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Say Yes to Butternut Oat Bran Breakfast

I bring my breakfast and lunch to work on most days. It is easy for me to do, and it definitely saves me money. But sometimes I don’t like eating my oatmeal at my desk, so I allow some extra time in the morning to enjoy my breakfast at home. Which is what I did today.

01 butternut protein oat bran

Roasted butternut protein powder oat bran.

Oat bran will always be my favorite breakfast grain; oatmeal is certainly delicious but you just can’t top the goodness that oat bran is. The ingredients / method for this bowl:

  • Cook 3/4 cup oat bran in 2.25 cups water (3 to 1 ratio) over very low heat with a dash of salt; let this simmer for a long time (20 minutes or so) to get it creamy, thick, and voluminous. (3/4 cup is the “heart healthy” serving.)
  • Add in 1 scoop of protein powder towards the end of cooking the oat bran.
  • Freeze oat bran for 10-20 minutes to make it even thicker.
  • Top with roasted butternut squash.

02 butternut protein oat bran I enjoyed this with a warm cup of NuNaturals-sweetened tea (don’t forget about the 15% off stevia coupon!).

Off to work now; what is your favorite fall breakfast?

P.S. I updated my list of people to vote for too 🙂 And don’t forget – today is the last day to enter the book giveaway – there are not that many people entered so you have a good chance of winning The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! Enter here.

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My Little Piece of Heaven: Pilates and Green Oat Bran

Exercise of the day: first 25 minutes of Crunch: Super SlimDown (with Ellen Barrett, of course). It was a combination of dynamic yoga and pilates. The last bit included one of my favorite pilates exercises: little piece of heaven. I also walked home from work (1.4 miles).

Little piece of heaven is a pilates/yoga move – you do a pushup on your knees, then hinge back to the hips; come forward again and lower down. Repeat. Your back stays in the same line the whole time. It feels oh-so-good and it works your triceps as well as stretches your lower back.

The other little piece of heaven in my day today was something I’m sure HEAB would approve of – protein powder green oat bran. (Green because my protein powder is green! Not because of veggies.)

I haven’t been eating oat bran regularly since last summer when I was eating bowls upon bowls of blended green oat bran (oat bran blended with spinach usually) and protein powder oat bran (I like this protein powder). Fortunately oat bran is not a harmful addiction so I may start up again.

Ingredients for Voluminous Green Protein Oat Bran

  • 2/3 cup oat bran
  • 2 cups water (extra water makes VOLUMINOUS oat bran)
  • 1ish tablespoons protein powder (mine is green)
  • salt (a few dashes)
  • honey post-cooking

Of course I put my oat bran in the freezer after I cook it so that it hardens up and gets chewy. Always have oat bran after it has cooled. I don’t like it hot and mushy.

Do you like oat bran? What’s your favorite way to eat it?

Apparently oat bran makes good baby food. My mom tells me that she used to cook me oat bran as a baby and blend raisins in it to sweeten it – probably why I love it so much now.

Happy weekend 🙂

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Long Walk in the Park

Today was an interesting day. I woke up early-ish (for a weekend) and I had the urge to finish painting my bathroom… so I took my vitamins, had some chocolate, made some tea, and got to work.

One and a half hours later I stepped down off of the kitchen stool and surveyed my work. It looks good. I assembled a bathroom shelf thing that has been waiting to be put up (waiting for me to finish the painting) and actually managed to screw it into the wall. It is not the fanciest of shelves, but it’s clean and simple and it does what I need it to do.

At this point I was pretty hungry, so I woke Bobby up and we ordered big salads from downstairs (Metro Cafe). Our salads always end up being complete opposites – but both are (I think) delicious (Bobby does not like my salads – too kitchen-sink-y). Metro is having a deal this month – unlimited topping salads for $6 if you order online.

After an hour or so of doing nothing, I got bored. I got out of the house and went for a walk. It was terribly cold today, but the walk was just what I needed. I walked across Central Park South, up to 72nd Street, then back across The Park. I mapped it and it was about 3.2 miles.

Today happened to be the Winter Jam at The Park, which meant that there was music, a snowboarding show, and some free samples. I picked up a bag of apple slices and a lollipop (both given to Bobby) and I bought 4 Fuji apples ($1.50/pound) for myself. The apples are gone.

We ordered Hawaiian for dinner and I supplemented with a big bowl of oat bran and oatmeal mixed together. I cooked it in almond milk and it was so creamy. Topped with maple syrup and more almond milk.

And I’ve been snacking on a bunch of fruit as well. And this kombucha tea (it was on sale for $2):

What are you working on? Any home renovations?

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Hey, hi :)

I’ve been enjoying a lot of this (simple protein oat bran – soy protein powder):

02 protein oat bran

Many new meals…

A lot of this (celery + peanut butter + various dried fruit):

07 ants on a log

And almost too much of this (fresh fruit):

36 cantaloupe

This was dinner the other night – organic, grass-fed beef from Trader Joe’s (85/15, not so lean); tomatoes; cabbage; asparagus; garlic stems (Asian grocery store, frozen); a ton of spices; sauces (teriyaki, soy)… I think that was it? If you want a recipe I’d be happy to try to come up with something. It tasted like chili.

01 beef chili

I had it with parmesan! Bobby had his over rice with some cheddar.

P.S. Justine gave me this lovely award – the Honest Award 🙂

honest_award

I’m supposed to list 10 things about myself and pass it on – the 10 things might happen in the next post, and I’m passing it on to all of my bloggies 🙂 If you haven’t been tagged yet, you’re it!

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Mom’s Matching Green Oat Bran

My mom’s flight finally got in last night around 12:30AM.  It was originally supposed to get in at 9:30PM!  Poor mom.  She went to bed as soon as we got back to our apartment… She’d been up for about 24 hours straight.

I made two batches of green oat bran this morning… Mine was: oat bran, peanut butter, salt & vanilla, and TONS of spinach.  Mom’s was: oat bran (smaller portion), small spoon of peanut butter, small bit of mashed banana, salt & vanilla, and a medium handful of spinach.  She also drizzled a little bit of honey on top.

18-double-green-oat-bran

Mine was much greener than mom’s.  She was so shocked that she really could not taste the spinach.  She tried mine (lots of  spinach) but still said it was really good, even though she could sort of taste it… She’s definitely going for more spinach tomorrow.

Before I made us our green breakfasts, I did 25 minutes of Dave Farmar’s Sun Salutations #2 (yogadownload).  It was… okay.  I like my own flows better.  My flows are a bit more challenging and fun.  I skipped the beginning (child’s pose) and the end (savasana).

Mom and I are off to the mall to get some free Fekkai products (I have some coupons for Sephora) and then I think we’re going to walk around Santana Row and do some shopping.  Anthropologie and Williams Sonoma are definitely on the list.  We might hit up Whole Foods and some of my favorite Asian markets later today too.  I have to make Mom try kabocha soon.  I’m pretty sure she’ll love it (how could you not?).

I think Mom is going to show me how to make seitan today.  She’s awesome like that.

I’m also soaking wheatberries to prep for an experiment.  And to clean out the pantry.  Can’t wait to see how it turns out…

Happy Wednesday!