WIAW #13–The Week of Holiday Meals.

So, this is a good week for me, food wise.

I had a class lunch on Monday, I have another one today, and a Christmas party on Friday night, Clearly, I am eating well this week.

So this makes for an awesome WIAW!

Thanks for hosting Jenn! Believe me, there’s going to be a lot of fabulous eats going on this week.

So today’s WIAW is from Monday – my class is small (only six people) so one of my prof’s treated us to an Indian food buffet. I’m a huge Indian food fan, but I hadn’t it in about…5-6 months maybe? So I was excited that this was the plan.

Breakfast

Recycled picture because I forgot to take one in my sleep-induced haze, but you get the idea! Oats with 1 egg + splash of egg whites and peanut butter. I’m starting to love the peanut butter and egg combination…it sounds so weird in my head but tastes so good.

Yup – I’m still going with the ACV cocktail daily! It does seem to make a bit of a difference with my stomach (and it certainly doesn’t hurt) so I’m going to stick with it for now. I’ve gotten used to it enough that now it just tastes like I’m drinking watered-down apple juice with breakfast. Considering that I used to drink apple juice every morning as a kid, I’m not complaining!

And of course, nothing but love for my Advent Calendar.

Lunch

In the morning I had my final TA class of the semester. Minus a bit more marking to do, I’m done! I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it (Brescia (where I did my undergrad) is a small school, so I didn’t have a lot of experience with TAs. The ones I had at main campus, I never really made use of) but I enjoyed it a lot! I’m looking forward to start back up with a new group of students next semester.

Then it was off to Taal Fine Indian for lunch! I hadn’t been here before, but I had heard good things about it. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in – it’s very much of an “off the beaten path” sort of location. But, the food left me pleasantly surprised!

Round one: A popadom, Mattar Pancer (peas and homemade cheese in a tomato and onion gravy), Chicken Vandaloo, Goat Curry, and Chili Chicken.

I’ve never tried goat before, and while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t something I’d really go out of my way to eat again. Kinda tough/stringy. The chili chicken was fabulous though! It was more sweet than spicy…kinda like a Thai sweet chili sauce.

When the naan came out, I of course had to grab a piece. Naan is amazing!

Round 2:

Round 2: salad (hey, I got veggies in there somewhere), more chili chicken, and an onion bhaji. Seriously, I could have eaten that chili chicken all day.

I can’t go for a buffet and not have dessert:

The fruit is pretty self explanatory (I didn’t end up eating it, it was pretty flavourless) but I had absolutely no idea what the other things were. Fortunately because of Mr. Google, I think I’ve figured it out.

The one of the left: Gajar Ka Halwa – grated carrot, milk and water cooked with sugar, usually topped with almonds and pistachio. This was interesting – flavourwise, it reminded me of carrot cake. Not my favourite, but not bad.

The balls on the right: Gulab Jamun – a dough made from milk and flour, deep fried at a low temperature and put in a cardamom and rose water flavoured sugar syrup. Some versions use honey instead – I think this version did. Either way, thoroughly enjoyed.

It was a great lunch, and incredibly nice of my professor to treat us. I’ve already told Eric that we will definitely be going back to check out the dinner buffet one night!

I headed home to plug away at a paper for a couple hours before heading over to the gym. A handful of carrots for something to crunch on before I left:

Lesson that I learned Monday: if you’re going to eat Indian food for lunch, you should probably go to the gym beforehand. You know how if you eat garlic or something you can smell it in your sweat?

Same deal with curry. Sorry, fellow gym goers.

Snack

Lunch held me over pretty well, but I wanted something small to get me through the next 2 hours or so until dinner.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted hummus or cream cheese on my rice cake, so I just split it. Best of both.

And cheesestring. Love!

I made friends with my foam roller and How I Met Your Mother – I’ve had the last couple episodes stored up for a while, and I’m slowly catching up.

So excited to see Joe Manganiello on this episode! I have a minor obsession with the guy.

Really, can you blame me?

Dinner

After eating a buffet lunch, I went with a simple dinner.

Chicken breast, baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon, and green beans. Simply delicious.

With a Zevia on the side:

I went to Goodness Me! (the health food store in Brantford) last weekend and picked up a few things for me:

They had a sale on Zevia: 6 for $4.49. Expensive little things, but they’re so good! This was my first time trying the Black Cherry, and it definitely got my approval. I also grabbed two new Christmas-themed Stash teas – MerryMint and Christmas Eve. I’ve tried them both and they’re both tasty! The Christmas Eve has a sort of orange-y flavour to it…it’s interesting!

I’ve noticed flavoured Stevia extracts popping up everywhere, so I picked up a few of those as well – French Vanilla and Dark Chocolate. The french vanilla with either of the above two teas makes for an awesome combo.

Snack

The before bed snack:

Whipped cottage cheese and chocolate casein with a few drops of dark chocolate stevia, with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter (I’m desperately trying to conserve it but I’m definitely getting low!) and Panda Puffs.  Makes me happy!

And to wrap up this post:

Jenny’s Blogger Christmas Challenge, Day 5.

Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this all day and I can’t come out with anything. My family has always taken more of a “lots of small gift” approaches when it comes to Christmas. It always meant that we woke up with loads of Christmas presents under the tree! There’s a few nice gifts that stand out to me, but I can’t pick the absolute best. I love and appreciate them all! (Am I dancing around this question? Absolutely).

Happy Wednesday!

<— Do you like Indian food? Have you ever tried making it? I can buy a jar of sauce, but I’ve never tried making it from scratch. I should try it sometime!

<— Minor celebrity obsessions? Norman Reedus is up there too (Walking Dead fan!)