A Dull, Despicable Weekend

Howdy!  How has your weekend been?  It was dull and wet here, but the rain was needed in a big way.  I think it’s only rained 3, maybe 4 times in the past month!  We’ve been keeping occupied, though. 
Had my oats for breakfast yesterday:

• 1/2 cup each coconut milk & water
• 1/2 cup Old Wessex 5 grain cereal
• chocolate raspberry latter powder
• honey & raspberries

The first part of the day was spent on chores.  YUCK!  My hubby had hockey for most of the day and I decided that being stuck in the house with the kids didn’t sound too appealing.  So I decided that after groceries and lunch we would go to the movies.  I was feeling like something Italian-ish to eat so I sliced half of a Tofurky sausage and mixed it with green pepper, cottage cheese and salsa:
I nuked it until the cottage cheese got all gooey then used it as a dip with some Dr. Kracker flatbreads: May not look pretty, but it was exactly what I was after!  :)
So we decided to go see Despicable Me. 
What a FANTASTIC movie!  Can you believe that I’ve never seen anything in 3D before?  Loved it!  Cheesy glasses and all!!
The main character had this wicked accent that I can’t place, but it made the movie that much better, IMO.  Have you seen this movie?  What did you think??  I did enjoy a chai tea latte during the movie…
It was 5:30 before we arrived home and we were all pretty hungry.  I pulled out the George Foreman for some pork chops and served them along side the last of the pasta. 
I had a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich for dessert.  I’ve decided that I don’t really like these as much as I thought.  They melt really fast and the ice cream seems to be just air.  Ya know what I mean?  It’s like there’s nothing to it.  Hmmm…
We were awake early for soccer this morning.  They actually played 2 games against another city.  It was still damp and drizzly which didn’t do much for DS’s hair (which he has decided to grow out)
 
LOL!  Looks like he stuck his finger in an electrical socket!  This is what he looked like when he left the house:   Backing up a bit; I had a bowl of Kashi U prior to leaving the house.
Lunch was a “BLT”,
SO glad these babies are back in my life.  Tempeh bacon and all!  ;)  The kids had friends over all afternoon and I got busy in the kitchen with zucchini.  My hubby and I pulled out the food processor and grated 4 large zukes.
I bagged and froze nine 1 cup baggies for later use. This will be very handy for baking, soups, sauces, etc.  I’m more likely to use it if it’s already prepped.  Two cups of it went towards a recipe for zucchini walnut bars. 
I subbed out some of the flour for this chia flour:
It worked beautifully!  And upped the nutritional value of the bars.
I wanted to make something quick for dinner so I turned to a Rachael Ray magazine for a 30 minute meal idea.  This was a Korean pork noodle bowl and indeed took 30 minutes to make.  And it was superb!!!  Check out my plateful: We just got home from my parents place and I’m getting set to watch SYTYCD Canada.  I have to go into work tomorrow because I need Friday off this week for a trip into the city so I’ll have to be sure to get to bed early tonight.  And so I must sign off!  ;)
Bye for now!!

Three Days Worth

The weekend is here, boys and girls!!  Are we all excited?  I am even though I don’t have a whole lot planned.  The past few days have been the usual…read “not exciting”.  LOL  I have to relish the quiet of my days right now because hockey for DS starts up Sept 1 and DD’s dance starts on Sept 13 so I’ll be hitting the ground running from then until the end of June.  Sheesh…before I know it Christmas will be here!  OUCH!
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast was a pack of Nature’s Path Maple Nut oatmeal which I’m happy to report had lots of nuts in it!  That didn’t stop me from adding more along with a splash of coconut milk:
A 100% enjoyable, easy to prepare breakfast! 
I noshed on a PB Mojo bar before hoofing it to the gym:
This one is great, but not as great as the mountain man bar.  That one I buy by the boxful!  :)
I hopped on the treadmill at lunch for a great ½ hour, incline speed walk.  I haven’t done that since before my vacation and it felt great to get on there and huff some.  And better yet that I woke up pain free unlike the morning after my run last week when my hip bothered me.  Getting old sucks!  LOL
In my quest to get back into eating loads upon loads of veggies again I chopped 2 tomatoes and a cucumber from the garden and topped them with ½ a can of tuna and some fig balsamic dressing for lunch.
WHOA baby!  I packed the veggies and tuna in separate containers so I didn’t realize how much was there until I combined the 2.  I loved the simplicity of it, though and it filled me up.  May have been mostly water, but I digress!
Just before I left work for the day I snacked on a packet of cocoa roast almonds:
Yum in my tum!
I made the fam pasta for dinner because I needed something quick.  Just as eggs and toast are my go to meals, pasta is my go to meal for the fam.  Why did I need something quick?  Well, DD had plans to go to the movies with a friend for 6:30.  After dropping her off we had to attend a meeting for DS’s hockey team across town.  Did I start this post by saying that my evenings were still calm? HA!  Anywho, they ate pasta and I ate a big salad made with kale (from the garden), a hard boiled egg, ½ an avocado, carrots and some freshly grated parm cheese.  The dressing was a mix of white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey chilli powder, salt & pepper.
I think I filled my veggie quota for the day with this one.  Delicious!  We made it home just after 9pm and the first thing I did was tune into SYTYCD Canada.  Then I sipped on a vanilla chai and snacked on a chocolate chip All Bran bar.  Unfortunately, the lighting was poor and the photo was awful.  Boo to the nights getting dark faster!!
THURSDAY
I lounged in bed a bit too long and started the day off in a rush as the result!  I’ll never learn.  With 10 minutes to go before I had to leave for work I slammed back a bowl of Wildroots cereal.
Insert work, work, enjoy a Nature’s Path sunny hemp granola bar, work, work:
Thursday was our last day at level 1 of the 30 Day Shred.  Some of the ladies are a little freaked out about moving to level 2, but I just told them to do what they can and if it’s too much to just do some exercises from level 1 till they catch their breath.  I think they’ll be just fine!
I made a big salad fro lunch with some odds and ends thrown in; a hard boiled egg, ½ an avocado and carrots.  I used Renee’s pear & blue cheese dressing to spice it up:
It was another busy night with it being DS’s last house league soccer game of the season.  The kids wanted leftover pasta so while I got that going I made some quinoa for myself which was topped with tuna, feta, roasted red pepper and freshly grated parm:
Simple and easy on the taste buds.  I also had some beat up orange segments.
My neighbour injured her knee so when we got home from soccer the kids went to make sure she was OK and to help her put the garbage out.  We chatted for a bit and before long it was after 9pm.  I crashed on the couch for a bit then crashed in bed.  The nights have been cooler and sleeping has been marvellous!
TODAY!
Had some great oats!
-1/2 each water and coconut milk
-1/2 Quaker oats
-cinnamon
-pecan pieces & mocha flavoured agave
The consistency was just right today.  I got side tracked and they sat a bit on the counter.  I think that’s the key to getting the texture the way I like it.  Pre gym snack was a strawberry pomegranate Odwalla bar:
I LOVE these bars!  They’re my new best friend.  I haven’t met a flavour I don’t like.
I climbed on the elliptical at lunch today for 30 minutes.  The perfect ending to a work out week, if you ask me!   I grabbed a quick yogurt and container of granola for lunch today which went down perfectly.  For some reason it was just what I wanted!
Following my usual routine throughout the work week, I ate a snack before punching out for the day.  Today’s snack was carrots and almond butter:
I really don’t know why I don’t snack on this combo more often.  It really is fantastic! 
Dinner tonight was a dinner for champions!  ;)
The fam was having juicy jumbos and mac n cheese so I decided to eat “junky” too!  LOL  I sautéed some green bell pepper to use as a topper on the “sausage”.  AND, I served it in a fluffy white bun!  It’s been a long time since I rocked the white bread!
I’ve never had a Tofurkey product before and I really enjoyed these sausages.  The bun was great until the halfway point.  I’d had enough by then.    This was a great Friday night meal!
My hubby did some yard work for the neighbour after dinner so I visited while he worked.  I also shared my bounty of tomatoes and zucchini!  It’s getting to the point where I’m being overwhelmed by produce from the garden.  While typing this out I’ve been sipping on a tea and enjoying the last few squares of my dark chocolate bar.
So tell me, what are you doing this weekend??
Bye for now!!

Food Pairings

Hi!  Look at me back the very next day, huh?  I really would like to get back in the habit of posting everyday because I find more than a few days can get a bit long winded!   We’re all back to regular schedules now meaning that camp is over for the kids and they’re back at the sitter’s until school starts Sept 7.  Then I’m sure things will get hectic again for a bit. 
I thought about eggs for breakfast this morning but ran out of time so oats it was!  Please excuse the messy bowl.  That’s what happens in the microwave!!
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Old Wessex 5 grain cereal
-cinnamon
-zucchini jam, pecan pieces, a splash of coconut milk
I missed the Old Wessex cereal!  Too bad I only bought one container in Buffalo!  I plan to be back in November sometime so I’ll remember to stock up then.
Although work went super fast today, it doesn’t leave me much to talk about for the most part!  HA!  So I thought I’d talk about favourite food combinations.  Jessica recently reminded me of my love for peaches and blueberries together which got me to thinking of other food pairings I like.  Here are a few;
-chocolate/coffee
-pineapple/cottage cheese
-tomatoes/tuna
-walnuts/chocolate
-PB/Nutella
Now I need to know your favourite food combinations so I can try some out!  Come’on….spill the beans!
The 30 Day Shred crew met at the gym for Tuesday’s torture with Jillian.  We’ll do level 1 for the last time on Thursday before we move on to level 2.  I’ve done part of level 2 before then wrecked my ankles on the mountain climbers.  You can bet that I’ll be working the modified version this go around!
I enjoyed some yogurt and granola for lunch.  This is the yogurt that I used:
I dropped $2.00 on this at Wegman’s, but really wanted to try it just to say I did.  It was good!  It’s all natural using milk from grass fed cows, there’s no rBGH, no artificial sweeteners and only 6 ingredients.  Good for me, not so much for my wallet so I’m kinda glad I can’t find it here or I’d be too tempted to buy more!  Here it is with the granola.
I really need to bring a cuter bowl to work.  HA!  Later on in the afternoon I ate my way through a chopped orange and some strawberries:
My hubby had to get a wisdom tooth removed this evening (YUCK!) and won’t be able to have anything solid for 24hrs so I reheated leftovers for the kids and myself.  My plate ended up with an Yves veggie burger on an English muffin and tomato & cukes on it:
Dessert was a blackberry oat bar, recipe courtesy of Mama Pea.  Only if you remember, mine turned into  mandarin orange marmalade bars!  No pic, though.  Boo!  SYTYCD Canada is on again tonight so I’ll be tuning into that later on.  There’s been some pretty damn good dancers so far!  What are you up to tonight?  And don’t forget to let me know your fave food combo!!
Bye for now!!

A Few Favourites and a Garden Tour

Hello!  Have you had a chance to read my review on Nature’s Path’s hot cereal and Whole O’s?  What did you think?  I meant to post yesterday, but honestly, I haven’t been feeling 100% since Friday night.  Not sure if it’s allergies or a bit of a cold, but I haven’t been sleeping great and my throat has been really scratchy.  Ugh…  Anyways, my eats have been on the boring side so I decided to pick one favourite breakfast, lunch and dinner from the past 3 days and roll with those for you.  I also took some photos around the gardens to be able to update you.
I didn’t eat anything memorable on Saturday, but do want to show you my son’s idea of a grilled cheese: OMG!  Apparently he toasted the bread, added a slice of cheese then nuked it for a minute twenty.  That baby was stuck to the plate!!!  I did get some laundry on the line….
And played with KC for a bit; Ate a few snacks here and there: Read a little Racheal Ray, Did you know that Rach likes her oats savoury, too?? Pick up this months issue to find a few more savoury oat ideas!!  We stayed out on the deck until after dark chatting.  I enjoyed some rare snuggle time with DS: And then crashed for the night. 

Two of my best meals were enjoyed yesterday along with copious amounts of water.  The first one was English Muffin French toast for breakfast. The egg mixture was Eggbeaters, coconut milk, cinnamon & vanilla extract.  I spread some coconut butter on the toast, added agave, walnut pieces and blueberries that I swirled around the hot pan for a few minutes.
DS had soccer practice from 9:30-11 and DD and I went to Walmart after that for some back to school supplies.  It amazes me how much faster summer is than winter. 
Let’s take a walk around the garden now, shall we?  The flowers:
The veggies: Another favourite meal was enjoyed on Sunday.  My hubby did a beer butt chicken on the BBQ and I picked a bunch of kale to make a big salad.  I dressed the kale with some Kraft fig balsamic dressing and let it sit for a good half hour.  This helps to make the leaves tender.  When it was time to eat I topped it with tomato, cucumber and chicken breast: We spent the evening visiting my parents and watching TV until bedtime.  I slept much better last night and was awake by 7am so I got laundry going, ate some cereal for breakfast and read blogs for awhile.   Eventually the baking bug hit me and I remembered that I printed off a recipe for blackberry oat bars courtesy of Mama Pea.  I had pretty much all the ingredients so I went to town.  The only things I changed (out of necessity) was coconut butter for the margarine and I used mandarin orange marmalade in place of blackberry jam:   The results were fabulous and I enjoyed a piece after my third fave meal of the past few days…..BLT using tempeh bacon on a bagel thin….YUM! And my oat bar: Our afternoon was spent rearranging furniture, getting some photos developed to send to my Uncles in Italy and driving the kids to a b-day party.   And because chocolate is always a favourite of mine, I have to show the picture of the bar that I’ve been working on this week. Heck ya!!  :)  I’m off to chill for the rest of the evening in preparations for a busy 4 days of work.  Fun times.  Hope you’ve all enjoyed a fab few days!!
Bye for now!!