Weekend Eats and Good Times

Saturday…

Big day of getting a start on renovating Michael’s basement suite.  First, I spent an hour digging weeds out of the garden and picking the first batch of strawberries.  Then tried my hand at picking out just the right paint colours and staring blankly at the ENTIRE AISLE of baseboards.  My brain hurt.

Sustenance…

1. Breakfast cookie.

2. Coffee with almond milk, water, and bumbleberry banana smoothie made with almond milk and cottage cheese.

3. Green Tea Iced Tea.

4. Lunchtime snack plate: salami, chicken, brie, cheddar, olives, 1/2 Kaiser roll with tomatoes.

5. Watermelon.

6. BBQ burger patty with mustard, avocado, fresh basil and sautéed onions on the side.  Cheesy broccoli and cauliflower.

7. Fresh picked strawberries over vanilla ice cream.

Don’t attempt to get Home Depot to colour match a Rona colour for a sample.  You wind up with a greyish white, instead of a sandy beige. 

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Sunday…

After a quick dog walk and breakfast with my sweetie, I hopped in the car and headed for Nanaimo to visit my Mom and my friend Christy.

Mama rescued this wee little toy poodle recently.  Meet Koda.  He’s 4.4 scrawny little pounds and just had all but two of his teeth removed.

Look at those gangly legs!  Cuddly little sweetheart though!

Random eats…

1. Grilled ham, over medium egg on whole wheat toast with brie.

2. Coffee with almond milk.

3. Starbucks grande non-fat half sweet vanilla dark coffee misto.

4. Baby Salsa Sante Fe (chicken & guac) burrito with no mayo.

5. Dinner in the car: baby carrots with hummus, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Luna Bar, fresh cherries.

It would have been faster to hit a drive-thru for dinner on the road, but a quick stop at the grocery store saved me money, calories, and guilt. :)  Plus I have a lot of leftover hummus for this week.

PS:  My Mama bought me a new purse.  LOVE.  {Aldo}

How was your weekend?  Hope you are ready for another lovely week!

Cheeseburger Road Trip

So who the heck goes on a road trip just for a Bacon Cheeseburger?  Oh right, me!  And my friend Ibby.  We have issues.

But if loving bacon is wrong we don’t want to be right.

Don’t worry, we didn’t dress up for cheeseburgers.  I just wanted to show off my New Years outfit for the twelfth time.

I ate healthy toast before we left.

Chibi got up close and personal in the front seat.

Obviously there was road caffeine.  Did you know that the Coco Cappuccino is actually the cappuccino version of the Cafe Mocha?  I didn’t. 

Yup, 1.5 hour drive to Nanaimo to meet my Mom and Uncle for lunch at Gilly B’s.  Home of my favouritest Bacon Cheeseburger on the island.

And if you are going to drive all that way for lunch you might as well get your fries turned into poutine too.

Thankfully Gilly B’s didn’t prove me wrong…Ibby agreed it was a damn fine burger (or at least he’s just really nice saying that!!)

Chibi and I bonded while devising a plan to steal Ibby’s truck.  We got sidetracked by the food coma and doggie kisses though.

Return trip cooookie.

After a pit stop in Chemainus to visit Mel and Ryan we headed back home.  It had actually been a few hours since food so I reheated a bowl of Moroccan Stew and settled into the couch.

I fell asleep about 3 minutes after laying down and didn’t wake up again until 2am when I promptly dragged my behind to bed.

Clearly road trip cheeseburgers make a tired Jaime.  Zzzzzzzzzz.

iTrip

I will compile a list of the suggested tunes (keep them coming!) when I get back from my girlie weekend but in the meantime I ended up spending my iTunes gift card on some car tunes.  Blame it on good advertising.

iTunes sent me an email of what’s new and I immediately gravetated to the new single by Mother Mother.  The Stand. 

Which led to the purchase of their previous album. O My Heart.

Which led me to purchase the Metric album I meant to purchase ages ago. Fantasies.

Which somehow led to a Katy Perry album. Teenage Dream.

And well, let’s just say I had to top my account with my MasterCard.

Merry Christmas 2009 to me.  Thanks Mom!

Cross-Border Road Snacks

A little while back I had quite a few cross-border exchanges on the go.  After a little hiatus I have another one!  Miss Sarah Sundae put together this awesome box of American loot for me...all the way from Connecticut!

I don't know if she realized it at the time, but every single thing she sent me is perfect for my upcoming road trip adventure!

Well, OK, I packed up the yummy Trader Joe's coffee and cute handmade dish cloth for my new home in Victoria...but everything else is already packed up a little bag for the car. :)

Way fun trail mix, organic fruit snacks, Ghirardelli chocolate

Giant oatmeal cookie, Newman's Own Peppermint Cups (I'm wicked excited about both of these treats!), various other fun bars

Eating Well magazine (for when staring at the road is just too much!)

Cute Connecticut magnet...which is great because I collect fun destination magnets.  :)

I'm betting the chocolate bar will be the first to go (you know, cuz it would melt and we can't have that!), but will be closely followed by those Newman's cups.  nom nom nom.

Thanks Sarah!!!  I love me some cross-border love.

You can see what I sent Sarah in exchange here.

Fresh Stuff

Oh man, is it nice to have a fresh load of groceries!

Finally something new for breakfast.  Organic vanilla yogurt...fresh blueberries!!!...and granola...

 

There was definitely coffee too...but I'm sure you knew that!

Nifty new whole grain sandwich thins for making lunch.  Toasted with hummus, gorgeous fresh sliced tomatoes and baby spinach...

With a refreshing POMenade.  So yum!!!

The Club Soda Cupcakes are looking a little smushed...but they still taste good.  :)

The rest of today involves way fun kabobs I got from the supermarket last night, a cheater Asian slaw, and a hot and sweaty trip to the gym.

In road trip news:  That trip to the garage yesterday cost me a small fortune but my silver bullet ride is now all tuned up and safe for my drive.  New tires are soooooo smooth!!

In condo news:  Tiffaney volunteered to go and take a closer look and a zillion pictures of that unit I'm interested in.  People...if she comes back with two thumbs up tomorrow, I may no longer be homeless upon arrival in Victoria!!!!!

Road Trip Update

For those of you that have been following along with the gong show that is my life lately, I thought I'd lay out a post that outlines everything all in one place.  I know I've been a little haphazard with my mentionings of my forthcoming move and crazy-ass cross country road trip.

(Title still pending)

Really, there's not toooo much to it.  I have a 99% solid schedule and CAA...what else do I need?  :)

Da Schedule:

1. Halifax --> Fredricton 4 hours Sun, June 27th

2. Fredricton --> Montreal 8 hours Mon, June 28th

3. Montreal extra day Tues, June 29th

4. Montreal --> Toronto 5 hours Wed, June 30th

5. Toronto extra day Thurs, July 1st

6. Toronto --> Sault Ste. Marie 8 hours Fri, July 2nd

7. Sault Ste. Marie --> Thunder Bay 8 hours Sat, July 3rd

8. Thunder Bay --> Kenora 6 hours Sun, July 4th

9. Kenora --> Regina 8 hours Mon, July 5th

10. Regina --> Calgary 8 hours Tues, July 6th

11. Calgary --> Kamloops 6 hours Wed, July 7th

12. Kamloops --> Victoria 4 hours + ferry Thurs, July 8th

The times are all estimates based on Google Maps (which I know is usually wrong...but it helps account for pee stops, photo stops, food stops, and whatever other random stopping I might make).

So far I have lovely friends (or in the case of Montreal...family...betcha didn't know I have a step-brother!) to stay with in about half of the stops.  Otherwise I think Best Western and I shall be very good friends by the end of this trip.

Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, and Regina really are just rest stops, but if you know of anything I should make a point of seeing while there (or while driving there) let me know.  Oh...I know I wanna see the Terry Fox statue in Thunder Bay.  LOL.

I am actively downloading music as I think of it, plus have my old school collection of CDs.  Nothing says road trip to me like the original Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Everclear, and Alanis Morissette.  (I used to live 1.5 hours from my boyfriend when I was 21...we drove back and forth A LOT!)

In addition I have downloaded a couple of audio books:  Eat Pray Love, Life of Pi and I'm still deciding on a third kind of fluff book.  I've got a lot of recommendations...but let me know if you have one you think I would like!

One of the hardest parts will be figuring out how to pack!  Road trip clothes are pretty easy (hello Lululemon!) but once I get to Victoria I'm going to be staying with a friend for at least a month so I need to have pretty much my whole Summer wardrobe.  Not to mention that I have a big business conference the first weekend I'm there (which is why my arrival date is a Thursday) so I need my work clothes and extra shoes too. 

Oh, and I need to bring my coffee maker because the friend that is so kindly taking me in for all that time is also the same friend that doesn't drink coffee!!!  Yoikes.  LOL.

Along with that stuff the only other thing I'm toting along is a couple of plants.  I had to give up all of my plants when we moved out here (because it was Winter and they all would have died in the moving truck) so I'm determined to keep a couple of the nice ones I've acquired since I've been here.  If they seem to not be doing too well along the way, I'm sure some of my lovely hosts might like a plant or two.  :)

Of course, don't forget I'm bringing poor Mr. Stoopy for the road trip.  Have kitty will travel!  He likes car trips as long as he's out of his stupid cage...although admittedly I think the longest I've ever had him on a road trip is an hour and a half.  But he's cool with chilling on his kitty bed on the passenger seat and is a good listener. :) I'll have his litter box probably on the passenger seat floor and we'll figure something out for food & water (but I can imagine he'll eat and drink mostly when we stop for the night).

Don't worry:  I do have a little harness and leash for him so he won't bolt from the car when I open the door in the middle of Saskatchewan.  I shall be testing that out soon...stay tuned for photos of a cranky kitty!

The one thing I'm a little disappointed in is the amount of time I have for visits.  I know there are about a zillion of you lovely bloggy buddies that I soooo want to meet up with along the way, but as you can see my time is going to be tight.

If you live in any of the places that I am stopping, or if you are somewhere in between, please let me know.  I make no promises that I will be able to see everyone...but even if it's just a quick ice tea or stop to stretch my legs I promise I will do my best.  So many of you are so supportive and have given me the courage to do this...so I would love to meet you in person if it's at all possible!

Just so you know:

I am now starting to freak out.  I am doing this!!

Flavourific

Without even trying I wound up eating some of my favourite flavour combinations today!!

Coffee + vanilla soy milk...

Light breakfast before massage therapy.  Cottage Cheese + fresh pineapple = Nom Nom Nom!!

A veggie bagel-wich after my appointment.  Filled with tomatoes, cucumbers and spinach.  But also with another favourite combo...hummus + cheddar!

Deeeelish.  with a side of apple.

During my conference call...two flavour explosions.

Coffee + chocolate!

But not just plain chocolate.  Chocolate + Mint.  Yummy Luna cookie!

And not just plain coffee.  But Iced coffee + vanilla. 

See here...I also got signed up for CAA ($100 piece of mind for a single gal on the road!)...and got my hands on their maps and travel books.  Ohhhh...things are coming together.  eeeeeek!!

Tonight I'm off to yoga and then back to do some more yard sale purging.  I spy a teapot I've never used, a pair of shoes I haven't worn since we've lived here, and a number of picture frames that have seen better days.

And so it begins...

Time to get organized and stay organized.  By tomorrow I should have my movers confirmed...and that means...if all goes according to plan... YIKES... I'm outta here in 24 days.  *gulp*

You should see the lists I have on the go.  The goal this week is to get those cleaned up and as simplified (yet detailed) as possible. 

Last night I wrote up this week's plan...so I know what room to sort on which day, which workout I should be doing, and have a good idea what to make to eat.  The food will probably change a bit here and there, but everything else pretty much needs to stay the way it is. 

I will allow myself to skip a workout if needed though...because things will rear their heads but I can't very well give up packing or eating!! 

Today was a nice, easy start...coffeeeeee with soy milk...

A refreshing green smoothie to help clean away the weekend junk.

I picked up some Maca Root Powder at Bulk Barn the other night to give it a try.  It doesn't smell too good, but once blended up I couldn't really tell it was there.  It's considered a superfood powerhouse so it is definitely worth a bit of an odd odor.

From Wikipedia: "The nutritional value of dried maca root is high, similar to cereal grains such as rice and wheat. It contains 60% carbohydrates, 10% protein, 8.5% dietary fiber, and 2.2% fats. Maca is rich in essential minerals, especially selenium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, and includes fatty acids including linolenic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acids, and 19 amino acids, as well as polysaccharides."

In the KA today:  ice, 1/2 frozen banana, 4 chunks fresh pineapple, 2 big handfuls organic baby spinach, 1 tsp maca, 1 heaping tsp Amazing Meal, 1 tsp flax meal, about 2/3 cup UVAB.

Alongside this bevvie I made some deliciously chewy sprouted grain toast...with natural peanut butter & Supercrack.

It's a quiet work day because of the US Memorial Day holiday so I burned through a fair amount of work this morning...which worked out well because I received a last minute call to meet Cosette and Sarah for afternoon coffee at Two if by Sea.

Who am I to turn down a fabulous cafe au lait?!  Especially since it's Sarah's bday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

Sadly (thankfully!!) they were out of chocolate croissants.  I definitely need another one (or ten) of those before I leave town.

When I got home it was way past lunch time so I went straight to the kitchen to whip up my salad...

Romaine, tomatoes, cucumber, celery (totally underrated!), and yellow peppers.

Dressed with Renee's Spring Italian dressing...and topped with 1% cottage cheese.  Did you know that cottage cheese contains a WHOPPING 15 grams of protein per 1/2 cup serving?  Score.

Added even more protein in the form of hummus...

Served with Mary's Gone Crackers!  Nom!!!  Love these addictive seedy little things...

The last few hours have been spent working and scrutinizing my initial road trip plans.  Halifax to Victoria.  Just me and my cat.  It's going to be a loooooong 11 days...totally scary...and totally exciting. 

This once in a lifetime adventure needs a name.... any ideas??