New Food: Dragon Fruit

The bulk of today was spent outside as it was GLORIOUS!! I slept until 8am before I finally crawled out of bed to make breakfast. Here's my eats;
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup TAZO chai tea concentrate
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
-mashed banana
-2 tbsp dried fruit
-cinnamon sprinkles
I love using chai tea in my oats. It gives them a nice spicy kick. I only had a bit left so I decided to finish it off. My hubby and sis went to the driving range this morning so I decided to make another batch of almond butter while he was gone. I made this batch with a cool twist...

Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter

*1lb of almonds
*2 tbsp maple syrup
*1 tbsp cinnamon
I mixed everything together and popped it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350*.
I let the almonds cool for about 10 minutes before processing them. This batch took about 20 minutes to come together. I was getting a little worried that it wasn't going to work! I was relieved when it finally came together.
This turned out really good!! You can bet I had my share of tastes along the way!

By the time I had that all cleaned up and some housework done, it was time for lunch. I made a toasted English muffin topped with a new favourite, a 1/4 of an avocado mashed with a LC cheese wedge. Then I placed a tomato wedge over each piece.
Nirvana. This was really satisfying! My lunch dessert was a small piece of Caramel Banana Bread.
I think this was even better today! It's really moist and flavourful and hard to stay away from!

We all went for a trail walk this afternoon at a trail on the outskirts of town. It was the perfect day for it! Warm, but not enough so that there are bug issues. The terrain is full of obstacles like rocks and roots and fallen trees which made it all the more fun!! I wore my HRM but it was acting up for the first little bit. It took us just under an hour to walk the whole route and I burned about 225 calories. When we got home my hub and I spent about another hour pulling weeds from the yard. Fun times. I look at it as a bit of a workout and that makes it better! I was feeling snacky so I whipped of a green monster to sip on. This one had a generous handful of spinach, frozen banana, flax seed and a 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond breeze.
Very banana-y and delightful!

I finally got time to try my new food out today! I decided to be brave and buy a Dragon Fruit.
Funny looking thing, eh? It was so pretty when I cut it open! Check this out...
After doing some research online on how to go about eating one of these, I opted to quarter it and cut the flesh out much like you would for a melon. How did it taste? Well, DD and I both agreed that it was very similar in taste and texture to a kiwi. I really enjoyed it and am glad that I gave it a whirl. They're a bit costly so I don't think it's something I would buy all the time, but as a treat every now and again? SURE! Yo can learn more about dragon fruits right here.

Even though today is a holiday here in Canada, the kids still had their sports as usual. I dropped DD off at dance for 5 and then came home to get dinner started. We had chicken grilled on the BBQ that I marinated for an hour in this TJ's Cuban simmering sauce...
This sauce was courtesy of Mr.C! I also made steamed green beans and WW couscous for a side dish;
I really didn't need a sweet end but couldn't bare to out the very last, messy piece of chocolate cake back in the fridge so I did my duty for the day and ate it up! :)
Thank God it's gone!

DS had soccer at 6:30 WAY across town so we had to jet at 6 for that. My hubby went to get DD and met us there. Even though it was a nice day I learned well enough last year that this does not guarantee a warm soccer field! The wind really rips through the open space where the boys play. I made sure to wear a T-shirt, sweater and jacket and also brought a blanket for my legs. My hubby brought me an X-large chai tea when he got there. Ahhh...warmth! Here's a pic of DS at the game...
Well, I'm off to make lunches and prepare backpacks for the morning. Back to real life!!! I hope everyone had a great day!

Bye for now!