Ice Is Nice

I have watched many hours of ice sports on TV this weekend. It was a hockey & figure skating extravaganza! It’s making me long to get back out there myself. Oh skating, why you gotta be so expensive?

I started my Sunday morning…well….with very little morning left. Oops! Breakfast basically turned into lunch.

I went with a bowl of Matcha Green Tea Goji Oatmeal.

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1 tbsp Ruth’s Chia Goodness cereal
• 1 tbsp dried goji berries
• 3/4 tsp matcha powder
• Artisana Coconut Butter
• sliced almonds

And a glass of cranberry pomegranate juice.

Dining on the living room rug? Nah, it was just for photography purposes

After enjoy breakfast, figure skating, and catching up on blogging, I made my way outside for a walk with my mom. We only had to endure a short rain storm, and made it home relatively dry. I was needing a little snack by then – bring on the yogurt mess!

Plain, non-fat yogurt, quince compote, pomegranate seeds, and the end of a jar of macadamia nut butter.

Oh, how I’d forgotten how amazing that macadamia nut butter is. I may have to break down and shell out the dough for a new jar one day soon.

Then I had a date with Jillian Michaels and her No More Trouble Zones. I just needed to get some serious sweat on. By the time I was done that, dinner was on the table.

Starting with a wee pour of red wine, leftover from my parent’s social evening last night.

We had baked pork chops with stuffing.

A baked potato with sour cream, a little bit of buttah, and pepper.

And steamed asparagus.

Fun Sunday night dinner.

I followed dinner with a (blurry) piece of dark chocolate.

Then it was time to watch hockey, be disappointed in my team’s loss, and watch the rest of the skating I had taped. So good – I’m excited for Canada’s chances for some figure skating hardware at the Olympics.

Snacky hunger came a calling, and I answered with a piece of cinnamon toast – Silver Hills Squirrelly bread, buttah, brown sugar, and a crap ton of cinnamon.

Plus a mug of Stash Decaf Vanilla Creme Nut tea with almond milk.

Cinnamon toast totally reminds me of being a kid.

And now my mom is watching the skating I taped, so I’m going to go enjoy it again – it was just that good! Night!

Here Comes The Rain Again

Oh, what a wet and rainy Sunday. Typical fall weather here in BC. And they are calling for it to rain all through the week. I think we are supposed to get something like 30 – 40 millimetres (or 3 – 4 cm, around 2 inches) of rain each day for the next 3 days. Better get out your umbrellas!

I enjoyed my usual lazy sleep in morning, then got up to have some breakfast.

It started with a bowl of Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

A piece of Silver Hills “The Big 16” bread toasted, and topped with peanut butter and grape jelly.

And a glass of cranberry juice.

Cereal and toast reminds me of breakfasts as a kid.

This completely satisfied my breakfast wishes, but I probably should have had a smaller bowl of cereal. I’m off to a lunch at my cousin’s house in a little while, and I have a feeling I’ll still be full from this! Oops!

Time to go make myself presentable.

Time To Relax

I’m almost positive I will get to enjoy a truly relaxing weekend. I have minimal school work that needs my attention, no definite plans other than a lunch tomorrow, and hockey on TV tonight. Sounds lovely to me.

I started off this weekend right with sleeping in and chocolatey oats.

Not just chocolatey, but chocolate peanut butter banana oats to be exact.

• 1/2 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1 banana, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• peanut butter
• chocolate chips
• 2 crumbled peanut butter covered pretzels

With a glass of cranberry juice.

Chocolate oats just seem more appropriate on weekends, no?

The addition of the peanut butter covered pretzel bits was fun. I found them in the back of the cupboard. How sad I had forgotten about them for so long.

I think I’m going to head out for a walk, seeing as the gym is out of the question. Plus there seems to be a break in the rain, so now’s my chance! Later.

Commuter Chaos

Well, getting to school this morning sure turned into an adventure!

I started my morning off like any other Thursday morning, with a bowl of oatmeal.

• 1/2 cup oats, almond milk, water
• frozen blueberries
• 1 tbsp Ruth’s Chia Goodness
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• Artisana Coconut Butter
• raw cacao nibs

Gratuitous coconut butter shot!

With a glass of Oasis Black Currant Elderberry juice.

I packed my lunch, got presentable, and hitched a ride to the train with my sister per usual. As I was going up the escalator, there was a transit person who was talking to someone on his radio, and I overheard something about a fire and buses being diverted, but wasn’t sure where it was, so I got on the train, and headed to the usual station to catch the bus out to UBC.

When I get to the station, the line ups waiting for the UBC bus are massive! We stand there for a good 10 min, and no buses come. The express bus to UBC comes at least every 5 min, if not more, during rush hour, so that was weird. I call home to see if mom has heard anything on the news, and apparently there is a huge fire on the street that the bus takes out to the school, the road is closed, power is out, yadda, yadda. Great. So I hop back on the train, head into downtown, and catch another bus out to the school. Amazingly, I made it to class on time!

A psychology lecture later, and I was on my break. Unfortunately, I had to spend the majority of it meeting up with my group to work on our third presentation for last week, so I had no time to post I did snag some food photos outside in the sunshine though before said meeting

I brought along some leftover mac & cheese, making sure to get plenty of the cheesy crust.

Some carrot and cucumber slices, plus a few medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter. I didn’t want to dirty another container, so I put them all together.

Too bad the peanut butter escaped from the medjools!

I also had a sub par gala apple that I saved for an afternoon snack. I think it was a bit old

Lunchity lunch.

I totally meant to bring some hummus with me for those veggies, but I forgot. Since all that pb escaped the medjools, I used that to dip some of my carrots in. Mmmm, I forgot how good carrot + pb tastes.

Our 4 hour afternoon class was shortened to 3 hours, since 80% of the class had a chem midterm right afterwards. Works for me, I get to go home early. Early enough that I was able to sit down and eat dinner with the family even.

Dinner featured a roasted pork tenderloin, with a little mango chutney for dipping.

Roasted acorn squash, with the standard squash topping in my family – cheddar cheese.

And a mish mash of steamed veggies. Mom was cleaning out all the little bits in the fridge, so there was broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and mushrooms.

Such a nice dinner to come home to.

I had big plans to do some yoga this evening, but I was feeling too wiped out for some reason. So I just relaxed in front of the tv with Sienna. I also enjoyed a little snack.

Plain, non-fat yogurt, peanut butter, grape jelly, and Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax granola. Hit the spot!

2 things on the exciting news front:

• I officially start volunteering at my local hospital on Monday in the Diabetes Clinic.
• I also got my schedule for my volunteer shifts at the Winter Olympics. I’m working at the hockey arena, and guess what? I’m on shift for the Men’s Gold Medal Hockey Game!! WOO! Here’s hoping I’ll be working somewhere where I’ll be able to see a bit. So exciting!

Time to hit the sack – one more day to get through this week. Night!

Catching Up

I feel like I’m catching up on so many things now that my crazy week is over. Like emails, blog reading, and sleep! Boy, was I exhausted today. It’s always so fascinating how you can go on minimal sleep when you really have to, and as soon as that time is over, you just crash like you haven’t slept in years. That is how I felt all day today.

I managed to get up this morning and myself a nice breakfast though, because I knew I had a long day ahead.

• 1/2 cup oats, milk, water
• frozen blackberries
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• slivered almonds

We were out of juice this morning! NOOOO! I made some vanilla black tea with a splash of almond milk.

I even brew up some tea to take to school with me. It was just one of those days – cold, dark, rainy. Plus I wanted that little caffeine to keep me going.

Biochem was interesting today – our prof was dressed up like Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was pretty funny. Of course, I didn’t clue in that hey, he’s probably doing that for Hallowe’en until this afternoon. Yes, I was that tired.

Even though all I wanted to do was go home and sleep, I had a job to do, so I bussed/trained over to my sister’s workplace and spent the rest of my day doing inventory in their warehouse. They brought in pizza for lunch, so I had a couple slices (something with veggies, and something with chicken, mushrooms, and peppers). I may have dug into the Hallowe’en candy stash a couple times while I was there as well

Once home, I tried to keep my eyes open for awhile, but finally gave in, and had a 3 hour long nap. I totally missed dinner with my family, and missed most of the hockey game (we lost, so not the end of the world). And I missed out on hitting up the gym like I wanted to. Obviously though, if I was that tired, the gym wouldn’t have been a good idea anyways.

I did throw together a little something to eat. I’ll admit it – my food choices weren’t spectacular today, but that’s life. No reason to get worked up over it, right?

Deli sandwich – kasier roll, ham, turkey, havarti cheese, mustard, dill dip. Plain potato chips on the side.

I considered adding lettuce, but just wasn’t feeling it. No point in eating something if it’s not going to be enjoyable.

I figured I should attempt to ingest a little more plant material today, so I heated up a chopped red pear to make a faux pear crisp.

• chopped red pear
• craisins
• cinnamon
• brown sugar
• granola
• pecans

It was a very juicy pear, so it almost became more of a soup than a crisp. Still delicious though

Later on again, I gave in and had some chocolate. Damn brownie cupcakes, why you gotta be so tasty?

Like the festive jack-o-lantern in the background? I’m not sure who carved it – either my mom or sister.

And speaking of Hallowe’en – I got a little card in the mail from Miss Gliding Calm!

I love it! I think it’s the first Hallowe’en greeting I’ve ever gotten. Thanks girl!

This blogger needs to hit the sack – I’m back at work tomorrow bright and early, for more fun inventory. I hear we get Chinese food for lunch, and you all know how much I love that. Night!

Another Marathon Day

Wake up time: 6:30 am

Time out the door: 7:30 am

Time home from school: 9:15 pm

Bed time: ASAP!

These marathon days are just killing me! Especially when they involve projects and presentations. I feel like such a bore in my posts lately, but school is taking it’s toll on my brain.

I started off my morning with a bowl of cereal – mostly because I was cooking up something for lunch, so I didn’t want to cook oats as well.

It was a mix of Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise, Peanut Butter Puffins, and Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax granola, topped with pomegranate seeds, and drowning in a sea of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

A glass of cranberry juice paired nicely with the cereal mess.

I’m starting to run low on acceptable cereals now! Oh no!

*insert psychology lecture on altered states of consciousness*

Then I made myself comfortable to map out what I was going to say in my presentation later on this afternoon, and to chow on some lunch.

What’s in the thermos you may be asking? Well, I made up a little pasta dish featuring the wild rice pasta I bought a little while back. I cooked some up this morning, then mixed it with some leftover chicken, peas, corn, red onion, shredded carrot, parmesan cheese, and Annie’s Organic Green Garlic Dressing.

Honestly, I could even detect any difference between the wild rice pasta and regular wheat pasta. I’d totally eat it again.

There was also an apple.

And for a snack later, I brought two leftover blueberry pancakes with peanut butter inside.

They kinda looked like tacos, folded in half like that. Pancake tacos!

I sort of wish we had pancakes, with leftovers, more often. What a great little snack idea

Then we had our class with our presentations. It went fine, and we got a higher mark than on the last one. Considering I wasn’t even sure the presentation was going to get completed yesterday, I was glad to see we’d still improved. But – some of the comments on our evaluation irked me, so I really hope we fix them for our next presentation.

I totally toyed with the idea of going home after my class, because I was just so drained, but there was a "Meet The Dietitian" night at the school, so I figured I should go. It was actually really interesting, and I am glad I went. They had 3 community dietitians in to answer questions. It was great to hear about their experiences working in the community, since there is so much focus on the clinical aspect through school and the internship. Even though I’m aware of many of the different areas one can get into once they are an RD, they still brought some more to my attention.

I also met up with Bronwyn at the session, and the wonderful person she is, brought me a whole wheat fig scone she had baked. It tasted great, and was a good snack to keep me from gnawing my arm off before I got home from school Thanks Bronwyn!

*insert transit ride home, where I nodded off on the train, and was this close to missing my stop*

Dad informs me on the ride home from the train that they had KFC for dinner. Booo-urns. So I know I’m going to be scrounging for food when I get home. I totally thought there were some perogies in the freezer, and got myself psyched up to eat them. Alas, when I open the freezer, I find out there are gone. Apparently they were "eaten ages ago". I pout, open cupboards, complain to my family there is no food in the house, then lie on the couch for awhile feeling cranky. I contemplated just going to bed, but I was to hungry. Back to the kitchen to come up with something…

Sesame bagel with cheddar cheese, cucumber slices, dill dip. Something about a cheese sammy. I just love it!

Of course, I realized I still had a chunk of vegan brownie leftover from my volunteer shift on Monday, so I made a fro-yo sundae.

Vanilla frozen yogurt, crumbled brownie, chocolate chips, coconut. I swear, there is actually fro-yo under there!

It was obviously amazing. Even if it left me chilled afterwards.

My eyes are totally getting droopy, so I guess I should sleep. Not only do I have my one, early class tomorrow morning, but I have a job tomorrow! That pays money! My sister’s work is doing inventory this weekend, and they need help, so she got me in for three days worth of work. And they order in lunch for all the staff when doing inventory. Woohoo! It’ll be nice to have some spending cash pay bills.

Anyways, I sleep now. Night!

Information Overload

I am so over homework today. And yet, my homework is definitely not over

I’ve spent an excessive amount of time cramming psychology information in there, mixed in with some food ethics readings and discussions. But I finally dragged myself away from my workspace (the dining room table, much to my mother’s dismay), and down to my other computer, which I am keeping free of anything homework related, at least for the time being. That way, blogging is more fun

After some much needed sleep this morning, I got up to make breakfast brunch. Alas, all the decent sized bowls in the house were in the dishwasher, not clean. Bah! So I had to revamped my breakfast plans for a big bowl of cereal.

Instead, there was a little bowl of cereal – Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise, craisins, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

And a slice of Silver Hills “The Big 16” bread toasted with peanut butter & raspberry jam.

Plus the usual glass of juice – still on the cranberry.

A very red breakfast, completely unintentional.

Yes, I was even studying at breakfast. Or maybe that’s what I want you to believe. Only I know for sure

There was some definite studying after that though. I did take a short break to do some yoga. My cousin lent me a DVD with some short 20 min yoga sessions on it, so I figured I’d try one of them out. Rodney Yee was the instructor in this one. Can someone tell the man to put on proper shorts or pants though? I felt a little violated watching him in his weird yoga underwear.

There was more psych studying, and then I got hungry. It was too late to have a real lunch, so I just grabbed a larger snack.

Some sort of grainy bagel with herb & garlic cream cheese. Not my favourite bagels ever, but it was there, and made the perfect vehicle for the cream cheese.

Uh…more studying? Probably. And important email writing with my group members. Then dinner – which was take out Chinese, because no one felt like cooking tonight.

All the usual suspects here – chow mien, fried rice, sweet & sour pork, beef & broccoli, breaded almond chicken, spring roll. You know how it goes.

We got fortune cookies with our order this time. Mine had two inside!

Yes, that is a diagram of a nerve cell off to the left. At least I sat at the kitchen table, text book free, to eat my dinner!

So then there was more homework, with a hockey game (we won), and SYTYCD Canada in the background. Once those finished, I declared homework time officially over, so I could bring you my ever exciting day. I’m all about my readers

Now I’m off to find sleep. Mostly so I can get up tomorrow, and do this all again. Night!

Ready For The Weekend

Oh, how much I have looked forward to Friday. Not only is it the start to the weekend, but I only have an hour of class that I need to stay on campus for. As nice a campus as UBC is, I definitely enjoy it when I get to spend the majority of my day at home in my pajamas.

As seems to be the trend with Monday, Wednesday, and Friday breakfasts, I had a bowl of cereal.

Nature’s Path Pumpkin Raisin Crunch in unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Nothing fancy, but totally delicious. I really like almond milk with cereal.

With a glass of cranberry peach juice. Can’t say I’ll miss this juice when it’s gone.

It’s all about the uber-quick breakfast.

*car, train, bus, class, bus, train, car*

Then I was home! And not completely drowned from the torrential downpour we’ve had going on out there all day. I worked on the computer for awhile, then figured I should find some lunch.

There was leftover stirfry in the fridge, that was really past it’s prime, but I hate throwing out food. I wasn’t really even in the mood for it either, which is why I only ate maybe 3/4 of the bowl?

Which meant I had room for a little Hallowe’en candy

Then I got myself all purdied up because I had an interview! No, not for a paying job (which I still need). But to volunteer at my local hospital. The woman was really nice, and actually said she would try and get me in with the dietitians there, instead of the jobs they were actually interviewing for. Sweet! I have orientation at the beginning of November.

I came home, got back in my pajamas (what, it’s rainy and gross out – I think pj’s are totally warranted). Since my lunch was small, and I was planning on a late dinner out, I had a snack, featuring this lovely.

Pomegranate season baby!

A bowl of plain, non-fat yogurt with frozen blueberries, pomegranate seeds, and a drizzle of creamed Saskatoon berry honey.

And a couple of sourdough rye Wasa crackers with peanut butter.

Of course, shortly thereafter, I got a phone call saying dinner plans had been pushed up by an hour. Which is too bad too, because I’m going for my favourite food with my cousin – sushi! There’s always room for sushi though, right?

Time to get ready to head out (aka – change out of pajamas). Have a great Friday night everyone!

Pitiful Pizza

Oh boys & girls, let me tell you – tonight’s dinner was not good. It was take out night again, and my family decided to try something new. It was an epic fail.

But before we get into that, let’s back track a few hours. I spent most of my day working on random things related to school, ran some errands, and caught up on more PVR’d shows. I stopped for a snack in the early afternoon.

A pumpkin protein yogurt bowl. It’s been far too long!

I combined some non-fat organic yogurt, pumpkin puree, a wee bit of vanilla whey protein powder, and some cinnamon. Then I topped it with Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter, Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola, and some dried cranberries.

It was muy bueno

As for dinner? Yeah, not so much.

My dad was determined to try out Papa John’s Pizza, so we ordered from there tonight (take out Friday and all). The pizza I chose was the Green Garden Delight – mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes, onion, olives, spinach alfredo sauce. I subbed out the olives for pineapple. It looks…okay.

Too bad it had no flavour. Seriously, this was the blandest pizza I’ve ever eaten. My parents both felt the same way with the other pizza we ordered as well, so it wasn’t just a poor pizza choice on my part. It was also very unsatisfying. I ate my two slices, and was still hungry, so I went back for a third, only to fill the void. Papa John’s? You get two thumbs down If I had any more thumbs, you’d get more down. Pizza Hut has you beat on all pizza accounts.

Instead of sulking over dinner all night, I wandered on down to the gym to get my sweat on. Some elliptical & stair climber time later, and I was back home in my pajamas. Which didn’t last long, because I decided to soak in the hot tub for awhile. The hot tub after the gym is always nice I used to like to go in there after skating, back in the day.

I felt my fruit intake has been seriously lacking today, so I made myself a little frozen blueberry snack.

Frozen blueberries with unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Totally hit the spot.

Time to get some shut eye – I have important Thanksgiving baking to do tomorrow! Night!

Things That Photograph Poorly

…but taste grrrrrreat!

That describes my evening of eats perfectly. Let’s face it, there are just some foods you can’t make look good no matter how hard you try. But let’s not discriminate against the ugly food! I know I don’t.

After a squat-filled cardio kickboxing session at the gym, I came home to the most wonderful smells of my mom’s homemade beef stew. Made the same way her mother made it.

I’ll try and give you a recipe, but there really isn’t a proper one. Mom just “knows” what to put in, and it always turns out good.

We always have dumplings with our stew. Now if only I could get mom to switch from all white flour to at least half whole wheat. Baby steps, right?

Mom’s Homemade Beef Stew with Dumplings

Serves 6 – 8 

• 2 lbs round steak (or other lean cut – you can use stewing beef, but cut off as much fat as possible)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups beef stock
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut in half
• 4 large carrots, cut into thirds
• 5 stalks celery, cut into sticks
• salt & pepper to taste
• water as needed

Dumplings

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp shortening
• 1/2 cup milk (+ more as needed)

1. Heat Dutch oven or electric frying pan to medium-high heat. Add beef, and brown on all sides. Add onions & garlic, fry for 30 sec – 1 min.

2. Add beef stock, and reduce heat to medium-low (or even low). Simmer for 2 hours. Watch your liquid levels – if it’s getting to dry, add some water.

3. Add potatoes and carrots, simmer 45 min.

4. Prepare dumplings: Mix all ingredients together until dough is very sticky, adding more milk as necessary (mom’s note – it is ALWAYS necessary).

5. Add celery to stew, the spoon dumpling dough on top. Make dumplings as large or small as you want.

6. Cook 10 min uncovered, then 10 min covered.

7. Serve & enjoy – it might not be pretty, but it sure does taste good

Feel free to add any other vegetables or seasonings you want. Any root vegetable would work here. Green peas or mushrooms are also a nice addition, but don’t add them until you add the celery & dumplings or they will overcook. We added some mushrooms today at my request.

I then wasted a few hours of my life watching the train wreck that is the Canucks play hockey. Le sigh. They can’t lose all their games, right? Right?!

To drown my sorrows, and satisfy my nightly snack needs, I broke out something I picked up this afternoon.

I went to the store to buy 4 things – frozen raspberries (on sale), hummus (on sale), milk (almost out), and mushrooms (for stew). Yeah…a few more things may have made their way into my basket, but only because they were also on sale. Like this Kashi cereal – Organic Cinnamon Harvest. Not only was it on sale, but there was a coupon for an additional $1 off. I totally grabbed some extra coupons as well. What, they don’t expire until the end of March! You know you would have done it too

I don’t know what made me choose this one in particular. Perhaps I was having a cinnamon craving? Regardless, you can’t beat the ingredient list.

First I needed to taste test the product as is.

Two thumbs up!   I was worried they would taste too “plain wheaty”, but the cinnamon flavour is excellent, and they have just a hint of sweetness. I can see this cereal making it’s way into regular rotation.

I spotted a lonely peach in the fruit bowl that needed to be eaten up, and thought it would pair nicely with my new cereal. When I cut up the peach, I found out quite a bit of it had started to go bad But I salvaged about 1/3 – good thing it was a big one!

I mixed some of the cereal, the remaining peach chunks, and some unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze in a small bowl, then heated it in the microwave for about a minute. Again – something that photographs ugly, but tastes yummy.

So my plans to get into bed by 11 pm failed miserably. Oh well, I’ll still get there before midnight! I have a big day tomorrow – my 4 hour afternoon class is going on a field trip. Where to, you may ask? You’ll just have to wait and find out. Night!