Vegan Cookies and Chop Chop Salad

Good morning!

So, as much as I wanted it to be, unfortunately running was not in the cards for me yesterday evening. I definitely tried though! I got all bundled up a la Angela’s Project Snow. I grabbed my ipod and slapped on my Garmin and was off into the cold. I turned on my ipod, put in my earphones and… nothing. Apparently my earbuds decided that they no longer want to work   Then I turned on my Garmin and it displayed “low battery”. I mean, I could obviously run without a Garmin and without music. But… when it’s dark and cold, I think I’d rather have them. And maybe a part of me wasn’t totally crazy enough to run in the dark and in the cold. I think for me, maybe I should try and do my outside runs in the morning or afternoon; I’m not a big fan of running in the dark.

So, I went back home and saw there was just enough time for me to make it to my usual Wednesday gym ritual – the Brazilian Series at Equinox.  

I am not giving up on this running thing though! 

Dinner and Dessert

I have really been craving salads lately. I think it may be because I have been slacking on my veggie intake. 
After seeing the chopped salad on this lovely lady`s blog, I decided it was exactly what I wanted for dinner last night. 

I tossed together in a bowl:

1/2 small head of washed and chopped red leaf lettuce
1/2 an English cucumber, peeled and diced
About 20 grape tomatoes, halved
1 small avocado diced
1 roasted red pepper sliced (I used a jarred version. But feel free to roast your own)
1 cup of chickpeas
1 cup of sliced hearts of palm (my favorite salad mix-in!)
A few sliced mushrooms that were on their last leg
(You could also throw on some goats cheese or chopped nuts – I didn’t have any on hand)

I then dressed it with a bit of EVOO, balsamic vinegar, a squirt of lemon juice and a small amount of salt and pepper .

Delicious (and nutritious )

I love love love salads with tons of ingredients thrown into them.

What are your favorite salad toppings?  (mine are hearts of palm, chick-peas and strawberries!)

After dinner the bf and I both had a bit of a sweet tooth, so I decided to try my hand at making some vegan chocolate chip cookies!

I followed this recipe, but substituted the regular flour for whole wheat pastry flour. 

The finished product:

They smelled, delicious and they looked delicious… but they tasted, as the bf said “just okay”.

He actually said they tasted a bit bland. Maybe it had to do with the WW flour? Or maybe it was the lack of butter

I thought they were not bad; they definitely hit the spot for me but I agreed that they could have been better.

I will keep searching around for a good recipe. If you know of any please send them my way!

I think a breakfast smoothie is on the menu this morning!

Happy almost weekend! Have a great day!

Janna

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