Now with 100% more stove!

So last week I left off bemoaning my lack of stove.

Here's the replacement!

It's everything I hoped it would be.  And there's even a (not so) Hidden Mickey in there as well.

The less said about Week 2 of Elf 4 Health the better, I never got it together last week at all.  This week shall be better though!

Without stove for the week

Friday evening I got home from work, did a fantastic workout and, once done, turned on the oven to make our traditional Friday Frozen Pizza dinner.  Then, upstairs to shower (it was that good of a workout) and just as I was about to step under the water I heard a loud POP! (and I may have seen a flash of light...but that could also have been my imagination). 

So, half dressed, I go and check it out.  It didn't actually explode, but tripped the breaker.  Odd.  Flipped the breaker back to on and then the stove started beeping like when you turned the timer on. 

But I hadn't done that.

It was cycling through it's test program (I presume) and would. not. stop. beeping.

Off, goes the breaker to stop the noise and then I realize that we're without oven (and range...since OMG! the beeping!) until either a) hubby fixes the damn thing, or b) we buy a new one.

Saturday we do some research and fixable, but no guarantee it will work.  So I'm the proud owner of a new convection range.

However,

It won't be at my house until Thursday.  That's a lot of days without "proper" cooking.

So far we've:

 - Ordered pizza

 - Went to a friends house for dinner

 - Made Thai curry in the crock-pot (with microwaved rice)

 - BBQ'd in the snow.

Not sure what's on the menu today and tomorrow.

Elf for Health - Week one review

 

Week one of the Elf for Health challenge is done and my final grade is less than stellar.  I tried...I really did, but I let life get in the way a bit too much.

On the plus side, I did some hard workouts 5 days last week.  And that's better than I had been doing before.

So, to review:

Monday:  Go Meatless Today. 
50% on day one.  Breakfast - Berries, yogurt and granola.  Lunch - Vegetable (with pasta) soup, cheese and salad.  Dinner - Chinese take-away  ::sigh::  I'm going to try again on another day.

Tuesday: Send a card or handwritten note to a friend.
Done and done.  Gold star to me.

Wednesday: Try a new workout today! 
New-ish workout.  Increasing walk/run intervals and then a bunch of ab work after.

Thursday: Get up 15 minutes early to meditate and reflect.
How hard can getting up 15 minutes be?  Answer: Very hard. 

Friday: How many colors can you eat today? Challenge yourself!
I didn't eat them all in great quantities but I think I got them all in :)

Weekend: Clean out your closet! Fill a bag with clothes to donate to Goodwill or send some belongings to Sandy victims.
Sadly, this didn't get done either.

And the new week starts today...

Elf for Health - Week one

 

 And we're off!

The Elf for Health challenge started on Monday and it's been exciting to watch/read the lead-up posts, tweets and facebook chatter.  Challenges for this week are:

Monday:  Go Meatless Today. 
50% on day one.  Breakfast - Berries, yogurt and granola.  Lunch - Vegetable (with pasta) soup, cheese and salad.  Dinner - Chinese take-away  ::sigh::  I'm going to try again on another day.

Tuesday: Send a card or handwritten note to a friend.
Got it all figured out, just have to execute.  And then mail...that might turn out to be the tricky part.

Wednesday: Try a new workout today! 
Shouldn't be a problem.

Thursday: Get up 15 minutes early to meditate and reflect.
How hard can getting up 15 minutes be?

Friday: How many colors can you eat today? Challenge yourself!
Looking forward to this one!

Weekend: Clean out your closet! Fill a bag with clothes to donate to Goodwill or send some belongings to Sandy victims.
Excellent project for the weekend.

 

Weekend so far...

My weekend so far:

- Bought a few Christmas presents on Friday (Canada apparently does Black Friday sales, even though our Thanksgiving was over a month ago).

- Had a birthday party for the boy.  There's a ton of cake and candy left over.  Which is bad.

 - Watched the first 3 episodes of Murder, She Wrote on Netflix.  I think having only 6 episodes of Sherlock has forced us to find something that we can't finish watching in a single weekend.

 - Hung up one strand of Christmas lights.  It required a drill, hooks, tie wraps and an extra power bar.  There's 4 more windows to do, we might not be done until the new year.

 - Baseball practice (boring), grocery shopping (busy), dinner out (A&W, oops), cleaned a little bit in preparation for watching the Grey Cup tomorrow.

....and that's about it.  I worked out yesterday morning but didn't workout today.  I NEED TO BE BETTER! 

And it starts tomorrow.

Elf for Health Holiday Challenge

I'm going to be an Elf for Health!

Lindsay from The Lean Green Bean and Elle from Nutritionella have come up with a great challenge to help stay on track during the holidays:

Introducing the Elf for Health Holiday Challenge! This is a six week challenge that will run from the Monday after Thanksgiving thru the first week in January. There will be daily tasks, daily winners, prizes, weekly newsletters, and a Facebook group for support.

And are you ready for the best part? You’ll have an elf to support and encourage you! When you sign up, you will also be committing to be an elf for someone in return. Over the course of the challenge, you will have three different elves.

Sounds like a great way to stay motivated and meet new people over the holidays doesn’t it?! Since this challenge is internet based, anyone can participate… no matter where you’re located! All you need is access to the internet and an email address.

I think it sounds fab, I could certainly use the help because finding my motivation seems to be a problem lately.  Hopefully this will help, and I get to encourage others along the way!

Menu Plan Monday - Nov 19

Well, my plan for last week kind of, sort of, worked out.  We had a ton of leftovers that we had for dinner yesterday in an effort to clean out the fridge.  I've also started accumulating pantry and freezer things again, so it's time to "Eat from the Freezer/Pantry".


For this week:

Monday - Pasta and Alfredo Sauce with salad. The boy requested this.  Actually he requested pasta with butter, Adam and I will have the sauce.

Tuesday - Fish and Chips.  Adam requested this.  I might have fish and butternut squash.

Wednesday - Chicken Thighs, broccoli and noodles.  One thing from the freezer down!

Thursday -Ham steaks, potatoes and veggies.  Two things from the freezer down!

Friday - Pizza party! 

Saturday - Split pea and ham soup.  Possibly with potato skins that we bought from Costco on Saturday (a weakness of mine).   The peas have been languishing in my cupboard for a while...time to do something about them.

Sunday - I had pork tenderloin written down, but my sister reminded me it's Grey Cup Sunday and if we're watching it at our place.  If this is true I'll make chili.

Baking up a Storm

Today was filled with baking, something I haven't done in quite a while.  It was fun, but after 5 hours on my feet, I'm beat and just want a cuppa with a variety of my wares of the day :)

First up, Banana Bread from Friday:

Jet and I made this together when we were home on Friday.  He measured out the flour and other dry ingredients, but cracking the egg was his favourite.

Then today...

 



 Mock Marmalade from the BBC Good Food Magazine.  Adapted from Wartime Farm (which I totally want to get my hands on).  I had to reboil this since I didn't follow directions the first time and it never set.  Fingers crossed it's still good.

 

 

Also from Wartime Farm (via Good Food Mag); Gingerbread Cake.  But you have to wait a couple days before eating it.  

 

 

From The 1940's Experiment Gingerbread Cookies.  They didn't brown up as much as I thought they would, but they taste good.

 

Icebox Cookies from Canadian Living.  This makes A LOT.  I split up one batch into candied cherries and lemon cranberry.  There's still a ton of dough in the fridge for another time.



Taking it Easy

I've been taking it easy yesterday and today.  Feel like I might be coming down with the cold that's going around, so might as well rest up while I'm mostly well in hopes that I only get a little under the weather.

My (not so) little guy turned 8 yesterday so we ordered dinner in, had some people over, had some drinks, had some (very sweet) cake and then watched Jumanji.  Such exciting lives we lead.  We also now have a million more Skylanders in the house than we did 24 hours ago.

Baked some yummy banana bread too this afternoon.  Can't wait for it to finish baking and cooling...yum, yum, yum.

Workouts resume tomorrow.

Triathlon??

I get some crazy ideas in my head.  Usually the way out there ones sort themselves out in a matter of minutes, but sometimes they stick around for a while.  And the longer they stick around the more seriously I start to take them.

The other day I was reading a blog and one of the links was to the Strathmore Women's Triathlon.   I was intrigued.  Not only because I grew up there and never knew that they had a triathlon, but because it was women only and a "sprint" race which I didn't know existed. 

(In my head triathlon = ironman.  I've never bothered to look it up and check)

So I've spent the last few days looking into this, reading about it and visualizing actually doing it.

And then reality set in and I saw just how crazy this particular brand of crazy train is:

1)  I don't own a bike.

1b) Even if I had a bike I don't know how to use it.

2) I don't much like swimming.  I took lessons and stuff as a kid, but that's about it.

3) It's winter now.  Training for 20k bike race would either have to be on a stationary bike, or wait until Spring...which, in Calgary, might not come until July.

But....

There is a relay option.  My sister already said NO.  In big capital letters (actually her exact text was more colourful).  But she suggested asking my mom and aunt, who are usually up for anything. 

But it will have to be rock, paper, scissors to see who gets the swimming.