Couscous, new gym and cute dogs

It’s the weekend!!  And just think … next weekend will be Christmas : )

We had our holiday party at work today and here was my food contribution … The couscous salad turned out great! (At least I sure loved it : )  Most of my coworkers didn’t have a clue what couscous was so I think it scared them away a little, ha!

New Gym

As you may have noticed, I didn’t post yesterday and part of the reason was because of a basement reno we’re Erik is currently working on. (I only helped carry stuff ; )

We’re converting the unfinished side of our basement into our official gym. Until now, our workout equipment has been scattered between two rooms and I have often referred to unfinished part as “the dungeon”.

Well, just so you can get an idea of what I mean by dungeon … here is the BEFORE picture:

Pretty bad, no? This picture was taken when we first moved in and it was a mess because we were my dad was tiling the other room in the basement for us.

It’s allllmost ready for the AFTER picture but not just yet.  Until then … here is a teaser of the BEFORE and AFTER floor ; )  

Dogs

I finally got some good pictures of Rocky, haha.  When we’re sitting and/or laying on the couch (which is right in front of the staircase leading to upstairs), a lot of times she goes and sticks her head through the rail when she wants to play and I caught her in the act last night.

Rocky is our loyal dog. Everywhere we go, she goes … no matter what. If you go in a room and shut the door, you can bank on the fact that she’ll be right outside of it when you come out.

And here’s Bubba being cute. He was begging for more attention by putting his chin on Erik’s lap.  Who can resist that???

Not me!

Have a fabulous weekend!! : )  I might be back tomorrow but if not, see you Sunday night!

 

-Lesley

 

Portabella mushroom pizza

Happy Wednesday!

Is this week going by slow to anyone else? The full week before a holiday seems to always be extra long!!

However, I just love this time of year : ) I keep saying that but I just can’t help myself! A lot of exciting things seem to be happening in our lives as well, so that makes it even better.

Christmas Card

Here is our finished Christmas card. The color turned out darker than I had expected but they’ll work (you can’t see the dark color in this picture ; ) Now I just need to get them addressed and sent out!

Dinner

Last night’s dinner is an “old” favorite of ours … portabella pizza! (Except for Erik … he had “real” pizza).

And here’s the portabella …  

I LOVE this pizza. It’s any mushroom lover’s dream … not to mention a total guilt free and healthy pizza. It’s great topped with any of your favorite pizza toppings but here’s my mix …

Ingredients:

• large portabella mushroom
• no salt added tomato paste
• no salt added tomato sauce
• no salt added diced tomatoes
• ground turkey
• chopped onions
• reduced fat feta cheese
• 2% shredded mozzarella cheese
• olive oil
• Mrs. Dash’s garlic and herb seasoning
• pepper
• sea salt

Directions:

• Wash large portabella mushroom, removing stem and hollowing out the inside to desire thickness
• Add desired ingredients beginning with sauces and ending with the cheese
• Bake directly on the rack at 425 degrees until cheese melted.

Tip: place some tin foil on the rack underneath pizza to catch the dripping

What’s your favorite way to eat portabella mushrooms?

 

-Lesley

 

Business with benefits

Hey guys!

Thanks for the couscous ideas! I think I’m going to make a combination of several recipes suggested, but I’ll let you know! My plan is to bring it to a Christmas “potluck” at work.

Fun In the Mail

I feel like I’ve hit the mail jackpot lately ; ) haha.  My new vegan bag I won, Angela’s package, and  today I came home to another one.

First up, the package from Angela …

We are fellow Trio bar lovers (99 cents … yes, please!) and we decided to do a trade since her grocery store carries the Tropical and Strawberry flavors while mine carriers the Cranberry and Blueberry flavors. Being the wonderful foodie friend she is, she not only sent Trio bars but tea and Trader Joe truffles … complete with a cute homemade Christmas card : )

I immediately dug into the truffles and tried one out … mmm!  I don’t have a TJs so the TJ love was appreciated, haha.

Business with Benefits

Okay, so we’re already seeing a wonderful benefit of the new small business we have embarked upon. A company called Love Street Living Foods sent us some possible products to see if we’d want to put them in our vending machines. 

While on the phone with them, my husband told them about my blog and they decided to send extra so I could review them here on Lesley Lifting Life. Thanks! : )

Here’s the loot …     The above fudge is even sweetened with agave nectar … I love that!

 

Anyone ever heard of wild jungle peanuts?? I tried them right away because they intrigued me!

 

Ahhhh … raw walnut butter, raw almond butter, raw macadamia butter and raw cashew butter? Ha, these are the perfect things to let me sample … they must know me!!

I have yet to use coconut butter in anything so I’m excited about that. In fact, I didn’t really even know there was a difference until now.

And last but not least in this wonderful loot,  100% raw vegan chocolate spread. Does that sound good or what? haha.

I can’t wait to try all of these products … they are right up my alley. You’ll see more of them in future posts :)

I love my life! I can’t wait to get our vending machines up and running. We started out with five machines. So far, we have four locations secured, 2 are in schools and 2 is in a huge ice arena. As soon as the fifth location is secured we’ll be getting the machines and getting started … I’m so excited to see how it goes!!

For now … I’m relaxing a little bit before bed and eating one of my favorite snacks.

Cottage cheese with apple slices, almonds, cinnamon and stevia …. perfect bedtime snack : )

What’s your favorite “before bed” snack?

 

-Lesley

 

Shopping, Venison, and Package

Hello everyone! : )

Hope you all had a great weekend!

I’m happy that I got a lot accomplished as far as getting ready for the holidays are concerned. I love buying things for other people, it’s fun!

Here’s the picture we used for our Christmas cards (I cropped it and added pictures of the dogs as well). I’ll have to take a picture of it when I get them in the next day or so. Shopping

While Christmas shopping, I couldn’t help but pick up a few items for myself that were on sale ; ) I got these earrings for $5 … I love them … my favorite color!

And this necklace for $5 as well! It’s different and I think that’s why I like it.

Venison

And last night, we had a great dinner! Venison burgers with couscous and veggies.  My mother-in-law’s husband gave us some ground venison from a deer he got this hunting season.  We love it!  It’s even local and free range, ha! 

My friend from work also gave us some roasts from their deer but we haven’t tried it yet.  One good thing about deer is that it’s very a very lean meat.  

I cooked the venison patties on a skillet with olive oil spray, Mrs. Dash garlic and herb, pepper and sea salt. Deer is similar to beef in that it tastes the best medium rare. (Deer tends to get easily get tough when overcooked).

And I love couscous! I’ve been wanting to make a cold salad using couscous, does anyone have a recipe suggestion?

Thanks

I’d like to send a special thanks to Angela who sent me an awesome package that I got in the mail today … thanks so much, I LOVE it!! :D   (I’ll show you all the contents in tomorrow’s post ; )

Who’s ready for Christmas??

 

-Lesley

 

Coconut milk, hair, and winner

Happy Sunday!

Hope you’ve been having a great weekend. Mine has been lovely and fairly productive. I tend to fall off of the face of the blogging earth for most of the weekend so if you all wonder why I’m not “around” it’s simply because it’s the weekend : )

Breakfast

Lately, the star of my oats has been this … So Delicious Coconut Milk Kefir.

My grocery store recently started carrying it and I had to give it a whirl. It’s really thick, almost like a thin yogurt.  By itself, it tastes a little strange and with cereal, I found the taste to be questionable. However, putting a splash in my oats makes them perfect! It thickens them up just right and adds almost a tangy sweet flare.

And the good thing about coconut milk is that it doesn’t spoil right away like cow’s milk! 

Dogs

Lately, I just can’t help but take tons of pictures of my dogs … Adrian (Husky) and Bubba (Akita) are always so photogenic. Rocky (German Sheppard), however, is not! Ha, whenever I try to take a picture of her she jumps up and mauls me and tries to stick her nose on my brand new camera’s lens and in my face.  So in case you were wondering, we DO actually have three dogs, but Rocky most of the time goes unpictured due to her hyper tendencies.

New “Do”

Here are a few pictures of my new hair just as I was about to jump on the treadmill. I decided to keep the purple and add some blonde. (I have missed my blonde hair horribly! I don’t think I’ll go all over dark anymore).

Dinner

As I stated the other day, I haven’t been doing much cooking lately and I’ve missed it! Last night I actually cooked a little bit and it was fun even though I didn’t do much.

We had chopped Smart Chicken chicken breasts cooked in a skillet with onions and zucchini seasoned with Mrs. Dash garlic and herb, sea salt, pepper, Italian seasonings and some red wine vinaigrette.

With some peas … (I love peas … when I was little I used to eat them frozen straight out of the freezer:)

And Erik had his dinner with a baked potato.  I skipped out on heavier carbs last night due to abnormally large carb consumption during the day ; )

Winner

Last but not least, I received a package in the mail on Saturday …. it was from a giveaway I won from Jody at Truth 2 Being Fit. The bag comes from madBaggage which an an eco-friendly, vegan handbag line. I won the large tote. (And it is large … I love it!) I’m always carrying around huge purses so this was perfect for me ; ) 

Included inside was a mini reusable tote.

Thanks again Jody and madBaggage!! : )

We just took our Christmas card picture so for the rest of my Sunday afternoon, I plan on getting some more Christmas shopping done and getting our Christmas cards ready.   Ahhh … I love this time of year! : )

How has your weekend been going?

 

-Lesley

Cozy and bright

Happy Weekend, everyone!

I thought I’d end the week with a picture post of Christmas cheer.  I hope you all have a cozy and bright weekend : ) 

(I got a new camera from Santa ; ) so I have been constantly taking pictures!)                  

I’ll see you later this weekend with new hair! (I seem to enjoy changing my hair often ; )

Have a great weekend!

 

-Lesley