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…

Thanksgiving month

We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, nor is November anything special to be called like this. However, I decided to give it this extra meaning, some more light into this rather sad and foggy month.

I decided to spend less money on food this month. What does it have to do with Thanksgiving? I’m thankful that I have enough food (though ashamed because I sometimes abuse it) but I’d like to give up on some of the comfort which food gives me.

The rules:

• I’m not going to live at other people’s expense (sometimes I get food for free and of course I use it up)
• I’m not going to live off the reserves I bought last month or previously (it would be easy to save if I ate what I have in the pantry, but this is not my purpose)
• I’m not going to buy a cheaper kind of the same food I intend to buy (no store-own food trademarks just because of the money)
• I’m not going to drive to a store which is further away just because some items might be cheaper (this isn’t the purpose, I’d save money on the account of wasting time)

I’m still going to enjoy my food, buying it if I wish to.

 

What comfort does the food give me?

It’s sometimes a perfect way to cover my emotions so that I don’t have to deal with the problem at that very moment. It lets me dive into another, more perfect world, it gives me shelter for hurt feelings and fills the emptiness in myself and in my stomach. That’s the way I abuse the food: I eat more than enough just to get this feeling. In November I intend to practice intuitive eating – eat what I want most now, food that gives me most satisfaction at that time and let the food help make my body become leaner (not stuffed) and stronger (lately I’ve been neglecting it, some muscle hurt and I’m more often tired).

In the month of October I spent 85 eur on food. (Whooho I’m even surprised because I had the feeling I’m every day at the food store buying things! However, for nearly 10 days I didn’t have to pay for the food at all and I also got much of the food for free, like fruits&vegetables, wheatberries, biscuits, bread,…). You might say, she spends so little on food and still wants to save?? It doesn’t mean that I’m so stingy (look at the rules above). I just think I could live without spending 1€ on cookies or 2€ on chocolate, that I don’t really need. Let’s move to the brand new recipe

 

Barley pudding with hazelnuts

1. Cook barley flakes in 1/2 milk, 1/2 water, salt, cinnamon –> blend (warm up if desired)

2. Mix vanilla protein powder with milk into a smooth paste

3. Combine blended barley flakes with protein powder mixture from step 2

4. Top with hazelnut flour

5. You can substitute protein powder with banana, the pleasure stays the same! Or use coconut flour for topping.

It might look nothing special, too bad I can’t show the taste

 

The hazelnut flour is absolutely fabulous! It smells wonderfully and it gives nice taste. Use it on blended wheatberries, blended barley flakes, oatmeal, oat pudding, maybe even on rye pudding?!

Chia seeds make the blogosphere go round

Back in September Emily from the company Myseeds Chia was so kind to send me a sample of the new superfood, chia seeds. Before I’d seen it mixed into oats, smoothies, shakes… I was impressed by it in the oatmeal – and was also curious what this would taste like…would it have a special taste on its own? Or would it keep the taste of the food and just add all the healthy benefits?..like

• helps more easily assimilate food
• improves absorption of nutrients – promotes elimination
• relieves heartburn and indigestion – without harmful side effects
• for diabetics it is exceptional as they slow the conversion of carbohydrates to sugar, stabilizing blood sugar while regulating absorption of liquids

(taken out prom the sheet, added to the sample package). There is also a free Chia seed cook book on their website…I haven’t checked it out yet but I plan to try as many as possible recipes so that I can use up this package in a very useful way

I haven’t opened the sample package till last week because it seems so precious to me…as far as I know I can’t buy it directly here, and the shipping fees from abroad might be very high…so I’m rather going to enjoy it slowly. So last week I made a chia seeds gel (I put some seeds into water, mixed it all up and left it overnight –> in the morning I had this kind of gel:

(sorry for the bad picture. The gel is in the glass on the left) I poured it into oatmeal. It’s funny though how the oatmeal thickened up! Before it was watery, then it turned out just perfect. Wow, that was nice! The gel tasted like…some crunchy pieces of cereal, like flax seeds, something like this…maybe the texture was similar to tomato seeds because there was a layer of water around them. I didn’t taste a special taste of the gel. I must try it in some other dishes as well. Maybe blended? Or dry?

 

Speaking of flax seeds, last week I made flax seeds-honey balls:

They are called something nicer (check them here), I got the recipe published on HealthyYum. Basically that’s just ground flax seeds mixed with honey. Well, I must say they don’t taste as awful as I thought they would. I’m lately not very fond of flax seeds. I wanted to use up some flax seeds (I once bought them but kind of stopped using them, so I had two packages left) and as I also had some honey, I gave it a try. Surprisingly nice! Though very filling. You can’t just eat it like rum balls or cookies.

Have you ever eaten chia seeds? Would you like to try them?

To help raise some money in November (how to do it??), check Katie’s site.