Archive for the ‘Snack’ Category

Perv Patrol

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

When duty calls, I answer it!  Remember the Pantless Wonder I blogged about a couple of months ago?  You know, the guy who jumped out of the trees with no pants on and scared me to death while I was biking?

Well friends, there was another spotting.  This time, it wasn’t so innocent.  No way was he going to continue to get away with his ick-ness, so I called the Po to catch him!  I’ve never called 911 before, and I admit, it was exciting.  I was at the bus stop making the call, when Merv the Perv saw me on my cell phone, and then ran back into the trees.  Maybe he’ll be on the run now – I’m hoping so, because if I see him again, I’m going to start throwing rocks at the guy. 

Finally, Test Results

On another note, it was 5 weeks ago that I had the endoscopy test done to see if the doctor could find out what’s wrong with my tummy.  After a ton of paperwork mishaps, miscommunication, lost faxes and lab result reports, I found out today… nothing. 

The biopsy results showed nothing.

I’m not going to get down about this – I wasn’t confident there would be any news.  It just means it’s time to try some other alternatives.  I’ve tried the conventional medicine route, I’ve also seen two naturopaths.  My next attempt at getting to the root of my tummy troubles might be the most unconventional yet – but I’ll be blogging about that in the future.

To all of you who wrote me with kind words and supportive emails, thank you so much.  It means a lot to know there are awesome girls out there I’ve never even met who share their stories, pieces of their lives, with a “stranger”, to lift her spirits.  You guys are great.

I Eat

Let’s move on to happier, more delicious things!  How about some breakfast pictures…

Hard to say which is prettier, the flowers or the oats.

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Just some regular nan-based oats + almond milk + trail mix + peanut butter.

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I added a bit of pumpkin into this bowl, and topped it with soy nuts + pumpkin seeds.  The usual almond milk + cinnamon + pumpkin spice made the cut, as did a big slop of almond butter.

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Work lunches haven’t been exciting, at all.  Salads and canned soup, mostly.  A couple biscuits, fruit, veggies, nuts.  Same old, same old.

… I’m a tofu convert!  I’ve eaten it three nights in a row and can confidently say, I dig it.

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Last night, I added tofu to some stir fry leftovers, but heated the veggies and tofu in a pan with sesame oil + soy sauce.  It gave the soy blocks some flavour.  Good stuff!  There was brown rice buried under there.

Tonight was more leftovers, the roasted veggies + tofu from the weekend, with some maple syrup + olive oil + sea salt that seasoned it all. 

This was a good snack last night – some orange + chewy granola squares.  They’re hiding.

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I’ve also eaten too many dates.  Same old story! ;)

I Move

Monday – After work, and after my perv reporting duties with Mr. Police Officer ended, I went for a 6k run.  It was windy which I don’t like, especially when I’m running, but it felt good to get outside and sweat.  Working in an office has increased my appreciation for exercising 1000%.

Tuesday – I did hot yoga tonight and it was an intense class.  There were some challenging moments, and at one point I had to collect myself in child’s pose, but mostly, I worked through the challenge and felt relaxed but energized afterwards.  The room was hotter than last week, and that was a good thing.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, a rotten day of the week.  How am I going to make it a good day?  Oats for breakfast, a very busy day tomorrow at work, lunch out with colleagues, and a rest day from exercise.

How will you make your Wednesday great?  I hope it’s a breezy one!

Adi

Stretch A Turkey

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Wouldn’t it be great if Thanksgiving was every single day for the rest of time?  I think it would be.  In honour of that, I ate lots of leftover turkey.  It’s gone now… but it was delish while it was around.

It didn’t make any oat appearances, though.

I Eat

Another bowl of Thanksgiving oats 1/2 c. oat bran + 1 c. water + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1/2 c. pumpkin + pumpkin pie spice + honey + cranberry sauce + chewy granola crumbles + almond butter.

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Another bowl of pumpkin oats this morning, but with raspberries and the largest blob of almond butter I could scoop.

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… in my new Crate & Barrel bowl + spoon.  Yippee!

I don’t photograph my lunches anymore, but I had a pretty Thanksgiving salad (if you put turkey in something, you can call it “Thanksgiving _____.”  Just because.).

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… yes, raspberries were on sale.

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No turkey in this supper, sadly. 

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Mom’s spaghetti sauce + rice noodles + broccoli.

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And tonight, Thanksgiving stir fry.

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Buried brown rice + zucchini + yellow pepper + broccoli + mushrooms + onion + carrot + turkey + garlic salt + soy sauce + ginger + garlic + lemon juice.

And leftovers for lunch. 

I Move

Yesterday, it was back to hot yoga.  I hadn’t been in two weeks and really didn’t have much energy, so I couldn’t hold my poses for as long or go into them as far, but today I woke up feeling sore.  Guess I worked out some muscles!

I had packed my gym bag to go right after work.  I stepped outside, saw how beautiful it was outside, and knew the last place I wanted to be was the dark basement gym.  So instead, I walked home from work and then biked to and from home church.  My heart was a pumpin’!  It felt great to breathe in cold air and bike fast.  Way better than the gym.

And tomorrow is Friday!  I have a great weekend coming up – hope you do too!

Adi

Back On The Date-ing Scene

Monday, October 5th, 2009

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.

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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. 

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Yummers.

And some more oats…

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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How colourful!  At the top of the photo, veggie tempura and a rainbow roll.  I got a tuna roll + salmon roll + shrimp tempura roll.

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Miso soup got the party started.  So did this fantastic chopstick holder:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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Lentils were getting artsy with their photo.

Ready for the close up:

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And more dessert…

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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

Say ‘Ello To My Little Friend

Monday, September 28th, 2009

I’d like to introduce my new partner in crime.

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His name is Snail.  He has a bit of an attitude problem – I think that’s obvious in the picture.  Nothing that eating a little sushi next to his tank won’t fix!

Okay, too far, sorry.

I haven’t had Snail for more than a few hours and he’s already on the blog.  He’s already one-upped me.  Guess I should get a photo up.  Hmph.

I Eat

Enough about Snail, let’s talk eats.  I did some sweaty yoga on Saturday morning and fuelled up with half a nan and came home for a real breakfast.

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Aside: Is the opposite of Clean Eating, Dirty Eating?  I imagine a magazine with that name wouldn’t go over too well.  Did Tosca Reno coin that term?  Too many questions for Sunday night.

Hot oats wasn’t going to work after hot yoga.  Sometimes, eggs are even allowed at breakfast.  And so is lots of fruit.

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Lunch yesterday was some Laughing cow + lots of toppings sandwich.

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And some leek + potato soup leftovers.

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And some dried out carrots + cukes.  Some pickles for craziness.

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I snacked on some Grandma apple + pb.

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I had a gigantor orange later in the day.  This fruit was not only heavy, but was the size of a big baby’s head.

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For supper I had Vietnamese take-out.  It was awesome, pictures were hideous.  Without natural light, my photos flop. 

A billion other snacks were consumed.

On to Sunday!  Breakfast was my love (no, not Snail).

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With trail mix toppings!  Wooo!  It’s been awhile.  The other stuff was getting so boring.  Unfortunately, these oats were lacking nan AND almond milk. 

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I still happily ate every last speck.

Lunch was an eggy sandwich.

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With green sludge soup from a box - that Knorr “green” soup.  Captain Obvious came up with the name.

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My lunch dessert tray was the best part of the day… err, of lunch.

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I like to keep the labels on my food.  That way, I don’t forget what I’m eating…

Ahem.

Watermelon + pineapple + dates.

And a big bowl of yogurt + granola.

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This kept me pretty full – probably because this was a giant lunch.  I love weekend lunches! 

I also love sushi.  Take note, Snail.

How funny is it to have a maple leaf on top of sushi take-out?  I don’t need my sushi extra-Canadianized, but it looks kind of cool.

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Sushi 88 makes the best sushi.  In the city.  Period.

In my lovely square box, a spicy salmon roll + white tiger roll, which is their shrimp tempura roll with more happiness on top.

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Instant miso soup rounded out the square.

Because I felt like eating 26 pounds of fruit over the past two days wasn’t enough, I had more for dessert… watermelon + cantaloupe.

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Kitchen closed.

I Move

So Saturday was some hot yogaing.  I’m starting to like this new fitness find.  I never stretch and am very inflexible so I find it challenging, but in a this-feels-good kind of way.  The class was 75 minutes instead of the usual 90, which I liked, but it will be back to the full length class when I head back to the studio on Tuesday night.

Today was a gym day – nothing exciting.  Some breezy cardio on the elliptical and lower body strength training.

20-Day Total Health Challenge

Well, it’s clear that weekends are a downfall for me when it comes to meeting goals.  You too?  It’s the no routine thing that gets me every time.  Maybe that’s why I like Mondays.

Me and three other people on the planet.  Are you one of them? ;)

Hope you had an enjoyable, relaxing, rejuvenating weekend, wherever you are and whatever you did!

Adi

“Ur-INe The Wrong Place”

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Today, I did two new things.

1. I walked into a men’s washroom.  Into a man peeing at a urinal.  I turned around, ran away, and hope I can forget this special moment forever.

2. I stayed on the elliptical machine for one whole hour.  Why?  I was planning on doing my hour of power (an hour of cardio split between three or four different machines) but the thought of walking to new machines seemed like too much effort.  I know, pathetic.  And then I thought, what happens when you reach one hour?  The digits run out on the screen, there’s no extra space.  I was hoping it would be as cool as when the gas stations ran out of space to put the extra digit up when gas went over a buck a litre.  And then I thought, after an hour of cardio there must be some sort of prize!  Sirens will go off!  Gold coins will shoot out of somewhere!  Know what happens after an hour?

“Cool Down”.  The machine tells me to end.  Boring.

But oats aren’t boring!  Bring on the breakfast recap.

I Eat

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1/2 c. oat bran + 1 c. water + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1/2 nan + unsweetened coconut + dried apricots + flax seed + almond butter + cinnamon + raisins.  Woooo!

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This bowl of regular oats featured jam.  I’m not crazy about jam on oats, but I was sick of the same old, same old.

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And today, the same oat bran deal, but different toppings.

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My morning tea the other day made me feel great about lazy moments.  Isn’t it awesome when your tea tells you things that make you feel good?   Tetley, please attach inspirational messages to your tea bags.  One that says “dreaming about running away to a tropical island with a bag of great books and a sack of oatmeal is totally normal” would be good.

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Other eats were leek and potato soup (easiest ever to make – I will try to post the recipe soon), some sammy action, some half sammy for snacking, stir fry and stir fry again.

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Oh puppy bowl.  I love thee.

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Laughing cow light cheese is fabulous, but I’m not sure my tummy is convinced of that.  … I don’t know if I’ll buy the love triangles again or not.

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This is leftovers.  The original supper was actually quite ugly.  So I had this twice. :)

And melon has become popular lately.

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As have the never ending gluten free muffins that are still in my freezer.  There must be muffin fairies living in there, forever restocking that freezer bag.  They need to be eaten (I couldn’t bear to throw them away) but I’m getting tired of them.  Really.  I am.

I Move

On Wednesday night, I tried hot yoga again with a friend.  I enjoyed it this time more than last.  The instructor turned the heat up gradually, so I didn’t have the nostrils-on-fire feeling right from the beginning.  I was totally mellow and absolutely starving to the point of delirium after the class, so I went home and mauled that stir fry while in a zen-like state.  We’re going to try to go once a week, but right now I have a week of unlimited sessions.  Tomorrow morning?  Sweaty time!

Thursday I’m counting my hour of walking (that’s my total commute time to and from the office) as my exercise.  I soaked up some nice weather…

And today, yeah, the hour of power that amounted to absolutely nothing exciting, as you already know.

20-Day Total Health Challenge

My last post, I mentioned the 20-Day Total Health Challenge that I’ve embarked on, and maybe you have, too.  A few of you said you’re going to do your own… excellent!  My calendar is filling up with lovely coloured stars as I meet daily total health goals.  I confess that I haven’t met every goal each day, but that’s okay.  Perfection isn’t the goal!  I’m getting better at drinking water at work, and eating dinner at the table, although not as comfy as the couch, is becoming more routine.  How is your challenge coming along?  It’s only day 4 for me, so 16 more to go…

Enjoy your weekend!

Adi