Canada to Collapse

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Whew; what a day, what a day!  When we start a vacation in my family we do it right!  My 1 am bedtime and 7 am wake up were enough to make anyone tired, but our walking tour of Canada is what did me in.  It sure was fun though.

My dad and I started our morning with a walk to Starbucks.

Grande iced coffee with skim milk for me.  We stopped at the Farmer’s Market on the way back and made breakfast extra delicious.

A serving of Cinnamon Puffins, a serving of All Bran Bran Buds, ultra-fresh black raspberries and skim milk.

This might be the best bowl of cereal I’ve had in this lifetime.

After the general fun of getting 4 people with 1 bathroom ready, we were on the road to Canada!  3 hours into what should have been a 2 hour drive every in the car was ready to muzzle me, but my cranky pants came off in a hurry when we finally reached our intended destination –

Menchies!  What’s Menchies?  Only the self-serve froyo place that completely stole my heart in Orlando.

I got Canadian maple and original tart froyo, topped with coconut, skor pieces, rainbow sprinkles, and strawberry bobba.

I wish I could remember the exact name of the bobba but it was something like “popping bobba” and it was maybe the most exciting thing I’ve ever eaten.  Sort of like big, soft pop rocks?

Amazing.

I actually got traditional bobba as well, since my next stop was for bubble tea!

Taro milk tea with tapioca.

What else can I say except amazing?

We spent the afternoon walking around Chinatown and the Fashion District and it was, dare I say it, amazing.

So many fun things to look at, I love exploring new cities!  Toronto has beautiful (new?!) architecture and is an amazing spot for people watching.

We ended up at Spring Rolls a Pan Asian spot for dinner.

I ate one fried wonton from our shared appetizer.

And for dinner I ordered the vegetarian Thai Spicy Noodle – extra veggies, extra spicy – which were similar to my beloved Pad See Eiw.

Flat rice noodle stir-fried with basil leaf, eggplant, chili, onion and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Since I ordered extra veggies I ended up with bok choy and lots of broccoli.  And since I ordered Thai spicy I ended up with a completely spice-free dish minus one clump of chili peppers hidden in a bok choy that made me cry and cough until tears were running down my cheeks.

Still good though.

The drive back home was much less painful and before I knew it we were dropping my parents off at their hotel.  I can’t wait to see what we do tomorrow!

Do I have many Canadian readers? Say hi, please!

Dinner for Clean Schmucks

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Unsurprisingly, things took longer than I expected, as they always do.  I may not have read my Nancy Drews or cooked a big dinner, but we did manage to make the house sparkle.

This afternoon I went to hot yoga, which was wonderful.  I’m not sure if it was the new timing or the fact that I skipped a bunch of workouts this week, but I did have to rest through a few poses.  And I skipped camel entirely!

Mid-cleaning, I made myself tuna salad with half a can of solid white albacore, pickle relish, and Miracle Whip.

Are you a mayo family or a Miracle Whip family??

I decided not to cook dinner and the only ingredient that couldn’t be pantried was zucchini.  Yeah I just turned pantry into a verb.  Having to eat was perfect because it meant I just needed to fill in dinner with a grain and get some fruit into my day.

Fruit came in the form of 1 serving (sipped straight from the bottle) of Bolthouse Farms Amazing Mango.

And then I ate half a slice of Buffalo chicken pizza,

with the aforementioned zucchini, which was roasted.

Dinner. 

Quick, easy, and at some point today I hit all the food groups.

My parents don’t get in until close to midnight so Adam and I are entertaining ourselves watching “Dinner for Schmucks.”  He’s never seen it before but I watched it with Camile on the first night of BlogHer!

Leftovers For Brunch

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I still haven’t finished my June book (per my resolution to read one new book a month), so that’s where I was all morning.  I wanted to do brunch today, rather than breakfast and lunch, so that worked out nicely with my schedule.

I’m going to yoga at 1:30 (first class since I tweaked my back, yay!) at the lunch-time timing had me worried.  I want to be well fueled, but not full bellied.  Chinese leftovers for brunch to the rescue!

My take-out dinner did in fact end up being good, although clearly I ordered too much since this plate isn’t even all of my leftovers.

On the agenda for today –

  • yoga
  • lots of cleaning the apartment before my parents get here
  •  making the dinner I kept putting off
  • high-brow reading

Tantrum Take Out

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This afternoon I microwaved two mini corn tortillas with 2 slices of sharp cheddar to make a quick quesadilla.

I also made a Coke float.

My decadent snack had just under 500 calories, perfect to make up for missing breakfast.

Plus, so tasty!

When Adam got home this evening we laid down on the bed so he could tel me about his day, and promptly fell asleep.  I woke up disoriented with a headache to boot.  I had a mini tantrum and our planned dinner got scrapped in favor of Chinese food.

I ordered a pint of vegetable Chow Fun,

and a pint of vegetarian General Tso’s chicken.

I hope they’re good!

What’s your go-to take out dinner when you’re having a tantrum?

Tastes So Good Makes A Grown Man Cry

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It’s summer!  I know that’s been official for a while, but the tasty produce available here has me absolutely convinced.

I know it’s late afternoon, and not morning, but my first meal of the day was not eaten until after 1pm because apparently I’m having a lazy day.  I also know that it’s Thursday, not Wednesday.  We got some news yesterday and I took the day off of blogging in lieu of family time.  And speaking of family time, my parents are coming this weekend!

Ok, enough segues, lunch.

1.5 oz of Cabot 50% reduced white cheddar cheese and a schmear of Crofter’s grape fruit spread on sourdough.  Jam and cheese make the perfect sandwich combo.

For dessert, a huge bowl of local cherries from the co-op.

As I said, summer is here!

Yes, I Want Quesadillas

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Tonight’s dinner inspiration came from Katie at Yes, I Want Cake.  Layered quesadillas.

YIWC also inspires me to poke holes in all our condoms but Adam says we should have jobs before we have our own adorable baby.  I guess I’ll stick with copying dinner.  Katie’s quesadillas were triple deckers but I went with two layers with extra cheese.

Here’s the breakdown of our ‘dillas –

Plus homemade guacamole.

We made the guac with mashed avocado, mayan onion, tomato, and salt and pepper; it was delicious.  In fact the whole meal was great.

Thanks for the idea, Katie!

Earlier this afternoon, the husband made me a Coke float.

So good.  The adorable glass is from the bar I worked at back home, complete with a drink recipe.

And now I’m actually heading out for another drink, this time coffee.  My friend Katie (the one from last night, not the dinner inspiration with the adorable baby) is moving soon so I’m trying to see her as much as possible.  We are meeting at the Spot before she leaves for a trip tomorrow.

My Fellow American

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My back hurts in a bad way, but my legs are arms are super sore in a good way; I’m not sure if it was the running or the yoga, but I’ll take it!  Unfortunately my back is just sore enough that I decided to forgo all exercise today.  I sat on the couch instead.  I did make a sweet i-tunes playlist for the gym tomorrow though.

Since I wasn’t leaving the house, lunch got lame in a hurry.  Several servings of Chip’ins popcorn chips,

were used to shovel 80% of jar of salsa.

Good thing the entire jar only has 300 calories, huh?  I’m counting it as a nice big serving of veggies.

Speaking of things eaten straight from the jar, my reason for living has returned.

I mean that Adam came home early, duh.  Did you think I was talking about the Biscoff spread?  Noooooo…

I’ve eaten half the jar in spoonfuls over the last week, but thankfully I bought two jars.  Look at the price my dad and I found this stuff for at the grocery in Ohio –

Booyah!

On a more serious note (and there are few things more serious than Biscoff spread), I want to share a video that was sent to me from the site My Fellow American.  Here is a snippet from the e-mail Elizabeth sent me about the site and its purpose

As you know, America has always been a melting pot, but in the post-9/11 world the environment can be downright hostile. Recent mosque protests and congressional hearings on American Muslims are all unfortunate examples of a rising tide of fear. This climate of suspicion towards our fellow Americans compromises the great values that our country was founded upon.  We’ve put together a 2 minute film in response that I believe you and the readers of Eating Chalk will be interested in sharing, watching, and discussing.

As a former resident of Brooklyn (and a permanent New Yorker in my heart), I obviously have strong feelings about the tragedy that took place on September 11th.  However, I try to let the good part of my heart guide me through the world, not the hurt parts.  I find it discouraging that some Americans allow the actions of a select few to taint their perception of an entire religious culture.  You can’t fight hate with more hate.  I think the short video compiled by My Fellow American makes that point eloquently.

Camels Will Spit In Your Eye

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Lately cereal has been more appealing to me than usual.  During the summer when oatmeal sounds tedious and smoothies require cleaning the blender, this is a good thing.

My bowl of cereals (1 serving of cinnamon Puffins and 1 serving of Fiber One caramel pecan crunch) was topped with skim milk and a plucot.

Please, oh please, summer gods, keep the plucots this juicy and tasty!

I also ate the very last cookie ball, which was defrosting in the fridge after I shared them with Katie and Katy at the meet up last night.

I’m baking these for The Great Fundraising Act and I think I’ll have to make an extra batch to keep at home!

I was supposed to be at yoga this morning but I tweaked my back in camel pose yesterday and it still feels funky. 

(source) When I described the injury to Adam he said it was probably a pinched nerve and to skip yoga for a few days.  Ugh!  I want to play it safe though, so I took yoga off my schedule until Thursday.  Instead I’m watching Bones reruns all morning and I’m going to head to the gym this afternoon.

Have you ever ridden a camel?  The National Zoo used to let you ride camels, elephants, and giant tortoises; I’ve ridden all three!