So much snow!!

We've been pretty lucky with mild weather and no snow, but starting at some point in the night, it started to snow and hasn't stopped!  I got my workout in this morning, took me about an hour to do our driveway.

I did start my morning with a stretch workout for 15 minutes, which got me ready for all that snow. It was a lot of work. I relaxed and had some lunch after, then got busy in the kitchen.

I haven't made much since before Christmas, since we went to Sudbury for a week, so we got back yesterday, wanting to get home before all the snow came down. Now we have this week at home to get things done and relax.

In order to avoid driving out in this weather, I also got a head start with doing groceries once we were back home from Sudbury. Glad I did because our street still hasn't been plowed. I got so many vegetables, some fruit, and a few other things we needed. I saw an episode of the Pioneer Woman on the food network, and she made this spaghetti and veggie salad, and it looked delicious! Therefore I got a pot of water boiling and cooked up this new pasta I wanted to try, it's a spelt flour spaghetti. Then got busy with a lot of chopping. I sliced up half a purple cabbage, halved and sliced two small cucumbers, seeded and sliced a red and yellow pepper, sliced up some kale, and thanks to a gift my dad got me I was able to julienne 2 carrots. He got me this set of carrot peelers, one is just a regular carrot peeler and the other was a bit bigger and it julienne's, works really well! Then I also sliced up a red onion and minced up some parley and added those to a very large bowl. I put the spelt spaghetti in the bowl as well and the dressing was: 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup of low sodium soy sauce, 1/3 cup of white wine vinegar, 2 tbsp of sesame oil, mined ginger and 2 cloves of garlic and 3 tbsp of honey. I added a bit of pepper as well and tossed everything together.

You can definitely use whatever vegetables you want. She added oyster sauce in hers, but I didn't have any on hand so I just put a bit more white wine vinegar instead. It's now in the fridge and will get eaten for supper. I will be cooking up some scallops that I bought yesterday. I plan to make an orange (zest and juice), soy sauce and some honey for the marinade.

Our week in Sudbury was great, got to see a lot of family. Which would have been nice to stay longer to see more family and friends, since we haven't seen them all, but it is kind of nice being home and not having to drive with all that snow. I did get more books for Christmas, as well as things for the kitchen, so I plan to unpack those and put them away. I'm out of room on my book case, but I have some shelves with pictures and my medals (running) and stuff so I think I will put those elsewhere so I have more room for books. I also got the cookie jar set that my mom made, so I want to make room for those, and they will be very handy to have. I know I won't have any trouble in filling those up.

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas!  Happy New Year!!

Christmas baking!

It's that time of year already!  I absolutely love Christmas! I love giving gifts and of course receiving gifts   =)  Thursday night my hubby went to a work Christmas party so I got busy at home. I did some cleaning and then decorated the house. My dad ended up giving me the Christmas tree that my mom made out of ceramic, I love this tree, it's so beautiful and brings back a lot of great memories. She did an amazing job, and it's a great way for me to have some sort of tree since I can't have a real or fake tree because knowing my kitty she would be right in it or tearing it down. It really didn't take her long  for her to start chewing away at the ribbon I had after a gift, so now those are put away so she can't get at them.

Last weekend my dad and I did our Christmas shopping but didn't get everyone, so got a few more people yesterday, now the only thing missing is the gifts I ordered online, which I hope to get very soon. So the next thing I really wanted to do was some Christmas baking. I didn't go to crazy, but I ended up making some Funfetti Cookies, which you can get the recipe here, and I also made an oh henry bar, it's my mom's recipe and she made it every year, which made me so happy!  My brother made it one year, so this year I decided to make it, and both recipes turned out perfect and so delicious!

These are not healthy, and there is way to much for just my hubby and I, so we will each bring some to work to share with everyone, and we have some here for us as well. Next weekend will be another busy weekend, we are celebrating with my dad, brother, sister in law, nieces and nephews at my dad's house. My dad will make a turkey with potatoes and vegetables, my brother will bring dessert, and I'll be bringing some deviled eggs, and vegetables and dip, and I plan to make a gravy as well. Then Saturday we are going to our friends' place and we are doing a pot luck style party, so I'll be bringing a potato salad, and I'll be going there earlier to help her set up, while my hubby plays hockey. Really looking forward to next weekend!



Not sure if I'll have time to put up another post until the New year since this time of year does become very busy, therefore in case I don't, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Happy New year!
                     
          

Running and baking

This week I had time to get the house cleaning and groceries done during the week, and on Friday since I worked an hour later on Thursday I got to leave early on Friday, which gave me time to get busy in the kitchen. I started by baking a banana bread, I again used spelt flour and coconut sugar for the recipe. I also decided to try a new recipe I saw on TV when I was watching the Pioneer woman, and you can find the recipe here.

I did use buckwheat flour and coconut sugar instead of what they call for in the recipe, I wanted to make it healthier and it turned out pretty good. Then the rest of the night I got to relax. Yesterday my hubby played hockey and scored the first goal and they also won the game 5-3, and we celebrated after. A friend of mine sent a message on facebook to see who was interested in joining her for a morning run today, so I replied and met up with her at 9:00 am this morning. It was cool this morning and there was a wind but the first half we were against the wind so heading back was a lot easier. We did walk a few times but we did 5 km!  Felt great to be out there running!

I am still going to the gym, but I haven't been outside much to run and it's so much better to run outside. Especially with nature surrounding us.

Now I'm going to relax the rest of the day, other then cooking supper later. I'll be making a jambalaya for supper. I am still doing good with not eating much meat, staying away from dairy and eating very little wheat, but I've been craving jambalaya so I'll enjoy that for supper and get back on track after. I did have my phone on me so my step counter counted every step and I'm already at 10,312 steps =) 

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!!!

Halloween weekend

This past weekend I ended up having more free time. Friday night we did go to a friend's place for dinner, but Saturday and Sunday I had no plans at all, so I got busy in the kitchen. I started with taking out my Joyous Health cookbook. I made the Goji berry glory muffins but I didn't have any shredded coconut on hand, so I just didn't add that in, but followed the rest of the recipe, and they turned out really good! I also decided to try a new recipe and made the double chocolate gluten-free cookies. Those turned really good as well.

I got a lot of house cleaning and laundry done as well, and since my hubby was gone to his hockey game I made a pumpkin chili from the Thug cookbook. Yes it's vegetarian, and it was so good!!

I decided to make it in my cast iron pot that I bought a few weeks ago in Watertown. Glad I finally got to use it and I'm really loving it. I do have some left over chili for my lunches this week.

The rest of the weekend, I got to relax. I got caught up on some of my shows, and watched a few movies. As for the trick or treaters, I didn't give any candies out this year. I thought I would be going to my hubby's hockey game, which we wouldn't have been home on time to pass out candy, but then Saturday morning I decided to stay home to have time to get everything done so then I can relax.

Yesterday's supper, I tried another new recipe from a new cookbook, that my niece ended up getting for me since she saw it was on sale, the cookbook is French, but my sister in law told me how there's a lot of great recipes in it.

They all raved on how good this tomato sauce was, sauce bolognaise, so I had to give it a try, and made it for supper on Sunday. It was in my slow cooker all day and made the house smell so good! The recipe was so simple as well, just needed some firm tofu, which for some reason I couldn't find any at all, so I didn't add that in, but the rest I did, I added a pound of ground Italian hot sausage, it called for a pound of ground beef but I used bison, then they say to add in a bunch of vegetables, so I added in carrots, celery, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, and mushrooms, then added in 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 small can of tomato paste, and they say you can add Italian or herb de Provence seasoning so I added the herb de Provence, and of course a bit of salt and some pepper.

It was really good!! I'll for sure be making this again at some point. We do have some left over, so I'll be giving it to my hubby for his lunches, so I can be meat free again, and some will also be going in my freezer to have another time.

So far I'm doing great with the endometriosis diet. My breakfasts have been smoothies, snacks are the muffins and cookies I made, supper and lunches have been salmon, shrimp, vegetables, sweet potatoes, and left over pumpkin chili.

Banana Caramel Sticky buns

It's been another busy weekend. Friday night we went to my hubby's uncle's house for supper. Got to see their new kitchen as well and I would love a kitchen like theirs!  Yesterday the house cleaning and laundry got done, and then I made Banana Caramel Sticky buns. I have made these many times and they are so good!

Here's the recipe:

1 large very ripe banana, mashed
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup melted ghee or coconut oil
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp salt

Topping:
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup ghee or coconut oil
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp coconut flour

Preheat oven at 350F. Mix all ingredients for buns with a wire whisk. Evenly pour into a well greased 12 cup muffin pan. ** Do not use paper muffin liners**
Mix all ingredients for topping with a fork and crumble topping on buns
Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked through. Cool for about 2 minutes, then run a knife around each bun to loosen from pan. Immediately remove from muffin tin to a wire rack to finish cooling. You may need to scrape the topping back onto the buns as you remove them, but the topping will set up as they cool.

Once those where ready we were off to my hubby's hockey game, although I didn't stay. My friend dropped off her hubby and his brother, and I hopped in with her and we went to her place to get busy in the kitchen. We started with getting the sauce ready for our supper. We made a tomato and pesto sauce and had that with some spaghetti. Then once the sauce was on the stove top on low, we got dessert ready. From the chocolate covered Katie cookbook we made the lemon and chocolate donuts. They were both delicious!! They were also very easy to make and they were baked not fried.

They were a big hit!!  Still some left over as well so they will be great to snack on this week. Today I also go into the kitchen again and prepared two recipes from the Thug kitchen cookbook, and they both turned out great. First one is a roasted beet and quinoa salad.

I made this for a few lunches this week. Then I prepared the roasted potato salad with fresh herbs

We will have this for supper tonight. I did take out london broils to cook up with the salad, and I'm thinking to roast some carrots to go along with it. I have cut back on meat a lot, but really in the mood for some tonight.

Weekend has gone by really fast, but looking forward to sharing those muffins with co-workers, I double the recipe so I can bring some to work. There's a lot of the potato salad so I'm sure there will be some left over, and also from the Thug kitchen I want to make the 5-spice fried rice with sweet potatoes for supper sometime this week. With the donuts, muffins, and delicious meals, it's going to be a good week I'm sure.

Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year. It's just so cozy, and beautiful!  We get to see beautiful colors outside, and it's the perfect weather to be outside running, or doing any sort of exercise/sport.

Yesterday and today, we got some wet snow, not much but it was still pretty to see, but glad it didn't stick to the ground. I'm not quite ready for snow yet, it's just to early for that. I am really enjoying the beautiful colors and cool weather out there.

I did get into the kitchen this week, but it was to prepare for an Epicure party. I went to a friend's place and we were 12 women in total, so a good turnout. We had vegetables and dip, I made a 3 onion, herb and garlic and lemon dilly dips. I also prepared some salsa, and guacamole, and I prepared a cheese dip in a sourdough bread, and for a drink, I made apple cider, and dessert was an eggnog cheesecake. It was a fun night!  Yesterday we went to my dad's for supper, and my brother, sister in law, nieces and nephews also went. They brought dessert, which was an apple crumble and some watermelon cupcakes which both were really good! I brought some vegetables and dip, and my dad prepared a turkey, some ham, potatoes and corn. It was all very good! Today I thought to make some snacks, but realized we still have a few muffins left, there's left over cheesecake and vegetables and dip, so I only prepared a few lunches. I've been eating quite a bit of meat lately, so thinking to do a bit of a detox, and eat lighter for a while, no meat except fish or shrimp, and cut back on dairy and sugar because I've had a bit to much of those as well. I haven't had any endometriosis pain but before I do, it's a good idea for me to cut back on those things. My niece picked up a new cookbook for me, it is in French, but I looked at it at my brother's place, and my sister in a law tried a few recipes and has loved them all. One I'm looking forward to trying out is a pasta recipe, it's with tofu, and they said it was amazing. I also haven't made many recipes from the thug kitchen cookbook that my friend got me as a gift, so I'm thinking to see what new recipe I can make from that book as well.

It's a perfect time for me to do this because it is cooler out, so it will be nice to have some vegetable  or miso soup, some vegetarian chili, pasta or stir fries. I'm sure my hubby won't be in on that, he likes his meat, so I'll be sure to add some to his meals.

Hope everyone is enjoying Fall as much as I am!

Syracuse and Thanksgiving

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my friend and I drove out to Watertown and Syracuse to do some shopping. She picked me up nice and early on the Saturday and we were off!  We first stopped in Watertown to have some breakfast at Cracker barrel

They have amazing food there!  We both had hot chocolate and enjoyed some pancakes, which we should have shared a plate because 3 huge pancakes each is way to much food!  It was delicious though.  We also shopped around in their store, and each bought a small cast iron skillet. Then we were off to Syracuse, and stopped in a mall and spent quite a bit of money, but had a good time. We did of course break for lunch, which we had to go to the Outback. Use to have one in Ottawa but it shut down and we miss it!  Their bread is delicious!!!!

We also shared some appetizers for our lunch, I know not healthy whatsoever but it was good!

We continued our shopping after lunch and spent more money  =)  We decided to go back to the Outback for supper, which was a late supper, we showed up around 7 pm I believe. I went for their fillet mignon, mashed potatoes and a salad.

The steak was perfectly cooked! I enjoyed my supper with a glass of red wine. We then had to drive back to Watertown (about an hour drive) to get to our hotel room. Sunday morning we slept in, then had a small breakfast, courtesy of the hotel, but it wasn't that good so we didn't eat much. We then went to Walmart because it was a must that we go see the Pioneer Woman's new kitchen line, and we were like two kids at Christmas! We went crazy over the beautiful things she has. We bought a lot of things!!  If you don't know who the Pioneer Woman is, check out her website here, and you can also find her on the food network. We then made our way back home, but got stuck at the boarder since we spent quite a bit of money, so we had to pay taxes on it all. It was an amazing trip. Something we both needed, to just talk, go shopping and just have a great time.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving and my hubby's parents came down for a visit. We had a thanksgiving supper at his aunt's place, which I of course ate to much food, and Sunday I went out shopping with my dad during the day and while my hubby and his dad were gone to the hockey game, I relaxed at home. Monday my niece, dad and father in law came over for supper and I prepared a Sheppard's pie but made it with turkey, carrots, celery, onion in a chicken gravy sauce that I made, then topped it with mashed sweet potatoes. We then enjoyed a strawberry and rhubarb pie. Something else I also had time to do was the Chocolate Banana bread muffins, which you can find the recipe in my previous post.

So I am still keeping myself nice and busy. This weekend will be another busy weekend, but hope to have more time in the kitchen, to prepare healthy meals and snacks for next week. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

Miso

I haven't been doing much lately. The head cold I got at the start of my time off, lead to bronchitis, it's getting better but not completely there yet. Still coughing but not as bad as before.

Yesterday I decided to pull out my slow cooker. I haven't taken it out in months, and it was nice putting together a stew. I put in some beef, along with a lot of vegetables. I used carrots, celery, onion, garlic, turnip, sweet potatoes, beets, and water chestnuts. For herbs I used oregano and basil, and of course some salt and pepper. For the sauce part, I used beef broth and some tomato paste. I used some spelt flour to thicken it. It turned out really good! And we have some left for some lunches this week.

Now I would like to discuss miso. It has a lot of great nutrition, and it's delicious!

Miso has a wonderful sweet/salty flavor that can be used in a wide variety of recipes. The color of miso can vary from light yellow, good to use in a sweet miso soup during warm weather, to a deep dark brown with earthy tones and hearty flavor.  And here are the benefits of miso:

1. Contains all essential amino acids, making it a complete protein.
2. Stimulates the secretion of digestive fluids in the stomach.
3. Restores beneficial probiotics to the intestines.
4. Aids in the digestion and assimilation of other foods in the intestines.
5. Is a good vegetable-quality source of B vitamins (especially B12).
6. Strengthens the quality of blood and lymph fluid.
7. Reduces risk for breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers.
8. Protects against radiation due to dipilocolonic acid, an alkaloid that chelates heavy metals and discharges them from the body.
9. Strengthens the immune system and helps to lower LDL cholesterol.
10. Is high in antioxidants that protect against free radicals.

Here's a great link with a video on how to make miso soup: http://skillet.lifehacker.com/a-video-guide-to-making-miso-soup-at-home-no-recipe-re-1694607730

It's really easy and delicious. You can add different vegetables to the soup if you want, and you can even add noodles. I found noodles at the T&T store near here, and they are mung bean noodles. They are a nice long thin noodle and take no time to cook and the ingredient listed is mung beans, that's it! If you don't like tofu, or if your unsure like me on how healthy it is, you can skip it.

If you have never tried miso, I suggest you give it a try. It adds wonderful flavor, and it's fermented, therefore it has great nutritional benefits.

Camping and fishing

My hubby and I spent a little over a week in Sudbury to visit our families. We first stopped near Noelville to spend 2 nights at his aunt and uncle's camp. We went out fishing but we didn't have any luck getting any. Well my hubby got one, but it was to small to keep so we let that one go, and his uncle almost caught a big one, but his fishing line snapped while he was trying to real it in. We were very close but ended up with nothing at the end, but it was still a fun day.

This is a view of the lake we were at. It was a really beautiful day, so we all got lots of sun. That night we joined the party, they had a huge cook out for the camp ground. The food was amazing!

Sunday we made our way to Sudbury, and went to my father in law's camp. I had time to say hi to everyone and talk a bit, then I left go to my cousin's. We chatted a while, then I was off again to meet our family for supper. My cousin didn't go to the supper but met up with us after at our uncle's place. It was nice spending time with them and my aunt from Quebec was down, so it was really great seeing her as well. At my uncle's we had really good dessert, and we talked. Didn't stay there to late, it was about 9 pm when I left, and went back to camp. Everyone was up and around a camp fire so I joined in.The rest of the week there, we got to see more family, sit by more camp fires, and go on another fishing trip. This one was with my hubby, his dad, and uncle. We left at 5:30 am to drive out to the middle of nowhere, to a spot that has a lot of fish. Took a long time to get there because of the rough roads. At one point we got to a spot where we parked the car, hooked up the trailer that had the boats to the 4 wheeler, and one drove that while the rest of us walked, here's the start of the trail.

It was a nice hike, and my favorite part!  When we finally reached the lake, it was beautiful

My hubby and I took the largest boat, and his dad and uncle took the smaller one. We wanted to do the opposite, but his dad insisted. We ended up with 8 bass, and his dad and uncle caught 12. It was a lot of fun, except for the end, it started to rain hard, so we were soaked! Plus it was cool outside. I caught a cold at the start of my vacation, so that really didn't help. My father in law was very kind in cleaning out our fish for us, and froze them up for us, so now we have some fresh fish on hand. One of their fish was a pike, so his dad cooked him up in foil with some butter, lemon and garlic, it was delicious!!

Last week on Friday, I went to my cousin's place, and we went out to do some shopping and of course had to stop at chapters. I got two new books, and enjoyed a chai tea latte. We then went to her place, ordered pizza for supper, and had a girls night. She has 3 daughters, and one of them brought over a friend, so we watched movies, and had some junk food. It was a lot of fun! I slept over, then left the next morning because we wanted to visit my hubby's grandfather, and then we were invited to a wedding, which was beautiful and we had a lot of fun.

We got back from Sudbury last weekend on Sunday, my hubby and I took the Monday off so it gave us the chance to unpack, get groceries, and do laundry. This weekend, well I haven't done very much because my cough is still lingering. I ended up going to see my family doctor Thursday morning, then my boss said I can just go home to rest. Friday I still wasn't feeling so great and coughing so much so I stayed home, and took a long nap, which I really needed. I felt so exhausted. Been relaxing most of the weekend, but I did make my own chicken soup, no noodles, but I did put in some quinoa. Here's my recipe:

1 carrot, cut in half, length wise, then sliced
1 celery stock, cut in half, length wise, then sliced
half a large red onion,chopped
1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
a handful of lentils
a handful of quinoa
homemade chicken stock, about 2 cups
2 cups of water

I sauteed the vegetables for a few minutes, then added in the chicken, stock, lentils, quinoa,  a touch of salt and some pepper, I let it come to a boil, then simmered for about 15-20 min. I had a bowl for my lunch, and stored the rest away in the freezer to have another time

It turned out really good, and helped calm my coughing. I'm still coughing quite a bit, but it has gotten a bit better. Really looking forward to the coughing to go away completely!  Other then that, I made a banana bread, and yesterday from my new clean eating magazine, I tried a new stir fry recipe for our supper, and it was really good! The sauce was rice wine vinegar, tamari, maple syrup, sesame oil, some vegetable stock, arrowroot (to thicken it) and some peanut butter. The vegetables, I put in carrot, celery, onion, snow peas, red pepper and mushrooms. They called for chickpeas, but I put in chicken instead, and instead of millet, I used Quinoa. It was really good! Today I think I'll chop up my broccoli, so that's ready to use, and I'm thinking to put together some oats, apple, cinnamon, nuts, flax seeds and hemp seeds, with some maple syrup and almond milk and let that thicken in the fridge to have a cold cereal for some breakfast this week.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Cooking and running

This morning I went out for a run. Felt great to be out there. When I first started, I was running against the wind, so after a while it became harder, but once I turned around it was a little easier. I ended up doing 6 km today, and took me 41 minutes. I did have to stop a few times to walk but it was a beautiful morning to be out there.

Last weekend I decided to make some granola bars, and they turned out really good. As well I made a chai chia pudding, which also turned out really good.

The bars I put in a mix of nuts: almonds, macadamia, and cashews, I also put in some cranberries, goji berries, bee pollen, quinoa crisps, some maple syrup and a bit of orange juice. They were a bit crumbly but still really good. The chai chia pudding, was a mix of spices, some chia seeds and almond milk. I had to add more almond milk because they were pretty thick, but still turned out delicious!

During the week, we went with a friend to do some shopping at Costco. We haven't been in a long time, so it was nice going and buying some things we needed, including filling up our tank for our BBQ. On the way back home, I ended up pointing out a beautiful rainbow. Haven't seen one in a long time!  At one spot it was a double rainbow with some space in between them, then when we got closer to home, we saw this one, and since we were stopped at a light, it gave me a chance to snap a picture.

It was so nice to see, and it had some beautiful colors!

This weekend, other then my run, we played baseball Friday night, and yesterday I did some house cleaning, and prepared a coleslaw. For supper I tried a new marinade for a pork tenderloin, and it turned out delicious!  We both really enjoyed it.

Today after my run, and a shower, I had a bit of lunch and relaxed, then got busy in the kitchen. I chopped up my broccoli, prepared two salads for my lunch this week, as well as prepare the berry chia pudding, which I again went with raspberries. I also made some Chocolate Banana bread muffins

 My hubby and I shared one and they turned out really good. You can find the recipe at the Tone it up website. I really do enjoy the workouts, I have been doing them every morning during the week, and once last weekend, and they are tough but fun workouts. Towards the end of my first week with the workouts, I was muscle sore in so many places, but I do feel like I'm getting stronger. Been enjoying a lot of their recipes as well, the marinade for the pork tenderloin was from them. Going to keep going with the workouts until Thursday, then we will be headed towards Sudbury for a week. Will be nice to see family. I plan to bring some workout gear, so I can go running, and hopefully get to go swimming and see what else we can do, since we will be camping.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Chia seeds

Still keeping nice and busy over the summer. Last weekend we drove up to Sudbury to go to my cousin's wedding. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Saturday we went to my aunt and uncle's to celebrate my aunt's 70th birthday. We got to go swimming, jump into the hot tub, talk with family, and enjoy a lot of amazing food. It was a beautiful day and it was so much fun. We also got to spend a bit of time at my father in law's camp. We chatted, sat by the fire, and got to look at this amazing view.

We didn't get to spend that much time, but we will be going back in September and I'm really looking forward to it.

This weekend I had the chance to be at home to get things done. Yesterday I cleaned out the basement in order to start exercising down there again. Just need to set up the TV and DVD player. For supper we did a beer can chicken. I of course got my chicken from Aubrey's, and used the marinade that I got from St-Albert, Jamaican Jerk. My hubby got the BBQ going, prepared the chicken to go into our pan for beer can chicken, and got it cooking on the BBQ, which he basted it every once in a while with more of the marinade.

That was the final result, and it was delicious!!  Of course we still have some left for another time. I prepared some sweet potatoes with onions, as well as balsamic glazed asparagus to go along with it, and enjoyed a glass of Baco Noir.

 Today I got busy in the kitchen making turkey chili for 2 lunches each this week.

I also made some blueberry walnut muffins

And lastly a Berry Bright Chia Pudding, here's the recipe:

Serving size: 4 (4oz) servings

1 cup strawberries or raspberries - fresh of frozen (I used fresh raspberries)
1/2 cup coconut meat
1 1/2 cup coconut water
1/3 cup agave or honey (I used maple syrup)
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup white chia seeds
*water if you like it to be a little thinner

Place the berries, coconut meat, water, agave, and salt in a high speed blender and mix until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large serving bowl.

Slowly pour the chia seeds into the berry mixture, stirring constantly until thoroughly mixed together.

Place in fridge to chill and set up for at least 30 minutes. Pudding will thicken. If too thick for your liking, just add more water. Too thin? Add more chia seeds 1 tbsp at a time.

This recipe I got from Tone it up. I found out about them through a friend.  She was at Chapters and found their book of Tone it up, so I decided to check out the book and it's really good. I went through their website and I love how they built a community of women to help motivate each other to live healthy lives. I got the chili and blueberry muffins recipes from them as well. I got a few of their workout video's and look forward to trying them out.

Here's a bit more information about Chia seeds. A 1 ounce (28 grams) serving of chia seeds contains:

• Fiber: 11 grams.
• Protein: 4 grams.
• Fat: 9 grams (5 of which are Omega-3s).
• Calcium: 18% of the RDA.
• Manganese: 30% of the RDA.
• Magnesium: 30% of the RDA.
• Phosphorus: 27% of the RDA.
• They also contain a decent amount of Zinc, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Potassium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and Vitamin B2.

So as you can see Chia seeds are a super food!  They act as a gelatin, by absorbing a lot of water. You can make all sorts of different flavored "puddings" like the one above, you can add it to smoothies, or you can even use it as an egg substitute by putting 1 tbsp of chia seeds to 3 tbsp water for each egg your replacing. You can also sprinkle some chia seeds in all sorts of things like salads, yogurt, or oatmeal. If you haven't given them a try, I recommend you do because they are delicious!

St-Albert and Montreal adventure

It's always so great having a long weekend, that extra day helps to be able to do more things. Friday we didn't have any baseball so I got the house cleaning done and relaxed. Saturday I had the chance to do laundry, chopped up vegetables, and prepare a dip for snacks during the week. I also made some cookies and got to relax and read. We had a friend come over for supper and we enjoyed a steak oscar with roasted potatoes and asparagus, all cooked on the BBQ. We opened up a huge and more expensive bottle of wine, which we were suppose to do all this for my hubby and our friend's birthday's back in June but then my hubby got sick. We finally got the chance to get together and enjoy a delicious meal.

You can find the wine we had at this LCBO link. I do recommend this wine, it went perfectly with our supper and it was really good! On Sunday I drove over to my friend's place and we drove out to St-Albert which they also had a market just outside

I picked up some green onions, green pepper, some maple jelly as well as some homemade Jamaican jerk marinade, which I got to try some chicken and it was delicious! Inside we bought some cheese curds, marble cheese and I got some herb goat cheese.

It was time for lunch so we also enjoyed a small poutine. Then we were off again and drove to Montreal. Our first stop was the SAQ to get Ricardo's wine. For those who don't know Ricardo, he is a chef on the food network. I picked up 3 bottles of red and 2 of the white. Just across the street was Ricardo's store

The store was beautiful, so many amazing kitchen supplies. Anne and I were in heaven!  We both love to cook and bake and love an opportunity to get things for our kitchen. I picked up a pan to make donuts, which I have been dying to try the recipe in the Chocolate covered Katie cookbook. I got a melon baller, but a bigger size, perfect to scoop the right amount of dough for cookies, or for muffins. I also got a container for herbs, it's got the line at the bottom showing how much water you should have, and you put fresh herbs in it and there's a lid, creating a "green house" to have herbs to last for a longer amount of time, and also got an oil spritzer. Just have to pump it and then it sprays whatever oil you decide to put into it. Although I didn't get to meet Ricardo in person, I did get to take a picture with his life size poster

We did get to meet his daughter, she was very nice, and even told us how her dad dropped her off that morning. To bad he didn't stay so I can meet him =)  Their store also has Mama Choka which I bought two of their chocolate bars. Pretty expensive but I hear it's amazing! I got one for my hubby but we haven't tried them yet. I got one with peanut butter and the other with Quinoa. We also tried out their ice cream sundae, which I got chocolate ice cream with maple and toasted almonds, it was delicious!!

Once we left there, we decided to go get some bagels, but with all the construction in Montreal we had a hard time getting there. The GPS kept having to find a new route to get us there, which it took us about double the time to get to our destination.

It was warm in there, but smelled so good! I got some blueberry bagels as well as some pumpernickel.

 I had the blueberry bagel this morning and it was really good!  We still had some time before supper so we decided to go to the Casino.

We didn't get any luck there, but we were excited to head to Le Garde Manger, which is Chuck Hughes restaurant, another chef from the food network. He had an amazing wall right when you walk in.

We were very disappointed once we found out that they were fully booked for the whole evening. We couldn't even sit at the bar or anything. We will have to reserve next time and we plan to bring our hubby's with us. We walked around in hopes to find a new place to try out but we didn't find anything that interested us. It was getting late and we were really hungry so we decided to get out of downtown and stop at the Keg along the way home. We started off with an appetizer, which is a iceberg salad with some tomatoes and bacon.

Then we shared an entree of chicken oscar with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Anne doesn't like seafood so I had all the shrimp and scallops, along with some of the chicken.

It was all so good!  A good way to end the evening and then we drove home. Other then the bad drivers, road blocks, and not getting into Chuck's restaurant, we had a really good time. It was a really fun day. Got home rather late but thanks to today being a civic holiday I got to sleep in this morning. I also got busy in the kitchen and got to try out my melon baller and oil spritzer. I made some Pina colada muffins. I found out about toneitup.com from a friend. She was at Chapters and found the Tone it up book and was telling me how amazing it was. I looked online for it and saw they had a few books at the Chapters near my place so I picked up a copy. I saw they had a website so decided to check it out and when I saw the recipe I knew I had to try them, which you can find the recipe here.

They turned out great! The topping isn't quite the same as theirs because I didn't have any coconut butter, but I tried out some crushed pineapple with some coconut oil, a splash of maple syrup and some arrowroot powder to thicken it up a bit.

It's been an amazing long weekend!  Glad I had time to get into the kitchen but also go out and have some fun. Now time for me to go get dinner ready. I'm making some pasta tonight with some vodka sauce, ground sausage and lots of veggies. We may just open up Ricardo's wine to go with it.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!