Comfort Food Craziness
I’m so excited! Tomorrow I get to meet up with Smoothie Girl Deb! She is visiting the UK and making time to meet with me for lunch…how cool is that?!
Everyone has been buzzing about this pumpkin protein shake from a certain girl who knows her meals and moves 
I decided to try a version of it this morning, with added spinach. I only have one serving of pumpkin from my stash and it’s in the freezer, so I decided to use a tablespoon of pumpkin butter instead. Whoa. I was disappointed that I couldn’t taste the pumpkin, only the sugar!
So the mix was:
- 200 mL (<1 cup) unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
- 60g spinach
- 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
- 1T Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter
- 1 small frozen banana
- cinnamon
That wrapper in the background is a Starbucks biscotti wrapper. I had half yesterday with a friend at coffee (Hi Vicki!), and the other half this morning, K style!
For lunch I reheated some Family Fried Rice that I made last night. It’s total comfort food!
I tried something different with this batch and used brown rice for the first time. It’s not the same, but it gets the job done, and I don’t feel quite so guilty for eating it. I also used shrimp instead of bacon. The next step in healthifying the family recipe will be to eliminate the *cough* uh, ham.
Insert kick-ass workout! 15 minute elliptical warm-up, 30 minute speed run, and LOTS of resistance work!
Snacks:
Plus more grapes!
Dinner was more comfort food!
Is there anyone out there who can have mac and cheese and not have a glass of milk?! I don’t think so.
While watching The Biggest Loser, my husband thought it would be a brilliant idea to whip out some Girl Scout cookies from our stash. I could kill him.
Two cookies in a serving. I’ll have one serving. Somehow one serving turned into two. I could have eaten the whole box at that point. I quickly put them back in the freezer and started peeling carrots. As Jillian Michaels would say, no need to keep slashing tires after one goes flat, right?!
Matt snapped my photo munching on carrots and writing emails. I like the picture because I look studious 
Haha.
I had two big carrots and now I have an incredibly full stomach. Total comfort eating today! The upside is that I had my first good workout in weeks. I’m definitely going to be sore tomorrow! Yay! I like being sore because it tells me that I worked hard Is that sick?
Do you like being sore after a workout, or am I weird?!
Before I sign off, quick note to reader Sam: Please email me about New Moon! Can’t get my emails sent to you for some reason 
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I’m back again!
Just posted this for a girl heading to England and worried about missing pumpkin, and thought of you so copied it over. I agree that the Libby’s is convenient … but honestly, it’s just not that great tasting versus fresh. And since we don’t get canned over here, but love the stuff … we get to make our own! It is absolutely PERFECT in shakes as you tried making above, I use it often. Excellent pumpkin flavour.
Easiest in the UK is to buy butternuts – every single supermarket has them, they are cheap, keep well, and perfect to use in every recipe you currently use the canned. Cook the pumpkin (quickest and easiest – literally just cut in half, scoop out seeds, put cut side down on a dinner plate with a little water, and microwave until fork tender – this saves even having to peel when raw, with is a pain). Sure, roasted is even better – but in this case, I am going for max. convenience. Scoop out all the flesh – super easy now cooked – and blend it (I just use a stick blender, less than a tenner; or, regular blender is fine). I tend to spice it up (ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg esp. good of course) at that stage.
Make up a tonne at a time, keep in the fridge (tupperware, whatever) for days – and use just as you would your Libby’s, except the FLAVOUR is ten times better. Dead serious, much, much better.
Lara!! I’m lovin’ you in the glasses!! You are seriously rocking them, I simply look dorky – my boyfriend calls my black rimmed glasses my “librarian glasses”. *sigh* But seriously, you look fabulous!
You know how much I love your authentic fried rice!! It’s lookin’ more and more authentic and yummy by the day. Hehehe I think fried rice would be my comfort food! I love jazzing it up by adding shrimp or asparagus.
P.s. Your last post on the poorer woman’s kashi cereal? LOVE IT! Hahaha Although, sometimes Amazon has these amazing deals where you can buy a box of 10 kashi go lean cereals for only $10, including shipping!!!
I like being sore too. I think we’re all a little sick in the blog world
Good job with swapping carrots for more cookies. I’ve been bad with that lately. I start with carrots and end with chocolate. Not the right order…
Oh I just saw the comment above. Adam saw your post about the TJ’s “kashi” cereal and said he must get it. Thanks!
Love you in that pic too. Very studious but also hot
LOVE THE FEELING OF BEING SORE AFTER A WORKOUT! it just kinda confirms that i actually did something
have fun at your bloggie meet-up!
I was just directed here by the article on MSN, and I love your blog! Will be reading the archives with much interest.
I had an off topic question. Your photography is beautifully done, even the picture of the peanut butter on the banana is lovely with all its detail.
May I ask what brand of camera that is you use?
Karen: I tried to email you back but it got bounced back!
Thanks so much for your comment. I’m glad you found me
I have two camera, one compact and a DSLR. The compact is an old Casio and the DSLR (took the banana shot!) is a Nikon D60. I have much to learn about photography, but it is supposed to be a great camera if you know how to use it.
Lara, the D60 is an awesome camera, if you want a couple book suggestions let me know! I have a D90 and love it to bits!!
I love being sore after a workout too, I figure then it “worked”.. lol!! No pain no gain right?
I think i’m ‘odd’ ’cause I don’t really care for ‘boxed’ cookies at all, homemade can do me in, but boxed ones don’t do much for me. Go figure!?
whew am i ever behind on blogs! but love to be finally catching up
so jealous you met DEB! love her. i think that TJPB is super sugary.. agreed. more of a sugar kick than a pumpkin one, unfortunately. that doesn’t mean i won’t eat it though 
i LOVE LOVE LOVE me some DOMS 