Tag Archives: sweet potato

Muffins & Ribbons & Other Random Thoughts

by | 7 Comments

I’ve been home since Thursday night and yet I haven’t even made a dent in unpacking my suitcase. I basically take out whatever I need and leave everything else as is. So in this case, the only thing I’ve taken out was my toothbrush.

I’ve been doing anything and everything to avoid it.

Including baking muffins and making ribbons.

I’ve been thinking about the lemon poppyseed muffins I made a week and a half ago nonstop, so naturally I just had to make them again.

Halfway through mixing and gathering my ingredients I realized i didn’t have any almond milk, or any milk at all. Well, I had a carton of chocolate almond milk, but I didn’t think that would work too well, so I just went with water instead.

And it worked like a charm.

Obviously.
Since there used to be an actual muffin inside the muffin wrapper on the left in the photo below.

Someone was being sneaky…

As for the ribbons, they’re actually for my sister and her golf team.

I’m heading to the east coast bright and early tomorrow morning (I think my flight leaves at 8am? I should probably check on that) to watch two of my sisters golf tournaments.

One of the tournaments will be benefiting Susan G. Komen and I volunteered to make her team pink ribbons to tie on their golf bags to show their support!

On another note…
With all this traveling I’ve been doing lately, I realized I’ve kinda gone off track with my normal eats.

I usually eat pretty clean and make fairly good choices, but lately I’ve been eating tons of things I wouldn’t normally eat. And I’ve been seeing and feeling the effects.

So in an effort to get back on track mentally and physically, I made lunch today.

Sweet potato + greek yogurt + broccoli

Super creamy.

It was really simple and a good reminder of how easy it can be to put together a delicious and healthy small meal.

And My last thought of the day:
Either True Vitality, my favorite protein powder, is really popular where I live, or the Whole Foods I buy it from just doesn’t stock enough of it.

This is the 2nd time I’ve gone to buy it and both times they’ve been sold out. And not just of the chocolate flavor. They were sold out of the vanilla flavor too. I went to Whole Foods two Wednesdays ago, the day before I went to Hong Kong, and they told me they would be getting it the next day. Since I wasn’t there the next day I went back today and it was out once again. Maybe its a sign telling me I shouldn’t always wait till the last minute to buy things.

So I settled for Spiru-tein, which I tried recently and quite liked. I still like true vitality more though.

Guess I’ll try my luck again next week when I’m home.

Now I really need to go pack – or rather unpack then repack – and do some laundry, take a couple quizzes and catch up on some lectures, and perhaps participate in a couple online class discussions.

Catch ya later!

WIAW # 5: Ready in 5. Or less.

by | 14 Comments

I thought I’d take a slight break from Bordeaux [see previous days 1, 2, 3 here] and join in on some WIAW fun today :)

Peas and Crayons

[Thanks Jenn for hosting!! :) ]

Everything I ate today was basically ready in under 5 minutes. And not on purpose.

This morning I started with half a banana before heading off to my Wednesday cardio strength class, which ended up being AWESOME.

After class I chugged a pb + banana+ chocolate protein smoothie.

I used the remainder of my banana from earlier this morning, 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 packet chocolate true vitality, 5 ice cubes, and 1/2 tablespoon peanut flour.

My official BREAKFAST was a waffle a la kodiak cakes.

Drizzled with manuka honey.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of waffles. They’re just that good.

Then it was time for some school-ing…

and munching…

I may have had a few too many of these dark chocolate dipped rice cakes.
My excuse: they were mini

Then it was time for LUNCH. YAY :P

On the menu:
tuna
refried beans
corn cakes
hummus
tomatoes
avocado 

That can only mean one thing:

BUILD YOUR OWN CORN CAKES! 

Yes, i see that my lunch came out of cans, but it’s alright every once in a while. Plus the convenience is just too awesome.

I bought these corn cakes in France and love how perfectly thin they are. Perfect for piling on the toppings.

I mixed the tuna with some hummus and piled it on top of the corn cakes with some avocado and tomato slices.

Dessert was just as fantastic.

I sliced up part of an apple and banana

Added some sunbutter+almond milk

Mixed it all in and stuck it in the microwave for 20 seconds (x’s 2)

and Voila!

Okay okay, so it tastes a whole lot better than it looks. I promise!
And it’s guaranteed to satisfy that sweet tooth.

But of course I still had a couple chocolate cat cookies a little later on ;)

I ate a bazillion of these. Seriously, I don’t think I can buy them anymore.
I can’t stop eating them!

Sweet > Savory
always :)

Then DINNER!

Roasted up a diced sweet potato sprinkled with paprika, cayenne, and a touch of cinnamon in the oven
[okay this may have taken slightly more than 5 minutes - but I don't count the roasting time]

Mixed it with leftover tuna from lunch, squirted on some ketchup and mustard and it was ready.

Again, tastes a lot better than it looks!

Dessert was something that I’ve become slightly obsessed with over the past couple days.

Baked Microwaved Apples

I diced up an apple, sprinkled it with cinnamon, ginger, and a touch of paprika

Then put it in the micovwave for 30 seconds (x’s2)
Sprinkled on some almond meal.

Perfectly warm and delicious. AND tastes like fall :)

Speaking of fall…

We’re only two days away from the first day of Autumn!

So…enjoy these last couple days of summer!!


Steamed Dinner

by | 11 Comments

Ahhhhh…

That’s me breathing out a sign of relief.

I’m finally caught up (for the most part) with my summer school assignments and can relax a bit for a day or two :)

I spent the majority of yesterday working on a project and an assignment, which I completed a little earlier today.

It wasn’t all work though. I took a couple breaks in between.

During my mid-morning break, I went to buy a snack at my favorite bread shop downstairs. I needed to get my blood circulating in my legs ;)

After perusing a bit I decided on a sweet potato bread.

Doesn’t it actually look like a sweet potato from the side? I didn’t realize it until after I had snapped a photo of it.

The outside is soft bread, and inside is actually a sweet potato.

It’s definitely not the most attractive looking bread, but it’s a tasty one.

After I very slowly ate my snack it was back to work.

A while later I took my second break and had lunch. I ate the other item I had purchased during my mid-morning trip to La Creation de Gute.

Any guess what my lunch was?

How about now?

It’s a tuna sandwich! Well, I guess it doesn’t qualify as a true sandwich since it’s not between two slices of bread, but I don’t know what to call it. Tuna roll? eh..

Whatever it’s called, it was mighty tasty.

And I ate it all. After all, I am a member of the clean plates club ;)

I had some golden kiwi and watermelon on the side.

Anyone know if you can eat kiwi skin? I didn’t try it, but I feel like I should.

After lunch I finished up my assignment (finally!) and headed to they gym for 22 mins on the elliptical, 17 on the bike, 17 on the treadmill, and 10 mins of abs.

Then came my favorite part of my day today. A walk to the grocery store! :)

I have no food here and needed some veggies stat. Plus I really wanted to use the steamer in the kitchen here.

I’ve never used an actual steamer before and this thing is amazing! You can make anything in it from rice to de-crystalizing honey, or even make yogurt!

Since it was my first time using it, I kept it on the simpler side.

I decided on some chinese spinach, carrots, tofu, and half of a mini Japanese pumpkin.

During it’s 15 mins in the steamer, I showered off and had some salmon rolls as an appetizer.

Then, voilà! – Veggies were ready.

I think I may have overcooked the spinach slightly, but it was still good and not tough at all. Just a bit brown.

After I was about 2/3′s through, I realized I didn’t season any of the veggies before steaming them, but I don’t really think it needed anything. Fresh veggies are always best as is. The carrots gave the spinach a slightly sweet taste, and the pumpkin was delicious on its own.

I couldn’t read the label of the tofu to see whether it was firm or silken, since it was all in Chinese, so it was a surprise :) I usually eat firm, but luckily I like all tofu because it ended up being silken. Delicious and smoooooth.

This has to be one of the easiest dinners I’ve ever made! Aside from my instant noodles last night…

But that doesn’t count ;)

Now I’m off to find something to satisfy my sweet tooth :P

I’ll also be making something with these in a bit!

Any guesses what I’ll be doing with them?

Have a terrific tuesday!