The Countdown is On

One more week of work to get through, then I’m on vacation for two weeks. Husband is on vacation as of Friday which makes me a little cranky about having to go to work all this week.

My Christmas Cactus is ready…

The Coca-Cola Train is waiting…

But for now, I guess it’s weekend recap time.

Saturday

Let’s see…Pancakes from a can…

I was not at all energetic yesterday. Not sure why, I had a good sleep, but it was hard to get moving. I puttered around a bit in the morning and then made my way out to pick up groceries. I meant to eat something before I went, but as usual I forgot.

So I came home and had a Bolthouse Perfectly Protein drink.

I think I have to stop buying these things. I love them, they taste so good, but it’s just too easy to not bother eating real food.

Did some more stuff that I can’t even remember now. Got in a quick Circuit workout. Then it was time to make dinner. I chopped all the veggies, and was waiting for Husband to come deal with the chicken. I was hungry, so I had a little snack.

Then Husband came out and poured us some Egg Nog with Rum.

Ahh! I feel better already.

This was Zappa watching Husband cut up chicken:

 

He was riveted. Frank was off sleeping somewhere, otherwise Husband would have had both cats captivated.

Since I had been feeling the exact opposite of energetic, and because there was cauliflower in the fridge needing to be used up, I went for the easy dinner again.

In the pan – chicken, cauliflower, red & yellow bell pepper, half a red onion (because it was in the fridge needing to be used up) and some extra spice.

And dinner!

Dinner entertainment:

I had forgotten that they had left out a bunch from the end of the book, and was a little disappointed all over again. But it was still a good show.

I had tea and cookie (I took two but ended up only eating one).

Which is just as well because there were quite a few handfuls of chocolate covered almonds and maybe a couple of other cookies that managed to escape the camera yesterday.

Sunday

It was a beautiful sunny day today, and warmer than yesterday (Friday and yesterday were quite cold). I didn’t feel like breakfast right away, so had a Bolthouse drink.

I eventually had more pancakes from a can (think the can is almost empty now).

I have to say, even though they are nowhere near as good as homemade, I am getting to like how easy it is to grab the can and make myself some pancakes. I could eat pancakes every day, but Husband is not quite as big a fan as I am. These do not hold up to fruit very well though – the center of the plate was mush.

I spent most of the morning on the couch reading. I’ve been reading Middlemarch and I was so close to the end I wanted to finish it.

Eventually I got up and started puttering around doing some laundry and cleaning up the kitchen.

I baked two batches of cookies; one was a new recipe I tried out for Twice Baked Shortbread and I made another batch of Super-Charge Me cookies. The Twice Baked Shortbread took some time – I mixed up the dough and then it had to sit for at least 2 hours. Which gave me plenty of time for the Super-Charge Me cookies.

I had an audience.

 

Frank was actually kind of moping and complaining and I could tell he wanted me to take him for a walk. My first instinct was “No way! There’s snow out there!” But, it’s not like I can stay inside all winter and I figured the fresh air might be good for me so I did end up taking him out after I cleaned up from my cookie making.

Someone’s got their trailer parked in our little lane and Frank kept wanting to crawl under it.

I don’t think Frank much enjoyed walking in the snow – it was slippery in spots, and sometimes the crust would give way. But, it’s not like we could get away from it.

He still managed to find a rock to sit on.

We didn’t go too far because the ground is uneven up there and I knew I’d have to carry my 17 lb cat back through the snow and I was a little worried about slipping and falling.

Of course, once I brought Frank  in I had to take Zappa out.

I don’t think he was too impressed by walking through the snow though, so we didn’t stay out long.

It was actually quite nice out – relatively speaking – and once I got out I was in no hurry to go back inside. So I thought maybe I’d go for a walk. However, the sidewalks were quite icy and I was not really comfortable with walking on the road, so I didn’t get very far. Still, I was probably outside for a half hour which gave me some fresh air and a dose of sunshine.

I came back in and tried to pick away at a few more little tasks. Then I put my shortbread in the oven and went down to the basement for some intervals on the treadmill.

When I came upstairs, I puttered in the kitchen waiting for the oven timer to go off. I finished off the little bit of Chipotle Hummus that was left in my container and decided the try the new Edamame dip that I bought at the Superstore.

Then I ended up going back for a new container of Chipotle Hummus instead. Not that the Edamame dip is bad, I think it was just too different from the Hummus which I had already been eating. I will try it again, but for today I was in the Chipotle mood.

The shortbread came out of the oven and I sprinkled on some Turbinado sugar. While it was sitting for the required 10 minutes, I continued with peeling some potatoes. When the 10 minute was up, I cut the shortbread into rectangles and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes.

I continued on with some dinner prep until the shortbread came out of the oven.

Once the cookies were done, and I had most of my dinner prep done I went and had a shower. Then I came back and made easy dinner #2 – Fritatta and Hash browns.

This is before adding cheese and putting it in the oven to finish cooking. Husband came out as everything was finishing up and I was getting ready to serve, and he said it looked pretty.

Then we cut it up.

Served with hash browns and broccoli slaw.

My favourite thing on the plate was the hash browns. On their own, potatoes are not that exciting, but something magical happens when you fry them.

For dessert I had peppermint tea and Super-Charge Me cookies.

I thought I was done at that point, but then Husband brought me Egg Nog.

Which I sipped while knitting away at a scarf with Zappa on my lap.

It was good, but I think the Egg Nog put me over the edge. Time to cut back on the treats for the next few days.

Famous last words…

Yay for Friday!

I got totally distracted last night and forgot about posting. Sorry about that.

So, when last I left y’all, we were getting ready for a whole lotta snow. It was all stormy and blizzard-y from the time we got home until I went to bed. Then overnight it warmed up and turned to rain so by morning you wouldn’t even know it had been snowing like crazy. Gotta love the Maritimes.

Yesterday’s eats:

 

Today it was cold! Mostly because of the wind I think. It was…ah…bracing.

Husband had a doctor’s appointment at 8 am so we were in a bit of a rush this morning. I had a glass of Bolthouse Perfectly Protein before heading out.

When we got to Java Moose for our morning tea/coffee, Husband suggested breakfast sandwich. Couldn’t say not to a warm breakfast on such a chilly morning!

I had brought lunch, but after that breakfast I didn’t get hungry. Lunch had been sitting on my desk all morning, but it was still frozen at lunch time so I put it in the freezer at work for another day. Around mid-afternoon I had an apple and a Kashi granola bar.

We had the usual Friday dinner – takeout from Thai Hut. And after all this time of complaining about my camera when taking photos in low light, I actually looked at the settings – imagine that.

Before:

After:

Amazing what happens when you actually  look at what settings you have available.

I had some couch time with Frank:

And had a cookie and some tea.

Now I’m relaxing and watching Dollhouse.

I love Fridays.

Heavy Snowfall Warning

Thirty centimetres coming our way apparently. Winter appears to be making up for lost time.

Fairly uneventful day. Actually, the past two days I’ve had major problems with concentration. Hope my brain starts working again soon. Work to get done!

I did not want to get out of my warm, comfy bed this morning. Brr! Husband seemed to think I should get up and go to work though. Sheesh.

Breakfast

I had a glass of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai at home, which I forgot to take a photo of.

At work:

 

Two Super Charge Me cookies and coffee.

Lunch & Snack

For lunch I had Sweet Potato & Black Bean Mole which I also apparently forgot to photograph. I’m telling ya – brain not working.

For snacks – an apple & almonds.

Late afternoon I noticed the snow had started, and a short time later Husband messaged me that he wanted to head home. When I went out to the front doors I was surprised how much snow was coming down already.

We made a quick stop at the Superstore on the way home. I snapped this with my iPhone when we got back out to the car.

Not nice at all.

Dinner

When we got home I did my workout – Circuit workout today. I repeated the circuit 3 times which took about 20 minutes, then did a 20 minute walk on the treadmill.

After my workout I had a glass of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai. Zappa was checking it out. I gave him some milk.

Dinner was easy – leftover Chicken & Lentils from last night with President’s Choice Garlic Naan.

And dessert. I just can’t stay out of the cookies.

With Peppermint tea.

Time for Glee!

New Recipe #2 – A Success!

Just a Tuesday…Nothing to exciting to report. Breakfast was a repeat.

Lunch was Bean Balls with Brown Rice. Yum!

Snack was supposed to be an apple…

Ahem.

Plus there may have been a few handfuls of chocolate covered almonds. No self control at all today; the chocolate just kept finding it’s way into my mouth.

After work I did intervals on the treadmill. I was feeling less than energetic when I started, so I decided to do shorter intervals of running, but I also kept the walking intervals shorter. It felt like I was running more, but at the same time it felt easier. I did 30 minutes of intervals and a 10 minute walk to cool down.

Dinner – Indian Spiced Lentils & Chicken – was in the slow cooker. I was planning to steam some broccoli, but while I was on the treadmill I thought maybe I could throw it in the slow cooker and avoid another dirty pot.

So, when I got off the treadmill, I prepped the broccoli and threw it in the slow cooker. I went and had a shower, then came out to dinner. The broccoli was still a little crisp, I can live with that.

We also finished off the last of the Basmati Rice from Sunday night.

And dessert with mint tea:

Dinner was based on this recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking. I used two chicken breasts, but halved everything else in the recipe (actually I used a little less that 3 cups of chicken broth and no water). I thought that 2 cups of lentils would be a lot and if I wanted Husband to be happy, there would need to be a decent ratio of chicken to lentils. I added some fresh ginger and garam masala to the mix, and when we got home from work I added some light coconut milk (what was leftover from the can I opened on Sunday night).

Then, as I mentioned, I added the broccoli and served with Basmati Rice. I really enjoyed this dish. Husband had two servings and said it was “Spectacularly good.” How’s that for a review?

Husband has had quite the week – I fed him fish and lentils and he liked both. It might be time to feed him pizza or something; just so this doesn’t get too weird.  :)

Wintery Monday

I had a dream last night that the snow was all gone, but when I woke up this morning it was still here. It suddenly looks and feels like winter – though it may not last as we are supposed to get rain later in the week.

At least enough time had gone by for the roads to be clear so it was a normal drive to work this morning. It was a very pretty drive actually - all the trees and shrubs were coated in snow, it looked like frosting. Very pretty in the sun.

Guess what I had for breakfast?

Yep, I had cookies. I know, I know…That’s not what they are meant for…but it was tasty and it kept me going until lunch. Which I totally forgot to take a picture of until after I was finished eating. Oops! It was Sweet Potato & Black Bean Mole with Quinoa; if you scroll back to last week I’m sure you can find a picture…

It was a busy day, but I did make time to walk up to the City Market and hit Pete’s Frootique for some Honeycrisp apples. I also snagged an afternoon snack while I was there…

I also ended up getting a second coffee – I found it chilly in the office today.

We also came home to a chilly house, and I have to tell you the idea of changing into my workout clothes was not appealing, but I did it. Then I went down to my chilly basement and quickly warmed up doing the December Circuit A workout. I did the circuit 3 times and felt about ready to collapse when I was done.

Fortunately, dinner was easy.

We finished off the bag of broccoli slaw, with some Asian Sesame dressing.

Then had leftover Indian Spiced Haddock and Basmati Rice.

Then, to warm up, I had a cup of Peppermint tea and some cookies.

Well okay, the cookies didn’t necessarily warm me up but I enjoyed them – two Walkers Shortbread cookies (next best thing to homemade) and one more Super Charge Me cookie.

Now I’m ready to crawl in to bed and read for a while. Night folks!

INDIAN SPICED HADDOCK

(serves 4)

1 1/2 lb thick pieces of haddock fillet, skinned

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 small onion, sliced

1-in piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 fresh green chili, cored, seeded and finely chopped

1 small cauliflower, cut into florets

2 potatoes, diced

1 large green pepper, cored, seeded and cut into strips

2/3 cup water

black pepper

plain yogurt to serve

Directions:

1. Cut the haddock into 2-in squares and put them into a bowl.

2. Crush the spices and salt.

Sprinkle the mixture over the haddock, stir to coat evenly, cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

3. Heat half of the oil in a skillet, add the onion, and cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Stir in the ginger and chili and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cauliflower, potatoes, and green pepper and cook for 5-7 minutes. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and set aside.

4. Heat the remaining oil, add the haddock and brown lightly all over. Add the cooked vegetables and measured water and simmer for 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked and the vegetables are tender. Taste for seasoning. Serve at once with the yogurt.

As usual, I did not entirely follow the recipe…

* I used 1 potato and 1 sweet potato.

* I used about half a head of cauliflower, and that seemed like plenty; it was probably more of a medium-large size than small size head of cauliflower.

* I was quite generous with the ginger and I didn’t have a fresh chili, so I used dried chili flakes.

* I used a red bell pepper because Husband doesn’t like green peppers.

* I used coconut oil – I’d guess this could really be the oil of your choice.

* I did not have plain yogurt, so I reduced the amount of water to about a half cup, and added about a half cup of light coconut milk.This created a bit of a sauce for the dish.

The recipe says 4 servings and serving with salad and rice we did get 2 meals out of this.