Lobster Shorts Food, vegetarian, weight loss

Fake It Till You Make It And More Cart Smugness

This was the spoils of my grocery cart and I’m feeling proud of it (if that container of potato salad wasn’t in there, I’d be downright smug about it). I’m trying the “Fake it till you make it” approach to healthy habits. I’m pretending I’m a health nut, someone like Chris Traeger on Parks and Recreation (which I’m currently binging), so this came home with me. I bought more healthy Power Bowls for those times I don’t make lunch, and fruits and veggies.

I made a meal that I’m calling Weirdy Bowl. I cooked cauliflower, eggplants, kale, and mushrooms and them added them to tofu in a coconut milk broth that I seasoned with curry powder, garam masala, turmeric, and salt, and put it over steamed quinoa. I topped it with a dollop of hummus and potato salad (yes the potato salad is very weird, hence why I called it Weirdy Bowl). The hummus though… pretty good. I’m currently fermenting sauerkraut and growing sprouts, the potato salad will be replaced by these things in the future. It was easy to make and didn’t take too long. I’ll be making more things like this in the future. May my inner Chris Traeger cook all my future meals.

Lobster Shorts Food, The Great Outdoors

Easter Weekend, Nature, and Naughty Nummies

This Easter weekend brought the start of a month long, province wide, lockdown . On the nicest day of the weekend, we went for a walk in the woods to get some exercise and feed the chickadees. The day was warm and sunny and I saw many firsts of the season: butterflies, frogs, plants shoots, and a ground hog.

This pond was full of frisky frogs. They were super loud, and chirpy. I wish I had recorded it. I thought I did, but there was no video when I got home. We walked around 8km-9km, the weather was perfect and full of happy Spring vibes.

Sunday, I made amaranth pancakes and they were really good! I’m converted. From now on amaranth is my flour of choice for pancakes (I think it’s gluten free!). Whenever I make whole grain pancakes, they are usually super dry and sit like a brick in my stomach. These were nothing like that. The true test was my spouse, he likes his white wheat flour and is not a fan of the whole grains. He knew right away they weren’t made with typical white flour, but he liked them. I asked if they were good enough to switch over permanently, and he said yes. One step closer to eliminating white flour from our diets. Yay! For the toppings, I boiled berries and cherries with some maple syrup to taste, and then of course added more maple syrup… because maple syrup. They were great and I recommend trying the recipe out.

Saturday, I made my usual weekend breakfast of a huge pile of coffee, eggs, and home fries. Still not sick of it. YUM!

The naughty nummies were my beloved Cadbury Creme Eggs and a KitKat Popcorn bar. YUM! If I see a new variety of KitKat, I must have it. This one was awesome. I didn’t make any cards this week, instead I finished my cloak. I’m meh about it. I’ll post pics of it later this week.

Lobster Shorts lifestyle

Worm Bins

I really wanted to title this post “I’ve Got Worms”, the typical title when talking about composting worm bins, but I didn’t, you’re welcome.

I do have a worm bin. It’s not ideal, it really should be a made of something opaque, but I got this bin on sale and wrapped it in masking tape. I used to keep my bin in the laundry room because it was dark in there, but the constant hum of machines were disturbing the worms. I could tell because they weren’t laying eggs. I moved the worms to a lower shelf in a dark cupboard and they are much happier.

Red Wriggler Egg

In the photo above you can see a tiny red wriggler egg. It is the brown, lemon shaped egg between my fingers (on the left side of the little dirt pile). I’m not squeamish around worms and if you want a composting bin, you really shouldn’t be. When it comes time to separate the worm castings from the worms and eggs, you really need to get hands on in there. At least, that is my experience. I’ve never found any of the ways they suggest separating everything, to work. I do it by hand, piece by piece, worm by worm, egg by egg. It takes awhile. On the plus side, you have some great plant fertilizer. I’m sure an outdoor composting bin produces just as great of a fertilizer and if you are uncomfortable with worms and getting your hands dirty, it would be the better option.

You should be careful of what you put into your worm bin and also how much. You don’t want it to turn into a mud puddle. There are only certain things you can but in there (like no meat, or dairy). Whatever you add to the worm bin needs to be covered by bedding, to keep everything healthy in there. This photo is before I covered up all the cabbage. Exposed produce will lead to mold, pests, and it would smell. Signs of a healthy worm bin are no smell (or I should say an earthy smell), eggs, and active worms. If your worms are slow and sluggish you likely have a problem.

You don’t need to buy anything fancy to start a worm bin. I found my worms on kijiji (you can’t use regular earth worms. Composting worms are a specific species. I use red wrigglers), and put them in a plastic tote. For bedding I use newspaper and cardboard. You also have to give them water. I don’t feel like I have the water situation sorted yet because my worm casting usually seem too wet, but I’m worried about dehydrating them. I’ll post a link to a website where you can find more information about them here.

Lobster Shorts finances, stock market

April 2021 Stock Purchase and Updates

Disclaimer: I am not a financial professional. This my own personal, uneducated journey through the stock market. Do not use this blog for financial advice.

I bought my April stock a little early, but since it is almost April, I went ahead and made the purchase. I bought two stocks and went a little over budget. Not because I was positive these were sure things, it was because I felt like it. These were both USA stocks, so I had to pay a conversion rate for them.

The first was Vizio (VZIO), they sell smart TVs. I bought one share for $21.47 with a conversion rate bringing the total for one share to $27.44. I picked this one because most people have smart TVs and I can’t see them losing popularity any time soon. The second stock I bought was one share of SEMrush Holdings Inc (SEMR) for $11.97 with the conversion rate bringing the total to $15.30. SEMrush has something to do with online marketing campaigns and ads.

I had also wanted to buy a stock in InnoVage Holdings Corp (INNV) an American company that deals with senior care, but I was over budget already. I thought this might be a good one as we have an aging population. Possibly it will be my pick for next month. I was also interested in stock in Joann Inc (JOAN), the American craft store (one share around $10.00. My instinct was to pick this one right away as I love crafts, but when I compared it to Michaels, the other big craft store that has been around forever, the stock was worth around $20.00. Although that is double the price, after I pay the conversion rate, I wouldn’t be that much ahead and that is only if the stock caught up to Michaels. I may regret that decision one day, but for now that’s what I chose to do. I really want to buy a share of MITC the 3D meat printing company (Meat-Tech), but they were currently not available on the Wealthsimple platform. This is the one I wanted the most and I’m hopeful it will available on my trading platform soon. I requested it, but they haven’t added it so far. I would probably break my budget rules (again) if it becomes available soon.

Here’s a list of how my current stocks are performing:

GFL bought January 14/2021 for one share at $38.17, currently worth $42.79.

WISH bought Feb 01/2021 it was $31.85 + conversion fees, costing a total of $41.44 for one share, currently worth $15.61. I’m getting really screwed with this one. This is the one I thought would go up really fast as Wish is such a big company.

BBD.A bought Feb 19/2021 for one share at $0.84 for one share, currently worth $1.03.

BBD.B bought Feb 19/2021 for one share at $0.58, currently worth $0.87. This one is performing surprisingly well. I’m tempted to buy a couple more shares.

PSYK bought Feb 24/2021 for one share at $10.71, currently worth $8.32

PTVE $14.51 +1.28 exchange rate fee, for a total of $18.54 bought March 02/2021 – currently worth – $13.92

Currently, I’m more in the hole than profiting, but I’m going to hold onto the stocks that are doing poorly anyway and hope they come up in value.

Lobster Shorts Uncategorized

Snooze Dreams

I had a bizarre snooze dream this morning. My spouse woke me up with coffee in bed this morning, I fell asleep again and had a fast flash dream. It was a pair of fists, you know how people tattoo “LOVE HATE” on their hands? Well these fists had “SWAN MEAT” tattooed on their fingers. No clue what that means, but it gave me a chuckle to start my day with.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food, The Great Outdoors

Walks, Cards, and Breakfasts

I’m relaxing on the couch on a rainy weekend. I’m still stiff from a 20km walk I did earlier in the week. Only a small portion of the walk was through this pretty treed trail, most of it was on the side of a road. I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for it since the longest walk I’ve done recently was 12km and I was super stiff afterwards. I stopped in a park about halfway through the walk to take a rest for about 15 minutes. It was so cold and windy I didn’t stop as long as I would have liked to. I’ve done this walk before and have been super thirsty and went through a couple bottles of water. Because it was so cold I wasn’t thirsty at all until the next day. Being cold helped. I made it to my goal and rewarded myself with a hot London Fog.

This weekend’s big breakfast was the usual eggs, home fries, and berries. I haven’t used self control at all this week. I ate drive through breakfasts at Tim Horton’s instead of intermittent fasting, ate lots of chocolate and snacks, and ordered take out a lot.

My inlaws gave us a giant bag of potatoes, so I made a big pot of soup. I didn’t follow a recipe. I used half an onion, a mixture of cashew milk and water seasoned with Better Than Boullion, and threw in a bunch of potatoes and boiled everything. Once the potatoes were cooked I tossed in a can of black beans, and leftover spinach. We had it with a whole grain small baguette and white wine. It’s been a carbarific weekend.

I made a bunch of cards this weekend. The rose card is my favourite.

I’ll post a video of the products I used to make them below.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, decluttering, Food, weight loss

Breakfast, Cards, and Organization

This weekend the weather was beautiful. It’s finally starting to feel like Spring out there. The mornings were frigid and the afternoons were warm, which I hear is great maple syrup weather. For the big weekend breakfast I made scrambled eggs, with air fryer home fries, blueberries, and humming bird cake.

The humming bird cake came from Kitchen Smidgen and it was delicious. We’ve had it before, it’s one of the best things they make. Eggs and home fries are my favourite weekend splurge. I’ve been sticking with the weekday intermittent fasting. I’m still down three pounds, which is not bad since my birthday week benders of surprise dinners and a couple bags of chocolate eggs (that are gone now). I had gained back the weight and lost it again.

My bathroom drawer finally irked me into decluttering it.

It was a non-functional disaster. My bathroom drawers usually end up this way. Nothing organized, just dumped in a pile in the drawers. Before the pandemic, I was scouring the antique shops looking for decorative boxes or tins to tidy them up. I haven’t been back to one since the virus, I’m not sure they are even open. On Friday, I went on a 12km walk, during that walk I ended up at the MCC Thrift Shop in Kitchener.

This chocolate tin was there for $2.00 and ended up being $0.50 at the check out. It was perfect because the drawers aren’t very deep and this tin is thin. I put all my make up into it. It holds a lot

The drawer looks a million times better. It’s organized and functional.

I’m thrifting a couple things. A facial massager and a makeup bag. I’d like to refinish the bathroom vanity, it has a lot of superficial damage, but that’s a project for a different day.

I made some cards this weekend. I’ll post a video below of what I made and the products I used to make them.

Lobster Shorts Food, weight loss

Lunch Dilemmas and Sleepy Sundays

I’ve solved my lunch problems. I have a horrible habit of not pre-making a lunch, getting hungry, and then buying chips. I’m likely to continue with that pattern, so I bought some frozen dinners.

It turns out these bowls are really good AND healthy! Way better then most of the other frozen meals. Vegetarians usually end up with only the option of some crappy frozen pasta dish that leaves you starving a short time later.

These bowls actually have some sustenance to them and good ingredients. From now on I’ll take one of these with me for lunch. I really like them.

This weekend I went for a couple short walks and my spouse did all the cooking (and cleaning! I’m a lucky lady). Usually on Sundays I make us a large breakfast, but this time he made it. He made his usual egg and cheese sandwich (using the new cheese of the month!) and it was really good. He uses the Hamilton Beach egg sandwich maker and they are so great. It’s our favourite appliance and we got it from the classifieds. Score!

We went for a couple short walks, but most of the weekend I was sewing. I’m still working on the cloak and I have most of the outside put together, but now I’m second guessing whether I want to make the alternative version with the shoulder flaps. I’m sure I have enough fabric left to do it. I’m no longer in love with the fabric I bought. It sheds horribly and frays like crazy (even after washing the fabric), but I’m going to see it through. I’m hoping I can make a matching skirt with any leftover fabric. I may still fall in love with it.

Lobster Shorts Food

Vaccines and Cheese

I got my first dose of the COVID vaccine and I’m doing fine. My arm is a little tender where I got the shot, but no side effects. I have some freaky allergies, I was a little concerned and went with the hospital location. As they are currently vaccinating essential workers, I was surrounded by police officers and hospital staff, I’ve never felt so safe getting a vaccine lol. All went well, the only advice I have is not to watch other people getting vaccinated. I could have done without getting a preview of the needle. I’m a big baby and it was fine.

On my way home I picked up my Cheese Of The Month at the St. Marys Towne and Cheese shop. It costs $30.00 and I believe it’s only available for pick up. So far I’ve been loving it. The cheese has been delicious.

This month’s cheese was Irish themed and once again we got a shaped cheese (I love when the cheese has a fun shape). I liked every cheese, the Cahill’s was my favourite. My first impression of it was a no and then it went to a yes, and ended up being my favourite. Funny how that happens.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Plants

Flowers, Cards, And All The Spring Feels

We had a taste of warm weather this week. It’s cooled back down, but the sun is still going strong. I saw my first robin of the year and one of the local florists had tulips. It’s screaming Spring. Come on double digit weather!

I made a couple more cards. I love love love this rain boot cutting die set. You can make shaker cards and different styles of boots with it. Above are a couple examples. I’m not very into shaker cards, so I rarely make them.

The cloud on this rainbow card is too rough, but other than that I like the card. I fussy cut out a cloud stamp. I would like to add some cloud cutting dies to my card making supplies so I wont have to cut them out myself.

I made a lot of galaxy themed mini envelopes, here are a few examples. As you can see I had a couple sailing themed ones on the mix too. They are perfect for gift cards.

Lastly, any my favourite of the bunch, is this high heel card. The cutting dies layer so perfectly. There were more options for the heel and inside lining, but I think the shoes looked perfect like this. I love the new background I used on this card. It’s perfect for sewing related cards, but it’s versatile enough it works as a general background. I’ll post a link below of a video of the supplies I used to make the cards, and where you can find them online.