Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I shoulda gotten out of bed when my alarm went off, but I slept for 2 more hours instead.

I woulda gone out to hand out resumes in hopes of landing a part time job, but I slept in.

I coulda done more school work today, and actually gotten ahead of the game, but other things were more interesting.

I guess that’s how it goes sometimes, eh?

I started my sleep in day with something I haven’t had in eons – a smoothie!

• frozen raspberries
• 1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• milk

I also had an Apple Carrot Raisin Oatmeal Muffin with said smoothie delight.

Even though it was cold and rainy, the smoothie was so very enjoyable. Note to self – do not forget about the smoothie!

I ended up plopped on the couch watching skating this afternoon, and worked on some parts of our group paper. I was trying to foster some discussion, but there wasn’t much input from other group members, so I gave up. I’m just hoping they weren’t near their computers, and not just ignoring the fact that we need to get this done.

I eventually thought about having lunch. I was craving an eclectic salad.

• romaine lettuce
• spinach
• cucumber
• carrot
• hummus/salsa mix
• sour cream
• dill pickles
• tiny bit of leftover roast chicken
• spelt sticks (inspiration from Mama Pea and her sesame sticks)

Mom went grocery shopping, and brought back a fresh, doughy load of sourdough bread, so I toasted up a slice and spread on a little butttah.

‘Twas a delightful lunch.

 

But as delicious as the random salad combo was (dill pickles & spelt sticks on salad are a keeper!), my tummy got angry about half way through, so I ended up tossing the last third or so. I didn’t waste any of that bread though – simple carby goodness is one of the few things I want when I’m feeling ill.

My sister was off to her boyfriend’s, and my parents had a dinner to go to, so I was left alone for the evening (yay!). And what was the first thing I did? Get dressed and head out to the grocery store. LOL. I had good reason though – mom went grocery shopping, and only bought plain orange juice. Now, I don’t know what it is about plain orange juice, but I can’t drink it. Especially if there’s pulp. Blech – if I want to chew something, I’ll eat the fruit, thanks. I was on a Happy Planet juice mission!

I picked up not just my favourite Mango Peach Party, but another flavour I haven’t enjoyed in quite some time – Tropical Tango.

I couldn’t help but to enjoy a glass right when I got home.

I always forget how awesome the Tropical Tango Flavour is. It has coconut in it, so obviously it has to be good. It’s almost like drinking a Pina Colada…sans rum.

And since I was left to my own devices for dinner, I decided to make a pizza only I would enjoy. We even had a small ball of pizza dough in the freezer, and I managed to spread it out on the pan relatively well. I still have troubles with holes forming in my crust, but I patched those all up.

I brushed a little olive oil on the dough, and sprinkled on some Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese and pre-baked the crust a bit before topping it. Then I added:

• spinach
• marinated artichokes
• onion
• rehydrated porcini mushrooms
• corn
• mozzarella
• parmesan

The above is pre-cheese, and below is post-cheese & post-bake.

Whenever I use fresh pizza dough, I can never get it to brown – any tips?!

I served myself a couple of slices.

It was delicious. Especially without the tomato sauce base. We didn’t have any on hand, and I’m not really a tomato sauce person, so the simple olive oil & seasonings were right up my alley. Plus that corn – oh, it get so sweet and delicious on the pizza. If you’ve never had corn on a pizza, I highly recommend you try it out.

I enjoyed my pizza while I watched the hockey game (Canucks win 7 – 3!). It didn’t bother my tummy much, so I grabbed another slice (they were pretty small to begin with).

That’s a hunk of artichoke hanging off there, not cheese

My mom came home later on with leftover dessert from their dinner party – cherry cheesecake. Obviously, I had to taste test a sliver.

It got my seal of approval.

Then, despite the rain, we went and soaked out in the hot tub. It’s been quite awhile since I’d gone in (probably because of all the rain), so it was a nice way to relax from my…completely slack day. HA!

And now, it is again much later than I would like it to be, so I shall bid my adieu and hop into bed. Night!

Second To Last Monday

Second to last Monday of the semester down, and only one more to go. Woohoo! Am I way too excited for this semester to be over? Maybe because if the semester is over, it means my looming group paper is done. I think it’s going to consume most of my brain power this week and next, and I’m not looking forward to it.

I managed to start my week off right by a) getting out of bed on time, and b) making a lovely cereal mess for breakfast.

• Peanut Butter Puffins
• Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise
• Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola
• pomegranate arils

Plus a glass of the juice – cranberry pomegranate, dontcha know?

I love a good cereal mess, especially when it include Peanut Butter Puffins!

Biochemistry was riveting as always, then I had another fun volunteer shift at Sprouts. What made it so fun? Chocolate tasting! One of the other volunteers there and I decided to each pick up a bar of the chocolate we sell, since we have it on sale for a really good price ($2.50/bar, retails for over $3.50 in most stores). What kind of chocolate you may ask?

Zazubean Chocolate. I love this company – not only are they local, they sell fair trade, organic chocolates, and are apparently the first “functional chooclate” line in Canada. Also cool – instead of sending the chocolate over to Europe to be processed, it is actually done in Washington, solely for this company here in BC.

The flavour I selected was Ego – matcha & goji berries in 70% dark chocolate. It was a really nice blend of flavours, and you all know how I love me some matcha. The extras were subtle, but went well with the delicious dark chocolate. I also got to try Nakid – 73% dark chocolate with raw cacao nibs. This was also a really good, pure tasting chocolate bar. Loved the little crunch from the cacao nibs in there. I had a little square of each, and will be savouring this chocolate for as long as it lasts around here.

Volunteer day also means baked goodie day!

I went with the Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Honey cookie (I think I got the name right). It was crumbly, sweet, and delicious. Not to mention there were whole hazelnuts in there. Oh yeah.

Lunch was packed to go, since I was rushing off to the hospital for my other volunteer shift right after school.

Just a simple sandwich of cheddar, hummus, cucumber, dill pickle, and spinach, all on a sourdough bun.

It was supposed to have avocado as well, but it had gone manky. Boo-urns.

Volunteering at the hospital was pretty boring like last time, but I just keep telling myself that I’m doing it to get into the program and get the job I want. Otherwise, I’d probably go insane. Why can’t they have some paid work opportunities every once in a while?

I made a side trip to the mall to check out a few things, then I came home, where mom asked if I wanted pancakes for dinner. Instead, I suggested waffles. I haven’t had homemade waffles in eons, probably due to my lack of waffle iron. Mom obliged my request.

I made a topping of sauteed apples, butter, cinnamon, and maple syrup. I also added a drizzle of peanut butter to mine.

Breakfast for dinner.

I know, I know. I didn’t really plate it all that well. Believe me though, it tasted damn good.

I then spent pretty much the rest of my evening on the damn computer, conversing with people in my group, and doing some background reading for our paper. Ugh – the amount of time they have allowed us to do the paper and presentation is just doesn’t seem like enough. I really fear our paper is going to be half-assed, and not because we didn’t try, but because we were rushed to get it all done. You better believe it’s going on my course evaluation.

Now I’m munching on a few roasted cashews, and off to do some more reading before I hit the sack. Get used to the monster full day recaps – I have a feeling that’s how my schedule will be for the next two weeks. Night!

Dragging

Wow, I am tired today. I could not fall asleep last night to save my life, I’m not sure what was up. I think I had too many things going through my head to fully relax and drift off to dream land. Let me tell you – it was a struggle to stay awake in my psychology class this morning! I was probably driving the people around me insane with all the fidgeting I was doing just to keep awake. No worries though, I’ve got my caffeine now, so I’ll last through my presentation this afternoon.

I started the morning off with a delicious little bowl of oatmeal.

I wasn’t super hungry when I got up, so I scaled back a bit on the oat portion.

• 1/3 cup oats, milk, water
• 2 dried figs, chopped
• ~1 tbsp dried cranberries
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• 1 tbsp peanut butter, swirled in
• Artisana Cacao Bliss

New juice this morning! Oasis Pomegranate Berry juice. It’s so dark and seductive

Great way to start the day.

I pulled up my favourite piece of carpet to waste some time and eat my lunch, part 1. I really need to find a better place on campus to hang out though – everywhere is so busy! I want somewhere that is quiet, comfortable, and has good lighting

On the menu was Wasa crispbreads with cheddar cheese (don’t worry, that’s not all the cheese for those 3 crackers).

Some of my favourite raw veggies – carrot and cucumber. Are you sick of seeing these?

And of course, some Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus for dippin’ duty.

See, totally not lying about sitting on the damn floor. Makes my butt go numb. LOL.

Alas, I must cut my break short, so I can meet up with my group to ensure we are prepared for our presentation today. Toodles!

Superstitious? Maybe

I know I said earlier that I wasn’t superstitious, but I dunno – I’m starting to think some of the events from today were totally related to it being Friday the 13th!

After my meeting with my group, I made my way home. I stopped off at one place I wanted to put my resume in, but they wouldn’t take it! They told me they don’t take resumes to keep on file, and that I can only apply to jobs listed on their website. What if people don’t have computers, how do they apply? I was a little miffed, but hopped back on the bus to go home. I got the train, knowing I would make my second bus with enough time. Except when I got off the train, I watched my bus pull away from the station EARLY. Are they even allowed to do that?! ARGH. And that bus only comes every 30 min, so I ended up calling my mom to come get me. Not impressed.

Backtracking a bit – I tried out the Tropical Fruit Larabar. Me likey! It was very reminiscent of a pina colada, with the pineapple and coconut. They could probably lose the little bit of orange flavour in there, but I would totally buy it again. I think it’s definitely one of those love/hate flavours though. No “sort of” liking this one.

Once I was home, I set out making lunch. It was such a chilly, windy day that I knew soup needed to be on the menu.

Luckily there was still some avgolemono soup left in the fridge. There was also some leftover orzo in there, so I added it to the bottom of the bowl, topped it with soup, and heated it up. Plus a little sprinkle of dill for that pop of colour.

On the side I had the usual veggies – cucumber and carrot.

 

With some Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus for dipping.

It turned out to be a warming, filling meal.

I considered a nap, or going to the gym, but instead just chilled with some reading. And a little sweet treat – medjool date with peanut butter a few chocolate chips.

I definitely had a second one of those.

Usually Friday night is take out night around here for dinner, but mom wasn’t feeling well, and decided to make oatmeal for dinner. Now, we all know I have nothing against a good bowl of oats, but I just wasn’t feeling breakfast food for dinner tonight. And since my lunch was pretty late, I just wasn’t hungry for dinner. I figured it was a good time to go to the gym.

Too bad I never even set foot in the building. I drive down there, and when I pull up there is a fire truck and 3 police cars, lights flashing. So I get out of my warm car, walked in the frigid temperatures up to the policemen, and ask if I’ll be able to get into the gym. He says they are just clearing the building right now from a gas leak. I figure okay, well, I’ll hang around, hoping it won’t take too long. I wander into the grocery store next door to keep warm and entertain myself. Probably 15 min later, I go back out, and all the emergency vehicles are gone. So I wander up to the front door, and there is a sign on there that “due to a heating equipment malfunction, the gym will be closed until further notice”. Damnit!

Dejected, I make my way back home. I contemplate doing a workout DVD, but all of the TV’s with DVD players are being watched. Grrr. Must be a sign to just make dinner.

I knew there was a piece of butternut squash in the fridge, so I planned to roast it. Too bad it was moldy. See what I mean about this Friday the 13th business?

Eventually I came up with an acceptable substitute, which turned into a full meal.

I still got in my beta-carotene with a sweet potato. I sliced it up and threw it in the oven until I got bored waiting. Plus a little ketchup on the side for dipping.

I also cooked up a salmon burger, and topped it with some smashed avocado.

And made a small side caesar salad.

Looks pretty good to me. Take that Friday the 13th! HA!

After some digesting, I played my older sister card, and kicked my sister off the TV downstairs so I could get at least a little activity in today.

Today I went with Bob and The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. I did the recommended first session, which works out to about 35 min from warm up through cool down. It was pretty good. Now, I don’t know that Bob has the best yoga voice, but I enjoyed the video, and was definitely feeling it afterwards. Good thing too, since it looks like my newly acquired DVD’s will be my go-to source of activity until the gym is open again.

And I think that about wraps up my evening. Hopefully you all had better luck today than I did. I’m off to get my beauty rest. 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!

Wonky Week

Hello wonderful readers I hope everyone has started off their week right. Mine school week is going to be a bit off – today I’m staying late to meet with some people, tomorrow I only have a midterm from 2 – 4 pm, Wednesday is a holiday, then Thursday/Friday should be pretty normal.

Alas, I still had to wake up before the sun, so I went for the usual quick breakfast – cereal.

This was a pretty great combo of flavours.

• Kashi Honey Almond Flax
• Kashi Cinnamon Harvest
• Peanut Butter Puffins
• dried raspberries
• shaved coconut

I like how the shredded wheat pieces fall apart in the milk, making the bowl of cereal seem thicker. Plus they give the milk a delicious cinnamon flavour

I also had a glass of that Oasis juice – Black Currant & Elderberry. You’ll be seeing it for awhile!

I was out the door a little late today, but transit was working in my favour. The train was there right when I got to the station, and the bus was sitting waiting for me to get on once I was off the train. I made into class only a couple minutes late, which is perfect, because our professor spends the first 5 min recapping what we covered last class.

I had my usual volunteer shift at Sprouts after class, and I scored a couple of tasty treats. You’ll just have to come back later to see them

Then instead of heading home, I found a place to eat my packed lunch.

My cousin’s wife made soup yesterday, and brought some over. Obviously, I had to try it out for lunch. You can’t pass up on homemade soup! It was a modified version of Avgolemono soup.

So it doesn’t really photograph well, but it was tasty! Instead of chicken, she used leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, and used whole wheat alphabet pasta instead of rice.

I’d never had avgolemono soup before, but had always wanted to try it. I loved the turkey in this. Unfortunately, most of the pasta fell apart in the soup, but it made it thick and creamy. I think the rice would have been a better choice, but it’s not the end of the world. I’ll have to try making it one day myself

To go with the soup I had some cucumber and snap peas.

With some Sabra Roasted Pine Nut hummus for dipping.

I guess I should get some midterm studying in while I wait to meet up with my group. We are working on our education programs for Nutrikids. At least it’s a fun project!

Question of the moment: It seems I’m the only blogger out there who has a morning glass of juice. Do you drink juice? Why or why not? I feel juice gets a bad rap in the healthy eating world!

Shiver Me Timbers

No, I’m not turning into a pirate. It’s just WINDY out there today. And rainy, and cold   Typical BC fall weather, that’s for sure. Makes me glad I can hide inside all day. And that I had time to make a warming bowl of oatmeal this morning.

• 1/2 cup oats, milk, water
• 3 dried figs, chopped
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• swirled in peanut butter
• sprinkle of pomegranate seeds

A glass of the usual.

It was another fig-licious bowl!

 

I decided to dress up as a studious 12 year old today – wore my glasses, and braids. Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

And no, that’s not the only hoodie I own – just the one I wear all the time. LOL.

Psychology lecture was the norm. We finally got our midterm marks back, and it was decent, around what I expected. And since I have a better idea of how he writes his midterms, I’m the next few will improve

I couldn’t find a good couch to curl up on today, so instead I pulled up a piece of floor in the library, so I could compute and chow lunch.

I made biscuit-wiches! Mom had made some baking powder biscuits last night, so I made up a couple of mini ham & cheese sammies. Delicious!

The usual veggie component – carrot, cucumber, snap peas – for dipping in hummus.

Time to get back to my lunch break. I’m considering a stop over at Sbucks on the way to my next class – it’s chilly out there!

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!

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!

Homework Hell

Ugh – this weekend has turned into my homework weekend from hell. I have a midterm to study for in Psychology on Tuesday, and two group assignments due for my Land, Food, and Community class on Thursday. It would have only been one assignment due that day, but alas, the schedule for our presentations puts my group on the same day, so we are scrambling trying to get it all sorted out. And to think, I only have 3 classes. I don’t know what it would be like if I had a full courseload!

So, other than a crapload of school work, what was I up to yesterday? Obviously, I started with some breakfast.

I spy some matcha green tea oats!

• 1/2 cup oats, milk, water
• 1 small banana, sliced
• 1 tbsp Ruth’s Chia Goodness cereal
• coconut
• splash of coconut extract
• 1 tsp matcha powder
• Artisana Coconut Butter

With a glass of plain ol’ cranberry juice. I like it so much better than the ones combined with other fruits.

Yummy in my tummy!

I did manage to get in a little figure skating viewing on tv, as well as a quick trip to the gym. It’s all about balance – you can’t study 24/7.

Lunch hunger eventually rolled around.

I saw that my mom had made some soup – not 100% sure on the recipe, but I know it include butternut squash, red pepper, white kidney beans, and onion.

I also found a cheese kaiser that needed to be eaten. Since it’s my self-imposed duty to make sure food doesn’t go to waste, I sliced it open, and added a little aged white cheddar.

The cheesy bun was the perfect accompaniment to dip into the soup

I then set to work on some psychology reading, which led into a quick nap on the couch. Something about textbook reading just puts me to sleep! I should try that at night when I can’t sleep. HA!

I got up, and figured a snack would help energize me.

A sourdough rye Wasa flatbread with Maranatha Peanut Butter and chocolate chips. I’m pretty sure this is my favourite new snack.

There was some important hockey to watching while I worked through more psych – Canucks vs the Toronto Maple Leafs. I’m proud to say, my team was victorious! WOOT!

I threw together a quick dinner at the end of the game, as I was heading out for the evening. It all started with a hot dog, dressed in ketchup, mustard, faux cheese, and red onion.

Some dippables – carrot & cucumber with dill dip.

And a few chunks of fresh pineapple.

It’s always fun when you can put together such a colourful meal.

After I wolfed that down, and made myself presentable, I was off to my cousin’s house for another evening of movie watching and general merriment. I spend way too much time there, but they live close to me, and it means I can get out of my own house.

Now I’m off to hit those books, and write a few pages for our dairy system report. Toodles!