Coffee Talk

Not being able to face another day of weak instant coffee (even if it is VIA it’s just not real coffee to me) I trekked on over to the mall for a cup of bold to start the day yesterday.

Sitting through my weekly teleconference without coffee would have been torture!  (See below for how you can help me avoid this happening again.)

Breakfast was quickly prepared while my headset was on mute. :)

Liberte Svelt vanilla yogurt with 1/2 banana, 6 almonds, hemp hearts and chia seeds.  Light but totally delicious.

Last week I bought some chicken to boil for Chibi’s upset tummy.  Turns out it didn’t matter what she ate so I had leftover chicken to use up.  I grilled it up the other night and turned it into chicken salad for lunch yesterday.

Nom nom nom.  All stirred up with green onions, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, olive oil mayo, Dijon, and dill.  Rolled up with lettuce and light Laughing Cow.

Afternoon snackeroo was cooooookies…which apparently went straight into my piehole before getting photographed.

The evening was dedicated to catching up on a few more episodes of The Walking Dead now that my friend Ray is back from his vacation.  Always the great dinner guest he arrived with crusty rolls and flowers. :)

And took on my role as food paparazzi while I cooked.

“Fancy” hot dogs for dinner.  Those yummy, fresh Sooke pork sausages from The EdGe…grilled up and served on the crusty rolls with old white cheddar and condiments of choice.

I like ketchup, mustard and a smidge of mayo.

Salad and baked fries (potato & yam) on the side.

We made it through episodes 4 & 5 before calling it a night.  Only one episode left!!  Hopefully there’s a Season Two peeking around the corner soon.

After he left I was feeling snacky and grabbed an Altaulfo mango from the fruit bowl.  I don’t even generally care much for mangos, but after learning about this Philippino variety I am a little bit addicted. So deeelish!

And now…a very important question for my coffee loving friends…

As you know my coffee maker bit the dust the other day.  As you also know this is a TRAGEDY around here.  It owed me nothing so instead of trying to repair the old gal I’m shopping for a new caffeine maker.

Via Airmiles (ie: FREE coffee maker!) my choices are as follows:

• Krups Thermal Precision Coffee Maker – 1300 points
• Cuisinart Coffee Maker with Hot Water System – 1100 points
• Cuisinart Fully Automatic Burr Grind & Brew – 1900 points
• Delonghi Exclusivo Coffee Maker – 1050 points
• KitchenAid Architect Thermal Coffee Maker – 1450 points

Do any of you have one of these? 

OR… I can just cough up some of my hard earned money and buy something at the store (and use those Airmiles for something else…food processor?  espresso machine?).

OR… Tiffaney has a very nice coffee maker she has generously offered to lend me because she never uses it (how is that possible?!) but with the amount of coffee I make I just think I should have my own.

What the heck should I do?  Opinions please! :)

Triumphant

First things first…

GO CANUCKS GO!!  Take that Blackhawks!  Round 2 here we come!!!

Don’t you wish you were out on the streets of Vancouver tonight?!!

That may have been the most stressful hockey game I’ve ever watched!!  And that includes the gold medal Olympic game from last year!  (which we also won, thank you very much!!!)

I have to say that I totally needed that happy ending after the hard weekend I had.  Phew!

(ya, that’s a boob shot…LOL)

You know what the worst way to end a sick doggie filled weekend?  Wake up to find out your coffee maker isn’t working!

Nooooooooooooooooooo!  VIA to the rescue for now.  Eeeek.

Quickie breakfast…ww tortilla, almond butter, banana.

Broiled grapefruit.

Bigass salad! 

In the big silver bowl: spinach, cucumber, carrot, red pepper, radishes, grilled chicken and Bolthouse Yogurt Ranch Dressing.

Since we’ve been hitting pubs for most of the playoff games (and since there have been three games more than we expected!!) Rose offered to host the game at her place this time. 

A bunch of us gathered together for Rose’s famous turkey burgers (stuffed chock full of hidden veggies!), Tia’s delicious quinoa salad, and I baked off a pan of sweet potato chips.

(Not shown is the bazillion scoops of Rose’s homemade spinach dip I consumed.  So yummy!)

When the Canucks scored their game winning goal our screaming was so loud I’m sure Rose’s whole street could hear us.  So fun!

Here’s a little video to help keep you in the Canucks mood…

Look out Nashville…you’re next.  Mwahahaha ;)

Dinner from the EdGe

Coffeeeeeeeee.

Smooooothieeeeee.

In the KA:  ice, 1/2 banana, 2 cups spinach, flax meal, Amazing Grass, vanilla soy milk.  It never gets old.

I’d like to welcome bacon back to the menu. 

BLT wrap with Dijon and olive oil mayo.  Veggie strips on the side.

Apple and cheeeeeese…

Aussie crack cookies…

After my glorious visit to Sooke Harbour House I decided to stop at The EdGe Restaurant in Sooke for lunch on my way home.  Owner Edward was the head chef at SHH for many years until just a couple of years ago he left so he and his wife could open their own place.

Fresh, local comfort food is how I would describe the menu.  They raise their own pigs!  So I had the pulled pork sandwich on ciabatta.  To.die.for.  Completely worth an afternoon or Saturday drive for lunch!

In addition to their fresh and tasty menu they also sell their own house made charcuterie and pork sausages.  When I found out these sausages sold in 5-packs for only $10 I made sure to bring some home. :) 

Tonight seemed like a good night to grill one up.  Deeeeeeelish!

Roasted Brussels sprouts…with olive oil, coarse salt, pepper & paprika.

Baked fries…russet potato, canola oil, and sea salt.

All together now!  The sausage was quite large so I only ate half.

So incredibly juicy, slightly spiced, and full of flavour.  Nom.

Liberte yogurt makes a return to the household (finally found Svelt…and at a reasonable price!)…

With raspberries and Kashi.

Chibi and I would like to thank everyone that has sent their well wishes over the last few days.  It turns out the poor girl picked herself up a parasite and had Giardia.  Thankfully she didn’t really seem to know she was sick…except for you know….the excessive potty walks.

I finally got almost a full night’s sleep last night and it was glorious.

Unfortunately I still fell asleep on the couch after work today and missed my opportunity to finally get back to the gym.  Gah.  Oh well, clearly I needed it.

Fri-Sat-Sun

Mug care of my fabulous friend Rose’s Spring vacay!

Wild Coho salmon…

Sick pooper pupper.

Ataulfo mango > Haden mango

Weekend saviour…Thai take-out.

Hoppy Easter!

Snazzy dresser.

I’m like a kid in a candy store…except it’s a produce store.

Go Canucks Go!!