Trying for a Tri

Ohman, I am tired today!! For some reason, I slept horribly last night. I’ve been trying not to fall asleep all day. Normally, I would just take a nap when I’m this tired, but I have to be in bed by 8:30 tonight in order to get 8 hours sleep. A nap would definitely keep me up all night and make me feel even worse tomorrow!

Started my morning the usual weekend way – eating a breakfast cookie after arriving at the office at 5 am.

I used peanut butter instead of the usual almond butter and it was too rich! Funny, I thought it was going to be awesome with the PB. Ever notice that certain nut butters take better to certain foods? Here’s what I’ve tried so far…

Peanut butter – made for bananas. Honourable mention: apples.

Almond butter – oatmeal. Honourable mention: waffles.

Cashew butter – dates. Honourable mention: oranges.

Hazelnut butter – milk/yogurt. Honourable mention: coconut.

Sunflower seed butter – maple. Honourable mention: hummus.

Pumpkin seed butter – popcorn. Honourable mention: apples.

Anyone else got any fav nut butter-food/flavour combos?

I thought veggies and hummus was an awesome idea for a snack when I was packing it last night.

Notsomuch. I have a hard enough time digesting raw vegetables as is, but it’s even harder to do at 8am. It just did not sit right all. Plus, who wants garlic breath in the morning? Lesson learned.

I at least made my favourite at-work lunch.

 
Egg & cheese breakfast sandwich. With a little citrus…

Check out our awesome new monitor at work!! Pretty sure our old one was the same model my mom had in 1988. Now the pictures on the food blogs are a lot more clear Ahem… I mean, the news is more clear.

My fridge seems to be collecting yogurt these days, enter my afternoon snack.

I promise you there is yogurt in there somewhere.

My afternoon was spent doing a little housework, and a lot of catching up on reality television. I’m so behind. I didn’t even know a new Real World started! That’s my favourite reality show of all time, and I am not embarrassed to admit I’ve watched a lot

There were a few more snackables throughout the afternoon, but I was really most excited for dinner. I made something I haven’t touched since jumping on the healthy bandwagon.

I always thought falafel had to be deep fried until I saw some people baking it on their blogs. Genius!! Of course you can bake it!!

I’ve tried making it from scratch before, it’s not that hard. But it always comes out too mushy, the boxed stuff is always crispy.

 
I thought this seemed a little calorie dense for 3-4 puny falafels.

Shock!! Enriched flour!! No worries, I ate it on a whole wheat pita

 
They baked really well, no need for oil at all!

I stuffed them in a pita with tzatziki, tomato, spinach and sauteed mushrooms, onion and red pepper.

Despite being calorie dense, I found a little goes a long way, so that makes up for it. I still have half the box left. Not sure if I’ll make straight-up falafels with it again. I think it would make a good filler in some other baked patty concoction

Dessert was something I wait for all year…

 
Local strawberries!! Well, local-ish. From Nova Scotia. These are so sweet and soft. Very different from the giant crunchy kind we get from California. These are the strawberries that take me back to eating my mom’s strawberry shortcake at our cottage in NS. Life doesn’t get much better than that.

Since this was an early dinner, I just had a protein packed bedtime snack. I took Carly’s suggestion, and added some cottage cheese to my egg white pillow.

 
1/2 cup egg whites mixed with 1/4 cup cottage cheese, nuked for about 3 minutes. It came out soooo good and melty inside.

This was perfect as is, but I’d love to experiment with some flavours in the future. Thanks for the tip Carly!! 

And now the answers to your burning questions!

Lori asks: Do you have another goal lined up after the triathlon?

I was planning on running a 10k in September, but because of my hip pain, I’m going to play it by ear. I plan on buying new running shoes soon that will hopefully help with the pain outdoor running causes. I looked into bike races, but it seems all the road races happen earlier in the season. I also saw a 3km beach swim that piqued my interest, but was quickly deterred by the thought of jellyfish. I am however 100% starting a new weight lifting program in the fall. My heart belongs in the weight room!

Sophia asks: What type of sandwiches do you like best? In toast? Wraps? Paninis? Pitas? Burgers? Melts?

Ha, funny you should ask, because hands down, sandwiches are my favourite meal ever. So choosing what kind is very painful for me I’d say pitas are probably my fav because I can cram more veggies in one than I can a regular sandwich. I actually don’t care for regular tortilla/wraps. I’m not a fan of the chewy denseness. I also spent a summer working in a cafe/deli, where I churned out wraps 8 hours a day to cranky business people. What little love I had for wraps was lost with that job…

Janetha asks: In your opinion, what is the BEST way to spend your money?

This may or may not come as a big surprise to you – but I spend most of my money on food!!! Seriously, I spend probably twice the amount most people living alone do on groceries. I chalk it up to buying quality food, but I also never eat out. A lot of people don’t factor in their lunchtime sub, or appetizers out with friends as “food costs.” All the money I would be spending on those things gets spent at the grocery store. And I eat every last crumb. I never throw anything out. Money well spent in my opinion!

Once again, my early bedtime has approached too soon. Feel free to shoot me some extra questions if you missed out on the last post