Adventures in baking/cooking

Fresh Rolls

So easy to make and makes a delicious snack or even meal!

I purchased rice paper (which is easy to come by, you can even find it at No frills) and vermicelli for the rolls.

I filled them with (imitation) crab, thinly sliced red pepper, and romaine lettuce.

The rice paper comes dry, so you have to moisten it with a wet tea towel for one minute before you place the filler ingredients in. Then they are very easy to roll up.

To go with these rolls, I made my own peanut sauce with: peanut butter, fish oil, sesame oil, honey, chili sauce (the spicy one),and soy sauce.

Homemade cinnamon pancakes

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp peanut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pour and flip and enjoy... Mmmm

Apple Cinnamon Oat Muffins 

(these are mini muffins!)
1 cup WW flour
1/4 cup AP flour

1 Cup Quick Oatmeal (I used large flakes and ground them in the blender)

1/4 Cup White sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Baking powder

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

2  Apples, diced small

1 Cup Milk

1/4 Cup Peanut Oil 

2 Eggs

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.

Combine all of the dry ingredients, whisking well.  Whisk in apples. 

Combine wet ingredients, add to dry.  Stir until combined, do not overstir.

Grease or line mini or normal sized muffin tin & Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

This weekend will bring more cooking/baking goodness!

Katherine's October 2012 Fitness Successes

Over the last couple months, Aleksy and I have been hitting the gym and participating in physical activity very regularly. We have made it a regular part of our routine to workout and eat healthy during the week (and sometimes on weekends, but those are our cheater days for the most part where we can have drinks and junk food!). To assist with motivation, I have recorded my fitness for the month of October:

October 1 zumba 40 minutes
                3 km run
                gym: 30 min run treadmill, 10 min elliptical, weights 15 min
October 2 45 min run treadmill
October 4 gym: 12 min elliptical, 35 min run treadmill
                 1 hr yoga
October 6 gym: 15 min elliptical, 30 min run treadmill, 10 min bike, squats, weights: 15 min
October 7 gym: 20 min elliptical, 35 min treadmill
October 9 1 hr run (around neighbourhood)
October 10 gym: 45 min run treadmill, 15 min elliptical, 20 min abs &weights
                   1 hr yoga
October 11 gym: 30 min run treadmill, 15 min elliptical
October 12 gym: 30 min run treadmill, 15 min elliptical, 20 min legs & arms
October 14 gym: 30 min elliptical, 20 min treadmill
                  1 hr volleyball
October 15 gym: 45 min run treadmill, 15 min bike
                  1 hr vball
October 16 gym: 15 min elliptical, 10 min bike, 30 min treadmill, 10 min abs
October 17 gym: 10 min elliptical, 35 min treadmill
October 18 1 hr yoga
October 19 gym: 15 min elliptical, 15 min run treadmill, 30 min step class
October 21 gym: 15 min elliptical, 30 min run treadmill, 10 min leg work
                   1 hr volleyball
October 22 gym: 50 min run treadmill, 10 min bike, 15 min abs
                   1 hr volleyball
October 23 1 hr volleyball skills clinic
October 24 gym: 30 min treadmill
October 25 gym: 15 min elliptical,  30 min run treadmill
                   1 hr yoga
October 28 1 hr volleyball
October 29 zumba 40 min
                  gym: 1 hr treadmill, 20 min abs/legs
                  1 hr volleyball
October 30 1 hr volleyball skills clinic
                   1 hr 20/20/20 class (step/legs/abs/arms)
October 31 Body sculpt class 45 min

My hopes are to keep this up for the month of November because this lifestyles gives me more energy, and leaves me feeling great (and I've reached my weight goal of 125 lbs).

Out with the old & in with the new! With all of the working out, I thought I'd reward myself with a new pair of Asics! They are way comfier than my old Nike's that I bought while vacationing in Florida in 2008... it was time for a new pair! The old Nike's began to wear down at the toes and I have been left with a black nail on my toe... my Asics are very comfortable and easy to run in! 

Another Memorable Happy Birthday-Halloween

We celebrated Aleksy's 26th birthday plus Halloween on Saturday night the 27th. This is our annual halloween/birthday tradition! We had about 15 people over, all our closest friends to celebrate... everyone in costume of course! Aleksy and I had our costumes planned about 3 weeks before the party... because it really is cheaper to make costumes then buy the bagged ones so we make our own with individually purchased items from the thrift store. I took off work the Friday before so I could prepare for the party by grocery shopping, lots of sewing, and some food prep (i.e. sandwich wraps, jello shooters).

 Our costumes: curious george and the man with the yellow hat! I decided this year that with our "couples costume" that I get to be the "main character" this year since previous years, Aleksy was Batman (with Batman and Robin), and Scooby Doo (with Scooby doo and Daphne). These costumes took many hours of sewing the tail (which Aleksy did most of), ears, the tummy on my shirt, and Aleksys tie. We bought a black hat for Aleksy's costume and a bottle of yellow spray paint which still didn't fully make the hat yellow!

 For Aleksys birthday cake, we had a friend make the cake. In September, we were at an engagement party for our friends and we saw her amazing work on that day that she did for the engagement party. She did an amazing job on Aleksy's cake: this is our new house all haunted up... There are graves on the left where the middle one is my grave and my little hand is popping out. On the right, that is Aleksy hiding under the leaves. The trees are made of grapevines, but otherwise everything was edible! In real life our subdivision will not have trees or fallen leaves :( One of the sacrifices of new subdivisions...

The cake was chocolate and cream cheese on the top and chocolate and peanut butter on the bottom... super tasty!

Here's a group shot with some of our friends around the beginning of the evenings endeavors. We have the basketball team and their cheerleader (with jello shooters!), a pirate, curious Gearge and the bakers.... our friends who announced their pregnancy at the party! Steph is having a baby in April!! Also present at the party were a policeman, some zombies, salt & pepper, a devil, and some bunnies (aka some people who decided not to show up in costume but we made them find one!)

By request, I made chili for Aleksys birthday. To go with the chili, I figured i'd stick with the tex-mex theme and we had chili, 7 layer dip (with refried beans, taco seasoning, cream cheese, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, tomato and cheese), pinwheels (with cream cheese, ranch dressing package, celery, black olives, red peppers), a veggie tray, spicy hummus and corn chips. And for dessert, we had an awesome cake, and our bakers brought cinnamon buns... Mmmm food

Niagara College Winery Tour

On Saturday October 20th, we had a ladies day in Niagara-on-the-lake! Andzelika had purchased a Dealfind coupon where for $60 you can enjoy a tour of the Niagara College winery and beer brewery including lunch, testing, and $20 to put toward whichever bottle(s) you buy! We bought a bottle of ice wine with this credit to share among everyone. We booked our tour originally for the ladies and our associated men (the dealfind was for up to 6 people included in the price), but since the Browns were unable to get a sitter, the men took the little girls to Niagara Falls! They later joined up with us as we were finishing our day off at the brewery, drinking some free beer samples.

The vineyard of Niagara College was absolutely beautiful! Where the multi-coloured trees are in the background is the Niagara escarpment  The tour guide informed us that depending on where you are in the Niagara region, you have different grounding that affects the taste of the wine. Near the Niagara escarpment, the limestone affects the taste. In other regions, particularly in valleys, the clay ground affects the taste.




Some other fun things I learned on the tour:

• Although typically a white wine is made from white grapes, you can also make a white from red grapes minus the skin of the grape.For blush wines, they keep the peels in for only a portion of the time that the wine is fermenting.
• The oak barrels which hold wine can only hold 300 bottles of wine, whereas the big metal barrels hold  many more which is reflected in wine bottle prices.
• A young white wine will have lighter colours whereas a darker white wine with change to yellow tones and even light orange tones.
• A young red wine is darker in colour and with an older red, the wine becomes more transparent.
• For ice wine, the grapes need to be picked at -8 degrees Celsius, however to give the winemakers wiggle room they pick them at -10 to -12 degrees. There is 1 drop of nectar in each grape which is sweet for the ice wine.
• When drinking a wine with a lot of tannins the wine tends to stick to roof and sides of the mouth. Protein couples well with the wine because the protein takes the moisture from the mouth, allowing you to better taste the wine.

This is after we had the wine tour and it was time for testing! We tested a Gerwurtztraminer white, which I'm not too much of a fan of because of the sour taste of the wine. The red we tried was a Cabernet Franc and it was by far my favourite! This is the bottle I ended up buying after trying almost everyone on the list. I tend to like wines that are bold, dry and slightly smokey (I'm a fan of the oak). The other wine we tried was a delicious ice wine which they sold for only $38/ bottle! I remember from previous tours that Aleksy and I have done (Jackson Triggs, Peller Estates) that ice wine bottles often go for upwards of $80 a bottle so $38 was an amazing price for the delicious ice wine...

After the tour, we also has many samples of almost every white and red on the menu complimentary!! They were so nice at the retail store and were so passionate about showing off their wines that they wanted us to try particular ones.

Our lunch was very tasty with a (stacked!) sandwich, a pickle, and a brownie. The brownie was scrumptious with the glass of Cabernet Franc that I ordered!

The three of us in the main area of the retail store. One of the tour guides was nice enough to take a photo. This was the tour guide who informed us that also included in our dealfind was the brewery tour and just as we were about to leave, we were reminded and guided to the brewery store down the pathway.

The boys came with the girls just as soon as we started sampling the beers. They were into the brewing process, so the employee showed us to the brewery as well. There were many different kinds of beer to try including a bourbon beer. I'm not too fond of beers other than light, non-hoppy beers but Aleksy likes to try hoppy beers. Aleksy bought a couple of the jugs which hold 6 beers each: a bitter beer, and the bourbon beer.

This was the perfect way to spend a Saturday!

Weekend is Baking time!

These past few weekends I have been baking up different goods, either for dessert or for freezing to enjoy at a later time. I really enjoy baking and I love that its way healthier because I know exactly whats in them (i.e. not like those store-bought muffins that have 500 calories and 25 grams of fat = crazy!). Last weekend I made some delicious apple crumble, the weekend before that I made some oat peanut butter chocolate chip squares. This weekend I decided to go out and purchase mini-muffin baking tray so I could make muffins with portion control. These will be perfect for the work week to garb and go, but not feel bad about what I'm eating!

These are the banana, blueberry, oat mini-muffins that I made this weekend. The recipe is very healthy with minimal sugar, yogurt instead of butter, and whole wheat flour. And its bursting with delicious blueberries! Mmmm breakfast for the week (and then some because I have about 25 frozen!)

The Amazing Race: London Style!

On the 13th, Brooklyn and I participated in the amazing race through Big Brothers Big Sisters. To be honest, I had no idea what I was signing up for because I have never seen the show but it turned out to be an amazing amount of fun! We were given a clue to start that would lead us to the next spot where there was another clue etc. We were running (literally sprinting) around the downtown to different destinations trying to make it there first. Some of the places that were hinted at were marble slab, city hall, Aroma restaurant, Covent Garden Market, Vic park, Museum London. There was a lot of back & forth since the destinations were in no way in line, but good thing I know the dt well, because most of the clues were easy! 

 This is Brooklyn at one of out "road blocks"... I guess this is in the show as well. One of the team members has to complete a task to proceed with the next clue. Here Brooklyn had to balance a potato on a spoon around the picnic tables at the Covent Garden Market.

And here we are at the end after having run all over dt all morning! We ended at Harris park by the agency building, had to build a balloon bouquet, then return to the agency three-legged. 

A good way to spend a Saturday morning!

Trying out the small town fair: Ilderton

Last weekend on September 29th, Aleksy and I had a free day to ourselves where we filled our day with a bunch of activities that were running for that weekend. One of the events that was running was Doors Open London, where we attempted to have a tour of Police Headquarters and Museum London, but there were long wait times and we ended up self-touring. We also went to tour the Palace theatre on Dundas St. downtown and we were a bit late for that as well. We did end up getting free tickets to 39 steps at the Palace Theatre later on Saturday night, which was a really good play!

Earlier on Saturday, we decided to head out to Ilderton to the fair. We decided that the Western Fair was great for concerts, but the Ilderton fair was more entertaining! We felt a little honky tonk...

 The Ilderton fair was very traditional and they had stands of competitions for things like 'best apple pie', 'best banana chocolate chip muffin', for children like 'best rock pet', and of course jams, and other canning items. They had ribbons for 1st, 2nd to 5th :) Here is Aleksy supporting the 1st prize winner of best vegetable display!

While we are mostly city people, we sure do love a good tractor and country song. Here's Aleksy checking out the display of tractors.

And our favorite part of the Ilderton fair (caution to vegetarians): smoked turkey legs!!! These were so scrumptious (and to my surprise super filling!). We coupled these up with a couple of beers for and all-round good turkey leg experience.

Other fantastic parts of the fair: deep fried mini-donuts and brought home a big tub of apple cider.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am blogging for the first time in a very long time because I was reading through my previous entries, and realizing how much I enjoy it, being able to remember what I was doing this time last year.

So I wanted to post to say Happy Thanksgiving! I like Thanksgiving because it gives an excuse for everyone to get together, catch-up and spend time together, which unfortunately doesn't happen as often as I would like. This weekend, Aleksy and I have 2 family suppers: one we had yesterday and the next with Aleksy's family is tomorrow. For tomorrows supper, my plan is to make a blackberry apple crumble... Mmmm. This is on the agenda for today: baking the crumble and purchasing pumpkin to carve. Fall weekends!

Update: My completed apple-blackberry crisp:

This is what's for dessert tonight! After our squash & burgers (not your typical thanksgiving Sunday supper!).

We Bought a HOUSE!

We bought a HOUSE! After months of saving for a down payment, we finally decided that we had enough to work with to start looking at houses. First, we went into the neighbourhood that is close to where we are living now in the Northwest end to see what the cost was for new builds. When we did this research, we came across affordable new build through fusion. This was within our price range and had many of the things we were looking for, open concept living/dining area, ensuite, walk in closet, garage. We wanted to do more research so we hired a real estate agent and started looking at other options. We looked at a bunch of 5 year old homes, but in each one there were things that we didn't prefer (i.e. layout, cabinetry etc.), and we kept keeping the fusion build in the back of our minds. It was an easy decision to go with the fusion builder - we get to choose all of our own colours for exterior/interior and build the house to our liking!

Next week we have our first colour selection appointment. We are choosing the exterior colours (the brick) and we have a few things in mind. We like the darker bricks so we're going to go for a red brick or brown. I'm really looking forward to selecting our cabinetry, ceramic floors, carpet and all the countertops! So much fun!

 On Wednesday we officially firmed up our purchase, provided our 5% cheque and it became official! The sales lady gave us the "Sold" sign to put on our lot sign because we were so excited!

The trees in the background are a great extra for a little, but an elementary school is reserved to go behind our house (which we liked so we wouldn't have neighbours all along our backyard). There is also a park going in just down the street with tennis courts, a soccer field, and lots of green space. There is a lot of development happening in this area, which is one of the reasons we chose it. 

For now, we just bought a lot of dirt, but on December 6th we will have a brand new home to move into!

A Grand Theatre Evening

On Friday April 27th, Aleksy and I attended our first Grand Theatre production in years (probably close to 5 years!). My friends Chels, Warren, Andzelika and Paul got me tickets to Hair for my birthday, which was more than perfect because we'd been wanting to buy tickets for some time. And the play was amazing! We arrived a bit early so that we were able to have a glass of wine prior to the show. For us, its not just about seeing the show, but also about creating a nice atmosphere and making an evening out of it. We did wine before, and a cookie break for intermission.

Hair was about a young man being recruited to the Vietnam war, and preaches the values of peace and freedom. It was a good progressive show which I think may have offended some of the general clientele of the Grand Theatre who are seniors. For example, There was a part where the actors dressed as nuns and sexualized the "Hail Mary" prayer. I thought the overarching message of the production was good. The front that we put on to meet societal standards does not serve a purpose, and can lead to harmful decisions. It put back some perspective for me of the things I should value (friends, family, life, relationships, time) and those that I sometimes place too much value on (things and money).

The Grand Theatre always impresses me with their plays. I look forward to the next play!

Upcoming Travel Adventures!

There are a couple of upcoming trips that Aleksy and I are looking forward to! Our first vacation is June 29th of this year and the next is in February 2013. Only 2 months!!! until our first vacation to:

Dominican Republic:

We are officially booked in for the Colonial Majestic in Punta Cana for the week of June 29 - July 6!! It is your standard all inclusive resort, but its a bit fancier than the others we have gone to - the pictures make it look beautiful. It is a common wedding resort and we are going for my friend Jenny's wedding! I met Jenny in my social work program at Mac so there will be a few friends there including My Nikki and her man Jon!! So excited for a vacation with friends! On the to do list for Punta Cana: ziplining for sure!!

After our adventures in Punta Cana (then that little things about saving for and getting a mortgage) we will start saving for Chile!

Chile:

On my Birthday, I got an amazing gift from our friend Alejandra who is going to school at UWO and is from Chile. She got my a travel book for Chile and asked for Aleksy and I to come to Chile for their wedding in February 2013, then go for a 3 week backpacking adventure around the Andes mountains!! Obviously I said a big fat YES and Aleksy and I are super excited to go backpacking in South Chile with Alejandra, her to-be husband and Warren and Chelsea! We fly into Santiago Chile, will be aorund Conception for the wedding then will rent a car and go South. Alejandra's fiance knows the mountains well and will be our unofficial tour guide.

TO DO: Brush up on some basic Spanish!!

My (broken) 26th Birthday!

This year, my Birthday was made out to be a whole 3 days since April the 2 is a Monday and we celebrated on the weekend. Aleksy arranged for a surprise celebration for the evening on March 31, starting with supper for 6:30pm.

It is tricky when you live with someone to hide things like having a party back at our place. Aleksy spent most of Saturday out shopping then this was set up before we left for supper. I figured it probably would be a good guess that we were having people over after supper...

This picture actually doesn't do justice for how nice this looked - pink napkins and plates because I love pink, 3 pretty (and fragrant) Easter flowers, and a tray to ice the wine.

Aleksy did end up spilling the beans as to where we were going to supper before we left. I'm not going to lie, it may have had a little to do with me being a crazy person and telling Aleksy I didn't want to go anywhere too fancy because I don't feel pretty with my MASSIVE cast and crutches. We ended up heading to La Casa at 6:30pm, where I walked by the window and SURPRISE, there's my friends at the table! It was so great for so many people to be able to make it (and for Aleksy to arrange it!)... I have pretty great friends & boyfriend!

Our meals were very tasty too (which they better have been for the price we paid!). Aleksy had duck, which I had a bite of and surprisingly was a red meat, which I figured it would be more like chicken. I had a seafood risotto, which was good, but not as good as Aleksy's duck and garlic mashed (although mine was 20 and his was 30). What I should have got: the spinach pasta that Sam & Steph got... I had a bite and it was delic! The people at the restaurant were super nice to my birthday party and brought me a piece of cake and everyone sang happy birthday! They also offered me a free shot of vodka to "take my mind off" my foot (because I had to put elevate it).

After supper, we headed back to our place for an after celebration and mostly everyone was able to make it out (except the Browns because they had to go on vacation..pfff). We played a homemade version of the game of  things, which was a lot of fun and then had MORE birthday cake!! (There has been lots of cake eating in the past couple weeks!). I was very happy that everyone stayed in the living room since my mobility was limited.

Happy 26 to me!

Hillbilly for a Night

Since we bought tickets to the Bull Riding on March 24th, we decided to make a Country evening out of it. More so, we ended up having a Country weekend out of it! On Friday night, Aleksy and Al went to some hillbilly hockey out in Strathroy, then after hockey we headed down to Cowboys to celebrate Aleksy's brother Andrew's 21st birthday! The next day we headed over to Al and Stephs for supper before going to see some bull riding! Before leaving, Aleksy made up a new country CD for out evening endeavors!

Al & Steph made up an appropriate supper for the occasion complete with fried beans, breaded chicken, corn bread, homemade wine, and of course plaid place mats! Some yummy Southern food to get us in the spirit!

After some supper and drinks, we called a cab to head to the JLC for some PBR!

On our way into the PBR, there were people picketing outside of the event because of the cruel treatment of animals. I didn't actually know that they use tasers to make the bulls angry before letting them into the ring. It made me feel bad throughout the entertainment for the bulls. This is us pre-event - with the trucks and dirt in the background!

At the start of the show they put gas down on the ring spelling out PBR - it was pretty sweet! And they introduced all the cowboys - from several different places - All over the states, Alberta, Manitoba, Australia.

The bull riding itself lasted not long at all. The goal was to see if the professional bull riders could stay on the bull for 8 seconds. Most couldn't, but some of the bulls appeared stronger than others. I could definitely see that it would be very easy to be injured during this process!

Cowboy boots, plaid and beer!!

Perks of Broken Footedness

Now that I'm a little out of commission, guess what I have the excuse to do??

You know you always wanted to....

Once the people of Wal Mart saw my boot - they stopped the glaring...

Trying out the Slopes

Glen Eden

We went to Glen Eden in Milton for a day in February. I definitely think for the 1 hour drive that it is worthwhile given that Boler is so much smaller (I guess with the exception of the bigger hill that they opened this year, but I never went to Boler this season!). This is my new favorite day trip drive - definitely a worthwhile one for the skiing, especially at my ski level. I feel pro because I can do any of the hills! There's just one thing... they don't serve drinks (which I didn't even think was possible anymore - what ski place doesn't serve beer?). Good things Nikki & Jon's place is so close and we can have drinks there.

Horseshoe Valley

We got a bargain on Dealfind - 2 people for $56, so we snabbed that deal & went out in early March. The Dealfind deal ended up being a bit of a scam since we had to still pay the taxes which were about $10 extra. A bit ridiculous since Aleksy and I drove almost 3 hours to get there... and I swear the hills shrunk since the last time I was there. They were so small... I think even smaller than Horseshoe (or perhaps the same). At least they did have beer! That helped with making the trip worthwhile! Although we managed to have a pitstop at Vaughan Mills for some shopping on the way home, it was still way too long of a drive for skiing - might as well go to Blue! This season was also kind of poopy for skiing and the snow was particularly heavy and wet on this day.

Blue Mountain

We went up a couple of times to Blue - on New Years Day and for a weekend in January. New Years day was a really bad day for ski weather - it was raining. The hills at Blue are still way nicer than the other places we skiied this year: better groomed, the crowds are more dispersed and they take more than 10 seconds to get down! The downfall is Saturdays are super busy and sometimes the line for the chair lift is ridiculous. But its nice to have full access to the village if you are tired halfway through the day for a break. The scenery at Blue is far superior to any other hills. I like that Blue is a challenge, given my ski level, whereas the other hills don't challenge my skill. We'll definitely have to make it up to Blue more next year - we'll likely have more of a ski season since this season was all of 2 months!

On Happy Valentines Day

For this Valentines Day, we didn't have much of a choice but to go out in order to have some alone, romantic time (although we do enjoy Warren & Chelsea's company, not so much on Valentines Day!). So it was my advice to Aleksy that this year we keep it simple, going out for supper at a smaller family restaurant that would be cheaper than the $200 suppers with the set Valentines Day menus in fine dining restaurants (which in the past we have done Valentines suppers at Blue Ginger, Tru, Copperfields, and Garlics and they were good... but not $200 good!). And in terms of presents, I suggested we do something small for each other, because Valentines Day isn't about showering each other in expensive presents but an opportunity to go out for supper spending time together, and exchange cards & small gifts to show you care. Because, in real life, we don't do that all the time.

Even my work celebrates Valentines Day! At work, I was delivered a surprise Valentines Candy gram to my desk (a candy kabob!) plus, we had a Valentine cake & coffee break in our cafeteria in the afternoon (and the cake was delicious!).

This is the gift exchange between Aleksy and me, simple, but thoughtful! Aleksy did the supper planning, and prepared me a sweet card and a container filled with various candies (which I am still working on!). Since I wasn't in charge of the supper bill, I did a little extra in Aleksy's gift and I got him a card, a bag of cherry cordial kisses and a bottle of bourboun.

Aleksy had our supper planned in advance in January. He didn't tell me where he had made the reservations, but we knew that we wanted to look outside of London, in an effort to save some money from the fine dining restaurants that catered to London. Aleksy had called around and made it a surprise. I did guess that it was in St. Mary's though! Woolfy's had some delicious food - we started with some baguette & hummus, had some antipasto, soup, then our main dish was chicken. It was very delicious tasting, but not so generous in portion (which is usually the case for fine dining). For dessert we had some raspberry chocolate mousse. Although our intention was to try to keep it at around $100 (which the lady said was going to be the case when Aleksy called), we ended up paying about $200 for everything ($58 each or our 4 course meal, plus a bottle of $40 wine). It was tasty, but a little more than we wanted to pay!

For next year, hopefully we will be in our own place and can make a fancy 4 course meal with a bottle of wine for under $50!

Getting in the Yoga Spirit!

This year has been a good one for yoga! For the month of January, Steph and I learned early on that people who work for non-profit agencies/organizations got FREE yoga for the full month. Steph & I took full advantage of that luxury and went on average 3-4 times per week for the full month. I never knew how good (healthy & fit) yoga makes you feel until I started doing it that often. Steph & I got many people out with us, friends, Steph's husband Al & Aleksy!! And everyone loves it. Now I know if at anytime I have one month to get fit, all I need is unlimited yoga and go 3-4 times a week and i will have success! 

So much time together doing yoga that we even dress the same!

We have been doing all our yoga at Moksha PLUS they just opened a new studio at Wonderland & Southdale and had a free week of yoga for their first week being open! We went three times in the first week, but it was ridiculously busy with all the advertising that the studio did so my mat was about 2 inches from the person beside me. I like to have more space than that so it was a bit frustrating! We went on the opening day on the 11th (which was the best yoga class that I ever did - they had 2 instructors in the room, one instructing and the other adjusting!) and they had snacks, starbucks iced tea, we entered a draw to win a Mini for a weekend (I dont think we won...), and we got 2 for 1 Yoyos ice cream (which we took advantage of that night when we went skating in Vic park with Al & Steph). Pretty sweet deal!

Now that I have Aleksy going, we are definitely going to incorporate yoga into our weekly workout routine at least once per week (it is a little expensive to do it more than that at $12-18 per class depending on whether you buy a 10 pass or not) and for the month of March, Steph and I are going to do the unlimited month at $40 (although we have been going for a while, we havent bought the beginners one month unlimited and we were informed we still can!). It's going to be a good year for yoga & fitness!

Why you should get an Air Miles Card...

I am a large fan of points/rewards cards and I participate in many (Shoppers Optimum, Pioneer points, Marble Slab cards, and of course Air Miles). I definitely think it's worthwhile in the end, because you are going to spend money at those places anyways, you might as well get something out of it. Just before Christmas, I redeemed some of my Optimum points and ended up getting $125 worth of products for free!! I got many stocking stuffers with this and some items for gift baskets and ALL I had to pay was $15 for the tax = amazing! Aleksy and I have been saving Air Miles for quite some time and recently, upon discovering that we has over 600 points, I decided it was time to redeem. And THEN I discovered how much I could get with these points!! 

We got 2 free movie tickets to silvercity/cineplex including 2 drinks and a large popcorn PLUS a $50 gift card to Boston Pizza! And we still have points left over - even enough to get more movie tickets!

We get 2 date nights compliments of our shopping at Metro, Shell and of course (and mostly) the lcbo! Airmiles is amazing!! If you don't have an Air Miles card, then you definitely should get one! 

Our Weekend Ski Adventure at Blue!

The weekend on Jan 20-22 a group of us headed up to Blue for the anticipated Blue Mountain trip, which we have been planning for some time. We rented out a condo at the resort which was a 3 bedroom condo with a full living room with pull out couch, full kitchen and dining room. We stayed at Rivergrass which is located just outside the village at Blue. We left on Friday after work and checked in around 8pm. We drove over to where our condo was and those of us that arrived first called our rooms! Since Aleksy and I made the arrangements for the trip, we were lucky to get the master bedroom. And the master bedroom was massive! Everything was on the main level, then you go upstairs and the entire upstairs is the master with an ensuite bathroom! Pretty sweet! Once everyone arrived, we did some groceries for the weekend for all 9 of us with all the staples, PB &jam, bread, fruit & veggies and fajitas for Saturdays supper! The first night we chilled in our condo and had some drinks!

Saturday was our big ski/boarding day - we got up early around the 8am hour, had some breakfast then headed out on the hills for 10am. We split into 2 groups - Aleksy, Craig and I went together and Sam, Zac, Abby, and Nash went another way. It was amazing weather for skiing! about -5 and fluffy snow! We headed back to our condo about 2pm for some lunch (to avoid the expensive cost of the lunch in the village - PB & J it is!). This is the boys heading up to our condo

I didn't realize how much skiing had pooped me out until we got back to the condo. We had about an hour break and I found it hard to get motivated to get back on the hills! But we eventually made it back out for a few more runs. My legs didn't fall off, which I half expected.

Did I mention that Saturdays are RIDICULOUSLY busy at Blue??? We waited FOREVER in line here - yes this is a picture of where we are in line. It was about 20 min of waiting time before even getting to on the chairlift.

We decided to avoid the large crowds and went over to the south base thinking that less people would be over there considering "Happy Valley" is the only green hill, which meant that there were a ton of people on it! Aleksy absolutely convinced me (after already falling once on Happy Valley - because of someone else who fell in front of me) that I was really good and definitely could do any of the hills at South base. I definitely fell a couple time - one of the times losing my ski and going down the hill on my tummy face first: thanks for the encouragement that I'm awesome Aleksy. Obviously you were just looking to go on the big hills!

Saturday night we headed back to the condo around 7pm ish and made some supper. It was a very exhausting day and although we had big plan to head to the Village for some partying, we never made it out of our condo - we ended up playing 'catch phrase' instead - tons of fun!! I love games!!

I was concerned the next day that I wasn't going to have enough energy to ski, but I ended up doing lots! We went back out on the South base blue hills and I really improved my skills that day going down. I didn't fall at all on Sunday!


This is Aleksy trying out his tricks at the mini park. I also got a video of Aleksy and Zac racing down the hill (which for Aleksy's sake, I won't tell who lost... ha!)

One of my favorite parts of skiing, is taking an afternoon coffee break in the chalet (with half coffee and half french vanilla!);. I think its just as important as skiing to the weekend events!

As you can see, I was a little different from the others on our weekend adventure.

Everyone!! On the last day before we left I was determined to get a group shot! This is the last day (Sunday) just before heading up to the hills! For the low price of $210 per person for ski & stay the whole weekend, we should def make it a regular event! So much fun!