Yep! That’s My Core!!

Hi, lovelies! How has your Tuesday been treating you? Hump day already tomorrow…WOW! Where ever does the time go?

I pulled some banana bread crock pot oats out of the freezer before bed last night for a quick breakfast this morning;

I added some USAB to bring it back to life along with raisins and some Dorset cereal. Oh la la!

Check out Sarah’s wonderful blog for the recipe. Like the new fall bowl???

One of the girl’s in the office is getting married this weekend so we had a small gathering for her at break time. One of the ladies make a super moist zucchini cake and a Skor dip + apples. There was another gathering for some else last week with chocolate & carrot cake and I passed that time. Not today! And the splurge was well worth it!

Here’s a close up of the dip;

I hit the elliptical at the gym today. My cold is still raging and I knew I didn’t have it in me for a run. Soon, I hope!

• Time: 40 minutes
• Avg Hr: 158
• Max Hr: 173
• Calories Burned: 392
• Distance: 4.3 miles

I brought a lazy lunch to work again today. I feel like I’m in a lunch rut lately. I’m over the salads of the summer, but not feeling the soups of winter yet. I ended up with a container of 0% Fage and a 1/2 cup of TJ’s blueberry muesli;

I knew this would be tasty and filling and it did not disappoint. I also chowed down on some cocoa almonds!

Once the clock hit 4pm, I was out the door. DS was on the ice from 5-5:50 with team track suit fittings afterwards. I couldn’t stay for the whole thing but I did take on responsibility for one of the major fund raisers for the team so I had to gather some info for that.

Thankfully they were at the rink around the corner from our place so I was home by 5:15 to make myself supper. On the menu was a grilled wrap filled with pepper jack cheese, grilled tomatoes and zucchini and some honey mustard. A Ginger Gold apple adorned the side of the plate.

Mucho tasty! And the reason I had to rush around like this? I started up Pilate’s classes again tonight after a summer hiatus! The class I’m in from now until December is called Core Dynamics and boy oh boy, do they mean business!! We worked on 100’s for almost a half hour! I think I’ll be feeling that in the morning! Seriously, though…it was a good class.

I’m settled on the couch now watching SYTYCD Canada. I miss a half hour watching it this early, but The Biggest Loser is on at 9 and I can’t miss that! The next few Tuesday’s for me will be just like tonight…Pilates –> couch potato! :D

Bye for now!!

A Few Neat Photos

It’s hump day AND the beginning of a new month today! Where the heck did March go??? Sorry to be a repeat offender, but I ate the same breakfast as yesterday. It was just so good and I had to use up the last of the applesauce! Instead of agave on top, I used maple flakes. Yum-O!!

We ran pays today at work so the day flew right by! I ate a few of these this morning….
I also had some Parnoosh dates before the gym, but forgot to take the picture!

Wednesday’s are normally my “day off” from the gym to run errands but I had none to do and it was pouring buckets, so I decided to get my butt moving! I did a 50 minutes walk at a speed of 4.4 miles and an incline of 3.5%. This turned out to be pretty rigorous, indeed!

Time: 50 mins
Avg Hr: 148
Max Hr: 167
Calories Burned: 400
Distance: 3.63 miles

Not bad considering that I wasn’t even planning to go! For the OSG BBCC challenge I will be doing 3 sets of squats with weights later on and I did Pilates tonight (more on that in a bit) which I’m counting as my stretching.

I had leftovers for lunch today. There’s a lot of random food starting to pile up in my fridge that needs to be dealt with! I packed a piece of chicken and leftover veggies with some grated smoked cheddar cheese sprinkled over.
I’m trying really hard to make sure I eat some protein at lunch, but I’ve noticed that I’ve been eating tons of chicken lately! I’ll have to switch that up before I turn into one! BOCK BOCK!! :)

My lunch dessert was a muffin. Now that I found that stash in the freezer I want to eat them up!
Before I left work I ate another juicy pear. This one was super sweet!
Dinner was a bit earlier than usual because I had to jet at 5:45 for my make up Pilates session. The kids wanted pancakes so that what we had! I used Bisquick to make theirs and added a mashed banana and a handful of PB chips to turn them into PB & Banana Pancakes! They were a big hit! I used the Hungry Girl Blueberry pancake recipe using coconut extract instead of vanilla and I added a tbsp of shredded coconut and some mashed banana. They turned out spectacular!!!
My sweet end was a lime Cravings cheesecake cup....
So as I mentioned I had Pilates tonight. It was a make up class as I missed the first one of the last session. I did the precision Pilates tonight because that's what I'm signed up for next time around and boy was it TOUGH!!! But in a good way! I'm really looking for to April 17 now! :)

I was feeling pretty snacky when I got home so I dove into a Coco Nutty Banana muffin which satisfied me perfectly!
I wanted to leave you all tonight with a few really neat pictures that were sent to me in an email today! I think you'll agree that they're pretty creative!! :)





Bye for now!!

Edible Mail & Something Just For Me

Before I get started on my eats for the day, I have to show you all what came in the mail for me yesterday!!!

That there is a box filled with samples from Sahale Snacks!!! The wonderful people at Sahale contacted me last October to see if I would mind sampling their new line. Hell, yes!! DS and I are “nuts” over this stuff! So I was uber excited to find this waiting for me. There were 3 flavours in the box; Almond with cranberries, honey and sea salt, cashews with pomegranate and vanilla and almond with PB&J and berries.

This camera has an uncanny way of loading most pictures sideways! Sorry about that. Anywho, DS dug right into the Almond with cranberries & honey, so I ended up taste testing that one, too.

F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!!!! I found this to be the perfect mix of sweet and salty. Great snack! DS practically finished the bag off! I think there’s maybe a handful left! I completely understand the reasoning, but I still say it’s too bad that he can’t take these nuts to school with him. If you’ve never tried Sahale Snacks, you’re missing out. And I’m not just saying that because I got free samples. I’ve bought and raved about their products many times before they ever contacted me. Check out this post here for my first go at these nuts.

So, I’m sure you can guess what I topped my oats with today!! *wink, wink*

-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal
-cinnamon
-1 Tbsp dried fruit (I put this in with the water right at the beginning to plump them up)
-1 Tbsp Cashew with Pom and Vanilla Sahale Snack mix

Pure joy! The cashews added a real nice feel to the bowl that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m also glad that I added the dried fruit right at the beginning of the cooking time. They re-hydrated and were nice and soft and tender. I most definitely enjoyed this meal! Here's a better look at the cashew blend...

Work is starting to ramp up again as expected. The next 5 working days will be very busy, but not as demanding as last week. Because of this, I was only able to take a ½ hour lunch break today. That’s not really enough time for me to get a decent run in but I REALLY wanted to step away from the office for a bit. You know how it is when you try to have lunch at your desk, right? You don’t end up with a peaceful moment! I decided that I would fit as much outdoor adventure on the Wii in as I could to get my heart pumping a bit. Here’s what I accomplished;

Time: 18:01
Time in Zone: 16:11
AVG HR: 149
MAX HR: 182
Calories Burned: 143
Not too shabby for 18 minutes of exercise, eh?! I’m still in awe of the great workout this game gets me….and it’s F-U-N!!!!! Not to mention that I shook the morning cobwebs loose. :)

I ate some blueberries before I went home...

Lunch today was a bowl of my bean soup.

There was just nothing I could do to make this bowl look pretty. I had some nice grated mozzarella to sprinkle on top, but forgot it at home. L You’ll just have to trust me when I say that it was excellent! I chased it with this extra large chai tea from Tim Horton’s.

I wanted to mention what I did with the remainder of last night’s “roasted” chicken. When I got home from the pool, I put the carcass and all the pan juices into a soup pot, added about 4 cups water and brought it all to a boil. Then I let it simmer for about 1&1/2hrs. Once it cooled a bit I pulled what meat was left on the bones off and strained it all into a container. This morning, I skimmed all the congealed fat off the top and popped it in the freezer for another night’s dinner. I was brought up in a home where nothing went to waste and bones from any kind of meat were always destined for a soup pot! I guess some customs stick! This is a fantastic way to stretch your dollar. I mean, you buy the whole chicken, roast, whatever, so you might as well make use of it all! Anybody else do things like this to? I’d love to hear about it!

I put a roast in the crock pot today. I was going to follow Zesty’s fabulous recipe, but I didn’t have all the ingredients. So, in to the crock went the roast, ½ cup stock, and lots of spices…I can’t even remember what all went in! I set it on low and let it go for 8.5 hours. The finished product;

Mine turned into a wicked sandwich which I ate when we got back from DD's skating lessons at 7pm. I was ravenous and almost forgot to take a picture! You're in luck though!

This sandwich is made with an Arnold Thin, Sabra hummus, a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, lettuce and beef. I ate a few olives on the side because I was too impatient to slice them up for the sandwich!

If I may back track slightly, I did eat an apple with the last of my almond butter around 4:30. This is when the family ate dinner, but I wasn't near hungry enough for a full meal that early!

Putting food aside for a split second...one of my goals this year was to do something for myself. The kids have their sports and my hubby plays hockey twice a week, so I figured it was only fair. I was the only one holding myself back. I always just figured that I didn’t have the time….so, I made the time! I decided to try out Pilates because I’ve heard so many positive things about it, I signed up today and even though classes started last Monday, I will be going this Monday. They told me I can make up the missed class during their Wednesday session. I am SO psyched about it!!!! It starts at 5 so my hubby agreed to take DD to dance and I will pick her up. YIPEE!!! This is the first time since I’ve had the kids that I’ve taken some time for me and I think I’m really gonna enjoy myself.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long post! I'm going to go do some blog reading myself. Then I'm going to browse through some cookbooks a borrowed from the library tonight. I'll tell you about them tomorrow. I also stopped by the health food store on my way home so if you're curious to see what I bought, you should check back in tomorrow evening!!

Bye for now!!