2024 is the Year I Prioritize Self Care

It has been a while since I have been on this blog! I decided to bring it back for a little while to post about my first challenge of 2024. I decided that 2024 is going to be the year where I take care of myself first. It has been a couple of years of intense stress for many reasons, and I really need to think about taking care of myself more.

I've decided for my New Year's resolutions this year to try and do a different challenge each month to try and become healthier in a different way. So this doesn't just mean diet or exercise, but things like getting adequate sleep and keeping myself out of stressful situations.

My challenge for January is twofold: I'm going to do a salad a day challenge for the entire month of January where I will have a salad of some type every single day. This does not mean that I'm going to have lettuce every single day, there are lots of salads that don't have lettuce at all, but I'm going to have some type of salad every single day. I have been eating so much processed food in the form of protein bars and protein chips and even meal replacements like huel that I have really been neglecting my fresh fruits and vegetables or even Frozen or canned fruits and vegetables. So I'm going to try and stay away from a lot of the processed foods for January and try out eating salads everyday. It just has to be for one meal each day but if I decide I want to eat more salad that is totally an option.

My second challenge for the month of January is to drink a health or Wellness tea everyday as well as try and finish the teas from my Advent calendar that I have not gotten around to trying from December. The health and wellness teas could be something as simple as a peppermint tea or a chamomile tea. Or it could be something like Throat Coat or sinus Soother or a detox tea. Something that has some sort of claimed health benefit like soothing the stomach or the throat or helping with sinus headaches or helping you sleep. This will be part of the taking care of myself self-care kind of environment.

I'll check in periodically to let you know how my challenges are going! Until then, Happy New Year!

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Tempeh Protein Noodles

I have been making large batches of food and eating them throughout the week to cut down on my time spent cooking on a daily basis. This is something I made the other day and love! Ingredients 1 package Edamame mung bean noodles 1 package black bean noodles 1 package Tempeh 1/3 cup textured vegetable protein 1/4 cup powdered peanut butter 2 tbsp Sesame seeds 2 tbsp kimchi 1 tbsp Chili oil 3 tbsp soy sauce 3 tbsp Bragg's liquid aminos 1.5 tbsp Sriracha Directions • Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. • in the same pot, mix the noodles with the other ingredients (it works best if you add the powdered peanut butter and tvp first so they are easier to mix once you add the liquids. • Serve with extra sriracha for a spicier dish, or add a fruit salad for some sweetness to contrast with the spicy saltiness. Makes 8 servings at about 310 calories

Creamy Lemon Garlic Pasta

Well, I'm back with another recipe, this one full of garlic! Ingredients: •Cooked pasta (enough for about 4-6 people. I used mafaldine) •Baby Spinach (I used about 2 ounces, but 4-6 oz would be better) •10 cloves of garlic, chopped •13.6 oz can of unsweetened coconut milk •2 tbsp olive oil •3-4 tbsp fresh oregano •1/2 tbsp dried basil •pinch of salt •lemon juice to taste (I used about 1 tsp fresh) •garlic powder Directions: 1. Cook pasta and set aside 2. In a pot saute garlic 3. Add coconut milk and stir until fully incorporated 4. Add in oregano, basil, and spinach. Simmer until spinach is cooked 5. Add rest of the sauce ingredients 6. Remove from heat. Add pasta. Serve with your favorite vegan meat substitute. (I used seitan chorizo, but gardein meatless meatballs, Boca crumble, beyond sausage, or TVP would all be good)

Fellowship Of The Ring Eat-athon

Fellowship Of The Ring Eat-athon, Part One! (We are pacing ourselves with small portions... It's the reason for the half apples or cupcakes!) We begin with a hobbit chomping into a cake! We started by eating half of a vanilla cranberry cupcake! And there's a number of times tea is made in the Hobbiton, so go ahead and make a whole pot (we drank this lovely Earl Grey blend from @adagioteas fandom blends) Bilbo Baggins turns 111! So we eat the other half of the cupcake! Merry eats an apple to look nonchalant while stealing fireworks with Pippin. After seeing some elves in the forest, Sam can't sleep on the hard ground and eats some bread in the middle of the night... My kind of hobbit! Then, as we make it to Bree, we see Peter Jackson take a huge bite out of a carrot... We had baby carrots😂 Pippin's infamous Second Breakfast scene gives us another opportunity to eat an apple! ...

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