Peonies!

Happy hump day to everybody!! Yesterday wasn’t necessarily busy, but it was full to the brim so when I did finally sit down I opted to catch up on all your blogs rather than do a post of my own. As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I had to travel to Toronto for a workshop yesterday so I hit the road by 7am in order to be there on time. I hit some brutal traffic, so leaving early was wise. I packed a toasted Ezekiel muffin, goat cheese and egg beater sandwich to eat on the way:

The conference was really well done and the day passed by quickly. There was light refreshments served at our first break and I helped myself to some fresh fruit to tie me over until lunch.
Lunch was kinda ho-hum. We had pita triangles with hummus, salad, COLD stuffed chicken breast (not sure what the stuffing was…it was too cold to taste it) and potato salad.
I only ate about half the chicken and potatoes. They just weren’t that great. For “dessert”, I enjoyed 2 squares, more fruit and a few unpictured cookies;
I was on my way home shortly after 3pm where I encountered more traffic. I think this is just the norm going into T.O these days. I snacked on a Clif mojo bars on my travels,
My hubby had dinner prepared when I walked through the door at 5pm because I only had a half hour before I needed to be back out for Pilates. He made some little pork chops which I ate with a big side of lettuce, cucumber and raspberry walnut dressing.
I also ate 2 squares of Lindt sea salt chocolate as I ran out the door! No picture of it, though!

When I got home I tended to my plants and picked a whole whack of peonies for the house and work. Here’s the one I took to work:
And the BIG one for the house:
These blooms are massive, beautiful and smell like a dream. They do wonders to brighten a space up, IMO. If you like flowers, which is your favourite to have around the house?

I also made another loaf of whole grain bread using molasses this time. LOVE this recipe! Then, like I mentioned earlier, I spent the rest of the evening reading blogs. You guys are always up to something entertaining!! :) One other thing I did last night was to get some overnight oats ready for the fridge. This was my first time making this so I just threw a bunch of things in the bowl….and it came out really good!
-1/3 cup oats
-kefir
-almond breeze
-cinnamon
-chia seeds
-1 tsp almond butter
-blueberries & strawberries
As you can tell it firmed up nicely overnight. I enjoyed the flavour, texture and convenience of having this ready to go when I needed it. I’m looking forward to experimenting with different flavour combos!

We had a meeting this morning that sucked up half the day. When I got back to my desk I ate a slice of the whole grain bread with peanut hazelnut butter;
Such a delight!

Finally got to the gym today. Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve gone! I had planned to elliptical my heart out but someone was on it so I did my 4mph, 7.5% incline walk instead. Gets the heart going, anyways!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 156
Max Hr: 170
Calories Torched: 434
Distance: 3 miles

I brought a sandwich for lunch today. I bought some nice WW bread at the bakery on the weekend and stuffed it with cappicolo (Italian ham), cheddar cheese, lettuce and dijonnaise:

I also packed a chopped orange and some sliced strawberries.

This fruit was so sweet that it coulda been candy!! :)

The rain we were suppose to get finally arrived around 2pm. I had pulled some ground chicken from my last Whole Foods trip from the freezer for burgers, but the weather was just begging for something a little more comforting. I turned to a great turkey quinoa stew recipe that I’ve made before and enjoyed. Here it is on the stove top almost ready to go.

I had no corn or peas so I just used a frozen veggie mix. In order to get DS to eat this I use it as a “burrito” filling topped with shredded cheddar cheese for the fam. This way he doesn’t notice the veggies in it. I eat mine straight up in a bowl topped with a little blue cheese and a side of whole grain bread & butter:

Perfection. And the cherry on top was the last 2 squares of my sea salt chocolate.

We just got home from swimming lessons and I realized that SYTYCD is on so I’m off to watch that. It’s one of my favourite shows! Will you be tuning in this season???

Bye for now!!

Trillium Cup Champions!!!

Holy smokes! What a weekend!! DS had 2 ball hockey games yesterday and 2 today, but the won the championship so it was 100% worth it! The semi final game went into double O/T and then into a shoot out…..heart stopping, I tell ya! Here’s the boy with his coach after receiving the medal. You can see the cup in the background, too:

Back tracking to yesterday, I made a trip to the market Saturday morning so had a fast breakfast:

A toasted Ezekiel muffin with almond butter on one half, chocolate coconut spread on the other. At the market I bought strawberries, cherries and asparagus.

Vegan cookies:

And pineapple coconut granola!

We had a few hours between the games so we came back home. I made myself a smoothie for lunch with kefir, peaches and blueberries.

Then I enjoyed on of the vegan cookies called “Mountain Man”.

This was full of apricots, raisins, ginger,coconut…YUM!! The 2nd game was over the dinner hour so afterwards we stopped at Subway for a quick dinner. I decided on 6” sweet onion teriyaki on WW with lots of veggies:

Sorry about the pic….it was taken with my cell. Dessert was a little coconut treat I picked up for myself:

I was a little disappointed with this! Considering it’s pretty much just coconut, it sure didn’t taste very coconutty. :(

My meals today were on the scattered side with both of the games over “meal” times. While I was in the shower DS decided to make me a bowl of Wildroots cereal for breakfast:

I only ended up getting through half of it before it was too soggy for me. :)

Game #1 was intense to say the least. Seeing as it went into OT & a shoot out, we had only a half hour to grab lunch and get to game #2 about 20 minutes away. I suggested we head to Sobey’s to get some pre made food rather than hitting a drive thru. We each chose a yogurt parfait (mine was raspberry)

And fruit. I had an unpictured piece of watermelon, but didn’t end up being hungry enough for my fruit cup so you’ll be seeing that tomorrow. HA! We won the championship game 3-2 with DS scoring the third goal! It was CRAZY!!!! I got a shot of the boys hoisting the Stanley Trillium Cup:

That’s DS there giving me the stink eye. LOL! They all got those hats and medals, too.

Before leaving the town we were in a bunch of us stopped by McDonald’s for sundae’s. The boys certainly deserved a cold treat after playing 5 sweltering games in 2 1/2 days! I had strawberry!

We weren’t particularly hungry for dinner so BIG salad’s is what we ended up going with. My consisted of mixed greens, tomato, red pepper, 2 Yves veggie dogs cheese and ginger wasabi dressing;

Dessert was a caramel cherry vegan cookie from the market.

I’m pretty beat out, but HAD to get my veggies planted before they died in their tiny pots! DS helped me get them in the ground and then my Dad popped by and helped me build a few “trenches” because my garden is on a slope so when I water it just runs down to the bottom. This helped the water pool around the plants so they could have a much needed drink. I’ll get some pictures of everything tomorrow for you.

It’s time for me to get things ready for the morning and then put my feet up and RELAX. It’s been a fabulous weekend, but I’m done for. For those of you with a long weekend, I hope you’re enjoying every minute of it. And if you have to work tomorrow like me, here’s to hoping the day goes quick! lol!!!

Bye for now!

Busy in the Gardens

Hello friends! It’s been a busy, but fantastic 2 days around here! We spent some time at the farm and a LOT of time gardening. I’m blissfully exhausted as only spending time out in the beautiful sunshine can make me. I’ll try to let the pictures do the talking in this post!

Breakfasts

Horses…babies and full grown:

Cookies at the farm…

My Father in laws friend builds and flies remote control planes and brought one over while we were there. The dogs didn’t know what the heck was going on!!

DS observing atop a bale of hay;

Came home to a lunch of yogurt/preserves and granola:

Pretty lilacs from the farm and my neighbourhood. These are my favourite smelling flower!

Then I spent this long in my front flower beds:

It was hot, it was messy, but it all looks great now! Once cleaned up I enjoyed a big iced coffee.

Dinner was the last of my corn and bean salad with some pork tenderloin and the last slice of whole grain bread:

We spent the remainder of the evening visiting my parents and watching Day Breakers. Not a great movie, but Ethan Hawke is easy enough on the eyes. ;)

I hit the backyard gardens after breakfast this morning. My Dad brought his rotatiller over and turned all the dirt for me. I spent a total of 3hrs on just ONE flower bed. There were SO MANY roots and weeds to dig out. Now it’s ready for some perennials so I don’t have to go through that again. I broke halfway through for some lonchi:

Apple & almond butter, 2 Yves veggie dogs stuffed in a WW pita with ketchup, mustard, relish and romaine. I don’t really even remember tasting this! I also consumed copious amounts of water. Another camera shy iced coffee made it’s way to my belly after a delightful shower.

Dinner was a very simple to make mushroom ragu from the last issue of Clean Eating magazine:

I served myself a generous bowl and ate it with a toasted Ezekiel muffins that had goat cheese on it.

Nom, nom, nom! Dessert was a half melted, no time for a picture Skinny Cow ice cream bar. I’ve also eaten my share of coconut carob pecan oatmeal bars over the past 2 days! ;)

I’m off now to make a tea and relax with a magazine out on my deck. The temperature is perfect for it at this point. Hope everyone has had a marvellous Monday!

Bye for now!!