BodyRock & A Cheezy Win

Good morning, friends! How is your week starting off? I hope it’s going well! I can’t believe we’re almost a quarter of the way through the year. Right now, I can hear birds chirping outside my window, and I’m desperately waiting to see the first Spring flower push its head out of the ground. Soon!

Breakfast was a quick and easy yogurt bowl.

• Fage Greek yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• Quaker Oatmeal Squares <—- just bought a new box!!!
• Ambrosial Granola
• cashew butter

Then on to Algebra…

Between classes I munched and ran errands…

… and sat and studied.

Over the weekend I made Joy’s Spicy Chickpea Salad, leaving out the avocado in case Ari wanted some. (Avocado falls into the “white and creamy” category of foods he doesn’t like.)

I mixed the salad with a small can of tuna (and brought a pack of gum for later ) and also had a Kashi granola bar.

I defeated the 3:00 slump… we learned in Psych that our bodies are the warmest at 3, which may be why I have such a hard time staying awake in class. Still, it’s embarrassing, so I drank a small coffee at 2 and was wide awake throughout the lecture.

After school, I went home to tackle the growing laundry pile and try out BodyRock TV for the first time. Have you tried Body Rock? It seems to be a growing trend in the blogosphere. I usually like to get out of the house when I exercise, but I had things in the oven and decided to give it a shot. I didn’t really know where to start, so I chose the Survivor Workout and found an online interval timer to time myself for each segment.

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The workout was short- although I did tack a few minutes on in the beginning because I didn’t quite understand how the intervals were broken up- but I was pretty sweaty by the end. It requires a lot of agility! I did like the workout, though, and I’m sore today, so that’s a good sign. I might do one or two workouts a week, depending on who’s in the house. I made a lot of noise jumping around!

A few weeks ago, I peeled and chopped a butternut squash, eating half and freezing the rest for later. I wasn’t sure how it would taste since I froze it raw instead of steaming or roasting it first, but I had my heart set on a Angela’s Butternut Squash Mac ‘n Cheeze.

It was definitely worth cleaning the food processor for!

The “cheeze” sauce is made with cashews, roasted butternut squash, lemon juice, nutritional yeast and spices. Although the squash did taste a little watery after I roasted it, once it was blended into the sauce I couldn’t even tell.

I used two cups of dried whole wheat chiocciole pasta- I like the shape!- and a few scoops of the cheezy sauce. I also added about a cup of peas.

Served with steamed kale and dusted with chili flakes, this was a huge hit! So cheezy and comforting, I went back for seconds and liked the cheeze-covered spatula.

I portioned out two servings and froze them; they’ll be great to have late at night after work.

After dinner, we went down to a German restaurant in the East Village for a friend’s birthday drinks. I passed on the schnitzel, but I did enjoy a nice cold kirsch. More and more, I’ve been enjoying the taste of beer!

We weren’t out too late, and on special request, we stopped at 16 Handles on the way home for some candy-studded soft-serve.

Today is my first day off of work and/or school in eight days, and I am so ready for it! On the agenda:

• breakfast at the diner!
• manicure/pedicure (I’ll spare you the “before” photos)
• study time
• fun giveaway… stay tuned!
• dinner with a friend

It’s going to be a good day. Enjoy yours!

Have you ever tried BodyRock TV? Which episodes do you like?