Krista's Kravings

Somebody Turned 10!!

2012-02-01T18:35:00.002-05:00

It's official; this past Saturday Noah turned 10! Double digits, yo! Somewhere along the line my kids have grown up on me. Yikes!

The birthday boy started his day off lounging around the house playing video games and just chilling in general. Between school, hockey and soccer he doesn't see much down time so I'm glad that he had the chance to just relax for the morning. Later on in the afternoon he had a hockey game which cut into any "birthday party" time we could have had. There's no way I was going to let the day go by without some friend festivities so I got the OK from his coach to bring in cupcakes and juice boxes for the boys to enjoy in the change room after the game. Let me tell you; 17 nine year old's (Noah is the "oldest" on the team) can sing Happy Birthday pretty damn loud! LOL

Noah's choice of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting topped with peanut butter M&M's were a HUGE hit! Silly me didn't even think to take a picture before hand! Oops! You can just see them here:

We hung out at the rink to watch another game before heading to Noah's restaurant of choice, East Side Mario's for dinner. Not my fave. In fact, I haven't been there since I was preggers with him! BUT...the fact that he's never been is why he picked it. And he LOVED it there so it's all good. We ordered some stuffed mushrooms to share:

I ate one of those. Would it be sad to say that the one mushroom I ate was the best part of the meal??? Moving along, East Side's famous salad and bread was up next. I actually do like the salad they serve...

The rest of the family ate Caesar salad and the bread, of course. Seeing as this is mainly a pasta type restaurant, my dinner choices were limited to say the least. I ended up choosing the salmon with veg and potatoes in place of fettuccine Alfredo:

Dry salmon, deep fried "roasted" potatoes and veg drowning in....something. Ugh...so not worth the $18.96. I will say though that I took the leftovers home with me and had them for lunch yesterday. They tasted much better! Sarah was so impressed with her lasagna that she took a picture of it for you guys!

This was actually a HUGE piece. My girl can eat and she only made it halfway through this beast. Hehe! Noah ordered good ole spaghetti and meatballs which he loved, loved, loved. He said they were the best meatballs he's ever eaten. I'm not at all offended by that. *wink wink* I somehow didn't get a picture of his pate....hmmm....trust me when I say the portion was as extravagant as Sarah's lasagna and that he's enjoyed his leftovers 2 days in a row in his Thermos. The best part of the night for all of us was dessert. And this is only because of the birthday cheer they sing at East Side. The waiter brought a birthday brownie decked out with a sparkler and after having Noah stand on the seat had all the staff and restaurant goer's sing happy birthday. Aside from being a little scared of getting burned, he sucked up the attention like a champ!

All in all a GREAT day! I just can't believe how fast a decade flew by. Seems like yesterday that he was still in diapers. HAHA! Have you celebrated any birthday's lately?

Bye for now!!

Dempster's Thin Bagels

2012-01-26T14:07:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back I received some fun mail that included 3 varieties of Dempster's Thin Bagels for us to try...

We love when Dempster's products show up at our house! The fam has been eating Dempster's whole grain bread exclusively for some time now so we're familiar with the company and their amazing products. You can also check out my review for the Oven Ready Baguettes here. It's not too clear in the picture, but I was sent the White with Whole Grains:

Multi Grain 100% Whole Grains:

And the favourite among my boys; cinnamon raisin!

Seeing as I no longer eat gluten, Jason and the kids jotted down their thoughts for me to share with you:

-really good snack, great taste but on the small side

-delicious toasted with cream cheese

-tough to toast because they’re thin

-raisins ones are very good plain…don’t need any topping

Further to that, these bagels have less than half the calories of regular bagels and can be found in the bakery aisle a major grocery stores across Canada. They typically sell for $3.59-$3.99.

Here are a few recipe ideas that would be well suited to these little guys...

Berry & Greek Yougurt This Bagel

-1 Dempster's Cinnamon Raisin Thin Bagel

-1 Tbsp Greek style plain yogurt

-2 Tbsp of mixed fresh berries

-2 tsp honey

-pinch of cinnamon

OR you could try Thin Bagel & Lox:

OR Thin Breakfast Club Sandwich:

At only 100 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fibre and 3 grams of protein, these bagel thins make for a fabulous snack of base for your favourite sandwich! Have you tried Dempster's Thin Bagels?

Bye for now!!

The Works

2012-01-16T14:36:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday we went out to dinner (and a movie) to celebrate Jason's birthday. A new burger joint called The Works, which originated in Ottawa, just opened up in our area and we'd heard rave reviews so decided to try it out.

What a GREAT place! The service was top notch, the decor funky, the atmosphere laid back and the food spectacular! Check out the neat salt & pepper shakers:

No sooner did we get the menu's that the kids zoomed in on milk shakes. I was leery on letting them get one because I didn't want the bellies too full, but the waiter convinced me that the small ones were not too big. And wouldn't you know that they came out in Pyrex measuring cups?! Noah went with Oreo (even though you could create you own combo!):

Sarah was a tad more adventurous and ordered chocolate, chocolate chip blackberry:

Even my water came in a 2 cup measuring cup!

Now, I had heard that the menu options were quite extensive; 60 choices to be exact, so we all took a peek at the menu online earlier in the day. Here's what they have to say about their patties:

And the protein options to choose from:

Armed with our decisions, we order right away since the place was filling up and we needed to out of there in time to make it to our show. Noah ordered the "Mac & Cheese" which we all assumed was just that. Oh no! What came out was a burger TOPPED with mac & cheese and cheddar:

After giving it a really strange look he shrugged his shoulders, grabbed the ketchup and proceeded to polish it off. He didn't make it through the fries, though! Sarah, who unlike me loves meat, ordered the "Richie's Butt Burger" which was topped with grilled Canadian back bacon and cheddar cheese:

She made short work of that! I just can't figure out where she puts it all! Jason went with the "Sorento Sunset" which had fresh avocado slices and Monterey Jack cheese on it:

I chose the "Johnny Be Goat" with no bun. Thankfully, there burgers are gluten free! Mine was topped with roasted red peppers, spinach and goat cheese:

As delicious as it was, I'm just not a huge fan of meat so I made it through most of the burger and ALL the toppings. Jason had no problem finishing of my patty. ;) We all had sweet potato fires except for Noah who had regular ones. And now for some goofy family pictures!

The movie we went to see was "We Bought a Zoo" with Matt Damon. what an amazing movie! Have you seen it yet? When we got home there was just enough time for Noah to get a quick snuggle from Pepper:

Have you tried a new to you restaurant lately?

Bye for now!!

T'is The Season....

2011-12-06T10:58:00.001-05:00

.....to be BUSY!! Hi folks! How is everyone doing? Are you all caught up in the craziness that is December just like me? Between work, Christmas shopping, hockey, dance and the end of Sarah's volleyball season I've barely had time time sit at the computer, which I am sure is the case in general. Instead of posting here I decided to use that time to continue reading all your blogs. I haven't been commenting as much, but I have been keeping myself up to date with you guys!

On Sunday Noah's hockey team had a game in a border city. Whenever we play there I plan a quick trip across the border for a little shopping. This time we only hit Target because it had been raining pretty heavily all day and we were afraid it would freeze before long. Getting stuck in the States wouldn't be such a bad thing; just extra money for us that could be used in other areas right now. :) We actually went to Panera first because, as is the case more often than not lately, Noah was starving. That kid eats more than me these days and is still only weighs 59lbs at almost 10yrs old! LOL Because I'm pretty much gluten free, sandwiches were out for me. I went with the Chopped Chicken BBQ Salad with a side of potato chips:

This was delicious! I already used some of the ingredients in this as an idea for dinner. More on that to follow...I pretty much found everything at Target that I wanted to. I can't post everything, though, because some of the items are gifts! Here are the edible goodies I bought:

Anyone know how to rotate photos in blogger? I don't have WLW at work and can't figure out how to do it! DOH!! If you can help leave me a comment, please & thank you! Jason LOVES the Archer Farms corn & black bean salsa! I've had to hide those Mounds bars and Fage yogurts from my son...AKA...bottomless pit!

I also managed to stick to my meal plan last week. Monday was pizza night. While the fam had some oven ready pizza, I made a pizza for me using Udi's GF pizza crust. I've never tried it before and really enjoyed it! My toppings included a (leftover) GF hotdog, spinach and cheddar cheese. I used salsa as my sauce:

Next time I will cut back on the baking time. The crust got a little too crisp for me, but that was my fault, not the product. (*note: I bought these Udi's pizza crusts on my own). Here's a picture I took of the leftovers that I enjoyed for lunch the next day:

Tuesday we had a FREE night! I took the opportunity to roast a chicken with onions and garlic for dinner. I also made steamed broccoli & quinoa to go along with it.

That's mango chutney on my plate beside the chicken. ;) On Wednesday we were out of town until 7pm. Knowing this would be the case I made and baked off meatballs Tuesday for subs. All I had to do when we got home was heat them with tomato sauce, toast the buns and melt the cheese. The fam had sub buns while I ate mine on a GF burger bun:

Thursday was quick and simple; turkey sausage, brown rice & peas;

The plan was to have chicken stir fry on Friday, but we ended up at Boston Pizza after a bit of Christmas shopping. I went with a personal Szechuan on GF crust.

I took one bite of this and realized that instead of the Szechuan sauce that's suppose to come with this pizza, it was plain old tomato. Instead of sending it back and waiting for another pizza, I just had the server bring me a ramekin of the sauce and I put it on myself. :/ Seeing as I already had the chicken out of the freezer, we enjoyed our stir fry Saturday night!

As you can see, there is some rice spiral pasta on the side there. I also made sure I got more veg than chicken. I'll leave the fam to the meat! LOL And that's that for my "meals of the week"! I gotta admit, I can't wait to get some natural light again at dinner time! All my pictures look so blah. :(

I don't really have a set plan for this week. From Sunday to Saturday Noah is on the ice every night but Thursday, so I'm kinda winging it. I have a loose idea of what I'll be making each day, but don't want to commit to it. I'll leave you all with a photo of the kids school pics!

Man, they are growing so FAST!! One last little thing! I tried to post this yesterday, but Blogger was behaving badly!!

Bye for now!!

Back in Action...

2011-11-21T13:24:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness friends, it's been a while! When I posted last Noah was home sick with the flu. That stuck with the poor kid for 2 days. Then Sarah got it, then I got it. UGH.....fun times were NOT had! We all seem to be back on track now, though. Needless to say, my meal plan pretty much went out the window last week. So did hockey games, dance class and Zumba. Eeek! Looking through the photos on my camera I seem to have some from last week and all from the week before so this will be a bit of a hodge podge post. So 2 weeks past the plan looked like this:

Turkey sausage, sautéed red peppers, green beans and millet.....

Roasted turkey breast, peas, polenta ans some smoky peach chipotle dipping sauce......

Lasagna, for the fam. I had eggs on toast with mortadella.....

Thursday was pork chops, corn and basmati rice.....

And Friday was baked salmon fillets with broccoli and quinoa...

Pretty good week! I've got to admit, I don't eat pork chops much and Thursday's dinner reminded me why. I just don't like them!! Guess I thought I'd give them another shot, but I won't be eating them again any time soon.

I don't even remember what last week was suppose to look like! Here's what I got pictures of:

Noah had an out of town hockey game on Tuesday and I always try to get some sort of pasta into him before a game. This is brown rice pasta which is always what I prepare for myself.

Whoa....dark photo! This was Wednesday's dinner, which we ate late. Well, 7pm is late for us! We were out for this again...

....but over my lunch hour I put chicken thighs, sliced mushrooms, 2 chopped red bell peppers and a can of tomato sauce in the crock pot on low. When we got back the kids ate theirs over leftover pasta while Jason and I had ours over quinoa. It tasted SO much better than it looks! I'm certain we had turkey sausage again on Thursday, but there doesn't seem to be any photo evidence! Friday we decided to go out to dinner, but my camera was sitting pretty on the dining room table. DOH!

I got some cool mail last week, too! First up we have some Method dish and hand soap:

I haven't tried either yet, but I can't wait to get them started. Method is one of my favourite brands of hand soap and I'm eager to try the dish soap. These have seasonal scents, too! Frosted Fir and Candy Cane! Thank You, Method!!! I also received my FREE Gevalia coffee for our Tassimo.

Somehow I managed to get to their Facebook Page before supplies were out! Too bad I'm blogging from Blogger right now and can't figure out how to rotate this picture!!! Anyhow, this coffee is STRONG, but good. I'll definitely buy more when I run out.

So, I think that's all I've got for now. As always, you can check my meal plan out on my Facebook Page.....What's your favourite meal been this past month? Or is it something that you will be eating over Thanksgiving?

Bye for now!!

Kitchen Aid Food Processor Winner

2011-11-14T11:41:00.001-05:00

Hi! Just popping in to announce the winner of the Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor. The lucky number is 25!

Marianne (frenchfriestoflaxseeds) said...

Just posted a link on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/frenchfriestoflaxseeds

November 10, 2011 2:52 PM

CONGRATULATIONS, Marianne! Please email me you addy and phone # and we can get the wheels rolling on your new food processor!!!!

Bye for now!

Polenta Fries

2011-11-11T09:34:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday! I'm home from work this morning with a sick boy so I thought I'd post a recipe for polenta fries that I've been meaning to do for a good month! Polenta was a staple in my parents diet's growing up and my Mom continued the trend with us. When my Dad was a kid back in Italy polenta was often served at the breakfast table as well as at dinner. My Nonna would make a big batch and spread it out on a baking sheet. Once it was set she cut it into strips and grilled it until crisp. The next morning she would cut it up and serve it with warm milk. A typical meal for lean times. Although we never ate it for breakfast, we did eat lots of it! Mom served it mostly as a base for stews and cacciatore's. Every now and again she would grill the leftovers on the BBQ which was my favourite way to eat it.

Before I get started on my "story" here's how to make a basic batch:

1 cup of liquid (I usually use 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk)
1/4 cup dry polenta
1 tbsp of butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Bring liquid and butter to a gentle boil
Turn down heat and slowly whisk polenta in
Stir, stir, stir until thick, about 5ish-mins (this is important or it will get lumpy on you)
Stir in cheese until melted

At this point it is ready to serve as a side. If you're making a batch for fries pour contents onto a greased baking sheet and refrigerate over night or until set.

Not so long ago I found myself with a good portion of leftover polenta. I decided to chill it in the fridge overnight in a square-ish container that I lightly misted with EVOO.

When it came time for dinner the next day I popped it out of the container on to a cutting board:

I cut it into strips (this is VERY easy to do when the polenta is cold):

While I was doing this I had a pan heating on the stove with approx 3 tbsp of EVOO. Once that was good and hot a gently set the fries in the pan:

Sorry for the icky picture, but it gets the message across! :) I let each side get a crispy layer before turning them over. This doesn't take very long at all. I should mention that you don't have to use EVOO. Whatever oil you have on hand would work perfectly as well as melted butter, coconut oil, coconut butter. Basically, whatever floats your boat! :) Once crispy all over I place the fires on a paper towel covered plate and lighted dust with salt:

DELICIOUS!!! The kids put these back like it's their job! Actually, now that I'm looking at these pictures I feel inspired to make more this weekend! Have you ever had polenta fries??

Enjoy your weekend! But beofre you do, if you live in Canada PLEASE check out the awesome giveaway that I'm hosting. **hint hint** It's for a FREE Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor!!!!

Bye for now!

Menu Plan Flop

2011-11-09T11:01:00.001-05:00

Seeing as I barely followed my menu plan for last week, hence no post about it, I decided to do a "what I ate yesterday" type post for today. But back to last week for a second. I managed to make 2 out of the 5 meals I had planned for the week. Poor planning was the issue here. LOL I totally discounted the fact that Monday was Halloween and the kids really had no interest in eating much so instead of pork chops we ate egg sandwiches. Noah had an out of town hockey game on the Tuesday so oven baked pizza for the road it was in place of the planned turkey sausages. Wednesday I DID bust out the chicken I had planned. Once again I stuffed the breasts with mozzarella cheese, basil pesto and roasted red peppers. For a side I sautéed a package of sliced mushrooms with garlic then added 1 cup of water and a 1/2 cup of quinoa, covered and cooked it for 15 mins. Voila!

I also made Thursday night's pasta dish. Elbow rice noodles, homemade marinara and sliced chicken breast topped with smoked chipotle Tobasco sauce and freshly grated Parmesan cheese:

I had a touch of stomach upset Friday so while the fam ate their burgers, I had poached eggs on toast. That's my #1 go to when I'm not feeling 100%.

On to yesterday's eats. I bought some GF cinnamon raisin bread from the bakery over the weekend so I toasted up a few pieces and topped them with almond butter:

I'm on a late lunch hour this week (12:30-1:30) so I knew I'd need a little protein to get me through the morning:

I've still been going the the gym over my lunch, but on Tuesday there is a yoga class in there so I went home instead. Once again, I was feeling some eggs! I made 2 over easy eggs and popped them on top of GF bean bread and a slice of mortadella:

SO GOOD! I really think I could eat eggs at least once a day and not get tired of them. :) Dinner was as per the menu plan; turkey, polenta & peas.

No natural light by the time we ate! HAHA! We had nothing going on last night so there was ample time to roast up a turkey breast for supper. The polenta was super easy; 1 cup water, 1 cup milk, 1 tbsp butter....bring to a boil then whisk in a 1/4 cup of dry polenta (cornmeal). Stir until thick, about 5ish minutes. I also stirred in about a 1/3 cup of grated Parm at the end. And there you have yesterday's eats! I also have a photo of today's breakie; 2 Nature's Path GF wildberry waffles topped with peaches that I sautéed with a little honey and cinnamon:

Delicious!!!

***To all my Canadian readers: CLICK HERE to be sure you don't miss out on your chance to win a brand new Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor!!!! If you DO NOT do the facebook thing, never fear! Just skip those steps and answer the 2 questions in the comments section. Make sure to leave a separate entry for both!!***

Want a New Kitchen Aid Food Processor???

2011-11-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

Me, too! You guys won't believe what I have up for grabs. This month, KitchenAid is launching its newest food processor.

Isn't she a beaut?? This is a 13 cup food processor and is is truly a culinary necessity when it comes to food preparation. An externally adjustable sliding blade coupled with exceptional performance ensures controlled and precise slicing, chopping and pureeing to help create a meal experience that brings the whole family together. Here is some key information you may find handy:

• New external adjustable, stainless steel slicing disc provides ultimate versatility
• Dual shredding disc easily flips the disc from 2mm to 4mm to achieve ideal slicing thickness
• Large 13-cup (2.75L) leak-proof work bowl, plus chef’s bowl and mini bowl to efficiently
• Ultra Wide Mouth Feed Tube™ adjusts to 3 different sizes to accommodate foods of varying sizes, including whole potatoes and cucumbers
• 17 precise food processing options for speed-controlled slice, shred, chop & puree functions plus three maximized slice, shred and puree/chop blades and bonus dough, egg whip & Julienne blades
• 4 speed-controlled functions
• Comfort design side handle allows easy viewing while the food processor is in use

The Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor comes in 3 colours; silver, white and black and also includes the following:

• New stainless steel multi purpose blade
• Maximized S blade for exceptional performance
• Dough blade
• Dual stainless steel shredding disc

This product retails for $399.99 CDN. Here are 2 recipes you could make with this appliance:

HolidaySlaw

This crunchyslaw with its sweet and tangy vinaigrette is a delicious and refreshingaccompaniment to serve with turkey and trimmings. Using your food processormakes the preparation very easy and this salad can even be made days inadvance.

Ingredients

½ large green cabbage,cored

1small fennel bulb, trimmed

8large red radishes, trimmed

6green onions, trimmed

1green pepper, cored

1cup (250 mL) dried cranberries

½ cup (125 mL) whitewine vinegar

cup(75 mL) each oil and maple syrup

2tbsp (30 mL) lemon juice

1tbsp (15 mL) Dijonmustard

¾ tsp (4 mL) salt

Directions

1. Cut the cabbage into 5 or 6 wedges. Positionthe adjustable slicing disc in the work bowl and, using the thin setting onHigh speed, push the wedges through the feeding tube. Transfer to a large bowl.Switch to the coarse side of the reversible shredding disc. Cut the fennel intoquarters. Push the fennel and radishes through the feeding tube; add to thelarge bowl.

2. Cutthe green onion and green pepper into chunks. Use the multipurpose metal bladeto chop finely. Add to the cabbage mixture. Combine the cranberries, vinegar,oil, maple syrup, lemon juice, mustard and salt in a small saucepan set overmedium heat; bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage mixture and toss to coat.Chill for at least 1 hour or up to 4 days. Makes about 12 cups (3 L).

Stuffed

Turkey

Breast withSweet & Sticky Glaze

Easy tocarve and serve, this delicious turkey breast is a stress-free alternative tothe traditional whole bird. Although perfect for a small cozy family gathering,this recipe can also be doubled or tripled to serve a crowd.

Ingredients

½ French baguette, about 5 oz (150 g)

1 small onion, peeled and quartered

1 cup (250 mL) cubed, aged white Cheddar cheese, about 4 oz (125 g)

½ cup (125 mL ) dried apricots, pear or apple

¼ cup (50 mL) each dried cranberries and golden raisins

2 tbsp (30 mL) finely chopped fresh rosemary, divided

1 tsp (5 mL) dried thyme leaves

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp (30 mL) butter, melted

1 boneless, skinless turkey breast, about 1 kg (2 lb), butterflied (see Tip)

½ tsp (2 mL) each salt and pepper

½ cup (125 mL) melted apricot jam

2 tbsp (30 mL) each brown sugar, wholegrain Dijon mustard and cider vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Meanwhile, position themultipurpose blade in the work bowl. Tear the bread into large chunks. Add tothe food processor along with the onion, cheese, dried apricots, cranberries,raisins, rosemary and thyme. Pulse until crumbled but still chunky. Add the eggand butter; pulse just until the stuffing comes together uniformly.

2. Spread out the turkey breast and sprinkleboth sides evenly with salt and pepper. Arrange the stuffing on one side; foldover the other side and tie with kitchen twine to securely enclose filling.Transfer to a rack arranged on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet.

3. Using the mini bowl and blade, blend theapricot jam with the brown sugar, mustard, vinegar and remaining rosemary onlow speed until combined and smooth. Brush ¼ of this mixture evenly over theturkey breast. Roast, basting liberally with remaining glaze, for 1½ hours oruntil an instant-read thermometer, inserted into individually into the meat andthe stuffing registers 165°F (74°C). Let stand, tented with foil, for 10 minutesbefore slicing. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Tip: To butterfly the turkey, lay the breast flat on a clean worksurface. Cut almost all the way through, from one side of the breast so thatopens like a book. Or, to simplify preparation, ask the butcher to butterflythe breast for you before purchasing.

So how you you like to have one of these show up on your doorstep? If you live in Canada, November might just be your lucky month because Kitchen Aid will be sending one of these 13 cup food processors to you, for FREE! Here's what you need to do to enter this here giveaway:

Tell me why you would like to own the new Kitchen Aid 13 Cup Food Processor
What would be the first recipe you'd make if you won?
Post this link to your facebook page
"Like" Krista's Kravings on FB. (My badge is along the right side of the blog.) Let me know you've done this in the form of a comment. If you already like my page just let me know in the comments)
Please link this to your next post and let me know that you did in the comment section.

This is such a BIG giveaway for Krista's Kravings!! Be sure to leave a separate comment for #'s 1-5 which will give you up to 5 chances to win. You DO NOT need a blog to enter. I will leave this open until midnight on November 13 and will announce the winner on November 14 using the random number generator. That's one week to get the word out! If you have any questions you can email me at kristaskravings@gmail.com.

Good luck, everyone!!!

Bye for now....

Fun with Halloween Costumes...

2011-11-02T11:47:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday! I wanted to pop in with a quick Halloween recap for you. First off, did you all enjoy Halloween in some shape or form? Maybe you had little ones trick or treating or went to a party? This was the first year that my kids went out separately, with friends, on different sides of town. Kinda sad in a way because they're *almost* to the age where they're too old to go out for candy. Actually, Sarah wasn't even going to go this year until a few girls decided to get together and go for it. Sigh....

Moving along, the kids aren't allowed full face masks at school so Noah decided to dress up as a hockey player for the day. Go figure, right? He donned his ~~stinky~~ hockey equipment then asked me for a black eye and stitches. An everyday request, yes? :)

His REAL costume, as he puts it, looked like this:

Rumour has it that the mask lasted about 3 houses worth of trick or treating before he pulled it off. Jason said he wore it the rest of the night! Miss Sarah, who usually loves to dress up scary, opted to reuse one of her hip hop recital costumes instead:

She was none too impressed with me when I insisted she wear a sweater, but I'd rather her mad than sick. Call me crazy here, if you want. ;) I'm pretty sure she forgot all about it once her and her friends got going. Or she took it off as soon as I backed out of the driveway.....Here's a shot of the 2 of them together. They were raring to go and barely stood still long enough for the camera to focus!

I turned my attention to the cats once I had the house to myself. Little did they know it was dress up time for them, too! LOL Pepper is a little chubber so I was barely able to button up the costume, but after a few wriggles, I got him in:

He was SO embarrassed, I tell you! I could not get him to look directly at the camera. I only got that first shot after following him around the deck for 5 minutes. There were many butt shots along the way! He pretty much forgave me as soon as it was off, though. Octavius, on the other hand, shot me dirty looks the rest of the night! I guess that's what dressing up a 16yr old cat gets me!

Fun times! Do you, or have you ever, dressed up your pets? I always do at Halloween and Christmas. When I was little I used to dress our cat in my doll clothes. I just think it's SO freaking cute!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little recap! Enjoy the rest of the week and I'll be back on Sunday!

Bye for now!!

Four Meals In, One Out

2011-10-30T18:21:00.001-04:00

Hi everybody! How did your week go? I see that some of you have snow already! YUCK! I sure feel for you. I haven’t seen any white flakes yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long now. Did anyone attend a Halloween party this weekend? My kids are excited for the “big” day tomorrow. I’ll be spending part of this evening getting their costumes ready for school tomorrow. Noah’s class is having a little party and Sarah (being in grade 7) will be going to an afternoon dance at the school.
I wanted to make sure I popped by to post last week’s meals. Can I just day that I’m SO glad I got back into planning dinner for the week? It’s one less thing to worry about each night when I get home. Two thumbs up, for sure! So Monday was soup & grilled cheese night. I made the broth in my crock pot using the chicken bones that I have from our beer butt/roasted chickens so all I had to do when I came home from work was strain it into a pot, add a can of diced tomatoes (with the juice) and chicken from the bones. Instead of grilled cheese I toasted a slice of rice bread for dipping.
On Tuesday I had the time to roast a chicken which is a rarity through the week at this house! I also made peas and quinoa to go with it: Can I just say that it’s getting dark so much sooner lately? Good thing next Saturday we change the clocks! On Wednesday I grilled turkey sausage with bell peppers and onions. I also sautéed mushrooms, garlic and Mache as another side. Quinoa made another appearance on my plate while the fam ate mac n cheese with theirs. Thursday was another busy night so I dug into the freezer for some pulled pork that I had made in the crock pot previously and froze without sauce. I just warmed it in a pan with a bit of broth and hickory flavoured BBQ sauce. It was delicious served over a toasted rice bun smeared with avocado hummus: We went out with friends for dinner on Friday, but no pictures. It was a real informal meal of burgers and salad. Perfect for the end of a busy week! Some of the leftovers were eaten as is within the next few days while some were transformed a bit. I used some of the roasted chicken to make an awesome sandwich with vegetable antipasto, Mache and cassata cheese…. Some of the (sauce less) pulled pork went back into a sandwich with roasted red pepper, basil pesto and mozzarella cheese: Delicious!! On Saturday we went to Subway for lunch. It’s the first time I’ve been since going (mostly) gluten free. I went with a turkey sub in salad form which ended up being fabulous!
And lastly, tonight’s dinner. I baked salmon fillets and served them with brown rice and mixed veggies:
A lovely Sunday dinner, even though it’s not pot roast! HAHA! Check out next weeks plan over on my facebook page……
Have a great week, everyone….
Bye for now!!

A Week of Dinners

2011-10-23T11:08:00.001-04:00

Ola! How was everyone’s week? I was sidelined with a head cold, but tis the season, right? I blame it on the office. Something is wrong with the heating system and the temp didn’t go above 68* all week. One day when we got in it was 63*!!! My hands and feet were pretty much ice cubes all week long. Not fun. Have you caught “the dreaded” fall cold/flu yet? At least I found some pumpkin spice coffee to keep me warm!
The Redbrick Cafe is a family favourite around here. I went in one day last week looking to buy this coffee and they were sold out! They did tell me that I could purchase it at a store just around the corner so I hightailed it over there for a bag. Earlier in the week I made a delicious GF pumpkin muffin recipe.
I find life much easier if I am sure to keep GF “treats’ around the house that I can just grab and run with. It’s easy to get cranky if I need a little something something and there’s nothing that I’m able to grab a handful of. These muffins fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the fam loved them, too so the batch didn’t last very long! I should note that the only 2 changes I made was to use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin PIE puree and I used almond breeze instead of water.
My weekly menu plan was successful yet again. Wednesday was they only night that things were switched up. Let’s take a look, shall we? Monday night was Pork tenderloin chilli served over cheesy buckwheat waffles: Waffles can be such a fun base to savoury meals. Bonus if you have kids because waffles just make dinner that much better! We topped our waffles off with some avocado hummus: Tuesday was chicken night. I didn’t want to BBQ the breasts because we ate our chicken that way all summer. I garnered my creative juices and decided to stuff’em! I cut a pocket into the thickest part of the breast and filled it with basil pesto, roasted red pepper strips and cassata cheese, which is an Italian cheese comparable to mozzarella with a bit sharper of a flavour. I made steamed green beans and red quinoa as sides: This was my favourite meal of the week by far! Wednesday was suppose to be pasta with sausage Bolognese sauce night, but nobody was feeling like pasta so I made breakfast for dinner. I toasted the last of the cheesy waffles, scrambled 8 eggs and used the sausage meat to make patties. These were pretty easy; I just added some spices to the meat and formed small burger shaped patties. I baked them in a 350* oven for a 1/2 hour. The kids loved them! My plate consisted of eggs, GF bread and leftover chicken and green beans: Thursday saw a beef roast in the crock pot. I added about 1 cup of water and seasoned the roast with garlic and seasoning salt and let it alone for 10 hours on low. I should mention that the meat was still a bit frozen when I put in or I would’ve only let it go 8 hours. I steamed some broccoli and made a pot of mac n’ cheese for the fam. I finished off Tuesday’s quinoa: Noah had an out of town hockey game Friday night so dinner had to be QUICK and on the road. I baked off 2 Ristorante pizza’s for the fam: And made myself an egg sandwich on rice bread with avocado hummus and cassata cheese: Meal of champions, right there! Haha! Another perk to meal planning is that there are leftovers for lunch everyday of the week. And sometimes for breakfast, too! I had 2 lonely (sweet) waffles left in the freezer from last Sunday so I toasted them this morning and topped them with some peach preserves and slivered almonds: YUM! Here’s a shot of the peach preserves, which I bought yesterday on a whim.

Summer in my mouth, right there folks! I’ll leave you with a photo I took of Pepper yesterday. I seem to be a pro a getting him mid yawn which makes him look SO mean!
I die! Remember, you can see what’s on the menu this coming week over at my facebook page!
Bye for now!

Parties, Dinners and Waffles

2011-10-16T18:57:00.001-04:00

Hello! How was everyone’s week? Mine turned out to be pretty busy; both at work and home. It’s all good, though. I prefer a busy work week because busy = FAST and who doesn’t appreciate a quick work week? The weekend has been really fun! Friday we partied the night away at Noah’s hockey team’s fundraiser dinner/dance. What a GREAT night! Dinner, dancing, drinks socializing, ticket selling; the evening was a HUGE success. The early numbers are in and it’s looking like we raised almost $12,000 for the team’s budget. This money is used for tournament fees, extra (specialized) training for the boys and team building events off the ice.   Noah took a picture of us before we left;

Saturday the boys had their first win of the season! They’re doing pretty good this year compared to others….1 win, 3 ties and 2 losses. Today Noah was back on the (indoor) soccer field for practice. This will be a weekly thing now. It was nice to catch up with the soccer parents! I miss them after spending so much time together this summer.
I once again stuck to my menu plan for the week. The only night I didn’t was pasta night (Thursday) because the kids wanted hotdogs instead so Jason and I ate turkey sausage.   Here’s a recap of the weeks eats;

Monday night we did a chicken on the BBQ rotisserie. I also sliced 3 potatoes and a red onion and placed them in foil with some butter, S&P. The package joined the chicken on the BBQ. Veggies brought up the side. Tuesday night the fam had pizza. I went with a sandwich filled with brie, avocado, tomato and lettuce on GF bread: Wednesday was pork chop night. I just did up a pan of fast fry chops, made a pot of quinoa that I jazzed up with freshly grated parm and salsa and sautéed spinach and mushrooms for some greens: Enter turkey sausage night! The sides were kept super simple; corn and basmati rice. Friday was party night so the kidlets enjoyed Subway. There was lots of food at the party….carved pork & beef, 2 pasta dishes, salads, bread cheese & fruits trays…I had a bit of beef, salad and cheese, but wasn't too hungry. Usually, when I’m in a situation where there are lots of people and activity around me, I tend to forget about the food and focus on the excitement. Anyone else like this?
Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada, but we celebrated on Sunday at my parents place. The weather was SO gorgeous that we ate outside! We’ve NEVER been able to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside! Mom made a turkey with all the fixings. My plate looked like this; Everything was SO delicious!
This morning I made two batches of waffles; sweet & savoury. They’re a gluten free recipe that I found at this site. The original recipe was done first, as is:
I topped 2 with raspberry syrup and agave for a delicious breakfast!
To the second batch I added salt, pepper and chilli flakes and omitted the cinnamon. Once the batter came together I stirred in 2 cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese: These will be used in tomorrow night’s dinner. Speaking of tomorrow, you can check out next week’s menu plan on my facebook page.
What was your favourite meal last week??
Bye for now!

Saybon Candy Winners!

2011-10-11T15:30:00.001-04:00

Happy Tuesday!! I'm here with a quick post to announce the winners of the Saybon Candy contest. Seeing as I had so many entries from both my blog AND Facebook page, I decided to go old school in how I picked the names:

Of the 51 entries, the winners are:

Debby Sunce Dowse - comment left on FB Oct 3 @ 3:53pm
Sienna Palin - comment left on FB Oct 3 @ 9:38pm
Kim - comment left on Krista's Kravings Oct 3 @ 5:21pm
Janet Pymento - comment left on FB Oct 3 @ 7:12pm
Joyce Lynne Waldner - comment left on FB Oct 3 @ 4:29pm

CONGRATS to the winners! Kim, I have your email address and will sent the coupon link ASAP. Debby, Sienna, Janet & Joyce; please email me your info at kristaskravings@gmail.com.

Thanks to everyone who entered!!

Bye for now!

Some Sad News & Last Week’s Menu Plan in Review

2011-10-09T14:45:00.001-04:00

Hi, everyone! It’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and I’ll soon be on my way to my parents house for a great dinner, but I wanted to touch base to let you see how my menu plan from last week went and to share a bit of crappy news. :/
This past Tuesday night I received a phone call from the Humane Society letting me know that one of my fur babies, Charlie had been hit by a car. He did not survive. I can’t even describe how heartbroken I was….and still am. We adopted Charlie 9 yrs ago when he was barely old enough to be separated from his Mom. He always had a real natural instinct to go out; for the better part of 8yrs we did our very best to keep him in. This past summer he started to act out somewhat so we decided to let him explore knowing full well that being hit by a car was a very real danger. He was good about staying on our property, but a few weeks ago something compelled me to put the collar on him that we got when we adopted Pepper from the Humane Society. I am SO thankful that I did or we’d still be wondering what happened to him. The girl who took the call let me know that although he’d been hit, he was not run over. When she arrived a small group of people were with him; someone even put a sweater on him. She rushed him to the emergency vet clinic, but he died on the way. The fact that people stopped to help our little cat gives me such peace. Although we weren’t home when this happened, he was not alone at the end.
I will be perfectly honest here; after Tuesday I was not in the mood to cook or eat, but I did stick to my menu plan! And I have photo evidence!!!
Monday night’s crock pot vegetable & chick pea curry…. Tuesday night’s BBQ’d chicken thighs with corn and some gluten free bread that my hubby surprised me with! Here’s Wednesday night’s Pineapple Quinoa Cashew stir fry from Veganomicon: And Thursday night was pasta night. Noah had a hockey game and I always try to get some pasta into him on these nights! These are rice noodles, the fam had regular WW pasta. On Friday I stuck to the turkey sausage and the fam had peas and mac & cheese with theirs. I decided to slice mine and serve it over some leftover pasta: Then for lunch yesterday I ate the last little bit of pasta with sautéed spinach. There’s no photo evidence, but we enjoyed homemade chicken burgers for dinner last night. Yummy!
You can check out what this week’s menu looks like over at my Facebook page. Also, don’t forget to enter my Saybon Candy giveaway…there’s still time!!
Bye for now!!

Saybon Candy

2011-10-03T13:20:00.002-04:00

Last week I received a sweet surprise on my doorstep!

Saybon Toffee and and Fruit Taffy! Saybon candies, which are Allan Candy’s latest candy brand, include 11 varieties of classic smooth cooked hard candies, handmade batch taffies, double crafted centre fills, caramelized sugarmilks and sugardust sweets. These candies are proudly made in Canada and are peanut free and kosher (the sugardust sweets are NOT kosher).

Meet the SAYBONFamily

Caramelized Sugarmiks- Assorted Toffees, Assorted Éclairs, Dairy Fudges

· Sugarmilks are caramelized with theperfect blend of milk, sugar, heat and time to create a rich and creamy tastingcandy.

Handmade Batch Taffies- Butt’r Mints and Fruit Taffy

· Each piece is folded and slab cut byhand, one batch at a time, creating a chew reminiscent of the original AtlanticCity salt water taffy.

Smooth Cooked Hard Candies- Glitter Mints, Butt’r Creams andMenthol Eucalyptus

· Ingredients are cooked in a thinlayer to create traditionally smooth candies, soft to the tongue and dense withflavour.

Double Crafted Centre Fills -Assorted Crunches and Soft-Centered Fruits

· The crunchy hard shell and smoothcreamy centre are crafted then combined to create the perfect taste.

Sugardust Sweets– Scotch Mints

These traditional mints arepressed, poured or panned to create a packed powder candy that dissolves on thetongue and coats the mouth with sweetness.

It goes without saying that these did not last long at my place. While I prefer the rich, creamy toffee variety, the kids were keen on the fruit taffy. The strawberry were the first to disappear! I also brought a bag of each to work for the ever popular candy dish. My co workers must've liked them because that dish was emptied out rather fast! :)

Saybon candy retails for approx $2.99 and are available at major retailers across the country.

Would you love a chance to win an e-coupon to try a bag of Saybon candies? I just happen to have FIVE to giveaway!! Simply leave a comment on this post OR visit my Facebook page and leave a comment there and I will email you the e-coupon. Once you click on the link you will be asked to sign-up for a Websaver.ca account and select the SAYBON coupon. Websaver.ca will then send you a coupon in the mail. The e-coupon is full value and can be redeemed for one 176g bag of delicious SAYBON candies of your choosing. You will have until Monday, October 10 to enter and I will announce the winner the following Tuesday. Not necessary, but I'd sure appreciate it if you could link back to this post as well....

Bye for now!!

Alarm Free

2011-10-02T13:02:00.001-04:00

Happy Sunday, all! Has everyone been enjoying a great weekend? Mine’s been more low key than usual which is just fine by me. Yesterday and today I actually got to wake up naturally, read; NO ALARM! I seriously can’t remember the last time I was able to go to bed without setting my alarm. It’s not even that I sleep late, it’s just SO nice wake up on my own, ya know??
It’s definitely been a lot cooler lately, this weekend in particular. Only 6*C right now! I was hoping to go another few weeks before starting the furnace up, but we cracked yesterday and started it up. I’ve also been using the oven as a heat source. Yesterday after groceries but before Noah’s hockey game I baked another batch of granola from Quinoa 365:
I love that this makes such a massive amount (7 cups) of granola! And we all like it, so it never goes to waste. Sarah helped me out with another recipe from the book: She seems to be developing a real interest in the kitchen, so I let her do most of it for me. I only had strawberry jam so we used that instead and the bars turned out GREAT! The quinoa flour *almost* makes it taste like there’s peanut butter in the crust. Noah actually thought this and I didn’t try to change his mind. ;)
Breakfast yesterday was a big stack of pumpkin pancakes topped with blueberries; How absolutely delicious does that look? I could go for another stack right now! HAHA I had one rice tortilla left in the fridge so I decided to fill it with some eggs. I cooked a big handful of spinach, added some turkey deli meat (GF) then poured in about a 1/2 cup of Egg Beaters. When it was just about set I added some goat gouda w/ chilles: Then wrapped it up!
I don’t know that I’m too fond of the rice wraps. They taste fine, but tend to get awful hard which in turn makes them crack. Hmm….For dinner I made a BIG batch of homemade butternut squash soup which was served with plain Greek yogurt and grated mozzarella: Soup just never photographs well, does it? I had some toasted rice bread on the side for dipping. YUM!
Sarah is trying out for a volleyball team here in town so a few tryouts have been taking place.
I know; just what we need right? Another competitive sport in the house! But I firmly believe in giving my kids every opportunity out there that they show an interest in. This may make for a busy life right now, but when you think of it, at 12, I really don’t have many more years left with her before she leaves for school and what such so it’s a small price to pay.
Let’s see….not much more to report. The gluten free thang is still going well. Like I’ve said before; I’m sure there is still some gluten in my diet, but the bulk of it has been removed and I’ve been feeling better. It’s really only been 7ish weeks and I was told to give it at least 4 months to *really* see results, so I’m gonna stick with it for the time being. On that note, I have a delicious salad waiting for me to eat for lunch! Talk soon!
Bye for now!!!

Sunday Breakfast = Pumpkin Pancakes

2011-09-25T11:41:00.001-04:00

Good morning! It’s been a beautiful weekend so far which is such a treat because the forecast originally called for rain. Has it been lovely in your area?
This morning was the first in a long time that we didn’t have to set the alarm to get up and be somewhere so I relaxed in bed for a bit deciding on what I wanted to make for breakfast. I was feeling pancakes, but wanted more than just the plain ole, plain ole. Looking for inspiration I flipped open Quinoa 365 and found the perfect recipe!

Seeing as this is the first weekend of fall, what could be more perfect than pumpkin pancakes?? I set to work on the batter and proceeded to pump out 18 beautifully golden, fluffy ‘cakes!

I gotta admit; I was getting a little anxious to eat about halfway through the batter! HAHA! Patience is not a strong virtue of mine. But finally I was down to the last 2 that were destined for my plate. I knew right off that my toppings of choice would not only include the pecans as suggested in the recipe, but a good glug of this raspberry syrup I picked up last night;
Raspberries, sugar and lemon juice make up the list of ingredients and I just knew that the combo of pumpkin and raspberry would be delicious. My plating skills are seriously lacking, but here’s what my breakie looked like:
GET IN MY BELLY!!! These pancakes were just awesome. AND (!!) I have 16 left to go in the freezer for quick weekday breakfasts. Cook once, eat twice…..or 8 times, right?!
What is your favourite pancake flavour? And what do you like to top your flap Jack’s with?
Bye for now!!

Weekend Update

2011-09-21T18:39:00.001-04:00

Hi everybody!! I hope you all enjoyed the post written by my guest blogger last week….thanks to Danae for sharing her story! I also hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me. I love posting little questionnaire’s from time to time! Some of you mentioned that you had some difficulty reading that post in Google Reader; my apologies. Ever since I frigged up my layout I’ve been having some issues. Oh, to be tech savvy right about now!
So the weekend was a success where my little man’s sporting events were concerned! His hockey team made it to the semi finals in their tournament. They played 2 games on Friday, 2 games on Saturday and one on Sunday. The most exciting though was his soccer team WINNING the league finals on Saturday morning! They played like rock stars and were awarded a 5-2 win which earned them the spot of best in South Western Ontario for their age group. I’ve truly enjoyed every minute of his soccer season. The boys on the team are some of the best kids ever, the parents are all so friendly and easy going and the coaches are some of the most dedicated I’ve ever seen. Just such a pleasure to be a part of it all. Soccer is done now for a month, and then they will start practicing indoors mid October so a wee bit of a break there.
On the food front I’ve been really concentrating on making “stick to your rib” meals to keep us warm in the chill of fall, but more importantly to ensure that the kids are getting proper nutrition to keep them healthy and strong with school and extra activities all starting this month. Not to mention the inevitable illnesses that come with the beginning of school. Hello cold season! Here are a few of the dinners we’ve been enjoying;
Poached Sole Fillets with Dilled Rice This was easy and quick. I simply chopped and cooked 4 slices of bacon until crisp, then drained the drippings out of the pot. Next I added a 19oz can of diced tomatoes with green pepper & onions, one crushed garlic clove, chilli powder, s & p. Once the sauce was boiling I added sole fillets, turned down the heat, covered and cooked for 10 minutes. While that was doing its thing I made a quick pot of Minute brown rice infused with 1 tbsp of fresh dill. Voila!!!
Roasted Turkey Thighs with Cheesy Polenta
Tuesday was a free night so I knew I would have time to make a more time consuming dinner. Or maybe I should say one that takes longer to cook. After arranging 4 turkey thighs in an 8x8 baking dish I treated them to an EVOO-BBQ spice rub massage. I covered them up with foil and popped them in a 350* oven for 45 mins, then another 15 uncovered. Now the fun part; sit on couch and watch Jamie Oliver’s new show! I got started on the polenta after the thighs were out of the oven “resting”. The polenta is super easy; simply bring 2 cups of liquid of your choice to a boil. I used water this time. Turn down heat and slowly whish in a ½ cup of dry polenta (cornmeal). Once smooth you can start using a spoon/spatula. Stir, stir, stir because it comes together lickety split! When it’s thick, stir in a ½ cup each of cheese of your choice to equal one cup. I used parmesan and goat’s Gouda with chillies. Serve immediately. As you can see from the picture, we had some baby peas, aw well.
Tonight’s dinner was requested by Noah; pasta. The kid could live off this meal, I swear it! HAHA!!
My sauce is always slightly different; sometimes is ground poultry, other times extra lean ground beef. I can even get all fancy pants and use bison! But it ALWAYS starts with chopped onion, carrot, celery and garlic. You will also always find dried basil, oregano and the tiniest bit of nutmeg. I also use straight tomato sauce; not ready to go jarred sauce. For tonight I wanted to sneak an extra veggie boost into the sauce so I grated a small zucchini and added it after sautéing the beef. The kids never realize when I do this because the veggies “melt” into the sauce if grated. The fam had WW fusili, I used rice fusili for my own which is what you see in the above picture.
I haven’t bothered taking many lunch photos because most times it’s leftovers from the night before. I did, however, snap a few yummy breakfast ones.

This French toast was prepared with some homemade gluten free bread. I won’t link to/share the recipe because clearly bread and I do not get along and although this was edible, it was FAR from the greatness I was hoping for. Hence the “French Toast” disguise! I topped it off simply with some blueberry/Meyer lemon jam that we purchased at the St. Lawrence Market.

Mmmm…pancakes! I made these using a gluten free mix. Again, not the best BUT!!! While watching Diners, Drive Ins and Dives one night I saw a chef add homemade granola to his pancake recipe. Brilliant! So I added a ¼ cup of granola to my batter which did wonders for the overall taste and texture. Try it out…you’ll love it!
Whelp! The new season of Criminal Minds starts in a few so I’m off to tuck under a blanket, sip a cuppa tea and watch the show! Enjoy your evening, friends!
Bye for now!!

11 Questions

2011-09-19T15:56:00.001-04:00

I came across this little questionnaire while reading Andrea's blog this morning and thought it would be fun to post, as well. Please stop on her site to read her answers to the questions, too!

Name your favorite color: Hands down, purple. Any shade, but the darker the better!

Name your favorite song: I have many, butthe first to pop into my head is Bed of Roses by Bon Jovi

Name your favorite dessert: I love my Mom’stiramisu!

What wizzes you off? People who are blatantlyrude….

When you’re upset you…dive into a good bookto distract myself.

Black or white? I’mthinking black is the winner here…..

Your biggest fear: That something bad willhappen to my kids.

Best feature: Myeyes. They’re a neat shade of green.

Everyday attitude: Look for good in everysituation. It will make you a happier,and healthier, person.

What is perfection? I don’tbelieve in perfection. I think there’salways room for improvement.

Guilty pleasure: Sometimes I like to justorder a darn latte/frap at Starbucks without making any “healthy”modifications!

I've got a few reviews lined up for this week as well as some actual food posts....YAY! In the meantime, you can keep up with Krista's Kravings on my facebook page. See you there!

Bye for now!

Guest Post

2011-09-13T09:42:00.002-04:00

Good morning, all!! I'm going to be pretty busy this week with Sarah's dance starting up, hockey practices, a hockey tournament this weekend and a final championship (YAY!!) soccer game so I thought it would be a great time for a guest post! Enjoy and I'll catch you all up early next week....

DanaeMatthews is a young graphic designer working and living in the San FranciscoBay Area. She loves to cook, be creative, run around with her friends and mostof all lead the happiest life she can. For more great tips and info check outher company’s website Woman’s Health Base.

Recently I was lucky enough to land a full-time job. Luckybecause I can pay rent, not lucky that my social life is non-existent, butthat’s not the point. In my first few days on the job I learned about all thebenefits my company had to offer, notable was a majorly discounted membershippackage to one of the best gyms in the city. I signed up and learned as a newmember one of my “perks” was a personal training session with one of thepremier trainers at the club. “AWESOME!” I thought. I had been trying so hardto maintain my weight, go to the gym diligently and now it seemed that working40 hours wasn’t going to impede my process. I was on a high.

The session started with some forms, some jokes back andforth, a tour and then a healthy dose of scrutiny. The PT and I went throughevery detail of what I ate, how I worked out and how and why all of it was bad.Then he brought out the Body Fat Analyzer and told me to hold it in between mytwo outstretched hands. Thirty seconds and one beep later my PT was pointing toa chart on the wall gesturing towards the scary red zone that read “obese.”

Obese who? Me, obese? When? Now? How? I didn’t feel, gulp, obese? I looked at him like he had just told mehe was an alien from planet “sh** you don’t say to women.” I could feel the airescape from the room and my heart sink. Here I was so pumped about getting backinto my gym routine and in an instant I felt like I was standing at the base ofa very steep hill looking straight up. It took me a week and several bottles ofCabernet to recover.

Butthen.

I did what every reasonable, smart, independent andconfident woman would do in my situation, I called my mother. She told me how afew years ago she had the exact same experience with an all-women’s gym chainand how it turned her off, not from working out, but from that particularplace. She told me that for her being fit is 1/3 the way she looks and ¾ theway she feels. That was all I needed to hear to snap me back to reality. Iplucked my obese ass up by my 34D bra straps and I went back to that gym withthe best personal trainer I know: myself. Because me, myself and I have gotten Mepretty far in the last couple of years. If I can trust Me with life decisions,like Argentinian guy at the pub who bought me a pint, then why can’t I trust Mewith my fitness routine?

I realized then that I was getting too worked up aboutworking out. The Nike campaign really had something going with their “Just DoIt” campaign. All I needed to do was make a plan and execute that plan as muchas possible. I had to accept the fact that summer is over and I never got intomy itty-bitty tiny bikini, that working after work sucks, that I’m not going torun any marathons any time soon and that that is OKAY. I am eating better thanever before, I am more active than I ever have been and I don’t get tired whenI climb the stairs to my apartment. So obese or not (although I’d say not), Iknow for a fact that I am on the right path.

It’s About to Get Crazy!

2011-09-08T18:24:00.001-04:00

The temps around here have become much cooler and the skies dreary since September arrived. I’m just not a fan. Summer with all its heat and sun is definitely more my style. September also brought this with it: Yes, hockey season is upon us again. Noah was so pumped to be back on the ice. His enthusiasm for the game makes sitting in cold rinks doable. His soccer season will officially wrap up on September 17, although they will still practice indoors each Sunday from October to January. Sarah’s dance classes start back up tonight, as well. She’ll be dancing the winter away doing hip hop, jazz and modern…..so 2 nights a week. What does all this mean? That things will be getting crazy around here again very soon! In anticipation I spent the long weekend mostly in the kitchen preparing freezer friendly meal starters. The crockpot was put to use making homemade chicken stock (from bones I save throughout the summer from our many beer butt chickens) and pulled pork (frozen minus the sauce). I also made a BIG pot of homemade marinara sauce and some roasted peppers. The peppers are a cinch for me because I have a gas stove so I just use the stainless steel BBQ tongs and hold the peppers over the flame until they char. Then I place them in a bowl and cover with a lid for about 5 mins. The skin peels off like a dream using this method!!
I either freeze them as is or with some chopped garlic and olive oil. YUM! I also tried a new (gluten free) granola recipe that’s just awesome! This one is bursting with chocolate peanut buttery goodness!
I particularly like it sprinkled over vanilla ice cream or mixed with Greek yogurt :)
Last night Noah’s hockey team got together to do a biathlon which they raised money for to put towards the team’s budget. The boys had to run 1km (2.5 times around the track) and bike for 2km (5 times around). Here are a few pictures I took…
I wanted to run with him but was told a very firm “NO!!” HAHA! I’ve been doing OK with this gluten free business that I’m trying out. I learned pretty fast to make sure I have snacks packed if we’re going to be out for a bit or things can get tricky. I’m sure there’s still some gluten sneaking into what I eat, but the main culprits have definitely been eliminated. And I’m quite certain that the gluten police won’t be showing up any time soon. Overall I have been feeling better; my tummy is upset less often and the bloating has almost disappeared. It’s only been a month or so but these little changes are enough to keep me going. Here are a few examples of meals I’ve been enjoying: Buckwheat bread with almond butter and blueberry jam. The Canadian Maple Forest is my favourite flavour yet! Brown rice spiral pasta. Pork chop, basmati rice with homemade marinara sauce. Grilled salmon with zucchini and tomatoes. Kettle corn is one of my favourite snacks! Truth be told, I’m not much for “regular” popcorn, but kettle corn is a whole different story! :)
So. I’m sure you’ve noticed that my blog looks different. Yeah….that was an accident and I’m not too happy with it! :( I was fiddling around with templates and and for some reason hit the “apply to blog” button. I’m definitely not techy enough to figure out how to get my old look back, though. BOO! C’est la vie, I suppose!
Have you ever changed something with the look of your blog that you weren’t happy with??
Bye for now!!

Dusting Off My Oven

2011-08-30T20:48:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!! How is everyone’s week going so far? We are definitely seeing a change of seasons in these parts; the air is crisper, some leaves are changing colour, the apple trees are heavy with fruit……fall is without a doubt licking at summers feet! The cooler evenings have been poking at the “baker” hibernating inside to let me know that it’s A-OK to crank the oven up and get the aroma of goodies in the air. I’ve already baked up some delicious gluten free zucchini muffins which didn’t last very long at all! Something I’ve really been missing since trying out this gluten free diet is granola. I did buy a bag of Bakery On Main Cranberry Orange Cashew granola, but before I could try it more than once a mouse got into our pantry and ate a hole through the bag. But that is another story! DOH!! So after hearing my friend rave about a granola recipe her husband had made, I emailed him requesting the it. Turns out it’s from the Quinoa 365 cookbook which I then borrowed from a co worker. The only change my friend made to the recipe was to replace 1 cup of the rolled oats for quinoa flakes so I followed suit. The following photos were taken at night and don’t do this recipe justice, but let me tell you….IT WAS AMAZING!!! Jason and I had to sequester ourselves in the living room because we were eating it by the handful straight from the oven. LOL The recipe made 7 cups which just fit into my 4 litre storage container! Here’s what’s left. We’ve enjoyed it with yogurt, as a cereal with milk (I’ve been using So Delicious Coconut Milk) and as a topping for oats. This recipe alone has convinced me to order the book. Can’t wait to receive my copy! The next recipe I toyed with was the result of an advertisement for sunflower seed butter that I found in a Clean Eating Magazine for trail mix cookies.
I didn’t have any sunflower seed butter, but I did have a jar of peanut, cashew, dried fruit butter that was begging for some attention! Here’s a peek at the bowl pre mixing:
I love recipes where you just dump all the ingredients in one bowl and mix! After some serious stirring to incorporate the ingredients…necessary due to the fact that I do not own a stand mixer….and some careful 2 tbsp-per-cookie-measuring, I had 26 beauties ready for the oven. These made the house smell fantastic! We could hardly wait for them to cool down before diving in. Sarah doesn’t like dried fruit so she’s been missing out on some pretty tasty cookies! Noah just adores them and they’re good for him, too! I’ve been eating 2 just about an hour before hitting the gym which has been working out well. No PB burps like some bars can give. ;)
Other than baking I’ve been hanging out at the soccer field:
And working on the finishing touches of our rec room renovation. Here’s a sneak peek of a before and (an almost finished) after:
I’ll be doing a full before and after post just as soon as it’s complete. We just bought some shelving from IKEA this weekend that will go on either side of the fireplace/TV, there’s some artwork to be hung and I have to pick out some window treatments. *Almost* there!
Before I sign off, have you checked out Krista’s Kraving’s facebook page yet? That’s where I post all the new (to me) gluten free eats I’ve been trying, my pantry basics and little tidbits of info here and there. I also post recipe and review links once a week. Check it out!!
What have YOU been baking lately??
Bye for now!!

Foodless Friday-Camera Randomness

2011-08-25T16:38:00.000-04:00

There are 2 places you will find my point and shoot camera; my purse or the dining room table. Noah knows both these places well. Every now and again when I download photos to my laptop I find pictures that he's taken without me knowing about it. Below are what I found on my camera from the past month or so, courtesy of my photographer-in-training. ;)

Our new fireplace

My tomatoes

I think this is the bridge to the USA

Sarah enjoying a cake pop at Starbucks

Looks like a half eaten dinner

Not really sure what he was doing here...

Yeah...that's me....close up....

And Jason, too!

Flowers at the farm

More flowers

Yet more...

Daisy the Boston Terrier

Coal the Pug

Turbo the pug/terrier mix

Coal!

And Sarah, again. So there you have it. Sixteen works of art by my nine yr old son! Have a great weekend!!

Bye for now!!

Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins

2011-08-21T09:47:00.001-04:00

Hi all! How’s your day going? We had a stormy night around here yesterday so I decided to try my hand at some gluten free baking. The September issue of Chatelaine magazine couldn’t have landed in my mailbox at a better time because for the first time since I’ve been subscribing to this magazine…..and it’s been a few years….it was packed with gluten free recipes! It also went into detail about which flours are gluten free and how to blend them together to get the best results. With an abundance of zucchini coming from from garden I decided to try the recipe for “melt in your mouth carrot cupcakes”, but I subbed in zucchini! The recipe was followed almost exactly with the exception of a few subs I had to make using what I had in my pantry;

used a 1/3 cup of quinoa flour instead of teff flour
used 2 tbsp of corn starch in place of tapioca starch
used 1 tsp of guar guar in place of xanthan gum
and, of course, 1.5 cups of grated zucchini in place of carrots

I won’t lie; I was pretty nervous that these would be a BIG fail! I’m a spoon licker when I bake and the batter seemed “gritty” to me. The mixture was also smoother than what I’m used to seeing in a muffin blend. YIKES!!!
I let them cool for a good half hour before taste testing one. The verdict? AWESOME! Jason and I both agreed that there really wasn’t much difference from a “regular” zucchini muffin that I would bake. The 2 noticeable differences for me was that with 1 cup of sugar, they were much sweeter than I’m used to and because I used quinoa flour, the smell a bit like, well….quinoa! All in all, I’m quite pleased with my first gluten free baking adventure. This recipe has given me the confidence I need to try another knowing that there’s nothing to fear in using ingredients that are unfamiliar to me!
Tell me; is there an ingredient or style of baking that has had you intimidated to use/try, but once you took the plunge became a fan?
Bye for now!!

Factual Friday

2011-08-12T21:09:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday!!! I read a neat little survey that Christina posted on her blog today and thought it would be perfect for a foodless Friday post. Enjoy!
1. Name 3 things you are looking forward to: *The weekend
*My copy of Peas & Thank You arriving in the mail
*Planning a BBQ with friends
2. If you could have a dream come true, what would it be? *Quit my job, but still get the pay cheque! LOL
3. You have $200. You have to spend it on yourself, you can’t donate it, and it can’t be something you actually need. What will it be? *Some new Lululemon digs….
4. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood? *Spending time with friends
*A good book/magazine
*My cats
5. What is your bedtime routine? *Brush teeth/wash face
*Change into PJ’s
*READ
6. If you are currently in a relationship, how did you meet your significant other? *Through a mutual friend
7. What kind of books do you read? *I’ll read anything with text on it, but I’m not super fond of heavy romance type novels. Give me a good murder mystery, with a touch of scandal!
8. How do you see yourself in 10 years?
*In 10yrs my kids will be 22 & 19 so I’ll likely be an empty nester. Hopefully I’ll be traveling much more (and farther) than I do now, but I’ll probably be too busy worrying about those kids! ;)
9. What’s your fear? Spiders
10. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to see outer space? *Ahhh…..NO!
11. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? *Stretch
12. If you could change one thing about your significant other, what would it be? *Make him less of a worrier
13. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be? *There was a time where I would’ve had a list of names I preferred over my own, or changed the spelling to Khrysta, (I know, right?) but I’ve come to like my name!
14. If you had to choose between six months of sun or six months of rain, what would you choose? *SUN! That was a no-brainer……
15. If you could only eat one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be? *Pizza, lots of ways.
16. What is the thing you enjoy about blogging the most? *Reading the comments!
17. Do you prefer salty or sweet foods? *Sweet, but I’m starting to like salty more than I use to……
18. What items are in your purse right now?
*Wallet
*Make up “bag”
*2 packs of gum
*soccer team contact list
*USB
*camera
*keys
*cell
*mints
*sun glasses
19. If you had to choose between vacationing at the beach or in the mountains where would you go? *Beach
20. What do you watch on television that you know you shouldn’t? *Don’t watch much TV. The kids usually have some kind of crap on, though…..
Before I go, here’s some information about a fun contest that’s being held by Flanigan Farms!!
National Trail Mix Day Photo Contest
In the constant hustle and bustle of everyday life, we often need a quick, energizing snack. Trail mix makes a great on-the-go snack that is healthy and popular with adults and kids alike. Flanigan Farms trail mix won’t leave your hands oily, because it’s all natural and unsalted…so you can snack while you...hike, bike, play sports, sail, etc. etc. etc.!

Photo Contest Instructions:

Like Flanigan Farms Facebook Fan Page
Snap away! Post a photo and short description on Flanigan Farms Facebook Fan Page of an activity outside the home that you engage in where you may benefit from a quick, healthy snack. Be creative!

- Feel free to include group photos of your friends and family (be sure to tag them in the photo, so we know who’s with you!).
- No limit on the number of submissions…P.S. We like videos too!

Let us know how you heard about the contest.

Prize: In light of National Trail Mix Day on August 31^st, Flanigan Farms is giving away multi-packs of Nuts ‘N’ Things® 1.5oz trail mix. This is one of its most popular products, and includes only the finest ingredients: Dry Roasted Peanuts, California Raisins, Sunflower Seeds, Cashews, California Almonds, and Pepitas (pumpkin seeds).
1^st Place: 72-pack of 1.5oz Nuts ‘N’ Things® trail mix (a $49.68 value)
2^nd Place: 36-pack of 1.5oz Nuts ‘N’ Things® trail mix (a $29.88 value)
3^rd Place: 12-pack of 1.5oz Nuts ‘N’ Things® trail mix (a $10.56 value)

Deadline: All photo submissions must be posted by Tuesday, August 30
Winners Announced on National Trail Mix Day, Wednesday, August 31^st

Sounds like a great contest, no? I hope you all enjoy a FANTASTIC weekend! And just for fun, pick one of the 20 questions above and let me know your answer in the comment section!!
Bye for now!!

A Day of My Eats

2011-08-10T20:59:00.002-04:00

Hola! How’s everyone doing? I’m back to work this week after a marvellous 2 week vacation and I must admit that getting back into the work groove has been tough! It’s kinda nice to have a routine back, though. ;) The kids are in (day) camp this week and next which they’re enjoying immensely. I am, too because my house looks the same when I come home as it does when I leave, there’s been no whining about being bored and they’re so tired that getting them to bed at a decent hour is no longer a challenge. Noah is doing hockey camp and soccer camp; Sarah rock climbing (she LOVES this) and Girls Inc which covers everything from dance, yoga, swimming, basketball, manicures, cup cake decorating, etc. Fun stuff!
So in light of my test results I thought I’d do a post to show what foods I’ve eaten in the last 24hrs as a means to reduce gluten from my diet. (I’ve decided, for now, that because gliadin/gluten tested the highest I’d focus on foods containing them first to see how I feel). Quinoa has always made a regular appearance on my dinner plate and this has not changed. Last night I made a quick salad with quinoa, cherry tomatoes, edamame, goat milk feta and Mmmm sauce. We also grilled Thai chicken sausages (organic & hormone free) which we purchased at the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto last Thursday. Unpictured was a piece of dark chocolate almond bark and one Newman’s Own cinnamon raisin hermit (not gluten free). Breakfast this morning was 2 slices of Glutino corn bread with fibre…. ….with some whipped cream cheese (so easy to spread) and strawberry jam. **Side Note: why are the slices of gluten free bread so damn small???** Mid morning I enjoyed one of my favourite bars… Lunch was a big bowl of the quinoa salad that was leftover. I added more Mmmm sauce and some chickpeas to bulk it up:
I also finished off this lonely BBQ’d hotdog! Hotdogs are one of those food items that I’ve always lurved! ;)Mid afternoon I noshed on some very ripe pineapple chunks. The fam had pasta for dinner while I warmed up a leftover jalapeno burger (also form the St. Lawrence Market) and paired it with some brown rice and yellow beets. The rice is doused in chipotle Tobasco sauce). For dessert I finished off the last bit of heaven from this pint:
And consumed WAY too many of these dark chocolate kisses: And there you have it! Now I’m off to help Sarah pack for a camping trip she’s going on tomorrow and then I need to get lunches ready and watch the tail end of SYTYCD. What have you been up to today?
Bye for now!!

And The Results Are In…..

2011-08-06T21:56:00.002-04:00

This will be more of a “serious” post than what you’re used to reading here at my blog. If you’ve been following me along for the past 3-ish years, you’ll probably remember me complaining from time to time of feeling “full”, “heavy” or “bloated” after eating certain foods. Most likely apples, pears, artificial sweeteners or pasta of any kind. About a year ago I underwent food allergy testing and testing for Celiac Disease, all of which came back negative. While this was certainly a HUGE relief, it still left me at a loss as to what I was eating to make me feel so uncomfortable (aside from the foods listed above; I’ve been avoiding those for a good year or more).

A month or so ago I was chatting with a friend at work who had been suffering from the same symptoms as myself. Through the naturopathic clinic she’s been going to, she learned of a blood test done to test for food sensitivities.    She told me the test could either be done in office or bought and brought home to do. Needless to say, I was ALL OVER this information! One phone call and a short drive later, I was in possession of the at home kit.   The test itself was very simple to do; use the lancer provided to prick my finger, fill 5 “circles” on a card with blood making sure to fill each completely, let dry overnight, pack into plastic baggie (also provided) and mail to the lab. Easy stuff!

This past week my results were sent back to me.   The “specimen” was tested against the most common types of foods, which are listed by category.    The three columns are listed as LOW, MODERATE and AVOID. Then the foods are listed by category This is how it looks: What you see here is the “dairy” section of my test. Thankfully none of the foods tested fell into the “AVOID” category, but there were more than what I expected to see under “MODERATE”. The clinic suggests eliminating the moderate foods for 4-6 months, then slowly introducing them back into my diet determine the foods that my system can’t handle.
I’ll give you the run down of these foods, listed as highest to lowest in terms of my sensitivities. Let’s start with the dairy shown above;
-mozzarella
-cheddar
-Swiss
-American cheese
-cottage cheese (just slightly over the “limit”)
Meats
-egg whites
Grains
-gliadin**
-gluten
-barley
-wheat
-malt
-oats
-corn
Shellfish
-clams
-oysters
-shrimp
Nuts
-pecans
-sesame seeds
-walnuts
Fruits
-watermelon
-plum
-pear
-apricot
-avocado
-nectarine
-blueberry
-cranberry
-papaya
-peach
-pineapple
-raspberry
Vegetables
-celery
-kidney beans
-green beans
-beets
-black olives
-broccoli
-onion
-cabbage
-lima bean
-spinach
Misc
-cane sugar
-baker’s yeast
-brewer’s yeast
-honey
**I’m good with all fish**
The one single item I tested highest for was gliadin**. Gliadin proteins comprise one of the two main protein groups in gluten. Therefore, foods that contain gluten, also contain gliadin proteins.
(Source)
CRAP! Gluten was the one item I really hoped did NOT show up on the test! I’ve never been a huge “carb” type of gal, but I didn’t want to have to worry about my favourites….like oats and barley. But it is what it is and feeling good day in and out is more important to me. What really bites is that I just stocked up on all my American goodies just over a week ago: Lots of oats, cereal and honey. :(

So what’s the plan? Ultimately I will be staying away from the recommended foods.   I will not, however, be throwing away what I have in my pantry. I’ll be giving some to family, and consuming a few of my favourites sporadically until they’re gone. My (beloved) oats will be replaced with gluten free oats, and I will be upping my quinoa, millet and rice consumption which won’t be difficult at all.   I’m bummed about the fruits and veggies, but most are close to being out of season anyways. At the end of the day I’m looking forward to feeling 100% consistently.   When I get to that point I’ll know it was all worth it!

Have you heard of or even had this type of testing done? Any feelings positive or negative surrounding the topic?    I look forward to hearing your thoughts, experiences, suggestions, etc.

Thanks for reading! I know this post wasn’t typical for me and lengthy to boot, but the blogging community has such a wealth of experiences and information; I just had to share! :)
Bye for now!!

What I Ate Yesterday

2011-07-28T11:13:00.002-04:00

Bonjour! We’re on vacation (well, staycation, really) this week and next which is just plain awesome! This first week has been all about “getting stuff done” so that we can enjoy the second week worry free. Noah was invited to a birthday party on Monday, Tuesday we hopped over to the next town for some hockey training….yes, hockey never really stopped; just slowed down… and yesterday he had a soccer game. We’re *this close* to finishing our rec room renovation which is uber exciting! Can’t wait to have that space back. Monday we Jason mounted the flat screen TV on the wall and we bought a gorgeous electric fireplace. Left to do is a wee bit of painting, buy 2 book shelves and some furniture. I’ll be doing a full recap with before, middle and after photos for you.
In the meantime I thought I’d pop up a quick post on “what I ate yesterday”. So here we go!
Breakfast Overnight oats made with a 1/3 cup each vanilla Greek yogurt, unsweetened vanilla almond breeze and oats, 1 tbsp of chia seeds and 1 cup of raspberries.Delicious!!
Lunch

A Silver Hills bagel toasted and smeared with hummus. I love this type of lunch when I need something quick and portable!
Dinner We’ve been continuing our summer eating theme of BBQ and lots of fruit. This is a turkey sausage with basmati rice and cantaloupe on the side.
Dessert
Smooth and creamy pineapple, coconut, pecan ice cream from Baskin Robbins. LOVE! While out and about I also put back a mango orange coconut frap from ‘Bucks. And much snackage happened once these bad boys were opened!
So there we have it. In actuality, most of my meals have been looking very similar to what I’ve posted here. Summer just seems to be over ruling my desire to be in the kitchen!
Before I hit “publish”, I want to post a link to a blog that a good friend of mine has started. Creating Wellness in My Life chronicles Maddie’s journey to a healthier lifestyle after sorting out some health issues that she’s been dealing with the past few years. Check her out!!!
Bye for now!!

Enjoy Life Foods Crunchy Cookies

2011-07-24T08:52:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago Enjoy Life Foods sent us a box each of their new crunchy cookies to try.

If you’ve been reading for awhile you’ll know that we LOVE Enjoy Life Food products at the Krista’s Kraving’s household. I received Chocolate Chip and Sugar Shortbread: And Double Chocolate and Vanilla Honey Graham: Below are our opinions on each flavour…..read on….
Chocolate Chip

S-Good, but they need to be thicker
N-Taste really chocolaty
K-Just like a chocolate chip cookie!
J-Lots of chocolate flavour
Vanilla Honey Graham

S-very soft, but tasty
N-didn’t taste like honey, but I liked them anyways
K-Tasted better with each bite. Would be lovely with tea.
Only one of the 4 flavours to go soft after a few days.
J-Strong honey and graham flavour, vanilla not very prominent
Sugar Shortbread

S-love the sugary coating!
N-tastes like a “normal” cookie
K-light, crisp, great shortbread flavour….my favourite!
J-just like homemade
Double Chocolate

S-AWESOME!!
N-I ate most of the box
K-rich and chocolaty
J-kids ate them before I could taste one!
All Enjoy Life Foods products are free of the following allergens:
To read more of my ELF reviews, click here and here. Have your tried these cookies yet? If not, I recommend them for sure. They make a wonderful, light snack and are perfect for kids lunch boxes! Thanks for reading….
Bye for now!!

A Mini Vacation

2011-07-19T20:25:00.002-04:00

Hi! How’s everybody doing? Enjoying lazy summer days, I hope. We just spent the past 4 days in Canada’s capitol; Ottawa, which is a 5 hour drive east of where I live. Noah’s soccer team was in a tournament there so it was mostly soccer related, but we did find time to do some touristy stuff. The boys finished the weekend as silver medal finalists which was pretty fantastic as there were 15 teams total in their division. But it was H-O-T!!! There was actually a heat advisory all weekend with the temps soaring into the high 30’s (Celsius, that is!) The boys played 2 games on Saturday and FOUR on Sunday. Troopers are what they are! Us parents were melting just sitting there watching! LOL Here are a few photos from the tourney:
Water chugging became the weekend sport for us parents. :)
The fields were right under a flight path so we saw many a low flying plane!
I wish we could’ve done some more sight seeing, but what we did see was positively beautiful! Ottawa is such a pretty city with miles upon miles of trails, picturesque cobbled sidewalks in the downtown area and, of course, Parliament Hill and all its surroundings. We took loads of photos with both the Rebel and Elph. These are some of my favourites (get ready for picture overload!!!):
The locks on the St. Lawrence River…… Terry Fox…… Ceiling inside Parliament Hill….. The library at Parliament Hill….. Quebec across the Ottawa River….
I do wish we had made it to some of the museums and to see the Prime Ministers residence, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Not many of the soccer parents know about my blog, but I did take a few pictures of my eats! . We ate most of our meals out of coolers at the fields; sandwiches, berries, veggies, chips, lots of iced coffee’s from Tim Hortons, etc. And water, lots and lots of water!!! LOL
It was a wonderful 4 days away from “real life”, but I’m always happy to be back in my own bed! HAHA! Thanks for taking the time to look at all the pictures I posted today…..I realize that there’s a lot of them, but I think they’re worth seeing! :)
Bye for now!!

A Few Gems

2011-07-05T18:52:00.002-04:00

I feel like I’ve been gone forever again! LOL My blogging “schedule” has certainly become anything but routine. I just can’t seem to bring myself to sit down with my laptop when the weather’s been so nice! To be honest, I use to prepare most of my posts from work, but extra responsibilities (which were obviously needed) have prevented me from doing that. I do have a few things I wanted to update you all on, though. Like some new (to me) eats! Last Sunday we made the hour long trip to Whole Foods (and Lululemon) where I picked up a few gems.
These 365 coconut frozen fruit bars are officially my favourite summer treat! Not only are they pure coconutty goodness, but they’re chalk full of coconut pulp! YUMMY!! I know some may dislike pulp, but I dig the texture of it….always have.
I L-O-V-E SOL burgers and these rice & mushrooms patties are no exception. Jason actually found these and put them in the cart. A year ago that NEVER would’ve happened! LOL These Green Cuisine tempeh burgers were also a find at Whole Foods. I love the texture that tempeh has! I mostly enjoyed these done up on the BBQ then served on an Ezekiel English muffin with goat gouda, spicy mustard and lettuce. These Gardein Tucson breasts were a HIT with Jason and myself.   I’ve wanted to try Gardein for some time now, but just can’t justify the cost. When I caught these on sale a few weeks ago, I snatched them up. I served the “breasts” over a bed of WW couscous for a quick, delicious meal.   Even Jason, who is a total meat & potato kinda of guy, gave them a thumb up. We’ve really been minding our plates lately. Lots of fresh fruit (and veg), salmon, meat “alternatives” or poultry (the sausages in the following photos are all turkey sausages), quinoa and couscous perked up with various veggies and cheese. We’re slowly moving to a “diet” (HATE that word) that is as local and fresh as possible which is SO much easier to do in the summer months.
The beans you see ^^^ there are fresh from my garden. As in, pick’em, wash’em gently steamed’em, ate’em!
Here’s a look at how my other plants are getting on: Everything is later than usual due to cold, wet weather in May & June, but things are starting to pick up!
We have been enjoying some treats, too! Noah was at a sleep over last weekend so Jason, Sarah and I tried out a local “hole in the wall” type   Italian restaurant. I find restaurants that are very unassuming usually have the BEST food and Pauli’s was no exception! We loved our meal!
Sarah’s Orangina brought me right back to Italy and my roasted onion, goat cheese, prosciutto pizza was to die for! Jason ordered a chicken parm dish with a side of pasta which he inhaled. All their sauces, dough’s, pasta, etc are homemade, on site. The way it should be, right? ;)
On to some non food goodies! I wanted to show you a shirt and pair of shoes that I snagged at 50% off this past weekend! LURVE!!! The shoes are super cute and very comfortable and the shirt is in my fave colour! SCORE! And last week Jason and I attended an awards assembly at the school to see Noah receive a HEART award for cross county: Sarah also got a Win It award which is given for having a good attitude. I think they got the wrong kid. ;) LOL So proud of them both!
So I think I’ll stop here. I have a few other fun posts planned and a review coming later this week, so you’ll be seeing me more frequently….I promise!!
Bye for now!!

3 Events That Have Kept Me Busy

2011-06-15T22:01:00.002-04:00

Hi! Hope I’ve still got some readers left! LOL Life has been keeping me quite the busy bee, but in a super good way this time, unlike the stress I felt back in April. On one hand I feel sad that I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like, but on the other hand it’s not like I’ve been a lazy bird and just not posting; I’ve been out enjoying my kids, the weather, my gardens, etc! And I must admit that I’ve spent very little time focusing on food. Most night’s we eat out on the deck and it’s usually BBQ something or other and lots of fresh fruit! Kinda boring to post about to be sure. I do have 3 exciting events to tell you about today, though! I’ll do my best to surround each occasion with the food I ate.
Trillium Cup Ball Hockey Tournament – May 27-29
So yes, as well as ice hockey and soccer Noah plays ball hockey from April to June. We keep this sport low key as the other 2 are high level travel teams and we like to keep one sport for “fun”. Jason is actually the coach for the BH team (The King Snakes….sounds fierce, right? LOL) and enjoys this (volunteer) position immensely.    The skill level of the boys ranges from never picking up a hockey stick to high level ice hockey players and he does a fantastic job of balancing the lines to keep it fair. Best of all, the team finished in first place of their division and are heading into the championship weekend which will also see the end of the season.   Back I at the end of May teams from my city as well as 4 others participated in what’s known as the Trillium Cup Championship. Noah’s team from last year (which Jason assistant coached) won the title. Well, this year they won it again!   After 5 games in 2 days and a championship game that went into over time, the Kingsnakes TOOK IT HOME! And the absolute best part of it all is that the boy who scored the winning goal has never played hockey before this in his life. Extra sweet with a cherry on top! We decided on Indian for a celebratory meal. Some appetizers were shared; And for my main I rolled with the Coriander Chicken, Naan and a side salad. The team went out to Kelsey’s for a meal the Saturday night and as boys will, they figured out that the cutlery was magnetized so they all tried very diligently to eat the meals with their forks hanging off their knifes.
Yeah…..fun times!! HAHA!!
Sarah’s Dance Recital-June 6-10
Last week my baby girl was busy with dance rehearsals and recitals.   She dances at a closed studio so I LOVE this time of year because I finally get to see what they’ve been up to for 9 months. She dances hip hop and jazz…

…..and has a blast at both. Monday and Tuesday were the only 2 days I could get in the theatre with a camera so I did my best to take a zillion pictures! She was actually getting all cranky pants on me even though I warned her that I’d be in her face. HAHA! Thursday Jason, Noah, my sister, Mom and I went to the opening night show.
A little over 2 hours of pure entertainment. There’s definitely some mad talent at this studio! Both of Sarah’s dances were group dances and she shone like a bright star. The stage is truly her element! She danced Friday as well, but we stayed back that night. I like to let her have a bit of freedom at the second dance to teach her responsibility (there’s plenty of supervision) and to let her hang with her dance mates instead of family.
The following are some meals we ate the “week of dance”:
Pasta with a jumbo shrimp/marinara sauce…. Pulled pork with a runny egg on top…. Grocery store sushi…. Toasted Silver Hills bread with roasted veggies and goat cheese. All easy, quick meals for on the go nights. YUM!
Ancaster Heritage Soccer Tournament June 10-11
And last, but not least there was a soccer tourney last weekend.
The boys played 2 games on Saturday, and 3 on Sunday. They made it to the finals and lost in a heartbreaker. 2-1 in double over time on a penalty shot. Ugh!!! It was a great time, though and the boys learned A LOT. Here are a few fun photos: They had various vendors set up and rides for the kids. There were food tents galore, as you can imagine! I zoomed in on a cupcake truck, typical for me! HAHA!
I went with a red velvet. Pricy for a small cupcake, but very, very good! Jason caught me red handed, too!
I’m surprised I didn’t turn into a sandwich over the weekend because that’s pretty much all I ate! Lots of fruit, too. We were sure to have lots on hand for the boys.
So, my friends, that sums up what has been keeping me from this blog. Thanks for sticking through this post to the end; I realize that it’s quite family heavy/food thin, but that’s just how my life is right now. I’m doing good in reading all your blogs, but haven’t had a chance to comment much. BUT…I am keeping track of all your shenanigans!
Bye for now!!

Enjoy Life Foods Double Chocolate Crunch Granola & Semi Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks-Review

2011-06-14T19:30:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I was lucky to receive a box of goodies from Enjoy Life Foods. Inside there was a bag of Double Chocolate Crunch Granola and a bag of Semi Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks:
First, a bit about the company. Enjoy Life Foods was founded early in 2001 and has 32 products on the USA market and 23 on the Canadian market. Their products range from granola to trail mix to baking chocolate to cookies and bars. All items are gluten free and allergy friendly. They’re free of the top 8 allergens;

wheat
dairy
peanuts
tree nuts
egg
soy
fish
shellfish

Most are also free of:

potatoes
sesame
sulfites
casein

I must admit that the double chocolate crunch granola is divine and I’ve simply been eating it out of hand.
Sarah loves it stirred into strawberry yogurt. And Noah adds it to his morning bowl of cereal for some extra crunch Some facts on the granola:
Ingredients: Brown Rice Flakes,Chocolate Chips (Evaporated Cane Juice, Chocolate Liquor, Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter), Evaporated Cane Juice, Brown Rice Syrup, Water, Rice Bran, Rice Crisps (Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Honey, Salt), Natural Process Cocoa Powder, Insulin (Chicory Root Fiber), Ground Flaxseed, Natural Chocolate Flavor, Honey,Vanilla, Expeller-Pressed Vegetable Oil (Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil), Salt, Rosemary Extract
NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE, GLUTEN-FREE, CASEIN-FREE
Vitamins and minerals: Vitamins and Minerals: Magnesium, Iron,
Niacin (Vitamin B3), Zinc, Thiamin (Vitamin
B1), Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5), Folate,
Vitamin B6

Great for breakfast or snacking
Loaded with semi sweet mini chocolate chips
re-sealable, stay fresh package (MAJOR POINTS HERE!!)

The mega chunks were super fun to bake with and made a nice sweet treat out of hand. I baked a big batch of almond butter chocolate chunk cookies (for which I unfortunately lost the link to so please let me know if these are your so I can link back!!) The chunks held their shape yet proved to be melted morsels of love straight out of the oven; just like their dairy counter part. The kids and I also topped many a pancake with whipped cream cheese and chocolaty morsels! YUMMY! I also baked them into a batch of my dark chocolate chip avocado muffins. Here’s some more info for you:
Ingredients: Evaporated Cane Juice, Natural Chocolate Liquor (non-Alcoholic), Non-dairy Cocoa Butter
NO TRANS FAT, NO ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS, VEGAN, KOSHER PAREVE, GLUTEN-FREE, CASEIN-FREE

These are 2 Enjoy Life Food products that I will definitely be purchasing again and again. Especially the Chocolate Mega Chunks.
Have you tried either of these products? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section. After all, the more information out there the better, right??
You can read my other Enjoy Life product reviews here and here….
Bye for now!!

I'm Still Here!!

2011-06-07T10:34:00.016-04:00

HELLO! Hope everyone is well. I have been absent from Krista's Kravings WAY more than I am comfortable with. Between a ball hockey tournament, dance rehearsals, upcoming dance recital and soccer tournament and ongoing rec room renovations I feel like I haven't been able to catch my breath! My goal is to have a recap post up Sunday/Monday. Here are a few photos to tie you over. ENJOY!! :)

Enjoy the rest of the week and weekend....."See" everyone SOON! :)

Bye for now!!

An EXTRA Long Weekend!!

2011-05-25T21:57:00.002-04:00

Bonjour!! I finally found a few minutes to type up a post! Life continues to be busy, but in a good way now, unlike a month ago. So Monday was a holiday here in Canada which meant no work (YAY!!) and I took Friday off as well so it was like a mini holiday for me. It also felt like Sarah-fest as my baby girl turned 12 on Friday and the “party” continued over the course of the 4 days.
How it happened that she is already 12, I have no idea. My hubby and I are stumped as to where the years have gone. Yikes!
We had to go to Toronto on Friday for an appointment with Sarah so we decided to make a day of it. We were done at the hospital by 11am and seeing as the weather was beautiful we walked a few blocks over to the Eaton Centre for some shopping. I snapped some photos along the way…
The kids were starving so we stopped at a random Swiss Chalet for some eats. I rolled with a chicken wrap and side salad:
I didn’t care much for the white wrap; it was like glue on my teeth….but I did eat the insides. Noah put back a 1/3 rack of ribs and most of his Caesar salad! He was a hungry pussy cat!
At the mall we walked and shopped and walked and shopped some more! My back was KILLING me by the time we left. Look how tired everyone was!!
I did find a few things that I bought which I think are pretty sweet! These ever so comfy pair of Gee WaWa flats: The ever popular NARS Illuminator in Orgasm:
BTW, this stuff is GREAT!! Totally worth the dinero. And we couldn’t leave without hitting up Lululemon, of course! I behaved this time and only bought a t-shirt and tank, both in red:

These are 2 of my favourite styles at Lulu. The racer backs are AWESOME on their own or for layering. The best purchase of the day made the birthday girl VERY happy; a Blackberry Curve! See that grin? HA! She had no idea we were buying that for her and was clueless when we went into the TELUS store because she though her Dad was buying a new case for his iphone! LOL We rolled into town around 6pm and made one last stop for dinner at Kelsey’s where I enjoyed a fresh, delicious salad: We did start the meal with some calamari; another b-day request!
Saturday was demo day…we’re redoing our rec room. I’ve been taking lots of before, middle and after pictures for another post, but here’s a glimpse at what I spent most of the day hauling from the room up a flight of stairs to a dumpster in our drive way: Once we were showered and presentable we made a Costco and Home Depot run for BBQ and reno supplies. We spent the evening thoroughly enjoying the nice weather out on our deck. At 9pm hubby and I decided to go for a 4 mile walk while the kids watched Ace Venture: Pet Detective. I swear they could watch that a thousand times and not get sick of it! HA!
Sunday was family BBQ day for Sarah’s birthday. We kept it casual with 3 salads (Caesar, pasta & corn), sausages, burgers and an Oreo ice cream cake; birthday girls choice. Around the goodie table!!   Here’s a look at the pasta and corn salads:
I threw the pasta one together with ingredients I had on hand; 2 cups cooked pasta, 1 head of romaine, a yellow bell pepper, half a red onion, black olives, feta, cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley and green beans. I dressed it with Kraft Fig Balsamic dressing.   The corn salad was from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry.   It’s got a Southwestern flair that I love. Every time I make it the kids think I’m cooking tacos! LOL Table snacks included cherries (no photo), Food Should Taste Good multi grain chips and PB stuffed pretzels:    Here are some photos from the night!
Monday was a glorious, free day! A no make up, hair in a pony tail, comfy clothes kinda day! Our new windows were installed in the rec room. They look awesome! While my hubby and his buddy were at that I did some weeding, transplanted a few plants, baked 2 batches of muffins, read magazines that have been accumulating and watched TV.   Eats looked like this:
Before I take off I wanted to show you a little pick me up gift that I received in the mail from a fellow Canadian blogger!   Carla knew that April was a rough month for me so she hooked me up with a homemade coffee cuff and coaster!
How awesome is that?! She’s a great seamstress to be sure. I also placed an order with her for a custom table runner for my new dining room sideboard:
I emailed her about this on a Thursday night. By Friday morning she sent me some fabric samples, I picked the combo I liked and she had it in the mail for me by Friday night. How’s THAT for great service!! Check out her site; My 1/2 Dozen Daily….you’ll be glad you did!!
Well, I’m off to get some blog reading done before I catch some zzz’s. Take care!
Bye for now!!

Coconut Crazy (Cookies)

2011-05-13T16:20:00.002-04:00

***I tried to post this last night but Blogger was down…***
We stopped by Starbucks on our way home from one of Noah’s practices last night and boy, oh boy was I ever STOKED to see the addition of coconut to the menu!!
I could hardly contain my excitement and all but drilled the poor barista on all things coconut. Was it here to stay? Could I add it to anything I wanted? What would he think it’d be best in? And on and on. Going in I had intended to by an iced green tea, but I walked out with a NF Coconut Crème Frap!
Heaven to my taste buds, to be sure! As we arrived home I was hit with a strong urge to bake something involving coconut. I “borrowed” one of my own recipes and tweaked it to suit my coconut desires!
Coconut Dark Chocolate “Cookies”

1.5 cups oats
2/3 cup Bisquick
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tsp light margarine (I used Becel)
2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
1 tsp coconut extract
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Pre heat oven to 400*

combine first 7 ingredients
Fold in coconut and dark chocolate chips
form into 10 “balls”, flatten slightly and place on greased baking sheet
Bake for 17-20 minutes These babies are a neat cross between a cookie/biscuit/muffin top. In other words…AMAZING!!!'

If you like coconut, these are a must add to your next baking extravaganza!!
Bye for now!!

Way Back Play Back

2011-05-05T18:49:00.002-04:00

Huge THANKS to all for the positive feedback on the vlog I did the other day! That’s something I would definitely like to do more of. :) I decided to get retro with this post by going back to my original format of daily eats and activities. It’s been a really long time since I’ve done that and felt like switching it up. Not that I’ll be going that route permanently…just here and there. Let’s begin;
It’s been really tough getting out of bed this week! I’m thinking the dreary weather has quite a bit to do with that. Never the less, my hubby prepared the kids sandwiches so I had time to make some stovetop oats. Due to the cold temps my coconut butter is solid and won’t “melt” properly. One way I’ve gotten around this is by “digging” at it with a butter knife then dumping the scrapings into the boiling water just before adding my oats. Works like a charm to distribute the coconutty goodness! I added my (frozen) blueberries right at the end to warm through then topped the loveliness off with some granola that I whipped up last night.
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-1-ish tbsp coconut butter
-cinnamon
-1/2 cup frozen blueberries & 2 tbsp granola My morning snack has typically been a Lara Bar; varied flavours. Today was a PB Chocolate chip:

This one is a fave along with key lime pie and chocolate chip. I’d love to get my grubby paws on the new blueberry muffin & carrot cake flavours!
In the gym I’ve been rocking either the elliptical or treadmill. I’m slowly getting back into running. I find at this point that any more than once a week and my joints start to ache so I’m being mindful there. Today I felt like zoning out so I jumped on the elliptical with my headphones and watched some home reno shows.

Time: 45 minutes
Avg HR: 141
Max Hr: 156
Calories Torched: 372
Distance: 4.6 miles
Lunch was a massive salad! I used these Jalapeno pretzel sticks that I received as a free sample as “croutons” In the salad was spring mix, cherry tomatoes, blackberries and baked tofu. I topped it off with mango chipotle dressing: My afternoon snack was a pint of raspberries:
YUM!!
Dinner was a quick pasta dish which included grilled yellow bell peppers and zucchini. I simply added some EVOO and freshly grated parmesan.
As soon as dinner was done we were out the door. Imagine that, eh? LOL! Noah had a soccer practice that we had to be at.
When we got home I couldn’t resist this bag of cinnamon sugar kettle corn:

At only 140 calories for 2 cups I dug right in!
SO GOOD!!
As I mentioned in the vlog, I had some ripe bananas that I wanted to use in some baking. I did manage to find the time; first thing…even before breakfast….Sunday morning. All the following photos were taken with the Rebel. I was just shooting away from different angels and distances.
The recipe is from my Eat, Shrink & Be Merry cookbook and includes walnuts and dark chocolate chips. They’ve made for great snacks this week so far!!
Welp! That’s all for now. I’m off to watch some Vampire Dairies!!! :)
Bye for now!!

My First Vlog!!

2011-05-01T14:21:00.002-04:00

Happy weekend, all! I tried my hand at a vlog for you all today! A little nerve wracking….and I’m pretty sure I got my sport venues mixed up, but it was super fun to do! It basically covers our new toy, eats and exercise. I kept it short, too. Do tell if you enjoy it and/or want to see me do more!!

Thanks to You Tube for the flattering still!! LOL As mentioned in the video, here are a few random photos from the new Canon T2i!
Yes, my not quite 12yr old is taller than me….and I’m 5"’7”!! My plan is to let my hubby figure it all out. That way he can teach me all the tricks. HAHA!
Well, hope you enjoyed this! Enjoy the rest of the weekend, folks!
Bye for now!!

Taking Care of Myself (Or Not)

2011-04-22T16:40:00.002-04:00

Hello! Long time no “see”, eh? My life got a little out of control there for a week or two, which I admit is totally my fault. I let myself get stressed out about something I have no control over and as a result haven’t been paying enough attention to “ME”. April is an extremely hectic month because Noah’s (yes, I’ll be using their “real” names now) soccer and hockey overlap. We are in the midst of hockey tryouts for next season and his soccer team is ramping up for their season which starts May 1. I’ve either been here: He’s the one with the orange cleats. Or I’ve been here: He’s on the right. While I LOVE watching him play, both sports are rather cold at this point which doesn’t help matters! HA! There hasn’t been near enough of this: RELAXATION!! Although, Noah has no interest in chilling out. He’s quite the energetic kid which is why we put him into sports. The extra activity has done wonders for him. I, on the other hand, need a sense of “balance” in my life and running from rink to soccer field 6 days a week, having zero time to clean my house, sacrificing my gym time over my lunch hour to run home and get something done at the house, meals on the go, not getting enough water into me and not getting enough sleep due to worrying about everything that’s NOT getting done has (had) me feeling anything but. Thankfully, hockey will be done until September by this time next week. That and I gave myself a real kick in the ass Wednesday night for not dealing better. So even though we had a soccer game last night I committed myself to drinking lots of lemon water, preparing a decent meal for everyone and turning a blind eye to the house. And you know what? I slept GREAT last night! And it’s great to be home today for Good Friday with everything closed because it forced me to just sit for a few hours. Between my hubby and I, the laundry has been done, bedding is changed, the dishwasher has been run. Vacuuming will wait until tomorrow. This afternoon we left the kids at home and walked down to our favourite “hotspot”, The Red Brick Cafe: It’s a 3 mile walk, round trip with loads of hills….AKA, just what the doctor ordered! My hubby got his standard; a vanilla latte and I rolled with a soy chai tea latte: We stopped atop a bridge to take a few pictures of ourselves…..so vain, I know! :) Even though I look exhausted, the fresh air felt so. damn. good! And I know it did me good, too! I took a few more pics along the way to test out my point and shoot camera, a Canon Power Shot SD980 IS Elph. We may have bought a new little surprise that I hope to share with you all very soon! PURDY!!! :)
And now for some eats. These are pretty much all a week old b/c as I said, I haven’t been eating well the past 5 days or so…. That pancake was GOOD! It was from last Friday morning. The kids had asked for pancakes for breakfast so I decided to get decadent with mine. It’s topped with whipped cream cheese, dark chocolate chunks and agave ample syrup. Looking at this makes me really want another!
The above stir fry was today’s lunch. I tossed together cooked wild rice, broccoli, avocado and tofu then mixed in some mango chipotle dressing and this Tabasco that I’m addicted to these days:
As the commercial goes; “I put that sh*t on EVERYTHING”!!!!! Has anyone tried this??
I haven’t really been eating a lot of oats for breakfast lately. Instead, I’ve been inhaling this cereal like it’s my job: LURVE!!! One lunch I did enjoy last week was one with my hubby. We met at another Red Brick location closer to our jobs one day and I ordered a roasted red pepper and goat cheese panini with a side salad: And my hubby had a salami/provolone/apple panini with a pasta salad: We both enjoyed French vanilla coffees on the side: AND, we blew through a pack of this gum in no time at all! Well, I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for letting me vent!! I’m positive things are on an upward swing so I expect life to settle down somewhat sooner rather than later. In the meantime, what are your top 3 stress busting “do’s”?? I’ll sign off with a photo that never fails to make me smile. Pepper LOVES chasing leaves out on the deck and insists on trying to bring them in the house once he catches them. BABY!!!
Bye for now!!

What I Did Yesterday (In The Sunshine)

2011-04-10T10:37:00.002-04:00

We finally had some GORGEOUS weather yesterday! Sunny and warm. It’s funny how 15*C feels warm in the spring, but downright chilly in the fall! LOL Seriously, though….it was pretty awesome to be outside in just a t-shirt and light jacket. DS had his first outdoor soccer game yesterday and the temps were perfect for it! They lost 3-0, but played like warriors so it was all good. Plus, they’re still in exhibition games. The season actually starts May 1. I took numerous photos, but this one is my favourite of the bunch!

He insisted on picking the brightest cleats in the store! It worked out well yesterday because the other team showed up in the same colour jerseys’ as our boys, hence the green pinney’s. After the game we made our way over to the rink for an hour of ice hockey practice. One of the families has a 6 month old chocolate Lab named Douglas that always comes with them because the rink is at a large park. It didn’t take much begging on my part to have them let me take him for a walk! He’s pretty good on the leash until a scent distracts him. LOL
Seeing as DS had 2 hours of sport “stuff” practically in a row, we decided to take him for ice cream and a walk along the river later in the afternoon. He choose some neon blue bubblegum ice cream which he wasted no time diving into!
I went with a peach/blueberry frozen yogurt….my favourite fruit combo!
SO delicious! Here’s a close up… We won’t discuss how it ruined my appetite for dinner! ;) Next was a quick trip to the mall. I stopped in David’s Tea for a refill of my favourite blend, Read My Lips:
I drink a cup of this at morning break everyday at work. Love. While there I found a blend that seriously perked my interest. Check it out: I’m too much of a chicken to dish out the cash on a bottle of the real stuff because I’m afraid I’ll HATE it, but figured I couldn’t go wrong with the tea. Plus it smelled amazing! I’ll be test driving it later on today for sure.
A few other tasty, new to me food items I’ve been enjoying are this trail mix; It’s chock full of nuts and dried fruit…..a real winning combination! I’ve been enjoying it out of hand and mixed into my oats. I’ve also been digging this cereal: We have the blueberry pomegranate one, too. Both are delicious! Now that it’s warming up some out there, I’ve been craving cereal a lot more. I’ve been using these sprinkles on just about anything deemed “sweet” lately, too! Here are some other eats I’ve been enjoying the past week: This pancake kicked ass, BTW! I made a batch Friday morning using Bisquick, then topped mine with whipped cream cheese, PB chips, pecans and maple syrup. Divine, I tell ya!
Lastly, the 4 of us in the payroll department at work were treated by this beautiful arrangement as a thank you from a teacher: After admiring it for a bit we dove in! Those strawberries were amazingly sweet!! Well, I’m gonna sign off now and go enjoy a lazy Sunday! Hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend so far. We’ll catch up again soon….
Bye for now!!

A Life Update

2011-04-02T20:28:00.002-04:00

Hello! I hope the weather has taken a turn for the better where you are because here it’s still quite chilly. The sun has been shining, but the temps don’t seem to want to move in the right direction! Sheesh! April 9 will see DS’s first outdoor soccer game of the season so I hope it warms up by then. That’s him and a teammate before one of their (indoor) soccer games a few weeks ago. :)
This past week has been more low key than what we’re used to and I’m loving it! I’ve been able to take a little extra time preparing meals which I feel I’ve really been lacking in this winter. I’ve still be enjoying oats for breakfast for the most part, but there has been some French toast and toast & eggs in the mix, as well: Lunches have been all over the place. There’ve been salads: sandwiches… and random items; I’m starting to get salad cravings more often now which is a good indicator to me that summer has got to be around the bend! This new mango chipotle dressing from Kraft has been going down real smooth, too! My hubby and I grabbed our first DQ Blizzards of the year yesterday as an after lunch treat. Yum! I went with my fave; a mini caramel pecan cluster: We’ve been working at some home improvements, too. Today our new dining room set arrived so I’ll start with those pictures. BEFORE: Pretty bare, eh??? AFTER:
I also bought (and my hubby installed) new curtains for the sliding glass doors in our dining room. The before shot I’m going to show you is actually my front window, but it looks very similar to the back one; very traditional: And here is the new, updated look.

I tired to get the whole window, but the sun was too bright behind it so I did each panel separate. I still have to take them down and iron them. Not something I’m looking forward to!! LOL We also bought (and hubby installed) shelving for our very disorganized kitchen pantry. BEFORE:

WHAT A MESS! There was a huge improvement in the space once the shelves were up and everything was put back it.
***sigh*** So, so much better! Now I can see (and find) what I’m looking for instead of rooting through piles of stuff. The last bit of “work” we did was to paint an old dresser that use to be in DS’s room when he was a baby. It’s now in our computer room and holds items such as blankets, extra pillows, clothes the kids have out grown, etc. I decided to paint it chocolate brown and add some simple silver hardware to finish it off. Not professional by any means, but it looks so much better and is no longer a big, white eye sore!
And that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to lately! :) Well, I think that’s all for now. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!!
Bye for now!!

What’s For Dinner?

2011-03-26T09:29:00.002-04:00

I finally spent some time downloading all my pictures and realized I had quite a few dinner photos on there so I thought I’d do a post focusing on what’s been on my dinners plate lately. Here we go!
I tired my hand at a quick Kung Pao Chicken recipe that I found in a magazine (I think it was Chatelaine). From what I remember, this dish came together super fast! I opted to sub out the chicken for tofu seeing as I had a block in the fridge. And I served it over pasta for greater kid appeal. :) The next day I mixed peas and corn into the leftovers and took them to work. One night DD was away for dinner so the boys and I has cheese waffles (I just used a basic Bisquick mix and added 1 cup of grated marble cheese), eggs and broccoli: And from my Clean Eating Magazine, I made cornmeal crusted sole fillets, paired with corn and roasted sweet potatoes! The day after I did groceries last week I made a massive stir fry. As well as chicken, there was broccoli, red onion, green onions, snow peas, bell peppers and mushrooms. I made a simple sauce with soy sauce, hoisin, dry sherry, OJ, ginger and garlic: And there was also Mu Shu Pork with a side of basmati rice: We had pasta for dinner the other night with one of my favourite, quick sauces; tuna. Simply sauté onion and garlic in olive oil, add 2 cans of tuna, a can of diced tomatoes, a small can of tomato sauce, capers and parsley. Bring to a simmer and you’re good to go. This time I also added 2 small, diced zucchini: And the last 2 meals? Curried chickpeas with rice and roasted chicken breast, mixed veggies and rice:
And there you have a photo album of my meals! What’s been on your dinner plate these days??
I’ll leave you with a GREAT photo I took of Pepper last week. He was sitting pretty on the deck so I thought to take a pic. As soon as I hit the “button”, he yawned. But just look how fierce he looks!!!
LMAO!!!!!!!
Bye for now!!