Back on track

I was SO glad to get back to work today! I did not realize how much I actually enjoyed my job until now. It's not so much the job, as it is the people, the scenery, the not hacking up a lung. Although I still do have a nasty cough. Oh well, if nothing else it elicits looks of sympathy and pity from coworkers. That almost makes it worth it.

I started the day off with a new combination of foods. Yesterday, in the midst of sickness and boredom, I sliced my first fresh pineapple! I even watched a video on YouTube about how to do it. (The Internet: Not Just For Food Blogs Anymore). I don't mind canned pineapple for baking, but if I'm going to eat it straight up, it MUST be fresh. Fresh pineapple is one of my favourite foods, especially when mixed with coconut.

I did not have any coconut. I did have cottage cheese, though, my second favourite choice for mixing it with. I had some pineapple, cottage cheese, and a bit of this Probiotic cereal from Kashi.

It was a great combination.

It was also great to have a Larabar for a snack. I only have these when I'm not at home. Since I've been at home so much this week, the Larabars had to wait. This was a new flavour. Excellent, as Larabars always are.

For lunch, I had a whole wheat wrap with spinach, hummus, tomato, cucumber, 1/2 avocado and salsa.

It was excellent, but I ate it so fast! Salads make me pace myself. On my daily lunchbreak walk, I came across some "50% off" danishes (My daily lunchbreak walk happened to make a detour through the bakery section of the market; I have no idea how that happened!). I must have looked ridiculous, because I literally picked up the package of danishes, inspected them closely, put them back on the shelf, hesitated, and then picked them back up again. After much thought and deliberation, I gently placed them back on the shelf. This is the turmoil that is my life! I was very close to buying them, but some how, some way, did not. Miracles do happen. Yes, I am overly dramatic.

I ended up having a large coffee and a 3:30 pm apple. They were ok. They were no danish.

For dinner, I mixed some of my spinach pasta and whole wheat pasta and made a tomato sauce with zucchini, mushroom, onions, garlic and veggie ground round. Topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese, this was a satisfying meal.

For dessert, I had more fresh pineapple, a sliced kiwi, and some strawberries. I tried to make tea but there was an incident involving curdled milk. Hate that!

Tomorrow is FRIIIDAAAAYYY. I am meeting some friends for some mid-day dessert and coffee, so that should be an exercise in self-restraint! Hubs and I are planning a pizza and movie night, too. There will be some good eating. Glad I said no to those danishes when I did, 50% off or not!

Becoming Sick

I am still fighting this nasty cold. I would have stayed home today, but I just hate the thought of work accumulating on my desk. It is funny to talk about healthy eating when I am feeling so unhealthy - but the healthy eating must continue! For the sake of my health, but more so for the sake of the blog!

This is a pretty sight. I cut these from my peony bush. I've got pink ones out front and white ones out back. The white ones are just starting to bloom.

Wait, this blog is called Becoming Health, not Becoming A Gardener! Onwards and upwards...

For breakfast, I had a Classic: about 3/4 cup of Dorset Muesli, 1/2 cup of plain non-fat yogurt, 1 sliced banana, and 1 spoonful of almond butter. Delicious!

For a snack, I mixed the classics of cherries and walnuts. Instead of making muffins or cake, I just ate, well, cherries and walnuts! (Tasty, but not as good as cherry walnut muffins!)

For lunch, I loaded up on the veggies with another salad. What made this salad special was the large number of pecans I put on top. I love pecans! Too bad they are so expensive. This salad also had hummus, avocado, and sliced figs with fig balsamic vinaigrette, along with the usual assortment of veg. I always use spinach in salads, not only because I buy it for my Green Monsters, but because spinach is much healthier for you than lettuce.

Since I wasn't feeling well, I treated myself to a medium-sized non-fat vanilla latte from Second Cup, the best creator of lattes this side of the Canadian-American border! Sorry Starbucks.

I still ate my 3:30 apple, because, well, it was 3:30 pm! No picture :(

For dinner, I made an egg burrito. Ooh, a new addition to the flog. I took a whole wheat tortilla (worth about 200 calories) and loaded it up with 1 egg and 2 egg whites fried with broccoli, zucchini, tomato and feta cheese. I topped it with some salsa and had a cup of guava juice for some extra Vitamin C.

I foresee many more egg burritos in my immediate future.

Now I haven't had dessert because it is only 6:21 pm. However, I had to take a picture of this slice of blueberry coffee cake that I intend to eat in the next hour or so. I made this on the weekend based on a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. It is VERY GOOD and I definitely recommend it.

Hubby just read a section of the paper to me. Paul McCartney wants the world to have Meatless Mondays in which people abstain from meat one day of the week to help the environment. Did you know that a vegetarian or vegan diet is the #1 thing you can do for the environment, even more than driving a hybrid or recycling or praying to the moon goddess in your birthday suit (?). Yes, this is true. Ok, enough proselytizing for one flog entry.

Muffin Tops

I am writing this with a warm, fresh-from-the-oven blueberry muffin in my mouth. I don't want it to end! Holy cow, are they ever good. Moment of silence, please.

Thank you.

Well this was quite a good day! You will soon see why...

For breakfast, I had one slice of the sunflower seed loaf with jam, a hard-boiled egg, and a Green Monster made very simply with:

• 1 banana
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 cups of spinach

I am all about the simple. This was one of my favourites, probably because the full banana made it thick and sweet and there wasn't any protein powder or flax to make it a bit more bitter. Very tasty.
For a morning snack, I brought about 3/4 cup of 1% cottage cheese with some sliced strawberries and blueberries. The combination of strawberries and blueberries makes me think of summer! Now if only Mother Nature would realize that summer will be here next week so she should start ACTING like it's summer. Stay tuned 3 weeks from now when I complain about the heat.
I am on a major salad kick these days. There is nothing I'd rather have than a salad for lunch. It takes a while to eat and is full of such a variety of foods. What else can compare? This salad was made with the usual conglomeration of vegetables, along with walnuts, sliced figs, feta, and fig balsamic dressing.
Then I went all crazy on my lunch break and got my hair cut! This was today's impulsive action. I have had passing thoughts about getting a hair cut and then, all of a sudden, I knew I had to do it! I knew I had to do it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I get this way with haircuts and books. Sometimes, I just hear about a book and need to read it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE so I run out to the bookstore and pay full price for a book that I usually only half-read. Gah! It is tough being me. At least I am kind of cute. And, obviously, modest.

Once I came down off my HAIR HIGH, I ate an apple. No picture. I had other, more important things on my mind!

For dinner, I kept it light with a toasted sandwich made with hummus, tomato, spinach and cucumber, along with a sliced carrot and cucumber to dip in a tablespoon of raw almond butter.

I kept it light because I knew, beyond all reasonable doubt, that I would be making blueberry muffins from scratch this evening and that one, possibly two, of these muffins would end up in my belly. Indeed, they did.

These muffins are AMAZING and so simple to make! I will now write out the recipe to:

ROBYN'S SCRUMPTIOUS MUFFINS, NOW STARRING BLUEBERRIES

As great as it would be to make these all year round, they are the very best when made with fresh blueberries. I found some fantastic ones at the market today.

To make 9 big crazy muffins:

• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line muffin tray.

2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and powder. Place oil in a measuring cup; add egg and enough milk to make it one cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries.

3. Fill muffin cups and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

You will not be disappointed! It is not a modified-for-health recipe. Sometimes, it is just nice to eat something that tastes like grandma made it, y'know?

Well it has been an exciting day, what with hairs being removed and muffins being baked. I am pooped!

Nut Fiend

Whoops! I never got around to posting last night's meal starring spinach noodles. I got side-tracked by one husband, a baseball game, and tying up disposable knives and forks in napkins with hemp string for a friend's large wedding celebration happening in a few weeks. It was a wild Friday night, to say the least. It was so cute to watch the hubs help me. He is not the most dexterous of folks, but he really put in a lot of effort to help me. I hope that the wedding attendees appreciate his craftiness!

Last night's meal was delicious. Spinach noodles taste exactly like regular old spaghetti noodles. I should have realized that! But it was still fun to eat green noodles.

I cut up a ton of veggies including asparagus, zucchini, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms and marinated them in about 2 Tbsps of olive oil and a capful of lemon juice. I roasted them in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 F.



I sprinkled about 2 Tbsps of parmesan cheese on top.  C'est magnifique!

For dessert, I purchased this dark chocolate bar from The Big Carrot. I liked that it was sugar-free, but I was not a Smart Shopper because I failed to look at the ingredient list until I got home. Well, the sugar was replaced with maltitol. Artificial sweetener!!!

I had a couple of chunks, though, and it was pretty dang tasty. I couldn't tell it was artificially sweetened. At some point yesterday, I did experience some weird stomach cramps, but I thought it was from all of the nuts I've been eating (I have been a little nut fiend lately! Maybe that should be my new nickname. "Yo, where is nut fiend at? Oh, she's updating her flog (food + blog)"). In any event, I wonder if my stomach cramping was due to the maltitol. I kind of hope it was, so I can continue to prove that artificial sweeteners are the work of the devil! Perhaps that is a a slight exaggeration.

What made wrapping knives and forks in napkins all night bearable, was some delicious coffee. This little nut fiend can't get enough of coffee!

Well, this morning I am heading away for a bachelorette cottage weekend. To prepare for such an event, I have steadied myself with a Green Monster and half of an orange chocolate scone. This GM contains the usual:

• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 banana
• 2 strawberries
• 2 cups of spinach
• 1 scoop of hemp protein powder

I will try to continue taking pictures of my eats this weekend. This will be a true challenge but I think I am up for it!

Food is what makes the ride worthwhile

Since the hubs tried his first Green Monster, I had to capture the experience on film. This was taken about 40 seconds after he got out of bed. I am a GREAT wife (yes, he is drinking it out of a Corona bottle that was blown into a glass!)

This was taken pre-taste. Post-taste was a bit too difficult to get on camera because there was too much Green Monster Action.

So another Monday has come and another Monday has almost gone. I am looking forward to an evening of reality television (Intervention is one of my favourite shows!).

I started the week off right with a Breakfast Cookie.  This one contained:

• 1/3 cup quick oats
• 1/2 banana
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 1 spoonful of flax meal
• 1 spoonful of peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp pepitas
• 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened dessicated coconut

Good stuff when paired with a bowl of strawberries.

For a snack, I tapped into a new container of cottage cheese topped with frozen blueberries.

For lunch, I had some leftover bean salad with some spinach and tomato. Whenever I make a batch of bean salad, I feel like it lasts for days and I have some at every meal. Beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat, I am going to stop right there :)

(I also had two slices of ezekiel bread with lunch)

My afternoon snack was a good old-fashioned apple.  It was kind of on the small side.  I did not approve of this!

For dinner, I made the curried eggplant dish.  It turned out very good!  I subbed in a can of diced tomatoes and I didn't have fresh basil on hand so I used dried, but overall it was very tasty.  My only complaint is that it wasn't filling enough.  I had 1/2 cup of quinoa which I thought would be enough (it is a super grain, after all), but nope.  So I had another spoonful of the eggplant mixture which helped a tiny bit.
And to finish off the day, I had a cup of lemon green tea with a ginger molasses cookie (one of the ones I baked on Friday that did NOT get burned) and a strawberry. With the flower I received at the bridal shower, this makes for a rather quaint photo op.

This is a very sweet quote, although I find it equally as sweet if you replace "love" with "food"!

So much Internet, so little time!

A few days away from my beloved Macbook and I am trying to catch up on my favourite livejournals, health food blogs, and - out of pure necessity -  the celebrity gossip!  Without the Internet, cable, telephone or really even clocks around to tell the time, I've been able to keep productive and focussed.  I was up, dressed, had breakfast, swept the floor, and baked a batch of scones all before 10:30 am.  This is VERY out of character.  No worries, though, because now that I am re-connected to the outside world, I will be sure to stop productivity altogether!

Today was another "good" day, in terms of healthy eating.  Having the day off from work definitely helps with that.  For breakfast, I had 3/4 cup spelt flakes with 1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt, one sliced banana, and some raw trail mix on top.  It was a very satisfying breakfast.  It was my first time trying spelt but not my last!  Oh no.  Not my last.

We had the cable/phone/Internet installed and then went out to run errands, so I didn't really have a proper lunch.  For my first snack, I had an apple and almond butter (polished off that jar, onto the next!)

For my second snack, I was stuck in a car so I was forced against my will to eat a delicious Larabar.  It had chili and cocoa in it.  I approve of this combination.

By the time I got home, it was almost 3:00 pm and I was STARVING (caps necessary).  I had one of the blueberry scones I baked earlier in the day.  I used my favourite scone recipe from the cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance but I attempted to health-ify the recipe.  I substituted 1.5 cups of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat, and subbed 1/6th of the oil with apple sauce.  They were pretty good for being health-ified!  I had one along with the last of the chickpea and olive salad.

I was still hungry, so I finished off some pasta salad too.  I probably didn't need this, but I wanted it.

For dinner, I tried out some new recipes.  Since I've forfeited the idea of kale in Green Monsters, I decided to cook it with some lemon and garlic.  I added too much lemon juice and it was SOUR.  I made this Greek Frittata from a recipe in a recent issue of Women's Health.  Only 206 calories per serving and I get to eat eggs and feta cheese?  Sign me up.  It was really delicious.  And, lastly, I had a simple baked sweet potato topped with some non-fat plain yogurt and cinnamon.  Triple deliciousness.

Now I am just drinking some lemon green tea and eagerly anticipating the premiere of Jon and Kate Plus 8.  Or should that be Jon Plus 4 and Kate Plus 4?  I have to admit, I am a sucker for other people's drama.  It is even better when it is televised.