WIAW: Lotsa Greens and Bargain Book Shopping.

*Note: I love how many people have weird pinkie toes. I don’t feel so alone in my freak toe-ness! :-p 

Happy first day of Spring!

Yea, I’m calling bullshit on that. Where are you warm weather?!

But I digress…

Happy WIAW! Many thanks to Jenn for her hosting duties, as per usual.

So, for once I feel like I actually followed the WIAW theme of the month. These are my eats from yesterday, and there is a surprisingly large amount of green things. At least, by my standards.

So, on with it!

Breakfast

A usual around here, my old-lady Fibre 1 with a sprinkle of coconut chia granola and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. 2 eggs + 1/4 cup egg whites on the side.

I’m pretty much the most uninventive person when it comes to breakfast. I love getting creative with dinners and the occasional lunch, but at 8:00 am apparently I’m incapable of putting together something fancy for breakfast. I’m ok with that though!

Pre\Post Workout

A scoop of Watermelon-y BCAAs pre and post workout. Yesterday was leg day, AKA: I-am-really-going-to-hate-stairs-for-the-next-two-days day. Buuut it’s still my favourite

I swung by the bookstore at my school on the way home because they were having a bargain book sale – each book was $2.50.

Woot cheap books! I picked up:

• Entertaining with Sopranos (I have no intention of hosting an Italian wedding or Christening anytime soon, but the recipes looked good)
• The Great Christmas Cookie Swap Cookbook (It is never to early to start thinking about Christmas cookies. Never)
• Suck it, wonder woman! – Olivia Munn (she’s hilarious, so I’m intrigued to read this)
• a Laura Lippman book of short stories. As much I love my epically long novels (I’m looking at you, Game of Thrones) I seriously adore a ten-page story now and then. 

Although, before I left I noticed that they had a ‘Goosebumps’ book – Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes. I kind of really wished I had picked that up. I was obsessed with those books when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure I had the first 50 or so in the series?

 

Lunch

Post gym = lunchtime.

A massaged kale salad (olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and honey, then topped with salt and pepper) with chopped carrots, buffalo-marinated tofu, and a piece of Irish soda bread with a bit of butter. I’m not going to lie, I kind of feel healthier just looking at that picture (kale and tofu have that effect, apparently).

And side note – I’m not a huge bread person (I like it, but I don’t generally go out of my way for it; I prefer potatoes, pasta, oats and rice for my carbs) but I’m obsessed with that stuff. I give it a month, maybe two max before I make it again. There was definitely a small hunk of two in the afternoon that escaped pictures

Then an afternoon of school-related reading (what else is new?) and marking before class. First, a snack:

Cottage cheese, strawberry jam, peanut butter and a crumbled graham cracker. Simple and delicious.

Dinner

Second side salad of the day – I’m impressed with myself.

I had a chicken in the slow cooker all day, which I shredded when I got home from class. I cooked up half an onion, and tossed everything in buffalo sauce before shoving it into wraps.

That means I had buffalo-flavoured proteins for lunch and dinner yesterday. And I’m giving you a buffalo recipe tomorrow. Is it fair to say that I really, really like that stuff right now? (yes).

Dessert

That would be a graham cracker topped with cookie butter and chocolate chips. It was one of the smartest things I’ve done lately.

Nighttime Snack

I wasn’t too hungry last night, but just to keep me going until morning:

A few spoonfuls from my giant container of coconut Oikos. Ending the day on a good note.

Hope your Wednesday is fabulous!

<— Would you rather read a book of short stories or a long novel?

<— What book collections did you have when you were a kid? I also had pretty sizable Nancy Drew, the Baby-Sitters Club, and Sweet Valley High collections!

<— Favourite carb? It’s a tough question, I know.

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?

WIAW #9–Weird, But Tasty.

First off: I wanted to thank you guys SO much for your comments on yesterday’s post! It was not easy at all to write, but you guys made me feel better and not so alone in the situation. Sometimes I feel like because I consider myself recovered I’m not “allowed” to have negative thoughts or behaviour patterns, but you guys helped reassure me that it’s normal. But, I’m now at a full week without calorie counting and I couldn’t be more relieved. Any anxiety and nervousness I was feeling about food in October is gone, and I’m extremely happy to see it go.

So let’s get on with it, shall we?

It’s that time of the week again!

As always, many thanks to Jenn for hosting!

So, that title describes  I eat pretty accurately. I come up with some odd combinations, but they usually end up being pretty good (in my mind, anyways).

I’ll show you what I mean!

Breakfast

So this one was weird, but it wasn’t my fault – I promise.

When I went to go make breakfast yesterday, I was craving a yogurt bowl (all of Amanda’s yummy yogurt bowl pictures made me want one in a bad way).

So I took a picture of my yogurt for the post today:

And proceeded to make breakfast. I wanted to up the protein a bit, so I decided to add in my Whey Gourmet Milk Chocolate I picked up last weekend. I dumped half a scoop on top of the yogurt and began to mix it together.

And then I noticed:

I thought I had grabbed plain Greek yogurt, but I must have grabbed Key Lime off the shelf instead (you’d think the slight greenish tinge to the yogurt would have caught my attention right when I opened the package, but I’d not particularly observant at 8:30 in the morning). And I had just made chocolate-lime yogurt.

I tried it, and while it wasn’t bad, it was definitely a little weird.

Still made it work for breakfast though! With a sliced banana, multigrain Cheerios (boring, but the only cereal I have in the house right now. Note to self: buy more this weekend) and a small scoop of PB.

Cold breakfast in November requires hot tea:

Love this stuff! I add a few drops of stevia and it is delicious.

Lunch

Weird shaped but still tasty:

Something about weirdly shaped sweet potatoes just makes me laugh!

Lunch was a weird salad combo.

I sauteed up some tofu in chipotle marinade, and added it to a salad with spinach, arugula (eaten right out of the container to save a dish), tomato, the sweet potato, peppers, carrot and almond, all topped with Italian dressing.

Chipotle and Italian? Why not?

Delicious – but of course, anything with sweet potato I will deem amazing.

Sweet tooth needed satisfying:

Handful of grapes did the trick! (ugh, my hands are so DRY!)

Afternoon snack

Packed away to be eaten during class:

Hard boiled eggs, just out of the water so they look all smooth, round and shiny (TWSS?)

Dinner

Well hello, childhood flashback-made-healthier:

Mac and Cheese with chopped up hot dogs. Except instead of KD and creepy I-have-no-idea-what’s-in-these-hotdogs, Annie’s and all-pork wieners (I’m so immature, I still can’t say wieners without giggling.)

This might be one of my favourite dinners. It’s easy and delicious – I had nothing on the dinner plan tonight and I knew I had the hotdogs hidden at the back of the freezer, so I decided to pull them out.

While cooking, I snacked on some baby carrots:

Whenever I’m making dinner and I open the fridge, I always end up grabbing a couple. Love the crunch!

Dinner came together super quickly with almond milk, a bit of butter and snap peas for added nutrition/greenery.

And yes, I am absolutely one of those people who puts ketchup on their mac and cheese.

Much better.

Although, it must be just on top – absolutely NOT mixed in. Just ruins it!

I know, I’m terrible.

I had a couple mini cans left over from my birthday weekend (bought them for mixing purposes) so I decided to break into one tonight. I like the stuff, but I try not to have it in the house so I don’t drink it too often. But while it’s here, might as well not let it go to waste. :-p

Snack

10 pm snack:

I usually break out the casein protein powder right before bed. Casein is a slow digesting protein that keeps your muscles from breaking down over a period of fasting (i.e. sleeping). Sometimes I mix it with cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, but I’m out of cottage cheese and wasn’t feeling more lime yogurt.

So that’s one scoop of casein protein, a spoonful chocolate PB2 (love my PB and chocolate combo), enough almond milk to give it a pudding like consistency and a few drops of stevia, with chocolate chips on top. I’d be lying if I said it tastes exactly like pudding, but it’s tasty (and I’ve inadvertently given myself a craving for chocolate pudding. Damn).

A day in my weird but tasty eats!

I’m off to class soon – today is the day I hand in my long essay and give my 90 minute presentation. And, I’ll be filming my first ever VLOG for tomorrow’s post (unless I lose my nerve). Wish me luck!

<— Ever accidently bring home the wrong thing from the grocery store? Did you eat it anyways?

<— What cereals are in your pantry right now? I need ideas for a new box

<— Do you/did you put ketchup on your mac and cheese? Only on KD and Annie’s, never homemade.