Shine!

Goooood morning! It is yet another beautiful, sweet, sunny day! If it had not been such a gloomy, rainy winter, I probably wouldn't be appreciating the sunshine and warmth as much as I am now. And if the sun decided to shine for days and days, I'd probably begin to miss the rain. Hmmm.....what is the lesson here? Appreciate what IS and don't take anything for granted? Sounds good to me.

I woke up this morning with this song in my head. I can't stop singing it! It's so beautiful so I want to share. It's Tina Malia and Shimshai, who I actually had the pleasure of seeing perform live just a couple weeks ago :-)

I found this video on YouTube. It was just something that someone had posted to go along with the song. It's pretty and everything, but the important thing is to *listen* to the song! :-)

~*~SHINE~*~

Since I didn't do a post yesterday, I want to catch you up!

Breakfast was Flax and Oat Pancakes with Coconut Almond Butter Sauce!

Flax and Oat Pancakes:

• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
• 1 heaping tbsp of PB2 (I kept seeing this stuff around so I wanted to try it. It's powdered peanut butter that you add water to. It definitely isn't as good as actual peanut butter but I can see how it serves its purpose. It's high in protein and low in fat. I've found it's pretty good in baked goods!)
• 2 heaping tbsp of PB2 Chocolate Flavor
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Dash of cinnamon
• 1 cup water

Coconut Almond Butter Sauce:

These are rough estimates. I just combined the ingredients in a sauce pan on the stove until it reached a sauce-like consistency and tasted good! :-)

• 2 tbsp almond butter
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• Optional: cinnamon, vanilla and salt to taste

It was a pretty good breakfast! The pancakes were nutty and healthy tasting and super filling. And the sauce was sweet enough but not too sweet. The strawberries added a bit more sweetness and some color to the plate which is always nice! 

Here's me yesterday, in my "chillin' outside and working in the garden outfit!"

I helped Woody weed some of the garden and pull up some of our greens to get ready to replant for the summer. There's still more work to be done. We're going to be playing in the dirt again today and planting some seeds! :-) It's very grounding, as Woody says. Hehe :-) 

Lunch yesterday was a big salad with greens from the garden topped with tuna, veggies, basil and hummus. I didn't take a picture but it was pretty and yummy :-) 

Here's something else that's yummy, a little afternoon snack.

A leftover pancake from breakfast topped with peanut butter and melted chocolate :-) Yum :-) 

I did a little grocery shopping yesterday to replenish some of our essentials. 

Since Woody and I pulled up a lot of our greens from the garden yesterday, we knew we had to eat some for dinner. Oh, darn. 

We steamed some kale, swiss chard, mustard greens and broccoli, cooked up some brown rice couscous and I made a cheezy nutritional yeast sauce with nutritional yeast (obviously), water, dijon mustard, salt, garlic gold, cumin, cayenne and chili powder. Then we mixed everything together and it was SO good. So healthy and nutritious and filling. It felt good all the way to my soul! 

It was especially tasty topped with a drizzle of sriracha chili sauce! I just need to be straight up about something here. I didn't want to weird anyone out or be offensive but I totally call these stuff "cock sauce" and I'm sure many of you do too. I just didn't want to scare anyone who was unfamiliar. But I mean, why wouldn't you call it cock sauce?

Ok I feel better now! I hope from now on, I can refer to this as cock sauce without anyone saying, WTF and running away. 

I made some cookies yesterday which might be the best cookies I've ever had. Woody thought they were amazing too and he actually ate MORE than me! That never happens. 

I know, not a great picture. They are totally smooshed together. But it's ok. They were SO good. So delicious and peanut buttery and doughy. I have been on a HUGE peanut butter kick lately, have you noticed? I feel bad for my friend, Tessa, who I know reads my blog. She is allergic to peanuts. Tessa! You can always use sunflower butter in place of the peanut butter! You know this :-) <3

Ooey Gooey Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• a little less than 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup Pamela's Baking Mix
• 1/4 cup PB2 Chocolate Flavor (if you don't have this, or don't want to use it, just use 1/4 cup flour instead. I'm sure it will be fine!)
• 2 tbsp maple syrup (or more if you like things sweeter! These were perfectly sweet for me though!)
• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Handful of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients: Pamela's, PB2 and salt. Then mix together all your wet ingredients in a separate bowl: coconut oil, peanut butter, vanilla, maple syrup and coconut milk. Then mix the wet ingredients with the dry. Add your chocolate chips, then roll the dough into balls and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes. You can bake them for longer if you like a crispier cookie, but I personally enjoy the soft, chewy, doughy deliciousness of a slightly under-baked cookie. :-) Yay :-) 

Ok, now I'm off to do some yoga and then head outside to catch some sunny rays and play with some dirt! Much love! <3