Vegan Cherry Almond Cookies and July Goals/Plan

Happy Day! Right now its a chilly 57 degrees here. I love when the days are warm, but the nights are nice and cool and you can open your windows and sleep to the breeze.

So somebody needs to get me out of the kitchen. I've made yet another recipe for you. Like really all I want to do is cook/bake lately. I was craving something sweet the other night, and we had sweet cherries on hand and I really wanted to incorporate them, thus Vegan Cherry Almond Cookies.

Vegan Cherry Almond Cookies

2 Large Bananas, peeled, chopped.

1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats

1 Capful Vanilla Extract

6 TBSP Diced Almonds( I threw them in the Ninja Blender)

1/4 Cup Chopped Sweet Cherries ( I used 14 cherries to get this amount)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheet. In a bowl combine bananas, oats and vanilla till the banana is broken down and you have a "batter". Add in half the almonds and half the cherries, combine. Add in the second half, combine. When you do it in parts it allows for everything to get perfectly mixed. Make golf ball or smaller balls and place on cookie sheet. Take a greased fork or cup and press cookies flatter. They will not expand so you can put them close on the sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 5. Makes 20.

Enjoy.

My mom is a Vegan, my dad is diabetic, and my husband is picky. I made them all give them a try and good is the general consensus. I thought they were downright yummy.

Amount Per Serving
Calories		42.8
Total Fat		0.4 g
	Saturated Fat	0.0 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.1 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.1 g
Cholesterol		0.0 mg
Sodium		0.2 mg
Potassium		59.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate		6.6 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.9 g
	Sugars	2.4 g
Protein		0.7 g

I use Spark People to get my calorie information.

Now lets talk goals people!!

I just finished off 4 more weeks with my trainer. Now that I don't live in the same town as a gym, I've decided to take things back to basics.

I started my entire journey to health in my living room and it did wonders for me, like really it did. I love the gym, don't get me wrong but I've started to get complacent. So whats the best thing to do? 360 it. For the month of July I'm going to go old school on you. I'm running each morning and doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred each night. Last year around this time I did the shred and had FABULOUS results, really, check them out HERE.

Thats the plan stan, now goals.

July Goals:

*Drink 2 Gallons of Water Consistently Each Day(I try for two but sometimes only get in 1 gallon)

*No Skipped Meals (with my crazy days sometimes I've managed to miss a meal here or there)

*Ensure my running pace is under 9:20 a mile.

*Be less stressed each day.

*Enter a 5K, whether the race be this month or not.

What are your goals this month??

Here is the results of this mornings run...

It was a tough 3 miles. My knee hurt, my nose was running, and I hadn't ran for awhile. But I had to push myself in order to be able to make a change. I had to get the hard run out of the way so I can now start improving. Mile 1 was 9 minutes, mile 2 was 9:53 and mile 3 was 9:57 for an average of 9:37. Not to far from my goal but definitely something to work towards!

Happy Thursday!

-J