Farmer’s Market Goodies

Today has been a very busy day. It started out as with a trip downtown to meet the hubby for lunch and ended up being almost an all day excursion.

After lunch I decided I should head to the police station to get my criminal record check done. This technically doesn’t have to be done until I get a job but since it makes the whole process faster if it’s already done and I was already downtown I figured I’d just head to do it. What a slow process. Not only is there only one place in the city you can get it done so it is always super busy but it also isn’t even in the police station and it took me for ever to find it.

After it was finished and I had paid the money the lady tells me that they have to put on it that if my employer wants they can also ask for a check back in Halifax since I have only lived here 2 months. Thanks police! Thanks so much! It might have been nice to know this earlier, plus how am I going to get a check done from Calgary with the Halifax police??? Hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be a problem.

After the painful experience I decided to hit up the Farmer’s Market in Calgary. Food always makes everything better, right?

Although I didn’t take any other pictures while I was there I ended up with a great stash of goodies so I thought I’d share my purchases with you.

Organic Free Range Eggs.

Two very large Honey Crisp Apples. Everyone seems to be taking about these lately so I picked up a couple to see what all the fuss is about. After I try them I’ll let you know if they’re as good as the hype.

A cucumber and four peppers. Two red, one yellow and one orange. I picked up the two red peppers to stuff this week and the other two are for salads and such.

Brussell sprouts, green beans and baby tomatoes.

A bag of BC cranberries.

Apple Butter. I think I’m most excited about this purchase.

In totally I spent about $38. Not bad for all those goodies!!!

After I left the Farmer’s Market I found out we’re heading to Banff tomorrow with my step-brother, his wife and my niece and nephew and we’re planning a picnic. Matt and I are in charge of some veggies and fruit so I headed to the closest Co-op to pick up a couple of things to bring with us. I also grabbed some baby carrots, broccoli, and grapes. I figured I’ll cut everything up and make a fruit and veggie plate to go along with the veggie wrap that I’m going to bring with me as well.

Today also marked the return of the green smoothie.

In the blender went two huge cups of spinach, 1 banana, 1 cup of UVAB, 2 tbsp of flax and ice.

It’s so nice to have these back in my life. I get lazy with using the blender because I makes such a mess but I love them so hopefully you’ll be seeing more of these on the blog.

Served with 1/2 an English muffin topped with pb and granola for breakfast.

Well that’s all for me today folks. I’m going to spend the rest of my evening enjoying a glass of wine, baking and catching up on The Vampire Diaries.

I want to wish all my fellow Canadian’s out there a very Happy Thanksgiving and I’ll be back again on Monday.

~ Katie :)

Blogging Choices

I’ve been thinking about blogging a lot lately (don’t worry I’m not going anywhere). I love it and honestly I’m not doing it to become famous, to make money or even have hundreds of readers but I have noticed a lack of traffic and comments lately. I’m not blaming my readers at all. I feel that my lack of consistency, following through and participation in the blogging community is to blame.

Let’s discuss the reasons behind them then I’ll discuss my ways to solve these:

• My lack of consistency – I am very sporadic with my blogging. I really have no reason to be. I’m not working at the moment so I should be better with my blogging and I thought I would be but sometimes I’ve just been frustrated with the whole not working situation and I really don’t want to write depressing and feel sorry for me posts so I’m just not blogging at all. The other reason might be the lack of healthy choices I’ve made sometimes (eg. pizza, greasy fatty ribs, homemade granola bars, more homemade granola bars, and even more homemade granola bars – I don’t feel that these are bad for me but when they are the only food item to sustain me for the entire day I feel that might be a lack of healthy choices).
• Following Through – I’m terrible at following through. I owe you a number of posts including an about me post, our first wedding anniversary post, an apartment update and a Calgary update post. I keep promising these but never delivering.
• Participation in the Blogging Community – I actually read many, many post but never comment. I’m getting better at interacting on twitter but still lacking in the commenting/getting involved part of blogging.

So now that I figured out some of the issues I’m having here are my solutions:

• I’ve been reading, ‘Eat Pray Love’ and although I’m not too far into it Elizabeth has taught me something. I need to be happy and not feel guilty about not working. This is a problem that I’ve been having and I know its not the husband that is upset about me not working it’s me. That is one of the reasons we made the move across the country, we could afford for me not to work for a while if it happened but I’ve still been feeling guilty. I’ve decided to enjoy my time off because sooner or later it is going to end and I’m going to be complaining about how much I’m working.
• Also, I know healthy living is a process so I’m working on eating healthy one day at a time and making good choices one choice at a time and if I have a bad day – it's ok and I can just start fresh again the next day.
• In regards to following though – this is going to blend well with my first point about not feeling guilty and enjoying my time off. I’m going to spend some time over the next little while working on my blog and catching everyone up.
• Finally, stay tuned…more comments on your blogs to come.

Ok…that feels better. I’ve been thinking about all that for the past few days and it feel good to get it off my chest.

Back to what this blog is all about…HEALTHY LIVING!!!

I do have a few pictures to share with everyone.

Over the weekend Matt and I hit up the local Calgary Farmer’s Market for the first time. We were so busy looking around that I didn’t even take that many pictures and a few of the ones I did take didn’t turn out but I do have these few to share with you.

Rows and rows of fresh, local fruits and veggies.

We ended up picking up quite a few local goodies: green beans, snap peas, baby cucumbers, green, yellow and orange peppers, onion, tomatoes, baby tomatoes, sliced turkey and free range, organic chicken sausages.

We also did something different we decided to base our meals around our fresh veggies instead of decided on meals and then picking up veggies to go with it. It was a great idea and a wonderful market. We’ll definitely be going again and next time I’ll take some more pictures.

I don’t have too many meal pictures to share with you today but I did have a couple of yummy, healthy eats over the past day or so.

More leftover Hearty Veggie Soup.

In my new fall bowl of course.

I only have one more container left in the freezer. I think it might almost be time to make another batch.

Amy’s Veggie Burger with mozza and spinach on a whole wheat bun.

Served with roasted brussel sprouts

And baby tomatoes from the farmers market.

Breakfast this morning was a two egg cheese omelette served with a whole wheat cheese roll from a local bakery.

Do you see that sunlight? The sun if finally back in Calgary and it looks like it is here to stay for a while.

The floor sometimes takes the nicest pictures.

Lunch was a grilled spinach wrap with hummus, mozza and veggies (cucumbers, carrots, green and yellow peppers).

 

More new plates.

So adorable and great for taking pictures.

Just look at all that yummy gooeyness.

Thanks so much for everyone who continues to read and enjoy my blog. I have lots of fun and interesting posts planned for the next little while so please come back or subscribe in your google reader on the side.

Also if your just catching up here are some of the latest posts:

• Fall Decorating
• Ali’s No Back Oatmeal and Angela’s Granola
• Grocery Shopping with Me
• Apple Blueberry Breakfast Cobbler
• Hearty Vegetable Soup

~ Katie :)