Tag: oatmeal

Right on schedule

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Well, everything’s back to normal with a full internship day on the horizon followed by class tonight. I spend 13 hours straight away from home on Mondays, and at least 3 of those hours take place on the subway! Sigh. Maybe I’ll have a car someday.

Breakfast this morning was more creamy oat bran with prune groatmeal topping, mmmm.

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Since I’m out of tofu, I made the oat bran a little bit differently last night. As usual, I cooked 1/4 cup oat bran with 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk on the stovetop, but I also added in 2 tbsp ground flax and an extra 1/4 cup water and let it boil for a minute. Once again, it thickened up successfully in the fridge overnight and reheated perfectly in the oven this morning.

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I topped the groatmeal with a spoonful of homemade sunflower seed butter and a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut:

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With a soymilked almond sunset/black tea combo on the side and a tall glass of water:

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I also went to this gym this morning and managed to enjoy it tremendously! My body has clearly missed it the past several days. I jogged there and back — the jogging still hurts, but I tried some of the simultaneous knee/butt kicks that Amy recommended to me last week, and they actually minimized the pain a bit and made me focus on lifting my legs up instead of just throwing them out in front of me … although I probably looked less than sane while doing them. Here are stats from the crazy jog, 20 minutes on the Stepmill at Level 11, two sets each of hip adductor, abductor, and glute machines, and 15 minutes on the elliptical cross-country program: 1 hour and 15 minutes, 588 calories (still WAY higher than normal), 145 average heart rate, 183 max (also higher than normal).

Some extra things to note:

First, biscotti bites are everywhere! Kelsey, winner of the jasmine tea biscotti bites in Meghann‘s bake sale, has received them and reviewed them here!

Next, To Be the Whole Package is hosting this week’s BSI contest. Go check it out and start thinking about your recipe!

Next next, enter the HangryPants Stonyfield giveaway by midnight tonight!

Finally, I’ve been tagged by Mara at What’s for Dinner? to complete this “Survey of 8s,” so here goes …

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

  1. income (start date of this is questionable …)
  2. the end of this semester
  3. the weekend!
  4. lunch
  5. Erin Gunn‘s wedding in October!
  6. consistently warm weather
  7. a life of traveling the world saving babies
  8. my next chance to sleep

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

  1. traverse the east coast (or at least the stretch between NC and NY)
  2. eat pancakes
  3. rock in a rocking chair
  4. take 3 trains (thank you, track construction) to get home from the airport
  5. cook
  6. nap on a plane
  7. unpack
  8. blog

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

  1. live alone
  2. use a car for errands once in a while
  3. run without pain
  4. travel the world saving babies (any ideas?) and eating fun food
  5. move south right now
  6. relax
  7. lie on a beach
  8. live closer to my family

(Note: I just realized that several of these wishes conflict! Hmmm, I am going to have to figure this out.)

8 Shows I Watch:

Is it completely terrible that I stopped watching TV when I started grad school in June 2007? There’s just no time! Sometimes I have the Food Network on for background noise.

8 People I Tag:

Many of you have probably been tagged already, so I’m just going to open the survey up to everyone reading this post! Let me know one thing you did yesterday, one thing you are looking forward to, and one thing you wish you could do (or more, if you feel like it!) 😀


Danger zone

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Breakfast this morning was delicious and complex:

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But before I get into the details of this multi-layer marvel, I have to fill you in on my morning at the gym 🙂 I did my Self Challenge strength workout last night before I went to bed so that I could focus on cardio this morning and get to work on time! I did 20 minutes on the Stepmill, 12 minutes on the elliptical, and 12 minutes on the treadmill (plus the jog to the gym and back and some stretching).

This was my first time back on the treadmill since the muscle-straining incident (which occurred outside and not on the treadmill, btw). Usually, 5.5 is a very comfortable treadmill pace for me that falls on the lower end of my treadmill speed range. This morning, 4.2 was all I could handle! Anything faster than that forced me into a too-long painful stride. My range of motion is so limited. I’m not a fan of being injured, and this slow recovery makes me nervous for both the 10k I’m running on May 9 and the half marathon I’m running on May 30. I suppose the flip-side is that the injury is seemingly forcing my body to work unusually hard for cardio and I burned something like 560 calories this morning. But I’d rather be burning fewer calories if it meant I were healed :/

Anyway, back to breakfast:

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I went Bob’s Red Mill crazy on this combo. Before I went to bed last night, I pulled out the crockpot and filled it it with two cups of whey from Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 cup BRM whole oat groats, 1/2 cup BRM triticale berries (similar to wheat berries), 1/2 cup pumpkin muffin crumbs (from the freezer), 1/2 cup chopped Newman’s Own prunes, and a big pile of cinnamon. I cooked the whole thing on low overnight.

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This morning, I cooked 1/4 cup BRM oat bran on the stovetop with 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk and then immersion blended it with 1/4 cup silken tofu. That became my base layer.

I topped the tofu oat bran base with 1/2 cup of the crockpot prune “groatmeal” and topped that with a tbsp of cashew-almond butter and a sprinkle of unsweetened shredded coconut.

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picture-526Exciting, right? It was quite the production! I’m looking forward to doing it again tomorrow, too!

When I got to work this morning, check out what was waiting. Our very own agency Martha Stewart (aka Jessica) was inspired to bake her famous mini-cupcakes by the tray from yesterday’s mini-pumpkin muffins. She just knew it would make the perfect carrying case for her signature goodies.

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I milked these two over the first two hours of the day.

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They were the perfect morning snack!

However, the entire tray of cupcakes spent the rest of the day on the infamous conference room table. Here’s the view from my desk:

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Where is the most dangerous spot to leave treats lying around in your life?

Also, The Professional Vegan did a great review post today of a NYT article about “aspiring vegans” who follow “veganish” lifestyles. This is relevant because the subject of the article, Jeffrey Masson, was interviewed at Angelica Kitchen, a fabulous vegan restaurant in NY where I have eaten!

Cake and cookies

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After the exercise class last night, I was only slightly hungry (and mostly tired) so I put together a little snacky plate with healthyish cheesecake, peanut roasted chickpeas, and prunes and apricots with PB2.

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There’s also a little piece of the caramel-nut-chocolate candy (on the stick) that my step-uncle gave me for Easter yesterday.

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As I mentioned, I took the Open Cardio Gyrokinesis class last night at the Madison Park location of kinespirit, a fancy gyrotonic studio, with the coupon that Melissa from Fitness NYC brought to the blogger brunch last month. Melissa very accurately reviewed and described the class here.

My experience was pretty much identical to Melissa’s (although my instructor was Christina). I was exhausted yesterday after work and almost didn’t go to the class at all, but I’m so glad I did! It was gentle and easy on my body and my poor strained glutes and hamstrings, yet it somehow snuck in a vigorous abs and arms workout I didn’t even realize I was getting. As Melissa explains in her review, gyrotonic seems sort of in the same family as pilates, although it is definitely NOT pilates. I was apprehensive going into the class because I don’t normally frequent this type of out-of-my-budget small private studio, but Christina and the rest of the staff were very welcoming, and I felt comfortable right from the start! Definitely check out Melissa’s review that I mentioned above and go experiment with some gyrotonic if it sounds good!

This morning …

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I’m quite enjoying this almond sunset tea! I probably need to rename it almond sunrise tea.

My breakfast cookie was such a success yesterday that I replicated it exactly for today’s breakfast:

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In case anyone is struggling with breakfast cookie texture, I’ve noticed a few key tricks that seems to help tremendously in solidifying the cookie in the fridge overnight:

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(1) As you mix the “cookie dough” the night before, it should be as close as possible to the consistency of real cookie dough. You should be able to pick up all the dough in your hands, roll it into a ball, and flatten it onto a plate. (For me, this involves adding no more than 1/2 tbsp of liquid, if even.)

(2) The addition of dried fruit works wonders because it helps the oats soak up all the moisture.

(3) Frosting makes everything better.

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I had a boat egg on the side again as well.

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Brandi asked yesterday why I called it a “boat egg.” Does anyone else do this? I thought it was a common thing, but maybe it’s just a weird family thing! My parents always called hard-boiled eggs sliced this way “boat eggs” when I was little. I think they did this for two reasons: (1) they sort of resemble little canoes in looks and in the way they slide around the plate (right?) and (2) it made the eggs more exciting for me to eat, along the same lines as “broccoli trees.”

Do you remember fun food names from your childhood that helped motivate you to eat?

Icy toes

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Brrrrr, my toes feel like they’re about to fall off! Why is it sooo cold again?! I had to return to all the layers for my jog to the gym this morning. Once there, I just did 25 minutes on the Stepmill since I got the strength out of the way in MA yesterday. Then, it was time to come home for breakfast!

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img_7853I had a perfect breakfast cookie waiting in the fridge this morning. No need to freeze this one! The cookie included 1/3 cup of Bob’s Red Mill extra thick oats, 1/3 mashed banana, 1 tbsp almond-cashew butter, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tbsp Newman’s dried berry blend, and the teeniest splash of soymilk. On top, I spread 2 tbsp PB2 (reconstituted with a splash of soymilk) and some nuts from the Easter candy my step-uncle gave me yesterday:

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For extra staying power, I had a boat egg on the side with spray butter and freshly ground black pepper:

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Plus another exciting new tea! I emailed Celential Seasonings a while back to say that I couldn’t find their dessert teas anywhere, so they sent me an entire box of Almond Sunset. I know this is breakfast time and not dessert time, but I had to try it out right away. I’m glad I did!

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And now, it’s time to head back to work. I always feel so out of sorts after extra days off. It’s hard to re-adjust! Plus, I’m fuh-reeeeeeeeeeeezing.

Do you go out in search of day-after-Easter candy sales?

Last chance for safe pistachios! Get your entry in by 6pm tonight.

Dessert again?

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Since I had cupcakes for dinner at work yesterday, I only had room for dessert last night.

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Wait is that some cupcake in there? How did that happen?! 😛

The platter (aka teacup saucer) included a slice of healthy cheese cake and two itty bitty pieces of cupcake that “didn’t fit” in the freezer container last night, along with a Newman’s prune and dried apricot and 1/3 cup of fresh pineapple.

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(Ugh, I hate the lighting in my apartment at night. Yellow always ends up looking so yellow.)

This also happened:

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Those are strawberries stuffed with cashew-almond butter and not chocolate. I’m aware that I’ve started to make this distinction every time the butter makes its appearance. I think it’s probably more to remind myself that, while I may have eaten an entire tub of chocolate frosting yesterday, these strawberries played no part in the incident.

img_75931I also mixed up today’s breakfast last night (and licked the bowl several times along the way). I’ve been wanting to try the Bob’s Red Mill extra thick rolled oats for ages since I love “bite and texture” in my food … and this package promised to deliver both of those critical elements. (I usually opt for steel-cut or whole oat groats because I know they’ll give me the right chew.) Would this extra thick variety would be any different from regular old-fashioned rolled oats?

Into the mix went 1/4 cup extra thick rolled oats, 1/4 cup  yogurt of the week, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, 2 tbsp PB2, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and 1 tbsp Newman’s dried berry blend. After a quiet night in the fridge and a quick stir, my overnight oats definitely passed the visual thickness test:

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They were so thick, in fact, that I actually added another splash of soymilk this morning (along with chopped strawberries and unsweetened coconut):

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And they were chewy, thank goodness! I can tell right now that they will be ideal breakfast cookie material. I’ll have to experiment further to see how the “extra-thickness” holds up on the stovetop.

On the side, I had a seven-legged creature made out of an oven-toasted slice of pumpkin muffin (from my freezer’s bread bag) with a melty tbsp of cashew-almond butter and more sliced strawberry:

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With soymilked mexican sweet chili tea:

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I’m enjoying my leisurely mini-break so far — no class today because of Passover and no work tomorrow because of Good Friday. There’s quite a bit on my list, but I’m fine with that since most of it is enjoyable!

Next on the agenda is my triumphant return to outside running! The sun is shining, my leg is feeling strong, and so am I 😀 I’m going to digest for a few, and then I will be gone with the wind. Just kidding. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Are you slow and steady or fast and furious?

(Do you like nuts? Go enter my Pistachi-YES giveaway!)