Swapping Chocolate for Veggies {Giveaway}

Apr 4th, 2012 by Lauren

Oh hey What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW), I missed you last week. I promise to make it up to you by adding an extra cup of veggies this month, and doing a giveaway (below)…

6:30 am: I had a peaceful cup of naturally decaffeinated earl grey tea with steamed and frothed almond milk while checking emails and planning out my day.

7:30 am: Had breakfast consisting of leftovers scrambled in eggs–the absolute best way to use up leftovers.

In the mix: 1/2 teaspoon ghee, red onions, leftover lentil sloppy joes from Ashley’s blog, and spinach. Topped with nutritional yeast and a 1/2 teaspoon dollop of tahini.

9:30 am: Hill intervals on the dreadmill because of the unexplained dreary, rainy, and snowy weather outside. Here is what I did; feel free to adjust speeds for your pace.

10 minute warm up
4 minutes at incline 5, speed 5.3 mph
2 minutes at incline 0, speed 5.0 mph
4 minutes at incline 5, speed 5.3 mph
2 minutes at incline 0, speed 5.0 mph
4 minutes at incline 5, speed 5.3 mph
2 minutes at incline 0, speed 5.0 mph
4 minutes at incline 5, speed 5.3 mph
2 minutes at incline 0, speed 5.0 mph
4 minutes at incline 5, speed 5.3 mph
2 minutes at incline 0, speed 5.0 mph
5 minute cool down
Total: 45 minutes of a sweaty mess

10:30 am: Strength training with a group.

11:45 am: Post workout snack consisting of two of these guys made by substituting the cocoa powder with carob powder and the addition of 2 tablespoons brown rice protein powder and 2 tablespoons of water.

12:30 pm: Rushed home to throw together my dinner to have before my evening class, heat up lunch, and make it to my afternoon class on time.

Lunch was leftover chicken adobo from the slow cooker with brown rice and shaved Brussel sprouts. I’ll spare you the photo, because it wasn’t nearly as pretty as the one here, but it still tasted good.

4:30 pm: Early dinner before evening class: huge spinach salad with homemade mango vinaigrette dressing.

Mango Spinach Salad (Serves 1)

3 cups baby spinach
1/4 ripe champagne mango, diced
1/4 orange bell pepper, roughly chopped
1/4 cup English cucumber, roughly chopped
1/4 cup frozen edamame, defrosted if eating right away
1/4 avocado, diced
1 tablespoon red onion, diced
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
Mango vinaigrette (recipe below)

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and toss with dressing.

Mango Vinaigrette (Makes about 1 cup)

1 firm-ripe champagne mango
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or more apple cider vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Cut and dice mango. Add to blender with remaining ingredients, except olive oil.
Turn blender on low, and slowly stream in olive oil.
Taste and adjust salt, pepper, vinegar, and olive oil quantities if desired.

After my salad, I ended up having 1/3 of a rise almond honey protein+ bar because my double header of a workout started catching up with me.

I love these rise protein+ bars! They are loaded with protein and have a minimal ingredient list. This one contained: almonds, honey, whey protein isolate. That is all you need for excellent flavor and sustaining the hunger beast.

9:00 pm: After finally getting home from class, I had a bit of a growling tummy. I try not to eat before bed, but it had been a while since I ate dinner, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep without a little something. I had a few squares of theo Salted Almond dark chocolate, and a small glass of 2% milk.

Okay, someone please stop me from buying chocolate. I have one more bar left, and I DO NOT want to keep buying/eating it, because I always get a headache and blurred vision after having even the slightest bit. No. More.

But at least I slept like a baby.

Now for the main event…

I recently switched over to self hosting my blog and my rss feed went down for a bit, some links were broken for a while, and I lost a few e-mail subscribers along the way. In order to make it up to you I am giving a way a batch of my chili-cherry-carob almond butter since the fiance and I are currently obsessed with it. The caveats are that you have to like spice, because it is kinda spicy, you can’t be allergic to almonds, cherries, or carob, and you have to be adventurous because it is unlike any nut butter you will have tried before.

Here are the ways you can enter:

Leave a comment below telling me a creative nut butter flavor you would love to see on grocery store shelves.
Subscribe to my rss feed by clicking here or on one of the orange icons in the upper right hand of my blog, and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.
Subscribe to my blog via email by entering your email address in the subscribe box on the right hand panel of my blog, and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.
Refer a friend (or two) to my blog, and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

This giveaway closes Sunday, April 8th at 11:59 PM mountain time. I will pick and announce the winner the following Monday, April 9th. Good luck! Thanks for reading.