Green smoothie breakfast

Well, I hate ice more than could ever be normal, so this is ice-free.

1 medium banana
1 gala apple
1-2C spinach
Juice of one lemon
Cinnamon to taste

Blend it all up and drink!

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Hiking the Ledges

Just wanted to share a few photos from my hike at Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park here in Ohio. It's such a beautiful (and challenging) hike! If you're in the area, I highly recommend it.

Trail mix!

Put together some trail mix for today's hike.

1/3C almonds (mine were slivered, but any will work)
1/3C walnuts (well, really any nuts will work. These two just happened to be on hand.)
1/3C vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli.)
1/3C soynuts (no idea, my mom gave these to me!)
1/3C dried cranberries
1T flax seeds
1T PB2 powder
1.5t nutritional yeast flakes

It all fit nicely into a single sandwich bag, which fits perfectly in my fannypack/lumbar bag. I plan to share this with my mom, who is joining me for today's hike. This is a good balance of protein and energy, so we should be able to hike till the sun goes down. (Also helps that we won't be starting until late afternoon!)

Snack/Lunch!

Work has been out of control lately and hasn't left much time for blogging. But I HAD to snap a picture and share the small plate of deliciousness I had for my workday snack/lunch!

We're out of plates and I just brought the whole container with me today since I didn't have a ton of time this morning, so I dished out my portion on the lid.

Folks, may I present from Color Me Vegan, carrot fries (!) with blueberry ketchup (!!) SO. GOOD.

~150 Calories for this portion
(~50 for the carrot fries, ~100 for the ketchup)

Dinner! I might eat another big salad tonight if I get hungry because I have about 300 calories left in my day right now and I haven't done a workout yet.

Just a big salad with chickpeas for protein and some fruit. Really clean and simple but so good.

There were grapes in there earlier but I snacked on em. The Clementine hasn't been eaten yet.

Already at 10 cups of water today though!

~260 Calories in total
(~190 for the salad, ~70 for the cantaloupe.)

I froze all the left over oatmeal bake in individual servings because it was just too high-calorie to eat every day.

Today, I made a super delicious and simple smoothie to start my day. Just 2/3 C frozen strawberries, a banana, and 1/2 C unsweetened vanilla soy milk.

Well, and coffee, of course.

~220 Calories

Last night's dinner wasn't very low-calorie, but it was very nutritious.

I made a roasted sweet potato salad and served it alongside a mixed greens salad (same as I had for lunch) with garbanzo beans for protein.

These trays from Target are great to teach portion control, which is my main problem.

~649 Calories in total
(~359 for the sweet potato salad, ~290 for the mixed greens salad)

Today's lunch and snacks! I packed it last night while I was starving, so there's no way I'll eat all this.

Salad is mixed greens, a handful each of almonds and cranberries, 1/4 C each of garbanzo beans and raw mushrooms, topped with 1T Newman's Own Lite Italian Dressing.

Then I ate the apple and avocado pudding. Grapes, banana and Clementine will come home with me.

~485 Calories in total.
(~380 for the salad, 55 for the apple, ~50 for the avocado pudding)

Today's lunch isn't all that healthy, but I wanted to use up some stuff in my kitchen.

Homemade vegan chicken salad (with Boca chicken patties) on a bed of mixed greens and one sliced gala apple with avocado pudding to dip.

The greens were intended to be eaten as a salad with Newman's Own Lite Italian dressing, but I'm full after the chicken salad and apple so I'm saving it for dinner.

~465 Calories in total.
(~360 for the chicken salad, ~50 for the avocado pudding, 55 for the apple)

Light breakfast. Veganized the oatmeal bake that's making its way around Pinterest, added a clementine on the side and of course, coffee.

~338 Calories in total
(~283 for the oatmeal bake, 50 for the clementine, 5 for the coffee.)

Purse Organizing

Hello, Single Dwellers!

I'm still setting up my apartment (I haven't even finished unpacking yet! The horror!) so this post is a little filler, but I've seen so many "What's-in-my-purse?" blog posts and YouTube videos that never tell the reader/viewer a good way to organize purse items. Have you ever noticed these girls just pull random crap out of their bag at random intervals? Well, that was me. Until a few weeks ago, when I said to myself, "What are you doing? This poor lady behind you just wants to look at Revlon mascara and you're taking up the whole space with your purse on your knee and arms full of crap while you try to dig out that lip stain to see if you already have that color! You. Are. A. Mess." Okay, so the conversation with myself didn't go EXACTLY like that, but you get the idea, right? Enter my newfound solution and obsession for organizing my purse: The Target-found makeup bag. (It'll make a little more sense in a minute, promise.) So let's take a peek inside my purse and get some organizing done, shall we?

So, here she is in all her glory:

This was such a great find at TJ Maxx. So perfect.

Now for the inside:

Inside. What I love about this is that everything has a place and I can see each item easily!

1. Keys

2. Glasses

3. Sunglasses

4. Wallet

5. Purse junk containment system

Keys are easy:

I'd already purged these, so no more loyalty cards and excess weight.

Wallet organizing is always fun though:

I like to keep everything in a single place. No loyalty cards on the left, no cash to the right.

I've found that wallets like this work really well for me. Just enough space without letting me hold on to too much extra stuff.*

Okay. Now for the good part. This is what has been making my life SO much easier. I know where absolutely everything is. I never have to be worried about being stranded without lip balm or hand sanitizer. Any time I want to switch bags, I have to move literally five items. I love this thing, best investment I've made in a while! So, here's the bag-o'-junk:

I'm completely obsessed with these colors. The neon purple & pinky-coral combo is so bright and cheery and chic, I just adore looking at it! And to make something functional, you have to really want to use it. I love pulling this bag out, so I love using it!

The inside. I love the makeup brush holder built into the top. It makes it so easy to store everything!

And the contents!

1. Tums, for the insane amount of heartburn I always seem to suffer from.

2. Tide pen that's not actually Tide but I have no idea what else to call it. Stain stick?

3. Lip & Cheek stain from The Body Shop. I love TBS, their products are incredible. This comes in handy since I'm not huge on lip colors (no matter how many I buy) so in a pinch, I have something flattering and lasting. And it doubles as a cheek stain in case I need to freshen up my face! Perfect multitasking product to carry.

4. Sally Hansen cuticle oil pen, since I'm obsessive with nail care!

5. Nail file. See above.

6. Advil, since nothing else works for my headaches.

7. Sunscreen! I'm not as obsessive about SPF as I should be, but this mini allows me to have it on me at all times should I find myself outside for more than a minute. (Really, between work and school, I'm inside 99% of daylight hours. So sad!)

8. Aveda Hand Relief. BEST. HAND. LOTION. EVER. And what I love most is that even though Aveda makes travel/trial sizes of a lot of their products, most aren't available in stores/salons. Hand Relief almost always is, though.

9. EO hand sanitizer spray, lavender scented. I've since bought the smaller one to keep in my purse (this one now lives in my vanity). I love this stuff! Smells great and moisturizes my hands!

10. EMERGENCY LARABAR. You know you have one.

11. Band-Aids. I'm clumsy. I cut/break myself on everything.

12. Lighter. Never know when you're gonna need one.

13. Emergency lip balm. This isn't my daily lip balm, but this is in case I forget to grab mine from yesterday's pants or leave it on the nightstand. I'll never be without!

14. BareMinerals Matte Foundation in Light is always nice to have. I have problem skin to say the least, and if I need to touch up, I prefer this to piling on more liquid.

15. EcoTools foundation brush. I love using this to apply the BareMinerals. It can conceal small areas or cover large ones. Also good for blending out makeup settle and glasses marks!

16. Brush & Mirror. Enough said.

17. Hello Kitty pencil pouch. Got this in the $1 bins at Target back in high school to use for tampons. Still am. Perfect little bag for them!

So there you have it! Everything (well, I've since added a pencil, pen and floss - I eat a lot of Chipotle, okay?! I do not want cilantro teeth! - to the bag, though.) is in one easily accessed spot and I know exactly what I have with me at all times. I love love love this bag, it makes everything so much simpler!

Also, I plan to do a bookbag organization post soon. Then when I get my couch, I can finally decide on paint and start decorating! Can't wait to share all of that and the organization involved with you guys!

*PS, change goes in my piggy bank at the end of each day. More on this in an upcoming post about my entryway dumping ground.