All Over The Map

I’m so sad that my Christmas vacation is done. I’ve had such a fulfilling week! I spent lots of time with family including my bestie, enjoyed a few days lounging around in my pj’s and even got some shopping done. And the week didn’t fly by like time off usually does. *sigh* I guess I do like my pay cheque, though!

Here’s what I ate for breakie yesterday and today;

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup Windy Hills flax seed porridge
• cinnamon
• raisins
• coconut and cappuccino flavoured agave

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup oat bran
• cinnamon
• dried cranberries
• hazelnuts & yogurt chips

After DS’s hockey game yesterday we came home for a quick lunch. I warmed up a bowl of mango dal which of course was much better a few days after being made!

Then we went to Costco where I bought these 2 items for myself!

Call me corny, but I LOVE Dr. Oz! And the Wii fit plus is great fun. We played it for over 3 hours last night and another 2 today! I also bought some broccoli tenders and sliced Portobello mushrooms for which there is no picture, but I did take a picture of the BIG bag of quinoa!

Dinner was delish! I roasted a pork tenderloin with some garlic cloves and sliced onion. I served it with some WW couscous, broccoli tenders and cranberry sauce.

After eating this morning we went out to the farm for a visit. DD showed grandma all the ins and outs of the Wii Fit Plus game as they have it, too. When we got home I made myself a “pizza”.

I simply cooked a red pepper and some sliced mushrooms until tender then added 1/3 of a cup of egg whites. Once it was mostly set I dotted it with some goat’s milk cheese and a sprinkle of cilantro. To. Die. For. End of story!

I spent the afternoon with Dr. Oz learning all about my heart. Awesome. I also scored a great Lululemon hoodie on ebay. HA! I did get a little productive by making some muffins from Veganomicon:

The only thing I changed was to omit the oil and they turned out just fine. Look at this baby:

He was my sweet end tonight.

For dinner I defrosted some beef stew that I made about a month ago. The fam had theirs with bowtie pasta, but I chose to eat mine with a serving of quinoa.

I’ve been on a real quinoa kick lately. Loving it! :D

Over the past 2 days I’ve been doing much better at eating less of this:

And more of this:

YEHAW!!! :D I still feel like a marshmallow, though. I’m pretty confident that getting back into my routine will take care of that, though.

Well, sorry this post is so disjointed. I’ll be getting back to regular posting habit this coming week. I have loads of stuff to get ready for the morning so I’ll end this right here.

Bye for now!!

Home for the Day!

Oh, it was SO nice to have been off work today! I got up at 7 and followed my normal getting ready for work routine because DS had hockey camp from 8:30-4:30 across town that I had to get him to. I also started off the morning with my much missed oats!
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-1/2 banana, 2 strawberries, handful cranberries all mashed up
-cinnamon
-sprinkle of Nature’s path pumpkin granola
YUM! I loved all the fruit in this meal! I set a goal for myself this week to try to squeeze as much fruits and veggies into each meal as I can. This was a good start!

After DS was safe and sound at the rink, DD and I headed over to Walmart to get ourselves some rain boots. Hers were too small and I missed the boat last year and regretted not buying any!
Aren’t they the cutest??? I walked out of there with minimal damage to my wallet, too! The only other things I bought were Dino Egg porridge for the kids as the grocery store was out last week and a bag of frozen blueberries. Pretty good for me!!

The 2 of us spent the morning playing Big Brain on the Wii. I really need to practice at this because she kicked my butt at almost every challenge! I ate many a medjool date in the process….probably 5? I’m gonna have to hide them because I can’t stay away!!

We had eggs, toast and salad for lunch. DD’s were easy over with 2 pieces of WW toast and a Caesar salad, mine was egg whites on WW toast with jalapeno hummus and another huge salad like last night only this one had leftover steamed veggies on it instead of fruit.
Spectacular! In hindsight, I should’ve taken a photo of DD’s plate, as well. It was pretty impressive, too! ;) After lunch I put ingredients in the bread machine for pizza dough then we hit up the mall. There wasn’t really too much happening there, but it was nice to walk around for a few hours! Before we left we stopped in at Starbucks where I got a grande NF Vanilla Rooibos tea latte.
DD noticed that they had their small size V-day tumblers on sale for $6.00 so she decided to use the $10.00 that she brought with her to buy one. She then proceeded to get a complimentary hot chocolate along with a double chocolate chip cookie. She was very proud of herself for that buy!! ;)

Before I left for Pilate's, I ate the other half of my Clif Bar from Saturday....
Then I prepared the pizza's for the oven. All my hubby had to do was pop them in when he returned from picking DS up. Here's mine before it got all toasty....
This was 4oz of dough, red, orange and yellow bell pepper, green and black olives and hot peppers all topped off with 2oz of a mix of orange cheddar and smoked cheddar. And I'm not embarrassed to admit that I ate the whole thing! It all started with these 3 pieces...
Then I realized how hungry I actually was and downed the rest! No sweet end, though!! I do have about a cup of mango waiting for me should the need for a snack arise later on!

I totally multi tasked while making the pizza and prepared lunches for tomorrow, too. I washed all the sheets today so I still have beds to make and as I type, DD is in the tub with DS in line behind her. I plan on getting those 2 off to bed a little earlier tonight because they both have colds and haven't been sleeping well. Then I plan on finishing up my book! I'll catch you all tomorrow!!

Bye for now!!

Family Day

I was thrilled to have today off work for Ontario's Family Day holiday! I woke up around 7 after a great sleep and lounged around in bed until 8. So nice to not have to rush about! I decided to make pancakes for everyone for breakfast. The fam had their usual chocolate chip pancakes and I had my usual blueberry pancakes!

I used my Bob's Red Mill 5 Grain oats as a change and realized that they don't soak up the liquid as well and were still a little "raw" once the pancakes were browned. They were still yummy, but next time I'll be sticking to good ole Quaker oats!

I ate a delicious bowl of yogurt/blueberries/agave and Nature's Path pumpkin granola last night while watching The Race.

This was so good that I almost went back for another. Almost! Instead, DD and I split a Dr. Weil Chocolata Walnut bar. The picture of the actual bar didn't turn out, but it looked similar to a Lara Bar only flatter.

We both really like this! It had a nice deep chocolate flavour and big pieces of walnut throughout. I'm a texture gal and this really hit the spot! Now I'm psyched to try the other flavours!!!

I spent the morning doing, I mean HELPING, DD with her Nunavut project. She had everything ready to go so it was primarily organizing the info on the bristol board. She forgot one of the most important elements (the map of the territory) at school, so we had to make sure to leave room for that to be glued in tomorrow, which is when it's due. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!! When that was done I baked up 2 batches of muffins to get us through the week. The first batch was my Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins, only I made them with cranberries this time so i guess I should call these ones Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins!!.

The second batch was Apple Bran Flax Muffins. The date at the bottom of my printout reads "8/22/2007" and this is the first time I've made them. Nothing like hanging on to a recipe for-ever!!!

While they were in the oven, I did some dishes and general tidying. Then, the 4 of us went to play "Big Brain" on the Wii. What a fun game! Have any of you ever tried it? You have to do exercises in each of the following categories; analyze, compute, memorize, visual and identify. Then it tells you how big your brain is. It's actually quite a challenge! Our sitter brought it over for the kids to play Saturday night and they loved it. Then, they brought my MIL's home to use.

Around 1pm I decided I'd better get some lunch into my kids (and myself!) They opted for grilled cheese and I figured that seeing as I had a pan out I'd make myself some egg whites to pop on a toasted WW bagel with smoked cheddar and Sabra hummus. A nice salad finished the meal off!

I hit the computer for some blog reading after lunch and then hopped in the shower around 3 to get cleaned up for Pilate's. I'm pretty stiff from my adventure's the other night and was looking forward to class all day long!! Before I left, I ate an apple bran flax muffin...

Delish!! Class was everything I hoped it would be tonight. Our focus was the upper back/shoulder region which is exactly where I needed a good stretch. By the time the hour was up, I wasn't stiff at all. Wonderful!! My hubby had BBQ'd pork chops for dinner so I asked him to leave a small one aside for me. He also left me some corn. To this I added some steamed asparagus and swiss chard that had been cooked down with a little garlic, salt & pepper. Then I hit it with a drizzle of agave. I also topped the pork chop with mango chutney....

Oh, yeah! This was one tasty plate!! I ate another small slice of apple pie for my sweet end.

There's not much on the agenda for the rest of the evening. I've got lunches and backpacks ready to go and all homework has been done! I did get a magazine in the mail today so I think I'll give that a look through while my hubby watches hockey! Be sure to check out Itzy's Kitchen and What's for Dinner to see how they responded to my interview questions! That was such a neat idea that someone thought up!!! I'll leave you with a photo of Pepper. He is one kitty that does not appreciate his picture being taken!!

Thanks for taking the time to check in!!

Bye for now!!

A Beautiful Sunday

Hello blog friends! Today was the nicest day we've had in a very LONG time! It was about 5 degrees Celsius and the sun was shining down warm. The sun gaining strength is a sure sign that winter is nearing it's end. Amen! The boys were up at 5:30 am for hockey and although the alarm woke me up, I stayed in bed until about 6:45 just enjoying the quiet. I had promised pancakes again so I made a repeat of last Sunday's jack's....chocolate chip. I didn't have any fresh strawberries this time, but I did have frozen so I made a quick sauce using 3 cup of the berries, thawed in the microwave and mashed, a 1/3 cup of OJ mixed with 1 Tbsp of corn starch and a 1/4 cup of sugar. I brought all that up to a boil and set it on low until it got thick, about 5 minutes. I decided to make another Hungry Girl pancake recipe pour moi...Apple Blueberry Pancake Shake Up...and they were the best! I think the strawberry sauce brought them a few notches up the delicious ladder!

Are you drooling yet?! I know I am all over again just looking at the photos!!

In case you're wondering, I did eat all 3 of them! :)

Our morning was spent out at the farm for coffee/catch up time. DS brought his Wall-E Wii game out for Grandma to try and in exchange, he played her target game. We were home by noon and I wasn't really hungry for lunch but I knew I needed to eat something because we had a trip to Costco planned and going there even slightly hungry is bad for my wallet! I had about 3/4 of a cup of the Amy's (bland) split pea soup left so I warmed it up and tossed in a diced up slice of deli ham and some grated white cheddar cheese. Oh, and salt & pepper!

It was much tastier this way! As we walked out the door a grabbed a handful of Dauphine (walnut) Sahale snack mix...


This is my favourite blend of the ones I've tried thus far.

Even though I managed to only have a coffee sample at Costco, I still bought quite a bit. What can I say? They had some great stuff there this time!! Here's my loot...

Amy's soups (lentil & minestrone), jalapeno Sabra hummus, green tea, V8 soups (tomato & carrot) and medjool dates. Next up we have a new Wii game, Neighbourhood Games (it has football, bocce, golf, horseshoes, shuffle board and much more that I can't remember now) and a big box of Nature's Path Optimum cereal (blueberry cinnamon).

I also picked salmon up for dinner. Oh, and another bag of my Valentine's Day addiction....cinnamon hearts.

I must admit to eating 4 medjool dates on the way home. Then I started on the hearts to get the awesome date taste out of my mouth. Yes, I am hopeless! :)

So, salmon it was for supper. I sprinkled it with some salmon spice and butter and let it do it's thang in a 350* oven for about 15ish minutes. On the side was some lovely steamed veggies and a portabello mushroom cap filled with Sabra hummus and cheese.

Such a great meal! I was too full for a sweet end right away, but I did eat 2 chocolate chip cookies at my parents house. I forgot my camera at home, though. I'm sure you all know what they look like, though! I'm off to shower the kids and make lunches for tomorrow. Let the week begin!

Bye for now!!

Lazy Sunday

I had trouble falling asleep last night and slept horribly so I was very glad that I set my alarm for 7:15am to get up and make the boys their promised pancakes! I blame my sleep issues on a cup of coffee that I drank to close to bed time. Lesson learned! Anywho, DD got up shortly after me and helped out in the kitchen by preparing a bowl of sliced strawberries and a bowl of blueberries. For the fam's pancakes, I used 2 cups heart healthy Bisquick, 1.25 cups milk and an egg. I also threw in a handful on mini semi sweet chocolate chips. I made a Hungry Girl blueberry pancake recipe for myself. Here's my plate complete with strawberries, blueberries and sugar free maple syrup...

DS at 3 big pancakes, but caved on the last bite so I ate it for him. You know what? I found their pancakes WAY too sweet. Glad I made my own healthier batch! I also sipped on a big cup of green tea.

Once clean up was done and I was all showered, we drove out to the farm. While there, my hubby cracked open a box that had 6 different kinds of nuts and trail mixes in it. Needless to say, I ate way too many nuts and 3 cookies!! What the heck? Talk about random snacking...I wasn't even hungry so I "failed" at this temptation! But man, they were tasty! I managed to capture a picture before they all disappeared....just kidding, we didn't eat all of it!

Getting back to some good for me foods, I was feeling rather snackie late last night and decided to eat a huge, juicy orange instead of some random empty calorie crap.

I forgot how good oranges are when they're in season!

I was not hungry when lunch rolled around due to my nut consumption, so I decided to pull out my Wii Fit instead. I finished all the yoga poses (15 of them) and 14 out of 15 strength moves. I tried #15, but couldn't figure it out. I'll try that one another time. I put my HRM on for shits and giggles and burned 200 calories in just over an hour. Not a super star workout, but I wasn't looking for one. I felt nice and loose and limber when it was over, but more importantly, I was RELAXED! It was just after 2pm at this point and I was starting to feel a bit hungry. I threw ingredients in the bread machine for pizza dough and then made myself a little something to eat.

This is a peeled and diced apple, a single serve container of FF vanilla and about a 1/4 cup of pumpkin granola. I also filled my Starbuck's tumbler with another round of green tea. I decided to spare you all a repeat picture! I ate this up while blog reading.

I never did make that energy bar recipe last night, so I made it today while I waited for the pizza dough to rise. I got the recipe out of and Ellie Krieger book called "The Food You Crave". It's actually called "energy bars" and is chalk full of dried fruits and nuts and oats. It was easy to make, as well....just pop all the ingredients into a food processor and spread in a 9 x 13 pan. The recipe yields 24 bars. Here they are just out of the oven...

Here they are all cut up into bars;


These bars are SO yummy! My hubby and DS had no problem gobbling them up! There are quite a few tasty looking recipes in this cookbook that I want to try that I think I may just by it! Has anybody else checked out this cookbook? If so, what do you think of it?

Next up was pizza assembly. I made a big one for the family because they like all the same things on their pizza. This one had pepperoni, yellow bell pepper, mushrooms, roasted red peppers and cheese. My hubby's side also had hot pepper rings on it.

My had all the same veggies with no meat and the addition of olives. Also, I didn't have as much cheese on mine...

That's a leftover piece of dough that I had thought to make into a bun. I didn't work out very well at all, though. :( Here's piece # 1;

I ate one more this size and packed the rest up for tomorrow's lunch. My sweet end was an energy bar, of course! You had to know that! :) We went to visit my parents for a little bit after dinner and when we got home I chatted with a friend for awhile . He's going through a nasty personal situation right now and needs to vent every now and then. Poor guy! Left on the agenda tonight is lunches and one last load of laundry to fold. I'm aiming to get to bed early again due to my poor sleep last night. First up tomorrow is a dentist appointment. Yuck. Not looking forward to that! Anyways, enjoy the rest of the night!!

Bye for now!!