no chocolates!

For the first time ever since I can remember I am completely chocolate free!!

I can not remember the last time I had a chocolate bar or even a tiny piece of chocolates...(ewwwwwwwwwwww)

I love this baby...he/she is making me hate sweets....give me salty or 7amed stuff...but sweets no thanks!!

Now with this no chocolates/cakes and other fattening stuff and going to the gym 3x a week I have not gained any weight yet and I am already in my 5th mo of pregnancy...YIPPY! and no body can make me feel guilty...I have been eating healthy three meals and healthy snacks like veggies...mostly baby carrots.., and fruits that are not too sweet like red rasberries ...YUMMMY!

The thing that I want to eat lots of are lemons! YUM!

Must it is girl this time eh?....she is already watching her weight so making me not eat bad stuff!!

great customer service

I was in bed this morning and looking forward to my morning milk and cereal but I was too lazy to get up, doing the five more minutes’ thing over and over!

As I was stalling getting up I got thinking about the one time so long ago when I started eating breakfast. I was never a breakfast person even though it is the most important meal of the day.

I started eating breakfast when I got pregnant with Ziad. I used to stop at Tim Horton’s every morning and order the exact same thing every single weekday morning. The staff at that Tim Horton’s knew me and...I think they named me the pregnant bagel and milk lady. After few months I would say the usual at the drive through. I used to have a whole wheat bagel, with cream cheese and a large chocolate milk everyday, I know I am so boring, but I do love those bagels!

After Ziad was born I had an awful postpartum problem! Constipation! After your birth bodies go out of whack and all sorts of things happen to the body...and believe me you do not want to be constipated few days after giving birth! It is 100000000000x worse than any other time. So of course I could not take any off the counter remedies since I was breastfeeding my few days old Zozo. The next best thing was a high fibre cereal. I chose Kellogg’s raisin bran cereal. It did the trick! When I had my second baby I was already eating cereal every morning I did not have the same problem. So pregnant ladies, do start eating a high fibre cereal from now!

So I got hooked on raisin bran cereal. I had it every morning for month. One day I bought a new box and was all looking forward to my breakfast! I dug in and YUCK! The raisins tasted like olives! I thought that I bought a faulty box; I threw it out and went to the grocery store to buy another one. It was the same! YUCKY RAISINS! What am I supposed to do now?? How could this happen...I was very upset! I called the 1800 number on the box and talked to a nice lady. I complained my heart out. It turned out that they used a different vinery! I was so sad! How could this happen?? My yummy cereal! How could they do this to me! So I went out and bought bran cereal and some raisins...it is not the same though!

Few days I received a letter from Kellogg’s. They were very apologetic. They sent along four coupons for free Kellogg’s products. Cool I thought. I kept on buying bran cereal and eventually got used to it. I add a bit of sugar and some cinnamon and it is yummy! A couple weeks later they sent another four coupons for free stuff...I bought more cereal with those and I guess other stuff...

Few months later after a visit to Amman, I came back to find a big box from Kellogg’s. They fixed the problem with the raisins and had sent three boxes of the raisin bran cereal. Later they sent another box with three boxes of cereal.

For few months I got free cereal and my favourite cereal was back to normal! I did switch to the plain bran cereal eventually because it has lower calories.

But seriously, isn’t this great customer service or what??

My new snack...

I am back to my weight loss mission! I have to lose 10lb by the end of May! Except it is not going so well!

Today I thought I will have a good healthy yummy snack! I shared a banana with Bilal. I had just finished making him a peanut butter sandwich and a chocolate milk. So I thought hmmmm,I will spread some peanut butter on my half of a banana, then I decided to add a tad of nesquick on it, just a drop to sweeten it! It was sooooooooooooo yummy! I decided another one won't hurt, so I made another banana and it was as yummy! I am so glad I only had two bananas left or else I would have had more!! I will not be buying bananas for a while now!

I will do 1hr of cardio today instead of my planned 30min to make myself feel better for over indulging! But Bananas ARE healthy, peanut butter is healthy as well..and I just had a tiny bit of chocolate so it is not too bad ya3ni eh?? yah if I only had the half banana I started out with! so Yeh but I am still doing 60min of cardio!

weight loss vent again...Enter at own risk

Warning! Another girly weight loss venting post, guys and gals read at own risk! There, you have been warned!

Now that I am no longer posting on baby center’s weight loss board since I got so busy with blogs, I have no where to vent, so I will vent here on my own blog....sue me! :p

I am so disappointed in me! I have joined a gym and have gone a total of 2 times in two week! ok the reason I did not go much was for a whole week my arms were way too sore, and the week after bolbol was sick so he was home for three days...Ok yes I know excuses excuses...but not to worry I have an excel sheet with an exercise plan! I will go to the gym three days a week, and workout at home for the rest...I know I know I need to go more...but gyms here do not have baby sitting so two days a week I can not go because of the kids, and I need one day a week to do other things while the kids are in school, you know shopping, going out with friends....
This is my workout schedule, I am sharing it with the world...Ok the few visitors I have on my blog...so I will be shamed into sticking to it, rain or shine! Ok if it is raining I will do a video at home for cardio.

sunday cardio 30min, upper body 20min, crunches 10min
monday cardio 30min, lower body 20min, pilates 10min
Tuesday dancing 30min, crunches 10min
Wed cardio 30min, upper body 20min, crunches 10min
Thurs cardio 30min, lower body 20min, pilates 10min
Friday dancing 30min, crunches 10min
saturday free day


What makes me even more disappointed is the quality and quantity of foods I have been eating! I am finally feeling the affects of all the junk; I am feeling so blah! I need to drink a ton of water now to cleanse my poor system! In the past two weeks, I have not even had an apple or anything equally healthy. ..Shame on me....*slap, slap, slap*

Starting today I will follow my meal plan. It is not a diet really, just healthier eating. I have three meals and three snacks! How hard is it?? It is just my snacks are fruits and other yummy healthy foods instead of chocolate bars, and my meals are healthy wholesome foods instead of 5 slices of pizza...and of course if I do good during the week, next Friday will be a free day, so I can eat whatever my heart desires. Of course I have to keep up with my water, not just because I want to lose those icky lb and tone up , but because the benefit of water are countless! All I have to do is fill my 600oz bottle 4 times a day, how hard is that??? Sheesh! To be good to my bones I will have to go back to drinking my three cups of milk! I am starting to get used to baladna and hamouda .

Ok I will share my meal plan so I will stick to it as well...I am so boring, I will be sticking to this for weeks and weeks, until I get sick of it one day.

Bkfast: cheese sandwich/bran cereal/omelette and one cup of milk
Snack: BFL bar and an apple
Lunch: a turkey or tuna sandwich, a carrot, a cup of milk
Snack: banana, 12 almonds
Dinner: whatever I cook for the day (some rice/bread, meat and veggies)
Snack: a cup of milk/2 cups of popcorn

It is hard to count calories since things are not labelled great here, but these should be about 1500-1800 cal give or take.... :)
These days I’m clueless on what to cook without my cookbook...so today I will buy a cookbook! It is hard cooking for three, when two of the three are little kids.. so we throw out alot of food *sigh*

The Burned Cookies

My house smells like burnt cookies....you are thinking o Sam decided to stop being a chicken and light the gas oven! Well no, no way! If I ever decide to live in Jordan for good, I will be getting an electric stove, at least one with an electric oven.

I love chewy chocolate chip cookies, but they are only chewy when they first come out of the oven right? So I put chocolate chip cookies in the microwave for 30 seconds and traaa they get soft and yummy! Yeh yeh I know what you are thinking, shame on you for eating cookies when you are constantly whining about losing weight...but in the past week I have been like a bottom less bucket, I have been eating and eating and eating! I have got to stop! And of course I have to start going to the gym, I have only gone once! Shame shame shame!

O yes back to the cookies...I forgot and set the microwave for 1min, and Ziad called me to see something in his room, and oopsi! 1 min was a bit too long! The cookies turned black! YUCK! So moral of the story, never leave chocolate chip cookies in the microwave for longer than 30sec.
O I think I did it! I wrote a short post! Ok since we are on the subject, I would like to very quicky say how much I love having a microwave, we did not have one for two months! Now we can eat popcorn, I can get my chewy chocolate chip cookies, no more burned rice, and no more burned pot from heating milk!:)

There you have it, a simple short post that is full of blah blah blah!

o one more thing , I could not let Ziad know about my burned cookies. One time we bought a cookie dough, we were all exited about eating cookies. We got home, put the cookies on the cookie sheet and into the oven they went. Ten minutes later we took them out and oops they were burned at the bottom. It was not my fault, I followed the directions...We still ate them, but now whenever we buy a cookie dough, Ziad suggests we eat it raw, so you won't burn them he says! I will never hear the end of it if he finds out I burned already made cookies in the microwave!

ok so this is not a short post after all...well I tried!

Friday morning

It is 8:30 am on Friday in Amman. The whole city is still sleeping. I wish I was too!
We have already been up for 1.5hours. I already broke out two fights. One fight was over play dough and another over Zozo’s wallet.

I put a nice breakfast on the table, labnah, cheese, olives, was getting ready to make eggs, but my kids did not want any of the above. They wanted to eat hotdogs! Yes we have gotten out of the eggs phase, it was followed by the labneh and zaatar phase, now it is hotdogs! Who eats hot dogs for breakfast? O well...at least they are eating them with whole-wheat bread and I make them to put a cucumber and some tomatoes in the sandwich so it is not all bad...

They will be wanting hot dog for lunch as well, so I will not bother cooking today...not that I ever cook for lunch! I just can not see myself cooking tabeekh in the morning...i can’t! And I won’t! When the kids are in school I want to do things I can not do while the kids are home, go shopping, exercise, guiltless computer time, or go see my friends and neighbours without demanding kids around...so we eat a light lunch, turkey, or tuna sandwiches. For dinner at 6pm we have tabeekh, just like we did in Canada, why do we have to change just because everyone eats tabeekh at 1pm here???

There used to be a time when I liked weekend and used them to sleep in and catch up on lost sleep, but these days are long gone! I hate weekends!

Eggs

I wonder how long it will take my kids to get sick of eggs... if I see one more egg I am going to jump off the balcony....ok maybe not..but sheesh!

I made yummy pasta, which they love, they had a bit and then they wanted to eat beeda...

I made batata and beed... (Potatoes and eggs) ...they each had one bite and they asked for plain beeda..

I made spicy rice with meat today and it was delish, but after eating just a bit, they asked me to make them beeda...

I do not know why I galeb 7ali! They want eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So from now on, I will not cook anything except for eggs! In a bit my kids will turn in chickens!

The other thing they can not have enough of, is labnah

I so love having the 7ares around. When we are out of eggs and labnah, I call him and he goes to buy us more. And today I found out that the store close by delivers, how cool is that! A girl could get used to this, what am I going to do when I go back to Canada? Hubby complains whenever I call him from work to buy me things, and the grocery store is on his way home, ya3ni what is the big deal??

Speaking of my kids, Ziad is starting to speak some Arabic. He sounds so cute saying them. Now when he wants juice he says ana badi ashrab aseer...

Arabic coffee

This is so embarrassing! I do not know how to make arabic coffee! It was ok in Canada, because everyone just drank Canadian coffee, but here it is a different story!

I have at least 5 sets of coffee cups in this apartment! My mother in law got me coffee. So I can not use the sorry I do not have Arabic coffee and cups excuse now!

I am too embarrassed to ask people how to do it! I guess just put water, boil it and put the coffee and some sugar...bas how much coffee? lets hope I do not get any visitors anytime soon!

Ok you can stop laughing now!!

Mana'eesh

Yesterday was our mana’eesh day. The kids woke up waiting for their ‘ooshi when I realized that the pizza crust I have in the fridge expired few days ago. What to do, I promised the kids mana’eesh for breakfast? O well no biggi, I was only 8am and I didn’t have to be at the gym until 12. So I got the white flour out and got to work.
I decided to do it differently this time. I usually hate it sticking so I add flour until the dough is not sticky anymore. I decided I will be brave and add more water and who cares if it sticky. I even forgot to add oil! Tsk tsk tsk eh?? Well not really! Those were my best mana’eesh ever! They were so soft and moist and so yummy, Even if I say so myself.

Later we went to the lake, I decided to take the few ‘ooshis left with us, just in case. The lake is 100km away and the drive is in rural Saskatchewan with no Tim Hortins or anything in between. After we played at the lake, built few sand mountains, ate ice cream and played at the playground we got in the car and we were all hungry. So the mana’eesh came in handy. Hubby and I were talking about how yummy they were:

Me: isn’t the dough so good, it is so soft and moist, 7eta a7la min paramount mana’eesh

Hubby: yeh they are good.

Me: yeh bas ya3ni they are so good I do not believe it!

Hubby: 3ala sho shaifi 7alik? It is ready-made dough you bought from the store, why are you taking all the credit!

Me: what?? O no the dough was expired so I threw it in the garbage, I made these myself from scratch

Hubby: walah? 3an jad? They are very good. I would have never though so!

O well, so my mistake was always not putting enough water! Go figure!!

I even downloaded my pictures from the camera to show you guys! Notice the tiny man’ooshi on top?? That is bolbol’s manooshi. The kids love to help. Each gets a piece of dough and they roll it and roll and then make it balls, then roll eventually we put in the oven with some za’taar and they eat it proudly. Zozo is not satisfied with just getting dough. He likes to do it from scratch. I give him a small bowl with some flour and he pours water over it and makes his own dough, with a little help from me of course. He covers it and waits for it to rise, checking on it every few seconds. Is it bigger yet??

off to our mini vacation

So tomorrow morning we are going to Edmonton.. I know it is not the carribean, but I am actually exited to be getting away for few days. I have had the worst winter ever! We had sooooo much snow this year, and in Saskatoon snow means me staying home for few days untill the roads are driveable...and since it snowed at least once every single freakin week, I have been house bound for a long time. I even gained NINE pounds! Damn it! I have never gained this much weight when not pregnant in few months. I have been depressed and stressed out, so it nice to get away.
Hubby left his laptop at work, so we will not have a computer for THREE days! But I am glad, I have been spending too much time online so it will be a nice break.
Of course the main reason for our trip is still to buy pita and Arabic groceries. I think I will buy Jameed and make Mansaf, any tips on how to make it?? I have never made it before and have only eaten it three times.

Araby bread

We are thinking of driving to Edmonton this coming weekend. Are we going to see friends, well we will see friends but they are not the reason we are going. Do we want to go to Edmonton Mall, yeh we will go there, but it is not the reason we are going, although shopping in a huge mall will be a nice change from the tiny big mall Saskatoon has.




The main reason why I want to go is so I can buy Araby bread! Like my son calls. There are no Arabic store in Saskatoon. Superstore does carry some Arabic items, along with some pita bread, but a Greek bakery in Calgary makes them, and they suck!! It is hard to make them into a sandwich because they betfatfato (break apart). Lately all of us only want to eat araby bread, my son wants his peanut butter, cheese, hummus sandwiches all made with pita.

Since it will be spring break and my husband has a day off. Well make it into a four-day weekend, and we might even drive to Jasper!!! So that will be fun, I know once I mention jasper my husband will be sold on the idea!

Edmonton is a five-hour drive from Saskatoon. But hey spring is here (well not today, it is snowing and a –9 feels like –18 degrees, what the hell?!!!!!) this will be our first mini vacation this year, and next month when the weather gets nicer we’ll drive to Vancouver a good 12-15hour drive through the mountains, our dream trip!

So yeh the main reason for this weekend getaway is to get araby bread, but it will be fun tooJ

My first successful fatayer

I have been forced to cook for the past 8.5 years. I am not too fond of cooking; I actually hate it! But I have to feed my family somehow, and I am the stay at home spouse, so of course cooking is my job. Back in the good old days when I was working, I cooked one day while my husband tidied up the apartment, and the next time my hubby cooked while I tidied up after we came home from work. But yeh like I said that pre kids when I was working outside the home. I miss those days, but would not trade my kids for anything.

Ok so back to my post, my husband has been guilting me into making fatayer for a while, he would say to the kids, if your mom made fatayer we would have sometime to munch on right now, naturally I just ignored him because my previous attempts have ended up being disastrous and in the garbage can!

Thanks to Nido, I have gotten some motivation to make some fatayer and make my husband happy. He has been working a lot these days, and I have been on my I do not feel like cooking so lets get some chicken from Sobey or order something streak for the past few weeks. So yesterday I bought a ready made dough, and made some fatayer za’taar for breakfast this morning. I finally figured out what is wrong with my dough, now that I got to see how a good dough feels like, I decided to make my own dough! Using white flour, which I hate since we all prefer whole-wheat, but whole-wheat is hard to make decent fatayer with. So I decided that I would try to make the dough myself for the dinner fatayer. I got my nifty alph ba’a eltabekh cookbook out and for once I followed the directions to the T. and the dough turned out great, nice and moist but not too watery. And my fatayer turned out perfecto! I did not even burn one! And my filling was actually yummy! I made some with spinach, meat, and za’taar.

It did take me three whole hours to do them. My poor aching back and feet! Three hours I could have used doing something more fun, I could have watched one of the movies on my to watch list, exercise, read one of the books sitting on my desk! My son had a school trip today so he went to KG in the afternoon; right after Zozo left for school Bolbol took a nap! I had three hours to myself and I spent them cooking and cleaning up! O well, at least the fatayer ended up good and my husband loved them. He was very appreciative; throwing comment left and right, so I guess it was worth it! But you know what means? I will have to make stuff like this more often! Maybe next time I’ll make shoshbarak, warak 3enab or malfoof, the possibilities are endless. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!