My New Crush

I have a dirty secret, and it's time I came clean with it.  I've fallen in love.  I fell fast and hard, and it was, as the best crushes are, completely unexpected.  One day, several weeks ago, I innocently googled "protein muffins." I wanted to find out if there was such a thing, and, if so, either buy or make them so that I could start building more protein into my diet.  

I came upon this: 

long awaited pumpkin protein muffin

I thought, "Sweet...I like pumpkin, and there's my protein!"

I clicked, and life hasn't been the same since.

The owner of the "long awaited pumpkin protein muffin" is a lovely girl named Chelsey, who lives in Chicago.  She's a teacher, she practices yoga, and this girl loves to eat.  Not only does she love to eat--she loves to eat *healthy*.  And, because she's a teacher, her blog is entertaining, informative, and, best of all, instructional and accessible.  She posts pictures of the yummiest foods, and, when I try to make those same foods...they look like her pictures!! How could I NOT be in love?  

Over the last few weeks, I've made the following:

Protein muffins (aaahhhhmazing)

Overnight oats (delicious)

Roasted maple cinnamon almond butter (yep, as good as it sounds)

Roasted vegetables

Black beans from dry rather than the can

I've purchased things like flax seeds, almond flour, and other cooking materials I've never used before (or heard of, in some cases), and the result is that I'm cooking all the time, enjoying it, and eating really delicious food.

I'm in love with this girl! And I think you will fall in love with her too, so you should check out her blog and follow it.  I'm sure that not everything she tries turns out. I'm sure that, like me, she burns her toast from time to time, and the dog sheds, and she's got a husband which is a whole different type of complication I don't live with.  But, she makes it look so easy, and, more importantly, she describes the things she makes in such a way that *I* believe, too, that it's easy.  And then it delivers--both in ease and in taste.

Tonight I'm going to be making something....maybe pancakes, maybe something totally different.  But, I need to give a BIG shoutout to Clean Eating Chelsey from Chicago for helping me along on my journey to eat healthy.

Who are you crushing on right now? :-)