Sassy Mango

My Mom is here for the weekend so this will be a quick photo-heavy, word-light post before we head out to finally find me some living room tables and a much needed new vacuum.

Yesterday...Squirrelly toast with Maple Walnut Butter, sliced nanners, and a sliced fresh BC peach.

Bigass salad for lunch. 

  

Star of the big silver bowl was Pesto Ranch dressing (mixed the leftover fresh pesto with the leftover pasta salad dressing...nom!).

Also fabulous were the leftover Pesto Coated Chicken Tenders and halved cherry tomatoes...

When life gives you cold coffee (and no microwave!) make Iced Coffee!  With light vanilla soy milk.

Cookie craving?  But no cookies?  How about a Choco Mint Clif Bar?

Friday evening snackies while chillin' with the Mama...

Mango salsa came from the same fella I purchased the fun nut butters from.

Spent much of the evening assembling my new TV stand...yay!  Tomorrow my living room may actually look like a living room.  Finally!!  Around 10pm we decided we wanted to stick with our fave mother/daughter visit tradition and order Chinese take-out.  Except that we couldn't find a place that was open past 10pm???  Weird.  So instead Mom made a Wendy's run...

What?  Three chicken fingers is WAY better than the plate full of Chinese deeeeeliciousness I had intended on chowing back. ;)

Nap Time

Not even a steeped tea with milk could save me from going back to bed after dropping Mom at the airport this morning.  That 5:30am alarm buzzer came mighty early after not falling asleep until sometime after 2am. 

You know I really needed a jolt on the way home because I stopped for Timmy’s.  You all know a Timmy’s stop is pretty rare for me.  I do like their tea though.

Bye-bye Mom!!  :(

When I woke up again at 11:30 I was craving breakfast.  Unfortunately the fruit situation around here is in dire straits…the last of the grapes were bad and so were the last 4 Sunrise apples.  I guess they didn’t like it in the fridge.  So I had to make do with yogurt and some mix-ins.

The last of the Foxhill vanilla yogurt with raw oats, ground flax, hulled hemps seeds, a few pecans, and a sprinkle of craisins.

 

Coffeeeeeee.

Since breakfast was so late and I had a few cups of coffee to keep my hunger at bay, I skipped lunch and just made a couple of little hummus wraps to tide me over through our afternoon walk.

Late afternoon FH and I decided we should get out of the house and headed over to the BLT trail for a walk.  We walked about 2.5km in and then back…another nice, crisp, brisk day on the trail.

Cracked open a bag of multigrain Tostitos for a quick munch when we got back…with salsa.  Love these chips.

FH is off to sea tomorrow for five effing weeks (actually he informed me today it’s closer to six weeks…I hadn’t done the math since they changed the departure date…boooo) so we planned a date night at home.

In lieu of dinner we made a little wine and cheese night.  FH had been saving a bottle of Tait basket pressed Shiraz he picked up during our visit to Winnipeg in July and decided tonight was good night to open it up. 

Along with a plate of cacciatore, extra old white cheddar, swiss cheese, the cranberry cheddar from Foxhill, and fresh sourdough with real butter.  I added some pickles too just for fun.

 

nom nom nom.  All deeeelish (well except I am disappointed by the cranberry cheddar…sorry Foxhill, but I’m not a fan…I couldn’t taste cheddar or cranberry…just blah). I’ve been savoring my wine for a few hours while we watch movies…it’s perfect for sipping.

And now that we are on to our second movie (how romantic are we with Wolverine on BluRay?) I’ve finally broken out my secret treat that I picked up at the mall the other day.  Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory english toffee.  :) Yum!!

It’s going to be very quiet around here tomorrow.  After having Mom here for two weeks, and FH around for most of the Summer (the longest he has ever been along side since we’ve been together) (although he was away for vacation, etc quite a lot) it’s going to be weird to be alone for more than a month again. 

Good thing I’ve got my blogger gals coming to visit very sooooooon!!!!! :)

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Arrrrrr…how about “Talk WITH a Pirate” instead?

While finishing our family date night last night we found ourselves enjoying the company of Captain Jack and his crew.  Pirates of Halifax.  who knew?  Amazingly in character. Screen accurate costumes.  (and truly friendly pirates!  but shhhhh don’t tell anyone and ruin their rep.)

How much would a pirate pay for earrings?

A buck-an-ear!!!  haaaaaarrrrrrr!

Speaking of our Friday night dinner…we opted for McElvie’s for some delishes fishes dishes.  They really do have some of the nicest lobster in town!

Mom and I shared our appetizers…although I admit that once the mussels were placed in front of me I totally powered through them and kind of wished I had more to make my whole meal!  My only complaint was that they should be served with crusty bread for dipping in the incredibly tasty broth!  Our other appy was the tuscan shrimp…also very yummy!

Mom and FH each opted for the surf & turf…whole boiled lobster and NY strip steak.  I like to name all of the lobsters in restaurants Larry, but FH said his was Howard or Charlie or something.  :)

 

I chose their So Many Fish dish…this evening’s offering included a pesto salmon filet, spicy shrimp, and a half lobster thermador.  I thought the lobster would be the winner, but it turned out the salmon was the best.

Wine…

Dessert Mom and I shared…creme brulee of course!

Deeelish food, excellent service, and impromptu pirate conversation!  What more could you want on a family date night?

Cucumber Rolls

Have you ever noticed how many sushi rolls contain cucumber? A lot.  We learned that tonight because Mom doesn’t like cucumber and every roll I wanted to order had cucumber in it.  LOL.  The only one we could agree on was the sweet potato roll, but I honestly don’t consider that sushi.  When I’m in the mood for sushi, I want fishie!

Conveniently Mom had already decided that she’d have teriyaki dish or something anyway…so that’s what she did.  What a Mommy!  :)

Green tea to drink, of course.

We shared the two tempura plates to start.  One is mixed veggie.  One is shrimp.

Super yummy, but price-wise the shrimp was a rip-off.  For $8.95 I expect more than four shrimp.  They had excellent tempura though.

Mom’s meal came with a miso soup and I didn’t want to be left out so ordered one for myself.  Miso soup is always so whole-body warming…comfort soup.

Not really thinking about the fact that I was having appies, I ordered three rolls.  Spicy tuna (my fave!!), California, and Philadelphia.

The tuna did not disappoint.  Deeeeelish.

The Cali was good but I thought this restaurant used canned crab meat, not fake crab so I was a little disappointed.

The Philly was OK, but I don’t like the salmon being on the outside of the roll, and the cuke pieces were way too big.  What happened to the usual way of julienne cucumbers??  Tasty but not a texture sensation for me.

I do love leftovers though.  I was so full that I left more than an entire roll for lunch tomorrow.  nom nom nom.

Oh ya, and Mom’s dinner came with dessert which I presumed would be an itty bitty scoop of ice cream…but when it arrived it was two big scoops so I obviously had to request a spoon.  mmmmmm Mango!  (haha, and I don’t even really like mango, but it was good ice cream!)

Aside from dinner we just a quick trot around the mall, got a few treats (saved for the weekend), and came home to watch the results of SYTYCD that we taped.  Bye bye krump girl…I liked you but you hit a wall.

What’s a girl to do now?

• True Blood Season Two ended.
• Big Brother 11 ended.
• I’ve read all of my Sookie Stackhouse books.
• I have started two more books and neither of them are holding my interest.
• FH is about to leave for FIVE EFFING WEEKS!  Gah.

Good thing the Fall TV season is upon us!  And that I’m back into a gym rhythm (when my bad shoulder isn’t failing me!).

The quiet day continued into the evening yesterday.  FH was held up at work so I just put together a casserole for Mom and I and puttered around while that cooked.  It was a perfect night for TV watching but of course there was nothing on while I was hoping for the mindless action.

The casserole was a Campbell’s recipe I used to make from time-to-time but haven’t made in ages (since I found out that FH isn’t in love with rice dishes).  I subbed in green beans in place of the zucchini, and cream of mushroom soup (with skim milk) instead of their cooking sauce but otherwise pretty much followed the recipe.

Italiano Chicken & Rice Bake

Oh, I parboiled the rice a bit first because I have found in the past that it is often still crunchy if I just follow the recipe. 

And I opted to use only two chicken breasts cut into bite sized chunks, instead of four whole breasts.  Cooks a little faster and saves a few bucks.  :)

Served with some steamed broccoli for some extra veggie love.

Mom and I spent the evening watching So You Think You Can Dance Canada (it’s getting so hard to guess who is going home now!!) and the Big Brother finale.  Yaaieeeeee for the winner (I won’t spoil it just yet because I hate that!)!

We enjoyed some Cheetos Crunchits and Vanilla Bean Latte cookies while watching.  It seems to me that sometimes that amount of reality TV requires some junk food.  :)