Outside the Box Challenge

mismaelstrom: whisperingwillow: llacigart: libraryland: onefo...

mismaelstrom — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:40:23 -0400

whisperingwillow:

llacigart:

libraryland:

onefootinthegrave:

mudwerks:

Towel Day - Celebrating the life and work of Douglas Adams

Just giving everyone a forewarning…..seems many of you missed towel day last year…..lets not let it happen again.-Mismaelstrom

“My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes.”-HHGTTG

Go on Anonymous and tell me one thing you've been too scared to tell me, but have always wanted to say.

jewlesthemagnificent — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:04:51 -0400

chronically-awesome:

I’m turning anonymous on for the next thirty minutes, then I need to go the fuck to sleep. Play nice, folks. ;)

I’m going to be a brat and reblog this again because DAMNIT PEOPLE I WANT SECRETS!

sweetiechan: “Bridge of Light” Beautiful song… Only listen to...

mismaelstrom — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:19:45 -0400

sweetiechan:

“Bridge of Light” Beautiful song… Only listen to it..(8)

Reblog again….Happy Feet Two was also a great movie.

Photo

lifeiswhimsical — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:09:28 -0500

You Know You Had An Interesting Night When

jewlesthemagnificent — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:32:29 -0500

You have to spend a few minutes in the shower scrubbing mustache adhesive off your cleavage.

My Abs Hurt From Laughing

jewlesthemagnificent — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:54:48 -0500

You mustachioed assholes. Thanks for an awesome birthday.

Scotty was not meant for a mustache.

jewlesthemagnificent — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:11:33 -0500

Scotty was not meant for a mustache.

SPORTS!

jewlesthemagnificent — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:05:25 -0500

SPORTS!

White Bean and Roasted Garlic Peasant Soup with Sautéed Apples

officed — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:56:57 -0400

Another Season of Soup participant. Soup, oh beautiful soup! My sixth soup should be posted tomorrow. Today, I’m eating another batch of the Southwestern Chicken Soup, which proved so good I made it again!

ionlyweardresses:

I’m starting the Nutritionista’s “season of soup” challenge and re-making one of my favorite soup recipes!

I started a tradition in college where I would cook soup every Sunday and share it with friends. I kept it going until graduate school but when I started dating John, I stopped. John always jokes “there are so many recipes you talk about that you never make for me,” so I decided to correct that:D This is one of my favorite soups and is from the cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. There’s a great melding of flavors: sage, roasted garlic, bay leaf, and fennel but the ingredient list is short. My contribution to the recipe is to add sautéed apples to the top as a garnish - it might sound odd but it’s delicious!

White Bean and Roasted Garlic Peasant Soup with Sautéed Apples

**

Original Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Sautéed Apples are my addition.

**

For the Apples:

2 Apples any kind, except Granny Smiths. Aim for sweet instead of bitter, and preferably very ripe.

1 tbsp of butter or oil

A pinch of salt

Warm oil or butter slightly and add apples. When apples are slightly tan and crisp, add salt and stir for two minutes. Set aside.

*

For the Soup (Makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium-size onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

A few dashes fresh pepper

1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

4 cups vegetable broth (*see recipe at end), or 2 bouillon cubes dissolved in 4 cups water

3 cups cooked great northern (white) beans, drained (or canned beans, drained and rinsed)

3 fresh sage leaves, chopped

1 bay leaf

Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste

*

Two heads garlic, roasted (Preheat oven to 350. peel off as much of the papery skin as you can and put garlic in the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and, when cool, squeeze the garlic out or peel the skin away from each clove.)

Instructions

In a stockpot over medium-high heat saute the onions in the olive oil for 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the salt, black pepper, and fennel seeds; saute for 1 minute. Add the broth, beans, sag, and bay leaf, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add the roasted garlic and puree in batches in a blender or preferably a food processor. Return to the post and add lemon juice. Serve garnished with fresh fennel leaves if you have some, and/or some peeled carrot and/or parsley.

I prefer to garnish with the apples - it’s absolutely delicious!

This soup is perfect for date night - a crusty loaf of whole wheat bread and a perfect salad and it makes a delicious dinner!

Soup, oh beautiful soup.

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS!

rachelwilkerson — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:30:44 -0400

Hey hey hey! It’s the big day — time to announce the winner of the nine week Outside the Box Challenge!

You guys had some great reflections about the challenges. It looks like everyone struggled with the “Don’t Pour That Sugar” test. But it was interesting to see what other challenges you found easy or difficult. One girl’s hardest was another girl’s easiest! Just goes to show, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

And now it’s time to announce the winner! We’re so proud of how committed you guys were and so we decided that besides the Grand Prize winner, we also decided to give a second and third place prize because seriously, we wish we could just shower everyone with gifts to say thank you for the enthusiasm about this contest and just for reading our blogs and for choosing to try to go beyond your comfort zone.

The Grand Prize goes to…

Builtbylove

Second Prize goes to…

Anneonline

Third Prize goes to…

My Quirky Life

After using Random.org to select, we checked on each one of our winners to confirm that they had posted each week — and they did! Congrats, ladies!

Please email Rachel[at]SheddingIt[dot]com with your mailing address and to get all the details of your swag!!

Congrats to everyone; even if you didn’t win a prize along the way, we hope you got enough out of this challenge to make you feel like it was worthwhile. And just because the contest is over, please keep on pushing yourselves! Whenever you’re bored with your foods, workouts, or just with life, you can always go back and do a challenge again, maybe slightly differently this time, just to mix things up and keep it fresh. And to anyone who didn’t do the challenge, no worries — we’ll plan another one soon enough!

Broken Record

Mon, 03 May 2010 10:41:22 -0400

Like everyone else, the hardest thing for me was the no sugar day. I didn’t have a really hard time resisting it since I knew I had to be accountable (I need more accountability in my life on regular days to resist sugar!), but it was surprising how many things I eat on a regular basis had added sugar and how MUCH sugar was in it. I definitely won’t be buying Kashi Go Lean Crisp again! :)

LOVED all these challenges! I’m sad it’s over!

Teri

Reflections

myquirkylife — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:41:19 -0400

Hello all, it is I from My Quirky Life. I nearly forgot to submit this week! Looking back on every single one of the challenges I completed for Outside the Box Challenges, I think my absolute favorite probably was the Culinista Challenge. I enjoyed trying a recipe that I had never tried before. I enjoy using ingredients that I may never have used otherwise. I enjoyed being challenged. And I of course enjoyed having a kitchen win with the Almond Meal Pancakes. Looking back , there are things I would improve on if I am to make them again, but for my first time making them it worked out.

But every single challenge has definitely made me think more profoundly about this adventure I am partaking in. Has made me look into and think about the choices I make on this adventure. And for that, I thank Leah and Rachel for creating these weeks of challenges through Outside the Box Challenge.

Reflections...

kittystardust — Mon, 03 May 2010 07:22:00 -0400

All of the challenges were fun to participate in! I liked being given new ideas and I loved trying new things. Yes, some of the challenges were hard, but that’s the point. ;)

The hardest one for me was when I tried a new class at the gym. I had to get over my fears of going alone, going to something new, AND since it was an aqua fit class - I had to get over my fears of being in a bathing suit in public! I’m so glad I went though because it was such a fun class and I went many times after that!

The easiest challenge for me was anything involving cooking. I have recently started making more food from fresh ingredients, so when I heard of a challenge I started looking for recipes to fit it.

I can’t wait for more OTB Challenges! :}

-notgivingup.tumblr.com

OTB Challenge Reflection

thinnerpeace — Mon, 03 May 2010 02:23:12 -0400

I really loved this friendly competition. At times it really did push me outside my comfort zone. For the most part however, a lot of the challenges were things I do pretty regularly.

I’d say the hardest challenge was having a day with no sugar. Surprise. haha. While I’m not a big candy eater (chocolate once a month) and I eat a lot of fruit instead of junk food it was an eye opening experience to realize just how many things have sugar added to them even though you would think they wouldn’t. Obviously couldn’t eat my cereal for breakfast, but then I also couldn’t have my eggwhite/fake sausage/cheese English muffin because the Morningstar patty had added sugar as did the english muffin. Boo. Because I’m a college girl on the run, I’m constantly eating pre-packaged, somewhat processed, grab and go stuff. Frozen meals for dinner at work? That was a no-go too. In all, it was nice realizing that I really should watch the sugar a little bit more. It’s sneaking in when I’m not looking.

The easy things were making homemade things I would normally buy, writing down what I eat all day and trying something new at the gym. I love to cook (when I have time), I use MyPlate on a regular basis, and when pushed I’m quite an adventurous person.

All in all, I’m glad I discovered this challenge, and the community here on Tumblr. I look forward to the next opportunity to get Outside my Box.

xoxoxoxo

-Thinnerpeace

Reflection

heems — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:02:45 -0400

Hardest: The Frontier Girl test. I found this to be the hardest because it was the first challenge and I had to push myself to actually to try the challenges versus just following the blog. I’m also not entirely comfortable in the kitchen (I’m working on it) so the idea of making something from scratch that I usually buy was at first intimidating.

Easiest: The Shock Your Body test. I had already decided to try running outside when that week’s challenge was posted. We had just started to have some nice sunny weather and I was beyond over working out inside.

I can’t believe all these weeks have gone by since the Challenge started. I’ve had such a wonderful time with each new endeavour and definitely plan on coming up with OTB challenges for myself.

Thank you, Rachel & Leah!

The Sugar Test. :/

inthelabyrinth — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:43:06 -0400

Without a doubt, attempting to cut sugar out of my diet was THE hardest task out of all the tasks. The on day out of the week that I chose to do the task wasn’t too difficult. But the last couple days have been an absolute sugar fest for me, (bake sale, volunteering at a marathon where I ate nothing but candy and chips, etc) and I’ve come to a clearer realization about how truly difficult cutting sugar out of my diet is. Especially as a teenager who LOVES chocolate.

Thinking about the all the different tasks that we had to complete, I realized that I will really miss these challenges! I remember the Frontier Girl test, where I made churros for the first time ever, and the Shock Your Body test, which got me to drag my bike out of my garage and take a ride to the beach. I’ll really miss these tests, which got me to try new, different, and exciting new ways to live healthily. So thank you for the amazing experience!

Reflections of the way life used to be

themayonegg — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:41:52 -0400

The OTB challenge came at the right time for me. I’ve spent the last several weeks getting ready to move, moving, and dealing with the aftermath of moving. This makes eating well and exercising very difficult, so I’m glad to have had something keeping me out of the drive-thru lane and on the straight and narrow.

Easiest challenge? That’s probably the most difficult one for me to choose. I suppose the one that took the least amount of effort was the Stonyfield Know Your Food Test, since all I had to do was a little googling. I didn’t even have to get up out of my chair, and had already purchased the steak I researched before it was even announced.

The hardest? That’s the easiest one for me to choose. Without a doubt, it’s the Don’t Pour Some Sugar on Me Test. That one was tough, not only because I am an unabashed sweet tooth, but also because I have no desire to change this. Ultimately, though, if a challenge was easy, it wouldn’t be a challenge. And, if nothing else, it got me thinking about my sugar intake. I’m even making an effort to eating only one real dessert a day — lunch is followed up with fruit instead of a baked good. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I’m a little disappointed the Outside the Box Challenge is coming to an end. I hope to embark on a new one soon.

And since I’ve never formally introduced myself, I’ll end by saying my real name is Sarah, I live on the Connecticut shoreline, and I’ve been a runner for 20 years.

— jerkasaurus

(photo)

The Final Test - Reflection

anneonline — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:38:17 -0400

It’s hard to believe we’re in the final week of the challenge. In looking back I find each test made me look a little closer at how I eat, exercise, and otherwise care for myself and my family. The easiest challenge had to be the fantasy fitness test. I stocked up on lots of fruits and other healthy foods, then attempted some yoga outside. The hardest by far was the no sugar test. I knew this would be the case as soon as I read it. I checked all labels and realized eating whole foods was the truest way to avoid any sugar. If it was the no self-added sugars test then I would have had no issue. I add sugar to nothing, except baking recipes which require it and don’t use artificial sweeteners. I did learn I still have way too much processed crap in the house.

I found each test to present its own challenges and each week looked forward to Monday arriving and a new test being posted. I will definitely participate in any future challenges presented. Thank you Leah and Rachel!

Anne

Reflections

Sun, 02 May 2010 20:38:11 -0400

I can’t believe it’s been 9 weeks of challenges already. The challenges certainly got me to try new things, and I enjoyed them all, even when they were difficult.

The easiest (or most fun) challenge for me was the Frontier Girl challenge. I love to make things from scratch, and it was fun to think of new recipes to try. The hot fudge I made was delicious, and I will definitely make it again!

The most challenging week was definitely the no-sugar challenge from last week. In a week that was busy with projects at work and traveling, it wasn’t easy to have something else to worry about. It was probably the most eye-opening challenge, though - I wasn’t aware of how much added sugar I eat normally, even though I make pretty healthy choices. Just keeping track of sugar for one day made me realize I need to think about it more every day. I definitely won’t be cutting out sugar entirely, but it’s worth being more mindful all the time.

Thanks so much for a great group of challenges!

Keri

Way Past Ramen

Best and worst

kailidavis — Sun, 02 May 2010 20:38:06 -0400

The challenge that was the hardest for me was the know your herbs test. I cook pretty frequently and use herbs pretty regularly so it was a bit of a pain to try a new herb.

The easiest challenge was the shock your body challenge. This was only because I was already luck enough to have my first every ski session scheduled for that week. So it was pretty perfect timing. :-)