Mixed Bag

First, a giant shout out and sincere *C*O*N*G*R*A*T*U*L*A*T*I*O*N*S* to my lovely, fit, fabulous blog friend Jess!  Many of you probably know she has literally been working her azz off this past year to audition for the next Booty Camp Fit DVD and today she found out she got the spot!  If you don’t follow her blog or YouTube channel, you should!  She is cute, funny, inspirational and supportive.  Yay Jess!!!

Congratulations Comments

** Have I ever told you guys about #Pouteam?  Yep, that is what you think it is.  A Poutine Team.  Formed on Twitter.  How very Canadian of us, eh?  I joined a little late, but I have now been on three poutine eating adventures with this group of Victorians and look forward to eventually tasting all of the poutine Victoria has to offer.

Today:  Ferris’ Grill for Pulled Pork Poutine with slow roasted pork shoulder, cheese curds, and rosemary whiskey gravy over their Chicago-style fries.  That is some delicious gravy.

Previously:  Sizzling Tandoor for Butter Chicken Poutine.  So amazing.  Yes, Butter Chicken and cheese curds do indeed go together.

Also: Lady Marmalade for Good Morning Poutine.  Breakfast hash browns with white cheddar and three choices of ‘gravy’.  My word.

Please note that some Victoria restaurants serve poutine in bowls the size of a baby bear’s head.  In those cases I have enlisted my friend Ingmarie to share the carbfest as well as a side salad.  Balance is the word. Word.

** Another #CanadianBloggerSeries post is up over on Heidi’s blog.  This week’s Canadian pride comes from Axel the Iron Rogue and he tells us about living healthy in the suburbs.  All of these patriotic posts make me want to do another cross-country road trip!

** No big Easter dinner for me this year (not all that unusual really) but we will be attending a family brunch and Easter Egg hunt with Michael’s family.  I offered to bake something and can’t decide between going with a basic tried and true favourite, or guinnea pigging the fam on some new real Easter creation.

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Italian Easter Bread anyone?  What’s your go-to Easter baking favourite?

Headache Inspired

** Awesome friend alert!  My favourite frequent border crosser, Ibby, brought me back a surprise from Trader Joe’s.  Cooooookie Butter! It’s as delicious as everyone says.

I provided him with a pan of Maple Bacon Sticky Buns as thanks.

Which reminds me…I posted those AMAZING bacon buns yesterday and I only got ONE comment.  Shocked!  I thought you guys would be drooling all over those.

** This morning I made the sad mistake of ordering a Starbucks muffin.  It was mediocre at best and barely the size of my palm.  Then when I looked it up it turned out to be a 400 calorie muffin.  400!!  How is that even a reasonable item to sell?  #@$%^&*!!!

** Tomorrow is #FoodiePenPals reveal day.  Check back here to see my fun foodie goodie bag.

** There was big plans on my workout schedule to finally try BodyPump tonight but I was thwarted by a weird, out of nowhere headache.  First I had a wave of light headedness, then kind of a wibbly eye thing that wouldn’t go away…so I relegated myself to the couch for a few hours and now seem to be fine.

** Gorgeous big pink grapefruits were on sale this week.  I bought a bag and spent three days trying to think of something creative to do with them.  Today I had a brilliant brainstorm.  Eat them!  :)

** I have missed a couple of weeks of #CanadianBloggerSeries shout outs.  Oooops!  Take a click on over to Heidi’s blog to check out posts by:

• Karen from Toronto Girl West (British Columbia)
• Cynthia from Cynthia’s Adventures (New Brunswick & Toronto)
• Leigh from All You Need is Love (Alberta)

It’s so fun reading everyone’s different views of their place in Canada!

** Oh, I suppose I should mention The Hunger Games.  I was lucky enough to get a pair of passes to the advanced premiere of the movie so the other Jamie and I checked it out.  It’s definitely worth the hype.  Very well done.  I think I was at a bit of a disadvantage having just finished the book three days prior so I was picking apart the details and timeline a bit, but overall they did a good job converting the book to the screen.

I’m wondering if anyone who has not read the book has seen the movie yet?  And if you have, were you able to follow the story just fine?  I felt like you needed to know a fair bit from the book for the movie to make complete sense.  Or was that just because the book was so fresh in my mind?

I’m now [not so] patiently waiting on my friend’s boyfriend to finish reading book two so I can have it. 

** I finally gave in a got Draw Something Free for my iPhone tonight.  I’ve played like 15 hands and I’m terrible.  But I’ve had to draw fire twice so I guess that’s my current forte.  You can find me on there as bi0nicw0man if you want to test my mad finger drawing skillz.  I’d like to earn some new colours!

I just spent like 18 minutes trying to figure out how people screen capture things on their iPhones to post to their blogs and such and couldn’t do it. 

Help me!

Thursday Things

Hellooooo everyone.  How has your week been going?  Things have been pretty quiet around here…just taking care of my back and trying to keep on top of the dishes!

Lots of fun things are going down in bloggie town right now…

• My guest post highlighting my Victoria Dine Around experience at The Bengal Lounge went up over at Victorian Food today.  Pop over and check it out!

• I have joined the Foodie Penpal movement being hosted by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean.  I read about it on Elizabeth’s blog and decided to get in on the action.  Hilariously, both of the penpals I’ve been set up with are from right here…one from Victoria and one from Salt Spring Island!
• Another fun post has gone up for our #CanadianBloggerSeries over on Heidi’s blog.  This time it’s from Stephanie at Fit Mom in Training and she shines a lovely light on Manitoba!

Other fun things…

• The other day I got a rather mediocre Chai Tea Latte at Teaopia.  It was lukewarm and I couldn’t drink it so I brought it home and put it in the fridge.  Thanks to a smartypants idea from a friend I turned it into oatmeal this morning.  So yum!
• I already mentioned this on Facebook, but the most recent instalment of My Drunk Kitchen is about MRE’s and reminded me of the time Arron and I had an IMP tasting party! 

• Remember that awesome KitchenAid food processor I got with my Airmiles?  I’m thinking about selling it.  Turns out it is WAY bigger than I need.  I’m like Goldilocks.  My first one was too small, this one is too big.  Apparently I am in need of one that is jussssst riiiiight. 
• The grocery list for Bacon Cinnamon Roll ingredients is on my iPhone and ready to rock.  Excited much?!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Life Notes

** My submission for the #CanadianBloggerSeries has been posted over on Heidi’s blog.  Go check out my slightly over-the-top praise for Victoria.  :)  Oh, and my favourite self-portrait of all time.

** In writing that I realized that I never did tell you about last week’s post for the series.  Doh.  Rose from The Healthy Hipster wrote about healthy living in Toronto.  Who knew it could be such a pain in the azz?!

** There are currently six kinds of chocolate treats in my house.  Amazingly none of them seem to be calling my name or creating a binge.

** My body is definitely feeling yesterday’s workout.  So glad today is just a cardio day!

** Last night I completely stuck to my grocery list and except for tomatoes and onions, everything else I bought was on sale.  I LOVE when that happens.

** Thanks to that sale I have cottage cheese and kiwis in the house.  I imagine this will be my pre-gym snack every day this week.

** Tonight’s chicken strip recipe calls for Corn Flake Crumbs.  Those bad boys are $5.99 a box!  For a weeeeee box.  No way!  Instead, for $3.99 I got this jumbo box of store-brand corn flakes which I will gladly portion out and smash myself.  :) 

** I am already looking forward to Friday because I’m having a couple of my besties over to watch Breaking Dawn and eat tasty movie snacks. 

** I’m not really looking forward to Saturday because I’ve promised myself it is the day I will move my furniture and finish painting those damn baseboards.

What is your favourite at-home movie watching snack?

What else can I do with my excess of corn flakes?

11 Things You Never Wanted to Know About Me

Happy weekend everyone!  Hope you all have lovely plans and that the weather is great wherever you are.  It has been raining cats and dogs here.  Ew.

It’s been forever since I participated in a blog survey.  Seems these things come and go but this one managed to grab some attention and it’s making the rounds of blogland.  The lovely Elizabeth on Tap tagged me so here I am sharing 11 Things you may not know about me…

RULES:

1. Post these rules.
2. Post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions the person who tagged you set for you in their post.
4. Tag 11 new people to participate.
5. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
6. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.

Well, fine.  If you say so!

Eleven Random Things About Little Ol’ Me:

1. I’ve had my kitty, Mr. Stoop, for 17 years.  He’s my rock.
2. His name is Mr. Stoop because apparently a 19 year old me wasn’t bright enough to change the name he came with…Stupid.
3. I don’t have a microwave or a dishwasher and generally don’t miss either.
4. When asked what my favourite colour is I can never decide.  Blue and green are my likeliest choices but pink has it’s place too!
5. When I was 10 years old my Mom made me sign up for the community softball team.  At our first practice I got smashed in the mouth with the ball.  I had a retainer.  My tongue has never been the same.
6. I don’t really work in my PJs although it’s tempting because I work at home.
7. The reason I’m always whining about being broke is because the great contract job I’ve had for six years got cut back and I haven’t been able to find anything to supplement the missing income.
8. My favourite restaurant dessert is crème brulee.  I can almost never pass it up.
9. Having said that, my favourite baked goodie at home is chocolate chip cookies.  Again, I can’t pass them up.
10. Recently I’ve become more of a beer girl than a wine girl.  Especially yummy specialty microbrews. 
11. I secretly stalk Pinterest hoping people have pinned things from my blog.  Hint Hint!

 

Here are Elizabeth’s 11 questions and my answers:

1. If you could pick your theme song, what would it be? I’ve thought about this for a week and have NO IDEA!
2. What is your favorite local restaurant? Oh lordy, there’s so many. For sake of brevity how’s about I pick Ferris’ Grill as my fave casual spot, and Ulla as my fave special occasion place.
3. What day of the week were you born? Saturday.
4. Tea or coffee? Coffee, always coffee.
5. Pants or skirts? Sadly, pants are just more practical for daily wear.
6. Where would you go on your ideal vacation? Lately I’m coveting the idea of a cruise leaving from New Orleans.
7. What’s your favorite day of the week? Sunday. It’s the one day that I really get to relax without chores, workouts, or anything pressing.
8. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Night owl for shizzle.
9. What is your favorite sport to watch? Hockey obviously. Go Canucks!
10. Do you have a secret talent? Only if whining is a talent.  Oh wait, that’s not hidden.
11. What is your go-to workout song? Recently, Moves Like Jagger…but I always recommend Here It Goes Again by OK-Go!

I choose to tag some of my Canadian blogger buddies:  

Amy from Amy’s Quest, Heidi from The Balance Project, Scott from Your Inner Skinny, Meg from A Dash of Meg, Lisa from Smores N More, Karen from Toronto Girl West, Amber at The Girl With the Red Hair, Jess at Truly Into Fitness, Tamara at Once Last Kick, Cali at Supercalifragilistic, and Kirsty at I Am the New Me.

Phewwwww.  That was hard!!

And to finish this all off, here are my questions for my tagged friends:

1. Black or white?
2. Day or night?
3. Spring or Fall?
4. Bacon or ham?
5. Scrambled or over-easy?
6. Vanilla latte or black coffee?
7. Dogs or cats?
8. Attached or single?
9. Beer or wine?
10. iPhone or Android?
11. Fruit or veggies?

Get cracking kids, and get creative! 

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Thanks for reading this crazy long post!  Hope you learned a little something more than you knew before.  And as always thanks for your bloggie support!!!  Luv to you all!

Things…

This was my view from the gym yesterday.  There’s worse things to look at while sweating up a storm, no?

I swear I had plans for a recipe post this week.  I made this Quinoa and Bean Soup the other night and while it’s OK, it’s bland so I didn’t deem it good enough for a post of it’s own. 

To be fair, it was better heated up and it was really easy to make so maybe with some better seasoning I might make it again and tell you about it.

So far, my grocery budgeting has worked out exactly as I had planned for the week.  In fact I bought myself a happy little bouquet and still didn’t break the budget.  Huzzah!

Once a month I load my Starbucks card for buying coffee beans and occasional handy dandy coffees.  Yesterday I was happy to use up my last $3 just to get my hands on a cute Love cup!

I didn’t do it, but there’s an iPhone app you can use to scan the cup and the picture will magically come to life!  Starbucks…you are a PR machine.

UPS arrived at my door and I may have squealed with delight when I buzzed the guy in to deliver this package!!  I’ve been sitting, waiting, and wishing for a real food processor for years now (I only have a wee 2 cupper) so I finally gave in and ordered one.

Don’t worry…it didn’t cost me a dime!  As if a KitchenAid anything is in my budget right now.  Nope!  You can thank Airmiles for this one.  :)

This thing is enormous!!  I’ll probably be complaining that it’s too much food processor for me now.  Never satisfied you know. 

Now, what to make…what to make? 

Oh, and the third instalment from #CanadianBloggerSeries is up over on Heidi’s blog.  This time it’s my buddy Scott from Your Inner Skinny explaining what a giant pain in the ass it is to eat healthy living in Yellowknife. 

I hate to break it to you bud, but those organic eggs cost the same ridiculous amount here in Victoria.  You aren’t alone up there on that one!

Confessions

** There is a box of Special K Vanilla Almond in the cupboard above my fridge. And often eat a bowl drenched in soy milk while laying in bed watching Firefly/Castle/HIMYM/FridayNightLights before falling asleep.

** I have made next-to-no progress on the painting of my base boards. That whole “base boards are thisclose to the carpet” situation has proven to be a giant pain in the azz. (Yes, I bought the little tool…but it’s still a pain).

** Sunday night I made a pan of Rice Krispie Treats as snacks for the week.  Yesterday I threw them away because they didn’t turn out.  How do you eff up cereal, melted marshmallows and butter?

** You may find a case of Diet Ginger Ale in my fridge.  Sometimes it’s OK to drink artificial sweetener.  Like when you read 8,001 food blogs that feature cupcakes and chocolate covered bacon and you need something to stop your sweet tooth from jumping off a bridge.

** I didn’t shave my legs the entire time Michael was in Costa Rica. What? It’s not like it’s skirt season around here.  (He’s home tonight BTW!)

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The second post for the #CanadianBloggerSeries is up over on Heidi’s blog.  This week’s installation comes from Lisa at Smores N More and she tells us about her love of Ontario and a great snowshoeing adventure.  Pop over and check the girls out and tell us what you love about Canada.  :)

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Got any confessions you just HAVE to get out and tell me??

Today…

…is National Peanut Butter Day.  How do I know?  Because it’s the hottest topic among food bloggers on Twitter!  Oddly I actually bought peanut butter for the first time in months today.  Only because my Trader Joe’s almond butter is nearing it’s end and I haven’t managed to talk anyone into trekking across the border to replenish it for me.  PB will have to suffice.  I suppose.

…I’m making Kale Pesto.  I feel like this is brilliant.  And cheaper than real pesto.  If someone else thought of it before me please don’t ruin my fun by telling me.  I like to think I come up with ideas on my own.  I plan to smoooosh it into a grilled cheese sandwich.  See!  Brilliant.

…I am tackling the first of the to-do projects I gave myself for the New Year.  Painting my base boards has only been on my to-do list for about 14 months.  Not that I’m counting.  It involves a lot of painter’s tape and crawling around on my floor…not to mention moving my couch, TV stand and desk…so we’ll see just how much of this project gets done before Michael comes back from vacation and I enlist him for the heavy lifting.

…the first post for the #CanadianBloggerSeries went up over on Heidi’s blog, The Balance Project.  For obvious reasons I love her blog name.  For other obvious reasons I love this blog series.  Proud Canadians in the house!  Today’s post is all about Saskatchewan and courtesy of A Dash of Meg.  Stay tuned for posts every Tuesday, including one by yours truly next month.

…I want a cupcake.  That is all.

What did you do today?