I hope that you all had an incredible holiday season and wish you nothing but the best in 2011!

I will be embarking on a new journey this year and thought it only fitting to transform my blog as well.  Tidbits From My Mind is no longer doing it for me and was not fitting my purpose, so I chose to move on to bigger and better things.

From now on, I will be blogging over at Starting Out Fit

Please change your readers and blog rolls and do come on over!

Looking forward to what is to come!

I hope everyone had a wonderful  Christmas and is resting up for an equally wonderful New Years this weekend.

I just wanted to let you all know that I have big things in store for the New Year so please sit tight.

I believe that I have finally found my ‘blog calling’ and some January 1st, it will be unveiled in the form of a brand new name and a brand new URL.

I will be attempting to export posts and comments from Tidbits From My Mind in hopes that nothing is lost on this move.  Please bear with me as I hope to start 2011 with a blogging bang!!

When doing my baking for my gifts, I like to try and make a little extra so that I can bring a tray in for my coworkers before people start taking off for the holidays.

Today was the day that I had my tray ready to bring in.

Let’s just say there were quite a few smiles this am when I walked in the building carrying this baby.

Now I just need to keep myself away from this baby.

All that said any done, I think I can actually say that I *think* I’m done all of my baking for my Christmas gifts!

Yeah!

I look forward to getting everything all wrapped and looking pretty this weekend.

If I decided to join the campaign, BzzAgent would give me a new  Philips SatinPerfect HP6570 epilator to try out and essentially review and talk to people about. I thought it was some sort of electric razor so I figured why not?

Boy was I wrong.

*yikes!*

I received my epilator in the mail last Friday still not knowing exactly what it was.

It was only once I started actually reading the information that I realized this was not a razor at all! This thing literally plucks out your leg hair as you run it along your skin!!

This does not sound good.

(I’m actually kicking myself in the butt for not taking pictures of my expressions as I tested out this epilator last night.)

Saturday morning I thought I would give this baby a try. I mean, she’s pretty enough right?  C really wanted to see how it worked (as did I) so I plopped myself down on the kitchen floor with the epilator plugged in ready to give it a go. Well I tried several times and no work of a lie screeched like a little girl and chickened out!

That thing is LOUD! and the little plucky things move REALLY fast!  I was scared for my skin!

And it was left at that.

After reading of some experiences from other women (some good, some bad) I figured I was tough and decided last night was the night I would try epilating for the first time.

I rushed upstairs as soon as I got home in hopes of getting it done before C came home (so he couldn’t see my reaction).  Well I’m glad he wasn’t there to see.

HOLY HELL!

To be completely honest, it was SO EXTREMELY PAINFUL! I have NO idea how some women think this thing feels ok! Seriously!?

I really stuggled to get one leg done. Actually, I wasn’t even able to do the entire leg only epilating from the knee down and missing hairs around the ankles. The pain just wasn’t worth it anymore at that point.  Maybe it was so bad because I have never even had my legs waxed before?? At this point, I just can’t see myself wanting to go through that pain on a regular basis!

I think the only way I would even consider epilating my legs again would be if the hair really does take longer to grow back. SO, I have decided to do an experiment. My right leg has been epilated and my left has been shaved. If my right leg stays longer even for just over a week, I just might have to give it another go.  I mean, the idea of not having to shave during my wedding vacation would be pretty awesome.

Has anyone out there tried epilating before?  What are your thoughts on it?

***Have you heard of BzzAgent before? if not, and if you are interested in sampling and reviewing products for companies, check it out! It’s all free and pretty fun!**

My mother’s fudge brownie recipe is one of those, as well as our family chocolate macaroon recipe.

I’m not the only one in our family who knows this one by heart.

No-Bake Chocolate Macaroons

You will need:

• 1/2 C butter
• 6 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C milk
• 1 C unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3 C rolled oats

What to do:

- Melt the butter in a medium size pot on a medium-low heat

- Once melted, stir in the cocoa powder until well blended. And then the sugar and stir until blended.

- Add the milk and stir while you bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat.

- Now stir in your oats and coconut.

- Cover your baking sheets with parchment paper and drop 1 tbps spoonfuls onto your sheet (you could always make them bigger or smaller)

- Chill until hardened. Store in the fridge.

These are one of the easiest things to make and definitely a yearly go-to recipe for me at Christmas time.

Yesterday brought upon another extreme cold weather alert in the area with windchills around -22 deg C so needless to say, I chose not to freeze my little butt off at the farm after work. Instead, I decided to go straight home and get my baking on.

I substituded a workout for baking. Bad, I know. BUT this baking is for my Christmas gifts so it has to get done.  I’m hoping I can just relax next week while the days before Christmas disappear. Rather than stress like crazy to get things done.

Here’s what I’ve made since Friday.

More details on recipes and such to come at a later date.

With all this baking (and sampling), I figured that I needed to make a 100% guilt free and healthy supper for C and I. So out came some turkey breasts that we picked up a couple of weeks ago.

I marinated the turkey breasts in lime juice, olive oil, garlic and salt/pepper for about 25 minutes before grilling on my grill pan.

The turkey was then served on top of a bed of romaine with tomatoes, green onions and a red wine vinaigrette (dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil).

It was perfect.

After supper, we then proceeded to head upstairs to our movie/game room and cuddle up to watch LOST. We are definitely LOST fanatics, but sadly never made it past season 4 due to C’s school and then work schedules. Now that we’re caught up on Friday Night Lights (hands down my FAVOURITE show) we decided to start Season 5 of LOST Sunday night.  We’re now hooked right in again and can’t wait to see how the series finishes up.

(wow that was a winded sentence)

My #1 goal for this past weekend was to bake my little heart out and get 90% of my Christmas gift baking done and out of the way.

FAIL.

I got 3 recipes baked and one was even a mega fail because the oven temp/time listed on the recipe was wrong and one side of my banana chocolate chip biscotti got a little burnt.  So sad.

By the time we finished with our grocery shopping and visiting with both sets of parents, I just didn’t have anything left in me to bake up a storm.

At least I managed to get out for what might be my last outdoor run of 2010 Saturday.  It was about 3-5 degrees C outside with no wind, rain or snow. I couldn’t not go for a run.

How’s this for an outfit?

I was sporting some pretty snazzy turquoise mittens as well. Believe it or not, after running 3.12KM in 19 minutes, I was pretty hot!

Now my mission for the week = bake, bake, and bake some more!

Thankfully we didn’t see the snow here like they did around London, ON (I believe they got about a meter and a half this week!) but we definitely got the cold.  On my way home from the farm last night, the thermometer on my car showed -15!!!!! (that’s 5 deg F)

Speaking of the farm, I’ve had some troubles with Chelsea over the past week starting with me falling off last Thursday. She gets a mega attitude when the weather turns cold and we seem to go through the same thing every year.  I just exercised her from the ground Saturday and then again Monday night. Tuesday I found my little butt back in that cold saddle for a long 45 minute non-stop ride.  It was about -10 outside yet I was soaked after that ride! Last night I had plans to ride again, but when I arrived to the -15 temps up at the farm, there was no way I was going to try. The cold was BITTER! When it’s bitter like that, I find it hard to breathe when riding and figure that can only mean it probably isn’t super easy on Chelsea anyway. So it was a ‘let’s make up’ grooming session which ended in my giving Chelsea her blanket to help stay warm. I hadn’t given her a blanket yet as her punishment for being mean to me and tossing me (and trust me, that’s definitely a punishment for her). She was really nice and cuddly with me last night though so I couldn’t help but forgive her and make her all warm and snuggly. Here’s hoping she remembers how good she feels now with a blanket and behaves when I go do ride tomorrow!

Even though I was only in the barn for about 20 minutes last night, by the time I got home, my entire body was frozen! I needed something warm and comforting for supper to help warm me up so I thought why not some sort of casserole?

This baby ended up being enough for supper last night, for C’s lunch today, and for supper tonight. Score!

What’s inside?

The Sauce

• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 a white onion
• 1 C sliced mushrooms
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• a few sprinkles of basil

The Rest

• small pasta shells
• 1 can of white kidney beans
• 1 can of tuna
• big handful of baby spinach
• 1/3 C shredded old cheddar

I mixed everything together and then topped with a little more of the old cheddar and some bread crumbs. Baked at 400 Degrees for 20 minutes.

Yum!!

I love it when I throw a bunch of things together randomly and it turns out to be awesome!

It was exactly what I needed – a warm and comforting meal.

Now for something completely different….

Wedding Flowers!!!

Despite the fact that I do get a bouquet and boutenniere included in my free wedding package in Negril, I have decided that I’m non really keen on the flower choices.  I didn’t want to order a different bouquet on the island because I knew that it would run us $100+. That is when I made the decision to make my own bouquet with a mixture of silk and real touch flowers.  I have read about many destination brides using silk bouquets and have also seen pictures – you wouldn’t know that they aren’t real! Knowing the colours I wanted, I decided that DYI’ing my own bouquet would be the way to go for me.

Two Sundays ago, my parents came over for the afternoon.  While my dad and C played some video games upstairs, my mom and I snuggled on the couch eating some fresh-baked goods (courtesy of moi) while scouring afloral.com to pick out my potential wedding flowers.  Yes, the wedding is still 4 months away, but we figured we might as well order early just incase I didn’t like how they looked in person.

Well, my flowers came yesterday and I DEFINITELY like how they look in person!

In the mix is turquoise gerbera daisies (my favourite flower), white amaryllis and green cymbidium orchids. It’s crazy how the petals feel so real!

So you wanna see???

Obviously they don’t look as good in these photos as they do in person – due to it being pitch black outside and having poor lighting in my house – but I assure you, they look INCREDIBLE in the sunshine!

I’ll be heading to Michael’s over the weekend and hopefully on Sunday my mom and I will get my bouquet made!

So exciting!

p.s. these flowers cost us $35

The following weekend, we picked up a fresh container of molasses at the grocery store and I immediately started creating in the kitchen.  My first attempt at a gingerbread muffin was ok, but something was missing.  I’ve been trying to make my new baking recipes as healthy as possible and as a result, the first batch was just a bit too dense.  Thankfully I knew exactly what needed to be done, so this past Sunday I made another attempt.

Success!

Gingerbread Muffins

What you need:

1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 C brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/3 C molasses
1 egg
3/4 C skim milk (or whatever milk you have)
1 apple – peeled, cooked and mashed into a sauce (peel & dice then microwave 1 min 30 sec – mash with fork)

What to do:

- In a large bowl mix together flours, baking powder, salt and spices – set aside

- In a medium bowl mix together sugar, molasses, egg, apple and milk

- Pour your wet mixture into the large bowl with the dry and stir until combined – don’t over stir

- Line a muffin tin with papers (to save from having to grease your pan) and spoon in the mixture until the cups are about 2/3 full

- Bake at 400 degrees F for approximately 15-18 minutes

This recipe yielded me 16 muffins. They go great with coffee or tea, but even better on oatmeal. Seriously, I am addicted to having one of these on my morning oats along with almond butter, banana and black berries. Mmmmmmm..

December 7 – Community
Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
(Author: Cali Harris)

I came across my first few healthy living blogs towards the end of 2009.  I read a select few until sometime early in 2010, I realized that they weren’t just simply healthy living blogs floating out there in the blogosphere.  They were MUCH more than that. They were small parts of the massive healthy living blogging community.  It was amazing to see how so many of my favourites were interconnected and how I’ve begun to love reading so many more because of connections. I’m not going to lie – I’m jealous.  I think it’s great how so many women who are close to my age have all become such great friends via their blogs and the healthy living blogging community.  That’s one of the main reasons I started gearing my blog more towards life, the food I eat and my healthy living choices. I want to be a part of this great thing going on out there.