Soupasana

I was feeling restless last night, so hummus was born. It was well after 11pm too… Yep, that’s how I spend my evenings.

I didn’t have any tahini (sesame seeds paste) on hand, so had to improvise.

Sunflower Garlic Hummus

Ingredients:

• canned chickpeas (you may be able to make hummus without tahini, but definitely not without these)
• juice from canned chickpeas (I didn’t know you need it, so I actually poured it down the drain, and then had to open another can)
• sunflower seed butter
• lemon juice
• garlic
• cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil

  

Final result was light and fluffy. And garlicky!!!! Not as smooth as the store-bought, but I think not bad for the first time. Google says that the secret of smooth is in the order of ingredients, so will keep playing…

A late midnight snack – I’m still trying to finish that raisin spelt bread. Sooo not impressed.

This morning Vlad’s breakfast included buckwheat pancakes (with egg and milk), with frozen blueberries, pecans and honey.

And I had steelcut oatmeal waiting for me! This does not look appetizing at all… But wait…

Add chopped up apples and cinnamon, nuke in the microwave… Add more fresh apple on top + walnuts + honey. Mmmmmmmm…

On the agenda was to take a yoga class at a downtown yoga studio, and meet Lynda at Urban Herbivore for lunch. Lynda is a friend of mine from grad school. I haven’t seen her forever, so it was incredibly exciting to catch up. Unfortunately, it turned out that in my excitement to be prepared and have my camera fully charged, I forgot to put the battery into the camera, leaving it charging in my kitchen. So no photos, my friends – you will have to use your imagination.

Urban Herbivore is one of the first restaurants that pops up when you search for vegan places to eat in Toronto. The website is very confusing, but from what I could make out Urban Herbivore is a less formal bistro style cafe focusing on food on the go, while Fressen is an actual restaurant. I’m assuming they are owned by the same people.

The whole menu is vegan and is written out on the blackboard overhead (similar to fast food restaurants). The place was incredibly busy, and seating space was pretty scarce. The choices included: sandwich, grain bowl or salad bowl, which could then be garnished with up to six different toppings.

I really had an issue with the service at this place, however. The staff on cash was not friendly, and even came across as rude, sometimes. I thought the attitude was more appropriate for burnt out school cafeteria staff than a swanky vegan bistro. From Googling some reviews, it seems that this is definitely an issue at this particular restaurant, as many others reported being rushed, snapped at, etc. After the service we received at Rawlicious, this was a pretty harsh contrast. Also, they were out of pretty much everything – there was no avocado, no tempeh, no rice, and they ran out of more ingredients right in front of me.

We each got a grain bowl – mine was millet with carrots, BBQ tofu, mushrooms, and bruschetta. The bowl was large and tasted great, although I would have preferred that the millet was actually warm. At the end this was more of a cold salad bowl. I also got an “orange” juice – apple + carrot + ginger, which was nice and refreshing, but too heavy on ginger, so it burned my throat a bit.

I got a huge muffin as well before we left – sweet potato + date muffin. It was as big as my head, and we nibbled away about half of it. I finished the bottom at home with some coffee and apple slices. I think the muffin was definitely the part of the experience – sweet, moist… perfect!

Off to more yoga – fellow teachers in training are teaching two classes back to back tonight, so I’m in yoga overload mode!

Arrrgh. That title is cheesy even for me. So I gave figs another try this morning.

Ummm… no. I still don’t like them. Maybe I should try them in recipes?

   

Here’s an oldie, but goodie, however – steel cut oatmeal! I made a full cup worth, which is really supposed to be 4 servings, but ended up being 3 (thanks to my generous eyeballing). So one is gone, but I have 2 more waiting for me in the fridge! How exciting is that? Now steel cut oatmeal is a pain to cook, but it freezes really well!

• 1 cup of steel cut oatmeal
• 4 cups of water

Boil the water, add oatmeal. Boil the oatmeal for about 5 minutes, until it starts to thicken. Then put on simmer, close the lid and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring regularly.

Today’s version: with pecans and maple syrup!

 

I also crumbled some of these on top:

I am also sad to report that the whole box of peanuty seaweed crunchy goodness is now gone. No, we have not found the perpetrators. Magic. MAGIC, I tell you!

I opened the little can of coconut milk I bought yesterday. Mostly out of curiosity. Boy, it’s thick… I heard coconut milk being referred to as cream replacer in a vegan diet. Well, whoever called this a cream replacer clearly has not tried putting it in their coffee. It curdled in the most nasty way. I poured a whole cup down the drain, and replaced it with coffee with soy milk.

Instant oatmeal was part of Vlad’s breakfast along with some brown sugar. I like the fact that it only has one ingredient, despite the fact that it’s instant, and doesn’t compare to the real thing!!!!

Now THIS (steel cut) is as real as it gets! But, like I said takes forever to cook… AND the texture is also quite a bit different from what you are probably used to when you think of oatmeal. This one is chewy!

  

The rest of the day was a whirlwind. I prepared a talk on 30-day trial as a behavior modification approach in the classroom for an in-house conference at a college where I teach. How exciting is that? Maybe I’ll see this being adopted by other faculty.

Abstract of my talk:

“Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly. While most of us are fairly educated about the tenets of healthy lifestyle (eat fruits and vegetables, exercise, avoid smoking), implementation is usually a struggle. Similar to a 30-day trial concept in software industry, this hands-on approach to behavior modification allows students to ―try a new behavior/habit on for size‖. After incorporating a 30-day trial project into my Personal Growth course, I have received incredible feedback from students who increased their confidence, quit smoking, lost weight, and/or started eating more healthily in the course of the semester.”

I also taught a yoga class! Whoo hoo. It went swimmingly. It was great to see the same people as last time, because I was familiar with their history already, and could modify accordingly.

Snacks before the roundtable discussion I was leading at the conference:

The lunch was done already, but an amazing woman who worked in the college cafeteria put together this salad for me! It had greens, cherry tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, and, I think, canned mango slices. On top – raspberry vinaigrette and the almonds that I had with me. Out of this word perfect! I didn’t even have the ReBar, so that may come again soon.

More food after the conference winded down:

I came home to find firefighters everywhere, and not a spark of electricity. This is the second time in a week… And a break-in last weekend… And did I mention that my car was broken into few months ago while in the basement parking? Sigh… We gave our 2-months notice few days ago.

Did you notice how when there is no electricity there is nothing to do all of a sudden? Glorious nap was much needed. As much as I love sleeping during the day sometimes (as rarely as it happens lately), I hate the groggy feeling after. The dinner had to be light…

Still trying to polish off the squash soup I got on sale. With some quinoa and a heaping teaspoon of coconut milk (after being in the fridge for a while it thickened, so it’s literally like cream cheese right now). Then topped with soy sprouts and basil.

Dessert – coffee with soy milk + apple + almond butter.

A trip to the vet was on the agenda for the evening. Mushkin (aka Mooha) is NOT a fan. The poor thing was shaking like a leaf inside the carrier on whole ride to the clinic. Thankfully, it’s only a 10 min ride.

We met this friendly guy at the clinic. I’ve never met a more dog-like cat in my life.

He is licking my ears!

 

Now Mooha was clearly not having fun at all. Absolutely terrified.

Waiting for the vet to show up…

 

Booster shots are done, and Mooha has a clean bill of health. Well, at least physical health. But how many of us are fully THERE in the head, anyway? Let he who is without sin cast the first whatever… [yep, that’s a Grey’s Anatomy reference].

All in all, what a great day! I got to share two of my passions today – teaching yoga and personal development! My students seemed to be very happy with the class, and the fellow teachers really liked the idea of the 30-day trial. : One of my colleagues said that it was definitely a gutsy assignment to give in class. On that note, I’m giving out the assignment again to my summer semester students in a month or so. They are in for a ride!