Have you ever tried to do something, hoping you can pull it off and make it look natural, but it doesn’t end up going as planned?

I was heading out on a run and I could feel a fuzzy thing in my mouth.  I will spit it out on the grass beside me and look all business, shooting spit as I gear up to go.

The plan backfired.

I spit all over my leg. 

That never looks cool, and sure doesn’t look natural.

Note to self: don’t try to be a spitter when you’re not.

I Eat

One thing I can do is make oats that fill up a tummy.

Check out my new Christmas bowl!  My mom sent this to me for my birthday.  Who knew La Senza has moved into the dish market?

Toppings on this oat bran were all over the place: t-mix + bluebs + raspberries + peanut butter.

Not to be out done, the next day’s oat bran took toppings to a whole new level.

Pom seeds + pumpkin seeds + bluebs + cacao nibs + peanut butter.

It would appear that the butter trumped all other oat toppers.

That’s a big blob.

And Saturday’s oats, double the fun.  A friend came over for brekkie so I doubled the usual ingredients for oats: 1 c. oats + 1 c. almond milk + 1 c. water + 1 whole nan.

Friend’s bowl:

My lame bowl:

Today’s bowl of oats was in the American Thanksgiving spirit.  Lots of the American food blogs have been loaded with pictures of delicious food lately, so I decided to make an impromptu sugar-free cranberry sauce yesterday with leftover berries from an apple/cranberry/pecan crisp I brought to a friend’s last night for dinner.  Well, the crisp wasn’t dinner.

But imagine if that was an appropriate main course!  Half the world’s problems would be solved if we all ate apple crisp as an entree on a regular basis.

Simple toppings, just cranberry sauce + slivered almonds + peanut butter.

How to make a small amount of the sauce?

• Boil 1/2 c. water + 1/3 c. Splenda until it’s bubbling.
• Add about 1/2 a small package fresh cranberries and let the mixture come back to a boil.
• Reduce heat, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
• Take it off the heat, let it cool, and store it in the fridge.

Only one lunch to post – other lunches have been at work and today I was at East Side Mario’s for an impromptu lunch with some church peeps, and found myself cameraless.  How exciting is a chunk of chicken to look at, anyway?

Yesterday’s lunch needed some rah-rah.  I found that excitement in an ancient butternut squash in our potato drawer.  Really, I can’t even remember when I bought the thing, and I like to think my memory is decent.

So that’s scary. 

I roasted it with some extra virgin olive oil + cinnamon and thought it tasted A-okay.  I still have all ten fingers.

On top of some spinach + green onions and sprinkled with pom seeds + balsamic vinegar and a bit of S n’ P. 

And a side of GF toast + laughing cow fromage.

 

Suppers?  Mostly MIA.

Salmon salad + GF bread + baby spinach + tom slices.

 

And green beans because they were seeing their final days.

One another dinner was a pathetic Sandwich Supper with yellow-tinged photographs.

Yellow-tinged photographs look like they should smell weird.  Do you know what I mean?  They’ve been vetoed.

Last night’s dinner was a great meal at a friend’s place.  In addition to delicious gluten-free food, the company was entertaining and I might have had too much fun. Getting up early this morning was painful.  Good thing I could hear the oats calling from the kitchen.

Now, here’s a sample of the highlight from the last few days:

 

A friend baked me sugar-free, GF brownies and they.  are.  divine.

Umm, they were divine.  I ploughed through half a large pan in two days.  Am I embarrassed?  No, because if you tasted them and hadn’t eaten a brownie in over a year, I’m sure you would have done that too!  Unless you have self control, which I clearly don’t have, but that’s for another post.  So, so delish.

It makes me sad to look at those pictures and know they are gone.  The good news?  My friend had brownie mix left over so I not only got plenty of brownies, I have the mix to make more!

Dangerous.

I Move

Thursday – off to see Jim after work.  I did 10 minutes on the bike to warm up and then headed to the free weights for an unenergetic twenty minutes.  What a lazy workout!  I was annoyed with myself for not putting in any effort.  So, I walked home from the gym.  It was a mild night, so nice for November, and I had my home church that evening.  Solution to a sad workout?  Make up for it later!  After walking back from the gym and eating a quick supper, I pumped up my tires and biked the few kilometres to and from home church.  It felt awesome and even though it started raining on my way back, I think I was smiling the whole way … I’ve been missing my bike!  Exercise intention fulfilled.

Friday – a good run on the treadie.  Heading to the gym right after work on Fridays can be tough, but it’s always a choice I’m glad I made.  It gets the weekend started right!

Saturday – I jogged a short 2 km to the office gym (I think I need to go back to see my other Jim for a change…) and did some core + chest weight training.  It was focused and logical movement – and left me hurting the next morning, in a good way.  I jogged back home. 

Sunday – I hadn’t planned on doing anything today because I am tired.  All of a sudden, I just felt like going outside and doing a short run.  Why?  I don’t know, I don’t question these things, I just go with it.  I had a snacky, munchy afternoon and it’s easy for me to reign that in if I go work out.  Also cool?  It was my first evening run in a really long time and I got to see Christmas lights in the neighbourhood.  It was nice.

I was also chased by a dog the size of my foot named Champagne.  He (she?) tried to bite my ankles and I almost clomped on its little paws.  Its owners were chasing her down the road.  Oh Champagne, bad little puppy.

Time to find something to eat for supper… maybe I’ll just have something snacky…

Have a great week!
Adi