A Family of Apples

Today I wasn't really feeling in the mood to cook, so I decided to just stick with leftovers for dinner. I heated up the last of my Squash Gratin with some tofu crumbles mixed in, and stuck some spinach in underneath the warmed dish so it would wilt. Very filling and delicious for such a quick dinner! I need to start batch cooking more often.

I ended up pouring out the diet ginger ale because it hadn't been refrigerated for very long, and just wasn't hitting the spot. After dinner I had a little "incident" - I was eyeing the leftovers from my baking yesterday, and it basically ended in me eating:

X 1million

And some butterscotch chips.

X 2

:(

Such is life.

I was determined to turn my night around, though - with my very first BodyPump class! I was a little nervous because it's a little intimidating watching everyone with all of the equipment, but the instructor was really nice and helped me get set up, and made sure I was able to follow the class okay.

I absolutely loved it, and can't wait to go back again! I felt so strong when I left, and it completely lifted my mood. I'm not sure I'll be able to go back for a while, though, because I already have that jell-o feeling in my muscles that means I'm gonna be reeeally sore tomorrow.

After BodyPump I decided to grab some apples on my way out of the store, because I had my last one for lunch today. I'm a little bit of an apple freak, so I hate not having any at home! Seriously, is there any better fruit than an apple? You can grab them and go, peel them, slice them, dip them, bake them, they come in a million different varieties and they're always available.

Royal gala is my favourite kind of apple, but every once in a while I change it up a bit, just to keep things interesting. Today a bunch of different varieties caught my eye, so I bought an entire little family of apples as well as my regular bag of royal gala.

Ambrosia, crispin, braeburn and cripps pink. Fuji and golden delicious fell out of the bag and got bruised :'(

All my RGs :) I know it would probably be cheaper to buy the pre-bagged ones, but I like hand-choosing my own from the display to make sure every one will be delicious (I HATE surprise mushy apples!).

I'm ready to settle down with my book and the braeburn, but laundry is calling.

What's your favourite kind of apple?

Fish for Breakfast

Not really, I just love my fishy bowl ;)



In the mix:

• 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
• 8 large strawberries
• 1/2 cup Kashi GoLean Crunch
• scoop of almond butter

For lunch, I packed some of the leftover Squash Gratin on a bed of spinach with an apple, some sugar snap peas and a Kashi Pumpkin Pie bar.



I also packed some Brown Butter Blondies to bring in and share with my co-workers.



Have a good day!

Back From the Dead

Wow, it's been a while since I last blogged! My internet unexpectedly died, and it took me all week to get it sorted out. I'm still not sure that everything is fully resolved, but at least it works for now.

I started off my morning with a complimentary yoga class at Lululemon (which I hope will become a routine that I can speak more about), and when I got home I refuelled with a chocolate banana protein shake that had one frozen banana, one scoop of chocolate protein powder and one cup of almond milk in it. Yum!

After I got ready for the day, I had a real breakfast of eggs and toast with some peanut butter, which really hit the spot. I'd been craving eggs for a while so it was nice to finally have some!

My day was spent out and about, and I stopped at Starbucks in the afternoon for an iced coffee and some free wifi ;) I also had my apple with vanilla yogurt + cinnamon to snack on.

I've been wanting to make a recipe I saw on television a while ago, Squash Gratin from Ricardo and Friends, so I finally decided that today was the day. I went to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients, and it must've been meant to be:

I got the very last butternut squash! What are the odds? By the time I got home from shopping I was already starving but I knew the recipe would take at least an hour and a half to make, so I snacked on some crackers (that I ate before I could get anywhere near a camera), and some strawberries in a cute fish bowl I got from Target on my trip to Buffalo.

The strawberries were amazingly sweet and juicy! This made me excited for all the wonderful summer fruits to come in season again :) My snack held me over well until dinner, which I also enjoyed in my fish bowl.

After two hours of waiting and cooking, the end result was just okay. I think that roasting the squash with some butter and brown sugar would be a lot easier (and possibly tastier), but I'm still glad I got to try the recipe out.

Because I haven't baked anything in a while, I also decided to go for another recipe that I saw: Brown Butter Blondies. I knew this one would be delicious, because Michael Smith is my kitchen hero and has never steered me wrong before ;) I don't think anything that went into the batter was very healthy - brown butter, brown sugar, butterscotch chips ... definitely a delicious combination, though! Ready to go in the oven:

And ready to go into my stomach:

It was sooo delicious and sweet and buttery, oh my gosh! Even just thinking about it now makes me want one. I ended up eating two squares, plus a bunch of crumbs from the pan while I was cutting up the remainder, and a few butterscotch chips might've found their way out of the bag as well. Oops! :$

The rest is packed up to take into work tomorrow or in the freezer to eat some other time, so I should be safe for now. Anyway, it's getting late and I have a date with a book. Good night! ♥

I Heart Supermarkets

I love grocery shopping. It might even be an addiction, that's how much I love it! There's something relaxing about browsing the aisles, finding foods you've never tried before, and comparing brands. I could spend hours in a grocery store.

Isn't the produce section pretty from above?

I recently joined a gym that shares a space with a grocery store, and it's basically the perfect combination for me. I go to the grocery store and the gym's right there, so I feel like I might as well get a workout in too ;) And then I'm still on my endorphin high from my workout when I'm choosing my food, so I tend to shop healthier. Today I picked up enough produce to feed a small army:

For a pretty reasonable price :)

By the time I got home I was starving, so I ate a date (plus a few more) while dinner was cooking.

I also had a little of the wine from last night.

The coconut shrimp from last night was so good that I made the same thing tonight! This time I served it with some cheesy mustard cauliflower and some wilted spinach (needed to use up my old supply to make room for the new container), and it was just as delicious.

I kept up the tropical theme for dessert, and had some non-fat yogurt with pineapple and caramel sauce.

Mmm, caramel sauce :)

I was still craving something a little chocolatey after my dessert, so I made a mug of chocolate spice tea and had a square of dark chocolate with it.

I never know where my time goes at night! One minute I'm finishing work, and the next it's already after 11:00. I feel ready for bed but I still have a bunch of things that need to be done. Hopefully I won't be up too late!

Do you like grocery shopping?

Busy Worker Bee

Chocolate Coconut Breakfast Cookie: check.

Big, healthy lunch: check.

Off to work! :)

Date Night!

The boyfriend and I enjoyed a night in, and cooked up a new recipe that turned out great :) We made Coconut Breaded Shrimp, and the recipe can be found here. I was craving some good coconut shrimp (I'm just throwing coconut into everything lately, aren't I?), so I took the fried version and "healthified" it by baking it in the oven, and only using egg whites in the breading process. We served it with some roasted broccoli.

There was also some shiraz involved ;)

Nathan's mom baked me a rhubarb pie because she knows I like rhubarb (so nice of her!), but apparently his dad got into it so she ended up just sending me a piece of the pie haha. My wonderful boyfriend brought me the piece in bed with some vanilla frozen yogurt, and I ate it as I wound down for the night. Is there anything better than pie in bed? ;)

Good night, hope you all had a good start to the week and are ready to take on Monday!

Lazy Morning

Today was supposed to be productive, but it just didn't end up happening. I enjoyed a nice morning of doing absolutely nothing useful, which is necessary sometimes. For breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal:

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 spoonfuls non-fat yogurt
• 1 1/3 tbsp macadamia nut butter
• squirt of agave nectar

I really liked the chia seeds in the mix - it made the oats nice and fluffy. I also had a side of grapefruit, which was so juicy I needed to eat it over the sink.

Yesterday I picked up a new kind of tea from Whole Foods - Four O' Clock Chocolate Spice. I love chocolate, so I figured it was worth a try. I brewed the tea last night, and made a latte with it this morning. I really liked the chocolate spice taste, but it was very week, even after brewing all night. I think two teabags are necessary, but because they were so expensive I'm not sure this would be a regular product for me.

Last night I also made some Coconut Curry Hummus, modified a little from Kath's recipe. It was amazing! I'm not really a fan of store-bought hummus, which I find kind of strange because I love chickpeas, so I think it's the flavouring manufacturers use. I'll definitely be making my own hummus from now on. The recipe for the way I made it can be found here.

I enjoyed some for lunch today with multigrain pretzel twists and some veggies. Yum!

The boyfriend came over in the afternoon, and we went out to do some shopping. While we were checking out furniture at Ikea, I got one of their frozen yogurts (which are delicious!).

Nathan got a little more than me.

I was craving frozen yogurt all day, so it really hit the spot.

Right now we're just waiting for some shrimp to defrost so we can cook a nice dinner together. See you all after some good food and wine ;)