Predicability

Last Friday night was a relaxing one. Poured myself a nice glass of Merlot and snuggled in bed with a good book (Steve Jobs)...Love nights like these :) 

Saturday

Woke up bright and early on Saturday. Had a banana for a quick breakfast and was hoping to go for an outdoor run but it rained down on me :( So treadmill it was...

Used the Nike+ chip on the treadmill...

Refueled with fresh squeezed grapefruit and orange juice (1 each). Fried over easy egg with red onions and sliced mushrooms, topped on a bed of lettuce and mix of mozzarella & cheddar cheese...all on a toasted whole wheat Dempster bun.  

  

Headed over to a friend's party for drinks at around 7pm so just munched on stuff at the party for dinner. He had a keg of Delerium at the party...uhoh. Let's just say a drank a wee bit much for my own good!

Sunday

Breakfast was a quick one again. Scrambled eggs with some cheese and smoked salmon cream cheese spread on an onion bun. Coffee and clementines on the side. 

The weather was nice enough for me to make it out for a run in the late afternoon. Resorted to my usual route down along the Lakeshore. 

I am not sure if its the weather these days or whether I am just getting tired of my routine runs, but I've been finding it more difficult to pass the 10K mark. With the half marathon coming up in about 3 months, I really need to push myself to do a little bit more everyday...I definitely got to spice up my playlist too! Anyone got a good one out there?

Dinner on Sunday was takeout from Fran's Restaurant (the boyfriend and I got a little lazy...sigh). I decided on the Smoked Salmon Sandwich on dark rye - Atlantic smoked salmon, capers, fresh dill, red onions, lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. It came with cream cheese but I had asked for it to be on the side. And of course, my favorite, sweet potato fries :)

I opened the take out container and the food came like that. Yeah. I guess it was a "build-it-yourself" kind of sandwich...

Slightly more civilized plating...

Monday

Back to my usual routine once the work week hits...

Strawberry Pomegranate Greek Yogurt, Kashi Go Lean cereal, and blueberries on the side.

Followed by my usual Freshii lunch...whole wheat wrap. 

Followed by a shorter run after work up to Queen's Park (2x laps around) then back..

I know ... I am so predictable. I really do need to switch up my routine a bit hah. But...dinner was a new one for me this week!

Had some veggie burger patties leftover from the impromptu barbeque a couple of weeks back. Pan fried the patty and slapped it in a whole wheat Kaiser bun. Salad (lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and carrots) on the side with pomegranate blueberry acai dressing. Quick but satisfying meal :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Busy long weekend!

First off, happy 4th of July to all my fellow American followers! Secondly, hope everyone's surviving the week in this extreme heat!

Saturday


Last weekend was a jam-packed one since it was Canada Day long weekend. It started off with a picnic at High Park with my dear friend Katy...

  

Bottle of Prosecco, Cheese and Fruits. Also had some delicious onion bread on the side but I forgot to take a picture of it :(

For dinner, I went to my favorite go-to again: Bannock.

East/West Coast Shrimp Roll with radish + carrot salad on the side. Always hits the spot :)

After dinner, I somehow made it onto the elliptical for 50 minutes, followed by some time in the weight room. I did about 3 sets of bicep curls, tricep curls, push ups, and then sit ups. 

Sunday

Woke up early on Sunday to catch the 8:30am bus to Guelph. Andrei wanted to take me to visit the Elora Gorge before the barbeque at his house (and before the Euro cup final) so we had to get an early start. We walked around the forest area for a good hour or so. Absolutely stunning. Felt so good to get out of the concrete jungle and into the nature!

  

Afterwards, we went back to Andrei's house for some good ol' barbeque....

  

Andrei mastering the grill. Variety of meat for the group but salmon pieces on the right for me :)

Potato salad, grilled corn, salmon and bread with eggplant spread. Definitely went back for seconds on the appetizers and salads...

We originally wanted to go see the fireworks at Ashbridges Bay but it was too far and we got back into Toronto too late. So instead, we decided to go to Real Sports Bar for some midnight snacking...

Sweet potato fries for me...and a pound of wings for Andrei. Not pictured: a pint of Coors Light.

Monday

I desperately needed to go for a run outdoors on Monday (especially after the midnight snacking the night before!). I decided to switch up my route a bit ... and instead of going along the lake, I went north up to Queens Park.

6.1K, 35 minutes

Refueled from the run with a low fat smoked salmon cream cheese and avocado sandwich and coffee on the side, followed by some homemade cherry cake dessert (I didn't make it!).

  

The weather remained gorgeous for the whole day so I met up with my friend for a walk along the lake. There were so many food stands around for all the festivities by the Harbourfront...couldn't help but pick up some snacks: Thai mango salad and a vegetarian spring roll.

  

   

Dinner was leftover from the barbeque on Saturday (added some frozen veggies on the side)...it was still as delicious as ever! 

I finished off the dinner quickly and relaxed for the rest of the evening on the couch with a good movie (Sherlock Holmes 2!). Hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend!!  

Avocado goodness

This week definitely went by slower than usual. But hurray! Long weekend is officially here!

This week's breakfast at work was pretty much cereal with almond milk and blueberries on the side...

I took the morning off yesterday though because I had a doctor's appointment and got the chance to whip up this instead...

1 cup Vanilla Almond Milk, 2 Cups Spinach, 1/2 Frozen Banana, 1 tbsp of Peanut Butter

Lunch was slightly less boring this week as I tried out something new inspired by my roommate.

Sauteed together some red onions with mushrooms...

Cracked open an egg...then mixed in the onions and mushrooms...

Placed the egg in mild rye bread with a slice of low fat mozarella and sliced avocados...

Absolutely loved this combination. The richness of the avocado fills me right up. :) I loved it so much that I had it more than once this week...on different breads.

On the days that I didn't have this combination,  I settled with my usual go-to...Freshii. Whole wheat tortilla wrap with grilled salmon, freshii veggie mix, chickpeas, peppers, corn, cucumbers, and low fat ranch dressing.

 

I didn't get a chance to run outside during the week...my exercises have mainly been altering between the stationary bike and the elliptical (approx. 45 mins to an hour). Then dumbell weights, pushups, and situps afterwards.

Dinner this week has been pretty random, i.e. scramble together whatever I had in the fridge...

(I took a bite out of the toast...too hungry!) Mild rye toast with light smoked salmon cream cheese, scrambled eggs with tomato, and stir-fried miniature bok choy. 

Dessert! Makes me miss Taiwan a little...

Hope everyone will soak up the sun this weekend! Happy Canada Day! :)

Beating the heat

Gotta wake up early these days if I want to run to beat the heats these days!

Saturday 

My run was followed by a lovely brunch at Oliver & Bonacini Cafe and Grill on Yonge and Front. The weather was fantastic on Saturday and so we got to enjoy brunch on the patio. :)

Jail Island Salmon & Prairie Grain Salad 

This was refreshingly light...perfect for the summer seasons! The grain salad comes with tahini dressing, which I asked to have on the side. Other veggies includes ripened tomatoes, butter lettuce, lemon, seedling greens, peppers, corns, and cucumbers. Overall, yummy!

After brunch, Andrei and I walked along the Lake ... there were so many activities going on this weekend...one being the Saltscapes Toronto Expo on bringing East Coast culture to Toronto!

Had to run home for the Spain vs. France game (but not necessarily because I wanted to...ahem). While the boyfriend watched the game inside, I decide to even out my tan on the balcony with a glass of Coors Light Ice Tea instead :)

Dinner was an impromptu barbeque session that was originally going to be just Andrei and I. But...I invited some friends last minute and everyone showed up! I forgot my iPhone upstairs (the barbeque was on my condo's patio downstairs) and so I didn't get to take any pictures of the meal :(. We bought both beef burgers and veggie burgers (for me and my friend Wayne) and everyone else brought over some salads for sides. Overall, the last minute barbeque session turned out to be a success. Definitely hoping to throw another one again this summer...and I will definitely have my camera ready then!!

Sunday

I went for a quick 7K run on Sunday. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my trusty Nike+ watch the night before and it died at the 6.5K mark... :(

Lunch was a quick one...pretty much tried to clean out what was in my fridge...

Originally intended on making it over easy but the yolk broke :(

Beets, Carrots, and Apple juice. Garden salad leftover from the barbeque with balsamic vinegar. Grilled mild rye toast with the "over easy" egg with some low fat mozzarella/cheddar cheese. 

I went to watch the Italy vs. England game at South of Temperance (pretty exciting game by the way...even if I wasn't really cheering for either of the teams...right?). I had some time to spare before making dinner so I went downstairs to the gym and hopped on the bike for about 40 minutes. I had intended for it to be a chill exercise while I caught up on my reading but man, my thighs are kind of sore today! 

Dinner was super quick and easy: store bought frozen Cheemo Perogies (Potatoes, sour cream, and chives), and steamed broccoli & carrots. Apparently I was suppose to boil the perogies THEN pan-fry them (says the boyfriend) but the box CLEARLY said pan-fry frozen. Either way, it still tasted pretty darn good. 

Perogies and steamed veggies. You can't see but there are some sauteed onions in there with the perogies :P Fat free sour cream on the side. 

And as per the last couple of weeks, mangoes for dessert :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Lobster Fest!

Okay so I didn't actually end up going to Radiohead like I said I would in the last post. Unfortunately, the stage at Downsview Park (where the concert was suppose to be) collapsed while they were setting up for the concert. Sadly, someone died and a couple more got injured during the incident :( Hope the injured ones have recovered!

On Sunday, I went for a quick run outside before it got too hot.

After the run, I quickly showered and met up with the boyfriend at Marche at Yonge and King for brunch. I am always so amazed by the huge selection of food there...

I settled on this Vegetarian Blue Cheese Focaccia. It was quite filling as it was pretty heavy on the cheddar cheese (too much for my liking...had to scrape some off). The blue cheese added an extra kick of flavor to it so overall, I was pretty satisfied with my choice...

After the meal, we walked around the city for quite a bit and did some shopping. We were getting tired of eating out for the last couple of weeks so we decided to head over to Longos. They had pre-steamed lobsters on sale for $5 a piece. I was like "SOLD!".

We also bought some frozen shrimps and decided to make pasta as the main. Scrambled together some onions, green peppers, red peppers, and mushrooms with the shrimps. Added in some Classico Spicy Red Pepper pasta sauce.

Poured over some whole wheat spaghetti and steamed broccoli...with the lobster filling the rest of the plate of course!

My mother is right...I do need to get some bigger plates!!