I read this article once about well balanced meals, when I say well balanced I mean including different flavors, textures, temperatures, smells, etc. Apparently different types of flavors stimulate different appetite sensors in the brain. Some of these flavors can include, sweet, savory, spicy, sour etc. I believe that when all of our sensors are stimulated in one meal then we feel satisfied and do not overeat. For example, if we are having dinner and add a  sweet element to it, we will refrain from reaching for dessert post meal. Except that doesn't apply to me because I ALWAYS want dessert...I don't care if my entree was a dessert. I still want dessert to my dessert. But anyways thats just my two sense. I think a lot. Overthinker here! I have never been to culinary school either, (even though its a dream of mine), but I do believe they teach you that kinda stuff in classes. Bringing all sorts of different elements to the dish is what makes it artistic.

So my skinny adventure AKA diet for vacay is still holding strong. I did have an "oops" day... or a major cheat day on Sunday. I ate all sorts of goodies at brunch and they had bottomless mimosas... ugh of course I can't say no! Then later I ate mediterranean food until I was in a food coma. So needless to say Monday morning I felt uber guilty and got back on track.

So I just found out I am going to Miami on a mini vacay for Winter Music Conference. FINALLY! I have been absolutely ecstatic about it, I need a break from the routine of real life. However, I have one month... one month until tropical weather, one month until pool and beach time, one month until.... dunh dunh dunh.... bathing suits. Commence panic mode. I am not one to do the crash diets, I think I would rather jump off a cliff and land in cacti. At one point I tried the meal prepping cool thing to do and by the third day of chicken, broccoli and brown rice, I fell into a grumpy depression. I would scream and curse at cars on the highway for merely existing and not many people would come near me by my resting bitch face... which I have on the regular anyways, but this time was pretty bad. I'm sure people thought I was about to eat their face off while ripping off my clothes hulk style at any second.... 

Happy Valentine's Day lovers! Today is the day we celebrate each other, the love we have for not only our significant others, but also the love we have for family, friends, our fellow human beings. Life is about love. Without it, this world would have imploded already from all the chaos and hatred. Every day we must strive to show compassion to one another. Even with just a smile. When we show compassion towards one another, really it is US who is purified of negativity and filled with love. If you want to be happy in this life, you must show the love, people! And don't forget one of the most important people in this world to love. YOURSELF. You are #1 in your life, whether you like it or not. You can't love others until you love yourself first and that is one of the most important things I have learned in my 29 years....

We all have days when we wake up feeling like a blimp thats about to pop... ladies you know what I'm talking about... In Florida its been a rainy mess and what most awesome thing to do than lay on the couch, watch movies, make and eat cookies and other indulgences, right? Right, until the next morning when we feel like a train ran us over from all the sugar and fat and laziness :P Well the sun came out today and I felt like I needed a detox! Its a gym day so I thought why not make a protein smoothie with tons of good-for-you ingredients :) Lets talk about everything in this smoothie and why its gonna help us glow today. 

The weekend was a rainy dreary one... and this made me soooooo lazy. All I wanted to do was watch movies or read my books. I am in the second book of the Divergent series, Insurgent and I LOVE it! If you liked the Hunger Games trilogy you'll love this one! So since I felt so lazy, I wanted to make a delicious dinner that night with the smallest effort. Immediately I thought "slow cooker!". I ran over to the grocery store and picked up this beautiful non hormone, non antibiotic, vegetarian fed whole chicken. Perfect! Such an easy way to make a tender, tasty, juicy bird!  

So I know I have confessed this before, but yes, I hate peanut butter. I don't jump up and down over candies that have it or even peanuts for that matter! So yea, I could care less about Reese's cups or Snickers or peanut M&Ms etc. I don't know what it is... the oiliness, the saltiness, not sure?! I have tried, believe me. People have given me awful looks when I share my feelings about peanut butter, as if I just told them their baby is ugly. For a long time, I thought I might give other butters a chance, Nutella has won my heart forever ago BUT this isn't nutritious by any means. I wanted to find a butter that fit me, one that I could eat and feel good about, not just with flavor but also with my health. I finally tried almond butter when my best friend brought it over to my house to snack on apples with. Suddenly, I felt that I met "the one". Not only are almonds packed with vitamins but it tasted AMAZING to me! I think I was in silence for about 5 minutes, eating this new butter, and running a movie in my head of all the amazing things I could put this on and in and at times I just pictured me, a spoon and a jar of this creamy goodness. And so this banana almond butter muffin was born... 

Ahhhhhh I hear the birds chirping and the fast beating of hearts in love. Valentine's Day is coming! There's nothing sweeter than making your honey something in the kitchen. For my honey, its anything sweet, especially cookies. I went with these red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips. The packed brown sugar made this cookie so soft and chewy and rich, almost like a red velvet fudge. The white chocolate gave the cookie a different dimension of sweet. I love white chocolate... you can use milk chocolate too :) Make these for your Valentine next week and I promise they will become hypnotized with you and your sweet creation :)

I have been craving shrimp for a long time. I never get it because my boyfriend has been traumatized by a documentary he once saw about farmed shrimp and now he can't look at ANY shrimp again... greaaaat. I have tried explaining to him that wild shrimp are different. Farmed shrimp go through awful conditions where they basically live in filth as they are being harvested. Wild shrimp come from the ocean. Either way, I can't win. So yesterday while he was out playing golf, I decided to make myself a lovely shrimp lunch and pop open a bottle of white wine. Its the friggin weekend! I got inspired to make this by a menu item at Bonefish Grill. The Saucy Shrimp at Bonefish is SOOO good but has tons of butter and sodium in it. I wanted to lighten this up and add some veggies to it to make it a more balanced meal. What I got was such a refreshing lunch and cool glass of white wine that made me think of Summer and sun and tank tops and flip flops. When I came to, I looked outside at the rainy cold and sang "maybe I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one". I know you're with me! 

As I sat down over the weekend to brainstorm about a Valentine's Day cookie recipe I wondered what it was as a child that I loved so much. Growing up in Peru, we had different treats... tons of chocolate, unreal tasting fruits and an addiction to condensed milk and dulce de leche AKA manjar blanco. I used to eat fruit like bananas or strawberries completely drenched in condensed milk. I could seriously take a can and drink the milk from it which would cause a major sugar headache and tummy ache but I didn't care... it was so good it was worth it. I find that in the US, condensed milk is not as widely loved as it is in Peru and that really baffles me! It really is NOT healthy in any way thats for sure... but seriously, if I had to choose 2 foods to eat for the rest of my life it would be pizza and condensed milk. Maybe not together though ;)