Permission To Bake

Happy Wednesday everyone. I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday though – is this week going slow for anyone else?! Maybe it’s just my perpetual sleepy state, but I could so use a weekend right about now.

I let myself linger in bed past my alarm this morning, which meant breakfast had to be quick. Cereal to the rescue!

A great mix of Kashi GoLean Crunch, puffed kamut, puffed brown rice, dried cranberries, and coconut.

With a glass of cranberry juice. Apparently I’m the only one in the house drinking the damn stuff.

Usually Wednesdays are a short day for me – I only have an hour of class from 8 – 9 am. Well, it turns out that is no longer the case. At the beginning of the year, I applied to volunteer at Agora, a cafe on campus run by my faculty. Due to some miscommunication, I thought I hadn’t been accepted as a volunteer because they had already filled all the spots that I was available for, therefore I never went to any training sessions. Much to my surprise, I found out last week that I was actually schedule to work on Wednesdays from 10 – 11:50 am. So today was my first day.

Of course, this meant I needed to take some eats with me, so I wouldn’t want to gnaw my arm off before I got home.

I brought (blurry) concord grapes from my uncle’s grape vine.

And a couple of my mom’s homemade cookies. Mmmm, cookies.

And I have no clue how this grande, non-fat, half sweet green tea latte found it’s way into my photos. Or into my tummy

So my first shift at Agora was…interesting. I find that it’s run somewhat differently than Sprouts, perhaps because they are solely a cafe, whereas Sprouts is also a grocery store. I was able to prepare and serve a variety of foods – soup, quiche, egg sandwiches, smoothies, etc. The best part though? They let me bake! When I arrived, I was asked if I liked baking (duh), so I was shown the recipe binder and told to pick something and go ahead and bake it. Sweet! I was all over that. I surveyed the items in stock, and chose to make some blueberry oatmeal muffins. I hope they turned out okay – I was leaving just as we pulled them out of the oven. I guess I’ll find out next week, if they let me bake again

We also have volunteer t-shirts to wear at Agora. Check it out.

Front

Back

I just like that it’s brown

I finally found myself back at home just before 2 pm, and I was ready for some lunch. Soup seemed like a good idea this afternoon.

I heated up a serving of homemade borscht, topped with a little sour cream and dill.

I had thought about another avocado/hummus/cheddar sandwich, but when I was getting a bowl out of the cupboard, I saw mom had done some more baking this morning. She made more whole wheat cheddar & onion soda bread. I scrapped the sandwich, and toasted up some of the good stuff.

I still wanted my hummus, so I spread some Sabra Roasted Garlic on each piece.

And saw that my dad had opened a package of harvest garlic sausage, so I snagged a couple slices.

It was a great fall lunch.

My evening is quite the busy one – my parents are out, so I’m on dinner duty. Plus I have some oh-so-important hockey to watch, Thanksgiving desserts to decide upon, and school work to attempt. Later!

Peachy Keen

Here I am, blogging from the ferry on my way home from the island. Sadly, there is no Wi-Fi onboard, but at least this will be ready to post when I walk in the door, so I can hit the sack ASAP! It’s been one long day.

I started my long day bright and early – or should I say dark and early since the sun isn’t up yet – at 5:30 am. I put together one monster of a cereal bowl for breakfast.

I enjoyed having fresh peaches in my cereal when I was over at my cousin’s house on the weekend, and thought I would recreate it at home since my mom had picked up some beautiful peaches at the farmer’s market on the weekend. They had just gotten ripe enough to use.

I dished out a bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch, then added half of one giant peach chopped up. A dusting of shredded coconut & a healthy dose of milk completed the bowl.

I think it was almost a1:1 cereal to peach ratio. And that was only half the peach!

To continue on with the peach theme, I had a glass of imposter Mango Peach Party juice.

It even went with the new fall tablecloth on the dining room table.

I actually drove myself to school today, and it was alot quicker than I expected. I guess rush hour isn’t quite in full swing yet when I have to get to an 8 am class. It was also a beautiful sunny day, which always helps

After class, I motored on over to the ferry terminal, and caught the 11 am ferry. Once I was settled in, it was time to work on lunch.

I’m sure it’s not shocking that I had leftover mac & cheese.

With a side of green - cucumber slices.

I also grabbed some concord grapes for a fruity kick.

And had a few bites of the trail mix that forever lives in my school bag. I take it every day, but haven’t been eating more than a bite or two at a time.

One of my good friends picked me up at the ferry terminal, and we hung out at his house for the afternoon – I was playing around on the laptop, sorting out some more hockey pool things, and he was playing some first person shooter game on Wii. Quality time, I tell ya We did have a little unpictured popcorn snack. He makes the best popcorn, seasoned with cajun spice and seasoning salt. Yum!

Then I was off to my old workplace, where I had a little time to catch up with some people before the hockey draft. Fortunately, dinner is always provided – the winner from the previous year buys pizza for the night of the draft. I ended up with one slice of Hawaiian, and one slice of some veggie pizza. It had artichokes on it, so it had to be good. I also managed to draft up a pretty good team – assuming no one gets injured on me. Here’s hoping I might actually win this year!

One of my coworkers whisked me back to the ferry, but sadly, I had to wait an hour since the ferries only run every two hours when it’s not peak season. I had a little nap in the terminal, and called home to chat since everyone will be in bed when I get there.

Once I was on the ferry, I was feeling the nibblies. Could just be boredom, but whatever, I went with it.

A delicious white chocolate chunk cookie. This one was perfectly crisp on the outside, but chewy enough on the inside I didn’t think I was going to break my teeth Plus it had giant chunks of white chocolate – how can you go wrong?

Sadly, that brings my day of eats to a close. I think I’ll play a little mah jong do some homework for the rest of the ferry ride. Hopefully I’ll stay awake the whole drive home. Night!

Number Crunching

It’s what, the 3rd week of school, and I’m already having some minor grade anxiety? That’s can’t be a good thing

I had to prep for a very long, busy day today. Yes, Thursdays are normally my long day, but I had two extra meetings to go to, and my first graded assignment – our group presentation.

You’d think oatmeal would be the preferred fuel for a day like today, but I wasn’t in a cooking mood when I got up, so cereal won out.

A combination of Kashi GoLean Crunch and Peanut Butter Puffins, topped with dried cranberries and coconut.

It’s been far to long since I’ve had Puffins for breakfast. Oh Puffins, why you gotta be so damn expensive?!

Paired up with a glass of cranberry pomegranate juice.

After a riveting psychology lecture, I found myself a nice bench in the sun to eat my lunch and prepare for my presentation in the afternoon. I packed quite a spread to last me throughout the day.

For lunch, I chowed down on my sandwich – Silver Hills bread, avocado, cheddar cheese, and ED&BV Lemon Cashew Basil Pesto.

Plus my concord grapes. They are really good – the skins are a little tart, and the centres sweet. Yum!

To fuel me through my lecture/presentation, I brought along more custom trail mix. I maybe had half the bag, if that.

And because I was staying after my class that ended at 6 pm for a meeting, I brought along a this gala apple

And a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar.

I didn’t have my normal 3 hour break between classes, as I had my first meeting of the day – the Dietetics Applicant Info Session. Where I was also lucky enough to meet up with a blog reader/fellow applicant (Hello Bronwyn!). Too bad we didn’t get more time to chat – we’ll have to go coffee sometime The session itself was quite informative, but sent me into a tizzy when I found out how they would calculate my GPA using my grades from my previous degree/school. I thought I was going to be screwed, but I pulled out my transcripts when I got home, and was able to put my mind at easy with some quick number crunching. I’m still not 100% positive on how they will calculate my GPA, as not all my classes transfer directly, but I think I’ll still be okay. Phew! I also got some really great insight into the rest of the application process, and what I can do to make sure my application stands out

I also had my first assignment today – our group presentation. It went very smoothly, and we got decent marks. There are definitely things to improve on, but we have 3 to do over the whole course, and we get to keep our best 2 out of 3 marks, so we can only go up from here.

After the epic 4 hour class, I was off to my second meeting of the day, for a volunteer position to help my dietetics application in February. It’s for a program called Nutrikids, where student volunteers form teams of three, and go into elementary schools to teach nutrition workshops to the students there. I think it will be really valuable experience, and I’m looking forward to putting together our workshops. I’m all about making fun posters!

Of course, this late meeting meant I wasn’t home until 8:40 pm! Look what I found when I walked in the door.

The table, all set and ready for me to eat dinner. Thanks mom!

On the menu tonight – Chunky Potato Soup.

The soup has potato, carrot, celery, onion, chicken stock, cream, and swiss cheese. I doctored mine up with a little black pepper and fresh chives. I’m thinking corn would be an excellent addition as well.

There was also a loaf of crusty whole wheat bread, so I toasted a couple slices, spread on a little butter, and topped them with cucumber slices, salt, and pepper.

With a bottle of the bubbly water.

Now that I’m thoroughly exhuasted, both mentally and physically, I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is Friday – woot! Night

Time Warp

Wow, what happened to me posting anything on Friday? My day just got away from me, and by the time I made it down to the computer, I was just too tired to write up anything worth reading. I’m still trying to figure out this whole school schedule thing and how it works with my sleep patterns and everything else. I’m sure you all understand.

So, let’s get caught up, shall we?

Friday morning means up at the crack of dawn   It also means I have little interest in making anything too complicate for breakfast.

Cereal it was! Just a bowl full of Kashi GoLean Crunch and milk. I didn’t even bother trying to doctor it up.

Paired up with the usual glass of cranberry pomegranate juice.

5:30 am definitely requires quick & easy when it comes to breakfast.

After an uneventful commute and a thrilling biochemistry lecture on amino acids, I wandered over to one of the many Starbucks on campus to get some caffeine in my system – in the form of an iced green tea latte.

I’m so high maintenance when I order: “I’d like a grande, non-fat, half sweet, iced green tea latte please”. I had to repeat it twice, and the customer in line just ahead of me just laughed. I’m picky, what can I say?

Why did I need the caffeine? Because I was staying on campus for awhile to meet up with my group to discuss and work on our first presentation for next Thursday. Man, my group is quiet. I was really having to draw out some discussion amongst them. I hate feeling like I’m being overbearing and taking over control, but I refuse to get a bad mark because the others I have to work with aren’t into it. Ah, the perils of group work

I packed a lunch of sorts to take with me to school as well, since I didn’t know quite how long I’d be there.

Carrot & cucumber slices with some delicious dill dip, plus a wedge of Laughing Cow.

A Cashew Cookie Larabar.

And an apple that I never got around to eating while I was out.

I came home for the customary afternoon nap, followed by some camera shy homemade cookies I spent the afternoon searching for jobs and working on some homework. It was all sorts of thrilling!

Dinner time rolled around, and since it was take out Friday, we ended up with pizza. I think pizza & Chinese food are the go-to meals for take out nights in this house! Again, we ordered from Pizza Hut, and my dad was nice enough to ask what pizza I wanted. I decided to go with the Chicken Florentine, which was grilled chicken, baby spinach, roasted red pepper, and tomato. I subbed out the tomato for mushrooms though. Yum!

As you can see, I had my two slices with a couple of cheesy bread sticks and was perfectly satisfied. At least until evening snack time came around.

I sliced up the gala apple I hadn’t eaten at lunch, and dipped the slices in a blob of creamy & delicious peanut butter.

And that, my friends, is what happened ‘round here on Friday. Another exciting day in the life of me!

Last Day Of Freedom

It’s my last day until school starts up tomorrow. EEK! I think I’m ready to go back to school. I hope I’m ready. At least there are no classes tomorrow – just lots of orientation events. So technically, I don’t have to be there at any set time, but I’m aiming to be there by 10 am for the “Meet The Dean” session for my faculty. And I’ll be hitting up the faculty BBQ for lunch as well.

To prepare for waking up at horrendously early hours for school, I managed to get myself out of bed by 8:15 this morning. Although considering I’ll need to be leaving my house almost 2 hours earlier than that 3 days a week, I don’t know how well I’ve got myself prepped for those early mornings

At least I have good breakfasts down pat.

Seeing as my family keeps eating all the Kashi GoLean Crunch, I figured I’d better get a bowl before it’s all gone.

I mixed mine with some puffed kamut and puffed brown rice, then topped it with fresh blueberries.

I also toasted up half an English muffin, and spread on some peanut butter, then some creamed Saskatoon berry honey. Love the swirly pattern.

And of course, there was a glass of Happy Planet Mango Peach Party juice to go with the meal.

It’s still a grey, dreary day out there, although so far, it hasn’t rained. Hopefully the rain stays away tomorrow as well – riding transit in the rain is never fun. Anyways, I’m off to enjoy my last free day!

A Whole Lotta Lara

Larabars that is.

Remember how I got that great deal on Larabars this week, where Safeway was selling them off for $0.99 each? Well, I didn’t luck out and find anymore at any of the other Safeways. But Choices Market had them on sale this week 3 for $3.99, or $1.33 each, which is still an awesome deal. Since I knew they would have all the flavours, I headed down there to do a little more stocking up. I think I’m good to go for the school year, don’t you?

The only other fun thing I did today was buy cat food. Actually, that’s really only fun for Sienna.

But I did make an excellent lunch.

I had a ripe avocado ready to be used, and a hankering for tuna. The obvious solution – tuna avocado salad sandwich.

I mashed up 1/4 of the avocado with 1 wedge of Laughing Cow cheese. Then I added half a can of tuna (packed in water), as well as some pepper and onion powder. I served mine on top of a toasted English muffin with some of those garden fresh chives.

Also on the menu were crunchy carrot sticks.

A bowl of non-fat plain organic yogurt topped with Kashi GoLean Crunch and dried blueberries.

And the cutest little pear ever. This is another treasure we got from our neighbour yesteday.

I felt very Kath-esque with my lunch spread today.

Not sure if I’ll be hungry for dinner any time soon though – that was one big lunch!

Well, time to go back to my job search. For those that have asked, so far I haven’t heard back from the health store I applied at, but I see they still have the job posting up on their website, so who knows? I’m not holding my breath or anything though, that’s for sure.

Another Day, Another Bowl Of Cereal

What can I say, I’m enjoying my cereal these days? It’s just too easy to throw together a bowl, especially when you keep sleeping in and need food stat when you get up

And I especially enjoy being able to eat it outside. It is yet again, another sunny   day here. There is a bit of a breeze, which is quite refreshing. Perfect weather for al fresco dining.

Into my cereal bowl went:

• Kashi GoLean Crunch
• puffed kamut
• puffed brown rice
• raisins
• coconut
• hemp seeds
• cinnamon
• unsweetened vanilla almond milk

New juice! Just regular old cranberry. I much prefer this to the flavoured cranberry juices.

And to think, my days of leisurely breakfasts are soon to be over! The travesty of it all!

I tried taking some self portraits this morning for my student ID, but so far they are all a fail. I think I’m going to have to wait until my mom gets home to see if she can get a better shot. I’m probably just being uber picky, but come on, no one wants a dodgy looking photo on their ID. I already have enough of those!

Off to get some things done around here. Happy Monday!

Which Way To The Beach?

Hello there everyone. Hope all your weekends are going well so far – I know mine has. Today was a day filled with adventures and random food, which I’m going to share with you now.

I slept in this morning – mostly because I was up until almost 3:30 last night reading! I think I’m reverting back to my old university self, staying up til the wee hours of the morning, except that my old body can’t handle it anymore. I received some good news on the textbook front as well – the bookstore is going to ship me the textbook they didn’t send, and not charge me for the shipping costs. I’m quite impressed with the customer service I’ve received so far at the school, hopefully this keeps up.

I considered cooking up some oatmeal this morning, but my kitchen was overrun with all my family members, so I threw together a bowl of cereal instead.

I topped some Kashi GoLean Crunch with craisins, goldenberries, coconut, and hemp seeds. It all took a dip in a pool of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

With the usual drink of choice – juice of the cranberry peach variety. Still haven’t finished off the damn jug!

Lookin’ good.

I then decided that I wanted to make the epic trek downtown to see Food, Inc., so I jumped online to figure out how public transit would deliver me to my destination, and realized I needed to get my butt in gear, since the bus I needed to catch was leaving in 30 min. I made it out there in plenty of time, even with my mother telling me I was going to miss my bus over…and over…and over again.

The public transit ride was uneventful, and got me to my destination as promised after taking a bus, then the train, then another bus. Here’s where I got off the bus.

Right smack dab in the middle of English Bay. You have to love a major metropolitan city that has a beach right downtown to enjoy. As you can see, it was a glorious day to be out at the beach, so I made sure to spend a little time down there as well. I had about 45 min until the movie was to start, so I wandered up and down Denman Street, surveying my options for lunch after the movie let out, and seeing how much has changed since I’d last been down there. I was a bit on the peckish side, so I found myself a bench at the beach, and broke out my snack.

I had this Clif Mojo Mixed Nuts bar that K had sent me. I’ve really enjoyed the Mojo bars I’ve tried so far, and wish they were available up here in Canada. Just like the others, they are a wonderful chewy & nutty snack.

I think the Mountain Mix is still in the #1 spot, but this was definitely tasty as well. If I ever get in my trip to the States to go shopping, I’m so stocking up on Mojos!

I made my way back to the theatre with about 20 min before show time, but the doors were still locked. Hmm, odd. So I wandered along the street a little more, and got back there with just under 10 min before show time, and the guy was just opening up the theatre. The lights hadn’t even been turned on inside when I got there!

It’s one old school theatre, that’s for sure. There was only one other person there to see the movie when I went in. And she made the one guy working there fire up the popcorn machine so she could have popcorn. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was the only person wanting popcorn, chances are I just wouldn’t have any if they were popping it only for me. I almost felt bad when he asked me if I wanted some “fresh popped popcorn” and I declined.

So empty!

I think one other person came in after I had sat down, so there was a total of 3 of us in this big old theatre. That can’t be cost efficient, running all those lights, paying your one employee, for 3 people paying $7.95 to see a movie. Oh well, at least I was able to see it!

I’m not going to do a big review on Food, Inc, as I know there have been plenty out there. I can’t say that it was THAT shocking to see the monopolies, animal/worker conditions, etc, etc. There was definitely some new information to me, and it gives you alot to think about and consider in your own food consumer life. It also makes me want to delve further into the food industries here in Canada. I’m actually hoping one of the classes I have this fall will touch on the topic. I think the most shocking this to me, was the power these companies have to sue people, for even just saying how they may have changed their eating habits due to an E. coli outbreak or whatever. Perhaps I don’t fully understand the American legal system, and what you can and can’t sue people for, but to me, that’s just someone expressing what they choose to eat or not eat. How is that grounds for suing? If you can sue people for expressing something like that, then shouldn’t we all as food bloggers be worried about what we choose to say on our on blogs? Something to ponder for sure.

When I left the theatre, I was hungry. I had passed a little falafel restaurant in my travels, and it smelled amazing, so I knew I was heading there for something good to eat.

 

I had considered getting the Falafel Sandwich special with the carrot & lentil soup, but I wasn’t quite that hungry, and it was a little too warm out for soup, so I went with just the falafel sandwich. I took my sandwich to go, and walked back down to the beach

It was pretty basic – pita, falafel, lettuce, yogurt sauce, and spicy sauce (it also came with tomato, but I passed on that). It was very flavourful, and the spicy sauce wasn’t too spicy, which I was grateful for. My only complaint is that it was a little on the dry side – I think a little more sauce, or perhaps if I’d had the tomato in it, and it would have been better. There were even whole chickpeas in the falafels.

After I’d eaten my meal, and had enough fun in the sun on the sand, I made my way over to Robson Street, with a particular destination in mind.

Capers Community Market – which is owned by Whole Foods, just so ya know I’ll admit, my first reason for heading there? To see if they were carrying the new Larabar flavours – alas, they were not. I also wanted to pick up a little snack and cold drink for the trip home.

So I grabbed a Zico Coconut Water.

And a few yogurt covered pretzels from the bulk bins. It’s been far too long since I’ve had bulk bin treats!

Between the falafel, coconut water, and pretzels, I totally ruined my appetite for dinner. I walked in the door at home around 6:30, to find my family just finishing up dinner. On the menu – BBQ ribs. Which I hate. I am so not a rib eater, so it worked out perfectly! Instead, I had a little blurry bowl of yogurt, homemade applesauce, and a few craisins.

Then I promptly fell asleep on the couch while my mom watched some shows on tv. I awoke, and watched some other randomness with her, then made my way downstairs to show some love to my computer. Too bad the damn internet wasn’t working again. My dad and I spent a good hour or so troubleshooting the problem, trying to get it to work, but we’ve come to the conclusion that our router might just be dying. I see a trip to Future Shop in our future tomorrow.

All that technology headache required dessert. My mom had made a blackberry apple pie, so I grabbed a slice of that.

I cannot pass up on my mom’s homemade pie. She makes the best pie crusts. Why can’t bakeries make crusts as good as hers?

I may have also grabbed a Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownie. I obviously needed the sugar high.

You’d think I should be passed out in a sugar coma, but I’m wide awake and raring to go. And my internet has magically started working again, so I think it’s the perfect time to make a dent in all those posts in my Google Reader. With that, I say au revoir…until tomorrow.

Epic Failure

Epic POWER failure that is.

I was sitting here at my computer last night, chatting with a friend, responding to emails, and watching the news. Just getting ready to upload my photos and do up my post. Then everything went black. DOH! I wasn’t sure if I’d blown a fuse or the power was out. A quick look outside confirmed that yes, our neighbourhood had no power – it was pitch black out there! No clue what happened. It was a calm night, no wind, no storms. I didn’t hear any transformers blow or cars crashing into power poles. That pretty much put an end to my evening – I fumbled around to find a flashlight, woke my sister up to set her alarm on her phone so she wouldn’t be late for work, made sure I turned off all the lights that might have been on, then went to bed. Power came back on around 2 am – I know, because the tv downstairs turned on and woke me up!

Fortunately, my computer seems to be working fine, so here we go with yesterday’s recap!

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After a dismal sleep, due to my cat being a total brat, I didn’t get out of bed until…well, late. Which meant I missed the mailman who was delivering me a package! They left their little notice, so I have to go down to the post office this afternoon to pick it up – apparently, it’s one that needs to be signed for.

Oh, and on the eye front – it’s still red. It’s not as bad though, so here’s hoping it clears up soon so I can get this student ID thing done up.

Anyways, I digress. After I dragged myself out of bed, I found myself in the kitchen throwing things into a bowl for a yogurt mess.

I got a little wild and crazy with this one – check out all those toppings. You can barely see that there’s even yogurt in there!

• plain, non-fat yogurt
• Kashi GoLean Crunch
• flax seed
• craisins
• blackberries
• shredded coconut
• hemp seeds
• peanut butter

A glass of cranberry peach juice to go alongside.

Isn’t it just a pretty little breakfast? Looks good enough to eat even!

All mixed up, it was one good breakfast. It went perfectly with a side of reading the newspaper. I’m really enjoying my leisurely mornings with the newspaper right now. Too bad it will stop once school starts. Gotta enjoy it while I can!

I eventually got myself presentable and ventured out for the day, on a grocery mission. I had a new grocery store I wanted to hit up – Choices Market. They are a BC based chain that focuses on natural, organic, and gourmet foods. Sounds right up my alley! Turns out they have two locations that aren’t too far away from me, so I set out to check them out. Actually, I had only planned on going to one, because I thought it looked like the better one. Boy was it small! I ended up going to the other location on the way home, because I had to drive right past it anyways, and why not check it out? Yeah, it was way bigger, and maybe 5 min closer to my house, so it will be my location of choice for sure.

I picked up a few things between the two stores. This was my best find of the day.

Artisana Cacao Bliss and Pecan Butter. I know, everyone and their dog has seen these on blogs, and lots of bloggers have gotten to sample them. The best part was what I paid for them. There was no way I could pass them up when I saw this price.

You read that right. $4.99 each. $4.99!!! Can you believe that? They were normally $15.99, on sale for $4.99. INSANE. I got these at the small market, where they also had the Artisana Walnut Butter for the same price, but the date on the Walnut butter was August 2009, so I passed on that. I’m almost tempted to drive back out there to pick up more. That’s less than 1/3 of the original price. You better believe when I stopped at the bigger location I checked to see if I could get the same deal. Alas, they didn’t have them on sale. They did have a few more Artisana products though, and some were reduced to $9.00 a jar, but that wasn’t enough of a price cut for me to bite.

A couple other notable purchases – two new salad dressings (since my family was lacking any salad dressings that I like). Annie’s Naturals Organic Green Garlic dressing and Brianna’s Homestyle Honey Mustard dressing.

I also picked up two new flavours of Kettle Chips – Sweet Onion and Jalapeno. Also on sale.

I like that I can buy chips now and not have to eat the whole bag before it goes stale.

I also took a trip out to Costco to get cereal (my GoLean Crunch was on sale for $2 off), bread, Laughing Cow (also $2 off), and toothpaste. Too bad I’ll have to go back out there today, since I grabbed the wrong damn toothpaste. I got gel instead of paste, and I hate gel. Blech.

While out, I also managed to almost rear end some old people who started to turn right, then stopped. And almost was hit by an idiot making a U-Turn where I was merging onto the highway. Oh how I love driving in the big city again.

I was ready for some lunch when I got home, but had no desire to put any effort into it. Hence this sandwich.

Honey ham, Laughing Cow, pickles, mustard on a 100% whole wheat cheese kaiser bun.

It’s true, I was too lazy to even clean some lettuce to throw in my sandwich. LOL Still tasted good, and that’s all that really matters, right?

At some point in time, my sister found her way home while I was searching for jobs online (alas, no luck). Then we started in on making dinner. She had requested I show her these things I had been talking about – tostadas.

We put out a spread of toppings that included:

• spicy refried beans
• leftover bbq chicken
• red pepper
• jalapeno peppers
• avocado
• cheddar cheese

I put a bit of everything on my two corn tostadas, popped them in the oven until hot and melty, then topped them with some sour cream and fresh chives from the garden.

I had a few cucumber slices on the side, for no other reason than I wanted some more green on my plate.

We enjoyed our dinner, then watched the results show from So You Think You Can Dance Canada. Then I took off for the gym. I got in some cardio time on the stair climber and elliptical. I had planned on doing a little upper body weight session afterwards, but I’m not used to the machines at this gym, and wasn’t enjoying the ones I started using. I went to use some of the other ones, but they were all busy, so I said screw it and went home.

After cleaning up the kitchen, I wanted a snack. I was thinking apples , so I pulled out the bag of apples we got from my sister’s boyfriend. They were starting to get a wee bit soft, so I decided to make impromptu applesauce – at 10 o’clock at night! That’s normal, right?

I chopped up the apple, skin and all, and threw them in a pot with some water, cinnamon, and honey. I let it cook down until I had what looked like applesauce, then I ran the immersion blender through it to break up the apple peel. Looks pretty good to me!

I may have put alot of cinnamon in. My sister even came down the hall from her bedroom and asked if I was making applesauce, because she could smell it.

I thought about having some as a snack, but it was still too hot, so I made myself a matcha latte instead – milk, matcha powder, splash of vanilla, and squirt of agave nectar.

Good thing I got all of those kitchen projects completed before the power went out!

And that, my friends, was my Wednesday. I know I had said I might take a trip to the States today, but I’ve put that on hold til next week. I’m off to enjoy the rest of my day. See you later, gators

Getting Corny

Finally! My internet appears to be working properly again. For some reason the wireless to my computer wouldn’t connect, even though the wireless to my mom’s was working fine. I spent alot of time today trying to get it working, but to no avail. Then, magically, it worked. Oh technology, why you gotta be like that? Let’s hope it keeps working – it’s making it hard for me to get things done while I’m still on “holidays”.

I wanted to update you all on yesterday this morning, but alas, that wasn’t possible. So you are getting on mammoth post of yesterday & today. Are you ready?

Sunday

My parents were off to Vegas, and I know they woke me up before they left for the airport, but I fell back asleep. Tee hee! I know, I know, I’m going to have to get myself on a proper schedule pretty damn quick, especially since I have morning classes all semester. By the time I felt like eating, it was lunch time. There were plenty of leftovers in the fridge that needed consuming, so I went to work on them.

I heated up the rest of the tomato soup, and topped it with a little white cheddar. Something about cheese & tomato soup just goes together.

There was also a container of pasta salad begging to be eaten. Who was I to say no?

I kicked it up a notch with some white cheddar and cucumber.

Lovely leftover lunch.

Can you see my reflection in the glass table top?

I totally couldn’t finish my lunch though! Crazy, no? I think my appetite is off from all this lack of schedule. I probably left 1/4 of both the soup and salad. As much as I hated to toss it, it would have gotten tossed anyways had I not eaten it, since they were leftovers on their last legs. I’m okay with it.

Honestly, I don’t really know what I did all day on Sunday. I’m sure I cranked the tunes, and fought with my stupid internet. I want to say I went out during the day, but it was obviously not important if I did, because frankly, I don’t remember. I did have a snack though!

It featured this amazing yogurt.

I needed lemon yogurt for the bundt cake I made on the weekend, and this was the only brand we could find in the grocery store, other than the single serving containers. Does no one make lemon flavoured yogurt anymore? Because it’s my favourite flavour! Anyways, this stuff is amazing – mostly because it’s full fat. Full fat = insanely thick & creamy. I paired a few scoops with some of those fresh blackberries I picked on Saturday.

Shortly there after I got a phone call from my friend, inviting me over for dinner. Which was perfect, since I hadn’t really thought about what I might make for dinner, and no one else was going to be home anyways. Why would I say no to good company & a cooked meal?

Her husband manned the BBQ and cooked up some delicious steaks (salmon for her – she doesn’t partake in the meat), as well as some potatoes. My friend also boiled up some corn on the cob to complete the meal. It was all so simple and so good – probably because I didn’t have to cook it I brought over some of the leftover blueberry bundt cake for dessert.

I made sure to make it home in time to watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada with my sister. We munched on a little popcorn with out tv.

Other than some computer time, reading time, and news watching, that about sums up my Sunday night.

Monday (Today)

I actually had to force myself out of bed this morning, because I had an appointment with the insurance company to have them look at the damage to my car. Of course, I turned my alarm off instead of to snooze, and got up too late to eat breakfast before I went. DOH! I did make it to my appointment on time though…only to find out that yes, I will have to pay $500 to have my damn car fixed. That’s what chokes me about hit and run accidents – you still have to pay your deductable even though you aren’t at fault. Total crap. I do have 2 years to get the repairs done, so I’m going to hold off for now, until I have finances sorted out a little better for school and whatnot. So not the kind of surprise you want, that’s for sure.

Once I got home, I threw together a quick bowl of cereal.

• Kashi GoLean Crunch
• Puffed Kamut
• Puffed Brown Rice
• fresh blackberries
• craisins
• mooooooo

And of course, a glass of juice to go with it. Cranberry peach.

It may be “just” cereal, but it’s sure is great tasting and satisfying. Of course, now that my sister knows there is GoLean Crunch in the house, I fear I’ll be out of cereal quick. I see a trip to Costco in my near future.

After getting thoroughly frustrated with my computer/internet issues, I went out to run the other errands of the day. I hit up the mall so I could change my address on my driver’s licence, then go and update my car insurance (I got a little lecture when I went to see the adjustor about how I shouldn’t have waited this long to do it). You want to know why I waited? Because I knew I was going to have to pay more – it’s more expensive to insure a car here in the Vancouver area than it is in Victoria. Lucky me – I got to pay them another $372 for the year, and I even took off insurance for driving to & from work/school. Right now, I seriously hate cars. I am so close to just selling the damn thing, since I know it’s just going to sit around and hardly get driven.

Then it was time to hit up the grocery store. We needed some general groceries, plus I wanted to pick some things that I eat – like real peanut butter. I only spent $30, which I was pretty proud of That included some things my sister needed. I did have to restrain myself, because we just don’t have room to store a ton of stuff.

By the time I got home, I was hankering for some lunch.

There was some roasted chicken needing to be consumed, and I found some garlic pesto tortillas that were still looking good. Put two & two together, and the obvious choice was a wrap.

Into my wrap went roasted chicken, shredded cheddar, pickles, lettuce, mustard, and mayo. I even got it to wrap up all pretty like.

There were also some carrot sticks.

And cucumber slices.

I then spent some time this afternoon prepping some things. I cleaned all those blackberries I picked on Saturday, and frozen the majority of them for later. Then I cooked up some chick peas from scratch. I also marinated some boneless skinless chicken breasts for dinner this evening.

My sister got home just before 5, and we booted it down to the gym to cardio kickboxing again. It was a different instructor this week, and I liked her style a little better. I find the class totally works my hamstrings, which is great, because they are insanely tight.

After out sweat session, we came home and set out making dinner. Obviously, there was the chicken I marinated earlier. It was pretty simple – slather in honey garlic BBQ sauce, throw in the oven, baste once, and you’re done!

We steamed up some cauliflower and broccoli, and topped it with a little cheese. My sister agrees with me – everything is better with cheese!

There was also some corn on the cob that she was given by a coworker. Why not have corn on the cob for the 3rd night in a row?

Check out how huge the corn was!

I’m pretty soon I’m going to be corned out soon. Ah well, the fresh stuff is only around during the summer, so you gotta enjoy it while you can, right?

Since I had the oven on, I also roasted up some red & yellow peppers for use later, but I totally forgot to take a picture. I’d never roasted my own peppers before, but they turned out awesome. Screw buying them in jars!

I managed to apply for two volunteer positions this evening, relating to dietetics, so here’s hoping I get at least one, if not both of them. They are really minimal commitment – one is 2 hours per week, and the other is 2-4 hours per week. I could really use them to boost my application to the program come February.

Then it was snack time I found an almost empty container of cottage cheese, and decided to work on eating that up.

I added some granola, coconut, hemp seeds, apricot jam, and cinnamon.

Always a great contrast of sweet, salty, creamy, and crunchy. The whole cottage cheese/granola combo is a great discovery for someone like me, who almost always ate her cottage cheese as a savoury food before.

But now it’s bed time. I need to get myself up at a decent hour tomorrow so I can get some things done around here, as well as play in the kitchen. I’m also contemplating a trip to Bellingham this week, perhaps Wednesday or Thursday, for a little shopping. If I’m feeling really adventurous I may even drive all the way down to the Premium Outlets (hello Coach store!). Not that my wallet agrees with this, but I need a little trip somewhere. And if I just happen upon a Trader Joe’s…well, talk about kid in a candy store! But I digress…if I’m going to take a wee road trip, I need to get some things accomplished. Therefore, I need to sleep. And on that note…night!