Still Kicking Around

HOORAY for the weekend! I am so excited that it has finally arrived. This is the first weekend in quite awhile that we are somewhat hockey free. Not that I’m not enjoying it…I just need a mini break. :D
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup kamut flakes
-cinnamon
-chocolate honey
-Enjoy Life Foods trail mix
Work flowed along smoothly for a Friday. I enjoyed a few snacks to pass the time:

I was stoked to find blood oranges at the store Thursday night. I love this fruit. Easy to peel, mildly sweet, no seeds. Perfection! And the Kind Bar was friggin outrageous! I’ve seen these pop up in my area more regularly lately but have been a little gun shy to try them. One whiff and I knew great things were to come for my taste buds. The prevailing flavour was coconut. Um…..YUM! I ate it as slow as possible, but it was really hard not to shove it in my mouth. I’ll be trying the other flavours real soon.

The sun was positively shining outside yesterday so the thought of going to the gym just made me feel claustrophobic. I made the executive decision to go home, let my fur babies out on the deck for some fresh air and to just chill for ¾ of an hour. I came back to my desk feeling rejuvenated. It really is amazing what the sunshine can do for you!

My lunch was kinda lame, but I still enjoyed it. “Cheesecake” in a cup!

This is about 1 cup of goat’s milk yogurt with a scoop of black cherry/strawberry/blood orange jam. Divine!

I made turkey sausages for dinner using the George Foreman. Easy peasy. I also cut an orange cauliflower in florets and steamed it. Some mango wasabi sauce for dipping rounded out my meal:

Looks kinda orange now that I see the picture! LOL! I had a scoop of maple walnut ice cream for dessert, but the flash wrecked the picture. Urgh!

We took in a “real” hockey game after dinner and didn’t get back home until after 10pm…hence no post! I pretty much went straight to bed.

I finally had an almond butter jar empty enough to get some OIAJ going this morning.

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon
• 2 medjool dates
• carob chips

Why is it, I wonder, that this mix tasted that much better out of a jar? Seriously, now! I guess it may just be the fun of it! :D

We spent almost 3 hours at the rink today for DS’s 2 hour practice + pizza party. I was so ready to go home. Sitting there gave me a crap ass headache. I turn into a sucky pants when I get a headache because I don’t often suffer them. Kudos to all you folks out there who get migraines!

Lunch was a very simple deal. A toasted Ezekiel English muffin topped with some allegro cheese, egg beaters and hot sauce.

I chased it with a good cup of blueberries!

For once in my life I did not want to go grocery shopping, but I absolutely had to. If I didn’t, the next available time would’ve been Friday and we just didn’t have enough basics to get us through. And wouldn’t you know that half my city HAD to be there, too. Well, it felt that way anyhow! Upon returning and putting everything away I sat down with a coffee and a small bowl of kettle corn flavoured mini rice cakes.

Then my hubby got the great idea to mix a chocolate chip cookie mix with a PB cookie mix for chocolate PB cookies.

I could hardly wait for them to cool off before eating one! YUM!

We decided to do Thai for dinner tonight. I ordered fresh spring rolls and my favourite, mango salad!

This was a nice refreshing meal. And I have leftovers for tomorrow! As for tonight? I’m going to make a tea and watch some tube with the fam. Peace out!

Bye for now!!

If You Blinked You May Have Missed Monday!

WOW! I have gotten a FABULOUS response to my Goodie Bag Giveaway!! THANKS! So far, it seems like there are a whole lotta coconut lovers out there!! :) Keep on spreading the word, everyone!!! Want to see another great giveaway? Check out One Frugal Foodie for your chance to snag some Erin’s Bakers treats! Double Chocolate Chunk cookies? Yes, please!

For breakfast, I had a serving of the Apple Pie Crock Pot Oats that I made last night and they were fantastic!!!

I portioned the batch out last night and ended up with 7 one cup servings, one of which I promptly ate!! This method will be a regular occurrence at my house because all I had to do this morning was toss the bowl into the microwave for a few minutes and breakfast was served! I topped it off with a splash of French Vanilla International Delight coffee creamer.

Heaven, I tell you!

The morning trundled along quite nicely. I ate 3 medjool dates as I worked;
These are the last three. Sad times!

My hubby met me at the gym again today. Looks like he’s becoming as hard core as me! :) I did an interval course on the treadmill today. My speeds were 6.5mph/0% incline and 6mph/3% incline. I felt really good when my 50 minutes was up and wish I could’ve kept going. Here’s my numbers!

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 167
Max Hr: 177
Calories Burned: 471
Distance: 5.07 miles (8.17k)

That really helped perk me up for the afternoon!

For lunch I had a WW bun with Sabra jalapeno hummus, a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, deli ham and lettuce. My last blood orange was my side!!
It was a good lunch but I find that I always eat sandwiches way too fast! I like my meals to linger some. I found this cute little fruit skewer in the staff kitchen today. Leftovers from a meeting, I guess!
Tonight was the beginning of the madness that this week is shaping up to be. DD started dance at 5 and I started Pilate’s at 5. What to do?? I decided to pick DD up from Mom’s, drop her off at dance a tad earlier than normal, then high tail it to my class. When Pilate’s was done at 6, I went back to Mom’s, picked DS up then went to get DD for 6:30. Thank goodness all the places I needed to be are fairly close to each other! I munched on half a chocolate chip Clif Bar before the craziness began so I wasn’t starving when I got home.

The kids had their supper at my parents as per usual on a Monday so it was just lonely ole me! I heated up some leftover chili from the weekend and served it with 2 pieces of WW toast spread with jalapeno hummus on the side as my meal.
Perfect! My sweet end was a chocolate chip All Bran bar.
Love these babies! I have to cut the post short here because both the kids have some homework that I need to help out with and it's already 7:30pm! Holy smokes, today went by super duper fast! Sorry if I miss anyone's posts tonight...I'll be sure to catch up with everyone tomorrow. And if you haven't yet, be sure to enter into my contest!! Deadline is midnight on March 5...see link at the top of this post! :)

Bye for now!!

A Yummy Post

Hi everybody!! I’m starting this post out with some promised food porn in the form of Beadie’s brownies that I made last night! If you’ll recall, my camera ate most of the ones I took yesterday!
Oh, yeah! See how fudgy these babies are?

I accomplished 2 things with my breakfast today that I’ve been meaning to do – using my immersion blender and tofu. The results were spectacular, if I do say so myself!

Cream of Wheat with Tofu

-1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze
-1/4 cup water
-1/4 cup soft tofu
-cinnamon
-3 Tbsp cream of wheat
-1 Tbsp raisins
-1 Tbsp SF maple syrup

*Combine first 4 ingredients in a small pot and blend until nice and frothy
*bring to a boil and add 3 Tbsp of cream of wheat, whisking until smooth and creamy
*cook for about 3 mins
*at the end stir in maple syrup and raisins

I loved everything about this bowl. It was super creamy and thick and I was good and full by the end of it! The tofu didn’t change the taste any, but added a silkiness to the cream of wheat that I really enjoyed! I’ll be trying this method out with my oats, too!

When breakfast was done, I parked my rear in front of the computer to get some blog reading done. While at this I sipped on a hazelnut chocolate tea that DS was super sweet enough to make and bring to me in bed! That kid can be so sweet! :) Next came vacuuming. Fun times, I know, but with 3 cats it has got to be done! Next on the list was kitchen clean up. Then I sat down with a coffee and 3 medjool dates and watched some Food TV.
By noon I decided I’d better hit the shower because I had some errands to run before DD got home at 1pm. I scored some REAL blood oranges at one of the stores I had to go to.
I’m pretty sure the colour of the peel says it all! I was just starting to get hungry at 1pm….go breakfast!! I wasn’t really sure what I wanted so I decided to make a plate full of bright hues a la Sharon @ Snippets & Bites. She always has the most amazing display of vibrant food on her site!
Here we have some tri coloured bell peppers, Sabra jalapeno hummus, a flatout wrap which is filled with a ¼ cup of egg beaters, more hummus and a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, and a blood orange to seal the deal! This lunch did a great job of filling me up and I thoroughly enjoyed the blood orange!

Look here at who all decided to be sleeping buddies!
Normally, these 2 are fighting constantly so I had to get photo proof that they actually do get along! :)

Here’s another contest alert!! Leah over at Simply Fabulous Now is hosting a **Trek bar** give away! Too cool! Check it out!

DS had hockey practice at 3pm so I let DD have a friend over for the afternoon. They had a good time and kept themselves busy playing board games. I knew I was making a pot of chili for dinner so I got to work on a batch of biscuits to go with it. I got the recipe out of this book (it's where my breakfast recipe came from, too!)….
These were really easy to do. The ingredients included 1.5 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 cup oats, 2 Tbsp WW flour, 1/4 cup butter, 4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup soft tofu, 2/3 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond breeze). Here they are straight out of the oven;
While the biscuits were baking, I snacked on this juicy red pear...
Like I said before, dinner tonight was a big ole pot of chili. I combined extra lean ground beef, onion, peppers, carrots,celery, black beans, kidney beans, can of diced tomato, can tomato sauce, 1 Tbsp of each dried oregano, basil, chili powder, cumin, coriander, 1 tsp salt & pepper. Here's all the veg that went in...
The picture is missing the 28oz can of diced tomatoes. Bubbling on the stove top...
All together now! :)
Dessert was one brownie, then I got the heck out of the kitchen! It's 6pm where I am and the sun is just starting to set! It was nice not to have to use my flash for my dinner pic's! It was cold out today, but that sun makes a world of difference!
Please check back in tomorrow because I have my own GREAT give away announcement….a Krista’s Kraving’s first…and it’s gonna be a good one full of treats! I hope everybody had a marvelous Saturday! I'm going to shut the computer down and go enjoy the rest of the daylight. There may be a movie or 2 in my very near future, as well! I'll "see" you all tomorrow for a very fun filled post! Ohhh....I'm SO excited!! :)

Bye for now!!

Coffee Time

It’s taken me a bit but I’ve finally realized that getting out of bed has been a little easier this week because it’s not pitch black anymore! Yay for longer days!!! Now, just because it’s been easier to get out of bed, doesn’t mean I’m not still tired when I do! Such was the case this morning so I made some double duty oats!

-3/4 cup brewed coffee
-1/4 unsweetened almond breeze
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-splash of French Vanilla coffee creamer
-Mocha Hazelnut sprinkles
This bowl did its job of picking me up! Tasted fabulous, too! Nothing like eating your coffee!

Work plodded along again this morning. The afternoons tend to go much quicker! About an hour before hitting the gym I downed 3 medjool dates and ½ of a Weil bar…

The bar (banana manna flavour) was really, really good! To me, it was like eating a banana without the gaggy mushiness. There were also big chunks of almonds in there that offered are real nice crunch!

I decided to do a nice 45 minute, no incline run at the gym today. I’ve been setting the incline to 1% and even though it’s not much, I tend to get shin splints. I thought I’d see if the same thing happened without the incline. So….no pain! For today, anyways! I’ve always been prone to shin splints for some reason or another. Today’s run felt really cleansing somehow. Like icky toxins were banished from my body. I love a run like that! Why don’t I share my stats?

Time: 45 minutes
Avg HR: 166
Max HR: 181
Calories Burned: 474
Distance: 4.8 miles

I should also mention that I tried out the new treadmill that we got in the gym on Monday. Man…that thing is the Cadillac of ‘mills! I just did a straight run and it times you in laps which is really cool! I completed 19 laps in 45 minutes. Another neat feature is that it tells you your pace once you’ve completed 4 laps. I was running at 6.5mph which equaled a 9.14 minutes mile. Gotta give myself a big ole pat on the shoulder for that!! :)

I packed a super easy, but good, lunch today. It was a toasted WW bagel with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese and a 1/4 cup of egg beaters. There was also a small salad on the side that was topped with a bit of honey mustard dressing. Lunch "dessert" was some sliced strawberries. Mmmm!!
Simple and delish! This is a lunch I would normally make on the weekend so I thought it would make a good weekday lunch, too. And that it did!

I was so happy to see 4:30 roll around! I was more than ready to leave work and go home at that point! I think it was partly due to the fact that I dreamed up a neat little dinner for myself during the afternoon! Here's my idea!

I cooked up a 4oz chicken breast that I seasoned with cumin, hot peppers, dried oregano, salt and pepper. When it was done I chopped it up into bite size chunks and put it back into the pot with a 1/4 cup WW couscous, a 1/3 cup of V8 tomato soup and a little extra water....maybe an additional 2 tbsp. I gave it a good stir, covered it and let it sit over very low heat for about 10 minutes.After fluffing it up with a fork, I served it with a big helping of steamed veggies...
This turned out to be a bit more than I expected it would, but I still polished it off. The vegetables are what really gave it some heft! I ate 2 more medjool dates as a bit of a sweet end. Now I am stuffed, but this should hold me over pretty darn good.

Tonight is pool night and I'm looking forward to the hour of reading! Next week is the last class...8 weeks goes by quite fast when you think about it! The Biggest Loser is on again at 8 so I will be missing the first half. That's a bit of a bummer but at least I'll get to see the juicy stuff at the end! :) I might munch on a blood orange later on. I bought some and haven't gotten around to trying one yet. This is a new fruit for me as the name has always freaked me out! We'll see it I chicken out again!! Have a great night everybody!!!

Bye for now!!

My Monday

I had a wonderful sleep last night and even got to sleep in a tad because this is my week to start at 8:30. I much prefer morning’s where I don’t feel like I have to rush around! I enjoyed a leisurely bowl of oats in a warm ray of sunshine…so enjoyable and relaxing! I whipped up some gingerbread oats and topped them with a sprinkle of Enjoy Life Foods Trail Mix.

I doubled up the spices and molasses in this batch and it was terrific! I also used Bob’s Red Mill 5 Grain cereal. DELISH!!

While I was snapping photos of my breakfast, I decided to snap one of DD’s new Starbuck’s tumbler as it was right in front of me…

It’s just a tiny one holding maybe ¾ of a cup of liquid. In other words, the perfect size for her!

The morning went by relatively smooth at work. It was basically spent catching up on some stuff from yesterday. I’m late lunch this week…12:30….so I snacked on 3 medjool dates around noon to tide me through my work out.
I had planned to do my elliptical/stair climber/bike workout today but when I got to the gym somebody was on the elliptical so I switched it up and did 35 minutes on the treadmill (3.58 miles, 315 calories) and 15 minutes on the stair climber (154 calories). Still a great workout!!

Time: 50 minutes
Avg HR: 162
Max HR: 174
Calories Burned: 469

I’m really enjoying the mix up of equipment that I’ve been doing the last few weeks. It’s really helped to keep boredom at bay!

Before I get on to lunch, I’m please to say that Michelle at Lucky Taste Buds gave me a Kreativ Blogger award!! YAY!! Thank you, thank you!!

I’m passing the award on to the following 5 bloggers because I think they’re just great!!

Sarah @ Mom on the Run
Marianne @ From French Fries to Flax Seeds
Cory @ Zesty Cooks
Jenn @ Eating Bender
Kristie @ Lighter Portions

On to lunch!! I brought another lovely serving of vegan chili from the freezer. I realized this morning that while I made lunches for the kids, I neglected to make one for myself! I almost grabbed a Lean Cuisine Panini, but knew that the chili was a much healthier choice. That, and I love it!

I also noshed on some pepper strips and Sabra jalapeno hummus. I stirred a bit of the hummus into the chili, too! Gave it a nice kick!

The afternoon went much quicker than the morning. My hubby called to tell me that he was told at work that he will be going on afternoon shift to avoid being laid off. Now, afternoons really SUCKS but I'll certainly take it over the alternative! He'll be working 3-11pm so I've be taking over all night duties. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is how I can still get to Pilates for 5 on Monday's when DD has to be at dance for that time....and what to do with DS while we're at our classes? I'm gonna have to put my thinking cap on. On the positive side, he will be home to take the kids to school every morning which will save me some time.

Speaking of "duties", tonight was hockey/swim night for DS so DD and I had dinner on our own. I made chicken tortellini soup for the fam. Mine had no tortellini, but I kept the little noodles that were in there and I added some peas and sweet potato to my bowl. On the side I had a WW bagel with a smear of butter, roasted asparagus and some sweet potato fries. The fam also ate tempura fish sticks.

No sweet end for me tonight....this meal made me pretty full. I do have a snack ready for munching on while I watch The Biggest Loser later on, though...
Strawberries and a pear. Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it??

I feel like today was a long day now that I'm sitting here cozy at home. I'm looking forward to watching some tube and then hitting the sack! On the bright side, tomorrow is hump day and one day closer to Friday! YIPEE! Well, sweet dreams to all...I'm turning this baby off for the night!!

Bye for now!!