Last Day of Freedom For The Kiddies

Well, summer vacation has ended for my offspring! While they won’t admit it, I think they are looking forward to the routine that going back to school offers. Back packs and lunch boxes are all set to go and I’ve already made their sandwiches. Off to a good start!

While buying some school items last night I came across some neat looking English muffins that I HAD to try!

Sorry about the sideways picture. It just doesn’t want to cooperate for some reason! Anyways, back to the goods. These have all natural ingredients so need to be refrigerated or frozen just like Ezekiel 4:9 products. The fact that they look more like buns didn’t deter me in the least;

For breakfast I cut one in half, toasted it up and spread one side with cinnamon plum tea jam and the other with cinnamon honey;

What a fabulous breakfast….and it held me over as long as oats do. BONUS!

I discovered a few treats in the office candy bowl today that my hand automatically reached out and grabbed…

Swedish berries and macaroons! YUM! I countered these treats with a container full of grapes a few hours later.

These also served as my pre gym snack. Speaking of the gym….I decided to set the treadmill on a pre programmed incline course and knocked the speed back some. While the mileage wasn’t as high as I normally do, the calories burn was the same. Proof to myself that a quality workout doesn’t have to include an all out speed run.

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 154
• Max Hr: 174
• Calories Burned: 448
• Distance: 4.33 miles

I brought the leftover Chicken Piccata from Saturday night for my lunch today. I have to apologize in advance for the picture. While this meal tasted stellar, it is NOT photogenic in the least!

As a bit of a sweet end I nibbled my way through a bag of Yoga Chips in the original flavour;

I pulled salmon out for dinner before I left work today but by the time I got home from work I totally wasn’t feeling it. Weird, cuz I love me some salmon! What I really felt like was eggs in some form or another. So, the fam got salmon and I made a little egg white omelette with broccoli & mushrooms. I set it atop a toasted Arnold Thin and spinach. I also finished off some grilled zucchini that were hanging out in the fridge.

And to complete the feast I warmed up a blueberry muffin and topped it with some smooth macadamia nut butter!

I’ve got a few things to get ready yet for the morning so that things run as smoothly as possible so I need to end the fun here. I hope this Monday was nice to everybody….I know it treated me pretty good. I’ll “see” yak all tomorrow!

Bye for now!

Can It Be The End?

I sitting here in disbelief that the weekend is already over. Where did it go? I can’t believe that in 12 short hours I’ll be back at my desk. Jeez….

I got a little funky with my breakfast this morning. I’ve seen the addition of pretzels and chocolate to oats on a few blogs so I decided to give it a whirl;

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup oat bran
• 1 tbsp carob powder
• walnut & pretzel pieces

I was pretty jazzed to try this but was let down by the fact that the pretzels got soggy asap. Ewww. I picked around said mushiness and the rest of the bowl was great.

I behaved myself with the cookie plate out at the farm this morning. I promised myself 2…not 4 like last week…and stuck to my guns. I even remembered to take a picture of the variety this week!

Really, they’re all my favourite, but I chose a maple & a chocolate striped one. Maybe I’ll go for the other 2 next time!

We didn’t get home until shortly after 1pm and I was good and ready for some lunch by then. I polished off a good portion of my NF plain Chobani with a 1/2 cup of TJ’s blueberry muesli and extra fresh blueberries;

Hit. The. Spot!

I read my book for an hour while I let my lunch settle and then I hopped on the treadmill to pump out one of Gina’s (Fitnessista) killer treadmill workouts. It was an hour long, interval one and kicked my bootie! I was sure to do 5 minutes of really good stretching to try to eliminate any soreness in the morning.

• Time: 1hr 5min
• Avg Hr: 158
• Max Hr: 179
• Calories Burned: 567
• Distance: 5.4 miles

I had just enough time to clean up before I had to get started on dinner. I had pulled out a pork tenderloin and once again turned to my Clean Eating magazine for inspiration. Here’s what I picked;

This was super easy and delicious! I didn’t make the potatoes because I have none. Instead, I paired the meat up with baked beans and steamed veggies. Again, here is what the meal looked like in the magazine;

And my version;

Another winner! I didn’t have a sweet end because I knew there would be cookies at Mom’s. Again, I only ate 2. MUCH better than the 7 or so from last Sunday!

I just finished snacking on 3 mini blueberry muffins spread with a little macadamia nut butter. No picture because the one I took looked awful! I plan on hitting the hay soon tonight because I never seem to sleep well on Sunday night’s. On that note….

Bye for now!!

Sweet Saturday

I was mastering the senior citizen head bob by 10pm last night so I gave up and went to bed. I must’ve been way more tired than I thought because I slept until 9 this morning! Mother Nature gave me a wake up call about 7:30 and I laid back down not expecting to fall back asleep. Yikes!

Here’s breakfast;

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup Sunrise Blend w/ quinoa
• cinnamon
• raisins
• walnut pieces
• cinnamon honey
• blueberries

Delish!!

After eating, I checked my email, placed an order with Amazon, changed cat litter (yay me) and vacuumed the homestead. Once everything was in order I relished a nice hot shower. I’ve had sore muscles somewhere in by body ever since I started strength training again! Good news is that I’m pretty sure I got all the muscle groups now so I shouldn’t be achy anymore. Once I was presentable, I whipped up a wrap to eat while driving over to the mall with DD.

• flatout wrap
• sunflower seed butter
• spinach
• carrots
• dried cherries

I’ve seen the nut butter/veggie combo on a few blogs and decided it was high time to try it out. I’m happy to report that it’s a fabulous combo! YUM! And filling, too.

We went to a few stores before the mall, one of which was the Bulk Barn where I replenished my sunrise blend with quinoa stash as well as my coconut mango and chocolate mint tea. I also picked up this little baggie of chocolates for a buck which we shared;

These were pretty good! We both agreed that they were very similar to Smarties. Once DD was decked out with some new outfits for school we indulged in a little Starbuck’s for the drive home. I got my standard tall NF iced green tea latte;

DD thoroughly enjoyed her once a year tall caramel mocha frap;

See that look of pure satisfaction? LOL!

I was feeling a little antsy at home so I wound up baking a batch of mini blueberry chia muffins. This time around I subbed coconut extract for the vanilla and used Ruth’s Cranberry Ginger chia seed blend.

They turned out awesome! Here’s one with a coating of macadamia nut butter;

Don’t think for a second that this was the only one I ate. I’m pretty sure about 4-5 more found their way to my belly since 3pm! ;)

I had pulled chicken breasts out for dinner tonight but wanted to do something different than grilled on the BBQ so I turned to one of my Clean Eating magazines for inspiration. I found a relatively simple recipe for Chicken Piccata that I had all the ingredients for so that’s what I rolled with.

It wasn’t a pretty looking dinner, but it was out of this world good! Even the fam, who all claim to hate olives, LOVED it. Here’s the shot from the magazine;

And here’s mine!

Ha! I could obviously use some lessons in food plating! Seriously though, this was a great meal. And just because DS wanted you all to see his plate, here it is. You’ll notice that he passed up on the chickpea puree and went with the standard mac & cheese;

My hubby bought me a box of treats…one of which I enjoyed for dessert!

SO good, but I just realized looking at this picture that they’re sweetened with Splenda. Def not good for the ole digestive tract so I’ll have to go easy on them.

So, Mom & Dad just left and the kids are getting ready for bed. Not sure what’s up for the rest of the night….nothing to exciting, I’m positive. Maybe something good will be on TV, something better than the 1982 Rocky movie that my hubby is watching now!

Bye for now!!

Cool Weather Snuggle Time

It’s a chilly one out there today! Wind, rain, grey skies….feels kinda like November. I enjoyed a variety of cool weather comfort today starting with my oats;

• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup rye flakes
• cinnamon
• almond butter
• Carob chips

I forgot how much I like rye flakes! This was the end of my TJ’s creamy raw almond butter. The next jar is the crunchy kind. After that, I’m S-O-L on the TJ nut butter front!

I had planned to take today off from the gym because my hubby was off work so he was home with the kids. I figured it would be nice to join them for some lunch. For that reason, I brought a smaller mid morning snack-a-roo; a dark mocha almond Kashi bar;

Check out the cute mini chocolate chips scattered over top! Love this bar.

Seeing as I was home, I got a little creative with my lunch. I spread a LC wedge and some Ted Readers peach & bourbon sauce over a flatout wrap and lined up some grilled zucchini inside. That got toasted up in a dry pan;

There was also a bowl of plain NF Chobani, strawberry banana jam and blueberries that joined the lunch party;

And a winning lunch all together!

I really enjoyed the plain Chobani, but I’d LOVE to get my hands on some of there new pineapple flavour! I suppose I could add my own pineapple? Note to self…. **hmmmm**

DD made herself a sub and begged me to photograph it for you all to see. She loaded up her bun with deli chicken, cheese, mayo, lettuce and tomato. There were even some cherry tomatoes on the side!

She only ended up being able to finish half the bun! Hehe!

I brought some fruit back to work to snack on later in the day. There was a half a cubed cantaloupe and the rest of the grapes;

I chowed down on this by 3:30! I found it interesting that I felt hungrier this afternoon NOT going to the gym than when I do go. I would’ve assumed that working out would rev up my appetite, but apparently not. Anybody else find this happens to them?

That fruit was about the only summery thing I ate today. By the time I got home I just wanted to throw on my most comfy pants, a big T-shirt and sit down to some soul food! The fam had pizza…no thanks, so I made myself an omelette with a 1/2 cup of egg beaters stuffed with sautéed broccoli, mushrooms, a handful of baby spinach and feta. On the side I had a toasted English muffin and some Archer Farms peach/mango salsa for dipping;

Eggs have to be my favourite go to meal. This did not disappoint! And the perfect comfort food end? A blueberry muffin, heated and smeared with a wee bit o’ buttah!

**sigh**

As I type I’m enjoying a coconut chai tea with a little cinnamon honey mixed in. Tonight is definitely going to be a snuggle under a blanket on the couch with my book kind of night. Wish we had a fireplace! Tomorrow I have plans with DD to go to the mall and buy some back to school clothes. Can’t believe that they start back on Tuesday already! What is your fondest back to school memory?? I remember always being SO excited to find out who my teacher would be for the year and which kids would be in my class!

Bye for now!!

It’s So Close

The weekend, that is! This week has felt really l-o-n-g to me! I got up a little later then I would normally so I needed a quick b-fast. Enter Kashi U cereal;

As you can see, I spruced up this 1 cup serving with a generous amount of fresh blueberries. I used USVAB for a little extra sweetness.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that this cereal makes it to Canada in the near future because I really like it. And that’s a lot coming from someone who isn’t big on cereal!

My day at work consisted of lots of keypunching. Yay me. Not my favourite task, but whatcha gonna do? I dug into my blueberry muffin a little sooner than usual…out of boredom, I’m certain!

Lunch time…AKA…gym time couldn’t have come soon enough! When I hopped on the elliptical I realized that my ipod was dead and was dreading the time with no tunes but it trundled on surprisingly fast. I also did some lower body work and stretching.

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 152
• Max Hr: 173
• Calories Burned: 408
• Distance: 3.4 miles

Here’s what I did strength-wise;

• 3 sets of 15 squats on the bosu ball
• 3 sets of 15 tricep dips
• 3 sets of 15 lunges with 7lb weights
• 3 sets of 60 toe taps on a step

Lunch was a lazy one today, but good. I had packed a tuna steak with broccoli, but there were some mighty good looking sandwiches in the staff kitchen so I snagged one. I paired it up with the broc;

The bread was a delicious, rosemary focaccia with ham, mozzarella, tomato, lettuce and a mango relish. It was the perfect size to tide me over. I didn’t even eat my grapes that I had packed!

Mid afternoon one of the fellas in the office brought me a small iced cap from Tim Horton’s.

When I asked what the special occasion was, he replied that it was a thank you for reminding him to get his time sheet into me so I could get him paid properly. Awwww….

I snacked on some walnuts and almonds on my way to pick the kids up from the sitter’s. I was getting a bit grumbly and didn’t want to get home hungry. That equals disaster!

Before we got dinner going I went to the garden to gather more goodies. Here’s my haul for the day…

There were more cherry tomatoes, but the kids went nuts eating them on me! :D The 2 zucchini ended up on the grill for dinner. Can’t get fresher than that!

Speaking of dinner, we tried some salmon burgers from Costco that I finally found.

My burger got dressed up with mayo, chipotle mustard, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickle….all on an Arnold Thin. Zuke’s on the side!

If you like salmon, these burgers are for you! Thankfully, we all love it! I do think, though, that the next time I’ll eat it sans toppings and bun. I think it would be better on it’s own so the flavour can shine through. My sweet end was another All Bran bar;

DS and I just got back from puppy walking duties. I’m going to kick back with my Shape magazine soon and then crash early. I’m looking forward to the end of the work week! Anybody have fun plans lined up for the weekend?

Bye for now!!