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!

Brunch for Girls

Even before I moved back to Victoria this Summer I was already throwing out the idea of a road trip to Tofino.  It really is one of my favourite places and I hadn’t been there in about four years.  Before I knew it a plan was hatched and five of my favourite girls had agreed to a long weekend away.

Our original plans for November were thwarted but we wrangled ourselves together and rebooked for January.  We lost a friend by changing the date (alas, Nicole decided to move to Germany!) but the rest of us loaded up a couple of cars and made the four hour drive to check out the West Coast waves.

Besides deciding who had to share a bed and how much time we could realistically spend in the hot tub at our vacation rental house we spent a lot of time emailing about food.  I volunteered to be in charge of Saturday brunch.  Finally an excuse to make a giant batch of French Toast!

My recipe is nothing fancy but it never fails.  I swear by using D’Italiano thick sliced bread.  It’s the perfect size and texture for soaking up the eggy goodness.

For ten slices of French Toast I used:

• 6 free run eggs
• 1 capful good vanilla
• generous sprinkle of cinnamon
• 2 tbsp light cream (any milk will do the trick)
• 10 slices of D’Italiano bread
• smidge of butter for cooking

1. Whisk everything (except the bread, duh) together with a fork and lightly dredge your fresh bread through it one piece at a time.  Don’t soak the bread.
2. Cook in a lightly buttered non-stick pan over med-high heat.  Flip when brown. 
3. Keep warm in 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

Ingmarie is a gluten-free girl so she brought her own Tapioca Rice Bread and it worked just fine for the recipe.  In fact, hers cooked up a bit easier than the softer white bread.

I may have cooked an entire package of bacon…

No girlie brunch can possibly be complete without mimosas!

Nom Nom Nom.  Look at that stack!  Served with Aunt Jemima of course, but also fresh blueberries, blackberries and banana slices.

There are no words.  OK, one.  BACON.  Two.  MAPLE BACON.

We spent the rest of our day roaming the stormy beaches of Tofino.  So amazing.  Photo post still to come. More food to come too. Of course. :)

Charmaine, me, Tiffaney, the other Jamie, and Ingmarie.  Love.

Playing Hooky

When I rolled over and looked at the clock this morning I was positive it said like 10:00 and lurched out of bed in a panic.  I blinked and looked again and it was only 8:54.  Phew.  Slept a bit past my alarm but I wasn’t late.

Sipped on a glass of OJ while checking my first round of work emails…

Turned out my work website was down so I couldn’t tackle most of my daily tasks.  I sipped on coffee and worked on some accounting instead.

Conveniently I received a call from my friend Ray. He had the day off and was looking for a lunch or coffee companion…nice timing since I couldn’t really work much.  I had a Groupon for Flying Otter Grill burning a hole in my purse and asked if he wanted to try it out.

I bought the Groupon knowing it would make for a good meal one day because Cat and I went there this Summer and it was delicious.

Today we were actually able to sit on the enclosed and heated patio…which is funny because in the Summer it was so hot we couldn’t.  Even if their food wasn’t yummy the view is worth trying the place out.

Since I hadn’t had breakfast I wanted a hearty lunch.  I opted for their beef dip because it included shoe-string onions, mozzarella & horseradish aioli! nom.  I did decide against fries though because I’ve been doing a lot of eating out and need more salad in my life.

Besides, they make an excellent salad.  I ate every last bite.

Creepy dining companion.

Conversation stopper.  Holy loud.  But neat!

I spent some of the afternoon just chilling out and enjoying the weekday work break.  Around 5:00 I checked in and found our site was still down so I tackled a short report I could do without the site.  Snacked on a flattened banana while I worked.

My apartment started to get chilly this evening (probably due to the fact that I opened the sliding door for the cat because I’m nice like that) so I was happy to find one last bowl of homemade broccoli soup to heat up for dinner.

With light cheddar and multigrain Wheat Thins.

The heat is now cranked up, I have hot rooibos tea…

and the oven is about to be on while I bang out some cookies using these bad boys!

I have sugary peanut butter and I’m not afraid to use it! Treats for a friend.  Well, and you know, one or five for me. :)