Orange you glad…

You didn’t work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? 

I didn’t really mind it, since I got to celebrate early with my family. 

On the 24th, I woke up early to sweat out a quick 20 minute Shred, which I followed up with a hearty tupperware full of overnight oats.

I used 1/2 cup rolled oats and then mixed in an almost equal portion of canned pumpkin with only an itty bit of water.  This created a crazy thick consistency as it “gelled” overnight. 

Other goodies included Tropical Traditions shredded coconut, dried cherries, and NuNatural liquid stevia. 

Dried cherries are so so good and they make a normal bowl of oats taste like the holidays when combined with other sweet ingredients.  For some reason I always think of Starbucks’ Bliss Bars.

At work, I had these orange eats.  Not a joke, this color scheme was actually a complete accident. 

I made this butternut mash using 1/100th of my squash supply.  It was so simple and so good. 

Rather than roast the squash I left it in the slow cooker all day, which resulted in some seriously mushy squash.  Precisely what I was hoping for!  I didn’t even have to use a food processor or blender to puree it. 

You could probably steam it if you don’t have a slow cooker. 

After separating the flesh from the skin, I added nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and a dash of coconut milk.  Any non-dairy milk would do, though.  I didn’t measure anything and basically played mix-master until I got a nice cheesy, savory flavor.  The result was a vegan squash mash that happens to be way healthier and more nutritionally dense than mashed potatoes! 

*When I say more nutritionally dense, I mean it too.  Nutritional yeast contains B12, and it is actually one of the only vegetarian sources of this vitamin.  Obviously if you are a vegan, this is a key supplementation requirement, so unless you are consuming massive amounts of nooch (a completely legit possibility), you may want to consider taking a B12 supplement for (since B12 is really only found in animal sources).  There are foods that are fortinfied with B12, too, so just be sure to do your research.

Moving on…

Oh hey, what do we have here?

Orange you glad I packed a meal with some non-orange food? 

Orange you glad I have such a lame sense of humor?  😉

If you are looking at the above photo with confused wonder, you wouldn’t be the only one.  Salad?  What is this foreign thing?  Sadly, my body reacted similarly to the green invasion.  Eek! 

After weeks of chocolate, sweets, and treats, I’m pretty sure my stomach had no idea what to do with this lettuce concoction.  Not a good sign.  The salad had spinach, carrots, blanched broccoli, and dried cranberries with Bragg’s liquid aminos (added after the photo). 

 

I also packed NutsOnline’s raw Acai Blueberry Superfood Cereal for my second breakfast (aka my work breakfast).  Holy fabulous ingredients!

 

It took me a while to identify why this cereal tasted so familiar and then I realized…

The coconut flavor, the crispy crunchy texture…

 

It tasted JUST like my hippie-roons.  Yum. Yum. YUM! 

I definitely need to buy a bigger portion now because that sampler completely piqued my taste buds.  So good.  I love when cereal is crunchy without being hard, and since I’m rather particular about granola and cereal (especially ones with clusters), I get really excited when foods surpass my expectations.  This cereal is RAW and it still maintained a beautiful crunch.  No stale texture whatesoever.  I’m not sure the acai came through, but the blueberry flavor was delish.  All in all, this cereal gets 5 stars…and NutsOnline continues to impress me with their quality products! 

After work, I had some boring, non-blogworthy food.

Artisana’s raw almond butter packet sandwiched between two pieces of Alvarado Street sprouted bread. 

Not the least bit gourmet, but totally yummy.

As always, the packet needed some kneading before it was soft enough to squeeze out.  I can’t get over how good Artisana’s products are – and they are raw!  No unnecessary processing, no additives, just pure almonds. 

The aftermath of dessert looked something like this.  Sigh.  Because one wasn’t quite good enough…

Home-made Reese’s anyone?  Vegan peanut butter cups with chocolate fudge casing sounds much fancier, doesn’t it? 

After the peanut butter cup was done, I still wanted more, so I went for a cranberry/coconut fudge cup. 

I’m clearly on a dessert kick.  The holidays are a nice excuse to have multiple servings of sweets.  Santa doesn’t care if you get sick from too much chocolate and neither do I.  Orange you glad about that?  :)