I'll Have the Usual ...

My baked egg breakfast kept me full all morning. I had a light lunch - just a fruit smoothie with 1 cup unsweetened almond breeze, 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1 pack amazing grass, and 1/2 cup POM juice:





A refreshing lunch for a hot summer day!

I had a great afternoon running errands, and being a shopoholic. I picked up "Breaking Dawn," the final book in the Twilight series, the new Eminem CD, and some other necessities :-)

This evening the hubby and I met 8 friends for dinner at Korea House. We started with a dumpling appetizer:



My meal was the usual - Bee Bim Bop:





This has got to be one of my most favourite meals. Top 5 for sure.

Stay tuned tomorrow (Friday) for a special post!

When you love a dish at a restaurant do you order it every time you go, or do you switch it up? What is a meal that is in your top 5 favourite meals?

Thankful

want to thank all my wonderful readers for your sweet comments on yesterday's post - you are all too kind, and your words brightened my day. Each and every one of you is invited over to my house for dinner ... you just have to let me know when you will be in Regina ;-)

The hubby also wants to say a BIG thank you to all of you readers who congratulated him on his half-ironman (and a special thank you to eatmovelove who said he was cute!! hehe. That made him smile!).

Yesterday morning after Tuesdays rich and spicy eats, I just wanted something healthy and refreshing. I turned to my lucky green monster to give me an energy boost for the day:





Lunch was leftover soup with a dollop of sour cream to cool it down:



Later in the afternoon I had some yogurt with a tsp of chocolate chips and a tsp of coconut:



I snacked on a couple of these pita chips while making dinner:



Dinner was steak and Mexican rice with pico de gallo on top:



My snack in the evening was 1/2 a brownie, and an orange:





This morning I had baked eggs loaded with veggies (2 eggs, broccoli, tomato, onion, T mozza) baked for 20 minutes @ 375:



Update: My foot is 100% better - back to the 30 Day Shred!! All I had been doing before was walking, because it was all I could handle. I am excited to start the 30 Day Shred up again, and I am actually going to do the C25K plan again, and give running another shot. I never got to finish the plan last time, but I am hoping this time will be better.

Also, a HUGE congratulations to Caitlin who appeared on The Today Show this morning! Her book "Operation Beautiful" is now in stores! I have been reading Caitlin's blog from the VERY beginning, and followed her journey as she came up with Operation Beautiful, got a book deal, wrote a book, etc.. It seemed so surreal to see her chatting it up with Meredith on the today show! My book will be arriving in my mail any day now - I am so excited!

One more thing - please go HERE to vote for John who has a crazy "Stridea" to do 40 races in one year before he turns 40. He is a true inspiration!

Today I am thankful for the blogging community.

What are you thankful for today?

Mexican French Infusion

Blackberry Banana Brownie Bomb Vegan Overnight Oats Parfait

VOO

- 1/3 cup quick oats
- 1 scoop chia seeds
- 2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
- 1 T organic cocoa

Mix together and leave in fridge overnight. Layer with soft serve in the morning.

Blackberry Banana Softserve

- 8 frozen blackberries
- 1 frozen banana
- 1/4 cup (approx) unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze

Use food processor or Vita-Mix to blend into soft serve consistency.



I sprinkled cacao nibs on top. I picked them up at Sunterra in Calgary - this was my haul:












(These chips are ridiculously good - if you can find them in a store near you ... GET THEM!)

Lunch yesterday was not as pretty as my breakfast. I just had a small bowl of KD.

I spent the afternoon cooking and prepping for the Mexican French Infusion dinner that we had last night. Our friends Justin and Cyndi joined us.







We started with a trio of dips (salsa, pico de gallo, peach guacamole) and chips. I got the salsa recipe from Sarena - it was great!





Peach Guacamole

- 3 avocados, diced
- 2 T onion, minced
- 1 ripe peach, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
- sprinkle of sea salt
- Mix together and serve immediately

Next we had sweet and spicy meat empenadas.



Soup was a black bean and chicken chipotle soup (sour cream, cilantro, lime to garnish).

The main course was poblano pepper crepes, Mexican rice, and French bread. We sipped on French wine.



The recipe for the poblano pepper crepes can be found here.
They are time consuming, but oh-so-worth-it!

Making the sauce was fun ... it looked like a green monster in the end!









It is a very mild sauce - NOT spicy.

Dessert was a mocha chocolate souffle with a chocolate chili pepper sauce.



Chocolate Chili Pepper Sauce

- 3/4 of a Lindt chocolate chili bar
- 1 square semi - sweet chocolate
- 1 cup whipping cream
- Melt together on med-low on stove
- Once completely melted, spoon over souffle

Have you ever had a souffle? Sweet or savoury?

I have never made or had a savoury souffle, so that is next on my list!

Choklat

hile in Calgary, I was introduced to a Chocolate shop unlike any other I have ever been in.

Choklat is the only chocolate company in Western Canada that is involved in all processes of chocolate making from the fermentation process to roasting. They are "... one of just 4 chocolatiers in the entire world to make chocolate from Porcelana Cacau the rarest cocoa bean in the world." Any other chocolate company that you can think of in Western Canada does not actually "make" the chocolate that they use in their products. Even my favourite, Bernard Callebaut does not make his own chocolate. I still LOVE him though.

When you walk into Choklat the smell is intoxicating. It is a tiny store, with all the equipment needed to turn top quality cacao beans into chocolate. They use only the freshest of ingredients, no preservatives, and no artificial flavours. All their truffles are made fresh to order, and you can choose exactly what you want.

On Saturday I shared a single brownie with some friends, and it was like crack. I needed more! This morning the hubby and I stopped to order some truffles, as well as a couple of brownies.

I got 3 milk chocolate buttercream truffles, dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in toasted coconut, as well as 3 dark chocolate buttercream truffles, dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in toasted hazelnuts. They made each truffle in front of me, then wrapped them in different wrap according to the type of truffle and packaged them in a pretty little box (all at no extra charge).









I ate 1.5 truffles today.

That wasn't the only chocolate I had today!



I had chocolate milk this morning for the first time in many years (shared a small glass bottle with the hubby). We ate breakfast at a really cool grocery store called Sunterra (stay tuned tomorrow to see the foodie items I purchased from this store). I ordered a breakfast bagel with fruit, but they accidentally gave me hash browns instead. It was way too much food.



I nibbled for a while, but ended up leaving all of this on my plate:



Secretly I was leaving room for more chocolate.

We left Calgary around noon to head back home. We stopped in a small town for dinner at Boston Pizza. I had a perogie stromboli, and a spinach salad. I ate most of it.



Dessert?



Half of the best brownie in the world. I let hubby have the other half. There is still one left, and I will fight him for it.



We are now back home in Regina,
but we have a reason to go back to Calgary very soon ...

Choklat also sells cupcakes.

What is your favourite chocolate?

I am a sucker for Bernard Callebaut, but unfortunately Bernard doesn't make brownies, so Choklat will fill that void for me.

Also, that "Callebaut" chocolate that you see in grocery stores around Canada is in NO WAY related to Bernard Callebaut. Bernard has been going to great lengths to avoid association with the bulk bin baking chocolate using the "Callebaut" name. Just a heads up!

Hubby is a 70.3 Ironman!

The hubby and I had a great weekend in Calgary.

Breakfast Saturday morning was an excellent buffet at the Westin Hotel. I had this plate as well as 2 more slices of bacon, and 1 slice of French toast:



We shopped in the morning and then went down to a street festival in Inglewood, where we met some friends for lunch. We ate at a Mexican restaurant. I had a small tortilla soup and half of a small Caesar salad. Dessert was a 1/4 of a brownie (I shared with friends, but am going back tomorrow to pick more up - best brownie I have ever had) and 1/2 a mini cupcake that I shared with the hubby.

We shopped in Inglewood all afternoon at some really cool shops, and foodie stores. I picked up some goodies at a really cool grocery/ foodie store called Sunterra.

We went back to our friends' place for a BBQ dinner:



I had 1 glass of sparkling wine, some veggies, 2 pita chips, some sweet potato chips and 3/4 of a bison burger.



The burgers were perfectly cooked, and surprisingly juicy for bison burgers. We were back at our hotel very early last night so the hubby could go to bed by about 8:30.

Hubby's RACE DAY! Ironman 70.3

The hubby was up at 3:20 this morning to get ready for his race. The swim started about an hour out of the city, so I didn't see him do that part. I went straight to the bike/run transition.

I was up at 6:00 and promptly ordered room service:


(I ate half).

Should have eaten more because I didn't eat again until 3:00 this afternoon!

I was at the transition point around 8:00 and got to see the pros getting off their bikes - they are insanely fast. The race winner is from Australia. There were people from all over the world participating in this race.

For those who are not familiar with the Half Ironman, it is:

1.2 mile (1.9 km) swim
56 mile (94 km) bike ride
13.1 mile run (21.1 km) (half marathon)

The hubby's times were:

Swim - 33:54
Bike - 3:05:42
Run - 2:11:27

Overall time:

5:58:46

His goal was to do it in under 6 hours, so he is happy with his overall time, but he is not happy with his run. He was hoping to do the run in about an 1:45:00, but the course was a lot hillier than expected, and his legs were not cooperating for most of the run.

CONGRATULATIONS CHRIS!! What an accomplishment!
I am so proud of you!


(Dismounting)


(Starting the half marathon)


(Done!!)

By the time we got home, the hubby showered and we found somewhere to have lunch, it was 3:00, and we were both haaaaaaaaangry! We went back to Inglewood for some ridiculously good pizza from Inglewood pizza. I had 1 slice of pepperoni and a V8 Splash drink.

We ate a late dinner in the hotel. I ordered the roasted veggie wrap with French onion soup. I ate 1/2 of the wrap, and all of the soup.



We are wiped from a busy, long weekend. 8 hour drive home tomorrow.

How was your weekend? What was the highlight?
What is ahead for you in August?

This month we are going on a week long camping trip with friends, and the hubby is running an Olympic triathlon while we are there. I go back to work in 24 days - eeeeeek!