This week is one for galoshes. Or cowboy boots, as it happens.
After tossing and turning all night from the heat (my air conditioner is broken), I woke up on Tuesday to a chilly breeze blowing through my window. (The texture of the weather reminded me of visiting colleges in October of my senior year in high school.) The skies were overcast, and soon enough it started raining… and it still hasn’t stopped! I sort of like the rain, though. It’s cozy to come inside and take a hot shower, and spend the rest of the evening curled up with a mug of tea and a good book.
For breakfast, I had sunflower raisin toast with almond butter, banana, honey + cinnamon.
I’ve been more or less off the coffee for four and a half months. When I do drink it, I try to 1) not drink it first thing in the AM, so my body doesn’t associate waking up with getting caffeine, and 2) not drink it on consecutive days. But for the past few days, I’ve been making my own iced lattés to enjoy with breakfast, because they are too damn good- and too damn easy- to pass up.
You’re going to laugh when you see the ingredients…
… and when you read the directions!
For one Iced Bustelatté: Stir 1 teaspoon Cafe Bustelo Instant Espresso into 1 cup cold water. Add ice. Mix in 1/2 cup of your favorite milk. That’s it. Cheap, tasty, and doesn’t require going out in the rain to purchase.
Tuesdays are my crazy days, so I packed food and snacks for the day:
I picked up some of these Chunks of Energy in the bulk section of my local health food store. They’ve been in and out of my snack stash for years, and make really good portable bites. They’re made with dried fruit and seeds; I usually buy the Cacao Goji flavor that also has dates, apricots, sunflower seeds and coconut. The brand name itself is a little puzzling, and the Twitter handle is even worse (@iLoveChunks). But, the flavor is really good and they did perk me right yesterday morning when my chemistry lecture threatened to put me right to sleep.
For lunch, I had cabbage salad (dressed in oil and vinegar), roasted peppers + zucchini, baked tofu and almond butter carrots.
To make my busy day even busier, I’d dropped my gear off at the gym in the morning and during my 3 hour break at school, made my way up and across town to get my sweat on. I hopped on the CrossRamp for about 50 minutes while I got my bio reading done. I ended up killing two birds with one stone by productively stress busting.
Awkward self-portrait of the day, taken in the gym locker room with the apple I devoured.
After my final class of the day (Tuesday classes start at 9 and end at 7), I rushed (to the gym to pick up my stuff and then) home in the rain to make a quick Mexican-inspired dinner. It wasn’t exactly gourmet, but it took me 5 minutes to assemble and heat up. Hard to beat!
- brown rice
- black beans
- roasted zucchini + peppers
- PVP’s homemade heirloom tomato sauce
- mozzarella
- Greek yogurt <—- dressed up as sour cream
- chili flakes
For dessert, a plum and dark chocolate. It’s funny, but now when chocolate is less than 80-85% dark, it tastes too sweet to me!
Off from school today, but there’s so much to do! Time to tackle those errands. Have a great day!
Do you drink coffee in the morning? Do you buy it or brew your own?
What was the last quick meal you made for yourself?
LOVE your boots- where’d you find theM?
I don’t drink coffee all the time. I started when I was 19 and have been on and off it. I’ve recently been ‘on’ it and trying to get off it. I think it’s affecting my body in a bad way :/ I have a Keurig so I usually brew it, but I don’t like the coffee I bought so I have been buying. The last quick meal I made was last night — ramen
Nice work on squeezing in a workout! Sometimes I plan ahead and bring my stuff to run during my lunch break. I feel so accomplished when I find a chance to do it!
I drink coffee daily and mix up my routine. Most days I make it myself, either hot in the french press or drip coffee maker. Sometimes I make cold press the night before, which is perfect for summer mornings.
I love Mexican food. It’s my go-to healthy yet quick meal. It never lets me down!
last quick meal: scrambled eggs, broccoli and quinoa. with lots of butter and spices. perfecto!
the real question is, what veggies would dawson eat and at what time??
Ow! Totally trying that coffee drink. I only drink coffee every other day. I used to be a hugggee addict pre pregnancy. Love the mexican bowl. I prefer greek yogurt to sour cream. Favorite quick dinner stir fry
cute boots! oh i totally agree about chocolate. i love the dagoba eclipse. i had a 90% lindt bar over the weekend and it was divine! hope you have some time to catch your breath busy girl!
I used to drink Instant Coffee all the time before I received my Krueig. Now I’m spoiled but I would definitely go back to instant.
this summer, I became seriously dependent on coffee. I’m talking 3-4 cups a day, and if I didn’t have it within an hour of waking up, I had a headache for the rest of the day. when I moved to Europe 3 weeks ago, the jet lag was such a shock to my system that it kind of reset itself. I’ve been drinking green tea in the morning and don’t feel like I need the black stuff. it’s so darn expensive here too that I’m probably saving a ton by ending my dependency.
Oh man, instant espresso?! Where have I been?! I have recently been loving the instant coffee packs for Nestle you can buy 8 for like $1. BUT I love espresso and so I will definitely try to find these. I have become too lazy to make a pot of coffee..pathetic. Btw, love the green yogurt—>sour cream substitution, I do this in all my recipes and it adds so much to a meal that you don’t have to feel bad about!
Tuesdays are my crazy days too–it was SUCH a rude awakening to dive right back in after the holiday on Monday!
The last quick meal I made for myself was scrambled tofu last night. It’s always my go-to meal when I need something satisfying and fast!
I think every night I make quick meals from eggs, wraps, salads, and rice/couscous/quinoa bowls there isn’t too much I make that takes more than 30 minutes to make. Does that make me lazy? Hope you enjoyed your day of errands and the coolish weather, I for one an incredibly jealous down here in the Florida heat!
We finally got some rain, too! Your instant coffee made me laugh–I’ve developed a deep codependency w/ Nescafe ( I swear, it needs me, too!) (from coffee snob to slob just like that! I guess too many years of getting too steep a discount from barista-ing has made me unwilling to shell out for the good stuff. Or just poverty.)