Sad Smoothie

This face is the reason I just got back from a 3 mile dash of a walk on the creek path .

So pitiful Lily .

Rather than fix myself up at my vanity when I came back , I threw some laundry in, threw some consumables together and am now throwing this blog together :)

Yesterday there were veggies.
Wait.
When are there not veggies?

On my CSN bamboo cutting board, leftover chopped onions from Taco night , broccoli, carrot and some dirty mushrooms.

.

Choppe and cleaned and slightly softened them in a skillet with some sunflower oil . I added a bit of chicken broth , fat free cream cheese and some pre cooked bow tie pasta.

Yum.

I love dishes that are filling and delicious but don't leave me feeling bloated and heavy . Especially in this heat.

After the dash, I thought a smoothie was in order. Thought being the key word here people.

Whole Food Vega Smoothie Mix ( I used probably 1 tbsp of the package)

Maranatha's Organic Smooth Peanut Butter ( 1 tbsp) YEY for my fav peanut butter being back in stock .

1/4 cup of 2 % Milk

1 frozen and unpictured banana

1/4 cup of chopped strawberries also unpictured

couple handfuls of baby spinach

I was surprised that what appeared to be about 1/4 of a blender full , filled up my sbux cup and a club glass.

I was also surprised that while this mix tasted amazing it made me feel very phelm-y . Perhaps it was the milk or combo of milk AND banana . I couldn't drink more than the club glass .



Ready to gnaw off my hand at this point, I grabbed the quickest thing . A cheddar and herb bagel from Superstore's bakery section, and smeared half of it with herb and garlic cream cheese.

I paired it with a homemade iced coffee in yet another starbucks cup ( I have all the cute ones ) because I need fuel and it's too hot for, hot coffee.

What's your favorite smoothie mix ?

What items do you hate in your smoothie ?

Double Dinner

Yesterday started with loads of strawberries . LOVE them .

I can't wait until they are in actual season here.

THIS also happened yesterday .

I got snacky and figured I'd try out my new peanut butter.

I loved Maranatha's Almond Butter so since their Peanut Butter was on sale at Superstore , I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Verdict ?

I loved it. It is much runnier than the organic peanut butter I am used to but I think it would be awesome in oatmeal :D

Then THIS happened.

Pizza.

The bf wanted to order some but I really wanted to try to recreate a cheeseburger pizza we had ages ago, that is only sold in humongo sizes

Obviously he didn't take much convincing .

I use a dough recipe I found on All Recipes and used half Organic Whole Wheat and half Organic White flour , instead of all white.

I browned 1/2 a lb of ground beef on the stove, and some diced bacon ( seperately ) and added them to the sauced crust ,and topped with cheese. One half was cheeseburger and the other was bacon cheeseburger.

Obviously we loved it!

So much so that since there are leftover ingredients , I'm going to make it again !

What dish do you love enough to eat two nights in a row?

-A

Breakfast-y or Lunch-y

I felt like this on Sunday at the cottage.
I really wish I could have been like Harken and just taken a nap until next week .

Unfortunately before I could even leave the cottage , I had to deal with this mess.

Yup. That's all me . Mostly clothes and random things tossed on the bed . I was barely there two days and you should be grateful I didn't show you the floor.

I didn't like the look or sound of the rain this morning so I extended my weekend. This was my brunch/accompanionment to Bravo's Wind At My Back. Sadly , I love that show.

In the bowl :
-Bob's Red Mill Organic Oldfashioned rolled oats ( i think) ( a bit more than 1/4 cup)
-half a banana
-tbsp of Maranatha's Almond Butter
-tsp of Organic Honey hiding beneath the bananas.
:)


This was the first thing I ate today and I had it at 12 ish . I can honestly say that it kept me full until around 4:30 when I had the other half of the banana on an unpicture slice of really soft italian bread with a bit of natural peanut butter.
I think it was a peanut butter and banana day at our house because the bf ate two sandwiches for his lunch consisting of them because there were no leftovers as I didnt cook sunday dinner last night :(

What's your favorite breakfast/lunch/brunch whatever you want to calll it food ? Do you prefer more lunch-y stuff or breakfast-y ?

It Will Have To Do

Hey ,

It feels like all I manage to have time for lately is the Friday 5 and unfortunately this post isn't to say that the end of busy-ness is over and I'm B-AAAACK. Nope its going to keep up . At least for a few more days.

While the weekend brought a lot of good things it also brought some bad stuff. My grandfather died early Saturday morning and while I was not close with him by any means , it still was not a happy weekend.
The funeral is Friday and I 'm taking the day off school , to drive downtown to go with the bf.

Tonnes of school stuff and shopping to do . T'is the season so to tide you over until I can get a block of time , my review of the Maranatha Almond Butter.


Maranatha's Almond Butter

What the people at Maranatha say about their Almond Butter :

Almonds never tasted so good. Slice up some apples and say yummm... The 8 oz. jar is the ideal size for trial, gift giving or travel. Bring your own spoon.

What do i say about it?

Initially , I wasn't sure. My first taste was off a spoon straight from the jar and to be honest I found it really really salt. My second taste was spread on a piece of well Apple loaf I guess I 'd call it . I altered a banana bread recipe to incorporate apples and cinnamon . It was delicious, thinly spread on top. So yum . It is definitely an accompaniment item and not something I'd eat straight out of the jar like regular peanut butter.

Luna Caramel Nut Brownie

I wasn't sure what to think of this bar from the get go. A bar marketed towards women?
I figured they would know how to do chocolate right then . To be honest I loved 3/4 of this bar. I loved the caramel layer and the nuts but the brownie part was so dense, almost dry and tasted like coffee to me. Defintely not going in the to buy again pile.

On a shopping exercusion today I managed to find LARA BARS!! I've heard of these and seem them on blogs EVERYWHERE but I never saw them before until today. In a Good Health store of all places. Go figure :D

I got the apple pie one, coconut cocoa chew or osmething of that nature and cashew cookie which I am most looking forward to :)

Off to take care of unhappy family matters. Hoping to get my fashion post with my recent purchases and christmas gifts up soon. Maybe in the friday five?
In the mean time , here's a to do list for you.

Head on over to The Inner Workings Of A College Graduate and vote for her in the Sam-E blogger contest.

Hungry? Or not sure what to make to -insert festive event /dinner here- clicky click to the lovely Itzy's kitchen. Her recent recipes are drooool worthy.

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