Alarm Free

Happy Sunday, all!  Has everyone been enjoying a great weekend?  Mine’s been more low key than usual which is just fine by me.  Yesterday and today I actually got to wake up naturally, read; NO ALARM!  I seriously can’t remember the last time I was able to go to bed without setting my alarm.  It’s not even that I sleep late, it’s just SO nice wake up on my own, ya know?? 
It’s definitely been a lot cooler lately, this weekend in particular.  Only 6*C right now!  I was hoping to go another few weeks before starting the furnace up, but we cracked yesterday and started it up.  I’ve also been using the oven as a heat source.  Yesterday after groceries but before Noah’s hockey game I baked another batch of granola from Quinoa 365:
I love that this makes such a massive amount (7 cups) of granola!  And we all like it, so it never goes to waste.   Sarah helped me out with another recipe from the book: She seems to be developing a real interest in the kitchen, so I let her do most of it for me.  I only had strawberry jam so we used that instead and the bars turned out GREAT! The quinoa flour *almost* makes it taste like there’s peanut butter in the crust.  Noah actually thought this and I didn’t try to change his mind.  ;)
Breakfast yesterday was a big stack of pumpkin pancakes topped with blueberries; How absolutely delicious does that look?  I could go for another stack right now!  HAHA  I had one rice tortilla left in the fridge so I decided to fill it with some eggs.  I cooked a big handful of spinach, added some turkey deli meat (GF) then poured in about a 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters. When it was just about set I added some goat gouda w/ chilles: Then wrapped it up!
I don’t know that I’m too fond of the rice wraps.  They taste fine, but tend to get awful hard which in turn makes them crack.  Hmm….For dinner I made a BIG batch of homemade butternut squash soup which was served with plain Greek yogurt and grated mozzarella: Soup just never photographs well, does it?  I had some toasted rice bread on the side for dipping.  YUM! 
Sarah is trying out for a volleyball team here in town so a few tryouts have been taking place. 
I know; just what we need right?  Another competitive sport in the house!  But I firmly believe in giving my kids every opportunity out there that they show an interest in.  This may make for a busy life right now, but when you think of it, at 12, I really don’t have many more years left with her before she leaves for school and what such so it’s a small price to pay. 
Let’s see….not much more to report.  The gluten free thang is still going well.  Like I’ve said before; I’m sure there is still some gluten in my diet, but the bulk of it has been removed and I’ve been feeling better.  It’s really only been 7ish weeks and I was told to give it at least 4 months to *really* see results, so I’m gonna stick with it for the time being.  On that note, I have a delicious salad waiting for me to eat for lunch!  Talk soon!
Bye for now!!!

First Post of 2011!

Hello!  How has everyone been?  I hope that you’ve been enjoying a fun 2011 thus far.  In the past week I’ve dined on Thai, partied it up with my bestie who was in town for the holidays, cooked New Year’s Day dinner for my whole family, completed 4 extremely busy days of work and finally, we just arrived at a hotel where we will be spending the next 2 days for a hockey tournament.   The 2 hour drive here was hellish because there are blizzard like conditions out there!  Yikes!
Seeing as a lot has gone on I’ll stick to the most interesting (IMO, anyways) parts!  Let’s start with my Thai meal.  The kids both ended up a their friends houses on the 29th so my hubby and I took advantage of the free time by hitting the mall, the liquor store and dinner out.  I started off with fresh shrimp rolls: Then dove into a spicy pad thai:
I barely made a dent in that.  It was HUGE, but delicious. 
On the 30th my friend and I went out for dinner and drinks.  We ate at my favourite restaurant, Einstein’s Cafe.  White wine spritzers started us off: Oops!  They’re gone!  LOL  Here we are before we emptied them:
I ordered a goat cheese/portabello mushroom stuffed chicken which was just divine.  No picture of the original meal, but I did snap one of the leftovers I devoured the next day,
After dinner we went out for drinks with a few friends.  Loads of fun, which I happen to have photo evidence of:
 
Good times.  Such good times in fact, that the next day I *really* appreciated a grande NF gingerbread misto! LOL! 
New Year’s Eve was pretty low key.  We usually don’t go out because it’s gets WAY too expensive to pay for tickets out plus a babysitter.  Besides, I had lots of prep to do for New Year’s Day dinner.  I baked a chocolate cheese cake, prepared a new cranberry sauce recipe,  made the strawberry sauce for the cheesecake.  I also spent quite a bit of time relaxing on the couch watching movies like Eclipse and 17 Again.  Of course I loved Eclipse (I’d already seen it) but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed 17 Again!  I got a good few laughs outta that one!
On to New Years Day.  I had my parents, in laws, sister and my brother & his girlfriend over.  On the menu was a 15lb turkey, stuffing, roasted potatoes & butternut squash, string beans & buns.  This is what my meal looked like: The cheesecake was a hit and there were no leftovers to be had! And lunches have looked like this all week! Gobble Gobble!  LOL!  Here are a few of the pictures that were taken that day:
 
Now it’s time for some of the other great eats I’ve chowed down the past week.  Breakfast, as usual, as been oats: See how I snuck those waffles in there?  When I haven’t been eating leftover turkey for lunch I’ve been enjoyed farm fresh eggs: All my dinner photos are really dark, but I did make a great stir fry last night.  I snapped a better picture of the portion I took for lunch today, YUM!  Well, I think that’ll be all for tonight.  My hubby and DD just ran down to Tim Horton’s for some eats because dinner was a looong time ago!  Soon after our snacks we’ll be turning in.  It’ll be a 6am wake up call for an early game!
Bye for now!

Muffins, Soup and Food Item #3

Happy Sunday!!  Hopefully you’ve all been enjoying the past few days.  I know I have!  Like usual, hockey has been the main activity of the past few days but today is a day off!  YES!  We had a late afternoon game in another town yesterday and my hubby worked in the morning so I had tome to do my vacuuming and floors.  The joy.  HA!  Today my hubby and the kids went out to the farm.  I stayed back because my in laws bought a new computer and hubby was setting things up for them.  And I am not a patient person when it comes to computer shenanigans.  Instead, I did laundry and some baking.  Awhile ago I downloaded the Smart School Time Recipes booklet and I finally chose a recipe to try. These would be Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins except I ran out of chocolate chips so I used cinnamon chips instead. 
The turned out fabulous!  I made 6 big muffins so I had to adjust the baking time from 15 minutes to 25. As you can see, they’re perfectly golden brown.  Thanks for the recipe, Katie!!
Before I vacuumed the place yesterday I roasted a butternut squash (from my garden) an onion and some garlic to make my Butternut Squash soup.   The 45 minutes roasting time was just long enough to haul the vacuum around and make the aroma in the house heady.  I enjoyed a hefty serving come lunch time:  
I topped my bowl off with some cubed goat’s milk feta for a little extra creaminess.  A great lunch for a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon!
Did I mention that DS scored not one, but TWO goals in yesterday’s game???  BOOYA!  I was freaking ecstatic for him!  He was getting a bit discouraged that he couldn’t get past any goalies so far this season, but my hubby has been driving it into him that as long as he keeps his feet moving and takes every opportunity for a shot, the goals will come.   And so they did!  And wouldn’t you know that on the way down I snapped a few pictures of him after I had promised none at the rink???  DOH!  Well, here’s what I got, anyways…
 
And DD is always ready for a photo shoot!

So let’s talk about what I am thankful for this week (and always).  I am super lucky that my parents and in laws are all healthy and active.  Heck, my father in law is in his 70’s and still runs a horse farm with my mother in law for goodness sake!  I lost all my grandparents at a very young age so I have very vague memories of them.  I am SO thankful that my children have the opportunity to know, and grow, knowing their grandparents.  It’s such a blessing!  And on the lighter side, I am thankful that it has been raining all weekend because with the temps as cool as they are it could very well be snow!  Actually, we had a dusting of snow on the deck Friday morning.  *shiver*.  BTW, did you know that “snow” is considered a swear word in the Krista’s Kraving’s household?  LOL!!
I’ve been cooking bigger batch meals lately so there’s not too many food pictures today as most dishes were eaten more than once.  Here’s what I’ve got, though!! Kamut flakes above!!  I used a half cup, 1 cup water, craisins, banana and pecan pieces.  It’s been too long! Goat’s milk yogurt, pumpkin butter and granola became lunch one day… This was Thursday’s dinner.  I had enough time after work to roast some bone in chicken breasts.  On the side is brown rice and a mixture of sautéed pancetta, zucchini, spinach and goat’s milk feta.  Great flavour combination happening there, I tell you!  We all felt like breakfast for dinner last night so we stopped off at an all day breakfast joint for some eats.  This place has a great latte selection:
I ordered the pumpkin chai latter with skim:
I ordered the “Oxford” omelette for my meal.
It came with home fries (which I usually tell them to hold because I despise them!  But I forgot) and dry WW toast which later got some orange marmalade spread over it;
It was much better than I thought it would be….and I thought it would be good!  I’ll have to remember that mix of veggies next time I make eggs at home.
Now on to the Thanks & Giving food item of the week…. Hamburger Helper!  Just to review, week one was tuna and week 2 was mac n cheese.  Don’t forget to link back to the food drive, please!  The more the merrier.  Let’s help get food on the table for those less fortunate than us this Christmas!!!
Did you see the full moon Thursday night?
I snapped theses while in the Tim Horton’s drive thru!  Love them.
Bye for now!!