A Ghastly Sight

So we were up and out the door early for DS’s check up this morning. Unfortunately, due to this H1N1 scare, the office was jam packed. Uh Oh. We finally saw the doc after a 45min wait for people to get their shots. At least all is well with my boy! Because he has asthma he ended up getting the shot himself. Well….1/2 of it anyways. At 7 he is too young for the whole dose so I get to go back again in 3 weeks for the other half. DD, who at 10 can get the shot all at once, will also get hers at this time. Oh, I can’t stand the fun. Of course we had some alligator tears, but the doctor made us (not DS) laugh when he declared hockey players the biggest chickens!! LOL!!

-1 cup coffee
-1/3 cup oat bran
-raisins
-almond butter
-carob chips

I was glad to have this breakie in my body after the extended wait!

I drove the kids to school at popped into DS’s class to let the teacher know that he had his shot. Guess what she comes back at me with? She informed me that ALL the kids in her class have healthy food in their lunch and all DS pulls out of his is junk. JUNK? Seriously?? Me, pack JUNK for my kids???? Granted DS can be a picky eater, but I do send him with healthy granola bars (Kashi, Nature’s Path), WW goldfish, real juice drinking boxes and if he has a sandwich, it’s always WW bread. He is not a big fruit/veggie eater, so I save that sort of food for at home so I know that it doesn’t get thrown out. I often will pack his thermos with dinner leftovers, too. To say I was offended was an under statement. This teacher does not see him eat oatmeal each morning, nor the salad/cucumbers/chickpeas/lentils, etc that he eats at dinner. I know I’m biased here, but IMO, she was out of line. What do you guys think? Should a teacher dictate what a child brings in their lunch bag? Like I told her, I pack what I know he will eat. Food coming home and/or getting thrown out does not equal food in his belly. Sorry for the rant. I really would love to hear your opinions on this.

No workout today. It was Thursday yoga day. That’s cool, though. I took the hour to pick up my contacts, pull all the bedding off the bed because we bought a new mattress set on the weekend and it was delivered this afternoon, scooped cat litter and played with my fur babies. I also snacked on a Kashi granola bar;

Then I looked out the window and saw this nastiness;

HAIL! Crap! Then, not long after getting back to work, it got worse….

SNOW! Double crap! Not my idea of pleasantness. Argh…..Lunch rocked, though!

Moroccan Chickpea Stew with a healthy dollop of raw hummus. And because my hubby always teases that I take the picture while the food looks nice, this is what happens post shoot;

Super awesome, garlic breath and all!! :D After seeing that white stuff out the window, I figured I deserved a hot drink. Enter….

The caffeine had my head buzzing, but it tasted great going down!!

Dinner was a bit hectic tonight with the mattress delivery thrown into the mix. I stuck to the meal plan and mad the Mexican chicken, though! The fam ate their dinner earlier than I wanted so I packed mine up and took it to the rink with me.

There’s some green beans and yellow bell peppers there, too. Dessert was this juicy apple;

I ate this meal at a small table by myself while reading New Moon. So much more peaceful than what I’m use to! :) When I was done I walked down the hall to the library to get DS some books, grabbed a tea at the cafe then watch the last 20 minutes of DD’s skating lesson. Then , the 2 of us drove over to DS’s practice which was at the rink by our house. Once we got home the 4 of us put fresh sheets on the new mattress set. To say I can’t wait to get into bed is an understatement!! Our old set was 14 years old!!! Once CSI & Vampire Diaries are over, I’ll be tucking myself in!

Candy confession time!

Bye for now!!

Dentist Woe’s

Today was a pretty quiet hump day which is just fine by me! The kids actually got dressed and played some Monopoly while I was in the shower instead of their normal fight, fight, fight routine. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll play nice again tomorrow! I even thought ahead last night and pulled a serving of apple pie crock pot oats from the freezer so breakfast was done in no time!

I added some water to plump it back up and then topped it off with USVAB and walnut pieces.

Love, love, love!

I spent some quality time with Mr. Elliptical today, but snacked on ½ of this PB&J Lara Bar that I found at the store over the weekend;

While I still prefer Clif Bars to the Lara Bars, this one was very, very good. To me, it really did taste just like a PB&J sandwich. I’d buy it again for sure. I’m hoping to find the tropical one around here, too. Back to gym stuff!

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 156
Max Hr: 175
Calories Torched: 436
Distance: 5.1

Erica noticed that I used “burned” instead of “torched” yesterday in regards to my calories. Good eye, girl! I hadn’t noticed myself, but I definitely torched those babies!!

Lunch was more of last night’s fab dinner! Quiche and salad;

Tasted just as good today, re heated. I’m going to have to keep the quiche idea tucked into my back pocket for an easy meal on a busy night. I ate the rest of the Lara Bar when lunch was done. I also sipped on an orange pecan hot cocoa;

How’s that for a retro mug??? I used more powder this time and it was 100% better than yesterday’s drink. Oh la la!

The afternoon was spent keypunching. Fun times, let me tell you. I snacked on some grapes while labouring away,

I also had a Stash tea because the office was cool for some reason this afternoon.

Much to my chagrin, I had to make another trip back to the dentist after work so he could “fix” the filling he put in last June. Apparently a piece had broken off. Ugh. Needless to say, my mouth was still frozen at supper time. Not impressed. I made the ravioli bake for the fam and ended up having a scoop myself because it was soft. I put some kabocha on my plate, too;

This meal was so blah….and difficult to eat. Eating it turned me into Miss Sassy Pants. :(

I just got back from the pool and I’m gonna try a tea shortly. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t burn my face! At least I can feel my bottom lip now. I’ll be hitting the hay early tonight because DS has a 7:30 dr’s appointment in the morning which means I have to get out of bed 45 mins earlier than usual.

Candy confession time!

I actually didn’t end up eating the orange sucker in the top photo. Catch ya on the flip side!!

Bye for now!!

Homemade Raw Hummus

How’s everybody on this fine Tuesday? I had a pretty good day! This “extra” hour of sleep is going a long way towards me waking up feeling refreshed!

-1 cup water
-1/4 cup PC 5 grain oats
-1/4 cup Weetabix crumbs
-1 tbsp flax seeds
-cinnamon
-almond butter
-chocolate honey

The weetabix crumbs made this bowl super thick and creamy. It was definitely a good addition to the bowl. Speaking of the bowl, how do you like my newest, purple prize?

I picked this up for $5.99 at Winners. I also bought this Christmas set for $12.99;

The whole family is coming to my place for Christmas dinner this year so I figured I get started on some festive stuff! Something that really has nothing to do with Christmas, but I couldn’t bear to leave behind was this orange pecan hot chocolate!

Oh, lordie! More on this in a wee bit.

Before hitting the gym I ate a sweet honey crisp apple;

I don’t know about you guys, but apples make me burp! :D I’m glad I was in the gym by myself because the bouncing from running had me sounding like a beer guzzling frat boy!!

Time: 40 minutes
Avg Hr: 154
Max Hr: 177
Calories Burned: 394
Distance: 4.1 miles

I was a little bit of a chatty Cathy on my way to the gym and wound up loosing 5 minutes out of my precious hour. Well, I didn’t loose them, but you know what I mean, right?!

Lunch came in 2 parts today. Part one was some leftover pork tenderloin/kasha stew that I made in the crock pot a few weeks ago;

And part 2, the best part, was 2 Ryvita crackers with some homemade raw sprouted garbanzo bean hummus spread on them!

Manon (who sent the raw chocolate pudding recipe home a few weeks ago) sent my hubby home from practice last night with a container of the above hummus and another filled with raw sprouted sunflower seed pate.

What a wonderful surprise! Damn the flash, though. Manon has recently started sprouting and I’m happy as a clam to be a test bunny. I’ll see if she wants to give up the recipes for the hummus and pate for you guys to try out. Read on to see how I used the sunflower seed pate at dinner time!

Later in the afternoon I broke out the orange pecan hot chocolate fro a whirl;

This was pretty good, but I think I skimped a bit too much when dishing out the powder. T’was a tad weak. I’ll use more next time I make it. So far, so good, though.

I stuck to the meal plan for the week and made the broccoli & cheddar quiche. I also made salads to go along with it. Caesar for the fam and mine was a mix of romaine, spinach, red & orange bella peppers and a tbsp of Manon’s raw sunflower seed pate as the dressing.

Heavenly! It’s been WAY too long since I’ve made a quiche. The only one who didn’t like it was DS which was no surprise to me. At least he tried it, though! Dessert, which I just finished up, was a slice of Caroline’s Vegan Pumpkin Bread with some pumpkin butter on it;

Candy confession time! Here’s what I ate throughout the day;

Well, it’s Biggest Loser time which = sign off time!

Bye for now!!

Meal Planning 101

Having children has certainly made life more hectic, but before this year I always found time for meal planning. Now that my son plays on a rep travel hockey team and is on the ice 4-5 times a week, I feel like meals are always rushed and not very well thought out. Meal planning seemed to go out the window pretty quick. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am an A personality. I live by lists and need at least some basic structure in my life or I do not bode well. It would seem that keeping track of 2 busy kids is not enough structure for me and I’m finding myself feeling a little lost lately. Flying by the seat of my pants so to say. So I’ve decided to commit to planning out meals from Monday to Friday for the month of November to see if that settles my restless mind some. I think it will cuz I’m weird that way! Each Monday in November I’ll post the week’s menu for you all to see. Most of this week’s meals are recipes that I pulled from the new Kraft: What’s Cooking magazine as they’re quick to prepare. So without further ado, here’s this week’s!

Monday – hockey practice (4:30-5:50) & dance (6-6:45)
-homemade turkey soup/grilled cheese sandwiches

Tuesday- Pilate’s (6:15-7:15)
-salad/broccoli & cheddar quiche – Kraft mag pg 53

Wednesday – swimming (7pm)
-Weeknight ravioli bake for fam – Kraft mag pg 52
-Yves veggie sausage/kabocha for me

Thursday – hockey practice (6:30-7:20) & skating (5:30-6:20)
-Saucy Mexican Chicken – Kraft mag pg 56
-green beans
-mac n’ cheese for the fam

Friday – FREE!!!
-Leftovers!

I think this will be doable considering we’re in and out quite a bit. There, I feel better already! :D On to breakfast!

-1 cup water
-1/3 cup oat bran
-cinnamon

-raisins
-pumpkin butter
-walnuts

I took a ½ hour lunch today so I could leave at 3:30 for a dentist appointment. This cut out my gym time. Damn dentist!! Urgh…..I did go home and snuggle with my fur babies for a bit, though. Great stress reliever.

Lunch was another serving of Moroccan Chickpea Stew;

As per above menu, tonight was soup & grilled cheese night! I added some turkey meat that I had in the freezer and star shaped noodles along with baby ravioli. My grilled cheese was done up in an Ezekiel 4:9 English muffin with the last of my goat’s milk mozz, a piece of deli ham and a wee bit of pomegranate jelly;

Dessert was a piece of Caroline’s Vegan Pumpkin Bread with a smidge of macadamia nut butter spread on.

So how dinner works on a night like tonight where schedules clash is that I cook dinner and DD and I eat before she goes to dance. While we’re out the boys come home and pick up where us girls left off. Bingo-bango, everyone’s fed and happy by 7!

Candy confession time! This is what I snagged out of the office candy bowl over the course of the day;

And this is what I ate this evening;

I have to say that taking pictures of the junk I eat is working like a charm. I really wanted to go back to that candy bowl at work more than I did, but the thought of having to own up to it stopped me in my tracks!! Notice how pretty much all of it is chocolate? ;)

Project Feed Me food item of the week = boxed meals (eg. Hamburger Helper). Go buy some!!

Bye for now!!

Candy Confessions

As I’m sure you can imagine, the kids brought home bucket loads of candy last night. Normally, I have a real problem staying away from those seemingly harmless baby chocolate bars. This year I vowed to be stronger than the chocolate. That being said, I know it would be stupid to make them “forbidden” so I’ve decided to make the commitment to photograph and post what I do eat. I’m confident that this will keep me from over doing things. So, without further ado, here’s what I ate last night;

Not bad, eh?!

I thoroughly enjoyed my extra hour of sleep this morning. Did everybody else?? Here’s breakfast…

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup sunrise blend w/ quinoa
• cinnamon
• banana
• 1 tbsp PB2
• dried blueberries
• carob chips

Oh boy, this was G-O-O-D!!!

After blog reading and a nice visit out at the farm, we came home to some lunch. I decided to try the egg in a basket with a bagel again with better results this time.

I realize it doesn’t look pretty, but that’s OK because it tasted great! I pressed the Stonemill bagel to flatten it a bit this time so that the egg whites didn’t spread out underneath. Seemed to work better, huh? And of course, some candy;

I am happy to report that there were no more treats after this! :)

I got the grocery shopping done after lunch and picked myself up a 1/2 coffee, 1/2 pumpkin spice latte from 7-11 on the way home…

What was left of the afternoon was spent on the computer and in front of the TV. The fam wanted lasagna for dinner so I cheated and bought one for them. For myself I made the Moroccan Chickpea Stew from Peas and Thank You.

I did make a few baby changes. I used a 28oz can of diced tomatoes in their juice and omitted the broth. I also added a half cup of quinoa and no thickener at the end. I could not decide between raisins or apricots so I did a quarter cup of each. A small scoop of goat milk yogurt and I had one delicious meal on my hands! I also roasted up my last kabocha squash while the oven was on for the lasagna. That will be enjoyed sometime this week.

We went to my parents for a bit after dinner where 3 chocolate chip cookies were consumed. I`m not classifying those a Halloween treats cuz I usually eat that when I visit! Hehe….I can be such a cheater sometimes!!!

The Amazing Race is on now and then I plan on doing some reading before I call it a day. Hope you have all enjoyed the weekend!

Bye for now!!