CSN Winner!

I'm a total dork and forgot to post the winner of the CSN Stores gift certificate over the weekend!  My apologies!! 

The lucky winner is.....#25!

Anna! 

Anna said...


My favorite appliance is my Ninja food processor - love it for smoothies!


Fav gadget? hmm, probably my pampered chef mini whisk or vegetable peeler. Tough choice cause I love all kitchen gadgets!


Great giveaway!


January 12, 2011 10:33 PM

Anna, please email me at kristaskravings@gmail.com and I will get you the promo code.  Happy shopping!!

Thanks to all who entered and let me know their favourite kitchen appliance/gadget.  You've given me some great ideas on what I could use in my own kitchen to make life easier.

Bye for now!

Hodge Podge

Hi all!  I hope everyone has had a good start to the week!  I have and it’s looking like another busy one, but that’s OK.  You know what they say about keeping idle hands busy and all…LOL  I just wish I had a little more free time to enable me to get back to blogging with a little more frequency.  In time, in time, right?

I started back to Pilate’s last Tuesday which was pretty much awesome.  They had a mini session over the holidays which I was unable to sign up for and I didn’t realize how much I missed it.  Now I’m good to go until mid May.  Wednesday DS had a hockey game which they won 1-0……with 2.6 seconds left in the game.  What a rush!  Us parents were all freaking out and the boys were so excited that they nearly jumped out of their skates!  :)

Something not so fun happened to me on Thursday at the gym.  Since July a group of us have been knocking out Jillian Michael DVD’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We made our way through levels 1, 2 & 3 of the 30 Day Shred (10 times at each level) and through level 1 of Shred It With Weights (again, 10x). 
Last Thursday we moved on to level 2 of SIWW which is significantly harder than level one.  Lots of swinging through the legs with the kettle bells and such.  Within the first 5 minutes I smashed my knee with the weight doing “figure 8’s”.  Grr…but the worst was that by the end I knew I‘d screwed my back up.  Right across my lower back was numb for a few hours and when I woke up Friday morning I could barely walk.  Exercise FAIL!  I’ve been nursing it with heat and A535 and it’s feeling much better today, but still too tender to consider hitting the gym.
 
Wednesday was my hubby’s birthday and we had planned for the 4 of us to do a nice dinner out Saturday night to celebrate.  DD ended up getting invited to a sleepover birthday party so I asked my parents if DS could spend the night at their place and they agreed.  So for the first time in at least 12 years my hubby and I had a night completely to ourselves.  Heck ya! We continued on with dinner plans at Einstein’s Café (yes, we love it there, plus my friend owns it with her husband and we like to support them!!)  First, we enjoyed some bruschetta which is made using their signature homemade bread:
For our mains hubby had the portabello brie stuffed chicken breast,
And I enjoyed snapper with a light sun dried tomato cream sauce:
For dessert we shared a piece of Southern Bourbon pecan pie:
The food was outstanding, the atmosphere cozy, but the best part was that we didn’t feel at all rushed to get home to the babes.  After dinner we went to see The Fighter.  GREAT movie.  If you’ve seen it too, let me know what you thought, K?!  After the show we bumped into another couple and decided to go out for a few drinks.  I felt 20 years younger rolling (not literally!) through the front door at 2am.  LOL  Usually I’ve been asleep for at least 3hrs at that point.
I’ve been busy in the kitchen, too!  After soccer Thursday night I made a batch of blueberry bran muffins: Friday night was homemade turkey soup: Tonight was homemade macaroni and cheese: My hubby and I had Thai again for lunch last Friday:
I didn’t eat it all so the rest turned into Saturday’s lunch: We decided yesterday to make our own Pad Thai at home.  So with the help of this recipe we got to it!
DS liked it so much that he declared tofu his new favourite food.  LOL It did turn out pretty amazing…
I also made a quick stir fry for lunch today seeing as I was home instead of the gym.  I cooked some chicken breast, mixed veg and bean sprouts then added some Caribbean stir fry sauce.  Delicioso!! 
Oats have made their regular morning appearance:
And some, but not enough, fruit:
So I’ve been drinking lots of water…
And getting my greens in the form of juice!
And I can’t forget about this lovely sandwich, Something that made me very excited on Saturday was finding these gems while browsing through the grocery store! Cocoa roast almonds have made it to Canada!!!  They’re dear, though, at $6.99 a container.  Ugh…we bought them anyways!!  :)

Time to wrap this post up because we’re heading out to price new living room furniture and I want to check out some modern dining room furniture.  This is the year that we rid ourselves of the “garage sale” type furniture we have and invest in some new pieces.  After all, most of our furniture is pushing 15yrs old.  YIKES! 
Bye for now!!

Rain Coast Trading – Review & Contest

Back before Christmas I was contacted by Raincoast Trading to see if I would be interested in trying their canned tuna and salmon.  Tuna is always a big hit at my house and I love canned salmon so was delighted for the opportunity.  Unfortunately, it has taken me much longer than I would’ve liked to write up the review!
How about we begin with some information on the company?
  Raincoast Trading is a Canadian company (YAY) based out of British Columbia.  The company is proud to offer consumers sustainably-harvested, gourmet canned seafood and adheres to the highest standards when catching, processing and packaging its seafood.    Here are some other highlights:
-Seafood is caught using eco-friendly fishing practices in the Pacific Northwest. Raincoast uses modern techniques to catch what it intends to use and carefully releases non-targeted species back to the ocean unharmed. - The albacore tuna is caught using a "hook and line" method
- The salmon is caught using portable fishing traps, avoiding unwanted marine habitat and species destruction.
-Carefully fish for specific-sized albacore tuna — which results in low mercury levels and significantly lower than most canned tuna fish
-Nutritious - contains loads of heart-healthy omega-3’s, protein and natural sea salt.
-Single-cooked (most canned seafood is cooked 2x) to preserve its natural oils, nutrition and rich, dense flavour.
-Carefully cut and pack each can as a whole tuna or salmon steak. Raincoast canned seafood is never mushy or packaged as flaked. 
-Packed in natural oils. Unlike most canned products, water or oil isn’t added to the fish during the canning process. -The fish is traced from the fishing boat to grocery shelf. This means that every package contains a code to trace back when and where the fish was caught, transported and    processed. (Includes the expiry date as well as a code to trace and identify the vessel & captain’s name, vessel flag, harvest method, area of capture and trip dates).
-Raincoast Trading tins are 100 percent biphenyl A-free and product labels are printed with soy-based inks.
 That’s some pretty great stuff, eh?  I know I was impressed.  The second I opened the cans I knew that the fish was going to be great.  The aroma was fresh, and as the info states, the tuna/salmon was in one piece in the can, not flaked or chunked.  I received the smoked Albacore tuna, the solid white albacore tuna and the wild skinless boneless pink salmon.
I used the white albacore tuna to make tuna melts one night when we needed a fast meal:
My Mom has always made a quick pasta sauce using tuna so I decided to try that with the smoked albacore tuna.  I simply combined the can of tuna:  with a can of diced tomatoes like these:
I also added some capers, salt and pepper.  I served it over spaghetti then topped it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
FABULOUS!!!  I’ve never had smoked tuna before and thought this was out of this world delicious!  It was also be terrific served on a tray as is with some fancy crackers at a party.  I’m really the only one who likes canned salmon so I decided to make a rice dish with it.  All I did was combine the salmon with some tomato sauce and spices, then mixed it with basmati rice: 
My idea of a quick meal.  The above photo is some of the leftovers that I took for lunch because the lighting is much better.
Overall we agreed that this product was high quality and delicious.  I will definitely be checking my grocery store shelves for this tuna on a regular basis!
Raincoast Trading is also running a contest in which you can win a year’s worth of sustainable seafood! 
The deadline for entries is April 21, 2011 with the winning name being drawn on Earth Day, April 22, 2011.  Click HERE to find ALL the information you need to know about how to enter this great contest!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this review and will consider trying Raincoast tuna or salmon.  You won’t be disappointed!
Bye for now!!

Missed Out? Here's Another Give Away!

Good afternoon!  Look at me posting again, eh?  I'm back with another super giveaway for you all today!  Ever heard of CSN Stores?  If you've been reading a while I'm sure you've seen me do giveaways and reviews before, right?  CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need whether it be a chic leather briefcase, fitness equipment, or even cute cookware.  Their generous team is offering one reader (Canadian or American) the chance to win a $65.00 gift certificate to use at one of the many stores on their site.  For a chance to win all you have to do is let me know in the comment section what your favourite kitchen gadget/appliance is and why.  I'll be accepting entries until midnight this Saturday, January 15 and will announce the winner Sunday, January 16.  You do not need a blog to enter, but if you have one I'd love if you could link this contest to your blog.  Pretty please...  ;)  Let the entries begin!!


I also wanted to let everyone know who the lucky 10 recipients of the Nature's Path coupons are.  We have;

1. Chelsea
2. Melissa
3. Martha
4. Coco
5. Miranda
6. Erica
7. Molly L
8. Sally
9. Allie
10. Katie

CONGRATULATIONS, ladies!  Chelsea, Martha, Miranda, Molly and Sally, please forward me your mailing address to kristaskravings@gmail.com so that I can send out your coupons ASAP. 

I hope you all have a great evening!  I'll be spending mine at Pilates then on the couch watching The Biggest Loser.  Sounds just about perfect!  LOL

Bye for now!

Let’s Do Something FUN!

Hi all!  Happy Monday!  For once I have all evening to devote to Krista’s Kravings so I think I’ll celebrate by doing a daily recap, old style with a fun give away at the end.  So, let us begin!
Thursday Night/Friday
I left off Thursday night at the hotel that we had just arrived at for DS’s hockey tournament.  I believe DD and my hubby had gone out for some snacks at Tim Horton’s which is why I’ve got a photo of this blueberry bran muffin to show you: This tamed the hunger beast but it has been some time since I’ve had a muffin from Tim’s and I actually found this to be kinda salty.  Nothing I’d run out to have again, that’s for sure.  Next was a bit of relaxation before lights out. We were awake at 6am to make it to the rink on time and grabbed breakie at the hotel.  No photo but I ate some French toast and fruit salad.  The boys won the first game 2-0 which gave our whole team a high that lasted all day.  :)
The boys weren’t allowed to swim in the hotel pool until after their last game Friday (coaches rule), but I did go sit in the steamy area while DD and another sister took a dip.  T’was relaxing.  Before I knew it lunch time was upon us.  A group of us parents took the boys out to Jack Astor’s for lunch.  That place has some cool “art work”! And all the wait staff had neat quotes on the backs of their shirts.  We had the “classic”:
And my personal fave: LOL!  I certainly feel like that some days!  The menu had a nice amount of “healthy” food to choose from and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.  I order Thai chicken spring rolls which included a salad, Sesame on the side:
See the beautiful beet spiral on the salad?  I die.  My hubby is turning over a new leaf this year in regards to his eating as he has high blood pressure and really needs to clean up his eats.  Usually he would order a burger/sandwich and fries, but he went with a shrimp Pad Thai which was delicious: The second game of the day pulled in our first loss.  Bit of a bummer, but we kinda expected it.   Once the whole team was back at the hotel the boys finally got to have their swim and did they ever enjoy it!  And us ‘rents enjoyed a few adult beverages which we cleverly camouflaged in to-go coffee cups.  :) There was also a team dinner which featured Caesar salad, carrots, lasagna and buns for the adults, mac n cheese and chicken fingers for the kids plus some squares and such for desserts. 
The boys played mini sticks for a few hours while the “big people” socialized.  Most of us turned in early after such a busy day, though!
Saturday
Breakfast was once again at the hotel.  Might as well take advantage, right?  I left my camera in the room, but shared a waffle with my hubby and ate more fruit.  The game Saturday was at 11:15 so we weren’t in such as rush which was a treat.  This game brought the team their second loss which put us out of the tournament.  In truth, this was OK with me because it meant we got to come home.  Hehe!  Before we left town the 4 of us stopped at Moose Winooski's for some lunch.  We quite enjoy that restaurant and the place smelled SO good when we walked in!  I ordered a veggie wrap with avocado, cucumber, tomato, onion, lettuce and feta.   
It came with a side salad, too.
My hubby went with a cheese quesadilla and salad.  He said it was really, really good. We sat at a table right in front of a fireplace which made the meal so warm and cozy!
On the way home we decided to stop at a mall that we knew was home to our favourite store, Lululemon.  YAY!!!  I’ve been on the hunt for a new winter coat and scored an awesome one at Lulu, on sale to boot!
 
Love, love, love.  We made it home safe and sound by 5:30 and instead of ordering out I whipped up a quick pasta dish with a turkey/grated zucchini sauce. We spent the evening chilling on the couch and hit the sack EARLY.  My bed was like a piece of heaven.  Nothing makes you appreciate your own bed until you’re out of it for a few days, right?!
Sunday
We were on the go most of the day, but in a good way.  DS had soccer practice from 9:30-10:30 and then we went to Cora’s for a dynamite brunch with a few folks from the team.  I ordered a raspberry & cream cheese filled crepe which was pretty much the most amazing thing I eaten in a while! Isn’t it a beaut?  My hubby also ordered a crepe which was filled with fresh fruit and custard.  This thing was massive!
He couldn’t finish this beast.  LOL  We dropped the kids off at home afterwards and made our way over to Costco for some supplies.  And on Kristie’s tip, I searched out a box of these little darlings: Nom, nom….And another treat I just could not leave at the store was this box of hot chocolate: Can’t wait to try these flavours out.  We got home, packed our skating stuff and hauled the kids to one of DS’s teammates place for a skate on the river that runs behind their house.   Two things you may not know about me is that I can’t really skate and I’m petrified of being on an ice surface that has running water underneath.   I pulled both off, with class, I might add!  :)  I was a little apprehensive when I got there and saw this: Um, yeah….running water where I’m to skate?  I pushed my fear aside and let my hubby lace me up:
I was still a tad nervous,
But once I saw how beautiful it was, and that the ice was in fact really thick, I began to relax and enjoy myself.
Seriously.  I die!  And you just know that a hockey game broke out, right?  Not including me!  I skated around at my own pace until my feet were killing me.  Some pics of DS playing: He loves pond hockey!  I had bought some trout and faro at Costco so dinner was a quick one to prepare: baked trout, faro cooked with salsa and mixed veggie’s; My hubby and I finally got around to watching Date Night.  HILARIOUS!  Great way to finish off the weekend!
Monday
Today was back to work.  Yuck!  I haven’t done much else so these are my eats for the day: Oats with honey and almonds, leftover stir fry, chicken, potato and broccoli. 
And before I leave, Nature’s Path was so kind as to send me a huge stack of coupon’s for a dollar off any Nature’s Path or Enviro Kids product.  The expiry date is Feb 28, 2011 and  there’s no way I can get through all of them so I want to share!  Here’s what the deal is.  The first 10 people to leave me a comment doing any one of the 3 following things will get 10 coupon’s to use.  (Canadian and American entries only, please.)

1. Tell me what your favourite sport is.  It can be one that you participate in or like watching.
2. Tell me your best joke
3. Tell me what you like best about my blog

There you go!  The offer will end just as soon as I get those 10 comments!  I will contact you for your info, plus link your blog to mine if you have one.  You DO NOT need a blog to participate, though!
Bye for now!!