S’mmer Lovin’

No campfire required.

One of my most favouritest blogger buddies posted this crazy-fun, super-easy, totally deeeelish recipe for S’mores on a Stick the other day.  As soon as I saw this on Elizabeth’s blog I knew exactly what to make for the campout this weekend.

S’mores without the sticky mess?  Word. 

Three ingredients and four minutes prep time.  Word.

Two kinds of chocolate and 20 minutes alone in the kitchen.  Word.

A couple of dozen happy campers.  Word.

Every campout, BBQ, picnic, and backyard boozefest should expect to see these from here on out.  Promise.

Monday Fun

Midway through the day today I realized it’s my blog anniversary!  Three big years!!  If only I had noticed this sooner I might have prepared a more interesting post.  We’ve come a long way baby. 

Instead I have a mini recap of Saturday’s breakfast. A few of us had intended on getting a hearty brunch before heading to Beerfest but when only two of us were up for it we opted to sleep longer and save money.

I’d had my heart set on pancakes, waffles or French toast…oh my! so decided to stick with that plan.  I have been toting this half used boxed of TJ’s Pumpkin Pancake mix around with me for quite some time now…ooops.  Well, it still made delicious pancakes!!

Since I would be consuming beer for multiple hours I decided I’d better make sure there was some extra protein on those cakes.  Enter the packets of Justin’s Almond Butter I’ve been hoarding. 

Maple seemed appropriate!

Pancakes aren’t complete without real maple syrup though.  A fine combination!

Fast forward back to today…two leftover pancakes reheated in the toaster…

With syrup and a spoonful of real whipped cream.  And a side of Colorado coffee…

Lunch was more leftovers.  I love Monday cooking…it’s often filled with weekend finds. :)  Hot & Sour soup…

With added extra pineapple…

Late afternoon pick-me-up and tide-me-over of reheated coffee with a swirl of full cream (so incredibly creamy and deeeelish!) alongside my all time favourite HoneyBar…Sweet & Salty.

After work I hauled my arse to the gym.  For five weeks I got in crazy good workouts with Tia every Monday and Thursday and just because that is over now it does not mean I can slack off!!  I headed out knowing that I wanted a cardio warm-up and an upper body workout…when I got there I tried to recall what Tia would have given us to do.

Back at home I had to scurry to write down what I did!

Treadmill:  21 minutes = 10 minutes running, 11 minutes walking

Exercises:  1 minute each

on bosu…

• Overhead press
• Front raises
• Side raises
• Hammer curls
• Bicep curls
• Dead lifts

on bench…

• One arm row (each arm)
• One arm tricep kickback (each arm)

abs…

• Assisted V-sit (side to side with ball)
• Crunches
• Reverse bent knee crunches
• Pulses

I think Tia would be proud! 

I was famished when I got home so cracked open the new crack hummus and dug in with the Wheat Thins…

While I showered, dinner cooked.

Lettuce & tomato salad with EVOO and cracked pepper…

Organic BC green beans…steamed and topped with real buttah…

Store bought stuffed chicken…Hawaiian Style…ham, pineapple & cream cheeeeeeeese…

Dessert involved me, my water bottle and a truckload of will power.  Not a whole lot on hand to tempt me but I’m trying to eliminate unnecessary snacking and dessert is the best place to start!  If I’m not actually hungry then no sense eating anything, right? RIGHT?! :)

Shout out:  the day we’ve all been hoping for has arrived.  Miss Amy has returned to bloggie wonderland!!  *mwah*

Sunday Dinner

So the problem with a wordless nature photo post is that I have to try to squeeze in a recap post on Mondays.  Maybe I should try not to eat anything noteworthy on Sundays…LOL. 

I attempted my little garage sale yesterday but honestly I was ill-prepared and it was freaking freezing outside. I’ll have to actually advertise and try it again when it’s a few degrees warmer.

Food was pretty simple throughout the day…

 

After the sale, a freezing cold walk in the park, and running a couple of errands, it was time for dinner.  A dinner that required no grocery shopping!

Allison at Eat Clean Live Green posted a recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Bean Veggie Burgers earlier in the week.  I was happy to see this recipe because I had almost all ingredients on hand.

The only substitutions I made were carrots for the celery, and chopped almond pieces for the sunflower seeds.  Otherwise I followed her recipe.

I don’t own a proper food processor, so I got to finally use the chopper attachment that goes with my Cuisinart Hand Blender.  OMG, this little thing is AWESOME!  I will now be retiring my Little Oscar as this was so much easier to use and clean.

Because the chopper attachment is smaller than a proper food processor I worked in two batches.  I pureed the sweet potato on it’s own, then pureed the black beans…then mixed together afterwards.  No biggie.

These were easy, tasty and oh so filling.  I served my patty with a bit of melted cheddar on top of toasted sourdough with mustard, spinach and kumato tomatoes…

On the side I served up some roasted asparagus, which I just cooked right alongside the burgers…

Deeeelish.  I saved one patty out for a leftover meal and had four more for the freezer.  Thanks Allison!  Those of you participating in Lynn’s “go veggie” challenge should totally give this a whirl.

Keeping it Simple

As mentioned earlier, I did indeed get myself some Squirrelly toast with PB and Crofter’s crack…

And a handful of banana chips…

I made a run to the post office and enjoyed a bit more time in the sun, before heading back to finish work for the day.

Since I had a big fruity salad for lunch, I figured I was OK to indulge a bit for dinner…so I pulled a couple of pieces of pizza out of the freezer.

We ordered Boston Pizza on Friday night…of course we got two different pizzas because we like completely different toppings…but I always end up freezing my leftovers because I have no need for a whole medium pizza all at once!

Pepperoni, pineapple and feta cheese.  mmmmm, mmmm, good!

Reheated in the oven…it’s the only way to go.

For dessert I tried to keep it on the healthier side with a dish of Lemon Liberte yogurt and fresh strawberries…

Of course, I may have dipped into the jelly beans again too…hehe.

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I want to thank everyone that took a moment out of their day to email or tweet at me regarding my earlier post today.  It is just amazing that so many of you cared enough to drop a line.  I am working diligently on responding to you all!!

A few new bloggers in our world…

Check out Katie’s Healthy Discovery.  A good Twitter friend…now real life friend…just started her own blog.

And Sammie of Booty Camp Fitness fame has now launched her own blog.  Stop by and see what she has to say.

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:

[source]

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!