PHAB Lifestyle A blog dedicated to a healthy balance

Hello bloggers!  Tonight supper was prepared by the hubs.  He made is ultimate favourite food…Donairs!  From scratch no less.

But first let me just say YAYYYYYYY CANADA!!  I was beside myself about the AWESOME GOLD win by our men’s hockey team!  It looked a little sketchy there for a bit but they pulled through and won..beyond excited for them!  The whole Olympic coverage has been so darn great and I am going to miss it now that it is over.  I am watching the closing ceremonies as I write this.  It has been on my TV non stop for the last two weeks and it has been great to watch our athletes do so well.

So tonight the hubs got bitten by the cooking bug and made supper for us.  I must say it was delicious!

We had ourselves a little bit of wine while the he was cooking.

This was a bottle that the hubs picked up for me.  I must say it was pretty darn good.  Fruity and spicy with a smooth finish…it was lovely.

DA meat with secret ingredients….shhhhhh!

Into the pan to add a little crisp to it.

The incredibly fresh pitas to put the tasty meat into.  I bought the ones with the extra fibre for good measure

All topped up and ready to consume.

My toppings were: tomatoes, romaine lettuce, tzatziki sauce and hot sauce.  It was mmm..mmm..good!  There was a little bit of meat scraps left and I ate that up too!

Supper was good..thanks hubby!

Well I have a few things to do before I hit the pillow tonight…better get to it.

TGIF!  So happy for the weekend!  I love having my two days off to spend with my little family.  But soon I will have everyday off to spend with my little man once I become a full-time mom.  Only 1 more month to go….eek!

This morning I got up and did a great workout.  I sweated it out with a weight circuit and cardio intervals.  I posted the workout on my 40 Day Challenge page.

Breakfast this morning is worth blogging about since I tried the sunflower butter I received yesterday from Naturally Nutty.

I slathered it on a piece of millet toast and well….OMG!!  This stuff is a-maz-ing!!  I love it!  So darn good!

I had it along with a very healthy green monster.

I used kale today instead of my regular spinach.  I thought I would live a little.  Kale is defiantly more bitter than spinach but still drinkable for me. 

In the blender I put:

Kale, almond milk, small banana, Amazing Grass and blueberries.

Super GREEN machine! 

Tonight for supper was of course pizza…and I did it up Mexican style!

I made a cornmeal pizza crust.  I experimented a little with my usual crust but subbed some cornmeal in place of the flour and it worked out pretty well.

On the pizza I put Tex Mexed up ground bison that I cooked up in the pan, marina sauce, green and red pepper, green onion, black olives, and cheddar cheese.  I also put jalapenos on half of the pizza.  When it came out of the oven I topped it with fresh cilantro and plum tomatoes. 

I started off with two pieces and went back for a 3rd because it was pretty darn yummy.

Right now I have some Oatmeal Raisin Bars in the oven.  We have a little road trip planned for tomorrow morning to visit some family so I am packing some snacks to take along.

Well I am putting myself to bed early today since I have an early start on my Saturday tomorrow.

Nighty..night!

WOW what another great day for Canada at the Olympics!  Way to go for our ladies hockey team…so darn happy for them!!

They did so well and managed to hold their lead!  Now I hope that our men’s team can follow suit.  I am going to be a little sad when the Olympics are over.  It has been such fun having the Olympics in Canada and cheering on our athletes. 

When I got home tonight I had a wonderful little package waiting for me at the post office and I was happy to get it home and crack it open!

My Naturally Nutty order came and boy I can hardly wait to try it.  I have ordered from them before and I KNOW how great their nut butters are.  I LOVE their almond butter it is so darn good!

I think this one is going to get slathered on some millet toast in the morning!   I have been dying to try the Cinnamon Vanilla Sunflower Butter for a while now.  Kath has been raving about it and it was because of her I put it in my order.

After my utter excitement of receiving my nut butters I started on supper.  I made myself a mocktail to sip on while I cooked.

A little Pom juice and some Sparkling Mineral Water.  So refreshing!

Tonight it was warm enough to fire up this.

I was so darn happy to be able to barbeque tonight! Wheeee…

We still have quite a bit of snow in the backyard but it has melted off the deck nicely!

I made some Italian Turkey sausage.

I really like this sausage it tastes great and is nitrite free and no msg. 

Getting nice and crispy and juicy on the bbq! YUM!

I used my sausage as a topping on my spinach salad.

In my bowl was:

Spinach

Red pepper

Green pepper

cucumber

goat cheese

Turkey sausage

Drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar

Holy yum!

I made some potato dollar chips for the hubs so I had a little on the side as well.

With ketchup for dipping.

My supper was scrumptious…I just love barbequing!

I need to update my 40 Day Challenge page.  But rest assured I have been moving.  Today I took a 30 minute walk at lunch time.  I took it easy today since I did a weight circuit yesterday and a cardio blast afterwards.  It was pretty intense.  I have a intense workout scheduled for tomorrow morning as well.

So I better start to wind down from my day and get my lunch ready for tomorrow.

Good night!

Hello, today was a good day but busy from the moment I woke up this morning.  I started my morning with a little cardio to fit in my 40 Day Challenge.  I did my cardio based on this workout but changed the speed to my comfort level about 0.2 mph slower.  I need to build up to the speed they have in the workout.  I would die if I went that fast!  As the day went on I started to feel a little sore and stiff.  I did a weight circuit yesterday and must have done it well because I am walking around today like I am broken! HA!  I think tomorrow I am going to take it easy and just take a nice walk at lunch because it is supposed to be another gorgeous day out.

After I showered and got beautified I had myself a little overnight oats.  This was my usual mix.

But I put a little different toppings on today.

On top was: banana, dried cranberries, granola and a sprinkle of coconut.  It was Yummy!  I munched away on this while I was waiting for J. to wake up. We had a busy day ahead of us.  I had to end up going and waking up the little stinker because he was not willing to on his own.  He always seems to sleep in when I need him to wake up!

Once he was up and had breakfast we were off to his morning appointment to speech therapy.  I made myself a coffee for the road.

When we got back I was craving me some juice so I pulled out the juicer and whipped up my favourite blend.

Carrot, gala apple, lime, lemon and ginger…so darn good!

It was frothy!

and a beautiful orange color.  I enjoyed every last sweet and tart drop!  I put organic carrots in this one and ohhhh…it made it taste de-light-ful!

The hubs surprised me and turned up at home early tonight.  J was just starting to wake up from his nap when he walked in.  Before I started getting supper on the go I decided to take a little walk to the mailbox and see if anything exciting came.  I took Zoei along with me for the stroll.  Well when I opened the box I discovered that I did receive a  package I had been waiting for.

I ordered the Pavina Glasses by Bodum!  I had seen them around the blogs and thought they were so cool…I got myself a pair. 

They are very light weight and look so fragile.  I gave them a test run with supper.

A little acai juice and ice for sipping.  I really like them and I am going to try a hot drink in them as well.

Tonight for supper I had planned some burgers…bison burgers.  I make mine from scratch with fresh organic bison right from the farmers market.

I use the Eat-Clean Diet recipe for the meat mixture.  I love it, it makes a very tasty burger.  I served it along with dollar chips.

I also had a salad and some asparagus with my meal so I would not over indulge on the dollar chips.

This meal was yummy and hit the spot and helped my burger craving!

Well now my evening is coming to an end and I am pooped from my busy day.  I am going to go and soak in a hot bath.

Night!

I just love the weekends!  They are the best and weather was glorious too! Ahhhhh!

This morning started out with a very tasty breakfast.  I like to make a leisurely breakfast on the weekends and it usually involves eggs!  I don’t eat them much during the week and they are still one of my favourite breakfast foods.

I made the hubs and I a very lovely breakfast of my special hashbrowns, poached eggs, back bacon and toast.  It was delicious!

With a side of steamy coffee

and calcium boosted oj.

I just love this kind of breakfast.

After breakfast I took Zoei for a walk in the glorious sunshine for about 30 minutes to get in my 40 Day Challenge session for the day.  The sun was warm and the fresh air felt great.  Spring cannot come soon enough for me I want to get back to running outside again.  I miss it so much.  Running right now could be a bit dangerous on our sidewalks since they are still covered in snow and ice. 

In the afternoon I ran a few errands and then came home and made a pizza for supper.  While I was making supper I sipped on a new red wine I picked up a little while ago.

It is an Australian Red of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourevdre mixed and tastes amazing!  I lurvvvv it!  I even love the sassy name….Miss Harry!  I will defiantly be buying this one again for sure.

The pizza turned out great as well.

The base was my usual flaxseed crust that I now have down to a science and turns out perfect every time   I will share the recipe one of these days.

On this pizza I put Newman’s Own Marina sauce (love this stuff), roasted chicken, green peppers, mushrooms, red onion, black olives, mozza cheese and a sprinkle of Asaigo cheese.  It was so darn good!

I must admit I think I drank a little too much wine.. because I had the urge to bake! Heeeeee!!  and that is exactly what I did….

I made a lovely pan of Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondie’s.  I have not had these for a while and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into a square.  They need to cool a little first. 

So while I wait I am drinking about a litre of water to shake off the wine!  Ooops!

Yup, I did a little cardio this evening!  I managed to fit in my 40 Day Challenge by doing this treadmill workout.  My butt and legs were screaming!  But it felt great!

I almost put a kabosh on my workout today but I knew I had the challenge and did not want to start making excuses already!  So after I got home tonight I put my workout cloths on and hit it for a good sweat.  While I was huffing I was reading in Womans Health Magazine how cardio boots your brain power among other things.  It was a great article and just the motivation I needed to keep going.

“cardiovascular health is more important than any other single factor in preserving and improving learning and memory”

Plus it really helps me get rid of the stress.

I do a lot of thinking while I am pounding on the treadmill and I was thinking to myself how much I love my runners!  It took me a while to find the perfect runner for my feet and I absolutely love my Asics they are the best!

I buy them every time I need new runners.  They are so darn comfortable!  The hubs wears them too. 

Tonight we had a little family time. First we went out for a quick supper to one of our favourite wrap places called Bad Ass Jacks and then we did a little grocery shopping.  Sorry I did not take any pictures of my meal it was nothing real exciting anyways.  But it was delicious.  I got a small chicken in a whole wheat wrap with all the veggies and BBQ ranch sauce.  Yum!

So while on was on the treadmill I was thinking about having a little snack once I was done.  I was craving fresh fruit and we bought some strawberries tonight so that is what I whipped up after I was done.

They looked so good at the store I just had to get them

I had them with the last of the blueberries and a kiwi.  I topped it with a dollop of plain yogurt and a little of my me & goji granola.  I also took a small spoon of maple peanut butter.  I am munching on this now as I type out this post.  It is so yummy! 

One thing I am a little sad I can no longer get me & goji granola shipped to Canada!!  I went online today and tried to order some more and they only ship in the US now??  What the heck?  So once my tin is empty that is it for me.  I really like going online and putting together my own granola mixture and now I can’t..sniff..sniff.

I also got a few things in the mail today that I ordered.

A couple of cook books, Clean Food and Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I can’t wait to read through them and mark the recipes I want to try.  I have always wanted to try and make bread from scratch and this cook book has made it super simple to do!  I will blog on how it all turns out.

I also got this to help me with my 40 Day Challenge.

I got the 3 DVD collection.  I think I may just give it a whirl tomorrow.  I saw this around the blogosphere and lots of people have great things to say about it so I wanted to give it a try.  I am always up for something new!

Well I think now that I am cooled down from my workout I am going to take a nice relaxing bath and get into my comfy bed.

I started my 40 Day Movement Challenge this morning with some of Jillian’s 30 Day Shred.  It was a good one.  I did feel energized afterwards though and it powered me through the day nicely

Tonight I am just going to chill with the family and watch a little Olympic Men’s Hockey.  It is tied right now 2-2 in the 3rd period!!  They are playing the Swiss…GOOOOOO CANADA!!

I sure hope they win this one…I am going to go and find out!

Hello and happy hump day!  I woke up this morning to lots of new snow and more was coming down.  So I had the hubs drive me to work as I just was not in the mood to battle the roads.  I sipped my coffee while he drove…very stress free   But by the afternoon it warmed up, the snow stopped and the roads were fine on the ride home.

I also decided to join Iowa Girl Eats and her 40 day Challenge!  I thought it would be a good way to keep me accountable and give me a goal to keep me moving and exercising on a regular basis.  I have been pretty sporadic with my workouts and I think this will help me be more consistent.  I will be putting what I do everyday under my Fitness page. 

Work today was uneventful and a little boring.  But I was happy to get home to get supper on the go because I was trying a new recipe

Bulgur-Stuffed Red Peppers

(before the oven)

These were fairly easy to make and tasted awesome.  Even the hubs said they were pretty good! 

I got this recipe from a book of Leslie Beck’s that I have.  I did modify it a little to what I had on hand.

Bulgur-Stuffed Red Peppers

1/2 cup bulgur

4 sweet red peppers

4 cups mushrooms

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage (or 1 tsp dried)

3/4 tsp each salt and pepper

1 can (19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 tbsp dried parsley

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

In a large bowl, pour 1 1/3 cups boiling water over bulgur; cover and let stand for 15 minutes.  Drain and press out moisture; return to bowl.

While the bulgur is draining, slice tops off of the red peppers; core and scrape out seeds.  Dice the tops and set aside.

In the food processor finely chop the mushrooms.  Doing this makes it so much easier and really quick!  In a large non-stick skillet, heat half of the olive oil and fry the diced peppers, mushrooms, onion, garlic, sage and 1/2 tsp each of the salt and pepper until the liquid is evaporated, it takes about 10 minutes or so.  Then add to the pan the bulgur along with the chickpeas, cheese, almonds and parsley and toss around to combine it.

Spoon the bulgur mixture into the peppers, mounding it if necessary.  I actually had A LOT of mixture so I saved some for leftovers.  Place the peppers, stuffed side up in an 8 inch square glass baking dish.  Drizzle with lemon juice and remaining oil; top with the tomatoes.  Sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper.

Cover the dish with foil and bake at 350 degree oven until the peppers are almost tender, about an hour.  Uncover after the hour and bake till the tops are crusty about another 20 minutes or so.  I also put a little extra Asiago cheese on top before I put them back into the oven.

Then end result was so darn GOOD!! It was worth the wait that it took to cook it.

I loved every bite!

The best part is I have one for my lunch tomorrow…YUM!

Not a bite left!

After I cleaned up from supper I made myself a little fro-yo for dessert!

I topped vanilla fro-yo with melted chocolate, granola and fresh blueberries it was de-light-ful!

Now it is time to start getting ready for bed…the evenings seem to go by so quickly!

Bye for now….

My Family Day was a kind of lazy one.  I did laundry and roasted a chicken so I could have lunchmeat for the week and watched the Olympics all day.  Lots of excitement while watching today.  I loved seeing our first Canadian get his gold medal…so wonderful!

I started my day off with a warm bowl of yummy oats!  I had the usual mix.  Except I cooked the chia seeds with the oats instead of putting them on top.

It makes the oats pretty thick though.

But still oh so good!

I also had some French press of course. 

This is my favourite decaf.  It is just the Organic no-name from Superstore but it is really good!

I puttered around for the morning played with J and roasted my chicken.  Then for lunch I felt like eggs again so I took the roasted veggie leftovers and topped it with an a runny egg.

I had a piece of sprouted grain toast along with it and a mug of green tea.

This was so YUM!

In afternoon while J napped I took this opportunity to have a nice hot shower and got comfy on the couch and did a little reading and a little snoozing!  The house was nice and quiet and it was lovely.

Supper tonight was comfort food for me.

Lentil soup beefed up with some more spinach.

With a grilled cheese and a few pickles.  This was so darn good! 

It has been a while since I have had this simple but oh so delicious meal.  I loved it!

I have been sort of craving ice cream since yesterday and almost made a trip to the Dairy Queen last night but in the end I did not go.  So tonight I gave into my craving and made my own ice cream delight!

I put about a 1/2 cup of vanilla fro-yo in a bowl and topped it with half a banana, melted chocolate chips, softened peanut butter and a sprinkle of coconut.  It was heavenly!  and gone in about 60 seconds

Well it is back to work tomorrow and it is getting late time to get to bed!

Night

How was everyone’s Valentines Day?? Mine was pretty good.  First I got to sleep in till 8:30 which was nice.  Plus the hubs made me some pancakes for breakfast this morning.  I was so hungry when I woke up that I forgot to take a picture.  He also made me a home made card which was sweet

I got him a card, dark chocolate covered cherries and some Razzies candy.  He was happy!

I kind of bummed around for most of the day and puttered around the house and did a little reading.

I picked up Theo Fleury’s Autobiography yesterday and I can hardly put it down.  I am Flames fan, he was always such a troubled guy I was curious about his life.  I really like reading biographies and this one so far has been pretty darn good.

My hubs went out this morning to pick up a few things and got me my Starbucks love.

Skinny Caramel Latte….holy yum!

For lunch I felt like having eggs so I got a little creative!

I sprayed a ramekin with non-stick spray and filled it about two thirds full with canned soy beans in tomato sauce then I cracked an egg on top.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  The yolk was still runny when I took it out so it was perfect for dipping. 

 

I toasted a whole wheat english muffin for dipping.  It was delicious.

A little while later I had a bowl of kiwi and grapes for a snack.  I am on a huge kiwi kick right now.

Then I decided to get off my duff and do a little exercising.  So I sweated it out to Jillian Michael’s No More Trouble Zones.  It was killer and I managed to finish the whole 40 minutes.  My legs were like jello when I was done.

I had a Glo bar after I was done and tons of water.

I really like this one it was yummy!  I then took a shower and freshened up and started supper.

Tonight it was lots of veggies.  I needed to eat up a bunch that were in the fridge.  I roasted brussel sprouts, small red potatoes, red pepper, onion and zucchini.  It was delish!

We had it along with some grilled turkey tenderloin that I seasoned with Mrs. Dash Chipotle.

I topped it with some fresh mild salsa..again yum!

Dinner was easy and tasty!

Now I am going to go in search of something sweet…and watch a movie with the hubs.