Chocolate and Sweatpants

Hey!

What a rainy day we are having here in Orlando! As I type this I am sitting in my sweatpants from freshman year of college and my favorite worn-in long sleeve…..feels so right on a day like this! This afternoon I snacked on a new flavor of pure protein!

YUM! There was an ooey gooey layer on this bar that tasted like marshmallow fluff. It was very yummy!!

After my snack I did a 60 minute online yoga class from Yoga To The People. I did Class 6 and OH MY GOSH……..I’m either completely out of shape or this was just a hard class because I worked my booty off!!! I think I was down in a squat (warrior one and runners lunge) for like 15 minutes. My quads are going to be extremely sore for sure come tomorrow morning because they still feel like jelly from this class. I was sweating and cursing and loving every minute of it. Those tough postures make the relaxing postures seem like a slice of heaven. Afterwards, I walked on the treadmill for half an hour and caught up on my Oprah.

I’m so happy/excited because I talked to my old gym on the phone today and everything is set up for me to do a 3 month membership (student rate, hell yeah!). All I have to do is come in Sunday afternoon and sign the contract. They still had me in the computer from five years ago when I was a member there in high school! aaww! I’m excited because this gym has a huge lap pool, tennis courts and tooooons of fun classes. I hope my schedule will give me a little time to take advantage of everything! I don’t know why I get so stressed out over little things like that (ie not belonging to a gym) but I feel better knowing that it is taken care of now.

For dinner tonight I made one mess of a breakfast wrap.

There’s not too much left food-wise in the apartment and I’m trying to use everything up in the next couple days. This here is a combo of two egg whites and one egg with a diced morningstar farm sausage patty, a reduced fat string cheese and plenty of hot sauce. Its all wrapped up in one of my handy whole wheat wraps and I have to admit……quite tasty!!!!

I paired it with a salad with leftover sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes and I also had a piece of whole wheat toast with raspberry preserves on the side (can’t have eggs without toast no matter what).

After dinner my hormones struck. Hard. I needed something sweet and chocolate asap. So I devised this “healthy” vegan brownie recipe:

By healthy I mean it includes dark chocolate AND extra virgin olive oil, both of which rock your heart. They weigh in at about 201 calories/8 grams of (healthy!) fat per brownie. Not too shabby when a “normal” brownie is more like 400 calories and full of eggs, butter and god knows what else.

Here’s my recipe:

Vegan Brownies For Your Heart

Makes 12 brownies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa (preferably organic. I like Green and Black)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cup soy milk
2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8”8” baking dish with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the chocolate chips and stir until combined.
3. Add the olive oil, soymilk and maple syrup and stir gently only until combined. Don’t over mix.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes. Let cool before slicing into 12 squares.

YUM. All my chocolatey cravings are instantly satisfied. These are more of a cakey brownie…not very gooey…but I like them this way. You could top them with icing or powdered sugar or, like me, stuff your face as soon with them as they come out of the oven without any time to top them.

My break is over. Must continue packing!