Food Hog Backlog

Several weeks and several thousands of bites later, I have a photo or twenty that finally feel like making their way out into the open. I figured I’d help them along.

You know that whole Quest bar trend, and how everyone says they’re “omgbestbaryou’llevereatever!”?

Maybe not the best idea to buy an on sale, almost expired Quest bar online as your first attempt at jumping on that bandwagon. I nearly chipped two molars. These bars do not hold up well stale.

(For the record, I’ve tried a fresher variety with much better results, though not totally sold on their holy grail-ness just yet.)

This Perfect Fit Protein bar was also a new try, luckily with some easy on the teeth results. Tastes a lot like a chocolate chip Larabar.

Visible chocolate chips right in there, I’m sold.

I’ve had a few Greek salads this past month, a hardcore Kristie favourite, clearly. Minus the olives. ALWAYS minus the olives. Yet I still try to eat one every.single.time. Why? Apparently after a certain number of tries, you can learn to like a food. I’ve tried olives many many times. If it hasn’t happened by now, it ain’t gonna happen. 

Salads (non-Greek) that include pictures before I demolished them:

Sauteed kale, runny egg and squash with…. blackcurrant dijon mustard? What don’t they put in mustard these days?

Everything’s better with Greek yogurt.… except my skin. I’ve noticed a direct correlation between the state of my breakouts and the amount of yogurt I’m eating. That and throat clearing. Yep, I’m that annoying “ehem hem, HEM cough hem” person. Unfortunately this means I don’t buy it all that much anymore. Yet I still manage to crave it every day. EVERY day. Geez dairy, why you gotta be so mean?

Whey protein in smoothies seems to be hit or miss. Sometimes it destroys my stomach, sometimes it’s just dandy. So I still frequently experiment with different kinds/brands etc.

I ordered a few tasty protein samples online to try from CanadianProtein.com (Still working through them).

I also heard great things about this North Coast Naturals Whey Protein Isolate so I’ve been having that in my breakfast smoothies a lot lately. Big fan of this one and it seems to be just fine on my stomach so we’re looking at a repeat purchase from this brand.

There was also a time, a couple weeks ago, when I ate only fruit for a few days (in this case, tomatoes + avocados = fruit).

Felt nice and clean at that particular moment, but ultimately didn’t do much for me other than make me eat my weight in peanut butter and pumpkin-shaped cheeseballs mere days later.

Banana Granola Peanut Butter? Come on, Kraft, you’re killing me. No one person needs to consume this much peanut butter in two days (it almost happened). I’ve currently enabled a temporary peanut butter ban. It hurts, but so does sitting in can’tbreathtight jeans all day. And I apparently have no self-control.  Cold turkey it is!

And yes I did make a cheeseball in the shape of a pumpkin on a spider webbed plate for Halloween. Oh you fancy huh.

And now I’m working at home alongside the scents of Cider Lane while trying to stay warm in my freezing cold household and contemplating how realistic it would be to attempt a sugar cut down right before the holiday season. My sweet tooth is taking over my sanity. It’s getting bad. Like “I just ate stale marshmallows and don’t even like marshmallows” bad. Whomp whomp.

At least it’s Friday!

Festivus Turkeyvus

This weekend marked the pass of another lovely Canadian Thanksgiving and Oktoberfesting holiday. Four relaxing days filled with family, gorgeous weather, beer and your typical turkey and stuffing feast.

I regrettably can’t say I took any photos of the feasting, or the festing.

Is it crazy to say that, with the #Instagram #trending#phase, it seems as though #pointandshoots #reallifecameras#digitalphotography are becoming obsolete?! Okay, maybe not obsolete, but I feel practically ancient whenever I pull out my non cellphone camera.

Clearly I need a cell phone upgrade.

Side note over. Everyone knows what a turkey looks like anyway, right?

[Photo from here. How cute are these!]

I can show you some of the vibrant sunflowers present for decoration.

I can show you the type of sheer joy that Oktoberfest evokes. And I can say that, although there have been some years past in which this holiday hasn’t ended up being quite as lovely as I would have hoped, THIS year was a flawless treat. Made going back to the grind this morning extra tough! And also reinforced how thankful I am to have such a wonderful family :).

While I didn’t manage to have anything turkey dinner inspired to show, I do have a few other funky eats from recent days worth noting. 

The computer tech guy at work brought steamed pork and shrimp buns to share with us one Saturday afternoon, and tried to overload my stomach with these greasy, chewy pillows. He succeeded. So many delicious steamed buns were had that day.

The next weekend, I stuck to a salad. Chicken and berries complements of the grocery store produce section.

I’ve also been experimenting with some eggplant. We have some Babaganooch dip, which I hate to say I’m not sure where the recipe came from (I had it jotted down in a note in my documents), but is essentially a Baba ganoush recipe with a “cheesy” twist from the addition of nutritional yeast.

And then we have some baba ghanoush SOUP (prepped and frozen to reheat on a rainy musthavesoupnow kinda day) from Eat, Live, Run. Get it HERE.

Or how about a giant pan of pearl barley, lentils, chickpeas, onion, zucchini and cherry tomatoes, simmered in vegetable broth? Simple, bland according to my family, but delicious according to me. Guess we know who’s eating these leftovers for lunches!

Naturally I’m now buying squash at every grocery trip. Feast your eyes on this perfectly dry, crumbly specimen. They seem to be really hit and miss for me (not a fan of the mushy, watery ones) but this one below is exactly what I was aiming for.

Even though the oven has been getting a good workout, there’s still enough warmth left in the air to keep the green smoothies in regular rotation.

As long as they’re paired with hot, black coffee, of course.

That being said, their status has been slowly bumped down from daily staple, and oatmeal is starting to make an appearance. The fact that I ran out protein powder probably had something to do with this as well.

And one final food winner of the week? These sweet & salty popchips. I waited patiently enough to spot these in stores, and nabbed them at first sight. Worth it. 

And there we have it – Some noteworthy eats, an especially noteworthy holiday weekend… and a shortened week ahead. Woop!

Happy (belated) (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

What’s So Special About That?

Well well well. What do we have here?

“Alright, it’s a Clif bar. And?”

Just note the ‘NEW’. And the flavour name – Coconut Chocolate Chip. THAT…that is special.

THIS Vega Vanilla Almondilla protein powder? $10 bucks off at Rexall with an in-store coupon. Savvy shopping (or good in-store sign reading) ForTheWin.

THIS was my first roasted kabocha/buttercup (I’ll never truly figure out the difference between the two) of the Fall season. Massacred and thrown on top of a spinach bed. And boy, was it good.

THIS is just a plate of steamed broccoli and spinach, sweet potato and egg sautéed in coconut oil. However, it was my first time sautéing in coconut oil and that makes this an extra special dish.

THIS is a smoothie. But not just any smoothie, a smoothie made with… Frozen strawberries, red bell pepper, apple, lemon and a pinch of cayenne.

I get the green/vegetable juice thing, and the green juice with fruit added thing. That’s not new, and as much as the body might love it, it’s not really that special. But something about strawberries + red pepper seemed extra strange. And in this glass, strange is special. We like strawberry and red pepper strange. Strawberry and red pepper is a refreshing, good strange.

THIS? This is a wrap. But not just any wrap. (Aside from the fact that it looks like a murder scene…) It’s a wrap that contains egg whites, salsa, sriracha and “cheese”. But not just any cheese (I feel like I’m getting repetitive…), nacho-flavoured fake cheese made from tofu! I’d never dabbled in the faux vegan cheese world before, but when it hits me in the face with a bright pink 50% sticker, I will take the plunge, expiry date looming or not.

And the taste? Quite like a firm, cheesy flavoured tofu? It’s interesting, but I’m kinda digging it.

It was also made on these new-to-me Joseph’s Flax, Oat Bran and Whole Wheat Tortillas. For a good-sized tortilla with only 70 calories a pop, I’d buy these on the regular if they were sold in grocery stores (But alas, they are not, and I ordered them online).

And that was the Monday edition of special eats, sure not to become a repeat Monday special, but special enough for this particular Monday.

What’s on the menu for tomorrow?
A big, heaping plate of fresh OCTOBER! #newmonthlove

Vroom Vroom

How do you jump casually back into a blog that’s been neglected for months at a time, sustained by hardly a bi-yearly crumb?

Just like this…

So it was a weekend. A three-day weekend to be exact. What a deal!

Friday was right about the perfect day to be free of the indoor work world. Warm but fresh temperatures, clear blue skies, wispy, picturesque clouds (aren’t I visual?) – conditions that could only be soaked up properly with a nice long trail walk to start off the day.

 Post walk “glow” and some al fresco fuelling, then mission #2 of the day – Car shopping.

Can’t lie… car shopping is a chore! Especially when you’re used to driving decade-old vehicles. Oh my precious clunkers… this whole process has made me a stress ball. Then again, let’s be honest…that’s nothing out of the ordinary.

Played with a few photo effects along the country roads while heading to my car browsing destination. Who needs $$$ camera lenses when your point-and-shoot can do the FISH EYE?

While car browsing, I found myself a cute little peppy ride that I kind of loved and kind of hemmed and hawed over… a lot. Decisions, decisions.

My brain worked hard and all that thinking activity needed some re-energization via Costco’s chicken fajita thin crust pizza (and by thin I mean thin. This was essentially on a tortilla. Fitting with the fajita theme I suppose)  and kale salad.

The rest of the weekend was a non-threatening and non-destructive whirlwind of working at my “side gig” (Hi Dad :)), gym time, clothes shopping, car test driving, and wearing my vocal cords thin with incessant chatter about car choice pros and cons. I had two final, neck and neck contenders who were both throwing a mighty series of punches. My family is likely already dreading the next time I have to make some moderately large life decision. Sorry fam!

Naturally there was lots of smoothie action in the long weekend mix. Two protein powders in one shake….living on the wild side.

So my long weekend came and went, I changed my mind 2074 times, and after many a sleepless night (Okay just one. And it was more like a sleepless hour, but it felt long), I finally purchased a car and finished up the million other steps that went along with it. If all goes well, I should have it pedal to the medalled by tomorrow evening, and I’ll no longer have to drive around fearing that the whole bottom of my car is going to fall out upon every hit pothole.

So why does my chest still feel like it’s being crushed by a large concrete block?! Introducing some kind of mediation routine into my life might not be the worst thing I could do for myself…

This week, I also happened to start a seven day “cleanse” that involves a lot of fruit, vegetables and protein. I’ve done it before and felt great. Not been feeling so great lately, so no time like the present to see what kind of magic bucketloads of nutrients can do again.

That being said, last time I was all about sticking to it to a T. This time I’m much (much) more lax.

Monday was fruit day. So I ate 2x my weight in fruit….

…and some leftover egg noodles at lunch. And some roasted chicken at dinner. Wait…chicken’s not a fruit?! My mistake…

Whoever thought starting a cleanse the same week as making a large decision was a good idea (umm…I guess that’d be me) is severely cracked. Chicken becomes fruit, french fries become vegetables (hey, at least they were baked), and little chocolatey balls made of dried fruit and nuts become… shoved down pie hole with reckless abandon.

But even with chocolate balls, and french fries…and sugary peanut butter…. I’m still eating ridiculous amounts of fresh stuff for the majority of my intake. At least Monday to Wednesday so far.

Drive along and cleanse on!