Category Archives: farmers market

Sunday Things

Did you remember to set your clock back an hour last night? I did and still managed to sleep in. #doublewin! Even better, despite my lack of love for winter, my body oddly enough feels back on track. I’m just gonna roll with it ;)

It’s been a pretty typical Sunday thus far. Farmers market, hot cereal breakfast, 3 hours in the kitchen! I finally broke out my new mini-food processor and made a batch of vanilla cinnamon flax cashew butter. Ashley at the Edible Perspective was my inspiration and I followed her tips, including roasting my nuts and adding a glug (or 2) of oil to help form the butter.

My cashew butter contains:

  • 1.5c raw cashews, dry roasted
  • 1/4t sea salt
  • 1/2t cinnamon
  • splashes of vanilla
  • ~1/2T grapeseed oil
  • small pinch of flax seeds

I also cooked up some rice, crackers, and split pea soup for the week

Scenes from the market this morning:

What do your usual “Sunday Things” consist of?

I – I will Survive

As evident by my channeling Gloria Gaynor, I’ve gone a little crazy over the past few days. I blame it on staring at this for the better part of my weekend:

Between accounting studying and a huge group project that was completed over the weekend, I’m beyond happy for this quarter of school to be wrapping up. I’ve learned a lot about myself over the past 2 months and am eager to make a few changes moving forward!

Friday I had a relapse in sickness which led to my continued feelings of misery and therefore lack of blog posting. Saturday was group project day followed by a delightful dinner with friends that ended with gelato. Ice cream solves problems and cures illness, didn’t you know? Dinner was actually the turning point with this cold I’ve been battling and I’ve been feeling better and better since!

Yesterday morning I was up earlier than I would have preferred which at least allowed me to tackle a long to-do list, I was still feeling better, and spend a few hours preparing for my impending accounting final!

There was the standard trip to the farmers market. Has anyone seen black radishes before? These were a new-to-me sighting!

Also, check out the size of this beautiful comice pear. It was at least the size of my face! I love Toigo Orchards – they have the best pears and the nicest staff by far!

Of course I got to enjoy a special breakfast over the weekend – “oats” in a jar! My standard mix with blueberries, cinnamon, maple, and crushed pecans in an almond butter jar.

Last night I had the last of my chicken chili along with half of an acorn squash, which I ate skin and all.

Now, I’m just plugging away through the day and trying to keep prepping for this acocunting final at 7pm. I’ll be more than ecstatic when it’s over!!

How was your weekend?

Grateful

There are a lot of thoughts swimming through my head so I’m going to do my best to organize them clearly for ya. I definitely want to share that I had a great Tuesday for MANY reasons and I think that my thoughts will demonstrate that my great day was the result of choices I made that made me grateful.

I had a dentist appointment before work which meant getting up early after a long night of class. I whipped up my favorite cereal, choosing peanut butter and a drop of fig jam for toppings with an egg white alongside before heading to the doctor’s office.

I made it into work and chugged through the morning despite battling a bit of fuzziness after lots of thinking, etc. as a result of 5 hours of class.

On my walk home for lunch I had a great phone call with my mom that helped me think through some ideas I’ve been mulling over. She was supportive and encouraging – I love my mom!

Lunch was a serving of split pea soup along with the last 1/4c of baked beans and a slice of Udi’s whole grain bread toasted and topped with tomato paste and a schmear of hummus.

Instead of constantly checking my blackberry as I headed back into the office I deemed it a technology-free 10 minutes and thought about what I was grateful for. That might have been the big turning point in my day.

The afternoon flew by and before I knew it I was heading to my late afternoon meeting. It went well and then I headed over to the quad to witness Bid Day with my office. Bid Day is when freshmen find out which sorority they will be joining and they gather on the quad to meet those chapter members and begin their Greek Life careers. I was so happy and back in my element for this hour that I think I scared a few colleagues with my enthusiasm. It brought back so many positive memories of when I joined my sorority and made me feel proud and inspired to continue to be a part of my organization and Greek Life as a whole today. I was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the evening.

I headed to the gym after work (!!!) for an elliptical session inspired by who knows what. It didn’t hurt that I wanted to have exercised some before parking it on the couch to watch the Biggest Loser though! I did 2 miles in 20 minutes not wanting to overdo it with my foot (I’d say its maybe 90% better at this point). You have to start somewhere, right?

After a quick stop in the store for a few items I headed home as the sun was setting. Instead of grumbling that sunsets are getting earlier I paused and took in the beautiful sky. Those few seconds inspired even more happiness, yay!

I played in the kichen, roasting up my first kabocha squash, a sweet potato, and kale and got dinner ready. It was time to break into a pouch of Bob’s Red Mill polenta and I wanted to make sure I had some for lunches for the rest of the week.

Tonight’s bowl contained broccoli, one carrot – grated, fresh grated Cabot sharp cheddar, and a serving of polenta. On the side I had kale chips and a sample of my roasted veg. You’d have thought it was November or December with all the comfort I cooked up!

Now I’m snacking on an amazingly flavorful ripe pear from the farmers market and watching the Biggest Loser. I am pleased to report that it’s much, much better than the season premiere was. I have a conference call at 9:30pm that I doubt I’ll complete because I am exhausted. I had quite the full day!

 

What are you grateful for today? Do you find that positivity and a “good day” is a conscious choice you make?

Unexpected Twist

Last night took an unexpected twist shortly after I finished blow drying my hair to go out. I got the first symptoms of a migraine :( I quickly popped an Advil, put on pajamas, and crawled into bed… at the late hour of 9:52pm. I fell asleep about 45 minutes later but woke up in the middle of the night with extreme hunger pangs. I made a mini cup of hot cereal (~1T of grains) and crawled back into bed. I finally woke up at a reasonable morning hour of 9:15am with another round of hunger pangs.

Enter – hot cereal with blueberries plus an egg white with a drop of cheese. It’s cloudy and in the 60s so a hot breakfast that was quick to make was a perfect choice. The cereal is topped with 1/2T total of almond and peanut butters plus a few crushed almond slices.

From there I set out for groceries for the week from the Farmers Market and Whole Foods. I first perused the market for a bit:

Here’s the haul for the week (plus there was a mini trip to Trader Joe’s on Friday for a few essentials):

Farmers Market:

  • corn
  • Honeycrisp apples
  • eggs
  • Comice pears plus one Asian pear
  • kabocha squash (1st time trying it!)

Whole Foods:

  • Food for Life English muffins
  • kale
  • roasted buckwheat (kasha)
  • maple syrup
  • onion
  • barbecue sauce (it was $1.70 so I stocked up!)
  • frozen strawberries
  • frozen broccoli
  • Food Should Taste Good chips, The Works flavor
  • baked beans 

Total: about $45
That may seem high for one person but keep in mind the gluten free barbecue sauce, syrup, and English muffins were $5 a piece. I also don’t mind spending my money for some of the best tasting, local apples and pears. Store-bought just can’t compete!

I procrastinated getting work done by prepping a soup for the week in the crockpot. Here’s a hint:

Any guesses??

How much do you spend on groceries each week? Do you prefer buying specific types of food (local, organic, what’s available, etc)?