is comparing yourself to others a good thing?

hey hey buddies. it's tuesday, jess!

i had a bombtastic day today. i acted like a blob all morning, read a little, went out to lunch with christie from honoring health (again! love her!), and knocked out a killer strength training workout.

yep. all in a days work :)

just a quick thought for you all tonight... i was reading some older posts from two awesome blogs and came across posts about how many calories they consume.

usually, i'm not really into other people's diets, but that day it struck a chord with me. i guess i was blown away by how active these girls are, and how little calories they actually ate (compared to me).

my first reaction was intrigue. they are both so healthy, and their diets really seem flawless! i'm amazed at their endless creativity and dedication to health.

... but then, i started internalizing. you know, comparing myself.

i started thinking about how beautiful and active these girls are, and how i move so much less, but eat so much more! it blew my mind.

i wouldn't say it made me uncomfortable, but i definitely had a few moments of uncertainty. how could this be? am i eating the right amount? am i overeating? 

i quickly came to a shocking conclusion: i am not either of them.

brilliant, i know. the important fact i lost sight of was that we are all unique. what's good for me may not be good for you, or anyone else for that matter. we are individuals, and we require different things to feel and look our best.

i know what i normally eat, and if i was to eat less, i would definitely lose weight that i don't want to lose. if someone else ate like me, however, they might gain or lose weight. or just feel like crap. or be bored. or not think i have very good tastes in snacks. whatever.

it was eye-opening, to say the least. i realized even when i think that i've conquered a weak area, i can always be taken off guard! i'm not immune to insecurity, that's for sure.

so i decided to do my own "day of food" post.

this is not meant to encourage more comparison. please, don't look at me as the standard. i'm quite the opposite, actually.

it's meant to be a declaration of self-acceptance: i am rebekah. this is what i eat, and i'm totally ok with that.

let's get started, shall we?

5:05am - must. drink. water. now.

5:31am - oatmeal time! oatmeal time! oatmeal time!

in the mix: chocolate chia tahini oats. yum.

6:00am - decaf coffee (and assume i am pounding water the rest of the day from here out)

9:20am - post-run recover smoothie (recycled picture, i ate too quick!)

in the mix: hemp protein, hemp milk, banana, strawberries, blueberries, + spinach

p.s. - you can tell it's finally daylight! lol.

11:40am - leftover amaranth savory pancakes

mix it up! try substituting leftover cooked grains in your next pancake recipe. blend them up a bit in the food processor first if you like a smoother texture.

+ snow peas and copious amounts of (unpictured) carrots

intermission: i just had to show you guys this shelf on our freezer.

i love my little brother! he's 16... can you tell?

1:30pm - gala apple + almonds + rooibos tea

second intermission: look at my mom's cute plants!

2:06pm - second snack. because apparently the first one wasn't enough.

(on a book up for review - coming soon!)

4:07pm - dinner, part one.

mom's homemade whole wheat bread + homemade hummus

5:15pm - leftover baked potato + homemade 3-bean chili

... where are my leafy greens today???

taa-daa! y'all sleepin' yet?

who cares what everyone else does? you are really quite lovely just how you are.

i want you to look at your body and what you eat, and promise not to judge yourselves, either. deal?

-rebekah

the weirdest, best recipe i've ever attempted.

i made baking frankenstein.

you ready for this?

we had a huge container of leftover cantaloupe from a cookout, and i had to do something with it...

... cantaloupe muffins.

oh yes i did.

the recipe, if you dare.

loooooooosely adapted from here

- 3 eggs

- 3/4 c oil

- 1 tbsp maple syrup

- 1 1/2 c white sugar

- 2 tbsp vanilla extract

- 1 1/2 c cantaloupe puree

- 1/3 c orange juice

- 3 c all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

- 2 tsp nutmeg

- 1 tsp ground ginger

- 1/2 c chopped walnuts

- 1/4 c chopped prunes

- 1/4 c currants

directions.

1. get out two bowls: in one, combine your wet ingredients and sugar. in another, whisk your dry ingredients together.

2. combine your wet and try, stirring just until mixed. add your nuts and dried fruit, and fold.

3. pop those freaky muffins in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 325*.

the verdict?
they were so, so good! my mom and i couldn't stop raving about these moist, plush little muffins.
you don't taste the cantaloupe at all. think zucchini bread... but better!

and cantaloupe is really healthy, to boot!
so if you happen to find yourself with some reject cantaloupe, you know what to do!

ever made a freaky recipe? spill it!
- rebekah

a clarification, a bar review, and a thought.

thank you guys so much for your encouragement yesterday!

i know being excited about hunger is a strange thing to think about, but after a few years of feeling like a freak with my health, just to do normal things again is such a blessing.

1. allow me to clarify something:

my links were almost the same color as my regular words, so i changed it to make it easier to see. 

sorry about the the link to the justin's nut butter giveaway being hard to see... enter for free justin's here!

2. a bar review on a bar actually worth buying.

ok, i'm probaby the last person on earth to try something from amazing grass, but i can't help it!

a) i'm a starving student, and b) they ain't cheap! but i snagged this bar buy one get one free at whole foods the other day and thought i'd give it a try.

i love that it has so many incredible ingredients packed into one little bar!

"The peanut butter protein Bar is a premium blend of organic peanuts and whey protein in a chocolate covered bar. Each bar is loaded with 12gr of protein."

270 calories
14 grams of fat (healthy omegas)
12 grams of protein
19 grams of sugar
28 grams of carbohydrates

Ingredient List: Organic Peanut Butter, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Dates, Whey Protein Concentrate, Organic Peanuts, Organic Rice Crisps, Amazing Grass Green SuperFood (Organic Wheat Grass, Organic Barley Grass, Organic Alfalfa, Organic Spirulina, Organic Spinach, Organic Chlorella, Organic Broccoli, Organic Acai, Organic Maca, Organic Carrot, Organic Beet, Raspberry, Organic Rose Hips, Pineapple, Green Tea, Organic Flax Lignans, L. Adidophilus, Alpha and Beta Amylase, Protease, Lipase, Lactase, Cellulase, Organic Peppermint), Natural Flavor, Peanut Extract, Organic Vanilla Extract, Sea Salt Organic Dark Chocolate Coating: Cane Sugar, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Non-GMO Soy Lecithin, Natural Vanilla Flavor

i usually don't do chocolate covered bars, but this one seemed pretty wholesome as far as they go. i shared it in the dark with the boy during a movie, and when i ate the next one the day after, i started cracking up... if he knew the inside was green, he wouldn't have touched it for a million dollars!

this is actually a bar i think could be a good addition to my snack rotation. i like.

have you tried it or the shake packets? whaddya think?

3. a thought.

do you guys buy all organic produce?
i grocery shop for 4: me, my mom, my little sister, and my little brother... except my sister, brother, and i are all athletes, so we eat for more like 10,000.

... so i just try to buy what i can afford.

sure, i'd love to bring home the organic produce section of whole foods everyday, but there's no way i could fit that into my budget.

so what is really important to be organic, and what isn't?
if you're like me, you have a limit budget for food, but you want to make the best choices with your money.

so what's worth the money for organic, and what can you pass on?

the dirty dozen:
you should always try to buy these organic.
they retain the highest amounts of pesticides from being sprayed with chemicals during farming.
- celery
- peaches
- strawberries
- apples
- blueberries
- nectarines
- bell peppers
- spinach
- kale
- cherries
- potatoes
- grapes

not quite as bad, but also on the naughty list?
- salad greens
- carrots
- pears
- meat
- milk
- coffee

the clean fifteen:
these are foods that are considered safe from the chemicals used in farming.
these are ok to buy regular, so go nuts!
- onions
- avocados
- corn
- pineapple
- mango
- asparagus
- peas
- kiwi
- cabbage
- eggplant
- papaya
- watermelon
- broccoli
- sweet potato
- tomatoes

want a printout of those lists to take shopping with you?

the bottom line?
do the best you can with what you have.

if you eat an apple everyday, you might consider going organic. if you only eat blueberries twice a year, don't sweat too much if they aren't organic.

think about what makes the biggest impact in your life, and stick with that. life is about making good choices, not wasting it worring about what might kill you. eat well, and live well!


do you guys think organic food is worth the price?
do you make it a priority to buy organic produce every time you shop?
- r

y'all make me blush.

you guys are too sweet!
thank you all so much for your comments on my pictures yesterday...

the crazy thing is, i had long, curly hair halfway down my back in high school...! see?

from summer 2007...

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last night, i had the pleasure of meeting up with two lovely blog buddies, brittany and meredith, at one of my current restaurant obsessions, ipanema cafe. is it obvious how much i love this place?

it's also a favorite of miss brittany's, and since meredith had never been, we felt we must introduce her :)

meredith, brittany, and i in front of a 7-11...

gotta love richmond!

i had an amazing arugula salad with roasted beets, gouda cheese, and the most incredible salad dressing of all time! brittany donated a handful of her sweet potato fries, too, which i could have kissed her for.

think if i ask really nicely, the chef would give me the recipe???

the girls were lovely, and we chatted the night away about foreign food, work, and how our men deal with our quirky blogging habits.
i mean, doesn't everyone photograph their food?

if you guys haven't checked out their blogs yet, please do! they both have incredible, motivating stories to share, and their eats ain't too shabby either.

...................................................................

i also did a little sumthin' in the kitchen.
roasted up an eggplant, zucchini, and a sweet potato for lunches this week.

i also marinated some tempeh in sriratcha, honey, and dijon mustard, and popped it in for the last few minutes of the veggie roast...

by the way, i roast my veggies/taters on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for easy clean up. i set the temp to 350* and leave them for 40-60 minutes. try it!


aaaaaaaaaand i made more hummus. 
try this recipe if you're in the market for some incredible, face-rockin' curried honey hummus.

thanks ashley! this girl is amazing, talented, and super sweet, as if her hummus recipe wasn't rockin' enough!
it's her picture, too - i'm clearly not that talented, because mine was too gross-looking to post.

if you guys are still buying hummus, you're cheating yourself!
the cost for this recipe?
- can of chickpeas: $.89 at whole foods
- 2 cloves of garlic: basically free???
- scoop of peanut butter: maybe $.30 or so
- tablespoon of sesame oil: $.15
- spices: only a tablespoon of each, probably $.05 each
total: around $1.50 for a container, versus $4.99 from whole foods... whaaa?


and allow me to introduce you to the best thing you'll ever eat:
whole wheat wrap, banana, strawberries, sprinkle cinnamon, and a spread made from 1 tbsp cocoa and 2 tbsp almond milk.
holy junk.

i really doubt i could ever top this snack. my life is complete.

so, your turn!
do you guys have an incredible snack/meal recipe to share with me?
i'd like to see you beat this one! :)
- rebekah

p.s. - check out katie's awesome giveaway for a giftcard!

cake wrecks

sometimes in the kitchen, you gotta make a few disasters before you appreciate a product that comes out gorgeous.
that is the story of my week this week. in fact, i got so frustrated i didn't hardly take pictures of my recipes. at all. but i will thrill you guys with the written word this week... :)



first recipe - made for my little sister who is allergic to practically EVERYTHING. she just got allergy tested again and discovered a few more things she needs to cut from her diet (namely: sesame seed, cinnamon, ALL grains + oats, and most nuts). she's actually the reason i started cooking (shoutout to my girl rach!), so i owe her thanks. her only request after ten years of eating as a nut-free celiac?  PIZZA!
p.s. - this was the ONE recipe this week that didn't fail.. but i've made it before! (cheating? nahhhh)

the gluten-free goddess's millet-buckwheat wraps 

(used as pizza crusts, i got 16 small crusts)

Whisk together the dry ingredients:
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour (i used brown rice because i was out... oops)
1/2 cup arrowroot or tapioca starch
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (i doubled this because we're garlic addicts)
1 teaspoon thyme
(i also added in a few spoonfuls of flax to bump up nutrition... maybe 3 tbsp?)

Add in:
3 tablespoons olive oil (i used two)
1 tablespoon honey or raw agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon light tasting vinegar (i used apple cider vinegar)
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs whisked with 4 tablespoons hot water (i just used 2 eggs)
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup hemp milk (or non-dairy milk) (i used regular milk because she can have dairy just fine)


directions: beat the wet ingredients into the dry mix until the batter is smooth. It should look and feel like a thick pancake batter (though it appears strange and goopy at first, keep beating).

rebekah's directions: i heated up our pancake griddle and made these just like pancakes. the batter was reaaaaaally thick, but i wanted them to be to make a heartier crust. to make her pizza, i headed up our pizza stone, topped the "crusts" with her favorites, and baked them for about 10 more minutes. she loved them, and they are flexible enough to use as pitas for sammies!




second recipe - last weekend was my nephew's 4th birthday party! isn't he adorable?

my sister requested a mickey mouse cake for his party, so naturally i stepped in. i picked out a recipe i KNEW could never fail me... one from Smitten Kitchen! she's pretty much a baked-goods god, so how could i go wrong? i had made this SAME EXACT cake probably 938409324 times before, so i thought it would be fine. WELLLLLLL i had a hard time figuring out how many times i needed to double the recipe to have enough batter for mickey's two layers. as well as the two layers for BOTH ears... 6 cakes in all. seems like simple math, but with the different size cake pans... it wasn't so simple (at least, not to this nutrition major!). after multiple hours of getting pissed off at lava-cake, i ended up just making one big layer cake with mickey candles (with mom's LIFESAVING help! thanks mom!). my frustration aside, it tasted great, and logan was thrilled. so this is a half-fail.

deb's best birthday cake

(bastardized by storebought frosting)

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.


(the fail-lava cake part was no fault of deb's! love her! and logan handled the chocolate frosting juuuust fine)

happy 4th, lolo!

third recipe - once again, this was for my lovely little sister. she goes to swim practice in the mornings before school, so she needs a quick boost of energy she can cram in her mouth on the way out the door (at 5am!). i adapted this recipe a lot because of all her food allergies, but it would be delicious as-is (elena uses almonds, coconut oil, and tops it with chocolate (!!!)) the texture when i make them is similar to a larabar. the recipe wasn't a fail, but it took me about 65 times as long as it should have because my brain apparently decided to VACATE my head and i kept forgetting where i put things, measuring wrong, etc. so really i was the fail!

Gluten-Free Cashew Power Bars

(original recipe from elena, adapted by yours truly)

2 cups trader joe's salted cashews
2 tbsp hemp seed
2 tbsp chia seed
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
½ cup cashew butter
½ cup almond oil (i wish i had coconut oil!)
1 packet stevia
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


1. process cashews, seeds, shredded coconut, and cashew butter in a food processor for 10 seconds
2. gently melt almond oil in microwave, then mix with stevia, honey, and vanilla
3. add melted oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste
4. chill in refrigerator for hour, until mixture hardens up some
5. spoon heaping tablespoons into plastic wrap, portion, and freeze until snackin' time :)

elena suggests it makes 20 bars, but i got 14 good portions out of this. gluten-free, nutritious, tastes like cookie dough, and around 200 calories. perfect in the mornings with a banana out the door.

in the end... this was NOT a fail! :)

after a LONG recipe recap and blogger absence, i present to you: the EATS!

kashi bar - eaten on the run to logan's party. i bought these for my sugar-junkie dad a while ago in an attempt to help him manage his blood sugar. i think he thought they were ok, but not sweet enough.

duh.

i kinda thought the opposite - they just tasted like nuts and oats glued together with sugar to me. but i'm not a big bar fan. other than larabar = love.

mama and i at the party, after cutting the DRAMATIC FAIL cake (see above).

we're both pretty wiped out.

and now,

i have a confession to make. i have an obsession. it's a healthy one! sorta. but when is an obsession ever healthy? isn't that the definition of obsession is that it's not a healthy relationship!?!

ah, i digress.

y'all, i'm obsessed with egg wraps. like, no joke. i cannot get enough. i eat one everyday! i would eat more than one if i could affort to buy all those cartons of egg whites from costco.

love love love.

here's one...

with my new peach and mango salsa! more on that tomorrow.

and with avocado... omg.

with salt, pepper, and laughing cow garlic and herb flavor.

'gasm.

as the lovely miss katie would say... the money shot.

prob with laughing cow and garlic powder.

why not!?

and another obsession/habit/love of mine:

cottage cheese, stevia, and annie's graham bunnies.

my version of cookies and cream ice cream (my absolute fave when i ate sugar)

love them.

and a really REALLY dumb question:

what the heck is this???

i bought it at whole foods SOLELY because i had no idea what it was. it rang up "mango" on the receipt, but i've never seen a yellow mango? the only one i've ever seen here in va is the green/reddish mangoes, but i may just be an ignorant fool.

that's highly likely, actually....

the only thing i know is that it tasted incredible. like i-wanna-snack-my-face-off incredible. fruit from heaven!

phew! and lastly:

QUESTION FOR YOU BEAUTIES!

when you make a recipe and it fails, what do you do? quit? try again? revamp/modify the recipe? pick a different recipe!?

- r