Friday Favourites :)

So I actually saw someone wearing this shirt yesterday in the local grocery store:

Seriously?!?

The worst part? Brian thought it was HILARIOUS. I think it is awful! I mean, at a very basic level, sure, it's funny, but I can just imagine myself having to explain that shirt to my kid (when she is older)...ugh!!!

In other news, we caught up on Brooklyn 99 last night...loving a certain storyline, not sure about another part of it but still some good chuckles :)

Really looking forward to taking it easy with my favourite kiddos this weekend and having a few cold ones and some warm drinks too since it is CHILLY here!!! We are also having an early Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws (who will be away next weekend) so that will be nice!!

Here are my Friday favourites for this week!!!

FAVOURITE SONG:


A nice one from some Irish girls that I like :) I especially like their name!! haha

FAVOURITE PHOTO:

Lucy enjoyed apple and pear picking last weekend.

FAVOURITE RECIPE:

Cheater's Korean beef from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

FAVOURITE REMINDER:

(SOURCE)

I am actually thinking of printing it off and putting it on my fridge (and my forehead). ;)

FAVOURITE FINDS ON THE WWW:

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries - going to check this out on the weekend if I have time!
Online fitness plans and Ebooks via Career Girl Daily
The Best Free Products on the Internet
Christmas Dinner at the Great Hall sells out fast - a look at same great moments in Hogwarts' great hall 

FAVOURITE LOLs:

Hope you all have a great weekend!!! I have a couple of fun posts planned for next week!! Now go check out the other Friday favourites on Amanda's blog over HERE!!!

Dropping in on a Friday again :)

Hi there!!

I have finally come to terms with the fact that I just won't be blogging regularly for a little while longer. I am still reading all of my favourite blogs and trying to comment when something resonates with me, but it has been hard to keep up. Shannon over at Life After "I Dew" wrote a post this week that really describes how I feel...basically when I have free time, blogging is not a priority. I am either doing a fun craft with Molly, cooking, cleaning or organizing our house, or sleeping (usually at about 8:30-9pm every night, HAHA). It might be better someday, but I'm not sure. I am trying to keep a personal journal going just so that I can remember these days and some of the things we have done.

Anyway, I do have some favourites to share this week to link up with Amanda at Meet at the Barre!! I love her Friday posts SO much...I always end up finding a good recipe and some good music and laugh at her funnies ;)

Favourite Pics of my Girls:

Big Sister/Little Sister :)

Favourite Recent Recipe:
Last weekend I made this delicious vegetarian chili (added lentils to make it thicker too) and this very yummy cornbread. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but we all enjoyed it and Brian doesn't typically like meatless chili so I was impressed!!!

Favourite New Music:
Coldplay's new album Ghost Stories...especially A Sky Full of Stars

Favourite Show that Molly has been watching:
The Hive, which is a British show on Netflix about a family of bees. Ahhh so cute!! See?

Favourite Show We've been Watching:
Still Homeland. We just finished Season 3 and Season 4 isn't out until October. What an amazing series!!! Now we're watching old episodes of House on Netflix :)

Favourite LOL this week:

Favourite new purchase:
We technically got them for free, but Brian and I both got new cell phones this week. Sony Xperia Z1s. They are awesome so far, but I'm still figuring it out a bit. They are similar to our Samsung phones since they are both Androids, but the Xperia has some pretty cool features.

Favourite recent read:
One More thing, by BJ Novak of the Office fame (Ryan on The Office). It's a collection of short stories - so I haven't finished it but I have gotten into some of the stories and it's very entertaining so far!

Favourite Mommy Lifehack:
In the mid-morning when Lucy is napping, Molly watches 4 2-minute clips on Youtube (Wheels on the Bus x2, Row Row Row your Boat and Hickory Dickory Dock [my fave]) and I get to shower with the door open 10 feet away. Works out great for both of us ;) Another great Mommy lifehack: Molly and I "work out" together - doing HIIT for 20 mins and some strength training. She loves to jump around to the music I put on! :)

Favourite Newly Discovered Blogs:
Kids Activities Blog - amazing resources for keeping kids entertained and educated!
Lindsay's List - some great posts about being a mother & fitting it all in!

Favourite recent life moments:
1) Brian is a diehard Habs fan so Molly has been wearing her Habs hairclips and t-shirt all this week to support his hockey team in the playoffs. She is obsessed.
2) Lucy is smiling these days! I love it!
3) Molly had a little bout of Hand Foot and Mouth disease and I caught it too but we are all seemingly on the mend now :)
4) My sister graduated from Med school yesterday and won an award! I'm so proud of her!!
5) And here's Molly's contribution to this post: aaaaaaa ("I push A!")

Check out all the other Friday Favourites here! BTW I love how I spell favourites the Canadian way for an American link up ;) Oh well!! Potato, potato! ;)

Hope all the Americans out there have a great long weekend...ours was last weekend but since I am home everyday and Brian has to go into work that day to meet a deadline, it was pretty normal around here for us ;)

Vietnamese Salad Rolls recipe

Today I have a recipe that we absolutely LOVE and is usually found as an appetizer at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants (often called salad rolls or fresh spring rolls). These are a little bit finicky to make, but the recipe itself isn't very difficult, and they are fresh and healthy. We make about 8 for supper between two of us (4 each). 2 each would probably be appropriate for an appetizer. I just feed Molly the inside parts without it all rolled up!

Here's the recipe card:

Cooking Instructions:

1) Cook shrimp or meat in a frying pan with water or oil of choice and spices of choice. I think lemongrass is recommended, but any kind of Asian spice works for us. I usually change this up every time, so just do what you know you like! Suggestions: yellow curry, ginger, coconut, peanut spice, etc.

2) Boil water for the rice paper

3) Boil water for rice vermicelli, cook as listed on box directions (usually only for 1 minute) - you do not need a lot of noodles as these go in the spring rolls

These are the noodles we use

4) Chop vegetables

Hello, amazing Chopper :)

Just don't let your 2 year old help you and hold the (safe and contained) chopper on her own or something like this might happen to your carrots:

I was torn between laughter and tears haha

5) Dip rice paper in a pan of hot water, then place all filling inside (meat/shrimp, veggies, chopped peanuts, lemongrass, rice noodles, sriracha sauce if you are my husband)

 

6) Wrap quickly

7) Repeat for as many as desired!

Even if it falls apart a bit (far right), it still tastes delicious!!!

8) Mix peanut butter and hoisin sauce 1:1 ratio for dipping peanut sauce, dip, and ENJOY!!!!

Hope you try these and enjoy them! You can put anything you want in them, and they are gluten-free (depending on your sauce choices). We love them!!

Note* It is not easy to prepare this meal on a weeknight and simultaneously entertain a 2 year old and take blogworthy pictures - sorry for some of the bad photos! haha!!

And now I'm hungry!

Happy Thursday, friends!! xo

5 on Olympic Friday!!

It's the time of the week that everyone loves...the day that your Bloglovin' feed is full of fun lists of 5 things! Check out the other posts here with Darci, April, Christina and Natasha!

{ONE}
Today is my baby brother's 24th birthday. I won't be anywhere near him to celebrate (Him = Calgary, me = Halifax, 6 hour flight & 3 time zones), but I'm definitely thinking of him! I can still remember when he was born and he was also the cutest baby ever (until Molly came around, that is! ;) j/k). He is a wonderful person, and I am so glad he is in my life. Hopefully he's coming out to visit us in NS this summer, because I haven't seen him in a YEAR now!

Excuse the blurry scanned picture from 1990!

{TWO}
Today is also the start of the Olympics in Sochi! We are going to have a nearly impossible time watching events live because Sochi is 8 hours ahead of Halifax, but I still can't wait to watch some hockey (of course!) and figure skating. Here's the official CBC link for Olympic updates (Canada based), but I think I'll be following along on Twitter instead. Go Canada Go!! Here's me cheering for Team Canada in 2010 :)

The little guy on my shoulder is Quatchi and he was one of the mascots (in case you were wondering ;))

{THREE}
I know I'm not the only one out there who loves Google, and I really like the Google doodles that teach you a little something about someone. Google ran a contest this year in Canada in which kids drew a doodle and the winner will have their Doodle posted for a day (along with other cool prizes). If you're in Canada (or maybe in the US, not sure!), you can go HERE to vote until Feb. 14; they have been narrowed down to the Top 5! There are also awesome descriptions about the invention that each Doodle represents...they made me smile :) I like this one best:

(Via)

Speaking of Google and the Olympics, check out Google's Doodle today, which also encompasses a few lines from the Olympic Charter and another reason to love Google - they are showing their support for all athletes, straight or gay, etc. etc. 

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." –Olympic Charter

{FOUR}
On this weekend in 2013, we moved into our house!!! It's hard to believe we have been living here for a year! Here's a funny picture of what happened to one of our (two) sheds on our first night that we slept in our house (note: it was during a blizzard!):

It wasn't really funny at the time, but it sure is now!

{FIVE}
In our house, we have all been battling a bit of sickness (of varying types/degrees) this past week, including the dreaded MAN-COLD which caused hubby to actually take a sick day today. Because of this, I am going to be pumping THIS concoction into all 3 of us to curb the coughing this weekend (posted by Kathy at Vodka and Soda- a hilarious fellow Canadian). I also highly recommend using a Neti-pot if you find yourself sick and you're looking for a natural solution...definitely clears the sinuses :)

Exact words (mostly) from Kathy's blog post

And finally...I'm linking up with the wonderful Whitney because it's Friday funday!! Here's what's in my head this week...a little Joel Plaskett (from Halifax) because my hubby and I both love this song and it's an upbeat one for the weekend!!

Stuffed Peppers Recipe

It's almost Friday!!! This week has been a long one...a sick 2 year old, a few rough nights of sleep, and another huge Wednesday snow storm yesterday. I can't wait for the weekend so we can just relax a bit!

Part of Brian's 2014 health kick involved reducing carbs for a couple of weeks, so I  have been including some lower/healthy carb meals into our supper rotation. I first made stuffed peppers back in the fall, and we loved them! They are great because they are fully customizable, and each pepper is different, so Brian can have a bunch of his insane hot sauce in his pepper and I can have carbs (if I want) in mine! I made them again last week, and wanted to share the recipe with all of you today. It's a very filling and healthy meal, and I usually make 4 so that we can each have one for lunch the next day. Molly doesn't like peppers (yet!), so I usually just give her the filling (meat and rice) with some side veggies for supper...win-win!

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Brown your meat of choice with other cooked veggies of choice in a frying pan. I have made this with various sauces, usually spaghetti sauce or salsa, but you can use any flavour you want. We usually put some onions in with the meat to cook, but that's your call. Drain fat before adding sauce (I think this goes without saying!)
3. Cook rice or other filler (quinoa works well too) to add to the meat mixture.
4. Cut the tops off the peppers and hollow out and clean the inside.

   

   Brian doesn't like green peppers so he usually gets the red ones...we got a variety pack of these :)

5. Grate cheese and cut other veggies you might want in the pepper.
6. Mix the meat with veggies/cheese/rice/spices/anything you want stuffed!

   

   His on the left with extra hot sauce, onions and no rice. Mine on the right with rice and no hot sauce ;) Everyone gets what they want!
7. Bake at 350 for about a half hour until peppers are tender

   

   Our oven needs to be cleaned, but you get the idea :)

8. Dish out, slice and enjoy! I recommend slicing with a steak knife while you eat these. 

   

   Mine on the left, his on the right with even MORE hot sauce on top...haha

If you want your peppers a bit more tender, you can boil them whole for a few minutes before putting them in the oven. We didn't like the texture as much when I did that and I found it to be extra work. 

What would you stuff your peppers with? Let me know if you try this and your family loves it as much as we do!!! 

Chicken Fajitas Recipe

Hi there!

I think Thursdays will now be known as recipe days here on the blog, because today I have another supper recipe for you that Molly and I made this week.

Chicken Fajitas!!!

As I've mentioned, the hubby is on a bit of a health kick right now (which is awesome!) and even though we usually eat healthy suppers, we've been having a lot of extra salad or cooked veggies, which he has also been having at lunch and breakfast and he wanted a bit of a change. I used to make fajitas a lot, but I sometimes forget how easy they are to make!

What you'll need:

• Boneless/skinless chicken breasts/thighs (I estimate 1 per person, I used 4 breasts so we'd have leftovers)
• Veggies of choice including: onion, bell pepper, carrots, mushroom, zucchini strips, or anything goes, really!
• Fajita seasoning (I use THIS recipe to make my own, but you could also just buy it or use salsa in a pinch!!)
• Cheese or sour cream or yogurt for garnish
• Tortilla wraps

Step 1: Slice raw chicken into strips and fry in olive oil or water until brown

Step 2: Slice onions using a handy trick from Alex's blog post here. (This actually works GREAT for me). Keep the candles away from the 2 year old helper though.

Step 3: Get your little helper to help you use an amazing device like THIS one to chop the rest of the veggies and add to frying pan. (I don't have any affiliation with Tupperware but we love this chopper!)

Step 4: Remove veggies and chicken so that the toddler will still eat it before seasoning is added

Step 5: Add seasoning with some water to make a sauce

Step 6: Add to a wrap, add garnish of choice and eat up!

Here's a tip for wrapping tortillas!!!

You could make this recipe with steak, pork, ground turkey or chicken, or anything really! It would also be good just with beans if you wanted to go the vegetarian route. 

Bonus: Molly liked it too (mostly because she got some cheese on the side :))

Easy Slow Cooker Roast Beef Recipe

Hellooooo! So... I had a fun post planned for yesterday, but I didn't quite get the chance to finish it and publish it because we had a snow day here in Halifax and I worked from home all day (and also had a nap because my toddler refused to sleep on Tues night for some reason!)...that post will have to happen another day, but today I have a super-easy and super-delicious recipe to share for supper! Bonus: this is Molly's favourite supper and she requests it almost every day....so we probably have it once a week. haha.

We usually don't make this with the potatoes, because Brian and Molly both aren't huge fans of potatoes, but I often use the rest of the juice to make gravy when we get home and we'll have rice or hashbrown-style potatoes with it. You could also use it for sandwiches (we do that the next day) or on a salad!! The roast beef ends up being REALLY tender if you follow the 6-8 hours on low, and it will literally melt in your mouth :) We usually pair it with salad or baked broccoli.

Now what I need to do is start being more adventurous with our slow cooker...I use it about 2-3 times a week now, but I want to try some different recipes in it and get some variety!! I like this roast beef, but I definitely get sick of it at times!!

Anyone have any good slow cooker supper recipes to share? :)

PS: Unfortunately, I'm a bad blogger and I don't have a picture of this meal, but I will get one the next time we make it (which I'm sure will be soon) and update this post! 

A delicious protein pancake recipe

I'm an avid follower of the blog Peanut Butter Fingers, which is updated at last once if not twice a day with great workouts, general friendly tips and amazing recipes. Julie posts what she eats a lot, and I have gotten some great ideas from her posts! She has been posting about protein pancakes for awhile, but I wasn't sure how easy they were and I kept putting off trying them out myself. This week, I decided it was finally time to give them a go. You can find her original recipe HERE, along with some other pancakes recipes here but I modified the recipe a bit based on comments on her blog.

I was actually amazed at how easily the pancake flipped because I was certain it would be like an omelet and fall apart. This breakfast was a huge hit with my family too, and it reminded me a bit of French toast because of the eggy taste. The consistency is more like a pancake though. It is very filling and pretty healthy, so I plan to share it with everyone I know! It is also VERY quick in the mornings and I've had it 3 times this week already!!!

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Thanks to Julie at PB Fingers for the great recipe!!!

PS - I actually think these might save well in the fridge/freezer and reheat, but I haven't tried that yet!!

Eating well and exercising during pregnancy

It's no secret that many women struggle to maintain the same activity levels and keenness towards healthy eating during the 9-10 months of pregnancy. I, too, have struggled with this. During my first pregnancy, I basically just embraced the concept of "eating for two" and I didn't exercise nearly as much as I should have. My main form of exercise was walking, which I tried to stick to at least 4 times a week.

This time around, I was armed with a better plan for eating and a plan for exercising and I have to admit that it has fallen to the wayside a little bit, but that I am still doing better than the first time around. Not surprisingly, I am finding my belly growing at a much quicker rate than I did during my first pregnancy, and I am also finding that I am significantly more tired due to more family responsibilities and a bit of a longer commute to work. 

In the past few weeks (over the holidays), I definitely slipped up on healthy eating more than I intended to (I think almost everyone can relate to this, though). However, I got in more exercise than usual as well. We spent a lot of time outdoors with Molly, and a lot of time walking. I did yoga and some indoor biking and a bit of strength training too. 

Here are some suggestions I have for eating during pregnancy:

1) Incorporate 5-6 small meals into your day. If I don't eat something small every 3 hours, I am ravenous, and then I eat a huge meal and can barely move afterwards. I suffered through heartburn when I was pregnant with Molly, and it is returning a bit again this time around at nearly 28 weeks. 

2) To avoid heartburn, don't drink within a half hour of eating (I find this nearly impossible to do, but I try my best), avoid certain trigger foods such as fatty foods and chocolate, drink peppermint tea, don't change positions while eating (i.e. don't walk around and eat, just sit, take small bites, chew a lot, and then move around a bit after). Here are some other tips, too.

3) Start the day with a glass of hot lemon water. I bought a huge bag of lemons at Costco and squeezed them all into ice cube trays, so I just pop out a lemon juice ice cube, put it in a mug of hot water and drink it before eating anything in the morning. This has MANY benefits including aiding in digestion and re-setting your body each morning.

4) Don't eat your calories instead of drinking. I find it difficult sometimes in social situations because my husband or friends can have a beer or two, and I can't, so I think that I tend to rationalize poorer eating choices or drink choices (i.e. drinking pop which I almost never do otherwise). It's best for me to stick to water and only eat when I am feeling actually hungry.

5) Don't eat too close to bedtime.

Here are a few videos online that I've been using as workouts:

Prenatal yoga

Labour-oriented endurance exercises

Prenatal fitness from Popsugar

and some great resources for eating healthy and meal planning:

Prenatal Meal Plan

Recipe Suggestions

I have had a harder time getting in veggies this pregnancy, and I have been craving carbs almost constantly (Christmas didn't help with that!). I've found one of the best things I can eat is a fruit-and-veggie smoothie as a morning snack or for breakfast/lunch. My go-to (self-invented?) recipe is as follows: 

I always have some sort of pureed veggies on hand because I like to make these smoothies for Molly, but you could really include anything you want! I know these are also tasty if you include frozen peaches or mangoes...whatever you have on hand, really!! 

Any tips for me? What are your favourite ways to sneak in extra veggies?