Changes

Hello everyone,

I've decided that I'm ready to bring my blog to the next level, and I'm happy to announce that I will now be blogging from my very own domain:

www.callieflowerkitchen.com

The site is still looking a little skeletal, but I'll be working on it in the coming weeks, and this way I can still blog while going through the transition. I've already updated with a few posts explaining the move a little more, as well as my activity for the past few days. Please update all your links, and I hope to see you on the new site! :)

-Callie

Scheduled Relaxation

This morning started off on the right foot - the boyfriend and I woke up with no help from alarm clocks, and made a nice breakfast of coffee and pumpkin pancakes.

I know he loves regular pancakes, but I always bulk them up with healthy ingredients like pumpkin, oats and protein for some added nutrition and staying power. It didn't seem like he minded too much ;)

I used the same recipe I posted last time, but I doubled it to feed both of us, and subbed in oats for half of the flour for a more nutty texture. They didn't end up looking all that beautiful, but they tasted great and now I'm ready for the day ahead.

I had 3 plates like this, topped with a little bit of natural peanut butter mixed with maple syrup, yum!

We have lots planned - including grocery shopping, a walk, errands, other shopping, etc - but it should still be a pretty low-key, relaxing day. See you later! :)

Iron Man

This morning started off great. I've recently developed an obsession with Peanut Butter Puffins, so I think Tina must've been reading my mind when she posted about her PBP Smoothie! ;)

I downsized the calories a bit, and made mine with:

• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 2/3 scoop vanilla protein
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1/2 serving Peanut Butter Puffins
• 1/2 frozen banana
• lots of ice

It was AMAZING! And it actually kept me full until lunch, which I was a little surprised about because smoothies usually don't hold me over for long.

My lunch photo was a little ugly today, but the food itself was delicious. I dug a bag of shirataki noodles out of my fridge, and cooked it up with some onion, spinach and sesame sauce, and threw a fried egg on top. The usual snacks tagged along.

I also snuck a diet coke from work, oops! I was never big on pop, but lately I've been drinking a lot of diet coke. I've been trying to cut back as part of my effort to eat more natural foods, but it's hard to resist the zero-cal sweet treat when you're bored in the office.

I prepared a special dinner for the boyfriend today: Japanese curry slow-cooked all day in the crock pot. It was my first time making curry in a crock pot, but it turned out absolutely awesome and I can't wait to have the leftovers for dinner tomorrow!

All I did was chop up the following and combine them in the crock pot:

• 1 large carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 1 large potato
• 2 chicken breasts
• 4 cubes of curry roux (can be found at most asian grocery stores)

And I left it on low for about 8 hours, and gave it a quick stir on high once I got home. I had preset the rice maker too, and it was nice to have it all ready when I got home from errands and the gym :) To make the evening even more relaxing, we shared a bottle of St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale, which wasn't as light and sweet as I expected, but still very good.

Eating my dinner.

We decided to go see Iron Man 2 tonight, and got to the theatre really early because Nathan insisted it would be packed. It was actually almost completely empty when we got there, but it filled up closer to show time, so I guess it was a good thing we went a bit sooner.

I did have time to grab a frozen yogurt though, with blackberries and pineapple mixed in. Yum!

The movie was good, but the frozen yogurt stole the show for me ;) By the time we got home I was hungry again, so I ate 3 dried dates (not pictured) and one of the homemade rolls Nathan's mom made for me.

I think those were caraway seeds, and they were delicious!

We have a fun and busy day planned out for tomorrow, so I want to get my butt into bed asap. Goodnight bloggers, see you all tomorrow!

The Little Lunch That Couldn't

So the nice lunch I posted earlier today didn't end up happening. I guess the soup had been in the cupboard longer than I had thought, and the 2008 best before date made me think that maybe it wasn't the best choice. I ended up going out to Tim Hortons with some co-workers, and got some chicken noodle soup and a multigrain bagel with cream cheese. No picture though :( I also ended up eating all the snacks I had brought with my lunch other than the actual soup and ham.

When I got home I felt so hungry that I just wanted something very bulky that had a stick-to-your-ribs filling factor, so of course I went to pumpkin oats. I really bulked them up!

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 small banana
• 1 tbsp chia seeds

The bowl was huge and really filled me up. I love pumpkin oats :D

I was craving something sweet (as always) later at night, so I had the other half of the banana from my oats with some raw chocolate syrup.

It got really messy by the time I took the picture!

I kind of feel like I'm coming down with something, so I spent the night drinking tea and resting. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow, because it's almost the weekend and I want to enjoy my days off. Goodnight!

Snooze x 10

I don't know why, but I haven't been sleeping very well lately. I think it's because I find it so difficult to turn off the tv and laptop and just let myself relax. I think I need to start putting more focus into really getting rid of all distractions at night so that I can rest properly.

This morning was another late start, so I grabbed a Clif bar for a quick breakfast.



Luckily I had packed my lunch last night! I'm trying to use up all the food that's going to go bad or I've had for a really long time, just to reduce waste, because I hate throwing out food.



Today's apple is the Cripps Pink :) I plan on stirring the chopped ham into the Soup at Hand, which should be pretty healthy (except for the massive amount of sodium).

Have a great day!

"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?