Weekend Rundown

Happy Monday! Did you have a wonderful weekend?

Despite the gray and rainy weather, our weekend was pretty great. It started out on Friday night when we headed out for drinks and a little karaoke. After a bit of "liquid courage", I might have sang a little of this.....

....and this...

I'm not exactly Sara Evans or Sheryl Crow, but I can hold my own :)

Derek and I headed out bright and early on Saturday morning and went for breakfast at our favourite greasy spoon. I was hurtin' just a wee bit from Friday night and I totally indulged in a greasy breakfast that included homefries and an egg & cheese wrap. It was soooo good and I devoured it like a person who'd been starved for a week. Derek got pancakes and they were awesome! I ate part of his and most of mine and was STUFFED! I really think we need to make some homemade pancakes in the near future --- it's been way too long since we've made them at home and I have an awesome recipe from scratch {I'd forgotten all about that recipe until today. I'm thinking that I'll have to share it with you very soon!!!}.

After breakfast, Derek headed down to the baseball field to do some work because their home opener was scheduled for yesterday and I ran around and did the usual errands and groceries. Other than that, the day was pretty relaxed....I cleaned the house, finished reading Catching Fire (the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series) and hit the sack by 11 p.m. which is fairly early for us on the weekend.

I didn't get groceries last week after our weekend away, so we had alot of re-stocking to do...

Sunday was a super relaxed day. I slept until 9 a.m. --- I felt amazing! I lounged around drinking coffee and watching made-for-TV movies.

I am LOVING the new Starbucks K-Cups! Starbies at home = Sunday morning bliss :)

Derek's baseball game got cancelled because of  rain, so we ended up being able to veg out at home all day long. I made some dog treats, finished laundry and watched lots of TV :) It was wonderful!

The rain stopped in time for us to barbecue for dinner. As you can see I'm still doing well at the Salad a Day challenge. I've had one everyday so far!

Dinner last night was a veggie burger on a flat bun and

a grilled veggie salad with black beans & quinoa.

Delicious!

Every now and again it's  nice to have a nice relaxing weekend, wouldn't you agree? I feel refreshed and rested and am looking forward to a very productive week....my workout schedule is planned and so are my meals, so I'm confident that this week's going to be a great start to meeting all of my June goals.

Here's a peek at this week's menu:

Breakfasts
Mango or Berry Smoothies
Egg White Scrambles
Greek Yogourt with Fruit

Lunches
Lots and lots of SALADS!!!

Dinners
Make-Our-Own Pizza
Grilled Vegetable Salad with Quinoa (& Beef Tenderloin for Derek)
Burgers and Homemade Fries/Sweet Tater Fries
Mexican (not sure exactly what this will be yet)
Quesadillas with Black Bean/Avocado Salad
Steak (Derek)/BBQ Tofu (me) with grilled  veggies

Have you ever been out for karaoke? If you have and you had the nerve to sing, what song did you choose?

What is your favourite day of the week and why?

Have a great day,

Andrea
xo

Weekend Ramblings & Meal Plan Wk #3

Good morning! Happy Monday. Did you have a great weekend? I had an amazing weekend. It was sunny, busy (I just wrote busty haha), productive and thoroughly enjoyable. Here's a snippet of what went on in our neck of the woods.

1.  I gave myself a pedicure and used Turquoise & Caicos by Essie.

2.   After yoga yesterday, I had an amazing shopping trip with the girls. We checked out a local hotspot called Dess911. If you love indie, retro or vintage style dresses, you have to check out this site. I bought 3 new dresses because I just couldn't choose between them!

you can`t tell how awesome these are from the pic....they are all on the site....

the 2 on the right are minis.....the two on the ends have pockets --- love!!!

3. I have officially become a Costco addict. I got my membership on Wednesday and I`ve already been there twice. On Saturday I got some great deals on Liberte Greek Yogourt and goat cheese.

4.  On Saturday, we had "Make Your Own Pizza" night.....sadly, everyone was pooped out (dogs included) and I was the only one who actually made a pizza. Derek passed out as soon as he got home from work and never got up until 8 a.m. on Sunday morning!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

veggie awesomeness

5. I am in love with this 40 minute walking interval workout.

6. You shouldn't  do an upper body workout on the same day as you plan to do some serious gardening. All I can say is I am in pain.

7. My fave garden decor. $2 at the Dollar Store. WIN!

look carefully....we are dog lovers to our core :)

8.  GCB makes for some kick-butt Sunday night TV.

I know some people find this show controversial, but I don`t take it to seriously

and get some good belly laughs out of it....

I also wanted to update you with how my eats and workouts have been going.

First of all, my right knee is still aching like crazy, so I  have scaled back the intensity of my workouts in order for my knee to have time to properly heal. This week, my workouts went a little like this:

Monday - Zumba

Tuesday - 25 minute run, 15 minute ab workout

Wednesday - 34 minute yoga/pilates workout from MyYogaOnline

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 90 minute Kundalini Yoga

Sunday - 40 minute walking interval workout, upper body weights

For once in my life, I am actually listening to my body and trying to give it the time it needs to heal. Frustrating? Yes. Necessary? Also yes.

My meal planning/grocery budget is also going really well. I love knowing what's on the menu, so that I don't have to figure something out each night. I also love extra cash in my bank account :D

This week, our eats are going to look a little like this:

Breakfast
Green smoothies, Greek Yogourt with honey & granola, veggie omlets

Lunch
Wraps, salads, soup, leftovers

Dinners
-Make your own pizzas - I still have one crust left, so I'm thinking this will work for a lonely girl dinner
-Spaghetti (Derek)/Spaghetti Squash (me!) with marinara & sauteed veggies
- Barbecue - Meat and Taters for Derek; Portobellas and Sweet Taters for me & grilled local asparagus
- Bacon & Eggs/Egg N Cheese Sammies
- Chicken Nachos for Derek; Sweet Potato Fry Nachos for me
- BLTs with Caesar Salad
- Eat Out

Whew! What a post for a Monday morning....I guess I had lots to talk about :)

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Have a great day,

Andrea
xoxo

Weekend Recap

Holy schmokes! Where has the weekend gone --- two days simply don't give us enough time off before the next work week begins. I think I need to start a petition to start having 3 day weekends with only a 4 day work week - who's with me?!

I don't talk alot about our lives outside of our foodie adventures, but I thought it'd be fun to start sharing a little peek into how we live by giving you a weekend recap every now and then.

On Saturday morning, I met up with my friend Jenn to attend a kundalini yoga class. I'd heard of kundalini yoga before, but never really understood what it was. Last week was our first week out to class and we loved it so much that I think it's going to become a Saturday morning tradition.

Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of awareness. It's purpose is to unite the body, mind and soul. It involves sets of chanting, breath awareness, exercise, relaxation and a meditation at the end. What I like about it is that each week is different. There are thousands of different sets each with a specific purpose. Last week we worked on our upper body and this week the focus was on the spine. The meditations have been focussing on prosperity and who doesn't want a little of that! By the end of our 90 minute class I feel stretched out, refreshed and like my lungs and my mind are wide awake and open. It's a really cool experience!

After yoga, a bunch of the students and our instructor head out for coffee and some chatting. For those of you who know me,  you know that coffee and conversation are two things I do very, very well. I love meeting new people and there is rarely a moment when I'm lost for words :-) I had my first ever Skinny Chai Latte this week and it was AWESOME!

After coffee, I had to get a move on because I had the usual weekend errands to get done before Derek & I headed out to our friends' cottage for the night. Dora went to my in-laws and Hankster went to the boarding kennel and Derek & I were looking forward to a fun night with friends and  a 'dog-free' night of sleep!

Have you ever been up to a cottage in the winter? I loved how quiet and peaceful it was. We've finally gotten a little bit of snow and it was so pretty driving up. You would've gotten to see it with your own eyes if I'd remembered to bring my camera! D'uh --- I left it sitting on the kitchen table; right where I'd left it so I wouldn't forget it. The cottage was super cozy and we spent the night enjoying yummy appetizers, great conversation, red wine and some wild games of Euchre. I think my card games skills have gotten a little rusty since university because Derek & I stunk it up. I think I got blamed but how much can you really do when your hands consist primarily of 9s and 10s!!!!

After an amazing sleep (sans dogs!), we packed up our stuff this morning and went to a small little diner for breakie. I LOVE GOING OUT FOR BREAKFAST! Homefries, toasted tomato sammies and coffee --- the best way to start a Sunday if you ask me!

I was planning to spend the rest of today relaxing in front of the TV, but something came over me when I got home and I was drawn to the kitchen. I started out by making two huge batches of chili - a veggie chili for me and a meaty chili for Derek. By 5 p.m., I had picked up Hank from the kennel, packed away our Christmas tree and ornaments, made both pots of chili, made our lunches for work tomorrow, washed 2 sinkfuls of dishes and cleaned up the mess that Hankster made when he got home. Our house was neat and tidy when we got home this morning but Hank managed to trash the living room within about 5 minutes of arriving home <sigh>...

The series of events went something like this.... 

running and jumping on the couch with a very dirty outside toy....

teasing and luring Dora into a wrestling/tug of war match....

leaving the scene of the crime in total disarray!

 Hank is having a very looooonnnnnggg adolscent period. We're hoping he grows up to be a "big boy" very soon LOL!

Now that I've been able to catch you up on all the fun I've been having, I'm off to pamper myself with a mini-manicure. I just bought a new bottle of Essie nailpolish in the colour 'eternal optimist' which is a gorgeous nude shade.

The rest of the night is going to be full of nail painting, chocolate chai tea and hopefully some good TV! I also have some posts I need to start working on because I've got some fun and healthy stuff in store for you this week!!!

So what was the highlight of your weekend?

Enjoy the last few hours of our glorious weekend!

Andrea