Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Shameless Celebrity News

I have been abandoning my blog way too often lately and I feel bad. I think it's a summer thing. My blogger list is way shorter than it usually is, people are just not blogging enough! I don't have much to say in the way of personal stuff I have been working around the clock lately and this month I will be finishing up my Personal Training Course!!! Yaaa freaking hooo!!!! I'm so excited to start this career and I'm trying to work out and eat as well as I can to set a good example for my future clients. Life is hard and sometimes you need a burger or an ice cold can of Coke (what do they put in that stuff?!! It's like crack!) but then you get right back on the horse, or in my case, the leg press!! :-P
Now for some celebrity gossip I've been meaning to write about:

The Bachelorette - does this event count as a celebrity? I'm not sure! Anyways, I watched the "Overnight Date" episode at work last night, despite a few interruptions for requests for protein shakes lol. It's funny, some of the guys that come into the gym are like "Oh my god, your watching that crap?" and then some of them walk in, turn to their friend and are like "Look at that dude, that Ryan guy is back on!" lol, you just never know with people sometimes. A few comments on this show:
  • I am definitely adding Fiji to my list of places I want to go! I couldn't find any pics of where they are but man does that place look amazing!
  • Ashley so going to pick JP. Blogs and tabloids are all over this info, she is apparently engaged to JP and they are both actually together and happy. Apparently ABC realised that keeping couples apart was damaging their relationship which obviously makes the show look like a joke when they air the final episode and the couple's relationship is already a disaster!
  • I don't know what's going on with her hair. It looked way better on the Bachelor than on this season. Is she not trying because all of these guys are there to impress her. 
Seriously? You're on national television!! Where is your hair straightener? Or better yet, hairstylist? It's weird, she just seems like a different person on this season. 
  • Also, I know they are setting someone up to be the new Bachelor but I just don't know who it will be?! People are talking about it being "Mr. Sunshine" Ryan. I think that would be interesting. Also Chris Harrison was giving some hints about it being Ben F so who knows. I guess we'll find out soon! The "Men Tell All" episode will be on on Sunday and the finale will be shown Monday.
  • Kat Von D and Jesse James broke up. Boo hoo, so sad. I hate to be mean but I really just don't get how anyone could not love Sandra Bullock? He seemed to have such a good thing going and he screwed it up. Maybe he needs some time alone to think about why he does things like that!

  • In happy news, on Saturday TLC will be showing "Nick and Vanessa's Dream Wedding. I am curious to see that, they seem like a nice couple and I sort of love televised weddings. My pvr will be busy this weekend!
  • I am also curious to see what a 10 million dollar gong show Kim Kardashian's wedding is going to be! She's apparently getting married on August 20th and I'm sure the E! cameras will be there!
That's all my celeb info for today!

xoxo,
T

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Inspiration for Discipline

So my posts lately have been a little fluffy lately, hey? All hot pink shoes and watermelon. Not exactly deep stuff. But I do think about these things, depending on my daily mood. Today I was in the mood for some thinking. I picked up a book that's a favourite of my mom and I's.

This book is amazing. Every once in awhile, I will pick it up randomly, go to today's date and read something that feels like it was written just for me. Today no exception, this is exactly what I need to read, discipline is something I am constantly struggling with and I know I'm not alone in this, so I thought I'd share it with you guys.

July 20

I will gain more understanding when I realize...discipline is the one magical power I must develop and use.

There is magical thinking and there is magical doing. Magical doing is the result of personal discipline. You can think up a host of really great ideas, but if you do not have the discipline required to pull them off, you will not get very far. Some people are so good at magical thinking, the things they want to do can be done magically!

Discipline magically leads to results in your life. Discipline helps you plan. Discipline helps you stay on the path to what you are planning. Only when you are disciplined will you follow through on what you are thinking. Only when you are disciplined will you coach yourself through all of your actions. Only when you are disciplined can you capture the magic of your spirit and put it into action in your life. Discipline cannot be forced upon you. It must be developed.

You must develop the discipline to think right. This will give you the discipline to act right. When you are disciplined in your thinking and acting, you always feel good. When you feel good, you want to share how you feel. You want to do good things. When you do, you set an example for others. They are inspired by you.

Until today, you may have been thinking great thoughts while demonstrating very little discipline to do anything about them. Just for today, practice discipline. Take one step towards doing something you have been thinking about. Speak to yourself, calmly, firmly. Do things that are in alignment with your thinking. Feel good about any little progress you make. Support to progress you made today by disciplining yourself to do a little more tomorrow.

Today I am developing the discipline I need to make something magical happen in my life! " -Iyana Vanzant. (Until Today)

What do you guys think?

xoxo,
T

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Watermelons & Dreaming

It's July and I just bought my first watermelon of the summer. I don't know what took me so long except I did not want to lug it up to my apartment. I needed some watermelon motivation and it came in the form of the Pioneer Woman. If you don't know who she is, go to this website and be prepared to drool. A lot. She posted her newest recipe the other day and I magically located my motivation to make Watermelon Granita.

 
image via the pioneer woman
I decided to make my way over to my favourite place to grocery shop ever, Langley Farm Market in Pitt Meadows. This is like 2 minutes from my house, which is awesome. This is also a really bad picture of it. But I felt all awkward taking pictures of people shopping, what was I supposed to say? "Smile, this is going on my blog!"? So this is what your getting.


I managed to get my watermelon up with no disasters. I also managed to cut it up with no disasters. For those who know me, this is an accomplishment.


I whipped up the granita in like 30 seconds and then started the loooong process of waiting for it to freeze so I could scrape it. While I was waiting, I whipped up a batch of my favourite vegetable soup in the crockpot so I didn't have to cook my lunches for the week and to get tons of veggies in. 

my shadow is ruining this picture!

I actually got really distracted and forgot about the granita until I was lying in bed last night. You know when your lying in bed in the summer and you feel all hot and muggy and you just can't get comfortable. Granita is the perfect solution to that problem! It cooled me down and I fell asleep immediately!

One more thing to wrap up this totally random fruit post: My mom gave me a memory foam topper for our mattress which I've wanted forever and it makes me sleep totally differently than normal. I sleep very deeply and have really real-seeming dreams. Last night, I dreamt that I met Prince William and Kate at a party in LA and he did the most hilarious impression ever of Kate hailing a cab. So random. That is all.  :-P

xoxo,
T

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday



First, I am loving this quote from the Dalai Lama:

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

Also in the inspiration department, I found this somewhere (must start remembering where I get things from!)


I am loving the fact that I finally got caught up Desperate Housewives. When they went forward 5 years, I kept forgetting to watch and that's how far behind I got. I love this show, it has everything, comedy, suspense, adorable clothes and sassy Gabby. She's my favourite.

I never thought I'd say this but I am actually loving living in the town where I grew up. Leigh and I moved to Pitt Meadows because we found a really nice place that was really central. At first I loved it here despite the fact it was Pitt Meadows, but now I just love it. On Sunday, I got Lunch Doctor which is like a legendary place for Pitt Meadows people. Best. Sandwiches. Ever. No question. Right, people? Last night, I rented a video where I used to get them from when I was a kid. I remember going with my dad and renting "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead" for the billionth time, or trying to talk him into letting me get "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The original one with Luke Perry, not Sarah Michelle Gellar.  The Farmer's Market in Pitt Meadows is also amazing. Leigh and I also love walking through the residential area and the parks to get to Starbucks.
This is the park where I spent every summer growing up. I don't know why I feel so nostalgic about Pitt Meadows now, I hated it for a long time. Part of growing up, I guess. Or maybe just coming back as a married girl makes me see it in a different light.




Totally loving iced green tea. Refreshing, cost cents to make and burns fat. What more could you want?!


The last thing I'm loving this Wednesday is the new shoes my awesome hubby bought me in the states on the weekend. I love them so much I want to wear them all the time. I may be wearing them right now because they make me feel pretty.


xoxo,
T

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I heart soup

Originally posted on Life Of T October 27, 2010. Making this today!

I have a thing with soup. I want it all the time.
In the past week, it seems like the temperatures have dropped because I am always freezing. This seems to kick off my soup obsession that continues until about June.
I think this stems from when I was younger and soup was the one thing I could make myself when I didn’t like what my family was eating. This was pretty much every day. I used to be an extremely picky eater. Now I like almost everything except sushi and some seafood.

When I was younger, I loved to eat canned soup, usually vegetable and my special occasion soup was Campbell’s Vegetable mixed with Lipton Chicken Noodle. If you haven’t tried this before, you must. Especially if you’ve gotten hit with a lovely fall cold.

However with the exception of my special occasion soup, I find I am so not into canned soup anymore! I absolutely love making homemade soup, especially since you can make a big batch and have soup every day for a week. If you’re like me, that’s perfect!

One of my favourite things about soup is that it can be so good for you depending on the ingredients. For me, it’s the best way to get veggies in!
My go-to recipe is one I found in Oxygen magazine years ago and it’s a super-clean recipe!

(I apologize for the picture quality, I always forget to take a photo when I cook it so I took a photo of the magazine.)

Healthy Hodgepodge Soup















Ingredients:

Canola Cooking Spray
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped cerly
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 tsp ground black pepper, divided
pinch kosher salt
1 1/2 cups water
5 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 tsp tomato paste (which I never remember to buy, tastes fine without it)
1/2 cup finely chopped green beans
4 bay leaves
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 cup uncooked whole wheat ziti
1/2 cup canned great northen beans (drained and rinsed)-(I always use white kidney beans, I can never find great northern beans)
2 cups chopped escarole (also difficult to find, I found it at superstore but tastes fine without it)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh italian flat leaft parsley chopped


Instructions:
1. Spray large non-stick skillet with cooking spray. On medium-high heat, saute onions, celery, carrots,garlic, 1/4 tsp pepper and salt for about 8 minutes
2. In a large pot, add broth, water, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, green beans, bay leaves, basil, oragano, remaining pepper and saute mixture. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.
3. After 25 minutes add pasta, beans, escarole, balsamic vinegar and parsley. Cover and simmer for 10-15 more minutes. Vegetables should be slightly soft and pasta should be cooked through. Remove bay leaves.

Enjoy!

Tips & Bonus Information
This soup is soo easy to substitute anything you want! I like to switch up my whole wheat pasta shapes to keep it interesting. You can used crushed tomatoes or diced if you like chunks of tomatoes in your soup. You can add different veggies, like chunks of potatoes. I also tried a variation of this soup in my slowcooker and it tasted fantastic!
I'd also like to try adding ground turkey at some point!
Nutritional Info:
Calories: 169, Total Fats: 2g, Sodium 362 mg, Total carbohydrates: 34g, Dietary fibre 9g, Sugars 4g, Protein 7g, Iron 1mg
Yield: Makes 10 servings.
Cooking Time: 1 hour 10 minutes total

Closer!

As I get closer and closer to my Certified Personal Trainer status, I want to get this blog updated more often. I find it difficult to have two separate blogs, maybe one day I will merge them, who knows. I will try to update this more often but if you don't read my Life of T blog you may have missed some of my recipes, so I will be reposting them on here. Enjoy! :)


Taren

Kate's Royal Tour: My Favourite Looks



I wanted to post about my weekend but my touchpad on my Blackberry is broken again and I can't upload photos...so I will post about this instead:

Has anyone else woken up the past two weeks and thought: "I wonder what Kate will wear today?"

I can't be the only one. Well, at least I have my go-to site for Kate information: What Kate Wore. Seriously, an entire site dedicated to her outfits. But let me make one thing clear, the outfits have nothing to do with it. Every time Kate wears something, it sells out as soon as it's identified. This always kind of bothers me. Do people really think that by buying the exact same outfit, they're going to magically turn into a princess? I'm sure some people just like certain items but I feel like a lot of the time the people buying it and consistently buying similar items should just try to have their own style and look. That's why Kate always looks amazing she has her own unique style that really only she can pull off! Well and movie stars. If Kate wasn't a princess, she could definitely be a movie star. Check out my favourite looks from her tour of the US and Canada, with her husband, whatshisname. Just kidding. Seriously though, William has been taking a backseat in the attention department, Kate just steals the show.

I absolutely love this lace number:
Lovely in green:






 This is so a movie star look!! It was LA after all..


This Canada Day outfit is probably my favourite! Kate is wearing Queen Elizabeth's maple leaf brooch by the way. What a nice Grandma-in-law!


Ahh, love them all! Such a princess! What was your favourite Kate look from the tour?
xoxo,
T

Sunday, July 3, 2011

My lovely weekend!

Well our patriotic long weekend is almost over, but my American friends get one more day! I feel like my posts are totally random lately. Kind of how my brain works. Anyways...
I hope everyone had a great weekend. Leigh and I had a nice relaxing weekend. He took me to his RC flying club, which I didn't realize was so nice there! It's super peaceful and in the middle of nowhere. I brought snacks and my Kobo and I was pretty much set! Leigh won this awesome zero gravity chair at a flying event and I've taken responsibility for keeping it warm! It's so perfect for lounging. I call it my throne.
Here's my view:
and if I looked over to my right:

Excellent view of my hubby flying! We headed over there on Friday in the late afternoon. It was a little chilly, which is why I was wearing jeans but still nice and sunny. When the sun went down we had a bonfire and watched the fireworks in Cloverdale which we could see perfectly from the flying field.
We had so much fun we went back on Saturday and it was so hot. I got an awesome tan. I'm so lucky in the tan department, I can get a tan so easily. Don't be too jealous, I have a slow metabolism. :-P 
During my day in the sun, I devoured this:
Must read beach book!
I also picked up something at the mall that I've been wanting FOREVER, a cropped jean jacket. I love how they look with sundresses, especially since the weather in Vancouver can be a little tempermental. Best of all, it was only $17.50. Yay!!


Leigh and I just got back from a nice little walk, I am still so full from dinner! 





Mini burgers are officially my new obsession. They're so CUTE!!! and delicious! I got these ones from Superstore, they are the PC Blue Menu ones and they are yummy! If you live in Canada you have to try them!

Sadly, now it is time for laundry. Hope your week starts off great!

xoxo,
T