Blogger Meet Up at the Market!!

Happy Saturday, everyone! I had a most fun day today. DD and I were up and on the road by 7:30 to head into Toronto to hit up some popular farmers' markets. We enjoyed the company of a fellow blogger who was a most awesome tour guide....Ruth from Plentiful Plants!

What a sweet friendly person Ruth is! We have plans to meet up again soon for some more excursions in T.O. I really appreciated her taking part of her day to show us around the markets and bringing us to the best vendors. I bought a ton of stuff, but first...what did I eat for breakfast? Well today ends my June challenge of eating something different for breakfast one day a week for the month. I made a toasted WW bagel with homemade cinnamon maple almond butter and fig jam to go...This made for a great breakfast. DD had one too, minus the preserves. Traffic was fantastic on the way there so between that and my lead foot, we made it downtown in 55 minutes. We passed right by the CN Tower many times. I've seen it hundreds of times in my life and I'm always amazed by it!
We went to the St. Lawrence Market...
and Kensington Street market. As I mentioned, I bought loads of goodies. Here's the proof!

Sweet peas, bell peppers, and a few different varieties of tomatoes.
Fresh local asparagus. I can't wait to roast these babies up!
Strawberry Banana jam, sweet apple chamomile tea and Holly Nog Vita Soy. This was reduced to a dollar because it expires on July 17th. I'm sure I can put it back by then!
Yellow and green zucchini and a KABOCHA courtesy of Ruth and some homemade mole, also from Ruth. I' thrilled about the kombucha and the mole is so very good. I stuck my finger in to give it a taste and I think iIm gonna enjoy that on some chicken! THANKS, Ruth!!

Pastries! There are 7 in there if you can believe it. This is more for my hubby who enjoys this type of sweet stuff. I can take or leave it so it's safe for me to have a home.

Fresh, local strawberries which are super sweet and juicy. We've actually already polished off a pint! They're like eating candy.

And this ginger dark chocolate bar which melted on the way home and had to be put in the fridge to reharden. It looks a little funny but tastes great! I also bought some almond breeze which was more reasonably priced than what I've been finding lately and some cereal for the kids. I purchased some dried banana's which you will likely see in my oats tomorrow. They're VERY strange looking!

I taste tested some really good cheese and breads so I was OK for lunch until we got home which was about 1:30. I put everything away then made up a bowl of cottage cheese mixed with pineapple jam and fresh strawberries (which taste just like sugar!!) and a wrap that was filled with some Monteray Jack (purchased at Kensington Market) and some grilled zucchini and oyster mushrooms (purchased at St. Lawrence Street). I toasted it up in a pan to melt the cheese.

What a great lunch!!! The veggies were in quite a bit of oil so I rinsed them off and patted them dry before using them. This didn't take any of the flavour away in my opinion.

As soon as I got this down we left to go to my parents place to celebrate my nephews 4th b-day. Mom had dinner for 4:30. There were burgers, sausages, hotdogs, potato salad and pasta salad and a green salad. Nothing appealed to me which I couldn't figure out a first but I soon realized that I was not hungry. I munched on some watermelon and strawberries...

Then enjoyed a piece of Mom's famous drumstick cheesecake... Full or not, I can not pass this one up!

We arrived back home about 7:30 and I can honestly say that I'm BEAT! I know I didn't eat much of a dinner, but I'm just not very hungry. I'm going to spend the evening catching up on blog reading with my feet up while sipping on that new tea. I hope you all had as enjoyable a day as I had!

Bye for now!

Bad Work News

Hello, all!

Well, I’m not gonna sugar coat it – getting up at 6:15am this morning seriously sucked! The kids co-operated, though…..thank God for small miracles…and we were out the door on time. Seeing as I was still half asleep when it was time to eat, I kept my oats on the simple side…


-1/2 cup chocolate peppermint Vitasoy
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-sprinkle of granola

I enjoyed this in relative peace and quiet while the kids coloured in the other room.

After I finished all my “chores” last night, I ended up baking some PB & chocolate chip cookies. My hubby had a hankering for them the other night, but I was too lazy to dig out a recipe and bake them. When I got off the computer last night, I found him wandering around with one of my cookbooks! GASP!! In our house, this is equal to me wandering around with a hammer….no good can come out of it! See, after nagging him for what seems like endless days to hang a picture for me, I finally seek out his precious hammer with the intent to just hang the darn thing myself. As soon as he sees me it’s instant panic and I get the “WHAT are you doing with my HAMMER????” Before I know it, the picture is up! HAHA! Same thing goes when I find him with a recipe…”WHAT are you doing with my RECIPE BOOK?????” And before he knows it, his cookies are made. :) Here’s the finished product.


I should mention that I used this recipe from Redbook magazine. I didn’t make any filling and I added about a 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips. They. Were. Good! I ate 4 of them (well, 6 if you count the raw batter I ate!) That is precisely why I do not bake such things very often. Who can resist a cookie warm out of the oven? Not this girl! **Just a quick sidebar….my hubby inhaled 8 of these beauties in about 2 minutes!**

Okay! Back to today. Mid morning at noshed on these 2 clementine’s. One was really tasty, the other a bit dry. Glad I ate the dry one first!!!


Here’s my stats on my lunch run!

Time:35:19
Avg HR:167
Max HR:181
Calories:338
Miles:3.37

My run went by quickly today because I was so distracted watching my kitten and middle cat (Charlie) playing. Animals are funny little creatures!! Also, today was one of those days where I could’ve kept going. I felt really good and strong.

Lunch was the last piece of snapper from the other night…

Looks pretty sad, eh?! No matter…it was still tasty! I also ate some cut up peppers and carrots with Sabra Peppadew hummus…


One of the other payrolls girls was off today and we came to find out that she broke her wrist yesterday. Poor girl. Sucks for myself and the other payroll clerk, though, because she’ll be off for 6-8 weeks….and we’re already short a person. YIKES! It’s gonna be a busy month! We do have a lady helping us out with some things which will be a big help. When you work in a payroll environment, you can't just pull any old joe in to help because everything is confidential.

I’m sure nobody will be surprised to see this for my dinner…


Leftover chili! Tastes even better today! My sweet end? You guessed it! PB cookies! I think they'll be gone after my hubby and the kids are done with them tonight. Amen.

I'm off now to pick DD up from dance, then I have to get moving on the work I brought home today. I'm so excited about the task...enter sarcasm...Enjoy your night!!

Bye for now!

Dessert For Breakfast

I made myself a seriously decadent dessert, I mean breakfast, this morning!


Noggy Blueberry Bread Pudding

-2 slices WW bread
-1/2 cup blueberries
-1 Tbsp agave
-1/4 cup egg Beaters
-1/2 cup Vitasoy Hollynog
-1 tsp cinnamon

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees
*break bread into pieces and place in a greased oven proof casserole
*combine all other ingredients in a bowl and pour over bread
*bake for 30-35 minutes


Seriously good stuff! After my food had a chance to digest a bit, I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill. The HRM worked much better this time around-thanks for the tips! I wet the band a little more and tightened up the wrist strap. Voila! No pauses in recording! Here are my stats:

Time: 35:10
Time in Zone: 34:37
Avg HR: 170
Max HR: 180
Calories burned: 349

I hopped off and played about 10 minutes of the Outdoor Challenge on the Wii with the kids to cool down. By the time I had a shower and put my face on, it was lunch time! Seems like a really fast morning!

Lunch was pretty much a repeat of yesterday-stir fry. The only differences today were that I added a bit of left over chicken breast to the tofu and used mango chutney instead of the pomegranate one.

Very tasty, indeed! I also ate a medjool date filled with almond butter for a bit of a sweet end. Not photo, though!

It wasn’t long after lunch was done that my brother brought my niece and nephew by for a visit. The kids pulled the outdoor challenge back out and had a good time with it. After they left, we decided to hit the rink for some public skating. We haven’t been yet this year because DS is on the ice every Saturday & Sunday, but there’s a big tournament on in town this weekend so there was no hockey. Now, I don’t skate very well at all. Both my kids can lap me with their eyes closed and my hubby has been playing hockey since he was 5, but he learned to skate at the age of 3. I am SO jealous because they make it seem so easy and I just can not get the hang of it. I do try my hardest because I really want to get good, but after 20 minutes today, my feet were positively SCREAMING at me. I actually wanted to get on my hands and knees and crawl off the ice they hurt so badly. Fortunately for me, my hubby tried out his brand spanking new skates today, so he was off the ice not long after I was. It never felt so good to get my (fake) Ugg’s back on!

Once home, I made a frothy cup of java...


Then I parked my rear end on the couch to watch some tube. I wish I had thought to bring my camera in the room with me because Pepper and Charlie decided to curl up in my lap for a nap! WAHOO….2 of them have finally made nice. My older cat is coming along…he’s stopped hissing, anyways!!

My hubby and the kids decided that they wanted a store bought lasagna for dinner so I nuked a ravioli Smart Ones frozen dinner and ate that with a half cup of steamed edamame. I'll admit to a few bites of the store bought one...usually, I find that they taste horrible, but this one wasn't too bad!


PHEW….filling meal! No sweet end for me just yet! Maybe later. My parents should be arriving shortly for a visit and then I plan to watch Canada play at the Juniors. We have a ferocious team this year!! Hope you all enjoy your Staurday evening, no matter what you have on the go!

Bye for now!!

A Photo Recap

I was checking out my post from yesterday and realized that somehow, the part about yesterday’s breakfast was missing!! I don’t know what happened there, but I’m sure you guys were pretty confused about how I went from eating cottage cheese at night to baking a cake the next day!! Sometimes I am a dork, plain and simple! I must have deleted a paragraph somehow. Here’s what I ate….. a mix of Quaker oats, water, cinnamon, French vanilla International Delight coffee creamer and pumpkin seeds.


I still wasn’t hungry by 1pm (this is still yeaterday), but my parents eat VERY early….at 4:30…so I knew I had to get something in my system or I’d go there starving. I nuked a ¼ cup of egg whites and put it between a 100 cal English muffing with some whipped cottage cheese and hot sauce. I also ate 2 clementine’s for good measure!


Mom put on a grand feast, as usual! Course #1 was a small piece of lasagna, salad and a bun…


Course# 2 was veggies, roasted sweet potatoes and ham…


Dessert was a piece of my oh so rich flourless chocolate cake and a biscotti that Mom made.


The plate is a disaster because I almost forgot to take a picture and had already dug in! Whoops!

There was also a tray of sweets out that I picked on but didn’t take any photos. I think I had 2 more biscotti, a raspberry square and some chocolate/peanut yum that my sis made.

We were home by 8pm and I just crashed on the couch with my kitty! At that point, it felt like midnight I was so tired! I was light’s out a bit before 11pm and woke up refreshed at 7:30am this morning. I got up and went straight to the kitchen to make a pot of oats!

-1/2 cup chocolate peppermint Vitasoy
-1/2 cup water
-1/2 cup flax seed porridge
-sprinkle of granola


This was just what my belly needed!! After I ate, I made a big cup of green tea and proceeded to get some blog reading done. I have really enjoyed reading about everybody’s Christmas traditions over the past few weeks! Very entertaining and I found some neat new ideas, too! One thing I really enjoyed this morning while blog reading was Meghann and Angela’s photo recaps of their adventure’s in 2008. I thought I’d be a copy cat and do the same thing. While searching for picture’s on the computer, I realized that before I started to blog in August, I really didn’t take many pictures! I think that will change this year!! I did scrounge a few up so I hope you enjoy them!

In January, we went to see the Monster trucks in Toronto for DS's 6th birthday. What a BLAST!!


Our annual weekend get-a-way to the Nottawasaga Inn & Resort in April. This is always a fun filled family weekend!


In May, DD turned 9....Hannah Montana style!! My hubby and I also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in May! Man, time sure does fly!


In June, a very excited DS graduated from senior kindergarten. He was psyched to move on to grade 1!

In July, we participated in our first fund raiser as a family, walking a 5K for Jessica's Footprint...


Hubby and I at Canada's Wonderland in August. DD took this picture of us!

In November, DS and his hockey team played the intermission of the Canada Russia Hockey Challenge...a first "on ice with a crowd" experience for him and us! That's him with his stick on the puck....


In December, we welcomed a new furry friend into our home...Pepper!

And there we have a basic recap of 2008.

We took down the Christmas tree today. I’ve always found that to be such a sad chore. It really marks the end of the holidays and reminds me that real life is waiting for me just around the corner. *SIGH*

I made a quick stir fry for lunch using some tofu, leftover veggies and a tbsp of pomegranate chutney.


Easy and delicious! I also had a few clementine’s. I get so addicted to those little guys every year! After eating, I decided I’d better get out of my PJ’s and get some things done. First up was a trip to Costco where I found these….


Medjool dates! I’ve found them in the bulk section at the health food store, but never in a tub like this! I ate one as soon as we were back in the van and when we arrived home, I cut a slit in one and filled it with a tsp of almond butter.


Heaven! I can certainly see why some people eat this as a dessert.

I’ve been reading “The Cell” by Stephen King (one of my favorite authors) and realized today that it’s due back at the library tomorrow! Thankfully, I only had a few chapters left so I spent some time finishing it up. For those of you who are into Stephen King, it was a good one!

Snapper was on the menu for dinner tonight. I found some really nice, fresh fillets at Costco so I “snapped” them up! Oh, how I kill myself! HEHE!! :) I served it up with some sweet potato chunks that I steamed in the microwave.


My sweet end was a piece of chocolate cake…


I'm off to play with my Wii! Not sure what game yet...I'll decide when I get down there. I'll leave you with a picture's of pepper's first experience smelling fish. Needless to say, he went a little wild! Kittens are SO cute!


Bye for now!!

Is It Already Saturday??

I woke up at a more decent hour of 7:30 this morning. While there’s nothing wrong with getting out of bed at 9am every now and again, I always feel like I’ve lost half the day when I do! When I looked out the window, I couldn’t see past my nose for the fog. And it was pouring. And then there was thunder and lightening….on the 27^th of December. What the heck is with that???

I made a bowl of my eggnog oats for breakfast.

This ingredient combo never fails to tickle my taste buds! I’m going to be making a special stop at the grocery store where I found it to stock up on some more Vitasoy cartons before the seasonal flavours are gone!

I spent the rest of the morning organizing the presents under the tree. I like to leave everything under there for a few days before it get put away. This is what Pepper spent the morning doing…

Yes, that’s DD’s butt! I told him he’d better hope she didn’t toot!

Once the boys were home from hockey and showered, we made a trip to the mall to buy DS a new hockey stick because his broke at practice today. I stopped by a little booth called Kitchen Connaisseur when I noticed that all the merchandise was 50% off! I picked up some mango chutney, pomegranate chutney, Israeli couscous, maple cappuccino sauce, sun dried cherry sauce and a jar of chocolate mocha sauce and 2 bowls!


All these goodies only cost me $30.00! Can't wait to try everything!!

By the time we got home it was pushing 1:30 and I was a starvin Marvin! I made a sandwich with an Arnold Thin, cranberry sauce, turkey, artichoke and lettuce.


Delish!! I also finished off the jello, but didn't photograph it because I've eaten it for the past 2 days! Finally, 2 clementines found their way to my mouth! No pic of them, either...

The afternoon was fairly uneventful. I caught up on some blog reading and cleaned up the house some. We have company coming over tonight so I more or less cleaned the rooms I know people will be in. I'm a cheater, I know! I really hate cleaning, though!

I made turkey vegetable soup for din din tonight. Are ya sick of seeing turkey yet??
I sauteed an onion, 2 cubed carrots, 3 ribs of celery, diced in some broth until they were soft. Next, I added about 5-6 cups of homemade turkey stock and brought everything up to a boil. In went a half cup of orzo and a can of lentils. That simmered for another 10 minutes or so and presto! Supper is served!


I sprinkled about a Tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese on top. Because i know there will probably be sweets floating around later, I ate 2 more clementines for my sweet end.

I was thinking today that when I have to get back into my normal routine, I'm going to pay for all this relaxing business that I've been enjoying! I had full intentions of getting a run in today, but it never did happen. Tomorrow we have brunch with my family on the agenda plus a 4pm hockey game and possibly dinner out with my sister in law. Let's see if I squeeze a workout in!!

Bye for now!!