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Try It Tuesday:Ancient Grains with Millet

7 Jun

I found something new at M&M Meat Shops, well new to me anyways, people who shop there often probably found this ages ago. It is a two serving dish of Ancient Grains with Millet and Vegetable Blend in Tomato Sauce…long enough name? Eesh. lol

It is a microwaveable dish, you just put this frozen squat tube shaped thing that doesn’t really look like food in the microwave and cook it on high for 3 minutes, then you squish it around with a spoon, microwave for 2 more minutes, stir, and let sit for 2 minutes. Easy peasy.

It costs $2.99 and contains millet, steel-cut oats, brown rice, red and white quinoa with carrots, kale and onions in a tomato and roasted garlic sauce.

I bought this before I went low carb so it has been sitting in my freezer for a little while. I wasn’t feeling great today, not sick, just sorta “off” and I couldn’t face my normal food, all that protein, ugh, not today thanks. So I went searching for something that would most likely be gentle on my tummy and came across this.

I forgot to take a pic to show you the unattractive frozen blob it is prior to being popped in the microwave so here it is after the first 3 minutes…

2016-06-02 14.31.33

Aaaaaaand here it is once it is cooked and covered in salsa…

2016-06-02 14.37.12

Now yes, I realize I should have taken a picture before the salsa got put on top so you can see how it actually looks but I was only intending to put a small amount of salsa on so it shouldn’t have been a problem. However, I maaaay have gotten distracted and tilted the salsa jar too far and boom! salsa all over the ancient grains and millet hence ancient grains with millet and vegetable blend in tomato sauce covered in salsa…its like my own version of the dish! lol

It is quite bland, so the salsa made it tasty, you definitely need to put some sort of sauce or topping on this.

Nutrition wise it isn’t horrible but it isn’t great. Depending on what type of meal plan you follow this may or may not work for you. I would have expected it to have a higher fibre content considering all the grains and oats and whatnot that is in it but what do I know? I expected it to have an actual tomato sauce and it didn’t have that…advertising lies! 😉

If you are okay with eating carbs and want to add some grains to your meal plan it would probably be a good side for you, I bet it would be nice paired with some salmon or even a seasoned chicken breast. 🙂 For me though I probably won’t buy it again, too many carbs, not enough protein, and too bland for my taste. Not that I mind adding salsa or other condiments to things but I would prefer not to so I can save my calories for something more interesting…like cake! lol 😉

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Chia Seeds

3 Jun

I’ve been wanting to make those overnight oatmeal recipes in a jar for ages now but all the recipes for them seem to contain Chia Seeds and I (1) had no idea what that was, (2) figured they were ridiculously priced as all weird fad foods seem to be and (3) wasn’t willing to shell out a lot of money for something that I might hate…I learned that lesson the hard way with Flax Seed, ugh.

But then I came across this…

2016-05-26 08.53.12

Yoghurt mixed with oats and chia seeds, oh and raspberry, can’t go wrong with raspberry! 🙂 It is over priced considering the size, almost $4 for that little thing, but I thought it was a safer way to try chia seeds than buying an entire bag and being stuck with them if I hated them. Turns out this little yoghurt thing is freakin delicious! It has yoghurt but isn’t the texture of yoghurt due to the chia seeds and oats, it is thicker, and while you don’t need to chew the oats or chia seeds you still feel like you actually ate something substantial vs slurped down some simple yoghurt. But still, too much money for me to want to buy them all the time, shrug.

Which of course means I am trying to make my own…and so far have failed miserably lol I can’t get quite the same consistency in mine but that isn’t to say my concoction is bad.

In the evening I combine:

  • 1/3 Cup almond milk
  • 1/4 Cup Greek Yoghurt
  • 1/4 Cup oats
  • 2 tsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp honey
  • dash of cinnamon
  • fresh or frozen fruit

All but the fruit gets put in to a jam jar or tupperware or whatever you have, mix it all up, then throw the fruit in. I toss in some frozen fruit because well, that is what I buy, lol, but you can use fresh also. Put the lid on and toss it in the fridge. By morning the chia seeds and oats are soft, it has thickened up a bit and magically turned in to something tasty that looks like this…

Granted, not the prettiest colour but whatever, get over it, it tastes good and is decently healthy lol 😛

When I started researching chia seeds the very first article I clicked on started out with blasting in large font about how chia seeds are a super food whiiiich instantly turned me off. Any food that gets paraded out as a “super food” and the next “it” thing to be eaten I automatically want nothing to do with. What can I say, I am a bit odd like that, but despite that annoying article I persevered and found some good reasons to try the little guys out.

(1)  A 1 ounce (28 grams or 2 tablespoons) serving of chia seeds contains

  • 11 grams of Fiber
  • 4 grams of Protein
  • 9 grams of Fat (5 of which are Omega 3’s)
  • 137 calories
  • there is also a decent percentage of your daily Calcium, Manganese, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc, Vitamin B3, Potassium, Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B2

(2) Chia seeds are high in antioxidants

(3) Almost all the carbs in Chia seeds are from fibre making Chia seeds a low carb friend

(4) Chia seeds are high in quality protein

(5) Chia seeds are high in many nutrients that are important for bone health

(6) This is something I can’t find scientific research for but many sites claim Chia seeds will aid in weight loss because they expand when exposed to liquid so they help keep you fuller longer thereby decreasing your desire to snack or have your next meal early. I have noticed when I have my little concoction for brekkie at work I’m usually good until lunch time and skipping that mid morning snack comes in handy during a busy day at work. Weight loss though, I can’t say that has happened since I added them to my meal plan, shrug.

Because I liked the little yoghurt cup thing I bought a bag of Chia Seeds from Superstore, all the options they had are organic, which is annoying as I try to avoid foods labelled organic but oh well. One bag cost me $7 which was less than what I was expecting and I am eating them often enough I don’t feel the bag was a wasted food investment. I am considering upping the amount of chia seeds in my yoghurt concoction to get more of the health benefits since I currently only put in 2 teaspoons and 2 tablespoons seems to be the standard daily portion. I think that will mean upping the other ingredients so as to not have it be too thick, not sure though, so I’ll do some experimenting with that and see what happens.

If you are thinking of trying chia seeds, well, ultimately the decision is up to you but I’d say go for it, it can’t do any harm and just might do you some good. Just don’t be like the idiot who swallowed a spoonful of them then drank some water and ended up choking because the seeds expanded so quickly they blocked his esophagus. Seriously, what is with some people? *rolls eyes* And before you freak out about me being soooo callous, the guy is fine, docs saved him.

 

 

One of the sites I got my nutritional information about the Chia Seeds from:

https://authoritynutrition.com/11-proven-health-benefits-of-chia-seeds/

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Another New Plan

9 May

I feel like I am always coming up with new plans that never work out. New plans to eat healthier, work out more, lose weight, get stronger, blah blah blah.

I know I am not alone with this, this random stage where ideas are hatched, plans are formed and possibly even followed through for a while but then discarded for all sorts of “reasons” only to leave room for regret because follow through was once again not your thing. I read other peoples’ blogs, I’ve read this story many times over. And each time I feel for that person, because it is a sucky stage. Every time I start the cycle over again, and then fail, I get more demoralized and convinced I will never lose this weight…I’m pretty sure others feel the same.

Plus, it must be super boring to come here to see what I wrote about only to read about yet another Great Plan but a couple weeks later realize I haven’t commented on my new Great Plan in a while.

I firmly believe to be successful at any weight loss plan you have to hit your breaking point, or as a friend calls it, have your “a-ha!” moment. I had that back when I initially lost all my weight but this time around, with all these different plans, and ideas, and attempts I hadn’t had it. I don’t know why I hadn’t had it, it’s not like I didn’t want to succeed, shrug, but for whatever reason it just hadn’t happened.

Yesterday though, it happened.

Gotta say, it was pretty awesome. 🙂

I’d been toying with actually signing up for Weight Watchers, starting next month, cause I can’t afford it this month, if only to get me started. But for some reason that idea wasn’t inspiring me.

I toyed with trying to find the money to get a personal trainer for however many sessions to get me in to a routine and force me to be less lazy. But the cost of a trainer didn’t appeal to me and again, something about it didn’t feel right.

Then out of nowhere I thought about the old meal plan I used to follow, the high protein, high healthy fat, low carb meal plan combined with daily exercise. It was hard core, hard to maintain even when I was super dedicated, and kind of miserable at times because I was eating almost the exact same thing every day. Plus, the plan has you tracking your micro-nutrients and the amount of carbs I was allowed was soooooo low and I love carbs soooooo much, it was kinda sucky at times lol.

But…it worked!

When I started that plan I had already lost over 30 pounds, I was trying to get that last 5-10 pounds and tighten up. This means I was already in the mind set of watching what I ate, and working out often, and was used to following a healthy life routine. Plus, I was starting all that exercise when I was in better shape than I am now so while it was a challenge it was do-able.

This time I am starting farther away from my goal and I am trying to be realistic about what I can handle so I don’t end up quitting.

I don’t want to eat the exact same foods, in the same order, 7 days a week. I don’t want to never splurge. I don’t want to order salad with no dressing topped with a grilled chicken breast every single time I eat out because that is the only “safe” meal I can find on a menu.

I know to hit my goal I will need to make sacrifices and I am ok with that. I won’t get where I want to be without stopping habits I have formed and routinely doing things I haven’t been doing.

But I can’t just half-ass this. I need a plan, a detailed, written out plan that I can refer back to when my brain blanks on day 2 and I can’t remember what the hell I am supposed to be doing for breakfast lol

So I wrote down all the foods I ate on that plan, then I tweaked a bit. Instead of only eating chicken and tuna for my protein I added lean beef burger patties, fish steaks, hard boiled eggs, maybe quinoa (I’m currently researching to decide if the protein I’ll get from quinoa is worth the carbs).

I decided that I’d be allowed 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of dressing on my salads. I might even let myself have cheese every now and then…crazy huh? 😉

Then, after thinking of little tweaks I wrote down what I will eat and where (at work or at home) on the different days of the week. This might seem strange but I did it because three days of the week I have no structure decided by work. Two days of the week I work 3p-9p and 2 days of the week I work 7a-3p. When I started this job the transition to my odd work schedule threw me off, because this meal plan was not only food specific but very structured for how far apart the different meals were eaten and where in the day you exercised in relation to your meals. I couldn’t make every day the same anymore and I quickly spiraled in to not following a plan because I couldn’t follow my plan perfectly.

I’m hoping by being a bit more relaxed with the timing, and being willing to switch things up a bit, I can make it work.

For instance, I am supposed to start my day with 1/2 an apple and a simple protein shake. Then a half hour to 45 minutes later have one egg, 2 slices of turkey bacon and the other half of the apple. Well sure, that is fine on my days off and my days where I start work at 3pm but the days I work at 7am? Uh yeah, not gonna happen. So, the days I start at 7am I will have 1/2 cup of oatmeal for breakfast when I am at work.

Does it follow the rules of the plan exactly? No. Is it something I can actually do, that is relatively healthy, and maintainable? Yup.

I have to be ok with these little changes. And sure, maybe I’ll get more hard core as I really get in to things and revert back to how it was last time I followed this plan but I have to ease in to that level of dedication, re-drink the kool-aid so to speak lol

keep-calm-and-drink-the-kool-aid-8

I am so psyched to start this new plan but I won’t be following it properly until Saturday because I have to wait for Friday to be able to buy groceries so until then I will make do with what foods I already have. I can increase my protein since I already have protein rich foods. I can work on the timing of my meals, so I get used to that structure again. I can start to cut out unnecessary carbs (sadness 😦 ) and I’ve already got my grocery list written and ready to be filled.

Maybe this lull before I can start this plan full time is a good thing, it will allow me to prep and plan and psych myself up even more. 🙂

meal plan

This is an example of my meal plans for the different types of days I have. It isn’t exact or set in stone. The proteins can be swapped out and moved from one day to the next. For ease of making the document I put in mostly chicken but I have another page written up with other meal ideas that are high protein, low carb, high healthy fat. Plus, I’ll have to work on the timing, figure out where my exercise fits in to each day and maneuver some meals around that – my large protein shake for instance will best benefit me if I have it after I exercise. So I will probably end up moving that to when I am home after my 3p-9p shift because I tend to work out after that shift rather than prior. But it is a framework for me to move within, which is what I know I need to succeed.

So ok, sorry to bore you with the food portion of my “Great Plan”. But writing this and putting it out in to the world helps me, it helps me stay committed to the plan (theoretically) and helps me believe I can make it work.

I feel I should warn you my next post will probably be about the exercising portion of my new plan, especially since I’ve already started the workouts lol

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$18 Jug of Milk

8 Apr

Do you ever do that thing where you go in to the store for one item and come out with a bagful?

That was me this evening, so my intended $2 and change purchase of milk turned in to $18 and change for milk plus some other stuff. *rolls eyes*

This doesn’t happen to me when I go actual grocery shopping, then I go with a list and I get just what is on the list…ok so sure I also sometimes end up with a treat or I buy something I know I’ll need soon that is on sale now but in general, I follow the list.

When I go to buy one or two items though it is like all hell breaks loose with my willpower over choosing what I pick up and next thing you know I’m spending $20 when all I intended to purchase was a bunch of bananas, or like this time, milk.

What’s with that?

My mom does the same thing, so maybe it is genetic? 😉 lol

This time I justified some of the items because I didn’t have cash on me and no way was I using my debit card for such a small purchase so I figured hey, buy one or two other things just to make the purchase amount less pathetic but those one or two other things turned in to about 6 things and next thing I know I’m unpacking croissants and cereal and turkey pepperoni and milk and a couple other things on to my stove (I don’t have a kitchen counter) and wondering what the hell I was thinking.

I’d love to say all the items are essentials but who am I kidding? Froot Loops are not essentials…well, essential to my sugar levels and happiness but nutritionally? Not quite! lol Though if I thought on it long enough I’m sure I could find a way to justify them…it is a fortified cereal after all… 😉

grocery shopping

 

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Chocolate Cake In A Mug

7 Feb

I was having a chocolate cake craving and reverted back to primate level thinking…I neeeeed chocolate. Find chocolate. Kill for chocolate. Chocolate is vital for survival.

Stuff like that… 😉

My only options were:

(1) go to the store and buy a cake, which I am too lazy to do

(2) make a cake, which I have the ingredients for but am so not gonna do just to satisfy a craving

(3) google and hope for a better answer

Damn internet, it makes things too easy sometimes!

So I googled chocolate cake in a mug. I don’t know why I did it, over the years I have tried a couple different chocolate cake in mug recipes and they always suck. This time though my googling brought me to this…

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/the-moistest-chocolate-mug-cake/

The blog post swore this chocolate cake in a mug recipe would be moist, and delicious, and better than any of the others I may have tried.

It is simple enough of a recipe so I figured why not give it a go. If it sucks it isn’t too many ingredients wasted and I will have learned my lesson – no more cake in mug recipes!

Well, happy news, the author was correct and it is a deeeeeelicious cake in a mug! As in, so good it easily competes with a full sized home made chocolate cake or a cake bought from the store. I don’t know why this particular combination of ingredients somehow combined to create cake magic but they did and I am oh so grateful for it…while also being aware this is a very dangerous thing I have come across.

With great power comes great responsibility and now that I know I can have an easy serving of chocolate cake whenever I want, well damn, I’m gonna have to use willpower to over ride the cravings and be a good little healthy-lifestyle type of person. Ugh. Not looking forward to that but since it is a problem for another day lets forget about it for now! 😉

I was going to post the recipe here but I think it would be better if you follow the above link and check out the blog I found the recipe from, the Chef deserves the visits to her blog after all.

I did however nab a picture from her post so you can see what it looks like, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words! Just remember, it is her picture, and her cake, all I did was copy exactly what she said to do and made chocolate cake magic, Mmm!

chocolate-mug-cake-tablefortwoblog-4

 

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Cooking With A Chef

6 Feb

On Wednesday a friend of mine and I got together for lunch. She did me an awesome favour a couple weeks ago and I wanted to treat her for lunch as a thank you. She suggested we get together and cook something instead and since it was her thank you I said yup.

We went back and forth for a while on what to make and eventually settled on my brother’s Black Bean Stew recipe which omg, amazing! My brother cooks as a hobby but he puts a lot of time and attention in to it, and it helps he is brilliant at everything he attempts, so when he comes up with something it is always good. 🙂

Christmas of 2007 he brought over a pot of this black bean stew for Christmas Eve dinner and I loved it so much he gave me the recipe. Well ok, I badgered him for it, but let’s not get all picky about things k?

I’ve made it a couple times and it always turns out great.

I bought enough ingredients to double the recipe so we’d each have some for lunch and then left overs for freezing…or in her case left overs to feed her family.

She is a Chef, and an awesome one at that, so while I wasn’t nervous about cooking with her, I was certain she’d be amused and or irritated with how I am in a kitchen. She is one of those amazingly efficient human beings that always make me look like a clumsy incompetent person but oh well, shrug. She actually took over the chopping of the onions because (1) I am a slow chopper and (2) they were making my eyes water so much I couldn’t see through the tears lol

We followed the recipe to the letter but then added some additional seasoning at the end because it was a bit bland, I think I didn’t put in enough tobasco sauce…maybe? I dunno. It is the first time it has come out bland but her additional seasonings made it all better. She gave me some random cooking tips while we went along but for the most part let me run the show. We worked well as a team. 🙂

While we were cooking she said nobody every cooks for her or really invites her over for a meal because she is a Chef and people get intimidated by that. I find that sad. Food is such an integral part of society and social gatherings and nobody ever invites her over for a home cooked meal or brings her something home made to eat? What’s wrong with people!

Having said that, I’ve never brought her anything home made either. Partly because I don’t really cook and also because I figure anything I can make she can make so much better why insult her palate with my paltry offerings?

I’m gonna change that right now!

We had so much fun cooking and hanging out, more fun than I think we would have had if we went out. And she doesn’t care that I’m not a professional cook, she was legit grateful for someone else working in the kitchen…even if she did have to take over the chopping of the onions lol

Next time we are going to make lasagna! Mmm!

The above shows the black bean stew before I covered it with toppings, and then my bowl with all the toppings. As you can see I like sour cream and cheese and avocado lol Usually I eat this with sour cream and maybe the cheese, depending what I have. She happened to have avocado as well and as it was near death we decided to each take half so as not to waste it. Cause a wasted avocado is a sad sad thing.

 

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Subway’s Prime Rib Swiss Melt

5 Feb

On Tuesday I treated myself to Subway. It was actually more of a compromise to myself. I would have given almost anything for something at McDonald’s lol since I couldn’t pinpoint my McD’s craving down to one specific food item I wouldn’t let myself go there but I knew nothing at home would satisfy me so I stopped at Subway. I really like Subway and I am horrendously boring and order almost the exact same thing every time I go. The 6″ turkey on 9-grain whole wheat with more veggies than can comfortably fit on the bun then I top with the light mayo and either mustard or honey mustard, depending on my mood.

The most exciting option there? No. But I like how it tastes and it is a respectable amount of calories so no guilt. 🙂

For some reason, that Tuesday, I decided to try something different. The new sandwich there is the Prime Rib Swiss Melt and the advertising picture looks like this…

subway prime rib swiss melt

Pretty decent huh?

I thought why not, it looks yum and it is good to switch things up a bit.

In a nut shell, my review of the sandwich can be described in three words…

Don’t. Do. It.

Ugh. Seriously, just…don’t. It isn’t worth the money or the trauma you will be putting your taste buds through.

Here is what mine looked like…

2016-02-02 14.54.12

Ok granted, not the best picture but I really wanted you to be able to see the meat.

I thought, because the advertising picture showed it with a gravy/sauce on it that for some reason the meat would be sitting in an industrial version of a crockpot or slow cooker, ya know, the meat would be sitting in its sauce just waiting to be put on the bread.

Nope.

Not even close.

The lady took a little cardboard container filled with grey meat from the display case (grey meat people!) and plopped that on my sandwich. Right there I should have called it off and gone back to the turkey but nope, I stayed with the prime rib option because…well…because it would have been rude to change at that point, I was committed. sigh.

I got it toasted with the swiss cheese and put some random veggies on it. I was trying to copy the picture but it only showed lettuce and tomato and what kind of heathen only puts two veggies on a sandwich when there are so many more to choose from? I also chose cucumber and banana peppers…I wanted more but was worried I’d somehow mess with the balance of the sandwich since I have nooooo idea what goes with prime rib.

There was no sauce. I didn’t realize it until I got home with the sub but yeah…no sauce. There is sauce in the picture! But none on my sub. I don’t know if I was supposed to specify that I wanted the prime rib sauce or what. I guess since I still had the idea that it was supposed to be simmering in its sauce that it would be saucy when put on the sandwich and when it was grabbed, cold and grey, from the display case, I didn’t clue in I was gonna have to figure out the sauce situation on my own.

You’d think the lady would have offered sauce, or at least condiments, but she didn’t. So while I accept the lack of sauce as my own fault I think she should shoulder a teeny bit of the blame since theoretically she knows better than I what should be on that sandwich.

Sadly, I regret my sandwich choice from that Tuesday. I don’t have a lot of money so when I spend even a small amount of it I want it to be worth it and that sandwich sooooo wasn’t worth my $7. 😦

Ah well, even though I didn’t like it I still stand by the idea of trying things outside your comfort zone. After all, if I hadn’t tried it I wouldn’t know if I liked it or not and I could be missing out on something awesome. It didn’t work out this time but that’s ok, it will other times. 🙂

 

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I Adulted

3 Feb

I was so proud on Saturday night. I worked until 9pm and before I left work I took a look at the menu for the next day. On Sunday I would be working the day shift, so eating lunch at work, and lunch on Sundays tends to be more brunch like – so pancakes or waffles or some such thing. Which is tasty but is soooooo not healthy and definitely not something to indulge in every-freakin-Sunday.

Lo and behold Sunday’s lunch was eggs benedict with Canadian back bacon and some veggies grilled and covered in cheese, sigh.

So here is where the adulting came in…

I got home from work around 9:45pm and promptly started cooking. The cat thought I was nuts lol

I popped a honey garlic glazed chicken breast in the oven and while that did its thing the rice cooked in the rice cooker, the sweet potato got sliced and popped in the microwave so I could steam it and while waiting for things to cook I chopped up a bunch of veggies because when I am not super lazy I like to ingredient prep.

In the end I ended up with a freakishly healthy lunch for Sunday!

It got packed in to one of my Disney’s Frozen tupperware, cause hey, I can’t be tooooo grown-up lol and I took some salsa with me to put on top of the rice. When I was putting my lunch on a plate at work and heating it up the chef said I should take some of the veggies they had made cause they were super delish and who am I to turn up more veggies? So here is what I ended up eating…

lunch

Before you think I am a weirdo for having my chicken cut up I did that to make sure it was heated all the way through. 😛

Now don’t fret that I am acting all grown-up all the time, I assure you, I am not. I think I manage it about once a month if lucky? lol

To prove that, my dinner on Monday was this…

2016-02-01 16.59.11

Yup, that’s right, it was marble cake. Sadly, it was not good…and yet…I ate it…*rolls eyes* I didn’t even get the expected sugar rush that would have gotten me through the next couple hours, nope, I ate it and promptly had a nap…cementing my place as the world’s oldest toddler teehee

 

 

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Snack ‘n Go

30 Jan

I discovered in Safeway the other week these great little hummus snacks. Well, they are great if you like hummus…and crackers…and snacks…

Who doesn’t like snacks?!

There are two flavours, original and roasted garlic. I bought both and love both equally. I enjoy hummus, not as much as some people, but it is a yummy food choice that I have pretty much no guilt about so yay for that! Normally I buy a larger container of hummus and some carrots and go that boring old route but I seem to never finish the hummus, or the carrots, and it is such a waste. But these! These are perfect for me! I love things that are portioned out already, they make it so much easier for lazy people like me to pick the healthy option vs grabbing some cookies or just not eating lol

The crackers are crazy delish. To the point I purposefully finish the hummus quickly so I can eat one or two of the crackers by themselves. Yeah…I’m that person *rolls eyes* What can I say, carbs make life worth living. 😉

Sadly, as with any small convenient food option, they aren’t cheap. I only bought them because they were on sale for um, two for $4 or $5 I think it was…which doesn’t sound like a lot initially but when you realize they are only small snack items and regularly they are three something each well, is it really worth it? I dunno…You’d get more snack time out of the bag of carrots and larger container of hummus but these I did not waste, ate every bite of the 6 I ended up buying before the sale was over. So maybe, when you look at it like that, they are worth the money? I’ll leave that decision up to you and your wallet, but if your taste buds get to weigh in on the decision to buy them be prepared for the taste buds to say “yes! buy! buy! buy!” cause seriously, so tasty! 🙂

 

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Christmas Brunch

13 Dec

Every year my work holds a huuuuuge Christmas Brunch. We have so many residents now there were three brunch seatings, a 9:30am, 11:30am and 1:30pm.

I look forward to this day all month! I’d say all year but lets be honest, I’m not really thinking about a Christmas brunch in the middle of summer, that’d just be weird lol 😛

We had around 400 people come through the brunch today, which is ridiculous if you know the size of the space and the amount of staff we have. But we are a team of awesome and rocked the brunch like nobodies business.

Ok yeah, I am bragging but whatev, it is a long, busy, hard, day and we not only handled it we did great at it. The people I work with are awesome. 🙂

Pretty much my entire day was spent dealing with brunch related work stuff, not related directly to the food, which is a good thing because oh wow I can be clumsy lol More the organizing and seating and directing of people and tracking everyone so I knew every resident was accounted for and every guest counted so we don’t screw up the charges and answering all the questions and blah blah blah.

Oh, and the hugs. There were countless hugs from residents, and warm wishes exchanged, and love, there was so much love in that building today it was beautiful to watch.

Seeing someone surrounded by their family, watching a resident’s face light up as they see their great-grandchild, listening to family members exchange stories and catching up. People taking an hour and a half out of a random Sunday to turn off their phones and spend time with their loved ones and focus on family, and being connected to each other.

It is something people should do more often and its such a pleasure to be there when it does happen. 🙂

The only part that kinda sucks is that breakfast (for me) was at 7am and I didn’t get to eat again until a bit after 3:30pm. That is a loooooong stretch of time! By the time we ate my stomach had left the feeling hungry stage and was back at not feeling hungry, which was unfortunate. I loaded up my plate, mostly with veggies lol, in the hopes my stomach would wake up once I started eating but it didn’t really so I was left feeling oh-so-full and a tad gross. I hate when that happens. But look, look how good the food looked!

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Okay so not the best picture, I am not skilled at plating my food so it looks pretty but hey, it tasted good and really, that is all that matters…to me anyways!

There is some smoked salmon with capers and cream cheese, turkey with gravy, roasted potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, golden beets (which are a fave of mine), red beets, zucchini and prawns. There were other food items, like eggs benedict, salmon with some sort of sauce, roast beef, mashed potatoes with corn, various salads, various types of bread and buns…there might have been more stuff but that is all I can remember right now, I think I am in a bit of a food coma lol

There was also a dessert buffet which I didn’t think to take a picture of until it had been almost picked clean, this is the only image I have of it…

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There were various pies, cheesecakes, tarts, bread pudding with rum sauce, cream puffs, fruitcake, cookies, fresh fruit, creme brule, mince tarts, cheese…I’m missing some stuff but it is a lot to remember!

From 10am until the end of the last seating we had a piano player sharing her talents which is always nice and of course Santa Claus appeared for each seating, no child can be left behind! lol I was too busy to remember to take pictures of either of those so you’ll just have to trust me that Santa and the piano player were top notch. 🙂

The only other thing I took a picture of was the ice sculpture but I waited too long and the poor guy was fairly melted, as you can tell by the size of his head…

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So yeah, that was my Sunday. Basically working my butt off, then enjoying food with my co-workers, then going home to digest and sleeeeeeeep! 🙂

Hope your Sunday was just as awesome!

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