Category Archives: Food

Mar 8 2012

An Important Realization

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This week: Crazy Town. Population: One blonde blogger. Let’s look at a quick rundown, shall we?

Monday night was the only night this week that I was actually home, and it was a busy evening filled with terrible chores like washing dishes and doing laundry.

Tuesday night, I went to a concert (the tickets were free!)

Last night, I went to another concert (again, the tickets were free, I couldn’t resist … don’t I have great friends?)

Tonight, I’m getting my hair reblondified, and finally seeing a screening of the documentary Miss Representation. (By the way, Happy International Women’s Day!)

Friday – I have dinner plans with a friend, and then we’re taking in a local dance production.

All of those plans sound so fun. And of the ones I’ve done so far, they’ve been spectacular. I have a great life.

 

But I’m exhausted.

 

I’ve had ZERO down time this week, and it’s taking a toll. My social life isn’t usually this bumpin’, and it’s made me realize how important “me” time is. Even if it’s just an hour to watch a TV show (don’t even get me started on the shows I’ve missed lately).

I’ve seen it on medical shows, read it online, and seen it in magazines. It’s a simple message – if you aren’t getting enough sleep … say buh bye to healthy choices. It’s never really happened to me before, but I am the walking example of it this week. The gym? Haven’t seen it since Monday morning. I’ve been so tired that instead of getting up at 6AM for a workout, I stay snuggled under the covers until 7:30 and then get ready and go straight to work. Healthy meals? I really am trying, but it’s tough! After Tuesday night’s concert I DIDN’T GET HOME UNTIL 3 IN THE MORNING. I have a career. I’m not a college student anymore! That. Was. Stupid. How did Wednesday go, you ask? Well, on top of being a zombie and having the worst productivity level in the world …. I picked up breakfast at a fast food restaurant instead of bothering to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier and make myself a bowl of oatmeal. I now totally understand how a lack of zzzz’s can cause poor food choices.

I suppose I’m using this blog post so you can learn from me … because believe me, I feel gross today. But as I write this, it’s a wakeup call too. I know I need to drink a bunch of water. I know I need to stay away from greasy, restaurant chain food. I know I need vegetables, and I definitely know that I need eight hours of sleep.

I know I’ll get back on track soon. Hey, life happens, right? But now I KNOW how I’ll feel when I don’t make great choices.

Whew. I’m glad I got that off my chest. If you’re hanging onto a McGriddle right now, or are reading this at midnight instead of sleeping … maybe rethink that? :) thanks for reading!

Mar 7 2012

Oh Hello, WIAW

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Hey guys! It’s time for my third installment of What I Ate Wednesday, which is one heck of a good time. If you’re new to this, you can visit the whole party over at Jenn’s blog

You can see my last two WIAW posts here and here.

These eats are from Tuesday…

Breakfast = oatmeal topped with a spoonful of all natural, crunchy peanut butter and some thawed out berries (hence all that juice).

Lunch = a two egg white/mushroom/kale/leftover tofu (from Monday’s experiment) scramble, thrown into a whole wheat tortilla and topped with nutritional yeast. A unpictured apple was also consumed :)

Supper = a ground turkey/spinach/feta quesadilla in a whole wheat tortilla (I was really feeling tortillas yesterday!) with some brown long grain rice on the side. Yum!

Terrible photo. Eaten in front of last week's Survivor. Can you believe I lasted almost an entire week with no spoilers?!

There you go, boys and girls! My Tuesday meals, in their (crappy quality) photographed glory. Have a wonderful Wednesday, and remember … the week is half over … SMILE!

I’m off to check out some more WIAWs!

Mar 6 2012

Trying Tofu

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I’m not vegan or a vegetarian.

I don’t follow a raw food diet.

I was raised on a farm, I know what happens to animals when they are killed for meat. I’m okay with it. And while I usually tend to lean towards chicken for meat, I do love me a steak or cheeseburger. And I mean love. Love.

But I like to dabble. I wander around the grocery store (shopping takes me hours, literally) and am drawn to items that I want to try out and that are healthy. I am always willing to try something new if it’s going to help me make a meal that is good for me.

Enter tofu.

I bought some a couple of months ago, but a series of unfortunate events (I ended up not being home/I forgot about it in the back of the fridge) resulted in me throwing it out. So, I decided to pick up some more the last time I went grocery shopping. And I added it to my meal last night.

On the menu? Tofu fried rice with butternut squash and edamame (on my awful ’80s plate).

I pressed the tofu (which was medium firmness) for about 20 minutes, using everything from my fruit bowl to a can of frozen orange juice and my toaster as weight.

Then I sliced about a third of it up, and fried it in some extra virgin olive oil until crispy. Once it was kind of brown and crunchy looking, I added brown long grain rice (which, alone, reminds me of something you’d eat if you were stranded on the island on Survivor). I needed to constantly stir the dish in the frying pan to avoid sticking, but it smelled amazing. 

Once the rice was crispy and close to being done, I added some butternut squash that I had microwaved and some wonderfully green shelled edamame. So much color!

And there you have it. My first experiment with tofu, and I liked it! There were so many textures rolling around in my mouth … the soft squash … the crispy rice and tofu … and I always like how edamame *pops* when you bite into it! And it hardly took any time at all – I will make this again :)

Do you ever eat tofu? What else should I make with the leftovers?!

Mar 5 2012

A Great Time

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Hello! It’s Monday Monday Monday! Which means the weekend is over, which also means I’m back from my trip to see my wonderful friend Megan.

It was a super quick little trip … I spent many long hours on Friday and Sunday in my car … but it was great! I really enjoyed being able to catch up with my best friend from college (sometimes texts/phone calls/Skype just don’t cut it, ya know).

The highlights (in which I actually list everything I did over the course of the weekend because the whole trip rocked):

We danced our butts off Friday night. Seriously, right off. I woke up with sore shins Saturday morning, nothing a good bout of stretching couldn’t fix … but I may have developed a new dance move to cause that. I bet I looked like her though, regardless of the move:

Oh, Julianne Hough. So fabulous.

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After getting very little sleep Friday night, Megs and I jumped in the car with her roommate and headed off to Moose Jaw on Saturday morning.

I told you I’m Canadian. We have cities with strange names like Moose Jaw.

Anyway, we checked out the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa, which was incredibly cool. According to the website, the mineral pool has some health benefits:

“The warmth of the water combined with a rich cocktail of essential elements sooth and replenish the body. High concentrations of Epsom and Glauber’s salts, along with Silicon, Potassium and Magnesium provide many health-boosting benefits which relax muscles, ease joint pain, replenish cellular composition, rejuvenate and re-hydrate the skin, and help to detoxify the body’s lymphatic system.”

Since I had planned to spend a lot of my weekend in a car, I hit the gym quite hard Friday morning. Hence … I was a tad sore. The pool helped! It was fantastic. I was really enjoying myself …

… until they told us to get out because of a health and safety concern (rumor around the dressing room is the jets had stopped working, so the water wasn’t circulating – icky). So we didn’t get to swim as long as we wanted to. But I enjoyed the time we did spend there. If you are ever in Canada, and happen to be in Saskatchewan (and I would ask you WHY that is!), then check that place out.

The rest of Saturday flew by with heavy amounts of chatting, gelato eating, and movie watching.

Then? Sushi time. It was ahhhhhmazing.

AND I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF MY PLATE. I also forgot to take pictures all freaking weekend. I was distracted by all the visiting that was happening. I’m a terrible blogger. All I can tell you is that I went to Enso Sushi in Regina and my life is now better for it.

Sorry.

After we rolled out of the restaurant (after eating all of that food that you will never see documented on the blog), we hit up the theatre to see This Means War.

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The verdict? Not a great movie. Not a horrible movie, either. I probably won’t buy it. But I would watch it if it’s on TV.

The best part? The beautiful faces. I always knew I liked Chris Pine … but never have I realized how much I like Chris Pine.

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So that pretty much sums up the weekend. I mean, I left a lot of stories out of this post … but I didn’t want to bore you. I had a wonderful time, and loved being able to hang out with Megan in the city she calls home. It was also my first time to Regina!

Oh! I did photograph one thing, so I should share. Megs was pretty proud of the breakfast she whipped up yesterday, and said it was deserving of a picture (she also said since I am Yellow Haired Girl, she should be referred to as Brown Haired Girl).

Greek yogurt with honey, topped with granola, strawberries, raspberries, almonds and craisins.

Well done, Brown Haired Girl!

So tell me – how was YOUR weekend?! Have you seen This Means War? What was the last meal you cooked that was definitely worthy of photography?

Mar 2 2012

Snackage

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Just a short post today – but I need your ideas!

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m on the road today (for most of the day) to go visit my friend. I’m so excited. Stoked. I’ve already put out the feelers for some song suggestions to make a rockin’ road trip playlist (Google helped me, too). But what is the next item on my to do list this morning?

Snacks, duh.

I’m a full-fledged, absolute Clif Bar addict. So that’s in the pile. And I make my own trail mix. So there’s that too.

Also, fruit. Cut up apples and oranges. Always a winning idea.

But I feel like those are all really boring. Is there anything else I should be adding to my list? Any ideas? I have a couple of hours before I get on the road and wouldn’t mind some last minute suggestions, if you’ve got ‘em.

Healthy is what I’m going for here, of course. Don’t be silly gooses and say things like chocolate bars or anything ridiculous like that. I want to avoid stopping for gas station snacks (bleck!!!), and I’m going to spending most of the day in my car. And coming back on Sunday. I’m going to need food, yo!

Thanks guys – and now I’ll leave you with a Friday Funny (something I’ve decided to include every week on Yellow Haired Girl).

Source!

Ha! Have a wonderful weekend!

Feb 23 2012

The Kind Of Pancake

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So, as you know, Tuesday was Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday. An excuse for pancakes, right?

When I took my lunch break at home on Tuesday (I’m so lucky to be able to do that), I was craving a big bowl of comforting oatmeal. But I felt as though I should pay homage to the day. I mean … the day is meant for pancakes.

Who says you can’t have both? Together?

I turned to my BFF, Google, for some much needed guidance. I found this recipe over on Julie’s blog … and gave it a try.

It wasn’t pretty.

In the frying pan.

But … it was delicious. I’m one of those weird people who appreciate undercooked pancakes (and cookies, too - is that strange?). The “batter” for this oatmeal/pancake creation was reallllllly thick. It obviously wasn’t going to cook all the way through. So I kept in the frying pan for roughly 20 minutes, and kept folding it into itself. It was turning into a really nice dense little cake. It had a shape on the outside … and was this amazing, thick oatmeal on the inside.

Mission = accomplished. I wanted oatmeal, but felt obligated to make pancakes. This looked like a pancake (kind of), and had a thick filling.

Good lord, it was ugly. But after topping with peanut butter and a banana, it was almost disguised.

Please ignore my ghetto plates from the '80s.

A perfect lunch to fill me up, and help me get through the rest of the day! Did you celebrate on Tuesday with pancakes?

Feb 19 2012

The Goods

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Yesterday was crazy town. I was really busy … doing terribly unexciting things. I spent hours doing laundry. I had let the pile build up for a couple of weeks. I have too many clothes, so I can let that happen. A blessing and a curse.

Laundry doing just screams glamour, right?

Then, task number two: grocery shopping. Pretty sure I had left shopping longer than I had left the laundry. So there’s your indication of the length of my list. I needed to get on track. Ghosts were living in my refrigerator.

I took my massive grocery list to the store. And when I say store, I actually mean four different stores. Does everyone go to a hundred different places like I do?

Usually I LOVE grocery shopping. I love writing the list, I love looking at different items in the store, I love taking my time, I love it all. Not yesterday. No ma’am. I didn’t want to. But if I wanted to eat today/the rest of the week, it was necessary.

So I went. But I wasn’t happy about it.

But I’m happy now! Here’s some of the goods:

Buying in bulk, baby! Oats, quinoa, bulgur, brown rice penne, nutritional yeast, lentils, beans ...

That’s just a sneak peek of some of the goods. Oh, and those three tubs of greek yogurt? They’ll be gone by Saturday. I have no self control when it comes to that creamy, delectable goodness. I put it in every meal.

As much as shopping sucked with a capital S (seriously … screaming children in every single aisle), I’m relieved to have food in my cupboards/fridge/freezer again.

The problem now, though? Too many options! I don’t know what to cook today!