I found a few that I liked.

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.” – Henry Ford

“It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.” – Confucius

“Realize that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

“If all complaints had to be accompanied by the submission of a delicious sandwich then fewer people would voice them while more would be willing to listen.” – Michael Wakcher

I especially like the one about sandwiches.  I don’t know how many sandwiches her students would be willing to offer, but it made me smile.

Hope those help, Sara!

Antigua is a tiny island that’s part of the West Indies in the Caribbean.  According to our taxi driver, the population is about 100,000, but Wikipedia puts it at just over 80,000 according to the 2011 census.

We stayed at the St. James Club near Marmora Bay.  We were traveling high class this vacation.  We upgraded to the Royal Suites rooms which gave us an extra seating area and a full view of Marmora Bay, where we could watch the sunset over the bay every evening.  It also gave us access to the Royal Suites pool, which had a cool waterfall with grotto feature.  It was once I got home that I realized I didn’t take a picture of it.  I was trying to be more “in the moment” and actually look at what I was seeing while I was there instead of trying to take a gazillion pictures of everything.

The resort can be all-inclusive or not.  Why you wouldn’t take advantage of the all-inclusive plan, I don’t know.  Because not everyone is all-inclusive, the prices are listed for everything, and they had you give your room number and sign for food and drinks.  This was a different experience for us.  We were slightly worried that at the end of the week we’d get this huge bill, as maybe there were some hidden charges that weren’t covered, but it was all fine.  No surprises on check out.

The food was fantastic!  There was the standard breakfast buffet with omelet station, but they also had awesome French toast, and they had a waffle station with various toppings.  You could also order off an a la carte menu at breakfast or lunch if you weren’t feeling the buffet.  They posted the daily supper menus for the various restaurants in the lobby.  The nights we weren’t feeling the buffet, or if there was something really tastey looking at the a la carte restaurant, we made reservations at the a la carte.  That’s how I ended up having some fabulous Bailey’s cheesecake.

The resort looked really big on the map I’d looked at online, but it didn’t feel super huge.  There were lots of different areas to hang out in.  The resort is located on an ismis?  Is that what you call a pice of land that juts out and is surrounded by water on three sides?  There were two beaches.  The Marmora Bay side, where our room was, is very calm with hardly any breeze.  That’s where we spent most of our mornings.  On the other side of the resort is Coco’s Beach.  There was always a nice breeze on that side.  And there were lots of shade trees on both beaches, a definite must for this red-head!  There was also this guy who drove around in a golf cart on the beaches and brought you drinks.  That was pretty convenient.

The timing for vacation this year wasn’t the greatest for me.  We left the week after I’d moved into my new apartment.  It couldn’t be helped, the trip was booked back in October, way before the move was even a possibility.  Things were super chaotic before leaving, as I was trying to work and clean and unpack so I could pack for vacation.  I actually ended up packing the hour before we left.  Not my finest moment, and also not recommended.  I’ve never been so frazzled before a vacation, ever.  I really needed a vacation, but I feel like I didn’t have time before to anticipate and get excited for it because I was so caught up in moving stress.  It took some of the fun out of it for me.  It took me a couple of days to unwind and let go.  I feel a little mad at myself for not being more fully present.

Anyway, enough with the belly-aching.  I’m glad I went to Antigua!  It was awesome and it crossed another destination off my Wanderlust list!  Stay tuned to hear about our little excursion off the resort.

“There is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence.  There’s no such thing as ruining your life.  Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”       – Sophie Kinsella, from The Undomestic Goddess

I like it when yoga teachers share a quote at the end of class, and when I was practice teaching, I liked to use quotes in my classes too.  That’s when I discovered just how many wonderful words of wisdom there are out there!  I also love browsing quote boards on Pinterest.

So since I’m not teaching yoga at the moment, but still would like to share beautiful words with people, I’m going to do it here.  It’s my blog and I can share what I want to!

We’ll see how it goes.  Sometimes I’ll just post the quote.  Sometimes I’ll talk about what it means to me.  It’s interesting how sometimes the words you need to hear have a way of finding you.

That’s where this week’s quote comes from.  It was in an article Yoga Journal sent to my inbox.  And they were words I needed to hear.

“If I am only happy for myself, many fewer chances for happiness.  If I am happy when good things happen to other people, billions more chances to be happy!”   -The Dalai Lama

The article was talking about mudita, which means being happy for others or finding joy in their good fortune instead of being jealous of them.

The green monster of jealousy sits on my shoulder on many occasions.  Do you ever find yourself scrolling through your Facebook homepage and seeing all the awesome things going on in your friends’ lives and find yourself wanting what they have, no matter what good things are going on in your own life?

Guilty!

I like this quote because it reminds me that instead of begrudging others for what they have, I should work on cultivating happiness for them, and by doing that, I, myself, will be happier too.

So what do you think of Thoughtful Thursday?  I’d love to hear what you think!

As I mentioned last summer, I signed up for a yoga teacher training program.  That seems so long ago now, yet it also seems like just yesterday that I showed up for my first class, all full of nervous energy.  I graduated at the beginning of April.  I am now an official yoga teacher!

I want to share with you a little bit about my experience.

I loved yoga before I did the course, but now I love it even more!  There is so much more to yoga than just the asanas (poses).  After eight months, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.  I’m inspired to keep learning, to keep reading about yoga, and to do yoga even more!  One of my new life goals is to go on a yoga vacation someday.

Initially, I signed up for the program to deepen my own yoga practice and that goal has been accomplished.  I try to do at least a little bit of yoga every morning.  If I’m not able to make it to a class, now I have the confidence to make up my own sequence and do my own practice.  I really appreciate the flexibility  and creativity involved in putting together a sequence.  For this ability, I will be forever grateful.  No matter where I go in life, I know I will always have my yoga with me.

I also wanted to become more optimistic and less anxious, and I needed help letting go of things.  I would like to report that I had a major epiphany and all my mental issues magically dissolved and I am now the most zen yogini who ever lived… but that would be a lie.  I realize now that is also my ego talking, and was perhaps too lofty a goal.  Working out mental demons takes time and effort.  It’s a work in progress.  The awareness is there now.  I guess that’s the first step.  I will continue to work on cultivating gratitude, opening my heart, being present, and letting go.

In January, an opportunity came up for me to transfer to a job closer to Michael.  This added another challenging aspect to finishing up my yoga course.  Now not only was I juggling work/Michael/yoga training/my own yoga practice/life, I had thrown preparing for a move into the mix.  Needless to say my stress level ratcheted up, but I’m working through it.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  I graduated and became a yoga teacher one week, and the next week I started my new job.  It’s almost like I was meant to move to my old town, take the yoga training and leave.  Maybe everything really does work out the way it’s supposed to.

It’s a whole lot of transitions and new beginnings.  Saying goodbye to the lovely ladies in my sangha, the yoga studio that I’ve practiced at for the last five years, and the yoga teachers who inspired me to take the training course is really hard.  But, there’s a yogic principle to help deal with that!  Aparigraha teaches us that we shouldn’t be attached to things and outcomes.  When we get attached, that’s where our suffering comes from.  I realized I needed to be cultivating more aparigraha before I moved when people kept asking me about it and if I was excited and all I could think about was leaving my sangha and my apartment.  I need to detach from these things, and let go.  In letting go of attachments, I create more space for new opportunities in my life.

I don’t know if I’ll end up teaching yoga.  I would like to.  With the hecticness of the move (oh, and I just got back from Antigua too… Ya, not the best timing for a vacation, but the trip was booked long before a move was ever in the picture.  I’ll tell you more about that later), I’ve just returned to yoga classes this week, and my search is on to find some that are the right fit for me.  After experiencing new teachers, I realize just how much I want to share what I’ve learned with others.

The yoga training course introduced me to a lot of amazing women who have inspired me be a better version of myself.  We all have unique gifts to offer.  We should honour ourselves and let them shine!

Namaste.

Who knew there was a day to celebrate chilli?  Does Hallmark make a Happy Chilli Day card?

In case they don’t, you could make some of this chilli for that special someone in your life.

Butternut Squash Chilli

(adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Serves 6-8

1 pkg extra lean or lean ground beef

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 cloves garlic, finely grated

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, seeded and diced

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced (I used a red and a green one)

1/2 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced

1 15 oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with chili seasonings

1 14 oz can fire roasted tomatoes

2 tsp cumin

4 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cups water

Garnishes: sour cream, cheese, green onions, nachos, etc.

Heat a large pot over medium heat.  Add ground beef, breaking apart into crumbles with a wooden spoon.  Cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes or so.  Add red pepper flakes and onion, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until meat is completely browned and cooked through, and onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add peppers and butternut squash, stirring to combine, and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce, tomatoes, beans, and the water.  Season with spices.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve topped with your favorite chili fixings, such as sour cream and cheese.

FYI, Wednesday is National Kahlua Day.  I think I’ll be celebrating that holiday too.

This is it right here.

Gnocchi.

And not homemade gnocchi, like that time I tried it and didn’t mash my potatoes up completely.

I’m talking using store bought pre-made stuff and jazzing it up with pesto to make it uber delicious!

Now, I can’t take credit for the idea of this dish.  It’s my attempt at recreating a lunch I had at Presto! Pastaworks, a super fantastic lunch spot that happens to be in the food court at a mall… which just so happens to be the mall with the fantastic fresh produce AND the candy store.  Oh, and the most Irish-ty pub with the trivia questions is in that mall too.

Wow… that’s a pretty fantastic mall.

Anyway, this meal is quick to throw together when you’re short on time, but it’s full of flavour and yumminess!

Gnocchi with Pesto, Tomatoes, and Fresh Mozzarella

Inspired by a dish from Presto! Pastaworks, a delightful little lunch spot that doesn’t have a website

1 pkg (500 g) gnocchi (or whole wheat gnocchi if you can find it), often sold with the refrigerated fresh pastas at the grocery store

1/4 to 1/3 cup pesto, depending on how pesto-ey you want it (I used homemade arugula pesto, but store bought will do the trick too)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes

250 g fresh mozzarella, buffalo mozzarella if you can find it

Parmesan, for sprinkling on top

Boil a pot of water and cook gnocchi per package directions.  Once the water is boiling, basically you throw the gnocchi in the pot and cook until they float which doesn’t take very long.

Meanwhile, as the water is coming to a boil, heat a skillet on medium heat with the oil.  Add tomatoes and cook for a few minutes, until they blister a bit, but before they break down and start bursting.

Cut the mozzarella into bite sized cubes.

When the tomatoes are done, turn off heat and stir in pesto.  Remove the cooked gnocchi from the pot with a slotted spoon and transfer to the skillet with the pesto and tomatoes.  Toss/stir/mix however you can to coat the gnocchi and tomatoes with the pesto.  Add the cubed mozza.

To serve, spoon onto plates and top with a bit of grated parmesan.

Delizioso!

(P.S. It was one year ago today that I posted my first blog!  I’ve come a long way in one year  If I was a ‘good’ blogger I would have made a cake or cupcakes or something with a candle in them… but I’m sharing gnocchi with you instead because ain’t nobody got time for that!)

I had a fantastic one!  I was at the yoga studio all day Saturday for teacher training, and got to take part in a delightful Warrior class in the morning and try out Yin Yoga in the afternoon, as well as have lunch with some of my fellow yoginis.  Then it was straight to the city to spend some time with Michael.  I haven’t got to see a whole lot of him this month.  We went to the most “Irishty” pub in the city where we feasted on good eats while asking each other trivia questions from games that we happened to find on the ledge by our table.  Trivial Pursuit science and history questions for him, and The 90′s Game music and television questions for me.

So, the real reason for this post is food.  I’ve meant to post this recipe like a million times since I made it a couple of times back in October and I don’t know why I haven’t.  I know we’re not knee deep in squash season anymore, but it’s  winter, and squash is still readily available.

The real reason why I love this recipe so much is that it is easy!  Super, duper easy!  With very little prep work involved.

Basically, all you do is toss the squash in the oven, let it roast, and then when it’s almost done, get the sauce ready.  You don’t even have to cut the squash in half before you cook it!  And I find chopping squash in half the hardest part about dealing with squash.

I also tried doing the squash in the slow cooker once, which turned out OK.  It was a bit watery, and I don’t know if that’s because I cooked it a little too long, or what happened exactly.  It still tasted OK, and the good thing about it was that it was done when I got home from work and all I had to do was make the sauce which took like five minutes.

Easy Peasy Spaghetti Squash Supper With Quick Tomato Sauce

(ever so slightly adapted from Rachael Ray EverDay Magazine)

1 spaghetti squash

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion (about 1/4 cup), chopped

1 clove garlic, finely grated

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with garlic and olive oil

Pepper

Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 375º.  Wash and dry squash and poke all over with a fork to make small holes.  Put on a baking sheet and bake for an hour and fifteen minutes or so, until you can easily pierce it with a knife.

About ten minutes before the squash is done cooking, start the tomato sauce.  Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add in the onion, garlic, thyme, and crushed red pepper flakes.  Stir occasionally, and cook until the onions are soft, about three minutes.  Add in the tomatoes, lower the heat, and simmer for about five minutes.  Season with pepper.

Once the squash is done, remove from oven and slice in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and discard.  Use a fork, and run it along the squash flesh to create “spaghetti” strands.

Serve by scooping “spaghetti” onto plates and topping with sauce.  Sprinkle as much or as little parmesan as you want on top.

 Happy Monday!  Stay warm out there!

I had to go to the car dealership because my car was involved in a recall, and I HATE going to the car dealership.  It is one of my least favorite tasks.  I always feel like they’re trying to rip me off by telling me I need some service or something checked.  How do I know if I really need what they’re telling me I do?  I don’t know a whole lot about car maintenance.  I worry they try to take advantage of me because I’m a girl.

My bathroom sink was running very slowly, so I thought I’d try the old baking soda and vinegar trick on it and ended up clogging it completely.  Smooth move.  I borrowed a plunger from my super because I only had the toilet bowl type of plunger, but couldn’t fix it.  So I called my super, and he was able to work some plunger magic and unclog my drain.  Hooray!  I don’t have to wash my hands in the tub anymore!

The gym where I go to yoga on Wednesdays shut down suddenly, unbeknownst to me and I showed up for yoga to find the place deserted.  That was weird.  Went on Facebook to message the instructor only to realize that she had tried to contact me about it a couple of weeks ago, but Facebook failed to notify me of the message until after I had sent me “What’s going on?” message.  Ugh.

And the government has lost my identity.  I’ve been affected by the Student Loan missing hard drive incident.  They don’t know what happened to the hard drive and it’s either lost or stolen.  So there might be another fake me out there somewhere, ruining my credit score and stealing all my money.  Hopefully not.  Maybe it’ll be like that episode of Friends where someone steals Monica’s credit card and Monica decides she’d rather live like the fake Monica.  Perhaps I could make a new best friend.

So anyway, these cupcakes.

They’re really, really, REALLY good.  I halved the original recipe and only ended up with 11 cupcakes, and I wish I had made like a million because I wanted to keep eating them forever!  And the frosting!  Oh the frosting!  I ate that stuff straight from the pastry bag (after I was finished frosting the cupcakes of course).  Yum-mee.

They kind of remind me of the Betty Crocker Cherry Bit cake my mom used to make me for my birthday.  As I got older, it became my favorite kind of cake, and I always requested it!

My frosting consistency wasn’t as firm as i had hoped, and it didn’t hold its shape very well.  I was kind of pressed for time, so I went with what I had.  Please don’t hold that against them.

I actually made them for my mom’s birthday back in December, but I wish I’d had one to eat this weekend.  I had to settle for a couple of glasses of wine, a leftover sweet potato burger, and Bridget Jones’s Diary to cheer me up.

Cherry-Almond Cupcakes

Makes 11-12 cupcakes

(quantities adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications Cupcakes 2011)

1/4 cup butter

2 egg whites

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp baking soda

6 tbsp buttermilk

2 tbsp + 2 tsp maraschino cherry juice (from the jar of the cherries)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

6 maraschino cherries + 11 maraschino cherries with stems for garnish

Bring butter and egg whites to room temperature for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare cupcake pan with liners.

Mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda together in a medium bowl.  Mix the buttermilk and juice together in a small bowl, set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds.  Add in the sugar, vanilla, and almond extract and continue to beat until combined.  Add the egg whites, one at a time, beating in between.  Add half the flour mixture, alternating with half the buttermilk mixture to the mixer, and beat on low speed until just combined in between each addition.  Continue until all ingredients added.

Scoop into prepared cupcake pan.  Press a cherry into each cupcake.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Once cooled, frost with cherry almond buttercream and garnish with a stemmed cherry.

Cherry Almond Buttercream

(also slightly adapted from BHG)

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup shortening

4 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp maraschino cherry juice

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla

Beat the butter and shortening in the bowl of a stand mixer for about two minutes until fluffy.  Add cherry juice and extracts and mix to combine.  Add in the icing sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well, until you reach desired consistency.  May need to add additional icing sugar or cherry juice if frosting is too runny or to thick.

Happy Monday!  Here’s to a better week!

**P.S. Shout out to my sister for contributing this fab cupcake cutting board she found at Frenchy’s.  Thanks!**

I’ve got stuff to do.  I can’t be wasting two hours every week watching that trash.  But my DVR recorded it for me (how thoughtful) and then I started watching it while I was eating supper because there was nothing else on and then I remembered that Sean was the bachelor.

And ABC took advantage of my love for the familiar.  I remember Sean as being adorable from Emily’s season of The Bachelorette.  So now I feel like I need to watch the rest of this season.

Well played ABC.

And if the season premiere is anything like the rest of the season, it looks like there will be plenty of awkwardness, ridiculousness, and cattiness.

Who acts like this in real life?

A few words of advice for future Bachelor contestants, don’t get wasted at the first cocktail party.  Not only will you make a fool of yourself, but there are cameras… filming you.  Your behaviour will be broadcast on national TV.

Anyway, you know what’s not ridiculous?  This pomegranate chicken.

This was my first time cooking with chicken thighs.  I’ve always been a boneless, skinless chicken breast kind of girl.  But you know what?  Thighs aren’t too bad.  They stay nice and moist, which can sometimes be tricky with chicken breasts.  And you can usually get a good buy on them.

It’s a recipe from a dietician, but don’t let that scare you.  You’d never know it.  It’s full of delicious goodness.

Pomegranate Chicken Thighs

Recipe from Sobeys Dieticians, reprinted with permission from one of the dieticians, method adapted slightly.

1 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup onion finely chopped (I used 1 small onion)

2 cloves garlic, grated on a fine mesh grater

1.3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 cup pomegranate juice

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup honey

Pomegrante arils for garnish

Preheat oven to 400º.  Heat oil in an oven safe frying pan on medium heat.  Add onion and cook until lightly browned.  Add garlic and cook for another minute.  Remove from frying pan and save for later.

Put the pan back on the heat and add the chicken thighs.  Brown on all sides of the chicken thighs.  To make sure that the chicken cooks through, I transferred the thighs to the oven to finish cooking through.  Depending on how long you brown them on the stove top, this may take 15-20 minutes.  Make sure your chicken is cooked completely.  You may want to use a meat thermometer to make sure, or you can cut into one to make sure it’s no longer pink inside.

While chicken is cooking, get the glaze/sauce going.  In a small pot, combine the pomegranate juice, balsamic vinegar, and honey.  Cook on medium-high heat until the sauce has reduced by half its volume, stirring often.

Once chicken is cooked and sauce is thickened, remove the chicken from the oven and put it back on the burner.  Add the onion mixture back to the pan with the sauce and cook until the chicken is well coated in the sauce (maybe another 5 minutes or so).

To serve, place the chicken on a plate with some sauce drizzled over top.  Garnish with pomegranate arils.