Clear the Fog. Raid the Kitchen.

Life works in funny ways sometimes. I went from zero job prospects to suddenly hearing from four different places in one week, all coincidentally right after convocation. Something about the occurrence of the official graduation must have kick-started the trend eh? Coincidence? Strange.

No solid news on anything yet but it feels good to at least be finally getting some feedback. I’ve been hardly employed since school ended and it sure is draining on the psyche –> The post-grad fog sounds about right.

 

The “fog” has been leaving me a little drained, a little down. Nothing too extreme, but that unfortunately leaves little excitement to yap about.

What does one (ME) tend to do when feeling drained?

 

Raid kitchen.

Eat cereal.

Honey Nut Chex is addicting. And I thought I loved it…until I kept eating it. Today, as I was nearly finishing off the last bits of the bag I realized that, you know what, I don’t actually love it that much. It’s a tad too sweet. The crunch – bang on. But otherwise I was just eating it to eat. I like my cereals on the blander side. Unless of course they’re granola.

 

Sadly, my cupboard raiding also brought me to this:

NO! My Chocolate Amazing Grass powder has officially come to its end. When I first tried this stuff I wasn’t exactly wowed but eventually I came to love it! (Best = mixed into overnight oats) But alas, it is no more. And likely won’t be for a while (This stuff is pricey!).

 

Kitchen raiding helped me rediscover these gems I bought a little while ago at an Asian market.

Vegetarian curry chicken. I know it says it’s vegetarian…and I know the ingredients say they’re made from soy… but I swear these HAVE to be chicken. They’re even pinkish on the inside!

Either way, they’re delicious. And I’m not a vegetarian so I wouldn’t be devastated if they secretly were chicken.

I’ve been eating them atop big bowls of kale… and just by the handful.

 

And when you’re at work and don’t have a kitchen to raid – eat sweets.

[So I said I’ve been hardly employed. That’s because I still work at a motorcycle shop. For my dad – I’m the pro bookkeeper. But it’s only once, maybe twice a week because I’m just so pro that I get everything done way too fast ;)]

Two-day old Timbits are fair game. The blueberry ones stay surprisingly fresh! I still haven’t decided if this is a good thing…

Clif bars are great in situations of desperate hunger. Luckily I keep one stashed in my car at all times. Or did. This was the emergency one. I guess I better restock or I’ll be plum of out of luck during my next gnaw arm off scenario.

Myoplex Lite bars are…less great.

Good in a pinch but let’s be honest, hardcore protein bars just aren’t that good in general. I have yet to try one that doesn’t taste at least somewhat fake and chalky. I’ll stick with Clif, Larabar or plain old granola bars for my emergency snacks.

 

But my ideal snacks come from the fridge rather than the depths of my purse or glove compartment. I’m not a huge bar eater if I’m at home.

But a smoothie in a cone?

Yes please. I’ll take two. Or five. Or just keep refilling the cone until the last drop of smoothie has been drunk.

(I saw this genius idea on some blog at some point during the past month or so. LOVE it.)

But if I’m not feeling the scoop and slurp, smoothie in a glass will always do.

 

And if I’m not feeling bars OR liquids –

Fruits, veggies, cheese…

…and mass handfuls of tortilla chips dunked into salsa and zucchini guacamole all make for excellent snacks as well.

 

Do you find that the less you’re doing, the less you tend to want to do?
I sure do. When I don’t have enough to fill my time, I get more drained and have less energy and motivation than when I’m keeping busy. It’s a vicious cycle and it sure isn’t very rewarding. Coffee, sunshine, long walks, long bike rides and good workouts in general definitely help though.

If you could pick only ONE snack to eat for the rest of the month, what would it be?
I’m thinking smoothies since they’re filling and summer appropriate. But I’ll cheat a little and say smoothie in a cone or smoothie topped with cereal since I need a little crunch in there too for optimal snacking satisfaction.

The Sore Leg Mystery

I’m a Treadhead – I do most of my running on the treadmill. And by most I mean basically all. The scenery isn’t all that gorgeous but the ground is smooth and the weather is amazingly consistent. I’ve also never been chased by an angry dog, lucky me!

For the past little while though, running suddenly got hard. Much harder than usual. My legs have been way more tired, sluggish and sore than ever before. And I’m not a new member to the Treadhead clan. What gives?

I didn’t get it. Maybe I was somehow suddenly overexerting myself? Maybe I wasn’t stretching as much or as often as I used to? Maybe my legs suddenly decided they just hated running?

Or MAYBE (Hello Genius) it’s those cheap ass $30 runners with zero support, cushioning, or any kind of comfort whatsoever that you picked up at Costco a few months ago just because they were so darn cheap and why not have an extra pair of runners for the heck of it, just in case. Except somehow I managed to transition those “just in case” runners into my regular, everyday runners and have been using them on every single run for the past several months. This  realization only popped into my head a couple days ago. Several months of leg pain and more difficult runs…several months of wearing cheap ass shoes…Coincidence?

Perhaps.

But there’s only one way to find out…

…by taking my brand new (gel cushioned!) Asics runners for (many a) test run!

When I first put these shoes on, it was like I had never experienced running shoes before. I knew my cheap ass runners lacked comfort but wearing these made those seem like they were made out of cardboard.

I don’t know for sure if these are going to magically make my legs feel less stiff and sore like they currently do all the time… but I have a good feeling that I’m going to just FLY on that tready tomorrow. Holla New Shoes! Here’s to much more enjoyable runs to come.

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And on a not-so-running-related note…I have a large and in charge backlog of food pictures from this past week (and a bit beyond).  

Wanna see?

 

It’s that APPLE time of year. Holla Gala. I love my Galas.

Bananas topped with nut butter and sweet potato mixes are good too, but they don’t need a special time of year. Well neither do apples, but… whatever.

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring…banana bowl.

But some mornings you just gotta go for the chocolate. The Deep Chocolate Vitatop that is. Stuffed with Mighty Maple and strawberries atop a bed of plain yogurt and more strawberries? Don’t mind if I do.

 

New food try – Pasta Slim.  Kinda like those Shirataki noodle things only slightly less fishy-stenched. Rinse, rinse, rinse.

Mix with marinara, mushrooms, spinach, Frank’s and chili powder. CHOMP. I also suggest cutting the noodles up beforehand, those things are long.

Or you could go the even cheaper mock-pasta route and spaghetti squash it up. Especially if you load it with broccoli, black beans, marinara sauce and feta.

Or with spinach, black beans, marinara, Frank’s and hummus!

Make any Rice Burgers lately? Why not top ‘em with a slice of melted Allegro cheese and dijon mustard?

Need a work snack? Take advantage of a FREE Sample.

 

Don’t forget to eat your veggies, kids.

Sometimes I eat my salads with oodles of noodles.

Or oodles of chickpeas, though that doesn’t have quite the same ring…ring ring ring ring ring ring…

If I’m feeling extra fancy, sometimes I top my salads with firm tofu mashed with a sauce of peanut butter, hoisin sauce and Sriracha (Just look how fancy I can get).

Or if I’m not, then I’ll use some jarred marinara on plain chunks of tofu. Those other white shrively things are roasted kohlrabi ‘fries’. I dig.

More than just sometimes, I often dress my greens in cottage cheese (and honey mustard dressing). But too much cottage cheese did some serious damage to my interiors the other day and now I’m not buying it for a while. Not nice, dairy.

If you’re extra lazy, or rushed, or you just don’t like your greens, you could always drink them. As long as it’s alongside hot and lovely coffee or warm beverage of choice, otherwise you might freeze to death. Hey, it’s Fall, it’s cold out now!

You can even drink your fruit now too! Who woulda thunk it.

And if you’re still cold from drinking up all of your fruits and vegetables (clearly you didn’t have enough coffee), then you could just make a Deep Dish Veggie Tart for dinner to warm you from the inside out. Or outside in. Or… both I guess?

Your fam might not love it… and you might want to follow the instructions and actually search down that whole wheat pastry flour it calls for rather than settling for regular whole wheat flour so that you’ll end up with a more appropriate crust-like crust…

but I liked it quite a lot. Even though it fell apart and looked like a sludge pile. A very tasty sludge pile.

Plenty more leftovers for me!

 

And speaking of leftovers… I have some of those homework-style leftovers to attend to before hitting the hay. Though I may have to save those for tomorrow’s meal. I’m kinda stuffed right now.

 

How often do you replace your runners? Do you invest in a good pair or just grab a pair of cheapies? – Don’t! Seriously, those things will kill your legs.

The Run, The Birthday, The Mailbox

What happens when the sun is shining and the weather is hot and you’re in a mini workout rut and you are pumped with a sudden and unexpected jolt of inspiration?

You tie up your running shoes, pop in your headphones, close the front door and hit the pavement for your first outdoor run EVER. And by your I mean my. And okay, not my first EVER. I had to do mini runs on my own time for gym goals way back in the beginnings of high school and I’ve done a couple short-lived night runs in the not-so-near past but this was my first full-fledged, solo, outside of my immediate neighbourhood, “I feel like a real runner” run.

It was hot, it was sweaty, and it was glorious.

I’ve been a dreaded prisoner of my treadmill for far too long, and although it has served me well and will continue to do so often, I needed to overcome my (ridiculous and unnecessary) fear or taking my strides outside and somehow, some way, I was finally ready for it. And I did it. And it wasn’t nearly as scary or as difficult as I thought it would be. I only went for about half an hour but I was really HOOFING it and it was really hot out. And I had no idea how long my intended route would end up taking (since, you know, I’d never actually ran any kind of outdoor route before) but I plugged it into mapmyrun and got a good 4.5 miles in so… Go Me!

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Aside from all that running excitement, there was another very important event that went down this week –

 My Mom’s Birthday

This special lady turned the ripe young age of 35 ( or somewhere around there… ;) ) on Tuesday and our mini fam jam celebrated with what else but pizza and cake.

The pizza was compliments a tiny local restaurant with a menu chalk full of delicious gourmet thin crust pizzas.

My choice: whole wheat crust topped with tomato sauce, goat cheese, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes and asparagus.

Mom’s: Whole wheat crust with pesto, feta, sundried tomatoes and olives. Perfection minus the olives.

Broski: Chicken parmesan with not-so-tasty spaghetti that was sweet and tasted like black licorice. Weird?

And for dessert?

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake with rhubarb fresh from the garden. Rhubarb desserts seem to be popping up left, right and centre at the moment so clearly we had to take part in the rhubarb loving mayhem.  

Not complete with cool and creamy vanilla ice cream of course.  

Happy Birthday Mom!

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Another thrill of the week – A special delivery in my mailbox. Who doesn’t love those?

A little while ago I found out that I was the receiver of a bit of joyous luck. I won Miss Chocolate Covered Katie’s $50 iHerb shopping spree!

No way? Yes way!

Considering that decision making happens to be a great weakness of mine, trying to decide on the many many MANY product choices on the site was quite the task. But I tackled it with vigour and picked out a few items that I’ve been wanting to try for a while now.

Amazing Grass Green Super Food, Bob’s Coconut Flour, Yogi Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut Tea, Clif ZBars (hehe), Biochem Whey Protein in Vanilla (had to try after all of April’s hype, though they had none of her fav chocolate in the smaller container!), plus a few free goodies thrown in.

I have to say, shopping with iHerb was a joy! Aside from the overwhelmingly lovely selection, they were super helpful and the delivery was quick and painless. So a huge thanks for Katie for hosting the giveaway (you’re a doll!) and Abby at iHerb for all of the help!

 

And all that other food stuff

When you order massive sized gourmet pizzas all for yourself on your Mother’s birthday, you end up eating a lot of cold leftover pizza for the next few days at pretty much every meal.

Even breakfast. Along with egg whites with spinach, hot sauce and guac; leftover rhubarb slivers; banana.

Snackalacks. Am I alone in my addiction to wasabi peas? Because serious nose burn and all, I can take down fistfuls of these with no problem.

Anyone remember fruit leathers? I used to eat these at recess in elementary all the time. Sticky, icky and sweet. I found this probably 5 year old Fruit To Go in my food stash. I brought it for a work snack. Surprisingly great appetite quencher for 50 cals of miscellaneous fruit concentrates.

 

Now this is a good Kashi granola bar. Kashi Pumpkin Pie. Granola bar base, sweet chewy date topping. So delicious.  

Almost as delicious as my Brown Rice California Roll lunch. As much as restaurant sushi takes the cake, fresh grocery store sushi is still incredible, I’m not above it! You have to cover it in wasabi and ginger though, BEST way.

 

Hmm… what else was good this week?

You know those oats in a jar things? I ate one of those, only the improved version… OVERNIGHT oats in a jar.

Yes with Kraft Light. Don’t be hatin. Be lovin, very much.

Oats, almond milk, strained plain yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, flax, jam. PB on the bottom. Food love allllll the way through.

 

A word of recommendation. Don’t try to make hummus in a Magic Bullet. It’s very very difficult. Use a good processor or a heavy duty blender. I think I almost ran my Bullet right into the ground with this batch. I had to water it down a lot to get it to blend, which kind of killed the flavour. I might add some more spices and reblend later on.

I used this recipe. Even though the blend was a tough job, Greek yogurt ( I used strained yogurt) is a great idea!

Watered down hummus on my salad. And there’s that leftover pizza again.
(I wear my sunglasses at night lunch, so I can, so I can…)

Another recommendation: Top your steamed broccoli with salsa and feta. No explanation needed.

A third (and final) recommendation for the day: Make raspberry cake. Make it with the intention of giving it away to the staff at your mom’s work. But do not do so without ensuring to have a sample (or two or three) for yourself.

Old school recipe. Very simple. Not very healthy. Very tasty. We used to make this at my grandparent’s cottage a lot since we always had the ingredients on hand. Oh childhood memories.

Raspberry Cake

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1/3 cup milk

Mix butter, sugar, eggs. Sift flour and baking soda together and mix with batter. Mix in milk and raspberries.

Bake at 375 for 35 minutes in an 8×8 pan.

My mom whipped up the icing so I’m not quite sure what was in it, but I know there was icing sugar and butter. Any vanilla icing would do. Or no icing at all!

 

*I finally published a Rainbow Cake Page from my rainbow caked up birthday way back in March so be sure to check that out.

 

I hope you’ve all been enjoying this May 24 weekend!

Lilacs and Weekend Bullets

What’s better than breakfast with a side of fresh lilacs?

Breakfast with a side of fresh lilacs in a beer glass. Now that’s class.

I wish I could properly explain this breakfast but it was a mish mash mess if I’ve ever created one. Think fresh fruit (the most obvious part), a blob of yogurt mixed with cocoa powder, oats, wheat berries and flax (the brown thing); all surrounded by a puddle of leftover defrosted tea smoothie that I couldn’t finish drinking last night. It was pretty epic. But not epic enough since I also ate my weight in Yogi crisps and Vector cereal after this. I’m the biggest cereal crunch addict on the planet, no lie.

Along with lilacs, there was a side of girly novel with this breakfast. Anyone else read Confessions of a Shopaholic? I’m not much of a girly novel reader but I saw this in the library and I recalled that it was made into a movie (that I did not see) so I figured it must be good. I’m halfway through… aaand why was this made into a movie? It’s not bad per say but I wouldn’t rush to recommend it.

 

This weekend was kinda random. Think work, screaming tunes and tattoos, and new shopping ventures. Not too shabby.

The Weekend’s Noteworthy Bullets

• Oats make good early morning breakfasts. This deserves a duh if anything does. But I’m not talking stovetop this time. I’m talking when you need it quick and easy before thundering out the front door before work.

I’m talking oats in breakfast cookie form. This was a little too soft and a little too sweet (I blame it on the very ripe banana and my mediocre chocolate protein powder) but it was still an excitement for my morning palate.
My combo was rolled oats, splash of almond milk, chocolate protein powder, mashed banana and Sunbutter.

I’m also talking oats in instant oatmeal packet form. Reduced sugar maple flavour to be exact. With plain and blueberry yogurt stirred in. Didn’t love it (at least not nearly as much as stovetop) but good for a speedy morning starter.

 

 

• Bars make good AT WORK snacks. I don’t eat bars that much. I always look at them, I always want them, I often buy them and hoard and stash them. But I rarely eat them. This changes at work (or in other desperate pinch situations but even then I don’t often go the bar direction for some reason).

Larabars are ever present in my bar stash basket and in my purse. The Tropical Fruit is not my favourite. Too orangey. In taste, not in colour. I love the wrapper.

Kashi Soft Baked Cereal Bars are not my favourite either but they aiiiiight.

 

• Restaurant salads are infinitely better than grocery store salads. Case in point –>

El ristorante: Greek salad, no olives, plenty of feta, side of dressing, side of toasted pita. Beauty.

El Sobeys grocery: Greens with baby tomatoes and bocconcini. Light italian dressing. Weird dried seasonings sprinkled on top. Bitter leaves, icky seasonings. Ugly duckling.

The Diet Pepsi Lime was swell though.

 

• Cottage cheese containers don’t always contain cottage cheese.

Once in a while they contain Corn Bran, yogurt, cinnamon, frozen banana and dried apricots without a trace of cottage cheese.

Shaken, not stirred.

 

• In order to properly blend in at local music shows you must have stretched lobes, wear bandanas and band tees and have arm sleeve tattoos. I missed this memo when I went to a local band show on Friday night.

Totally not knocking the local music scene or the crowd though, I thought it was all pretty awesome and my serious lack of tattoage didn’t put me at too great a disadvantage. I stood at the outskirts of the moshing though, and opted out of the crowd surfing.

Maybe I should have pulled out my temp tattoo stash though and really outdone myself. I seriously have a mini love of tattoos. I don’t think I’d ever GET one (but I never say “Never”) but I do think they are pretty swell. When done well of course.

What do you think of tattoos, love em, hate em, have em, want em? I used to want one on the back of my neck way back when… probably a good thing that idea died pretty fast.

 

• Quick oats are good in a pinch but stovetop oats are far more superior and incredible any other time.

And these sure were incredible.
1/3 cup oats, 2/3 cup water, 1/3 cup almond milk, 1/2 very ripe banana, flax, all blended with a hand blender. Topped with Crofters jam and Sunbutter.

 

• I adore big salads. Um yeah, yeah I do. This is nothing new. and I also adore fresh fruit with Yogi crisps.

Stars of this salad show = steamed broc, Sabra roasted red pepper hummus and guac, side of FRESH bread with more hummus. I want more.

I wanted more of this too. Even after the 10 handfuls of fresh berries and 20 handfuls of Yogi crisps that were consumed before this bowl was put together.

 

• Shopping in a different city is infinitely more exciting than shopping in your own city.

Especially when the mall you go to has a Sephora. And you’ve never been inside a Sephora before in your life.

Holy overwhelming! This is all I bought. It has 4 lip colours, 6 eyeshadows and a bronzer. All for $20, what a steal. I didn’t know what else to buy because there was SO much stuff. Didn’t even know where to begin. I had fun browsing though. I think I’d need to tackle that store with a recommendations list in hand. Or a makeup expert shopping partner.

I also used some birthday money (my birthday was end of March. I always take forever to spend gift certificates and the like) to buy some new tops.

And a bamboo stalk (from Ikea!) for the sadly empty vase in my room. I killed my last bamboo baby by lack of watering. Oops.  

 

• Wendy’s Sucks.

Once upon a time I came to the conclusion that Wendy’s has the worst buns and worst chicken burgers ever. On the way home from shopping trip, dinner was a stop at Wendy’s. I forgot about past incident referred to above. I once again made the huge mistake of ordering the grilled chicken burger. And I consequently once again ate one of the worst fast food meals I’ve ever had. There was also a baked potato involved, which also happened to be one of the worst baked potatoes I’ve ever eaten. It didn’t even come with the chives!

Quality my butt. Wendy’s, you’re cut.

 

And it’s a new week. Where there will be NO Wendy’s eating in sight. Never again.
There will be other eating in sight though, exciting eating. BIRTHDAY eating as tomorrow is my mom’s birthday.
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY MOM!
We’re going out to dinner and I’m making something tasty for the post dinner sweet. Mmm.

Ta ta for now!