Category Archives: Food

September Favourites

Posted in Food, Music, Music, My Hair, Stuff I Love by

Gonna try to revive these monthly posts!  I don’t have too many this month I think. Let’s dive right in. I’m also adding a non-favourites category because it’s necessary lol. Actually let me start with the unfavourite because these posts always put me in a good mood and I don’t want to ruin it at the end.

Unfavourite:
Cell phone wallet cover combo thing
Just one this month but it’s a daily annoyance. I love how these look. My friend has one and it looks nice and easy to use and she like it but it’s really just annoying to me. Mostly because I like to keep my phone out and near me but I don’t want to have my purse near me as well. So I thought this would be good because the phone cover part detaches but it’s just an ugly useless cover then. My screen isn’t protected (It’s already shattered a bit but that’s a different story) and when I take the two apart the purse/wallet just looks ugly. I keep them apart mostly and i’m not a fan of that set up but keeping them together annoys me as well because then I have to again, take my purse out to send a text. I don’t know. I just was expecting too much I think. And I have a lot of cards. A lot and not all of them fit in this damn wallet so I have to put them separately in my handbag and that’s just not on. Okay that’s enough bitching and moaning. I’m in the market for a new wallet now and a new phone cover. Ugh.
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Okay, on to the good stuff.

FAVOURITES!!

Wet Brush
You know I love my hair stuff. This is a brush my sister-in-law introduced me too. I didn’t expect much, goodness me, what a find. I took this picture late last night and didn’t feel like cleaning the brush so excuse the hair. Anyway, it’s a detangling brush so I’ve used it in the shower to distribute conditioner and I’ve used it out of the shower to help style. The bristles are so soft yet effective. It’s just a beautiful tool. I would say great for straight and curly hair. I paid $8 for it at Target. Love it!
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Cremo Shave Cream
Stumbled on this one in Walmart in March sometime. They didn’t have what I was looking for so I thought I’d try something new. The lady behind me in the queue saw it in my basket and would not shut up about how awesome it is. She was right. You don’t need a lot and it creates a slippery lather. I suffer from chronic ingrown hairs on my legs (FML) and I believe this is what has made a big difference. My legs are way less ingrowny now which is awesome. And remember I said I bought it back in March. The tube is probably only half way now. I think I paid $6 for it.20171001_171729

Dominos App
I had to hide this app on my phone because it is dangerous. I love it because it takes care of my two favourite things. Food and not having to interact with strangers. N and I do pizza at least once a month, I would say, and I love that it has our orders saved so I can just open the app and click maybe 5 times and food magically appears at my front door. Why isn’t everyone doing this? More apps like this please, universe. Thank you!
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Dunkin Donuts Hot Apple Cider
I’m sure there are better hot apple ciders out there. If you know of one please tell me but this is my benchmark for now. I like the cinnamon-y smell. Yummy.
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TV Shows
90 Day Fiance – I’m so ashamed to say I love this show. It is absolutely terrible but we are hooked. It follows couples using the the K-1 visa (fiance visa) to be together in the US. It’s completely sensational but it really keeps us entertained. Maybe because we’re also in green card marriage. There are a few series running at the same time so there is a lot of crazy. Ugh, don’t watch it. Stick to the bachelor or something.

Movies
IT – Movies have been pretty lately IMO. But I really enjoyed IT. It wasn’t terribly scary but it was a good monster movie. Two thumbs up for me.

Music
Daniel Caesar – My little cousin introduced me to him. He’s a Canadian singer who just came out with a new album (Freudian) that I’m obsessed with. It’s R&B mostly and his voice is like velvet and I just love him. Here are my 2 favourites from the album although it’s hard to choose

Calvin Harris – Feels
My friend reminded me about this one today. It will put you in a good mood. It’s great. Great for driving home from work on a Friday.

 

 

HAPPY OCTOBER FOLKS!

 

 

 

August Favourites

Posted in Alcohol, Food, Music, Stuff I Love by

Before I get into it I have mini update. I finally got through to the infertility urologist and made an appointment for the 26th (4 weeks bleh!) and I also made and appointment for a second opinion. Same clinic, different RE. I’m going to see if I can get another second opinion appointment at another clinic on Tuesday. But we’ll see.

Phew, it’s been a while since I’ve done this. It’s been a while so there are quite a few faves.

Waterpik
I bought this shortly after getting my braces and I absolutely love it!! I’m not going to lie, I hate brushing my teeth. I love having clean teeth and fresh breath but I find brushing my teeth tedious and it usually takes up time I could use for something else. And now with braces I’m forced to brush way more often. I was skeptical about the waterpik because it was just another tool to take up time but I love it. I look forward to the night time brush because of it. The braces have not been easy and I love my teeth feel after waterpik’ing. Definitely a great purhase.
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Instant Pot
I’ve had my eye on this thing for a long time now and N bought it for me for my birthday. Granted, I’ve only used it once but it is fantastic. I made a boneless leg of lamb in under an hour and it was magical. If you love kitchen gadgets then this is a must-have.
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Adidas sneakers
I bought these in New Hampshire. BOGO 50% off. I am so happy to have adidas back in my cupboard again. The blue ones especially, since they go with everything.

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Look at me being fancy with the shoe placement

World Map Art
I found this at Marshalls. I have no eye for decor but I love this. I can’t wait to put it up when we redo the tv room.
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My Nose Ring
Best purchase this year. It’s healing nicely. Doesn’t hurt at all. I’m in love!

Devacurl – SuperCream Coconut Curl Styler
I’ve been using this for a few months and I only realized how much I love it when I tried something else that paled in comparison. It does everything a curly girl could dream of. Defines my curls perfectly. It’s a cream so no scrunching the gel cast off when my hair dries and my curls are super soft. It really is my favourite hair product right now. It’s pricey at $20 but worth it.
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Derma Doctor BB Cream
Another product I’ve been using for a few months that I only realized I love after it ran out. This stuff is fantastic. The sales lady told me that it supposedly changes colour to match your skin tone. I don’t know if that’s true but it works. I don’t like wearing full foundation make up and this does everything I need it to do makeup-wise. It’s $38 at Ulta but lasts over a year which is perfect if you’re someone who doesn’t wear a lot of make up.
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Frozen Sangria
I know summer is over but this drink deserves the best summer drink award. For sure. It’s fruity and boozy and refreshing. Thank you pinterest for keeping me tipsy. Here’s the link for a recipe. http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/frozen-sangria-recipe/

Moscow Mule
Raving about the frozen sangria made me feel guilty for neglecting to mention my other go-to summer drink. Okay now I want a drink.

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This is from when I made a frozen one

Cumberland Farms Honey Flavoured Cheese Curls
I wish I had a pic of these. I can’t find it on Google. Anyway, I’m big on salty-sweet flavours and this is right up my alley. Love love love!! If you have a Cumberland Farms in your area, your should try it.

Lemon Cream Sauce
We eat a lot of fish or seafood here. After all this time I never thought to sauce my fish. And it’s so easy. I do this all the time now. Just butter, garlic, whipping cream, lemon juice and any spice that tickles your fancy.

TV Shows
Shameless: Obsessed with this show. I can’t wait for it to come back next month. Lip is the love of my life.
Ray Donovan: I want to marry Ray
Orphan Black: Just started it. The main actress is phenomenal
The Night Of: The first episode is fantastic and by the end I just hated everyone lol
Chelsea: My girl is back on Netflix. Life makes sense again.

The Internet
Not the actual internet. This is a group I stumbled across on Spotify a while back. They have a jazzy, soulful sound. I can’t get enough. Great relaxing, light summery music. And this one song in particular really helped me after our last failed cycle. It features Yuna who is also worth listening to. Her voice is so soulful. Here’s the song. It’s called Sunset.
My other faves of theirs is Girl, Dontcha, Red Balloon, Go With It and Missing you.

Thanks for reading this long ass post! Happy September!

 

 

Feed Me, Seymour!

Posted in Food, TTC drama by

Let’s talk about food!

I’ve always tried to be healthy in preparation for and IVF cycle. I already don’t smoke and I don’t drink coffee or anything with caffeine for that matter. We all know I’m a big drinker but I always quit about a week or 2 before a cycle.

When it comes to food I’ve always tried to keep it low in refined carbs and lately we’ve tried like hell to cut out sugar. I even have a healthy Instagram account to keep accountable and all that.

But there are times when I fall off the wagon and when I fall, I fall hard. And since we’re trying to conceive I feel so guilty. Like guilty to the point where I think the cycle’s already ruined after one burger from Wendy’s or a giant Twix (or both.. You gotta have something savoury after something sweet right?). After the guilt has passed I start to get really angry. Why can everyone who can get pregnant on their own eat anything they want?? Why do I have to be extra healthy? It’s just not fair!!!

And then there’s the question of which diet is the best for fertility? I’ve read that dairy is good. Then I read that dairy is evil and Vegan is the way to go. “It Starts With The Egg” says Mediterranean Diet. Some RE’s say Ketogenic. There’s also Paleo. So I don’t really know what I’m doing. At home I’m about 90% low carb and no sugar (or what I call, Kinda Keto) but if I don’t meal plan or don’t have leftovers for work or that little monster in my tummy wants chocolate, then all bets are off.

After this last failure I went on a complete bender and I really haven’t even exercised. And yesterday I had dirty boxed mac n cheese and a giant Twix and I’m still feeling guilty about it. Did I just fuck up everything? Are these eggs already shit? Who knows.

I think it’s because I don’t buy that there’s a specific diet that’s good for fertility based on the fact there’s so many conflicting stories. Maybe you all can help me out, please. If you’re pregnant from IVF, what did you eat and what food or diet did you think was the golden ticket? And if you’re not pregnant yet, what are you eating in preparation for treatment?

What are your thoughts on fertility diets?

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February Favourites

Posted in Food, Stuff I Love by
We’re just going to ignore the fact that it’s mid-March, okay :). I don’t have many favourites from Feb anyway as I was still enjoying January’s favourites.
Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Pâté:
I mentioned before that I went to this restaurant and had foie gras for the first time and fell in love. I don’t like the word foodie, it conjures up images of snooty kids with scarves taking pictures of their meals and I also feel like you can only be a foodie if you enjoy expensive niche food in tiny portions. I love food but I do not discriminate. I will eat anything and everything at least once. I am a mac n cheese connoisseur and pizza aficionado. But I also hold a special place in my heart for truffle oil, oysters and now foie gras. They served it in a little jar with a layer of jam on top of it and the bread that it came with had walnuts and dried fruit in it. It was amaaazing! I never thought that jam would go with liver. I, of course, took some home as leftovers and had some the next day. Unfortunately, perhaps because I was floating on a cloud of foie gras happiness, I may have accidentally thrown the rest away. I don’t remember what I did with it and forgot about it until 2 days later at work. And I was so excited to get home to finish it off but alas it was no where to be found. I looked for it online and that’s when I realized how expensive it is… wow. But I had to get another fix and that’s when I decided to make chicken liver pâté instead. I had been sitting on this recipe for months from pinterest and I’m so glad I tried it out. It was delicious. I must’ve eaten pate for 2 weeks straight. The recipe makes a whole lot of pate and I still have a whole bowl left. Right now I think I’m tapped out on all things pâté for a while but that was a really fun discovery for me. I don’t know when I’ll be able to have some again but I’ll remember our time together fondly.
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Chicken Live Pate

 

Bill Burr:
This is a tough one because I have so many favourite comedians but let’s just say Bill is my favourite for February. I think what makes him funny is that when he’s on stage it feels like he’s having a conversation with you and his descriptions of things is insanely funny. And he also really has no shame in his game. Him and Louis C.K. push the envelope with their material. Louis C.K. is the only person I found myself laughing until my sides hurt and I couldn’t breathe because he was talking about parents murdering their kids if murder was legal. But this is about Bill Burr. He has a cartoon on Netflix called F is for Family. I highly recommend it if you like his comedy. It’s only 8 episodes. I hope there’s a second season. He has some great specials on Netflix too. I love you Bill!
Jeggings from Rue 21:
I’m slowly falling very deeply in love with jeggings and skinny jeans. I struggle to find pants to fit my giant booty so when I found these I was over the moon. I bought 2 and I need to go back to get more in different colours. Not much else to say but jeggings ftw!!
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This is it for February. I have some goodies for March. I’ll be sure to post on time! Hope everyone had a good February!! xxx

Trying to keep busy

Posted in Food, My Hair by

Laying on my couch working from home today. The storm (Juno) has passed but my road hasn’t been ploughed properly so I’m not going anywhere.

Not much to update except I received a call from Freedom Fertility for my meds. It came to about $1,100 and I found a $50 off coupon for the Crinone so that’s good. If you don’t know this already, you can call 1-888-PROGEL8, press option 2 and they’ll email you a coupon for Crinone!!

I also booked an acupuncture appointment for Saturday. We went before we started IVF treatments but didn’t stick to it because it started becoming too expensive. I love love the doctor and I’m very excited to go back.

Other than that I’ve just been battling with the jealous monster. It’s a daily battle and it’s taking me longer and longer to get over it when it hits so I’ve been trying to keep myself super duper occupied so I don’t go onto FB or my ttc instagram or normal instagram for that matter.

I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm. Trying to cut down on carbs and refined sugar. I made carb free bread which was pretty gosh darn good. I also made paleo brownies with almond butter. Husband doesn’t like them but I think they’re yummy. Yesterday I made breakfast burritos. The tortilla was made with eggs and ground flaxseed, filled with salmon, onions and red pepper and guacamole. And today I’m going to make shrimp tacos with carb free soft tortillas again. I’m loosely following the 14 day meal plan from Paleo Grubs and I’m loving these recipes. I also found the best meal plan website called Yumprint to help me organize my recipes and it makes a grocery list for you and everything. Very excited about this new food venture.

I’ve also stopped flat ironing my hair in an attempt to get my curl back as I have a bit of heat damage. My new plan (read: pipe dream) is to start a curly hair instagram account and then when I have a good following I’ll start a curly hair youtube channel, then youtube will pay me a salary and I can quit my job. A girl’s gotta dream right? I have the account set up (@deescurls if you’re interested in curly hair pics) and I’m trying to get over my fear of selfies so I can get it going.

I have to get back to work now but here are some pics of the food I’ve made. Have a good day everyone!

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not carb free, but who doesn’t love sushi.

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paleo bread, get the recipe here

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paleo brownies, get the recipe here

More needles…

Posted in Bringing Sexy Back, Food, TTC drama by

I’m really happy about how quickly the blood test results got back to me. Not so happy about the actual results. Turns out my prolactin and tsh levels were a problem and they wanted me to go back this morning to get more blood. *sob*

I think this is the universe prepping me for what’s to come. I know I have to “man up” because this is only the tip of the iceberg but it hurts *whiiiine*.

In other news… If anyone’s keeping score, I’m officially out of the 21 day challenge at the office. I had a clam cake… and I regret nothing. Here’s my name on the white board of shame.

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Aaaand… I stopped doing Insanity for a while too. I’ve been suffering from some crazy headaches over the past few weeks. They’ve since gotten way better but doing hardcore workouts was not helping at all. I’ll pick it up again soon. Either that or I’ll just revert back to my old couch potato ways. Only time will tell.

Dreams Do Come True

Posted in Food, Uncategorized by

yesterday was a 3 chocolate kinda day. i shamefully ate a twix, caramello bar and a three muskateers bar… in the space of an hour. pms has been getting worse since I took myself off birth control. yes, I have been known to be a tad dramatic, but dagnabbit I wanted chocolate okay.

when i got home i climbed into bed next my husband who was concentrating on something on the computer. i began whining about how tough my day was and how much the world hates me. i can’t keep my fish alive. i was so tired. i still had to cook dinner and the kitchen was (and still is) gross. i was cramping and bloated and i hated myself for skipping the gym this morning. wah wah wah.

my angel said he’d hook dinner up (heat up left overs) and suggested i go lay on the couch and catch up on all the chelsea lately i missed last week. what a saint. i felt bad for a split second when i remembered he’s been battling with a severely herniated disc in his lower back and hasn’t been able to walk properly for over a month. the couch was really comfy though and the blankets, so toasty.

tit bit number 2… i love chelsea handler. i wish we were friends. in my head i believe we are friends. she always seems to brighten my day and last night was no different. in the midst of their hilarious banter on the round table, chelsea read a headline that, if it comes into being, will be the single greatest thing to happen to my tummy since cheese.

MCDONALD’S MIGHT MAKE THEIR BREAKFAST MENU AVAILABLE ALL DAY, PEOPLE…

now i know it isn’t here yet but in times like these i simply have to quote joey tribiani … “if you want something bad enough and your heart is pure, wondrous things can happen!”