Where Have I Been??

I’ve certainly been gone longer than I intended.  Even though my days are fairly repetitive (work, eat, drive kids around, go to bed) I still seem to be on the busy side with it all!  We recently switched our job rolls around at work so I’ve been learning a few new duties.  I like that it’s keeping me engaged because there’s nothing worse than getting bored at work, IMO.  Monday night’s DD is in dance class from 6-7:30 on the other side of town so I usually wander around Winners instead of driving back and forth.  This is not so good for my wallet!  I’m thinking that using gas driving to and fro is more cost effective!  LOL  And Tuesday is MY night, AKA Pilates.  My Mom joined me this session and it’s fun having her there.  By Wednesday I’m usually ready for a post but last night we went out of town (about a 1.5hr drive) for a hockey game.  It was bed time by the time we rolled into the driveway.  So here I am!  Better late than never, right??
On Tuesday DD went to the mall after dinner with a friend of hers….alone.  We’ve never dropped her off and let her hang out before.  It was a BIG step for this Mama Bear, I tell ya.  There were special circumstances that led up to this, though.  The friend she met up with is going in for some significant surgery in a week and they really wanted to get together beforehand.  Plan A was to see a movie but nothing that was playing interested them.  Enter Plan B, the mall.  Said friend is also 2 years older than DD and is responsible enough that I felt DD would be safe.  She had a great time with her freedom, of course!  I had to pick her up for 8pm and Pilates ends at 7:15 so I had a bit of time to spare.  Enter a trip across the street from the mall to The Bulk Barn.  I haven’t been there in ages.  Here’s what I bought!
Candy corn for the office candy dish…..and some for me!  ;)
Kamut flakes.  Love these for breakfast and I haven’t bough any since the summer so I’m eager to cook some up!
Cinnamon chips.  First time seeing these in Canada.  Very exciting!
Green raisins.  First time seeing these ever.  They’re good!  They taste more like a sweet grape than raisins which I liked.
A great big sack of steel cut oats:
Cocoa roasted almonds.  These are also the first I’ve seen around here.  They’re nowhere near as good as the Emerald brand, but they’ll do!
And lastly, coconut cashews.  Much sweeter than I anticipated, but they make a nice little treat….and the “crumbs” are great on my oats!  :)  I know bulk type stores are not for everyone (germs, etc) but I’m more than OK with them and find them to be really decent money savers.
So about that out of town hockey game….THE BOYS WON!  This is their second win of the season (they’ve played 8 games) so we were all pretty excited!  I took a few shots of DS during the warm up:
Apparently he’d had enough!!  LOL   I’ve been leaving Operation Beautiful notes in all the bathrooms at the different rinks we go to! Here are a few of the more notable eats I’ve been enjoying this week: It’s been dark in the mornings so my pictures are a little dark.  Boo!  The middle bowl was eaten at work because DS had a 6am hockey practice Monday morning and I had no time to eat at home. This yellow bell pepper, zucchini, chicken stir fry made a great stuffing for a pita pocket! Dinners have looked like this:
A can of tomato & onion tuna + 3oz of WW macaroni noodles turned into this:  And one night there was grilled chicken thighs, veg, asparagus and 2 potatoes (I don’t care much for potatoes, obviously!) Sweet treats!
I think that’s all I’ve got for now.  I’m guessing there’s enough picture overload in this post!  I’ll be back Sunday with the next Thanks & Giving food item!
Bye for now!!

A Few Different Things

Ola!  I’ve got a few things to “talk” about in today’s post so I hope you enjoy it!  I want to start with a recipe for wonderful espresso chocolate chip muffins a la Kelsey. This girl makes some seriously amazing muffins based on her favourite cafe’s delights.  I halved the recipe for this one and still got 6 great big muffins: DD and I have been enjoying them as morning snacks this week.  We finished them off today and I think a tear or two were shed! Next up is a super simple butternut squash soup recipe that I made on Sunday with a freshly picked squash from my garden:
Butternut Squash Soup
-1 butternut squash, chopped
-1 large onion, wedged
-2 cloves garlic
-2 tbsp olive oil
-1 tsp dried oregano
-salt & pepper to taste
-3 cups stock of your choice (I used homemade turkey stock)
-1/2 cup milk of your choice (I used unsweetened almond breeze)
*preheat oven to 400 deg
*put squash, onion, garlic and spices in a big bowl
*add olive oil and toss to coat well
*roast for 45 minutes
*add veggies and any “juices” to a soup pot along with stock
*bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes
*puree until you get your desired consistency (I used a hand blender)
*stir in milk and heat through
*serve with a dollop of sour cream/Greek yogurt/quark This soup is smooth, silky and filling.  Especially with the quark I used that insisted on sinking to the bottom! 
Now on to something totally unrelated to food; dry shampoo.  Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about this stuff!  I was pretty curious about it so I decided to find out what the rave was all about.  Here’s what I learnt:
“Powdered shampoos are designed to work without water. They are typically based on powders such as starch, silca or talc, and are intended to physically absorb excess sebum from the hair before being brushed out. Those with dark hair may prefer to use brown powders such as cocoa or carob powder.”
(source)
You can buy some really fancy, and sometimes costly, dry shampoos such as these brands:

(source)
OR…you can use what I’ve always used in “emergency” situations (which is also WAY cheaper!):
 
Good ole baby powder!  Now, I like to wash my hair every other day.  Any longer than that and I start getting greasy where my hair parts naturally and where it usually ends up tucked behind my ears.  There are times on the weekend, say, where I don’t have time to give it a wash.  Those are the days that I pull out the baby powder to sprinkle on my “problem” areas.  Just a bit will do and once it’s blended and brushed through you’re left with clean looking, un-greasy hair for the day.  This works especially well when sporting a ponytail. So tell me, have you ever used dry shampoo or baby powder?  What do you like/dislike about either or??  
Now on to some of the yummy food I’ve been eating! Oats.  Was there ever any doubt??  LOL  Lots of fantastic tasting fruit.
I ate this stir fry yesterday.  It was put together using stuff from the fridge such as brown rice, broccoli, raisins and chicken with fig balsamic dressing.  The sweet potato was tonight because I wanted something on the small side so as not to have an overly full belly for Pilates.
And lastly, because I forgot to post about it Sunday,  I made sure to stick Operation Beautiful notes in each and every bathroom I encountered in each tournament city.  These are 2 of them!  
So how’s that for an extremely random post?  I’m trying to keep things a little less “structured” because I feel my posts have been a little lack lustre lately.  Let me know whether you love (or hate) this format.  Your input is important to me, loves!!
Bye for now!!

I'm Famous!

Morning!  I just wanted to stop by to quickly let you all know that I made an appearance on the Operation Beautiful website!!  Please hop on over to see it.  I'm pretty stoked!  Let me know what you think....:)

Bye for now!!

Operation Beautiful and A BBQ

Hi lovelies!  Well, here we are at Monday already and I’m back to work tomorrow so I guess vacation is over.  That makes me sad!   We didn’t do as many day trips this year as we usually do, but LOTS of R&R was enjoyed and I truly savoured every bit of it.  Maybe now I’ll get back to some regular posting! 
Friday was a bum day but in a good way.  We made a trip to Costco and I had groceries to do.  Other than that I just chilled.  Breakfast was a new (to me) hot cereal that I bought at Wegman’s:
Funnily enough, after eating this I read an blurb about it in Prevention magazine!  For me, raisins just seem to go well with the flavour of chai so as you can see I added some.  There was also a drizzle of cream. Lunch was some leftovers thrown in a bowl; steamed broc, a little bit of chicken and cuke slices with roasted red pepper dressing and a bagel thin LC cheese on the side: Googly eyes!!!  LOL  I bought the LC in the US, but I think I can find this flavour here in “green” packaging. 
We enjoyed dinner outside again!  Grilled pork chops (from Costco…they were so thick that my hubby cut them in half cross wise and we froze the rest), grilled zucchini and a side of cantaloupe.
There were cherries, too, enjoyed while reading the newest edition of Clean Eating magazine.
I spent the rest of the evening getting food ready for our deck “christening” BBQ!  More on that in a wee bit….when darkness fell we started a fire in the fire pit and sat around chatting about our vacay.  The kids have really been enjoying the later nights!
I had one of DS, too, but I think the little bugger deleted it because it’s not on the camera anymore!  Grrr…
I hit the kitchen as soon as I got out of bed Saturday to finish chopping, mixing and blending.  I finally sat down about 9ish for some eats.  I’ve really been enjoying the bagel thins so I toasted one and topped it off with almond butter and homemade zucchini jam (recipe to come); Coffee was also a must!
Early in the afternoon DD and I went to the mall in hunt of the new Operation Beautiful book!  I went online and saw that the Canadian release date is August 10, but I was determined so I went to the bookstore and inquired about it,  turns out there were 2 in back, one of which ended up in my greedy hands!!!
Excited much?  LOL  Before I could get it home I HAD to stop to get a picture of me, the book and “Canada”!!
I just noticed that although I randomly picked this sign…AKA, it was the first one we drove by…..it’s actually very fitting as it was taken at the “Food Research Centre”!  HAHA!  I’m just about done reading it and so far I think it’s fantastic!  Caitlin did an awesome job!  The real reason I wanted this book kicking around the house, though, was so that it would fall into these hands…
BINGO!  She actually sat down with it as soon as we got home and I know that some of the notes in there spoke to her because she read a few to me.  She really liked how creative some people were.  We’ve decided to make sure we have post it notes on all all the time so we can leave messages together.   While she read that I ate a late lunch. 
A simple lunch of granola, raspberries and this yogurt:
By 4pm I was putting the finishing touches on dinner.  I made a HUGE Caesar salad (of which there were no leftovers!!):
A Hungry Girl recipe called “I Can’t Believe its Not Potato Salad” salad; I’ve made this one a few times before and it never fails to be a hit.  It’s in the second cookbook; 200 Under 200.  I also made a quick quinoa salad by combining 1 cup cooked quinoa, 1 each red and orange bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped red onion, 1/2 cup chopped feta, 1/4 cup walnut pieces and to dress it was a mix (I didn’t really measure) of olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, chilli powder, honey, salt & pepper:
My hubby grilled burgers and sausages and some Yves veggie burgers for me.  The next picture shows everything all together, but part of it is in shadow…oops!
I loaded my plate with a burger, quinoa salad and “potato” salad:  TOOT TOOT!  All aboard the delicious train!!!  LOL  For dessert I made a orange creamsicle cake (recipe to come, too!)
 
Again, this is something I’ve made before just like this and with different variations.  I haven’t met someone yet that didn’t like it as it’s the perfectly light end to a meal.  Here’s a closer look…
A little later on we enjoyed coffee, tea and a bowl of these crisps that I found at Costco:
 
Katie eats these so I knew they would be good!  All in all, everybody had a great time and really enjoyed the ambiance of our new outdoor space!!
DS (with KC) and my parents down the left, DD and my in laws down the right and my hubby at the end.  :)
It was a late end and DS had an 8am soccer practice that we had to get up for.  Not fun, my friends, not fun.  Long gone are the days that I can survive on 5hrs sleep!  I won’t go through all my eats for yesterday because most of it was leftovers!  Imagine that, eh?  I did enjoy a package of Nature’s Path Apple Cinnamon porridge with a few walnuts before we left for the field:
Here’s my little man in action!
After practice we drove out to the farm with a pit stop at Knapp’s for a peach nectarine pie.  I enjoyed a small piece:
AMAZING!  I’m loving peaches now that they’re in season.  I also found a new jam that they’re making and just HAD to buy it:
Oh, yes they did!  I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure it’s da bomb.  How could it not be???  Lunch and dinner were odds and ends of the BBQ so I won’t post them again. 
I had meant to get this out last night but the kids were invited across the street for a swim so that became my priority.  I’ll be leaving today’s “fun” for tomorrow’s post so this doesn't get any longer.  Plus, I want to quickly do a post with the zucchini jam and cake recipes for you. 
Have you bought the Operation Beautiful book yet??  Please share your thoughts with me!!
Bye for now!!