Lazy weekends are the best :)

I'm loving the Clean Eating!  It's taken a bit to get used to 6 small meals a day but that combined with all the water I'm drinking has me down 6lbs :D  I feel so good too.  I know it's because I'm finally getting properly hydrated, I never drank water before except maybe a sip or 2 to take something for a headache but nothing close to what I'm drinking now.

How's this for lazy...

poor Lucy, she fell asleep watching the driveway for boyfriend to show up, he's away for work for a month. 

I don't have a picture because they didn't last but we ate tomatoes from the garden last night!  yum yum! Little yellow cherry tomatoes.  I pruned the out of control tomato plants as well as a friend assured me it's the best thing for them.  Holy moly was it hard to cut off those lovely green stems. 

Clean Eating Day 1

Today went really well!  The biggest hurdle was eating breakfast, not something I do often plus adding a snack in before lunch :o I'm used to lunch being my first meal of the day. 

A little planning goes a long way.  I make a little time in the evening to write a menu for the next day and I picked up Clean Eating magazine tonight, wow! what a find :)

Oatmeal for breakfast with 2 egg whites then apple slices with almond butter for a mid morning snack, yummy almond butter has quickly replaced peanut butter as a favorite for me.

Spinach salad with tuna, carrots and balsamic vinegar for lunch.  This was a little bland with just balsamic so I added some sesame ginger vinagrette, much better :)  My poor browning banana and plum for a snack.  I miss my grandma's plum tree it just doesn't seem right buying them from the grocery store.

Dinner was tasty!  Grilled sweet potato with ground bison fried with garlic and onion.  I used a little garlic powder for seasoning and added dried cranberries for a some extra flavor. 

The one thing I did today which I also never do is drink water!  I drank 2L plus a nice big mug of green tea.

Eat Clean

So, this is starting Monday for me...

I have 28 weeks until my 40th birthday and have become so ashamed at how out of shape I've become I'm embarassed to say how much weight I want to lose.  My goal is to fit into this dress for my birthday, and I don't care if my birthday is February 1st and this is obviously a summer dress!

Cute right?  I found it here.  I love Etsy!

I saw a picture on Pintrest that said "I wish I was as skinny as I was when I thought I was fat" and then I found this picture of me 3 years ago

Holy schmoly, look how small my boobies are! and is that a waist I see?!  Oh, don't worry that me is on her way back! 

I'd love to try to post pictures and recipes here of good, clean food I make.  This weekend will be spent planning meals and grocery shopping!  (and harvesting my garlic I planted last fall, yay!)

Happy Canada Day! (aka Ogrefest around our place)

Happy 144th Canada!

and Happy 2nd Annual Ogre Fest!

Boyfriends nickname is the Ogre and I figured an annual bbq was in order, especially when our yard projects started to shape up and everything started to look so good. 

I'm hoping next year to have a band and eventually have Ogre Fest be an awesome Canada Day weekend campout/music festival.  Yep, that's me, the believer in big ideas!

There was a ton of food but the Jell-o shots were the prettiest, even virgin shots for the little kids

because really, every little kid need to learn the art of the Jell-o shot.  How cute is Kai? 

s'mores too, Erik's mouth is full of marshmallow or else he'd have one of his adorable smiles on his cute, chocolate covered face!

Here's boyfriend and his buddy who dressed the ogre part :D

Mother Nature had gotten the rain out her system, there were torrential downpours the day before.  This evening was pretty good thou, a little cloudy but no rain.  Certainly not the hot dry weather we usually have on July 1st. 

Now to get ready for Nolan's 16th birthday in a couple week.  Yikes, I'm having a little problem believing my son is almost 16 :o

Garlic Scape Pesto

Oh yummy!  I had used garlic scapes before but had always just fried them up with butter for pasta, I had never tried them in something as wonderful as this pesto!

And it tasted that much better having harvested the scapes off my own garlic.

The recipe called for 9 - 10 scapes.  I didn't know that cutting the scapes off your garlic will encourage further growth of the bulb.  What a good reason to try a new recipe.

Rinse the scapes in cold water and cut off the knobby seed pods (havent found a use for those yet so they ended up in the compost) and chop the scapes into pieces. 

When my mom asked me if I wanted her old food processor last year I almost said no thinking it would sit unused in my cupboard taking up precious shelf space.  It's a great kitchen tool to have, it works great for pie crust too (my nemesis) but somehow with the help of the food processor I can actually make pie crust!

Add the chopped scapes with 1/2 cup slivered almonds and blend until it's fairly smooth, about 30 seconds.  With the machine running, slowly pour in 3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil and blend another 15-20 seconds.

My kitchen smelled so good when I was making this!

Add 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese with a little salt and pepper and blend a bit more

If you can resist, put this in the fridge for a few hours in a tightly covered bowl.  It tastes good as is but chilled it tastes so much better!

I had doubled the recipe and I'm going to try to freeze some.  It should freeze well for up to  3 months in an air-tight container.

Garlic Scape Pesto

9 - 10 garlic scapes, knobby seed-pods removed
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse scapes in cold water, chop into pieces.

Put scapes and slivered almonds into the food processor and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.  Scrape down sides of bowl.

With the machine running, slowly add olive oil and process until mixed well and smooth, about 15 seconds.  Then add the cheese, salt and pepper and blend another 10 seconds or so.

This is yummy freshly made but it's even better when refrigerated for several hours or overnnight.  Place in a bowl with a tightly fitting lid.

These garlic scapes are only available for a couple months a year so if you can, buy lots and make a few batches of this pesto.  It will freeze well for about 3 months.

Snacks

I have this copied onto my phone and check it often at the grocery store.  Finding healthy satisfying snacks used to be hard, just hand me a list of what to eat and I'm all good. 


Greek yogurt and homemade granola has become my everyday breakfast, so tasty.

Lucy our pug

This is Lucy, she's 2 1/2 and just about the best dog you could ask for.  Except when she won't come when called, or get in the car when we want her to, or leave unknown things alone when she finds them in the bush, or pulls hard on her leash when we walk her, or bark at every horse, person, bird, or cloud that goes past the house, or chews on my sandals and runners when I'm at work.

We love her,

and wouldn't want her any different, well... :)