Chocolate, Coffee, Kitchen

I MOVED!!

2009-01-22T09:54:00.002-05:00

SO as I mentioned before, I was thinking for a while about how to change the blog, if I wanted to even come back to blogging, etc., and decided that while I was thinking about all of this I might as well just migrate over to wordpress and see how I like it there. I like it. haha. I'm sorry because I know it's a pain to change your links but please come visit me over there and I promise I'll be around a lot more often and will be delivering some new and improved blogging :)

Thanks for all of your sweet comments the other day too, I appreciate every single one of you and have been reading your blogs for months now, even though I haven't always been vocal about it :/

http://chocolatecoffeekitchen.wordpress.com

Greetings! haha

2009-01-21T10:10:00.003-05:00

Hello friends :)
I'm not sure if there's anyone still out there... I know I've been gone for a while. A LOT has happened in the past few months. When I last left you I was living in Montreal with my boyfriend, however now I've moved home to live with my parents in Nova Scotia (I don't blame you if you don't know where that is, there's not much to see haha) and the boy is attending nursing school at UMass Amherst, so we're doing the long distance thing for now. Not fun. I've thought about taking up blogging again but changing the focus of the blog.. I'm not sure what will happen yet though. I just wanted to give a little shoutout to let you know I am still reading your blogs and lurking in blogland :)
xox linds

Happy Birthday to Meeee

2008-11-12T20:41:00.004-05:00

I've always loved birthdays for the simple fact that they are your day. You get to choose what you do, where you go, who comes to your party (lol my inner 8 year old coming out there) annnd you get to choose the food. Of course. The food. Though I love going out to dinner, staying in and cooking is often just as fun- and with birthdays just 5 days apart, the boyfriend and I decided to save some cash and just go all out with two days of awesome home birthday menus :)

For my day, I chose pizza. It's such a fast and easy dish using my new fave dough recipe. I doubled it to get 2 pizzas, topping one with buffalo sauce, tomato sauce, chicken and mozzarella like the first time I made this, and for the second one I just coated the dough with olive oil and spread caramelized onions, walnuts, and Swiss cheese on top. In retrospect, I wish I had used some figs on this one too, but they weren't totally necessary and both pizzas tasted fantastic.

What's a birthday without cake?! For myself I chose to make this yellow cake with chocolate fudge frosting. So yum, a nice light crumb texture and nothing was cloyingly sweet. And there's my sweetie placing candles on the cake in the shape of a '23'. Awww :)

For his day, the birthday boy decided he didn't want cake and challenged me to find a lower-fat sweet. Which really isn't a challenge at all when you have Happy Herbivore recipes at your fingertips. I made her Pecan Cinnamon Buns and I was absolutely blown away by how good they were. I mean, of course having used her recipes before I expected perfection, but this.... These sticky buns were out of this world good. And so easy. They were definitely my favourite item on the birthday menu roundup and will be making many future Sunday morning appearances.

Naked buns, frosted buns! Hahaha

Then for dinner, we had Smitten Kitchen peanut sesame noodles, except that we had them hot, and had vegetables on the side so that each noodle bite could be as peanut buttery noodley as possible (birthday boy request).

Birthdays should also involve lots of wine- I think there's a bottle visible in every picture except with the cinnamon buns. We had those at 10am so we held off on the wine. But just until noon.

Overcoming My Fear of Yeast

2008-11-04T09:49:00.004-05:00

I love to read through recipes and start planning dinners around them- however, more often than not, when I'm scanning down the ingredients list and see the word "yeast", I turn the page. Dealbreaker. I don't do yeast. At least I didn't, but yesterday that all changed and I couldn't be happier.

The recipe to change my mind was none other than pizza dough. Basic, simple pizza dough. That's what Deb told me, and though I feared that it couldn't possibly work, I believed her (having already made her delicious pumpkin butter didn't hurt in helping to instill a little trust).

All that was asked of me was to mix together flour, yeast (I used instant because my store was out of active dry somehow) salt, water and olive oil. Knead, form into a ball and place it in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 1-2 hours somewhere warm- I preheated my oven at 200 for a few minutes, shut it off, and then stowed my growing dough in there. Push the air out of it. Let it rest another 20 minutes under the plastic wrap again, then take it out and roll in into desired shape (in my case, a deformed circular rectangle, in Deb's case a perfect circle). Top it with whatever your heart desires and bake it quickly in a scorching hot oven. Enter pizza nirvana. Check!

I made mine buffalo chicken style, by mixing some sliced precooked chicken cubes with 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1-2 tbsp buffalo chicken sauce. I also used mozzarella cheese and sliced green onions, but was really wishing I had blue cheese on hand to make this truly perfect.

Ta da! You can bet I was incredibly proud of my pizza. You can also bet that I will be making this again. Now that I've conquered my fear of yeast, I can't wait to move onto more ambitious dishes (bread, or cinnamon rolls perhaps?).

The pizza dough recipe can be found here, and really now that I've done it you have no excuse not to try it. No one should be scared of yeast :)

Moose Madness & The Finest Foods of Fall

2008-10-14T21:45:00.007-04:00

What a whirlwind weekend I've had. I feel like a celebrity jetsetter. Except for the small fact that I was in a car, not a jet, I'm tired because I stared down a highway for 2 days and not due to fancy time zone changes, and I went to Nova Scotia, not Milan. So actually not like a celebrity jetsetter at all. Anyway, on to some actual details about my trip- the boyfriend (Steve for future reference, it gets tiresome typing out "the boyfriend") and I picked up the car around noon on Thursday and proceeded to pack my life into it, aka 4 years' worth of university textbooks, furniture, clothing, and whatever else you can cram into a small car. Let me tell you, we did NOT waste space either. Any and all free nooks were stuffed with dirty laundry for us to wash at home (anyone else still do this? I always bring laundry home, even when home is 12 hours away...). We left a couple hours behind schedule but figured we could make up the lost time by speeding through Quebec. Not a good idea. We got pulled over less than an hour out of the city by a cop with a huge flashing arrow on his car. We somehow didn't notice this huge, blinking monstrosity on the side of the road. He didn't speak a whole lot of English and we wound up with a speeding ticket. Whoops, so much for trying to get back on the time schedule.

The rest of Quebec involved an hour-long detour through god knows where and then we entered New Brunswick, which shall now be know as the land of the moose. By now it was insanely foggy and 2am and there were these huge moose crossing signs every 5km with ATTENTION written in bright red letters underneath a picture of a huge moose. I never thought I would be scared of moose, but I am now. I did not want one of those going through my windshield. Luckily though, we arrived moose-free and safe in Nova Scotia at 4am. Of course we woke up my mom and her new PUPPY which we had to play with for a bit before heading to bed at the very reasonable hour of 5:30am.

After the trauma involved in actually arriving, the visit itself was quite relaxing. My dad bought us 4 pounds (yes you read that correctly) of super fresh NS scallops for dinner Friday night. They were fresh enough to eat raw- I tried one this way and wow, it just melted in my mouth. I have never before tasted seafood that good. We had our big turkey dinner on Saturday which was also amazing and involved homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, wine, and those infamous NYTimes Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are worth the hype, go make some now!!!

We left Sunday morning and got back into the city (moose-free again) late that evening. So while it was a quick visit, I'm certainly glad we went. Except for that speeding ticket.

Now that I'm back in my own home, I feel completely immersed in the Fall season. All of the leaves are turning gorgeous shades of red and yellow and the air is crisp, yet the sun keeps the days fairly warm. This is by far my favourite time of year, and not just for the scenery. You may exclaim over perfectly ripe strawberries and summer tomatoes all you like- but for me, nothing beats an apple right off the tree in the middle of Fall. I didn't get a chance to go apple picking while home (and there aren't many orchards in downtown Montreal) so I've contented myself with luscious Honeycrisps for eating raw and deliciously tart Granny Smiths for cooking. Apple pie and apple crisp are quintessential Autumn desserts for me, and the smell of cinnamon in my kitchen is comfort at its best, so it wasn't hard for me to choose what to make for dessert tonight. I decided to play with the flavours a little by adding in a pear to this apple crisp recipe, and wow what a difference it made! I will be going back to this recipe all Autumn long :)

Apple-Pear Crisp

Filling:

2 Granny Smith apples, chopped into small cubes

1 pear, chopped into small cubes

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1 1/2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Streusel Topping:

1/4 cup rolled oats

2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 to 2 teaspoons chilled butter, cut into pieces

(1) Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased (I used cooking spray) pie dish or oven-safe saucepan.

(2) Mix together all streusel ingredients (except for butter) until well blended. Cut in butter until lumps start to form in the mixture. *For a richer taste, use more butter- up to 3 tablespoons if desired. I wanted to keep this light so I cut down the butter and just sprayed my crisp with a little cooking spray before putting it into the oven*

(3) Top filling evenly with streusel topping. Bake for roughly 45 minutes, until apples and pears are soft. Let cool 10 minutes before serving. Tastes best with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Kitchen Wars

2008-10-06T22:06:00.005-04:00

The cabinet doors are closed but I can still almost feel an air of jealousy and rivalry in the kitchen... Peanut Butter, a longtime favourite, is feeling threatened (and rightfully so) for look who I brought home:

There's a new nut butter in town, and boy is this one good! Macadamia nuts are my absolute fave (how awesome would it be if Larabar made a Macadamia Nut Cookie bar?!?!), and in this spread they provide a perfect sweetness. The creamy texture and taste made this hands-down the best nut butter I have ever tried. I had seen this brand (Nuts to You Nut Butter Inc.) in stores before but shied away from the $8/jar price tag. Tonight, however, I found it in a tiny Arabic grocery store for only $3.29- that's cheaper than the pb is at my favourite health food store! And at that price, peanut butter is fighting a losing battle for shelf space in my kitchen.

In other news, the boyfriend and I are embarking on an adventure this week- we are renting a car and driving from Montreal to my hometown in Nova Scotia to celebrate (Canadian) Thanksgiving with my family. Sounds lovely and all, except that this glorious trip is going to take us 14 hours to complete. Yep, that's one way. Needless to say, 28 hours on the road within a 4 day span means LOTS of car snacks- what are your favourites?? I have a lot of stocking up to do!! Hopefully we don't get lost in rural Quebec or run into moose in New Brunswick (they have moose crossing signs all over there). I'll be sure to fill you all in on whether I make it through the drive with my sanity intact, and of course post some pics of the fresh seafood and turkey dinner waiting for us in NS!

Have a great week all! :)

Kermit-Colored

2008-09-29T15:05:00.004-04:00

I beg to differ with Mr. Kermit the Frog- it is VERY easy to be green! Especially with this bright smoothie :) I've heard about green smoothies and the even more healthful process of jucicing and drinking your greens, and now that I've finally tried it I can't believe I waited so long.

For this smoothie I started with roughly a cup of frozen mango chunks. Then I added a good handful of spinach (washed and stems removed), some ice cubes, and a little unsweetened soymilk (or you could use water, to make it Raw). I gave it an extra-long run in the blender just to make sure I wouldn't wind up with spinachy bits. What I finally got to taste was a rich, thick, refreshing smoothie. The spinach gave a great texture and provided a balance to the sweet mango. I loved it this way, but if you're a little wary of spinach in your smoothies or want a sweeter taste, adding in half a banana would most likely add that extra creamy sweetness.

Greens in general have been on my mind a lot lately since I started reading Kristen's Raw, both her blog and her raw lifestyle pages. While I don't think a 100% raw vegan lifestyle is the one for me, I really like her philosophy and her energy. I do feel "better", more alive, when I eat pure, unprocessed foods in their natural states. I'm going to try to do a raw day- just to see how it makes me feel. And if that's the only 100% raw day I ever do, that's fine by me, because no matter what else I'm eating I know my new love for green smoothies will ensure I'm getting in *some* raw all the time :)

A Better Banana Bread

2008-09-23T08:10:00.006-04:00

I've quickly come to the realization that I am not an everyday blogger. Or even an every two day blogger. Posting my meals is boring for me and I hate feeling like my entries are uninspired and lacking in creativity! Therefore, I'm going back to why I created this blog in the first place- to share my love for good food and the pleasure involved with it in the form of recipes and other musings :) And I think I'm going to be a lot happier doing it :) I'll also update a little along the way about how my recasting is going (French Women Don't Get Fat- for those who missed me mentioning it before).

The recipe that awakened me from my blog slumber and brought about the utter need to post was, fittingly, a breakfast one. I love muffins and quick breads for breakfast but I don't love their sugar content, so I came up with a banana bread-like pancake recipe that uses only one tablespoon of sweetener (I used agave but I bet honey would be great too!). The recipe is based on my favourite pancake template, from vegan baking queen Hannah Kaminsky.

Banana Bread Pancakes

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1 tbsp agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp pureed banana

Mix first 4 (dry) ingredients. Mix wet separately. Slice remaining part of banana very thinly and gently fold into dry ingredients at the same time you mix in the wet. Don't overmix! Let sit for up to 10 minutes. Pour batter onto a greased pan and cook until edges are dry and bubbles start to pop in the middle of your pancake. Then flip and cook until underside is lightly browned. Serve with maple syrup, peanut butter, or both :) The banana slices melt into the batter and give a rich banana bread flavour- definitely worth waking up for!

I did a nutritional facts analysis using calorie-count.com's recipe feature and came up with this: each serving (one recipe) provides apprx. 430 calories, 1.5g fat, 9.5g fiber, 11.4g protein. Obviously, any substitutions will alter these approximations.

Cheers For Fuses And Working Stoves!

2008-09-09T20:31:00.005-04:00

SO I'm gonna try out this posting every two days thing but the result may just be one long post that is no fun to read, but anyway I'll try it out and see how I like it :) I also think I might post a rough calorie estimate for my days as well- my aim is always on eating for pleasure but when it comes to dropping a few pounds it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on the numbers. If there's anything you guys don't like about these changes please let me know :)

TUESDAY

It was all about the stove-top oats this morning!!!! It's been months since my last bowl of real oats, and I thoroughly enjoyed every last bite of this breakfast. In the mix was the standard 40g of oats with 1/3 cup skim milk, 1/3 cup water, a pinch of salt, one whole and very ripe banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, and of course a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter. Coffee with skim milk also made an unphotographed appearance.

I worked the 7-3 shift this morning (so the above oats were eaten at 5:30, sooo earlyyy) and I brought a lunch that I made the night before: two ounces of whole wheat linguine with tomato basil sauce, plain yogurt, and a banana.

I got home around 4 and then had to switch gears since class started at 6, so I snacked on a plate of carrots and hummus while I figured out what to make for dinner.

I went with a mixed greens salad with rotisserie chicken, olives, jalapenos (which I wound up taking off since the flavours just did not compliment each other), rosemary and garlic croutons, rice vinegar, and olive oil. For dessert I had the most decadent banana yogurt with a small handful of Kashi Go-Lean Crunch. It's a grocery store brand yogurt and it's flavoured but the sugar content isn't that crazy and it's so thick and delicious, I think I'll have to buy this one again.

After class I baked up a batch of Kath's VeggieGirl Inspired Pumpkin Bread (in muffin form) for the boyfriend since he is so good to me :) He's already devoured 3, I had half of one. So doughy, so good, and a perfect treat to celebrate the coming of fall!

Today's (rough) total: 1355

MONDAY

Breakfast this morning was 40g of oats that I soaked overnight in 1/2 cup water, then in the morning added in a few big spoonfuls of plain yogurt, cinnamon, and a banana.

I packed a lunch but wound up getting to eat it at home because I was left off work early :) I had carrots and cucumber slices with 2 tablespoons of roasted garlic hummus, rotisserie chicken with honey mustard on a whole wheat English muffin, and a plain yogurt that I jazzed up with a little fresh cut mango. I definitely gnawed on the pit after cutting up that mango.... Can't waste any of that deliciousness!! :)

Dinner was kind of in stages- I had class from 6-9 so I started eating around 4 and just kind of ate constantly until it was time to leave. I started with a bowl of whole wheat linguine with tomato basil sauce (about 2 ounces of pasta). This was the first meal I cooked on my (now working) stove in my new apartment!!! I think it was extra tasty just because I was so happy to have cooked food lol.

Next up I had about 1/2 cup of microwaved egg whites with salt and pepper and a generous pile of ketchup. On the side was half of a whole wheat English muffin and some mango slices.

Today's (rough) total: 1200

Lately I've been absolutely hooked on The Biggest Loser Australia (full seasons on YouTube!!!!) And I'm a little embarassed to admit that I'm nearly done season one. It's kind of where all my free time is going.

Heart to Heart

2008-09-07T22:27:00.004-04:00

Hi guys :) I've missed blogging, I know I've been away for a really long time, but I have been super busy and as I've yet to fall into a routine, I'm still feeling a little crazy and unsettled. My laptop is ok now and I finally have internet, school (two night classes every week for me) has started, I'm working a full time job and I've moved into a fantastic apartment with my even more fantastic boyfriend :) Needless to say, I am much happier now than I was during the lonely summertime! I'm still working out a few kinks with the apartment (a couple fuses are out, including the one that powers the stove- what a tease! I can look at my lovely new oven but can't use it yet!!) but hopefully everything will get sorted out within this week and I can settle down into something more normal.

I also (still) have a little bit of weight to lose, and some areas to tone. I'm away from the restaurant now so I really have no excuses for eating too much dessert. I haven't yet decided if I should go back to what I was doing before, blogging my meals every day, because first off it would probably get a little boring (I'm really not that exciting lol) and secondly I don't know if I have the time for it. But, I also did enjoy doing it and it would be fun to share my recasting and reshaping. The accountability that blogging holds you to, at least until new things become habit, is also a plus. I kind of like how Broccoli Hut posts every two days, so there's another idea..

Anyway it's been far too long since I shared any pictures around here, so I simply must show off what my boyfriend (Steve, for future reference) brought me from Boston: 4 jars of PB and Co peanut butter (white chocolate and dark, the best obviously) a WHOLE BOX of peanut butter Larabars (BEST EVER) and a nice big bottle of Moet et Chandon champagne, which we toasted our new apartment with :) Let me tell you, this girl here loves her champagne :)

Rest assured, I have been reading, if not commenting on what all of you lovely ladies have been up to :) xox

I'm Still Here!

2008-08-22T12:14:00.003-04:00

My laptop died!!!!!!!!!!! I have been soo busy working that today is the first I've had time to come use the computers on campus to post and catch up on emails and other blogs. I've missed everyone! My boyfriend, who is much better with technology than I am, is going to try to fix it when he gets here next Friday, but until then it's picture-less campus posts for me :( Sorry guys :(
At least it's sunny, which has me in a great mood :) AND I have PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE LARABARS to look forward to when the bf comes!!!!!! I bought one when I was in Boston and tried it the other day, and ohhh my god I am in love! He promised to bring me some :) What a good boy haha. Now if only he would bring up a small cooler stocked with Fage, he'd be perfect. (Just kidding!) Ok I am off to enjoy the sun a bit before heading off to work but hopefully I'll get my computer issues resolved soon!

Lessons Learned

2008-08-17T01:30:00.003-04:00

I went out for a lovely walk today- I was probably out for an hour before I started to get hungry and decided it was lunchtime. I made 1/2 cup of egg whites in the microwave just like last time, and then made it into a sandwich with a toasted whole wheat English muffin, mustard & ketchup, spinach, and tomato. I wish I had some cheese for this though, that would have made it perfect! On the side I had a sweet potato which I microwaved until soft and then cut into cubes and sauteed on the stovetop until crispy. Ketchup for dipping, of course.

I actually only wound up eating half of the sweet potato, because I decided to get some gelato! My cone was oreo, mint chocolate chip, tiramisu, and chocolate hazelnut.

I finished one shift at job #1 at 7 and my shift at job #2 was actually supposed to start at 7 (obviously I didn't get there on time, thank goodness everyone who works there is crazy laid back and just happy that I show up), so needless to say dinner was eaten on the run. I had a kamut tortilla with a banana and about 2 tablespoons of PB&Co's Mighty Maple PB. I LOVE this pb flavour!!!!! The hint of sweetness is perfect. Ughhh I would move to the states just for the food products. Well I actually might be moving to the states, but that's a different story. Also, my boyfriend tells me that no one who lives in the states, actually calls it the states. It's America. Or the US. Or, as my grandpa says, the US of A. Well, that was quite the tangent.

I snacked too much at work tonight- I was distracted every time I was eating, which means I didn't enjoy it enough so I ate more in volume to make up for the lack of satisfaction, and also means that I don't even know how much I ate. I had a few handfulls of my co-workers fries, which were just a little too heavy for me (as I'm feeling now) and lots more bites of gelato. I just feel kind of bloated now. I need to stop making excuses for myself for eating while at work. If I'm going to be hungry, bring a snack. Or just don't eat it.

Oooh I was going to end there but I just remembered something I wanted to share :) One of the girls I work with asked me tonight if I was ever a gymnast. I was a little confused (wondered why she would ask?) and replied that I used to figure skate. I still have pretty good tone in my legs (though I'm not sure that it's leftover from my skating days) and I tend to get complimented on my legs and my bum. Haha I feel silly saying that, but really, I always get told that I have a nice bum. It's a pretty good bum, I guess. Ok no more bum I have to stop there. Annnnyway wow I am on a roll with tangents today. Back to my story- when I told her I used to skate she was like 'ohh well I asked if you did gymnastics because you have really toned arms'. I have never been told I had anything close to tone in my arms!!!! Must be all those 20lb boxes I lift for 8 hours a day at job #1 :) Anyway her comment made me smile and definitely makes me want to tone up all the rest of me just as nicely :)

Have a happy rest-of-weekend! :)

Toasty

2008-08-16T09:17:00.003-04:00

I was slightly more energized when I woke up this morning :) I still think I'm going to hang out in bed and read a bit, but no more sleeping! I've got coffee with me right now to prove it haha.

Breakfast this morning was 2% plain yogurt, Nature's Path Organic Smart Bran Psyllium cereal, 1/2 a banana, blueberries, and a white peach, all topped with toasted almond slivers. Delicious! I loved the crunch of the toasty almonds in there. My bowl was huge and should definitely hold me until lunch.

I want to get a walk in today or maybe some gym time before work.... We'll see :)

Satisfaction

2008-08-15T23:42:00.002-04:00

Soooo I definitely went back to bed after breakfast today :) It's honestly one of my favourite things to do... During the school year on weekends I loved waking up super early, enjoying my oats, and then falling back asleep for a few hours before waking up again to coffee. Ok, I'm a little weird :) I only slept for half an hour or so today though, and then I got up and made myself some coffee before heading to the gym. I did 40 minutes on the elliptical today while watching X-Weighted, which is a weight-loss show filmed in Nova Scotia (where I grew up!). Watching kind of made me miss home but it was nice to see all of the familiar places! It was also inspiring to work out while watching it- basically the show follows one or two people an episode and covers about six months of their weight loss journey. This episode focused on two best friends, one woman whose starting weight was 235, the other at 295. Both of them wound up losing quite a bit of weight, which made me feel happy for them :) As with any weight-loss show I watch I always hope the contestants stick to their new habits and see it as a lifestyle change, not just a quick fix to lose some pounds. But anyway enough blabbering, on to the food!!!!

I absolutely loved everything I ate today :) It really is my goal to make every day like this! For lunch I toasted up two fig + flax waffles spread with a little butter, 1/2 cup microwaved egg whites, grapes, and a white peach that was a little bruised but still tasted delicious! I need to take a moment to rave about egg whites- SUPER easy to make in the micro, delicious, and they kept me full forever! I just buttered up a little dessert bowl and poured in about 4 egg whites, then microwaved for roughly a minute, stopping every 20 seconds to stir. They came out fantastic, tasting just like they were poached! The touch of butter I used to grease the cup provided awesome flavour too. Sprinkled with a little salt & pepper, they were perfect. Expect to see a lot more egg whites on this blog!!!! :)

Dinner was just as much fun! I had a mixed greens salad with blueberries and balsamic vinegar. Blueberries are definitely my favourite berry and they are perfect in salads, since they are both sweet and tart. I had some 2% plain yogurt anddd one of my Boston finds! The Kashi Go-Lean Chewy protein & fiber bar, in chocolate almond toffee. This. Was. Awesome. It was pretty big so it took me a while to eat, and it tasted like a candy bar, but better. It was pretty sweet (the only downfall, there are 31g of sugar in this bar- yikes!) but with 13g of protein, 6g fat and 6g fiber this guy kept me going at work all night. I only wish Kashi would sell such deliciousness in Canada!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another super busy weekend at work (double shifts both days) but at least I have Monday off so I can catch up on sleep and downtime then! Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Reunited With Oats

2008-08-15T10:35:00.004-04:00

It's been sooo long since I last had oats! They tasted especially delicious today :) The mix was standard, with 40g of oats, a pinch of salt, 1/3 cup skim milk, 1/3 cup water, 1/2 banana, raisins, lots of cinnamon, brown sugar, and an almond butter spoonful. The new addition today was a big spoonful of 1% cottage cheese for a little extra protein. It melted into the oats and gave great texture, though it added pretty much nothing to the taste.

Now that I've had breakfast though all I really want to do is go back to sleep! I don't know why I'm so tired... Probably because I haven't had my coffee yet ;) I want to fit in a gym trip today and then I'm working at 4 but that's about it, pretty boring day. At least August is coming to an end and some of my friends (and boyfriend!!!!!!!!!!!) will be coming back soon! I am so excited to move into my new apartment with the boy :) Two more weeks until it happens!!!!!

Happy Friday! :)

Figs In My Waffle

2008-08-14T23:38:00.003-04:00

I just got home from work and I have such an awful headache! No clue where it came from :( So I'm going to post quick and then go straight to bed, I have a lot planned for tomorrow and I want to wake up early and feel well-rested. As for today, I woke up a little late and wasn't hungry (probably because of some late night fruit and cereal snacking!) so I went to the gym and did a quick 20 minutes on the elliptical. I made brunch for myself as soon as I got back, which consisted of some grapes, very ripe mango, 1/2 cup of 1% cottage cheese, and a new grocery find, a Lifestream Fig + Flax waffle spread with a touch of butter. These are by far my favourite frozen waffle- they have great flavour and little bits of fig in the waffle!! Yum.

My packed dinner for work was some more grapes, yogurt, a whole wheat roll, and a mixed greens salad with blueberries, broccoli, and balsamic vinegar. Lots of 'b' words there haha.

I didn't eat a whole lot today because I just wasn't that hungry. I ate until I was quite full every day in Boston and snacked last night so that's probably why my appetite was off today.

Have a good night everyone and see you in the morning :)

Boston!

2008-08-14T00:33:00.008-04:00

I'm back! But I really wish I was still there, I had such an amazing time! I don't have a ton of food pics to share but I do have some scenic ones and lots of stories :) We spent a lot of time at Cape Cod and a day in Provincetown, which is where most of the pics here were taken:

Beach at sunset.

Rainbows EVERYWHERE in P-town!

I also got to vist two other popular tourist attractions (ok for me at least) Trader Joe's and Whole Foods!!!! Ahhhh!!! I had a field day inside both stores. It was honestly so exciting for me to browse the aisles, and find all the foods I see on my favourite blogs :) At Whole Foods I had to pick up a vegan chocolate chip scone after seeing all of Erica's posts on them, and wow this baked good did not disappoint! (Like you can't already tell, the picture is of my scone after I had a few bites haha I couldn't resist!).

And then there was the yogurt. Oh my god, the yogurt. I picked up a coconut milk-based So Delicious in Passionate Mango and was immediately in dairy-free heaven. It was so thick and rich and delicious, definitely better than most sweetened yogurts I've tried. I was impressed by this one for sure. The only downfall was the lower protein amount, versus dairy yogurts. I was also introduced to Stonyfield Farms on my trip, but I feel that I can't give a fair review on their yogurt because I tried it after I tried Fage and Fage is the GREATEST YOGURT EVER!!!!!!! I only tried the 2% but it absolutely blew me away. There is nothing like this in Canada. I felt like every spoonful was an indulgence and am still contemplating a way to have Fage delivered to me daily via a personal refrigerated Fage truck. Yeah, that's how in love I am :) Another thing I am in love with is the cost of groceries at the stores I visited- Canadian prices are consistently higher than the US ones I saw. Larabars at TJ's were $1.29- at my local store it's $3.00 for one.

I did more than grocery shop though, I swear! I went to my boyfriend's house on Cape Cod on Friday and for dinner we had fresh scallops, steamed summer squash, salad, and mashed potatoes. Oh how I miss fresh seafood, the quality where I am now just doesn't measure up to the Nova Scotian standards I was raised on. These were perfect though and definitely satisfied a craving! On Saturday I went to the beach with the bf and his sister and her three kids, and after a long day in the sun we went back to the house and had lobster, steamers, corn on the cob, salad and wine for dinner. They definitely spoiled me there :) We went out for ice cream after dinner (there was a lot of ice cream during this trip) and watched some of the Olympics. Go Michael Phelps!!!!!!!!

Provincetown was our next destination, where we did a lot of walking and browsing in shops along the waterfront. We stopped for lunch at a cafe that served very fresh, light tasting fare. I ordered a turkey, bacon, avocado and tomato sandwich on ciabatta with a side salad and the bf got a falafel pita (which I of course stole my fair share of bites from!). And what's a meal without some ice cream?! We shared (and by shared I mean I ate most of it) a Half-Baked frozen yogurt cone from Ben & Jerry's. I also had about 3 iced coffees haha I just love the way it's made here! Just coffee and maybe some milk over ice. Sounds simple, but few of the affordable coffee shops back home will make you something like this.

And of course there was Boston! We went shopping on Newbury street and to some other fancy centers that I can't remember the name of right now. I got to see Fenway park and do a lot of walking- Boston is such a beautiful city. We stopped for dinner at PF Chang's one night (I remember reading about the lettuce wrap appetizer on someone's blog...) and I am sooo happy we did, dinner there was great! The bf and I started with the vegetarian lettuce wraps and they were the highlight of the dinner, I am going to have to find a way to recreate these. We also shared the Kung Pao chicken and the Dan Dan noodles, both were fantastic! The noodles were chewy egg noodles with a ground chicken sauce served with sliced cucumber and bean sprouts to cut the heat a little. This is another one that I am definitely going to be recreating :) And then guess what came after dinner- surprise! Ice cream! Cold Stone's was right around the corner and I was dying to try the legendary cake batter flavour. I ordered a little too much and had to enlist my boyfriend's services in finishing it off, but wow did it ever taste good. So creamy!

I took the overnight bus last night to get home this morning and I'm a little beat by now but I wanted to get this post up before morning so I may be adding in a few more details as they come to me :) I did save the best for last though- here is my loot from the TJ's and Whole Foods shopping trips! The Chocolate Coconut Chew Larabar is available in Canada but none of the other ones are.

Pictured here is a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar, a Chocolate Coconut Chew Larabar, a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar, a Clif PB Pretzel Mojo Bar, a Kashi GoLean Chewy Chocolate Almond Toffee bar, a Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar, a PB&J Dipped Clif Mojo Bar, and two z-bars- Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry. Annnnnd a jar of PB&Co's Mighty Maple PB! I was a happy girl after finding this :) I'll be sure to let you guys know how everything is!

I really want some sleep so I will be seeing you in the morning for breakfast and I'm hoping on getting in some gym time too! This vacation was awesome and I loved every treat that I had, but I'm feeling a little sluggish now and know that I need to eat more veggies and get in some movement tomorrow. Goodnight!

Let's Get This Show on the Road

2008-08-07T19:37:00.002-04:00

I'm packing + blogging so my apologies if this gets a little disorganized- I'm not the best multitasker haha. I am soooo excited for Boston!!!! But first a little recap of the day's eats: breakfast at 6:30 this morning was a change from the usual oats, with 2 slices of Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread toasted and spread with 2 tbsp almond butter, half of an extremely ripe banana (I could hardly cut it, it was so soft!) and a drizzle of agave nectar.

Plus coffee with a little hot chocolate mix.

For lunch I packed the last ounce of my round of Camembert cheese (yes it was on sale, and yes I did a little dance when I found this), a whole wheat roll, organic vanilla yogurt, and a banana.

I was craving mango like mad for dinner! At my favourite grocery store they sometimes set out little packs of very ripe fruit at reduced prices so I scored this amazing juicy mango, pre-cut and all, for 99 cents :) The regular packs of pre-cut fruit start at $3.99 so I was pretty happy with my bargain. I had another whole wheat roll on the side spread with a little butter and the rest of my Tex Mez salad from last night on the side. This all tasted so great together and filled me up perfectly.

I'm bringing a container of my absolute favourite plain yogurt as a travel snack. This organic kind is so freaking expensive but I decided to treat myself tonight. Can you believe there are 10g of protein in this thing?! Awesome :) Since I am such a yogurt lover you can bet that I am pumped for my first FAGE encounter!!! I'm also intrigued by Chobani. And I want to sample the coconut milk based non-dairy yogurts! I may just be eating yogurt for the next 4 days......

HK I will be emailing you!

I don't think I'll be blogging until I get back but I'm sure I will have a ton to talk about then :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Tex Mex Lightens Up

2008-08-06T18:28:00.002-04:00

As always, oats held me through a tough morning at work. I wasn't even really that hungry when I took my lunch break at 12:30, so I just grabbed a Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif bar and an organic vanilla yogurt. They definitely hit the spot though and powered me well into the afternoon! I like this flavour of Clif bar but my absolute favourite is the Chocolate Almond Fudge. It tastes like a richer, more textured version of the chocolate brownie z-bar. Yum :)

Since I'm leaving soon I don't want to have a lot of perishable groceries lying around so I went out for a salad for dinner. I ordered the 'Tex Mex', which I feared would be smothered in cheese and chips and too much guac (though really, can there be such a thing??). I was pleasantly surprised when my plate came to the table, loaded with a mountain of fresh mixed greens, tomatoes, red kidney beans, and very reasonable portion sizes of grilled chicken, cheddar cheese, guacamole, and salsa. There were just a few chips framing the plate instead of drowning it. This was really good, and I ate about 3/4 of it and am saving the rest to do something with tomorrow.

Since my cocoa coffee tasted so good this morning I decided that I wanted it for dessert tonight too! I got a decaf coffee and stirred in some hot chocolate powder when I got home. It's raining and gross outside and this warmed me right up.

I think I'll do some packing tonight, catch up on blogs (I missed you guys!) and read some more of Atonement. So far it's pretty good, very detailed (sometimes too much so) but still quite captivating. I wanted to get to the gym today but that might have to wait until tomorrow. Have a good night!

Back With Bananas

2008-08-06T05:38:00.008-04:00

In my oats, that is :) I've missed blogging!! In my 5am oats this morning were 40g of the oats, a pinch of salt, 1/3 cup skim milk, 1/3 cup water, half of a banana, lots of cinnamon, raisins, brown sugar and an almond butter spoonful. Coffee is also most definitely on the agenda for today. I mixed some hot chocolate powder into my morning cup and now it's all mocha-like and delicious. I can see why Jenn loves her cocoa coffee :)

I found an apartment! I was really stressed about this because I'm going out of town soon and definitely wanted one before I left, so I am very very happy about this. I can't wait until September 1st!!!!

Time to move so I'm not late for work. Happy Humpday!

Meet Oz!

2008-08-05T00:59:00.006-04:00

I'll be back tomorrow, posting my meals, but until then I want to tide you over with some adorable-ness :) I give you Ozzie, my family's new sheltie puppy!!

Awwwww makes me wish I was home right now! At least there's BOSTON on Thursday!!! I've already informed my boyfriend several times that I will need to spend a few quality hours with TJ's and Whole Foods....And my desire has only increased after seeing Em's hot bar spread...Ohhhh deliciousness, here I come.....

Thoughts & Decisions

2008-08-03T13:38:00.004-04:00

It's been a rough weekend. I'm working a full time job and a part time one and usually I do at least one double shift day per weekend but this time I did two, fitting in an insane 26 hours of working in two days. On top of this, on Friday between shifts I walked back and forth all over town to look at apartments. Needless to say it's Sunday and I woke up at noon after getting home from work at 1 last night- I think I can safely say my body needed the rest. Some weekends I'm able to keep with my healthy habits and some weekends, such as this one, I don't. I really don't think these past few weeks have been a good example of recasting- my schedule is far too crazy and I haven't been able to practice the most important parts of starting a recast, which are preparing all of your own meals at home (I have no kitchen in this apartment), avoiding offenders, "as a child would walk away from a fight" (I'm working at a restaurant and have unlimited access to gelato, my number one offender) and taking the time to seek out good food and enjoy every aspect of the dining experience (again, I hate this apartment and don't even have a table to eat at). I think my weekdays have been pretty good despite not containing as much home-cooked content as I would like, but my work-filled weekends have just been terrible. I expect my schedule to calm down a bit come September, when I will be taking two night classes in a grad program and still be working but at least I won't be at the restaurant any more and I'll be in an apartment I like with my boyfriend :)

I've decided, then, that since I want to be a good example of recasting that other people can follow and prove that you can slim down while eating for pleasure, I want to start a proper recast in a few weeks. I don't want to give the wrong impression here and make it seem like you can't implement the principles of FWDGF if you're busy- I will still have a busy schedule, but I'll be away from my offenders and so eating well will be much easier. In terms of the right now I have enjoyed posting my meals though so I think I will continue to do so (though probably not every one when I'm in Boston). So the content won't be changed much from how it is now- good weekday eating but my weekends are going to be a little more offbalanced, resulting in maintenance instead of a loss. When I do begin my recast, my less-hectic weekend eating will look more like my weekday eating.

I'm really looking forward to September and slowing down a bit. I can't wait to do more cooking and include more recipes on the blog and have it better reflect my values in terms of eating and living. Thanks for understanding and I cannot wait to truly begin my recast and start embracing for myself the habits I admire in others.

Seeing Double

2008-08-01T07:01:00.002-04:00

You might as well look at yesterday's post for today's breakfast and lunch because, well, they're identical. I had to use up leftovers though which is why it's a veggie burrito again today (yay!) and I'm working a long shift again with no clue when I'll be able to break for lunch so I really need to go with a sure thing like oats, which I know will keep me going for a while. 40g oats with 1/3 cup skim milk, 1/3 cup water, pinch of salt, half a very ripe banana, lots of cinnamon, raisins, brown sugar and a tablespoon of almond butter. Perfection in a bowl :)

No surprise here for lunch: veggie burrito mix with a kamut flour tortilla, blueberries, and cantaloupe (I had apricots yesterday, so I guess I am switching it up a bit, haha).

I have a craaaazy day, working 8-4 then going to see two apartments on opposite sides of town then working 7-1 ahhhh! But I'm going to BOSTON next Thursday so I'm going to work hard for the next week and then thoroughly enjoy my vacation. Happy Friday!

Ham & Cheese, The Remake

2008-07-31T20:56:00.005-04:00

My computer is absolutely flat-out refusing to load my pictures right now. I have no idea why. It won't even recognize that I've plugged in my usb! I'll try again later, but I wanted to type this up so for now, no pics, but hopefully my computer will smarten up and start behaving again soon. (EDIT: It did!! Photos are up now!!)

My burrito lunch held me over SO well!!! I ate around 1:30 (oatmeal got me from 6-1:30, isn't that just incredible?! Go oats!!!!) then went to the gym straight from work and didn't get home until 6:45. And I was just starting to get hungry at that time, after an intense workout too. I really just needed to sweat it out tonight, and boy did it ever feel good. 30 minutes on the elliptical and then another 30 on the treadmill (running for 25, walking on a fairly steep incline for 5). I took my time stretching it all out afterwards and I feel sooo much better and more relaxed now. I'm a pretty tightly-wound person so exercise really is like therapy for me- I want to start practicing yoga because I think it would also help me relax a bit better.

Anyway, after the gym I came home and made the dinner I started craving at 10am this morning... Ham and cheese :) But not any old ham and cheese. I used two slices of maple-smoked ham with an ounce of camembert cheese (my absolute favourite), some mustard, and a kamut flour tortilla. I grilled it until melty on the George Foreman and quickly entered gourmet grilled cheese heaven... Divine. I also had a massive side salad with mixed greens, broccoli, blueberries, mixed dried berries, a touch of pepper and some balsamic vinegar. I must say, I was pretty darn happy with this meal.

As I was spreading the mustard out over my tortilla tonight I was remembering how much I used to hate mustard. I love it now, which got me thinking of other things that I used to loathe as a child and that I now can't get enough of... I remember being fed fish and trying to spit it into a napkin when my parents weren't looking, whining when they gave me sweet potato souffle, and hating oatmeal so much that I wouldn't let my siblings eat it out of my favourite bunny bowl for fear of contaminating my dish forever. My parents still made me eat most of these things and it's kind of funny how much I love everything I once used to abhor. I would love it if my mom made me something as laborious as sweet potato souffle nowadays! At least childhood variety paid off in good tastes now :) Anyone else remember foods they would only eat if they were promised dessert afterwards?? ;)

See you tomorrow! Let's hope for the return of some pictures....

Morning Dose of Oats

2008-07-31T06:53:00.004-04:00

Up at 6 today with Ol' Faithful pictured above :) and another perfectly creamy bowl of oats! Same as yesterday's with 40g oats, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt, 1/2 banana, lots of cinamon, raisins, brown sugar and an almond butter spoonful.

I packed a quick lunch to take to work today, which consisted of a kamut tortilla (my new love, seriously these are awesome), about a cup of the burrito mixture for a make-as-I-eat burrito, along with 2 fresh apricots and a good handful of blueberries.

I'm working tons of hours over the next few days AND I reallllly need to find an apartment so I apologize for what may be a series of boring posts. I'll be getting around to all of your blogs as soon as I can! Have a great day and see you for dinner!