Up To Speed

wooo. I'm not sure where I left off but Thursday sounds good to me, so we'll go with that.

Thursday brought pseudo BBQ-d Chicken , giant penne with garlic and old canadian cheddar and peaches and cream corn on the cob.

Pseudo BBQ because I baked them in the oven ;)

And now that I've perfected my Iced Coffee, there was some of that too.

Friday there was a farmer on the way to the cottage .

Of course corn was purchased because summer means corn , corn all the time to my bf .

Teensy asparagus and cherries !

I was kind of surprised at the size of the asparagus because it seems to be ginormous everywhere else.

It was a beautiful day outside so there was deck sitting with Harken and Lily.

Lily's on an extremely long rope from a sailboat sail so she can wander with Harken .

Lily's new bling :)

Saturday I spent the day not feeling well but I got this photo of Lily and her stick .

Which brings us to now, Sunday . Am finally home and relaxing . Doing laundry and cooking a fresh and delicious dinner.

What vegetables do you love in the summer?

Random But Warranted

I have slept incredibly well the past couple of nights , which is saying something because the nights prior , I tossed and turned in the kind of half sleep state that leaves you wondering if you even slept when the alarm goes off in the morning.

Thankfully, my bf gave in and installed the air conditoner that was sitting on my kitchen floor taunting and teasing me with it's potential for coolness for far too long.
It took me whining coupled with my concerns of a far too pink , white puppy to get him to install it.In his defence, it took a day and a half of my comments.
*
After a blissful sleep in which I did not move the entire night, I was woke by a bouncy puppy at my bedside looking for me.
On weekends , my bf gets up with her as he is a morning person and he and the puppy get up naturally around 7-7;30.
I , on the other hand am not a morning person and I could sleep half the day away if permitted.

After doing the coffee thing.. we ran out of Sbux and had to use Tim Hortons and I tell you , perhaps I am used to extremely dark Sbux coffee but tim hortons, even 6 scoops in the coffee maker , tasted far too weak for me.
Yet it was ok in the Iced Coffee I had the other day. Hmm.
Anyways, after the coffee, we attacked the apartment with a vacuum that, my sweet Lily chased.
She has a thing for vacuums, brooms, if you wipe something on the floor ( ahem her pee ) with a papertowel, she chases it and wants to eat it .

Then we went to the butcher and got for 23.00:

4 chicken legs

3 chicken breasts

1 lb of peameal bacon

6 tri tip steaks

6 pepperettes ( tasted like kielbossa)

2 incredibly soft crossiants ( that didn't last long )

sooo soft and yummy long baguette for 1.00 !! ( half is left )

3 lbs of ground beef.


After that we went to the grocery store where I got the very above seen , bars.



I have never tried , nor seen , these Optimum Bars in stores so I figured I 'd give them a whirl.

The Coconut Cream Larabar however, well there's higher stakes placed on that bar . If I do not like this one , I am not purchasing another Lara Bar because that is just it , it is not the bar for me.
I REALLY ( obviously) want to like Lara Bars but if they are not for me I will just have to move on :(

Roasted mushrooms and broccoli , topped with krafts italian shredded cheese blend were had.

As was asparagus

I love when it's actually in season and thick!

Corn .

Oh god. Corn.

My bf goes on corn kicks that last entire summers. I should not encourage it.

Chicken.

Chicken wiht bbq sauce is important. And delicous.




Wraps.

Simple wraps on tortillas bigger than plates.

So big the contents are hidden.

I believe this one had spinach, cream cheese and pesto.

Delicious.

Simple and summery , like the veggies and chicken above.

And this , well .

The rest of this post was so random , why not. A cute puppy is always warranted.

Lily DOES NOT do mornings.

Well, she gets up, eats breakfast, acts like she has not seen you in a month, pees and such and then, once you are awake and the coffee is on, she passes out beside you .

I'm about to do the same.

'Night

-A

Hunger Strikes and Repurposing

Hey :)

Yesterday turned out to be a really relaxing Sunday and because I'm on break from classes, Monday turned out to be too.

Yey for lazy days spent doing laundry , cleaning and watching a marathon of Intervention on A&E. I could watch that channel all day everyday .

I had planned to leave the warmth of the apartment today to get my hair cut and roots dyed but when I called to make an appointment , I was told my lady wouldn't be in tomorrow . So I'll get it done tomorrow at 12pm. I can't say that I wasn't pleased even though I did want to get it out of the way .

Yesterday's eats involved a crock pot creation that turned out to be a ridiculous shade of orange. It was delicious but hideous and messy . It consisted of some chicken breasts, low fat cheddar soup, onions, celery and garlic . I cooked it on low all day .

The chicken turned out moist and so tender it fell apart. I was lazy so I just served it with rice and some steamed broccoli and asparagus. I sprinkled some fresh Canadian Cheddar cheese that the bf had picked up at the cheese factory on his way home. It's made daily!

I don't mind it melted on veggies but it's pretty squeaky and I prefer and older one.

I also had an english muffin that was delicious but didn't hold me over because I waited to eat breakfast too long.

Source

I had a craving for this guy though , so I threw 1/3 cup in the microwave with water.

Source

I really wanted something similar to banana bread . I would have made muffins or banana bread but I had no eggs. I did however have tonnes of frozen bananas in the freezer because I am always throwing over ripe ones in the freezer for baking .

I sliced up probably 1/4 of a frozen banana and put it in with the oats while they went in the microwave.

source

I topped it with a tbsp or so of Kraft All Natural Peanut Butter. This picture is small but the taste was soo good. Almost as creamy Kraft's regular Creamy Peanut Butter. Love that stuff and wouldn't bake with anything else. I was defintely full after this . It took me right until dinner's crock pot creation.

Today dinner is in the oven bubbling and browning away. I used some of the Spinach Tomato Sauce from yesterday and made a lasagna of sorts, replacing the lasagna noodles with spiral pasta. It smells delicious although I unfortunately don't know how to cook for 2 people and now have a large lasagna pan full of it !

I'm off to take part in my favorite night of TV watching .

Big Bang Theroy

How I Met Your Mother

and Two and A Half Men

and of course to taste test my work .

What's your favorite go to pasta dish ? What do you find yourself throwing together quickly time after time when hunger strikes?

-A

Friday 5: On my Christmas List

Hey :)
So yes,I'm been m.i.a on the blog this week but I have reasons!! Good reasons! I had tonnes of school work that kept me pretty much chained to my books and laptop most nights and the better part of the days and an exam today that I am so glad is over.

Goal Update:

I didn't drink alcohol all week . 6 days pretty much . I am enjoying a glass of Naked Grape's Chardonnay tonight though. In moderation. Meaning not more than 2 glasses.

Meals this week have shown a big improvement. A lot of big salads and steamed brocccoli and asparagus . A few apples but definitely not An Apple A Day, who's hosting an awesome and veggie-ful give-away.

Have also resisted the urge for take-out and have been grabbing pre made to go salads from the grocery store on my way home from class for lunch. Tonight may be an exception though . Not a large one . Promise . Probably a turkey club sandwich and a dill pickle kinda exception.

I found some awesome new stuff to try at the grocery stores this week. Stacey's Pita Chips in Naked :O which I couldn't resist sampling and think they are A-MAZING! Review on this one to come. Clif's Builders Bar in Peanut Butter , have yet to try and some POMwonderful tea stuff .

Friday 5 : Things I'm Putting On My Christmas List

1/ This awesome book shelf from Umbra I love it I would be ecstatic if this was under my tree . So what if it only holds like ten books. It's quirky and cute.

2/ Oh my god .... I have no words for this one . But whoever makes this magically appear under my tree, well lets just say you are my new favorite. FOREVER! And I have no children so forever will be tough to accomplish once a cute cuddly child is here because I will have urges for them to be favorite but then I will make delicious pretty coffee out of this while i wake up with said child who is not the favorite, and I will remember your glorious gift. Oh keurig. I lust for you.

3/ This book by the man I watch peruse the same grocery store chain I shop at and then cook up awesome food. I love it because i can actually get those ingredients unlike other food shows that want me to get on my yacht and go into the jungle for a spice.

4/ I know what you're thinking the girl wants a bar for Christmas? WTF!? Well yes I do want this bar for Christmas or for anything really because I cannot find it anywhere in stores here and I A-DORE all things banana . Banana muffins , I attack them .Mmm.

5/ Lush's Sexbomb Bath Bomb. So yummy. I love them . Any excuse to stay in the bath for an excessive period of time is fine by me .

Now I'm off to take part in "exceptions" previously mentioned :)

-A

*Photo credits from amazon.ca and lush.com

Booze Cruise Is Docked

Hola :)

After an indulgent weekend , I'm back on the boat to a healthier body. As good as the weekend was , I didn't get enough sleep and while I did have a yummy veggie-ful dinner yesterday and a lake of water but I doubt that makes up for Saturday's naked grape in a glass. Or many glasses.

Couple of Goals for this week :

• Alcohol free. The booze cruise is over. To be honest I'd love for this to extend. I'd like to have a healthier relationship with alcohol. Not drinking for emotional reasons and definitely not drinking every week. Special occasions or a dinner out , fine. Vodka and diet coke while studying, not fine. Today marks 2/2 days booze free so wish me luck.
• Less meat and more greens. I've already been making a conscious effort to do this , this past week or so but would love to focus more on it . Relying on veggies rather than carby crunchiness. The penne w/ broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and asparagus I made last night was A- MAZING!
• Manage to study for and write my exam for Tort Law on Friday without succumbing to study snack crap and without celebrating with ahem, boozy cruises afterwards.

What do you guys use when you feel like you need to cleanse so to speak? Any tips on studying fuel?

-A

Friday 5 Grocery Style

So it's monday but as promised here's take 2 of the friday 5, Grocery style :D

1/ Maranatha's Almond Butter
I see those in almost everyone's blog and I had never heard of it so I thought I'd give it a whirl and put it in my cart. Bonus : all the maranatha stuff was on sale for 5.00!


2/ Que Pasa Organic Hand-cut Tortilla Chips
I figured these would be the perfect buddy for the nacho layer dip ( you may know it as one of the other many names it has ) I made for a girlie night on Saturday. They were a hit but I never ended up breaking them or the dip out on Saturday. Oh well, more for me !
These really were like fresh made tortilla chips . I'm not sure if you can find them in stores outside of Canada but they ship to U.S and Canada.

3/PC's Spinach Dip
Loooove this stuff. I usually make my own spinach dip because it's just so easy but I always like it to sit for awhile and I was lazy ( read: impatient ).

4/Asparagus!!! Probably in my top 3 favorite veggies . I just can't eat enough of it. I prefer it steamed with a bit of shredded Canadian cheddar on top. Quick, easy and yummy :)

5/Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Tea. This is on my to FIND list . I've looked everywhere that sells Celestial Seasonings Tea but I don't see any holiday varieties out yet. Oh well, I kinda like having a good mission .

-A