I.O.U.

I can not believe that the weekend is half over already. Today just seemed to fly by. Sheesh! I was thinking about the blog earlier this morning and realize that I owe you guys a few things. A product review, finished bathroom photos, veggie garden photos….I promise to get all that done this week. And I’ll start right now with my garden patch.

It’s not as big as I’d like, but I had to make do with the space I squeezed out at this house. My old place had a beautifully sized garden! This next picture is of my tomato plants and lettuce:

And next is green & yellow zucchini, spaghetti squash and butternut squash.

I’ll take more pictures in a month or so when everything is a bit bigger.

On to the food! Yesterday’s breakfast was a sweet one.

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon
• carob chips
• walnut pieces

Before going to the gym I ate a slice of whole grain bread with blackberry peach jam.

I hopped on the treadmill for an incline walk at lunch.

• Time: 45 minutes
• Avg Hr: 162
• Max Hr: 180
• Calories Torched: 461
• Distance: 3.2 miles

For lunch I nuked some egg whites and plopped them on a toasted Ezekiel English muffin that had a LC cheese wedge spread on it:

That sucker kept me F-U-L-L!!

I whipped up a great stir fry for dinner. It had yellow & red bell peppers and tofu tossed in Renee’s sweet onion salad dressing. I also made a package of soba noodles to serve it over. Finally, the top was studded with melty goat cheese;

This was bursting with flavour and came together in no time. After dinner I got DD ready for her final recital night and then we all hit the road to go watch. I didn’t get anymore photos because she had to go backstage right away and cameras aren’t allowed in the theatre, but the whole performance was amazing. Lively music, beautiful costumes….so much fun! By the time we arrived home it was 11pm and we were all beat out.

I woke to a dull, drizzly morning and just lounged in bed until almost 9am. I woulda stayed longer but my tummy was demanding food fast. I had my heart set on French toast so that’s exactly what I made. I used egg whites, USAB, cinnamon and vanilla, then soaked 2 slices of whole grain bread until the liquid was gone.

I let it cook until a nice crust formed and then hit the toast with some butter and hazelnut flavoured agave for one heck of a foodgasm!

The whole family went to the local farmers market after breakie to pick up some goodies. I bought beets, vegan cookies, fresh (as in, harvested at midnight) eggs (from one of the teachers at my kids school), LOCAL (!!) strawberries, local asparagus, spring mix lettuce, thickly sliced bacon and my hubby and I went halfsies on steaks. We can home, dropped the goods off and then I went right back out the the grocery store. By the time I got back it was almost 1pm and I was hangry. I made myself a large salad with the market greens, the last ear of corn, some leftover stir fry, blue cheese and sweet onion salad dressing:

Don’t let this photo fool you; this is a full sized salad bowl and it was just perfect! I also dove into a “mountain man” vegan cookie…my fave!

The afternoon was spend relaxing some and going to Walmart with DS so he could buy himself a new video game. HA! My hubby grilled up the market steaks for dinner and I sautéed the beets. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed with my meal. I don’t often eat steak, but usually enjoy it when I do. This time, not so much. I found the beets to be a bit bitter, too. *sigh* Dessert more than made up for it, though. I had some coconut sorbet topped with local strawberries. Hell ya!!

Knocked my socks off!!! My parents came by for a visit tonight and then I had the pleasure of cleaning the cat litter. The joy. But I did get outside long enough to pick some fresh flowers for the kitchen table:

I think I’m going to watch a few episodes of Criminal Minds and then turn in early for some extra shut eye. How is your weekend going?

Bye for now!

Excited for the Weekend

Happy Friday, everyone!! I’m excited to be staring down barrel of the first hockey free weekend since September 26! WOW! Not saying that I don’t love going to DS’s hockey, but being rink free on what is suppose to be a sunny, WARM weekend feels nice. What are you most excited about heading into the weekend???

While watching CSI last night I snacked on a mini PB cookie Lara bar:
Have I mentioned that I love these mini guys? I think so. I mean, I could just as easily cut a full size one in half, but there’s just something about an open wrapper that beckons it to be eaten ASAP.

I enjoyed a lovely bowl of oats once lunches were made and bags were packed:
-2/3 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-kefir
-thawed strawberries drizzled with cappuccino flavoured agave
Mmmm…I put the agave on the berries before heating them in the microwave so they were nice and syrupy once warm. Stay tuned tomorrow for an oat-free breakfast!

Here are my snacks so far:
I say so far because it’s highly likely that I’ll have something else before hitting the sack.

I had a great workout at the gym today. Even with a cold I managed to finish week 1 of Prevention magazine’s “fastest way to sculpt” program. Just to recap, Monday, Wednesday & today I did 30 minutes of cardio with the PM sculpt moves. Tuesday and Thursday I did 45 minutes of cardio only. I’ve already been able to increase the amount of weight in some of the exercises which is awesome, but more importantly, I feel so accomplished. I’m a visual person and call it whatever you want, but I take great satisfaction when I have a high calorie burn after a workout. To me that has always meant cardio, cardio, cardio so it was a lesson for me to realize this week that my higher calorie burn days were the ones with the strength training. What motivates you at the gym?

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 146
Max Hr: 169
Calories Torched: 544
Distance: 2.1 miles

Are you all ready for the world’s lamest lunch???
LOL! I wasn’t feeling anything last night when I went to make lunch so I left it until this morning figuring inspiration would come, but it did not. So I ended up throwing about 1 cup of soba noodles into a container with a scoop of Sabra hummus and cauliflower from last night. It was actually pretty good, but didn’t do much to satisfy my hunger after my workout! I ended up inhaling 2 ginger cookies from the staff kitchen. *blush* But, damn, they were g-o-o-d!!

Before I get to dinner I’ll show you my purchases from last night.

Ohhh, this is fabulous! DS had one before bed last night and I stole a bite. Sensational. There were also strawberry and lemon versions.

I found the Dorset cereal on sale for $4.99. Usually it’s upwards of $6.99! And I finally caved and bought some brown rice syrup and sucanat. I’ve come across a few tasty looking recipes in the Clean Eating magazine that call for these 2 ingredients that I’d like to try. Now just have to be a big girl and buy some coconut butter/oil. *sigh*

Dinner tonight was fun! We had “make your own pizzas”. Here are the ingredients that I used for mine:

It’s kinda hard to see, but that’s goat’s feta. So creamy. Here’s my pizza hot out of the oven.

Holy cow, I loved this! This meal reminded me of before my hubby and I were married and we used to use pitas for personal pizzas all the time. Seems like ages ago….wait, it was! LOL! My hubby also brought home a real tasty chocolate bar from work that he bought through a fund raiser. My piece is on the right, DS’s on the left,

He had already started eating his, but wanted it in the photo with mine. Hehe…

Well, friends, this was a fun post to write. Why don’t you stop by and ask me a question? And when you’re done doing that, head on over to visit Katie for the most adorable fur baby post! Pepper made the cut! LOL!

Bye for now!!

Free Wednesday’s

I had a GREAT sleep last night! Pilate’s is so good at relaxing me that way. DD stayed for both classes last night, too and I think she sleep pretty well. Seeing as I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, I had a few extra minutes to enjoy my breakfast. And now that it’s mostly light out by 7:30, I can enjoy the great view outside to boot!
-2/3 cup water
-1/3 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-chocolate honey
-dorset cereal
The boys won again last night!! The score was 4-2. This means they advance to the finals for sure. If they win their last game on Tuesday, they get home ice advantage. DS scored again, too which I was sad to miss! I made sure to give him some knuckle and a huge hug, though.

Here’s my nose clearing tea of choice for today…
Gotta keep those fluids going strong, ya know.

I was feeling OK enough to go to the gym again today. I figure that as long as I feel like going, I will. I’m hoping to have enough energy to last me the rest of the week. This cold seems to be all in my nose so I don’t think I’m doing myself any harm. Before going I ate a Luna bar:
This was good! But let’s face it; could it have really been bad when it was sporting a nice layer of chocolate on it?? I think not!

I did 25 minutes on the elliptical today as well as 25 minutes of strength training. I don’t know why I have such a hard time sticking to weights. I feel like such a power house once I’ve done them.

Time: 50 minutes
Avg Hr: 153
Max Hr: 185
Calories Torched: 421
Distance: 2.8 miles

You all know by now that you can count on me to bring leftovers for lunch, right? Ha! Today I brought some pork roast, potatoes and carrots from Saturday night’s dinner:
Num-a, num-a! Good thing I only packed what I did because I could’ve easily eaten more! Grapes rounded out my snacking for the (work) day:

I made a nice stir fry for dinner tonight. I’ve wanted to try soba noodles for ages and finally bought some over the weekend.
I made a teriyaki sauce using this recipe as I had all the ingredients on hand and it looks fairly simple to do. I did add a tbsp of honey to it. The stir fry was made using thinly sliced beef, sliced mushrooms, red & orange peppers, and an onion.

Yes, it was as delicious as it looks!! And see that piece of bread on the side there? Here’s a close up:

Make sure to keep up to date with Krista’s Kravings over the next few days for a detailed review on that! Dessert was a double chocolate biscotti:

I bought a box of these bad boys at Costco and they’re great! Crisp, yet light. They come individually wrapped, too which is nice.

I just got back from the pool with the kids. Tonight was the last night of lessons for this session so Wednesday’s will now be free for a month. And both the kids passed their levels which they were excited about. I’m gonna watch Criminal Minds now and then hit the sack.

Bye for now!!