ABC’s

TGIF!!!  How is everyone?  I have some time tonight so I thought I’d put up a fun post.  Katie posted a fun ABC’s “get to know me” that I thought I’d give a whirl, too.  Enjoy!
A.  Age- 36 (37 in 19 days!)
B.  Bed Size:  Queen
C. Chore I dislike – Vacuuming.  Ugh…..
D.  Dogs- Love them!!
E.  Essential Start of Your Day – Shower
F.  Favourite Color – Purple
G. Gold or Silver ?  Silver.  Gold can get tacky.
H.  Height – 5’7”
I . Instruments you play or played ?  Played the accordion when I was a kid.  Yes, you can laugh at me!
J.  Job Title – Payroll Administrator
K. Kids – TWO!
L.  Live – Ontario, Canada
M. Moms Name – Rose
N.  Nicknames – Kris
O . Overnight Hospital stay –  4 times; with each kid and once for surgery
P.  Pet Peeve –People who drive really slow
Q. Quote from a movie – I really don’t watch enough movies to remember a particular quote…..
R.  Righty or Lefty – Righty
S. Siblings – 1 brother (32) one sister (25)
T.  Time you wake up?  6:30 on weekdays, whenever I wake up naturally on the weekend; usually no later than 8am
U.  Underwear – Bikini.  No thongs for this girl!
V.  Vegetables You don’t like? Never liked eggplant.  And for some reason this really bothers me!!
W.  What makes you run Late?  My kids
X.  X-rays have you had any?  LOTS!
Y.  Yummy Food you make – Muffins, Pad Thai and oatmeal
Z.  Zoo animal Favourite?  Polar Bears
We had a fun dinner tonight, too!  A recipe for maple BBQ turkey sloppy joe’s caught my eye in the newest edition of Rachael Ray magazine and as I was watching the show yesterday she actually made it.  That sealed the deal for me!
This is one of her “lazy” 30 minute meals.  I actually think this came together in 20 minutes!  I let it simmer on the stove longer than the recipe said or we’d have been eating at 4:45.  LOL!  I served the joe’s on WW ciabatta buns which I toasted in the oven with some Swiss cheese:  
And because I always like to have veggie’s on my plate I steamed some broccoli as a side.
A tasty, quick, easy Friday night meal!  Enjoy the weekend, folks!!
Bye for now!!

Guest Post: Hubby is Looking for Advice!!

Hi All,


I’m Krista’s Hubby. I’m looking for some ideas on how to lower Blood Pressure. I was lucky enough to have inherited genetic hypertension. **roll eyes** With a lot of help from Krista, starting Jan 1 of this year I am dedicated to changing my outlook to become a happy and positive person, after all, life is too short so live every day to its fullest, right?. I also have to admit…. I am Krista’s hubby and I am a salt-a-holic! LOL. I guess that admitting you have a problem is the first step in being better. :)

Krista has helped me notice that my medication, what I was eating, and my portion sizes were not doing me any favours as far as my blood pressure was concerned and how I was feeling. So, saying that with a lot work and support from Krista I have gotten off my blood pressure medication and to my surprise dropped 18lbs and some inches! Let’s just say that the blood pressure medication does help level your blood pressure; however there are so many really awful side effects. I am not sure which is worse the high blood pressure or the side effects of the medication I was on. If I can help it at all I am going to try to NEVER EVER go back on that medication!!

I would like to know if anyone would have ideas on how to reduce blood pressure, or natural foods etc that can help to lower my blood pressure even more? If you do have ideas or ways to lower stress / blood pressure I would love to hear about it.



I would like to say thank you so much to my beautiful wife for all her patience, help, and support!!

Love you Babe! 



Hubby

Impromptu Road Trip and Some Food Buys

Today is Family Day here in Ontario so NO WORK for us!!  Hooray!  We aren’t doing anything much as most everything is closed, but we did go on a fun adventure yesterday!  DS had a soccer practice yesterday morning and we found out from one of the other Dad’s that the Washington Capitals were playing in Buffalo in the afternoon.  Said Dad convinced us to buy last minute tickets and so the adventure began!  We kinda felt like the Griswald’s heading to Wally World on the way there, but it all worked out in the end.  :)  Here’s how it went down, in point form;

• flew home from soccer practice and ordered tickets online
• hopped in the Jeep at 11:15 am for a game that started at 12:30 (did I mention that it was a 1.5hr drive??)
• waited for tickets to be emailed to us on the drive down
• call ticket seller to find nearest FedEx location to the HSBC Centre so we could print the tickets once across the border.
• beautiful, sunny drive down
• 30 minutes from the border a rock shot up at our windshield and chipped it
• 10 mins from border have to stop for gas (left home so fast we didn’t think to check the gas tank!!  DOH!)
• get to border and encounter a 40 minute wait to cross.  (The last few times we crossed on a Sunday afternoon we didn’t have to wait at all!)
• PASS HSBC Centre  to get to FedEx, print tickets
• FINALLY get to the game half way through although we did listen to the game on the radio in transit.

Comical or what?  But it was 100% percent worth it because the Capitals Ovechkin is DS’s favourite team player ever!  Pictures! Yes, we were CANADIAN’s in Buffalo cheering for the WRONG team.  LOL  That earned us a few dirty looks.  But you’d be amazed at the amount of Washington fans that were there!  And I found it amusing that each time Ovechkin was on the ice he got booed.  HA!  After the game we met with our soccer/hockey family at the front doors and walked over to TGI Friday’s for some grub. None of us had been before and we all enjoyed our meals.  I ordered a bruschetta pasta which was divine.  I didn’t take any photos there, but I do have a picture of my leftovers that I ate at lunch today.  There’s also a small piece of my hubby’s salmon from his meal on my plate: And the 4 kid acting like hams before leaving the restaurant: Truly a fun, spontaneous, amazing way to spend a day that started out having zero plans.  I should mention that I live pretty much smack dab between Toronto and Buffalo.  The drive to the Air Canada Centre is the same length of time as the drive to the HSBC Centre.  However, NHL hockey tickets are MUCH cheaper to buy for games in Buffalo.  We are fortunate to have the option, though….
It’s been a very long time since I posted about any groceries on Krista’s Kraving’s, so I took a few photos after I shopped at Costco and the “big” grocery store on Saturday.  I still haven’t done our regular grocery run, yet.  By “big” grocery store, I mean the one across town that stocks certain items which I love/need that my regular store does not carry.  Costco was a big haul this time because we needed stuff like toilet paper, toothpaste, etc… 
I was thrilled to find the individual Greek yogurt’s.  I have Kristie the thank for that.  She keeps me in the know as to what our Costco is carrying!!  :)  And from Zehrs; Nature’s Path and Kashi are 2 of my favourite brands and are well stocked at the “big” grocery store.  I bought other items as well, but mainly stuff for the kids lunches, etc.  What been popular in your grocery cart lately??
I’ve been enjoying some pretty fab eat, too.  Check them out! Well folks, that’s the end for me.  I’m off to do some laundry, make some muffins for the week and hang out with my fam!  Have a great rest of the day!
Bye for now!!

Valentine’s Day, Recipes and a Cat Video

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!  Did anyone do anything special over the weekend to celebrate?  My hubby, parents and I go to a dance each year that is put on by the kid’s school as a fundraiser.  It’s always a fun night with a dinner, dancing a silent auction as well as a live one.  This year I bid on a custom made blanket box and won it!  I did take a picture, but it’s too dark out so it didn’t do it justice.  For now it will go into our computer room, but once we get our new furniture in the living room it will move there.  Here are some  photos from the night:  
Other than that the week seemed really low key.  I was still out of the house each evening, but didn’t feel nearly as rushed as I usually do.  Hey!  I’m not gonna question it!  This week coming DS is on the ice 3 times, I’m at Pilate’s Tuesday, DD has dance tonight and Friday I’m going to visit friends of mine who just had their second baby.  Looking forward to baby snuggles!!  Yesterday was blissfully free so I made a few meals to carry us through the week.  Whenever I make bone in chicken I save the bones in a bag in the freezer.  Once it’s full, like yesterday, I put them in the crock pot, cover them with water and set it to low for the day.  This gives us a few meals worth of homemade chicken soup to work with.  Next I made 2 batches of muffins; Blueberry Corn Muffins and Banana Dark Chocolate Walnut.   Recipes!!  Recipes!!
Blueberry Corn Muffins

• 1.5 cups WW flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter milk*
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1 egg or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters or 1 flax egg*
• 1/5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400*C, lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan
2. Whisk first 6 ingredients in a large bowl
3. Whisk buttermilk, oil and egg until combined well
4. Add wet to dry just until mixture is moist
5. Gently stir in blueberries
6. Fill muffin tin and bake 20 minutes
7. Let cool completely before storing

*I never buy buttermilk.  The easiest thing to do is add 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice to your milk of choice and letting it sit for a few minutes.  Voila….buttermilk.  I always use Almond Breeze in my baking.  To make a flax egg combine 1 tbsp ground flax and 3 tbsp of water.  Stir then let sit for a few minutes.
Banana Dark Chocolate Walnut Muffins

• 1 cup WW flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup Quaker oats
• 1 egg, beaten or 1/4 cup Egg Beaters or 1 flax egg
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup well mashed bananas (about 2 medium)
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400*C and grease a 12 cup muffin tin
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl
3. Stir in oats
4. Add the next 4 ingredients and combine
5. Stir in walnuts and dark chocolate chips
6. Bake for 20 minutes

I also made Averie’s Sweet and Sour Honey Lemon Tofu and Chipotle Salsa Lentils with Mixed Vegetables.  That’s what my hubby and I ate for dinner last night:
And today’s lunch was more lentils with some chicken from the broth I made!
My hubby made breakfast for me this weekend; oats with blueberries and dark chocolate chips:
And waffles which I choose the same oats toppings for.  LOL
I enjoyed some fabulous sandwiches over the weekend, too.  It’s nice to have the time to devote to my meals!
One night I made “pizza rolls”. 
I simply divided the dough in half, rolled it out and filled it with tomato sauce, ham, roasted red peppers, goat cheese and marble cheese.  Then I baked it for 20 minutes at 475*C.
I let the rolls cooled for a few minutes then sliced and served! The kids thought this meal was especially cool.  Hehe! Another night I made Mu Shu Chicken, but subbed sliced pork chops in for the chicken.  It turned out really good!
I think I’ll leave the food at that for today, but I will leave you with a quick video of Pepper.  He begs to go out on the deck and usually wants back in within a few minutes.  This is what he does when we “ignore” him!

Bye for now!!