This and That

Give it up for hump day!  We’re in the last stretch to the weekend, peeps!  Hopefully you are all having an awesome week thus far.  No complaints over here.  When I posted Monday night I mentioned that I had some baking in the oven so we’ll start with that today.   A wonderful loaf of Erica’s delicious Multi Grain Bread.
This bread is so versatile.  I usually pair it with sweet, but I’ve done savoury with amazing results as well.   My intention for it this week was to replace the bars that I’ve been eating before the gym.  I’m all out and didn’t want to make a special trip to the store for them.  Not that I even had the time!  So yesterday I spread some zucchini jam on a thick slice:
And today I partnered it with peanut hazelnut butter.
The absolute best aspect of this bread, IMO, is that it tastes really buttery with not a hint of it in the recipe.  Me loves!
The mornings have been rather brisk so I’ve been sticking to my oats for breakfast.  Yesterday was a blend of Nature’s Path hemp seed oatmeal topped with blueberries and pumpkin butter:
This ended up being a bit too sweet.  Lesson learned; don’t use blueberries and pumpkin butter together in oats.  Today followed a tropical theme with coconut extract, crushed pineapple and Hawaiian trail mix & yogurt chips on top:
This bowl was really good!
Tuesday’s gym session included day 7 of level 2 of the 30 Day Shred and 10 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill.  I’m excited to hit level 3 because I’ve never made it that far.  When I first did the DVD a year ago I buggered up my ankles by day 15.  Back then I was doing the disc every single day and I know that’s how I injured myself.  Keeping it tame with Tuesday’s & Thursday’s seems to be the ticket.  Today I popped on the elliptical.  I was feeling really tight across my back and figured the motion of the machine would loosen things up….and it did.
Lunch has been all over the place.  Yesterday I had tuna on a toasted multi grain English muffin with a LC cheese wedge:
Like the birthday plate?  LOL  These English muffins are perfect for me because they have seeds in them which give them some great texture.  And we all know I’m a texture kinda gal!  Today was totally random; cottage cheese, Crofter’s jam and thawed blobs:
Sorry for the less than stellar set up.  I was too lazy to walk halfway across the building for a pretty bowl.  :/
I ate a bit bigger of an afternoon snack yesterday.  I didn’t get out of work until 5:15 and wanted to be at the rink by 5:30 for DS’s game (I made it).  That and dinner was uber late for us.  I had a ginger gold apple plus some walnuts rescued from the depths of my desk drawer.
Today’s 3pm-er was much lighter; a chopped up navel orange:
I’ve been keeping to the meal plan for our dinners and it’s been going smooth.  Last night was pasta night and the fam had the regular spaghetti and homemade meat sauce.  I went with a cup of the WW pasta but topped mine with a mixture of tempeh bacon, 2 diced garden tomatoes, garlic and some grated Romano cheese.   It was splendid!  The only issue is that pasta NEVER sits pretty in my belly.  I know this but thought I’d see if things have changed.  Nope…..I was chomping on Tums at 10pm last night.  What a bummer!  Dinner tonight made my tummy happier…chicken stir fry night!
I kept this simple in using red & yellow bell peppers, chicken breast, oregano and fig balsamic dressing.  A bed of brown rice sealed the deal.
Random snacking that has happened looks like this:
Homemade oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookie x 2 from co worker;
Lots of ginger chews.  I also just polished off a bowl of Wildroots cereal that missed the camera.
In other news, the boys won their hockey game last night 3-0!  As you can imagine, they were pretty stoked!   Tonight’s soccer practice turned into a 2 hour one.  The weather held out so it wasn’t too bad.  Plus I had a few other Mom’s to chat with so the time whipped by.  ;)  Tomorrow is free and I’m SO looking forward to it!  As for the rest of tonight?  I think I’m gonna hit the sack early and read a little longer than usual. 
Tell me something exciting you’ve done so far this week!!
Bye for now!!

A Tracking Queen

Happy Tuesday!!  How is everyone’s week going?  I haven’t been up to much; just work, really.  When I was in Buffalo over my holiday’s one of the items that I picked up was these chai honey sticks from Wegman’s:
 
I’ve been putting them to good use in my tea, but decided to add one to my oats yesterday for some pizzazz. 

• 1/2 cup each water & coconut milk
• 1/2 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
• cinnamon
• trail mix
• honey stick

The honey wasn’t a very strong presence, but did give the oats some vavoom!
Pre gym I ate my favourite of all the LUNA bars; chocolate peppermint stick!
Nom, nom, nom…gone in 4 bites!  :)
I hopped on the treadmill for a 30 minute incline walk.  I forgot my HRM chest strap…darn!…but I’m sure my stats were around what they usually are.  I’m just so anal that I hate not having any numbers to write in my log.  Sheesh!
I had brought a lunch from home but as I got to the staff kitchen to warm it up a big tray of wraps and fruit were brought in.  SCORE!  Here’s what I chose;
The Greek salad was actually bundles into a wrap.  When I got back to my desk I dumped the goods into the bowl and disposed of the wrap.
And I picked the wrap I did purely because of these gorgeous chunks of avocado peeking out at me!
Not to shabby for an unexpected, free lunch, right?!
On my drive to pick the kids up I ate a pint of luscious raspberries.  (Don’t worry, I took the picture before leaving work!) 
Aren’t those just beautiful?  So sweet, too!  I had some chicken breasts marinating in the fridge in some Renee's Parm herb dressing.  When it was time to get dinner on the table I threw them on the George Foreman (it was raining out) and let them go until golden.  Alongside I served steamed baby carrots and quinoa with some wasabi ginger dressing.
This was a silent meal which is a good thing because it means that the fam was too busy eating their food to talk!  LOL  For dessert I ate a Mama Pea oat bar a la mode:
I have 2 squares left but will be making it again.  My timing was off this time as the day I made them my hubby had a wisdom tooth yanked and his mouth has been too tender to eat any!  :~)
I spent the hours between 7 & 9 sprawled on the couch watching SYTYCD Canada with DD.  It was the first “on the stage” show and I thought most couples did very well.  It’ll be interesting to see who goes home tonight.
Alas, all too soon my peaceful sleep was interrupted by the alarm.  Evil thing!!    I was planning on a bowl of cereal for breakfast this morning but my brain must of been on auto pilot because before I knew it I had a bowl of oats cooking away in the microwave!  DUH!

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon
• 1/2 mashed banana
• peanut hazelnut butter

 
Very good even though it was really what I wanted!  LOL
Today was Torture Tuesday with Jillian and the 30 Day Shred.  We moved on to level 2 and although we were all shaking and grunting by the end, we got through it.  Last year I wrecked my ankles on some of the “jumping moves” so I really have to pay attention this time and stick to the modified version for some.  We all agreed that it’s most definitely a step up from level 1, but not as painful as some of the gals thought it might be.  Before facing Jillian I munched on a Nature’s Path pumpkin spice bar;
You can find a full review of this under my “Product Review” tab.
No free lunch was offered today, so I stuck with what I brought.  Not a bad thing, my friends!
This is the last bit of the Korean noodles I made the other night.  Just a reminder that I found the recipe in the newest edition of the Rachael Ray magazine.  So there may have been no free lunch, but we did score some free fruit!
And a bit later on I enjoyed a perfectly ripe peach,
One of my co worked had the unfortunate task of putting her 4yr old cat down Monday after work.  Poor baby’s kidney’s were failing.  So today she brought in all of Louie’s remaining food and treat for my 3 fur balls to finish up.  I gathered them up and fed them a few morsels in a toast to Lou!
Then picked up the phone and made an appointment with the vet for my 14yr kitty, Octavius (the black one).  Gotta make sure he’s as healthy as he looks and because my cats are indoor feline’s, they don’t go for regular check ups.  Pepper is there in the middle and Charlie on the right.  Baby dolls!  :)
I wanted to clean up some odds and ends for my dinner tonight so I made a “pizza” with the last WW pita.  I topped it with a mixture of cottage cheese & salsa then topped that with a Tofurky sausage and some spinach.  I let it do it’s thang in a 350* oven for 10 minutes before plating it up!
So. Much. Food!  I had to leave about a quarter of it or I was gonna explode!!!  It’s sunny out again so once I’m done here I plan on grabbing my book and enjoying it while it lasts.
Q:  Do you keep track of your workouts in a notebook, spreadsheet, etc?  If so, does it bother you to “miss” logging your numbers once in a while?  I can deal with once in a blue, but to go more than a day or 2 really bothers me.  Not sure if that’s a good thing or not!  :)
Bye for now!!

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!!