An Oddball Breakfast

The day started out cloudy again but by the time noon rolled around the sun was shining! YEAH! Happy day. My breakfast was a little different this morning, but I’m not counting it as part of my “eat a different breakfast once a week for June” challenge because it wasn’t too far off what I normally eat. Follow me;

-1/2 cup Silk
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 cup cooked rice
-cinnamon, salt, vanilla
-1 tbsp Flanigan’s Farm trail mix
-hulled hemp seeds
This was a great switch up! It was close enough to my oats so that I didn’t miss them and held me over just as well. This is what the package of trail mix looks like;
This was a really nice addition. I enjoy having raisins and peanuts mixed in the same bite!

As usual, I ate my dates around 10:30ish. I think these are becoming a bit of a bad habit! On the weekend, I forget about them completely, but find that I miss them through the mornings at work. I’m on 12:30 lunch this week so before the gym I chowed down on this Chia Raspberry Cashew Dr. Weil bar;
Holy Hannah, this was most definitely my favourite flavour of the 5 that Nature’s Path sent me a while back. It was jammed with raspberry flavour and cashew pieces. I didn’t notice the chia, but I’ve never tried it before so maybe I just missed it? Anyways, I would buy this one again for sure.

It was so awesome to finally get back in the gym! I hammered out a fantastic run today. But it was HOT….76*F when I finished up. S-weaty!

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 164
Max Hr: 179
Calories Burned: 493
Distance: 5.08 miles

I’m back in the game! Yahoo!

I brought the leftover cod and veggies for lunch today. I wasn’t really feeling it, mostly because I forgot to pack the peach bruschetta with it! Oh, well. It did the trick.
Don’t ya just hate an unfulfilling meal? My lunch dessert was a cup of stewed rhubarb, sans Cool Whip!
My fresh fruit supply is dwindling terribly but this made a great substitution. Shopping day is Friday and I want to wait until then to restock.

For dinner I made myself a "burger" using lentils. Here's what I mixed together;

-1/3 cup cooked lentils
-1 tbsp Sabra hummus
-1 butt end slice of WW bread (made into breadcrumbs using the Magic Bullet)
-2 tbsp Eggbeaters
-chili powder

I just mashed it all up, formed it into a patty and let it sit in the fridge for a 1/2 hour. I cooked it up in a greased pan until brown on both sides. I topped it with a generous scoop of peach bruschetta once plated. On the side was a pile a steamed veggies;
This is the first patty I've made using beans and it was stellar. It held its shape pretty good and the blend of hummus and peach was out of this world. I'm sitting here wondering why it took me so long to try this! And I just realized how many of these steamed vegetables I ate today! Holy fibre...watch out for me later! :) My sweet end was a Cravings macaroon...
No words are needed here! In a few minutes I'm off to the pool for the kids swimming lessons. I believe that next week is the last night and then that will be it for swimming until the end of September. My hubby has just gone up to Purolator to pick up my laptop! SO excited!! I can't wait to be able to blog where ever I want. HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!

Bye for now!

BBBC Results

I was pretty darn convinced when I got up this morning that it was Friday. Wishful thinking, I guess! The sun is still shining, so all is well in my world regardless of the day. I had to leave a bit early this morning to drop the Medieval castle off at the school. There was no way that DD was going to be able to walk it there. I snapped a few photos of it this morning before we left. They’re not the greatest because I had to use the flash, but you’ll get the idea;
You’ll notice the 2 shades of black. I painted merrily away over my lunch yesterday not realizing that she had mixed a bit of white into her black. Oops! We’ll just pretend that one side is weather beaten. Here’s a view from the top.

There is “furniture” in each room, but it’s very hard to see. She does the presentation today so I’ve got my fingers crossed for her!

On to breakfast. There were some oatmeal raisin cookie crumbs in the bottom of the bag so I used them to top my oats. Gotta be a little naughty sometimes!
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain oats
-cinnamon
-banana
-PB2
-cookie crumbs
Nom, nom, nom!

Before going to the gym I ate my dates. And it’s your lucky day because I took a picture! Exciting, I know.
I just love these little sweet nibbles.

I enjoyed a hot, sweaty date with the elliptical over the lunch hour. My bum is still too sore to run! I also did 10 minutes of really good stretching to try to loosen up my stiff muscles.

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 154
Max Hr: 179
Calories Burned: 434
Distance: 4.5 miles

I finally remembered to take a picture of myself so I could post the before and after picture’s from the BBBC. I’ll give out my measurements, too. This first photo was taken on Day 1 of the challenge, back on March 27th.
Arms: 9.25”
Bust: 31”
Waist (at narrowest point): 26”
Hips: 38.5”
Thighs: 21.5”

And here I am today;

Arms: 9.5”
Bust: 31”
Waist (at narrowest point): 26”
Hips: 37”
Thighs: 21.5”

So while there isn’t a huge difference in my numbers, I certainly feel firmer and stronger. I really enjoyed the variety of exercises that Angela posted. It was just what I needed to get some strength in because I really tend to focus on cardio. I’m on pins and needles waiting to see if there will be a summer BBBC!

I had another salad for lunch today but this one wasn’t quite as big as yesterday’s was.
This is a mix of romaine, a turkey sausage and the rest of the grilled bell peppers from last night with strawberry pomegranate dressing and hemp seeds on top. I also ate a Dr. Weil Goji Moji bar that I found hiding in my cupboard.
This one was really fruity and I quite enjoyed it! Just before going home time I ate a bowl of blueberries and raspberries;
The fam was out of bread so I popped into the store after work. I can never leave with just one thing so I picked up a bottle of POM Wonderful with one of my freebie coupons and also snagged some Silk that was on sale for $2.00
I've never tried Silk before so we'll see if I like it or not. When I got home I put a pork tenderloin in the oven because we ran out of propane for the BBQ last night. I seasoned it up with some steak spice. For sides we ate some seasoned couscous and steamed veggies.
Tonight was one of the rare nights that we all ate the same thing. I usually have at least one thing different from them. My sweet end was the last oatmeal raisin cookie and second last chocolate chip one. They were camera shy, though!

DD and I are off to get our hair cut. When I get back I plan watering my plants and watching SYTYCD. I have a feeling there will be some rhubarb rumble consumed as well. Interested in winning a week's worth of these???

Click here to find out how. You won't be disappointed!

Bye for now!

Words You DO NOT Want to Hear

What words might those be you ask? "Mom!!! I'm gonna PUKE!!!" I know, nice, eh? I really felt the need to share! These were the words that jolted me out of a very deep slumber at 1:20am this morning. Poor DS was sick to his stomach every 10 minutes from then until 5am. Needless to say, my hubby and I are completely beat out. I'm gonna make this post a short one....I hope you all understand!

I dragged my butt out of bed at 9:30 because I was so hungry! I made a nice filling bowl of tofu oats;
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Flax Seed porridge
-1/4 cup soft tofu
-scoop of plum cinnamon tea jam
-blueberries
After some blog reading DD and I ran a few errands that needed to be done. On our way home, we stopped to rent a movie with a free movie voucher that I had. Between the damp, rain & lack of sleep, I figured it was a perfect day for movie watching. We picked Open Season 2 (we saw the first one at the movies when it was released) and all had a good laugh watching it. I think it was better than the first one!

Because I had a late breakfast, I never really got hungry for lunch. By 2pm I knew I needed a little something, something or I'd be ravenous by dinner. I broke out one of my Dr. Weil bars to try. This one was called "Pistachi-Oh".
Yum, yum, yum!! I thoroughly enjoyed this bar. It had big hunks of nuts, a real nice chewy texture and light fruity taste.
I'd buy this one again for sure! Also, it held me over very nicely to dinner time. I must stop and mention that I've consumed a vat of coffee through out the day. I normally don't drink much of it, but the caffeine was a requirement today!!

Before I forget...I made another delicious green monster after the game last night.
This one had some frozen mango added to the mix. What a super addition! I must admit that I really wanted something to CRUNCH on so I promised myself that if I still felt that way once I drank the smoothie, I could go ahead and have me some crunch. Lo and behold, the "kraving" was GONE by the time I was done! Two thumbs up for the monster serving it's purpose!

While out this morning, I came across some candies that I bought in Buffalo almost a year ago, but was never able to find again. Green Tea Latte candy!
Boy was I ever happy to discover that they have made there way across the border!

For dinner tonight I made another one of Sarah's (Tales of Expansion) recipes, Red Lentil Peanut Soup. If you haven't checked out this blog, you must do so. There are some fabulous recipes to be found and some great writing, too! This soup was AWESOME! My hubby, DD and I enjoyed every bite! I also made some smoked cheddar biscuits to go along side for dipping purposes. I got the base recipe for the biscuits out of Vegan With A Vengence. There are some really great recipes in there! Before I put them in the oven, they got an egg wash coating and a sprinkle of smoked cheddar cheese.
I highly recommend this recipe! It hit the spot on this dreary day. It's super filling, too! Because I need chocolate in my life pretty much daily, I made some room for a toffee Cadbury bar...
And that brings me to the end of my day so far. My parents should be over for a visit shortly and then my hubby and I may or may not watch a movie. More likely, we will both be in bed quite early! At least both the kids are through with this nastiness now. Lets keep our fingers crossed the us big kids don't get it!! :) Have a great evening, everyone!!

Bye for now!!

Coffee Time

It’s taken me a bit but I’ve finally realized that getting out of bed has been a little easier this week because it’s not pitch black anymore! Yay for longer days!!! Now, just because it’s been easier to get out of bed, doesn’t mean I’m not still tired when I do! Such was the case this morning so I made some double duty oats!

-3/4 cup brewed coffee
-1/4 unsweetened almond breeze
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-splash of French Vanilla coffee creamer
-Mocha Hazelnut sprinkles
This bowl did its job of picking me up! Tasted fabulous, too! Nothing like eating your coffee!

Work plodded along again this morning. The afternoons tend to go much quicker! About an hour before hitting the gym I downed 3 medjool dates and ½ of a Weil bar…

The bar (banana manna flavour) was really, really good! To me, it was like eating a banana without the gaggy mushiness. There were also big chunks of almonds in there that offered are real nice crunch!

I decided to do a nice 45 minute, no incline run at the gym today. I’ve been setting the incline to 1% and even though it’s not much, I tend to get shin splints. I thought I’d see if the same thing happened without the incline. So….no pain! For today, anyways! I’ve always been prone to shin splints for some reason or another. Today’s run felt really cleansing somehow. Like icky toxins were banished from my body. I love a run like that! Why don’t I share my stats?

Time: 45 minutes
Avg HR: 166
Max HR: 181
Calories Burned: 474
Distance: 4.8 miles

I should also mention that I tried out the new treadmill that we got in the gym on Monday. Man…that thing is the Cadillac of ‘mills! I just did a straight run and it times you in laps which is really cool! I completed 19 laps in 45 minutes. Another neat feature is that it tells you your pace once you’ve completed 4 laps. I was running at 6.5mph which equaled a 9.14 minutes mile. Gotta give myself a big ole pat on the shoulder for that!! :)

I packed a super easy, but good, lunch today. It was a toasted WW bagel with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese and a 1/4 cup of egg beaters. There was also a small salad on the side that was topped with a bit of honey mustard dressing. Lunch "dessert" was some sliced strawberries. Mmmm!!
Simple and delish! This is a lunch I would normally make on the weekend so I thought it would make a good weekday lunch, too. And that it did!

I was so happy to see 4:30 roll around! I was more than ready to leave work and go home at that point! I think it was partly due to the fact that I dreamed up a neat little dinner for myself during the afternoon! Here's my idea!

I cooked up a 4oz chicken breast that I seasoned with cumin, hot peppers, dried oregano, salt and pepper. When it was done I chopped it up into bite size chunks and put it back into the pot with a 1/4 cup WW couscous, a 1/3 cup of V8 tomato soup and a little extra water....maybe an additional 2 tbsp. I gave it a good stir, covered it and let it sit over very low heat for about 10 minutes.After fluffing it up with a fork, I served it with a big helping of steamed veggies...
This turned out to be a bit more than I expected it would, but I still polished it off. The vegetables are what really gave it some heft! I ate 2 more medjool dates as a bit of a sweet end. Now I am stuffed, but this should hold me over pretty darn good.

Tonight is pool night and I'm looking forward to the hour of reading! Next week is the last class...8 weeks goes by quite fast when you think about it! The Biggest Loser is on again at 8 so I will be missing the first half. That's a bit of a bummer but at least I'll get to see the juicy stuff at the end! :) I might munch on a blood orange later on. I bought some and haven't gotten around to trying one yet. This is a new fruit for me as the name has always freaked me out! We'll see it I chicken out again!! Have a great night everybody!!!

Bye for now!!

Family Day

I was thrilled to have today off work for Ontario's Family Day holiday! I woke up around 7 after a great sleep and lounged around in bed until 8. So nice to not have to rush about! I decided to make pancakes for everyone for breakfast. The fam had their usual chocolate chip pancakes and I had my usual blueberry pancakes!

I used my Bob's Red Mill 5 Grain oats as a change and realized that they don't soak up the liquid as well and were still a little "raw" once the pancakes were browned. They were still yummy, but next time I'll be sticking to good ole Quaker oats!

I ate a delicious bowl of yogurt/blueberries/agave and Nature's Path pumpkin granola last night while watching The Race.

This was so good that I almost went back for another. Almost! Instead, DD and I split a Dr. Weil Chocolata Walnut bar. The picture of the actual bar didn't turn out, but it looked similar to a Lara Bar only flatter.

We both really like this! It had a nice deep chocolate flavour and big pieces of walnut throughout. I'm a texture gal and this really hit the spot! Now I'm psyched to try the other flavours!!!

I spent the morning doing, I mean HELPING, DD with her Nunavut project. She had everything ready to go so it was primarily organizing the info on the bristol board. She forgot one of the most important elements (the map of the territory) at school, so we had to make sure to leave room for that to be glued in tomorrow, which is when it's due. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!! When that was done I baked up 2 batches of muffins to get us through the week. The first batch was my Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins, only I made them with cranberries this time so i guess I should call these ones Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins!!.

The second batch was Apple Bran Flax Muffins. The date at the bottom of my printout reads "8/22/2007" and this is the first time I've made them. Nothing like hanging on to a recipe for-ever!!!

While they were in the oven, I did some dishes and general tidying. Then, the 4 of us went to play "Big Brain" on the Wii. What a fun game! Have any of you ever tried it? You have to do exercises in each of the following categories; analyze, compute, memorize, visual and identify. Then it tells you how big your brain is. It's actually quite a challenge! Our sitter brought it over for the kids to play Saturday night and they loved it. Then, they brought my MIL's home to use.

Around 1pm I decided I'd better get some lunch into my kids (and myself!) They opted for grilled cheese and I figured that seeing as I had a pan out I'd make myself some egg whites to pop on a toasted WW bagel with smoked cheddar and Sabra hummus. A nice salad finished the meal off!

I hit the computer for some blog reading after lunch and then hopped in the shower around 3 to get cleaned up for Pilate's. I'm pretty stiff from my adventure's the other night and was looking forward to class all day long!! Before I left, I ate an apple bran flax muffin...

Delish!! Class was everything I hoped it would be tonight. Our focus was the upper back/shoulder region which is exactly where I needed a good stretch. By the time the hour was up, I wasn't stiff at all. Wonderful!! My hubby had BBQ'd pork chops for dinner so I asked him to leave a small one aside for me. He also left me some corn. To this I added some steamed asparagus and swiss chard that had been cooked down with a little garlic, salt & pepper. Then I hit it with a drizzle of agave. I also topped the pork chop with mango chutney....

Oh, yeah! This was one tasty plate!! I ate another small slice of apple pie for my sweet end.

There's not much on the agenda for the rest of the evening. I've got lunches and backpacks ready to go and all homework has been done! I did get a magazine in the mail today so I think I'll give that a look through while my hubby watches hockey! Be sure to check out Itzy's Kitchen and What's for Dinner to see how they responded to my interview questions! That was such a neat idea that someone thought up!!! I'll leave you with a photo of Pepper. He is one kitty that does not appreciate his picture being taken!!

Thanks for taking the time to check in!!

Bye for now!!