Things I'm Loving Lately

Hi!  Thought I'd pop in and do a post on a few things that I'm really into lately.  

This spinach & artichoke dip is highly addictive!  I could seriously eat it by the spoonful, but have kept things lady like using carrot sticks and corn tortilla chips as appropriate vessels.  :)  It's also amazing used as a sandwich spread!

I'm sure you can imagine how divine this coconut spread is melted over pancakes or waffles, right??  Oh, so good!  I've also used it in baking and to saute veggies.  It was a little on the expensive side, but totally worth it.

More coconut!  This is the BEST yogurt I've ever eaten.  Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who feels this way because it's becoming really hard to find!  It's a fruit on the bottom yogurt and is thicker than regular yogurt, but not quite a thick as Greek.  I could basically swim in a tub of this and be happy forever.  LOL

I found this Choo-It granola/oat mix at Home Sense and decided to give it a go.  It's chock full of almonds, raisins, coconut, berries, oats, quinoa flakes....texture, texture, texture!  You can eat it hot or cold, mixed into yogurt or by the handful.

Not sure why I've been into this lately, but I've been drinking the grapefruit flavoured Perrier like it's going out of style!!

On to non-food goodies....although I do stick to my beloved coconut here....I've fallen in love with this J.R. Watkins Coconut & Honey Hand & Body lotion.  It's rich, creamy and luxurious, yet doesn't leave a "sticky" feeling like some creams do.    I've only had this a few days and have been using it on my hands at night.  They're already soft!  The reason this cream has seen hand action only is because I'm still using my next favourite product on the rest of my body:

Palmer's Cocoa Butter!  I mean, who doesn't want to smell like chocolate??  Seriously, though...this product is the bomb body lotion.  

So there you have it!  What is your favourite item lately?  I should also note that I bought all these products on my own.  I'm not receiving any sort of bonus for talking about and linking to any of the above items...

Bye for now!!

Couch Potato

Oh, boy was today ever a lazy one! It was not a nice day…the temps only reached 19*C and it was windy! I started off the morning with laundry sorting duties before I made some eats. I was good and hungry when I finally sat down at 9am!

• 1/3 cup USVAB & water
• 1/3 cup PC 5 grain cereal
• cinnamon
• banana
• almond butter
• coconut spread

This was a terrific breakfast. The one sad thing is that I used the last of my coconut spread and it’s not available in the area anymore! Crappy.

DD and I took off for the market next because the local market is only open until noon. I picked up lots of fruit for the week!

I was told that this is the last week for local strawberries. Such a short season. Housework ensued once the fruit was washed and put away and before I knew it, it was 1pm. I wasn’t sure what I wanted for lunch, but I knew I wanted it to include some of this..

YAY! My Amazing Grass order came in yesterday. These sample packs only cost me $6.00. Can’t go wrong there. What to make, what to make….how about more pancakes?? I present to you Amazing Chocolate Blueberry Pancakes w/ Raspberry “Jam”.

• 1/3 cup oats
• 2 tbsp Bisquick
• 1/4 cup egg beaters
• Amazing Grass Kids Chocolate powder
• 1 tbsp cottage cheese
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp USVAB

Blend all this together in the Magic Bullet then stir in a 1/3 cup of fresh blueberries. While the pancakes are cooking, mash a 1/2 pint of fresh raspberries with a fork until they resemble jam. Add sweetener if you like. Arrange pancakes on a plate, top with raspberry jam and dip into maple syrup if desired!

Seriously AMAZING! I’ll be entering these in Katie’s pancake challenge for sure! Here’s the packet I used;

This is when laziness set in. I made a coffee and basically watched TV from 1:30 until 5pm!!! And there wasn’t really anything good on, either. I tried to sit out on the porch with my book, but it was just too darn chilly. Booya. Around 3 I dove into this fantabulous “Mountain Man” vegan cookie from the market. Check it out!

This beast was chalk full of dried fruit, nuts, carob chips and toasted coconut. It’s my fave next to the cherry pistachio which is waiting for me to eat it tomorrow! :)

We finally dragged our butts off the couch for a super simple dinner. I steamed up some frozen veggies, warmed up a can of beans and nuked a sweet potato until cooked through. The fam had Juicy Jumbo hotdogs instead of the sweet potato. I loaded my tater up with beans and cottage cheese and ate the veg on the side…

Not pictured is the half hotdog that I split with DD (no bun). Dessert was a small scoop of cappuccino fro-yo…

I feel like such a blob after being so inactive all day. I’m trying to talk myself into a walk to shake it off. Wish I had a dog to take along! I’ll leave you with a photo of this chucker that has decided to make itself part of our neighbourhood. I never even knew what a chucker was until we googled it after taking a picture!

(this is not our photo, but it’s exactly what the bird looks like!)

Have a great Saturday evening, all!!!

Bye for now!!

A Trip to Costco & the Market

Today was another beautiful, sunny day! Maybe a tad cooler than yesterday, but I'll take it! I rolled out of bed at 8:30 and headed on down to get breakfast going. The kids had already eaten....the joys of them getting older.....so I just had to worry about myself. Before going to bed last night I covered a 1/4 cup of quinoa with water and put it in the fridge to soak overnight. Here's what I did with it...
-1 cup water
-1/4 cup quinoa
-1/4 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-mashed banana
-2 tbsp PB2
-Enjoy Life trail mix
Yum, yum, yum!! A delicious way to start the day! I let this meal digest a bit and then did about 10 minutes of ab work and some push ups. I can still only do the girly ones, but I'm up to 10 in a row which is progress for me! Two weeks ago, I'd be lucky to do 3!!!

My hubby and the kids went out for DS's haircut so I did a few odds and ends around the house and by the time they got home, I was ready to get the day going. We went to Costco, which was a freakin zoo, and stocked up on our usuals. While there, I grabbed a Lara bar sample. They're now selling boxes of them there. I think the pack had apple pie, cashew cookie and chocolate cashew in it. Other than that, I kept my hands out of the samples! By the time we got out of there it was 1:30 and the kids were hungry. My hubby was feeling Subway (again) so that's where we ended up for lunch. I ordered a 6"veggie with the works and sweet onion sauce.
Loved it!! I didn't get any meat or cheese because I was still satisfied from breakfast and the piece of Lara bar that I had. After lunch we drove over to the market...another zoo...where I bought some nice looking pears and blood oranges.
I also bought a pound of ground white turkey meat for pasta sauce as this was what was requested by DS for dinner. My hubby bought himself a banana pie which he has no need to worry about me touching. BLETCH! Get a load of the treats this booth had....


Here is a photo of the inside part of the market from the upper level and one of DD in the same spot;
We made it home by 3:30pm and to be honest I was munchy. Before I knew it I ate a biscuit with some coconut spread...
And then another plain one. Then I inhaled one of these from the bag that my MIL brought over last night. My choice was the one with chocolate, of course!
Then I got a hold of myself, made a coffee and got out of the kitchen and upstairs on the computer!!! PHEW! That episode had binge potential written ALL over it! I'm getting much better at recognizing the signs before the crap eating gets too far out of control!

As I mentioned, pasta was on the menu for dinner last night. I had a bag of Shiritaki noodles with my sauce and some freshly grated parm on top.
I'll admit to one more cookie....almond this time....as my sweet end. Once I'm done here, I'm going to be doing the 30 Day Shred DVD. I'll have just enough to time hammer it out before my parents get here for their visit!! Tomorrow will be my last day for level 1!! HOOT! There may be a movie later, but most likely just some TV. I still have a magazine to finish, too. I'll see you all back for Easter Sunday!! Hippity hop! :)

Bye for now!!

Hooray for Friday!

OK…I have to start this post out with a totally cool “give away” by Katie over at Chocolate Covered Katie. She’s got a full box of Jocolat bars up for grabs for someone, regardless of location, to win! How fabulous is that???? Hopefully you’ll continue to read my post before you head on over there, though! :)

It poured rain ALL night in my neck of the woods. A bit of an odd, yet welcome, sound after such a l-o-n-g winter! Good riddance, snow!! I’m ecstatic to see signs that indicate that spring is just around the bend!

Here’s my morning eats!!
-1/2 cup water, unsweetened almond breeze
-cinnamon
-1/3 cup oat bran
-1/2 mashed up banana
-blueberries
-sprinkle of Nature's Path pumpkin granola
This bowl of oat bran was super creamy….just the way I like it!!

Seeing as my dinner was on the smallish side last night, I knew I’d probably get hungry again before I went to bed. And I did! I was going to have a piece of fruit but didn’t think it would do that trick so I had a bowl of plain yogurt with a scoop of strawberry & coconut jams mixed in.
It was delicious and just what I needed to settle my tummy! It probably would’ve been more enjoyable if I wasn’t fighting Pepper off of it the whole time! Little beggar is slow in learning his manners! :)

I had the cranberry Dempsters Fresh Bar before the gym today.
I liked it much better this go around! Maybe my taste buds were a little off last time or it’s quite possible that I was actually hungry for it this time! Whatever the case, it was a pleasure to eat.

My hubby joined me in the gym today for a nice sweaty workout! I love that he’s been coming in on his Friday’s off! It gives me an extra little push cuz I don’t want to look like a loser while he’s there! Just a little friendly competition! *WINK WINK* I did one of the programmed courses on the new treadmill today called “Smooth Strolling” Let me tell you, there was NOTHING smooth about it! What a tough run that was! But, I’m proud of finishing it!

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 154
Max Hr: 180
Calories Burned: 445
Distance: 4.2 miles (45 minutes of treadmill)

This morning I just wanted to grab a quick lunch for myself so I flew out the door with a can of Amy’s minestrone soup in my bag.


I love this soup for its big chunks of veggies and cool noodles!!

Before I left work, I ate a crisp apple. I had it half gone before I remembered to take a picture!
Dinner was a quick one tonight because I didn't really know what to have. I'm like that every Friday! I settled on a Lean Cuisine Panini and salad...
Looky, looky what came for me in the mail yesterday!!

This here is the ingredients to make Beadie’s Best Fudge Brownies!! I won the bidding on these at Meghann’s blogger bake sale and am especially appreciative to have them because dorky me got so excited about the sale that I neglected to read the whole post and missed the very important part about US residents only! DUH! Beadie was kind enough to send the fixings my way regardless of my dopiness! DD and I baked them up when I got home from work.

Here they are straight out of oven...
You can bet your bottom dollar that I had one, OK 2, for dessert! They were so good that my camera at the picture! I'll post another one tomorrow! These brownies are decadent! The only sound at the dinner table were the ohhh's and ahhh's coming out of our chocolate filled mouths! My hubby even ate 2 and he's not a chocolate guy! Thanks, Beadie for the fabulous treats!!!

DD is going for a sleep over at my parents house tonight so we're one kid down! I sent a few brownies along for bedtime snacks! :) I'm feeling kinda wiped out like I usually do come Friday so I think it'll be an early night for me! Anybody have any fun plans this weekend??

Bye for now!!

New Product, CousCous Review & Intervals

I decided to eat my second favourite breakfast this morning – OAT BRAN! I need to remember to slide oat bran into my morning “oat” rotation. Normally, I switch between Quaker oats, Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal and flax seed porridge. I think I forget about the oat bran because the box always manages to get stuffed into the corner of the cupboard!

-1/2 cup oat milk
-1/2 cup water
-1/3 cup oat bran
-1 Tbsp coconut spread

I scraped the bottom of the pot when it was done cooking because there was quite a bit still in there (and I need it ALL out) and I noticed when I licked the spoon that the oat milk is on the sweet side. Nothing wrong with that….just an observation. By the time I tried yesterday’s bowl, I had already mixed everything in so I didn’t catch the sweetness. Still wishing I bought more than one carton!

I tried this new tea out this morning by Petit Tea.

They are actually tea sticks! Pretty cool little things, I must say. The box claims that they’re recyclable, too! Here’s what one looks like…

This is Chai, but they had a few different flavours. No more fishing the tea bag out of the cup with these babies!! Some (evil) person brought a box of chocolates into the office today so I felt it my duty to eat 2 pieces. :) I’m such a sucker!!

Here at last is my dinner from last night…..

Chicken with mango chutney, sautéed kale and Israeli couscous. It’s no coincidence that my lunch just so happens to be the exact same as my dinner! I won’t bore you with a repeat photo! Instead, I’ll let you know what I think of the couscous!

Israeli couscous is a lot more pasta like than regular couscous. It reminds me of the little “bullet” noodles that my Mom used to put in her soup when I was a kid. This is the first time that I’ve ever tried/made it, so I just left it plain. Because of this, I found it very bland. I think it would be fabulous cooked up in any kind of broth with lots of Moroccan type spice…..cumin, coriander & cinnamon. A ¼ cup dry (which yields a good cup cooked) is only 190 calories, with 2.5g of fat and 2g of fibre. Not bad! I’m definitely going to have fun playing with the rest of my container.

I snacked on an apple with almond butter last night, too…

I switched things up a bit on the treadmill today. I read and interesting analogy in a magazine the other day that really put things in perspective for me. It compared cardio to you car. Weird, I know, but follow along! We all know that cruising a the same speed down the highway doesn’t do much damage to our gas tank, but as soon as we are in stop-go traffic, the gas needle falls alarmingly fast. Same goes for our body. Running at the same speed for the same time everyday means that you burn pretty much the same amount of calories each day, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the more your body becomes accustomed to the routine, the less you will burn. Introduce intervals and/or inclines a few times a week, though, and suddenly your body is a calorie burning machine. Now, I always knew this to be true on some level, but comparing my body to a car really brought it home for me. So, that being said, here’s what I did today;

-3 min walking/jogging warm up
-2 minutes of sprinting
-3 minutes walking at a fast pace
-repeat 1 & 2 five times
-3 minutes slow jog
-2 minute cool down walk

Distance:3.35 miles
Time: 35:16
Time in Zone: 34:12
Avg Hr:162
Max Hr:186
Calories Burned: 321

Not bad! I certainly felt the burn much more than what I’ve been doing and I think it stayed with me much longer through the afternoon. I was PUMPED UP!! Hehe!!

I had a snack attack later in the afternoon and was glad that I packed the last of my 0% Fage with some pumpkin butter for a snack so I was able to stay away from the chocolate box!


I’m pretty bummed that I’m out of Fage! I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and get a passport done up so I can cross the border. The things are just so darn expensive!!

I heard on the radio on my way home from work that it's suppose to get REAL cold tonight. Like -30* Celsius with the wind chill. CRAP! I'm all for the environment, but I think I'll be starting the van a good ten minutes before I leave in the morning!

For dinner tonight I roasted a pork tenderloin, potatoes (for the fam) and carrots. I also steamed up some edamame for moi.

Here's the meal hot out of the oven...

I used my oil mister to finely spray the pork, then I rubbed it with coriander, cumin, oregano, S & P. The veggies got the same treatment minus the rub! This cooked for 20 minutes at 500*. I'm told the potatoes could've used a few more minutes, but they must not have been too bad because there's none left! :) Here's my plate with a dollop of honey mustard for dipping.

For my sweet end I ate a slice of WW bread with about a tablespoon of coconut spread on it. I tried to get a good picture, but this camera just wouldn't do it. Didn't matter what I did, it looked like a big white square! Oh, how I miss my camera!!

Tonight is Biggest Loser night! WAHOO! I have to run out at 8 and grab DD from her friends house, but I don't think I'll miss much....just last week's review. I promised myself that if I felt snacky, I would nosh on carrots. Seems wrong to eat anything else while watching that show! Catch ya all tomorrow!!

Bye for now!!