And so it begins

Exams start for real this week – four this week and one next Monday. The first exam is today – computer science. I have to say, I could have studies harder for this one! It was hard to study for though because it’s a paper exam and a computer class. I guess we’ll see how that turns out in a few weeks when I get my marks.

I made more muesli this morning (well I made it last night, but I ate it this morning) I found some dried goji berries at the store last weekand since I am always too curious to not buy new things, I bought them. I know, this goes against all of my cleaning out the pantry posts but it’s a small bag, so it hardly counts I plumped them up in a couple of spoonfuls of boiling water and added them to the muesli, water and all, when they were cooled (last night).

As you can see, the extra water was absorbed by the oats and berries, resulting in a thick, creamy muesli. Here’s the overall photo – ie with my bucket of coffee (hey, it’s exam time )

Wish me luck! I’ll be back for lunch, but I don’t trust my judgment on how my exams went in this class. I thought I had done well on the midterm exam, but I only got 14.5 / 30! Ok, so the class average was 11 / 30 and only a handful of people passed, but I thought it went well! I’m sure something will be done to scale those marks though because they can’t have hundreds of students fail and a handful pass, right?

Okay, enough worrying, I’m off

SNOW!!! (+ looking for ideas)

Nooooooooooo, it’s snowing! Real snow too, not just a couple of flakes This is what I woke up to this morning:

Isn’t that a lovely view I have from my bedroom window? I’m so sick of winter, I think I’ll stay home as much as possiblle today!

Back on topic, I had another bowl of granola for bedtime snack last night, so that’s been put away indefinitely. It will be used only for a treat or topping and not as a meal or a snack from now on. Although I practiced portion control with each bowl yesterday, I know that some other food groups must have suffered, being replaced by granola. It’s also not filling at all (to me anyway).

I decided to have a nice lazy Saturday morning, sitting around in my pj’s eating oatmeal pancakes.

I made my version of Kath’s oatmeal pancakes using large flake (old fashioned) oats that I ground into a powder (almost) in my food processor. I left it with a few larger pieces for texture, but no whole flakes. Here’s what I used:

• 35 grams oats, ground (no idea how much this measured, sorry)
• 50 grams egg substitute (1/4 cup?)
• 50 grams banana, mashed (about half a banana)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

I just mixed it all together and plopped them into the pan – so easy and good! On the side, I had a serving of plain yogurt to get some dairy in. I still think the banana adds so much to these pancakes, it makes them nice and moist and sweet. I ate some of these plain and some dipped in the yogurt since I didn’t have or want any syrup.

Hereès my snack that I’ll be sipping throughout the morning:

A homemade latte, heavy on the foam! I made it with skim milk and no sweeteners. I’m still getting used to coffee without sugar, but I find if I make it a latte it tastes much better.

On a final note, does anyone have any suggestions about what they would like to see on the blog? I’m open to all requests, as long as they are realistic for me to try

The stove wins!

For making oats, that is!

This morning, since I had no class, I slept in a bit and tried Kath’s Whipped Banana Oatmeal on the stovetop for a change. It was amazing, so creamy and delicious! I honestly didn’t beleive there ws that much of a difference between this and the microwave until I tried this. Wow!

With a café au lait:

Sorry the photo looks so blah today, it’s a bit washed out because I’m sitting next to the window enjoying the sunshine that’s pouring in!

On a side note, I had another snack when I got home last night: cheese! It was about 1.5 oz of low fat jalapeno cheese, but I almost forgot a photo so there’s only a bite left!

Now I’m off to the grocery store, my fridge is bare!