OWWWW...MY ARM HURTS!

Just got back home from having some blood drawn to check my thyroid and rubella vaccine from a year ago. Oi. I hate having my blood drawn. For some reason I am no longer immune to the pain of needles. I'm going to make myself some lunch right after this post, but onto yesterday's eats...

The day started late--again. I blame it on the sickness. I just can't seem to get a good night's sleep. Even if I do end up sleeping eight hours a night, I still wake up with my clavicles hurting and my body feeling like I haven't slept at all. So having slept an hour later than I wanted to, I started off the day with "brunch" instead of breakfast.
A really small shallow bowl with Garden Fresh Gourmet artchoke & garlic salsa with their unsalted tortilla chips. So good!

I had some leftover salsa once I was finished the chips so I added it into a bowl of fried rice that my dad had quickly made for lunch:No offence to my dad but this fried rice was really depressing (I think it was literally just rice with soy sauce), so I ate about 2/3 of it and left the rest. I'm trying to eat something flavourful and exciting to my tastebuds so that moments later I won't be reaching for something else to eat. I know that I'm the type of person who, if my tastebuds are not satisfied with a variety of flavours in one bite, will look for something else to eat until those cravings are satisfied. I think it's why I adore savory+sweet combos the most.

Since my throat was still hurting I didn't want to overdo it by making and eating anything that would further irritate my throat, so I opted for a warm mug of oatmeal. This time I decided to try out Nativa Organics instant apple cinnamon oatmeal.
For some reason I had no clue what to expect and was surprised to see little chunks of dried apple in my oatmeal. Along with some frozen peaches that I microwaved for a minute, I added some chia seeds and extra hot water and bam! perfect oatmeal combo. I'm not a huge fan of the apple cinnamon flavour so I'm glad I got a variety box which contains only two packets of each flavour.

Along with my cup of oatmeal I decided to have a mug of hot water, lemon and honey. My throat was really sore yesterday and I was hoping that the combo of lemon and honey would help to kill any bacteria and also soothe my throat a bit.

In between the oatmeal-eating, I began making this recipe for Tuscan barley and chickpea soup, but not having a bay leaf, marjoram or celery on hand, I have to make a few adjustments. I added carrots instead of celery and used organic chicken broth instead of veggie stock, thereby negating the vegan option. Oh well, I tried. About two hours later (because I didn't read the instructions properly), I had this bowl of tastebud-satisfying soup:Complete with chopped parsley and drizzled olive oil. It is thick and it would have been smooth and creamy had my Magic Bullet not been broken but the potato masher did the trick, sort of. I really need to get a blender or a new Magic Bullet. Nevertheless, the taste was there and the amount of barley in this soup (3/4 cups) was really satisfying. I'm a barley-whore...I can't get enough!

Dinner was about an hour later and while I probably would have waited at least another hour before noshing, I had plans that evening. Dinner ended up being a huge mish-mash of random things from the birthday dinner that I missed out on the night before:
Clockwise from top: lettuce wrap with duck meat and other stuff, piece of a "noodle basket," stir-fried gai-lan (dad thought we needed a veggie side dish), snowpeas, cellery, mushrooms, squid, baby boy choy, more mushrooms, fried egg noodles and a couple slices of Peking duck in a rice wrap. Despite knowing that it was too much food, I ate it all. I didn't really want it to go to waste and it had been some time since I had had Chinese take-out.

Later in the evening, Sean picked me up and we headed to Corey's house where we watched A Perfect Getaway, which was better than I had expected--except when did Milla Jovovich get so annoying?! Before arriving at Cory's we stopped off at Starbucks for a couple tall white chocolate mochas with whip and I had a banana once we got to Corey's.

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION

I'm trying to learn to eat properly again. Like right now...I'm craving all kinds of eats but just had breakfast about an hour ago and that breakfast was filling and I know I shouldn't be craving more food. So instead I'm going to busy my hands with a blog entry and hopefully that will do the trick.

Here are yesterday's eats...

It started off with dim sum at a local restaurant with a group of my high school friends. I took some pics of them but I don't think any of them know about this blog except for Sean (who was in attendance), so I'll just post pics of the food. I didn't eat all of this...it's a mish-mash of what the table ordered.

One of my fave things to eat...rice noodle roll with beef.
I used to order the shrimp version of this but since the introduction of my shellfish allergy in May, I'm now avoiding all shellfish, which is truly a shame because I ADORE scallops!! I miss those the most.

Steamed shrimp dumplings:

BBQ pork bun:Everyone at the table loves these so we actually got two orders. I'm not a fan of dough-y things so I passed.

Vanilla custard with tapioca:
A little early for dessert? Heck no! The secret at dim sum is to eat when it arrives because you never know when the cart will arrive again.

Pic of our table:
Clockwise-ish: Mini egg tarts, rice noodle roll, pork dumplings, custard with tapioca, some kind of smaller rice noodle roll with shrimp, meat dumpling with peanuts and green onion, more custard with tapioca and sticky rice with chicken in lotus leaf.

Out-of-focus flaky BBQ pork pastry:

After a whole lot of meat, we needed some veggies...baby bok choy with king oyster mushrooms and carrots:
Deep-fried tofu topped with shrimp:I didn't eat any of this because of my shellfish allergy. Seriously, why do dim sum places hide shrimps in everything??

Eggplant stuffed with fish paste and some kind of veggie (I think):I'm not sure what was in this because I didn't eat any of it. I have an aversion to eggplant because a) I'm not crazy about the texture and b) when I was younger, eggplant gave me the hives.

Mango pudding shaped like a fish:
This was tres-excellent. I'd consider it even better than the mango pudding at another dim sum place that Sean and I frequent because a) the pudding was softer and b) there were actual pieces of mango in the pudding.

There was also other food I didn't get photos of including curry cuttlefish and the special rice dish with sausage and dried pork. I also preferred the special rice at this place than the regular one I frequent.

The rest of the day's eats...almonds, dried cherries, brie, whole wheat Triscuits

Dinner was leftover pork chop and applesauce, Israeli couscous with mushrooms and dried cherries, baby carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper and stir-fried snowpeas (courtesy of dad). Clearly I would not cook with that much oil. :/
I tried to stay in tune with what I was eating and stop when I was full. After all was said and done, this is what I had left:
What can I say...sometimes the sides are more delicious than the main itself.

But then 9 o'clock reared its ugly head and despite having dinner not more than two hours ago, I wanted a snack while I watched Desperate Housewives with my mom, so I made myself a mug of Starbucks' peppermint hot chocolate topped with marshmallows along with a homemade raspberry oat bar and a Starbucks chocolate hazelnut biscotti.
Look at my little spoon...courtesy of Air Mauritius:
Oh and the Starbucks items were courtesy of one of my co-workers who gave me this for Christmas:You all know how much I love mugs and this mug is gigantic, which is great because you all know how much I love giant mugs of tea! And inside the mug were these:
Sigh...I'm going to miss my wonderful co-workers.

Money spent: $13 (sigh...that dim sum place is so expensive!)