One day down, One day to go!

I’m SO glad I have a short week of school… I think we all need a bit of a break by this time in the school year. Classes, schedules, work, and everyday life tend to catch up to a person pretty quickly, and it’s important to have these breaks just to have time to kick back and unwind!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my future lately, and that’s definitely been an overwhelming and stressful endeavor.  I do want to take time to sort things out over my long weekend, but I will make sure to keep in mind my mental health (aka YOGA, renting a few movies, chatting with my brothers who will be home from college, Gossip Girl, reading, and the likes).

Anyways, I think it’s time we move on to a few foodie dishes!

Yesterday’s lunch was a Joseph’s Pita filled with

• organic tempeh
• organic spinach
• organic romaine
• orange bell peppers

With a key lime activia light and POM juice.

Snack Time!!!  I had ~3/4 cup Fage 2% greek yogurt, an organic pomegranate, a persimmon, and a sparkling iced green tea.

I ended up mixing some of the organic pomegranate in the Fage 2% greek yogurt absolutely loved it!  The thickness of Fage 2% is the perfect mixing texture.  Definitely try this combination out!

Dinner was totally simple, but SO darn good.  I made sweet potato crisps topped with loads of cinnamon and dipped them in MaraNatha almond butter.  I also had a glass of organic skim milk.

In the mail today, I received this wonderful Happy Thanksgiving card and coupons from Kristina over at Stonyfield.  She knows me all too well.   Thanks so much Kristina!

Now I have to hit the books for a while this evening before calling it a night!  Hope everyone is off to wonderful start on their Turkey Week!
  

Reminder to enter my Giving Thanks Giveaway! 

Heather

Hey friends! So I’ve finally got some news on the work front. I’m just gonna tell you right now because I’m a blabber mouth who sucks at telling secrets, and I’ve already been tweeting about it all day

So first off, I got hired at Starbucks! Yayyyy! I’m going to be working as a full-time supervisor for the next few months, and start training this week. I’m happy there will be no void in my paychecks, and the Starbies job should actually pay just as much as the reporter gig

I’m not going to just be working at Starbucks though. You all know I realized a long time ago that I do not want to be a daily reporter, and I don’t want to be a PR person unless I find the perfect company. These are the only things my skills and background would allow me to do.

But why just do what my background allows? Especially if it would just make me miserable? (again) So I’ve decided to instead follow my heart, my gut and my passions. I’m throwing all sense and rationality to the wind and working toward a personal training specialist certification with CanFit Pro (Canada’s national standard).

I know, right? Me? A personal trainer? Why not!? Exercise and fitness isn’t just a phase or a hobby, it’s my life. What draws me to jobs like reporting and Starbucks are the people. I love meeting fabulous people, and even more I want to help the ones that are looking for it. My mom told me this wonderful thing along the lines of “the day you discover your passions is when you’ll never work another day in your life.”

Of course, I expect to work And I expect it to be hard at times. I don’t also plan on plugging away with people at the gym all day. I plan to continue my education with a future certification as a Nutrition & Wellness Consultant. Perhaps I’ll even want to be a class instructor – who knows! Basically, I see this as the first step in many steps to come. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m taking a step forward, and not just another step back.

I also plan to keep the journalism thing up. My new experience and titles will allow me to delve further into health and wellness writing. I’m lucky to have made a lot of contacts in journalism school, and I have a long list of Canadian publications I hope to freelance for.

I’m so excited!!!

And before we move on, I have something else I have to get off my chest – I’m back on the VitaMuffins.

I toasted my favourite deep chocolate flavour last night and put some marshmallow fluff on top. ohmysweetlord. It got crunchy on the outside, but soft and melty on the inside, then the fluff was all frosting-like on the top. Every single bite was worth every penny spent

Breakfast this morning was not very photogenic, which usually equals deliciousness.

Two Nature’s Path flax waffles smothered in 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 tbsp almond butter, 2 tbsp faux-syrup (mixed with a hand blender). And sprinkled with cinnamon of course. SO good! Freezer waffles are only filling when you throw protein + fat into the mix.

Then it was off to BodyStep, ie the funnest class ever (sorry spin, you hurt too much to be fun ). Step class is definitely not one of those workouts you can just phone in. You definitely get out of it what you put in, more so than some of the other classes. I think that’s why I always come out feeling so satisfied and accomplished

Afterward, I came home and drank some chocolate Amazing Meal blended with almond milk, half a banana, yogurt and ice.

 
I was a sweaty mess. But I had to look decent for my job interview this afternoon. Enter lots of showering, hair straightening, caking on make-up, ironing clothes (ugh) and digging out accessories and voila!

Hi!! I’m actually modelling my new necklace and earrings. For years I wore nothing but giant flashy earrings, but I’ve been on a chunky necklace kick lately. And I’m a sucker for girly flowers

And apparently the gussying up worked!

Oh, and there was a lunch, carefully eaten as not to spill anything on myself.

Smoked salmon on a bagel with laughing cow cheese, capers and spinach and an orange on the side. This salmon is local bbq flavoured stuff. SO good!! We Maritimers know how to do our smoked salmon

After all my running around, I came home and tried out my other KIND bar. This time in Walnut & Date.

I had high hopes for this bar after Kath raved about it on her blog recently. Plus, dates are one of my favourite foods and I love them in just about anything. But, I wasn’t a huge fan! Maybe my expectations were just too high. I loved the walnuts, their texture reminded me a lot of sugar cookies. But I couldn’t really taste the dates. Honey is the third ingredient, and it was definitely the overpowering flavour in this bar.

Supper was (what else) chicken salad pita made with my leftover roast chicken from yesterday.

YUM!! You can see my running hat in the background. Meh. I’m a slob.

Finally, you may be wondering what “To the stars on the wings of a pig” means. Technically, it’s “Ad astra per alia porci.” It was the motto and personal stamp of John Steinbeck and appeared on the insert of all his books. It was a jab at an old teacher who once told him he’d only be a successful writer when “pigs flew.” I studied Latin and have a soft spot for Latin phrases. I’ve adopted it as my personal motto, to remind me that anything is possible

P.S. I’ve updated my About page so feel free to go check it out!

Till next time!

Jag gjorde som sagt kroatisk pita idag. Min allra första pita. Den smakade inte direkt som mammas eller farmors. Ärligt talat så smakade den inte så mkt alls. Jag tyckte jag hade i tillräckligt med kryddor, men tydligen inte. Måste nog ha ganska rikligt med det nästa gång. För övrigt så blev den riktigt bra, jag är superstolt.

Ca en “normalstor” ugnsform:

Ett halvt paket ÿufka/filodeg (finns på de flesta orientlivs, storhandlar eller willys)
ca 400g bladspenat (jag köpte fryst, men tror att blir godare)
1 liter mjölk
1 liter filmjölk
smör
salt
peppar
ev. vitlök eller andra kryddor

Efter mammas recept:
Koka upp mjölken och häll försiktigt i filen när det börjar bubbla. rör om tills det blir som en ostmassa. Sila bort vattnet och häll i en bunke. Hacka spenaten och blanda i ostmassan tillsammans med kryddor. Jag rev även i lite vitlök, men det kan man göra som man vill.
Smörj en ugnsform med smör och lägg i ett filodegsblad. Pensla med smör och lägg på ytterligare ett filodegsblad. Häll på spenatblandningen och lägg i ytterligare två penslade filodegsblad. Upprepa tills formen är fylld. Avsluta med två penslade filodegsblad. Ställ i ugnen på ca 150 grader i 30 minuter. Servera med yoghurt eller fil. Jag tycker att det är gott att dricka ett glas fil till, men när jag nu hade kockta så tog jag det i stället.

Stockholms bästa mataffär? Jag lutar starkt åt Dagslivsklippet vid fridhemsplan. Jag hamnade där igår av misstag, när jag egentligen skulle till PrisXtra. Det är typ världens största livsmedelsbutik! De har två våningar och massor av coola produkter i sitt sortiment. De har en liten America-hylla, aningen mindre än Eurostops hylla i Örebro, men fullt värdig med saker som Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Vanilla Coke, Skittles och mini-mashmallows! Inte nog med det, de har en freaking KROATIENHYLLA också! Och det finns Kraš och Napolitanke och ÿufka (mkay det var ett bosniskt märke, men whatever) och Cockta!

Hm vad är nu cockta kan man ju undra. Enligt denna hemsida så kommer det från Bosnien men det är kroatiskt, jebote! I’m almost sure of it. Är iaf supergott att dricka och helt fritt från koffein och fosforsyra = jättebra. Nu vet jag var jag ska börja storhandla i fortsättningen. Fuck PrisXtra. xD

Ikväll tänkte jag fortsätta på kroatiskt tema med att göra mitt livs första pita. Ever.

Puss hej ses.

O ex-prefeito de São Paulo Celso Pitta, de 63 anos, morreu às 23h50 desta sexta-feira (20), no Hospital Sírio-Libanês, na capital paulista, em decorrência de um câncer disseminado no intestino.

Boletim médico divulgado pelo hospital informou que a doença vinha vinha sendo tratada desde janeiro desse ano, quando foi submetido a uma cirurgia para retirada de um tumor no intestino.

O velório está marcado para as 12h, na Assembléia Legislativa, e o enterro, para as 17h, no cemitério Getsêmani, em São Paulo.

Pitta foi eleito em 1996, com 62,2% dos votos, apoiado pelo ex-prefeito Paulo Maluf (PP), de quem havia sido secretário. Ele esteve à frente da prefeitura até 2000. O mandato de Pitta foi marcado por suspeitas de corrupção, com denúncias surgindo em março de 2000, principalmente por parte de sua ex-esposa, Nicéia Camargo. As denúncias envolviam vereadores, subsecretários e secretários – entre as denúncias, está o escândalo dos precatórios.

Hugs and thank yous to everyone who commented on my last post. Your comments mean so much to me and I am so happy I am able to share these pieces of my life with you. For those of you who took my cookie conundrum to heart and linked or emailed me better recipes — THANKS! I have a lot to choose from now and am keeping my fingers crossed that the next batch of cookies I bake will be a success.

***

What happens when Eating Bender and Eating Bird Food collide?

…any guesses?

…anyone?

…Bueller?

You get Bender + Bird Food…Eating, of course I can hear crickets chirping…

Corny humor aside, some eating definitely did take place tonight when Miss Brittany made an appearance in Chicago! Brittany and I have been emailing back and forth for over a year now — it’s true, Google archives don’t lie — and she is absolutely as kind and genuine as she is on her blog.

When I found out she was going to be in town for a few hours after I got off of work, I jumped at the chance to meet up for dinner. After searching for restaurants near where she was, I suggested Bin 36. I had heard good things — particularly about the wine — and it seemed like the right place for foodies.

I was a little late getting out of work, but Brittany was patient enough to wait for me and when I got there, I was greeted by a very comfortable atmosphere, including a tree of wine corks!

We sat down to a menu that had a slogan embodying everything I so dearly uphold

Drink wine. Live well. Have fun.

I could never get tired of repeating that.

Brittany and I decided we were in the mood to share. We started by ordering the Bin 36 flight of wines, which came with chardonnay, cabernet, merlot and shiraz.

The best part was that we each got to enjoy our favorites. I took the chardonnay and the merlot, while Brittany stuck with the cabernet and shiraz. Perfect!

The chardonnay was described as one that “wears its’ oak like a peek-a-boo negligee; clean & fresh with generous ripe fruit – with nothing to hide.” I don’t know about all of that, but I do know that it was plenty sweet and I enjoyed it The merlot was not just any merlot. It was “merlot with an attitude!” I enjoyed this pour as well, described as “built with firm structure and a core of mocha scented dark fruit and minerals.”

For our dinner, Brittany and I decided to share the Garlic and Tomato Hummus. We also each got a Bin 36 Market Salad. While we were waiting, I snacked on one of the breadsticks on the table.

Our food came out promptly, and Brittany and I both commented on the fact that the Garlic and Tomato Hummus could easily have filled an entire container of Sabra.

But who am I to complain? Especially when it’s served with a generous helping of warm pita bread.

As much as I wanted to like it, however, I have to admit that the garlic was a bit too intense for my taste buds. I feel as though I’m exuding garlic from every pore right now!

Hoping that the Bin 36 Market Salad would help make up for it, I quickly dug in. The little breaded portion on the side is actually warm goat cheese.

At first, I wasn’t too impressed by this, either. The description on the menu says it contains “organic mixed greens, warm hazelnut crusted goat cheese, fresh grapes, and verjus vinaigrette.” I was expecting the goat cheese and the grapes to be more heavily integrated, but it was mostly organic mixed greens. When you’re paying $9 for a salad — thanks, Chicago – you do not want to pay for a mixed green salad you could make yourself at home for roughly 50 cents.

I will say, however, that the salad did grow on me. I started to add a small portion of goat cheese to each bite, which really did help it take on a new flavor.

Brittany and I easily gabbed for well over an hour about anything and everything. When we had finished with our dishes, we succumbed to the call for the dessert menu.

As you can see, there were a lot of interesting desserts to choose from. Sweet potato donuts? Milk chocolate ice cream sandwich? Everything sounded so complex it was tough to choose. Eventually, our devotion to all things pumpkin(g) won out and we went with the Crispy Brioche. The description says, “ pumpkin zabaglione, pumpkin seed nougatine, pear sorbet.” If your curious like I was, you can read the description about what zabaglione is by clicking here.

This was definitely a dessert — very, very sweet. The sugar overwhelmed the pumpkin flavor and overall, I wasn’t too impressed with this one either. (Side note: I’m sorry I suggested a bummer restaurant, Brittany!) I did think that the pear sorbet was good — wish it wasn’t in one tiny corner of the square — and the zabaglione in the middle was also quite flavorful. It reminded me a bit of creme brulee with a hard tart crust. I normally like creme brulee, but not so much in this case. Que sera sera!

Although the food wasn’t as good as I was hoping, the company was fantastic and I can’t wait for Brittany’s next visit to Chicago. I hope it’s sooner rather than later!

Weekend agenda:

• Clean, clean, clean!
• Write, write, write!
• Pick up much needed groceries/supplies
• Watch the Northwestern v. Wisconsin game — Go Cats!!
• See New Moon — YES!!
• Visit my new cousin Cameron (yes, he has an adorable name now!)

What are your plans for the weekend?

Abrazos,

]]> http://lilybeans.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/yippee-dippy-friday/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:23:27 +0000 lilybeans http://lilybeans.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/yippee-dippy-friday/

It’s the weekend, the freakin’ weekend!

Nick and I are heading downtown for a World Series of Beer Pong…I will be keeping stats and driving   I may bring Catch Phrase and see if I can get anyone else to play that instead with me.  I could always just play with myself!

I ate the other 1/2 of my oatmeal around 9:30AM, but it was not as pretty as this morning so I am going to skip the pic.  Just picture this!

Today flew by because I was super busy working on stuff that needs to get done before the close of business on Tuesday before Thanksgiving!!!!!  Ah I cannot wait until Maine and my family!

Lunch was something I slapped together this morning and it came together pretty well if I do say so myself!

Pita wiches, remainder of my carrot and two clementines all wrapped up in the empty deli cheese bag.  Recycle!

Inside the pita was avocado, shredded carrots, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, jalesburg and mustered.

Great combo!

I had the usual snack around 3:30PM.

Today’s trail mix featured blueberries, which kind of got lost in the other flavors.  I think I like them better plumped up in oats.

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Today was personal spin day at the gym!  The 6pm class was canceled so I was able to get a good hour spin in!  I miss actual spin classes so much, but I think I do a pretty good job by myself and am a total puddle afterwards.  After an hour of biking I did some core work before heading home to make a quick dinner.

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Something from the freezer.  Veggie burger, burrito, enchiladas?  All things I have for quick easy dinners.

I went with the Amy enchiladas.

I added a bit more to them.  On top of a spinach bed with avocado, salsa and cilantro.  Plus some multigrain food should taste good chips + more straight into the salsa.

This was great!  I don’t think it would have been as good without my additions though.

Alright got to jet!

See you in the morning for French toast, waffles or pancakes?

So many lovely options in the weekend!

Have a great first night of the weekend!!!!!

To do:

1 pkg Greek pita bread (these are thicker than regular pita pockets)
1 jar pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese shredded
Pepperoni
Olives
Pizza toppings you like

These are very easy to put together, easy enough that childeren can ‘make their own’

Spread sauce on pita, top with cheese and toppings.
Heat on 350* 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Enjoy

Can I just start off this post by saying I have the awesome-est readers ever? Yup. Even those of you that don’t comment, but keep coming back every day. You’re all awesome. I continuously spill my guts on a regular basis, and I continuously get great feedback. On top of that I get feedback that makes me think and challenges my established set of opinions and attitudes. Totally awesome

Guess what!? I woke up with the sun again today! Evening shifts will do that to ya. Except now that my body is used to being up later, I’ve got to go back to the middle of the night early morning shifts this weekend.

My oats were happy basking in the sunlight this morning.

• 1/2cup oat bran
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• cinnamon
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 2 chopped dates
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• unsweetened shredded coconut

Yummmm. A big ole’ bowl of oat bran is one of my favourite comforts

I was all excited for Body Pump class this morning. I’m trying to get more weight training days in my week, and I think including a weight class at the gym is a good way to switch up my usual routine (and keep those muscles guessing!). Anyways, I arrived at the gym to find they were halfway through the class! May-jah confusion on my part. Until I realized the 10:15 class I was looking for was at the other gym across town. Boo. So I wandered out to the machines and weight area and just sort of made it up as I went along:

• 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical
• 3 sets front squat push press
• 3 alternating sets single-leg romanian deadlift and bent-over dumbbell row
• 3 alternating sets of curtsy lunges, incline push ups and tricep dips
• 3 alternating sets cable horizontal woodchops and back extension
• 3 sets hanging leg raises
• 15 minutes HIIT on the treadmill

T’was a good time! I wish I could go on the rowing machine again, but the last time I used it, my hips hurt for days. Now I’m kinda iffy about getting back on, and I loved it so!

After my gym sesh, Chris and I went out for lunch again. We both agreed anything downtown was out because eating down there at lunch time is a pain. Somehow we ended up across the river at my second favourite 50’s diner

(Steve’s 50’s Diner in my hometown will always be number one). You may recall I ate here on the day of my triathlon, when I had a very well-deserved slice of recovery pie for dinner. However today I looked past the dessert menu and ordered an actual meal.

The roast chicken special. C’mon, say roast chicken and you know I’m there. I may also be an old lady. It happens.

Chris was all over it too.

These were HUGE pieces of chicken breast! Holy moly. I ate most of mine because it was delicious, but didn’t make much of a dent in the sides as a result. Digesting 1/4 of a chicken is hard work, but it was worth it

Plus, it’s real food!

I’ll be back for that chocolate pie on the top right. Perhaps after my half marathon next time

As a result of my giant lunch, I wasn’t very hungry for dinner. I tried to put together something small, but I was still stuffed to the brim with carrot sticks when I was finished (isn’t that always the story?).

The pita is just a can of smoked herring mixed with a little laughing cow cheese and capers. Simple, and absolutely delicious. I love smoked fish. See? Old.

Today also wrapped up one full week of calorie counting. I promised I would share my thoughts on doing it again. At first, I was really into it. I was again fascinated by my stats and numbers. I get a real kick by seeing how much sodium I had, or how much sugar I consumed on fruit alone. The graphs are fun to peruse through, and it makes me feel very much in control.

Three days into it, i was so over it. Firstly, logging every bit of food I eat into a website takes a long ass time. Livestrong is a great site, but it takes a while to load. I had to do a lot of calculating to figure out I ate .424 of a serving, and weighed even my dates.

The worst part, for me, was the calorie “limit.” I felt like I had to reach it every day, even if it meant eating slightly less, or slightly more. I would see that I had “x” amount of calories “left” and think, hey! I can have a big piece of chocolate! when I wasn’t craving it. I was just eating because I could. On the opposite side, if I was calorie heavy in the morning, I found myself eating lighter in the day to make up for it, even though I was still hungry!

I think this part of it goes very much against the way I’ve been trying to eat. Ever since giving up calorie counting last spring, I’ve been working really hard at listening to my body and eating intuitively. Throw numbers and stats into the mix, and all that goes out the window.

With that said, stepping back and taking a look at what I’ve been eating for a week has been really helpful. It gave me the little kick in the butt I needed to clean up my eating, and get rid of the little bits of food here and there that were beginning to add up. I also realized that I’ve been eating too little fat and that I could use to cut back on my added sugars, and even natural sugars.

I will not be logging my food religiously after today. But, I will continue to use calorie counting in the future as a means to “check-in” once in a while. Make sure I’m listening to my body properly, and not getting too complacent with my food choices.

So there you have it! I’m definitely coming off this “experiment” feeling much better than when I went in

Oh! And I got an interview at Starbucks! Monday at 2pm It’s the location that’s managed by an old co-worker, who apparently no longer holds a grudge that I once took the store manager title from him. I’m hoping the interview is just a formality and I’m as good as hired. I was clear with him that I’m looking for a seasonal job to get me through till I find a more permanent position (whatever the hell that may be). Did you know Starbucks employees get a free pound of coffee a week? That’s worth it alone!

Question of the day: What’s your “inner age?” I’ve always been mature for my age, my family has always called me an “old soul.” I’d say I’m a solid 75 on the inside. Give me my knitting, fuzzy slippers, 9pm bedtime and candy dish and I’m good to go

Is it just me or is this week dragging? I think there’s some law in physics that says as soon as you give notice at your job, the weeks that follow are the slowest of your life.

Or, I assume there’s a law. I failed the physics portion of grade 10 science.

But I do know that today was Waffle Wednesday!! The perfect way to perk up my hump day blues

Blueberry waffles! Using my usual protein pancake recipe (found under the Eats tab) and a handful of frozen blueberries.

Is that a peek of natural daylight I see on there!? I managed to sleep in till 7am today, so breakfast was photographed as the sun was rising over the river

I recently read an article by Tosca Reno in Clean Eating Magazine about all the benefits of wheat grass. I can’t find the article online, but she basically talks about how it’s a natural detoxifier, etc. I’m not always an easy sell, and this small article totally convinced me!

I don’t have any straight-up wheat grass, but I do have a whole canister of plain Amazing Grass SuperFood. It’s not a smoothie powder, but more of an “addition,” like a shot of greens to any smoothie. Anyways, I thought I’d just try it as a shot mixed with a little unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Most normal people would take one look at this and back off. It looks disgusting.

Yeah, well it tasted disgusting too. I will not be doing this again. Experiments with SuperFood however will continue…

I was hoping the greens would give me a bit of a magical boost for spin class today. I actually convinced Chris to come with me this time! Chris is a hardcore cyclist. He does mostly road cycling these days, but he was also quite the mountain biker back in the day. The man is obsessed (and also taught me everything I know about bikes).

Ironically, it was Chris’ first spin class. It was funny to see such a pro on a spin bike. I forgot to tell him not to go all out at the beginning, because our class gets much harder as it goes on. Even if I had, I don’t think it would have mattered. The boy needs to go as fast as possible whenever possible

Afterwards, we went out for lunch. I had some turkey.

Except mine was in a pita… at Pita Pit. Anyone else creeped out that this bird has manboobs? I find the decorations in this place to be really trippy.

• turkey
• hummus
• lettuce
• green pepper
• mushrooms
• onions
• tomatoes
• olives
• pickles
• sprouts

Chris got a chicken caesar.

Caught mid-chew.

Caught mid-stuffing-face. I’m just replacing my depleted sodium stores from sweating in spin class

Then I got called into work early. Boo. Managed to sneak home for a quick dinner though.

Grilled tuna sandwich and carrot sticks. That’s just one carrot! It was ginormous!!! Way bigger than a parsnip even. I ate it all. I’m a carrot fiend. No shame.

So I have a confession to make. I’ve been suffering from a little blogger envy lately. I’ve been comparing myself to others, and it’s not good.

No, I’m not talking about people running faster than me, eating healthier than I, or looking better in a bikini.

I found I was getting jealous that many bloggers seem to have the financial means to do and buy many things that I, at this point, could only dream of. I found myself wishing that I too could afford to just hop on a plane and attend a big event. I can hardly splurge on a new coat and yet every day I read about someone else buying a new SLR camera and fancy new lens to boot.

Truth is, I’m more poor now than I was as a university student. It will be a long time until I can afford even a decent food processor. I am by no means looking for sympathy. Growing up in a wealthy family, I learned that money does not buy happiness. As a result, I put little importance on it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes wish for certain items, or dream of travelling when I can’t.

But I think it’s important to remember that I don’t need fancy plates to be a good blogger. I don’t need a dehydrator to be a healthy eater. I shouldn’t compare myself to these other people, but instead be content with what I do have.

Lunch may not have been a five course meal at a fancy restaurant, but dammit, it was cheap and good. And I know you guys can appreciate that

Question of the Day: If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Travel is the obvious answer here, but for interest sake, I would also buy a really expensive bottle of whiskey, a commuter bike and PB2

When running late scrambling to get up north before Shabbat, finding a place to eat is hard. But to our surprise what we found is Zichron Yaakov wasn’t just food but good food at that. As we began our trip to Haifa for the weekend, we left the house at 11:30 thinking we will get food along the way for the four of us, two adults plus two kids. Well typical Israel, mall and road stops don’t signage early enough for my speedy gonzalese husband. Soon it was 3:00 an hour before Shabbat  and we passed Zichron.

I have always loved Zichron, what is not to love. Beautiful little city tucked away in the hills over looking the Mediterranean. The city has taken great pains to ensure that the even the streets look quaint, matching the entire region’s wine and cheese flavor. As we drove up the main strip I didn’t expect to find anything that would be open but to our surprise Yoshki hummusia was kosher and open. I stepped in, of course there was no menu.  When I asked what there was, the waiter responded with “what do you want”. Finally we settled on hummus with meat, pita, shakshuka, and bean soup. He explained that we would have to eat outside since they were going to cleaning the restaurant, trying to shut down before Shabbat.

Now I was expecting much, and they definitely exceeded my expectations. The Hummus was a kinds chunky and creamy and even in their rush they took the time to apply all the condiments including olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, paprika and pine nuts.  Although this was not like Jerusalem Hummus it was really good with the fresh pita.

Both my husband and I were not big fans of the bean soup which need flavoring. But the eggs in the shakshuka were well cooked , the texture was creamy and it wasn’t too spicy (look my kids are not such fans of charif). I was just surprised that the cook who made it on the spot in a huge rush managed to make a simple but delicious meal.

While we sat enjoying the food, a little sun shower and the calm of Shabbat fell over the main street. After our meal we were ready to make our last jaunt to get to Hafia, We piled back in to the car so happy with full bellies and a great pre Shabbat feeling.

So if you are in the area check out the Hummusia is on the main drag to your right when coming into the city. It is definitely worth the drive.

Welcome to Monday Night Football!!!!  It is Ravens football time, and I am ready!

My boy Ngata is out today due to an ankle sprain, but I will still be showing love wearing 92. (Yuck, my hair looks yellow!  I need to get my hair did ASAP.)

Before MNF I had to get through a day at work…this week is going to be long considering Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

I had a great lunch today.

2 clementines, leftover quinoa, greens and apples (taken from freezer) pita and cheese.  Along with some special sauce that I know GDW would totally appreciate.

I also had my delicious snack but with post shredded wheat squares as my cereal of choice.

Shredded wheat, mixed nuts, chocolate chips and orange cranberries.  Magic.

After work I headed to the gym and did 30min on the elliptical random sprints below 3 bars then I headed to body pump.  I am hoping to to be too sore tomorrow, but that class is crazy hard.  Props again to Erica for teaching it!

Monday night football brought on purple tacos!  Nick really wanted guacamole and we had ripe avocados!

3 purple tacos with lettuce, maters, guac, lettuce salsa and black beans and chicken in taco sauce.

Oh and cheese!

We used some Food Should Taste Good chips to scoop up the extra guac!

Sissy is all ready for kick off!  I am planning a maple pumpkin cake with nutella for dessert!

Go Ravens!

As I was going over my eats from yesterday in my head today, I realized that vegetables weren’t the only thing lacking… protein was practically non-existent as well.

Enter: canned tuna!

Canned Tuna

This salty (and stanky!) lil’ fish is packed with flavor and seemed like the perfect way to incorporate a filling and lean protein source into my lunch.

I made an easy tuna salad by adding light mayo, relish, mustard and red onion to the tuna.

Tuna Salad (Nasty lookin', huh?)

I scooped the tuna salad into a whole wheat pita and added a couple handfuls of spinach and several slices of a fresh plum tomato.

Tuna Stuffed in a Pita

Adding Color and Crunch

Hooray for sneaking some veggies in!

Don’t Forget!

Remember to enter my very first giveaway by 8 p.m. tonight!

This weekend was pretty crazy. Friday night we were out until 230 am and had to be up at 6 for Brandon (Patrick’s brother) and Liz’s wedding.

Patrick’s parents walking down the isle.

Liz and her dad walking down.

Brandon and Groomsmen.

The extremely long kiss

After that we headed to the reception sight. It was only about noon, so I had no intention of drinking at the wedding, but somehow I managed to have a few rum and cokes.

The first dance.

The beautiful cake that Patrick’s mom made.

I wasn’t able to eat anything but a few rolls at the reception. They requested vegetarian plates, but they were no where to be found.

After the reception we headed to Patrick’s parents to hang out. Later we went to dinner at Olive Garden for a friends birthday. There is no photo but I had some pasta pomodoro.

The dogs spent all day at Patrick’s parents and Kirra was a tired puppy.

We didn’t get home until about 130 am! I was so tired I slept in until noon. Oh and today was the laziest day on earth.

Patrick made me lunch. A pita with hummus, lettuce, cucumber, and onion with blue corn chips.

I laid on the couch and the dogs were on top of me so I ended up falling asleep again.

Note that I was still in my pajamas… and I still am!

Unfortunately I woke up to a flat tire, but fortunately Patrick had rented Up while I was asleep.

It was a really good movie. Very sad at first though!

I decided with the cool weather and fire going that I wanted Minestrone soup for dinner.

Now I think I am going to curl up and watch TV. I have yet to crack a book open, do laundry, or get out of my pajamas and it is glorious.

Night!

My friend Evan pointed out some surprising facts last week.  At least they were surprising to me.  Did you know that PETA has killed thousands of animals?  That is, at least according to this source (and it does cite its sources).*

Here are some more facts:

—According to PETA—this is a quote—“Silk Production Causes Painful Death for Insects”.  Ergo, “Don’t buy silk....”

—Another PETA Web site admonishes us, “don’t buy wool.”  (Evan says, “ask any shepherd what happens to a sheep that doesn’t get sheared for the summer”.)

—PETA further admonishes, “Never patronize zoos.”  (If you read the rest of that page, for balance, also read at a minimum a commentary by the president of the Saint Louis Zoo.)

—A blog that PETA’s search feature points me to (and that’s owned by PETA, in any event) at least implies that the blind and other handicapped shouldn’t have the benefit of assistance animals.  (“Why can’t these assistance dogs be replaced with humans who are paid for their services...?”)  Sure enough, further investigation reveals that a writer for the The New Yorker interviewed the president and co-founder of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, and learned that

She regards the use of Seeing Eye dogs as an abdication of human responsibility and, because they live as “servants” and are denied the companionship of other dogs, she is wholly opposed to their use.  She has had at least one dog taken from its owner.

(This and other highly interesting excerpts are available here; an article abstract is available on The New Yorker’s own Web site here.  The New Yorker site won’t let you see the whole article unless you have a subscription, but I have access to a Lexis-Nexis subscription, and I’ve confirmed that these words are indeed contained in that article.  The article is “The Extremist: The woman behind the most successful radical group in America”, April 14th, 2003, page 52, by Michael Specter.)

Here’s another interesting fact.  As it happens, this is the next sentence in the article:  “Among her most frequently cited statements is: ‘When it comes to feelings like hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.’”**

Huh.  Isn’t that interesting?

Look, I’m as much in favor of preventing cruelty to animals as the next guy, and if it seems appropriate to the majority in any given state to pass laws saying that cows can’t be kept in a pen so small they can’t sit down, chickens have to be able to flap their wings, etc., that’s fine.  It’s one thing to be in favor of treating our animal chattels humanely, but it’s quite another to say that animals are morally or metaphysically our equals.  They’re not.  I won’t try to get into that whole discussion here, but I will ask, for anyone inclined to go down PETA’s path, how far are you willing to go?  If meat is murder, and killing silkworms is murder, is stepping on an ant or a worm on the sidewalk murder?  If a worm is on the same level as a human being, why limit your compassion to the animal kingdom?  Isn’t that just another arbitrary boundary?  Is baking bread murder?  It slaughters billions of innocent yeast cells.  What about washing hands and killing all those bacteria?  If meat is murder, do we have a moral obligation to send police out into the African veldt to keep the lion from preying on the zebra?

Or think of it this way.  Maddox (formerly of maddox.xmission.com) once pointed out—in what may be the only time he has ever seriously cited a source—that modern harvesting equipment kills huge numbers of field animals every year.  (Warning: Maddox is funny but vulgar.  Here’s his article about whether vegetarianism is murder.  The source he cites is Time magazine, this article, on this page.)  Anyway, do we need a source?  Long before modern farming machinery, Robert Burns famously described inadvertently almost killing a mouse while plowing a field, in his ode “To a Mouse”.  Do you believe that agriculture is a grave societal evil, on the order of genocide or slavery?  Should we ban the motorized combine, and even the simple eighteenth-century plough, with all deliberate speed?

Perhaps the most surprising fact was that there are also objections to PETA that properly have nothing to do with animal “rights”.  At some point, Evan asked, “Is it a victory to get people to reconsider eating meat if you treat women like pieces of it?”  It sounded as if PETA had made a practice of exploiting women (and men’s lust) to sell their product, so to speak (the product being their mad ideology).  Sure enough, the same New Yorker article confirms in plain terms, “Naked women also play a central role in PETA’s demonstrations and advertisements....”

I had never heard of any of this, but the very next day, I went downtown and happened to see two of these PETA girls standing on the street corner.  They were holding signs saying “Leather is a fashion felony” (or something like that) and wearing “police” uniforms, faithfully reproduced right down to such authentic details as fishnet stockings.  (Even if you’re OK with the objectification of women, shouldn’t PETA picket itself for promoting fishing or something?)

OK, so PETA wants to change the rules, to “think outside the box”:  Instead of a rational appeal (animals are humans’ equals; therefore you shouldn’t kill them for leather) or even a straightforward emotional one (look at this cute animal; therefore you shouldn’t kill them for leather), PETA tries to hitch its crusade to men’s sex drives.  In response, I have a modest proposal.  Let’s change the rules.

Maddox once suggested (again, warning: vulgarity), “sponsor a vegetarian”—if you commit to eating three times as much meat as you normally would for as long as your friend is vegetarian, in theory, you can completely neutralize his efforts to reduce the slaughter of animals.  I don’t recommend that.  More modestly, my suggestion is that every time you see a PETA publicity stunt involving girls who look as if they should be told to go put some clothes on, instead, go out and get some new clothes for yourself, made of leather or other “felonious” materials.  If successful, such a plan would cause every such PETA stunt to lead to more, rather than less, material support for the leather industry, the fur industry, etc.

Because I saw those girls downtown, today I bought myself a shiny new leather jacket (well, shiny used leather jacket).  I’ve never owned a leather jacket before (unless you count my leather-sleeved high-school letter jacket), but I think I’m going to like it.  What will you buy the next time you see unethical advertising for the ethical treatment of animals?

Being ethical doesn’t have to be painfully expensive, either.  There’s no reason you have to purchase the most expensive leather jacket you can find (or even the second-most-expensive); apparently you can get new leather jackets that look pretty sweet for under two hundred dollars, or even forty if they’re really on sale.  Also, thrift-store buys totally count.

It doesn’t have to be a leather jacket, of course; even a leather watchband would do (and again, no need to get the most expensive one you can find; apparently even a basic ten-dollar watch can meet your cow-killing needs).  Correction (November 16th, 2009): An alert reader points out that the band of that watch, upon closer inspection, is made of faux leather, but apparently you can still kill cows with a watch under twenty-five dollars (with a band made of “genuine pink leather”, whatever that is).  At that point, though, you’re not getting many square inches of cowhide per dollar; for just thirty dollars more, you can have a whole fedora made of leather, and really get your money’s worth.

There’s also no reason it has to be leather.  We all know these PETA types would disapprove of your buying fur at least as much.  Maybe there’s a lady in your life who would enjoy a new mink coat? 

If we take PETA at their word, silk must be just as good as leather and fur—it’s all murder, right?  You could buy a silk coat, or a silk scarf, or a silk necktie.

For that matter, according to PETA, wool is out, too, right?  Which means it’s in.  There may not be a more inexpensive way to be ethical than by buying a warm woolen coat, hat, scarf, or other article.

The possibilities are endless.  Use your imagination!

Finally, here’s another surprising fact:  People pronounce PETA’s name “pita”—not “pet-a”, which is how I always assumed it was pronounced until I actually heard it pronounced.  It’s funny, they actually make the “E” in “PETA” lowercase in their logo, as if to help people get the pronunciation right—but if all the other letters are capital and the “e” is lowercase, if anything, doesn’t that suggest a short “eh” sound?  Also, apparently they don’t like the word “pet”—again from the New Yorker article: “At lunch, dozens of employees slip out to spend some time with their companion animals.  (Nobody at PETA would ever use the word ‘pet.’)”—but they sure have them; so why not call their organization “pet-a”?  The alternative—“pita”—is halfway to a delicious, lamb-filled gyro.

* In an effort further to evaluate the credibility of the source, I tried searching for it on PETA’s Web site, peta.org—to see whether PETA had responded to the accusation—and found it only in users’ discussion forums (all trace of which seems to have been erased from the PETA Web site itself) and in PETA’s “PETA in the News” section.  The latter links us to this news story, which mentions petakillsanimals.com and says, “PETA isn’t shy about responding on its own Web site, consumer deception.com....”  (On the contrary, I would say that PETA is shy—it responds not on its own Web site, peta.org, but on a separate Web site created for the purpose, consumerdeception.com, which nowhere mentions that it has any connection with PETA, much less that it is PETA’s “own Web site”—but never mind.)  Take a look at PETA’s anti-anti-PETA Web site yourself, but it looks to me like exclusively ad hominem attacks on the guy who apparently runs petakillsanimals.com—in other words, no substantive response to his actual criticisms of PETA.

After more searching, I was finally able to turn up two pages where PETA responds generally to the criticism about its killing of animals, without naming the critics.  (Warning: These pages include very disgusting photographs of animals.)  On these pages (here and here, if you want to see them—you’ve been warned), PETA says or implies that the reason it kills so many of the animals it takes in (more than 90% of them, according to petakillsanimals.com) is that “most” of them “come from miserable conditions”—they’ve been starved, they have various disgusting wounds and diseases, etc.—and are essentially unadoptable.

** With the qualifier “When it comes to...”, that sentence could be interpreted as making a very narrow statement about whether animals feel pain, etc., but the rest of the paragraph, and what Miss Newkirk says elsewhere in the article, confirms that she considers animals to have just as much moral worth as people, if not more.

My friend Evan pointed out some surprising facts last week.  At least they were surprising to me.  Did you know that PETA has killed thousands of animals?  That is, at least according to this source (and it does cite its sources).*

Here are some more facts:

—According to PETA—this is a quote—“Silk Production Causes Painful Death for Insects”.  Ergo, “Don’t buy silk....”

—Another PETA Web site admonishes us, “don’t buy wool.”  (Evan says, “ask any shepherd what happens to a sheep that doesn’t get sheared for the summer”.)

—PETA further admonishes, “Never patronize zoos.”  (If you read the rest of that page, for balance, also read at a minimum a commentary by the president of the Saint Louis Zoo.)

—A blog that PETA’s search feature points me to (and that’s owned by PETA, in any event) at least implies that the blind and other handicapped shouldn’t have the benefit of assistance animals.  (“Why can’t these assistance dogs be replaced with humans who are paid for their services...?”)  Sure enough, further investigation reveals that a writer for the The New Yorker interviewed the president and co-founder of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, and learned that

She regards the use of Seeing Eye dogs as an abdication of human responsibility and, because they live as “servants” and are denied the companionship of other dogs, she is wholly opposed to their use.  She has had at least one dog taken from its owner.

(This and other highly interesting excerpts are available here; an article abstract is available on The New Yorker’s own Web site here.  The New Yorker site won’t let you see the whole article unless you have a subscription, but I have access to a Lexis-Nexis subscription, and I’ve confirmed that these words are indeed contained in that article.  The article is “The Extremist: The woman behind the most successful radical group in America”, April 14th, 2003, page 52, by Michael Specter.)

Here’s another interesting fact.  As it happens, this is the next sentence in the article:  “Among her most frequently cited statements is: ‘When it comes to feelings like hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.’”**

Huh.  Isn’t that interesting?

Look, I’m as much in favor of preventing cruelty to animals as the next guy, and if it seems appropriate to the majority in any given state to pass laws saying that cows can’t be kept in a pen so small they can’t sit down, chickens have to be able to flap their wings, etc., that’s fine.  It’s one thing to be in favor of treating our animal chattels humanely, but it’s quite another to say that animals are morally or metaphysically our equals.  They’re not.  I won’t try to get into that whole discussion here, but I will ask, for anyone inclined to go down PETA’s path, how far are you willing to go?  If meat is murder, and killing silkworms is murder, is stepping on an ant or a worm on the sidewalk murder?  If a worm is on the same level as a human being, why limit your compassion to the animal kingdom?  Isn’t that just another arbitrary boundary?  Is baking bread murder?  It slaughters billions of innocent yeast cells.  What about washing hands and killing all those bacteria?  If meat is murder, do we have a moral obligation to send police out into the African veldt to keep the lion from preying on the zebra?

Or think of it this way.  Maddox (formerly of maddox.xmission.com) once pointed out—in what may have been the only time he has ever seriously cited a source—that modern harvesting equipment kills huge numbers of field animals every year.  (Warning: Maddox is funny but vulgar.  Here’s his article about whether vegetarianism is murder.  The source he cites is Time magazine, this article, on this page.)  Anyway, do we need a source?  Long before modern farming machinery, Robert Burns famously described inadvertently almost killing a mouse while plowing a field, in his ode “To a Mouse”.  Do you believe that agriculture is a grave societal evil, on the order of genocide or slavery?  Should we ban the motorized combine, and even the simple eighteenth-century plough, with all deliberate speed?

But perhaps the most surprising fact was that there are also objections to PETA that properly have nothing to do with animal “rights”.  At some point, Evan asked, “Is it a victory to get people to reconsider eating meat if you treat women like pieces of it?”  It sounded as if PETA had made a practice of exploiting women (and men’s lust) to sell their product (the product being their mad ideology).  Sure enough, the same New Yorker article confirms in plain terms, “Naked women also play a central role in PETA’s demonstrations and advertisements....”

I’d had no idea, but the very next day, I went downtown and happened to see two of these PETA girls standing on the street corner.  They were holding signs saying “Leather is a fashion felony,” or something like that, and wearing “police” uniforms, faithfully reproduced right down to such authentic details as fishnet stockings.  (Even if you’re OK with the objectification of women, shouldn’t PETA be picketing itself for promoting fishing or something?)

OK, so PETA wants to change the rules, to “think outside the box”:  Instead of a rational appeal (animals are humans’ equals; therefore you shouldn’t kill them for leather) or even a straightforward emotional one (look at this cute animal; therefore you shouldn’t kill them for leather), PETA tries to hitch its crusade to men’s sex drives.  In response, I have a modest proposal.  Let’s change the rules.

Maddox once suggested (again, warning: vulgarity), “sponsor a vegetarian”—if you commit to eating three times as much meat as you normally would for as long as your friend is vegetarian, in theory, you can completely neutralize his efforts to reduce the slaughter of animals.  I don’t recommend that.  More modestly, my suggestion is that every time you see a PETA publicity stunt involving girls who look as if they should be told to go put some clothes on, instead, go out and get yourself some new clothes made of leather or other “felonious” materials.  If successful, such a plan would cause every such PETA stunt to lead to more, rather than less, material support for the leather industry, the fur industry, etc.

Because I saw those girls downtown, today I bought myself a shiny new leather jacket (well, shiny used leather jacket).  I’ve never owned a leather jacket before (unless you count my leather-sleeved high-school letter jacket), but I think I’m going to like it.  What will you buy the next time you see unethical advertising for the ethical treatment of animals?

Being ethical doesn’t have to be painfully expensive, either.  There’s no reason you have to purchase the most expensive leather jacket you can find (or even the second-most-expensive); apparently you can get new leather jackets that look pretty sweet for under two hundred dollars, or even under forty if they’re really on sale.  Also, thrift-store buys totally count.

Of course it doesn’t have to be a leather jacket; a leather watchband would do (and again, no need to get the most expensive one you can find; apparently even a basic ten-dollar watch can meet your cow-killing needs).

There’s also no reason it has to be leather.  We all know these PETA types would disapprove of your buying fur at least as much.  Maybe there’s a lady in your life who would enjoy a new mink coat? 

If we take PETA at their word, silk must be just as good as leather and fur—it’s all murder, right?  You could buy a silk coat, or a silk scarf, or a silk necktie.

For that matter, according to PETA, wool is out, too, right?  Which means it’s in.  There may not be a more inexpensive way to be ethical than by buying a warm woolen coat, hat, scarf, or other article.

The possibilities are endless.  Use your imagination!

Finally, here’s another surprising fact:  People pronounce PETA’s name “pita”—not “pet-a”, which is how I always assumed it was pronounced until I actually heard it pronounced.  It’s funny, they actually make the “E” in “PETA” lowercase in their logo, as if to help people get the pronunciation right—but if all the other letters are capital and the “e” is lowercase, if anything, doesn’t that suggest a short “eh” sound?  Also, apparently they don’t like the word “pet”—again from the New Yorker article: “At lunch, dozens of employees slip out to spend some time with their companion animals.  (Nobody at PETA would ever use the word ‘pet.’)”—but they sure have them; so why not call their organization “pet-a”?  The alternative—”pita”—is halfway to a delicious, lamb-filled gyro.

* In an effort further to evaluate the credibility of the source, I tried searching for it on PETA’s Web site, peta.org—to see whether PETA had responded to the accusation—and found it only in users’ discussion forums (all trace of which seems to have been erased from the PETA Web site itself) and in PETA’s “PETA in the News” section.  The latter links us to this news story, which mentions petakillsanimals.com and says, “PETA isn’t shy about responding on its own Web site, consumer deception.com....”  (On the contrary, I would say that PETA is shy—it responds not on its own Web site, peta.org, but on a separate Web site created for the purpose, consumerdeception.com, which nowhere mentions that it has any connection with PETA, much less that it is PETA’s “own Web site”—but never mind.)  Take a look at PETA’s anti-anti-PETA Web site yourself, but it looks to me like exclusively ad hominem attacks on the guy who apparently runs petakillsanimals.com—in other words, no substantive response to his actual criticisms of PETA.

After more searching, I was finally able to turn up two pages where PETA responds generally to the criticism about its killing of animals, without naming the critics.  (Warning: These pages include very disgusting photographs of animals.)  On these pages (here and here, if you want to see them—you’ve been warned), PETA says or implies that the reason it kills so many of the animals it takes in (more than 90% of them, according to petakillsanimals.com) is that “most” of them “come from miserable conditions”—they’ve been starved, they have various disgusting wounds and diseases, etc.—and are essentially unadoptable.

** With the qualifier “When it comes to...”, that sentence could be interpreted as making a very narrow statement about whether animals feel pain, etc., but the rest of the paragraph, and what Miss Newkirk says elsewhere in the article, confirms that she considers animals to have just as much moral worth as people, if not more.

First of all, huge congrats to my Aunt Jenny and Uncle David — IT’S A BOY!! The name is still to be determined (they are having trouble deciding on one they both like best, haha) but I could not be happier to have a new boy cousin. I can’t wait to pay a visit to count 10 little fingers and 10 little toes Fun fact: there are only FIVE girl cousins out of 20 in the entire “Bender” clan. We are the minority.

It has been a really fun and productive Saturday. I’ve been working on our wedding website — email me if you want to see the link, it’s quite fun!! — and tonight I’m attending a work event with Bobby at a great Chicago hot spot that I’ve always wanted to check out. It should be a nice time.

Another highlight of my day was breakfast. I met up with a good friend who reads the blog (and has blogged herself in the past!) named Kristie as she stopped through town for the day. She was actually the winner of the trivia contest during my Blogiversary Giveaway. It was so great to finally meet her in person after chatting back and forth via email for so long.

We originally were going to meet up at an intriguing new cafe but realized that it was actually part of a fitness center and wasn’t open for breakfast yet Instead, we wandered around for a while in the crisp fall air — it’s absolutely gorgeous in Chicago right now — and settled upon a market called Fox & Obel. I had passed by it before and it looked like it could be interesting. The foodie in me couldn’t resist suggesting we try it and, once inside, we realized there was also a cafe and decided breakfast was served.

Both Kristie and I decided to order the steel-cut oatmeal.

Doesn’t the sun make it look heavenly? This wasn’t just your average bowl of oats. It was topped with freshly sliced bananas, golden plump raisins and maple cream. I had never heard of maple cream before but it’s exactly what it sounds like: a creamier version of maple syrup that adds an entire new flavor dimension to the bowl. Click on that link above to see one way to make it!

Oatmeal never tasted so good. Between easy conversation — Kristie and I are a lot alike and coming up with topics to talk about was a breeze — and savoring each and every bite, breakfast felt more relaxing than it has in a very long time. The golden raisins lived up to their “plump” description — they were bursting with sugary sweetness that complemented the maple perfectly. The market also didn’t skimp on the banana slices: I had at least one in almost every bite right down to the very bottom of the bowl.

As if good food and good moods weren’t enough, Kristie then presented me with the ultimate gift:

GLO BARS!!!!!!!!! Kristie had placed an order with Angela recently and had a few to spare. I feel so, so fortunate for this gift. I can’t wait to try Angela’s creations — by the way, we were totally talking you up girly. We think what you are doing is amazing and so admire your courage to change careers.

After we finished our bowls, Kristie and I walked around the market, which was filled with unique and hard to find products. We both picked out a nice bottle of wine and a very special peanut butter, which I will be unveiling soon Let’s just say, I finally found it! Any guesses?

I’ve been snacking on a variety of hummus, veggies and pita for the rest of the day.

This is just the generic red pepper hummus from Whole Foods. A gigantic container for about the same price as a small Sabra container — and it tastes great. You can’t go wrong with fresh cucumber and WF mini pitas, either A fantastic, easy snack option.

The big feast will come at the work event tonight. Not sure if I’ll be able to take pictures but I’m going to try because I’m sure it will be fun to look at

Fun link: Minn. city’s get healthy effort called a success

As a Minnesotan at heart, I appreciate the efforts the town in the article went to in order to live better.

How are you “living better” this weekend?

I’m making it a priority to catch up with family and friends I have lost touch with due to my busy schedule these past few weeks. I need to know what’s going on in their lives. Yours, too!!

Abrazos,

Hey, folks.

I haven’t had much time for exciting new dishes, so I feel a bit weird about posting regular old meals! My recent lack of time did not keep me from making a much need grocery stop. I found some awesome broccoli sprouts, a head of kale, and some staples like organic black beans.

I breakfasted on banana oat bran with some Peace Cereal for extra crunch! Still enjoying summer’s blueberries! (Frozen!)

I improvised a quick and healthy lunch of pita with sprouts, greens, and laughing cow cheese. I used the garlic and herb flavored cheese!

I got to catch up with a friend who I hadn’t seen in 6 months! She and her husband through-hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail recently. They clocked 25 miles a day over desert, mountains, and snow. Physical feats like that just blow me away! One day they hiked 36 miles! They were on their way to a buffet, so it was justified!! As we parted, she handed me some homemade apple butter!! Thanks, Lynds!

As you can see, I’ve already sampled.

I need to get a recipe from her to share with you all! I can tell she used nutmeg and cloves! So tasty. It is also chunky, which I like.

I didn’t leave her empty-handed. I gave her this little delight.

Love it! It is National Pomegranate Month, so stay tuned for some flexy recipes using fabulous POM juice!

Have a wonderful weekend!

A few misconceptions regarding my own blog and blogging in general have been floating around recently, so I thought I’d take a moment to clear a few things up…
     

1. I DO NOT post everything I eat on my blog.
     
   I have received a few comments lately regarding the subject of “how much I eat in a day.”  I know this has been an issue on a few other blog already, but I just want to make sure everyone realizes that I only posts snippets of my daily consumptions.  Yes, what I post gives you a very good idea of the TYPES of food I enjoy and tend to choose, but it does not indicate the AMOUNT of food I consume.  I basically eat 5 smaller meals each day and always keep my stomach satisfied.  I will admit that I tend to eat extremely healthy and clean foods, but I honestly LOVE these foods!  Nothing beats fresh produce, raw nuts and nut butter, and good old Greek yogurt!  We all have our own tastes, needs, and satisfaction levels, and its essential that we learn to listen to what our body tells us.
          
      
   
2. There is “Competition” between bloggers and their blogs.
    
   On Kath’s blog today, she mentioned that she was interviewed by SELF magazine for an article, but was cut due to the fact that she was “direct competition” for the SELF bloggers. I have to admit that I was EXTREMELY surprised that anyone feels that there is competition between the blogs!  I can only speak for myself, but I know that competition is far from my mind when I am reading my favorite blogs and writing my own posts.  I blog because I enjoy sharing my passion of food, nutrition, exercise, and living a healthy lifestyle with others who have similar goals and interests.  Can you imagine if you were the ONLY ONE BLOGGING???  How boring would that be???  I have gained so many wonderful friendships and found/shared an endless number of healthy recipes, tips, foods, and exercises. I don’t know about you, but a blogging world without bloggers sounds like a pretty lonely place to me!
      

What are your thoughts on these two blogging misconceptions?

Now that we have THAT cleared up, it’s time to share a couple of EATS:

Breakfast – A bowl of Vanilla Almond Crunch Organic Peace Cereal topped with organic skim milk and an organic banana on the side.

COFFEE!!!

Lunch – Tofu Pita

• organic raw tofu
• organic spinach
• organic mixed salad blend
• organic zucchini

With organic carrots, a strawberry-banana activia light, and a glass of V8 fusion.

Time to enjoy the weekend!

Heather

with pita and hummus

I LOVE all things spicy. And schug is among my favorites of spicy condiments. Schug is a Yemenite hot sauce that can be used to add some heat and flavor to savory dishes, and is a true soul mate for a good hummus. We’ve always had a container of schug on hand in our fridge and it’s replacement waiting to be cracked open in the freezer. Seeing the deep glossy green chili peppers in the shuk this week provoked my Yemenite side and attempt to make my own version of schug.

You can make schug with either red or green peppers depending on your personal preference. So I went with green schug, and let me tell you… it was exceptionally spicy and very very delicious.  But the level of heat is completely up to you.  It’s simple enough to make, just throw all the ingredients into a food processor and voila! you’ve made a perfect spicy sauce to match your palate. The product is a beautiful bright green chili paste with a great texture. I left the seeds in the chilies because that’s where all the heat comes from, but if you’re more sensitive and don’t like things too spicy and want more of the hot sauce flavor remove the seeds. Add more coriander (cilantro to Americans) to cool the peppers.  If you want more of what I call the “kick” of a hot sauce and less of the spicy add more garlic.

Here’s what I did….

Green Schug Recipe:

4-5 green chilies (with the seeds)

6 gloves of garlic

bundle of coriander (aka cilantro)

cardamom

pepper

cumin

olive oil

a pinch salt

Remove the seeds from the chilies (or leave them in if you want to heat) and cut the peppers into equal sizes, removes the leaves from the stems of the coriander, toss all the ingredients into your food processor, it should not take too long to get everything chopped up. The texture shouldn’t be completely smooth, I would say very small chunks, not as chunky as some salsas, but not perfectly smooth like Tabasco. Put it in a container like a glass jar and keep it in the fridge.

Excellent to add flavor to pita and hummus, tehina, meats, vegetable dishes, soups….

Experiment and get creative with what you throw in there.

Thanks for all the kind comments regarding Chris and I’s four year anniversary! I know I didn’t really talk about it much beforehand, but it’s really not that big of a deal for us. Chris and I like to keep the cheesiness to a minimum in our relationship. In fact, I’ve told him several times that I will break up with him if he ever writes me a poem or anything else equally as lame. But we’re also not ones to turn down an excuse to go out for a good meal If you’re curious about how we met, etc , I wrote about it in a previous post here.

Despite only sleeping a measly six hours last night, I at least finally discovered a place in my apartment that takes decent photos in the dark mornings.

Much better than spooky oats

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 scoop vanilla whey powder
• cinnamon
• frozen berries
• plain yogurt w/ vanilla extract and stevia
• Fibre 1 cereal

AKA an Oatmeal & Yogurt Parfait. Haven’t had this since berries went out of season! Not as good with the frozen stuff, but still tasty. This bowl will always hold a special place in my heart as it’s what I ate almost every. single. day. while I was losing weight.

My hunger is still off the charts today. I was digging around my kitchen for my morning snack mega early. Had another old favourite.

Wasa fibre rye crisps, almond butter, raisins, cinnamon. Ants on a wasa?

Sure enough, I was looking for lunch early too! This is the exact same “boring” lunch I had yesterday. Luckily, boring is often delicious

Fontaine tofu spread, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, romaine. When me and homemade applesauce get married, I want tofu spread to be my maid of honour Unpictured is the honeycrisp that rounded the meal out.

My day was spent running errands and “catching up” on aspects of my life that get neglected on work days. Dinner was “thrown together.” Literally. Usually there are two ways I throw together a meal. Put a bunch of ingredients in a pan and sauté it, or put them on a baking sheet and roast it. Tonight’s was the latter.

• 1/2 block tofu, cubed
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 6 button mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 buttercup squash, cubed
• 2 handfuls spinach (towards end of baking)

I tossed everything, minus the spinach, in a big bowl with a little olive oil, pepper, parmesan cheese and this stuff:

My mom insisted I buy this Kirkland organic no-salt seasoning when she took me to Costco. I know better than to go against my mother’s wishes.

Then I let everything roast up at 425 F for about 20 minutes, then at 350 F after adding the spinach for an additional 5 minutes.

The one bad thing about “throwing things together” is that I just keep chopping new things up and adding them to the mix. This turned out to be so much food! I ate maybe 2/3 of it then claimed defeat. The tofu in that seasoning was delicious, but I oddly did not care for the squash. Too dry and bland.

I decided to make today a rest day after my 8 mile run yesterday. My old lady hips were a little cranky with me after forcing them on a long run the day after I put them through multiple weighted squats at the gym. Thankfully, they’re in a much better mood now

Just finished up an hour long living room yoga session. Yoga class was cancelled tonight. Boo. I tried out a Dave Farmar power vinyasa podcast. It was alright. I did 30 minutes until I called it quits. I can only go up and down so many times until I get annoyed! I did work up a nice little sweat though. Finished it off with some balance yoga from Yoga Today. I really dig the balance poses because I’m actually good at them! I could hang out in tree or dancer all day

I also want to let you guys know that I’ll be counting my calories for the next few days. I haven’t done this in seven months! I know a lot of people hate calorie counting because of the obsessing and analyzing that often goes with. But it’s never been like that for me. Calorie counting was like a slap upside the head for me when I started losing weight. I didn’t have a sweet clue what calories were, or what their effects were. That’s not to say I didn’t struggle with calorie counting at times, but overall, it was just a really useful weight loss tool for me.

Anyways, I just feel like it’s time to check-in and make sure I’m still on-track. I haven’t gained any weight, nor do I want to lose any more weight. But I have not been feeling as content as I’d like to be about my food choices lately. When I moved into weight maintenance, I wanted to make sure there were no “off-limit” foods, which there were plenty of while I was losing weight. But I just feel lately, I’ve been using that as an excuse to eat more processed foods, especially sugar. So I want to take a few days to reflect on my food and really just bring it back to basics. I want to feel confident about my food choices again, and not like I’m derailing a bit. I’ll keep you updated on how my “check-in” is going

Question of the Day: What are your feelings on calorie counting? Like I said, I think it’s a really effective tool for weight loss. But I also don’t think it has much of a place in weight maintenance, unless you need it to achieve fitness goals (ie to ensure you’re eating properly during marathon training). With that said, I know from my own personal history that bad eating is a long and slippery slope for me. Hopefully stepping back and taking a look at my food choices will again raise awareness of what I’m putting in my body and get me feeling good about it again

Chicken and roasted root vegetables

Movies

Black SOLD OUT

Brown SOLD OUT