Fresh sheet day!

Its almost midnight and I am finally in bed! Long day for me as I was trying to get a lot of household chores done and out of the way. I usually like to have them mostly done before the weekend. Thursday will be busy this week though as I am going to Ikea for half a day! YAY! Will try and remember to take a picture to show you what I buy. Probably just a few odds and ends but I will be looking at some furniture. Anywho, as I already blogged first thing this morning, you all know I was up pretty early. I had several cups of candy cane green tea as I feeling a bit off...or maybe just sleepy. lol
Either way, by 10am I was too hungry to worry about feeling bad and made myself a salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Its topped with the last of the red pepper hummus (must make more of that soon!) and sourdough rye wasa crackers. I think all the garlic from the hummus helped me feel a bit better. :)

I was still hungry so I had my breakfast! lol More puffed kamut cereal with Envirokidz panda puffs and almond milk. I also threw in the other half the kashi granola bar I had from yesterday.

Dave was late for dinner again and didn't let me know until I was about to eat the coffee table, so I just grabbed a cracker and swiss cheese to snack on while he was on his way home. Decided to splurge and have a little glass of red wine.

It was after 7 when my husband and dog came home from the office and I was starving and running around trying to finish off my chores (laundry takes forever sometimes).

We decided to get a Chicken taco pizza from panago. Ate all but one piece between the two of us! AND we then went crazy and decided to have pecan sundaes at Dairy queen! We have some buy one get one free coupons for them so its a cheap little indulgence. Unfortunately, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and could barely eat half of these treats. So in the freezer for another day!










Well, I should be getting to sleep since I have another big day tomorrow and I need to make a list before I go. It is never wise for me to go to Ikea without direction as I will end up looking at everything! And it looks like its time to clean out the fridge before grocery day...blah. At least I can enjoy my freshly laundered sheets now. Night all! Have a lovely Thursday!

Paint swatches and snacks before dinner

This past weekend, I finally got to some of the paint and home building supply stores to get some paint samples and tester tiles for the bathroom.

After two years of living here, we decided to finally do some renovations on the condo. Mainly because there are a few things that need to be changed out. But before we can do anything we have to plan it all out and ask permission from the strata board. So, don't expect a lot of demolition pictures on here any time soon.
As I was looking at paint chips in the morning light, I had Nature's path puffed kamut cereal mixed with Envirokidz puffed cereal blend of corn, millet, and kamut. Milk of choice was unsweetened almond breeze almond milk and candy cane green tea on the side. It was the last of one of my children's cereal and I liked it alot, but I have a feeling its discontinued since I couldn't find the cereal on there website anymore.
After breakfast, I had some daily chores to do and didn't even break for a mid morning snack! Needless to say I was hungry by lunch time and had a two plate combo of food! hehe I am trying to eat up these LARGE 12" pitas I bought awhile ago, so I had half of one spread with homemade red pepper hummus and some grated swiss cheese and toasted the whole thing. I also had some leftover homemade vegetable barley soup that I had on the side with good ol' ice water.

The second half of lunch was sliced strawberries and bananas with some graham crackers and peanut butter. Tasty!!

Did some more purging of clutter in the kitchen and it looks like I will have a whole kitchen set to sell on craigslist! Its amazing how much stuff one can collect and not really need. I was thinking instead of selling it, I might see if I can give it to a family in need. I also have a huge bag full of clothes to give away as well. By the end of this 'clutter cleanse', I might need a truck to haul it all away! ha!
Anyway, found out as I was making dinner that Dave was going to be going to his ride for cancer meeting, so he would be late. So I stopped that dinner in favor of leftover chili and cornbread. But since I was waiting for him to arrive back, I had my after dinner snack before dinner!
I just made a simple salad with more hummus and dried pita chips on top.
After that, I had some more strawberries with half a kashi trail mix bar.
Dave FINALLY came home at almost 9pm and I was starving!

Homemade black bean veggie chili to the rescue (with cheese on top)! Oh and the cornbread is a family favorite that I got from here. I can't believe how long I have been making this recipe, but its SO GOOD! I would gladly buy Jiffy's brand corn muffin mix, but they have LARD in it, so that is not going to happen here!
This recipe might be even better than Jiffy's brand anyway, and certainly healthier for you!
We also had some blueberry cake for dessert that I made from this recipe. I changed it a bit by taking out the seasonings, and adding lemon flavoring and salt instead. Also doubled the amount of blueberries because I love lots of fruit in this kind of cake. Also used almond milk instead of soy milk as that is the only unsweetened 'milk' I have in the house.
It turned out pretty good, but next time, I will just lemon juice/zest instead of lemon flavoring as it has a bit of an aftertaste. Otherwise, very tasty. Thanks Happy herbivore!


So, that was yesterday's feast, and so far all I have managed to do is do a blog post and have a cup of tea. lol Time to start the day! Have a good Wednesday everyone!

Dustin' off the ol' blog and ready to organize!

Whoa! It's been a long while since I've been on this thing. Going to be using it to keep track of household stuff from now on. I have been writing out my weekly menu plan to keep me from getting take out. When I get a new camera, I will also be showing my household projects. Other than that, I will check in at least once a week with my meal plans and a bit about what is going on with me. If you want some more great ideas to help plan your meals, go to http://orgjunkie.com

MENU PLAN MONDAY:

Dinner:
-Monday: BBQ chicken, mac and cheese, smokey greens, and cornbread
-Tuesday: broccoli cheese soup w/ crackers AND Shrove Tuesday pancakes for dessert :)
-Wednesday: chickpea and lentil curry, basmati rice, and garlic naan
-Thursday: spaghetti w/ salad and rosemary bread
-Friday: fish burgers w/ oven fries and coleslaw

Lunch:
-Monday: ramen or hummus w/ veggies
-Tuesday: leftover Chinese food or hummus or soup
-Wednesday: broccoli cheese soup w/ salad
-Thursday: leftover curry with naan
-Friday: stuffed peppers w/ avocado and salsa

Breakfast:
cereal or homemade granola w/ yogurt or milk

Dessert:
Shrove Tuesday pancakes
apple crisp
crepe suzette
*NOTE: freeze half cornbread and pancakes for later use.

Back from Germany, sick as a dog?!?!

Long time to no speak everyone! I just got back from an 8 day trip to Germany, to see one of my closest friends get married. Of course, I took way too many photos and not too many of myself. And right before leaving to come home, I got REALLY sick - can't get out of bed kind of sick. So, I have been recovering since July 1st and finally making enough progress to post this quick update. I hope everyone enjoyed their Canada Day (July 1st) and/or 4th of July holidays!!!

Oh...btw...I am still hoping to make it to the Chinatown night market this weekend...even if I need to be wheeled there! hehehe

Backlog blog

I'm back! I have been absent for awhile now, mostly because I had to wipe my hard drive clean which meant I lost all my pictures too. Then a few weeks ago, I had to take the computer back in and got a whole new hard drive (which means I lost my pictures AGAIN). Thanks to my husband, I can update everyone using his computer.

Back in April, we went to a housewarming party for our friends, Bill and Colleen (and Daisy the dog). They bought a beautiful new condo out in Langley, BC. As you can tell, it was a quite a fun party. I love going to Bill's parties because he makes some of the best fresh salsa and guacamole I have ever had. They also showed off their new rio5 and spectra cars from Kia too. I am very happy for them and I can't wait for the wedding in the Dominican Republic!!! Woohoo!

I've also been walking more and taking pictures of all the spring blooms. Its nice to see fresh blooming flowers and trees in front of all the condos and churches in our neighborhood. Louise the pug likes sniffing at them too. The above picture is only a small sample of the different flowering plants in my area.

For May 5th, or Cinco De Mayo, we had a lovely feast of nachos, Sangria, tacos, and flan. I am trying to cook lots of different foods lately too.
I made this udon soup for lunch one day which was way too much for one person. It was tasty though! Next, I will try making ramen from scratch. Stay tuned!
May 6th 2007, Vernon "Grampy" Sweeney, past away at the age of 83. We all will remember him fondly. My husband had to go back to Halifax, NS for the funeral. So, to cheer up the dog and myself, we decided to take walks down by the ocean and Fraser river since we couldn't go back to the Atlantic ocean and pay our respects.

When David (my husband) returned, we decided to all go to the river for a walk with the dog. As, you can see, she had lots of fun and met some new dogs too. To see more, you can just head over to Louise's blog.

Louise and I also ran into one of the local neighborhood skunks one night. Thankfully, we were not sprayed, but the skunk didn't appreciate Louise's excessive barking. Click on the above pictures to get a better look at the skunk. It was kind enough to let me take these pictures from 10 ft away.
Well, that gets everyone up to date somewhat. I will post soon, as I am having lots of adventures over the long May weekend holiday here. Hopefully, I can get a new computer soon so I am not keeping my husband from posting on his own blogs. Anyone want a G4 ibook laptop computer?

It's a bird, it's a train, it's macaroni!?!

So, I did it. I finally took my first skytrain adventure. Ok, technically it is my second skytrain ride, but I don't remember much about it since it was 10 years ago when I first met my now husband. So being all lovey dovey with him, I didn't really take the time to remember much about the train ride. Anywho, we ( my husband and I) decided to do a little shopping at Metrotown and Brentwood. Not having a vehicle meant we had to take the skytrain. I was really excited to go even if it meant going in the rain. So with our shopping bags and umbrellas in hand, we set off on our adventure. By the time we got home several hours later, we decided that it was way too much work to carry a lot of groceries back home. Even saying that, I had lots of fun riding the train and while I won't bring home gallons of milk again, I will be riding the rails before you know it!
I am finally getting used to the seagulls that love to scream their heads off first thing in the morning. I realized that they were only loud when the dumpsters were full as they were probably bubbling over with excitement to see such a "feast". Even still, they scared me yesterday while my husband and I walked over to Ramano's macaroni grill.
I was treated to the Trio Milano which is caesar salad, roasted garlic cream sauce pasta with chicken, and lovely chocolate cake. It was so good, that I ended up overeating but it was worth it! I will be going back there again.

First week in Van-city!

Finally, moved into our new condo in downtown Vancouver! Moving day was a bit crazy, and we had a big mixup with our storage area. So much so, that we almost cut a lock on a storage locker, only to find out it was the wrong locker! Will have some pics of the new place as soon as we finish unpacking and organizing the place a bit. So, what have I been up to since move in day? Well, I have been shopping for stuff we needed for the house so that means a trip to Daiso.
This is a great "100 yen" store (although, its 2CAD here) and I am addicted to this store. I can't leave daiso without spending too much money, but somehow, its still cheaper than most other stores in town. I will probably do some posts on some of my Japanese items i got there, as I would love some help translating some of the instructions! My husband also took me to a play at the Gateway theatre called "The bond". We have also been enjoying walking downtown and getting to know our neighborhood more. Anyone know of any good places to go in the West end?