Tag: tea

Limbs of lead

8 Comments

I woke up with a growling tummy this morning. How is that possible after all I ate yesterday? Empty calories will do it every time, I suppose. I had a giant spoonful (about 1/4 cup) of fruit salad from yesterday’s produce leftovers before heading out for my run around 7.

img_4701

I kept the run short — about 2.5 miles — because my legs still feel like lead from the re-introduction of a different strength workout (scroll down to find the “Reach Your Goal 2008 Workout” video here) on Tuesday morning, and I wanted to leave enough time for a thorough stretch with yogadownload’s Gentle Hatha #1. This run was so tedious — my hamstrings just refused to warm up. And I don’t know if my HRM was acting up or if my heart was really going wild at some point along the way, but look at how high it went! Stats: 28 minutes, 212 calories, average heart rate 143, max 216. Coming back in for the yoga (and for breakfast) was a big relief.

img_4691

I heated 3/4 cup banana bread crockpot oats and added 1/2 cup yogurt, sprinkles of nutmeg and coconut, and a spoonful of peanut butter.

I had the oats with my soymilky black tea and a flower because I was trying to channel the breakfast romance that Miss Banana Cabana conjurs every morning with her breakfast arrangements:

img_4696

(But I don’t think my arrangement had quite the same effect as hers, somehow.)

I was in the mood for more of a mess, so I splattered the pb from my spoon all over the oats to shake things up:

img_4699

Speaking of crockpot oats, Abbie at Foods That Fit is working on putting together a blogger cookbook! Imagine: all the recipes that you want to try from all over the internet compiled neatly in one simple location. Check out her cookbook post (that just happens to include my recipe for crockpot oats in the sample photo :-D) for more details about how you can contribute AND get your hands on a copy for free!

I left at 10 to head up to Hunter for the day. I usually have class on Thursdays, but it was cancelled today for Common Day. Hunter does this a few times every year with lectures and workshops on a single theme (today’s theme was racism) from 11am to 7pm. Ummmm, 11am to 7pm?? The other girls in my program and I lasted until 2. Hopefully they still let us graduate .

Before leaving the apartment this morning, I threw together a bunch of random things that I hoped would get me through the afternoon. (If I’m not eating during lectures, I usually end up sleeping.) At 11, I had a snack baggie with carrots from yesterday and a tbsp of peanut butter:

img_4703

At 12, I had my last two stuffed kale leaves:

img_4704

At 12:07, I had 1/2 cup yogurt with chopped banana, chopped pear, cardamom, nutmeg, and a sprinkle of kashi golean crunch:

img_4705

At 12:16, I had another cup of fruit salad:

img_4707

I was trying to pace myself, but the minutes were passing at the speed of years, and I had nothing to distract me from my bag o’ food and minimal hunger pangs. I took a little break from eating and then had my first-ever Kraft LiveActive bar at 12:52:

img_4708img_4711

The bar was fine — it was very berry-y and chocolate-y and tasted like a candy bar — but I doubt I’d buy these again. I only got them in the first place because I had a coupon, and I’d really rather have a piece of real food than a bar any day! But, I can’t deny that bars are good in a pinch, never go bad, and have decent mouth-entertainment value … for about 49 seconds.

After the bar, I took a 15 minute nap in my chair. Until I realized the speaker was calling on a girl directly behind me and the entire auditorium had swiveled in my direction. Awesome. That woke me up for the last 10 minutes. Falling asleep was hard work and made me hungry, so I dug around for my one remaining snack:

img_4712

Like I said, we busted out of there as soon as the talk was over at 2 (no small breakout groups for us!) … and again, I hope they’ll still let us graduate! I’m now home and resting my aching hamstrings. I really do feel like I’ve been dragging solid blocks of lead around all day. Maybe that’s why I’m so tired.

[Another giveaway alert: Chocolate-Covered Vegan Katie has some incomprehensibly amazing loot up for grabs. You really should not miss this one!]

Have you ever skipped out on something “mandatory” because you just couldn’t take it anymore?

A lazy challenge

13 Comments

Ooooh, I felt so relaxed and refreshed after sleeping in until 6:30 this morning (the main benefit of going to running club at night, if you ask me, is that it removes the need for an early am workout the next day). Breakfast was a lazy affair, too.

img_4620

I heated a heaping 1/2 cup of banana bread crockpot oats from the batch I made and froze ages ago:

img_4624

With the oats, I enjoyed 1/2 cup yogurt, sprinkles of coconut and additional nutmeg, and a good old-fashioned spoonful of crunchy pb:

img_4623

Plus water and soymilky black tea on the side:

img_4617

My friend Diana sent me this NYT article announcing this week as “A Week Without Shopping,” the idea being that most people will find they can easily survive for a week on the food already in their homes. I wish I had known about this challenge sooner because it’s definitely my style! What do you think? Could you survive a week with no groceries?

Top o’ the mornin’

9 Comments

Up before the sun as usual, but it came out just in time to light my breakfast:

img_45651

There’s a plan afoot for running club tonight, so I kept this morning’s workout heavy on the strength and light on the knees and cardio. I did the workout from Self Magazine’s 2008 “Reach Your Goal” challenge — I think it came out in August because I did it all the time last fall until my body got too used to it — along with 15 minutes on the elliptical’s cross-training program. Stats: 1 hour and 6 minutes, 268 calories, average heart rate 106, max 175.

Breakfast was the rest of yesterday’s custard oatmeal:

img_4569

Topped with 1/3 cup yogurt, 1/2 tbsp pb, unsweetened shredded coconut, and 2 crumbled graham sticks:

img_4567

And on the side, 1/2 cup “roasted” cantaloupe. Brigitte’s cantaloupe had fallen off of its last leg and was a little sour, so I tried to doctor it with heat, nutmeg, and coconut:

img_4563

It almost worked.

With soymilky black tea and water:

img_4561

I have a lunch packed (well, really, I left yesterday’s lunch at work since I obviously didn’t need it then :-)), but as you know, anything can happen …

See you after running club tonight!

Did you eat your breakfast by natural or artifical light today?

P.S. Tina at Carrots ‘N’ Cake is doing another photo scavenger hunt. I know from experience (scroll down to the bottom to see the prize) how lucky her winners can be, so make sure you go enter!

It happened again

11 Comments

Monday comes every week, but somehow it always ends up surprising me! Does this happen to you?

daffodil says hi!

daffodil says hi!

Gym this morning was my all-about-the-steps favorite workout :-). And my body seems to have finally picked up on the fact that I increased both my weights and the cardio level! Stats for arms on an aerobics step + 30 minutes StairMaster + jog to gym and back + stretching and abs: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 476 calories, average heart rate 132, max 171.

Breakfast was custard oatmeal:

img_45291

I made two portions of this last night because I needed to use some up some dying roommate fruits (strawberries and cantaloupe) and some open pieces of my own fruit (banana and pear). For extra zip, I added nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla extract, and almond extract. To make the two servings, I used 1 egg, 1/4 cup soymilk, 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats, and 1/2 cup steel-cut oats. I re-heated half of what I made in the oven this morning while I got ready:

img_4514

Today’s toppings included the last tsp peanut butter. There’s little I love more than scraping a pb jar clean!

img_4515img_4516

Along with a crumbled graham stick, unsweetened shredded coconut, cardamom, and 1/2 cup yogurt:

img_4522

Come back this afternoon for another guest post from The Professional Vegan, and I’ll return after class tonight with the rest of today’s food!

Chained to the computer

14 Comments

Ahhh, technology is driving me insane! Hunter has this big push to make the social work program more “current” and is mandating that all courses have an online component. But the online Blackboard has SO many bugs, and it literally took me four hours to leave a comment about one of the articles I read for class. Gah!

Anywayyyyy, my quinoa salad from Friday night made its final appearance as today’s lunch. With more soymilky chocolate caramel enchantment chai (same tea bag, new water) and a stuffed tomato on the side:

img_4480

Reassembly of the quinoa salad took place in much the same way as it did yesterday: salad greens on the bottom, warmed salad “substance” in the middle, re-toasted tortilla strips on the top:

img_4481

I beefed up the salad by sauteeing the quinoa mix with the scrambled egg yolk and kale stems left from last night’s BSI adventures, 2 chopped asparagus spears, and 2 chopped mushrooms. I also mixed in 1/4 chopped cucumber and sprinkled 1/2 tbsp fat free feta on top:

img_4483

The tomato is stuffed with leftover filling from the Stuffed Kale Leaves I made last night:

img_4486img_4490

I had a little snacky mid-afternoon:

img_4491

Chopped pear and banana sprinkled with nutmeg (and eaten with a toothpick for fun):

img_4492

And a banana boat — slices of banana on a sliver of toasted flax and fiber bread with a tsp of pb and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

img_4495

[Insert 10,000 of the worst expletives you can imagine directed at Blackboard right now, grrrrrrrrrrr!]

For dinner, I finally got to try a substantial amount of each of my BSI: Kale creations. Three slices of Kale-Crust Pizza and three Stuffed Kale Leaves:

img_4499

I had the stuffed leaves cold and reheated and re-crisped the pizza slices on a pizza stone in the oven.

img_4501

Both of these were so delicious. I almost feel guilty saying that since they are my recipes, but ahh, I’m so impressed! The textures, the flavors … incredible. I always get surprised when my kitchen experiments work out. Thank goodness for the BSI — if I didn’t need to be creative and crafty, I probably would have been having steamed kale for dinner tonight!

Dessert was an assortment of little tastes:

img_4505

Taste #1 was half of a small baked sweet potato with plain yogurt and cinnamon:

img_4509

Taste #2 was a mess with yogurt, kashi golean crunch, strawberries, cookie crumbs, and a chopped/crumbled piece of Lindst hazelnut chocolate:

img_4510

Taste #3 was Italian cookie pieces and the other half of last night’s Sassy Mango-Lime dark chocolate truffle:

img_4506

And now, I’ve had it with this online homework disaster!! Sorry, Blackboard, we are going to have to part ways for the night because you’re wasting my time. Ohhhhhh well. Laterzzzz. What’s the most frustrating waste of your time?

Have a good night, and enjoy these few remaining weekend hours!