S&M = Love July 18, 2009

This morning I finished off the last of my honeydew melon for breakfast.

Then I got busy doing things all day long, so lunch was some snacky items throughout the afternoon.  There were some carrots.

Some dates and almonds.

A plum and an apricot.

And a Kashi Trail Mix granola bar that I found hiding behind a bowl while cleaning up my pantry shelves.

But the main event of the day was absolutely the modified S&M salad I fixed up for dinner. Instead of macadamia nut oil, I used part of my avocado and massaged it into romaine and baby spinach with freshly squeezed lime juice and salt. Then I topped the bowl with hemp seeds, flaked dulse, more avocado, tomato, fresh rosemary, and a broken up Radical Rosemary and Onion cracker from Live Food Bar, who appear to have started selling some of their stuff through the health food store around here. The rosemary crackers are great, but I also bought a pack of their Nachos, and tried a bite, and they are beyond fantastic! You know what else is fantastic? The salad. So good. And now I have lots of the required toppings (and dulse totally tastes like bacon-y seaweed) so I can eat it many, many more times. This makes me very happy 🙂

And I suppose dessert was some of the super ripe and delicious pineapple I ate while chopping it up for the fridge. But, you know, sticky pineapple fingers and cameras don’t play well with each other. And for those of you who asked, my blender is a Vita-mix I got for (relatively) cheap off of Craigslist. And it was totally worth it, especially for super smooth leafy green packed green monsters, which I obviously quite enjoy. Now I’m contemplating the purchase of a dehydrator, but my roomie’s parents may have one they’ll donate to us, so I’ll hold off until I can experiment with that first.

PS. I love the mark down rack at the grocery store, I can’t wait to do something with these.

Blend, Baby, Blend and an Impromtu Contest! July 17, 2009

It was so dark out today! Whenever I went to take a picture, the sun was very well hidden, and it kept threatening to start raining (spitting) but never quite came. Or I may have simple changed locations before the rain actually came in some cases.

Anyways, a blender action shot for breakfast. That monster contained a mango, chia seeds, and a whole lot of collard greens.

For lunch I had a salad mess containing cucumber, asparagus, carrot, red pepper and tomato with a Peach Bourbon BBQ sauce topping.

And in the afternoon half a pint of raspberries and a banana dissappeared.

I went to Whole Foods today for the first time in a couple of months, and spent some time browsing, which resulted me in sending too much money, but ending up with lots of fun new things to try. One of those things was a hunk of Marti cheese, which is a raw ewe’s milk cheese that to me tastes kinda like a cross between parmesan and muenster (aka pretty awesome). I used it as a topping for my dinner, a big bowl of blended soup containing zucchini, carrot, lots of red pepper, a couple small dates, thyme, sage, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

And some honeydew for dessert.

Another Whole Food purchase that I just tried is Stash Mint green tea powder. It’s made of regular tea leaves that are ground superfine so they dissolve instantly in cold water for iced tea. Unfortunately, I’m really not a fan, I even dumped out the rest of that glass. Though to be honest, I probably should have known I wouldn’t like it given my distaste for matcha green tea. So if you do like matcha, I say give it try, you’ll probably love it 🙂

So how about a quick, impromptu mini contest? If you do like matcha, or are just curious, leave a comment by Sunday night and I’ll randomly choose 3 people to mail a few packets of Stash Mint Green Tea Powder. I’d like to see some of you readers come out of the woodwork!

Falafel-ly Yummy July 16, 2009

Only half a day left to what has been a pretty crazy busy week! And it looks like I’ll actually get the weekend off, yay! All the better for going to see some wizarding action at the movies. However, tomorrow will also likely bring with it the posting of my tuition fees to my account, ewwww. I’m predicting $9400, which I know isn’t that much compared to some American schools, but compared to Arts and Science programs at most Canadian universities, that’s high! Silly engineering being a professional program.

Anyways, this morning started off a bit differently since I didn’t have to go to all the way up to work (in Markham) right away, only to Spadina Station for the morning. I thoroughly enjoyed a bowlful of oatgurt topped off with a peach and a spoonful of maple syrup. This bowl was truly divine!

I was able to stop off again at home around noon to drop off my hard hat, vest, and safety boots and grabbed some melon while I was at it to hold me over for the ride up to work.

Once there I munched through a container of cucumber, red pepper, carrot, and cherries. Plus I had most of a fresh whole wheat bagel I found in the work kitchen for someone’s birthday. And yes, I’ll admit it, that is a hair in my lunch and not on your computer screen. It was removed after the picture. At least it was my own 🙂

I was a busy bee all afternoon and didn’t get home till almost 8, at which point I made sliders! Not your typical slider though. On a base of collard greens I stacked tomato, cucumber, Sol Falafel patties, and the tahini-lemon sauce they came with. Om nom nom. Those patties are pretty awesome.

Feeling a Little Nutty July 15, 2009

A little fruity, a little nutty, it’s been an uninspired day in the realm of my eats. I’ve been busy doing other things and just went with what was fast and easy.

It started off with breakfast. I enjoyed a slice of my roomie’s parent’s homemade zucchini bread (including homegrown zukes and walnuts from my parent’s tree), cherries, and Amazing Grass Superfood (the regular flavour) mixed in homemade vanilla almond milk. I don’t know if it was just the vanilla fooling my taste buds, but I swear this powder tasted like chocolate, when it was just the plain flavour. And that can only be a good thing, right? Two thumbs up for sure.

Later in the morning I enjoyed some sweet honeydew melon.

And for lunch, leftover sprouted amaranth tabouli, with extra parsley added.

And in the afternoon I snacked on some dates and almonds.

Then a super simple dinner of a kale/pineapple/banana green monster.

And an extra dose of dates and nuts in the form of an awesome Apple Pie Larabar.

I really should make some sort of non-produce, non-dried fruit/nut snacky item to keep on hand without worrying about it going bad. And without a dehydrator. Any suggestions?

Do The Dew June 12, 2009

So I finished my giant honeydew today. In two parts, to start the day, and to finish it. This morning I discovered a pretty awesomely fantastic green monster combo, honeydew, a few lychees, spinach and chia seeds. So, so good!

To work I brought a sald of julienned zucchini, cucumber, and carrot tossed in one of my favourite dressings that hasn’t seen the light of day in a long while, orange juice concentrate, sesame oil, salt and pepper. And a devil dawg patty on the side.

When I got home from work in the afternoon my stomach was rumbling for a snack so I filled it up with a super ripe banana, All bran and soy milk.

And this carton disappeared while I worked on finally catching up with my Google Reader.

Then for dinner I was feeling super lazy so went pantry diving for something quick I picked up a while ago from the mark-down rack because the packages were slightly dented.

I added water to the PC Instant Vegetarian Chili and microwaved with I took a peeler to a zucchini and came up with this super tasty plate for dinner. The chili was a bit spicy for me but turned surprisingly good after I added a small drizzle of molasses to take the edge off, and it can’t get any easier or faster. Plus while I do like making my own too, I do appreciate not having to eat chili now for the next week. I’m glad I have a few more of those up on the shelf.

Along side there was a couple of slices of multigrain bread nabbed from the roomie, and for dessert, the rest of the honeydew. Yum.

Relishing Retinol June 11, 2009

There was only one thing missing after watching So You Think You Can Dance last night, no voting! My roomie and I had a a lot of fun actually voting during SYTYCD Canada last summer (after all, it was free). But it did mean I actually got to bed quickly after it was done instead of staying up to hit redial a bunch of times until I actually got through.

This morning I got up and was hungry for a green monster. It wasn’;y as mucky as yesterday’s, but not quite green either. In the super tasty mix was spinach, banana, blueberries, chia seeds, and Nutribiotics Mixed Berry Rice protein powder.

For lunch I packed up the rest of the baked kabocha. I think I need to go buy some more this weekend, it’s so good. And stuffed in the empty spaces is snow peas.

And also a sliced up devil dawg, carrots, and honeydew. I’m not lacking in the vitamin A department today, that’s for sure. At work I also had a handful of the cubicle-mate’s erroneously unflavoured Kashi crackers.

And then, just as I was finishing dinner preparations the roomie came home with his parents and there was a kerfluffle of visiting and helping unpacking stuff, so while I thought I took a picture of my plate, my camera tells me otherwise.  But I had a zucchini/snow pea/black bean salad with yogurt/mustard/chive dressing along with a steamed sole fillet and half a whole wheat pita.  Very tasty, though the picture wouldn’t have been very nice anyways since it’s dark and rainy out (boo!).

Goopy Sludge and Recognition June 10, 2009

Let’s try and make this quick, I’ve got some SYTYCD waiting for me 🙂

Goopy sludge # 1 of the day, green brown monster.  On the fruit side I chose banana, peach, and frozen raspberries.  And since I knew the raspberries would muddle the monster anyways, the green side was covered by leftover beet greens that had been hidden in the fridge and almost forgotten about, plus a little spinach, and chia seeds.  1/2 cup of cooked greens looks so small but packs a lot of punch!

My late morning snack consisted of a Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch Clif bar.  It was good, very cookie like, the peanuts were a nice addition without being in-your-face peanutty like the peanut butter flavour.  I would have been even happier with more chocolate chips though.

I was weird and swapped lunch and afternoon snack in the timing scheme of things since the clif bar did a good job of filling me up.  At lunch time I had a container of honeydew and blueberries.

Then later in the afternoon I dipped my way through goopy sludge #2 of the day.  I food processor-ized black beans, chili paste, PB2, lime juice, soy sauce, and a bit of water for a tasty spread.

And the dippers were carrot, cucumber, zucchini, and celery.

For dinner I started off with more honeydew (it’s a big melon, and really tasty!) and kiwi while I was waiting on the oven.

Then I had a fantastic serving of freshly baked kabocha, to which I added soy sauce when I got down to the  outer skin layer in order to make it super fabulous.

And along side that was amaranth pilaf.  I found amaranth a while ago from the bulk bins, and finally decided to cook it up with onion, parsley and thyme that got caramellized first before adding the grains and water.  They’re so cute and tiny!  And the pilaf had a fun chewy texture.  Although there was a slight bitter taste, so I think I was supposed to rinse the amaranth first, like you would quinoa.  At least I know for next time, and it was still pretty good.

And the recognition part of the day.  Every day I wake up and  look out my window to see a large billbord that is usually adorned with an advertisement for some CTV show.  Last year I wanted to ripe my eyes out a little bit after waking to Addison Sheppard for four months.  For the past few (3?) months the billboard has been bugging me because I didn’t know what show it was advertising.  I figure the title was hidden somehow in the gibberish behind the guy’s head but I could never pick it out.  This morning I was looking at the gibberish again and had a feeling I had seen it somewhere else recently.  I suddenly came to the realization that the advertisment is for The Listener!  Now I’m wondering why the sign has been up for months when the show only started airing last week (although apparently NBC aired it in March)…

Superthick June 9, 2009

I ate my green monster with a spoon this morning, it was so thick. I went with a classic peach/mango combo today along with spinach, chia seeds, and ice instead of water. And it was soooooo gooood 🙂

For lunch there was a salad mess of zucchini, carrot, and Devil Dawg with yogurt, mustard, and chive dressing.

And a bowl of steamed kabocha with teriyaki sauce. I understand how this squash can be habit forming…

And in the afternoon I snacked on blueberries and a non-fuzzy golden kiwi (with the skin!).

When I got home I nabbed a dried peach before it could get in front of the camera while busy chopping up mushrooms for a giant stirfry. The rest of the bowl was filled with snow peas, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Shitake + snow peas + sesame has to be one of my all time favourite combos.

And for dessert there was a large slice of juicy sweet honeydew. And I went back for a sliver more, of course.

I passed! May 19, 2009

I passed the first test I’ve had in over a year!  Not that I was expecting to fail or anything, it was for a safety training course, multiple choice, and not exactly designed to make you fail.  But it’s fun to hear that I passed anyway, and to earn a new sticker for my hard hat.  And to get a pretty cool tour around and subway yard, including checking out the bottom of a subway car.

Breakfast this morning started with RED monster.  I blended up the stalks from my beet greens, a tomato, chia seeds, raspberries, grapes, and a Nutribiotic Mixed Berry Brown Rice Protein Powder packet.  Besides, being a fun electric pink, it was pretty good…after I added a big spoonful of maple syrup.  The beet green stalks were fine, but let’s just say I’m never adding a tomato again.  Luckily, the extra sugar solved the acidic problem.  I guess I still don’t like tomato juice after all these years.

For lunch I brought a bagel-wich filled with avocado, tofu marinated in liquid smoke, and citrusy bean dip.  I was trying to go for a bacon type effect like actual smoked tofu (Pete’s really does taste like bacon), and while I didn’t really get it, the liquid smoke was still really good in the sandwich.

I also packed some red pepper strips and a Chocolate Chip Clif bar (which I shared with the cubicle-mate who was also doing the training session).

For dinner I fixed up two salads.  One featured a new vegetable for me, broccoli sprouts.

I chopped up some romaine and carrots and topped them with the sprouts, and a big dollop of citrusy bean dip mixed with avocado.  The sprouts were really good.  They were a bit peppery, which went perfectly with the creamy dip.  Toronto sprouts has some pretty cool mixes, and I get the impression they’re quite widely available in the GTA (I bought mine from Loblaws, but I see them in most of the smaller health food stores around too). Though, their own store has just closed because they’re moving to a bigger location.

The second salad was a fruity one. I chopped up honeydew, mango, (frozen) pineapple, banana, raspberries, and blueberries, then drizzled the bowl with a little agave syrup, simply delicious.

Dippity-Do-Dah May 18, 2009

It was a dippity-do-day. And a wonderful lounge-y day.

This morning I leisurely made a batch of Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes from ED&BV for my roomie and I, and we both loved them. They were especially good topped with his uncle’s maple syrup

For lunch I whipped up the first dip of the day, and made up citrus bean dip. It contained the dredges of my bags of chickpeas, kidney beans, and a few pintos to up the volume (~1.5 cups total after cooking). Then I added the juice of 4 sad little limes that have been drying up on the counter, and a pathetic looking orange that might have started growing a little bit of fuzz on the outside, plus a handful of thyme, a bit of sage, and a sprig of rosemary (that wasn’t large enough to actually taste). It turned out to be a pretty good dip. I scooped it up with red and yellow pepper strips, carrot, cucumber, and steamed broccoli. And lunch dessert was a side of honeydew melon.

In the afternoon I snacked on a couple of the best tasting yogurts ever (that I’ve tried so far, having no access to crazy american brands). And I ended up eating the last two pancakes leftover from breakfast too, reheated in the toaster (but no repeat pic).

The pancakes might have ruined my appetite for dinner a little, so I just sat down to a plate of steamed cauliflower and a tomato paired with dip number two of the day. A mashed avocado mixed with lemon juice and some massamun curry paste, deliciously creamy.

And now I need to pack a lunch and head to bed soon so I can get up EARLY to go to a training session that will allow me to wander around subway tunnels without getting electrocuted by the third rail 🙂