Week of Veggies

This week in vegetables.

Stuffer mushrooms sliced into veggie messes.

Corn on the cob . :(


For some reason I found that taking pictures of mushrooms was very enjoyable. So many angles and perspectives of these fun guys.

Greens !!!

Broccoli crowns specifically. Of course, chucked into another easy yet delicious veggie mess.

My lovely bamboo cutting board .

Veggies messes pre, mushrooms and broccoli .
Basically , carrots, onion, garlic, celery and zuchinni.

Easy wraps made the minute I get home from class.
PC's Organic Spring Mix , PC's Maple Smoked Turkey Breast, Hellmann's Half the Fat Mayo and sliced mozzerella.

A cute Lily on the way back from the vet. She's a little " special " here ;)

And no those aren't her ribs! those are wrinkles!!

Random pictures out the car window on the drive back from the vet.

It was beautiful.

Sometimes pictures say so much more than paragraphs upon paragraphs.

News:

Fat Swap!

Galaxy Granola is trying to eliminate 10,000 lbs of fat from consumers diets, in 90 days . There are so many ways you can take part and win prizes! Visit their website for details and look for a Fat Swap post in this space soon!

Ooh and all this weekend CSNstores will take an extra 5 % off your order!

-A

Bamboo and Larabar Review

Aww. Lily in the morning.

I am not a morning person. Even a little bit , but this makes me want to get out of bed .

She is just so mellow,cuddly and cute in the morning.

What I do not love is her appreciation for tennis balls. She looooves them. She has a million other toys but is content destroying a tennis ball bit by bit. She usually kills it in a day and when she doesn't kill it she spends her time pushing it under couches and crevices and then crying for us to get it back out. Hate tennis balls.

What I did not hate , was this Larabar.

Shocking , I know . Considering I hated the other three Larabars I tried I really didn't have high hopes for this one.

I googled reviews before unwrapping and Tina's review convinced me.

It really does taste like a macaroon!

Other things I do not hate , include these awesome Bamboo Cutting Boards I was gifted with from CSN stores to review.

I used to think that my knifes sucked but after using these boards, I realized it was the plastic ( or whatever material it was made of , not wood of any kind and defintely not bamboo) that was making chopping and cutting difficult.

These made prepping spinach , amongst many other things since I recieved them , a breeze.

And the best part, well maybe second best part, EASY to clean . They do not stain or absorb very much . Warm water, a bit of soap and you're done.

Thanks CSNstores.

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

Lily

Meet Lily. Our new puppy .

<3

In The News

Hey :)

I am pleased to say that my presentation went well ( 9/10 ) and my exam is over with . No idea on how I did on the exam but it was very short and I didn't struggle over certain questions like I usually do .

In other news, here's a table.

A table is not that exciting I know. What is exciting is that I actually cleared it off and one could eat at it , if one so chose. I think we've eaten at it once. :/

In other news, ( more exciting IMO , might I add ) , big salads were had.

Anything that starts with baby spinach and greens IS exciting news to me.

All the "junk" on the top , pre toss and pre dressing. Dark picture because I eat in the night like a crazy person.

Salad was accompanied, by old news. Chicken in PC's Honey Mustard Marinade. I always thought I hated mustard, but apparently I do not.

In other news, that is actually new ( to me! ), this dressing from Kraft is A-MAZING! I am big fan of asiago cheese and this is very asiago-y. It's my new favorite find.

And finally , very exciting news .

I got off my ass and got back into the yoga. I am loving the Dave Farmar yoga classes from Yogadownload.com and have been enjoying them all week. Well to be honest, the first half of the week , I enjoyed no part of Mr Farmar and may have spoken some obscenties about him , but now I love him and he's back on the Christmas list.

I celebrated the return of yoga to my life by finallly trying one of those drink packets I got ages ago. I tried the fruit one and it was pretty good. Tasted like watered down berry Crystal Light or something.

Well I think this is enough excitment for one entry so I 'll leave you with some nosey questions.

What's your new favorite grocery store find?

Do you , yoga? What's your favorite kind of class?

-A

wordless wednesday

Crazy busy. Presentation tomorrow. Exam friday.
Be back soon .
-A

Broccoli Salad And Things That Make Me Happy

Last weekend I went to the cottage.

The weather was far from tropical but it was peaceful mostly and it made me happy to be there.

Here are some other things that make me happy :

PICTURES ...

Clouds

Yellow labradors on decks , sleepy in the late afternoon . With sticks. Sticks are very important.

Sunsets .

Super simple salads that may not be the healthiest , but are so yummy that your bf eats cereal bowls full of it.

This isn't really a recipe persay. A classmate of mine brought it for a potluck we were having for some occasion I can't recall.

It didn't look that appetizing in the bowl and of course it doesn't smell like pumpkin pie either , but it is delicious and of course a broccoli lover, like me's dream .

I've attempted to health-ify it up a bit , but to be honest, there's not much hope unless you are willing to use Greek Yogurt, which I think would alter the taste a lot .

You can use as much or as little broccoli as you want. For 3/4 of a bowlful this size ( about 5 generous servings) I used a large crown .

Remove as much of the stem as you can. You really just want the floret.

Dice the hell out of it. Don't make it dust or anything though.

Add about 1/4 of shredded cheese of your choice ( the original potluck one had cheddar ) and generously shake bacon bits in . I have never measured the bacon bits so I couldn't tell you how much to use . I just go with what looks okay .

Add equal parts sour cream ( i used fat free because it makes me feel better about possible ass growth ) and mayo ( i used the light olive oil nonsense ) .

Then, and I know this is going to sound odd, but think of it like sugar in homemade pasta sauce, for some reason this just has to be done.

Add a scant teaspoon of sugar.

As you can see I am all about measurement, with my use of the word scant and the fact that I literally use a spoon for tea as a measuring device.

Then as the above picture demonstrates, you stir it up . It won't look lovely. Once you taste it , you won't care.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours. The longer it sits, the better it is.

What's your favorite super simple salad?

Are you a broccoli lover?

-A