Back to Meal Planning

How was everyone’s weekend?  Although mine was busy, it was a good busy.  Yesterday consisted of 1.5hrs of soccer, 1.5hrs of hockey and dinner at my parents place for my sister’s birthday.  Soccer practice was pretty cool at 8am, but no rain so it was all good and hockey was at a mall that has a rink in it so some window shopping ensued. 
Because we had to leave the house rather early I toasted an Ezekiel English muffin and topped it with sunflower seed butter and zucchini jam:
And yes, it was still dark enough that the flash went off!  Yikes!  As soon as we got home I hopped into a nice hot shower to take the chill out of my bones, then I made a cup of coffee and read all your fabulous blogs until it was time to head out again.  Oh!  And I made lunch to go, too!
This Silver Hills sandwich is layered with a LC cheese wedge, mortadella, tomato (from my garden), lettuce and dijonnaise. Lip smacking good!  I’m not generally a sandwich kinda girl, but ones like these make me wonder why I don’t eat them more often. 
We had a great meal at Mom’s.  That just goes without saying!  I didn’t seem to pack too many veg in, though!
Sweet potato fries, zucchini and bean salad, chicken breast and a small piece of steak.  I wasn’t too concerned about the lack of veggies’ on my plate when I spied my hubby’s meal:
Holy meat!  And he was in heaven!  :)  Dessert was a family favourite that only makes an appearance a few times a year; Drumstick Cheesecake:
Hit. The. Spot.  As I sit here typing this I realize that we never did sing Happy Birthday to my sister!  Funny how she got outta that one turning a quarter of a century and all!  Here we are:
I woke up to a massive thunder boom this morning.  Thanks, Mother Nature!  We had some serious rain for about 15 minutes and then the sun came out like nothing had ever happened.  Weird, but I was glad to have it out of the way so the kids didn’t get drenched walking to school.
I knew I wanted to crack open my new bottle of maple agave today but didn’t have the inclination to get too fancy with breakfast so I just topped my oats wit it:
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-maple agave
-almonds
What a delight!  I’ll never complain abut dessert-like breakfast food.  I have a feeling this bottle won’t last me too long and it was the only lonely on the shelf at Winners.  Boo!
Morning snack-a-roo was a Clif Mojo bar:
Nice, bright yellow file folder under there!  I’m on 12:30 lunch so when I got to the gym the elliptical was open.  Perfect!  I hammered out 45 sweaty minutes while watch SYTYCD Canada reruns.  Lonchi was 2 garden tomatoes topped with half a can of tuna; nice and simple.
As I mentioned last week I had full intentions of getting back into menu planning.  Here is what this week is looking like commitment and food wise:
Monday-dance (6-7:30) hockey-out of town (5:30-8:30)
    **pulled pork sandwiches
Tuesday-hockey (4:45-6:30)
    **Pasta
Wednesday-soccer (6-7:30)
    **Chicken stir fry
Thursday-FREE!!
    **pork chops/noodles (fam) & veg
Friday-hockey (2:15-4:30)
    **tuna melts & Caesar salad
So, pulled pork tonight it was!  I put a pork shoulder in the crock pot this morning with some salt & pepper and set it on low for the day.  When my hubby got home he shred the meat and added the BBQ sauce.  The boys ate at that point because they had to leave the house by 5pm.  DD and I ate our sandwiches after they left.
This also had a wedge of garlic & herb LC cheese on it.  Dessert was some sliced strawberries with just a tad of vanilla ice cream:
So DD is now at dance, the boys are gone and I’ve got some baking in the oven that I’ll post about tomorrow.  I still have almost an hour to myself and I think I’m gonna make a tea and read my book.  Sounds perfect!
**Before you sign off for the night pop on over to visit Faith for a chance to win a $65.00 CSN Stores gift certificate!!**
Bye for now!!

Happy Saturday!

How’s everyone’s weekend going so far?  Mine’s been pretty good.  The weather’s turned around for now and the sunshine has been out in full force. 
I was a tad short on time yesterday morning so cereal came to the rescue in the form of  Kirkland cinnamon pecan and PC organic flakes:
I had my very last Luna bar before going to the gym.  **Sniff sniff** 
At least the last one was a good one!  I hammered out 3 miles on the treadmill at the gym at a speed of 4.2 mph and the incline set at 7.5.  I’m glad I did it, but it was a struggle to get there, I tell ya!  Friday workouts just seem tough, ya know?
I mentioned that I was short on time in the morning so lunch was a Smart Ones microwave meal.
I use to eat meals like this all the time but got out of the habit.  Although this was good, it made me feel really full.  More than I should have felt for the amount of food: Guess that what all the added salt and preservatives do to you, right?  I think I’ll be staying away from these from now on!
There was a meeting at work and at the end of the day they put all the leftover treats out for us to eat.  I chose a pecan tart (which wasn’t very tasty) and a chocolate chip cookie.
A little Friday treat is always in order.  Especially when there’s also coffee to dip said cookie in!
I kept dinner simple by trying a sweet potato topped with almond butter.  This was a first for me!
Yumalicious!  I’m glad I finally decided to climb out from under the rock I’ve been living beneath!  I also had a zucchini jam oat bar with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I spent the evening sprawled on the couch magazine reading.  T’was wonderful!  The perfect ending to the week.
DS had hockey practice this morning but I stayed back with DD to get the housework done.   My kitchen had been neglected for far too long and was treated to a deep clean today.  Counters, appliances, floors, the inside of the fridge…..all got a good scrub-a-dub-dub.   DD vacuumed for me which, although was not done perfectly, was hugely appreciated.  I owe that kid an allowance!  ;) 
Before all that took place I made myself some steel cut oats.  I really need to make a pot one night and portion it out for morning because I really do adore the texture.

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup steel cut oats
• cinnamon, vanilla extract, pinch of salt
• pumpkin butter, chopped almonds & coconut flakes

A bowl of fall!  I enjoyed this while blog reading.  Just before lunch DD and I had to go buy her hip hop shoes for dance on Monday and we stopped at Winner’s to get a gift cert for my sister’s b-day which is tomorrow.  I can never leave that place (similar to Marshall’s) without doing extra damage. 
Can’t wait to try out that maple agave!  And the gin gins are awesome.  I also bought these unique sounding chips:
DD and I tested them out and they’re decent enough.  More like a rice cracker consistency wise, but they had good flavour to them…
Lunch was a warm kale, tomato and maple tempeh bacon salad served in my spanking new purple leaf bowl, courtesy of Winner’s:
I snacked on a rice cake with Maranantha chocolate PB spread, but it escaped the photo shoot!   We had to hit the road by 5pm for an out of town hockey game.  Seeing as it was over the dinner hour and we knew we’d be home a little late, Subway ended up being our choice for dinner.  I rolled with a turkey and Swiss on WW with all the fixings:
The boys lost BUT played pretty great considering it’s their first game together as a team.  Besides, it was an exhibition game so didn’t count point wise.
 
We haven’t been home long, but long enough for me to brew a David’s Tea to sip on while blogging>
We have to be on the soccer field for 8am so it’ll be early to bed for all of us.  Then there’s another hockey practice at 12:30, then my sister’s b-day dinner.  I’m tired already.  :)
Bye for now!!

Cheating, Hockey and Homework

I cheated on my oats and it was wonderful!
Toasted Silver Hills bread, Italian ham and a poached egg….I’m in love!  It’s been *years* since I’ve made this for breakfast and I enjoyed each forkful. 
Work was uneventful.  No complaints there.  I noshed on a Mojo Bar before making my way over to the gym:
Sweet chocolate….salty pretzels….a pleasure on my taste buds! 
The elliptical was my machine of choice yesterday while watching home improvement shows.  I’m still miffed that Rachael Ray isn’t on over the lunch hours anymore.  Humpf!
Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 158
Max Hr: 173
Calories Torched: 431
Distance: 4.6 miles
I still had a half can of salmon in the fridge from Tuesday’s kale salad so I mixed it up with a bit of mayo, salt & pepper and served it on a toasted WW English muffin that had a wedge of LC cheese spread over it:
Salmon is great for keeping you full and I love it, but boy does the taste ever stay with you!  I sucked on mints all afternoon!  LOL
We went out to the farm for dinner to celebrate my FIL’s birthday.  Because of soccer we haven’t been out in awhile so the first thing we did was head out to the barn to see these gorgeous babies!
And the newest addition, Speckled Warrior… What a darling!  We enjoyed a wonderful down home dinner of roast, scalloped potatoes, veg and chewy, dense buns: Dessert was a glistening chocolate mousse cake spotted with freshly picked raspberries from my in laws friends place. I was glad to have worn yoga pants!!
It been a cold week so I decided it was high time I brought the tropics into my life.  I slathered myself with coconut scented lotion after the shower as opposed to my stand by; Eucerin and threw as much “hot weather” type add ins to my oats:

• 1/2 cup each water & pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup Quaker oats
• cinnamon & coconut extract
• 1/4 cup crushed pineapple
• tropical trail mix

It was pretty much perfection!  :)
Before shredding with Jillian and the gals I ate a Back to Nature bar in Brazilian Nut Fiesta:
This one was a bit sweet, but stuffed with nuts and raisins which powered me through the DVD and another 15 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill. 
Lunch was more crushed pineapple, mixed with about 1 cup of cottage cheese,
And some crisp red grapes:
DS had a hockey practice right after work so I ate a Ginger Gold apple as I was leaving work;
Some pictures from practice…
He was pretty excited because not only did they get to pick their number this year, it was sewn on to their new gear.  Here he is with his new team hat:
The kids had asked for tacos for dinner which was a good decision because although not the healthiest, it’s quick to prepare.  I nuked my Kashi Mayan Harvest meal and served it over some brown rice for a filling, super tasty meal!
Dessert was a square of Mama Peas blackberry oat bars (zucchini jam bars in my case).  I drizzled some Smuckers caramel sauce on it for some pizzazz:
DS had some math homework that we just finished.  The joys of homework!!  
In just a few minutes I’ll be tuning into the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries, then CSI.  Yahoo! 
How has your week been???
Bye for now!!