Dempster's Thin Bagels

A few weeks back I received some fun mail that included 3 varieties of Dempster's Thin Bagels for us to try...

We love when Dempster's products show up at our house!  The fam has been eating Dempster's whole grain bread exclusively for some time now so we're familiar with the company and their amazing products.  You can also check out my review for the Oven Ready Baguettes here.  It's not too clear in the picture, but I was sent the White with Whole Grains:

Multi Grain 100% Whole Grains:

And the favourite among my boys; cinnamon raisin!

Seeing as I no longer eat gluten, Jason and the kids jotted down their thoughts for me to share with you:

-really good snack, great taste but on the small side

-delicious toasted with cream cheese

-tough to toast because they’re thin

-raisins ones are very good plain…don’t need any topping

Further to that, these bagels have less than half the calories of regular bagels and can be found in the bakery aisle a major grocery stores across Canada.  They typically sell for $3.59-$3.99.

Here are a few recipe ideas that would be well suited to these little guys...

Berry & Greek Yougurt This Bagel

-1 Dempster's Cinnamon Raisin Thin Bagel

-1 Tbsp Greek style plain yogurt

-2 Tbsp of mixed fresh berries

-2 tsp honey

-pinch of cinnamon

OR you could try Thin Bagel & Lox:

OR Thin Breakfast Club Sandwich:

At only 100 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fibre and 3 grams of protein, these bagel thins make for a fabulous snack of base for your favourite sandwich!  Have you tried Dempster's Thin Bagels?  

Bye for now!!

Operation Beautiful and A BBQ

Hi lovelies!  Well, here we are at Monday already and I’m back to work tomorrow so I guess vacation is over.  That makes me sad!   We didn’t do as many day trips this year as we usually do, but LOTS of R&R was enjoyed and I truly savoured every bit of it.  Maybe now I’ll get back to some regular posting! 
Friday was a bum day but in a good way.  We made a trip to Costco and I had groceries to do.  Other than that I just chilled.  Breakfast was a new (to me) hot cereal that I bought at Wegman’s:
Funnily enough, after eating this I read an blurb about it in Prevention magazine!  For me, raisins just seem to go well with the flavour of chai so as you can see I added some.  There was also a drizzle of cream. Lunch was some leftovers thrown in a bowl; steamed broc, a little bit of chicken and cuke slices with roasted red pepper dressing and a bagel thin LC cheese on the side: Googly eyes!!!  LOL  I bought the LC in the US, but I think I can find this flavour here in “green” packaging. 
We enjoyed dinner outside again!  Grilled pork chops (from Costco…they were so thick that my hubby cut them in half cross wise and we froze the rest), grilled zucchini and a side of cantaloupe.
There were cherries, too, enjoyed while reading the newest edition of Clean Eating magazine.
I spent the rest of the evening getting food ready for our deck “christening” BBQ!  More on that in a wee bit….when darkness fell we started a fire in the fire pit and sat around chatting about our vacay.  The kids have really been enjoying the later nights!
I had one of DS, too, but I think the little bugger deleted it because it’s not on the camera anymore!  Grrr…
I hit the kitchen as soon as I got out of bed Saturday to finish chopping, mixing and blending.  I finally sat down about 9ish for some eats.  I’ve really been enjoying the bagel thins so I toasted one and topped it off with almond butter and homemade zucchini jam (recipe to come); Coffee was also a must!
Early in the afternoon DD and I went to the mall in hunt of the new Operation Beautiful book!  I went online and saw that the Canadian release date is August 10, but I was determined so I went to the bookstore and inquired about it,  turns out there were 2 in back, one of which ended up in my greedy hands!!!
Excited much?  LOL  Before I could get it home I HAD to stop to get a picture of me, the book and “Canada”!!
I just noticed that although I randomly picked this sign…AKA, it was the first one we drove by…..it’s actually very fitting as it was taken at the “Food Research Centre”!  HAHA!  I’m just about done reading it and so far I think it’s fantastic!  Caitlin did an awesome job!  The real reason I wanted this book kicking around the house, though, was so that it would fall into these hands…
BINGO!  She actually sat down with it as soon as we got home and I know that some of the notes in there spoke to her because she read a few to me.  She really liked how creative some people were.  We’ve decided to make sure we have post it notes on all all the time so we can leave messages together.   While she read that I ate a late lunch. 
A simple lunch of granola, raspberries and this yogurt:
By 4pm I was putting the finishing touches on dinner.  I made a HUGE Caesar salad (of which there were no leftovers!!):
A Hungry Girl recipe called “I Can’t Believe its Not Potato Salad” salad; I’ve made this one a few times before and it never fails to be a hit.  It’s in the second cookbook; 200 Under 200.  I also made a quick quinoa salad by combining 1 cup cooked quinoa, 1 each red and orange bell pepper, 1/2 cup chopped red onion, 1/2 cup chopped feta, 1/4 cup walnut pieces and to dress it was a mix (I didn’t really measure) of olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, chilli powder, honey, salt & pepper:
My hubby grilled burgers and sausages and some Yves veggie burgers for me.  The next picture shows everything all together, but part of it is in shadow…oops!
I loaded my plate with a burger, quinoa salad and “potato” salad:  TOOT TOOT!  All aboard the delicious train!!!  LOL  For dessert I made a orange creamsicle cake (recipe to come, too!)
 
Again, this is something I’ve made before just like this and with different variations.  I haven’t met someone yet that didn’t like it as it’s the perfectly light end to a meal.  Here’s a closer look…
A little later on we enjoyed coffee, tea and a bowl of these crisps that I found at Costco:
 
Katie eats these so I knew they would be good!  All in all, everybody had a great time and really enjoyed the ambiance of our new outdoor space!!
DS (with KC) and my parents down the left, DD and my in laws down the right and my hubby at the end.  :)
It was a late end and DS had an 8am soccer practice that we had to get up for.  Not fun, my friends, not fun.  Long gone are the days that I can survive on 5hrs sleep!  I won’t go through all my eats for yesterday because most of it was leftovers!  Imagine that, eh?  I did enjoy a package of Nature’s Path Apple Cinnamon porridge with a few walnuts before we left for the field:
Here’s my little man in action!
After practice we drove out to the farm with a pit stop at Knapp’s for a peach nectarine pie.  I enjoyed a small piece:
AMAZING!  I’m loving peaches now that they’re in season.  I also found a new jam that they’re making and just HAD to buy it:
Oh, yes they did!  I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure it’s da bomb.  How could it not be???  Lunch and dinner were odds and ends of the BBQ so I won’t post them again. 
I had meant to get this out last night but the kids were invited across the street for a swim so that became my priority.  I’ll be leaving today’s “fun” for tomorrow’s post so this doesn't get any longer.  Plus, I want to quickly do a post with the zucchini jam and cake recipes for you. 
Have you bought the Operation Beautiful book yet??  Please share your thoughts with me!!
Bye for now!!

Just Enjoying Life

Happy Thursday!  How is everybody doing?  I could get used to not working.  Too bad I would miss the dinero, too!  HA  The past 2 days have been fairly low key as we wind down the last few precious days of vacation.  We stayed out on the deck until the wee hours of Wednesday morning, then I was awake by 8.  Needless to say, I drank a boatload of coffee.  But breakfast came first. This is a packet of Nature’s Path flax oatmeal jazzed up with some coconut butter and carob chips.  DELISH!  Nature’s Path was kind enough to send me a few items to review, so I’ll be getting to that just as soon as I try everything out.  One review I can share now is for their newly revamped line of granola bars: These were in the box that was sent (YAY!!) and you can read all about what we thought about them by clicking right here.
I pretty much spent ALL morning reading blogs.  Time really flies when you’re having fun!  I know I haven’t been commenting as much, but I’ve been reading each post.  Once I’m 100% caught up I’ll be back to full fledged commenting!
I eventually got hungry for lunch and whipped out my smuggled turkey artichoke sandwich half from Panera.
I opted to eat it cold and liked it lots better!  I’m not a big re-heater of things like pizza, sandwiches, etc.  I much prefer those kind of leftovers cold.  My hubby, on the other hand, likes everything to be steamy hot.  He was kinda grossed out that I ate this cold.  LOL  And the last few deck photos, I promise.  Just wanted to show the completed projects that I’ve been babbling on about so much!  :)
And here are how the deck lights from Target look, both with and without the flash(taken last night at dusk):
And here are some shots of the gardens I’ve been working on.  Ya know, in case any of you thought I was slacking the past few days!  HEHE
In both the above photos I turned all the dirt by hand with a shovel.   I also did the edging and extended them a wee bit.  The picture underneath is still a blank slate.  That patch is under a huge maple tree and doesn’t get much light so the grass never really grew properly.  I finally decided to clear out all the weeds and roots and in the fall I will be transplanting some of my perennials there so it will look gorgeous in the spring.  This one was a back breaker and my hands are still sore from clearing the space!  DOH!

We had a great summer dinner last night.  I made bison burgers with my smuggled ground bison and there was also fresh corn on the cob the my neighbour gave us.  I served my burger on a bagel thin with pickle, roasted red pepper, tomato and lettuce.  For dessert I cubed a ripe, sweet pineapple for us all to share:
My kids have been helping the neighbour with some yard work so she took them to DQ last night and treated them to Blizzards.  While they were gone my hubby and took our adopted doggie for a walk:
 
When we got back I tried this Skinny Cow ice cream cup:
This was not very good.  Wegman’s was selling them as singles so we bought 4, but I wasn’t hungry for mine after my salad so I threw it in the cooler and popped it in the freezer when we got home.  It didn’t have a lot of taste to it except for the bitter aftertaste.  Good trial run, though.  I know now not to fork over the cash for them here!
We were late going to bed again last night and early to rise.  I spent another morning on the computer entertaining myself.  LOL  While at that I downed a bowl of my favourite Kashi cereal ever; Kashi U:
Crunchy flakes, walnuts, blueberries….Mmmm!  I won’t say where I enjoyed my morning activities, but I’m sure you can guess!  ;)  Before I knew it lunch time had rolled around.  I wasn’t terribly hungry, but knew that eating lunch where we were heading would be a challenge so I took one for the team and used all the burger topping leftovers and a few extras to make a light salad. 
A little bit of lettuce, tomato, corn from the last cob, cuke, tuna and pear & blue cheese dressing.   I also enjoyed half a Panera chocolate chip cookie. So!  We took the kids to a water park that’s one city over from us.  Can’t believe I haven’t been since I was a teenager.  DS had never been down a “big” waterslide so I wasn’t sure if he’d like them or not, but he had a blast.  And I knew without a doubt that DD would be jazzed.  Here she is hitting the bottom of one slide. Unfortunately, everyone one I took of DS shows just a big splash!  But here is is at the bottom of a tamer slide: DD went down some “cyclone” slide that dumps you into a cylinder and spins you before you get dropped in the water.  No thanks! And lastly, the 2 of them happy as clams! Before we left they each got a “fake” tattoo… The fun and sun made us all peckish and the fam got soft serve cones at Mc Donald’s.  I wasn’t feeling one so I waited until we got home then had a piece of Stonemill pumpkin seed cranberry bready with a touch of butter,
I tended to the veggie garden a bit and picked myself some kale for dinner.  It’s so pretty! We did a beer butt chicken on the BBQ so I decided to turn my dinner into a big salad.  I tossed the kale with some cucumber, yellow tomato, green pepper and a dressing made with some olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, chili powder, honey, salt & pepper.  Then I topped the whole beast with some chicken breast! My sweet end was a chocolate Oikos yogurt.
Last time I bought the caramel and I like them both very much.  A  great healthy treat!!  After dinner we hauled butt over to DS’s soccer game.  He’s got one friend from school on his team as well as one of his All Star teammates and on the opposing team were 2 classmates as well.  I had the camera so I annoyed them all taking pictures!  Here’s the 5 of them;
DS is in the centre.  The little rascals….but they’re all great kids! 
Well, my hubby just came outside from having a shower and his back is BURNT.  Guess he didn’t do such a good job with the sunscreen.  I’m off to lather him in aloe…..  ;)
Bye for now!!