Nutrition Shake Comparison

Since there are so many people out there (including myself) who are taking nutrition/meal replacement shakes to increase their daily nutrition intake or to lose weight (or both), I thought it would be great to do a comparison amongst some of the most popular shakes out there!
Now, this is only half the story...although nutrition labels are important, they really only tell part of the story (maybe not even half?). So many people don't know how to read labels properly, but I won't go into that right now. This nutrition info also doesn't tell you what's in the shakes, and that's where the truth lies about what you're actually taking.
I will be doing a follow up post shortly which will list all the ingredients of these shakes as well as going into detail of some of these ingredients...it's actually scary what's in some of these "nutrition" shakes. Stay tuned because you don't want to miss my follow-up post, that's where things may get ugly...LOL!!!

Nutrition Shake Comparison Chart

Warm Quinoa with Chicken & Veggies

Yesterday, on my Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/StayingFitAtHomeAtWork ) I talked about quinoa and the health benefits of cooking with quinoa. Although I posted some recipes I found online, I was inspired today to create my own recipe for a quick, healthy lunch…it turned out pretty good, I must say :)

Warm Quinoa with Chicken & Veggies

1 box cooked quinoa, according to package directions (using low sodium chicken broth)

1 cooked, chopped chicken breast

½ red bell pepper, chopped

½ cucumber, chopped

½ tomato, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

¼ tsp garlic salt

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

While quinoa is cooking, chop & prepare all other ingredients. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl while quinoa is still warm and enjoy…even my 2 year old daughter liked it!!

1/2 chopped bell pepper

1/2 cucumber & half tomato, chopped

1 green onion, chopped, 1/4 tsp garlic powder & 2-3 tbsp olive oil

*I'm mad at myself for not taking a pic of the chopped chicken breast....as if you can't imagine what that looks like...LOL!!

**If you have any of your favourite quinoa recipes to share, please do so!!

Don't Over-Indulge At Restaurants

Arnold took me out for a special Birthday treat…my choice! I decided The Cheesecake Factory. I didn’t want cheesecake. I wanted those avocado rolls that I had there several years back. This pregnant lady was craving! Actually, I have wanted to go back there since the day I tasted them, we just never did.

We got there, I looked over the menu, front and back….2 or 3 times and they weren’t on there!! I asked the waitress, almost in a panic what had happened to their avocado rolls that used to be on the menu. She said she had worked there for quite a while and they hadn’t had them ever since she started …sigh!

I didn’t want to be rude and say we were leaving, because we were only there for the avocado rolls. Plus, I was hungry and good luck finding a place where you don’t have to wait for 20 minutes to get a table on a Saturday night.

We decided on their stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer to share. I wasn’t disappointed…OK, I wasn’t disappointed in the mushrooms, but I was still disappointed about the avocado rolls.

For my main course I ordered the grilled salmon with veggies & rice (I only ate half, the other half made it home for lunch the next day!). Dessert was their strawberry cream cheese crepes that we shared. Everything was delicious!!

So with all this delicious (mostly unhealthy) food starting at you from the menu, how do you make good choices?

*Order a small appetizer and share with your spouse

*Skip the drinks (yes, the soda too). I had water with lemon. Refreshing and no calories!

*If you’re going to have an appetizer and a dessert (like we did), make your main course a healthy one!

*Whatever your main course is, make sure you’re getting veggies as a side dish instead of fries or mashed potatoes, etc.

*Don’t eat your entire main course, save half to bring home for lunch the next day

*Share a small dessert with your spouse (we could have gone for their huge slice of cheesecake, but instead we choose the small crepes to share).

*If you go out often, skip the appetizer AND dessert, just go for a nice healthy main course (and if it's a big meal, eat only half and save the rest).

If you follow these tips, you get the best of both worlds. You don’t have to cook. You get to enjoy delicious food, but you’re not overdoing it! 

**Let me know if you have any other tips :)

Brielle is 2!!!

So tomorrow is Brielle’s 2^nd Birthday….when I stop to think about it, I really can’t believe that she’s 2 already!! How did that happen so fast?

She’s such a smart little cookie, she surprises us every day with something new…I could go on bragging about her for days, but for those who know me, that’s not really my style…plus, I am writing this blog post basically just to share her B-day party.

We had the party a week early and I wanted to plan a party based on a theme that she would really like. I scanned Pinterest, as any mom does when planning an event such as a party, am I right? I thought so!! I came across an “Ice Cream” Birthday party theme and thought this would be perfect!! This girl LOVES sweets, especially ice cream! That is something that definitely comes from my side of the family…pretty well everything else is from her dad, but this she got from us!

I didn’t want to spend too much money on the party…especially since she won’t remember it, and really, the higher I set the bar, the higher I’ll have to set it next time, right? Shhhh…don’t tell her this! Haha! This meant I would have to make/do pretty well everything myself, which I’m just fine with. I love doing that, but I knew it would be very busy!

I started off by “pinning” lots of different ideas, then headed off to look for different ice cream things….Wal-Mart, Michaels, Winners then Dollarama, and low and behold…pretty well everything I needed was at Dollarama!! This is seriously the best place to shop for party supplie (in my humble opinion)!

Why buy a Birthday banner when you can make it?! I had all these supplies, so I didn’t have to buy anything! I don't know what to do with it now though, I spent a lot of time on it, so I don't want to just throw it out....Anyone need it??

I made up some signs and extra ice cream cones for decoration (the signs were just printed off the computer and pasted to scrapbook paper). The ice cream cones were cut out of stock paper…that took a while!

An ice cream party wouldn’t be complete without an ice cream decorating station!!

Yum!!

Opening presents :)

This was in the favour bag for her little friends to take home…I found all this at Dollaram as well!!

Happy 2^nd Birthday to our sweet, sweet little princess!!!

P.S. – Pinterest fail…I tried to make these ice cream cone cupcakes and burnt the cones…oh well, party was still a success without them!

"Office" Organization

My biggest organization need for the past 6 months has been my “office” which, as you can see is basically just piles of paper, books, etc. In the corner of our living room…for all to see…pretty embarrassing!!

 

 When we moved to this place in Jan, we got rid of our big monster of a computer desk because we now don’t have a specific room designated as an office.

Also, since I now work from home, I wanted to set something up in the living room so I don’t have to run upstairs or downstairs every time I have a few minutes to do some work! Lets face it, all the papers would end up in a pile in the living room anyways!

I had been looking for a long time for a good used computer desk on kijiji and a local buy/sell site on Facebook, but hadn’t really found one I liked until this one…originally from Ikea! I don’t see it on their website anymore, but there is a similar one for for $149, and we paid $40!

I like it for several reasons, it’s black and white, which is what our living room furniture is …and all from Ikea too, so it matches perfectly! I wanted something that wasn’t too big, but had enough storage to accommodate our personal stuff and my work stuff. Oh, and the white backboard on the right hand side…it’s a magnet/white board so I can post anything I want on there and change it as often as I want!!

 

 Here’s the finished product! I still want to reorganize it a bit more and ‘style’ it a little differently too, but I’m happy with it for now!! I think this will really help me with my productivity too…my brain just functions better when things are not cluttered...ya know what I mean?

Up next? I think it’ll have to be our ‘catchall’ closet in our main bathroom/laundry room….oh boy. Not really looking forward to doing that one!