Soupasana

This is the one compromise I will make, when in a hurry – Quaker Instant Oatmeal Regular Flavour. While it does not even begin to be compared with the real thing, you can simply stir in hot water, and it’s ready to go. That is definitely hard to beat on busy morning, as I was rushing off to yet another 8am exam.

Result? Instant oatmeal with 1/2 banana, peanut butter and brown sugar on top, along with the remaining banana and coffee.

I also added these to feel full longer:

A more carnivorous breakfast included plain yogurt, banana, frozen blueberries and peanut butter granola.

As I was meeting mom for lunch later (I know, I know – it’s a family lunch week), I snacked on some baby carrots, finished 1/2 bottle of smoothie from yesterday (still too sweet).

I also couldn’t resist, and poured myself a cup of coffee. No soy milk at work, so black… Ummm…. yeah. The last time I had black coffee was when I pulled an all nighter in university, and made some black instant coffee to stay awake. It was so disgusting that I poured the whole thing down the drain… This one was… better. However, black coffee still leaves a nasty aftertaste in my mouth.

My mom and I met at Cagney’s, a family restaurant in Mississauga. I would say they serve a fairly typical fare, consisting of burgers, chicken salads, sandwiches and the like.

No beer = fancy water… Perrier water with lime:

California Spring Salad with baby greens, fresh sliced strawberries, red onion, sweet-candied pecans with balsamic and olive oil dressing on the side. It tasted great – I finished the whole thing, and stopped myself from licking the plate.

Mom got the same salad, but with goat cheese on top:

Pre-workout snack: protein, fat (peanuts) + carbohydrates (apple sauce).

Post-workout fuel: about 1/2 cup of coconut water –> tonnes of electrolytes and potassium.

For the weekend, we were heading out to Niagara Falls with our friends for Kate’s late birthday celebration (the other Kate from the Kate team), so the next few meals would also be eaten at restaurants.

I decided to suck it up and actually try the soy yogurt, which has been hanging out in my fridge for at least a week now. A student in my class told me that the vanilla flavour IS actually really good, which has been the first mention of soy yogurt being good that I have heard, and it brought up my spirits a little bit.

I was fully armed:

I had no idea what to expect consistency wise, so I made sure to shake it really well before opening…

Hmm…. much more creamy than I expected. Promising?

Verdict?

It was REALLY good!!! Creamy vanilla goodness! I inhaled the whole thing with peanut butter granola, and didn’t even need the banana.

Whew…

My mornings have been looking significantly better with this blue box in my life!!!

 

The breakfast today was from the sandwich category, and may have been my heartiest breakfast yet! Meal and dessert in one.

• Sandwich one – 1/2 avocado + tomato + salt/pepper
• Sandwich two – peanut butter and Crofter’s jam

 

This held me over until 1pm!!!! Impressive. Will keep this in mind for busy days with no snackage potential.

I had a quick snack before meeting dad for lunch – you may remember the smoothies I scores at Yoga in Motion… The actual bottle consists of almost two servings, and since I wanted a snack not a meal, I poured about half into a tiny Canada Pure bottle. Perfect size!

The smoothie was great as a snack, but I am finding it too sweet! It’s like drinking liquid sugar. I may want to try diluting it with water 1:1.

I met my dad for lunch at Sushi Ya Japan. The atmosphere was definitely very authentic. The servers wore traditional Japanese clothing, and forks were never offered. I am ok with chopsticks unless I am really hungry. Today I broke down and asked for a fork about half way through the meal. Need to keep practicing!

  

Miso soup and salad to start off with… I could discern a lettuce mix and avocado in the salad. The dressing was completely unidentifiable, but the server promised that it did not have milk ingredients. At the end of the day, who knows?

Some non-vegan appetizers for dad:

And a non-vegan main course – one of the lunch bento boxes with bulgogi (sliced beef) as the main player.

My main course was teriyaki tofu stir-fry with a side of rice. It was fantastic, however, somewhat heavy… It was definitely a testament to the fact that vegan does not equal healthy.

 

I was very half-hearted about this dinner… Primarily, because I really did not feel like a salad, but something hot – soup, pasta, etc. All of my grand plans were interrupted by an electricity outage, so the dinner was limited to cold things that did not require water. On the positive note, we had candles everywhere – cozy romantic atmosphere… even though I had no idea how much olive oil actually ended up on my salad. LOL

Ever tried adding dressing blindly? I was so worried that I would eat some non-vegan thing by accident, as I was pulling things out of the fridge in complete darkness.

The salad turned out to be really good (albeit a little dry – I think tomatoes would save it):

• coleslaw
• bean sprouts
• broccoli
• avocado
• sunflower seeds
• olive oil + balsamic vinegar

 

 

I added a few black olives (with pits) on the side, and, of course, bread with hummus. Oasis berry blend juice was playing the role of red wine.