Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A Different Kind of Oatmeal

I hope everyone enjoyed my Calgary trip posts. If you missed them on the weekend you can check them out here:

Since getting back on Monday morning not to much has been going on. I took two days off to try to get my sleeping pattern back in order and get back in the right time zones. Since I only got about 3 hours of sleep on the plane Sunday overnight most of Monday was spent catching up on sleep and starting to feel better. Yesterday was a day of rest and relaxation.

Over the past two days my food was a little of this…

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Subway!

And a lot of of this…

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Toasted whole wheat english muffin with spinach, mozza and turkey.

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With veggies and  the new vegetable hummus I had picked up just before we left.

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As you might be able to tell we were lacking in groceries so I was eating whatever I could find in the fridge. It became very repetitive over the two days.

Today is different. I’m feeling rested and ready to tackle the summer!

My morning started off getting up early, driving Matt to work and then heading to the gym.

Pre-gym fuel included a piece of mozza and a Kashi bar (I promise I’m heading to the grocery store later).

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Today at the gym I decided to focus on cardio. It’s been a while so I just wanted to get back into it and I will start with weights at the beginning of next week.

Today’s workout:

  1. 20 min run on the treadmill at 5.2
  2. 15 mins on the stairmaster to work those butt muscles
  3. Back on the treadmill for some interval training for 10 mins. My intervals looked like this:
    • Run 1 min @ 6.8, walk 1 min
    • Run 1 min @ 6.9, walk 1 min
    • Run 1 min @ 7.0, walk 1 min
    • Run 45 sec @ 7.2, walk 1.25 mins
    • Run 30 sec @ 7.7, walk 1.5 mins

Overall, it was super hard and sweaty workout and I ended up burning about 490 calories in about 45 mins. It felt great to get back to the gym and I’m looking forward to a summer of some hard core workouts.

When I got home I had a quick glass of chocolate milk then hopped in the shower. Afterwards it was time for breakfast. I had spend the afternoon yesterday catching up on blogs and one recipe had caught my eye and I decided to give it a try today.

Heather @ With a Side of Sneakers made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes for breakfast the other day and I decided to give them a time. I followed her recipe and you can find that one here.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes

  • 1/2 c whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 c rolled oats (she called for old-fashion but I used what I had on hand)
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 c UVAB
  • 3 tbsp of Stonyfield Organic Vanilla Yogurt (she called for coconut yogurt but I had just picked the Stonyfield up earlier so I used that)
  • 2 dashes of cinnamon
  • 1 handful of chocolate chips
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First I mixed all the ingredients together in bowl. I found it a little thick so I added about two more tbsp of UVAB.

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Then in a heated pan on medium heat I added 3 large spoonfuls of the mixture.

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I cooked it just like a regular pancake. My only problem was the I forgot to spray the pan with oil so the pancakes stuck a little. They still tasted great they just don’t look very pretty when finished.

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Yummy melted chocolate in the morning.

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They also turned out nice and thick which I liked.

I added just a little Nova Scotia Maple Syrup.

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Who doesn’t love chocolate and maple syrup in the mornings?

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I really enjoyed these. It was very similar to having a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. They were thick, gooey, delicious and very filling. I won’t need lunch for a while now.

Now that I’m on summer vacation I might try to blog twice a day (we’ll see). I don’t want my posts to get too long and boring. I have a yummy shrimp dinner planned for tonight so hopefully I’ll be back later with it.

Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!

~ Katie :)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Calgary Day 3

I’m going to warn you a head of time. I forgot to take any pictures of food this day. Sometimes when you’re on vacation the picture taking of food just isn’t a priority.

I woke up early on Sunday morning and enjoyed a little quiet time in the house. After everyone was up it was time for brunch. Waffles with fresh strawberries, whip cream, sugar-free syrup and turkey sausages.

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of that meal. Awesome!

After brunch the family took us to Bragg Creek which is a National Park about 30 mins outside of Calgary.

Here are a few pics we took leaving the city.

Mountains again…

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The family…

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Me, Tannis, Cass, Kieran and Shaye.

Olympic Centre…

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Downtown Calgary Skyline…

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After arriving at the park we did some hiking and stopped at the creek from some play time and snacks. Snacks included: fruit, veggies and dip and some Dark Chocolate Coconut Kashi bars (can you tell I was the one who went grocery shopping :P).

The park was beautiful. Here are just a few of the pics that I took during our time there…

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Rock animals that we found…

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Me and Kieran…

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Playing and having a good time…

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The deer we saw on our way home…

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When we got home it was time for supper. On the menu tonight Tannis cooked up a delicious Chicken Parmesan with caesar salad and garlic bread. It was nice to have some homemade food during out trip.

We also saw a little bunny hanging in the backyard. Who knew there was so much wild life in Calgary.

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After dinner we watched the movie Up with the kids before heading to the airport for our plane at 11:30 and our overnight flight home.

Overall, we had a fantastic trip. I loved getting to see the family and to see a city that was totally different from Halifax.

I’ll back back later with life since we got back and the beginning of my summer vacation. I hope everyone enjoyed my posts on my trip to Calgary.

~ Katie :)

Monday, June 28, 2010

Calgary Day 2

It’s now Sunday morning and we only have one more day left here in Calgary. But by the time this gets posted we’ll be back in Halifax. It’s been a great trip but I’m not looking forward to the over night flight home tonight.

It’s 7:30 and I’m the only one up in the house. Since my step-brother and his wife have 5 kids plus Matt and I there are 9 people in this house right now so I’m really enjoying a few mins of quiet time to myself.

After falling asleep yesterday so early I was a little worried about messing up our internal clocks and waking up at 5 but we ended up sleeping until 7:30 so we got 11 hours of sleep and I felt so much better.

After we got up yesterday we decided to skip the big unhealthy breakfast and hit up the small coffee shop across the street from our hotel for coffee and a muffin. When we got there it wasn’t open yet and we couldn’t find another place close so we just headed back to the hotel.

We ended up with the buffet again for breakfast. This time I chose to have a traditional pancake breakfast: 2 pancakes, sausages and bacon…

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With a side of fruit…

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I’m not upset. We’re on vacation so sometimes a little grease is ok.

After heading back up to the room we showered and packed everything up so we could check out and meet my step-brother. We headed back to his place to drop out stuff off and we spend the morning there handing out with his family.

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On the menu for lunch was hotdogs. Since I don’t eat hot dogs I made myself a bagel sandwich with what they had in their fridge. Bagel, roasted chicken, mozza and romaine…

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We also had a side of veggies to go along with lunch…

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Boy was my body ever craving veggies. It was great to get some greens back into my diet.

After lunch we drove around Calgary to see some places while doing so we stopped so I could take some pictures of the mountains.

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I love being able to see the mountains off in the distance. So different from Halifax.

Late in the afternoon we headed to the park with the kids and played football, freebie, soccer and soccer baseball for about and hour. It was actually a great workout.

Dinner was hamburgers and corn on the cob. After dinner was relaxed with the family and headed to bed around  10:30.

Here are just a few of the pictures I took yesterday.

Playing at the park…

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My bug bite(s) that I had all over my body when we got home…

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The walk home…

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Hanging out the evening…

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That’s all for now. I’ll be back later with my final post on the Calgary trip.

~ Katie :)