VOO virgin no more!

Holy, where did January go? I don't know about you but I'm excited to move on to a new month! This means:

1. Spring is coming. Even the groundhog said so which is a highly reputable source, in my opinion:) Sorry Eastern Canada and US, there must have been some sort of glitch for you guys:(
2. Can start dreaming about the garden
3. It's now T - 6months until I say goodbye to my job and say hello to 3 weeks of California bliss (more on this to come)
4. The days are getting longer


That's a lot of pluses for the month of February!! March has a lot to live up to:)


Now onto a food first for me!!!

VOO

Yes, I did it! I actually enjoyed eating my oats this morning. Now, the reason why this is such a big deal is because ever since I was a little girl I could not cooked oatmeal. It caused such a terrible gag reflex that my mom couldn't help but to burst out laughing. Apparently my oat-eating performance was quite humorous to my oatmeal-loving family.

So, I never touched the stuff. It was only once I started blogging and heard about this un-cooked oatmeal version that I became intrigued. I had a few bloggers tell me that they didn't like the cooked oatmeal but they loved the VOO! Finally after blogging over a year I decided to give it a shot.

I followed instructions. Yes people if I am going to eat oatmeal, I need directions from the best VOO creators out there. One wrong move and my little reflex would rear it's ugly head ultimately giving my coworkers a good laugh in the morning. The three A's (Angela, Averie, and Ashley) were my sources. I ended up following Angela's latest recipe carob banana chia VOO but I used raw cacao instead of the carob.

Watching the mixture come together last night I was highly skeptical. Then there was a little tickle in my throat...Mrs.Gag was waking up after 20 years of dormancy.

I quickly put the mixture in the fridge and went to bed thinking about sprouted bread + almond butter, sprouted bread + almond butter...The tickle quickly vanished.

I slept well with no oatmeal related nightmares. I was really curious in the morning so I ran down to the fridge and looked at the bowl. Guess what? My tummy rumbled and there was no tickle in my throat. That's a VERY good sign I thought. When I finally sat down at my desk ready to eat, I took a deep breath and dug in!

I LOVED IT!! I think the key for me is that the oats were still a bit crunchy. The banana, walnut, and cacao combo is awesome. I also added in the Amazing Grass powder I bought the other day. All in all a great success. I'm very excited to be able to say I had oats for breakfast!!

Overnight oats with a splash of almond milk:)

Do you like VOO or do you love the cooked version? Are there any texture sensitive folks out there? Seriously, if cooked oatmeal makes you shudder, VOO will make you smile:)

Quick question: Have you tried using steel cut oats for VOO? I'm curious if they would work

Okay enough about VOO already!! I know that train departed years ago lol!
The other night I had my mom over for dinner. She was in town because the next day she was departing with her sister from YVR to Kona, Hawaii!!! Oh, so jealous :) I talked to her last night and she was RAVING about the fruit. Her and I are huge fruit lovers so I can only imagine. She went to the market and the papayas were 10 for $2.If only fruit were allowed to pass through borders I would have ordered a whole suitcase for myself lol!

Anywho, I decided to make Ashley's Thai Jambalaya. I love thick soups and stews so this seemed right up my alley!

When I see long instructions to a recipe I get a little nervous thinking I'm going to be in the kitchen until 8pm cooking up the darn thing.

Well, don't be intimidated by this recipe because it really didn't take that long at all. I didn't even have help in the kitchen to stir the roux all the time and the dish turned out okay. In fact better than okay, it was fabulous!

Nice and thick with a great combination of spices! I added in a teaspoon of coconut cream for good measure:) I ate mine on a bed of kale with some quinoa. Perfecto! I was sad when all the leftovers were gone. I will for sure be making this again! Thank you Ashley for the recipe!

I rarely pick up prepared foods but the other day I was hungry and it was already 7pm so I was not about to cook. So I picked up these...

They were actually pretty good. Not too greasy and with some good spice too.

Have you tried Veggie Patch products?

Have a great day everyone!! One more day until the weekend:) I'm actually going away this weekend so I need to start preparing my road trip eats and snacks. I'm thinking:

Scrum bars or these

Juice - I'm not going to take my juicer along so I'm thinking about making some in advance

Balls

Oats - eek!! VOO is definitely going to be made. I haven't decided what flavor I'm going to go for. Need inspiration too? Check out:

                        Averie's Overnight Chia Seed-Coconut-Mango Soaked Oats

                        Ashley's Cinnamony Overnight Oats

                       Angela's Chocolate Protein VOO

                       Kath's Strawberry Banana Overnight Oats

Raw cookies - I loved these carrot cake cookies

Cut up veggies - This is key for me. If I have these ready to go I will not be tempted to eat the bad stuff!

The best part about all the above is that I could have it ready in an hour or less. Score!!

Well folks have a great rest of your day! Move that body somehow today and nourish, nourish, nourish!

Oh and ...

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!

Back home and new do!

Happy Monday everyone!

Phew..lots of traveling yesterday. Started at 9AM and got home at 9PM so I'm pretty mellow today....trying to get back into the routine. The trip itself went super smooth and Nemo was awesome (slept for most of the trip)! He was out of his cage for about 5 minutes here and loved looking out the window..lol! We drove through some towns I haven't visited before so that was a nice change of scenery. We listened to some wacky music and I got a good chunk of New Moon read. Yes, I got sucked in to the saga! I realize how much more intense the books are compared to the movie and how much they really leave out! But I'm really enjoying the easy read...its a nice change from heavy nutrition or health books I have been reading lately.


The visit with family and friends was really awesome! We got to see most of the peeps we wanted too but wish we had more time to spend with each of them. I just had to keep telling myself that we will be back in 2 months and so that made it easier to say good-bye. On the whole health front I'm going to be honest..I didn't go to the gym once and like I said in one of my recent posts, I ate out a lot too so my body wasn't its usual chipper self. Also the cold or flu that knocked me out had my body sluggish for most of the week. Yet, I had some plans to hit up my favorite running trail and I was pretty disappointed that it didn't happen. This place is my little sanctuary and I truly love running there. We also were involved with a very special wedding. Ryan's mom got married to her prince charming Les on Saturday. I won't go into too much detail, but they both have been through a lot in their lives and so their love and marriage couldn't have happened to two better people. Congrats you two!


Another big event took place while I was away...I cut off half of my hair. Yep, it was super long and I was tired of it. I was really scared to get it cut shorter though as I had a bad experience in my teens. I took advice from my sister-in-law and went to a place in the mall nearby. I found some pictures in a mag that I liked and the hairdresser worked from there. She kept saying "wow half your hair is gone." I usually let out a nervous laugh at this comment..totally crossing my fingers under the black sheet they tie around your neck. But...I totally love it. I'm still getting used to it but its fun and nice to have side bangs! I got it cut right before the wedding (dangerous I know!) and a lot of people didn't recognize me..lol! You know its drastic when! I really felt like the long hair just wasn't "me" right now and the new do totally fits the bill! Have you changed your style because it just didn't feel right? I don't know if it was just me but I really felt a tug to change..and I'm really glad I did!


That's the gist of my trip but I'll do a bigger post later! I'll leave you with a few picts of the wedding:) Have a great week!

Another big event- The hubby cut his hair. Seriously, this took a lot of persuasion and the length you see in this pict is the shortest he's had it since we have been together. I love it! And that's my new do!!
My beautiful second mom and her new husband! Yep, he sported the kilt and I totally love Terri's dress.

Mom and me! She was very happy to make it to the wedding. She really loves Ryan's mom and they are on the same page for a lot of things!

Me with my sister-in-laws! Aren't they stunning? Their hairdo's were so beautiful and the shoes..oh the shoes. They had it all going on!

The bouquets were so amazing...orchids and lilies and some other greenery. It looked so awesome against their black dresses.


PS Bitt is having a fabulous giveaway of some Vivapura products - olives, coconut oil, and trail mix. I'm sooo in! Get on over to her awesome site and enter.

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!