Plumtastic!

So the recent discovery that (ohmygoodnessiknow!) you don’t actually have to put a banana into overnight oats led me to quite a bit of experimentation in my breakfast prep for the week.

This morning’s batch was especially plum-tastic because it involved this little fig.

“This little figgy went to market; this little figgy stayed home.”

–Figs? Plums? Not the same thing you dummy.

I know, I know. But the fig was so much cuter than the super-ripe plums, so you get his picture instead.

It really was a plum-tastic breakfast, as I started with my ordinary mixture (sans banana) of 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 Tbsp. each of oat and wheat bran, cinnamon, nutmeg, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, and 1/4 milk (the coconut variety is what I’m currently working with).
Then in went my deliciously sweet and juicy plums!
Plus that little dried fig all chopped up. [OK, and THEN the milk...but you get the idea.]
Stirred and did a little plum dance….which I will let you imagine on your own….
And, just in case I forgot what I had put in there…a few figlets and plum pieces on top. This was SO yummy plummy, even if the skin dyed the concoction a wee bit purple. Don’t know where the fig-plum pairing happened* in my brain, but it was a perfect match!

*Actually, I do. As I was making this, I kept thinking “plum pudding” in my head, which somehow translated to me humming “Now bring us some figgy pudding…” and thus, the connection.

I also brought along a bunch of All-Bran Bran Buds for crunch…but ended up not wanting them…perhaps they will reappear tomorrow.
My mid-morning (and mid-orientation-session) snack was some watermelon and the last of the “Dewlicious” Melon. [Still love the name.]
My salad was a spinach salad…
…topped with ‘shrooms, tomaters, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, and some random green onions I still had left from my 10-Layer Greek Dip.
Onions? BAD PLAN. I don’t know why I always think I want them, but they leave onion-i-ness in your mouth all afternoon and no amount of sweet, wonderful Sweet Mint Orbit can do the trick in replenishing your mouth to a fresh state. Never again. The only onions I want to eat are the caramelized version. (Or those that make their way into salsa.)
Here is the final product!
Yes, I have taken to eating my salad with chopsticks. Everything is more fun when eaten with chopsticks. You’ll also note the requisite hummus-and-cottage cheese, plus a new addition to the lunchbag: Stacy’s Garden Veggie Medley pita chips!
These are delicious! I fell in love with them when I arrived at Sprouts on Saturday and the whole tray of samples had been picked over, leaving my favorite, salty, chiplets behind. Luckily no one caught me scraping my hand along the tray to salvage all I could.

After a long afternoon of inventory in the school book room (which was actually a lot more fun than it sounds), I quietly gasped, “I need a snack!” and escaped the windowless cell. [Again, it was actually a lot of fun to bond with my team.]

Luckily, my stomach had many options to choose from, as my school snack drawer is getting pretty stocked!
You never know when you (or your kids) will be hungry. [All of that has been acquired for FREE during training sessions by the way. I am a supersleuth.]

I chose the apple for a pre-workout snack.
Post workout, I met some bloggers (including new Austinites, Meredith and Caitlin) and friends at Salvation Pizza for dinner.
It was a cute restaurant, where you felt like you were just hanging out at someone’s entirely wood-paneled house.
I wasn’t really in a pizza mood for whatever reason, so I asked for the house salad to be topped with some artichoke hearts for a little excitement. This was actually a really nice salad, and the sun-dried tomato vinaigrette was AMAZING. [I might have just eaten three tablespoons of tomato-infused olive oil as the most substantial part of my dinner...but...]
Lots of pizza graced our table! [I loved the cool stackers.]
Cara ordered a mushroom, prosciutto, and pineapple pizza. [We are friends because we like weird food combinations...among other reasons, of course. ]
She let me steal a piece, and it was WONDERFUL. There was very little cheese, which could be a bad thing depending on your perspective, but I prefer a higher sauce to cheese ratio on my ‘pie.’ The crust was thin and a perfect crisp/chew balance. Smoky and scrumptious!
See you soon, Smarties!