I wonder how tall they’ll get!  I love having something grow, even if all I had to do was add water and a tablet.  Still makes me feel like my thumb at least has a ‘hint’ of green to it.  Probably lime green, but that’s OK by me!

I really enjoyed the comments on my earlier post about Reducing & Reusing.  Everyone had great comments and ideas.  Joan from I’m In The Garden Today talked about reusing paper from finicky printers.  Cindy from A Sparkle A Day mentioned purchasing things in bulk and then transferring to jars at home.  Which prompted me to do that with mine too!  While my leftover almond butter jars were sitting neatly next to my drinking glasses in the cabinet, my adzuki beans and quinoa where in the plastic bulk bags I’d brought them home in, complete with twist-ties!  My good are movin’ on up like George and Weezy to their new dee-luxe digs:

This is one of the things I absolutely love about having started this blog.  I LOVE that we all trade ideas and share experiences.  Thank you all for the participation in this FitFeat community.  To this day, I still get so excited when I receive an email alert that I’ve got a comment on a blog post.  LOVE getting comments, so please keep ‘em coming!  And if you’re a lurker, that’s ok too.  I still love that you are here reading!

***

Here are a few highlights from yesterday’s healthy eats.  Another jumbo green smoothie to start my day. This one contained the following:

• 9 oz water
• 1/2 banana
• 2 clementines
• medium handful of clover sprouts
• 1/2 of a very large cucumber
• 2 tbsp pepitas (raw pumpkin kernels)
• 1/2 tbsp white chia seeds
• 1 stalk celery
• large handful of baby spinach
• 1.5 tbsp hemp protein powder

I know a few of you are green smoothie drinkers.  If you’re not, what’s holding you back? Is it how they look?  I know they are scary LOOKING, but they do taste fantastic.  Especially if you start with more fruit than greens, and then work your way to less fruit as you go along.

Lunch was a veggie wrap at my desk (and this time I actually took my camera to work so no BLURRY iPHONE pic here!)

• Whole wheat tortilla
• Smear of Tofutti (the UNcheese cream cheese)
• Shiitake mushrooms
• Tomato slices
• Baby spinach
• Clover sprouts
• Sprinkle of sea salt

It’s been a while since I’ve made a wrap – that was one of my “go to” lunches over the summer.  I think I’d forgotten how lip-smacking awesome they were, so now I’ll probably be stuck in another wrap rut again.

***

Well friends, I’m off to get my lunch packed and scoot on out the door.  Have a TOTALLY TERRIFIC THURSDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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It’s a happy day indeed.  I have the beginnings of some homemade sprouts!  So if you are a new reader who regularly makes your own sprouts and/or can actually grow things like live plants, you may want to read my previous post about my lack of a green thumb.  Actually seeing something GROWING in my kitchen is a FEAT for me!  So, any sprout experts out there want to chime in and tell me if it will be obvious to me when I can eat them? 

I have a feeling that I will still need to buy sprouts in addition to growing them because I eat way more in a day or two than what I have growing here I think. Although maybe they will still have a growth spurt!

Speaking of sprouts, check out this beautiful “before” shot of my green smoothie from yesterday. 

It looks awfully HOLIDAY-ish, don’t you think?  Pretty reds and greens!  I finally put those new cranberries to good use after all of Cindy’s cranberry blogging.  And in a recent comment she mentioned putting 2 bananas and a CUP of cranberries into a smoothie.  Cindy, are you trying to defibrillate my tastebuds?  I tasted one of those little buggers before I added them to my smoothie – they are t-t-tart!   I’m starting small for now!

I present to you my Festive Holiday CranApple Smoothie!

• 8 oz water
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 apple, unpeeled and chunked
• 1/2 small banana
• fistful of spinach
• a palm’s worth of sprouts (I used sweet clover sprouts)
• 1/2 large cucumber, peeled and chunked
• 1- 2 stalks celery, chunked
• 1/2 tbsp hemp oil

Blend till smooth. 

(“Chunked” is an official culinary term right?)   

Here is the after: 

It was definitely festive for the tastebuds!  Thank you Cindy for inspiring me to get some fresh cranberries, which I normally pass right on by in the produce section.  But learning from you of their anti-viral properties sold me!

I had a crazy urge for lunch-ish food at morning snack time so I toasted up some Ezekial sprouted grain bread, added some Tofutti spread, smeared on a little avocado, sprouts, cucumber, spinach and pepitas. 

Which left room for a light lunch when it was actually lunchtime!  Oh yeah, you know what I rolled with:

A little heavenly, gingery squash soup!  Reheated, it was JUST as good, if not better than, the first time.

And then a little slice of “pie” for a late afternoon snack.

Next up, it was out for some Friday night fun with some girlfriends I hadn’t seen for MUCH TOO LONG.  We hit up a local wine bar for a happy hour that spilled beyond that hour by about three more!  It was a wonderful time!  Love wine time with my ladies!  And in standard Shari style, I’m sure you know I suggested HUMMUS for a shared appetizer!  (My name is Shari and I’m a Hummus-Holic.)  While the service at this place left a LOT to be desired, their hummus most certainly did not.  It was probably the best hummus I’ve ever had. 

(Or maybe it was just the dim lights, candles and pretty plates that made it taste so good.  It couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with wine consumption!)

The manager left us with a complimentary bottle of vino to share (conveniently while we were trying to decide on just HOW small a tip to leave for our unattentive waiter.)  It was a moscato d’asti dessert wine and I do declare that I will run right out and buy a bottle to have on Thanksgiving.  (Does anyone declare that they watched this week’s “The Office”?)   If not you are all going, ‘Huh?”

Heavenly soup by day, heavenly wine by night.  It MUST have been a Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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So I’m still feeling Wednesday’s workout like nobody’s business.  The combination of the straight-leg deadlifts AND explosive lunges has hobbled me – in a good way!  Each of those exercises alone kicks my you-know-what, but put them together…?  Whoa.  I’m so in need of a good stretch – my hams are so sore/stiff I don’t think I could touch my toes at the moment even if someone put some chocolate on my shoe.

Then yesterday’s workout was YARDIO!!! (Yardwork cardio…!)  First step, Doody Duty ‘squat & scoops’.  Hopefully you find that self-explanatory.    (FYI folks, if you hire a service to do this for you, do them a very nice favor and do NOT run your sprinkler system within 24 hours of their scheduled time.  Just sayin’.)  Next step was the weed-whacker for a great arm workout.  Then the lawnmower with the catcher attached, which gets heavier as you go.

After a quick snack and some water (because Yardio is hard work, you know!) it was on to Part Deux: digging out sod.  Another fine total body workout.  I was sweating early on because I thought I could do this with a little garden spade.  Eventually I realized that I would be without the use of my hands for a few days if I kept that up, so I moved to a small shovel that I could hop on and force into the ground.   I am supposed to do Back & Triceps this morning, but I fear that the dumbbells will just fall right out of my hands!  We’ll see how that goes.

Yardio was apparently also exhausting for these two lazy bones cuties:

Let’s talk about FOOD, shall we?

Channeling my inner surfer chick with my Hawaii Starbucks mug (thanks Jimmy!)

Since I hadn’t had a workout yet, I had a very light breakfast.  Half a cantaloupe:

It was gone in like 2 minutes flat – SO GOOD! I can’t even remember the last time I had one!

Midmorning snack was a toasted piece of Genesis sprouted grain bread with some raw organic almond butter and a drizzle of raw local honey.

For lunch I decided on an open-faced ‘wich.  Slice of Genesis toast, schmear of Tofutti (soy ‘cream’ cheese), sprouts, avocado, yellow tomato slices, sea salt & pepper.  Red pepper sticks and remaining avocado on the side. I also at the rest of yesterday’s patio salad. After the photo was snapped, I slapped a romaine leaf on the top as my ‘wich lid. 

Followed by a little bite of heaven:

 A little mango passionfruit herbal tea with a side of Cashew Cookie by Larabar: 

Dinner was the reheated Falafel.  I don’t think I’ll do the reheat again.  One, you realize just how greasy they are and two they getsa bit mushy.  But the flavor was still good.  A new reader, Jen, let me know yesterday that the yummy pickled stuff is eggplant!  (Thanks Jen!) Now THAT still tastes good the next day.    This was a tiny little dinner so I knew I’d be looking for food again later in the evening.  

 And so I ate half of this little beauty for which I’d been impatiently waiting to ripen.  It taunted my on my counter for three days… ‘HaHa, I’m not ready yet!’  The minute it looked ripe I was all over it.  I saved half for today.

And when I should have been going to bed, I was still a little hungry to I had some Kashi GoLean cereal and a splash of almond milk. 

OK, my DAH-lings…. enjoy your Friday!  Drop a comment to let me know what exciting FIT plans you have for the upcoming weekend.  Hiking?  Running?  Cycling?  Yoga?  What will you do this weekend to thank your body for all it does for you?

 – Shari B. =)

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