Raw Apple Muffins

I’m a freak for breakfast, anything breakfast any excuse to eat it all day I will absolutely take it. The truth is I’m still on my health kick so these seem like the perfect answer to my prayers. This recipe is for those of us that are lovers of breakfast goodies but want to not feel remorse after we are done consuming our weight in muffins/donuts ect. I paired this with my morning health energy drink and felt ready to take on the world.

Grilled Pumpernickel Bread Salad

This looks absolutely to die for! I have never thought about something as delicious and pumpernickel bread in a salad. I’ll definitely be trying this out myself!

Making Health Food Bearable

We all know the importance of eating health food. We also know that after a long hard day that is quite possibly the absolute last thing in the world we want. Instead we would rather cuddle up on the couch with a carton of ice cream. Better yet when I hit my midday lull the absolute last thing I want is something healthy, istead I want a donut and a cup of coffee. Well I’ve now sadly reached the age where this will no longer cure the wall I hit around 3 pm. I now need to fill this time with almonds and a health drink. And you know what is even better then a cup of coffee for you, a THiNQ energy drink. Sounds silly I know but truly it has vitamins and nutrients and the mixed berry is a painless way to get a great amount of vitamins. I was skeptical at first but it has proven to be the key to my midday problem and the best part is there is no crash its just a nice boost. Below I have the ingredients directly from the THiNQ website.

Sweeteners:

Stevia (Rebiana) Stevia is quickly becoming one of today’s most coveted, all-natural sweeteners.  Used for hundreds of years by the Native Americans in Paraguay, stevia is much sweeter in taste than sugar yet with none of the calories.  We use Rebiana, also known as Reb-A, which is the purest, sweetest part of the stevia plant.

Pure Cane Sugar Pure cane sugar is considered a natural sugar, and is much healthier than artificial sweeteners. It adds just the right sweetness to enhance the desirable fruity notes of the natural flavors and fully rounds out the taste of the stevia.

Other Ingredients and their effects:

SAM-e: Multiple clinical trials have indicated that taking SAM on a regular basis may help fight depression, liver disease, and the pain of osteoarthritis.

Calcium: An important component of a healthy diet and a mineral necessary for life. Calcium plays an important role in building strong, dense bones in early life, and keeping bones healthy in later life.

Magnesium: A vital component of a healthy human diet, low levels of magnesium in the body has been associated with the development of a number of human illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Vitamin D: Helps fight low bone density, has a protective effect against multiple sclerosis, and helps bolster your immune system.

Sodium: An essential nutrient that regulates blood volume, and blood pressure. It is also important in neuron function and osmoregulation between cells.

Potassium: Necessary for the function of all living cells. Potassium ion diffusion is a key mechanism in nerve transmission.

Vitamin B3: One of the forty to eighty essential human nutrients! Increases the levels of HDL in the blood and has been found to decrease the risk of cardiovascular issues.

Vitamin B6: Acts as a coenzyme to many other enzymes in the body that are involved metabolism.

Vitamin B12: Plays a key role in the normal functions of the brain and nervous system.

Açaí Extract: An antioxidant activity, that can help prevent heart disease and cancer.

CoQ10: Helps convert fats and sugars to energy, and is a very powerful antioxidant.

Ginkgo Biloba: Enhances memory and concentration.

L-Tyrosine: An amino acid that helps relieve symptoms of stress and fatigue.

Alpha-GPC: Enhances memory and cognition.

Pure Cane Sugar: The original natural sweetener that contains a number of essential nutrients and minerals that refined and white sugars do not.

GABA: An amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter to support brain processes.

Vinpocetine: Enhances cerebral blood-flow.

Suma: Increases oxygenation and energy efficiency at the cellular level, which supports hormonal balance, reduces inflammation, enhances immunity, increase libido, and provides a number of normalizing and rejuvenating effects.

Vegan Yummy Friday

My neighbor is a video game developer and thus for some reason feels the need to be nocturnal. Because of that I spend every few nights awake because my walls are shaking with shooting noises and even shouting when he is especially frustrated. Painting this picture vivid enough for you? Good, because today I am absolutely fried.
Today I will be making some vegan yumminess tonight, not a vegan myself but I am a fan.
Before I embark on this adventure I drank three energy drinks and hit the grocery store. Now I’m going to hit the kitchen.
… and then nap.

No shame, Just Skills!

I have a similare issue when it comes to knife skills, and I’m pretty sure I mutilate the nutrients out of my veggies when I’m done. Will look into a cutting class.

darla cooks

I think my weakest spot in the kitchen is my knife skills. Knife skills effect everything! My chopping shame haunts me daily. The way the food cooks is affected by how it’s cut, the final look of the dish and presentation suffer. The importance of cutting things uniformly can’t be overstated. (Great.) I’m not afraid to bake a cake but I’m embarrassed by my salads!

And of course the way life goes is the thing that we are most likely to avoid is that thing the universe puts directly in front of us to address. When I started my cooler than cool America’s Test Kitchen Cooking Schoolblogger scholarship -before I dove into Apple Pies at Bridget’s suggestion, I started with cooking fundamentals. And there was–right in front of me knife skills!

I watched the video instructions a couple of times and decided that my knives were not ready…

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Nothing short of a Miracle

It took more than a Miracle to get me out of bed this morning and on my newly regimented AM run. Like I said before I went to wal-mart and bought what seemed like at the time a lifetime supply of THiNQ Energy drink to be my miracle in the off chance I experience mornings like today. I want to do good for my body but sometimes it is just so much work to workout and then go to work all day, and class at night. Sigh life is hard. Well I guess I owe it all to this little fun named drink because realistically if it wasn’t for this health drink I could be in bed still.

Not your typical energy drink!

I have been an energy drink aficionado for quite some time now, believe me when I say that I have tasted most of them! From the green monsters, to the rock stars to the one’s that give you wings! This past weekend I went to my local WalMart store to pick up a few things that I needed and I saw one of the sexiest energy drink packaging; THiNQ. The package includes 12 16oz. bottles in two flavors Citricity (Orange Flavor) and Mixed Berry. I must admit that the Mixed Berry is my favorite so far. Now let’s get into the “science” this is not your traditional energy drink: What separates THiNQ from other energy drinks is obviously the contents inside all made from natural ingredients that you can actually pronounce and understand. THiNQ is the only function drink that does not give you that “crash feeling”, it’s an all health energy drink that packs vitamins and minerals the body needs. I also found out that it’s an award wining health drink! If you want to try something new head over to your local WalMart store and pick up a case maybe two of THiNQ Energy Drink.

Hello world!

Greetings and welcome to my wonderful new blog, I am a lover of food and trying on this new healthy lifestyle after a recent health scare.