I’m not a huge fan of goodbyes so I’ll do my best to keep this short!

I’ve decided to pull the proverbial plug on Oatonomy.  This blog has been a lot of fun to work on the last year and getting to know some readers has been a huge bonus, too.  Life is just getting too busy now and there are some other priorities that I need to be a bit more focused on.  A girl can’t do it all!

Thank you for your feedback, your emails and for reading.  I’m sure I’ll be back to blogging at some point, but for now, it’s for the best that I take an early retirement and spend my time reading your blogs, instead.

Oh, and just in case you think the reason I have never had pictures of myself on the blog is that I’m a cyclops, here I am skiing!

All the best my friends.

Over and out,

Adi

Meals eaten out of bowls are so much tastier than meals off of plates**.  It’s a good thing we have a lot of bowls in this house, because as you can tell from the photos below, I can dirty a lot of them in no time.

If you say “bowl” enough times, it starts to sound funny…

**Exception: Sushi and all holiday dinners.

I Eat

Man, I love my oats.  Why else would I take pictures of them?

That’s a lot of raspberries.  Guess why?  Yes, they were on sale at the grocery store!  Buying raspberries on sale is a lot like finding a great pair of jeans for cheap – you don’t need them, but life would be so much better if you had them.  So you buy them and reap the rewards: delicious berries on your oats or pants that make your legs look a mile long.  Both will brighten up a morning, indeed.

In the spirit of the Bowl, I ate dinner out of them the last three nights.

No, no tapeworms in my stir fry, just lots of bean sprouts along with tofu + red and yellow pepper + mushies + snow peas + diced toms and seasoned with lemon juice + basil + italian seasoning.  It was a different stir fry taste that I usually make, but it was still okay.

There’s brown rice under all those veggies.

More puppy-approved stir fry leftovers but with basmati rice underneath.  Leftovers always taste better than the real deal, eh?

And for the real Leftover Lover in me, I pulled out some old dairy-free, gluten free “mac n cheese” from the freezer.

Reheated with some almond milk + gf bread crumbs and it tasted just like I made it tonight.  But I didn’t, and that’s why it’s awesome.

So breakfasts have been good and suppers have been tasty and lunches haven’t been half bad – lots of tuna salad and surprise, surprise, stir fry.

I’ve been super snacky lately and I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it’s getting a bit annoying.  I think I’m wearing down the floor in a pathway from various rooms of the house straight to the cupboard and/or the fridge.  This too shall pass…

I Move

Monday – After walking to and from work, I was a bit pooped.  I skipped my gym workout in favour of weights at home.  I did about 40 minutes of various lower body strength training moves, including different leg lifts.  It was a good shake up to the usual exercises.

Tuesday – Hot and sweaty yoga time.  I’m really getting the hang of this whole Moksha yoga thing.  Dancer’s pose, you are mine!

Wednesday – I had a date with the treadmill.  After talking to my boss about how difficult it is to leave the office and walk across the street to work out when I’m tired after a full day of work, I sucked it up, stopped whining and just went there.  Even though I feel like I’m working out in a cave from Fraggle Rock, I don’t find it that hard to be motivated once I’m there.  It’s just the “getting there” part that’s tricky.

Guess what?!  Hump day is over, on to Thursday.
Anyone else excited about this?

Happy eating, moving… and simple, healthy living!

Adi

Today started off like any other day… with a bowl of oats!

This was 1/2 c. of oats + half a nan + almond milk + cranberry t-mix + unsweetened coconut + pb AND ab.

I had small bits of dried out nut butters left in both jars and finished them off this morning.  I mixed in some of the almond butter during the cooking process, hoping it would melt it a bit.  It did, and it was so tasty.

I also had time to enjoy a cup of maple fudge cream tea this morning.  I buy my tea at a loose leaf store in Ottawa called The Tea Store.  If you’re in Ottawa, check it out – lots of variety to choose from.

My dad drove me to work this morning, but he has headed back home now.  It was a short but good visit with him!

My A-squared snack was more of an a-squared + d because of the couple of dates that jumped in the container.  They were yummy with tea.

The rest of my lunch was so bland.  Boring.  Bleh.

This salad was arugula + yucky avocado + cucumber + tomato + t-mix + balsamic vinegar. 

The apple?  Zero complaints.

The Bumble Bar?  Never again!  This “bar” was awful. 

It was like a mushy, falling apart sesame snap.  It was also way too sweet.  I looked at the wrapper part way through and read this:

• 12 g of sugar
• 12 g of fat
• 4 g of protein
• 4 g of fibre

Ah!  And this bar is marketed as “organic energy”?  Organic sugar buzz, maybe.  Actually that would be quite appropriate considering the bumble bee reference… hmm.  I’m glad I only bought one!

After I missed the bus and ended up walking home from work in heels (!!), I demo’d a bag of carrots that I had with hummus and snacked on a few handfuls of granola and ate a chewy date.

I hadn’t planned out supper – oops – so I grabbed a piece of pork tenderloin I had put in the freezer from a couple weeks ago.  I steamed sweet potato + broccs and considered it dinner.

This broccoli looks radioactive.

This was the fuel I needed to run tonight.

I switched up my running route and it made the run go by much faster than usual.  I did 8.5k and now my quads are burning.  It’s a good burn though! :D  The route included beach, rivers, a waterfall, forest, old neighbourhoods, new neighbourhoods and a few strip malls.  Interesting stuff to look at!

The last few nights I’ve had granola + almond milk before bed for a snack, but tonight I think I need some pineapple…

Off to get some!  Goodnight!
Adi

Pigs were definitely flying somewhere today.

No oats for breakfast!

Well, no oats that could be bowl-ed.  Plated oats were on the menu, in pancake form.  These were pear-coconut-banana oat pancakes and they were… seriously… good.  That takes too long to say, so I’m renaming them pearcoba pancakes.

I made these a la Kath’s basic oatmeal pancake recipe, with some adjustments.  Here’s what I did:

I mushed half a banana and half a peeled pear in a bowl, and mixed in one egg.  I then added 1/2 c. of oats and about 1/3c. of unsweetened coconut.  Approximately 1/2 tsp. of baking powder and a big sprinkling of cinnamon were mixed in next.

I heated up the pan and dropped in three equally sized blobs, forming them into a circle shape.  I let them cook on one side until they browned a big, flipped them over and let them cook another minute or two, and voila!  Pearcoba pancakes!

I had these with a blob of peanut butter and went back to the fridge and got some maple syrup too.

The pancakes kept me pretty full for awhile but tea time calls for the almonds + apricot dynamic duo, so I had that snack later in the morning.

Egged

Lunch today was arugula + cabbage + strawberries + egg and was kind of pathetic… when I pulled it out of my lunch bag, it had shrunk to half its size.  Yes, I know the same amount was in there, but in compressed format… but still, it was a sad sight.

Oh, and the eggs look weird because I didn’t cook them long enough for them to be hardboiled.  You know how if you keep something in hot water it continues to cook?  The rule only applies if you keep it in the hot water instead of taking it out right away…

The veggies + hummus were their usual decent selves.  The apple gets another gold star today.  I love these jonagold guys.  I ate it before I walked home from work – I stopped for groceries on the way, too.  Had to get a few things before my sister arrives tonight!

Obviously, I ate baby carrots when I walked in the door.  I can’t break two traditions in one day: if the oatmeal’s out, carrot pounding is definitely staying.

Adi, Meet Amy

I had this Amy’s organic shepherd’s pie for supper. 

It was just okay.  It had better flavour than I had expected and it was pretty great finding chickpeas inside, but it wasn’t spectacular. 

Why do they call it shepherd’s PIE anyway?  I don’t get the pie reference.

But I’m not complaining about the lack of effort it required!  I had it with a side of broccolinis. 

And the interior shot:

Baby banane

Dessert was this little gluten-free banana loaf I got at the health food store this week.  It was awesome with a cup of tea.  It had that gluten-free semi-gritty taste to it, but I got over that fast.

What a cute mini loaf!  I only ended up eating half and saved the half for another time.  …That’s a dessert plate, not a dinner plate, I promise.

I’m ready for a long weekend!  Work has been very, very busy this week.  I love being busy though, and I wouldn’t have it any other day.  I love my job and putting in extra time is fine when I enjoy what I’m doing.  I’m really thankful for the position!  I’m also thankful for long weekends – especially Easter and the awesome, exciting message it means to me!

I have a few things to get done before my boyfriend comes over and we go pick up my sister from the airport… so bye for now!

Adi

PS – I added another You Need That? to Oatonomy, so check it out if you’re bored!