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!

Mission Accomplished

I have finally finished all of my midterms for this semester. Hurray! And I have to say, I think this one was the most intense. Even though we had all the questions before hand, the 2 hours we were given to write seemed so rushed. Plus, as my luck would have it, the only question I didn’t want on the exam was on there. Doh! I think I did okay though – guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

It was so nice to have a leisurely wake up this morning. I was up at 8:30, showered, then made a nice breakfast.

Banana fig oats:

• 1/2 cup oats, milk, water
• 1 small banana, thinly sliced
• 2 dried figs, chopped
• splash of vanilla
• 1tbsp flax seed
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• Artisana Cacao Bliss

With a glass of Oasis Black Current Elderberry juice.

I spent the morning making sure I had all the notes written down to answer the possible midterm questions, so I could review the on transit on my way to school. I also packed a bit of a lunch to tide me over until I got home.

I discovered a lonely avocado in the fridge, and brought back an old favourite – the hummus, cheddar, and avocado sandwich on Silver Hills “The Big 16” bread.

I also grabbed the cookie I picked up at Sprouts yesterday. My mom had stolen a little taste of it!

After the exam, I was freezing, so I stopped into Starbucks and grabbed a grande non-fat half-sweet green tea latte.

Turns out I didn’t really need all that warming up. When I got on the bus, the driver had the heat CRANKED. Seriously, it was so hot. I took my jacket off, and my sweater, and still had a sweaty back (TMI?) And she kept the heat on the entire bus ride (35 – 40 min) to the train station. Ugh. And then of course, you get off the bus into the cold air, and it’s even more freezing that it should be

We went with something simple tonight, that I haven’t had for awhile – perogies!

Topped with low-fat sour cream, and little drizzle of melted buttah. Mmmm. I also scavenged some greenery to have alongside mine, in the form of leftover steamed broccoli & cauliflower.

A little bland looking, but tasted good.

I then watched the car wreck that was the Canucks game (lost 6 – 1, brutal), and decided to head out to the gym. I only did some medium intensity cardio on the elliptical and bike, because let me tell you – my quads, hams, and butt are S-O-R-E from yesterday’s workout with Jillian. I’ve been hobbling around all day like an old lady. Strangely, my abs are just a normal sore, and same with my arms.

Once home, I had a hankerin’ for some yogurt.

I topped it with a little peanut butter, homemade grape jelly, and Nature’s Path Pumpkin Flax Granola. Check out that river of pb!

Time to wrap this up – I hear some kitties hissing at each other, and I think it needs some attending to. 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!

Dark And Early

I know the saying is bright and early, but it doesn’t seem to make sense when you are getting up when it’s still dark out, now does it?

I did not want to get out of my cozy, warm bed this morning. Not for a biochem lecture, that’s for sure. But I was the good student, and forced myself to get up and going. It helps when you have tasty breakfast options around.

I started with one of the last homemade scones, slathered with Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter.

Accompanied by a simple bowl of Nature’s Path Pumpkin Raisin Crunch cereal & unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze. (Side note – I always type “pumpking” instead of “pumpkin”. I have no idea why!)

Plus a glass of cranberry juice. Must drink up this bottle so I can move onto something a little better.

Breakfast in less than 5 min. Gotta love that when you get up at 5:30 am

I must have not hit all my bus connections right this morning, because I was actually a couple minutes late for my lecture. They were still on the first slide though, so I know I didn’t miss much I then had my usual volunteer shift at Sprouts. We had some mighty good looking soup on the menu today for lunch – I wish I had been staying around!

Maybe I should try recreating something similar myself? I have had a creative cooking urge for a few days now. Hmmm…

At least there was a new baked good for me to try out this week

Yes, I went with the Infamous Diet-Buster Cookie (although, I take issue with the name – do we really need to label a baked treat as “diet-busting”?).

Hello delicious cookie that is as big as my hand! This one did not disappoint – it was perfectly crumbly, the way you want a cookie to be. Plus it was peanut butter & chocolate. You really can’t go wrong there.

We also had some beautiful organic peaches come in with our produce order today. I swear, they were the size of a baseball, if not bigger. One of them was a little bruised, so we had to sacrifice it to taste test. Sooo good!

Once I finally found my way home, I made my own soup for lunch. I pulled some of homemade borscht out of my freezer, and topped it with sour cream and dill.

Plus an avocado & cheddar sandwich on toasted Silver Hills Squirrelly Bread.

And again with the weird lighting – I think it’s our windows. They have a slight green tint to keep the house from heating up too much in the summer.

I think I’m going to head out to cardio kickboxing with my sister tonight. That way I’ll get in some gym time, and be back in time to watch the hockey game at 7 pm. Go Canucks!

Mystery Solved

No longer will you have to put up with me complaining about how dodgy my internet connection has been. We have solved the mystery! Turns out the stereo speakers upstairs are interfering with the signal from our router, and therefore I lose my internet connection. We have a wireless set up for the surround sound, and I think it’s that signal that is causing the issues. How did I find this out? As soon as my mom put on the stereo to watch a movie, I lost my connection. I had her shut it off, and it worked again. Eureka! Why was I having problems when no one else was here? Well, I was using the stereo upstairs to play music from my iPod, and although the wireless speakers weren’t being used, it must have been emitting enough of a signal to interfere with the connection from time to time. So glad to have that figured out – I’ll just have to coordinate my internet usage with my mom’s movie watching time.

So now that you all no longer have to listen to me complain about technology (I can hear the cheers of joy), let’s check out what went down today in French Fries To Flax Seeds world.

I had wanted to get up early this morning, to hit up the Coquitlam Farmer’s Market near the time it opened, but that didn’t happen. Mom said she actually thought I wanted to go later on, so she let me sleep in. LOL. Thanks mom

I started off my morning with a quick breakfast of toast with nut butter & jam. The first piece of toasted Silver Hills Squirrelly Bread was topped with peanut butter and some of my ad hoc blueberry preserves.

The second slice was topped with some of that velvety smooth macadamia nut butter and apricot preserves.

Served up with a glass of cranberry peach juice. I finally finished off the bottle!

I enjoyed my toast outside while my sister & her bf enjoyed their Tim Horton’s breakfast, then it was time to get ready and head out to the Farmer’s Market with mom.

I had heard mixed reviews on our local Farmer’s Market, but when we got there, we were happy to see a multitude of booths selling tons of produce, plants, nuts, baked goods, seafood, and meat, as well as crafts and various other items. And considering we got there with only an hour left, there was still plenty of good product left.

So much local goodness! There were plenty of organic products, and many labelled as “spray/pesticide free”, and all of it looked delicious. My mom was impressed – she said the last time she went (sometime last year), it wasn’t as good. We definitely brought home a good haul.

We got all that produce for $13:

• 7 sunrise apples
• 2 zucchini
• 2 crowns broccoli
• 2 yellow peppers
• 3 tomatoes
• bunch of new red potatoes

We also got a beautiful fillet of halibut, and some BC side-striped shrimp, as well as two cacti   We already have plans to go back next week – apparently local gala apples will be in!

The market is located at the community rec centre, which is also home to a pretty little rose garden. We made sure to take some time to stop and smell the flowers

Once we were home and had out loot put away, I threw together a little lunch plate.

I whipped up some nachos – Que Pasa Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips (locally made, the best chips out there) topped with a little grated cheddar, avocado, refried beans, and sour cream. If only we had some salsa, then they would have been perfect!

I also sliced up a carrot and some cucumber to dip in some of the ED&BV Roasted Red Pepper & Almond Hummus that’s still kicking around.

Seriously, salsa would have even made the plate more photogenic. I must pick up salsa stat!

Lunch dessert was another Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownie.

Then it was time to retreat to the basement where I could hear some Wii action going on. My sister & her bf were playing MarioKart, so I played spectator until they were done their game, then it was on! And I will let you know, it was a close race, but in the end, yours truly prevailed

Of course, that just ignited my Wii playing fire, so I swapped out my family’s machine for mine, and started up my saved game of Super Mario Galaxy, and proceeded to waste a good hour or so trying to save that damned princess. Alas, she’s still out there. One day princess, one day.

Dinner came around eventually, featuring one of our market purchases – the halibut. We dressed it up with some lemon juice, mayo, dill, garlic, chives, salt, and pepper, and grilled it up. It turned out wonderfully.

We also grilled up some corn. There were only two cobs left in the fridge, so we had to cut them up to serve 5 people.

Mom steamed the new red potatoes, and I topped mine with the same butter & pepper combo as my corn.

And my sister was on salad duty, using up various things in the fridge – green leaf lettuce, cucumber, red pepper, avocado, and chick peas. I added the sunflower seeds and pine nuts, and dressed it with some Brianna’s Homestyle Honey Mustard Dressing.

Enjoyed with a bottle of Perrier sparkling water.

As my mom says: “Dinner fit for a king!”

Oh how I love wild halibut. And it’s always better when done up on the grill. Mom is already talking about hitting up a different Farmer’s Market this week just to get some more delicious fish from this vendor, as they won’t be back at our market until the end of September now!

It was a great summer dinner. And what better way to end a great summer dinner than with a great homemade dessert?

My sister dished up more of my mom’s homemade blackberry apple pie, which we enjoyed while we sat out chatting on the back deck until the sun went down and the mosquitoes started attacking.

Since my mom was watching a movie upstairs, rendering me internetless, I figured it was a sign I should hook up with Mario again and work on finding that princess. We got a little closer, but she’s still MIA.

I can’t believe I only have one more week of holidays left, and then I’ll officially be back in school. Where does the time go? I’ll have to make sure to pack in a few more fun things this week before I’m back to the grind. Which means I should head to bed – I’ll need some energy to get the most out of my last free week. Night!

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

I Scream, You Scream…

…we all scream for ice cream!

Alas, I didn’t have the ice cream for dinner, as tempting as it was. What can I say, I guess the future RD in me (can I even say that yet? I’m not technically in the program) won out, and I made a real dinner first. But not before it cooled off a little bit in here!

More “cleaning out the fridge” fun – in the form of perogies with the last of the sour cream.

Some fresh, steamed green beans.

At least it only involved a pot on the stove and the microwave – it didn’t heat up the house too much.

Sadly, I still have some perogies in the freezer, yet no sour cream. I’m not going to buy any more sour cream though. It’s just so wrong to have perogies without it though!

My landlord and his father knocked on my door just after I finished dinner, to come in and check out some things they want to fix up in my place when I move. Ummm, yeah, my house is a disaster – it’s in a state of chaos as I’m going through things, collecting boxes, packing boxes. Not to mention I had laundry all over my bed, dishes from dinner on the counter, etc. A little embarrassing, but I warned them before they came in. They are thinking of tearing out the carpet and putting in laminate floors though, which would mean I wouldn’t have to get the carpets cleaned. I’m crossing my fingers – it would save me $100!

After they left, I tried to restore some semblance of order to my place, in case I have surprise visitors like that again. I managed to pack up a couple boxes, go through stacks of papers, etc, etc. Alas, that got me all hot again – guess it wasn’t that cool in here to begin with. Perfect excuse for ice cream!

I figured I would pair some refreshing honeydew melon with my ice cream, when I decided to get a little playful with my food.

On a wedge of honeydew melon, I placed a scoop of So Delicious Coconut Milk Coconut ice cream with some fresh raspberries and Nature’s Path Agave granola.

Looks amazing, totally impractical to eat. Actually, had I been thinking ahead, I would have cut a small piece off the bottom of the honeydew wedge, so it would sit still on the plate. Hindsight is 20/20 though eh? Still tasted as awesome as it looks, and did a good job of cooling me off and quenching some thirst.

Alas, the granola was on the stale side, so I ended up tossing the last bit in the box. One more thing I don’t have to move!

Now it’s time to down a big ol’ glass of water (glass #157 of the evening), and go read in bed where it’s cool(er). Night!

A Salty Situation

Dinner tonight was a wonderful plate full of tastes and colours. It all started with this package:

When I was at the store last weekend, I saw that these smokies from McLean Organic Foods were reduced to clear because the expiry date was the day I bought them. I threw them in the freezer when I got home, so I can use them as desired. I had seen the McLean Organic products in the store for a little while now, but had never gotten around to trying any of them. I’ll be honest – the “Cheeza Smokie” probably wouldn’t have been by first choice, but for $3 off, it made the decision easy.

McLean Organic Foods are a Canadian company, offering a line of premium fresh & cooked deli meats, all made without chemical food additives. Their products are also gluten, dairy, and soy free – great for those with allergies. This particular product is made with 100% organic pork, and 98% organic ingredients.

I defrosted and grilled up one of the smokies on the Foreman, and served it with a little mustard for dipping.

Can you see that “cheeze” hiding there under the skin? Mmmm, cheeze.

And check that out – no filler, not big fatty pieces. My kind of sausage.

To go along with my smokie, I roasted up some sweet potato chips.

And since I had the oven going, I figured I’d roast my broccoli instead of the usual steaming.

Check out that dinner!

Do you like how I got all arty with my sour cream & sweet chili sauce for dipping?

Playing with your food is fun.

I was a big fan of these smokies. They are very lean (3g fat per smokie), and I didn’t think they were as salty as many of the sausages you’ll find. The flavour was very clean tasting, and the “cheeze” tasted as good as a regular cheese filled sausage. I’d definitely buy them again. I want to try out some of their turkey products as well.

So even though my hamstrings, hips, and glutes were still sore from all the work we did last night at boot camp, I had to hit up the gym. I find exercise to be a great reliever of…other crampy pain, if you know what I’m saying. I stuck to the elliptical and upper body strength work, so as not to be too mean to my body.

And, per usual, I came home and made my snack/dessert. I’m never sure what to call it – sometimes it’s seems like dessert, sometimes it’s more of a snack. I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Tonight’s snack was inspired by Lori at Fake Food Free and her Banana & Avocado Vitamin.

I knew I had all the ingredients on hand, and threw the banana in the freezer last night just so I could try this out today. My mix included:

• 1 small banana, frozen
• 1/2 small avocado
• ~1/2 cup skim milk
• squirt of agave (my banana wasn’t super ripe)

Whiz it all up with your choice of whizzer (I used the immersion blender), and you get this light, creamy, delicious creation.

This is a definite keeper. You could taste the avocado ever so slightly, in a good way. I just love the texture the whole thing took on. I may need to stock up on bananas and avocados.

I also grabbed one of those addictive “Nicer” Krispy Squares, because well, they are that good.

Not really sure why this photo turned out yellow, but whatcha gonna do?

So, I’m sure you are all wondering what the title of this post is referring to, seeing as nothing I ate was really that salty. Well, there was a piece on the news about the salt content in various foods in Canada. A British group did a study looking at the salt content in popular foods/brands, like Subway, McDonalds, Kellogg, etc across different countries, and it turns out that those products sold in Canada have some of the highest salt contents of all the countries & foods looked at. I must say, I was a little shocked by this. I appreciate that you would alter your formula to suite the palates of the customers in various countries, but I didn’t realize that us Canucks like our foods extra salty. I’m really surprised, and not impressed, with both the food companies in question, or our government for not acting on this health issue. I would have thought that the salt content in foods would be equivalent between Canada and the US, but that’s not even the case. You can read more on the study here: Saltier Foods Sold In Canada.

And now that I’ve had my rant for the evening, I’m off to bed. Night

Enough With The Sour Cream

I’ve slowly but surely been getting through random tasks today. It’s nice to have a leisurely Sunday. I remembered that I had been invited to a dinner tonight, but my friend called to cancel, which was perfect, because I wasn’t really in the mood to head out for it.

Once I got home from the grocery store, I threw together one gigantic Tex Mex salad.

• bed of red leaf lettuce
• chicken
• black beans (cooked by me!)
• corn
• cucumber
• cheddar cheese
• salsa
• sour cream (again!)
• crumbled tostadas
• squeeze of lime juice

I wish I had some nicer bowls to serve giant salads in. Alas, you get a glass mixing bowl.

I managed to spill salad on my freshly washed pants. Argh. I am the worst for spilling on myself when I eat. My sister always jokes that I need a bib.

Although the salad completely hit the spot, I was craving a little something sweet afterwards. A Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut granola bar did the trick.

Now it’s time to digest a little so I can go play at the gym. Perhaps I’ll do my digesting on the couch with Dr Mario…after I do the dishes in my sink

Rock On Thursday

Usually my friends and I save Rockband nights for the weekend, but sometimes, you just gotta rock midweek! Tonight was one of those nights, and now I am home way later than planned. We’ll make this recap quick

Dinner was an easy one – tostadas!

I cooked up some black beans from scratch earlier today (so easy!), then smashed some up with some salsa. I added some cooked chicken that I had rescued from the freezer – must have been there from the last time I bought a rotisserie chicken. I spread that over 2 tostadas, then topped it with a few jalapenos and cheddar cheese. Into the oven to get warm and melty, then add some sour cream and a little more salsa.

So yummy, but those little jalapenos still give me stomach trouble. Why must they hate me so when they taste so good?

And as I said earlier, I got the creative juice flowing in the kitchen earlier. I had been thinking about making puffed wheat squares for a little while, then remembered a recipe I’d seen in ED&BV called “Nicer” Krispie Squares that I thought looked amazing. So I went ahead and made myself a batch

I basically followed the recipe, only I didn’t add the agar (since I didn’t have any, and it was more money than I wanted to pay to buy some – it says you can leave it out anyways), and instead of a crisp rice cereal, I used a combination of puffed kamut and puffed rice.

They turned out really well! I bought them over to my friend’s place tonight, and everyone enjoyed them. You probably wouldn’t even know eating them that they don’t have marshmallows in them. I highly recommend these – so simple and so tasty

It is now way past my bed time. Night!