I’m calling it a PB&J Smoothie. Ironically, it has neither peanut butter nor jelly in it.

Work with me, here.

Instead, it’s fruit-based and has sunflower butter (my obsession!) in it.

PB&J Smoothie

makes one smoothie

Into the mix went:

• 3 ice cubes
• 1/2 cup (ish) frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup (ish) frozen mango chunks

• 1/3 cup (ish) frozen chopped spinach
• 1/3 cup (ish) Chobani vanilla 0% yogurt

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tbs unflavored whey protein powder
• 1 tbs sunflower butter

All blended up…

And then you get this!

Wait. That’s sort of ugly. Not even just “sort of,” actually. That smoothie looks beaten by an ugly stick.

Is this better?

You know what? Don’t worry about how it looks. That’s not important. It’s full of good-for-you ingredients, it tastes delicious, and it keeps you full for hours.

That’s what’s important!

And no, people, you cannot taste the spinach. I get this question every single time.

What healthy breakfasts have you been making lately?

Yummy, probably healthy, vegetarian (vegan, even!) food, all along a long walk, alongside one of my best friends? Sign me up!

When we showed up, we were each given a bag with the Urban Food Crawl label on it.

I thought this was a cute touch, though it definitely made me think we’d be getting more nibbles-to-go than we did (since we didn’t get anything to-go unless we didn’t finish what we got at each location).

We got a menu in these bags, however, which let us know what we had to look forward to.

As the menu suggested, our first stop was Malo.

There, we got Vegan Chipotle Soyrizo Tortas (and burritos, actually) with avocado, lettuce and tomato.

Once splitting was all said and done, this is what my plate of tastes looked like:

This location, being the first, was also the first where I got a real sense of what this food crawl would be like. We were all kind of sitting around at a table and rather than being treated like this was a professional food crawl. We were instead kind of like a big, distant family, especially given that we got plates to split with each other. We also waited about 20  minutes for our order to come, as it seems they didn’t put the order in until we got there.

Once we ate and the hosts paid, we moved on to the next location, which was across the street: Garage Pizza.

This place offered the same kind of deal, where we all sat at tables there and waited for our food, which we split up.

At Garage Pizza, we got the Vegan Calzone, which had Daiya cheese, mushrooms, vegan sausage and red onion. It’s actually supposed to come with bell peppers instead of mushrooms, but one of the hosts had a personal preference that led her to change the official order.

My piece:

At this point, only two stops in, I was already kind of full!

We took a break part-way through to stop at a spice station. It was a cool location, but definitely added to the very slow pace of the food crawl.

Next up: Berlin Currywurst

This was, by far, my favorite location. Not only was the food good (and plentiful), but this was the only stop that really seemed to “get” what we were there for. The staff of the restaurant told us about their food and why they brought it to Los Angeles from Germany, and also told us about how they came to offer vegan options.

One of these options involved these amazing french fries, which we dipped in curry ketchup.

So good.

The other was a surprise favorite of mine: vegan kielbasa (tasted real and I had no problem with that, even though I’m not a meat fan!). There were a variety of flavors, but to me, the clear winner was one that had both orange and curry flavors. It was to die for. It also came with German bread, which was a really nice touch.

The next stop was Naya, an India restaurant.

This place was kind of weird, since they definitely did not seem to get that we were on a food tour. They crowded us around low tables at a bar and asked for individual orders, which was odd.

Their food, however, was good! Two Samosas each — one spinach & tofu and one pea & potato.

The pea and potato Samosa was one of my favorite things we tasted all day.

Sadly, this is where the tour stopped for Lauren and me. While this mostly can be chalked up to a personal call I got that basically forced me to leave, I can also say that I wasn’t all that sorry to go. As much as I loved the food tour, I was a) completely full at this point and no longer wanted any more food and b) sort of over it. This was three hours in, we’d been to four stops, people were ordering drinks, and I just didn’t want to spend a fourth hour of my Sunday on a food crawl with strangers.

I think this food crawl could be awesome and I know it’s through a new company, so I’m hoping they’ll keep improving the tour. I seriously encourage any of you fellow LA-ites to check it out, but I’d also encourage them to change things. For instance: they should cut down the amount of food at each stop, the amount of time spent at each stop and the amount of time total. If the tour was something more expected by each location (say, “we’ll be here at 2:15PM, so please be ready with these dishes”), the food was already paid for, and there was a little more information about the food at each stop, it might feel more like an actual food crawl.

That being said, go check their website out if you’re in LA!

Song #1: Wild Ones by Flo Rida, featuring Sia

I love Sia so much. I love pop music that makes me dance. This song is perfection.

Song #2: Domino by Jessie J

I dance every time this comes on.

Yes, even at the gym. I’d probably be embarrassed if I wasn’t so busy having a good time.

Song #3: I Won’t Give Up by Jason Mraz

Bringing it down a bit with this one. It’s so beautiful. My friend Whitney sent me this. She knows me so well! She and I used to sing along to Jason Mraz in the car back when we were in high school, which feels… REALLY far away. Eesh.

And finally…

Song #4: Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars

I didn’t like this song at first, when Mark told me to listen to it. However, I now think it’s one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs, ever.

I cannot wait for The Hunger Games movie to come out! Can. Not. WAIT!

What songs are you obsessed with right now?

I was originally going to post the recipe for this whipped cream  in my own words (you know, as usual), so I emailed my mom and asked her to send me the recipe (since she’s the one who made it and this recipe is her’s).

Then, I read her email and I realized how funny it was and also that you’ll be able to see that I get both my writing style and my sense of humor from her, so I thought I’d just share it exactly as she wrote it. Enjoy.

From my mother’s lips (well, fingers, I suppose):

Homemade Whipped Cream

“Oh boy, this is a tough one. Kidding.

Love you 

I started yesterday off with a quick workout at the gym — just about 25 minutes of biking (all my knee can really handle at the moment) to get my metabolism started for the day.

Breakfast: not-at-all overnight oats, which really is just more like… raw oats and vanilla yogurt with a whole banana, sliced. I have it all the time. I’m obsessed with it.

Plus, all of the ingredients are free at the office, which is awesome.

Lunch: The Super Spinach Salad from Trader Joe’s, which I love. However, I replaced the dressing that comes with it with leftover balsamic vinaigrette from the salad I’d had from the day before because I am completely obsessed with that dressing.

Snack #1: Cheese Stick. I am so into these lately.

Snack #2: Cocoa Roast Almonds.

Have you tried these yet? If not, don’t walk, but RUN to the nearest grocery store. These things are the bomb!!!

Yes, the bomb. You like it.

I also may or may not have nibbled on an amazing cookie — double chocolate pecan — made by a co-worker.

Totally worth the calories. And the stomach-ache. Whatever. It was so good.

For dinner, I went out with a friend of mine to  Lala’s, which is an Argentinian restaurant and one of my all-time faves out here.

I started off with a slice of bread.

I also split a small pitcher of Sangria with Tyler (the friend I went to dinner with, of course), which somehow went unpictured. I was probably too busy drinking it. The sangria, not Tyler.

Awkward.

Dinner was the Vegetable Plate, which is a skewer of grilled veggies. It comes with mashed potatoes, rice and salad,  but I figure mashed potatoes offer enough starch and I just get double salad.

Works like a charm. Happy belly.

What are you eating today?

Remember how, on New Year’s Eve, my mom made a Chocolate Bundt Cake? [EDIT: I originally said that I made it by accident. Boy, oh, boy did my mom jump on that one. So, to be clear: my mother made it. Hope that clears up any confusion.]

Well, today, you get the recipe for this Chocolate Bundt Cake. On Thursday, you’ll get the homemade whipped cream to go along with it.

You’re welcome.

The recipe for the cake comes from Debbi Fields’ Great American Desserts and wasn’t changed much, other than taking out one of the flavors (orange) and replacing the glaze with some amazing homemade whipped cream.

I know, right?

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 6 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 16 tbs (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus 1 tbs for buttering the pan
• 3 cups sugar, plus 2 tbs for sugaring the pan
• 1 tbs pure vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs (at room temp)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sour cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and sugar the 10-inch, 3 quart bundt pan.

In a microwave-safe bowl covered in plastic wrap, heat the chocolate in a microwave on high for 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until smooth.

Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add vanilla and beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and add the warm chocolate.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the sour cream. Beat for 45 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and scrape the batter into the pan. Smooth the top.

Bake for 55-60 minutes. The top of the cake should feel soft when pressed and a cake tester should come out moist when inserted in the center.

Cool the cake, still in its pan, on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn int out of the pan and cool to room temperature.

I’d be willing to bet you could get a proposal out of a guy on Valentine’s Day if you made this for him.

Check back on Thursday for the recipe for the homemade whipped cream to go along with the cake!

I know.

Most batches were comprised of 16 cookies. Two batches were comprised of 17. That means I made 114 cookies (If my math is right… it’ll be so embarrassing if it’s wrong. Nope. Just double checked. I should be good.).

I made:

• Chocolate Chip
• Cranberry – Almond
• Chocolate Chip – Peanut
• Chocolate Chip – Coconut
• Cranberry – Coconut
• Chocolate Chip – Walnut
• Jelly Bean
• Chocolate Chip – Almond – Coconut

It was a long day, but it was worth it. I was experimenting, essentially to teach myself more about the chemistry of baking (also, this was for a job and I was being paid for it and the ingredients were paid for, too). I’m sure my friends and co-workers will be grateful for this experiment.

The day looked a lot like this:

It’s almost comical to watch them pile up, isn’t it?

Thankfully, because I just kept making batch after batch, the dishes weren’t ridiculous. I just rinsed them between batches as I went along. This (plus the one cookie sheet) is all I had to wash at the end:

That’s not so bad, right?

I, however, was a little worse for the wear.

I’m not the neatest of bakers.

Also, please ignore that I hadn’t showered or changed out of my pajamas and that this picture was taken around 7pm. That’s cute, right?

…right?

If you haven’t, seriously, please come out from under that rock.

And, while it all started here…

And here…

And here…

This is my favorite spin-off:

What’s your favorite “Sh*t _____s Say” video?

The weight I gained was largely gained in the month of December. And, my friends, it wasn’t pretty. As I rang in the new year, I felt really weird about how I looked and felt.

Sometimes, though, hitting a point like that can be a good thing. It’s a good way to reflect on your habits. And, with some awesome New Year’s Resolutions in place, which I have fully kept up with since I started on January 3rd, I’ve already lost all of the weight I gained in December.

Thank the lord.

You see, I allowed myself two full days of moping. When I realized that my pants were more than a little snug and that the chubby cheeks I kept seeing in the mirror were not a fluke or a result of flawed mirrors but, in fact, how I was looking, I started feeling kind of sorry for myself and then a little angry at myself. But then, I realized that I’m human, it was the holidays, I hadn’t been able to work out, and moping was going to get me absolutely nowhere.

You know what does get me somewhere? Eating healthy. Treating my body right. Exercising (when I can). I know. Revolutionary blogging right here, folks.

I’ve decided to write out my new (but not really — just re-established, other than a few new ones) healthy living rules. I thought I’d write them out here for you and in case I ever need a reminder.

My (New)(ish) Healthy Living Rules for 2012:

• Try to stick with clean foods
• Eat lots of fruit and lots of vegetables
• Avoid preservatives and chemicals when possible
• Avoid fake foods when possible (no more Splenda!)
• Avoid processed foods with words I don’t understand
• Eat organic when possible
• Continue to be a Vegetarian (for as long as it makes sense, anyway)
• Eat lots of beans, eggs, fish and protein powder to keep up my protein sources
• Avoid soy at see how my body responds to it for a while (this has been new for me!) 
• Desserts are a treat for once in a while, not for every night

As for fitness, I need to be a little more flexible, considering my circumstances. That being said…

 My Fitness Goals for 2012:

• Do my PT exercises at home every day!
• For as long as I’m running around at work for 11+ hours a day, I don’t need to worry about cardio. But on the days I’m not doing that, the bike has been a really great cardio exercise for my knee.
• Regularly do strength training for my arms and abs
• Start doing yoga with Mark on a regular basis.
• When I can afford it, take Pilates. The classes I’ve taken so far have been so wonderful, but it is really expensive!
• When I can, I’m going to go back to the gym with the same consistency I used to (which sounds like HEAVEN right now!!!). Realistically, I’m thinking this will be in March or April.
• Once I’m back in shape, I’m going to start P90X as long as I’m allowed to. This will likely be a summertime endeavor.

Dare I say that this year might be my fittest year yet? I’m getting my body back, damnit. Maybe even better than before.

What are your healthy living rules?

So, it kind of occurred to me that it’s not really going to be “What I Ate Wednesday” if I actually want to post in a timely fashion on Wednesdays. Whoops. However, you don’t really care what day I actually ate my food on, right? (‘Cause, if you did, that’d be sort of weird…). What I figure is that I’ll post on Wednesday mornings but write about my Tuesday eats. NBD.

Well, I’ll start with my workout: I began the morning with an arms strength training set and all of my knee PT exercises. I’m getting so much stronger! Thank goodness for that.

Now for the food. There’s a lot of sickness going around my office these days, so I’ve decided that I’m jut going pack myself full of lots of fruits and veggies to naturally get as many vitamins into my body as possible right now.

To start my day off right in that sense, I made myself a smoothie — even though it was so cold out yesterday!

Into the mix went: (gosh, remember when I used to write that daily?)

• 3 ice cubes
• 1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries)
• 1/2 small banana
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbs whey unflavored protein powder (from the bulk bins — SO much cheaper!)

I really wanted spinach, but I didn’t have any on hand.

Very easy and healthy breakfast-on-the-go for a busy girl like myself!

Speaking of meals on-the-go… lunches, at least for the next three months, are almost exclusively going to have to be prepared meals (unless I happen to have leftovers). I’m so busy right now  — I have two jobs, one of which is an 11-hour/ day job and the other is before and after that work day.  So, at least for these three months, I’ve just decided to be okay with prepared lunches.

That being said, I’m doing my best to find healthy options in a variety of places (especially so I don’t get sick of anything).

I got this Southwest Quinoa Salad at Fresh & Easy the other day, thinking that F&E had never failed me before. Sadly, however, this might have been the time. There’s a first for everything, right?

It certainly wasn’t terrible (I ate all of it!), but I chose to warm it up (it’s supposed to be served cold) and flavor it with salt & pepper. I might not be the target audience for this meal, though — I loathe the taste of raw red onion, which was a fairly overpowering feature of the dish.

I’ve decided to treat my post-lunch sweet tooth with chocolate in vitamin form. Adora has become my lunchtime dessert.

Whoever came up with that idea is a genius.

I’ve totally gotten out of the habit of taking pictures of my food. I didn’t remember to take a picture of my snack (a banana and peanut butter) until I’d almost finished it!

Dinner was the most exciting meal of the day. Do you remember Parvin, the girl who gave me P90X? Well, she lives on the east coast, but she’s visiting for the week. I was lucky enough to be included in a dinner she and another friend of ours from middle school, Christine, hosted. They even made a vegetarian option for me! How nice is that?

On my plate: vegetarian Thai fried rice, garlic blackened brussels sprouts and salad.

I had second(small) scoops of both the rice and the brussels sprouts. So good!

Speaking of good, Christine and Parvin made these delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Their secret ingredient? Ground cloves! Though Parvin made me a little nervous when her clue to the secret ingredient was “you can smoke it.”

However, that might have made it a little easier to explain why I had not one, but two. Oh well.

Here’s the group:

They were all so much fun! I’d only ever met Christine and Parvin before, so I got to talk to lots of new people.

Alright, so, let’s hear it: What are you eating this Wednesday?