To The Apple Orchard We Go!

Happy Saturday, everyone! I’ve enjoyed a busy, yet fun filled day. It all started with a 7am wake up call so that we could get ready and eat some breakie before we had to leave for hockey.

• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup oats
• cinnamon
• raisins
• PB2
• cinnamon honey
• walnuts

I made a monster coffee to keep me warm and off we went. I don’t know that I’ve mentioned this on the blog, but the past 3 times DS has been on the ice it has been for Triple A Rep tryouts for his division, which is Tyke. Well, the coaches made their final decisions after today’s ice time and DS made the team!!! WOOT! You’re looking (well, you know what I mean) at one proud mama bear today! This is basically a competitive travel team so there are 5-6 different city’s that the team will be playing against. I’m excited for the season to officially begin on September 26.

After hockey I picked up one TIRED DD from her slumber party at the hotel. She had a wicked good time. I’m not surprised a bit! They had the movie “theatre” room reserved and had the pool to themselves. The room was an ensuite so the 6 girls had their own room, bathroom and flat screen TV. They enjoyed a waffle bar for b-fast, as well. Not too shabby at all.

I was pretty hungry by the time we got home so I ate a zucchini nut muffin to tie me over until it was lunch time.

These are some seriously tasty muffins. I highly recommend the recipe. Like I mentioned yesterday, I always leave the Splenda out of the Hungry Girl recipes and use agave instead. This has always worked well for me.

When lunch rolled around I was feeling some pizza so I topped a Stonemill English muffin with a piece of pepper jack cheese, a tomato and a few sliced olives and popped it under the broiler for a bit.

Once I sat down to eat it, I realized the the muffins were cran-apple and was afraid that they’d taste horrible, but they were GREAT! I also ate a Rachel’s pomegranate acai yogurt;

Not sure that I tasted any of the fruit mentioned, but it was pretty good none the less.

After lunch we drove over to Chudleigh’s, a somewhat local apple orchard that we go to every year.

As you can see from the above sign, it’s a bit pricey to go in. When the kids were small we gladly paid the fee because they enjoyed the petting zoo and the play area. These days we’re content to just browse the store and load up bags of pre picked apples. Today I bought Ginger Gold;

And a bag of Sunrise which I’m told are very similar to Honey Crisp, my other fave. I must have accidentally deleted that photo cuz I can not find it now! I also bought 4 yummy sounding jams.

As I was putting these away, I realized that I have A LOT of jam in the pantry. I won’t be buying anymore for quite a while! As soon as we got home, DD and I left again to get the grocery shopping done. Nothing exciting there…just a hefty bill. Eeek! September is such an expensive month.

For dinner I ate a SOL veggie burger;

…on an Arnold Thin with mayo, chipotle mustard, sharp white cheddar and lettuce. On the side was a crispy apple;

The photo came out dark because we lost our sun for a bit later in the day. I was not very impressed with this SOL burger. I liked the Spicy Black Bean ones much, much better. This wasn’t horrible by any means, just not great. I’ll likely not buy these again.

After we were done with dinner, the kids and I took KC for a walk. My hubby is at hockey tonight and I needed to get both the kids out of the house to occupy them. Upon our return I ate a chocolate brownie Z-Bar;

And then we left the house again to hit Walmart for more back to school crap. Both the kids needed indoor shoes, hand sanitizer and DS needed a pencil sharpener and a ruler, not to mention body wash. I got suckered into a t-shirt for one and a hat for the other and left the place $75 poorer. Ugh…

Now the kids are showered, watching Hannah Montana and we are not going anywhere else tonight. I’m enjoyed a dark cocoa Camino hot chocolate as I type this out and then I’ll be reading all the blogs that I missed so far today. Then I’m not cat litter duty. Fun times. Hehe!

Before I go I wanted to show you all the new shorts and tank that I ordered online from Lululemon’s “loot” (or on sale) section. I’m pretty excited to get these new beauts on for my next workout!!

Bye for now!

Dinner and Dessert Out

Well, I’m much later than usual with my post tonight, that’s for sure! It’s just about 9:30 and we just got home so I’m gonna make this post a quick one.

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup Red River hot cereal
• cinnamon, vanilla, salt
• blueberries'
• cinnamon plum tea jam
• almond butter

Morning snack was a Zucchini Nut Muffin;

As usual I omitted the Splenda and added a 1/4 cup of agave. AND, the recipe is suppose to make 9 muffins….I got 12 good sized ones.

No gym today as the fam was home so I went there to have lunch with them;

• Flatout wrap stuffed with steamed cauliflower, broccoli, pepper jack cheese, grilled onion ring
• Ted Readers Peach Bourbon sauce for dipping
• NF plain Chobani, dorset granola, squirt of agave

Afternoon snack;

We decided to go out to Casey’s for dinner tonight as DD was due to her birthday party by 6:30 and we didn’t feel like cooking at home. I went all out an order a Stacked Chicken sandwich with a side salad, dressing on the side;

This sandwich was layered top to bottom in the following order;

• coleslaw
• tomato
• grilled chicken breast
• granny smith apple
• panko crusted cheddar cheese
• bacon

This was delicious! The first half went down as is, the second half lost the bacon to DS, the panko breaded cheese to my hubby and the top piece of bread to the plate. I also only ate a bit of the salad.

Once DD was dropped off we went to DS’s “old” hockey coaches house to pay our fees for the 4 power skating sessions we signed him up for. We left their place around 8 and made a bee line to DQ for some dessert!

That neon blob is a small Oreo blizzard. YUM!

So here I am now, with a belly full of ice cream, getting ready to tuck in for some TV time before I hit the sack. DS is on the ice at 9am and I have to pick DD up by 10:30. I also have plans to get the grocery shopping done and make a road trip to the apple orchard for my favourite variety of apples, Ginger Gold.

What do you have planned for the weekend???

Bye for now!

TGIAF

That’s right! The weekend is just around the corner. This week feels like it has gone by very fast. I’m sure not complaining! Even though it wasn’t the case, I was feeling rushed for time this morning so I decided a bowl of cereal was the way to go;

This here is a cup of Kashi U, fresh blueberries and USAB. I’m almost done the box which makes me sad because this is one terrific cereal.

I managed to get a few odd jobs off my desk today. Glad to see the back of them! My morning snack was a Clif Dipped Mojo Bar;

This bar had me at first glance;

Anything coated in luxurious chocolate has to be good, right? Right. One taste blew my mind! It was like a big mouthful of crunchy peanut butter and nutella. Heaven. The only thing that gave me pause was the 210 calorie count. I normally would want a bar that high to be bigger than this was, but it’s nothing that would stop me from purchasing more on my next road trip to the US. I have a PB & Jelly dipped one still to try and I’m hoping it’s as good. Here’s a final thought on Mr. Dipped!

Then I was off to the gym. I really had to talk myself into going today. I just was not feeling it. Those are usually the days that end up rocking and today was no exception!

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 162
• Max Hr: 186
• Calories Burned: 470
• Distance: 4.5 miles

Five minutes of this was spend giving my legs a really good stretch. Feels great after a run, for sure!

Lunch was a bit of a cop out, but really tasty! I was so unmotivated last night while trying to figure out what I wanted that I just threw 3 ingredients in a container…..leftover zucchini, feta and chopped walnuts;

This turned out to be a fabulous blend of flavours! I also ate some fruit that I collected from the staff kitchen that was left over from a meeting…

Love fresh fruit. Especially when it’s already cut up for me! :D

DS was on the ice again this aft at 5 so I drove over to the rink to watch for a bit. On the way I snacked on some peach yoga chips;

I’ve only got 2 packs left which is a sad thing.

DD and I made our way home at 5:30 so I could get dinner going. I grilled up some bone in chicken breasts and red onions, nuked a sweet potato pour moi and dished out some baby carrots and Sabra jalapeno hummus;

FYI….that extra crispy skin came off as soon as the picture was taken. I have never, ever been a fan of the skin….crispy or otherwise. Ewww. My sweet end was a Skinny Cow fudge pop.

I spent some time on the deck with my book before collecting DD to go purchase a gift for a party she’s invited to tomorrow. Parties sure have come a long way since I was a kid. This sleepover starts at 6:30pm tomorrow and is being held at a HOTEL. Yes, you read that right, a hotel. According to the invite, there will be movies, swimming, and a waffle b-fast bar in the morning. I think I want to go to this party, too. ;)

I’ll sign off now as I go reminisce about b-day parties of the past where we played pin the tail on the donkey and ate a good ole Betty Crocker cake with Smarties as decorations….

Bye for now!

Beans Beans, They`re Good For Your Heart……

Has everyone been having a fabulous hump day? Mine’s been a dandy, thanks! Got the kids off to another successful day at school, had some tasty eats, spent some downtime with the new Prevention mag…..can’t ask for (much) more.

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup PC 5 Grain cereal
• cinnamon
• dried blueberries
• hemp seeds
• cinnamon honey
• walnut pieces

I’m pretty sure that walnuts are my favourite nut. The have such a great crunch and mild flavour. What is your favourite nut?

Payrolls were pretty hectic all morning. We had some balancing issues that really had us twisting our brains. We got it all sorted out…always do…and the day moved on. This here was the perfect brain food for our issues;

Chocolate brownie….do I really need to elaborate? Thought not! :D

My hips are achy today from all those super fab lunges and squats I did yesterday so I was thrilled to see Mr. Elliptical waiting for me today! I also worked on my arms and back. Can’t tell you the exercises I did because I have no clue what they’re called, so lets just say I was sporting some serious Jell-O arms when I was done!

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 145
• Max Hr: 174
• Calories Burned: 378
• Distance: 3.4 miles

I ate a tomato & bean salad for lunch today. Hence the title of this post! :) Here’s the bean mix I used today;

Like the last can I tried, these babies were marinating in a dressing. I had chopped up 5 Roma tomatoes from the garden and used a fork to scoop the beans out of the can.

There was plenty of flava left on them so that I didn’t need to add anything else.

Super tasty! I chased this with the last 1/4 of amazing Clif Bar that I saved.

The afternoon was as slow as the morning was fast. Ugh….I hit a major wall by 3:30 and had to get up and go for a walk to shake the sleepies off. When I returned to my desk I munched on some crisp grapes;

Dinner tonight was turkey burgers. YUM! Mine went on top of an Arnold Thin with mayo, honey mustard, relish, lettuce, tomato and pepper jack cheese. I chopped up one of the garden zucchini’s and cooked it up in a large skillet with some avocado oil, S & P. This was a nice change up to the grilled zuke’s we’ve been eaten for the past little while. Behold a delicious meal….

To finish off I capped 3 mini blueberry muffins with some macadamia nut butter. These were enjoyed with a side of cat. :D

Pepper is looking so innocent here, but he was really trying to lick my nut butter off! Devil cat! Well, my dears, I’m off to make lunches and plough through the gazillion pieces of paper that came home from school today. Yikes! Have a great night, all…

Bye now!!

First Day of School High

The kids were definitely raring to go this morning. DD had been so excited to wear the outfit she picked that I’m shocked she didn’t try to sleep in it! :) I took a few pic’s of them before ewe left the house this morning. Warning----DS is wearing his grumpy face. He didn’t want a picture! :)

I started my morning off with a great bowl of love;

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup sunrise blend with quinoa
• cinnamon
• almond butter
• raisins
• blueberries

D’you like my new bowl???

I’ve refrained from buying any recently because my hubby was starting to make a stink about all the room the bowls take up in the cupboard, but I had to have a red one! :D

Work went by quickly today. It’s not only pay week, but the first pay of the school year so there are a lot of adjustments to deal with. I pulled out my Clif Mojo bar about 11:45 to eat before I went to the gym at 12:30.

I really wasn’t keen on a run today and had planned some time on the elliptical, but it was in use. The hazards of a small gym, I guess. Thankfully that doesn’t happen very often. Anyways, I bucked up and ran at a slower pace with different inclines for a 1/2 hour before hitting up some strength moves. Here’s what I did;

1. 3 sets x15 lunges on bosu with 7lbs weights
2. 3 sets x 15 tricep dips
3. 3 sets x 15 squats on the bosu
4. 3 x 60sec planks

• Time: 50 minutes
• Avg Hr: 148
• Max Hr: 174
• Calories Burned: 407
• Distance: 2.61 miles

Remember that salmon I didn’t feel like at dinner last night? Well, it made a great salad topper for today’s lunch!

• baby spinach
• salmon fillet
• garden tomatoes
• carrots
• fig balsamic dressing

This was a simple, yet delicious meal!

DS was on the ice at 5pm at a rink close by so I stopped there on my way home from work to watch for a bit. After a 1/2 hour DD and I were cold so we made our way home. The sun was shining hot so I took advantage of some free time to sit out on the deck with my book. The perfect way to unwind, in my opinion!

The boys wanted pizza for supper so I popped 2 frozen guys in the oven for them to enjoy. I decided to try out the Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake that I bought while in the States over the holiday’s. I’d heard good things about it so I was eager to give it a go.

As I usually do with microwave meals, the meal was laid on a bed of steamed broccoli. I find using veggies is the best way to bulk up the sometimes meagre portion sizes.

So what did I think??? F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!! This was my first time trying plantain and it was SO good! I never realized that they were on the sweet side! I’d buy this again in a heartbeat.

After dinner DD and I took KC for an hour long walk. Great way to digest your dindin! :) Once I’m done here I’ll be preparing lunches and getting the kids settled into bed. Then, at 9pm, I will be putting my feet up to watch SYTYCD Canada. Ahhhh….

Bye for now!!