It is Sunday morning and I just ate some soup for breakfast. Kind of weird, but it was a good way to start my day off with some nutrients. I made a soup with a bone broth base and added sauteed onion and garlic, carrots, celery, cauliflower, purple potatoes, and kale, and it was pretty delicious.
After I finish this recap, I am going to head over to my grandma’s house to have a game day with my family and celebrate my grandma’s birthday. Everyone made a bunch of different food. I made paleo thin mint cookies–they are a little time-consuming but very worth it. I also made broccoli salad. I used Trisha Yearwood’s recipe but I used Swerve as a sugar replacement and used turkey bacon instead of regular. It also has sunflower seeds, dried cherries, and red onion. This one is keto-friendly, but it could also be vegan using vegan mayo and Morningstar (or your favorite plant-based brand) bacon. I like game nights with my family because we always play a lot of fun thinking games and laugh a lot.
Last Sunday, Julian and I went to the woods for a bit. It was extremely cold, but we love going out on adventures when there are fewer people out. He decided to walk on the lake because it was frozen. I stepped on it for about a second before I jumped off. There is so much beauty in the forest when the ice is crystallized on the plants and tree branches. When we got home, I made fried cauliflower rice. I used honey ginger-infused olive oil, garlic, crushed ginger, cauliflower rice, peas, carrots, green beans, sliced mushrooms, and broccoli.
We both had Monday off, so we decided to watch Blast From the Past. I had never seen it before, but Julian said it was one of his most-watched movies as a kid, so I decided to check it out. I thought it was really cute! It’s interesting to watch movies that you liked as a kid as an adult, because you catch jokes that you missed before.
Monday, I went to meet my mom for breakfast at a local restaurant. For the most part, since I’ve tried to eat dairy-free, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free, it hasn’t been too bad finding food, but it was a little harder at this breakfast spot. I am trying to avoid eggs for a bit, even though I know they have good protein, but that seemed to be the most doable thing on the menu, so I just got a veggie omelette stuffed with broccoli, bell pepper, onion, and spinach with a side of fruit.
It was kind of mild outside, so I walked the dogs and then we just chilled out the rest of the day. Since I’ve been feeling a bit better, I’ve found myself itching to do a lot of the things I loved before. It is incredible how much an illness can really take out of you, so I am filled with gratitude in doing even seemingly small things, like reading. For my entire life, I have gone to the library multiple times per month and filled up a bag with anywhere from 10-15 books. I found a bunch of new ones at the library last week and left feeling super-excited.
I was in a baking mood, so I whipped up some “cookie dough bread” from @lilsipper. The only ingredients are cashew butter, eggs, baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and chocolate chips. It was pretty good, but I am a sucker for anything with dark chocolate.
Tuesday, I had a few meetings at work. Since it was the second week of the semester, there are a lot of events happening and that means more for me to cover. I truly enjoy writing these news stories, so it’s been fun. After work, I had a lemon ginger kombucha, added some lemongrass to my diffuser, and did a yoga session with Adriene. Dinner was zucchini noodles sauteed with mushrooms, onion, spinach, and garlic.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all pretty similar. During the spring and summer, I spend a lot more time outside for my workouts and adventures, but Julian usually starts work at 5:30 a.m. and I work two jobs, so we both tend to just relax on weekdays. Some of the dinners I made include salmon, broccoli, and roasted red potatoes and green beans with avocado toast on gluten-free bread. I had a gift card to Panera so I picked up soup and salad after Julian and I spent some time at his parents’. When we got home, I did a double-take at how large my herb garden is getting!
It was lightly snowing on Saturday, so after a quick leg workout in the living room, we decided to head to a forest preserve. It was pretty quiet in there–we only ran into one other person. It was kind of slippery, too, but we both had our heavy-duty hiking boots. It was gorgeous in there. We saw a few woodpeckers.
After, I had some running around to do. I cleaned up the apartment a bit and then went to Aldi to grab some ingredients for today’s game night and some groceries for the week. I got broccoli, green beans, apples, raspberries, cashews, dessert hummus, organic mixed greens for my smoothies, and a cucumber to mix with lemon for infused water. I also had to go to Target to grab V8 (base for my smoothies) and crushed ginger, and I also grabbed some Waterloo strawberry sparkling water and Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups–gotta splurge a little! After I got home, Julian and I decided to head out for a date night.
We used to go out almost every weekend before I got sick, and I missed it, so now that I am starting to feel better, I am all about living in gratitude and doing as much as I can. We went to Haunted Trails. For those not from the Chicago area, it’s a gaming spot that is similar to Dave and Buster’s and has an outdoor area with go-karts and mini-golf. I loved it so much as a kid because I have always been into spooky things and the theme of the whole park was awesome. They changed a lot in there–they used to have two games that were my favorite: Spider Stomper and the Electric Chair. I can see why they removed them, but they really were fun! We had such a good time playing ski-ball, a laser game, and several others.
After, we went to Portillo’s. We live a block away from one and this is the first time we ever went there. I got a salad and soup, and then we hung out and watched YouTube. It felt a lot like the old Saturdays we had, and I am so relieved to finally be feeling a bit better and plan to continue practicing mindfulness and yoga, eating well, and taking care of myself so I can stay on an upward trend.
I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday. This week, I have a concert to go to and a day off work to do whatever I want. I can’t believe it’s almost February. Any Valentine’s plans?
Breeanna Living Brilliantly 