TGIF!!

***I added a new blog to my list today called "cjane enjoy it". Please take a moment to read their story. It's about a fellow blogger who's sister and brother in law were involved in a plane crash mid August. They were both burned badly and will be hospitalized for months. The couple have 4 young children who are being cared for by family. The family could use all the support and prayers that we can offer right now. Thank you!***


YIPEE!! The weekend is here! Looking back, the week went pretty well (aside from my sleep issues!). This first week of school has been a success. I think the kids have settled into their new classrooms and both really like their teachers. Us four payroll gurus managed to send off the first pay of the school year without too many glitches.

Something very odd happened this morning. When I woke up I wasn't craving oats! This only happens very rarely. Usually when I'm not eating oats it's because I convince myself to try something different. Today I actually wanted something different! So I made a blueberry pancake....wait! It does have a 1/3 cup of oats in it!! :) Here's the recipe from the Hungry Girl website.

HG's Very Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients:
1/3 cup regular oats (not instant or steel cut)
1/4 cup blueberries
3 tbsp. egg whites
1 tbsp. nonfat milk
1 tbsp. fat-free cottage cheese
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. flour
1 no-calorie sweetener packet
2 tbsp. water
pinch salt

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except for the blueberries and stir until well mixed. Gently fold in blueberries. In a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray, drop batter into pan to form 3 pancakes (or 1 big pancake). Once pancakes begin to look solid (about 3 minutes), gently flip (if possible, re-spritz the pan with nonstick spray as you flip 'em to prevent sticking). Cook for approximately 3 additional minutes, or until both sides are lightly browned and insides are cooked through. Now plate those suckers and enjoy. Serves 1

Serving Size: Entire recipe
Calories: 201
Fat: 2g
Sodium: 295mg
Carbs: 32g
Fiber: 4g
Sugars: 6g
Protein: 13g
*3 Points

The only changes I made were: 1) unsweetened Almond Breeze for the milk 2) fat free plain yogurt instead of cottage cheese and 3) a squirt of Agave instead of sweetener.




This pancake is gigantic and fills me up every time! I topped it with 1 Tbsp of sugar free maple syrup. I should make the recipe more often and try subbing in different fruits!

Today was super windy! And rainy on and off. I imagine Southern Ontario is getting the tail end of the hurricane's that are brewing out at sea. I almost blew away when I went home at lunch to do my run. Speaking of my run...did it ever feel good! I ran at a faster speed today and worked up a good sweat.

Lunch was leftover "Leftover Soup". Like most soups, this one was even better today! It just seemed more luscious that last night. During the winter months I'm a huge soup girl. It takes the Canadian winter chill out of my bones. I also had about a cup of crisp red grapes...just the way I like'em!





This afternoon at work went dreadfully slow, but don't all Friday afternoon's? I'm just glad it's over. I nibbled on 1/2 cup dry Kellogg's Guardian cereal while I waited for 4:30pm. I wasn't really hungry...just bored.



Just look at the rain that started literally 5 minutes before it was time to leave for the weekend!



Because there are renovations going on at the office, the parking lot was pretty much a mud puddle. Not a good thing when you're wearing flip flops!!

I had a bit of running around to do tonight so I wanted a quick dinner. I popped a Kashi frozen meal into the microwave. This one is called Lemongrass Coconut Chicken and it was awesome!



All those Kashi grains gave it tons of chew and texture and there were some pretty decent size pieces of chicken in there, too! I paired it up with an English muffin.



Dessert was an All Bran chocolate chip bar. This was the last one. I bought a different kind last night. That flavor is Cinnamon Oatmeal. Should be good, but I bet not as good as the chocolate chip one! :)




My daughter starts her dance classes on Monday after school. She takes jazz & hip hop. I have jazz shoes for her that I bought second hand from a lady at work who's daughter out grew them, but we needed the hip hop shoes. Those babies are worth a pretty penny! Oh, well...my daughter thoroughly enjoys dance so the shoes are worth every penny! We also had to go buy a birthday present for a party that she's been invited to tomorrow afternoon and we went on the hunt for rain boots and rain coats. Who knew that rain gear was only available in the spring?? Not me! Needless to say, we didn't find anything! After 2 hours of traipsing around the mall we figured we deserved a treat, so off to Starbuck's we went! It really is a good thing that Starbuck's isn't close to my house or I'd be broke! She ordered a hot chocolate and seeing as it was cool out I ordered one of my fall faves, a Grande skinny pumpkin latte.



I really missed this flavor! I've seen some pretty cool Starbuck travel mugs on some blogs lately so I think I've decided to buy one for myself. I was disappointed in the lack of selection at the store I was at. They only had one design and I wasn't really fond of it. Guess I'll have to keep checking in until one catches my eye.

Last night I finished a really good book. It was called "Remembering the Bones" by Frances Itani.



This was a really good book. One of those ones that I couldn't put down and was sad to see the end of. Now I have to go scavenging around the house to see if I can find another book that I haven't read yet.

Bye for now!