White-Chocolate Coconut Almond Blondies - A Recipe!

Good morning everyone!

Did you see how incredibly awesome the Blogger Bake sale turned out? As a collective, food bloggers managed to raise over $1700!!!! The humble home-baked treat has never looked so good! :o)

I for one can't wait to get baking on my batch of cookies. I'm waiting to hear from Meghann on the winner on that one.

Now let's get back to quickie weekend highlights so I can get to the main feature today - another recipe!

Let's just say that the weekend eats weren't too exciting. A couple of times I ended up making bigger batches and repeating my meals. Plus the weather outside was just way too delicious to spend it cooking inside. It was the first time all year that full-fledged spring came to visit and I was determined to enjoy it!

How about we combine Saturday and Sunday eats into one highlight reel - shall we?

My breakfasts this weekend marked a return to Green Monsters! I know it had only been away from them for one day but it really helped me to realize just how amazingly filling and refreshing they are:


This weekend mixed things up a bit and omitted the bananas (or more like I ran out of the bananas because we here monkeys ate them all :oP), added a tablespoon of almond butter, and a handful of rapini.

It still turned out wonderfully green (here it is posing with Rodney - he and I had an after breakfast date this weekend). Having said that it also had a bit of a bite. A serious pepper taste courtesy of the rapini. I don't think I would add that ingredient again but at least I found out my Green Monsters can still go on without the bananas. :o)


This weekend I also cooked up a large batch of butter chicken (mmmmm butter chicken) using some of the butter chicken masala my mom sent from Toronto. Oh this made me a happy camper! :o)

As a bonus, when I make it at home I can control the ingredients and omit clarified butter. Butter chicken without butter? Not that rare actually - as long as you add a little bit of milk it's all good.

On Sunday I headed out for my weekly grocery haul . . .


This weeks total? $36.80. A bit more than I would like to spend for those goods but none of my regular purchases were on sale (boo!). This week's haul included: two huge bunches of kale, one package of sliced mushrooms, one package of oven roasted turkey breast, a package of eight Stonyfield yogurt, two unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, one large bag of frozen strawberries, and one large bag of frozen mango.

lol - I think it's pretty obvious I was mostly replenishing my Green Monster supplies. I did make one more substantial purchase yesterday and that was a good sized portion of lamb. It's what I will be cooking for Easter dinner! :o)

But enough about shopping and eats - let's get on with the recipe!!

Variations on a Theme by TorontoGirloutWest - a white-chocolate coconut almond blondie

I adapted this recipe from one of Veggie Girl's who in turn adapted it from Vegetarian Times Magazine. Hence why I called it variations on a theme! :o)

1 individual serving of yogurt
1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup of raw cane sugar (preferably organic and fair trade)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of molasses (make sure you use the kind that doesn't taste like sulfur)
1 1/4 cups of whole-wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of white chocolate chips
1 cup of blanched slivered almonds
1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
Almond Breeze

1 - Preheat oven to 350F and prepare an 8x8 pan (I suggest lining it with parchment paper)
2 - In large bowl mix together the yogurt, apple sauce, sugar, vanilla, and molasses. Allow the ingredients to combine.
3 - Add to the same bowl the flour, baking soda, white chocolate chips, almonds, and coconut.
4 - Combine all of the ingredients together - the mixture will be very thick at this point.
5 - Add just enough Almond Breeze to allow the batter to be mixable
6 - Pour mixture into prepared pan
7 - Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle

And OH MY were the results ever amazing!!!!! I highly recommend this recipe bloggies. I'll be making it time and time again.

Although I do recommend freezing the individual blondies so as to avoid temptation. 'Cause oh boy were they tempting! :oP

Time for me to head to work but check back later tonight for To be the Whole Package's FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!!!!!!! Yaaaaaaayyy!!!!!!!!!! :o)

A Lunch Time Entry

Hello bloggies!

First things first - Meghann's Blogger Bake Sale is still going on. It looks like it's going to be a hit too!! :o) Bidding ends at midnight EST time so be sure to pick out your bake good of choice before then.

Also, someone bid on my cookies (yaaaaaayy!!) which means my mom won't have to end up buying them! lol I have a funny feeling it was one of you lovelies that reads this blog. Thank-you! :o) I'll make sure to make your batch extra yummy!


Now back to the weekend recap . . . .

After my very disappointing breakfast I was starving. Honestly I don't remember being so hungry mid morning in a long time. That's probably because I've been downing Green Monsters for so long.

Thankfully I'd packed a mid-morning snack just in case:


Starvation averted (:oP) I diligently returned to my work duties. I was all about concentrating until the fiance called to tell me that a package I had been waiting for had arrived. At lunch I ran home to see my new toys:


Via Greyhound . . .


But originally from Bowflex!!! Tee-hee! I was tickled pink with excitement at this point. It was all I could do to keep myself from ripping the box apart!!!

And my toys?


Two Bowflex Selecttech Dumbbells!!! They arrived just in time given that I just allowed my gym membership to lapse. I'm turning into an at-home workout kind of girl and I love it!!!

Want to see one up close?


They look kind of huge but they're adjustable and absolutely AWESOME!!! Stay tuned for a full and proper review of these little babies soon.

Eventually I calmed myself down enough to have my lunch. This plate was inspired by my girl Sharon over at Snippets and Bites. She's always putting together these beautiful plates completely loaded down with fruits and veggies. I tried my hand at a Sharon style meal and paired it all with about 1/2 cup of the last of my massive batch of home-made meat sauce:


Dinner was a rare treat for the boy and I - pizza!!!!! On the way home I picked up some pre-made whole wheat multi-grain pizza dough. I started off by topping it with some pesto (love me some pesto!) and pizza sauce:


I then topped that off with heaps and heaps of veggies, one sliced up zesty Italian soy-sausage, and some partly-skimmed mozzarella cheese! Quick and easy, way cheaper than delivery, and better for you too. Score!


I had 1/4 of the pizza and the rest . . . well I'm sure we can all assume where the rest ended up! :oP lol

Later on that night the fiance and I headed to the movies. Dinner and a movie on a Friday night. It felt like we were just at the beginning stages of dating again. We'll have to do it again soon!

Time for me to head back to work . . . I'll be back later tonight with the rest of my weekend and a white-chocolate coconut blondie recipe!

My first ever blondie and I assure you it won't be my last!!!!

Blogging Bake Sale TODAY - and a Total Cranberry Crunch Review

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I know I did! :o) The weather was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed my run outside with the wind in my face surrounded by a crystal clear view of the Rocky Mountains. Twas gorgeous girlies!

But now it's Monday and that means: Meghann's Blogger Bake Sale is TODAY!!!!

The action starts at 11am EST and ends at midnight EST. Head on over here and checkout the 30 goodies that will be up for auction (and here for the guidelines)! Canadians welcome this time!!!

Remember all proceeds go towards the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Yummy eats and a great cause!! I love it!!

I'm going to have to keep this post short girlies. I've been having some trouble with my photo editing software so it's cut into my blogging time this morning.



Let's start with Part I of my weekend recap (and let's pretend my weekend includes Friday):

I woke up Friday morning and decided to skip my Green Monster in favour of reviewing the Total Cranberry Crunch sample I received in the mail.


Given it's name I expected it to be loaded with yummy crannies. Not so much bloggies. Not so much. Here is how it looked in my cereal bowl:


I was sorely disappointed in the cranberry flavour in this. It was negligible at best. In fact before I ate this bowl I threw in a small handful of my Ocean Spray dried cranberries. It made it much better?

Overall review? I would not buy this again nor would I recommend it. Besides being low on cranberries it tasted high in sugar. In fact I would describe it as too sweet for my taste (but mind you I don't eat particularly sweet things for breakfast). I also found that the cereal failed to keep me full. I was starving by the time lunch rolled around. Plus the nutritional information shows that one serving (without milk of choice) has 190 calories and 44 grams of carbs. Sure it's high in protein (4 grams) but that doesn't make up for the fact that if I ate this for breakfast I'd be loading up on more food pretty shortly thereafter.

Sorry Total. :o( Thank-you for the sample but I don't think I'll be buying this again. I want more bang for my morning caloric intake!

Time to head off bloggies - I'll be back later (at lunch) with more! Don't forget to bid!!!

A Small Town Success!!

Hola bloggies!

As some of you know I have to travel far away to court on a regular basis. These explorations take me to beautiful mountain locations, gorgeous fruit filled valleys, and to different foodie stomping grounds. Sometimes eating in different places doesn't work out so well (like when there's only a diner to be had) other times you find a place which is a jewel! And yesterday was such a day . . .

I woke up early in the morning and got ready to leave my house. With the blizzards of recent days I decided to get an early start. As a bonus the fiance (no longer known as the boy) came with me so he drove my little Mazda while I snapped some food pictures.


Tee-hee! :oP This was my attempt to take pictures of my Green Monster as the car twisted and turned through mountain roads. I had to wait until the road was a little more flat and the car a little more stable. But I promise to take some awesome mountain pics when the weather cooperates!

And what did I have with my Green Monster?


Oh there I go teasing again!! :oD But note the whole almond in there. Needless to say I was uber impressed. I also managed to catch a little bit more of a winding road this time. It was a bit of a mountain pass and a treacherous one too. If ever I'm going to hit a blizzard on the way to court (or back home) it is in this area! Thankfully the weather was much more pleasant yesterday.

After work we all headed to a local Italian restaurant. It was rather unassuming from the outside. A relatively new building but nothing spectacular. But inside I found a lovely intimate space with an open kitchen! I happen to love open kitchens. It's the best when dining is theater. Besides it assures me that nothing un-toward is going on with my food!

In this kitchen I could see the chef working furiously away. He must have been working wonders back there because when my appetizer came out it looked like this:

My appetizer consisted of a Caprese salad - big slices of ripe tomatoes, fresh basil chiffonnade, chunks of incredibly beautiful mozzarella cheese (known as bocconcino), all drizzled with a bit of balsamic and a beautiful extra-virgin olive oil. Num num num! I was a very happy foodie. Thrilled actually!

Next my main dish arrived:


For my main course I had al-dente tortellini filled with ricotta cheese and ground veal - all coated in a pesto garlic sauce. And yes there was a bread stick but once it posed for a picture I quickly passed it off to the boy beside me.

My main dish was also really good. You could taste a hint of nutmeg in the sauce but in all I would have rather had a tomato based or rose sauce. I love me some rose! In fact I'll admit to stealing some of the boy's tomato sauce (he ordered a penne with a veal milanese) and turning my sauce into a rose. lol Creative license I guess you'd say!

And was it yummy? YES! And so unexpected for such a small little town. I'll likely go back again but mostly for the salad. That salad was to die for! Oh and as a bonus the prices were quite reasonable - score!

I arrived home kind of late and still felt quite full so I was in no rush to make dinner. Eventually the hunger hit me so I whipped up something with spinach, red peppers, onion, and shrimp (with a small side of avocado):


It looked lovely and tasted great but after a lone bite I decided my late lunch had been more than enough. The boy ended up eating the rest of my dinner (since he was still a bit hungry after his earlier in the day) and I grabbed one of these little guys instead:


It was just small enough and sweet enough to hit the spot. I guess you could say I practiced a bit of intuitive eating. I was rather proud of myself actually!

All in all I'd say it was a day of yummy eats and thankfully blizzard free. :o) And today is Friday (wooohooo!!) and that's always a very good thing!

Enjoy the end of the work-week amigos and amigas!

I'm Such a Tease

Hello bloggies!

It's almost Friday and I for one could not be more thrilled! I have traveled to that far away courthouse (through blizzards) several times this week. I'm looking forward to working out tomorrow, having an office day, and then kicking back all weekend long! :o)

I bet you've been wondering what's been up with my eats this week? Well how about I show you Tuesday (briefly) and Wednesday.

Let's start with Tuesday breakie! I woke up early that morning and cooked myself some of my long awaited plantains:


Oh they were perfect! Ripe and lovely! You see when plantains are ripe and cooked in a pan with a teeny bit of oil they end up tasting like pure butter. They absolutely melt in your mouth and make for a VERY happy Toronto Girl out West! Of course I paired my plantains with another one of my Green Monsters. YUM!

Now there were more eats on Tuesday but I'm going to pass on showing you the pictures. They were kind of appalling. It's kind of what happens when you end up in a teeny tiny town with nothing but a dinner type joint for lunch and dinner.

Let's just say for lunch I ordered what they described as their breakfast skillet. The picture in the menu showed some pan fried potatoes with lots of veggies, some cheese and eggs. In an attempt to be a good girl I asked them to omit the cheese and make the eggs poached. What landed on the table in front of me was nothing like what I was expecting!!! There were very little potatoes, veggies, and eggs. But there were two very large sausages at either side of my plate, one massive slice of ham on top of my eggs, and on top of that about 5 strips of bacon. You should have seen my face. I died!!! And not in a good way!!! Hence no pictures.

Dinner wasn't that great either. half a sad looking hamburger without any mayo. I didn't eat any of the bacon, sausage, or ham at lunch and I omitted french fries and mayo at dinner. Still it wasn't a day I'm particularly thrilled with. So let's move on to Wednesday instead! :o)


My Wednesday started off with a tall glass of Green Monster goodness! Quatchi and Mukmuk decided to sneak into the picture! They're crazy like that! lol

I was away at court for a bit and when I came back to my office I found a surprise waiting for me, courtesy of some new friends of mine:


And inside the box?


And that's all you get to see of my surprise package for now. Why? Because I'm such a tease!! :oP

I indulged in some of the contents of the box for a snack and to aid me with a future review. I plugged away for a long long time on work stuff but took some time off in the afternoon for some of my favourite eats (sushi!) and a bit of fluffy reading:


Funny thing is I used to buy magazines like that long before I got engaged. But now I actually feel legit when paying for them in the supermarket checkout line! :o)

Overall both my lunch time eats and my magazine were a welcome respite from a long work day. In fact I was so busy that I didn't stop until quite late at night (just after 9pm) to eat some dinner.

I still had a teeny tiny corner of my challah bread left so I turned it into a small slice of French toast. It was delicious and the challah will be sorely missed. BUT I hear there will be three loaves up for bids during the Blogger Bake Sale on April, 6th. I'll be bidding for sure!

Highlight of my day? Definitely getting my lovely package! I'm very excited to share the contents with you via a giveaway. I've also been thinking that I should supplement those goodies with a few other of my favourite things. Just 'cause I think you're that cool bloggies!

Hasta luego . . .

Giveaway on the Horizon!!!! AND a Blogger Cookbook!!!

Hello bloggies!!!!! :o)


I wanted to give you a heads up that VERY soon I'll be hosting my VERY first giveaway!!!

I'm thrilled! Especially because it will feature some of these beauties to the left! I don't know about you but I can't wait.

I also wanted to remind you to head over to Jenna's (of Eat, Live, Run) Team in Training page to donate $10 towards her efforts to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

You then email her at helpjennarun@gmail.com to let her know you donated. And what do you get in return? Other than an amazing feeling of satisfaction you mean? :oP Well she will e-mail you a blogger cookbook featuring over EIGHTY pages of wonderful recipes provided by your fellow food and wellness bloggers!

I've already contributed a recipe, donated, and I can't wait to see the lovely concoctions all the bloggies out there came up with. There's some serious skill on the blogosphere so this cookbook is sure to be a winner!

Dream Team Wish List

Hello peeps!

This post has nothing to do with fitness or food but I wanted to write it anywayz! :o)

Remember how I was thrilled about the photographers for the wedding? Well they make up one half of what would be my two-part wedding dream team. StillMotion (incredible cinematographers out of the Toronto region would make up part two!

Want to see what they can do? Be still my heart!!! Sigh . . .


Welcome to StillMotion - the Demo from StillMotion on Vimeo.

I haven't brought myself to take the plunge with these guys yet but I may. Their imagery is just so stunning and I would love to have something like that for my wedding day. There are no do overs . . .

We'll have to see but for now I'm going to continue drooling over their art! :o)