Eat Like a Warrior
Gooood morning 
Today I had a really early start, because I had to drive my mom to the airport at 5:30 am. My plan was to just roll out of bed and go, but I must’ve slept funny because my bangs were sticking straight out. It was so ridiculous that I actually had to wet them down and fix them to feel like I could even walk the 10 feet to my car in public 
When I got home my stomach was growling and I was looking at pictures of Robyn’s haul from America, so I had a pre-breakfast of a chocolate peppermint Luna bar before sleeping again for an hour or two.
Then it was time for my favourite morning of the week – yoga at Lululemon I’m not sure why I love yoga there so much, maybe it’s just because having so many people in a room flowing together makes me happy. Today we went through a power flow with lots of warrior poses, which are my favourite. I think I love them so much because they make me feel so powerful. A few years ago I was the person that rolled my eyes a little when people talked about doing yoga, but ever since I’ve started doing it myself I’ve really come to love it. I find it both calming and empowering, and love the mix of physical and spiritual. Today the instructor told us to let go of something inside ourselves to make room for something we wanted to bring in, and I thought about letting go of self-sabotage and self-destruction, and bringing in love and respect for myself.
I hope that’s not like a wish, where if you tell someone it doesn’t come true 
After yoga I hurried home to shower and eat a quick breakfast so I can head out to downtown for some quick shopping before the blogger meet-up. All through yoga I was dreaming about the perfect bowl of oats -
Chocolatey Oats with Cherry-Banana Soft Serve
Oats:
- 1/3 cup oats
- 1/3 cup chocolate almond milk
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp whey protein
- 1tbsp chia seeds
Soft Serve:
- 1/2 large banana, frozen
- handful of cherres, frozen
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
It was just as delicious as it looked I basically inhaled it within seconds. Also – I think I forgot to mention this before, but I picked up the aquamarine bowl on Canada Day from the Anthropologie in Yorkville. They have a whole bunch of different colours for only $6 each, and it’s definitely my new favourite!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to pretty myself and get my butt on the highway, because there’s a mug at Urban Outfitters that’s been on my mind for over a month now, and it’s calling to me. Have a great Sunday!
Time Warp
Life has been extremely stressful for me lately. Between putting in extra hours at work due to being crazy-busy, my mom being home for a short while, trying to make it out to the gym, cooking healthily and blogging, I feel like my time just disappears! Today I wasn’t feeling very well (probably due to too little sleep and too much coffee), so I decided to skip Zumba for the night and relax at home. Before I knew it, it was already 9:30 and I hadn’t even blogged yet! 
Breakfast followed the “omgrushed!” theme, and was the end of a greek yogurt container filled with an extremely overripe banana, chocolate syrup, cocoa powder, agave, coconut and a chunk of coconut butter. The chocolate syrup was totally necessary for a day like today I also brought some granola on the side to pour in, but I ended up just eating it out of the baggie.
Somehow I managed to squeeze in lunch during the day, which consisted of a salad, a crazy-looking pear, some baby carrots and snow peas, and the Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna bar I’ve been carrying around ever since Monday because it never ended up eaten.
The salad was garden lettuce + steamed kale, topped with a fried egg, chickpeas, avocado and dijon + honey.
By the time I left work I wasn’t feeling very well, and I decided that a relaxing night at home would probably be more beneficial to my body than a Zumba class, even though I haven’t done anything really active since my run on Sunday. I stopped by the grocery store to get some fresh fruit and other essentials, and headed straight home after. My stomach was feeling a little woozy, so I decided to stick with some soup and a small salad for dinner.
Soup was Amy’s alphabet with a big dollop of plain yogurt (grocery store was out of greek again!!), and the salad was spinach + blue cheese dressing with a chicken tender from the freezer, just because.
I won’t admit how much time and effort that took me 
It’s hothothot here, and even though I have the AC blasting, I was still craving something cold for dessert. Especially something that would pair nicely with the jumbo bag of chocolate chips I just bought BSS seemed like a good idea, so I popped some bananas + soymilk + vanilla into the blender and ended up with a creamy bowl of goodness.
I think I underestimated how much banana I put into the blender, because it made a monster bowl of soft serve! I ate it all though, and enjoyed it thoroughly 
I also might’ve snuck a few extra handfuls of chocolate chips – they’re my absolute favourite and are dangerous to have around!
As an extra way to try and save some time everyday, I downloaded Ecto to try out for the 21-day trial period. I’ve heard good things about it and thought that it might be worth the investment because I tend to be very busy, especially during school. This is my first entry using it, and it seems pretty good so far! It might be a keeper Anyway, I’m off to cuddle with my whale and hopefully sleep for a solid 8 hours. Good night!
What strategies do you have for saving time?
Read MoreThe Monday Blues
Man, it’s hard coming back to work after a long weekend, especially when it was 4 days! We’re really busy at work right now, though, so I feel like I’m running around all day. I had to be in extra early today so I threw together a quick breakfast of greek yogurt + blueberries + bananas + granola -
My other granola that I bought at the farmer’s market forever ago passed it’s “best before” date, so I chucked it and got some new Bear Naked granola instead. I liked the taste of the old granola, but it just wasn’t crunchy enough for me so I was a little glad. The Bear Naked stuff was really good – nice and crunchy and sweet
For lunch I threw together a bunch of fresh ingredients -
The same salad I had on the weekend that I LOVED, some watermelon with coarsely chopped mint, a bag of baby carrots and a Peppermint Stick Luna Bar.
Melon + mint = mindblowing. Where has it been all my life? Some other noteworthy duos:
- cinnamon + hummus
- chocolate + PB/mint/coconut/sea salt/anything
- nut butter + jam
- pineapple + salt
- avocado + soy sauce
- tuna + mayo
- aloe + yogurt
- pumpkin + oatmeal
Now I’m off to battle traffic to visit my boyfriend about an hour away because I’m sad and miss him 
[Can I get an "Awwwww..."? ] Hopefully it won’t be too bad – apparently the Queen is in town which I’m assuming doesn’t happen very often.
What are some of your favourite “duos”? Mine is Callie + Nate ["Awwwww..."x2]
Family, Food, Friday
Hello beautiful blog friends Hope you all had a fantastic Friday! I started my day off early because Nate had to work at 8, so I decided to finally check out the gym here (since I’ll be working out at here once I move back for school) by trying out the Body Pump class. Before I left, I ate half of a Luna bar -
FYI, these aren’t available in Canada but I picked up a box of them the last time I was in the States. This is by far my favourite flavour! They taste exactly like the Girl Scout chocolate mint cookies
I was really impressed with the gym – I’m used to a small women’s only one, and this one had both co-ed and women’s only areas and classes. The changing room was so big that I actually got lost! I was a little underwhelmed in Body Pump just because I think that the instructor wasn’t as energetic as the ones I’m used to, and she used more straight techno tracks than pop ones, but it was still a good workout. I also ran for 10 minutes after class which felt awesome! I’m so excited to work out here in the fall 
After the gym I knew I needed hydration but I really wasn’t feeling water, so I stopped at Starbucks and got myself a treat -
Unsweetened iced passion tea ♥ I had the other half of my Luna bar with it, and enjoyed the glorious weather outside.
By the time I got home I was sooooo unmotivated to do anything (including shower), so I basically sat around until I knew I had to get my butt moving. We were going to a family get together and I was in charge of bringing some appetizers, so I had to start cooking! After a much-needed shower, I threw together a quick lunch with some fresh produce from the garden at Nate’s house.
He gives me fresh-grown lettuce and kale – I’m pretty lucky I steamed some of the kale and mixed it with a small head of lettuce, and topped it with chickpeas + blueberries + cucumbers + avocado + blue cheese dressing.
Love blueberries in salads! This was probably THE best salad I’ve ever had. I even saved some chickpeas so I can make another one tomorrow!
And I had some cherries on the side -
There was a big bowl of them in the fridge, so I kept grabbing handfuls as I was cooking And I cooked up a storm! My mom told my family I was bringing 3 dips even though I was only planning 2, but I was up for the challenge! I made the following 3:
- Strawberry Salsa from Michael Smith
- Grilled Peach Salsa from FSTG website
- Cinnamon Hummus from me!
iPhone instructions!
I actually came close to cutting my finger! I did chop off part of my nail, but I made sure the salsas weren’t contaminated. It was more embarrassing than anything 
I’m so accident-prone in the kitchen.
I wanted to make some type of “dessert hummus” but none of the recipes I found really appealed to me, so I decided to just kinda throw my own together.
Cinnamon Hummus
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked chickpeas
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1-2 tbsp cinnamon
Directions
- After cooking chickpeas appropriately, combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Add more cinnamon to taste, if desired.
- Add water until desired consistency is reached.
- Enjoy!
The hummus was fabulous – it tasted exactly like cinnamon sugar toast to me! I think I’m in love.
All packed up and ready to go! When we got there I plated it up all nice and pretty
We brought along Chocolate and Multigrain FSTG chips for dipping, as well as some other grainy crackers.
I was a little afraid that my family wouldn’t like the dips because they’re a little different, but everyone seemed to love them! I think the hummus was the overall favourite, but they were all enjoyed My grandma also brought her famous crab dip, which is always my favourite – I definitely ate my fill of all four!
Throughout the night I sipped a glass of pinot grigio, which I really enjoyed -
Family fun!
My aunt made dinner, which was cannelloni and lasagna with a greek-type salad that had goat cheese on top. I really liked the salad
With some sparkling water for the DD
Our July get together is always to celebrate all the summer birthdays in the family, so there’s always some kind of “birthday cake” at the end. My aunt made a really nice trifle for everyone to enjoy (after candles were blown out and pictures were taken, of course) -
I’m really into light, summery food right now so this was the perfect end to the meal Our family doesn’t get the chance to get together very often during the year because everyone is busy and all over the province, but it’s nice when we do get the time.
What occasions does your family get together for?
Read MoreCarrots N’ Clif
Speedy breakfast today! Carrot cake Clif bar + organic cream cheese for some “frosting” and a little extra staying power (and a camera-shy iced coffee).
This was my first time trying this flavour after hearing tons of positive feedback about it, and it was pretty delicious! I still think that I like chocolate chip better, but the carrot cake + cream cheese was rockin’.
I love energy bars for the times when I’m on the go and don’t have time to make a proper meal, but I find that a lot of them don’t really hold me over that well (remember the Larabar incident?). I really like Clif bars, but I still think that Luna bars are my favourite They’re the perfect amount to be eaten as a snack, or paired with a piece of fruit for a whole meal.
What’s your favourite kind of energy bar?
Read More
