April Shower

Yesterday my friends Ingmarie and Jessica hosted a baby shower for our friend Angela…her baby is due in late May.

As with any gathering of woman we needed food! :)

Angela is one of those lucky folks who is not only has a gluten intolerance but she can’t have eggs or dairy either!!  So we decided to make all of our snackies gluten/egg/dairy free just to make it easy for her to partake.

My offering: Lemony Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa cooked with 2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, pan toasted
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. When the quinoa has cooked, let stand for a few minutes until all water has absorbed.  Fluff with a fork and let cool to room temperature.
2. Add all ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Taste and season with salt if desired.
4. Can be refrigerated until ready to serve, but is best served room temp.

At the party we had all kinds of goodies to eat!

Fresh fruit salsa with cinnamon sugar gluten-free tortillas…

Chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce…

Rice crackers with goat cheese, capers, salmon & dill…

Not to mention veggies, fruits, homemade guacamole, Rice Krispie Treats, and amazing Chocolate Quinoa Cupcakes from Bubby Rose’s Bakery that somehow escaped my camera.

The girls kept it simple with two fun (food related!) shower games.

The whole “poopy diaper” situation where I guessed 3 of the 5 melted chocolate bars.

And the baby food tasting…at which I thought I had guessed poorly but turned out I got 5 1/2 out of 8!  The creamed corn was AWFUL.

All in all a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Angela made off with a pretty good haul of baby stuff and we had lots of good girl talk.

As an added bonus, many of the menfolk decided to make themselves scarce by washing their cars…and a couple of us whining girls managed to get ours washed too. :)  Score!

Thanks everyone for being such fabulous hosts!

Maybe Baby

After a rough sleep interrupted multiple times by my silly injury I thought today might be a grumpy day, but to my surprise it wasn't!

Maybe it's because I started with French Press coffee in my motivational mug.

Or maybe it's because I planned ahead and put a breakfast cookie a la Fitnessista in the fridge last night.

Coooookie:  1/4 cup oats, 1 tbsp chocolate Amazing Meal, 1 tbsp crunchy PB, sploosh unsweetened Almond Breeze, lots of cinnamon, 1/2 mashed frozen banana, and 1 tbsp Craisins.

Maybe it was the fresh and deeeeelish guacamole I put together at lunchtime.

That bunch of cilantro from the other night can't go to waste!

Maybe it's the way-fun nobby farm fresh carrots I scrubbed up for dipping in the guac.  Or more likely it was the Multigrain Tostitos crack chips.

(Mom: here's the instructions for how to cut an avocado).

It definitely could have been the awesome fresh BC berries.

 

Most certainly the delivery of flowers must have helped!

Or as much as I hate to admit it, maybe it was the tough lower body group workout with Tia and friends tonight.  It kicked my ass.  Who invented jump squats anyway?

I know that this brain child of a recipe was a definite contributor to my mood.  Love it when a plan comes together!

Dijon Potato and Bean Salad

• 6 golden nugget potatoes
• 1/2 lb (approx) farm fresh green beans

Cube the spuds and boil in well salted water for about 12 minutes.  Chop the beans, add to potatoes and boil for additional 4 minutes.  Drain.  Rinse with cold water to stop cooking process.

I actually did this right before leaving for group training and just let them sit out at room temperature until I got back.

Dressing was super simple:

• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• Juice of half a lemon (2tbsp)
• 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Whisk mustard and lemon juice together.  Keep whisking while slowly drizzling in olive oil.  Taste and add more oil if needed.

Place potatoes and beans in a mixing bowl.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper.  Add dressing and secret ingredient...

Herby goat cheeeeeese!!  Toss lightly so the cheese and dressing mix together to create a creamy and deeeelish coating on the veggies.

I was definitely pleased with the result.  If only I had fresh dill!

Served my portion alongside a piece of cheater chicken breast.  Cheater because I bought it pre-cooked from the supermarket deli today.  :)

Most definitely my good day continued because of a teeny tiny dessert treat. 

Petite Gateau (haha, little cake).  Literally two bites.  Tres fun.  Maybe I'll sleep well tonight knowing I had a productive and well balanced day.  Yay.

Of course I'll probably be busy wondering if my Haliblogger buddy had her little peanut yet.  Wish Miss Angie very good luck.  She's in the hospital now and here's hoping there's a Baby All the Way tomorrow!

Cheep, Cheep, Oink, Oink

This morning some birdies cheeping outside the house woke me up. Oh let this mean Spring is finally here to stay! The sun was even streaming through the crack in the curtains and we turned the heat down because it's too warm in here today.

In the spirit of Spring, I bought some new tulips while I was out last night. Tulips are by far my favorite flower to have around the house. Close second would be stargazer lilies because they smell so good.

Considering today is technically a Canadian statutory holiday and I told my bosses I'd only be checking in on work, I've ended up with a full work day. Booo to that. Oh well, I didn't have anything else planned except tackling this office disaster so better to get the work done today rather than be drowning in it come Monday morning.

Since I did four posts yesterday I decided to skip the breakfast post today. It was just a simple cup of coffee, with the last two mini blueberry scones (topped with honey) and some canteloupe. I held myself over with a second cup of coffee which was extra enjoyable now that my desk is clean! I am keeping this cute vase on my desk with a fresh flower stem in it now too....it's nice to have a nice little bit of nature in here!

For lunch I made a snack plate of hummus, carrots, a sliced mushroom, pickles, a lonely artichoke heart, some light cheddar, and a big serving so Kashi original crackers. There's something about cheddar and hummus that I just love. Same kind of love I have for chickpeas and cheddar in a salad...deeelish.

I just had a quick snack of the mediocre sesame trail mix from yesterday. I hate waste so I wasn't going to just toss it so figured I'd eat it now and be done with it. Regardless of whether it tasted boring, it fills the tiny hunger gap until dinner. (Which is going to be pork tenderloin by the way!)

Tonight we are off to visit one of FH's coworkers who's wife just had a baby. We got them this cute piggy bank....I always get piggy banks as baby gifts, it's my thing. :) I even found a 2009 quarter to put in it because it's bad luck to give a bank with nothing in it.