Go figure that the one day that I can sleep until 8 a.m. I wake up at 6:30. Despite not going to sleep until almost 12:30 on Saturday night, I was wide awake early on Sunday morning. The next thing I knew I was making a pot of coffee and pre-heating the oven to bake a cake. Isn’t it totally sane to bake a cake at 7 a.m. on Sunday as you down black coffee in large quantities? My 9:15 yoga class got me in rare form.

I didn’t just bake any cake but a Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake with Avocado Buttercream. What can I say? I’m trying to get creative with my huge avocado stash. This cake is surprisingly amazing and I’ll be posting the recipe later this week.

Breakfast in the midst of the baking frenzy was a bowl of oatmeal with bananas, blueberries and strawberries. Actually, this ended up being not appetizing at all and didn’t sit well. I think I ruined my breakfast appetite with chocolate cake batter samples. Oopsie.

I was craving something savory for lunch so I made a hybrid salad/quinoa bowl. Mixed greens topped with leftover quinoa that was cooked with mushrooms, onions and tomatoes. I added more tomatoes, red pepper, avocado and goat cheese and then finished it off with balsamic vinaigrette.

I wasn’t feeling my normal Sunday afternoon yoga class so I headed over to the gym instead to run and lift. I warmed up with a couple of miles outside and then came in and did three rounds of the following circuit:

– Pull ups (band assisted) – 12 reps for rounds 1 and 2, 15 for round 3
– Barbell back squats – 20 reps for rounds 1 and 2, 25 for round 3
– Ring dips – 12 reps for rounds 1 and 2, 15 for round 3
– Overhead walking lunges (carrying two stacked 10 lb plates overhead) – 12 steps down and back for rounds 1 and 2, 15 for round 3
– Stability ball chest fly (with dumbbells) – 12 reps for rounds 1 and 2, 15 for round 3
– Stability ball crunch – 20 reps for rounds 1 and 2, 25 for round 3
– Stability ball knee tucks – 20 reps for rounds 1 and 2, 25 for round 3

The circuit took about 20-25 minutes once I had everything set up and it felt like a good total body workout.

I had to rush to the studio from the gym for a teacher meeting and then it was home to prepare a Sunday dinner feast!

Appetizer was a steamed artichoke served with a dip made of light mayo, plain yogurt, lemon juice, salt and worcestershire sauce.

Sullie supervised the meal prep.

Dinner turned out so well! I tried a new recipe from Canyon Ranch: Nourish (highly recommended cookbook) and made Beef Tenderloin with Tomato Bleu Cheese Salsa. I splurged on really good beef and high-quality blue cheese and the combination was wonderful. I roasted potatoes with fresh herbs, salt and pepper on the side along with some farmers market zucchini. I love cooking and feeding people good food! 😀

Of course I had to serve the chocolate avocado cake for dessert…with a scoop of ice cream for good measure (thus making it non-vegan but when you serve steak for dinner…does it really matter?). It was a hit!

Monday motivation…

Make it an awesome week! Be confident, proud and happy!