mac mac macaroni!

This is me and my friend Helen Downie! I really love this picture; it was taken on her birthday @ La Distillerie. It's located in The Plateau on Mont-Royal. It's a really great place! It's always packed there and I love the atmosphere. The tables are actually big barrels, and the cocktails are served in mason jars, as you can tell by the picture! That one mojito is enough booze for me! There's 4 ounces alone in a big jar! But you can also get drinks in smaller masons if you wish. I am really looking forward to going back there this summer!

I haven't seen Helen in a while so yesterday we put our energy together and had such a great time! It was a much needed visit, and I always feel so great when I'm around her!
For dinner we ended up making macaroni with a chili twist. Want the recipe? It was delicious! This is what you'll need:

-Egg noodles
-Tomato sauce & kidney beans (organic)
- (All organic) Portobello mushrooms, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots
- vegetarian 'ground beef' or the real variety, but I promise, you can't taste the difference! ;)

First, we browned the onions and the garlic, then added the carrots with a bit of water so they could boil and soften up. Then we added the sauce and the strained and rinsed kidney beans. Meanwhile our egg noodles are boiling. Stir the sauce until warm and then add in the tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers. If you cut your vegetables in bigger pieces, they are more likely to retain more flavor. Stir and heat sauce slowly, barely at a simmer. In another pan, heat up the veggie beef. What's great about it is it's not meat so it doesn't need to be cooked, it only needs to be heated up in a pan with some olive oil. Once hot, add to sauce. Let sauce "mijote" for a few more minutes until all is hot and smelling really good and then serve over drained and rinsed egg noodles! Add salt and pepper to taste! Mmmmmmm!

We also enjoyed a small, green salad on the side with carrots, tomatoes, sesame seeds and some italian dressing, served with a tall glass of water and chocolate soy milk! It was such a beautiful dinner and we were stuffed silly!

Afterwards we washed dishes which gave us time to digest before we continued with the next scheduled activities for the evening. Ever heard of Turbo Jam? It's hilarious! Maybe you've watched the infomercial one night when nothing was playing on TV? It's another corny video work-out that ressembles Tae Bo. A friend of mine owns the dvd's and made copies for me. We attempted the "Fat Blaster" which is a jam-packed 30 minute work-out. We were sweating and laughing and struggling to bust our tushes! I could feel the burn!

After Turbo Jam, we stuck Hip Hop Abs into the dvd player, which is the work-out Helen brought. We did "Hips, Buns and Thighs". Holy Moly, did we ever laugh! It's like your dancing and it really does have a hip hop vibe so it was really fun. This one made me stretch my muscles more, while Turbo Jam's "Fat Blaster" was hardcore cardio. This guy, Shaun T is sure to make you crack up!

We were exhausted at the end of the night, but we felt great! I miss Helen Downie already! :(
Yet again, we had a memorable evening. I drove her home and we wished each other well, but who knows? Maybe next week we'll find time to, as Shaun T would say, "Work it!" again?

eating habits

I have been eating horribly for the past week and a half. I don't know why, but I have been having cravings for junk! Tonight, I'm looking forward to something deliciously nutritious! I'm thinking avocado and some egg noodles, but I'll see what Helen feels like first. In any case, bye bye empty calories! Bye bye!


Mmmm, those pictures are making me so hungry! That's my cooking! Doesn't it look tasty?
I like it fresh and colorful! It really affects my mood: it makes me happy! Yay for healthy eating!

today is a rockin' awesome day

LOVE my outfit today.

Red and black. Girly but punky. I feel so different and I like it! So today is cool. I have so many positive things to focus on. My apartment is fairly clean. Tidy. Last night I accomplished nearly everything I wanted done. Dishes, watered plants, roller-brushed the couch, took down Vday decor, choose a lovely outfit for today♥, removed all my make up and washed my face! :) The only thing left undone was taking the recycling down to the basement, but my team player took it down this morning for me before I even woke up and a bonus was that he also took down the garbage! I grabbed the DVD's that needed to be returned to block buster, I had coffee, and enough time to make a lunch this morning. I am on a high! For the past few weeks I've been awfully sick which caused me to be tired and lazy. I was feeling really unproductive last night. And my laziness and unaccomplished daily chores were really starting to make me feel guilty. Mike left for work last night at 10 to 10hpm. I was extremely tired as he had just finished massaging and then caressing my shoulders and neck. A recipe for droopy eyes. Just when I thought I was going to go to bed with everything a mess, I pushed myself. I started picking up my things, watering the plants etc and then said to myself "I'll take a pac-man break" which is always a bad idea! I got caught up! And then I went to youtube and started singing Karaoke songs and before you knew it it was getting really late! However, I pushed myself and finished the dishes, shook the rug outside, took down decor... I was all ready for bed, minus cleaning my face. I never used to remove my make up or wash my face because I'm really lucky and I don't have bad skin, so this routine is fairly new for me. For Christmas I recieved a lovely Marcelle washing kit from my mum-in-law and bought make up remover. I realized that if I continued to neglect my skin, I could end up looking old a lot faster! I'm also really bad for never taking my contacts out at night. I accomplished all three of these goals last night! Woooooooooot! And even though I only got to bed at 1ham and only got 6 hours of sleep, I know I would have felt worse with 8 hours of sleep and a) a messy apartment, b) an unwashed face and racoon eyes, c) plants unwatered and coffee unprepared! I woke up with a fresh face, a cute out-fit waiting for me, and a clean kitchen with brewing coffee. Ahhhh, the satisfaction of pushing yourself that extra little bit when you thought you were all out of energy! So rewarding! But my biggest reward is still yet to come, I anxiously await a visit tonight from the lovely, thoughtful and amazing Helen Downie!♥