PHAB Lifestyle A blog dedicated to a healthy balance

Boy did the day go by fast today!  I finally have a moment to sit down and blog.  Most of my day was pretty boring.  I got up had breakfast, did some laundry and then ran a few errands.  We are going to a wedding this weekend and I needed to get a few things.

Tonight I went with my running buddy to the Running Room.  They were holding their 20 Minute Challenge so we decided to partake.  I did not take my camera along since I had nowhere to carry it while I ran…so no pictures.   The challenge is to walk or run for 20 minutes.  Our challenge was to finish 3K in under 20 minutes.

Before I left I fueled up with a little Vega Sport!  I was running before I had supper so I needed something to keep me going.  I really like this drink mix and it gives me the energy I need without feeling anxious or jittery.

We ran the 3K in a pretty good time of 17:32.

We also got a free cap for participating!

I always like getting free stuff.

When I got home I threw my supper together in a flash!

Two pieces of leftover Mediterranean Veggie pizza and some steamed kale.  We are going away this weekend so I am trying to eat my veggies in the fridge.

I seasoned the kale with fresh lemon, pepper and a little sea salt.  It was pretty darn tasty!  Plus I drank two huge glasses of water….and I will be going back for some more.

I feel a little stinky and sweaty so a soak in the tub will be in order before bed.  But before I do that I need to prep for my VOO for the morning!

Toot-a-loo!

Why hello!  I got lazy last night and did not post after dinner.  I had plans to jump on here earlier today but I was a busy girl!

Supper last night was yummy!  I threw together some pasta since I was craving it.

I started with my favourite pasta made with Kamut!  It is so good and filling.

I browned some ground chicken, onions, mushrooms and a few spices.

I also snuck in some healthy green roughage of the Kale type

I used my fav jarred sauce to finish it off.  Newman’s Own Marinara.

While the sauce simmered I cooked the noodles.  When the noodles were done I mixed the sauce and noodles together then topped them with a little mozza and parmesan cheese and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It turned out delicious!

I have to be careful with pasta and make sure that I don’t dish myself too much…since I love it so much.  I also had a small piece of garlic bread.

This morning I woke up bright and early and did my weight workout.  I first had a tiny banana as some fuel before I started.  I warmed up with a few Sun Salutations.  I love a good stretch early in the morning!

My workout was as follows:

Circuit 1 x 3

1 Legged squat – 5 reps each leg

Upright Row – 8 reps with 12lb dumbbells

Circuit 2 x 3

RDL – 10 reps with 15lb dumbbells

SB Shoulder Press – 8 reps with 15lb dumbbells

Circuit 3 x 3

SB Jackknife – 8 reps

Side Plank w/leg lift – 5 reps each leg

The Jackknife is killer!

When I finished it was still pretty early and J was still sleeping so I had a peaceful breakfast alone.

I scrambled a couple of organic eggs in a tsp of coconut butter and added about a cup of chopped spinach.

I put the eggs on top of a 1/2 a sliced tomato.

A nice bowl of berries.

Some sencha green tea for power.

It was such a fresh and satisfying breakfast.

The rest of my morning was a little hairy.  I did J’s laundry plus I had my Dad here fixing our shower drain in the master bathroom.  We had a leek and he was investigating it.  Good thing is I think my handy father fixed the problem so we should be good again to shower in our bathroom in about 24 hours. Thank goodness!

I did manage to sneak in a morning snack with all the commotion.

A crisp pink lady apple, celery sticks and a small handful of raw almonds for protein.  It hit the spot!

Today for lunch I had some tofu in the fridge that was begging to be used.

I coated some slices in Carolina Treat BBQ sauce and pan-fried them in a tiny bit of coconut oil.

I had it along with some yummo grape tomatoes, cuc slices and lightly steamed organic broccoli.  The tofu turned crispy and it tasted so darn good.  I have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

After lunch J and I rushed out to an appointment which took up the afternoon and we got home around 4pm. 

I stopped at the mailbox when we got home since it had been a few days.  We had a bit of mail in there plus a package for me!

I ordered some K-cups for my coffee pot the other day and they came.  It was super fast delivery and I was impressed.  The site I ordered it from was Singlecup.ca  They are located right in Calgary which is awesome.  They have a great selection too!  I ordered my fav Donut Shop coffee and a few new ones to try as well.  I can’t wait to have my steamy and yummy coffee in the morning!

Supper tonight looked A LOT like last night since we had what was left over.  I had a massage appointment for 6:30pm and did not have a lot of time to make anything major for supper!

My massage was fantastic and now I need to go and soak in a hot tub and get the oily residue off my skin.

Night!

Well I have had a busy day thus far.  J and I went out this morning and got a few things after breakfast and the morning just seamed to whip by like nothing!

Good thing we had a great breakfast in our bellies!

I had a wonderful batch of Vegan Overnight Oats this morning.

It was scrumptious!  It was the usual mix and as always I loved it!

Plus the best part I don’t have to worry about it getting cold as I snap a ton of pictures of it! HA!

I had cold oats and J had warm bowl of yummy oats for breakfast this morning.  It is a rainy cool day here today so I thought why not.

Plus he got to try out his new bowl!

This is a Kidz Calibowl that was so kindly sent to me by Jeff from Calibowl.  I stopped by the booth they had set up at the Stampede and introduced myself and told him how much I love the bowls.  I had brought two ceramic ones that I love previously.

I mentioned that I wanted to get the Kidz bowl to try for J.  He was so sweet and sent me a couple to try.  What is so great about the Calibowl is the lip of the bowl is designed so that it pushes the food back onto the utensil which helps avoid spillage and overflow which = less mess when J is eating.  Terrific! 

I love this bowl it is great!  It also comes with a lid.

The best part of this bowl is the suction cup bottom.  It stays put…which is awesome.  Some of the kids bowls that have suction cups work but after a bit come off the surface it is stuck to not this one!

It stayed sucked to the table the whole time J was eating his breakfast..awesome!

I would totally recommend this bowl for parents with toddlers.  It is a great bowl for learning to self feed and helps them out with the special lip that the bowl has.  J and I give it a strong two thumbs up!

**Just to let you know I was in no way compensated for this review.  I just love the product!

After our breakfast J and I hit the road to pick up a few things.  When we got home it was a little past lunchtime.  So I whipped us up something in a hurray!

My lunch has a couple of parts to it.

A big salad with romaine, grape tomatoes, celery and cucumber then dressed with Better Than Bottled Balsamic Dressing.

Two multigrain crackers spread with tomato paste and topped with a couple slices of avocado.  This was so simple but oh so yummy!

Plus a small bowl of soup.  I made J a cheese sandwich and soup so I also had a bit of the soup to help him eat it.  It was Vegetable Minestrone.

All together with a tall glass of water to wash it all down.  Very easy lunch to whip together and tasty too!

After lunch I put J down for his nap and I empty the dishwasher then loaded the dishwasher with the dirty dishes plus I folded some towels that I had in the dryer from this morning.  Now I am sitting here blogging and eating my afternoon snack.

I wanted to try this yogurt that I got at the health food store today.  I loved the packaging and it sounded good so I thought I would give it a go.

I like this message on the side of the container.

I made a yogurt mess of sorts.

In my pretty red Calibowl is: Nancy’s Vanilla Yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, a little wholegrain cereal and a few walnuts.  Very yummy…the strawberries are so sweet and I love the crunch from the cereal!

Tonight I have a pasta bake planned for supper and a Body Pump class at 7:30pm.  I also have a few more things to do before J wakes up..so I got to scoot!

My morning started off great it was my day to get to sleep in.  I woke up naturally at 6am but I was not getting out of bed no way…I put my sleep mask on and then proceeded to fall back to sleep until 9:20am!  I loved it.

I got up and made myself breakfast.  This morning I was craving eggs.

I made a poached egg on slice of toasted Sprouted grain bread with a small slice of cheddar and spinach.  Yum!

I had a small bowl of berries on the side.  I love summer and the fact I can get endless amounts of berries!

Plus a small glass of Calcium fortified OJ.  Hmmm…I got my lens cap in this picture!  I was in a bit of a hurry since we had a family bike ride planned for this morning.

The weather was glorious again and we wanted to enjoy it!

On the bike route that we take there is a great park that we stop at so J can have a little fun! 

He likes the swing and the slide!

On our way back home we stopped for lunch.

Mmm..this place looks familiar!  Yup…we had us some more burrito’s.  I think this is twice in one week…ooops!

While the hubs was inside getting our food J and I waited on the patio outside.

Someone had to watch the bikes.

I got the smallest burrito they had and that was still pretty big!  For some reason this location wraps their burrito’s round instead of long like a burrito shape??

  The hubs got the burrito the size of his head again…I do not know where he packs it all!

Lunch was pretty yummy and it tasted even better out on the patio on a beautiful day!

After lunch we headed home.  We were all a little stinky and sweaty and smelling like sunscreen!  I needed a shower bad!

But the hubs and I had a little photo shesh first!

Awwww…the love!

Total biking time was 1 hour and we biked 12.52KM.  I just have to let you know that there was two very large and steep hills on our route!  They are killers!  I can just make it up them but the hubs pulls J in the bike trailer while going up them…he is hard core!  That is about an extra 50lbs that he is pulling behind him.

I will have to take a picture of those hills one of these days and show ya! Wheewww!

Supper tonight was pretty laid back…it was eat what you want night! I had some leftovers of salmon, rice and veggies.  Nothing really worth taking a picture of that is for sure.  But it did taste pretty darn good!

Well time to get into bed and do a little reading before calling it a night.

See ya!

It got late last night and I did not feel much like posting before I went to bed so I didn’t.  So I am here now to share our casual Saturday evening.

We BBQ’d some pork chops that I had marinated.  It is my favourite marinade for pork chops it makes them so tender and moist and it tastes amazing!  I got the recipe from my The Big Cook cookbook and I use it often.

The sides were grilled asparagus finally…I did not forget about it this time!

I coated it with a little EVOO and a sprinkle of sea salt and Lemon pepper…YUM!

I also had half a baked sweet potato with a little Coconut butter.

Plus a small pour of red wine.

Dinner was delish…I love bbq in the summer.

A little later on after supper we thought it would be nice if the hubs and I spent a little time in the back yard and relax.  We got a nice fire in the pit going.  It was a wonderfully warm evening and perfect for a fire.

The hubs knows how to build a fire!! 

We sat and enjoyed the evening and chatted for a bit.  We also enjoyed few drinks and some snacks of cheese, crackers and the hubs own beef jerky.

It was a fun evening.

I will be back in a bit to share what we did this morning as a family!

This morning we got ourselves up and made our way to a Stampede Breakfast!  The weather this morning was perfect for it too!  Not a cloud in the sky and it was nice and warm!

It was put on by the Stampede Caravan.  They go around the city and do breakfasts in the communities during Stampede week. 

The breakfast was nice an close to our house so we walked.  Lots of people were already there and getting their breakfast. 

We managed to pick a pretty fast line and had our flapjacks in no time

We were given two pancakes, a sausage patty and orange juice.

We found a place to park our butts down and eat.

J already had a seat.

We listened to a little live entertainment while we ate.

After we were finished we wandered around a little to see what they had set up for the kids.

They had pony rides and a petting zoo.  It was so cute. 

But the lines were incredibly long and we really did not want to wait in them.  J would have gotten impatient.

Since it was such a nice morning we took a little walk over to the Home Depot to pick up a hook for our bathroom door and then made our way home. 

We also stopped and got a Slurpee for the walk home since it was so hot out.  J enjoyed his, we got him a berry flavour which turned his little tongue blue!  That was his special treat for the weekend. 

Now we need to figure out what to do for the rest of this gorgeous day!

I kept my promise and made the salmon for supper tonight.  I rubbed it liberally with a awesome Cinnamon Chilli Rub we got from Silk Road Spice Merchant.

This stuff tastes great!

In the oven went parsnip fries and potato wedges.

I seasoned the parsnip fries with Spike and the potato wedges with Lowery’s seasoning salt plus a little fresh ground pepper.

I grilled the salmon in my grill pan.  I love this pan!

While I was preparing supper I decided since it is Friday I would have a little glass of vino.

I noticed I had just a little bit left in the bottle that was sitting on the counter.  This is my fav cheap wine that I buy called Copper Moon Shiraz.  It is $8.99 for a bottle and taste pretty darn good!  Unfortunately it had been sitting a little too long on the counter and it did not taste very  good at all.  I had to dump it

But alas I had another bottle on my wine rack that I could crack into!

The last time I went to the liquor store this one was on sale so I picked it up.  This particular wine is unoaked and therefore does not have the oaky flavour.  It is not bad but I think I like a little bit of oak in my red wine.  The hubs was not a fan of this one.  He likes oak the oakery the better for him.

Supper turned out great!

The salmon turned out moist and very flavourful with the rub.

I love the crust the rub gives the salmon on the outside it tastes so good.  But I forgot all about the asparagus that I had bought to have with it…I was sad.  I will have to grill it up this weekend sometime instead.

This was the first time I had tried parsnip fries and I really liked them!  I will be making these again for sure.  I think I am going to have to try them with nut butter.

Just before supper I also got a package!  I love getting packages!

I was kindly sent two Kidz Cali Bowls.  So keep watch in the next few days for the review.

Mmmmm…I think J wants to try it now.

Tomorrow we are going to a Stampede Breakfast!  We are having one just up the street from our house.  So we will get dressed up in our cowboy duds take a walk there and stuff our faces with pancakes and walk back home..perfect!  This will be J’s first Stampede Breakfast…I see picture taking opportunities

Tonight is movie night with the hubs.  We are going to watch The Bounty Hunter and maybe I will pour myself another glass of wine!

Nighty…night!

Yesterday the hubs gave me a gift of sorts.  He says that this will make my life easier…hmmm..ok I say.

This little gadget is called a Squeezebox.  To best explain it is it is almost like a handheld jukebox on steroids!  It kind of looks like an iPod. 

See in my house we have whole home audio with speakers in our ceiling throughout the house.  My hubs is a computer guy and when we built this house that was priority on his list to have.

It is pretty cool actually and nice to have I can listen to the radio or music anywhere.  We have little control panels on the walls around the house.

This one is in the kitchen.

So now I have a little handheld device that helps me play any of the music we have that is stored on our computer.  Plus I can also listen to internet radio there are a TON to choose from!  So it is way better than the way it was previously.

It is really easy to use and pretty cool.  I will also be able to make a playlist of my favourite music as too.  I have to play around with it a bit still.

It also shows the picture of the album cover that you are listening to.

This one happens to be Hinder – Extreme Behavior. Hence the sexy cover!

I have been listening to it tonight and I am really starting to like it.  I usually listen to music during the day when I am home with J and this is going to give me more of a choice of what I can listen too.

Thanks hubby!

Now back to being a blog about food and fitness…next up supper.

My breakfast and my lunch were both scrumptious today!  Lets start with breakfast my favourite meal of the day!

I made J and I some very yummy French toast pumped up this morning.

I mixed together 2 eggs and 1/4 cup egg whites with 1/2 a mashed banana, cinnamon, vanilla, coconut and flax seed.  I eyeballed it with the add-ins. 

I soaked the slices of sprouted grain bread in the mixture and got the bread nice and coated and fried it up in the pan with a little non-stick spray.

I topped it with sliced banana, organic blueberries, pecans and drizzled it with agave syrup!  Holy YUM! 

Steamy cup of coffee…mmmmm!  I love my java!

After breakfast J and I took a walk to the library.  We were having another sunshiny morning and I wanted to take advantage of it.  I picked up a few books for J and a few for myself.

A few books on CD.  I am going to download them and put them on my iPod.  We will be taking a bit of a road trip next weekend and I can listen to them on the drive.  I find now when I read in the car it makes me a bit nauseous.  Bah!  It never used to bother me but for some reason it does…go figure! 

I also got these two books.

I already skimmed through the Moosewood Cookbook and it has so many great recipes I would like to try.  I might have to get myself a copy for my collection.

J surprised Mommy again today!!  After he had lunch he peed on the potty again!  I was so darn happy.  I promise I won’t write about every time he goes…but I am just a proud Mommy right now!

He got a big boy sticker today!  I could not get a clear picture of it…darn kid does not sit still!

He was proud as punch for himself!

My little cutie patootie!

After all the excitement I fixed my lunch of a very scrumptious salad.

My hughjass salad contained:

• Organic Romaine
• Organic Spinach
• Organic Celery
• Red onion
• Organic Grape Tomatoes (love theses..yum!)
• Cucumber
• Goat Cheese crumbled
• Chicken (leftovers)
• Avocado
• Sprinkle of Sunflower Seeds

I dressed it with Angela’s Better Than Bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette.  It was a snap to make and was very delicious! I loved the hint of sweetness that the maple syrup gives it.

I enjoyed this salad while I flipped through my books from the library.

I loved the creamy avocado and the sharp goat cheese..yummy!

Tonight salmon will be made for supper!  It is in the fridge and needs to be cooked.  I have a great rub in the pantry that I think I am going to use on it. 

Well the afternoon is almost over.  I think I will have another green tea and do a little more reading while J is still napping.  Ahhhhh…quite time!  The little guy keeps Mommy hopping while he is awake

Bye for now…

My plans for dinner tonight of the grilled salmon we were going to have went right out the window.  This afternoon J and I went out into the warm sunshine and had a very pleasant walk.  When we got home we were hot and tired.  So when the hubs got home I promptly told him I was really not in the mood to cook.

So instead we had something that was mucho!

We went to Mucho Burrito fresh Mexican grill.  This was the first time I tried this place and it was pretty darn good.

I got the fajita burrito that was the size of my forearm!  Seriously!  But sadly I did manage to eat the whole thing!  It was scrumdillyicous!

The hubs however got the burrito the size of his HEAD!

We got a cute little chicken taco for J.  He loves them!

When we left the restaurant I just had to snap a picture of J walking with Daddy…it is just way too cute!

We also stopped at Costco tonight to pick up a few things and I got a few goodies for myself!

Agave syrup in bulk and a Cooking Light magazine..fun!

The Agave syrup was two for the price of one that you pay for in the grocery store…SCORE!  I was a happy girl when I spotted these!

Well I think it is time to go and soak in the tub and get the film of sunscreen off my skin!

Adios!