A Very Busy Mind

Oh…my…God.  That is what I said OUT LOUD tonight after taking one bite of dessert.

But we’ll get to that.

***Nerd Alert!  I made a list of stuff I wanted to tell you guys in my post tonight.  You all know how my mind works.  I thought of a million things to include in this post, but only remembered to write down a handful.***

Thangs:

1. After doing a little searching today, I found out there are some natural foods stores not (too) far from my parents’ home (where I’ll be moving to…for good…this weekend)!  I was seriously dreading having to try to find healthy foods in small-town Indiana, but I think I’m gonna be OK!  Yay!
2. Mi Madre started a diet today! *(see below)  I’m so proud of her for taking this step – I know she’ll do great!  She also shared (via phone) some healthy food she picked up at a recent grocery trip AND she’s looking into getting Wii Fit.  Oh aaaaand I asked if she thought she and Dad would be interested in eating some stuff I’ll inevitably be whipping up in their kitchen.  Her response?  “Absolutely!” 
3. Lately, I’ve been into making my own salad dressings.  It’s fun, they’re healthy, and they’re budget-friendly.  I’ll share one with ya tonight.
4. Speaking of homemade things…Has anyone ever made/tried a homemade beauty product?  I did a little research today, and I’m so intrigued by the thought of making my own shampoo/conditioner/face wash/what have you.  Omigod.  It’s happening.  I’m going hippie.  I knew this day would come.

*To clear things up: No, I don’t support dieting.  But I also don’t believe in forcing my preferences upon others.  To each his own, right?  If it works for you, fine.  (Now Madre, if you start missing out on nutrients, best believe I’ll be saying something! )

*******

Let’s get to the food!

Since I didn’t have my usual yogurt mess as part of lunch today, I had to get my fix as my afternoon snack.

Pretty simple for me.  Strawberry greek yogs, Original Puffins, and chopped hazelnuts.

Dinner was pretty much a repeat of last night’s (sorry for the repeat meals…I’m moving!  Gotta limit my grocery shopping and work with what I’ve got!).

 

Leftover beans+ more beans, brown rice, asian veggies…

…and this…

I used this recipe to make a homemade indian dressing (I added a lot more sweet hot mustard to the mix, though!)

This stuff totally made the meal!

And then, my friends, the pearly gates of heaven opened…and presented me with dessert.

I made two delicious chocolate chip cookies in 5 minutes!

You’re gonna find this hard to believe, but I love chocolate chip cookies.  I never make them, though, because I don’t want to make a whole batch.  While I love them, cookies aren’t really something I want every day, and therefore, need to have a surplus of.

Anyway…

I was so pumped up about Tina’s 3-Minute Cookie idea that I had to try a chocolate chip version.

OK, I didn’t measure again.  But here’s the ingredients:

• Dry oats (~1/4 cup?…I really have no idea)
• Almost a whole 6 oz. container of Honey Oikos Greek Yogurt
• Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (~ 1/2 a scoop?)
• Hefty pinch of whole wheat flour
• Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, form cookie shapes on a plate, pop in microwave for 4 minutes (I’m guessing since this “cookie dough” was wetter than the one I had at lunch, it needed double the cooking time), stick in freezer to cool and firm up a bit more, eat and rejoice.

I topped mine with the remaining greek yogurt, and ate it all with a baby spoon.  (The baby spoon was totally necessary – I would have freakin’ wolfed this stuff down had I not had a tiny utensil to slow my roll!)

Expect to see many many MANY more 3-Minute Cookie creations!  I gotta say, though, I don’t know if this one can be beat!

‘Bout to do my pre-bed hygiene routines, then hit the hay.

Night!