Bootylicious

Mom and I braved the crowds at the mall yesterday (aren’t we supposed to be in a recession? Sure doesn’t look like it at all). Looks like Christmas has come a little early this year.

Photo teaser! You’ll have to make your way through the rest of the post for more

I started my Saturday like any other – by sleeping in and making a leisurely breakfast. All while enjoying some figure skating on TV.

When I have time, oatmeal always seems to make it on the menu.

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1 tbsp Ruth’s Chia Goodness cereal
• 2 dried figs, chopped
• dried cranberries
• splash of vanilla
• peanut butter swirl
• Artisana Cacao Bliss

With the last of the Oasis Pomegranate Berry juice.

Once all that food was ingested and skating was over, we made our big trek to the mall, as well as the grocery store. By the time we got home, it was after 3 pm! Doh! I had to find lunch stat.

Good thing we had leftover Veggie Mediterranean pizza. Didn’t even bother to heat it up!

Then I was having a total chocolate craving. My dad brought this chocolate bar.

So I had a square…or two.

I had hoped to go out in the evening, since my parents were having a bunch of their friends over, but alas, I couldn’t get ahold of anyone to see if they were up for doing something, so I spent the evening in my pj’s doing pretty much nothing. And I didn’t even get around to eating dinner until almost 10 pm…what’s up with that?!

I made myself a little sandwich – turkey, ham, cheddar cheese, spinach on these little sourdough buns we found at the grocery store.

Then I dug into the appetizers that were in the kitchen

A wee little spinach quiche.

And my favourite – Tex-Mex dip with the best tortilla chips.

Oh, I definitely had seconds on that dip.

And guess what? There was dessert as well! I had a wee slice of this rum soaked pound cake with a touch of whipped cream, grapes, and cantaloupe.

I was glad the cake didn’t taste too rummy – not exactly my favourite flavour. But it was super moist.

I mostly hid out in my bedroom all evening, goofing around on the interweb. It’s true, I was a total hermit on a Saturday night. Oh well, sometimes that’s just how it goes, right? And even though I had plenty of time to post last night, I just didn’t feel the writing urge.

Okay, okay…want to see my fancy new boots?

Can I just say, the boot shopping experience was tough! I tried to get boots made in Canada, but the only decent pair I could find didn’t fit in the heel at all (I have a narrow heel compared to the rest of my foot). And then, trying to find boots that fit my giant size 10 feet without making them look like skis was a whole other issue. I tried on this super cute pair of moccasin style boots, but OMG – they made my feet look insanely huge. My mom and I joked I could go out snowshoeing in them without the snowshoes. LOL.

Now I can go to school without getting soaking wet feet, and still look somewhat stylish – since I’m such a fashionista and all.

The rain has stopped, so I think I’m going to head out for a walk. Later gators.

Prosperous Pit Stop

Another Monday come and gone. Can you believe we are in November already? Only one month left of classes! Crazy I tell ya. Before you know it, that other holiday *cough* Christmas *cough* will be upon us.

Like every morning, I was up bright and early. I managed to get in a little ab work before even eating breakfast. It’s one of my new things – I’ve been slacking in the exercise department, so I’m trying to make little bits of time here and there so I don’t feel like such a sloth! After my 5 min or so, I wandered back upstairs to the kitchen to try out my new cereal purchase.

Kashi Honey Almond Flax Cereal. Me thinks it’s just GoLean Crunch with a honey almond spin. And since I love me some of the Crunch, I figured I should try this one out.

I filled up a bowl with the cereal, and topped it with some craisins and shredded coconut. They appear to be my cereal toppings of choice lately.

With a glass of the Happy Planet Mango Peach Party on the side.

Not sure what was up with the odd lighting. I may have turned on a different set of kitchen lights or something.

Verdict on the cereal? I like it. It doesn’t have the cinnamon undertone of the regular GoLean Crunch, but has this mellow, very subtle sweetness from the honey. And you can’t go wrong with almond flakes added in. I think it will be nice to switch back and forth between this one and the regular.

Off to school I went, where I had a biochemistry lecture, followed by my volunteer shift at Sprouts. I did snag my free baked good – a peanut butter chocolate chip muffin – but I was hungry, and devoured it before I took a picture. It was tiny anyways – it didn’t stand a chance to get its picture taken. HA!

I decided to make a pit stop on my trip home from school. After seeing that Kristie had found the new PB&J Larabar in Canada, I had to stop in at Whole Foods to see if I too would be so lucky. Turns out, I was doubly lucky!

They had both of the new Larabar flavours! I snagged one of each, to test them out and decide if they are worth buying in mass quantities like my precious Peanut Butter Cookie or Coconut Cream Pie flavours.

The good luck didn’t stop there though. I also ran into London Drugs for something else, and found these babies on clearance.

They were only $1.69 each. Which is a good price for here – the Jocolat bars are usually around $2.49 or so retail, and always more expensive than the regular Larabars. Hence, I haven’t really tried many of the flavours. These were the only two kinds they had, so I grabbed one of each.

My dad picked me up from the train, and bought me lunch – deli sandwich from Safeway.

I had the “California Dreamin’” – turkey, bacon, guacamole, lettuce, cucumber, pickles, onion, ranch cream cheese spread. All on a whole wheat bun.

Always a good day when Dad decides to buy you lunch

I let that sammy digest, then headed off to the gym for some cardio excitement. I made it home in time to clean myself up, and succumb to the Hallowe’en candy.

Damn you Oh Henry bar!

Then I was out the door, as I had my volunteer orientation at the hospital this afternoon. This was the general orientation, where we learned all the policies and whatnot, got our pictures taken for ID, signed all the paperwork, etc. We are supposed to hear back in the next two weeks for our job specific training. I talked to the coordinator, and she’s really trying to get me into the diabetes clinic to work with the dietitians there. Woo!

The orientation went long than I thought, so it was after 8 pm by the time I got home. At least mom had dinner waiting for me

Homemade hamburgers. Mine was topped with cheese, lettuce, onion, ketchup, and mustard.

As well as some carrot sticks and snap peas to go with the Pine Nut Sabra Hummus we got at Costco this weekend.

And since we had that giant caramel apple crumble pie…well, I had to have another little slice. With some cheddar cheese – apple pie & cheddar cheese is such a great combo.

I’m actually feeling pretty good about today. This past week killed me, with school and everything. I felt like I couldn’t get on top of anything else in my life other than school work. My room is a pigsty, I couldn’t get in the exercise I wanted, I chowed on way too much candy, didn’t get enough sleep, and barely had time to blog. Not cool. So I’ve decide that for the rest of the year I’m on Operation: Clean Up. As in, cleaning up everything in my life. I hate when I push everything to the wayside just for one part of my life. It doesn’t make me feel good. But I see no reason for the rest of my semester to be that way, now that I only have one class left that has any assignments/midterms left. I’m making it my focus to get my balance back in my life through the end of 2009. Hopefully it will continue on past then, but who knows what next semester will be like, plus the Olympics will be here!

Since part of my balance involves getting sleep, I should go do that now. Night!

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

I spent the majority of my Thanksgiving long weekend away from the computer. Good for me, because I got to enjoy my time with family (and get in some important biochemistry studying), but bad for you because I failed to post all weekend! I have a bunch of pictures on my camera, although none from Thanksgiving dinner, since it wasn’t at our house. I’ll give you the quick and dirty run down of the weekend, then reveal what I know you are all wondering – what did Marianne bake for dessert?

Here’s a basic recap of how I spent my weekend:

Saturday

• slept in
• Thanksgiving baking part 1
• Pampered Chef party at my cousin’s house (as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t buy anything, since I have no job)
• Thanksgiving baking part 2
• back to cousin’s house for Guitar Hero World Tour, leftover PC party snacks, and alcohol consumption – good times!

Sunday

• slept in (do we see a pattern?)
• Thanksgiving baking part 3
• gym
• additional food prep for dinner
• Thanksgiving dinner at the cousin’s (turkey, stuffing, gravy, veggies, alcohol – you know how it goes)
• hockey game watching (during dinner)
• PVR watching once home

Monday

• slept in
• computer work
• walk down at Rocky Point with sister
• homework & studying galore
• soup making

For your viewing pleasure, some random food shots from the weekend – trust me, this ain’t everything. There were alot of non-meals, snacking, shots…hey, it was a long weekend! I was having fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we’re all caught up on that, let’s get down to the baking. Mmmm, baking.

Per usual, I was on dessert duty this holiday meal. And I can’t just make one dessert – I’m all about giving the people choice. Plus it’s an excuse to bake more. I had a request from my cousin’s wife to make something “mocha almond fudge”, and figured there needed to be a pumpkin dessert in there as well. I went searching both in my massive cookbook collection and online, and finally settled on two recipes.

First, my pumpkin creation

I decided to forgo the traditional pumpkin pie for a pumpkin square. The recipe I ended up using was this one: Pumpkin Pecan Pie Bars.

 

I only made some very minor modifications to the recipe:

• substituted half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour
• used 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 1/2 tsp nutmeg for the 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• baked in a 9 X 13 inch pan as opposed to a jelly roll pan

I think they turned out really well. I would probably up the amount of spice in them, as I found it a little lacking for my tastes, but otherwise a really simple, tasty bar recipe. Great for someone like me who isn’t into making pies.

Then there was the pièce de résistance of dessert – the cheesecake.

Not just any cheesecake though. Mocha Almond Fudge Cheesecake. Oh yeah baby

There were no substitutions. None were needed. Really, it was cheesecake perfection.

Even for someone like me who isn’t a coffee drinker, this is a keeper.

This was raved about by all who ate it at dinner (which was everyone but my sister – she was totally missing out). I think everyone asked for the recipe. That must say something. I highly recommend you make this. Now.

And now I’m on a sugar detox, because man…I ate way too many sweet things this weekend, and my tummy is letting me know! Good thing there’s more than 2 months until Christmas dinner – I’ll forget about it by then, and be ready to bake up some more decadent treats to enjoy

Well, that’s about it from my neck o’ the woods. I hope all my Canadian friends had a great Thanksgiving weekend with friends or family. We’ll be back to regularly scheduled posting tomorrow. Night!

Where Are My Zzzz’s

Seriously people! Why can I not get enough sleep at night to actually feel awake during the day? My morning classes are killing me. This holiday long weekend cannot get here fast enough, that’s for sure. If only I survive today…

I was up at the ass crack of dawn, and set to work making breakfast. I wanted banana and pb, but wasn’t in the mood for oats.  So I went with pb + b on toast.

One slice of toasted Silver Hills Squirrelly bread was topped with Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter, banana, and organic honey.

The other with Artisana Cacao Bliss, banana, and honey.

With a glass of juicy juice. Cranberry, if you couldn’t tell.

Look at all those banana slices, all neatly lined up in rows.

*insert public transit + psychology lecture here*

After all that nonsense, I found my way to my favourite perch looking over campus to settle in with some blog reading, emailing, and lunch.

Does the addition of my spiral notebook make me appear studious?

I’ll admit it – I basically brought the same lunch to school as Tuesday. My options were limited, both by what was in the fridge & time. Plus it tastes good.

My current sandwich of choice – hummus/avocado/cheddar. Apparently it’s fibre day – at 5g fibre/slice of that Silver Hills bread, my system should be working just fine! TMI? LOL.

The produce section - carrot, cucumber, concord grapes.

Lunch dessert – two of mom’s homemade cookies.

The gala apple that I’m saving for later this afternoon.

And because I have a Nutrikids training session AFTER my 6 pm class, I also grabbed a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar to avoid a rumbling belly (I have a feeling dinner is going to be L-A-T-E tonight).

Time to go prep myself for my 4 hour class – I’m hoping I haven’t missed any of the readings I’m supposed to have done. You may or may not see a post tonight. I may just crash when I get home from school. Later gators.

Droopy Eyed

That would be me all day. I was falling asleep on the bus, on the train, in class. I don’t know what was up today, but all I wanted was to crawl in bed and have a nice long nap. Too bad I was out of the house for 12 hours.

I started off the morning with a very fall inspired bowl of oats.

I figured it was about time to break out the pumpkin!

• 1/2 cup oats, milk, water
• ~1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• splash of vanilla
• lots o’ cinnamon
• nutmeg
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• dried cranberries
• Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax granola
• pecans
• maple syrup drizzle

How beautiful is that bowl? I love how the maple syrup forms a little halo around the oats.

The dried cranberries were echoed nicely in the juice of the morning.

Picture perfect fall breakfast.

I think I’ll up the pumpkin to oat ratio next time, because I felt it wasn’t quite pumpkiny enough. It was still delicious though.

As I stated earlier, I was Sleepy McSleeperson all day. I vaguely remember my psychology lecture this morning – something about being right handed vs left handed? I don’t know. It was obviously compelling. I was in serious need of some caffeine on my 3 hour lunch break. And fortunately I was able to not only score a good couch, but a table to work at.

What was on the lunch menu today?

First, we had one of my favourite sandwich combos – avocado, hummus (Sabra Roasted Garlic – on sale!), and cheddar cheese on some Silver Hills Squirrelly Bread.

The usual snacking veggies – carrot sticks and cucumber slices.

My carrot was special today though – look, it had a nipple!

A crunchy BC gala apple.

 

And a Peanut Butter Larabar to tide me over through my afternoon marathon class.

I actually only ended up with a 2 hour lunch break today though. I spent part of it participating in a psychology study! Our professor for our class gives us the opportunity to earn up to 6% extra on our grades by participating in studies going on in the department. I’m all for free marks, so I’m signing up for things I can do during my break, because I figure I’m there anyways, so why not?

I then got to go on a 30 min walk to the south campus for our class field trip. Where were we headed? The UBC Farm! We spent the whole class out on the farm, getting a tour and insight into the operations. I made sure to take a ton of photos, but I think I’ll save them for a separate post, because I want to do them justice I think I’d like to get involved on the farm – they have so many good programs, ranging from a CSA program to an Aboriginal Community Garden, as well as all the teaching opportunities for students. Plus hello, a farm right beside downtown Vancouver? You can’t go wrong there.

Of course, my long trek down there meant a long trek back when it was time to catch the bus home. My feet were sore when I got home! I blame my hiking shoes – I haven’t worn them in ages, but wanted good footwear on the farm in case it was muddy.

When I walked in the door, I could smell that someone had been baking. Look what I found cooling on the counter.

Mom had just made cookies! These ones have oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries in them. I ate one two three over the course of the evening.

Dinner was also ready – because it was leftover stew.

I like the way it gets the second day, because the potatoes and dumplings start to fall apart in the juice, so it gets all thick and delicious. Still looks hideous, but I’m okay with that.

There was mucho tv watching done after dinner – the usual Tuesday night line up of Hell’s Kitchen and SYTYCD Canada. Now I’m tired, and must get to bed. But I shall leave you with one farm photo, as a little teaser. Night!

Surprise, Surprise

This fine Sunday morning, I actually woke up a decent time. Normally, I end up wasting my day away because I sleep in late, but I was up and at ‘em at 9 am. Maybe I’m finally getting used to earlier mornings? Yeah right.

I decided to cook up a fancy bowl of oats this morning for dessert breakfast.

This bowl has a little surprise though. Can you guess what it is?

Have you guessed? What is this oatmeal’s secret?

Here are the ingredients (and no, they aren’t the secret).

• 1/2 cup oats, unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, water
• 1 small banana, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter
• mini chocolate chips

With a glass of cranberry juice.

One oatmeal surprise, coming up!

Okay, I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. When I dished out the oats, I put half in the bowl, then added a little bit of the PB and some chocolate chips, then the rest of the oats with more PB & chocolate chips. That way I got some melty, creamy, deliciousness in every spoonful. It was beyond decadent.

I spent alot of time doing little things around the house – dishes, laundry, picking players for my second hockey pool. Just getting caught up on things around the house before my mom got home, and before the new school week starts. Alas, I never got around to anymore homework, but I’m sure my brain needed the break. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Eventually I required lunch, and I’m sure my meal will not come as a surprise to you – leftover Chinese food.

Diced Chicken & Cashew.

Chicken Chow Mein.

Sweet & Sour Pork.

And yeah, I totally sprinkled on the sesame seeds just for photography purposes.

Alas, this is where the food photos end. My cousins came over in the early afternoon, to pick up the Thanksgiving turkey (can you believe Thanksgiving is next weekend already? I need to sort out what I’m baking for dessert stat!) They stayed and visited for awhile, then I went with them back to their house. We played a little Guitar Hero World Tour, then went out for sushi at a new restaurant in town. OMG – it was wonderful. The place is smallish, but all new, clean, nice decor. They were attentive and the food was great. They even brought our table a complementary dish. I ordered a veggie roll and dynamite roll, as well as two piece of salmon nigiri. They give you the option of Atlantic farmed salmon or wild sockeye salmon which is great (I chose the sockeye of course). My cousins had this delicious baked spicy scallop roll that I would order in a heartbeat if I went back. I just wish I had taken pictures, because it was presented so beautifully on the plate. The price was right too – $14 including tip. Don’t worry, I’ll be heading back for sure and I’ll give you the run down.

We may have also made a stop at Dairy Queen, where I enjoyed a small hot fudge sundae. Not my favourite ice cream, but whatcha gonna do?

I made my way home, watched some Amazing Race, and soaked in the hot tub. What a great end to a Sunday evening.

I shall leave you with a photo of Sienna and Wilson. They decided to share the same chair last night. And fortunately no one tried to kill each other – mostly because my dad moved Wilson shortly after he jumped up there. Night!

Fall Is Here

I know fall officially started last week, but the weather has only just turned here. Now it really feels like fall   At least the rain hasn’t shown up just yet – I’m sure it will be here tomorrow.

Today was the usual early start. Early start = easy breakfast.

Good ol’ Nature’s Path Pumpkin Raisin Crunch cereal, bathing in a sea of milk.

 

With a glass of imposter Mango Peach Party. This is Tropicana’s Orange Mango Peach juice, and let me tell you – totally subpar. I want my Happy Planet!

About as basic as breakfast can be.

Today was the usual Monday – 1 hour of class, followed by my volunteer shift at Sprouts. I decide to try out a new baked treat today from the cafe. I went with the double chocolate chip cookie.

Looks pretty freakin’ awesome eh? Well…the taste was good. But it was hard as a rock! I have nothing against a crisp cookie, but this was almost had to even bite through. Which is crazy, because they were made yesterday. No reason it should be that dried out. I really want to love our baked goods, but so far, both of the ones I’ve tried have been dry. Le sigh.

I made my way home via transit, where I put together a fabulous lunch.

There was still some salmon in the fridge, and I couldn’t just let it go to waste. So I made myself a sandwich.

In between two slices of Silver Hills “The Big 16” bread I smashed 1/4 of an avocado, added a hunk of wild coho salmon, a slice of havarti cheese, and some iceberg lettuce. I also spread on a little garlic aioli that my sister had made up last night for dinner.

I had the standard raw veggies on the side.

It’s so much nicer to be able to enjoy lunch at home.

Too bad I was full after only half the sandwich! I packed up the other half though, so hopefully it keeps alright for tomorrow’s lunch.

Now I need to go work on something uber important – my hockey pool selections! The draft is Wednesday night. Later!

Denim Dilemma

It’s finally Friday! Another early morning, another long day. It’s weird, the things I do in the morning seem like they were so long ago, it’s like each of my days feels like two different days

Today started off like all my Fridays will from now through April – early 5:30 am wake up call! Followed by a quick breakfast.

A bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch topped with craisins, dried blueberries, and coconut.

Glass of Happy Planet Mango Peach Party? Check.

Then it was off to school for that lovely 8 am biochemistry class. I think it should be cancelled on Fridays personally – who wants to get up for an 8 am class on Fridays, especially when it’s your only class?

After I got my learning on, I hopped on the bus and headed downtown for a day of shopping. I was down there by 9:30 am. Turns out, the stores don’t open until 10 am. DOH! So I hit up one of the 8 billion Starbucks for a little caffeine fix, in the form of a tall non-fat iced green tea latte.

I must remember to ask for it half sweet next time, although, I was pretty tired, and probably needed the sugar rush anyways. Especially since I had some cardio shopping to do. I spent all morning looking for jeans and shoes Oh, how I hate jeans shopping. I’m sure everyone has their own personal jeans buying dilemmas, and I know you have to try on a billion pairs to find the perfect ones, but I just couldn’t decide. I may have a new found love of the skinny jean, but I’m not sure if I can pull it off. Then you have the salespeople, always telling me I need to buy a size smaller than I want to, because the jeans will stretch, but I don’t know how true that is. It seems counterintuitive to purposely buy something too small. Is it true though, that you need to buy smaller jeans because they stretch? I just don’t want to spend all that money and have something I’m not comfortable wearing.

So, instead of buying any new wardrobe additions, I went and got lunch from Urban Fare.

Urban Fare is a somewhat gourmet/yuppie grocery store downtown, that has a great deli/sandwich/pizza/salad/hot bar, somewhat along the lines of Whole Foods. I saw that the Friday Hot Bar was “West Coast” today, so I went with that.

I got some awesome chicken in a wild mushroom sauce, a wee scoop of mashed potatoes, and green beans.

As well as the seafood in cream sauce – clams, mussels, and shrimp.

 

And a whole lot of the stirfried veggies – they included broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and onions.

Yes, I had more caffeine. School = sleepy girl

I enjoyed my lunch down along the waterfront. It was a popular spot for lunch today. Can’t blame people – it was beautiful out!

 

I was craving chocolate, so I picked some fancy ones up, but then never ate it, and instead made my way home on transit. LOL. Don’t worry, it didn’t go to waste.

I spent some time chillin’ once I was home, then my family got their dinner from A&W. I wasn’t actually hungry when they went to get dinner, and didn’t really want a burger & fries anyways, so I waited awhile, then decided I better make something so I would have digestion time before hitting the gym.

I made a sandwich on some toasted Silver Hills Squirrelly Bread with cheddar, avocado, lettuce, ED&BV Lemon Cashew Basil Pesto, and a little Brianna’s Honey Mustard Dressing.

There was some leftover potato salad, so I scooped a little on the plate.

And I finished off the little nub of cucumber left in the fridge.

Actually, that’s a lie. I never finished my dinner – I was still full from lunch. I had half the sandwich, and probably half the potato salad, with a couple cucumber slices. I packed up the sandwich & cucumber to take with me tomorrow (as I have to head out to the school for volunteer training).

Later on I spent some quality time at the gym. It was great – I hadn’t been able to go all week, as I’ve been trying to adjust to my sleep/travel/school schedule. I have a feeling I’ll only be able to get in a few trips per week, so I’ll just have to make those trips count

Remember I said I bought fancy chocolate?

You better believe I chowed down on those when I got home.

I picked these lovelies up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. One is a Coconut Chocolate Bomb (coconut, chocolate, caramel filling), and the other is a Tiger Bomb (peanut butter, chocolate, caramel filling).

I intended to only eat one, and had the Coconut Chocolate Bomb first. Uh, yeah, it was amazing. So amazing, I had to try the Tiger Bomb. Which was less impressive than the coconut one, sadly. I had high hopes – chocolate, peanut butter, caramel? Should be a winner. But it didn’t quite live up to the coconut one. Good thing these are pricey, otherwise I might stop by to pick them up on a regular basis.

And now, it’s past midnight, and I’m still awake. That is way too late for someone who got up at 5:30 am, so I’m off to bed. Need to be fresh and ready to learn at volunteer training, plus I need to ponder this whole denim dilemma as well – if any fashionistas out there could weigh in, that would be great! Nighty night

Greener Than Expected

I’ve had a rather productive day so far. I hit up the gym, then came home and applied for a few jobs online. Can I just say, some companies online job application processes are a little intense. Every one that I applied to today included a lengthy questionnaire/survey/behavioural test, and required me to fill out forms, and attach a resume. For an entry level retail job. Seems like a bit much. Whatever happened to just submitting a resume & cover letter, and going from there?

All this was very taxing on my ol’ brain, so I made sure to fuel up well with lunch.

True to form, I opened up the fridge, and decided what needed to be eaten up.

I found tuna, and made up a tuna/avocado/Laughing Cow mix that I sandwiched between 2 piece of Silver Hills Squirrelly Bread with a little dill pickle relish.

Some sliced up cucumber on the side.

And a little bubbly H2O to wash it all down.

Lunch turned out much greener than I expected!

Of course, there was room for a little treat afterwards. We still had cookies, and I couldn’t let them go bad. Then they wouldn’t be able to fulfill their cookie destiny. So I did my part, and helped out a chocolate chunk one

Can you spy the cat lying in the grass in that photo? He’s so weird.

I’m off to entertain myself. Possibly with music or Wii, I’m not too sure yet. Later!

Presto! You Have Pesto

Can you believe I’ve never made my own pesto before tonight? Probably because you need a whole whack of fresh basil, and I’ve never had that at my disposal. My mom, on the other hand, had two basil plants just asking to be turned into a tasty pesto. My recipe of choice? Lemon Cashew Basil Pesto from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. I’d see the ever sassy Erin make it a little while ago, and decided that I too must try it out.

After all the ingredients took a spin in my food processor, I was left with this lovely green wonder (excuse the blurry photo).

It had the most delightful basil aroma, even my mother commented on that. And it tastes great – so fresh, and unlike any store bought pesto. Probably due to the lack of parmesan and using cashews instead of pine nuts, but let’s not get picky here. I’m just sad I used all of the basil from our two plants, because I would definitely make it again.

Now, the recipe in ED&BV uses this pesto as a pasta sauce, but I wasn’t feeling the pasta tonight. So I decided to cook up some quinoa, and let dinner evolve from there.

I saw there were some zucchinis in the fridge from the farmer’s market last week, so I decided to put part of one to good use. I grated it up, along with half a carrot, and added it to some of my cooked quinoa (perhaps 2/3 of a cup? I wasn’t measuring). Then I added a couple of spoonfuls of pesto, and mixed it all up good.

A few cashew pieces found their way on top as well. It needed that little bit of crunch and garnish.

While I was rummaging in the fridge, I also realized I had a bunch of kale there that I completely forgot about. Fortunately, it was still looking okay, so I made up some kale chips.

And then didn’t realize how much food I had until I plated it up. I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach!

It was all quite fabulous. I’m a big fan of that pesto quinoa salad I came up with. I wish I’d had some fresh corn or maybe some cooked beans to throw in, I think it would have added a little more dimension. But it was still a rather tasty dish as is.

And even though I almost polished off that massive mound of food, I did find room for a little something later on. There’s always room for chocolate

A double chocolate chunk cookie that is.

I ended up watching the movie The Changeling, as my mom started watching it while I was cleaning up the kitchen. That’s how I usually get my movie watching in – I never plan on it, but someone else will be watching something, and I’ll just get sucked in. Then I somehow ended up playing a little Super Mario Galaxy. I have no idea how that happened. The Wii remote must have just jumped into my hands, I swear! It was a good end to my lazy Saturday.

I know I mentioned something about a surprise earlier, but well, it’s just not ready for you yet. Blame the horrendously dark and dreary day we had – it was too dark to get any good photos! LOL. No worries, I’m sure I’ll share tomorrow. Until then…