New Loves

Hi!

This is going to be such a random post, but I’ve been all over the place lately so I thought I would share some of my new found loves of the past week or so!

First up – Food!

I am *obsessed* with baked oatmeal, it seems to be the only way I make it lately. I based my recipe off of one I found on The Edible Perspective, except I made a few modifications:

• 1/3c rolled oats
• 1/2 banana
• 1 egg*
• 1/4t baking powder
• 3T milk (I used 1%)*
• 1/2T vanilla extract
• 1t cinnamon
• 1/4t ginger
• pinch of nutmeg/cloves
• 1 packet of stevia (I only have little packets like for coffee)*

Basically I just mix it all together, put it in a greased oven safe dish and bake for about 30-35 minutes! **And then of course add a gob of peanut butter on top Oh and the “ * ” are the changes I made. For the original recipe (with other ideas too - click here!)

Steaz Peach Iced Tea – SO good! I’m addicted, I can’t go to Superstore now without picking one up. I wish I could find them by the case though, it gets expensive buying them one at a time. Even a little 4 pack would be better.

Beauty!

Joe Fresh “Khaki” nail polish. I was pining over Essie Sew Psyched, but when I was looking for it at Superstore, I noticed this one on display. It’s the exact same shade but was $6.00 cheaper – yes please! It isn’t as good quality as Essie but I like to change up my nail polish pretty frequently so that’s ok.

 

GNC wellBeing Vitamins in beBEAUTIFUL. To be honest I have only taken these for a few days now but I have high hopes for them. All of the reviews I can find on them are great so I’m very optimistic they will work! They are supposed to strengthen your hair and nails (and supposedly help your skin too but I got them for the nails and hair benefits). I have super fine hair that breaks easy due to many years of highlights and coloring so I’m hoping these will help from the inside out! Also, my nails have been super “peel-y” and breaking way too easily lately as well.

Random!

I have been playing this song on repeat for the past few days. I love love love it!

That’s it for now! I’ll be back later this week with a more fitness related post.

xox

Letttt’s try that again…

So, I have a confession to make…

I kind of maybe super failed at my first attempt at training for my 5k.

Like big time failed.

Like out of 6 workouts in 2 weeks I only got in maybe…three?

I had the best intentions, really! And I don’t mean to make a bunch of excuses but last week I really was sick. Well, kind of sick. More like I had a migraine for 4 days straight. Seriously.. Monday-Thursday I was popping ibuprofen and allergy meds like my life depended on it. Allergies + a low pressure system + hormones = practically dying Meaghan.

BUT – I’m going to say that was just bad luck/bad timing. And is not going to be a regular “excuse”.
So, I am starting over tomorrow. For real this time I have already scheduled my workouts into my planner for the week so I can’t pretend like I don’t have the time!

Now that I have that off of my chest – lets catch up!

I haven’t blogged in a week or so (something I am also blaming on my headaches.. I stare at a computer screen at work all day and couldn’t even consider looking at it when I got home too).  So since Mon-Thurs was very uneventful, lets talk about the weekend!

Friday was the first day in a long time I finally got to spend some QT with my kitchen. I hadn’t baked or really cooked in way too long (true story – Brandon has been cooking a lot for me lately, or we have been eating quick little meals…not cooking to enjoy but to eat. Boring!) so I itching to get cooking!

First, I made Andrea's marinara sauce.

Can I just say how much I *lovelovelovelovelove* this sauce?! Because I really do.

I’ve made it a couple times now and the love is only growing stronger. If you haven’t made it yet, do it. Now.. here’s the link. No excuses now!

Mmmm – it smelled "*so* good! Lots of garlic and onion – how could it not?!

The finished product! Not the best picture I know (and not even all of it!). I had already started putting everything away and I realized I had super slacked on the picture taking so I quickly took a picture of this container.

After the sauce was finished, I decided to get my bake on and make some delicious looking cookies I found on Jessica's blog. Brown sugar blueberry cookies to be exact!

Blueberries were also on sale for 1.99/pint this week so I took it as a sign I just HAD to make them

Except mine didn’t look quite as pretty as her’s… in fact they didn’t even really look like cookies.

 

 

 

 

  vs.

 

                                                                                 [source]

More like random mini scone type things. Which is weird because I followed it to a T (tee? tea? I really don’t get that phrase…oh well!) and apparently I wasn’t the only one. I read through her comments and it happened to a couple of other people as well. At least they still tasted great!

Another great thing about this weekend? 
EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!

Brandon, the wonderful man he is, decided to give me my birthday presents a couple days early. He knew I was having a rough week (on top of the headache I also found out I didn’t get that job I interviewed for a couple weeks back) and knew just how to cheer me up.

(plus some unpictured/already devoured chocolates from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory)

He listens to hints well . I couldn’t really think of any one thing that I really wanted this year but he knew I have been eyeing some new products at MAC, knew I desperately needed a new planner, and have been wanting to try the shatter nail polish! I couldn’t have asked for more!

I’ve already tried the shatter a couple times (it’s a real b*tch to get off!) and this is my favorite combo so far:

The picture doesn’t do it justice really… the blue is actually much darker in real life. And don’t mind my little kid hands haha.

And that’s the highlights of my weekend! Now I am going to spend the rest of my birthday eve curled up watching my favourite movie of all time (Funny Face) and get my beauty sleep.

How was your week/weekend?? What’s your favourite movie?

Weekend recap!

I haven’t had a weekend off in almost 8 months since I could really only work weekends while I was still in school. I worked every single Friday, Saturday, Sunday since September up until now (and yet somehow Brandon never seemed to remember what I worked each week )

So when I found out I had this weekend off, I filled it with as much as I possibly could!

Started out with a much needed hair appointment (September may or may not have been the last time for that too).  Got my highlights touched up and a much needed trim. I got like 3 or 4 inches cut off, and it’s still crazy long!

I went from this:

To this:

Except I need to play with it a bit myself, whenever I get my hair done they always straighten it a little too much and it always just falls flat. I like more “oomph!” to my hair.

Best part of the appointment though? Getting my hair washed! You know what I mean, the little head massages they do when washing you hair? AH-MAZ-ING. If I could hire someone to just wash my hair for me everyday, I so would.

Hey, a girl can dream right?

After my hair appointment I headed downtown to the WagJag Halifax Block Party. For those of you wondering what the heck WagJag is, it is a group buying website similar to Teambuy or Groupon. They are new to Halifax and have been trying to get their name out there so they threw a huge party at the Paragon. It was a blast! There was sushi, pizza, fish and chips, a candy bar, cupcakes and WagJag Cocktails (yum!).

I went with these lovely ladies

The entertainment was local singer Jen Grant:

Haha those kids were adorable! They were tearing up the dance floor!

After the party it was time to go home and get ready for party number two. Brandon and I haven’t had a chance to have anyone over yet to the new apartment so we decided since we both had the weekend off it was about time.

I made blondies using a recipe I found over on Gracie's blog for the party. This is the second time I have made them, and they are so good! Apparently everybody else thought so too because they disappeared crazy fast.

They are so easy:

• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup skor bits
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8×8 pan
2. Mix your melted butter with the brown sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg and then vanilla.
3. Add a pinch of salt and stir in flour. Mix in 1/2 cup skor bits and 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.
4. Pour the mixture into your greased pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, until set in the middle.

(Adapted from Eating for England’s recipe)

Haha even the batter was tempting. But don’t worry, it all went in the pan And I only had one – that took some serious self control.

I didn’t really take any pictures from the party. I really meant to but I guess I was just having so much fun I forgot!

Today was spent sleeping in and going to my sister’s baby shower. 

She’s having another girl! She finally chose a name – Julianne Catherine.

She’s due June 27 and I am hoping she’s a little early. My birthday is June 13 and think it would be the best birthday present if my new niece was born then! Her first was two weeks early so you never know, it could happen.

Overall I’d say it was a great weekend. I had a blast and am feeling refreshed and recharged for this week.

So tell me, how was your weekend?

Weekend Recap

Good evening lovelies! Hope everyone had a great weekend and is now having a nice, relaxing Sunday evening.

Even though I had to work most of it, I still managed to have a pretty good weekend!

Saturday after work B picked me up to go to his parents house for his birthday supper with his family. I love his family so much, and as always it was a blast! Good food and good company – there’s nothing better than that! For his birthday supper he requested a boiled dinner (like always!) which was delish! Definitely one of my comfort foods, but not something I have very often. It’s so salty! I was thirsty all night after eating that. His cousin came for dinner too, and she brought her adorable little boy with her. I think he is only a year and a half, and of course was the centre of attention!  No pictures unfortunately, I was too hungry/caught up in visiting and totally forgot to take out my camera!

After dinner we went to Wal-Mart to see what they had for dressers and futons. There is absolutely zero room in my dresser for any of B’s clothes and limited closet space for him. We are trying to find just a basic cheap dresser for him because hopefully by this time next year we will have a whole new bedroom set. We don’t want to spend a fortune on just a temporary thing. A futon on the other hand, we are willing to pay a little more for because we need something sturdy, because it’s going in the spare room and will be used as a couch a lot. It’s mainly going to be Brandon and his friends on it. Cheap metal frames will not cut it

All I really did today was work, but I did manage to get a few pictures!

I have been eating the same oats all week, and I’ve noticed I am actually starting to get excited for breakfast now! It’s easily my favourite meal of the day.

Oats + Peanut Butter (This is the whipped stuff! Yum!) + Chocolate Chips + Banana + Unsweetened Coconut = YUM! I layer my toppings in that exact order, and while it isn’t exactly beautiful, it is so good and filling! I finally have a breakfast that keeps me full until after my first class, which is a big deal because normally I am hungry like an hour after eating!

I also started off my day with a Tazo Chai Latte

I love love love love love my milk frother! It seriously makes all the difference. When the milk isn’t frothed it honestly just doesn’t taste right.

Lunch was spaghetti and was tres ugly so it went unpictured. Plus the lunch room was really busy. Supper may or may not have been (read: definitely was) a slice of pizza from the shop behind my apartment building. I didn’t get home until a little after 7, and was way too lazy to cook supper so I gave in.

I wasn’t too lazy however to make this amazing little recipe!

It’s a single chocolate chip cookie! I got the recipe from Jessica at Domestic Deep Thought.

It was sooo yummy! Just what I was craving, and I love that it kept me from eating a whole batch of cookies.

And yes, that is a cow glass They are my favourite animal (random I know!) and it was given to me a couple years ago. I love it and use it for milk and smoothies – it makes me smile whenever I use it!

Plus – look at the back!

How fun is that?!

That’s it for now, I need to get my beautysleep!

xox

Margherita Anyone?

Not that kind of margarita sillies! Though if I had the stuff to make one, I’d be all over that. It could be a margarita theme night! (making a mental note for the future – MUST do this!)

Today I had my margarita in pizza form. Margherita Pizza to be exact! (Little history lesson – apparently there was a Queen Marghertia in Italy and somebody made a pizza for her to look like the Italian flag and then named it after her! The more you know)  I have been craving it for like two weeks now, and it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon so I decided I had to make it!

The best part is, I made it completely from scratch! Well, the breadmaker did all the hard work, but I did the rest.

Into the breadmaker went:



1 1/3 cups of water (80-90 degrees F – I just ran my hot water tap for a while)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. bread machine yeast

** It is super important that you put them in the breadmaker in order! And make a little well in the flour to pour your yeast in **

Then you just pick the dough setting on your machine and let it do its thing!

After that you place the dough on a lightly floured surface and put a big mixing bowl on top for 10 min. so it can rise a little more. Divide it in half and roll one half out to desired size and put the other half in a bowl and keep covered. Top with sauce and favourite toppings and voila!

For margherita pizza, all you need is sliced mozzarella and basil. So simple and so yummy!



A few lessons learnt today – 1. I suck at rolling out circles. 2. You could actually see sauce before the cheese melted, I forgot it would melt and expand so I maybe overdid the cheese. 3. I also forgot that the basil would shrivel a bit and the big pretty leaves that covered the pizza aren’t so pretty anymore.

Oh well! It still tasted delish!

And on another foodie note – look what I finally found at Superstore today!

I may have bought four.. so yummy! I have always been jealous of seeing other bloggers with the little chobani yogurts etc and now I finally have something similar! It’s the fruit on the bottom kind, but that doesn’t appeal to me/I really don’t care, because I mix it up anyways! I can not eat yogurt (normal or greek, doesn’t matter) without stirring it super well. Maybe I’m weird, but I hate when things separate.. it just looks so gross! Plus I wanted the fruit mixed in to help sweeten up the yogurt.

This little lady enjoyed it too..



She LOVES yogurt and ice cream for some reason, so when ever I have them she isn’t far away. Within seconds of opening it she came straight to the table to mooch from me. Crying Meowing and all.

Now I am currently folding a bazillion four loads of laundry, while attempting to do some Advanced Accounting homework for tomorrows class. After having last week off  of school and not having to do any homework for a week straight it is so hard to get back into the groove of it! I think I might have to make some chai tea to perk me up and get to work. Goodnight!

xo