Sort of Comfort Food

Ya know those days when you get home and just want comfort food in your belly to make you feel better? It’s been one of those days. I came home from a chemistry homework sesh craving something comforting for dinner… and also super hungry so delivery was out of the question. After deeply pondering making a box of vegan mac and cheese (yes, it exists!) I opted for something that would still offer that same “cheesy” satisfaction but also had some nutritional value to it, no offense box o’ mac and cheese.

“Cheesy” coconut sauteed chickpeas and kale to the rescue.

It doesn’t get much easier than this– put ingredients in a pan, heat pan, mix it all around, done-zo.

The idea of cooking with kale has always intimidating me– you have to massage it? Um, that sounds awfully high maintenance for a vegetable. Luckily this recipe did not call for a massage. Cooked veggies tend to be hit miss for me so I was worried about how much I was going to like the texture of wilted kale. The texture and cheesy flavor from nutritional yeast made it pretty delicious. I didn’t realize the kale would shrivel up so much after being cooked, so next time I gotta load up on the greens.

Served over microwave rice to round out this speedy meal. Obviously this does not take the place of mac and cheese, but it hit the spot and got me to face my fear of kale instead of letting it rot in the fridge like I usually do. Plus, now I have leftovers for later this week

Slowly but surely I’m settling into a schedule with the new semester and my new job. I’m finding that working out first thing in the morning whenever possible is the way to go. Yeah waking up earlier is a pain in the butt, but then then it’s done for the day and I can dedicate my evenings to homework. Everyone has a different time of day that they are most productive for homework, and for me I’m finding it’s during the evening. Something about trying to get homework done in the morning or afternoon before I have to be somewhere makes me antsy and makes it difficult to concentrate. Maybe that’s just me…

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve had a lot of Classtivity classes left over from my 2 weeks sans sweating in January (you get 10 classes a month) so recently my workouts have been all about signing up for as many classes as I can before my next cycle beings. Taking classes has been a great way to keep me accountable because I definitely don’t want to get charged for skipping class, but it’s also meant no running for me. It’s worked out well considering NYC is one big ice skating rink at the moment. In these upcoming weeks running will become and bigger and bigger parts of my workout week in preparation for my race. I’m struggling hardcore with finding the motivation to bundle up and run these days. Fingers crossed it starts warming up… or at the very least stops snowing all. the. time.

Here’s the agenda for this week:

Monday– Uplifting Strength
Tuesday: The Fhitting Room (HIIT)
Wednesday: Barre
Thursday: Core Fusion Barre + Cardio
Friday: Uplifting Strength
Saturday: ZUMBA! + strength training
Sunday: Rest

I’m staying at my parents house next week in Westchester which means I get to take my favorite zumba class! I know, I know, zumba isn’t exactly cool anymore but I’m SO excited to dance it out in Saturday morning zumba for the first time since summer. Nowadays I don’t get too many opportunities to dance so I gotta enjoy it when I can!

Time to start winding down for the night with some olympics before bedtime!

What ingredient are you intimidated to cook with?

What’s your workout plan for the week