Surrender + Recent Side Eats

I am extremely sad the weekend is over!  But excited for all the events I have planned this week.  For a short summary, one of my best girlfriends (and college roommate) came up for the weekend to catch up- and check out my new city.  Saturday night we cooked a Vegan Pizza with Balanced Peanuts’ whole wheat pizza dough!  Rather than cheese we used Rice shreds which were surprisingly very good!  I highly recommend these over normal mozzarella cheese for less fat and more protein.

We loaded the pizza with all of our favorite organic veggies and poured a glass or two of red wine… we had a great girls night.  Considering the size of the pizza, I was planning on having left overs- but we devoured it and left none

Yesterday morning, I went for an 8 mile run and it felt great.  That was the first long run I have run in a really long time… so it was nice to touch base with my inner self for an hour.

And this morning, I practiced Ashtanga Yoga for 90 minutes at the Asheville Yoga Center where I dedicated my practice to the final Niyama- Ishvar Pranidhana.  Meaning surrender.  In my practice, I surrendered myself to God asking for guidance. But, surrender can mean so much more than just surrendering to the Divine.

What does surrender mean to you? Can you see it as something desireable or does it appear as a weakness? Do you see surrender as love for yourself and love of the divine aspects of the Universe (or Universal oneness)?

Because I haven’t posted too many recent eats lately, so here here are a couple of snacks & side dishes from the weekend:

Baked apples, cored and sliced with a tsp. or 2 of light agave syrup and a dash of cinnamon.

Sweet potato casserole (minus the marshmallows because I didn’t have any) with pecans.  How to make it?  It’s easy- simply boil your sweet potatoes until soft, remove skin, mash, add a dash of milk and butter, stir and place in a 9X9 dish to bake with pecans and cinnamon sprinkled on top.   I like my pecans burnt so I let it broil for a bit.

Tomato Avocado Stax with a side of my Black Olive Tapenade.

Pomegranate seeds for a mid morning snack.  These suckers are so good- Trader Joe’s sells a perfect portion size.

Apple Fiji Chicken Salad from Panera Bread- minus the chicken and cheese with a hazelnut coffee.  This is my FAVORITE!

I’ve been on a green juice kick lately… having 1 green juice per day, typically in the morning.  This specific juice has 1 apple, kale, celery, ginger, and fresh parsley.

Happy Monday!