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?

Weekend Eats and Experiments in Kombucha.

Good morning! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Mine was pretty quiet – it’s the weekend before Easter and I have a lot to do school-wise considering that it’s end of semester. So an easy weekend around the house it was.

After I got home from my morning of grocery shopping Saturday, I finished off the last of the buffalo tofu I made earlier in the week on an arugula salad with peppers, baby carrots and a spoonful of caramelized onion hummus. One of the last chunks of my Irish soda bread on the side.

Saturday afternoon consisted of a quick trip to the gym for an ab workout and a quick HIIT run on the treadmill and getting some homework done. I also did a bit of Easter decorating, because apparently I like to decorate for every holiday.

So fun fact: at one of the Christmas parties I went to in December, I decided that I really liked the table centerpiece. So, I took it home with me.

It is a ginormous, gold-painted branch with a bunch of icicle decorations on it. You know what’s awkward? Trying to carry that inconspicuously across a parking lot. In the middle of winter. Wearing a short dress and tall shoes. And getting into a limo. But totally worth it because it looks gorgeous and fills the empty spot on my stair landing perfectly.

And…I redecorated it. Easter-style.

Tacky? Probably. But I love it.

But, the most important part of my day was dinner.

Hello, take out sushi

My seaweed salad…it was a bigger portion than I was expecting, which is never a bad thing!

My rainbow roll ( california roll with salmon, tuna, red snapper, white tuna and avocado) and Eric’s black dragon roll (dynamite roll with eel and avocado)

Eric’s AK47: deep fried roll with salmon, crab, avocado, fish roe and spicy sauce.

My Odessa roll: avocado and eel topped with salmon and avocado. Easily my favourite roll!

And dessert:

Yogurty’s, I freakin’ love you.

I’ve got:

• a mix of peppermint white chocolate, chocolate coconut, and caramel popcorn froyo (I can’t even. They were all amazing)
• chopped Reese’s
• peanut butter chips
• frosted animal crackers
• sprinkles
• cinnamon toast crunch

Best.dinner.ever.

And now I think I need a box of cinnamon toast crunch. That is my childhood cereal right there.

Sunday

Tasty breakfast to start my morning:

Yup. In a jar.

Banana oats topped with blueberry jam and a bit of Nature’s Path Dark Chocolate and Red Berries granola. Hit the spot for sure.

After breakfast, Eric was running some errands which happened to take him right next to Goodness Me!, the health food store in Brantford. Soooo I invited myself along.

I mean, I had to stock up on my Zevia stash I also picked up digestive enzymes (the newest experiment in my quest to fix my stomach) and the Good Bean chickpea snacks in sweet cinnamon. I saw these on Allison’s blog last week and I was intrigued, so when I saw them at the store I decided to give them a shot. They’re pretty good – not too sweet, and they have a good crunch to them.

I also decided to give kombucha a try.

A couple of people recommended it for stomach problems, so I picked one up. It’s…interesting? I like it, but it took me a little while to get used to the ferment-y flavour. Not something I’d pick up too often based on the price tag itself…yikes.

Dinner

Dinner definitely demonstrated my carnivorous side.

Yes, that steak takes up half my plate. And yes, I ate all of it. To be fair, it’s a much less impressive feat when you take out the bone and all the little fatty chunks. Such a fabulous dinner.

Sunday night was spent watching TV and relaxing – prepping myself for the week ahead. Although, it’s a short week…yay Easter weekend!

Have a fabulous Monday!

<— What did you get up to this weekend?

<— What’s your favourite dinner/dessert combination? Sushi and froyo just might take it for me.

<— Fan of kombucha?

Just Baking in the Slow Cooker.

Hello friends!

I hope your weekend was lovely. And if you have today off, I hope it’s enjoyable as well!

I’m on my reading week, so I actually have the entire week off from classes – but I will be working, I can guarantee that. Woot grad school!

So let’s talk about my weekend, shall we?

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen my excitement over what I discovered on my way home:

The variety store that is half a block away from my house sells these. Why am I discovering this after I’ve lived here for 6 months?! I had a vanilla coke obsession as a kid, so the fact that these still exist make me so, so happy. I try not to overdo it on pop, buuuut…considering that I walk past said variety store 2-4 times a day, this will be happening once in a while.

For dinner, I made up the lobster tails I had originally planned for Valentine’s Day (the picture of which got eaten by the camera). I made them the same way I did on New Years, and served them with quinoa and green beans. Delicious.

Eric and I had decided that we were going to exchange gifts on Saturday, but he sprung mine on me Friday night.

so…do you think I like chocolate much? I’ve got two Aeros, two Caramilks (all in large size), two packs of Reese’s, a Mr. Big, gummy bears, and Werther’s Chewy Caramels. I think the chocolate stash is pretty set for a while.

And here’s what I got him:

Chocolate and alcohol. We’re all about the vices on Valentine’s Day, apparently.

I’m not a huge whiskey fan, but this stuff is pretty delicious. I might make him share a little!

Sushi Date

My handsome date and I went for all-you-can-eat at Sushi Eight, our favourite sushi place in town (it also helped that we got a buy one get one free coupon in the mail earlier in the week).

(hello, bright lighting directly above my head and staticky hair. Winter, please go away)

Any sushi experience should start with seaweed salad, in my opinion.

And sashimi should go in there too.

We also split an order of veggie tempura to start.

Before dinner, I decided that I was going to order us rolls that we had never tried before. We tend to gravitate towards the same things…so, that wasn’t allowed this time. I picked all new ones for us, including some of the more creative offerings on the menu.

First up was a Shrimp Crab roll: shrimp tempura, crab meat, eel sauce. I had actually ordered this as a hand roll, but I didn’t care enough to correct them.

Next up:

• Toronto roll (on the left): cream cheese, surf clam, eel, avocado, crab meat.
• Special Sushi 8 roll (middle): shrimp tempura, eel, crab meat, avocado, tobiko.
• Eel special roll (right): spicy crab roll topped with eel, avocado, tobiko and eel sauce.

Brantford roll: deep fried roll with red snapper, crab meat, cucumber, tobiko, eel sauce, spicy sauce.

We both agreed that the special eel roll was our favourite – but, I always gravitate towards eel (notice how it appeared in 3/5 rolls). I’m pretty sure that has become my favourite item when I go out for sushi – salmon would be my second choice. The Toronto roll was pretty fabulous too, I loved the cream cheese addition.

Neither of us were big on the Brantford roll – there was just too much going on there! The deep fried aspect didn’t really do much for me; it just felt unnecessary.

We both definitely had to be rolled (HA!) out of there when we were finished. So full, so delicious.

Sunday

Sunday, typical Sunday. I went to the gym, did some reading, did some cleaning. Annnd…I baked. Sundays just feel like baking days, don’t they?

But I wanted to try something different. I got a Crockpot cookbook for Christmas, and the last few recipes are all things I never would have thought to make in a crockpot: desserts (pudding cake and cobblers) and drinks (lattes, mulled teas). The very last one was for a banana walnut bread, so I decided to test it out.

I made a few alterations to the recipe – I subbed out two tablespoons of butter for applesauce (because I ran out of butter), used 3/4 whole wheat pastry flour, reduced the sugar a bit, and subbed the walnuts for chocolate chips – because banana bread just needs to have chocolate chips, in my humble opinion.

It turned out pretty good! The one side turned out a bit crispy, but the flavour is definitely there. I don’t know if I would make banana bread this way all the time (because when I want banana bread, waiting 40 minutes to an hour in a regular oven in long enough. 3 hours is a tad painful) but it was fun to try.

Dinner was quick and easy:

Oktoberfest turkey sausage with ketchup, honey mustard and banana peppers on a toasted whole wheat bun and a side salad that I topped with balsamic and olive oil (seriously, I love those oils and vinegars as salad toppers). Yum.

Even though it’s my week off, I’m not planning on going home at all – but, my parents are going to come down to visit and treat us for dinner. I’m always excited when they make the trip! I’m also planning to hit up a new-to-me gym this morning. The gym I attend at the university is closed for the holiday; but I was told yesterday that the Y a few blocks from me allows students to have 2 trial passes. I’ve never been inside, but it looks nice and I’ve heard good things. I’m excited to check it out.

Have a great day!

<— What did you get up to this weekend?

<— Have you ever made anything unconventional in a slow cooker?