"Me" Day

I slept in a little today, so breakfast was on the go. I packed myself my last freezer bagel with nutella, and some "tropical fruit salad", aka mango + banana + coconut. There was supposed to be some pineapple in there too, but it had been in the fridge for a questionable amount of time and smelled a little off, so I decided to pass.

The fruit salad was awesome! I wish I had more mango left so I could make more, but unfortunately it was my last as well.

Lunch was round two of the lunch I had brought the day before. Work ended up ordering in chinese, but I stuck with my salad instead. (Note - I ate the dark chocolate coconut Kashi bar yesterday - today was actually a chocolate raspberry one.)

I ended up eating my whole lunch at noon, so by the time I got home I was starving! Didn't plan that out very well :S I had some carrot sticks to tide me over until dinner.

I also finally dug my teapot out of the pile of stuff I still haven't bothered to unpack after my move, so I've been sipping some nice green tea all night.

I missed my teapot ♥

I feel like I'm always on the go - out shopping, at the gym, working, running errands - and my muscles are really aching from my workout on Monday, so I decided to take a "me" day. A day where I come straight home after work and do nothing. What better way to have a me day than to have chocolate pudding for dinner?

It may look like just a bowl of granola and strawberries (there were a ton of berries), but there was some pudding hidden in there!

It wasn't actually a real chocolate pudding, more of a mad science yogurt mix. I basically combined the following in a saucepan:

• 200g vanilla yogurt
• 1 piece Lindt dark chocolate
• 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 packets Truvia
• sprinkle of gelatin

And then threw it in the freezer for about half an hour, because I'm impatient and wanted to eat it NOW. It thickened up really nicely, and I was actually a little surprised that it worked out so well. It tasted a little more tart than regular pudding (probably because of the yogurt), but it was still really delicious.

After dinner my sweet tooth still wasn't satisfied, so I had a couple pieces of the Lindt chocolate, and a scoop of peanut butter on a spoon. Just one of those "I want to eat everything" kind of days, you know?

Now I'm on a tea-only diet until bed, which will hopefully be sooner than later. I want to be completely rested tomorrow from my relaxing night!

What do you do to relax?

Also, look out for some big changes on my blog in what will hopefully be the near future! ;)

Ohmmm

I have so many nut butters now, I barely even know what to do with them. I think I have more nut butters than any single person really needs. I have peanut butter (2 jars!), chocolate peanut butter, almond butter, macadamia nut butter, nutella, tahini and coconut butter. Oh my gosh! How did I end up with so much? I'm on a nut butter-buying ban until some of these jars disappear, no matter how delicious it looks in the store!

I decided to dip into an old favourite - nutella - for breakfast today.

I had it on a bagel that's been in my freezer for ages now, with some strawberries. I always forget how much I love nutella until I have it again! I remember when I was a child my mom would very rarely buy it because I would just sit and eat it with a spoon from the jar. Pure heaven.

I had a very busy day at work, and even though I brought my lunch I ended up eating a quarter chicken meal from Swiss Chalet. I still ate the apple and Kashi bar I brought as a snack, but the picture of the whole thing will have to wait until tomorrow!

I ended up going shopping after work because I was in desperate need of tank tops for the gym (I picked up 4 for about $20!), and got home later than expected. I knew I wouldn't have time to cook anything before yoga, so I had a bowl of strawberries to tide me over.

Yoga was just okay - the regular instructor still wasn't back due to an injury, and I'm not a big fan of her substitute. It was more like an hour of very light stretching and meditation, which I wasn't too worried about because I'm still so sore from yesterday.

Dinner was butter-lemon spaghetti with shrimp, and I bulked it up with some cherry tomatoes.

It was good - not the best dinner I've ever made, but still pretty tasty. Now I'm just tired, and can't wait to curl up in bed with my book, and some chocolate and tea.

Goodnight bloggies!

What kind of nut butter do you like best?

Back From the Dead

Wow, it's been a while since I last blogged! My internet unexpectedly died, and it took me all week to get it sorted out. I'm still not sure that everything is fully resolved, but at least it works for now.

I started off my morning with a complimentary yoga class at Lululemon (which I hope will become a routine that I can speak more about), and when I got home I refuelled with a chocolate banana protein shake that had one frozen banana, one scoop of chocolate protein powder and one cup of almond milk in it. Yum!

After I got ready for the day, I had a real breakfast of eggs and toast with some peanut butter, which really hit the spot. I'd been craving eggs for a while so it was nice to finally have some!

My day was spent out and about, and I stopped at Starbucks in the afternoon for an iced coffee and some free wifi ;) I also had my apple with vanilla yogurt + cinnamon to snack on.

I've been wanting to make a recipe I saw on television a while ago, Squash Gratin from Ricardo and Friends, so I finally decided that today was the day. I went to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients, and it must've been meant to be:

I got the very last butternut squash! What are the odds? By the time I got home from shopping I was already starving but I knew the recipe would take at least an hour and a half to make, so I snacked on some crackers (that I ate before I could get anywhere near a camera), and some strawberries in a cute fish bowl I got from Target on my trip to Buffalo.

The strawberries were amazingly sweet and juicy! This made me excited for all the wonderful summer fruits to come in season again :) My snack held me over well until dinner, which I also enjoyed in my fish bowl.

After two hours of waiting and cooking, the end result was just okay. I think that roasting the squash with some butter and brown sugar would be a lot easier (and possibly tastier), but I'm still glad I got to try the recipe out.

Because I haven't baked anything in a while, I also decided to go for another recipe that I saw: Brown Butter Blondies. I knew this one would be delicious, because Michael Smith is my kitchen hero and has never steered me wrong before ;) I don't think anything that went into the batter was very healthy - brown butter, brown sugar, butterscotch chips ... definitely a delicious combination, though! Ready to go in the oven:

And ready to go into my stomach:

It was sooo delicious and sweet and buttery, oh my gosh! Even just thinking about it now makes me want one. I ended up eating two squares, plus a bunch of crumbs from the pan while I was cutting up the remainder, and a few butterscotch chips might've found their way out of the bag as well. Oops! :$

The rest is packed up to take into work tomorrow or in the freezer to eat some other time, so I should be safe for now. Anyway, it's getting late and I have a date with a book. Good night! ♥

Busy Un-Busy Day

Now that school is over, I feel like I don't know what to do with myself. When I had to study all the time I just wanted to be able to sit and do nothing, and now that I have nothing to do I want to be busy! I guess the grass is just always greener on the other side, eh?

For breakfast I cut up the strawberries I had that were getting a little old, and topped them with some nonfat yogurt and that amazing granola I bought yesterday! I also used up the last of my iced coffee and milk.

Doesn't that look delicious!? I basically spent the rest of the morning packing boxes and doing laundry and showering and making myself presentable enough to venture into public, with breaks about every 5 minutes. I'm surprised I had enough focus to whip up some chicken salad for lunch! I added some carrots and scallion for a little extra veggie power, and put it on a bed of spinach with some honey-multigrain pretzels on the side.

After lunch I was still hungry, so I had a banana.

And then after some more housework (and breaks), I was still hungry so I had a smoothie with milk, frozen mango and vanilla protein powder.

And then while I was driving around doing some errands, I munched on some of the green beans from the market, but didn't take a picture :( I was craving some fries around dinnertime, so I cut up my last sweet potato and baked it in the oven with some canola oil, with some pesto mayo to dip the fries in.

Usually this is one of my favourites, but today the fries turned out just okay. I think it's because I normally peel sweet potatoes, but today I was feeling lazy and left the skin on, which made them a little tough. Oh well, lesson learned!

I don't know what's up with me today, but I'm feeling so hungry. I just want to eat the world! I had some chocolate peanut butter ice cream for dessert:

And then a second dessert of a banana with peanut butter, and the rest of the mini Lindt eggs. Aaaand my spoon might've found it's way back into the peanut butter jar...

Today's just a peanut buttery day ;) I'm going to make myself a cup of tea or chew some cinnamon gum before the whole jar disappears, and hopefully have a relaxing end to the evening. Good night everyone ♥