Lovely weekend!

Evening, blogland. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine went pretty well. Yesterday I had ballet, which went pretty well. No cruddy body-checking, it was just a really physically challenging class. Then afterward I went to Trader Joe's and got lots of yummies. Then to TJMaxx. I sadly didn't buy anything because everything there is either too flashy or too big. I also went to World Market, which is going out of business. It was one of my favorite places to shop because I could get cool international food and clothes there. The shelves were full a month ago, but this is how it looks now:
Darn this economy.

I pretty much just spent the day at home today, doing homework and practicing my music. I did go out grocery shopping though. I feel guilty because my goal for group this week was to socialize this weekend.. but obviously that didn't happen. On the bright side, ED didn't bother me at all!

Yesterday morning I made applesauce Cheerio muffins! I almost cried tears of joy when I found this recipe, because of my infatuation with Cheerios. I used honey nut, of course, and half white wheat flour. They were very fluffy and moist. But the Cheerios disappeared! This always seems to happen when you put cereal in baked goods. There was a nice touch of honey flavor.

And this morning I tried Morgan's yogurt oats. I used 1/3 c plain yogurt and 2/3 c water and they turned out so creamy and 'licious! I topped them with a chopped apple, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a graham cracker. I had other stuff too but this was the only picture I took.

I wasn't too hungry for my AM snack so I had gingerbread tea with milk and two Trader Joe's french twists for dipping. I saw these on Brooke's blog and picked them up yesterday. Her description was spot on, they were like flaky, crispy, cinnamon croissant puffs! Hard to believe that they're butter free.

Lunchikins was a sammich with dill hummus, veggie cream cheese and SPROUTS (my love!). Also plain yogurt with orange marmalade, cauliflower, and a Trek Mix bar.

Snack was popcorn with dark chocolate chips, a nanner, and almonds.

I will talk about dinner from last night because it was special. My mom has been helping me plan our weekly menus now and she suggested that we make one of my sister's favorite foods, mac and cheese. My mom picked this recipe, using long noodles (ACK what are they called??) and it was so good. Cheese exploded from every bite. Had it along with a salad.
It was a challenge to eat something so "decadent" as mac & chese, especially when I didn't pick the recipe. Stupid, but it's also more of a challenge for me to eat short pasta v. spaghetti, because I feel like it's less filling. Anyhow, I only felt a tad bit guilty but it slowly faded as I kept eating all of that cheesy goodness! I figured that every other not E.D.ed person lets themself indulge every once in a while without feeling guilty. It's totally healthy, and I can't expect to ever beat ED if I stick to safe, healthy foods all the time.

I'll talk about tonight's dinner some other time, because it was superb also. Now I need help with something totally non-ED related (I think). There's this boy in my Spanish class who I kind of tutored and helped him get an A for the quarter. Spanish is my best subject so I didn't mind helping this kid (who will be called B.) But now he won't leave me alone! He found me on Facebook, which I only use for outside of school friends. I ignored his FR, but at school, he keeps insisting on doing something to "repay" me for helping him. First he offered a card, then money, then walking me home from school. After I turned down all B.'s offers he passed me a note that says I'm a great friend and we should hang out and gave me his number so I can call him if I "ever want to talk". I DON'T WANT TO CALL HIM! I don't want him to like me, I don't even want to be his friend! He's an okay kid to talk to every once in a while, but I don't want to get close to him because a) We have no common interests. b) He has a girlish personality. My best guy friend is my best guy friend because he's a good listener. I can vent to him without him bringing up his own problem. B. does exactly the opposite. I have enough girlfriends to worry about, I don't need another! c) He kind of reminds me of a beaver.


Wow that was a really long rant. I am dreading class tomorrow because I know he's going to try to talk to me again. I don't know how to tell him to leave me alone without being rude. Crud. Maybe I can get a schedule change?

Don't forget to enter the Mixmygranola giveaway at An Apple a Day!

Try to enjoy your Mondays tomorrow, if that's even possible!

Oh yes, and the lovely miss Emily passed me this award:
Thanks love! I pass it on to Debbie, Kailey, Jess, Laci, Jemima, Brooke, and Stef. Here are the rules: 1) Add the logo of the award to your blog 2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you 3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs 4) Add links to those blogs on your blog 5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Night!

Heffelumps and Woozles

Evening, pretty ladies! Do you all hate Tuesday as much as me? I don't mind Mondays that much because I'm still stuck in weekend mode and just walk through the day in a trance. But on Tuesdays, it hits me that the week isn't even halfway over yet!

Breakfast this morning wasn't special, except for my oats which were fab. My mom bought cinnamon Funky Monkey Freeze Dried Bananas for my sister at Whole Foods. My sister didn't like them so I got to have them! Go buy these right now. They taste like Fay's banana spice bread (which was excellent) but crunchy! I put some in my oatmeal with raspberries and dark chocolate chips.

No picture of snack or lunch today, sorry. Perhaps I'll have some tomorrow. My snack was a clementine, vanilla roasted almonds, and a whole wheat english muffin (whole foods) with cottage cheese, applesauce and cinnmon. It's a very yummy and filling combo.

Dinner had to be eaten in the car from my cello lesson to therapy. It was very random. We had some frozen b-nut squash puree, so I cooked that up with cinnamon, nutmeg and a bit of brown sugar. I also had 3 whole foods mini pitas with PB, leftover Vcon broiled tofu, and a key lime larabar. I like the mini pitas, but I think they'd be better stuffed with cheese/veggies because it was hard to spread PB in them.

Therapy was... weird. My mom had to come in with me this time. I don't like my therapist very much. Whenever I have a session, I feel obligated to say something to fill the wordless void around us, so I sometimes end up saying things that aren't true just to please my therapist. So my therapist was trying to get me to answer questions having to do with problems I don't really have, all with my mom in the room. No fun. I told her about the blog, like my group therapist said to do. She wanted to see it and I laughed and said no! But she said that she didn't see any problem with it, because she trusts me not to make it into another obsession.

Snacks tonight have involved plain PB puffins, because they're that good.
I'm going to do some commenting then start getting ready for bed because I'm beat! Sleep tight!

Lovely Lentils

Hola, chicas! Today was a good day. Started with a lovely breakfast, involving an apple, and this apple pie parfait.

I layered 3/4 cup of plain yogurt, 1/2 c apple sauce, 1 whole grain graham cracker and cinnamon in bowl. Nummikins. As my.. third course of breakfast, I had some simple PB&J oats. I was going to just use blueberries instead of jam, but I barely had any left. So I microwaved what we did have to make 'em mushy, and added a bit of cran apple butter on top.

I then went off to a nice, two hour ballet class. My calves and toes are in serious pain right now! But a good pain, like I've worked them well. The body checking stuff (or lack there of) went pretty well! At the bar, I was kind of concentrated more on holding my leg out at a 120* angle than I was on how "fat" I looked. When we went out into the center, I started to scrutinize myself in the mirror. ED didn't cut in and start calling me fat though. Instead, I had an EPIPHANY (love that word)! I am not fat! I am dissatisfied with how the weight I gained distributed. None of the weight I gained went to the upper half of my body, so I have twig arms and gross ribs, but a lot of it went to my legs. But I used the rational side of me to think that I am normal sized, and some parts of me look bigger because the rest of me is ridiculously small. Ooooh I wish I had my old body back. Back when I didn't feel like I had to limit my food or exercise to feel good about myself.

Anyhow, for lunch my sister wanted to go to the mall food court. I hate fast food, you can make something much healthier, tastier, and cheaper at home. I had to go anyway. Subway is one of the few fast food restaurants that I'll eat from, so I went there. I ordered a 6" veggie delite. It annoys me how it's delite, not delight. I got provolone, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, pickles, black olives, and olive oil on mine. T'was very salty tasting. Hate fast food grumble grumble.
Then when I got home I had an apple and almonds.

For most of the day today, I've just been chillin' out (maxin' relaxin' all cool while shootin' some b-ball outside of the school). I started to do a little craft-y jewelry project that I'll post if I ever finish it. For dinner, I made brown rice and lentil casserole. I heart lentils! I've made this a couple times before and it rocks socks. This time, I accidentaly spilled some broth out of the casserole dish so I had to approximate how much spilled out and replace it with water. I think I put too much water in though, because it didn't stay together like it usually does. Delicious anyway though.
With garlic toast! And an unpictured clementine.

Oh yes, I made more pudding! Using CCV's basic pudding recipe. After the base cooled this time, I stuck it in the blender with 1 tbs cocoa powder, half a banana, and 1 tbs sugar. Chocolate and banana is one of my favorite combos. Here it is, in my beautiful tupperware container.
And Shelby, you asked whether I used agar flakes or powder. I use flakes. I got it to be really creamy by putting my blender on the puree setting for a long time, rather than on the blend setting for a shorter time.

Today I was thinking of how my ED/recovery have expanded my food choices. Pre-ED, I was a pretty picky vegetarian, and wouldn't eat anything that sounded to much like hippy health food. This means quinoa, couscous, seitan, dark chocolate, and lots of fruits and veggies were off the list of things I'd eat. I ate a pretty processed diet, lots of faux-meat stuff. But one of the positive things that I've gotten out of recovery and my preoccupation with food is a lot more healthy variety in my diet. Now I'd say that I'm an adventurous eater, and like to cook up new foods. Has having an ED changed you girls' diets for the better, too?

Hope you all had wonderful Saturdays and enjoy your Sundays!

My Maintenance Diet

I realize that I've never actually posted a full day of food. I usually just post the most interesting things I eat. But today, I'll join Jemima and post all my eats. I eat around 2700 cals a day to maintain my weight, as a result of eating 3300+ to gain weight. I can do some sort of light exercise, like yoga or walking, while eating this amount and not lose weight. Let's start with the most important meal of the day!

I liked the tofacos I made the other night so much, I decided to just eat the filling as a tofu scramble.

I also had an apple

And carrot cake oats!

After cooking my oatmeal as usual, I added 8 shredded baby carrots, dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg, 2 tbs chopped walnuts, 1 dried fig, and 1 tbs plain yogurt mixed with a bit of maple syrup for "frosting". Yum yum yum.

For my AM snack, I had an apple pie larabar, one of my favorite flavors.

At lunch, I was just trying to use up the last of the tofu in the fridge! I hate wasting food. I made a mock.. egg salad (or chicken or tuna? I don't know the difference) sammich. I mashed maybe an eighth of a block of tofu with 1/4 cup chickpeas, 1 tbs olive oil mayo, sprinkles of garlic powder, dried dill and poultry seasoning, and a splash of lemon juice.
I had it with carrots, a bowl of plain yogurt, and a new Kashi fruit and grains bar! Dark chocolate coconut flavor.
Bar review: One word. Amazing! I was expecting the dark chocolate to be a hard, crunchy glaze on top of the bar. Instead, it was more like.. fudge! There was a nice hint of coconut too. The only cons to it were that it was a bit small, and there weren't enough walnuts.

For my snack, I had pumpkin yogurt. Plain yogurt mixed with canned pump and cinnamon&nutmeg. I accidentally put cumin in instead of nutmeg! So I had to use lots of cinnamon.
I also had some almonds, a pomegranate fruit leather from Target, and an orange.

For dinner I made sundried tomato and spinach fritattas. Individual fritattas, they were too cute!
I also had a clementine and two slices of toast w/ butter.
For my snacks tonight, I've had (and plan on having) a mint-chocolate luna tea cake, a candy cane, almonds, and a banana.

There you have it! 2700 calories. I hope this helps some people in need of a high-calorie meal plan. Typically I don't eat so many bars, but I hadn't been to the grocery store in a while so I was short on real food.

I'm kind of upset now. My dad was looking at these two fancy chocolate bars that I got him for Christmas. I picked them out especially for him. He said "Are these mine? I'm on a diet this year, you can have them." Grrr! This annoyed me for two reasons. a) He doesn't even remember that I'm the one who got him those and b) He makes it sound like just because he's watching what he's eating, little "treats" like chocolate are off limits. This was very triggering for me. He doesn't understand me or my ED at all. This is why our relationship is messed up. He knows it's messed up. If he doesn't want to put in the effort to remember what his daughter got him for Christmas, fine. Fine fine. Super fine.

P.S. I just got my camera, why are my pictures so blurry? I used close up mode and all. Tips?

It's Greek to Me

Well, my cold or whatever it is has gotten progressively worse. The symptoms I had this morning are ten times stronger now. And plus, when I yawn now, I feel like.. my brain disconnects and swirls around my head? Haha. It happens every time I get sick.

For lunch, I wanted something warm and comforting to make me feel better. I just recently discovered this book on our bookshelf:

My dad got in in 1984 when he lived in Greece. The description on the back says: "From appetizers to cakes and desserts, these recipes combine the freshest ingredients- whole grain flours, olive oil, lemons, yogurt and cheese, wild herbs, among others- in ways that will tantalize the palates of both vegetarians and lovers of Traditional Greek food.

I made Potato and Fruit soup. It was insanely good! It involved potatoes, dried figs, olive oil, and onions. It sounds really bland, but it was magical. I would post the recipe, but I'm not too sure about the copyright thing. Can I post a recipe from a book if I source it?

I had it with carrot sticks, a Rachel's yogurt, and vanilla roasted almonds.

After lunch, my dad and I went to Trader Joe's to get some stuff for tonight and tomorrow. I also got a few things for myself.
Carrot sticks, fruit yogurts, Jamfrakas (I've been looking everywhere!), Zbars, Mexican Hot Cocoa cookies (not sure if I'll try these..) and cranberry apple butter. I really wanted to find plain pumpkin or apple butter that everyone raves about, but this will have to do.

I've done a little fruit and yogurt snacking so far, and I'm sure I'll have a lot of snacks at my aunt and uncle's. My dad makes the best spinach artichoke dip in the world! But sorry, the recipe is top secret and I can't post it.

I'm really nervous. I've been fighting the urges to exercise all day long. I wish I could just have a normal Christmas eve dinner, eat everything I want and not hate myself for feeling full afterward. We'll see how it goes. I doubt I'll be able to get many pics, it would be kind of strange. I don't think I'll do a post when I get home, it's always like 11 and as everyone knows, the sooner you go to sleep the sooner Santa comes!

Christmas Eve!!!

I am so flipping excited! Christmas is my favorite holiday, there are so words to express how happy I am now. Not even for presents though.

Unfortunately, I think I am coming down with the flu or something. I have a runny nose, sneezing, headache, body ache and congestion. It would just be great if I was sick on Christmas, right?

Tonight I'm going to my aunt, uncle, and cousins' house for Christmas Eve dinner. I haven't seen them in a while so I'm super excited! I am rather nervous about the food. It's also cooked with cups and cups of butter and cream, and this one meal will probably be as many cals as I eat in a day. Ahh! Anyone want to join me in not counting cals today or tomorrow (Christmas!)? I will not restrict today to "make up" for the calorific meal I'll be having later. I will not.

Wonderful breakfast today. Along with an egg and an apple, I had two slices of buttered toast.

Then an amazing bowl of gingerbread oats! It seems that everyone else today made them too, but it wasn't planned, I swear! I thought I was being creative when I came up with it.
I used 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water to make my oatmeal. Then I added in tons of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Then I added 1/2 tbs molasses, some chopped almonds (+3 for garnish) and a handful of frozen blueberries. It was soo good!
To continue my gingerbread theme, I had this cookie for my morning snack.
It was the last little treat from my advent calendar. My mom likes to improve our vocabulary, so sometimes she puts little clues in the drawers of the calendar as to where to find our treats instead of candy. She uses diffiuclt words so that we have to get out a dictionary! My clue today said: Look where we keep the portmanteaux (or portmanteaus, if you prefer the English plural). In other words, my cookie was hidden with the suitcases. I had in with some of this tea
This is the best tea I've ever had, hands down. I love chai, but the subtle flavor of coconut makes it even better!

I'll be back after lunch.

It's Only Thurday

And I can't even say that tomorrow is my last day of school before 2009!! I still have to go next Monday and Tuesday. We don't even get Christmas Eve Eve off :[

I've noticed that I usually only post my breakfast and dinner. I suppose that's because my lunch is almost the same every day. I wish I could change it up a little, but I have to pack it every day so there isn't much I can do.

For breakfast this morning, I made another bowl of antioxidant oats (blueberries + dark chocolate), among other things. This time I replaced the yogurt with 1/2 oz almonds. Next on my list is flaked coconut.

For dinner tonight, I made a family favorite, Spaghetti Fritatta! I had it with a sliced banana and two slices of buttered whole wheat toast.


Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 c mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 c red bell pepper, chopped
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 tsp pepper
  
• 1/2 cheese (I used feta tonight)
• 2 tbs fresh basil
• 2 cups cooked spaghetti, or 4 0z. cooked
• 1 tbs butter

1. Saute the onion, mushroom and pepper in the olive oil until onion is browned.
2. Whisk together the eggs, pepper, cheese, and half of the basil.
3. Cut spaghetti into 2 inch pieces. Add to egg mixture along with the cooked veggies.
4. Heat butter in a medium skillet, try to get the sides coated too.
5. Add the egg mixture and cook over medium for 3-5 minutes, until bottom is browned and egg is set.
6. Here is the tricky part. Place a plate on top of the skillet and carefully flip the fritatta over, so the cooked side faces up. Now slide it back into the skillet.
7. Continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes. Garnish with remaining basil and serve.

Oh, and I tried the mint chocolate Attune bar last night. Loved it!! It was the texture of a Crunch bar, with a bunch of crispy, crunchy nugget-y things in it. I love anything mint chocolate, and this was perfect! It's good chocolate, it doesn't lose any flavor with the added health benefits.