I love sweets

Hello. My name is Jennifer... And I am addicted to sweets. I have a serious sweet tooth. I crave these things (photos are of sweets I made for Christmas a couple of years ago).

I have managed to avoid sweets tonight (and all week!), despite desperately wanting them.

In other news... Day 3 down, 27 to go in project: earn an elliptical!

Tomorrow is weigh in day but I'm not hopeful. The scale has not been my friend this week. It's actually been down right stubborn. It's okay. I'll get it next week!

Check in

Just checking in to report I made it on the bike again today. 2 days down, 28 to go!!

Today's lunch was quick and quite yummy. I don't have lentil loaf made so my salad was just spinach, nutritional yeast & mmmm sauce. Amongst other things (like pineapple! Which I can't get enough of lately!)

Happy Thursday!

30

In less than a month I will turn 33. I think it will be a lucky age for me. 3 is my lucky number... So having two of them in my age has to be extra lucky, right?

Since moving (1 year ago) my old treadmill has sat in the dark, cold, unfinished basement. Truth be told, it didn't work the greatest anymore anyway. As you know we have a bike in our office at home & I do use it regularly. But... I'd like an elliptical.

A deal has been made here that I cannot refuse. If I go on the bike for at least 30min every day for 30 days... I get an elliptical!

Day 1 was today. 29 to go! I WILL do it.

In other news... I had my first honey crisp apple of the season! It would appear more local orchards are now growing them. Score!!

I'm off to finish watching The Biggest Loser & call it a night. Gotta bike in the morning!

TGIF

Happy weigh in day. Or is it? I was up 0.8lbs this week. I will try harder next week!

To console myself I had pumpkin oats with PB for breakfast. And hummus with pita chips for lunch. And a bun. A white bun even. Mmmmm. Buns.

Pardon the iPhone photos.

Have yourselves a great weekend!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I made pumpkin cupcakes for Thanksgiving that are worthy of their own post.  I found them at Skinny Taste. They’re simple.  All you’ll need is:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 cup pure pumpkin
• 1 cup water
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix it up & bake 20-25min at 350F.

The outcome is divine.  I really wasn’t expecting them to taste quite so yummy.

For the kids… I threw a little decoration on them.

Now… if only they were muffins, I could have them for breakfast!

Pumpkin Pie Meringues

I started making meringues a few years ago after I discovered how easy they are (when you have a stand mixer!) and how low cal they are. I started with this recipe.  Eventually I took out the peppermint and started substituting other flavours.  Cocoa powder, Coconut, strawberry (the candy flavourings you can buy at Bulk Barn work well!).

A couple of years ago at Thanksgiving I decided to make them with some of this:

Delicious.

Pumpkin Pie Meringues:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 225F. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Whip egg whites in the mixer until they form white peaks.  Add in the salt and cream of tartar.  Add in the pumpkin pie spice.  Slowly add in the sugar until you see this consistency:

I use a piping bag and sometimes a fancy tip to pipe meringues on to the foil covered cookie sheet.  Bake for 90 minutes.

Here’s the final product.

Voila!

Reality & Recovery

I’m not going to lie.  I thought I did fairly well this weekend.  I didn’t eat desserts at 2 of the 3 Thanksgiving meals.  I didn’t snack.  I had 2 glasses of wine all weekend.

The scale told me today that I really did indulge too much.  I guess I could lie to myself, but the scale won’t lie to me.

I honestly don’t know where I went wrong.  But I was pretty upset today.  Luckily, I didn’t reach for a cookie.  I ate healthy.

Breakfast was some pumpkin oats (which, were really to die for):

• 1/4c oats
• 1/4c egg whites
• 1/4c pumpkin
• 1tbsp chia seeds
• 1tsp pumpkin pie spice

I mixed them all up & cooked them in the microwave.  While it was still hot I added 1tbsp natural PB.  It tasted a lot better than it looked.

Lunch was a smoothie.

• 1/2 small frozen banana
• 1/2c frozen strawberries
• unsweetened almond breeze
• spinach
• chocolate Amazing Grass
• 1/2 scoop protein powder

For more specifics about what I ate today in order to recover from the weekend… check out my food diary!

More photos!

Just testing posting from my iPhone. Here are some photos from Thanksgiving weekend!

Thanksgiving 2011

This weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada.  We had 3 holiday dinners to attend.  It was wonderful.  Here are some photos of the baking I did.  I’m proud to tell you I barely ate any of it (of course, I had to sample some).

Pumpkin cupcakes and lemon cupcakes

Pumpkin pie meringues

Chocolate sticky squares

After turkey dinner #1 on Saturday (which was at lunch time), we joined my parents for a boat ride around the lake.  The sun was shining, the water was calm… and the trees were beautiful.  Here are some photos to share.

The locks

The beautifully calm lake (Balsam Lake)

The warm sun and its reflection on the lake. It was as warm as it looks!

Some “cottages” on the lake.  They’re huge.

Our family lot is in behind those trees

We startled some Canada Geese. They flew away.

The channel between Balsam Lake and Cameron Lake

I hope your weekend was wonderful and you all find yourselves with something to be thankful for.

Rocked it

It’s the provincial election day in Ontario.  We went to vote after work.

We celebrated with my favourite dinner!  Subway!

I got a big old footlong (and ate the whole thing) roasted chicken breast with lettuce, tomato, pickles, black olives, green olives, hot peppers, sweet onion sauce, black pepper, parmesan cheese and oregano.  It was divine.

I was also celebrating the 4th day in a row of getting up and getting on the bike.  When I go on tomorrow, I’ll reach my goal of 5 days of biking this week!

Dreamy

I said I would go back to a smoothie for breakfast today, and I did.

After 30min on the bike I made a smoothie so wonderful, it deserves its own post.

What was in today’s shaker cup?

• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2c frozen strawberries
• handful of spinach
• protein powder
• Unsweetened Almond Breeze
• Chia seeds
• Protein powder

And… for the first time ever, I decided to try one of my Amazing Grass samples I bought.

Holy HEAVEN.  This gave my smoothie a slightly wonderful orange creamsicle flavour.  And I loved it.  I have 1 more sample and them I’m seriously going to have to save my money and order a whole container.  Or beg my sister to bring me one from the US at Christmas. 

Here was the final product

And now I’m off to watch Happy Endings.  I have a total girl crush on Penny.

Wake Up With Me

Care to know my morning routine?

6:15am – Alarm goes off

6:30am – Get out of bed and take care of some business

6:45am – Walk down the hall towards the office

Walk past the guest room. Does it look like someone uses that room?  Someone does.  A little 4-legged someone named Chicklet.  She has claimed the room as her own… particularly the bed

Then, I walk in to the office and this is what I see waiting for me

I take a seat here (after I remove the fancy law scale pillow)

I enjoy my view… watching people on my street leave early for their long drive in to Toronto for work

Usually I watch Friends on DVD (go ahead, laugh!) to pass the time while biking.  Today I actually biked later in the day (hence the sun shining!  It’s usually still dark when I’m getting on the bike these days). I wanted to bike longer and felt like watching a movie.  What was on tap?

I watched 1 hour of it (while biking!).  My butt was numb and when I stood up my legs were so tight I could barely walk.  It felt awesome.

Sun Therapy

Today required a mental health day for many reasons.

This was a great way to start the day. The sun was shining through the windows ever so brightly.  These are the days I’m thankful for our skylights.

Fresh fruit, PC Strawberry Greek yogurt, and a pumpkin scone.

How did I not take a photo of the meringues, chocolate chip cookie, Pretzel crisps, or the KD with chicken wieners I consumed throughout the day after this?  Time to hit the bike!