oatmeal berry bars (vegan; can be gluten-free).

Looking for the perfect breakfast item or healthy summer dessert? These berry oatmeal bars can serve as both. There is zero fat (no oil, butter, or eggs), but enough ingredients to keep these bars extremely moist and also satisfyingly delicious.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Oatmeal cookies can be tricky. At large gatherings, potlucks, or any catered events, there are usually oatmeal cookies. To be specific, there are usually oatmeal cookies with dark chunks in them. And it's always a risky game of discovering whether those chunks are raisins (bleh) or chocolate chips (YES).

healthy fig bars.

At this point, I've tried almost every single flavor of Nature's Bakery fig bars. They're like a fancier fig newton. Although I dislike how the nutrition facts are for one bar vs. one package (contains 2 bars, which I find incredibly easy to devour), I just can't get enough of these bars.

In recent efforts to cut down on the amount of refined products I consume, I have been looking for snack options I can make myself. So the next time I was at the store, instead of buying a few more packs of these fig bars, I bought a pack of dried figs. After getting home I Googled around, and these are what I came up with.

whole wheat breakfast muffins.

I'm in that mood. You know the one. Where you lay in bed, headphones streaming music from the iTunes playlist dubbed "Mellow" (the Drake & Linkin Park songs that belie the actual mood) and thoughts, instead of focusing on the relaxing chilling session earlier with the bestie, cannot progress past ce;swlfuehsfi;.

It may've been eating dinner so late (9:30 pm). It could also be something else.

It's probably the dinner. Weirddd. These muffins are weird, too. They have so many random (super healthy) things in them, because I made the recipe up totally by myself. I'll keep the focus on the muffins.

whole grain superman muffins.

It's half past midnight (do people tell time like that anymore?) aka - far too late for me to be awake during break.

I just ate one of these muffins. There are so many good things in here. Whole wheat flour, oatmeal, bran, flax, wheat germ, yogurt, cinnamon. Yeah man, cinnamon has minerals and stuff. I added "0.25 tspn ground cinnamon" to my iProfile when I was keeping record, and it boosted my mineral counts incredibly. Winnnn.

I could eat these little baby muffins all day. This for breakfast, and the chicken chili with bell peppers & fresh tomatoes atop brown rice pilaf with lentils I had tonight for dinner every evening. And whatever for lunch. My day would be awesomeeeeeee.

blueberry hazelnut coconut oatmeal.

I am here today to introduce to you - delicious oatmeal.

No sugar. Plain oats. Simple things combined to make the classiest breakfast you've probably eaten in a while, unless you have the good fortune of eating at Café du Monde every morning.

But us normal folk tend to either not eat breakfast (bad!!!) or eat breakfast sandwiches or something portable and convenient.

I won't necessarily concede to the fact that this is portable (although it could be! in a paper cup, I've eaten it that way for two years straight in high school .. while driving. so no excuses.), but it is quite easy. If you have ten minutes, I highly recommend it.

pumpkin oatmeal + veggie burger.

So the other day I woke up early, by break standards - 7:45 am - and drove about an hour to the greenhouse where The Garden of Eden meets to plant, water, and harvest organically grown lettuce. I ate breakfast around 9 am, as I was driving. We worked at the greenhouse till around 2 pm.

At the end, I was eating the arugula that had been picked because I was hungry and wanted to munch on something, even if that meant eating these really bitter (the flavor was much more pronounced) tiny leaves.

With the knowledge that Thomas Sweet was in close proximity, I proceeded to spend about 15 minutes getting lost on Route 18 and going who knows where to park in a spot that was most likely illegal. But I mean, I wasn't going to be long or anything.

oatmeal pancakes: pictures.

I recently made oatmeal pancakes. I took a lot of pictures of the process, and rather than flood the original post with them, I thought I would just create a separate post. Keeping it short, here. None of my usual blabber ... I know you guys are sighing a breath of relief.

ghee + molasses

oatmeal pancakes.

Maybe I should have blogged about these on Father's Day, when I made them. About how wonderful my daddy is and how lucky I am to have him as a father. Honestly, he has gotten so far in life by following his two most important principles: working hard and being honest.

For as long as I can remember, he has never lied. Even about something small that doesn't matter, because you know what? It's still a lie. And it can still come back and bite you somewhere unpleasant.

And as long as I remember him telling my brothers and I to always tell the truth, I have memories of the many times he pushed us to never give up. Be it a game of cards or studying for a social studies test given by the strictest teacher in history.

Be honest. Never give up.

Oh and make these pancakes.

(For more pictures, click HERE!)

overnight oats.

Ever since I got a job ( ! ), I have been having to think of creative breakfast, lunch, and snack ideas.

Breakfast for the first week was the easiest it could get - whole wheat toast with trusty old peanut butter and a glass of milk. Not old peanut butter like rancid or rotten ... actually, peanut butter is never present for long around me, so I have never even considered it could go rotten. Wow, that's a weird thought.

Anyway, here's what a really easy breakfast like toast did for me:
1) I had more time to sleep / get ready.
2) I could eat at red lights while driving to work.

However, recently, due to certain reasons, my mom has been driving me to work. Also, it is now the second week of me working. This means two things:
1) I am trying to have a variety of breakfasts.
2) I can eat more complicated things in the car as my mom drives.

Monday, I had yogurt with granola in a plastic cup (easy disposal). Then, while on tastespotting, I saw a picture of overnight oats. And so Tuesday's breakfast was decided upon.

homemade clif bars.

Yesterday I ran for 50 minutes straight. Well, jogged.

I haven't continued that long without stopping for ... a very, very long time. The whole route was about 4.2 miles, according to my Google Maps calculations. So that's not fast or anything, but considering there were slopes, the scent of roasted garlic wafting out of nearby Italian restaurants, and my overall terribly out-of-shapeness, not too bad, I guess.

The run also reminded me of the 5K I promised to do with two of my suitemates this upcoming September. And how I will probably not be able to do it because I am so slow.

LOOK AT ALL THAT HEARTY GOODNESS. 

But that got me thinking of pre and post - workout fuel. That raised my spirits! I immediately thought of energy bars. And that reminded me of the energy bars I saw for sale at the gym where I recently got a membership. And how the bars cost $1.50 - $3. Um ew.