Local or Organic?

I've mentioned in a few other posts that I am taking a class this semester called Contemporary Food Movements. As a vegetarian and self proclaimed foodie I love the topics that we study in this course, however much of the reading does cause a certain amount of indignation.

Today I read an article about corporation organic food. Many organic companies that began as grass roots and local have been bought by large corporations that continue the homegrown story in order to sell products. For instance, Kashi is actually owned by Kellogs, Cascadian Farms by Gerneral Mills, Horizon Organic by Dean's and Odwalla by none other that Coca Cola.

Personally, I don't think this information will change the way I shop though it may cause a bit of guilt knowing that the family farm story on my box of cereal is a straight lie.

For lunch I wanted to try a little something new with my salad

Spinach, raw tofu, cucus,mushrooms,apple, raisins and walnuts with white wine vin and garlic salt. Delicious! I also had a chewy kashi bar... ironically.

And got some great mail today!! 26 oz of almond butter (I was NOT about to go a whole month without it, sorry) and the new and my first Clean Eating magazine... I love today.

Due to my mail, snack was a given

And for dinner I made a ROCKING sandwich. Whole wheat pita with hummus, string cheese, tomato sauce, green olives and italian seasoning.

Like a Mediterranean pita pizza pocket, so good! Plus some steamed broc on the side.

Currently enjoying some PB toast and raisins and maybe a handful of cereal for dessert, see you tomorrow beautiful people!

Peace!

Caitlin

What's more important to you, local or organic?

Cure for the Common Cold

*If you are a Beloit student who happens to be reading this, please contact me via facebook or my school e-mail*

Take two parts oatmeal

For breakfast and lunch

One part 3 hour nap

One part netflix instant watch

Every foodie should watch this movie... prepare to be insanely jealous

One english paper draft (very optional)

One thousand plus cups of green tea with lemon

100000000 bottles of water

1 yoga class (if you're feeling well enough, which I was!)

2 rounds of neti pot

I am already feeling SO much better than this morning! Still super tired but an early bedtime should clear that right up! I also got my taste for veggies back! YAY!

pre-yoga toast w/ cashew butter

Dinner hummus, cucs, dijon and spinach in a whole wheat tortilla

steamed cauliflower, carrots and ketchup on the side

dessert was this x3... I should NOT be allowed to keep my favorite cereal around.

I've also realized I didn't set any April goals!! Well I did in my head but I need to tell you all... in the morning =).

Peace!

Caitlin

What's your favorite cereal?

What are some of your April goals, inspire me!

Food Rut and Few Words Friday

Will somebody make my love of veggies return please? I have just not been wanting them lately! =(

Lunch

Plus this

Insert paper writing and nap time

woke up starving

Failed popped amaranth attempt

To hungry to try and cook something else

Found this at the corner store!... lucky and dangerous

Plus a PB&J and dark chocolate chips

May have something else.. sorry for the lack of words I am tired and not feeling the best.

Peace!

Caitlin

What food ruts have you been in lately?

What are you doing tonight?

Big Winner

No... this is not an April fool's post, but did you see Wealthy Tipping Point? She totally got me! I actually called PerMa to tell her the news before it dawned on me what was going on!

However Caitlin's post plus an event this afternoon reminded me that I actually am pretty good at winning random things.

This afternoon I won Caroline's waffle give away (yahoo!!)

I won Kaitlin's coaches oats give away a few weeks ago

I actually tend to win those games where you grab the stuffed animal with the claw (I don't know whether to brag about this or not)

And the best thing I've ever won?

My sophomore year of high school, I won a 58 inch flat screen TV with 5 dvd changer and home theatre system in a raffle.

No I'm not lying it's in my house right now, I miss it very much when I'm at school watching The Office on my laptop.

Something I did not win at today? Satisfying my hunger... hey BPS round two! I did try very much though!

For lunch I had leftover Annie's mac and cheese but today I added baked beans, spinach and mushrooms. Plus grapes which are needing to be eaten!

Snacks included dates stuffed with various nut butters

more dates and cashew butter a few pretzels and the taste of a PB cookie larabar (which I finished)

I wasn't hungry for quite some time for dinner but then suddenly I was starving again (hate that) so I made a quick tofu scramble. I used

1/2 crumbled block of tofu

1 tsp garlic

1 tbsp nooch

salt and pepper

an entire green pepper

Plus Ezekiel sesame toast with smart balance light and fruit spread.

dessert plus more nuts ( I AM A HANGRY MONSTER)

  

Peace!

Caitlin

What's the best thing you've ever won?

Fun plans this weekend? Eleven mile tomorrow... fun in my mind!

Fear and BPS

Have you seen Matt's post today? It's a great article, check it out!

In addition to my cold, this afternoon I got hit HARD with a case of BPS

Bottomless Pit Syndrome

I think a combo of biking and hustling around campus causing my normal raging appetite plus my body fighting this stupid cold made me feel that enough food didn't exist in the world...

For lunch I packed a hummus,avocado, nooch sandwich with spinach, dijon and tomato. Plus some grapes and dill pickle cashews

Snacks included

this amazing combo of pumpkin, the rest of the PB2, stevia, pumpkin pie spice and a scoop of cottage cheese... holy yumtastic!

Followed by 2 mini lara bars, a handful of trail mix, a slice of sesame bread with cashew butter, a handful of dates and a few spoons of nut butter.... slight satisfaction.

Eventually I just decided to have dinner<-- yes DINNER not breakfast for dinner!

One of my absolute favorite foods growing up was mac and cheese. In times of restriction this became a major fear food for me. Probably because when I was younger I would kill the whole box as an after school "snack"... yea.

A lot of mac and cheese does not have the greatest nutritional stats but a while ago I grabbed a box of Annie's natural organic, the ingredient list is really legit so I felt good about it!

I jazzed it up inspired by Gabriela with spinach, broccoli and mushrooms. I also added a scoop of yogurt recommended per the box and it was super creamy!

Plus a great amount of black pepper and hot sauce, how I've always done it and clearly always will! It was perfect, comforting and absolutely delicious. I am already excited to have leftovers for lunch! Mac and Cheese, I will never abandon you again.

Plus another piece of toast with sunflower butter and fruit spread.

*Also, I really want to do a Q&A vlog but I don't have any Q's! Please feel free to ask anything about running, weights or myself and I'll answer what I can!*

Peace!

Caitlin

Do you or have you ever had fear foods?

How to you jazz up pre-made meals?

My throat hurts

And I swear if I get sick there will be tears. I need some sleepy sleep so I'm sorry for the speedy recap!

Lunch was a salad with a serving of barley, sweet peas, black eyes peas, 1/2 a big tomato and 1/2 a cucumber topped with superfruit berry vin plus a strawberry chobani repackaged for no chance of bursting. Oh and bio exam studying =)

With a nice view from the science center

Snacking on some butter crunch cashews. pretzels and dried cherries (had more than pictured... trust)

Someday I will have DINNER for dinner I promise but my eggs actually expired yesterday and for me redundancy trumps wasting food. I did put a spin on my omelet. I mixed the eggs with cinnamon and stevia and then stuffed it with macadamia nut and cashew butter.

    

And topped it with microwaved frozen bloobs and banana slices with some baked sweet potato slices on the side. I've been way snacky again tonight... once again my hunger seems to wait until I get back to my room in the evening, if anyone has a solution please let me know!

Peace!

Caitlin

How often do you get sick? Um... never, that's why I'm so upset

Let's talk Politics

Don't worry we won't get too in depth... I don't want any hate mail or anything! I've never talked politics before basically because that's not what the blog is about ,but, fun fact about me is I am very interested in them and grew up in a somewhat political family.

We would watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report every night during dinner! I also spent my Halloween weekend on a whirlwind trip to DC to go the the Rally to Restore Sanity!

I've mentioned before that I go to school in Wisconsin and if you are familiar with what is going on at the WI capital you can imagine that it has spread to a tiny, liberal arts, hippie campus like mine. Given my new found dislike of Scott Walker and my love of activism you can imagine how dumb excited I was to be standing right outside of my dorm, on my campus of merely 1250 students, roughly three feet from this person..

Reverend Jesse Jackson.... I DIED.

I sadly didn't get to meet or talk to him but I probably would have fainted anyway, I was nervous taking pictures! He was here with the Autonomous Solidarity Organization and WI senator Tim Cullen to promote voting to stop the bill that is currently being passed in WI.

ASO Speaker

For lunch I packed a salad with 1/2 a bag of spinach, a red pepper, 1/2 an avocado, salsa, the rest of my chili-lime white bean dip and nooch. Plus two pieces of Ezekiel sesame bread.

I was SUPER snacky this afternoon

I had this bowl x3 plus some more not plated *by the way I'm having NO issue making it through my twelve bags of pretzels... I'm already down to 10, if the addiction is wrong I don't want to be right!*

Plus a peanut butter chocolate protein bar

plus a zillion handfuls of butter cashews and dark chocolate almonds (flavored nuts are too dangerous)

I took a break and shockingly actually got somewhat hungry for dinner though not starving so I made some scrambled egg whites with cheese, fruit and a sprouted grain english muffin with smart balance and fruit spread.

Followed by a few handfuls of trail mix

(what is WITH me and the snack food!?)

I'm off to attempt at some homework but more likely fall asleep =)

Peace!

Caitlin

Are there any celebrities or political figures you have met or would love to meet?

What's your latest snacking addiction? PRETZELS AND NUT BUTTER... though that's not new =)

I am Going to Turn Into

A gigantic nut. Without a doubt. Let's just sum this up. As seen in my morning post, this weekend I bought salted cashews, dark chocolate almonds and butter toffee peanuts.

In the mail today from the amazing PerMa I got the same dark chocolate almonds, dill pickle cashews, butter cashews, cashew butter and almond, peanut cashew butter (seen above).

Plus a workout shirt, earrings and protein bars

How well she knows me =D.

From myself in the form of amazon I got cashew butter (good thing I like cashews), macadamia nut butter and PB2. I need to cancel my amazon account... although PerDa did just front me some extra cash <3... nut butter enabler =)

So that's four new jars of nut butter and five new jars of nuts... my good cholesterol will be through the roof!

Clearly the nut of the moment

Can we just talk about how all of this sparked my nut butter tooth to an insane level? I started with this snack.

I continued to sample most of my new products through the afternoon. I wasn't starving for a "real meal" for dinner so I made a bowl... with more nuts.

Yogurt, sweet potato, pretzels, cheerios, all kinds of nuts, dried fruit and nut butter and honey. Totally random but still healthy so I'm ok with it! It actually started here...

But by the time I sat down to eat a handful of homemade snack mix (cashews, almonds, cheerios, dried cherries and raisins) appeared on it along with a little drizzle of sunflower butter.

I also had some dark chocolate and more butter cashews. What is with me and breakfast for dinner lately? I have so much dinner type food to use up before school is over I hope my want for it comes back soon!

For lunch I mixed a cup of lima beans with feta and cranberries and dijon plus two corn tortillas and an apple. So there was a little green and freshness today =).

My nut butter escapade was delicious but I am jonsing for greenage! I have my big salad packed up for lunch tomorrow! For some reason I love when I crave vegetables, it makes me feel like a health dork =).

Now what someone has to convince me to do is NOT order more barney butter... I'm very much almost out!

Peace!

Caitlin

Are you an online shopping addict? I browse a lot but the only place I order from on the regs is amazon... probably because they have my card number saved =(.

Favorite type of nut/nut butter? I refuse to pick, clearly I love them all! I do go in kicks (on a cashew one now) and I will say that I always prefer crunchy over smooth though I'm not opposed to smooth! I hope I get on a walnut kick soon... I have a TON!