Peeps and Easter Treats

Question 1 – How is it April already?

Question 2 – How is it EASTER already?!

Now there are many many great things about this lovely holiday, but I have a few winners of the moment:

Purple Peeps

Mass amounts of chocolate eggs

Purple Peeps + Chocolate Eggs + Banana Bread = The Easter “S’more” –  Microwaved until one melty sugary mess of delicious. It’s not gross I swear!

Super Cute Bunnies are kind of up there too :)

I had a not Easter centered but delicious family dinner thing at my Dad’s last night and we’re doing a small turkey dinner at home tomorrow (Monday) night.

What have you done for Easter?

 

The last several days have been filled mainly with not-so-lovely essay writing, sunny and HOT days (it’s been basically summer weather… at the beginning of April!), and plenty of procrastination-inspired snacking of course.

Costco has been helping me in the snacks department by supplying the best, freshest dried fruit ever. I have a feeling I’ve brought these Sun-Ripened Mixed Dried Fruit up before but they’re awesome. Buy them if you see them.

Iced Coffee also makes a good snack, although Costco doesn’t help with that one.

But aside from my mass apple consumption, I think yogurt messes win in the snack department. Standard mix-ins include any or all of: cereal, frozen fruit, dried fruit, cocoa powder, flax, peanut butter.

Aside from all the snacking, my meals have been pretty standard.

I made a sweet bowl of blended oats the other day after being reminded about their existence while reading Katie’s blog. Standard banana oats cooked stovetop style, blended in the Bullet and topped with a drizzle of light coconut milk mixed with SF maple syrup.

And the Chocolate Vitatop made a breakfast appearance this week.
Or did it?

Heck yes it did. Seriously, if you haven’t mashed your vitatops into big bowls of plain (or ANY) yogurt then you’re missing out and you should get on that asap.

 

Squash made it on the menu a few times this week. I finally made some butternut squash fries for the first time in ages. Missed these babies! Filled out with some baked bbq tempeh and the mandatory raw veggie sides.

 

And more squash love.

Wow. On Friday I actually spy a bit of leftover squash at every meal. New record?!

Breakfast squash

Lunch squash – and the day was warm enough to eat OUTSIDE. I don’t believe it.

Dinner squash (and the LAST of that stash)

 

And THIS is why my hands are orange.  

A couple non-hand-tinting meals happened.

Steamed broccoli with warm hummus/pasta sauce mix.

A TRADER JOE’S meal. What…In CANADA?
My lovely friend Emily sent me a package in the mail that included this delicious Indian Jaipur Vegetables meal.  I cooked up some cabbage slaw and steamed broccoli in a splash of broth and topped it all with this mix. Easiest meal ever, and so good! Who’s going to relocate a Trader Joe’s into Ontario for me?

Less Indian (and thus less exciting) veg bowls also happened.

Though the fact that this one was loaded with feta cheese bumps it up two notches.

That is all I’ve got for now so I’m off to prep for my Easter weekend celebrating aka retro night dancing. I may have a class at 9:30 tomorrow morning to make up for the missed day of classes due to Good Friday and I may have no choice but to attend that class because I have a large essay due but that’s not going to stop me from celebrating a long weekend Sunday tonight!

Happy Easter!

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