Ice Is Nice

I have watched many hours of ice sports on TV this weekend. It was a hockey & figure skating extravaganza! It’s making me long to get back out there myself. Oh skating, why you gotta be so expensive?

I started my Sunday morning…well….with very little morning left. Oops! Breakfast basically turned into lunch.

I went with a bowl of Matcha Green Tea Goji Oatmeal.

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1 tbsp Ruth’s Chia Goodness cereal
• 1 tbsp dried goji berries
• 3/4 tsp matcha powder
• Artisana Coconut Butter
• sliced almonds

And a glass of cranberry pomegranate juice.

Dining on the living room rug? Nah, it was just for photography purposes

After enjoy breakfast, figure skating, and catching up on blogging, I made my way outside for a walk with my mom. We only had to endure a short rain storm, and made it home relatively dry. I was needing a little snack by then – bring on the yogurt mess!

Plain, non-fat yogurt, quince compote, pomegranate seeds, and the end of a jar of macadamia nut butter.

Oh, how I’d forgotten how amazing that macadamia nut butter is. I may have to break down and shell out the dough for a new jar one day soon.

Then I had a date with Jillian Michaels and her No More Trouble Zones. I just needed to get some serious sweat on. By the time I was done that, dinner was on the table.

Starting with a wee pour of red wine, leftover from my parent’s social evening last night.

We had baked pork chops with stuffing.

A baked potato with sour cream, a little bit of buttah, and pepper.

And steamed asparagus.

Fun Sunday night dinner.

I followed dinner with a (blurry) piece of dark chocolate.

Then it was time to watch hockey, be disappointed in my team’s loss, and watch the rest of the skating I had taped. So good – I’m excited for Canada’s chances for some figure skating hardware at the Olympics.

Snacky hunger came a calling, and I answered with a piece of cinnamon toast – Silver Hills Squirrelly bread, buttah, brown sugar, and a crap ton of cinnamon.

Plus a mug of Stash Decaf Vanilla Creme Nut tea with almond milk.

Cinnamon toast totally reminds me of being a kid.

And now my mom is watching the skating I taped, so I’m going to go enjoy it again – it was just that good! Night!

The Same, But Different

Okay, so my fantabulous bagel melt for lunch wasn’t quite enough food to keep me going through a 4 hour lecture, and the commute home from school (and really, I knew that would be the case). Good thing I’d packed up a mighty fine snack for the afternoon.

Yogurt & granola mess, featuring quince! Remember those beauties I bought earlier this week? Well, I cooked them up with some water and agave nectar into a sort of compote/paste/jam thing.

They turn a very pretty rose colour, and keep that lovely floral aroma. I decide they would make a good yogurt topping along with some pomegranate arils.

I really like the quince, but man, they are a pain to work with. They are SO HARD to cut and core, and they oxidize (turn brown) so fast! Plus they take quite awhile to cook. So while I’m not against them, I’d have to be in the mood for some hard work if I were to buy them again.

Class today was…trying. I was not impressed with my group. We have a big paper that’s due at the end of the term, which we only get to start on now (not our choice, it’s how the course is). It involves us going into some schools to interview them about their food system there. So we only have 2 weeks left of classes, which means these visits need to happen ASAP. And not everyone in our group has even contacted their schools yet to go in there. Not to mention some of my group members haven’t read the outline for the paper, and had no input into our group discussions. It’s like pulling teeth, I tell you! ARGH. I was so close to walking out of there. I would much rather write this paper on my own, because I bet I could bust it out in a weekend, and get a decent mark. Alas, that is not an option. Le sigh.

Getting home from school took FOREVER tonight as well. And it was pouring rain, so my feet ended up soaked through my runners This, coupled with my trying class, did not make for a happy camper

What did make for a happy camper was the garlic bread I found when I got home. If there is one thing I could probably gorge myself on, it would be garlic bread. Is that weird?

Obviously, I had some with dinner.

As well as leftover shepherd’s pie, ketchup included.

And some salad leftover from my parents’ dinner earlier that I only half ate – it wasn’t doing it for me.

You know I totally went back for seconds on that garlic bread though

That plate looks like a crap ton of food, but it’s actually not a proper sized dinner plate, so it’s not as much as you think. I’m just saying.

My mom must have known I’d had a crappy day, and that my tootsies were soaked from the rain, because she said we’re going down to the mall this weekend in search of good boots – early Christmas present. Hurray!

I chillaxed on the couch, watched some Survivor and CSI, and drank some tea – Silk Road Lychee Fruit Double Happiness Tea.

I’m going to be sad when all my Silk Road teas are gone. I guess that just means I’ll need to head on over to Victoria for a visit!

Time to get some shut eye. Only one more day of early mornings this week, and I’m determined to not be late. Night!

Making Me Sweat

This afternoon my dad brought home this interesting package.

Obviously, I had to try one out. I’m not generally a liquorice fan, but I figure mango flavoured might be different?

Meh, it was alright. I’m still not a liquorice person. Plus they get stuck to your teeth.

I then had a nice long nap. Curled up under my blankets, Sienna beside me. It was glorious. Of course, it meant I totally slept through dinner. Oops! No worries though, since I wasn’t hungry (lunch was pretty late). Instead, I went downstairs and sweated it out with Jillian and her No More Trouble Zones DVD. You know, it’s tough going through it, but so satisfying when you are complete. My sister has been enjoying it as well. Not bad for a $10 investment.

I was ready for some dinner after that for sure! On the menu tonight – Shepherd’s Pie.

Mom made her classic Shepherd’s Pie, with ground beef, onions, corn, and mashed potatoes. I always eat it with a little ketchup.

I was in the mood for a little salad, so I whipped up a quick Caesar salad on the side.

Looks like that salad is taking over the plate!

Lots of TV watching later (ANTM, Criminal Minds, and CSI:NY), and it was time for a little something something.

Ambrosia apple with creamy peanut butter for dunking. Such a simple, perfect snack.

And now, it should be my bed time. But of course, since I had that nice long nap, I’m so not ready for bed. Doh! I think I’ll go contemplate what to have for lunch tomorrow at school – a bunch of our campus eateries are offering special Fall Harvest menus this month, and there are alot of tasty looking options. I figure I should try some out before they are gone.

It’s a bit hard to see, but…

What do you think I should have for lunch tomorrow?

Are Pigs Flying???

This was the sight on my bed this evening

Here’s how I figure this went down: Sienna was sleeping on her blankie, per usual. Wilson came in, hoped up, and curled up on there. Neither were aware of the other’s existence, since  the lights were out. I have serious doubts they have become friends overnight. Also, ignore my unkempt bed. I’ll admit it, I can be a a slob, especially when it comes to be making.

Anyways…let’s back track to this afternoon.

I met up with my workshop group, and I think we’ve come up with a pretty good plan for our classroom workshops. Plus it gets the kids trying out veggies with different healthy dips (salsa, hummus, guacamole). I think it will be fun I snacked on the new Peanut Butter & Jelly Larabar while we discussed.

I’m going to be honest here – I was somewhat underwhelmed. They had the peanut butter flavour working for me, but I wanted more jelly. It was more like a watered down Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar. That’s not to say it was bad, but I wanted a better pb to j ratio. To be fair though, I would give it another go, because you just never know if your bar wasn’t representative of the majority.

I also promised to show you my Sprouts treats from early today. First, I grabbed another delicious Diet-Buster (still hate that name) Cookie.

I had to get a second treat, because they had these Double Pumpkin Cranberry Cakies!

Can you believe I haven’t even tried either of them yet? I know, I’m obviously insane. I just hope my family keeps their paws off mah cookies!

My dad picked me up from the train this afternoon, then we went to vote. There was a federal by-election in our riding, so we had to do our civic duty. No one ever shows up for by-elections. I think the voter turn out here was something like 30%? Lame

Once I was home, I got changed, and decided to not go to cardio kickboxing with my sister. I had a new form of workout torture fun I wanted to try.

I picked these up on the weekend when went to get my hemmed pants. What can I say, I had a week moment. Plus they were only $9.99 each. I looked for the infamous 30-Day Shred, but it was MIA.

I decided to try out the No More Trouble Zones. Yeah, I’d say that was a good substitute for cardio kickboxing. I’m pretty sure I’ll barely be able to move tomorrow, which I love and hate. I liked the workout, because there were some challenging moves in there. It made me angry I couldn’t do some of them full out, but that just gives me incentive to work at it so I can do them

Dinner was leftover stew from last night.

See, even though I didn’t get a photo last night, you didn’t miss out I was actually saving you from the boredom of seeing it two nights in a row. Riiight.

I had some beef, lots of mushrooms, carrot, celery, a piece of potato, and a small dumpling. ‘Twas all delicious.

Then I hunkered down, and spent the majority of the evening working through all the questions on my exam tomorrow. They are all essay questions, so I was just taking notes about what I want to write. There are a couple questions I don’t feel as comfortable with my answers, so I’m hoping they don’t all end up on the test.

I did take a break from studying to enjoy more leftovers – apple blackberry crisp.

I love the way the blackberries turn the apples that magenta shade. Very cool.

I also took a little time out to watch some CSI: Miami. It’s a big deal this week – all three of the CSI shows are dealing with an interconnected story line. You can’t miss groundbreaking tv like that

I’m considering a little more work on my exam questions, then getting some shut eye. It’s great, I get to sleep in tomorrow. My morning class is cancelled, so I don’t need to be at the school until my exam at 2 pm. And since we have our midterm, the class is only 2 hours instead of the usual 4, so I should even get home in time to watch most of the hockey game, enjoy dinner, and hit up the gym. Woot!

Time to go be studious. Night!

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!

Hallowe’en Happened

The spookiest night of the year came and went, and I failed to post all weekend. Oops! In my defence – I was barely near a computer. Which I guess is a good thing, as it means I was up to something all weekend, and it wasn’t homework

I’ll give you the Cole’s Notes version of the weekend, with the few pictures I have. That way, we can start anew for November. Sound good?

Saturday & Sunday

I was up way earlier than I ever should have to be on a Saturday, so I could go help out with inventory at my sister’s work. That meant I had little brain power available to make anything fancy for breakfast, so peanut butter, banana, and honey on toast it was. With a glass of Happy Planet Mango Peach Party, of course.

Then there was a whole lotta working in the warehouse. Remind me, I never want to work in a dirty ol’ warehouse. Never.

At first coffee break, I broke out this Cocoa Coconut Chew Larabar, and devoured half.

Silly me, I thought that would keep me out of the Hallowe’en candy all day. Boy was I wrong! I definitely had my fair share of delicious bite-sized chocolate bar treats.

They ordered in lunch for us, which was Chinese food. Love! There were some interesting dishes I got to try. My two new favourites? Deep fried eggplant and deep fried squid with spicy salt. I could eat that and some veggies, and be a happy camper. Yum!

More working, yadda, yadda. We actually got to leave early, and I informed my sister I was not going back on Monday to help out again. Lots of reasons, but frankly, it was driving me insane.

Later on, I made my way over to my cousin’s house, and hung out with his wife all night. We ordered in delicious sushi, handed out candy to little trick or treaters, watched 3 movies, hit up the hot tub, consumed our weight in candy, and may have had some drinks. Good times! I stayed over, and was greeted with spectacular cinnamon raisin bread French toast for breakfast.

I went home, wasted some time, then took a trip to Costco with my mom. Got a few excellent buys, came home, started Hallowe’en candy detox. HA!

We had something for dinner I haven’t had in probably 5+ years – sausages & gravy. We picked up some hot Italian sausages at Costco, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and steamed some broccoli & brussel sprouts for an excellent dinner.

Mom can’t go to Costco and not pick up some sort of dessert. We got this gargantuan caramel apple crumble pie. Seriously, the thing weighed over 5 lbs! I had a sliver, with a scoop of vanilla fro-yo.

Sunday night ended with some Amazing Race, and we started watching some of my Planet Earth DVD’s that I got for Christmas last year. Very cool – I just have to find the time to watch the rest now!

That wraps up my weekend, so I’m able to start anew (with more things than just the blog). I’ll be back later tonight

Droopy Eyed

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

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

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

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

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

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

Picture perfect fall breakfast.

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

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

What was on the lunch menu today?

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

The usual snacking veggies – carrot sticks and cucumber slices.

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

A crunchy BC gala apple.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dinner was also ready – because it was leftover stew.

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

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

Things That Photograph Poorly

…but taste grrrrrreat!

That describes my evening of eats perfectly. Let’s face it, there are just some foods you can’t make look good no matter how hard you try. But let’s not discriminate against the ugly food! I know I don’t.

After a squat-filled cardio kickboxing session at the gym, I came home to the most wonderful smells of my mom’s homemade beef stew. Made the same way her mother made it.

I’ll try and give you a recipe, but there really isn’t a proper one. Mom just “knows” what to put in, and it always turns out good.

We always have dumplings with our stew. Now if only I could get mom to switch from all white flour to at least half whole wheat. Baby steps, right?

Mom’s Homemade Beef Stew with Dumplings

Serves 6 – 8 

• 2 lbs round steak (or other lean cut – you can use stewing beef, but cut off as much fat as possible)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups beef stock
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut in half
• 4 large carrots, cut into thirds
• 5 stalks celery, cut into sticks
• salt & pepper to taste
• water as needed

Dumplings

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp shortening
• 1/2 cup milk (+ more as needed)

1. Heat Dutch oven or electric frying pan to medium-high heat. Add beef, and brown on all sides. Add onions & garlic, fry for 30 sec – 1 min.

2. Add beef stock, and reduce heat to medium-low (or even low). Simmer for 2 hours. Watch your liquid levels – if it’s getting to dry, add some water.

3. Add potatoes and carrots, simmer 45 min.

4. Prepare dumplings: Mix all ingredients together until dough is very sticky, adding more milk as necessary (mom’s note – it is ALWAYS necessary).

5. Add celery to stew, the spoon dumpling dough on top. Make dumplings as large or small as you want.

6. Cook 10 min uncovered, then 10 min covered.

7. Serve & enjoy – it might not be pretty, but it sure does taste good

Feel free to add any other vegetables or seasonings you want. Any root vegetable would work here. Green peas or mushrooms are also a nice addition, but don’t add them until you add the celery & dumplings or they will overcook. We added some mushrooms today at my request.

I then wasted a few hours of my life watching the train wreck that is the Canucks play hockey. Le sigh. They can’t lose all their games, right? Right?!

To drown my sorrows, and satisfy my nightly snack needs, I broke out something I picked up this afternoon.

I went to the store to buy 4 things – frozen raspberries (on sale), hummus (on sale), milk (almost out), and mushrooms (for stew). Yeah…a few more things may have made their way into my basket, but only because they were also on sale. Like this Kashi cereal – Organic Cinnamon Harvest. Not only was it on sale, but there was a coupon for an additional $1 off. I totally grabbed some extra coupons as well. What, they don’t expire until the end of March! You know you would have done it too

I don’t know what made me choose this one in particular. Perhaps I was having a cinnamon craving? Regardless, you can’t beat the ingredient list.

First I needed to taste test the product as is.

Two thumbs up!   I was worried they would taste too “plain wheaty”, but the cinnamon flavour is excellent, and they have just a hint of sweetness. I can see this cereal making it’s way into regular rotation.

I spotted a lonely peach in the fruit bowl that needed to be eaten up, and thought it would pair nicely with my new cereal. When I cut up the peach, I found out quite a bit of it had started to go bad But I salvaged about 1/3 – good thing it was a big one!

I mixed some of the cereal, the remaining peach chunks, and some unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze in a small bowl, then heated it in the microwave for about a minute. Again – something that photographs ugly, but tastes yummy.

So my plans to get into bed by 11 pm failed miserably. Oh well, I’ll still get there before midnight! I have a big day tomorrow – my 4 hour afternoon class is going on a field trip. Where to, you may ask? You’ll just have to wait and find out. Night!

Season Opener

Hockey is back baby!

I even made it home from my class just in time for the start of the game. We got out about 15 minutes early. Perhaps the professors knew we all needed to get home for the game

Not only was hockey ready to go when I got home, so was my dinner.

Mom baked up some crispy chicken. I think she used saltines to coat it, but I could be wrong. I served mine with a little sweet chili sauce.

There was also a baked potato, which I also doctored up with some sweet chili sauce, and a little yogurt.

A mountain of steamed broccoli & carrots, with a little parmesan cheese.

I was a hungry girl when I got home, and I polished off the whole plate. Yum!

Dinner, was good, too bad my boys lost their first game. Oh well, we still have another 81 to go. I had a little something sweet later on, to take away the pain of losing

A frothy mug of hot chocolate.

And a wee little Werther’s Original candy (with a side of Roberto Luongo in the background).

I was pretty wiped when I got home, and may have had a little power snooze in the middle of the hockey game I have a feeling 5:30 am is going to come way sooner than I would like, so I must bid you adieu. Night!

Hitting The Books

Today I was a good little biochemistry student

I took over the kitchen table as my workspace for the afternoon

But before that, I went out and ran some errands. Okay, so it was really only one errand, and it was to a specific grocery store for certain things that were on sale. Like Almond Breeze – 3 for $5.50? Or organic avocados – 3 for $4.98? Yeah, can’t really pass stuff like that up.

Lunch also happened before I put my studying cap on.

I started with the last of the Chunky Potato soup. I diced up a couple slices of deli ham to add to it today. And topped it with fresh chives for that pop of green.

There was a container of leftover salad on it’s last legs, so I polished that off as well. To the lettuce/yellow pepper/green onion/radish combo I added some cucumber and sunflower seeds, and dressed it with Brianna’s Honey Mustard Dressing.

Another successful leftover-filled meal

While going through my biochemistry study questions, I had a hankering for a snack. I wanted something bready, so took a slice of crusty whole wheat bread and spread on some peanut butter & raspberry jam.

Not only was it good brain fuel, but it should keep me from eating my arm off until later. I’m off to a house warming party for one of my cousins tonight, so instead of having a proper dinner, I’ll be filling up on party food. Should be lots of fun! I’m off to make myself beautiful. Enjoy your Saturday evening everyone