11 Years and a Cake

DD's sleepover went well last night! I gotta say, slumber parties are sure different for when I was a kid! My kids do not have cell phones, but 2 of the girls at the party did and the thumbs were a-flying! A very strange sight for me! The girls were ready for breakfast around 8 so I cooked up the french toast and put the fruit salad out. Turns out one kid didn't like French toast so she ate Honey Nut Cheerios instead. Here's a shot of DD's plate...
And here she is opening her presents! (They did this last night)
And as promised, the Chocolate Extreme Blizzard ice cream cake photo!
This is one rich cake! I'm a chocolate lover (DUH!), but not a huge fan of ice cream so I only had a small sliver which was just enough. I find that ice cream makes me terribly thirsty. I chugged a bottle of water after eating this which is very unusual for me!

For my breakfast I made myself a bowl of oat bran using 1 cup of water, a 1/3 cup of oat bran, cinnamon, PB2 and carob chips.
So, today is our 11th wedding anniversary. We don't really do anything "special" for the day, never have. I think part of that is because DD was born 4 days after our first anniversary so it has kind of always got lost in her b-day weekend. We might do dinner tomorrow....all depends on how the day goes! Also, there's really nobody to watch the kids for us so going out alone is tough. One day!!! I wanted to share some then & now picture's of us, though! Scanners are great!

Then:


Now:
I didn't really get hungry for lunch at all but knew I needed to eat something or I'd pick all afternoon. By 1pm I decided on some cottage cheese with a scoop of pineapple jam and diced strawberries.
I also ate a piece of WW bread with the last of my homemade PB but didn't bother with a boring old photo of it.

We did nothing for the rest of the afternoon which left me feeling really antsy. The only cure for that is getting in the kitchen and baking. I've been wanting to make Veggie Girl's Caramel Banana Bread and reasoned that that DD's birthday would be the perfect occasion for it! We have family coming over tomorrow so this really was perfect timing. I pretty much followed the recipe except that I cut out the oil and used a 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I also used 1 jar of butterscotch sauce because I that's what I bought and didn't realize it until I got home! Ooops!
I also cooked it in a 9x9 pan and cut the baking time down to 45 minutes. OH! And I added a 1/3 cup of chopped almonds! Here it is fresh out of the oven.
I'll have to post the photos of it served up with tomorrow's post.

While at Angela's yesterday we chatted a bit about tea. I told her that I probably had 10 different flavours of STASH at home and when I checked I was close...I have 9. Here they are...
Pomegranate raspberry, chamomile, chocolate mint, coconut mango, peppermint, holiday chai, chocolate hazelnut, lemon ginger and pumpkin spice. I think it's safe to say that this is my favourite brand of tea!

There were some leftovers in the fridge that needed to be dealt with so that's what I had for dinner. There was some pulled pork and fiddle heads which I paired with some oh so easy to make WW couscous...
I had another piece of ice cream cake for dessert tonight.
This looks pretty big, but it wasn't at all. It was smaller than yesterday's portion and just enough. My hubby is an ice cream fanatic, so he took care of most of the cake. His metabolism allows him to do that!! Lucky duck.

My parents just left and I'm actually feeling quite bored! I'm not used to be in the house all day and it's playing with my head. I feel like going out, but there's really not much to do at this point. *SIGH* I told my hubby that I want to go on a trip to Ikea first thing tomorrow so we can be home in time for the family to come by and celebrate DD's b-day....again. She's pretty beat out right now. Actually, comatose would be a better word to describe her state! She'll be off to bed shortly for a good night's sleep. Be sure to check back in tomorrow as I will be doing a product review, taste testing the caramel banana bread and trying a new food out. Don't miss it!

Bye for now!!

No Bills in the Mail Today!

WOW-EEE, I woke up feeling great again today!! I did have to get up a bit earlier because DD’s class went on their field trip to Medieval Times in Toronto today and she had to be at the school by 8:10am. While at the health food store Monday night (that’s where I found the $1.99 Almond Breeze) I stocked up on kamut flakes so that’s what went into my bowl this morning.
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup kamut flakes
-cinnamon
-blueberries
-banana
-unsweetened almond breeze
-slivered almonds to garnish
I really like the kamut flakes for their chew. They really hold their shape and texture. You can read all about kamut right here. I’m sure these can be used other ways, but I’ve never tried. I think I will Google some different recipe ideas. Anyone out there use kamut for anything other than breakfast???

The morning at work was spent doing some heavy auditing before we ran our payrolls. Checking everything back is not my favourite part of the job!! I get bored easily with it and then my body thinks it’s hungry when I know it’s not! Hence the following photo of some Swedish berries;
The afternoon was busier in a different, better way!! Before making my way to the gym I ate my usual Parnoosh dates….
I knew I had to give my ankles a break after yesterday’s jog so I opted for 30 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes of strength exercises….AKA, catching up on the BBBC! Here’s what I did;

*2 sets of 10 step lunges with 5lb weights
*3 set of 10 BOSU squats
*3-30 sec reverse planks
*2 sets 30 reverse crunches
*1 set 30 crunches
*3 sets 10 (girly) push ups
*3 sets 10 tricep dips

I am loving the BOSU squats! They are so challenging and fun to do.

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 133
Max Hr: 166
Calories Burned: 321

Lunch was nothing special at all. I ate the other half of the Amy’s lentil soup from yesterday with 2 more kamut bread sticks.
You can see that only half of one bread stick made it into the picture! I was hungry!! :) My lunch dessert today was ½ of a banana dried fruit loaf…
So. Good. And best of all….nobody even noticed that I used baby food prunes in them! Tricky, tricky! Before leaving work I ate pretty much what was the last bit of fresh fruit in the house…an apple and an orange…
Before I left the house this morning I put a pork roast in the crock pot so that we could enjoy pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. Half way through the day I realized that we had no buns so I stopped by the grocery store on my way home to buy some. While there I picked up some fruit for tomorrow and some wraps for my supper sammie. These are the kind that I buy...
I mixed 3oz of pork with a 1/4 cup of Memories of Damascus BBQ sauce and served it up in a wrap with a LC cheese wedge. Fiddle heads completed the meal!
My sweet end was these 2 Lindor chocolate....YUM!
As the title of this post alludes to, I had happy mail today!!!
First up was a package from Full Bar which contained 2 bars and 2 packets of water flavouring. You can learn more about Full Bars here and I will be sure to do a review as soon as I try them out. That chocolate one looks awesome!
The second parcel was from Flanigan Farms and had 3 packs of their nut mixes to try out. They were also kind enough to send me quite a bit of information about their product. Here is a link to their site.
DS loves nuts and wanted to try the almonds so I opened that pack and had 2 almonds. I was lucky to get those because the little bugger snuck off and ate the whole pack!!! Guess that means they were pretty darn good almonds, eh?! Again, I will be trying these mixes out over the next few days and will let you know what I think about them then.

Tonight is swimming lesson night so I'm off to the pool for an hour to read, I mean watch the kids swim. There's not too much planned after that. Tomorrow is only a half day for me as I booked the afternoon and Friday off work to get things ready for DD's birthday celebrations this weekend. Enjoy your evening!

Bye for now!!

Baking Extravaganza Review

I had such a peaceful sleep last night. This may sound weird, but I credit all my baking last night for that. For me, being in the kitchen is very therapeutic and relaxing. I hurried up getting ready, too, because I was pretty eager to eat my banana bread crock pot oats! I taste tested about a half cup last night so I knew what was waiting for me.

I added about a 1/3 cup of water before putting them in the microwave to loosen the mix up a bit. When it was hot, I splashed some unsweetened almond breeze on top. *sidebar: I found Almond Breeze for $1.99 last night! That’s $0.70 cheaper than what I normally pay!!*
If you are a batter-licker like me, these oats are for you. I savoured every single bite! I ended up with 6 1 cup-ish servings from this batch. I ran the recipe through Spark People and came up with this; 269 cal, 5.3 fat, 5.9 fibre and 8.1 protein! This kept me full for longer than regular oats, as well.
So, on to some picture’s of my baking extravaganza!! Here are some shots of the mini loaves I made. These are the strawberry applesauce/carob chip ones;
And these are the baby food prunes/dried fruit ones; One of each....
I sliced up one of each plus a dried currant one from the weekend and brought them into work. Everybody thought they were delicious and asked me to bring more. Pat on the back for moi!
When I got to the gym today the elliptical was in use so I hopped on the treadmill. I did 50 minutes which started out with 3 minutes of walking at 4mph followed by jogging at 5.3mph and ending the same as I started. My ankles were fine while going, but a bit achy when I got off so tomorrow will be a foot rest day for sure. Here are my stats:

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 152
Max Hr: 171
Calories Burned: 415
Distance: 4.3 miles

Before hitting the gym I ate my last 2 figs and some Parnoosh dates;

I was lazy with packing a lunch last night so I brought a can of Amy’s lentil soup with 2 of the Suzie’s Kamut bread sticks that I picked up on the weekend.
The bread sticks were to die for! I better make sure that jar of Nutella is very well hidden! They made excellent soup dippers!! They've got some pretty decent stats, too....
Strange for me, but I was full after maybe half the soup. I was sitting there eating it and suddenly I thought “why am I still eating this? I don’t feel hungry anymore.” I took one more spoon full and packed it back up to take home. I’m sure it will be fine to reheat again.

My post yesterday seems to have generated a lot of interest in fiddle heads!! I like my veggies on the plain side so I usually steam or saute them and tossed with olive oil/butter and S&P. They taste very similar to asparagus. I’m gathering that they can be quite expensive, so I’m extra lucky to be able to harvest as many as I want for free. I can see the cost, though as they aren’t the easiest to pick….I was ankle deep in water for most of the harvest….and are a pain in the rear to clean. The gathering part I love the cleaning not so much. I suck it up once a year though because they really are a treat! You can read more about them here.

I was a bit peckish later in the afternoon so I ate my fruit. This is one orange and 2 kiwi.
Dinner tonight was pretty fantastic. I sliced a pork tenderloin into chops and gave them a nice coating of Shake n Bake. This was served with spinach and sweet potato fries for me and a side of pasta for the fam. Here's my meal;
There's some Dijonnaise there for sipping, too! When we stopped at Knapp's on Sunday we picked up one of their marvelous pies....Strawberry Rhubarb Peach. Oh, yeah, it's as good as it sounds! I helped myself to a piece tonight.
So you can visualize the size of this piece, the pie was cut into 8 wedges. My hubby eats 2 at a time. Some may find this unfair but the way I look at it, the temptation will be gone that much sooner! :)

After dinner I took some shots on DS while he was in net. He bought himself some goalie gear on the weekend and is having fun with it. I think I'm the only chick on the street that plays ball hockey in the driveway! The movement is great for digestion! Once I've posted this, I'll be getting lunches and what not ready for tomorrow so I have zero interruptions while the Biggest Loser finale is on. I can not wait to see who wins it!! Go Tara!!! **WINK**

Bye for now!!

Found my Bounce

Today was the first day in over a week that I woke up with a bounce in my step. Welcome back, energy!!! Very nice to see/feel you again! I’m on later start at work this week so I even got to sleep a half hour more than usual! AND, I was very excited about the breakfast that was waiting for me in the fridge! Can you tell that my Monday started out great?

Before I went to bed last night I combined 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup steel cut oats, a handful of dried goji berries and cinnamon in a bowl. I covered the mixture up and popped it in the fridge to soak over night. This morning I tossed it in the microwave for one minute, pulled it out added a mashed banana and gave it a good stir. Back in the nuker it went for 3 more minutes to get all thick and creamy…
Then I topped it off with some slivered almonds. The result was a fabulous, filling bowl of deliciousness! You can bet on seeing this method again on my blog!!!
I spent the day keypunching at work. This may sound boring (and it is), but today was the perfect day for it because I was able to let my mind wander to all the baking I had planned for later in the day! Read on, my friends! Part way through the morning I noticed these guys in the office candy bowl…
I love Swedish berries and can go overboard on them VERY fast so I pulled out my container of nature’s candy!! Check out these figs that I found at the Bulk Barn yesterday…
Yowzers, they’re big! I only bought 4 because they were a wee bit pricey, but man, are they tasty nuggets!! All together with their cousins, Parnoosh dates! :)
The return of my spunk brought about one helluva a fantastic, sweaty workout today! PHEW! First, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I set the resistance to L3 and kept my speed between 7-7.5mph. Then I spent 20 minutes catching up on the BBBC. I still need to do few more to be up to date, but here’s what I accomplished today…

*3 sets of 10 front arm raises (7lbs weights)
*3 sets of 10 side arm raises (7lbs weights)
*3 sets of 10 (girly) push ups
*3 sets of 10 tricep dips
*3 sets of 50 bicycle crunches
*2 sets of 10 side steps
*3 sets of 10 squats on the BOSU (very tough!!)

I split the exercises up and did a bit of a circuit with them to give my muscles a bit of a break between sets. I know 7lbs isn’t very heavy, but I am VERY wimpy in the arms and 5lbs is what I usually use, so I did upgrade. Here’s the damage;

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 158
Max Hr: 179
Calories Burned: 441
Distance: 3.5 miles on elliptical

I’m feeling pretty stellar about that!! Especially after my bum week last week!

I really had my thinking cap on before I hit the sack last night because I remembered to pull a serving of buttered “chickpeas” out of the freezer for my lunch today! (For those who are wondering what the heck buttered chickpeas are, I used a butter chicken recipe and ditched the chicken part in place of a can of chickpeas!) I turned it into a bit of a soup by adding about a half cup of water and tossing in a few handfuls of spinach and a good few shakes of nutritional yeast. I gave it a stir before warming it up to make sure the NY was mixed in well.
This was fabulous and really hit the spot after that workout! Later on in the day I ate a chopped up apple and orange….
My fruit supply is running low although I realized while eating this that I forgot about the 2 kiwi that still need to be consumed! Ah, there’s always tomorrow!!

On top of tonight being dance night for DD, DS started soccer and I had a physio appointment at 7pm. B-U-S-Y!!! Thankfully, there are only 3 weeks left of dance and I scheduled my next appointment for a night other than Monday. (When I made this one I didn’t know soccer would be starting). Needless to say, dinner was on the fly! I made my go-to meal of choice….egg whites on a toasted English muffin with a LC cheese wedge and Sabra hummus. I also sautéed up some fiddle heads in avocado oil.
How about that? YUM ! For my sweet end I ate the banana bread mini loaf that I brought in my lunch but didn't eat. After I took the photo I smeared it with homemade PB.
What a treat! Then I ate one of these Lindt chocolates that I got for Mother's Day...
So fast forwarding to now, which is 8:30pm....I have a crock pot full of banana bread oats that's almost done. My version has 5 mashed bananas, 1/2 cup golden raisins, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 1 tbsp cinnamon and a shake of nutmeg. I also used 3/4 cup of Egg Beaters and a 1/2 cup of chai tea concentrate and 1.5 cups water. The oats are the same as Sarah's measurements. In the oven I have 2 versions of the Hungry Girl banana bread recipe that I always make. Version #1 has the usual subs of 2 tbsp of agave in place of Splenda and I was out of plain applesauce so I used a 1/2 cup of strawberry flavoured applesauce. I also added a 1/3 cup of carob chips. Version # 2 has the agave/Splenda sub plus I had to use a 1/2 cup of baby food prunes....hey! I had to use something!! and a 1/3 cup of dried fruit. I used my mini loaf pans again as the recipe calls for 8 servings anyways. This way I don't have to cut the slices!! They should be almost done so I will take lots of pic's a post them tomorrow! Just to note, I used up 12 of the el-cheapo bananas tonight!!! :)

I also cleaned a big bag of fiddle heads.
I won't lie, this is a big pain in the ass but SO worth it! Tomorrow I will steam them and prepare them for the freezer. Needless to say, it's been a busy one but I am so grateful to have my mojo back that I feel great about it!

Physio went well, too! I've got the OK to hop back on the treadmill at the end of the week for a slow run to see how my ankles take it. Very exciting!! Before you shut down for the night, please go on over to Oh She Glows and check out the info Angela has posted regarding a most awesome auction that she will be holding on Tuesday, May 19. All the proceeds will go to cancer research. You will not believe some of the goods up for grabs....Coach, anyone????? Have a great night!

Bye for now!!