Passing the Torch

Before I get into my eats and events for the day, I want to pass the Blogger’s Excellence Award along to my three blogs of choice. If you’ve been reading my blog you will know that the award was passed along to me by the fantastic Zesty Cook.



The first blog I want to “award” is Kath Eats Real Food. This is the first blog that I started to read over a year ago and was the inspiration behind starting my own blog. I love keeping up with Kath because there’s never a dull moment and she and her husband truly work as a team to create some delicious recipes! Once you start to read her blog you will become addicted!

My second choice is What I Ate Yesterday. Christie (aka Beadie) has been a great help to me along the way with encouragement and tips. She takes the time each day to leave me a comment and I always look forward to what she has to say. When you visit her blog, you will be met with gorgeous pictures of her eats and an honest, creative dialog.

And last, but certainly not least, I award Jenna over at Eat, Live, Run. Jenna is a down to earth, hard working gal who amazes me with every post at all that she accomplishes in a day. You won’t be disappointed when you checkout her blog and find out just what she bakes and cooks up each day! And if you like bananas, you must try this recipe!!

If you three gals would be so kind as to pass the torch along, I’m sure it would be much appreciated!

Now, on to my breakfast! I bought some frozen wild blueberries last night so I incorporated them into the mix!



-1 cup water
-1/2 Flax Seed Porridge
-1/3 cup wild blueberries
-1 Tbsp of sugar free apricot preserves
-cinnamon



These blueberries are like little bursts of flavor with every bite! I do prefer fresh, but these will do in the colder months.

For my snack last night, I ate some more yogurt cheese all mixed up with a few spoonfuls of cranberry sauce. I really like the texture the yogurt gets once all the whey has drained out. It’s totally a cheap version of Greek yogurt!



I felt really strong on the treadmill today! When I got home I was frozen so I kept reminding myself that by the time I was done my run, I would appreciate the less then stellar weather outside. True to form, I wasn’t nearly as cold when I got back to my desk!

For lunch today, I finished off the last off my lentil & brown rice pilaf.



There’s just no way to take a pretty picture of these leftovers. I assure you that it was a flavorful lunch! About 3pm, I dug into this very LARGE honey Crisp apple. Seriously, this apple was so big it was like eating 2 apples! Heaven to my taste buds!



Tonight was swim night which equals crock pot night. I decided to make this recipe that I found on Zesty Cook’s blog. I intended to follow the ingredients to a tee, but soon realized that I was out of rosemary so I subbed in cumin.



The delectable smell that this baby spread through out my house was unbeatable! My cats must have been salivating all day at the wonderful scent! I served this with brown rice and steamed broccoli! What a hit!



I will most definitely be making this again...and again! Thanks, Zesty for a great dinner idea!

Check out the size of this cookie that my co-worker baked and brought in for us! It was HUGE! I ate about 1/2 of it and saved the rest for my hubby. It was really good...chalk full of raisins, nuts and seeds. One of these and a yogurt and you would have lunch! Thanks, D!! :)


I'm off to watch The Biggest Loser now. Enjoy the rest of the evening!

Bye for now!

Fage...I Will Miss You

OMG! Work was just INSANE today! Good thing I get my day started off right every morning by eating my oats! Today’s bowl looks much the same as yesterday, but I promise that there’s a twist in the bowl!



-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup OJ (twist)
-1/2 cup Quaker Oats
-1/4 cup cranberry sauce



The OJ really woke the bowl (and me) up! It added such a nice, bright flavor and mixed really well with the cranberries. My dessert/snack last night was Fage with honey and Ezekiel 4:9 Cinnamon Raisin cereal. This was a delicious combo, but it still made me sad because I'm all out of Fage now. :(



Part way through the morning I got hungry which I found odd seeing as my breakfast usually does a good job of holding me over. I think it may be because I haven’t been getting my normal 8 hours of sleep the past few nights. Anyways, I ate a ZPB muffin (I got tired of typing the whole thing out!) and then chased it with a humongous pumpkin spice tea from Tim Horton’s.



I didn’t get my lunch run in today because my hubby had to work the night shift last night and so he slept all day. I didn’t want to wake him up by going home so I went and picked a few things up at the grocery store. I always end up buying more than I go for on these little side trips! I went with the intent to get some lunch meat, meat for dinner and yogurt. I came out with all that and raspberries, a roast, porkchops and chicken! Never fails!

Keeping in mind last night while getting my lunch together that we were going to be busy at work, I decided to pack foods that I could eat with my hands. I made an Ezekiel 4:9 English muffin with smoked Gouda and a piece of prosciutto cotto (basically Italian cooked ham), and a nice red Bartlett pear with a few cantaloupe wedges.



I warmed the sandwich up in the microwave before eating it. Too bad we don’t have a toaster oven in the kitchen at work!! The smoked Gouda really made this sammie….yum! I ate the pear and cantaloupe later in the afternoon. Here they are ready to be gobbled up!



I made a block of baked tofu for dinner tonight. It was in a 450* oven for 30 mins and came out perfectly crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. I just adore this stuff! I served it with some roasted brussel sprouts and some orange pepper strips. The red blob is some of that recipe that was suppose to be soup but most definitely is not. I've come up with an idea to re-invent that stuff!



I want to leave you with a post by Roni (ronisweigh) today about Mom's. Boy, can I ever relate to the little "note". Not sure how many of my readers are Mom's, but I think even non-Moms will enjoy it. Thanks to Roni for posting it!

I'm off to watch SYTYCD Canada! Love that show! Enjoy the evening!

Bye for now!

A Leisurely Day

We woke up to another glorious morning! The weather the past 4 days has been absolutely spectacular! Not at all like a typical October. I wonder if it’s too much to hope for a nice day for treat or treating at the end of the month? It always seems to rain or snow for the poor kids (and parents!)

I started off my day wondering what to have for breakfast. Very odd for me because I usually crave my oats in the morning. After some back and forth conversation with myself, I decided to just have oats after all. Can’t go wrong there!



-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5-grain cereal
-1 Tbsp General Mills International Coffee in Pumpkin Spice
-splash of unsweetened Almond Breeze



These oats did not disappoint. I just love the “chew” of the Old Wessex cereal. Actually, I just opened my last tin today so I have to go easy! I have a tentative trip planned to Buffalo for the last weekend in November but even if I do go, it’s still a long time away!

I spent a leisurely morning with a big cup of Earl Grey tea, sitting in front of my computer catching up on my blog reading and other favorite sites. Very relaxing indeed!



I also puttered around the house cleaning up some odds and ends. Seems like the housework never ends!

Just before lunch we went on a nice 45 minute family bike ride through some trails at a nearby park that we like to go to. Here are a few scenic pictures that I took from the bridge over the river.




Fall is such a beautiful time of year…especially when Mother Nature cooperates! When we came home I was ready for some lunch. I made a toasted Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted English muffin which I topped with a honey crisp apple and a bit of marble cheese. Once it was all assembled, I popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese.




Mmmm...this was very good. Thanks to Zest Cook for reminding me about apple “toppers” in his post! I finished the meal off with a piece of banana bread.



After lunch I spent about an hour raking leaves and sweeping out the garage and driveway. When that was done I felt like having some down time so I whipped up an iced green tea latte and settled in with a book.



Not long after that, the kids were getting rowdy so I got up off my rear end and took them for a walk to 7-11 to get slurpees. That quieted them down for about 10 seconds. :~) No matter! I just ignored the noise after that and continued on with my reading!

Around 3pm I got the munchies and decided to give one of my new cereal's a whirl. This is called Yog Active and it rocked! We bought the Strawberry, Raspberry Vanilla flavor and I would classify it as something you could nosh on for dessert, too! We all love it and I would recommend that if you see it, buy it and try it out. There are other flavors, too.



Dinner tonight was a small steak and lots of steamed broccoli..



My sweet end was a pumpkin tart. No picture because it was the same as the other night!

I made a batch of fresh cranberry sauce after supper. I usually follow the instructions on the bag, but I only put half the sugar in.

-12oz fresh or frozen cranberries
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup sugar

*Bring water and sugar to a boil. Boil for 5 mins
*Add cranberries and boil gently another 5 mins
*Remove from heat and cool before refrigerating

BEFORE:

AFTER 10 MINS

COOLED DOWN:


This sauce is great mixed into yogurt, over ice cream or, as you will see tomorrow, mixed into oatmeal!

Well, I'm off to get organized for the morning. Enjoy the evening!

Bye for now!

A Splendid Day For A Walk

It was SO cold this morning that I did NOT want to get out of bed! I was so warm! What pains me more is to wake the kids up from their cozy cocoons. Poor babies! We all had nice warm breakfasts to heat ourselves up. DD had the last 3 pancakes from yesterday and DS had himself a bowl of Quaker Oats in the cookies n’ cream flavor. He used to hate oatmeal, so I’m glad to have found a flavor he enjoys! My bowl was a classic mix of flavors and really hit the spot taste-wise.

-1/2 cup of unsweetened chocolate Almond Breeze
-1/2 cup water
-1/4 cup oat bran
-1/4 cup Quaker oats
-1/2 a banana
-dash of cinnamon sprinkles



I still felt hungry when I finished, but I knew my breakfast just needed to digest so I waited it out. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later the hunger was gone.

I was a bit snack happy last night, but I was expecting that seeing as I didn’t have a “normal” lunch yesterday. I managed to keep things healthy, though, so that’s a plus! I ate the last pumpkin muffin (no photo) and about an hour later I had a sliced apple with almond butter.



I had to drop my vehicle off today so the scrapes from my little fender bender incident could be buffed out. Good thing the lady that hit me has a husband that is part owner in an auto collision center so no insurance company had to become involved. Anyhoo, no vehicle = no lunch run for me today. I did go for a walk around the neighborhood instead, though. It was still only 9 degrees Celsius at noon, but the sun was shining bright as can be and I put on an extra sweater with my jacket and some mitts that were hanging around in my desk from last season. Perfect! I did 2.5 miles in about 35 minutes. I tracked my route, here’s the link I used to do that. On my way back I stopped off at Tim Horton’s for an extra large pumpkin spice tea to warm myself up!! I’m loving this flavor!

For lunch I ate the last Basa fillet and a big helping of my BSI recipe from yesterday.



Not as pretty as it looked fresh out of the oven, but just as tasty! Around 3:30pm, I snacked on a cup or so of green grapes.



It was dance night again so we had another “fend for yourself” dinner night. I raided the fridge for odds and ends and cam up with this scramble.

Chicken & Vegetable Egg White Scramble

-1oz of cooked chicken breast
-1 beet, diced
-1/4 cup shredded carrot
-1/3 cup chopped up sweet potato fries
-1/2 cup egg whites
-tsp each of cumin & curry powder
-dash of salt & pepper

*spray a small pan with PAM and add chicken, beet, carrots & sweet potato. Cook over medium heat until hot.
* add spices & stir well
*add egg whites and with a wooden spoon stir until whites are set
*Plate and enjoy!



I know it's kinda funny looking! I blame the beets and the curry powder for the funny color. Just trust me....it tasted REALLY good!! I served this with a toasted Ezekiel 4:9 English muffin.



My sweet end consisted of a handful of All Bran guardian cereal. I was pretty full after my meal, but my taste buds always want something sweet to end with.

The rest of the night will be spent puttering around the house and catching some TV time. There may be a Fage in my future, but we'll see!

Bye for now!

Relaxing Sunday

I think I'll start today's post with my snack from last night. Although the pizza kept me full for almost 5 hours, as with any carbs that I eat, I was full and the next thing I knew, I was ravenous! I took this as the perfect opportunity to whip out my Cocoa Coconut Lara Bar.



I really liked this flavor (couldn't have been the chocolate!!)but Cinnamon Roll is still my #1! The one aspect that I like in ALL the Lara Bars is the consistency. It had that perfect "chew" factor happening that I enjoy so much.

I decided to make pancakes for breakfast from a recipe that I found on Green Lite Bites. The few changes I made were 1) a 1/4 cup of egg beaters for the egg and 2) 1 cup of unsweetened Almond Breeze in place of the milk. I used my 1/8 cup measure to scoop the batter out and ended up with 15 pancakes.



I topped these guys with some pumpkin butter that I bought while in the States and some Becel spray butter.



After breakfast we made our weekly visit out to the farm. On the way, we accidentally hit a (dead) skunk. What a foul, noxious smell! Unfortunately for us, it seems to have stuck to our van ALL day! EEWW!! That aside, the trees out there are starting to look absolutely gorgeous with a huge array of awesome colors! I did take some pictures, but they were a bit blurry. I'll try for some good shots next week. From there we went straight to hockey as DS was on the ice for 12:30. In anticipation of a later lunch, I brought a Kraft Live Active Peanut Butter bar to the rink along with an extra large pumpkin spice tea from Tim Horton's.



And here's an action shot! He's really come a long way already this year and I find it totally cool to see him skate so well! :)



It was 2pm by the time we got home and although I wasn't really hungry, I didn't want to be starving by supper and over eat so I toasted 2 pieces of Weight Watchers whole wheat bread and topped them with some almond butter and apricot preserves.



The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing until it was time to get dinner going. I made a "secret ingredient of the week" recipe from Jenn at Eating Bender's blog.

Butternut Squash & Turnip Bake

Preheat oven to 375*

-1 lb of butternut squash, cubed (about 2 cups)
-1 lb turnip, cubed (about 2 cups)
-1 TSBP olive oil
-dashes of coriander, cumin, chili powder salt & pepper

-1/2 cup Fage
-2 TBSP flour
-1 cup milk
-1 tsp dried basil & thyme

-1 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-2 TBSP grated Parmesan cheese

1)In a bowl, combine butternut squash, turnip, spices and oil. Put in a single layer on a baking pan and roast for 35 minutes or until veggies are tender

2)Mix Fage, flour & spices together well and slowly incorporate milk. Transfer roasted veggies evenly between 6 oven proof ramekins and divide Fage mixture among cups. Put back in the oven another 15 minutes.

3)Mix bread crumbs, garlic & cheese and sprinkle on top of ramekins. Set under broiler for 5 minutes or until a nice brown color appears.

4) ENJOY!!



I served this with roasted chicken breast and a side of beets. YUM!



We are off to visit the folks tonight and then I'll be watching the Amazing Race afterwards. Enjoy the evening!

Bye for now!

Pizza-rific!

I was up nice and early this morning because my son (DS from now on) had to be on the ice for 8am. I opted to stay home alone (my daughter….DD…went, too) to get the housework done so that it was out of the way nice and early. Before I made breakfast I sorted all the laundry and got a load going. Then I made a nice pot of oats with my new snack mix as a topping.



-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Flax Seed Porridge
-1/3 cup pumpkin puree
-1/4 cup wild blueberries
-1/4 cup Sahale Snacks in Dauphine (walnut)



This was SO good with the nut mix on top. They have a few other flavors that I really want to try now! The stats on them are pretty good, too. 130 calories, 10 grams fat and 2grams of fiber all for 1/3 of a cup. And all natural, cholesterol free, no trans fat and low in sodium. I’d say it’s a nice mix of sweet and salty. I would try this mix sprinkled on a salad, too.

After breakfast, I vacuumed, washed the kitchen floor, unloaded the dishwasher, took apart and washed up the stove top and got some pizza dough going in the bread maker and caught up on some blog reading.

Last night, I snacked on a muffin while watching TV...



Hey! Look who was hiding behind the muffin shot! That’s Charlie, the Brat.



By the time 12:30 rolled around I still wasn’t really hungry but I knew we had some things to do this afternoon that would keep me out of the house for a few hours so I prepared a light lunch.



Some beets and sweet potato fries that I roasted off last night. There’s also some Dijonnaise on the side for dipping. When I roasted the beets I just sprayed them with my oil mister and seasoned them with salt & pepper. Then I covered them and popped them in a 450* oven for 45 minutes. When they cool down, the skin peels off very easily. I just like them plain or with a little S & P. As for the sweet potato fries, I seasoned them with cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, coriander, dried basil and salt & pepper. They went in with the beets but came out after a half hour. YUM!

I also ate a Kashi chewy Honey Almond Flax bar to get some bulk in my belly!



My DS had a play date from 1-3 so DD and I went to the library after we dropped him off. For school this year the kids in her class are required to read for at least 15 minutes a day. DD likes to read so it’s never an issue around here…we just have to make sure she is well stocked with books. Lately, her read of choice seems to be the “Goosebumps” series so she came back with 4 of those. I grabbed a few for myself and DS, too. While out, I enjoyed a Tim Horton's 1/2 decaf, 1/2 hot chocolate....



As I mentioned earlier in the post, I made some pizza dough in the bread machine. The recipe was simple….3/4 tsp salt, 3 Tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp active dry yeast, 4 cup all purpose flour, 1 3/8 of a cup of water. The only change I made was to the flour. I did 1/2 all purpose, 1/2 whole wheat. Here it is just after coming out of the machine...



And three hours later after being punched down twice...



I set aside a tennis ball size piece of dough for myself and used the rest for a cookie sheet size pizza for the family.



This pizza is topped with salami, ham, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, hot peppers, marble cheese and Romano cheese. Here it is after baking for 20 minutes in a 450* oven!



On my pizza we have ham, mushrooms, roasted red pepper, hot peppers, 1/2 oz shredded feta, 1/2 oz smoked Gouda with sun dried tomato and a very small amount of marble cheese.



And hot out of the oven...




I ran the ingredients through the recipe calculator over at Spark People to get a rough idea of the nutritional value on my pizza. The approximate stats are...335 calories, 12 grams fat & 5 grams of fiber. I think it's probably a bit higher than that. I ate 3/4 of this pizza before I'd had enough. My sweet end was a handful of dried fruit trail mix...



And I couldn't possibly not show a picture of my big boy after featuring his brother, so without further ado, I give you Octavius!



PHEW! What a day! The laundry and other chores are complete and Mom & Dad should be here any minute for a visit. Hope everyone enjoys their Saturday night!

Bye for now!