We haz a Winner!

Whoops!  When I scheduled the draw time for my nifty little giveaway I totally forgot that I would be at physiotherapy at noon today.  Thankfully no one entered between now and then so no big deal.  :)

It was super fun reading through all of the comments about everyone’s childhood Thermos’.  A few of you also had a Holly Hobby like me but there were tons of other fun ones.  Aw, good times eh?

[photo ‘borrowed’ from online classified ad…no link available]

Well this new Thermos insulated bottle isn’t sporting any cute characters but it’ll keep your water cold and your body hydrated. 

By luck of the draw, the winner is…

[source]

#40 – Liz from Liz Runs DC

Liz and I have been twitter/blog buddies for ages so it’s super fun that she won!  Girlie didn’t tell us what design her Thermos sported as a kid but she did tweet the giveaway love. 

Congrats Liz!!  I’ll email you for address details!

Pizzeria Prima Strada

Woke up yesterday morning and realized I still didn’t have any fresh coffee.  Being as it was conference call day that just wouldn’t do!  So off to the SB drive-thru I went. :)

I may have had a grande regular coffee after that triple latte too.  Needless to say I was buzzzzzzing.  Like literally agitated a couple of hours later.  Figured I’d better get some fresh food into me.

Bigass mixed salad with lotsa veggies…featuring dried cranberries, walnut pieces and pumpkin seeds.  Dressed with a concoction of honey, dijon and olive oil.

Followed with some protein in the form of old white cheddar matched with Kashi crackers, fresh dates, and Banana Date Chutney I bought at the Farmer’s Market a while ago.

I put the chutney out during my party last Friday but I guess no one wanted to try it out…there was barely a spoonful missing!  It’s definitely got a kick to it and I think it might do better paired with meat at dinner time.  Yummy though.

After work while getting ready for a dinner date with my friend Nicole I snacked on a couple of coconut crack bars…

When I finally tracked down my “it’s not Summer anymore, but not quite Winter either” sweater we were off for our dinner.  I’ve been meaning to get to Pizzeria Prima Strada since the day I moved back but something has always waylaid the plans.  When Nicole suggested it, I was quick to say YES PLEASE! 

We hit up the secondary location as it’s closer to my place and apparently a lot less crowded than their original location in Cook Street Village. 

Tables are all family style.  Meet your neighbours people!

Don’t worry, it wasn’t actually this empty.  We kinda closed the place down and I took this photo as we left.  :) 

Firewood for the pizza oven!

Now the good stuff:  food and drink!  I had a glass (or two) of the red wine special.  A BC Merlot.  I don’t usually go for Merlot but it still hit the spot.

I convinced Nicole to share the appetizer special of the night.  Hand made oxtail ravioli.  I don’t remember the rest of the description but it was deeeeelish.  Two each was the perfect amount.

For the main event we opted to share a pizza.  (That’s the only catch…no individual size pizzas at dinner time…so either you share or you have a bunch of leftovers.)  Nicole recommended the Rucola E Crudo…tomato, parmigiano, and mozzarella finished with fresh
arugula and prosciutto crudo.

I tried to be polite and only eat two of my three pieces.  But bringing one sad piece home seemed silly so I ate it up.  Seemed the logical thing to do, no?  ha.  Nom nom nom.

We girls blathered on for a couple of hours and when the employees looked like maybe they wanted to go home we finally hauled ourselves out.  When I got home I was full of energy from my carby dinner…it fuelled me through a sink full of dishes and a general tidy of my apartment before bed. :)

Cold Matters

It’s actually been a couple of months now since the nice folks at Thermos reached out to me and asked if I’d like to test out a couple of their coolio water bottles.  I was swimming in a sea of packing, moving, traveling and unpacking but when I came up for air I was glad to take them up on their offer.  We all know my love of getting #waterlogged and reminding everyone else to drink up too!

At the same time this was all going on Thermos Brand was running a social media frenzy on their cold products, including a fun Twitter Party for #ThermosCold where a panel of Cold Matters Coaches got together with the Twitter world to discuss health, fitness and hydration.  During that chat I actually won another Thermos bottle!

So all in all I received THREE brand spanking new water bottles to test out.  Since I am only one gal, and already own a couple of water bottles that I still like to use I decided to part with two of the three Thermos bottles.

My Mom became the recipient of this awesome Roho Bottle.  She drinks a crazy amount of water, likes to keep it cold, and was going through way too many plastic store-bought bottles of water.

Now she can tote this around in her car without wasting plastic!  I love the leak-proof push-button top, sippy spout and integrated handle…very practical and useable!

I decided to keep the green Intak Bottle for myself because it is durable BPA-free plastic(actually copolyester!) and I love the sippy spout and lockable lid.  Perfect for carting around to yoga without worrying about spillage or making noise with the lid during practice.

This one is also perfect for #waterlogged challenges because it has this great little rotating counter to let me know how many bottles I’ve consumed that day. 

The third (and honestly, the BEST) Thermos bottle is for you guys.  the stainless steel Insulated Hydration Bottle features TherMax double wall vacuum insulation for maximum temperature retention.

Those of you that prefer your water icy cold will love this one.  It also has this tres cool hygienic sipper lid with attached lid.  No more dropping your lids or fumbling during workouts.  Excellent.  Another feature is the sweat-proof design…it won’t leave water rings on your table!

In order to win you can do any of these two things:

1) Leave me a comment telling me what character was on your Thermos as a kid.  I know you had one!  I am fairly certain my soup went to school in a Holly Hobby Thermos.  (Mom, can you confirm that?)  :)

2) Tweet about this giveaway.  Mention @balanceblog (that’s me!) and @ThermosBrand (because they did provide this prize after all!).  Make sure you follow them because they constantly have giveaways and cool information.

Easy peasy, right?

Contest is open to all readers (I’ll be mailing via Canada Post).  One entry per method per person please.  I will use a random number generator to chose the winner on Friday, October 29th, 2010 at 12pm Pacific Standard Time.

Good luck everyone!  Tell all your friends!

Dammit Janet

A sleepy, slow start this morning.  I was literally rubbing sleep from my eyes as I opened my email and started work.  It didn’t help that my cuppa coffee wound up down the drain.

Did you know your fresh beans can be bad?  I didn’t.  But I’ll be returning the funkiness I bought this weekend. 

Breakfast cheered me up.  Nothing like a good bowl of peanut butter and banana oats.  With cinnamon and raisins.  Nom.

Feeling quite good I was off to physiotherapy again today.  I was hoping he’d say I could start some sort of working out again, but alas no such luck.  Just another round of nerve stimulation and orders to stretch every hour (or more often).  Hrmph.

After that dismal news I wasn’t much for cooking lunch so a simple grilled cheese sammich it was.  Squirrelly Bread and light cheddar.  With carrots…see veggies!

A couple of fresh dates to complete the easy meal.

After work all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch.  It sure got chilly in here and my poor hip and bum were feeling the tender after effects from my earlier appointment.  Tea to the rescue!

After getting sucked into So You Think You Can Dance Canada’s finale I had to find something supah-fast for dinner before Glee started.  Thank goodness for leftovers.  Quinoa and roasted veggies reheated and poured over salad.

Salad is a loose term here.  Tomatoes and lettuce.  Topped with feta.

Nothing like the super fabulous mash-up of Rocky Horror and Gleeeeee!!

This might be my new favourite episode…although NPH still holds a close second!  Don’t kill me, but I didn’t like Mercedes as Frankenfurter…she changed the tune and tone of the song too much BUT how bout that Uncle Jesse killing it as Eddie?!  Hot Patootie is right!

For dessert I discovered a Mousearoo in my chocolate!

Eeeeeeek.  Don’t worry, I took care of it.

Keen Wa

Oh Monday, why must you arrive so soon?  After my little partay and an overnight visit with my Mom I would have been quite happen for the weekend to stick around.

I found myself missing my Blogger Girls a fair bit recently so I broke out my memory mug for this morning’s much needed coffeeeee…

This morning’s breakfast smoothie got a little creative.  I had a fun recipe I was going to make for the party on Friday so I bought this bigass tub of fresh dates, but we were on food overload (and I totally ran out of time…shhhhh!) so now I’m looking for other uses for all of these yummy dates.

I ended up with a Banana Date Coconut Smoothie.  Nom!

In the KA: ice, small banana, 2 fresh dates, flax meal, unsweetened coconut, final drizzle of coconut milk topped up with UVAB.

Sprinkled with a little extra shredded coconut garnish…

It was quite deeeelish!  Much sweeter than my usual green smoothies but still yummy and healthy.  The dates are so fresh that they didn’t blend right into the drink so I had a few chunky surprises at the bottom.

At lunchtime I could seriously hear the crack hummus calling me from the fridge. It said “come make a sammich”! so I did. :)

Toasted Squirrelly bread, hummus, extra old white cheddar, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.  Nom.

Afternoon sweet tooth was satisfied with a leftover Coconut Crack Bar from the party…

Salad was on the menu for dinner, but…

1) An entire bag of spinach went off.  I hate that.

2) It’s literally the most blustery, cold, disgusting day of the year and salad just wasn’t going to cut it.

Enter:  Roasted Veggies!

How to clean out the fridge….roast your root veggies.  Carrots, rutabaga, beet, red onion, and orange peppers.  Drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with coarse salt and cracked pepper.  Roasted in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, tossing once.

My plan for a poached egg as my protein wasn’t going to work with this change in menu so I opted for a serving of quinoa (keen wah!) instead.  Cooked up and added the juice of half a lemon and about an ounce of crumbled feta cheese.  Lemon & Feta Quinoa.  If only I had fresh herbs.

Served up quinoa on the bottom, veggies on the top with a little extra feta.

I love it when a random meal comes together!

Apparently I hear food talking to me a lot today because these beautiful chocolates wouldn’t shut up until I opened them.

Julian:  I’ll blame you if I don’t fit into my Hallowe’en costume!  :)

Pumpkin Spice Truffle!

Ganache Truffle topped with raw Cacao nibs…

Sugar buzz complete.  Time to lay on the floor for the third time today and perform a few “sloppy cobras”.  It’s weird but I think it’s working.  My pain has dropped from a 12 to a 9 on the pain scale (on a scale of 1 to 10).  Maybe he’ll tell me I’m allowed to workout tomorrow.

Then I can the rest of the box of chocolates.