Craving Pumpkin Donuts in April

Yes it's April, springtime yes, but I've been having a serious craving for pumpkin donuts.  Of course,  no has any pumpkin donuts or coffee in the spring, so what's a pumpkin lover to do?? Whip up a batch of pumpkin cinnamon sugar mini donuts!
Tried the recipe from King Arthur's Blog and it was perfect.

Sunflower seed apricot protein bites

I finally tried to make my own protein /energy bites, bars, whatever.  So tired of running out of Kind bars, actually. ...tired of buying them even more. I started off with what I had in the house, so I wouldn't have the need to go to store excuse today lol.  I used:

Sunflower seed butter

Vanilla protein powder

Honey

Rolled oats

Apricots

Coconut 

 Sunflower seeds 

Mini chocolate chips 

This was sooo tasty, they are high in calories,  each little nugget is roughly 100 calories.... although I ate about 5 before heading to fitnesspal to get the calories,  oh well.  Only 3 at a time from now on. 

Healthy easy side dish

This year I am eating healthier, trying to incorporate more superfoods into my diet and got my body moving at least 5 days a week.
I found this Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice at Costco and its better than I expected.  Just heat the package and you're good to go.  I've been using it as a side dish with sauteed greens.

Fitbit junkie

Yes I confess I am a fitbit junkie. Yes if I'm close to 10,000 at bedtime I will jog in place to get the smilie. It's not at all the worse thing I love doing, lol. It motivates me, well most times it does, to be more active, take more steps & compete against my fitbit buddies to move more than them😉 The price was a bit much in my opinion initially, but it was well worth the $100. But it also tracks my restless sleep. So I can tell what is helping me get sound sleep and what has no effect. The water intake & active minutes monitor are ver nice also. I don't utilize the the food monitor, it seems too much trouble for me at this point. So if you're trying to get active, curious about your sleep patterns, trying to drink more water, tracking your food intake it's definitely something you should check out.

Bittersweet Martini

I have always been curious about Angostura bitters in drinks, so I finally took the plunge and bought Angostura Orange Bitters because what if I was missing out on something amazing all this time?? I found a recipe online at barnonedrinks.com that I had all the ingredients for and decided to use it as my starting point. My customized Bittersweet martini: 2.5 oz vodka 1/2 oz Campari 1/2 oz Grand Marnier 1/2 oz lemon juice 1/2 oz simple syrup 1 dash orange bitters Place in all ingredients in a shaker 1/2 filled with ice and shake it like a polaroid picture. Pour into martini glass, garnish with orange slice if you have one, otherwise just enjoy and take some deep breaths in gratitude of being off work today 😘 Review: the dash of bitters really comes thru! I like it! Planning to get some citron or mandarin vodka for more citrus kick next time.

Hot Flashes

I started researching menopause intensely, the hot flashes, the mood swings, the physiology of why various symptoms occur, and non-prescription remedies. With 25 books checked out from the library along with my own comprehensive library, I buckled down to get to the bottom of this menopause mess. First, there is the difference between natural menopause and surgical menopause. With a natural menopause, the ovaries still produce some estogen, much less but still some. With surgical menopause, such as I had with a total hysterectomy & oopherectomy, the ovaries are removed so no good estrogen production AT ALL. Secondly, there are three kinds of estrogen, only the good estrogen estradiol, produced solely by our ovaries is the one keeping us fresh, wrinkleless, lean, alert, lubricated and even temperatured.

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Have you been intrigued by the chia seed hype everywhere? I was curious, especially after I actually looked up the nutritional benefits for myself. With a whopping 11 grams of fiber & 5 grams of protein per serving, I figured it was time to give it a try. Costco had the Nature's Intent brand, 2 pounds for $9.99, a great deal for organic chia seeds! Since everything is better with chocolate, I figured I'd start with a chocolate chia pudding. My trial recipe: 1 1/4 cup coconut milk 1/4 cup chia seeds 4 teaspoons cocoa powder mix the cocoa & chia seeds, add the milk and stir until no large lumps. Refrigerate 30 minutes, check consistency as you may want to ask more liquid, depending on consistency desired. Cover and refrigerate overnight. I decided to stir in 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar afer tasting. This was so simple, no cook and a nice healthy snack to have in the fridge. Definitely a keeper.