Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday! I’m still a bit congested, but feeling a lot better than I have been for the last few days. I was glad I had another dentist appointment in the morning, so I was already planning on staying home for the day. Let’s get the show on the road!

Breakfast 7:00 AM

Return of the pancakes made with almond flour! On Monday I got a really nice package from the Almond Board of California full of blanched almonds, almond flour, and individual servings of raw almonds. I was so excited because my almond flour had been out for a few weeks and I was on the verge of buying more!

I also drank a huge glass of orange juice. Orange juice typically turns me off, but yesterday it sounded so good. Don’t tell the Husband I drank some.

After breakfast I took Charlie for a walk, and then it was time for me to go to the dentist. Another tooth drilled = no fun. When I left the dentist, I stopped by Starbuck’s for a mid morning snack around 11:00 because I was already hungry and couldn’t chew for a few hours because my mouth was numb. I stopped by my sister’s house so my mom could cut my hair and I could play with the baby.

When I got home, I got to work outside – stopping, of course, every five minutes to blow my nose. I weeded half of my garden (it took over an hour!), and then planted some vegetables.

Charlie and I enjoyed the 80 degree sunshine!

Lunch 2:00 PM

I was famished by the time my mouth was not numb anymore. I put together a mock Chipotle bowl and was eating when my brother stopped over to visit.  We talked for a while, and then he helped me weed the rest of my garden – score!

Snack/Dinner? 5:00 PM

I had to babysit last night, so before I left I drank another glass of orange juice (the Husband is going to be angry when he reads this – ha!) and I ate two pieces of the cinnamon chip bread from Great Harvest – one slice with almond butter and one slice with coconut oil + sea salt (best combo ever.).

When I got home around 10:30, I ate another piece of bread and some chips + hummus.

Such a balanced day… I’m eating more vegetables today.

Well, it’s official – I can’t breathe out of my nose, my eyes are drooping from fatigue, and all I want to drink is orange juice. I think I’m a bit sick. Whether it’s allergies or my sinuses or a cold, I’m not sure – but all I know is the couch is calling my name.

I figured now is as good a time as any to share this video that was shared at church on Sunday. My pastor is doing a series on parenting, and on Sunday for Mother’s Day the sermon was all about what you can do at home as parents to guide your children. He referenced a book called The Blessing, and even though I’m not a parent I really want to read it since I work with children and interact with my nieces and nephew so frequently.

So, he played this video, which isn’t really so much about parenting, but about having someone that encourages you and believes in you no matter what. It’s absolutely incredible.

Have a great day everyone – cross your fingers that I can breathe by tomorrow!

Question: Who in your life has been a constant source of encouragement?

So, I’ve never been much of a French toast person. If I am given an option of a decadent breakfast, I will always choose pancakes – always. Or cinnamon rolls. But I never choose French toast and I never choose waffles.

But on Saturday when I went to go meet Kathleen for breakfast, she showed up with a bag of doughy bread for me. She had stopped by Great Harvest that morning and bought me a loaf of gluten free cinnamon chip brad. I have the best friends ever. It was such a wonderful surprise! Even though I was sufficiently stuffed when I left brunch, I sort of kind of maybe tore off a piece of the bread so I could try it for myself. It. Is. Delicious.

Honestly I don’t know what bakeries put in their baked goods (crack?) but my homemade breads never taste that good. The first thing I thought about after I finished my piece was that I wanted to make French toast in the morning. And I also wanted to dip my batter crusted bread into coconut before searing it on the piping hot skillet.

       print this recipe!    

I topped mine with grilled banana, Greek yogurt, almond butter, and a drizzle of syrup.

I’m not so sure about those pancakes anymore – French toast is kinda where it’s at.

1. Yesterday I had to get two cavities filled – not my idea of a fun day off if you ask me.

2. Have you ever eaten raw pumpkin seeds? I picked up a bunch of them from Whole Foods the other day because my TCM told me they naturally raise progesterone levels. I’ve had them roasted in trail mixes before, but never by themselves. They taste like bacon – I’m totally serious.

3. I have my monthly brunch date with Kathleen tomorrow! I’m so excited to get caught up with that gorgeous girl!

4. You know what really stinks? The hiccups. The ones that hurt. That’s all.

5. I have been eating out way too often lately. Last week I had Chipotle four times – FOUR!!! This week I’ve gone to Jason’s Deli, Whole Foods hot bar, the Vegan Cafe, and Jason’s Deli again. Aaaand I’m going out for breakfast tomorrow and for lunch on Sunday.

6. Speaking of eating out, I’ve obviously had no desire to cook or meal plan at home the past few weeks. Please give me some motivation – or just some meal ideas.

7. We have baby birdies living in our bird house outside. It’s on top of a tall post and Charlie keeps hearing the babies chirp. He is constantly trying to jump high enough or scratch his way up the post.

8. I bought all of my vegetables for my garden yesterday! Some vegetables I start from seeds but a lot of them I just buy as plants already from a nursery – it’s so much easier.

9. Sometimes I wish that I could teleport myself to my blogging friends’ houses – this week, in particular, Ashley’s house. She has been such an incredible friend lately and I just want to give her a big stinkin’ hug. UTTAAAAH, why are you so far?

10. Any other wives (i just typed wifes) out there not want to see The Avengers? My mom and I devised a plan for this. Since my dad and the Husband want to see it and my mom and I don’t, we’re going to go to a movie together, but apart. It will be great.

11. That’s all I’ve got for you today – Happy Friday!

Hi Everyone!

As an avid CEC reader I’m so excited for this opportunity to contribute today.

I just completed my Master of Public Health in nutrition at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and am currently working towards becoming a Registered Dietitian. In addition to school, I work for an amazing clean eating nutrition expert, Stacy Goldberg, Stacy has both a nutrition consulting company called What’s In Your Cart? as well as a recently launched company called “savorfull”, which delivers nutrient dense, allergy free foods to your doorstep! I’m lucky enough to be a part of both! When not studying / working you can find me either running, cooking, baking or blogging for a great ‘know-all” blog called “the loud and clear.” Come check us out!! – Kim McDevitt, MPH

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Everyday, each one of us wakes up and is faced with the same exact task: to fuel our bodies. How we choose to do this, however, is an entirely different story.

Some of us make calculated choices, studying food labels for calories, fat content, carbohydrates, added sugars, and more before even placing the morsel in our mouth. Others of us reach for what our body is craving, never even thinking to turn the package around. Most of us fall somewhere in between. And, while many of us like to build our meals from foods that don’t come in a package, others of us don’t always have that luxury and can be faced with a day when packaged foods are the only option out there.

Regardless of whether you woke up this week choosing to follow a low carb diet, the Paleo diet, a gluten and/or dairy free diet, vegan, vegetarian, or an “I’ll eat what I want, when I want!” diet we’re all in the same boat. We’re all making choices.

Too often, these choices evolve into a far more daunting tasks than they seemingly should. Thanks to every magazine on the shelves, virtually every news station (every single night!), local food stores, and more, we are constantly reminded to choose the “smarter” & “healthier” choice. But how many of you are confused about what the heck that choice is? In a fat free, low carb, low cal, sugar free, all natural, no added sugar, reduced fat, full fat, agave, no agave world, choosing your next breakfast cereal can be a real feat. (Today, you can find out more about those choices here!)

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to decode every ‘healthy food’ phrase or sort through every product on the shelves (heck, just the cereal aisle would take days). What I can do, however, is give you my top 5 foods that I often see people reaching for assuming they are healthy – when in fact they are just the opposite. From these 5 choices I’ll let you digest the information and piece together other foods that might fall into the same general categories, thus helping you make overall better, smarter choices!

Top 5 Unhealthy “Healthy” Foods

Reduced Fat Peanut Butter

Many people think that choosing a ‘low-fat’ option is always the smarter choice. However, the fat that is delivered to our bodies from foods like nuts is not equal to the fat that comes from french fries. Peanuts contain monounsaturated “good fat.” When you swap for the reduced fat, you’re not actually cutting calories (which many assume happens when you take fat out) due to the fact that reduced fat peanut butters add sugar in order to keep the consistency and taste palatable – And added sugar is far worse for our waste line than that natural fat.

Choose: All Natural nut butters with ingredients that = peanuts (and sometimes salt). Check out Trader Joes!! Peanut and Almond butters that both taste amazing and are affordable.

Bran Muffins

Bran is typically touted as a “nutritional powerhouse” thanks to its high levels of dietary fiber as well as rich source of omegas, starch, protein, vitamins and dietary minerals. Because most bran muffins are indeed made with healthful ingredients the problem often lies in portion size. Today, the muffins sold at our favorite local coffee shops are usually twice the size as a ‘normal’ portion, therefore loaded with grossly high levels of sugar, sodium and delivering upwards of 600 calories (before any butter, jam or other toping gets added).

Choose: Next time you reach for that muffin plan to split it with a friend, or better yet try making your own. You can stash a batch in your freezer pulling one out and reheating on a day-to-day basis.

Granola Cereal

While delicious, granola can be a dangerous way to start your day. Most mass produced granolas are loaded with fat and sugar and very little fiber. A healthy breakfast cereal should provide you with the exact opposite. Search for a granola with less than 10g of sugar per serving and mix with a high fiber cereal.

Choose: Try combining Love Grown Foods Simply Oats + Kashi Go Lean or Fiber One.

Vitamin Water

Sure you’re getting a jolt of vitamins and minerals, however the trade in vitamins for 33g of sugar and 130 calories (equivalent to a coke) as well as added flavoring and coloring isn’t worth it. And while the ‘zero’ version is a better option limiting artificial sweetened intake isn’t a terrible idea either (we don’t yet know the long term health effects).

Choose: a vitamin + fresh water with a squeeze of lemon or orange for flavor

Chicken Cesar Salad

Salads have been touted forever as a diet-friendly food choice, however today it’s not uncommon to see prepared restaurant salads to tip the calorie scale at 1,000calories per serving. You could have had the burger and fries for that!! The culprit, fried toppings such as fried chicken, cheese, nuts, and very rich, creamy dressings (which can add up to 400+ calories to that innocent romaine!!)

Choose: Be salad savvy by ordering a basic salad of field greens with extra variety of veggies. Any protein should ideally be grilled (or void of excess mayo – think tuna versus tuna salad). Adding cheese, nuts, croutons, etc? Ask for them on the side so you can control the amount you add. And always ask for a side of dressing. If you’re a ‘creamy’ fanatic try and “dip” rather than using the entire amount and sub with some fresh lemon or vinegar and a drizzle of heart healthy olive oil.

Have you ever read the Dr. Seuss book Wacky Wednesday? If you haven’t, it’s about a Wednesday, that’s well – wacky. This week in school we are celebrating Literacy Week and have been doing fun activities related to reading and writing all week long. Today’s theme is “Wacky Wednesday”, so the kids have been encouraged to dress crazily, and the teachers have been encouraged to do wacky things like switch with another teacher for a period of time throughout the day. The kids are going to go CRAZY today – but it should be a fun time.

Looking back onto yesterday, my appetite was all over the place – I wasn’t hungry, then I was starving, then I didn’t know what in the world I wanted to eat. It was a wacky day.

Breakfast – 6:00 AM

I didn’t have to decide what I wanted to breakfast yesterday morning because I popped a serving of overnight oats in the fridge before I went to bed last night.

I followed my method for preparing overnight oats, and in the morning I added the following:

• 2 tbsp. greek yogurt
• cinnamon
• raisins
• coconut
• almond butter

It was quite delicious!

Lunch – 11:30 AM

Once lunch time came around, we all needed a little break before the afternoon. I decided to head out with some other teachers for lunch. We went to Jason’s Deli for some laughs and their amazing salad bar.

This is a recycled picture, but it is basically what I ate for lunch.

Snack – 3:15 PM

After school I had a meeting from 3:30-5:30 to work on some curriculum writing. On my way to the school that the meeting was being held at, I snacked on my last of the three Luna bars I was sent to try out – the Chocolate Peanut Butter.

This almost beat the cookie dough flavor – it was goood!

When I got home around 6:00, I was greeted with a great card from my bestie “just because”. It definitely made my day!

And I put some flowers one of my students gave me in one of my giant mason jars. It is also Teacher Appreciation Week this week, so all the students brought in flowers today – too sweet!

After I got home, I did some weeding in my garden (not enjoying this mushroom compost as it is producing a boatload of weeds) and then took Charlie for a walk. By the time I got home, it was already almost 7:00. I had no idea what to eat for dinner and the Husband was out getting pizza with one of his buddies, so I went ahead and made pancakes!

Dinner – 7:15 PM

I followed my Greek Yogurt Chia Seed Pancakes, but instead of almond flour, I used coconut flour. So fluffy and delicious!

And after dinner, I had a few squares of Lindt Dark Chocolate – it was the perfect ending to a very sweet dinner.

I ended up the night watching Glee and reading in bed. Perfection.

I have a little confession to make to you all.

I have a wee little case of summeritis. Okay, that’s a lie – it’s a huge case of summeritis. Not only has this disease started to spread rampant throughout my classroom, but I have started to feel the effects of it as well in all areas in my life other than school. During the school day, summeritis doesn’t seem to affect me. I am able to complete my work, teach to my heart’s desire, and enjoy all of the fun activities the end of the year seems to bring. It’s when I get home that the summeritis starts to get to me.

I do NOT take for granted how much free time I have in the summer. I can leisurely complete household chores – washing the dishes, making the bed, or walking Charlie never seem to be so bad during the summer. Because, heck – I’ve got all day! During the school year I get pretty good at managing my time to make sure everything gets done. But somehow every year when May comes around, all time management skills go out the window. I lay in bed when I should be getting dressed for the day moaning and groaning about how I’m too tiiiireeed to do anything but lay there doing nothing. I start to forget what my hair can look like because I spend too much time sitting around the kitchen table or watching TV in the morning instead of using a round brush to tame the beast that my hair is. When I get home at night, nothing else but laying on the couch seems acceptable – just ask my husband who has eaten take out for the last three nights in a row. Or you could have just looked in my sink yesterday and seen the large pile of dishes that accumulated over the weekend.

I’ve got to get it together. Tomorrow I vow to wake up on time, function without caffeine, and be a productive member of society.

All that craziness about having more time on my hands will have to wait another three weeks.

And because this fits into my life goal, no more waiting a month to share a recipe with you.

I’m not even joking. It has been a month. I’m ashamed.

It all started when I wanted to make Katie’s Portobello Pesto Paninis and I didn’t have the right ingredients to make pesto – so I improvised – and it worked!

       print this recipe!    

Let’s tackle this Tuesday!

1. On Wednesday, one of my students told me I needed a coffee. I could have taken offense to that. Instead, I took it as an opportunity to tell him just exactly how I like my coffee… and that he is responsible for buying me a cup before the end of the school year for that comment.

2. The winner of the Alter Eco giveaway is #362, Lindsay C.! Congratulations! Please email me to claim your prize.

3. Is anyone else an avid Grey’s Anatomy watcher out there? I’ve been following it for years, but for some reason this season has NOT been doing it for me – at all. Until the last like three episodes. I’m hooked again.

4. 16 more wake ups until the end of the school year. Not that I’m counting down, but I’m just sayin’…

5. Speaking of which, that means I only have 16 more days to get in a BOATLOAD of material. AAAHHHH!

6. New snack obsession – half of an Udi’s gluten free plain bagel topped with almond butter, chia seeds, and banana.

7. It’s been scorching hot in these parts the past few days – like in the high 80’s. I am so thankful my classroom is air conditioned.

8. Doing laundry is like a never ending cycle of ridiculousness for me. I’m sure I’ve told you before, but it goes like this. 1) do a load of laundry 2)forget about the laundry for at least 12 hours. 3) Put laundry in the dryer. 4) Put a new load in. 5) Trip over other laundry piles on the floor for a few days. 6) Put clean laundry in basket. 7) Let clean laundry sit in basket for at least a week until it gets put away.

9. The new book in the Divergent series is out!!! I need to buy it pronto.

10. Happy Friday!

Happy Wednesday!

Just kidding, it’s Thursday. Did I get you there for a minute? Did your heart skip a beat? Or did you instead just think I was the crazy lady who can’t get my days right?

Don’t answer that.

I know I told you I was going to make up for my lack of a WIAW post yesterday, and here we go! Minus a picture of my breakfast because I forgot…. don’t judge me. It was oats in an almond butter jar. Does anyone else find it seriously alarming that I go through a jar of almond butter every single week? That has to be a ridiculous amount of almond butter consumption.

On my way to school, I picked up an iced coffee from Starbuck’s. Something told me I would need a little extra boost yesterday since I would be gone for 13 hours and because I could not peel myself out of bed yesterday morning.

This morning the entire fifth grade had an hour long music practice for their spring show in a few weeks.  While they were practicing, I rearranged my entire room. I have not liked the layout for the last two years, and I finally found something I like. I did, however, work up a sweat on the hottest day ever – it was 84 degrees out today!

When lunch came around, I was ready to eat. I headed up some leftover pasta from Tuesday night. I also had an unpictured pear. (I just wrote “pair”, “pear”, and “pare” and couldn’t figure out how it’s spelled – d’oh)

The whole day yesterday at school cracked me up – the kids were basically going bonkers because of the warm weather ad they had a Spanish performance that night. Not to mention, we participated in “The Great American Grump Out” (a take on “the Great American Smoke Out”). There was no grumping allowed – that meant no complaining, no moaning, no groaning – only smiling. If someone was found grumping, their consequence was smiling. We had a list going on the board of who was grumping – I made the list once. I had to smile for a minute straight after I complained. It was fun to play along.

During the afternoon, I ate a Luna Protein bar that was sent to me – I didn’t eat this one. I ate the Cookie Dough bar. These bars are gluten free and have 12 grams of protein and are mighty tasty.

Buuut the bar did not agree with my stomach. It may have been the soy protein in there or the fact that there’s a little dairy in the bar. I still loved it though.

I had to hang around town until 7:00 for the Spanish performance, so I decided to take that opportunity to go get my nails and toes done. I went to the BEST nail salon ever – they gave incredible massages. I even got a shoulder massage as my nails were drying. If that’s not customer service, I don’t know what is. I will be returning.

I was also the lonely girl (not really lonely) who ate Chipotle all by her lonesome and didn’t have anything to do because her phone died after this picture was taken and her kindle was also dead. Lame.

After singing along as an audience member to the 5th Grade Spanish Show, I came home, took a shower (it was hot and sweaty all day long), and popped a squat on the couch with my snack.

And now I have to make lunches and go to bed.

Oh, and I ate copious amounts of chocolate today in the forms of Trader Joe’s Nibs and a Calcium Adora Disk.

Just thought you should know.

I did not join in yesterday on everyone screaming about how they didn’t know how in the world it could be MAY already. I thought I would refrain until today. I can’t believe it’s May already! Yeah, I’m sorry for doing that.

I don’t know where my brain was yesterday, but it certainly was not with taking pictures of any of my food. So, no, there is no WIAW post to be had today. Don’t fret though, I’ll make up for it tomorrow… maybe.

I remembered that I was a knucklehead when I was making dinner yesterday. I vowed to take a picture of my dinner and share it with you if it was good – and it was! Even the husband agreed. Although, he did not agree that his garlic bread was good… since I burnt it under the broiler until it was charred and black. You know those Rachael Ray episodes where she says to watch things under the broiler? Uhh… you should listen to her. Broiler burns things quickly! It was all for a good cause though – I was talking to a family friend who I will be babysitting for three days a week this summer. She has two boys, and I’m already looking forward to keeping myself occupied and playing with them!

So, this was my dinner. It was delicious – you should make it. It was lemony and tasted like summer.

       print this recipe!    

Oh, and speaking of summer… this has nothing to do with anything, BUUUUT I convinced the Husband to go on vacation. Viva Riviera Maya!