Glorious Finds!

Hey there! So I'm pretty excited about a couple new purchases! This evening I went to Wally world where I bought some fruit and veggies, found sandwich thins (been looking everywhere for these, and they were the last whole wheat package) and got some canned beans and lentils. Then the exciting part! I went to Winners/Home Sense and found this:

Cutest ever "Not a Paper Cup" mug

 

And Chocolate Raspberry coffee!

So ya, it is a bit weird that I'm so excited about this combo. But I have been eyeing these mugs for months and they're all over 20 bucks! This one was $7.99!!! How could I not buy it! And obviously if I'm buying a mug I need some cool coffee to go in it. I made a cup of this when I got home and it is sooooooo good! Tastes like a chocolate bar. Love it :)

While drinking coffee I did some more blog reading (yep I think I'm officially addicted) and munched on these:

Carrot sticks, cucumbers, yellow bell peppers, sugar snap peas (hiding at the bottom) and some grape tomatoes! Had it with 1 Tbsp low-cal peppercorn ranch!

Anyways, I just wanted to share my exciting Wednesday night! Now I'm off to do some homework!

Days off! Yay!!!

Hey there! Happy Wednesday! I just worked 2 nights, have 2 off and then I work 3. And then... week off!!! Yay!!! Every month I get 1 week off after my night shifts. Best thing about working shift work! I usually don't have a whole week off because I pick up overtime but I love it! Anyways, last nights shift was good. Before heading to work I couldn't decide on french toast, pancakes or oats. So I went with the quickest and easiest... Oats!

1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup skim milk and 1/2 smashed banana topped with PB & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams, 1/2 sliced banana and about tbsp chia seeds

This really hit the spot! Soooooo good! I mixed everything together so the PB would melt in! Before heading to work I stopped at Chapters to pick up the new hungry girl book and I got a chai tea latte from Starbucks. This was my first latte and wow!!! Soooo good! Little did I know though this thing had like 250 calories or something. Oh well I can have a treat once in a while! I flipped through the book while at work and found some pretty rockin recipes! Can't wait to try some! I also worked on some homework and did some blog reading. Work was pretty good last night. Not a lot of call bells which is pretty unusual! I hope the weekend is like that!

I woke up around 3 this afternoon (well first it was 1:00 but I went back to sleep for a bit). I read some blogs and then went for a run/walk around the trail behind my apartment. I checked the weather first and it said 12 degrees celsius. I thought "Oh this is perfect for running"! Then I got outside and was nearly blown over by the wind. One negative about Saskatchewan: WINDY!!!!! The open prairies are horrible for the wind to just come on in and wreck a nice day!! Oh well! I ran against the wind for a bit but it was pretty hard so I walked in between. On the way back I ran though! There was quite a few people out walking their dogs. Made me jealous cause I want one sooooo bad!!! Hopefully as soon as I get a house I can get a puppy! My mom said she booked an appointment with the bank for Monday! I'm sooooo excited! I've been searching houses a lot online and keep finding quite a few promising ones. Can't wait to get a realtor and get out there house hunting!!!

For supper (aka breakfast) I made a wonderful banini. My inspiration was this lady! I also had fresh pineapple and an apple.

Whole grains tortilla filled with sliced banana, tbsp PB and cinnamon then topped off with 1/2 tbsp honey. Mmmmmmm best thing ever!!!

Now that I'm all fueled up for the night I think I'm going to head out to Walmart. Not sure what I'm gonna buy but I'm sure I'll find something!!! Have a great evening!

Master Chef!

       

Ok so maybe not so much a master chef... but I did make my first ever roasted chicken yesterday! Sooooo proud of myself! I'll share the intimate details later but first of all I'll tell you about the rest of my yesterday! After breakfast I continued studying and scarfed down leftover butternut squash lasagna for lunch!

Mmmmmm delicious!! I made this about a week ago and froze individual portions for quick microwave meals!

I sped to the campus and wrote my test in record time. Like 15 minutes. But it was only 40 questions and was multiple choice. It was harder than I expected but I still did good on it. It's only worth 20% of the class and I think we get quite a bit of "free" marks on these peer exams we make. Anyways, glad that's over with. Now I have another one next week. Ugh. Good thing I'm working nights this week! I seem to get a lot more studying in!! After the midterm I went to pick up a few groceries and the latest Oxygen magazine (which I haven't even had time to read yet)!! Then I went to the gym to run on the tready (while ooggling an extremely good looking guy haha) and did some abs and arms exercises. Then I just ran into Shoppers where I found my organic garbanzo beans and Amy's soups were still half price (YAY)!!!! Picked up those and went home to begin my chicken roasting adventure! So I called my mom and had her explain the directions to me (only for the 3rd time in less than 24 hours)! I started by washing the chicken and looking for the bag of giblets (gross!!) Turns out my chicken didn't come with that (thank god)!! I put it in the roasting pan (I just picked up a cheap foil one) and salt and peppered the crap out of it! Then I sprinkled some chicken seasoning on it. And by sprinkling I mean showered! Then I popped it in the oven at 350 degrees and some the time for 1 hr 15 min. When the timer went off I added in some brussel sprouts, potatoes and carrots. I let it roast another hour and then added some mushrooms. Then another 20 minutes went by. I took the chicken out to let it rest before digging into it and let the veggies roast another 20 minutes. Here is my finished product!!! :)

                                                      

                                                    

                                             

            

Ok I think this is by far the best thing I've ever made!! It was soooo tender and juicy! And the veggies were amazing! I have sooo many leftovers I'll be in leftover heaven all week! I had my chicken breast with some barbecue sauce! The brussel sprouts were by far my fav thing out of the veggies but the mushrooms were close! Since I don't really like dark meat too much I think I'm going to give it to my dad and my brother before work tonight. I know they'll appreciate it!

So after my amazing chef experience I dreadingly got ready for work and off I went. Looooooonnggg night shift! I was so tired by the time I got home I had been up for almost 24 hours. I was a bit hungry but I couldn't even keep my eyes open so I just went straight to bed. I snacked at work but nothing too exciting. I just brought along some yogurt and berries, apple, banana and some baby carrots. I bring a lot of snacky food to work night shifts so I'm not tempted to get a bag of chips or chocolate from the vending machines. Carrots are the best to keep me awake during a night shift!!

So I slept from about 7:30 to 1:30 this afternoon. I wish I could've slept longer but oh well. This is my last night before a couple days off. Right now I'm trying to decide on what to have for breakfast. Maybe a bowl of oats? French toast? Pancakes? I'm craving it all right now. When that happens I usually just go with a trusty bowl of cereal but I'll let you know what I decide! I'm also roasting my garbanzo beans right now so I have some snackage for work.

And... today is March 30th which means Hungry Girl has a new book out!!

You can buy the book here on Amazon! I'm going straight to Chapters before work to get this baby! I've been waiting forever for it to come out!! Yay!! Finally here!

Anyways, I'm going to start slowly getting ready for work. Have a goodnight!

Funday Monday!

Hey there! Sorry I didn't post yet I was a pretty busy bee. I started off working overtime from 6:45 to 3:15 (I love 8 hour shifts!!). I had a breakfast cookie before work and a mug of Black Tea (Bravarian berry flavour). I also had some strawberries at work and then Saturdays dinner for Sundays lunch (3 Eating Right chicken strips and a spinach salad with strawberries, kiwis and raspberry vinagrette). I also had a fat free chocolate pudding as dessert. On my last coffee break I had a Kashi Dark Mocha Almond bar. After work I headed straight to the grocery store. I picked up a bunch of fruit and veggies, coffee and a roasting chicken (which I'm going to be attempting later this afternoon). And I just realized I forgot ketchup which means I'll be making another stop today! After groceries I rushed home to put them away, changed and headed to my parents for supper. Supper was soooooo good!!! It was finally a really nice day here in Regina! So my Dad barbecued steak!!!! My mom marinated them so they were super tender. We also had salad, steamed broccoli, roasted potatoes and garlic bread. Pumpkin pie was for dessert! I don't really like pumpkin pie but the small slice I had was pretty good!!! Maybe I'm growing a taste for it! After supper my Dad cleaned up, my brother had a nap (Oh 17 year old boys are soooo lazy haha) and my Mom and I searched for houses on the internet! Found a few promising ones but we want to go to the bank and get the mortgage in order before we go looking. The realtor told us that houses are really selling here and if you dont have a pre-approved mortgage you'll probably get beat! Definetely wouldn't want that once I find something I really like! I also did a load of laundry while I was at my parents so I wouldn't have to do it today. Good idea Megan!!

I got home from my parents and began studying! I have a Anatomy midterm today at 12:30 (3 hours away ugh!). I think I'll be alright though because it's just an Anatomy Review class. To fuel my late night studying I had a bowl of cereal and some green tea!

Natures Path Organic Oaty Bites, handful Kashi Go Lean Crunch, blueberries and strawberries with skim milk!

I love cereal as late night snacking!! After I was done studying for the night I headed straight to bed since I was exhausted. I woke up at 8:30 this morning to make some coffee and breakfast!

Egg scramble:2 egg whites, 1 whole egg, tomatoes, red peppers and spinach topped with ketchup and provolone cheese all wrapped up in a Dempster's ancient grains wrap!

This was the best!! I couldn't decide between some more cereal or this and I definetely made the good choice this morning! I had this with some Timmy's coffee! I'm going to study more until my final. After my final I'm going to the gym and stopping to pick up my contacts that I ordered in and get some milk and ketchup!! Then I better have a nap since I'm working nights tonight. This is my week of 5 night shifts!! But it'll be ok cause I'm working with good people so I'm actually looking forward to work a bit (crazy I know!!). Anyways I better get going! Have a great Monday! I'll post later tonight while I'm at work of how my midterm went!

Hangovering and House Hunting!

Hello hello! Hope everyone's having an awesome Saturday! I'll begin by writing about my Friday night! First of all I had an amazing supper to fuel me through the drinking that was going to be happening!

1 Amy's burrito topped with O Organics salsa, sweet potato rounds and steamed cauliflower and carrots

Jen picked me up around 8 and we went to her house. At first there was only a handful of us. I had a couple glasses of white wine. We played this fun game where you had to get your team members to say a certain phrase or person. It was super fun but I was really bad at it. I just liked the guessing part haha. So I quit playing and just guessed for both teams. It was around this time Jen started bringing out shots. I was forced into doing one apple sour puss shot. I hate shots! They're sooo gross! After that I had a gin and coke zero. We were listening to music and playing Wii. It was a lot of fun! I didn't get home until 3 am!! So that means I didn't wake up til 11! Just in time to watch my Flyers lose to the Penguins...again... oh well they'll get them next time! I wanted to recharge my hangover so I made a smoothie in a bowl with cereal on top.

Smoothie included: 1/2 banana, handful spinach, splash of skim milk, field berries, 1/2 scoop protein powder and a bit of water. I topped it off with some granola and a handful of Kashi Go Lean Crunch! Sooooo wonderful!!

I felt waaaayyy better after having this. I also chugged about 1 litre of water and took 2 advil! I hate hangovers!! Around 1:00 I had a english muffin sammie.

Whole wheat english muffin with spinach, provolone cheese and tomato slice. Broiled for about 10 minutes until cheese was melted.

My parents picked me up at 1:30 to go house hunting! They are going to help me out with buying a house by splitting it half and half with me. Thank god for my awesome rents! I really don't know what I would do without them! We started off by looking at some condos. I found about 3 I really like. One was painted really badly though so that would need to be changed immediately! It was yellow on the main floor and lime green on the top. Gross haha! We also found a couple of houses that would be excellent. At first I wanted a condo but after looking at the houses I think I want a house instead. They both have garages and huge yards (which means new puppy for me!!) I want a dog sooo bad! And with a condo there just isn't enough backyard for the puppy to play in. So now I'm leaning more towards a house. Anyways, I hope it all works out. This apartment I'm renting lease is up in a couple months. After all that house hunting I came home to some pre-made frozen yogurt!

Frozen yogurt: 1/2 cup fat free yogurt, 1 banana and handful of field berries blended and then frozen for about 4 hours. I took it out of the freezer and warmed it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then topped it off with 1 Tbsp chia seeds and some strawberries.

This treat will never get old!! While snacking on this I read up on some blogs and did a bit of studying. I tried having a nap but it just wasn't happening. It was about 5:30 so I began making supper.

Spinach salad with strawberries, kiwis and almonds with raspberry vinaigrette.

3 Eating Right chicken strips with sweet potato fries. Ketchup and plum sauce for dipping purposes :)

Mmmm that supper really hit the spot. I really wanted a pita but thought I should eat what I have in the house. Great decision!! I watched Cops while eating supper. I love that show. Makes me realize my life is pretty good!! Now I'm watching Americas Most Wanted. I better get going though I really need to do some studying before bedtime. Goodnight! Have a great weekend!

TGIF!!!

Hey guys! I've been pretty busy the last couple days with work so just thought I'd check in! First of all I have to share the snack I had last night:

1/2 cup plain yogurt blended with 1 cup field berries. Froze for a couple hours and then added a bit of chia seeds and some blueberries! Mmmmmm best frozen yogurt ever!!!

Never buying yogen fruz again!! This was awesome and I think it was frozen for just the right amount of time because it wasn't too hard yet! I didn't get to the gym the last couple days. I was going to go last night but just as I was leaving work something happened and I had to stay for another hour or so. I just decided to go home after that. But I hit the gym this morning! I went on the tready for 35 minutes and then came home to do my arms, abs and legs exercises. I like to do this in the studio at the gym but it was all filled with some class. I also snuck in a tan this morning before the gym. I still have some minutes left over from my Cancun trip so I figured I should use them up.

I picked up a coffee on the way home and then made lunch.

1 cup Amy's lentil soup, mixed veggies, and english muffin sandwich that included spinach, provolone cheese and tomato. I broiled this for about 10 minutes until the cheese was melted.

The sandwich was soooo good! Loved it! I skipped out on breakfast this morning (I know bad bad!) so I thought I should eat a good lunch! I have a hair appoinment at 1:00. Im thinking I might go back to blonde (right now its light brown). I also need a cut badly! Hasn't been cut for a long time! After the hair I need to pick up my contacts that I ordered in and then do some homework! I'm going to my friend Jen's place tonight for some drinks and Wii playing! Should be a good time! I also might go shopping to see if I can find a new outfit! Anyways hope you all have a great Friday and an even greater weekend! Ttyl!

I love Ellen!

Hey there! So I was going to save this post for later tonight but after watching this Ellen show I had to start now. She just did a skit on the new size of Starbucks coffee (which apparently is now 30 oz). She stated it comes with a warning label to lift with your knees! Haha!! Then she went on to talk about Taco Bells new campaign which is the 4th meal. Like wow! I do not think North Americans need to be adding in a 4th meal in their diets!! She is just too funny! She said that grandparents will be telling children that back in our day we had only 3 meals and ANKLES!! Wow I just can't get enough of Ellen!!

Anyways on to my great day off! I woke up at 8 to watch Cold Case Files, have breakfast and get ready to go to the gym. I wasn't really feeling the gym today so I just did 35 minutes on the tready with about 15 minutes running and the rest walking on an incline. I was going to do my arms and abs exercises but the studio was busy so I decided to do that at home (which I just did before watching Ellen). Breakfast was the same as yesterday: Kashi Go Lean Crunch but today I topped it with 1/2 banana and blueberries with some skim milk:

Best cereal ever and Timmy`s coffee with skim milk and honey!

After I got home from the gym I took a nice hot bath. My legs felt like lead. I don`t know what was wrong but they seem to be better now. I even took it easy at the gym but who knows. I also had half a banana to hold me over til lunch. I read some blogs and just lounged around til about 12:00 when I decided to make some lunch.

2 pieces whole wheat toast with PB. Veggie scrambled which contained 1 egg, 3 egg whites, corn, spinach and red peppers, topped with a bit of shredded tex mex cheese and ketchup. Mmmm wonderful!

Close up of pure deliciousness!

After lunch I worked on some anatomy studying (fun, fun!) and I scheduled my midterm for next Monday. This test shouldnt be too too bad its all stuff Ive already learnt. This class is just a review so were ready for the operating room environment. I finished that up did some dishes and got ready for work. I picked up just a 4 hour overtime shift from 3-7. Its the best shift there is so I basically had to do it! I also snacked on this before I left the house:

Apple with cinnamon and PB & Co Dark Chocolate Dreams

When I got to work my boss realized scheduling screwed up and that they were way overstaffed. Usually theres only 5 nurses from 3-7 but if I would have worked it would have been 7. I said its alright because I wanted to go shopping anyways. I just went to Sport Chek to see if the Reebok Easytones were on sale. They werent so I just browsed the store but couldnt find anything to buy which is very surprising for this shopaholic! I already have a pair of Easytones but I want another pair because I love them sooo much!! She said theyll go on sale eventually but right now theyre too new! After my dissapointing SportChek adventure I headed next door to Chapters. I browsed around for a while and then found the book Eating Well, Living Well. It was only $10 and had some pretty good info in it so I bought that and went home to read it.

While reading my new book I snacked on some carrot sticks. The book is pretty interesting. It talks about what our ancestors primarily ate and the difference in our culture. It also talks about the many chronic diseases our culture is encountering and what foods to eat to fight it off. So far its a pretty good book. Very happy for my $10 steal! Around 5:30 (halfway through Ellen) I warmed up some leftovers. Butternut squash lasagna and corn. I'd put up a picture but it's the same as last nights so I don't want to bore anyone. I don't know why but for some reason I love leftover lasagna! I think it's even better then when it just comes out of the oven for some reason! During my supper warming up I decided to roast some chickpeas since I'm all out! I bought these guys at Shoppers a couple weeks ago when they were half price!

Love the nutritional info!!

I roasted these for about 45 minutes at 400. I coated them with 1 tbsp olive oil and some salt. They just finished and they are absolutely delicious! I'm thinking these will be included in tomorrow's lunch for work!

Anyways I better get going. My friend is picking me up soon to go see Bounty Hunter! Pretty sure I'll be drooling over Gerard Butler the entire time! Or being super envious of Jen Aniston haha!! I hope the movie's good! I'll review it later tonight or tomorrow! Have a goodnight!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Good evening everyone! Sorry I've been MIA this weekend. But this is basically how it went: work, sleep, work, sleep, work, go to a movie, sleep.Yep really fun weekend haha! I went to Shutter Island on a date last night. The date was good but the movie not so much. It was really, really creepy! It kind of reminded me of the Sixth Sense but not as good. Anyways, I didn't really take any pics of my food this weekend because it was all pretty boring. Just filled with breakfast cookies, PB and banana sammies, fruits of all different kinds, salads and Kashi bars. For supper on Friday and Saturday I had leftover turkey tacos and for supper Sunday night was honey-balsamic chicken on brown rice with some steamed broccoli. Last night at the movie was my first Coke Zero in 3 weeks! I was pretty proud that I made it that long and that I didn't even drink half of my drink. I guess I don't love it as much as I thought I did (which is a very good thing)!

Today was a good day off. I started off waking up wwwaaaayyy too early and dragged myself to the gym. I didn't go to the gym all weekend because I didn't know they're only open 7-7 on weekends. That's really convenient since I work 6:45 to 7:15. I might consider switching gyms because of this. Or getting a gym pass at the hospitals gym. I think its only like 13 bucks a month so I'll look into that. Anyways, I got to the gym and did 3 miles on the tready followed my arms, abs and legs exercises. I think it was a pretty good workout! My abs are really feeling the new moves I've been doing (thank you to Ali for showing me them)! After the gym I came home to a wonderful bowl of some new cereal:

Kashi go lean crunch topped with blackberries and half a banana with some skim milk!

I love this cereal! I love how crunchy it is! I've already decided this is tomorrows breakfast as well! After breakfast I did some laundry, showered and cleaned up the apartment a bit. Around 12:30 I decided to have some lunch even though I wasn't all that hungry.

Spring mix salad with roasted chickpeas, broccolli, tomatoes, carrots, radishes and cucumbers with zesty italian dressing! Mmmmmmm!!

This was the first time I decided to put my roasted chickpeas on salad and I loved it!! I dont like regular chickpeas because of their texture but roasted with a little salt is too die for!! Especially on top of a massive salad!! I also had a red plum with this as dessert. After lunch I headed off to run some errands. I filled the car with gas and was going to wash it but the line up was way too long so maybe thats tomorrows chore. Then I went to Superstore to pick up the ingredients needed for supper and a bit of fruit. I decided to make butternut squash lasagna. Here it is:

Butternut squash lasagna with 1/2 cup corn

This lasagna was really good! And it has filled me up for a long time. Its been 4 hours since I ate supper and I still feel stuffed. Usually Im hunting the cupboards for snacks about this time! Heres the recipe for the lasagna:

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Ingredients

• Cooking spray

• 3 cups chopped onion

• 10 cup fresh spinach

• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp provolone cheese

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 2 large eggs

• 1 (15-ounce) carton part-skim ricotta cheese

• 1 (15-ounce) carton fat-free ricotta cheese

• 3 cups diced peeled butternut squash

• 6 cups Smoky Marinara (recipe below)

• 12 oven-ready lasagna noodles (such as Barilla) (I used PC Blue Menu whole wheat noodles)

• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add spinach; sauté 1 1/2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Combine provolone, parsley, salt, pepper, eggs, and ricotta cheeses in a large bowl.

Place squash in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and cook on high 5 minutes or until tender.

Coat the bottom and sides of 2 (8-inch-square) baking dishes with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup Smoky Marinara in the bottom of one prepared dish. Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup cheese mixture over noodles. Arrange 1 1/2 cups squash over cheese mixture; spread 3/4 cup sauce over squash.

Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup cheese mixture over the noodles. Arrange 1 1/2 cups onion mixture over cheese mixture; spread 3/4 cup sauce over spinach mixture.

Arrange 2 noodles over sauce; spread 1 cup Smoky Marinara evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan. Repeat procedure with remaining ingredients in remaining pan. Cover each pan with foil.

Bake at 375° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes.

To freeze unbaked lasagna: Prepare through Step 6. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing to remove as much air as possible. Wrap with heavy-duty foil. Store in freezer for up to 2 months.

To prepare frozen unbaked lasagna: Thaw completely in refrigerator (about 24 hours). Preheat oven to 375º. Remove foil; reserve foil. Remove plastic wrap; discard wrap. Cover lasagna with reserved foil; bake at 375º for 1 hour. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Smoky Marinara
Yield: 6 cups (serving size: 1/2 cup)


Ingredients

• tablespoon olive oil

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried oregano

• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano; sauté 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in vinegar and remaining ingredients. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

I got this recipe from Cooking Light online. This recipe makes 2 lasagnas but just cut the ingredients in half to make one. I made 2 so I could freeze individual portions for down the road. I also brought some to my family. I was really surprised when my Dad and brother ate a meatless meal. Wow!! My brother complained at first but then he said he liked it. My Dad even had two pieces!! Now these are two people that wont even eat whole wheat Kraft Dinner! My mom really enjoyed it! She likes when I cook healthy meals because if she does the boys complain haha! Shes taking leftovers for her lunch tomorrow.
After I got home from my parents I had a nice hot bath and watched the Red Wings vs Penguins game (Red Wings won surprisingly). Now Im about to hit the books. Goodnight all! Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Turkey tacos!

Hey guys! Hope everyone had a good Thursday! My thursday was really like a Sunday since I work the whole weekend. But I did a lot today. Started off with a breakfast cookie and a coffee of course!

Mmm... no better way to start the day!! This breakfast cookie had the usual. 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 banana, 1/2 scoop protein powder, 1 tbsp almond butter, some cinnamon and some skim milk. Coffee was home brewed Tim Horton's with skim milk and some honey. After breakfast I went to the gym. I did about 3.5 miles on the treadmill with my usual running and walking on an incline. I think my endurance has been getting a lot better! After the tready I did some arm and ab exercises followed by some stretching. After the gym it was nearly 11:00 so I went to Blockbuster and rented Food Inc. I have been wanting to watch this forever so I finally had time to do it today. I got home threw a load of laundry in, showered and made lunch.

2 slices PB toast, steamed cauliflower and broccoli and scrambled egg whites with spinach and orange pepper smothered in ketchup of course!

I used my steamer for the veggies. I love steaming veggies but for some reason I rarely ever do it. I pulled the steamer out of the storage room and left it out in the kitchen so I'll use it more... hopefully. After lunch I watched Food Inc. This movie is soooo good! Really sad though, I cried in a few parts. Especially when they show the little chicks. Honestly, what is this world coming to? I don't even understand how people are getting away with this. Definetely might be turned off meat for a bit (except for tonights dinner of course!). After the movie I went on to do some homework. Learned more about surgical instruments and how much they're worth. Some instruments (like basic scissors) cost around $200. That's insane!! But, we do need the highest quality instruments during surgical procedures! I also had this snack while studying:

1 kiwi and 1/2 banana

This kept me good until supper where I made some delicious turkey tacos!

 2 ezekiel corn tortillas with turkey taco mix, organic salsa, tomatoes, spinach and a bit of shredded cheese. Spinach sald with cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, orange peppers and radishes.

These turkey tacos tasted exactly like when I ate tacos in Cancun! They were quite easy to make! I just used 1 lb ground turkey, half an onion, 1 garlic clove and some low sodium taco seasoning. I made 2 servings for this weekends lunches at work and froze 2 more. I made half a cup equal one serving which was enough for 2 tortillas.

After supper I wanted to try a recipe I found on http://www.oxygenmag.com/ for muffins. I made a few alterations but they were really good.

Energy muffins!

Heres the recipe:

2 cups egg whites (I just used 4 eggs)

1 and a half cups quick oatmeal

Half cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup cottage cheese

Half cup whey protein powder (I used quarter cup of my greens protein powder-thats why theyre a bit green)

1 and half teaspoon baking powder

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 cup strawberries (I used 1 cup fieldberries, some blackberries, and topped with diced strawberries)

Pre-heat oven to 350˚F. Pour ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Mix in fruit by hand, if desired, or include in the blender. Pour into regular-sized stick-free muffin cups. Cook until toothpick comes out clean (about 40 minutes).

These are really good. Try them out!

After my baking adventure I watched my Philadelphia Flyers kick some a** against the Dallas Stars. Our regular goalie is out indefinetely, our backup goalie is out 8-10 weeks so now were going with the backup backup goalie! He did pretty good though so Im quite happy! Anyways, now Im watching 90210 (I freakin love this show!) and going to head to bed soon. Have a lovely night!!

Spin!!

Hello!! Happy St.Patty's Day! Unfortunately, I did not wear any green today because I don't have any green clothes! Most of my clothes are black, navy or grey. So I just wore a navy and white striped tee and some jeans. Oh well I didn't really go out much today anyways! I started the morning off with a delicious green monster!!

Green monster: 1/2 banana, 1/2 scoop protein powder, whole lot of spinach, handful field berries, splash of almond milk

I spent the rest of the morning doing a couple loads of laundry. Then I headed to my parents to visit my puppy Nixon (he's just too cute!!) I always feel bad when I have to go cause he just gets the saddest look on his face. Then I went to wash my car (looooongg overdue) and it seems like everyone else had that idea as well! I got a few groceries (just some bananas, peas, milk and some conditioner), then I went to the bank to switch some American money I had left over from Cancun into Canadian money! It was almost the exact same exchange rate too! Wooohoo! I had $82 US and got like $80.24 Canadian! After running those errands I came home to make lunch. I had a spinach omelette, snap peas and a salad on the side. And ps this salad was too die for!!

Spinach salad with strawberries, kiwi, blackberries, sliced almonds and raspberry vinaigrette!

Omelette: 3/4 cup egg whites, spinach and some snap peas on the side.

I topped the omelette with some ketchup after the pic (didn't wanna take away from the green for St. Patty's Day!) After lunch I began my dreaded homework. But, I then found out that the class I'm starting is getting into the interesting stuff!! Finally, I'm learning about the surgical instruments! I have been looking forward to this class forever! So far I've learned the basics of different scissors, graspers, clamps, etc. I'm going to continue studying this stuff tonight to make it stay fresh in my memory! I worked on this all afternoon. I can't believe but I didn't even get hungry for a snack. Just made some coffee to keep me alert. Around 5 I made supper.

1 cup kamut flour fusilli, asparagus, 3 turkey meatballs and 1/2 cup vegetarian bolognese sauce!

I also had this apple as my dessert!

Then I was off to my first ever spin class! I went with my roomie Ali. Wow! Was this ever hard! But an extremely good workout for my legs. Definetely going back to that class. I just wish she'd play better music! It was like 80's stuff (don't get me wrong I love the 80's)! I need something to pump me up like Black Eyed Peas or something fun with a beat to it. But really after that class I'm not even sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow!

After spin class I came home and had this:

A Myoplex Lite protein bar in cinnamon roll crisp

These are pretty good but I don`t like the ingredient list. I bought them a while ago and I just want to finish the box up because these things are way too expensive to just throw away! They have 15 g protein and 190 calories. After that I had a nice hot bath to relax my muscles. I`m definetely excited for a new Real World DC to come on tonight. Only half hour away! Yay! Ok scratch that. As I was typing that I realized the stupid time change just happened and that the show would be on at 8 instead of 9. It is now 8:30 so I missed 30 minutes...fml! Oh well they`ll play it a thousand times again before next weeks show! Well I`m heading off to watch the rest of this and then do some homework! Goodnight! Hope everyone`s drinking some green beers for me!

Booorring!!!

So today was training day! Had to learn about some computer system that we input patient's assessments and information into! It was the most boring day of my entire life!! I had to go to the nursing unit from 6:45 til 8 (which I think was pretty pointless) and then go to this training thing from 8:30 to 4:30. It was useful information but it shouldn't take 8 hours (at the max maybe 2). I thought I was going to fall asleep! Thank god Tim Horton's was right beside the place so I could load up on coffee!! After training I had to go back to the nursing unit again from 4:30 to 7:15. Which, again, was very pointless since all of the work is basically done by then! Oh well better than me having to go back for 4 hours another day!

I didn't take any pics today since I was basically running around the whole morning trying to get ready. I did manage to clean (aka throw my stuff in the closet and get the door closed) so the landlord can come in to see if we have any pets hanging around! I had a cup of coffee while getting ready and then brought some to chug during report! Then I ate my breakfast cookie while feeding patients this am (yep, I'm an excellent multitasker)! For my first coffee break I had a banana. And then for lunch I got a wonderful sub from Subway.

Oven roasted chicken sub! Mine was a bit different then the pic. It had spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, mustard and italian dressing on a 9-grain wheat bun.

Mmmmmm sooooo wonderful!! I also had an apple with this. Lunch ended about 12:30 and I was basically sitting in this class counting down the minutes until the second coffee break (I seriously needed some caffeine!!) Then at 3:00 the trainer asks if we really want a break. Inside I was screaming YEESSS!!! But this lady pipes up and says no we don't need one let's just keep going. I was almost ready to cry! I couldn't handle one more second of this class! Then I remembered I had another apple in my purse so that kept me occupied for about 15 minutes! I also started texting friends underneath the table and next thing I knew it was finally over!!! Yay!!! What a waste of my 8 hours! I would way rather be working on the floor! Anyways, after that I headed to Mr.Sub (only cause I thought there was a pita pit in that spot) and got a wrap for my supper break. I got back to work at 4:30 and went for supper at 5:00 (like I said, sooo pointless for me being there but whatever). I had my wrap and then a rice krispie square! I'm too lazy to find a nice pic of a wrap but you guys can use your wonderful imaginations about how good this was: whole wheat wrap, grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, green olives, mushrooms, mustard and italian!!! But I do have to say this was good but Subway is just a thousand times better!!

After work I headed to the gym. It was a toss up between washing my car or running and for some odd reason I chose running. I guess I'll wash my car tomorrow since I can't even see out of it. But that's a good sign cause it means everythings melting and pretty soon we will get to see this outside!!

I thought about these the whole time at the gym!

I did 3.5 miles on the treadmill and then came home to a nice hot bath. Now Im watching Law and Order: SVU!! Oh and my Flyers lost tonight...in a shootout...fml!!! Oh well could be worse! At least they still get 1 point for the loss! Im off to finish up my blog reading and watching this show! Goodnight!