Work Days

Wowzers, I’m a workaholic! Going from working one day a week to working six is a change, that’s for sure. I don’t mind it too much though. It makes me utilize my free time a little better… or just makes me tired and cranky and want to sleep haha.

 

I have several days of missed food going on but a lot of my eating is now done either on the fly or not at home so I haven’t been great with picture taking.

My new daily schedule

Morning

6:55  – Alarm Off
7:05 – Out of Bed
7:05 – 7:25ish – Hop on the net, get dressed, put face on etc
7:25ish – 7:40ish – Breakfast + Coffee Chugging
7:40 – 7:50 – Get my stuff together
7:50 – 8:00 – Drive and Arrive

My breakfasts thus far have been things that I can eat quickly – AKA cereal or overnight oats if I think to prep ahead of time (like last night). A couple mornings I haven’t been hungry enough so I’ve just brought along some fruit, bars etc to munch on throughout the morning at work.

Examples:
Cereal Mess – Flax Plus Pumpkin Raisin Crunch, Shreddies, Fibre One, frozen banana, blueberries, Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze

Overnight Cold Oats – Oats soaked overnight in Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze, ground flax, cinnamon, pineapple chunks. In the morning: stirred in banana and topped with plain yogurt, PBU and rhubarb jam.

 

At Work

My work day usually goes from 8 – 4:30 with a half hour lunch break. It’s 35 hours a week so we choose to work later Monday-Thursday and have a nice short day on Friday. I can’t wait until Friday

We eat lunch at noon. I have not yet taken any pictures of my lunch because I don’t really wish to do so at work and I always forget to do so while I am prepping.

My lunches have been really simple and repetitive so far though so they’re not that photoworthy anyway. You’re not missing much!
Typically I’ll bring: a salad with whatever mix-ins/leftovers we have in the fridge (which sure hasn’t been much lately), an apple and some kind of bar. I’ll probably start switching things up a bit soon enough though because I’m definitely going to get bored of that same lunch every single day, six days a week. Plus, I need something to look forward to at lunch time to spice up my day a bit! The work is already repetitive enough as is.

 

After Work

Come 4:30ish I take off for the homeland. In other words my house. Although today we left at 2:30 and brought some work home with us instead. That was a nice treat.
I’m pretty starving by this point so usually I’ll go right to the fridge and dig for a small snack while coming up with something to make for dinner. Then I just make dinner. So far it’s been quick things since I want to eat right when I get home.

Examples:
Egg white mess, potato chunks, hummus and mashed cauliflower with dijon mustard.

 

Wrap (A Hot Inspiration): veggie burger, hummus, feta cheese, spinach, dijonnaise

 

I’ve also been snacking on plenty of:

Yogurt with PBU, berries, rhubarb jam…

Rice crackers + Cheeeese

Iced Coffee

 

And I’m also bored! Do you ever feel like you need to do something else social, out of the house, into civilization after you get off work? I feel strangely isolated after coming home from work and it makes me want to go do things every night. But at the same time I’m pretty tired and have been a little cranky since I’m a little behind on sleep so I don’t really have the energy to do things and be out anyway. Such the dilemma… hah.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates… yet again. I’m still getting into this new routine thing since this is my first full week on the job and I just haven’t been at the computer too much. I’m also really behind on blog reading (and commenting… eek!) but I hope to catch up soon and I hope you’re all doing well!

Work and Water Guns

So yesterday I started this new job right? Inventory for a school board associated literacy program.
I check bins.
Bin after bin after bin. All with the same content.
So far it’s been just fine but 35 hours a week for 4 weeks of bin checking might begin to get a little repetitive a little fast. Luckily I work with three other pretty cool gals and we basically have full unsupervised freedom so hopefully we’ll track down some kind of music system in the school we’re working in and add a daily dance party onto our checklists. I could handle that.

Yesterday

Was my first day on the job. 9 am we did some discussing and orientation stuff at the main office and then headed over to the elementary school where we set up camp and starting on the good ol bin checking.

Before going I obviously had to eat some breakie so I made up a bowl of Nature’s Path Pumpkin Raisin Crunch with vanilla yogurt, mushy banana slices  and PBU. I think I dip into that stuff nearly every time I open the fridge. That’s much too often…

I’m so used to being home constantly and therefore being able to head on over to the kitchen at the first ping of hunger so the empty tummy feeling I went through before being able to eat lunch at work was slightly foreign and uncomfortable. I’m hoping and assuming my body will adjust fast to normal meal eating once again rather than snacking like ten times a day.

For lunch I quickly threw together a salad, some cottage cheese, an apple and the biggest Maple Nut Clif Bar I’ve ever seen. I swear it was twice as thick as any other Clif bar. Thus twice as good obviously. It held me over for a good long while but I was mighty hungry when I got home at dinner time.

My mom warmed up a freezer bag of premade veg +pasta and threw in some chicken breast so I ate a plate (or two) of that along with a couple hunks of fresh bread.

I then I had a bowl of Special K Red Berries?! with vanilla yogurt and PBU. My mom bought the cereal randomly for my brother. I haven’t had it in years. I mainly just wanted to have some freeze dried strawberries in my yogurt. They were good. Might be a good bulk bin buy for a yogurt mix in next time!

 

Let’s back track a bit now since I’ve got a couple days of back log here.

Tuesday

Check out my Mean Green Monster –
I used:
Half a pack of this Kaizen Chocolate Whey Protein Powder I got a sample of in the mail ages ago, along with almond milk, frozen banana, frozen blueberries and a handful of spinach.

I threw some wheat berries on top for chew.

Then I went all handymanwoman and put together this new bookshelf for extra storage in our spare bedroom. I sure felt talented.

In the process I snacked on some of these awesome roasted fava beans. Apparently they were new and a huge hit. Ever tried them? DO it.

 

In the aft I made myself a quick spinach zucchini rice tempeh salad with a salsified pita on the side before running out for some shopping and groceries.

I included some new grocery finds in my dinner that night.

This was not a new find (Yes, I’ve had it since the end of 2006. More like 2007. It doesn’t go bad, I swear) but I always forget about it so when I rediscovered it in the fridge I decided to use it as a marinade.

Marinade for what?

Baked tofu and this new grocery find – fresh okra! A gliding calm inspiration for certain.
I baked the tofu and okra with a horseradish garlic+rice vinegar+garlic powder marinade. I also baked up some presliced sweet potato fries that I had got that day since the bag was on sale.

I was a little afraid of the okra at first because of that whole slime factor but it wasn’t slimy raw or baked so I was spared and it was quite good!

I also had my last bit of remaining tempeh that I PB+Jd as also per Gliding Calm method, as well as Snack Face suggestion. Mmm!

That night I was in baking mood and we had some rhubarb to use up. What better way to do that than by making the Best-ever Rhubarb Crisp?

 

Mad good piping hot and doused in almond milk.

Tuesday night was Canada Day celebrating since Wednesday was a holiday (aka no work for anyone) so to the bar it was. I wore red heels. They were pretty pimpin.

 

Wednesday

The  official Canada Day

I should have made my breakfast red and white. Though it does include some red sauce… and the tortilla is whiteish… No idea why this breakfast came to be but a leftover tofu wrap sounded about right. It included spinach, hummus and pasta sauce. Could have been better but it was still pretty tasty.

But uh… I’m used to breakfast being along the sweet spectrum so I had to crack out the rhubarb crisp, PBU and refrigerated banana to make my breakfast complete.

 

I found these Tentation apples at the grocery store. New find? I had never seen them. They are good but very sweet. Almost too sweet? Impossible?

And for coolness’s sake, this sticker I once found on a banana. It now graces the cover of my camera and my camera is now up a notch on the awesome scale.

I ate some more snacks through the day:

 

Then I went all adventuresome and tried something new for dinner: Polenta!
I was never able to find it before (I know you can just make it out of cornmeal but I haven’t gotten around to trying that out just yet) but when I stumbled upon a log at a gourmet food store I couldn’t pass it up.

Thus dinner was born –> The Polenta & Vegetable Bake

My subs: no eggplant so used red pepper instead. No fresh basil. Less spinach (didn’t have that much). No light mozza so used regular. Added a bit of shredded feta as well.

Perfect polenta! I’m a fan. Great sub in when craving pasta or pizza since it works great with pasta sauce and cheese. It’s even pretty good just heated up and eaten plain. I shall be trying more of this out soon. Polenta fries anyone?

 

Typical Canada Day celebrations involve going down to the lake to watch the fireworks show. But the weather was crap and I’ve seen the show plenty of times. So instead a few of us went hot tubbing at a friend’s house and listened to the fireworks while gleefully avoiding the Canada Day riot crowd.

We spent way too much time drawing pictures on the deck with water guns (and pretending to be Charlie’s Angels…)

And I got scoffed at for being a wussy and only jumping into the shallow end of the pool. It was COLD! Although insanely refreshing after boiling up in the hot tub.

Who needs fireworks when you’ve got water guns?

 

On a final note:
Need a smile? If you haven’t already (although I’d be shocked since it’s a HUGE deal now!), check out Operation Beautiful. Visit often. I tear up a bit nearly every time I read the messages. Now that’s powerful.

PBU and Chocolate too

I finally mixed my own batch of the newly coveted PBU!
I’ve mixed nut butter and almond milk in the past on a small scale just as an oatmeal topping but never would have thought to make it on a larger scale. Pretty genius idea! I made a small container using peanut butter and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. It was pretty liquidy at first but a couple hours sitting in the fridge thickened it right up. I can’t wait to experiment more with this! Different nut butters, different add-ins… it’s got quite the versatility. That Emily is wearing one very bright thinking cap.

My lake of peanut buttery bliss.

After some thickening, drizzled over some watermelon, pineapple and banana.

I also had some bliss for breakfast when I made this grand bowl of oatmeal.
Isn’t it inviting?
Rolled oats blended with super ripe banana, flax, agave, water and almond milk, then topped with wheat berries, raspberries and peabutter.
Total perfection.

I got a super sweaty treadmill run in during the late morning. I mean sweaty. Like entire shirt soaked. It was pretty cool.

Then I ate a bowl of tempeh with a sprinkling of vegetables. SO much tempeh. I seriously can’t stop eating the stuff once I start. It’s almost as dangerous as squash. I also added some ricotta to the mix there for giggles.

The day was rainy and gloomy and perfect for chilling in and not doing much. I was pretty down with that. I went out for some retro night dancing Sunday night, danced up a storm to the Michael Jackson tribute that played nonstop MJ for the last portion of the night, didn’t get to bed until 4:30am and yet still managed to wake up at 8:30 this morning? Someone explain to me how that works? The relaxed rainy day matched well with my energy levels.

I eventually felt like venturing out though just to break up the monotony so my friend and I went out for some thai food.
I ordered this freaking huge plate of tofu and broccoli and ate the entire thing. I was HUNGRY. A few minutes after finishing this I was quite FULL.

 

That didn’t stop me from going back to my friend’s place after and helping her make homemade chocolates. Oh yes. Melt it down, set it in pretty molds, harden it up and savour the flavour.

I took a few special pieces home. I ate several bites of said pieces. I may have a smidgen of a stomach ache now. Totally worth it though… as I sit here in slight agony… ugh.

 

And a quick fly by of yesterday’s eats:

Swamp sludge aka savoury oats blended with spinach, oregano, garlic powder and chili powder, then put back into the pot with salsa and feta cheese stirred in and melted up. I never really do savoury oats as a breakfast meal but I woke up wanting it for some strange reason. And it was delicious.

Salad salad salad with my love tempeh tempeh temeh.

And some yogurt soup – plain yogurt, agave, flax, pecan pieces, dried cranberries.

 

The highlight of the day was definitely the dinner meal just because it was eaten on my super spiffy new leaf plate. It makes me happy, don’t you agree?

This was chicken cacciatore. I had a bit of pasta, a few small pieces of chicken and a whole lotta saucey goodness loaded up on wilted spinach leaves. I also had several small slices of bread for dunkering but they’re hidden.

We got new placemats too! I’m super excited because I hate the green plastic ones we use all the time. They’re hideous.
I also bought many new clothing items at the same time. Mainly shirts. Sunday was a shopping day. I haven’t done much shopping at all since summer started and I was suddenly craving. I love a good little shopping spree every once in a while. New clothing choices are such a treat!

And what is this scary-looking thing that I ate after my dinner?

A peabutter-topped dried apricot! Mmmm.

 

Now I’m thinking it’s about time for some sleep catch up. And stomach settling… ugh. Nighty night!

The Unstructured Life

Whoa whoa whoa, where’d I go? Where did this week go? I’m pretty sure I just completely forgot about updating.
My mind goes to mush in the summer. As does any kind of structure to my life.

I don’t think I’ve eaten a normal meal-like…well… meal all week either though. Hardly anyway. My eating has been straight up WEIRD. I embrace it but I also want to bring some structure back to my eating. I miss actually making up a dish rather than snacking on this and that and calling it a meal!

On another note: After wasting half my summer away being a bum, I finally got a job! So now I’m going to go from working one day a week to working six. Oh here we go… It’s weekdays though and only goes for one month which is pretty okay with me. It’s an inventory position for a literacy program through the school board and they straight up told me it’s going to be boring and repetitive but I think I can handle one month of that, and make a nice chunk of money in the process. Plus I have been doing nearly NOTHING during my daytime hours anyway so this will keep me occupied during those times when so far I have been sitting at home stewing over my utter boredom.
I start Thursday.

 

Now, yet another recap is about to occur. Think you can handle it? Do I think I can handle it? Plenty of food coming at ya riiiiiight…
NOW

Tuesday

So this is where I left off eh?
I’ll spare too much blabber and show off some of the eating madness.

One big mess of a yogurt bowl: Plain yogurt, Vector cereal, banana chunks, homemade rhubarb jam and a peabutter blob.

Fresh fruit cut up in the fridge? I will eat it. ALL of it. This particular mango was lame though. Thumbs down.

Chock FULL of greens.

The back blob there? Canned chicken. I was a little scared but it had been in the cupboard for a while and I wanted a protein source with my salad. I was a little freaked out when the tin lid came off to reveal a wiggly chunk of this so-called “chicken” but I mashed it up with some light sour cream, dijon mustard and pepper and went to town. It wasn’t that bad but MAD salty. Won’t go out of my way for this bad boy again.

Dates are always better when stuffed with nut butter.

 

Wednesday

Breakfast time called for something outside my norm– a defrosted Baked Banana Doughnut, toasted; half topped with PB2 and rhubarb jam, the other half with homemade cashew butter. You better believe this was amazing.

SNACKS snacks snacks

COLD banana – aka from the fridge. My favourite way to eat em! Other than mostly frozen but slightly mushy… mmmmm.

 

Thursday

Bring on the GREEN.

You can never have enough spinach. Or at least I can’t apparently.

And with a fresh batch of wheat berries thrown on as an afterthought. I hadn’t made these in ages!

Spinach leads to… chocolate cravings? Mad bad. I tried to satisfy it with other less chocolatey things but then my mom saved the day when she brought home some Turtles from work. Sometimes nothing but chocolate will do.

I steamed some kabocha at dinner, ate it atop more spinach dressed with Newman’s Own Honey Mustard dressing and snacked on quite a few (mostly unpictured) potato wedges.

Geez, Thursday was quite the spinach-loaded day.

 

Friday

Friday was when my interview for the new job took place.
I wasn’t super hungry in the morning (but very parched!) so I drank lots of water and then ate this plate. Well, not the actual plate but the food on it… you know what I mean.

I wish I could always have squash for breakfast.

After the interview my mom and I stopped in at a little bakery and picked up some goods:

Rhubarb Tarts – These were sadly pretty mediocre. Definitely too much crust and not enough sweet. I only had a couple bites. And mainly ate some rhubarb chunks off the top.

Goat cheese, onion, eggplant , mushroom pizza – Also pretty mediocre! And I thought this was supposed to be a good bakery… guess we should have stuck with their breads instead. This was okay but the crust was too hard, there wasn’t enough goat cheese and it really just lacked a whole lotta flavour. Oh well!

We also stopped in at a health and gourmet food place and I found Almond Breeze at the cheapest price I’ve seen it anywhere lately! It seems to be climbing in price at the grocery stores but it was quite a bit cheaper at this place so I stocked up. They even had the unsweetened chocolate which I had never seen in stores in Canada before this so that was an exciting moment.

The also had kabocha for… $1 each! Regardless of weight. The last kabocha I bought of similar size at the grocery store cost me over $4… I’m going to this place for my squash from now on!

Funny story too, when I was walking away from the produce section with my squash in hand, one of the guys who worked there started harping on me about eating winter squash during the summer months when there was so much fresh produce all over the place right now. Then he started serenading me with his suave singing and dancing skills as he belted out the Ontario produce jingle. I still held on to my squash though!

 

 

Later on I ate a bunch of these things dipped in baba ganoush.

Snacked on frozen aisle thin crust pizza slices.

And ate bowls of ridiculous mushy goodness that include plain yogurt, banana chunks, chocolate Instant Breakfast powder and chocolate PB2.

 

Saturday

Which brings me to today.

I wasn’t that hungry in the morning but somehow managed to eat some cold banana with peanut butter…

And some cereal… and some pineapple… and probably some other stuff too. I told you snacks, not meals are my life right now.

At work (the job I’ve always had, not the new one I just got) I finally got actually hungry so I dug into my Eat Natural bar. I was going to have half. That didn’t happen but this did taste great and did tide me over until lunch. 

 

For lunch I brought a big container of raw veggies and leftover steamed kabocha, plus an apple. I also had some steamed rice from chinese takeout that we had at work. Oh my gosh that stuff is good.

For dinner I had some leftover frozen pizza (x2 – I wasn’t going to take a picture so I started eating it but then I actually thought to take a picture after half was already gone haha)

 

And a big salad mixed with tempeh and feta chunks. Nums.

And then I made this nice little seemingly innocent but overly complicated bowl of plain yogurt mixed with vanilla protein powder, rhubarb jam and peanut butter chunks. Which I then loaded up with cereal dust and banana chunks. This bowl was much too small to have so many ingredients. I need to learn to appreciate food simplicity!

 

Now we’re into Saturday night and I’m chilling at home for once. Everyone’s either busy or out of town and frankly I just want to do nothing tonight. Perfect time to blog! And sleep. I’ll save my energy up for retro dancing tomorrow night instead… hehe.

Have a great Sunday All!

Cookies and Hot Days

First rule of order: COOKIES!

I love baking (who doesn’t) and my dad loves cookies (who doesn’t). So when he requested some homemade cookies for Father’s Day, I was immediately on the job.
I did some digging and came up with two recipes I had bookmarked ages ago that sounded just dandy.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies from Have Cake Will Travel

and

Magic in the Middles from Melissa!

 

Both were pretty incredible. And I have to say, the Magic in the Middle dough is some of the best I’ve ever tried. Super dangerous for a dough freak over here. I also had a good-sized ball of the peanut butter/icing sugar filler left over that I’ve been snacking on for several days now… oh my gosh, SO good.

 

Reeeeecap

Saturday

I had an egg craving so I made a gigantic egg white omelet (had to finish off the rest of the egg whites container) stuffed with spinach, tomatoes, salsa and Laughing Cow.

It was pretty early morning though I just couldn’t finish this sucker so I packed the other half into my work lunch, along with a misc veggie salad topped with a blob of hummus, an apple and…

… one of my new favourite Larabar varieties!
The Cocoa Coffee Jocalat Larabar doesn’t have a whole lot going on in terms of coffee flavour but this was rich and chocolate-y and I’m a chocolate fan so this was right up my alley. Winner!

Dinner was random because I was rushing to go out the door. I meant to make myself a veggie burger but there was fresh sourdough rye sitting on the counter so I ended up cutting myself the biggest slice of life (we’re talking forearm length here), dousing it in hummus and having a field day.

I also munched on some hairy edamame pods

And a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest with pumpkin, banana chunks and rhubarb jam. Rhubarb is finally back into my life for the first time this year! Oh how I adore it.

After my random “dinner” I went out to meet a friend for coffee. We chatted about this and that, and then I ran off to meet another friend for dancing. We went out to the same club we’ve been going to for several weeks in a row now and I’m trying to be a supportive friend since she has particular reasons for wanting to go to this particular club but seriously, I’m so sick of it now and Saturday night just was not a whole lot of fun. Ha oh well I guess!

 

Sunday

For Daddy Day my brother and I drove out of town to visit my dad and go out for breakfast.

I knew breakfast would be a little on the later side so I had some pumpkin with vanilla protein powder as a quick tide-me-over.

We went to a breakfast place called Cora, which has a menu chalk full of amazing breakfast choices, most of them filled with fresh fruit.

I went all out and ordered the April 89, which is a crepe filled with fresh fruit and custard, topped with whipped cream.

Umm… crepe fit for a giant? I literally went bulgy eyed when this platter came out. This thing was actually forearm length, including outstretched hand. It took over the entire length of the huge-sized plate and was packed full of freshly sliced cantaloupe, honeydew melon, pineapple, strawberries, grapes and orange slices.

I removed the whipped cream and couldn’t make it through the entire thing but I probably ate about 2/3 of it and enjoyed every bite. I took the rest home though and ate it as a predinner snack.

That thing made up my breakfast and lunch.

 

I balanced out my fruit (and custard…) filled breakfast with a veggie filled dinner. Roasted vegetables all the way – red peppers, green and yellow zucchini, mushrooms, sweet and white potato and cloves of garlic with a glisten of olive oil.
 

And an iced coffee to fuel a quick sprint run when I was feeling a little bit ready to nap instead of run.

Sunday night was another night out dancing to some retro tunes. Prior to it we were super cool and took night pictures in the park. Nothing wrong with a good throwback to childhood every now and again.

Monday

I dug into the cereal box AM first thing because that seems to be my daily morning bad habit of choice but I decided to make myself up a pretty plate to follow the antics. So that’s what I did, then I shoved it into the sunlight and snapped away at the part of my breakfast that wasn’t inhaled while standing at the cupboard.

I chopped up a big juicy mango and ate the mangled pit, along with some orange slices and a small bowl of plain yogurt with banana chunks, rhubarb jam and peabutter.

I did some running and non-appealing chores and tasks throughout the morning, then had a salad of sorts for lunch, which included spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, leftover roasted veggies, sundried tomato pasta sauce, baba ganoush and a slice of sourdough rye with more of the baba.

Come evening was sushi time! Best part of the day of course.

My friend and I both started off with the seaweed salad which I completely love and can never pass up. It almost beats out the rolls. Almost.

My friend ordered a Redbull Roll which was some kind of spicy beef roll. I’m not a beef person but I did try one piece. It was decently tasty and mucho spicy.

I ordered a Spicy Salmon Roll which I was completely happy with. I love spicy stuff and can usually tolerate it pretty while but this thing left my mouth kind of on fire. I had no problem with this though as every bite was a spicy delight. Could have probably used a bigger glass of water though.

The day was boiling outside so I was definitely feeling for something cold after this meal. The solution to this?
Gelato

I ordered some kind of caramel nut flavour or something like that. I can’t remember what it was called. My friend ordered one that tasted like a Ferrero Rocher. I liked hers better and she liked mine better but we didn’t do a switch. They were both still delicious but I think I’ve always sided more with chocolate flavoured cold treats.

Then later in the evening I met up with another friend for some cold drinks on a restaurant patio. I munched on a couple of her pita chips with hot spinach dip and ordered a Strawberry Pineapple Fruit Freezie which is fresh fruit blended with ice. Holy delicious.

I was wiped by the end of the day it was a nice early night to bed.

 

Now today is another scorcher so I’m hiding inside for a bit after sweating buckets reading in the backyard. I wish I lived on a BEACH. 
Hope you’re all enjoying some lovely sunny weather!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Today was another gorgeous sunny day and the only appropriate exercise to fill it was biking. I’m starting to really enjoy it. I’m slightly uncomfortable riding on main roads with cars all over the place (plus it’s not exactly peaceful and scenic riding with the traffic) but once I hit the quiet residential and trail areas I’m in the zone. I brought along my Ipod today and I adored just whipping through an empty winding path by the river with the music pounding in my head. I wanted it to continue forever but sadly the path doesn’t take long to complete. I considered doing it twice but I opted to just buzz around some other housing areas instead. Next time I might do a double path run though, it’s SO peaceful. Or maybe even seek out some new trails around the area.

I managed to get pounded with many mini flies during the ride though. Yum. At least three in the eye. Some bugger took a chunk out of my ankle too and left a bit of a bloody mess. I also nearly wiped flat out but did some super suave foot implant into the ground spin maneuver that kept me standing. It was pro. Oh AND I came across a SNAKE on one path. I sure cranked up the peddling motions at that point.
Despite all of this I still enjoyed every second.
Well except when I was feeling a little lost going down some sketchy empty path in behind a housing area where I came across a sign mentioning foxes and coyotes? That made me turn around pretty quickly…

 
Gulp…

My bike ride was nice and long which was much needed after putting myself into a bit of a sugar coma during some baking this morning. I’m keeping in on the DL for now but there may have been two separate and very delicious things concocted in my kitchen that I’ll reveal in the next post.

Yeah so the baking consisted of the majority of what I ate throughout the morning/early afternoon. Ouch.
I also ate quite a bit of banana and about ten pounds of grapes.
Cottage cheese too!

Prior to that though I was rudely awakened by the doorbell. Or what I thought was a rude awakening until I dragged myself downstairs to find a nice little box sitting at the front door.

Doesn’t take much to make me happy again. The lovely folks over at popchips sent me their two newest flavours to try – Cheddar and Sour Cream & Onion!  Is it possible that these could sound ever BETTER than the other delicious flavours that are already available? I haven’t cracked them open yet but you can bet I’ll be doing so asap.

Even though I was full up on suga suga, my stomach wanted something a little more normal in it before my biking venture so I whipped up a quick bowl of pumpkin, mango yogurt, cinnamon, flax + vanilla soy protein powder, licked it clean and then hit the road.

After arriving home and taking a good long shower to scrub off all of the mini fly guts covering my body, I was just about ready for some dinner. Veggies, veggies and more veggies were the requirement so I made the biggest salad of life (spinach, cabbage slaw, steamed broccoli, red pepper, mushrooms and dressed in light sour cream/spicy mustard/ranch seasonings/balsamic vinegar)and topped it with a little ravioli soup that my mom made for her dinner. There is nothing that can’t go in a salad.

I also had some bread with goat cheese that was completely amazing because I love goat cheese and hadn’t had it in ages but I forgot to get a picture. It deserved one though. Goat cheese probably just deserves its own post.

 

Backtracking a bit to

Thursday

I woke up less than gleeful after my night of course selection mayhem and discovered that my mom had gone to the Farmer’s Market to pick  up some apple fritters to bring to the staff at her work. And she left us a box. NO!

Why oh why would someone deep fry and sugar coat apple rings? WHY?
Yes of course I ate one. I threw out a bit of the batter… my attempt at being healthy. Heh. Pfft.  (I actually ate it throughout the course of the day and only had a few bites upon first discovering them. As you can see by the picture)

She also left me half of a peameal bacon egg and cheese sandwich? Mom are you nuts? I don’t even like bacon… Since when do I eat this crap?!

Apparently since that morning. I ate half of the half.

But this was too out of the ordinary breakfast-wise.
SO I made a mini bowl of cereal dust, almond milk, frozen banana chunks, strawberries and almond butter to follow it and somehow that made me feel slightly more sane. Slightly.

I’m pretty sure I also ended up snacking the morning away, which lead to a very late post-grocery shop lunch of bread slices and hummus that were inhaled before I could even think the idea of camera.

Because I got no other veggies in yesterday at all, I had to obviously do a giant dinner salad. Complete with bread and hummus topper. What can I say, I’m a fresh bread junkie. I just love it.

I also went out dancing last night. No super stories to be told but it was a pretty good time.

Now I’m chillin in on this Friday night and just about ready to call it a night. Sleep time!

 

Final note: A Sexy Chocolate Covered Giveaway! The Hotness arriving at MY doorstep? YES please!

Midnight Mayhem

I wrote this entry last night right before I had to enter the midnight mayhem that is course selections, which opened up right at midnight (couldn’t post it because I ran out of time). I was feeling pretty good going into it, with all of my courses picked and a timetable all planned out. I figured I might run into a time problem or two but otherwise I thought I was in for a smooth ride.
Not so much.
It took me nearly an hour just to access the system since it was so backloaded with people and by the time I got on half of the courses I needed were already FULL. On top of that I kept running into Major Restrictions for some of the electives I need for one of my programs. Seriously? It took me another two hours just to try to figure out what other courses I could take that would fit into my schedule and work with my requirements without completely screwing me over. I think I cried for the last hour of it. And now my new schedule is terrible and I’m afraid I’m missing some of the important credits I need.
So much for getting that stress off my back. Now I’m more worried about it than ever.

 

But anyway, here’s that food stuff.

Tuesday

I woke up feeling for an unconventional breakfast so I knew I had to go with the flow and make myself up and nice big tuna wrap!

Tuna has just been calling to me quite often lately. I embrace it. I mixed this can with light sour cream, dijon mustard, avocado, black pepper and green onions and loaded about 2/3 of the mix into a whole wheat wrap.

 

Then, because the Tuesday weather was stunningly gorgeous, I just had to go on my second bike ride of the year. I went down to a trail along the river and biked all along it. It only took about 20 minutes on the trail but my entire bike ride was around 50 minutes and I got a nice subtle tan out of it too. I think I should really do this biking thing more often!

By the time I got home and showered I was ready for some lunch so I first ate up the last of my tuna with some Nut Thins and spinach leaves.

This was clearly not enough so I also had a small bowl of cabbage slaw with roasted red pepper hummus and leftover shredded chicken breast.

 

I tried to be more conscious of photographing some of the little snacklets in my day so some of the post lunchers included:

Frozen banana slices with PB2

Picking at a banana muffin

A pair of dates

There were others that I didn’t get in between lunch and dinner. I honestly don’t remember what. But you get to see some of them at least!

 

In the afternoon I picked up my repaired car. The damage was minimal, thank goodness! Although the car sounded awful, I guess there was just some little rubber thingamajig or other (I’m no car mechanic ehe) that wore out and was easy to replace. Phew.

After that my late afternoon was honestly kind of a bummer and my appetite was kind of a bummer and I was kind of a downer. I didn’t really want dinner but there was food sitting on the stove so I just had to partake a bit.

A bowl full of fries and steamed broccoli topped with chopped onions, banana peppers and sundried tomato pasta sauce. Yeah weird, but yeah also pretty darn good.

Then this random desserty concoction was found in my freezer. I made it up a little while ago but wasn’t feeling it at that point so I threw it in there. Rediscovered, defrosted and consumed with delight. I don’t remember quite what was in it but there was definitely some vanilla fro yo + PB2 in the mix.

Throughout the course of the day I managed to go on three walks on top of my bike ride. They were short but still. It kind of renewed the love for walking that I seem to have forgotten about lately. I definitely need to start fitting in many more mini walks much more often. Walking it pretty therapeutic.

 

My lack of dinner served as bad news for my night of sleep though. My sleeping was awful to begin with, as it took me ages to actually fall asleep. Then I woke up at 3AM with a very angry tummy which dragged my sorry self to the kitchen to finish off a bag of Corn Bran with banana chunks and some skim. Too bad this didn’t do much to help me back to sleep though, as I once again lay there for ages after that trying to go back to the land of dreams. My mind is not good at shutting off.

 

Wednesday

My main order of the day was getting down to business on my course selections and schedule for next year.

But first I had to make a Green Monster.
(almond milk, flax, vanilla soy protein powder, frozen banana, mucho spinach and ice)

I made it then decided I wasn’t ready for it so I shoved it in the freezer and it was nice and extra thick when I pulled it out an hour later after some sessions with the Arrested Development crew and a trip to Blockbuster to return Hamlet 2.

It may also have been paired with some much Peabutter finger licking.

I had an extra sweaty treadmill running session which seemed to drag on extra long today (probably somewhat due to my lame sleep). It was kind of enjoyable though. I always feel more accomplished when the sweat is just pouring.

Then I eventually ate lunch. Still putting off courses at this point. Sigh sigh.
Cabbage slaw, tomatoes, carrots, feta, honey mustard dressing

 

Plus some healthified pumpkin pie topped with vanilla fro yo.

And insanely sweet dried cantaloupe chunks.

Before dinner I was feeling kind of ick so I had some cottage cheese. Don’t ask me how that was supposed to make me feel better. I guess I just love cottage cheese. And Nut Thins and pretzel sticks too, but my camera doesn’t like them.

 

Dinner was a stir fry of sorts – brown rice, tomato, mushrooms, spinach and some Caribbean stir fry sauce found hidden in the depths of the fridge, plus buffalo sauce as the kicker.

Then I made some boxed brownies out of sheer boredom. I ate more than I had intended to. No, I didn’t eat that whole missing portion there myself though. Phew?

  

But I did go back to the pan in the middle of my course selection disaster. This did not make me feel any better.

 

Today I’m going to just try to relax and not think about it. I tend to ruminate which just doesn’t do anyone any good at all. So I’m thinking some calm and relaxation would really be helpful. Now if I could only figure out how to do that…

 

On a final note:
Nicole from MyRecipes.com sent me some great links on healthy eating and exercise that you may be interested in. Enjoy!

Healthy Recipes and Articles
16 Ways to Stay in Shape on Vacation
Easy Dinner Salads
Sexy Bikini Body Foods

Car Clunks

I was dropping my friend off at her house yesterday. I drove up her steep little driveway. There was a giant clunk. This clunk did not sound good. I drove off, hoping it was just some freaky random noise that sometimes happens when your car is over 15 years old. No such luck. This thing was clunking and bumping all the way up the road. I pulled over and checked all the tires – no flats. I checked underneath – nothing giant and visible hanging down. Wha? It was not driveable though, it sounded and felt horrifying. So I had to get it towed (CAA has saved my bum many a time before) and now my poor little bugger is in the shop with who knows what problem. Sigh. I’m crossing my fingers for an easy fix…

 

Umm… where are my meals from yesterday?!  Well my breakfast is MIA. Probably because I didn’t get the chance to eat much of one since my car troubles threw me off a bit…

Lunch was much needed once I got home though. A giant salad never fails. I added a handful of Lupini beans from a can I found in the cupboard. Anyone ever tried these? I don’t know what their deal is but I think I should have read up on them a bit before just eating them straight from the can. Maybe they need to be cooked. Or apparently popped out of their skin? I don’t know but I didn’t enjoy these all that much.

 

I actually went on my first bike ride of the year yesterday afternoon! The day was completely gorgeous and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I know it seems ridiculously behind the times that I haven’t biked once yet this year but I always put it off because I just find there doesn’t seem to be anywhere nice to bike around here and I have to go onto a lot of busy roads to get outside of my area. Stupid burbs. The main roads (and crazy drivers) intimidate me just a tad and kind of scare me away from biking. I sucked it up yesterday though and it was lovely. I stuck mainly to riding in residential areas but I tackled a few busy roads with minimal spazzing.
Biking sure is great to clear your head and briefly forget about those gall darn stressors in your life – like breaking your car and stuff.

Dinner was pretty much out of the freezer, as we used up some premarinated chicken breasts and half a bag of shrimp and vegetable penne. Balanced out with a nice big pile of greenery dressed up in honey mustard dressing.

Followed by a bowl of mango yogurt and fresh berries with flax and Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal dust.

All mixed together.

Then yesterday night my friend and I rented Hamlet 2. 
Seen it? Maybe my sense of humour just doesn’t jive with this film but my suggestion – don’t. 

 

Backtracking a bit to

Sunday:

I put off making some breakfast for a while since I was engrossed in semi-watching Ritchie Rich with my brother and his gf in the am. Greatest movie ever, am I right? Kidapult anyone? I need that in my backyard.

 

I snacked on a crepe my mom was making while the movie watching was going down. I ate it wrapped in red pepper jelly. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it. Amazing.

Then my stomach was whining for some actual food so I gave it a gigantic pile of pumpkin mixed with I can’t even remember what but I know there was some maple syrup and probably some protein powder involved.

Later on I finally got around to trying the coveted Humbecue Salmon Salad, except mine was humbecued tuna. I thought I was only going to eat half of this mix but yeah, that didn’t happen. I definitely ended up eating the whole thing and I definitely enjoyed every bite. Thanks for coming up with the super combo Jenn!

Dinner Sunday night was a giant salad. The special guests of the night included cottage cheese and cooked asparagus.

Yeah I know, I eat a lot of giant salads. Getting in all of these veggies though is making me feel a little better about my eating. Especially since I’m still in the midst of trying to kick the habit of eating way too much cereal straight from the box or chowing down on dates and chocolate chips while standing at the counter. (And there’s that partying/drinking thing that’s been happening semi often lately…)Yes, these “snacks” are happening on a daily basis. My eating is far from perfect people! I’m not trying to hide it, but these food bouts are just too instantaneous and on the fly to be able to capture on camera. Maybe I just need to force myself to take pictures of it all. Perhaps that would make me actually plate some of these foods for once? Haha. We’ll see.

 

I’m off for some treadmill time. And then I have to figure out some course selection stuff for next year. That’s always fun…Bah humbug.
However, the sun is superb today so it wins out over course crap in keeping my mood elevated. Hooray.
Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Luster Lacking

Oh goodness me, it seems I’ve forgotten how to update.

Problem 1 – I’m still dealing with computer stuff so a chunk of the time I spend sitting at the computer goes to trying to get things in order. It’s kinda painstaking.

Problem 2 – I’m not overly excited to show the things I’ve been eating lately because they’re feeling kind of lackluster and repetitive, and I’m still snacking constantly yet not keeping track of it. So I have all kinds of missing pieces in my days’ eats.

 

Rewind to

Wednesday:

A velvety green monster, fridge-clearing salad and crunchy yogurt bowl made it into my stomach, among other things.

 

Thursday

I had a great bowl of Nature’s Path Instant Hot Oatmeal – Optimum® Cinnamon, Blueberry, Flaxseed in the AM, blended up and topped with fresh fruit and almond butter. I think instant oatmeal packets are my favourite to blend up, they get so smooooth.

Eventually I ate lunch but of course. Another fridge-clearing salad happened (cabbage slaw, red pepper, sour cream, salsa, avocado, tempeh), along with a avo/salsa wrap bitelette.

 

Plus some plain yogurt with vanilla soy protein powder and berries of blue to end on a sweet note.

For dinner I had an egg white mess (egg whites, spinach, salsa, FF swiss on english muffin) plus a grilled ham and cheese finger that I cut off my mom’s sandwich.
I’m kind of terrible for snagging bites of other people’s foods. But I didn’t want a whole grilled cheese to myself, I just wanted a taste! Usually a taste or two of something I wouldn’t make or order for myself is perfect. And my fam is used to my “nibbling” so they don’t mind…too much.

And of course this meal had to end with something sweet too… I really need to learn not to have to end every meal with something sweet. One of these days…
I had a chunk of a Cool Mint Chocolate Clif bar heated up. This wasn’t that great though because – slightly gross – I burnt the top of my mouth the other day and it has been sore, peeling and bleeding for a couple days now. For some reason the Clif bar was particularly aggravating to my poor mouth roof so this was more painful than delicious. I think I ended up making an iced coffee after it for something slightly more soothing.

 

Friday

Breakfast was nibbles. Nibbles of what? Couldn’t tell ya.

I captured lunch though! It involved some nibbles too.
Spinach-wrapped tuna blobs, Kashi Ranch crackers with roasted red pepper hummus and a cabbage slaw salad.

This was not appetite-suppressing, however, so I whipped up a quick mini Crack WRAP. Did the trick.

Later on I did errands but had a snack before the outing – bottom of the barrel plain yogurt mixed with banana, frozen blueberries, flax and agave. No need to dirty a dish!

Post errands my fam wanted to pick up $5 cardboard pizzas. Yuck. Seriously worst pizza ever. No sauce, no cheese, no flavour. If I’m going to splurge on pizza then it better darn well be GOOD.
Okay so I did rip several bites of the cardboard pizza off for a “taste test”. I had to give it the benefit of the doubt. But it was as craptacular as ever. Thumbs down.

I made a much more delicious (and much less cardboardy) dinner – Savoury Oats! These only would have been better if they were stuffed into squash.

I washed down the oats with a Green Smoothie. This one involved fresh peach. Thumbs UP.

My Friday night consisted of my friend and I rocking out with Mario Kart on the Wii. Mario Kart is the best. My Mario Kart skills are not.

Saturday

Oh wonderful Weetabix Breakfast! Weetabix, some crunchy vanilla flakes, pumpkin, strawberry yogurt, cinnamon, banana and extra mushy raspberries. I love my raspberries mushy.

This didn’t hold me over very well though because I had to snack on not one but TWO bars at work before lunch: half of a Cool Mint Chocolate Clif bar and a Kashi Trail Mix Granola Bar (MIA).  Guess my breakfast was missing some much needed protein?

I had lunch at work but I actually changed it up for once! Instead of bringing a salad as my main course I brought a wrap! I’m such a rebel. It was roasted red pepper hummus, avocado and spinach. And it was darn good.

For dinner I finally made a veggie burger. I had been craving one for ages but for some reason hadn’t gotten around to making one lately. Well here we go!
This Original Gardenburger was loaded up with tomato, spinach, dijon mustard and a wedge of Laughing Cow on a toasted english muffin half. Mmmmm.

For dessert I had a small piece of a banana muffin that my mom brought back from a work event that I micro’d and dolled up with a dollop of homemade cashew butter. 

Saturday night was a night out dancing. I DDed. Dancing is fun but whoa, you really get to see just how young the crowd is when you’re in complete and full awareness of your surroundings… I think I need to find another club to go to. That one seems to be the one where the youngest of legals choose to frequent. And the dumbest of guys.

It’s now Sunday early aft. I’ve drank much coffee and ate much pumpkin this morning.
Now I’m feeling some tuna. You can see that lovely creation later on. Hopefully within a day rather later this week? I’m going to end this slack!

And sorry my recaps lately are point by point and don’t involve much narration but when I go days without updating I forget what exactly else I did during the day. I promise most of it was not exciting though. My food and my days are pretty lackluster right now. Needed: Life overhaul!
Enjoy your Sunday!

Another Weekend

  Anyone else want to join me in forming a mass battle against technology? Alright I do love it but I swear technology is going to be my ride right into the loony bin. Just when you think you’ve got it all worked out, ten more problems pop up. I’m having network issues now. Dratted computers.

But moving along, how about a weekend recap?

Saturday

I was feeling an eggy kind of breakfast before heading off to work so I went all out and made myself an egg white mess using half of a toasted english muffin piled high with egg whites, salsa, spinach and a slice of fat free swiss. Hit the spot!

Feeling snacky midmorning, I broke into this Fruit Break Date & Fig Bar that traveled many miles courtesy of Lara! And worth those many miles it definitely was. This thing was SO good. Similar to a Larabar because of the dates, but unique in that every bite included that fun figgy seed crunch.

I also had a lunch but it was boring so I decided not to waste my time photographing it. If you are THAT curious you can look at any other post that includes a Saturday recap and it will have been essentially the same thing (salad, apple etc).

Dinna! Was ready when I got home. Thank ya Mom! We had stir fry (Made with brown rice! I was shocked. I harp on her all the time trying to get her to use brown rice but “I don’t like the texture” is her frequent excuse. She decided to bend just for me and she actually didn’t mind it. Thumbs up Mom) filled with spinach, asparagus, chicken and shrimp. I also sided mine with some onions in curry sauce that were leftover in the fridge.

 

Saturday night was Part One of my friend’s birthday celebrating. We went clubbing. Some girl (Woman? She was apparently in her late 20s and “too old to be at the club”) told us we were the best dancing girls there. “All the other girls here think they know how to dance but they’re terrible. You girls are great!” Haha thanks Sweetheart! 

 

Sunday

I woke up ridiculously early for getting to bed past 3am. I needed water in surplus. That and apparently half a banana and a few bites of a banana doughnut.

I went back to bed for a wee while until I was dragged out again by my massive craving for oatmeal. Mmm.

This bowl included scotch oats (I think), water+almond milk, banana, blueberries and vanilla yogurt/almond butter “icing”.

This bowl finished up the last bit of homemade almond butter that I’ve had and used lovingly and sparingly for ages so I decided it was time for a new homemade nut butter! What kind did I make… can you guess from the picture?

 

…

 

 

……

 

 

 

…………

 

Cashew Butter!
I just threw a bunch of cashews into the food processor and let it whirl. I stirred it maybe twice. I was afraid it wasn’t going to get creamy since it was still quite crumbly after several minutes but patience proved my fear irrational when soon enough the blades were just gliding through the creamy cashew butter goodness.
Aren’t homemade nut butters the most satisfying food creation ever?

 

I sweated out some of the previous night during a hour long treadmill and weights session while watching Yes Man. Kinda dumb, but dumb in a cute way. It kept me amused throughout the workout. 

I tried to stick with relatively simple meals and snacks throughout the rest of the day, including:

Salad with leftover stir fry and tempeh

Yogurt with frozen raspberries and flax

Snap peas + carrots and a wedge of rye bread with hummus

Sweet potato topped with hummus + salsa plus a green salad

Iced coffee

 

Sunday night was Part Two of the birthday celebrating. Hole in ground bar Retro Night! My favourite. They had an especially good selection of songs that night, including Ghostbusters, Take On Me (A-Ha love!) and they played Sunglasses At Night without us even needing to request it.
Birthday girl left before me and apparently tried to lie down on the ground outside at the end of the night instead of getting into her cab. One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor?

 

Monday

Oatmeal was once again a requirement after a late night out.

This bowl was blended perfection, made with kamut flakes, banana, water+almond milk, flax and topped with the very last of my White Chocolate Wonderful.

I had a bit of a sob session while clearing out the jar. Well not really since I’m not an easy crier but I thought about sobbing. Until I remembered that I bought this jar at the grocery store five minutes down the road and I can go buy some more whenever my little heart desires. I felt much better.

 

After this I had my first peach of the year!

It was delicious.

 

Later on I baked up some plantain and kabocha before running off to a doctor’s appointment.

 

I ate 100x more kabocha than that, just for the record. Anyone who can get away with eating only a few chunks of fresh from the oven kabocha at one time must be superhuman.

I was full of squash for the rest of the day so around dinner time when I got an inkling of hunger I kept it simple with salad greens, feta, tempeh and honey dijon dressing.

 

That night I peaced out early and slept on the couch. I have no idea why, other than it seemed comfy and I really felt like it. For some reason my bed just seemed totally unappealing. Ever have that happen? I thought it was a little strange but I just went with it.

 

Tuesday

This morning I was in the mood for nothing other than a bowl of breakfast candy so I filled my bowl up with Corn Bran, Peanut Butter Puffins, strawberries, blueberries, frozen banana, vanilla yogurt and almond milk and munched away while watching some Arrested Development Season 2 on DVD. It was good times and good eats.

 

Later into the morning, while the “candy” was still sitting heavy in my stomach, my friend suggested a sushi meal. I was thinking dinner but she was thinking lunch. Arrgh. I was still full but definitely wasn’t turning down SUSHI.

Luckily cereal doesn’t stick with me for hours on end so by the time I was all ready, picked her up, arrived at the restaurant etc a couple hours has passed and my stomach was ready for some eats again. We opted for all you can eat sushi, which I usually opt out of but it was cheaper because it was lunch time, plus they redesigned their menu and had some new selections so I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it.

This was the first round after our salads (I had a seaweed avocado salad- YUM)
Left plate I had one of the seaweed sushi pieces. Right plate I had one of the hand rolls (wrapped in the seaweed -spicy tuna) and three pieces of the chicken teriyaki avocado roll.

I don’t remember all of what I ate but I tried to pick relatively healthy things and I didn’t leave feeling like I had just eaten an entire whale (it’s happened before… it was painful) so I’d say I dunn good. Or… I was pretty happy with my choices.

 

I came home and ate some fruit and drank some coffee out of habit, then I did some running hills on the treadmill and worked my abs and became a healthy sweaty mess.

Later in the day aka dinner time I became even healthier (although significantly less sweaty) when I loaded up on a giant salad filled with the good stuff aka spinach, cabbage slaw, carrots, mushrooms, red peppers, tempeh, squash and light sour cream/spicy mustard/balsamic vinegar dressing.

This was great but honestly not very filling. Apparently it takes a lot to fill me up.

SO I had a couple bowls of yogurt with various mix-ins.
This one was vanilla yogurt, chocolate PB2 and baked plantain.

Another was strawberry yogurt, blueberries and Kashi. They were small bowls…

I also ate lots of grapes. I’m addicted to grapes.

I need to clean my eating up this week after a little too much partying and a little too much snacking lately. No rules, just trying to avoid the temptation of munching on crackers and whatnot whenever the urge hits rather than just going for it. Mind over matter! Mhmm…