Tag Archives: spring

Happy Spring! Thanks for Snowing!

Posted on March 23, 2011 | 11 Comments

Hey, I forgot to mention on Monday that it was the first day of spring!

Well happy spring, friends!

Spring? Is That You?

Thanks for snowing :(

That was the view from my office this afternoon.  You may remember me mentioning in my Yes Please, Goat Cheese! post that if there is even a trace amount of snow, I will sometimes work from home because my 40-50 minute commute to work (and that’s including traffic) can take a looooooong time.

This morning at 7:20 when I left for work the roads were dry and absolutely zero snow was falling, so I thought I was safe…yet somehow I arrived at work at 10:30.  I’m supposed to start at 8:30.  My drive took over three hours!

Basically my entire route looked like this:

Jam.

Absolutely rammed, and note, not a lot of snow.  I did not drive faster than 10km for two hours, and that is no exaggeration.  I guess in the two weeks since it’s snowed, people have forgotten what snow is and how to drive in it.

This led to something I swore I’d never do…

Boo To Traffic

Take a self-portrait while in my car…  Hey, I was bored.

At least I had a filling and nutritious breakfast to tide me over!

Yumballs

A toasted whole wheat bagel topped with peanut butter, sliced banana, and cinnamon.

But I did break into my lunch around 10 a.m. anyway and hijacked a baby cheese that was going to be for my afternoon snack.  Just a precaution, so this didn’t happen…

Hungry + Stuck In Traffic

Oh well, at least I had a lunchtime Boccia ball match to lift my spirits!  Except we lost, so it didn’t.  Ho hum, pig’s bum. (Oh hey, if you want to read a good boccia match recap, I’d suggest this one against Ontario Basketball)

My afternoon drive was much, much better, even though the roads were 10 times worse by then since it had been snowing all day.  I was grateful for this because I’d much rather be stuck in traffic on my way to work than on my way home.  I even made it to my 5:30 BodyPump class!  And after a serious workout I was in the mood for some serious zaaaaa.

Za

A thin crust grilled vegetable and goat cheese pizza!  Andmo ordered this pizza from Panago while I was at the Pump as a surprise (I knew we were getting pizza, but not what kind).  Pizza makes everything better.  I’ve never tried goat cheese on pizza before and it was delicioso!  I went back for a third slice ;) .

Welp, I’m off to bed.  Let’s hope this snow business is over and we can get on with spring, because I’m snowver it!

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Posted in Breakfast, Dinner

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Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

Posted on March 18, 2011 | 3 Comments

Today’s been a busy day filled with super fun activities such as closet organization and vacuuming.  Hurrah, and also yippee.  Hands down two of my least favourite chores (vacuuming especially), but I knew if I did not do it today while I’m still on staycation, I’d regret it next week when I’m back to the grind.  And I want to save the weekend for some real fun ;) .

I did take a break to make myself a delicious lunch though.

Colourfully Yummy

Quinoa and Chickpea salad!

In this mix is:

  • 1 cup cooked quinoa (cooled)
  • 2 cups green beans (trimmed, chopped and blanched)
  • 1 can chick peas (drained and rinsed)
  • 1 sweet red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese (well…maybe a bit more ;) )
  • a couple sliced sundried tomatoes.

I originally saw this recipe in Canadian Living magazine (you can view the recipe here), and since I am looking for fun ways to prepare quinoa I was alllll over it.  The actual recipe called for a homemade tomato vinaigrette dressing for this salad, but I cheated and used Kraft fat-free Italian dressing.  There was already lots of prep work with all the chopping and dicing and cooking and blanching and draining and rinsing that was going on, and I was hangry.  The Italian dressing worked well though, and I think Greek would be yummy with it too.

More Of The Goodness

It was a very filling and nutritiously delicious lunch, and I have tons of leftovers.

Today was originally going to be a rest day on the running front because my shinny-shin-shins are still feeling a bit sore, but it is beeeeeeyooootiful outside.  Like spring weather for sure.  So sunny and at least 10 degrees!  I think I’m going to throw down a couple kilometres just so I can get outside in the sunshine.  My first race is quickly approaching, I gotta get those kilometres in!

Question of the day:  Have you tried quinoa?  Thinking about trying quinoa?  Do you have a favourite quinoa recipe?

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Posted in Lunch

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