Santa Has Arrived

DD spent the night at a friends house so it was nice and quiet this morning. Not that she is loud, it’s just that DS had no one to fight with! :D I enjoyed my bowl of oats while blog reading. Nice…

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup PC 5 grain cereal
• cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice
• raisins
• pumpkin puree
• chocolate honey
• cashew butter

Nom, nom!

I hopped in the shower before DD came home so I was at least presentable when she got dropped off. People who don’t normally see me in the morning would probably be pretty shocked at how bad I look. ;) Plus, we had a special party to go to at 11! My work held their kids Christmas party today and the kids were quite excited for it! Many crafts were made;

And presents were handed out by the big guy himself!

Pizza was served for lunch. I had a small slice of cheese pizza as well as an almond butter/pear ginger jam sandwich that I took along;

We were home by 1:30, but not for long because DS had a 3pm hockey game. They tied 3-3 today which was awesome because they were losing 3-1 until the last 4 minutes of the game! Here they are celebrating after the 3rd goal was scored;

By the time we got back home it was time to get supper cooking. My hubby BBQ’d some chicken breasts and I warmed up a pot of beans and the leftover broccoli from last night. Here’s what my plate looked like;

My sweet end was 3 chocolate chip cookies along with a chamomile tea at my parents place.

I’m just tucking in now to watch The Amazing Race. DS has 6am practice in the morning so it will be an early bedtime for sure. How was everybody’s weekend? Do anything special/fun?

Bye for now!!

Cold Office

Everyone been having a happy Thursday? Mine’s been okey dokey! I didn’t end up having to head out to the rink this morning…PHEW! DS was back home by 7:30 with just enough time for breakfast #2. He ate some porridge before going to practice and a PB&J sandwich when he got back. Oh, youth…No matter, I made a great bowl of oats;

-1 cup water
-1/3 cup PC 5 grain cereal
-cinnamon
-banana
-PB2
-carob chips
-chopped peanuts

I missed the naners in my breakfast. I’m always amazed at the amount of sweetness they add once I’ve use them again after being off them for a bit. I haven’t been buying them because they weren’t getting eaten and I had overload in the freezer. My fam is funny that way. There are times when I can’t buy enough of food like bananas & yogurt and then all of a sudden no one eats it anymore and it all goes bad. Anyone else have this happen at their house??

Work was slow today and what was even more tedious was the fact that the internet was pretty much down. There went my plan of blog reading all day! **wink wink** Seriously, though….there are legit jobs that I need to be online to complete. I soothed myself with some pretty pink peanut M&M’s;

And then enjoyed the very last piece of apple butter bread.

I had a fantastic run today. I got into my zone early in the game and didn’t look back. AND…Rach had the CUTEST baby animals on the show today! Awww…

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 160
Max Hr: 178
Calories Torched: 468
Distance: 4.7 miles

For lunch I ate my very last container of FAGE with pear ginger jam and the last of the Nature’s Path PB granola;

Oh la la, dessert for lunch! Then some almonds joined the party;

As well as the internet being down, the heat has not been working for the past 2 weeks. A few mornings this week the office was at 64* when we came in at 8am. I took a picture of myself today to show you the huge sweater I wore to work so as not to freeze.

It’s just like a warm blanket with arm holes!! Taking some self portraits also kept me entertained for a few minutes!! :D

Afternoon snack was a petit tea….

…and a honey crisp apple!

DD had skating lessons tonight so dinner was on the late side. I made a tea to go, packed my book and was set for the next hour. When we got back I whipped up some sautéed bell peppers coated with a little fig balsamic dressing and a WW Arnold Thin with a 1/3 cup of Egg Beaters and some pepper jack cheese;

Then there was some dessert. Oh…dessert! I ate 2 small pieces of pumpkin coconut chocolate chip bar with some warmed up maple cappuccino sauce on top…

Pure decadence. Enough said.

Well, it’s back to TV time tonight. CSI and Vampire Diaries are on the tube. I feel like I just posted about those shows last night! Wonder where the week went. Hmmm…

Bye for now!!

Barley-rific Monday

Happy Monday! A lot of people think I’m nuts, but Monday is my favourite day of the (work) week. It always seems to pass by so quickly. Seeing as the temps have turned much cooler, we’ve added an extra blanket to the bed which has been keeping me very cozy indeed. So cozy in fact, that I’ve been staying in bed until the last possible minute. Hence the coffee in my oats again this morning!

-1 cup coffee
-1/3 cup PC 5 Grain cereal
-almond butter
-carob chips

Hit. The. Spot.

Our computer software crashed this morning; thank God it’s not pay week! Anyways, this little blip afforded me the time to read all the blogs I missed over the weekend. By the sounds of it, you all had a good one! Lots of tasty baking happening out there….LOVE it! :D I enjoyed some of my baking pre gym in the form of a thumbprint cookie;

Chomp, chomp!

The gym was peachy! Now that we have TV’s in there, I’ve been getting some Rach on while I sweat. My lunch this week starts at 11:30am so I watched the second part of the show first and the first 20 mins of the show second. A little back-asswards, but it works!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 166
Max Hr: 181
Calories Torched: 503
Distance: 4.5 miles

Craig Ferguson was on the show today and boy did I laugh. What an amusing fella! Almost made me want to stay up until 12:35am to watch the show!!

You should not be surprised to see that I brought cauliflower & barley pilaf for lunch today.

What can I say? I can’t get enough of it! You’ll be glad to see further on in this post that I finished it off at supper time! Then I got into the chocolate macaroons from the office candy dish;

Pretty sure I ate at least that many more!

Now on to a pretty little squash I bought at Knapp’s yesterday. I will admit that I bought it for the pretty orange hue and had NO idea what kind it was.

Pretty, isn’t it? I put the internet to good use and discovered that this is called an “ambercup” squash. (scroll down a bit in the link to see the info). It would seem that it is very similar to a buttercup squash…only better looking! I washed it really well, cut it in half, scooped the seeds out,

sprayed it with some olive oil and roasted it flesh side down on a greased cookie sheet for 45mins at 375*

Oh, la la! I ate a portion of this with a bowl of homemade chicken soup. Remember all those beer butt chickens we’ve been eating? Well, I saved all the bones and on Saturday they spent 3+ hours simmering away with some tomatoes and a whole lot of water. Once the broth cooled off I strained all the pieces out and put it in the fridge for a day. All I had to do tonight was scrape the hardened “fat” off the top and it was ready to roll! I threw in some leftover steamed veggies from last night and made them disappear with my immersion blender. Once boiling, I added a handful of alphabet shaped noodles and a package of ravioli (for the fam). Presto! Here’s my meal for your viewing pleasure!

And a soup bowl close up!

The perfect end to this meal was a slice of apple butter bread with a smidge of ginger pear jam on it;

DD is at dance now and the boys are not back from hockey yet so I have a few minutes to myself. Can’t wait to cozy up under a blanket with a tea later on. I hope everyone has as relaxing an evening…

Bye for now!!

Amen for the Weekend!

It just didn’t seem fair this morning that I had to get up for work while everyone else slept. *POUT* Alas, I survived it! A great bowl of oats helped me out…
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-pumpkin puree
-cinnamon, salt, vanilla
-PB2
-carob chips and a few peanuts
As I was enjoying this I was looking out my kitchen window and noticed that my Dad was in the backyard. What the heck….at 7:30am? He was already out for a walk (I’m pouting again) and stopped by to look at the siding my hubby put up on our shed last summer because he wants to do his the same. We had a nice little chat before I had to leave.

When I got to work I mixed up a packet of Amazing Grass super food in my huge Starbucks tumbler which I sipped on all morning,

I also snacked on some dried apricots;

Before leaving the mall last night I stopped in at Starbucks and grabbed a tall light blended mocha...
I was a little annoyed that the barista didn't even fill the cup and even more annoyed when I got to the bottom and found a disk of ice. Humpf! All aside, it tasted divine on a hot night!


Finally it was time for the gym! I admit that I had mixed feeling about going today with the kids at home so I called DD to see if they all wanted to meet me at the park, but my lazy bones were still in their jammies! That sealed the deal and off I went for a sweat sesh. I wanted to use the elliptical but someone was on it so I went for a run instead. I took it a bit easy because my right ankle is still not too happy with me.

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 161
Max Hr: 174
Calories Burned: 436
Distance: 4.5 miles

I had kind of a kooky lunch today. The fam had a big can of Bush’s honey baked beans as their side last night so I dumped the last 1/2 cup or so over top the last of the steamed veggies…
Weird, but tasty! I felt like a kid eating this! There was also a handful of mini Breaton crackers that played camera shy. Don’t know why; they were way cute! :) I also made my way through this container of blueberries and raspberries over the afternoon.
I chilled at home for a bit before I went to my last Pilates class. I decided not to sign up for the summer session as i like to be free to make plans for whenever I want. I'll be heading back in September for sure. Before I left I made a toasted chocolate PB2 sandwich to tie me over;
I got back home just before 7 and whipped up an egg white omlette stuffed with raw cow's milk Swiss and some Sabra hummus. On the side was some cottage cheese with a dollop of pear ginger jam...
Dessert was a chocolate chip z-bar that I accidentally deleted the picture of. Ooops! I'm currently out enjoying the nice weather again and resting up for a super fun trip into Toronto That I have planned for tomorrow with a fellow blogger. You'll have to come back tomorrow to see where I went and with who!!!


Bye for now!!

Name that Baby!

I'm not feeling 100% today but I still wanted to post because I got some really great picture of the baby horse while out at the farm this morning! Now that I've got carob chips back in my pantry I was able to bring back my favourite breakfast combo!!!
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
-cinnamon
-banana
-2 tbsp PB2
-carob chips
Love it, love it, love it!!!

I found myself itching for a snack last night so I warmed up the last piece of sweet potato bread and spread some cinnamon honey on it..
This ended up being a tasty flavour combo!

After breakfast we made our way to the farm, very excited to meet the newest addition. He hasn't been named yet so if you think you've got a great name for him after you see the picture's, please let me know!!! A few have been batted around....Panda, Kaleidoscope, Pewter....let's see what YOU think!



God...isn't he the CUTEST?! You can see in the picture where my MIL is holding him that he really is the size of a mid to large dog and he is so, so soft! His Mama is in one of the photos, too. She was really good about letting us man handle her baby. He was born on Thursday....

I had a few cookies with my tea at the farm and wasn't very hungry for lunch as a result. I made myself a small treat that included a 1/2 cup of FF cottage cheese, pear ginger jam and a mix of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

I haven't had cottage cheese in so long that I forgot how much I love it!!! I got busy doing yard work in the backyard after eating. After 1.5 hrs I had quite a bit accomplished, but weariness took me over like a slap to the head!! As I mentioned yesterday, I've been battling a cough for the past few days and my body finally gave up the goose. I got cleaned up, made a coffee and grabbed a small piece of Halvah...
then took my book out to the front porch and read for an hour. Just what the doctor ordered!! :) My MIL stopped by later in the day to pick up some perennials that we had for her and before she left we twisted her arm into trying a new ice cream my hubby found yesterday....Banana Cream Pie! I had a small scoop, of course!
This is the Breyers Double Churned brand and it was FABULOUS!!! I'm not an ice cream addict, but I love me a blizzard from DQ and that's what this reminded me of!

I still wasn't too hungry by our usual dinner time. I guess I had too many snacks over the course of the day! DD spent the afternoon at a friends house and ate her dinner there so it was just me and the boys. When I finally decided to eat I felt like soup so I made a can of Amy's lentil soup. The men in my life decided to make "pizza's". All they did was spread tomato sauce on the bread and top it with turkey pepperoni and cheese. Looked pretty decent so I made some for myself, too!
My sweet end was these Parnoosh dates.
My parents are out for dinner tonight so we'll be skipping our weekly visit. Just as well because all I plan on doing tonight is sitting on the couch like a lump. The Race is on tonight which should make for some good TV watching!!! Please enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll catch ya all tomorrow!!

Bye for now!!