Happy 2010

I’ve got some short time goals for January:

- run 1h each working day

- cycle 1h each working day (to the work and back)

- watch news regularly (main news at 7p.m. or the non-live version before going to bed)

- do more stretching in order to be able to do both kinds of split again

- eat less kcals a day

I started pursuing my goals already at the end of December. Now I’m pretty happy because we have snow so I can run in the snow! When I go running it’s still dark and when I’m returning it starts getting light. Awesome!

Have a good year!

Coffee with rice and yoghurt and all

I’ve been absent on this blog because I focused on another one I’m writing and on work. That’s why…

My eats suffered a bit, they were not as many as they used to be (good-bye binges!) and I rarely remembered to take pics of them. I love food photography, I love making lovely dishes, but lately I haven’t been much in mood of this.

Soy latte machiatto rice

I know this might not look best..but it’s tastier as it looks like. I cooked some rice in water, then drained the water out and rinsed it with cold water –> to the fridge to use up in the next few days. So I just took some rice, mixed it with soy latte machiatto (like soy milk, you can buy 1 litre of it; I was lucky enough to get it at a ridiculously low price 55cent). It’s great hot or cold, either way.

 

Homemade tortilla with tuna filling, along with vegetable sauce

I didn’t want to buy the whole pack of tortillas, 1) because they don’t taste that good to me and 2) because I wouldn’t be able to use all up. So I improvised and made one by myself. I made water+wholewheat flour+salt dough and made a thicker pancake. Easy peasy and actually the result was nice! It was a thick one but if one’s hungry that’s not a problem. For the filling I heated in a pan some canned tuna, mashed beans, sour cream, chili, red pepper. The sauce was from the previous day: aubergines, zucchini, cabbage, onions cooked in a pan with Indian spices.

 

Tuna egg spaghetti with vegetable sauce

I like spaghetti with a sauce that is filling. I cooked some wholewheat spaghetti, made a sauce in a pan: tuna+egg+pepper+sour cream. Along with some vegetable sauce I used in the recipe mentioned above (I’m so dumb I can’t remember it’s French name right now…).

 

Cinnamon coffee yoghurt

(Sorry, my camera is unable to make sharp pictures of near objects..)

I just mixed some chocolate coffee instant powder with cinnamon and sugar into plain yoghurt –> the result was a delicious coffee-flavoured yoghurt. Too bad those ones in the shops have 100cals per 100g which is a shame; ordinary yoghurts shouldn’t have more than like 60 or 70. So I can’t buy a coffee-flavoured yoghurt which would be like 60 cals per 100g. Well, mine definitely was and it was as delicious as the store-bought one, just the colour was less intense.

 

Now finally to today’s breakfast.

Oatmeal with yoghurt

My German teddy bear helped me! For the oatmeal: oats, milk, water, salt, vanilla essence, cinnamon –> cook for a couple of minutes, then add chia seeds and honey. One whole small apricot yoghurt (180g) in the middle. As refreshing as I wanted it to be after my morning run.

A closer view (and a blurrier one, of course).

If anyone wishes to win a giveaway, enter here.

Wish you a nice week!

Oznake ponudnika Technorati: soy latte machiatto rice,chia seeds yoghurt oatmeal,coffee flavoured yoghurt,coffee yoghurt,tuna tortilla,tuna egg spaghetti

Resumé of the month

My initial plan in November was to save some money on groceries by not buying more than it’s necessary. Today I counted the expenses and I figured out I spent 120 eur on food. It could have been way better as some of the visits to the shop were not necessary at all – some sneaky cravings led me there or boredom…so I’m about 7/10 satisfied with this goal.

Despite everything my eating was not very colorful this month, kept cooking basically the same dishes over and over again (wheatberries, stir-fry) or kept eating the food which is already prepared (convenience, lol). As my eating plan in November could have been realised better, I have another chance in December!

Oh, and I received my first payment from Foodbuzz, 0.39 $. I was surprised actually because I thought they don’t pay for less than 1000 visits. Never mind, that was the gift for 5 months of blogging!

 

Stay happy!

Tofu pudding 4the win

That’s been my favourite breakfast for last two weeks.

Tofu pudding (blended wheatberries and tofu, salt, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla extract) and Ovomaltine drink

Looks simply like this.

Or this version.

Changed into:

The middle part is tofu pudding mixed with cocoa powder and sugar.

Wheat bran pancakes with nutela

Ingredients: wheat bran, milk/water, salt; nutella

 

Have a nice day!

Peas in the salad

Yesterday I started the day with a 45 min run, followed by this breakfast:

Tofu pudding (put cooked wheatberries and 50g tofu, along with water and some milk in a blender->blend well. Heat it up in a pot, add salt and cinnamon. Put in your breakfast bowl, garnish with cinnamon and sugar, mix the cinnamon), Ovomaltine cocoa

Afternoon snack:

Pea salad (peas, wheatberries, tuna, vinegar, salt)

Dinner:

Egg scramble with wheatberries (egg, ricotta cheese, wheatberries (again!), salt, pepper, chili pepper) topped with salmon; some sliced apple

Yesterday I reread some of my earlies post. I pictured so little food, though I experimented in the kitchen a lot. This egg scramble was a total success, though I’ve been avoiding eggs lately. It was delicious. So should every meal be. Satisfying and tasty. Unfortunately, sometimes food doesn’t taste like one wants it to. Then we want something tastier or we’re unsatisfied with the choice. Whatever, life is too short to waste it eating bad foods.

Oznake ponudnika Technorati: egg wheatberries scramble,salmon on egg scramble,healthy pea salad,tofu pudding,simple breakfast

Wholesome grocery shopping&a challenge

I went grocery shopping today to have some more wholesome ingredients in the kitchen:

• plain yoghurt
• fruit yoghurt
• sour cream
• tofu
• ricotta cheese
• plain cheese spread
• eggs
• tuna
• salmon
• zucchini, aubergine, peas
• pears
• milk
• (Nutella)
• rice

I needed the ingredients to try some healthy tasty dishes in coming days:

• Kozyshack blended-grains pudding
• yogurtilicious blended wheatberries
• fruitilicious blended wheatberries
• ratatouille
• tuna+sour cream spaghetti
• rice+peas, ricotta cheese egg scramble
• Indian stir-fry..

I took up a challenge which starts Nov 19 and ends Jan 1. It’s a weight loss challenge, I set a goal of losing 12 pounds by then. If I reach 2/3 of the goal, it’s already completely fine.

The challenge will give me some extra motivation plus I’ll push myself to do some exercise (I’ve hardly done any exercise lately + a lot of sitting at the computer) in order to come back in shape.

To me it does matter. It’s not a good feeling to be out of shape, really.

COOKIE-holic

Is that a word? Well, now it is . As a real cookieholic I’ve liked cookies as long as they’ve existed in my life.

My love to cookies began quite late, I can say. I don’t remember eating sweets as a child but I do remember my aunt’s cookies at my grandma’s when I came to visit her. While I talked to my grandma, I nibbled at those simple shortbread-like cookies. They smelled like butter. I associated these cookies with my grandma and I liked them as much as I liked her.

(how lucky to find a very very similar pic of them!)

In high school I had passion for specific English coconut-chocolate chips cookies and chocolate chips cookies. I could buy them at the gas station and often I went extra there to enjoy them in the evening. One 200g package eaten slowly in the evening while I was learning. Too bad they stopped producing them and I haven’t found anything as good since.

 

Then in 2001 I discovered a cheap variety of Polish cookies in the shop, they were sold in 2.5kg packages (for 5 eur!) and one cookie was better than the other. They were also extremely sweet but the taste…those filled with jam and covered with white chocolate were my favorites. My luck didn’t last long . I left to study abroad and when I returned they discontinued selling them (again!).

(oh, heaven! they looked just like these, many were chocolate-covered too)

I accepted the fact that my favourite cookies are no longer to find near here, so I tried various. Sandwich cookies, small chocolate cookies, oat cookies, muesli cookies…none of them was my next favourite.

I started making my own then. I used LITTLE sugar, LITTLE butter and WHEAT BRAN. Crunchy! That’s the way I like them most! I prefer those with very little sugar (or apple sugar, honey) and with little fat inside. What do I add? Well, I love them plain A LOT. I also like adding coconut (for the smell), cinnamon (for the smell, too), okara (for the moisture and taste), walnut flour, hazelnut flour, vanilla sugar… best cookies ever (for me, at least). Simple to make (small balls which I press on the baking sheet to make them a bit flat), great to eat, great to break your teeth.

(from home production )

When I binge, cookies are a great option (I’d rather not say that). They are comforting, give me some distraction and the feeling of warmth (grandma), happiness (though only temporary) and crunch (some work for my teeth).

I’ve neglected cookies a bit lately, but as I flipped though such yummy-looking posts of a chocaholic (don’t forget to click to support the Operation Chocolate-covered Kindness!!), I immediately knew I owe those little friends a tribute!

 

Ok, now to the eats:

Pina colada oatmeal

(oatmeal, coconut, pineapple, whipped cream, Ovomaltine powder)

 

Peanut oatmeal

(oatmeal, coconut, ground peanuts, whipped cream, Ovomaltine powder)

 

And update to this month’s goal: so far I spent 55 eur on food. I’m thankful for the food I can have!

Oznake ponudnika Technorati: peanut oatmeal,pina colada oatmeal,homemade cookies

Sneaky cravings

These last few days I keep having cravings in the evening! I know that a late dinner makes my stomach feel sad, a bit achy in the morning, so I started having dinner earlier, like at 6 or 7 p.m. Everythig fine so far: I’m not hungry in the evening but the cravings start arriving then. Yesterday I had a craving for a specific brand of Dutch honey-sesame cookies. I’d so go to the shop and buy a package of them. Sit down on the bed and slowly enjoy them, enjoy their smell, their crunchiness…

(tribute to A spoonful of sugar at blogspot.com – not the exact version of my cookies)

But I knew I would not eat only one or two of them, maybe 10 or half a package – that indeed wouldn’t be so nice to my stomach again. The craving persisted for about one hour till I decided it was time to go to bed. I substituted the craving (which is actually never a good option, I didn’t get nearly the same effect, but I got distracted). Instead of biscuits I had brussels sprouts (I craved them actually but because of the bitterness I didn’t really enjoy them), half an hour later some peanuts and 1/4 banana with honey.

The craving ‘went away’ just because I went to bed..however, this morning the craving was totally away! My stomach feels a bit blah because of the other food I had instead but I have no wish to have those cookies right now. I do miss the crunch..oats don’t have it…something crunchy during the day would be an option…am I right?

Oh, I’ve almost forgotten – if you’re interested in celebrating a blogiversary and win a giveaway, click here (the giveaway ends Nov 13)!

What to do to say late evening cravings good-bye?

Oznake ponudnika Technorati: craving,cookies

Better’n what?

As I surfed through some (non) chocolate-covered recipes, I also came upon the recipe for Better’n Kozy Shack oatmeal pudding. Not that I haven’t discovered it months ago, I just simply forgot about it.  As I’m quite in the pudding-y mood, that was the perfect idea to add some variation to my breakfast choices. I’ve never had that very brand of pudding in my life but I can imagine how it should taste like. Delicious. Certainly.

I did no exercise yesterday, just massaged my painful muscles who carried me along hills for 6 hours long the day before. No exercise? Not so good. Although it was still raining, I was in the mood to go for a longer walk. So I thought I’d take a longer way till the shop (the one which was still open on Sunday evening) and buy the *secret* ingredient for this pudding. Yeah, that was a nice idea. Accompanied by the music from the mp3 player I walked along the puddles with the umbrella and brought a nice little package of bio tofu home.

I prepared the oats the night before so they had enough time to absorb the liquid. I measured 60 g of oats (not very much indeed, perhaps less than 1/3 cup) and 2.5 cups water. Whoot? How could these tiny flakes absorb so much liquid? It looked like a few tablespoons of flakes were swimming on the bottom of a big bowl of water…how could this end? However, I diligently followed the recipe (if it’s a recipe then the quantities are stated for some reason) and wondered what I’d get next morning.

There was a nice surprise waiting for me after my morning run! Indeed. Pillowy soft oats with not too much extra liquid. With the tofu the mixture got thicker…I mean it was still watery but not too much! I loved the texture. My puddings are always thicker but this one was great as it was! With lots of cinnamon and some vanilla sugar it was..perfect! D.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s!

With the cinnamon mixed into the oats…

What’s your favourite kind of home-made pudding?

Oznake ponudnika Technorati: better’n kozyshack pudding,pillowy soft oats,tofu pudding,tofu recipe,breakfast tofu

Barley pudding

I spent so far 26 eur on food this month, though 15 of it was for a meal for two in a restaurant, so I give money away also to spoil myself.

Don’t forget to check Katie’s site, she is such a kind, “chocolate-covered” girl, go check it out yourself! I don’t mind if you continue reading her blogs instead of mine, they’re certainly much fun!!

This week I’ve been eating grains for breakfast every day (except for yesterday when I had no breakfast)! Barley ‘oatmeal’, barley pudding (blended barley ‘oatmeal’)…oh I prefered blended grains to ‘oatmeal’ version of them, I needed something ‘sticky’, comforting, which pudding definitely was. I had it mixed with vanilla protein powder or with banana, and with hazelnut flour on top of it. Easy and satisfying. I haven’t thought of anything else before I saw this amazing picture of vegan BLT on HEAB’s site. Doesn’t it look amazing??! I have to try it in the coming week. And I’ve run almost out of barley flakes, therefore I’m certainly going to improvise something else. Oat flakes are waiting in the cupboard…

This is an older pic, but imagine something as pudding-y as this.

Oh chia, sorry I’ve forgotten about you…