Amazingly Ridiculous July 10, 2009

This week has been crazy busy at work (but in a good way), and I don’t even get the weekend free!  We’ve broken the every other weekend pattern of Saturday night hammer tapping and will be heading back tomorrow.  But at least we should be able to finish tomorrow 🙂

This morning I wasn’t very hungry, so I started off with a slice of cinnamon raisin bread spread with almond butter.

Then I mixed up a HUGE (1L!) brown monster, including a new ingredient.  In the mix went lotsa kale, two carrots, a giant banana, half a pint of blackberries, and the last of my brazil nut milk (1.5 cups?), plus a bit of ice.  It was delicious, and it lasted me all through work, and into the afternoon.

When I got home I was offered these beautiful cookies, made by my roomie.  Ginger crinkles are my absolute favourite cookie, so obviously, I had to have one…or two (they were small!).  They were good, but not quite as good as my mama’s recipe, but worth it none the less.  I really need to get that recipe from her.  And before the old note card in the recipe box completely fades would be a good idea too….

I put up something I was entirely unimpressed with this afternoon. I went to pick up a package at the post office, but I had no idea what it could be. Turns out it was the sample pack of Amazing Grass I ordered, but it arrived in the most ridiculous manner.

The actual packet would fit perfectly in a regular old envelope (maybe a bit too heavy, but that only costs an extra dollar or two), but for some reason, they were shipped in a giant box, and held in place with plastic wrapped air! Not only is this not the most environmentally friendly shipping approach, it isn’t exactly the most fiscally responsible choice either. The shipping was free for me, but I can’t imagine what the Amazing Grass people were thinking paying $18 to ship something worth $3, when it would have been just as easy to ship it for less (or even easier, they would have saved me a trip to the post office with limited opening hours if it fit in my mail box).

Anyways,  for dinner I finished the last piece of meat (of mine, but not including fish) in the freezer.  I cooked up the some organic, 100% grass fed beef, then chopped up the pieces, mixed them with ketchup, mustard, and relish, and used them as a topping for a burger salad.  The base was red leaf lettuce, yellow pepper, and the last kumato that for some reason had escaped consumption all week long.

Now I’m off to revel in the discovery that is the begining of a new season of Torchwood.  I love me some good old scifi TV. (I’m missing Stargate this summer!)  But first, you all should NOT enter Gina’s awesome Living Raw Food giveaway, because I’m just a little in love with S&M, but the book is just a bit too expensive for my money conscious brain to handle, and it’d be WAY easier to have my own copy than to lurk in the bookstore!

Overtime ?!? July 7, 2009

So for the first time ever, I worked unplanned, slightly emergency overtime today. Which means it is now ridculously late on a weeknight to be doing a post. And yet here I am.

For breakfast I whipped up a spinach, banana, chia, brazil nut milk smoothie. I love the creaminess that comes from just a little milk.

For lunch I had a salad mess of red pepper, asparagus, carrot, and avocado. The dressing was inspired by a dessert sauce I saw when flipping through Living Raw Food on the weekend, I blended up a nectarine, balsalmic vinegar, and tarragon. And it made an excellent salad dressing!

I also had a slice of cinnamon raisin ezekiel bread with almond butter.

And I snacked on a bowlful of mulberries and raspberries in the afternoon.

I ended up wishing I had brought more food to work with me, because when I got home 3 hours later than usual I was STARVING, and a banana, a couple handfuls of mulberries, and a few dates may have very quickly disappeared. Too quickly for the camera even!

Then I didn’t feel much ike doing any food preparation, so I dug a can of Health Valley Black Bean soup from the depths of the pantry and heated it up with a few dashes of salt and chili powder to up the flavour impact.

Out On The Town June 24, 2009

So I discovered half a carton of egg whites in the back of the fridge and figured I should probably eat them before they went bad. Which meant breakfast this morning was an imitation of my Sunday Fran’s breakfast. Egg white omlette with light feta cheese, dill, chives, oregano, and thyme. I liked mine better 🙂 And on the side I had a sweet and juicy tomato.

I went to a training thing for work today, and as a result, I unexpectedly went out to lunch with my coworkers (for free for me! fun perks :)). We went to New Generation Sushi, aka my (and most people that I know’s) favourite sushi place on Bloor St. I got the sushi lunch special which was the usual salad and miso soup with 7 pieces of sushi. Salmon, tuna, squid, tamago, crab, clam, and red snapper.

Then for dinner I had what I made for lunch, a salad mess of asparagus, carrot, red pepper, avocado, and mole sauce. But I added a bed of spring mix, a handful of Kashi crackers, and a spoonful of almond butter for the crackers.

And I plan on enjoying a Ruth’s Lemon Hazelnut MacaPower bar during SYTYCD (I didn’t forget this week!)

Hide the protein! June 16, 2009

I had something different for breakfast this morning.  When I made oatmeal this weekend I made extra and froze some.  This morning I took out one of those portions (oats and banana) and nuked it with extra water, chia seeds, PB2 and a few toffee sprinkles.  And along with it I had a Starbucks Fruit salad from the pile that had taken up residence in the fridge overnight, and a delicious giant lychee.

For snacking I brought to work with me a container of kabocha, two ways.  First as a sandwich with almond butter, and second cubed and drizzled with soy sauce.  Plus I brought a shitake mushroom because I had an empty space in the container, and I wanted to try one raw to see if I liked it.  I know I don’t like button/cremini mushrooms raw, but I thought I would give the shitake a try.  The verdict? Not so much.  But I did thoroughly enjoy those cherries for lunch dessert.

Lunch itself was a giant salad of romaine topped with carrot, red pepper, snap peas, and tofu marinated in soy sauce/sesame oil/apple cider vinegar.  I seem to be developing a thing for soy sauce…and am running out….must stock up!

When I got home I had a tasty medjool, straight up.

Then for dinner I got a bit creative.  My base was spinach flavoured shirataki noodles, steamed broccoli, and shitake mushrooms sauteed in a bit of olive oil.  Then I hid some protein in the sauce.  I blended a chunk of tofu with nutritional yeast, garlic powder, a splash of vinegar and water, salt and pepper.  And I was happy to discover it tastes really good, and actually cheesy!  But next time I either need to make a bigger batch, or use silken tofu, or both.  I made so little the sauce was flinging itself away from the blades and didn’t blend very smoothly.  So it doesn’t look very pretty, but it sure tasted good!

Fruits and Peanuts June 13, 2009

…is all I ate today….well, almost…apparently sleeping in messes up my eating habits…

For breakfast, the trail mix fest started with a nectarine, strawberries, and some tasty roasted peanuts.

And a bit later there was a medjool stuffed with almond butter.

Then a series of snacks throughout the afternoon, since I didn’t really feel like preparing a proper meal. I had a juicy slice of mango.

About 3 times this many dried papaya chunks.

More peanuts, the evidence.

I broke the pattern a bit by pulling out the sandwich maker and sliding a bit of dill havarti between two bread slices.

And I made a nice refreshing treat, which I enjoyed while reading outside on my apartment building’s patio, and works wonderfully with this week’s BSI ingredient over at The Ungourmet, watermelon.

Watermelon Ice Cream. Twas beyond simple. I had some watermelon chunks in the freezer from the last melon I bought, so I threw ~ 3 cups of big chunks into the blender with ~1/3 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk, and blended until smooth. Absolutely delicious, and refreshing.

Then I just spent 1/2 and hour listing around the kitchen thinking I should make a salad or something for appearances sake, but realized I’m really not hungry, so I probaby shouldn’t. I promise, I’ll come up with something more entertaining tomorrow!

Very Vert May 5, 2009

This morning started off with a bowl of President’s Choice Cinnamon Spice Multigrain Oatmeal (uncooked) mixed with a little maple syrup and topped with almond butter and a golden delicious apple. I loved dipping the apple in the oats before each bite for a crunchy coating.

For lunch I brought along a container of carrot, snow peas, cucumber, and red pepper.

As well as a fruit selection including tomato, blood orange, cantaloupe, and mango. Really good mango…

Later in the afternoon I tried an Elevate Me! Blueberry Cranberry Goji Berry Boost Bar. This bar was really good, I could definitely taste the berries, and they tasted REAL (which they were, obviously, but some bars still manage to taste fake). I think this would take second place behind the Chocolate Coconut Chew bar in an Elevate Me flavour competition.

When I came home I had a few dates before leaving again to run some errands.

And when I got home for the second time, I wanted dinner, but didn’t feel like cooking, and was craving a green monster. So I went SUPER-GREEN with green grapes, a lime, spinach, a banana, chia seeds, Natura unsweetened soy milk, and a little stevia.

This monster hit the spot perfectly, I loved the lime addition.

And finally my fellow Canadians may be interested in this sample up for grabs.

Colours of nature April 26, 2009

I had a very green and brown day today, ending with the planting of beautiful green herbs in larger planters tonight.  But I’ll take pictures of those tomorrow when the sun comes out.

The morning started out with a very filling green monster containing spinach, grapes, and chia seeds.  Those chia seeds really do keep you going.  I set out in the beautiful weather for a grocery expedition and wasn’t hungry for lunch for nearly 6 hours!

When I did sit down for lunch I dug into a huge salad for romaine, cucumber, lentils, asparagus, and a russet apple with lemon juice dressing.

Then a few hours later I had a delicious bowl of oatmeal containing PC Multigrain Cinnamon Spice Oatmeal, another apple, a scoope of raspberry jam, and almond butter.

And finally for a late dinner I had two red pepper tortillas filled withYves Veggie dogs and green pepper.  I got distracted cleaning the kitchen while I was making this and I realized when I sat down I took my asparagus edammumus out of the fridge, but it never made its way onto the wraps, so I went back and added it afterwards, just some extra green for the day.

Spoiled April 16, 2009

I’m loving the beautiful spring like weather outside.  I just wish I could actually spend more time outside during the day instead of being cooped up at work.  I suppose that’s what weekends are for….and summer hours, I did enjoy those Friday afternoons when I started my coop back in September.

Anyways this morning started out with a first for me.  A delicious Fitnessista breakfast cookie!  I used oats, Kaizen chocolate whey protein powder, almond butter, unsweetened vanilla almond breeze, and dried blueberries.  The cookie was a little too wet when I took it out of the fridge this morning (note to self, reduce liquids next time) so I stuck it in the microwave for a few minutes, and when it came out, I could actually lift the cookie off the plate, and eat it like…a real cookie!  It even had the same texture of an oatmeal cookie, I was quite pleased.

While I was enjoying my cookie I packed up some lunch to take to work.  First there was a fruit side, honeydew melon, strawberries and the last of the mango.

Then there was a veggies and protein side, snow peas, cucumber, carrot, red pepper, and roasted pork tenderloin.

And finally there was a Cob’s bakery hot cross bun with Balderson Vinter’s cheddar.  This is where I was spoiled by the roomie again, he’s been giving me so many treats lately.  I was especially surprised by the fact that the bun contained choclate chips instead of raisins, obviously I didn’t look too closely at it before packing!  I think the bag must have contained a mix because I looked at one of the other buns and it definitely contained the usual raisins.

When I got home I fixed up something I was planning to make yesterday before the surprise dinner.  I had been thinking about this combination anyways, but when I saw it on Oh She Glows, I had to go for it.  I fixed up a green monster with kale, Liberty Vanilla yogurt (I’ll save the cranberry granola for later), a big spoonful of orange juice concentrate, and water.

A sweet and creamy combination.

And for something solid I ate another hunk of pork, a dill pickle (yes, I might be slightly obessessed, the 2L jar in the fridge isn’t helping), and a spread of mustard on some Finncrisp Rye crackers.  A lovely salty, savoury contrast to the sweet smoothie.

No point crying over… April 14, 2009

A cracked shell?

This cute little guy was given to me this morning by my cubicle-mate who brought back a bag full of these key chains from her quick holiday in New York City this weekend. The contents of each box are random and we all had fun seeing who got which key chain.

This morning’s breakfast was a large slice of fresh Cob’s Bakery Flaxseed bread spread with lovely roasted almond butter, and a banana.

For lunch I packed up some veggies, snow peas, red pepper, and carrot.

As well as a bowlful of Dorset Fruits, Nuts, and Seeds cereal.

And in the afternoon I snacked on strawberries and super sweet and delicious mango.

For dinner I started with a crunchy plate of more carrot, Finncrisp rye crackers, and hummus.

Then I made a perfectly tangy wrap with a La Tortilla Factory Multigrain wrap, spinach, tuna, a little microwaved egg white, dill pickles, and hefty spread of whole grain dijon mustard (under the spinach)

And now I must go investigate this Dr. Who Easter special I’m told is available for the watching…

BSI Eggs: Not-Your-Normal Egg Roll March 24, 2009

Time for another BSI entry so soon?  We’ll get to that later.

This morning I came with with a delicious creation with my serving of slowcooked steel cut oats.  I made my version of apple pie oatmeal.  In the mix is the oatmeal, a small chopped red delicious apple, a spoonful of homemade mascarpone brown sugar ice cream for extra sweetness, and copious amounts of pumpkin pie spice.  I stirred that all up with a heaping spoon of ground flax, then topped the bowl with nice plump raisins, crunchy pumpkin seeds, and a spoonful of amazing roasted almond butter.  Yum!  I would usually have mixed in all the toppings, but for once I decided to pick up spoonfuls of oatmeal and dip each bite in the almond butter.  Amazing!  You can taste the nuttyness so much more this way, I dont think I’m ever going to mix in my nut butters again!

I managed to fill my fridge with an abundance of tasty fresh produce this weekend, and my lunch reflects some of the offerings.  I brought to work with me a veggie container packed with a carrot, yellow and orange peppers, grape tomatoes, cucumber, and steamed broccoli.

And I brought along a whole wheat english muffin filled with flavourful emmental cheese and ketchup (which I nuked a bit before eating to get nice and melty).

There was a also fruit container filled with a sweet, juicy minneola orange, mango, grapes, and strawberries. Although I only ate the orange at work, and apparently I never managed to take a picture of this container, oops. I’m sure you can imagine what an orange looks like, now add a knobby thing on top of it and you’ve got a minneola.

For dinner I decided to make something with the carton of egg whites hanging out in the fridge, something worthy of being my BSI entry thanks to Mark over at Training Feul’s brilliant choice of eggs (the whites count, right?)!

I was also looking for a fun excuse to make more of the wonderful lentil mixture I discovered yesterday, besides cut avocados don’t last long anyway. The answer was a wrap!

The recipe is simple enough, 3 egg whites (I measured 100g), and a little bit of oil on the pan to allow a crust to form (you need this even for a non-stick pan in my experience). All you do is lube up the pan (I used less than half a teaspoon of oil), get it hot, and pour in the egg whites. Then don’t touch them until they’re fully set and the bottom is nicely browned. With minimal pan shaking or prodding with a spatula you should end up with tasty wrapper ready for filling. The only trick is to use a big enough pan that the whites can spread out thin enough to be flexible for wrapping afterwards, and let it cool a bit before wrapping so it doesn’t tear easily/burn your fingers.

I filled my egg wrapper with spinach and lentil/yves italian veggie ground round/avocado/Big Bull steak sauce mixture and rolled the whole thing up.

This made for a lovely dinner paired with the rest of the fruit I didn’t eat at work. The mango (ataulfo) was amazing, I’m so glad mango season is starting in Mexico (since I know there’s no way I’m going to get local mangoes in Toronto, global warming’s not that fast)!