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Archive for July, 2010

underWAY Supplement Drink Giveaway Update - Ooops!

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

So I totally forgot a few minor details when I posted the underWAY Appetite Suppressant giveaway the other day. Oooops!

1. The contest is open to Canadians only. I really missed the boat on this one & I know many of my readers are from the US.

2. You can enter this contest on multiple blogs who may be running it but you can only win once (not once per blog).

Again.....so sorry for the mixup & please go comment on this post to enter!

Posted in contest | No Comments »

underWAY Supplement Drink Giveaway Update - Ooops!

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

So I totally forgot a few minor details when I posted the underWAY Appetite Suppressant giveaway the other day. Oooops!

1. The contest is open to Canadians only. I really missed the boat on this one and I know many of my readers are from the US.

2. You can enter this contest on multiple blogs who may be running it but you can only win once (not once per blog).

Again.....so sorry for the mixup & please go comment on this post to enter!

Posted in contest | No Comments »

Linky Love!

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I haven't given out any Linky Love lately so today's the day! Please, please, please head on over and visit these great bloggers & leave them a comment to say hi. And, heck, while you're at it, leave ME a comment because I'm beginning to wonder if any of you are lurking around any more. :)

Chocolate & Ginger - A Calgary blogger who I have recently started following. I just HAD to share after I saw this scrumptious recipe for Baked Greek Yogurt Lemon Pasta with Fresh Corn. I can't wait to try it!
Notes from the Cookie Jar - I know I've mentioned this blog before but you HAVE to read her writeup of her Food Revolution Roadtrip. She travels through the midwest with her hubs and her 14 year old son Jake. It is so interesting to see how difficult it can be to eat healthy while on the road. Definitely worth the read!
Farmgirl Fare - This blog is a great combination of beautiful photography, cute farm animals and wonderful recipes. You may remember this blog from when I made Beer Bread a few weeks ago.

Don't forget to sign up for my underWAY Supplement Drink Giveaway!

Posted in Linky Love | No Comments »

What’s Cooking Wednesday - Swiss Chard

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Since I am regaling you with so much info about my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) grand experiment, I figured I should let you know how I was preparing some of those beautiful leafy greens. I must admit that swiss chard and kale are NOT a normal part of my grocery basket. Nonetheless, they are becoming a big part of my crisper these days so I might as well do my best to make them palatable.

Sauteed Swiss Chard
Adapted from a few recipes on Allrecipes.com

6 or 7 large leaves of swiss chard with stems
1/4 red onion
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar or sugar

Chop swiss chard stems and separate from leaves. Cut leaves into ribbons about 1 inch wide. Chop onion to approximately the same size as the stem pieces.

Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add stem pieces and onions. Saute until the are beginning to soften and onion has lost it's "bite". Add swiss chard leaves and balsamic vinegar. Saute until the leaves are wilted and tender. Add the agave nectar and stir in right before serving. This balances some of the acidity of the vinegar.

Recipe Notes: Dewey ate 1 serving and I ate 3. I loved it and Dewey said it was pretty good. It was the third time he has every eaten swiss chard because he really doesn't like it. He said he would eat it if I made I that way. That's a win in my book. Evan refused to try it until I bribed him. It was in his mouth for 1 millisecond before he spit it out. Oh well.

Posted in CSA, What's Cooking Wednesday, recipes, vegetables | No Comments »

Top 10 Tuesday - Favorite Camping Foods

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

This post may explain why I NEVER lose weight over the summer. Sigh....

1. Breakfast Tacos - Dewey started cooking these every camping trip. They are good at home but really rock when we're camping. I guess fresh air makes everything taste better.

2. Hotdogs roasted over the campfire - I'm not a huge fan of hotdogs BUT I LOVE hotdogs cooked over the campfire. Add some ketchup and relish and mmmmmm......YUM!

3. S'Mores - Toasted marshmallows are the basis. We eat them two ways....either two graham crackers with Nutella or openfaced on a President's Choice Concerto cookie. Pretty much a staple at every evening campfire.

4. Fajitas - We grill extra steak early in our camping trip. The next day we slice it thin and saute it with onions, bell peppers & fajita spice. Wrap it in the leftover corn tortillas from Breakfast Tacos & YUM!

5. Bean Salad - So easy yet so good. It makes you forget that you can only cook on the coleman stove or the grill.

6. Campfire Pizzas - We own pie irons that get used pretty much exclusively to make campfire pizzas. Two pieces of whole wheat bread with cheese, pizza toppings & pizza sauce in the middle. Into the fire they go & they come out all toasty and gooey and yummy!

7. Coffee with Baileys - Coffee is definitely a NEED while camping. Late night campfires plus Evan up a the crack of dawn means one sleepy mama. I can only drink coffee with milk and sugar. I must admit that often while camping we use Bailey's instead. It is oh so yummy and we're camping. Don't judge me! ;)

8. Chips - I only buy potato chips for camping and parties. That's it. I love chips but they are like crack.

9. Antipasti - We are usually the WORST about remembering to bring appetizers to share. Thankfully our friends usually take pity on us and share. Usually there is an assortment of cheeses, sausages, salami, etc. YUM!

10. Okay....I'm done. I think I gained weight just writing this post!!!

What are your favorite camping foods? I need new ideas so please share (even if you don't make it camping anything is fair game that doesn't require a lot of prep or an oven)!

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday, camping | No Comments »

More CSA and Farmer’s Market Love

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

I thought it would be fun to keep a diary of my CSA experience this year. My favorite thing about my CSA is that the pickup is at the Hillhurst/Sunnyside Farmer's Market. Why is this so great you might wonder....Well it's because the growing season in Alberta is really short and what is being harvested can be very different from one place to another. So if my CSA delivery is very green leafy (which it was), I can visit the other vendors to round what I need for the week. Plus, there are few things I love more than a good farmer's market!!!!

So my CSA delivery is in the middle. This week I got a large head of lettuce (I could have gotten more but I am the only one around here that eats it so I didn't want to take more than I could use.), a big bag of swiss chard, a bunch of baby beets with greens, a bunch of brocollini, a bunch of scallions and a dozen freerange eggs. From the Farmer's Market I bought baby cucumbers, baby bell peppers, baby carrots, baby potatoes, cinnamon buns and a package of beef sausages.

We had the beef sausages, swiss chard and baby potatoes for supper. The flavors were so fresh and wonderful. I bought the cinnamon rolls for my hubby. They are one of his favorites. We were both a bit disappointed by these b/c they were made with margarine (which I didn't notice until I got home) and they weren't sweet enough. I'm all about cutting back on sugar but cinnamon rolls are supposed to be sweet!

So far I am loving the CSA and it is really making us expand our horizons. Even though I bought a half share, I am having a bit of a hard time plowing through all the lettuce and veggies. I'm trying my best though!!!

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Market, health, vegetables | No Comments »

underWAY Supplement Drink - With Giveaway!!!

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

When I was asked if I wanted to participate in the blog tour for underWAY Supplement Drinks infused with HeroFiber and vitamins to naturally curb your hunger....I thought "Hell yeah! I would love a drink that would help me stop craving FOOD (particularly chocolate) all the time". So I signed up. Next thing I know there's a box FULL of goodies from Smart for Life, the makers of underWAY, on my doorstep. It included 8 bottles of underWay and an assortment of their other natural diet foods.

I quickly ripped open the box to see what all was in there. There were 8 bottles of underWAY (4 grape & 4 Acai-Pomegranate) cookies (2 kinds!), muffins, cereal, soup and more. Super cool! I snapped a quick pic and then packed it all up to take to work with me. This is where the "plan" fell apart. I am on holidays next week and this week was so BUSY that I only got to try one oatmeal raisin Smart for Life cookie. Ack!

So why, you might be asking, am I blogging today instead of waiting until I have more to report? Well....because I have a GIVEAWAY and I want to make sure everyone has plenty of time to enter!

Just leave a comment on this post on either my blog or Facebook telling me why you'd like to try underWAY and/or Smart for Life products.

Ten (yes 10) readers will be chose to receive the same assortment of products I received. Super cool, huh? This contest will close on August 11th.

Oh and I promise that I will come back soon to tell you exactly what I thought about the products. Until then....leave me a comment so that you can try them for yourselves!

Disclosure - I am participating in the underWAY program by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central & received a Mom Central gift card for taking the time to participate."

UPDATE: Open only to Canadian Residents. You can only win this contest once (i.e. not on multiple blogs participating in the blog tour)

Posted in Giveaway, contest, health, weight loss | No Comments »

Happy Friday!

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Well, we finally made it all the way to Friday! Yay! Hope you are enjoying summer to the fullest and taking time to enjoy the small things in life.

Evan got introduced to the joys of the ice cream truck the other day. Dewey ran out and grabbed treats for everyone (though I refused to eat mine b/c it had too many fat/calories for something I don't really like so I skipped it). Evan got a Spiderman popsicle with gumballs. He's never had gum in his life so that was an adventure.

I know, I know....popsicles have lots of sugar BUT we eat lots of these too!

Hope you have a great weekend! Any fun & exciting plans?

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Wednesday of Few Words - Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

This summer I signed up for a CSA this summer from Thompson Small farm in Carbon, Alberta. My goals were to support local agriculture and to introduce more farm fresh veggies into our diet. I get a 1/2 share since we are a small family. Last week was the first delivery. I get a new one every Wednesday. I didn't get a chance to take a pic of everything I got when I first got it so this pic is a bit incorrect. Nonetheless, here's the rundown of what we received:

1 small bunch of kale
4 or 5 stalks of what I *think* is swiss chard
3 or 4 large stalks of brocolini (I think)
1 bunch of green onions
1 large bag mixed salad greens
1 head lettuce (not sure what type....green with reddish spots)
1 bag radishes
1 dozen free range eggs (8 brown, 2 white & 2 blue/green-ish)

So far we've used the swiss chard, the brocolini, the kale, the green onions and the eggs. I've used a bit of the mixed salad greens but not even close to all of it. I gave the radishes to Nana & Papa Don b/c we don't eat them.

So, have you ever belonged to a CSA? So far, I like it!

This post is linked up over at A Lot of Loves....make sure to head over there to check out the other wonderful posts!

Posted in Wordless Wednesday | No Comments »

What’s Cooking Wednesday - Tandoori Chicken Burgers

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Tandoori Chicken Burgers with Raita
Adapted from Chatelaine Magazine

Raita:
1 cup low fat plain yogurt
2 baby cucumbers, quartered & then sliced thin
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 green onions sliced thin
1/8 tsp salt

Burgers:
500g or 1 lb ground chicken breast
3 Tblsp low fat plain yogurt
1/4 cup panko crumbs
1/3 pack Chatty's Tandoori BBQ Spice Mix

Raita - Mix yogurt, sliced cucumber, cilantro, onions and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Burgers - Heat bbq grille to medium. Mix chicken, yogurt, panko and spice. Form into 4 patties. Spray grill with non-stick spray. Grill chicken burgers 5 minutes on each side or until done.

Serve atop Naan bread and topped with a dollop of Raita.

Recipe Notes: I only made 1/2 a recipe of Raita b/c I wasn't sure anyone would eat it but me (Dewey hates cucumbers). We both ate it but we still had lots. The last burger might be light on raita though. The original recipe called for Tandori paste which I couldn't find. This recipe makes burgers that have a tandoori taste but are not spicy at all. I might add a little more spice next time. I made a burger with all ingredients except the spice for Evan. He ate it with bbq sauce dip & liked it.

Head over to The Fairy Blogmother's blog to see what everyone else is cooking this Wednesday!