I'd rather be knitting.

Work is slow and will get slower as Christmas approaches. I'm starting to browse knit blogs again and seeing that people have sweaters, finished sweaters, sweaters that probably didn't take them a year to make! Sigh.

I need to post more photos!
Just text is rather dry. I'll see what I can do.

food log for tuesday.

input:
breakfast - the usual, granola with rice milk
snack - raw almonds
lunch - more leftovers: dal and masala veggies over rice
snack - almonds, and some potato chips
dinner - masala vegetables with a pita

I'm really tired of the curry dal and masala vegetables at this point. I've been eating the same thing for days! There is still a lot left over - time to pack it up in the freezer.

output:
Great workout today -
15 min. on the treadmill: 2 min. warm up, 3 min. running/1 min. walking x3, cool down
(that's not much running but it's a step up from what I was doing)
weights: I increased my weight level so that I was actually working. No more "easy workouts", it's time to build muscle.
Bellydance class: lots of shimmy walk and three quarter shimmy. Roula worked on my 2nd chakra/lower back and loosened up some energy.

food log for monday.

input:
breakfast - granola with rice milk
snack - some raw almonds
lunch - masala vegetables (cauli, potatoes, carrots and peas with PC tikka masala sauce) and curry dal over brown basmati rice (leftovers from the weekend)
snack - I gulped down part of a smoothie made with bananas, blueberries, O.J., rice milk and hemp protein powder before class (also leftover from the weekend)
dinner - 2 Tofurkey sandwiches on sprouted grain bread with romaine, mustard, Veganaise and one had cheese
before bed - a handful of chips.... so bad!

output:
I walked to work in the morning, went to yoga class at lunch, then bellydance class in the evening.

The lunchtime yoga class now feels really short after taking 75-90 min. classes at the other studio. Savasana is 2 minutes long. And the gym is really chilly, I had forgotten about that. :(

Having a smoothie pre-mixed in the fridge was really handy. I am rushed to eat something between work and dance class - I'm hungry, but I have only 10 minutes to get ready and out the door.

raw cookies/energy balls.

You can find the original recipe for my energy balls (original name: Raw Oatmeal Cacao Nib Cookies) on the GreenChefs site. I made a ton of substitutions: almonds instead of macadamia nuts, chocolate chips instead of cacao nibs, rice syrup instead of agave. And I don't form them into cookies - I use my handy dandy 1 oz. scoop to form them into balls.

There are probably a ton of "energy ball" recipes out there... I remember looking for one a few years ago and dismissing them because they called for dates. Oh I was so naive! I probably wouldn't eat a date on its own, but they are so yummy in other recipes.

A big shout-out to Wendy, who first turned me on to the idea of energy balls years ago. Thanks!

food log for Thursday.

brekkie: coffee and granola with rice milk
mid-morning: energy ball
lunch: leftover pasta casserole
pre-dinner: tortilla chips with cheese and salsa
dinner: more pasta casserole

I went to the gym at lunchtime and did my favourite "step & sculpt" class (half cardio step class, half weights). It was fun! But I felt rather jelly-like afterward. I'm not too sore today... yet... I soaked in the tub last night with epsom salts, so hopefully that helps!

I realized that I've been eating mostly vegan this week. And I wasn't even trying! But then I had nachos with cheese. And it was yummy.

food log for wednesday.

breakfast - granola with rice milk, and coffee
mid-morning - banana and an energy ball
lunch - leftover potatoes and kale and baked beans
dinner - pasta casserole with leeks, butternut squash and tofu "cream" (recipe from an old Vegetarian Times)

Lunch was a throw-together-something-what's-in-the-fridge kind of affair today. We ate leftovers for dinner the night before and thus didn't cook. Surprisingly, my lunch was quite tasty! Maybe it's because I was staaaaaarving. I went to yoga class and ate lunch late, around 2:30 pm.

food log for tuesday.

breakfast - granola with rice milk, and coffee of course
mid-morning - banana
lunch - leftover pasta with TVP meatballs and tomato sauce
snack - energy ball before dance class
dinner - more leftover pasta

I went to the gym for the first time in 6 months. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, just a warm up really. Then some light weights: squats, lunges, lat pulldowns, delts, chest press, biceps & triceps. I didn't want to overdo it on my first day back! I also had bellydancing class in the evening, which was really fun and I feel super motivated.

food log for monday.

breakfast - coffee and my own homemade granola
mid-morning - energy ball made from dates & almonds... will post a link
lunch - potatoes and kale (leftover from last night's dinner)
dinner - big spinach salad and fettuccine with TVP meatballs (Vegan Vittles Better Burger recipe) and tomato sauce with zucchini and green peppers

I got up early! Ate breakfast! Walked to work! Yay me.

i'm baaaaaaaaack!

Here I am, back at the mothership... going through a million voice mail messages since no one picked them up while I was gone. Ugh.

re-focus.

Now that I'm going back to my old job ("the mothership"), I want to create some good habits and routines that fell by the wayside because I was so exhausted by the baking job. I haven't made a decent meal in weeks (and now I'm sick), yoga practice has been sporadic (every 2 weeks... I can hardly call that a practice), the house is a mess and laundry is piling up. I am definitely looking forward to making some lifestyle changes and devoting more time to those activities that feed my spirit and making my home an inviting and inspiring environment.

Number one: feed my body! I was going to put the yoga practice first, but really I need a well-nourished body before I can consider any physical activity. The food log will be resurrected!

Number two: establish a regular yoga practice. Back at the mothership, I'll be taking lunchtime yoga twice a week plus I'm aiming for one class a week at Core Studio. I would really like to create a daily practice, even if it's just 5 minutes.



Number three: get the house in order. Before I left the mothership, I had a good cleaning routine and was happy to have friends drop by. Now I'm afflicted with "can't have anyone over syndrome"! Must get back into that routine. It makes a huge difference when you feel good about your living space.

Number four: establish a dance practice. I've been pretty good about practicing, especially since I have a performance at the end of the month, but it would be beneficial to practice more regularly and be more organized about it. I feel like I've hit a plateau and look forward to seeing more improvement - but it won't happen unless I work at it.

Number five: knitting, reading, arts and crafts. All the fun stuff. Do it instead of sleeping on the couch. Keep in touch with friends. Spend some time with the T-man. Cuddle with the cats. OK, those last two things should be slotted under Number 1.5. I have so many plans for fun crafty stuff but where do I find the time?? Ay, there's the rub.

books books books.

I'm looking forward to reading a lot during my 2.5 weeks of vacation. (I'm technically in between jobs but we'll call it vacation anyway.) I already have several books that are partly read, but I wasn't particularly excited about finishing them so I bought some more!! Hooray for new books!

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac (I'm already halfway through this one)
Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by B.K.S. Iyengar
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (I really liked Blink)
Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith (Not loving the title, but I wanted a book about the chakra system and Roula has mentioned Anodea Judith's work in class.)

funny girl, but a good idea.

free burma.



www.free-burma.org

phallic dessert.


Just because you're in a nice restaurant doesn't mean they won't serve you ice cream arranged to look like a male body part. Willa was so embarrassed! We all thought it was hilarious!

baby cake!


This is a cake I made for T-bird's baby shower on Aug. 26. (Also her wedding anniversary) It was super easy to make, and uses baby food! You can find the recipe here.

T-man and I are now craving PC Crunchy Cubs cookies - we bought two packages yesterday!

banana, banana, go go banana.

I made banana bread yesterday, but I forgot to take a photo of it and now it's sliced up! It turned out perfectly again, and virtually jumped out of the pan. This time I added walnuts and chocolate chips.

You can look at the photo from last time. It looks exactly the same, except I didn't make muffins.

still crafty.

Even though I haven't been blogging about it very much, I am still being crafty. The ribs and lace tank is chugging along - only the straps to go! And then I have to shape the back, which is a sneaky way to add more knitting time to the project. Hurumph. If it fits well enough, I might just make it a halter. I am not excited about knitting 11 inches of stockingette on 18 stitches (9 per strap).


I already have plans for two new projects! One of them is a gift, so I can't blog about it (even though I doubt the recipient looks at this site). I've already knit a test swatch for it and cast on the first row. The target completion date is end of September. The next project lined up is a tunic from the summer issue of knit.1 magazine.


I already have the yarn too! I love going to Michael's and buying inexpensive yarn... I also love shopping at my LYS but always feel guilty over the price. This pattern only uses 3 skeins - that seems unreal. At first I reached for a reddish pink shade, then I remembered that I already have a sweater-dress/tunic in pink. So I opted for a mottled green and taupe colour, "Mediterranean".


Time to get knitting!

new appliances.

Oooooo new housewares are so much fun! Yesterday T-man and I went to the Bay and bought a new coffee maker (our old one conked out a few weeks ago)...


The only feature that I really wanted was a programmable start time, so that coffee will be ready for me in the morning. Mmmm coffee. It came with a re-usable "gold" filter, and it was on sale! 50% off!! We were about to buy a different one, and the customer service rep pointed out that the Kitchenaid models were on sale.

I also bought a slow cooker...


I've wanted one for a while. I picked up a cookbook way back in April! There are so many models that it was hard to choose. This one is pretty basic: only three settings, no timer, but it's not too big. As you can see in the photo, it's already in use too! T-man is so happy that these two new items are already out of the bag, out of their boxes and made to feel at home. (I tend to leave new things in the bag and set aside, to save their "newness". It's kind of weird.)

Dinner is simmering away right now! It's "Arroz non pollo" from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson.


It's not a magic time-saving tool, because you still have to prep all the veggies. But it moves the prep time to either the morning (ha ha ha) or the night before. Instead of coming home from work, cleaning up, making food and then eating, the new schedule will be come home from work, eat, clean up, prep food.

monster cookies.

Last weekend I made these cookies. Unfortunately, I did not take pics and now there's only one left! The first batch was a little overcooked, but the second batch turned out well. I was happy to be able to use natural peanut butter in a cookie recipe - the last time I made peanut butter cookies using a conventional recipe, it was a disaster. Ms. Pattycake and I had a little discussion about it, and she uses a "just peanuts" type of peanut butter and thus encouraged me to try this recipe.

The cookies were good. I didn't love them... perhaps it was the honey... next time I'll use maple syrup for a sweeter cookie. And next time I'll take photos!