12/18 What I Ate Wednesday: Pre-Travel Edition

Happy Hump Day!

I had a great night hanging out with my little brosef for the last time before I take off. Le sad face!

But, on the bright side, I was able to steal a bunch of his music (he is a budding dj and spends a lot more time finding new music than I do...) so I feel like its kind of like he will be going with me everywhere that I go, in the form of house beats.

He also showed me this high-larious video, its too good not to share:

Workout

My HIIT workout this morning, three rounds:

50 jumping jacks
20 tricep dips
20 reverse sit-ups (leg lifts)
30 crunches
30 squats
10 squat jumps
20 push-ups
60 sec wall chair
10 side plank oblique dips (each side)

My days are pretty packed these days, so if I don't sneak my workout in the morning, the day always seems to get away with me!

What I Ate Wednesday: Pre-Travel Edition

I thought I would show you what a full day of eats consists of when I have managed to avoid going grocery shopping for about two weeks to try and use up as much of the food in my cupboards and freezer as possible.

Breakfast

Oatmeal. All week.

Snack

Half a pomegranate. [Popster - watch this video! I swear it is the fastest way to de-seed a pomegranate!!]

Lunch

Leftovers from dins with my little brosef - a random medley of pasta and homemade tomato sauce:

Quick Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

2 tbsp avocado oil

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic

3-4 whole tomatoes, cubed

1 can chickpeas

Sriracha, to taste 

Instructions

Sauté onions in avocado oil in a pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add garlic and let heat up another 2 minutes, or until garlic flavour is released.

Add cubed tomatoes to the pan and cover for about 10 minutes or until tomatoes have become mushy (yum).

Remove lid and add chickpeas. Let cook for another 5 minutes until liquid from tomatoes has reduced and chickpeas are cooked.

Add Sriracha, salt’n’pepper to taste.

Serve over whole wheat pasta and enjoy!

Snack

Freshly-made fruit & nut bread for the win.

The one up-side of the constant barrage of home-made pastries and chocolate at my office is that I don't need to bring an afternoon snack. Although I am trying to get in veggies, where I can, so I also brought a half a cucumber to munch on to try and avoid the post-pastry sugar crash.

Dinner

I'm having dinner at on of my Momster's bff's place tonight - all part of the 'avoid the grocery store' plan. I might even get some leftovers if I'm lucky ;)

The countdown continues: 4 days 'til take-off!!

Chocolate Pomegranate Clusters

Morning friends!

Did any of you do a bit of meditation this morning? I started my day off with a wonderful 20 minute pause, where I listened to the soothing voice of Oprah and Deepak Chopra and wildlife...if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read up on my 'Om'-vember challenge here!

Chocolate Pomegranate Clusters

To start off your Friday morning, I thought I would share a quick and delicious recipe that I made the other day.

I'm just going to put it out there: I am a HUGE fan of pomegranates. They are amazing and juicy and delicious and remind me of wonderful Christmas-sy things like sitting with a cup of hot tea by the roaring fire. Even if there is no snow yet and its not even December ;)

I learned a trick from a lady once about cutting off the top of the pomegranate before cutting it in half, since its usually just peel there anyway.

Turns out I bought some sort of monster pomegranate that was jam packed FULL of deliciously delicious seeds, just ripe for the eating.

I actually got a bit of a reputation around my office since I would bring in a half of a pomegranate every once in a while and attempt to eat it at my desk.

 Just an FYI - it is extremely difficult to eat a pomegranate at your desk.

Seeds start flying everywhere, the juice gets all over your desk and hands...its just a mess. Yet, it is still possible, and I think it is totally worth it! Although I decided to de-seed my pomegranates before bringing them into work now, mostly so that I don't get pomegranate juice all over me. It stains.

The recipe that I was following suggested that you dry out the pomegranate seeds before making the chocolate clusters. Which meant that I sat with the pan full of delicious pomegranate seeds and snacked on about a third of them before stopping myself. They are just too dang good!

I didn't have any dark chocolate or chocolate chips hanging around - it never lasts long in my cupboard - so I decided to make some coconut oil and cocoa chocolate, the so-called 'metabolism-revving chocolate'

 I used maple syrup to sweeten it, but I would recommend using agave or stevia - this is the second time I tried making this chocolate, and I find that the maple syrup always separates. Which is find when you want to eat it with a spoon (I mean, why not?!) but it also takes away the convenience of being able to take this goody places with you

Because, trust me, they are tasty enough to want to take them as a snack. Everywhere. Every day.  

I made these in muffin tins so that I could keep the serving sizes smaller, but you could also use a bowl or a serving tray so that you can have a thinner sheet when it cools.

As I mentioned, I ended up eating these with a spoon (so good) but you could also use melted chocolate chips and it would be more like a chocolate bar.

Let me know if you try them out!

 

Chocolate Pomegranate Clusters

Chocolate inspired by Butter Beliver's recipe 

Clusters inspired by Lexie's Kitchen's recipe

Ingredients

¾ cup coconut oil

¾ cup cocoa powder

¾ cup maple syrup

1 pomegranate

Directions

De-seed the pomegranate and lay out flat on a surface (I used a baking sheet) and dab dry with paper towels. Leave out for about half an hour to dry.

Melt coconut oil in a saucepan on medium heat. Once melted, add the cocoa powder and maple syrup and stir until fully mixed together.  [Note: can also melt chocolate chips or a solid chocolate bar]

Add melted chocolate to muffin tin to about ½ the height of each tin [Note: it might be better to use removable muffin tins so that the chocolate holds its shape better and you don’t have to eat it with a spoon like myself]

Add a scoop of pomegranate seeds to each tin.

Put in freezer for about 30 minutes or in fridge for an hour.

Enjoy!

NOTE: I just found this AMAZING video on a better way to de-seed pomegranates. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty convincing. Let me know if you give it a go!

Have a wunderbar Friday :)