Intentions for April

How things went in March:

Yoga every day again.  Nope!  Not even close.

Drink lots of Water - Not bad.

Eat more veggies and fruits - Hmmmm, not sure I could call this one a victory.

Read with The Boy every night - doing well until sickness and Spring Break showed up.


Gosh these intentions are really just a list of things I haven't done well.

Intentions for April -

Focus on health - I am still hovering around the 7-8 pound gain.  I know I'm eating more poorly due to stress.  I need to cut it out.

Yoga daily- this is a goal I keep setting and failing at but I know how much better I feel when I practice.

Family walks - Spring has spring, babies.  Let's get out there.

Breakfast

The biggest food area I struggle in - after menu planning - is breakfast for myself.  It has to be portable and easily thrown together during the week, because I don't eat when I first get up.  I'm pretty much off "sweet" breakfasts like waffles or pancakes, and they are too much trouble 

to take to work, you gotta bring butter and syrup too.  

Cereal or toast are boring and don't usually fill me up until lunch.

If there's no cold pizza to be had, sometimes I'll have dinner leftovers, or a sandwich.  Why not?  

Last month I had a perfectly delicious breakfast courtesy of the leftover roasted peppers that I'd bought when I made Moussaka for Sunday dinner.  I'd used a layer of roasted peppers in the dish instead of the eggplant and it was divine.  The leftover peppers topped some toast, along with feta cheese, and some cayenne pepper that a kind soul had left in the kitchen at work. 

I had a version of this for lunch the next week, and I'm planning on buying another one of those jumbo jars of roasted peppers from Costco again soon for more.

Snapshot - Rollin' in my 5.0.....

My stupid Iphone is refusing to play anything but the same 20 songs over and over again, so I unearthed the old Ipod and took it to work.  Loving it already.

Just to show how old I am, when this song came out and was a huge 

hit, it was sold out in the stores here.  A friend and I drove to Kelowna to buy the

 cassette single (yes, that's what I said) and listened 

to it over and over on the drive home.

Fratelli Pho

I grabbed the wrong tupperware container from the fridge the other morning - a container 

that did not contain my lunch, so I headed out to find something 

cheap and fast and healthy - no fast food today, sir!

 It was Pho day at Fratelli, so I waited my turn and ordered a small bowl.  

The charming lady whipped up a bowl, added "medium spice" at my request, 

and sent me on my way in no time.

It was very delicious.  With the exception of the lime, which came 

out of a plastic container, everything was super fresh.  

The beef was tender and the broth was flavorful.  

 A definite winner for a quick lunch downtown.

Green bean stirfry

My time organization skills and menu planning are gone, baby, gone.

I've given up trying to plan meals in advance, which then leaves me scrambling daily to figure out a healthy meal to get on the table quickly and cheaply.  Argh.

I don't love food as much as I used to.  I don't love cooking, or reading cookbooks, 

or menu planning.  Which is fine, whatever, except when it comes to 

having to feed your family 7 days a week.

So I'm on the lookout for fast, healthy, cheap meals that picky 6 year olds will eat.  Easy and fun.

This one is good - Szechuan Beans and Ground Pork.  I used ground turkey, and omitted the spice for the kids.  Ah, spice.  I miss you so.

Recipe: Szechuan Green Beans with Ground Pork

Grocery Shop March 12

Juice boxes, iced coffee, taco kit, condensed milk, school snacks, popcorn chips, dried thyme, ice tea, margerine, butter, whipping cream, puff pastry, carrots, spinach, bell peppers, watermelon, bananas, cucumber, lemons, celery, sausage, chicken, deli ham, pepperoni.

$108

Snapshot

Goodbye, snow!  Hello, more walks!

Chicken Casserole

We had my parents over for Sunday dinner, and I was totally craving my Mom's chicken tetrazzini, but I was feeling a bit "meh" about cream of mushroom soup.  I know, what is up with that????

Anyhoo, I found the perfect solution in this creamy chicken spaghetti casserole.

It was super simple to make and the chopped up olives sounded - and were - so delicious.

A new family favorite for weekend dinners.

PS - my posts are embarrassingly short because I try to write when the kids are asleep or occupied.  Guess how often that lasts more than 5 minutes?

Instagram - 70 books reviewed

We are now up to70 cookbooks reviewed, and 54 have been returned to the shelf.

8 additional books scooted out the door untested:

A Spanish cookbook that I've held onto for years.  When I bought it I cooked one recipe out of it that wasn't great,so I don't know why I've kept it.

2 Rachael Ray 30 Minute books.

A super healthy cookbook with alkaline balancing and soaked cashews and probiotics, and I'm too tired for so many steps and effort.

A Cooking Light book from the dollar store.

Also from the dollar store - a Food and Wine book that was just too darn fancy for us.

An old Emeril Legasse book picked up at a book sale.

A beginners cookbook also from a book sale.

Intentions for March

How things went in February

Not well, actually.  I've been back at work for 2 months and everything seems like a struggle.  There is never enough time in the day to do what I need to do, much less what I want to do.  I'm exhausted all the time and I've gained 8 pounds.

Yoga and walking every day - This has suffered a lot.  I'm taking my 2 classes a week at the studio, but most weeks that's been it.  I need to fine some inspiration and new energy for my practice.  And walking?  Nope.

Reading - nope.

Menu planning - ugh.  I have lost all interest in food, cooking and planning.  I'm starting to resent even having to do it.  Not a place I want to be or ever thought I would be.

Say Thank You to the Mister - not enough.

I'm feeling like I've lost sight of what my plan was for intention setting, so I also went back and looked at my January intentions - 

Yoga every day - nope.

Drink lots of water - ha!  Next.

Use my Fitbit - I don't even know where it is since I changed the battery.

Keep Calm - nope nope nope.

So! Back to basics.  Focus on family and health this month (not that my family isn't always my main focus anyway.....)

Intentions for March -

Yoga every day again.  Even if it's just a few poses or stretches.

Drink lots of Water

Eat more veggies and fruits

Read with The Boy every night

Pineapple Cupcakes

I made these for work for a lady who was leaving - I hardly knew her, but felt badly that no one was going to make any sort of fuss on her last day, so I whipped these up the night before.

They are the sort of dessert I feel like maybe I should feel badly about - boxed mix with more prepackaged add ins - but frankly they were so freaking delicious I don't care.

The can of mandarin oranges whipped into the batter is a genius move, and one I would definitely use again. 

I left them un-iced with the frosting in a bowl for everyone to do themselves, and I swear, some people were eating it with a spoon.

SO good.

Recipe: Pineapple Sunset Layer Cake

Spiced whipped cream

I made Mr. G's carrot cake cupcakes for the baby's birthday.  I'm so over cream cheese frosting

 right now there was no way I was doing that, but I didn't want to leave them just plain.  

It was a party, for heaven's sake!

I whipped up a batch of whipped cream, and when it was almost ready I added some maple syrup, 

cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.  

It was so delicious, and perfect with the carrot cake. Or just a spoon. 

Snapshot - It's heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere!

I actually gasped out loud yesterday when I saw the book was in Chapters, then 

grabbed a copy and ran for the till.

I am so excited to get reading.

Roasted appple pancakes

The Mister made some roasted apple slices for the kitlets to eat.  Apples, peeled and sliced, tossed with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, and baked for a while. 

They were delicious.

For Sunday morning breakfast I chopped some up and stirred them into pancake batter, 

with a little extra cinnamon and nutmeg.  

They were so flavorful they didn't need butter or maple syrup, but to me a pancake 

isn't a pancake without them.

Tender, homey and comforting. 

Walkies

Last month, out for a quick walk by myself. 

Snapshot - Cookies for coworkers

It's 10pm, and I have to get up at 4:30 am, so I really should be in bed, but the first trays of cookies just came out of the oven.  

When you promise your co-workers cookies for Friday, you gotta follow through.....

Something I like - Line a day memory book

I bought this on impulse at the end of December, and it's become very important to me 

quite quickly.  The one line a day memory book give you a small space to jot a few lines

 about each day of the year, for 5 years.

I have an absolute terrible memory - I am not a parent that can spout off facts and dates about their kids development at the drop of a hat, or even tell you what I did last weekend, usually.
It's sad.

Our lives are really not super crazy, so some days are easier and more
 fun to fill in than others.   What a joy it will be to look back at days that say
"Worked late.  A&W for dinner."!

Hee.  But I am excited about keeping this up to date and being able to look
back at our year, and years.

I also think this would be a great gift for new parents - what a way to track important days and milestones in your babies lives!  If only I'd know about this 6 years ago.

Buy here!

Book Club - Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese

"He'd never known lonely.  If he put his head to it at all he couldn't work a definition for the word.  It sat in him undefined and unnecessary like algebra; land and moon and water summing up the only equation that lent scope to the world, and he rode through it fleshed out and comfortable with the feel of the land around him like the refrain of an old hymn.  It was what he knew.  It was what he needed."

"Down the one side was a tangle of lilacs, un-pruned and ramshackle, old and uncared for, scraping against the side of the house, and there was only one bloom.  It sat high at the point farthest from the house.  A small dab of color."

"They snowshoed in for two hours, built a fire, and drank strong tea, and in that cold and barren-feeling world, the kid came to know Christmas as a time when the land and its emptiness were perfect."

Perfect Yorkies

We had roast for Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings - roasted potatos, sprouts, creamed spinach, gravy, and the best part - yorkshire puddings. 

I absolutely love yorkies but have always been afraid to make them. Years ago a friend and I made - tried to make - them and we failed miserably. 

I never attempted them again but always wanted to. 

So what better time than a crazy busy day with the stress of completely wired children and grandparents coming for dinner? 

 I followed Jamie Oliver's Amazing Yorkies recipe and they were perfect and impressive. 

Definitely the best part of the meal for me.

A couple of days after, we finished up the leftovers.  I'd discovered a yorkshire pudding mix package in the cupboard, so I made them to go with the leftover beef.

Yuck.  Little tasteless hockey pucks.  Won't be doing that again.

Recipe: Amazing yorkies

(For the beef we followed this recipe and omitted the peppercorns.  Delicious.)

Intentions for February

How things went in January:

Yoga every day - pretty well.  I have definitely come to rely on my practice to bring some peace and calm to my mind and life.  I went for a few days without practicing mid month, and was ready to "remove my skin and throw it at someone" as I so charmingly shared with The Mister.

Lots of water - during the day, I'm pretty good.  At home, no.

Use my Fitbit - I FOUND my fitbit.  So that's a start.....

Keep calm - hmmmmm.


For this month -

Yoga and walking every day.

Reading.  More.  Do it.  I have a big pile of books to read, but I don't actually have much interest in those particular books.  Boo.

Menu planning  _ I have totally fallen apart on this.  I need to make a plan for the week every weekend, and stick to it.

Say Thank You to The Mister, every day.  The man is a saint, and deserves the moon.  Instead, he got stuck with me.