Curried Walnuts

It's been great day so far. I got my work out in, a short one - just 30 minutes on the treadmill. I wanted to run for at least three miles, but my right hip was giving me some grief. So I stopped running and just walked at 4.0 miles an hour for the rest of the time.

I came home and got to work on lunch. It didn't take much time, since it was my shrimp leftovers from the other night.

I know... white bread. Shame on me. French bread just goes so well with tomato sauces and shrimp. I don't even remember the last time I ate white bread. It's so fluffy!

D and I are going over to another couple's house to watch the hockey game tonight. They asked me to bring the salad. I decided to make a mixed green salad with apples and curried walnuts. One of my favorites! I have the second batch of walnuts cooking the oven as I write this post.

The first batch didn't work out so well...

Hence the second batch...

They came out beautifully! Probably due to the fact I didn't forget about them in the oven. ;)

Curried Walnuts:

• 1 cup raw walnuts
• 1 egg white
• 1 tbsp stevia/sugar 
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp hot curry powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 

1. Preheat over to 250 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
2. Pour egg white into a small bowl and whisk till frothy. Add the nuts and stir until they're coated with the egg white. 
3. In another small bowl mix the sugar, salt and spices. Dust this mixture over the nuts. Make sure all the nuts are equally coated. 
4. Lay them out on the  baking sheet and bake for about a half hour. 

They are so good on salad, especially with apples. The sweetness of the apples balances the heat of the spiced nuts. 

I'll chat with you all tomorrow! 

A Labor of Love

This morning it was time to pull out the steel-cut oats. Sometimes I just don't have the patience steel cut oats require. I mean we're talking 30-45 minutes plus on the cooking time of these things. That's a little much when my stomach is growling in the background! 

So I found a little trick to compensate for the cooking time. All I do is boil the oats for about two minutes the night before and leave them sit overnight. In my experience, this procedure cuts the cook time in half. This is what it looks like the next morning.

Here's what my oats looked like.

Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats with Coconut and Raisins

• 1/4 (40g) cup steel cut oats
• 1.5 cups water (could drop this down to 1 cup)
• 1/2 banana
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup cottage cheese
• cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg - all to taste
• 4 grams raisins
• sprinkling of coconut 

Here it is after I smothered it in natural peanut butter. 

It was creamy, and sweet - just the way I like my oatmeal. 

Sweet and Spicy

Hey gang,

Dinner tonight was so tasty! I made a Martha Stewart recipe, called Chickpea, Tomato, and Spelt Soup. I did make a ton of modifications to it though.

Instead of paprika and saffron (I'm out of both spices), I used chili powder and cayenne pepper. I also added a few teaspoons of red pepper flakes. The soup came out just as I was hoping it would. The spices gave the soup a really warm taste. Together with this salad and balsamic dressing, it was the perfect meal for tonight.

D's meal looked something like this

I made him chili and cornbread. Cornbread is so simple to put together, and it makes the meal in my opinion. Notice the Diet Pepsi? I hate it when D drinks that stuff, but what can I do? I can only govern what I eat. I'm working on picking the bigger battles to fight over ;)

Next up - chia pudding!

2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 scoop protein powder
cinnamon
1/2 stevia packet
1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
2 tbsp milk

I let it set in the fridge for about a half hour. It was the perfect consistency. YUM!

I've gotta get back to the women's figure skating program. It's one of my favorite olympic events. Night :)

New Template Unveiling!

Afternoon everyone,

When I woke up this morning I knew two things. I had a breakfast cookie ready to be eaten in the fridge and I needed to make a pot of coffee.

Here's the cookie:

I love the chocolate flavor so much, but I think I'll start experimenting from here on in. Today's cookie subsided my chocolate cravings. I think a cinnamon raisin cookie sounds pretty spectacular.

Here's the coffee:

Coffee in my Coldplay mug. D bought it for me when we went to see them last year. It's just about the perfect size for my morning cup of joe.

I don't have photos to show you of my lunch, but it's ok, cause it was pretty much the same as my supper last night.

After class, I made D's dinner - Chili. It's in the slow cooker getting all nice and.... cooked? Then I snacked on this:

Another one of my protein bars; the last protein bar unfortunately. This one was the cinnamon bun flavor. MmmmMmmm good.

Do you like the new template? I do!

No More Midterms

I'm boycotting midterms, so thankfully for them, I don't have any more! YAAAAY. I wrote my last one just about an hour ago. I'm so glad to be done with them.

Anyone want to see the awesomeness that was my dinner tonight? I honestly could not even believe it was raw!

I made Gena's Raw Cauliflower "Rice"

Please make this! It was so fast and easy, and delivered big flavor! I have over half still in my fridge waiting for another salad date.

I have some chia pudding setting up for me in the fridge. Can't wait to dig into that next!

Night all.

Mid-Morning Chat

Good afternoon,

I hope you all had a great morning. It's been ANOTHER productive day (this usually doesn't happen to me ;)). About an hour after I ate breaky, I went to the gym for a killer hill workout. Then I came back and ate this little egg sponge:

Such an awesome way to get protein in me throughout the day!

Then I started to get ready for school. I packed this up to eat on my way there:

A quarter of a banana with about 2 teaspoons of almond butter and two apricots.

After school (and a midterm in Intro. to Lit.), I ate this baby:

This was soooo good. It was a tuna wrap:

half a can of light packed in water tuna
tbsp light mayonnaise
tsp mustard
2 slices of pickles

I loaded it with spinach and wrapped it all up:

It took me less than two minutes to finish this. I then made this salad (just like all my other salads):

Time to study! I have another midterm tonight. Yuck. I can't wait for this work week to be over! Only one more day :)

See ya soon!

A First Time Favourite

This morning's breakfast was AAA-mazing. I don't know why I haven't tried this sooner. Well that's not entirely true. I do know why... because it's cold. I usually like to have a hot bowl of oats in the morning. But this morning it was tie to try the breakfast cookie.

Again, this idea is Gina's idea.

My cookie had:

1/3 cup oats
1/2 banana
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
1 tbsp cocao powder
splash of milk
sprinkling of toasted, unsweetened, shredded coconut

I have no words to describe how delicious and decadent this was. Mmmmmmm... excuse me while I go reminisce about my breakfast.