28 February 2014

Breakfast:

Oatmeal w/banana slices, dates, pumpkin seeds & cinnamon

Lunch:

Purple cabbage "tea", purple cabbage topped w/aubergine & celery in a tomato-based sauce

Snack:

Pumpkin seeds

Snack:

Almonds, banana w/pumpkin seed butter

Happy birthday Daniel!

Breakfast:

Fig & cranberry granola, cacao & tangerine granola, banana slices w/rice milk, cinnamon & pumpkin seed butter
(It was either breakfast or going to class late, and I chose breakfast. Literally scarfed this down in three minutes and believe me, granola is not something you should ever eat fast. My jaw was having a painful workout, but my tastebuds were having a ball. I need to get more of this granola!)

Lunch at itsu (around St. Paul), London, England: 

Veggie gyoza & udon soup topped w/roasted seeds
(Scoped out some venues for a birthday party with my friend and she suggested having lunch at this Japanese fast-food chain. The soup was too salty, but as per usual, I expected that.  What I didn't expect was the strong mushroom flavour and I'm not a big fan of mushrooms. It's a good thing most of the mushrooms were inside the gyozas  and that the broth was reeking of mushroom flavour. I wouldn't have enjoyed it if there was a lot of floating mushroom bits. The roasted seeds added an interesting flavour and texture to the soup, which almost made up for the mushroom flavour. Overall, it wasn't bad, but I probably would have diluted it with some hot water if I had any. And the gyoza filling could use some help. If I order this again, I would probably just ask them not to put in the broth.)

Snack:

Frozen banana w/pumpkin seed butter & cinnamon
(Delicious. Frozen fruit is always a hit.)

Snack:

Frozen banana w/pumpkin seed butter & cinnamon

Snack:

Almonds, lemon & ginger tea

Snack:

Pumpkin seeds

26 February 2014

Breakfast:

Green smoothie & granola mix w/ pumpkin seed butter
(spinach, celery, hemp protein powder, tumeric, cinnamon, banana, tiny bit of cacao powder)
(These granola flavours are heavenly.  Amazing way to start my morning.)

Snack:

Cacao & tangerine granola, fig & cranberry granola, banana slices w/pumpkin seed butter, cacao powder & rice milk
(No classes today so I lounged in bed and read while eating granola. I love days like this, although I should have been working on other things...)

Snack:

Purple cabbage "tea", purple cabbage w/aubergine & celery in a tomato-based sauce
(Purple cabbage is my jam! I used to beg my mother to make this soup all the time because I loved the colour, and she used to dye rice purple to make it more fun to eat. Fun childhood memories.)

Snack:

Cacao & tangerine granola w/rice milk (2)

Happy birthday, Winnie!!!

Breakfast:

Banana

Carrot batons

 Snack from Montparnasse Cafe, London, England:

Pain au chocolat
(Arrived half an hour early to my museums module, and I remembered that there was a très French cafe nearby with apparently amazing croissants. The cafe really was quite French - even the employees were French - and lots of reviews said that this was a piece of France outside of France. They ran out of almond croissants by the time I got there, so I went with a pain au chocolat instead. I've never had a "real" French pain au chocolat, so I don't know if this is the real deal, but it was very good! Surprisingly light with flakey layers, yet quite buttery. The chocolate was dark and bitter, adding that extra depth to the pastry. I think my only complaint would be that there wasn't enough chocolate in the middle.)

Snack:

1/2 chocolate dipped stem ginger biscuit (from Whole Foods)
(I missed the tube and thought that I would have a few minutes before the next one came. Nope.)

Snack:

1/2 chocolate dipped stem ginger biscuit (from Whole Foods)

Snack:

Assorted salads from Whole Foods + spinach (I added this later)
(I love Whole Foods. Expensive, but sometimes you just need fast food. I added the spinach to soak up some of the flavours while making the meal heartier. The pumpkin, adzuki bean and feta cheese salad is still one of the best combinations I've ever tried.)

Snack:

Yerba mate tea w/stem ginger biscuit (from Whole Foods)

Snack:

Cacao & tangerine granola
(I always tell myself not to buy granola because it's so easy to make at home, but I'm too lazy to actually make granola. Although hands down, this is probably the best granola I've ever had! Chocolate-y with a hint of orange? Delicious! It's like the Terry orange balls x100 but less sweet and more wholesome.  I need to replicate this. Today is full of good food choices.)

Snack:

Cacao & tangerine granola w/rice milk

Snack:

Cacao & tangerine granola, fig & cranberry granola, rice milk, pumpkin seed butter
(I also got some fig and cranberry granola. Not as good as the cacao and tangerine flavour, but still delicious. It's sweet in a fruity way so if you're not a chocolate person, this would be super ideal. Although, the combination of the two flavours is pretty amazing.)

Snack:

Fig & cranberry granola

Happy birthday Rachel!

Breakfast:

Hob nob biscuit

Snack:

Broken hob nob biscuits, banana chunks & cashews w/cinnamon

Snack:

Cashews

Snack:

Hob nob biscuit

Snack:

Hob nob biscuits

Snack:

Rest of the aubergine, butternut squash & spinach casserole

Snack:

Carrot batons

Snack:

Banana

Happy birthday Connor and Chasmine!

Finally hit up Brick Lane market with a friend today and I can definitely say that if I had bottomless stomach and unlimited funds, this place would be my jam. Love love all the vintage stores and food stalls!

Brunch from an Ethiopian food stall in the Brick Lane Market Food Court, London, England:

Mixture of Ethiopian dishes: couscous w/aubergine stew, lentil stew, peanut sauce, spinach stew, chickpea stew, chickpea salad, lentil salad, some kind of green pearl thing, beetroot salad, green chili sauce & red chili sauce
(The people manning this stall were great! I didn't know how things worked, so the guy basically let me sample every dish after shooing his coworker away, and I ended up getting a little bit of every dish, except for the olives and onions ones. I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, but they said I could customize as much as I wanted and every dish was vegan so it was like my dream come true. My favourites were the aubergine stew, beetroot salad and green pearl thing. I remember the guy saying it was something with olive oil and lemon juice, but I can't figure out what he said the green things were. The recommended green chili sauce was smokey, hot and flavourful. Man, it'd taste amazing with Mexican food. Anyway, I was quite happy with my choices and this plate was definitely worth the £5.)

Snack from a fresh fruit juice stall in Brick Lane Market, London, England:

Fresh kiwifruit juice
(Best thing ever. This was basically like crushed kiwifruit. I could drink gallons of this! My favourite stall in the world, and I'm not even kidding. There were also cups of fresh fruit and smoothies. Forget all the other stalls, I'm just going to drink a million of these next time.)

Snack from St. Sugar of London in Brick Lane Market, London, England:

"Rumzipan": marzipan and rum croissant
(The almond croissants caught my eye, but these were right next to it and their description was like 'rum soaked almonds in an almond croissant soaked in rum, twice baked' or something equally ridiculous. I went on their Twitter page later and they have tweets about how this is their "response to the Cronut" and this is "the godfather of every croissant, when a bag of almonds meet a bottle of rum". This was probably the most dense and heaviest (both in terms of weight and taste) croissant I've ever had, but I quite enjoyed it. While the rum wasn't that osphretic, the flavour did mellow out the sweetness. They overdid it with the filling though, because I think it was a bit too heavy. The croissant layers were also mushed together so I'd have to say that this was more like a rum marzipan pastry rather than a croissant.)

Snack:

Banana, yerba mate tea

Snack:

Hob nob biscuit (2)

Snack:

Roasted cashews

Stonehenge + Salisbury Excursion

Went on a day trip to see Stonehenge and Salisbury with my study abroad program today. I suppose Stonehenge was cool, but I wish we had more time to explore Salisbury on our own instead of listening to some "registered tour guide" ramble and make horrid puns for over an hour.

Breakfast (part I):

Few spoonfuls of the eggplant, butternut squash & spinach casserole (picture from yesterday)
(I was running late so I just ate a few quick spoonfuls before I had to head out.)

Breakfast (part II) from Crussh (on Notting Hill Gate), London, England:

Veggie Greens juice: kale, spinach, lime, celery & cucumber
(I miss my juicer and my mom's juices.)

Sweet potato falafel salad wrap: sweet potato falafels, cucumber, red pepper, alfalfa, lettuce & watercress & coriander hummus in a multigrain wrap
(Ate half for breakfast and ate half later at Stonehenge. I liked the flavour combination, although I think they added sugar to the falafel because it was too sweet.)

Snack:

Hob nob biscuit (4)
(Been craving biscuits lately. I really should just buy some flour and bake.)

Snack:

Eggplant, butternut squash & spinach casserole (2)

21 February 2014

Breakfast:

Frozen mango chunks

Snack:

Mixed berries & spinach smoothie

Snack:

Mixed berries & spinach smoothie topped w/spelt flakes

Snack:

Spelt flakes

Snack:

Mixed berry & spinach smoothie

Sample:

Bit of eggplant, butternut squash & spinach casserole