When in Doubt, Dance About

fewf! I just spent the last 10 minutes dancing wildly around my room and am now wildly out of breath.

Well Great Hannah, you are now ready for dancing with the stars.

Not by half, but hear me out. When you are stressed, there is nothing like expending super amounts of energy to loud music to help you calm down and centre yourself. Today’s picks were:

Magic Carpet Ride for a nice warm up followed by the all out energy burst of Outkast.

Sure, we all get stressed from time to time and this is one of my favourite ways to cope. Not all my coping skills are and have been healthy, bus this one is one of the best. Others include:

-Knitting
-Meditating
-Drawing
-Blogging
-Singing
-Going for a walk/run
-Journaling
-also: 

Why am I stressed this time? Since the beginning of the year, or really, since second term last year, I’ve been in the process of applying for an ETA (English Teaching Assistantship) Fulbright Felloship.

In all its glory

The Fulbright is a US Government funded felloowship that gives post grads the chance to either teach or do research in another country for a year as emissaries of the US.  I’m applying to Taiwan, the country where my sister and brother were born and where my great grandparents lived and taught English themselves.

Taiwan, Formosa.

Taiwan, in case you’re one of those oddly confused people (which I sincerely hope you are not) is not Thailand. It is also not China. It is its own country off the coast of China.

I am lucky because my college has one of the highest acceptance rates in the country for Fulbright Fellowships. Lucky as I am, however, this also means that the process of applying is very daunting. You must first register your interest, then submit a questionnaire to the FPA (Fulbright Programs Ambassador, DA, as I like to call him). If you are approved to continue, you will be admitted into the program and given a whole new set of links protected by password. You will then register with a 23 page document, which will lead you on to another 23 page document (where I am now) which has two 10 page documents (where I also am) which work within and feed into it.

If this sounds confusing or daunting, just don’t forget that this all comes with mountains of pages to read and strict deadlines to which to adhere. Next up will be drafting and writing two essays and meeting to secure affiliates and cultural enrichment programs. Did I mention I was also applying for a Language Enhancement Grant (LEG HA) to improve my Chinese?

I may or may not look a little like this right now:

fuming.

Literal pressure. Not to mention that I’ve applied for a job as the Unit Director at a summer camp back home. There are two problems with this:

1. The job begins 17 June. I fly home 17 June. They’ve said I could be there in the morning 18 June. Which gives me about 10 hours with my family (minus sleep) before I jet off again for another month.

2. I’ve got to have two Fulbright essay drafts in by 15 July, which is, as luck would have it, smack dab in the middle of the camp season.

So I have no idea whether I’ll take the job or not. Great money, awesome summer outside with kids? Of course. But also time is of the essence here and there is no computer access there.  So either I work myself with nose to the grindstone for the next two weeks before I go to Morocco, or I say, no thanks, to the job.

Why is life so hard?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With that off my chest, we can move along to something a bit more aesthetic.

Unidentified Flying Egg Discs!

Only….I just told you what they were, so no surprises there.

UFEDS!

I probably slathered these with yogurt, cinnamon and nut butter, if I know myself well enough to discern that….

You know what I love about the Holland and Barrett Penny sale?

swirly

Having to buy multi vitamins and realising that sunflower seeds in a 500g bag are only 1p. Winning.

Once more, with feeling

baby, come closerrrrr

You know what’s even better?

roasty toasty

When the fixer people FINALLY come to fix your hob/oven after it has been broken for a week and you can roast your sunflower seeds.

and add melted chocolate to it.

I’m drooling.

Okay, that is seriously enough nut butter pictures.

I’ll disappoint you now and tell you that those have been gone for a week and replaced by plain peanut butter.

Somehow, it just looks better messy.

I told myself that I’d be okay buying the sunflower seeds because they would last me until I went home.
False.

I told myself, ‘Okay, so you’ll probably only need one 200g bag of peanuts to last you until you go home’

False.

Guess I actually eat more nut butters than I thought I did? Good for me, TAKE THAT ED!

We are the best of friends, obviously.

All the smiles.

Bloggers have gotten flack for having posted pictures of themselves with nut butter before, but I’ll just say that nut butter has saved my life and helped my recovery, so I can and will post pictures like this because they DO express the relationship we have. My mom always says, ‘thank god for nut butter!’ and you know, she is right!

What we have is real okay? (in a lighthearted voice, mind you)

Here is a nice ending note, in case you DO believe that posting pictures of oneself with jars of drippy nut fat is not a-okay.

Brixton at dusk.

I’m really glad to have time for blogging. It makes me smile. YOU make me smile.

Hannah x

What I Did Before Wednesday

I wish I could begin this post by telling you that I had slept in again, even that I was upset about sleeping in, or had missed my alarm. But the truth is that I don’t use an alarm, and I woke up wayyyyy before the normal time (read: 3:30 am). One of you has to be in sleep research- what is wrong with me?

I had a snack before bed, I woke at 3:30 hungry, had a snack, fidgeted, did some jumping jacks, read, and went back to bed. Woke up normal time, hungry again! Nutritionists in training, what is the meaning of this? 

On a lighter note, ’bout time I came back to WIAW. I’ve missed it.

You know the drill. Certain things don’t need to be said.

I began my week with a trip to this famed site:

Where are all the people trying to run through it?

I cannot believe I haven’t been yet, but I guess I felt kind of stupid geeking out 5 minutes from my own flat. But as my sister, G, is the fan-est of fans, I simply had to get a shot. I felt totally a-okay about it after some 20-something guy snaped a shot before me. Also note the completely random location of the cart? Given, it IS between platforms 9 and 10, but still, it sits in the middle of a wall….

This morning, after I’d re-gone to sleep after my extreme energy episode, I tubed it to Piccadilly Circus for the opening of the new Whole Foods Market!

Piccadilly circa 7:30am

I was going to walk here from my flat, but I decided against it because I wasn’t sure exactly where this place was, so I didn’t want to get lost while looking for the goodie bags  store.

Quite British indeed.

and I saw it!

AHA- I Spy!

Not like there were big signs or anything.

Since they had said that the first 100 people there would get a goodie bag and I was like, ‘Guys. I’m already there. Seriously.’ I mean, I was pretty close to the front of the queue.

I hid behind a rather swarthy old man….who isn’t in the picture?

True to their word, they broke massive bread-snakes. Okay, they weren’t actually shaped like snakes, but that would have been cool. Although somewhat, un-whole foods like.

It was a massive explosion of bread tearing.

The older man in the gray shirt is the store team leader and he was the most adorable thing ever shouting, ‘I got the biggest piece, hahaha!’

They finally let us in. Shame it was only about 8:30am, because when I saw the spread, I was ready for lunch!

tuck me in.

Stacks of dessert? It was even farther from dessert time.

Towers of sweet biscuits.

The lighting was exceptionally bad, as it tends to be inside. My poor little point and shoot couldn’t handle it. Undeterred, I found the squash but….

Still no Kabocha.

I decided I didn’t need anything, after sampling some natural yogurt and granola with one (!) raspberry on top, a slice of pineapple, a strawberry, a slice of rather pungent cheddar, and a corn chip with what I think might have been mango guac? It had bite!

I walked aimlessly back in the direction of my flat. I stopped into Planet Organic at what I’m convinced was the very moment they opened. Sheepishly, I snagged a sample of an unnamable smoothie from the counter and turned back around to leave before they could tell me it was too early.

There is a park I like to transverse while on this particular route home, and today was no different. Well, it was different in that it was sunny, which prompted me to stop and soak in some rays and read awhile!

amongst the graves. Fitting for what I was reading….

I settled down to finish my book, ‘The Woman in Black’ by Susan Hill, not even thinking about the connection between the story line and my place next to tombs and gravestones.

perched on the hard wooden bench. ouch.

It wasn’t long before a lovely bird came and perched on the rubbish bin behind me, chirping in the sunlight. I reached into my bag and tore off a small bit of the Whole Foods bread they had given me, tossing it to his hungry beak. He came and sat a few times on the bench but would not hop onto my hand as I wished

Robin Red Breast.

After my walk home and read in the park, I was quite hungry, even after all my samples, so I set a big pot of chia oats onto the stove and walked away (Don’t do this at home kids!) to take pictures of my bag’0′swag.

Plus a rose from my admirer.

It was awkward getting that rose home, because the stem was just longer than the depth of the bag, but it was worth it. Have you ever seen such a beauty? The gifter was none other than random Whole Foods lady, unfortunately, not my long sought boyfriend. He’s got some serious shoes to fill though, this rose is the nicest I’ve seen.

Bread, probiotics, more probiotics, juice box, whey veg suppement, chai tea mix, shampoo x2, more shampoo, magnesium spray, salty flavour packs, arnica pouch, bounce bar, clif bar, omegas, coconut oil

I was pretty excited about the coconut oil because I’ve heard SO many bloggers rave about it. I broke it right open and stuck in a finger. Um, heaven?

velvety healthy fats.

I spent the next couple minutes scouring amazon for the cheapest organic coconut oil/butter only to be told by my mother that we had a 4lb bag of organic unsweetened coconut at home. SCORE! Oh to be reunited with my food processor…..

I’m pretty excited about the bars as well. I’ve never tried those bounce balls, but the coconut one was a good choice.

bouncing with energy

Also, I’m pretty sure clif bars in the US are larger than the one that I was given. Or perhaps they’ve made them smaller since I’ve been away?

As soon as I broke out of my coconut induced stupor, I remembered that I had oats on the stove (no, they didn’t burn, thanks) so I went to deposit them into their waiting jar which was not, as it might seem, tahini. It was banana-sunflower seed butter (banana+sunflower seed butter, whizzed up)

with a plum on top!

Chia seeds and OIAJ may seem like old hat in the blog world, but I’m still a fan of both.

But the best part to me will always be the crispy bits at the bottom of the pot.

perfection.

I mixed in some maca, cinnamon, and yogurt and ate these first. MMMM good.

I think it was eros who made my day so fully of love.

love at Piccadilly

Hannah Xx

WIAW: Celebrity Edition

Hi all,

I had a really great weekend with my friend, L.

We ate good food, shared laughs, saw some pretty great sights and even celebrities!
Yes, it is that time again!! Link up here at Peas and Crayons. Every week I think I’m too tired to take part, I just can’t help it!

I can’t share all of the 200+ pictures I took, I haven’t even uploaded them all yet! I’ll just share a few gems and leave you to wait until later in the week when I’m not so knackered and stressed.

British Museum....great contrast

We got up early on saturday and booked it to the British museum. I polished off some oatmeal, and promised to drag L to Whole Foods for lunch. (Read: I told her we were going, she probably didn’t care haha)

We missed our Mommies so we went to see the Mummies

The British Museum is so huge- and located within a 3 minute walk from my school!

Hello!

We timed everything perfectly and hopped onto the tube to High Street Kensington to get there at the start of their Thanksgiving Tasting Fair. Being Americans abroad, we had to go to this. Or maybe I just wanted to, being a foodie and a Thanksgiving baby. Yes, it is a shame that you can’t take pictures in Whole Foods. I had my usual ginormous salad. I won’t tell you how much it, it will only embarrass me. After I’d stuffed myself finished, we proceeded to the tasting! (not my photos, we couldn’t take them, remember)

We began with Pumpkin Pie.

pie of pumpkin

I’ll be honest. I’m a Thanksgiving baby, born on Thanksgiving. Every single thanksgiving I try pumpkin pie and every single thanksgiving I just don’t like it. This time was no different. I’ll take pumpkin breakfast bakes over this pie any day.

like this except it was a pancake, not a dutch baby

and not THAT big The guy was serving pancake wedges with real maple syrup and blueberries. L is from Maine so we split a wedge. So good. Something about pancake soaked in syrup was just….heavenly….

L tried some wine, I’m not big on wine, so I waited around. The wine guy was talking about how he didn’t like New York City and when he asked me where I’m from I said “Upstate New York” and he immediately replied “oh, well I love New York City” jokingly. I love being reminded how huge the US is. No one knows NYC isn’t the whole state!

Lastly we tried some really delicious cheese from Scotland and the Channel Islands. The cows, it was explained, have a higher fat content in their milk, which produced a Brie that wasn’t bitter! I loved it.

Like this only real

We did a bit of shopping, I bought a dark chocolate almond bar, and we went back upstairs again. Only to be confronted with Thanksgiving in a bowl. One of those little soup cups filled with Thanksgiving dinner. How could we say no? Stuffed, we walked out of WF nibbling on the bowl of warm family memories. L gave me her Brussels Sprouts and I gave her my turkey. I’ll say, yum about that stuffing!!

I’d like to mention at this point just how proud I am about having done this. I’d already eaten, but I wanted these things, and we were doing a lot of walking, so why not? Sampling is fun and being with my friend was fun. We enjoyed these foods together, which is one of my goals. Pancakes, stuffing, and cheese can all be enjoyed in small doses.

Stay tuned for the time we actually get to ride this!

We got a bit turned around leaving WF and ended up on a meander.

is this thing working?

Hey, I never said I had any sense of direction

There's fall!

and take a look at this picture photoshopped into vibrance!

Holy leaves! Burning Bush?

We made our way to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. As soon as we entered the gates I spied Chestnuts! I quickly stuffed as many as I could into my bag.

That's a loaf pan

I’d later learn that they are horse chestnuts and are not good on the stomach. Let’s just say I was sad.

We walked on, eventually ending up at Buckingham Palace.

That's normal.

I dragged her through Waitrose 2x in one day until they got these suckers in. Then I grabbed the two biggest ones and checked out! Thanks Nicky for telling me they were in the shops!

Next day! (yes, I’m skipping a whole bunch)

ironically gorgeous

We Tower of London’d it up although we didn’t go inside. At the steep price of £18, we poor students got a good enough view from the outside.

Crossing!

Crossed the Tower Bridge (which is NOT London Bridge!) and walked along the Themes on the other side.

Suddenly, I heard screaming. I thought it was kids and, being interested in Education, thought I’d go check it out if it was a school. It wasn’t a school it was a crowd of 14-year-olds!

It turns out that Justin Bieber was supposed to exit the building (which was a TV studio, not a school) and crowds had gathered. L and I wedged out way to the front, figuring, why the heck not?

We waited for a long time.

The man himself!

Finally, some guy came out and said “If you’re over 14 and have a photo ID, please follow me” again, “why not?” so off we went.

Low and behold, we and about 50 other 14-year-olds (yes, I am nearly 21) got to be in a live JB music video he taped for one of his new Christmas songs! We stood on the floor below the stage and were told when to scream and when to put our hands up.

I’m not the biggest JB fan but I’ll admit, when he came out and was like….right there….I screamed and jumped up and down just like I was 14. Afterwards, L and I couldn’t even believe it had been real. We just kind of ran into the opportunity.

Justin was so adorable! He was shy and did some funky moves with the microphone. He sang with Tinie Tempah, who I had no idea of before this. They sang “The Little Drummer Boy” and Justin even got the words a bit wrong. But he aced his rap!!

and his voice was really that high! Really a sweetie though.

Post-celeb-high-face.

Way to exit my 20th year with a bang, huh?

We went to sit on the steps in Trafalgar Square but I was legit attacked by a pigeon (it hovered in front of my face and flew at me) so we left in a huff and high taled it to the park.

Much more peaceful

We’d gotten sandwhiches at Boots- I got the Bugsy which is hummus, carrots and greens on wholemeal bread. I was quite proud of myself for eating a sandwich, a whole sandwich (and nothing but a sandwich, just kidding) in front of my friend, and enjoying it. Gosh, it was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!

Proof in the pudding

Because I always like to see pictures of bloggers themselves eating. If we blog about it, we’d better truly eat it. That’s my philosophy.

We traipsed around a bit more. But I shall leave that for another post.

After she’d left at 6am, I hopped to the shops. Checking the Reduced stacks, as usual, I discovered a 1kg box of Wheat Bran Flakes. SCORE! I’ve been looking for cereal that isn’t expensive and this one was only £0.60!!! Major steal!! It’ll last me awhile, I might grind it into flour for pancakes (since I’m totally craving those now) or use it on top of Fromage Frais like I did this morning.

A slightly blurry breakfast for ya

Happy WIAW everyone. My Birthday and Thanksgiving are in one week. I’m starting to think about what I’m thankful for. This weekend has made me so thankful for my recovery process- but that, too, is for another post.

Love, Hannah

ps: I made cashew-sunflower seed-pumpkin seed-flax seed butter tonight but I don’t know how I like it. I’m going to add chocolate tomorrow and see where we stand.

PB and Jam Packed

Toasted Chocolate Peanut Butter

Go make this now. What? You don’t know how? It is really the most simple thing you could do.

1. Roast/Toast peanuts

Look at her go

2. Whizz up to make peanut butter

It will turn a lovely colour, I promise. Thank the roast/toasting.

3. Melt some chocolate (I prefer dark!)

Oh the sheen!

4. Add and whizz up to make Toasted Chocolate Peanut Butter!! (TCPB)

Can you say yum?

I made this for the Nut Lady at one of the local markets. I’d just bought some peanuts at Sainsburys because I seem to have every single nut butter here but peanut butter? So I got 90g package (the only one I could find unsalted) and that was £0.65. So I went up to the lady to compare pricing, since I’d much rather support someone who sells in a market than a large corporation, no matter if they are fair trade.

Smooth and Chocolatey

I asked her how much hers would compare price wise. We got to talking. I told her how I’m part of the Food Coop here, and the Community Garden, and how I understand buying in bulk keeps prices down.

I like to make my own Labels.

In the end, she offered to sell me 100g for cheaper!! We were talking about making your own nut butter, and I told her how I was really into it and how to do it. I mentioned mix-ins (such as chocolate) and she seemed really interested. I raced home and promptly made her some.

And a top as well

She looked so touched when I left it for her yesterday at her stall. I can’t wait to hear what she thinks!! The only bad thing? I didn’t leave any for myself! Needless to say, I bought up those promised 100g of peanuts and I shall be roasting and toasting them up soon. As soon as I replenish my chocolate supply, that is. I’ve got some other ideas for nut butter as well, Chai? Malt? I’m so excited.

And what goes best with nut butter? Well, we all know nothing goes best but it goes well.

Jam!

Plum Jam, that is. I bought these plums the day I wandered into Portobello market. It had been awhile since I finished off my Strawberry Plum Jam and fruit hasn’t been on sale in the shops for ages. 5/£1? Can’t be beat.

On second thought, they're rather more yellow than purple, aren't they?

Put sliced plums in a pot.

Oh look what I found!

One of my flat mates left for reading week and left us her yogurt. By which I mean she left it to me. By which I mean I claim it. Free yogurt? Onken? Yesplease.

L-R--> Pecan Butter (in mustard jar), Sunflower Seed, Fluff (impulse buy), Speculoos, Spiced Almond Butter, (missing): Raw Almond

Bad exposure, yes, I'm sorry.

Boil it down. Into the most deliciously, naturally sweet jam ever. No sugar needed!

I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee but as I got to Kings Cross, she sent me a text saying she couldn’t make it.

What do you do dear? (Anyone else know those books?)

Walk to Camden Market, since you’re already on your way!

Hope it doesn't rain....

Camden turned out to be really overwhelming.

Market street number one?

I honestly wish I’d taken someone. Topic for another post, but I really don’t know that many people.

Gray days don't keep people away, do they?

I tend to get overwhelmed when there are too many people and too much to look at. This situation was no different.

On the Bridge

I just walked/wandered around, didn’t buy anything, but just took it all in.

Camden Lock!! This is for you Dad

I found tons of great little shops and eateries. Like this one!

How cute is that?

I’ll be back with a friend for sure.

Camden has got an historical side as well.

Hello, Miss

And this was quite interesting to picture as I walked around the modern-historical mix of it all.

I loved these...whatever they were.

Tons and tons of chinese and Indian food stalls like this where you could mix and match things.

Picture this x10. I think I'll stick to the veggie cafe, thanks.

I wish it had been the 1930s or 40s or something. I’d have been there with my three parasoled friends or perhaps a charming beau?

Modern mixed with historical

Finally I had to leave because it was getting dark. Not sure whether it was the weather or the time, but I walked back to home.

I walked past a little church graveyard park that Mom, Dad and I had passed on our first day in London. See the changes in seasons?

Remember this? November

vs

September

I’ll definitely be going back to Camden, but I’ll have to find a companion first, so I don’t get so overwhelmed!

Hope you’re all well!! It is reading week here, so I haven’t got class. I’m doing up all the essays I can so I can feel not so stressed in the coming weeks (which include my birthday!) My friend who is studying abroad in Paris is visiting me this weekend as well, which is an incentive to finish all the work I can so we can just live it up in London!

Love, Hannah

WIAW-Scenes from the Weekend

Happy WIAW friends!!

This WIAW will feature what I did this weekend (WIDTW?) and then some recent eats, because don’t lie, that’s what you all want to see.

Caught ya.

Let’s proceed after I pay a little dues to Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for putting on this hootenanny.

Of relation to Marshalls and TJMaxx in the states???

Smart shoes?

How American. But it gets better.

I bought some. Yes, I did. The thought of fluff and nut butter (and the £1.99 price tag) overcame my self control.

Thank goodness I saw these after I checked out.

Just fooling around

I found the first fall leaves!And this literally right after I'd finished lunch. What??

Wound up here somehow....found George Orwell's house

I think he knew I was taking his picture

Oxford St does Christmas on Halloween

Twas a glorious day indeed.

And now for the food. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the pics of what I bought since they’re still on my camera. But it wasn’t that exciting.

Come to mama. Haggled down 20p

Oh. And were you wondering what these were?

I betcha were

Celeriac chips! (fries, for you Americanos)

Plated with sunflower seed butter, almond butter and a schlop of plain yogurt

Roasted lovingly in the oven. Perfection. And guess what else? They come presliced from the shops. Because we all know celeriac and swede (another one that comes presliced) are impossible to slice unless you’re superhuman or have mastered the machete.

Look at that crispiness

The glory that is Whole Foods.

Multiple grain salads, some sweet potato thing, I'm not even going to try to name everything from all 3 salad bars.

While I used to think “salad bars” were all about getting as much lettuce into my mouth as possible, I now relish the idea that the WF salad bar here has 3 different bays full of things that are not salad. In fact, I get so excited that I try everything and only manage to squeeze lettuce on top. Hence why you see mostly veg in the above picture. The checkout guy looked only marginally awkawrd when trying to wrestle the top on with a rubber band. Yes, that’s the large size container.

Blackeyed peas with mushrooms and ratatouille. No, sadly this wasn't from scratch, I used tinned mushies and veg.

Saturday a flatmate and I ventured out to go to a veg buffet we’d both seen and wanted to visit. I was super pleased that it wasn’t greasy and tasting of MSG. The buffet was quite large as well. Sorry there is no picture (I’d have creeped everyone out!) but I managed to snap one of the first plate (of two) while my dining companion was off getting water.

Picture this x2

Delicious.  Love me some buffet action, obviously?

That was my weekend. I enjoyed it and even spent some money. I’m hopefully going to be baking this week, and I’ve got a hummus recipe (made from chickpea flour!) to share with you, as well as telling you about how I made nut butters (so mundane, I know)

Coming right up! Happy WIAW to you all,

Love, Hannah

WIAW- cumulative, post picture fail style

‘ello ello!

Greatings from the city of London, from which I write this long awaited WIAW post. It’s more like what-I-ate-tuesday-and-all-the-day-leading-up-to-it-since-last-time-I-posted -because-I-couldn’t-get-my-pictures-to-work, but roll with me here.

Oh! and link up with Jenn from Peas and Crayons. It’s a serious thang she’s got going on here!

I’ve had this in my fridge forever! I’ve always said I couldn’t be vegan because I couldn’t give up yogurt.

heaven in a tub

But this my friends, gets eaten by the tub.

Get in mah belly. All of you.

If you eat the entire thing, it’s like a bowl of oatmeal, with 20g of protein!

with a bit of Lizi's action.

I’ve gone to the farmer’s market held right behind SOAS on thursdays! It was so great to see all the fresh fruit and veg, as opposed to the ones all cooped up in the store.

I wanted to take him home.

This cabbage is just so lovely. Can’t you just tell they’re grown with love?

beautiful foods

There weren’t as many samples as I’d have liked, but I did try an odd piece of apple and some stinky goat cheese. Not sure how I feel about goat cheese even though I sample it often enough.

Onion squash? Red Kuri? not sure

Resisted the urge to buy all one of these. I have like…three sitting on my windowsill in a line

So many queues!

I’ve been enjoying the big bag of organic porridge oats my mom bought me at WF before my parents left for the US.

Organic oats with chocolate pud

I’m usually a plain oats person (so kill me) but I thought I’d try one of my soya puddings in this. It’s pretty good, I have to give it credit.

Wouldn't you pass this by?

I’ve signed up to take behavioral surveys at London Business School for £10 per session. I walked up to Regent’s park and nearly passed this building by. Doesn’t it just blend in? See the tiny sign?

Rudolf Steiner House!

Saw this instead. Rudolf Steiner House! If you’re not familliar with Waldorf Education click here –> HERE. I was raised on this.

Closed

Unfortunately it was closed.

so sad but so beautiful with soft edges

On the way back from my lab testings, I stopped at the market to buy some things. Waitrose had one of those squashes and I couldn’t resist. I also got a 2/3 deal at Planet Organic where I bought 2 yogi teas (my fav!) and got a free mug!

score!

and I also stopped in a random health food corner shop and booked it right to the nut butter section- of course.

New to me!

I found this Sunflower Seed Butter. Not sure where it’s from, the label is in Spanish (?) and Dutch perhaps. Tastes perfect though.

All roasted up.

I roasted my Crown Prince Squash. I’m not sure whether it was my oven or what, but it didn’t come out with the consistancy like Kabocha. Has anyone else tried this kind? What have you found it to taste like? It was not as dense as a kabocha. I love how we all compare it all to kabocha hah.

wonderful leek, potato and carrot soup

One of my flatmates and I are involved in our community garden. We got to take some leeks and potatoes home and so we decided to make a huge pot of soup!

fresh and hot

She pureed hers but I like mine with bits of veg in it. How do you like your soup?

Kidney bean and sunflower seed dip?

This was my sad attempt at hummus with a £0.16 can of kidney beans from Sainsbury’s and the sunflower seed butter + immursion blender. It tasted alright, but not like hummus.

Holy color!

I made myself some jam by boiling down a container of strawberries and some plums. This is better than any tinned jam I’ve come across!

mmm

It’s taken its place on toast with my beany spread

again!

and on toast again with laughing cow cheese. Can you just check out that color?!

I’ve also been enjoying oats with chia seeds. This didn’t come out quite right, somehow too watery? It was chai chia oats.

somewhat disfunctional

I’ll leave you with this picture. You are free to judge me at how many spoons it took to make this breakfast.

spoons ahoy!

That’s all for now folks! I’m off to my Taoism class and then to take another survey and then to the community garden!!

Happy WIAW,

Love Hannah

 

What I made (and ate) Wednesday

Good Day my fellow bloggers!!

It is now time for Jenn’s link party of What I Ate Wednesday….affectionately known by us bloggers as WIAW! If you’re not familiar with this awesome concept, pop on over to Jenn’s blog and check it out. It’s amazing how it has grown since she introduced the idea not too long ago!

Let’s just start off by saying that this is perhaps not what I ate on wednesday, nor is it what I ate on tuesday. It is some of what I ate on tuesday and some of what I ate over the weekend….so basically some things I ate. As a food blogger, that’s how we roll, I suppose.

“Here is something I ate lately….it was good/bad/awesome/earth shattering/meh”

Oh hi, all! This is an odd angle

So without farther ado:

I made some multi-layer dip. I know this is called 7-layer dip or whatever, but I don’t think it was 7 layers and some of them repeated so….I’ll just say it was multi-layered.

First layer: vegetarian refried beans

these were easy to spread. The spreading went all downhill from here, though.

Second layer: guac and then tomatoes+chilis

third/fourth layer: cottage cheese

Note: this is where most people put sour cream. I detest really dislike sour cream, so I decided to use cottage cheese instead. Verdict? Really good, tastes so much better and adds wonderful texture!

So you basically keep going from there. Spreading/lumping where can without destroying the layers.

Tada!

It sure isn’t pretty, but it tastes good!!

mmmmmmm

I know, I know. The plastic tupper ware isn’t doing me any favors. Someday I’ll get a lightbox and a good camera and some fine china.

Some dinner? LOADS of broccoli, salad with oregano vinegrette, cheese, sloppy joes veganized and some of my multi-layer dip!

Does anyone else simply love broccoli? I can’t get enough of it. There aren’t many ways I won’t try it either: raw, steamed, roasted, sauteed, with sauce, with hummus, with cinnamon, with yogurt, with nut butter (yes, I’m serious about those last three!)

This is going to be cake

My Mimaw’s birthday was on sunday and we arranged to bake her a cake….for me to bake her a cake and for us to get together to celebrate on Saturday (Which Rebecca Black says is before Sunday, in case you need a place-marker, smite me now) I called her beforehand and our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi Mimaw!! I heard that someone very special is having a birthday this weekend. Would you do me a favour and ask that someone what kind of cake they would like if they were to have one cooked for them?
Mimaw: Well….I can’t say I could choose! I’d like any and all cakes that were paraded in front of me!
Me: *well that doesn’t make things easy…* Well if you could choose one…had to choose one?
Mimaw: Applesauce cake is good.
Me: Thanks! See you this weekend!

and off I went to make the cake. Now, Mom said to me that I could only make it if I was going to eat it. I waffled back and forth about whether I was going to allow myself to do this, seeing as I haven’t had cake in I can’t tell you how long and the prospect of it is a huge deal, for whatever reason. I found what was a regular Applesauce cake on Myrecipes.com and set about making it. The recipe called for all the normal things; butter, sugar, etc. I actually ended up putting in 1/2 cup butter instead of 1/3 cup, and it came out fine.

This happened

Naturally.

Taste testing: important step in baking

Even as I planned not to eat it.

beautifully arranged on our old plastic cake plate

I used fruit jam in the center instead of frosting because I didn’t really have enough Penuche frosting to cover both the insides and the outsides. And I wanted to use it up.

Frosted in a sandy shade of penuche

Ever since I was a child, spice cake with penuche frosting has been my favourite kind of cake. Every single birthday I would have this cake (as I remember). For the past couple birthdays, with my ED, I haven’t been able to bring myself to have it. I’ve thought of it, oh yes, but I wouldn’t even think of making it because I wouldn’t eat it. Applesauce cake with penuche frosting isn’t the spice cake I remember, but it is a close second.

We sliced the cake at Mimaw’s and I served myself a piece. I wasn’t actually hungry and took a couple bites before letting it sit and wrapped it up to take home.

After dinner that night, I took it out and ate it spur of the moment. With greek yogurt and nut butter, because everything goes with those.

I wanted it, I deserved it, I ate it. Simple as pie cake.

So how many of you didn’t have power the last couple days because of hurricane Irene? Me!  Without being able really to open the fridge and not being able to use the microwave or toaster, I ate much of this delicious meal.

Gimme the oat bran

Easy to whip up on the stove. Quickly becoming one of my favourite breakfasts. Simply filling, isn’t it?

I finally got into the breakfast-for-dinner jive!! I wasn’t feeling anything else last night for dinner, and I didn’t want to wait for the rest of the fam to get home from Tai Kwon Do, so I whipped this up.

Parfait: Bulgarian yogurt, wheat puffs, walnuts, pluot, raisins, craisins, GoLean, something else....?

Bulgarian yogurt. Actually just like normal American yogurt.

Oh well. Yogurt is yogurt and it is what I love.

I need to do this more often.

This morning I cracked open (literally, with a clever) one of my three-yes three- Kabocha squashes. Any of you who are also obsessed with these will understand how I feel (Amanda, Nicky, I’m looking at you!)

My favorite morning

I usually bake them. While they’re baking, I whizz up soy/almond/hemp/coconut milk and greek yogurt in the blender for a dip sauce. Today it was coconut milk and greek with a drop of maple syrup.

Yes. You saw right. It is 1/2 eaten.

If you know me, you know I love my cinnamon and nut butters. Those go along side. Currently loving: cashew, peanut, almond and sunflower seed. I’m all out of soy nut

Mom asked me to make banana bread tonight with some old bananas we’d had in the freezer.

Eggy face!

and I baked.

Beneath the facade...

I don’t know what happened, but somehow the liquid never cooked in. I did end up with a lovely banana bread pudding though!

chocolate chip walnut banana bread pudding anyone?

I’ll leave you with this photo of our Irene prepared state. We got our power back 30 minutes after we arrived home from filling this water. Go figure.

Prepared or overprepared?

Happy Wednesday my lovelies! I can’t wait to see what you ate; twill be great

 

Does anyone else use things up and end up making odd combinations of things?
um yes. We are currently in eat-everything-in-the-house-before-buying-more mode. I’m doing quite well!

Favourite way to eat broccoli?
I love whole heads steamed with sauce.

How did you prepare for the hurricane and how did it fit you?
We stock up on candles and water. I love it when the power goes out because I get to be totally unplugged. I don’t like not being able to shower or open the fridge or flush the toilet, however.

 

 

Flimminin Flum

So. Opperation: Cinnamon Bun was a huge F.A.I.L.

so I’ll be honest with you.

Basically, I ended up coming home and making a huge nummy mess for myself which ended up tasting better, IMO. Well, who knows since I didn’t get it butttt

Mr. Purple

I was going to make myself waffles out of this amazingly colorful item but I added too many and had to scrap the batter. <– this went against my “don’t waste things” rule and I freaked out a little. Nothing that would phase me though, I’m made of steel today!

I decided to do project “use up what I have in the kitchen” and promptly cut up a plum, an apricot, a banana and a handful of blueberries to put into a yogurt mess. I topped this with 1 cup Maple yogurt and 1/2 a block of tofu (I’m loving on tofu lately- so much protein!) I whizzed that up in the blender with a rather large gloop of soy milk.

look at that flow!

I took out roughly 1/4 cup peanut flour, 2 tsp almond butter, 2 tbsp greek yogurt and 1.5 tbsp maple syrupand mixed it together to make a sauce.

delicious

I interrupt this to show you an important picture:

these bushes will soon hold blackberries

but this wasn’t good enough. so I added 1/2 a banana. 

like lace!

but this wasn’t good enough either. So I added Barbara’s Puffins, Barbara’s Oatmeal Squares, Kashi GoLean, Nature’s Path Flax Plus cereal and total flakes.

yum.

then I mixed it up.

looks gross, tastes divine

This was even a bit scary because it was
a. tons of protein
b. carbs
c. I added more fat in there than I would have usually with the almond butter. But I was feeling brave and boy was I glad for that sauce. YUM
d. maple syrup which is usually an “unnecessary”

So maybe I didn’t do my cinnamon bun challenge. But I did come home and have something that I loved. Check my challenges tab soon for an updated list. Any ideas?

More recent eats:

Strawbs and....

a Strawberry Parfait! 
-1/2 cup oat bran
-1 tbsp chia seeds
-1 cup strawberries
-1/2 cup greek yogurt

layered it up in a cup!

this cup is so tall!

made some sweet Edamame dip!

green and mean

and I had some down right delicious mushies:

serious yum right there

AND I tried my first marshmallow in 6 years!! This thing. I’m telling you!

in all her glory

and I roasted away!! I like my marshies burnt. How do you like yours? Have you tried the vegan ones? They’re pretty darn tasty! 

a bit frustrated?

yeeeeahhhh

and I grew my relationship with this food:

nope, not nectarine

Tofu: it’s what’s for breakfast….at least it was the last couple days!

SO FRESH

and of course, everything is better when it’s topped with some sort of nut butter.

lookie here

peanut butter sauce with cinnamon.

close up

That’s all I got guys. Gearing up for a hot and humid week. Not my cuppa tea, but that’s alright, neither are giant cinnamon rolls apparently.

Thanks for all your support. I really needed it and I know you’ll all always be there whenever I decide to take on something more managable.

Love, Hannah

 

What I’ve been Eating + Wednesday

So that would be….WIBEPW? Weebeepew? hahaha.

I’m in an abnormally good mood today. I managed to make it through the morning without castigating my sister. Kidding, kidding- we’re cool.

It could be the run that I began the day with before it got dastardly hot? And today is National Running Day and I didn’t even know. I’m no good at running but I’m trying

Does your day always feel better when it begins with a workout?

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It’s that time again!

This is just a conglomeration of things I’ve been making+eating the past couple days. Enjoy- I did

Remember that Tabouli we whipped up the other day? I had some on a salad beast with my first tasting of Hummus ever since I found out I could indeed eat sesame!

oh, that's tuna....

where’s mah hummus?

there we go!

Seriously people. Now I can eat the triple flavor hummus from TJS. Any other fans out there? 

forget what went in this...besides spinach and soy milk and protein powder?

But it was good. Strawberries….and judging by the E.Coli scares in the paper, I should probably have washed them better than I did….?

Picked up some goodies at Target:

WholeSoy and Tribe Hummus

Who says you can’t have two hummus containers open at once?

and some Lunas:

note all the nutty flavors and a LARA BAR!!

I’ve never tried any of these before. I was esp excited about the Larabar because I’d never ever had them and you all seem to love’em.

there's something about it....

I tried these Quornthings one night when my family was having chicken and I wanted to match them? I used to eat these alot pre ED so it was great to try them again. Still taste mighty fine although I’m not as much a fan of the  fake meat stuff as I once was.

looks okay?

We left the store by accident with this:

it was only $1 anyhow

and this spider kept repelling onto my head. The darn blackguard got it eventually with a broom. and made me feel really guilty for offing it.

grrr

and I picked lots of rhubarb.

lots and lots

and some overexposed strawberries (it makes them look SUPER red)

whoa

so the chopping up everything.

so sanguine

and put them in a bowl!

ready to go!

It looks like someone was colluding against me here….granted, it was 10:30pm….

mehhhh

Apparently I’d cut a whole lot more rhubarb than I’d planned. AND there is still more.

crisps

and I still had to clean up my mess.

boo

They didn’t come out badly at all.

not shabby

I’m a big fan of tart so I baked myself a mini one to have for breakfast the next morning in my new Ramkin that Mary gave me!

rather shoddy photography because of the sheets my mom has hung in the windows to keep out the heat

Last night we had fish!! This is my second time eating fish so it was a little scary. But my my did it taste good!

questionable

and this morning before my run I decided to try the Larabar

yum!

Wow guys, you were right, these ARE good!! I tried the Chocolate Chip Brownie flavor. At the time, I didn’t even notice that it was brownie too and made the comment to myself that it tasted just like a brownie. Now I see why….duhhh

When I got back my hair was a frizzball. Good thing I’d gone at 5:30; it hot humid and started thundering soon after that.

note: the hair

I decided to make Carrie’s Voluminous Oat Bran for breakfast. That took care of my oat bran though.

: (

see me? I'm a ghost!

I decided to add some chia seeds but added too much water.

aren't they pretty?

and wontcha look at that volume!

woo

can’t get enough of my toppings either:

PB!

Sunland Banana Peanut Butter

cream.in.a.dish.

Okios

y.u.m.

Rhubarb stewwwww….or stewed rhubarb. Whatever sounds better, they both taste DEVINE.

So I have a confession…I’ve got lots of these…

yummo

I interrupt this picture to bring you the deliciousness that was breakfast part 2:

love this stuff

Paired with my Pink Lady!! Cut like Kaila!

perfection

what would make it better?

AHH

It was copacetic, seriously!

currently roasting these babies!

roasted with…

GOOD OLD EVOO

One more goody for you, since I’ve been LOVING on Parsnips <3

hello there sir!

Speaking of which, time to go take them out!

oh, and PS: I’m going to be learning some new words as a challenge during June. I’m going to pepper them through my posts. See if you can find them!

Love, Hannah

Two Kinds of Chill

Hi guys! Long time no talk…blog….tog?

Anyhow. I’m ending my house confinement aka my mother can almost drive soon!! I’m really psyched about this because I’ve been getting a bit stir crazy staying at home all day. I’m a “lets do errands all day!” type-a girl. Feel me?

Lately I’ve been feeling smooth….real smooth.

The other day it was Banana Berry Smooth….

so good!

So smooth, in fact, that I made a face to convey to you my feelings.

smile!

Yes, my friends, my smile looked just like that.

What else has happened….We cut asparagus from our back yard!! Seriously, I don’t know how high they let the stuff grow on those big farms, but ours gets really tall!! The stalks are all growing at different rates, unfurling out of the ground; it’s really neat.

case in point:

many a size

There really isn’t much that I love more than asparagus fresh from our garden <–this is a lie. I love nut butters. You know this.

chili, asparagus, tofu dog, vegan parm, mustard

Dinner that night was pretty tight.

Then another day held deliciousness in the form of Chocolate Cherry. 

chocolaty goodness

My computer even recognizes the word “chocolaty“.  approval. Drinking these protein shakes, as I’ve been loving lately, makes me chilly though!

The next night my mom surprised me by sauteing onions and peppers- YUM! I ate these with some left over asparagus action, beans of green  and some more chili. 

yum!

Today was Monday woo!!

I woke to toast with sweet potato and greek yogurt and SNBmixed as mah spread. Well, I mean, I had to make it…

it made heaven on wheat.

So. Good. I made a bit extra to have perhaps tomorrow!

I was going to make butternut squash fries for dinner. All well and fine. Except I had to use this sucker:

just begging to take one of my fingers

It was tough work. But eventually, they were all (unevenly) sliced and ready to go!

can't wait!

Butternut squash is something I just can’t stand raw. I know you’re probably not supposed to eat it that way, but some veggies are good raw. Carrots, Beans, Peppers, etc. Not those starchy veggies though, no way.

They ended up looking like this.

crispy....delicious

I had the thought then that they said more “breakfast” to me than “dinner”. So I’m saving them- hence the container in which they are currently lying.

MY POOR SISTER. She is losing her last tooth and it is hanging by a thread. Never fear, faint of heart, I, too become queasy at the thought of such things and will not go into more detail. Not only because I know anything over “it was going to fall out soon” would make some of us sick, but because I legitimately inquired no farther for that very reason. She cried and whined all through dinner. Mom cooked chili tonight and she claimed she couldn’t eat it. Long after we’d all finished, she was still sitting at the table, lamenting the tooth that would all too soon be under her pillow. My mom handed me her chili bowl and told me to put it in the blender. Honestly, I thought she was kidding. Indeed, she was not, and so into the food processor it went. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t about to put it into the blender. Meat Chili + Smoothies = bad combo.
It ended up looking a bit like cat food.

um...yeah

Pretty gross, right?

and I might have mentioned that our food processor holds like, one cup? It is pretty much nonfunctional unless you’re grinding like…a molecule of flour or an oat.

Lets just say I ended up making her a shake with the  Strawberry Froyo from yesterday. Yes, I made more, it was that popular.

~~~~~~~~

I’d like to start a little thing on mondays where I talk about my past, a memory I have or something like that. I’ll call it, Memory Monday, how original. But in all honesty, I need to push myself to remember times in my life where I was happy and content (mostly) and think positively about the future.

I was doing something earlier that reminded me of my trip to New Orleans. I can’t remember what it was that I was doing at the moment, but I wanted to talk about New Orleans today, because I think my pictures show just how very happy I was and how much fun I was having.

Happy Hannah!

Note: This was the day my friends decided they wanted to straighten my hair.

We worked together this week to build gardens and repair homes that had been devastated by the Hurricane.

We built that fence

I can remember how wanted and included I felt on this trip- a feeling that I hadn’t experienced much prior to this and haven’t much since  then. I can say that I hung out personally with every person in these pictures- even those whom we were helping! Their stories were just so inspiring and it was simply amazing to hear about it first hand.

we're happy, I swear.

I think we were pretending to be models in this picture. But that just goes to show me how much fun we had. How much we trusted each other to be silly. That boy and I did amazing improv each night where he played the  blues on his guitar and I made up lyrics as I went along. Everyone would gather around us and listen. Yes Hannah, you used to have people who surrounded you. You were and are liked. You felt the warmth of laughs and smiles.

and bodies.

cuddle puddle!

You felt the coolness of ice cream….froyo…and a cute top I borrowed from a friend. I still remember that top with fondness…sorry…

I think it was Butter Pecan froyo?

Note: If you’re ever in NOLA, please go to this place. I don’t care. Don’t make excuses, just go. And remember to read the website too, because some of the flavors they’ve had in the past are AMAZING!

Your went out for Mediterranean food (and didn’t know enough to take pictures? Who ARE you? haha)

well

Well. You took them of what mattered in the moment. Friendship and Fun.

and faces apparently.

You stood on the ground of people who had it 10000x more difficult than you. And you held your friends in that moment, because you have all you really need.

Lower 9th Ward

And even if you can’t see a smile….

Sayyy Asbestos!

You know it’s under there by the light in your eyes.

or maybe it was just the construction glasses

Even with an intense week of fun though, you took time by yourself to contemplate. You, Hannah, need time alone. And you took it.

In the Bayous

and spotted others so they wouldn’t fall.

that's mah Dad up on that there ladder

Each day was jam packed with work and laughs. We sang, we ran around, we played, we hammered in the morning and the evening (all over this land?). I wouldn’t trade this week for the world, and reliving the memories is just the beginning step to cultivating more experiences like this for my future. Heres to that!

Have any of you ever been to New Orleans? Did you go to Creole Creamery and get…what? What is a fond memory you have? 

Love, Hannah