Let’s Do Something FUN!

Hi all!  Happy Monday!  For once I have all evening to devote to Krista’s Kravings so I think I’ll celebrate by doing a daily recap, old style with a fun give away at the end.  So, let us begin!
Thursday Night/Friday
I left off Thursday night at the hotel that we had just arrived at for DS’s hockey tournament.  I believe DD and my hubby had gone out for some snacks at Tim Horton’s which is why I’ve got a photo of this blueberry bran muffin to show you: This tamed the hunger beast but it has been some time since I’ve had a muffin from Tim’s and I actually found this to be kinda salty.  Nothing I’d run out to have again, that’s for sure.  Next was a bit of relaxation before lights out. We were awake at 6am to make it to the rink on time and grabbed breakie at the hotel.  No photo but I ate some French toast and fruit salad.  The boys won the first game 2-0 which gave our whole team a high that lasted all day.  :)
The boys weren’t allowed to swim in the hotel pool until after their last game Friday (coaches rule), but I did go sit in the steamy area while DD and another sister took a dip.  T’was relaxing.  Before I knew it lunch time was upon us.  A group of us parents took the boys out to Jack Astor’s for lunch.  That place has some cool “art work”! And all the wait staff had neat quotes on the backs of their shirts.  We had the “classic”:
And my personal fave: LOL!  I certainly feel like that some days!  The menu had a nice amount of “healthy” food to choose from and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.  I order Thai chicken spring rolls which included a salad, Sesame on the side:
See the beautiful beet spiral on the salad?  I die.  My hubby is turning over a new leaf this year in regards to his eating as he has high blood pressure and really needs to clean up his eats.  Usually he would order a burger/sandwich and fries, but he went with a shrimp Pad Thai which was delicious: The second game of the day pulled in our first loss.  Bit of a bummer, but we kinda expected it.   Once the whole team was back at the hotel the boys finally got to have their swim and did they ever enjoy it!  And us ‘rents enjoyed a few adult beverages which we cleverly camouflaged in to-go coffee cups.  :) There was also a team dinner which featured Caesar salad, carrots, lasagna and buns for the adults, mac n cheese and chicken fingers for the kids plus some squares and such for desserts. 
The boys played mini sticks for a few hours while the “big people” socialized.  Most of us turned in early after such a busy day, though!
Saturday
Breakfast was once again at the hotel.  Might as well take advantage, right?  I left my camera in the room, but shared a waffle with my hubby and ate more fruit.  The game Saturday was at 11:15 so we weren’t in such as rush which was a treat.  This game brought the team their second loss which put us out of the tournament.  In truth, this was OK with me because it meant we got to come home.  Hehe!  Before we left town the 4 of us stopped at Moose Winooski's for some lunch.  We quite enjoy that restaurant and the place smelled SO good when we walked in!  I ordered a veggie wrap with avocado, cucumber, tomato, onion, lettuce and feta.   
It came with a side salad, too.
My hubby went with a cheese quesadilla and salad.  He said it was really, really good. We sat at a table right in front of a fireplace which made the meal so warm and cozy!
On the way home we decided to stop at a mall that we knew was home to our favourite store, Lululemon.  YAY!!!  I’ve been on the hunt for a new winter coat and scored an awesome one at Lulu, on sale to boot!
 
Love, love, love.  We made it home safe and sound by 5:30 and instead of ordering out I whipped up a quick pasta dish with a turkey/grated zucchini sauce. We spent the evening chilling on the couch and hit the sack EARLY.  My bed was like a piece of heaven.  Nothing makes you appreciate your own bed until you’re out of it for a few days, right?!
Sunday
We were on the go most of the day, but in a good way.  DS had soccer practice from 9:30-10:30 and then we went to Cora’s for a dynamite brunch with a few folks from the team.  I ordered a raspberry & cream cheese filled crepe which was pretty much the most amazing thing I eaten in a while! Isn’t it a beaut?  My hubby also ordered a crepe which was filled with fresh fruit and custard.  This thing was massive!
He couldn’t finish this beast.  LOL  We dropped the kids off at home afterwards and made our way over to Costco for some supplies.  And on Kristie’s tip, I searched out a box of these little darlings: Nom, nom….And another treat I just could not leave at the store was this box of hot chocolate: Can’t wait to try these flavours out.  We got home, packed our skating stuff and hauled the kids to one of DS’s teammates place for a skate on the river that runs behind their house.   Two things you may not know about me is that I can’t really skate and I’m petrified of being on an ice surface that has running water underneath.   I pulled both off, with class, I might add!  :)  I was a little apprehensive when I got there and saw this: Um, yeah….running water where I’m to skate?  I pushed my fear aside and let my hubby lace me up:
I was still a tad nervous,
But once I saw how beautiful it was, and that the ice was in fact really thick, I began to relax and enjoy myself.
Seriously.  I die!  And you just know that a hockey game broke out, right?  Not including me!  I skated around at my own pace until my feet were killing me.  Some pics of DS playing: He loves pond hockey!  I had bought some trout and faro at Costco so dinner was a quick one to prepare: baked trout, faro cooked with salsa and mixed veggie’s; My hubby and I finally got around to watching Date Night.  HILARIOUS!  Great way to finish off the weekend!
Monday
Today was back to work.  Yuck!  I haven’t done much else so these are my eats for the day: Oats with honey and almonds, leftover stir fry, chicken, potato and broccoli. 
And before I leave, Nature’s Path was so kind as to send me a huge stack of coupon’s for a dollar off any Nature’s Path or Enviro Kids product.  The expiry date is Feb 28, 2011 and  there’s no way I can get through all of them so I want to share!  Here’s what the deal is.  The first 10 people to leave me a comment doing any one of the 3 following things will get 10 coupon’s to use.  (Canadian and American entries only, please.)

1. Tell me what your favourite sport is.  It can be one that you participate in or like watching.
2. Tell me your best joke
3. Tell me what you like best about my blog

There you go!  The offer will end just as soon as I get those 10 comments!  I will contact you for your info, plus link your blog to mine if you have one.  You DO NOT need a blog to participate, though!
Bye for now!!

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!!

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!!