Tag: oatmeal

Anecdotes of unfurling?

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You all had such creative ideas for alternate blog titles. (And thanks for giving me today’s title, Emily!) If you feel like you could use a little Wednesday laugh session, take a look at the list I’ve compiled at the bottom of this post 🙂

So breakfast was of course a cup of Almond-Infused Rosemary-Lemonade crockpot oats:

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Mmm, I seriously feel like I’m drinking lemonade (a sophisticated, grown-up version with the rosemary and all, of course) when I eat these oats.

Also check out that big goopy spoonful of Hangry Heather-style homemade banana-almond butter. (Gotta give credit where credit is due, even though she called me a freak for dunking my bread in tea :P) I mashed 1 tsp banana with 1 tsp almond dust butter, and it came together scrumptiously.

On the side, I had 1/2 cup yogurt with 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola, unsweetened coconut, and 2 crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses:

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And if you look closely, you can see a evidence of my soymilky black tea and water in the background:

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I can’t wait until natural light decides to come back in time for my oats! Breakfast without it just looks so drab and tired.

And now, welcome to the alternate-blog universe! You could even make it into a game if you really wanted and try to guess the actual blog before clicking on the link to find the answer …

Nibbles of 24 hours

Lime Puppy Booze

Cleansing Agent and Essential Nutrient

A blog in college: because you drink too much or Humanity: maintain it through eating real food and moving more than your fingers on the keyboard

A Twelvemonth of able-bodied gourmandization

Sufficiently Toothsome

Plantain Shack or la casa del platano

And the one that started it all:

Fairly Naive Damsel or Foxy Jade Lassie or Somewhat Youthful Lady

(Plus two antonym submissions: Fat for Free and MealButt)

(And Emily’s poetic ideas for me, one of which became the title for my post: ” stories of growth?  yarns of gain?  annecdotes of unfurling?”)

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Narrative of Increase

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Just kidding — still Tales of Expansion here. (That probably makes no sense unless you read last night’s post, so go read it!). Maybe I should come up with a different synonym title for every post this week …

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I switched the exercise routine this morning since I’m planning on running club tonight. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical at the gym and then came home for 20 minutes of Yoga for Runners #1. This class was MUCH more manageable than the last time I attempted it! I still got confused in a couple of spots — especially since I couldn’t find the pose guide that came with the download — but I stuck it out until the end. I guess all the Gentle Hatha #1 is paying off … and there I was thinking all I was doing was stretching! Stats for jog to and from gym, elliptical, and yoga: 1 hour and 21 minutes, 341 calories, average heart rate 106, max 155.

Breakfast was another cup of my exciting new Almond-Infused Rosemary-Lemonade crockpot oats with 1/2 cup yogurt, unsweetened coconut, 2 crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses, 1 tsp homemade almond butter, and 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola:

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And more chocolate tea (black tea, unsweeteed cocoa powder, cinnamon, cayenne, splash unsweetened silk) on the side:

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Back to blog title synonyms, Janet from Pretty Green Girl left a comment last night with a few synonyms for her own blog: “Based on a quick scan of thesaurus.com, I’m thinking… Fairly Naive Damsel. Or Foxy Jade Lassie. Or Somewhat Youthful Lady. Ok, that one totally depresses me. ;)” Her comment got me laughing and thinking that this would be a fun activity. So, what’s YOUR blog title synonym?

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I’ve got my badge — it’s over to the right, below all the Foodbuzz stuff.  It’s quick and free, so go get the badge and fight global warming, too!

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Dark and dreary

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Well, it’s back to pitch-black mornings, thanks to daylight savings! I was so excited last week that the sunlight had finally started to peek through at 6:30 am when I was leaving the gym, but those days are over. No sun until 7:15 now! Despite the darkness, I had a great arms and steps workout this morning. Stats: 1 hour and 6 minutes, 459 calories, 136 average heart rate, 168 max.

Breakfast was a cup of my latest oatmeal concoction: Almond-Infused Rosemary-Lemonade crockpot oats!

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Yum, they tasted just like summer!

With the oats, I had 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1 tbsp unsweetened coconut, 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola, and this gorgeous tsp of homemade almond butter:

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And two crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses:

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My beverage of the morning was “chocolate tea“:

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The tea included 1 black tea bag, 1 sugar cookie sleigh ride tea bag, 1 scant tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, a splash of unsweetened soymilk, liberal cinnamon, and a hefty sprinkle of cayenne. Nothing like spicy and bitter chocolate to zap some light into the day!

Did daylight savings time affect your morning?

Scrappy afternoon

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Ayyy, I spent all day yesterday doing homework for my group presentation tonight. As I worked, I snacked. Homework and snacks are a match made in heaven. Am I right, or am I right?

I transferred Brigitte’s no-bake-cookies-and-cream birthday cake from its foil tin to covered tupperwares to allow for easier stacking. And then I licked the tin and the foil:

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And I also had this little end of the 2nd to last log of cake because it “didn’t fit” in the tupperware:

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I munched on a fresh pineapple core while chopping (and nibbling on) the rest:

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I made crockpot oats for the week and “sampled” some of the ingredients that you see here while I prepped, because have you ever been able to resist of pile of chopped dates and toasted almonds just sitting in front of you? Didn’t think so.

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After all of that food-prep snacking, dinner ended up being a pretty light (and late) affair. I had about 1/2 cup of this week’s oatmeal concoction (details to come in my next post) piping hot and straight out of the crockpot, topped with some Heather-inspired chocolate mousse and 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola:

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To make the mousse, I combined about 2/3 cup cooked whole wheat couscous (left over from roommate Tara’s lunches last week) with 1/2 an avocado, 1 tsp maple cream, 2 tbsp soymilk, and 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder:

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And because I couldn’t stop and I’m a volume fiend, I also added 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 1/4 cup healthy cream cheese icing, and 1/4 cup pumpkin. Post-immersion blending:

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Hmm, looks suspiciously like chocolate frosting, right? These proportions made about 1 1/4 cups of mousse. I half-froze 1/4 cup, and that’s what I used to top my hot dinner oats. It was like an ice cream brownie sundae … except not on a brownie.

Anyway, the mousse was delicious, and I am now the world’s biggest fan of this avocado trick. Thanks, Heather!

Do you eat while you cook?

Clickity clack clickity clack

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That’s the sound of me typing all day long. Can you hear it?

I’ll give you one guess about the identity of my breakfast …

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Yes, another Fitnessista breakfast cookie! This one was a little bit unconventional, as it involved me repurposing one portion of last week’s pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats. Last night, I stirred together a cup of the oats, 2 tbsp nonfat powdered milk, 1 chopped square of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, and 1 tbsp peanut butter. It was super wet because the oats were already cooked, so I put it in the freezer overnight and let it thaw for about 20 minutes this morning before I ate it, topped with cocoa powder and healthy cream cheese icing 😀

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With soymilky black tea and extra icing on the side:

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More clickity clack clickity clack until I got hungry around 11:30. Lunch was a hodgepodge of fun treats:

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A bit of Rooms’ black bean salad from linner yesterday mixed with a spoonful of salsa and topped with plain yogurt and pumpkin seeds:

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And an approximately 2 tbsp mix of “overflow” pumpkin gingerbread crockpot oats and yogurt topped with cardamom:

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And the best part: two baby raisin walnut toasts, one with homemade cashew butter (left) and one with homemade almond butter (right):
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That’s right, last night I attempted production of my own nut butters!

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, especially after drooling over Heather’s recent nutty creations. Unfortunately, I think I need to concede defeat to my Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus and accept that I just don’t have the proper equipment for making nut-only nut butter. You can see the crumbly texture in the pictures above — which I love — but these butters are more the press-on-and-smush-down sort than the spreadable sort.

I know I could have added oil to pull things together, but I really didn’t want anything in there except for the nuts themslves! I finally compromised by adding a tablespoon of peanut butter (with peanuts as the only ingredient) to each batch, and the addition made my butters passably smushable — without the extra pb, they were just dry powders! Anyway, crumbliness aside, my homemade nut butters/powders are still delicious and were an excellent topping for the raisin walnut toasts this afternoon.

I was still hungry around 1, so I made a quick mix of 1/4 cup pumpkin, 2 tbsp healthy cream cheese icing, and 2 tbsp plain yogurt — topped with 1 tbsp vanilla-almond granola and 1 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds:

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And now it’s back to the books.

I have two questions for you today:

1. Are you inside or outside?

2. Does the work ever end???