My weekend...=)

Hello humans of the interwebs!
My weekend started off with painting my nails! I have no idea why, but I had this urge to paint kitty silhouettes on my nails...sooooo...here's the result of that!

This took forever to do! I am right handed, so mirroring the artwork was hard.

I said weekend, but that actually started on Thursday night...so I guess it's close enough? Here's what I had for breakfast on Thursday. 

Mixed some "Holy Crap" Cereal blend with my oatmeal. It was delicious. 

So, I wanted to do a little review on the "Holy Crap" cereal. It went on Dragon's Den and was successful. When I saw it in the supermarket, I actually didn't know much about it, I just saw how healthy it was and wanted to try it out. My boyfriend actually told me it was on Dragon's Den and convinced me to try it out. It is quite pricey, but then again...what healthy food isn't? So I had high expectations for this, and I wasn't exactly disappointed. It tasted great. Perfect amount of sweetness along with a nice texture and a hint of cinnamon. That being said, I didn't feel that it was that special. It tasted like what my oatmeal would taste like if I had cooked some oatmeal with cranberries and sprinkled some chia seed mix over it and then topped it off with caramelized apples with some brown sugar and cinnamon. Soooo....I wasn't totally blown away by it, but for someone who wouldn't want to spend so much time cooking the oatmeal and apples, this is a great and healthy alternative. It doesn't take long to make and is very versatile. =) I would recommend it.

My breakfast the next day (Friday) was also healthy and delicious! <3

Strawberries were on sale! So I kinda went a little crazy. =)

And then came dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the plates before they were devoured, so the picture isn't as amazing as I would like it. But it's still here!

My younger brother cooked dinner for the family for the first time. Shrimp Alfredo with Kale. Pretty good for the first time cooking for 5 people. 

Time for more breakfast pictures! I seem to either forget lunch, or forget a picture of it. I need to be more diligent at this =_=; Anywhoooooos, here's what my breakfast on Saturday looked like. 

Yogurt with Chia mix (Holy Crap - Dragon blend), with muesli cereal and berries. <3

My younger brother decided to help out with dinner again today, but there is no picture to show for it. We made white rice, chicken, napa cabbage, and Chinese spinach. Very simple dinner, and ended it off with an apple per person (to keep the doctor away). =)

On to Sunday! So...I decided to sleep in today. Therefore, the breakfast turned into a brunch. =D

Made some whole wheat pasta and topped it off with some Korean fish cake, dumplings and lettuce. 

A superbly delicious Sunday brunch. The dumplings felt a little too mushy, but that could easily be fixed later on by pan-searing them and turning them into gyoza. We didn't make the dumplings by hand this time...it takes too much work. But hopefully we will have a family day to make dumplings soon. =)

After having the brunch I went grocery shopping with my parents. We were only supposed to buy groceries, but we ended up at a Bulkbarn on the way aaaanndd....this happened.

Top: Dark chocolate covered cacao nibs
Bottom: Wasabi peas

Both of them tasted so good. It was my first experience with cacao nibs. I know, I know...they're healthy for you and so much better than having chocolate and by having them covered in dark chocolate I may be ruining them. But I was afraid to buy a bag of organic cacao nibs (which cost and arm and a leg) just to find out I don't like them. In the end, I really did enjoy them. They reminded me of eating chocolate covered espresso/coffee beans. They had less of a crunch compared to the espresso/coffee beans, but they weren't as grainy and bitter. All in all, they were enjoyable and I may invest in some plain cacao nibs soon.

Wasabi peas are just delicious. I shouldn't have to say anything more to that. Slightly salty with a bit of a kick from the wasabi. Love them <3

Aaaandddd....I forgot to take a picture of my dinner again. Surprise! (not) But we had steamed ground pork on a bed of button mushrooms with a salty preserved duck egg on top, boiled and lightly seasoned purslane, not so traditional mapo tofu (random pieces of left over pork and mushrooms with tofu stir-fried together with some pepper flakes), and boiled napa cabbage.

This is a picture of Purslane. It is actually a common weed around Toronto. (We found them in our backyard) 

This was our family's first experience with purslane. I have to say I didn't really like very much. It tasted very earthy (not in the good mushroom way) and then they tasted sour at the end. To top it off, it felt a little slimy near the end. I know it's extremely healthy for you and has a lot of omega-3 and antioxidants and vitamins and minerals...but I just couldn't get myself to eat much of it without more seasoning (Maggi seasoning saved the day!).

Since it is a long weekend here in Toronto (Civic Holiday), we have Monday off too! That means we finally have time to make some nice congee to enjoy for breakfast.

Pork Congee topped with some shredded lettuce. 

So because it was a long weekend, I stayed up late Sunday night because I had this urge to make popsicles. I made it out of strawberries (since they were on sale), so I ended up filming a video on it too! It's not extremely healthy, but it is much better than what you would be able to buy outside.

I only remembered to take a picture after I took a bite out of it...Sorry. xD

Healthy-ish Strawberry Popsicles:
- ~1 Cup Fresh Strawberries (Hulled)
- ~1 Cup Frozen Strawberries (Hulled and Halved)
- 1 Frozen Banana
- ~300mL Almond Milk (you can choose to use sweetened or unsweetened)
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tbsp (1/4 cup) Plain Yogurt
- Honey to taste (you can use Stevia or Agave Nectar or whatever sweetener you prefer)

1. Put all the ingredients minus the honey into the blender.
2. Blend until smooth, and taste. You can add more Strawberries at this point if you feel it is not Strawberry enough for you. Then blend again.
3. Add honey and blend once more. Taste, and adjust sweetness.
4. Pour into popsicle molds. If you end up having extra, you can pour it into ice cube trays to have a frozen fruit treat once in a while.
5. Freeze for at least 6 hours. Better to do this over night just in case.
6. Enjoy on a hot day.

I split mine into 5 popsicle molds, and I still had extra, so I poured those into ice cube trays. So I averaged it to approximately 8 servings. Each of my popsicles should come up to no more than 50 calories each with all natural sugars, and you get your vitamin C too. =)

Watch the video here:

After I finished editing the video and posting it up, we had dinner. On today's menu is...Barbeque! A super lazy day calls for super lazy food. Just chuck it all onto the grill and wait for food. ;)

This is what I placed onto the BBQ. Potatoes, a turkey leg, some portobello strips, a burger patty, and some zucchini looking things...

My delicious burger! Topped with portobello, havarti cheese, lettuce, ketchup, honey mustard and bbq sauce.

A small salad with a strip of portobello on top. (Yes, I love my mushrooms oh so very much)

A baked potato. I ate mine with some turkey leg on the side because I chose not to season my potato. 

At this point, some of you may be saying "Omg. That's so much food, and they're not even healthy." Yeah, and so? I'm only human, and if I'm going to have a cheat meal/day in like the longest time ever...I might as well have a BBQ and enjoy myself. I see no problem with that...especially when I'm eating healthy every other day of the week. So it's ok. Sit down and enjoy yourself once in a while. Just don't binge eat ;)

So this is the end of my weekend. I just realized that my drivers license is expired...So I will have to redo all my tests. I am quite sad about this. But I've always been really bad at keeping track of things, so this is a lesson to myself. I will have to try to get it sorted out as soon as possible. Since I can't fix things that are already done, there is no point in dwelling on it. So I will leave you guys with a cool song I just discovered and am liking.

Enjoy, and good night world. See you next time!

- Chrissymon