My favourite things

I’m a little behind in blogging (again).  Oops.  Must. Not. Fall. Behind!

I decided to dedicate this post to a few of my favourite things as of late. 

My first favourite thing? My childhood friend, Tara, is back to blogging!  Please go check her out!!  I’m so excited to have her back!

Favourite treats as of late…

Waffles with cream cheese and jam…

Chocolate cheesecake waffles – waffles with light cream cheese mixed with a little bit of chocolate syrup (Alex buys a kind with less sugar)

Sugar free banana/oatmeal/apple bread topped with banana mashed with PB.  SO GOOD.

And finally… chocolate cherry banana soft serve.  Frozen banana, frozen (pitted) cherries and cocoa powder.  When a certain cohabitant is eating his ice cream, I am eating this now.

 

Favourite snacks:

raw broccoli dipped in fat free ranch dressing with Frank’s buffalo wing sauce

Salsa, hummus and cheese in a wrap.  Specifically Penny’s Pico De Gallo salsa (thanks to Angie for introducing me to it!) – holy goodness.  I eat it with Sabra hummus.

 

Favourite pasta sauce… my late grandmother’s top secret recipe.  She literally left it for my mom in her will (she’s so funny).  I wish I could share it with you, but my grandma would NOT be happy with me.  I made it for the first time the other night… it was a hit!

 

Favourite summer meal… BBQ!!

 

Favourite crazy dinner of the summer so far… lobster, cooked by me for the first time!

 

I can’t end this post without sending my heartfelt best wishes to Susan. Her story is a reminder that life isn’t fair, but she will prove to all of us that Cancer can be beaten.

Loser!

We have a loss! I was down 3.4lbs on Friday when I weighed in. Let's hope I can keep up this momentum (although, I know it's not necessarily realistic).

The weekend was busy between work and domestic duties. I may have indulged more than I would have liked. Today it's back to the full time job, back to routine, and back to restricting myself a little.

I heart food

I love food so much.  It really does make me happy.  I see people on shows like The Biggest Loser and they’ve gained weight because they’ve had loss or trauma in their life or they’re really depressed.  I am none of those things.  I've had (and continue to have) a wonderful life.  I am not depressed.  I just love food.  I don’t eat when I’m stressed (I feel sick when I’m stressed), I don’t eat for comfort.  I eat when I’m bored.  I crave things when I’m PMS’ing and I don’t have willpower to resist.

I love food… and I don’t even have a problem with the fact that I love it.

Last night’s dinner was BBQ… it was pretty darn good. I tried the President’s Choice Splendido Butternut Squash Risotto.  Really yummy!

Today’s breakfast was simple  PB&B

Today also included more fruit salad

And I finally took a photo of my fake blueberry cheesecake (1/2c fat free cottage cheese, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1/2c frozen blueberries and a package of splenda)

Last night was also spent doing this… (and now I shall figure out what I want to bake with it this weekend!)

Tomorrow is weigh in day.  Wish me luck!

Chick Pea Love

Did you already check out my food diary for today?

There are definite perks to cohabitating with an Indian boy.  One of those perks is definitely his family.  His family are some of the kindest and most generous people ever.  His loving mother loves to cook for us… and I love when she does.  At least once or twice a month we get at least 1 dinner and 1 lunch out of the cooking she sends to us many wonderful dishes, but my favourite is her chick peas.  Today I enjoyed some of her chick peas and a couple of chapatis for lunch.  Mmmmmm.

Is your mouth watering? 

Dinner was simple.  A leftover Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchilada.

Rewind to breakfast yesterday… just because I happen to have a photo of it.  Homemade waffle, PB & banana.

 

When we first looked at this house (and when we bought it) I thought I wanted to rip up the patio stones and build a deck. 

The walkout we have now:

The patio:

I have since changed my mind about that plan.  I have realized having a patio provides much more privacy than a deck would.  When your back yard is like a cell surrounded by everyone else’s backyard cells, you need a certain amount of privacy (thanks to that fence).  So, instead I will focus on trying to make our grass greener and building nice flower beds.  Hopefully the flowers I transplanted survive and I have beautiful blooms one day!

Strawberry Cheesecake Waffles

Today I woke up and decided to make some waffles.  In fact, I gave A two of them, had 1 for myself… and made extras to heat up for breakfasts for the week.  Think I made enough?

I put some light cream cheese and strawberry rhubarb jam on mine to make it a cheesecake breakfast!

I left from breakfast and went to my parents’ house, then went to Costco with my mom.  I couldn’t help but buy a couple of things at Angie’s recommendation.

I’ve already tasted them… and I have to admit, every WORD Angie says about them is correct.  The combo (which she calls “hummus de gallo” I believe) is nothing short of divine.

My mom bought a case of gum and gave me a pack to try

I bought a case of this (I didn’t know I would like this flavour… but it’s so nice and refreshing!)

I came home by dinner and we tackled building a flower bed in the back yard.  I took on the task of shovelling the grass (I wanted to SWEAT and burn some cals!).  What a workout!  Pics of the back yard to come another time… but I will leave you with a new pic of my rhododendron. I think it’s beautiful.  And on this, the 2nd anniversary of the day I lost my grandmother… I can’t help but think how much she would love this flower.  It’s her favourite colour ever.

Miss you Grandma Pearl

My first RibFest

My first weigh in today since feeling back on track and blogging. 

Down 8.8lbs!

Today started out with a headache, which resulted in a sick call to work (My work is done primarily over the phone and I stare at a computer screen all day.  Headaches = not being able to do my job).  A ended up coming home early and my headache was pretty much gone, so he asked if I wanted to run over to the Pickering Ribfest. Can you believe I have NEVER been to a ribfest in my life?  True story.  Maybe it’s because I don’t like ribs.  I heard a rumour that they serve chicken there though… and funnel cakes, ice cream, onion blossoms, fries, poutine, butterfly fries, Caribbean food, roasted corn, fudge, chocolate, slushies, cotton candy, hot dogs, hamburgers… and more!

It was a beautifully sunny day here and it wasn’t too hot or cold, so I agreed to venture out (thanks to the pain killers and water that helped my headache… and maybe the nap).

I bring you… my first ribfest

A had a half rack of ribs and I had HALF a chicken!  We got our lunch from Billy Bones BBQ (and had some fresh squeezed lemonade with it).  It was SO good.  Sitting in the warm sun, enjoying some freshly grilled (and saucy) food… it was a perfect Friday afternoon. Once we ate, we walked around some and then grabbed food to bring home.  In hindsight, we brought home way too much food.  We came home with half a chicken and a full rack of ribs from Billy Bones (we loved their sauce SO much! And then the same order from another place.  So, we have 2 full racks of ribs and a whole chicken.  Oh, and if that wasn’t enough?  We splurged on an Onion blossom.  As of now, A has eaten another half rack of ribs and I have eaten 1/4 chicken… and we’ve devoured a good half of that onion blossom. 

It’s all good.  I’ve been good at restricting my calories this week (and for one reason or another I’m down 8.8lbs since Monday – when I stepped on the scale for the first time in weeks). I’ve decided Friday and Saturday OR Sunday will be higher calorie days.

Today started with a banana & PB wrap

And a little bit of puppy watching

It’s funny, I don’t know what happened to the puppy I brought home over 8 years ago now, but she was BLACK.  This dog has somehow developed some RED in her fur.  I swear, she loves to sunbathe so much that it’s changing her hair colour

Do you see it?

This weekend’s plan is to hopefully FINALLY work on my flower beds and eat a LOT of leftovers.  Currently in the fridge we have to eat 1 1/2 racks of ribs, 3/4 chicken, 3 huge Black Bean & Sweet Potato Enchiladas (which, remember, are big ones, so really they are equivalent to having 6 enchiladas in the fridge), leftover spicy black bean soup and leftover stir fry from last night (which I did take photos of, but will blog about it later).  I also bought a LOT of fruit tonight, so I intend on making some glorious fruit salads for the week!

Whatever your plans, make it a great one!

Ribfest!

Well, Windows Live Writer does not want to post pictures the last 2 days, so I'm going to do a post the old fashioned way... directly in Blogger.

Yesterday we found ourselves at my very first Ribfest! A got ribs, but I got chicken. We ended up buying copious amounts of food to bring home (2 full racks of ribs and 1 whole chicken). We ate the food for lunch yesterday (at the ribfest), had it for dinner last night and for lunch again today. We had to take a break and enjoy something else for dinner (frozen pizza). We'll be back at it tomorrow!

Pics from Ribfest!

...... I tried. Blogger won't let me upload pics either. I give up for now! I hope to be back soon with pics for everyone.

Is anyone else having this problem? Blogger is crazy slow and times out before the pics can upload... and Windows Live Writer just won't publish any post with photos! Anyone? Anyone? THIS is frustration!

Sweeeeet (potato)!

Have you checked out my food diary for today?  You can see the deets of my eats there. 

The story behind dinner?  I forgot to take out chicken breasts to BBQ and I forgot to ask A to take them out too.  I could have defrosted them when I got home, but I decided to take the opportunity to make something I’ve been wanting to try for a while.  After reading Lynn’s blog, I’ve been jonesing for some Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas.  I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and came home to get to work.  I mistakenly bought the big tortillas, so I only needed one enchilada to fill me tummy.

I made 6 tortillas and still have half of the filling leftover for another night (yay leftovers!). 

Breakfast was improv.  I noticed a banana about to bite the bullet on the counter, so I had 1/2 banana and 1/2tbsp natural PB with some cinnamon.  I didn’t quite have time to put it on toast this morning so I ended up just eating it straight out of the bowl I mixed it up in.

 

Go Canucks!

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