Homemade Cashew/Vegan Coffee Creamer and Nice Weather... WHAAAAT?

Funny story. Every time I see "whaaat?" I read it in my head as a minion from Despicable Me saying it. Anyone else do that?

Anyway, today was fairly nice out. I spent the day running errands, etc. I'm now back and ready to workout.

 After this post.

I live in the Midwest. Weather here can have really drastic changes at a drop of a hat. It's been in the 30s for awhile now and all of a sudden, tomorrow, the high will be 65. SCORE! Made plans with a friend to go hiking tomorrow. Bringing my dog so that he can get some exercise and fresh air in too. Though, he loves cold weather, so he's been out quite often this month. Especially when there's snow.

With that said, tomorrow may or may not be my "rest day." We'll see. We'll be hiking for a few hours, so I don't want to overdo it. We'll be grabbing Subway, so that will be a "healthier" fast-food meal. Roasted chicken breast with lots of veggies on wheat. Mmmm.

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Also tried the cashew coffee cream (recipe here: http://eatwholebevital.com/cashew-coffee-creamer/). Basically you just soak the cashews in water (1:2 ratio) and you blend it the next day

Tip: do NOT use a food processor. This is probably common sense, haha. I did use a processor at first, as it was out and the blender was in storage; I usually use an immersion blender for smoothies. First of all, the water went everywhere and it was not smooth. Dangittt. Then I pulled out the blender. Perfect.

I usually use sugar-free coffee creamer (my roomie is diabetic) or Trader Joe's lactose-free coffee creamer. With stevia. Both taste delicious, but are, of course, processed and have unpronounceable ingredients. I tried using only almond milk, but it's not that creamy (I've tried black, but I really prefer not to drink it that way). I have limited my amount of Stevia and now add almond/coconut milk before adding creamer, so I can use less creamer, but still get a delicious cup of coffee. Compromise?

Recently, though, I saw someone post about an almond/cashew creamer that you can find in some specialty health food stores. It didn't get the best reviews and the closest place that carried them was an hour away. But I was intrigued.

And then yesterday I saw a post about "Ripped Cream" that the Sweaty Betties posted (read the review here, if interested: http://thesweatybetties.com/protein-coffee-creamer-review/). It's a protein coffee creamer. It has 8g of sugar though, so I decided to skip on that. Plus, it also has some unpronounceable ingredients.

Then it occurred to me: I could make my own cashew creamer, which would be protein rich, not processed and sugar-free. And I had everything on hand (raw cashews and water. I omitted both the vanilla and dates. The vanilla because I forgot... and the dates because I sweeten with stevia and honestly don't have any at the moment).

It's very easy to make. Prep took me less than 2 minutes. And unlike almonds, you don't need to strain it.

It did not taste the same, but it's a good medium between using only almond milk and using a coffee creamer. It did separate at first, but once you stir it's creamy. The bottom can get a tad gritty. If that bothers you, you can always strain it. It wasn't a huge deal to me.

Image and recipe from eatwholebevital.com

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Workout

I will update this after my workout and dinner. Sometime tonight.

Update: So, I felt really sick while I was working out, but I just kept telling myself to "do it." Well, I nearly vomited. So, I stopped at about 22 minutes. And I decided to just tack on a little pilates (non-cardio) workout afterwards. I might do the cardio resistance workout tomorrow though, after the hike.

I'll take some progress pictures at the end of Insanity's Week 2's photos. If I see changes, I'll post it up. If I don't, I'll say that and probably won't post them up. But I do feel my body changing. My glutes, thighs (esp. back of my thighs... and I'm also getting a slight gap, which I wasn't sure would happen with my body type) and hip area feel tighter and my shoulders feel stronger/more rounded.

Oh, and progress-wise, I did notice today that I was able to do all of the knee contractions (during Insanity's stretching and isolated moves after warm-up, there's a move where you're flat-backed, bent at the waist with one leg behind you at 90 degrees... and you contract the knees into you 10 times). It sounds easy, but I find this harder than most of the cardio moves. I usually have to take a break halfway through the knee contractions and skip 1 or 2 of them. Yay!

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Food
Beverages: 2 cups of coffee with stevia and homemade cashew creamer. 1 cup of oolong tea. 2 cups of green tea. Plenty of water. Detox tea (all of these teas are great for skin. Which is why I drink them).

Breakfast: Broiled grapefruit with 1 TB of Splenda Brown Sugar and 1/2 tsp of melted coconut oil (mixed the coconut oil with the Splenda Brown Sugar, sliced the grapfruit segments and topped with the Brown Sugar mix). I've grown to like grapefruit when it's prepared this way (I used to use butter. Now I substitute with coconut oil). I hated it before when I tried it plain. This would make a great dessert too. Semi creme-brulee-esque with the burned sugar lid on top.

Lunch: Leftover tofu with 1 raw bell pepper sliced and dipping sauce (same as yesterday: reduced sodium soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha).

Snack: handful of almonds and craisins.

Dinner: Baked salmon w/1/2 tomato chopped up, 1/2 lime squeezed on top, pepper, hot sauce and some raw cheddar (mix of white and yellow) cheese on top. Spinach salad w/1/2 tomato diced and steamed broccoli w/seasoning (squeezed 1/2 lemon on salad and broc).

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Other news... My PMD came in! Will post a haul, as I've been slacking with those. Oopsies.

Love always,
Marie