Dinner

I accomplished astoundingly little with an unplanned free morning (cancellation)...but went to work for the afternoon and then hit the gym. I finally got my new orthotics yesterday, and broke them in at the gym today, and so far no problems! I think I worked harder today than I have in a long time...I'm already weak and sore (but in a good way).

Super hungry when I got home..so I made this big bowl of yumminess:

1 oz buckwheat soba noodles (cooked, obviously).
1/2 avacado
1/2 red pepper
1 stalk of celery
1 bunch of alfalfa sprouts
olives
1 left over garbanzo patty (see last post for recipe) crumbled up
balsamic dressing (1 T mayo, some nutritional yeast, some water, and balsamic vinegar mixed together).

Very very good. I put it all in a big square white serving bowl I have...for some reason when I put things in that bowl I like them even better.

Sorry no picture!!

Now watching Bones and waiting for D. to call to say he's ready to be picked up.

Mini Break

D. and I are thankfully both healthy now, so we can enjoy our mini-break weekend! It's been a busy and tiring week, but good. I've eaten healthily and made it to the gym twice. I have been partly motivated by wanting to be able to relax and enjoy this weekend!

I worked all day yesterday with one team, then after word hit the gym and then went to pick up D. at the skytrain. I was super hungry and (oddly enough) craving these simple garbanzo bean burgers we've made once before. They totally hit the spot (I had them alongside a salad, but had them for lunch today in a sandwich). Here are the directions ( I can't remember where I found this now...it's loosely based on something...sorry I can't remember what!!):

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Garbanzo Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

1 can (2cups) garbanzo beans mashed (I mashed them in batches in a morter and pestle).
1 carrot (very finely chopped).
1 stalk celery (very finely chopped).
1 small onion (very finely chopped).
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 whole wheat flower
2T oil (for frying)
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Mix everything together. Form the mixture into 6 patties.
2. Fry the patties on one side with 1 T oil. When you flip them add the second T oil.

These are SO simlple, but SO stinking good!!!

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We slept in ridiculously late today (11am!!!) and layed in bed and read books for a while with our coffee (the perfect Saturday morning). I've finished off a bit of work I had to do, and now can start getting ready to leave for our overnight mini-break!

D.'s work party is at a fancy hotel downtown, and we're staying the night at the hotel and have arranged for late check-out so we can laze around!! We so need this little break. It's so exciting!! I bought a fantastic new dress, and can't wait to start getting ready. We'll check into the hotel a couple of hours before the party starts, so I'll have time to do most of the getting ready there.

Off I go!!

this week and today

I finally submitted the first draft of my thesis to my supervisor yesterday. I took this past week (mostly) off of work in order to complete it. Thankfully, I was able to make good use of the time and get it done!

I forgot to get bananas yesterday when I went shopping. Sad. I was so looking forward to whipped banana oatmeal this morning!

Today:
- 4-hour work meeting (likely tense - ick.).
- invoicing
- make revisions to my thesis if I have recieved feedback from my supervisor
- something fun tonight (not sure what, but something fun)

Frittata

I had a long video conference today, and forgot to eat beforehand. so, for the last 30 minutes or so I was thinking about what I would eat. I have run out of left over turkey soup...so needed something else that I would make once and eat for a couple of days while sick. I've never made Frittata's because I've never had a frying pan that can go in the oven..and all the recipes suggest this. I finally bought such a pan though, and I had all the ingredients so thought I'd give it a shot. The procedures are loosely based on a basic Frittata receipe in the Moosewood cookbook. Here's what I did:

I sauteed almost 2 cups of quartered, thinly sliced red potatoes, 1 small thinly sliced onion, a handful of washed and chopped green beans, 2-3 garlic pressed garlic cloves, 3 large sliced mushrooms, and half a red pepper in 3 T olive oil (I would reduce this in the future....this was less than the Moosewood cookbook called for, but still more than necessary I think).

While that was cooking I whisked together 8 eggs and 1 Cup of plain almond milk.

I added salt and pepper to the potato-onion-etc. mixture, poured the eggs + milk overtop and let it cook on low on the stovetop while I grated 4 oz light cheddar cheese.

I sprinkled the cheese on top and put the whole thing into the oven, uncovered. Bake for 25minutes until puffed up and golden.

I'm not a big fan of eggs that are "browned" in any way (I never order omlettes) but I really loved this! This is not a low-fat version really though. I had room in my daily points to have the higher-fat version, but you could easily substitute egg whites for some of the eggs, and probably could cut the cheese in half and still have a pretty fantastic frittata. I ate this on it's own because salad is not all that appealing when you're sick. But, it would be perfect with a salad and not much else as it's super filling!

It made 4 large servings, 6 medium servings or 8 small servings.

Making the best of it...

I had a work appointment at 8am this morning. After getting up at 5:30, running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pull together everything (work stuff, gym stuff, lunch) I'd need for the next 14 hours (big break between 2 appointments close together then a WW meeting in the evening), dropping D. off at the bus, and getting about 1/4 of the way to the appointment, I got a text message saying it was canceled! Arg!

I fought the urg to go back home and go to bed (also feeling a need to do SOMETHING out of the house first thing, since I got up so early) and went to the gym. After the gym I went grocery shopping and came home and put ingredients for a turkey-fennel-squash-white-bean type soup/chili/I'm not sure what to call it into the slow cooker. Now I have a couple of hours to work from home before I have to leave for my afternoon appointment. So, at least we now have a healthy, warm, comforting meal for dinner, and grocery shopping is done. I just know I would have ended up going shopping after my WW meeting tonight and then wold have been grumpy, hungry, and tired when I got home and have no idea what to make still.

Though, bed is still looking like a mighty good place to spend the next 2 hours. I will resist.

Gift basket!

The other day, I got a call from a health food and vitamin store saying I'd won a gift basket. Initially I was confused....I wasn't sure I'd been there or entered any contest. Then I vaguely remembered needing oil of oregano (GOOD oil of oregano) when I was sick, and stumbling upon a health food store locally. I must have entered a contest when I bought the O of O. So I picked up the basket, and as it turns out it is a fantastic basket of goodness! Here are some highlights:

"Tart is Smart" cherry juice concentrate....full of antioxidants and other good stuff...

A natural cold and flu remedy/pill, natural motion sickness pills and dental products that apparently strengthen your teeth like flouride (without the flouride of course).
Fabric softener, and Redmond clay - which apparently can be used as a facial mask, as a poultice for any number of ailments or ingested for digestive health? I think I'll stick to using it as a face mask, given the stared note on the back: "This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA..."
Bath and body product galore!

Hazelnut Agave nectar, and two types of specialty salts! I didn't even know hazelnut agave existed. I use agave fairly regularly, but this hazelnut agave is out of this world!! I wish you could smell and taste it...but you can't. I will definately be purchasing this again! I decided to break in the hazelnut agave nectar drizzled on top of pumpkin oats! I made some for both D. and I this morning. Pumpkin oats recipe as on Kath's blog, but with pecans, balken yogurt, coconut (on top instead of inside) and the hazelnut agave drizzled on top. Heavenly breakfast. And, believe it or not - still healthy and full of goodness!!

Fall-tastic

I managed to hit up the market yesterday, and they have wonderful crisp yummy apples now. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with giddiness about fall. When I was growing up, I think Halloween (and "fall" in general) was my favorite time of year. We to have a bon fire and make caramel apples, and have fire works every halloween. My mom would make a big pot of chili and hot dogs and we'd have these when we returned home from trick-or-treating. I just love the cool crispness of fall, and that smell the air gets....I'm not sure what it is...rotting leaves maybe? It's just great. For an easy dinner last night I had a cut up apple, left over quinoa stew and a tortilla (amazing 12g of fibre tortillas from Ralph's) with the last of some basil-avacado dip spread on it and some parmesan cheese. I heated it in a frying pan for a bit so the cheese would melt.
MMMmmm......It was a good dinner. And easy. Which is pretty darn important these days. I'm going to pick up some pumpkin and make a pumpkin porcini soup from the moosewood book for dinner tonight I think.

I'm working from home till about 2:30 today....and have a really long to-do list to get through. We'll see how far I can get. I'd better get showered and moving if I hope to have any chance at getting through it!