Why you need an alarm clock that wakes you up

WAKE UP!

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This morning was a rough one. I completely slept in, and the worst part? I didn’t even hear my alarm clock! What is going on with me…?

To be (somewhat) fair, I was quite busy last night and crossed a lot off on my productivity to-do list. And while bed by 1 is late, it’s not too unusual, and certainly not grounds for waking up late for work. Had to take a cab instead of my usual bus…and that’s $15 down the drain. Gulp. Lesson learned…I hope.

Tina at Carrot’s ‘n’ Cake had another great post today in her Grocery Shopping: 101 series. It’s on unit price — be sure to check it out!

I finally got my pictures together and ready to go, so look for a post tonight with some fun pictures of meals the last few days. Lunch today was just as I had predicted — delicious! I had the rest of my leftover eggplant and celery stew, a side of brown basmati that I whipped up last night in my rice cooker, and a side of cut-up veggies to munch on. I am QUITE full — all with no meat! I love meatless meals :)

I forgot to mention yesterday that I made one more modification to my stew recipe — I added a pinch each of cumin and chili pepper! It made the whole dish taste a bit more Indian, but since I only used a little, the cumin wasn’t overpowering as it can be sometimes. Added just enough depth and flavor to an already fantastic dish, and the chili pepper kept me interested with each bite.

Sadly, I ate alone at my desk today because my lunch companion/work buddy is out of the office for some not-so-fun doctor appointments. I’m missing her terribly! Work isn’t the same without ya, Kara! Sending good wishes your way today.

I have a busy afternoon at work ahead, and then I’m meeting some friends afterward for tacos in Pilsen. Then we’ll be heading to a reading to see one of my favorite bloggers of all time, Sam from Bitches Gotta Eat. Can’t wait!

I tried it: dessert hummus!

After seeing it popping up all over the blogosphere, I knew I had to try it. But the question was, could I get over the weird-sounding combination of chickpeas and….sweet stuff? It just sounded WRONG!

When the Fitnessista posted about it today, however, I knew I had to try this tonight. I went with the Wannabe Chef’s Snickerdoodle Hummus, which is a cinnamony, sugary flavor, just like the cookie. So what did I think?

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Yeah. It was that good.

As I was spooning the stuff straight out of the blender (actually, the Magic Bullet) I was thinking about how I would describe it…and I drew a blank. You can sort of taste the chickpeas, but at the same time, their flavor complements the other flavors in the recipe. I added a little extra of all the good stuff: almond butter, maple syrup (REAL maple syrup, mind you), cinnamon and brown sugar. The texture is similar to that of peanut butter, but more like…ready for it? COOKIE DOUGH. And it even tastes like cookie dough!

I’m still at a loss for what to snack on this with, so for the moment, its served a la finger. Yum yum yum. Don’t hate me, but I was too engrossed in this stuff to take a picture. I’ll take one tomorrow before I eat it all up, I promise!!!

Dinner was the eggplant and celery stew that I planned on trying, and this too turned out absolutely delicious. It took a little longer than most of my dinners, and I dirtied quite a few dishes (a huge pet peeve of mine), but boy was it worth it. I honestly wanted to lick my bowl clean. After simmering for about an hour in cream and olive oil and veggie broth, the eggplant was SO tender. I had planned on making a side of basmati rice, but I was out of the white stuff and the brown takes forever to cook…so I ended up whipping up some Arborio in my new rice cooker. I made it with some olive oil, and did half veggie broth and half water. I had no idea this could be so tasty!

A few modifications I made on the recipe:

• My eggplant was not very large…it was medium or small, or maybe a baby eggplant. I’m not really sure, because it was whatever was on sale!
• I used Dorot cubes instead of fresh garlic
• I used half & half instead of heavy cream
• I added a healthy-sized pat of butter (you know you want to)

Other than that, I pretty much stuck to the recipe, and it was seriously incredible. Decadent, but still not overly heavy or rich. I made enough so I can have it for lunch tomorrow, so I’ll snap a pic. I have some brown basmati cooking away in the rice cooker right now, so I’ll have it ready for tomorrow :)

My workout tonight was INTENSE. I did 30 minutes on the recline bike to warm up, then did a 20-min interval workout on the treadmill. I was starting to get hungry and tired at this point because it was already almost 8 o’clock, but I knew I wanted to lift so I went for it. I don’t know if I was just tired or maybe pushed myself a little too hard last time, but it was ROUGH lifting these weights today. I used the same weights I normally do for everything except lateral shoulder raises — for some really odd reason, every single 8-lb weight was gone from the lifting area. How strange, right??? So I took it as a sign that it was time to upgrade to 10 lbs :)

That was tough, but not so bad….but the rest of my usual arms/shoulders circuit felt much tougher than usual. I wish I knew why! I was sweaty, shaky and STARVING by the time I got home, so because I knew it was going to take me a while to make dinner, I whipped up a quick protein smoothie to refuel and tide me over. I used;

• about 1/4 cup FF Greek yogurt
• about 1/2 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
• packet of Stevia
• about 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
• 1 scoop Naturade Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
• 2 ice cubes
• splash of 100% pomegranate juice

It was DELISH! Yum! I had quite a tasty night. My apologies for the lack of pictures…I was too hungry and too tired :/

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get a load of laundry out of the dryer :)

Goodnight!