Math homework avoidance!

Okay, well first things first. This is the coolest time waster, ever! It's crashed my internet twice and I'm supposed to be memorizing square roots but I don't want to stop!

Today has been a pretty boring day. Just errand-running and homework, for the most part.

My somewhat unbalanced breakfast started off with half a grapefruit. Why are they called grapefruits? Why? They don't look like grapes, or taste like grapes!
Then a PB and cranberry apple butter quesadilla.
The World Market near me is going out of business. It's really sad because it's where we get all of our cool ethnic food. There are Chinese markets here, but there isn't anywhere else to buy European/Australian food. But, there were some pretty good clearance sales when we went yesterday. One of the things we got were ________ vanilla gingersnap cookies. So I crumbled one up in my oats with some strawberries and a splash of vanilla soymilk. Tada, strawberry shortcake oats!

For lunch, I had the leftover butternut squash and white bean soup with half a very cheesy grilled cheese for dipping purposes. Also a plain yogurt, carrots, and a Kashi bar.

Then I went to Whole Foods, yay! I didn't get too much stuff because the cost adds up very quickly there, but what I did get is new and yummy. You'll be seeing it over the next few days. While at WF, I tried a really yummy square of Chocolove cherry dark chocolate.

Snack! I'm really liking this routine-less afternoon snack I've started. I had chocolate banana PB (full 2 tbs, yay!) and half a banana on two multigrain ricecakes (from WF). I also had a bowl of plain yogurt.

Para cena, yo cocine Spaghetti Fritatta. Muy delicioso! I used Smart taste pasta.
I also had a slice of toast and a clemmie. Question: What will the food blogging world do when clementines are out of season and are no longer sold in grocery stores? I think I'll cry when I walk into giant and they aren't there!

Ugh, school tomorrow. Sundays are always depressing for me because even if I do something fun, I know that the next day I'll have to go to school. Raaaaaaaaaaaawr. Wouldn't it be amazing if all the food bloggers in the world could live in a happy blogging community? With no school, and infinite time to bake and cook? Yes, I like that idea.

Oh, P.S. I was still hungry after dinner so I ate another rice cake with PB. This is a big thing because normally, I'm so afraid of going over my calories. But I figured that if my body was telling me that I needed to give it some more energy, I should eat! And I'm not feeling guilty now. This was difficult for me before?

Have a great evening, beauties!

Eats + a product review

Good evening, lovelies! Thank you all so much for the support you gave me on my last post. I seriously think that starting this blog was the best decision I've ever made. Because of the support each of you give me, I've recovered far more than I ever could have on my own. I'm so happy that I've "met" all of you, because you girls have improved my life more than you could imagine!

I thought that ED had gone away yesterday, but surprise, he came back today. In my family we make a weekly menu of what we're going to have for dinner every day of the week, and I'm usually always the one to make it. I like being able to pick recipes that I know are healthy and moderate in the calorie department. Today, my dad decided to make the menu for two days this week, without asking me if I would like to eat what he choose. He plans to actually make these things for us too. What he choose was vegetable barely stew, which I'm okay with, and something along the lines of "creamy double cheese enchiladas". I looked at the actual recipe and it involves 2/3 cup heavy cream, 2 cups cheese.. Something broke inside of me and set ED loose, and I went crazy. And by crazy, I mean sitting on the floor sobbing, screaming into a pillow, and curling into a ball.

My parents were upstairs and somehow didn't hear any of this! My dad came downstairs a bit later when I was calmer and saw my tear-streaked face. He asked what was wrong and I said that I didn't want the enchiladas. I was expecting that he would be understanding and recognize that I've been challenging myself a lot lately, and switch it to something else. But instead he said "What's wrong with it? Are you vegan now or something?" Arg! He doesn't get me, or my ED, at all. He thinks that since I've gained weight, I'm now recovered and expects me to just "eat normally" when I'm not capable of that. Ah, I doubt any of you want to hear this but I just really need a vent.

Okay, breakfast. Breakfast breakfast.
I started with some leftover TJ's butternut squash soup, with half a grilled cheese for dipping. Leftover soup for breakfast is good!







Then an amazing bowl of oats. I cooked them normally, then topped them with 4 pieces of chopped crystallized ginger and a crumbled whole grain graham cracker. The ginger was really chewy and provided a nice spicy kick, and it went perfectly with the sweet graham cracker which turned mushy in the oats.



Around lunchtime I was watching Barefoot Contessa and Ina was making sandwiches with grilled peppers. That sounded good to me, to I grilled up a few slices of green pepper on my George Foreman. I put those in a sammie with hummus and leftover clementine tofu and grilled it. Very yum indeed.

And a couple of you asked what Euro-style yogurt was like. I can't compare it to TJ's greek yogurt because I've never tried that. The carton the Euro-style yogurt comes in says "thick and creamy". Mine was anything but that!
This pic demostrates how runny it is! Almost like Kefir. And it was very, very, very tart! I haven't had Greek yogurt in a while, but I'd say that this is more sour than Greek. I'm starting to wonder if I got a defective carton because all the reviews I've found online talk about how rich and thick this yogurt is. Shall I complain to TJ's and get my money back? :]

For dinner, I sort of made Bang Bang Couscous from See Bride Run, which is now Healthy Tipping Point. I say sort of because I made a lot of modifications. I didn't have enough couscous, so I doubled the garbanzos. I also used green peas instead of edamame because I don't know where to buy that around here. I added chopped black olives too. Last, I used feta instead of goat cheese because that's my personal preferece. So barely the original recipe, but very good! Esp. topped with pine nuts.
Yesterday, I made Everything Nice Banana Spice Pudding from CCV. Unlike my last pudding experiment, this one was a success! I actually used my blender this time and it turned out perfectly. I had to add about a tsp of brown sugar, then it tasted just like banana muffin batter! Delish.
I hope you all enjoyed the last of your weekend. Good luck at school tomorrow, those of you that have it. I don't have school tomorrow because the teachers are working on our report cards, yay! Night night.

Procrastinating...

... is my favorite activity. I should really be studying for my Spanish final. And my biology and geometry finals. Today is only the first day of my four day weekend (Monday off for Martin Luther King day, Tuesday off for inauguration), so I figure I have a bit of time.

I have a ton of pictures today! I shall make some small so my post won't be twenty million pages long.

For breakfast, I had an orange. Then a grilled apple + cheddar sammie (see the pretty grill marks?).


Also a bowl of gingerbread oats. I cooked my oatmeal in gingerbread tea, then mixed in 1/2 tbs molasses, dashes of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, and a handful of blueberries. I topped it with some plain yogurt mixed with maple syrup for a "frosting". Yummers.
Around lunchtime, I was looking at this recipe for pesto potato salad and though it sounded really good. Except I wanted something hot, and had no basil for pesto. So I made.. creamy spinach pesto potato bake! I nuked half a peeled potato to make it soft. Then I pulverized 1/2 tbs olive oil mayo, 2 tbs plain yogurt, 1 handful of spinach, a splash of lemon juice and a clove of garlic in the food processor. Then I mixed it all up, and baked it for ten minutes. This was the result:

T'was very yummy. I decided to top it with a slice of mozarella, so I stuck it back in the oven to melt it a bit. I had it with carrots, a Kashi soft baked bar and a brown cow yogurt.
As my little afternoon "project", I made chapatis to go with my dinner. So easy and yummy!
Later for dinner, I made Mushroom Curry. It was just okay for me. I'm not the biggest fan of mushrooms but my mom requested that I find a recipe for something that used them, so she gobbled it up.
Then for dessert (cue dramatic music) I had.. a brownie! Granted, they were No Pudge brownies that my sister made because she's "dieting". Gracious, she's fifteen! It never lasts more than a few weeks though, so I'm not too worried. Anyway, I don't like dessert because I feel like I don't get to indulge after I've just finished a meal. Even with a low fat brownie. But they smelled really good so I said screw you to ED and had one. And for low fat brownies, they're pretty good. I will have a real one, soon.
I think that after today, I'm going to stop posting half a billion photos a day. I feel like I've never really told you all much about my life, and you just see what I eat. I feel connected with a lot of you because of the personal things you share on your blogs, and so I need to share more about myself. What do you all think?

Hope you all had wonderful Saturdays!

A Successful Day

Just so you all know, the only reason I know how to spell success is because of Full House. I remember when Danny was teaching Stephanie a mnemonic to learn to spell it, and he said "Double the c, double the s, and you have success". So there you have it.

I did get a lot accomplished today. I read (When We Were Romans by Mattew Kneale), practiced my pointe for ballet, practiced cello and piano, played Wii, and did some homework. I also made some pom poms out of yarn to create this little buddy:

Hehe.

Breakfast featured another one of my banana fig muffins, which are just as good the second day.

For lunch, I was craving soup like made so I heated up some minestrone made by my homegirl Amy. I had half a grilled cheese with cheddar for dipping purposes. I also had carrots, an Dannon natural yogurt and a chocolate brownie zbar. Perfect lunch.
For dinner, I made Scottish Borders Rumbledethumps from Recipezaar. I've made this recipe several times and I love it sooo much! Like mashed potatoes but better, and substansial enough to be a meal on it's own. But along with it I also had a wheat roll with butter and an apple.
ED hasn't made much of an appearance today, which is unusual. When I was playing Wii, he started going "Yes yes yes keep playing! You're burning calories now, you don't need to eat today." But then I thought "Nooooooooooo I'm hungry for soup so haha." I actually do have arguments in my head that go something like that.

I have to go to bed rather early tonight to get myself back onto my regular sleeping schedule, considering that school starts again on Monday :[

First Meals of the New Year

Sorry for such a late post. I've been having technical difficulties lately.

Anyway, Happy New Year! 2009! I hope this year is the best yet for all of you.

Long story short, I did not go into the new year ED free last night. I was feeling very guilty about the Chinese food at dinner and some other stuff I'd munched on. So when the ball dropped and Dick Clark said one on TV, the first word that popped into my mind was "diet".

I am sick of this. Sick of dieting, sick of counting, sick of exercising, sick of worrying about my body fat percentage. That isn't life, that's a prison. 2009 will be the year that I escape. Do any of you girls, my cell mates, want to help me come up with a plan for escaping the guards in ED's prison? It'll be really tough, some days it'll feel like an uphill battle. But we obviously knew that life had some purpose before ED came into the picture, so why not try to find it again? There is something out there that will make everything worthwhile, I know it.

As my first breakfast of the new year, I had a grilled cheese sandwich! Forgot to take a pic until I'd eaten the crusts :)

Then an apple and egg, then a bowl of gingerbread oats. I stirred in a splash of milk, 1/2 tbs molasses and big shakes of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Yum.

For lunch, I made another grilled sammie! The George Foreman countertop grill in quite possibly my favorite invention. I put 1/4 cup of my homemade hummus and 1 cup of spinach of whole wheat potato bread and grilled to perfection.
While I'm thinking of it, here's my recipe for hummus. I came up with it when we had no tahini to make the usual hummus.

1. 3 cloves garlic, chopped
2. 1 15 oz. can chickpeas
3. 1/4 cup plain yogurt
4. 2 tbs. olive oil
5. 1 tbs. lemon juice
6. 1/4 tsp. salt
7. 1/4 tsp. paprika
8. 1/8 tsp. pepper
9. 1/8 tsp. cumin
10. 1 tbs. fresh parsley

Blend it all up in a blender. Enjoy!

For dinner, I tried my first recipe from Veganomicon: Chili Cornmeal Crust Tofu.
Well, it probably wouldn't have been the best recipe to try if I was considering becoming a vegan. It wasn't too great. Bland and a weird texture. But, since I know Veganomicon is awesome, I'll forgive this bum recipe and try out more! I had 3 slices of a multi grain baguette with butter that I later added, and a clementine too.
I really don't like New Years resolutions because I know I'll feel like a failure if I don't meet them. But I have a lot of goals to accomplish this year, so I might as well post them on New Years Day.

• Be greener! This includes biking to more places instead of driving, using less electricity at home, using less chemicals in the shower and kitchen, etc.
• Stop counting calories
• Stop thinking of food all day long
• Don't think of exercise as a "chore". Only do it for fun and when I have enough energy to actually benefit from it.
• Practice cello and ballet more
  
• Study schoolwork more
• Fix my relationship with my dad
• Socialize more. I used to be a social butterfly, now I'm more like a cavewoman. Convince myself that I actually need other people to function properly.
• Volunteer. Make time in my schedule to help out others less fortunate than I am.

Best wished to you all for the new year!

Saturday! Finally!

I am so glad it's the weekend! I plan on doing some hard core Christmas baking and gift making today and tomorrow. And tonight at 7, I have my orchestra concert! I'll post pics of it tomorrow.

This morning, along with toast with PB an apple, and an egg, I had some savory oats! I've tried them once before and decided that I should give them another shot. So I melted 1 slice of cheddar cheese into my oats after I cooked them, and put 1/4 c peas on top.

It was good, but not so good that I'll make it again. Anyone ever made savory oats before?

For lunch, I was craving grilled cheese. I used 1 slice of cheddar, 1 of mozarella, and 1/2 an apple on whole wheat potato bread.
Mmm, I love the combo of apples and cheese!! I had it with some plain yogurt, a clementine, and a Kashi TLC bar.
Sorry for not being very chatty, but I'm in a rush right now. I'm going to do the last of my Christmas shopping!