All My Squash In A Row

It was SO windy here last night! When we left this morning there were branches and leaves ALL over the place. To be honest, I love crawling into bed on nights like that. The wind howling outside the window makes the bed that much more cozy and warm.

*2/3 cup water
*1/3 cup Quaker oats
*cinnamon
*1/2 cup thawed mixed berries
*scoop of almond butter
*cinnamon honey (the end of the jar *sniff sniff*)

This was a great breakfast. All those berries really helped to bulk it up and the almond butter always makes the oats extra creamy. Yum….

I was kept pretty occupied at work all morning and didn’t break into my fruit until 11:15. I had some grapes and pineapple from the staff kitchen;

And some dark purple grapes from home that were badly in need of being consumed;

I’ve really been trying to snack on fruit before the gym because I feel like I’ve been consuming too many bars unnecessarily. The fruit seems to be holding me over just as well. I do still pack an emergency bar in case the munchies catch up with me later in the day. I also had an Earl Grey tea. Here’s my “saying” for the day..

Today was my elliptical/weight day at the gym and I was looking forward to getting warmed up because the office was chilly all day! I did 30 minutes on the machine and 15 of weights.

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 155
Max Hr: 180
Calories Torched: 379
Distance: 3.4 miles

Lunch was leftovers again, my friends. I packed the last of the chickpea/marinara/green bean mix with the last bit of ingera. Thanks to the reader who reminded me on what it was called! Check out the link for a full description!

Remember that emergency bar I wrote about up above? Well, I broke into it at 4pm! I was getting pretty hungry and decided toe at ½ this Clif bar to tie me over until I could get some supper into me;

I actually had time to cook a decent dinner tonight! I sautéed some tri coloured peppers in this here oil

I grilled up some chicken breasts and made some WW couscous as a side.

My sweet end was 2 cookies (again);

My hubby went down to the garden and picked my 4 butternut squash for me. The vine is starting to look sickly and I didn’t want to chance them rotting on me. Aren’t they cute??

Can’t wait to cook them up! Well, I’m multi tasking yet again…blogging, SYTYCD Canada and enjoying this coconut chai tea latte;

To make this I combined 1 cup of USVAB with a 1/2 cup of water and a coconut chai tea bag. I let it simmer on the stove top for a good 5 minutes and then it sat for another 5. So good and a well deserved treat for after a tough Pilate’s class!! Have a great night, all!

Bye for now!!

Lunch Treat

Do you ever have a day where your bones are just plain ole cranky? That was me today. Stiff everywhere and for no good reason. Although the damp weather could possibly be the culprit.

I was out the door this morning by 7am to relieve my hubby at the rink and wasn’t hungry in the slightest before I left. I filled my gigantic Starbuck’s tumbler with coffee and off I went. I haven’t done the “coffee in the morning” thing for over 5yrs and my belly was not happy about it. Eeeek! I did pack a 1/2 cup of TJ’s blueberry muesli and a container of Fage to eat when I got to work at 8:30…

Not pretty, but very tasty indeed! AND, it kept me full long enough that I didn’t break into my usual mid morning snack.

A good run helped loosen up my stiffness, just like I thought it would. That’s why I went to the gym when I really didn’t feel like it. You never regret going, ya know?!

• Time: 45 minutes
• Avg Hr: 164
• Max Hr: 180
• Calories Torched: 475
• Distance: 4.5 miles

I had a GREAT lunch today! DD’s friend that she was with yesterday’s Mom owns a catering business. But not just any catering business…an authentic East African cuisine catering business!

She sent DD home with some spicy lentil stew and a traditional “bread” that I can not for the life of my remember the name of. It was like a tangy, spongy tortilla. Here’s what it all looked like;

I didn’t particularly like the bread on it’s own. It was a bit vinegary for my tastes, but eaten together with the lentil stew? Magnificent! I couldn’t get enough of this meal. Here’s a close up!

I sure was grateful for this treat. I cooled my mouth off with some grapes that were on their last legs;

DS had requested tacos for supper tonight so that’s what the fam had. I’ve NEVER been a fan of tacos. Yucky. Instead, I used up some leftovers (big surprise, I know!)

Grilled salmon, green beans and chickpeas mixed with homemade marinara sauce. Hit, The. Spot. My sweet end was 2 cookies;

I’ll be jetting out again in 30 minutes to pick DD up from dance. In the meantime, I’m sipping on this Pumpkin Spice tea that I picked up at Tim Horton’s when I took DD to dance;

Hot, spicy and perfect for a cold, rainy Monday! Have a great night, all!

Bye for now!!

Just What I Needed

Happy Sunday, everyone. I did a whole lot of nothing today which, as the title of this post indicates, was just what I needed. Looking back, the fam and I had quite a busy week which would explain my lack of motivation today. I can roll with that!

I made something for breakfast today that I’ve been wanting to try for a while but keep forgetting about….polenta.

• 1/2 USVAB/water
• 1/4 cup polenta (corn meal)
• cinnamon
• dried blueberries
• walnut pieces and cinnamon honey

Oh, my…was this ever good! I’ll be using polenta at breakfast time a lot more from now on.

After spending a few hours out at the farm this morning, we came home and got some lunch into us. I had an open can of chickpeas in the fridge which I mixed with some homemade marinara sauce and heated through. I served it up with a slice of toasted multi grain bread;

Then I smeared some cinnamon honey on a piece of banana butternut bread;

Don’t mind that little black dot! It’s a piece of nut…This is one tasty bread. It is very moist and dense and packs a great punch. I’m thinking of turning it into muffins next go around…

DD was invited to go to the movies to see “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs” this afternoon so after lunch was done I drove her over to her friend’s place. Upon arriving home I made a coffee, plopped myself on the couch and dove into the third book I ordered from Amazon.ca which arrived in the mail on Friday;

WOOT!! Veganomicon!!! What a GREAT cookbook! I’ve tagged many a recipe to try over the next few weeks. If you have this book (and/or ED&BV), let me know in the comment section what your favourite recipes are!

Speaking of ED&BV, I did get off the couch long enough to bake these here cookies;

I was a tad worried at first because the dough was really dry, but they baked up great!

Of course I tried one three and loved how rich they are. I didn’t eat the 3 all at the same time…that would’ve been too much! Definitely a great way to curb a sugar craving!

Dinner tonight was baked salmon and green beans;

I buttered up the beans a bit and they were cooked to perfection, in my opinion. See above for my sweet end. :D

I’ll be going to bed right after the Amazing Race tonight because DS is on the ice at 6am until 7:20 for practice tomorrow. I’ll be meeting my hubby there at 7:15 so he can get to work. Tomorrow is a PD Day for the kids and DS will be at hockey camp at the same rink from 8-4:30, so I still have to figure out what to do for his breakfast. Hmmm….We should all be good and tired this time tomorrow!

Bye for now!!

Yesterday & Today

Hey, hey, hey….look who went MIA yesterday! By the time I actually sat down last night it was pushing 10pm and I was BEAT. I’ll do my best to keep this 2 day post short and sweet!

My lovely Friday breakfast…

-1/2 cup water/USVAB

-1/3 cup Sunrise blend w/ quinoa
-cinnamon
-banana
-small scoop of pumpkin butter & almond butter

I realize it looks like a puddle of goo, but it was so good that I didn’t want it to end!

Work went by at a nice pace for a Friday. I spent part of the day calling people for interviews which isn’t a normal job function for payroll, but I welcomed the change! I broke at 11am for a Clif Mojo Mountain Mix bar;

I’m almost out of these. Thankfully I have a road trip to Buffalo planned for mid-November!

I was not feeling the gym, but didn’t want to miss it seeing as I didn’t make it there on Tuesday or Thursday so I bargained with myself. I went all out on the treadmill for a half hour and then beat it home for a bit of downtime. Yes, I live that close to the office! :)

Time: 30 minutes
Avg Hr: 165
Max Hr: 179
Calories Torched: 315
Distance: 3.2 miles

I had packed a Fage and muesli for lunch but when I went to the staff kitchen there was lasagna, bread and salad leftover form a meeting. Pasta and bread do nothing for me, but I did forego my yogurt for a big bowl of salad with some tasty balsamic vinaigrette.

There were cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, feta, pumpkin seeds and black olives in this mix and it was delicious! I also munched my way through a sweet navel orange;

I massacred it while peeling it. I have a real problem with the pith and kept picking at it even after I took the picture, but the orange itself was worth the work!

My hubby had plans with my uncle last night so I ate a quick dinner of a grilled turkey cutlet with Ted Readers peach bourbon sauce and the last of the sweet potato fries with some honey mustard for dipping;

Then I enjoyed a Skinny Cow caramel/vanilla bar;

I swear, these taste just like frozen pudding! :D

Straight after eating I trucked the kids across town to DS’s coach’s house to pick up his warm up gear and track suit that had come in. They needed them for the game this morning, so that was a must. Then we went to the mall to buy a present for a party DS had this afternoon and to the dollar store to buy supplies to make POM POM’s for the season opener. We even checked out a Halloween store that opened up and tried some masks on. Check it out!

My hubby, the jokester, says that this is what I look like in the morning! :D Lastly, I felt I deserved a tall NF pumpkin spice misto!

We started on the POM POM making festivities as soon as we got home. It took us an hour to make 4 of them. Now, I’m not very creative, but I think we did OK! I used toilet paper rolls, streamers in the team colours and some silver tinsel for flare! Here’s DD modelling them!

We did use them at the game and they were a HIT!

Let’s move on to today, shall we? I started the day out with some kamut flakes;

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup kamut flakes
• cinnamon
• chocolate PB2
• raisins
• maple flakes
• hemp seeds
• splash of USVAB

We left for DS’s game at 10am. Thankfully most of his home games are Saturday’s at 11am. They lost 4-2, but put out a great effort. The team they were up against is in their second year of this league and were expected to win by much more. All the parents were quite impressed with our little players!

We rushed home, got some lunch in DS and then I turned around and drove him over to a bowling birthday party. With one kid down, I vacuumed, cleaned cat litter and the laundry room and had some lunch. I baked up the last of my butternut squash fries and dipped them into Dijonnaise;

You truly can not beat freshly picked produce. I consider myself very lucky to have the space for a vegetable garden. I also ate a b-nut squash muffin with some macadamia nut butter;

Later on in the afternoon I made another batch of homemade marinara sauce. I mixed 3 cups of it with 2 cans drained tuna to make a pasta sauce. I served mine over a pack of Shiritaki noodles, feta and steamed butternut squash;

Superb!

As soon as super was done I got busy making Veggie Girl’s Banana Butternut Pecan Bread;

Sorry about the flash…it’s been getting dark here at the un-Godly hour of 7:30pm! Ugh…Back to the bread! I had to make a couple changes due to what I had on hand. Pecans were replaced by almonds with pistachio’s on top and I used a 1/4 cup of butter as I’m out of oil. This is cooling right now, but I’m looking forward to trying a piece later on.

In other blog news…Zesty Cook put up a very exciting post today about a great challenge that he’s part of with Quaker and goobite.com. Go on over for a visit to see what it’s all about and vote, vote, vote for him!!! Good luck, Zesty!

That’s it for now. Bet you’re all breathing a sigh of relief! :D I hope the weekend has been going great so far for all of you…

Bye for now!!

How Old Are You Really?

First up I’d like to wish a very happy birthday to Faith over at Food For Thought! For her special day she has decided to run a contest! Go here to see what’s up for grabs!!

I decided to go the coffee route for breakfast again today. Not because I was bleary eyed, I just had a hankering for it!

-1 cup coffee
-1/3 cup Windy Hill Farms cremo cereal
-banana
-carob chips

Such a satisfying meal. I also made a Pumpkin Spice tea to go.

This is one of my favourite fall flavours, hands down. The Tim Horton’s by where I work put theirs out a bit early….they weren’t suppose to stock it until October 1, but I’m sure glad they did. I also tried out this Earl Grey tea this morning;

Each tea bag has a little “saying” on it. Here’s what today’s said;

Hmmm…..

I traded lunch today to take the later time so I could drive over to where DD had her second cross country meet. Before leaving I ate a butternut squash muffin;

I also ate on of these before bed last night with some cinnamon honey spread on top. Yum…

As I mentioned, DD had another cross country meet today. She did SO well! She placed 34th. Not sure how many girls there were, but I know for certain that she was in the first half to cross the line. Here are the 3 pictures I snapped….at the start line, half way through and coming across the finish line…

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit concerned when she finished. Her breathing was quite laboured and she said it felt like her throat was clogged. I (slowly) walked her back to her school’s area and sat her down with her water bottle and talked to her for a bit. She was OK by the time I left. She doesn’t have allergies, but something irritated her!

When I got back to the office I ate my soup that I had quickly whipped up last night. I used a ½ cup of marinara leftover from the meatballs, mixed it with 1 cup of chicken stock and a ½ cup of chickpeas. Voila…lunch is served;

A friend at work directed me to Dr. Oz’s website today. She challenged me to take the “real age” test that’s offered there. You bet I was all over that! After about 5 minutes of answering questions ranging from my weight, how many miles I will be traveling in a vehicle in the next 12 months, how many servings of veggies/fruit/grains I eat in a week, etc, my REAL AGE was calculated and given to me. Seeing as I have no problem disclosing my years, I will share with you that my calendar year is 35.5. According to the test, my real age is 30.4. Yep, I did a jig after reading that. Now, I don’t know how much stock I take in this….I truly don’t think of myself as “35”….but it was fun to do and see the result. I challenge you all to go here and take the test yourself. Leave me a comment letting me know how many years younger/older the test put you at and what you though of your results (you certainly DO NOT have to tell me your age…just the difference). Have fun!!

Seeing as DS had ANOTHER hockey game tonight, dinner was quick. At least the game was in town so we didn’t have to leave the house until 5:15 as opposed to last night’s 4:30. I baked a store bought pizza for the fam and some butternut squash fries for me;

Oh, my…these were amazing!! I had some honey mustard for dipping.

I’m being stubborn right now in saying that I refuse to buy take out whenever DS has a game over the dinner hour. That’s a money trap I do not want to fall in to. Here’s where I need YOUR help! Please let me know what your fast, somewhat healthy meals are for nights where you’re on the run. Keep in mind that they should be portable as we will be eating in the vehicle at times. THANKS!!

We just got home and as I type I’m watching CSI and eating a Stonemill English muffin with almond butter;

Miss multi tasker here tonight! Anywho, this has turned into quite the long post so I’ll sign off here…

Bye for now!!