And now I present to you, the cupcake of the night!

You start out with the same base chocolate cupcake. For this round, I bought Organic Cacao Chocolate Powder to see if it improved the tast. I am sorta bummed that I bought these super cute cupcake wrappers and you can’t even see them. I put one on the cooling rack upside down so you can see it.

You also use the same Fluffy Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting as before. However, I do not use shortening, only butter and I 1/2 the recipe. The addition to this cupcake is making up some sweet dark cherries in a pomegranate sauce and doing a super cool decorating technique. You scoop out part of the cupcake to use in building your cupcake tower. Then, it’s just a matter of layering fluffy butter cream, cherries, chocolate cupcake and candied cherries with chocolate shavings.

The pictures really do not do the beauty of this cupcake justice. I was so proud of myself ~ toot, toot, my own horn! LOL. Seriously, I am by no means a fancy baker, I like to bake but it isn’t exactly fancy. My secret is the super cool decorating tool I bought. It is seriously the best $10 I’ve ever spent at Walmart. Here is a pick up close:

I actually haven’t tasted the cupcake as The Husband inhaled this one. I am however carting everything to work tomorrow to share I will give you a review then. The Husband did devour it pretty quickly and said he like it for not liking chocolate and fruit together – once again, he’s funny!

I am off to do some yoga, shower, and get caught up on some sleep. Night all!

Kirwin shared this article with me today. I really think it is interesting how he was able to improve his health and thought I’d share it with you too.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/vegan-before-dinnertime/#more-867

Today was such a fun, but, long day. I did the Intermediate/Advanced Power Yoga #2 session from yoga download.com for my yoga today. I really liked how this session challenges your muscles and balance. It feels more like a workout than a relaxation Yoga which is nice. However, I am not sure I am too fond of this particular class because you go through so many poses so fast and the instructor doesn’t always call out the names so you know which move you are on. I will give another power yoga session a go, however, I probably will not repeat this particular one.

We spent the day shopping, going out to two restaraunts and attending the Home and Garden show. We had fun browsing for new ideas and of course I scored some good finds. We bought some flavored homemade nuts (yum!), 2 cookbooks, 2 types of homemade bread and two magazines.

My AM snack was half of this Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar as we drove. It was eh, ok, I probably won’t but it again as I think there are other flavors that are better. I also had a few of The husband’s cashews (not pictured).

We stopped for lunch at one of my favorite places in the whole wide world, Jacks Urban Eats. Every city and town should have a place this good. I love being able to pick/choose what you put on your salad – everything is so fresh and the dressings are homemade – so good! I made my own salad and had a slice of freshly baked bread on the side.

I made my salad vegan and my mix included:

mixed greens, chickpea/kidney bean mixture, pickled red onions, dried cranberries, walnuts, grapes, red bell pepper and balsamic vinaigrette. This really tasted as good as it looks.

After shopping at several stores (we are on a quest for a new dresser to match our bedroom set from Pottery Barn), we headed over to the Home & Garden Show. We bought some great seasonings and marinades along with some of these awesome freshly roasted nuts. I quickly opened the bag and snacked on a few as we walked around.

We didn’t end up having dinner until late so I also snacked on an organic fuji apple. I took a picture, but, well, it’s an apple and I am making this post long already

Dinner was at The Old Spagetti Factory ~ The Husband got excited when he saw it so I knew we had to go. Sorry ahead of time for the pictures, I tried to get everything to make them lighter but somehow candlelit dinners are not too great for picture taking. I did my best to keep my meal vegan and the manager assured me that nothing was cooked with butter and only in olive oil – yeah!

I started off with a couple of slices of freshly baked, hot, crusty, chewy sour dough bread – no butter.

Since I had salad for lunch and their salad was mainly iceberg, I opted for the Vegetarian Minestrone ~ Yum! This was so flavorful and fillng – it could be a meal by itself.

For my entree I had the Spagetti with marinara and they topped it with some freshly sauteed (in olive oil, garlic, herbs) mushrooms. This was pretty flavorful, but, the mushrooms were the definite star. I ate about 1/3-1/2 of this and The Husband ate the rest.

Dinner also included your selection of ice cream and it honestly took ALL my want power, will power and strength to hand my dish over to The Husband. He kept telling me one bite was ok, but, I knew it wasn’t vegan and it wouldn’t be fair to “cheat” on vegan week. I LOVE ice cream – wish they had sorbet because then I could’ve participated too.

Phew ~ long post and day, but, it was a really great day for us. I am off for snuggle time with The Husband ~ Have a great night all for what is left of it.

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward tonight.

I absolutely LOVE the weekends, especially when they start off sunny. I had a quick breakfast this morning of a Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel English Muffin with organic peanut butter, 1/2 a banana and decaf coffee. I really like Ezekiel products because they are higher in protein and fiber, but, they are pretty tasty as well.

This was absolutely everything I was craving….look at all that yumminess!

I am off to do another power yoga session before we take off for our day of fun. See you all later!

The Husband’s fun plans are actually for tomorrow ~ oops, guess I should listen better. He still to do something tonight like go out to eat and to the movies tonight but I was still pretty full from lunch. So, I had a quick dinner of leftover pasta salad with some bread and spicy balsamic dipping sauce.

We checked out the movies and thought, eh, no time is too good. The times were not right for the ones we wanted to see. We thought of Net Flix but eh….so, here is how old we are getting. We sat on on computers – him playing poker and me with some serious blog time. But, you know what…it was awesome! I was able to make some real progress and I am now going to bed feeling so accomplished!

For dessert I had another Vegan Carrot Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting ~ ahhhh, so much better than today’s.

We will be out and about tomorrow but I will have my camera with me and update when we return.

Today was the day we have been waiting for ALL week ~ our visit to Ubuntu Restaraunt & Yoga Studio! No, this visit wasn’t for Yoga, but, for some of the tastiest Vegan Food I have ever had in my life. I can definitely see adding this to the list of places I’d love to do Yoga though too. I was a bit skeptical after scouring the menu and honestly thought I’d be leaving there hungry. We had the best time today ~ from the awesome service from our waiter, Jeremy to adventuring out into new foods to visiting with the tablemates next to us. Thanks for sharing with us, ladies! I have to say we probably corrupted what they ordered a bit, but, the food was THAT good, we had to share our thoughts. But, more on this in a bit.

I LOVE everything this place stands for and represents. Ubuntu translates to humanity towards others. Our waiter gave us a great brochure (and our very own menu, lol) that explains all about the Ubuntu Idealogy.

Everything they serve at Ubuntu is organically grown in their own biodynamic gardens or grown locally. Anything you see on their menu that is in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is grown in their very own gardens. Everything else is grown locally.

Inside the restaraunt it looks so cool. Here are a couple of pictures that we took, but, they really do not do it justice. The Yoga studio is upstais while the restaraunt and their general store are downstairs.

I ordered a freshly squeezed lemonade and here is everything we tried today. They give you the option of making almost every dish on the menu vegan, although about 1/2 of them already are vegan.

We started off with an order of Chickpea fries with Herbs and romesco sauce. These were by far one of our favorite things ~ I think we could’ve had two orders, they were THAT good! You can really taste the herbs and sea salt with the crispiness of fries. The romesco sauce is like a sun dried tomato spread.

Then, we moved onto the rustic rancho gordo yellow eye bean soup. This just might be the best soup I’ve ever had. It is similar to a spicy minestrone and the crunchy vegan buttery croutons rock!

I am not a huge fan of gnocchetti, but, I have to say our next entree had a beautiful presentation and it was really esquisite tasting. They use an all purpose white flour and carrot juice to make the gnocchetti and serve it with roasted carrots and fresh baby carrots. It was absolutely delish.

Up close:

And this tasty little roasted carrot on the side. It is a special carrot but I cannot remember the name.

We followed this dish with the homemade fregola in a bordeaux spinach broth. I personally thought this dish was tasty and loved the leek ashes (roasted leeks), however, my co-worker wasn’t too fond of the leeks or the flowers. I managed to finish it off without a hitch!

The last dish we decided to sample was the pizza margherita, winter style with burrata. We had them veganize it. My co-worker was a little shocked by the bright green pesto, but it really added a nice flavor. The pizza was tasty and the crust might have been one of the best parts. I honestly think the non-vegan wouldn’t have been able to tell this was a veganized pizza. This is the one dish that they serve up that is really meal size. We each had a piece and I can’t believe I forgot my leftover box!

I am so glad we split everything above and that it is all served Tapas style – in small portions. We were a tad bit full, but, we knew we couldn’t go without having dessert. I was sooo excited when I saw they have mini vegan carrot cupcakes. I knew I had to compare them to the ones I had just made this week. Arn’t they cute?

I think having our cute waiter made them seem even better. My co-worker insisted on taking this picture – ack!

Now, I have to say these cupcakes were actually pretty awful. The description on the menu sounds delish “vegan cupcakes with pistachio & tiny candied CARROTS”. However, their, tofu-cream cheese frosting was bleh! It tasted like sour cream and it wasn’t sweet at all. Even with the frosting remove there was alot of nutmeg and clove in these little cupcakes. Out of everything, this is the one thing I would never order again.

We did manage to trade one of our cupcakes with the table-mates next to us to try the Marcona Almonds with lavendar sugar and sea salt. I am not a lavendar fan at all, but, these were tasty -they were salty, sweet, roasted almonds with a definite taste of lavendar.

We had such a fun time ~ good food, great service and fun people. Everyone that works there seems so passionate about what they do and I LOVE that. We will definitely go back as there was STILL more things we wanted to try on the menu. Now I am off to nap with a full belly ~ just kidding. The Husband has something fun planned for tonight so I might not see you all until the morning. Happy Friday!!

I was really looking forward to Yoga this morning because my legs/muscles were pretty sore and I LOVED how I have been feeling after. This morning I decided to try a new session from yogadownload.com and did the Lunar Flow#1. I was a little intimidated by the Deaf Man’s Pose which I didn’t manage to do. I did however successful perform a Plow and held it there! Somewhere along the way I lost my breathing technique and I really think that impacted my stress release from yoga. I think that when the instructor said that this session was better done at the end of the day, it somehow changed my mindset. I know, you are supposed to turn your brain off during yoga, but, I think indirectly it stuck in the back of my head. It could be sleep deprivation still, but, I just didn’t feel the same relaxing at peace benefit this morning. I will give this session one more try at the end of a day and see if that changes.

For breakfast today I decided I have been missing my oats and almond butter. I made up a berry-licious bowl:

In the mix:

1/2 cup Quaker Old Fashioned Oats
1 cup water
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
2 Tbsp wheatberries
2 Tbsp Trader Joe’s Berry Blend
dash of cinnamon

All microwaved for 2 minutes and topped with:

1/2 cup blueberries
2 sliced strawberries
2 Tsbp Trader Joe’s Low Sugar Organic Apricot Preserves
1 tsp unsweetened organic coconut
1 Tbsp freshly ground almond butter

I was hungry again mid-morning and snacked on some grapes and some nuts.

5 days down, 2 to go……

Day 5 Vegan Week Recap ~ yesterday I woke up starving and pretty much stayed that way ALL day no matter what I ate. I tried to focus on adding more protein and satisfying foods throughout the day, however, I am sure having just a cupcake for snack may not have been the most filling. I guess some days are just like that, but, I am hoping today is better.

Calories burned: 3,148, Steps taken: 14,955
Calories consumed: 1,935 (the cupcake was STILL worth it)
9% protein, 58% carbs, 12% fat

We are going to a Vegan Restaraunt today for lunch ~ http://www.ubuntunapa.com/

Tell me if anything sounds good to you! Check back later for my review.

The Husband requested to have my pasta salad for dinner tonight and even went to the store to buy the ingredients – woohoo! I was so excited when I realized it fell under the vegan criteria. He also found steak on sale so while I grilled up his huge TriTip, I made myself an Amy’s California Burger. It was so good and tasty – I really like how you can taste the walnuts and the brown rice.

I topped my burger with sliced roma tomato, cucumber chips, Annie’s Natural Ketchup (my favorite!) and dijon mustard. I had more cucumber chips on the side (these are basically like bread n butter pickles but I think better).

Now onto the pasta salad. I had originally developed this recipe from a Weight Watcher Recipe that I had made a few years ago. I added to the mix by using a ton more veggies and making up my own dressing for the salad. Kriwn ~ you will recognize this one as it is the same dressing I’ve used to marinade meats, etc in. This recipe is so easy to make – you can cut up everything and toss it in a big bowl all while the pasta is cooking. It gets better as it sits and the flavors marinate.

I often take this to every potlucks and barbecues. I think you will find as I have that people will begin to request you bring it and are sad if you make something else instead lol.

Danica’s Pasta Salad
Serves 12+, 1 cup heaping servings, 4 points+ each

Feel free to mix up your ingredients – I tend to use whatever veggies are in the fridge but have also added garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts, etc.

Ingredients:

8 oz uncooked whole-wheat pasta, corkscrew shape (about 3 cups)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1-2 lemons)
2-3 Tbsp honey or agave nectar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
1 can large olives sliced in half
1 medium green pepper(s), chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium sweet red pepper(s), chopped (about 1 cup)
1 container grape tomatoes, or other small tomatoes, halved
1 medium yellow summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced (about
1/2 cup)
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1 carrot grated
1 English Cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 cup snap peas, chopped
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/4 c chopped fresh basil or parsley or a mix of both

Instructions:

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Rinse pasta with cold water; drain again and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare salad dressing by mixing together oil,through garlic in a small bowl; set aside until ready to use.

In a large bowl, combine cooked pasta with vegetables; pour in dressing and toss thoroughly to coat. Cover and chill about 2 hours. Yields about 1 heaping cup per serving.

I will update this post with the nutritional information later, but, I guarantee it is very low in calories.

Tonight’s dinner is presented using some of the new stuff The Husband bought me. He surprised me yesterday by going out and buying some different placements, bowls and plates so that I am not always taking pictures using the same thing. He is so adorable!

We signed up for NetFlix last night – woohoo! So excited as I have been wanting to do this for awhile. We already watched on free movie last night and have one on the way today ~ Fun!

So last night The Husband got all excited and told me we needed to celebrate Cinco De Mayo today ….silly boy, he was fast forwarding to May already I guess but it made me laugh. So,this afternoon I couldn’t resist pulling out one of the leftover napkins we have a work from Last Year’s Cinco De Mayo.

I have to give an update on the Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting ~ they are seriously “orgasmically” good! Can I say that?! Well, it’s my blog so I should be able to Anyway – they are so delicious. I savored it with a hot cup of Good Earth Sweet & Spicy Tea.. Put it all together and it sounds pretty darn funny!

I seem to be hungry today no matter what I eat. I woke up with my stomach growling during Yoga. I came back from our 4.5 mile run today starving. I had to decide between the Vegetable Gyoza with Edamame Succotash (I think I could eat this every day!) and the Amy’s Vegan/Gluten Free Teriyaki Bowl I bought for our challenge week. For the sake of the blog, I decided to go with something new and have the Amy’s Bowl. I only eat Amy’s or Trader Joe’s frozen meals when I do because you can recognize ALL the ingredients and they are not all chemically made like most frozen meals.

Here is one of the articles I read in Women’s Health awhile back as to what is really in your frozen dinner – you will be shocked by how they “make” the ingredients in them. It really helped me to say no way to any other meal, especially the healthy versions.

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/whats-in-frozen-dinners?layout=print

Ok back to lunch ~ I LOVE pretty much all of Amy’s meals. This was so tasty and very filling. Check out the label and you will see she makes a pretty clean meal with no funky ingredients.

I had it with another huge Organic Fuji Apple & Edamame. I also made a POM spritzer using my Penguin Fizzy Water and blueberry/pomegranate juice. YUM!

My morning snack was a small packet of lightly salted cashews from Trader Joe’s (not pictured). Now I am anxious watching the clock for my afternoon snack…….a Vegan Cupcake and decaf coffee or tea…..mmmmmm, can’t wait!