Crash Bandicoot

So turns out my work website was down yesterday due to some super crazy server crash going on.  A bit of a catastrophe for an internet based company! Of course that didn’t mean we wouldn’t still have our weekly conference call. 

A little difficult to discuss customer stats but we still managed to make it a two hour call.  Sadly, this catastrophe ate pretty much ALL of the work I did on Monday (and a bunch of other stuff from the last 7-10 days) so tomorrow I will be up to my eyeballs redoing things.  Joy.

Breakfast was a light bowl of organic vanilla yogurt, raw oats, flax meal, blackberries and blueberries.

Since I’m at a bit of a standstill work wise I decided to use my time to do some meal planning and get a small load of fresh groceries.

Instead of buying myself a food treat I came home with a mixed bunch of tulips.  LOVE them!

For lunch I grabbed another container of that super yummy ancient grains salad from Thrifty’s.  Along with some roasted beets and carrots I piled it on top of a bowl of baby spinach.

On the side I tried these pakoras from the grocery store deli.  The plain veggie ones were just so-so (frozen peas and carrots in there…meh) but the cauliflower and spinach ones were pretty good.

After lunch I cozied up with hot tea (still freezing!) and a cookie or three from the gift batch I made last night.

Eventually I was finally able to tackle some work…it’s coming in sections.  After catching up on what I could I made dinner and settled in for American Idol. 

Fresh West Coast shrimp salad (shrimp, olive oil mayo, lemon juice, fresh Italian parsley, sriracha and salt) with tomatoes and spinach on toasted Squirrelly bread.

So delicious!  I heart shrimpie salad!

I see two more cookies left in the container and a kettle that needs boiling.  Off to bed with extra blankies for me tonight.  I might even do something crazy like read!

In Focus

Today was a day of focus in the work department.  I was running behind on a project I usually chip away at for a few days so I decided just to put my head down and get’r done.  :)

Coffee with vanilla soy to start the day…

Fuelled up with my current obsession…almond butter.  Marie created a nom-nom monster!  On sprouted grain toast with banana and Superfood Spread.

I kept focused and puttered along, taking water breaks and Twitter breaks so I would tire out too soon.  The good thing about a project like this is that my brain is busy and doesn’t get bored and start thinking about food. 

I made lunch only when my tummy actually alerted me that it was time.  Leftover slice of veggie & hummus pizza with salsa…

…with cucumber and carrot sticks.

 

Afternoon snack was fresh pineapple…juicy, but have you ever noticed how sometimes acidic foods make you feel more hungry?  I knew as soon as I ate this that it wouldn’t tide me over until dinner.

Instead of snacking my way through the late afternoon, I buckled down and finished my project (yay!) so I could get straight to making my yummy bigass salad.

What started out in my mind as some sort of simple romaine and tomato salad with grilled chicken quickly turned into a freaking awesome collaboration of deeeeeliciousness!

Fresh, crispy romaine tossed with diced carrots, Gala apple, sliced red grapes, avocado, a few almonds, and dried cranberries…

Dressed with my favourite combo of olive oil, drizzle of honey, squirt of lemon juice, and salt & pepper…

And topped with boneless, skinless chicken breast bites which I marinated in Italian dressing and sauteed in a sprayed non-stick pan.

Could be the most delicious salad I’ve made in months!!  Nom!!

After dinner I got to work on the cookies I meant to make last night before I got all caught up in the stooopid TV!  Of course, upon opening the pantry I realized I was out of oats!!  Gah…I guess since oatmeal season seems to have officially ended I forgot to put them on my shopping list.  Booooo. 

Oh well…a trip to Bulk Barn was made.  Um, how did those PB M&Ms get in my bag?  (I cannot get out of BB without a treat!!)

The cookies are cooling…I will tell you tomorrow how they turned out…but they smell DIVINE!  I also love that the recipe only made one dozen…which is great now that I don’t have Arron to feed my cookies to (not that he would have eaten anything with dried fruit in it!).

On my way home from BB I finally remembered to pick up my mail.  It’s been a week.  I knew I had a package from Becki waiting because she was sweet enough to send me her extra iPod charger when I threw out a shout out wondering if anyone had a spare (Arron and I shared one and I let him take it to Sudan with him).  Well, didn’t that lovely girl include a cute note and special treat along with the cable!!

Vanilla Rooibos Tea!  I’m soooo making a homemade tea latte this weekend!  I think maybe I talk about this stuff too much…she even mentioned that she would have sent me a Starbucks donut but didn’t think it would travel well.  LOL.

Do I need an intervention?  :)   

Gifts from Home

What’s another metaphor for “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off”?  Because that was me today! 

After my morning post, I worked.

Then I made lunch so I could eat it…while I worked.

Healthy little snack plate.  On the cutest little homemade plate ever!  You see this plate and adorable little bowl here?  One of my bestest girlfriends made this with her own two hands…for me!!

When I was home for the holidays, Ingmarie presented me with this delightful treat as my belated birthday prezzie.  She always makes my gifts, but it’s usually jewellery so this was a great surprise. 

Anyway…on the little platey is a Gala apple, wedge of brie (80 calories…woooo!), assorted veggies, and Almond Nut-Thins…with some hummus in the dish…

I swear it tasted better just cuz it was on these dishes.  haha.  Thanks again Ing!

Along with the snackies, I refilled my water bottle.  I think I might float away…and I still feel like I drink more! #waterlogged

After the lengthy hump day conference call…you guessed it…I did some more work.  But I pulled myself away at 5:30 because I HAD to get groceries.  It was driving me crazy that I haven’t had a chance to do a proper grocery shop this week. 

I ate this Kashi granola bar on the way out the door so I wouldn’t go shopping hungry…

I had plans to make homemade soup tonight…but by the time I got home it was well after 7pm and I had left poor FH to starve.  We cracked open a can of Habitant Split Pea & Ham soup instead.  If you gotta have canned soup, this is the one to have!

I’m hard pressed to find homemade split pea soup that I like as much.  :)  And it’s pretty good for you too.  One cup serving has only 170 cals and a whopping 10 grams of fibre!  That’ll keep ya regular!  ha!

Enjoyed a couple of half price whole wheat rolls along with the soup…

Mine were toasted and filled with a smidge of mayo and a slice of tomato.

And because the Christmas treats are almost all gone, I just HAD to grab something new at the store.  How could I pass up something called “Brookies”?!  LOL.  Especially from the bakery’s 1/2 price shelf.

Cookie meets brownie for only 60 cals each.  How can that be bad?

So now I’m back at my computer catching up on Google Reader completing some more work stuff while FH watches some crazy old movie.  Hopefully that means I get to watch one of my PVR shows after!  *bats eyelashes*

Sleep tight all!  I’m up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.  Here’s hoping my body actual feels like running at 7am.  :)

Hungry Hungry, um Girl!

I’m a bottomless pit today! 

Working out more, getting up earlier, and returning to portion control is making me hungry!

In the continuing attempt to use up the food on hand, I concocted a croissammich for lunch today.  Croissant sandwich for those of you that don’t speak Jaime.  :)

Croissant toasted in the oven…with a little light mayo, sliced tomatoes, and salami…

With a chopped kiwi…

For those of you that asked…NO, I don’t eat the skin.  Ewwww.  Yesterday I was in a hurry so I didn’t bother peeling them…I just ate them like orange wedges.  I don’t recommend that though because the skin can “burn” your tongue.

A little while later I reheated some coffee and looked through the pantry for an afternoon snack.  I spied this Caramel Macchiato Biscotti my Mom put in my stocking.

Holy deeeelish.  Angie has mentioned these before but I didn’t realize they have a little icing on them.  Super yummy treat!  Only 160 calories. 

I spent the better part of the afternoon tackling a big work project.  Not too hard but lots of staring at the computer so I took a little break a couple of hours in.  I felt hungry AGAIN, but figure it’s probably because I’m a bit dehydrated. 

Not really feeling the love of plain old water, so I decided to mix up a cranberry-soda cocktail…fancy! ha!

And a little handful of Almond Nut-Thins just for the snack factor…

Gee, blog posts are a lot more boring when we’re back to work eh?  The rest of my afternoon was spent finishing that project and working about an hour late.  Didn’t get to run my errands yet AGAIN.  Ah well, it felt great to cross that project off my to-do list…it was bugging me that I was behind on it.

Instead of trying to wrangle up a time-consuming dinner, we went the simple route.  FH ate up some leftover spaghetti from the freezer and I made myself a bigass salad…

Baby spinach, grape tomatoes, carrots, yellow pepper, & mini cucumber…

Dressed with a scoop of hummus, drizzles of olive oil and balsamic, and s&p…

Served with a few spanakopita and tzatziki…

So deeelish!!  I love those little things.  Lucky for me FH isn’t a fan.  More for me!  haha.

I randomly grabbed another croissant shortly after dinner too.  Didn’t even stop to take a picture.  *gulp*

Dessert was this crazy little white chocolate Santa that came in the Christmas bag my friend Mel gave me.  There’s something to be said for really good chocolate…

Told you…bottomless pit!!

I curled up with my heat pack…back to gym = stiff bad shoulder…and promptly dozed off on the couch for an hour.  oooops.

We’re now drinking tea and I’m avoiding the open bag of chocolate covered almonds (well, trying!).  Hopefully I finally sleep solidly tonight.  Not a super early morning tomorrow since FH drives himself on Wednesdays.  Nice.

Nighty night y’all!

Not Quite Shaping Up the Way I Thought

Gah, it’s 2:20pm and I’m still drowning in a sea of work…haven’t gone for my run…have fallen off my eating schedule…and there’s no end in sight.

I can see Zumba class slipping through my fingers.  *cries*

Yes, I could be working instead of blogging…but sometimes a girl needs a break!  I chowed back lunch while sitting here, so now I need a moment of “me time”.

Because I skipped breakfast yet again (what is wrong with me?!) I had a bigger than planned lunch.  Deli treats I picked up at Pete’s Frootique yesterday…

Greek salad…tasty yet completely lacking in the feta cheese department…

Macaroni salad…so yum, glad I only got a half order!

Hummus and crackers.  Their hummus is whipped…it’s OK, but I like the Summer Fresh brand better…

Glad to finally have some veggies back in my system!

Before that there was egg nog misto of course!!

Today I wised up and mixed half light egg nog with half skim milk to knock down the calories even more!  Deeeeeeelish.

I guess it’s the thicker than usual coffee that is distracting me from breakfast.  Gonna have to do something about that.  Duh.

So ya…no run thus far which leads me to believe that I might have to do it tonight.  Which means going to the gym.  But I’m supposed to go to Zumba tonight.  Dilemna!  I guess it all depends on what time I finish work…it was 9pm last night and I don’t plan to work that late today…but I need to get caught up so my 6:00 arrival for Zumba is looking seriously compromised at the moment.  Sad.  :(