A Rolls-Royce and Salad Rolls

The horror!  I went to prepare the coffee pot last night and I was out of coffeeeeeee!  Noooooooooo!  So this morning after Chibi and I had our “business walk” around the block we hopped in the car to retrieve caffeine.

Back at home I discovered that I’m also out of a few main smoothie ingredients…but I made it work.  This orange was the star of the smoothie show.

In the KA: 1/2 frozen banana, chopped navel orange, 1/4 cup oats, flax meal, chia, Dreamsicle Amazing Grass (that’s why it’s green!), 3/4 cup UVAB. 

Today’s bigass salad was brought to you by every last item in the vegetable crisper.

Romaine, broccoli, orange pepper and celery dressed with balsamic & olive oil.

Topped with “bacon” and eggs.  A little bacon jam and parmesan melted nicely into the over-medium yolks.

Cheese straws that taste like cheesy shortbread cookies on the side.

Afternoon sweet tooth.

Post-work race to get to IMAX on time.  Momentarily distracted by John Lennon’s Yellow Submarine in the museum lobby. 

Whenever we are out to eat my friends never get their faces on the blog because I’m too busy drooling focusing on the food.  So I made Ray pose in the window tonight.  I know, I know…feel free to shake your head.  He did.

We watched crazy cavers repel into bigass caves all over the world.  500 feet into a recently formed ice cave that could spontaneously collapse any moment?  Um, no thanks.

I’d rather eat Vietnamese food!  So off to Green Leaf it was. Yummers.

The salad rolls were just as fresh and delicious as I remember…and yup, I would still gladly swim in the peanut sauce.

Because we couldn’t make up our minds we opted to share a couple of dishes.  Rare Beef Pho. 

Fresh, hot, flavourful and the beef was just right.

Pork Vermicelli with crispy pork spring roll.

All oh so good!  We demolished the pork plate.  I have had that dish at other Vietnamese restaurants but this one was particularly fresh, tender and tasty. 

And the best part?  I got the leftover soup and salad rolls!!  Weeeeeha!!

Good thing because my fridge is so bare I might even clean it.  Whoa.

Bacon Jam

Lookie here, I’m only one day behind now!  Of course, the weekend is basically upon so I suspect the randomness will start all over again. :)

Recently it seems I’ve acquired new local readers via Twitter and there has been a lot of chat about green smoothies.  Glad that more and more folks are willing to give the spinach in there a try!!

In my KA: ice, 1/2 banana, 2 bigass handfuls baby spinach, 1/4 cup whole oats, flax meal, chia, Dreamsicle Amazing Grass, and UVAB.

Maybe one of you adventurous readers will try kale in your glass one day??!!  That’s more hardcore than I’ve ever been willing to go.

While downtown the other day I finally remembered to pop into Feys & Hobbs Fort Street store to cash in my SwarmJam coupon (like Groupon) for Bacon Jam.

Yes, that says BACON. JAM.  Word to that.

It’s somewhat chutney-like in texture and style…but the bacon is definitely there!

What better way to enjoy bacon than with eggs?

I had one slice of bacon left in the fridge so I opted to make a BLT salad to go with my “bacon” and eggs.

Pretty darn delicious!

Afternoon sweet tooth.  Fruit helps cut the chocolate calories, right?

Tide me over.  Last night’s dinner date with Bachelor #6 wasn’t until 7:30 so I didn’t want to gnaw my arm off before then.

Dinner was at Canoe Brewpub.  Espresso Stout – check.  Good conversation – check.  Mediocre pasta dish – check.  Canoe is such a great location, ambience, and brewery…why does their food always leave me feeling “meh”?

Fun date anecdote:  I got home and realized I was missing one of my cute dangly earrings.  I texted the bachelor.  As I was driving back down to the restaurant in the POURING EFFING RAIN he texted back to tell me he’d gone back to look.  Sweet, right?  So ya, there we both were scouring the sidewalks…absolutely drenched. 

Sadly, no earring.

(Before you get all excited, please remember Bachelor #5 seemed pretty sweet and awesome after our second date…but became a douche overnight.  Practice dating caution.  LOL.)

Making Do

It occurs to me that I stopped taking and posting photos of my morning coffee because I figured it was pretty boring for you guys…but so many people are fans of my bigass mug collection that I thought maybe I’d start featuring them again. 

If anyone ever wants to exchange for a Canada or Vancouver Island Starbucks mug, please let me know!! 

After a lengthy Facebook chat regarding green smoothies I couldn’t let another morning go by without making one of my own.  Besides it’s time to put my brand new bag of chia to use.

Into the blender: ice, 1/2 banana, 2 huge handfuls baby spinach, 1/4 cup whole oats, Orange Dreamsicle Amazing Grass, flax meal, chia, and 1 cup vanilla flavoured So Delicious Coconut Milk.

Lunch looks familiar no? 

Fully loaded tuna salad with veggies and bagel chips.

Sweet treat.  That ridiculous one-pounder is disappearing rapidly.

Afternoon caffeine fix.

Being as the fridge is now essentially a barren wasteland I had to dig deep into the freezer for dinner.  The last remaining serving of Tortellini Lasagna…slightly mushy but filling enough to get me through photography class.

Probably should have reached for an apple for my evening snack but the Aussie candy couldn’t be ignored.

Those puffy little strawberries are magically delicious.  Probably a good thing they are all gone. ;)

Suffering Cupboards

As predicted, Monday morning marked the initiation of my new Aussie Starbucks mug care of Laura!

Also, probably predicted was more of my love affair with Trader Joe’s almond butter on an English muffin.

Strawberries remaining from Friday night’s cheeeesefest.

Because I’ve spent about a gazillion dollars on fun nights out the last couple of weeks I have forced this week’s grocery budget to suffer.  This means cupboard raiding at it’s finest.  Canned tuna to the rescue.

Fully loaded tuna salad: with carrots, celery, pickles, capers, green onion, olive oil mayo, Dijon, and salt & pepper.

Served with veggies rescued from the deep depths of the refrigerator and bagel chips.

Clearly my friend Ray didn’t get the memo about me spending less money as he showed up for a coffee run mid-afternoon.  We combined the coffee visit with Chibi’s afternoon jaunt. 

Just look at that face waiting outside the doors! :)

I forget what this was, but it had whip cream.  That’s all that mattered.

In keeping with the Mother Hubbard’s cupboard theme, dinner was comprised of random fridge finds.

The star of the show was the leftover caramelized onion cheddar turned into a grilled cheese with tomatoes.  Alongside a salad of romaine, spinach, chopped apple, and bacon…dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.

The cheddar was a little strong but it all worked. :)

After dinner I was supposed to spend the evening trying a Yin Yoga class with my friend Matt, but we both ended up cancelling due to injuries.  He wrecked his shoulder at work and I’m deathly afraid that my blown disc is rearing it’s ugly head again…and last time yoga was one of the worst things I did.

So instead I cracked open these candies from Laura and had a cuddlefest with the pets on the sofa.

Yummy gummy!!

Happy Monday Wednesday everyone!