Even I have to admit the words "cauliflower" and "brownies" don't make sense together, but you just have to trust me on this one.  These brownies are dense and moist, but they don't use butter OR flour.  Actually, every ingredient has health benefits (except maybe the chocolate, depending on how you view that one) and you could easily make this recipe vegan by substituting for the eggs and yogurt.

I've been seeing cauliflower brownies every now and then on my favorite healthy blogs, but when I googled it, there weren't many recipes to go off of.  I found this one on CCK (love that blog!) and this one on I Breath I'm Hungry.  Both had the same basic idea so I used them as a guide and sort of did my own thing, based on what I had in my cabinets. 

Yields: 28 Brownies

1.5 Cup Raw Cauliflower Puree
1/2 Cup Coconut Milk (can be unsweetened, vanilla or chocolate)
1 Cup Melted Chocolate (use whatever kind you have)
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
1 Tbsp Greek Yogurt (can omit to keep vegan)
2 Eggs (can sub 2 Tbsp ground flax to keep vegan)
1 Cup Ground Almonds
1/2 Cup Ground Flax (or 1/2 cup additional ground almonds)
1/2 Cup Cacao Powder (can sub unsweetened cocoa powder or hot chocolate powder)
2 Tbsp Coconut Sugar (can sub any other sweetener)
2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder (use 1 Tsp if you sub the eggs)
1/8 Tsp Salt

1. Use a food processor (I use a Ninja) to blend the cauliflower into fine pieces.  Don't steam or cook the cauliflower before blending it; just use it raw.  You can see what mine looked like in the pictures below.
2. Slowly add in the coconut milk and continue to blend until it makes a very smooth puree.  You want to make sure there are no remaining lumps. 
3. In a double boiler or in the microwave, melt your chocolate with your coconut oil.  Once melted, add this to your cauliflower puree and pulse a few times to blend it all together. 
4. Add in your eggs, coconut sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder and salt, then pulse until blended well.
5. Finally, add in your ground almonds and ground flax the mix thoroughly by hand or pulse until combined.
6. Grease your pan (I used a little bit of coconut oil) and pour the batter in evenly.  I used two pans for mine because I wanted thinner, smaller brownies but you can use one large pan if you want big, dense brownies. 
7. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25-30 minutes if using two pans or 30-35 minutes if using one pan.  They are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
8. Remove from pan and let cool or serve warm.  I find that they keep best covered in the refrigerator and that they taste better cold, but that's just my preference. 
9. Optional:  I covered some of mine in a peanut butter topping.  I mixed 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1 Tbsp of coconut oil in a double boiler until it was melted, then spread it on top of the brownies.  Then I chilled it in the refrigerator until it hardened a little.  Delicious.

I don't often go a day without a sweet snack so to keep to my overall health plan, I have a go-to recipe that I use as a base for no-bake raw cookies.  They're made with only a few basic ingredients and can be altered to whatever I have in the kitchen.  They taste delicious and won't derail my whole day. 

This is the recipe for the basic cookie - feel free to play around with substitutions.  There really isn't a "wrong" way to make this.  You could add oats or ground flax if you're low on nuts.  Or you could add applesauce if you don't have a sweetener.  You get the idea.

Yields: 7-10 Cookies

1 Cup Nuts - any kind, I most often use raw almonds
4-5 Dates or 1/4 Cup Raisins
1 Tbsp Agave or Coconut Nectar
Any additional ingredients that you like (optional) - I most often use chocolate chips, dried fruit or nut butter

1. Use a food processor (I use a Ninja) to grind the nuts down to a powder
2. Add in the dates/raisins and the agave/nectar then pulse until everything is blended and the dough easily forms a ball
3. Add in any additional ingredients that you like.  For the cookies in the picture I added chocolate chips to the cookies and dipped the bottom in more chocolate.  It was one of those days where chocolate could do no wrong.
   
4. Form into cookies and store in the refrigerator.  They will keep for at least a week - I've never kept them longer than that because they're pretty tasty.
   

It's the just after Christmas and I'm attempting to transition from full-on "treat yo self" mode (i.e. stuff my face with chocolate) back to normal, healthy eating.  It's already annoying and I know that this week will be a pain in the butt.  Literally.  I'm bringing Jillian Michaels back into my life and she always hurts me.  Today and tomorrow I'm just going to focus on eating right and then I'll start adding back my workouts. 

First, a funny story.  We had a bunch of hikers over the other night to get our "trail talk" fix and a couple of them used the scale in our bathroom.  Someone mentioned that it seemed like it was 5 lbs off, making us heavier than we actually were.  Everyone seemed really relieved and we all unanimously agreed that there was no way it could be right and that it wasn't likely that we ALL weighed more than we thought. 

I'm sure you can guess how this one ends.  Yep, turns out the scale is right.  After they left a few people tried their own scales at home and low and behold, the same damn result.  Sad times for us hikers.  None of us are overweight or anything, but weight gain post-hike is an interesting fear for us all so even 5 lbs makes us feel like we're on a slippery slope.  On the trail, we spent months working out for 8-10 hours every single day.  We ate constantly and we were still at our lowest weight with amazing muscle tone.  It's hard to adjust back to normal life and not think about how much your body is changing. 

Side note, if you're interested in reading more about post-trail nutrition I encourage you to read this post by our friend, Badger. 

Anyway, I ramble.  But the point is, we all had a sad little dose of reality and I'm not really excited about those extra pounds.  Hence Jillian's return to my life.  My game plan is usually the same when I need to whip myself into shape.  I've tried all kinds of workouts and eating plans over the years and this one always works for me.  Probably because it's just basic science and hard work.  These are the guidelines that I use, in order of importance.

Count calories.  I know it sounds like a pain, but it's so helpful.  I use the Lose It app on my phone and it really doesn't take much effort.  There is a barcode scanner and a huge database of restaurant and grocery store foods that make logging everything pretty simple.  It saves your previous meals so if you eat the same thing for breakfast everyday (for instance) you don't have to log in repeatedly. 

Eat whole, healthy foods.  When you're trying to lose weight, "calories in" vs. "calories out" is king.  But, it's more than that if you want to lose weight AND be healthy.  My goal isn't just weight loss or maintenance.  I want to feel good and I want to get the right nutrients into my body.  I could troll the frozen food aisle and pick up a bunch of lean cuisines, stay in my calorie range and lose weight.  But what would I really be doing for myself?  I'd rather take the time to buy the ingredients and make meals from scratch so I know exactly what's going in to my body.  Personal choice, but one I think is important for my overall well being.

Weights and yoga.  Sure, I burn more calories when I run or hike, but I see changes faster when I lift weights.  My clothes fit better and my metabolism picks up.  The scale moves faster when I focus on cardio, but I care more about how I look and feel than how much I weigh.  So I lift weights and listen to my girl Jillian.  Her DVDs rock my world.  Yoga is another must for me.  I start my day with this routine and I stretch my back whenever I feel like I've been sitting at a desk for too long.  Simple steps that really help me feel good.

Cardio.  If I only have time for one, I choose weights over cardio, but ideally I work both in.  I actually like running and find it to be a big stress reliever.  And I like spending time with Rooney - he's an awesome running buddy.  He's so happy to be outside and keeps his pace the whole time so he definitely lets you know when you're dragging.  Since it's freezing in Chicago now I'm not sure how often I'll get out to run, but I want to try to work it in when I can.  I'm not a fan of gyms so mother nature calls the shots for me. 

Find motivation.  Only you can make the choice to eat well and workout, but it helps to surround yourself with others who are doing the same.  Have a friend whose fitness is enviable?  Ask her/him if you can text them when you need a kick in the pants or arrange to check in with her/him once a week to compare workouts.  It helps to have someone that you're accountable to.  If you aren't into having a virtual workout buddy, there are a TON of blogs that are motivational.  I follow them on Instagram and they always seem to be working out which makes me want to move too.  Here are a few of my favorites that I follow. 

• Elle Noel
• Mama Laughlin
• Miss Madison's Charmed Life
• Purely Twins
• Making Good Choices

So that's it.  That's my tried and true plan.  It's not mind-blowing or a new concept by any means, but it helps me to lay it out and remind myself of my goals.  The first week is always tough and after the holiday "stuff my face" marathon I know I'll be hungry and annoyed these first few days.  But once I break through that wall, I'll feel great and be back to my old self.  Which leads me to this proactive little apology, for those who might bump into me in the coming days ;-)

Whenever we travel, we like to break up road trips by stopping in various parks for a little hike.  Even on short trips we like to get out and stretch our legs.  It perks us up and gives Rooney a chance to run.  Plus we gather firewood for when we get home.  Good stuff.

On the way to MI for the holidays, we stopped at Pokagon State Park in Indiana.  It was so nice!  It had really well marked trails with maps throughout the park and the scenery changed a few times.  It started out very woodsy and tree-filled then opened up to a marsh wetland area.  We even saw a bunch of otters (maybe they were beavers? we couldn't tell and I forgot my camera) swimming around.  It was pretty neat.  The trails were really well maintained and we even reached 1100 feet in elevation which rarely happens in the midwest, at least as far as we've seen.  (I messed up and left my camera in the car which I am totally kicking myself for.  It was so pretty there!)

On the way home from MI, we stopped at Potato Creek State Park in Indiana.  We were kinda tired so we just wanted a quick walk and some open space to let Rooney play.  There were a bunch of campsites and plenty of places to park a horse, but we didn't really explore the trails very much.  We just grabbed some firewood and walked a couple of circles around the campground, then played catch for awhile with Rooney.  Just enough to stretch our legs and burn some energy.  I definitely want to head back and explore that park more.  In the meantime, here are the pics from when I actually remembered my camera ;-)

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season and taking a chance to appreciate their friends and family.  We certainly are!  It's been a busy week, but a great one.  We started the week in Chicago and celebrated with my parents and my brother.  They had decorated everything and it felt like Christmas as soon as we walked in the door.

This collage of pictures is on the side of my brother's fridge and has been since last Christmas.  They're older pictures of us all that I used for gift wrapping last year.  Instead of writing the To and From on each gift, I used pictures and it was super fun to look through them all together.  So my brother hung them up and they've been there ever since.  It was nice of him and brings warm memories each time I see it.

We spent most of our time eating, relaxing, chatting...and eating some more.  Rooney found a chair that's exactly his size and promptly curled up in a ball.  Oh and see that blanket he's on?  My mom has been crocheting a ton lately and we're all benefiting with luxurious and huge blankets.  She taught me the basics and I've been practicing.  I made a lot of mistakes at first (uh, see the picture below), but I'm starting to get the hang of it now.  Kinda. 

After our Chicago holiday we got together with some of the thru-hikers from 2012 and had a mini reunion.  We are super lucky that a couple of our good friends from the trail live in Chicago and a few more live nearby.  So we planned a weekend and had a ton of fun.  There was a LOT of trail talk (something we don't get to do that often because it bores most people or they don't get what we're talking about) and a boatload of laughs.

Then we packed up again and drove to Michigan to celebrate the holiday with Serial's family.  We stay with his sister and brother-in-law and their three kids when we're over there and it's so great.  They have a dog too so Rooney plays a bunch and we get a chance to catch up with everyone.  His niece is young and loves to chat and is always ready to play with toys or run around playing make believe which makes for a really fun visit. 

And the magical part... she was excited for Santa!  I hadn't witnessed a kid waking up to Santa gifts in years and it was special to watch.  She was so excited! 

Now we are back home and happy to be relaxing together on the couch.  Tomorrow I'm heading back over to my brother's to soak up more quality time with my family before my parents head back to AZ.  It has been such a fantastic holiday so far and we still have more to come!  My girlfriends are planning a night out next week, our Chicago hiker friends are planning a game night (you know, cause we're big nerds) and my family is having a New Years Eve this weekend.  Yep, the theme for us this month is over-scheduled and ridiculously happy.

Hope everyone is enjoying the end of this year, no matter how you celebrate it!

We're busy celebrating Christmas today with my side of the family (we alternate with Serial's side and my side for celebrating on the actual day), but I wanted to pop in and share one of the forest preserves that we have been using to exercise Rooney and stretch our legs. 

LaBagh Woods is right off of I-94 at Foster Ave and it has a few different parking areas and entrances.  It bleeds into a few other parks if you continue going Northwest so there's a bunch of different ways to fill your day.  We usually use the entrance off of Cicero and park in the back lot.  There's a big open space where we can play catch with Rooney and there is a small trail that dips down to a little stream. 

So far, each time we have gone there we've seen people in the parking lots, but rarely when we're on our walk.  But it's hardly remote.  You can see and hear the highway as well as homes on the other side of the stream.  Still, it's an easy place to burn some energy without having to drive out to the suburbs.   

Here are a few pictures that we snapped yesterday when we went there.  Rooney was being particularly crazy, plus there were a few deer which always makes him a bit bonkers.  His hunting instincts kick in and he starts moving faster than I ever thought he could.  It's funny and stressful all at once. 

If you follow me on Instagram then you've already seen these pics, but they make me smile so I'll share them again.  That dog loves an adventure. 

Last week we were focused on getting ready for the holiday festivities that are starting up this week.  Since we're from two different cities we try to balance the holidays with both sides of our families which means we do Thanksgiving with one side and Christmas with the other.  This year we're heading back to Detroit to spend Christmas with Serial's family so we're doing an early celebration with my immediate family this week. 

We've been busy little elves working to get together our gifts and clean our condo.  It actually felt pretty good to be so productive and now I feel like we can just relax and enjoy this time with our families.  The downside?  I neglected my blog.  Big time.  So, in an effort to avoid getting coal in my little blogger stocking, I thought I would do a little recap post and promise to be better about posting this week.  Forgive me?

Good, here we go!

I've been sewing a bunch this past week and true to form, Rooney is curious and doesn't want to be left out of anything.  I set up shop on the new table I built and since it's right behind our couch, he just lays there and stares at me.  My own little floppy ears stalker. 

What have I been sewing?  Pillows for our condo (we have zero decorations up so I thought it would be a quick and easy fix to make it look less like a dorm room) and gifts for the holidays.  I'm going to do a few simple tutorials on all of these, once the gifts have been given.  I'm not a sewing expert, but you don't really need to be for small projects like these.  You could even sew them by hand if you don't have a machine. 

This weekend I treated myself to a new book.  I'm typically a thrift store or used book shopper when it comes to my reading (or the kindle .99 specials), but I have been thinking about this book since it came out and just couldn't hold out any longer.  My hands-down favorite blog is Young House Love so when they put a book out, I was anxious to get my little DIY hands on it.  I read through it cover-to-cover as soon as I got it home and it was worth every last cent.  I love it so much and can't wait to tackle the projects in it. 

I've been whipping up goodies in the kitchen and experimenting with a few different raw dessert recipes.  I like to make them up as I go so sometimes they are a big fat failure and other times they are delicious.  This raw carrot cake that I threw together was a winner.  I'll be writing that one up soon, promise.  If you're craving something sweet and raw right.this.second, check out the pumpkin bars or double chocolate bars that I made. 

I also got to squeeze in a visit with my bestie's family before the holiday craziness started.  Her little one is almost 6 months old so they're enjoying the first Christmas happiness that comes with having a little one that oohs and ahhs at the sparkly tree.  While I was there we had a chance to hang the frame and the height chart that I made for her nursery.  They look so cute in her nursery! 

We've also been continuing our quest for day hikes in the Chicago area.  It's our substitute for the woods.  We are lucky that we have a car to get to all of these various places and I love the time we spend time together outside in the fresh air, but we do miss the mountains.  I'm going to start doing a post for each of the parks and areas we visit, just in case others are looking for ways to get away in the area. 

We've also been cleaning house.  We don't have tons of "stuff" but it felt like we did because our space is small and we weren't really organized in our closet space.  So, I spent a day just pulling everything out of all of the closets and placing things into three piles.  Everything was marked as sell, keep or store away.  It felt awesome.  Yesterday I took two big containers to our friends' house to store in their garage attic (how awesome and sharing are they for letting us do that) and put everything we were keeping back into the closets, using hooks and shelving we had.  Today I'm going to post all of our "sell" items on ebay and craigslist to make a few extra bucks and free up space.  It's so great.  I love a good organization project. 

So that's it, friends.  That's what we've been up to.  Hope you all have been enjoying the holiday prep and finding time to relax with your loved ones.  Have a great week!

Now that it's getting colder outside, I've been leaning towards warm comfort foods for dinner and having a good time creating healthy versions of classic dishes.  We've been loving the vegan mac 'n no cheese and this weekend I was wanting something that gave us a similar feeling, but with less calories and a little more nutritional punch.

After scrounging around in our fridge for a few minutes, I decided on something with sweet potatoes and couscous.  We always seem to have these in the house and I love them both, so off I went on my little dinner adventure.

This recipe is great because it gives you that creamy mashed potato feel, but it also has a crispy, cheesy top.  It tastes like it should be a fat girl food, but it's totally not.  It's filling, low calorie and has a decent amount of protein from the couscous.  I'll definitely be making this one again.

Last week I showed you a frame that I built for my friend's sweet daughter, to be used in her nursery.   Tonight I wanted to show you this adorable height chart that can be used to measure their children's growth over the years to come.  I first got the idea from Pinterest (shocking, I know) when I saw a bunch of giant rulers being used as height charts, but their home is filled with white trim and clean lines so I went with a simple black and white instead.

I also debated adding Lily's name or some pastel colors to match her nursery, but in the end thought it would be cool if they could use that one ruler for all of their future kids.  Then I teared up thinking about their future kids marking their height on it (I'm a sap). 

This project is super easy to do, but can be a bit time consuming if you're a perfectionist.  The good news is that it only requires one board (no cuts) and you can use any color paint or stain that you want.  Customize away!

Tonight was one of those nights when I wanted to make some sort of dessert, but I had to get creative with my limited ingredients.  I wasn't in the mood to go to the store and figured I could make something work and make something that was at least edible.

But y'all, this mash-up of ingredients turned out great.  Plus it's healthy and mostly raw.  WIN.

I love dark chocolate and Serial can house white chocolate like it's his job so I knew I wanted to create two layers of chocolate, but adding the third crust layer gave it extra texture and made it oh so yummy.  Each layer is different so you end up with a chewy crust, creamy chocolate pie and a white chocolate bark layer.  It's so good!