I am a SLACKER

and I love it...

So... a brief update on moi:

I have been eating terribly, on weekends I eat totally from work, and I make enough so I can bring it home for Rene too.

School has taken over my life and I love it.

After my washing mishap at the beginning of the month(I'll tell you about this one in a minute) a bunch of the people in my class have offered to clean my uniform for me, Kendra has been doing it for me since. I am so thankful for it. Plus one of the other girls in my class got me an iron from the thrift store.(My class loves me)

Work is absolutely ridiculous. My boss opened the "Second side" of the restaurant, we now have the same amount of cooks, who still don't speak english, cooking for 2 restaurant. And all but 3 of the wait staff is new and don't know how to do their job, so I'm trying to run 2 restaurants by myself of the weekends while my boss naps all day, my stress levels are through the roof of weekends.

I've been getting to school at 6 am and studying in the mornings, which is glorious. It's probably one of my favorite part of the day. I sit there and enjoy my breakfast and re-write my notes and relax. It's great.

Rene might have a job, in the bakery at save-on ironically, they told him at the interview that he just had to pass the criminal record check. I really really hope that he gets that job. If he does we won't be living "Tip-out to tip-out"(I'd kill for pay-check to pay-check.

Did I mention that I love school?

Plus halloween is a few days!!!!!!!! Best time of the year ever! I LOVE DRESS UP!

Who doesn't eat a sugar free breakfast??

I know I do.

So I'll share it with you, just in case you are participating in Kimi's Sugar Free Challenge over at The Nourishing Gourmet.

What you need:
1/2 to 1 cup of Quinoa(I use more when I know I won't be eating lunch till later)
2 Eggs
About 3 tbs of grated cheese(Your choice)(Personally I like swiss or cheddar)
Enough butter to fry your eggs in(or the oil of your choice)
Salt and pepper if you want it(I don't even use it)

Break your eggs into a bowl and mix them up, then add the cheese in, Scramble in a frying pan that has been heated to about medium. And just before the eggs are done, add the quinoa to the pan and stir it all around.

Done.

It's that easy. I make a bunch of quinoa at the beginning on the week and just use it throughout the week because we all know I love quinoa.

To make this Super sugar free, use an aged cheese that no longer has lactose in it.

If you want you could add vegetables to this to beef it up, but I like things plain in the morning, plus it's just easier to not chop vegetables(I get up at 4:30 am so I don't really feel like going crazy some mornings)

Let me know if you find a way to make it better, because better is just better!

Enjoy!

Quinoa Salad(My way)

When I used to work up at the heli-skiing lodge, the pastry chef would make an amazing rice salad almost every thursday for "T-goodie"(Tea time, same idea) and I LOVED IT. I would eat the left overs for lunch and snacks and any time that I could get away with it really. It was wonderful.

So when I was at home, I needed to fill my thursday gap. I needed my own salad, and I was(Still am really) on a big quinoa kick so I decided to make something similar, but with my favorite new grain!

So here it is Quinoa Salad, the way I like it:

What you will need:

1 small red pepper
1 small cucumber(Or a quarter of a full long english cucumber)
1 quarter of a small red onion
3/4 cup of crumbled Feta Cheese
2 tbs olive oil
4 or 5 cups of cooked and cooled quinoa(I'll let you know how I cook it in a moment)
salt and pepper


So, I cook quinoa at a 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water, and just cook it up the same as I do rice. For extra "More better" quinoa, use stock instead of water, more nourishing and more flavor!

Next dice up your peppers, quarter your cucumber and then slice it thinly(but not paper thin) then slice your quarter of an onion REALLY thin. Toss all of this in a bowl with the feta cheese, on top of the quinoa, dump your olive oil on that and toss it around, then salt and pepper to taste.

It tastes best when you can leave it in the fridge for an hour or 2 after, but eat it right away if you want.

AND, if you are participating in Kimi's No sugar challenge next week, you can just omit the peppers(If I'm wrong about the cucumbers let me know), and you have your breakfast lunch and dinner for the next week... Or you could eat something else once and a while, but it's great for lunch and an one plate dinner.

Enjoy!

Shared at:

Pennywise Platter Thursday(Oct 1) @ The Nourishing Gourmet
Food Roots(Oct 1) @ Nourishing Days
Fight Back Fridays(Oct 2) @ Food Renegade
Real Food Wednesday(Sept 30)

In order to further elaborate...

To elaborate on my last post.

I'm going to be parking my car tonight at my aunts farm outside of Edmonton, and un-insuring it.

The idea started the other night when I was talking to my mum about how it's a little bit of a waste right now, I'm paying $120 a month to keep in insured, and the last time I used it in the past 2 months was to drive my sister to the fricken bus station, and the bus didn't even come. So to be honest, the $240 I spent in those past 2 months was definitely not worth all of the trouble.(Although I did use my car yesterday to take 3 boxes of stuff to the salvation army, because I know my car is leaving me soon, otherwise... it would have sat there for another few months because I am that lazy)

So even though, for every possible angle I look at it, it's positive(Minus the fact that I can just pick up and drive to kimberley if I want to(I don't have the money for that ANYWAYS)) I'm still apprehensive about it. This will be the first time, since I've been old enough to drive, that I haven't had a car.

You may ask why I just don't sell it. Simply I'm not ready for it yet. I do worry that something will happen and I will need to get home on short notice, and in that case I can always get someone to drop me off at my car, and get a temp insurance. I doubt that will be the case. But I probably will end up selling the car. Eventually. I just need to covet it a little bit longer I think.

Big changes.

Big for me at least.

Something big is on the way

I'm parking my car and un-insuring this weekend.


We made the decision within an half an hour last night.

An easy change for the sake of the environment...

Buy a nice fountain pen.

That's it.

Well and an ink converter to go with it.

Here's why.


If you buy a good fountain pen, it will be the last pen you will ever need to buy.(With care and cleaning) Also if you buy a converter to go with it, you will be able to refill the ink anytime that you need some.

Rene and I were talking about this yesterday(mostly because I bough a new fountain pen yesterday, I'll explain why in a minute) and we figured most people go though a pack of 10 ballpoint pens in a matter of months, because of how cheap and disposable they are. "Forgot your pen today? Here you can borrow mine" and then later they usually end up keeping or or you give it to them. Cause why not? They're cheap right? They are also easy to misplace because they are so unimportant. I've seen people use up more than 10 ballpoint pens in less than a month. Honestly that is a lot of plastic. It's kinda stupid.

Therefore... 1 fountain pen that you like and are willing to take care of, with a converter can last you a looooong time. the only thing you will need to buy is a bottle of ink, and depending on how much you write, could last you... like forever... But seriously, most bottles of ink are sold in 50 ml bottles. I have 5ml cartridges right now(They were a gift given to me 5 or so years ago I'm still going through them) I figure that a 50 ml bottles would last me 25 days of writing 7 or 8 FULL pages of notes. So really about 200 full pages of writing. Big pages. That's a lot of writing. The ink writes smoother, and it smudges less(If you let it dry that is)(Ball point pens are still "tacky" for quite a while after use. Also, you are going to go out of your way to NOT loose or lend out this pen without getting it back, since you payed so much money for it.

And it automatically makes your writing look nicer. Once your pen get's used to your writing(That's what my friend who I got my last pen from told me)

Anyway, the story behind my pen.

It was a gift from a friend. When I lived in Japan half way through my school year a guy from France, Pierre, came to our school. He always used to write with fountain pens. I was SO intrigued. It was SO cool. I'd never really written with a fountain pen before(Except in heritage towns around my hometown, and then it was just a few scribbles anyways). So he let me write with it one time. I was beside myself. The pen just flowed so smoothly, my writing was a little bit wonky, but that happens when you write with a VERY different pen.

Pierre though it was funny that I was so intrigued by his pen, so when it was time for me to go home, he gave me his pen that he used for blue(He had one for every color) and all of his blue ink cartridges and told me to take good care of "him" I've written with that pen every chance I get since I got it. But to be honest. I haven't really written a whole lot not being in school or having a job where I need to write stuff. So when I started school last week, I was excited to be using my pen on a daily basis again(I really do love that pen). But being that it was an old pen, and Pierre was a pen chewer(EW) that pen has really seen better days. It leaks ink at the tip sometimes(Not on my writing, just onto my fingers) the end is missing, and the lid was cracked and missing a small piece. Then last week. I made the mistake of leaving my pen in a very precocious spot in the bakery and of course it fell on the floor, and, another piece of the lid broke off. So now the tip dries out and I have to shake the pen LOTS to get it to work.

But as luck would have it, when Rene and I were downtown so I could get a few of the kitchen supplies I needed for school, we walked past a pen shop advertising that they sold fountain pens on their sandwich board. I didn't even have to ask Rene he went and opened the door for me. They had fountain pens ranging $25 to $500. I found a beautiful red pelikan fountain pen. I used it all day at school today, and to rewrite a bunch of my notes tonight, ALSO to write a letter to a friend last night.

Wonderful.

Oh and for those of you who are worried about not being able to erase: there is a solution for that.

Fountain pens... are just... the bomb

Get one. It's worth it.

Thus far...

First I ignore my blog for a week then I go on a mad posting spree!

So I just feel like giving an update on my OUR green/healthy lifestyle choices.


We Do:

~Recycle(Again... everyone is doing this, and if they aren't... what is wrong with you?)
~Eat locally with the exception of spices and a some grains(Even our milk abides by the 100 mile diet rules now)
~Eat as nourishing a possible without torturing ourselves.
~Never turn on the lights(We have bees wax candles)
~Use the Diva Cup(Rene doesn't do this... I think)
~Get rid of things we don't use anymore to clear up clutter
~Not use shampoo
~Not use tooth-products(Thought I was gonna say paste didn't you?) with SLS or Flouride. Rene isn't ready for the soap jump. His choice.
~Not use "one time use" paper products(With the exception of toilet paper for numero dos)
~Rarely use the car(the only time we use it really is to go to my uncles house, but we haven't been there in over a month... I'm a terrible niece)
~Clean our laundry by hand
~No chemicals in our apartment(Vinegar and baking soda clean our house(With the occasional shot of hydrogen peroxide)
~Keep all electronics unplugged



We are Trying:

~To buy all of our food at the farmers market(Damn milk is messing this whole thing up)
~To only spend money on things that we NEED(In other words... food)
~To use the "Drip water" from our tub for our laundry and watering the plants(if they would just fix it we would have to worry about this at all)


We Want to:

~Compost(we really want a worm compost)
~I know there are other things we want to do but I can't think of them


My brain isn't really working right anymore so I'm going to stop this list right here.

Hopefully it inspires someone to try something new.