Old McDonald Had A Farm....

Today I attended my son’s class trip to a farm as a parent supervisor. I knew I’d have a long stretch between breakfast and lunch, so I prepared a hearty bowl of oats.

-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal
-1/2 a banana
-1 tsp almond butter
-1 tbsp Sahale walnut mix



The breakfast did the trick! I was almost too full by the time I was done, but it stuck with me a good long while!

We hit the road by 9am in a school bus. I haven’t been on one of those since high school! Nothing has changed…it was a bumpy 45 min drive. Once we arrived at the “Yee Haw Farm”, we got organized into our groups. I had 5 kids to look out for while there. First stop was a petting zoo of sorts….pigs, sheep, roosters, bunnies and ducks. After that we went to the barn where we saw these really cute baby chicks...



The kids played a guessing game and enjoyed some drinks and snacks while lounging on hay bales. Off to the pig races we went! This was pretty cute...



The second race out was ducks. That cracked the kids up because they were expecting pigs again!



At this point we stopped for lunch. I packed an apple and a flat out wrap stuffed with a laughing cow cheese wedge, cranberry chutney, lettuce and some leftover crock pot pork.



I only had enough time to eat the apple because I was busy helping the kids with their food containers and making sure that everything was put in the garbage as they finished. Truth be told, I wasn’t really even hungry yet. I ended up eating the wrap when we got back to the school at 1:30pm.

Before we left, we took a wagon ride through the corn fields. We stopped at one point to “pick” pumpkins. Here’s my little man with his prize.



It was a fun trip! All the kids were beat out by the time we left so the bus ride home was quieter than the one going there. I had a few hours to kill before school was out for the day so I made a stop at 7-11 for something warm to drink. Imagine my surprise when I went in and saw that they have pumpkin spice latte in one of the machines! I bought a large that was ¾ latte, ¼ coffee..



Mmmm...heavenly! I made my way over to WalMart to purchase a birthday present for a party my son is attending on Saturday and I also picked up a new place mat, some tea towels, 2 pairs of pants for my boy whose legs won’t stop growing, mittens, hats and these 2 new finds...



Maple flakes (ingredient list states pure maple syrup only) and these Mrs. May's cashew crunch clusters. I can’t wait to try this stuff! After all that, I went to get the kids from school and we filled 4 large paper bags with the leaves that I raked last weekend. Needless to say, it was time for a rest before I started on dinner!

For dinner I made a small pot of soup. Pretty much anything I found in the fridge that would work in soup went in the pot.

-1 1/2 cups chicken broth
-1/2 cup tomato sauce
-1 cup mixed veggie’s
-1/3 cup brown rice
-1 Chris & Tal’s Swiss & Mushroom burger
-S&P
-1 tbsp grated asiago cheese



I served it with 2 Grissol Rustic Flatbread crackers. These guys are really flavorful and go well with soup or broken up into pieces and put on a salad in place of croutons.



And what was my sweet end, you ask? Why, a piece of my Banana Cranberry Pumpkin Cake, of course!



I put a little spray butter on it tonight. I love the way this cake isn't too sweet and the cranberries pack a nice tart punch! Well, I'm off to get things ready for tomorrow so that I can settle in to watch CSI at 8pm. Enjoy the evening!

Bye for now!

Bringing Fresh Fruit Back

The office was SO cold when we arrived this morning. BRRR! As I’ve mentioned before, the building is under renovations. This has resulted in doors being propped open and plastic sheeting to cover some open areas. They are scheduled to be done by the end of November. Until then, I think I’ll bring a warm sweater to keep over my chair.

I had a mighty tummy stuffer of a breakfast this morning! And I brought some fresh berries back into the mix!



-1 cup water
-1/4 cup Quaker oats
-1/4 cup (maybe a wee bit more….it was the end of the box) oat bran
-1/4 cup pumpkin
-a few raspberries



After this, I didn’t even think about food until 2pm. That’s a 6 hour stretch…and I walked by the chocolate filled office candy dish and wasn’t even tempted to treat myself! Now that’s what I call staying power!

For my snack last night I ate the remainder of the yogurt cheese, about a ¼ cup, with ½ cup of pumpkin puree, agave and Bran buds. It was sort of like an upside down pumpkin pie!



We found out today that one of the girls that works in my department will be off work indefinitely due to a family illness. This means us 3 remaining gals will be picking up the extra work. I actually don’t mind this because I prefer to be busy at work. The day goes by much faster. I do wish her family member a speedy recovery, though!

I had a good lunch run today. There was a squirrel busily collecting “things” right outside the big window, so I was occupied with watching him and before I knew it, I was done! Love that!

I ate the last Apple & Pepper Porkchop for my lunch today along with an autumn harvest muffin (see yesterday’s post for some picture’s of those!).



About 4pm I ate a nice bowl of grapes and raspberries. The fresh fruit tasted and felt really good to me.



With Monday’s comes DD's dance night. I’ve been getting kind of tired with the whole “fend for yourself” dinner every week so I had the fore thought to take some Chris & Tal’s Swiss & Mushroom burgers out to defrost. My hubby BBQ’d them up while I played chauffeur.



If you haven’t tried any of their products, you must go buy some and do so. Anything that I’ve tried from this line has ROCKED 110%!! My hubby, the carnivore, even prefers their burgers over pure beef ones. I dressed mine up with some dijonnaise, relish, jalapeno Havarti , lettuce & tomato and an English muffin. Drool worthy!



My sweet end was an un-photographed All Bran bar in chocolate chip. Love that flavor!

I've been giving this blog some thought lately on how much I've enjoyed writing it and becoming part of the blogging community. One thing I'd love to see more of for my blog is reader's comments. So, to all who are reading this, what would you like to see more or less of in my blog? Is there anything I could add? Or maybe take away? Any pointers would be much appreciated so that I can start generating more feedback. :~)

I'm off to try out a new workout DVD. I'll elaborate more on that tomorrow!

Bye for now!

Whole Foods, A 10K & A Recipe

Wow! I had the most fantastic, productive day today! I'm just thrilled! I started my morning off by sleeping in until almost 7:30. Then I ate a bowl of pumpkin oat bran...so good!

-1 cup water-1/3 cup oat bran
-1 Tbsp pumpkin butter
-cinnamon
-cinnamon sprinkles



Once I had the kids dropped off at school, I picked my sister up and we drove to Oakville (about 45 mins) to Whole Foods. I haven't been there since Mother's Day! I was really hoping that they carried some Honest Foods products like the country squares or granola planks, but no such luck. I spoke to a manager and he told me that they have issues bringing food over the border because of government restrictions. Bummer. On the bright side, the Lara Bars were on sale and even though they didn't have any different flavors from what I can get here, I couldn't pass up 2 for $3.00. Normally, one is between $1.59 - $1.89. I got an apple pie, which I haven't tried yet, and my fave...cinnamon roll. I also bought a carton of unsweetened Almond Breeze, a box of Chris & Tal's Mushroom & Swiss burgers (they're 70% soy, 30% beef), a box of Mighty leaf tea in assorted flavors, 2 packs of Shiritaki noodles and a pouch of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal.



While there I sampled 4 different types of cheese, a bite of raspberry filled brownie and some homemade applesauce. On our way home we picked up some Starbucks. I had a grande non fat cafe latte with a shot of sugar free cinnamon dulce syrup. I forgot my camera at home so no picture, but it was really good! Our last stop was my work to pick up an order of baking from one of the local high schools. It's a trade school and the bakery pumps out the most amazing seasonal treats ever for dirt cheap! My hubby always buys something and today's order was 2 pumpkin pies, 2 dozen pecan tarts and 1 dozen pumpkin tarts. Yes, he is a freak, but I love him anyways! The irritating thing is that he can eat all this stuff and not gain a pound! Not Fair.



All this was only $22.00. Unreal! I planned a 10K treadmill run as well and ate a Honey Crisp apple and 2 Ryvita crackers a half hour before I hopped on.



It took me 66 min 03 sec to hit the 10K mark, but I DID IT!!!! I am just tickled pink. Now, my treadmill doesn't have weight/gender settings, just time/distance/calories. I assume it's set up to calculate the stats for a 150lb person. This is what it told me - 6.00 miles, time of 66:03 and 1009 calories. I know I did the distance because my pedometer tracked that the same (11109 steps) but I'm sure the calorie burn wasn't quite that high. I'm just glad I toughed it out. YIPEE!

My post workout meal was a toasted Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted English muffin topped with half a mashed banana mixed with 1 tsp of almond butter.



Delicious! My tummy seems to be back on track so I thought that 1 tsp of almond butter couldn't hurt. About an hour later I felt hungry again so I ate another apple.

It's a gorgeous day outside so I decided to leave the van in the driveway and walk down to the school to get the kids. By myself, it's about 30 minutes round trip. With the kids it's more like 45 minutes. They were excited to walk home to our house because they've never done that before. They're used to walking to the sitter's house.

For dinner tonight I made a recipe featuring the Blogger Secret Ingredient---POLENTA! Sabrina over at RodeyGirl Tests picked the ingredient and I was up to the challenge. Considering that I was raised in a traditional Italian family, I have had polenta many, many times and I have always loved it. The trick for me was to make a recipe that strayed from the way that I'm accustomed to eating it. I think I got it!

Polenta Shepard's Pie

BASE

*1 lb lean ground turkey
*1 onion, chopped
*3 cups diced mushrooms
*1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
*1 can mushroom gravy
*cumin, salt & pepper

TOPPING

*1 1/2 cup water
*1/2 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze
*1/2 cup polenta
*1 Tbsp butter
*2 Tbsp fresh herbs (I used basil, parsley, oregano)
*2 oz jalapeno havarti cheese, cubed
*2 Tbsp grated asiago

DIRECTIONS

1) Saute onion until translucent, then add turkey. Cook over medium heat until turkey is no longer pink. Add mushrooms and cook 5 more minutes. Add frozen veggies and cook until thawed. Add cumin, S & P and can of gravy. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.

2) Meanwhile, bring Almond Breeze, water, butter and herbs to a boil. Slowly whisk in the polenta and continue to stir until thick (this should only take a few minutes). When thickened, add cubed Havarti and stir until melted. Remove from heat.

3) Spray a casserole dish and pour meat mixture in. Top with polenta and smooth over the top of the meat. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of grated Asiago cheese on top.

4) Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 deg oven. When done, let sit for 5 minutes before cutting into 6 portions.

5) ENJOY!



And my portion...



This is the brand of polenta that my Mom has always used and so I use it too!



I ran this recipe through the Spark People recipe builder and came up with this (approximates as some of the ingredients I used weren't available and I had to select another brand)

308 calories, 14.8g fat, 2.4g fiber, 22.7g protein

And that, my friends, is my Blogger Secret Ingredient recipe! Regardless of how I do in this contest, it was a definite winner in this house! My DS ate his whole piece which is a miracle in itself because he apparently doesn't like veggies. He changed his mind to say that he liked the peas/carrots & corn in this dish. Haha! My hubby ate 2 pieces and then went back for more. I know it's good when he gets up for seconds! My DD loved it and even I went back for another small scoop. For dessert, I sampled a pumpkin tart.



Scrumptious!

I plan on relaxing this evening with the 4 (yes, that's right, 4) magazines that I received in the mail this week.

Bye for now!!