Organic Food Hall and Working on my Fitness!

Alright, so I'm definitely lactose intolerant. Going to do one of those mail in food tests to confirm but after I started to feel better around last night, I broke my fast at 10 am this morning after getting back from the gym with the green smoothie. I've been having one everyday this week and and felt fine, didn't have one yesterday though. I decided heck, let's actually confirm if I'm getting sick from dairy so I had a glass of milk and boom, instant stomach ache. Had some dehydrated ginger and went to the couch for a very cramped nap. This sucks because I need my calcium. I'll be pulling most of it from my kale/spinach smoothie every morning and this, will have to be something I work through. Obviously with being injured and per the doc 'historically malnourished', I really need to hit that 100% DV of calcium each day. But alas, let's recap my organic food haul and show you guys some of the healthy baking/cooking I did today!

So, yesterday I made it over to the Granary in Orange Park and omg, it smelled exactly how I remembered it as soon as I walked in! I was only looking for one thing, flour seeds, so I didn't spend too much time browsing around looking at everything else. I would have liked to and will definitely go back at some point but that won't be for a while. There was one entire room dedicated to homeopathic remedies and holistic medicines that I could have dropped some major dough on but I'm already paying my own medical bills at the moment lol maybe in 2025 I can switch it up a bit! So, very disappointing trip because the Granary no long sells flour seeds! So sad! I was getting my moms flour mill yesterday and was excited about making my own homemade bread but, I ended up just getting some organic flour instead that was already ground but honestly....I can get this shiz online lol I didn't need to make an entire trip for it but I wasn't about to leave empty handed.

I didn't get to dive into any of this cooking until today so let me give a recap of some of the items on my counter.

The bottle of honey and the eggs all came from my cousins farm. He's an up and coming growing farm in Nassau County and produces a ton of local honey and honestly, my hot coffee in the morning just isn't the same without honey in it and it's raw, organic and completely unprocessed. Matt loves it as a dessert and we both drizzle it on our yogurt. The eggs are from my cousins farm too and they're fed scratch, non-GMO chicken feed so this stuff is as natrual as it gets. I have a bag from LocalFare that has a mixture of different produce items each week which, I can tell you from looking at the tag on the black bag, this was from our first week with LocalFare and I've long depleted the resources in it lol. I snack on apples, they're great fiber and very sweet when I need something to suffice my cravings. Unfortunately everything else is from Publix which ranges from the greens for the smoothie maker, the beans, rice and blueberries as well. The whole grain flour here is left over from when I was trying my hardest to make sour dough work and it just didn't lol Let's start cooking some of my favorite plant based recipes and we can Google the nutrition value in these dishes!

Up first is a recurring favorite that I've made many times over the years and forget each time just how delicious they are. I personally, love salty and crunchy snacks so I love getting Garbonzo beans and roasted them into a crunchy and savory snack. They store really well and taste amazing with the right seasoning. The beans are very high in protein and fiber so if you have some of these in lieu of chips at work, you'll be doing yourself many favors including saving yourself some money. I bought 4 cans for $1.15 each and these will last me all week long versus a $3 bag of chips from the vending machines at work. The beans are very light colored and soft when they first come out of the can, but you will want to roast these in the pan until they're crunchy. Turning them constantly, you can drizzle just a little oil to help spread the salt and seasoning of choice. I strongly prefer seasoning with paprika but I ran out lol so cumin is also a really tasty option. I made several servings of these for the week ahead and did I mention, they're delicious when dipped in mustard lol

Ok now don't start gagging look at this picture until I can do some explaining lol there is a TON of kale packed in this mixer along with a generous serving of spinach, topped off with some washed organic blueberries from Publix. Side note, I don't mind getting berries from the store this time of year, but during the summer months I get them fresh picked from my parents property in Bryceville and honest to goodness you can taste the difference, anyhew lol It all looks really good mashed together. Some days I even have sliced strawberry in the mixer too for added flavor but I'm out of strawberries and didn't think to buy more this morning. Now, with all that said, you must be wondering, doesn't that taste like crap? Yep, it sure does lol it tastes like grass clippings in a glass of water so what do I do to make it taste not just tolerable, but actually delicious?

This right here is the secret weapon. Electrolyte mix! This stuff alone in a glass of water is very, very strong. Matt and I both use this brand during those long summer months of running when we need major hydration. Not only is this packet packed with electrlytes and minerals, it tastes AMAZING! I promise you, if you pour one packet of the mix into the blender with a cup of water, you will absolutely not be bothered by the taste of this kale. You just have to make sure you blend it really, really well.

And there you have it! Everything that I just put in the blender actually yields a good glass and a half, nearly two glasses so be prepared to chug! Now it's time for you guys to do some reading about all the many benefits that kale and spinach bring to your diet, especially if you're a female! Get them vitamins ladies! Your 40's and 50's will thank us!

Ok, now this next one is WAY more palatable lol it's sweet, but not over the top and it's also packed with nutrients. I know I've talked about these before, probably a super long time ago but when I have the time and resources, I really love making these too. In my hurry and hunger I forgot to take a picture of the ingredients in the actual blender lol so sorry! But here is the link to the actual pinterest recipe right here. You might have to copy and paste into your browser

https://pin.it/2ErvFfDP1

I don't know why they decided to deflate as soon as I took them out of the oven lol but as you can see from the last pic, they're very moist when made correctly and they're absolutely delicious. The only sweetener in this recipe is from two bananas, honey and a tsp of vanilla extract. I give it a 10/10 every time! I will look forward to these quick and on the go compliments to my morning coffees this week.

All of this cooking and baking was preceded with a really great two part workout! I was in the garage at 0530 this morning getting in my weight training and went straight to the gym at 7 when it opened to go climb lots of flights of stairs. Today's StairMaster session was 68 minutes in length and cleared 206 floors. According to my Garmin, I'm maintaining my cardiovascular conditioning so I'm hoping that helps me when I start runner rehab on Thursday! I won't be taking 72 hours off though lol, I'll be back in the garage for more time with my heavy weights before Matt and I hit up Black Rifle around 5 am-ish!

According to my Garmin, I'm maintaining my cardiovascular conditioning so I'm hoping that helps me when I start runner rehab on Thursday! I won't be taking 72 hours off though lol, I'll be back in the garage for more time with my heavy weights before Matt and I hit up Black Rifle around 5 am-ish. Today is our 11 year dating anniversary and also national coffee day, coincidence? Absolutely not :) So we will acknowledge this milestone by enjoying one of our favorite pasttimes which is sipping coffee together before he goes off for his morning run. His schedules all over the place this week so we'll have our coffee date, he'll see the nephews tomorrow and then he has some work hours intertwined to his regular scheduled shifts. Not entirely sure what the rest of the week holds but I'm hoping for the best! Flashback to one of our first pictures together, we were babies! Logging off while playing 'Lover' by Taylor Swift lol