Food for the… #4

Posted in Sophomore Year by Madison @ Eating 4 Balance

It’s so weird, but a craving for a peanut butter sandwich just hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t even looking at food photos (like I usually am), and all of the sudden I just wanted to bite into the simple crust of the bread and taste the thick but smooth peanut butter on my tongue.

Does that ever happen to anyone else? Out of nowhere you know exactly what you want to eat?

It occurs off and on with. Once, just randomly, the idea of a cold glass of almond milk popped into my head. And another time all I wanted was a strawberry Nutri-Grain bar.

I think most would call that intuitive eating signals? Unfortunately for me I crave food that I can’t eat, so they often go unsatisfied. Why can’t I crave fish and zucchini? That would nice, thanks.

So, what do I do instead? I pin, I read, I create (recipes and blog posts). I take a bite of chicken or squash, hoping to squelch the peanut butter sandwich from my mind. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But at the end of the day, I have a nice list of wonderful links from throughout the week.

Then come Fridays, I get to share them with all of you!

FOOD FOR THE MIND

How do I treat (or prevent) a cold or flu naturally? — from Balanced Bites
Are food allergies the new eating disorders? — from Sprue Story
Blog Tips You May Not Have Thought Of — from Sprouts N Squats
After Reading This, You Will Never Look at Bananas the Same Way Again — from Sunny Skyz
60 Must-Read Health, Fitness, and Happiness Blogs for 2014 — from Greatist
Blogging Tips for Beginners — from Pencils and Pancakes
What’s Your Snack Food Horoscope? — from Buzzfeed
She’s All That Cast 15th Reunion + Interviews — from The Daily Beast
Snake Bite Victim Charged $89,000 for 18 hour Hospital Stay — from Yahoo! News

FOOD FOR THE BELLY

Stuffed Roasted Onions — from Gluten-Free SCD and Veggie
Cinnamon Bun Muffins — from Comfy Belly
Fudgy Brownie Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches — from Averie Cooks
BBQ Stuffed Sweet Potatoes — from Ari’s Menu
Paleo Meatball Subs — from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen
Gluten-Free Pop-Tarts — from Brave Tart
Vegan Butter — from A Girl Worth Saving
Frozen Banana Bites — from Run Wiki
Cookie Pie Ice Cream Bites — from PaleOMG

FOOD FOR THE EYES

Bully Calls News Anchor Fat, News Anchor Destroys Him on TV — from UpWorthy
Make a Giant Rainbow Layer Cupcake — from My Cupcake Addiction
Single Serving Protein Chocolate Fudge Cake — from Purely Twins
Musicians Read Mean Tweets About Themselves — from Jimmy Kimmel Live
Watch a Bunch of Dudes Try to Guess How Much Women’s Products Cost — from Buzzfeed
Austin Wolfe American Idol Auditions — from American Idol
Full House Guys Reunite on Jimmy Fallon — Jimmy Fallon
Mailman Battles Angry Cat While Attempting to Deliver Mail — from YouTube
When Ellen Met Elias — from The Ellen Show

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

What I Won’t Miss: Wearing Jeans and the Most Insecure Post I’ve Ever Written (Guest Post) — from Living the Before
Hike Your Own Hike — from Free Range Human
Too Well Fed — from Flake and Cake
When Instagram Photos Deceive — from The Big Man’s World
Raw Beauty — from Long Drive Journey
Season of Humbling — from Peace, Love and Oats
Choosing Less, Gaining More — from Sarah Kay Hoffman
I am BLESSED to be ALIVE — from Love Natalie Marie
Third Wheeler — from The Run Within

FOOD FOR THE BODY

What Every New Runner Needs to Know — from Shh… Fit Happens
Time for Tabata — from Live from La Quinta
The Deck — from It’s Harleyyy Life
6 Ways to Incorporate Yoga into your Daily Life — from Love Life Surf
The 50 Rep Shoulder Set — from Shh… Fit Happens
Guide to Winter Running — from Katrina Runs

Now, I must get ready for bed as I am absolutely exhausted! This morning I volunteered to help with registration at a DECA event my college was sponsoring. I had to get up about an hour and a half earlier than usual and I can definitely tell. I just had zero energy throughout the entire day.

I am going to try my best to get a lot of rest this weekend, and you should do the same!

P.S. Don’t forget to join in on the Happy Herbivore giveaway before it ends Sunday night.

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Happy Friday. 🙂

What is your weekly Food for the… Mind, Belly, Eyes, and Soul?

15Jan2014

Theirs, Mine, and Ours

Posted in Sophomore Year, WIAW by Madison @ Eating 4 Balance

Before I even jump into today’s post, I want to express my sincerest thanks for all of your comments on the vlog that I posted Friday. I cannot even tell you how hesitant I was to share it, and then how much I dreaded my decision in the few hours after. Where you all called me “cute” I saw myself as “flighty.” Where you said that I seemed so “relaxed” and “real” I thought rather that I was “rambling” (as I appropriately indicated in my post title for the day). I still think that most of you were just being nice, but all the same I appreciate you taking the time to watch it. I have no idea when I will make another or IF I can even gather up the courage to make another, but I’m glad I bit the bullet and did a second one (my first was all the way back in October 2012, more than a year ago!).

Also, another note before sharing some delicious food pictures with you all, I’m going to be blunt and admit that I have no idea how much time I will be able to spend blogging this semester. Right now in fact I should be reading for one of my classes but that will come in due time and staying up just a little bit later is definitely worth it.

At the start of 2014 I had all of these big plans for Eating 4 Balance including finally getting a self-hosted site, upgrading to a new theme, working on more professional pictures/recipes. Yada yada yada. Oh, and being more faithful with comments too. I know that January is not even half way over yet, but can I just say MAJOR FAIL? Sorry everyone. I’m going to do my best. It’s not really an option for me to quit entirely or take a break because blogging IS MY BREAK. Really, reading blogs and blogging is my relief from college life and classes. Take that away and you have a Madison ten times more strung out and scattered than you saw in my video (I think beginning to refer to myself in third person may be a sign that the craziness has already begun? Is there no hope of turning back?!!! 😉 ).

With those hundreds of words put out there, this WIAW will be probably less wordy and more picture-heavy than normal.

I called this post “Yours, Mine and Ours” to represent the variety of food that I made over the holidays and am about to unload on you. There are some pictures of food that I made for my parents and/or brother (theirs), some food that I made for myself (mine*), and the food that I made for both (ours).

*Although as noted on Friday, I have basically backed off of trying to add anything new. Simple is the name of the game once more as I try to go back to how I felt before the holidays. Meat and veggies here I come… Already feeling much better though thankfully!

THEIRS

Gluten-free buckwheat pancakes inspired by Gluten-Free Goddess

Homemade macaroni and cheese

Whole wheat pasta, organic cheese and milk

Pumpkin oatmeal with granola and almond butter

Oatmeal with pears, almond butter and maple cinnamon pecans

Quiche inspired by Meghan

Made with an almond flour crust, eggs, milk, cheese, seasonings, onions, squash and broccoli

Puppy chow for my brother’s New Year’s Eve party

MINE

Gluten-free and vegan biscuits

Oh so moist, flavorful and crumbly!

Homemade ice cream with goat’s milk and stevia

Gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free pancakes

Sweet gluten-free and vegan pancakes made with potatoes

Potato pancakes topped with New York maple syrup

Whole Foods salad bar: red quinoa, grilled chicken and cucumber slices

Chocolate pudding: cocoa powder, pumpkin puree, tapioca starch, water, stevia and frozen blueberries… yum!

Goat’s milk yogurt with stevia and frozen blueberries

OURS

Alright, so we didn’t actually share THAT much food-wise over vacation

Paleo pumpkin chocolate chip cake with a chocolate frosting (I just ate some of the frosting. It was amazing and tasted like a rich chocolate pudding.)

I do have plans to share some of these recipes eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later! 🙂

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Questions for you:

Can you guess what inspired the title of this post?
Do you make food that is just for someone else, yourself, or even both?
What is your favorite food to make? Obviously mine is pancakes!

1Jan2014

WIAW Christmas Day 2013 + Future Posts

Posted in Sophomore Year, WIAW by Madison @ Eating 4 Balance

Before I get started with all of this 2013 recapping fun in the coming days I first want to share a quick collage of my Christmas Day.

Of course it must feature some food as I hate to miss out on Jenn’s What I Ate Wednesday party.

First row from left: Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, my brother’s new Keurig machine, paleo Apple Chunk Cinnamon Rolls.

Second row from left: The fire station where we had lunch on Christmas day, laying out the food, Christmas presents.

Third row from left: My dad expertly cutting the ham, the start of the dessert table, my dad’s plate of leftovers for dinner.

For breakfast on Christmas morning we made Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls for my brother and Apple Chunk Cinnamon Rolls for my parents. Along with the rolls they also made bacon on our large griddle and after presents were opened, made coffee and hot chocolate with my brother’s new Keurig.

Every year for Christmas we always go to my grandparent’s house for lunch to celebrate. As they’ve gotten older though we have started just having holidays at the fire station where my grandpa is the retired fire chief. There was the usual ham and turkey, of which the turkey my grandma accidentally overcooked A LOT. Sighing “good gravy” in an exasperated tone, she tapped the outside of the cooked bird and it sounded quite… hard. I preferred it that way, but to see her face when she first took the lid off the turkey was hilarious.

My grandparents also brought the stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, pie and soda. My great aunt brought some homemade rolls which everyone said were delicious. My other two aunts brought fresh fruit salad and homemade sweet potato casserole. One of my cousins brought her famous frosted sugar cookies, deviled eggs, and cranberry jelly, and another made a raw vegan kale salad which sounded amazing. There was also cole slaw, lemon bars, m&m cookies, powdered sugar balls, and peanut butter cookies (but I’m not sure exactly who made them).

After the lunch I was recruited as always to help dish out the leftovers. Just as my grandma was trying to send us home more food, I was also acting as a double agent for my mom who wanted me to stave off the attempts. I tried my best. As you can see in the last picture of the collage though we ended up with quite a bit of delicious food for the following night and next day.

If you are still plagued with any leftovers from Christmas feasts, or if you will be after New Years, check out my post on creative ways to use them.

Coming up soon in my next four posts I will have a recap of my Christmas presents, my recap of 2013/plan for 2014, a new oatmeal recipe, and another cookbook giveaway!

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Well, it’s officially New Year’s. My brother and his friends are outside right now blowing their kuzookas and probably making a mess of our yard with poppers. Once again the news stations did not actually show the ball dropping, which I just don’t understand.

Happy 2014 blogland! Hope it’s a great one 🙂

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Questions for you:

What are your plans for New Years day? We are going to Pizza Hut with family.
Are you ever roped into getting leftovers? Yes.
What would be your favorite food to get? Turkey!

5Jun2013

The Way the Frozen Banana Blends

Posted in Summer 2013, WIAW by Madison @ Eating 4 Balance

I’m almost caught up with my comments! I know that this will sound like a broken record, but I really do appreciate how patient everyone has been with me the past few weeks. Obviously it’s not a requirement to respond to all comments; however I like to show how much I love each and every one of them so I try to reply every time. Personally I’m thrilled when a blogger responds to my comment on their blog, even if it’s just a little smiley face 🙂

On the other hand, when a blogger doesn’t respond to someone’s question in the comments that really irks me.

Another thing that irks me?

Driving in cities.

A lot of you are probably rolling your eyes right now thinking to yourselves “Duh Madison! That’s how our whole lives have been. We’ve grown up in the city, we’ve driven in the city since day one. Deal with it.”

But I haven’t grown up in a city. I have rarely driven in “downtown” areas EVER. Where I come from the only time traffic gets backed up is when there is construction.

When I drive somewhere, on a really slow day I may pass a total of ten cars on my way into town (15 minutes). And that would be a “town” of 20,000 people maybe. Not 20,000 people in one block but 20,000 people TOTAL. When I look for a parking spot I sometimes have to park a little ways from the store (like 15 or so rows in a parking lot). I DO NOT ever NOT find a parking spot anywhere.

By now you may have tired of my rant, but I promise, it’s just getting good. Are you in a bad mood? Feeling a little down? Well– prepare to laugh because I’m about to make a fool of myself by sharing an embarrassing parking story on the world-wide web.

Today my fellow interns and I got out of work 1 hour early so that we would have time to make it to a local meet-and-greet for local interns. Theoretically one hour should have been plenty of time to drive there and find a place to park. Starting from work my GPS said that I would arrive at 5:01. That was before construction/city traffic ate up all of my time and I ended up arriving at 5:20.

Add another five minutes when I realized that I had entered the wrong address from the e-mail notification.

Add another 20 minutes until I found a parking garage.

I entered said parking garage and received my ticket (also where I come from there are no “tickets” to park. You just park. Plain and simple). Then when I realized that there were no spots to be seen I circled back around ready to head deeper into the garage. That’s when I passed a parking attendant in a little look-out booth and I realized that I probably was heading the wrong way.

Too late. I then realized that I had left the parking garage and there was no turning back so I made an awkward turn up to the pay station. Except I was too far away to reach through the window so I had to get out and wave apologetically to the man in the car behind me. Then I proceeded to put my ticket and credit card in the wrong way and have it flip in and out, in and out like a man-eating machine. I seriously feared that I would never get my credit card back AND be stuck inside the parking garage gate.

When I realized I had put the ticket in upside down I promptly did it correctly, paid $1.20 for a total of 30 seconds of “parking” (really just a nice little drive through) and literally jumped in my car because I was worried the gate’s bar would lift and close before I had a chance to cross over into freedom.

At this point my little parking escapade had cost me another 10 minutes, making it 6:05 and me being royally late to the intern meeting.

Oh, and I still had no where to park.

That’s when I decided to:

1. Give up, go home, and get something for supper (driving sure has a way to make a girl hungry!).

And 2. Call my mom and rant, much like I’m doing now, about how I hate driving in the city and how I will never ever live in one again.

Hmmm…

This may possibly be the strangest lee-way ever into the most untraditional WIAW ever, but, that’s the way the cookie crumbles folks.

Or the way the frozen banana blends, seeing as how that’s what I’m currently chowing down on. 😉

For today’s WIAW I wanted to do something kind of different. Perhaps now though, since I never follow WIAW rules anyways, this is actually not “different” but normal? Eh, who cares really?

Today one of my favorite authors, Sarah Dessen, came out with a new book called The Moon and More. I’m so excited to read it that books have been on my mind all day! In keeping with the book theme I thought that sharing meals based on famous children’s books would be a fun way to go. I even included some snacks at the end to keep with WIAW‘s theme. Definitely my favorite snacks of all time!