Empty Fridge

We are just SO close to Friday, eh?! One more sleep to the weekend…amen. Not much new today. I did a boat load of keypunching at work. Oh, the joy. I tried a new trick with my oats this morning courtesy of hungry girl. I doubled the liquid and let the oats cook much longer than usual for a massive, creamy bowl of goodness!

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup USVAB
• 1/2 cup oats
• cinnamon
• chai tea powder
• hazelnut mocha sprinkles

Being a volume eater, I loved this method! I actually ran out of time and didn’t finish it all, but the longer cooking time (about 15 mins) made it creamy and thick.

I made sure to get my mojo on before going to the gym:

I bought a box of these back in March when DD and I went to the States but I eat them sparingly because I don’t think I’ll be State side again until the end of July. Gotta make them last!

The elliptical was my machine of choice today. My back was pretty stiff from sitting at the computer and I figured the elliptical would help stretch me out.

• Time: 40 minutes
• Avg Hr: 159
• Max Hr: 172
• Calories Torched: 394 calories
• Distance: 4.2 miles

Grocery shopping is tomorrow so my fridge is quite bare! I managed to put a bit of a salad together with the end of the spring mix, a tomato and some broccoli. I dressed it with the last of my raspberry walnut dressing:

It would appear that I either forgot to take a picture of the salad or I somehow deleted it because I can’t find it! Humpf. Later in the afternoon I snacked on the last bit of fruit in the fridge….cherries!

DS requested burgers for dinner. He must be on a burger kick this week because we just had them the other night. I pulled out some extra lean ground beef and told him I’d make homemade ones. I used a recipe (not that you really need a recipe for burgers) from this months issue of clean eating magazine for cheese stuffed burgers.

The recipe was for 8 sliders, but I just made 4 burgers. Seeing as we’re out of buns, too, the whole family used “my” burger thins. My burger was dressing with mayo, relish, honey mustard, ketchup and a pickle. We’re out of lettuce, hehe!

See my cheese pocket?? Mmmmm….

Dessert was a hunk of coconut dark chocolate with a side of cat.

After dinner I dropped DD off at the first of her 2 dance recitals (we’re all going tomorrow night) then I was off to watch DS play soccer. When we got home I warmed a piece of whole grain bread and topped it with chocolate coconut spread for some love.

It’s after 9pm now and I just got home from picking DD up. SYTYCD is on so I’ll be settling in to watch that before bed. Before YOU go to bed, check out Marianne's cool giveaway! Sleep tight!!

Bye for now!!

Two Days of Stuff

Hola, bloggies! It’s a wet one in my neck of the woods today. The only plus I can see to all this rain is that I haven’t had to water my garden since I planted it! HA! The past 2 days have been real low key which I’ve needed. It’s been a busy few weeks! Unfortunately, low key doesn’t make for an interesting blog post! LOL! I’ll just get on with it, here!

Tuesday’s breakfast:
-2/3 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-blueberries
-Bare Naked granola sprinkled on top
Morning snack-a-roo was a piece of whole grain bread with some honey pecan spread on it;
This just it the spot. I was sad to pop the last bite in my mouth!

I finally got first dibs on the elliptical yesterday. It’s been in use the last few times I’ve wanted to hop on. It helps that my 11:30 lunch start gets me in there before everyone else! *wink*

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 149
Max Hr: 171
Calories Torched: 404
Distance: 4.7 miles

Lunch was a simple salad of spring mix, cucumber and blue cheese crumbles with raspberry walnut dressing:
I really like blue cheese. It’s strong so you don’t need to use a lot and I find that it brings so much depth to any dish its part of. It’s expensive so I don’t buy it often, but I had a coupon for a buck off so I went for it. Do you like blue cheese? If not, what kind do you enjoy and why? Cheese is a big hit at my house so I’m always looking for new ones to try!

My afternoon snack was the rest of my carrot sticks from Monday.
How exciting, right? HA!

Dinner was on the early side again last night because DD had to be back to rehearsals for 6pm. We had burgers….quick and easy! Mine was a SOL spicy black bean burger with all the fixings and an ear of corn:
I love corn on the cob. DS does not. I don’t know many kids that don’t like to eat corn on the cob if even just for the mess of it!

I dropped DD off and had some time before I had to go to Pilate’s so I made a pit stop at the health food store. I scored some Greek yogurt (with a bonus dollar off coupon), a box of ginger chews and a carob brown rice crisp square:
And the best buy, IMO, was this Camino 65% dark chocolate coconut bar!

I had some on my way home from Pilates and can I just say that it tasted EXACTLY like a macaroon? Love, love, love! A friend of mine who has a daughter in the same recital as DD was kind enough to drop my girl off so I didn’t even have to go back out. We vegged out in front of the TV watching America’s Got Talent. This is something I’ve never seen before and was good for a few laughs. I like Howie Mandel, but I don’t believe it will become a regular Tuesday night show.

I made some overnight oats before hitting the sack last night which included 2/3 cup USVAB, 1/3 cup Quaker oats, cinnamon, Greek yogurt, chia seeds, carob powder, raspberries and blueberries.
Not sure what is was about this bowl, but I just wasn’t digging it. Maybe because I would’ve preferred something warm on a cold, rainy morning? Not sure, but I couldn’t finish this and probably won’t make it again for some time.

I was, however, most excited about my morning snack! I brought the carob brown rice crisp square that I bought last night which I’ve seen Jessica eat many times.
Boy, was this GOOD! It’s probably not a good thing that I know where these are sold now! HA!!

I was happy to get in the gym for a power walk today because the office was chilly and I knew I’d get warm fast in there. I was the only one, too so I cranked Rachael and went to town!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 160
Max Hr: 223 (I think not!)
Calories Torched: 454
Distance: 3.2 miles

I’m gonna have to shake up this walk of mine because I think my body is getting used to it. When I first started with the 7-8% incline I was burning over 500 calories and now it’s been averaging 450. Not that this is a problem of any sorts….I just take it to indicate that I need to shake it up some.

Lunch was a sad spectacle. I laid in bed listening to the rain longer than I should’ve this morning and ran out of time to pack something more decent. I threw corn from the cob, some edamame and a chopped up SOL spicy black bean burger into a container and called it lunch.
Humpf! I ate some almonds, too.

Later in the day a co worker made a coffee run and brought me back a 1/2 coffee, 1/2 hot chocolate:

This was perfect for a dreary day! I made myself a great stir fry for dinner tonight. I cooked some cubed tofu, mushrooms and broccoli until tender then hit the mixture with a 1/4 cup of Japanese Ginger dressing:

The final touch was some goat cheese dabbed on top.

Simple, yet jam packed with flavour! I finished the meal off with some Camino coconut dark chocolate,

After dinner we watched Dr. Oz then took the kids to swimming lessons. It was so warm there that I could’ve laid on the bench and fell asleep! HA! I just finished a small bowl of sliced peaches topped with a scoop of Greek yogurt and agave,

And that’s all for now! I hope you’ve had a good 2 days!

Bye for now!!

Peonies!

Happy hump day to everybody!! Yesterday wasn’t necessarily busy, but it was full to the brim so when I did finally sit down I opted to catch up on all your blogs rather than do a post of my own. As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I had to travel to Toronto for a workshop yesterday so I hit the road by 7am in order to be there on time. I hit some brutal traffic, so leaving early was wise. I packed a toasted Ezekiel muffin, goat cheese and egg beater sandwich to eat on the way:

The conference was really well done and the day passed by quickly. There was light refreshments served at our first break and I helped myself to some fresh fruit to tie me over until lunch.
Lunch was kinda ho-hum. We had pita triangles with hummus, salad, COLD stuffed chicken breast (not sure what the stuffing was…it was too cold to taste it) and potato salad.
I only ate about half the chicken and potatoes. They just weren’t that great. For “dessert”, I enjoyed 2 squares, more fruit and a few unpictured cookies;
I was on my way home shortly after 3pm where I encountered more traffic. I think this is just the norm going into T.O these days. I snacked on a Clif mojo bars on my travels,
My hubby had dinner prepared when I walked through the door at 5pm because I only had a half hour before I needed to be back out for Pilates. He made some little pork chops which I ate with a big side of lettuce, cucumber and raspberry walnut dressing.
I also ate 2 squares of Lindt sea salt chocolate as I ran out the door! No picture of it, though!

When I got home I tended to my plants and picked a whole whack of peonies for the house and work. Here’s the one I took to work:
And the BIG one for the house:
These blooms are massive, beautiful and smell like a dream. They do wonders to brighten a space up, IMO. If you like flowers, which is your favourite to have around the house?

I also made another loaf of whole grain bread using molasses this time. LOVE this recipe! Then, like I mentioned earlier, I spent the rest of the evening reading blogs. You guys are always up to something entertaining!! :) One other thing I did last night was to get some overnight oats ready for the fridge. This was my first time making this so I just threw a bunch of things in the bowl….and it came out really good!
-1/3 cup oats
-kefir
-almond breeze
-cinnamon
-chia seeds
-1 tsp almond butter
-blueberries & strawberries
As you can tell it firmed up nicely overnight. I enjoyed the flavour, texture and convenience of having this ready to go when I needed it. I’m looking forward to experimenting with different flavour combos!

We had a meeting this morning that sucked up half the day. When I got back to my desk I ate a slice of the whole grain bread with peanut hazelnut butter;
Such a delight!

Finally got to the gym today. Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve gone! I had planned to elliptical my heart out but someone was on it so I did my 4mph, 7.5% incline walk instead. Gets the heart going, anyways!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 156
Max Hr: 170
Calories Torched: 434
Distance: 3 miles

I brought a sandwich for lunch today. I bought some nice WW bread at the bakery on the weekend and stuffed it with cappicolo (Italian ham), cheddar cheese, lettuce and dijonnaise:

I also packed a chopped orange and some sliced strawberries.

This fruit was so sweet that it coulda been candy!! :)

The rain we were suppose to get finally arrived around 2pm. I had pulled some ground chicken from my last Whole Foods trip from the freezer for burgers, but the weather was just begging for something a little more comforting. I turned to a great turkey quinoa stew recipe that I’ve made before and enjoyed. Here it is on the stove top almost ready to go.

I had no corn or peas so I just used a frozen veggie mix. In order to get DS to eat this I use it as a “burrito” filling topped with shredded cheddar cheese for the fam. This way he doesn’t notice the veggies in it. I eat mine straight up in a bowl topped with a little blue cheese and a side of whole grain bread & butter:

Perfection. And the cherry on top was the last 2 squares of my sea salt chocolate.

We just got home from swimming lessons and I realized that SYTYCD is on so I’m off to watch that. It’s one of my favourite shows! Will you be tuning in this season???

Bye for now!!

Puppy Love

Today was a much better day than yesterday was! I drank loads of water last night, put my feet up and had a solid sleep. Although I was sad to miss Pilates, looking back on it today I know it was absolutely the right decision. It was steamy here again today which is the type of weather I thrive on. Give me a fire anytime! I get cranky when I’m cold! I had a refreshing breakfast of goat’s milk yogurt, Crofters blueberry superfruit jam, wheatberries (which I cooked up last night) and fresh blueberries:
My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach because I couldn’t finish it all!

My hubby is on vacation this week so it’s extra hard to come into work. On the flip side, he did finish painting the bathroom yesterday! I just have to buy a new window covering, shower curtain and some art work this weekend and then I’ll post a picture. Let’s just say that I totally LOVE the shade of blue that I picked! YAY!

I deliberately ate my chocolate raspberry Luna bar slowly today so I could savour eat bite. This flavour is second only to chocolate peppermint stick! ;)

I had a nice elliptical workout today. Young Pup was in there again so we chatted it up for a good half hour which helped pass the time. I don’t know how that boy can run at a good clip and talk at the same time. Must be his youth!! ;)

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 159
Max Hr: 180
Calories Torched: 459
Distance: 5 miles

I’m a very visual person so I always keep track of time spent being active….be it in the gym or the garden. Having my activity on paper makes it seem more “real” somehow. Yes, I’m a dork. Here’s an example of how I track:
It’s basically the same as what I post on the blog. Do you track your workouts? If so, why?

Lunch was a great little salad I whipped up last night:
Wheatberries, red bell pepper, avocado, Yves Veggie dog, white balsamic vinegar, S&P. This had great flavour, great textures…an all around winner!

I also snacked on some chocolate covered powerberries throughout the day:
I’m pretty sure the bag won’t last long. They’re just like Welch’s fruit snacks covered in chocolate. YUM! I also ate some grapes.

Dinner was a massive salad with spinach, yellow bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, goat cheese and falafels(which were cut in half).

This is the dressing I used.

There was also some grilled asparagus, fresh from the organic farm just outside of town,

The fam had tacos and when all the shells were gone DS decided to make himself a “taco” salad that he wanted me to take a picture of.

After dinner DD and I went to the nursery to buy my veggie plants and some potting soil. While we were there we had the pleasure of playing with this lovely lady!

She’s a precious 4 weeks old and we could’ve stayed with her for hours! Here she is with DD:

Wonder if I can talk my hubby into one? LOL! When we got back I had a little bit of dessert. My hubby bought me some Skinny Cow fudge bars which ended up being the perfect treat on a hot day. What did I do while I ate this? Observed DS watering the plants for me!

Child labour right there!!! :)

Bye for now!!