englandsword

Wow, what a busy week! I am loving my improv class but it's been weird having a schedule! I've been doing my weight workout first thing in the morning and fitting in my cardio later in the day after my improv class. This recap will be very brief -- despite a very busy week, I'm happy with keeping up my healthy habits. I'm still fitting in my workouts and I am really enjoying the mini-meals that I announced last week I'd be trying. I think it helps me control portion size if I know that I get to eat again soon! Thursday: Weights/strength: triceps, deltoids, chest Rest day from cardio Friday: 40 minute jog Weights/strength: upper back, hamstrings, obliques stretching Saturday: 60 minute hike at Runyon Canyon Weights/strength: quads, glutes, abs stretching Sunday: 30 minute bike Rest day from weights stretching I've had something to do in the evening every day. On Thursday I went to a Miss California party with one of my roommates, who is interning for a company th...

Food Diary: Breakfast: Chickpeas and broccoli Lunch: Salad, Gardein beef tips Snack: 1/2 serving zucchini pasta Dinner: Instant Colcannon, Cocoa Berries I made some sprouted chickpeas over the past two days. It's really easy - you start with dry chickpeas, then soak them overnight in some water (use lots of water because they puff up a lot). Then put them in some sort of mesh bag for a couple days and rinse them a few times a day. Lots of people sprout with jars, but it's so much easier to get some sprouting bags. I just keep them in my dish drainer and rinse when I'm at the sink for some other reason. You can eat sprouted chickpeas raw if you like the taste. I don't really like it, so I cooked mine. Cooking raw sprouted chickpeas may seem counterintuitive, but you still get benefits of sprouting plus a really short cooking time - like ten minutes instead of an hour and a half. I steamed up some broccoli, squirted ketchup all over it, and ate breakfast. Can you s...

I went to the Studio City Unitarian Universalist church yesterday as planned and the Earth Day service went really well. I was trying to think of something I could do for the Earth Day Lent -- but I'll get there in a minute. I always walk to church and afterwards I walked to Whole Foods to pick up some more sweet potatoes. When I got home I did some cooking -- I made veggie soup, black beans with wild rice, raw bread, raw green smoothie crackers, dehydrated sprouted lentils, buckwheat groats, and spelt groats, and some slightly dehydrated kiwi slices. The soup had leftover veggies I needed to use - a bunch of collard greens, carrots, fennel, half a tomato, some sun-dried tomato, a little bit of corn, some yellow pepper, a couple mushrooms, veggie broth (I use the concentrated kind out of a jar that I mix with water - there is no need for all that waste buying packages of veggie broth!), garlic, and seasonings. It was really good! I made a small pot and ate that for lunch. The...

I had a good weekend! I got some miscellaneous things done and of course I made more food. I had my job interview yesterday, and although the pay is tempting unfortunately I realized I would have to turn it down just because I need more flexibility because my acting career has to come first. I also watched the 1978 movie Ice Castles last night, and I did really enjoy it (like my mom knew I would). Today I went to the Unitarian Universalist church I've been going to recently -- I'm not really a church-goer but I am a friend-meeter so there ya go. I also had coffee with a girl from my acting class, which was really fun. Yay for social time. I finally got a chance to use my sprouted buckwheat groats and they are great! I read some conflicting reports about how long you should let them sprout -- some said only a day, and some said three days. I went for three days because I like maximum nutrition and I want to get the most bang for my buck. Here's my awesome sprouts i...

My dehydrator showed up today! It didn't get here until 7 but I did a few hours of prep before it got here so I could be ready to start using it! I sprouted some chickpeas -- my first sprouting experience ever! And it worked! Here are some pictures: That shows some of the sprouts coming through the bag. I thought it looked gross in a cool way. :) A peek into the bag. And my sprouts! I heard that the sprouts need to grow for 2-3 days and this was just two days but it seemed good enough to me. So, I immediately set to work destroying my beautiful sprouts and making some other good stuff -- hummus and falafel. For the hummus, I just used my food processor and mushed up the chickpeas with tahini, zucchini (to lower the calories a bit), cumin, coriander, parsley, cilantro, red pepper, and sun-dried tomatoes. It turned into a lovely sun-dried tomato hummus. Yum! I also made falafel, which I based loosely off of Gena's recipe on Choosing Raw: http://www.choosingraw.com/carrot-...