Phoning It In

Wow , it feels like I haven't blogged in forever. I am insanely busy with boring school stuff so I'm phoning this one in .

I got a sample sized box , which I found super cute, in my mail box today. Its one of the new cereals by Kashi .
I am a big fan of Kashi's Go Lean Crunch so I was excited!



I incorporated a couple of tablespoons into my breakfast lunch , bowl of oatmeal.



In the bowl :

The usual oats
Kashi's Honey Almond Flax cereal
tbsp of organic pb

So good. The cereal is really crunchy but granoly. :)

I ate this sometime last week but I could do with a bowl of PC Organic White Cheddar Mac and Cheese. Yum. No milk in mine either. I hate soupy mac and cheese.



That's all I've got . Back to the books for me.

-A

Brrrr

I had an amazing sleep last night after feeling exhausted for days. Who knew reading and writing was so tiring?

But today's my exam and while I sit here getting read to leave , this is the situation outside my door .

-17

And I think that is before the windchill factor.

I'd be a bad Canadian if I complained about the weather ( apparently, thanks Citytv) but come on this is freezing!

Stay tuned this afternoon for some reviews and eats :) If I am not a popsicle by then .

-A

Bar Filled Update

I'm still crazy insanely busy . My head is permantly in the books or staring at my computer :(
On the way back from observing at Family Court today ( trekking there in the frigid temperatures as well, I must add ) I picked up a few new , well to me at least items. As always reviews will be up in the coming days . Or when I devour them.


Chocolate Vega bar which many bloggers, have assured me , tastes nothing like chocolate and more like grass. Well, the bar is varily small compared to Clif bars and the like so I think I can handle it considering how many awesome ingredients are in .

Protein 2 Go bar is one I haven't seen before . 22 grams of protein and varily low calories which is suprising since I'm pretty sure it's going to resemble a chocolate bar. I predict I will only get a bite of this one and the bf will devour it.

Sun Cookies Meal Replacemtn Cookies in Maple Walnut Chip!

The idea that I can eat 3 cookies and it will fill me up as a meal , had me sold. The cashier told me she ate 1 1/2 of them yesterday and was full.She did also mention that they are very dry and require a beverage. The nutritional stats aren't that bad either. Mostly baking ingredients.

Of course I had to get it in two flavors.

I look forward to trying both , but the Coconut Almond one sounds soooo good to me.


Exam on Friday and I have the day off tomorrow . So it's study , study , study . Thank god I still think odd colored highlighters are cool or I 'd have no joy at all .

Question :

How do you feel about meal replacement items? Do you still want a meal or do they do the job for you ?

-A

Cookies and To Do Lists

Hi ! :)

This picture although it represents the current status of my kitchen table , it also represents the status of my to do list.

I've been baking !

A lot.

Christmas oranges , as I call them have been a mainstay since the crates started appearing at Loblaws/Superstore. I don't eat them but the bf devours them . He's picky though. He prefers half the crate in the fridge crisper and half at room temperature. I don't mind . They look cute.
Please to be ignoring the random papers on my kitchen table. I am running out of space for my textbooks/work from previous courses and have yet to figure out a plan of attack.

Williams Sonoma Berry Muffins

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar ( i used splenda for baking but use what you're comfortable with)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk ( I used 2 % for the bf's sake but I've used skim and it's fine)
1/2 cup "butter" ( I used PC celeb aka light becel )
2 large eggs
1 cup berries of your choice. ( i used mixed frozen berries that i had defrosted)

Preheat oven to 400 . Whisk together milk , butter and egg. Add flour , sugar and baking powder and soda, salt and cinnamon . Add berries. Bake 15-20 minutes.

Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are typically cut into slices or just in simple rounds. I rolled mine out and used cutters.

1 1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla
3 1/3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 275.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt and vanilla. Beat to combine. Add flour one cup at a time.
Press into pan OR roll out and cut.
Bake until pale golden brown . 70-85 minutes .

I topped these with a simple cream cheese frosting. Dangerous I know . Basiclly took half of a small container of philidelphia cream cheese, added a splash of milk and about 1/2 cup of icing sugar. I added the icing sugar gradually. You may find you don't need as much . I took half of the finished product and put it in a sandwich bag for "piping" and used the rest to be spread with a spatula.
Top it off with sprinkles or whatever decorations you choose. If you want the icing to be festive, drop in a bit of food coloring when mixing up the icing . Let the icing set for a bit before packing up the cookies.

*

One thing is almost off of my to do list. I have two more items to bake for my Christmas baking and then that is crossed off the list. I have about 4 more presents to buy and my shopping is done.

TO DO THIS WEEK:

• Buy some festive plates and colored cellophane wrap to wrap up Baked Goodies.
• Finish Christmas Shopping. Would like to get some done prior but on Friday morning me and a friend are going to trample the mall. I'm thinking of it as getting all the last minute stuff. I do NOT want to be shopping the week of Christmas!!
  
• Finish wrapping
  
• Find a recipe for Artichoke and Asiago Dip ( cold ) . Anyone know of a good one?
• Homework and school work. I managed to get my homework done incredibly early today and even managed to get a day ahead. Hopefully I can keep this momentum up until Thursday which is my last day before Christmas break. YEY for 2 weeks off !

• Hair cut and dye on Thursday. Need it. Desperately. I've been putting it off because I wanted as little "roots" as possible for Christmas pics. Hate Christmas paparazzi family members.

What's on your Christmas to-do list?

What are you baking or bringing to Holiday get togethers?

-A

Personal Snow Day

The idea of partaking in this , this morning was not appealing .

Source

So after walking about two feet outside the apartment , I said a curse word or two and a prayer for my cardy uggs that were getting wet! and turned around and went back inside.
Threw off the clothes I had just put on and replaced them with super comfy soft ones I wouldn't want the public to see, emailed my homework to a class mate to hand in for me and I'm taking a personal snow day today.

To homework doing,blog reading, apartment cleaning, warmth and this :

Source

Something Awesome:

ETA:

Quinn is giving away a torture device. Sound awesome? No ? I promise it's better than it sounds. Go see for yourself.

The new PomWonderful aprons are out and they're hilariously cute. Want one? Go tell Tina of Carrots 'N' Cake why you need one in your life.

Why I need one in my life ?
It's hilariously cute and a conversation piece. Also I always seem to be wearing black when I bake and end up looking a mess afterwards.

What's your ideal way to spend a snow day or a day off ?

For me I am happy just staying in where its warm . Doing around the house type stuff. Cooking , cleaning , yup a housewife :)

Do you like winter weather ? Hate it ?

I'm a horrible Canadian who just can't take the cold. The snow is something else altogether . It's just a big inconvenience to me . Nothing worse than having to spend your day in half wet clothes because you didn't anticipate the snow .

-A

Intentions and A Photo Dump

Hey :)

I had an amazing , relaxing although some what chilly weekend at the cottage.

I really needed it .

Despite packing all my school books and fully intending to get some homework done along with some personal reading ( I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb ) I barely cracked the books. So I wasn't at all prepared for the first day of Civil Procedures this morning. Also while I'm on the subject of school, I bought this super cute ceramic travel mug that looks exactly like a paper starbucks mug , and while its rocking the cuteness , my coffee was cold 35 minutes later. Cuteness be damned, that mug has nothing on my stainless steel , blah , plain one. You know, I'll deal with cold coffee though and still use it :D

I don't know about you guys , but a new class, course, semester; it always makes me want to do the fresh start thing. Get organized, start out perfectly even though we know come midterms everything is a mess and post-it notes are in the bottom of the backpack. So in the spirit of organization, I'm dumping all the photos I 've gathered on my phone from the last few weeks , so bare with me .

I got this mysterious number going this afternoon. The time on the stove's clock is wrong . I got frustrated with resetting it , everytime there is a power surge and it's fun for people who think it's the right time. Its bubbling and steaming much too much to get a picture of the contents but heres the recipe.

Comfort Chicken Soup

1 roasted chicken breast ( i de -skin mine and cook it on a rack in a dish in the oven for about 55 minutes with garlic, paprika and mrs dash)

2 stalks of celery diced
3 carrots , peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tsp of thyme
8 tbsp of chicken bouillion or a carton of broth
10 cups water

Bring water to a bowl and add bouillon . Reduce heat to 2 or 3 ( not bubbling but not low ) , add veggies. Leave it alone for 2-3 hours. Add chicken . Put on low or minimum and leave it alone for 1-2 hours . Turn off heat about 40 minutes before cooking or you won't be able to eat it because of the heat.

This is my go-to soup for flus , colds and when the weather is so horrible , that it's a soup day. It freezes really well too. Generally I allow it to cool in the pot with the lid on , sometimes it takes until morning and then I put ziplock bags in the milk pitcher ( americans will be lost on this part ) and pour the soup into the bag. That way I don't have a ziplock bag flopping all over the place.

This funny guy , who is pretty funny looking to begin with , is my Uncle's dog. I believe he is a sharpei and he's awesome. His name is Cash and he is obsessed with my Uncle. It's very cute. He will look all over the house and drive himself nuts looking for him .
He got that nifty head dress because he escaped from the back yard ( he's not as innocent as he looks ) and got hit by a car. He's ok though. He had to get a couple of stitches in his leg and the stitches are almost healed but he likes to eat himself, so better safe than sorry , Cash.

Ohhh this picture is horribly bright but we'll work with it. That's what I get for snapping last minute photos in afternoon sunlight.
That's my saucer for my snowflake soup mug set and some crackers that remind me of bird food but hey , they're good for you . Think Bretons with seeds.
The cheese is this awesome 8 year cheddar my bf got me from a cheese factory on the way home from the cottage.

Ahh the life fuel . This is the current blend I've been grabbing from Sbux. Actually upon closer inspection , squinting , its the French Roast. My current blend ( read: last 3 bags ) has been the Cafe Verona. Either way , I don't refuse a good coffee.

Now , because I've procrastinated enough between writing this and google reader, I'm off. Oh I have a Friday 5 half done too . Yup , I am that girl . Thinking I'll just have a double Friday 5 again .. Ooh but if I procrastinate on that , does that mean I get a triple friday 5 or quadruple Friday 5 next week ?

What do you guys do with the mass amounts of phone photos we seem to acquire?

Something you should do if you're being a procrastinator like me :

Go and vote for this lovely lady in the Sam-E Blogger thingy.


-A