This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click through and decide to purchase, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you! I only post links to products I myself have used and would recommend to others.  Thank you!

The Quest for Fruits and Veggies

My family always seems to be on the quest to eat healthier, especially fruits and veggies.  Well, I am.  My kids…not so much.  They would be happy to eat junk food and candy for the rest of their lives.  It’s just me trying to make sure they get veggies, fruit and good protein every day.

Meanest mom ever.  Who’s with me on this?  Raise your hands!

Both my boys are picky eaters, but with my youngest, it’s like pulling teeth to get him to eat a vegetable, let alone the 5-10 servings recommended daily.  Fruit is also hit and miss with him.  More often than not, what gets packed in his lunch comes home untouched.  And we wonder why the poor kid has behaviour issues at school, usually by early afternoon. (That was sarcasm, btw.  He’s totally “hangry”!).

Okay, confession time.  I think they might just get their pickiness from me (except for this ridiculous notion that mushrooms are gross, that one is totally on their father).  Fruit is not my favourite, but it’s a texture issue.  I just can’t get used to the stringy-ness of citrus, or the squishy skin pop of berries and grapes.  I have tried, really I have!

But I have found the solution to my texture problem, and successfully faked out my kid in the process!…

Read More

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Five…5 things that are bringing me bliss this week!  You know how before you start a new diet, you have one last cheat day, where you binge on all your favourite foods, the ones you are going to give up?  Well, this week’s post is something of that sort.

Summer is here, and in an effort to get my boys away from the screen time, I’m trying to plan more of an active summer (key word there being “trying”…but I digress).  A great excuse to get more active myself!  My youngest is about to get a FitBit Zip for “grading” present, and then everyone in the house will have one.  I’m going to put fresh batteries in the others, and set us all up as “friends” on the FitBit app.  Our goal is 10,000 steps a day.  Being that my boys are pretty competitive, this should make for some interesting fun!  At least, that is my hope!

So, in light of our impending venture to increase our exercise and activity, we might as well start cutting back on sweet treats and incorporate healthier snacks like fresh veggies and fruits.  Going from this…

…to more of this…

Yeah…my kids will be super excited about this (did you hear the sarcasm in that??)

But as “Murphy’s Law” would have it, it seems yummy, sugary sweet desserts are crossing my path at every turn!!!  Here are some of the drool worthy things I’ve found this week.

1. Travel the world with ice cream

Wanderlust Creamery is an ice cream parlour in California, but with a twist.  Each flavour is inspired by someplace in the world they have been, or aspire to travel to!  Wanderlust at it’s finest!  You can dream of Thailand with the Sticky Rice and Mango, or envision high tea in Britain with the Earl Grey.  Lavender fields of Provence inspired the Honey Lavender, while perhaps campfires in the Pacific Northwest led to the Smoky Road flavour.  They also have seasonal flavours like Lilikoi Pineapple Li Hing Sorbet, inspired by my favourite Maui, Hawaii!

Check out this video for all the cold, luscious goodness from around the world!

2. Mini Pancakes with Nutella

Last week I mentioned our slight obsession with Nutella around my house.  Well, the internet went an upped the game with this tasty snack…mini popover pancakes drenched not only in Nutella, but peanut butter too!  OMG, I can almost taste that ooey-gooey goodness in my mouth just writing this post!

You can get these yummy snacks at Holland House, a food truck in the Dubai Mall.

3. La Maison du Chocolat

In french, that translates to House of Chocolate. All things chocolate. Chocolate heaven. Headed up by the best craftsman chocolatier in France, Nicholas Cloiseau, this boutique dessert shop makes all kinds of chocolate treats!

You can now find these boutiques all over the world, or order online from the original in France.  Be right back…I’m messaging my contact in Paris as we speak!

4. Taiwanese Wheel Cakes

While these tasty looking cakes have quite a long history, the company Catmint is bringing them to NYC, with both traditional and modern flavours!  Right now they can be found at various food festivals, but are hoping to open a permanent location after the summer.  Take a look!

5. Wild Doughnuts

Another NYC find is The Doughnut Project.  This specialty doughnut shop is creating some unique flavours in their small batch doughnuts.  Try PB and J, Blueberry and Parsnip, Beet and ricotta, or Everything!  They even serve Frozen Doughnuts in the summer!

I may have drooled a little on the laptop here…just sayin’.

You may have noticed all of these videos were posted by Insider.  They have a few different channels, including Insider Dessert and Insider Travel.  I love the inspiration that they share daily, and I invite you to check them out on Facebook for more!

Well, that’s it for this week’s edition of the Friday Five!  I apologize for the sugar coma I may or may not have induced.  Got a sweet treat I should try? Leave a comment below, or find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Remember the tortoise and the hare?

This is what I’m trying to remember, on days like these.

A slow start

When I first entertained the idea for starting a blog, I was full of energy, ideas percolating, ready to dive right in and get started.  I would have 2 or 3 posts up in no time!  My intention for this little blog was to capture these “Little Pockets of Bliss” in my everyday chaotic life, focus on the good, and leave the bad out of it.  I wanted my blog to be a place of uplifting inspiration, not a negative space where I vent my frustrations.  Who wants to read that stuff?  Everybody has that kind of crap!  They don’t need to be reminded of it!

And then life happened, as it always does.  It had been a particularly trying couple of weeks, although really, that is normal around here.  Dealing with work and household chores that never seem to get done. The stress of an ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) legal battle with my ex-husband over custody of our two boys.  Add to that the normal whining and sarcastic comebacks (what I hope is typical) of a 13yr old.  And cap it off late last week with my 9-yr old, fighting with me about everything, storming off upstairs hollering, “You’re such a jackass!”

All before 8am.  Sigh.

As I hung my head in despair, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, I thought to myself, “How can I possibly blog about bliss, when there is nothing blissful about this life?”  This is my life.

It’s a long story, for another time.

In and out of wallowing

I did a full on misery wallow for a few days.  Feeling sorry for myself, I avoided the very things that bring me joy.  I got caught up in the “woe-is-me”, scrolling through Facebook for hours, reading and deleting emails (okay, sometimes unread).  TV watching consisted of guilty pleasure shows like Dance Moms, not even the new fall shows (and I have a list…we’ll get to that).

I did absolutely nothing productive, watching my vacation time tick away on the clock.  Another day lost and nothing accomplished.

Luckily, the sun came back out, literally and metaphorically, shining light on my self-made shadow.  In my endless internet-fest, I hit up some of my favourite people on Facebook, Twitter, and the blog-verse.  They weren’t posting the pretty. They were documenting the nitty-gritty, full-on face plant meltdowns the toddler took in the grocery store.  The burnt breakfast, the entire carton of juice spilled on the floor, the overflowing toilet, the car that won’t start when you’re already late.  They don’t only post the glamorous, Pinterest worthy portions of their lives.  They dig deep, and let it all out, exposed, naked, for the world to see.  Because it’s honest, and it’s real life.

So with that in mind, I pulled out the laptop, determined to just start, just write, and get a blog post published.  And if some of crap of my real life makes it’s way into the blog, so be it.  This is me.  All of me.

Okay…most of me.  Y’all don’t want the naked…

It all starts with a first step

When push comes to shove, I know what to do to pull myself out of funk. I just don’t always listen to myself when I am hunkered down on the couch under a blankie, feeling sorry for myself.  But when I manage to throw off the blankie, and drag my sorry ass off the couch, I go back to the list.

Yes, I have a list, and I carry it around with me everywhere in my traveller’s notebook.

Things That Make Me Happy

• reading
• listening to music
• journalling
• cooking
• making art
• meditation
• yoga
• Hawaii

There is more to the list, but I pulled one out and went to work.  Here is what I came up with.

Make soup.  You can blog about the other stuff another day.  I wonder if tortoises eat soup?

Let me know if you make it, and what you think!  What do you do to pull yourself out of the “woe-is-me” when life gets you down?

P.S. This soup freezes nice too!  Just label your zip-loc bag, use this handy-dandy gadget, the Jokari Hands-Free Baggy Rack Storage Bag Holder and you’ve got a great lunch down the road!