All in the Genes

Reading Week gone, and the first three days back to the grind has been pretty much all study study studying (with a bit of mundanely exciting hoopla thrown into the mix, as you’ll see throughout this post). I plowed through an assignment and two midterms in the first three days back. Nice welcome back. But now the big guns are done and I?m free for the rest of the week! Phew.

Might as well start off the grind of the week with a breakfast staple: good old oatmeal. This bowl was sweetened up with some SF Jello rice pudding (I had one last container to get rid of. Too sweet on its own but worked out pretty well in the oats), plus a dollop of peanut butter mixed with yogurt and fresh strawberries.

I spent the morning working on assignments. I could have been a diligent student and actually have done some work during my reading week instead of hiding all of my school books in the depths of my closet but? who does that?! I?d rather suffer by cramming it all into the beginning of the week instead I guess.

I eventually broke to make some Ginger Peanut Tofu Salad, which I discovered happens to be that of a one Miss Broccoli Hut. Thanks Caroline!

Ginger Peanut Tofu Salad

(Serves 1)

* 6 oz. firm tofu

* 1 T peanut butter

* 1 T soy sauce

* 1/2 t ground ginger

* 0.5 packet stevia

* 1 small garlic clove, minced

* dash of red pepper flakes

* green onions, diced

(I also added some rice wine vinegar and water to thin the sauce out a bit)

1. Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, stevia, and garlic in a small bowl.

2. Place the tofu in a larger bowl and pour the dressing from step one over the tofu. Combine the dressing and tofu with your hands, squeezing the tofu into a crumble texture.

Along with a few spoonfuls of this goodness, I munched on some veg, cottage cheese, and a bit of leftover pasta.

After driving through a lake of slush to get to my afternoon class, after barely surviving the drive home I decided I was not going to venture out again in that mess for my three hour evening class. Turns out my decision was wise since my teacher?s bus ended up being 1.5 hours late and the whole class had peaced out by the time she got there. So I missed nothing. Phew.

Instead of going to class, I used my extra time to:

- Shovel mounds of slushy snow off of our driveway

- Eat a bean medley salad

- Revel in the fact that I now had extra evening hours to cram for my (barely studied for) midterm the next day.

- Actually study for said midterm

- Eat an applesauce mixture HOT the way Jess likes it ;)

( unsweetened applesauce, cinnamon, pb, carob chips + Coconut Chia Granola )

- Study study sleep etc

I had a mini study sesh bright dark and early in the AM before heading to my early morning class (not the one with the midterm), accompanied by some overnight oats (oats, water, flax, banana, yogurt by night, cottage cheese and blueberries joined in by morning) and coffee black as the sky was that early in the morning.

Came home, studied some more. Midterms in the aft are nice since it gives me lots of time to give the info a good thorough last few hours of memorizing. Then it?s all nice and fresh in my mind :)

Study Food ? Red pepper tomato soup with a handful of mixed beans and Frank?s stirred in, plus a wee piece of rye bread taking a dip in there as well. Side plate of veggies dunked in some french onion dip.

Study Break ? Necessities. I can only stay sane through studying by taking one or two (or a million) breaks. Especially food breaks. Especially new food making breaks.

Hence the birth of this Raw Vegan Cheesecake. I?ve hardly ever experimented with raw-type dessert but they always look so good to me and I always save a million and a half raw food recipes with the hopes of trying them someday. I had all of the ingredients on hand for this one so I just couldn?t not make it.

My piddly weak Magic Bullet just couldn?t quite get a smooth consistency for the top, despite adding a good amount of water to smooth it out, but it still turned out pretty well. Next time I might have to whip out the food processor first. Oh how nice a VitaMix would be..

I guess all of that food work did some good things to my brain, since despite not feeling so super after writing my midterm, I ended up getting 90%. Maybe all those raw food treats are the way to ultimate brain power!

Dinner clearly took the cake though since I finally scored a kabocha squash!!! It?s been SO long since I?ve had one. I could only ever find buttercup for the longest time. I can never really tell the difference when buying them and I rarely find any labelled as kabocha. I had no idea that this was a winner until I roasted it up and was greeted with its kabocha greatness.

Too bad I charred it.

Luckily it was still pretty decent tasting, but I made half of it in fry form and they had a bit of extra burn flavour to them? not the ideal extra something something I would have requested.

The rest of the evening contained some raw tasties?

And some more studying for my NEXT midterm that took place today. Thrilling I know.

Here we are!

Today started out pretty darn swell.

I know. How great is this breakfast right? Looks darn good just like that right? Well wait until you see its buried treasure underneath?

Now THAT?S what I call a decadent breakfast. Why oh why didn?t I start eating Vitatops for breakfast earlier? I was missing out!

Chocolate Vitatop + plain yogurt + cold mushy banana + strawberries + blueberries + flax = beautiful breakfast bliss.

Then I spent the entire morning cramming for my 2:30pm Biopsych midterm. Yummy?

During the process I drank a giant mug of green tea? and felt sick? Has anyone else ever felt sick from drinking green tea before? I don?t know if it was actually due to the green tea but I felt queasy after the mug? maybe it was hunger instead since this was a couple hours after breakfast? who knows.

But anywho, the green tea queasies pushed me to prep a snack/lunch.

Peanut Ginger Tofu (5x that amount), leftover kabocha (2x that amount), cucs, carrots, red pepper, cottage cheese (3x that amount), tomato? I?m really bad at getting food to make it to the plate before it makes it to my mouth.

Then I wrote my midterm (Just found out?90% on that one too! Wooo. Though that is with a ?generous adjustment? to the grades of the entire class due to circumstances that aren?t really that important?but I?ll take it. Biopsych is not quite my forte) and headed to the mall for some brief clothes shopping before dinner. $110 later I scored myself 2 new pairs of sunglasses and 4 shirts, two of which are going back since I didn?t have time (or patience) to try them on at the store.

Do you always try stuff on before buying or just buy it if you like it?

95% of the time I won?t buy something without trying it on first. I?d much rather know that I like it on me before getting it home and being disappointed!

When I got home I was starved so I whipped up a quick ginger peanut tofu wrap dipped in some goddess dressing.

Then I worked up more of an appetite by flexing my muscles in my new clothing items, half of which will now be going back.

Like this pink shirt thing. Loved the colour, liked the top part, couldn?t swing the bottom, it?s just strange.

Gun show?cough. Huge tool? Yes.

I blame my tool-itis on genetics.

My bro is currently repainting our basement. Slob.

I guess I?m a slob/slop/even greater tool since I can?t even bake a loaf of Low Carb Sweet Bread without cutting up my hand on a pumpkin can.

Or overcooking the loaf. Boooooo! I used half flax, half chocolate protein powder. Let the dinger continue to ring as I was busy cleaning my camera upstairs. Obviously let that happen too long as this was slightly dry. Clearly that didn?t phase me much since I ate about 1/5 of the loaf within a half hour of it coming out of the oven. Good thing it?s healthy? ehe.

On a final note of farewell for the night, as if you don?t have enough to keep you distracted online already?

Go from Zero to Fabulous in mere minutes! (or much longer if you get as much of a kick out of this thing as I do). Seriously, don?t you all just want to be this Diva-ed up? Seriously.

It?s nearly 1am and I have a class at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Shoot.

TGI?almost Friday? Sort of?

Nighty Night!