Health in a bowl

‘Tis the season to eat cookies.

I’m not sure about your office, but at my place of employment my entire group hasn’t slowed down. We’re busy, busy, busy! When I’m busy, I find I don’t drink nearly enough water which often results in headaches.

We had an afternoon full of freezing yesterday, so my commute home was longer than usual which allowed me to arrive home, change into my gym clothes, shove some cookies in my mouth and rush out the door to spin class.

The good news? I went to spin class. The bad news? I sweat like a beast which I think contributed to my already pounding head. I’m sure those cookies didn’t help much either.

I arrived home and was craving healthy foods.

I present you with ‘health in a bowl’.

Israeli couscous, chicken breast, kale, swiss chard, mushrooms, zucchini dried cranberries and sweet potato. Tossed in EVOO, S&P, and balsamic vinegar. Topped with a couple of chunks of goat cheese.

Delicious. Filling. Healthy.

I ate it (and took the pic!) on the couch, with a bottle of tylenol, cozy under the covers watching American Horror Story. I’m loving this show! I was in bed by 8pm. I’m crazy like that sometimes.

At least I woke up headache free.

Happy Thursday!

Baking Exchange Success!

I hate baking.

I also suck at baking.

Hence the reason I jumped at the chance to orgnanize a baking exchange at my office.

My colleagues went above and beyond, and I was so pleased with the turnout.

Shortbreads, truffles, peanut butter kisses cookies, salted caramel squares, snowball surprises, and turtles.

I made peanut butter balls, and this time they turned out perfectly. Recipe is here for those who were asking, except I use parafin wax instead of shortening in the chocolate coating.

Now we all know the real challenge that is ahead: staying away from the deliciousness! Last night was a success. I ate a clementine instead of 93480 cookies. Must keep that ball rolling.

I did something kind of crazy...

As you all know, I attend a lot of group fitness classes.

Today I did something crazy. Maybe not crazy to some, but crazy for me.

I signed up to audition to become an RPM instructor!

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but to be honest I fear failure.

And you know why I fear failure? Not because I'm afraid I can't do it physically... I know I'm in great shape. I'm afraid I won't make it because I don't look like the typical fitness instructor. I'm afraid that those around me will take one glimpse at my pootch, my bat wings, or my jelly inner thighs and think "Why the hell is fatty here?"

But you know what? I decided to bite the bullet and at least TRY. I can't become an instructor without at least TRYING.

I'm still uncertain why I chose to blog about it; especially if I fail.

If I fail so be it, but if I make it through? I think I'll make a pretty wicked spin instructor. What do I think would make me great? I think I can relate to every fitness level out there. I know what it's like to try spin for the first time and be terrified. I know what it feels like feeling like you're the elephant in the room. I know what it's like to feel like you do it. I know what a sense of accomplishment it is to push yourself when you think you can't go any harder. I know how wicked it feels to gaze down and see that little pool of sweat on the floor beside your bike.

...oh, and I'm kind of awesome. And modest. ;)

Send me some "kick-ass" vibes on January 7th, ok?

The Binge Monster

The binge monster reared it's ugly head last night in the form of peanut butter balls.

I'm not going to drag it out. Today is a new day.

I will make friends with salad, chug water and hit the gym hard tonight.

One step forward, 345903 steps back.

Fuck.

Tacky or Festive?

I have sparkles in my nails. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I was peer pressured by my nail-lady.

Tacky or Festive?

Discuss amongst yourselves....

Scene of the accident

You may recall this little episode in the summer when I almost died and ended up with a really badly injured rotator cuff.

I hurt myself last AGAIN night, but this time my stairs were the assholes.

I was walking down in my too-long pj's when I slipped and tried to catch myself using the banister. Bad move.

I didn't actually fall, but I managed to re-injure my rotator cuff and went into shock as a result of the extreme pain in my arm. I was shaking uncontrollably, and I couldn't grip anything with my hand. I thought for sure something was broken.

X-rays confirmed that nothing is indeed broken, but I'm back to square one in terms of my gimpy-ness.

Frig.

Decor Scrooge?

Last week, some of my colleagues started putting up some festive decorations.

Exhibit A: Tacky McTackeron.
When they arrived at my cubicle a comment was made that I was somewhat scrooge-like due to my un-festive decor, ie - NONE.

"Amy, do you just not like Christmas or what?"

I got to thinking that maybe my personality just doesn't quite translate to the workplace 100% correctly. At work, I'm pretty much poker faced most of the time.

I'm not a huge fan of the holidays, but this year I've really embraced the decor side of things. I'm finding it's really making my new house feel more like home.

I saw some planters at the grocery store last week that caught my eye. They were beautiful, but they were also $49.99!! I couldn't believe the price tag... for tree branches! I took a drive out to my most favourite-cousin's house and robbed his trees.

Look what I created. Total cost $3 for the roll of ribbon. Not too shabby eh?

There's also twinkle lights in there, so it looks pretty at night too.

Call me scrooge if you want, but at least I have good taste (I think) in decor!

Baker Extraordinaire

Baking is too scientific for me. It involves measuring. It involves precision. And to be honest, I haaaate cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. As neat and tidy as I try to be, it never seems to workout for me.

I've come to the conclusion that I pretty much suck at it.

This is why I decided to host a baking exchange at my office, purely for selfish reasons. I spend one day baking one type of baked good, and I reap the benefits receiving a plethora in return.

You can never go wrong with peanut butter balls.

Or so I thought.

PSA: Never let them set on a wire rack. When you remove them later, you'll rip the bottom off.

Warning: Despite being ugly and not fit to service others, they still taste delicious and become dangerous to have in the house. Oh, and consuming 32940924 botched peanut butter balls results in a very sore stomach. Even today, the thought of sugar makes me a little gaggy.

Karma

My intention this morning was to write about a delicious Mexican'ish casserole I made last night loosely based on this recipe.

That is until this happened:
Spilled coffee. All over the car.

Here's the kicker: There isn't coffee all over my car. There is coffee all over Andrew's car.

I contemplated taking my car to work as I always do, but then I realized I have no gas. So I decided to thieve his car while he was sleeping. Not cool, I know.

...then proceeded to spill a $5 coffee all over it.

I'm not sure if I'm more sad that I spilled my coffee and have to resort to drinking the office slop we loosely refer to as coffee, or more scared of the fact that I may be murdered when I get home from work today.

Either way, if that's not karma I dunno what it is.

Sorry Andrew!

Ice Cream Lust

Candy Cane Chocolate Fudge Crackle.

I've never read more beautiful words.
Image Source

Well friends, it's that time of year again. Without fail, I declare my lust for Candy Cane Ice Cream around this time just about every year.

My heart really does beat for this ice cream.

This year though rather than eating it every single day until the point that I'm going to vomit, I'm taking a different approach.

I'm treating myself to a dish on weekends only. I know right, who am I?

I don't know what has happened to me in the world of food obsession, but I think I might be over it. (kind of) I've taken a step back, and just started living.

Sure, I over eat. I eat bad stuff. I eat chemicals. I eat processed food.

But I don't really give a shit. I'm feeling great, my clothes are loose, I'm feeling things like my RIBS and even caught myself feeling my own ass muscles the other day, thinking "Wow.. they're kind of awesome".

Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty "Groundhog Day" eater during the week. Sometimes I even want to throw my toaster in the tub.

What I am saying though, it feels kind of good to be able to leave that ice cream in the fridge all week without even thinking about it. This time last year, it was taunting me. Which would result in me eating 3493059 bowls of it, then feeling guilty about it, then eating some more... etc etc etc.

I still love you Candy Cane Ice Cream. Can't wait for Saturday.... and Sunday.

The garmet that made me feel like a babe

I'm a big fan of Spanx... but for dresses only. But just as a FYI, don't trust the crotchless aspect of them. Take them off when you pee. Just sayin'.

Anyways, I bought a cute new 'holiday' top to sport during the plethora of parties I have to attend this season but I was feeling a little, ummmmmmmm, roll-y-polly in it.

In a pinch, I hit up trusty Walmart and found something similar to this for just $16.99.
I looooooooooved it. The best part? It didn't smoosh my boobs AND it had a little elastic band (think like those "stay put" head bands) at the bottom to keep it secure.

The even better part? It completely smoothed out my pootch and made me feel like a teeny tiny rock star.

Do you rock any under garmets?

This is really delicious

Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans.


Recipe is here.


I used kale instead of chard, and likely added waaaaaay too much cheese. The good thing about gnocchi? A little goes a long way, it's so filling!

I can't wait for the leftovers for lunch.

Happy Friday.

RED

I remember going through a brief obsession with the colour RED right around the age of 12.

I think it had something to do with my cousin Debi selecting it to be her wedding color, and I wanted to be just like her.
I got it into my head that I want to paint an accent wall in my dining room red. Cliché, perhaps as red seems to be one of the more popular colour choices for the dining room.

Because I suck at choosing paint colors (evidence found here) I headed out to Home Depot to pick up a few samples.

Antique Red and Rapture

Cherry Blossom and Barn Door

The dining room doesn't get a ton of natural light, but I haven't seen the paint in the daylight yet.

Front runner thus far is Antique Red. We shall see how it looks when I return to the homestead this evening.

Do you have any bold wall colours in your house?