A Few Gems

I feel like I’ve been gone forever again!  LOL  My blogging “schedule” has certainly become anything but routine.  I just can’t seem to bring myself to sit down with my laptop when the weather’s been so nice!  To be honest, I use to prepare most of my posts from work, but extra responsibilities (which were obviously needed) have prevented me from doing that.  I do have a few things I wanted to update you all on, though.  Like some new (to me) eats!  Last Sunday we made the hour long trip to Whole Foods (and Lululemon) where I picked up a few gems. 
These 365 coconut frozen fruit bars are officially my favourite summer treat!  Not only are they pure coconutty goodness, but they’re chalk full of coconut pulp!  YUMMY!! I know some may dislike pulp, but I dig the texture of it….always have.
I L-O-V-E SOL burgers and these rice & mushrooms patties are no exception.  Jason actually found these and put them in the cart.  A year ago that NEVER would’ve happened!  LOL These Green Cuisine tempeh burgers were also a find at Whole Foods.  I love the texture that tempeh has!  I mostly enjoyed these done up on the BBQ then served on an Ezekiel English muffin with goat gouda, spicy mustard and lettuce. These Gardein Tucson breasts were a HIT with Jason and myself.   I’ve wanted to try Gardein for some time now, but just can’t justify the cost.  When I caught these on sale a few weeks ago, I snatched them up.  I served the “breasts” over a bed of WW couscous for a quick, delicious meal.   Even Jason, who is a total meat & potato kinda of guy, gave them a thumb up.  We’ve really been minding our plates lately.  Lots of fresh fruit (and veg), salmon, meat “alternatives” or poultry (the sausages in the following photos are all turkey sausages), quinoa and couscous perked up with various veggies and cheese.  We’re slowly moving to a “diet” (HATE that word) that is as local and fresh as possible which is SO much easier to do in the summer months.
The beans you see ^^^ there are fresh from my garden.  As in, pick’em, wash’em gently steamed’em, ate’em!
Here’s a look at how my other plants are getting on: Everything is later than usual due to cold, wet weather in May & June, but things are starting to pick up!
We have been enjoying some treats, too!  Noah was at a sleep over last weekend so Jason, Sarah and I tried out a local “hole in the wall” type   Italian restaurant.  I find restaurants that are very unassuming usually have the BEST food and Pauli’s was no exception!  We loved our meal!
Sarah’s Orangina brought me right back to Italy and my roasted onion, goat cheese, prosciutto pizza was to die for!  Jason ordered a chicken parm dish with a side of pasta which he inhaled.  All their sauces, dough’s, pasta, etc are homemade, on site.  The way it should be, right?  ;)
On to some non food goodies!  I wanted to show you a shirt and pair of shoes that I snagged at 50% off this past weekend! LURVE!!!  The shoes are super cute and very comfortable and the shirt is in my fave colour!  SCORE!  And last week Jason and I attended an awards assembly at the school to see Noah receive a HEART award for cross county: Sarah also got a Win It award which is given for having a good attitude.  I think they got the wrong kid.  ;)  LOL  So proud of them both!  
So I think I’ll stop here.  I have a few other fun posts planned and a review coming later this week, so you’ll be seeing me more frequently….I promise!!
Bye for now!!

The Most Anticipated Day of the Week

It’s finally Friday! Yipee! Aside from Monday, this week seems to have gone by slow. Anybody else have a slow week?

I had a great bowl of oats planned for today with vanilla chai powder and strawberries. Too bad it blew over in the microwave when I lost track of it. Boo! By the time I had the mess cleaned I was out of time to start another bowl so went with cereal instead….same as yesterday, too.

Wildroots cereal, rice crispies and Bare Naked granola with USVAB. Did the trick!

Before the gym I gobbled up a caramel nut brownie Luna bar;

Um…..why have I only bought this flavour for DS before? Hello….it was amazing!!!!!

Mr. elliptical and I kicked it over the lunch hour.

• Time: 45 minutes
• Avg Hr: 154
• Max Hr: 165
• Calories Torched: 414
• Distance: 4.7 miles

Lunch was another jammed packed, fabulous salad:

This one had garden fresh spring mix, red pepper, celery, mozzarella cheese, a spicy black bean SOL burger and sweet onion salad dressing. I ate it while working so it took a good hour to get it all eaten. HA! A little later I had a major chocolate craving, but no chocolate. I decided to go for a walk to stretch and distract myself. Wouldn’t you know that I came across a box of Timbits someone brought in to share?

x2 What can I say? They practically fell in my lap! :) Just before clocking out for the week I dug into a bowl of sweet watermelon.

One of my favourite summer treats for sure. My hubby was home on a vacation day today and didn’t think to get anything out for dinner so when it was time to get dinner going he hopped down to the store and bought some pizza’s for the oven. Mine was a spinach veggie number:

I paired it up with yet more salad.

This was pretty darn good pizza so I went back for round 2. After cleaning up I warmed an almond quinoa muffin just slightly in the microwave to eat as a sweet end:

Mmmm….melty chocolate, how I love thee!

The boys are off to ball hockey. DD isn’t feeling 100% today and I wanted her to stay home and rest so she’s up to par for our fundraising walk tomorrow. The weather is suppose to be sunny in the morning with a chance of storms in the afternoon, but we’ll be done by 11ish so I’m not too worried. After all, the last 2 years it rained so it wouldn’t be a first! We’re bringing KC, our neighbour dog, too. He’ll love it! There’s still time to donate to our team if you wish. Just click on the link provided in the top right corner of the blog. Any fun plans the weekend for you guys??

Bye for now!!

Bye for now!!

Speeding Along

Hi all! I gotta make this quick because I only have 20 minutes before SYTYCD is on! Hehe! I ran short on time for my oats this morning so I went for a bowl of cereal instead:

This was a mix of Wildroots cereal, rice crispies and Bear Naked granola and it was fantastic! My morning snack was a WCMN Clif bar.

Basking in a pool of sunshine in all its glory!!

I took a full hour on the treadmill today to do my incline walk. It felt really good, too.

• Time: 1 hrs
• Avg Hr: 171
• Max Hr: 186
• Calories Torched: 670
• Distance: 4.2 miles

Lunch was a killer salad chock full of fresh lettuce from my parents garden, tomatoes, cucumber, mozzarella, walnuts and parmesan herb dressing:

This delight was off the charts! Nothing beats home grown greens. They’re so tender and sweet. Later in the afternoon I had a bag of cherries…

I forgot to pull something out of the freezer for dinner so we went with burgers. I dressed my spicy black bean Sol burger with dijonnaise, pickles, more sweet lettuce and Swiss cheese…all on a burger thin:

Then I helped myself to a chocolate chip All Bran bar.

It was finally a beautiful night for soccer and I went and forgot my camera. DOH! One day I’ll get pictures posted! LOL I was feeling hungry again when we got home so I warmed a piece of whole grain bread and spread some PB&Co. cinnamon raisins PB on it.

Yumma! And the best part? I took this picture at 8pm and didn’t need the flash. I love the longer days! Well, time’s up as SYTYCD has started so I must sign out. Catch ya tomorrow!!

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!!