) and in the kitchen wildly searching for sustenance. All of a sudden, I can’t get the thought of scrambled eggs out of my head. Even though I’m all like, “Heather, you don’t have TIIIIIIIME to make scrambled eggs….But, but I really WAAAAANT scrambled eggs!” Yes, I whine/argue with myself…it happens…but the best part?

No matter what, I always WIN! 😉

Two whole eggs, half a banana, and a side of vegan pancake fail topped with BUTTER and strawberry jam (oh yeah, bastardized in the BEST way possible!). After I put this plate away in ohhhh about 2 minutes, I threw a bunch of random things in my bag, called it “lunch” and out the door I went! Then I pulled into work TEN MINUTES EARLY!
How in the…? Yeah, no clue!

So as it turned out my minute ~~man~~ eggs ~~was~~ were surprising satisfying because I didn’t get hungry again for something like SIX HOURS! When I did, I dug out my lunch box treasures and thought I’d arrange myself a little “snack plate” of sorts.

And surprised myself once again that THIS (plus a mug of my favorite coffee) was all I actually ended up eating…over THREE HOURS! A bowl of thawed from frozen lima beans, a spoonful of Caramel Apple Cashew Butter and only HALF of an apple!

Honestly, I had some down time and totally got sucked into the new book I’m reading so I kept “forgetting” that I hadn’t yet finished eating, but when I finally took my last bite, I was comfortable…full…satisfied. So I just went with it thinking I would have more to snack on later.

But I didn’t get hungry again until right before I left work. At this point, I figured I’d just wait until I got home, throw down a bowl of cereal with peanut flour and call it done, BUT it was cold as BALLS outside! Poor Elvira’s heat just couldn’t keep up! My fingers were still frozen when I walked into my house 20 minutes later…and that’s after riding the whole way with them shoved into the vents of the dashboard!

So yeah, cereal wasn’t looking all that appealing. I ~~wanted~~ NEEDED something hot. Oatmeal? Nah. More eggs? Nah. What did I WANT? Hmm, I’ve still got the other half of my apple…Oh, I know…I’ll make some waffles!

So that’s what I did…from SCRATCH, BABY!!! 😀

I just knew, knew, KNEW it wouldn’t work. As soon as the light cut off on the waffle maker, telling me it was time to open it up and face my failure, I wondered why the HELL I didn’t just grab the Kodiak mix out of the pantry. And then BAM!

Ain’t she gorrrrrrrrrrgeous?!

Recipe coming soon! 😀

I have to say, part of me was a little hesitant to put this post up today…I mean, What I Ate Wednesday? More like, That’s ALL I Ate Wednesday?! But you know what? That’s just the balance of life…sometimes you eat more…sometimes you eat less. I shouldn’t feel bad for my bird-sized appetite no more than another person should feel bad for eating a second helping at dinner.

At NO point during the day did I feel deprived. When my stomach growled, I ate. And when it was quiet, I didn’t. This is what works for me. If you have a recent history with ED and then yes, it’s hard to trust your body’s natural hunger cues, but I know that I have a healthy metabolism and I also know that I will probably more than make up for it once I hit Body Pump tomorrow. So yeah, I’m ok!

Now, before I ramble on anymore, how about hopping on over to Peas & Crayons and showing our hostess, Jenn, some love? Because no matter WHAT you ate (or how much), today is THE day to celebrate it!

Oh and I surprisingly drank 64 ounces of water without even trying! Woop!

When was the last time you SURPRISED yourself?

Posted in Intuitive Eating, What I Ate Wednesday | Tagged apples, bananas, cinnamon, coffee, eggs, Elvira, hospital, jam, nut butter, pancake fail, pancakes, waffles | 41 Comments

Caramel Apple Cashew Butter

Posted on February 10, 2014 by kissmybroccoli

Ok, so maybe this weekend wasn’t a TOTAL loss…

And maybe…just MAYBE, I ended up with something to soothe my soul after
The Great Vegan Pancake Meltdown of 2014.

There’s something to be said about comfort food.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make THE BEST car-mul apples from scratch. It’s been YEARS since I’ve had one, but I can still remember how it felt, standing beside her in the kitchen, eye-level to the countertop, watching her work, sucking back the saliva forming at the corners of my mouth while waiting…WAITING the twenty thousand years for them to set.

You know, give or take a day or so.

Eventually, the clouds would part, the angels would sing, and the sun would cast it’s heavenly light upon the no longer forbidden fruit. I would squeal with delight as I was bestowed my caramel confection, spinning it round and round on it’s spindle admiring its sugary sheen.

Then, I would finally FINALLY take that first bite…

I would struggle to find just the right angle…undoubtedly coming back with only a mouthful of caramel after the first few attempts…but I would conquer that snack on a stick. And when I had finished, I would look up to my mother and hope she could see my gratitude…under the layers of stickiness that streaked my face, dribbled down my shirt, and clung to a few strands of my hair.

If only food processors had been as popular as camcorders in the 90’s…perhaps my mom could have saved herself from having to wipe the entire house down with baby wipes. This Caramel Apple Cashew Butter is the quicker, ~~picker upper~~ snack of today and in less than twenty minutes you can have your ~~cake~~ caramel and eat it too…without having to take a bath afterwards! 😉

Caramel Apple Cashew Butter

By: Heather @ Kiss My Broccoli

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes

Cook Time: N/A

Keywords: food processor breakfast dip/spread snack

Ingredients (1 cup)

1 1/2 cups raw cashews
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons prepared caramel sauce
1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Now break out the apples, graham crackers, bagels, or in the case of impending tears, just shove a spoonful of that comforting classic flavor right in your PIE hole! 😉

What was one of your favorite comfort food treats growing up?

CARmul or CARAmel?