My new schedule is intense, and it’s only getting crazier starting next week(!)… for like the next two months (!!). So I think it’s about time I fess up (to myself) that my free time can no longer lend itself to good and thorough blogging (seeing as it has been reduced to the, oh, 15 minute window right before I pass out at night) and while I’ve continued to take pictures of all my silly food and tried furiously to stop by all your great blogs over the last week and a half, I have *obviously* not been able to keep up with my own blog like I used to and commenting on yours.

So let me make this proclamation: I love you all, I love blogging, but I am going on Official Break Mode starting right now…. until my life calms down (if??), I’ll be haunting this space fairly infrequently…maybe the occasional post on some weird kitchen creation that comes out of a slow, rainy-day Sunday or something.  But don’t think I won’t be perusing all your blogs! And of course commenting when I can.

So with that, I will leave you with some of my foods from the past few days (since I need to do something with these pictures on my iphone)…..

Spaghetti squash + spinach + hummus/nooch/salsa!

Trusty old OIAJ.

A coworker (at my old job) brought me homemade lemon cake! (as a congrats on the new job ) Oh how it was good.

Mess of a salad with a Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger mixed in.

Steamed broccoli + cabbage + raisins, over garlic hummus (with paprika and cinnamon!)

I basically put my “jar” oats in a bowl (finally! ha) : included are rolled oats, buckwheat groats, almond butter, homemade pumpkin butter, and a bananorama.

Alright kids. That’s all – FOR NOW!  I’ll see you around, I promise.

Kisses.

Over and out.

x

I started my day off at 7 AM spinning. I’m finding it to be an interesting experiment going to a spinning class whilst still half asleep. This is partly a good thing because before I know it the class is over (and I’m only just starting to be fully alert). But it is also potentially not so good if my rate of exertion is directly proportional to my level of awakeness, i.e. not so hot…… For some reason, when I do strength training in the AM, or yoga, I don’t mind so much. Tuning out mentally doesn’t really matter. But huffing and puffing on a bike feels exceptionally more difficult when my body still thinks it’s in bed.

Here’s hoping this old sack of bones gets used to it.

Breakfast was so… watery? But delicious, thanks in so small part to my homemade pumpkin butter.

• 1/3 c. rolled oats
• 1/4 c. buckwheat groats
• too much water..
• 1/2 banana
• 1 spoonful peanut butter (TJ’s pb + flax)
• 1 spoonful pumpkin butter

The pumpkin butter is a lot thicker than the Trader Joe’s stuff I demolished last week – it’s actually more like the consistency of unwarmed caramel sauce or thick hot fudge, dense and a little sticky. It’s also spicier, which pleases me much.

So yes, the verdict is: AWESOME (and much cheaper than TJ’s!).

For lunch I had one of those salads that, when the topping is being mixed in, makes the most unpleasant goopy sounds (which was kind of embarrassing back when only a foot of air and a short cubicle wall separated my face from the guy’s next door).

A random, goopy mix:

• romaine
• 1/2 spaghetti squash
• hummus + nooch + salsa

But so good.

And for the sweet quotient -

Monster Oatie! Made with walnuts, apricots, and cranberries. Mmm.

*************

**THIS POST IS BEING INTERRUPTED BY THE MOST INSANE & FRIGHTENING STORM CURRENTLY WREAKING HAVOC ON MY NEIGHBODHOOD**

A MONSOON of hail and thunder and lightening just finished pillaging Brooklyn…. Honestly I thought our windows were going to break in because of the golfball sized hail bashing into it. It was BOOMING down on our roof… my roommate and I were literally dancing around screaming our heads off, quite sure our old brownstone would crumble under this freak weather bomb. I am shocked our internet/electricity/cat are still alive.

I tried to get some pictures of the deluge…

…yeah not the greatest shot, but if it looks kinda like hell, well that’s pretty close.

And now it looks like it snowed:

INSANITY.

*************

Aaaaanyway, back to less exciting things.

A pear.

Dinner of steamed broccoli and red cabbage, with garlic hummus and raisins (I don’t know why but I love that combo).

And a very autumnal dessert jar of greek yogurt, applesauce, some pumpkin butter, and TJ’s ginger cats (yummm!)

(Times deux.)

-

This all seems so inconsequential after the apocalypse of a few minutes ago. :p

So what’s the freakiest weather you’ve ever seen? This was honestly one of the craziest bouts I’ve ever seen (and heard!!)…. and I’ve seen tornadoes in Oregon, aka where tornadoes do NOT happen.

Let’s hope things calm down before I have to walk around out there tomorrow….

Nighty night!

x

I’ve had some fun and excitement… Highlights include:

• Seeing The Social Network on Friday night. Really, truly, a great movie. See it.
• Finding one of my beloved weekday/noon instructors at a 10:30 spin class on Saturday – YaY! Plus getting some strength training in beforehand to boot.
• A big old salad box from Maoz.

• Wandering around Soho in the beautiful weather with my roommate.
• Finally getting some oxfords (I’ve been in the market for a loooong while). From Madewell. Love.

madewell.com

• Getting some free wobble doo-dads at a pop-up art exhibit Re:Form School.

• Discovering a fabulous French cafe, Tartinery.

… where I got a tartine (pictured) on Poilane bread (a deeply French institution; a rare find state-side), with goat cheese, frisee, pine nuts, thyme, honey and olive oil. C’est magnifique. (also pictured: my side salad – greens, shaved parmesan, walnuts, vinaigrette; my roommate’s chevre chaud salad – goat cheese baked on toasts, atop [more!] frisee)

• A chocolate chip walnut cookie from Balthazar…. actually this wasn’t so much a highlight, more like a super dry disappointment

• A friend’s birthday party, which included: me topping pieces of baguette with hummus and… raspberry jam (ahem, it was actually really tasty); Magnolia Bakery cake at midnight; a rousing game of truth or dare.
• Coloring with my roommate at a coffee shop this morning (soooo much fun. and yes we brought our own jar of crayons.).

• Having realized the magnitude of my addiction to pumpkin butter, making my own using the recipe Angela recently posted.

• Making yet another batch of Heather’s Oaties…They are just the perfect thing to bring for my lunches during the week…. I can’t stop.
• Enjoying a big crazy salad with hummus + nooch, salsa, one terribly watery avocado (boo) and a trillion vegetables.

• And taking it easy with my roommate for the rest of tonight before another gnarly week arrives.

What was your (#1) highlight of the weekend? Mine was maybe the coloring.

Have a beautiful evening!

x