Organic Mexican Girl Traditional Mexican Girl, modern day lifestyle

need i say more? seriously?..

i have to say.. these are a complete ‘le-splurge’ item. i tried my best to make these as healthy as humanly possible. but sometimes.. you must indulge a little bit. that is all.

ingredients for the frosting: 

2 cups of organic powdered sugar

3 Tbsp of vanilla hemp milk {or coconut milk, almond milk, or rice}

1 stick vegan butter  {Earth Balance}

4 Tbsp creamy peanut butter

ingredients for the cupcakes: 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten free flour

1 cup organic cane sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup sunflower oil or softened vegan butter

1 cup water

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup of applesauce

1 tsp of instant coffee

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients then mix in the liquid ingredients, stir until smooth.
3. Line cupcake tins or grease then add batter to the cups.
4. Bake cupcakes for 18-22 minutes – or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center.
5. Allow the cupcakes to cool down fully.
6. With an electric beater, mix frosting ingredients. Bled until its nice and creamy then let it sit in the  fridge to firm up a bit.
7. FINALLY, frost the cupcakes, dipping a finger to do a taste test occasionally is perfectly fine, store the cupcakes in the fridge.

makes 12 cupcakes.

your welcome <3

my sis and i usually call these.. “kurt brussel sprouts”.. because.. well.. its funny.. and we love kurt russell.. so there you have it.

its been a minute since i posted a recipe.. i have downsized to a petite kitchenette, how did this happen you ask? i’m still trying to figure that one out.. anyway.. i digress.

now that my kitchen tool have homes somewhat.. i have been able to navigate the kitchen and get inspired again. i am currently doing a 7DayGreenJuiceChallenge  so since May 1 i’ve been eating only fruits and veggies. it feels so good to cleanse the system. i have been trying to get creative with the veggies without adding too many ingredients. i also don’t like to add too much salt, as it creates water retention and WHO needs that nonsense.

here is what i did:

ingredients: 

3 Tbs of SunFlower Oil (Coconut Oil or Canola Oil)

1 1/2 lb of Brussell Sprouts

1 cup of squash (cubed)

1 cup of baby potatoes (cut)

3 large carrots (cut)

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (optional)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

directions: 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves, add the carrots, potatoes and squash. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with pepper and serve!

relocating to Portland from L.A. has been such a fun and exciting experience. The road to get here was definitely not easy, we experienced a few “bumps” along the way. Any way, my biggest concern was HOW i was going to deal with the food situation while on the road.

living with food allergies can be very limiting already, so traveling while limited is very challenging. usually, I preemptive strike with preparing foods ahead of time, but this time having EVERYTHING packed in boxes.. it was really tough. basically it was truck stop food all the way. fortunately, i had my keen-wah bars to get me through the rough parts.

i don’t trust anything that is on a display tray with heating lamps, regardless of how bright the neon “fresh” sign is (hell to the no). so i opted to grab fruit when possible, most places had little fruit baskets so i would grab an orange or a banana (something with a thick shell). we stopped at a subway at one point and i just got a vegetable salad with a little olive oil, that did the trick. i avoided chips like the plague because i love salty foods and i know this would be my undoing.

most stops had the essentials, a type of fruit… some plain almonds (or at least lightly salted variation), towards the end one truck stop had a little taco stand which i was very very weary about.. i just got a side of rice and beans so that the portions were small and that did the trick. i survived the road trip without feeling too lethargic or overly hungry. usually, road trips left me feeling totally swollen from the salt and sugar sweaters on my teeth. gross i know. i was very surprised at how many places have jumped on the healthy train, there was never a point were i felt i couldn’t find anything to eat. although, the keen-wah bars were my saving grace because it was the only thing with the proper nutrition… i think i did pretty good with what was available.

here were my must have’s for road trip travels.

1) keen-wah bars- because they awesome and eco-conscious that provide the best on the go nutrition.

2)fresh fruit and veggies- i had gone to trader joe’s and bought a few bags of the snap peas, which btw, i don’t recommend eating the entire bag, it is deceptive because they taste good and they are super light.

3)plain almonds- i love almonds, almond butter, almonds have a good amount of protein and since i don’t trust outside meat products, i think its a good way to get your protein.. plus they are filling.

4)juice- this was a tough one, i love juicing and my juicer was packed if not i would have done what Joe the Juicer did in  ”Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” did and just buy fruit and veggies and make my own juice. I stock piled on BluePrint Juice before i left so i had these but towards the end of the trip i they were gone since i had to share . i did find a few other options but make sure it has mostly REAL juice on “concentrate”.

5)water- for some reason traveling always messes up my belly. drinking lots of water this time around really helped, i avoided drinking as much caffeine as i would have liked and decided to drink more water.

WOW… So much has been happening in the last few weeks, lots and lots of fun new and exciting changes happening in life.

it has been a bit of a whirlwind and i cannot wait to make some new wonderful announcements. i am probably the last person who likes to embrace change, but sometimes, we must learn to surrender certain things in life.

we have a new website in the works which is awesome news! this is a very tedious task, trying to change a few things and add a few things. not to sound so reticent but i promise it will be well worth the wait!

i had a minor knee injury the last few weeks which has kept me in resting from my training runs, but we are all better now and with 9 days to go, i’m in full force. i’m so excited about this race, i appreciate all of you who have donated money for the L&LS! thank you thank you thank you!

i just wanted to give you all an update. thank you for the emails! I promise, more recipes, more fun reads and more fun yoga stuff!!

thank you all for your support,

lots of love,

R

p.s. thank you to my Manduka family for the awesome opportunity in participating in the new spring catalogue, love, peace and gratitude.

If you are wondering whether or not your food is healthy, try cross checking with this rule…

Last week was brutal, there was more traveling which again made it impossible for my team run. I did two 7 mile runs in the rain which isn’t my favorite thing to do (as I am traumatized) but it wasn’t torturous. I really miss my team, even though its only been two weeks It really makes a difference training with others. This weekend I will miss yet another team run as I will be in Portland. The nice thing is running outdoors in the greenery up there is much more enjoyable than street running in L.A.

I did my Yoga practice at home last week and am excited about going to my dear friend Pete’s Kundalini Yoga class this week! so that will be fun. Like I said last week, for some reason this training has proven to be really difficult for me… perhaps I just have too much stuff going on this time around. I must remind myself of the reasons why I am doing this again. The closer it gets to race day, the more anxiety I get, the more I think about my “goals” and the more doubt settles in “Will I be able to raise enough money?” “Will I be able to finish?” “Am I training enough”. These are the moments when I have to tell myself to STOP and take a breath. It usually helps to do that, I forget that this self-induced stress can get the better of me if I allow it. I must stop and look at the big picture.. of all of it. I plan on taking it easy this week, do my training in #yoginimode insted of #beastmode, thank you all again for the continued support . Here’s to L.A. Marathon 2013!…

Brace yourselves my friends, I have found the best home cooking solution and it comes in a box. I enjoy cooking at home but like most… sometimes being in the kitchen after a long day doesn’t sound so awesome.

I’m not big on packaged foods, as many usually contain tons of preservatives and sodium. I was recently sent CookSimple to try out and fell completely in love with it!.. Keith Lauver has created a way to make cooking healthy easy, and accessible for everyone which I appreciate greatly. Usually, products like this sacrifice taste for nutrition, but luckily they figured out a way to make both work.

All I did was add water, a cup of frozen organic corn and 8oz of grilled chicken breast and Voila!.. Dinner was ready. This is for all my friends out there who eat healthy and want to cook a  meal in under 30 minutes without it tasting like it came out of a box. CookSimple is also offering all of my amazing readers 20% off purchasing online using promo code: OMG20 Happy Cooking!!!!

Click Here to Purchase Online or Find Local Retailers.

So, Yes… you don’t see much training in these images because there hasn’t really been any. I was teaching a lot last week, and made a last minute trip up to Portland (my fav) and needless to say… running/training fell off the priority list really quickly.

It happens, I did start feeling a little guilty about it but I know that dwelling on stuff I can’t change is just going to annoy me. It was so hot last week, then so cold up in Portland.. my body just wanted to be an emotional eater. Hence the ice cream and pancakes.. The only problem is the suffering I endure when getting back on the bandwagon. I hate getting off schedule so close to the race but it happens. It’s a new training week and the weather is beautiful in L.A., I must go and enjoy it while I can.. see.. marathon training isn’t always so glamourous… fml..

So it is definitely a lot more fun running and training with my Team… but, since my schedule is a little crazy I must make up my missed runs on my own.. -___- Fun right? Well, its been freaking FREEZING in L.A. the last week or so.. yes people.. anything below 6oº is freezing to a person that has only ever lived in Los Angeles their entire life.

Runyon Canyon is my hill training “go to” place since its close to where I live. It really has the most striking views of L.A. I’m still struggling a little with my training “time” overall but I’m sure in the next few weeks I’ll be back to where I was (hopefully). I’ve been indulging in tons of Protein to help with the recovery process so thats always fun, I’ve also been taking Level 1/2 Yoga classes to over stress my body out. Here’s to the next week of Training!! YEAH!!!!!!!

This is probably the best perk to the Marathon training… need I say more??