Last Chance!

cliHello!  I just wanted to stop in with a quick post!  Work was INSANE today and DS had an out of town soccer game that we had to leave the house at 5:30 for.  Ahhh!!!  So here’s a run down for you!
Breakfast:
Nature’s Path hemp oatmeal made with one cup of water and topped with carob chips and coconut butter.  I liked the hemp oatmeal, but the flax is still my favourite!
Snackage:
It was 30 Day Shred day so we did level 2 again.  Because I had an hour lunch I spent another 15 on the elliptical.  Another difficult, but good workout!
Lunch:
Sandwich made with Silver Hills bread, mortadella, cassata cheese and some mayo.  Totally forgot about the lettuce.  DOH!  Still a fantastically filling lunch!  I also had a crispy, sweet Ginger Gold apple:
I made taco pasta for the fam for dinner.  Simply prepare your ground beef with a packet of taco seasoning like you were making tacos, then mix with pasta when done.  Simple and they love it!  I ate the second half of my spaghetti squash with kidney beans, salsa and some Fage: 
**There are still a few hours to enter my giveaway for a $60.00 CSN Stores gift cert!!!**  Check it out!!
Bye for now!!

Angry Cat

Hiya!  How was everyone’s Monday?  I’m not gonna lie peeps….it was rough getting out of bed this morning!  I’m just not used to being a party girl anymore.  LOL!  It was still a pretty decent day, I will admit!  The sun was out in full force, work went by lickity split and I enjoyed some good eats.  How can that be bad, right??
I didn’t feel like an elaborate breakfast this morning.  Actually, I just wanted a bowl of cereal, but I ran out of almond breeze.  Bummer!  Nature’s Path hot oatmeal in raisin spice to the rescue!!
I added some ground pecans and chopped peanuts to it for some bulk and chowed down.  :)
I had a delicious vanilla almond Luna Bar before heading to the gym:
I like this flavour; nice and mild.
We’re back to regular hours at work now so I had my hour lunch break back.  I decided to do an incline walk on the treadmill (4.3mph/7.5% incline) and managed to hammer our 3.2 miles in 45 minutes.  Let’s just say it’s obvious that a half hour in the gym for 8 weeks has taken me back a step.  Today’s workout was HARD!
I whipped up some tuna salad this morning for my lunch using a ½ can of tuna, Fage, Dijon and S&P.  I ate it on a toasted English muffin.
Looks gross, right?  I know!  But trust me, it was GOOD!  After eating that I dove into these gorgeous LOCAL strawberries that my friend brought me:
I’m sure gonna miss berry season!!
I had to take my oldest cat, Octavius (Tavy for short) to the vet for an appointment after work.  He’s okay, but at 14 would be considered an old geezer (72yrs old) so he gets to go for a car ride once a year to make sure that all is well.  Did I mention that he HATES the car?  
Stink eye or what?!   He hates the cold metal table even more!
That is one pissed off cat!!  HA!  Then he tried the ole, “Maybe if I hide they won’t find me” trick:
That didn’t work either!  What a crazy animal!
While DD and I were at the vet my hubby got some dinner cooking.  Chicken thighs on the BBQ, veg and I had some rice, they had mac n cheese. 
I bought this rice to try and really, really enjoyed it! One minute in the nuker and you have perfect, non sticky rice!   Not that rice is hard to make by any means, but this will be great for busy nights this coming winter.
After dinner I made my way to the health food store for 2 reasons; I ran out of almond breeze (as I mentioned earlier) and I had a coupon for a free loaf of Silver Hills bread.
I had Steady Eddy last time so I thought I’d give Mack a go.  I hear he’s sporting a helmet these days!  I also bought some more tempeh bacon and ginger chews:
And as promised in my review, I do purchase plenty of Nature’s Path products myself!
Just ignore that rip!  It happened when I took the price tag off!  Seeing as my favourite oatmeal in the variety pack was the flax plus I thought I would like the hemp.  I’ll be trying that out tomorrow!  And the granola is DD’s absolute favourite ever. The last item was a splurge item:
I ate one for dessert on the way home.  All I can say is “Coconut Bliss; where have you been all my life???”  Seriously, if you’ve never tried these bars, you MUST.
I also stopped at the deli next door to grab some reduced lunch meat; The ONLY reason it’s reduced is that it’s the bum end of the larger pieces that they can’t cut with the slicer anymore.  My kids certainly don’t care!  I also bought some unpictured cheese called “cassata”.  It’s supremely hard to find in my area but brings back awesome childhood memories of the “Cheese Man” coming up the street selling wheels of the stuff.  Mom used to make us huge sandwiches with the cassata on fresh Italian bread.  Mmmm!  My Dad found out that Market Fresh started carrying it and let me know.  It’s very similar to mozzarella, but much creamier. 
I’m gonna sign off now and go watch SYTYCD Canada.  How was your day?  Anything exciting happen?  I’m just about caught up on blog reading from the weekend so if I’ve missed anything exciting, please tell!!  :)
**NEWS FLASH** for my fellow Canadians!!  Food Network Canada is giving you a chance to win a $250 William Sonoma Gift Card or 1 of 4 prize packages.  Interested?  Thought so!  Click here to enter!
Bye for now!!

Highlights

Hi!!  It seems like I’ve been gone from the blog so long.  “Busy” has been my middle name the past few days and I can guarantee  that I’m exhausted today.  I don’t have the energy for a huge post and wouldn’t do that to you anyways, so I present you with some highlights instead…
Wednesday
It was a typical day at work.  I did have a pretty decent lunch, though! 
Cottage cheese, blueberries, a peach and honey. 
I also picked my first spaghetti squash of the season from my garden.
I steamed half and topped it with salsa, a wee bit of sour cream and kidney beans for a great meal!
I bought these 2 chocolate bars that were just begging to come home with me: I’ve only tried the 64% with cacao nibs and its to die for!
Thursday
This was actually my Friday.  Amen!!  My belly was a little off all day so I decided to buy some chicken soup from Tim Horton’s instead of eating the tomato/tuna salad I had packed:
I kept dinner light, too with scrambled eggs and a toasted Ezekiel muffin with zucchini jam: We went to Costco after dinner to pick up a few pies for the hockey fund raiser Friday night.  Each family was required to bring dessert so we took the easy way out! 
Friday
DD had an appointment downtown Toronto so that’s where I spent my day.  Looks like a mall inside, doesn’t it?  After her appointment we grabbed some Starbucks and walked around outside for a bit.  I had a grande iced decaf Americano with a shot of vanilla syrup:
DS was pretty sure he was gonna “pet” one of these pigeons: Yeah, right!  :)  On the way home we stopped at Chudleighs apple orchard to see what varieties were available.   The one I love, honey crisp is due out at the end of September along with the kids fave, McIntosh.  I did, however, get my second fave: Friday night was the hockey party.   My babysitter bailed in the 11th hour so we ended up renting a room at the hotel that the party was held at.  One of the dad’s is the manager so anyone who wanted to have a few drinks got to stay at a reduced rate.  We stashed the kids with movies and what such and proceeded to have a blast.  Don’t worry, we checked in on them frequently.  I  knew dinner would be a late one so I had a microwave dinner before we left to tie me over: These are just a few photos from the night:
The evening was a huge success and a good time to boot.  All the parents on the team DS is playing on this year are fabulous people and I’m so happy to have made a new group of friends.  YAY!!
Saturday
I was happy to find a big pot of oats in the breakfast area the next morning!  I topped them with raisins and honey. Lunch was pretty great, too.  Kale freshly picked with tomato and tuna all dressed with some fig balsamic dressing: We went to a BBQ at the neighbours place last night.  I didn’t take any pics because I got the distinct feeling the the hostess woulda been offended.  I did take these over, though…
HA! I’ve consumed more alcohol this weekend than I have in 10+ years!!!
Today
We all slept in this morning, but had to be in the next city over by 11:30 for 4 hours worth of soccer.  Ugh…  At least it was a gorgeous day out!  We stopped for a very late lunch at Subway before coming home.  I think DS was famished even though I fed him hardboiled eggs throughout the morning!
I had a veggie & Swiss on a flat bread; This is my second go with the flat brad and I’m not convinced yet.  They just seem too gummy.  We also got cones at McDonald’s for the drive. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the cool rec room watching Eclipse.  The fam loved it, BTW!   I’m going to go scrounge up something for dinner.  Then I’ll be relaxing some more.  Don’t want to start the first full week back to work tuckered out!!!
Don’t forget to enter my CSN Stores giveaway!!!
Bye for now!!

How About a Giveaway??

Bonjour!  Funny seeing me midday, huh?  I'm going to be smoking busy the next few days doing things like a hockey fundraiser, soccer games (for DS), a trip into Toronto and hopefully buying 2 bistro sets....1 for the front porch, one for the back deck.

Seeing as I started Krista's Kravings 2 years ago around this time, I knew it was perfect timing to pair up with CSN Stores for a giveaway!  :)  So....how does a $60.00 gift certificate to use at their site sound?  Pretty nice, eh??  And it's easy to enter.  Here are the 3 steps you need to do:

1. Stop by CSN Stores and leave me a comment telling me what you will spend your $60.00 on
2. Link back to this post on your blog and leave the link in a comment below
3. Comment on one of my posts that you've never commented on before and come back here to let me know which one you visited

No worries if you don't have a blog.  Just follow through with steps 1 & 3!  The contest is open to Canadian and American residents and will end at midnight on August 31.  I'll announce the winner on September 1.

HAVE FUN!!!!

Bye for now!!

A Tracking Queen

Happy Tuesday!!  How is everyone’s week going?  I haven’t been up to much; just work, really.  When I was in Buffalo over my holiday’s one of the items that I picked up was these chai honey sticks from Wegman’s:
 
I’ve been putting them to good use in my tea, but decided to add one to my oats yesterday for some pizzazz. 

• 1/2 cup each water & coconut milk
• 1/2 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
• cinnamon
• trail mix
• honey stick

The honey wasn’t a very strong presence, but did give the oats some vavoom!
Pre gym I ate my favourite of all the LUNA bars; chocolate peppermint stick!
Nom, nom, nom…gone in 4 bites!  :)
I hopped on the treadmill for a 30 minute incline walk.  I forgot my HRM chest strap…darn!…but I’m sure my stats were around what they usually are.  I’m just so anal that I hate not having any numbers to write in my log.  Sheesh!
I had brought a lunch from home but as I got to the staff kitchen to warm it up a big tray of wraps and fruit were brought in.  SCORE!  Here’s what I chose;
The Greek salad was actually bundles into a wrap.  When I got back to my desk I dumped the goods into the bowl and disposed of the wrap.
And I picked the wrap I did purely because of these gorgeous chunks of avocado peeking out at me!
Not to shabby for an unexpected, free lunch, right?!
On my drive to pick the kids up I ate a pint of luscious raspberries.  (Don’t worry, I took the picture before leaving work!) 
Aren’t those just beautiful?  So sweet, too!  I had some chicken breasts marinating in the fridge in some Renee's Parm herb dressing.  When it was time to get dinner on the table I threw them on the George Foreman (it was raining out) and let them go until golden.  Alongside I served steamed baby carrots and quinoa with some wasabi ginger dressing.
This was a silent meal which is a good thing because it means that the fam was too busy eating their food to talk!  LOL  For dessert I ate a Mama Pea oat bar a la mode:
I have 2 squares left but will be making it again.  My timing was off this time as the day I made them my hubby had a wisdom tooth yanked and his mouth has been too tender to eat any!  :~)
I spent the hours between 7 & 9 sprawled on the couch watching SYTYCD Canada with DD.  It was the first “on the stage” show and I thought most couples did very well.  It’ll be interesting to see who goes home tonight.
Alas, all too soon my peaceful sleep was interrupted by the alarm.  Evil thing!!    I was planning on a bowl of cereal for breakfast this morning but my brain must of been on auto pilot because before I knew it I had a bowl of oats cooking away in the microwave!  DUH!

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon
• 1/2 mashed banana
• peanut hazelnut butter

 
Very good even though it was really what I wanted!  LOL
Today was Torture Tuesday with Jillian and the 30 Day Shred.  We moved on to level 2 and although we were all shaking and grunting by the end, we got through it.  Last year I wrecked my ankles on some of the “jumping moves” so I really have to pay attention this time and stick to the modified version for some.  We all agreed that it’s most definitely a step up from level 1, but not as painful as some of the gals thought it might be.  Before facing Jillian I munched on a Nature’s Path pumpkin spice bar;
You can find a full review of this under my “Product Review” tab.
No free lunch was offered today, so I stuck with what I brought.  Not a bad thing, my friends!
This is the last bit of the Korean noodles I made the other night.  Just a reminder that I found the recipe in the newest edition of the Rachael Ray magazine.  So there may have been no free lunch, but we did score some free fruit!
And a bit later on I enjoyed a perfectly ripe peach,
One of my co worked had the unfortunate task of putting her 4yr old cat down Monday after work.  Poor baby’s kidney’s were failing.  So today she brought in all of Louie’s remaining food and treat for my 3 fur balls to finish up.  I gathered them up and fed them a few morsels in a toast to Lou!
Then picked up the phone and made an appointment with the vet for my 14yr kitty, Octavius (the black one).  Gotta make sure he’s as healthy as he looks and because my cats are indoor feline’s, they don’t go for regular check ups.  Pepper is there in the middle and Charlie on the right.  Baby dolls!  :)
I wanted to clean up some odds and ends for my dinner tonight so I made a “pizza” with the last WW pita.  I topped it with a mixture of cottage cheese & salsa then topped that with a Tofurky sausage and some spinach.  I let it do it’s thang in a 350* oven for 10 minutes before plating it up!
So. Much. Food!  I had to leave about a quarter of it or I was gonna explode!!!  It’s sunny out again so once I’m done here I plan on grabbing my book and enjoying it while it lasts.
Q:  Do you keep track of your workouts in a notebook, spreadsheet, etc?  If so, does it bother you to “miss” logging your numbers once in a while?  I can deal with once in a blue, but to go more than a day or 2 really bothers me.  Not sure if that’s a good thing or not!  :)
Bye for now!!