"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?

Lazy Morning

Today was supposed to be productive, but it just didn't end up happening. I enjoyed a nice morning of doing absolutely nothing useful, which is necessary sometimes. For breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal:

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 spoonfuls non-fat yogurt
• 1 1/3 tbsp macadamia nut butter
• squirt of agave nectar

I really liked the chia seeds in the mix - it made the oats nice and fluffy. I also had a side of grapefruit, which was so juicy I needed to eat it over the sink.

Yesterday I picked up a new kind of tea from Whole Foods - Four O' Clock Chocolate Spice. I love chocolate, so I figured it was worth a try. I brewed the tea last night, and made a latte with it this morning. I really liked the chocolate spice taste, but it was very week, even after brewing all night. I think two teabags are necessary, but because they were so expensive I'm not sure this would be a regular product for me.

Last night I also made some Coconut Curry Hummus, modified a little from Kath's recipe. It was amazing! I'm not really a fan of store-bought hummus, which I find kind of strange because I love chickpeas, so I think it's the flavouring manufacturers use. I'll definitely be making my own hummus from now on. The recipe for the way I made it can be found here.

I enjoyed some for lunch today with multigrain pretzel twists and some veggies. Yum!

The boyfriend came over in the afternoon, and we went out to do some shopping. While we were checking out furniture at Ikea, I got one of their frozen yogurts (which are delicious!).

Nathan got a little more than me.

I was craving frozen yogurt all day, so it really hit the spot.

Right now we're just waiting for some shrimp to defrost so we can cook a nice dinner together. See you all after some good food and wine ;)