"Precious," Shopping, and Larabars!

Let me start with yesterday.
I had my first Larabar (lemon flavored)
It was really good!













I had never seen one outside of it's wrapper before, so I was expecting something like a granola bar. Crunchy.

My braced teeth were so happy when it found out that it was actually a SOFT bar (with pieces of nuts in the middle).

I was so surprised by how good it was, considering there were only like 4 ingredients in it! Take that, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup! We don't need you! I have two more flavors that I have yet to try and I have high hopes for them! I am super excited for 'apple pie' flavor!

I have also been eating a LOT of brownies (see this post) and I recently discovered how delightful sunflower seed butter is!
My mom heard about it and picked some up. I've been putting it on toast, brownies, and making brownie sandwiches out of it.

So as you can see, I haven't really been having very nutritious breakfasts ;) But (you will probably hear me say this more than once) I think it is okay to be a little bad sometimes. So to get back on track with healthy breakfast, I think I will try another batch of overnight oats tonight. Probably will snag some ideas from Angela at Ohsheglows, but I'm sure she won't mind ;)

I also went shopping yesterday, and I bought some running shoes. I didn't have any before, so I was running in my DC's. Mom would panic every time I left the house, saying I was going to ruin my feet (and she's probably right) so I got a pair of Nikes. I'll get a picture for those soon!

I was also interested in the Nike+ thing that tracks your workouts, but it turns out (according to a Nike store employee) that you need some kind of Apple product (like an Ipod nano, Iphone, etc) to use it! Screw that, I am happy with my Droid and my PC, thank you very much.

So I will keep using my free Droid apps to keep track of my workouts :)

That is all I have really done in the past few days, besides watching the movie Precious. Has anyone else seen it? I have found that I really dislike "inspirational" movies. I don't enjoy watching movies about people who were abused, or bullied, or disabled in some way. I don't enjoy finishing a movie thinking, "Wow, the world kind of sucks," regardless of whether or not they "make it" in the end. I guess that's just me, though, because the "inspirational" movies seem to make it pretty big.

If you have seen Precious, or another similar movie: What did you think?

Brownies for the win!

In case you ever wondered what ‘ftw” was on my blog name. It’s “for the win.” It’s mostly a gamer term, meant originally that the object in question would lead to success (a win). But nowadays it’s used pretty loosely to say [it] rocks! So veganism ftw = I think veganism is awesome. There’s your 1337 Speak lesson for the day (leet speak).
Yesterday I attempted to make Happy Herbivore’s Black Bean Brownies. From here.
I did not like them.
I was SO suprised, because they got such good feedback and praise! And I do not, by any means, want to put down a fellow blogger, and it is entirely possible that I messed something up in the recipe, but I thought they were the worst ones I have made yet. Though I could not taste the beans, the bananas were very prevalent and they tasted overall very mushy and wet. Like I said, I may have done something wrong. If you do happen to try these and enjoy them, let me know! :)
Today still craving chocolate, I decided to give these a shot. Nicole, from Another One Bites The Crust, told me they were the best brownies she’d ever made and gave me the link, and I am forever in her debt. They were just the right consistency, cakey but still fudgy, and they were soooo sweet and chocolaty. Everyone at work loved them (even my boss, who assumes that ‘vegan’ means you eat lettuce and carrots every day), and fought over who would get the last one that I had brought.

This picture doesn’t really do them justice…
Another thing that I did today was get braces. Again.
I feel like an awkward teenager for the second time in my life, and god knows you shouldn’t have to go through that twice!
I had them before, in middle/high school, and since then I have lost several retainers, and it was getting too pricey to keep replacing them! I asked my orthodontist if he could possibly stick a permanent retainer in there, so I don’t have to keep replacing them, and he said yes, but that it wouldn’t really be worth it since my teeth had already shifted so much. So here I am, with braces for a second time (only on my top front 8 teeth though, and only for a few months).
That being the case, my teeth hurt a LOT. Good thing I made a nice mushy sweet potato casserole! No chewing involved whatsoever :)
Well I am getting up at 6 AM once again to work out with Danielle, and its 11:11 (make a wish) so I better get to bed!
Were you awkward as a young’n or did you mature gracefully? I sure went through that awkward stage (and probably am still in it)!