Tag: breakfast

almond hemp hearts granola

would you like to know what people say behind your back? or live in sweet oblivion…

for years I have gone through life clueless to the fact that anyone might be talking about me…  I have gone into situations believing no one has an opinion about me…

recently it was brought to my attention, and not in a malicious way but a kind way, that someone might have something to say about me… and it might not be favourable…

and it shocked me…

not that I don’t talk about people… oh I do…  but only when it’s fair and just and they brought it on themselves…

I have lived with a mindset that I have never done anything to anyone that would warrant them talking behind my back about my bad personality traits…

but, alas, it has happened…  and most likely has happened way more regularly than I would ever have imagined…

I know what you are thinking…  what would this innocent farmer’s wife who merely cooks, cleans, manages the occasional hockey team, runs, watches Netflix and tends to her garden ever be able to do to another human being to warrant them destroying her behind her back?

her children and husband might have another story to tell…  but so what?   do we want their opinion? no…

I was telling them about the slander directed my way and their responses were…

‘you are very friendly to people you want to be friendly to… and then really distant and mean to everyone else’

‘you are really judgemental… of us and everyone else’

‘we are afraid of you most of the time… that is why we laugh at your jokes and eat what you cook for us’

‘when you aren’t laughing at one of your own jokes, you look really mad’

but again, these are the options of a farmer and his 15 and 12 year old boys…  not to be taken too seriously…

you know what you can do once you realize people talk negatively behind your back?

either stop caring or change your behaviour…

third option is to let everyone know you don’t want anyone to tell you the truth about what is being said about you… this is the option I am going with…

I don’t like hugging and I don’t like hearing bad stuff about myself…

there I said it…  only rainbows and lollypops please…

and I’ll do the same for you… I will offer you a cup of coffee and some granola and lets chat about everything other than the garbage other people are saying about us…  or about our kids… or our husbands….

which doesn’t leave a whole lot of options so perhaps don’t come for coffee and granola and just let me eat it alone and watch Netflix…

(I really can’t believe anyone would have any negative vibes coming from me)

almond hemp hearts granola

  • Servings: 1 baking sheet
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup chopped almonds
  • 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
  • 1/4 cup hemp hearts
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 cup creamy almond butter
  • 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

  • set oven to 325 degrees
  • in a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, flaxseed, hemp hearts, cinnamon and salt
  • combine the dry ingredients and add the other ingredients and mix well with a spatula
  • spread granola mixture on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
  • bake for 30 minutes, until it is golden brown
  • let cool completely on baking sheet
  • will keep in an airtight glass jar for up to one month (or 8 hours in my house)

 

morning meatballs 

when someone says to you ‘I just can’t find the time for that’ … what is your reaction?

recently… due to a pretty intense winter depression fuelled by being ‘holed up’ in a rink booth and wishing to get outside more… I made the impulsive decision to register in a half-marathon for the end of May and start training…

the training involves smaller runs throughout the week and then one long run on Sunday (which is Monday for me)

the fun part of training is getting my workouts all written down on the calendar, eating meatballs for breakfast and buying a new running outfit and shoes…

the not so fun part is running… and running… and running…

I feel I need to mention that I have attempted to train for a half-marathon before… I got half way through day one of training and quit…  so don’t hold your breath…

when you tell people that you are attempting to run a marathon, there is always going to be that one individual in the group who says…

“I would never have the time to do that”

I’ve started working on my replies… because this is not the first time in my life that comments like that have been directed my way and I’m positive it won’t be the last…

so I respond with “I actually have a lot of time on my hands”… or “you make time for what you love… am I right?” …  or “I neglect a lot of other things in my life” … or “did you know I am a stay-at-home farmer’s wife?”

when you tell someone how busy you are and how you don’t have time for things… what do you think you are really saying?

are you giving yourself a little compliment that you are better because you are busier than the person who takes a yoga class?

when you say you don’t have time to read or watch tv because your evenings are so busy are you telling the person who does those things that they should up their ‘busy game’ and stop being so lazy?

do you think that by-standers who now suddenly realize how busy you are and how valuable your time is are going to ease your burden and assist you in your daily struggles?

when you see some people coming… you almost want to get the jump on the conversation and ask them “busy week?”… just to get the ball rolling in the direction they are going to steer the conversation anyways…


the craziest thing is some people who are very, very busy never talk about it… it’s like they are too busy to even say it… yet oddly enough, everyone knows how busy they are, even without them saying it…

the weird thing about it is that I am insanely competitive…  but not in this area…  you win… go ahead and win… be busier than me…

do more… be more… work more…  go right ahead…

just one request… stop talking about it…

if you want to be the busiest… then be the busiest…  just don’t keep having to tell everyone how  swamped you are…

you’ve already won…

now just enjoy your victory quietly please…

or perhaps – and this thought just occurred to me – you are really just looking for a hug…

in which case you are looking in all the wrong places…  keep moving along… quietly…

turkey apple morning meatballs

Ingredients:

  • 1 pkg Lilydale Extra Lean ground turkey
  • 2 apples, grated
  • 1/2 tbsp dried basil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • zest of one lemon
  • 3/4 cup chopped pecans (or you can use pistachios)
  • 3/4 cup Craisins

Directions:

  • mix ingredients together
  • with a medium ice cream scoop, scoop out meatballs onto a parchment lined baking sheet
  • bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until meatballs are thoroughly cooked with no pink in them
  • serve with bbq sauce or ketchup if desired

who wants a hug?

we ate some yummy granola this morning to start 2016 with some fibre… I do love the first day of the new year… I’m a goal setter and I love setting completely unrealistic goals that I have trouble even getting through day 1 achieving…

my list of goals:

more fibre (check), consume less/buy less, read more books, write every day, workout 5 days a week, edit my house and get rid of clutter, compliment people more, not lose my temper, become a better hugger…

if you are wondering what I mean by become a better hugger, that is most likely because you have never had to say goodbye or hello to me or comfort me…  you would know that my hugging skills could use a lot of polishing…

over Christmas people hug a lot more than usual… and on New Year’s Eve the hug usually is accompanied with a kiss… which is why I fell asleep before midnight last night…  avoiding the hug/kiss nonsense…

I know I’m not good at hugging so over the years I’ve began to avoid it almost like I’m avoiding getting the flu from someone…  winter is easy because I can quickly throw on a huge winter parka and then it is like hugging someone with a pillow in between you…  I’ve been known to slip out of large group goodbye’s with a fake phone call…  which everyone should know I only ever text… so being on the phone during a hug session is quite suspicious…

if you decide to hug me… these are few of the options I generally go to…

the open faced hug… this is half a hug where you don’t finish it by wrapping both your arms around the other person… just one arm… that way the fronts of your bodies don’t need to touch each other… this is usually what I do with a man heading in for a hug… it can make it seem like you are waiting for a third party to come join your hug… if this happens it becomes more of a huddle and less of a hug…

the shoulder to the throat hug… my older brother is a master at this one… you do this once to someone and they won’t come looking for a hug anytime soon…  and it seems innocent and like a mistake but I know when hugging my older brother it is calculated and he is letting me know ‘you should have known better than to try and hug me’

the ‘are we going to kiss’ hug… this happens to me more than I’m proud of and it is entirely my fault…  I’m so poor at hugging that I enter into them at an irregular speed and this leads to a situation where it seems like I’m waiting for a kiss… when in reality I’m just not sure which of my body parts you want to feel pressed up on you…

the fade-away hug…  in an effort to try to be polite and respectful I tend to curve my body so the only thing touching the recipient is my shoulders… just shoulder on shoulder action and the rest of my body curved away from you at an angle I’m needing pilates classes to help me get flexible enough to pull off…

the Facebook friend hug… so you run into a friend that you have not seen in 17 years but have totally stalked them on Facebook the entire time… and this is a person that when you knew them the thought to hug them would never have crossed your mind… but now so much time has passed and you’ve seen them go through so much on Facebook… and you find yourself heading in for a hug with basically a complete stranger… and saying ‘it’s been so long’…

the wedding/funeral hug… these are times that you are required to hug people that you normally would not hug…  again, I am so terrible at hugging that I did not have a receiving line at my own wedding so that it cut down the number of hugs I had to doll out…

the handshake hug… this is when one party feels a handshake is appropriate and the other party is like ‘nope… come here you’ and brings it in for a hug that has a handshake going on in the middle of it…

the farmer told me there are only three people that he is comfortable hugging… his daughter, his grandmas and yours truly… although he says I could try to make it less awkward…

but there are people out there that love to hug… these are people that volunteer to pick you up from the airport… because they know they can squeeze in a hug there… and they seem to not be able to sense who enjoys hugging them in return… they head in for a hug that often involves an extra squeeze, pat on the back like they are burping you, smelling your hair or making a ‘mmmm’ noise as they settle into the hug…

and even though I’d be perfectly comfortable avoiding hugs for the rest of my life, I don’t want to have my children say it’s my fault they can’t hug properly someday… thus my resolution to improve at hugging…

I started with hugging my 13 year old today and he tensed up like I was going to hurt him… and then he said ‘are you ok mom?’… I replied ‘does a mother need a reason to hug her boy?’ … to which he said ‘usually’

I’m going to hug the farmer today and then again at the end of 2016 and see if he thinks there has been progress…

cherry nut granola

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup quinoa
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
  • 1/4 cup All Bran Buds cereal
  • 1/4 cup slivered almonds
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries
  • 2 tsp coconut oil, melted
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Directions:

  • preheat oven to 325 degrees
  • on a parchment lined baking sheet, place quinoa, coconut and oats
  • bake for 10 minutes
  • in a bowl mix flaxseeds, bran buds, almonds, pecans and cherries
  • in a small bowl melt coconut oil and add honey, vanilla, cinnamon and salt and stir till combined
  • pour the oat mixture into the bowl with the cherries and combine
  • add the honey mixture and stir
  • return to the parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes
  • let cool and serve over yogurt