WIAW #5: Mixing It Up

My WIAW post is a little later than usual this week because things have been crazy busy. Luckily I have some down time between my internship and dinner with some awesome local bloggers for our first #BostonHLB meetup, so I found the nearest Starbucks and here I am!

In case you missed my first and second WIAW posts for this month, the theme is Fall into Good Habits, you know, for fall. You all may have noticed how I love my puns, so this is pretty much heaven in theme form for me.

I’ve spoken a little bit about my goal of intentionally eating vegetarian (instead of the ~90% I was already eating vegetarian) and so far, so good! Because it hasn’t been too much of a stretch for me to stick to vegetarian foods, I focused a bit this week on trying new things or re-trying foods that I previously hated didn’t love.

I’m a big fan of leaning into discomfort and doing things that challenge me, so this felt like a very appropriate good habit to adopt in honor of this month’s WIAW theme.

 

The most exciting new thing I tried this week is also the most simple. For the first time since I was in pre-school, I had a raw pear! You may not think this is exciting, folks, but I was so proud I called my mother. Over 20 years ago, in pre-school, I got really sick after eating a pear (well, a pear man really, with raisin eyes and a cherry nose if I remember correctly). Ever since then I haven’t been able to stomach them because of the texture. Every time I bit into one, I couldn’t even swallow the first bite before I got sick. Over the years I have come to a point where I can eat them baked or otherwise cooked, but I was terrified to try eating them raw. Then I got this guy in my organic food box the other day.

Not only did I get past the first bite, I ate the whole thing! That’s what I’m talking about, people! Now I have a whole new fruit to add to my healthy food arsenal. Score for healthy habits.

The next new thing I tried wasn’t altogether new, just a variation on an old favorite. As I mentioned to some of you, my one big concern about eating vegetarian was giving up sushi. Sure enough, I started craving it at work a few days ago. Instead of depriving myself of it entirely, I decided to try a vegetarian roll along with some miso soup and seaweed salad (which is actually my biggest reason for ordering sushi these days, not gonna lie).

I was really afraid that I would feel deprived without some sort of fish inside my sushi roll, but most of the familiar flavors were there and I was just as satisfied as always. I don’t eat soy sauce or ginger, but I sure do love wasabi, so there was plenty of that in addition to the rice, avocado, and cucumber. I think I could get used to this vegetarian thing! As a side note, too many of my meals happen at my desk.

I’ve already mentioned to you all that I recently tried Vega One for my nutrition/protein drink, but I love it so much that it’s worth mentioning again in case you missed it.

This stuff really is great, so great in fact I had it again this morning alongside my other new food (which is quickly becoming a new obsession). I finally tried overnight oats! I’ve seen all the pictures of everyone else’s and thought it might be a fun new twist on oatmeal, but I was a little chicken to try it. I can’t put my finger on why because I generally love trying new twists on favorite dishes, but something about the overnight oats scared me. Maybe it was the fact that they’re cold? No idea. Regardless I decided to buy some oats while I was at Whole Foods the other day and took the plunge a couple of nights ago.

Behold, my very first bowl of overnight oats! I didn’t measure a thing that I put into this first batch because I just wasn’t thinking. I was too excited to see how things would turn out to even consider a measuring cup/spoon. It’s hard to tell, but this is a pretty small tupperware dish so I just added some oats, some unsweetened plain almond milk, some nonfat plain Chobani, a generous helping of cinnamon, and a small handful of raisins. I considered adding some agave, but decided I’d try it without it to see how it went. They turned out amazing! Somehow not only did the oats absorb the liquid from the almond milk and Chobani, they absorbed some of the sweetness from the raisins. Amazing! So amazing that I can’t stop eating them.

The second batch turned out considerably different from the first (that’s what I get for not measuring the first time), but equally delicious. This time I used 2/3 c. oats, 1/2 c. almond milk, and 1 heaping Tbsp. of Chobani (I still didn’t measure my cinnamon or raisins). Yum! I can’t wait to try adding some figs to this concoction and basically anything else I can think of. If you haven’t tried overnight oats yet, you’re missing out. Plus I can make them the night before and then just pull them out of the fridge when I wake up. This is great news for me because I’m always struggling to make it out the door on time these days.

Do you try to mix up your food choices and try new things on occasion? If you have tried overnight oats, what is your favorite topping/add-in? I’m super excited to try new things.

For now I’m off to this #BostonHLB meetup. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of updates about that soon! Bye for now.

Similar Posts:

• WIAW: The Fall Veggie Routine
• Trying the Grasshopper
• Finding What Works & Giveaway Winner
• Pesce-what?
• The Great American Meatout – A Day Late