Friendly skies

Wow! What a difference a bright blue sky makes in the morning when it comes to dragging your butt out of bed at 5am. As we remember yesterday I failed to get up at 5am to make it to the gym for swimming at 6:30. I blamed it on the overcast looking sky. Well as per this mornings results, I do believe that was the true cause ;)

This morning the sky was so bright looking (yes it is looking bright at 5am here now). It looked like it was such nice weather out, how could I stay in bed and not get out to enjoy the day.

More on that later.

Last night I met up with one of my bestest friends Amanda. Amanda and I live a good hour and a half apart (she in Mississauga and I in Bowmanville). But we make efforts to get together as often as possible. Even for dinners after work.

Amanda was great and found this sushi place just off the 401 at Avenue road called Nara Sushi. It is a pretty good half way meeting point for us both, that way one isn't driving further than the other.

Being that it was 7 before we got together we were pretty hungry, though I just didn't know it yet.

We decided to order together and share. Mmmmm so much goodness!
California rolls, spicy crab rolls, and salmon skin rolls. Sashimi and some sushi to boot!

I really love the smiling fish boat it came out on.

Amanda and I spend almost 2 hours at dinner, eating and catching up. With the amount of work that I have been working lately (just in case I had been laid off) and with Amanda's school schedule (finishing up her MBA - 601 class), we had a lot to catch each other up on.

We parted ways and decided we would find more random places to try that are half way for us both every few weeks until our schedules slow down.

So as I said I got up this morning for a bike ride to the swimming pool. I live a 5 minute bike ride to the local pool. But I wasn't going to ride there. PEOPLE I'M TRAINING FOR A TRY-A-TRI! I was going to ride my bike 8k to Newcastle to use the pool there.

I knew that I was in for a good hour and a half and a lot of burning of calories. So no working out on an empty stomach. I needed something that was going to give me energy, but not be too heavy in my stomach. The last apple Larabar. I don't know why until this morning I didn't fully appreciate the yumminess of this flavour. I kept trying all these other 'exotic' flavours, and didn't like them one bit. But this was just what I needed. While eating I turned on CP24 to catch up on some news, weather and all is going on in the world.

WHOAH! Cam Wolley says that it feels like it's in the minus out this morning! ACK! Good thing I turned on the news.

I grabbed my winter tuque, my mini mitts and fluffed the hood of my sweater around my neck like a scarf to go out on my bike.

Oh boy! It sure was crisp out at 6am this morning. But so calm, peaceful and relaxing. The sun was slowly coming up. This made the ride that much more enjoyable. And I was surprised that the ride wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be (lots of long gradual inclines). I'm kinda proud of myself.

During the 31 minutes I spent in the pool, I went between elation at how quick I went to frustration at my stroke technique. Sadly I felt more the later the majority of the swim. 2 weeks away from the pool clearly effected me. I am def gonna ramp up my swimming because with out the technique I'm not gonna do well in an open body of water with 50+ other swimmers.

I tried to go through my changing quickly to simulate T1 of the Tri. Took me about 8-9 minutes, but I also had to pack up my backpack too, which I won't be doing at the Tri.

The ride home I think was much windier, and really the time difference shows it. It took me 20 minutes to ride to the pool and 23 to ride home. If the wind wasn't blowing at me from my right side, it shifted to blow at me from head on. The best part of the ride home has got to be passing Algoma Orchards. All I could smell was apple pies being baked. The apple cinnamony goodness!

Back home jumped in the shower to wash all the chemicals off me and lotion up so that my skin doesn't dry out. Then true breakfast time.

Here I needed something that was going to sit in my stomach and keep me full until lunch time. Nothing keeps you full like some oatmeal. But not just any kind of oatmeal.

OIAJ!!

Almond butter this time instead of the cashew butter that I had last round.

About 2 tbsp left, perfect amount!

1/3 cup of quick oats.

* Not pictured *

• 1/8 cup of egg whites (1egg white)
• 2/3 cup of water
• 1tbsp chia seeds

Take 1 banana and break it into several pieces. Then I toss it in the microwave to make it easier to mash up. Add some cinnamon and nutmeg (inspiration from the apple pie aroma from earlier) & mash! Toss the banana mixture into the jar and heat for 1.5 mins. Then I mix it up, making sure to get all that nut buttery goodness from the bottom of the jar. Heat for another 30 seconds. Voila! I topped today's OIAJ with some pumpkin seeds for some crunch and some dried blueberries. Mix together and enjoy.All gone! I love OIAJ. They are quite possibly my favourite new food I discovered through following blogs. Do you eat OIAJ? What is your favourite flavour combinations?

OIAJ

The other day when I made my most recent batch of 5 Minute No Bake Granola Bars, I finished off my Cashew Butter.

Or did I?

Following a few blogs, I have discovered this wonderful creation called OIAJ.

What is OIAJ?

Oats In A Jar.

So here is what you do.

Take your 'empty' jar of nut butter. Here is mine!
See how there is that little little bit still around the edges of the jar and in the bottom. Still lots of tasty goodness in there. So use this jar as your morning bowl.

Add

1. 1 cup of water
2. 1/3 cup of oats
3. 1/8 cup or 1 egg white

Take one banana. I thew mine on a plate, nuked it for 30 seconds, took it out and mashed it up, nuking it again for another 30 seconds. Then I threw it in my jar, along with some Chia seeds and ground flax. Tossed that in the microwave for 1 minute. Then I topped it with some Kashi granola cereal, unsweetened coconut, dried blueberries and goji berries. Stir and mix together. This was my first experience with OIAJ. I really didn't know what to expect. Pretty much, and I don't want to sound like I am downplaying it because my OIAJ were fabulous! It's nut butter oatmeal in a jar.

I highly recommend you try this the next time your jar is 'empty' or almost empty.

Have you ever tried OIAJ before? What is your favourite items to add to your OIAJ?