Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts

Sunday, July 4, 2010

New kitchen appliance plus veggie wraps!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Happy belated 4th of July to my American friends:) I know there are lots of gatherings, dinners, and fireworks taking place in honor of Independence Day. Maybe you set off your own fireworks?? My weekend was lovely and included shopping with my mom, some yard work, a wonderful dinner out, and some more Grouse Grind action.
After my workout on Friday I quickly made a juice. This one was a little hard to drink as I made it with mostly beet greens and not enough cucumber or something sweet to balance it out. But I chugged it anyways and said "cells, you better enjoy"..haha!
Almost there! Had to take a breather..powerful stuff!


Green goodness all the way!
Later on that night we went out to the Vault for dinner with my MIL and her hubby. It was a lovely dinner which featured a Flamenco guitar player. Loved his music! I had a beet salad with spring rolls as I wasn't feeling the pasta. They all went for DQ after dinner but I sat patiently knowing I would get my dessert on the way home:) I picked up a Cocoa Camino dark chocolate with coconut bar. It was pretty good but I prefer their mint chocolate or just plain chocolate bars better. I had this stage where I ate everything sweet with mint..then it got to much and I left the mint alone...but now I'm back on the wagon. Maybe its because my mint plant is just growing like crazy and the smell is sucking me in!! Mmmm.

On Saturday I did some grocery shopping at my fave grocery market . I LOVE going here because each week there is a new veggie that is ready in the garden. I get so excited to wander around and see what goodies I can try this week. It's like a farmers market really because they grow a ton of the food themselves and most if not all is grown organically. Here are a couple of my finds :

Peas, glorious peas! Have I told you that I have a slight obsession when it comes to eating shelling peas? Yep, it's true! As a kid my aunt wouldn't let me out in here garden if the peas were ready because she knew she would never get any for herself..lol! I love them so much and the season is just too short so I eat as many as I can get my hands on. That bag above was gone in about an hour..seriously, I have a problem:)

All those greens are for which veggie? Do you know? Take a guess!


While you ponder over those greens, here's a broad bean. MASSIVE, hey? I have never had them before so I thought I would try them out. Will keep you posted.


Ta da!!! It's daikon! Were you right? Look at all those greens. I kept some and so I'm going to see if I can use them in a salad or smoothie. They look too amazing to throw out:)


My Mom came over later on (she left on Monday:( and we went for lunch where I got the salad sans the chicken. It actually was pretty good and they gave me lots of veggies...no skimping..which I liked! Then we went shopping for a new house plant. Mom wanted to get me a snake plant for our house warming gift because I love the one that she has.


Mine is a bit smaller than this but with some TLC she should grow big! These are very good for cleaning the air in your home..so big bonus. I found mine for $5 so they are very reasonable too!

Plus she bought me a new aloe plant! Mine just wasn't doing too well so hopefully this beauty will thrive. I feel a deep connection to aloe. I think its an amazing plant and am constantly in awe as to what it can be used for. Check out my post on aloe for a more in depth discussion.

Then we headed out to check out food processors because mine officially died the other day. I mean I liked beating those chickpeas..but I don't have that much frustration to be beating food with a pan everyday..ha! We did a little compare shopping but then we found this....


A 14 cupper wahoo!! Seriously, I was using a 3 cup processor for nearly two years. This is heaven:) Plus it was very reasonable.


Plus its got a timer on it which I think is pretty cool! I like the stainless steel design too. It's got this sweet chopping blade and immediately when I saw it I thought...KRAUT!!! Soon people, soon!


Thank mom for the amazing house warming gifts!!! You know they will be put to good use! Even if the plants only job is to not die lol!


Saturday night I was alone for dinner (boo!!) as the hubs was out watching modern day gladiator fights, also known as the UFC. I actually don't mind the fights if there is a guy in there who I value. Some people may think that it's just a macho man kind of sport but its highly disciplined with tons of training, goal setting, healthy competition (for the most part), and mindset work. There are a few who are a walking ego but then there are the guys who came from nothing and literally fought their way to the spotlight. My favorite guy is George St. Pierre. He is from Montreal and I believe he is the champion right now in his weight class. He supported himself through his job as a garbage man. I mean talk about humble beginnings. He works so hard and the ego doesn't show itself which I really like.

Not bad, hey? Ya, he's quite the looker..especially when he wears his tighty fight shorts:)
Don't worry Ry already knows about my crush LOL!!
Moving on...or should I give you a few minutes to stare?? Te he! Anywho, I made a lovely solo dinner that I ate outside in the cold..haha! It was sunny but the wind but chilly. Raw veggie wraps are quickly becoming a top favorite of mine. They are quick, healthy, easy, and you can make whatever dipping sauce you desire.


Love all the color!! I had yellow bell peppers, carrots, cucumber, avocado, daikon which were wrapped in collard greens and kale. I dipped the wraps in honey-dijon sauce (simply some dijon with whatever amount of sweetener you like added in) and salsa. The salsa was a trial to see how it would go but I didn't really like it that much. Next time I'm going to make a spicy doritos cheesy dip or remake this dip from another veggie wrap day. How do you like your veggie wraps?
I also had some fennel that was part of my work open house stash. I remember Averie cooking some up in one of her posts so I decided to follow here recommendations. I couldn't find my ginger anywhere so I left that out and I ran out of black pepper so I used a small amount of cayenne for bite! Then I added some cumin, nutmeg, and garlic.

Mmmm! I've never cooked fennel before and I'm not sure why...it's so delish! Soft and caramelized..you have to try it.


I devoured these..oh so good!



And this handsome fella decided to join me after patrolling the yard. He loves it back there even though he thinks the neighbor's yard is a much hipper place to be:)

On Sunday we hit up the Grouse Grind with some friends and my SIL. It was a lot tougher this time around because there was a low lying cloud and so it was quite humid in there. Still not bad 1 hour 1 minute, 4 minutes slower than last time. Still I loved it, its such a mental push for me! We then hit up The Naam for lunch except they were only serving brunch so I opted for a breakfast bowl with potatoes, tofu, some other veggies, and miso gravy. Definite must try..oh so yummy!

Once we got home I was feeling pretty mellow so I decided to just do some laundry and blog..but then a friend came over so the blogging was put to the wayside..but that's okay because that's life and I want to enjoy whatever comes my way:)

Tomorrow I'm going to share with you what came in the mail!!! It's awesome:)

Friday, June 11, 2010

Putting my words in my mouth and dessert ideas!

Happy Friday bloggies!

Oh thank heavens its Friday! I had quite the adventure last night and I thought I'd share it with you all. It has to do with buying a car...so ya, you can probably see where this is going. Anyways, here's my story.

So, yesterday Ry went to look at a car from Craigslist that looked pretty good. As I was working, I was not able to go look at it with him. He is very good with cars and so I had full faith that he would detect problems, if there were any. Okay, so I get a call from him saying that the car looked good but the guys he was going to get it from looked a little sketchy. Light bulb #1. I should have taken this apprehension and told him not to go through with it. Yet, I was getting pretty desperate for a car so my danger! danger! radar was not functioning optimally at this point. He bought the car and did all the paperwork which the guy already had on hand. Light bulb #2. Usually people don't carry the paperwork to transfer cars with them, you usually have to go to an insurance place. Luckily my mom had just come into town and so I had a car to go meet him at this place (over an hour away). We arrive and Ry is driving the car in front of me and I notice that when he punches the gas there is blue smoke. Light bulb #3. We get to the shady car dealership and Ry tells me the guys wouldn't let him take it out of the parking lot for the test drive so he didn't see the blue smoke. In case you didn't know, Blue smoke = burning oil/engine is crappy and may die on you. To make things worse, right before we met up with Ry, he got a ticket for talking on his cell phone while he was pulling into a parking lot. Ya, it wasn't his night I tell you. PS in BC they just made it illegal to have any electronic device in your hands while behind the wheel. So, we go back to the shady guys running this questionable car dealership and ask them for our money back because its burning oil yadda yadda. Well, his options were A) leave the car there and once they sell it he would give us the money back. Can anyone smell a scam brewing? B) pay for his "fees" and get the hell out. We chose option B and chucked down that night as a complete write-off. I was so disappointed and angry that Ry didn't do more investigating into the car and that those shady guys were such a**holes. I guess I felt let down because I was still car-less and we wasted so much time. On the way back I rode with my mom and I was just spewing out negative words left and right. I was so pent up but I really should have said this or remembered what I just wrote about on the blog HOURS earlier. Yet, I let my emotions take over. Once I got back to our place I had forgiven Ry (he felt SOO bad) but I was still grumpy. I should have been thankful we at least got some of our money back and that we made it there and back safely. Like Nelly said in the comments yesterday, "things happen for a reason." We could have bought the car and maybe it wouldn't have even made it home and we would have been out all of our money! There is always something worse that could happen and I need to realize that. Can I blame it partly on my upcoming visit from aunt flo? 1% maybe..not enough to justify it!

So, there you have it.. My Thursday night! The lesson of this whole story?

  1. Trust your instincts! If you have just the slightest flutter of doubt..walk away!
  2. Really be sure that something you want to buy, be it a car or anything used for that matter, is in good shape and they have receipts to back up their claims of repairs, upgrades, etc!
  3. Don't buy from a guy who seems to have a bodyguard and has two phones! I can laugh about this now..lol!
  4. Take it for a test run, drive etc and look at EVERY nook and cranny to make sure things aren't falling apart or burning oil, in our case.

So, I'm still on the hunt for my new "betsy" lol! We found a few to look at locally so hopefully by this weekend I'll have some wheels. I really wish that I could get around with a bike or bus but my work is in the boonies and I already had to take a cab to a place where I could catch the bus and the cab ride alone cost me $10. So, $12.50 to get home everyday is ridiculous. Wish me luck and send me good car vibes:)

Onto something much more exciting and happy..I'm having my sister-in-law and her boyfriend over for dinner tonight and I want to make a quick and easy dessert for them. I won't have much time after work to prepare something extravagant. I could search the blogosphere but I thought I could go straight to the source..you guys!! (plus I'm pretty tired and don't have the energy:( Let me know of your favorite, quick desserts that would be loved by non-vegans. Think meat and potatoes kind of guy!

Thank you in advance:)

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and weekend. It's supposed to get sunny and HOT here finally so I'm so excited to catch some rays. Mom is going to come over tomorrow to help me plant some more flowers and veggies so that will be fun!

LOTS OF LOVE

Monday, February 1, 2010

Happy Monday!

Hello all,

Hope you had a great weekend! I work both days so my weekend was pretty short. Although Saturday was pretty awesome. Ry and I went out for breakfast to our favorite place, The Full Circle. This place never fails to make my tummy happy. Then we went to drive Ryan's car around in circles at the parkaid where he is storing it for the Winter. It felt like the movies, winding up and down all the levels at high low speed. We just needed someone to be chasing us to top it off! We then headed to the gym where I completed the first week of the TT Original program. Loving it and loving that I can lift more each time. The gym we go to is part of the community centre here in Nelson so access to the pool is included in your pass. What a better way to end a workout than to sit in the steam room and stretch and breath. Then run to the pool and cool off when you feel like you are burning. Repeat. Ahh!! Then we completed the afternoon with some awesome nutrition in the form of a power-packed green smoothie with hemp protein. So, yummy. Then my beautiful day ended with me going to work..blah! It was only a short shift, thank goodness! Sunday I worked until 5 and then we did our grocery shopping for the week. I was pretty beat when we got home so dinner was simple-huge salad, red quinoa, and steamed squash. We watched Extract which was okay but didn't make me really, really laugh. I find that I resort to old classics to really get me laughing. Dumb and Dumber, anyone? P.S. this was the first soundtrack I purchased on cassette, and I still love those songs. I bet you my Mom still has the cassette stashed somewhere too! Way off topic but I can get away with babbling on Monday, right? After the movie, we read our books. Ryan is reading Cesar Millan's Be The Pack Leader, trying to learn all we can for when we get a pooch. I just picked up Nomi Shannon's book The Raw Gourmet as I recently heard about it via Gena's website, Choosing Raw. I just flipped through it a little bit as my eyes were starting to close but everything looks great! I'm going to pick a few recipes out of there and give them a shot. I'll let you know how it goes. And if you have any suggestions about which recipes I should try from the book let me know!

Well that was my weekend! How was yours? Hope you had some time off to do something you love to do. And here's to a great week. Woot Woot!

Another PS- I totally forgot to mention the band that was here in Nelson the other weekend. Their name is The Accorn Project and they are from Bellingham, WA. They had this totally unique style that involved a mix of jazz, funk, rock and roll, and pop. Their instruments included a saxophone, keyboard, bass, drums, slide, and percussion. So, if you see their poster around your town go check them out! I really thought they were awesome!

I'm going to be writing another post hopefully today about Aloe Vera and its benefits. I am going to be submitting it to Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo who might choose to use it in her newletter. I'm so excited to submit a post to her as I think she really is a trail blazer when it comes to knowledge on raw foods and nutrition. Wish me luck!