Cause my spring blend coffee is here!!!!  My favorite favoritest coffee EVER is Fresh Market Spring Blend!  It’s amazing.  You can only get it in the spring of course, so this year I ordered two bags!

It tastes like caramel and toffee and just pure deliciousness all combined into one.  I dream about this stuff in the winter.

I had the most awesome lunch that I have to share that as well.

I made a kind of open-faced veggie burger and had a baked sweet potato alongside it.

My favorite kind of veggie burgers are the gardenburgers.  I love that you can cut it open and you see big chunks of veggies- so good.  And the trick to cooking a veggie burger patty… I put mine in the toaster oven and let it get super crispy.  This adds an awesome crunch to it that reminds me of back in the day when I used to eat beef when you get that burger right off the grill.  I did mine today open faced- a piece of whole wheat bread, toasted; lettuce; mustard; pickles; a little ketchup, and of course my favorite pepperjack cheese!

Look at this amazing-ness!

And a baked sweet potato.  I always forget about sweet potatoes, I don’t know why.  They looked really good at the grocery store this week, so I grabbed a few.  I put a tiny bit of butter on it- everything’s better with butter, right?

On the agenda for the rest of the afternoon… an errand to the post office, some homework, and SPIN CLASS!!!

These are so good it’s insane!!  I’ve been meaning to try this for a while, and finally decided to go for it this morning for breakfast.  SO GOOD!  WOW!  And they’re such a good deal calorie-wise that I can regularly include them and they don’t have to be a special treat like regular pancakes- and their much healthier than regular pancakes too!  Oh and their delicious as well!!!

There are so many recipes out there for oatmeal pancakes, but here’s what I used… (oh, and you can use any amount of oats that you want- like 1/4 cup if you want a smaller pancake or 1/2 cup if you want a bigger pancake- just make sure to use equal parts oats and egg whites)

Oatmeal Pancakes
(makes one big pancake)

Ingredients:
1/3 cup quick oats (quick oats are best because they absorb liquid faster than rolled oats)
1/3 cup egg whites
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
ground cinnamon to taste (I just kind of sprinkle it in- however much I feel like at the time)
vanilla also to taste- around 1/2 – 1 teaspoon
1/2 of a banana, mashed (this is totally optional, but it adds a nice flavor)

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl.  Let it sit for a few minutes so that the oats can absorb some of the liquid.  While it’s sitting, let your skillet heat up and spray with a little cooking spray.  When your pan is nice and hot pour all of the mixture into the pan.  It’s okay if there is still a tiny bit of liquid left.  When you can shake the pan and the pancake moves, flip it over and let it cook on the other side.  It will just take a couple of minutes on each side.  When both sides are nice and brown you’re done! 

Put it on a plate and top with whatever you like- a little syrup or agave nectar, or some mashed banana, fresh fruit, preserves, apple butter, pumpkin butter, or even peanut butter!  I put a spoonful of apple butter on mine this morning- DELISH!!!

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 193
Total Fat: 2 g
Carbohydrate: 31.9 g
Fiber: 4.6 g
Sugars: 4.5 g
Protein: 12.6 g

Vegetarian Label Lingo…

The first post under the new Healthy Living section of the blog! I thought that I would start it off with some vegetarian information.

Not all vegetarians are the same- there are many different types of vegetarians.

Here they are!

Lacto-Ovo vegetarians exclude meat, fish, and poultry but include dairy products, eggs, and foods made from these ingredients. Most vegetarians fall into this category.

Lacto vegetarians exclude meat, fish, and poultry, as well as eggs and any foods containing eggs. Lacto vegetarians do, however, eat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and cheese.

Vegans avoid eating and using all animal products- meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, and any foods containing any of these ingredients. They also won’t use wool, silk, leather, or any nonfood items made from animal byproducts. Some also avoid honey. Vegan is used to describe not just the diet, but also the lifestyle.

These are the major types of vegetarians, though there are more including semi-vegetarian or flexitarian (cutting back on intake of meat in general), raw foods diet (consists of uncooked foods- fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts), fruitarian (consists of fruits and vegetables that are botanically considered fruits, and seeds and nuts), and macrobiotic (excludes animal products except for seafood, refined sugars, tropical fruits, and “nightshade” vegetables- ex: potatoes, eggplants, and peppers).

So much fun!!  We had never been before so we didn’t know what to expect.  Wow, was it neat!  Basically it’s a lot of artists who set up booths and display and sell their stuff.  There was all kinds of art- we saw some really cool stuff!  We didn’t realize that they were selling stuff and we found so many things we wanted to buy- next year we’ll be going prepared to buy!!   I think that there are concerts too, but we didn’t really stick around for any of that.

We spent most of our time just walking around looking at all the different booths, so I decided to snap a few pics.

These were made out of tile!

Strange looking green man.  Justin wouldn’t let me buy him. 

We really loved this lady’s art- we decided that it fits our style.  We’d like to get something of hers- it would look perfect in our living room!

Some random musicians…

Then we had some lunch at Mi Cocina!  LOVE that place!!!  We sat out on the patio and enjoyed the nice weather.

And enjoyed some sunrise spinach enchiladas- WOW WOW WOW these were AMAZING!!!!!   The cheese sauce was so rich, though, that I could only eat one.  And the little salad that was on there was out of this world- crunchy cabbage, carrots, and cucumbers with a dressing that was a little sweet and a little tangy.  Mmmmm, my mouth started watering just thinking about it!  I heart Mi Cocina!

And of course it’s mandatory to take pictures of the Bass Hall anytime you go to Sundance Square!  😀

Good times!  Can’t wait to go back next year!!

At least I think it has- it’s been above 60 for the last few weeks, so I took a chance and packed away all of my heavy sweaters and coats.  I left out a few winter things in case it got a little chilly again because, really, you never know in Texas!  It’s actually a little chilly today, but I think it’s supposed to rain.  Nonetheless we’re still outside enjoying the weather!  We’re hanging out outside on the patio playing on our laptops- I guess we’re tired of being cooped up in the house, haha.

The other day we decided that it has been so incredibly nice outside recently that we need to enjoy it more, so we went shopping for some patio furniture.  First we went to Lowe’s because we still have some gift cards left over from Christmas and we were hoping to be able to use them up.  We were a bit disappointed with their selection though- they didn’t have much, and what they did have was really expensive.  Boo!  So we went to the local Wal- Mart to look and see what they did have.  We actually found several things that we really liked, but we didn’t have much money to spend on these kinds of items (we had been hoping to use gift card money on them), so we had to get the most inexpensive set that we could find.  It actually turned out to be perfect for what we needed!  We found a cute little set and it came with a small table, four chairs, and an umbrella.  It fits perfectly on our little patio and it’s just what we need for now!

One of these days when we get a bigger and better place to live we’ll replace it with something nicer, but for now it’s just perfect!

Here’s the little set that we got:

And we promptly fired up the grill to celebrate the purchase of our new stuff!  It’s the first time we have fired it up since last summer and we’re hoping to wear it out this spring and summer so that we can get a better one!  :)  hehe!

On the grill we had some squash, veggie burger for me, turkey burger for the husband, hotdogs (or should I say soy dogs?  I dunno what they’re really called but they sure are good- the husband says they taste exactly like regular hot dogs to him!), some baked chips and burger fixins’ on the side.

“hot dogs”

Gotta represent with the whole grains!!

mmmm…veggie burger!!

LOVE grilled vegetables!!!

Baked chips- which really we snacked on while we were grilling.  Neither one of us had any for dinner, LOL.

Some fixins’.  Lettuce, tomato, onions, and cheese (pepperjack for me, cheddar for the hubby) for the burgers

What a great evening!!

I’ve got some pinto beans going in the crockpot for dinner tonight- we’re having cheesy rice and bean burritos- YUM!!!  And plans for the rest of today include laundry, some light cleaning, and playing with the pups!! 

Have a great Sunday!!