Sleepy Mama

I’m a tired girl for some reason today. Thank goodness I’m off work tomorrow and can catch a bit more shut eye if I want.

I decided to use some coconut milk in my oats today as there was still some leftover form yesterday’s pudding adventure’s. It sure gave the oats a great creaminess!

• 1/3 cup coconut milk and water
• 1/3 cup Quaker Oats
• coconut extract
• banana
• pineapple jam
• cinnamon
• scoop of homemade maple cinnamon almond butter

My almond butter is almost gone and then I can break into the TJ’s raw almond butter that Julie sent me!

I got lots of odds and ends cleared up at work today while munching on things like these juicy apricots;

Carrots sticks from the last massive carrot from the farmer’s market…

I didn’t even finish them all! And lastly, a Kashi Trail Mix granola bar;

I put all my snacks “together” today because I didn’t eat one thing right through before moving to the next. These lasted me the 8.5 hour shift I worked.

I shook things up in the gym again today because I really didn’t feel like going but knew it would be good for me. I did 30 mins on the elliptical, 10 on the Stairmaster and 10 on the treadmill walking at 4mph at an incline of 4%. I was good and sweaty by the time the sesh was over!

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 156
• Max Hr: 175
• Calories Burned: 440
• Distance on elliptical & ‘mill: 3.9 miles

I devoured another large salad at lunch. Now that my lettuce is ready you can be sure that a lot of salad will be on this blog!

• red leaf lettuce
• last of the bean mix
• tomato
• feta
• carrot
• blueberry pomegranate acai dressing

I feel so great after eating such a healthy “green” lunch!

I really hit a wall by 4:30. All I wanted to do was put my head down and sleep. BUT, dinner had to be made so after a quick change of clothes I got started on that. We had BBQ’d pork tenderloin with coconut barley and (more) lettuce!

To make the coconut barley I simply combined 1 cup of water with the last 1/2 cup of coconut milk and added a 1/2 cup of barley when the liquid was boiling. It’s quick cooking barley so it only took about 15 minutes to thicken right up. At the end I added some S&P and a squirt of lime juice. Voila…a fast, scrumptious side dish!!

I’m sipping on a coconut chai tea right now while I blog and once I’m done online I’ll be joining my off spring at the park down the street. I’m trying to cut the apron strings a bit by letting them go there by themselves, but I still get nervous after about 20-30 minutes and usually end up going down. Baby steps!

I hope you all enjoy the evening! Wonder who’s NOT going to make top 10 on SYTYCD tonight?????

Bye for now!

Kid Free

Happy Saturday! My day started out on the busy side with DD having an out of town appointment at 9:15 and DS had a ball hockey game at noon. I started the day off on the right foot with a great bowl of oats! :)
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain oats (they're gone now. Sad times)
-cinnamon, vanilla, salt
-banana
-PB2
-carob chips
-hulled hemp seeds
Oh, how I love thee! Not sure what it is about the combination of ingredients, but it keeps me full longer than others. But maybe that's just a mental thing! Once breakfast was done, DD and I made our way to her appointment. We were in and out in about 20 minutes and I was feeling like a coffee (not something I feel very often) but didn't have enough cash on me to get us both something from Tim Horton's. As I was leaving the parking lot I spotted a 7-11 to my left and knew that I could use debit there. I bought a small chai tea latte...
I initially picked up a 16oz cup, but put it back and grabbed the 12oz one. Good thing, too, because as good as the first half tasted, the second half nauseated me. It just got too sweet. Ugh. I'll remember to do 1/2 decaf/1/2 latte next time which is what I would normally do.

We stopped at our local market on the way back through town where I picked up this awesome collapsible basket that I've been eying up for a few weeks now.
It folds down to purse size for convenience. Inside the basket there are 3 gorgeous pork chop as well as some cured back bacon and these 2 bottles;
CHIA seeds! I finally bought some after seeing them pop up all over blog world. Now I need you guys to tell me all about your favourite way to use them so I have a few ideas to start with! I also restocked my hulled heap seeds as I used the last of my small bag this morning at breakie. There's also 6 vegan cookies that were camera shy, but they promised to make an appearance one by one on other posts!

DS ended up playing goalie again today because the kid who was suppose to play showed up late. I hate to sound negative, but if I knew he was playing that position I would've stayed home. It's just not as fun to watch when I can't see my kid play. His team is good enough the the ball hardly ever gets to our net! Next Saturday is the year end tournament already. How fast 2 months goes! Lunch was late (for us) at 1:30. I threw together a 1/4 cup of egg beaters with some back bacon on a toasted WW bagel coated with Sabra hummus.
About an hour later I went back for a banana rhubarb muffin smeared with homemade maple cinnamon almond butter. There's a little Canadian action happening on the napkin! :)
So I ran out of time yesterday to post about my new PB2 stash!
I was able to order the chocolate PB2 and I LOVE it! The regular PB2 is good mixed into things...in my opinion. The chocolate one, i could eat with a spoon. To avoid this, I spread it on a Ryvita cracker. This certainly made a prettier picture!
Also in the photo you will see a box of Fibre Gourmet pasta. This stuff has 130 calories and 18g of fibre per serving! It's touted to taste like regular pasta so I'll have to cook some up soon to see about that! I'll be sure to let you all know what I think of it. Not shown is my replenished stash of Shiritaki noodles.

We have a very rare occurrence tonight in that BOTH the kids have gone to a friends house for a sleepover. A good friend has just gotten custody of his 3 kids and decided to take our 2....brave boy! My hubby and I went to one of my favourite restaurants here in town called Einstein's Cafe. A girl I use to waitress with years ago owns it with her husband and the food is fresh, local and to die for. For my dinner I ordered the tilapia baked in a citrus wine sauce. It came with roasted potato, veggies and fresh honeyed WW bread;
Nom, nom, nom! I took home 1/2 of what you see. Had to save room for dessert, you know!! I don't have a photo of my hub's, but he enjoyed a chicken breast stuffed with portabello mushrooms and brie. He had the same veg and potato as me, but his bread was a hunk of French loaf. For dessert I ordered the apple raspberry crumble a la mode;
Superb! My man had a fave of his....crepes stuffed with vanilla ice cream topped off with warm raspberry sauce. This I did manage to snap a shot of!
We are now going to go for a long, leisurely stroll to digest our meal. I must admit, though, that I feel great. Not stuffed at all....just perfectly content! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow!

Different Form of Cardio

The sun must’ve been listening to me whine this week because it was shining brightly all day today. And the extra bonus was that I was off work today so I got to enjoy it! I set my alarm for 7:30 because DD and I didn’t get in from the recital last night until 11pm. Both her numbers were in the first half so our family members left at intermission which opened up a seat for the girl. This is the first of 6 recitals that she’s been able to actually see part of the show. By the time we got home I was hungrier than I’ve been in a LONG time. Six hours without food is much to long for this girl. Once DD was showered and in bed I slammed back a big bowl of puffed wheat and millet. There was still some almond breeze at the bottom of the bowl so instead of throwing it out I tossed in 2 handfuls of Honey Nut Cheerios. Sorry, no picture….I was just too darn hungry to stop and take one!

As promised I ate something other than oats for breakfast this morning. I decided to make and egg sandwich…..
I used a ¼ cup of egg beaters that got set on top of a toasted English muffin. Between the folds of egg there was nestled some jalapeno Havarti cheese. Mmm…This put me at half way through my June challenge of eating something different for breakfast!

I dropped the kidlets off at school and came home to do some blog reading and email checking. I had planned a run this morning but when I asked my hubby if he wanted to join me, he said he was thinking more along the lines of a bike ride because his knee was bothering him. Absolutely fine by moi! Once our tires were topped up with air and our helmets were secured, we were off! I can not remember the last time we went for a ride just me and him. It was fabulous. We ended up doing 9.3 miles on a trail by the river. What a fun cardio switch up! Stat time;

Time: 1 hour
Avg Hr: 138
Max Hr: 187
Calories Burned: 450
Distance: 9.3 miles

You see that max HR? That was me slugging my ass up to the top of the hill that we live on! It almost killed me. No joke. But I made it and I was PROUD! I needed something cold after that so I made up a smoothie that consisted of 1 cup frozen berries, a hunk of cucumber, some water and a big tbsp of my homemade cinnamon maple almond butter;
To die for…and extremely refreshing after our ride. My hubby was horrified at the addition of cucumber, but I had no spinach and wanted something green there! :) Next up was a shower and then it was off to the grocery store. The hubster came along so the bill was a good $40 more than usual. What is it with men and inflated grocery bills?! Ah, no matter. It’s all stuff that will be used.

I made a humongous salad for lunch that was mucho delish. Here’s what was in it;

-Savoy cabbage
-a tomato
-the rest of my cut up kiwi and nectarine
-the leftover Yves hot dog
-Sabra hummus
-cranberry walnut gorgonzola dressing
An odd combo, I know, but it turned out excellent! I couldn’t resist of Cadbury mint thin for my sweet end.
We ran a few errands before going to get the kids from school. Then I sat on the deck playing around with my new laptop for an hour or so.
It’s gonna take some getting use to, but I love it already. I have to get myself hooked up with some wireless now so that I can connect to the Internet without being plugged in. I was so absorbed in my new toy that I was almost late leaving for Pilate's!!! I grabbed an apple for the road and took off.
I can’t believe we only have 2 more classes left. The past 6 months has just whizzed by. I went straight to DS’s ball hockey from Pilate's so I had to make something to eat for on the way. I went with a grilled SOL burger on a WW bagel with your standard ketchup, mustard and relish. There was some lettuce on there, too;
Tasty! Well, it's 9pm and I've spent WAY too much time fiddling with the laptop. I had wanted to show you my new PB2 stash and a new product that I'm eager to try but it's time to publish this post already so I can go enjoy the rest of the evening on my front porch! I'll fill you in on the deets tomorrow. Hope you've all had a great Friday!!

Bye for now!

Agent Cool Blue

Happy Saturday, everyone! I woke up early again today to hit the market for some goodies. I was a wee bit disappointed, though because it didn't seem like they had much there today. Maybe the nice weather had people out earlier than normal...Anywho, I was after my favourite breakie combo this morning, but realized that I'm out of carob chips so I decided to go for the taste of an old sandwich fave from back in the day! When we were kids Mom used to make us the coolest PB & banana sammies. She used a hot dog bun and spread one side with PB, the other with honey then plopped the naner down. We ate these "hot dog"style.
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
-cinnamon
-banana
-homemade maple cinnamon AB
-cinnamon honey
-Splash of leftover blackberry juice from yesterday
YUM! I ate this a 8am and wasn't hungry until 2pm. Love a meal that sticks!

Rewinding back to the market, I bought some more local strawberries and 1/2 a dozen vegan cookies...
There were 2 ginger, cherry pistachio, PB and chocolate chunk. chocolate chip shortbread and chocolate chip. I took care of the cherry pistachio;
And my hubby took care of the PB & C and there was a ginger one still in the bag. I REALLY like the cherry pistachio and have plans to convert these 2 ingredients into a muffin!

I spent 2 hours giving the house a clean up that it needed quite badly before getting ready to run our weekend errands. I wasn't at all hungry for lunch when the fam was so just before we left I whipped up a green monster (although it wasn't really green) and bagged up a banana bread mini loaf to go...
Sorry for the crap picture...everyone was already outside waiting for me so I had to snap and run! The smoothie had 2 big handfuls of spinach, 1/2 cup USVAB, 1/2 cup mixed frozen berries and 5 fresh strawberries.

We decided to hit up a mall in the next town over to refill our Tevana/Teaopia canisters that have been empty for oh....6 months now?
Never one to venture too far when it comes to what my hubby will eat/drink, he got the same flavour as last time; Spring Blend. It's an awesome mix of strawberries and herbs and smells just like a field of berries. I, on the other hand, went completely different than last time. Pomegranate green was my flavour and I really liked it but this time I went for more of a "coffee"feel...Mateccino Mate..
The description reads; "Roasted yerba mate leaves, rooibos, sunflower petals, cornflower petals and chocolate flavouring." I wish this picture was scratch and sniff because it smells amazing and tastes wicked, too!

I'm gonna get off track here for a bit to tell you about something new I found for my kids. I have a hell of a time getting DS to brush his teeth and even though DD does, I know she doesn't always do a good job. I've been seeing a commercial for a product called Listerine Agent Blue that is like mouthwash for kids and leaves a blue stain on their teeth which forces them to do a good job by brushing it all off...
This has worked wonders for me (and them)! They think this stuff is so cool that they're both brushing 3 times a day now! Brilliant idea, Listerine!

Dinner tonight was baked salmon, steamed green beans and the rest of the zucchini fries;
I only ate 1/2 of the salmon you see here. For some reason I wasn't feeling it tonight. My sweet end was 2, yes 2, pieces of rhubarb squares! They're so good that one isn't enough! Next time I make this I'll be cutting the pieces larger.
Well, I'm off now to search the net for some simple banana cream pie recipes to make for my husband now that I've got lots of bananas to play with. You shouldn't be too surprised if you spot bananas and rhubarb baked into something delicious sometime soon, as well! *WINK WINK*

Bye for now!!

Full Bar Review

YAY…the weekend is finally here! Today is a bit overcast and cool, but the next 2 days are supposed to be fabulous. I’ve got plans to hit up the local farmers market, watch ball hockey and plant my vegetable garden. Can’t wait!

I made a blended bowl of goodness this morning…
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-coconut extract
-mango
-pineapple jam
-homemade cinnamon maple almond butter
-unsweetened coconut
This bowl tasted fabulous but didn’t keep my hunger at bay for very long. Not sure if it was the oats or the fact that I ran later than usual last night.

Speaking of last night, I made myself a delicious snack. Into this very cute “bowl” (which used to have a candle in it) I put a ½ cup of cottage cheese, a scoop of pineapple jam and some Nature’s Path Agave granola.
Ummm…YUM! Unfortunately, this snack woke up my sugar craving monster and I ended up serving myself a (small) scoop of Bryers double churned cookies and cream ice cream. Very good! It’s probably a good thing that ice cream isn’t a fave of mine or I bet I would’ve gone back for more! PS, the bowl was camera shy! :)

Because I was fighting hunger all morning I decided to eat half of my banana bread mini loaf before going to the gym.
I ate the other half as my lunch dessert.

My hubby is off work today and met me at the gym. I always like when he shows up because it’s nice to be active together without the kids around. It was mucho HOT in there today. That’s the one complaint I have about our gym. The hotter it gets outside, the hotter the gym is. I checked the thermostat on my way out and it was 75 in there! Too hot for running comfortably, for sure! Anyways, I did a 45 minute run at a slightly faster speed than I’ve been doing the past few weeks.

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 163
Max Hr: 182
Calories Burned: 445
Distance: 4.25 miles

My hubby found a fan that he plugged in mid way through and it was sweet relief! I sat in front of it for a good few minutes before I went to change. Very refreshing.

I made a huge, delicious salad for lunch today!
-romaine
-spinach
-tri coloured bell pepper pieces
-mango
-pork tenderloin
-strawberry pomegranate dressing
Isn’t that a beauty? It took forever to eat, too! Love lunches that are time challenged! ;)

Just before leaving work I ate the last of my fresh fruit….raspberries and blackberries;
Tonight was Pilate’s night and ball hockey straight afterward. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out one of the Full Bars that I got a few weeks ago in the mail. Would you be surprised if I told you that I went for the chocolate one???
Here are my thoughts on this product. When I opened it up my first reaction was that it looked like a rice crispy square made with puffed wheat so I was surprised (not unpleasantly) that the bar was soft and chewy.
It had a fantastic chocolate flavour and I liked that I could see the puffed wheat. So, the way these bars work is that you are supposed to eat one 30 minutes before a meal with an 8oz glass of water. The idea is that you won't be hungry for much dinner, hence weight loss. I ate this around 5pm, then went off to Pilate's. It held me over well until I got out and was able to eat what I had prepared for dinner. Now, in my opinion, I think that I can pack a lot of fruit or veggies into me a 1/2 hour before I eat for 160 calories and that would obviously be better for my health. That being said, I think these bars are a great choice for those times where you are in a rush and don't have time to scarf back a salad before you eat. Like me on Friday nights. I would buy this product again, but not for a weight loss tool because 1) I'm not trying to lose any weight and 2) I think fruits and veggies would be a better choice. I would definitely use it as a means to tie me over when I know it'll be awhile before I can get some chow. You can learn more about FullBars right here.

I made a tasty wrap to eat after class on my drive across town. This baby has a ¼ of an avocado, a LC cheese wedge, deli turkey and romaine lettuce....
The perfect portable dinner! I also drank a small French vanilla cappuccino at the ball hockey game as my sweet end. It's pert near 9pm right now and I'm nursing an x-large chai tea from Tim Horton's. I plan to bring it out on the front porch to enjoy the rest of the evening with. Anybody have exciting plans this weekend? Or, how about having to do something you are NOT looking forward to??

Bye for now!!

New Food: Dragon Fruit

The bulk of today was spent outside as it was GLORIOUS!! I slept until 8am before I finally crawled out of bed to make breakfast. Here's my eats;
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup TAZO chai tea concentrate
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
-mashed banana
-2 tbsp dried fruit
-cinnamon sprinkles
I love using chai tea in my oats. It gives them a nice spicy kick. I only had a bit left so I decided to finish it off. My hubby and sis went to the driving range this morning so I decided to make another batch of almond butter while he was gone. I made this batch with a cool twist...

Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter

*1lb of almonds
*2 tbsp maple syrup
*1 tbsp cinnamon
I mixed everything together and popped it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350*.
I let the almonds cool for about 10 minutes before processing them. This batch took about 20 minutes to come together. I was getting a little worried that it wasn't going to work! I was relieved when it finally came together.
This turned out really good!! You can bet I had my share of tastes along the way!

By the time I had that all cleaned up and some housework done, it was time for lunch. I made a toasted English muffin topped with a new favourite, a 1/4 of an avocado mashed with a LC cheese wedge. Then I placed a tomato wedge over each piece.
Nirvana. This was really satisfying! My lunch dessert was a small piece of Caramel Banana Bread.
I think this was even better today! It's really moist and flavourful and hard to stay away from!

We all went for a trail walk this afternoon at a trail on the outskirts of town. It was the perfect day for it! Warm, but not enough so that there are bug issues. The terrain is full of obstacles like rocks and roots and fallen trees which made it all the more fun!! I wore my HRM but it was acting up for the first little bit. It took us just under an hour to walk the whole route and I burned about 225 calories. When we got home my hub and I spent about another hour pulling weeds from the yard. Fun times. I look at it as a bit of a workout and that makes it better! I was feeling snacky so I whipped of a green monster to sip on. This one had a generous handful of spinach, frozen banana, flax seed and a 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond breeze.
Very banana-y and delightful!

I finally got time to try my new food out today! I decided to be brave and buy a Dragon Fruit.
Funny looking thing, eh? It was so pretty when I cut it open! Check this out...
After doing some research online on how to go about eating one of these, I opted to quarter it and cut the flesh out much like you would for a melon. How did it taste? Well, DD and I both agreed that it was very similar in taste and texture to a kiwi. I really enjoyed it and am glad that I gave it a whirl. They're a bit costly so I don't think it's something I would buy all the time, but as a treat every now and again? SURE! Yo can learn more about dragon fruits right here.

Even though today is a holiday here in Canada, the kids still had their sports as usual. I dropped DD off at dance for 5 and then came home to get dinner started. We had chicken grilled on the BBQ that I marinated for an hour in this TJ's Cuban simmering sauce...
This sauce was courtesy of Mr.C! I also made steamed green beans and WW couscous for a side dish;
I really didn't need a sweet end but couldn't bare to out the very last, messy piece of chocolate cake back in the fridge so I did my duty for the day and ate it up! :)
Thank God it's gone!

DS had soccer at 6:30 WAY across town so we had to jet at 6 for that. My hubby went to get DD and met us there. Even though it was a nice day I learned well enough last year that this does not guarantee a warm soccer field! The wind really rips through the open space where the boys play. I made sure to wear a T-shirt, sweater and jacket and also brought a blanket for my legs. My hubby brought me an X-large chai tea when he got there. Ahhh...warmth! Here's a pic of DS at the game...
Well, I'm off to make lunches and prepare backpacks for the morning. Back to real life!!! I hope everyone had a great day!

Bye for now!