Steamy Oats and Holiday Mints

Papers. Does anyone else have trouble getting them started? Now that midterms are over I have several paper due dates looming in the next few weeks and I find the hardest part is getting them started. I never know where to begin! So I put them off. That certainly doesn’t help. I’m working on trying to at least get some kind of start going for each but I feel so clueless! I guess the only way to do it is to dive right in but there ahead lies some very chilly waters. Brr…

Speaking of chilly, that is one thing my breakfast was not.

How about a nice steamy bowl of blended oats to warm up on a chilly morning?
– 1/3 cup oats cooked in candy cane lane tea with banana, flax, cinnamon and a dollop of peanut butter on top.

I’m getting ahead of myself though as some backtracking is in order:

Tuesday

Oh Minibix Chocolate Crisp cereal, will I ever stop obsessing over you? Only when your box is empty. I kind of love them just plain so I ate a bunch just like so, then threw a handful into a bowl of pumpkin yogurt to feel less like a munchy rat.

After some kindergarten class time spent listening to a Humane Society talk and learning the proper ways to approach a stranger’s dog, as well as the proper procedures when being attacked by a dog (‘stand like a tree’ or ‘lie like a log’) it was home for a speedy bite to eat and a speedy treadmill run before class.

Finished up the second half of my killer hubbard squash spread with roasted red pepper hummus. Sided by spinach, honey mustard dressing and tempeh.

Tuesday felt quite long. Probably due to the early morning and lengthy back to back classes. By the time I was done and home I was in need of a cracker feast so that happened. 
Dinner happened soon after.
Egg whites, salsa, spinach, cheese slice on toasted english muffin.

I know I partook in a bit of emotional-driven evening eating while feeling lame and undriven to work on school business. I did manage to crack out a mini assignment nice and early so I wasn’t a complete slacka.

Wednesday

That would be some more Minibix (with some pumpkin yogurt mush going on there). Apologies, how boring of me. The box is not yet finished though! Still over half to go.

Well let’s see, how did Wednesday go.
Started bright and early with a Geography lab.
4 hours of lab and classes later I came home.
I ate lunch.
I did something special with this lunch salad.
I made and doused it in the incredible Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce!

I didn’t quite have everything on hand so I had to sub honey for agave, a bit of soy sauce for tamari and dijonnaise for dijon mustard but these clearly subs didn’t affect the YUM factor. This dressing is deeeeeelicious.

Then I made some Pumpkin Pie Cake that I made the mistake of not adding any extra sweetener to.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still good. But my crazy sweet tooth wasn’t as happy as it could have been so a bit of raspberry jam and maple fro yo on top made it all better.

I also indulged in a few Christmas Mints because they have arrived! Mmmm creamy mint lovin.

I wanted to do some textbook reading, I really did… ehem.
But I wanted to run more. So I did a nice sweaty hour on the treadmill before dinner.
I liked it, it was a good run. But I felt kind of ill not long after. I thought crackers would fix this. They didn’t really, but they tasted good.

My slight tummy troubles didn’t deter me from wanting dinner. I had other food plans in mind but the only thing I decided I wanted was savoury oats.

This bowl included oats cooked in water, hot sauce and random seasonings.
Towards the end I stirred in egg whites, salsa and spinach.
Off the heat I stirred in a bit more salsa and a Laughing Cow wedge cut into chunks. I waited until it got melty, poured it into the bowl and ate this probably much too fast.

I was plenty un-hungry after this but I had to have something not long after to cleanse the palate. So I had a mini bowl of plain yogurt with cranberry sauce and flax. Oh so good.

Wednesday night consisted of a bit of school stuff, Starbucks with a friend, and an early bedtime as my energy levels were zero by the end of the evening.

 

Now it’s time to get back to more school stuff and try my very darndest to get started on those papers. Thumbs down.

 

But on a much better note:
Thumbs UP to Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness.

Visit. Click around lots. Explore. Check out all of Katie’s amazing recipes. Better yet, MAKE them. And keep on clicking to help her out with her Page View Charity Drive

Spring in November and Danger Squash Slicing

Sunday

Sunday was gorgeous. I think Spring is making a brief reappearance. It was basically warm enough to wear t-shirts outside. And last week there was brief snow. What’s going on Weather? I’m not complaining though, I’ll take warmth over snow any day. I’m not looking forward to winter… brrrrr.

I started the morning off the Weetabix way with a big bowl filled with Weetabix and Minibix (the chocochip version), pumpkin, cinnamon, frozen banana, almond milk, bit of plain yogurt, bit of raspberry yogurt, bit of perfection.

Then I spent a good chunk of the morning sipping on coffee, coffee and more coffee while reading blogs, blogs and more blogs. I’m terribly behind.

Then Mom came home with clems.

The dirty evidence. Their deliciousness level isn’t quite skyrocketing yet but I’m still digging them. Maybe the next batch will be a juicier haul.

On account of the good weather I decided it only made sense to enjoy it during its brief visit and go for a bike ride. Haven’t had the chance to do that since the summer! I went for about an hour and it was lovely. I think the whole city was out doing the same, meandering about outdoors and soaking up the Vit D.

Before my bike ride some eats were in order. Loading up on my rainbow colours – red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow peppers, green spinach… I just need some blues and purples in there! Topped with plenty of tempeh and honey mustard dressing.

Followed by a foamy blended iced coffee. This wasn’t just any old iced coffee though, it was an iced coffee made with Stevia! I usually use Splenda (bah yes I do use Splenda, pretty much only in my iced coffee though) but I figured it’s about time that I give this Stevia business a try. So this was the first try. Verdict? Success! I couldn’t tell the difference. I just may be doing a switcheroo from now on, though I don’t dig the Stevia price tag quite so much.

For dinner my mom and I wanted to eat some shrimp (I used to refuse to touch these things. One day I finally changed my mind). There were some tomatoes on their last leg so we broiled them in balsamic vinegar while the critters defrosted, then served it all over salad greens with greek feta.

I ate a whole lotta this. Please broil your tomatoes. Mmmm.

Then I went out last night to do some Retro dancing. I busted some sweet moves at the beginning but the rest of the night involved binge liquid consumption and very random social minglings. Somehow I didn’t spend a dime and yet completely lost count of the number of drinks I had. I really need to stop going out for Retro nights… yeah right.

Monday

I went to bed at about 3:30. I woke up at 7:30. I could have slept in until 8:40. Hey internal alarm clock, why you gotta be like that? Not nice, not nice at all.

I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to eat. I thought about actually making some kind of real breakfast but my appetite wasn’t huge considering I chowed down on bread and crackers among other things when I got home last night. And I thought it might be good to load my body with some nice clean fruit nutrients so I went that path with some apple and banana drizzled with a bit of pb, plus more unpictured banana and pineapple.

Then it was off to class. Nothing eventful there. One of my classes had the AC or something equally ridiculous cranked right up though and I was freezing my buns off the entire time therefore I couldn’t concentrate on anything he was talking about. I swear I’m such a cold wuss, no one else seemed to be shivering but that room was icy.

Despite the icy temperatures inside, outside was nice and warm in the morning. No jackets needed! I was planning on going for a nice walk in the sunshine during the hour in between classes but when I got outside again the skies were cloud covered and a chilly breeze had showed up. How rude. So I went home for some eats instead.

Leftover salad with shrimpies, balsamic vinaigrette and cocktail sauce. I had a couple small cups of coffee too but that was about it. My appetite’s been a little off today, probably from the overindulging this weekend…haha… boo.

I headed back to school for one more class, came home to snack on crackers with salsa, tempeh, mushrooms and carrots, then did a treadmill run and a wussy attempt at weights and squats before I decided I felt too weak and called it quits for the day.

After my run it was time to get the oven cranked and do some squash roasting.
Prior to the roasting though comes the squash cutting. It was during this process that I risked my life in an attempt to open up the damn near impossibly rock hard hubbard squash that I decided to try for the first time.

It was not easy. Pretty sure I almost drove a butcher knife right into my stomach. But I did it.

This squash doesn’t compare to buttercup/kabocha but it’s still pretty darn tasty. Don’t know if I’d buy it again though, the struggle doesn’t quite make it worth it. That and the fact that the skin isn’t edible. Squash skin is my favourite part most of the time! I really wanted this skin to be edible, I really did. I gave it multiple attempts. It had the taste and consistency of tree bark. Sigh.

The Danger shell

Sided with spinach and mushrooms topped with one of my favourite dressings. I put this on nearly all my salads.

This dinner filled me up good and plenty but habit makes me want to eat something sweet after so I gave it a wait and then ate a mix of pumpkin, plain yogurt, cinnamon, flax and vanilla soy protein powder topped with a small piece of a frozen pumpkin pie bar. 

 

The junk today was right to a minimum! Most of my “junk” was small dips into the peanut butter jar. I attribute it to the lack of appetite but we’ll see if it’s back with a vengeance tomorrow…

Now I should probably get started on some textbook readings… but what I should probably do and what I actually do are often two different things so I might just call it a night and get some sleep catch up instead.

Dreams of sweet!

Spending Dough on Sugar

I lack eloquence in my ability to adequately express emotion and gratitude. What I do not lack, however, is an overwhelming appreciation to all of you for taking the time to hear me out and offer your words of encouragement, support and understanding. You sure know how to help lay the body blues at bay! So a huge thanks to everyone, all of your comments meant a lot to me

 

I haven’t been eating perfectly by any means over the last few days but a – I’m not quite as bothered by it and b – I’m more aware of it. I’m trying to think a bit more about what I’ve been putting into my body and pay more attention to the food choices I’m making. It definitely hasn’t always worked but it’s only been a few days that I’ve been (somewhat) consciously trying to break some lame eating habits. So pitfalls and trip-ups aside, I know I’ll improve slowly but surely.

Back it up…

Wednesday

The day I wrote about my body woes was probably the cleanest eating day this week. I guess admitting concerns really does help to address and face them head on.

 

Maddest tastiest squash in a while. Smooth and creamy like butta on the inside, crispy and crunchy like…crackers(?) on the outside. Either way, it was goooood.

I had been on a bit of a cottage cheese hiatus lately but in the midst I decided to try something along the same lines… Quark cheese. Ever had it? At first I thought it was a little weird but now I’m a big fan. Reminds me of a cross between sour cream and greek yogurt maybe? I just like it by the spoonful.

Thursday

Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing a whole lot of studying since Friday was my last midterm. FINALLY. I swear I’ve been doing midterms since school began. Now it’s into papers time, oh joy. Then exams. It’s neverending eh?!

Time to start a day off right. I had developed a bit of cold this week so I started trying to really load in the fruits and veggies. This green smoothie helped, loaded up with frozen banana, frozen peach, almond milk, a splash of POM, a sprinkling of flax and a large handful of spinach.

Kick that cold right in the butt!

As much as smoothies are delicious, the meal I was really looking forward to was lunch. Why?
There was leftover squash in my fridge. Enough said.

Buttercup squash, spinach, slaw, mushrooms, cucumbers and carrots, dressed in honey mustard dressing with a dollop of mashed chickpeas in the centre.

The majority of the day consisted of:
Class
Studying
Witnessing the first snow flakes (or sky slush or whathaveyou) of the season (Noooooo! It didn’t stay on the ground though and the past few days have been +10-15 degrees C so that snow business has peaced out for now, phew)…

Taking pictures of pumpkins (before they turn into big mushy rotting messes)

And eating more squash. As long as there are leftovers, it gets eaten at every meal. This was the very last precious piece, gnawed on while dinner was in the microwave.

For dinner I heated up an Amy’s Kitchen Indian Palak Paneer meal that had been sitting in the freezer for far too long. Not pretty but any means but pretty tasty. I’d buy it on sale… the palak chunks hidden in the green spinach mush are my favourite part.

I also found some pumpkin pie bars during my freezer digging that I forgot were in there. Nice discovery. Mmmmm.

In the evening I ate study snacks like apples and mini cereal bowls while trying to cram in as much info as I could for my middy the next day. The highlighters never left my sight (and this is probably the only moment they left my hand).

Friday

My midterm…sucked. It was clinical psych. First part multiple choice? Cool! I felt good about it. Second part short answer? No. Way. I didn’t know 90% of the questions! I studied my butt off and couldn’t remember anything. I had so many terms and theories running through my head and they were all completely jumbled up to the point where I could not pick out the right ones to answer the questions. Not looking forward to seeing that mark.

Wait. In the midst of this post I decided to go online to see if the marks were up. The multiple choice section marks are. 23/25, 92%. Okay so at least HALF the midterm was successful so far.

Premidterm eats were fruits and peanut butter.

Postmidterm eats were…everything in my house. I was comforting my midterm depression! I made a conscious effort to try to snap pictures of most of what I chowed down on. After the fact of course. Packaging shots!

My mom went and bought all this delicious food at a local gourmet grocery store. Why you gotta be like that Ma? You know I have no resistance to fresh greek feta, artichoke caponata and fluffy montreal style bagels. Apparently the rest of my family wants to be able to eat real food… Come on!

 

I had tastes of the good stuff and then raided the rest of the kitchen for mediocre taste bud satisfaction. I might as well have just eaten a whole bagel slathered in the good stuff and left it at that! The eating satisfaction would have been better. This is wherein my problem lies. Because then I went and eat these things:

Good. But not as good as the greek feta and caponata.

Random bites of plain tofu. Again, good. But necessary on top of the other stuff I already ate? Hardly.

I don’t deny the greatness of these crackers, but the bites of fluffy fresh bagel prior to these were quite delicious enough already.

This one I have no words for. Pfft.

So there was a playout of a snacking spiral of doom. I can’t decide what I want to so I take little bites of absolutely everything to try to figure it out. That does not work.

I made myself an tri-layered iced coffee to put an end to it. Iced coffee signals the end of a meal/snack fest for me. Usually it works.

So the rest of this food overindulgence day included… food shopping. And not healthy food shopping. FUN food shopping. Meaning treats and bulk eats. Meaning sugar sugar. And spending a lot of dough on that sugar. Yikes.

Almond Breeze (on sale! hence the overload), Stevia (trying for the first time!), Bulk Christmas mints and some spicy mix, Celestial Seasonings Nutracker Sweet Tea, Baskin Robbins candies, Kazoozles (bought practically based on the name alone), Mint Chocolate Clif bar, Larabars, Noble Bean Tempeh (I’ve only ever tried one other kind of tempeh before but this one is amazing. Love it). 

Oh yes. I found the Tropical Fruit Larabars! It was shocking enough to find the PB&J around here but now the Tropicals! Jackpot. Can’t wait to try em. 

I had a salad with cottage cheese in an attempt to feel like a human being after eating snacks and junk and sugar all day.

So Friday was a fail on the eating front but I acknowledge it and don’t feel too bad about it. Probably because I enjoyed most of it. And uhh we’ll call it a celebration of finally finishing my midterms okay? Justification makes me feel better.

Friday night was also my broski’s high school graduation ceremony. Boring as anything but that was to be expected. Congrats Robber!

 

Saturday

Starting the day off with a steamy mug of coffee?

But wait.

That’s not coffee.

It’s Scotch Oats in a mug! Bowls are so yesterday.

I was at work all day and although I didn’t take too many pictures of my food, you can rest assured it involved salad, apples and a good amount of this stuff…

I ate a shaker style salad with tempeh for dinner.

And probably some junk after that that I can’t quite remember and therefore probably wasn’t nearly thought out enough. Work in progress, work in progress…

 

Considering this is miles long and just took me an embarrassing amount of time to complete since my laptop hates me today and wants to freezer a bit every third time I backspace, I’d say it’s about time to wrap it up.

My midterms are done though and my sanity is somewhat returned. I will be trying to post more than once in a blue moon and trying hopefully, with a little greater effort from here on, to eat less willy nilly.

Thanks again truly fully for the support.
Have a Super Sunday!
xo

Body Woes and Sweet Treats

Reasons I have not written lately:

1. School. I don’t know so many of you juggle regular posting on top of school work. Maybe my time management skills need some refinement.

2. My Halloween was lame and I didn’t want to talk about it. Therefore I’ve kind of avoided the window where that was the hot topic.

3. Lack of things to say. This goes along pretty closely with school. I don’t have a whole lot of excitement going on right now, that’s for sure.

4. A rut. A body and eating rut. I’ll admit right now that I’m not happy with the way I’ve been eating and I’m not happy with my body. I’ve put on a couple pounds but even with numbers aside: I’m not as comfortable with my body as I was a few months ago and I don’t like the way my clothes are fitting. I’ve lost some of my physical strength and personal motivation therefore I don’t feel as fit right now. And I’m just generally not very impressed with my overall lifestyle habits as of late. The snacking adds up, the little forgotten bites add up, the drinking adds up, the lack of strength training adds up, the sitting around studying adds up. And it’s all been adding up to a not-so-happy me who doesn’t feel right about writing here when half of what I’ve eaten all day is unaccounted for and is junk, when all I want is sugar and carbs, when I don’t feel like exercising.

This being said, I’m getting tired. Tired of my bad habits, tired of mediocre constant snacking to fill voids unrelated to food, and tired of being disappointed in my reflection in the mirror these days. I’m really aiming from here on to give myself an extra little kick in the behind to smarten up. I know I’m capable of doing so, I just need to rediscover my inner discipline, which I’ve been ignoring for the last little bit. I’m not much of an all-or-nothing person so it’s not like I’m going to be cutting out all sugar or running a marathon next week, but a little more attention to planning and thought about what my body actually wants and needs should help.

(And no, I haven’t put on a ton of weight or anything. My clothes all still fit. It’s more of a “where the heck did my muscles go and why do I now have a large tummy pooch and jiggly thighs?” deal. I know it’s my body’s retaliation to some of the crap I’ve been feeding it. And no I’m not eating ALL crap. I still eat lots of veggies and all of the other good stuff. But the balance is closer to 50:50 than 80:20 so it’s time for a fixer upper)

 

And because I’ve now rambled plenty enough, here are some of my food highlights from the past week:

Oats in a Mug. Oats are oats but I had an urge to eat them in a mug. So it happened, deeming this breakfast a highlight.

Do you believe in ghosts? Well I sure believe in this one as it was the most delicious ghost I’ve ever eaten. The white chocolate outside covering a chocolate fudge center might have helped.

And sticking with the Halloween theme, some mini chocolate treats were also had in the spirit of the season. Amazingly enough this is nearly all of the Halloween candies I ended up eating in total, if you add in another bar or two and a few Tootsie rolls. Power to the resistance!

The Post-Halloween morning I got to enjoy an extra special breakfast: Oat bran in a jar! Not only was it special because it was oat bran… in a JAR… but also because it was decked out in Reese’s pieces. Thanks Halloween.

Following the oats theme, I discovered a lone packet of Apples and Cinnamon reduced sugar instant oatmeal in the cupboard and ate it on a more rushed morning. I threw in extra plain oats because those reduced sugar packs are still just a tad too sweet. And my sweet tooth is large and in charge so that’s saying something.

A slightly embarrassing admittance: I’ve polished off an entire box of Minibix Chocolate Crisp this week (sometimes in bowls but mostly in handfuls). In my defence, the box is small! Oh this stuff is addicting. It was on sale at Costco so I had to buy it, but it comes in a two-pack so I now have a whole other box to indulge in…oh boy.

 

I also finally tried the coveted Peanut Butter & Jelly Larabar! Oh yes I did. Oh yes it was good. Oh yes it tasted just like a perfect blend of peanut butter nuttiness and jelly sweetness. Oh yes I’ll be eating it again.

 

I DID eat things other than oats and sugar. I think… Let’s see what we’ve got.

That looks like some veggies.

So does this.

Mushrooms and green beans?

I DO eat veggies.

I also have a new obsession with Mary’s Gone Crackers crackers. And veggie burgers hidden under spinach piles but that’s not a new obsession.

Once in a while I follow recipes like the one I found in the Nutrition Action Newsletter for Moroccan-style Couscous (bottom recipe).
For the record, it was okay but I probably wouldn’t make it again. The combo of flavours wasn’t my fav.

Apples are good. I’ve eaten them on the regular. Sometimes chopped, heated and topped with plain yogurt and cinnamon.

 

With all of that said and done, let’s just polish this off with some food porn:

 

In conclusion, I’m going to try to start eating better. Try to start really THINKING about what I want to eat and put an end to the mindlessness. Plan out better meals. Put a little more care into my body. It probably deserves it.
And with that, hopefully I’ll become a bit more consistent of a blogger too.

 

A big Merci to anyone who actually read through these ramblings and continues to read on a regular basis even though all I do is complain about school and post sporadic recaps of days and days of random foods. You guys are pretty awesome

Just the Food

School stress and lack of motivation have kept me away from here this week. There hasn’t really been a lot to say though: sleep, eat, study, repeat.

Because of that, this will be a pretty word-light post.

Random eats of week:

 

Coffee has played a large role in my life this week. Well, and every week but this week especially. Lately though I haven’t been feeling the greatest after drinking it so I’m trying to cut back a wee bit, at least for now.

Breakfasts:

Cold Oats – banana, yogurt, almond milk, almond butter

Hot Oats – banana, water, almond milk, almond butter

No Oats – apple, plain yogurt, cinnamon, rando cereals (our selection is kind of pathetic right now)

Lunches

Tuna – with plain yogurt, dijonnaise, BBQ sauce

Salad Mess – romaine, carrots, mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, dijonnaise, hummus, baba

More Salad Mess: – spinach, slaw, carrots, mushrooms, tomato, udon noodles (randomly found in the cupboard – why not?), dijonnaise, hummus, baba.

 

Dinners:

Bowl of …Stuff? –veggies, hot peppers, leftover tuna, bread with hummus…

Egg White Wrap – egg whites, spinach, garden veg cream cheese, salsa

Veggie Chili…

…to deck out my sweet potato  – along with salsa, hummus and spinach.

 Squash – along with leftover rice, spinach salad with honey mustard dressing.

Snacks

Apples. Many many apples.

Fudge Babies – Time to make another batch.

Yogurt with frozen mango and banana.

Etc etc.

What do YOU snack on to keep you sane during study study studying?

TGIF.
&
TGIH 
… HALLOWEEN!

A Simple Weekend

The weekend has come to a closer. Where’d it go?!
Oh I know. It went to work, shopping, eating and lazing. This was a pretty tame one for me. Didn’t mind at all though! I really appreciated the tameness of just doing what I felt like after spending the last couple weeks doing what felt like nothing but studying.

Friday

I skipped my one Friday morning class so that I could… do P90X Plyometrics. I know, I know, terrible student. But I really had the motivation to do it in the morning and I was so worn out of school work that I just couldn’t find it in myself to drag my butt all the way there for one 50 minute class and then come right back home again.
So instead I chilled out in pjs, ate cereal with banana, chia gel, almond milk and pb, then worked my muscles straight to soreness with plenty of jump training. Woo!

Photo evidence also says I ate a mini pumpkin muffin. Or three. 

By the time I got down to and finished that darn body killing plyo dvd I was plenty ready for some food but had my mind set on roasted squash. As much as I desperately wish I could snap my fingers and have it be roasted for me within seconds, that technology has not yet been developed so in order to be able to wait it out I satisfied the hunger monster in the meantime with a Janetha-inspired Pumpkin Protein Shake.

Eventually the oven did its duty and I was filled up by my buttercup.

Afternoon errand time consisted of groceries and checking out the new wing added to our mall! It’s like the most exciting thing going on in the city. We have a thrilling city… but it was a crappy mall and very overdue for a bit of a revamp and some new shopping options.

And I was overdue for some new clothing. Particularly some sweaters and boots since the temperatures are steadily dipping and my warmer clothes options are seemingly slim. The tank tops were just because, I probably didn’t need those. Two for one though, wasn’t gonna pass up that deal!

Almost more exciting than new clothing though…

My grocery store decided to be the coolest place ever and grant its shelves with the likes of Peanut Butter & Jelly Larabars! Say Whaaaa! I didn’t expect to see these anywhere in the country anytime soon let alone the grocery store I always go to. Haven’t tried em yet but it’ll happen asap. Now I just need to find those other two new flavours. I’m not in a huge scramble for them though, this is the one I wanted to try the most by far.

Dinner ended up being a bit of a snack (squash) attack, followed by a chicken chickpea quinoa curry dish my BROTHER made for his girlfriend for her birthday. He may have had a little help from the women of the household but he was all up in there slicing, dicing and stirring this dish right up. Maybe there’s hope for him yet! 

 

Alright, gotta crank up the speed, just about time to leave for class!

Saturday

Lack of hunger in the AM drove me to pack my breakfast on-the-go style to eat at work. Pumpkin and vanilla protein powder. I wasn’t feeling very creative that morning.

Lunch was my same old every Saturday packed work lunch– salad mess with squash and honey mustard dressing, apple, lemon meringue yogurt.

Followed by a Key Lime Pie Larabar later on in the aft. Why did I not pack my PB&J one here?!

When I got home from work at dinner time meatloaf was on the menu. Sigh. I’ll admit, I like it but I don’t want to like it. Nor do I want to like radioactive orange boxed mac&cheese but I have yet to dispel that from my taste bud preferences. So I ate it with some greens and an egg white mess (with salsa, spinach and FF cheese) on a toasted english muffin.

Saturday evening I ran, sat on the computer, ate/drank a snack of decaf pressed coffee and an apple with plain yogurt, cinnamon and a sprinkling of coconut and went to bed early. Now here’s a grandma to the max. Didn’t go out Friday or Saturday. Plans fell through but I wasn’t really that motivated in the first place so there wasn’t a complaint about it in earshot.

Sunday

Sunday I ate more Janetha-inspired food. She eats good stuff, what can I say?
And when she posted a nice little how-to about her protein oats I decided to follow it along.

I threw in some frozen blueberries for a fruity amp-up and swirled some almond butter all on top. Suweeeet.

For some really bizarre reason though I was hungry not very long after, which makes little sense since oats usually fill me up for a decent amount of time and these were extra protein-y. Maybe that banana I usually throw in makes all the difference…

Anywho, I snacked a bit, did some P90X Shoulders and Arms (ouch!) and then went shopping with a friend for a couple hours. I only bought underwear, it wasn’t that exciting. Well I was excited because I’ve been meaning to buy some for a while but it’s not generally the most exciting purchase I could have made.

When I got home I made a giant veggie-filled salad loaded up with lots of roasted rarlic AND roasted red pepper hummus and scarfed it down.

Last night I made up for staying in all weekend by going out dancing at RETRO night. Typical Sunday night trend. It wasn’t as fun as usual. Boo hoo. It wasn’t a complete bust but it could have been better. Ah well!

Now I’m late and definitely must run.

Happy Monday!

Baking Banishes the Bummers

So I wrote two midterms today. I bombed one of them but let’s not talk about that because it bums me out, okay?

Things that didn’t bum me out today:

- Magazine subscriptions campaign that my mom brought home from the school she works at with special deals for staff. In other words I have a few great deal mag subscriptions I’ll be signing up for shortly.
- NO textbook readings.
- http://weheartit.com/
- Baking!

 

Before all else came some coffee. A lot of coffee. Some of it hot, some of it iced, all of it needed.

Following in its tracks was a hot bowl of pumpkin banana oats, eaten while diligently blog reading instead of last minute cramming for my afternoon midterms. Come on now, I couldn’t wake up immediately to studying, now could I? That’s no way to start a morning off fresh.

Then I diligently studied. A good few hours of note reviewing really didn’t make me feel a whole ton more prepared. Clearly I didn’t devote enough equal study time to the two midterms since I was clearly ill prepared for the one I bombed. Guess I’ll have to learn better balance next time…

In between the end of the oat bowl and the end of the last minute cram session I took a very hot and very needed shower. It was hard getting out of that one.

Once at school, I managed to score a decent parking spot (a rarity) which was a welcome treat amidst the midterm stress and drizzly grey weather.

I wrote Midterm 1 – Fail.
I headed straight to Midterm 2. While these were getting handed out, one girl walked into the classroom and passed right out, flat onto her face. Not a clue what happened there but she woke up within a few minutes and was taken out. Then in the middle of writing, another girl was headed towards the door and she passed out too! Stress, sickness, something in the air? I’m thinking it’s sickness, it’s everywhere right now. I swear I’ve never heard of so many people being sick at one time, it’s scary. I feel like I need to break out a SARS mask!

Anywho, I finished the midterm pretty early and booked it out of there. I can only assume there were no more fainting spells after I left. I felt pretty good about this one, which slightly alleviated my distress after the first.

I got home, ate yogurt with cereal and jam + peach tea with cocoa powder and then ran my little heart out for an hour on the treadmill. It was a pretty boring run today but I kind of anticipated that before I started. I think I need some new tunes.

 

By the time I was ran out and showered up I was ready for some fuelling. In need of a giant veggie fix after inadequate vegetable consumption during my studying, I opted for something that excited me a little more than necessary: a hot and cold salad!

The Hot - broccoli, mushrooms, onions and red pepper cooked in balsamic vinegar and chicken broth, spinach lightly steamed in the microwave
The Cold –  cabbage slaw and tomatoes
The Toppings – sweet onion dressing, dollop of sweet relish, dollop of Sabra hummus.

I think this about satisfied the veggie craving and the hunger pit. I was stufffffffed.

Later this evening though, I had a baking craving that I could not ignore. Sifting through the pile of pumpkin-based recipes I had saved to my desktop, I came across these PPK Pumpkin Muffins. The reviews were dandy and I was feeling some dandy muffins so I pulled the cupboards apart and got my bake on.

Big Kahunas and Mini Marvels

My only changes: 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat flour, omitted 1/4 cup sugar, omitted ground cloves (didn’t have), almond milk instead of soy, and had to de-veganize with plain (nonsoy) yogurt since that’s what I had.

These smelled so good. Can’t even begin to describe it. Fall scent at its prime.
They’re also delicious but I expected no less. And I have little doubt they’ll be even better tomorrow.

 

I was going to skip over yesterday’s eats that happened in the midst of the studying strain but there were a few noteworthy foods going on so without further ado…

Just what is going on with that rye cracker?

That would be a whole lotta salsa, butternut squash and hummus going on.
Best way to dress a cracker, hands down.

 

But who cares about crackers when you’ve got a bowl of the best savoury oats I’ve ever eaten for dinner?

- Oats were first cooked in water, hot sauce, basil, garlic powder and chili powder
- Once mostly cooked, in went some salsa and spinach
- Right towards the end, a generous pour of egg whites and another scoop of salsa, all stirred up and immediately taken off the stove
- Into the bowl with a big spoonful of Sabra hummus and you have creamy delicious oatmeal perfection.

It’s all about the egg white. I’ve only tried egg white in oats once or twice before but I added it in pretty early. Adding it in right towards the end and giving it a good stir gives the oats an amazingly thick, creamy texture. I was literally giggling with glee as the oats were puffing up. My mom thought I was nuts. Who gets excited over oats, really?
I know we all do

 

And you know Halloween is right around the corner when…

 

What are you going to be for Halloween? Costume ideas? I’d love to hear em. I need some inspiration, it’s right around the corner!

The Ways I Fuel Midterms

I woke up a whole hour earlier than necessary due to my brother’s deep rumbling voice carrying itself through the otherwise still silence of the morning.

With what did I fill this extra time? Well some extra studying of course, but prior to that…

Not your ordinary coffee but rather one spiked with the flavours of pumpkin spice latte. Inspiration!

With a coffee jolt now coursing through my system, I got down to a brief sesh of some serious studying before digging into my mush bowl of all things delicious: PB Puffins, Minibix, Special K Red Berries (we’re now seriously low on cereal options), frozen banana, spoonful of pumpkin, spoonful of plain yogurt, almond milk and almond butter.

 

Now I’m about to get ready for class but before that a quick reward to the week’s beginning.

Monday

A day full of much snacking:

Apples and Cottage Cheese

Cherry Yogurt with Cocoa Powder (Once upon a time there was a chocolate cherry yogurt variety in the Source variety pack which I highly enjoyed. One day it disappeared. So I made my own.)

 

Breaded Tilapia over spinach with balsamic vinaigrette

Rye Crisp with Salsa

Iced Coffee

Carrots and a large Cucumber chunk

Kale Chips with Ketchup, small side of burger rice casserole, soup of chicken brother, diced tomatoes, salsa, rice and random seasonings.

Fudge Baby

Pumpkin, cinnamon, syrup, Minibix snack

+ An overindulgent dose of textbook reading to really make the day complete.

 

Tuesday

A Breakfast that seemingly kept my hunger at bay all day.

Oats, water, almond milk, pumpkin, cinnamon, SF syrup, banana, almond butter +++coffee

Then I went to my kindergarten classroom placement for the morning and got to see the kids all dressed up for picture day. One of the little boys had a temporary tattoo on his forehead, I wonder if the whole photo thing accidentally slipped his parents’ minds…

Post-placement Pre-class time involved some Iced Coffee and a couple snacking bites to ensure no hunger creep up during class.

Post-class Pre-dinner time involved leftover kale chips with spicy tzatziki. Wish I had more of this left mmmmm.

Then Squash time! I cooked up two: a butternut and a delicata.

First try of a delicata squash = SUCCESS. This one is grand. There will be more of it in the near future for sure.

After studying most of the night away (and shoving in a quick treadmill run for some mind-clearing sanity) I had a great bedtime snack of cold squash. Yeah squash leftovers are totally my snack of choice.

 

Tomorrow I have two middies (applied social psych + developmental psych – they are back-to-back… I can’t wait) then I will have a bit of breathing time (I actually can’t wait) in which I will hopefully do things like cook, bake, grocery shop, clothing shop, sleep, dance etc etc.

Best of luck to all of you currently studying your buns right into numbness. Let’s ACE em!

Bulking Up

A lovely sunny Sunday

The perfect day for…
Studying.

Boo, it feels like such a waste! I’ve done my mass text speed reading while sitting on my bed all day right next to the window though so the indirect exposure was the next best thing. Two looming midterms this week are causing need for mass reading catch up asap.

I began the morning on an oat bowl note:
Scotch Oats cooked in water, almond milk, flax and cinnamon, topped with a mixture of almond butter, almond milk and SF syrup; banana slices; and coconut cashews (new Bulk Barn find. SO good, so dangerous). Eaten alongside mass amounts of coffee.

After plowing through some ridiculously time consuming chapters for Applied Social Psych I finally broke for some lunch (Earlier study break included PB Puffin snack sesh).

Slaw, spinach, shrooms, carrots, cucs, steamed brocc, balsamic vinaigrette, honey mustard, cottage cheese mound. Slice of rye on the side.

In attempts to further procrastinate from the return to the studies, I made a treat that I knew couldn’t wait from the moment I saw them: FUDGE BABIES. Miss CCV does it again. I made the updated version and these babies are chock-full of fudgy delight. Don’t wait, fudge your date!

 

And now, as yet another form of study breaking, a couple previous meal days:

Friday

We had a long period of grey and gloom but the sun seems to have returned with a vengeance, as my past few mornings have involved a bath of sunlight to soak in along with my breakfast.

I had one late morning class on Friday to attend before running some quick (ehem alcohol related) errands. And exciting errands they were, as I discovered not only a new white grape flavoured Smirnoff, but I also stumbled across my first sighting of pumpkin beer! I’ve always wanted to try one but never seen them around before. Apparently it’s a limited time season specific brew.

After errand session uno I ate some leafy greens with the very last bit of leftover Thanksgiving turkey and some very brown homemade guac.

Plus the ever so lovely midday coffee.

I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that around the house, then dug into a small bowl of Vector cereal (Chillin there with my mom’s reading glasses. I only own distance glasses, I don’t wear them, and they aren’t nearly as stylin) before heading out for errands session dos: Food Shopping!

Aside from the standard grocery store run to primarily replenish our fresh produce stash, we also did a not so quick run into our newly redone Bulk Barn. It’s bigger, better and more stocked than ever. Check out the load.

I don’t remember everything that we picked up but among the loot:
Candy apple candy corn, coconut cashews, wasabi peas, oat bran, cassava chips, dried cranberries, dried parsley, panko crumbs, sour gummies

+

Snapea Crisps (Intrigued. Had to try.) AND my new favourite tea – Candy Cane Lane!!! I’m a huge peppermint tea fan so sweet vanilla-y peppermint tea that smells amazing and tastes even better? I’m sold over and over again. I might have to buy out their entire stash before the winter season, well, starts  first and then ends.

Part of my dinner for the evening was picked up fresh from the grocery store: Spicy California Fresh Spring Rolls. These looked a little more delicious than they tasted as they were a little more lackluster tastewise than I hoped, but they were still really good and fresh.

My mom picked up a mini spinach quiche for her dinner so I had a small slice alongside a spring roll (and a hidden salad in the background).

Then it was Bulk Barn candy time. This times like 3?

Friday night I had full intentions of studying the night away but when a friend’s request to chill and chat over coffee came through, the studying intentions got thrown out the window. She brought her laptop. We played Sims in the coffee shop. It was good times. Then I got home, ignored the looming need to study and conked out nice and early instead.

 

Saturday

Friday night I had this future seeing moment that told me I would want overnight oats for breakfast Saturday morning.

Lucky for me I guess my future seeing abilities are pretty in tune because the overnight oat bowl I prepared Friday night following my moment of enlightment was looking just perfect come breakfast time Saturday morning.

Friday night mix: Rolled Oats, water, banana slices, spoonful chia pudding, spoonful Chocolate PB2, spoonful plain yogurt.
Saturday Morning add-ins: Another spoonful plain yogurt and sprinkling of cinnamon.

Then I headed off to work, totting along foods likes apples, Larabars and leftover spring rolls to fuel me through it all.

The spring roll and an incredibly greasy, salty Popeye’s biscuit made up my lunch. I resisted the Popeye’s chicken pieces that were picked for lunch with zero difficulty. The smell alone just isn’t my… cup of tea  bucket of chicken?

Yep, that greasy napkin is all due to the bitten biscuit.

At home I ate dinner. It was a salad with hummus, nothing exciting. There were probably other courses to this meal but I have no photographic evidence of some and my mind is failing me on what they might have been.

I DO have evidence of the iced cocoa-powder infused coffee I drank though.

AND of this…

Damn you Chipits. 

 

I meant to get this post up much earlier yesterday but studying and other orders of business got in the way so now we’re on to Monday morning. Whoops. It’s another lovely one and I’ve opted to spend the morning doing mucho reading rather than attending my morning lectures so I best get to it to make this skip out justified.

Ciao for now!

The Week After Turkey

This week has been a fly by! TGIF tomorrow already, I can hardly believe it. I guess that packed turkey extended weekend really helped to shorten this week up, not that I’m complaining about it. My weekend begins as of the end of my only Friday class at 12:30 tomorrow. Woop.

What’s been going down this week?

Monday

Was part of the long weekend. It involved snacking, slacking and another turkey dinner. Oh so much turkey. Oh so much food. Oh so good. But by the end of Monday night I was wiped.

 

Tuesday

Back to the grind.

I intended to make a nice healthy transition into the new post turkey weekend week.

Les Liquides  – Clear Water, Green (kale!) Smoothie, Black Coffee

You’d think that by loading up on semi ridiculous amounts of stuffing, pumpkin pie bars, side dishes and alcohol (the turkey was probably the food I ate the least of) my appetite would be slightly lesser this week as natural compensation for the overeating. But no. I think I was hungry all day Tuesday. Work with me here, Body!

So the meals were healthy enough.

Veg-loaded salad with spinach, tomato, pumpkin, leftover turkeyyy, balsamic vinaigrette and hummus.

Quinoa cooked with kale, diced tomatoes, salsa, nooch, gauc

But in between meals I was snacking it up. Lots.

I ate probably 1/4 of a jar of salsa in ten minutes. It was mad good.

The rest of the snacks were quickly eaten and more quickly forgotten as I spent most of my spare time working on study study studying for my geography midterm Wednesday.

 

Wednesday

I woke up before the sun so I could cram in last minute note reviews, a good hearty breakfast and a good chug of hot caffeinated beverage before heading off to my every-two-weeks geo lab at 8:30 AM and then writing my midterm once the lab was finished at 10:30.

Oat Bran = Brain Food. Oat bran + almond milk + water + flax + banana = The Ultimate Brain Food.

Pair it with coffee and I was more than good to go.

I sat through the two hour lab, then ran over to another building with the measly ten minutes I had between class times to write my midterm. I breezed through it and was done before most of the others. I felt like I really knew what was going on in those questions so lets hope for a perfect shall we? Hah.

With the extra time I had before my next class since I finished the midterm early, I went and got myself another pick-me-up coffee, sat through one more class, then ran home for a quick half hour lunch before my last lecture of the day.

 Tuna mixed with plain yogurt, dijon mustard, and BBQ sauce, topped with pepper, on top of spinach. I don’t know why I haven’t had tuna in a while. I could eat it every day! Or at least every couple days.

Then I had more coffee, drove back to school, perfected my parallel parking skills to park curbside on a side road since I didn’t win in the school parking lot lottery (our school parking sucks) and watched intros to Hitchcock films while learning about the importance of title scenes and credits in films? Alrighty then…

Then class ended and I came home again. And ate again.
So in summary my life consists of driving to school, driving home, and eating. Fun times in the life of moi.
Wednesday aft’s fun snacking times included (among other things) some hairy edamame.

For dinski I steamed up a whole mini buttercup squash and ate about 2/3 of it alongside spinach topped with honey mustard dressing.

I also ate a couple slivers of the unpictured greasefeast Delissio pizza my bro ate for dinner. It was greasy. And it was good. Just sayin. I only regretted it because my post-turkey body has expanded itself a couple numbers upward and I’d prefer them to skedaddle on out sooner rather than later. It’ll happen though cause the turkey stuffing is all gone now

 

Thursday

That would be today, a day in which I:

• Finished off the last of my oat bran supply.

Oat bran, almond milk, water, flax, banana, topped with pumpkin cream cheese (which I threw out the last of after this bowl because I’m thinking the slightly funky new flavour it recently developed might have been a sign that it wasn’t quite as fresh as it should be in order to be edible…whoops?)

Potentially mildly rotten cream cheese and all, this bowl was still good. I know, I know, what’s wrong with me. I survived the day sickness free though so it couldn’t have been that bad…right? Ha.. ha…hem.

• Did a good sturdy 45 minute treadmill run.

This one wasn’t very fun. It was just hard. Don’t know why. I survived though. I think I also need to invest in a new Ipod, as sad as that makes me. I like mine. It’s my baby! But the on button doesn’t really work. I can turn it on. But I can’t turn it off? It’s messed up.

• Ate Spinach. And tomatoes. And mushrooms. And squash. And cottage cheese.

• Sat through two very long, boring and sleep-inducing classes. I almost fell asleep during the second one. Naw good.
• Had a cranky late afternoon spell. I think I still have sleep to catch up on.
• Thought long and hard about what I wanted for dinner.

Eventually came up with a veggie burger on a toasted english muffin with dijon, spinach and tomato. A piece of potato and mucho salad with mucho homemade croutons on the side.

Mucho grapes followed. As did mucho bites of pumpkin pie bars. And a not so mucho mug of tea/cocoa.

And then very drab readings on developmental psych filled the last couple hours. You would think it would be semi interesting but it takes forever to get through a chapter. Siiiiiigh.

I’m studied out though. I’m thinking bed time.

And then TGIF in T minus 1 hour. Yay.
Happy Weekend!