Madi’s Wellness Journey – January

 Welcome to my first post from 2020 – I hope you’re all off to a wonderful second semester! Mine’s been good, but it’s also been a little stressful between applying to schools for next year and a very intensive course change. In short, I had been on some waitlists and was able to enroll in these courses on Wednesday of this week thanks to the biology department (a big thank you to them – they worked some miracles), but as a result 3 of my 4 courses needed to be changed. While I had made lots of exciting plans for this weekend including visiting the Lansdowne Farmers’ Market and capitalizing on the Canal being frozen by Saturday, I just wanted to catch my breath from a busy week and by Sunday I felt my body needed a quiet day at home. 

On Saturday, I did my weekly grocery shopping. I love eating fresh however I fully recognize how much that can add up as a student. To capitalize on sales in my area, I make use of the app Flipp which allows you to price match weekly ads at one store that honours price matching such as Walmart or Superstore. As I mentioned in previous vlogs, I am not a big fan of meal prepping just because I get bored eating the same thing every day and I’m only feeding one person so food lasts a while. However, I do like mincing garlic, pressing tofu, cooking grains & baking in preparation for the week ahead. I find that carving the hour/hour and a half out of my weekend to do so makes my week a lot more manageable and makes eating nutritionally way faster and easier. 

While I do love mornings and I LOVE brunch, I like my mornings lazy and I don’t love eating first thing in the morning. Since I have a couple early and busy mornings a week, I try to prepare a breakfast item that is easy to take on the go so I can my breakfast in class or at work when I get hungry. This week I decided to make baked blueberry oatmeal cups, see below for the recipe!

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Cups

Yield: 12 muffins 

Ingredients

• 3 cups quick cooking Oats (tip: if you have a gluten sensitivity, look for a brand marked gluten-free) 
• ½ cup packed brown sugar or maple syrup or honey (I used brown sugar) 
• 2 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt 
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 eggs, beaten (tip: if you are plant-based or sensitive to eggs you can substitute 1 egg with 1 flax egg [1 flax egg: combine 1 tbsp ground flaxseed with 3 tbsp water) 
• 1 cup milk (any kind, I used coconut) 
• ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil (I used coconut oil) 
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) 

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350; grease muffin tins and set aside 
• In a large bowl, combine the oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
• In a smaller bowl, mix eggs, milk and butter 
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, fold in blueberries 
• Pour oatmeal mixture into muffin tins 
• Bake 18-25 minutes, or until cups are golden 

Allow to cool before transferring to a container for storage. These can be stored in the fridge for up to one week or frozen to preserve freshness, just microwave for 30 seconds (then toast – I LOVE these toasted with nut butter) and enjoy!

Check out my vlog to see my meal prep, my recipe in action and some of the ways I practiced wellness in a busy start to the semester! 

I’ll be back with another one soon until then stay groovy and make wellness a priority!