There’s a reason I haven’t been eating dates – I haven’t bought any. There’s a reason I haven’t bought any – I can’t stop eating them when they’re in the house. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
I had a moment of weakness last week and bought a giant bag of gems. For every letter “e” in this post, that’s about the number of dates I’ve eaten since I bought them.
And just to make sure…
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Hm, that’s the same sound I make when I eat a handful.
I Eat
Even though it seems like I’ve been doing a lot of date-ing, I’ve managed to squeeze some other food into the tummy lately. Oats, indeed.
Purple people eater oats. Remember that?
This was 1/2 c. oat bran + container of blueberry applesauce + cinnamon + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1 c. water + trail mix + peanut butter.
Yummers.
And some more oats…
The banana oats were back! A delish bowl of 1/2 c. oats + 1/2 nan + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1/2 c. water + cinnamon + huge blob peanut butter + granola.
My nut butter scoops seem to be getting larger. At this rate, I’ll be eating nut butter off a soup ladle in a month.
More oats.
This was a lazy Saturday morning bowl. It was the usual nan base, but toppings were almond butter + slivered almonds + dates + dried apricot.
Today was a breakfast-on-the-run day. If I’m volunteering on Sundays, I need to leave the house at 7 (public transit on Sunday mornings is pathetic) and I don’t have time to squeeze in a big bowl of oatmeal before I leave… because sleep is also precious. 
Overnight oats are perfect for those mornings!
The night before, I mixed 1/2 c. oats + 1/2 c. plain fat-free yogurt + cinnamon + honey. In the morning, I stirred in about 1/3 c. almond milk and added 1/2 chopped pear + trail mix. I devoured this while sitting at the tech booth – my nerdy AV side is back! That stuff was the best part of broadcast journalism and I admit, I actually enjoy that stuff.
Packed lunches have been ridiculously boring. Trust me, you’ll be glad I didn’t take pictures. Lunches have been so dull lately they’re verging on offensive.
Worth noting is today’s lunch – another weekend saves the day! I met a friend for sushi at a different restaurant: Takura.
How colourful! At the top of the photo, veggie tempura and a rainbow roll. I got a tuna roll + salmon roll + shrimp tempura roll.
Miso soup got the party started. So did this fantastic chopstick holder:
It was definitely a tasty Saturday lunch.
My tasty Sunday lunch went unphotographed – just picture a tom + Laughing Cow sandwich + pickles + bean salad. But have no fear, the lovely dessert plate was crying out for a picture.
That’s a gluten free apple muffin + dried apricot + dates + lemon essence prune (all the way from New York! These things are ridiculously, insanely good.) + no bake, gluten free chocolate chip cookie.
The cookie recipe is from a summer issue of Clean Eating but it’s not on their website. Because I’m scared of having the pants sued off me for posting copyrighted material on the blog, all you really need to know is what went into the cookies: oats + dates + raisins + honey + cinnamon + salt + cacao nibs.
Chop the stuff up in a food processor, fold in a bunch of nibs and voila! Cookies! Are they good? Umm, they’re okay. They’ll grow on me. (Just wait, soon you’ll be hearing me complain about eating too many of them. This is a given.)
Suppers? A bit better than my work lunches. But not much.
This was my I-have-10-minutes-before-I-need-to-run-out-the-door supper.
Leek + potato soup and an egg sandwich on gf flax bread.
Despite the oesophagus-scalding (note to self: don’t eat boiling hot soup immediately after it comes off the stove), this was good! Not exciting, but my tummy agreed with it.
Friday night was an experiment.
I threw frozen “Asian veggie mix” in a pan with ginger. In a little dish I combined soy sauce + red wine vinegar + lemon juice + cornstarch and threw it in the veggie pan. It thickened up right away and made a decent sauce. Served on top of rice noodles and called it dinner.
Pretty easy stuff.
Saturday night’s supper went unphotographed. Why? Battery died! I have leftovers though, so my roasted veggies + chicken mishmash will make a late appearance. Who knows what dessert was.
Sunday’s supper was year-old, freezer burned quinoa lentil stew + margarinized bread. It’s so old, I have no clue where the recipe came from.
And yet, still edible! I was also really hungry and would have eaten the table by this point, so maybe that’s why it was good.
Lentils were getting artsy with their photo.
Ready for the close up:
And more dessert…
Blueberry applesauce + 1/2 pear + granola. Good stuff.
I Move
Thursday – nada. I was too busy scarfing down an egg sandwich and running after the bus. Literally, running after the bus. Maybe that counts? It was a hard sprint. (And no, I didn’t make it.)
Friday – most pathetic run of all time. It was a painfully, dreadfully slow 6.5 km route. I kept switching between running and walking but wasn’t feeling either. I went right after work – not ideal for this girl – but I’m giving myself a pat on the back for dragging myself out there.
Saturday – awesome workout. I biked to the gym, did a quick 15 minutes on the elliptical to get my heart rate up before I did some shoulders + triceps + abs with the free weights. I biked back and felt great.
Sunday – lazy workout. After an hour long nap, seeing rain outside didn’t inspire me to suit up and go to the gym. Instead, I did about half an hour of free weights at home. I’m telling ya, invest in a pair or two of light dumbbells and you’ll find all kinds of exercises you can do with them. I did some quick upper back exercises and then some abs on my yoga mat, followed by easy leg lifts and hamstring curls. All while watching a documentary about the demise of the automotive parts company, Ed Shaw, and the union battles.
And now, the channel is back over to the Slice network. It’s important to balance docs with flighty reality television. 
20-Day Total Health Challenge
Hard to believe the challenge is more than half over! I guess I should step up my game these last eight days. A recap of my ups and downs will be posted once it’s finished.
… so another weekend ends. But guess what the next one is? Thanksgiving! Yep, we Canadians celebrate a bit early. That means turkey gets here faster.
Looking forward to gobbling some of the gobbler bird. Turkey is the sole reason I could never be a vegetarian. Is there anything more awesome than getting a case of the turkey sweats? I think not.
Adi
