Sad Smoothie

This face is the reason I just got back from a 3 mile dash of a walk on the creek path .

So pitiful Lily .

Rather than fix myself up at my vanity when I came back , I threw some laundry in, threw some consumables together and am now throwing this blog together :)

Yesterday there were veggies.
Wait.
When are there not veggies?

On my CSN bamboo cutting board, leftover chopped onions from Taco night , broccoli, carrot and some dirty mushrooms.

.

Choppe and cleaned and slightly softened them in a skillet with some sunflower oil . I added a bit of chicken broth , fat free cream cheese and some pre cooked bow tie pasta.

Yum.

I love dishes that are filling and delicious but don't leave me feeling bloated and heavy . Especially in this heat.

After the dash, I thought a smoothie was in order. Thought being the key word here people.

Whole Food Vega Smoothie Mix ( I used probably 1 tbsp of the package)

Maranatha's Organic Smooth Peanut Butter ( 1 tbsp) YEY for my fav peanut butter being back in stock .

1/4 cup of 2 % Milk

1 frozen and unpictured banana

1/4 cup of chopped strawberries also unpictured

couple handfuls of baby spinach

I was surprised that what appeared to be about 1/4 of a blender full , filled up my sbux cup and a club glass.

I was also surprised that while this mix tasted amazing it made me feel very phelm-y . Perhaps it was the milk or combo of milk AND banana . I couldn't drink more than the club glass .



Ready to gnaw off my hand at this point, I grabbed the quickest thing . A cheddar and herb bagel from Superstore's bakery section, and smeared half of it with herb and garlic cream cheese.

I paired it with a homemade iced coffee in yet another starbucks cup ( I have all the cute ones ) because I need fuel and it's too hot for, hot coffee.

What's your favorite smoothie mix ?

What items do you hate in your smoothie ?

A Cool Sleep In

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning .

It was another scorcher yesterday ( and today again ) and even though we finally installed the air conditioner , it didn't actually get cool in here until this morning.

I tossed and turned all night and felt like I woke up every ten minutes. Of course this caused me to sleep in and by the time I woke up I could have made it to class but chose the newly cooled apartment instead.

I wasn't in the mood for hot coffee but was a bit leery of making iced coffee , even though I've seen it all over the blogosphere. Mine never tasted right. It either tasted old or weak or just too sweet.

I know . I know. Who am I ? Goldilocks?

I followed Tina's directions and took a mug of brewed Tim Hortons and put it in the freezer while I took Lily for a walk. Came back and added a couple ice cubes, sugar free Hazelnut creamer and some sweetener.

DELICIOUS!

So wished I would have put more coffee in the fridge .

I didn't have breakfast so I was hungry for lunch early.

I made a can of tuna with light mayo and chopped dill pickles and spread some on whole wheat bread.

Not the prettiest picture but it was tasty.

And of course 'tis the season.

Strawberries with a hidden glob of peanut butter. I'm obsessed.

Do you like iced coffee? How do you make your iced drinks?

-A

Random Facts and Dog Food

Hey :)

Yesterday's afternoon eats started with this :

Some of my new favorite peanut butter and a sliced banana.

Random fact #1 : I cannot eat a banana unsliced. Freaks me the hell out.

Unfortunately , or fortunately, depending how you look at it . There was far too much drizzly peanut butter in ratio to the amount of sliced banana. So I used some of the homemade granola from the other day, trying my hardest to not eat any raisins.

Random Fact #2: Raisins remind me of potato bugs and I despise them.

When I say this peanut butter was drizzly, I do not lie.

While we're on the subject of peanut butter , I would like to discuss this exhibit above the text.

Behold an empty jar of Maranatha's Peanut Butter. Notice the emptiness of said jar.

I do not know how you people ever get to consume oats in a jar because when my jar is empty , it is EMPTY!

Moving along.

Random fact #3 : There are approximatly 5 jars of nut butters in my fridge and cupboards currently, yet I really really want to buy another jar of the Maranatha's PB . It was so good. I really love the texture of it .

Bf and I took Lily on a walk this afternoon near the lake ( Ontario). I took this picture from above and shortly after while trying to get to the lower area where bf and Lily were, by way of one of those rocky clif like things you see in the picture, I slid down .

Damn flipflops.

Thankfully it was just a scratch, a sore ass and a wet and sandy pair of capris when a soaking puppy came to my rescue.

Random Fact #4: Some bull dogs cannot swim. It's pretty much 50:50 as far as whether they will be able to swim or not.

After the walk, Bf went and purchased new tires for the truck and brought us back and unpictured lunch from my favorite deli style restaurant. I had the usual , turkey club, hold the tomatoes, mayo on the side with fries and gravy and he got his usual, the roast beef dip with onion rings and stole my gravy and ate my coleslaw.

Random fact #5 I hate coleslaw and cabbage entirely.

After eating we went to Petsmart where I spent far too much considering I went in for food. Lily got a new girly collar and matching leash along with a stuffed duck, purple and girly colored rope, equally girlie colored giant tennis ball and a bag of Blue Buffalo Dog Cookies. She is spoiled.

Apparently this was too much for her because she promptly passed out on the couch person style for the remainder of the afternoon.

To those that have asked , Lily is an American Bulldog :)

Aww. Bf trying to get Lily to stop wiggling or something.

Does Lily like treats?

She likes these ones :)

And thankfully I like the ingredients.

They are made by Holistic Blend . There were about five ingredients and they were all things I had in my cupboard. I grabbed these at Superstore before finding the Blue Buffalo health bar treats at Petsmart.

Random Fact #6 : I am an impulse shopper.

Do you buy on impulse often or do you plan and research before making a purchase?What was your last impulse buy?

Tell me a random fact of your own !

-A

Double Dinner

Yesterday started with loads of strawberries . LOVE them .

I can't wait until they are in actual season here.

THIS also happened yesterday .

I got snacky and figured I'd try out my new peanut butter.

I loved Maranatha's Almond Butter so since their Peanut Butter was on sale at Superstore , I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Verdict ?

I loved it. It is much runnier than the organic peanut butter I am used to but I think it would be awesome in oatmeal :D

Then THIS happened.

Pizza.

The bf wanted to order some but I really wanted to try to recreate a cheeseburger pizza we had ages ago, that is only sold in humongo sizes

Obviously he didn't take much convincing .

I use a dough recipe I found on All Recipes and used half Organic Whole Wheat and half Organic White flour , instead of all white.

I browned 1/2 a lb of ground beef on the stove, and some diced bacon ( seperately ) and added them to the sauced crust ,and topped with cheese. One half was cheeseburger and the other was bacon cheeseburger.

Obviously we loved it!

So much so that since there are leftover ingredients , I'm going to make it again !

What dish do you love enough to eat two nights in a row?

-A

Whats In Your Bowl

Yesterday ended with another one of these guys.

They're not my favorite cracker. I'd rather have a Breton but at least these are some what healthy.They do taste kinda.... dusty though.

And today started with another mess of a bowl.

I'm out of oats so I figured I'd use Bob's Muesli as the main component rather than a topper like I had been using it.

How was it?

It was full of almond slices and fruit like thingsbut it had a pretty different taste than oats. I don't think I'd like a bowl of it again.

What's in your bowl? Oat bran? Old fashioned?Steel cut?

Granola Love

I've been eating a lot of messes lately.
Like this bowl of PC Omega Fruit and Nut Granola with PB.

And this one .

Same granola. Sans peanut butter. Addition of skim milk .

This was delicious but my stomach hated me for it.

I never drink milk . I use it sparingly in cooking but never actually have amounts like this. I don't understand why it bothers my stomach so much . I eat a lot of cheese and my stomach enjoys that.

As you can see I really love this granola. So much so that I teensy dipping bowl of it while putting off cooking dinner :)

That's all I have in me for now.

DONE like this Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Granola Bar. More like an oat-y chocolate bar.

What's your favorite "junk-y" granola bar?

-A

Heaven Sandwich and My Blobbiness

Hey :)

I loved that Apple Cinnamon Bread. It turned out much better than the original time I made it. It was incredibly moist and banana bread like in texture.

Of course I enjoyed some with some Organic P.B.

So good.

Unfortunately I should have froze half of the loaf because I ended up throwing most of it out :(

Yesterday I got some new shirts and a couple pairs of jeans.

This is one of the shirts I grabbed from AE. It says " Friends With Benefits " on it.

And yes I really am that blobby.

My blobbiness did not put me off too much because while shopping I picked up my favorite sandwich to bring home for lunch. Obviously I didn't make it but while describing said sandwich to my wonderful friend Chunks ( she does not live up to her name! ) I took a pic at her request.

Yup I did eat the other half pre photo.

Roast Turkey Club from Druxy's.

Light Rye, Mayo (reduced fat ) , Swiss Cheese, Lettuce,Bacon and Turkey.

HEAVEN .

It was sooooo good.

Tonight on this rainy Saturday , I am going to attempt to make calzones /panzerotti for the bf . It's one of his favorites and I have a lot of leftovers from making pizzas earlier in the week that I'd like to use up .

I've never made a pizza dough or calzone dough , so this will be a first.

What's on your favorite pizza?
Any tried and true dough recipes?

-A

Banana Issues and Ugly Food

I have a banana issue.

No matter how much I try , I always buy the biggest bunch of bananas. There are only two of us and they never get eaten . I already have an arsenol of frozen bananas for baking ( and oatmeal :) so that's not an option .

I saw a lot of homemade granola bar recipes hanging around so I thought I'd try to make one similar to the beloved 4 dollar Pro Bar.

The recipe I used was from Smitten Kitchen I believe but I altered it so much it's unrecognizable.

1 cup of Bobs Organic Oats
1/2 cup of Bobs Museli
1/2 cup of the PC Blue Menu Granola w/ fruit and nuts
2 bananas smashed
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of PC Celeb calorie reduced
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tbsp of vanilla
1/4 cup of maple syrup ( thank god for my step-mother's mom . I use this stuff alot instead of sugar)
1/4 cup of organic brown sugar

Mixed it all together and baked for about 30 minutes or until the edges were brown .

And here they are .

They are good and filling which is what I wanted. I wanted my version of a homemade Clif Bar or Pro Bar. They were not as banana-y as the pro bar and nowhere near as sweet as any bar I've ever bought but they were yummy .

I will defintely tweak this recipe and make again !

All wrapped up . I am so good at cutting evenly.

*

After a less than stellar morning at school I came home and pretty much devoured this bowl.

The usual Bobs with some organic peanut butter, half of a ripe banana and the rest of my Kashi sample

As for tonight, well I know neither of these look very appetizing right now but I promise it is going to make the yummiest chicken pot pie ever!!!

What's your ugliest fav food ?

-A