Getting My Bake On

Today did not start out well. I was having the WEIRDEST dream ever, and must have turned my alarm off during said dream, because when I actually woke up and figured out where I was, it was 6:15 am, and I had to be out the door in 15 min! ACK!

I threw on some clothes, washed up, and put some food in containers and was out the door. I even made it to class on time, but had to wait until after class to dig into breakfast. Boy was I hungry!

In the thermos I had yogurt, the last of the quince, and pomegranate arils. The other container was just some Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal to combine with said yogurt & fruit.

Yogurt close up!

It was horrendous weather all day. It just rained, and rained, and rained. Good thing I had my new fancy boots – they kept my feet dry and warm! But to warm the rest of me up, I had to hit up the Sbucks.

Do I even have to say what’s in there?

My last volunteer shift at Agora later, and I was on my way home. First thing on my mind when I walked in the door? What’s for lunch?

I made a grilled ham & cheese sandwich with baby spinach and red pepper jelly. Too bad my cheese didn’t want to melt.

I also heated up a bowl of broccoli soup my sister had made on the weekend.

Topped with a little more cheddar. What’s better than broccoli & cheddar?!

Rainy day food, for sure!

With a Werther’s Original candy for dessert

I spent the afternoon at home, expecting an important phone call. Of course, my mom then ended up on the phone all afternoon, and we don’t have call waiting, so I figured they called and got a busy signal. But, low and behold, and 5 pm I received my call. Looks like I’ll be working with a dietitian on a project at Children’s Hospital. Alas, it is only volunteer, but still – it’s all about boosting that resume, right?

Dinner was served way too early for my hunger, so I only had a bit.

Meatloaf, green peas, and apple/craisin/pecan salad. There were baked potatoes as well, but I wasn’t feeling it. And wouldn’t you know it, all my close ups turned out poorly. So this is all you get!

I made a quick trip up to the store to get a couple things (I was all out of good peanut butter), then had a sweat session with the dvd’s. Then it was time for me to satisfy my baking desires!

I had a hankering for muffins. I thought oatmeal and apple should be involved. I searched out some recipes, decided on this one as my inspiration, concocted a variation in my head, then assembled the required ingredients.

Some mixing, grating, scooping, and baking later, and I was presented with this:

Apple Carrot Raisin Oatmeal Muffins

makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (would have used whole wheat, but we had none)
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 small apple, chopped
• 1/2 cup raisins

Method

1. Combine dry ingredients (oats through salt) in a large bowl.
2. Combine wet ingredients (milk through vanilla) in medium bowl.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry, then add carrot, apple, and raisins.
4. Mix until just combined – don’t over mix! (you know how muffins go).
5. Divide equally between 12 greased or lined muffin cups.
6. Bake at 375 F for 20 min, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

These turned out really well. I was a little worried that my wet to dry ratio would be off, but it was perfect. They are hearty, moist, slightly sweet, with a nice balance of spices. Both of my parents tried them out, and gave them the thumbs up. I think they would be a great breakfast muffin, pairing nicely with your favourite nut butter.

 

Obviously, I had one as my evening snack, with a another cup of chamomile tea.

I still have another project on the stove, but it’s totally time for bed, so I guess I’m calling it done. I’m sure you’ll get to see it tomorrow. Night!

S’more Sandwiches

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And creamy tomato soup a la Campbell’s.

Hello delicious.

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

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

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

Pineapple Express

Too bad I didn’t have any pineapple to eat!

I don’t know if anyone else has heard this weather term – I think it’s a west coast thing. But this monsoon we’re having is what we like to call a Pineapple Express. Warm, moist air comes up the coast, usually from Hawaii, resulting in warmer than normal temperatures, and torrential downpour. I tried to get some photos of just how wet it is out there, but none of them do it justice

Ah, the wet west coast. I know some people find all the grey skies and rain depressing, but I grew up here. I find the rain so soothing. Plus it’s a good excuse to stay indoors and eat things like soup and stew

Fortunately, I managed to not drown while outside today, so I’m able to bring you my day’s worth of eats. I know you are excited.

On the unfortunate front, I had another middle of the night (3:30 am) random wake up, resulting in a sleepy Marianne who was running behind, trying to get out the door. You know what that means.

Good ol’ cereal for breakfast. I went with Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal with a smattering of pomegranate arils.

A glass of juice – cranberry.

All on my mom’s Christmas Kitty quilted tablecloth.

I also had to pack a bit of a lunch – my Mondays have officially gotten busier, so no time to eat at home.

There was some leftover apricot bbq chicken from dinner last night, so I made myself a sandwich on Silver Hills bread, with chicken, avocado, and Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus.

Class was class, then I was off to my volunteer shift at Sprouts. Per usual Monday tradition, I nabbed a tasty baked good. And boy, did I pick a good one today!

This is a Qunioa Blondie. It is completely gluten free, which made many of our customers happy, as often we don’t have any gluten free baked goods. It had all sorts of good stuff in it like honey, cinnamon, chocolate chips, and raisins.

Let me tell you, this was insanely delicious. To all my fellow UBC’ers – get to Sprouts and buy one. They are moist, flavourful, and decadent. I’m tempted to go back and pay retail for one tomorrow!

I also purchased a new fruit to try out while I was there.

Any clue what these are?

 

Guesses?

 

Come on….you know you want to.

 

They are quince!

And no, it’s not moldy. They have this weird furry coating on them, but it just brushes off. They have the most fragrant smell. A great addition to your fruit bowl, if only for the smell! I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to do with them. My understanding is they really need to be cooked to be enjoyed, so perhaps I’ll make a little quince paste/jelly? Suggestions?

After I gobbled up that blondie, and got changed, I was out the door on my way to my newest volunteer position (do you think I have enough of those yet?) – working at the Diabetic Clinic at my local hospital. It wasn’t overly thrilling, but I didn’t expect them to give me any amazing projects on my first shift. I spent alot of time stuffing envelopes to go out to patients to attend workshops, putting together new files, and stamping envelopes. They are checking into some confidentiality issues, and hopefully I’ll get to do some more work with actual patient files (hello, experience to help out in clinical settings!)

I found my way home, and decided I was done with going outside in this rain and wind. Therefore, I passed on going to cardio kickboxing with my sister (at least the gym is open again). Instead I had my ass kicked by Jillian and her No More Trouble Zones. I even had to open the window to let in some fresh, cool air since I was sweating up a storm.

A shower later, and it was dinner time. Mom cooked up some hot Italian sausages.

Let’s be honest – there is no way to photograph a sausage without it looking a little phallic.

There was also roasted red potatoes, which I enjoyed with some sweet chili sauce.

And steamed broccoli & cauliflower, kicked up a notch with some parmesan.

There was alot of spicy going on in this meal.

I did a little prepping for my presentation tomorrow (I’m so over these presentations), watched a little TV (Battle Of The Blades! The best of both my favourite ice sports!), and played with the cats. Then it was time to snack.

Another score from Sprouts! This yogurt had just reached its expiry date, so we couldn’t sell it, but since it had never been opened, there was no point in throwing it out. They offered it to me, and of course I said yes. I’ve never tried this brand – Avalon Organic Yogurt.

This one is a little different from most yogurts out there, because it is fortified with Vitamin D. Usually only fluid milk gets fortified, not milk products. Plus they have added inulin, a prebiotic to work in conjunction with the probiotics in the yogurt.

 

It has 2% milk fat, hence the trace amounts of trans fats (naturally occurring, not the same as the ones from hydrogenated oils). What you can’t quite see in the picture is the Vitamin D amount – 35% of your daily value. Awesome for a yogurt!

So what did I do with my yogurt? Made a yogurt mess!

I topped my yogurt with peanut butter, apricot jam, Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola, and some shredded coconut.

And because it was rainy and cold, I ended up with a giant mug of Ecuadorian hot chocolate. I added a splash of coconut extract for fun.

If you got through that marathon post, props to you! If you aren’t completely spent, head on over to Miss Gliding Calm’s blog to check out Earrings of the Blogworld  Yours truly is modelling her ear bling for all to see. Night!

Here Comes The Rain Again

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

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

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

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

And a glass of cranberry juice.

Cereal and toast reminds me of breakfasts as a kid.

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

Time to go make myself presentable.

Here Kitty, Kitty

I have spent way too much time on my computer this evening. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve turned it off all afternoon/evening. Sad eh? But hey, at least I went out and had a walk, so I haven’t been a bum all day.

At some point in time this afternoon, I had a wasa cracker with peanut butter and honey as a snack.

Then my dad and I contemplated dinner. He was really wanting some baked ravioli, which is so not my thing. I still had a craving for a good burger and fries. So we figured we’d each just order what we wanted, pick them up, and meet back home to watch some hockey

I ordered from my favourite burger place – White Spot. But I did it a little different this time. I placed my order online. How fun!

Good to know!

Because I believe all good burgers should have bacon and cheddar cheese, I ordered the bacon cheddar bigger burger.

With the infamous dill pickle and coleslaw.

Did you know you can order a side of dills? I sometimes like to do that. Mmmm, dill pickles.

I ordered some fancy fries this time – garlic fries.

For some reason they gave me extra garlic. I guess I looked like I needed to scare away some vampires.

The fries also came with a tasty lemon basil aioli for dipping.

With a Diet Coke. You gotta have a soda with your burger & fries!

I would like to announce, my Canucks not only won their hockey team, but they crushed their opponents 8 – 2. Makes staying at home on a Saturday night in your pajamas just that much better.

In an effort to get something healthier into my belly, I made one of my 5 min faux crisps for a late night dessert.

This one contained:

• 1 red pear, chopped
• raisins
• cinnamon
• brown sugar
• Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal for topping

It was scrumptious as always.

And now, as I bid adieu for the evening, I would like to present you with…

 

Sienna’s Small Screen Debut!

I hope you enjoy my silly kitty

(It was much clearer on my computer. Not sure what’s up with that. And yes, that’s my goofy voice in the background…as well as the hockey game)

ETA: Hmmm…now that I see it embedded into the post, the quality is totally there. So nevermind!

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!

Time Flies

Wow, where has this day gone? I can’t believe I’m only sitting down now to write this post. You’d think on a day when I only have one class, I’d have all the time in the world! Time flies when you’re having fun, right? If only I could say my day was filled with fun though.

Not so fun? Waking up at the ass crack of dawn. Especially when the house is still cold. I totally stayed under the covers until I heard the heat kick in (it’s on a timer). Of course, it meant I was a little behind, so I had to go the cereal route for breakfast.

• Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal
• Kashi Cinnamon Harvest
• pomegranate seeds
• dried blueberries
• milk

They look like pretty jewels

With a glass of Happy Planet Mango Peach Party.

I love taking pictures of breakfast.

 

I had my usual commute, usual biochemistry class, then my volunteer shift at Agora. Uh, yeah…let’s just say that was less than fun. I’m pretty glad that my time there is almost over, and won’t be returning next semester for any more unpaid labour.

I did bring a great snack with me to keep me going until I got home for a late lunch.

Medjool dates are back! We picked up a container at Costco on the weekend. These ones are stuffed with Artisana pecan butter. Nom nom!

I eventually found my way home, and had a lunch bowl full of leftovers.

I layered mashed potatoes, corn, sauteed mushrooms, a couple of random brussel sprouts, hot italian sausage, and sausage gravy. It cleared out a few containers from the fridge, and made for an excellent meal.

A hot meal at home is always the best.

I will say though – I could have done without the sausage. Give me the potatoes, corn, ’shrooms, and gravy, and I’d be a happy camper. Probably because of the gravy

I had a leisurely afternoon on the interweb, and enjoyed a little snack.

Sourdough rye Wasa cracker with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries. It always amazes me how great this is at satisfying a sweet treat craving

I headed over to my cousin’s place this afternoon, as we had plans to get our workout on. She has the whole Carmen Electra series of striptease workout videos, so we figured it would be fun to go through them. Uh yeah…I’m so not a dancer. Figure skater/ice dancer? I’m all over that. Put me on the ground, and I am a spaz. At least I can laugh at myself, right? LOL.

And, as I’m sure will come to no shock to you, we went out for sushi afterwards. I swear, my cousins and his wife are obsessed more than I am with the stuff! We couldn’t go to our usual place though, as they were closed when we pulled up. There was a note on the door saying they had to take one of their children to the hospital. I hope everything is okay!

We hit up all you can eat sushi instead, which isn’t as bad as it might sound. Every item is brought to you in really tiny portions, so you get to try all your favourite without leaving overstuffed. I had all of my favourites, and was totally content when we left

I went back to their place, watched some tv, drank some hot chocolate, then made my way home. It is a school night afterall My cousin hooked me up with all of his music (80 Gb!), so now I have the task of transferring it all to my computer, and sorting through what I don’t already have. I’m sure it will be a warranted distraction from school work this weekend.

And that concludes my Wednesday. Hope the week is treating you all well. I’m off to dreamland. Night!

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!

Much Better

I’m happy to report that I today did not include any injuries, the throwing of cameras into liquid foods, or any other mishaps like yesterday. Sure, I still had to wake up early, but meh, that’s my life every weekday!

My camera is still working, despite the little swim it took in my tomato soup. Thank god, because I can’t really afford a new one! The lens cover isn’t retracting properly when I turn the camera on, but if I fiddle with it, it seems to go. I’m hoping that with time, whatever is causing it to stick will wear away. Otherwise I’ll see if I can get it cleaned.

I was in a full on cereal mood this morning. So I started grabbing boxes and came up with quite the combo.

Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, puffed kamut, puffed brown rice, and a sprinkle of Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola. I added the craisins because they looked pretty

More cran-peach juice made an appearance.

It’s all about the speedy breakfast when you get up at 5:30 am.

‘Twas a lovely little bowl of cereal to start my day.

A biochemistry lecture + volunteer shift later, and I was on my way home for the day. I had big plans for lunch – leftover mac & cheese. Too bad when I got home, I found out someone else had those same plans and beat me to it. BAH! Another reason to miss living on your own – you know the exact contents of your fridge, so you know those leftovers will be there for you when you want them.

Instead, I decided to tempt fate. Bring on the leftover tomato soup. Dun dun dun!

I even took an overhead shot. This time, I managed to keep all electronics out of my soup bowl, thank you very much.

I decided to go with the grilled cheese sammy as a side again. This one included aged white cheddar, apple slices, and red pepper jelly.

Yeah, I still kinda charred it. I fail at grilled cheese when it’s not on a Foreman grill.

I had the other half of the apple with some pb on the side.

Lunch time feast.

I worked on random projects this afternoon, and noticed my biochem midterm marks were posted. I did better than I thought! There was a certain percentage I had in mind, and I was 10% above it, so I was super happy Biochemistry has been my nemesis for so long, so it was really good to get a mark I could be proud of, and still leave myself with some room for improvement over the rest of the semester.

Dinner was also a tasty affair, even if it wasn’t overly photogenic.

Mom made stuffed pork chops. I can’t even tell you the last time I ate a pork chop. But if I’m going to eat them, stuffed is the way to go. I’ll spare you the close up though – it just doesn’t photograph well.

Our sides were much prettier. Like half a sweet potato with a little buttah.

And a mixture of corn & peas.

I always try and steal extra stuffing when mom makes these. It’s one of my favourite foods

My hockey boys were playing tonight, and low and behold, they won a game! On the road even! Woohoo! It’s about freakin’ time.

More tv & homework ensued, requiring a little evening snack.

I started with a cup of tea from my favourite tea place – Silk Road.

How can you not like a tea called "Double Happiness"? And it’s lychee flavoured. Love.

I also grabbed a pumpkin chocolate chip coconut muffin, with a side of biochemistry text.

Loving these muffins. I think their flavour actually improves as they age. And they stay so moist. Pumpkin rocks!

I guess I should think about sleepy time. Only two more school days til the weekend…yes, I’m counting down. Night!

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!