I celebrated Christmas!! .... sort of

Yesterday was super exciting because for once in my life, I celebrated Christmas... in the sense that I went to a Christmas dinner hosted by the same neighbors we had over two nights ago. What nice people... their relatives and family friends were there and I ended up having a great time.
HOWEVER... It was a very weird day food-wise. I'm not used to eating at irregular intervals, and I think all that really wreaked havoc on my sensitive-ish stomach. I was supposed to head over to my neighbors' around 3:00 and we would be eating at 4:00 ish even though it was dinner (apparently a lot of people do this on Christmas). Therefore, I didn't want to eat lunch. But I was also really tired when I woke up and didn't feel like working out, so I ate a light breakfast.
I had 2/3 of a cup of GoLean Crunch, 1/3 of a cup cinnamon Puffins, soy milk, a sliced banana, some blackberries and blueberries, and a sprinkle of almonds and pecans. I also had a blood orange.
A while after breakfast my parents and I decided to go on a very long walk in Jackson Park, where there's a little Japanese garden. Everything was COVERED with snow and caked in ice... I stupidly forgot my camera, but my mom took some photos that I'll post later. It was a strange feeling, not actually knowing where we were, since everything looked homogeneous. We actually walked for a long time, and my toes were getting numb by the end. The sound your shoes make when they crush the slightly hardened snow is even more satisfying than cracking the top of the creme brulee (yes, I know that's in Amelie). Anyways, we walked for a good 45 minutes, or maybe even an hour. We were nice and flushed when we got back.
This was a perfect opportunity for hot chocolate if there ever was one. I love making hot chocolate in big batches because you can use more and feel like you're not the only one drinking it :)
I used the special Spanish hot chocolate from Zingerman's that my mom got me for my birthday last year. Here are our Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear mugs (the only difference is that I have a bigger mug than my mom).
Along with my hot chocolate I had a tiny little gingerbread cookie that I made... verdict: it was actually delicious! I suppose this was my lunch.

Meanwhile, my parents made what looked like the most wonderful lunch: a sort of zhou (rice porridge) of leftover chicken and vegetables. Think chicken soup and rice. I seriously have never wanted to have a meat dish so much... and I don't think there's anything that should hold me back. I didn't want to eat the actual chicken, just the broth, and God knows how many times I've probably had chicken broth accidentally. Yes, I know it's not the same, but maybe my body was trying to tell me something... If I hadn't been saving my appetite for dinner, I really might have had some. I just don't like always having a label: "vegetarian," "pescetarian," whatever. How about just eating according to my preferences, which usually favor vegetables over meat?

At my neighbors', they had a spread of cheese, crackers, and various dips. The photos didn't come out well, but I had one cracker and a few tastes of dips: artichoke, roasted vegetable, cheddar horseradish, and a little cranberry goat cheese.
The table was so nicely set: even a little place card for me!

"Dinner": pork tenderloin, lasagna, asparagus, and coleslaw.

The difference between this lasagna and the one they brought over to our place was like night and day. This one was melty and not too chewy.


I didn't have seconds because this lasagna is probably 2 parts cheese to 1 part noodles and sauce. I could feel my stomach churning a little. I'm not lactose intolerant or anything, but when ever I eat a lot of cheese, which is rare, I can feel it.
Because of this, I decided to pass on dessert, even though I hadn't eaten that much by my standards.
For dessert, there was homemade mandelbrot (half the people there were Jewish, despite the pork tenderloin), some kind of toffee, cookies, and vanilla cake.
When I got home around 7:20, it was almost time to leave for our movie, Slumdog Millionaire. I was a little hungry but my stomach felt weird, so I just had some applesauce.

The movie was amazing, but a bit of a shock. My parents thought it was a comedy, and it turned out to be super violent, disturbing, and depressing. I was sobbing by the end and that rarely happens.. BUT, I seriously recommend it.
We got home after 11, and I was starving. I rarely eat so late at night, but my schedule was so out of wack yesterday that I had a very strange "dinner": a piece of toast with 1 scrambled egg, 2 pieces of smoked salmon, some leftover squash, and a blob of hummus.
Plus a tangerine.




This morning I woke up and forced myself downstairs to the weight room. I was really sick of the elliptical, so I ran 3 miles on the treadmill and then cooled down, so about 3.4 miles total. I really hate the treadmill, but you can get more of a workout in a shorter amount of time. I was also sweating way more than I usually do on the elliptical. I should probably ice my knee, though.
Breakfast was really more like dessert. Seems like other bloggers are "recovering" from the holiday season, but I never really ate any dessert during the season to begin with, so why not use up some of those delicious cookies?
Today's oatmeal was (partly inspired by Kath):
1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup soy milk, 1/3 cup water, 1 small banana, cinnamon, vanilla. Toppings: a sprinkle of gingerbread, peanut brittle, toffee, and a mandelbrot. PLUS: my new chocolate banana peanut butter!

This was very, VERY sweet. I ended up ignoring the peanut brittle because it was too chewy. The toffee basically melted in, so I didn't have to chew it. The peanut butter wasn't too strong-tasting, but the banana chocolate flavor was definitely there.
I also had a glass of milk and a tangerine.
Today's agenda (feels REALLY weird to be blogging in the morning, but I might start to): cousins and aunt coming for lunch, then tonight we're going to an awesome colleague of my parents' birthday! She's a total foodie, has a black belt in karate, and is from Malaysia.
Happy day-after Christmas!