The Good, the Bad, and the Blog

Hi everyone!  Holy moly has it already been a month since I last posted?  Oh noes!  That means I’ve already been home from vacation for almost two weeks.  How dare the real world intervene!!

The good news is I have started posting some of my favourite Greek vacation photos over at my photo blog, Such a Rebel.  Please take a trip on over and check them out.  I actually took a whopping 1700 photos and managed to cull it down to less than 200 for your viewing pleasure.  Of course I’m not posting all of those at once…I figure on a week’s worth of posts to take you through our whole trip.  :)

The bad news is I am taking a wee break from food blogging.  In the four+ years I have been doing this I have really never taken a break and after the hiatus while on vacation I just felt so relieved to not have to report in every day.  It’s liberating to eat a meal without having to worry about getting a lovely photo before digging in. 

I have no idea what the future of this blog holds, or when I’ll be back.  A little reinvention is in order.  Right now I’m enjoying the freedom and trying to lose a couple of pounds.  I suspect I’ll wake up one morning with renewed interest and hope all of you will still be around when that happens.  Your support means the world to me!

I’m still tweeting my heart out so please feel free to follow me and give a shout out.  :)

Until we meet again…. xox, Jaime

Stormy Weather

So it’s about that time of year where things are getting busy and visits with friends and family are going to take priority over blogging.  I will likely still have lots to say (when don’t I?!) but I am taking a break from photographing every little bite that crosses my lips.  Instead it’s time for James Dean and I to see what else we can find for our (and your!) entertainment.

Happy Holidays y’all!

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Don’t worry, I even have photos for you today! First up…yesterday’s storm here in Victoria.

Tres windy indeed!  After picking up a friend from the ferry (Hi Matt!) we took a drive along the water to check out the stormy waters and crazy waves.

Breakwater:

View of Port Angeles, Washington State:

Hurricane Ridge (the mountains in the distance):

Ominous:

Driving along this stretch of road it was apparent the waves had become big enough to actually splash right over the whole beach and retaining wall.  There was rocky debris all over the road.

Supah cool!

What I Ate

OK, so after more than a week of straying from my usual “what I ate” blogging style I am back!  Keeping a photo log of my daily eats really does help keep things on track.  Can’t have a lot of balance if all that’s being documented is the carby goodness! Sharing only decadent ooey gooey recipes with you isn’t showing the whole picture!

After a free-for-all, eat-it-all weekend it was time to get back to normal.

Coffeeeee…

A new to me Silver Hills bread…Marvelous Multi.

Chewy sprouted grain deliciousness with crunchy PB and Supercrack.

BC grown nectarine.  I’ve been loving the pitted fruits lately (even if I do have to ripen them up for a day or two in a brown bag!).

Cheesy Pasta leftover goodness for lunch.  Reheated in the oven…giving it a crispy cheesy crust.  Oh my lordy!

PB & J Larabar to tide me over through Group Training.  It’s been a long time since I had a PB & J!

Tonight was our final group training session. After discussing how we all had sore calves for three days after those stairs we tackled upper body and abs.  I suspect my core will hate me tomorrow.  Hurts so good, right?

This pear has been hanging out in the produce drawer for about a week now.  Before it grows legs I decided to put it to use in a way-fun salad!

What goes with a pear?  Cheeeeese!  But this time I opted for stinky cheese. Gorgonzola to be exact.

Originally planned to be mixed with arugula but sadly the unopened package went bad over the long weekend.  Bummer.  A quick trip to the store brought me home with a red leaf lettuce instead.  Mixed with snipped green onions and one of my favourite greens…sunflower sprouts!

Tossed with simple Honey Balsamic Dressing:

• 1 part balsamic vinegar
• 1 part honey
• sprinkle coarse salt
• sprinkle ground pepper
• 2-3 parts olive oil

All together now!  Pear and Gorgonzola Salad.

Sprinkled with pecans…

The grand struggle is still the evening snacking.  I’m trying to wait as long as possible for dessert… dates stuffed with light Laughing Cow cheese…

But since I’m up quite late watching Friday Night Lights marathons I go for midnight cereal snacks too.  Kashi is my bedtime friend.

Inspire Me

Hey y'all.  My head has been in a bit of a weird space lately, hence the lack of inspiring posts (or posts at all!).  My apologies.  My food porn hasn't even been inspiring me lately!  Experience tells me this too shall pass though.  Hang in there. :)

Aside from unphotographed midnight snacking, here are some eats from the last few days...

Much of the problem stems from the lack of fun ingredients around the house.  Restocking the pantry and freezer has been much more challenging (and expensive!) than I expected.  Each time I have an idea for dinner it requires a trip to the market.  I'm exhausted...and broke!  Thus, I am eating the same thing a few days in a row which makes for pretty boring blogging!  and eating, truth be told.

Time for a menu planning blitz I think!  And how about some inspiration from you all?!! 

• What should I make? 
• What have I not made that you would like to see? 
• What have I made that you would like to see again? 

Do some digging and let me know!!

BOOM!

Well now, that was a bit of a shitshow wasn’t it?!  haha.  Thanks to everyone that joined in and actually understood what I was trying to say, and sorry to anyone that got caught up in the weird Twitter backlash that ensued.  Ahhhh…all in the name of blogging right?! 

Anyway, I think that’s enough of that.  If you wanna see part of the going’s on, check out my formspring page (but please don’t leave any more questions about this…I’m soooo over it).  The nice side effect of this morning’s rant was that I actually got a lot of awesome on-topic questions and that made it all worthwhile.

Sadly, I had a “I’m not much in the mood for food” kind of day so I have very little to show you to make up for the ranty ranterton post this morning.

Craving for a bigass latte was answered by a make-up free trip to Starbucks.  Those poor people!  haha.

Triple Grande Half-Sweet Non-Fat Vanilla Latte

I spied one of my all-time favorite Starbucks treats in the display today too and could not turn it down!  Apple fritter!  Oddly, SB make a fabulous donut!

I also had a much needed chiropractor appointment this afternoon.  I’ve been putting off my appointments due to my new found love of massage therapy, but you know what?  This back pain ain’t getting any better so I really need to stick with what I know works.

After my adjustment he treated me to a crazy new contraption:

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Hung me upside-down!  I could feel it lightly pulling my lower back…kind of cool.  (of course the crazy blood rush to the head was a bit odd).

This afternoon my desire to eat still hadn’t returned but my empty stomach told me to eat something anyway.  I went with a green smoothie!

Served in a wine glass a la Oh She Glows because some days just need to be fancy-like. 

Tonight I plan to find another wine glass just like that one that actually contains red wine.  Combine that with some girl chat, I think tonight’s gonna be a gooood night.  :)  *cue BEP here*

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On a happy note, check out these giveaways going down in blogland:

• Lynn at Life Health Fitness has a super great giveaway for Canadian made Honeybars!  Yummy.  I want them.
• Allison at Eat Clean Live Green is giving away Sun Warrior Protein Powder.  Which I have heard TONS about and hope I win!

▌♥ ▌Proud to be a Canadian!! ▌♥ ▌

I’m not even sure I need to write a post about the final days of the Olympics…I’m pretty sure you are all up to speed on what happened!  

Medal Count CANADA ▌♥ ▌

14 GOLD!!  7 SILVER  5 BRONZE = 26 MEDALS!

What a way to go out! 

(I’ll ignore the ridonkulous attempt at a Canadian rock “concert” at the closing ceremonies because the excitement of the men’s hockey game was good enough that nothing after that really mattered anyway.) 

Thumbs up for Michael Buble and inflatable beavers.

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Thumbs down for Avril and her inappropriate footwear and Chad Kruger’s hair.

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In completely unrelated news, I needed to un-blog for the weekend.  (If that’s wasn’t a word before, it is now!) 

Saturday I had coffee with Katie…

And managed to squeak in one last February workout.  Intro to Iron Day One.  7pm on a Saturday night is a good time to find a quiet gym…just FYI.

Sunday I had brunch with the Halibloggers.

Cora’s veggie omelette with side of bacon.  Heaven.

Lynn has photos of the gang!

Followed by a Susie’s cupcake.  Classic. 

And enjoyed the good ol’ hockey game!

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Hopefully I can wrangle up my blogging mojo and get back to a real post for y’all later today.  The luke warm latte I received this morning a la Starbucks did not help to get my Monday off on the right foot. 

Here’s to turning things around PDQ.

Yay Canada Yay!

Don't Forget!

I have a new URL: www.embracingbalance.com So just in case you hadn't noticed, be sure to update your linky love, favorites, etc.

And if you notice yourself missing from the Blogroll, give a shout out. When I switched over, it blasted my whole list so some people haven't made it back on there yet. Some are just on my Google Reader so don't worry I am still reading...but if in doubt, give a shout!

:)

Finally, a real URL for Embracing Balance!

Hi all,

I finally purchased an actual domain name for the blog. 

Blogger will redirect you from my old weird URL to the new one, but it would be best if you update your bookmarks/favorites/Google Reader/whatever tool you use to find me.

I don’t want to lose any of you!!!

http://www.embracingbalance.com/

Yaaaieeee!  The blog is growing up!

 

Update…hmmmm…it seems to have blasted my BlogRoll.  Not impressed. 

Off My Blog Game

So sorry for no evening post last night!  I actually had my laptop with me downstairs, and even got so far as to type a couple of paragraphs, but I just wasn’t feeling it and shut it down.  First time I’ve ever done that.  Weird.

Nothing exciting to report, really.  I had some cheese n crackers, FH’s buddy picked up his furry beasts, I went to the gym, I had yogurt and fruit for dinner, I had a battle with some ice cream and the ice cream won.  :)

I tracked my food yesterday (photo on my other computer…boooo) and until I ate that ice cream I’d done really good points wise.  Thankfully that’s what activity points and maybe a few flex points are for (although I don’t really count like that when I’m just experimenting like I am right now).

Then I stayed up way too late watching So You Think You Can Dance Canada, playing catch up on Big Brother for the week, and then fell asleep on the couch.  oooops.

That’s it in a nutshell. 

This morning I must have found the motivation to cook that eluded me at dinnertime last night.  Threw together this impromptu spinach omelette…it was fabulous!!

1 egg, 1 egg white, s&p, Italian seasoning…cooked with the last of the baby spinach (which I wilted in the pan with a little non-stick spray first).

Flipped the whole thing over to complete cooking.

Crumbled herby goat cheese on top, added a big scoop of organic salsa, and set atop a warmed small ww tortilla.

Man, I love it when a random grab of ingredients turn out so well!  The goat cheese got all melty and I spread it all over and mixed in the salsa for a messy but delicious meal.

I had coffee too, but somehow I didn’t take pictures.  See…I’m not on my game!  Boooo.  Oh well, I think you guys have seen all of my fun mugs many, many times anyway!

That awesome eggy goodness held me over for a long time.  I finally got hungry again about 4 hours later so I wandered into the kitchen to see what looked good.  I ended up cutting up a bunch of strawberries for the freezer, so picked at a few of those.  Then just decided to go the easy route of fruit and yogurt again.  :)

What can I say?  It’s hard to walk away from my fresh raspberries and blueberries!  I only have a few left (aside from the 8 pints of raspberries I froze…hehe) so I’m enjoying every last one!

In the bowl with Liberte Svelt strawberry yogurt and topped with hulled hemp seeds.  Yum Yum!!

I’m formulating a plan for some of the fresh green beans and potatoes I got at the weekend farmer’s market.  Something simple I think…and I still have those turkey sausages that might just see their way to the grill a little later.

Motivator!

Man, this week has been just incredible for the shout outs back to me for offering motivation to other bloggers and readers out there.  You guys are fabulous for making me feel like I’m not just writing to myself.  Your support and encouragement is much appreciated.

Welcome Tarilyn to the blogosphere.  She commented to me a couple of times and I mentioned she should get blogging…and she did!  Visit her new blog at:  Sweating my way into a Bikini and show her some love!

Thanks to Vanessa at Last Night’s Leftovers for acknowleging that my choices of delayed gratification are working out.  I wasn’t truly cognisent of the idea, but she’s right.  I often plan ahead for treats, or create challenges for myself in order to achieve healthy balance.  This week it was not giving in to coffee (although I really wanted to!) and in the end my planned and anticipated mug of joe was just that much better.  :)

Thank you also to my girl Cat for taking something I said in Toronto and carrying it home with her.  It’s totally true that I often work out or eat salad so that I can earn my more decadent meals.  “Embracing Balance” truly came about from my theory that an apple a day can lead to a cupcake a week!  I’m not giving up my indulgences dammit…so if I have to go to the gym for an extra half hour so be it.  :)  If that concept can help Cat (or any of you!) in her journey, then I’m over the moon with excitement. :)

 

Speaking of this…knowing we were going on our 5km walk this morning, I decided last night was a good time to bake something delicious and decadent as our little rewards.  It’s not often anymore I bake regular cookies (as opposed to trail mix or oatmeal or flax!) so here we have Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies complete with sugar, butter and egg! 

 

Makes 2 dozen

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 heaping cup oats

1 heaping cup chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate, yum!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars.  Add egg, milk & vanilla…cream until smooth.  Mix flour, soda & salt.  Slowly mix into wet mixture.  Add oats and combine.  Add chocolate chips and combine.  Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto non stick baking sheets.  Bake 10-12 minutes (until bottom edges look golden).  Cool for 5 minutes, transfer to wire rack to complete cooling.

Enjoy!