Too often we easily get caught up in the insignificant, little things. We all do it from time to time. It’s in our nature to continuously want for more in life. Our house isn’t big enough, our car isn’t nice enough, our shoes and clothing isn’t up to date with what others are wearing, etc, etc. The list goes on. Stop for a second though and think about it. Think about what you have…and be thankful.

It is not a bad thing to strive to be better if it means you are becoming a better person. However, if it is for material reasons, reasons that look good on paper, then maybe give it a second thought. What’s wrong with your house or your car? Does it not provide a home for you and your family? Does your car not get you to where you need to go?

It’s not our fault. We have grown up in a society that teaches us to want more, that bigger is better, and that money buys us nice things and makes us happy. We fantasize about the lives of the rich and famous and feel we are failing if we do not have one of these so-called “indicators” that we are doing well in life.

Money does not buy happiness. Happiness is solely found within yourself. You decide if you want to be happy. If you constantly romanticize the lives of others, you’ll always want more. You’ll never find happiness.

Take a look at what you have in your life. Consider your home, your family, your friends, your health, the clothes you are wearing, your pets, everything. Be thankful.

There are people all around the world right now who are romanticizing your life.

Catching up with a close friend.

A whole bottle of wine to myself.

It happened.

The dry era has ended. RIP non-drinking days 1/1/12 – 2/17/12

And..

Saturday morning I remembered why I gave up drinking for a while.

A good friend coming to town, whom you see twice per year, is a perfect excuse to get the wine back out. With so much catching up to do, there’s no better way than sharing some good wine, good food, and good company. Come the next morning, I definitely could have done without the wine. All in good fun though, right?

We woke up early and sweated out the damage from the night before in a, much needed, hot yoga session. It was nauseating and refreshing all at the same time, but felt so much better afterwards.

We’ll see if this rekindles my weekly drinking escapades or not. But, let’s be honest, sometimes you just need a night of hashing things out with a friend. These days they are sometimes hard to come by, but the beauty of a true friend is one with whom you can grow separately without growing apart. Someone you can go without seeing or talking to for months (or years) and then pick up right where your friendship left off when you reunite.

A good friend and a good bottle of wine is much cheaper than therapy.

Men and women are very different in many ways. There are many things that either sex will ever understand about the other, but will accept it as a part of their existence.

For instance, women will never understand why men:

Hate to stop and ask for directions or help

Are obsessed with the remote control (maybe it’s the “control” part)

Can remember plays of a basketball game, or who won a game 10 years ago, but will struggle to remember anniversaries and birthdays

Will settle disputes with a game of rock, paper, scissors.

In the same respect, men will never understand why women:

Love brunch

Will go shopping just to browse

Can cry at a commercial

Will have an uncontrollable monthly breakdown, where she cries at the drop of a hat, insists she’s fat and that you think so, and will then proceed to eat chocolate even though she insists she is “fat”.

It’s a weird cycle, we know guys. Bear with us.

Once a month I suddenly feel my a## is the size of a house. And then I bake. It makes no sense, but helps in the moment. This is one of those times.

But, guys, don’t pretend like you don’t like that you benefit from getting to eat the results of said monthly, emotional breakdowns. Here are your donuts.

S’mores donuts

The recipe is courtesy of Mama Pea. The only change I made was cutting back slightly on the sugar. I reduced the amount to a half cup and they were plenty sweet with the chocolate ganache on top. Mi-Del whole wheat graham crackers work really well with this recipe. I ended up leaving half of the dough plain and added chocolate chips (like the recipe calls for) to the other half. Both were delicious, but I like variety.

Seriously, so good. I’ll rock, paper, scissors you for the last one.

Here are a few good reads I have been enjoying recently.

The Hunger Games series

I cannot wait for the movie to come out!

The Night Circus

And always topping my list is:
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Remember kids,

Oh yeah.

Love is a funny thing sometimes, isn’t it?

Valentine’s Day is a day filled with red and pink hearts around every corner, couples holding hands and so much anxiety about being in a relationship or not being in a relationship that it’s hard to breathe. However, today is not a day to feel down or depressed because you are not in a relationship. Today is a day to celebrate with those around you that you care about. A friend, a family member, a significant other, a pet, or yourself. Take care of that last one especially, for you cannot truly love, or accept love, until you love yourself.

If you are in a relationship, cherish it. Let that person know how much you mean to them.

If you are single, cherish your freedom.

If you are desperately searching for love, stop. It’ll find you when you aren’t looking.

Enjoy today. It’s just a day.

Happy Valentine’s.

Guys panic that they’ll F*** up the day, women set expectations and wait anxiously to see what their significant other will do for them, new couples worry about outdoing the other with the perfect gift, and single people lock themselves in their homes with a bottle of their favorite alcoholic beverage and wait for the day to be over.

“I’m in a glass case of emotion!” – Thank you Ron Burgundy

Wherever you are on the Valentine emotional scale, take a breath and eat one of these. You’ll feel better.

We’ll get through this together.

That looks more like a celebration, doesn’t it?

I started this blog as a way to do something I really enjoy doing and find liberating – write. It was a way to put my thoughts, ramblings, and memories in one place. A space where I could hopefully share information with others on living healthily, my transition to vegan and then to vegetarian, and give people someone to relate to. Like most, I have struggled with the consistency of a healthy lifestyle, but I strive to find balance in this crazy, hectic world we live in.

The past two years have flown by. Thank you for reading what I write and I hope you have enjoyed following me along this journey as I try to pretend like I know what I’m doing during a time in my life when I feel like I’m supposed to know what I’m doing. Also known as my late 20′s.

I’ll continue writing if you continue reading. I promise to share recipes and life stories, but I don’t promise it will be clean. Life’s messy.

These cupcakes help.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (low-fat and vegan)
makes 12 cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (you can’t go wrong with Trader Joe’s, it’s phenomenal)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
red food coloring (use until you have your desired color)
1 1/4 cup flour (I used white whole wheat, but I’m still not entirely sure what that even is)
2/3 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp cocoa powder

Directions:
1. Combine milk and vinegar in large bowl and set aside to curdle. (sounds gross, but go with me on this one)
2. Preheat oven to 350F and line cupcake pans with liners.
3. Add applesauce, vanilla extract, almond extract, food coloring to milk/vinegar mixture. Stir until combined.
4. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder together. Gradually add to wet ingredients and stir just until combined.
5. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
6. Let cool and frost with cream cheese frosting (recipe below).

Cream Cheese Frosting (vegan)
Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, such as Tofutti
1/4 cup Earth Balance vegan margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Cream the cream cheese and Earth Balance together. Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing well with each addition.
2. Add the vanilla and mix well. Adjust ingredients to taste.
3. Frost cooled cupcakes and devour.

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Ahh, February 2…the day when you open the mail and the Victoria’s Secret swimsuit catalog is there waiting to remind you of your already failed New Year’s resolution.  Why do women compare themselves to these perfectly airbrushed models and the idea of this unrealistic body image?  

The marketers at VS are geniuses. They definitely know what they are doing and they have us all hooked.  In fact women, more than men, oogle over the models in the catalogs.  They sell beauty and sex appeal; an unattainable image of perfection that we are to believe that if we buy their products we will somehow be transformed into a supermodel.  I have purchased countless objects on this very notion.  Needless to say, I am still your average girl. 

I use Victoria’s Secret as an example due to recently receiving the catalog in the mail, but it’s not just VS that causes women to feel bad about their bodies.  From the time we are young, we are overwhelmed with images of what is “beautiful” and “desirable”. I have dealt with my insecurities and feeling imperfect my whole life.  Now at 26 years old I have finally decided it is time to put a stop to my destructive way of thinking.

A good friend recently told me, “Self-esteem is one of  the most valuable gifts we can give ourselves”.  Self-esteem truly is something that comes from within and not from a number on a scale or a size on an article of clothing.  Although I originally set my New Year’s resolution as the same old “lose 10 pounds”, I think I am going to recreate it.  My new goal will be to create a healthy body image by developing healthy habits both physically and mentally , to stop comparing myself to women in magazines and to start loving me, for me.

So, I vowed to take my life back this week. For me, that means fitness must take a priority. I feel my strongest when I am working out consistently. So, today’s spin class was hard. In fact, I hated every minute of it because it was hard. I felt weak and wanted to give up, but kept telling myself “you are stronger than you think”. The instructor kept yelling “push!” and “give me another half turn!”. *For those that are unfamiliar with spin classes, when the teacher yells something about a “turn” it means you are to turn a dial and increase your resistance. Naturally, with it comes the feeling that you want to dismount your bike and push the instructor off of theirs so they will stop yelling at you to make it harder.

The class continued, I kept pedaling along watching the time creep by, and I came to a crossroads. I could give up and walk out of class or I could take back control. I chose the latter. I “pushed”, I upped the resistance, at one moment I felt like my heart was going to explode, but something inside of me knew that I would make it through – and I will.

I walked out of room knowing that I gave it my all and that’s all we can really do in life (let’s be honest, this never really was about spinning).

My heart feels like it’s going to explode and my world feels like it’s crumbling, but I know that..

…I am stronger than I think.

Now that we are four days into February, let’s revisit this little plan. I have made it through dry January and it’s spilling over into February. Not that I drink an excessive amount (I suppose that is subjective), but I wanted to give my body a little detox and a break from alcohol. The month of January flew by, but it definitely had its challenges. Early in the month we still had holiday parties to go to, followed by dinners with friends and family, happy hour invitations, and many stressful days that made me just want an effing glass of wine.

I made it though. I attended social functions and happy hours and sipped on my water. I also woke up the next morning feeling rested and ready to enjoy the day instead of wanting to sleep all day and not even having an ounce of motivation to do anything with my life. So, I suppose it was a good trade off. The first couple of weeks, which I thought would be the hardest, actually turned out to be my motivator to keep going. I felt more energized, clear minded, and motivated.

Weekends, for the most part, were more productive. Even after two weeks of being a sleep-deprived ball of stress, I woke up this morning and made these!

I have been wanting to make my own donuts for quite a while actually for a couple of reasons. 1) To make them baked and not fried. 2) To be able to control the ingredients to where I would feel better about eating them.

I’m really not a big donut fan anymore though. After not having one for years, I tried one and found it to be sickening sweet. Funny how as a kid, the only thing that got me out of bed on Saturday mornings was donuts. Tastes change, so even though others greatly enjoy the overly sweet, fried pieces of dough, I wanted to try it my way. So, naturally I immediately bought a donut pan and went to work in the kitchen.

These aren’t vegan. I used eggs and a traditional recipe for my first time baking them. Next time, maybe tomorrow, they’ll be vegan. I kept it basic and made a classic cake donut with chocolate icing and coconut.

Not too shabby for my first shot. Donuts are now my substitution for alcohol. I feel I may be needing a different type of detox soon.

Baked Cake Donuts with Chocolate Glaze
Ingredients:
2 cups flour (I used white whole wheat, but experimenting with flours is something I plan to do)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk (I made my own by combining 3/4c of almond milk with 1T of lemon juice)
2 Tbsp Earth Balance or margarine, melted

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Tbsp coconut oil
shredded coconut (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425F and spray donut pans with cooking spray.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs, add in buttermilk, vanilla and Earth balance. Gradually add in the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
4. Spoon, or pipe, batter into donut pan. Bake for 7-9 minutes, or until donuts spring back when touched. Let cool.
5. After donuts have cooled, make the chocolate glaze by combining chocolate chips and oil in a microwave safe bowl and heating in 30 second increments. Stir until smooth and creamy. Dip tops of donuts into chocolate, sprinkle with coconut or other toppings and let sit.
6. Serve with a hot cup of coffee or glass of milk and enjoy!