SMILES ALL AROUND!

The new stove and fridge have been installed but everything is still kind of a mess. The fridge is in disarray. My dad put everything back rather haphazardly so I'll be spending tomorrow night re-arranging everything...like putting the milk and other such items where they should be (in the kitchen door "shelf"). There aren't as many drawers in the new fridge which is kind of sucky since I kind of had my own drawer in the old fridge. The old fridge had four drawers and each drawers was very loosely categorized into the following:

1. Pre-peeled garlic/dried Chinese items
   
2. Root Veggies (usually carrots/sweet potatoes)
   
3. Fruits
   
4. Dom's Misc. Crap

New fridge only has two big drawers and one (what I'd consider) half drawer. The rest are shelf units. There are lots of door shelves though so maybe I can claim one of those as mine. My misc. drawer usually contained a tub of cheese (typically feta/ricotta), lemons/limes, miso paste, etc. Basically stuff that I would use on a regular basis and/or stuff that wouldn't fit into the mini fridge.

The stove is pretty nifty. We haven't had a chance to use it yet--tonight's dinner was take-out roast duck but I opted for multigrain chicken nuggets and Smiles instead. We've been having roast duck on an almost weekly basis and to be frank, I'm getting sick of it. It used to be considered a treat in this house but it's sort of become regular fare. Plus knowing that I kind of "go to town" on it, if you will, when it's not really that healthy, makes me not want to eat it. Now I know what you're thinking...Smiles aren't any healthier...well yeah, they aren't, but they sure are fun to eat!

But let's back up to Monday night...The last dinner with the old stove was a beef stew with soybeans, carrots and potatoes, along with some sauteed watercress. I should have passed on the soybeans (soy is not allowed in my IBS diet) but I didn't want to go without them for some reason. I ate some, paid for it later, lesson learned.

Post-dinner snacks included half of the following watermelon:and a small bowl of Barbara's Bakery PB Puffins with almond milk:DO NOT WANT! I totally forgot that these are the same flavour Puffins I got in the States! I thought I had previously gotten the cinnamon flavour but I was wrong! I do not like these PB ones and now I have a whole box of them. Ugh!! Hopefully I can come up with some kind of baked snack mix to use these up faster. Or pawn them off to someone. Sean, I'm looking at you.

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23rd...Tuesday (back to work!)
I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to top my whole wheat English muffin so I used both organic coconut butter and natural PB. I also brought along this banana to eat in the car but it got eaten during second breakfast with my oatmeal:This is my oatmeal for second breakfast and the little container I use to pack my ground flax and chia seeds: I basically fill the little container with equal parts ground flax and chia seeds, shake it all up and then add about 1-1.5 teaspoons to my instant oatmeal at work. The oatmeal I'm using does have flax in it but it's literally like 10 flax seeds for the entire packet.

Lunch was excellent, however, it was 30 minutes late and I was seriously dying during those 30 minutes. Maybe it's because I was thinking about my lunch all morning long or maybe because my mixture of oatmeal, ground flax, chia seeds, kiwi and strawberries just weren't cutting it that morning. Whatever it is, it was not cool. Baked sweet potato fries, orzo pasta "salad" with roast broccoli on top, baked chicken drumstick, potato Smiles. That Smile looks a little creepy though.

Snacks included kiwi and strawberries:
and a Kashi Dark Mocha Almond bar and a very wrinkly peach:I packed the above two snacks thinking I would eat them on the way home from work but the huge flakes of snow made me angry/confused instead of hungry. I still can't believe that it's snowing when just four days ago it was 18C. I went out in the evening with only a sweatshirt as my "jacket!"

After work I came home and tried to eat intuitively. My brain/stomach told me they wanted some fruit so I obliged with some strawberries, a pear, watermelon and grapes:It also wanted something more sweet and indulgent, which is why you see the salted caramel and mojito macarons from Nadege.

Proper dinner didn't follow until almost three hours later though this dinner is probably more suited towards a five year-old:
Six Smiles and six organic, multigrain chicken nuggets. I ate them with an offending packet of ketchup from McD's. I'm really hoping that the tiny amount of high fructose corn syrup consumed from the ketchup will not lead to a migraine tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Oh wait, I forgot...I also had that with a side salad. There, healthy!
And dessert was half a square of a very grown-up piece of Lindt Sea Salt chocolate:followed by some vanilla Earl Grey in this not so grown-up mug:

Sean picked up this mug for me from Urban Outfitters. I think it's hilarious, if not ridiculously expensive (which it was!!). The mug has different cat poses around it. Sean's fave is on the left while my fave is on the right. These cats are hilarious! Between my cat mosaic, cat cookie jar, cat brooch and this mug, I really am a crazy, old cat lady! It's not really my fault though as these were all presents from other people.

I had some of this crack, err, dark chocolate covered almonds while watching 90210:

I'm probably going to regret having bought this bag of almonds. I had the above portion times two already. Brookside is addicting and now I hear they've got some wackadoo options like dark chocolate goji, pomegranate and acai and blueberry. Wackadoo, indeed! Unfortunately I couldn't find them in the store today, which is one of the two reasons I walked into certain store. Boo. Instead I ended up buying those dark morsels of addiction. And I don't even like chocolate that much. Oi. At least I got the dark chocolate ones...anti-oxidants, right? I should probably stop trying to rationalize this segment.

Adios!

STILL PLAYING CATCH UP

21st...Sunday (aka Fun Day with Sean!)
The plan was for Sean to pick me up after his 12-hour shift and for us to grab a bite to eat--that's it. It turned out to be a wonderful day together, despite the frigid temperature and the battle within my stomach. Since Johnny's Burger was closed when we drove by, I suggested Caplansky's, a deli specializing in smoked meat. It's about as close to Montreal smoked meat as you'll get so you better get there quickly. Sean and I were there around 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon and man, it was still packed! We waited about five minutes (less than the time our server stated, hoorah!) and were seated. Good stuff so far. Not so good, no photos. At all. My tastebuds took control so no photos were taken.
Sean and I both opted for the sandwich combo (both getting smoked meat sandwiches) but Sean got the matzoh ball soup while I got the fries. You'll have to take Sean's word for it when he says that the soup was good. I couldn't have a taste due to the chicken broth, which I doubt was free-range and didn't really bother to ask about. My fries arrived in a basket shortly after and the server was smart in placing the basket in the middle of us. No way was I going to finish off that entire basket of fries. No way was I even going to finish off that 7oz. smoked meat (I chose "medium" while Sean got the "fat") sandwich but I somehow did it. It was a mistake. My stomach was not thanking me for it later but my tastebuds and the tapeworm were very grateful.
We also got an extra order of pickles (yum) and Sean was practically swooning over his coffee. My water was good (har har) and their assortment of mustards was actually kind of impressive--not that I remember any beyond the one with horseradish and the extra spicy, which our server called "mango" because I think he meant that as being awesome(?).
The rest of the menu sounds amazing (the LEO looks to be right up my alley) but their smoked meat is definitely what everyone goes there for. I would definitely not hesitate to go to Caplansky's again and hey, maybe this time, I'll get a photo or two! Oh, worth mentioning as well...the waiters/waitresses were ultra friendly and not in an annoying way. They were not snobby or uptight or the least bit pretentious. They were totally down with getting into conversation but nothing too deep or lengthy (which was okay) and there was no need to ask for a water/coffee refill (it came right away) which is always a good sign.

The rest of the day was spent spending money, har har! I picked up a dozen macarons at Nadege:



And who is this blurry friend?To be honest, I have no clue who exactly this i but if I had my way, we would have smuggled him into the back of Sean's car. I just about lost my shit (seriously, ask Sean) when I saw this Chow Chow being walked along Bloor St. I had never seen a full-grown Chow Chow that wasn't in a pet store before so this was beyond exciting!

The rest of the day's eats included half a large Greek feta, half a large container of watermelon, a small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk (whatever was in Sean's fridge) and some awesome cranberry apple ginger juice from Wilde, a pure, natural fruit juice that doesn't contain any sugars, preservatives and is not from concentrate. I don't usually go for things with ginger but as I've mentioned a million times already, stomach was a-hatin' this weekend so I thought the ginger would do me some good. It did.

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22nd...Monday (today, hurrah, we did it!)
There was a really gross amount of food in the mini fridge this morning so I made a half-assed attempt at emptying it out. First up, eating this peach danish from Prague:Tasty but the filling was really sweet and my sensitive teeth was not having it. Lunch was leftover orzo salad with half a salmon filet that my dad happened to be pan-frying as I was heating up my orzo in the micro--score!About an hour later my sweet tooth kicked in but remembering the ultra-sweet peach danish, I opted for a bowl of fruits instead:nectarine, grapes and strawberries.

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We're getting our new stove and fridge tomorrow and I'm beyond excited. It'll be the first time my family has ever had major stainless steel kitchen appliances. Woo! I am uber-excited for the new oven. I'm hoping that the temperature has been calibrated properly and that the my attempts at making macarons will not fail me. The first test will be a batch of cupcakes though. I've been wanting to make cupcakes or brownies for a couple of weeks now.

Oh, I forgot to mention the ridiculous weather we had over the weekend. Friday was glorious and I mean, glorious! The high was 18C and boy was I itching to get the heck out of the lab. Every time I opened the door to receive a sample, I'd get a whiff of fresh air, the warm sun and a glimpse of what I was missing out on. It was hard to sit still! But then Saturday morning rolls around and what should greet me as I head into my dad's car? Flurries! It was freakin' snowing. It was cold, really cold. I hadn't anticipated how cold it would be and didn't think I'd need mittens while walking through the woods at Kortright Conversation Area, but boy was I wrong! I could have used my winter coat as well but of course, that was an afterthought.

WHOA, FOOD RECAP!

I cannot believe I'm a full week behind on food recaps. Crud. know that most of you probably don't find it that interesting but it's something that I did on my Facebook page and then transferred over here but I started discussing other things over here too so my food recaps have sort of taken a back seat. (I'm also home from work today because my stomach has not been nice to me all weekend long, more on that later.)

14th...Sunday
I had been craving dim sum like something fierce so Sean and I went out for dim sum in the morning at our favourite dim sum restaurant.

Here's a rundown of our eats. Rice with dried sausage and Sean's chicken feet:

Custard buns (we thought these were BBQ pork buns) and beef rice noodle rolls:

Beef spare ribs in garlic sauce and deep fried squid:

Here's Sean...satisfied with his eats:

Food for the rest of the day was kind of light...I had some strawberries in the afternoonAnd dinner was leftover rice noodle soup and veggie biryani (with some of Dad's sliced beef thrown in):An hour later I had some tea and called the kitchen off limits!

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15th...Monday
I was getting to work about 45 minutes early last week so I ended up packing all my meals for work. First breakfast was a mix of Optimum Slim and buckwheat cereal to be eaten along with some Almond Breeze at work:Second breakfast involved oatmeal and lunch was the baked penne pasta that I had made the night before along with a side of mixed greens:
Snacks were grapes and strawberries, half of which I used in my oatmeal and it was fantastic. Grapes in oatmeal are awesome!And more snackage included this Dark Chocolate Coconut bar from Kashi.

Dinner included rice cooked in the rice cooker along with pork, mushrooms and Chinese dried sausage and a salad of shredded carrots along with half a raisin bun:

Later in the evening I consumed a Ryvita cracker with cream cheese and prosciutto along with a fried egg and a mug of hot water with lemon and honey:

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16th...Tuesday
Breakfast was the same as the previous day. I had actually prepared Monday and Tuesday's meals on Sunday night, which was kind of weird since I don't like preparing food that far in advance, but a great idea because I was really lazy on Monday night. Actually, I just wanted to watch Gossip Girl. Here's the first breakfast cereals:

Followed by lunch and fruits:

And dinner was at the Fickle Pickle in Stouffville with Sean. We both ordered the lamb special, which was a lamb shoulder with rice, potatoes, soup and salad, oh and garlic bread. Yep...lotsa food! I totally forgot to take pics, doh! Even after that incredibly meal, I was still feeling like a little something sweet so Sean and I headed to Metro for some ice cream:

We totally scored on the So Delicious vanilla bean ice cream. The price wasn't coming up on the computer when the cashier scanned the item so he just charged us $1.99 for the whole thing! Normally I see So Delicious selling for at least $4.99!! The Tropical Treets Coconut ice cream was $5.99 though, so everything kind of evened out in the end.

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17th...St. Patrick's Day!
I ended up wearing khaki green pants to wear, but not on purpose. Surprisingly there were a lot of older women wearing green that day, a lot of non-Irish ones to boot! Unfortunately no St. Paddy's Day shenanigans at the lab...we're not allowed--or so I assume.
First breakfast for this past week has been a banana with half an English muffin with natural, organic PB. I've been trying to cut down on the amount of food I eat at first breakfast because for a while there, it was getting a little bit out of control. I miss the scrambled eggs with spring mix and a pear (at least there weren't any carbs involved) but it was too much food considering I was going to be consuming oatmeal just an hour later. Speaking of which...here is a rare photo of my oatmeal at work:

I'm now working through a couple boxes of organic instant oatmeal with flax seeds. This week I've been adding grapes and strawberries. Yum!
Please excuse the terrible lunch photos as they were taken in the car. It was also made really early in the morning, while I was rushing to get out of the house, hence car photos. Here we have some just-made organic, multigrain chicken nuggets:

And grapes and strawberries for breakfast and lunch:

Unfortunately the plan to eat said nuggets never really occured because halfway through the day I got a really severe migraine and had to call my dad to bring me something more substantial to eat. (I had left some salad in the work fridge but knew that wouldn't tide me over.) He ended up bringing me some Chinese take-out (rice with pork ribs/chicken feet--the latter of which I did not consume).

After work I headed to the grocery store to pick up some spinach, whole wheat English muffins and the above-pictured green smoothie. Along with a whole bunch of green fruit (kiwi, green apple, pear), it contained spirulina, which I hoped would help me with this terrible throat problem I've been having. I came home and had some of the smoothie along with the following fruit and bowl of wintermelon soup:

Dinner was a plate of random bites of food:

Whole wheat English muffin with natural/organic PB on one side and Artisana coconut butter on the other. I also had some baby carrots, strawberries and grapes. After that I went to bed and didn't wake up until 11.5 hours later. Migraine gone but not without consuming three different types of medication....ugh.

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18th...Thursday
Thank goodness for that baked penne I made earlier last week. It seriously saved my lunches this week so far. Unfortunately I don't have photos of said lunch for today but we've seen it like three times before so I really don't think it's that much of a loss. First breakfast for the day was one end of an English muffin with natural/organic PB:
Dinner for the evening was basmati with leeks and pork ribs:Dessert, in my new bowl, was grapes and a pear:
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19th...Friday (thank goodness!!!)
I had plans to hang out with Sean after work so I was totally stoked for the end of work--even before it started! I think my excitement led to a misjudgment with time. As a result, I ended up having to put on my moisturizer and makeup (primer and eyeliner) in the car, as well as eat breakfast (English muffin with PB and a banana, unpictured):
Here's a close-up of the EM with PB:Second breakfast involved oatmeal and my toppings including strawberries, grapes and a nectarine:Lunch was the Everything-Into-The-Bowl Casserole on a bed of spinach:Followed by a peach, strawberries and grapes:
After a little bit of confusion, Sean picked me up from home and we headed to the mall but as usual, I was hungry and ate a pastry from Prague, in the car:Behold, a Czech-style sweet cheese danish with raisins:My mom and her co-worker had lunch in the area and stopped by Prague for some after-lunch sweets. She picked me up a couple of treats, including the aforementioned cheese danish.

The rest of the evening's eats included probably the worst meal I've had in ages: 1/2 rack ribs special at Markham Station with fries, salad and garlic toast. I was hungry so I ordered the special while Sean just ordered the (giant) basket of fries. Both our fries ended up cold and stale. The ribs were also chewy and cold. It was almost as if we got the leftovers from everyone's fries. And my ribs were just like the rib nubs, leftovers from whatever everyone else couldn't finish. For a place that usually makes their fries perfectly (Sean and I liken them to McD fries), we were extremely disappointed. I kept eating because it had been 7+ hours since lunch. I highly doubt we will ever be back--unless it's for all-day breakfast, because how can you really screw up eggs and bacon and toast? However, if anyone can do, Markham Station probably could.

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20th...Saturday (Are you tired of all the photos yet??)
I attended the Maple Festival at Kortright Centre Conversation Area with a couple of friends from high school but forgot my memory card in my laptop (duh!) so I only have a few photos with my iPhone. We kind of blitzed through the whole thing, which was a bit of a disappointment since I was really hoping to scope everything out, so I don't have many exciting photos anyway. Before heading to Kortright, I whipped up some orzo pasta with cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms and diced cucumber. I dressed it with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper:Things I was able to get photos from at the Maple Festival included this dude, talking about how maple syrup was made back in the old days by boiling off the sap (that is collected from the trees into metal buckets) in giant black pots. And how the maple syrup process in now done in modern times using a tubing method.Holes are dug into the trees and pipes are inserted into the trees:The pipes are then all connected and meet up in a storage tank just outside the Sugar Shack. The tubing was everywhere!

The rest of my day was spent with one of my university friends, Dianne. I met her and her boyfriend at their newly-purchased condo and we made pizzas on whole wheat pita bread. I topped mine with Whole Foods brand roasted garlic pasta sauce (I thought it was just regular tomato sauce, oops!), spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. After that we split a mini tiramisu from Metro that was super delish and dug into a box of Peak Freans tea cookies, which I haven't had in ages. I only had three just in case the refined sugars gave me a headache/stomach ache the next day. It was an awesome evening as I hadn't seen Dianne in months. We spent hours just catching up.

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That's all for now. I want to save yesterday's recap for another post.