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

A slow start

I am moving slowly this morning! I couldn’t get to sleep until almost 4am, so needless to say my alarm was very unwelcome at 7. Good thing breakfast was all ready for me and I didn’t have to think! Who knows what would have ended up in my bowl then?

As I posted last night, breakfast was muesli. I will have to get a better pic for the recipe section, but this is what I’ve got today. Tastes a lot better than it looks! I’m also having some of this:

Tea (caffeine!) I am drinking the tea as I type and bringing the apple with me to eat after spinning. I’m also bringing an oatmeal pancake – wow I am tired, almost typed waffle there! I ground up the oats in my food processor before making this guy to see what the difference is. It looks like a more pancake – like texture, but I will report back at lunch with the final verdict.

My plan for this morning is spinning class, followed by my last occupational health & safety class – YAY! I’ll of course still have to write the exam, but no more boring lectures for that class After that I’ll be home for lunch, see you then.

An Italian Feast!

Ok, not so much of a feast but it sure hit the spot! I made Lasagna tonight Here it is right out of the oven:

And now on my plate:

I swear that’s not a super huge piece of lasagna! I used a salad plate because I hate using bigger dishes than necessary. I know, I’m weird like that. It looks like it’s just cheese and noodles, but there are quite a few veggies hidden under there too. I suppose I could have rounded out the meal with a salad, butI’m just not in the mood for that today. I really prefer not to eat salads in the winter because I like warmer foods.

This afternoon I had to go to the mall to run a few errands and while I was there I felt like I was getting a bit faint, so I headed over to my favourite health food store (OK, the only one I’ve managed to find in this city!) and look what I found:

I was so excited, especially after my first experience with Larabars yesterday! It was tasty but I found the cocoa flavour a bit too strong. I would chose the regular Larabars over the jocolate ones next time.

I felt much better after getting some fuel into me but unfortunately I came across super discounted Easter candy and couldn’t resist! I got myself *one* small bag of Cadbury Mico Mini Eggs – they hit the spot. This is slightly unusual for me, usually I go off the deep end when I eat sugary foods but I’m happy to report that I stopped at that teeny-tiny bag!

Now I’m going to do some homework to get ready for school tomorrow.

Edited to add: I had another snack tonight before I head to bed. I took some inspiration from the infamous Oatmeal pancake and made it with oat bran and a tiny chocolate bar that I chopped up instead of chocolate chipe. This is better for me because now I don’t have the open bag of chocolate in the house! It was great!

You can’t really see the chocolate but it’s there! I sprinkled it on top right after I poured the batter in the pan and then quickly covered it up with more batter so that I didn’t end up with burnt chocolate when I flipped the pancake. Now I’m going to take my happy tummy to bed and hope for some sleep:)

A dilema…

As the title suggests, I have a dilema. Here it goes: I have two heart rate monitors, a Timex and aPolar. Simple enough right? Well the Polar died the other day, so today I wore the Timex to spinning today. Here’s the problem: it tells me I had a max HR of 186 and burned 744 calories, when my polar usually gives me a max HR in the 170’s and a calorie burn in the 400’s. This is where I should mention that today’s class was no harder, maybe even a bit easier than usual. So what’s a girl to beleive?

Anyway, on to the rest of my morning…

After breakfast I headed out to the grocery store, here’s what I got:

-3 bananas and 4 avocados (which will take at least 4 days to ripen)
-mushrooms, green pepper, broccoli and carrots
-cream of broccoli soup, 2 cans of tomatoes, small jar of honey
-long grain brown rice, fresh lasagna noodles and meat sauce
-cottage and cheddar cheese, plain yogurt and egg substitute

Nex, I had an oatmeal pancake (sorry for the blurry photo) à la KERF before heading out to the gym :

Finally, after I got home from spinning it was lunchtime! I made “Tinbucktuna” from the cookbook Eat, Shrink and be Merry.

It was delish although a smaller portion than I had hoped for. I can see a snack coming later!