S’more Sandwiches

I need to make this quick, as it’s way past my bed time and I’m fading fast. Good excuse for staying up late though – I was doing up an application for a paying job that I really hope I get! Fingers crossed people.

Snack consumed while meeting with my group before class, to go over our presentation.

Yogurt, pomegranate arils, frozen blueberries, and Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax granola. Nom nom.

Our presentation went well, and it’s our last one that we have to do on assigned readings. Yay! We do still have one more presentation at the end of the semester, but it will be on our Food Security paper, so it’s a little different. Can you believe there are only 2 1/2 weeks left of classes? Insane!

After class, I chowed down on this Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bar while I rode the bus home.

I think I’ve had these before, and they are just meh. Needs more cherries. Or chocolate. Or something!

I arrived home to find a classic soup and sandwich combo for dinner. Grilled cheese – please note the white fluffy bread, and plastic cheese usage.

And creamy tomato soup a la Campbell’s.

Hello delicious.

So delicious in fact…I went back and made another half sandwich. I know! Who am I? In my defence, there technically wasn’t a full sandwich there. For some reason, mom cut them all into thirds when my family had dinner, and someone had 1/3 of this sandwich. So really, I was short changed to begin with.

Later on in the evening, I sipped on some Stash Coconut Mango Oolong tea.

And that, my friends, is a wrap! Night!

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!

Friday = Takeout

Yes, it’s another instalment of Friday Night Takeout at my house. You’ll be happy to note, that we did not have pizza or Chinese food. I know, how is that possible? Those are the 2 standbys around here. But I put my foot down (or just whined alot). I had really hoped we could get something from a place that serves sweet potato fries, because I’ve had a serious craving lately, but I was out voted. Hmph

So, what was on the menu? Fish & chips.

Here’s my piece of halibut, with some delicious tartar sauce.

And the chips, with ketchup.

It’s fish & chips. Not much more you can really say about it.

I have a love-hate relationship with the fish & chips. I do love the taste, but they don’t always love me. Fortunately, tonight they were on my side

I watched/napped through the Canucks game, which they lost. I caught up on a variety of random tasks, and got in some upper body work while my cat sat on the couch, looking at me like I was crazy.

Eventually it was tea time – Stash chocolate hazelnut decaf with a splash of milk & agave.

And then I was feeling the need for fruit, so I went with the classic frozen fruit in milk. Today’s fruits included blueberries and Saskatoon berries.

I jazzed it up a little with some coconut, coconut extract, and brown sugar. Yum!

Basically, it was a low key evening at home. I like my Fridays for relaxation, because there usually isn’t much time during the week.

Now it’s time for the ultimate relaxation – sleep! 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!

Double The Breakfast

…double the fun!

Well, okay, let’s be real here. I’m not sure my fun was doubled today in any way by having double the breakfast. But it sounded catchy

I was up bright and early for another riveting biochemistry lecture. I wasn’t feeling anything in the oatmeal/cereal family today, so I went with pb + b+ h. Or peanut butter, banana, and honey on toast, in case that wasn’t clear.

With the ever popular glass of cranberry juice. And a side of soon-to-be jack-o-lantern

After learning the wonders of glycolysis, I made my way over to my volunteer shift at Agora. I set out to bake today, taking on the infamous Agora granola bars. They looked so good, I had to purchase one myself.

It was still a little warm, so the chocolate chips were still a bit melty. Mmmmm.

I even got compliments on how well they turned out. I’m just a baking pro, dontcha know?

I finally found my way home, which was no small feat, since they were finally repaving our road today. Then it was time to squash the lunch hunger.

I just went rummaging in the fridge for some randomness. Like leftover tofu sticks.

Leftover salad, with dill dip used as dressing.

And some wasa crackers with havarti cheese.

Word to the wise – tofu sticks don’t keep. I think even if I went to the trouble of reheating them in the microwave, they wouldn’t have been as good as just cooked. Fresh is best when it comes to the ‘fu sticks!

I did some work on all of my projects due tomorrow, then decided to catch up on the PVR, in hopes that my group would have their stuff complete as well. It did eventually iron itself out this evening, but I swear, working with a group of 7 people is no easy task.

When dinner time rolled around, mom decided it was a “breakfast for dinner” night. Fine by me On the menu – blueberry pancakes.

Too bad they photograph horribly! I topped mine with more blueberries, and some maple syrup. Nom nom. I may have snagged a 4th one. I may have not. You’ll never know

More time was devoted to group work, then I relaxed with some more tv. I had plans for a workout with my cousin’s wife, but it fell through. In some respects, it was a good thing, because keeping my eyes open today was a challenge! I probably would have injured myself if I’d attempted any physical activity.

Later on, in hopes of combating the cold temperatures outside, I had a giant mug of Stash Coconut Mango Oolong tea, with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

And another one of those damn brownie cupcakes. Here you can see the chocolate filling forming a nipplesque shape on top of the cupcake.

Now that my school obligations are complete, I think I’m going to spend the end of my evening reading blogs. I purged my Google Reader a couple days ago, and damnit, I’m already back up to 190 posts. People! Don’t you know I have school work?! Ah well, whatcha gonna do?

Chillaxin’ time. 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!

Crunch Time

So…I should be studying biochemistry. But here I am, putting together a post. I’ll admit it, I’m the ultimate procrastinator. I’m comfortable enough with myself to embrace it. Sure, if I’d just learn to not procrastinate, maybe life would be easier, but who doesn’t love forgoing sleep the night before a test to cram as much information in possible, only to wake up sleeping on your textbook?

Biochemistry can wait. Let’s check out some food

Normally I don’t take the time for a hot breakfast on my early mornings to save time, but since I had some leftover millet in the fridge from yesterday, I thought why not turn that into a hot breakfast?

I took some cooked millet, milk, flax seed, vanilla, and frozen berries (raspberries & blueberries) and heated them in the microwave. Then I topped it all with a little honey and Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter.

With a glass of Happy Planet Mango Peach Party of course.

What a pretty bowl of breakfast.

I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the millet for breakfast. I think it would have been better if I heated it longer with the milk, so it came together more. I guess I’ll just have to try again!

We had a review session in my biochem lecture this morning, then I was off to volunteer at Agora. Again, I was free to bake, so I whipped up a batch of Raspberry Oat Bars. Too bad I left before they were out of the oven. I never get to try what I bake there. Hmph!

I also picked up some new (to me) cereal to try out while I was at school.

At Sprouts, we also have a bulk-buying club, where we can get all sorts of grocery items from our store suppliers for wholesale cost. Of course, you have to order a whole case of the product you want, so often people go together and share. I received an email this week saying that someone had this Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise cereal coming in, and wanted to sell a few bags. It was a good price, so I snapped one up. Wanna bet this will find it’s way into my breakfast tomorrow?

Once I got home, I set out making lunch.

A warm, comforting bowl of Coconut Curried Squash, Carrot, and Sweet Potato Soup, topped with a dollop of sour cream and shredded coconut.

And a toasted sandwich – Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus, avocado, cheddar cheese, and cucumber on Silver Hills Squirrelly Bread.

It’s so much better when you get to enjoy lunch at home.

I spent the afternoon working on random school assignments, emailing, phoning, and basically gettin’ ‘er done. Everything except that important biochemistry studying. Oops! I did find a moment to try out one of the muffins my mom baked last night.

They are a pumpkin raisin muffin. Sorry, I’m not really sure what’s in there, or even what recipe she used. And mom wasn’t home when I dug in, so I couldn’t ask. I heated mine up, and dabbed on a little buttah.

Yum! Nice, light pumpkin flavour. Not too sweet. A good snacking muffin.

Before I knew it, my sister was home from work, and we caught up on SYTYCD Canada that we PVR’d last night so we could watch Hell’s Kitchen. Then it was dinner time.

Mom made up a big green salad with romaine lettuce, cucumber, radishes, and green onion. I dressed mine with Brianna’s Honey Mustard Dressing and pine nuts.

There was roast chicken, and carrot sticks (with dill dip). I totally ate like, 3X the carrots pictured there. I love carrots & dip

And some sad Stove Top stuffing. I’m not even sure why we have this, but mom decided to cook it up. It was…well, you all know what Stove Top is like, I’m sure.

Another bright & cheery meal.

I then spent the rest of the evening in front of the tv. What can I say, Wednesdays are good tv nights! I know, I know. I should have put my nose to the grind and memorized those amino acids, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! Of course, I was able to peel myself off the couch for a snack.

Yogurt mess!

• yogurt
• pumpkin
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• peanut butter
• creamed berry honey
• granola

Phew! Now that I’ve got all that out there, I really am signing off to get acquainted with some protein structures. And sadly, I won’t be able to post tomorrow, as I will be out at a dairy farm all day, then studying for real all evenings. We’ll get caught up on Friday. Wish me luck on my first midterm – I’m probably going to need it!

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!

Squashing Hunger

Turns out I was on my own for dinner. My sister called me from work, and said she was picking up McChoke-n-Pukes McDonalds for dinner. She was kind enough to ask me if I wanted anything. That’s something, right?

Strangely, I passed on that option, and went searching for appealing dinner ingredients. I decided upon two main ingredients.

Lundberg Garlic Primavera Risotto.

And this beauty I made my mom buy at the farmer’s market a few weeks back.

Kabocha squash! I was pretty excited to see them at the market, and for a wicked price ($0.79/lb). I’d still never tried them…until now!

So I set about cooking the risotto per package directions, while my kabocha wedges roasted in the oven (400 F for 45 min, with a light brush of olive oil to help it out). I think it turned out fantastic.

I also steamed the small amount of broccoli left in the fridge, and stirred that into the risotto. Then it was plating time.

I filled one wedge (1/6 of the squash) with some risotto, and topped it with a little shaved parmesan.

Now who would choose McShits McDonalds over this? I mean really.

For a prepackaged risotto, it was quite good. It definitely benefitted from the addition of broccoli and parmesan, but it was a decent boxed dish on it’s own. And the kabocha – totally not like any squash I’ve had before. It has virtually no stringy-ness, and such a sweet flavour. Similar to a sweet potato I find. I can totally see why people add this squash to sweet foods or breakfast oats. It was a really nice contrast to the savoury, salty risotto.

I finished dinner just in time to enjoy me some hockey! My Canucks were playing again this evening, and boy, did they redeem themselves. They ended up winning the game 7-1, making me a very happy fan

This happy fan was then in the mood for a little snacky snack.

Frozen raspberries & blueberries in milk, with a splash of vanilla and sprinkle of brown sugar. Love that frosty slush that forms around the berries

I have an extra long day on campus tomorrow, so it’s time to get some shut eye. Night!

Weekend Update

Wow, the weekend is almost over! I’ve hardly spent any time at home in the past 24 hours. I also have a serious lack of photos since yesterday afternoon, as most of my eats were out and about.

Yesterday evening I went to my cousin’s house warming party. She has a great new condo that she’s just moved into. Perfect size, good layout – something I would definitely consider if I were in the position to buy. All of my cousins from that side of the family were there, as well as alot of her friends. Myself, my sister, her bf, and one of my cousins and his wife all carpooled out there, and left somewhat early as my cousin had to work in the morning. We dropped my sister and her boyfriend off at my house, and I went over to their house to hang out, take a dip in the hot tub, have a drink, etc. We were all tired, so I crashed there for the night.

This morning my cousin’s wife and I had a leisurely breakfast (Kashi 7 Whole Grain Honey Puffed cereal + milk + diced fresh peaches, and some pure mango juice that I mixed with pineapple juice), then I went with her to clean the condo building that they do maintenance for. She offered me $50 to help out, and I only had to do an hour of vacuuming. Not bad!

We then went on an adventure to find the Lululemon Factory Outlet store, which took us all over the city. Turns out, they moved, so we stopped to have lunch at Swiss Chalet on the way to the new location. I had a passable chicken club wrap and fries, but man, it did not make my stomach happy the rest of the day. I can’t say I’ve ever been a big Swiss Chalet fan, but it was her choice, so I went with it

The Lululemon store was a bust for me. I thought they had very little product, and nothing in my size that I would ever consider buying. Either that, or the stuff in my size was only discounted maybe 10% from the store price. Not really worth it, especially since I’m on limited income right now.

I finally found myself at home around 4 pm, and had a little nap with Sienna, since she was unimpressed that I’d been gone so long. When I got up, I made my way to the gym, then came home and passed on the BBQ burgers & hot dogs that were for dinner. That wrap had me craving something less…dinnery.

I started out with my current favourite yogurt combo – plain, non-fat yogurt, Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola, Saskatoon berry creamed honey, and frozen blueberries.

A homemade sweet bun topped with peanut butter and raspberry jam.

A blended iced green tea latte – I had a much better liquid to ice ratio on this one, even if it still separated on me.

I guess you could call it breakfast for dinner.

The homemade sweet bun was only okay. I found it really dry. My mom’s friend gave them to us, and my mom kept telling me they were good, so I was expecting more. But the yogurt mess and latte made up for it for sure

I did have a little dessert – a Werther’s Original.

Those things are so good!

I got in some quality tv time with the Amazing Race season premiere, in the massage lounge chair, laptop in lap, relaxing in my pajamas. Hopefully that’s enough relaxation to take on the new week. My wake up call will be an early one come tomorrow morning. Which means I should find my way to bed. Night!