GOOAAAALLLL!!!

Happy 2013! With the New Year comes new beginnings and new ideas to make this year the best one yet. A huge part of success is visualization and goal setting. If you don't know what you want, how will you get there?
Thought I would do a short little piece on goal setting. For me goal setting is one of those tasks that strikes fear in my heart and sends my brain to look for anything else to think about. Once I finally get it all out on paper it makes much more sense and I have a sense of clarity, even if it is a fleeting sense!
So let's jump in before I decide this is a bad idea!
Many people and goal setting tools tell you start big, think of your life in 10 years. What do you want your life to look like? Where are you? Who is with you? What do you spend your time doing?
No matter what your goals are there are some easy guidelines to follow:

• Use the present tense, this is all happening NOW
• Be quantifiable and specific. The more details the easier it is to break your big goal down into smaller, easier to manage goals. If you can't measure your goals it's not a goal.
• Always pick a by-when date. Set an end time, this keeps you accountable.
• Be affirmative and concise. Focus on the end result. Instead of I avoid running use I am a runner. 

For me once I know my big hairy goals I can break those down into smaller chunks. After 10 years is mapped out, go to 5, then 1 year. I even go so far as setting monthly goals for myself. Then from month to month I can know what I need to work on or where I am kicking ass!
I will share my January-March goals with you:
January: I complete a month long clean eating program, ingesting zero processed foods.
February: I log 10,000 steps everyday on my Fitbit
March: I cook a Sunday dinner for my friends and family every week.

Another tool I have found to be really helpful is a vision board. I really like this mostly cause I get to use my crafty side. Find pictures and words that relate to and motivate you to attain your 1, 5 and 10 year goals.  I hang my board in my bedroom so that I see it daily and it is a constant reminder. I attach a sticky note with my monthly goal to keep myself accountable there too.

So go ahead, sit down and make a vision for your life, you will be amazed at what will happen!

Holiday, Celebrate!

With the holiday season upon us I thought I would take a bit of a different path with this post and offer up some advice on how to recover from the dreaded hangover.
Set Limits
First set some limits before you even start sipping. They say that if you don't have more than two drinks of anything you will be in the clear. But at that office holiday party two might not cut it.
Drink Clear
Should you drink more than two try to make them clear liquids. Rum, vodka and gin have fewer congeners, a byproduct of fermentation that is more likely to make you feel ill the next morning.
Keep Eating
Everyone knows an empty stomach does you no favors. At that party eat before and keep snacking all night long, especially if you exceed two drinks.
Alternate Sips
My own personal rule of thumb is drink a glass of water for every drink I down. Water is best, but any virgin drink will work too. Also remember a glass or two of water before bed.

Should you still wake up with your head banging like a rock concert guzzle as much water as possible. Water will help flush the alcohol from your system and help you back to feeling like a functional being.

One more remedy is a yoga pose, not to worry extreme flexibility not required.

Seated twist (ardha matsyendrasana)
Sit on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you. Bend your right leg at the knee and cross it over the left leg, planting your right foot on the outside of your left knee. Bend your left leg in, bringing your left foot next to your right hip. On your inhale, sit up taller and place your left elbow on the outside of your right knee. On your exhale, slowly windmill your right arm behind you, turning your torso so your body is rotated as far back and to the right as comfortably possible. Hold for five deep breaths, then slowly return to the starting position and repeat on the opposite side.



And what would a post about hangovers be without a drink?
Here is a low-cal drink that won't ruin all that hard work you put in at the gym.
St. Germain and Champagne
1/2 part St. Germain
1/2 part Brut Champagne or dry sparkling wine
Float a half strawberry for garnish and a small dose of antioxidants too!


Cheers! Happy Holidays!

Energy Bites

Hello all,
Hope that the Thanksgiving holiday was a relaxing time spent with family or maybe some quality time with strangers at the mall. I began my week last week thinking that I needed a quick snack I could grab between meals or just before a workout. I was having trouble keeping my energy up through the day and realized that I was bulldozing my way through the day running on breakfast, a tiny lunch and whatever I could scrap together at dinner. Yes, this health coach was doing all the things I tell everyone not to.
My snack had to meet 3 criteria:
Must be bite sized
Must be easy to make
Ingredients had to be in my house already
The answer: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Balls
Here's what's in them:
2 1/2 C quick oats
3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter
1/4 c of honey
1/2 c of cacao nibs
2 tablespoons of almond milk
Here's how to make them:
Dump all the ingredients into a large bowl, mix together, this is a VERY sticky situation. I coated my spatula with coconut oil so that I didn't end up with a giant glob of mostly unmixed ingredients. I learned this the hard way! Once it's all mixed up form into balls of any size you like, mine were ping pong sized. Put on a non stick pan or a plate and refrigerate for at least 15 min before you eat them.
I made about 15 balls from this recipe. I am going to make another batch with chia seeds in them. You can also use whatever kind of liquid or nut butter you want as well. The mix in possibilities are endless.

Ingredients

In fitness news I took on a challenge, run a mile a day till the end of the year. My friend Laura, you can find her at bandidablog.com told me about the Runner's World Run Streak she was doing and there really was no excuse not to join her. It's my 6th day of the challenge and I can proudly say I haven't missed a day and my affection for running is slowly creeping back. Thankfully the weather has been more than accommodating for this challenge with temperatures in the 60s. This should also help with my time for the Farolito 5k I am running with Laura on Dec 16th. So if you've got less than 20 min to spare you should join the Run Streak too! Find all the details at Holiday Run Streak

Vegan pumpkin pie

heThis week I set out to veganize (pretty sure I made that word up) a traditional thanksgiving dish. Tofurkey was not going to be where I started! I hunted down a pumpkin pie recipe that only had 4 ingredients and made a date for a pumpkin pie bake-off with my friend Lorraine. Her recipe was slightly more complicated in that it included tofu.
Here is my recipe which I can thank Healthy. Happy. Life Vegan Blog a million times over for such a simple approach.
The ingredients:
1 1/4 cup of raw cashews
1 can pumpkin purse
1 cup of maple syrup
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
The preparation:
Soak cashews in water and 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt in the fridge over night.
In a food processor or vitamix blend cashews on low-high till almost smooth.
Add in pumpkin purée, maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spice and blend till creamy.
Pour all of this into the pie crust, bake at 400 degrees for 10 min then decrease to 350 for 30-40 min.

As for the pie crust, that recipe is a Lorraine family secret what I can tell you is that it includes flour, olive oil, salt. I am making this pie again for thanksgiving and I will be using a vegan pie crust from whole foods.

My pie is on the left and the right belongs to Lorraine

The bite sized portions we took to our taste tester

As for the results of the bake-off, I win!
We took our slices to an outside source, Lorraine's neighbor who is a regular baker of delicious things. He liked mine because it had the most traditional taste and texture. It's funny, we didn't tell him there was tofu one either one but somehow he knew there was something different about the other pie. Lorraine's pie was much more rich than mine, had a definite molasses taste to it
Here is Lorraine's recipe just in case you want to try for yourself. Pepperplate Easy Vegan Pumpkin Pie Recipe. A giant thank you to Lorraine for always being so willing to be my partner in vegan cooking crime!
Last but not least on this Thanksgiving Eve I would like to thank everyone who reads this blog and in turn supports my efforts to be less domestically disabled. This has been a year full of ups and downs but starting my health coaching business and learning what a joy cooking can be are for sure the best parts! I hope that each one of you has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Cheers!

Vegan Tamales

With the holidays coming up I had to find a way to replace my favorite New Mexican holiday dish, tamales. I would usually make an exception and make this dish the one time I indulged in pork but not this year. My friend Lorraine had made lentil and red chile tamales and I was inspired to make a green chile version.
First I set off to the local grower's market to gather all the zucchini and squash I could find. Turns out all I could find was zucchini, so I made it work.

The insides:

First start a pot of black beans boiling this will take most of the day to finish, cook according to the package

Cut up the zucchini in pretty large chunks, it cooks down pretty small. I had 6 medium size

Saute the zucchini and some garlic and onion, to taste I don't like a ton of onion.

Add in the chopped green chile toward the end.

I stored all of the filling over night and mashed and strained the beans the next morning. You don't want the filling to run or you will have a mess of a tamale. The more paste-like the better.

The Masa:

4 cups masa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup melted coconut oil

3 vegan "beef" bouillon cubes dissolved in 3 cups of water

1 package of dried corn husks, I bought 2 just to be sure.

In a large bowl mix the masa, baking powder and salt together. Add the coconut oil and mix well, then add the water and bouillon mixture. Stir well, you can add water as needed till it is a spongy texture.
You will want to soak the corn husks in a large bowl of warm water before you fill them.

Thankfully I have a mother who is well versed on the art of making tamales and she was very precise with her thickness of masa and picking which corn husks would be suitable those are her hands in the photo above. It's an inexact science, just don't tell her that!
My mom's method is something like this: find 2 fairly large husks and put them together, like a fan. Spread the masa on the middle 2/3 of the husk, don't make it too thick but enough that the filling can't leak through, we were using about 3 heaping tablespoons full of masa. Add the filling to the center, we used about 1 1/2 tablespoons. It will become obvious how much filling will fit. Fold one end over the filling and then fold the other end over that one. You can then fold up the bottom section, creating a burrito of sorts. Tear several of the husks up into "strings" and use these to secure the tamale, wrap it around and then tie a knot.
To cook them you need a double boiler sort of idea. Mom has a strainer that sits in the pot that works quite well, a plate small enough would do the job too I think. Add water to the pan so that the bottom of the tamales are in the water. Keep the water boiling, you will have to add water pretty frequently. and the tamales cooking until the masa peels away from the husk at the top. It took about an hour. I got about 3 dozen tamales out of this recipe. I froze the rest so I could easily defrost and eat. 

This was our set up for easy assembly of tamales. It can get a little messy.

The tamales, rolled and ready for the stove. 

I took these tamales to my friend Laura's annual Turkanza holiday party last night and I am proud to say that they were a hit!

Holy Guacamole!

It has come to my attention that it is national guacamole day, and a day such as this can't go uncelebrated!
Here is my incredibly simple recipe:
Avacado, how many depends are how many you are feeding. I tend to 1 per person
Tomatoes, roma, heirloom, cherry you can pick your favorite
Lemon juice
Garlic salt
Green chile if you have it
I add all off these things to taste, not a real exact science with this one.
I like to eat this with chips or on top of black bean veggie burgers as I did this evening.  Happy guacamole day!!
Stay tuned, vegan pumpkin pie and vegan tamales are coming very soon!

The Salty Taste of Disaster

This week I had grand plans to continue my pumpkin cooking theme. Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes was the meal of choice. I invited myself over to a friend's house and was going to make her and her 2 boys pancake lunch. I had all the ingredients in tow, even had my own pan. Whipped up the batter, put 4 pancakes on the fire. I tried a bit of the batter and it was really salty, thought I just got a bad patch. NOPE. To my great sadness the pancakes were the saltiest baked good I had ever eaten. My friend consoled me, saying cooking without eggs is difficult. The one plus, the texture was quite fluffy, not what I expected with no egg pancakes. I have made a vow to myself to try them again and skip the salt or salt to taste as I mix up the batter. Stay tuned for Pumpkin Pancakes, the success story!
To redeem myself in the kitchen I decided on a snack, something small I was sure I could not mess up, carrot stick fries! I headed to the local co-op to get colored carrots. It might be a small snack but I was determined to add some flare.

Peeled and chopped my carrots, tossed them with salt and olive oil and put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 min.

They came out very well, my friend Alexis even liked them. Give carrot fries a chance, they actually taste a lot like sweet potatoes. Have a great week everybody!