Shopping Sense - Review and Giveaway

I was invited to join a group of bloggers at a HealthyFamilies BC event to celebrate National Nutrition Month (here's the boring part where I tell you that I was given a $100 grocery store gift card to attend but my thoughts / feelings / words expressed here are based on my experience and not on the swag.)


Shopping Sense is an online resource that was recently launched to help people make healthier, more budget-wise decisions while grocery shopping. I was excited to try it out because menu planning (and as an extension, grocery shopping) is something I've never been able to grasp, no matter what I try. I go through fits and bursts of inspiration - cooking an elaborate meal one night only to eat grilled cheese sandwiches for the following three nights.

I love the meal plan template. The grocery list (divided into grocery store departments, be still my type-A heart) on the side of the meal plan is perfect for jotting down ingredients. I'm actually excited to try meal planning again (and grocery planning! Lists! More lists! Ohh, talk wordy to me.)

The tour itself was a lot of fun. Dietitian Melodie Yong was engaging and informative - I was feeling a bit smug on my way in but I ended up learning a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I think that a big part of healthy eating is just common sense (eat more vegetables! eat less processed junk!) but it's really easy to fall into bad habits, especially when life gets busy. Shopping Sense is a great tool because it pools together all that common sense in an easy, accessible place. It's kind of like having a a concerned parent that you can access whenever you want (and, uhh, ignore whenever you want.)

Now! The fun part! I was given two $50 Safeway gift cards to give away to my readers. For a chance to win one of the gift cards, take a look at the Shopping Sense virtual tour and tell me what you liked about it (or tell me what you would change.)

Winner will be announced on Monday (and because this is a HealthyFamilies BC initiative I'm going to say this contest is open to residents of British Columbia only.) One comment per household please. Let's keep this fair, folks. I'll be posting another giveaway for the second $50 Safeway gift card next week.

Orange-y Crockpot Chicken

I'm a big fan of my crockpot. I throw a bunch of stuff in it while Grady eats lunch (i.e. strapped into his highchair so he can't destroy everything within reach) and 3-6 hours later (depending on the recipe) dinner is ready.

I made this last night and it was a hit. It's not the healthiest recipe (the sauce is sweet) but it's health adjacent. I will probably cut the sugar next time but I will definitely make it again.

Orange-y Crockpot Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
Juice from 2 oranges (approx 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup soya sauce
1 tsp sriracha
1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup cold water
2 Tblsp cornstarch

Put chicken in bottom of crockpot. Mix together remaining ingredients (apart from water and cornstarch) and pour over chicken. Cook for 3 hours on high.

Remove chicken and slice / chunk / shred - whatever your preference.

Mix together water and cornstarch. Add a little of the hot cooking sauce to the water / cornstarch mixture so it doesn't just turn into a clump when you add it to the sauce. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the cooking sauce and leave on high for 10-ish minutes until it's thick.

I had a de-zested lemon from the broccoli slaw so I juiced it and threw it into the sauce with the cornstarch. It added a nice bit of zing to the sauce and it meant that I didn't have to keep a naked lemon in my fridge until it dried out and I could throw it out without feeling wasteful (which I realize is ridiculous because I would still be wasting the lemon. Look, I don't claim to be sane.)

Throw the chicken back in the sauce to stay warm.

I served it over carrot quinoa (1/2 onion - diced, 2 garlic cloves - minced, 3 carrots - diced, 1 cup quinoa, 2 cups water or stock: sauté veg in oil for 5-ish minutes, add quinoa and stock, heat to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, fluff with a fork.)

I made broccoli slaw as a side because I'm kind of obsessed with broccoli slaw right now. I started with this Smitten Kitchen recipe a couple weeks ago and keep playing with it.

Broccoli Slaw (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

2 large heads of broccoli, chopped finely
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Dressing
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of Tobasco sauce

Mix up the dressing and then toss it all together. I like to make my slaw ahead of time so it's got at least a couple of hours to get nice and chilled in the fridge.

not the prettiest but definately yummy

Ignorance Is Bliss

So I had the scary biopsy and I waited anxiously for the results and then I got the results - good results! - and everything was fine and dandy.

Except that it wasn't exactly fine and dandy. I just didn't know any better.

I met with the endocrinologist last week. I was expecting her to tell me we'd monitor my wonky thyroid. I was not expecting her to tell me I needed to have every single test (including the biopsy!) repeated.

It's kind of a long (boring) story but basically what it boils down to is this: I thought the good biopsy results meant no cancer but what they really mean is I don't have the most common type of cancer. The endocrinologist is concerned about a few things so she wants to rule out the second-most and third-most common types of thyroid cancer before giving me the all-clear. (And if I do get the all-clear for the cancers, we still have to figure out what's going on and what the treatment plan will be.)

I don't mean to sound grim. She was very blunt and forthcoming (which I appreciate! I do!) but in a reassuring way. Like, she scared the crap out of me but at least she didn't tell me that thyroid cancer is "the cancer to have." (Actual thing that was said to me during the last round of testing. Actually, sir, NO cancer is the cancer to have. Fuck you very much.)

I'm getting a bit cancery here, I know. It's entirely possible that my wonky thyroid is not cancerous. There is a very good chance that it is not cancerous. I just ... I go there. When something scary or slightly bad happens I go to the worst possible place. I think it's a coping mechanism. If I'm expecting the absolute worst I won't be surprised when it happens.

I didn't say it was a healthy coping mechanism. Probably it's healthier than my other coping mechanism of eating all the things. Get ready for a lot of Instagrammed shots of cupcakes in the coming weeks is what I'm saying.

On Blogging (Sorry)

Look, I know that blogging about blogging is, like, the lamest thing but I don't care. I'm curious about how you fit blogging into your life.

I used to have an office job that involved a lot of really intense work-heavy hours and a lot of fuck-around-on-the-internet hours. I fit my blog writing and blog reading into those hours.

Now that I work from home, when I'm working, I'm working. I try my best to stay connected through Facebook and Twitter but I'm doing a piss poor job of reading blogs and I miss it. I miss you.

So I'm curious: how do you fit blogging into your life? Do you have a set time where you schedule your blogging? Do you fit it in throughout the day using your smart phone? Do you sit in front of a computer all day and spend your breaks catching up on your blog reader? I'm struggling.

I use Google Reader but I'm not on my computer much (unless I'm working.) I tried using Feedly to access my reader on my iPhone but I couldn't figure out how to easily leave comments on blogs. Right now I'm pretty much only reading posts I come across in my Twitter stream. I feel like I spent years building up this really awesome community of people and now I'm losing it.

So please, help me out. Tell me how you fit blogging (reading and/or writing says the lady whose wrist is cramping as she types on a tiny phone screen) into your life.

Hair

You guys, my hair is driving me crazy. It has not been cut or coloured in a year. That is not an exaggeration. The last time I did anything to my hair was last February.

I need help.

Most days I just pull it up into a ponytail. I can't be arsed to do anything to it because a: I would rather spend my precious toddler-free minutes making coffee and b: I don't go out a lot. I mean, I go out. Grady and I go for a walk every day. I go to yoga. I grocery shop. But ... that's it.

Last night I went out with real adults. I took the time to do my hair. This is the result:

This is as good as my hair can possibly look. It does not get better than this. This needs to change.

I have always been pretty hopeless when it comes to hair. When I was mortgage and kid-free I used to spend hundreds of dollars every couple of months for a full head of foils and a style. Now I have neither the time nor budget for lengthy salon rituals (not judging those who do, I'm just trying to be clear. I know that my hair could be a lot better than it is now if I spent more time and more money on it.)

My last visit was a colour correction - I had been colouring my hair myself and I'd ended up way too dark. The stylist stripped the colour and added a few blonde highlights. I now have a year's worth of roots but they're not horrible. I mean, they're bad. Just not bad bad. I am kind of at a point in my life where I'm trying to be as chemical-free as possible so I'm trying to avoid colouring my hair (even though I totally have bastard grey hairs sprouting up all over the damn place.)

So I guess my question is this: should I continue to grow my roots out? Or should I get my stylist to colour my hair as close to my natural colour as possible? It feels like that could be a slippery slope - what if she can't match it and I end up with noticeable roots again in a few weeks? I will have undone a year of growing my colour out. I've been trying to pass my hair off as ombre (do people still do ombre hair? I am so old.)

Hello, awkward bathroom selfie

Adding to my anxiety is the fact that I don't actually have a stylist. I will be going to a new salon (excuse me while I panic.)

Look, I get it. It's hair. It's just hair. But it's also my hair. I want a new look. I want to like how I look. I want to be arsed to do something other than a ponytail every day.

When I look at myself, all I see is a giant forehead. I'm thinking bangs but I don't know ... are bangs a drastic step? I hate that I am spending so much time thinking about my stupid hair.

Tell me what to do! Please. Save me from thinking about this for one more second.

My hair is:
Fine (but I have a lot of it)
In between straight and wavy (with a few random curls thrown in to be maddening)
On the dry side of normal
Naturally dirty blonde / mousy light brown
Long (like, mid-back long)
Flat (because it's so long)
Fairly damaged on the ends (because nothing has been done to it in a year)

Please help me. I'm desperate. Like, so desperate I am considering just chopping it all off and starting fresh.

Sleep

Grady is not a good sleeper. He has never been a good sleeper. Shawn and I learned very early on that we needed to make changes to accommodate our fussy sleeper or live in misery. So we did.

And now here we are with an 18-month old who is still not a great sleeper. Scratch that - he sleeps perfectly as long as he is sleeping with someone. Which isn't a problem at night. Grady sleeps in our bed with us. Yep. Not really interested in debating the merits of co-sleeping with anyone but just let me say it's what works for our family.

The problem is naps. Grady does not nap unless he's being held. He will not fall asleep without being cuddled. And once he does fall asleep? He sleeps so lightly that if the cuddler tries to escape, there's a pretty good chance he'll wake up and scream and most days it's just not worth risking forfeiting the nap for the sake of an hour or two of free time.

I know we're lucky. We're lucky that this is the worst problem we've had with Grady. We're lucky that we don't have to force a cry-it-out scenario because I'm able to work part-time from home on my own schedule. We're lucky that we have similar views on raising our child and having Grady sleeping in our bed isn't a source of resentment. I know we're lucky and I'm not complaining - really, I'm not - I am just curious: what is your family sleep situation? Did you bed-share with your little ones? If you did, when did you stop?

And how do I get Grady to nap solo? I can only play Candy Crush one-handed on my phone for so many hours before I go crazy, people.

Results: Non Cancery

Thank you so much for hanging in with me while I fretted. It's been a tough ride but I think the worst is over.

Yesterday I met with my doctor and she told me that all signs point to benign. My thyroid is still wonky and I need to have further testing done but I most likely do not have cancer (they won't give me the 100% all-clear without actually biopsying the entire thing, which obviously can't happen unless they remove the entire thing.) It isn't a surprise, this further testing; I knew going in that after my biopsy results I'd move on to either an oncologist or an endocrinologist. Not having to see an oncologist feels like a major victory.

And now, because it's all over and the results are all good, I can tell you that Shawn was also waiting for results to see if he had cancer. It has been a FUN couple of months in our home, let me tell you. He got the all-clear yesterday morning and I got mine a few hours later. We're going out to celebrate this weekend is what I'm saying.

The timing was so odd - Shawn got his ultrasound results and found out he needed a biopsy literally the same morning I was having my biopsy done. My dormant superstitious side hates coincidences so I was halfway convinced that the timing meant we'd be that couple - you know, the one that you marvel over their bad luck while thanking the heavens you aren't them. So, while I was fretting over leaving my baby alone in this big, bad world I was actually fretting over leaving my baby completely alone in this big, bad world. I owe my older sister a giant bottle of gin for listening to me fret (and for reassuring me they'd be there for Grady instead of telling me to shut up and stop being such a drama queen.)

I slept soundly last night for the first time in weeks. I have a giant grin on my face this morning. I feel so so lucky. Happy Friday indeed.