Inspired by a friend’s backyard and her growing her own herbs – I’ve decided to landscape my lawn and grow my own herbs as well in my garden.  So I’ve contacted several landscaper and contractors and gotten some quotes for landscaping my lawn in late April – early May.  I’m quite excited about it and even though it will cost us a few pennies – I think it’s worth it because I’ve always wanted to entertain in our backyard in the summer.  Having said that – we are also now looking at lawn gnomes to pretty up my lawn in front of our home – putting gutters on our roof – so that we can also have a small garden in front of our house.  Like I said I’m pretty excited – so if you don’t see me eating out so often – you know what I’m busy doing.

I have been missing my 3 in 1 tea a lot and since Jenn – from Toronto was having a baby – I really didn’t want to trouble her to go out to get it for me in such bad weather here in Canada – so my friend from the city came to visit me a few weeks ago and bought this for me.  This is not the same as the ones I’ve had before but they were quite similar and thank God for it because I was really having withdrawal symptoms – hahahha!!  I don’t understand why our local grocery store can’t carry them – so that I don’t have to crave for them so bad.  I’ve asked many a times – but nope – they still haven’t carried them yet.  So disappointing !! afterall, this kind of tea – don’t go bad at all and don’t need to be in the fridge nor frozen – so it really isn’t a great risk – so why won’t they want to make my money !  and take my money!!  darn store!  Let me go bug the manager again next week.  hahah!

Spring is here and I’m hoping that the weather will cooperate with us – so that PB and I with Chloe of course can go to the Farmer’s Market around the county area.  I loved the Farmer’s market so much – because it’s the best place to get all the good food – and home made with the best ingredients.  And as for Chloe she loved all the handicraft made by these very talented and artistic people.  There are some  farm stools we saw last year and we didn’t get them and regretted much – so this time round – we are going to get some for Chloe and her friends. We are also trying to get some lawn chairs – that are hand-painted for our lawn because we are going to be landscaping it this spring.  I look forward to buying all these wonderful things at the Farmer’s Market.

I love any kind of veggies except cauliflowers but these days I choose to eat organic veggies only – and not because I’m being upper class but more so for health reasons.  I’m sure you all know that organic food are food that doesn’t have chemicals, pesticide or synthetic fertilizer to help it to grow, therefore it is less likely to cause dietary ingestion of chemicals that you don’t want in your body.  To me, it’s a pretty smart way to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Going organic is simply a smart way to go for just about anyone especially on meat too – so nowadays, we try to buy grass fed chicken and beef and though more expensive – I think we should take care of our health.  I even try to cook my food without any additives, artificial coloring and any kind of extra salt that is needed in them.

So how do one go about looking for organic food ?  I’m pretty sure – but don’t quote me that all food and veggies sold at our local Farmer’s market are all organic.  You can also look for food that are labeled “certified organic”  - the All Natural or Naturally Grown is good but they are not 100% organic - so you know.   So happy and healthy eating to everyone – and have a great weekend.

So Mcdonald’s had a promotion for these Mcbristro chicken sandwiches for 3 days starting from today – and it will end on Friday.  For less 50% – if you haven’t tried it – you should go check it out – my advertiser said to me – hahah!  so I did – I bought one at $2.90 and I’ll have to say that it was worth every penny.  I chose the Swiss Mushroom Melt because I loved mushroom but you may want to try the South West Chicken or the Chicken BLT.

The mushroom tasted really good and it complemented the swiss cheese – and the chicken was tender – loved the combination and it definitely made a huge meal even without the french fries.  Would I eat it again without the discount – for sure!  it really tasted yummy!   and almost feels like I was eating a gourmet sandwich.

Easter is just round the corner and this week we are preparing some Easter Gift Baskets for the kids in Chloe’s school.   I’m wondering if I should ask Chloe’s home room teacher to create a contest for the kids in her class – so that they can get to win a huge gift basket – and the rest will get a smaller basket.  But having said that I’m also preparing some gift baskets for some special friends’ kids and one for Chloe of course.  This year, there will be no Easter egg hunt at Grammie’s but that doesn’t mean that she won’t get anything from Grammie because we are going to make it as special as possible for her with Grampie.  I know that Grampie may not know what to buy for Chloe but we are going to be doing all the shopping and have a huge hunt with Grampie and Uncle Richard – and if Aunt Helena is here – it would be more fun for Chloe.

It’s funny how I never used to eat sambal when I was living in Asia but now that I’ve migrated to Canada – mannn!  the more the merrier – I could eat it everyday if I can have an everlasting supply.  I loved my fish but it can be quite boring eating baked fish – so now that I’ve my trusty oven toaster – I can bake my fish without having to warm up the entire oven for just one piece of fish.

And with some sambal leftover from meesiam packages from Prima Taste sent by various friends and family – I made some sambal fish for myself and yes, they were so yummy.  The photo does not do it justice – they really taste better than it looked.  It was pretty simple just garlic and sambal and baked for 12mins – and you can have a lovely meal.

I haven’t used a toaster oven for years now – and in fact wanted to sell it away.  Lucky for me – I didn’t sell it because instead of using my regular oven for small amount of food – I can now use the toaster oven to bake my fish or even heat up a spring roll.  I find that heating up such a huge oven is a real waste of money – therefore I stopped eating spring rolls altogether – till a girl at the M & M meat shop suggested I use a toaster oven instead – and that was the best advice I listened to.   My good ole toaster oven is in use again.

I don’t know why I ordered burger to be honest but I’m guessing I wanted something different and something with sauerkraut but ended up with a honey bear burger.  Not that they didn’t have a sauerkraut burger but it came with another type of meat or was it a wiener burger? i cannot remember now.

The burger was huge as you can see – but a tad dry and like i said i don’t know why i ordered a honey bear burger since I’m diabetic *slapped forehead*  Anyhow, I ate with caution and scrapped out all the honey and mustard sauce on it which left the burger drier which wasn’t the restaurant fault.  I guess the next time I shouldn’t wait till I’m so hungry before going to eat.  I blamed in on PB because he is always on the game console playing to his heart content during Sundays and I didn’t have the heart to stop them.

The gourmet burger was at $9.95 and came with fries but I chose to have a side Cesar instead – but they gave me a whole serving of a Cesar salad and I had them pack up the rest in a doggy bag that I will eventually throw out during the end of the week because I don’t have anything to eat with the salad during the week.  I was charged a $2.25 for the huge salad, definitely good for the money.   Overall, it was a great lunch – but I shouldn’t have ordered this particular type of burger because of the honey in it – I will try the Snauzer the next time or the Bacon Mozza Melt because I remembered that was good.

Eating healthy has always been my goal but when you are in a town that don’t really give you a lot of choices  - you have to make do and eat the best you can.  Eating a croissant once in a while is great ! i wished i could eat them everyday but you and I know that croissants can be quite fattening because there are just so much calories in them.  But Tim’s does make my croissant look a lot healthier right?  lots of veggies, tomatoes and chicken salad.  Yums!  so if I had to choose – I choose to eat a croissant to spoil myself – what about you?

A month or so ago, local well-known Chef – Gary Kent had brought some food over from Simply for Life for me to test – and as we all know that Simply for Life is all about getting healthy and being healthy.  I would have loved to taste the food – but alas, they were about to expire on the same day.  So instead I got Gary our friend to try it out instead.

And the verdict – pretty good.  As you can see here – the portion is good for someone trying to lose weight, yet not sacrificing and having the do not eat stigma.  i loved veggies and that would have worked good for me.  And if you asked me why I don’t take food that are about to expire – I have a very sensitive stomach because of my bowel obstruction some 4 years ago, so I need to eat properly – and even if they were frozen – I have to eat them as soon as I buy them – else my tummy just wouldn’t give up.  I’ve tried going to Simply for Life to get some fresh food – but my timing was not right – apparently they do closed on one weekday – and I’ve yet to go back again – I’m going to try again next week and would be able to give a proper review after that.   Stay tuned.

Yes, healthy snack bites you can send along with your spouse when they are working outdoors with their welding helmet or in the woods.  Especially for those who are diabetic like myself – this is definitely a great healthy snack bite – cheap, low calories, tasty and definitely very low sugar.   This was new at the local supermarket and cost less than $3 – comes in different flavors and 17 pieces of it will only be 90 calories – and 1 gm of sugar only !   now tell me that isn’t awesome.

But wait a minute – the bites are really small – so make sure you pack some cheese for yourself or the spouse when they are out doing some welding work or hard labor eh.  For someone like myself – it’s a perfect snack – I don’t have to feel guilty at all.

Yes! I hear yer!  Fish again! and how do one each so much fish only I don’t understand it either but father and daughter sure love their fish and chips everywhere we go.  Must be very boring for them right?  I would say – but they are happy so I’m not gonna say anything about it.  As for me – I can’t lived on fish alone – I eat fish at least 3 times a week but it had to be a baked salmon and for health reasons.  What about you?  how do you like your fish?  I would love some  assam fish too but I don’t have assam pre-mix at this time – so I can’t cook me some assam fish.

But do look at the fish that Chloe had – lots of fish meat right?  even I was tempted to eat some they looked so yummy.   This fish is from Jungle Jim’s so if you want fish like that – you know where to go – but we ordered the adult size haddock – and not from the kid’s menu.  My idea of eating good food is eat well – but eat moderately – from now on  - the Chinese has a saying – how much you eat and how much you wear is all allocated.  So after what happened to my mother-in-law – she died so suddenly, I am trying to eat the best for myself and body – but lived life the fullest and tell and show the people I loved that I loved them and the rest is secondary.  Making money is important and so is working hard but making your life worthwhile is more important.