Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016 Recap

One of the best things about having a blog is being able to look back and reminisce.  This year flew by incredibly fast. 

Early in 2016 we hosted some friends for a wine and cheese party.


We had my sister and Riley over for a five course dinner, and others over for dinner, and lunch too.  My family came over for a summer BBQ, which was a lot of fun.


We celebrated our one year wedding anniversary, with a whole long weekend of love.


We had a classy night out on the town, and got to enjoy some live music and great company.


We ate really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, well, but I guess that's basically our hobby.


We traveled to New Orleans, where we had some new, amazing experiences, and had the tasting menu at an incredible restaurant.  We also spent a good deal of time at our favourite NOLA dive.


We were invited to others' homes for dinner, which we very much enjoyed.  We know some great cooks!


We traveled to two provinces that we hadn't been to, visiting both Toronto, Ontario, and Halifax Nova Scotia.


We planned an olive oil/ balsamic vinegar tasting night with friends, celebrated Christopher's mom's retirement, his brother's birthday, and Christopher's band planned at the Arts Festival, all in one weekend!


In the summer I was able to go for many long walks with my gal pals, and spend a lot of time with the girls and their babies lunching, and visiting in the park.


We went camping, which was so relaxing.
 

A new niece was also born this summer - yay!  We just love her so much, and she couldn't be cuter.


Some friends had babies this year too; we're surrounded by ridiculously cute little people, which is super fun.  One of our best weekends of the summer was when we went out on the town one night, and had friends over for dinner the next.



We plan to have many more weekends like that in the summer of 2017.  We are going to get all household chores (painting) etc. out of the way in the spring, so we can just completely enjoy the summer.

This was a year of country music for us, as we saw Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, The Dixie Chicks, and Elle King.  Also, kind of a random thing, we went to see David Suzuki give a lecture at the University - cool!

We got into the Christmas spirit, and spent a quiet Christmas at home with our families.  This was our first Christmas at home since our two nieces on Christopher's side were born.

Not only is today NYE, but it's also my little sister's 30th birthday (finally)!  Happy birthday Leah!

Her and her guy in their super creepy Bates Motel themed Halloween costumes - nice!
All in all 2016 was a wonderful year, and I'm excited to see what sorts of adventures I will have in 2017 with this cutie:


We're wishing you a safe and happy time as you ring in the new year!


What are your New Years plans?  Are you headed out on the town tonight, are are you staying in for a cozy New Years at home?  

We usually stay in for NYE, but not this year.
Let the adventures begin ...

Friday, December 30, 2016

Eats and Things

Breakfast yesterday included a smoothie with loads of kale, coconut water, a banana, frozen blueberries, and a scoop of cocoa.  On the side, some of my new coffee:


I met up with Christopher for lunch at a new Indian restaurant in town called Tamarind.


We shared the cochin lamb curry, chicken methi, saffron rice, and pershwari naan.  Everything was fantastic!


This restaurant is on the opposite end of town from us, and there is an incredible place that's closer, so I don't know if we'll ever make it to Tarmarind for supper.  We do work near this restaurant, so it might be good for a quick lunch break when we're craving Indian food.

We loaded up on nutrients last night, with ten different vegetables between our big salads and our plate of veggies for dipping.  A generous sprinkle of hemp seeds on top rounded out the salad.


We also enjoyed avocado on toasted olive bread.


This morning was also nutrient rich with a kale, cocoa, banana, coconut water, organic cherry smoothie.  I added some powder made with dried red fruits/veggies for an added vitamin kick.



Cocoa and banana go so well together in any smoothie, and they mask the taste of the greens, if you don't like the thought of drinking salad. 

There are many, many health benefits to unsweetened cocoa powder.  It is a potent super-food, and nutritional powerhouse that is loaded with so many health enhancing minerals etc.  I'd have to do a few posts exclusively on cocoa to even touch on the health benefits of this food.  If you're interested in the health benefits of cocoa I'd read more here, here and here.  In short, you should probably up your cocoa intake; not many foods can compare nutritionally.  I put it in every smoothie that I have (and of course I bake with it too).

After breakfast this morning I headed to the spa to get a hanakasumi exfoliating treatment/ massage and a pedicure.  I was home in time to have lunch ready for my sweetie, and then I sent him off for his last afternoon of work for a bit - yay for holidays! 

Dinner this evening was a big chicken salad:


Happy weekend everyone!

How was your week?

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

What's Up Wednesday

Monday and Tuesday were both spent lounging around at home with snacks and movies/shows; we didn't leave the house at all.  We watched a Canadian-made documentary called Sugar Coated, which we both really enjoyed.  We love documentaries that are food/nutrition related.

Breakfasts were eggs with a cinnamon bun and bacon one day:


And buttermilk waffles with bacon the next:


Besides those breakfasts, no other proper meals were made.  Instead, we just snacked and spent time relaxing.  We also took down our Christmas tree, and got everything put away until next year.


We drank a lot of tea from this pretty pack:


Christopher was back at work today (only for three days before he's on holidays again), and I spent the day running errands.  When he came home for lunch we had Thai soup with bread, and for dinner this evening we enjoyed roasted salmon, asparagus, and potatoes.


We tossed the potatoes with a lot of fresh ginger (as well as garlic oil, salt and pepper), and covered the salmon with fresh ginger too (in addition to dijon mustard, soy sauce, and pepper).

 

We put the potatoes in for about 30 minutes @ 375 F, then added the asparagus and salmon, and cooked it about 15 minutes longer.



This was a nice, healthy meal after all the snacky foods and Christmas treats we've been having.  We have a couple of veggie-loaded meals planned for tomorrow and Friday.

I'm off until the 9th, and after two more days of work this week, Christopher will be off too #yayforholidays!

Do you have time off from work this time of year? 

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas

I hope that you had a beautiful day surrounded by loved ones.

We woke up this morning, started a pot of coffee, got the fireplace going on the TV, and put a Christmas CD on.


Our candle actually smells like a wood fireplace, so it helped create the illusion that we really had a fire going.

We put some bacon in the oven, and then checked what Santa put in our stockings - so many wonderful goodies. 


We then opened presents from each other, and enjoyed cinnamon buns and bacon for breakfast.


Christopher made another pot of coffee, and we sipped that in the living room, and just enjoyed the quiet, peaceful morning.


In the afternoon we headed over to Christopher's parents' home.  We had snacks, and our nieces opened their gifts (with help from their parents).


It's so cozy sitting next to the real wood-burning fireplace.


Dinner was delicious - turkey with all the fixin's.


After supper the adults did a stealing gift exchange game, which was really fun.  Everyone brought a gift for around $20, then we drew numbers, and played the stealing game.  All the gifts were great, and things that anyone would enjoy.  Our favourite part of Christmas is just spending time together, so it was nice to not have to worry much about gift buying, but instead do something low-key and fun without any pressure.

The highlight of the evening was watching the nieces have a blast, going on the slide, hugging their giant teddy bears, and just being adorable. 

How was your Christmas?