Tag: Giveaway

The heat is on

11 Comments

Wow, sleeping until 6 is such a luxury! I hope I don’t get too used to it 😛

Heat story #1: I woke up and sat on a heating pad for 10 minutes. Then, I tied the heating pad to the top of my right thigh with a belt and dove into Gentle Hatha Yoga #1. I’m still feeling the pain, but it’s definitely getting better!

img_7003

Breakfast this morning was a second incarnation of protein porridge. I was craving a more “old-fashioned” flavor combo this time, so last night I mixed 1 cup of the porridge with 1 tbsp molasses, 2 tbsp raisins, cinnamon, and a crushed clove.

Heat story #2: This morning, the “oats” (just kidding, since there are no oats in here!) went in the oven (covered) for 30 minutes at 375.

img_6991

Heat story #3: While the porridge was in the oven, I tried to straighten my hair with the iron to address some of the style damage Supercuts did yesterday during the balding session. Since there was not much for the iron to grasp, this heat story was not as successful as the previous two.

Heat story #4: My apartment felt really warm, and I realized the heat was up to 70! I turned it off.

So back to the food. I layered the heated porridge over 1/2 cup Greek yogurt + part-skim ricotta blend and topped it with vanilla-almond granola, crumbled graham sticks, unsweetened coconut, and an extra little circle of raisins:

img_6987

Are you hot or cold?

Remember to enter my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway!

And check out this week’s BSI hosted by Ruth at Plentiful Plants. She’s doing avocado!!!!

Scrump-dip-liumptious

17 Comments

Woohoo, the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway is off to a great start! Keep those entries coming!

In other exciting news, I am back safe and sound from the doctor. While waiting to go in for my appointment, I took this beauty out of the candy jar:

img_6945

The outside was a white mint candy, and the inside was a real chocolate surprise, mmm.

The doctor pressed a lot of muscles in my back and in my leg, but nothing she did caused extra pain, so she thinks I had a big muscle spasm that resulted in some sort of enzyme explosion that is now causing me discomfort (or this is at least what I gathered from the broken English). She prescribed me an anti-inflammatory (which I’m debating about even fulfilling since I can just use ibuprofen) and sent me on my way with instructions to wait three more days before exercise and to try some stretching in the meantime. So I have big gentle yoga plans for tomorrow morning.

On the way home from the doctor, I stopped into my favorite beauty salon hair hackery, aka Supercuts, for a discount trim that turned into OMG, I have no hair left. Whatev, it will grow back in a month! I also snacked on three Newman’s Own Organics cinnamon mints. I’m actually enjoying these mints because (1) I don’t go through them the way I go through gum since they don’t have the addictive chew and (2) I’m not loading my body with weird chemicals and sugar-free sugars.

Also, in typical “expansion” style, I stopped into two gourmet markets on my way home (it was my first foray outside in over 48 hours!!) for samples: cotswald, gruyere, and fontina cheese cubes; roast chicken on a toothpick; and a tomato and mozzarella wrap sliver :D.

Dinner tonight was more snackiness since I haven’t been doing so much food prep the past couple of days:

img_6958

img_6948Doesn’t it kind of look like a head, with wild soy crisp hair on top, guac and salsa eyes, and crazy apple teeth?

Those soy crisps are the Newman’s white cheddar kind … and they’re super tasty! I generally don’t buy snack foods like this, but if you do, these won’t let you down. They were especially delicious dipped into the salsa and homemade guac:

img_6964

The other dinner component involved two slices of pumpernickel baguette toast topped with about 1 tbsp of super-dark cashew-almond butter (told you I roasted the nuts too long!) and some apple slivers for color:

img_6960

Dessert was the stuff dreams (or my dreams, at least!) are made of: the rest of the apple slices dipped in leftover cheesecake batter (!!!!) from a roommate project and crumbled graham sticks.

img_6984

I have two questions for you tonight:

1. What is your favorite dip concoction?

2. Did you get any good news today?

And remember to enter the Bob’s Red Mill giveaway if you have not done so already!


Southern comfort and a GIVEAWAY!!

179 Comments

Before you find about about the giveaway, of course, you get to hear about the yummy lunch I cooked heated.

This lunch was inspired by the south because (1) I wish the weather here were warmer, (2) I love country music and that’s something southern, too, and (3) I’m temporarily (I hope) an invalid and happened to have some frozen and canned ingredients on hand that fit this theme brilliantly.

img_69414

That’s right, collard greens, baked beans, and cornbread!! YUM 😀

I made and froze these sweet collard greens a few weeks ago (remember when I brought home those huge bags of them from the food pantry overflow at work?) using Kath’s recipe here.

img_6943

Seriously delicious. If you ever find yourself with collard greens on your hands, img_6940this is the way to cook them!

I also rummaged around and found this can of fat free vegetarian baked beans in the cupboard that didn’t really seem to belong to anyone. Since it didn’t belong to anyone, it belonged to me:

img_6942

And on the side, I had 1/2 piece of the cornbread that I brought home and froze after dinner at BBQ two weeks ago:

img_69441

Perfect! I felt like I was in Arkansas or somewhere while I was eating this 😛

Earlier, I snacked on two biscotti bites (and a piece of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that “broke off” when I was rummaging through the freezer cookie bag for the bites) with this delicious Tazo tea sample I had lying around:

img_6939

Normally, I’m not into fruit teas … but something about the lemony-mango-ness of this tea reeled me in, and I loved it. It would be amazing in oatmeal, I’m sure. Look at the gorgeous color!

img_69381

OK OK, I suppose it’s time. You all know how I LOVE my whole grains (case in point: this morning’s protein porridge). Well, Bob’s Red Mill, home of what is probably the most extensive selection of whole grains/seeds/nuts/beans/baking mixes/flours ever, has generously offered to send FIVE lucky readers a full package of the food item of their choice (from the list of categories I just mentioned). This is a very exciting giveaway because it means you could pick out a familiar staple (such as oats) to replenish your supply … or you could go totally wild and experiment with something new (my suggestion) like whole grain chocolate cake mix or organic amaranth grain.

How to enter:

Step 1. Visit the Bob’s Red Mill website and select the one food product you would most like to try (again, from the list of categories I mentioned above).

Step 2. Leave me a comment with your selection!

Step 3. Link back to this contest on your blog to help me spread the word! If you like me, you can also add me to your blogroll, but this is not mandatory as that is a very personal decision 😛 If you don’t have a blog, email me at talesofexpansion@gmail.com after you leave your comment to let me know this is the case and that you still want to enter.

Step 4. I will randomly choose the five winners Sunday, April 5, so you have until NOON on that day to enter.

While you’re busy contemplating your next whole grain experiment, I will be at my doctor’s office. I’m so relieved I was able to get an appointment this afternoon — hopefully I can make it there without getting stuck on the subway steps … and hopefully the injury is just a simple muscle issue that will fix itself with rest. Eeek!

Ready, set, go!