Let’s Talk About Hair and Tables and Food!

DD and I went for hair cuts last night.  By hair cuts I really mean hair “trims”.  Five years ago my hair was down to the centre of my back and I decided to cut it all off.  A decision I regretted about a week later!  I’ve been growing it back ever since but it’s been slow going.  I’d say now it’s just a bit longer than shoulder blade length.  DD and I go to the salon to every 8 weeks for what we like to call, TLT; trim, layer, thin.  My hair is quite thick and wavy so the layering and thinning ensure that I don’t go around looking like a triangle head.  And the trim?  Well, let’s hope that’s keeping my locks healthy enough to grow about 3-4 more inches before I turn 80.  Here’s what my main looked like in the morning:
And here I am mid-cut (please excuse the drunk look on my face!!):
The end product!
As long as it’s not humid/raining out I have my hair straightened.  It takes WAY too long to do myself so having someone do it for me is a real treat. 
A few weeks ago I posted a photo of a new conditioner I bought to try out.  I’ve used it a few times now so I’ve decided that seeing as we’re on the topic of hair I’d give you my opinion of it.
Firstly, it smells bad.  Like really strong mint/disinfectant bad.  I almost didn’t use it because I detest strong smelling stuff first thing in the morning, but I ploughed on.  As per my hairdresser, conditioner should only go on the ends of your hair, not your whole head so I followed her instruction.  Odour aside, this product really pumped up my hair in a good way!  After my usual quick blow-dry the bottom half of my hair was soft and full of volume.  My hair was in no way flat or “heavy” from the conditioner.  It didn’t feel slimy, either.  
I don’t know if I would buy this again because the scent of it is just too powerful, IMO.  But if that’s something that doesn’t bother you, I’d say give this a try!
Something else I’ve been up to is a nice bike ride with DS in some gorgeous fall weather along some beautiful trails:
We made sure to be safe by wearing our helmets although the dark clothing was maybe not so wise as it was getting dark at the tail end of the ride!

The 2 of us love to ride our bikes but there is one drawback; we live at the top of a hill so no matter what route we take going home, uphill it is.  More often than not we walk the last little bit, dragging our bikes along.  :)
And it goes without saying that there has been hockey in my life this week, too! 
 
I’ve also been doing some online window shopping…a dangerous habit!  There are some great deals on nesting tables at CSN Stores right now. 

I think these units are a great idea for space challenged or awkwardly spaced rooms.  How easy would it be to stack them all up nicely and pull them apart as needed?  I also like the new coffee tables that store the 4 ottomans underneath.  Such space savers!
Here are a few of my eats over the past few days:
Hands down my favourite Lara Bar ever! 

I mixed this superb granola with goat’s milk yogurt one day for a tasty little lunch.
I know this dish doesn’t look like much but it was bursting with flavour.  I roasted some tomatoes from the garden with an onion at 400* for 30 minutes and served it as a side.  I dredged some halibut fillets in flour seasoned with oregano, garlic powder, chilli powder, salt & pepper then pan fried it with a tad of olive oil.  Lastly, some quinoa finished off the plate.  It was amaze balls!

This was also a great dish.  I bought some curry marinated tempeh and stir fried it with brown rice, broccoli and some roasted red pepper dressing.  Fabulous meal for sure!!
Well, it’s getting late so I’ll be off.  We’ve got soccer tryouts (for next season) Saturday and Sunday and hockey Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.  It’ll be Monday before I know it!! 
What have you got planned this weekend?
Bye for now!!

Go, Girl, GO!!!

It certainly has been a beautiful fall in these parts so far. We haven’t had any rain yet in September and the temperature has been magnificent. I’m sure glad the weather was gorgeous for DD’s cross country meet today. More on the in a second. Let’s get to breakie first!

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup kamut flakes
• cinnamon
• blueberries
• macadamia nut butter

DE-LI-CIOUS!

At 11am we picked up KC and made our way to the meet. DD was a little nervous, but I think it was more from the girls freaking each other out than the actual race itself. Here she is (on the right) at the start line;

And I took this one about half way through;

Look! She’s airborne! Her grade (five) had to run 2 km and I ran part of it with her so I could pass her a water bottle. She gets hot pretty quick and I knew it was help her out. I also wanted to keep her motivated as she went. I asked her after the race if my running along helped or not and she said she appreciated it. I snapped the next picture without her knowing about it. This was soon after she crossed the finish line;

HA! LOL!!! At one point while I was running with her she wanted to stop and I told her that she would feel so proud when she finished and that nothing worth having was easy. Shortly after I took this picture she told me she was so glad that she kept going and crossed the line. Awwww…

Then she wanted to eat! So lunch it was…mind you, it was 1pm at this point! In a bowl I mixed about a cup of NF Oikos, a scoop of pumpkin butter and about a 1/2 cup of Nature’s Path vanilla almond granola;

Love, love, LOVED this!!!I swear, there’s yogurt hiding under there! :D

I took care of the groceries as soon as I was done eating, then DD and I stole KC again and drove over to a nearby trail for an hour long walk. It was awesome. The puppers had fun, too!

We got home pert near 4pm and I was pooped out! I crashed on the deck with a magazine and stayed put for an hour while sipping on a half caramel cappuccino, half coffee from 7-11…

Bliss…

While I was zoning out, my hubby got some dinner grub on the BBQ. Beer butt chicken (yes, we`re addicted!), tri coloured potatoes (which I tossed with avocado oil, S&P)…..

…..and a quartered buttercup squashed that was spritzed with my olive oil mister. This all stayed on the grill for 1 hour. Dinner was served!

Oh, la la!! Dessert was a caramel Skinny Cow bar that I bought today. These ones have no Splenda and tasted JUST like butterscotch pudding!

I tried a new (to me) product that I`ve been working through for the past week or so. Blue Diamond Wasabi Soy almonds;

Good Lord, these are fabulous!!! I finished the can off at some point today. They made a great little filler for me while they lasted. It`d be safe to say that I ate small handfuls at a time and that was just enough.

My hubby is heading out for hockey in a bit and I plan on spending some time in front of the TV. Tomorrow morning we are attending a bottle fund raiser for the hockey team. That should prove interesting! My Dad brought over a big load of wine bottles and we hit up some of the neighbours, too. Now we have a nice little stash to bring along! I will be sure to report back tomorrow on how it went!

Bye for now!!

New Food: Dragon Fruit

The bulk of today was spent outside as it was GLORIOUS!! I slept until 8am before I finally crawled out of bed to make breakfast. Here's my eats;
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup TAZO chai tea concentrate
-1/3 cup Old Wessex 5 Grain cereal
-mashed banana
-2 tbsp dried fruit
-cinnamon sprinkles
I love using chai tea in my oats. It gives them a nice spicy kick. I only had a bit left so I decided to finish it off. My hubby and sis went to the driving range this morning so I decided to make another batch of almond butter while he was gone. I made this batch with a cool twist...

Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter

*1lb of almonds
*2 tbsp maple syrup
*1 tbsp cinnamon
I mixed everything together and popped it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350*.
I let the almonds cool for about 10 minutes before processing them. This batch took about 20 minutes to come together. I was getting a little worried that it wasn't going to work! I was relieved when it finally came together.
This turned out really good!! You can bet I had my share of tastes along the way!

By the time I had that all cleaned up and some housework done, it was time for lunch. I made a toasted English muffin topped with a new favourite, a 1/4 of an avocado mashed with a LC cheese wedge. Then I placed a tomato wedge over each piece.
Nirvana. This was really satisfying! My lunch dessert was a small piece of Caramel Banana Bread.
I think this was even better today! It's really moist and flavourful and hard to stay away from!

We all went for a trail walk this afternoon at a trail on the outskirts of town. It was the perfect day for it! Warm, but not enough so that there are bug issues. The terrain is full of obstacles like rocks and roots and fallen trees which made it all the more fun!! I wore my HRM but it was acting up for the first little bit. It took us just under an hour to walk the whole route and I burned about 225 calories. When we got home my hub and I spent about another hour pulling weeds from the yard. Fun times. I look at it as a bit of a workout and that makes it better! I was feeling snacky so I whipped of a green monster to sip on. This one had a generous handful of spinach, frozen banana, flax seed and a 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond breeze.
Very banana-y and delightful!

I finally got time to try my new food out today! I decided to be brave and buy a Dragon Fruit.
Funny looking thing, eh? It was so pretty when I cut it open! Check this out...
After doing some research online on how to go about eating one of these, I opted to quarter it and cut the flesh out much like you would for a melon. How did it taste? Well, DD and I both agreed that it was very similar in taste and texture to a kiwi. I really enjoyed it and am glad that I gave it a whirl. They're a bit costly so I don't think it's something I would buy all the time, but as a treat every now and again? SURE! Yo can learn more about dragon fruits right here.

Even though today is a holiday here in Canada, the kids still had their sports as usual. I dropped DD off at dance for 5 and then came home to get dinner started. We had chicken grilled on the BBQ that I marinated for an hour in this TJ's Cuban simmering sauce...
This sauce was courtesy of Mr.C! I also made steamed green beans and WW couscous for a side dish;
I really didn't need a sweet end but couldn't bare to out the very last, messy piece of chocolate cake back in the fridge so I did my duty for the day and ate it up! :)
Thank God it's gone!

DS had soccer at 6:30 WAY across town so we had to jet at 6 for that. My hubby went to get DD and met us there. Even though it was a nice day I learned well enough last year that this does not guarantee a warm soccer field! The wind really rips through the open space where the boys play. I made sure to wear a T-shirt, sweater and jacket and also brought a blanket for my legs. My hubby brought me an X-large chai tea when he got there. Ahhh...warmth! Here's a pic of DS at the game...
Well, I'm off to make lunches and prepare backpacks for the morning. Back to real life!!! I hope everyone had a great day!

Bye for now!