Five Things Friday 4/26/13.

Woot Friday!

Confession: With classes being over, I tend to lose track of days of the week. Oops. But, I can still be excited for the weekend!

Which of course, I will celebrate with my usual Friday lists.

5 Things I’ve Eaten This Week:

1. The return of the giant salad.

Apparently, my body was missing out on some veggies because I put together some ginormous salads this week. This is basically the only way I can eat a meal time salad and be satisfied: It has to be absolutely loaded. This was romaine, baby carrots, bell pepper, sweet potato, chicken and almonds, all topped with a pineapple curry salad dressing. Delicious.

2. The best thing about taco night:

The taco salad that occurs the next day, of course. I could easily eat these multiple times a week. The absolutely best way to eat salad, in my opinion.

3. Salmon and bacon-wrapped asparagus.

The ultimate solution to get someone to eat vegetables: wrap them in bacon. It works, I promise – Eric ate three of those bundles. I follow Jessica’s recipe, and it is absolutely amazing.

4. I’m pretty sure this qualifies under Laura’s Strange but Good category.

That would be two buttered popcorn flavoured rice cakes with guacamole and imitation crab meat. I made it again for lunch two days later, so apparently I liked it

5. Homemade gnocchi.

My first time making them, and I have to say – I’m pretty proud of myself. They turned out awesome! I made a really basic recipe (potatoes, flour, an egg and salt) and tossed them in marinara sauce and topped with a bit of parmesan – plus a bit of greens on the bottom. Although they definitely look a little haphazard, I don’t quite have the “rolling them over the fork” thing down yet.

5 Things I’m Loving this Week:

1. One of the best things about Nature’s Path Maple Cinnamon waffles is the smell that wafts out of the kitchen when you toast them.

That smell needs to be bottled and sold as a candle at Bath and Body Works, because it is incredible. Think I can sell them the idea?

2. Apparently, today is National Pretzel Day. I’m not much of a salty snack person, but I absolutely adore pretzels. I’m pretty sure they’re the most versatile snack ever: They’re good with chocolate, dipped in peanut butter, hummus, honey mustard, regular mustard, mixed in trail mix, eaten on their own…and of course, Sally had to post this yesterday, and now I want to make ALL OF THEM. After reading that, I threw this together for lunch part 2/lunch dessert/snack that happened 10 minutes after lunch:

Pretzels, almonds, and chocolate chips. I kind of wish I had peanut butter chips to throw in there too, that would have been fabulous.

3. This guy wins for most inventive marriage proposal I’ve ever seen:

Wow. How freakin’ awesome is that?!

4. This salad dressing.

When I mentioned salad dressing earlier in the week, almost everyone said that they make their own. I usually do too, but I’m really happy I bought this one – I credit it for maximizing my salad love this week. It’s sweet but with a bit of kick to it, which is fabulous.

5. Real maple syrup.

(source)

I convinced myself for so long that sugar free syrup was amazing and just as good as the real thing. Umm, no. 100% real maple syrup is unbeatable. In fact, I don’t think I could even do table syrup nowadays.

5 Awkward Google Searches that Brought Someone Here:

1. “Royalty free images of deep dish pizza”

I don’t know how I would feel about Kate Middleton all up in my deep dish pizza, either.

 

2. “where can I dispose my rainbow trout’”

Not here. Why would you want to dispose of it, anyways? Trout is delicious.

 

3. ‘”monkey attack trainer high def pic”

I don’t even know.

 

4. “leapin’ lemurs cereal sprouts”

Now all I can picture is yesterday’s green smoothie breakfast growing little sprouts. Creepy.

 

5. “barbie sandals for 10 to 11 year old”

Well, my feet are fairly massive, so any sandals of mine probably won’t fit a ten year old. Nor does barbie adorn any of my feet, except these barbie shoes:

But your ten year old probably can’t walk in those.

Hope you have a fabulous Friday!

<— What’s your favourite thing to do with leftover taco filling? Making burritos is pretty high up there too.

<— If you could create your own candle scent, what would it be?

<— Salty, crunchy snacks: pretzels, chips, nuts, other?

WIAW: Eating in Real Life.

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

Which of course, means What I Ate Wednesday. We all enjoy our little bits of foodie voyeurism, don’t we?

So for today’s post, I’m recapping my eats from this past Saturday. I was at a conference the vast majority of the day. I left the house at 8:45 in the morning, got home at 5:30 to rest for about 10 minutes before heading back out to the dinner/social. I ate breakfast at home, but my lunch, snacks and dinner were provided for.

Of course, a few years ago I would have driven myself nuts with anxiety over what my food options were going to be and peppering myself with questions. Were there going to be healthy options? Would I be able to resist the unhealthy ones? What snacks should I pack in case the food options didn’t meet my criteria?

But nowadays, I realized…I just don’t care. In fact, one of the organizers told me a few weeks ago what the food options were going to be, but I forgot. Completely forgot, because it didn’t matter to me. When it came time for meals, I looked over my options, picked what sounded good, and ate it. And that sort of freedom is pretty fabulous.

So, on with it!

Breakfast

My usual ACV mix and a quick breakfast before I left the house.

One of my coconut-dipped baked banana donuts that I baked last week, and two fried eggs. Easy and delicious.

The conference was being held at the school, which was definitely convenient. This was actually the first one ever, put together by two school friends of mine. It wasn’t too big (about 20 presenters) but it was a success. They did a fabulous job putting it together!

My volunteer role for the day was running the Twitter account. Basically, being the official “Tweeter” (I need a fancier title though…Social Media Executive? Twitter Hostess? PR Manager? Something along those lines). Running an ‘official’ Twitter account is pretty fun…it makes me want to be more active on my blog twitter account.

And I was part of a group presentation, so I got some experience in that way. Note: I am such an awkward presenter.

I have absolutely no idea why my legs are crossed like that. My friend Zoey told me I looked like some sort of pretty flamingo. I suppose that’ a compliment, of sorts?

Another shot:

Apparently, I don’t know what to do with my arms either. So.awkward.

But moving on…

Lunch

Lunch was catered by a local deli, so that meant sandwiches, pasta salad, and egg salad.

I went for two half sandwiches: roast beef and cheese (I think it was swiss?) on marble rye and salmon salad with cucumbers on what I believe is ciabatta. I also took a small scoop of pasta salad, because I’m always excited to see an oil-based pasta salad as opposed to a mayo based. Pretty tasty!

Exciting moment of the conference: over lunch, we got to see speeches from the Brantford Mayor, the local MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) and MP (Member of Parliament at the Federal level).

Pretty cool stuff!

There were more presentations before breaking for afternoon snack.

Apple and chocolate – gotta have balance, right? And…I went back for a third chocolate. Of course.

There were more presentations before closing with the keynote speaker, one of the professors at Laurier. I have to say, I think what I love most about my program is the ridiculous amount of topics that you can cover, and they’re all so interesting to me. For example, my focus is on media representations (of crime and government, for the most part), but others in criminology focus on global issues, political issues, stigma, homelessness, mental illness, white collar crime and corruption, criminal law, cybercrime, sexism, Aboriginal issues…there are so many things to look at. Ahh, love.

Dinner

I headed home to rest my feet for a few minutes and pick up the boyfriend before heading to the Hawk and Bell (a pub in Brantford that just opened) for a buffet dinner and social. Dinner options were salad, garlic bread, perogies, vegetarian penne, chicken parmesan, and butter chicken with basmati rice. A good variety, clearly!

(excuse the poor restaurant lighting)

I went for salad with balsamic, perogies, and butter chicken. Umm, that butter chicken might be some of the best I’ve ever had. From what I understand, the family that owns that restaurant is Indian and that was an old family recipe. It used shredded chicken instead of the usual chunks of chicken breast that I usually see in butter chicken, which was delicious.

Apparently, conferences made me hungry because I went back for seconds on the butter chicken.

Amazing.

I was definitely tired after my day, so we didn’t stay at the social to long. We headed home, where I promptly collapsed on the couch and turned on a movie

11:00 pm munchies:

Graham cracker with peanut butter. Did the trick.

So the conference and eats there made me realize how normal my relationship with food feels. Generally, people don’t worry about what food is going to be served when they have a lunch or a conference (of course, different story for allergies or necessary dietary restrictions, but you get my point). They show up, they eat what’s there, and they move on. No concern about whether or not the options were healthy enough or met any sort of criteria…they just eat it. I love feeling that sense of normalcy around what I eat!

And still plugging away at papers today, but I’m almost done my final coursework paper. Light at the end of the tunnel!

Enjoy your day!

<— If you did/are doing post secondary education, what’s your degree in?

<— What was your favourite class in school? Interestingly enough, I think my favourite course that I ever took was the Greek Mythology course I took in my fourth year of undergrad. It was such an interesting course.

<— Do you get anxious if you’re at an event and don’t know what the food options are going to be?

Five Things Friday: 04/19/13.

Happy Friday! Despite the fact that I haven’t had classes all week, I’ve been insanely busy. I don’t really have exams in grad school, but I’m definitely weighed down with final papers/assignments. Plus, I’m trying to work on my thesis proposal AND job hunt.

So…yes. Glad it’s almost the weekend.

Lists of things!

5 Things I’ve Eaten This Week:

1. Homemade applesauce (?)

I don’t know if I can really call it applesauce, because I let all the liquid soak up so it’s just the cooked, cinnamon-y apple pieces. Suddenly I understand what all the applesauce fuss is about (Khushboo and Amanda!). I’m pretty sure most of this stuff has been eaten directly out of the fridge with a fork. So good.

2. Annie’s Mac and Cheese with hot dogs, broccoli, and ketchup.

Note: mac and cheese of any sort must include ketchup. But, it must be squirted on top and never mixed in. Mixing the ketchup in just ruins it.

3. A turkey and hummus wrap and a cheese string, eaten for lunch at school.

Usually I arrange my schedule so that I don’t have to go to school until after lunch, or I just go home during. I kind of hate packing lunches…it’s going to suck when I have a job that requires me to actually leave my house for most of the day.

4. The wafflewich.

I’m pretty sure that this is the reason why freezer waffles exist. The best things you can do with waffles, in my humble opinion. Especially when you go for maple cinnamon waffles and throw some jam on there…sweet and savoury at it’s best.

5. Chicken tortilla soup.

I’ve never actually had chicken tortilla soup before, let alone made it. So this was a “throw-together and hope it works” sort of meal. Worked pretty well, actually – although really, it’s hard to go wrong with anything that’s topped with grated cheese, avocado and crumbled tortilla chips.

5 Things Happening This Week:

1. The first really warm day of the year (Monday) this happened.

That would be a vanilla and chocolate swirl soft serve cone with a cake batter dip. It is just as fabulous as it sounds. I made a trip with some friends to the Dairee Delite in Brantford, which is a soft-serve, seasonal, walk-up ice cream place. I knew I wanted a cone with a chocolate dip, but then I looked directly above my head and saw a list of at least 15 kinds of dip – white chocolate, peanut butter, cotton candy…but cake batter seemed like the way to go.

When I got the cone (regular size) I took one look and thought “wow! that’s really big, I should have got a child’s, I won’t be able to eat all of this!” Then I laughed at my silliness and proceeded to devour it. So.good.

2. It was 25 degrees yesterday. 25!!! It was amazing. I wore flipflops. In April. Day made, right there.

Except I will never complain about warm weather…I kind of thrive in humidity.

3. I won Vice President for my Student Council for next year!!

And by I won…I mean I ran unopposed. But nonetheless, I am excited.

4. I’ve presenting in and volunteering at a conference on Saturday. When handing out roles for the volunteers, I was offered the role of the official “tweeter”. Umm, that is pretty much the coolest volunteer position either. You guys set up the food, I’ll sit on my computer and tweet about things Awesome.

5. Between Boston and Texas, I think we could all use some happiness next week. Still sending positive thoughts to all those who have been affected.

5 Reasons I Can Waste Hours on Buzzfeed.

1. The 40 Greatest Dog gifs of All Time.

I actually can’t even handle how cute that is. Jesus, I need a pug (so do you Caitlin!)

2. The 7 Funniest Frustrated Gordon Ramsay Memes.

Yes, it is vulgar. But it is hilarious. And my inner nerd always appreciates a Mario reference.

3. 25 Foods You’ll Never Be Able to Eat Again.

Please tell me that you remember these. And you miss them. The jalapeno cheddar flavour was amazing.

4. 26 Ridiculously Amazing Sweatshirts you Can Actually Buy.

Umm, I just posted a recipe for donuts yesterday. And the sprinkles go without saying. Clearly, I need this.

5.Peter Dinklage’s Hottest Moments as Tyrion Lannister.

He’s already the wittiest character on the show, but he’s also compassionate? I’m sold.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

<— Regular ice cream or soft serve? What would be your ideal ‘dip’ for a soft serve cone? I might have to go back and ask them if they can mix the peanut butter and chocolate varieties…

<— What’s a discontinued food that you wish still existed? The green/purple Heinz ketchups was on that list too…as gross as it looked, it was oddly compelling.