I will flat out admit it; I am nosy. I like to know what's going on and I hate surprises. It's more fun to be in-the-know than out as I like to be a part of the surprise than the surprised.
With that said.
I enjoy taking my fiancé and I's dog for daily walks. I try to get him into the habit of going on a little 15-30 minute walk with the intentions of daily but more likely it occurs 3-4 days out of the week. Short of it down pouring, I will take him through the neighborhood. The dog loves it. We feel bad that at almost four years old we still have to crate him but he gets depressed when we leave him out alone and we end up finding him drunk upon returning home (long story but lesson learned - don't leave re-corked bottles of wine out for the dog to steal and drink). I preface that we're going on strolls so the dog could get his exercise but really, I mostly enjoy these walks because I get to peer into our neighbor's lives. I especially love going on walks when it's kind of dusky out and people have their lights on. Then I can see how they decorate their homes. Hi, I am your nosy neighbor.
I also like to see who has their house on the market and for how long. And I might or might not check out your home on the real estate websites (seriously the one house down the street that has been on the market for about a year - you would sell your home in a heart beat if you would get rid of those UGLY hand painted murals that seem to follow in every.single.room. No one likes that but you). I call it research but I think my fiancé knows I particularly like to see how people fashion their home and their walls. I like to know if they have all the fancy upgrades or if they kept all the traditional builder shit that this house came equipped with.
I get a huge kick out of open garage doors. My favorite is when they're filled to the brim with crap and my neighbor cannot even park their car in the garage. I'm sorry but what's the point of a garage if you can't even use it? It's not a storage center; the point of a garage is to have a home for your car to sleep or to protect it from baseball-sized hail (which for some freaky ass reason we have had at least twice this year alone).
But what REALLY gets me are the college students who live down the street. They have parties almost every weekend or they invite their friends over to pre-drink before going out. And that's cool, I will take a social neighbor over a weird, creepy one any day, but what I don't get is why every single friend feels compelled to drive over in their own car, which then takes up all the available parking spaces on our street. Don't get me wrong, we have tons of parking here which I love and normally on the weekends I park my car in the driveway (my fiancé parks his car in the garage because he understands the point of a garage is to keep your car there!) but occasionally my fiancé will be out and about and I don't like blocking the driveway when he's not home so I'll park on the street (I'm nice like that but then again we'll see how it is when we've been married for a couple of years). Problem is that if it's a Saturday night, more than likely our college neighbors (who really live about 3-4 town houses down from us) will be having friends over and they will take up all the available parking. And then I'm left to park my car in rape vicinity. I vented my frustration about this to my fiancé about a week ago.
"What is rape vicinity and why do you even say that? We live in a really nice and SAFE neighborhood."
"Rape vicinity is when my car is parked far enough away that if someone wanted to attack me very early in the morning, no one would be able to hear my screams."
"With how loudly you talk, I highly doubt no one would hear you."
And I will confess, I am overreacting but I am from a very urban and part part of New Jersey and I am always on my guard. I don't trust no one and I am always looking over my shoulder. When I run at the lake next to our house, I have started to find myself psyching myself out so I run faster because I make myself believe there is a crazy person high on bath salts waiting for the right moment to go all face-eating crazy on me. We live in a very safe neighborhood with two cops living in our same stretch of town homes (one is our next-door neighbor). Even the area outside of our neighborhood is nice. I call it Ethni-City because it's mostly immigrants. They flock to this side of town because housing is inexpensive, it's close to the university (most come here because they get scholarships to attend the graduate and PhD programs), and the schools are good. My parents used to always tell me, move to where the immigrants live, they will only live in areas where the schools are good. Because of the high ethnicity rate over here, I imagine that the schools are pretty nice. And since this is still considered Raleigh city limits, it's like win-win. I might be outside of the belt line but not out in the middle of nowhere which is a bonus. I came from living in an upper-incomed downtown area and I worried that the "suburbs" would change me for the worse. But I actually enjoy it a lot and we like this side of town.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Yes, I am your nosy neighbor. Yes I will walk by at dusk to peer into your lives, and yes I will report everything I see back to my fiancé. And never fret, I will watch intently with my police radio app if the cops get called to your house. Because you know, someone has to do and I would prefer that it was me.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Pale on Pale is Not Attractive....on Me
I am sitting here laying on top of the covers of my bed praying there are no streaks. Or weird splotches. or areas that get "tan" more than others. You see, I went spray tanning. I tried it out a few weeks ago to see what kind of results I could get and they turned out pretty good for a machine blowing tanner spray up and down my body 4 times. Since I deemed the first trip successful, I decided to come back for my bridal portrait, which is taking place tomorrow. I am super excited to do hair and make up (who doesn't love fabulously gay make up artists who also so happen to be your frand) and a long-time hair stylist who has done your hair up 100 ways but never for a wedding. I'm also very excited to take the photos and see how they come out. My photographer is one of my good girl friends and she does such amazing work (check her out: www.nicolefabyphotography.com).
But right now I sit, er, lay and try to relax. The product supposedly dries immediately and I do agree to an extent, although when you first get out of the booth you feel kind of sticky but not sticky but also kind of icky, if that helps you out at all. You can get dressed immediately and the color starts to show in about 4 hours but it's best to wait about 10 hours before taking a shower. Since I am so pale, I only do a level 2 color. The girl at the salon and I were debating last time between the 2 and the 3 and I worried the 3 would be too much Snooki, and I'm glad I stuck with the lower number because the number 2 was almost a little too dark for me. I don't want it to be super obvious but like I said, I am fair-skinned and any help making me look "sun-kissed" (and not smooched by an oompa-loompa) can only benefit the photos.
I think I said it best when my future sister-in-law texted me earlier today to ask if I was going to boot camp tonight. "No sorry, I am going Wednesday. I have to get spray tanned for the pictures tomorrow lol. White dress + natural outside light + pale skin = not a good look." She laughed but I know she agreed. You see, I am marrying an Egyptian so being pale is something completely foreign to them. They have mega tans year round without even trying. Meanwhile, I am over here under a SPF tent at the beach slathering on SPF 50 so I don't turn red, pink, purple or any other nasty shade of sunburn.
And let me tell you, scheduling these spray tans takes some work. If you're going to work out, you have to work out prior and then take a shower and use a scrub to take off any dead skin cells. They also suggest you shave before you come too, I guess so the product can go on as evenly as possible. You then cannot shower for about 10 hours after the product is dissolved into the skin. So I had to come home, go for a quick run, then go to the bank, go to Whole Foods, attempt to pick out flower to make a bouquet, go to Joann's to scrounge up some florist's tape, come home and attempt to put a bouquet together (I was about to seriously cry and then it was like the flower gods shined their light down on me and it came together pretty nicely), and then head over to this dang appointment. And now I sit - I cannot get wet or work up a sweat. This would be a fabulously lazy evening where I could eat greek yogurt with honey and sulfite-free chocolate chips but since I am attempting to look halfway decent in my dress tomorrow, I am fighting the urge.
I will try to remember to put some pictures up of the flowers. And of my tan. And maybe a good hair/make up pic too.
But right now I sit, er, lay and try to relax. The product supposedly dries immediately and I do agree to an extent, although when you first get out of the booth you feel kind of sticky but not sticky but also kind of icky, if that helps you out at all. You can get dressed immediately and the color starts to show in about 4 hours but it's best to wait about 10 hours before taking a shower. Since I am so pale, I only do a level 2 color. The girl at the salon and I were debating last time between the 2 and the 3 and I worried the 3 would be too much Snooki, and I'm glad I stuck with the lower number because the number 2 was almost a little too dark for me. I don't want it to be super obvious but like I said, I am fair-skinned and any help making me look "sun-kissed" (and not smooched by an oompa-loompa) can only benefit the photos.
I think I said it best when my future sister-in-law texted me earlier today to ask if I was going to boot camp tonight. "No sorry, I am going Wednesday. I have to get spray tanned for the pictures tomorrow lol. White dress + natural outside light + pale skin = not a good look." She laughed but I know she agreed. You see, I am marrying an Egyptian so being pale is something completely foreign to them. They have mega tans year round without even trying. Meanwhile, I am over here under a SPF tent at the beach slathering on SPF 50 so I don't turn red, pink, purple or any other nasty shade of sunburn.
And let me tell you, scheduling these spray tans takes some work. If you're going to work out, you have to work out prior and then take a shower and use a scrub to take off any dead skin cells. They also suggest you shave before you come too, I guess so the product can go on as evenly as possible. You then cannot shower for about 10 hours after the product is dissolved into the skin. So I had to come home, go for a quick run, then go to the bank, go to Whole Foods, attempt to pick out flower to make a bouquet, go to Joann's to scrounge up some florist's tape, come home and attempt to put a bouquet together (I was about to seriously cry and then it was like the flower gods shined their light down on me and it came together pretty nicely), and then head over to this dang appointment. And now I sit - I cannot get wet or work up a sweat. This would be a fabulously lazy evening where I could eat greek yogurt with honey and sulfite-free chocolate chips but since I am attempting to look halfway decent in my dress tomorrow, I am fighting the urge.
I will try to remember to put some pictures up of the flowers. And of my tan. And maybe a good hair/make up pic too.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
I Am An Everyday OCD Martha Stewart (Or I Just Like to Think so)
I think when I decided to come up with the name of this blog, I should have thought a bit more carefully because it seriously should be called "Fit, Sulfite-Free, and Extremely OCD." I would like to preface that my levels of obsessive compulsiveness has reached new heights as I have grown older. I don't really know how it began and when it got bad. What I do remember is when my little brother was younger (about 7 years old) us moving from one town to another within the same state caused his brain to go into a state of panic and he developed a compulsive fear of getting sick, which then caused him to spend an ungodly number of hours in the bathroom washing his hands and avoiding anyone who might have sneezed or coughed. And living in a perpetual state of cold and snow in a small mountainous town in New Jersey, getting sick was an everyday occurrence. I believe if the CDC was to show up to that small township in the dead of winter, they would think every child was exposed to tuberculosis. But never fret because in the summer, we lived in a "high tick zone" and the constant fear of Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever scared the shit out of my brother enough that he developed an unhealthy habit to locking himself up in his bedroom to play video games in lieu of potentially being exposed to any sort of sickness.
After a few years, his OCD-ness seemed to be controlled although he still has a weird fear of throwing up, which is neither here nor there but sometimes quite humorous to see the look on his face when you slide next to him and tell him you just ralphed up all your dinner. Kidding. Sort of.
But back to my own Martha Stewart-esque brain operations. I had always been somewhat of a cleanly child. My room never reached epic states of upheaval, mostly because my parents kept a very tidy house and I guess it rubbed off on my brother and I. The thing I was probably most guilty of growing up and through college was throwing clothes I had opted not to wear that day on a random, but specific, chair in my bedroom. I would let it pile up to Topple proportions and then I would either do laundry and sort through the clothes or I would realize I could not sit comfortably in said chair with the stack of clothes and take the time to go through them. When I moved into my downtown condo at the age of 23, I decided to make sure I didn't have a "clothing chair" in my bedroom, which would force me to hang back up the article of clothing if I decided it wasn't going to be worn that day. It never dawned on me that I could just throw the item on my bed, but I broke my own habit and such is life now.
When I moved into my own space, I had my weekly cleaning schedule of dusting, wiping, cleaning, and vacuuming. I never found it odd that out of all my friends, I was the only one who did this. I always felt proud of my clean home and assumed everyone else did the same thing I did on a routine basis. When I packed up my condo after 5 years of living in one space to move in with my now-fiance (and soon to be husband in 27 days - holy shit), I realized that I had accumulated more than I would like to own. I would regularly go through my things and organize and clean certain aspects of my place, such as a closet, but as I started to pack up a room like my kitchen, I realized the very last thing I wanted to do was haul all this crap from one place to another. My fiancé had his house pretty much fully furnished and I liked his kitchenware a million times more than mine so it made sense for mine to be disposed of. Plus, it was a hand-me-down from my parents in their pre-divorce days so goodbye and good riddance ugly yellow plates with pink flowers.
So my answer to dealing with stuff I didn't feel like moving was to either sell it or throw it out. I took a 1,000 square foot fully furnished condo and only ended up moving half of my bedroom furniture, my office furniture, my clothes, and a few boxes of knick knacks that I couldn't part with. How's that for efficiency? But I didn't stop there. My condo was older and lacked closets but it was closet heaven in my fiancé's townhouse. Only problem is that he improperly occupied every closet with crap. We're talking old, empty boxes, junk mail, things that he no longer used, and god knows what else. So it became my part-time job to slowly chip away at this chaos and organize every square inch of this home into something that would make Martha Stewart weep tears of joy.
In the two years I have lived here, I have made quite a dent but still not completely done with this long-term task. The problem I run into what feels like daily is that my fiancé never wants to part with anything. And what bugs me the most is that he probably hadn't even realized he still owned said item until I came into his office holding it in my hand going, "WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS????" As our wedding registry gifts started to show up on our doorstep, I not only had to explain to my fiancé that we are in the age of "out with the old and in with the new" but my dad also mentioned to him that the point of a registry is to get rid of the old stuff to make room for the newer (and much nicer) stuff that people have been so kind to gift us.
I feel like this post could go on for another million words and I would still only be chipping the iceberg. End of story - I might possibly have a problem. My fiancé definitely thinks I have a problem. Who else decides at 10:30pm on a Sunday night to empty the just-washed items out of the dishwasher and put everything away in their nice little home after spending hours doing loads of laundry, which included not only stripping the bed to wash the sheets but putting on the new bed skirt and new bed quilt? And let's not even mention the random night last week where I found our step stool so I could re-organize the items in the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen AGAIN. I might be the only person in the world who gets excited to go to the dump with a car full of garbage because purging items is cathartic for me. Instead of seeing a therapist, I run, cook, and regularly throw things away.
I'll have to document my adventures as things occur but for now, I must tend to organizing my nightstand.
After a few years, his OCD-ness seemed to be controlled although he still has a weird fear of throwing up, which is neither here nor there but sometimes quite humorous to see the look on his face when you slide next to him and tell him you just ralphed up all your dinner. Kidding. Sort of.
But back to my own Martha Stewart-esque brain operations. I had always been somewhat of a cleanly child. My room never reached epic states of upheaval, mostly because my parents kept a very tidy house and I guess it rubbed off on my brother and I. The thing I was probably most guilty of growing up and through college was throwing clothes I had opted not to wear that day on a random, but specific, chair in my bedroom. I would let it pile up to Topple proportions and then I would either do laundry and sort through the clothes or I would realize I could not sit comfortably in said chair with the stack of clothes and take the time to go through them. When I moved into my downtown condo at the age of 23, I decided to make sure I didn't have a "clothing chair" in my bedroom, which would force me to hang back up the article of clothing if I decided it wasn't going to be worn that day. It never dawned on me that I could just throw the item on my bed, but I broke my own habit and such is life now.
When I moved into my own space, I had my weekly cleaning schedule of dusting, wiping, cleaning, and vacuuming. I never found it odd that out of all my friends, I was the only one who did this. I always felt proud of my clean home and assumed everyone else did the same thing I did on a routine basis. When I packed up my condo after 5 years of living in one space to move in with my now-fiance (and soon to be husband in 27 days - holy shit), I realized that I had accumulated more than I would like to own. I would regularly go through my things and organize and clean certain aspects of my place, such as a closet, but as I started to pack up a room like my kitchen, I realized the very last thing I wanted to do was haul all this crap from one place to another. My fiancé had his house pretty much fully furnished and I liked his kitchenware a million times more than mine so it made sense for mine to be disposed of. Plus, it was a hand-me-down from my parents in their pre-divorce days so goodbye and good riddance ugly yellow plates with pink flowers.
So my answer to dealing with stuff I didn't feel like moving was to either sell it or throw it out. I took a 1,000 square foot fully furnished condo and only ended up moving half of my bedroom furniture, my office furniture, my clothes, and a few boxes of knick knacks that I couldn't part with. How's that for efficiency? But I didn't stop there. My condo was older and lacked closets but it was closet heaven in my fiancé's townhouse. Only problem is that he improperly occupied every closet with crap. We're talking old, empty boxes, junk mail, things that he no longer used, and god knows what else. So it became my part-time job to slowly chip away at this chaos and organize every square inch of this home into something that would make Martha Stewart weep tears of joy.
In the two years I have lived here, I have made quite a dent but still not completely done with this long-term task. The problem I run into what feels like daily is that my fiancé never wants to part with anything. And what bugs me the most is that he probably hadn't even realized he still owned said item until I came into his office holding it in my hand going, "WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS????" As our wedding registry gifts started to show up on our doorstep, I not only had to explain to my fiancé that we are in the age of "out with the old and in with the new" but my dad also mentioned to him that the point of a registry is to get rid of the old stuff to make room for the newer (and much nicer) stuff that people have been so kind to gift us.
I feel like this post could go on for another million words and I would still only be chipping the iceberg. End of story - I might possibly have a problem. My fiancé definitely thinks I have a problem. Who else decides at 10:30pm on a Sunday night to empty the just-washed items out of the dishwasher and put everything away in their nice little home after spending hours doing loads of laundry, which included not only stripping the bed to wash the sheets but putting on the new bed skirt and new bed quilt? And let's not even mention the random night last week where I found our step stool so I could re-organize the items in the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen AGAIN. I might be the only person in the world who gets excited to go to the dump with a car full of garbage because purging items is cathartic for me. Instead of seeing a therapist, I run, cook, and regularly throw things away.
I'll have to document my adventures as things occur but for now, I must tend to organizing my nightstand.
Friday, June 1, 2012
It's Friday Friday Getting Down on Friday
Happy Friday! Can you believe it's June? This means that not only is it my birthday month but I also get married this month. Craziness. I don't know of any married folk read this (or if anyone reads this blog at all) but I have learned that although I am very much a Type A, I am not cut out for wedding planning. I was seriously disillusioned into thinking it was an easy and quick thing to do and those that carried out the painstaking process did so because they enjoyed it and wanted to hold onto every second of it. I have known people like this - who devote an entire year to nothing but every minute detail of one day. In my honest opinion, it's pure silliness. I feel like years from now people are not going to remember the decorations or what color my linens were. They'll remember three things: if the food was good, if the party was fun, and if there was alcohol involved. The third is a definite yes and I'm hoping the first two follow suit. I am excited to not have to worry about scheduling meetings and trying to make decisions and harassing people to send me in RSVPs. But moving on...
Back to Friday, which I have dubbed Forward Friday. Things I am looking forward to this weekend: my good friend from high school's bikini boot camp class on Saturday morning. It's a lot of fun, mostly because my good friend is a lot of fun and her boyfriend comes and me and him are uber competitive so we go head to head on a lot of the work outs. I haven't been able to take a class in close to 2 months so I am excited to get back into it again. I definitely prefer to work out alone about 80% of the time - it's my "me" time where I can listen to music and focus all of my energy into busting a serious sweat. During the week, I normally do Bodyrock or the Zuzana Light ZWOW's. Sometimes I make up my own little work outs incorporating moves from both. About once a week I go for a run around the lake next to our house. It's just under 4 miles to run to the lake, around the lake, and then home from the lake and on days like today when it's hot (90 degrees!) and muggy, you definitely work up a sweat. It's such a rush to come home with my body screaming WATER MUST HAVE ALL THE WATER and I immediately crawl over to one of the floor vents in the living room to stand on. Don't lie - I know you all do that too.
Other than boot camp, there isn't much else going on. Usually I clean up the house and do some grocery shopping. I plan on getting a manicure and pedicure, not because I need one (well I actually desperately do) but because I have my bridal portraits on Tuesday and I want to make sure I can disguise my half chewed up nails as much as possible, so that is reserved to Sunday with possibly one of my friends tagging along.
What are you getting into this weekend?
I would like to end this post with a thought about LuLu Lemon. Have you been on their website recently? Every once and a while I check them out. I've been too scared to actually purchase anything because their stuff is expensive but I have friends who swear by them. I took a gander last night and ZOMG I want all the things on their website! They have tons of cute sports bras and running shorts and tank tops (which I really need with this heat - I can no longer run in t-shirts). So if you have some money to spare, or you like to look at stuff and drool and dream like I do, then I would suggest hitting them up.
Have a good weekend!
Back to Friday, which I have dubbed Forward Friday. Things I am looking forward to this weekend: my good friend from high school's bikini boot camp class on Saturday morning. It's a lot of fun, mostly because my good friend is a lot of fun and her boyfriend comes and me and him are uber competitive so we go head to head on a lot of the work outs. I haven't been able to take a class in close to 2 months so I am excited to get back into it again. I definitely prefer to work out alone about 80% of the time - it's my "me" time where I can listen to music and focus all of my energy into busting a serious sweat. During the week, I normally do Bodyrock or the Zuzana Light ZWOW's. Sometimes I make up my own little work outs incorporating moves from both. About once a week I go for a run around the lake next to our house. It's just under 4 miles to run to the lake, around the lake, and then home from the lake and on days like today when it's hot (90 degrees!) and muggy, you definitely work up a sweat. It's such a rush to come home with my body screaming WATER MUST HAVE ALL THE WATER and I immediately crawl over to one of the floor vents in the living room to stand on. Don't lie - I know you all do that too.
Other than boot camp, there isn't much else going on. Usually I clean up the house and do some grocery shopping. I plan on getting a manicure and pedicure, not because I need one (well I actually desperately do) but because I have my bridal portraits on Tuesday and I want to make sure I can disguise my half chewed up nails as much as possible, so that is reserved to Sunday with possibly one of my friends tagging along.
What are you getting into this weekend?
I would like to end this post with a thought about LuLu Lemon. Have you been on their website recently? Every once and a while I check them out. I've been too scared to actually purchase anything because their stuff is expensive but I have friends who swear by them. I took a gander last night and ZOMG I want all the things on their website! They have tons of cute sports bras and running shorts and tank tops (which I really need with this heat - I can no longer run in t-shirts). So if you have some money to spare, or you like to look at stuff and drool and dream like I do, then I would suggest hitting them up.
Have a good weekend!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Recipe Thursday: Sulfite Free & Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hello there. In keeping up with my blogging outline, I have dedicated today as Recipe Thursday. Wohoo! I reason I picked Thursday is because I figure by the time Thursday rolls around, I have come across and tried at least one new recipe. Sometimes I will post old favorites but today I have a new recipe that I have made a few times and let me tell you, it's SOOO hard not to just have one.
Because of my sulfite allergy, I cannot tolerate chocolate. Saddest.sentence.ever. I have searched high and low for a "sulfite free" chocolate or chocolate chip and am happy to report that there is a brand found at Kroger that is completely sulfite free! I picked a bag up last weekend when I went grocery shopping. I had been eying the bag for some time but I was patient and eventually it went on sale (it was like it knew I wanted to try it and this just gave me all the more reason). I went through my Pinterest to find a good chocolate chip cookie recipe to tweak. My favorite thing to do is to take recipes and see how healthy I can make them. I understand that some recipes are not meant to be healthy but it's kind of a weird passion of mine and it keeps me entertained. I have posted the link to the regular recipe below and obviously given credit where credit is due (I don't steal!).
Also noted is that this recipe is egg free for all your egg haters out there. Just kidding. I actually used to be able to tolerate eggs but found that with my allergy, it's becoming more difficult. Major sad face. I love eggs - I seriously could eat them all day everyday and not get tired of them. So I have pretty much cut eggs out of my diet except for special treats like if I am dying for some sunny side up eggs.
But back to the cookies....
These cookies have come out so good. You're in for a real treat if you like soft, chewy cookies, even days after they've been baked. My batch yields about a dozen and a half but really it depends on how big you like your cookies to be. I don't like to make too many or I feel like I have to eat them all before they go bad. First world problems. Enjoy!
Sulfite Free & Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 1-2 dozen
Ingredients:
3/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt
3/4 cup all natural organic applesauce
1/4 cup organic blue agave nectar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons organic oat flour (the kind I used so happened to be gluten free but any kind will due)
1 cup of Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips (sulfite free chocolate chips - I just pour in and mix until I think there's enough)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, mix Greek yogurt, apple sauce, agave nectar, and sugar until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add in chocolate chips and stir until well-mixed.
Use a tablespoon to scoop and place dough on cookie sheets. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until cooked through completely. Let cool and keep refrigerated afterwards.
Original Recipe From: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2012/01/cream-cheese-chocolate-chip-cookies-egg-free.html
Because of my sulfite allergy, I cannot tolerate chocolate. Saddest.sentence.ever. I have searched high and low for a "sulfite free" chocolate or chocolate chip and am happy to report that there is a brand found at Kroger that is completely sulfite free! I picked a bag up last weekend when I went grocery shopping. I had been eying the bag for some time but I was patient and eventually it went on sale (it was like it knew I wanted to try it and this just gave me all the more reason). I went through my Pinterest to find a good chocolate chip cookie recipe to tweak. My favorite thing to do is to take recipes and see how healthy I can make them. I understand that some recipes are not meant to be healthy but it's kind of a weird passion of mine and it keeps me entertained. I have posted the link to the regular recipe below and obviously given credit where credit is due (I don't steal!).
Also noted is that this recipe is egg free for all your egg haters out there. Just kidding. I actually used to be able to tolerate eggs but found that with my allergy, it's becoming more difficult. Major sad face. I love eggs - I seriously could eat them all day everyday and not get tired of them. So I have pretty much cut eggs out of my diet except for special treats like if I am dying for some sunny side up eggs.
But back to the cookies....
These cookies have come out so good. You're in for a real treat if you like soft, chewy cookies, even days after they've been baked. My batch yields about a dozen and a half but really it depends on how big you like your cookies to be. I don't like to make too many or I feel like I have to eat them all before they go bad. First world problems. Enjoy!
Sulfite Free & Guilt Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 1-2 dozen
Ingredients:
3/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt
3/4 cup all natural organic applesauce
1/4 cup organic blue agave nectar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups plus 3 tablespoons organic oat flour (the kind I used so happened to be gluten free but any kind will due)
1 cup of Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips (sulfite free chocolate chips - I just pour in and mix until I think there's enough)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, mix Greek yogurt, apple sauce, agave nectar, and sugar until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add in chocolate chips and stir until well-mixed.
Use a tablespoon to scoop and place dough on cookie sheets. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until cooked through completely. Let cool and keep refrigerated afterwards.
Original Recipe From: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2012/01/cream-cheese-chocolate-chip-cookies-egg-free.html
Hi...My Name is
It was that a-ha moment I will never forget for the rest of my life. Sitting in the living room, Googling away while working from home during a warm March day in 2011, I believed to have found the answer I had been searching for in the past three years of my life: sulfites. You see, it wasn't that long ago that I was a depressed and chubby, albeit athletic, young woman. I had been going through rounds and rounds of testing and doctors appointments attempting to figure out what possibly could be causing this unsolicited weight gain over the last few years. And it wasn't just a few pounds here and there; we are talking a good 30 pounds of weight had slowly crept up my way, no matter how hard I worked out, how much I limited my food intake (bad I know....please don't remind me!), and how conscience I was about eating healthy. Doctors initially thought it was diabetes, then they thought maybe it was my thyroid, and finally they threw their hands up and said, "well I guess it's a gluten intolerance."
So here I was spending two years of my life living gluten free, still gaining weight and still feeling miserable, knowing that there was something else going on. I swore up and down I had a metabolism disorder but every test imaginable came back negative. In a round about way, I ended up seeing a very good local endocrinologist, who, long story short, helped me determine that part of the weight issue stemmed from a generic birth control I had been taking that caused my cortisol levels to sky rocket. So off that medication I went and onto something else that was much better for my body's hormonal balance and so we thought yay problem solved! About 10 pounds came off within two months but something else started to happen - swelling, weird 6 pound overnight weight swings, a puffy face, insomnia, tiredness, red and itchy skin, and shooting pains up my arms. It was only after a night of heavy white wine drinking that I noticed the severe swelling in my hands and recognized that I had miraculously gained 6 pounds in a span of 6 hours.
As I googled "wine allergies," a bevy of information about sulfite intolerance immediately popped up. I started reading the webpage results and sat in shock - all these things that have sulfites are things I eat! They are things I drink and they are medications I have taken (with weird side effects). So I set on a mission - eat specific sulfated foods and watch my body swell to epic proportions. Sad, right? I felt horrible but I had to see for myself if this really what was causing my problems. It also helped me gauge how I react to certain foods. From there, I was able to start compiling a list of things I could and could not tolerate, along with lists I found online of foods and drinks known to have sulfites in them. Slowly, my list has grown but as time went on, I started to feel better and lose weight.
My stomach issues disappeared. I have lost 33 pounds to date (going from a size 12 to a size 2). I have been able to put muscle on again (something I had lost because of the high cortisol levels). I am sleeping better and I stopped having weird mood swings. For the first time in close to four years, I feel normal again....more like myself than ever before. I knew that all the time I was waiting to figure out what was causing the issues, if I kept working out, at some point, something would click and then it would be smooth sailing. It was working out that kept me sane during all those years. Although frustrating when I knew I would eat right and work out like a mad woman and still gain weight, I knew I had willpower and was not going to let myself give up.
In a nutshell, that is my story. This blog is a place for me to pretty much talk to myself about the different things I am doing, eating, and want to do/see/eat/try. It's a place for me to dump all my thoughts and also keep track of recipes I find and tweak. My goal is to keep up a 5-day a week outline listed as such:
So here I was spending two years of my life living gluten free, still gaining weight and still feeling miserable, knowing that there was something else going on. I swore up and down I had a metabolism disorder but every test imaginable came back negative. In a round about way, I ended up seeing a very good local endocrinologist, who, long story short, helped me determine that part of the weight issue stemmed from a generic birth control I had been taking that caused my cortisol levels to sky rocket. So off that medication I went and onto something else that was much better for my body's hormonal balance and so we thought yay problem solved! About 10 pounds came off within two months but something else started to happen - swelling, weird 6 pound overnight weight swings, a puffy face, insomnia, tiredness, red and itchy skin, and shooting pains up my arms. It was only after a night of heavy white wine drinking that I noticed the severe swelling in my hands and recognized that I had miraculously gained 6 pounds in a span of 6 hours.
As I googled "wine allergies," a bevy of information about sulfite intolerance immediately popped up. I started reading the webpage results and sat in shock - all these things that have sulfites are things I eat! They are things I drink and they are medications I have taken (with weird side effects). So I set on a mission - eat specific sulfated foods and watch my body swell to epic proportions. Sad, right? I felt horrible but I had to see for myself if this really what was causing my problems. It also helped me gauge how I react to certain foods. From there, I was able to start compiling a list of things I could and could not tolerate, along with lists I found online of foods and drinks known to have sulfites in them. Slowly, my list has grown but as time went on, I started to feel better and lose weight.
My stomach issues disappeared. I have lost 33 pounds to date (going from a size 12 to a size 2). I have been able to put muscle on again (something I had lost because of the high cortisol levels). I am sleeping better and I stopped having weird mood swings. For the first time in close to four years, I feel normal again....more like myself than ever before. I knew that all the time I was waiting to figure out what was causing the issues, if I kept working out, at some point, something would click and then it would be smooth sailing. It was working out that kept me sane during all those years. Although frustrating when I knew I would eat right and work out like a mad woman and still gain weight, I knew I had willpower and was not going to let myself give up.
In a nutshell, that is my story. This blog is a place for me to pretty much talk to myself about the different things I am doing, eating, and want to do/see/eat/try. It's a place for me to dump all my thoughts and also keep track of recipes I find and tweak. My goal is to keep up a 5-day a week outline listed as such:
- Manic Mondays - basically a mish mash of stuff that went on during the weekend and what is going on this week
- Try It Tuesdays - I really like to try new things, particularly hair products, beauty products, hygiene and all that fun stuff in between. I will try to review a new product I have been using
- Work Out Wednesdays - My work outs pretty much are consistent throughout the week but if I come across a grueling or fun work out, I will make mention of it here or talk about some new stuff I am looking to do. I run in a lot of local races as well so I will mention that here
- Recipe Thursday - I love to cook and having a sulfite allergy means everything has to be fresh fresh fresh and from scratch. I spend hours looking at recipes until I find the perfect one I can tweak. I will post those adventures here
- What I Look Forward to Friday - Anything coming up on the weekend that I am looking forward to
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