Just Enjoying Life

Happy Thursday!  How is everybody doing?  I could get used to not working.  Too bad I would miss the dinero, too!  HA  The past 2 days have been fairly low key as we wind down the last few precious days of vacation.  We stayed out on the deck until the wee hours of Wednesday morning, then I was awake by 8.  Needless to say, I drank a boatload of coffee.  But breakfast came first. This is a packet of Nature’s Path flax oatmeal jazzed up with some coconut butter and carob chips.  DELISH!  Nature’s Path was kind enough to send me a few items to review, so I’ll be getting to that just as soon as I try everything out.  One review I can share now is for their newly revamped line of granola bars: These were in the box that was sent (YAY!!) and you can read all about what we thought about them by clicking right here.
I pretty much spent ALL morning reading blogs.  Time really flies when you’re having fun!  I know I haven’t been commenting as much, but I’ve been reading each post.  Once I’m 100% caught up I’ll be back to full fledged commenting!
I eventually got hungry for lunch and whipped out my smuggled turkey artichoke sandwich half from Panera.
I opted to eat it cold and liked it lots better!  I’m not a big re-heater of things like pizza, sandwiches, etc.  I much prefer those kind of leftovers cold.  My hubby, on the other hand, likes everything to be steamy hot.  He was kinda grossed out that I ate this cold.  LOL  And the last few deck photos, I promise.  Just wanted to show the completed projects that I’ve been babbling on about so much!  :)
And here are how the deck lights from Target look, both with and without the flash(taken last night at dusk):
And here are some shots of the gardens I’ve been working on.  Ya know, in case any of you thought I was slacking the past few days!  HEHE
In both the above photos I turned all the dirt by hand with a shovel.   I also did the edging and extended them a wee bit.  The picture underneath is still a blank slate.  That patch is under a huge maple tree and doesn’t get much light so the grass never really grew properly.  I finally decided to clear out all the weeds and roots and in the fall I will be transplanting some of my perennials there so it will look gorgeous in the spring.  This one was a back breaker and my hands are still sore from clearing the space!  DOH!

We had a great summer dinner last night.  I made bison burgers with my smuggled ground bison and there was also fresh corn on the cob the my neighbour gave us.  I served my burger on a bagel thin with pickle, roasted red pepper, tomato and lettuce.  For dessert I cubed a ripe, sweet pineapple for us all to share:
My kids have been helping the neighbour with some yard work so she took them to DQ last night and treated them to Blizzards.  While they were gone my hubby and took our adopted doggie for a walk:
 
When we got back I tried this Skinny Cow ice cream cup:
This was not very good.  Wegman’s was selling them as singles so we bought 4, but I wasn’t hungry for mine after my salad so I threw it in the cooler and popped it in the freezer when we got home.  It didn’t have a lot of taste to it except for the bitter aftertaste.  Good trial run, though.  I know now not to fork over the cash for them here!
We were late going to bed again last night and early to rise.  I spent another morning on the computer entertaining myself.  LOL  While at that I downed a bowl of my favourite Kashi cereal ever; Kashi U:
Crunchy flakes, walnuts, blueberries….Mmmm!  I won’t say where I enjoyed my morning activities, but I’m sure you can guess!  ;)  Before I knew it lunch time had rolled around.  I wasn’t terribly hungry, but knew that eating lunch where we were heading would be a challenge so I took one for the team and used all the burger topping leftovers and a few extras to make a light salad. 
A little bit of lettuce, tomato, corn from the last cob, cuke, tuna and pear & blue cheese dressing.   I also enjoyed half a Panera chocolate chip cookie. So!  We took the kids to a water park that’s one city over from us.  Can’t believe I haven’t been since I was a teenager.  DS had never been down a “big” waterslide so I wasn’t sure if he’d like them or not, but he had a blast.  And I knew without a doubt that DD would be jazzed.  Here she is hitting the bottom of one slide. Unfortunately, everyone one I took of DS shows just a big splash!  But here is is at the bottom of a tamer slide: DD went down some “cyclone” slide that dumps you into a cylinder and spins you before you get dropped in the water.  No thanks! And lastly, the 2 of them happy as clams! Before we left they each got a “fake” tattoo… The fun and sun made us all peckish and the fam got soft serve cones at Mc Donald’s.  I wasn’t feeling one so I waited until we got home then had a piece of Stonemill pumpkin seed cranberry bready with a touch of butter,
I tended to the veggie garden a bit and picked myself some kale for dinner.  It’s so pretty! We did a beer butt chicken on the BBQ so I decided to turn my dinner into a big salad.  I tossed the kale with some cucumber, yellow tomato, green pepper and a dressing made with some olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, chili powder, honey, salt & pepper.  Then I topped the whole beast with some chicken breast! My sweet end was a chocolate Oikos yogurt.
Last time I bought the caramel and I like them both very much.  A  great healthy treat!!  After dinner we hauled butt over to DS’s soccer game.  He’s got one friend from school on his team as well as one of his All Star teammates and on the opposing team were 2 classmates as well.  I had the camera so I annoyed them all taking pictures!  Here’s the 5 of them;
DS is in the centre.  The little rascals….but they’re all great kids! 
Well, my hubby just came outside from having a shower and his back is BURNT.  Guess he didn’t do such a good job with the sunscreen.  I’m off to lather him in aloe…..  ;)
Bye for now!!

12 Years

Hello everybody! How was your weekend? Are you catching up on posts? Click here to see my brand new kitchen toys! So, yesterday marked our 12 year wedding anniversary! We didn’t do anything special, never really have, but the weather was great and the day was spend at Costco, at a gold exchange party (me & DD) and out in the sun planting some annuals in my flower beds. By some miracle we were both out of bed before the kids and ate our breakfast in peace before they came down. I got creative with 2 pieces of whole grain bread by turning it into French toast:
I soaked the bread in a mixture of Egg Beaters, USVAB, vanilla and cinnamon and then cooked them until golden brown in one of my new RR pans. They then received some 5 star treatment in the form of honey pecan butter and sliced strawberries!
Spectacular! The density of the bread worked wonders with the egg mixture. I thoroughly enjoyed this meal.

The rest of the morning was spent at Costco. Surprisingly, the only things I bought were flowers and a box of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal! I guess I didn’t really need anything else. The main reason I went there was to drop some photos off to be plaqued. I didn’t bother taking a picture of my lunch because it was the same as dinner the night before….Yves veggie hotdogs….and they were just as tasty! I grabbed a treat to enjoy while driving out to the gold exchange.
These are also from Costco, but were bought on another trip. We were back by 3pm which gave me lots of time to get my front flower beds looking decent. I still have a bit more to go, but nothing that will take too long!

My hubby cooked up a beer butt chicken on the BBQ for dinner and I grilled a full bunch of asparagus to go along with it. We used some of this BBQ sauce that my hubby bought at Costco:
YUM! This has a great tang to it….and I don’t even like beer. Here’s my plate with the chicken a random shrimp and asparagus:
Dessert was some coconut pineapple ice cream:
Heavenly!

I was back to my regular oats for breakfast this morning…
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-2 tbsp Enjoy Life Food trail mix
I’m on early lunch (11:30am) this week so I just packed a light snack to eat before heading off to the gym:
Whole grain bread with a LC cheese wedge.

I hopped on the elliptical today as yoga started at noon and it’s the quietest piece of machinery in there. I can sneak a full 45 minutes on yoga Monday when on the early lunch which makes me happy because if I’m gonna skip a day in the gym I’d rather it be later on in the week.

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 157
Max Hr: 170
Calories Torched: 435
Distance: 4.8 miles

And it’s your lucky day *roll eyes* because I felt frisky enough to snap a few shots of my newest Lululemon shorts.
These are the same “line” as DD got for her b-day called “groovy run short”. I also have a pair in plain black. They’re extremely comfortable and can be worn for leisure as well.

Lunch was nice and fresh tasting! I mixed WW couscous with tomato, cucumber, chicken breast, white balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt. (I’ve always enjoyed my cukes and maters with a little salt)
The only thing that would’ve made this better would have been some feta. Next time, perhaps! My afternoon snack was sliced strawberries and blackberries:
We pass a strawberry patch on our way to Costco and I noticed the little white blossoms on all the plants yesterday. That can only mean great things!

For dinner tonight We put some pork tenderloin on the BBQ. I also cooked some Aztec blend. Here’s what’s in it:

I also nuked the remainder of the broccoli from Friday’s Chinese feast. On my pork I drizzled ginger wasabi for a little oomph.

Dessert was a granola bar.

There’s nothing on the agenda tonight. I’ll be heading out in a few to get DD from dance class. My newly planted flowers have been watered and the boys are hanging shelves in the garage. The weather today was cooler than what was forecasted so it’s not nice enough (for me) to hang about outside. Maybe I’ll do some baking. Be sure to visit again tomorrow because I’ll be doing another product review!!

Bye for now!!

New Pots and a Sleepover

Well, hello! Is the sun shining where you are? Cuz it’s not here. Bummer. Meh, it’s be a good 2 days regardless. DD had her b-day sleepover last night so I didn’t get a chance to post so here’s yesterday’s shenanigans…

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup oats
• cinnamon
• chocolate honey
• pecan and hazelnut pieces

And yes, I took these photos on the carpet by my sliding glass door. It was the best lighting I could get on a cloudy day. HA!

Work yesterday was basically a payroll clean up day which is pretty typical the Friday after we run the pays. Plus, it’s payday so there are usually more phone calls to take. I knew I was skipping the gym today to go down to see a talent show at the kids school so I packed a bit lighter of a snack….a granola bar (from Erica’s recipe).

This batch had different fruit & nut additions to it which I will disclose in a few days. Needless to say, they’re still great! DD and 2 of her friends prepared a dance routine for the talent show which was fun to watch. Unfortunately, the lightening was NOT good for photo taking! :( I did manage to snap one of DS when he spotted me;

When I got back to work the sun had come out forcing me to attached my “visor” to the side of my glasses….AKA a post it note. One of the girls thought it looked hilarious and grabbed my camera to capture the moment:

It’s silly, but it works. As much as I LOVE the sun, it’s hard to work in when it’s shining directly on your face. I hear through the grapevine that we should be getting some sort of window treatments soon. Thank goodness!

Lunch was a SOL veggie burger on a burger thin with hummus, a LC cheese wedge and lettuce;

Lunch dessert was the last of my sea salt Lindt chocolate bar.

I came home to a much anticipated delivery after work. I had such a good experience with CSN Stores that I decided to order a new set of Rachael Ray chocolate brown porcelain pots and pans! The set I have are the ones I received at my bridal shower 12+ years ago and trust me when I say that they have been used and abused! The lids don’t even fit tightly anymore. LOL! It was time. So I present, my new, beautiful set!

Although I loved all the bright colours that the line offers, I decided that the chocolate brown would be classiest long after the bright hues would be. You like? I sure do!

As the title of this post would surmise, DD had a few friends over for a sleepover last night. Her b-day is on Thursday, but trying to do something over the Victoria Day long weekend is tough because a lot of people go away. Because DD’s guests were arriving by 7pm and I had to get the groceries done beforehand, we decided to grab some Chinese to go from our favourite little restaurant. I enjoyed some shrimp lo Mein:

Chicken & veg:

And steamed shrimp & broccoli.

Around 8pm we all dug into DD’s chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake from Baskin Robins!

Holy moly, this was GOOD! there were SO MANY balls of dough in there. A cake after my own heart, this was. Here’s my piece…

MUAH! Then there was some present opening fun…

Don’t mind her raccoon eyes. She still had crap on from the talent show. HA! The girls entertained themselves for a few hours with things like dress up, blind makeovers, a photo shoot and a scavenger hunt. Oh, my…the energy!!! My hubby and I crashed by 11:30 and I hear they fell asleep by 1am. I set my alarm for 7 to be sure I was up to get the pancakes that were requested ready. By the time I brushed my teeth they were waiting for me!! LOL I made a huge batch of chocolate chip pancakes using a Quaker Oatmeal whole Grain mix that received rave reviews. I, on the other hand, stuck to a bowl of cereal because I may or may not have eaten 2 granola bars before going to bed last night. ;)

This is my favourite cereal, Wildroots, which I buy at Costco with USVAB. Yum.

We had the house back to ourselves by 10am and aside from showering, I just sat back and enjoyed the (relative) silence. Closer to noon my bestie (who lives 3hrs away) popped over for a quick visit and to drop a gift off for DD. She’s only in town for the day so couldn’t stay too long. Anyways, DD was thrilled to get a pair of Lululemon shorts!

I have this pair only mine are grey with a coral stripe. They’re uber comfy and great for running in!

Lunch was a big salad of mixed greens and steamed shrimp and broc from last night’s dinner. I also sprinkled some white balsamic vinegar over it.

2pm saw us at the rink for DS’s ball hockey game. He rocked it out today scoring 5 goals and one assist! YOWZA! He was pretty pumped, as you might imagine! A photo with post hockey game fuel…a cookies & cream chocolate bar:

And nobody, not even one of my kids, will eat chocolate without me so I split a Bounty bar with DD:

The great thing about this bar is that it comes in 2 pieces so the split is “fair”. ;)

When we came home I made this Whole Grain bread recipe. The results were out of this world delicious!

I ate a piece plain Jane because I wanted to get a true taste before I topped it. Dense, full flavoured with a great texture.

This loaf is just begging for some toppings like nut butter, honey, Swiss cheese, hummus, jam, deli meat…the list goes on! So glad I tried this one.

Dinner tonight was burgers for the fam and good ole hotdogs for me. Well, relatively speaking! These were Yves veggie dogs on PC hotdog thins!

I guess by good ole I mean the toppings. Straight up ketchup, mustard & relish!

Dessert? You guessed it!

Bye for now!!