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 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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdi1qvRpwBY&ab_channel=LobsterShorts
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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K2HGmJZc4c&ab_channel=LobsterShorts
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, Food, sewing

Sunday Breakfast, Cloak Update, and Cards

This week’s Sunday breakfast, I made scrambled eggs, homemade scones (recipe here), and homemade clotted cream, in the Instant Pot (recipe here). I’ve made clotted cream in the oven before, but I’ll always be making in the Instant Pot now. It was super easy and turned out exactly the same.

I love clotted cream, but I haven’t seen it around since the pandemic started. In a province full of dairy farmer’s you wouldn’t think it would be hard to get, but we import it from England. It’s super easy to make, I’ll make my own from now on.

I found fabric for the cloak at FabricLand. Just my luck they were having a huge sale! It was still over $70.00 with the thread, cloak fabric, and lining. I am going to cut the tissue paper pattern out, possibly the fabric today. I’ll start sewing it during the week.

It’s been so sunny and beautiful lately. It’s still cold, but being outside is wonderful with all this extra sunshine. I’ve been loving Winter walks.

I made more cards this weekend. These two were my favourite. I’ll post a video of the rest and the supplies I used to make them, below.

Lobster Shorts card making, crafting, Food

A Sunday February Morning

I was down three pounds today, probably not after the breakfast I made this morning. We like to have big breakfasts on Sunday and this, or oatmeal is a common one for us. The home fries were done in the air fryer and the croissants were from the grocery store. I’ve never made croissants at home before. My original plan was to make wild sour dough bread, but my wild starter didn’t make it. The recipe I got it from said to use filtered water, but I used tap water (we have extremely hard water where I live) and it never got bubbly. I will try again with distilled water.

Daylight is lasting longer and I’m feeling it. The birds are chirpier, there is more sunshine, and I’m feeling happier. It’s still cold, but there’s something in the air. It was supposed to rain all weekend, but instead there was more sunshine yesterday, and although it’s cloudy today, it’s not raining. We’re going to go for a walk again today, not through the woods, but around the town.

I made cards this weekend.

I love the Autumn one, I made that with water colour paint, stamps, and water colour paper. The shark/whale is hilarious I want to use it often. I do like the peacock one, but it wasn’t quite right. I wish I had a flamingo stamp, or die to go with the palm frond embossing folder I used. My favourite card wasn’t pictured here, I sealed it in an envelope before I took a photo of it. If you want to see it, or what I used to make the cards and where to get the supplies for them, I’ll have it posted in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9nKWBXV2bo
Lobster Shorts Food, weight loss

What’s Happening With OMAD

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

Not a thing. I was doing one meal a day before the Christmas holidays, but things fell apart. I had a rough holiday (I had to put my dog down) and I ate my feelings. I gained back the seven pounds I had lost and I haven’t been attempting to eat healthy at all. After the holidays were over I didn’t restart OMAD. I was back to eating breakfast, but usually skipped lunch (mostly because I was too lazy to make anything) and then would eat dinner (and a lot of junk food. Cadbury Creme Egg season is here and that sweet sweet sugary goo egg is irresistible to me. It’s one of my favourite candies).

My spouse is back into intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) and as I like to sleep in for the mornings, that means I am too. I’ve been getting really hungry during the afternoons and have been getting chips for a snack. It’s not the healthiest of lunches. Lately, I am way too hungry to stick with OMAD. Switching to intermittent fasting (skipping breakfast) and having lunch and dinner, seems like the right decision for me, right now.

I’m going to have to find the time to cook a healthy lunch, or I’m going to keep buying unhealthy snacks instead. I’m going to focus on eating healthier, unprocessed food. I get a lot of takeout, but there are still some fairly healthy options out there.

This was my dinner tonight. I love love love the Pita Pit Halloumi pita. I don’t feel guilty when I get this, It’s full of veggies. When I got home I split a Founder’s Tequila cocktail with my spouse. We went to the liquor store and I bought a bottle of Bailey’s Espresso (it’s a flavourgasm, my favourite). I’m probably going to have some tonight, it is almost guaranteed.

Lobster Shorts Food, happy mail

Boreal Forest Tea Unboxing and Tasting October 2020

I’ve read tea is loaded with pesticides (I’ll post the article here), so I’m searching for alternatives. I found Boreal Forest Tea, with its wild harvested and organic ingredients. I’m hoping it’s a safer alternative. It’s a Canadian company, located in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Each bag of tea was $16.00 and shipping was $16.00.

The tea is on the pricy side, but really good and there is a lot of tea in the bags. The package also came with a sample of cranberry mint to try. My favourite is the Evergreen. It says caffeine free on the website and packaging, but this is likely a mistake, since it’s green tea. I even called the store, and they said it shouldn’t say caffeine free. So be aware of that. I have ordered 40 Below and Evergreen from this company before. I’ll definitely be ordering from them again. They had lots of other flavours to try, but most of them contained chamomile, and of that I am not a fan. I plan to keep my cupboard stocked with Evergreen and 40 Below. I did like the other two flavours as well, but these were my favourites.

Below, I’ll post a video of the tea unboxing, if you want to see it.

Lobster Shorts Food

OMAD, COVID Scares and Thanksgiving

Disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nutritionist, or anyone with any business giving diet advice. This is my own personal journey. When it comes to yourself, seek the advice of a medical professional.

I spent a lot of my Thanksgiving waiting for a COVID swab to come back (it was negative). I didn’t get the results until late Saturday, when it was already most of the way through the family dinner I was supposed to be at. My spouse and I didn’t know how long we were going to have to be stuck inside, so we ordered groceries delivered to our home, with contact free delivery.

We weren’t feeling the “cooking” vibe and got all convenience food.

I got vegetarian stuffed turkey to try.

My spouse ordered the boxed stuffing and potatoes and I made fun of him for it, but they were better than my “turkey” thing. The turkey part was okay, but the stuffing it was stuffed with, wasn’t very good. I wanted to like it, but I didn’t. I do love other products from this brand though.

So this was dinner. It wasn’t quite homemade, but I was with my love, and that made it wonderful.

I did make a pie. I used a store bought vegetarian pie crust (I don’t remember the brand) and got the filling recipe here. I didn’t have enough strawberries, so I just made up for it in apples. I wanted a crumble topping and got the recipe for that, here.

It turned out really good. It was the best part of the dinner, and I’m embarrassed to say, we ate the entire pie in under 24 hours!

OMAD did not happen while I was isolating at home. I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, and lots of snacks. I am much better when I’m not home. When I’m around the food, I seem to have trouble staying out of it.

Despite being a human vacuum for food these past few days, I only gained one pound for the weigh in. I was really surprised about that, I was expecting much more. I did do some hiking once my results came back. It must have helped a lot.

There was also Crispers and Drumstick caramel ice cream. No regrets!