Movember and a CSN Store Giveaway

I had to scrape the windows of the Jeep this morning!!!  With my library card no less!
Just thought I’d get that out there.  :)
How is everybody??  I’ve been pretty fantastic!  We had a smoking busy weekend at the Krista’s Kravings house.  Three hockey games (2 out of town) on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, a 1 hour soccer practice on Sunday, trick or treating Sunday night, Pilates last night.  Tonight was another hockey practice .  Tomorrow is FREE and Mom, DD and I are doing something fun on Friday night.  More deets on that later.  ;)
I actually took a half day vacation on Monday because the kids had a PD Day so weren’t at school.  DS was in a hockey camp all day and I didn’t want DD home by herself, for the first time, for a full day.  She asked if we could do lunch and I happily obliged.  We decided on William’s Pub because it’s been a long time since we ate there and we really do enjoy it.  I went with the half salad, half sandwich deal; Greek with the dressing on the side and a chicken pesto panini:
Our lunches came with a choice of chips, a cookie or an apple.  We went with cookies, obviously!  DD chose a PB one and I went with white chocolate macadamia nut.
I also enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte to go:
Love.
After a quick tour of the mall it was time to go back home and get a pasta dish in the oven so that I could get a decent meal into DS before we left for his game.  I found this “Take 5” recipe in my Rachael Ray magazine that I knew would be perfect.
It called for ravioli, sausage meat, a jar of tomato sauce, a head of escarole and mozzarella cheese.  I used tortellini because that’s what I had on hand and went with this Mexican Yves veggie ground round in place of the sausages:
My hubby totally thought he was eating taco seasoned beef!  Here’s the dish after layer #1:
The boys loved this (DD was at Mom’s for dinner because she had dance and wasn’t going out of town with us) although DS picked all the escarole out.  I knew that would happen, but he did give it a try.
Have you seen any men lately sporting some funny looking facial hair? Has anybody heard of Movember?  If not, the month of November is prostate cancer awareness month and men around the nation are growing funky moustaches to raise money for prostate cancer research.  My hubby included.  The deal is that they have to shave for the last time on Oct 31 and can’t shave the stash again until December 1.  They can grow a beard or goatee as well which can be shaved off at any time, but the moustache stays.  So here is my hubby Sunday night after a shave.  
I’ll post another photo of him mid month and again on Nov 30.  He plans on sporting a full goatee.  We shall see.  If you wish to make a donation to this worthy cause, go ahead and click here.
FOOD!!! 
The above is breakfast polenta.  I mixed 1 cup of unsweetened Almond Breeze with a 1/4 cup of polenta.  Right at the end I stirred in some sliced strawberries and dotted it with hazelnut mocha sprinkles.  YUM!  
Tonight’s meal ^^ was a quesadilla of sorts.  I sautéed red onion, red pepper, mushrooms and turkey breast with various spices and a wee bit of chicken stock.  This was placed on a tortilla that had been prepped with some mashed Romano beans then I topped it with a slice of cassata cheese.  Into the oven for 10 minutes at 350* and dinner was served….in the dark!  Haha!
Before I book outta here, I did a little shopping today…
Would YOU like $65.00 to shop here, too?  It could be yours!  CSN Stores has a huge range of great products to pick from.  There’s something for everyone for sure.  This is what you need to do to get your grimy little paws on this $65.00 gift certificate! (Canadian & US residents only, please)
1)  Browse around the CSN Stores site and leave me a comment letting me know what you would want most.
2)  “Like” me on Facebook.  Just click on my little FB Badge on the right of the blog.  Easy peasy and it gets you another entry.  Just remember to leave another comment telling me you did so.
3)  Check out the Thanks & Giving tab at the top of the blog and leave me a comment there letting me know what you think of my food drive.  Come back to this post and let me know you did that.
So there you have it; THREE chances to win!  I’ll pick a winner using the random number generator on November 17 and post the winner that same day.  Hey lurkers!  Now’s your chance to come out and say “hey”!  You don’t have to have a blog to enter so really, there’s no losing here.  :)  Have fun!
Bye for now!!

Feelings

I guess I fell off blog earth for a bit there, huh?  I’ve been SUPER busy the past week which has had me going through a plethora of feelings.  I’ve spent part of the time feeling like this:
Our city (approx 100, 000 people) has been cramming 3 years worth of road construction into one season so you can imagine the mess the roads are in.  Trying to get DS anywhere for soccer and hockey, DD to dance and myself to work has been an extreme act of patience….and I don’t have much to start with!  I read in the paper yesterday that the reason for this disaster they’ve made is that the city received government funding for road repairs which needs to be accounted for by March 2011 or the grant is lost.  Sheesh!  I try to keep reminding myself that the roads will be better when this is over, not to mention all the people who are being kept employed.  Happy thoughts, happy thoughts!
I’ve also been feeling very cold sitting at DS’s soccer try outs!
It was only 5*C this morning at 10:30!!  At least it wasn’t raining today, unlike yesterday!  And at least I have multiple, warm layers on.  Unlike my poor son who is in shorts!
Brrr!  Try outs are now over and we will know next week which team he will play on next summer.  There will be some indoor soccer over the winter with INDOOR being the key word here.  LOL  Oh!  I can’t forget that I was also cold (just not quite so much) at Friday’s hockey practice and Saturday’s hockey game.
I’m skipping practice today on the pretense of staying home to do some housework.  Really, I’ll be spending on a fraction of the time on chores, the rest on blogging!  Shhh!!  Seriously, though….my house is in shambles.  And I have a beautiful pork roast just waiting to hit the oven with some onions, carrots and parsnips.  YUM!
As you can probably guess from my fist photo, DD and I spent some time perusing  potential Halloween costumes.  DD has never been into “girly” costumes.  She’s always gone for the gory, scarier options.  Here are some she tried on yesterday:
Which one do you like?  This was her last year:
RAWR!!!  I felt like quite the jester taking picture after picture in the store:
HA!  The theme my department at work is going with this year is construction workers.  We decided it would be fitting seeing as the roads are all ripped up in front of the building.  I’ve been put in charge of making up a check off list so that everyone brings something in.  So far I’ve got caution tape, pylons, hard hats, vests….  What am I missing?
And yes, I have also been feeling hungry the past few days! This was a “treat” bowl with brown sugar, maple syrup and pecans.  Mmmm..

And yes, the cold weather has brought oats back full force.  That’s all I’ve been wanting lately in the morning. Ginger Gold!!
Goat’s milk yogurt + Archer farms chocolate hazelnut biscotti granola = one AWESOME lunch!!  We went to Boston Pizza for dinner after hockey Friday night where I ordered this Tuscan pizza which was amazeballs!!  I’ve had a hankering for pizza lately and this hit the spot. The above is quinoa, salsa, turkey breast and quark. Quick, simple, delish.
Well, I’d better get a move on with vacuuming.  *sigh*  Gotta get to it now, though because we’re going to my parents after dinner and then the Amazing Race  and The Glades is on!  What are you up to tonight??
Bye for now!!