A few words to live by.

Super Tasty & Healthy Cookies!

As a subscriber to Tara Stiles youtube channel, I found this great super simple oatmeal, chocolate chip cookie recipe that I automatically fell in love with. The reason I did: it has no added sugar, butter, or eggs! The added bananas and chocolate make it just sweat enough to be a treat and the oatmeal, almond meal flour (I just used gluten free wheat flour), and coconut oil make it one of the healthiest cookie recipes I've come across. I tried them last night and have to admit they are my new favorite treat!

Ingredients: (Try to use all organic ingredients if you can, to make them even tastier and better for you!)

• 3 large bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2/3 cup almond meal flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 6-7 oz chocolate 

(My alterations: First I didn't have baking powder in my cabinet so I decided not to use it, and I used organic gluten free wheat flour instead of almond meal. I also used half of the chocolate the recipe calls for and it was still super sweat and chocolate-y. My girlfriend said there was even too much chocolate for her, so use to your liking.) 

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Make sure to heat the coconut oil so it is in liquid form, not a solid
• Mash the bananas up
• Combine all the wet ingredients, then the dry ingredients in separate bowls
• Mix all ingredients together
• Place slightly flattened balls of cookie dough onto baking sheet
• Bake for 10-15 minutes (depending on how thick you make your cookies, mine only took 10 minutes)

Final product: (A horrible picture from my phone, but trust me these are DELICIOUS!)

Affirmations.

I am a strong believer in the power of affirmations.

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
~Author unknown.

Recently my affirmations have shifted from focusing on Happiness to Success. The two are not the same thing to me, though for some it may be. I feel as though I have found or created a place in my life where I am truly happy and humble. I am in the best relationship I have been in thus far in life, we just made a year and three months. I live in a sweet little bungalow with my partner in a nice neighborhood with three parks in walking distance of us. I am in my last term of undergraduate work and graduating in the Spring. I enjoy cooking healthy meals, going out dancing, hiking, crafting, yoga and reading. Sounds pretty nice, eh?

Though I am in a happy place in my life, I still find that I am not creating all that I can for myself. I need to find a job that I enjoy and brings wealth into my life, do well in my current classes and finish the classes I have incompletes in, while continuing to create a bright future for myself. Another area in focus is my health. A constant battle of reminding myself just that there's almost nothing I enjoy better than when I actually take care of myself; exercising more and eating better. There is always room for improvement.

My current affirmations are:

I love working hard to accomplish my goals.
I enjoy learning everything that I can from the courses I am in.
I benefit greatly from completing my coursework with the best grade possible.
I am able to stay focused on what I need to when I need to.
I enjoy working out every day and being physically fit.
I will find a job that utilizes my strengths and brings wealth into my life.
I am creating wealth, abundance, and success in my life.

If you want to learn more about affirmations for success, check it out.

For lunch today: I sauteed onions and mushrooms in garlic and olive oil,  put it over cheese to melt it onto a whole wheat tortilla, added a lemon veganaise spread, and sliced tomato, avocado and lettuce to top it off. It doesn't look like much, but it literally melted in my mouth...

A bank called Time.

Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with 86,400 dollars. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening, the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent of course! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night, it writes... off as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day, it opens a new account for you. Each night, it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposit, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposit. Invest it so as to get the utmost in health, happiness and success. The clock is running. Make the most of today!! -Unknown Author

I  recently read the above, on a friends status update on facebook that he had stolen from someone or somewhere else.  It had such purpose and meaning behind it that I had to share it!  

Everyone can not deny that one can never seem to have enough money, unless you are filthy rich I suppose. There have been 'Happiness studies' that indicate that no matter where one lies on the spectrum of how much wealth you have, the majority of people state that they would be happier with at least 10 percent more money that they currently have.  People in the world today are becoming greedier by the day it seems. No one likes to waste their money.  Though even if they do, it's likely that the next day or next time the bills are do they wish they hadn't bought that 50th pair of shoe or been a little too generous with their money to a friend. Money counts in the world today, but what about time?

It seems that people often value time less than they value money. Yes, the saying 'time is money' holds true in most cases and is still being recited all over the world, but the saying usually holds true in short term cases like a job. What happens when you first wake up in the morning before work or school though, and when you get home? How do you spend your weekends, your free time? It seems to me that people value their time less and less in the U.S.  You come home from work to watch your new series on t.v., check your email, facebook, twitter and blogs for a few hours, spend your weekends going out and drinking too much, or maybe you go to the beach to relax. Would you spend it the same if you knew it was going to be the last weekend you were to be alive? Would you spend time arguing with friends and loved ones? What about worrying about the future or your job as much? 

The answer is probably no right? So why do we spend our lives letting time pass by our eyes as though we have a thousand years to live. Even if you do live to be 100 years or older, wouldn't you want to die knowing that you spent every minute doing something that made you feel happy and content with who you are as a person and why God or the Universe created you?

Let every minute of this day be spent doing something that you will benefit from and which makes you happy!