Speeding Along

Hi all! I gotta make this quick because I only have 20 minutes before SYTYCD is on! Hehe! I ran short on time for my oats this morning so I went for a bowl of cereal instead:

This was a mix of Wildroots cereal, rice crispies and Bear Naked granola and it was fantastic! My morning snack was a WCMN Clif bar.

Basking in a pool of sunshine in all its glory!!

I took a full hour on the treadmill today to do my incline walk. It felt really good, too.

• Time: 1 hrs
• Avg Hr: 171
• Max Hr: 186
• Calories Torched: 670
• Distance: 4.2 miles

Lunch was a killer salad chock full of fresh lettuce from my parents garden, tomatoes, cucumber, mozzarella, walnuts and parmesan herb dressing:

This delight was off the charts! Nothing beats home grown greens. They’re so tender and sweet. Later in the afternoon I had a bag of cherries…

I forgot to pull something out of the freezer for dinner so we went with burgers. I dressed my spicy black bean Sol burger with dijonnaise, pickles, more sweet lettuce and Swiss cheese…all on a burger thin:

Then I helped myself to a chocolate chip All Bran bar.

It was finally a beautiful night for soccer and I went and forgot my camera. DOH! One day I’ll get pictures posted! LOL I was feeling hungry again when we got home so I warmed a piece of whole grain bread and spread some PB&Co. cinnamon raisins PB on it.

Yumma! And the best part? I took this picture at 8pm and didn’t need the flash. I love the longer days! Well, time’s up as SYTYCD has started so I must sign out. Catch ya tomorrow!!

Bye for now!!

Different Breakfast And Muffins

Hey! I opted out of posting last night in order to get cracking on my Dr. Kracker review. It’s long overdue and I’m excited to share our thoughts with you. That being said, I have a few finishing touches to add, but you can expect to see that within a day or 2. So, how’s everyone been??? Can you believe we’re nearing the weekend again? Crazy stuff, I tell ya! Here’s my eats from yesterday:
-2/3 cup water
-1/2 cup rye flakes
-cinnamon
-strawberries
-kefir & coconut butter
This was the last of my rye flakes. I guess I need to get my bootie up to The Bulk Barn for more, huh? :)

I ate my favourite Luna bar before the gym yesterday….Chocolate Peppermint Stick:
This bar is actually a bit “dangerous” for me because it really wakes up the chocolate monster that lives within me. What is your favourite Luna bar? I cranked out a great elliptical workout…even squeezed 5 extra minutes in!

Time: 50 mins
Avg Hr: 149
Max Hr: 169
Calories Torched: 427
Distance: 5.4 miles

Lunch was more leftovers. Between my hubby and me we pretty much took care of them with our lunches. I had beer butt chicken, rice and asparagus. The chicken and rice had some honey Dijon mustard on top.
My afternoon snack was a packet of almonds:
As I was cooking dinner last night I realized that I’ve been getting a wee bit repetitive with my meat eating this week. Yes, I had chicken again for dinner. I was making pork sausages for the fam which I don’t like, and grabbed the first thing I saw for myself which happen to be a pre seasoned, single serve chicken breast. I promise no chicken for awhile after this picture!!
As you can see, I had some steamed broccoli on the side with a sprinkle of fresh parm cheese and a few tortellini which just had some Becel and grated parm mixed in. This was a pretty good meal except I haven’t had torts in a long time and realized that I don’t particularly like them anymore. Huh. Dessert was a granola bar:
I then spent some time with Dr. Oz before the kids had to go to the pool for swimming lessons. I like swimming lessons because it warm, relaxing and I get an hour to myself. Nice. Once home I made a batch of muffins, recipe origin unknown as it’s been in my folder for ever! They’re lemon blueberry muffins. Here’s the recipe, but please remember that it’s not one of mine:

• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 salt
• 1 pkg (4 ser size) lemon pudding mix
• 1/2 cup Almond Breeze (or milk of choice)
• 1/2 cup egg beaters (or 2 eggs)
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)

1. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients including pudding mix
2. In a smaller bowl combine all wet ingredients
3. Add wet to dry and stir
4. Gently fold in blueberries
5. Scrape batter into a 6 hole, greased muffin tin
6. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes

I’ve made these before using white chocolate pudding and raspberries. I remember that being quite the winning combo! I have some pistachio pudding that I need to use up so I may try a batch using that and some sort of…..something. Any suggestion as to what is a good match to pistachio??

While those were in the oven I made a quick snack consisting of a rice cake with PB&Co cinnamon raisin PB and a Chai tea:
Tuned into Criminal Minds and got to my cracker post. End of Wednesday….thrilling, wasn’t it?? HA!

Breakfast this morning was something a little bit different. As I was browsing through my old recipe folder last night I came across a recipe for trailblazer cakes. Basically, a breakfast “cookie”. Here’s what mine looked like;
I didn’t take it out of the bowl because I could tell that it was going to break. I used raisins, carob chips, pecan pieces and shredded unsweetened coconut as my add ins. My “glue” was cappuccino flavoured agave. I also put a dollop of honey pecan butter on top for good measure.
This was really, really good!!

Work moved along smoothly for a Thursday. I brought a lemon blueberry muffin for a morning treat. I didn’t taste on last night because they were still hot when I went up to bed, but boy, are they great! My hubby is a lemon lover and thought they were good, too. I enjoyed a more relaxing walk on the treadmill today at a speed of 4mph with a 4% incline. I wasn’t after a sweat session today, just some movement so this was pretty much perfect.

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 128
Max Hr: 149
Calories Torched: 298
Distance: 3 miles

Lunch today was a toasted Ezekiel English muffin, a LC cheese wedge; egg whites and some chili sauce drizzled on top.
This is probably my favourite go-to meal. It’s delicious, simple and fills the belly good! I also had an orange that I took the time to peel and chop this morning.
Nice and hassle free for work! And to go with that, a small piece of banana bread from the office kitchen.

I had an appointment right after work that took me longer than expected so a fast meal was in order because I was hungry when I got home! I grilled some fresh asparagus and a slice of tofu in the grill pan. The tofu had Mrs. Dash’s Thai seasoning and some olive oil spritzed on. The asparagus had the oil and s&p. I also put some Dijonnaise on the side for dipping:

You can probably guess what dessert was….a granola bar!

HA! There’s only 2 pieces left so I’ll have to make more over the weekend!

I woke up with an annoying sty on my left eyelid this morning so I’m going to sign off now and go brew myself a tea so I can stick the bag on my lid. I hope that helps because this is making me a bit nuts! Before I go, Sarah is hosting a great CSN Stores giveaway! Go on over and check’er out!

Bye for now!!

A Tame 2 Days

Hey everyone! Even though this is another 2 day recap, life has been pretty tame so this shouldn’t take too long. Breakfast yesterday was a bowl of Alpen cereal with USAB:

I warmed this in the microwave for about 45 seconds which made it even better tasting, IMO!

My pre gym snack was a Lara Bar:

My hips were acting a little cranky after my run on Wednesday so I decided that a walk on the treadmill would do the body good. I walked at 3.6 mph with a 4% incline.

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 140
• Max Hr: 161
• Distance: 3.4 miles

I needed to finish off the last bit of my goat’s milk yogurt before it went bad so I took that for my lunch.

There was about a 1/4 of that 2 cup container left. I mixed it with a scoop of Crofter’s Superfruit jam and topped it off with granola.

I know I’ve said it many times, but I LOVE this yogurt!! :) Later in the afternoon I ate some green grapes which were also on their last legs. (Yes, it’s grocery week!)

My hubby BBQ’d chicken breasts last night and while they were doing their thing I snacked on WAY too many of these babies…

I owe you guys a review if the Dr. Kracker products and I promise to have that up soon. Let’s just say that they’ve been disappearing at a fast pace! When dinner was finally ready to eat, this is what my plate looked like.

Asparagus is SO damn tasty right now!!! After dinner DD ran next door to grab KC and we took off for a nice 1/2 hour family walk. Perfect. We were home in time to watch CSI and Vampire Diaries. I made myself a little sweet end/snack to enjoy while watching.

A mocha and the last pumpkin muffin with some honey pecan butter melted on top. YUM!

I didn’t have to go into the office today as we had a PD Day session in the next town over which was a nice change. My co worker drove so didn’t even need to worry about directions. Before leaving a ate a hearty bowl of oats that I knew would stick to my ribs:

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup kamut flakes
• cinnamon
• raisins
• PB&Co cinnamon raisin PB & a bit of honey pecan butter

I was just starting to feel a bit hungry when lunch was served at noon. They had a bit of a Greek themed spread going on.

The bonuses of this meal was that it was 1) cooked on site 2) relatively healthy 3) fresh. The rice had potential as it was mixed with chickpeas and red lentils, but it lacked huge in the flavour department. I didn’t eat more than one bite. The salad had lots of avocado which I thought was great. Between that and the hard boiled eggs, I didn’t need any dressing. Dessert came in 2 parts. First was some fruit salad and a brownie:

And once I had the taste of chocolate in my mouth I went straight back for a freshly baked, still gooey chocolate chip cookie!

TOTALLY worth the splurge! All in all, the day was pretty fun! And I wasn’t home any later than I normally would’ve been. Dinner tonight was a SOL burger…

I stacked mine with dill pickle, Dijonnaise, ketchup, lettuce and ginger wasabi sauce. On the side was green beans and asparagus that I never got around to eating.

DS had a ball hockey game tonight which was definitely different from the ice hockey that we got used to over the winter! HA! He had a lot of fun and it’s nice that this isn’t as competitive for a change. Afterwards, my hubby treated us to DQ. Here’s DS digging into his treat:

I got major stink eye once I took this! Hehe! I was going to get a small sundae, but once I saw that they had my favourite Blizzard flavour I quickly changed my mind! Here’s my Hawaiian;

Hmmm…looks like I had my fair share of goodies today!

DD and I just got back from another walk with KC. It’s a glorious night out there! I hope the weekend stays warm and wonderful. I’m off to suck back some water. Ice cream always makes me crave water.

Bye for now!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Look who went MIA again yesterday! I really started feeling like shiz as the day wore on plus the kids were at the pool until 8pm so by the time I got home I was done. I should have known I was in for a rough day when my oats started to look unappealing!

• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup Quaker oats
• raisins
• PB&Co cinnamon raisins
• coconut

I can’t remember much about the morning, but I see that I ate a Clif Bar before heading out to the gym:

I hopped on the elliptical at the gym. I was sad to see that Rach is no longer on over the noon hour. Boo!!! About halfway through I started to feel really weak and slowed down for a few minutes to assess the situation. It passed so I continued on.

• Time: 45 minutes
• Avg Hr: 164
• Max Hr: 176
• Calories Torched: 460
• Distance: 4.8 miles

I was out of the gym by 1:30 and had a meeting at 2 so lunch was inhaled. I tried something new that was on sale this week at the grocery store:

This was actually pretty tasty, but not meant to be inhaled, I’m sure. It wasn’t long after this that I started to feel horrible. The last hour of work dribbled by, but I was finally able to hit the road for home….for a minute. I threw back some Tums, packed the kids swim stuff and took off for the rink as DS had a 5:15 game. *sigh* There are 3 levels of rep hockey in our city….triple A, double A and single A. The triple A team was finally chosen and to top a bad day off, DS was cut. Initially it was like a kick in the pants, but the coach was very positive and he will being playing only one step down at double A. This means more ice time which is a very good thing. Also, the triple A coach made him an “AP” (or alternate player). This means that he will have the opportunity to practice at the higher level and fill in if a player is ill for a game. It’s a win-win situation at this point. It does mean 3 more days of hockey, though. :/

One of the Mom’s, my friend Manon, brought me some treats that she made. On the way from the rink to the pool I pulled out an orange molasses muffin to tie me over:

This is actually the other muffin, but I couldn’t snap a pick while driving! HA! I loved this muffin even with an upset stomach. The orange and molasses went perfectly together along with sweet raisins and crunchy nuts. I must see if she’ll share the recipe with me us. Insert 1 + hours at the pool and I finally rolled into the driveway, exhausted at 8:30. I didn’t even feel like eating anything but knew I’d be in worse shape if I didn’t so I grabbed an easy, fast bowl of Wildroots cereal.

Bad lighting = bad picture!

I woke feeling MUCH better this morning and my oats tasted like they should.

• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 grain cereal
• blueberries
• kefir
• sprinkle of granola

I didn’t want to push my luck by going to the gym today so I bailed. Before I actually made the decision I ate a Luna protein bar:

I was just so so over this bar. It had a grainy after taste that I wasn’t really digging. I liked the cookie dough one much better.

Once home I prepared some egg whites in the microwave which got sandwiched between a toasted Ezekiel English muffin that was coated with a LC cheese wedge and pinenut hummus. On the side was more hummus with some Dr. Kracker Hummus Mummus crisps: I enjoyed this out on the deck with a Prevention magazine. And my cats. Nice.

*Insert work*

On the way home I stopped by the seamstress to pick up my perfectly altered skirt. Now that it doesn’t hug my ass in all the wrong spots, I can actually wear it! LOL!

Dinner was some fast fry pork chops and for me, a big bowl of fruit salad:

Then I had not one, but 2 sweet ends! The last of my Lindt sea salt chocolate bar:

Then I tried another of Manon’s treats, a ginger bar;

I really liked the consistency of this treat. It was dense like a fudgy brownie, but it smelled more gingery than it tasted. I think I’ll spread some nut butter on the second piece when I eat it. ;)

This brings me to the present, sitting on the couch enjoying the last night of no plans for the next 7 days. I really hope Vampire Diaries isn’t a repeat!!

Bye for now!!