Tag Archives: oats

Lincoln On South Beach

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The day’s not yet done, but I can already tell that I won’t feel like blogging after dinner so I wanted to get a post in now.  This vacation is tiring me out, whee!

We started the morning with complimentary breakfast. I made oats to eat, and stole a pear and some granola for later.

I topped my oats with skim milk and peanut butter.

Plus had a cup of hot chocolate.

And then we went to the gym! I realize the first morning of a vacation is an odd time to break my months’ long gym hiatus, but what can I say? There was one in-house, Adam could go with me, and Sleepwalk with Me by Mike Birbiglia was begging to be read. I actually extended my workout so I could finish the book; 45 minutes on the stationary bike.

Our first stop of the day was Lululemon for an exciting Christmas gift. I also grabbed a piece of candy.

Then we spotted a Whole Foods, swoon.  The husband and I about died over these –

But then we found the crackers Adam has been lusting after and my favorite Pumpkin Protein drink from Odwalla.

We split it.

The husband and I, I mean, though we did consider giving a sip to our new friend.

You know our next stop was my favorite.

I think I got more toppings than froyo.

Rainbow sprinkles, popping bobba, and marshmallow with a bit of plain tart yogurt.

And our day’s activity was one of my favorites: wandering up and down Lexington Ave on South Beach.

Lexington is the best spot in Miami for people and puppy watching.

We spent the day walking, shopping, and eating; it was perfect.  I split this Chocolate Cherry Tort Lara Bar with Adam.

And when he stopped for Cuban coffee I snagged this Mamey smoothie.

I’ve wanted to try Mamey fruit for years and after this drink I’m still not quite sure what it is!  The taste was almost a watermelon-pumpkin mix.

I also stole a small square of Adam’s chicken parmesan pizza.

And bought a small bag of cola gummies.

I think I’ll be ready for something savory for dinner 😉

Do you people watch?  Where’s the best spot for it?

Miami Bound

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I’m not sure how this hasn’t come up on the blog yet (because it’s all I talk about in real life), but I’m going to Miami for Thanksgiving!!!  Adam and I are meeting my parents there tomorrow for four days of nostalgic, sunny, fun.  We don’t have any family in Florida (we’re spending Turkey Day at a steak/seafood place) but my parents loved visiting when Adam and I went to UM and they thought it’d be fun to recreate a trip.

I’ve been excited for weeks but I hadn’t actually thought logistics until this morning.  Today’s to-do list includes –

  • packing for myself and the husband
  • packing some sort of “brunch” for the airplane tomorrow
  • painting my toe nails
  • shaving my legs for the first time in at least two months (eww!)
  • putting away tons of laundry
  • dropping the dog off at the vets for boarding
  • lots of random schoolwork

Where are you spending Thanksgiving?

I started my morning with the most decadent oatmeal.

I know a lot of food bloggers use that word a lot, decadent, but this bowl seriously was.  I had to use up the open pumpkin but wasn’t in the mood for its slightly bitter flavor and I just kept adding ingredients to cover it up.

What I ended up with was –

  • 1 cup skim milk (cooked)
  • 1 medium banana, sliced (cooked)
  • 1 pinch salt (cooked)
  • 1/4 cup oats (cooked)
  • 1/4 cup pumpkin (cooked)
  • 1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese (stirred in at the end)
  • 2 tsp butterscotch chips (topped)
  • 1 Tbsp Biscoff spread (topped)
  • 1 Tbsp light cream (topped)

Dang.  And amazingly my least favorite additions were the chips and Biscoff; they strong-armed the other flavors in their bites.  My most favorite was the cottage cheese.  I’ve used that before but I don’t think I realized how much I like it.  I need to put that on the grocery list more often!

Don’t forget, you have until 2pm EST to enter my Duncan Hines giveaway.

Hallowed Breakfast

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Happy Halloween! 

We didn’t have any fun plans this year but I am all about any holiday with theme candy and colors!

I even applied those colors to my breakfast.

orange = pumpkin, black = chia seeds and mini chocolate chips

My (stove-top) base was 1/2 cup each water and skim milk, 1 medium banana, 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds.

With a handful of shredded, unsweetened coconut and 1/2 tsp mini chips for topping.

This was good but I had too much food and not enough time, I’ll probably only finish eating half of the bowl.

spooky snack preview

I don’t have time for “lunch” on Mondays, but I do have a few things packed to snack on during our short breaks.  A gorgeous looking Comice pear,

and a vanilla YoCrunch with candy bits for the holiday.

What are your Halloween plans?  Did you celebrate already this weekend?  Costumes?!

Fruit In My Purse, In My Chocolate

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I should NOT be blogging right now but I needed a study break!  Tomorrow is going to suck; I’ll leave it at that.

Breakfast was grabbed quickly but ended up being good.  A Revolution Foods Organic Berry MashUp.

I’ve seen some chatter on the internet about how lame it is for grown women to eat “baby food” but all I have to say to that is – sorry you don’t know what’s good?  These are delicious and if you can find another way for me to stick a half cup of berries straight into my purse, I’m all ears.

Plus a sample box of Cascadian Farms Dark Chocolate Almond Granola from HLS.

This was so crunchy and tasty that I actually snapped a picture on my phone to remind myself to buy more!

Since you can already see my warm jacket peeking out from those pictures I’ll admit defeat and show you bundled up look –

It was in the low 30’s today, there could have been snow!  There’s even another shirt on under that top layer (which was Adam’s!).

Not to worry, no one could see that I was wearing stripes + stripes + plaid, that layer was purely for bundling.

Towards the end of our 4-hour class our instructor took us on a field trip across campus to see some of the research posters being presented by faculty from across the disciplines.  We got out of class early and they had food, score!

Fruit,

veg (that brown stuff is a hummus based sauce),

bit of pasta salad and a turkey sandwich with chipotle mayo.

The photos make everything look a bit bigger than it was in real life, this was a smallish lunch.  Good thing I supplemented it with Combos.

I’m having a Combos thing this week, so sue me.

The hours of 12 – 3 were spent hard at studying with some friends in a computer lab.

So. Much. Material!!!

Cherry cordials when I got home.

If this evening goes like I think it’s going to I suspect this will not be the only dessert I have today…

With A Cherry On Top

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Man, oh man!  I was at school for 12+ hours today.  2 of my meals came out of vending machines.  0 of my photos are attractive.  Basically if you look at the numbers this post is going to suck. 

Breakfast from three angles, none of which are pretty.

Basically I put Plain Silk Almond Milk, chia seeds, and a chopped nectarine into a jar in the fridge and let the mixture thicken overnight.  It was pretty good.  I’ve got a fun idea for a chia seed recipes that I’ve had running through my head for the past week.

When I ate in class I topped the mixture with this granola sample from HLS.

I also packed an Oldwalla Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut Fiber Bar, also from HLS.

This tasted good but breakfast did not hold me over at all.  Midway through our 4 hour class I ran to the vending machine and bought these peanut butter crackers.

If I had known what lunch and dinner were going to look like I probably would have done something different.

Class got out at noon and I had an advising appointment at 1:30 and a club event at 6:30 so I figured I’d stay on campus and study and go to the gym.  Not only did I not ever get to the gym, I’m still 10 pages of notes away from being done with my notecards!  Somehow everyone in my class is shocked by how much material is going to be on Friday’s exam!

Honey Mustard Pretzels and Peanut M&Ms, vending machine dinner of champions.

And when I got to the event this evening I made myself a small plate of snacks.

Our club advisor actually got us all together to watch a movie for funsies.  She picked “The Gods Must Be Crazy II” which I ended up loving.  It was cute, touching, and 80’s humor funny.  Plus part of the storyline centered around the San/Bushmen of the Kalahari and I’m obsessed with them.

When I dragged myself back to my car (12 hours later!) I discovered a ticket on my windshield!  It was for my expired car registration (another really frustrating story) which pisses me off because I don’t see why the campus police have authority over anything other than parking permit issues.  I’m going to argue it tomorrow but I came home in a sour mood.

And then Adam met me at the door with candy!!!!!

I mentioned this weekend that I’m one of the few people who really likes cherry cordials and he surprised me with a box of them.

So good.  He’s the best.

I may not have made it to the gym but when we took the dog on a quick walk I sprinted a few blocks with him, so I’m going to call it good.  At least I made a little use of the sports bra I’ve been rocking all day!

Have you ever seen “The Gods Must Be Crazy?”

Cherry cordials; love ’em or hate ’em?

Godiva Pumpkin Spice Latte Oatmeal

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Happy Columbus Day!  I believe that the man was more of a monster than master-navigator, but I’m always happy for a day off.  I took advantage of today’s freedom and made myself a nice breakfast.

Disclaimer – I was sent some of Godiva’s newest seasonal flavors to try free of charge via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

If you are a food blog reader, “Pumpkin Spice” can send your mind only two places – lattes and oatmeal.  I went with latte oatmeal.

Godiva Pumpkin Spice Latte Oatmeal, serves 1

  • 1/2 cup brewed Godiva Pumpkin Spice coffee*
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • pinch salt
  • 1/3 cup oats
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
  • toppings of choice
  1. Combine milk and coffee in a small saucepan and heat to boiling.
  2. Stir in salt and oats and simmer five minutes, stirring regularly.
  3. Stir in spice, brown sugar, and pumpkin.  Continue to cook until desired consistency is reached, stirring regularly.
  4. Serve and top as desired.

I topped my bowl with unsweetened coconut and butterscotch chips.

*Note – this recipe produced a strong coffee flavor.  If you are less of a latte lover you may want to adjust the ratio of coffee to milk.

No Take-out ‘Tober

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Bedtime was closer to midnight than my planned 9pm.  I suck.  But to be fair, it’s hard to motivate on the couch when you’re sitting next to this –

I’ve got a lot to do today (like all the stuff I didn’t do this weekend) so I made myself a heaping bowl of breakfast.

That’s 1/2 cup Wegman’s 0% Plain Greek Yogurt with 2 servings of GH Galaxy granola and some peach and red plum.

Lunch preview – Today I’ve packed a big Sweet Tango apple,

and a leftover serving of tofu quiche.

Both should be delicious.

Speaking of future foods; I have an announcement for this month…

No Take-out ‘Tober

For the sake of our waistlines and wallets, Adam and I are making October a take-out free month.

In the past year or so we’ve become way too reliant on buying food out and bringing it home.  Wegman’s hot bar, anyone?  It’s always expensive, and never healthy.  Of course there are times when eating pizza on the couch is amazing and necessary, but it shouldn’t be a weekly habit.  I really enjoy cooking at home and 90% of what I make is cheaper than what we would purchase out.  Obviously restaurant meals can be expensive and caloric too, but they come with atmosphere and experience.  We’ve decided it’s time to rein our take-out habit in.

For the month of October –

  • Wegman’s hot bar is off-limits.  Period.
  • No take-out of any kind may be purchased.
  • Restaurant meals are ok as long as they are eaten in the setting.
  • We don’t have to starve if there’s no food at home, but what we can go out and purchase is bread, turkey, and cheese; not pre-made Buffalo chicken sandwiches!

Does anyone want to join us for No Take-out ‘Tober?  Let me know in the comments if you (and your family) want to take part!