Category: Mason Jar Salads

Say it ain’t so …. summer? Almost gone? No …

I’m “that” person.  Who, you ask? I’m the one that doesn’t like Sunday’s because they sit so close to Monday.  But my feeling of doom doesn’t end there, nope.  It’s now the end of August and for me that means I’m already feeling like summer is over.  Usually this feeling will last for a couple of weeks.  A melancholy, that I’m sure exists because I feel like I’m “losing” something.  Of which I am.  The Sun. Cue song …..

“WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS” BY GREEN DAY

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Eat with your eyes, not really, but in theory

I was reading a post on Humanthology by Ashley McCormack about eating with your eyes.  When talking to her father about why he spent so much time making the food look nice on the plate, he replied, “Because first, you taste with your eyes.”

I’m not sure about you, but I’ve heard this before and it so true.  Just last week, I made a Fish Pie and while it tasted great, it didn’t look very good.  My family only ate about half.  But wait, that’s not all the story.  So, I may get the plating of the food nailed down, but what about that next step?  Taking the food photo.  For the most part I’ve focused on the actual dishes, but lately I’ve wanted to just be able to take a better picture.  Then it happened. I got advice that I actually took.  Thanks to my friend Angie (one of my ESO guild-mates, who lives in NC) who recommended that I purchase a photo box.

Polaroid Photo Studio
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Breakfast is the most important meal

So is lunch, dinner and snacks.  I cannot even tell you how much time I spend thinking about every meal and what impact certain food has to my journey.  I scour websites looking for recipes, usually I look at the images first because if it doesn’t look good, chances are it doesn’t taste good.  I test those out that make the short list.  Here’s a breakfast that looks great and taste amazing.

Savory Egg Muffins – Mushroom, ham and cheese
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“I could make this” … famous words

I’m sure that I’m not the only one that says this.  Let me set the scene, you’re out at a restaurant, eating a great meal and you say to (yourself) or the people that you’re with “I could make this”.  My kids are so used to me saying this that they now offer up the suggestion.  Often starting a conversation with ” hey mom, you could make this into a salad jar right?”  Well, challenge accepted. I SUPER love East Side Mario’s (ESM) Garden Salad.  We don’t have an ESM near us (but hey, we have four, count’em – Mary Browns, Swiss Chalet, KFC and Popeye’s, chicken restaurants in town).  Here is a picture of my most favourite restaurant salad.

East Side Mario’s Garden Salad

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Take something good and make it great

I normally name my post before even typing it.  I’ve checked out other bloggers how to guides and many suggest typing your post before applying a title.  The reason I do it this way, is because my posts start with a random thought and I want to make sure that I stay true to that idea as I type.  Case in point, I was going through my phone and saw a picture of a salad that I made last week and thought “wow, the Greek salad I make is good, but I really made it great when I changed it up”.  Hence my post title.

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Better late, than never

Driving home from Sudbury, Ontario tonight, I thought to myself “is there anything at home that I can have for my lunch”.  Unfortunately, the answer was no.  I shop weekly so ensure that my salad ingredients are fresh and crisp.  That meant, when we arrived home at 8pm, after being away, that I dropped off my DH and off I went shopping.  But, two hours later, groceries purchased, puta away, cooked, chopped, diced and jarred.

All Done!  Super easy salads, Tossed Salad with Chicken & Hot Peppers and Asian Chicken

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Weekend Meal Planning, something to get excited about

Not everyone gets excited about sitting down and making a plan.  BUT I love this part of my journey.  It’s scary to think that I used to not know what I was having for a meal until it was dinner time or until I felt hungry.  Using a very simple meal plan template, like the one I found in Excel, pictured here:

Excels Weekly Meal Planner

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Trying a new kettlebell workout

I love Friday.  Who doesn’t?  Well maybe people that work the weekend shift.  Maybe they don’t love Fridays, but I start getting that light headed, giddy feeling right about now.  It’s especially awesome since it’s an extended weekend and we’re going to visit my in-laws.  

So, what did you all have for lunch today?  It is Friday after all.  You know, eat-out day.  That one work-day, although others do this every day (ahem), that you can eat out.  I’m not against this by any means.  In the almost year that I’ve worked in my new role, I’ve got out less than 10 times.  Why you ask?  Well have a look at the below picture.  This is why.

Caesar Salad Friday

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When your sick, just be sick

I woke up yesterday morning expecting to get on the scale and either go up (a bit) or little to no change. This wasn’t because of some misguided, “I expect to see something disappointing, but hope that I don’t” kind of feeling.  This was based on a mid-week scale check (I know, it’s an addiction) and a silent run-down of my week.  Was I ever surprised.

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A warm mason jar salad?

OK, so one thing I’m learning is that while it’s definitely a different way of eating, it’s not bad.  You really need to just be creative.  Or know someone that’s been through it, that can share their experience.   WAIT!  That’s me!  So, it’s time to roll out a new salad.  I was tossing the idea around, to try another week without chicken salads and I thought, “steak”.  We love steak.

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Wait! What can I eat?

I’m calling this 1.25 since it reports on yesterday and this morning.

So this was a poor planning exercise on my part.  I woke up yesterday morning and starting making to-do lists on this great list app (to-do, grocery lists).  I love that you can share the grocery list with everyone in the family and when they want to add something, each person (who has the app installed) opens the app and adds the item.  It then shows up on my grocery list.  The app even has a handy bar code scanner.  Sweet!

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Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic – Retake

A couple of weeks ago I made the Grilled Veggie with Balsamic and I had some suggestions (to myself) that I thought would make this a better salad.  Well, I did it.  I took my own advice and I re-made the salad.  I re-made it so much, that I had to re-name it!  So please join me in welcoming my new salad:

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Balsamic
Roasted Vegetable with Balsamic

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Experimenting with flavour

I’m back!  Well, I wasn’t really gone, but I haven’t been “here”.  I’ve been busy making salads, trying out new things and generally enjoying the summer.  I made an entirely new salad yesterday and it was pretty good (see my suggestions to improve).  I tried it with my family last night at dinner (without meat) and I’ve got it in my lunch for today.  Do you like grilled vegetables?  I do and I figured I could turn that love into a salad and here’s how:

Grilled Veggie
Grilled Veggie with Balsamic

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