Discovering balance on my plate, my yoga mat, and the classroom
You fail when you stop trying.
The one who falls and stands up is stronger than the one who never fell.
Don’t tell people your dreams. Show them.
Holding anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
Dreaming and doing is the difference between failure and success.
Define success by your own terms. Achieve it by your own rules.
Sometimes, the most productive thing to do is relax.
Don’t believe everything you think.
Sometimes you win. Other times you learn.
Close some doors. Not because of pride, incapacity, or arrogance. But simply because they no longer lead somewhere.
Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.
People who say “you can’t” and “you won’t” are afraid “you will”.
Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.
Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.
You guys might have figured out that I am absolutely fascinated by sea creatures. This was a photo I found (on BoredPanda, of all places) that shows a sleeping pod of sperm whales! They also happen to look, according to my roommate’s friend, like giant shrimp tempuras.
Cool facts – it is the large predator with teeth, uses echolocation, and is the second-deepest diving mammal on the planet. Males can reach up to 21 metres in length, and albino sperm whales exist! They are made of cartilage, so their “bones” bend and collapse rather than snap, when they undergo dramatic changes in pressure in their dives. It can retract its eyes and has excellent vision. Sperm whales are very difficult to investigate, because they dive for longer periods of time, and travel quickly in the deep waters. Also, the novel Moby Dick was based on a sperm whale!
On Friday, I went crazy with the food and ate until my stomach burst. During that time, I devoured an incredibly gooey, cheesy brie grilled cheese with cranberry mayonnaise on two thick slices of rye bread, plus a side of spicy Southern sweet potato soup – and followed that up with peanut butter + cheesecake ice cream at Marble Slab, topped with pretty much every topping. My cup was finished in a snap, but my friend’s became soup!
This Sunday is the aerials and pole showcase at my studio. I am not performing this time, but I can’t wait to see all of my friends perform.
For dinner yesterday, I made a cheesy quinoa casserole with mushrooms, zucchini, red onion, and some frozen mixed vegetables. This tasted great with cheddar on top.
I added extra nutritional yeast into the sauce, so it tasted so zingy and sharp in the best way.
Chocolatey breakfast quinoa is one of my new favourite breakfasts. I always add a sliced banana and a scoop of nut butter, and serve it with yogurt + coconut chips and a piece of baking (this was an almond flour fig cake). Minus the yogurt, this would make a wonderful vegan breakfast (as the quinoa was cooked in coconut milk).
On Sunday, I cooked a big batch of peanut stew. It is flavoured with cumin, garlic, ginger, and red onions – how can it not be good? The sauce also included peanut butter, chicken broth, cubed sweet potato and tons of spinach. It tasted wonderful on rice with crushed peanuts on top. I used chicken broth, but it can easily be replaced with vegetable broth (perhaps even water and salt?) for a tasty vegan rendition.
Yesterday, there was a thunderstorm and I got stuck in the rain at the bus terminal outside Conestoga Mall. Also, my roommates and I are starting the move-out process, which includes lots of sorting and throwing out.
Finally, my roommate’s yummy tomato, cheese, and egg omelet (above) made me want to cook some veggie eggs in the morning, too! Inspired by her, I cooked one egg with garlicky green beans and topped it with grated white cheddar, and served it with buttered pita bread and yogurt with a brownie, granola, and peanut butter. It was good!
Found this pretty neat gif, too 🙂
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!
Good Saturday morning, everyone! This semester is a challenging one. It’s called my “2B” semester, and it’s known by all as the semester “2B or not 2B” because it’s kind of that make-it-or-break-it time.
A delicious creamy pumpkin quinoa casserole was made, topped with loads of fontina (new favourite cheese!) and broiled. I loved every bite of this 8×8 pan that I made!
Long lab reports were written… (this isn’t even all of it!). Glad it’s done.
Memes were made for my sister, Seline 🙂
I had plenty of great toast. This was a multigrain thick-sliced loaf baked in-store at Vincenzo’s, and it had great crunch and wonderful flavour from all the seeds. I topped half with smashed avocado, and the other half with almond butter and chopped prunes.
I’m really excited for next week, because I made a full food schedule. I’m looking forward to trying a dark chocolate breakfast quinoa recipe, and revisit some old favourites like broccoli casserole and sweet potato spinach stew. A shopping list was also made!
These peanut butter chocolate banana snacking squares are some of my favourite desserts of all time. All-time, I tell you!
These chocolate muffins were chock-full of ricotta and surprisingly egg-free! The ricotta lent a great, springy texture.
Mom eats so much fruit back home in BC. I miss having fruit bowls all the time, because it’s pretty unfeasible for a university student to eat say, 1/4 an apple with 1/2 a kiwi, 1/2 a banana, and 1/2 a pear. 😦
Canada Day happened! No, I didn’t go to see the fireworks… but I stayed at home and listened to got annoyed by them all night. Is that close enough?
Another serving of that amazing pumpkin quinoa casserole, with some brownie! I made a massive pan of spectacular brownies, using pureed prunes (soaked in boiling water). They turned out very rich and decadent… and I have two squares left before I’ve eaten an entire 8×8 pan. By myself.
Oats – I mean quinoa! – in a jar with banana slices.
As you can see, I have a lot of quinoa to use up before I move out in mid-August. This was another quinoa dish, this time mixed with sautéed mushrooms and yellow squash, mixed with a ricotta-plum tomato sauce, and topped with fontina. It tasted great! On the side, some garlicky green beans sautéed with tons of butter. Butter makes everything better 😉
Another day, I whipped up these glorious pancakes! Two eggs and half a sweet potato were whisked with a bit of flour, some baking powder, vanilla, and cinnamon. They always turn out super tender, and a perfect base for nut butter, yogurt, and granola. This was my favourite breakfast of the week.
Here is that quinoa-ricotta-plum tomato casserole again! I have one serving left, which I’ll be having for dinner tonight. The fontina is my favourite part 🙂
Some other things: I have to sell everything on my desk (actually, everything in my room for that matter). Also, my favourite calculator broke, and it was the saddest moment of my life. Friends and I are loving the summer semester, and we live in the same direction so we often walk home from classes together. Also, FaceTime-ing with Seline! She is the best.
Baked oatmeal (my favourite recipe) was made and enjoyed with blueberries, granola, and coconut chips. Almond butter on top of the baked oats. I have another serving of baked oats that I’ll be savouring tomorrow morning with some peanut butter!
Mom and Dad look so cute.
Another afternoon, I walked to Sobeys to grocery-shop and saw the nicest sunset over Columbia Lake.
Revisiting old photographs – I took this when I visited the Ripley’s Aquarium last year with my dad. It’s o-fish-ially the best non-food photo I’ve ever taken. <– I’m also good at stealing puns and reusing them multiple times.
One more thing that I found on the internet and completely agree with:
Hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful rest of the weekend!
Never confuse people who are always around you, with people who are always there for you.
Don’t call it a dream. Call it a plan.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Good things don’t come from comfort zones.
Confidence is not “they will like me.” It is “I will be fine if they don’t.”
You can’t make everybody happy.
You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
My phone lock screen was my school schedule, but it’s been ten weeks so I don’t think I should be using the schedule anymore. My memory isn’t that bad… I hope. This semester, my 2B semester, is pretty insane.
New wallpaper = Mom’s buttered toast.
A new ice cream truck opened in Uptown Waterloo (ice cream in uptown FINALLY!), so I had to stop by to try some! I had a scoop of Grammy’s Cupboard (vanilla with cookie dough, peanut butter cups, and brownie chunks – OMFG I know), and one scoop of chocolate caramel swirl with cashews. This tasted amazing, was a bit on the sweeter side, but I don’t think I would buy it again, considering the 2 half-scoops (= 1 full) was $5.00.
Here’s what it looks like! The person who served me was very gracious and kind.
Before the hearty ice cream, I had a glorious meal at Princess Cafe. The sandwich was my all-time favourite: grilled cheese with harvarti, goat cheese, walnuts, rosemary butter, and honey. The soup of the day was vegan tomato ale, which I was extremely skeptical about, but it tasted incredible. I am officially a fan of tomato soup! I enjoyed every drop of the soup and savoured every bite of the rich, crispy, cheesy, crusty sandwich.
For breakfast (don’t ask me why I am moving in reverse chronological order) – I enjoyed a bowl of plain oatmeal topped with a banana and tons of peanut butter. Yes, there is more underneath the massive scoop. Hemp hearts and cinnamon also made an appearance.
Then, the oats became granola, the bowl became a jar, and my nice messy desk at home became the bus stop bench on a sunny day. That sounded kind of poetic… or maybe I just have very low standards for poetry. This was so yummy – PB on anything!
Jars, because they save my lazy butt from washing dishes 😉
So colourful! The natural lighting at the window makes for some lovely photos of my lunch and snacks. I wish I could say that I made those falafel, but I didn’t – everything else is homemade!
This frittata was also homemade, and I can’t wait to make another one. Eggs, spinach, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, and garlic goat cheese came together to make a tasty breakfast that I enjoyed with a nectarine and some yogurt with granola.
I’m cleaning out my room and found these pictures that I drew two years ago! Drawing is so much fun. I used to love drawing so much, but now have no time to draw waste all my time doing other things.
Have an incredible week, friends!
