Hearts and kisses (& a giveaway winner)

And all that mushy LOVE stuff.

Right?  🙂

Truth be told, I’m pretty neutral on the whole Valentine’s thing…love it, hate it, love to hate it, whatever!  I think it’s cliché either way you look at it. 

Side note: I used to think Valentine’s was so lame, so for the first two years that Kyle and I were dating I wouldn’t go out with him on the 14th because I just felt so hypocritical changing my tune once I had a BF. 

This year, I consciously requested the day off of work, but I still have a BLS re-cert in the morning to attend.  Bummer.  It’s only 2 hours long, but it still ruins my sleep-in opportunity.  🙁

I worked both weekend days.  See?

Saturday’s work foodage.

And Sunday’s.

Common denominators: dried mango, ambrosia apples (obsessed with these – sorry gala!), candied ginger, Kookie Karma goodies, cereal/dried fruit/nut trail mix, greek yogurt & fresh fruit breakfasts, and oats

The differences were in the subtleties. 

Saturday’s salad centered around a mere TWO ingredients: kale and avocado.

I massaged the kale like crazy under hot hot water so it was semi-soft (but not quite as soft as it’s steamed or cooked form).  The tupperware on the side was the salad dressing I made for it, which was simply cashini butter, Bragg’s liquid aminos, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of ginger. 

To crumble atop the salad I tried a sample of goji lime krunchies sent to me by the company.  I was SO excited to try these.  If you check out their website, you’ll understand why.  Every treat looks better than the next.  These krunchies were raw vegan and 100% delish.  There were subtle lime notes, but for the most part the coconut and pistachio flavors were the dominant ones.  I was actually expecting more of a cracker-like shape, but it was pretty much granola.  The main thing it was made of was buckwheat groats, which were so crunchy and crisp.  I would definitely (and will) buy these again. 

Sunday’s salad, by contrast, was more grain-y. 

Spinach (wayyy down there), carrots, peas, brown rice, red quinoa, and the garbanzo goop disaster all on top.  As a hummus (or any kind of dip at all), the garbanzo flour was a huge fail, but crumbled atop a salad, it worked out pretty well.  Actually, better than well, it was awesome.  So there is some silver lining after all…

Saturday’s oats VS. Sunday’s oats

Smackdown winner was Sunday’s batch for sure.  The blueberries were frozen when I made it the night before, but they thawed to perfection by the next morning.  The other awesome part was the wheat bran.  You can’t really see it in the above view, so the below photo shows it off better.

I added ~ 1/2 cup of the wheat bran which was so yummy.  I love bran.  It also had chia seeds, which I hadn’t used in a while (and are a very underrated ingredient).  They add such volume when they gel up. 

Saturday’s oats were still good of course (because you can’t really mess up almonds, dried cranberries, and shredded coconut can you?).

I got this Costco Dried Mangoes and Berries mix on a long-ago trip but forgot about it (slash lost it in the cabinet abyss).  When I was reorganizing the kitchen this last weekend I rediscovered it and immediately dug in.  Have you ever had dried blueberries??  They are friggin’ awesome!  The dried strawberries were also way better than I was expecting.  Not quite as “natural” as the 365 brand that I usually get (I think there’s sulfur used to preserve them – boo).  Still, very good (and you can’t beat the price).

And now for the V-Day giveaway winner.

 

The winner of the 2.2 POUNDS of coconut flour is…Olivia of Little Health Junkie

Hooray for you girlie!  Hope you make something super yummy with it 🙂

*And for those who were making guesses about the crossword issue, the problem was that the previous day’s solution was printed on top of the current puzzle’s down clues.  Take a peek – kinda hard to do the crossword without the clues.