You Asked, I Answered

Not much excitement surrounded me today so I decided it would be the perfect time to answer all your questions that you asked abut me. You’ll find a Q&A between photos of my eats. ENJOY!! (And feel free to ask me more if you’d like!)

VeggieGirl

Question for you - what is one activity that you've been dying to try?

After spending as much time as I have been at the rink, I really have an urge to try hockey. I mean, REALLY. Too bad I can hardly skate! The boys (and my hubby) make it look so easy and fun. One of the other Mom’s on the team just started playing net on a team this year and I’m so jealous…although net would be dead last on which position I would want to play!

Breakfast

-1 cup coffee
-1/3 cup sunrise blend with quinoa
-pumpkin puree
-raisins
-cashew butter
-carob chips
-cinnamon sugar

Anon
when did your weight loss journey begin, and how is it juggling two young kids and a hubby?

I never had an issue maintaining a healthy wait until I had a hysterectomy almost 5 years ago. Very shortly afterwards I realized that my weight had gone up about 10lbs and I was starting to develop an unsightly “roll” around my abdomen that was much different from the after effects of giving birth. I vowed then (in the summer of 2005) that I would do what it took to get back into shape. I had gotten a treadmill for Christmas the year before and started using it every night. I also starting following Weight Watchers although I never officially “joined”. It took 9 months to get the weight off and I’ve pretty much kept it all off. AND I’m in great shape now….better than I’ve ever been. In order to not take time away from my family I always hopped on the treadmill or went for a walk after the kids went to bed. Now I use the office gym over my lunch hour to get it done. Sometimes when the weather is nice and I feel like a run, I’ll take the kids with me on their bikes. Where there is a will, there is a way!

Morning Snack
Cookies & Cream Luna bar
Now my favourite of all the Luna flavours I’ve tried. This was exactly like an Oreo cookie!!

Cassie

I was wondering what your growing up situation was--did you have brothers/sisters..and what did you participate in during high school

I am the oldest of 3 siblings. I have one brother who is 4 years younger than me and a sister who is 11.5yrs younger than me! I was definitely more athletic in high school than I was “brainy” and played volleyball and soccer and was on the cycling team. I tried cheerleading in grade 9 and quickly realized that it was NOT my cup of tea!

GYM

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 166
Max Hr: 185
Calories Torched: 483
Distance: 4.4 mile on the treadmill

Lunch (sad as it was!)
All I could scrounge up in our next to empty fridge was leftover barley, peas and the carrots. Thank God I’m grocery shopping tomorrow!! Somehow a few of these made it past my lips, too!

Faith

what's your favourite dish (to make or eat)?, and what would you do if you could do anything for a day

I don’t really have a favourite dish to eat, but I do like to make lasagna. I like all the different steps involved in the process because cooking/baking is a huge stress reliever for me. Being in the kitchen always relaxes and calms me.

Afternoon Snack
GRAPES! I’ve been seriously lacking in the produce area of my eats but I think I made up for it today!!! :D

Julie

I wanna know how you and your hubs met

Well, let see….I met him in the earlier part of January 1995 through a friend that I worked with. I had a BF at the time and it turned out that he started dating said BF’s sister. We got to know each other better and soon ditched the “others” and started dating by the end of March. I know, it didn’t take long at all! :D The following year (July 1996) we moved in together and then we got married in May of ’98. We were both 24….

Dinner
I roasted up a pork tenderloin and served it with some edamame and leftover jade grain blend. There’s also some Ted Readers peach bourbon sauce for dipping.

I bought a new tea the other night that I wanted to share with you.

It’s coconut rum….how could I leave that in the store??? And it’s very, very good!

I hope you enjoyed this Q&A post! I’ll leave you with a picture of the necklace I wore to work today. It’s one of my favourite ones to wear in the colder seasons;

Bye for now!!

Lunch Time Treats

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my American friends!!! I hope that you are all pleasantly stuffed with your food of choice. I know I’m looking forward to seeing and reading about all the scrumptiousness on your blogs. Is anyone planning on walking your meals off while shopping on Black Friday? I have some crazy co-workers who brave the line ups (and the border) to catch some great deals.

My morning started out early as the babes had appointments to get their immunizations. DD got the regular flu shot and poor DS got the second half of the H1N1 in one arm and the flu shot in the other. What a trooper. I had no time for oats so I made a quick bowl of cereal. So quick, in fact, that I forgot to take a picture of it! Luckily, I still have the boxes. I had 1 cup of this one;
½ cup of that one;

And a good pour or two of this;

Fabulous!

Seeing as breakfast came an hour early, snack time did, too! I brought a Pumpkin Nut Muffin along to enjoy with my morning Stash.
I always keep snacks on the lighter side for Thursday’s because I know I can’t get into the gym for a sweat sesh at lunch.

Speaking of lunch, guess what I did on mine today? BAKE! Yup, you read that right! I’ve wanted to make Mama Peas Vegan Energy Bars for a while now and decided I had enough time to get it done in my allotted hour.
See? Don’t they look mouth watering??? I also put some turkey sausages and barley into the crock pot for dinner tonight. I reasoned that working until 4:30 and then having to leave the house at 5:10 for skating lessons wouldn’t leave a whole lot of time for cooking dinner. And DS had to be on the ice at 5 so my hubby couldn’t help out.

While busy doing all this, my lunch was busy getting toasty AND melty in the oven! I topped 2 slices of sun dried tomato bread with goat’s milk brie and popped it in the oven with the bars.
On the side was some cottage cheese mixed with pumpkin puree, cinnamon and agave;
All together it made for a fab, filling lunch!

And you bet that I ate an energy bar as an afternoon pick me up seeing as I knew dinner would be late and all!

These were a HUGE hit with the fam. By the time I got home from work all the centre pieces were a thing of the past! (I cut the batch into 12 squares). DS told me that the energy they gave him made him “super fast” at practice. LOL!!

I ate my dinner after skating lessons. Just a turkey sausage and some barely because we are all out of veggies!! I’m not happy about that but I’ll be doing groceries this weekend so I’ll be stocking up big time. Anyways, here’s my monochromatic plate;

I had a piece of Endangered Species chocolate for a sweet end.

I’ll soon be settling in to watch CSI and The Vampire Diaries. Looking forward to the relaxation.

Bye for now!!

Dinner On The Run

Hi guys!! Everyone have a good hump day? I’m betting that quite a few of you are uber excited for tomorrow, no?? LOL! Well, the day dawned foggy, damp and wet. Better than snow any day, I say! This time last year we already had a whack of the white stuff. I just hope we don’t get majorly dumped on when it does decide to rear its ugly white head!
-1/2 cup water, ½ cup USVAB
-1/4 cup Quaker oats
-1/2 cup Weetabix crumbs
-cinnamon
-pumpkin puree
-crunchy PB & chocolate honey
LOVE!

Work was busy today so it went FAST. Before I knew it, it was almost lunch. I pulled out my snack and went to town!
The cranberry orange nut bread Clif bar is awesome! Has anyone else tried it yet? I loved the strong orange vs. the subtle cranberry. I really, really hope I can find the season Clif’s around here ASAP!

It was hot date Wednesday with good ole Mr. Elliptical today! He’s a pro at getting me all hot and sweaty! :D

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 147
Max Hr: 168
Calories Torched: 393
Distance: 4.5 miles

Lunch was the last Al Fresco chicken sausage with a nice helping of jade grain blend. I added a wee bit of butter to moisten the grains up and oh la la, the fabulous flavour!! There was also some really good quality Dijon for dipping.
When the clock struck 4:30 I was out the door faster than a cat with turpentine up its ass! I had 30 minutes to pick up the fam and drive to the next town over (about 20 minutes away) so that DS was ready to get on the ice for a 5:20 training sesh with his team at the Hockey Loft. PHEW! As per the menu plan for tonight, last night I made the chicken Caesar salad wraps for the fam. Mine contained goat brie and chicken tossed in a raspberry walnut dressing.
YUM! Although it was a bit awkward to eat in the Jeep! And the picture is REALLY bad! ;)

I just sat down to watch “The Biggest Loser: Where Are They Now?” Should be an interesting show! I’m definitely curious to see what some of the contestants look like after life on the ranch!

Bye for now!!

A New Chocolate Bar

It has been foggy and overcast all day today. Usually the fog burns off mid morning so it’s odd to see that it’s still hanging around. Eerie! I started the day off with a bit of a sleep in seeing as I’m on 8:30am start this week. Almost felt like a weekend! I made a great breakfast, too!
-1 cup USVAB
-1/4 cup polenta
-cinnamon
-1/2 cup frozen blueberries
-chopped walnuts
I loved this meal. It was completely satisfying. Polenta and blueberries are a great mix, really. Just give my Blueberry Almond Cornbread a try!

Work was the usual today. Earning a few more dollars, anyways! There was an open house in one of the departments today so I popped by at break and grabbed a few treats;
This plate of goodies became my pre workout snack!

The gym was on the warm side again today so I stuck to a 10 minutes mile so as not to get that gross sick feeling I got last week when it was a sauna in there.

Time: 40 minutes
Avg Hr: 164
Max Hr: 183
Calories Torched: 446
Distance: 4 miles

Lunch of course was the rest of last night’s dinner. I didn’t bother with any pasta today though because the sauce had thickened up so it was more like rich turkey stew than anything.
This smelled wonderful! I actually had a few people comment on the aroma as I pulled it out of the microwave. The turkey stayed nice and moist and this little bit filled my belly right up. Enough so that I didn’t bother with an afternoon snack like I usually do.

I made myself some baked tofu tonight. I let it soak up some soy sauce and OJ while the oven was pre heating to get all nice and flavourful. I baked it up for 20 min at 375*. I served it along side some steamed vegetables and jade grain blend mix;

DD helped me out with the tofu…too much for me! Here’s what’s in the grain blend; Dessert was another of Manon’s raw mini orange cheesecakes, but no picture tonight! Most things look bad with the flash, some just look awful and these little gems are way to good to look crappy.

I stopped by the health food store after Pilate’s hoping that they would have the seasonal Clif bars by now. No such luck. I did find this gorgeous chocolate bar, though;

Check out this link for more info and a better picture! This chocolate is very intense in flavour and has some crispiness to it from the cacao nibs. YUM!

Well, the Biggest Loser is on now so that means I’m outta here!!

Bye for now!!

Menu Planning Week 4

Here we are at a brand new week. How about that? And it’s another closer to Christmas! I’m starting to get a bit excited about it. I brought some decorations out over the weekend and am just itching to finish the job. Anyone else excited for Christmas? I imagine all my American friends are totally psyched about Thanksgiving on Thursday, eh?

I was flipping TIRED after getting up at the crack of dawn to go to the rink. Yowzers! But it was DD who is still suffering from her lack of zzz’s after her weekend sleep over that really felt the early morning. Poor me! :D I whipped up an egg sandwich to eat on the drive over;
This is toasted WW bread, ¼ cup egg beaters and a LC cheese wedge. I didn’t think it would hold me over for long, but it ended up sticking around for almost 4 hours.

Today was strictly data entry at work which succeeded in making me one dozy gal. LOL! I broke for a pumpkin nut muffin around 11am.
I’m on 12:30 lunch this week so I pushed my snack back a little further.

I opted out of the gym today. I’ve been fighting a headache for the past few days which I thought was odd until I went home at lunch and noticed all the pollen floating in the air! Regardless, I was really just too tired and wanted to spend an hour at home with my fur babies. No guilt involved! I watched Dr. Oz, flipped through my new Shape magazine and sipped on a cup of pumpkin pie flavoured coffee. I went back to work ready to face the next 3 hours.

Lunch was leftovers, of course! I packed up the last of the roast from last Wednesday along with Thursday’s potatoes and a good squirt of mango wasabi mustard;
Classy plastic container, eh? The meat was on the dry side, but I reasoned that that’s what my teeth were for. Good think I keep floss at my desk, though!! Hehe…

Later in the afternoon I snacked on some of these grapes.
Hey! Like my faux flower arrangement?
I bought the rocks and “flowers” at the dollar store yesterday. Here’s the one I put together for the house;
LOVE this one! So festive and pretty….and CHEAP!

Dinner tonight followed the meal plan below. I cooked up some chopped onion in a bit of basil infused olive oil, then added 3 cut up turkey tenders. Once they were pretty much cooked through I added some TJ’s spinach sauce, some tomato sauce, oregano, chili powder, nutritional yeast, salt & pepper. I served it over about a 1/2 cup of penne;

Yum! Guess what’s for lunch tomorrow? LOL! The fam had pretty much the same only their sauce was made with extra lean ground beef.

Here’s what the food is looking like for this week…

Meal Planning Week 4

Monday – Dance (6-6:45)
-pasta with veggies and turkey cutlets

Tuesday – Pilate’s (6:15-7:15)
-Chicken Kiev (pre made) for the fam
-baked tofu for me
-veggies
-jade grain blend

Wednesday – Hockey (5:30-6:30 out of town)
-chicken Caesar wraps for fam
-mango wasabi chicken wraps for me
(wraps prepared Tuesday night)

Thursday – hockey (5-5:50) & skating (5:30-6:20)
-turkey sausages
-couscous
-veggies

Friday – FREE
-roasted pork tenderloin
-peas
-leftover jade grain blend

Wednesday night will be the wonkiest of the week. I decided on wraps because they’re easy to eat while driving. I’ve really enjoyed getting back into meal planning and am going to continue for the next 2 weeks (after this one) for sure, but with a twist! I’ll reveal said twist next Sunday so stay tuned. I think later in the month of December will be too difficult to adhere to specific meals, but I may try regardless.

After dinner we made our way to DD’s dance studio for their Christmas open house. I love getting the chance to see what she’s been learning. She's into hip hop again this year. One thing I learned tonight was that the instructor works those girls! Man alive! Here’s a shot of her in action;

She’ll kill me if she finds out I posted this. Too bad I can’t get a video to load for me!

After dance was done I picked my Mom up and we went to the mall so she could do some Christmas shopping for the kids. Two hours later we were finally done. Good thing, too, because the mall was closing! I stopped at Starbuck’s on the way out for a grande 1 pump pumpkin spice NF Earl Grey misto;

Right now I kinda feel like the lady in the crispy mini commercial…”I didn’t go to the gym today, but I did walk the mall for 2 hours…I think I will have a treat!” Enter one of Manon’s raw mini orange cheesecakes!!

Bye for now!!

Santa Has Arrived

DD spent the night at a friends house so it was nice and quiet this morning. Not that she is loud, it’s just that DS had no one to fight with! :D I enjoyed my bowl of oats while blog reading. Nice…

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup PC 5 grain cereal
• cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice
• raisins
• pumpkin puree
• chocolate honey
• cashew butter

Nom, nom!

I hopped in the shower before DD came home so I was at least presentable when she got dropped off. People who don’t normally see me in the morning would probably be pretty shocked at how bad I look. ;) Plus, we had a special party to go to at 11! My work held their kids Christmas party today and the kids were quite excited for it! Many crafts were made;

And presents were handed out by the big guy himself!

Pizza was served for lunch. I had a small slice of cheese pizza as well as an almond butter/pear ginger jam sandwich that I took along;

We were home by 1:30, but not for long because DS had a 3pm hockey game. They tied 3-3 today which was awesome because they were losing 3-1 until the last 4 minutes of the game! Here they are celebrating after the 3rd goal was scored;

By the time we got back home it was time to get supper cooking. My hubby BBQ’d some chicken breasts and I warmed up a pot of beans and the leftover broccoli from last night. Here’s what my plate looked like;

My sweet end was 3 chocolate chip cookies along with a chamomile tea at my parents place.

I’m just tucking in now to watch The Amazing Race. DS has 6am practice in the morning so it will be an early bedtime for sure. How was everybody’s weekend? Do anything special/fun?

Bye for now!!

A New Muffin Recipe

The was a little bit more substance to my day today than yesterday, that’s for sure! I got to sleep a little late last night so wake up time ended up being 8:30! You bet I was good and hungry!

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 kamut flakes
• cinnamon
• cranberry sauce
• Enjoy Life Foods mountain mix

We left for DS’s hockey game shortly after eating. Our boys lost again. I feel so bad for them. They just can’t seem to catch a win lately! At least they don’t appear to be discouraged by it.

I wasn’t terribly hungry when we got home but we had some errands to run…one stop being Costco…and I didn’t want to be hungry while out. I opted to polish off my goat’s milk yogurt with a scoop of cinnamon plum tea jam and a sprinkle of Bear Naked granola;

I was lazy and just ate it out of the container. Here’s a shot of the granola that I used;

I’ve tried a few of the Bear Naked products and have liked them all. This one was particularly good because of the freeze dried fruit in it. I also at a small chocolate honey/almond butter WW sammie.

I found some pretty great deals at Costco today. One was the goat’s milk Brie that was only $5.99!

I had a taste when we got home and it is spectacular! I also bought myself one of Rachael Ray’s cookbooks:

This would normally be $20.00 and I got it for $15.00! I’ll be browsing through this after posting. My hubby bought the movie “UP” which we watched when we got home. It was pretty good!

Then it was dinner time. I cooked up these Al Fresco sausages from Wegman’s;

I love this brand of chicken sausage and always sneak a few packs over the border when I go to the States. Shhh…I served mine with some steamed broccoli and cottage cheese. BEWARE! I forgot to take a picture until I was half way through. Ooops! Better late than never, right???

Dessert was a bumble blossom from Chudleigh’s, our local apple orchard.

I had some time on my hands before my parents came over so I decided to use it wisely and bake. I made some Pumpkin Nut Muffins and here’s the recipe! :D

• 1 cup WW flour
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup agave
• 1/4 cup Egg Beaters (or 1 egg)
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup vanilla flavoured “milk” (I used USVAB)
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

1. Heat oven to 400*
2. Combine flour, baking powder and soda, salt
3. Add oats
4. Add remaining ingredients
5. Stir to combine
6. Fill greased muffin cups 1/2 way and bake for 20 minutes

I haven’t actually tried one yet, but they smell divine!

My Mom helped me take down my draperies in the front window and wash them. Am I a Saturday night party or what?? :D Well, I’m off to dive into that new cookbook. Hope you’ve all enjoyed a great Saturday!!

Bye for now!!