When the weather is good and you don’t feel like cooking…

Good morning, friends! I absolutely loved your responses to yesterday’s post about the prison that is “exercise guilt” that we impose on ourselves. I don’t want to call attention to anyone specifically, but there are so many brave, personal stories that I think we can all learn from. I encourage you to go back and read some of the comments. As I’ve said before (and keep reminding myself over and over… and over…): life is too short for guilt.

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Even though I just went grocery shopping last Sunday, our fridge is nearly bare! That’s what happens when your household goes through vegetables very quickly… I’m actually going to be away for a couple days early next week, so rather than load up on new things now, I’m trying to make my way through what we’ve got in the fridge and in the pantry.

I’ve had carrot cake on the brain all week! I wanted to try and find a way to incorporate it into breakfast, and I came up with a blend of overnight oats that really, truly tastes just like carrot cake! It didn’t involve any new ingredients, either .

CARROT CAKE OVERNIGHT OATS

The night before, combine:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup water
• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup shredded carrots
• 1 T dried cranberries
• 1 T chia seeds (optional)
• 1/4 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
• stevia to taste

In the morning, top with 1/2 banana, sliced, and chunky peanut butter. Please let me know if you try this… it really did taste like a carrot cake suited for breakfast!

Other “carrot cake week” features:

• Carrot Cake Scuffins
• Carrot Cake from Alice’s Tea Cup
• Carrot Cake oatmeal

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I was originally supposed to have a math quiz, but when we got to class yesterday morning at 9, our teacher announced she’d pushed it back to next Wednesday. While I normally would have been happy to have more time, it’s sometimes nice to get tests and quizzes over with! Still, the quiz only has two questions on it and our score will be added to our final grade for extra credit, so it can only help us.

After class, I had about an hour until I had to be at a doctor’s appointment downtown. It was absolutely gorgeous outside… even in my lighter jacket, I was warm! Rather than take the subway, I walked both to and from the appointment, soaking up the rays and my fellow pedestrians’ good humor. Almost everyone I saw seemed to be in such a good mood, gushing about the weather and Spring’s approach.

I’m so excited for Spring… New York in bloom is so, so beautiful.

While I walked, I munched on a Fuji apple.

After my appointment, I treated myself to my favorite do-it-yourself salad spots, Chopt. It’s one of the best lunch spots in Midtown (a neighborhood that’s filled with businesses and has many, many lunch takeaway “restaurants”), and was always a special treat when I worked in the area. I ordered the Vegetarian Powerhouse: broccoli, edamame, carrots, sunflower seeds, walnuts, craisins, apples, spinach and romaine (+ goat cheese, a must!) with detox dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne, salt). The salads are pretty big- “Katie size,” if you will- and come with warm bread. LOVE.

Before my last class, instead of another coffee, I munched on a grapefruit for energy.

I was pretty tired all through class, so I raced home to take a nap. When I got home, though, I looked at the beautiful weather outside. I could sleep anytime, but would it always be 60 in the middle of February? Probably not.

So I put on my shorts (!) and a tank top (!), and went for a run. I didn’t time myself, wear my Garmin, strap on my heart rate monitor. All I took were my keys and my iPod, and I ran with the goofiest grin on my face. Seriously, if you’d seen me, you would have thought I was nuts. Who’s that girl in the summer clothes smiling like an idiot? That’s me!!! I felt so, so good while I was out there. So what changed between today and yesterday?

1. Your comments! I felt truly inspired by your mantras of listening to our bodies, exercising for fun, being nice to ourselves. When I decided to run last night, I was excited. I’m not training for anything and I was only running for me. I burned off a lot of steam in two miles, and felt like such a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

2. The weather! I think we underestimate how much heavy clothing, dark skies and cold air takes a toll on us. We have an even greater appreciation for the nice days when they’re few and far between.

3. Music! Whenever I’m going on my first run for a while, I always choose reliable music. Yesterday was Radiohead’s In Rainbows, one of my very favorite records. It put me in such a good mood!

After a quick shower- 60˚ makes you sweaty!- I zoomed over to participate in a focus group for a popular women’s magazine’s 2011 healthy food awards. There were about 15 of us there, and we blind-taste-tested (we didn’t know any of the brands we were sampling) a few items like waffles, salad dressings, cheese, sorbets, and fudge pops.

I had mixed feelings going in because I had a feeling that most of the products wouldn’t quite coincide with my food philosophy (to eat minimally processed, whole foods), and while that still did turn out to be sort of true, the magazine did go to great lengths to ensure the ingredients were as unadulterated as possible. I don’t think I should mention the specific name of the magazine, but once the issue is out I’ll let you know! (Note: my participation wasn’t blog-related at all, I just heard about it via Twitter and thought it’d be fun!)

Although I’d done some light nibbling at the tasting event, I still wanted something more substantial. Again, we really don’t have a lot of food in the fridge, so my dinner looked a lot like what I ate in college.

Annie’s Mac & Cheese! These packets have been in my pantry for over a year, but I wanted something really simple. I know powdered cheese goes against the food philosophy listed above, but I was in the mood! To bulk it up, I mixed in baby spinach, a can of tuna, chili flakes, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce.

For dessert, Ari and I had some Vosges toffee that a friend of his gave us.

I almost never think to buy toffee on my own (I usually go for straight chocolate) but this was delicious!

We had a little wine in bed while we watched the last disc of In Treatment that’s available for rental.

I think we’re going to watch Season 2 of The United States of Tara next, but after that, I don’t know! I’ve heard Kitchen Confidential (with Bradley Cooper) is pretty good. We’re on the 2-at-a-time plan from Netflix, and I usually like to have one television disc and one film disc.

Have you ever participated in a focus group? What was it for?

What should we rent next?!

Have a great weekend!