Recipe and Review

hmmm, a couple treats for you guys today! A review and a recipe! Ohhhhh I know!

So first up is a product review. Back when I was beyond busy and couldn’t do anything but pretty much cry because, well, I was that busy, the lovely folks at Dempster’s sent me some of their new products to review…

   

Oven Fresh Baguettes
- Come in packs of 2 loaves. Either multigrain or white. They’re partially baked when you buy them from the super market, and then you bake them for 8min (or 12 if they’re frozen) for a feeling of a fresh baked baguette with your meal.

I do enjoy them, and they freeze well, so for those of us who want something a little fresh but don’t have the time for bread, or aren’t patient when we have that fresh-bread craving, these work really well!

Of course I wanted to do something fun with at least one loaf before I reviewed them, but couldn’t think of anything. Then my teammates suggested a get together before our race on Sunday and while I was thinking of what to bring, this popped into my head:

Apple, Spinach and Cinnamon Crouton Salad

 

I started by baking up the bread: (From raw to baked)
  
While that was happening I tossed the following into a bowl:

• 3-4c spinach
• 1/4c raisins
• 1/4c chopped up almonds (could toast these if you want, I didn’t and it was good)
• 2-3 apples
  

In a seperate microwaveable I mixed:

• 1.5tbsp margarine, melted
• 1tsp (or so) cinnamon
• 1/4tsp nutmeg, or other spices that go with cinnamon
• 1tbsp (or just under) sugar
  

When the bread was out of the oven and had cooled for a while I chopped it up into croutons:
 
I then dumped these into the bowl with the cinnamon/margarine mixture and tossed and stirred until they were coated. Popped them back in the over (in an oven friendly tray of course!) for 3-5min… And then onto the salad and voila! A delicious salad for any meal.

This served 4 people as a side dish.

It’s a very “flexible” salad, and number of toppings would do; but everyone loved the croutons. They were sort of like mini cinnamon bun bits on a salad. Yum!

Ahhhhh

That was what I said right after I got out of my exam today.

DONE!!!!!

WOOT! WOOT!

How did I celebrate?

With a bowl of oatmeal! I was starving! lol. I made it a la Hungry Yogini. Putting my nut butter on the bottom:

Oatmeal + toppings on top:

Then I chilled, watched TV, handed out some Christmas cards to friends. Tomorrow I plan to  get my Christmas shopping done. Sigh. So many presents to buy. So little money to do it with.

Wow, I cannot believe how fast this semester went by! Is it almost Christmas already? Not just this semester actually, where has this year gone? Time just starts to fly as you get older. Guess it’s because a year is worth less? When you’re 5, a year is 1/5th your life, whereas being 22, it’s 1/22 of your life?

Sometimes I’m scared it’s going to fly by me, and I’m going to miss something and wake up thirty… and be not where I’d want to be. And recently the bigger question I’ve had is where do I even want to be when I’m 30? Because to not end up there, I have to know where there is.
lol deep thoughts. :p Let’s just say I’ve been thinking a little too much this semester.

hmmmm. I’m gonna go and relax a little. Aka, continue being the lazy bum I’ve been since my exam ended. Yay freedom!

Uno to Go-oo

Two wee little men greeted me on my exit this morning:

They waved hello, and wished me good luck on my studying escapades today.

I fueled my studying with a few snacks. Two of which to me provide quite the juxtapostion:

Do you see what I see? The difference in the two ingredients list is CRAZY. Sometimes it’s amazing to me how much can go into one thing. Two ingredients vs. a billion. And not just that but have the ones on the coke zero ingrendient list are, gulp, man made chemicals!

Alas, I have not the willpower to resist the sweet caffeinyness. hmmmm.

The Larabar was great too, I’ve only had a few of these before, but I’d love to try and make a homemade “larabar”.

Alright, I’m off to sleep (yoga first!) and then get up and spend one more day studying before my LAST EXAM!!!!!

The Littlest Broccoli Stalk

Hello All.

What a day. So long! And it’s not done yet! I spent 6hours studying alone today. Also had yoga and another class. Tonight I have a meeting for my council group, hopefully it’s short.

 

But I was well prepared! Last night I got ready for the day by preparing my meals for the day:

 

While I was preparing, look who wondered away…

 

He got even more lost on the way home, but made himself some friends…

 

After playing with his friends the gourds, and Mz Crane, The Littlest Broccoli Stalk made his way over the Glass Jar Wall and back home;

 

He was a little scared jumping down, but once he got back on the counter he was happy to get cozy with some carrots and cucumber…

 

Clearly I’m going crazy! But seriously, it was like the cutest head of broccoli ever! Is it weird that I find food cute? And don’t even say anything about playing with my food! :p

Alright off to make an agenda for my meeting tonight, and hopefully get some more studying in!

Brain Dead

Well one midterm down, one more to go! Plus a small paper, plus a huge event! The week is almost done.

Despite many cups of this:

(My apologies for the blurryness, pouring and photographing at once is a difficult task.)
My brain still felt like this:

…… huh?……

After my midterm Ienjoyed a decent lunch with fellow blogger Marianne. We went to the Red Burrito, a mexican restaurant in “the village”. The Village is a small little shopping/eating/living area just outside of campus. It’s pretty much on campus, but technically, I guess it’s not.

I got the tortilla soup:

It was pretty flavourful, but lacking in texture changes. I tried asking for some beans, but the server was like ….uh….I don’t recommend it. So I shrugged and went along with it. It was tough scooping out soggy chips out of my soup though! If they’d been smashed up it would have helped lots! Next time I’ll try a burrito, since Marianne’s looked much more filling then my own little lunch choice.

I went home and promptly chilled out with an apple and some reading.

Well I have a meeting to go to! Must be off. Have a great night everyone.

Hodge Podge

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class 8-12:30 straight. And for some reason I find it sooooo difficult after that to mentally get my head into working gear.

Let’s face it, right now I have all afternoon off, and it would be the perfect time to do some school work? And am I?

No.

Ugh! Oh well. My mental focus is just like my lunch: a hodge podge of food.

So I totally thought that the hummus (which I just bought today) was roasted red pepper. Then I took a bite of a carrot with a ginormous blob.

HOLY COW! My mouth was on fire! Turns out it wasn’t red pepper:

Haha. oops. Oh well I do love spice, just not unexpectedly.

I also had me some dessert:

Match made in heaven.

Alright, I’m off to see if I can concentrate at all. Hopefully I can do something.

Look at all the contests going on in the blogging world:

Allison at Eat Clean Live Green is giving away some Kashi items.

Jocelyn of Jocelyn Eats Fresh is giving away a book, some bars, and natural shampoos!

There’s a Glo-bar giveaway by Jessica as well.

Well I should be off and try to be productive.

Non-Turkey Day

Hello lovelies.

What’s this???

Two posts in one day? Crazy I know right?

Well after studying and writing my blog post I had myself a snack:

Yum. Apple with LOTS of peanut butter.

I then fiddled around doing nothing for a few hours. Actually I totally watched Because I Said So. I know I’ve seen it before, but I think I appreciated it more now. Not because my mom (or myself) is like that at all, but I just felt I understood it better. The first time I saw it… meh didn’t do anything for me. But I definitely enjoyed it.

I went to my friend’s for their free Thanksgiving dinner. I meant to take pictures, but it would have looked like a blob of potatoes, a blob of stuffing, and a white bun. Exciting no? That was my plate (and I was cheating with the stuffing! ). She shared some snackes with us after, so it wasn’t all bad. I came home after to have some tea and take the autumn chill off.

Well, two meals sans technology. How good have I been? So good! Hope I can do it tomorrow!

Summer Day

Today has been an average summer day. I began with breakfast, Wasa crackers and almond butter, looked at blogs, worked on learning about blogging, and overall lazyness.

I then set out for a run around 10. Unfortunately I’ve had a weird calf pain, like a tightness, that I can’t run through, so it turned into a walk instead. I walked for 1:04:53, a decent walk to make up for my run I think.

I took pictures of my lunch:

This grand salad had chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, red onion, red pepper, and carrots. Yummy.
Followed by dessert, an apple and a spoonful of peanut butter, . A delicious lunch.

I then went and bought some groceries for some baking I will be doing today and tomorrow. I’m goin on an overnight hike with my dad and brother and we need some nice dense energy foods to bring with us. I’ll try and remember to take some photos of those.

Well I don’t have much else to add today, I’m mostly just trying to feel my way into this blogging world, we’ll see how it goes.