Come Oooon Reading Week!

Hello Hello!

Tis the week before reading week and thus a week full of plenty of assignments, presentations and midterms. Whoopee. Great for my reading week since I will therefore not have to do very many readings but not so great for the process of getting there.

I still have plenty of stuff to get done to keep me busy for the next 4 days until break time begins! Like a biopsych middy tomorrow… gulp. One of the only things keeping me sane? Why, tasty foods of course.

 

a Few Favs of the past week

A sad attempt at a breakfast parfait.

Contents: Lean and Mean Pumpkin Muffin, Greek Yogurt, cold banana, cinnamon
Taste: B+ (when all mixed together)
Presentation: D
I need some lessons.

The never-fail rainbow bowl of crunchy veg delights. This one included: mixed greens, steamed broccoli, mushrooms, roasted butternut squash, plain tofu, carrots, balsamic vinegar, Franks, roasted red pepper hummus, baba ganoush, mini rice cakes with salsa. Wow. That was exhausting.

Greeked up Oatmeal inspired by the pros. Quick oats, frozen blueberries and strawberries, greek yogurt, cinnamon. Heaven.

Butternut Oats – Rolled oats cooked in water and vanilla soy milk, stirred in leftover roasted butternut squash and egg whites, topped with peanut butter mixed with soy milk and SF maple syrup.

NEED to remember to load up my oatmeal bowls with egg whites more often. Look at that fluff, that pump!  

Incredibly dangerous and dangerously incredible caponata dips. L = sundried tomato caponata. R = artichoke caponata. This paired with fresh bagel = control out the window.

One super incredible pizza.
- Whole wheat tortilla topped with jarred pasta sauce, Franks, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, humnut cheese (GENIUS), tahini and dried basil.
Broiling this is also genius. I usually bake tortilla pizzas. I’m inpatient. 10-15 minutes or 3? I’ll take the 3! Even if it includes the smoke detector going off…twice.

Iced Coffee, Iced Coffee, Iced Coffee. I think it’s a given.

Kath’s Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes on the floor. The sunlight was better down there!

Recipe halved and made with egg whites and applesauce instead of eggs and oil. Topped with greek yogurt, maple, cold banana. V.V.GOOD.

 

And one of THE BEST CHICKEN RECIPES I’ve ever tried. Ellie Krieger’s Chicken Parmesan. This makes a lot. I probably could have eaten half the recipe myself if my stomach allowed it, just because it was that good. My whole family loved it. It went into the repeat meal binder. It’s a winner winner chicken dinner!

And with that I’m back to biopsych.
Only four more days…

If you’re in school, do you have a reading week/spring break coming up soon? Any big plans for it? I wish I were going somewhere hot and tropical… but since I’m not, I’m excited to veg, shop, clean and do some baking. I’m easily thrilled.
Or if you’re not in school, any mid-winter pick-me-up vacays planned?

 

P.S. Huge Congrats to JANETHA!!!

Encounters With the Grunt Lady

Should I be worried when walking to class and and a creepy old lady grunts at me out her car window? And these were specific me-directed grunts. I heard them coming from a car behind me while walking down the sidewalk but decided I’d rather not turn around. The car passes and this crazy scrunch-faced woman is staring me down as she drives by! I’m not quite sure what I did to invoke her throaty animalesque sounds but I continued the rest of the way to class more than a little puzzled…

Maybe she was just jealous that I had Banana Bread Blender Cereal for breakfast and she didn’t.

(Yes I did place my bowl in a plant. All in the name of interesting food photography!)

In the bowl: 2/3 C Spelt Flakes, 1/2 C Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze, 1/2 large frozen banana, splash of vanilla.
It turned out pretty liquidy though so I then stirred in a Weetabix biscuit and it became mushy delicious cereal perfection.

Or maybe I didn’t lather, rinse, repeat enough during my post treadmill run and P90x Ab Ripper X (this HURT today) shower, and thus grunt lady was offended by the remaining stenches emanating from my only semi-cleaned surfaces?

Doubtful considering I was walking outdoors in snowy, below 0 degree weather and thus had a bundle of layers to cover up any such possible stenches.
Plus I lathered with Aveeno body wash, it reeks of clean!

(Not me. I love a good shower but I don’t get quite that happy.)

I think ultimately she was just a little batty. I’ll stick with that.

I’ll also stick with the fact that this was one incredibly satisfying and fully loaded salad:
Spinach, carrots, tomatoes, red and green peppers, mushrooms, roasted butternut squash, baked tofu, mini salt and vinegar rice cakes, salsa, baba ganoush, roasted red pepper hummus… I’m out of breath just typing that.

Somehow I still had room for a wee bowl of some sweet. There’s always room for the sweet.
A microwaved date and apricot (they were a wee bit hard…) cuddled up in a bowl of plain and strawberry yogurt mixed with flax. Don’t they look almost cute together?

After this lunch I drove to class on an empty tank of gas, encountered grunt lady, sat through a biopsych lecture about brain blood flow, filled up my gas tank, perused Sobeys and picked up GREEK yogurt, came home, did some school stuff…

Then finally it was time for dinner which = best wrap ever (+ fries + salad but who cares about them cause the wrap was where it was at).
Wrap = Whole wheat wrap stuffed with Egg Beaters, Laughing Cow, Franks Red Hot. Okay so hardly groundbreaking (aka you’ve all tried it before) but I’ve done minimal experimenting with egg wraps myself and only just discovered the brilliance of Franks Red Hot this weekend when they had a duo pack on sale at Costco and I’ve been wanting to try it for ages so… go big or go home? We went big. And a great decision it was. Franks on everything from now on! Egg wraps at every meal!

My fruit count was insanely low today so a post-dinner fruit craving was strong and the colour theme of the night was orange. (Clem + frozen mango)

That theme died after this bowl though when I made an Iced Coffee Smoothie.

Brown is kinda similar to orange…?

I also ate an apple and frozen chocolate from my Christmas stash (yes it’s still kicking around, although significantly smaller) because that’s what I do when I’m working on school work I don’t want to work on. Well let’s be honest, most school work I don’t really want to work on but tonight’s work was particularly unappealing. So chocolat froid it was.

 

And because I also ate some food yesterday that I kind of liked, here’s a quick recap of:

Tuesday

This would be cherry yogurt, cocoa powder, flax and oats tangoing overnight, plain yogurt added to moisten in the AM, grapes and coffee to round out the meal.

Then I had to do a small presentation in my tutorial group for my community psychology class. This was the first presentation of any kind that I’ve really had to do in at least 4 years and I sucked. Okay so maybe it wasn’t that awful but I really hate presentations. I’m not a fan of talking in front of groups of people, I get nervous and my mind goes completely blank! How do you feel about presentations? Love em, hate em? Can you rock em or do you clam up and ramble on like a nonsensical babbling fool like me? Or do you lie somewhere in between those extremes?

Small breakfast + early morning class + poor presentation woes= appetite increase creating grumbly tummy which = snack raid of fridge that includes leftover soup with crackers and rye bread (among several other things that were quickly shove-in-the-mouth-to-simmer-down-hunger-able (it kind of works if you read it over 2-3 times…).

 

Then I worked out, showered (with adequate lathering!) and snacked some more before class numero dos of the day.

First off was a plate of S&V mini rice cakes, carrots, snap peas, baba and salsa

 

Second off was a very random smoothie concoction involving leftover cold hot chocolate smoothie, frozen strawberries, a spoonful of strawberry yogurt, spinach… and a few other additions I can’t quite remember. Trust me, it was random.

The snacks held me through class well enough, but didn’t keep away visions of butternut squash fries dancing through my head.

I brought these visions to life come evening time as I ate my weight and a half in roasted butternut squash bliss dipped in chili sauce ketchup, baked tofu coated in sweet chili sauce and a side of spinach greenery dressed in honey mustard dressing.

 

And not long after I topped up the very much nonexistent void left in my stomach with a bowl of frozen fruit fun (strawbs + mango) coated with a mix of plain and strawberry yogurt and cinnamon and topped with a dollop of SF crème brûlée Jello rice pudding. Word.

 

And on a final fun last note: Have you looked up your name on Urban Dictionary yet? If not, do so. It’ll probably give you a laugh and a half. Or a confidence boost. Or make you feel greatly insulted. But most likely a combo of all three. Let me know what you get! You can pick your favourite result

The Great Tastes of Last Week

Short on energy but big on pictures so no messing around – Let’s jump right in, shall we?

The Savoury:

Cold leftover Tuna Casserole eaten for breakfast, straight from the container.

And eaten for a snack with buffalo sauce.

 

Bowls of greens decked out in honey mustard…

…In everything I could find in the fridge…

…x2…

…and in big scoops of salsa, hummus, and baba ghanoush.

Sugar Snap Peas. One of the most addicting veggies out there.

 

La soupe du jour – Campbell’s V8 Garden Vegetable Blend!

I was sent this lovely package a while back but for some reason I have been consuming minimal amounts of soup this winter and hadn’t tried it yet… until now!

Soup Verdict? I’d buy it again! You can’t argue with a soup that can pack in 12 different vegetables. Plus the flavour is great, the soup itself is hearty and filling, and the generous vegetable chunks won me over. I really want to try the other flavours next: Golden Butternut, Sweet Red Pepper, Southwestern Corn? Count me in!

 

Sweet potato (or something like it?) decked out in steamed spinach, jalapeno hummus, salsa and sour cream mixed with buffalo sauce + mini fried potatoes and mashed cauliflower sprinkled with apple cider vinegar

 

Belated Holiday Work Dinners in January. Yep, that happened this Saturday night. Every year we go to a schmancy restaurant and get serenaded by live piano music while eating:

- Fresh bread with salmon mousse spread
- Appetizer artichoke, tomato and parmesan pasta dishes (this appetizer was the amount of pasta I’d eat in a whole meal)

- And my favourite dish I’ve had the past 3 years: Baked lemon chicken breast with Greek salad. Usually served as the actual breast with the salad on the side, this year they sliced the chicken right over the salad instead. I didn’t mind! They can plate it any way they want as long as my big chunk of creamy Greek feta is present.

- Plus I may have stole a bite (or a few) of my dad’s dessert – vanilla cake with blueberry sauce. Mmm.
Apologies for the crappy quality pictures but rest assured they are not indicative of the quality of the food. It was much better.

 

And I must highlight tonight’s dinner, the coolest dinner I’ve had in a while: Cauliflower Pizza! Right before I was about to start cooking myself something quick before class I came across this idea on April’s blog. With the knowledge that leftover mashed cauliflower was sitting in the fridge, I ran right into the kitchen and started up the oven. About 20 minutes later, dinner was born. I would have left it in a little longer to crisp up more if I didn’t have to rush off to class so it wasn’t super crusty, but no matter.

My “Crust” = 1 cup cauliflower, generous splash of egg whites, 1/4 cup cream of mushroom soup (it was leftover in the fridge so I figured why not), basil, oregano, garlic powder.

Toppings = Tomato basil pasta sauce, Frank’s Red Hot, Laughing Cow wedge

You. Must. Make. This.

 

Delicious. Incredible. A breakthrough in the science of pizza eating.

 

The Sweet:

Yogurt mixed with oats, flax and cocoa powder, left overnight to magically transform into brownie batter deliciousness by morning. Thanks Liz! Seriously, breakfast brownies? I’m in.

April’s Lean and Mean Pumpkin Muffins. Especially cold from the fridge.  I love LAMP (muffins). Get it?! …Har har?

And the best of both of these worlds: yogurt mixed with an insane amount of cocoa powder and a LAMP muffin!

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiivine.

 

Cold Overnight Oats for a cold morning – mixed with unsweetened chocolate almond breeze, vanilla yogurt, banana, flax, pb

Warm non-overnight oats for a non-warm morning – mixed with … I don’t remember. Whoops!

More warm oats but this time I do remember – mixed with flax, unsweetened chocolate almond breeze, sugar free jello creme brulee pudding (oh yes I did!) and topped with banana slices and peanut butter mixed with vanilla yogurt! Decadent way to start the day.

Apples with foamy coffee

Especially special when the first big chomp is almost heart-shaped love.

  

The best buttery rich banana bread ever. Made with mom magic. She’s been making this recipe since I was wee and I don’t think I’ve ever had a better banana bread. Not one drop of healthy in this dessert. Worth every crumb.

Banana bread is always better the next morning. Especially when paired with a Hot Chocolate Smoothie

And yesterday happened to involve a Costco visit. Always a pleasure Costco, always a pleasure. Especially when you send me off with parting gifts of 2kg/4.4lbs of decadent chocolate protein powder at 8 bucks off. It’s not all natural, it’s made with sucralose and other funny ingredients, and it’s cheap and tasty so whatevs.

Smoothie time!

Can you please lend me a hand in putting a dent into this beast by telling me your favourite ways to use protein powder? Recipes, snacks, whatever floats your protein powder boat, send em my way! It’d be much appreciated. I’ll need to get creative to make my way through this doozy.

 

Oh and HAPPY FEBRUARY!

Already, do you believe it? Spring is right around the corner! That corner way off in the distance, but it’s still a corner I have in my line of sight so we’re making strides here! Groundhog day tomorrow. Don’t let me down Wiarton Willie!

Traveling Solo

This weekend, as I mentioned briefly earlier, I went out of town to visit a friend. A seemingly simple enough act and yet this act was a bit of a milestone for me because it was my first time traveling alone, anywhere, ever. Kinda funny to most I’m sure, but I’m sheltered, what can I say?!

I traveled the 4 hours by Greyhound on Friday evening, including a transfer halfway through in Toronto, and traveled the 4 hours back on Sunday afternoon. I made it, I survived, I enjoyed it, and it was easy! I took a dip outside of what was comfortable to do something different (which I don’t do nearly often enough) and it went pretty swimmingly.

Now what’s next, skydiving anyone?

 

Sadly I took no pictures during said trip, including no pictures of the foods, but I was already in someone else’s territory so waving the cam around 24/7… I just wasn’t feeling it! Being in someone else’s household over a weekend is interesting on the meal front though. I can tell you one thing, my hunger definitely peaked a few times more often than when at home where I can peak in the fridge whenever I please. And a chicken breast with absolutely nothing done to it is pretty weak. I’m so used to my sauces and salsas and spices! Foodie ways have made me forget that a lot of people out there eat pretty plainly. Poor folk, they’re missing out on some significantly more vibrant eating experiences!

The trip was great though. Pretty chill, lots of movie watching (they have no cable so we popped in many a great DVD), a bit of shopping, Saturday night out on the town… it was good times.

And the first thing I did when I got home late Sunday afternoon ? Brought the eating vibrancy back into my life.

Great big salad bowl with my dearest cottage cheese, plus my dearest mom had some grocery store sushi waiting for my arrival, which I obviously dug right into.

And for dinner? Chicken cacciatore. With buffalo sauce. And pepper. Ah flavour, ah home food.

 

Monday

I got right back into the grind and was go, go, go allllll day.

It started off with a bowl of instant oats (reduced sugar maple brown sugar variety) with pumpkin stirred in and a crumbled cereal bar on top.

Then the rest of the day was –
Doctor’s appointment
Quick veg bowl snack with a blob of egg salad:

Class
Quick coffee break
Meeting with group for a class presentation
Another quick coffee break
Class for 3 long evening hours (NOT a fan of the 3 hour classes!)
Home by 9
MUCH needed snack of pumpkin, yogurt cinnamon, cottage cheese, grapes, crumbled apple banana bread
Test studying
Finally bedtime.

 

Tuesday

Yesterday was another slightly busy one, mostly in the AM.

I ate some Weetabix mixed with pumpkin, yogurt, cinnamon and frozen banana. Weetabix. Is. Awesome.

Then I ran off drove off in the blustery snow to 8:30 class. Someone tell me why it’s still snowing, why the temperatures are still dropping, and why winter isn’t over yet? Oh and well you’re at it, could you also tell me why there are still a couple months of this left to go? Come to me Springtime!

After classy time I came home to a rumbly tummy (Weetabix is great but minimal staying power). A big plate of carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, cauliflower, cucumbers, plain tofu, salsa and dijonnaise fixed that problem.

As did THIS TEA! Chocolate Raspberry Bliss?! Yes please! New discovery at Bulk Barn. They also had a new vanilla variety but I didn’t pick it. I think I might have to go back just for it though.

And on the product note, another worthy of mention? New Kashi Granola Bars – Ra At least they’re new in Canada. And they are amazing. I have yet to try the Pumpkin Pie but I tried the other two during my weekend travels and they are for sure my new favourite granolas. I almost wanted to laugh out loud at their delightfulness right on the bus. I restrained somehow. You can buy the tripack at Costco!

I spent the bulk of the morning doing last minute cramming for my first Psychology Sensory Processes and Perceptions test. Grade? 95%. Heck yes!

After writing the test, the rest of my day was pretty relaxed. In other words, I baked, exercised, cooked, ate, and took a break from school work until the later evening. It was nice.

Baking:

I finally made genius healthy baker April’s Lean & Mean Pumpkin Muffins. My only differences were that I used brown sugar (I have no fancy schmancy natural sugar varieties at home) and made 10 muffins instead of 8.

Verdict? LOVED em! Good size, nice and light yet packed with flavour. I tried to eat half but the other half somehow disappeared only seconds after. I needed the preworkout fuel!

Exercise:

I don’t document my workouts too often on here but here’s an example of what I did yesterday. This is one of my favourite 45 minute runs. Based off the 3s and 5s:

All done at 4% incline

3 min – 6mph – Warm up

3 min 6.5 mph
1 min 8.5, 1 min 6.5, 1 min 8.5
3 min 6.7

3 min 6.5

5 min 6.7
1 min 8.5, 1 min 6.5, 1 min 8.5, 1 min 6.5, 1 min 8.5
5 min 7

3 min 6.5

3 min 7
1 min 8.5, 1 min 6.5, 1 min 8.5
3 min 7

3 min 6.5 – Cool down

Try it! It’ll kick your booty.

I then cooled down further with 5 minutes of high incline walking and side stepping on the treadmill, followed by 6 minutes of planks, 40 squats and 60 weighted walking lunges. One solid hour of a sweaty workout. Done and done.

 

Then it was definitely time for some dinner, thus time for some of Betsy’s Mediterranean Inspired Tuna Casserole

I halved the recipe and ended up with a tasty tuna meal.
I’m thinking I could have loaded up more on the tomatoes since I couldn’t taste them much (hence the side of salsa) but otherwise this was good and extra special since I’ve never made a tuna casserole before.

And for my evening of school work?
Decaf cocoa mint iced coffee, xanthan and guar style

Then I slept, woke up early (too early, what’s up internal alarm clock?!), blogged, and now it’s time for some breakfast!

 

What new recipes have you tried and loved recently? I’m always collecting ideas

Happy Wednesday!

No More Brains

And now the term actually begins.
My first test of it today, the lovely biopsychology, was a bomb. I am no science student and although the “science” of this course is probably laughable to those who actually understand brain functions, connections and all that hoopla, this course isn’t making my brain connections jump and jive. More like shrivel and wilt. Not such a fan.

I spent a good chunk of the morning hours getting my cram on with a vanillafied iced coffee (vanilla protein powder, vanilla extract, splash of french vanilla creamer + milk + ice + stevia + coffee of course) and a slightly haphazard fruit platter.

I broke a little while later to give my oven (my kitchen’s and my body’s!) some squash lovin. Roasted kabocha, spinach, carrots, honey mustard dressing. That’s a whole lotta love.

And if that wasn’t filling enough, I also opted for a white yogurt mix (plain and vanilla, fancy schmancy) with frozen mango and frozen strawberries. Good but too cold. Good thing I had my trusty space heater running at my feet throughout the entire consumption ordeal.

Then eventually I got out of my sweats and dragged my tush to school to write the darn test. Medullas, ganglia… who needs this stuff anyway? Hm.. I guess we all do, don’t we. Darn.

I came home and comforted my unscientific self with some dinner. No spinal cord diagrams to be seen! Just mounds of egg beaters on toasted multigrain bread (it’s under there, I swear!) and topped with salsa, spinach and sour cream mixed with sriracha + some squash and a bit of my mom’s premade linguine meal on the side.

Now I’m doing more studying. (Actually that’s a lie, I was studying but now I’m clearly writing on here). Studying while sitting on the floor does not do wonders for my derriere, I am sore. I need a giant floor pillow.

And YOU need a recap. Of the rest of my eats from the week so far. Actually you probably don’t need that but I’m going to throw it out there anyway.

 

Tuesday

It was a dark and early morning and I had an early morning class. Gotta love those… which is why I love coffee. And fruit with yogurt. I’ve been really cramming in the fruit lately. Don’t know why, I guess we’ve had lots around – fresh blueberries, fresh grapes, clems, apples, bananas… I’m not complaining!

I got home after class starving, which lead to a snacky day. Super early breakfasts always make me snacky. A few of them:

Defrosted Apple Banana Bread with red pepper jelly (try your hardest to ignore my wrinkly sandpaper old lady hands)

Carrots and mushrooms with roasted red pepper hummus and sweet onion relish dippers

Sugar Free Creme Brulee Jello Rice Pudding with blueberries. A teeny bit too sweet but ridiculously good.  

The rest of Tuesday was fairly simple. Class, studying, workout, eating. The uje.

At one point while “studying’”, I saw some sauteed slaw goodness going on on April’s blog and thus dinner was born.
A hot sauté of slaw, broccoli, spinach and squash with some rando stir fry sauce I found in the fridge, rice vinegar, sriracha and goat cheese.

And then I drank the greatest beverage of life. The greatest iced coffee smoothie ever. Thank you to the star players, my new purchases of xanthan and guar gum. I finally broke down after lusting after them for a little too long. Kinda pricey but so worth it.

The mix (I have no measurements, I just threw it all in there!)
- Cold coffee
- Skim milk
- Ice
- Cocoa powder
- Mint extract
- Vanilla protein powder
- Stevia
- Xanthan + Guar Gum

This got me through a night of studying. Happy happy joy joy.

Monday

…was apparently forgettable? I don’t know what I was doing that day but all I managed to get pictures of was this salad (with leftover turkey enchilada casserole you will see further down in a minute)…

…and my nighttime latte in a packet. Mmm.

 

WEEKEND

I worked

Saturday

Before I worked: I ate overnight oats with banana, strawberry, yogurt, peanut butter… It was a mishmash really. A mishmash that tasted like morning delight.

While I worked: I ate salad with tuna and a maple dipped doughnut. I don’t really like doughnuts all that much unless they’re covered in maple (or icing sugar) and stuffed with custard (or jelly). My broski and dadski shared the dipped doozer with me. I also ate things like apples but they’re not quite as fun subjects as doughnuts. At least not that day.

After I worked: I ate a veg and honey mustard dressing-filled salad and several mounds of couscous and chicken with curry sauce. So good, so creamy, so addicting.

I also drank an iced coffee. I don’t know how I’m drinking these things when I’m freezing 24/7. Not that smart. But I just can’t help it. Cold creamy caffeiny coffee…

And I munched on nachos while watching Kate and Leopold with my mom. Solid Saturday night.

Sunday

was a little more exciting.
Why?
Because of this:
 
That’s right. I finally made it to the bottom of a honking sized jar of almond butter (thanks Costco), and what better way to celebrate than with oat bran in a jar. Like there was even a choice.

The best bites of the batch. It may not look like much but let me assure you, this was alllll almond butter.

The excitement continued on with a grocery store trip (when is food shopping not exciting, am I right?!), but not before a workout and a refuelling of epically colourful proportions.

Tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, falafel balls (Another thanks to Costco for the club pack), honey mustard dressing.

And then night fell and dinner was to be made. This is where the Turkey Enchilada Casserole comes in. I liked it, I didn’t love it. I’d go easier on the enchilada sauce and throw some salsa into the mix.

I still managed to snack on plenty of the leftovers though… ehem.

And I concluded this hugely exciting day with a hugely exciting night out for some retro dancing. Alright so it wasn’t quite hugely exciting but it was pretty darn fun. You’d think I’d get tired of it since I go nearly every Sunday night but I just can’t resist those 80s tunes…and the dancing… and the dranks… and the stench of the dirty hole bar that this place is… It’s practically like a second home! Yikes.

And on that note, it’s about time I put an end to this beast. Lengthy much? I am le tired.
I can’t believe this week is almost over already. It’s FLOWN by. And this weekend I’m heading out of town to visit a friend a few hours away. Never been to visit before! And never traveled by bus before… I’m so sheltered. Should be an experience. I’m excited!
Happy rest of the week!

 

And on the most exciting note of all:
A Chocolate-Covered VITA-MIX Giveaway? Yes PLEASE!

Stale Bars of Cereal

Note to all Canadians: The Greek Yogurt discovery occurred at Sobeys. But I went back a couple days ago and it was all gone. People, stop buying my Greek yogurt! I guess I should start writing letters to grocery stores politely demanding all shelves carry this stuff, clearly it’s in high demand! Does that work, writing letters to the grocery stores asking for products? Everyone ask for Greek!

 

So a few days ago I was eating (semi) normal foods.

Like on Monday when I ate…

Cereal (CORN BRAN) with frozen banana slices and GREEK yogurt

Messy salads with spinach, mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, tuna, baba and leftover potatoes.

MORE frozen fruit with MORE GREEK yogurt (and droplets of almond butter)

Mom Brownies…

 

 

Or like on Tuesday when I ate…

Plenty of pommes et bananes

Mini piles of tuna on not very hunky hunks of bread

Random dinner plate of kabocha squash (sadly not a very tasty one at all), baked tofu (xlike10), and steamed spinach with polenta fries and marinara.

 

Or even like on Wednesday when I ate…

Okay so this breakfast wasn’t even really semi normal but it was more than semi good – Cold mushy banana, cold mushy leftover squash, peanut butter mixed with maple syrup and almond milk, greek yogurt to top it all off.

Plus an iced coffee for an icy day. Sensical? Hardly. Delicious? Very. When it comes to iced coffee, sense gets thrown out the window.

A super veg bowl with lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, leftover baked tofu, baba and honey mustard dressing.

A handful (or two…) out of the frozen Christmas candy stash. Hiding things in the freezer is great…if you can forget they’re there. Lucky me my memory is greatly in tune for anything sugar-loaded lately.

Giant egg-whitey pile of deelish on an english muffin with spinach, marinara and goat cheese

And some pumpkin spice tea/light hot chocolate with a clem.

 

Then Thursday came.

I tried out my new discovery of this sugar free french vanilla creamer in my morning java. Score.

And ate more delicious pommes alongside piles of cottage cheese (most of which was straight eaten from the container. Hand slap.)

Then I was resourceful and used up a bunch of very old and stale ingredients hanging out in the cupboards to make cereal and fruit bars. Among the ingredients: butter, marshmallow, special k cereal, crumbled graham crackers, pepitas, sunflower seeds, dried apricots, raisins, dates. Many of these may have been stale but they sure made some tasty bars…
This pan x~3.

Then the combination of delicious stale cereal bar goodness + my addiction to sweet things + my lack of control with any kind of homemade good whatsoever + my bruised heart ego from a dumb boy resulted in stomach pains from eating nearly nothing but mass amounts of cereal bar for the rest of the day.

Seriously, I don’t even want to know how old those marshmallows or sunflower seeds were…

 

Oh I also ate some broccoli and polenta topped with marinara and sided by a fry pile just so I could eat something that wasn’t sweet for a minute or two.

But then I brought back the sweet with almond milk and grapes. And a lot more cereal bar crumbles later on.

 

Then today (Friday), I thought I was all good and I ate instant oats with with wheat germ, banana, grapes and almond butter nice and early before my early morning class.

Post class I went shopping (Oh hey Walmart…)with my good dear friend who listened to my lame back and forth guy confusion banter for half the trip. I bought pink nail polish and new sour gum and felt okay.

I was ready for eats when I got home so I ate salad and tuna. And yogurt and plenty of pineapple.

And then I was still okay and I watched my brother play Call of Duty and read magazines.

And then everyone in my house had things to do, places to go, people to see, and I was left alone with my thoughts and the dark of night coming in. That with feeling bummy plus cereal bars plus cereal boxes = lame lonely night full of a whole lot of cereal and salty cheeks. Stale cereal for a stale heart. Hardy har.
Worst guy luck ever. If you ever need guy advice, don’t come to me. I must make every mistake in the book. That or I’m way too picky and drawn only to those who possess a certain hidden trait of idiot.  Or a combination of all of it. Either way, my feelings took a hit. Not very nice.

 

But in the name of positivity…

Beauty! I know I’m going to try…
Plus, it’s the weekend. Definitely can’t complain about that
So with that being said:
Goodnight and HAPPY WEEKEND

What do you do to try staying positive when you’re feeling less than great?

Canada Goes Greek and One Week Complete

We got Greek, we got Greek! And I found it baby. Canada never has Greek yogurt. Though for $5 a pop I’ll probably be sticking to the strain-the-cheap-plain method more often than not. This yogurt is expeeeeensive. But I was too thrilled at finding it to care. Special treat.

Another special treat – surviving week one of winter term. Phew. Now just a few more weeks to go… ehem.

And speaking of weeks, one of these days I’ll get around to blogging more than once during an entire week, I swear. New year’s resolution? Hm.. if that’s the case I think already broke it…

 

Time for a quick meal recap of some of the first meals of 2010 and of winter term.

Once upon a time (this week) I thought I would switch things up with the brilliant but not self-generated idea of making quinoa for breakfast. I couldn’t tell you exactly what went into it but I’m thinking cinnamon, a splash of SF gingerbread syrup and peanut butter on top obvi. Breakfast of champs.

Followed by a chicken lettuce ranch wrap and snack plate. Note the cheddar Popchips, end of the bag. So sad.

Followed by a plain yogurt banana apricot walnut cinnamon bowl. That’s a mouthful.

At some point I snacked on some bread. I might do this pretty much everyday, but only because Rudolph’s is the greatest bread and it’s addicting and it calls out to me from its bread basket on the counter constantly. Anyone ever tried it? Is it just a Canadian thing?

The rye is great but the multigrain is da bomb.

A dinner involved a veggie-filled salad bowl, topped with raviolis (x10) and a Janetha-inspired pile of chickpea cottage cheese goodness.

Other greens were also topped with leftover raviolis and light ranch dressing.

Some were topped with tuna and mini pitas with hummus.

Some were topped with a ridiculous amount of goods (salsa, hummus, baba ganoush, balls of falafel…)

Some were even sided by big mounds of egg white scramble (and many more fries than the piddly amount pictured, don’t be fooled)…

… and butter chicken with couscous, spinach and broccoli. So good. Thanks PC.

   

Gotta eat your greens!

Sometimes I don’t want greens though, so I’ll eat things like bars. As great as bars are, I really don’t eat them that much. They just don’t satisfy me. But when on the go they sure can come in handy.

One day this week while shopping, I bought and ate a Simply Bar. One thumb up for slightly decent flavour but I’m not rushing out to buy these again. Not enough substance. Like a rice crispy square only… even airier? It didn’t really feel like I had eaten anything at all and that just doesn’t fly with me. Okay to satisfy a sweet craving but not a hunger craving.

And back on topic with the no-greens food, breakfast followed that trend all week. Not a green in sight before noon on any given day.

This looks like a mess. I hate to admit I’m not quite sure what it is but my best guess judging by what I see tells me pumpkin, weetabix, vector cereal, Salba, banana. It’s something close to that at least

 

This would be a packet of instant oatmeal with pumpkin stirred in + banana and almond butter on top. I’m going with the instant packs on the days where I have early morning classes, which are too frequent for my preference this term. I was pretty tired all last week trying to adjust to the earlier mornings. I’m crossing my fingers that this week I’ll have adjusted to it a little better. It wasn’t that bad but you know…

 

Best breakfast of the week though? Saturday morning, when I made Angela’s Healthy Spelt Pancakes for One. I hadn’t had pancakes in ages. I stumbled upon this recipe last week. When Saturday morning rolled in, this was the first thing that popped into mind and I didn’t hesitate for a second before pulling out the very few ingredients and making the simplest pancakes ever. I have no idea why I don’t make pancakes more often!

Oh so delicious. One topped with greek yogurt, one topped with peach yogurt mixed with peanut butter, both topped with SF maple syrup and banana slices, all savoured and devoured.

Though as delicious as that breakfast was, it might be rivalled by Sunday morning’s leftover spelt pancake sandwich. 

I had a couple wee spelt pancakes left that I stuffed with greek yogurt mixed with almond butter and SF maple syrup and thinly sliced banana. No heating, I ate this cold. Twas a taste bud tantalizer.

 

 

And with that mishmash of a post, I should probably be off. I have yet to do any textbook reading but this week (like today…) is probably a good time to start. I can’t believe how fast everything creeps up as soon as a new term starts. Yikes! Not going to get stressed, not going to get stressed…

Happy Marvellous Monday 

School’s In For Winter

Thanks to all of you lovelies for the comments on the new header, the NYE dress and my arms? Haha. The arms are compliments my ten pounders, the odd push ups and planks and a little bit of Jillian Michaels as of late. The header is compliments my (not so) extensive high school graphics skills.

 

So holidays are OVER. Why oh why?!
I wasn’t looking forward to going back to school but it’s been two days and we’re doing okay. I’m really hoping for some smooth sailing this semester and really aiming to get less stressed than I did last semester. I tend to let myself get really stressed about school, probably a little too much so at times. Maybe I should take up some yoga? Meditation? More baths? I’m thinking all of the above.

This semester three days of my week start early. Today was an 8:30er. Happy joy. I started it off with a quick packet of low sugar maple oats with pumpkin stirred in. Plus plenty o’ cafe necessaire.

I plowed through class one and booked it home for some school note printing, a treadmill sweat sesh and a lot of snacking on chocolate (I still have quite the holiday stash), the biggest bag of Cheddar Popchips I’ve ever seen (thanks Costco)…

…and a handful or two of Goldfish CRACKers. En francais s’il vous plait.

 

Class two of the day lasted…20 minutes? All we did was quickly discuss the syllabus. I suffered 5 solid minutes of freezing cold from my car to the classroom and back again for nothing! Ah well, burning off handful number 1 of them fishies? Ha.

Din was a tasty plate of goods. Sundried Tomato Basil Gardenburger on a slice of toasted rye with goat cheese, dijonnaise and lettuce + a side of broccoli topped with salsa and light ranch.

Followed by not one but TWO mini bowls of yogurt messes.

#1 – plain yogurt, small slice apple banana bread with red pepper jelly and banana slices.

#2 – spoonful plain yogurt, spoonful strawberry yogurt, spoonful pumpkin, weetabix, Vector cereal.

 

The rest of the evening thus far has consisted of picture sorting, blogging, 10% paying attention to Canada vs US hockey game and doing all while sitting in front of my saviour:

My bones have been significantly less chilled since I got this at Christmas. Anyone else have ice water running through their veins? Not nice Winter. You’re pretty but much too cold for me.

 

And a handful of others meals from the past few days:

Puffins, Fibre One Raisin Bran, plain yogurt, banana

Large and quickly inhaled snacky plate

Tofu Mousse, banana, trail mix

Cabbage slaw and steamed broccoli topped with shredded chicken and light ranch dressing + slice of white bread with goat cheese.

Butternut squash fries and acorn squash. Spinach and steamed broccoli with honey mustard dressing. A few noodles (x5 that amount) for good measure.

Salad mess of spinach, cucs, shrooms, baby tomatoes, steamed broccoli, acorn squash, honey mustard dressing and… Cheddar Popchips? It was a BIG bag and they’re addicting! Plus they tasted darn good on this salad.

More acorn squash with goat cheese, tiny blob of mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli with salsa.

 

And there you have it. My bum is now numb so I think I need to take a walk around… the house. It’s too darn cold for a brisk night walk! Boo. Only one class tomorrow though and it’s not a morning one. Score!

I hope 2010 has been good to everyone so far

Ringing in the New Year

A new year (and a new decade!) has arrived! I’m not going to knock 2009 but I’m definitely ready for the freshness that this new year brings. With that said, WelcomeI’m ready for ya
(found on weheartit)

 

Thursday – last day of the 2009!

How was everyone’s New Years celebrations?!

My last day of 2009 started off with a slightly random yet darn good bowl of pumpkin mixed with vanilla yogurt, dried apricots, peanut butter puffins and a sprinkling of Salba.

Anyone ever tried Salba before? It’s tasteless but apparently packed full of good stuff. “Every serving (12 grams or approximately 2 flat tablespoons) of Salba^® provides over 2,400 mg of Omega 3s, over 4,500 mg of dietary fibre, with less than 0.5 net carbohydrates per serving”. Can’t argue with that.

I spent most of the day doing things like working out, grocery shopping, chillin, and munching on good foods like grocery store sushi. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

I also had a few very brown bananas taking up precious counter space. I was hopping back and forth between throwing them in the freezer and baking something delicious. Considering I already have a bag full of frozen bananas in the freezer and I haven’t baked a banana-filled treat in a while, the delicious won out and a big moist loaf of Sagan’s Super Delicious Apple Banana Bread was born.

And thus so was my dinner, all 22.5 slices of it. I wish I was exaggerating. I devoured this loaf. The “dent” I put in it within a day is a little too shameful to talk about. But if you want a healthy, moist, addicting banana bread with no sugar, butter or junk to be found in it, make this bread.

Once my tummy was chock-full of banana goodness, it was about time to get ready for some new years even partaying. I went to a friend’s 80s themed house party. I don’t own a very 80s-era-friendly wardrobe but the theme was pretty lax so this was the best I could do. Yeah totally 80s… ehem.

 

The party was kinda random but a pretty good time. The hardcore gangstas living downstairs and shaking the entire floor with their badass sound system decided we should meld our celebrations together so we ended up ringing in the new year while boogying down to mad gangsta beats with plastic glasses of cheap champagne under their hardcore disco ball.

After many sessions of flip cup of course.

Some Mars Bar toss.

And an unsurprising visit from the Dirt Devil.

I finally headed home around 3 in the morning? Promptly hit the hay and awoke several hours later to the first day of the new year.

And what better way to feed the body in 2010 than with some chinese takeout, aight?

Brain Wonton soup, steamed rice and vast amounts of garlic broccoli etc

Plus some good new years advice compliments of my fortune cookie

During the rest of the night I took ‘er easy by:

Making Katie’s Tofu Mousse – which I loaded with chia seeds and photographed this morning in all of its sunlit glory.

Reading countless articles on The Kitchn and looking at some notebook doodles.
And just having a generally very craaaaazy and adventurous night! Clearly.

 

This morning I bumped the adventure factor up a bit by eating a picture perfect breakfast (thanks natural sunlight!) of cottage cheese, a green apple, a blob of almond butter, a wee piece of apple banana bread (yes there is a bit left ) and some black coffee. I think the sun even makes it taste better.

I shouldn’t have let the sun deceive me in terms of temperature though. WOW was it ever cold today. Definitely probably the coldest day I’ve felt yet this winter.

Somehow I managed to tackle it though in order to hit up Boston Pizza for lunch with one of my favourite girlies who’s home from out of town for the holidays. I got the Baja salad with spicy chicken -  “A blend of garden greens tossed in a Santa Fe ranch dressing with diced tomatoes, olives, cheddar, and a roasted medley of corn, red pepper, green pepper and onion. Topped with salsa and shredded tortilla chips.” I should have thought this one out a little better since I missed the “cheddar”, “olives” and word “shredded” for the tortilla chips in the description. Don’t like olives and there was a whole lot of little bits of cheese and tortilla chip alllll over the salad. I did a lot of picking off but this was still pretty delicious. Next time I’ll just have to be a little more of an ordering pain so that I make less of a mess of my dish.

Then I braved the cold yet again to go shopping with my ma. I tried on about 20 items of clothing and bought two. Bah. I guess that makes my wallet happy though.

Since it is Saturday night and there is a going away celebration for a friend of a friend happening tonight that I’m requested to be at, I’m tempted to brave the cold one last time for the day. However, sitting in my comfy clothes by my heat dish in the comfort of my living room is even more tempting since I’m already right here, right now. No effort or chilling to the bone necessary. So I just might have to wuss out tonight. I’m going out tomorrow anyway for some end of holidays celebrating. Gotta save up my energies for the real fun

 

I hope you’re all loving 2010 so far and enjoying the last bits of the holiday season
Happy New Year!

 

(weheartit)

Chilly and Chocolatey Days

So that retro night dancing thing I was going to do the other night? I guess the rest of the city had the same idea because by the time I got there (which was relatively early) it was already at capacity and the line to get in was a beast. Boo. We waited almost an hour in the freeeezing cold but the line was moving at a snail’s pace and the toesies were on the verge of breaking off so we peaced out by about midnight. So sad, I was pumped for a good night out. Guess it’ll have to be made up for this week.

Monday

The am started out with a nice big mushy bowl of Weetabix, pumpkin, vanilla yogurt, banana, cinnamon & Peanut Butter Puffins. Does it get much better? Only when followed by a chocolate… or two.

Filling up the morning with tidying, burying the remaining chocolate deep into the back of my closet (out of sight, out of mind?), sprinting and Shredding Jillian Michaels Level 3 style eventually led to a refuelling requirement.

Slaw mess with balsamic vinaigrette and a can of preflavoured lemon tuna. This was after the bread hunks dunked in large amounts of hummus, my nearly always unpictured yet nearly daily snack.

A quick trip to Costco brought in some fresh veggies that I included in my dinner part A – Salt &Vinegar Popchips, baby tomatoes, carrots, shrooms, cucumbers, hummus, salsa, cottage cheese.

Dinner part B was two small bowl of some Lean Cuisine chicken parmesan pasta bag my mom heated up for her dinner. Great lazy night low effort chow down…

Chocolate, popcorn, and half watching half sleeping through Miss Congeniality 2 concluded my night. Man are my holidays low key. I don’t mind too much though, it’s too darn cold to stray away from the big fluffy pants and warm blankies.

Tuesday

I have suddenly developed a cold. Thanks winter? Time to load up on the fruits! And the cottage cheese… and the coffee… and the chocolate… fixing Colds with Cs? I think so! 

A run and a snack on the run led up to a few hours of mall perusing, which didn’t result in much spending, which is probably a good thing since Christmas just ended. I did manage to snag some great deals on underwear and body lotions though. Nice.

By the time I got home it was time for some dinner and there were some pretty darn old portabellas crying for help in the fridge. Thus my makeshift stuffed portabellas were born.
- Quick cook brown rice, canned diced tomatoes, spinach, dried oregano, chilli powder, garlic powder, balsamic vinegar and some tahini dressing.
- All mixed together and spread onto the shrooms, which were then topped with either feta or mozzarella and cooked at 350 for 20 minutes.

I should have patted them dry because they were a bit watery but otherwise they turned out fairly well. This was my first try of a cooked portabella and I have to admit, I didn’t love it, but that’s probably because I’m not a big steak fan at all, never have been, and these were very steaky/meaty. I would have liked them better sliced very thinly. Next time. My mom loved them though so I can’t blame my lack of love for them completely on my cooking skills.

I might be in the market for more popcorn tonight. Right around now. Little Miss Sunshine is on. On second thought, we’re on the restaurant scene and I’m thinking maybe I need something ‘a la mode’. Popcorn a la mode? Hmmm

So… it’s almost New Years! Big plans? Dish em!
Ciao for now!