To all the ladies plus weekend eats

Happy International Women's Day and Mardi Gras!!

         2011 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day!! This years theme is :

Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women

I am so fortunate to live in a country that respects women and provides us with equal rights. Some would argue that statement but I feel compared to many other countries, women have it pretty good in Canada (for the most part).

I am not afraid to express my religious beliefs
I'm not afraid to disagree with my husband
I can apply for any job that I want to
I can go to school to become anything I want to be
I can express my views publicly as I do on this blog

You forget sometimes how different things could be for you as a women in another country that does not have equal rights. Yet, I'm not naive enough to think that abuses against women don't exist where I live, because they do and it's absolutely terrible.

So, to all my ladies out there I love you all!! You bring such light to the world. You bring strength, beauty, and wisdom. You have so much to give...and you deserve to live a life full of love and respect!

And pass that respect on to other women. Women can be cruel to each other!! We compare ourselves to others, hate others who have more ____ (insert: money, success, sexy body, happiness etc). Then we commit something terrible..we abuse ourselves! We hate on our bodies, we tell ourselves terrible things, we instill fear. I know because I do this myself!

I have no problem respecting and loving all the women in my life yet, I have a hard time building myself up. Ironic wouldn't you say?  I think it's time I buy myself some post-its and start operation beautiful in my house!

Anyone celebrating Mardi Gras? Oh how I would love to be partying it up in New Orleans. One year I will have to make my way down there. I think it would be a blast!

Okay so now onto the weekend! It was pretty good. Hung out with friends Friday night and Sunday. Saturday ran errands and watched a movie. Sunday we also went to the BC Home and Garden Show which was a lot of fun. Lots of dreamy ideas for renovating and styling your home and garden. One of the coolest ideas was a pond pool. It's a pool that looks like a pond but has no added chemicals. Their booth had some pretty impressive designs.

Now looking back at the treats I've indulged over the past couple weeks..eek!

This cake was made by my aunt and it's called blata kuchen or layer cake!

 

Oh my this was so good!!! In between layers of dough is a pudding. Mmm mmm!

 

These were Meghan's crispy brown rice treats. Although basically it is a mix of rice cereal, pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut, chia seeds, almond butter, and honey. I didn't have any chocolate..boo! Still some great crunch. This would have been awesome on banana softserve:)

I served it with some turmeric tea, another Meghan Telpner creation.

I added coconut milk to my tea but any nut milk would be great!

Sprinkled with some cinnamon and you are good to go!

Turmeric is an amazing spice! Check out my post on it here.

 

Then came the homemade apple sauce. That I made in...ooh..a minute! Just take a couple apples, place them in your food processor, blend away adding water as necessary, sprinkle with some lemon juice (prevents browning) and cinnamon, and that my friends is apple sauce! I'm not a huge fan of eating apple sauce on it's own but I love using it in baking as it helps reduce/replace fat in a recipe.

Then I used the apple sauce in Nelly's banana bread recipe! Yum!!! I added chocolate chunks and then had a warm piece with coconut butter. Divine!!

Just to be clear I didn't eat all that this weekend. The goodies have been spread out over a few weeks:)

Shopping! Saturday I ran around to 4 different stores to gather some staples.

The goodies in the green box was from Costco. We recently signed up for a Costco card and are going to try it for a year to see if it's worth it.

This week I picked up Bob's Mill spelt flour, frozen blueberries, and a tub of dates (Thanks Kris)

Some other items I sometimes pick up are packs of sprouted bread, quinoa, organic greens and spinach, organic tofu, frozen veggies, and movie passes)

Do you have a Costco card? Do you think it helps with your food budget?

It's too early to tell for me.

Second stop! Local health food store where I get the best deal on Vega Whole Foods Optimizer.

 I also splurged on some Daiya cheese, miso, and coconut milk:)

Third stop! My favorite grocer, 2 EE's Farm Market. This week it was 4 bags of veggies and fruits!!

 I don't shy away from buying reduced veggies and fruits. I got a full bag of apples for $1.60 that I used for apple sauce and juicing. I make a judgement call if it's worth it or not. Bananas are always a great deal when they are over-ripe. I bought a bag, took the peel off, and placed them in the freezer for softserve. It probably costs me $ 0.50 to make softserve. I don't think Ben and Jerry's can compete with that:)

The fourth stop was to pick up kitty litter and food so nothing exciting to show you there.

Speaking of kitties, the boys wanted to say hi!

Oddie's getting big, big, big

Oddie is going to approach at lightening speeds..soon. Hence the yoda ears!

Such a little monkey!!

I also wanted to share a little about what my better half does for work. He works with a lot of wood and metal creating beautiful staircases like the one below. This was his first spiral work and I think it's so stunning I just needed to share|

This has taken weeks as he had to measure every angle in order to make it fit perfectly. No pressure, hey?

I'm so proud of him for conquering his fears and taking on such a tricky project!

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!! I'm off for a train run then it's study time for me.

PS My girl Nelly is having a CSN stores giveaway so be sure to check it out!

International Women's day + pantry dinner + planning for our roadtrip

Happy Monday Everyone,

I especially want to say hi and give a big hug to all you ladies out there as it is International Women's Day. I have to say I'm not the most outspoken feminist out there. I believe all women should be treated as equals and treated with respect. Heck, I think everyone in the world (including animals) should be treated this way. Yet, I feel deep down that I have the duty to stand up for those women who cannot speak for themselves. I have seen clips and news stories about women taken as sex slaves, stoned to death, body parts being cut off, not able to vote, not able to go to school, etc. Yet I know the media tends to make things for the public a little more easy to swallow so I know it must be much worse. My heart aches for these women and the hardship that has fallen upon them simply because they were born with the X chromosome. Even in my own country women are oppressed in a variety of ways from abusive relationships to workplace biases. As I write this memories of a book I read are invading my brain. The book was called Holding Out by Anne O. Faulk. I picked it up from my Mom's bookshelf. I think this was one of those books that ends up at your house but you have no idea how it got there. The story is about this group of women who get together because they are livid a senator didn't go to jail for verbally and physically abusing his wife to the point that she decided to commit suicide. The women cause such a disturbance in the country when they ask every women to "hold out" until this man goes to jail. Could you imagine if the women in your country banded together for such a cause? It would be revolutionary! I thoroughly enjoyed the book, even though I thought it would be a corny read. If you want something that is fun but still has a message behind it this Women's Day, try this book! This book also made clear something that has bothered me for some time. Sometimes I feel so disconnected from my gender because there is all this competition between us. Women can be evil to other women for the stupidest reasons (men, money, looks etc). At times I feel more emotionally and physically comfortable hanging around guys. Yet, who wants to talk about truck engines? I want the fun girl talk where we open up and talk about whatever is on our minds! I think its time we dropped the defensive wall and encouraged each other. So all you ladies out there..I wish you a great day and never forget that you truly are gorgeous:). And to those women in this country or far away lands who are facing hardships and immense pain, I pray for you and hope that I can somehow make your life better. Maybe it means buying something made by women that was produced fairly, maybe I can volunteer for an organization to helps women near and far who are facing oppression, or maybe I can just shoot a smile at all the ladies I see today (and always). What are you going to do today to show the ladies a little love and appreciation?

So.. backtracking a little bit... how was everyone's weekend? I worked but now I have nearly 3 weeks off the one job so I am stoked! My friend Synje sang at a local restaurant on Friday and so we caught the end of that. Then Saturday we went to the gym after work and then toured the town a little bit. I hit up the co-op to get some dates for my nearly raw protein cookies and I was craving something salty so we picked up a bag of Guiltless Gourmet chips. They were actually decent for a baked chip. Ry is eating up the protein cookies and is feeling stronger than ever at the gym...go figure..lol! I had two for my first break on Sunday and they kept me going for a long time. After work I did some grocery shopping. Ry was at a friends so I had to haul all my goodies up the hill. I was huffing and puffing near the end, but it was a good little workout. As I mainly had picked up fruit, my veggie and grain stash was pretty empty. So, that meant digging through the pantry for something..and that something was rice. I usually have quinoa for dinner as the nutritional value is so much higher than rice. But this is a pantry dinner..and there was no quinoa to be found..so I sucked it up and put on a pot of rice. One of my guilty pleasures is fried onions so I put those with the rice and some sad looking cabbage. For a sauce I made tahini-lemon that I got off the Renegade Health blog. I topped that with paprika, turmeric, and pepper. And voila! The pantry dinner was fun as I got to use up some stuff that I usually don't eat...leaving more space for the stuff I eat more of. Perfect!

Then for dessert I made the 5 minute coconut chocolate from Averie's blog. Yumm!

This Friday we are headed out of town (with Nemo too)! Wahoo! I'm sooo excited to be going to my home town for a night and then heading to the coast for a week. We've got a lot planned and I don't know how we are going to fit all the visits in but I'm just so excited to see everyone again. I'm also getting a medical procedure (nothing serious) done to help with a tendon problem that I have with my knees. I'll write more about that later. Anyways, I need to prepare in advance at least some of the food. We are going to be on the move a lot so I need something that can travel well. Have any ideas? I will for sure be making my protein cookies but I was thinking about trail mix, granola bars, energy balls, cut up veggies etc? Do you have any ideas or suggestions because I would love to hear them!

Also, any pet traveling advice? We are taking Nemo on quite a long trip (3hrs then 5hrs the next day). I've never travelled with a cat before so it should be interesting:)



Have a great week!


P.S Averie is having a giveaway on her blog from Celestial Seasonings. So go check it out!

PPS Bitt is having a giveaway for a wicked ceramic knife. So get check her out as well!