Sunday Brunch: August 14th, 2016

Is it Sunday already?! Where the heck did those seven days go? It's true what they say; the older you get, the faster time goes by. This week seems to have flown by, as most weeks do, and it's hard to believe that it's already the middle of August! This has been such a great summer but it's going by far to fast! There are only two more weekends of the summer left (I guess technically there are 5 because the first day of fall is September 22nd but I haven't been out of school that long so when August ends it feels like summer should too). Fortunately I have the next 2 weekends off and we have plans to spend both of them at my parents in Nova Scotia!

Anyway, back on track to this weeks Sunday Brunch! Todays brunch special is a refreshing smoothie bowl. I am trying to get back on track with my eating habits and since I am the only one in the house who likes treats, making something sweet would not be in my diets best interest (because I would eat it all myself). This smoothie is blueberry and strawberry with oats, chia seeds, almond milk, low calorie maple syrup and low fat vanilla coffee creamer (why not, right?). Not only does it look pretty but it's also berry delicious (pun intended)!

 

This was a pretty mundane week. I worked and Scott got sick with a stomach bug. He started feeling crappy at work on Monday and by that evening he was very sick. He stayed home sick Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (which is a testament to how sick he was - he never misses work) and finally was feeling better by Friday. He is still not feeling 100% but everyday is a little better. Seeing as we didn't do much of anything outside of working and watching a new series on Netflix in the evenings (Stranger Things - I highly recommend it), I thought I would do a recap of my workouts this week. It was actually a really good week for me, workout wise, as I got to the gym after work four of the five days. This is still less than normal for me but I'm getting back into the groove!

Monday: CrossFit

I am still not able to do all of the WOD's posted at the box due to my hip injury and today was one of those days. The posted WOD was:

3 RFT (rounds for time):
30 Wallballs
800m run

I am not supposed to squat or run up hills yet so this workout was a no-go. Instead I did a few accessory things as well as my bench program:

Bench 4x5 @ 85#
Goodmornings 3x15 @ 95#
Calf Raises 3x20 @ 95#
Situps (w/feet up on box) 2x20

Tuesday: Shoulders

Since I can't work my lower body I am going to try and build my upper body. I haven't done a real "bodybuilding" circuit in a couple of months so it felt good to really hit my shoulders. I was so sore the next morning, it was great!

Wednesday: Rest Day

This was not a planned rest day. I was supposed to go to CrossFit again but I forgot that I had a bridal shower right after work for one of my coworkers. It probably wasn't a bad thing though because I was still very sore after work.

Thursday: Back & Hamstrings

I know I just said I'm not supposed to be training lower body but my physiotherapist did say that movements that focused on my hamstrings and NOT causing any strain to my hip flexors would be fine. So I did it. I was very cautious and didn't use any/much weight and let me tell you, after a couple months of not specifically targeting those muscles I was sore the next day!

Friday: CrossFit

Bench 3x4 @ 90#
WOD: AMRAP 10 (as many reps as possible in 10 minutes)
8 Pullups
10 Pushups
12 Situps
Total = 6 rounds + 18 reps

Saturday: Rest Day

I slept in with the pooch and took it easy the rest of the day as I had to work at 4pm.

Sunday: Run

If the rain lets up I plan to go out for an easy 3km with Roscoe this evening!

All in all it was a pretty successful week at the gym. I'm hoping to keep it up into next week even though it looks like it is going to be pretty busy! See you next week!

What's Cookin' in My Kitchen: Brussel Sprout Saute

Call me weird but I love brussel sprouts. I never understand why people turn their nose up at the thought of brussel sprouts, but then I remember, it's probably because they haven't tried the recipe I am about to share with you.

Two years ago I did a month long Paleo challenge at my CrossFit box. We had a facebook group and on it people shared recipes that were conducive to the diet. I was a newbie to Paleo so I tried just about every recipe that was posted. I don't know if any of you have ever tried the Paleo diet but it is hard! In the Paleo diet you eat mostly fruits and vegetables, meat and fish as well as nuts and seeds. It's based on premise that you are eating only what would have been available during the "hunter/gatherer" era many, many years ago. So, no dairy, no grains, no processed food. Now do you see why I say it was hard? Of all the recipes that I tried, a few of them remain favorites of mine and I make them all the time. The one I am going to share today is brussel sprout sauté. I don't know where the original recipe came from, I just got it from a friend and I have adapted it a bit to fit my tastes. It's very simple but also very tasty!

Here is what you need:

- Brussel Sprouts (shocking, I know!)

- 1 medium sized onion - I used red onion

- 1 Apple - I usually use the Granny Smith variety but all I had was Golden Delicious so really any kind will do

- Optional: BACONNNNN - now I did not use bacon today because I am trying to watch what I eat but I highly recommend you add bacon the first time you try this recipe. It really does make it 10000 times better. I mean, it's good without the bacon, but come on, anytime bacon is added it automatically becomes better!

Start by dicing the onions (image above) and tossing them in a frying pan with your oil of choice - I used olive oil but if you have any bacon fat left from frying the bacon, use that!

Now, cut your brussel sprouts into halves or quarters, depending on the size you want. Throw them into the frying pan with the onions and season with salt and pepper. Cover and let fry over medium heat until the mixture is browned nicely.

Dice your apple into small pieces and once the brussel sprout-onion mixture is browned, add the apple to the pan.

Allow it to cook until apples begin to soften and are slightly browned. Be sure not to cook for too long as the apples will become mush, and therefore not so tasty! It should look something like this:

How good does that look?! I made this to take with me on my night shift and paired it with rice and turkey burgers! Mmm-mmm, so good! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Sunday Brunch: August 7th, 2016

As I'm sitting here at my island drinking a nice cup of tea on Monday (not Sunday) evening gathering my thoughts, I figure I may as well write my Sunday Brunch (week-in-review) post. Better late than never right? And unfortunately I don't have any yummy snacks to share - maybe I'll make up for it next week - as it's 9:20 and I am just sitting down!

Time to blog!

Last week seemed to fly by! I only worked 3 days, which is actually very rare for me, but I did a turn around for 2 of them so that always makes it seem a little longer. After having a very busy weekend for both Scott and I (bachelor/bachelorette parties) it took us a couple of days to feel rested and get back into a routine. It seemed that by Thursday we were both back to normal but Friday we left for Dooly's Beach Blast in Shediac, New Brunswick so it was short lived.

The week leading up to the concert was pretty typical; work, farm, sleep. I managed to workout 3 days which I'm not all that happy with but I will try and do better this week. If you read my post, Farm Fresh, then you will know that we have been eating a lot out of the garden. I have actually noticed a significant drop in our weekly grocery bill which is nice for a little while! Also, we have started advertising our chickens, turkeys and beef for sale. We've gotten quite a bit of interest so far so hopefully we will be able to sell everything!

Now, onto the weekend. I was off on Friday so I spent the whole day getting everything ready for the concert. We were camping at the concert campsite and I have never been camping so I had a lot to do to prepare. My nephew, Jack, spent the day with me and he was such a great helper! He is only 5 (almost 6) but you would never know, he is so mature. By the time Scott got home, I had everything ready, we just had to pack the car up. We picked up our friends, Heather and Stefan, who were spending the first night with us at the campsite. We got to the Shediac exit around 6:45 and it was lined up down the highway. We waited in that line for 3 HOURS just to get into the campground! Regardless of the wait, we still had a good time just chatting and enjoying the company. We cracked the long wait up to just arriving at the busiest time. We finally got into campground at around 10pm only to find out it wasn't really a campground, only a field. Again, we didn't mind, who cares what it was, we were only tenting anyway. We set up our tent, had supper and met some of the people camping around us. After we ate we went to find where the stage was because there was supposed to be small concert for the campers that night - a pre-show you could call it. It was AWESOME! The music was great and we had a blast. Unfortunately, it didn't take long to figure out that the campsite was extremely unorganized. There were not enough porta-potties for the amount of people they had at the site (you can only imagine how gross that was), there was nowhere to get water of any kind, and there were NO garbage cans. Like, what?! Who doesn't think to have garbage cans when there are 1000+ campers on site!

The line up to get into the campsite Friday night

Terrible picture - but I discovered I LOVE to camp! We will definitely be doing it again in the near future!

The next day we woke up, had breakfast and then took our friends back to their place. Scott and I then headed back to the campsite to catch a shuttle (which cost $20 by the way)to the concert. The first part of the concert was amazing! It wasn't too crowded and the music was so, so , so good! That didn't last long though. Once the rest of the concert-goers arrived it became very apparent that the venue was just not big enough for the number of people there. The line ups for food and drink tickets and then for the actual food and drink were extremely long (like, i'm talking 1.5 to 2.5 hours). They ran out of water and none of the beer you paid $7.50 for was cold. And to top it off they had NO GARBAGE CANS! Again, what the heck!? Everyone was just throwing their garbage on the ground because, well, what else was there to do with it? It was honestly the most ridiculous event I have ever been to, from start to finish. The most disappointing part of the whole thing was that the music was AMAZING, it was just hard to enjoy due to everything else. Scott and I left during the headliners act (Florida Georgia Line) because we knew if we waited until the end, it would take hours to get a bus back to the campsite. When we made it back to the campsite we packed up our stuff and left for home. We were supposed to stay another night but we had had enough.

We still had smiles on our faces!

I promise, I am not a complainer. Scott and I are usually good at making the best of every situation but with Dooly's Beach Blast it was just one thing after another. We still had fun and enjoyed the music but it wasn't as great as we had expected.

On Sunday, I had a bridal shower to go to for a friend and then my sister-in-law dropped her 2 kids, Jack and Hannah, and their dog Sadie off at our house. We were looking after them for the afternoon while she went out to supper with friends. As exhausted as both Scott and I were, it turned out to be so much fun having them there. We are very close with them so we love any chance to have them to ourselves! The kids helped me pick some veggies out of the garden for supper, which they thought was super cool. Then Hannah helped me clean them and package the ones we didn't need. Jack helped Scott fix his whipper snipper and then after supper Scott gave them rides on the lawn mower (I know, we're pretty hillbilly haha!).

It's a family affair!

Even though the concert was a bust, it still turned out to be a great weekend spent with family and friends. Now, to recoup from another busy weekend! See you next week!

August Goals

Today I thought I would share with you a few of the goals I have set for myself for the month of August. I got this idea from a number of the blogs that I follow but Pretty Little Grub is the one I was most recently reading when I thought "hey, I should do this on my blog"! Here goes...

1. Get back into a gym routine:

It hurts me to admit, but I am out of my gym routine. There are a number of reasons why, the top reason being that I have been dealing with an injured hip for 8-10 weeks now. I have no idea how I actually hurt my hip. I'm thinking a combination of running and heavy squats mixed with tweaking it somehow. I can't remember a specific movement that caused me to go "ouch", I just woke up one morning feeling fine but when I went to the gym to squat, I couldn't. Like I'm talking I literally could not squat 95 pounds (which is nothing to me). I rested it for a couple of weeks, thinking it would go away, and when it didn't I tried to work through the pain (I know-STUPID). After a month of that I went to the doctor who sent me for physiotherapy. I only just got into physio 2 weeks ago and the physiotherapist thinks that my femoral head was impinging on my hip flexor which caused the injury. She told me to stop doing anything that causes my hip flexors to be engaged (which is practically every lower body movement) and to stop running on any incline. I was so discouraged that I couldn't do anything I like to do anymore - lower body stuff is my jam - that I took a whole week off! That is the longest I have gone without going to the gym in over 3 years! After a week I was ready to get back to it so my goal for this month is to get back into a regular routine, 4-5 days a week, and focus on upper body and running. This brings me to my next couple of goals...

2. Start a bench press program

While I was working through my hip injury rather than dealing with it, I started a powerlifting program. After only a few weeks I just could not squat or deadlift but I could bench. Bench has never been my favorite movement, in fact I hated it. But, because that was all I could really do I started to really enjoy it. At the end of my program, I tested my 1RM (maximum effort for 1 repition) and I hit 120 pounds! This was a 10 pound PR (personal best) and a huge confidence builder. I am so psyched to start my program over and see what I can do in the next 6 weeks. My goal is to hit 135 pounds before Christmas!

3. Start running again

I also want to start running again. My physiotherapist said only to run on the flat and to take it easy. I haven't really ran, except for sprints in my CrossFit workouts, since last fall. I am a warm weather runner (I will never be one of those people that runs in the cold) so by the time it was warm enough for me to start, I injured my hip shortly after. Running any distance caused my hip to pain so I stuck with short sprints. I want to slowly start adding running back into my routine. Roscoe and I went for a short, 2km run yesterday and it didn't seem to bother me too badly. My plan is to slowly increase the distance, 1km at a time, ensuring I am pain free. I don't have a specific distance I want to hit by the end of August, I just want to get back out there.

4. Be more consistent with my diet

This will probably be in every monthly goals list I ever make (if I continue to do them). I always have great intentions of eating really well, but then someone offers me pizza and I'm like "hell yes!". This summer I have been struggling with staying on track more than usual. It probably has something to do with being injured and not being able to do as much in the gym so I feel like "if I can't do my best at the gym, why bother worrying about what I eat". This is a terrible mentality and I am usually much better than this. I am all about indulging occasionally and having a good balance in your life but I am indulging way too often. I just want to tighten things up a bit and stop having cheat meals quite so often.

5. Spend more time with my horses

Oy! My poor horses have been so neglected this summer. Sure, I still see them everyday and give them scratches and all that but I haven't been so good at spending more than a few minutes at a time with them. Summers are extremely busy for me but that's not a good enough excuse. My goal for the month is to take them out and brush them at least twice per week.

6. Continue to enjoy the summer!

As busy as its been, its been an excellent summer. I feel as if Scott and I have got to do more than we usually do and are truly enjoying every moment of it. Even mowing the lawn isn't so bad because I get to be outside! The next couple of weekends are filled with concerts, weddings and a trip home with friends so this will probably be my easiest goal to keep!

7. Prepare for going back to school

Where has the summer gone?! As much as I have been enjoying it, it has flown by. Now I can't help but start thinking about returning to school in September. I am equal parts excited and nervous. I'm excited because it's something to look forward to and I love to learn. I'm nervous because I doubt my ability to think at a "Masters level". A masters program is a whole new ballgame for me and it's no joke. In order to give myself a little comfort, I want to be as prepared as I can be. My goal is to paint and organize the upstairs loft and make it into an office-type area for me. It shouldn't take much work, it's just a matter of finding the time and doing it.

So those are my goals for this month. Looking at them laid out like that, it seems like a lot! Check back next month to see how I do!

Farm Fresh

I've said it before but I'll say it again (and I'll probably say it 100 times more); I think my favorite part of summer is having so much farm fresh produce available. Honestly, there is no comparison between the taste of veggies fresh from the garden and those that are bought at the grocery store from somewhere far, far away. My garden is slowly starting to produce vegetables and I am so pumped! It sounds so lame but I get excited going out to my garden and picking our food for supper. If you read my post, What's Growing in My Garden, then you'll know that this is not my first time having a garden. So why am I so excited about it this year? I think it's because I am doing a REALLY good job with the garden this year. Not to toot my own horn but my garden rocks! It's not overly big so I have made sure that everything is weeded on a regular basis, I have fertilized and watered it and I've kept it free of pests. Now I am reaping the rewards! For the past few weeks I have been harvesting swiss chard but now my carrots, potatoes and beans are starting to come. Even my tomato plants are flowering so I should pretty soon have some of those as well. Remember my sad looking cucumber plants? Well they aren't so sad looking anymore - I might actually get something off them!


I was off on Monday but Scott was working so Roscoe and I took a drive out to the farm he works at. I love it there! Their main business is strawberries (they run a u-pick and sell to the local grocery stores) but they do so much more. They have a raspberry u-pick, greenhouse where they grow a crap-load of tomatoes and cucumbers. They grow rhubarb, squash, turnip, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, beans and peas. They have a large market at the end of their driveway where they sell all of their fresh produce (by the honor system I might add - it's not manned most of the time so they have a locked cash box that you leave your money in). They also have a large and very nice Saler beef herd (this is where we have bought most of our cattle), sheep, chickens and eggs. They sell fresh, "grass fed" beef and sheep but they have high quality show cattle as well so they do sell quite a bit of breeding stock. Every time I go there I am awed by the diversity of their business. This is exactly the type of business that Scott and I hope to evolve to, so to say that they inspire us is an understatement.


While I was there I helped Scott pick some tomatoes in the greenhouse and restock the market. It was fun! Although I know I only did about 1/100th of what Scott does in the run of a day so I know it must get tiring, I can definitely see why he likes it there so much. Before leaving, Brian (the owner) gave me some tomatoes and potatoes that were slightly blemished, but otherwise fine, that they couldn't sell in the market as a result. As I was leaving, I then stopped at their market and picked up a box of raspberries (which are SO much better than the ones I buy in the grocery store) and some cherry tomatoes.

Some of the goodies I got at Walkers and some from my own garden

When I got home I went out to my garden and picked some swiss chard and pulled a few carrots (they aren't quite ready yet so I only pulled enough that the others had lots of room left to grow). I figured I may as well make it a fully farm fresh supper. I had some ground beef out to make burgers for Scott (which we got from Brian and Linda aka Scotts work) and ground turkey for turkey burgers for me (unfortunately not farm fresh). After a weekend of eating out this meal was much needed and oh-so delicious. I also had such a sense of pride that I had grown some of the food we were eating. Call me weird but I just think it's cool!

I strongly urge you to eat fresh food when you can. Even better yet, have a small garden of your own. You don't need to live in the country or on a farm to do this, there are plenty of ways to make it work for your situation. However, if this just isn't for you, at least buy local foods. Not only will you be supporting local farmers and the economy in your own town but it's also so much better when it's fresh. Taste aside, chances are if a farmer is selling at a market or opens his farm up to people to come visit and buy right off the farm, he's doing things right. Not that all farms that don't do this are doing things incorrectly, but it shows that he takes pride in making sure his facilities are well kept and you can see how the animals are treated and crops are grown. I am not a supporter of the "organic" craze or the terms "grass fed", "steroid and hormone free" or "free range", but I am a HUGE believer in supporting your local farmers. There is something to be said for knowing exactly where your food is coming from. I hope this at least makes you think twice about buying carrots from China rather than at the famer's market down the street. Get out there and BUY LOCAL!

Sunday Brunch

Now that I am starting to gain a little blogging momentum and getting more comfortable with talking about my life I thought I would introduce a new weekly series I guess you could call it. I got the idea from one of the blogs I stalk frequently, Pretty Neat Living. Every Sunday I am going to talk about what happened in the previous week; highs, lows and anything else new or exciting that happened. We'll call it Sunday Brunch and I will try to always have some little treat or snack to go with the post (you know - 'cause it's brunch). They won't always be long but I thought it would be a good way to show what our weeks look like between work, the farm and having some semblance of a personal life. It's also a way to help me continue to get more at ease with sharing my life in internet land! So here goes nothing...

This turned out to be a really busy week for Scott and I. Since last Sunday I worked everyday but Wednesday and Saturday. That is the thing I find hardest about shift work - it's not switching back and forth between day and night shifts or even the sporadic schedules - it's never having a couple days off in a row. It makes the days that you do have off seem so busy because you're trying to get a million things done before you go back to work the next day. However, considering how busy it was, it was still a really great week.

The weather this week was spot on! Almost everyday was hot and sunny and the mornings were especially nice. It made getting up for work a little bit easier!

A beautiful morning in the Vale

One evening after work Scott and Roscoe met me in town and we went on a little adventure to find a swimming hole not far out of town. We found it and it was so neat! Not only did it have a little pool to swim in, there was also a small waterfall. You could tell that not many people go there either so we aren't spreading the word about our find - we are keeping it to ourselves for now!

Our attempts to get a selfie with Roscoe weren't exactly successful!

I finally bit the bullet and bought a French Press so that I can brew my own coffee at home! This probably isn't very exciting to anyone else but to me it was one of the highlights of the week. I have recently joined the coffee addicts club and cannot start my day without one. It was getting expensive buying one (or more) everyday but I also don't have room in my kitchen right now for a coffee maker. I was walking through Superstore the other day and they had French Press's on sale so I got one! So far, I'm liking it a lot, although now I need to find the right coffee for me!

Lastly, this week ended with both Scott and I being away for a bachelor and bachelorette party! Scott's crew rented a bus and went to Montreal for 3 days - you could say they like to go big or go home! The girls and I stayed in New Brunswick but we hired a party boat and spent the day on the Saint John River! Then we went out for supper and drinks in Fredericton. We all had such a blast but I can honestly say I am feeling it today! I had to work Sunday at 4pm and I feel like a zombie (how did we do this so often in college?!). All-in-all it was a great weekend for all and now the countdown is on for the wedding!!

Oh, I almost forgot - todays brunch was 4 ingredient sweet potato brownies! I got the recipe from another blogger that I follow, The Big Man's World. They are flourless, vegan, paleo and gluten free and oh-so delicious! I added a big scoop of Hoof Prints frozen yogurt, taking away all the healthiness of the brownies themselves, but making them even more tasty! I highly recommend you try these!

I hope you enjoyed this new series and I'll see you next week!

What's Growin' in my Garden

When Scott and I first bought our farm there was a huge garden in front of the barn. Like I'm talking the size of some houses (okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration)! I wish that I had a picture to show how massive it was but it was probably around 50 feet long by 10 feet wide. Maybe that's not big to some people, but at the time I was a gardening virgin so it was overwhelming.

Our first spring/summer at the farm I was so excited and motivated to plant this huge garden and have fresh veggies all summer. I planted everything; corn, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, swiss chard, and the list goes on. I remember going into the Co-op and going crazy in the seed section. I got the garden tilled up and everything planted early in the spring and boy, was I excited to watch it grow. Unfortunately, the only thing I watched grow was weeds. In hindsight it probably would have been smart to spray some Round Up (herbicide) on the whole thing before I tilled and planted it. You see, the garden hadn't actually been used as a garden for a couple of years so it had grown up in weeds. I tried to keep up with weeding it but the thing was so big I just couldn't get ahead of it. It was embarrassing, really, how bad it was. On the plus side of things, we did manage to get a fair amount of veggies out of it - it was just like a scavenger hunt every time you went to pick something!

After this experience, I quickly learned that I could not manage a garden that size. Rather than just reducing the size of the garden Scott and I decided to make raised beds! We had a bunch of old railway ties laying around that we had kept from an old structure on the farm so we made six raised beds!

They are each 3 feet by 6 feet and are so much easier to manage. I am able to keep the weeds in check while still growing a lot of veggies.

Our first year with the raised beds we planted a couple of things in each. This worked out ok but for the last two years we have been designating one crop to each bed and we like it much better. Here's what we have growing this year:

Tomatoes

Carrots

Swiss Chard

Potatoes

Beans (Green and Yellow) & Sugar Snap Peas

The fence was there from before, these are not climbing beans or peas

Beans

Peas

Cucumbers

I haven't had much luck with the cukes this year

And there you have it! We have already harvested quite a bit of the swiss chard. It's one of those crops that the more you cut off it, the more that grows back (which is awesome because we love swiss chard). My tomatoes and cucumbers were both started from seed in the house and they had a bit of a later start than the rest of the garden. The tomatoes are doing great now but the cukes are not. I originally planted 10 plants but only 3 have survived. In previous years we have planted them under plastic with the squash and they did great. This is my first year doing them this way so it's a bit of a learning process.

I can't wait until the rest of the garden is ready to pick. I get so much satisfaction from eating something that I've grown! It is definitely one of the best parts of life on the farm.

Roscoe, standing guard while I work in the garden