Lots of Strawberries

I totally meant to post last night but we ended up with company over and time ran out. Sheesh! Did everyone have a good weekend? Mine was pretty decent. I’m on 8:30 start this week so I get to sleep in a wee bit. Nice! I’ll hop right along to the food so that this post doesn’t turn into a monster!
-1 cup water
-½ cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
-cinnamon
-granola
-kefir
No gym yesterday because a late morning start = a 12:30 lunch and yoga was in the gym. Boo! I took the opportunity to drop by the bakery to order DS’s cake for his Communion that’s on Sunday. But before that I munched on a homemade granola bar: You can find the recipe for this right here. Then I went home to eat some lunch:
This is one cup of LF cottage cheese, pineapple jam and blueberries. Divine. I ate this on the deck while soaking up as much sun as possible. We live in a very mature neighbourhood and our yard is very private with lots of trees and plants so it’s very easy to imagine that I’m out in a country setting.

The afternoon was pretty slow, work wise. It’s nice to be able to go for a stroll around the block come 3pm break time now that the weather is smartening up. Nothing like some fresh air to perk you up, right? Before going home I snacked on the last of my Muscat grapes:

These grapes rock! I usually prefer a crisp grape whereas these are on the soft side, but they’re sweet as can be. I dig that!

The FedEx man made a stop at my house yesterday which is always a really good sign! He brought me a box full of Dr. Kracker crackers and crisps thanks to Margaret. Check out how generous she was:
I’ve bought the flatbreads before and loved them so I was eager to dig into all these treats. The fam and I had a total taste fest after dinner which was really fun. They all know that they’re welcome to any goodies that I am sent with the stipulation that they have to give me their honest feedback. I feel that my reviews are 100% + honest because I’ve got opinions from 3 sources; me, my hubby and the kids…and we all have very different taste buds! HA! You can be sure to see a review post go up in the next week or so.

Dinner was a simple affair; BBQ pork tenderloin, corn and quinoa:
Sweet end = dark chocolate with sea salt;
Insert company, an episode of Dirty Jobs (love Mike Rowe) and bed. Zzzzz…..

I woke up feeling refreshed after a great sleep. I didn’t realize how horrible I’ve been sleeping lately until this morning. I got to breakfast after getting everything ready for me and the kids.
-2/3 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-strawberries thawed with apple cinnamon honey
-kefir
-granola
I let the kids walk to school from our house this morning. Usually they leave from the babysitter which is a shorter walk but when I start work at 8:30 it’s no worth taking them to her house. They really only have to go out one street from where we live to a main road and cross once. I’ve confirmed that there is a crossing guard there. and that went a long way towards my peace of mind. Even though it about a 20min walk, they both enjoyed the freedom. *sigh*

Before hitting the gym today I noshed on a WCMN Luna bar:
While this was good, I think I prefer the WCMN Clif bar. This one didn’t seem to have as many nuts in it.

I chose the treadmill today as my workout companion and together we knocked out a sweaty 4.2mph, 7.5% incline walk!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 166
Max Hr: 182
Calories Torched: 495
Distance: 3 miles

I felt really jello-y after this so I know I wasn’t slacking!

Lunch was some leftovers that I found while rummaging around in the fridge; a spinach & feta turkey sausage and quinoa with some invisible wasabi ginger sauce on top.
My afternoon snack was a bowl of sliced strawberries:

The fam had to leave at 4pm to go to an out of town hockey game so I was on my own for dinner. I didn’t want anything heavy because Pilates was also tonight so I made some eggs. I used a 1/4 cup of egg white and a 1/4 cup of egg beaters and scrambled them with a LC cheese wedge. On the side was a WW toasted English muffin with some butter:

I saw it only fitting to serve my eggs on an egg shaped plate. :) When I got home from Pilates I had to fill up the tub, kettle and coffee pot with water because the city is shutting the neighbourhood down from 8pm – 6am for sewer maintenance. Fun stuff! Then I sat down with more fruit!

I can’t seem to get enough strawberries lately…hence the title of this post! I think I’ll end this here and settle in to watch The Biggest Loser. Any out of the ordinary plans this evening??

Bye for now!!

Two Meals Out

Hi All! How's the weekend treating you? The weather turned nasty here today so I’ve been doing some hibernating. I didn’t post yesterday because the day was quite uneventful and I really just wanted to be disconnected from everything last night. Anywho, here are my eats from the past 2 days!

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup spelt flakes
• cinnamon
• blueberries
• kefir

My hubby and I have both been pretty occupied with DS’s hockey tryouts this week which are actually more stressful than I would've thought. In order to de-stress a bit we decided to meet at a Thai restaurant for lunch Friday. I ordered chicken pad thai (sp?) and my hubby got the seafood version as well as some shrimp rolls. I passed on those because I’ve never been a fan of fried food.

This was delicious, but huge so half came home with me. I never really did get hungry for dinner so I just ate a bowl of Wildroots cereal while the fam ate:

The boys went off to hockey and DD and I hit the grocery store to get that out of the way. Once home and settled in, I snacked on a buttercup square that I brought home from work:

I also baked a batch of my dark chocolate chip avocado muffins for my Uncle. It’s his birthday today and I promised him some. I added 1 tsp of vanilla to the batter this time and I found that it really helped bring out the chocolate flavour.

Breakfast this morning was a little more decadent than usual!

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup Mother’s oats
• banana
• carob chips, pecan pieces, coconut & hazelnut sprinkles

Super good! DS’s ball hockey league started today (I know) but he had an ice hockey tryout that conflicted so we went to the one arena to meet the team and pick up the uniform. My hubby assistant coaches this team so he had a few responsibilities to take care of as well. Then DD and I dropped the boys off at another rink before heading out to do some shopping. One of the items that I finally bucked down and bought was this:

After hearing about how good this is and almost buying it a few times, I finally caved. And I’m SO glad I did because it knocked my socks off! :)

We were home by 1pm and I threw a light lunch together because we had plans for dinner out. I spread almond butter and pineapple jam on 2 rice cakes and had a Activia “dessert”, too.

We spent the afternoon on the couch watching TV and it was glorious! Later on my sister came over to watch the kids and my hubby and I head out to our favourite restaurant, Einstein’s Cafe. One of the many reasons I love this place is that you feel like you’re visiting an old friend while there. It’s situated in an old boarding house and is just so inviting! AND…..all the food is prepared FRESH. This means a longer waiting time, but its worth it. Tonight I went with the special which came with a house salad:

My main was a chicken breast stuffed with roasted red peppers and goat cheese, seasonal veg, roasted potatoes and homemade honey wheat garlic toast:

Freakin awesome! Half the chicken and the taters came home with me. Dessert was a Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Pie:

Oh la la….and then some! I’m currently in my PJ’s, back on the couch. Love. We’ll be hitting up Costco tomorrow and there is hockey again. But I’m not going to think about any of that right now. I’ve got a new, crisp Clean Eating mag sitting beside me waiting to be read so I’ll sign off here.

Bye for now!!

One More Sleep Until The Weekend

I was afraid to move when I woke up this morning but the stiffness wasn’t as bad as I thought. Phew! I did some leg stretching in bed then took an extra hot shower. I had “one of those” mornings with the kids today. Specifically, DD which is odd because it’s usually DS that is moody. Not gonna get into details and I love her to bits, but I was relieved to drop her off at the sitter this morning. Therefore, although breakfast was mighty tasty, it wasn’t all together enjoyed.
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-pb/hazelnut butter
-pineapple jam
-carob chips
Last night DS and I ran to the store to buy a box of crackers and look what else I came home with!
My hubby took one look and asked; “What’s with all the junk?” I told him it was on sale 4/$5.00 and to help himself. Whoppers are my fave, that’s why you see 3 boxes! I did bring a box to work for the office candy bowl, though. LOL!!

I gotta say, up until 11:15 I was all “go gym, rawr, here I come!!” And then it was like my enthusiasm hit a big ole brick wall and my mind took a detour from the whole idea. And that, my friends, is something I do not ignore. Aside from being stiff (I can handle that) I’ve been weirdly exhausted all week and my tummy has been off (IBS issues, nothing new). I made the wise decision to go home and put my feet up for the duration of my lunch hour. I had packed a LUNA bar to eat before the gym, but ended up snacking on some almonds instead.
To me, the Luna is too big of a “snack” when not working out. And while home I ate a few Whoppers and sipped on a Celestial sugar cookie tea.
I ate lunch a bit later in the afternoon…around 2ish. This is what I had:
I’ve bought this Ocean’s product before in a Thai flavour so I thought I’d go Italian this time. I liked the Thai better, but this was very good, too. I like the convenience of everything being in the one can, already mixed up. And the tuna is in nice big chunks, not hiding:
The only thing I shoulda brought was some of those crackers I bought last night! HA! C’est la vie…

Going completely off topic here; I ordered some Avon stuff on Monday from a girl at work who sells it and it came in already! Here’s my loot:

P.M. Solutions Night Cream and a Thermal Cleanser. There was a special where you buy one, try another for $0.99. I’m all over deals like that! I’d say when it comes to facial products I use mostly Avon and Clinique. How about you? I’m always up for trying new products that come tester approved. ;)

Ate my bowl of fruit again today!

And a Stash tea a la Allie:

I made dinner to go tonight because DD had skating lessons at 5:30 and I didn’t have enough time, nor did I want, to eat at home. I poached 2 chicken breasts and sliced one into a container then mixed it with some Vidalia peach salsa. In a Ziploc I brought at Flatout wrap, lettuce and a LC cheese wedge. Once DD was on the ice I pulled up a chair in the cafe and prepared my wrap.

Like my Eating Well place mat? Ha! Here it is all wrapped up ready for my belly.

There was also a handful of Reece Pieces that didn’t make the shoot. ;)

I’m off to watch women’s hockey. Canada is leading 1-0…WAHOO! I’ll leave you with a few fun avocado tidbits care of Eating Well Magazine…

• it takes an avocado 12 months to mature
• avocados do not ripen until picked
• if left on the tree, they will continue to “put on fat” for an additional 6 months making them even better for you

There you have it!

Bye for now!!

Nothing New To Report

How is everyone on this fine Monday evening? Not much happened in my world today which isn’t a bad thing!

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon
• dried cranberries
• almond butter
• pineapple jam

I’ll never get tired of how creamy almond butter makes my oats.

I spent the day keypunching. Fun times. I had a couple of snacks to help power me through…

We found out this morning that the yoga group signed up for another 10 week session but on Monday’s this time. Apparently we can still be in there until 12:40. Fortunately it didn’t affect me today because my lunch this week is 11:30-12:30 so I went on the elliptical anyways.

• Time: 45 minutes
• Avg Hr: 156
• Max Hr: 173
• Calories Torched: 431
• Distance: 5 miles

One of my co workers went to Panera’s this weekend and brought me back an Asiago cheese loaf. What a wonderful surprise that was!! :D

I cut off a small piece at lunch to go with my salad that I packed:

This was a mix of romaine, chickpeas, broccoli, cauliflower, chicken and honey Dijon dressing. Eating this reminded me of warmer days. *sigh*

The boys had hockey at 4:30 and DD had dance at 6 so I put a pork roast in the crock pot this morning in order for everyone to have a hot meal ready when we needed it. The house smelled SO good when I arrived home! I served mine with a thin slice of the Asiago bread and some corn. The cauliflower on the plate went in the trash because it tasted kinda funky. Must’ve been in the fridge too long.

The meat was fork tender. Loved it. I happily ate my way through a piece of b-day cake for dessert.

This was a really good cake. I normally don’t like icing, but this wasn’t too sweet at all. YUM!

I’m currently sipping a cuppa joe and watching Criminal Minds as I type this out. Multi tasking, anyone? LOL! I have a few odds and ends to finish up tonight before I can snuggle under the covers with my book. That’s my favourite time of day…when everyone is asleep and it’s just me and a book. I’m most relaxed then. What’s your favourite time of day and why??

Bye for now!!