Motivation Tuesday.

March, 5th, 2013

Today I felt energized. I woke up with a heightened sense of motivation. I knew today everyone in my class would receive their Q.E. (Qualifying Evaluation) results for Interpreting internship. This term I was really sick for a full week, which just happened to be the week before QE test. I opted out of the test since I knew I wouldn't be up to snuff. 

I'm going to make a picture of me passing the Q.E.and add it to my dream board. Some people call a dream board, a vision board. You put it where you see it with all of your hopes and dreams. It's like advertisement but for yourself.  I learned this from my friend Leo and watching the movie called, "The Secret." Since you see this constantly, you start taking steps in the right direction to accomplish your goal. I am going to pass the Q.E. I have already asked a few people in the interpreting community for extra support. I getting my butt in gear people!! ahah. 

After accomplishing my "30 Yum Universe Challenge" I have decided to do my own challenge of working out for 30 days. It's all about routine. If you can do it past two weeks, you can do it forever. I usually workout for three days, stop for a week or two and start the vicious cycle again. I am going to look over "Get Fit Faster" on Facebook and try their work out routines!

Breakfast: 

Today I made a smoothie (picture left.) It included: maca power, hemp powder, banana, kale, blackberries, blueberries, water,  and almond butter.

Lunch:

Plus I had a sandwich with the Black Quinoa Sweet Potato Cakes on it with butter lettuce and ranch dressing. 

Dinner:
I ate some organic granola from People's coop with fresh almond milk! I love breakfast for dinner.

Night y'll. xo

YU 30, Day 27

Wednesday, February, 27th
What a day. What a day. 

After practicing voice interpreting at school, I ventured home to make some delicious grub. But, first I went to my favorite food coop People's (image of basket left). Yes! I asked the very friendly and informative coworker 20 questions. ahah. I bought some BPA free one cup bags. This way I can cook beans, measure them, and freeze them. I also bought for the first time unbleached parchment paper. Oh and they had Jerk powder! I went to a coop near my house yesterday and they didn't have jerk powder. 

Breakfast:
I tossed in: a handful of kale, 1 cup blueberries, some fresh pineapple chunks, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup coconut water, 1 tbsp hemp powder and blend.

I had a smoothie. Ha! I bet you would have never guessed that. :) *remember when freezing the banana's to cut off the brown part at the end. 

Lunch: 
I had my leftover salad with the ranch dressing sauce. YUM! I just figured out what the soy free gluten free ranch tastes like. Ready? Ready? You know the "Hidden Valley" Ranch packets you get from the store? THAT! I paired it with my delicious vitamin water. 

Dinner:
Woah! I tackled a lot for dinner. For some of you, you may not know what my cooking situation looks like (image left.) Two hot plates (far left), counter (middle space), and sink (far right-filled with dishes.) That's where the magic happens. If you are thinking, "oh I can't" or any other gamut of excuses... Look at the picture again. ahah. If I can, believe me, you can too!!

Any who, I made Buckwheat, Chickpea & Sweet Potato Jamaican Jerk Wrap (or Salad). I posted poned on the Authentic 1-Day Ethiopian Injera: Gluten-Free 100% Teff Flatbread because I was really tired and it didn't look like the picture- the brain. I let it ferment longer than 24 hours. The cheese cloth accidentally fell into the mixture. Whoops! I am not sure how long it was in there. I'll make it tomorrow and it was be delicious. I can feel it. I ate the Buckwheat- Chickpea dish as a salad and added ranch. Yum!

The Buckwheat was so easy to make. They look like cute little hearts before they are soaked and cooked. When I made chickpeas for the first time, I used the rice cooker which was super fast. This time I wanted to see if I could make it on the hot plates. Success!! I was paranoid that I was going to burn one of the chickpeas and ruin it. Paranoia went out the window. Comparing the rice cooker to the hot plate, the ricer cooker was faster but the chickpeas were really dense and hard (perfect for hummus since you blend the chickpeas), and the hot plate was perfection. Oh! The chickpeas made popping noises too while it cooked. My guess is the skins were popping off, but I am not really sure.

I didn't have a steamer for the kale and sweet potato so I used a strainer instead. Ha! My first time steaming vegetables and it wasn't too hard. Except, Bay told me next time I should use the bigger pot next time and the process will be faster. Doh!

Dessert:
What, I made dessert too? Oh, yes I did. And I made a few mistakes in this recipe Blueberry Pie Chia Pudding (to the left, to the left.) 

I blended all of the ingredients together and added the chia seeds and put it in the refrigerator as I was working on the dinner. 
After about thirty minutes,  I had a feeling it would be finished. I ventured over to the fridge and all the chia seeds didn't expand. I was very perplexed onto why this would happen. Then I scooped out some seeds and sure enough they were not chia seeds. They were quinoa seeds! HA! Luckily,  I was making extra ranch dressing. I already had cashews, soaked and ready. 

Today, I was looking at Facebook and found a cool, all natural, cleaner - recipe seen here. I can't wait to make this (image above, left). Now my cat won't be digesting any chemicals while I clean; he is everywhere in my studio.  Also I found a cool way to have a garden without a raised bed here (image above, right.) The only problem is the metal leaking into your food. So I thought, why not get heavy duty BPA free plastic and line it. I am going to try to convince my dad to help me make it. 

YU 30, Day 5

Tuesday, February, 5th

We went to People’s to get some staples, legumes, raw organic pressed coconut, soap cut from a bar, Pixie Retreat sandwich, and a juice from The Sip Juice Cart. We went to New Season’s to get almond butter because People’s was out and some more large mason jars for soup. I can't believe we went shopping. We were and are so exhausted. But you do what you need to do right?!?

Breakfast:
Bay: “two sick gals and two cold kicker steamed juice. on left has orange, pineapple, ginger with echinacea and elderberry tincture. on right has red bell pepper, apple, lemon, ginger, garlic, oregon grape, elderberry timcture and echinacea.”

Lunch: 
Sleeeeeeeepppppp! And some honey, ginger, cinnamon, raspberry tea.


Dinner: 
Leftover Black and Bean soup, water, tea, orange juice & sleep!

YU 30, Day 1

Friday, February, 1st

Bay & I went grocery shopping for a variety of vegetables and fruits from the local market the Kruger’s Farm and our favorite store People's Coop in SE Portland, Or. We bought a whole bunch of glass mason jars for easy storage for legumes, nuts, smoothies, and dressings. My favorites jars thus far are my leftover organic peanut butter and almond butter jars. The lid doesn't separate which I LOVE!! These jars make it easy to make a smoothie and take it to go.

We are firm believers in starting your day with a huge glass of water. The body naturally loses two gallons of water when you sleep. Gross! Right? Then we make a delicious smoothie of our choice. SO many bananas!! Ha ha. Right now our favorite sites to check for new smoothie recipes are: Yum Universe, This Raw Some Vegan Life,  Smoothie Alchemy and Young and Raw.

Breakfast: 
Interesting texture and scrumptious, Peanut Butter Hempster Smoothie

Lunch: 
Salad: spinach, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds for protein, red onion soaked in red wine vinegar for an hour, carrots with a Garlic Lime Sauce


Dinner: 
This soup was delicious!!! Bay- bay is such a good cook,
Autumn Parsnip & Apple Soup. She showed me how to cook the parsnip. I never knew what a parsnip was until today. It tastes exactly like a carrot. We researched it and the parsnip comes from the carrot family.

Organic Homemade Body Butter.

My organic, homemade, orange and lavender, body butter. I found this recipe at Rawmazing. 

I didn't realize that I need an blender so I used a whisk instead, not recommended. lol. I was extremely hard to whisk together. Luckily, I had Bay Bay to help me with gun power. 

This whole process took an hour, including putting the shea butter in the freezer. Organic raw shea butter was a challenge to find. We found it at our local shop in S.E. Portland called People's coop. 

I'm so proud of myself. Their are so many nasty chemicals that are put into our lotion, shampoos, conditioners, packaged, food, etc. Since my body is super sensitive and I have gotten rid of almost all of the chemical based products in my studio. I'm sure their is something lingering. 

Try this out! You'll be surprised at how easy it was, promise.