WIAW #2

I had some free time, so I made my own icon for What I Ate Wednesday...

Let me tell you, it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. And it's not even that elaborate! Sheesh.
Moving on...

Breakfast was my usual:

Chocolate protein powder mixed with Indian spiced chai.

Second breakfast was a classic choice of cereals and soymilk. (yay for crappy iPod photography and yellow lighting)

Barbara's Peanut Butter Puffins and homemade granola

I didn't think I would like the Puffins cereal as much as I do. I'm really persnickety about peanut butter flavored things - too many peanut butter flavored things have I tasted and deemed artificial because of a nasty, factory-made taste. These don't have that artificial flavor; they taste real. And I like.

Lunch was my duty today.

Toasted cheese minis,

leftover whole wheat rotini & shell pasta, mixed veg (soybeans, green beans, baby carrots, and a little bit of red bell pepper),

 and salad (romaine lettuce with spicy sesame sticks, craisins, and Italian dressing).

I had a cup of coffee (Jamaica Me Crazy & Butter Toffee) but as per usual, I forgot to take a picture. I guess I'm not quite used to photographing everything just yet.

For an afternoon snack, I sliced up an apple.

I then added some cottage cheese and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Definitely my  favorite sweet & savory combination in the fruit category.

I also brewed some cappuccino to sip on whilst I edited some photos. Because I definitely needed more coffee in my system...

Creamy caramel cappuccino

Dinner was one of my personal favorites:

Steamed sweet potato with cashew butter and cinnamon; spinach salad with strawberries, sunflower seeds, and Italian dressing; & half of a toasted multigrain roll with garlic butter. 

After dinner, I made a big batch of oven-roasted almond butter. 

I snacked on a few almonds once they came out of the oven; you've gotta be sure they're roasted to your liking before grinding them up, ya know. ;)

Personally, I've never been patient when it comes to...anything. But making nut butter from scratch - especially without addition of oil - requires an exceptional amount of persistence. The outcome is pretty much always worth it. Especially this time, because I managed to fill an entire jar without eating half of it!

That being said, I broke into the jar for a nighttime snack.

almond butter, banana, and mini dark chocolate chips

Ahhh, Tuesday was a good day of eats. I'm officially addicted to the salad combo I had for lunch; I've had it every day since last Wednesday. 

I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's Thinking Out Loud. More excuse to talk about food :)