Top of the Muffin to You!

I’ve got a lot of food photos for today! Some days I don’t bother taking pictures of all my eats, others I’m all over it. Today was the latter, so let’s get to it shall we?

I reeeally wanted to make protein pancakes for breakfast this morning, but my plain cottage cheese had gone bad. I know tasting foods is always the best way to tell – but ew. Sour dairy freaks. me. out.

Anyways, the alternative was pretty stellar regardless – oats in a jar!

It was 1/2 cup oat bran, 2 cups water, 2 tbsp protein powder, cinnamon, raisins and almond butter, of course ;)

Looks disgusting but it’s ooohh sooo good. This is the best way to use up the hard nut butter at the bottom of a jar :)

 

I had the morning off, which meant time to go to step class! It was a different instructor today, she wasn’t as awesome as the last one. But the class was packed with energetic ladies, which perked me up! The moves are starting to come a little easier now. I noticed it felt like I wasn’t working as hard, so next time I’ll add a riser to my step (now that I’m almost sure I won’t fall of :P )

I was a sweaty mess when I came home. My shirt was soaked through! I stuck it out though so I could have a snack first.

Half of a homemade protein bar and a couple clementines. Or tangerines. Little citrus fruit??

Since I was eating lunch at home today, I skipped the usual bread or pita and went straight for a giant salad. 

• romaine lettuce
• yellow pepper
• onion
• tomato
• sundried tomato tuna
• Mediterranean cottage cheese

The awesome thing about putting cottage cheese on salads is that it not only ups the protein but acts as a dressing. Yum!

And since I’m photographing everything today, there’s the usual sweet ending.

I feel like I need something a little sweet to end every meal. So I like having half a square of Lindt chocolate. It’s only 25 calories, so it’s not like I’m breaking the bank. This is the fleur de sel kind. Just enough richness to tame that sweet tooth!

Unfortunately, big salads never hold me over that long. So I was snacky all afternoon.

I had some Mary’s crackers with soy nut butter.

For some reason the soy nut butter tastes awesome with these crackers. This was my first time buying them. They’re alright – really hard and crunchy. I’ve never been much of a cracker person though, so I probably won’t spend the $4.50 on them again.

I haven’t been having the best day mood-wise, so I decided to give the whole “baking therapy” thing a try. I’ve been wanting to make muffins forever, so I went to the queen of healthy muffin recipes – Steph Chows.

I opted for the Cinnamon Roll Muffins based on the ingredients I had on hand. I don’t have any pumpkin though, so I subbed it out with a banana.

I think I may have been a little too aggressive with my “swirling,” a lot of them just came out looking mangled! :P

 

I of course ignored all cooling rules and had one immediately.

With a little melted earth balance. Do I even have to say it was good? They taste more like cinnamon-y banana muffins.

The baking did help my mood a little too :)

Supper was totally random. Which in my kitchen always = delicious.

A tempeh sweet potato quesadilla and broccoli.

A wonderful combo actually! I pan-fried a cubed tempeh burger and miniature sweet potato in cajun spices then put it on an ezekiel tortilla with mozzarella and bbq sauce.  Squeezed in the george foreman and dipped in salsa!

I’m leaving for Windsor on Friday, so I’m trying to go the week without getting food. Should be interesting!

Work this evening was a boring city council meeting, but included the highlight of my day. My dad stopped by!! He’s a lawyer, and in town working on a case. Our schedules don’t really match up over these next couple days, so he popped into the media booth to say hi. I’m a total daddy’s girl, what can I say…

More muffin snackage happened upon my return to the office.

Stuffed with a little PB… times two. This is why I don’t bake!!! I actually froze half the batch. Cheapest frozen muffins I’ve had in a while. Take that VitaExpensive. :P

Now I’m curled up in bed. Anticipating the results of my first slow cooker experiment.

Ooooh…. What could it be?? :P Gonna have to wait till tomorrow! Night night!